Alas, here we are. ;) Same deal as "The Key"- I really hope I did this episode justice. It's a very significant one as you all know. Enjoy!
Chicago
Kellerman and Lincoln are calm and collected, but Michael is a ball of nervous energy, awaiting Sara's incoming train. On the outside, he's sure he looks as cool as a cucumber; on the inside, however, he's about ready to combust. The train pulls into the station slowly but surely and empties its passengers into the open air. Michael scans the crowd for Sara before spotting her a few feet away, looking just as apprehensive as he feels. She's chopped her long locks and darkened them, Michael guesses, in an attempt to go incognito. He has to hand it to her; it works much better than a hat and a pair of sunglasses.
She spots him, then, and immediately makes her way over to him like a woman on a mission. Michael opens his arms to her and she walks into him effortlessly, as if they fit together like two pieces of a puzzle. His arms curl around her, relishing the opportunity to hold her close and assure himself that she's here, she's with him and she's okay. He wishes they had time to sit and catch up in private, but they must get down to business. She shows him the key, mentions the strange insignia, and both he and Lincoln have a look at it but fail to identify it. It's time he mentions the fourth party.
"Sara," He says gently. "We've got someone working with us now."
The look of sheer and utter panic and terror that comes over Sara's face is unlike anything he's ever seen before. He places a hand on her arm. "What's wrong?"
"That's the guy," Sara says, her voice ghostly and hollow. "That's the one that pretended to be an addict at my AA meetings. That's the one that my father warned me about. That's the one who grabbed me in Gila and electrocuted me and left me to drown in a bathtub."
Lincoln's eyes widen. Michael's blood begins to boil. "What did you just say?"
"He left me to die," Sara repeats, her eyes not leaving Kellerman. "He tied me to a chair and left me to drown all because I wouldn't tell him about the key."
"Paul Kellerman tried to kill you?" Lincoln replies as if he can't quite grasp the height of the situation. He turns to his brother, "Think it's a set-up now?"
Michael doesn't respond. He stalks over to Kellerman, his brother and Sara following suit, and clutches the former secret service agent around he throat, delighting in the way he coughs and sputters and chokes. Just as Sara had, he thinks, when he'd left her to drown, and a pang of guilt and sorrow and anger courses through his veins. Kellerman struggles; Lincoln holds him back. "You didn't tell us you left her to die!"
"I was… scaring her," He manages to choke out. "I was… gonna pull… gonna pull her out!"
"No," Sara disagrees adamantly, her voice holding so much anger and fear Michael wants to do everything he can to ease it. "No, you left me there to drown!"
"I wonder how long you can hold your breath," Michael states menacingly. "Maybe we should find out."
"You need me… and you know it!" Kellerman sputters. "You need me… You need me!"
Michael wants to grip his throat tighter… but his words are true. He lets go. The look in Sara's eyes pains him; it's one of confusion and exhaustion and sorrow. "Why do we need him? We have the key. We'll figure out what it's for."
"I can tell you what that key's for right now," Kellerman states, breathing heavily. "It's to a private cigar club."
Lincoln inquires, "Where?"
"Chicago."
And so they're headed home; Kellerman hails them a private car on a train back to Chicago and it's easy enough; all Michael has to do is pretend to be a fugitive. It's a role he's good at, after all. He sends Kellerman death glares from his seat as the agent beckons for Lincoln and Sara to board the train. They do, his brother taking a front seat and Sara sitting across from him, twisting the cord of her sweatshirt around her finger. She's visibly agitated and Michael's heart breaks for her; he wants to tell her they're going to dump Kellerman as soon as they can, but he can't risk the man hearing this plan. He watches her fidget in her seat a while before asking,
"You okay?"
He knows she's not. She knows he knows she's not. But Sara replies, anyway, with, "Yeah."
It's going to be a long ride.
She sends Michael off on a quest for water. It's the only thing she can think of; Lincoln's asleep and she needs some way to be left alone with Kellerman. Sara can tell Michael looks a bit anxious over leaving her with the man who had most recently tried to murder her, but he agrees to get her some water, anyway. When he's gone, Sara takes a few calming breaths and makes her way to the back of the car, towards where Kellerman is seated, half-asleep. He says some bullshit about their "moment" together not being personal, that war is never personal, but Sara doesn't care. The only thing she wants, right now, is revenge.
The moment she wraps the cord around his neck, she knows she's in it for the long haul. He writhes helplessly in front of her and she pulls tighter. He's choking and turning red and Sara's glad; some tiny part of her is wondering when she turned into this person, the type of person who would kill rather than save, but that tiny part is drowned out by the bigger part who had dealt with Kellerman that day in the motel. This is for everything he'd done to her, both physically and psychologically. This is for the drowning and the electrocution and the verbal abuse. This is for holding her at gunpoint and snatching her away from Michael and alluding to her father's untimely demise. This is for the lying; for Lance and AA meetings and blueberry pie. This is a vengeance she had never sought before and, now that she's had a taste, cannot get enough of.
She's strangling him less than thirty seconds before Lincoln notices. He jumps up and begins to fight her, telling her to back up, to let him go. Moments after, she feels Michael's arms around her waist, his voice, low and calm, in her ear, telling her to settle down, telling her it's alright. And it isn't until then, it isn't until Lincoln is holding an aggressive Kellerman back and Michael is whispering soothing words, his arms still around her, that she realizes what it is she almost did. She has to get out of here, to step away from the situation, but there's nowhere to go; they're on a moving train. She tells him it wasn't personal which makes him laugh; she wants to smack him. But she doesn't. She leaves instead.
God, what had she almost done? Sara pulls herself onto the bathroom counter and begins to think about her actions, as if she's a child voluntarily putting herself in a time-out. There's something awful running through her lately; something life altering, as though she's regressed back to the person she was before she'd straightened herself out and taken a job at the prison. She wants to go home. She wants to put all of this behind her and move on with her life. But she can't; she's as much of a fugitive as Michael and Lincoln are and even if this key leads to their exoneration, she's not sure it will lead to hers.
Michael knocks, then, and she allows him entry. She half-smiles at him, saying, "I've been sitting here evaluating. I jumped bail, I'm on the run and I just tried to take a man's life. I'm not using, which is, actually, quite an accomplishment. But three weeks ago, I was a doctor."
"You can get that back, all of it," Michael tells her. "You need to believe that."
She doesn't. She knows she looks skeptical when she asks, "Do you believe that? You think you can get it all back?"
"I choose to have faith, because without that, I have nothing," Michael says, crossing the room to stand next to her. "It's the only thing that's keeping me going."
"Well, I've got two things keeping me going," Sara sighs. "The first is that I want the people who took my dad."
Michael nods his understanding and as much as it terrifies Sara to admit it even to herself, she must finally tell him how she feels or she may never get the chance. "And the second, ironically, I probably wouldn't even say if I hadn't lost him. But, um…"
"You should know that," She draws in a deep breath to calm her nerves and can't chance a glance at him. "The first thing they tell you when you take the job is never to fall in love with an inmate…"
Sara trails off and when she does look up at him, when she does meet his cool blues eyes, he's looking back at her with so much genuine emotion that it momentarily takes her breath away. He cups her cheek, leans in closer and the build-up is almost as heart-pounding and exhilarating as the kiss itself; almost. It's just like the first time and it isn't, not really, because they're uninhibited, now; less worried about interruptions and job loss and more worried about physical contact and each other. They hop off the counter; Michael wraps his arms protectively around her torso as hers come to rest around his neck, not once severing contact with one another. It's everything they've wanted for weeks; it's hope and comfort and protection and love. It's everything they need, especially at a time like this.
The train jolts and the alarm sounds and it's like a bucket of cold water stopping them before they can go too far. Reality check- they're still in the women's bathroom of a moving train, running from the law. Lincoln announces it's a roadblock and tries to ignore the way the two of them now appear- kiss-swollen and clothes-mussed as if they're teenagers getting caught by their parents. Sara throws a cautionary glance at Michael, momentarily panicked by their newest setback. But he has a determinedly serene look in his eyes that tells her not to panic; that their passionate moment in the bathroom would not be the last they'd share.
That, like always, he has a plan.
And, like always, Sara puts her utmost faith in him.
Their four body doubles jumping off the train allows them to depart in Chicago like regular Joes. They miraculously find an unlocked car, pile in and head towards the cigar club Sara's father had once been a part of. Michael slides in the backseat, beside her, and notices that she's once again agitated. It makes sense; they're back in the place where this all began and God help them if they got caught so close to home. She's drumming her fingers a bit on the seat between them, absentmindedly staring out the window as Chicago rushes by. Michael reaches out and claims her active hand with his own. She glances over at it, at him, and doesn't say anything but doesn't let go.
They park outside the cigar club and Kellerman briefs them on the happenstances inside. "There are private humidors in the back. Each member's name is on their box."
Lincoln wonders, "Any security?"
"A receptionist. That's it," Kellerman responds. "I'm not a wanted fugitive. Give me the key; I'll do it."
Michael smirks; as if he'd ever hand their one chance of hope over to an ex-Company agent. He glances over at Sara and asks, "Want to take a walk?"
She nods eagerly. "Yeah."
Exiting the vehicle, they cross the street and head up the stairs towards the great stone building. Michael takes that moment to relay the day's activities. He can't imagine there had ever been a time, now, when he'd doubted Sara would want to meet up with him. He can't fathom how much she cares for him; all he'd known, until today, is how much he'd cared for her, how much he'd thought about her, how much he'd worried about her these past few weeks. She'd told him, earlier, that she's in love with him and, to be completely honest, Michael hadn't been sure what love felt like. He's never been in love before. But if he takes into consideration everything he's feeling for Sara, everything he's ever felt for her, then he's sure this heart-tingling, spirits-lifting craziness must be that unpredictable thing called love.
"Oh, and Sara, about before," Michael stops her, opening the door to the club and waiting until she's looking at him to confess his feelings. Her hazel-green eyes are glistening again and Michael realizes he's been in love with this girl for a long time. "Me too."
Sara pauses as if he's altered her entire world; perhaps he has. A ghost of a smile appears on her face and when he grins back, it turns into that full-fledged radiant smile he'd yearned for back at Fox River. "Yeah."
And so it begins.