Chapter 25

Elizabeth didn't hear from Teddy again. He was always somehow there in spirit at least, in her mind when she couldn't stop herself from thinking of him, but that was all. There were no more letters and no more phone calls. Elizabeth actually found herself very appreciative of that. She hadn't expected him to leave her be as he was now, but maybe what had passed between them during her visit had made him see that she wasn't his anymore. It was like something had passed between them during that last visit, a mixture of forgiveness and understanding and something as close to a truce that they would ever get to. Yet Teddy was always at the back of her mind, lingering, and sometimes, as she was closing the bar or preparing to sleep the man would cross her mind. When it happened it was always fleeting. Like smoke that would settle in the air before gradually drifting away. He was very much a ghost that lingered in the doorway to her heart, staying just inside it, and sometimes she suspected he was waiting to capture it again. Elizabeth just couldn't escape the shadow he'd left there as she picked through the ashes of her life to see what could be repaired.

Elizabeth was grateful that he didn't linger on her mind as she worked to make a life for herself again. After a time of deep transition everything seemed to be falling back into place and for that she was equally grateful. A type of hope was forming in her mind, one that made her think that it could all be okay again, but even that gave her pause. Because if loving Teddy had taught her anything it was that hope was the most dangerous thing she could have because at any moment it could all come crashing down. It hadn't yet though so Elizabeth seemed to hold that hope inside herself until it did. That hope was glued to her bar now. She knew it would never be the way it was, but it was back up and running. She was actually making a profit again and Mac had come through bringing all his cop buddies in so she had a flowing revenue stream again. Everyday she found herself surrounded by cops and even as she wondered if they knew about Teddy, Elizabeth felt more secure then she had in her life. They all treated her so kindly while others chose not to notice her at all. She didn't have nearly as many problems with patrons anymore and she was surprised to find herself content once more. Content with the state of her life, something, that in the long run she savored. It was like she had been welcomed into their circle of family. Of conradery. These men, many of whom came to her bar every day, and they shared a few moments out of their day with her. They made her laugh and each day someone had a new story to tell her.

"Ma'am" not one of them seemed aware that she actually had a name as ma'am was what they called her, but never with pity in their eyes only a kindness that she greatly appreciated.

Elizabeth felt like the woman Teddy had seen that day. The one with the sure footing and quick footsteps. Her life was hers again and with that change came the end of her wait for disaster. She no longer found herself looking for disaster around every corner, but let something settle inside her. A weight had been lifted and while part of her suspected it would return, Elizabeth decided she would enjoy the ease while it lasted, and not be anxious about it. When it happened it would and there was nothing she could do about it. She had come to terms with her circumstances and for once, she felt ready for whatever should come for her. Elizabeth found she wasn't afraid anymore and that she had come to a sort of peace. If something were going to happen she wasn't afraid anymore. She felt ready to face anything. No matter what it may be because as she saw it now she had already faced too much and survived. She had survived loving Theodore Bagwell, she had survived being shot at, and losing her whole world only to have to begin again. She had survived and still was as she walked through the world all the more now. Whatever came next, Elizabeth felt ready for it though she wouldn't deny being somewhat curious as to what that might be. After all, she didn't know what else could happen to her that hadn't so far, but she didn't dwell on it the way she once might have.

"Tonight we get our second chance, Lizzy" it was Teddy final thought before night fell on the night the eight inmates were set to escape Fox River and as he thought it, Elizabeth didn't know it, but this was the moment she had been preparing herself for. Teddy had a plan for when he escaped Fox River and that plan was centered on love and revenge. She was part of that plan, her and Susan Hollander, and it kept him moving. It gave him a reason to escape until that day with seven other people he left Fox River, but when he escaped his plan changed too. Not until he'd fallen for Lizzy and found himself in Fox River did Teddy ever believe in something being fated. He always thought that was just something the mystics came up with, but this moment was that for him. It was fated to bring him back to his love. He was never more sure of this then that moment in the van when he found himself handcuffed to Michael Scoffield. The second those cuffs snapped into place Teddy felt like something in his fate had been sealed. Lizzy`s face was in his mind then and he felt his heart pound as the reality set in that he might be close enough to touch her within a few days or even weeks. That was the same moment when Abruzzi had a gun held to his head, but that didn't change anything. Fate was speaking to him nonetheless. It was like there were suddenly three things that he had to do before either going back to prison or dying.

He had been fated to hear Westmoreland tell Scoffield where that money was buried. Fated to find it and give to Lizzy as penance for everything he'd done. Even if she never wanted to see him again, it was hers, she deserved that money. He had put her through so much and while he knew no amount of money could fix what he had done, Teddy still believed that it would help right the wrong that he had done her. That would be his act of love to her, he decided.

"I have to kill her" the second thing he must do was an act of pure revenge. Revenge on the woman who put him in Fox River. Susan Hollander. He couldn't go to Lizzy until the other woman who with him had wounded her so deeply. He might have come to his senses and returned to his love if she'd kept her mouth shut. If she had been as loyal and true as his Lizzy then things might be different now. Teddy had to have his revenge on her and would have it before he saw his Lizzy again. He had saved the most important thing for last though. Teddy had to see her again. To be close to her with nothing barring his path. To be able to tell her the things she deserved to know and proclaim himself hers. He had to show her that the man she'd known was still within him and show her that he loved her with his whole heart. He had to win his love back and maybe ride into the sunset with her in his arms though he wasn't altogether sure he believed in that possibility even as he liked to dream about it. Teddy could see it in his mind, how he would lay that money at her feet, and on his knees beg her to love him again. He had to declare himself and be the man she needed now. He had to account for the pain he had caused her and show her that that pain was not in their future anymore. That was the only thing on his mind as the escape from Fox River progressed.

"She's mine...I have to get her back before it's too late" the thought was in the back floating there among everything else and as he thought settled in his mind once more he saw her as she'd looked the last time he'd seen her with tears in her eyes. He wanted her to have again what he had taken from her.

"She won't cry anymore if I can help it" Teddy wanted her to be happy, to be the one to make her happy, after all, she'd cried enough. That was never what he wished upon her when he fell in love with her or when he married her. That night as he rode to freedom with a gun to his head, he thought of Lizzy, and he knew none of this was really for him. He was doing it all for her. To make up for the pain he'd caused someone so pure and beautiful. Someone he loved as deeply as he could ever remember loving anyone in his whole life. Yet, as they drove even as he had prepared for some type of mutiny, he hadn't prepared for the lengths they'd go to leave him behind.

He had her always at the forefront of his mind, even as he entered that barn with his other seven compatriots. Scoffield, Burrows, Sucre, Abruzzi, even C-Note, they were each watching him, staring as if deciding what to do with him. Teddy knew they were trying to figure a way to leave him behind, but he thought he had them beat. Nothing was going to stop him now. Nothing was going to keep him from Lizzy not even the seven before him. That was why he stood handcuffed to Scoffield now, because he was the one they needed most, and now, he was handcuffed to the one they needed least. Because nothing would stand in his way not even them. He would get to Lizzy even if he had to kill each one of them to do it. He had planned it perfectly when he'd gotten into the van. He'd been quick to make sure no one got in his way and now, they had no choice. They couldn't leave him.

"They have no other choice" the thought was only fleeting for in that exact moment, Teddy learned that they did indeed have many choices, and in that moment they chose.

They could and would outsmart him and this time, they did. The motion was quick. Teddy barely noticed as Abruzzi left the circle only to come back holding an axe. He barely saw the blade as it slashed though the air and through the very hand that kept him attached to Scoffield.

"AWWWWWWWWW" Teddy didn't hear himself scream only his own weight as it crashed to the barn floor as his hand was cut away severing his connect to Michael Scoffield. Lizzy flashed before his eyes as they left him to die. It was as he'd heard people say, his life, the very images of his life, flashed though his mind. He saw Lizzy, the woman he'd seen in the bar that first day. He saw her as she'd been that day when he married her and that day when he'd left. Finally, he saw her as she'd been the last time he saw her, and suddenly he was in the barn again. He felt himself blink and looking at the ceiling, he stumbled to his feet. And then he was running through the forest with his hand hanging from a pair of handcuffs with his arm clutched to his chest.

As Teddy was making his way back to her, Elizabeth was standing behind her bar, and she was laughing. Mac sat across from her and she was laughing at something he'd said when another man called for her to turn up the TV above the bar. Even as she did, she was still laughing as Mac continued on with his story. She was laughing until she saw his face flash across her television screen along with seven others.

"Teddy" his name seemed to scream itself at her as it flashed across the screen again and his eyes, they seemed to be looking only at her. It shook her as she focused on the news. Elizabeth found herself turning it up until it was as loud as it would go. As some voice on the news called out the names of eight men who had escaped from Fox River prison in Ilinois, she only kept hearing his name, and seeing his face. Theodore Bagwell.

"He's escaped" Elizabeth heard the words as her footsteps led her back into the wall. She didn't think anyone heard her, but she had heard. Even as the words repeated themselves around her, Elizabeth waited for the fear that she thought she had lost to come to her, but there was nothing. That was when she realized that she had always known that this moment would happen. She had known that despite what had been said that they weren't done with each other. And now she knew that she was destined to see him again. That he would come to her and Elizabeth would wait for that moment. When it came though, she still didn't know what she would do with it.