Disclaimer: I do not own Prison Break, or any of its characters or plots. All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners.

Four years later

Kate sighed in frustration. She had always hated Christmas shopping, but since her mom was not there to share it with her, not only did she hate it but she also dreaded it, as it always ended up bringing back memories of those days when the both of them were in charge of most of the shopping for the extended family. "It's gonna be better this time," she thought whenever the Christmas season approached, but it had been three years already since her mother passed away and it wasn't getting any easier on her. On the contrary, it was even getting worse; she missed her dearly and no matter how hard she had tried, her life was far from the one she had envisioned for herself only four years before. The only consolation she had was that her father seemed to have finally come to terms with her mom's absence after a year and a half of grieving, and now he even looked happy, at least much happier than Kate.

"That's probably because, unlike me, he's been able to build a new life for himself after mom was gone," she reflected, not for the first time, as she scanned the latest best-seller books shelves looking for something her father might be interested in. It had been really hard on Hank when his wife died after a relapse of her illness, but with time he slowly started reconnecting with his friends. Now he would divide his spare time between them and Kate. He had always been a protective father and that had not changed a bit despite the fact that his daughter was now thirty-two years old and very capable of taking good care of herself, like she had proven over the last years.

Not finding anything she thought her father would be actually interested in, Kate sighed again and moved on towards the golf section. It was her usual present, something related to golf or fishing, but that way she knew she'd nail it. At that point, she had been shopping for most of the afternoon, memories of her mom had been flooding her mind since she had left Edison Park and headed downtown, and she was tired and sad. She had already purchased most of the presents, her dad's was the last one, and she was really looking forward to dumping all the shopping bags in the back seat of her car and going home for once and for all. She was under the impression that she wouldn't like Christmas shopping ever again. Distracted by her gloomy thoughts, she did not notice there was somebody standing in the trajectory of her large shopping bags as she walked by the bookcases.

"Sorry," both Kate and the bystander apologized at the same time.

"My fault, I didn't see you, I'm sorry," Kate reiterated as she turned around to face him and apologize properly, still distracted. When her eyes finally focused on the man beside her, who was also turning around, frowning as he thought he had recognized her voice, her heart started racing and her hands began to shake under the weight of her bags. She stayed still for a moment, thinking that she was just dreaming and she would wake up soon. It wasn't the first time it happened to her and the frustration she felt when she realized it was just a dream was hard to face. She held her breath and braced herself for the deception that was to come.

"No, my bad… Hello O'Hare," he greeted her, in a shy way that did not add up with the memories she had from him. Or, better said, the memories she cherished from him. This had never happened in her prior dreams and she started to think that maybe she was not dreaming and the man smiling timidly at her was indeed Special Agent in Charge Alexander Mahone in the flesh.

She swallowed hard, trying to calm down. "Get a grip, Kate," she ordered herself, but she couldn't bring herself to say anything. She was speechless, and her ability to move seemed to be severely impaired, too.

"You look like you've seen a ghost…" he tentatively trailed off, noticing that she was in a trance.

As Alex got no reaction at all from her, he assumed his presence was not welcomed. "I'm sorry if I distrurbed you, O'Hare. Take care," he explained as he started walking towards the exit of the bookstore.

Seeing him leave snapped Kate back to reality. "Wait!" she exclaimed. "And this is the part when I wake up," she thought. But as seconds went by she was not waking up and Mahone was actually heading back to where she was standing still like a statue, holding her shopping bags with both hands that were still slightly trembling. "I… I thought you were dead…" she managed to say in a way of an explanation, feeling a lump in her throat that prevented her from speaking properly.

Alex nervously smiled. No wonder she had reacted that way if she thought that he was dead. He was lucky that she hadn't literally run away from him. "I'm not. Sorry I scared you. I recognized your voice and felt that an apology was in order…"

"No, no, it's just… You got out of Sona?" she asked as she was starting to regain her ability to speak, only to realize that it was a very silly question. "Of course he did. He's here, Kate!" she scolded herself as soon as she pronounced the words.

He nodded. "I did…" Alex responded. "It's a long story, after that…" he paused, not sure if she was interested in his life at all given the way things had gone down between them during the days she had been under his custody. "Never mind, I don't want to bore you…"

Kate shook her head. "You're not boring me… I… I don't know if you have time," she hesitated, "or even want to," she added, "but I could certainly use a cup of coffee and sit down for a while, these bags are killing me…" she trailed off, biting her lower lip, anxiously waiting for his answer. She was wondering if she had been too straight forward, but during the last three years she had thought that Mahone was dead and that had not made her stop thinking about him, not at all. And now, after all that longing, he was standing in front of her. "I just want to know how he is," she tried to convince herself, in an attempt to hide that what she really needed was to spend some time with him in order to see if he was indeed the man she had thought he was under layers of drugs and what she assumed was guilt, while she had been a key witness in the most important case of his life. She was sure she'd regret it all her life if she didn't, at least, try to find out about his real personality. She needed closure, and this was the first chance that she had since he had left her in lockup in Gila g¡four years ago.

"I'd like that very much…" Mahone replied to her relief, as he quickly took the bags from her hands. He had noticed them subtly shaking, and attributed it to the bulky shopping bags. The brief contact left her wordless again, her gaze focused on her now empty hands.

After a few seconds Kate looked back at him. "There's a small coffee shop inside the store. The coffee's good and it's not usually crowded, although with all this Christmas shopping I'm not sure if…" she trailed off.

"Lead the way," he said, nodding and raising his full hands in front of him.

When they reached the small coffee shop in the back of the bookstore they wordlessly sat at a table by the large windows that overlooked one of downtown Chicago's busiest streets, and he placed Kate's shopping bags piled on one of the chairs.

"So you're regular here," Alex said at last as soon as the waitress left with their order, trying to find an easy way to start a conversation with her. He was really happy to have run into her, because during the last four years he had felt that he needed to apologize and finally he had the opportunity to do it. Even more, now he had the chance to find out if the hint of brief attraction he had felt that distant day in Gila was still there, or it had been just a side effect on the Veratril in his system and the stress he had been undergoing during those terrible days when the Company was blackmailing him and threatening his loved ones.

"Yeah, the store has a good selection of books and it is a cozy place for a coffee after shopping…" she explained, totally foreign to his current thoughts, and not mentioning the fact that shopping, more precisely, book shopping was the closest to a social life she had been lately.

"I see you're busy with Christmas presents," he stated, gesturing to her bags.

Kate nodded, trying not to stare at those blue and piercing eyes that had inhabited her dreams during the last four years of her life. They were clearer than she remembered, and she hoped that it was due to the absence of drugs in his body. "Yeah, my mother used to do it for everyone and now that tradition seems to have fallen on me… She passed away …. Years ago…" she managed to explain, fighting back the tears that she could feel building up in the corners of her eyes. "This is too much, season shopping without mom and now seeing him…" she thought to herself, trying to focus on him instead of her feelings.

"I know. I'm sorry for your loss…" he softly said, sensing her current state of mind and wishing he had his glasses on to have something to do with his hands in order to prevent them from reaching out and touching her arm to comfort her. That would be completely inappropriate, no matter how much he wanted to do it.

"You know?" Kate inquired, her brow furrowed in confusion.

Alex sighed. He hadn't planned on letting her know that he had looked for her after Cilla's operation was over, at least not so soon into their conversation, but his comment about her mother had somehow exposed it. Maybe it was time to come clean; after all, she had offered to have coffee with him and had not run away as she had seen him, although she had been close to that. "But not because she didn't want to see me, but because she thought I was dead," he encouraged himself. "When I came back to Chicago, two years ago, I… looked for you, I just wanted to know if you were doing okay after all that ordeal…" he cautiously started to say.

"You what?" she interrupted him, equally confused and surprised. "Why?"

Mahome shrugged, and attempted to downplay it. "I didn't do it myself. I asked some old colleagues in the Bureau…"

Kate's eyes widened. "I haven't changed my number, Mahone. You could've called…" she mumbled, still having to interiorize that Special Agent Mahone had looked for her after returning to Chicago from what she assumed had been hell for him. And doing her best not to think how a call from him then could have changed the course of her life.

He shrugged again, and thanked the waitress when she came with their order. "I didn't want to intrude, O'Hare. When I came back I wasn't in a good place, and the last thing I wanted to do was disturb your life…" he continued, softly looking at her, and thankful for having the cup of coffee to keep his hands busy with.

Kate shook her head. "I had no idea…" she muttered, locking eyes with him, trying to read the reason behind all that from an objective perspective, which was really difficult having him so near that she was able to notice his graying hair beside his temples, disguised in his mop of fair hair.

Alex chuckled. "Yeah, that was the point, they're FBI…"

She restrained the urge to laugh. "Believe me, I remember what the FBI is capable of doing…" Kate stated, diverting her gaze to the far end of the coffee shop. She regretted her words as soon as they left her mouth. That sounded too harsh, and she hadn't longed for four whole years for a chance to see him only to spook him when she finally and unexpectedly was in front of him. "You could have shown up, you know. I don't bite…" she added in what she hoped was a friendly toney, setting her eyes on his again.

He nodded, relieved by her last comment. "I know, but I'm well aware that those days chasing Burrows and Scofield were not exactly a walk in the park, and I didn't want to interfere in your life again…"

Kate tried to swallow the lump she was feeling in her throat as she realized his motive. "Thank you for taking that into consideration," she whispered, really moved. He shyly smiled at her, and the smile reached his eyes in a way that made her pulse race. Confused and overwhelmed, she avoided his gaze and focused on her coffee, taking a long sip.

Taking that as a cue to continue, Alex cleared his throat. Just sitting at a table in front of her was bringing back emotions long forgotten, and he was doing his best to concentrate on what he wanted to do, that was, apologize. But was that really all he wanted? Her close presence was beginning to make him doubt. "Anyway, from what I found out about you when I came back you seemed to lead a happy life and I simply let it go. You were a partner at McCoy, Byrne & Murphy and engaged, soon to be married, to Connor Larkin…"