"On Gut Instinct"… Prison Break- Michael/Sara

Summary: Only an hour before attempting to break out, Michael risks the entire plan on seeing Sara one last time.

Disclaimer to Prison Break: I do not own Prison Break, its characters, or episode plots.

Chapter One: An Hour Prior to 'Leaving'

The cold air nipped his nose and the freezing, cold raindrops caused excruciating stings all over his face and neck as he walked over to the infirmary with his hands dug deeply into his blue coat pockets. He was debating whether to just turn around and go back to his cell and run through the plan with Sucre and Abruzzi, they were conveniently leaving out T-Bag secretly, again until it was memorized to the smallest detail. But Michael didn't; his gut was telling him that he had to see Dr. Sara Tancredi one last time before this whole 'America's Most Wanted' ordeal would happen.

Michael wouldn't admit that he had fallen in love with the governor's daughter, but even though he was denying it, he genuinely knew it was true. He hated himself for that fact, especially since this whole infatuation was risking the entire plan for saving Lincoln's life. Though, Michael believed that he had to have some closure even if it was just seeing her from afar one last time.

He had finally reached the infirmary's gate and nodded off at the correctional officer who was walking by him at that time. The C.O. just smirked at him and kept on his way.

Once Michael made it inside the infirmary, warmth evaded him like butter melting on a piece of hot bread. He welcomed it and then walked over to an empty chair across from Sara's officer. She was bent over her work with a tired face on; he couldn't blame her, she put in almost as much as the warden did.

Unconsciously, he was shivering; his teeth were chattering violently, but he didn't notice. He was too captivated by the one person he would never be able to kiss, let alone touch, in this place; Big Brother was watching, always. To him, he felt extremely hot as if the sun was beating against him on an unbearable summer's day. Michael only experienced these weird occurrences, like butterflies or chills up the spine, when he was in a twenty foot proximity and it scared him as much as it caused him happiness.

One question he was never able to give a whole heck of a lot of reason to was: Why did Sara come back to a hell hole like this? She could get a safe job at a hospital somewhere where she wouldn't have to guys ordinarily looking lustfully upon her, especially since the riot. They threatened to do many vulgar and frightening things to her once they had reached her— Michael wouldn't have blamed her if the last time he saw her was when she was safely outside. But it wasn't because there she was sitting in her office working as if nothing of the sort had ever happened.

At that moment, she leaned back in her chair as if saying 'finished' and finally looked up and saw Michael. Sara's soft hazel-green eyes seemed concerned and intrigued on finding him there at that time. So she got up from her chair and came out of her office a few steps and leaned against the wall adjacent to the window.

"Michael," she started sweetly, "are you okay? You look like you're freezing—d'you want me to get you a blanket or a towel for you to dry off with?" By this time Sara was slightly smiling at seeing him show some sort of a weakness.

Michael finally took his hands out of his pockets and breathed on them to try to wake them from their numbness. "Actually, I'm quite warm." He said looking over at her with a gentle smile on his face, "But thank you for the thought."

She nodded appreciatively and pocketed her hands in her official white doctor's jacket and looked down at her feet. "Oh, it's just my job." Sara looked back over at him with a bright smile on her face now and it left him stunned by his radiance. "So what's up?"

"Well," Michael started rather shakily, but he recovered his usual stern voice, "it's actually my neck; it seems as though when the riot happened, I somehow pulled a muscle."

Sara nudged her head back to the check-up room, "C'mon, let me take a look at it."

Slowly, Michael stood up and followed her, with his heart racing madly, back to the check-up room. He took his usual seat on the patient table and sat there with his shoulders hunched and his cool hands clasped. Sara, on the other hand, quickly grabbed her clipboard and a pen and walked back over towards Michael. Seemingly enough, she also grabbed a towel along the way and handed it to Michael.

"So," she said not looking up at him, "this happened about a week and half ago?"

He nodded choppily and cleared his throat, "Yeah, I was waiting to see if it would heal after a week so I didn't bother coming in right away." Michael started to dry his jagged hair and dab his face with the towel as well. When he was finished doing that, he laid the towel on his lap after folding it neatly.

She didn't say anything right away; she just scribbled away noting what he had just said. When she sat her clipboard down on the patients table behind Michael she finally spoke again as she began to massage his neck. "Well, you should've because now it's especially tense."

Sara began to prod slightly harder where the highest tension was felt. Short bursts of pain started to shoot through Michael's neck so he clinched his jaw shut and squeezed the padded table's ledges.

"Sorry if this hurts," she said with a genuine tone as she continued to knead at the knot.

Michael only grunted with his acknowledgement that she was only doing what was best for his injury. Slowly, the pain started to alleviate and Michael's attention didn't have to be focused on that anymore, but on her smooth hands. He couldn't believe their soft and soothing feel— they actually sent chills up and down his spine.

Soon though, Sara stopped massaging his neck. "That ought to do for now," she said picking her clipboard back up off of the table and began writing down notes. "You should come in tomorrow so I can work on it some more, okay?"

A cold, sick feeling came to rest in his stomach when she said 'tomorrow.' Michael's throat began to hurt with the guilt and regret he felt. He swallowed to try to subside the pain slightly, but it was relentless since his emotions were going haywire. He nodded anyway and stood up. He placed the somewhat wet towel where her clipboard had been only a few seconds earlier.

Sara walked over to the filing cabinet and place the records of his visit in his file, which was labeled 'Scofield, Michael.'

Michael was just about to leave when he knew he really had nothing to lose; he wanted to know why she had come back. Calmly, Michael took his seat again on the patient table and looked down at the floor. "So, why did you come back?" He finally asked without looking over at her.

She jumped slightly as if she thought he had left already since she saw him get up. So she turned around pausing for a few seconds and then leaned against the wall that was opposite of the patient table, all the while not looking at Michael fully.

"I, ugh…" Michael finally looked up at her slightly as she started to reply. Her brows were furrowed in great consternation and she seemed a little on the emotional side. "I'm a doctor," Sara said forcefully, matter-of-factly. "It's my duty to help my patients and even though I work in a prison doesn't make my patients any less of a patient because they're wearing jumpers or blue-issued Dickeys." She took a quick glance over at him when she finished only to look back down at the floor again as soon as she saw him watching her.

Michael nodded showing he understood what she was saying. He respected her for her decision and overall perseverance. It was also very endearing that she chose to come back and show that she was strong and that she wouldn't let convicts scare her off.

At that moment, thunder clapped loudly causing both of them to jump slightly out of fright.

Sara grabbed at her heart and started to laugh, "Gosh! I didn't expect that."

Michael began to laugh as well and replied, "Yeah, me neither."

Just when the humor had overcome the fright, the power went out. Darkness prevailed until a few seconds later the emergency flood lights came on.

"I guess the storm's getting worse out there," Sara said as she moved towards the obscured, foggy window to try to get a good look outside. The sun had fully set and the smears of raindrops falling on the window made every other detail hard to make out. He got up and walked over towards Sara to see if he was closer to the window if he would be able to more details, but the effort was futile.

Hearing this Michael nodded sullenly, "I should probably getting back then." His sadness and unusual behavior must've caught her eye since she looked at him curiously, but she didn't say anything about it.

Then suddenly, another roar of thunder rang loud and caused Sara to cling to Michael's arm tightly. The emergency lights started to flicker on and off, and then finally off. Sara's ragged breathing was the only thing to be heard in the check-up, but when those became controlled and smoother, she still didn't let go of his arm.

His plan to say goodbye in a subtle way before he would try to break his brother out was starting to turn south rapidly. But for some strange reason, Michael didn't care. Instead of feeling hysterical and fearful, he felt content and eased. In the back of his mind he knew that he would succeed in actually breaking his brother out that night, but right now—here and now—he felt as if he needed to endure this moment with Sara for many reasons that he was doing only because his gut was telling him to do so.

Quietly, Michael cleared his throat again and whispered softly to Sara not wanting to frighten her. "Sara, it's okay now—nothing's going to happen."

Sara loosened her grip slightly, but she remained determined to hold on to him. He turned towards her slightly and could make out her soft, angelic eyes each time lightning struck. They started out showing fear, and the ever so slowly, they became so intensely passionate that Michael didn't know what could've caused such a revelation.

"Sara? Is everything--" Unexpectedly, Sara cut him off when she fervently kissed him.

At first Michael was shocked, still—he couldn't believe what was happening as if he was imagining the entire thing as a fantasy. But once a few seconds had passed and Sara hadn't broken from the kiss, he finally believed it was truly happening. Michael began to kiss her back with as much passion she was exerting.

Finally, Sara took a step back and took shallow breaths with wide eyes practically saying that she couldn't believe what she had done herself wholly. Her wide eyes of shock started to soften almost immediately and she smiled a small smile.

"Sorry, I just had t--" Sara reasoned only to be Michael's turn to interrupt her with a kiss.

But unlike hers, this one was affectionate and soft; not those of reckless passion. Michael gently cupped her face just based on instinct alone, and because since he could remember he saw people in the movies do that so every human all over the world adopted 'life imitating art' in another aspect of their life. In turn, Sara laid her hands against his chest lightly and seemed to smile as the kiss lengthened.

Finally the unbelievable kiss ended as Michael stepped back gasping slightly for oxygen since he deprived himself from it during the kiss. He searched her gorgeous eyes and saw a fiery passion about them that he had never seen in their depths before.

Neither of them said a word but both of them were praying for the other to say something, even if it was random or totally ludicrous.

Michael decided he should suck it up and break the silence, "I thought the guy was supposed to make the first move." His voice was a little hoarse and strained, probably from his hormones exploding, his racing heart, and his unexplainable feelings for Sara.

He could barely make out her delicate smile. "I knew you weren't going to," Sara answered softly, "so I just did what my gut instinct was telling me to do."

Suddenly the emergency lights flickered weakly back on and now they finally saw each other clearly. Even though the power was out, that didn't stop the correctional officers from coming over and checking up on the infirmary to make sure that the doctors and nurses were okay, so the slowly separated further from each other. Neither of them looked embarrassed or as if they were regretting what had happened a couple of minutes ago. No, only contentment and infatuation seemed to be evident from the small smiles on both of their faces. Their eyes were bright and brilliant with the color of passion.

Finally, Michael made it to the door and as he put his hand on the door knob, he kept his eyes connected with hers. He didn't have to say 'I love you' or even 'I like you,' for that matter, but deep down both of them were thinking that and feeling that with each beat of the heart and with each passing second they were together in that room. Michael turned the knob and slowly opened the door taking in every last detail until he finally turned away from Sara and left the quiet room.

Michael knew that she knew he wasn't coming back even if he didn't say it or even give the slightest hint about breaking out. She could tell just by the way his left the room as if there were no tomorrow for either of them.

The cold air hit Michael as soon as he emerged from the infirmary with his head bent to fight the fierce wind. He was probably never going to see Sara again so his grand exit was bittersweet in his mind, more sweet than bitter though. And as he exhaled deeply, trying to get rid of the butterflies and racing heart, Michael began to focus on his next chapter of his time at Fox River State Penitentiary, breaking out and saving his brother.

Author's Notes:

Well, to tell you the truth this is only a one-shot. I just wanted to have a short, sweet fic that would complement Michael/Sara. I want to thank everyone who took the time to read this because it's awesome for a writer to see that people actually care enough to put aside some of their own time to read their work; so thanks. Also, thanks to everyone who reviews! I love hearing feedback even if it's not a 'wow' or a 'good job.' So please tell me what you thought of it! Thanks again for everything and much, much more! You all are pretty rad in my book.