Fallen
#21
Escape day had finally arrived, and I was freaking out! I had kept myself busy all day by finalizing plans and tracking down the items C-Note demanded. I had somehow managed to come across most of the things on his list, amazingly enough. I had learned from Darius that C-Note had a young daughter so I decided that I would add a few things to the list for her. Toys, mostly. I was thankful that Veronica took my words at face value when I told her that I had been unable to uncover anything that would be even remotely helpful in stopping Scofield from following through with his plan. She still held out hope that she and Nick would have the evidence to get Lincoln exonerated before Scofield did something irrational.
No matter how busy I had kept myself that day, I could not ignore my severe case of nerves. There were so many things that could go wrong. One slip and everything that we had all worked so hard for could blow up in our faces, and instead of saving Lincoln's life, we could all lose ours. As the day wore on I forced myself to stay positive and confident. I kept telling myself that it was the negativity that would get us killed. I had spent a good part of the morning at the "safe haven" that was located on the outskirts of town. It was the perfect place to house fugitives. There were no neighbors for miles, it was on private property, and the house was large enough for everyone. Once I was finished there I decided to head home to spend some time with L.J. Since, I knew that Veronica and Nick would be out, and I felt bad that L.J. had been forced to spend so much time by himself lately.
When I walked into the basement, there lay L.J. half off of the couch completely out of it. I silently chuckled to myself; it was nice to see him doing something like a normal teenage boy, even if it was just sleeping all day. I had almost decided to let him be until I nearly killed myself on a nerf football that he and Nick had been pelting each other with a day or two before. I bent down, grabbed the ball, stood up, and lobbed it at "Sleeping Beauty". Bull's eye! Right in the head. He jerked on impact and plummeted to the floor, landing with a thud. Quickly he sat up looking around with a confused look on his face. "Good you're awake!" I said struggling to contain my laughter, with a sweet smile. "Did you just pelt me with the football?" He asked while yawning. "Why would I do that?" I asked incredulously. "Because you're evil." He replied smiling. "Hey! Be careful who you go around calling evil, buddy! I buy your food!" "So you're going to starve me now?" He asked almost seriously. "No, I'll still let you eat and you better feel guilty about it!" I teased. "What time is it?" he asked. "3p.m." I answered "So get up and shower so we can go shopping." "I don't want to go shopping!" he whined. "Too bad. You need clothes and we need to get some groceries." "We just got groceries." "Yeah, well, we need more." He sighed in defeat "Whatever you say, boss." He said as he walked past me on his way to the bathroom. He was still considered a fugitive, so I knew that I would have to disguise him somehow. I also knew that he would hate it!
"This is ridiculous!" L.J. whined. "This is necessary!" I exclaimed placing a baseball cap on his head. "A blind guy?" He asked in a "you've got to be kidding me" tone. I laughed "It'll work once you quit bitching! Plus, you get this cool cane!" I said. By 5p.m. we had gotten L.J. some new clothes and shoes, a ton of groceries, and I began to wonder what I was thinking giving him that damn cane! After about the tenth "Oh sorry, I didn't see you there!" I relinquished his cane privileges and led him around myself… He hated it!
"Thanks Cali." L.J. said as we got back to the car. "For what?" I asked. There was a pause, "For everything. Coming back to help my dad, giving me a safe place to stay, buying me stuff. You didn't have to do any of those things." "L.J., I didn't do those things because I felt obligated to! I did them because we're family, always have been, always will be. You're welcome all the same though." He just nodded and smiled "Where are we going?" "To a friends place. She's been busy lately and asked me to pick up these groceries for her." I answered lamely. cough "Bullshit!" cough "What?" I asked as if I had been telling the truth. "That was a poor effort! You actually think that I'm going to believe that while you have been running around trying to figure out what Uncle Mike is up to that you have the time to do someone else's shopping?" "Umm, yes?" Shaking his head he asked once more where we were going. "We are going to a house on the outskirts of town where we are going to be staying for a while. Hence the groceries." "Why are we going to stay there? Do they know that Veronica, Nick and I have been staying at your place?" He asked worriedly. "No, it's just… Well, it's complicated. You can't tell Veronica or Nick about this okay?" "Why? Are they not going to stay there?" "No, not at first anyway. When the time is right all of this will be explained okay?" "Okay."
By the time we got back to our place in town it was 7p.m. I had to grab some things from my room for the escape. "Hey, if Veronica is down there send her up for me will ya?" I asked L.J. before he went to the basement. "Sure" he said as he descended the stairs. I grabbed a small back pack from my closet and put a wife beater, a black hoodie, and a pair of black jeans inside.
"Going somewhere?" I turned around to see Nick standing in my doorway. I nodded as I zipped the bag shut. "Yeah, I'm going to meet with some people about Scofield." He nodded "Veronica is meeting with someone who says that they have evidence that will exonerate Lincoln." "Really? That's great! If that works out, will we have enough time to make it public before the… you know, execution?" "I'd like to say yes, but I can't. With the amount of paperwork that would be required and having the feds on our tails, I don't see that happening." I respected him for his honestly, even if it wasn't what I wanted to hear. I nodded solemnly, grabbed my bag and headed for the door. "Well, I better go. I'm not sure when I'll be back." "Alright, be careful okay? And Cali, don't get caught!" I stopped dead in my tracks; he couldn't know what I was really up to! "How do you…?" "You're not the only sneaky one around here." "Veronica and L.J. don't…?" I asked shaking my head. "No, and I won't tell them. If Veronica found out that I knew what was going on and let you do it, you wouldn't be the only one in trouble." He said with a laugh. "Thanks Nick." He smiled and nodded before disappearing to the basement. For a moment I just stood there, my feet refusing to move. Finally, gravity let up and I headed into the unknown.