Lincoln was the one to fly into a fit of rage, but that didn't shock anyone. They knew exactly what he was like. He had smashed at the white board while Alex paced around the table and Sucre shook his head, holding his head in his hands as he finally spoke.
"Self has to be coming," Sucre said.
"He isn't," Lincoln said.
"But he's government," Sucre protested.
"That means that he can do what he wants," Alex was the one to speak, beginning to walk up and down along the side of the table again.
"So what do we do?" Sucre asked.
Pulling his cell out, Michael did the only thing he could think of. Lincoln perched on the edge of the table as Alex bowed his head. Sitting down in a chair, Clara looked to Michael as he put the call on speaker, a woman answering.
"I'd like to speak to Don Self's superior," Michael declared.
"What if Homeland were in on this?" Clara enquired, looking to Michael.
It was then when a man answered the call. "This is Herb Stanton, who is this?" a man from the phone answered.
Shooting Michael an inquisitive, Clara watched him hang up the phone as Alex then spoke.
"If Homeland were in on this then they're going to come for us," Alex spoke. "They're going to have details on each and every one of us. They're going to come."
"Let them," Sucre said. "We did nothing wrong. We have a deal."
"No," Alex shook his head, pointing to the sheets of blank paper. "We have nothing. We have empty paper. That is all that we have. So we need to get out of here. We need to go before they come."
"No," Sara was the one to answer. "Michael needs surgery."
"Yeah," Alex agreed, "but I'm not on about running. I'm on about trying to survive. If we don't go now then they'll find us and it will be too late."
"And where do we go?" Sucre wondered, flapping his arms by his side. "We run away again? We run and go into hiding? How long can we keep it up for?"
Shrugging his shoulders, Alex moved towards the table, picking up a set of car keys. "We keep it up if we want to stay alive because now we've got Homeland on our backs and The Company. No doubt Krantz will still want us dead for what we did to him."
They all kept quiet, knowing full well that Alex was right. No one wanted to admit. No one dared to admit it. Clara pushed herself to her feet, nodding her head at him. If he was going then she sure as hell was going with him.
"Fine," Clara said to him and he nodded at her, looking around the table once more.
"We need to go," Alex repeated to them.
"Alex is right," Michael nodded. "Pack up your stuff and get ready to go."
They all dispersed, but the main issue was that no one had any stuff that they wanted to take. Clara slipped into a leather jacket, grabbing hold of her battered satchel and swinging it onto her shoulder. Moving alongside Alex towards a car, she took a deep breath as they prepared to go on the run once more.
…
The hotel room they had checked into was crowded after they had seen Homeland come to them. Herb Stanton had called Michael and demanded for him to go back to the warehouse, but Michael had been told how they had allegedly stolen Scylla and killed two agents. Michael had yelled at them, telling them how Self had set them up.
But they didn't believe them.
So that was how they all found themselves trapped in a hotel room. It was dated and cheap, looking over a street. There were two beds pushed against the wall, a creaking sofa and a carpet that had seen better days. Hesitantly, Clara had sat on the edge of the bed next to Sara who had her legs crossed, not seeming to mind the décor as much as Clara.
"Self pinned two murders on us," Sucre said, sitting down on the sofa.
"I ain't going down for that," Lincoln grumbled out.
"So what are we going to do?" Clara wondered.
"We need to flush Self out," Michael said.
"No," Sucre said. "We should start to plan how to get away from this. We should start planning to run to the Mexican border."
Michael shook his head. "I can't go back to that life," he said. "I can't live a life where I am constantly looking over my shoulder and wondering if I am going to get caught. It isn't a life. It's an existence. So we finish what we started."
Alex was stood in the corner of the room, only moving when Sucre turned up the TV, news that a man called Cole who worked at GATE was wanted and on the run. Sucre almost chuckled at seeing that.
"Is that Bagwell?" Clara wondered from the sketch they were showing.
"Yeah," Alex nodded and went to sit down on the other bed, looking over to Michael as he sat besides Sara and Clara stood up, moving around the room. "If you want to get to Self, then you need to ask yourself how he intended to sell Scylla."
"Gretchen," Michael answered.
"So we find Gretchen?" Clara wondered from them. "Where would she go? I mean…we did betray her. But if…if I was Don...if I wanted to find her then I'd go for her family. That's if he even knows about them?"
"How did you find out?" Sucre wondered.
"Lisa," Clara responded. "But all he would have to do would be to have her file and if he planned this then he would have it. We just need to get the details on her. We need to find her family and her daughter."
"And how do we do that?" Sara wondered.
Nodding, Clara moved towards the door, grabbing her bag as she rushed with haste. "I'll be back in ten minutes."
"Clara," Alex called after her, refusing to let her leave.
Moving after her, he ran down the steps behind her as she continued on her mission. Determination swept through her body as she came to the street and looked down. Lincoln and Sucre soon appeared, both of them following after her.
"I'm going to call Gretchen," Lincoln said as they caught up with her. "I'm going to see if she knows anything about this and try to meet her. What's your plan, Clara?"
"I have friends," Clara said. "Well, not friends, per say, but I know people who might be able to help us if I ask nice enough. If we find the address for her family then we might just find Self and bring that bastard in."
"Listen," Alex said, grabbing her arm as they came to a harbour, the sun glimmering on the water and causing them both to squint. Going to the pay phone, Lincoln used it first while Alex kept his hand around Clara's arm, dragging her down the wooden walkway.
"We're sitting ducks," Alex said to her, his voice low as she looked to him with a tilted head. "Whatever Self has been planning, he's been planning it for a while. Do you think that there really is anyway for us to get out of this? I…I think Sucre was right…I think our only option is to run."
Clara shook her head at hearing that. "We can't," she said. "Alex, if we keep running then Michael is right. We live a life where we are constantly looking over our shoulder and no one wants that. I know you don't want it…not really."
"No, what I want is to stay alive," Alex confirmed to her and she chewed down on her lip, harsh enough to draw a little bit of blood. "What I want is to be free and be in that bar in that uptown hotel with you, drinking beer and talking about things that won't get us killed."
Clara did soften then, smiling to him for a second as she moved her hand to his cheek, stroking it softly for a second before stepping closer to him. "We'll have that," Clara said in a whisper, gently moving to kiss him for a second, "but we're not running. Not now."
…
Gretchen had agreed to meet the team in an hour. They had gone back to the hotel after Clara had called her contact in the force. He had managed to find an address and Clara had scribbled it down in the notebook she kept in her bag, thanking him before hanging up and going back to the hotel with Alex.
"I don't like this," Sucre was the one to complain. "Gretchen and T-Bag were waiting with guns for us to come back. I mean, they're going to betray us."
"Of course they are," Lincoln said. "Gretchen does what she wants when she wants. We need to meet her and get to Self."
"The good news is that we haven't made the news yet," Alex said after he had been studying the TV in the corner. "Homeland must be keeping it to themselves. I don't know how long for, but we might have a shot."
Sitting around the wooden coffee table, all of them prepared for the mission they were about to embark one. Clara was knelt on the floor besides where Alex sat in one of the cracked armchairs. He leant forwards, looking to the TV again as Clara moved the map that she was holding. She had one arm draped over Alex's lap as she held the map mid air.
"Found it," Clara muttered, pinpointing the address of Gretchen's so called sister. "Don't know how long it would take to get to her, but if she doesn't meet then we know where to go."
"So we head to the park?" Sucre asked.
"We head to the park," Michael confirmed.
…
Looking over the park, Clara stood on a balcony overlooking the green area next to Alex. He held a pair of binoculars in his fingertips as Michael asked them if they had any sign of her. Alex said they didn't. Wrapping her hands around the railing in front of her, Clara kept her eyes focused in the distance. She had her mind focused on one thing and that was finding Gretchen.
"She isn't going to come," Clara said, sensing it in her gut. "Alex, she isn't going to come."
"She's got ten minutes," Alex responded.
"But she's also never been trusted before," she reminded him. "And if she does show then I think she's going to betray us."
"I don't doubt it," Alex said, "but we just need to be smarter than her, which I think we are. I mean…Scofield's not stupid."
"Neither are you," Clara reminded him. "Both of you have minds that I don't understand."
Listening to a siren in the distance, Clara squinted at the noise as Alex placed the binoculars against his eyes once more as Michael's voice came over the walky talky.
"We've been set up," he declared. "The feds are here."
Peering through the lenses, Alex didn't need to be told twice once he had seen the man in the suit. Dropping the binoculars he took hold of Clara by the hand and they both turned around, leaving the balcony they had been stood on. Walking calmly along the path so as not to attract attention, they tried to act inconspicuous but it was proving impossible.
"How did they know?" Clara said in a small voice. "Do you think it was Gretchen?"
"No idea," Alex mumbled. "All I know is that we need to get out of here pretty quickly."
"I'd concur with that," Clara said as they rounded a corner and came to see Sara moving towards them.
Standing in the entrance to the park, they looked around as Michael joined them.
"They got Linc," he said, pulling his cell out as Alex spoke.
"Listen, Michael, I have a friend in the bureau. She might be able to help us."
"Who are you calling?" Sara wondered.
"I knew I should have shot you when I had the chance to…yeah…so who set me up?" Michael said, clearly speaking to Gretchen. He went silent for a second, adjusting his baseball cap on his head. It was then when a man's voice spoke down the phone and Michael spoke. "Don, we're coming for you."
Hanging up the phone, he put the cell in his pocket.
"We need to go," Alex repeated. "We need to get out of here."
They all agreed with that, the four of them rushing away and looking around, making sure no one had spotted them as they went, relief coursing through them as they returned to the hotel room. Sucre was already there, pacing with his hands on his head as he looked between them.
"Who set us up?" he asked.
"Self," Michael said. "He's with Gretchen."
"So he did go to her family," Clara said. "Why else would he be with her? He must have threatened them and she went running. Not that I can blame her."
"By the time we go to her address we'll be too late," Alex said.
"I know," Clara muttered.
It was another few minutes as Michael sat on the sofa next to Sucre, when his cell began to ring. Answering it, he put the call on speaker after a moment, Lincoln's voice entering their ears.
"Homeland know that Self screwed us," he said, the line slightly patchy.
"What do they have?" Alex wondered, moving closer to the phone.
"A foreign bank account and a plane ticket out of here," Lincoln responded. "We get full immunity if we testify against Self, but they want you all to come down to the warehouse."
"Do you believe this?" Clara whispered to Alex.
"No," he replied.
Hanging up once a senator had promised them they had their word that nothing would happen, Michael nodded his head. He knew that they had to go and talk to him. He had to get his brother out and make sure he was safe. He had said that Sucre, Sara and Clara would go to the meeting point while him and Alex would meet the senator.
But Alex had other ideas. Moving from the room, Clara followed him, not letting him wander off on his own. Following him down the staircase, she saw him turn his head over his shoulder to look at her.
"Go back to the room," he urged of her.
"No chance," Clara said to him. "I'm going nowhere, Alex. Where are you going?"
"We both know this meeting with the senator isn't going to end well," he told her. "I…look…I've been thinking. I still have contact with Lang. She could help. She could believe us and try to get us a meeting with someone in the FBI who will hear us out."
"And everyone in there?" Clara wondered as they stepped onto the pavement once more and she suspected that he was going to try to find a pay phone again.
"I'm going with Michael, but if I know Michael…which I think I do…he's got no intention of walking away from this," Alex told her. "So I'm going to call Lang and do what I can to help him because those people in the warehouse...I don't believe anything they say."
Nodding her head, Clara agreed with him on that.
…
Sitting in the bus interchange, Sara was tetchy and Clara could see it. Michael had gone off to the warehouse while Mahone had come back, telling them all that they had to go. Booking tickets out of LA and back to Chicago, he handed Clara one before looking to Sucre and Sara who were sat in the bus station, both of them speaking to each other.
"They won't go," Clara said as Alex stood besides her, his hand on the small of her back as he urged her towards the gate. "Alex, they're not going to leave."
"That's not our issue," Alex informed her. "We're going. They can do what they want, but they're just going to get arrested. We need to go and we need to go now. We have a two-day bus journey ahead of us with plenty of stops before we get back to Chicago. So we need to go now."
Nodding her head, Clara sent one last look in the direction of both of them before letting Alex lead her to the gate. Climbing onto the bus once her ticket had been checked, she wandered down the aisle towards the back, sliding into the seat and settling down. Alex sat next to her, his legs spread as he leant forwards and his hands held his thighs.
"What if Lang can't do anything?" Clara asked in a small voice. "I get that she is a miracle worker after everything she did in Panama, but how far can she go?"
"I don't know," Alex admitted. "I know that I lost her trust, just as I lost yours at one stage. I need to try and convince her I am telling the truth."
"I know," Clara said. "I just…after everything that has happened…everyone in the government…who can we trust? I know you trust Lang, but how can we trust whoever she gets to help?"
Alex shrugged at her. "We don't know if we can," he admitted as more people clambered onto the bus. "But it's one of the last things we can do. By now they're all probably arrested or Michael's plan has worked and they're back on track to getting Scylla."
"That's his plan?" Clara wondered.
"Yeah," Alex said. "Like I said, I don't know if it's going to work, but it's worth a shot."
"It'll work."
Alex chuckled at hearing her. "You're too optimistic."
She scoffed. "I'm really not," she said. "Have you met me? I'm rarely like this."
"Yeah, well," Alex shrugged over to her. "For once, it's quite endearing. At least you're keeping me going."
"I don't know," she mused. "We have a two day bus journey. I don't think my presence will keep you going after a day. You'll probably want to kill me."
"I doubt it," Alex responded to her.
"I only hope it isn't Wheeler who she knows," Clara muttered, closing her eyes as she moved to rest against his side, her head going to his shoulder. Alex rolled his eyes at hearing her, lifting his arm up to let her burrow closer as his fingers draped over her shoulder, feeling the leather underneath his fingertips.
"If it's Wheeler then we're screwed," Clara mumbled. "Although I'd quite like to give him a piece of my mind for hauling me into the field office…what…two times?"
"Something like that," Alex mumbled as the bus finally began to move and he let his head rest back in the seat, his eyes slowly closing as Clara continued to mumble.
"What an ass," she grunted and Alex chuckled, unable to stop himself as he heard her.
Moving slowly, he let his free hand reach over his body, his fingers coming to sit on top her arm that she had going across her body. Clara only smiled at the touch, content to let sleep take over her for the time being.
…
Two days on a bus were hell, as Clara had learned. They had stopped at six different locations, changing over onto different buses until they finally reached Illinois, Chicago. Looking around the familiar city, Clara had demanded that Alex purchase some new clothes, the ones he currently wore beginning to look haggard. He had concurred, finding a simple white top and a black jacket to throw over it along with some jeans.
Clara had also bought a new dress, tossing her old one in a bin as they walked towards the meeting point that Lang had set. Looking to her, he saw that the dress she wore was floral once more, long sleeves coming down to her wrist. Her sunglasses sat on her face, despite the fact the clouds were in full force in Chicago.
"Do you miss it?" Clara suddenly wondered as they stepped onto the bridge in the middle of the office buildings, smart men dressed in business suits wandering around as they went for a drink after work.
There were some families, clearly going about their own business. Clara mused for a moment, wondering if they were going out for dinner together. Perhaps some of the parents were taking their kids to an after-school class? Clara didn't know what they were doing, but she did know that she would swap places with them in a heartbeat if she could.
"Miss it?" he wondered from her.
"The normality?" she said. "The working life…just…I mean, I miss not being chased by people wanting to kill me, but I don't know if I miss this life. The going to work, coming home, drinking and then sleeping. I don't know…peace and quiet sounds great right now, but also it means coming back to the mundane life I have where the most excitement I had was travelling to speak at conferences."
Listening to her, Alex suspected he had rarely thought of it, but buried it deep down. Of course he still envisaged going back to the FBI, but he knew it was just a dream. Scratch that, he shouldn't even be dreaming about it. It was never going to happen after everything he had done.
"I don't know," Alex shrugged. "I miss the quiet too, but I know that if we ever get out of this then the chances of me going back to the FBI are non-existent. I don't know what I'll do."
"Perhaps we might both have a career change," Clara shrugged. "I don't know. I've always enjoyed teaching, but I want a change."
"Well, we should think about it when this is over with," Alex said to her. "Maybe go to a different state altogether?"
"Yeah," Clara said. "I've always like NY."
"Too busy," Alex muttered. "I'm thinking somewhere you can go to sleep without hearing the noise of blaring horns."
"You know not all of NY is like that?" she asked of him.
He didn't get a chance to respond as Lang's voice appeared from behind them. Whirling around on the spot, Alex let his eyes sweep over the woman. She had hardly changed. Dressed in a smart grey suit with a white shirt, she offered Alex a slim smile as he pushed his hands into his pockets and nodded at her.
"You came," he observed.
"Always do," she shrugged, hands going into her pockets too as she looked between them. "So, you two are still together."
"Yeah," Clara answered. "He can't seem to shake me, not that he tries too hard."
Lang smiled softly before looking back to Alex. "So what's going on, Alex? You said you had some important information."
"I do," Alex confirmed and began to tell Lang what had happened. He recalled everything about Scylla, The Company, Don Self. He told her how he couldn't trust anyone in government. He told her how they had lost Bellick and how Michael could be in trouble.
She listened with intensity, arms folded over her chest as she watched Alex with intrigue and Clara remained stood by his side, letting him do the talking.
"I know you don't have to trust me," Alex declared. "And I know that after everything I have done I probably wouldn't trust me either, but I need your help."
"I know," she informed him, "and I do trust you, Alex. Despite all of this sounding mad, I do trust you."
"Thank you," Alex said. "Is there anybody you trust in the bureau who would believe us? Anyone who could help us?"
"There is someone," Lang said. "Meet me at the diner downtown we used to pick coffee up from. I'll be there in a couple of hours and bring him."
"Thank you, Lang," Alex said, his voice genuine as he looked to her and she offered him a small smile, moving forwards to place a hand on his arm gently. "For everything."
"I'll see you soon," was all Lang could offer and she moved off as Alex went back to look to Clara, exhaling a shaky breath as she ran a hand down his arm.
"We can do this," Clara said, sounding more determined than she felt. "We'll get through this. It will be fine. It will all be fine."
All Alex could offer was his usual non-committal 'yeah', his hand moving to take hold of her by the hand as they wandered off and Alex hailed them a cab, holding the door to it open and telling the driver where they wanted to go.
The drive didn't take too long and walking into the diner, Clara felt her stomach rumble at the smell of the food. Moving to the counter, Alex ordered two coffees, but then Clara saw the cakes and pies in the cabinet and instantly felt like a kid in a sweet store. Pulling her purse from her bag, she ordered a slice of apple pie, chocolate cake and a cinnamon cookie.
"How are you hungry?" Alex enquired as the waitress said she would bring it over.
"All we have ate in the past two days is a packet of chips," she declared. "I have a right to be hungry. I'm human."
Sliding into a booth, Alex sat next to her and not across, making sure he could see the door and that they were near a fire escape should they need to run. They still had over an hour until Lang came back with whomever she trusted. Leaning back in the booth, Clara yawned loudly as Alex draped an arm over the back of the seat.
"Here you go, honey," a woman said, placing down the food after a couple of minutes and Clara reached over Alex to grab a napkin and fork from the cutlery holder at the end of the table. Picking the sugar up, she began to pour it into the coffee.
"Why do you insist on pouring so much sugar in?" Alex questioned from her and she rolled her eyes at him.
"Are we going to have this argument again?" she asked, sipping on the coffee before cutting into a slice of pie and popping it into her mouth. "You're never going to change me."
"I wouldn't dream of it," Alex chuckled to her and she ate a slice of the chocolate cake while Alex looked down to the food.
He then picked up his own fork and cut into it as Clara shot him a glare. "I thought you wasn't hungry?"
"So you're going to eat all of that by yourself?" he wondered from her.
"Don't challenge me," she warned him. "The way I'm feeling I could go back and order the pumpkin pie to add to this collection."
Alex chuckled, despite everything, and rolled his eyes at hearing her, shoving a forkful of apple pie into his mouth. "You're crazy, did you know that?"
"Oh yeah," Clara said, chewing down on a piece of the cookie she had tore off. "But, like you said, you wouldn't change me."
"Yeah, I might take that back," he informed her and she moved to elbow him in the side as he picked at the cake and laughed. "And you know what, so long as I'm around I'm going to try and get you to decrease the amount of sugar you pour in coffee because it really isn't healthy."
"You ruin all the fun," Clara complained to him.
"Only to annoy you," Alex taunted her.
They finished the rest of the food with a playful conversation, the waitress taking the plates away and bringing them a refill on the coffee. Crossing her legs underneath the table, Clara moved her hands through her hair, pulling it from her face and tying it in a ponytail as she motioned to the door.
"Lang," she said, seeing the woman step in.
Alex nodded to get her attention and she moved to them, but Alex was too busy looking at the agent following.
"Shit," Clara complained as he walked in. "What did I say yesterday?"
"Anyone but Wheeler," Alex muttered.
"Anyone but that ass," Clara muttered. "Now we're done for."