After they had finished the dessert LJ retreated to his room to reread his notes and work a little for his next class. That left the three long time friends alone to talk. They kind of had a tradition that they would open a nice bottle of red wine and just talk about what they were happy about or thankful for.
"So you found a new friend already? Tell us about her!" Lincoln asked.
"We met at the gym and talked a little. There is nothing much to tell, I just met her but she seems nice." She answered. "Maybe I can tell you more tomorrow."
"Why did you ask LJ if she looked familiar to him?" Michael remembered.
"I don't know there is just something about her. I thought I had seen her somewhere before and that can be very well true. She is a doctor at the Memorial after all." Veronica once again explained. "Why do I feel like I am being interrogated?" she joked.
"Smooth V, very smooth!" Lincoln joked back but did as she silently asked and changed the subject. "You are not going to believe who brought in his car today!"
"Who?"Michael and Veronica asked in unison.
"The mayor's son! It is totaled and he wants us to fix it as much as possible!" Lincoln told them and watched their jaws drop.
"You cannot fix a totaled car!" Michael exclaimed and shook his head.
"What are you going to do?" Veronica asked and so they shared laughs and stories until the wee hours of the morning when Michael decided he had to go home and get at least one hour of sleep. His firm had a meeting for a new governmental project, retrofitting the security at Fox River but he hadn't told his family about that specific part.
Sara was working the night shift which had thankfully been really quiet and so she was not to beat when she finally could go home and get some sleep before she was supposed to meet with her new found friend. After a couple of hours sleep she woke up again and decided to do some catching up with the real world, well that meant reading the news online. She still got chills when she read something about Fox River and so it was no surprise when the familiar cold shock ran through her as soon as she started reading the article about the new retrofit that was announced.
Ah security upgrade and update to prevent something similar to the 'Fox River Eight' incident. And with that she dismissed the article it brought back to many memories of a life she desperately tried to forget and put behind.
Maybe I really should have left the area! After a little more reading on national and international happenings it was time for her to get ready.
And I haven't even prepared the next class! After writing a little post it and putting it on her laptop she got dressed and headed out to the little coffee house where she would meet Veronica.
Veronica had gotten herself and baby Amy ready way ahead of time and decided to do a little window shopping before she would head down to the coffee house. When she passed an electronics store she noticed that the local news were on and she immediately recognized the building in the picture behind the anchor. What did happen there? She stopped to watch and then she read about the upcoming retrofit and which firm had been chosen.
That is a joke! With that thought she called Linc at work to inform him about this new interesting development.
"Linc are you watching the news?" she asked as soon as she heard the click indicating that he had picked up.
"No why? Did something bad happen?" he asked immediately worried.
"Nothing bad but Michael's firm got the contract to update the security system in Fox River!"
"That is a joke right? They are going to pay the guy who totally undermined their last security system to build them a new one?!" Lincoln exclaimed.
"That is what I thought but I also thought no one would ever hire him to design any security system but that wasn't true either."
"Yeah right. Well we can grill him tonight when we have dinner at his place! I got to go! Love you!" and Linc had hung up again and left his wife alone with her thoughts.
Both women reached the coffee house simultaneously and so Sara helped Veronica getting in with her buggy. After they had placed their order Sara turned her attention to the smiling baby.
"She is so cute and please don't take it the wrong way but she looks almost nothing like you!"
"Yeah she takes after her father but I don't mind. Oh and can I ask you something?"
"Sure fire away!"
"Are you by any chance teaching a paramedics class at the Memorial?" Sara was stunned.
"Yes but how do you know that? I am pretty sure there was no one named Donovan on my list!"
"Yes there wouldn't be. Donovan is my maiden name and LJ is only my step son. This little one is my first!" Veronica explained smiling.
"Ah LJ Ricks is your step son? He is a smart one. If I remember correctly he is going to go to med school right?" Sara asked after thinking for a couple of seconds.
"Yes he really wants to be a doctor but we can't really explain why."
"Some people just feel compelled to help others." Sara started to explain why someone would want to be a doctor but stopped when Veronica sighed.
"What?" she asked.
"Wanting to help seems to run in the blood."
"Isn't that a good thing?"
"Not necessarily but that is a story for another time. So we talked a little about my family, what about you? Any siblings or a husband to tell funny stories about?" Veronica tried to get to another subject because explaining the helper syndrome the boys have would surely scaring Sara away; well that was what she thought anyway.
"No I am an only child and not married. I am not even seeing someone right now."
"That is hard to believe!"
"Not really! I got burned a few years back. A guy I wasn't even really dating betrayed my trust in him completely and well let's just say it didn't end well."
"But you had feelings for him? Did he know?"
"He must have known how I felt because he kissed me but only to steal from me and well ... can we please talk about something else?" Sara pleaded, distress evident in her voice.
" tell me where are you from, originally I mean?" Veronica changed the subject again sensing that Sara couldn't talk about what had happened and childhood couldn't be that bad of a subject.
"Oh I grew up in the Chicago area but my family has some money so I went to private high school and everything. What about you?"
"I grew up in poor part of Chicago and well you could say my husband and I were high school sweethearts even though he dropped out at the age of sixteen to support himself and his brother."
"Oh two questions, why did he have to support himself and his brother and how can it be that he has a child with another woman then?" Sara interrupted but Veronica had expected it, the story really sounded strange to an outsider.
"Well his dad disappeared even before his brother had been born and when his mother died there was no one left and so he had to step up. It worked well. His brother went to college and got a degree. He owns the firm who got the contract to retrofit the security system at Fox River." Veronica noticed the shiver that shot through the red head and asked worriedly. "Is something wrong?"
"No No everything is fine! So what about LJ? How did he happen?" Sara quickly tried to reassure and get back to the topic at hand.
"Obviously I had to go to college to get my law degree and I guess the fact that I left hurt my husband and he looked for some sort of happiness."
"Ah so LJ is the result of his search of happiness?"
"You could say that but his mom loved him very much and now he has me and his father and uncle!"
"What happened to his mom, if you don't mind me asking? You said loved, past tense!" Sara asked carefully.
"Oh ehm Lisa got killed in an accident a few years back." Veronica answered technically this wasn't even a lie.
After that the two of them chatted about clothes, shoes and how much a baby can change your life, they even decided to hit the gym together from now on but then it was already time to say goodbye again. They parted ways and Sara headed into the hospital for work whereas V went home to change and then drive to Michael with LJ and Lincoln.
A/N: So to explain LJ changed his last name for two reasons the obvious beeing that Burrows always associates him with Linc and the break out and the second reason was to honor his mom. I'll maybe show that decision in a flashback (if you want). Do you have wishes for the upcoming chapters?(besides a Misa reunion of course, that one is still a few chapters away :)!) . Tell me what you think , if you want to throw rotten food at me or what ever ...