Paper Cranes
I do not own anything related to Prison Break (except the first season on DVD). References to the episodes "First Down", "The Key" and "Riots, Drills and the Devil pt 2".
This story is probably going to be a one-shot, unless you, my gentle viewers, suggest otherwise. So read and review!
Sara Tancredi slowly drank her chamomile tea, trying to calm her nerves. The past week had been hell. She had helped eight convicts escape from Fox River Penitentiary, nearly overdosed on morphine and had been arrested. Then, when things seemed to be going normal again, her world was turned upside down by one phone call.
Michael Scofield has started out as just another patient. Just another convict. But from the beginning, Sara knew there was something different about him. And the more she discovered things about him, the more he fascinated her. Sara could still remember the softness of his touch, the warmth of his kisses and the happiness he made her feel. She had known that getting involved with a con was wrong, that there was always a guard standing outside her office and a surveillance camera in the wall, but she had never cared.
Then Michael broke her heart when he revealed his true motives. He asked her to leave the door to the infirmary unlocked so he and his brother could escape. She knew Lincoln Burrows was innocent, but she couldn't help feeling used, feeling cheap. Then he took six other cons with him. She had helped three murderers and four thieves escape. She hated herself for trusting Michael. She had loved him, and he had taken advantage of it.
"Sara…you and me, it was real…it's real…"
His words still echoed in her mind. Sara had thought she was over him, but his voice had brought back all those unwanted feelings. She thought he would never call, that he had forgotten about her. But as she listened to his call, she could hear the pain in his voice, the sorrow.
Sara thought about the day of the riot. She had been so scared, cornered in her office, and then Michael had come to save her. She remembered sitting in the vents, and Michael was saying something about Mexico and beer and Thailand. He was trying to comfort her. He had risked his life trying to save hers. That had to mean something.
She put her tea cup down and went over to her bureau. She fished through her papers until she found what she was looking for. She put the paper cranes on her coffee table. She was trying desperately to figure out what they meant. She knew the numbers were a code; Michael was a very cryptic person. It was part of the reason she liked him so much.
Deep in within her self, Sara wanted to be with Michael more than anything. In his phone call, he had said he could protect her. She wasn't sure if she could leave everything behind, just to be with a man who had betrayed her.
Her whole life, Sara had been betrayed by men. When her mother died, what was left of her relationship with her father had died too. All of her boyfriends had led her down a path of drug abuse that she barely survived. How come she had thought that Michael was any different?
He had driven her back to the needle. She hadn't longed for a fix in years. All the pain and confusion he had brought had ruined her life. Even though he was remorseful, how could she so easily forgive him?
She turned on the TV. The movie Love Story was on.
"Love means never having to say you're sorry," the TV said.
How could that be true? All she had been waiting for was an apology. She needed to know that he cared. She needed to know that it was real. She loved Michael and now she knew that he had loved her too. But was that enough to leave everything behind to be with him? The answer was like those paper cranes. Confusing but obvious. And the answer was yes. Love really goes beyond forgiveness.