Chapter 2: Lovers and Friends
After breakfast, they clean the dishes and head in to the lounge room. Veronica takes a seat beside Lincoln and they snuggle up together, Lincoln's arm draped around her pulling her in to him. Michael sits on the single seater with Sara seated on his lap, his arm wrapped around her waist and hers resting atop his. They turn on the TV to see what's on, but nothing interests them so they turn it off again.
"So, what's everyone got planned for the day?" Sara asks, and then giggles as Michael's fingers caress her belly, tickling her slightly. "Babe, you know how ticklish I get, especially there." She slaps his hand lightly and he grabs it and brings it to his lips, placing a tender kiss on each of her knuckles.
"Would you prefer I do this instead?" he asks playfully between each kiss.
"It's better, Scofield, but you know there's one thing I like more than your kisses and that's you tender t..."
"Ah-ah-hem," Lincoln loudly clears his throat, causing Sara to stop mid sentence and look sheepishly over at him.
"Oh, come on, Burrows, we all know it's true," turning to Veronica she nods her head at her and continues, "Tell him Vee, what's better then tender kisses on your knuckles?" She smiles at her and wriggles her eyebrows suggestively, causing the foursome to erupt in laughter.
They settle a few minutes later and Michael reiterates the question Sara had posed before the sexual innuendo began. They decide to go out for lunch, Michael and Lincoln calling this "the first date" for the couples which resulted in a quick kiss from their respective partners as Veronica and Sara lifted themselves off their sofas and made their way to their rooms to get ready.
"I can't believe I have her in my life again, Mike." Lincoln's voice is low and full of emotion but a smile is plastered across his face as he speaks. "I thought I had lost her, that day when I..." he falters and finds himself unable to continue as the ringing of gunshots sounds in his ears, the same sound that had haunted him since the moment he heard them and thought her lost to him forever.
Seeing the distress on his brother's face, Michael places a hand on his shoulder and offers him a warm smile. "It's ok, bro. She's here now, safe and alive and happy. We can put all that stuff behind us and start fresh, Linc. That's what this is all about, starting fresh and getting our lives sorted out again."
"I know Michael, but sometimes I think this is some twisted dream and someday I'm gonna wake up and find myself back in that dark cell in Fox River or worse, on the run living in a world where Veronica no longer exists."
"I know Linc, me too sometimes. But then I wake up and I find Sara lying next to me and I'm holding her in my arms and I know that it just cannot be a dream." He stops a moment and with a sparkle in his eye's he continues. "This is real, Linc, Veronica is not a dream, this whole life we're living right now, it's real Linc, it's all real."
Nothing more is said after that and five minutes later the ladies reappear. They are both dressed casually, in skinny leg jeans (laughing at the coincidence of them both having the same True Religion jeans on) and casual tops slightly dressed up with accessories and make up.
Lincoln and Michael take a moment to admire their women, each couple sharing another kiss, deeper and more passionate than the rushed one the ladies had supplied them with earlier. It is a few minutes after midday when they are heading out the door the soft click of the lock falling in to place eases them just that little bit more.
They pile in to Lincoln's car and drive down to Bluegrass Café, having already decided this date of theirs would be a casual affair. The car ride is a hustle bustle of chatter, laughter and the low thrum of the radio as the foursome enjoy quality time with each other, talking about the most inane of subjects, desperately trying to make their lives as normal as they can once more.
They are about five minutes from the café when the opening chord to Cindy Lauper's Girls Just Wanna Have Fun begins to play on the radio. Veronica and Sara immediately begin to croon away to the song, bopping in the backseat to a very amused Michael and Lincoln. The final words of the song are sung just as Lincoln pulls in to the parking lot, and Veronica and Sara share a knowing smile between themselves: girls do just want to have fun, and they are no exception.
They exit the car and walk in to the café. They receive a few stares from people who had obviously been following the news during their escape fiasco and beeline to a booth in the far corner of the café, wanting as much privacy as they can get. The booth also provides them with a somewhat intimate setting, and they take a seat and order drinks from the waiter before picking up their menus.
"I guess that fillet mignon will have to wait a little longer, Sara." Michael tells her sheepishly from his position beside her as he slides his hand up and down her leg under the table. She looks back at him with a twinkle in her eye and just smiles, amazed that through everything that had happened, he remembered that one small, almost dreamlike conversation they had in the back seat of a car so many months ago.
Across the table from them, Lincoln and Veronica have abandoned their menus and are engaged in some serious lip-time, as though indifferent to the rest of the patrons, namely the one's sitting directly opposite. This time, it's ahem that brings them back to reality and a slight blush creeps over Veronica's smiling face.
"Sorry guys," Lincoln smiles at his brother and Sara, "Let's order us some grub." He turns around and ushers a waiter passing them by. After a few minutes, they've ordered their meals and another round of drinks as they wait for appetisers, which arrive five minutes later.
Over lunch, they talk about everything and anything. Over dessert, they talk about everything and anything. Things that are important, things that not, trivial things, random facts; anything that is deemed a normal conversation is spoken of. What they don't talk about is Fox River, or Sona, or Panama, or the Company, or anything that they went through because of them. Today they want to be normal people doing normal things, not the notorious criminals they had been perceived as, nor the infamous ones who had been involved in that great conspiracy.
After dessert and coffee have finished, they pay the cheque and leave the café. More patrons gawp at them unashamedly as they make their way out, but they are indifferent to them, showing that ignorance truly is bliss. Lincoln unlocks the car and he and Veronica climb in, Veronica taking the passenger seat to be next to him while Michael and Sara linger outside a moment linger. Grabbing Veronica's hand Lincoln places a soft on her knuckles.
"You know," she whispers with a smirk on her face, "there is only one thing better then a kiss on the hand, Burrows."
"Oh?" he replies, going along with the playful banter. "And what would that be?" He doesn't let her respond instead he leans over and plants a kiss on her lips. Opening his mouth, he runs his tongue around the edge of her lips, asking for access granted immediately. The kiss is deep and passionate and Lincoln's hands find their way from hers to around her back and he slides his hand over her clothed back slowly.
Veronica pulls out of the kiss and looks at him breathlessly. No words are said, the sexual tension in the air so thick it was visible. Turning from Veronica, Lincoln winds down his window and looks over at his brother and Sara, standing a few feet from the car immersed in a silent conversation.
"Uh, guys," he speaks quickly as he starts the ignition, "Vee and I are heading home we'll see you there later ok. Bye." By the time he speaks the final word, he has already pulled the car out of the parking lot, Sara and Michael fast becoming tiny dots in the distance.
They stare between each other in shock, then slowly, like thunder brewing in the distant, waves of laughter pour out of each of them, starting in a low chuckle, then erupting in to something much louder and raucous.
After a few minutes on non-stop laughing, Sara finally manages to string together a coherent sentence. "Can you believe those two, acting like sex-crazed maniacs and all?"
"Actually I can," is Michael's swift reply, "Because you know if we had gotten in the car before them, I wouldn't have bothered telling them anything, just drove away to get in to the real action." He wriggles his eyebrows up and down at her.
She shakes her head and laughs at his comment. Grabbing his arm she says "Come on, Scofield, show me the city through your eyes." They link arms and begin to walk away from the restaurant, looking as much the happy couple they truly are.
Lincoln parks the car and the two of them step out and make their way back to the house. In the elevator, they find they are alone. They huddle in to the corner and he pins her against the wall and sends his lips crashing on hers again. They don't get the chance to deepen it for too long as the electronic voice of the elevator tells them the doors are opening on the fourth level. They hastily pull apart as three other people join them in the tiny box.
A minute later, they are on their level and Lincoln almost breaks in to a run, rushing to get to their door. Swiftly pulling the key out of his pocket and sliding it in to the lock, he steps inside then turns and grabs Veronica out of the doorway as she had just appeared. Kicking the door closed behind him, he tosses her bag aside and the keys aside, all the while keeping his lips firmly planted on hers.
He guides her to the bedroom, wanting nothing more than to rip her clothes off and take her then and there, but he refrains. The back of her knees hit the bed frame and he gently guides her downwards, falling lightly on top of her.
His arms skim over her lithe figure, trailing from her hair, gently caressing each and every part of her body until they come to rest on her hips. He squeezes them gently, pulling in to him slightly more. Several minutes pass before he breaks away from her mouth and begins a trail of tender butterfly kisses down the length of her body. He kisses the area just below her belly button the starts up again. When he reaches her face, he plants a deep kiss on her lips, pulls himself off the bed, and closes the door, ready now to feed the screaming beast within them both.