Chapter 8: Free

Sara groaned at the sound of her five month old son crying accompanied by the flashing lights on the baby monitor on her bedside table, signifying that her son was awake. She rolled out of bed and walked out of the room. She padded down the hallway until she reached Mikey's room and opened the door. Her son's wails became louder and louder. Man, she was impressed with the set of lungs on this kid. She walked over to Mikey's crib and picked him up.

"Hey, little guy," she greeted. "What's all the fuss about, huh?" she asked in a soothing tone. She walked over to the rocking chair in the corner of the room and sat down as Mikey's cries softened to whimpers before falling back asleep.

Sara rocked him in her arms and looked over at the clock in Mikey's room. It read 2:32 AM, which meant she still had a solid three and a half hours before she had to be awake to get ready for work. She was actually surprised Mikey had woken up in the middle of the night. She thought he had grown out of that, but she didn't mind. She loved her son with all of her heart, and would do anything for him. Even if that 'anything' included 2 AM mommy snuggles.

She laid Mikey back in his crib before walking back to her room to get some much needed rest before work.

At 6 AM, Sara's alarm went off, and she rolled over and shut off the annoying, repetitive buzzing noise filling her room. Every morning, her routine was the same, or at least every morning since she returned to work and Mikey began sleeping through the night for the most part. She climbed out of bed and hopped in the shower, getting ready for work as she had done every morning prior.

20 minutes later, Sara emerged from the shower clean, and changed for work, just in time to hear her son crying, signaling that he was awake, and ready to be entertained. Sara made her way to Mikey's room, and retrieved him from his crib, immediately soothing his cries. She brought him to the kitchen, set him down in his high chair, and brought him his jar of mushy pears for breakfast.

After she finished feeding a very squirmy baby, Sara wiped off the leftover pear from Mikey's chubby cheeks, and took him to his room to change him for his day. One of the many downfalls of living in Panama was that the hospital where Sara worked didn't have a daycare center where she could leave Mikey while she worked. Thankfully, Sofia was more than happy to watch him when she could, however there were days Sofia was busy, and Sara would have to find other arrangements for Mikey. It was times like these when Sara longed to return to America.

Sara's thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of both her cell phone and doorbell at the same time. She saw that it was Lincoln who was calling and picked it up right away.

"Hey Linc," Sara greeted.

"Hey. Sofia's sick today, so I closed the shop for today and can watch Mikey for you."

"Thanks Linc, I owe you."

The doorbell rang again, and Sara picked up Mikey and put him in his playpen before making her way to the front door.

"Is that a doorbell? Who's visiting you at 6:30 on a Tuesday morning?" Lincoln asked.

"I have no idea," Sara chuckled, "but I'm about to find out," Sara finished as she opened the door.

Sara dropped her phone to the ground when she saw who was on the other side of her door. She couldn't believe her own eyes. She immediately wanted to slam the door in her surprise visitor's face and take her son and hide. How had the US Ambassador found her? And more importantly, was he here to take her back to prison and away from her son?

She could faintly here Lincoln's voice frantically calling her name on the other line, but she couldn't be bothered to answer him right now. The Ambassador was talking to her about the new circumstances of her current situation, yet Sara couldn't seem to find words to form to respond to him. Eventually he picked up on the fact that she was not in the talking mood, thanked her for her time, apologized for the inconvenience, and then left her house. Sara was shell shocked. She walked back to her living room and sat on her couch trying to process everything that had just happened. She knew she was going to be late for work, but it didn't matter. She was too shocked to move.

"Sara? Sara!" Lincoln shouted to the phone line that just went dead. He was panicking. Lincoln quickly found his car keys, and made the familiar drive to Sara's house. He knew he was probably being paranoid, but he once promised to his brother that he would protect Sara until the day he died, and he was not about to go back on his promise now. Plus, better safe than sorry, right?

He used his key to open the door, because he figured if she was kidnapped or tied to a chair being held for ransom, there was no point in wasting time with formalities like doorbells and knocking. He was thankful to see his sister in law sitting on the couch, indicating that she had not been kidnapped, and was indeed, not being held for ransom. However upon getting a closer look at her, he grew worried. She was pale, no scratch that. She was white as a sheet.

"Sara?" he said quietly, afraid of startling her.

Sara noticeably flinched before relaxing when she realized it was just her brother in law.

"Oh hey Linc," she half-heartedly greeted. He could tell something was wrong, and he had a sneaking suspicion it had something to do with her unexpected visitor this morning.

"What happened? Who came by this morning?" Lincoln anxiously asked.

"It was the US Ambassador," Sara shakily responded.

"What? He's not taking you back to prison is he? Because I'll fight them, I swear I will fight them with everything I have. They will not take you away from Mikey. God they already took his father away, and now they want his mother too? Well over my dead body. I can't believe they're doing this to you, after everything you've been through, after everything we've been through! We can contact Kellerman. He's running for office or something, right? We'll fight this Sara, and we'll win. Don't worry. I'm not letting anything happen to you, or Mikey. Well? Sara?" Lincoln finally said, finishing his rant.

"They didn't come to take me back to prison," Sara began. "They came to tell me that my name, all of our names: yours, mine, Michael's, have been cleared of all charges."

"Wait so you're saying that…" Lincoln began with disbelief evident in his voice.

"That we can go back. We can return to America. We can go home. It's finally over," Sara finished with what felt like the first genuine smile she had smiled in ages.

A/N So it looks like things are finally looking up for Linc and Sara. Sorry it's been so long since my last update, but school's got me slammed. I'll try to post at least once a week! Reviews really make me want to write more though ;). Let me know if you're out there are reading! XOXO