The weekend came out of nowhere as Mike returned home from work on a Friday afternoon; he sighed as he listened to the silence in the house.
He walked through the kitchen and up the stairs to his bedroom to decompress and take off every indication that he was an FBI agent before going back downstairs and hoping to clean up the mess of Grace Westons' before she got home.
Mike let the radio play in the kitchen as he picked up all the toys and stuffed animals up off the floor, as well as every Lego up from off the floor and threw it in the bucket.
The life-sized Eifel tower was coming together slowly, Grace begged Mike if they could finish it this weekend, but Mike wasn't sure if he wanted to spend all that time building a French monument.
As he walked back into the kitchen to begin working on the dishes, the doorbell rang before being accompanied by a knock at the door.
"…it can't be Ryan, he just walks in." Mike thought to himself as he turned off the faucet and walked to the door.
He opened the door and was shocked at who was in front of him, the familiar brown eyes as well as the glowing skin and brown hair stunned him in his place with his lips parted slightly.
"Hi." She said gently, no smile or anything.
Mike took a deep breathe in and let it out slowly "Hi." He said to her in return.
He looked her over and couldn't help but silently fawn over Sarah as she stood in front on him; her hair curled at the bottom and a hair band keeping everything in place.
Sarah looked around awkwardly for a moment "Can I come in?" she asked.
Mike shook the thought away and nodded at Sarah before opening the door wide enough to let her in.
Sarah smiled as she walked into the house, looking around as she walked down the hallway and into the kitchen "The house seems nice." She commented.
"Thanks, it's a bit of a mess right now. But I guess that comes with the territory of being a single parent." Mike said.
Sarah let a smirk out, seeing the somewhat made Eifel tower in the living room "Wow," she remarked as she walked into the living room to get a better look "What's this?" she asked.
Mike followed her into the living room "Uh, yeah. Grace is going through a France phase." He remarked.
Sarah turned back to Mike "That's so sweet." She said, walking towards Mike.
He could see tears swelling up in Sarahs' eyes, she took a deep breathe in "How is she?" she asked quietly.
Mike nodded "She's good." He told her.
"Is she here?" Grace asked him.
Mike went silent as he put his hands in his pockets "Look, Sarah-"
"Mike," Sarah said, interrupting him "I'm not here to collect. I just want meet her." She insisted.
Mike sighed "She's not here. She's with Ryan; on Fridays, he picks her up from daycare and they go out for ice cream or whatever…it usually gives me enough time to clean up the house, put everything back in order…until she gets back, of course." He remarked.
"Oh." Sarah muttered.
"Did you drive all the way down here from New York?" Mike asked, crossing his arms.
Sarah shook her head "Uh, no. Maine." She told him.
Mike looked at her in shock "Sarah, that's an 8 drive!"
"I know. But I got out yesterday afternoon, and my mom and Anna took me back to Maine and I just stayed there for the night until this morning when I went to the DMV and renewed my license…and then decided to drive here." Sarah said gently, she closed her eyes "I'm sorry, that sounds really stalkerish like, and I didn't intend for it to come off that way…it's just…" Sarah trailed off.
Sarah looked up at Mike, she shook her head "Never mind, I should get going." She muttered.
"No, it's just what?" Mike asked her.
Sarah looked Mike square in the eyes before looking down at her feet and shook her head "It's just...she's my daughter. I didn't even get to see her before they shipped me back to Bedford." She told him.
Mike didn't know what to say as he looked at her "Well, you don't have to rush off, I mean, you can stay awhile and meet her." He muttered.
Sarah tried hard to fight back tears as she smiled "Really?" she asked.
Mike nodded "Yeah, really." He said.
Sarah approached Mike and hugged him "Thank you." She told him "And I'll be out of your hair before night fall." She went on.
"But…that's still an 8 hours drive; you're going to drive all the way back to Maine?" Mike asked her.
Sarah nodded "Yeah, I mean, why not? It's only 8 hours." She said, pulling away from the hug.
"Sarah, I don't feel comfortable letting you do that." He said, shaking his head in disagreement.
She shrugged "Fine, I'll find a motel and stay there tonight." She told him.
"Don't do it! You'll enable bad things to happen!" he thought to himself before he let his next sentence out of his mouth "Stay here." He suggested.
Sarah looked at him "Stay here? In your house? Mike, I don't know."
"I insist. I mean, you drove all this way, the least I can do is give you a bed to sleep in. I've got the guest room, I can give it to you." He muttered.
"…this is going to end up bad! I can already see 5 different ways this'll end up bad!" Mikes' subconscious told him.
Sarah let a faint smile out "Okay." She muttered.
"Okay." Mike said, nodding to her before backing away slowly into the kitchen.
Mike looked back at her to admire her once again; she hadn't aged a bit in the past 5 years as she stood in the living room with a white dress and a light cardigan with wedges to give her a few inches of height.
He was always told that prison aged people, but as he looked at Sarah, it was as if time stood still.