Olivia was laying propped up by pillows staring at the television where the program guide was slowly making its way around the two hundred and some channels, rubbing her stomach in slow circles around her bellybutton she felt a wave of ease coming over her, she knew eventually they would all be facing court dates to decide their fate.
But in the moment she was calm, LJ and Elle-May were in the room down the hall, Lincoln was in the ensuite washroom taking a shower and Michael found Sara to whom he hadn't left her side since they reunited.
"That felt, fantastic." Lincoln made his way into the bedroom, a towel wrapped around his waist, droplets of water still clung to his tan skin. "You look fantastic." Olivia muttered, eyeing him from her fortress on the bed.
Looking up, Lincoln grinned in her direction. "I work out." He said in a buff-like tone, flexing his arm muscles casually, "feel my pecks." Lincoln strolled over to her side of the bed.
Olivia rolled her eyes, laughing reaching out she ran her hand slowly down Lincoln's chest to where the towel started, "oh yes, so hard." She was trying not to giggle.
Lincoln lent down, his lips coming to meet hers – kissing her, "that's not the only thing that's hard." He whispered, kissing her again hungrily. "Lincoln!" Olivia said in a harsh whisper.
"What?!" Lincoln muttered, his face against hers while he brought his lips to start kissing at her neck and across her exposed collarbone. Olivia didn't speak as she ran her hands down his back toward the towel.
"Go fish." Nikole shook her head, looking between the playing cards in her hand to the pile face down on the table. "Damn it." LJ said dramatically, reaching over and taking a card from the top of the deck.
"I love an intense game of cards." Elle-May grinned at the both of them, she was winning. "Go fish isn't really an intense game of cards." LJ stared at her. "I don't know about that LJ, you got pretty angry last round." Nikole snickered.
"Because, I swear she's cheating. I swear!" LJ pointed to Elle-May who held her free hand up in defence. "Sounds like something a cheater would say." She smirked.
"Hey," Nikole held up a finger and warned them both, "we are not having another Monopoly incident, you got it?" She recalled the monopoly board getting flipped and tiny hotels along with colourful paper money gone flying earlier this morning.
"Got it..." LJ nodded, "Got it." Elle-May nodded along with him. "If LJ wasn't a cheater that wouldn't have happened either though." Elle-May smirked, "I didn't cheat!" LJ looked up wide-eyed.
"Likely story." Elle-May nodded, she loved her ability to get LJ going with barely any effort on her part.
"Nikole!" LJ looked at the blonde woman, who'd taken a more casual approach to her style this evening, it was almost weird to see her in black yoga pants and a plain lilac t-shirt, but her long blonde hair was twisted up in a flawless bun.
"You two are impossible." Nikole exhaled, putting her cards down on the table, giving up slightly.
"She started it." LJ pointed at his little sister, "I did not!" Elle-May gasped, "Nikole, did I start it?" She looked to the woman quickly, Nikole was rubbing her forehead. "I..." She stopped, looking over toward the stairs, hearing the glass shatter.
"What was that?" Michael asked coming down the upstairs hallway, Sara following behind him, their fingers laced together, seeing Lincoln now dressed looking out into the hallway, "no idea." He admitted.
"Whatever it was, couldn't have been good." Sara was looking around nervously. "Thank you, Captain Obvious." Olivia said dryly, "we probably shouldn't just stand here!" She added, coming by Lincoln and heading toward the stairs quickly.
"Attitude." Michael remarked, looking to where Olivia and gone to his brother, Lincoln kinda shrugged, "Hormones or something." He added as they rushed down the stairs.
"Dad!" LJ said seeing them, standing by the basement door, "this way." He urged, before running down into the dimly lit basement. "Go, go..." Lincoln pushed Michael on his way, Sara following, then Olivia, Lincoln last closing the door behind them.
"How'd they find us?" Olivia was out of breath, as she hauled ass down the extremely long basement, "this is never going to end if we don't stop it, Michael." Lincoln said as they stopped running, looking back behind them.
Leaning agains't the wall, catching his breath, Michael nodded. "I could, I could call Bruce, get us somewhere safe?" Sara suggested, her hand rubbing Michael's arm.
"No place is safe." Olivia looked at Sara, "No place will ever be safe until we take down the Company." She pointed out, "she's right." Michael said, "Linc?" He looked at his brother. "Make the call." He ran his hand over the top of his head, he kept looking behind them.
Michael holding the phone to his ear, was listening to the ringing that seemed to take forever. "Hello?" A groggy voice came from the other end. "We're in." Michael said.
"This wont take long, we'll be back in no time, I promise." Olivia said, squeezing Elle-May tightly, "I know, mom – we'll be fine." Elle-May assured her, hugging her back tightly.
"You'll be safe, that's the important thing." Lincoln nodded, standing in the small room of the Homeland Security building, hugging both LJ and Elle-May good-bye for now.
Nikole had gone to check around the house after she explained to LJ to take the basement and just keep running, which ultimately led to the garage of the empty house next door. Before she picked them all up and brought them to Homeland.
"I love you." Elle-May said both her mother and Lincoln, with a smile. "We love you, too." Lincoln promised. "And you." Lincoln looked at his son, who nodded. "I know." He smiled, Elle-May and him were going to a different safe house farther out of Chicago with some of the best Homeland agents.
Hearing the soft knock on the door before the handle turned, Fernando looked up, he grinned. "Hey." He heard Michael say breathlessly as he walked into the room first with Lincoln and Olivia behind him.
Sara waiting on a bench outside for them, not a convict she wasn't really part of the team, she was going for Michael.
"Hi Papi." Fernando was smiling brightly, walking by Brad grabbing Michael's hand and giving him a quick bro-hug, patting his back.
"Linc." Alex said nodding at him from where he lent against the window, away from everyone else, Lincoln looked at him with a blank expression not saying anything to him but he could read a sadness in the mans eyes, "we don't like you." Olivia said in Alex's direction standing behind Lincoln.
Brad stepping forward had his hands pressed together, "I can't tell you how grateful I am for you to include me." He was looking at Michael, giving him a smile. "Well, Sucre vouched for you Bellick – said you came through for him in Panama." Michael still didn't trust the man, but he trusted Fernando.
Fernando glancing at Brad, he gave him a smile. Michael looked over Fernando, "Alex." He said in a simple tone. "Michael." Alex said avoiding the mans eyes.
"You ready for this?" Michael asked him, for a minute thinking about what occurred between them in Panama, "Yeah. I am." Alex said lowly.
"Hi Mami." Fernando said, seeing Olivia he left where he stood by Brad coming over to her, holding his arms out. "Nando." Olivia said wrapping her arms around him giving him a tight hug. "Mirate." Fernando said in Spanish, looking down at her stomach after feeling her bump.
"Look at you," he laughed, his hand carefully touching her stomach and for once, Olivia didn't mind that someone didn't ask permission to start touching her stomach. She had a struggle with it in Panama a lot of older ladies always wanting to touch her stomach.
"Oh, well you know." Olivia laughed, "that's all head," Fernando said jokingly, tracing a finger around a part of her stomach. "A big block head." Fernando smirked, glancing to Lincoln.
"Shut up." Lincoln warned him, but he nodded agreeing whole heartily with him.
Putting his hands into his pockets, Brad looked between them, "so I heard Whistler's bird book as information we need to steal this thing?" He asked.
"Yes." Michael was playing with his fingers.
"You know who has it right?" Fernando stopped tormenting Lincoln and rubbing on Olivia's stomach to look back at Michael. "T-Bag." He finished.
"Oh of all people it would be the one handed hillbilly." Olivia groaned, annoyed.
"Do we have any idea where T-Bag is?" Michael asked, looking between them. "That snake could be anywhere." Fernando shrugged.
"While we're in LA, we can think like convicts – we just can't act like 'em." Lincoln pointed out. "If we do, we're done." He said seriously.
Pinching the bridge of his nose, Michael looked up; "It goes without saying, this is your last chance to back out. Because if there is one thing I cannot guarantee, it's your safety." He looked at everyone of them.
"We're all a long way from where we started." Michael continued and Olivia laughed, "no kidding." She whispered and Fernando let out a half-laugh with a smile.
"What I can guarantee is, if we do this right, we'll be close to where this ends." Michael paused, "freedom." He whispered. "Finally." He looked like he wanted that so badly, after so much they'd been through.
"We're with you Michael." Brad nodded. "You know I got your back Papi." Fernando said. The door opening, they all turned to look, seeing Don Self stepping in, "you three, come with me." He pointed at Michael, Lincoln and Olivia.
Lincoln held his hand out, Olivia taking it. They started following Michael, "Hey Mike." Fernando caught this attention, "what about Sara?" He wondered if the love of Michael's life was game or not with the insanity they were about to get themselves into.
"Sara's in." Michael nodded now. Closing the door behind him, following everyone else into a smaller room, Don was sitting down, files stacked on the table. "We head out tomorrow, there's a few things we need to finalise." He pointed out.
"No games, no stunts." He looked seriously between them. "I love a good game of chess." Olivia said trying to lighten the mood. Don stared at her, "otherwise," he continued trying to ignore her, but she was beautiful and through it all, still seemed to have an innocence to her, "I promise you're all going to see a whole different side of me." He warned.
"Likewise." Lincoln warned back, standing with his hands on his hips, looking at the papers Michael had sat down to look at. "Fake ID's." Olivia said picking one up, "Lucy Skyler Diamond..." She looked at the name with her picture on it. "Classy." She muttered.
"How stripper." Lincoln admitted honestly and Olivia couldn't help but nod a little. "Feels like I should be shooting glitter from my vag." She rubbed her lower lip.
"These are a good start." Michael admitted, "but there are some things you can't fake or hide..." He looked down, pulling up his sleeve a little bit. Looking down at the tattoos he dawned.
Don looking down, scanned them over. "How high's your tolerance for pain?" He asked.
"Do you guys think we're going to die?" Brad looked from Alex to Fernando. He was nervous and still a coward.
"I could honestly care less." Alex admitted, thinking about what he saw before he was arrested, thinking about how we was never going to see his son again.
"I hope so." Fernando whispered, thinking about the baby girl that held onto his heart, how holding her for 30 seconds wasn't long enough.
"Are you sure you don't want a sedative?" A doctor holding a powerful laser needle was looking down at Michael who laid back in a chair, his arms restrained down. "No." Michael shook his head, he trusted no one.
"Michael," a woman's voice he knew so well, caught him off guard and he looked to his left, seeing Nikole standing there in surgeon scrubs, she was starting to remind him of himself, disappearing and reappearing. "I'd take the sedative, I know you're strong, but this is going to hurt... Worse then that burn in Fox River... Worse then those toes..." She placed her hand over his.
"I'll be fine." Michael assured, "we're going to be going into the night." the doctor glanced from Michael to Nikole and back. "I'm not taking a sedative." He grunted a little bit. "No offence but I don't trust a whole lot of people, right now." He was looking at the doctor.
"I'll be right here, the entire time, I promise." Nikole didn't want him to suffer, when she'd known how much he had suffered already. Michael staring into her eyes, he nodded after a minute. "Okay. But she stays the whole time." He warned the doctor.
"Of course Sir." He assured and nodded. "You'll be fine." Nikole gave his hand a squeeze and Michael nodded, squeezing her hand back.
"You really think we can do this?" Olivia asked, sitting in the back seat of a van with Lincoln as they arrived on the air strip. Lincoln was rubbing his fingers through her hair, not so much to calm her down, but himself. "Yeah, of course – we broke out of Fox River, we planned an escape in Panama... Breaking into one little building shouldn't be too hard." He nodded.
"Plus, we have Michael." Olivia grinned, "come on guys, lets go." Fernando poked his head into the van, he was standing outside with Brad and Alex.
Lincoln got out of the van, holding his hand out for Olivia, she took it, slipping out between the seats and stepping down onto the pavement, catching Michael and Sara walking to join them.
"A C-130, what does he want us to parachute out of this thing?" Brad asked, looking to Don standing at ease in front of the helicopter. "If that's the case you are seriously over the weight limit." Olivia said from behind him.
Brad turned his head, glaring at her a little. "Why you bi..." He went to snap back at her, but stopped seeing Lincoln's free hand turning into a fist.
"This guy called in a favour to the Air Force for us... Bunch of felons can't really fly Delta commercial." Fernando pointed out as they formed a group around Don.
Looking across at all of them through his sunglasses, Don parted his lips, "if you are successful in obtaining Scylla, not only will you avoid jail time but you can take great pride in knowing you helped dismantle the greatest threat to this country and it's democracy." He explained.
"Oh great, so I can get a really big flag pole for my yard." Alex said sarcastically. "Better then a bird-bath." Olivia glanced over at him meanly. Alex closed his mouth, looking down to his feet. Lincoln was smirking, he nodded approvingly at Olivia.
"IF," Don spoke over them to catch their attention, they were like a bunch of school children, "you die a proper funeral service will be provided," Don removed his sun glasses, "but if you try to escape, there will be no funeral. You will have nothing, you will be apprehended and buried where we find you. I really hope we understand each other." He finished.
Michael leaving Sara's side, walking up to Don, "you better hold up your end of the deal." He warned Don who nodded as the large engines started up.
"Lets go." Don said, as Michael boarded the craft, Sara behind him, followed by Olivia, Lincoln, Alex, Fernando and Bellick, Don walked on.
"Welcome to Los Angles." Don said walking off the catwalk first into the California Sun. "As it turns out; men and woman." He added for Olivia's sake who have escaped not only one but two federal max prisons are a bit of a flight risk." He stopped walking to face them, standing with a well suited Agent holding a brief case.
"So we need to know where you are, and what's you're doing at all time." Don nodded to the Agent who opened the case, "these are GPS ankle monitors, now step up and put one one." He looked between them all.
"I ain't wearing that, fuck no." Lincoln said, shaking his head chewing on a toothpick. "It'll ruin my whole pregnant dress wearing look." Olivia added.
"Let's be clear, I am your ally, but more importantly, I am your boss." Don said, "and if this fails, it's my ass on the line, more if not as much as yours... So from this point on, you do as I say." He pointed to the monitors.
Lincoln remained still, he flicked his toothpick to the ground and held his jaw set tight. He rolled his eyes seeing Alex walk forward first grabbing one.
"Fine." Lincoln sighed, seeing Michael grabbing one, he grabbed two and handed one to Olivia, who pouted. "Okay." She gave in as they piled into a shady looking van and took off...
Pulling up to a warehouse by the Harbour, Don sitting passenger looked back to all of them, "as far as the public in concerned you are being held in a supermax prison where in the US of A." He got out as the van stopped.
"We've provided cellphones, clothes and anything you need to get this job done." He explained as they walked through the warehouse, passing by a boat.
"Hey, hey, hey." An asian-mix man stood up quickly, seeing Don and seeing the group following him, "you patted these guys down before you let them in right? I can't be getting shanked." He said seriously.
"Whose this?" Lincoln cut him off, looking annoyed already, Olivia could tell, she put a hand on his knee as they sat down trying to keep him from snapping the man into pieces within 30 second of their arrival.
"This is Roland Glenn." Don pointed, "he's be assisting you."
"We have our team." Michael said not trusting the man either, walking around Don, Don followed him, "no Scofield, this is MY team and he's working off a sentence just like the rest of you." He explained.
"And with the amount of security that's around Scylla, he's expertise is going to be very helpful." Don put his hand on the back of a chair.
"It also occurred to me very late last night that if something should happen medically related to you," he glanced to Olivia, "especially you." He made a huge stomach gesture with his hands, "being felons you cannot just stroll into any old hospital." He cleared his throat.
"So, that's why I am providing you her," Don cocked his head forward, making the group all turn to look where he gestured, "Nikole!" Fernando said in shock.
Nikole was standing across the warehouse, her hands were behind her back, her hair was down in a ponytail and she wore black dress pants and a light long sleeve peach shirt with a scooped neck. "Hi." She said brightly.
"Nikole!" Olivia jumped up quickly, taking Lincoln off guard. She rushed across the warehouse, her tie-dye like dress swaying around her baby bump while she did so. She wrapped her arms around the woman, hugging her tightly.
"Nikole..." Alex whispered watching Olivia and her hug, he's chest tightening, she was just as beautiful as the day he first met her, if not more so.
"I'm so happy to see you!" Olivia said happily, she'd seen the woman a few times since they arrived back in America but never fully got to greet and hug her.
"Anything you need, Nikole can provide; "anything you need and we do not have, we can find." Don explained. "Uhm." Sara said speaking up for the first time in a while, "I'm a Doctor..." She pointed out.
"Well," Don looked back at her, "you'll have to excuse me for feeling more comfortable giving the keys to the morphine cabinet to the woman, who still holds a valid medical licence and isn't an ex junkie." He said darkly.
Sara sat back in her chair, looking defeated, "watch it." Michael warned Don darkly, protective of the woman he loved. "Just pointing out the facts, Michael." Don said in defence.
"So we find Scylla, what about step two of the plan?" Lincoln asked, looking at Don, feeling once again he was going to be competing for attention from his fiancee against her best friend.
"Don't worry about breaking in, I'll take care of that, just focus on finding Scylla." Don said. "I think, I have an idea where to start." Alex spoke up.
Hearing his voice, Nikole tried not to miss it, she tried not missing him. "That's great Alexander, see a man who knows how to start getting things done." Don started walking away. "Alright, lets let these guys get to work," he was walking away with the Agent who'd followed them in. "Good luck, to all of us." He said, as he left.
"Well..." Roland said, looking around already knowing he was disliked, "since I was here first, I think I'll go grab the SS bedroom." He pointed to the boat.
Lincoln stood up, blocking him from walking, Roland stopped and swallowed roughly. "Liv." He said, not taking his eyes from Ronald's staring him down, "yeah?" Olivia asked looking up from her chat with Nikole.
"Take the boat." He said to her, "uh, sure." Olivia said nodding, she smiled at Nikole and moved weightlessly across the floor by everyone heading toward the boat.
"Chill man." Ronald said acting tough to Lincoln, before stepping back as Lincoln pushed by him almost knocking him over, he was looking at Alex, "you know when this is all over, you and I – we're settling up." He said dangerously, making Alex avoid his eyes. Before Lincoln nodded, "I thought so." He figured Alex to be that kind of coward, he started walking away.
Michael caught Alex's stare, before he looked around, "okay – obviously there's a lot of history in this room," he tried being the sensible one. So if anyone has any problem with someone else, or as something to get off their chest, I would suggest doing it now because we all have to work together." He looked at Lincoln.
Crossing his arms, Lincoln said nothing keeping his mouth shut in the moment, Michael looked around to everyone else who remained silent, "good." He nodded.
Sitting in the lower deck of the boat, Olivia looked around, it wasn't entirely spacious but it was nice, sitting on the bed she looked at her ankle, seeing a tiny green light flashing slowly, "soon this will be over baby." She spoke her to stomach, patting it lightly.
"Yes it will." Lincoln said coming down the short flight of stairs, seeing her, "I promise." He walked across the floor, coming to sit down on the bed beside her.
"I thought you were tracking down Scylla?" Olivia asked, "we're waiting on some files – Mahone seen the driver, picked out he was former military, hired privet security, he says he can pick out a face and if we find him, we find the card holder – or something." He shrugged.
"Linc," Olivia lent into him, feeling him putting his arms around her, "I know you hate Alex – but you're going to have to put your personal vendetta aside, while we work together." She knew him, that he wasn't good at following the rules.
"I know, I am. That doesn't mean I have to be nice to him either you know." He sighed, putting his hand on her stomach, "Will be finished soon, and we will have a normal life, as normal as we had in Panama and that was nice, wasn't it?" All he wanted was for his family to be together, safe and happy.
Nodding, she looked up at him, "it was perfect," she rested her hand over his, "You know, I know almost nothing about this pregnancy thing." Lincoln was looking off toward the other side of the boat, "but I know with Nikole here, we can finally get you and the baby a check over. She's about the only one I trust with you and our baby." He admitted.
Olivia smiled, "that would be great, I think – I'll go talk to her actually. Not much I can help with until its lock and load." She kissed his cheek going to stand up, Lincoln kept ahold of both her hands standing with her.
"I love you, Olivia." He kissed the top of her head, "or sorry – should I say, Lucy Dimond." He snickered, grinning. "I love you, too Dominic Miller." Olivia laughed, they'd all taken a great laugh in mocking their fake eyes on the flight to California.
Nikole was sitting in the small kitchen off the main part of the warehouse, tapping a pen against her cheek as she worked on a couple fake files to use incase of emergency, not looking up as she heard footsteps walking into the kitchen, assuming it was Roland who never seemed to stop eating.
But when the footsteps had stopped somewhere by the doorway, she gave half a glance up, seeing Alex standing there, staring at her playing nervously with his fingers.
Setting the pen down, she wasn't sure what she should say, or do. The dynamic between then had changed drastically. "I was just looking for some coffee, sorry..." Alex was staring all over her except her into her eyes.
"Uhm." Nikole finally found her voice, "I just made a pot not long ago..." She pointed toward the coffee maker on the dark counter top. Alex nodded looking away, heading toward it, he grabbed a plain white mug, filling it halfway with coffee, he went to leave but something kept nagging him, he couldn't. He didn't know how to tell her about Cameron.
"May I?" He asked gesturing to the closest empty chair beside her, "free Country." Nikole pointed out and it made him laugh breathlessly. "only to a free man." He tried breaking the intension.
Seeing the look on her face Alex knew what he'd said struck a somber nerve with her, she looked sad. "I … I didn't mean that." He was tapping his fingers on the sides of the mug.
He loved her, even when she told him she wouldn't join him on his plan in Panama, she kept him as sane as possible on the manhunt and especially when he was in Sona, he could only have guessed if it wasn't for her, Michael would've left him in prison, regardless of what happened between them.
He remembered the look in her eyes when he told her, he needed to find a way back home to Cameron and Pam and make things right.
"You look good." He added, trying to get her to speak to him, or yell – anything, she'd been so quiet and calm. "Alex..." She said his name and he pained him, it wasn't the same way she said it many times before. "I really don't know what to say to you..."
"Anything." He said quickly. "Anything, Nikole..." He pushed his coffee aside, leaning across the table, he took her hand into his, his thumb brushing agains't hers. "I..." Alex tried to get it out. "There's something I have to tell you," he swallowed, but he couldn't bring himself to say it.
"What's that?" She asked, trying to read his face, a face she use to be able to look into and know exactly what was going on, but now it was like she couldn't. "There's so much I need to tell you," he tried again, but as his phone started to vibrate and ring through his pocket, he used his free hand to pull it out.
Seeing Pam's number on the caller ID, he looked back to Nikole. "That I need to tell you, soon – but not right now." He let her hand go, standing up, he flipped the phone open; "Pam." He said lowly, walking from the kitchen.
Olivia walking in, "Nikole I was wondering..." She trailed off seeing her looking confused. "What's wrong?" She asked her. "Nothing." Nikole pulled herself back to reality. "You were wondering what?" She asked.
"If you could give me and baby a check up?" She wasn't sure was she walked in on, but she knew it wasn't anything nice. "Oh, yeah – we can do that, I'm not much help to the cause." She stood up, gesturing toward the wall where on the other side the meeting table and many chairs lived.
"Me neither, I mean – unless someone has a pregnant felon fetish." Olivia said and Nikole wanted to laugh. "You know, I'm sure there is..." She pointed Olivia in the direction of the hallway where a make shift examination room was.
