Handing Fernando the long camera on a lead, Alex watched from below, after they'd drilled a small hole through the wall, the silence between the two men was heavy.
They'd been working for hours and although the progress didn't look like much, it was huge.
"The Doctor can see you at three o'clock." Sara came walking into the warehouse from the loft, her phone in hand. Michael's results having come in last night after they said their good-byes to Brad,
telling them what no one wanted to hear, Michael had a tumour. "No." Michael said one hand on his head as he sat with Olivia and Lincoln. "You're going." Lincoln warned.
"We need to fnish what we started." Michael looked up hopelessly, "we can handle this." Olivia watched Michael get up quickly. "I need one more day!" His voice was hard.
"Michael, he can see you today and he's given us his word we will not alert the authorites." Sara was watching him carefully, "if you put this off and you collapse you'll be treated by another Doctor, do you wanna roll the rice they won't call the cops?"
"There's still so much we need to get done." Michael turned to look at the three of them standing up and ganging up on him.
"And we can handle it." Olivia wanting this more then ever to be finished.
"Okay." Michael gave up, he knew he couldn't win between all of them. "Three o'clock?" Sara asked and he nodded, "yeah."
"You know, Michael isn't going to go to the hospital without a plan to finish all of this, right?" Lincoln was leaning against the door to the open garage, seeing Olivia joining him from the corner of his eye.
"He cares about how Sara feels..." Olivia stood beside him, crossing her arms. "And we both know Michael, so yeah... You're right, but he wont disappoint Sara either." Olivia figured.
"I hope you're right." Lincoln took his hands from his pockets, "I know you're scared, Linc. You don't have to hide it from me like you're trying to hide from everyone else."
"Olivia, I'm terrified." Lincoln wouldn't look at her, "we're so close to the end and I... I can't stop thinking about the people we've lost along the way, even Abruzzi for fuck sake." He shook his head, he's demons were coming out to torment him again.
"Soon, we can mourn them together; and we will." Olivia stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. "We will." She repeated hearing Fernando and Alex coming back.
Sitting in her small office space, the internal struggle Nikole was battling within herself was starting to break her, her thumb, index and middle finger working a black felt tip pen around them as she thought.
"You know, the first time I met you and you were sitting behind my desk, I never thought I would hurt this much knowing you aren't in my future." Alex's voice caught her off guard, she stopped fiddling with the pen.
"You know its not making any of this easier when you keep bringing up the past." Nikole turned in the chair to watch him walking across the floor and sitting in front of her on the stool.
"I know why you did what you did, but I can't agree with it." She couldn't stand being that close, mind and heart in a war about him. "I don't expect you to forgive me, Nikki." He rubbed his cheek a little.
"Good, because I can't." She stood up, her fingers tapping each other anxiously. "But just because I can't forgive you, doesn't mean I don't love you, Alexander... Or, at least the man I thought you were."
Olivia seeing Nikole appearing, she came to walk beside her, "so Michael refuses to go to the hospital until they have Scylla and I can't take this stress anymore. You wanna go for some lunch or something?" She asked but the tone in her voice made it clear to Nikole she was more pleading with her.
"Yeah, lets do that." She nodded, wanting to keep the stress off Olivia as much as possible, she wanted nothing to happen to the woman she deemed her best friend and, the child she was growing.
"I'm thinking maybe Chinese or a really nice pizza? It's LA, maybe we can find some nice vegetable sushi?" Olivia was picking at the strap of her bag, as the two of them left the warehouse.
Holding his head, Michael groaned sitting behind the General's desk, his vision going in and out of blurs, it seemed as hours had passed by in the blink of an eye and they had.
"What is it you exactly what?" The General was looking at the men holding his hostage in his office, the entire bulding on a lockdown.
"I mean, just say the word Fernando and your little girls college fund is paid for... A house for her to grow up in." His eyes skimming over the man with a gun held on him.
"Lincoln," He turned his attention over to the man reminding him so much of Aldo it was scary.
"You've got a fiancee, two kids and one on the way – wouldn't you wanna do that somewhere safe? A house, education funds... Daycare? Whatever you need to be a family together?" He could see he was making more headway with him then the others.
"Shut up." Lincoln pointed the gun he held in his face, "white picket fence, a dog?" The General pressed on.
"You think you can just throw a little bit of cash at us, huh?" Alex scoffed. "That'll solve everything and we'll call it a day?" He glared.
"Pam needs you, Alex." The General stood up, fixing his tie, "now more then ever... You might not be able to salvage things with Nikole," he watch his expression change, "but don't you want her to live on a very happy life? I could have her hired on the top hospital in The United States," he did get some joy toying with their emotions.
"And, it's not too late to save what you have with Pam." He pointed out, he knew everything about them, he wasn't a stupid man.
"You're both still hurting, but give it some time and one day you both might be ready to be parents again and if money isn't an object..." He spoke to the man who was inches from his face.
"You should hear yourself right now, the desperation in your voice." Alex cut him off, "but listen to what it is I'm saying." The General watched him.
"Get away from me." Alex warned, and the General stepped back. "Anything you desire, I can provide..." He turned to Michael, "airline tickets for you and Sara – anywhere in the world." He watched the man hiding his internal pain.
"What I want is to watch the Company burn to the ground, it's what he all want." Michael said, not noticing Lincoln who was pacing, weighing the options.
"It'll never happen." The General hissed.
"Can I run something by you?" Olivia sat on a bench holding ice cream in a dish, licking the spoon clean, looking to the woman who held a bottle of water.
"Of course." Nikole was trying to keep calm, she had no text from Lincoln saying with there out and safe with Scylla and she was worried, recalling them standing together outside the warehouse.
"If this goes bad, I need you to promise me something," Lincoln was watching the water, "You've never done me wrong, never broken your word to me from the day I arrived at Fox River. And I know all that stuff when we were on the run was because people were holding the fact you left the door unlocked over your head." His voice low.
"What do you need Lincoln?" Nikole listened to him, "If, if we don't make it out, I want you to promise me you'll get the kids and Olivia and get the hell out of the country, no matter what it takes. No matter how much of a fight she puts up." He looked down at Nikole, "promise me that?" He asked.
Nikole nodded, "I promise, Lincoln..."
"Well," Olivia cleared her throat, "I have a strong feeling, I'm having a boy and what would you think of the name Bradley?" She watched her reaction.
"I think, that would be a beautiful name," she smiled at Olivia, "a perfect way to remember and celebrate the life of Brad Bellick." She smiled now.
"What if it's a girl though?" Nikole raised her eyebrow and Olivia pulled a thinking face, "Bradette?" She suggested and they both laughed, seeing a woman pushing a stroller and digging through her bag.
She stopped by the bench and focused more on her bag, she was young, "awh, hi baby." Olivia said peaking into the stroller, a very new baby was staring around with big, wide blue eyes.
"Sorry, I'm just... I can't find..." She trailed off giving up the search in her bag. "Well, sorry you can't find whatever you're looking for, but you have a very handsome little man." Olivia was gushing like a mother would.
"Oh, thank you." The girl smiled brightly, "can you say hi to the nice ladies Connor?" She asked her son, "hi ladies," the girl said in a lower voice making his tiny arm wave at them.
Smiling Nikole looked over the babies eyes, she swore she'd seen them before, the exact same blue with hints of green, "so handsome." Olivia said touching his little fingers, "say hi Nikki." She glanced to the other woman.
"I..." Nikole felt weird, she didn't do babies, or, kids... She sometimes felt her material gene was missing, she wondered if it would ever change...
"Oh," the girl looked at her watch, "we're late for our mommy and me class, say bye-bye Connor." The young mother smiled so lovingly at her son.
"Bye Connor." Olivia gave him a little wave, "I love the name Connor." She added and the girl smiled, "thank you, he's actually a third, so we call him Connor, isn't that right, Mister David Connor Apolskis the third?" She asked her baby tickling his cheek, "See you." She then smiled pushing off with the stroller.
Sitting up, Olivia with some wideness to her eyes looked across to Nikole who was sitting stunned, "did she just say..." Nikole trailed off. "David Apolskis?" Olivia suggested, before nodding, "she did."
Nikole closed her eyes a minute, nodding, she broke into a small grin, "leave it to David to leave one last whimsicle thing on the planet." She wanted to laugh.
Looking down her phone vibrating and beeper, she flipped it up to read the text. "We've gotta get back to the warehouse, they have Scylla." Nikole stood up.
Olivia standing breathed a sigh of releif. "We are home free baby!" She exclaimed, touching her stomach wiht the biggest smile Nikole had ever seen.
"We're going to get married, have six more kids, watch football on Sundays and go wherever the hell we want!" Lincoln was looking down at Olivia as he danced with her across the warehouse floor, waiting for the convoy to show up and take them to progessing.
"Six?!" Olivia exclaimed, stopping the dance they had going, her hands on his shoulders. "Linc, I don't know if I can birth one of your gaint headed babies, get alone six more." She wanted to laugh.
Thinking about how Self told her Elle-May and LJ were being moved from the safe house and would be flown to meet them here after they'd been cleared.
"I'll get my lady a C-Section." Lincoln winked and Olivia scoffed while laughing; "oh Lincoln, you sure know the way to my heart."
"Haven't I always?" He winked, pulling her into another careful twirl.
"What about you? What's your plan?" Michael was sitting down with Fernando and Nikole, watching the woman who kept eyeing Alex standing by the window.
"Me? Oh, I don't know... Maybe take a job in New Jersery like my parents always wanted, something simple?" Nikole looked over Michael.
"Well, you stayed when you didn't have to stay... And I'll always appriciate that." Michael smiled, "you're always welcome to visit anytime." He glanced over seeing Sara joining them.
"It's been an hour, Michael can you call Self and ask where that Agent is?" She touched his shoulder, picking up his phone Michael dialed Self's number, listening as it rang, and conitued to ring.
"He isn't answering?" Fernando looked concerned, it made Olivia and Lincoln stop being foolish and the look on Michael's face changed as the oporator told him the number was no longer in serive.
"What's wrong?" Olivia asked, watching as Michael reached over taking the envelope off the table, he pulled its tape off and pulled out the papers.
He started to flick through them and they were all blank white pieces of paper. "Self." He said darkly.
"He screwed us!" Lincoln snapped, hitting the table hard. "He can't do that..." Fernando couldn't believe this.
"He's government he can do what he wants!" Alex snapped, the look in Lincoln's eyes made Olivia step back from him, the happiness had been sucked from the room.
"Call Homeland, now." Michael said throwing his phone across the table, feeling like this was the burn on his shoulder ruining his tattoo and his escape all over again.
Nikole caught the phone, she dialed the number and set it down on speaker phone, "Deparment of Homeland Secuirty." A voice answered.
"I need to talk to Don Self's superior, please." Her voice curt, "one moment please." She said dropping off the line. "We've figured out worse, we can figure out this, okay?" She looked at them all.
"Easy for you to say Doc, you aren't up on chargers going back to jail." Lincoln gritted through his teeth, "Linc, stop." Michael looked at him seriously.
"Is he even Homeland? Did we see a badge?" Fernando questioned everything and everyone now. "We were given guns and flown out on a C-130, he didn't work for the DMV." Alex said.
"That doesn't make him law." Olivia pointed out, "no, it don't." Alex agreed walking a bit back, his hands in his pockets.
"This is Herb Stanton, who am I speaking with?" A voice came over the phone, Michael watching it for a second, "hello?" The man said again and Michael closed the phone.
"We need to get out of here," Fernando stood up. "We can't run... They'll find us." Olivia feeling sicker then she felt before. "Michael still needs surgery." Sara pointed out her main concern.
"We have to survive." Alex pointed out, "we need to leave, pack up." Lincoln looked at Olivia, seeing and knowing that look, she nodded rushing off.
"If we can get you to New Jersey, I know people who can proform the surgery, I will help proform the surgery, they'll be no questions asked, you wont have to worry." Nikole thought.
"Except the minute we cross a state line and a cop pulls us over we're as good as back in jail." Sara pointed out. "Everyone be ready in five minutes." Michael stood up, heading toward the washrooms...
... "LINCOLN! LINCOLN!" Olivia screamed watching him thrown down on the hood of a black van, agents around him with guns drawn, "Liv, Liv!" Nikole snapped at her, she was holding onto the woman under her arms.
The one plan they had back fired, they'd been set up and while Michael took off running, Lincoln got pinned. "A little help," she looked to Sara struggling to keep Olivia standing as she broke down, her legs giving out.
"Drink this." Sara whispered softly to Olivia who remained unmovng the entire way back to the samll apartment they hid out in, she was holding out a small mug with tea in it.
"I COULD KILL THAT MAN!" Olivia scremed at the top of her lungs throwing the mug against the wall, it didn't break but the handle chipped off it and the content splashed upside the wall and across the floor.
"Mami..." Fernando whispered, sitting beside her, he didn't touch her but they look on his face showed her he was there for her, if she needed him.
Looking up, Michael's phone ringing he answered. "Linc?" He asked after a minute hearing the voice, "where are you?" He said quickly.
Before putting him on speaker phone, Olivia got onto the floor, right next to the phone, listening, "Homeland knows Self screwed us." He said lightly.
Nothing had gone according to plan, Alex was gone, he wasn't coming back, the Company found Olivia and Nikole running with Michael who dropped like a fly on the pavement, his nose gushing blood, and now Lincoln was standing at the mercy of the General.
"You return what you stole from us, Lincoln – you return Scylla and I promise, I can help you." the General watched the man standing in front of him.
"I..." Lincoln was about to throw in the towel, give up. He wasn't the planner, he was the doer and right now he had no plan to follow, his cards laying out in front of him, he thought about his brother, he thought about Olivia and their kids.
"I have requests I need honoured." He tried to keep his voice level, but it was cracking, he never seen himself in this position this morning and the General nodded.
"Go on;" He made a gesture for Lincoln to continue, "I want Olivia safe... No one lays a hand on her, not a finger." He started as the General took a pen, writing on a blank sheet of paper, "her or the baby..." He sniffed.
"And, I want Michael to have his surgery." He added.
"All of that can be done and will be, I can promise you Lincoln." He nodded.
"I'm not finished." Lincoln looked up, like he was in any position to call the shots, "I want ah," he paused, "I want Nikole, I want her to oversee Michael's surgery." His trust for anyone but a handful of people gone.
"Lincoln..." The General started but seeing the man looking at him with something in his eyes, determination and pain. He nodded. "Very well." He whispered. He reached over to his phone, hitting a button and it began to ring for the two of them to hear.
"Demitri, have Olivia Hart escorted to our residanial section, she is to be as free as possible while under our supervision." He was looking at Lincoln while he spoke, "Get Nikole Wilson from our holding room, I want her in the operating room during Michael's surgery."
"Yes Sir." The voice on the other end said. "Thank you." The General said before ending the call. "We have an understanding then, Lincoln?" He asked him and Lincoln nodded.
"Deal." He whispered, seeing the out reached hand of the General, he swallowed any pride he had left, taking it and shaking it.
"Everything's going to be alright, okay – just trust me, please?" Lincoln stood watching Olivia's back as she walked away from him when he explained everything to her.
"I trust you, I don't trust them!" Olivia said in frustration, turning from the large window picture overlooking a backyard of shrubs and trees the sun shining through.
"We don't have a choice, Liv. This is our last option... Krantz will make good on his word as long as I do my part, you'll be safe, Michael will get his surgery and this will once and for all, be over." He came up behind her.
"I promise." His arms came to warp around her from behind, pulling her back against his chest, "just promise you'll still be waiting for me when I'm done?" He whispered into her ear, nuzzling her neck with his face.
"... I promise." Olivia whispered, moments before Lincoln explained his insane agreement, she'd spoken to Elle-May and LJ, they were both safe and happy.
"I love you, so much." He turned her and kissed her lovingly. "I love you, too." She touched his face, "please be careful." She was torn. "I will." He assured, squeezing her gently, before he knelt down.
Olivia feeling his hands on her stomach, he pushed her shirt up carefully, "I'll be back soon, I love you." He whispered to the baby, leaving a gentle kiss on her bump, he stood up, leaving the room a black folder in his hand.
"I'm going to be watching the whole time, just outside that door, okay?" Sara was touching Michael's head carefully. "And Nikole is right there." She nodded her head toward the woman who was dressed in light green srubs, while everyone else was in blue so she stuck out, standing right outside the door, a nurse putting a mask over her face.
"Nik." Lincoln caught her attention before she would go into the operating room, she turned her head, "Alex got detained... Agent Wheeler." He overheard from some agents as he walked by.
"Okay." Nikole nodded, "be careful, Lincoln." She whispered, pushing open the doors to the operating room, coming to stand by Michael, the final prep happening.
A few hours had slowly ticked by, as Nikole watched every movement, heard every word, she stepped back. Reaching for the phone on the wall, she dialed a number her eyes never leaving Michael, putting the receiver to her ear.
Felica sat in silence, as they transported Alex. A guilt in her stomach as she knew, she was the reason he was handcuffed in the backseat. She looked down her phone lighting up.
"Hello?" She asked carefully. "You know who this is?" The voice caught her off guard, but she kept her face blank, her tone even ignoring Mark whom she knew was staring. "Yes." She said.
"I'm going to need that favour now." They spoke, and Felicia thought back to Panama, as she walked away from a greasy haired looking teenager, she was stopped.
The man she bought drugs off of in attemps to help Alex through, was an undercover officer, who was setting up to arrest her, how she'd be thrown in jail and discharged dishonourably from the FBI.
But around the corner came Nikole, a set look on her face, using the connections she had at the time to have the entire incident forgotten, how Felicia told her she owed her a huge favour and now, Nikole was collecting.
"You got it." Felicia said looking in the rearview mirror where Alex stared back at her, she closed her phone. "Who was that?" Mark asked.
"Wrong number." Felicia shrugged it off, "on a government issued phone?" He asked concerned. "You're acting like a real sour grape, Mark." Felicia put emphasis on the 'sour grape' and Alex looked up quickly.
Remembering sittign in his office, in a mood and Nikole wasn't helping, he'd lost his cool at her and she offered him his favourite lollipop; sour grape and the way Felicia said those words, brought him back to that moment.
He looked down at his handcuffs and kind of smiled to himself.
