Title: Breaking Out is Hard to Do.

Author: lightning bug

Pairing: Michael/Sara

Summary: Michael's breaking out. Sara's there to not stop him.

Author's Note: This has actually been finished for a few weeks, but I only realized that tonight was my last chance to post it before it might become obsolete. I'm not sure to categorize this as fluff or sarcasm or what. "Blue Steel" is property ofZoolander and sobell's usage of it on Television Without Pity.Enjoy!


The day before Michael Scofield and Lincoln Burrows escaped from Fox River, Dr. Sara Tancredi was very close to figuring out that's what they were going to do. It came to her while she was in the shower, like the second to last piece of a puzzle falling into place. Suddenly, a lot more things made sense.

At work the next day, Sara had been in a kind of fog, wondering what Michael's break-out would mean for her job. Either her father would find some way to twist this into an "It's not safe for you there and I order you to quit" issue, or she would be forced to "resign" for being duped by Michael. Neither looked promising.

It had been what passed for a normal day at the prison. She passed Michael's injections off onto another nurse. She wasn't entirely sure she could look at him knowing what he was going to do. She went home at her normal time, and was in bed reading (I Capture the Castle, one of her favorites) when her phone rang. There was an emergency at the prison, the night supervisor was sick, and is there any chance she could be kind enough to come in and help?

(It's not like she could have said 'no')

So Sara showed up at Fox River at five past eleven in the evening where she had to deal with five prisoners who needed stitches after a small riot was started. Eventually, it was just her in the office, writing a report and desperately wanting some coffee, but it was probably better to stay sleepy since she didn't want to screw with her sleep cycle by feeling too awake now and how many stitches had she administered to that one guy?

She was just thinking about maybe quitting and looking for work at a real hospital, when a hand clamped down on her mouth. Sara almost screamed, but then Michael's voice came soft in her ear "Sara," he whispered, "You have to be quiet."

He released his hand long enough for her to stand up and spit out "Why?" She observed that there were others slowly coming into the room. She noticed his brother, a few other inmates, Westmoreland among them. He gave her a guilty smile and a wink.

"We're getting out."

"I can see that." Sara growled. "Give me one good reason not to alert the guards."

"There's no time for that." Sara shook her head and walked away from him, but Michael put a hand on her arm to stop her "You need to listen to me; I need you to take a vacation, go away for a few weeks"

"What?"

"You're in too deep." Michael said quickly. Sara turned around cautiously to look at him "There are people after me and my brother that will try to hurt you to get at me. If they think that you were involved, I don't know what would happen. Just lie low for awhile"

Sara knew that she should perhaps be a little bit more freaked out about this than she was, but her entire non-relationship with Michael had been surreal, so she wasn't bothered by it. Behind Michael, they were getting rid of the bars on the window. They had been working since they got in. It was surprising how quiet they were.

Michael looked nervously over his shoulder to observe their progress. "Sara," Michael said, "We don't have a lot of time, please. I can't let anything happen to you." His voice lowered to a whisper, "Sara," he repeated.

And with that, she was a goner.

"Okay," she whispered. "You'd better hurry." The snap of the bars punctuated her sentence. Cool wind blew in as the window opened.

Sara stood in the back of the room and watched as, one by one, they left. Lincoln went first, and then went the others (T-Bag began to say something to her, but was shoved towards the window by everyone else). Finally, Michael was the only one left. He turned to look at her.

"Go," she said.

She had expected to get one of Michael's Blue Steel gazes. What she had not expected was for Michael to stride across the room, take her face in his hands, and kiss her.

It was the best kiss of her life. She could have sworn the room was spinning. When he pulled away, he wiped a tear off her cheek (Dear Lord, when had she started crying? Since when did cry, for that matter?).

"I'll write you," he said softly. She nodded wordlessly. Sara thought that maybe he had taken her ability to speak along with that kiss. "I want to see you again, to explain all this, give you the answers you need. Okay?"

He turned to leave. "Michael!" she said. There was her voice again. He looked at her expectantly. "Tell me you're a horrible person and I shouldn't worry about you," she pleaded.

Michael gave her a devilish smile and dipped out the window. Sara watched the empty window sill for a minute, before she moved to the door. She had her own alibi to work on now.