Five Minutes to Midnight - Chapter Five (Part One)
Five Minutes to Midnight
Rating - R (possible NC-17 somewhere later in the series)
Warnings (for series) - Whole series (including Final Break) spoilers, violence, (probably) sex, cursing, death, het (canon and not-quite canon pairings), classical literature and mythology references, questionable knowledge by the author of science, medicine, code-breaking and the mechanics of shady multinational conglomerates who secretly rule the world.
Author’s Note - This is the second of four planned stories that don’t directly violate canon, but take place after Final Break in an attempt to make it more palatable (and, to me, more poetic and satisfying). See “Into the Dark” on ffn or my livejournal for the first in the series. Huge thanks to andacus for being my beta and mind-mate (as always) and tofoxriverinmate for her encouragement and feedback.
Disclaimer - If it belonged to me I would have established that Christina Scofield had an horrific sociopathic evil twin that took her place after the lovely mother of both Lincoln and Michael died of liver cancer sometime in the 1980s. Since that didn’t happen... you know that nothing Prison Break related belongs to me.
Summary - Finding out that Michael is still alive and has been held by The Company for four years might be life-altering for Sara and Lincoln, but it’s also just the beginning...
Chapter One
Chapter Two - Part One
Chapter Two - Part Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Notes: I need to belatedly recognize my beta, Andacus, for the line in the previous chapter about pulling Sara's pigtails. It was brilliant and greatly improved the chapter. Secondly, I have to apologize for the portion of this chapter that's in Spanish. I don't speak Spanish and the online translation programs are… imprecise. Also? HOW is this too long for one post. UGH! Make sure to click the link on the bottom for the rest of the chapter.
Chapter Five
It might have been Texas and sunny, but it was also January and until he stepped off the plane Linc didn’t really consider that it might be cold. And it was. Very. Days of planning every detail of this trip and no one had thought to check the weather forecast? Linc grimaced, blinking in the blinding sunshine as he wondered what the hell else they’d failed to consider.
“Hey, there’s Natalie!” LJ said brightly, nodding his head toward a petite twenty-something brunette standing in an open doorway.
“Natalie?” Lincoln asked concerned. “Who the hell is Natalie?”
“Natalie Stark?” LJ replied like it was completely obvious. “One of Jane’s people?”
“So, she’s Natalie, huh?” Linc asked, voice ringing with amusement. “It’s not ‘Hey there’s one of Jane’s people’ or ‘Look, there’s that chick who stood on the boat and didn’t say a word.’ It’s ‘Hey, there’s Natalie?’”
“Yeah, whatever,” LJ grinned, looking thoroughly unabashed as he hurried toward the woman in question.
“He is your son,” Sofia pointed out, grinning up at Lincoln with great amusement. “Are you really surprised?”
Linc just shook his head in response, watching as his twenty-year-old son leaned against the doorframe and tried unsuccessfully to engage Natalie in some kind of conversation. It figured, honestly. It really did.
“Move it, Sara,” Linc called back through the open door to the plane, barely able to see her lingering behind talking to Kellerman. “We’re too exposed out here.”
She hurried off the plane moments later, hat pulled low and sunglasses in place with that huge bag of hers slung over one shoulder. If it hadn’t been for Mikey asleep on her hip it could have damn well been four years prior and, for not the first time, Lincoln found himself wondering if they’d ever really, truly escape what their lives had become.
“Let’s move,” Kellerman half-suggested, half-instructed, following in Sara’s wake and passing Lincoln with barely a glance.
“I hate that guy,” Linc grumbled beneath his breath.
“Know what I don’t get?” Alex asked, matching Lincoln’s pace as they all made their way toward the open door. “Who the hell voted for him?”
Linc grinned a little back at Alex because... yeah. Good question. But he said nothing as they group reached the open door and the relative safety of the quiet room beyond it. He breezed past Kellerman, who appeared to be surveying the tarmac, and found Jane and her other three team members already populating the room.
“All clear,” Natalie said as she and Kellerman finally entered the room and the door shut behind them.
“We’re off on our timeline,” Jane said in place of a greeting.
“You’re welcome,” Kellerman spoke up sarcastically. “Your gratitude is almost overwhelming here, Jane.”
“Don’t start with me, Paul,” she warned, glaring a little his way.
“Or what? You’ll handcuff me to a flagpole and call the cops while you make a clean getaway? Oh... wait... we’ve already done that...” he snarked.
“That was nine years ago and I don’t have time for your dramatics,” she countered.
Glancing around the room, Linc found he wasn’t the only one whose eyes were bouncing between the two like they were watching a tennis match.
“No, because you have a mission, right?” he asked. “You just can’t resist jumping into bed with those Burrows boys, now can you, Jane? Figuratively speaking, this time... I presume.”
Linc’s eyebrows shot up at that and for not the first time he tried very hard not to think about what, exactly, Jane’s relationship with his father had been.
“Seriously, Paul?” she grit out, her hand automatically resting on her sidearm. “You want to do this here? Now?”
“You know me. Anytime. Anywhere. Well... preferably without the glock...” Kellerman replied eyeing her right hand. “How did you get that through airport security, anyhow?”
“Wouldn’t you love to know,” she smirked a little and Linc found himself surprised to see the faintest bit of honest amusement in her eyes.
“O-kay,” Alex ventured cautiously. “Now that whatever that was is out of the way, as Jane said, we’re off schedule. If we’re going to be at the rendezvous point on time, we need to move it.”
“He’ll wait,” Linc said with certainty. “Even if we’re late. He’ll wait.”
“I’d rather not find out,” Jane countered. “And the longer he stays in one place, the more likely someone is to notice.”
“As fun as it’s been, I think this is where we part ways,” Kellerman spoke up. “Sara, Jane... always a pleasure.”
“Thank you again, Paul,” Sara said, for what felt to Lincoln like the dozenth time in the last two hours.
“Don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out,” Jane responded, far less charitably, and Lincoln didn’t bother fighting his grin at her comment.
“Ouch,” he winced fakely. “Careful, Jane or I’d think you hadn’t missed me.”
“Like I miss athlete’s foot,” she bit back.
“You know? I’d almost forgotten what a way with words you have,” he smiled at her.
“Liar,” she countered as he backed out the doorway still grinning.
“Yeah,” he admitted. “Yeah, I really am.”
As the door closed behind Kellerman’s retreating form, the entire atmosphere of the room shifted. LJ let out a big sigh of relief, Sara’s form relaxed a little and Jane’s gaze lingered on the door. Say what you would about the bastard, but Paul Kellerman had presence, that much was for sure.
“This is where we part ways, too,” Jane reminded the group and Linc felt Sofia grasp his hand tightly.
“Just... give me a second?” Sara requested, moving over to the corner with her son and waking him up gently.
Linc studiously ignored her conversation with the little boy, turning the other direction toward LJ instead.
“I know you think you’re getting left out on this, but you’re not,” he told his son. “None of us is safe until this is over and I need you to help keep Sofia and Mikey safe.”
“Yeah,” LJ agreed, finally sounding like maybe he partly meant it after days of arguing over which group he’d go with. “I got it.”
Lincoln roughly pulled his son into a tight hug, thumping him on the back for good measure.
“Don’t get dead, kid,” he muttered.
“You either,” LJ replied, squeezing back before letting go.
“We’ll be fine, Lincoln,” Sofia said from his side and he turned to find her looking up at him with absolute confidence.
Determination shone brightly in her dark eyes and he knew she had no doubt that they’d pull this crazy plan off. Moments like this reminded him why he’d fallen in love with her in the first place. She was understated, but never soft-spoken, with an infectious confidence that seemed to draw everyone else in.
He leaned down and kissed her, soft and quickly. He wasn’t going to make any grand, sweeping declarations. He wasn’t that guy and, anyhow, after four years together she had a pretty good idea what he felt anyhow.
“Look, if things go ass-forward-”
“Lincoln,” she groaned, rolling her eyes.
“If they do-”
“They won’t.”
“But if they do, Sofia,” he said insistently, his hands heavy on her shoulders. “If they do, I want you to take Mikey, take LJ and do whatever the hell you have to do to keep yourselves safe. You got me?”
“Yes, Lincoln, I understand,” Sofia agreed. “Now go get your brother.”
“We ready?” Jane’s voice called out.
Sara reapproached the group with a now-awake Mikey still in her arms. She put on a valiant front, handing him over to Sofia with a kiss to his crown and a barely-lingering touch of his hand. But Lincoln could still see that her hand shook slightly and her glassy eyes dammed up unshed tears.
“We’re ready,” Sara replied, her voice resolute and clear.
“Natalie will be accompanying LJ, Sofia, Felicia and Mikey to a safe house along the coast. Greg, Pedro, Oliver, Alex, Sara, Lincoln and I will be hitting the rendezvous point to pick up Sucre before heading to a boat docked in Freeport, Texas which we’ll take to the island where Michael is being held,” Jane detailed. “If all goes well, we’ll meet back up at the safe house in three days.”
“And if all doesn’t go well?” Linc asked
“We’ll use Michael’s system to get in touch and regroup,” Jane replied.
“The website?” Alex questioned and Jane nodded in confirmation.
“How the hell did you know about that?” Linc asked guardedly.
“I have my ways,” she replied cagily.
“Well if you know, then how do we know that the Company doesn’t know about it?” Linc countered.
“Because if they had then they’d have used it to lure you out before the whole Scylla thing and they’ve had no reason to invest much in the way of resources digging into your lives since the escape from Miami,” she reminded them.
“Let’s go,” Sara suggested in a tone that reminded Linc startlingly of the instructions she’d given as a doctor, steady and sure but a little detached. “There’s no time to waste.”
Jane nodded sharply at the other woman before looking at her own people and tilting her head toward the exit in silent instruction. They filed in the direction she’d indicated without comment, but Jane grabbed Natalie’s wrist as she walked past.
“I don’t have to tell you that this isn’t just a babysitting assignment, but I’m going to remind you of that anyhow,” Jane levelled with the petite brunette. “If they can find you, they will. Lay low, follow protocol and do not be afraid to use the skill-sets of the people around you to your advantage. Agent Lang has years of field experience in the FBI and LJ has seen a lot of how these people work. They’re assets, not liabilities.”
The younger woman stared back at Jane with a hard look that Lincoln was pretty sure meant she didn’t entirely agree with everything Jane was saying, but she nodded in agreement anyhow.
“Understood,” she replied sharply before proceeding out the door to an SUV just outside.
“Your taste in girls is kinda screwy, LJ. You know that, right?” Linc asked his son, following the woman just out of her earshot.
LJ shrugged.
“I like the freckles,” he replied.
“The freckles?” Lincoln asked, stopping mid-stride to look at his son in bewilderment.
“Yeah,” LJ confirmed. “Well... and her ass.”
This explanation made a great deal more sense to Linc and he gave a little shrug of acquiescence.
“If I were you I’d watch what you say around her,” Jane interrupted as Sofia made a little huff of indignation on Natalie’s behalf. “That girl with the freckles and the ass you like so much could have you hogtied and staring down the barrel of her 9 mm in under fifteen seconds.”
“God that’s hot,” LJ breathed, staring back at the woman walking ahead of him.
“Yeah... when this is over you’re getting more therapy,” Linc announced decisively, to which LJ just laughed.
It was a good note to part on, deceptively light and somewhat ridiculous. Last minute goodbyes were quick and before much time had passed at all, Linc found himself seated next to Sara in a minivan headed south through rural Texas.
Chapter Five (Part Two)
Rating - R (possible NC-17 somewhere later in the series)
Warnings (for series) - Whole series (including Final Break) spoilers, violence, (probably) sex, cursing, death, het (canon and not-quite canon pairings), classical literature and mythology references, questionable knowledge by the author of science, medicine, code-breaking and the mechanics of shady multinational conglomerates who secretly rule the world.
Author’s Note - This is the second of four planned stories that don’t directly violate canon, but take place after Final Break in an attempt to make it more palatable (and, to me, more poetic and satisfying). See “Into the Dark” on ffn or my livejournal for the first in the series. Huge thanks to andacus for being my beta and mind-mate (as always) and tofoxriverinmate for her encouragement and feedback.
Disclaimer - If it belonged to me I would have established that Christina Scofield had an horrific sociopathic evil twin that took her place after the lovely mother of both Lincoln and Michael died of liver cancer sometime in the 1980s. Since that didn’t happen... you know that nothing Prison Break related belongs to me.
Summary - Finding out that Michael is still alive and has been held by The Company for four years might be life-altering for Sara and Lincoln, but it’s also just the beginning...
Chapter One
Chapter Two - Part One
Chapter Two - Part Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Notes: I need to belatedly recognize my beta, Andacus, for the line in the previous chapter about pulling Sara's pigtails. It was brilliant and greatly improved the chapter. Secondly, I have to apologize for the portion of this chapter that's in Spanish. I don't speak Spanish and the online translation programs are… imprecise. Also? HOW is this too long for one post. UGH! Make sure to click the link on the bottom for the rest of the chapter.
Chapter Five
It might have been Texas and sunny, but it was also January and until he stepped off the plane Linc didn’t really consider that it might be cold. And it was. Very. Days of planning every detail of this trip and no one had thought to check the weather forecast? Linc grimaced, blinking in the blinding sunshine as he wondered what the hell else they’d failed to consider.
“Hey, there’s Natalie!” LJ said brightly, nodding his head toward a petite twenty-something brunette standing in an open doorway.
“Natalie?” Lincoln asked concerned. “Who the hell is Natalie?”
“Natalie Stark?” LJ replied like it was completely obvious. “One of Jane’s people?”
“So, she’s Natalie, huh?” Linc asked, voice ringing with amusement. “It’s not ‘Hey there’s one of Jane’s people’ or ‘Look, there’s that chick who stood on the boat and didn’t say a word.’ It’s ‘Hey, there’s Natalie?’”
“Yeah, whatever,” LJ grinned, looking thoroughly unabashed as he hurried toward the woman in question.
“He is your son,” Sofia pointed out, grinning up at Lincoln with great amusement. “Are you really surprised?”
Linc just shook his head in response, watching as his twenty-year-old son leaned against the doorframe and tried unsuccessfully to engage Natalie in some kind of conversation. It figured, honestly. It really did.
“Move it, Sara,” Linc called back through the open door to the plane, barely able to see her lingering behind talking to Kellerman. “We’re too exposed out here.”
She hurried off the plane moments later, hat pulled low and sunglasses in place with that huge bag of hers slung over one shoulder. If it hadn’t been for Mikey asleep on her hip it could have damn well been four years prior and, for not the first time, Lincoln found himself wondering if they’d ever really, truly escape what their lives had become.
“Let’s move,” Kellerman half-suggested, half-instructed, following in Sara’s wake and passing Lincoln with barely a glance.
“I hate that guy,” Linc grumbled beneath his breath.
“Know what I don’t get?” Alex asked, matching Lincoln’s pace as they all made their way toward the open door. “Who the hell voted for him?”
Linc grinned a little back at Alex because... yeah. Good question. But he said nothing as they group reached the open door and the relative safety of the quiet room beyond it. He breezed past Kellerman, who appeared to be surveying the tarmac, and found Jane and her other three team members already populating the room.
“All clear,” Natalie said as she and Kellerman finally entered the room and the door shut behind them.
“We’re off on our timeline,” Jane said in place of a greeting.
“You’re welcome,” Kellerman spoke up sarcastically. “Your gratitude is almost overwhelming here, Jane.”
“Don’t start with me, Paul,” she warned, glaring a little his way.
“Or what? You’ll handcuff me to a flagpole and call the cops while you make a clean getaway? Oh... wait... we’ve already done that...” he snarked.
“That was nine years ago and I don’t have time for your dramatics,” she countered.
Glancing around the room, Linc found he wasn’t the only one whose eyes were bouncing between the two like they were watching a tennis match.
“No, because you have a mission, right?” he asked. “You just can’t resist jumping into bed with those Burrows boys, now can you, Jane? Figuratively speaking, this time... I presume.”
Linc’s eyebrows shot up at that and for not the first time he tried very hard not to think about what, exactly, Jane’s relationship with his father had been.
“Seriously, Paul?” she grit out, her hand automatically resting on her sidearm. “You want to do this here? Now?”
“You know me. Anytime. Anywhere. Well... preferably without the glock...” Kellerman replied eyeing her right hand. “How did you get that through airport security, anyhow?”
“Wouldn’t you love to know,” she smirked a little and Linc found himself surprised to see the faintest bit of honest amusement in her eyes.
“O-kay,” Alex ventured cautiously. “Now that whatever that was is out of the way, as Jane said, we’re off schedule. If we’re going to be at the rendezvous point on time, we need to move it.”
“He’ll wait,” Linc said with certainty. “Even if we’re late. He’ll wait.”
“I’d rather not find out,” Jane countered. “And the longer he stays in one place, the more likely someone is to notice.”
“As fun as it’s been, I think this is where we part ways,” Kellerman spoke up. “Sara, Jane... always a pleasure.”
“Thank you again, Paul,” Sara said, for what felt to Lincoln like the dozenth time in the last two hours.
“Don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out,” Jane responded, far less charitably, and Lincoln didn’t bother fighting his grin at her comment.
“Ouch,” he winced fakely. “Careful, Jane or I’d think you hadn’t missed me.”
“Like I miss athlete’s foot,” she bit back.
“You know? I’d almost forgotten what a way with words you have,” he smiled at her.
“Liar,” she countered as he backed out the doorway still grinning.
“Yeah,” he admitted. “Yeah, I really am.”
As the door closed behind Kellerman’s retreating form, the entire atmosphere of the room shifted. LJ let out a big sigh of relief, Sara’s form relaxed a little and Jane’s gaze lingered on the door. Say what you would about the bastard, but Paul Kellerman had presence, that much was for sure.
“This is where we part ways, too,” Jane reminded the group and Linc felt Sofia grasp his hand tightly.
“Just... give me a second?” Sara requested, moving over to the corner with her son and waking him up gently.
Linc studiously ignored her conversation with the little boy, turning the other direction toward LJ instead.
“I know you think you’re getting left out on this, but you’re not,” he told his son. “None of us is safe until this is over and I need you to help keep Sofia and Mikey safe.”
“Yeah,” LJ agreed, finally sounding like maybe he partly meant it after days of arguing over which group he’d go with. “I got it.”
Lincoln roughly pulled his son into a tight hug, thumping him on the back for good measure.
“Don’t get dead, kid,” he muttered.
“You either,” LJ replied, squeezing back before letting go.
“We’ll be fine, Lincoln,” Sofia said from his side and he turned to find her looking up at him with absolute confidence.
Determination shone brightly in her dark eyes and he knew she had no doubt that they’d pull this crazy plan off. Moments like this reminded him why he’d fallen in love with her in the first place. She was understated, but never soft-spoken, with an infectious confidence that seemed to draw everyone else in.
He leaned down and kissed her, soft and quickly. He wasn’t going to make any grand, sweeping declarations. He wasn’t that guy and, anyhow, after four years together she had a pretty good idea what he felt anyhow.
“Look, if things go ass-forward-”
“Lincoln,” she groaned, rolling her eyes.
“If they do-”
“They won’t.”
“But if they do, Sofia,” he said insistently, his hands heavy on her shoulders. “If they do, I want you to take Mikey, take LJ and do whatever the hell you have to do to keep yourselves safe. You got me?”
“Yes, Lincoln, I understand,” Sofia agreed. “Now go get your brother.”
“We ready?” Jane’s voice called out.
Sara reapproached the group with a now-awake Mikey still in her arms. She put on a valiant front, handing him over to Sofia with a kiss to his crown and a barely-lingering touch of his hand. But Lincoln could still see that her hand shook slightly and her glassy eyes dammed up unshed tears.
“We’re ready,” Sara replied, her voice resolute and clear.
“Natalie will be accompanying LJ, Sofia, Felicia and Mikey to a safe house along the coast. Greg, Pedro, Oliver, Alex, Sara, Lincoln and I will be hitting the rendezvous point to pick up Sucre before heading to a boat docked in Freeport, Texas which we’ll take to the island where Michael is being held,” Jane detailed. “If all goes well, we’ll meet back up at the safe house in three days.”
“And if all doesn’t go well?” Linc asked
“We’ll use Michael’s system to get in touch and regroup,” Jane replied.
“The website?” Alex questioned and Jane nodded in confirmation.
“How the hell did you know about that?” Linc asked guardedly.
“I have my ways,” she replied cagily.
“Well if you know, then how do we know that the Company doesn’t know about it?” Linc countered.
“Because if they had then they’d have used it to lure you out before the whole Scylla thing and they’ve had no reason to invest much in the way of resources digging into your lives since the escape from Miami,” she reminded them.
“Let’s go,” Sara suggested in a tone that reminded Linc startlingly of the instructions she’d given as a doctor, steady and sure but a little detached. “There’s no time to waste.”
Jane nodded sharply at the other woman before looking at her own people and tilting her head toward the exit in silent instruction. They filed in the direction she’d indicated without comment, but Jane grabbed Natalie’s wrist as she walked past.
“I don’t have to tell you that this isn’t just a babysitting assignment, but I’m going to remind you of that anyhow,” Jane levelled with the petite brunette. “If they can find you, they will. Lay low, follow protocol and do not be afraid to use the skill-sets of the people around you to your advantage. Agent Lang has years of field experience in the FBI and LJ has seen a lot of how these people work. They’re assets, not liabilities.”
The younger woman stared back at Jane with a hard look that Lincoln was pretty sure meant she didn’t entirely agree with everything Jane was saying, but she nodded in agreement anyhow.
“Understood,” she replied sharply before proceeding out the door to an SUV just outside.
“Your taste in girls is kinda screwy, LJ. You know that, right?” Linc asked his son, following the woman just out of her earshot.
LJ shrugged.
“I like the freckles,” he replied.
“The freckles?” Lincoln asked, stopping mid-stride to look at his son in bewilderment.
“Yeah,” LJ confirmed. “Well... and her ass.”
This explanation made a great deal more sense to Linc and he gave a little shrug of acquiescence.
“If I were you I’d watch what you say around her,” Jane interrupted as Sofia made a little huff of indignation on Natalie’s behalf. “That girl with the freckles and the ass you like so much could have you hogtied and staring down the barrel of her 9 mm in under fifteen seconds.”
“God that’s hot,” LJ breathed, staring back at the woman walking ahead of him.
“Yeah... when this is over you’re getting more therapy,” Linc announced decisively, to which LJ just laughed.
It was a good note to part on, deceptively light and somewhat ridiculous. Last minute goodbyes were quick and before much time had passed at all, Linc found himself seated next to Sara in a minivan headed south through rural Texas.
Chapter Five (Part Two)