Take Two - Michael/Sara (1/1)
Title: Take Two (1/1)
Pairing: Michael/Sara
Genre: Het, AU
Length: 800 words
Rating: PG-15
Summary:Every new start comes with a certain amount of baggage, not all of it unwelcome. It contains spoilers for "Sleight of Hand" and "The Art of the Deal", was written very quickly and is incredibly fairly self-indulgent.
Author's Note:It seems that today, May 1st, is Sara Tancredi's birthday. *grins* Oh, and feel free to follow this link to a lovely picspam that sarah_scribbles posted back in November 2007, from which I've stolen a beautiful picture for this post.
~*~
From the moment she opens her eyes, Sara knows her thirtieth birthday is going to be a world away from her twenty-ninth in more ways than one.
She and Michael sleep indecently late, rising just before noon. Free from the constraints of work, if only for one day, they venture out into the real world without haste, eventually deciding on lunch at one of the local seafood restaurants. The antique silver bracelet Michael had given her that morning pleasantly heavy on her wrist, she gestures to the waiter as she orders in Spanish, unashamedly enjoying Michael’s admiring gaze.
“Is it just my imagination, or is your Spanish much better than mine now?” he asks when they’re alone, and she can’t resist the urge to preen, if only a little.
“It’s not just your imagination.”
He chuckles. “So modest.”
“It’s my birthday,” she tells him loftily as she reaches for her water glass. “I don’t have to be modest today.”
Lunch lasts over two hours, a pleasant blur of food and conversation and a growing flirtation that should seem faintly ridiculous, considering they’ve been living in each other’s pockets for several months now. It doesn’t, and when she catches his eye over the rim of her second cup of coffee, she knows he’s feeling it too. Feeling the urge to escape back to the house, to shut the door behind them and shut out the rest of the world, if only for a few hours.
He hurriedly calls for the check, tossing her a stern glance she knows is intended to dissuade her from even the mere notion of offering to split the bill. She tosses him a smile, letting him know he’ll get no argument from her today. It’s her birthday, and today she would rather watch the graceful movements of his hands as he opens his wallet, his fingers tanned against the smooth leather -
The world tilts and shimmers around her, making it hard to focus. She blinks once, then twice, but she knows what she’s seeing is very real.
She reaches across the table, grabbing him by the wrist, her heart starting to pound as she stares at his gaping wallet, at the flattened paper flower wedged between bills and receipts. “How?” she finally asks, her voice sounding as though it’s coming from a long way away. “How do you have this?”
He opens his mouth, then closes it again, twin spots of colour burning high on his cheekbones. “LJ gave it to me.”
Sara wants to close her eyes, but the darkness isn't something she wants to see at this particular moment. It’s been several months since the blurred moment she was dragged from LJ’s side, and yet she has to swallow several times before she can form any coherent words on her tongue. “I have to admit, I never thought I’d see it again.”
He slides far too much money into the bill folder and pushes it to the far side of the small table. “You had it on you when you met us at the boat, didn’t you?” he says in a quiet rush, as though he’s been waiting for precisely this moment to ask her this exact question.
“Yes.”
His eyes never leave hers. “Why?”
She looks at him, remembering the frantic flight from the courthouse to the airport, her desperate race against the clock. She remembers finding the wrinkled rose in the bottom of her purse halfway between Chicago and Panama City and sliding it into the pocket of her jeans, silently praying she would be in time. “When you travel light, you only take what’s important.”
His whole face softens, his mouth curving in a slow smile as he pulls the battered paper flower from his wallet. Reaching across the table, he presses it into her palm, curling her fingers over it, his eyes glittering with a joy that makes her own eyes prickle. “Happy birthday, Doctor Tancredi.”
Heat rises beneath her skin, warming her face, memory drawing her backwards and pushing her forward in the same heartbeat. “Thank you.” The scrap of folded paper in her hand is worn and creased, but they both know there isn’t a chance in hell it’s ever going to see the inside of a trash can. She slides it carefully into her purse, then smiles at him, her heart feeling as though it might burst at the seams. Twelve months is long enough for the whole universe to change around you, it seems. “Want to come back to my place?”
“I’m shocked.” He shoots her a grin that is one part amusement, two parts hunger. “I thought you were a nice girl.”
“Not today.” She pushes back her chair and rises to her feet, smiling as he follows suit with undisguised haste. “It’s my birthday, remember?”
~*~