“Painkillers?” Sara hands him the cup and turns away blushing slightly as her hand brushes his.
“How bad is it?”
Crossing her arms against her chest as though afraid she might move closer to him if she doesn’t, “I’d take the pills.”
“Do I get to see it?”
“No. Bandage stays on for now. Take your pills.”
Michael takes the pills. A small smile escapes his lips as he swallows. “You sound very serious.”
He’s teasing her and she knows it, and after what he’s just admitted to her she knows they’re in dangerous territory. “Michael, I need you to tell me what happened.”
“It wasn’t Sucre, if that’s what you want to know.”
He’s still smiling at her; she feels his eyes searching hers, and all of a sudden it’s as though they’re speaking sub-text; as if the words they’re saying have some hidden and underlying meaning.
“Michael, I need to know who did this to you.” She pleads with him silently.
Silence fills the room, the tension between them increasing by the second. Finally he looks away. “This is the part where I don’t tell you anything.”
“Dammit.” She moves towards him without thinking, and she’s not sure whether she’s about to strangle him or kiss him. She takes his hand and at first they’re both struck by the contact. Neither or them move for an instant, and then slowly Michael entwines his fingers with hers, stroking the soft skin overtop her knuckles.
He looks at her and for a second forgets to breathe. “Sara, about before…”
“You were under anesthesia. It’s perfectly normal that you might say something you didn’t mean.”
“Actually,” he smiles, “I always thought that it was the other way around. You know, that one is more likely to confess one’s deepest secrets when under the influence. Inhibition and whatnot.” He pulls her closer.
“Michael…” She can’t bring herself to look him in the eye. Every nerve in her body is aware and wanting.
“Sara, I meant what I said.”
She looks up at him. “You remember?”
He nods.
She’s standing between his legs now, close enough to feel his warm breath on her neck as she turns to look away. She swears she can hear a heart beating, but at this point she’s unable to decipher whose heart it is that she’s hearing.
She gasps when she feels his arm move around her waist, and closes her eyes as he starts to nuzzle into her neck.
“I love the way you smell,” he whispers.
His voice gives her shivers up her spine and she knows in a moment the legs keeping her steady are seconds away from buckling under.
“Michael…”
“Sara….”
“We can’t.”
“I know,” he says in the instant before he kisses the soft skin of her neck. “But I heard what you said, and that, that changes everything.”
Story Notes:
I've used some dialogue from the episode. Anything you recognize is theirs, anything you don't is mine.