I never thought I'd write again, or like Prison Break as much as I used to again, but they've brought back character development and bonding time so I wrote again! This is a really fluffy, schmushy ...maybe even cheesy piece for me though. The rest of my fics nearly all include death and angst.  Well, hope you enjoy anyway!

Title: Kids
Author: girlfromworld
Characters: Sara Tancredi, Michael Scofield, mentions of Lincoln, Sophia, LJ, Sucre, Maricruz and nurse Katie.
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None really.
Summary: Sara finds herself having a hard time trying to get Michael to discuss a certain subject with her.
Notes: This has only been read by me, who isn't a native English speaker, so please point out any mistakes!

Sara peaked over her magazine to look at Michael, sitting on the couch by the window with the laptop on his lap, fully concentrated... as usual. Little had she known about his passion for engineering and architecture when they first met. To be honest, she used to think he'd chosen engineering just because it was good money and would impress people. She knew a lot of guys like that back in the day. They were always either like that or well...nerds. And for reasons now unknown to her she didn't picture him as a nerd back then. She blamed the tattoo and prison blues. Not a lot of nerds in Fox River. So a money hungry yup it was. That was at the absolute beginning though. The "maybe we met before, drunk, out in a bar somewhere" days. After that she didn't really have time to think about anything but surviving or how to bring down the Company, and maybe just one to twice about her hair color. But now that was all behind them, and since they had moved in together more than a year ago- really moved in together, no brothers, ex-cons or feds around- she had discovered so many things about him. Like the childlike enthusiasm that replaced the ever present Michael frown as soon as anything related to engineering was mentioned. Which was really the only reason why she accepted, most of the time anyway, that nearly half of their money or at least half of Michael's time went to computer programs with names like Risa 3D Structural Analysis and STAAD Foundation. However, unlike Michael, she found herself having trouble focussing on anything at the moment. Ever since their guests- Lincoln, Sophia and Fernando and Maricruz- had left after dinner, something had been on her mind. And she was going to have to interrupt the intense bubble of concentration Michael was currently in to talk about it.
 
"Everyone seems to be having kids these days, don't they?" Silence. "Michael?"
 
"What was that?"
 
"I was just saying how it seems like everyone's having kids these days."
 
Michael wondered for a moment who everyone was supposed to be referring to and how she arrived at this topic -the magazine maybe? What was she reading again? Some sort of new medical research article? "What does it say then?"
 
"What does what say?"
 
"The magazine you're reading. Is there a new babyboom or something?"
 
"The magazine doesn't say anything Michael, I'm saying it." She was reading a decorating magazine, for Christ's sake. That famous Scofield attention to detail just came and went whenever he needed, didn't it. She sighed. "I mean the people around us. Lincoln and Sophia, Fernando and Maricruz..."
 
"As far as I know just them. Plus Linc already had LJ so technically.."
 
"And Katie and that new collegue I told you about," she cut him off. "It's just funny, that's all. You know, all our friends having kids."
 
Michael was a bit unsure of what she wanted him to say so he just nodded and continued with his foundation analysis of the new research facility for a foreign university. He really had to get this at least halfway done before tomorrow and consequently wasn't really in the mood for smalltalk about friends and family.
 
Sara sat and wait. Michael's eyes stayed glued to that damned computer screen, and she got ever so slightly annoyed by his supposed ignorance of what she was trying to say. Was he playing dumb?  "What do you think, Michael?"
 
A sigh. "I er, yeah I'm happy for them of course." 
 
Okay. Now she was annoyed.
 
Michael looked up questoningly from his computer screen for a few seconds to find Sara watching him intently. Was she annoyed with him? What the hell did he do wrong? She knew this needed to get done before tomorrow. He told her. He tried to give her an assuring smile and continued with the analysis.
 
Oh my god, did he just tried to smile his way out of this? "Michael."
 
He looked up at her again, and she recognized the look he gave her. Like he was begging for her mercy, at least until he finished whatever it was he was doing. She wouldn't give it. She was beyond done with the Scofield topic avoidance tactics.
 
Silence. More silence. 
 
"Un fucking believable Michael!"
 
Michael looked at her as if she was talking foreign, and she started to wonder if she even wanted to discuss this topic with him. But then he got that wouned puppy look on his face again, and it occured to her that maybe, maybe he really didn't know what she was getting at. Maybe Michael Jeffrey Scofield, creative genius and world savior, was like any other man when it came down to some things. Maybe even worse. Probably worse. For reasons she couldn't quite grasp her heart suddenly constricted with love and she put her magazine down and sat down next to him. He looked at her, still questoningly, and she put his laptop aside and settled in the crook of his arm, putting her head on his shoulder. He carefully reached for a strand of her hair and put it behind her ear. She closed her eyes for a second and breathed in his touch, his warmth. Then she sat up and looked him in the eyes.
 
"I was wondering, Michael, if you ever think about kids? Wait, before you...About having kids."
 
"I...do you?"
 
"Michael."
 
"Sometimes."
 
She wanted to jump up in joy and raise a flag of victory but instead she didn't move and calmly encouraged him to continue talking.
 
"I don't think everybody's meant to have children."

 Sara's eyes grew wide and suddenly she wished she never mentioned the subject. Suddenly she was afraid. She swallowed unexpected, upcoming tears and tried to control her voice. "Michael, I...I know I made mistakes, but the addictions are in he past. I would never..."
 
"Sara, I didn't mean...I have no doubt you'll make a great mother."
 
Then realisation hit her. "And you'll be a great father, Michael." He looked away and she took his face in her hands and forced him to look at her. "You will. Why would you doubt that?"

 "It's just that..." He sat up, folded his hands together in that all too familiar way and stared at the ground, avoiding her gaze again. "You read these stories, how people that have been...How some people that haven't been ...treated well as kids, that have been... abused or... How they have trouble loving their, how they get bitter or depressed or mistreat their own children. It's just...I don't....I think that children should be raised in a loving and stable environment, you know. You have to be able to absolutely guarantee that. I just don't..."

 Sara put her hand on his, stopping his fidgeting. Then she looked him in the eyes. "Michael, listen to me. You will never be bitter, or abusive or anything else like that, okay? God, I mean, after everything we've been through don't you think you would be those things by now if you had them in you? You were always the one talking about optimism, hope and faith, rememeber? Even when I had none left."

 He stayed silent and looked away again.

 "Michael?"

 "You just never know. I don't think these people knew.."

 "Yes Michael, you can. I can. I do. There's not even a little part of me that believes that you'll be capable of anything like that. You're not Michael, and I can't believe...I can't believe you can't see that."

 "It's not that I think I will, Sara, but ...what if I do want to? What if there's this dark space.."

 "No, Michael, I know you, and it hurts me that you think like this about yourself. Okay? Come here." He leaned back again until she cradled his head in her lap, running her fingers over his short hair. They lay like that in silence for what seemed like hours, until he suddenly spoke up.

 "I've always liked the name George."

 She let out a small laugh. "George? Really? Not for my baby, Scofield."

 "What's wrong with George?"

 "Nothing, it's just so...civillian."

 "Well, then what do you suggest, Miss Tancredi?"

 She looked up and smiled. "I don't know. Something more exotic. Maybe Naima."

 "But it's going to be a boy, you know that right?"

 "You don't know that."

 He looked up at her with a mischievous grin. "I do, actually. The man determines gender, you should know that, doctor Tancredi."

 "Oh yeah?" she replied playfully, catching his drift. "And how do you intend on doing that?"

 "Well, you see, the act of making babies starts with a kiss..."
 


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