Hey everyone! Guess what? I'm back! I have been getting PMs at least once a week since I finished "As It Seems" asking me to write something new and it's humbling and overwhelming and I'm eternally grateful that you've enjoyed my writing this much. I do have a story in the works, but at the moment, it's still in the planning stage, so until that hits an internet browser near you, here's something that I've been wanting to do for a long time. A series-length trip through Michael and Sara's brains.

This story will develop episode by episode. Some of the chapters will be short and to the point; others will be a bit longer. As we progress through the seasons, it will branch off and include more background scenes (i.e. some chapters may be read as "deleted scenes" and the like), though the first season will stick pretty strictly to what happened onscreen. I don't mean to say that this story will be AU or OOC or anything; I plan on following the show's canon and, as much as I'd like for Michael to sail off into the sunset at the end, we all know he doesn't. But until we reach that point, let's sit back, relax, and enjoy! Or tell me if it sucks, honestly, because I will scrap it and continue on with the other story I have planned.

I hope my explanation wasn't too confusing. Feel free to review or PM with any questions and I'll try to clear them up!

Pilot

For the most part, prison is everything Michael Scofield had imagined it would be. There are screaming fits and fisticuffs and racial slurs that suggest he's officially left the corporate world behind. The bathroom in his flat is bigger than the cell he's now residing in and he hasn't tasted food this bad since he tried to make ramen noodles in a Pyrex back at Loyola. The COs have the combined intelligence level of a flea and a hunger for power and control likened to that of Mussolini or Hitler. He's sure he's lucked out with his cellmate, though. With all the horror stories he's heard of cellmates beating each other half to death or sexually assaulting one another, Michael is sure he's hit the jackpot with Fernando Sucre.

But he doesn't plan on serving more than a few weeks of his five-year sentence, so he immediately gets down to business. He's positive he'll be able to get Sucre onboard with his escape plan; the way he speaks of his love for this Maricruz and his excitement over their impending marriage suggests to Michael that Sucre would not hesitate to join him. The other two signature figures in the plan, the transportation and the capital- Abruzzi and Westmoreland- may be a bit more difficult to acquire. And, of course, getting to Lincoln may prove to be a struggle. But as long as he has daily access to that infirmary, they should be out of here in less than a month.

He scratches down that he has type 1 diabetes when they ask of any pressing medical conditions and soon enough, he's brought to the infirmary for a consultation. As he waits for the doctor to arrive, he attempts to recall in an instant everything he'd learned about Sara Tancredi. A Northwestern grad, a humanitarian, a woman who dedicated her life to helping others and living by the teachings of Gandhi. And, of course, the big one- the governor's daughter. From everything he's read, she's the polar opposite of her father, a man who rejoices when even the smallest criminals are captured and tried. He can't help but anticipate greatly his first meeting with her. He'll have to turn on the charm, to create a friendship where there shouldn't be one, so these daily medical visits aren't painfully dull or awkward.

She enters the room, greets him and gets to work. She's no-nonsense already and Michael is impressed. Maybe she has more in common with her father than he'd previously thought. But when she sits before him and reaffirms that she isn't like her father when Michael brings him up ("I believe in being a part of the solution, not the problem."), he cannot deny this is true. It's when she looks at him, really looks at him for the first time, that he feels it. Her eyes are a delicate hazel, a stunning mix of green and brown and gold, like a cat's eye marble, glassy and smooth. He feels something burn low in his stomach and he's not sure what it is. But he douses it with the charm act when he next says,

"Be the change you want to see in the world."

She's still looking at him as if he's glimpsed a piece of her soul. He asks, "What?"

"Nothing," She smirks. "That was just my senior quote."

"That was you?" Michael jokes. "This whole time I was thinking it was Gandhi."

She chuckles, then, because it's probably the lamest joke she's heard in a while. But still, she tells him, "You're very funny."

As she stands and leaves the room, Michael watches her go, a part of him already lamenting the fact that he'd used such an act on her. Her smile had brightened the entire room, had lifted his spirits and filled him with a kind of joy he hadn't felt in a while and was sure he wouldn't feel for quite some time.

After all, he hadn't expected to find so much happiness and light and joy behind the walls of a prison.

"Maybe we met before. Drunk, out at a bar somewhere."

"I would've remembered."

Given her past, Sara's not sure that's true, but she likes to think that if a partying, stumbling college version of herself had run into someone as intelligent or dare-she-say attractive as Michael Scofield, she would certainly remember the encounter. She isn't going to say Michael's appearance isn't appealing to her, but it's wrong and she knows what he's trying to do and she isn't going to fall for it. She's not an idiot; she and Katie are the only females in an entire prison full of male COs, nurses and inmates, she's used to the vulgarity and sexual innuendos spewing from every foul-mouth in this place. There is nothing Michael could try that she hasn't already heard or dealt with.

His glucose level is dangerously low and that is strange considering he's supposedly diabetic. He remains calm, composed and collected as she asks after any side effects he may experiencing and she has to say, she hasn't noticed any yet. But administering insulin to someone who can functionally produce their own is lethal and she has nothing against Michael; she certainly doesn't want to kill him. He consents to the tests she wishes to run, but Sara notices something flicker in his eye. Irritation? Fear? Panic? She isn't sure; it's gone too quickly. But as he leaves, she's sure she spots his hands shaking.

She goes about her day as usual but she can't seem to get Michael out of her head. There's certainly something strange about his medical condition and even stranger about his reaction. Sara only wishes that was all she was thinking about. The fact that he had known her senior quote seemingly out of the blue had been weird; the fact that he has a master's degree in engineering and graduated from a school close to her own had been even weirder. She's not sure why she finds him so interesting; surely he's not the first well-off guy to snap and switch to the dark side. But there is something about him, something she can't quite place her finger on, that sets him apart from the rest.

He's here for five years. She has time to figure it out.