Work Text:
When Michael's 6 years old in the back of the car, driving under a train cRosing bridge with a moving train on it, eyes squeezed shut tight, he wishes for true love. He wishes it not knowing that if you tell your wish, it won't come true. So when Linc asks, he tells him. Linc laughs and says it's impossible. Then he tells Michael about the not-telling-anyone-your-wish thing. Michael doesn't talk to him for the rest of the ride.
When he's 16 and lonely, he wishes for Linc's hands on his face, his lips on Michael's mouth, even just once. Even if it would mean nothing to Linc except proof that his brother is crazy. He wishes it badly, deeply, and guiltily. It will never, can never happen.
When he's 26, smack dab in the middle of breaking Linc out of Fox River, he wishes for things being easy. He wishes for things making sense. He wishes for some sort of peace in his life, or logic even.
He still hasn't gotten that wish.
When Sara dies, he wishes for her to be alive. He wishes it desperately, heart wrenchingly, and with all of his being. He wishes he had never made a wish before this, so that he might be able to wish harder, truer. Might somehow make the chances of this wish coming true much higher than all the others he ever made. He wishes until the word 'wish' barely means anything anymore. Until it's hardly more than a hopeless sound in his mind.
And then he wishes some more.
But it doesn't matter, because she's still gone, and he almost accepts it. Almost takes his revenge and attempts to move on, even though he knows now that it would be impossible.
And then his wish comes true.
Michael wished for true love when he was 6 years old in the back of his parents car, driving under a train bridge with a train on it, eyes squeezed shut tight, Linc sitting next to him, his life an open path leading anywhere he could dream of.
He remembers that.
He puts an arm around Sara's shoulders and she smiles at him, and it's beautiful like a sunrise.
It looks like more than one of his wishes came true.