HEALING- Season 4, Episode 9

Chapter 1

Steve looked at Jaime (nestled next to him) with a smile in his eyes. They'd been home from the hospital for just over six hours and (except for a quick break for meds and a bite to eat) had spent the entire time exactly like this...or even closer. ''You cold?'' he asked.

''Definitely not.''

''I'd have to agree with you there,'' he chuckled.

The phone rang and they both ignored it, until Jaime gasped. ''Mark!'' (It had stopped ringing.)

''You forgot my name...already?'' Steve teased. ''And after what we just did?'' It started ringing again, more intrusively (if that was possible) and Steve picked it up. ''Hi Mark,'' he greeted - not waiting to find out who it was because the OSI's resident PTSD expert had promised to call them...and in the afterglow, they'd simply forgotten. ''Jaime?'' he said (winking at her). ''I...uh...think she might be asleep already. Hang on; I'll go check.'' (Jaime suppressed a giggle as Steve covered the mouthpiece, waited what he thought was a convincing amount of time, then got back on the line.) ''Yeah; she's out like a light.''

Jaime couldn't resist listening in. ''Well, good,'' Mark told Steve. ''And how are you holding up?''

''Took my meds on schedule; Jaime made sure of it.''

''Great work, Jaime,'' Mark praised softly.

''Thank you,'' she said from right beside Steve...giving herself away.

She needn't have worried; Mark knew (or at least strongly suspected) and it made him smile. He was relieved that if his patients (and friends) should need help in the middle of the night, with nightmares or just to have someone to talk to, they were within arm's reach (or less) of each other. ''I'll see you in the morning for coffee,'' he reminded them both. ''I'll bring the donuts.''

Steve spent a good portion of the night just watching Jaime sleep. She is SO beautiful he marveled to himself..and she looks so...fragile. Steve's mind dragged him back to the early morning he'd been forced to chain her to the railing of a rotted, crumbling roller coaster...and then leave her there, unsure if either of them would still be alive when the sun came up. Mark Conrad had hit it on the head when he'd said that by virtue of their bionics, Steve and Jaime had a tendency to feel invincible...making helplessness an especially foreign and disorienting feeling. And they had both been completely helpless that morning! Even with the squibs and smoke bombs going off all around them he could still see Jaime's face; the devastation and hopelessness in her eyes had been more than Steve thought he could bear. Even now, the memory jolted him like a punch to his heart.

Steve covered Jaime with a quilt in an almost subconscious gesture to keep her safe and warm...and then got out of bed. Sleep was out of the question. Instead, he made a pot of coffee and sat out on the back porch swing, staring up at the stars. He hadn't seen stars that night, through the smoke and confusion. He tried to focus on the sky now, especially on the moon and the way it had looked when he'd first set foot on it. Anything to try and rid himself of the horrific images playing in a rapid-fire slide show in his head. Helpless was such an awful feeling! Jaime had been forced to fight Kingsley at the top of the coaster's turnaround - 90 feet up, for their very lives - and there had been nothing he could do to help her! He couldn't begin to imagine how awful the climb up that hill had been for Jaime, having to pull her depleted body up such a steep incline, fighting off that monster with every inch she gained.

Steve had wished he wasn't 'blessed' with his eye's ability to focus in as the pair reached the top and began their battle for survival. His gun had been out and ready but he'd been unable to get off a clear shot until the very end because the pair up there on the hill had been jockeying for solid footing, circling each other in a grim death match. When he'd finally been able to fire - to hit his target - it was already over. According to the Coroner's report, Kingsley might have died (eventually) from the gunshot wound...but it had been the fall - headfirst, over the railing - that had killed him. Technically he had died at Jaime's hand but it was a true case of kill or be killed in the middle of a war zone that Kingsley himself had designed and created. Steve hoped that when Jaime learned of the report's contents she would see it that way too. They were waiting for her to ask; then they'd tell her the truth. She already had too much on her plate for anyone to attempt to process and deal with!

The moon...think of the moon.Its beauty...peacefulness...its complete and utter desolation...

There really was no escaping the slide show in his head. Steve went back inside and checked on Jaime. She was still sleeping peacefully, a smile on her face.

For the first time in too long, a meeting was finally held in the conference room at OSI-Los Angeles, instead of in Rudy's office at National Medical. ''I just got off the phone with Michael Marchetti,'' Russ began. ''The last of Kingsley's victims who were given Michael's 'concussive compound' were released from National an hour ago. Prognosis excellent for all of them. Rudy's being kept a few more days though, just to make sure his heart rhythms stay normal.''

''Maybe I'll have to consider having Marchetti give his compound to my people as well,'' Jack Hansen responded. Whether he'd been unsure of the compound's ethics (as he'd claimed) or was simply too stubborn to go along with the OSI's solution was unclear...but he'd kept half a dozen of his 'penguin suits' confined in a locked ward for more than a week now, waiting to see if the effects of Cobra's mind control device would simply 'wear off'.

''Maybe you should've done that a week ago,'' Oscar said pointedly.

''In any case,'' Hansen continued, ''the rest of my teams made a final sweep of the amusement park yesterday. They located two devices, one the size of a portable television, equipped with barrel and trigger mechanisms, and the other about the size of a datacom. It's unclear exactly what they were supposed to be for, but in the interest of inter-agency unity, Oscar, we'll turn them over to your labs for examination.''

Oscar raised an eyebrow in surprise, then nodded his thanks. ''I'm sure Rudy would love to take a crack at those, once he's feeling up to it.'' It would give his dear friend something to focus on while his body and mind grew strong again. ''Mark Conrad is on his way to check in with Steve and Jaime,'' Oscar concluded. ''So far. It sounds like they're dealing about as well as can be expected: a little stronger every day. So it seems like things are finally looking up - for everyone.''