Head On

Chapter One

It happened too fast; there was no time to swerve out of the way or even slam on the brakes. Jaime had been distracted, daydreaming about her upcoming wedding and wondering what her new assignment might be, as she steered the blue Datsun down the winding road toward OSI-Los Angeles, but even if her mind had been fully on the road she'd have had no chance. The oncoming car veered into her lane at the last possible second and a collision was unavoidable. Perhaps it was a blessing that she never knew what hit her.

Investigators were already swarming the crash site as Jaime was loaded, unconscious, into the waiting ambulance. It was obvious a second car had been involved, judging from the second set of skid marks and the gouge in a nearby tree, but the mangled Datsun was the only vehicle they found.

Chris Williams' car screeched to a halt and he hit the ground running, catching the last paramedic just before the ambulance doors closed.

"Are you Chris?" the medic asked. Chris nodded, still trying to catch his breath and make sense of it all. "Your number was in her wallet. You can ride with us, but we have to go now."

"How is she?" Williams asked as he quickly climbed aboard. His breath caught in his throat as he saw the answer for himself. Jaime was lying on the gurney, so motionless and silent that she didn't look alive. Her head (all he could see right now) was covered with bruises, welts...and blood.

"We're taking her to National," the medic told him. "Her doctor's name was in her wallet, too; he's meeting us there."

Rudy and his team were waiting just inside the doors of the ambulance bay. When he saw his gravely injured patient, his face paled and he sprang into immediate action. As the crew ran to the elevator with the gurney in tow, Rudy noticed Chris off in a corner, looking shocked and beyond grief. He took a moment to try and comfort him with a fatherly arm across his shoulders.

"I have to get up to the OR," he told Williams, "but Oscar's here; he's up in my office, if you'd like to join him." Chris nodded, too stunned to speak, and headed for the stairs at the end of the hall.

- - - - - -

Jaime was in surgery for most of the night, and the sun was beginning to rise before a weary Rudy joined Chris and Oscar, who were on their third pot of coffee. His face was grim.

"She's alive," he said quietly, "but that's the only good news I have."

"How bad...?" was all Chris could manage.

"She's suffered massive blunt force trauma...we were able to arrest the bleeding into her brain and repair some of the damage, but Jaime's deeply comatose. I can't tell you when – or even if – she might regain consciousness."

"Can I see her?" Chris asked numbly.

"They're taking her to ICU now; you can meet them there. I'll be down in a few minutes."

Rudy waited until Chris was out of hearing range before delivering the rest of his news. "You'd better call Jim and Helen," he told Oscar.

Oscar nodded sadly. "There's someone else I should probably call first." Rudy raised a questioning eyebrow. "Steve would want to be here," Oscar explained. "You know that."

"But Jaime and Chris are engaged; do you think it's wise -?"

"He'll know where to reach Jim and Helen. Besides, if we don't call him and Jaime..." Oscar couldn't bring himself to say the word 'dies'. Like Chris, he couldn't absorb the possibility. "If something happens to her...and he wasn't notified, he'll never forgive us."

Oscar picked up the receiver, then sighed, replaced it and ran his hands over his face in sheer frustration. "I have absolutely no idea how to tell him about this..."

- - - - - -

Chris paced slowly across the floor of Jaime's cubicle and back again, stopping every few minutes to stare at the woman he loved and to choke back his tears. He wanted more than anything to take her into his arms, hold her close and somehow make this all go away, but he was afraid to even touch her – she looked so fragile. As each hour went by, he could almost feel her gradually slipping away.

They'd been so happy, less than 48 hours ago, when they'd spent hours planning their wedding over a candlelit dinner. It didn't seem possible that the same vibrant, beautiful woman who'd sat across from him, smiling radiantly at his every word, was now lying so close to death. Chris paused in his lonely trek across the floor to whisper private, tender words of love in Jaime's ear and as he stood up again, he was shocked by the appearance in the doorway of the one person he hadn't expected to see.

Steve stood just outside the cubicle, his face mirroring the anguish Chris felt down to the core of his soul. Chris nodded, allowing him entry, and Steve moved slowly to the bed, gazing down at Jaime and then having to turn away and close his eyes – the pain was simply too much to bear. Wordlessly, the two men walked out to the hallway together. For the moment, they weren't rivals for the same woman's affections. They were two men sharing an identical sense of loss, but neither one of them had any idea what to say.

- - - - - -