The Vacation

Chapter One

The vision was startling. Jaime stood frozen in the doorway, tears streaming silently down her face, while the woman Steve was making love to – the one who, up until this moment, he'd thought was Jaime – threw her head back and began to laugh. He stretched as far as he could, but couldn't quite reach the 'Real Jaime' and as he watched in mute, paralyzed horror, she slowly began to fade away...and disappear.

Steve woke up so quickly that, at first, he didn't know where he was. Vacation – as he became more alert, he tried to reassure himself. This was a vacation; Jaime was safe and asleep in the next room and Lisa Galloway was back in prison, where she belonged. He and Jaime were spending two weeks in an idyllic, private paradise, hoping to re-connect but also desperately needing to heal. Lisa's escape from prison and her seduction of Steve – under the guise of being Jaime, of course – had shaken both Steve and Jaime to the very cores of their souls.

It was still the middle of the night, their first night together on the island, but Steve knew that sleep had just become out of the question. Resigning himself to beginning the day early, he trudged into the kitchen to start the coffee.

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Jaime, unable to move or speak, could only watch as Steve pleasured a woman with her face and her voice – but it was definitely not her body Steve was doing that to! He seemed oblivious to her presence in the doorway, completely entranced by the pseudo-Jaime. Jaime-in-the-Doorway threw her head back for a blood-curdling scream...but there was only silence.

Just like Steve, Jaime woke suddenly and with no chance for any further rest. She sat in bed for a few minutes, trying to shake the ugly images from her mind. The smell of fresh coffee lured her back to reality, so she dressed quickly and headed for the kitchen. She caught a glimpse of Steve at the table, and for a split-second her mind flashed back onto the image of Steve and Lisa, on the floor of Steve's living room, naked...

NO – Jaime shook her head and forced the picture away. "Good morning," she said in a soft, pleasant voice.

Steve smiled. "Dream?" he asked, getting up to pull a chair out for her.

"Yeah. Not one I cared to have again, so...I'm up."

"Me too," he told her, resting a gentle hand on her shoulder as he handed her a mug of coffee. "I put your cocoa in it for you; just had a feeling you might be up."

"Thank you." Jaime returned the smile, her eyes meeting his and staying there. It still startled her at times, how well he knew her. Whatever she was thinking, wanting or needing, usually Steve understood; he got her. It was equally startling to Jaime that a few minutes of the worst ugliness imaginable had somehow triggered the feelings she'd thought were gone forever. The intensity of what they'd shared in the past had hit her full-force, like a freight train straight to her heart.

Those feelings had never dimmed in Steve's heart, and he had been there to recognize the moment they had re-entered Jaime's. She had looked up at him and as soon as their eyes met, he knew he was once again looking at his Jaime. Unfortunately, 'his' Jaime had just witnessed one of the blackest moments in either of their lives. When Steve realized he was with Lisa, not Jaime, his heart had broken as completely as Jaime's. His fervent hope was that the pieces could still fit back together.

The trouble was, neither one of them had any idea where to start. They were well beyond the small talk stage, but (as Jaime had pointed out to Rudy during the last of her tests) it was hard to talk about 'Steve and Jaime' and ignore the elephant in the middle of the room.

"Wanna go out and watch the sunrise?" Jaime suggested. "...in a couple of hours?"

Steve chuckled. "We could always stargaze 'til then." But I'd rather gaze at you...

"I'll get the blanket."

Jaime spread the blanket out on the warm sand, right beside the waterline. As they eased themselves into comfortable spots, Steve enfolded her in his arms, and she leaned back against him, sighing happily. "This is so comfortable," she whispered, tilting her head at just the right angle to kiss him. Jaime thought to herself that she could sit exactly that way forever.

Steve would definitely not have minded. They had some very serious talking to work their way through, but – for the moment at least – all was right with the world.

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