(****This story follows 'Head-On' and 'Stranded', my first 2 Season Four stories. It begins immediately where 'Stranded' left off.)
Doubts, Danger...and Decisions Season 4, Episode 3 Chapter One
It was 2am and in his bed at National Medical Center, Steve was still unable to sleep. He wasn't in any pain; the replacement of his right arm had gone well and his injuries from the shipwreck were beginning to heal nicely. It should've been one of the happiest times in his life! ''Steve...I wanna be your wife,'' Jaime had told him that day. But it wasn't the excitement someone who was newly-engaged keeping him awake. Doubt and trepidation had unexpectedly reared their ugly heads and no matter what he told himself, Steve couldn't seem to shake off the gloom.
His heart should've been singing; instead, he was wondering what the day had even meant. ''Sweetheart, that's Boardwalk, Park Place and all the railroads all tied up in a big red bow!'' he had told her...and then they'd kissed and returned to their Monopoly game. What had Jaime really been saying...and what, exactly, had he agreed to? Were they even engaged at all...or simply in agreement that - one day - their hearts would head in that direction? Steve had gotten used to taking his cues from Jaime. Since the rehabilitation from her car accident, they'd had most of their best conversations over that Monopoly board - with Steve always taking great care to let Jaime call the shots. When she wanted to talk, they talked. Otherwise they played, just enjoying each other's company.
Should he have pressed the issue, firmed up an engagement (or at least clarified the situation) then and there? Maybe. But maybe...she was just too fragile. Jaime was fully healed from the crash that had nearly taken her life but in many ways she was like a newborn colt now, still trying to rise to her feet and find her footing. The crash had stolen so much from her! She was finally back up to her full bionic strength and (thanks in part to a vacation that had turned into a shipwreck) she was beginning to learn how to control that strength again. But the trauma inflicted on her mind - and her soul - were almost unimaginable! Jaime had been engaged to Chris Williams and was eagerly planning their wedding when her car was struck head-on, causing massive blunt-force trauma and near-catastrophic bleeding in her brain. She was deeply comatose for days and when she finally woke up, instead of reaching out for her fiance (Chris), Jaime had cried out...for Steve.
Steve had rushed to her side from his seat in the hallway and soon he, Rudy and especially Chris were horrified to learn that Jaime believed she was just waking up in the aftermath of her skydiving accident. Tiny bits and pieces of her post-bionic life (like her engagement to Steve) swirled around with newly-recovered memories that had previously seemed gone forever. Jaime's mind had become a hazy maelstrom of confusion and while she still realized that a wedding would have to be postponed, she believed that wedding was with Steve...and not with Chris. The situation was devastating for both men and - even more so - for Jaime. Steve and Chris had consulted with Rudy and (much the same as had happened between Steve and Michael once before), they'd all agreed it was best not to try and force things along.
Except Chris didn't keep his end of the bargain. Infuriated that his fiancee was leaning on someone else (Steve) for support and encouragement, Chris had stormed into her room and blurted out everything, virtually demanding that Jaime remember him! The effect was devastating all around. Jaime fearfully pulled even closer to Steve and the tenuous grip that Chris still had on his own sanity crumbled. He blurted out what the NSB had already begun to uncover - that HE had been behind the car crash that had so nearly killed his own fiancee! In his mind, he'd been fully justified since ''she wasn't supposed to get hurt.'' He had been looking toward leaving the CIA and had hoped to frighten Jaime enough that she'd put in for her own retirement...so they could live out their days together in the government's 'retirement community' for former agents. Instead, Chris would now be living out the rest of his days alone - in the worst Maximum Security prison the government had to offer.
And Jaime? She'd been left worse off in many ways than she'd been right after her skydiving accident. She was forced to try and come to terms with what had happened between herself and two very different men. She had no memory of her service to the OSI - and thus none of the training or experience that had taken her years to acquire. She had re-bonded with Rudy during the shipwreck (the vacation-that-wasn't, following her release from the hospital) but Oscar was still almost a stranger to her. And her relationship with Steve was a kaleidoscope of confusion. Her feelings for him had returned to where they'd been before and immediately after her skydiving accident...and yet everything had changed.
So, Steve asked himself for what seemed like the 937th time, what did Jaime really mean when she said she wanted to be my wife? Was he taking advantage of the situation by having agreed with her at all? She was healthy, strong and fit...and yet she'd probably never been more vulnerable.
His heart should've been doing cartwheels at the thought of regaining everything he'd stopped allowing himself to hope for...and yet Steve's world - instead of righting itself - had just tipped even further on its axis and threatened to spin firmly out of control.
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