Chapter Three - 10/10/78 - 6:30pm

Jaime and Oscar, back from Paris that morning, were relaxing in the den when the phone rang. Oscar reached over and picked up the receiver.

"Hello?"

"So, what's the idea, getting married without so much as a phone call to one of your best friends and your favorite employee?"

"Hi, Steve. Hang on; I'll give you to Jaime." Oscar was not pleased.

"No - wait," Steve told him. "I wanted to talk to you. Two things: First, congratulations." He sounded sincere, and Oscar's emotional temperature dropped a few degrees. "You've got a good woman there, Boss, and I know you'll always take care of her."

"You can bet on that -"

"Yeah. And I wish both of you nothing but happiness. You both deserve it."

"Thank you, Pal. I appreciate that."

"The other reason I called is, I was wondering if the two of you could meet me for breakfast tomorrow on your way to the office. There's someone I want you to meet."

The two men agreed on a time and a place and hung up the phone. Jaime looked at her husband quizzically. "He didn't even wanna say 'hi' to me?"

"Disappointed?"

"Curious," she corrected. "So what was that all about?"

"I have no idea." He pulled her onto his lap and blazed a trail of kisses that started with Jaime's lips and moved on to her neck, throat, ear and nape. "Now...how 'bout we work on making you a candidate for retirement?"

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10/11/78 - 7:30am

Steve met Jaime and Oscar outside the diner they'd chosen because it served the best breakfasts in DC. He'd already grabbed a corner booth inside, but wanted to greet them privately before they met his 'guest.' He was careful to greet Oscar first, guessing (correctly) that his boss would be feeling territorial seeing his new wife face-to-face with her former lover.

The two men shook hands warmly, double-handed, and then Steve turned to Jaime. He was taken aback by the dramatic changes he saw in her. She'd matured so much and carried herself with new confidence and joy, and Steve was genuinely happy for her. Mindful of Oscar's eyes on him, Steve smiled broadly at her and took her hand, holding it without shaking it.

"Congratulations, Jaime. It's great to see you so happy; Oscar must be taking good care of you."

"He is. And thank you." She stepped over into Oscar's waiting arm.

"I don't know if he told you," Steve said, "but there's someone inside I really want you both to meet."

When they walked into the diner, Oscar was still watching Steve, but Jaime noticed the woman in the corner booth immediately. She was beautiful, but seemed in many ways to be the Anti-Jaime: deeply tanned skin and very dark hair and eyes. As they got closer to the booth, Oscar saw her, too, and stopped dead in his tracks, looking as though he was seeing a ghost. His gentle but firmly extended arm stopped Jaime as well.

Steve, looking happily at the woman, didn't notice his friend's reaction. "Jaime, Oscar, I'd like you to meet my fiancee -" he turned to them and saw the cold, wary look in Oscar's eyes. His boss uttered just one word:

"Natalia..."

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Five Minutes Later

"Would you care to tell me what the hell that was all about?" Jaime had never seen that side of Oscar in the two years she'd known him, and as they sped away from the diner toward his office, she was fuming, and more than a little frightened.

"Jaime, that woman and I have a bit of a history -"

"I figured that out for myself when you knew her name." She realized suddenly that there were huge facets of her husband's life that she knew nothing about. "What is it, Honey? Who is she?"

They pulled into the OSI garage and Oscar turned off the car. "I knew her seven years ago. She's the daughter of a Russian diplomat, and she came here - to my office - saying she wanted to defect." Jaime was silent, letting him take his time. "We became...involved. Later, she told me she wanted to work for me, that she'd been with a group of rebels who were trying to overthrow the Russian government. She said she realized she'd been wrong, and she wanted to help save the government, by defeating the rebels from our side."

"And - you helped her?" Jaime asked softly.

"I did. Her defection was approved, I arranged protection for her and..." his voice trailed off.

"And?" Jaime prompted. Then a realization hit her like a giant mallet to her heart. "You - were in love with her."

Oscar closed his eyes, wishing the conversation would disappear, but of course, it didn't. He opened them and looked at Jaime. "I thought I was," he said sadly, "but she made that irrelevant."

"What happened, Honey?"

"One day, she was just gone."

"Back to Russia?"

"I don't know. She'd either changed her mind or never planned to defect at all. Never saw or even heard from her again."

"Oscar, I'm sorry; I know how hard that must've been for you."

"It was my own fault. She played me for a sucker and I bought it."

"Well, I think that's understandable -"

"Jaime -"

"I mean, look at her -"

"Jaime -"

"She probably played the helpless female to -"

"Jaime, she's my wife."