Chapter Four - 1 hour later
Steve had been back at the site and looking diligently for Jaime for 45 minutes when the OSI search team arrived. He shuddered when he saw they had the cadaver dogs. Dead - Jaime? His mind couldn't wrap around it. She'd been part of his life for longer than Steve could remember. He watched for a few minutes as the team removed the bodies of the guards so the dogs could search more efficiently, then he turned and began his own search - all over again.
------------
In Oscar's office, Rudy was trying to set aside his own grief to care for his friend. Oscar hadn't lifted his head from the desk in the last hour. "She's dead, Rudy, and I killed her," he mumbled without looking up.
"You know that's not true."
"It's my fault. Steve wanted to go alone; he could've handled it. Why did I have to make her go, too?"
"You gave her the option to turn it down, and Jaime chose to go. You can't blame yourself."
Oscar's sobs began again, fresh, still silent, but involving his entire body. "Jaime...I'm so sorry."
Reluctantly, Rudy took a syringe from the pocket of his lab coat and stuck Oscar in the arm.
"Rudy - no - I need to be awake, when they call."
"I'll wake you the second there's any news," the doctor promised, helping him to the sofa. "In the meantime, you'll rest."
Oscar drifted off to sleep still forlornly whispering her name: "Jaime..."
------------
Three hours later, the dogs and their human counterparts had turned up nothing. "It could mean a couple of things," the leader explained to Steve. "She may have found a way out before the first bomb went off, or -"
"Or what?"
"Or - I'm sorry, Colonel - but there may simply be no body left to find. The building was completely destroyed. She was at the center of the explosion, a lot closer than any of the guards, and you saw what kind of shape they were in."
"So - you're giving up?"
"Twelve men and four dogs have combed every millimeter of the area. It's time. I'm truly sorry."
Steve pulled the leader's clipboard from his hands and read the last sentence. Probable death due to fragmentation/explosion. Steve dropped the clipboard as though it was on fire and took off blindly into the woods. He ran for miles, but the pain and guilt never lessened. He saw Jaime's face in every leaf, every wildflower and every cloud.
He circled the entire forest and finally came to rest beneath a huge tree at the edge of the debris field. Dejected, exhausted and overcome by grief, Steve gave the giant tree a good, solid kick at the base of its massive trunk and then sank to the ground. Suddenly, he heard a low, soft moan, coming from somewhere over his head. He looked up but saw only the branches and leaves of the mammoth tree. Zeroing in with his eye, Steve saw something that made his heart sing: a foot, dangling over a very large forked branch, wearing Jaime's shoe! Another moan told him it wasn't just her foot - Jaime was alive!
Steve hadn't climbed a tree since childhood, but almost instantly he had climbed over 40 feet in the air. Jaime was caught somehow in the fork of the branch, unconscious and badly bruised, but - yes! - alive. After securing his own footing, he began to gently untangle her from the spot where she'd been trapped for more than five hours. She'd landed with her left arm beneath her and that arm was what had kept her there. It was wedged firmly in the crux of the fork, twisted sideways and obviously badly broken. As he tried to gently dislodge her arm, Jaime began thrashing wildly from the pain and Steve thought she was about to knock them both to the ground. He also heard an ominous 'crack'. In fighting him, fighting the pain, she had made the break even more serious, and her arm remained firmly stuck.
While Steve was gathering his thoughts and regaining his balance, Jaime's eyes fluttered open. "Steve," she said weakly, "what are you doing in my tree?" She wasn't coherent or entirely awake. Within seconds, her eyes drifted closed again.
Steve gazed at her face with deep tenderness. "Sweetheart," he began, knowing she probably couldn't hear him, "how 'bout we both get the hell out of your tree?" He got a firm grip on Jaime with his left (flesh and blood) arm, and with his right, he grabbed the branch just a little further toward the tree than where she was stuck and broke it off. He transferred his hold on Jaime and the branch to his right arm and jumped out and down. His legs acted like shock absorbers when he hit the ground, shielding Jaime from the force of the drop.
Steve knew it would be better for Jaime if he set her down right there, since he was unsure of the extent of her injuries, but he was extremely aware of the fact that they were still in an enemy area. Jostling her as little as possible, he made his way back to the safe house, laid her gently on the bed and picked up the phone.
------------
Oscar didn't stir at the sound of the phone; he was still out from the sedative Rudy had given him. Rudy was about to answer, but Callahan was at her desk and picked it up instead. Seconds later, she appeared at the office door. Her eyes were red-rimmed from spending the last several hours in tears, but she was crying no longer. "Rudy - you're gonna want to get him up. It's Steve, and it's good news!"
This penetrated Oscar's drug induced fog, and he reached the phone even before Rudy. "Steve? What is it?"
"I've got her, Oscar! I've got Jaime!"
Relief flooded Oscar's entire heart and soul. "Is she...ok?"
"She's pretty banged up, might be serious, but she's alive, Oscar!"
Oscar turned to Rudy. "He found her! She's hurt, but she's alive!" To Steve, he said "I'll get a MediVac in the air right away; shouldn't be more than 20 minutes. Great work, Pal!"
