Chapter Three

Sleep was out of the question for both of them, so Jaime made coffee and she and Steve sat on the sofa, not speaking much, but enjoying the comfort of just being together. Neither one wanted to 'burden' the other with details of their respective nightmares, but they soon discovered the one common thread that wove their dreams together.

"The really strange thing," Steve shared, breaking a long silence, "was right when things got really ugly, there was someone there who sort of...smoothed it over, I guess you'd say."

Jaime looked up at him in wonder. "Really? Who was it?"

"Your mother."

"Steve...she was in my dream, too!" Jaime sat up much straighter, her eyes wide. "That's gotta mean something!"

"Yeah, that Rudy's invention is trouble. She was trying to protect you, Sweetheart."

"Protect us, if you saw her, too."

"Well, I got the message, loud and clear," Steve insisted. "And in a couple of hours, we'll tell Rudy we want nothing to do with that machine."

Jaime sipped her coffee silently for a few minutes, then nearly bounced off the sofa cushion as a new idea hit her. "Steve – I just thought of something! What if I used Rudy's machine to go back to the day my parents died? I could stop them – I don't know how, but there'd have to be a way!"

"Jaime -" Steve had a rapidly-growing knot of fear in the pit of his stomach. He didn't like the sound of this...

"It could work! It will work, Steve! My parents don't have to die!"

- - - - - -

Steve kept a very close eye on Jaime for the rest of the night, and although her eyes glowed with excitement now, instead of fear and sadness, she said no more about the time machine. Before the sun was completely up over the horizon, they were in Steve's car and headed for OSI Headquarters to see Rudy, who often arrived even before Oscar did, to begin his day.

Surprisingly, Rudy's lab door was still closed and locked. "Let's check in with Oscar," Steve suggested, leading Jaime onto the express elevator.

"Looks like everybody slept in today," Jaime remarked, finding Oscar's inner office still dark, too. "Except us."

Steve nodded as he grabbed a piece of paper from Callahan's desk and fished around for a pen to leave a note. She was always so organized; he finally found one in the top drawer, neatly placed in its little groove, right where it belonged. He brought it to the paper and had just started to write 'Oscar – we stopped by to see you and Rudy. We'll -" Steve stopped abruptly at the sound of the elevator. "Morning, Sleepyhead," he began, believing it to be either Oscar or Callahan.

Steve was wrong. He was now standing alone. The elevator was going down, stopping at the basement level – Rudy's lab! - and Jaime was gone. He didn't wait for the elevator, but turned to the stairs, taking them an entire floor at a time. He moved bionically fast, but Jaime was on a personal mission and had a head start. By the time Steve reached the lab, Rudy was staring in bewilderment at the jimmied lock and the open door.

"Jaime did this," Steve said quickly. "Rudy, she's in the time machine!"

Rudy threw on the light switch and both men ran to the machine. "It's not ready yet!" Rudy protested. "We need more tests – she wouldn't...she couldn't!"

Steve saw the display on the computer monitor, and his heart sank. April 16, 1966. "Oh, yes, she could, Rudy. And she did."

- - - - - -

Jaime felt a rough, teeth-on-edge jarring sensation and found herself sitting up in bed – the bed she'd had when she was 16 years old! She felt strangely disoriented; she hadn't been sure what to expect, but had thought it would be similar to her dream, where she viewed events from the outside, but that she'd now be able to influence them directly instead of merely watching. Instead, she seemed to have ended up back in a 16-year-old's body, with absolutely no idea of what to do next.

Ann Sommers, from her other-worldly viewing point, was frantic. This was not supposed to happen – not by any stretch of Fate or the imagination! Would Jaime and Steve's doctor friend (with Steve's help) find a way to reverse this and stop Jaime's well-intended mistake, before it was too late...for all of them?

- - - - - -