Chapter Eleven

When they walked onto the tennis court and Steve handed Jaime a racket, she held it like a foreign object that she'd never seen before, waving it back and forth more like a golf club than anything else. Steve modeled the proper grip for her but she still didn't quite get it right, so he stood behind her with his hands over her own and held her racket with her. It was almost like holding her in his arms, but Steve was careful to keep his emotions in check...outwardly, at least. He swung the racket with her a few times and then reluctantly released her and stepped away.

Jaime looked to be deep in thought. Steve watched her carefully, on the alert for the slightest sign of trouble or pain. She made a few tentative swings on her own, then stopped. "Are you sure I used to be good at this?" she queried.

"One of the top five in the world," he told her.

Jaime's eyes grew wide...with doubt. "Seriously?" Rudy and Michael had told her she'd been a world-class player, but had apparently left that detail out.

"Few more tournaments and you'd probably have been Number One."

"Oh."

"Hey," he began, trying to jolly her out of a suddenly somber mood, "there's a lot to be said for playing for fun, too, ya know." He started to make his way to the other side of the net. "Let's see what you can do." He stepped back and sent her an easy volley – and she swung wildly, golf club-style again, missing by several feet. He sent a second ball directly to her...and she missed again.

Steve watched as Jaime's jaw set firmly in that stubborn way that he knew so well. He waited. She raised the racket to the proper height and bit her lip. "I can do this, you know," she insisted.

"I know. You ready?"

"Almost." She made a few swings at waist height, but her arm stopped at the midpoint.

"Make sure you follow through," he called to her, demonstrating. "Swing it all the way from back to front and you'll send the ball flying."

"Okay – hit me another one!" she demanded, clenching her jaw even tighter. Steve sent another slow, easy one right to her – and this time, Jaime hit it...directly into the net. "Dammit!"

"Need a little break?" Steve asked gently.

"No!" Jaime told him (not so gently). "I'm gonna DO this!"

Steve chuckled inwardly. Memory or no memory, Jaime still had the same set to her jaw that he'd learned not to argue with back when they were teenagers. "Okay – get ready then," he told her. He served another one, with just a touch more power this time; if it hit her racket harder, maybe that would help her get a bit more distance and at least make it over the net. Jaime tensed, swung – and connected. The ball flew back across the net so hard and so fast that Steve ducked. Instead of hitting the court, it continued soaring through the air...straight through the back fence, the next court over.

Jaime stood stunned, and slowly lowered her racket to the ground. "I guess...I hit it," she said softly.

"I guess you did," Steve agreed, rejoining her and picking up her racket. "How about if we go for a walk and maybe work on channeling that strength a little bit better?"

Jaime looked at him, over to the hole in the fence and then back at Steve. "Yeah, that'd probably be good," she agreed. 'Then maybe someday we can try this again?"

"Deal," he promised. He wrapped a friendly arm across her shoulders (instead of a lover's arm around her waist) and led Jaime off the court.

* * *

With a couple of bottles of soda from the machine outside the courts, Steve and Jaime took a leisurely stroll down to the river that ran behind Rudy's complex.

"I love the water," Jaime said as she settled into the grass.

"I..." Steve started to say 'I know' but didn't want Jaime to think they were more familiar than just friends, so he switched gears midstream. "I do, too," he told her instead.

"It helps me think sometimes," she admitted.

"Thinking about anything special?"

Jaime took a healthy swig of her soda. "I suck at tennis."

"You're still learning. I guarantee you'll get better at it...if you want to, that is."

Jaime sighed. "I just want to be me," she told him. "But I don't even know who 'me' is!"

"I do. Do you want me to tell you who Jaime Sommers is?" Steve offered. Jaime nodded, staring out at the water as though she was afraid to hear what he might say. "Jaime is a beautiful, intelligent and very brave young woman who has been forced – through no fault of her own – into a whole new life. She's had to relearn everything from the ground up – and is doing a damn fine job of it, too."

"Yeah, right," Jaime scoffed.

"You know how many people in the same situation would curl up in a corner somewhere, too scared to move?" Steve pointed out.

"I guess." She ran her fingers through the grass, plucked a couple blades and tossed them into the water. "You've been so nice to me," she went on, "and I don't think you'd lie to me..."

"You're right. I wouldn't."

Jaime paused. "Can...can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Did the government pay for your bionics, too?" she wondered.

"Yes."

"And exactly what do they get for all that money? Do you work for Oscar?" Jaime asked.

Steve hadn't seen that coming! He heard Rudy's voice in his head: No details, Steve, just answer her questions and let Jaime lead the way. "Yes," he answered simply.

Jaime looked straight at him. "Do I work for Oscar, too?"

I don't think you'd lie to me, she'd just told him. Already, Steve was struggling to keep to that faith she had placed in him. "No," he told her, "you don't." At this very moment in time, that was, after all, the truth.

Jaime seemed to accept this. "So..." she said, switching gears, "how do I not make holes in fences?"

"You learn how to control the strength put out by your arm...and your legs. It's hard at first, but pretty soon you won't even have to think about it. If you need to bend a steel bar, you'll do it, and if you need to hold an egg in your hand – or hit a tennis ball across one court instead of two – you'll do that just as easily." He leaned down toward the water and picked out a couple of smooth stones, handing one to Jaime. "Do you know how to skip a stone?" he asked.

Jaime nodded. "Michael showed me."

Steve ignored the slight sting. "That's good," he said. "I want you to give that stone a nice, gentle toss, the way Michael showed you. Just let it skip across the water once or twice."

Jaime drew her wrist back and gave the stone a bit of a spin, sending it hopping twice across the water's surface before it sank. She looked at Steve expectantly, and he handed her another stone. "Now use all your strength and make that one hit the tree on the other side. Really wing it into the bark." He watched as Jaime's stone hit the tree dead-center. "Nice aim," he told her.

"That was easy!" Jaime crowed.

Steve handed her a third stone. "Try and land this one on the shore; don't hit the tree, and don't hit the water," he instructed. This time, the rock bounced slightly off of the bottom of the tree and rolled into the river. Jaime looked deflated. "That was really good," Steve assured her, placing one more in her hand. "Keep trying; you'll get it."

With the very next shot...she did.

* * * * *