Naked, except for a towel covering his buttocks, Steve was lying on his stomach on a portable massage table. Long gone were the bandages that had once covered the ends of his stumps and his shoulder joint. Scarred skin now covered those areas. The only bandage he now wore was the one covering his left eye.

Strong, but gentle, hands massaged his back. Steve was completely relaxed. "Mmm…Richie, my compliments on giving the best massages. I'm going to miss them."

"Well, that won't be for quite a while. I'm not going anywhere."

"Yeah, well I am. Tomorrow night I give my answer to Mr. Goldman and then I imagine I'll be shipped off to a VA hospital shortly thereafter."

"What are you talking about?"

"I've accepted my body and what's happened to me and, well, it's time to move on. I don't know what I'm going to do to keep myself occupied, but I'll figure it out."

Richie's jaw dropped. "You telling me that you're not going through with the bionic surgery?"

"That's right. I'm ready to get out of here and start living my life again, whatever that may be."

"Are you nuts?!" Richie hollered at Steve. "Have you completely lost your mind!?"

"Look, isn't this what you want your patients to do? To accept their bodies? To accept what happened to them? To go on living? Well, that's what I'm doing!"

"Yeah, but most of my patients don't get the opportunity to walk again dropped in their laps! Do you know how lucky you are? Do you know how many of my patients would kill to get the opportunity that you're getting? Don't throw it away, man!"

"You mean the opportunity to go through more surgery? The opportunity to be a guinea pig? The opportunity to have someone pulling my strings for the rest of my life? No thanks. I've made my mind up. I'm done with this place."

It was after dinner and Steve was resting comfortably in his bed when Rudy walked in. His jaw was tight and there was determination in his eyes. "Steve, we need to talk."

"Rudy, I'm done talking. I've already heard it from Richie this morning. I don't need to hear it from you too."

"Well, you're going to hear it. If I have to get Carla in here with the recorder and alpha wave machine, I'll do it. But I'd prefer this conversation be between the two of us."

Steve sighed.

"Steve, I don't understand. Don't you want to walk again?"

"Of course, I want to walk again, Doc. But I've got to be realistic. You can't guarantee that this is going to work."

"No, I can't give you a guarantee but isn't it worth taking the risk? Look, we've known each other quite a while and I'd like to think we can be straight with other, so I want you to tell it to me straight. Do you doubt my expertise as a doctor and scientist?"

"No, no." Steve shook his head. "I just…" He didn't know how to say it. "I just can't go through any more of this."

"I don't believe that for a minute. You've accomplished some amazing things in your life, Steve. You've done things most men can only dream of. You've walked on the moon! You've risked your life numerous times testing experimental aircraft! Now you're telling me that you can't handle this?"

"Those things weren't really that big of a deal," Steve said softly.

"Not that big of a deal?"

Steve couldn't hide his frustration. "Don't you see, Doc? Those things were easy for me. I've breezed through and have succeeded at almost everything I've ever tried! But this…this I can't breeze through."

"So you're giving up because it's hard? Steve, you're not giving yourself enough credit."

"I'm giving myself the exact credit I deserve! I can handle going to the moon and testing planes. But this happens to me and I fall apart. For god's sake, I wanted to kill myself, Rudy! I was catatonic for twelve weeks! Does that sound like a person who can handle this?!"

"It sounds like a person who is human, Steve. We're all flawed—even you. It sounds like you have a fear of failure."

Steve looked quizzically at Rudy. He had never been told that before. "Fear of failure?"

"Yes, it can sometimes happen to highly intelligent people. Everything they do, they succeed at. Everything comes easy to them. So they get a little too comfortable with their success and aren't willing to branch out and challenge themselves. Everyone sees them as a success and they are afraid to ruin that image and let themselves look like a beginner again. Hey, I get that. Did you know that I take ballet classes once a week?"

"Ballet classes?" Steve looked incredulously at Rudy.

"Yeah, and you know why I take those classes? Well, in part it's for the exercise, but it's also because I suck at ballet. I really do. I look like a complete fool. I have absolutely no grace or coordination."

Steve chuckled. "I'm imagining what you must look like in a tutu."

"Funny." Rudy smiled. "But it keeps me humble and reminds me that I'm not good at everything."

"I don't know, Doc. I used to bat tennis balls with a girl in high school that always beat me. I don't think that's my problem."

"No, your fear of failure is more about the fear of not being in control of your emotions. You've always been the most cool-headed, unflappable person I know. I think that's what contributed to making you so good at your job. You always had nerves of steel when you climbed into those cockpits. But remember when I told you a couple of weeks ago at our psych evaluation how you needed the evaluations now because of what you've gone through?"

"Yeah."

"Well, what you've gone through was so traumatic that it caused you to lose control of your emotions. And now you're scared—scared of losing control of them again. Look, Steve, you can choose to leave here and spend the rest of your life in a wheelchair. But I can guarantee you that you'll always wonder if you could have walked again if you had just said yes. Or you can take that chance and say yes. I can guarantee you that it's going to be the hardest thing you've ever done. There will be days when you'll be angry, frustrated, depressed, in pain, wondering if you made the right decision. But you'll come out of it a better man, Steve. Your mind needs bionics just as much as your body does."

The next morning Rudy came into Steve's room to check his vitals. "Your vitals look excellent. You're definitely strong enough for the next round of surgery if that's what you want." It was sort of a question, but not quite. Steve wasn't saying anything about what his decision would be and that was driving Rudy a bit crazy.

As Rudy started to leave, Steve finally spoke up. "Doc, do you trust Oscar Goldman?"

Rudy couldn't hide the surprise on his face. That was not a question he was expecting. "In short, yes," he replied. "But I didn't at first."

"What changed your mind?"

"Dr. Wilkinson, a colleague of mine who is a good friend and one of very few that I trust with my research, had shown my bionics project to Oscar. That's one reason I said yes to Oscar at first, especially since I had to give Oscar an answer immediately. He was having you shipped to Colorado the next morning. But that evening I began to have doubts so I called Dr. Wilkinson. He told me that he had worked on several projects for Oscar over the years. He told me what kind of man Oscar was—a bureaucrat who always tries to do the right thing, an honorable man in a business that isn't always honorable, a compassionate man with a heart of gold." Rudy nodded his head. "In the months since I've been here I've gotten to know Oscar and my friend was right, Oscar is a good man."

That evening Oscar walked into Steve's room. Steve was lying in his bed waiting for him.

"Good evening, Colonel. Well, you've had forty-eight hours to think about it. What's your answer going to be?"

"I've decided to go ahead with the bionic surgery, but I have a couple of conditions."

"Oh?"

"The first is I get to decide what assignments I'm going to take. If an assignment doesn't make sense to me or goes against my values, I have the right to refuse it. The second is if at any time I decide I don't want to play secret agent anymore, I get to leave with the same terms as your proof of concept choice."

"I can agree with your second condition, but I can only agree with your first condition as far as OSI assignments go. Because you'll also technically be working for NASA and the Air Force, if they want you for something, well, I have limited influence with them. Also, I have bosses that I have to answer to and if Washington gives us orders, well, we both have to follow those, Pal."

Steve thought for a moment. "Okay, fine."

Oscar smiled. "Great. Welcome aboard, Colonel Austin. It looks like I'll need to make some changes to our agreement. Let me do that this evening and I'll have the paperwork to you in the morning." Oscar started to leave then stopped. "Oh, and one more thing, we'll need someone to attest your signature since I understand that you are right-handed. Who would you like to witness the signing?"

"Rudy Wells," Steve replied.

"Okay, good. I'll see you in the morning."

The next morning Oscar walked into Steve's room with Rudy following. Rudy had a big grin on his face.

Oscar pulled the agreement from his briefcase and placed it on the overbed table along with a pen. Then he rolled the table over the bed to Steve.

"Here are where the changes you requested are," Oscar said as he turned the pages and pointed to specific paragraphs. "I'll need you to initial here, here, and here, and sign your full name on the last page."

Oscar and Rudy waited as Steve looked over the document carefully, especially paying attention to the changes that had been made. When satisfied, he grabbed the pen with his left hand and signed his initials. Then he turned to the last page and signed his name, Steven Austin. His handwriting looked like a kindergartener's signature even though he took his time.

Rudy looked like he was going to cry as he next took the pen and signed his name as the witness. Afterward, he sat on the bed and grabbed Steve into a hug. "Thank you" was all Rudy could manage to say.