Chapter Four

Oscar answered the knock at the front door and found Peggy standing on the stoop, looking lost and bereft. "Can I come in?" she asked. "Just for a little while."

"Of course," Oscar said, holding the door open for her. "You're welcome any time."

"I didn't have anyone else to talk to," she told him once they were seated in the den.

"What's got you so unhappy?" Oscar asked.

Peggy blinked back tears. "I...threw Steve out."

"Aw, Peg, I'm sorry. Why?"

"He's cheating."

"Peggy, he loves you. He would never -"

"I caught them together."

"In bed?"

"No - in a coffee shop. But they looked pretty cozy; he was holding her hand."

"Do you know the woman?"

"Yes. And so do you," Peggy said. Oscar raised his eyebrows questioningly. "Oscar, I'm so sorry - it's Jaime. Steve never really did get over her - you know that.

"Now I'm sure you're mistaken."

"Did Jaime tell you there was an emergency at NESSA?" Oscar nodded. "When she gets home, ask her where she was; see if she tells you the truth."

------

Peggy stayed for about an hour and a half, and while Oscar was determined to make her feel better about the situation, the more they talked, the more her view started to rub off on him. He, too, was starting to wonder. Jaime walked in the door at 1:30am, and found Oscar awake, sitting on a chair in the living room and staring at the front door. He did not appear to be happy.

"Get everything taken care of?" he asked.

"Yeah, turned out Steffie was ok the whole time. But you should've seen her office: broken chairs, blood all over -"

"Blood?"

"Turns out it wasn't hers. She beat the crap out of two men - with guns!"

"That's our girl. We taught her well," Oscar said.

"We sure did," Jaime agreed, bending down to kiss him.

"What time did she turn up?"

"Around 7:30, quarter to eight."

"You go anywhere else?"

"What?"

"Did you stay and help clean up the office, or did you have somewhere else you needed to go?"

Jaime pulled a chair over next to her husband. "What's with the 3rd degree, all of a sudden? That isn't you."

"Evasiveness generally isn't you, either..."

"Oscar, where is this coming from?"

"Where did you go, Jaime?" he insisted softly but firmly.

"Steve and I went to the coffee shop and talked for awhile. Peggy threw him out tonight."

"I know all about it. Including the coffee shop."

"You knew? Then what's up with the interrogation?"

"I wanted to see if you'd tell me the truth; you did. Thank you."

"We've been married 35 years, and all of a sudden you have to test me? Why?"

"Aside from the fact that you were holding hands in the coffee shop, Peggy says you're the one who broke up their marriage."

"That witch!" Jaime seethed. "I don't know what's happened to her brain, but it's obviously not connected to the rest of her anymore!"

"She said you and Steve have never really let go of each other," Oscar said, very quietly.

"That, I won't even dignify with an answer," Jaime said with tears in her eyes for the first time in many years. She turned away from her husband, walked back out the front door and went running at bionic speed, trying to lose the hurt, pain and confusion.

------

Jaime ran all the way to the other side of DC, to the stream she called her best 'thinking spot'. To her surprise, at 2:15 in the morning, there was already someone sitting there, thinking.

"Steve?"

"Couldn't sleep," he told her without turning around. When she sat down next to him and he finally saw her face, his own problems suddenly disappeared in his concern for what Jaime might be going through. "You've been crying," he noted. "Tell me?"

Jaime laughed bitterly. "For all the people who've accused us of sleeping together, we might as well be..."

"Not Oscar, too?"

"Yep. Peggy paid him a visit."

"Dammit! She can't leave well enough alone?"

"I think she feels that if her marriage is in trouble, I shouldn't get off scot-free. Maybe she's right..."

Steve shook his head. "You don't really believe that?" Jaime stared out at the water and didn't answer. "Jaime, Oscar loves you. I'll bet he's waiting for you right now, with an apology for whatever he said or did."

"Maybe...but -"

"No 'but's' allowed. Jaime, I don't have a marriage or a home to go to anymore - and that's been coming for a long time - but you still do. You've got a husband who loves you dearly, and that's a lot more precious than you realize. Please don't throw that away; not even temporarily. It's too hard to get it back again."

"When did you get so smart, Austin?" she said, getting up. "Thank you." She smiled at her former love and took off at maximum speed, back to her husband.

END