Chapter Three

Steve didn't get home until after 7:00 that night, and he found Jaime sitting in front of the fireplace, staring at the fire with an untouched 'Dinner for One' frozen dinner growing cold in front of her and tears pearling silently on her cheeks.

"Jaime?" He knelt on the floor beside her, placing a gentle arm around her shoulders. "Are you alright?" He reached up to tenderly brush away her tears, but Jaime pulled away from him.

"Don't touch me," she sobbed. "How could you do that to me today? Throw me to the wolves like that?"

"You weren't thrown to the wolves; they only wanted to know what you saw and heard. And I was only doing my job. If you wanna talk about bad, uncalled-for behavior, you were acting like a two-year-old having a temper tantrum."

"You were acting like someone I didn't even know," Jaime countered.

"I want you to ask yourself one question, and answer it honestly: would you have acted like that if Oscar was in the room with you, instead of me?"

Jaime began to cry in earnest. "If Oscar could've been in the room, none of this would be happening in the first place." She looked at Steve with pain-filled eyes. "You dragged me into that room. How was I supposed to react?"

"It was either drag you in there or drag you into a prison cell -"

"And to have Callahan call me down there, instead of calling yourself and maybe - oh, I don't know - warning me? When did you become so cold?"

"Jaime, if I would've warned you, you'd never have come in. Would you?" Steve asked. Jaime couldn't answer him. "It broke my heart to have to do that to you. If I would've refused to bring you in, though, it would've meant we'd be spending tonight in adjoining cells." Steve reached over and softly caressed her arm. This time, she didn't pull away. "We both know Oscar's innocent, and I can't let the OSI - his baby - fall apart while he's gone. I won't do that to-"

"You're right," Jaime said, almost too quietly to be heard. "I'd like to say I was testing your dedication to your new job, but I wasn't; I was being a brat. Steve, you were right about all of it and I'm so sorry," she told him, searching his eyes for forgiveness and realizing there was never anger there to begin with, only worry and sorrow. Steve enfolded her in warm, comforting arms and simply let her release all the tension and fear she'd been carrying all day, rubbing her back and stroking her hair until the torrent of tears slowed to a trickle and finally stopped.

"You have every right to hate me," Jaime said, leaning back a little to look in Steve's eyes.

"Never happen," he assured her. He kissed her softly, and she clung to him, returning the kiss hungrily until it turned passionate. Their eyes met as their tongues began a teasingly playful game of hide and seek. They made love with a closeness and tenderness greater than they'd ever known before, seeming to understand instinctively that, for most couples, that day would've spelled the end.

------

Later, they sat once again by the fire and shared a bottle of wine. "How do we handle this," Jaime began, "so we never have a replay of today - ever again?"

"All we can do is agree that work stays at work, no exceptions, and home stays home."

"Deal. What do you think we should do about Oscar? I know that's work, but -"

"It's personal, too; he's our friend." Steve thought for a few moments. "Officially, the OSI can't be involved in the investigation in any way, because of who Oscar is. Unofficially though, working solely through the homefront here, and not through the office, ever, we need to do anything and everything to clear him."

Jaime nodded. "I don't even know where to start, though."

"We start by talking to anyone who witnessed even a small part of what happened - casually, as friends, like 'Do you believe he said that?' Ask what they think about it all. Hopefully, something is gonna turn up that way that the FBI couldn't uncover. Then, we go from there."

"Is that the boss I hear talking?"

"I don't think the boss would dare do this," he said, kissing her. "Besides, I locked him in the office when I left tonight."

"Exactly what I wanted to hear," Jaime said, smiling.

------

This time, when the phone woke them, Jaime didn't bother to answer. She poked Steve in the ribs until he was awake, picked up the receiver and handed it to him. "You know it's not for me," she told him. Looking at the clock, she thought, At least this time they waited until 6am.

Steve listened closely to the caller. "Are you sure?" he asked. "That can't be right." He looked at Jaime with exaggerated wide eyes, so she was clued in that this was big. "Right. Yes, I understand. Alright; I'll meet you at the jail at 10am." Steve hung up the phone and turned to Jaime.

"What is it?" she asked, feeling the nerves of the day before, all over again.

"That was Special Agent Dupree. Oscar just confessed."

------