Chapter Five

Steve stepped quickly toward his wife, reaching out to catch her as she stumbled on the fallen stool. He broke her fall with both of his arms, but rather than sink comfortably into his embrace, Jaime stiffened and pulled away with tear-filled eyes that broke Steve's heart.

"I...I'll make some coffee," she said in a quiet, shaky voice.

Steve nodded and moved on auto-pilot into the living room to light a fire in the tiny stone fireplace. Jaime joined him minutes later, placing a tentative hand on his shoulder as she handed him a steaming mug of coffee. The pain and fear in his eyes echoed her own, and Jaime joined him on the rug next to the fire, searching his face for any clue as to what was about to happen.

"I didn't hear the phone ring," Steve began, "and no one knows where we are - at your request. So...why'd you call Oscar?" They couldn't look at each other now, the guilt, anger and confusion so thick in the room that it was hard to breathe. "Jaime?"

She took a moment to try and steady herself, but it didn't seem to help. "I need to ask you something, and I don't think there's an easy way to say it, but -"

"I heard you say something about 'Hansen'," Steve interrupted. "Jack Hansen?"

"Yes."

"You said Hansen couldn't make you testify against me. What was that all about?" Silence - painfully uncomfortable - hung between them. "Jaime, you need to tell me what the hell is going on."

I will not cry, she told herself; at least, not yet. After a pause, she looked directly and deeply into Steve's eyes. "Who is Lydia Spence?"

"Excuse me?"

"Ly-di-a Spence," Jaime repeated, emphasizing each syllable, spitting them out like bitter medicine.

"I heard you the first time. Sweetheart, where is this coming from?"

"Who. Is. She?"

"It really wouldn't do you any good to know that," Steve said, very quietly.

"My husband has his arm around some gorgeous redhead; I think that's something that definitely concerns me."

"My arm around...Jaime, how on Earth...?"

His new wife got up and moved across the room like a caged tiger. "Oh...I wasn't s'posed to know about that, huh?"

"Jaime -"

"You had a little something going on the side, and -"

"You know me better than that." Steve got up, reaching gently for her, trying to calm her anxious pacing, but she ducked away from him, turned around and glared, her eyes blazing with anger.

"I thought I did. Even managed to convince myself there was another explanation."

"There is."

"The way you're hedging around, not giving me an answer - I guess that's an answer in itself." Jaime struggled to contain her emotions. "We never should've come here; not 'til after this was taken care of..."

Suddenly, it all gelled in Steve's mind. "Wait a minute. You know her name and what she looks like...and...Hansen. He's got something to do with this."

"Obviously."

"Jaime, please...what is going on?"

Jaime heard the softness and the pain in his voice, and her heart melted but the rest of her body stood firm. "That's exactly what I'd like to know. Some people think you're sleeping with her -"

"That's beyond ridiculous."

"Other people say you're a traitor."

"What?"

Oops. That was the part of her hand she'd intended to keep to herself, the card she wasn't meaning to play, but there it was.

Steve had known Jaime for nearly her entire life, and that was all he needed. "You're working with Jack Hansen," he said softly. It was not a question. "Oh - my - God...you're on an assignment, and...you married me - for information!"

Jaime's stomach sank lower than the floor. "No..." was all she could manage to choke out before an uncontrollable flood of tears overtook her and she slumped to the floor in a heap of sobbing devastation. The assignment no longer mattered. Jack Hansen mattered even less. The one part of her life that truly did matter was slipping away from her, right before her eyes, and she was completely, helplessly, unable to stop it.

------

The argument was over. Their emotions had run the gamut from extreme joy and happiness to the deepest sort of pain and despair. Their lives and their love had - in the space of less than an hour - been ripped into unrecognizable shreds. The bits and pieces that remained lay shattered between them, awaiting the decision as to whether Jaime and Steve would attempt to fit those pieces back together or whether that choice would prove too painful, meaning that the shattered remains of their lives together would be abandoned, left to blow away like the forgotten petals of a withered flower.

------