Chapter Four
"Hafta make it stop." Jaime sniffled, still crying, but more quietly now. Steve could see she was beyond exhausted. "It's too loud."
"What is?" he asked, trying to hold her attention.
Rudy spoke urgently into the wire. "Steve, I think she's hearing the signal. Ask her if she knows where it's coming from."
"It hurts," Jaime whimpered.
"Sweetheart, that noise - the one that's hurting you - can you tell me where it is?"
"Over there," she said weakly, glancing at the building across the street. "Up high."
"The FBI building," Steve said, for Oscar and Rudy's benefit, "on one of the top floors, or maybe the roof."
"I wanted - I tried - to shoot it," Jaime sobbed quietly, "but it's still there. Owww!" She cringed and winced in pain. Steve's head shifted from dull throbbing to sharp pounding.
"Hurry," he told Oscar, "it's getting stronger."
"Too much..." Jaime whispered. "Can't take it." She swivelled around, throwing her legs over the edge of the roof. As Steve watched in horror, she raised the gun once more, pointing it at her own head. Steve grabbed her arm and forced it straight. At nearly the same instant, she pulled the trigger, missing her target by less than an angle of less than an inch. Not willing to give her another chance to hurt herself, Steve pulled hard on her gun-arm then pinned Jaime flat against the roof. Knowing he couldn't hurt her right arm, he gripped her wrist with all of the strength left in his own right hand, while holding her down with his left.
"Drop the gun, Jaime," he insisted, the softness of his voice a strange contrast to the violence of the last few minutes. Steve's head hurt like it had its own inner jackhammer; he couldn't begin to imagine the pain Jaime was in. He felt crushing guilt at treating her so roughly, but the alternative - her intent to harm herself - was unthinkable. Jaime continued to fight with her remaining strength, struggling to free herself or to raise the gun.
In the next instant, the barrel pointed directly at Steve but, for whatever reason, she hesitated. "Let go of me," she said, weak but determined. "I'll shoot you. I will."
"Ya know, Sweetheart, I don't think you will. But I am not gonna let you hurt yourself; if that's what you need to do, then I guess you'll have to shoot me, first. Jaime, I didn't tell my parents - or yours - that your dare got me so sick the day we met. I took the blame, and the spanking, when you threw a baseball through my parents' car window. I covered for you, and got in trouble for it, when you skipped school for a week, your Freshman year. You don't see it right now, but I would give my life to protect you, so you will not be jumping or shooting yourself, as long as I'm alive to prevent it. Understand?"
"Let me go!" she hissed through clenched teeth.
"I want to, Sweetheart," Steve told her, still gripping her right wrist but lifting his left hand from her shoulder to tenderly brush the tears from her face.
The gentle, loving gesture startled Jaime, and as she looked questioningly into Steve's eyes, she finally loosened her grip on the weapon. Steve seized it instantly and he released her arm as his right hand rendered the gun into a useless lump of metal.
"Thank you," he said softly, sitting back on his heels to allow her to get up. Jaime remained prone on the asphalt roof, too stunned and frightened to move.
"Who...are...you?" she asked.
Steve reached out and scooped her into his arms, helping her to sit up. "Someone who'll do anything to keep you safe," he replied.
Jaime was still confused, terrified and overwhelmed by pain, but his arms felt warm and safe, and there was so much love in his eyes and his voice. She decided to trust him, sinking gratefully into his embrace. Steve held her close to his chest, his right arm completely encircling her body so he could cover her right ear with his hand. His left hand rubbed her back, smoothed her hair and comforted her.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, until Steve heard Rudy's voice on the wire. "Steve? We got it," the doctor told him, just as Jaime stiffened and went limp in his arms.
