That afternoon, Oscar stood next to Rudy. The two men watched Jaime as she jogged to the other side of a large field to take on the wall obstacle course. The course was a quarter mile long and consisted of fifty concrete walls spaced evenly apart. The first wall was only one foot tall and each subsequent wall increased in height by one foot, with the last wall reaching fifty feet high. The idea was to run the course and jump over the walls without stopping. It was a test that neither she nor Steve had ever been able to do perfectly.
"Busy week for you, eh, Rudy?" Oscar commented.
"You're telling me," Rudy agreed. "I think I'm busy when one of them is here, but with both of them here, I'm having to split my time between them and I'm not doing either one of them justice. I think I may have to extend their stays a bit in order to get all the maintenance and testing done that Jaime needs and make sure that Steve is fully recovered and gets a complete physical before I release him."
"That's good," Oscar replied.
Rudy gave Oscar a sideward glance.
"I'm mean for them, not you," Oscar clarified. "You know, Rudy, I try to find ways to get those two together so that they can spend more time with each other. I feel like I owe that to Steve. He's been through a lot. She may not remember their love but he does and I can tell it's taken a toll on him. But it's been difficult to schedule. He's off on a mission, doing reserve duty, or a NASA project. She's off on a mission or teaching in Ojai. I look for assignments where I can justify using two bionic people, but those are rare…"
"Yeah," Rudy nodded, "before losing Jaime, Steve had been doing great on his quarterly psych evaluations. I was so pleased at the progress he had made adjusting to his bionics. But since losing her…" Rudy shook his head. "Let me tell you, those evaluations have been rough. He fights me about even talking about her. He even got up and walked out of one evaluation. I've seen tears in his eyes several times. He's definitely grieving."
Oscar sighed.
"You know, come to think of it, I think it's about time to replace the diode relays in Steve and Jaime's muscular flexors," Rudy said nonchalantly.
The two men exchanged a knowing look and smiled.
Their attention turned back to Jaime who had reached the beginning of the course. They watched her intently as she started running. She took the short walls easily, moving like a gazelle as she jumped over wall after wall. When she got to the twenty-foot wall it started to get harder. She had to build up as much speed as she could in a short distance in order to get over the wall. By the time she got to the thirty-foot wall she had to stop and jump from a crouched position. The fifty-foot wall was the most frustrating. She barely was able to grab hold of the top of the wall with her bionic arm and pull herself up before jumping down the other side.
Jaime finished the course and ran back to Rudy and Oscar.
Oscar had a big smile on his face. "Great job, Jaime!"
"Yes, very nice." Rudy looked pleased too.
Jaime wasn't buying the praise. "I don't get this one, Rudy. If you expect Steve and me to leap tall walls in a single bound, why didn't you build us with that ability?"
"It's all about testing your limits, Jaime," Rudy replied. "Maybe some day I'll figure out how to increase them."
"Don't be so hard on yourself, Jaime," Oscar assured her. "You did fine."
Oscar looked at his watch. "Well, it looks like it's time for me to get going. I've got a plane to catch in an hour. It was good seeing you, Babe."
They hugged and then Oscar left.