"What the hell were you thinking?" Rudy glared at Steve. He was furious.
"I was feeling okay. I thought I'd take a shower," Steve replied, but he was confused. "What happened?"
"You don't remember?"
"The last thing I remember I was taking a shower."
Rudy huffed. "Yeah, well your vertigo must have caused you to fall. You hit the back of your head on the shower stool and gave yourself a nasty gash as well as a concussion."
"So that's why my head hurts so much." Steve gingerly touched the back of his head.
"Yeah," Rudy replied. "You know it's a good thing Jaime found you as quickly as she did. You could have lost a lot more blood."
Down the hall, stretched out on her bed, Jaime was listening to the whole conversation. "Oh, no, Rudy," she said to herself. "You did not just tell him that." She buried her face in her hands.
"Wait. Jaime found me?" Steve turned bright red.
"That's what I said," Rudy sternly replied. "Maybe that will teach you not to disregard my orders. Now, young man, you are confined to bed for three more days. You are not to get out of that bed without an orderly's assistance, do you understand me?"
"Yeah, I got ya," Steve replied sheepishly.
"Good. Now get some rest." Rudy walked out of the room.
Steve was now alone with his thoughts, but not for long. A couple of minutes later, the door opened slightly and Jaime peeked her head in.
Steve looked up, saw her, and gulped.
"Hi, how are feeling?" she said gently as she walked in. She knew there would be awkwardness between them because of what Rudy had told him. And she figured that facing him and getting it out of the way as soon as possible would be the best course of action. She didn't want the dread of confronting him to drag on and on.
"Okay." He averted his eyes. He was too embarrassed to look at her.
"Liar," she responded.
Steve snorted. "I guess you heard everything."
"Umm, yeah," she replied, tapping her bionic ear.
"You know, I'd thank you if I wasn't so embarrassed."
"You have nothing to be embarrassed about," Jaime replied.
Steve raised his eyebrow.
"Umm, that didn't come out quite how I meant it to come out."
Both of them chuckled in embarrassment.
"I guess what I mean is that we're even now."
"We're what?"
"Even. I mean since my memory loss, you've always had the advantage over me of remembering everything we did during our engagement. I mean everything. So now I figure we're even."
"Wait. You mean…" Steve's jaw dropped open.
"Yeah."
"Umm, Jaime, we never went that far."
"We didn't?"
"No, Jaime, you and I are small town kids, raised with small town values. We had talked about it and agreed to wait until our wedding night."
"We did?" Jaime couldn't hide her surprise.
"Yeah."
"Oh," was all that Jaime could manage to say. Hearing that come out of the mouth of the man who had a reputation as an astronaut playboy and had made People magazine's list of "Top 50 Eligible Bachelors" surprised her.
"So, I guess I'm the one at a disadvantage here," he quipped.
Jaime thought about it a moment and she knew what she had to do. "Would you like a chance to possibly even up the score?" She said with a shy flirty smile.
Steve's eyebrow went up and he looked at her in surprise.
Then Jaime got serious. "Steve, I heard you singing."
Steve turned pale.
"I heard the words you sang." Jaime took hold of his left hand with both of hers. "I need to know. Is that how you feel about me? Are you in love with me?"
There was silence for a few seconds as Steve struggled to get over his shock and then, "Jaime, I never stopped loving you."
Jaime smiled. "You know, it's been a little over a year since I found out about us, about what we were to each other, but I couldn't remember my feelings for you and I knew I needed time to establish my life and find out who I was before even thinking of committing to anyone else. I kept thinking that maybe the memories would come back in time and I would remember what it was like to be in love with you. But they never have."
Steve bowed his head, trying not to show his disappointment. "I understand."
Jaime continued. "These last few days have been confusing for me. I've been trying to figure out why I had fallen in love with you and I figured that the more time I spent with you, that maybe I could get an answer. And then I realized I was drawn to you and I didn't know why until I heard you sing."
Steve looked up at Jaime.
"I realized that my mind doesn't remember our love, but my heart does. It's always been there. I just didn't realize it until now." Jaime looked intently into Steve's eyes. "My heart still loves you, Steve Austin."
Steve's eyes began to water and he smiled. "You love me?"
"Yes."
Jaime bent down and they kissed...a kiss filled with longing, passion, and love.
THE END