Chapter Six
Rudy had admitted both of his patients into the same hospital room, knowing it was the only way to keep them both safely in their beds. After everything they'd just endured, he knew better than to try and separate them. The beds were placed just inches apart, so Steve and Jaime could hold each others' hand.
Jaime had passed out from severe hypothermia and shock as she'd been pulled aboard the boat, so it wasn't until two days later that she discovered, upon awakening, that the lightning strike and her attempts at resuscitation had somehow restored Steve's vision. She woke up to see him gazing at her with love - and sight - in his eyes, and silent tears began pearling on her cheeks.
"You can see me?" she asked weakly.
"Sure can. You're not crying because we both survived and now we'll get to deal with that second promise...are you?"
Jaime smiled. "I wasn't beating you in the chest to make you go away, ya know. No way was I gonna let you welch out of that promise."
So, with a shared smile and a squeeze of each others' hand, they both knew it was settled. Soon they'd be 'official' in the eyes of the world, the way they'd always been, in their hearts.
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Jaime's paralysis was not cured as easily as Steve's afflictions had been. Her back had been dealt a violent blow when the explosion threw her into the ocean, damaging the connections between her biological nervous system and her bionic limbs. A combination of mild electrical shocks, heat, massage and physical therapy - as well as Jaime's fierce determination - slowly returned function and movement to the damaged limbs. Steve remained glued to her side throughout her recovery, refusing to leave the hospital even after his own injuries had healed. They'd worked together and each had saved the others' life, so they intended to leave the hospital the same way: together.
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Oscar had discovered that the men who'd fired on the boat had believed him to be on board, and his guilt was overwhelming, but his honor demanded he tell his friends, as soon as they were up to it. Steve and Jaime refused to accept his profuse apology because they felt it was totally unwarranted - he hadn't thrown them into the ocean - and they both told him so.
He could see they'd become even more tightly bonded through their traumatic experience, and he strongly felt the need to make it up to them, and to honor their love and commitment. "You never did get those two weeks off," he ventured as he sat with them on the sun porch at the hospital.
"We'll still hold you to it," Jaime said lightly, "as soon as I'm outta here."
"Well, I'd like to double that - take a month. You both deserve the downtime and some good old relaxation."
Jaime shook her head. "It's a really nice gesture, but you promised us two weeks, and that's really more than -"
Steve had to butt in. "Sweetheart, let the nice man gesture, and tell him 'thank you'."
"Thank you," Jaime parroted, grinning. "But only on one condition."
"Oh?"
"If you're planning to send us somewhere private, isolated or romantic, how 'bout the mountains, or the desert? We're not picky...anyplace with no water!
END