Epilogue
Jaime was only partially correct – at 10pm, Oscar was still in his office, but he wasn't working. Instead, he stood at his office window, looking out at the newly-fallen snow and trying to picture what might have happened that day in the little cottage up North. He knew when he'd planned their 'assignment' that potentially Steve or Jaime (or both of them!) could be angry at his well-intentioned matchmaking efforts. For the two people who were more like his family than anyone else he knew, though, Oscar was willing to take that risk.
He was still relatively new at the traditions and celebrations surrounding Christmas, since he had been raised in a Jewish household. He had still been a young man when he'd lost both of his parents and his only brother; back-to-back losses had turned him away from his faith and from religion as a whole for a very long time.
Three years ago – to this very day – Jaime had 'kidnapped' him and taken him for a drive in the country to look at Christmas lights, and it had given Oscar a warm glow inside that he hadn't felt for a very long time. He was still not a church-goer (and probably never would be), but Oscar now fully enjoyed what he had come to think of as The Spirit of Christmas.
He'd been planning this gift for his two closest friends for weeks now, with Callahan and Rudy as eager co-conspirators he could bounce ideas off of. Jaime and Steve needed each other desperately, and he hoped they were finally realizing that for themselves.
Steve had been utterly despondent for months after losing Jaime to death and then to amnesia. He'd immersed himself in his work, but Oscar knew Steve's heart still longed for her; after three years, he still wasn't seeing anyone else.
Jaime had been with Chris for a little over six months, and it was starting to look like things might get serious, when one morning a few months ago, Oscar found her waiting by the fountain outside OSI Headquarters with tears streaming down her face. Chris had simply packed up and left her in the middle of the night. Jaime had never discussed the reasons, but Oscar knew Steve would be the one person who could heal her broken heart.
They need each other! Oscar repeated to himself for the ninth or tenth time that day. If they wind up angry with me, at least they'll be angry together.
He felt far too keyed up to sleep and was planning to work through the night until the chopper returned with the (hopefully) happy couple in the morning, but once he sat down with his mountains of files, his eyes grew bleary and his head came to rest on the tallest stack. Even Oscar was dreaming...
He saw Jaime and Steve standing at the cottage window, warm and happy in each other's arms, watching the snow. In his dream, they'd toasted each other with the wine and spent a blissful evening growing even closer than they'd been before. Once that seed took root in their hearts, who knew where it might lead them...?
Three separate dreamers, with thoughts of Christmases Past, Future and Present, were united by one common thought: with hope and the power and strength of real love, the world was as fresh as new-fallen snow and ripe with every possibility a soul could ever dream of.
END