Chapter Two

"What did Russ find?" Jaime asked before she and Steve were even seated in Oscar's office. "Is it bad? Is that why you couldn't tell me on the phone?"

Oscar was a bit taken aback by her suddenly fragile state of mind. He knew the news he'd given her a month earlier – that her mother had been an operative – had hit her hard, and her mother's double showing up in Ojai, pretending to be Ann Sommers, had more than doubled the impact. After reeling from the initial shock, though, Jaime had seemed to be coping well, especially now that she had Steve to lean on.

When he'd heard the news about Jaime's mother and the double, Chris Stuart, Steve had immediately flown to Ojai to support Jaime in any way he could. They'd begun growing closer in the weeks that had followed, the result of many long talks that had at first been about Jaime's parents but had soon expanded into everything that had been left unsaid between the two of them. Slowly, they had begun exploring the possibility that they could still have a future together and Jaime had finally taken the huge step of renting a house in DC, supposedly to be more available for assignments. Oscar knew the real reason had nothing to do with the OSI or any potential missions, but he was overjoyed that his two favorite people were working their way back to each other. He was especially relieved that Steve was by her side now; she was going to need him.

"Not necessarily bad," Oscar began gently, "but I've never been comfortable talking about personal matters over the phone, and I wanted to be available to answer any questions that I could -"

"We appreciate that," Steve told him, pulling a chair as close as possible to Jaime's. He, too, was worried about her state of mind.

"While it isn't bad news," Oscar continued, "it may not be what you were expecting." He noticed that Jaime was clutching Steve's hand, her entire body as taut as a rubber band stretched to the breaking point. "Jaime, your mother was on her way to a top-secret, Level 8 security briefing, at an undisclosed location."

"Level eight...?"

Oscar nodded. "Your father was supposed to pick up Chris when he dropped off your mother, then head back home, as though he and his wife were merely out for a drive, enjoying the Springtime." He eyed Jaime carefully, wondering if she was realizing what he'd left unsaid, if she'd picked up the truly serious nature of this new information.

It took her a few minutes to digest and process his words. "My mother was Level 8...?" she repeated, stunned.

"Yes."

Jaime got up and walked to the window, where she stood silently, deep in thought, with her back to the two men who were both watching her closely. Oscar knew Steve had the situation figured out by the dark, serious look in his eyes. They both knew the exact instant the realization hit her because Jaime began to visibly tremble, her head lowering until she covered her face with both hands, too overwhelmed to speak. She swayed slightly, looking for a moment like she was going to faint.

Steve rushed to her side, ready to catch her if necessary. He reached out to hold her, but Jaime turned around, almost trance-like with shock and walked slowly back to her chair. Her eyes were wide but held no tears as she finally voiced the truth.

"My father would've picked Chris up where the briefing was held – at the undisclosed, Level 8 location." She swallowed hard. "Even being married to an operative, there was no way he could know where that meeting was...unless...he was an operative, too! Oscar, why didn't you tell me this before?"

"I didn't know," Oscar said, very softly. "Unfortunately, there is no further information about him in our files, but you're right; he had to have gotten the location from somewhere, and it wasn't from Ann."

"If he wasn't in the files," Steve deduced, "then he wasn't OSI, right?"

"No, he wasn't. After I talked to Russ, I put a call in to FBI Headquarters – called in a favor – and they ran a cross-check. James Sommers wasn't their operative either."

"NSB, then?" Jaime concluded.

"Babe, I wish I could answer that. I spoke with Jack Hansen, to arrange for him to meet with the three of us, and he said he'd be right over."

"Well, good," Jaime sighed. "He should be able to clear this up for me, once and for all."

"He's...not coming," Oscar told her.

Steve was livid. "Why the hell not?"

"He asked what we needed to talk to him about, and when I told him, Jack informed me he had nothing to say about James Sommers, and...he hung up the phone."

- - - - - -