Chapter Fourteen

Jack Hansen was certainly not on anyone's list of favorite people, but Oscar (having just hung up after receiving devastating news from Rudy) was truly not in the mood for Jack's brand of ugliness.

"Trying to keep it from me, Goldman?" Hansen demanded.

Oscar was keeping lots of things from his nemesis – life ran much more smoothly that way – but Oscar wasn't about to indulge in this cat and mouse game. Not today. Instead, he stared silently, knowing Jack couldn't resist digging in his claws

"I just found out that your first assistant is engaged...to your secretary!" Hansen sputtered. "Do you know what that looks like?"

"It looks like another wedding invitation you won't be getting, Jack," Oscar shot back.

"Funny. Very funny. It's bad enough that your two top agents got themselves hitched and are hard at work on their very own litter -"

"Shut up, Jack!" Oscar seethed, roaring to his feet and landing a solid punch to Hansen's jaw before he could consider what he was doing. "Right now, Jaime is in the hospital, fighting for her life!" he thundered. "And they stand to lose both of those babies – so I'm not about to stay here and listen to you spew stupidity!" Oscar pushed the smaller man aside and stormed out to the elevator, leaving Hansen alone in the office, rubbing his sore jaw and wondering what the hell had just happened.

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Steve had spent a sleepless night at Jaime's side, one hand resting softly on her stomach as if willing all three of them to hang on. In the middle of the night, when Rudy appeared with another dose of the sedative, Steve's fear was nearly unbearable.

"Is that safe?" he asked. "Keeping her drugged like that?"

Rudy pulled the empty syringe from the IV line. "It's safer than having her tossing and turning in pain, doing even more damage." He took a long look at the monitors. "Still no contractions, no sign of fetal distress. That's very good. We'll let her wake up in the morning – to have some breakfast – and we'll assess her condition then, and decide how to proceed from here. You should try and rest, too; I could have a cot sent in."

"I couldn't sleep anyway, Rudy – not right now...." Steve's eyes never left Jaime's face.

At around 6:30am, Jaime began to stir. Steve pressed the 'call' button but the doctors, alerted by the remote monitoring system, were already on their way. Jaime moaned softly, her eyes still closed, and whispered Steve's name.

"I'm here, Sweetheart," he told her, touching her cheek. "I'm right here."

"The babies..." she murmured, finally opening her eyes. "Are they...okay?"

"They're in the best possible hands, Sweetheart – and so are you."

Jaime frowned as her ear picked up a conversation. Rudy was still halfway across the hospital but Jaime was especially alert for his voice. "No..." she said, very softly.

"Jaime...?" Steve leaned closer, thinking she was in pain.

"They....they wanna...deliver the babies...!" she cried, sitting up with horror-filled eyes.

Steve eased her back down, as gently as possible. "You need to lie down...and rest." Jaime fought him weakly, seeming like she was trying to escape. Damn that ear! Steve thought to himself.

"We can't let them take the babies!" she insisted, too wrung out to fight anymore. As she fell back onto the pillow, her body was hit with the strongest wave of pain yet and she curled up as tightly as her swollen stomach would allow. The room was spinning dizzily and suddenly she saw only spots in front of her eyes, but Jaime gripped Steve's hand tightly. She needed to make sure he understood. "Steve...don't let them..."

"Shhh...." he said, trying to calm her at least at little. "The doctors are coming..."

"I know! Please...no matter what happens....don't let them take the babies!"

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