Steve slept peacefully all afternoon, allowing his wife to return to the house to pick up items for Steve’s personal hygiene and check on her son who was staying with neighbors.

She drove back to the hospital in late afternoon to sit with Steve. Minutes after Matt came to check his vitals, he gave the first signs of responsiveness. She rose from her armchair and leaned over the bed.

“Steve,” she gently coaxed, stroking his cheek delicately as he struggled to open his eyes. “Steve, wake up.”

He blinked to establish clear focus. “Over?” he mumbled faintly.

“The surgery? You mean the surgery?”

He nodded with a groan.

“Yes, it’s over. It went well. Everything’s okay.”

He strained a smile. “When?”

“Dr. Murphy said tomorrow. They’ll have you walk a few steps and work your way up to the treadmill.”

He licked his parched lips and gulped. “Good.”

“Can you feel your legs?”

Steve attempted to wiggle his toes and heaved a sign of relief. “Yes.”

“Good news. They have a lead on where Rudy might be.”

Steve struggled to keep his eyes open, fighting against the darkness threatening to enfold him at any moment. “Where?”

“Oscar will have to fill you in.”

He shut his eyes and nodded before gazing into her worried eyes. “It’s going to be okay,” he whispered with a reassuring smile.

She held his hand. “Remember your promise.” She leaned in and kissed him tenderly on the lips.

Two days later, Oscar visited Steve in the therapy room. He was amazed by Steve’s determination and endurance. He was already walking steady without any limp about his step. Matt was by his side monitoring his progress.

“How it going so far?”

“Great. I’ll be good as new within twenty-four hours.”

“FORTY-eight hours,” Matt corrected.

“Fine then, thirty-six hours,” Steve argued on a light-hearted tone. He turned to Oscar. “Any news on Rudy?”

“Not yet. Russ and the men have a lead, though. In the meantime, take care of those legs.”

“No problem.”

Once Oscar left the room, Matt lead Steve to another set of exercise.

The next day, Oscar was at his office with Callahan when an urgent call came through from Russ saying they’d found the house where Rudy’s being held hostage.

“Where?”

“1700 Avena Road. A couple of miles north.”

“Are you positive?” He glanced at Callahan who was standing by him with a quizzical look etched on her face.

“Yes sir. Reynolds and Hamilton spotted the car by a shear fluke. It bore a different license plate but they kept on it and trailed the car to a manor. With their binoculars they spotted Rudy in one of the rooms.”

“Remind me to give them a sizeable bonus. Alright. Advise the men to keep watch on the house and report all activities. I’ll send two more teams to back them up. They are not to move in until I give the word, is that understood?”

“Yes Mister Goldman.”

“ Let’s hope that whoever has Rudy won’t decide to move him to another location or we’ll have to take action ourselves.”

“We’ll keep watch.”

“Thanks Russ.” Oscar hung up the phone and turned to Callahan. “They found Rudy. Now we have to wait for Matt to give Steve the green light.”

“Oscar, do you really need Steve’s help? Can’t your agents handle it?”

“I don’t know yet. I gather all the information on that property. Then we’ll need to elaborate an offensive plan to get Rudy out without any bloodshed, if possible.”

“I just keep thinking of…”

Oscar laid a hand on her shoulder. “I know. I feel the same. But what’s done is done. We have to keep good thoughts.”

Steve’s stubbornness and determination contributed to his speedy recovery. Within 24 hours he was back to running 60 miles per hour on the treadmill. Dr. Murphy examined him thoroughly for any sign of an onset of a bionic reject. When asked, Steve would admit to being in top shape, which was far from the truth. He was experiencing a debilitating weakness after his runs, but knowing how this would compromise his chances to fly to Rudy’s rescue, he chose to remain silent about the problem, confident it would work itself out.

Following his briefing with Oscar, they drove to the manor in question where Russ and his partner were waiting in a car parked across the street. Steve and Oscar slipped into the back seat.

“What’s up Russ?” Oscar asked.

“About thirty minutes ago, we saw a laundry truck drive the alley up the to back entrance of the house. Their intention might be to transfer Rudy to another location.”

“Is the truck still there?” Steve queried as he adjusted his telephoto lens to survey the premises.

“Yeah. In the back. You can’t see it from here?”

“What makes you think it’s still there if you can’t see it?” Steve asked on a slightly sarcastic tone.

Russ frowned and looked at Oscar.

“I mean they could have taken a back way,” Steve elaborated to the two perplexed men. “Did anyone check if there was another exit?”

“Yes we did and this front alley is the only way out for vehicles.”

“Do you know where Rudy is being held? Which room?”

“He was on the second floor until yesterday. Then nothing. We presumed he was taken to a room with no windows, probably the basement.”

Oscar noted a slight wince crossing Steve’s face. “Steve, you okay?”

“Yeah. I was just elaborating a plan to get in there without being seen. No doubt the property must be equipped with surveillance cameras?”

“We spotted a few with our binoculars.”

“Alright. I will go scan the area, spot the cameras and try to jump to the roof and creep inside through a ventilation shaft. Once inside I look for Rudy. When I find him, hopefully I will, I’ll get back up and give you a signal to stand by in the event we are seen and they start shooting,” Steve instructed Russ and Oscar as he strapped the light bulletproof vest on his torso. A gift from his inventor friend Barney Barnes that allowed him to move more freely without the extra weight.

Oscar handed him back his shirt. “Be careful Steve. We don’t want to go in to retrieve two corpses.”

Steve chortled. “You have a way with words Oscar,” Steve teased as he buttoned up his shirt.

Oscar laid a hand on Steve’s shoulder. “Good luck, pal,” Oscar said with genuine concern mirroring in his eyes.

Steve flashed a half lopsided grin and nodded before stepping out of the car and crossing the street to the manor’s entrance. He sidled his way along the brick wall until he located a perfect spot to jump on the ledge. He crouched down and began surveying the property with his telephoto lens. His bionic eye picked up 4 cameras on his side, all of which were stationary. Once he mentally measured the angle with the expected frame of each lens, he jumped down the wall and navigated his way through the narrow path he traced visually out of the cameras’ view.

He reached the house without setting up the security system. He looked up and bent his knees close to the ground to give himself the biggest push to reach the edge of the three-storey building roof. To his horror, he missed the jump but managed to grab a hold of a nearby branch. He hoisted himself up and leapt to the roof. He took a short respite to recover his composure before pressing on.

As he reached the roof vent, he felt a twinge in his thighs. He stopped to rub the pain away. “No, not now. This isn’t the time,” his mind screamed, aware of the signs of a bionic reject. “Don’t fail me now.”

He successfully slithered his way down the ventilation shaft and crawled his way to an outlet in a grand bedroom. He scanned the room for surveillance cameras to clear the coast before pushing the net and leaping down. He padded up to the door and opened it at a crack. He noticed two men reporting to a third down the hall.

“How’s our guest?” Kozlov asked his two henchmen.

“He still won’t eat. He’d rather die that to give you any information regarding the cyborg.”

Steve’s eyes popped wide opened at the mention of ‘cyborg’. He had no doubt the guest they were referring to was Rudy.

“We’re moving him to our new location this afternoon. In the meantime make sure he doesn’t run out of air in that cellar. I want him alive for future experiments.”

“Will do boss.”

When the three men headed downstairs, Steve nudged the door close and crawled back into the ventilation shaft to follow a conduit that would take him down to the basement. Halfway down his destination, another painful smart struck him. He grabbed his legs and tried to breathe away the pain.

“Hold on Steve. You have to find Rudy or you’re both doomed,” his mind urged. He massaged his thighs and inhaled deeply before continuing down the shaft.

He engaged in a conduit leading to an outlet where muffled voices could be heard wafting down the shaft. He observed the two men pulling a large iron-clad door and disappearing inside. He strained to listen in on the conversation but to no avail. He waited until they closed the door and climbed the stairs before he jumped down. He went to the door and broke the lock. With one bionic yank, he pulled it open and entered the windowless room to find Rudy sleeping on a cot.

“Rudy!” Steve exclaimed in a whisper. “Rudy!” He hurried over to his friend to shake him awake. “Rudy! Wake up!”

Rudy lazily rolled over on his back and stared vacantly at the blurred figure hovering over him. He knitted his eyebrows, trying to establish focus on the hazy form urging him back. “St..Steve? Is that you?”

“Yeah, it’s me.”

Rudy groped Steve’s arm to establish the authenticity of the man he believed was a figment of his imagination. “You’re real.”

“Of course I’m real. I came to get you out,” Steve explained in a hushed voice. “Can you walk?”

“Yeah.”

Steve went to the door to make sure the coast was clear before he assisted Rudy to his feet. As they walked toward the door, Steve was gripped by an excruciatingly painful twinge that made his knees buckled.

“Steve, what is it?” Rudy asked with great concern.

“It’s nothing. Your assistant mended my legs temporarily so I could come and rescue you.”

“Temporarily?”

“Yeah. Apparently you left sketchy notes of the modifications brought to my legs and he said that if he tried to fix them the old way, I could wind up doing…arrrrrrrrrg.” Steve crumbled to the floor and writhed in agony.

“Steve, I can’t believe Matthew would jeopardize your life like this.”

“Don….don’t blame him, Rudy,” Steve gasped. “I begged him to do it. It was the only way to get you out of here.” Steve took several deep breaths to quell that pain and held out his hand to Rudy. “Could you help me up?”

Rudy nodded and yanked Steve to his feet.

“It’s gone now.”

“This is bad, Steve,” Rudy remarked grimly.

“We’ll worry about that later. Right now we’ve got to get out of here.”

“How?”

“The same way I came in; through the ventilation shaft.” Steve ushered Rudy out of the room. Once he made certain the coast was clear, he gave Rudy a leg up the shaft then hopped on a small table to crawl inside the hole.

The pangs hindered Steve’s movements as he followed Rudy up the main shaft to the roof of the house. Once there, Steve waved to Oscar in the car and gave the signal to wait before charging up to the house. He wanted to try to get Rudy out to safety on his own to thus avoid having to create an unnecessary uproar. Steve zoomed in on his boss who nodded his acknowledgment.

“Hop on my back,” Steve instructed Rudy.

“Steve, you’re in pain. It’s obvious to me you’re experiencing the symptoms of a serious bionic rejection.”

“We’ll argue later, Doc. We have no time to waste. Come on.”

Rudy had little choice but to comply with Steve’s request, seeing how they were both running for their lives. He climbed onto Steve’s back and braced himself for the high jump. Steve closed his eyes and inhaled deeply to summon all of his strength to make the leap without crumbling in agony.

“Ready?”

“Ready, Steve.”

Steve stepped over to the ledge and jumped down. A loud groan squeezed out from between his gritted teeth the moment his feet touched the ground. The excruciating pain sent a jolt of electricity throughout his entire body. He dove to his knees momentarily to let the crisis pass.

“Steve!” Rudy crouched besides his friend in the throes of agony and felt his forehead. “Can you make it?”

Steve bit his upper lip and nodded. “Help me up please.”

Rudy slid his hands underneath Steve’s armpits to get a better grip on the sluggish man. He started for the garden when Steve hooked his arm and shook his head.

“No, not that way. They’ll spot you with the cameras. Follow me.” Steve led Rudy through a specific path towards the brick wall. There he asked Rudy to climb on his back once more to make the leap.

Oscar and Russ were waiting on the other side. When Steve jumped down, the pain sent his world whirling and he collapsed to the ground.

At the hospital, Steve was quickly administered morphine to lessen the pain while Rudy gathered his team and prepared the OR for the patient.

Oscar notified Steve’s wife who rushed to the hospital the second she hung up the phone. Callahan didn’t know whether she should be angry or distraught at the turn of events. She met with Rudy at the entrance of Steve’s room.

“Rudy, how is he?” she asked frantically.

He ushered her into Steve’s room where the patient lay semi-conscious with a patch over his left eye and a thin sheen of sweat on his face.

“Steve,” Callahan coaxed in a hushed voice. She sandwiched his left hand between hers. “Steve, can you hear me?”

He slowly turned his head towards the angelic voice summoning him. He mumbled her name as he strived to pry open his leaden right eyelid.

Rudy prodded and poked Steve’s legs for signs of painful sensation. The absence of a flinch was evidence that the effect of the morphine hadn’t completely worn out.

“Peg…Peg..Peggy?” Steve stammered feverishly, his eyes opened at a crack.

“Are you in pain, Steve?”

He closed his eyes and licked his parched lips before giving a tiny shake of the head. “No pain.” He reopened his eyes a slit to look at Rudy standing beside her. “I hear the doc, here, is a miracle worker.”

“Don’t be too sure, Steve,” Rudy replied somberly.

“Hey, you…you just trying to scare me.”

Rudy moved closer t o the bed and stared Steve in the eyes. “We’re going to wheel you into surgery in a couple of minutes before we do there’s something I need to discuss with you,” he glanced at Callahan, “with you both.”

Callahan frowned at the earnestness of his voice. She could read in Rudy’s woeful eyes that this was not good news.

“There’s a possibility, a slight possibility, that we might be to late to reverse the rejection process.”

Steve and Callahan exchanged a muddled glance.

“Meaning?”

“We might have to amputate both legs to save your life.”

Callahan slapped a hand over her mouth to stifle a gasp of horror. “Oh God!”

Steve simply shut his eyes in despair.

“I need your consent that in the event the infection is too great, we can surgically remove the legs.”

“Will you be able to attach new ones?” Callahan queried.

“Eventually, maybe.”

“Maybe?”

“Our main concern right now is saving Steve’s life.” He looked at Steve. “You have a wife and a son. You’re not alone anymore, pal.”

Steve slowly opened his eyes and fixed his hazy gaze upon Rudy, after which he turned to his wife for approval. She strained a smile and nodded. He then looked up at Rudy and breathed out a feeble ‘okay’.

Rudy leaned over Steve and tapped him on the shoulder. “Wise decision. I hope it doesn’t come to that.”

“Hope so.”

“I’ll leave you two alone for a few minutes then I’ll be back to prep you for surgery.”

Steve moistened his lips and nodded. Once Rudy out of the room, Steve squeezed Callahan’s hand. “Don’t worry. I’ll be alright. I intend to abide by my promise,” he rasped out to his qualmish wife.

She leaned in closer to his face and smiled, “And I and Steven junior and the little one on the way are holding you to that promise.” She gently brushed her lips against his while she stroke his clammy cheek. When she pulled away, he shot her an air of surprise. She responded with a beaming smile. “We’re going to have another baby. So now you have three reasons for fighting.”

“A baby?”

She nodded. “A baby. I found out this morning.”

Although weak as a newborn kitten, he managed to pull her to his chest to give her one last hug before Rudy requested her to leave the room.

“Good luck, Steve.”

Once Callahan out of the room, Steve glanced up at Rudy and said, “You do a good job in there. I want to be alive to see the birth of my baby.”

Rudy broke into a wide elated grin “Congratulations!”

“I wasn’t there to witness the birth of my son. I intent to be there for my second’s.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“I know you will.”

“You saved my life, now I’ll try to save yours.”

Nearly four hours later, Oscar showed up at the hospital and met with Callahan in the waiting room. “Any news?”

“Not yet. Any word on those people who kidnapped Rudy.”

“Yes. It was Alexander Kozlov. He wanted Rudy to reveal the identity of the cyborg prototype, namely Steve. Rudy tried to convince him the project had failed and that the man died but he wouldn’t believe him. He was on his way to transfer Rudy to a facility where he could build another bionic man only we interfered before they could.”

“We you able to arrest him?”

“No, we don’t have any proof of any wrongdoing.”

“What are you talking about? He kidnapped and threatened Rudy?”

“He did, but Steve got him off the property and with it he erased all evidence.”

“So why didn’t your men just burst into the house and arrest him? That way Steve wouldn’t be in surgery right now fighting to keep both his legs,” she spoke with a voice dripping with spite.

“Because we couldn’t take a risk of them killing Rudy at first sign of trouble. We had to tread very circumspectly. Steve understood.”

“Of course he did,” she retorted with a crushing cynicism. “He ALWAYS understands you, Oscar,” she lashed out with tears in her eyes before standing from the couch and moving to the coffee dispenser.

He followed her. “Callahan, Steve’s a fighter. He’ll get through this.”

She kicked and shook the machine in a fit of rage. “Damned machines that don’t work.”

Oscar wrapped his arms around her small shivering frame. “Hey, everything’s going to be okay.” He pulled her to his chest where she dissolved into tears.

“I’m sorry, I’m just so worried,” she cried, sniffling back her tears.

“We both are.” In a sidelong glance, Oscar caught sight of Rudy walking towards them still clad in his surgical gown. The two men locked stares. The tension was broken by Rudy’s reassuring smile. Oscar disengaged the clench and motioned to Rudy.

“Rudy?” Callahan couldn’t bring herself to ask the dreaded question. She stood in fear of the doctor’s answer.

He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “He’s okay. The legs are intact.”

She heaved the loudest sigh of relief as she felt the tension of the last hours release her weary body.

“He’ll be confined to his bed for the next couple of days and thereafter we’ll start him on small strolls down the hall and eventually we’ll get him back on the treadmill.”

“Thank you Rudy. Thank you so much,” she quavered with admiration.

“You need to take care of yourself and that baby too. I suggest you go home and take a nap. It’ll be hours before Steve wakes up.”

“I’ll do that.”

No sooner had Rudy turned and walked away that Oscar congratulated Callahan on her pregnancy.

Later that night, Callahan was at Steve’s bedside, keeping a vigil on her slumbering husband when Oscar walked in.

“Anything yet?” he asked her as he approached the bed to gaze at the still patient.

“No, nothing. Rudy said he should be awake by now. I’m worried.”

Oscar gave her shoulder a light squeeze. “Give him time. He’ll come around.” At that moment a small moan caught his attention. “Speaking of which…”

He and Callahan both hovered over the bed with looks of eager expectation.

“Hey Steve, wake up,” Oscar coaxed with a light tap on the shoulder.

The groggy patient’s eyelids fluttered open. “Os…Oscar?” he whispered faintly.

“Yeah. Welcome back, pal.”

Steve turned to his wife who was wearing a glowing smile. “I kept my promise.”

She leaned forward to press her lips against his. “You sure did,” she exulted with a tear trickling down the corner of her eyes.

Steve’s eyes took on a pained look as they slowly traveled down to the feet of the bed. He then breathed out a sigh of relief at the knowledge that both his legs were intact. “I…I,” he closed his eyes and swallowed hard to moisten his parched throat, “ I still have my legs.”

“You’ll need them to go on your next assignment,” Oscar said with a slight tease.

“Oscar!” Callahan scolded. “Don’t you talk about sending Steve on any other mission right now. He needs time to recover.”

“Don’t worry. Your husband here is officially on medical leave until Rudy gives him a clean bill of health.”

“Good! I’ll go tell Rudy you’re awake.” She leaned in and gave Steve a kiss. “I’ll be right back.”

Barely had Callahan set foot out the door that Steve assailed Oscar with questions regarding Kozlof and his men.

“We put our best agents on his tail. Right now they reported seeing him heading down to Florida.”

“He’s mine, Oscar. I want him,” Steve spoke with bitter resentment.

“You got it, pal. So I suggest you get back on your feet real soon.”

“Don’t worry about me. Just make sure you don’t lose sight of that guy.”

“Not likely to.” Oscar flashed a wistful smile. “Do you realize you saved two more lives this week: Mine and Rudy’s?”

“What can I say? I’m a nice guy,” Steve chaffed with an elfish wink.