Meanwhile at the hospital, an aggravated Oscar had to contend with not only Rudy’s refusal to subject Steve to a hypnosis session, but Jaime’s as well. Both hoped to force him to concede to their side, but their efforts were in vain. Oscar was doggedly intent on giving Steve the right to make the decision.
“It’s up to you, Pal.”
Steve kept silent as he pondered Oscar’s suggestion, then looked up at Rudy. “Why are you so against this, Rudy? I mean if it helps me remember and all?”
“It’s unlikely your brain is prepared to receive all this information at once. There could be a potential risk of seizure if you were to recall dramatic experiences such as the explosion that nearly killed you.”
“But right now not remembering what happened is what’s driving me nuts. I can’t wait for my memory to return on its own, if ever. I need to do this.”
“Steve, you heard what Rudy said. It’s dangerous,” Jaime insisted, her hands tightly wrapped around Steve’s left hand.
Steve responded with a squeeze of his own hand on hers. “Jaime, understand that I’m willing to do anything to help Oscar catch the bastards that robbed me of six years of my life. Six year,” he stressed with tears welling up his eyes. “I want them to pay for what they did to me.”
“At the cost of your own life?”
“Of course not, but what’s the worse that can happen?” Jaime’s muteness to his question prompted Steve turn his gaze to Rudy who stood by Oscar with a deep frown. “What could it be? I could wind up with total amnesia?”
“Or permanent brain damage,” Rudy informed bluntly.
“Then no. He’s not going to do it,” Jaime jumped in without first consulting with the party concerned. She glanced at Steve with a scorching look warning him to support her decision. She held her glare on him until she sensed the message had sunk in, but instead of agreeing with her, Steve sided with Oscar.
“I need to do this, Jaime. I have to take the risk for Cassie’s sake. If indeed it’s the same man, Lord knows what he can do to her if he realizes that she and I used to be partners. I can’t explain it but I feel a strong connection to her.”
Jaime, Oscar and Rudy all exchanged knowing looks.
“It’s no wonder, she’s your best friend, Steve. You consider her like a sister,” Jaime maintained, much to Oscar’s puzzlement who turned to Rudy for enlightenment.
Rudy shook his head and frowned. “Not now.”
“Rudy, set up the session,” Steve said resolutely.
“You sure?”
“Yes I’m sure. I want to get this over with so we can hopefully catch the guy before he strikes again.”
With a loud sigh fraught with indignation, Jaime averted her eyes from Steve who reached out to take her hand.
“Jaime, please. Understand that I have to do this. I just hope I can count on your support because I will need it,” Steve begged with imploring eyes, a drooping look that melted her heart.
She responded with a heartening smile and squeezed his hand. “Of course I’m here for you, you dummy. I still believe you’re making a huge mistake, but I respect your choice.”
“Thank you,” Steve quavered appreciatively, reciprocating the smile.
Outside the room, a few feet away, a nurse picked up a pay phone and dialed a number. “Yeah, it’s me. They’re in there with him. They’re discussing something about a hypnotic session to help Austin remember what happened. What should I do now?” The man listened intently to his next set of instructions. “Right. Okay. I will.” He then hung up and resumed his work.
A look of mixed surprise and disgruntlement played on Jaime’s face upon noticing Cassie looming under the doorway of Steve’s hospital room. Although thankful to see the woman alive, she was nevertheless displeased by her presence and her strained grin didn’t go unnoticed by Cassie.
“Can I come in?” Cassie asked sheepishly, casually brushing aside Jamie’s disapproving stare.
Steve’s eyes lit up and the beam on his face was all the answer she needed to step forward. “Cassie! You’re okay?!”
“If course I’m okay.”
Steve welcomed her with outstretched arms and clenched her into a warm hug. “Oscar said that you ran into a snag and that his name was Harry Gregson.”
“Well he was a bit of a bother,” she informed nonchalantly, “but I managed to sweep him aside.”
“Is he in custody?”
A nervous twitch crossed Cassie’s face as she quickly pondered her answer. “Unfortunately no. I just fled his fortress with the files and never looked back. Oscar will handle the next part.”
“I gave my consent to an hypnotic session,” he said, glancing at Jaime who openly displayed her resentment at his decision. “Some people are against the idea,” he gave an apologetic smile, “but I need to know what happened to me six years ago.”
“I understand,” Cassie sympathized. “I’d feel the same if I were in your shoes.”
The statement irked Jaime who expected to find an ally in Cassie on this issue. Nevertheless she voiced her opinion, “Rudy said it could be risky. It could make it worse for his memory to evoke those events so soon into his recovery.”
Cassie’s eyes shifted from one face to the other, both contradictory in their assessment of the exercise. Not having been briefed on the subject she could not pronounce herself on whether the session would be helpful. She decided on impartiality, siding with neither Steve nor Jaime.
“Jaime, could you please leave me alone with Cassie?” Steve asked bluntly, his icy tone taking Jaime slightly aback. “Please?” Steve softened up upon noticing Jaime stiffing up at his request. “I need to talk to her privately”
“Sure Steve,” Jaime replied meekly, throwing Cassie the evil eye before she leaned forward to kiss Steve on the lips. “I’ll be in the waiting room.”
“Okay. Thanks.” With a placid smile playing on his lips he waited until she was out the door before giving way to his frustration, “Cassie I need an candid answer here. What the heck is going on?” I feel that people are talking behind my back. And somehow you’re the only one I trust to provide me with an honest-to God answer. I beg of you Cassie, don’t beat about the bush and give it to me straight.”
“Well you’re nothing if not direct. In fact that’s one of your best attributes.”
“Don’t humor me, please. I’m not in the mood.”
“All right. All right. It’s highly likely that Harry Gregson is the man who put a price on your head six years ago. He also might have orchestrated the plot that nearly killed you. I stumbled upon that information when I infiltrated his organization. I made one dreadful move though that nearly cost me, but I made it out.”
A shuddering sigh was all that Steve could muster at the startling news. “What now?”
“We’ll…,” Cassie’s answer was momentarily delayed when a male nurse entered the room to take report of Steve’s vital signs. She and the nurse exchanged smiles as she vacated her spot for him to better read the monitors.
“I’m meeting with Oscar later on. We’ll discuss the best way to approach the situation,” she explained distractedly, her squinting eyes studying the nurse’s odd conduct. Being a medically trained nurse herself she found peculiar his reading of the heart monitor, but dismissed her misgivings for the time being so to avoid arousing suspicions on the man’s part.
“I hope so. I’m so confused, Cassie,” he lamented, shaking his head in despair. “I can’t see my way clear. Everybody is a stranger to me; you, Jaime, Oscar, Rudy. I’ve been cudgeling my brain trying to ignite the tinniest spark of memory from you guys but I come up dry. I can only trust my instincts and I even doubt those.”
A wave of compassion washed over Cassie. With tear-glistened eyes she reached out to take Steve’s hand in hers. “Don’t try so hard, Steve. It’ll come back to you.”
As he gave her hand a gentle squeeze in return he noticed the glittering diamond engagement ring on her finger. “That’s a beautiful ring.”
Cassie’s heart leapt to her throat. She started to retrieve her hand from the clasp but held back seeing how the cat was already out of the bag. “Euh yes, it is,” she stuttered nervously with her mind working overtime to find the best way out of this predicament.
“Who’s your fiancé? Someone I know? Or rather someone I used to know?”
“I doubt. He’s a…well I…I met him after your accident,” she finally dished out with a heart pounding down her throat. “He and I were often affected on the same missions. We got to know each other and..,well…it clicked.”
“That’s great,” Steve exulted very poorly, straining to appear happy when deep down he had hoped for a different answer. “I hope I can meet him some time.”
“Oh…yeah..sure you will. I mean…,” she continued to stammered; her thoughts in a complete jumble. “He’s overseas on a mission right now.”
“What’s his name?”
“Eric…Eric Zimmerman,” she blurted out, caught unawares by Steve’s question.
“Can’t wait to see him. I hope he treats you well?”
“He does.” She nodded goodbye to the nurse who made his way to the door. She waited until he walked out of the room, using the time collect her thoughts, before citing a meeting with Oscar as a pretext to table the subject and leave the hospital.
“I’ll see you later,” she smiled, fighting the urge to kiss him. She left him with a mere squeeze of the hand and never looked back as she headed toward the door.
Outside an icy clutch of grief and despair seized her, numbing her senses. She leaned against the wall with tear-glistened eyes looking heavenwards. “What have I done?”
Making his way to his office, Rudy noticed Cassie outside Steve’s room looking prostrate. Frowning with concern he slowly stepped up to her. “Something wrong?”
Cassie closed her eyes and shook her head in despair. “I’m so ashamed of what I did.”
“What?”
“I just lied to Steve. I’ve never done that before. I…I was…well he took me by surprise and I thought he wasn’t ready to hear the truth.”
“What are you talking about? What truth?”
Cassie held up her left hand. “My engagement ring. He saw it. I just couldn’t bring myself to remove it and now I regret I didn’t.”
“What did you tell him?”
“That I was engaged to a man I met after his accident.” Rudy flashed her a disapproving look that irked her. “Don’t do this, Rudy,” she countered with a similar glare. “What did you want me to do? Tell him I was his fiancée? He doesn’t remember me. The truth could have been worse. I felt trapped. I told him the first thing that crossed my mind.”
“You did what your thought was right, I can’t fault you for that. And perhaps it was for the best, seeing how he’s still a bit confused,” Rudy conceded. “However he’s bound to put two and two together eventually, whether by himself and from someone else.”
“So? What should I do? I don’t want to lose him, Rudy. But if I have to let him go…,” she faltered at the thought.
Rudy placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “You won’t. He already thinks very highly of you. His instincts are telling him you’re his precious Brown-Eyed Girl. It’s only a matter of time before he remembers everything you and he shared.”
“I sure hope you’re right. Gosh this is hard,” she sighed heavily. “But the important thing is that he’s alive. And I thank God every day for that miracle.”
“He’s going to get better. You must believe that.”
“If you are I guess I should too,” she said with a strained smile, not convinced that Rudy’s prognosis was to come about.
“Will you be okay?”
Cassie sniffed the last of her tears and regained her composure before nodding. “Of course I will.”
“I’ll be in my office if you need anything.”
“Thanks Rudy.”
No sooner had Rudy left that Jaime walked up to Cassie, throwing her a scowl as she brushed past her to make her way to Steve’s room. Cassie pounced on her, grabbing her arm and swung her round to face her scorching glare.
“All right, out with it, Jaime!” Cassie snarled with eyes ablaze. “Why do you hate me? Have I done anything to offend you, ‘cause if I did I don’t remember.”
“I don’t hate you,” Jaime sneered.
“Well you’re certainly hiding it well,” Cassie retorted sarcastically, then released her grip on Jaime’s arm. “Just tell me what I did wrong and I’ll try to make amends. This is no time to be at odds with each other. Steve needs all our help to get better.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” Jaime rebuked.
“Then why do you resent me so much?”
“You stole him from me,” was her acrid answer.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Steve and I had something together until you came into the picture and ruined it,” she accused vehemently, much to Cassie’s disbelief.
“Wait a minute here! You were the one who left him. He was miserable. He loved you so much it hurt him.”
“I had amnesia. I didn’t know who he was,” Jaime defended.
“What about after you regained your memory. What then?” Cassie smashed back the ball into Jaime’s court.
“You and he were already going together.”
“Correction. Steve and I were merely good friends. I never STOLE him as you so eloquently put it. I don’t steal anybody’s boyfriend. When you returned after breaking up with Michael Marchetti you never gave the slightest sign that you were interested in rekindling a romance with Steve. ”
“How could I? You were always with him,” Jaime reproved, much to Cassie’s exasperation.
“You want him now? Is that what you’re trying to do?” Jaime’s silence was all the proof Cassie needed. “ Go ahead. If he wishes to be with you, so be it. I won’t stand in the way. But make sure you don’t take advantage of his present condition. You wait until his memory returns before you ask him to make a choice.”
“I will.”
“I’ll see that you do,” Cassie warned, her icy stare shooting daggers at the woman standing defiantly before her.
Jaime turned her nose up to Cassie as she headed toward the exit. She wait for her to turn the corner out of sight before entering Steve’s room, unaware that the patient had overheard the acrid conversation outside.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked angrily.
Jamie’s face blenched at the question, “You heard?”
“Everything. You shouldn’t have been standing so close to the door. So? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“About what?” she choked as she edged up to the bed, her step faltering for fear of upsetting Steve.
“You, me, Cassie. You let me believe that you and I were an item when in fact I was engaged to another woman.”
“Did she tell you?” Jaime sassed.
“No. She’s as guilty as you are about lying to me.”
“Steve, in your condition it was best not to…”
“Ha hell with my condition!” Steve irrupted insolently. “Why do you suppose I consented to this hypnotic session? It’s to remember. I was counting on my friends to help me jog my memory. Instead they lie to me. How do you expect that makes me feel?”
“Steve, I’m sorry,” Jaime repented with a head hanging low in penitence.
“Would you leave me alone, please?” Steve urged on a bitter tone that warned Jaime not to insist.
However Jaime ignored the glare and attempted one last plea, “Steve, you must understand that what we did we did in your best interest.”
“Sure,” he mocked, looking away in frustration.
“Can I come back and see you later?” she requested sheepishly, steeling herself for the answer.
“Not today. I need time to think.” Steve was unyielding in his response.
Jaime stole away quietly, casting one last glance back at Steve who still held his ground.
She left the premises much to the male nurse’s delight. A sneer hung on his lips as he made his way to the linen closet where away from prying eyes, he pulled out a small vial and a syringe from his smock pocket. He filled the syringe with Potassium Chloride and put the cap back on the needle before stuffing it back into his pocket.
One deep bolstering breath later, he snuck out of the closet and walked up to Steve’s room. As he neared the door, he swirled on his heels, doubling back to retrace his steps at the sight of Cassie heading towards him.
Cassie’s brow knitted at the odd behavior, her gut instincts urging her to keep a close watch on the nurse whose odd conduct she intended to report to Rudy.
She peeked inside Steve’s room, hoping to find him resting but instead she spotted him sitting by the window.
“Steve? What are you doing out of bed?”
“I was fed up of lying down,” came the waspish reply.
“Everything okay?”
“No.”
“You could have fooled me,” she quipped, slightly caught unaware by the atypical insolence.
He turned to face her, his eyes shooting daggers at the unsuspected victim who could only stand stunned by the withering look.
“Why did you lie to me?”
Cassie’s mind switched to emergency mode to remain above the situation. She masked her concern by displaying her best naive expression. “What are you talking about?”
Steve shook his head disapprovingly. Still Cassie affected an air of gullibility. “That engagement ring on your finger,” he pointed out, motioning to her finger. “I gave it to you, didn’t I?”
Elation washed over Cassie with a beaming smile hanging on her ears. “You remember?”
“No. I heard you and Jaime outside.”
“Oh, well, that.”
“Yes that!”
“I said the first thing that popped into my mind at the time.”
“How about the truth?”
“I couldn’t. It wasn’t safe.”
“Safe from what?” Steve lashed out while crawling back into his bed. “You thought I couldn’t handle the truth, right?”
“That’s right and for cause. You still don’t remember me. What was I supposed to say? Yes Steve my darling, you and I were engaged to be married when you had your accident. Now you may not remember who I am but the heck with it! I don’t care. You’re my fiancé whether you like it or not? Is that what you wanted from me?”
“Well perhaps not in such a ruthless manner, no.”
She felt a pang in her heart at the sight of the tear-glistened eyes gazing up at her. Biting her quivering lower lip and swallowing the emotional lump caught down her throat, Cassie stepped closer to the bed to put a sympathetic hand on Steve’s shoulder. “Hey, don’t try so hard or you might make it worse for yourself and we wouldn’t want that.”
Steve closed his eyes to squeeze out a few tears and nodded. “It’s just so frustrating. When I think about losing six years of my life…can you imagine how that makes me feel? Hollow. And to top it all off I can’t summon up memories of the past. I feel alone and lost.”
Cassie clasped his hand and briefly held it to her lips before sandwiching it between her own.
“You’re not alone in this fight. We’re behind you and we’re rooting for you to come out the victor,” she allayed with one soothing hand cupping his cheek and another on is forehead, smoothing his hair back.
“It’s just so hard,” he whimpered in spite of himself, leaning his cheek into her palm to seek comfort in her gentle touch.
“I know,” she whispered as she leaned forward closer to his face. “We’ll get through this together.” She felt this urge to lay a kiss on his lips but held back for fear of upsetting Steve.
She was surprised when he slipped a hand behind her neck to draw her closer to meet his lips in a tender kiss.
Outside the room, a few feet from the door, the male nurse conversed on the phone with his Gregson. “I haven’t been able to do to yet?”
“What’s the hold up? Gregson fumed on the other end.
“There’s always someone showing up. If it’s not Goldman or Wells it’s one of his girlfriends.”
“Tonight. I’ll give you until tonight to finish the job. He should be alone then,” Gregson ordered before slamming the phone down. “Damned that kid!” He looked up at his henchman. “If he doesn’t kill Austin tonight, you handle it. And get rid of the kid as well. We don’t want any witnesses.”
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