Te amo, Babe. Always.

RPOV

Day to day, it's little subtle things that change. It's only when you look back that you realise that everything is different.

My babe was different.

The spark was still there, no doubt, but it was as though a little part of her had changed. That part of her that made her do some of the crazy things she does is closed off. In its place is a sort of uncertainty. A hesitancy about her that she never had before. It doesn't show often, this change of hers, she hides it well. But not from me. I know her heart. I can see her in the same crystal clear way she sees me. It's this that lets me see what about her has changed.

Her confidence. Her self-esteem. Something made her question herself, made her question the way she acted and who she was. It was hurting her, and that was killing me. How to help though? Every time I asked her if she was ok, she simply flashed me a bright smile and told me she was great; the only hint of her lie was the sadness that lingered in her beautiful blue eyes.

At first, I was angry at her for lying to me, but then I realised that she had a reason for it. And so help me, I was going to find out.

"Bossman," I heard someone call out to me. Lester. The joker, who normally always had a grin on his face, was looking grimly at me. Oh, crap. "We need to see you in the conference room."

"Oh?" I raised an eyebrow and narrowed my eyes at him. I did not take well to being summoned. He flinched, for which I was satisfied, but then straightened up and crossed his arms in front of him.

"It's about Beautiful."

Damn him. Three words, he knew, was all he needed to get me to follow him. Inside, I saw members from my team- Tank, my SIC, Bobby, Hal, Hector, Cal, Manny, Woody, Ram, Binkie, Junior and of course, Lester. Immediately, dread balled up in my insides. What had happened to my Babe? I fought for calm, slamming what Steph called 'my blank mask' down.

"Where is she?" I asked quietly, danger lacing my tone.

"She's safe," Cal answered. They all looked nervous and this did nothing to help my panic. I turned to Tank.

"What's this about?" I asked him irritably. And just like that, the slight apprehension in my SIC and best friend's eyes vanished. Anger replaced it and I hid my surprise. Lester strode up to me. I anticipated his move before he made it; I let his arm pin me to the wall for a second before twisting my body and grabbing his arm, using his own momentum to hold him.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I asked him in a quietly menacing voice, my eyes hard as flint.

"Protecting Beautiful like I said I would," my cousin spat. He looked me in the eye. "You telling me you care? Please."

In an instant, my hackles rose. I pressed my forearm against his throat and leaned close. "Say that one more time," I challenged him in a low snarl, red flickering around the edges of my vision.

"This one's on you, cuz," he told me evenly. "Because you don't care."

I drew my fist back, but Tank stopped me, gripping my arm. I could have easily retaliated; he, I and everyone in this room knew that; but I needed to know if there was a cause for concern for my babe. I relaxed and he did too, moving again to stand with the rest of the team, all staring me down.

"Beautiful…" Lester started, calming himself down. "She's…different now. Still the same, but it's like there's a part of her that is hurting and she tries to hide it but, well."

"So you guys noticed it too," I nodded, glad I wasn't simply over-reacting, as I sometimes tended to do where Babe was involved.

"You know?" Santos demanded. His posture stiffened and again, he made toward me. I was the calm one. I held up a hand.

"I noticed it too, I just don't know how to approach it," I clarified. Then, what they were saying hit home. "Wait, hold on, you think I'm responsible for her hurting?" I looked at them in disbelief. "You think I'm the reason she's acting differently?"

Bobby cleared his throat and Lester forced himself to take a deep breath. "We don't think that you deliberately hurt her or anything," Bobby told me. "Just, you two have an awful history of mis-communication and we think that we need to figure out what happened."

"Man, we miss Angel," Cal spoke, startling me. He so rarely displayed emotion, but then again, my babe had gotten under all these tough army men's skins and made them love her. I was hardly surprised. "She doesn't go out with us anymore."

"She's toned down with the hilarious smartass comments." Hal threw in.

"She double guesses herself," Hector added in Spanish.

"She gets subdued in a way she never was before," Bobby chimed.

"The spark in her eyes," Lester looked at me. "It aint there anymore."

I met Tank's eyes. His glare wavered as he saw the genuine concern in my eyes. He nodded slightly to let me know he wasn't going to punch me. "She's our Bomber. Our Bombshell Bounty Hunter. We need to fix this Ric," he looked me in the eye. I knew how worried he was now; he never called me by my name.

I looked around at my men and marvelled at how my babe had managed to fix these scarred men and have them react this way about her. I remember the day I realised just how much she meant to the team, and just how much we meant to her…

###FLASHBACK###

The men and I were meeting Babe down at Pinos for lunch. We had just finished a takedown and she had hauled in her last skip for the day when she called. I was surprised that she had managed all her skips before lunch; surprised and impressed. She really was coming yards and acres with her training. When we pulled up in front of her favourite restaurant, we all saw her inside. She was waving her hands around and she looked livid. Then, I saw why.

Morelli.

I growled in response to the situation that met my eyes.

"Easy, Boss," Tank put a hand on my shoulder. Standing at my shoulder, you could see the thinly veiled anger in his eyes too; as Lester, Hal, Bobby, Hector and Cal flanked me, I saw in them, too, my anger reflected, albeit scaled down a few (hundred) notches. I guess Steph meant more to the men than they let on. With my men, we walked into Pinos. We were still at the entrance, and Babe hadn't seen us yet, so we got the whole show.

"Cupcake," Morelli struggled to modulate the frustration in his voice, and I growled again at his dumbass nickname for my babe. "You're being ridiculous. You're a screw-up at the damn job; you're a walking joke! Just get married to me and we'll…"

"Excuse me?" Steph cut in dangerously. I was glad she did because if that ass had said one more demeaning thing to her I would have made sure he couldn't talk. "Get married?" she scoffed and gave him a native `Burg eye roll. "In case you didn't remember, we broke up, Joe. 6 frikn weeks ago!"

"Don't be ridiculous, Cupcake, you won't be able to do better than me. And it's not like anyone else is interested. Ranger's just having fun and his band of thugs is no better." His sneer raised my hackles and the men tensed. Trained well, they waited at my side though, waiting for my move. I was about to make my presence known, when Steph's icy voice stopped me.

"What did you just say?" she asked the cop, her voice below freezing. Worse than the yelling, her voice had now become a quiet, menacing bite. "Because I know you didn't just insult Ranger and my friends in front of me."

"Your friends?" Morelli blustered. "They are nothing more than witless, good-for-nothing thugs and pathetic excuses for men. You can't tell me that you're actually sticking up for them, Steph? Jesus Christ, they're moronic little bast…"

Morelli never did finish that sentence.

Before I could react, Stephanie brought her knee up into his stomach and delivered an upper-cut to rival my own. As the cop staggered back, she pinned him to the wall and held her arm against his throat, positioning her knee in front of his crotch; a warning, I knew. He may have been bigger, but she had him pinned such that he couldn't make a move without hurting himself in any way. He looked at her in fury.

"Let's get one thing straight, Morelli," she sneered his name, her voice still a low, ice cold snarl. "One, you and I are not close, nor will we ever be, anymore. Two, Ranger and his men and a million times the guy you could ever hope to be. They are honourable. They are loyal. They are strong, and fearless and brave and funny and smart. They are everything you are not; everything you never will be. Three, if you ever say anything about any of them ever again, I will make it my mission to make your life hell personified. A single word against them, Joe, and you'll live to regret it. Stay away from me. Stay away from mine. And yes, they are mine. They're family. Are we clear, Morelli?"

"Crystal," he spat. I was rooted to the spot. I hadn't witnessed anything that touched my heart that much (or turned me on as much) as that did. I knew the expression on the faces of my men reflected my own. My babe let the cop go and I saw that her hands were shaking. She turned around just then and saw us. Her face coloured, a sexy red blush tinting her cheeks.

"Uh…" she fumbled. "Hi guys," came the sheepish greeting.

I walked to her and put my arms around her slight frame; with a soft sigh, she relaxed against my chest.

"Calm down, Babe," I murmured, placing a chaste kiss on top of her head. That proved to be too much for the cop and he stomped out. As he passed them, my men recovered their blank faces, getting rid of the tender expression that they reserved for my babe. At the entrance, Morelli turned around and spat,

"Well I hope you're having fun, Cupcake, letting the world see what a slut you really are."

And just like that, he dug his own grave.

In an instant, I was across the room. I landed a punch to the pendejo's face and felt a satisfying crunch under my fist. In the next instant, Steph was in front of me.

"No, guys, he's not even worth it," she tried to placate. Guys…? Oh, I realised. The men had moved with me and each of them looked ready to dispose of a lousy body. To my surprise, several cops stood behind my men, all ready to join in the brawl. Babe held her arms out, spread wide. "Don't. Really. It's okay."

"No, it's not," Lester and I growled in unison. My men just kept scathing glances over her shoulder. Grabbing his save, the cop made tracks out of there. Cautiously, Steph put her arms around my waist, resting her fists on the small of my back and laying her head on my chest.

"Thanks for that," she mumbled. I wound my arms around her and kissed her forehead, already calm again, now that she was here. She picked up her head and looked at everyone in turn. "All of you. Thank you."

"Anytime, Little Girl," Tank rumbled, ruffling her hair affectionately. It seemed that her calming down had calmed everyone else down too.

"Yeah, Beautiful," Santos grinned at her, "we protect our own. Especially seeing as how we're "YOURS" now…" he trailed off teasingly.

"You guys weren't supposed to hear that," she blushed and hid her face in my chest.

"Why not, Bomber?" Bobby asked. "That's the best thing anyone has ever done for us."

"Yeah, Angel," Cal chimed in. "You didn't have to stick up for us but you did."

"Of course I did," she picked her head up, sounding indignant. "I couldn't let Morelli get away with talking about you'll like that!" Her anger, though terror inducing as it was earlier was now just adorable.

"Exactly, Bombshell," Ram tapped her cheek lightly. "No one has ever stuck up for us."

"Thank you, little girl," Tank grinned at her. "You're ours too."

"Familia, mi Angelita," Hector agreed in Spanish. A look passed between them, and Hector winked at her and she smiled broadly. Hector returned the smile, surprising me. I would be willing to bet that Hector now considered my babe under his protection. Hmm…interesting.

"Proud of you, Babe." I murmured. She looked up at me, smiled brilliantly, and from that day? Rangeman became a family.

###END FLASHBACK###

We never had to say anything, but it was obvious how touching that was to all of us. We were so used to people judging us and calling us names like Morelli did. Not once did it affect us, but it was extraordinarily touching to have someone protect us. Especially this little `Burg girl who had next to no violent history. From that day, Bombshell duty, as it was dubbed, became a privilege. She had brought light into all our lives, and it was times like these when it was evident just how much my men loved her. I looked at each of them in turn, and then sat down.

"OK," I said simply. Lester was the first to speak up.

"So, what do we do?"

"What we always do," I replied. "We discuss our Intel."