This story is the result of an October challenge posted on the yahoo group PlumShort – if you're a writer, make sure you check out this group! Challenges are posted each month for inspiration and encouragement – a great place to practice writing or test your wings if you're new.
This was a flashback challenge – the first paragraphs (in italics) are the challenge, posted by the PlumShort moderator (thanks!). The rest is mine.
All characters are sole possession of JE, I make no profit, am just having fun, etc.
…
Stephanie's slightly singed hair lay flat against her head soaked from the shower that sprang up just as she was making her way home on foot. She didn't really mind all that much as the rain was helping to wash the miscellaneous gunk out of her hair after a long day of skip chasing.
The one thing she did mind was just how cold her body was from the soaking wet clothes that plastered her body making sore muscles seize up and ache. She was really looking forward to a long hot soak in her tub to relax her body and give her mind a rest. She would worry about the broken heel to her favorite black boots later – the checks she got from her work today would more than pay to replace them.
A stray breeze made Stephanie shiver and she pulled Ranger's leather jacket more tightly around her body. The scent of him on the jacket took her back to this morning when she'd taken a nice long sniff as he'd brushed past her in the bail bonds office, starting off this wild day…
"Babe," he had said, coming up behind her while she was standing at Connie's desk. By the time she looked up far enough to make eye contact, she was pretty sure her eyes were glazed over by the heady scents of leather, bulgari, and him.
His amused smirk confirmed it.
He cocked his head toward the door and she trotted along after him.
By the time she caught up to him in the alley, he crowded her against the brick wall – not pushing exactly, but definitely crowding her. He leaned closer, until his breath tickled her ear and that scent…
"Do you have plans for tonight?" he said.
She squirmed against him. "No."
He leaned even closer, until she could feel the movement of his lips on her ear. "Good."
Then he straightened up, and his voice returned to its normal, authoritative pitch. "I have a distraction job for you. It'll pay you $5k if we get the guy to the cops in one piece."
She blinked. "What?"
That damn amused smirk was back. "A job. Tonight. Slutty. Five thousand."
"You're a jerk."
He leaned closer again and this time brushed her lips with his own. "Yeah. But I'm good."
The dragged out syllables showcased exactly what he would be good at, and just exactly how good he would be.
"For five thousand dollars," she said, "you didn't have to kiss me to get me to agree."
He was already headed back to his car, leaving her chilled and the sudden departure of his body heat. "I know," he said over his shoulder. "But then I wouldn't have gotten to kiss you."
He stared at her for a second before walking back toward her. He shrugged off his jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders. He pulled it tight while his eyes lingered on her face, her hair. His fingers caught the bottom of the zipper and pulled it up, slowly, brushing her breasts as he went.
"There," he said, his voice hoarse. "It's supposed to be cold today. This will keep you warm."
Her stomach did a free-fall. She tried to conjure up Joe's image. All cute and rumpled and walking Bob. No dice. That image didn't stand a chance against what was standing in front of her.
"Tonight," he said, his voice still low. "I'll pick you up at nine."
She did manage to nod dumbly, but by then, he was already gone. She hugged the jacket tighter around herself and inhaled. The smile that spread across her mouth, lifting the edges and softening the lines, was probably inappropriate. But what the hell, she was alone.
…
Three Steph sat on the curb and dropped her head into her hands. She didn't look up when she heard the sirens coming closer. The thud of a car door sounded and a pair of boots invaded her limited line of vision, but still she kept her head down.
"You okay, Steph?"
"Sure, Carl. I'm fine."
"Wanna tell me what happened?"
"Chasing a skip. He ran. He blew my car up on the way. Pretty much the same story as always."
Carl sat down beside her on the curb, and asked all the same questions that the police always asked her.
Once they were done with the who and how and why, she sighed and rested her head on his shoulder. "Thanks for not making fun of me."
Carl gave her an awkward side hug, and in a dejected voice, said, "I lost too much money to work up any desire to make fun of anyone right now."
She swatted him on the arm.
"Hey, Steph?" he said, shifting away from her. "What's this in your hair?"
"Dunno. When he ran, I started to chase him, but tripped on a bag of garbage."
"That explains the smell. What happened to your shoe?"
She glanced down at her ruined favorite pair of boots and heaved another sigh. "That's how I tripped on the bag of garbage – the heel broke on the sidewalk."
Carl lifted a strand of singed hair. "I'm guessing this is from the car blowing?"
"Yeah," she said. "Damn skip circled around the block and tossed a freakin' grenade on it. I didn't even know he was carrying a grenade."
Ranger's voice surprised her. "Probably a good thing you didn't tackle him to the ground, then."
She looked up at him and grinned. "Probably."
Carl and Ranger exchanged hello's before Carl wandered away toward the other detectives.
Ranger grabbed her hand and pulled her up into his arms. "You okay?"
She nodded into his chest and mumbled an "uh huh."
He pulled back far enough to look her up and down. "Impressive," he said.
"What is?"
"The jacket is still clean."
She glanced down at Ranger's leather jacket, which was still wrapped around her. "Maybe it's like Big Blue – indestructible in spite of all attempts."
He leaned down to kiss her forehead. "You're pretty indestructible yourself, babe."
She smiled up at him.
He took her arm and pulled her toward his car – the Porsche today. "You still up for this distraction job tonight? We can push it back."
"Nah. I'm okay. I just need a nap first. And some food."
She climbed into the passenger side, and breathed a sigh of relief. The inside was toasty warm in spite of the cool air outside, so she shrugged out of Ranger's jacket.
A moment later, when he still hadn't appeared at the driver's side, she craned her head, looking out the window to see where he had gone.
"Oh no," she mumbled as she climbed back out of the car. Joe had arrived, and had cornered Ranger.
She couldn't hear what they were saying, but Joe was yelling, pacing, and flapping his arms in true Italian fashion. Ranger was standing stock still and silent, showing no emotion whatsoever in true…well, Ranger fashion.
When Joe saw her approaching, he abruptly stopped. He looked her up and down, and rolled his eyes. "I'm not even surprised any more," he said.
She glared. "I'm okay. Thanks for asking."
"If you weren't okay, somebody would have told me before I got here."
She kept glaring.
"Are you coming home?" Joe said.
"No. I'm going to go change at my apartment. Ranger has a job for me tonight," she said, jerking her thumb toward Ranger, who was watching everything with his normal blank expression.
Joe threw up his hands. "You almost got blown up by a grenade!"
"I'm fine."
"Just stay home tonight with me so I don't have to worry. Please? My heart already stopped beating once today – I can't handle more often than that."
"We can push this to tomorrow night," Ranger said.
"See?" Joe said.
Stephanie spun around pointed her finger at Ranger. "I already told you I don't need to push it back. I'm fine!"
"I think you've had enough excitement for one day, babe."
"Come on, Steph," Joe said. "There's a game on, we'll get Pino's."
She swiveled on her one good boot and looked back and forth between them. "What is this? You two are now working together? You think that by ganging up on me, I'll just calmly follow your orders?"
Joe looked over Steph's head at Ranger. "I think this conversation took a wrong turn somewhere."
Ranger gave one nod. "You probably should have asked if she was okay when you got here. It's a woman thing."
"Yeah," Joe said. "And you said the thing about too much excitement. We're never going to get her home in one piece now."
"Speak for yourself. I can always cuff her and drag her. Where do you want me to take her?"
Joe cocked his head. "Well, she's kind of messy…"
"That's it!" Steph yelled. "I'm not going anywhere with either of you two. You're both overgrown, macho jerks. I'm glad you're getting along and all, so you two can just enjoy your evening alone together."
Joe rolled his eyes. Ranger's mouth was tipped up the corner like he was thinking about laughing.
She spun, tripped slightly on the broken heel but regained her balance, and with a final glare and an Italian hand gesture at each, stomped off. She knew the effect of stomping off in a huff was entirely lost since she was more waddling than stomping – her ass was moving three inches higher on the left than the right – but she kept it up anyway. Even the sound was ridiculous. The boot with a heel clicked, while the boot without made more of a thudding noise.
When she got to Ranger's car, she looked back to see them talking, but couldn't read any expression on either face. She jerked open the door to Ranger's Porsche, grabbed his leather coat, sand slammed the door shut. She saw Ranger wince at the sound.
Well, look at that, she thought. Big bad mercenary does have emotion. For a freakin' car! She gave the Porsche's tire a vicious kick before walking away.
She pulled on the coat, wrapping it around her, and stomped off. She mumbled to herself as she plodded home. "I'll just cuff her and drag her. Over my dead body are you dragging me anywhere." Not watching where she was going, her right foot (the shorter one) landed square in a puddle of muddy water. "Ahh!" she yelled as she tried to shake the water from her leg.
She had just gotten most the water off when the sky above her opened up. She stopped, looked up at the clouds, and gave them the finger.
Still muttering, she shrugged out of Ranger's jacket – no need to piss him off further – and turned it inside out. In the process, her clothes got drenched with the cold rain. Shivering, she got the jacket back on her and pulled it tight.
Because it was inside out, the liner was close to her nose, and she inhaled the scent. It was uniquely Ranger mixed with new leather. That's how the whole day had started – her smelling the coat in the Bond's office. In fact, this whole day was Ranger's fault. Somehow. And the man in question was going to hear about it when she tracked him down.
But she wouldn't have to track him down. Coming up behind her, she could hear the purr of an engine that could only have been made by Porsche.
She kept waddling. Click, thud. Click, thud.
She heard the electric window slide down. "Babe."
Without turning her head, she gave him the finger and kept waddling.
He didn't respond, but drove at the same pace she was walking. Her heartbeat picked up a notch, even as the cold wind made her shiver. She had just flipped off batman. Twice in twenty minutes. No one but her could get away with that, and even she may have gone to far. She took a shallow breath. Why didn't he say anything?
When she finally chanced a glance at him, he was smiling all 200-watts.
She stopped in her tracks, forcing him to slam on the breaks or drive right past her. As it was, he still went past her. As soon as she saw his reverse lights come in, she started walking forward again, and this time she passed him. She heard the engine growl as she got back into a forward gear and shot past her.
"Ass!" she yelled. But the wind was cold, so she tucked her head back into the liner of the jacket and kept plodding along.
A few steps later, he saw Ranger's boots planted on the sidewalk in front of her, but didn't look up. Uh oh.
Before she could even say a word, his arms shot out and picked her up and threw her over his shoulder.
"Put me down!" She kicked her legs and pounded her fists on his back, but he didn't react. "If you don't put me down right this second, I'll—"
"You'll what?" he said, his voice flat and cold.
She stopped wiggling. Uh oh. Maybe she had pushed him too far. She took a breath and tried to control the first flutter of panic welling up inside of her.
He opened the passenger side door of the car and dumped her inside. Slamming the door shut himself, he walked around to the driver's side and climbed in.
His hand was on the ignition, but instead of turning the car on, he turned to look at her and raised one eyebrow.
She crossed her arms over her chest and blew out a sigh. "Okay, fine. I'm sorry."
His lips tilted upwards and he started the car. Without another word, he turned left on Hamilton.
"Where are you taking me?"
"Home," he said.
"I live the other direction, sparky."
He shot her a look. "I'm taking you home with me. You need a hot shower and decent food. If I leave you alone you'll eat hamster pellets for dinner."
"I will not. I'll go get something."
"You don't have a car."
She blew out a sigh and sunk further into her seat. She cringed as she said it: "I'm sure my dad will come pick me up for dinner at my parent's house."
She didn't look at him, but could hear the amusement in his voice.
"You'd rather suffer through that circus than eat dinner with me?" he said.
"I don't know. Are you going to cuff me and drag me off to Morelli?"
"If I cuff you, Morelli's is the last place you'll be headed."
Her stomach did a free-fall at his tone of voice. She risked a glance at him out of the corner of her eye to see a predatory smile tilting up his lips. She shifted in her seat. Was it hotter all of a sudden? Or was it only her internal temperature that had just skyrocketed?
"I can't believe you said you would cuff me and drag me!"
His smile widened.
"God, you're such a jerk sometimes."
He didn't reply, but he was still smiling. She made a huffing sound and looked out the window. When they pulled into the garage, she jumped out the car and stomped as well as she could toward the elevator.
He caught her after three steps and scooped her up. He held her facing him, like a little kid, so her legs automatically wrapped around his waist.
"I can walk, you know."
"Barely."
He walked into the elevator, and pressed her back against the back wall of the elevator. They were nose to nose, and a split second later, he leaned to kiss her. She felt the rush all the way through her body when his tongue touched hers, and he kept kissing her for seven floors.
As the doors opened and he walked out of the elevator, she regained her wits. "I'm still mad at you, you know."
"Uh huh." He managed to kiss her again as he walked.
"That's not going to cut it," she said when he came up for air.
"Uh huh." He walked directly into the bathroom and set her down in front of the shower. He pulled the inside out jacket off of her, and then reached for her soaked t-shirt.
She grabbed his hands just as he started to lift the shirt. "I don't think so, sparky."
"You really going to keep calling me that?"
"Out!"
He smiled at her before leaving her alone with the shower. She got herself clean as quickly as she could, and then in the silent apartment, crashed.
When she opened one eye two hours later, Ranger was standing in the doorway.
"The princess is awake," he said.
She threw a pillow at him.
He caught it easily and tossed it back. "I have food, if you get up."
Her other eye opened. "Ella's food?"
At his nod, she hopped out of bed and beat him to the dining room. The table was set, and two bites in, she was ready to stay forever.
"Do you still want to do this distraction tonight?" Ranger said.
She froze with her fork halfway to her mouth. "Didn't we already discuss this?"
"We have to do it earlier than we originally planned."
Her eyes narrowed. "How early?"
"In an hour."
She let out a small squeak. "I don't have any clothes here!"
Ranger cocked his head toward the kitchen. Her eyes followed his motion, to a Macy's bag hanging over one of the kitchen stools.
She set down her fork and stood to grab the bag. She pulled out a skimpy red dress. In the bottom of the bag was a pair of black heels.
"Wow. Hot shoes. Ella knows her stuff."
One corner of Ranger's mouth tipped up.
Steph hung the dress over the back of the chair next to her, picked up her fork, and dug back into the chicken.
"Was that a yes?" Ranger said.
Steph shrugged one shoulder. "Sure. Why not? It's a great outfit – I'd hate to waste it."
Ranger's mouth widened into a grin.
She studied him for a moment before figuring it out. "You knew that dress would make me do this, didn't you?"
"I more thought you needed cheering up."
Something in her heart melted as she smiled at him. He reached over and grabbed the bottom of her chair and pulled it, until the chairs were side by side. She nudged him with her shoulder. "Thanks."
He leaned to nudge her back. "Anytime."
Two hours later, the skip was in custody. Ranger walked up to Steph where she was leaning against his Porsche.
"That might be my new record," she said. "Easiest five thousand dollars I've ever made."
"It's the dress."
She looked down at herself. It was a hot dress. "At least I look better now than I did at three o'clock this afternoon. I'm all in one piece, no broken shoes, I'm dry…" Her hair was still partially singed from the car fire, but she had managed to hide most of it by pulling her hair up, and really, there was no need to bring that up.
He leaned forward and kissed her forehead. "It doesn't matter, Babe. You always look beautiful."
She leaned against him. "You're being awfully nice to me today."
"Turns out, I kinda like you," he said, picking up one of her curls and wrapping it around her finger.
"Whatca gonna do about it, Batman?"
"Today? I'm going to take you home with me so you get a decent night sleep. Someday?" He trailed off and tugged on the curl.
Her heart stilled at the look in his eyes. She forgot all about the parking lot they were standing in, the Merry Men milling around, her singed hair. It all faded away with just his look.
She didn't know how moved first, but then they were both leaning closer, their lips meeting in a prefect, promise filled kiss.
He rested one hand along her cheek and smiled at her again. "Come on," he whispered, opening the car door for her.
Once he got in as well, he reached over and took her hand. The warm car, the leather seats, Rangers hand – within a minute she was lulled to sleep.
The next thing she remembered was being tucked into bed, and a kiss being pressed to her forehead.
The next time she opened her eyes, she was cuddled in Ranger's arms, and he was asleep. She rolled over to look at him, letting her eyes trace over his face, studying him in the pricks of moonlight coming in through the cracks in the drapes.
She blinked when one eye slit open.
"You're staring," he said, his voice husky with sleep. He pulled her a fraction closer and tightened his hold.
"Did you mean what you said?" she whispered.
One eye opened all the way up. "It's four in the morning."
"Humor me."
Something in her voice must have made him open up both eyes. He stared at her for a moment before reaching up with one arm and running his fingers through her hair.
"Yeah, babe. Someday."
She relaxed into him, relieved. She didn't even know what made her ask, but suddenly she had been filled with the immediate need to know.
"Go back to sleep," he whispered.
"Okay."
The last thought she had was that in spite of everything, it had been a pretty good day.
…
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