This was meant to be a one shot Song Fic buuut I got carried away, clearly don't know when to stop, so this is going to be a two part fic. This is only my second story so please be kind. All mistakes are mine and all characters belong to Janet Evanovich.
Song: Sia – My Love
One year, 4 months and two days.
That's how long I got to spend with the man I love before fate intervened.
September 5th 2013 – Rangeman, New Jersey
I glanced at the clock, noticing it was 12.30, lunch time. My stomach let out a slight gurgle, showing it's dismay that I was thirty minutes late for its scheduled feeding time.
Locking my computer I rolled away from my desk and made the long trek to the break room. Ok, so it was 3 cubicles away, but my leg had gone numb from sitting for hours and it felt really far away.
Ella had put out a lovely spread today, there was hot soup, bread rolls (whole wheat, yuck), warm & cold meat sandwiches and fruit. Rummaging through the sandwich basket I let out a little whoop of success, the last roast beef. Score. I placed it on the counter to get myself some soup to warm me up a little. From the corner of my eye I saw a hand reaching for my sandwich.
"Do it and you pull back a bloody stump" I threatened without taking my eyes off the soup ladle, knowing full well it was Lester. He and I always fight over the last sandwich. Don't know why though, when Ella makes the core team whatever they want for lunch.
"Aww c'mon beautiful, I missed my lunch order with Ella today. Besides you got it yesterday, therefore it's my turn." I turned to look at Lester, who was standing there with a pout on his handsome face.
"Les, you missed your lunch order yesterday and the day before that AND the day before that for the past two weeks. You think you would have learnt by now." He smirked at me.
"Well I'm a busy man, it's easy to forget. Plus if I remembered, we wouldn't get to do this each day now would we?" He had a point, it was our little tradition. There was never any argument and more often than not we'd share. Half roast beef, half ham and swiss.
"This is true. Got your half?" He grinned and held up a ham sandwich. We took a seat at the table in the back corner, where we could see people coming, but they couldn't see us until they were in the room. Les looked around before pulling a subway bag from his pocket, containing two choc-chip cookies. The man is a saint, well as much of saint as Lester Santos can be.
We spent half an hour just chatting and discussing our plans for the weekend. I had once again, been summoned to my parents' house for Friday night dinner. Val and Albert were coming over with the girls. They'd all had the flu the past couple of weeks so it hadn't been so chaotic, but having all 6 of them makes it an undesirable evening.
Les had a date with a woman he met last weekend, but he couldn't remember if her name was Stacey or Megan, he just planned on calling her sweetheart and hoping to get away with it. Clearly not destined to be.
Over the past 3 months that I had been working at Rangeman, Les and I had gotten quite close. He was Rangers cousin, from their mothers' side. He told me stories about the trouble they used to get in to growing up and about their Army days. He quickly became my best friend at Rangeman, with Woody, my partner running a close second. Two weeks after I started at Rangeman, Ranger had to go on a mission, which I learned from Les are not enforced by the government but he gets to pick and choose. He's been back for three weeks and has really been starting to open up to me.
We were just finishing our lunch, clearing the table when Ranger came in to the break room.
"There you are. Steph can I see you in my office when you're done with lunch?" He asked, giving Lester a quick glance.
"Sure thing. I'm actually finished now if you're ready?" He nodded and walked back down the hall towards his office. As I left the room, Les was making kissy sounds at me. Remind me to kick his ass later.
I knocked on the door frame of Rangers office before heading in and closing the door behind me. "What's up Ranger?"
He looked unsure, which made me nervous "I was wondering if you had plans tonight?" Is he asking me on a date?
"Umm… err… nothing." Smooth Steph, real smooth.
Ranger let out a small sigh. Was that a sigh of relief? "Would you like to come up to 7 and have dinner with me? I'll even get Ella to make some dessert." Mmmm maybe I could talk her into making the chocolate raspberry cake she makes on special occasions, oh or the flan, that flan is to die for… what else oh... "Babe?"
Crap runaway internal thoughts "Sorry. That sounds good. What time?" We agreed that I'd meet him at 6.30 which gave me plenty of time to go home and get changed.
The rest of the day was a blur, I kept thinking about dinner. As soon as the little clock on my computer hit 5 I was up, shrugging on my jacket and heading for the elevator. "See you fellas in the morning" I quickly threw over my shoulder as I jumped into the elevator.
Traffic was congested through Hamilton Township so I cut through the side roads, saving myself 10 minutes of waiting. Of course the carpark was full, all the seniors wanted to be inside before it got dark and much colder, I don't even care that I had to park next to the dumpster tonight.
The elevator was sitting on the 3rd floor. I know Ms. Mankowitz lives up there and she holds the doors and it doesn't release the elevator, unless someone came down. I let out a sigh and huffed up the stairs before letting myself into my apartment.
Sitting on the counter was my answering machine, with the flashing red light of doom. I threw my bag on the counter and pressed play as I grabbed a water from the fridge.
"You have three new messages"
"Stephanie, this is your mother. You haven't told me if you're coming to dinner tomorrow night. I expect to see you at 6pm sharp. I'm making a roast and upside down cake."
"Hey cupcake, I haven't seen you around for a while. Call me." Not likely Joe.
"Stephanie, this is your mother again. What is this I hear about you racing through the back streets? Mr Waters said you almost ran him down as he stepped off the curb, 80 in a 40 zone. I raised you better." Urgh I was doing 45, but I suppose when you're 95 and your speed is limited to 2mph everything seems faster.
I started stripping off on the way to the bathroom, no point wasting precious time standing in the bathroom to undress. 10 minutes later I was out and getting ready.
For the first time in forever, I was knocking on Rangers door dead on 6.30. He seemed surprised too; I think he was expecting me to be late.
"You look nice Babe." He said leaning down and placing a gentle kiss on my lips. I was wearing jeans, a lace camisole and a long sleeve, V-neck sweater. Hardly attractive but it's nice to hear.
"So do you, but then again you always do." He was wearing jeans and a white Henley. Casual Ranger is in the building. Yum.
We sat down for dinner, Roast chicken with steamed vegetables and a mini baked cheesecake for dessert. I know it's a healthy dessert, I can taste it but it still tastes pretty damn good.
"Babe, this is hard for me, you know I'm not an expressive man." I nodded "I was wondering if you would consider going on a date with me?" Be still my beating heart. Batman just asked me on a date. Me!
"Yes" Hell yes. He smiled and leant across the table giving me another kiss.
2 months, 10 days later – November 15th 2013
"Babe please"
"No Ranger. It's too soon. I'm not ready."
"You can keep your apartment, but please move in here with me. You're here most nights anyway."
"I need more time. Who'd have thought that you'd be the one wanting to take this step in a relationship." He was right though, in the past two weeks I've spent maybe 3 nights at my apartment and one of those was because I fell asleep when I was getting more clothes.
I've always had that safety net to fall back on when things don't work out. Although Ranger and I haven't fought once in two months, it's actually been great.
Ranger groaned, a sign that we've been spending too much time together "I've got a meeting but we'll talk about this later. Whatever you decide is ok, as long as you're happy." He kissed me on the cheek on the way out. Damn him for being sweet.
I went into his office, grabbing a pad of paper and pen from the top drawer. I started making a pro con list.
Pros: I love him. Spend quality time together. More sex. Sleep-in's as I'm closer to work. Ella. Great sheets.
Cons: Giving up my apartment…
I stared at the damn list for 20 minutes, adding more positives but I couldn't think of any more negatives. I don't know why I was fighting this, but it's what I wanted to do.
I'm moving in with Ranger. Oh my god.
One year later - September 5th 2014
So I moved in with Ranger 8 months ago and it's been great. We've fought once and that was simply because I refused to have an additional Rangeman on me when I got a stalker back in April. Woody was enough and I could handle myself these days. I ended up crashing at Les' apartment on the couch, until Ranger came and found me the next morning. We sat down and talked about it, apologised and then made it up to each other.
Tonight is our 1 year anniversary from when Ranger first asked me out, which not surprisingly Mr Organised remembered.
He was taking me out to dinner in New York at the restaurant his brother owns. We've eaten there a few times and it's beautiful, with a great view of the city.
Before I knew it, it was time to head in to the city. Ranger was fully dressed up tonight, in his Armani suit and silk tie. I had a long blue dress on with a sweetheart neckline that Ranger picked out for me.
We got to the restaurant and ordered. Well Ranger ordered, I have no idea what he asked for because I was too busy admiring him.
Throughout dinner we sat and talked, sharing our favourite moments from the past year.
I asked him to dance when a nice slow song came on; he took my hand and pulled me out of my chair. We shared two slow, sweet dances before our dessert was served on our table.
Dessert was these cute little chocolate boxes with edible red ribbons, filled with white chocolate mousse.
I looked closer at my plate and piped on the plate in chocolate was "Babe, will you marry me?" I popped my head up to look and Ranger but he was gone. I felt him touch my left hand and noticed he was kneeling next to me on the floor holding a ring box. "Stephanie, you're the most important person in my life. I never thought I'd find anyone who could accept and love me like you do. You make me the happiest man alive. Will you marry me babe?" I had tears running down my face and nodded my head yes.
"Of course I'll marry you Batman." He slid a beautiful ring on my finger and gave me a passionate kiss. I couldn't believe it, Batman and wonder woman are getting married.
One Year, 4 months, 2 days later - January 7th 2015
"Marco Priez, known arms dealer has recently smuggled in a new shipment which he is selling to the gangs in New Jersey. He has in his possession, military assault rifles, explosives and armour piercing bullets. All staff are to be on high alert, wear your vests and are to travel with partners at all times, no exceptions. Any questions?" Nobody responded so Ranger wrapped up the meeting. I stayed back to give him a kiss as he was gone before I woke up today.
"Morning Babe" He gave me a steamy kiss
"Mmm morning Ric. I missed you this morning."
"I'll make it up to you tonight. I've got a full schedule today, client meetings at their premises. What are you and Woody doing?"
"We're doing a patrol of a couple of client businesses who a complaining about kids loitering out the front. Nothing major."
We stood in the conference room and talked for a bit longer until Woody knocked on the door asking if I was ready to go.
"Have a good day babe. Don't go crazy." He kissed me on the nose.
"Don't get shot. Love you batman."
Woody and I were driving around, a couple of streets from Stark street, checking on a clients building. It was a bad area really but the gangs were trying to take over and spread out so things were getting a bit chaotic. We were coming back out the store when I heard gunfire. Woody and I took cover heading for the SUV. Woody had his phone out calling for back up as we were in the middle of a gang war. He was shielding me with his body to the SUV.
I opened the door, heard the glass smash and a burning pain rip through my chest before darkness took over.
Woody POV
I watched as Steph fell backwards from the SUV, I caught her before he hit the ground. There was a hole in her vest from a bullet. "Shit." I put my phone to my ear again "I need assistance now! Steph is down." I ripped at the straps of her vest, repeating over and over; please let the vest have stopped it. As soon as I lifted it over her head, I saw all the blood and knew the gangs had armour piercing bullets. I took my jacket off and pressed it against her chest, trying to stop the bleeding but there was so much blood. The gunfire stopped and I could see red and blue flashing lights in the distance. Please let there be an ambulance in there.
3 police cars, 2 ambulances and 4 Rangeman vehicles all arrived at once. The paramedics quickly loaded Steph up in the ambulance and rushed her away; Lester had climbed in the back of the ambulance with her on his cell phone, probably calling Ranger.
The paramedics came over to check me out. "I'm fine." One of the paramedics, Emily she said her name was pointed out that I was bleeding. I looked down and my arm and noticed I'd been grazed by a bullet. I let them clean the wound and put a bandage on it, before jumping into and SUV with Cal & Simon to go to the hospital to check on Steph.
Ranger POV
I could feel my phone vibrating in my pocket but was ignoring it due to the importance of this meeting. Then my emergency line went off and I knew something was wrong. I excused myself from the meeting to take the call
"Les, what's going on?"
I could hear his voice shaking slightly so I knew it wasn't going to be good "Shit cuz its bad. Steph's been shot and she's in bad shape man."
TBC…