Is Your Love Strong Enough, a janet evanovich fanfic

Is Your Love Strong Enough Story 3 in the iPod Series

Say Something

Something I Can Never Have

A/N: As always, don't own, wish I did!

A/N 2: Shout-Out for my wonderful Betas ShellSueD and SnapesGirl! You guys are the best and unbelievably patient with all my mistakes and delays!

A/N 3: I will try to get a story out once a week but I have started a new job and I'm not sure of my schedule yet, we'll see how it goes… Now for what everyone has begged for, Ranger's reaction so far.

So, on with the story!

Just one step at a time

And closer to destiny

I knew at a glance

There'd always be a chance for me

With someone I could live for

Nowhere I would rather be

Is your love strong enough

Like a rock in the sea

Am I asking too much

Is your love strong enough?

Just one beat of your heart

And stranger than fantasy

I knew from the start

It had to be the place for me

Someone that I would die for

There's no way I could ever leave

Is your love strong enough

Like a rock in the sea

Am I asking too much

Is your love strong enough?

Just one beat of your heart

Is your love strong enough?

Just one beat of your heart

Strong enough?

Just one beat of your heart

Strong enough?

Just one beat of your heart

Strong enough?

Just one beat of your heart

Ranger rubbed his forehead and tried to blank his mind. It was running a million miles an hour. To look at him, he just looked tired and not heartbroken in the slightest. He had no idea that Stephanie didn't know that he cared or even loved her. If he looked back over the last four years he saw the yo-yo, push pull that they did to each other. Not to sound childish but she had started it first. Going from Joe to him and back again.

He thought that if he slept with her he would get her out of his system, but that obviously didn't work the way he thought it would. But still it was two years later that Stephanie finally kicked Joe to the curb and sat him down to talk to him about them being together.

That had been enlightening to say the least. Stephanie had shown up at his door at about 7 on a Sunday night, three weeks after her and Joe's break up, asking to speak to him. He grabbed them some bottles of water and sat across from her at the dining room table.

She had laid it all out to him, how she loved him and couldn't go on with the yanking back and forth. She asked him flat out how he felt. Of course he waffled, giving the tired line about his life and relationships. She nodded and asked him what he saw for them in the future, that she saw them working toward being together, being a couple, maybe not marriage but definitely in a committed relationship.

Stephanie had left soon after that to let him think about what he actually wanted from her, or if there was going to be a 'them'. She had said if he really didn't want a relationship with her she needed to move on and start over. That she was ready to find someone to spend her life with, maybe even one day have a child with.

To say Ranger was flabbergasted and proud all at once was putting it mildly. He knew Stephanie didn't like talking about emotions or feelings, any more than he did. But she had come there and sat with him calmly, rationally, logically and laid it all out for him to decide what he wanted.

And now because he dragged his feet for the last six months, she had done what she said she was going to do. She left to start over and maybe find someone who could give her what she wanted.

Ranger rubbed his stomach, where it was churning, and tried not to think of Stephanie in some unknown man's arms. Letting him kiss her, kissing him with her lips that he loved to kiss so much. Those were his kisses that she was letting some stranger have, dammit! Those were his hugs she was giving away, his arms that grabbed you close and held on so tight.

Now he was just making himself crazy. He needed to calm down and talk to someone who would know what was going on and there was only one person who she would tell everything to. First he needed a shower and some food. He called Ella and then made his way into his bedroom.

Jesus, everywhere he looked he saw her. She was already haunting him and she wasn't really gone. He stripped off his clothes and tossed them in the hamper. He turned on the shower and stepped into the cold water hoping that would wake him up from this crazy dream of Stephanie moving across the country from him. It wasn't just him that she moved away from, it was everything she had known, her family, friends and even the crappy job at her cousin Vinnie's bail bonds.

Ranger stood there and let the cold water hit his face while his mind raced on all of Stephanie's past scrapes and close calls. How she had worked so hard the past ten months on her training. He had been pleasantly surprised when he had gotten back from his final government trip to find out that Stephanie had been training with his men while he had been gone.

She had excelled at her hand-to-hand, take downs, defensive driving, and weapons training. He knew if she ever got any real training she was would be unstoppable as a BEA. Within the first month of using her new skills she had started bringing in the mid-range skips and was making some good money. But she also made some new enemies too. He worried about how she was going to react and it still worried him her reaction to the stalker breaking into her apartment while she had been home. Stephanie had shot him five times center mass and never shed one tear about what she had done. She had matter-a-factly told him it was him or her and she would always protect herself first.

Ranger saw now how little by little Stephanie had begun to shut down her emotions, her empathy toward other people, how she was becoming more and more hard to read. Ranger really had to be paying attention to her lately if he wanted to know how she was feeling; it was no longer on her face or in her eyes. Even Vinnie had said something to him about if someone had hurt her and he didn't know about it. How Stephanie was acting like some kind of assault victim with her being hyper-aware of her surroundings, training, shooting first and asking questions later.

He had thought about that for a while and finally brought it up to her and she had laughed and said 'no she hadn't been attacked any more than usual and she was just tired of being the joke or the bet'. She just wanted to be able to defend herself so she didn't need to keep asking him for help. She wanted to make sure she could handle anyone who came after her. Ranger told her that he didn't mind helping her but she has shrugged him off and changed the subject.

Ranger made his way down to five and knocked on the closed door.

"Enter!" Ranger walked in and sat in one of the guest chairs in front of the desk, putting his left foot on his right knee, resting his folded hands on his stomach and closed his eyes waiting for him to get off the phone.

"Yeah, yeah… I got it… I'll tell him when he gets back… Yes, I'll make sure… You don't need anything? You're sure?... Ok, I'll talk to you later… A calendar, is that ok?.. Yes a small one, I promise… Ok, I'll talk to you later… Bye"

"Glad your back Boss. How was Boston"

"That's what you're going to say to me? I come home from Boston and find that while I was gone Stephanie's moved across the country and you are asking me about fucking Boston. Really? What the fuck, man? Did something happen that I don't know about?"

"Not that I know of. She came in about three days after you left and said that she had been given a job opportunity, told me about the bail bondsman, the research she had done on the business and told me she was moving there in two weeks. She asked for my help in getting her federal license to carry for the U.S. and that was it. I thought you knew about it, honestly."

"Does it look like I knew about it?"

"Well, now that you mention it, she did say that she needed to get away from a bad relationship but I thought Joe might have been trying to get back with her. You're saying the relationship was yours?"

"Listen, you know what my life is like. I can't have relationships but I was going to try with her and then stuff started getting in the way and then I started thinking about all my enemies again…" Ranger stopped mid-sentence at the raised hand.

"Listen, you wanna be a dick and let the best thing that ever happened to you go then that's your business. Don't drag me into it and ask me what the hell is going on, ok? If this is what she's been listening to, for however long, than she has a lot more patience then anyone's ever given her credit for." He answered shaking his head at Ranger.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It means that, that explanation is complete and utter bull shit and you know it. Stephanie can take care of herself now, you know that. How many stalkers of her own has she taken down in the last, what, almost year now? Not even counting her skips. She went from handling skips like Mooner and Dougie to taking on some of the big boys. Shit Ranger, her last skip for Vinnie was worth a cool half-mil her take."

"Ok, yeah, she can take care of herself, but she hasn't gone up against any of my enemies yet."

"Are you forgetting Scrog? She handled that fine; you were the one losing your mind. She was good until you were shot. I thought we were going to have to sedate her at the hospital and you guys weren't even really together then." He shook his head again took a deep breath and laid it all out honestly, "Look if you really feel that way, that you can't love her the way she wants, then call her and tell her. Let Stephanie get on with her life. Let her find a man who will love her and want to spend his time with her."

"Hey, that's not fair. I love her and love spending time with her."

"Then what is your problem? I don't get it? Was she talking about getting married or something?"

"No, in fact, she said she thought she might not ever want to get married, but that she thought she might want a kid. Jesus, I don't know if I want another kid." Ranger sighed and looked up at the ceiling.

"All I can tell you is to call and talk to her. If a kid is a deal breaker with you, you might have to let her go, man. I love you like a brother, you know that, but I love her like a sister too so I'm going to say this as her brother. Either shit or get off the pot, Ric. You can't have it both ways anymore. Ya' feel me?"

"Ya' I feel ya'. You been watching Dr. Phil or reading Cosmo again? You're turning into a girl, man."

"Fuck you right back, dickhead. At least my woman knows how I feel about her."

"Yeah, yeah, alright, I'm going to go call her. I'll talk to you later to see if there is anything that needs my attention here."

"Go on, get out of here and call her. We're good; I just need to straighten something out with Lester and Ram. See ya later."

"Later Tank."

Ranger walked out of Tank's office and into his own, sat down behind his desk and took a deep breath before dialing her cell number. He was able to take one more before she answered.

"Speak."

"Hey, Babe."

"Ranger?"

Is Your Love Strong Enough by How to Destroy Angels (cover of Bryan Ferry)