Little oneshot - won't impact on TOT (next chapter will be ready just after Christmas). Hope you enjoy! Based on my own medical experiences - or what I remember of it anyway!
R&R - best Christmas present ever!
Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas - xxx
Ranger POV
Leaving my Babe was never an easy task. I'd go into the wind, and each time I wondered whether I would man up and tell her how I felt before I left. Whether she would go back tohim again in my absence, not knowing how much I needed her. Whether I would stand a chance when I got back. Whether I even would return at all.
This latest, and my last mission, was no exception. True the dangers were as great as ever, but what made it worse was that I knew her and Morelli had just split up and by the sounds of it maybe this blow out was the final straw. As luck would have it, just as a slightly tipsy Les finished filling me in on what had happened in the restaurant where he'd taken his latest conquest and therefore had a front row seat, my red phone rang. Yeah, yeah... it's just like the one in Gotham City, but this one is linked to my handler.
Three quarters of an hour later I was picked up from the top of Haywood's building in a Robinson R22 helicopter and whisked away for my briefing. As it was 0200 hours I didn't think Steph would appreciate a call so I told Les to make sure he and the rest of the team looked after her and kept her safe and maybe help her with her shopping...
Oh, did I forget to mention it's the 17th of December?
Least my quick extraction gave me the coward's way out of telling her myself.
But like I said, this mission was the last one. I had no idea where I was going, or how long I would be away, but this was it. Rangeman, Julie and Steph all needed me and I was damned sure I would be back to do just that.
0740 hours saw me get my papers and the details I needed to complete the op. I met my team at 0745 and we sat and read through the bones of the plan before heading out to catch our plane at 0810 to xxxstan.
This one was a fucker. Potential to go FUBAR in the blink of any eye. Fast and furious with a rapid in and out.
We would all need out wits about us and our team covered.
For the first time in a very long time, I felt my stomach twist in apprehension, either that or the food I'd eaten earlier was off...
o0o0o0o0o
Steph POV
I woke to the smell of coffee and the sounds of a tuneless whistle in my kitchen. Rolling over I opened a sleepy eye and waited till I gained an element of focus. The red lights of my alarm clock glared back – it was 9.05.
Not too bad – nearly morning.
I schlepped out of bed, snagging my towelling robe as I headed on autopilot for my bathroom where I pulled myself into focus, emptied my bladder and washed my hands before splashing water on my face to finally wake me completely.
"Hi Les" I grinned out as I entered my recently upgraded kitchen. "What brings you to me with...donuts?" I asked as I pulled the tall paper bag towards me and peered inside.
Les, who by this time had turned to face me with two steaming mugs of caffeine, grinned in reply. "Boss man was called up early hours so asked me to drop by and let you know he would be in the wind for a while."
I stopped in my tracks. In. The. Wind.
Again?!
"But Les, he only got back last week!" I said in surprise. "Doesn't he get a bit of time off in between times. He only got the stitches out of his arm two days ago from the last one!" I added, furrowing my brows.
"Said not to worry and that he plans on being back as soon as he can." Les said lightly, but I knew he too was worried at the quick turn around this time. "So, plans for the day, Beautiful? I'll even brave the mall to go get any last minute gifts if you like."
Now I was officially worried.
Nodding in reply I grabbed the coffee Les was holding out for me and turned back towards the bedroom "I'll just go get showered and dressed." I said, hoping to hide my concern and misty eyes as I headed off to prepare myself for hell - the Quaker Bridge Mall in the week running up to Christmas.
o0o0o0o0o
Ranger POV
We landed on the compacted earth, that served as the base's runway, in the heat of the day.
"Ready, boys?" I asked as I opened the door. Immediately I was engulfed in heat, searing and burning as it raced into the cramped space of our cabin. Stepping down and out onto the ground I saw military personnel, large tents and moving vehicles through a twisted haze of heat and I struggled to breathe as any moisture was pulled quickly from my throat.
I must be getting old, I thought as the earlier discomfort in my stomach combined with the dryness of my mouth leaving me struggling to stand upright. Either that or I was coming down with a stomach bug. Just what I fucking needed!
"You ok, Major?" one of the younger members of my team asked, concern on his face.
"Sure, just forgotten how hot it is out here" I said jokingly as I pressed on my abdomen, trying to hide my discomfort and stand up straight. I need a bathroom... I think.
o0o0o0o0o
Steph looked at Les, well at his legs as they were the only bit she could see clearly. "You OK under there?!" she asked, trying not to giggle as he valiantly held onto the parcels she'd loaded him up with.
Guiding him gently over to a queue, she suggested he put the whole lot down while they waited in line to have everything booked in and then delivered to Rangeman. She'd discovered this service last week, but only after she'd finished shopping with Lula and filled her latest POS only to watch the whole thing go up in flames.
Kaboom!
Taking all her presents with it.
Funnily enough, she was not taking any more chances. Nah ah, no siree!
Les grinned in relief as the packages were loaded into a large crate with Steph's name and the Haywood address on it. "Are we done?" he asked hopefully, stretching and rolling his arms and shoulders now that they were free of parcels.
"Yeah. All done. Let's go celebrate with a large frilly coffee and a slab of cake, shall we?"
Les grinned and grabbed her hand. "I know just the place" he said as he pulled her off towards a large coffee house.
Moments later, Steph sat while Les went off to grab a menu. Something was off, she thought. For some reason her spidey senses were going haywire and her stomach was in knots. She quickly pulled her phone out of her pocket to check the news. She knew it was silly but she spent hours going over the channels when Ranger was in the wind, waiting to hear of the toppling of a despot or the freeing of some hostages, anything. Anything that would give her the reassurance that the man she loved more than life itself was safe.
The fact that he did not return the feelings didn't stop her caring. One day she hoped he would stand still long enough for her to tell him.
And that he wouldn't run away at 100 miles an hour when she did.
She sighed as she looked up to see Les wandering back with a couple of menus and what looked like a napkin with a phone number on it. She sniggered at how quickly he worked a room over before focusing back on CNN to see if she could find out anything.
o0o0o0o0o
"Good to meet you again, Major" the sandy blond man before him stated as he raised in hand in salute.
"Likewise, Sir" Ranger replied lifting his own arm in reply. Only he felt a pulling in his abdomen and flinched as he snapped to attention.
"You OK. Manoso?"
"Yes Sir, just need to acclimatise... and use the bathroom..."
"Ah... yes!" the Colonel said with a grin on his face. "Facilities are over there. Mess tent is that way and we meet up again at 2200 so get some rest."
Ranger nodded in thanks then turned away, the pain in his lower abdomen increasing with every step. It must have been the chicken... or the rice, he thought. He knew badly cooked rice could be a health hazard but Ella was always so careful...It had to have a mild case of food poisoning, after all he knew he didn't have a temperature..." He staggered into the latrines and hoped he would feel better when he left.
o0o0o0o0o
Steph couldn't shake the feeling of unease. It stayed with her for the rest of the day despite Les's attempts at distraction.
She concentrated on the searches Tank had asked her to run when she'd pulled up into the underground garage with Les hanging out the window making silly faces.
She'd talked with her Mom to finalise the details for Christmas and she'd even wrapped all her presents, adding bows, curling ribbon and hand made gift tags, but nothing dampened the feeling of unease.
Something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong.
Please don't let it be Ranger, she thought.
She slept fitfully that night in Ranger's bed. Needing to be as close to him as she could get to gain any comfort she could, and woke the next morning with dread in her belly that now spread to all areas of her body. It couldn't be true! She needed him!
She loved him!
He had to be OK!
Rushing to the TV to catch the morning news, she continued with her mantra.
Please don't let anything happen to Ranger,
Please don't let anything happen...
Ranger's 94 million inch flat screen TV hummed into life and she gasped as images of the aftermath of an ambush filled the screen. A reporter in some unnamed dry and dusty army base explained that a military convoy had been attacked in the early hours in the middle of a nearby piece of desert linking an assortment of unknown villages. There had been no survivors and at this time the next of kin had not yet been informed.
The pain spread through her like a bush fire and she collapsed to her knees.
No!
It couldn't be?!
No!
Just... NO!
o0o0o0o0o
Ranger woke to the sounds of men coughing around him and it didn't take him long to realise he was in a military hospital. He couldn't remember much after saluting the base commander then heading to the latrines.
He hurt and he used the fingers of his right hand to explore the area of his abdomen where the the pain was radiating from only to find his way blocked by bandages.
He shook his head. WTF? Had he been so ill that he risked the lives of his men and gotten shot?!
He knitted his brow, trying to remember but nothing was forth coming. Slowly he lifted his hands to his head but found only hair and no bumps. Funnily enough he didn't have any headache and apart from the intense pain from under the dressings on his torso he felt much better...
"Ah, finally awake I see" a voice said happily as the face from which it came popped into view. Leaning forward the doctor gently took his wrist between his fingers and glanced down at the watch that dangled from his white coat. Satisfied with what he found, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small torch which he shone into Ranger's eyes.
"I'll draw up the papers and we'll have you out of here on the next plane home, Major." He added, turning as if to move onto the next patient.
"Please." Ranger said, his voice raspy. "Where are my men? What happened?"
"They're all fine and moved out without you, I'm afraid. Couldn't take you with them."
Ranger looked confused.
"You don't remember do you?"
Ranger shook his head in confusion.
The doctor sat on the edge of his bed and sighed. "Do you remember having abdominal pains when you landed yesterday?"
Ranger nodded. "I thought it was food poisoning so dismissed it. This op was far too important and time critical." He said by way of explanation.
The doctor chuckled "No, not food poisoning, you're appendix was about to burst. If we hadn't have found you when we did, we'd have been shipping you back home in a crate. You were a very lucky man, Major."
Ranger contemplated what he'd just been told before relaxing back into his pillows. "My men?"
"All fine, I understand they achieved their mission."
Ranger smiled. "Are they back?"
"Sure, I'll get someone to find them for you."
o0o0o0o0o
Ella opened the door and trundled her trolley into the kitchen, expecting to hear signs of Steph moving about. She grinned as she looked at the pile of presents left wrapped on the counter. Taking a quick peak, she smiled as she spotted gifts for some of the Rangeman staff and one, set slightly aside, for Ranger.
She turned back to her trolley and began to unload its contents but turned round when she heard a loud sniff and hiccup.
Wandering cautiously into the lounge, drawing her gun as she did so, she found Steph huddled on the floor. Quickly she stowed her gun and slid down to Steph's side.
"He's dead, Ella! I know he is" Steph sniffed out, waving her hand at the news that continued to pour in about the ambush.
"Shh dear, I've got you" Ella said as she folded Steph into her arms.
Steph relaxed as the older woman cradled her and all of a sudden she felt calmer as she fed on Ella's strength in her time of grief.
o0o0o0o0o
"Yeah, so then we killed the bandits then rigged the wagon to go off and high tailed it back to camp" Benson said, grinning " We even swapped some of our clothes out so that if anyone recovered the bodies it would look like it was us that had died." He added.
Ranger leaned forward slightly and the two men bumped fists. "Wish I could have seen it, man." He added, slightly annoyed to have missed out on all the fun. "So the intel was good?"
"Yeah, easiest job for a while, surprisingly. This was your last one huh?"
"Yeah, but I have no intention to taking on another one just cause I missed out on all the fun." He added with a chuckle.
"What's her name?"
"...Steph."
"Is she worth it?"
"Yeah, more than you can imagine."
"Glad for you, Bro'."
o0o0o0o0o
Tank came off the phone from the Boston office. He'd been holding the Trenton team together since the news of the ambush had come through and had been telling everyone that he'd believe it when he saw the body, but inside he was shaken.
He'd grown up with Ranger and couldn't imagine life without him. They'd been through so much together, school, college, Ranger's marriage and then divorce, Rangers, setting up Rangeman, bringing the teams together across the country, Trenton, Bomber...
His heart bled for Steph. If he was feeling like this, how would she be coping, he thought, darkly. If only the idiots had gotten their shit together and told each other how they'd felt. But now... looks like it might be too late.
Like he said, mentally giving himself a shake down, he'd believe it when he saw Ranger's body and as no-one had confirmed or denied anything yet...
he sighed.
He knew that they may never get official confirmation of Ranger's death. Black Ops worked like that – it was one of the 'perks' of the job. But two days in and he was still hopeful that at some point they would find out.
Something.
Anything.
He put his head in his hands and sighed deeply.
Then he heard it, a faint noise that slowly but steadily grew louder.
"Well, I'll be..." he grinned as he rushed out of his office to find Les.
o0o0o0o0o
Steph lay tangled in Ranger's sheets, her thoughts as scattered as the linen that held her to his bed.
She'd not slept since the news of the ambush so was laying in a haze of sleep-deprived grief when the door opened.
"Babe?" came a soft voice, full of concern. "It's ok. Whatever's got you upset, it's ok. I'm here now, shh, I've got you."
Steph whispered "Ok, so I've officially lost it... you're dead and now I'm hearing ghosts!" before burying her head in the pillows and sobbing.
She felt the bed dip "Hey. Steph! Look at me!" his voice whispered, gaining in urgency with each word spoken.
She felt a hand caress her hair.
"S'ok, Babe. I really am here."
Turning her head slowly she could see him "mustn't close my eyes, he'll be gone." She said to herself but loud enough for Ranger to hear.
"Babe, ghosts can't do this" he stated quietly as he bent his head down and kissed her gently on the lips. His caress full of longing, love and promise.
Steph pulled back and looked at him blinking "You're real! You're really here!" before launching her self at him and tackling him to the bed.
Ranger grunted and scrunched his face up in pain.
"Oh my god! I've hurt you! Where? Did you get shot? Oh my God, I'm so sorry, Ranger! I didn't mean..."
Ranger chuckled, grabbed her face which was only inches from his own and kissed her with all that he had. "Babe, I'm fine! Really. My appendix burst but I'm OK. Just no ironing or hovering for four weeks." He added with a snigger. "I'm fine, I promise!" he repeated before easing her back down onto the bed by his side and spooning himself behind her, gently running his hand down her arm to calm her.
Softly she muttered "You're here. You're really here..." as she snuggled back into him as if hoping to get inside his skin.
"Shh, Babe. Let's sleep for now and talk about it later..." he crooned as he closed his eyes and marvelled at how perfectly they fit together.
Moments later their breathing evened out and they slept.
o0o0o0o0o
Tank grinned as he saw the helicopter land on the roof and Ranger climb out. He seemed a little stiff as he stretched out so perhaps he had taken some damage on board but if he was heading down to 7 as he suspected, then he knew he'd get all the care and attention he needed.
Quickly he sent a company-wide email confirming Ranger's return then got up to go grab a cup of celebratory coffee and to see if Ella could rustle up a few cookies with green frosting and little Christmassy bits on, just like she used to when they were children.
o0o0o0o0o
Rolling over, Steph could smell the faint smell of her man and basked in the slight heat that still remained. He was here. Alive. Real...
Gulp... he said they would talk when they woke up.
She clambered out of bed and into the bathroom to relieve her aching bladder, then wandered into the kitchen to find Ranger.
"Nice look" he said grinning as his eyes roamed over her body, looking at her with naked admiration.
Naked...
Admiration...
Steph looked down and realised she was completed devoid of clothes. Why had she not noticed before! She blushed which made a very naked Ranger laugh!
"Babe. That a good look on you" he said as he picked up the two mugs he'd been preparing in one hand and the gift she'd wrapped for him. "You shouldn't have." He said softly as he waved it in the air then put it back down and wandered towards her. His manhood leading the way eagerly.
"No, I meant it, Babe." He said as he reached her side where he pressed himself gently into her thigh and squeezed her hip with his free hand.
"All I want for Christmas is you."
Steph looked into his eyes and saw the love and longing there.
"And I plan to want you for as many Christmasses as you'll have me" he added as he leaned in and caressed her lips with his own.
She nodded mutely, hoping that her expression said it all.
"Just need to let the stitches heal and I'll show you just how very, very much you mean to me." He added as he kissed her again.
Hope you like!