A/N: A one shot that contains serious angst and character death. You have been warned. For Stayce, in a nice way, because in a roundabout way she gave me the impetus to write this.

Consequences

Tank POV

She used the blanket that the paramedics had draped around her shoulders to soak up the tears that coursed freely down her mascara streaked face, and looked up at me from where she sat on the curb. "I'm so sorry," she sobbed for the third time in as many minutes, and then began to bawl loudly.

I'd endured enough, turned on my heel and strode back across Stark Street to Ranger. His position mirrored hers – ass parked on the curb, blanket around his shoulders and tears streaming down his face. The only difference was that his tears were silent and that the body of his cousin was lying lifeless in his lap.

There would be no fixing things this time, I guessed as I sat down next to Ric and squeezed his blood smeared hand where it was tangled in Lester's long brown hair.

Ranger dropped his head down to his chest and shook it slightly. "Why?" he whispered bitterly.

"Who knows, man," I offered quietly as I looked at Lester again. If you didn't look at the bullet hole that had ripped apart his femoral artery, you'd think that he was just asleep. But he wasn't, he was gone, and it wasn't fucking fair.

"Why couldn't she have just…" Ric murmured to himself.

Because she's a selfish bitch, I thought to myself. Rangeman had done more than bleed money to protect Ms Stephanie Plum this time, and if I had anything to say about it, then it would be the last time we ever gave a damn about her safety too.

Don't get me wrong, I understand that her line of work is dangerous, but to have so little regard for her own safety makes me angry. I don't leave the building without two guns, a knife and backup when I'm on the job. But Steph? Oh no, God forbid that she actually bothers to think about her own safety let alone anyone elses for one fucking second.

She leaves her gun in her cookie jar and ends up in way over her head before she even realizes that she has a problem. And then what? Rangeman rides to the rescue – like today. Only this time it's different, this time it fucked up and one of my best friends is lying dead next to me in a filthy gutter, while my other best friend is heartbroken because his own flesh and blood bled out in his arms before the paramedics could get here.

I glanced behind me at Cal who was watching both mine and Ric's backs right now.

"Hal called and said they're about five minutes out," he told me.

I turned back to Lester again in the hope that this was all some fucked up nightmare, but it was real. Shit, Bobby didn't need to see this mess. He didn't need to see the man he loved here in this shit hole, and he certainly didn't need to see Steph.

Maybe my prayers had been answered, because a beat up Crown Vic pulled up at the edge of curb by the ambulance. I watched as Joe Morelli got out of his car and took in the scene before him warily. Both the paramedics and uniforms that were on the scene were giving everyone a very wide berth; even the usual crowds of gawkers that milled about on the sidewalk after a shooting had sensed that it was wise to stay indoors. It seemed that no one wanted to be in Ranger's line of fire when he finally lost it, nor did they want to see Steph wailing on the other side of the road.

Donnie McNeil had been just your usual nutcase middle bond skip for Steph. He'd shot at her a couple of times, ransacked her apartment and thrown a petrol bomb at her car, but she wouldn't be deterred. Lester and Cal had been the poor guys on Bombshell watch this morning when she, against Ranger's wishes for her to have some muscle and a takedown planned, decided to give it just one more try by herself to drag him back into the system.

The guys had hauled ass out of her parking lot after the control room had called and told them that one of her personal trackers – the one Ranger had secretly installed in her cell, was on the move. She'd given them the slip from her apartment and apparently crossed over a couple of blocks to where she'd had her father drop off the Buick at Dougie and Mooner's. Clever thinking on her part, but so damn reckless. By the time the guys had got to his apartment, McNeil was tearing away from them all in his car, and it was a lucky shot that he'd fired back in the direction of Steph that had hit Lester in the leg. It had all happened so fast, one second Santos was getting out of the truck, and the next he lay dying in the road.

Morelli approached Steph warily and squatted down to talk to her. Her sobbing could be heard across the road and she reached out for Joe. He patted her hand awkwardly, then stood back up and walked over towards Ranger and myself.

He stopped about the same distance in front of us as he had with Steph and squatted down again. He looked at Lester and then up at Ric, before he closed his eyes and shook his head. "I'm so sorry, man," he said reverently as he reached out slowly and squeezed Ric on the shoulder. I don't think Ranger heard him, shit, I don't think he'd heard anything that was going on around him anymore, as he was so deep in shock.

I eased myself up from the ground and nodded at Morelli.

He followed me into the middle of the street and looked into my eyes. "You okay, Tank?"

I ran my hands over my head before scrubbing my face with my fingertips. "Just peachy keen Joe, just peachy keen. Look, Bobby's on his way over here and I need you to do me a favor."

"Bobby?"

I nodded towards Lester. "Santos' boyfriend. Can you get Steph out of here?"

"Shit," he muttered. "Sure, I'll take care of it. I'll see if I can get her taken down to St. Francis for a quick check over or something. Was it really just a lucky shot?"

"So Cal says. They'd only just arrived, chasing after Steph, when he got shot."

Joe shook his head again. "I'm sorry man, I really am."

"Thanks, Joe," I responded tightly as he clapped me on the shoulder and went back over to Steph.

He was steering her slowly towards the waiting ambulance when Hal's truck appeared. Bobby hit the ground running before the F-450 had even stopped and he tore down the street like he had the hounds on hell hot on his heels. He came to an abrupt stop in front of his lover and Ric, dropped heavily to his knees in the pool of Lester's blood that marred the ground and hauled Les out if Ranger's arms, clutching him tightly to his chest.

The ambulance containing Steph pulled away, Ranger sat motionless on the curb staring at his blood coated hands and Bobby knelt by him cradling his lover and crooning soft words in his ear that I was too far away to hear. Poor Bobby, Lester would never hear what he was saying either, and I blinked back tears.

It was nearly a week later that Hal called me from the control room. Apparently Steph had tried accessing the elevator in the parking garage. Ranger had asked me to change the codes a couple of days ago and Steph's key fob no longer worked.

I'd known that she'd eventually show up here, as did Ranger and he did not want to talk to her. She wasn't exactly flavor of the month at Rangeman right now. I rode down to the garage to meet her and found her still pointing her key fob at the lift when I stepped out.

She looked like shit; still nowhere near as bad as the boss or Bobby, but bad enough. Her hair was a rat's nest, her clothes unkempt and stained.

"Ms Plum," I said by way of a greeting.

She frowned at me. "It won't work."

I shook my head. "No."

"But…"

"What can I do to help you, Ms Plum?"

"I wanted to see Ranger, I have to-"

I cut her off. "No. Ranger does not want to see you right now. There is nothing you can say to him, or Bobby that will make this any better. May I suggest that you leave?"

"But he's my friend," she whispered as a lone tear slid down her cheek.

I bit my lip to keep my true feelings in check. The urge to lay into her and tell her what I was feeling right now would unfortunately not change anything or bring Lester back.

"I should…"

"Go?" I suggested again.

Steph nodded slowly. "Will you tell Ranger and Bobby…"

"I'll see what I can do." Like hell I'd tell them anything. Bobby was still crawling into a bottle and Ranger was still dealing with his family. Lester's brother Manny had already died on Ranger's watch in a faraway place a few years back, and his grief was tearing him apart. Ranger was blaming himself for this entire cluster fuck. He didn't need to know about Steph calling around, as I didn't know just how much more he could take right now.

"Thanks Tank," she murmured as she walked slowly and stiffly towards the exit ramp.

She was a couple of steps away when I remembered the card in my pocket. "Ms Plum?"

Steph turned back around slowly and I took a couple of steps towards her.

"Here," I said as I pressed a business card into her hand. "The number of Sentinel Securities across town; maybe you could call them if you need any help with your skips."

She looked down at the card I'd placed in her hand like it might jump up and bite her, but she forced a smile onto her face anyway. "Thank you."

"Good day, Ms Plum," I said before I turned back towards the elevator.

"Goodbye, Tank," I heard her say before she walked out of my life, and Ranger's and Bobby's and no longer became Rangeman's responsibility.

I stepped back into the lift, hit five for the control room, leaned back against the wall and closed my eyes. You cannot help those who choose not to help themselves, and God had we given her enough opportunities over the years to better herself. And what pained me the most was that life at Rangeman would never be the same. Bobby had lost his lover, we had all lost a good friend, and Ranger, he'd lost both his cousin and his woman because of the consequences of someone else's selfish actions. I just hoped that Steph learned to live with what she had done, because I sure as hell knew that I couldn't.