So this popped into my head and for some ungodly reason demanded to be written. I am still working on my other story, All the Right Reasons, but I seriously stalled out after some unfortunate turns of events in RL. I am going to continue working on it and hopefully have some progress soon. In the meantime, since this dialogue wouldn't leave me alone until I put it to paper, I figured I might as well share it. It is most likely just a one-shot, unless more comes to me… for now this is all. Love it or hate it, let me know!

"When?" I asked, turning my back to him, staring out the window of our seventh floor apartment. An hour ago I would have called it home. Now I felt more out of place here than I did the first time I snuck in to hide out from the slayers.

Behind me, Ranger sat in one of the dining room chairs, his elbows on his knees, head in his hands, fingers threaded through his hair. The sheaf of papers in their blue backing sat on the table, the papers that destroyed my life as I knew it. I thought we were so happy. I thought I was enough for him. I thought he was better than this. What a joke. I guess all men are the same. Or maybe it's me. Maybe my mother is right and there is something terribly wrong with me, something that leads men to cheat on me.

Two years ago when a distraction had gone terribly wrong and the skip had me at gunpoint for at least 5 minutes before one of the merry men could get a clean shot off, my relationship with Ranger came to a head, and once he had his arms around me and I was safe, it was clear to both of us he wouldn't be letting me go ever again. I was assimilated into his life so quickly it was almost like I had always been there, and in a way I guess I had. I lived in the seventh floor apartment, I worked full time at Rangeman, the guys were my family and after years of feeling like the odd one out growing up in the burg, I felt like I finally found the place where I belong. That is until I accidentally found the results of the DNA test that Ranger had hidden in his office.

"I asked you a question, Ranger," I said, barely controlling the contempt in voice. "Don't you think I at least deserve an answer?"

"Babe," Ranger choked out, clearly barely able to speak.

"Don't you dare, Ranger Manoso! Don't you dare call me that!" I yelled, shaking I was so furious.

"Stephanie. Please just listen. I know I owe you an explanation. I'm trying. God this is so hard. I never meant for this to happen."

"Right, never thought you get caught, huh? Never planned on knocking her up?"

Ranger stood and was in front of me in two seconds, grabbing my arms and forcing me to look him in the eyes. "It's not like that Stephanie. Please stop. Just stop and listen to me."

I put my hands on his chest and pushed him back, knowing damn well that he only let go of me on his own volition. Trying to push Ranger around was like trying to move a mountain. Ranger's arms dropped lifelessly to his sides. I took several deep breaths trying to calm down. I don't think I had ever felt anger like this in my whole life. All of those knock down drag out fights with Joe seriously paled in comparison to this. I was overwhelmed with the betrayal. It was my worst nightmare come true. I knew I needed to calm down. I honestly did want to hear Ranger's explanation. A part of me wanted to believe that he had some explanation that would make this whole thing make sense, something that would make this terrible ache in my chest go away. Another part of me knew that nothing he could say was going to make this better.

I made my way to the living room and sat down in the chair. I purposely avoided the couch because I couldn't take it if Ranger tried to sit next to me. I was still trying to calm my breathing and get myself under control, but I was almost afraid if I somehow got the anger under control, the hurt and pain might take over and I'd end up a crying mess and embarrassing myself. Stay strong, Stephanie, I told myself. He's the one who should be embarrassed. He's the one who screwed up here.

I felt a little bit better. I noticed Ranger had followed me into the living room, and was looking at me apprehensively, like I might lunge for him and claw his eyes out any moment. Smart man. In any other situation I might have found that look on his face amusing. "You wanted to explain. Well, here's your one and only chance. Better make it good."

Ranger sat down on the couch, turning a bit so he could watch Stephanie as he tried to explain the events that led up to what was clearly the biggest mistake in his life. "To answer your question, it was on my last mission. You know I can't give you all the details because it's classified-"

I interrupted with a snort and an eye roll, while crossing my arms over my chest. Great he's going to hide behind "classified".

"-But I will tell you everything I can." Ranger continued. "Like I said, it was my last mission. About 8 months after you moved in here. It was getting harder and harder to leave you." I had to bite my lip to keep from making some biting sarcastic remark. "I wanted out so bad. And this mission came up. Seemed easy enough. Ana and I had worked together before-"

I tried so hard not to react but my eyes filled with tears. Was this an ongoing thing? An old girlfriend? God how bad was this going to be? Do not cry. Do not cry. Do not fucking cry in front of him, he doesn't deserve your tears.

"Please Stephanie, I can see you're jumping to conclusions. Please just let me get this out so we can talk about this?" I gave him a short nod, indicating he should continue. "This case was different though, I wasn't working with Ana; she was my target."

"Why would someone you worked with in the past be your target?" I asked.

"I'm sorry I can't answer that Stephanie, all I can say is that she had something she shouldn't have had, and it was a matter of national security that I get it back. I arranged to run into her down in Miami, what I hadn't planned on is that she'd be with two other operatives. They were suspicious of me from the moment they saw me. I thought the op would take me 24 hours max. 3 days later I was still waiting for the right opportunity and it was looking more and more suspicious. There was just no other way. My only other option was to abort the mission, something I have never done before. And I would have done that anyway, but they promised me, if I just completed this last assignment, that would be it. No more missions. You and I could be together always. Maybe someday I wouldn't have to look over my shoulder every two seconds wondering if some scum of the earth terrorist with a grudge against me was lurking around the corner waiting for an opportunity to harm the most important thing in my life… you, Babe." I gave him a sharp look, a warning to tread lightly with his nickname for me. I didn't think he had the right to be using a term of endearment given the situation. I was trying very hard to understand what he was telling me, but still it wasn't totally adding up for me.

"I am trying to understand Ranger. How was that the only way? Why were the two other people suspicious, but not this woman?"

Ranger started to respond and then closed his mouth quickly. It was clear he was trying to choose his words carefully.

"Just spit it out Ranger. No more lies. For Christ's sake just give it to me straight."

"Ana…well she knew me from before. She trusts me. And she was kind of distracted. That's why she wasn't suspicious. But she kind of expected something to happen. And when three days went by and I had been making excuses, even she was starting to get suspicious. I was acting out of character. I was about to blow my cover. It was either sleep with her or not complete the mission. "

Realization dawned on me and the nausea was so bad I almost wanted to run to the bathroom . But I was trying very hard not to look weak and fragile here. They had slept together before. It must have been a regular thing. That's why she expected it, and was suspicious when it didn't happen. Next thing I knew Ranger was kneeling in front of me, grasping my hands between his. I couldn't help it, a couple of tears escaped and fell on our joined hands.

"I am so sorry, Stephanie. I swear she meant nothing to me. My relationship with her was a long time ago. Before you and I were together. You can't even call it a relationship, we worked together a few times, and yes there was sex, but I never cared about her. I love you, Steph. And I am so sorry about the choice I made. I realize now it was a mistake. But at the moment, I didn't know what else to do. And I justified it as a means to an end. It was bringing me back to you, giving me the chance at the life I wanted us to have, free of my government obligation."

I pulled my hands from Ranger's grasp. My mind was racing, so many thoughts swirling around it was hard to pick one to focus. And beneath every thought was the underlying nagging feeling that I wasn't even sure I could believe a word of his story. "I don't understand Ranger. How did you have to sleep with her? Couldn't you have just drugged her and taken what you needed? Hell, you're like a ghost when you want to be, why didn't you just slip in and take it while she was sleeping?"

"I'm sorry, I can't give too much detail, but it was imperative that she didn't know I had made a switch with the item she wasn't supposed to have. She needed to believe she still had the item. She is also a trained mercenary. She's not exactly easy to sneak up on. But I was going to try. That last night, I snuck into her hotel room to retrieve the… item. I wasn't good enough, Babe, and she woke up. I didn't have any other reasonable explanation. So I pretended I was there to be with her. I am so sorry, Babe. I am so ashamed. Please forgive me. Please, I need you to forgive me. I will spend every day of the rest of my life making this up to you."

Ranger was still kneeling in front of me. I had to put some distance between us. I stood and skirted around him, backing away a few feet. "How you could you not use protection, how could you have been so careless?"

"I did use protection. When things started to happen that night, I tried to use that as my excuse. I tried to stop things because I didn't have a condom. But she had one. I used a condom, I swear. That's why when she told me there was a child, I thought there was no way it could be mine."

"How long have you known?"

"She came here about 3 weeks ago. I demanded a DNA test. I was so sure that the child couldn't be mine." Ranger said shaking his head.

"Yeah well according to those papers, you're a proud daddy." I spat out bitterly.

"Oh God, Steph, I am anything but proud. I would do anything to change this situation. But I can't. I made a horrible mistake. But you are my life. Please tell me we can get past this."

The worst part was I still loved this man who was begging me for forgiveness. And I wanted so badly to give it to him. I closed my eyes and tried to understand, to believe it was just a mistake. But all I could see were images of him, my Ranger, kissing another woman, touching another woman. I felt sick. I had to get out of there.

"I can't do this, Ranger. I have to go." As turned towards the door, he stood up and grabbed my hand, bringing it up to hold against his chest.

"No! You can't leave. We can get past this. I love you so much and I know you love me. We belong together, Steph. What we have is special. This doesn't have to be the end!"

I could see tears in his eyes and all I could think was, Wow Batman doesn't cry. It seemed so unlike him. I was confused. I didn't know if I wanted to slap him or comfort him, and maybe even a little part of me still wanted him to comfort me. But above all the confusion in my head, one emotion became clear and overriding of everything else. I no longer trusted this man. He was no longer the one place that I felt safe and loved. It somehow made this whole life I had created, not just with him, but with the company and our friends, it made it all seem like a lie somehow.

"You know Ranger, maybe if you had come back from that assignment, and told me what happen, maybe if you had tried to explain why you did what you did… It would have hurt, don't get me wrong, and I still would have been angry. But maybe I could have understood. Maybe if I had known then how sorry you were and that you would never be put in that situation again, maybe I could have forgiven and we could have moved past it. I don't know. But Ranger, you've lied to me for nearly a year and a half. You've known for three weeks that there was a possibility you fathered a child, and have you said one word to me? No. I have no idea how long you've had those DNA results in your desk, but I am convinced you were at least considering trying to keep this from me indefinitely, and I say "considering" but more than likely you were actively taking steps to permanently conceal this from me. If I hadn't found those papers by accident, you would have kept on lying to me. That's what I can't forgive. You made a fool out of me Ranger. I can't, and I won't forgive you for it."

"But I didn't-"

"Stop right there," I said cutting him off by holding up my hand, "If you're about to give me some lame excuse about how you didn't lie, you just didn't tell me, then save it and don't insult my intelligence. We both know it's the same thing in this situation. I've put up with a lot of secrecy from you Ranger, because I always trusted you to tell me the things that I really needed to know. Obviously that trust was misplaced. "

I walked towards the door, grabbed my purse and a set of keys from the table. "I'll come back and get my things sometime in the next few days. I would appreciate it if you weren't here when I come back. I'll call the control room ahead of time. I'm going to take one of the Broncos, but I will return it as soon as I can arrange for a car of my own." I opened the door and walked out without looking back. I heard Ranger call my name again, but I kept walking, taking the stairs because this was definitely not the time to stand around waiting for the elevator. My heart was breaking, or more accurately broken, shattered into a million pieces. But I was holding my head high. I wouldn't let any man, not even Ranger Manoso get the best of me.

Meanwhile upstairs, Ranger starred silently at the closed door in front of him. For the first time in a long time, he felt completely lost. He had no idea what to do. Suddenly the anger and rage at the situation bubbled up inside him and overflowed. He grabbed the closest piece of furniture and threw the dining chair across the room sending shards of wood in all directions. His heart, his soul, his whole life had just walked out the door. And apparently he had fathered a child with an enemy of the state. What in the hell was he going to do now?