Note: This is completely different from the second chapter I posted on Perfectly Plum. I really, really, loathed that chapter. It was dull and annoying but I posted it anyway to get the reward challenge. I like this better. Chunks of the first are recycled from the original, but hopefully are more palatable in this form.

I thought the tears would burst free the second I got inside the door of my apartment, but I was wrong. The urge to cry had receded completely and the only thing left was a weird numb feeling.

I guess I'd gotten over the initial jolt of shock and anger. Beneath the numbness, I could still feel the hurt, but it was as if it were cushioned in cotton wool, sending me only the occasional faint twinge to remind me of its presence.

I'm not sure how long it took me to go to sleep, once I hit the bed. I lay there a while. Normally, I'd grab my faithful cure-all, Ben and Jerry's, to soothe over any mental trauma, but this time I wasn't in the mood for salving my wounds with sweets.

Eventually my brain took pity on me and stopped going around in circles and I slept.

o o o

The next morning I still hadn't decided on what to do. I thought about it as I showered, dressed, ate my morning doughnut and drank my lifesaving liquid of rejuvenation. Some mornings, the word coffee just doesn't give the stuff the proper reverence.

I thought about it as I drove in to Rangeman.

Could the guys really be saying those awful things about me? They could be crass. That I knew. The atmosphere was reminiscent of a locker room sometimes. You get all that testosterone in one place and it's bound to happen. There were only two women at Rangeman, Ella and me, so there were some things floating around that might panic a seasoned veteran of human resources.

If Ranger knew about the 'Welcome to Rangeman' porn database, heads would probably roll, I suspected. Maybe rightly so, but I couldn't begrudge them much with the dirty, frequently boring and often dangerous jobs they did, so I wasn't going to snitch. I was just happy they got me flowers instead.

Pulling into the underground parking garage, I realized something weird had happened. Huh. I'm early. I'm never early. I glanced at the clock on the dash. Huh. This is what six-thirty looks like.

Stupid summer. Making stupidly early hours all light and confusing the heck out of morning haters everywhere. I sat in the car for a minute, thinking. Great, the guys are going to wonder when hell froze over and start looking out for winged pigs. Way to stay under the radar, Steph!

However, if I kept sitting in the car, unmistakably mine, as old, decrepit and worst of all not shiny black as it was, the control room would think something was up too. I stuck out like a sore thumb; I had no shot of sneaking back out again.

Ok, so I had to go in. No problem. I could go in and act normal despite the early hour. Or oooh…better yet, I could go in and look scary because of the early hour. Maybe that would frighten people away for awhile so I could work and figure out what I was going to do.

That decided, I leaned over to grab my purse from the passenger seat.

Taptaptap. I jumped about a mile and hit my head. Lester smiled and waved his keys at me from outside the driver's side window. Great. Lester's pretty good at reading me.

To an outsider, Lester would be a likely candidate for spreading or contributing to gossip about me. He has a reputation as a player, lives to flirt and possesses very few inhibitions. He also loves to talk.

But I don't think he would do that to me. As boyfriend or husband material, Lester sucks; I have to admit that. For friends though, he has this deep sense of loyalty and an oddly sensitive streak. If Lester had seen me last night and noticed I was upset, he would've shown up at my door with pizza, bad movies and ice cream. He's done it many times since my breakup with Joe. Often enough that I've gotten the occasional seemingly idle question from Ranger.

It's not like that though; it's almost like having a good girlfriend over. We stuff our faces, fight over the afghan and make fun of the movies. Sometime during the process, a little bit of Lester's effervescent personality rubs off on me and buoys me up. I always feel better after one of his visits.

I rubbed my head and scowled at him. Good. Start the scary. Back off world! Stephanie's grumpy.

I did have to open the door, though. He'd backed up as I gathered my things. My door swung open with a creaky clunk and I got an amused headshake from my spectator.

"Don't know why you won't take Ranger up on an offer for a company car, Beautiful."

This struck my new sore spot straight on. "I don't need Ranger to give me cars," I mumbled grouchily and headed for the elevator leaving him no option but to trail in my wake. Stupid slow elevator. I glared at it.

Lester leaned against the wall, arms folded. How dare he smile like that this early? Stupid, cheerful morning people.

"You mean any more cars?" he teased.

Oh, he was just asking for it. I ignored him.

He let his arms fall and straightened as the elevator finally arrived.

"I don't get it. We all drive company cars," he said, shrugging. "No reason you shouldn't. That heap looks like it's about to disintegrate any minute."

I punched the button for five. "That heap is what I can afford." I sighed. "And afford to insure." Nobody would give me comprehensive coverage anymore. I was lucky to get any insurance.

He shook his head as if he couldn't understand my problem. "Yeah, that's why a company car is good. If it blo--" he saw me stiffen and reworded, "has an unfortunate accident, Rangeman's insurance picks it up."

"Look, I don't need a car from Rangeman. Would you just drop it?" Okay, that's fifty points for getting across grumpy Steph and minus one hundred points for flying under the radar.

I could feel him staring at me, but I wouldn't look at him. Stupid elevator. So slow.

"Steph, is something wrong?"

"It's six-thirty in the morning!" I snapped in his face and hoped that would cover it.

It seemed to. He relaxed and chuckled. "True. I admit, I was wondering if it was one of the signs of the apocalypse."

"So funny," I muttered as the doors opened and I escaped.

Lester didn't follow me, thank goodness, but I knew he'd get back to me at some point. Probably, he figured a tactical retreat was in order until I'd had more coffee.

I got to my cube without seeing anyone else. Huh. It's kind of nice being here when half the people aren't. Bet I could get a lot of work done in peace if I did this regularly.

Right. Fat chance of that. I dismissed that pipedream and logged onto my computer. While I was waiting, I checked out my desk inbox. Full! How can it possibly be full? I'd just emptied it before I went out on surveillance yesterday. I sighed. Tank must have the guys handing off all searches because of the manpower shortage.

Oh well, at least it was something to keep me busy, while I stal--thought of a plan.

A huge blond head popped up over the cube divider in front of me. Hal. "Hey Steph!"

I knew Hal pretty well now. He'd recovered from the stun gun incident and hadn't held it against me, good-natured guy that he is. Probably he was relieved that I begged Ranger not to fire him for something that was my own fault.

Hal now teased me as if I were his sister and acted as my second-in-command in the super secret Rangeman Doughnut Appreciation Club. Members had to stay well underground. The fallout could be ugly if it was ever proven how the doughnuts kept reaching the break room without the culprits--er--benefactors being caught on tape. I knew Ranger suspected, but he had nothing concrete.

I felt another twinge as I looked at my often powdered sugar covered partner in crime. Surely not Hal. With his arms dangling easily over the partition and his face so friendly and open, he reminded me of a lovable golden retriever, waiting patiently for someone to play with him. All he lacked was a big tongue hanging out, panting.

"Hey, Hal." Being cranky to Hal would be like shooting a puppy. I just couldn't do it.

He ducked out of sight and reappeared in my cube, bending his huge form to whisper in my ear. "Sorry, you're early. I haven't had a chance to put them out yet." I still didn't know how he did it exactly, except that Hector, the camera wizard was somehow involved.

"That's ok."

He was silent.

He was so quiet for so long, that I looked up. "What?"

"Is something wrong, Steph?" His big brow furrowed.

Damn it. "Nope." I mustered a smile. "Why would you think that?"

"Well, normally you beg me for a stealth doughnut if I haven't managed to get them out yet."

"Oh."

He was still staring at me.

"Yeah, that'd be nice. If you can manage it."

He shook his head, confused at my lackluster response to the doughnuts, but didn't question me further. "Ok, I'll grab you a Boston Crème. Just don't let anybody see you with it. Ranger's out, so probably nobody's looking…but just in case."

I nodded solemnly.

Not Hal. He's just so nice. And…he likes me. I think. Hal wouldn't be afraid of me for safety reasons either, because Ranger never assigned him as my bodyguard or partner anymore. Even though he didn't fire Hal, Ranger doesn't forget.

"Here ya go." A doughnut appeared over the partition. Stealthy, Hal, very stealthy.

"Thanks." I took it and bit into my second dose of sugary goodness that morning. It didn't help any more than the first. I turned to the computer and navigated one-fingered to my mail. Maybe some work would help where sugar wasn't cutting it. I didn't even want the doughnut anymore, my stomach was queasy as it was, but I forced it down. Throwing it away would be sacrilegious.