Disclaimer:JE owns the characters. I'm just playing with them.

A/N: This is for Rae. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BABE!

An Unlikely Love-Part Two

Six months later...

He was sitting on my couch, nursing a beer and flipping through channels, when I walked into my fourth floor apartment. Tank finally convinced me to get rid of my old apartment two months ago since I was spending so much time here anyway. He grinned at me and turned the TV off as I shut the door.

"How was work?" he asked as he turned on the couch to watch me move around the small kitchen.

I grabbed a beer from the fridge and dropped a few grapes in Rex's cage. "I'm not going anywhere near the fifth floor or a computer for the next sixty-three hours unless someone pays me a million dollars."

He laughed. "That bad?"

"Between helping Tank and Ranger set up new accounts and running Silvio's 'Pentagon Clearance' searches all week, I'm ready for a vacation," I answered as I flopped down on the couch next to him.

He turned me sideways on the couch to face him before pulling my feet up in his lap. I laid my head on the arm of the couch and closed my eyes as he unlaced my boots and set then on the floor. A moan escaped my lips as he started massaging the arch of my right foot. I opened my eyes long enough to glare at him when he chuckled.

"How was your day?" I asked after taking a sip from my beer.

"Not too bad." I heard his clothes wrestle and I knew he shrugged. "Bobby released me medically, so I can go back out in the field now."

My head popped up as my eyes snapped open. The smile on my face was a mile wide. "That's fantastic! I'll bet Tank's already got you signed up for street duty."

He laughed and nodded his head. "Seven o'clock Monday morning."

"I'll bet after a week, Tank'll start bitching about you not being around to be his errand boy," I said as I slouched down slightly so that I could rest my head on the arm of the couch but still look at Lester.

He grinned as he moved over to my left foot and started massaging it. "He still has you to boss around, so he won't be too upset without me."

I groaned at the reminder. "I'm going job hunting."

"No way," he said with a shake of his head. "You're a lifer like me. You're stuck here, so get use to it."

"I'm stuck at RangeMan?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.

He grinned. "I'd never let you leave me for another job, either."

My eyes rolled so far back into my head that I thought I saw my brain. "You're off medical restrictions, Lester. You're going to forget about me as soon as you go out bar hopping with Vince."

His face darked as a frown swept in and his hands froze on my foot. "Is that what you think? That you're replaceable?"

My eyes met his and I realized that I had angered him deeply. "Why are you so angry?"

"I didn't risk my life for you for nothing, Stephanie!" His voice was loud and angry.

This was a side of Lester that I'd never seen before and, on reflex, I shrunk into the couch as I pulled my legs out of his lap and into my chest. It wasn't that I thought that Lester would physically hurt me, but I was expecting him to jump up and start shouting at me. He looked at my body language and sighed as he shook my head.

"This isn't going the way I had planned," he said quietly as he turned on the couch to put his feet back on the floor. He leaned over to rest his elbows on his knees and started rubbing his face. "I'm sorry that I yelled at you."

"It's okay, Les," I said quietly. "You wanna tell me what's not going the way you planned?"

I watched as he ran his fingers up into his hair, revealing his eyes squeezed tightly shut. He breathed deeply for a moment as his hands fisted in his hair. I wanted to reach out to him and pull him into my arms. But it looked like he was having some sort of internal battle. His eyes finally opened and he turned to look at me.

"When I heard that first shot ring out in front of the bonds office," he said quietly, "it wasn't Ranger's voice screaming in my head to protect you. It was my voice. I grabbed you and pulled you to the ground to protect you the best way that I could because I love you."

He twisted his body around and dropped off the couch so that he was kneeling beside me. A small smile peeked out of his lips as his hands cupped my face. His eyes bore down into mine and I realized just how serious he was being.

"These last six months have been amazing for me," he said seriously. "Spending every day with you let me see everything that there was to you. You are a person who cares genuinely about the people that you keep close to you. You are easy-going and take on life as it comes your way. I love the way that you moan when you eat and flap your arms around when you get mad. Your loyalty to your friends amazes me and having you in my life is truly a blessing that I never imagined it would be."

My eyes started to tear up. I had never heard anyone describe me the way that he was and it touched something deep inside me. My hands came up over his and he spread his fingers to lace them with mine.

"You've become my best friend, Steph," he continued on softly. "But... I want more. I want to share my life with you."

I opened my mouth to talk, but he carried on as he leaned back and lowered our hands. "I know that this is coming out of nowhere for you, but I've also seen the way that you look at me sometimes, like maybe you might feel the same way. So when Bobby told me that I was clear, I thought that maybe tonight would be a good time to come clean."

He leaned forward and kissed me lightly on the lips before he rocked back on his heals and stood up. I slowly sat up as he released my hands and I turned myself to face forward on the couch.

"I love you," he said simply as he looked down at me. "I know that you love me, too. The only question is, how much. I'm heading back over to my apartment. Come and see me after you've thought this over, okay?"

My brain was overwhelmed, so I just nodded my head and watched him walk out the door. What the hell just happened?