None of the characters belong to me. JE created and perfected them.

Jenn (perfectmanhattan) thank you for agreeing to tackle another story with me as the Beta extraordinaire.

Chapter 2 – Entering Denial Land

I spent the rest of Saturday in bed and was relieved to not have any unexpected visitors. Sunday I decided to get up and at the very least wash the sheets that still bore the evidence of my drunken exploits. With that done, I could pretend the whole night hadn't happened and put it behind me. My phone rang regularly, but I ignored it and turned the volume down so I didn't have to listen if someone left a message. All in all, it was a great weekend.

Monday morning, I stuck to my plan and got up early. I put on all black, as the standard RangeMan uniform, and pulled my hair back loosely behind my head in a low ponytail. When I double checked myself in the mirror I saw the remnants of a few hickeys so I yanked the scrunchie out of my hair and let it go wild and free. That covered up the worst of it, and the long sleeve t-shirt took care of the rest.

I double checked my purse for all the necessities: wallet, keys, stun gun, pepper spray, lip gloss, mascara, chocolate bar, I-pod, and nail file. Yea, that should do it. On second thought, I should probably throw in another candy bar, or stop by the store on my way in for a box of Tasty Cakes.

When I got to Haywood I sat in my car for a few minutes trying to find the courage to get out and sneak in. Finally I decided if I sat out here any longer the guys in the control room would get suspicious so I sucked it up, put the ear buds from my I-pod in and got out of the car. I walked by the control room on my way to my cubicle and waved at the guys as I passed them, hoping the smile on my face would look authentic enough to keep them from asking me any questions.

Luckily Rodriguez had been busy and my inbox was jammed full of searches. Man, as if I needed another reminder of how screwed up this whole situation was, now I was glad that my inbox was full and I was singing the praises of Rodriguez?

I threw myself into my work and kept my head down. A couple of hours later someone threw their arms around my neck making me scream and nearly wet my pants. When I pulled the ear phones off I heard Lester's unmistakable laughter behind me. "Damn it, Les, you almost gave me a heart attack!" I all but yelled at him.

"I'm sorry Beautiful, I didn't see you were listening to music so I said hello before I tried to hug you and I assumed you heard me." He confessed still laughing which took away any signs of remorse he might have felt. "You doing okay?" He asked, getting his chuckles under control.

"Yea, yea, I'm fine." I said feeling more grateful for his concern than my response conveyed.

"I missed our breakfast today and since I'm going to be working in the office this morning I wondered if you wanted to grab a bite of lunch with me about noon?" He offered.

"Where?" I pushed him not willing to go to a dive because Les wanted to check out some hot waitress.

"Pinos?" He suggested, letting me know he really only wanted to have lunch. I figured it would get me out of the office for a while which was a good thing, and usually when he invited me he paid, which was a better thing.

"Sure, come get me when you're ready to leave," I agreed and watched him walk away. I might be happy with our status as friends only, but I'd have to be dead to not appreciate the sight of that man's ass when he walked.

I tried to refocus on my work and left my music off for a while. I could hear Junior and Bobby talking across the isle from my cubicle and couldn't help but eavesdrop a little.

Apparently Bobby picked up someone at the club because he was telling Junior how his date was a wild woman and he was pleasantly surprised at how well they got along. When he asked Junior how his evening turned out I heard, "After you left we stayed for a couple of hours more to dance with Stephanie and watch out for her. Man, she was so hot I thought we were going to have to hurt some of the guys at the club to keep them away from her."

"You didn't let any strangers get to her did you?" Bobby asked. I couldn't help but lean a little to hear the response. 'Please let him say no' I thought.

"Nah, man. We promised to watch out for her and we did. No strangers even got to talk to her much less dance with her. But shit, she was hammered. Even drunk that girl's got moves most women would kill for." Junior explained. I wasn't sure if I should be mortified or pleased with his description.

"How'd your night end up?" Bobby questioned.

"Like I'd tell you," Junior replied with a bit of attitude. I heard footsteps indicating the conversation was over and someone was headed my way.

I jerked back up, nearly falling out of my chair when the wheels started moving without my permission, but recovered in time to see Junior stop by my cubicle. "And here is the star of the party," he said leaning against the doorway.

"Hey Junior, nice weekend?" I asked, trying to remember anything that might tell me if Junior is who I ended up going home with.

"Yea, it was great, but nothing could top Friday night," He admitted lowering his voice.

I could feel the heat on my face as my cheeks lit up. "It was a good time," I said with an unsteady voice.

"I'm surprised you can remember much of it. I don't think we did a good job of keeping you sober, but it looked like you were enjoying yourself." He informed me before dropping his voice and saying, "At least you certainly told me you were."

With that piece of information, Junior walked away chuckling and I was left sitting there dumbfounded. Was Junior saying we had fooled around? Was he the one who gave me the hickeys? If he was I'd have to seriously hurt him. He told Bobby he knew I was hammered, so why would he take advantage of me like that? I was getting a headache from all the questions so I tried to focus on the search in front of me and let this little mystery go.

Just as I was able to get my concentration back where it belonged my phone buzzed from Hal at the front desk. "Steph?" He asked uncertain.

"Yea, Hal, what can I do for you?" I wondered. Hal never called me.

"There is a delivery down here that just came for you. Do you want me to send it up, or do you want to come down for it?" He asked.

"What is it?" I needed more information to make a decision on the right approach. I didn't want to get up and have to face any more of the guys just to get down there and find a stalker had left a note.

"Umm, I think they're carnations, mums, daisies and baby's breath, but I'm not sure." He replied making me shake my head. A simple answer of flowers would have been sufficient.

I told him I'd be right down just as Lester came to my cubicle to see about leaving for lunch. I explained my need to stop on the way down and his eyebrows shot up. "Are these from your mystery man?" He wondered.

"They're probably from a stalker. This is me we're talking about." I explained rolling my eyes. Unfortunately, my answer was more probable based on my history.

The arrangement wasn't huge, but it was big enough to be beautiful. Les put his hand in and drew out the card offering it to me between his index and third fingers.

"You read it," I told him. "If it's creepy I'd rather not see it."

Lester didn't hesitate to open the little envelope and pull out the card, but before he glanced at it he raised a single eyebrow as though asking if I was sure I didn't want to see it first.

"Go ahead," I impatiently instructed. I was getting hungry and if I had another stalker this might be my last meal out for a while.

He smiled and said, "Come with me, I think we need to discuss this over pizza."

Assuming I had just gotten another crazy I followed him to his truck and climbed in for a quiet ride to my favorite restaurant.

It was crowded with the lunch rush, but RangeMan parking karma extends to available seating and the back booth emptied just as we walked in so we got the best seat in the house.

Once we gave our order and the waitress walked away Les took the florist's card out of his pocket and pushed it across the table using only his index finger.

I looked down feeling like I was about to be swept away to a safe house when I was shocked. The card said simply, "Although it was amazing and I can't regret it, after sobering up I realized I owe you an apology. I'm sorry if I took advantage of you Friday night and hope you'll forgive me. X."

"What's with the 'X?' Can't he just sign his name to make this simpler?" I huffed out.

Les found my exclamation funny and explained, "I think he's under the impression that because he can remember what happened that you can too. He probably means it as a kiss, not as a fake name."

That would make sense. If the Merry Man in question didn't realize how wasted I really was then he is probably wondering why I haven't spoken to him. He must think I'm giving him the cold shoulder or the silent treatment in exchange for taking advantage of me.

"What am I going to do?" I asked Les. "He thinks I know who he is."

"Do you want me to ask around and find out who took you home?" Les offered again.

"No, don't do that. I don't want everyone to know I was so drunk I let some guy take me home and have sex but I can't remember who it is." I explained just as Eddie walked by the table.

"It's nice to know some things haven't changed since high school." He said with a wink and a wave but he moved fast enough so that I couldn't get a dig in return. It shows what he knows. I didn't have sex under the influence for the first time until college. Unfortunately I was completely sober when Morelli and I did it and I remembered all thirty seconds of it with perfect clarity.

"So, what do you want to do?" Les asked with no hint of teasing in his voice. When he wanted to be he could be a great friend and I had a feeling this was one of those moments.

"I want to have a re-do of Friday Night and have a specified designated driver of Hector so that I could make it home safely and alone." I said childishly.

He nodded that he understood that before pressing me, "Since that isn't an option what is your second choice?"

"I don't know," I honestly admitted. "Hope he either tells me who he is or someone else makes it clear. In the meantime, I'll just keep my head low and hope no one else finds out what happened."

"If you change your mind…" He began, but I cut him off by saying. "No, I can't imagine being so desperate that I'd give up my dirty little secret just to find out who put a few marks on me."

"Got it," Les said letting me know he wouldn't press me anymore. We fell back into our comfortable banter and passed the hour easily. When we were finished I pulled my purse up to offer to pay, but he put his hand up and said, "My invitation, my money." Just as I suspected, lunch with Lester was always a great thing.

When we got back to Haywood the flowers were on my desk and there were a few guys standing around them talking. Just because I didn't want Les to do any asking around didn't mean I wasn't interested in knowing who I'd spent the night with. Maybe I could do a little stealth detective work myself.

"Hey guys, something I can do for you?" I asked with a coy tone to my voice.

Tank, Hal and Zip all turned around quickly as though I'd gotten the sneak on them.

"Nice flowers," Tank said not asking me any questions, but it was obvious he wanted to know who they were from.

"Yes, it's nice to get them from someone other than a stalker." I said effectively ending the question and answer session. They knew I wasn't being chased by a crazy so they had no legitimate reason for asking me anything else.

Tank and Hal walked away, but Zip came closer. "I've always liked daisies," He began. "There was a movie once where the leading lady said they were such friendly flowers and I always wondered if you felt the same way." Without waiting for me to respond beyond my smile at his comment he walked away.

That wasn't all that helpful. Was Zip the guy who sent the flowers? Did he specifically select them to see what I liked? If so, why did he walk away without waiting for a response? Had I offended him by going to lunch and not thanking him right away?

Shit, guys say women are hard to understand but whoever my encounter was with was not doing anything to reveal himself either. Why all the mystery? Would it be that hard to sign his name?

I'd had enough of the questions so I pulled another search request down out of my inbox and settled back into work. At 5:00 on the dot Vince showed up at my desk and sat an earring down on the top of my current paperwork. I looked up at him confused.

"I assumed this was yours and you lost it Friday night." He softly explained. "It was in my shirt pocket so I don't know if it came off when we were together or if it was someone else's."

I looked at the earring and it didn't look familiar at all. Reluctantly I admitted, "No Vince, I don't think it's mine. Are you sure it was from Friday night?"

He picked it back up and held it in his fingers, "It looked like something you would wear so I guess I hoped it was yours. It definitely got in my shirt Friday, but I danced with several people so it may have been one of theirs."

Was he saying that all we did was dance together, or was he saying he danced with other girls but he did more than that with me? I remembered dancing with Vince and I could see how someone could lose an earring because of the way he spun me around and pulled me to him with a passion. I shivered slightly at the memory. While I was lost in my thoughts Vince disappeared.

So far I had three suspects in Junior, Zip and Vince. How was I supposed to figure out who it was?

Fortunately, it was time to go home so I could avoid the issue a little longer. Tomorrow was my day to work for Vinnie so I could stay in denial that it didn't really matter. Obviously whoever it was didn't see it as a start to a relationship or they would have picked up the phone.

No sooner had the thought crossed my mind than I remembered my phone was ringing a lot on Sunday and I never checked my machine. Maybe he did call and he's upset with me for not responding to his message. Maybe I'd find my next clue at home.

I ran through the drive through on my way home and picked up a value meal from McDonalds. I had them throw in an apple pie so that I could consider it a well rounded meal since it had fruit and French fries as my vegetable. Who says I don't think about good nutrition?

I decided to eat my dinner before checking my machine. I figured whoever had left me a message had already waited a couple of days so an extra hour for me to eat my fries while they were still warm wouldn't be that big of a deal.

When I finished dinner I decided to tidy up the apartment a little. I mean, what if this guy decided to drop by and check on me? I wouldn't want him to think I was a slob. I didn't get too much work done before I realized most of the guys had been in my apartment numerous times and already knew I didn't keep it spick and span all the time. Who was I kidding?

I walked over to Rex's cage and asked if he could give me any hints about Friday night. He poked his head out of his can and looked at me, but when he realized I didn't have any food in my hands he lost interest in my plight and curled up for more sleep.

I watched him for another minute and realized sleep sounded like a good idea to me too. The messages could wait until tomorrow.

The next day, my alarm went off at its normal time and against my will my body woke up so I drug it to the shower to get dressed for a day of rounding up skips.

Just as I was coming out of the bathroom I heard the lock of my door being picked. I stood there waiting to see who thought the door knocker didn't apply to them and was rewarded with Lester holding a Tasty Pastry bag.

He smiled at me knowing the doughnuts would buy him forgiveness for his minor B and E.

While we were eating I kept glancing at my answering machine. It had twelve messages and I felt like the blinking red number showing that total was just mocking me, daring me to listen to them.

Les saw my eyes cutting to the phone and finally asked, "Beautiful are you going to listen to the messages or are you waiting for them to delete themselves?"

I stuck out my tongue at him going for the mature response before hitting the play button to prove I wasn't afraid. The fact that my hand was shaking when I did it can be explained by the fact that the sugar from the doughnut hadn't hit my bloodstream yet and I was still a little sluggish.

The first two messages were from my mother informing me Sarah Lowouski had seen me at a bar on Friday night dancing with a whole group of guys. She wondered how Joe would ever marry me if I was throwing myself at everyone in a bar.

I then had one telemarketer followed by three hang-ups. The next message was from Les just checking in to be sure I was alright. Hearing his friendly voice on the machine made me smile and he took my hand in his while the rest played.

The next was a political candidate wondering if he could count on my vote in the fall followed by a credit card company who needed to talk to me about my account. Les squeezed my hand but said nothing.

There were two more hang-ups leading to the final message. I was just about to relax when I heard a slimy sounding voice say, "I was sorry we didn't get to have our evening together. I hear that you managed to have lots of fun and even convinced someone to take my place that night and show you a really good time. I should have this whole thing straightened out soon and I'll come find you. We have some unfinished business that I think we should resolve."

I looked at Les and saw anger flashing in his eyes. His grip was definitely tighter on my hand and bordered on painful, but when the final beep sounded indicating the end of the new messages he dropped my hand, grabbed the answering machine, unplugging it from the wall and phone and then called out, "Come on" over his shoulder as he headed for the door.

I followed him to the parking lot but when he climbed in his truck I walked over to the driver's side door instead of taking my usual seat making Les look at me surprised.

"I'm assuming you think that was Mr. Jenkins from the distraction Friday night in which case you don't need me to go with you to the office. I have to go by Vinnie's so you just take that and let me know if you need anything else from me." I hoped by talking fast he would go along with what I said.

I turned trying to cut off his chance to disagree and began to walk quickly to my latest POS car. Just before I put my key in the door I felt a hand grab my upper arm and spin me around. "Not so fast, Beautiful." Came Les' smooth voice.

My shoulders fell knowing he wasn't going to let me skip putting in an appearance at Haywood. "How about we go to the office together and then I'll help you round up your skips? Maybe by working together we can make up the lost time."

It was a generous offer and I knew with his help I'd probably stay clean and not have to roll in any unidentified substances. Perhaps with the message from Jenkins everyone would be so distracted I wouldn't have to answer any personal questions.

When we got to Haywood Les led us to the fifth floor conference room holding up the machine when Tank raised an eyebrow at us questioning what was going on. Not needing words like us mere mortals Tank eyed Bobby, Vince, Hector and Cal who fell in step and met us around the long table.

Lester plugged in the machine and forwarded through the mass of messages stopping when Walter's voice filled the room.

I was surrounded by six angry Merry Men when the machine clicked off. They were trying to hide behind their blank faces, but failing. "Can you get the phone records to tell if the call came from the PD?" Tank asked Hector.

"Si," Hector replied before getting up to begin work.

Tank stopped him before he got out of the room and asked him to see about mirroring my line for a while until Jenkins' case was closed. I wasn't sure what mirroring was but I assumed it meant someone at RangeMan would be able to hear all my personal phone calls for a while. I was less than happy about that.

Then Bobby spoke up, "So what was he talking about when he said you found someone to fill his place and show you a good time?"

I panicked not wanting to admit to everyone that I'd had sex that night, but I didn't want to lie to them either. Cal must have sensed my dilemma because he spoke up, "Man, you know we were all showing her a good time. Especially me. Hell, I'll bet she's never seen moves like what I showed her that night." He winked at me and I smiled in return.

Holy cow, was Cal confessing that he was the one that took me home and was just trying to play it off as dancing at the club only? My head was going to explode if I couldn't come up with a way to narrow the field and figure this out. I wasn't really looking to act on the information but my curiosity was beginning to get the better of me.

Tank silenced the other guys as they began to disagree with what Cal said and insisted we get back to the subject at hand. They decided to put a guy on Jenkins if he was released after testifying next week. We would wait until then to make any assumptions over whether of not he was going to be a threat.

The guys all left except Les who realized I'd not said a word the whole time we'd been in the conference room. "You okay Beautiful? You know we'll protect you, right?"

I nodded. Sure, if there was a psycho out there who wanted my attention I trusted that they would keep me alive and safe. Of course, they promised the same thing Friday night and look where that got me. I didn't say anything but stood up and grabbed my purse instead.

Les led the way as the walked out to go round up some of Trenton's finest to return them to the system. When we stepped out to the main part of the floor a hush fell over the office. Great, everyone now knew that I had been threatened which meant they would all start treating me as though I were some fragile doll. Hopefully they all wouldn't find out what the message said. Something told me whoever took me home on Friday wouldn't take too kindly to knowing he was being spied on while we were together.

As the door to the elevator began to close I heard someone in the break room being told to calm down and then I heard a horrible crash. It was what I imagined it would sound like if someone threw the stack of plates and bowls Ella kept there for the guys to put their lunch on. I was going to jump out and see what really happened, but Les put his hand on my arm and shook his head no. I wondered what that was about but I didn't think it was the right time to question his advice.

Besides, I could always ask about it when I was in the office tomorrow. If I'd learned anything from the time I'd worked here it was that the guys were as big on gossip as the ladies at the Cut n' Curl. On second thought, not wanting to be the center of the gossip maybe I should just let this go and not ask about it at all.