A/N: This starts my portion of the story. I hope you all enjoy it. Please leave comments as they help keep my muse going and I love to hear your suggestions as well. Rain (Jackie)

BPOV

I sprang up from a light doze immediately ready for battle. Every sense on high alert after hearing Steph scream. I dashed out my office door and down the hallway toward the master bedroom; grabbing the gun from my desk next to my cot.

I sprinted down the hall and came skidding to a halt in the doorway of my bedroom where Steph had taken up residence. Looking around frantically I found no obvious threat. "Steph, what is it? What's wrong?" I asked with terror present in the tone of my voice.

"Oh my God! I'm so sorry Bobby. It was a nightmare. Joe was after me again. He found out where I was and came for me. He said he was reclaiming what belonged to him, his wife." She answered through her sobs.

I clicked the safety back on my gun, laid it down on the bedside table, and gently took Steph in my arms. I wrapped my arms around her and rubbed her back soothingly while she let all the emotions drain out of her tiny body. It took her a while to calm down and for the sniffling hiccups to cease.

"Shhhh ... it's okay." I tilted her chin up so she would look into my eyes. "Better?" I inquired. She gave one last tiny hiccup and responded.

"A little bit. I guess the interaction with him today brought it on. I'm just so scared. I was doing better and now I'm scared again." She blurted out.

"Easy Tiger, it will be alright. I'd never let him near you again, you know that right? He will never, ever hurt you again as long as there is breath in my body. I promise you!" I pleaded with her.

"I know." She sniffled. "I always feel safest when you're around. I trust you with my life."

I smiled kindly at her, then pulled her in my arms again. I couldn't get enough of holding her. 'What the fuck? I'm turning into a major pussy.' I thought to myself. But if anyone could open up my cold heart to emotions, it was the woman currently in my arms. I would do anything for her, anything to keep her safe.

We sat there for a few minutes more just easing each other's minds. Steph finally broke the silence with her soft voice. "Bobby?"

"Hmmmm..." I uttered.

"I hate to ... I mean ... I don't know if ..." She broke off with a deep sigh. I know she was scared to say what she wanted to, too frightened of my reaction. I had to ease her worries.

"What is it, what's on your mind honey? You know you can tell or ask me anything. You've no need to be afraid of me. What's troubling you?" I spoke softly and tenderly while looking into her beautiful blue eyes so she could see the honesty showing in my own.

"Well ... I was wondering... what I mean to say is... I'm still feeling shaken from the dream and I was thinking I would rest easier if you were to stay here with me." She was finally able to get out.

"You want me to sleep here with you?" I asked just to make sure I was understanding exactly what she needed from me.

"Yes. I know it's a lot to ask and I don't want to make you uncomfortable, but I would just feel more at ease if you were here beside me holding me for the rest of the night." She said with fresh tears building in her eyes.

"Steph, of course I will. I told you I would do anything you need me to do. And it would not make me uncomfortable. I would be happy to stay here with you and hold you while you get some rest. Come here, let's get comfortable and try to get some sleep. We both have to be at work in a few hours." I explained. We both the stretched out on my king size bed and settled down for the remainder of the night.

I relaxed with Steph spooned in front of me, her back against my chest and willed myself to fall asleep; and try to stay in control of the reactions that were sure to come from having her so close. It didn't take her long at all to drift back to sleep. I kissed her hair, whispered "good night", pulled her more firmly against me, and closed my eyes to try to get at least a little rest myself. The night was nearly over, but I felt at peace.

SPOV

The blaring of the alarm clock on the beside table awoke me. I groggily reached over to silence it. I forced my eyes to open and take in the darkened room around me. The bed was cold next to me, Bobby was already up and gone. I then heard the shower running in the ensuite bathroom and realized he hadn't deserted me but had only awakened before me and used this time to get his morning routine done so I could get on with mine.

I shifted my feet to the side of the bed and sat up. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and inhaled deeply. I smiled and sighed when the aroma of coffee hit my nose, my Bobby knows me too well. 'My Bobby, where in the hell did that come from?' I wondered to myself.

I heard the door to the bathroom click open and looked up. Bobby strode out with only a towel wrapped low on his hips. Small droplets of water still clung to his toned body and in the short corn rows he still wore in his hair. I stealthily brought my hand up to my mouth to check for drool; passing the motion off as covering up a yawn that didn't exist.

"Good Morning. Sorry, I didn't know you would be up. I forgot to take clothes into the bathroom with me. It's all yours if you need it." Bobby calmly stated. And is that a slight blush I see creeping into his mocha cheeks?

"Morning, I'll be as fast as I can. Sorry I was so clingy last night." I replied with a hint of guilt in my voice.

"Hush that. You are never a burden to me or clingy. Go ahead and get your shower. I'll go start on us some breakfast and keep the coffee warm. We both have busy days ahead of us." He intoned.

I smiled warmly back at him as I said "Thank-you", then turned to get my Rangeman uniform to take with me to the bathroom. As I closed the door behind me, I could hear clothes rustling as he dressed in his own uniform.

I finished my shower and the rest of my morning routine, including getting dressed, then headed down the hall and toward the kitchen.

As soon as I entered the smell of bacon and eggs wafted into my nostrils and the beast that lives in my stomach roared it's approval.

"Let's feed that beast before it attacks one of us." Bobby joked.

"It smells wonderful." I said as I filled my cup with coffee. I added cream and enough sugar to put a diabetic into a coma before taking a sip and sighing at the heaven in a cup.

"Sit, it's almost done." Bobby informed me.

I sat down at the bar, where Bobby had already set up plates and glasses of orange juice for us both. A minute or so later he was loading up both of our plates with eggs, bacon, and toast. I made short work of Bobby's delicious food. This tamed the beast, at least for now. Bobby finished before me and loaded the dishes in the dishwasher after rinsing them first.

We both gathered up last minute items on our way out the front door; cell phone and purse for me and gun along with keys for Bobby. He set the alarm and locked the door behind us. We climbed in his Rangeman SUV and drove over to Haywood.

We pulled into the under ground garage at Rangeman about 15 minutes later, just before 8 a.m., right on time for the morning meeting. We took the elevator up to the 5th floor and walked into the largest conference room.

Most of the guys were there and greeted me as I came in, with hugs and kisses to the head or cheek, except Santos of course. He tried to cope a feel of my ass and was immediately smacked on the back of his perverted, all be it gorgeous head by Tank's massive hand. That had to hurt!

I laughed out loud and teased by saying, "Watch it big guy. You might knock something loose, and we all know Santos doesn't have many brain cells to spare!" All of the guys chuckled at my antics, even Ranger and Tank had small grins on their faces.

Les just sat down at his spot at the table, playfully pouting; but all the while glaring at me with the promise of retribution in his green eyes. I just stuck my tongue out at him and mouthed 'bring it on'. His evil smirk told me I may be in trouble.

Ranger took this opportunity to call the meeting to order and get us started for the day passing out assignments and getting reports from the over-night crew. The next 45 minutes crept by, nearly putting me back to sleep. Finally I heard Ranger say, "That's it. Dismissed."

Everyone headed off in different directions, Vince and Manny to the monitor room, they had the next shift relieving Zip and Woody; Ranger, Tank, and Les to their offices to start on their mounds of paperwork; Hal and Cal out to round up skips; Ram, Zero, Junior, and Binkie to the gym for a late workout; Bobby to his office on the 3rd floor to schedule medical reviews; and me to my lonely cubby to start my day of searches.

I looked at the piles of files sitting in my inbox and groaned. This was going to be a long, butt-numbing day. I scanned through them checking which ones were from who, most of them from Rodriguez; and tried to decide whose were in the most dire need of my attention first. I always do Ranger's, Tank's, Les's, and Bobby's first. They make up the core team, the bosses, so theirs get done first.

I arranged all the files in a mostly orderly fashion while I waited for my computer to boot up. I jerked in surprise when I heard a voice from my right.

"Morning Darlin', how are you?" Woody drawled out in his smooth-as-molasses tone.

"Morning Cowboy. I'm good. What's up with you?" I responded.

"Just checking on our favorite female employee." He grinned.

"I'm the only female employee besides Ella. That hardly makes me feel special." I joked back.

"Still, it's great to have you back with us. We all missed you when you weren't around. The building just lost it's spark of life with you gone." He said with tenderness.

"I missed you guys too." I felt my eyes starting to water. I knew they all cared, but had forgotten how much when I was going through my hell of a marriage. I felt like they had abandoned me at the time. I knew better now. "I'm sorry I put you all through that. I really had no choice."

"No, we're sorry we didn't check on you. I know it seemed like we had deserted you or we didn't care, but we did, we do. I just hope you can forgive us and we can get back to the way we were before." Woody told me.

"We'll get there with time Woody. I just have to work on me a little more first." I explained.

Woody leaned down and gave me a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek. "We'll all be here if you need us, you know that."

I smiled back up at him then heard Tank's booming voice break the silence. "Woodrow! Back to work."

"Duty calls. I'll talk to you later Darlin'." He laughed.

"Later Cowboy. You don't want to upset the boss." I giggled in return. Woody grinned before turning to amble away. I take a deep breath and start my ton of searches.

I blinked my eyes in the middle of what felt like my hundredth search at the same moment my desk phone rang. I picked up the receiver and answered with "Plum." It was Bobby on the other end. I felt flutters in my stomach at the sound of his voice.

"Hey Tiger, how's it going?"

"Slow." I laughed. "So many searches, so little time. What's up?"

"I was just heading down to lunch in the breakroom and was wondering if you wanted to join me?" He asked.

"You know I never turn down food, especially Ella's." I laughed.

"Be down in 2 then." Click.

I snarled to myself. Looks like these guys still need that course in phone manners. True to his word, Bobby appeared at my desk two minutes later.

I stood and he lead me to the break room with his hand at the small of my back. Some of the guys looked up curiously when we entered together. There weren't too many others in the room, just a few. I only recognized Vince and Manny, their shift on monitors done now. They both winked and waved to me. I smiled and waved back.

Ella always keeps the break room stocked with food and beverages. All of which are mouth-watering. I had a hard time deciding on what to enjoy. I finally opted for her homemade chicken and rice soup and rolls. Bobby picked up a couple of turkey on wheat sandwiches and an apple. We took our food over to a table in the corner and sat to down to eat.

We chatted quietly as we ate, about work and other subjects. It wasn't long before we had to head back, time seemed to fly by. We left the break room and went our separate ways.

I plopped back down at my desk and printed out the two searches I had running while I was away. I started up a couple more to run while I scanned through them and high-lighted pertinent information to help whoever had asked for these particular searches.

The rest of the day flowed in a similar fashion. I had made a decent sized dent in the pile I started the day with. But at the cost of my ass getting numb. I felt like I had achieved something though. I made it through another day and it was time to knock off for today.

I shut my computer down and went to the 3rd floor in search of Bobby, my ride home (his home), at least temporarily until I had enough for a down payment on my own vehicle and my own place. I will get there. I'm proud of the progress I was making. I would stand on my own two feet ... eventually. ######