Disclaimer: I don't own them, just having some fun with them.
Thanks to all of you for reading and reviewing. I am completely floored by the response so far. I hope you enjoy this story as much as I have writing it.
Behind Blue Eyes
Chp 1
His phone rang and his heart lurched. He had just been informed that Steph's car had gone off the grid, so now he knew she was alright. When he answered his phone his typical response never came, his there was a giant knot in there that for some reason his normal cool and collected voice was having trouble getting passed. When he finally spoke it was in a croaked tone, "Babe, are you alright?"
"Is this Ranger?" A male voice spoke from the other end.
"Yes. Why do you have Stephanie's phone? I want to speak with her right now." Ranger clipped through the phone.
"Man, I'd give her the phone if she could talk." The man took a deep breath. "Her car just exploded. We were both knocked back, but she landed under me and now she's unconscious." You could actually hear the panic in his voice.
"Who are you?" Ranger asked as he and his men headed at a dead run to their vehicles. They needed to get to her. He needed to get to her.
"Roger Santori, Steph and I went to High School together. She came to take me back in, but as we were about five feet away from the car it exploded. She hasn't moved since I woke up." I knew this was one of her skips. She promised that this would be a fairly easy one. Someone she knew and wouldn't fight her, at least not with a weapon. But why was he calling me?
"Why are you still there with her? Not that I'm not grateful, but you stayed with her?" Ranger asked. This was not necessarily something new, but he had to ask. People just loved her, even her FTA's, plus he needed something to keep his head and heart from exploding.
"Steph has helped me out more times than I can think man, through High School and even after. If you knew her, like I think you do, and if the rumors are true, then you know exactly why I'm still here. I can't leave her like this." Roger responded sorrow filling his voice.
Ranger knew this guy was arrested for assault and battery, as well as other smaller crimes, but Steph was accepting of everyone, no matter what they had done. "We're almost there. Stay with her and then we will make sure we help you however we can." You could hear the sirens in the background.
"The ambulance and TPD just pulled up. I'll let them know you're on your own." The line went dead. Ranger could see the lights in the distance, and he knew it had to be bad for this many vehicles to be here. The closer he got to the scene, the tighter his chest felt. The only thing that could make him feel better would be to see his Babe's eyes open and hear her laughter. She had to be ok, she just had to be, she was his world.
XXXXXX
The Ambulance pulled into the Emergency Room bay only five minutes from the time it left the accident scene. Stephanie was rushed into the Emergency Room and behind closed doors where no one would be able to see her until they had examined her. Her gurney was followed by a sea of black with Ranger Manoso in the lead followed closely by his second in command Tank. Almost all of Rangeman Trenton was now standing in the waiting room.
A nurse approached him cautiously and said, "Mr. Manoso, I need you to fill out the forms for Ms. Plum." He stared at the nurse for a moment with his blank mask and then took the forms from her and turned his back on her causing the nurse to go running in the other direction. No one wanted to be anywhere near him at the moment, the anger radiating from him was suffocating.
"Hey man, you need to calm down. She'll be ok. She always is, you know that." Tank tried to comfort him.
Ranger stopped his movements, causing Tank to hold his breath. He wasn't sure if he had said the wrong thing or not. Ranger finally looked up at him with pain in his eyes, for a man who never showed emotion this was very out of character. "She wouldn't move Tank. Not once the entire time at the house, or in the ambulance." his voice cracking at the end. This was definitely not the Ranger that everyone knew.
Tank clapped him hand down on Ranger's shoulder, "The Bombshell is tough man. You know that. She's gotten through worse, yeah it was a close call, but she'll be alright. You need to keep it together for her. She'll want to see you when she wakes up." Tank tried to comfort his friend, but never got a reply. Ranger just went back to filling out his paperwork. His blank face had slipped into place and all emotion had been removed from him.
It was hours before anyone heard anything about Stephanie's condition. The waiting room was filled to capacity with Rangeman, TPD, former and regular skips, friends and Mr. & Mrs. Plum. Unfortunately when the doctor came out what he had to say was not as promising as they had all hoped.
"Mr. Manoso, can I speak with you privately?" asked the doctor.
"It's alright doctor we are all her family here. You can say whatever you need to here." Ranger said hands clenched at his sides.
"Due to the explosion and the impact of her fall there is swelling in her brain. Her head had taken the brunt of the trauma to her body. She has been placed in a medically induced coma. She had not regained consciousness before we started the medication. Her brain has severe swelling and it needs to recede before we can allow her to wake up and move around. We won't know the extent of the damage until the swelling recedes. To look at her, you would never know that anything is wrong. There is a large bump on the back of her head from the impact, but otherwise she only has a few cuts and scrapes." The doctor explained.
Ranger stood in front of the doctor for a few minutes taking in everything that had just been explained before replying, "When can I see her?"
"You may see her in short visits, no more than two people in the room at a time, and only for 15 minutes at a time. Everyone in the room must remain calm, use soft voices and absolutely, above all else No Yelling!" He said looking directly at Mrs. Plum. He knew what this woman's reaction was in the hospital as well as out in public. Everyone knew exactly how Helen Plum treated her daughter. "She may be in a medically induced coma, but she may still be able to hear you. Use soothing tones and do not try to antagonize her." His eyes never left Mrs. Plum while he spoke. No one would be attempting to hurt his patient while he had a say in the matter. Turning to look at Ranger, he said "Mr. Manoso, if you will follow me I will show you to her room."
At that Mrs. Plum erupted and advanced on the men, "He needs to stay away from my daughter. This is all his fault. You're trying to get my daughter killed. You need to leave her alone so that she can settle down and marry Joseph."
Ranger turned to face Mrs. Plum and spoke coolly, "I don't care if you are her mother or not, but with that attitude you will be going no where near her, until after she has come out of the coma. If you have an issue with this that's too damn bad, I hold her medical proxy, so you can go to hell for all I care. My first and only thought is to make sure that Stephanie gets the best care available and all the assistance that she will need. And I will protect her from her own mother if that is necessary. Tell me something, where is your precious Joseph at the moment Mrs. Plum?" He said looking around the room, "He certainly isn't here, and I know that he isn't out of town working on an assignment. Maybe for once in your life you should think about that fact. Look around and see who is here for Stephanie, these are the people who truly care for her. They have dropped everything to make sure that Stephanie is alright. Your precious Joseph is only here when the situation suits him." He then turned and looked at Frank, "Mr. Plum, would you please come with me?" He turned around and walked away with the doctor and Mr. Plum in tow. There was screaming and crying coming from the waiting room that they had just left, but kept on walking towards where they would find Stephanie. She was their number one concern at the moment; the rest could all be resolved later.
Walking to the room Stephanie had been placed in; they stopped and glanced in the window, taking deep breaths, and then slowly walked into the darkened room. Stephanie lay with a few bandages on her face and arms covering the few cuts and scrapes that she had incurred in the blast. Her hair was laying in a halo above and around her head giving the picture of a sleeping angel. The only problem in Ranger's eyes was that she was lying so still, he was used to seeing her full of such life, and yet here she was so still. The only thing that allowed him the knowledge that she was still alive was the up and down movement of her chest, and the beeping of the heart monitor. He enjoyed watching her sleep in her apartment and it had always brought him such calm and peace, but he felt anything but calm at the moment. There was a storm raging within him that he needed to unleash and he would be unleashing it on whoever it was that caused that explosion.
"She looks so peaceful doesn't she?" Frank Plum asked him, stepping up to run his fingers through his daughters hair, trying to comfort himself with that little bit of contact. It helped him re-center, calm the ache in his heart that had been there since he heard about the accident. This was his baby. He had always known that she was special, and he wanted to give her the world. He had almost lost her numerous times because of her job, but this one, this one was just too close for comfort. Touching her allowed him to release that knot in his stomach. She was still alive, and would eventually wake up. She would be ok; she had to be for all of their sakes.
"No sir, this isn't a peaceful sleep for my Babe." Ranger sighed. "I'm sorry sir; I should have protected her better." Deep down he knew that he couldn't have stopped this, but he still felt that he should apologize to the man in the room with him. After all, he had always encouraged her to do what she wanted, and had always tried to be there to make sure nothing had happened to her, this time he had failed, and it had almost cost them her life.
"Carlos, this was not your fault. You trained her, helped her, you gave her everything you were able to at the time. Don't take this on yourself. It is not your responsibility to watch over her 24/7, you know this and I know this. My wife has never been happy with Stephanie's choices and you are the easy target here. Don't worry about her." Frank stated calmly. "If you think it is best to keep her away from my Pumpkin, then that's fine, I will go with your opinion on this. I know that you have Stephanie's best interests at heart." He paused before he continued. "I know that you love her." Frank raised his hand to prevent Ranger from interrupting, "And I know that she loves you, but you two are too stubborn to admit it. When all of this is over and she comes back to us, and she will Carlos, you need to talk with her. Tell her how you feel. If you don't you'll never forgive yourself."
"Sir, you know the life that I lead. It's too dangerous for her. Look at the danger that she has already, you know that if she were with me that would increase exponentially. I can't put her in that kind of danger. You're right though, I do love her, and that's why I can't tell her that. I need to protect her from anyone that would come after her to get to me. No matter how much I want to make her my wife, I can't put her through that kind of life." Ranger said sadly. "She needs to fly, and being with me would only clip her wings sir."
Frank just shook his head in response and bent over to his daughter, kissing her on her head before saying, "Pumpkin you need to come back to us so we can straighten this man out. He's just as stubborn as you. I love you Pumpkin, come back to us." Frank stood and walked out of the room without saying another word to Ranger.
Ranger remained in the room with Stephanie, only leaving when more information had come in about the accident or something urgent on another case came up, but he was never far away. Guards were posted at her door and her visitors flowed into the room at regular intervals over several days. Mrs. Plum was never admitted into the room, and had to be physically removed from the hospital by her husband. When Grandma Mazur entered the room she kissed her granddaughters cheek and whispered, "Get stronger so that you can put everyone back in their place baby granddaughter. You're a Mazur woman and we are never down for long. I love you." Before leaving the room she turned to Ranger and stated, "You only get one life to live Mr. Manoso, don't let fear control your one chance to live your life how you desire. I can see that you love my granddaughter and your fear prevents you from giving into that. A strong man fights for what he wants; a coward gives into the fear and walks away. Keep that in mind when my granddaughter wakes up. We'll all be waiting to see which you are, the strong man or the coward." With that she walked out the door without looking back.
Ranger could only look at the door that she had just exited. Is that what he would be if walked away, a coward? He shook his head to clear that thought, no, people didn't understand the danger that she would be in if she were to be romantically involved with me. She needed to be with someone like Morelli, someone who could love her without bringing more danger into her life. Oddly enough the man, who claimed to love her and wanted to make her his wife, had not even shown up after the accident, either at the scene, or in the hospital. He shook his head and returned to watching his Babe sleep, taking in the rise and fall of her chest and the lack of motion.
After 72 hours there had been no change in the swelling that they could tell, but there was at least progress on finding who had rigged the explosion. Apparently it had been a former skip of Stephanie's that had not gone back into the system happily. The man had been wanted for possession and attempted murder, but his bail was not high enough for it to be a Rangeman file. Vinnie had given it to Stephanie, and she had managed to get the man back in the system without much trouble due to her training, but he had made threats when he was returned to the PD that he would get her back, and apparently this was his attempt at making good on that threat.
"Why was he out, he was just returned two months ago?" Ranger asked in a cool tone.
"The charges were dropped when there was insufficient evidence found in the case and he was released about one week ago." Tank explained.
"I want him found. And when we do, I want him in the Rangeman basement." Ranger replied.
"Already looking. So far we haven't turned up much of anything, but it won't be long now man. He'll turn up somewhere." Tank commented. "Any change in her condition?"
"Nothing yet, but with the amount of swelling they think that she will be under for about another one to two weeks." Ranger said while rubbing his face with both hands.
"Her mother is still ranting about not being allowed in to see her." Tank commented. He cleared his throat and continued, "And Morelli finally showed up today."
"Too damn bad, if there are any major issues call Babe's father. He'll take care of the bitch." Ranger explained. "As for Morelli, he's a non-issue. He can't do anything here for her and he has no say in what happens." Tank only nodded and then left.
Ranger turned to the bed, "Babe, I don't know if you can understand me or not, but I need you to be okay. I need to know that you are here with that gorgeous smile on your face giving your skips hell. Life would never be the same without you. I need you to understand that Stephanie. Your life is so much more important than mine and that is why I can never be with you. I know that it may not be what you want to hear, but it is what needs to happen. I hope one day you'll understand. I do love you Babe, with everything that I am. There will never be anyone else for me."
So, what are your thoughts on Ranger and his feelings? Anything about Morelli? Wondering where he was in all of this? More to come next week. I hope you enjoyed this update. Please let me know what you think.
Thank you to everyone who reviewed this story. Things have been crazy and I know I'm behind of replying individually to some, but I wanted to let you know that I loved everyone of them. Happy Easter to everyone and there will be more to come next week.
