Chapter 3

Ranger's POV

Steph had gotten so much smarter about which skips she did and didn't go after alone over the past year, that we didn't really question her anymore. Not to mention the fact that we'd been training her and she was pretty darn good in a fight. Didn't even need to add on the qualifier of "for her size" because Hector had made sure to work carefully with her so her size was an advantage rather than a disadvantage. She wasn't even late when I got the call, so I hadn't had any cause to worry.

As soon as Cal called to let me know someone was on the phone about Steph needing medical information, if grabbed my keys and was getting in the car as they connected the call to my cell. Looking back, when I heard Avengers tower, I should have gone back upstairs and asked if anyone was O negative before I left. Of course, I would have found out that no one who was on that day actually was O negative, so it wouldn't have mattered much anyway. Once Banner explained the situation to me, I figured Barnes looked okay to me. Stable at least. And Steph would be less likely to have a negative reaction to beta blood than to alpha blood- especially… super alpha blood…

I waited until the field transfusion was set up and flowing for a minute before I pushed off the wall I was leaning against and stepped closer. I felt Rogers tense as I approached letting of a steady stream of protective scent, and in a low voice, I whispered, "she's had a tough time of it. You may both be Avengers, but I have contacts and skills you haven't even guessed yet and a building full of men with the same skills willing to die to help me protect her. She's family. If you do anything to hurt her, believe me when I say they will never find either of your bodies."

So saying, I turned on the spot and walked over to where the man who was trussed up on the ground had woken up and was looking around calculatingly. I stopped in front of him and demanded, "did you do that to her?"

He looked over at Steph on the table and said, "bitch," while spitting in her direction.

I kicked him in the stomach with my steel toed boot and said, "wrong answer." I knelt down next to him and pulled his face to look at me. Giving him what Stephanie called my dead eyes and flooding him with alpha scent much meaner than his own, I asked, "do you know who I am?"

"Manoso."

"See now, the fact that you know that makes me think you aren't just a petty thief like your jacket says. That means you know who she is."

"Manoso's bitch," he spat out.

I made a tsking sound, "that won't do; we've been trying to knock that name down since the first time we heard it. She's family, but I'm guessing you don't know what that means." His eyes had strayed back toward the table, so I jerked his head back. "You don't look at her, hear me? And you definitely don't ever touch her again. Now tell me, what were you doing over here. Steph said you were coming here every day, but she hadn't figured out why yet. And what did she find out that made you do that to her?"

When he didn't respond, I flipped a knife out of my boot and held it up for him to see. From behind me, Barnes just calmly said, "don't know what he's into, but Steph here said she found him attacking a different woman. Guess she tried to stop him."

I turned to look at Barnes and saw approval in his eyes at what I was doing. Glancing over at the Captain, I saw a similar look on his face, and it made me feel a little bit better about them as potential suitors for Steph. Truth was I knew the day would probably come eventually, as did all of my men, and this alpha and beta pair in front of me were probably at the top of the trustworthiness scale. Which meant we really couldn't object.

Rogers opened his mouth and said, "my guess is some kind of steroid or something similar. He was too strong for how he looks. I wanted Banner to run some tests on him once he's done with Steph here. Make sure it wasn't anything the team needed to worry about. We promised Steph we'd turn him over to her once he was done, and help her bring him into the police station if necessary."

I looked back at the man on the ground and said, "interesting." Then I dealt him a swift uppercut to knock him back out. Standing back up, I looked over at the rest of the people in the room, including the intriguing omega, Darcy, who had met me downstairs. She was staring at me wide-eyed, so I just shrugged and said, "probably not worth talking to again until you guys have those test results back, and I don't want him overhearing more than he should."

I wanted to pace, but instead I just walked over to the wall opposite everyone else and put my back to it, arms crossed across my chest. "So she was well enough to talk for a while then?"

When Barnes didn't look at Rogers for permission before responding, I took that as a positive sign that Rogers wasn't a domineering asshole of an alpha. "Yes, she was really skittish, but she was talking. She didn't want us to touch, so she walked back all the way to the Tower. Made it into the lobby before she passed out from the blood loss."

There were a few surprised noises that the men had let Steph walk under her own power when she was losing blood like that, but I liked it. I knew just how freaked out Steph would have been, even if she had recognized them, and that really was the best course of action. Plus it showed that they respected her feelings, even when they didn't understand them. Pulling out my phone, I placed a call into Tank, my right-hand man.

As soon as I heard the call connect, I said, "go to Steph's workstation."

"Little Girl okay?"

"Yeah, she's uh…" I trailed my eyes over to where the blood was flowing straight from Barnes into Steph and hoped again that I wasn't making a mistake where that was concerned. "Getting some blood right now, but she should be good as new once it's done and she wakes up. Maybe better."

Tank let the silence reign long enough to indicate that he knew something was up and wanted to know what before he asked, "What hospital? The men want to start rotating in to visit. Keep her company, make sure she doesn't jailbreak early."

Letting my eyes scan around the room, I said, "they don't exactly have visiting hours here. Just tell everyone she's going to be fine, and I'll bring her back so they can see that with their own eyes as soon as I possibly can. She's found some new friends that I think can entertain her until she's ready to leave. And I don't think she'll be able to sneak out early this time."

More silence. "Okay, I'm at her computer."

"Pull up her file on the skip she was after today. He doesn't seem to have ID on him," I said looking over to Hawkeye and Black Widow who verified that they didn't have it.

"Blake Peterson," Tank said.

I relayed the name and watched as Tony Stark himself moved to pull a computer out of an otherwise smooth seeming wall. Ten seconds later I had a picture displayed on the wall that upon closer inspection, seemed to match the man on the ground.

"Yep, that's him," I said before just going ahead and putting the phone on speaker but indicating for everyone to be quiet. "Tell me what she's got on him; I've got someone here helping me verify."

"Where the hell are you Boss?" Tank murmured as he was obviously reading. He didn't expect me to answer and I didn't do so. "Alright, the file she got from the bonds office says he was charged with theft, no injuries or anything like that. Bail was set at $5,000 and he put up his car as collateral. He's registered as a beta, something Mike himself confirmed. He knows our agreement on that. So relatively low bond, non-violent, beta. This is definitely one Steph should have been able to take on her own."

I thought for a moment, well aware that everyone was watching me carefully. Generally, I liked to play things close to the vest, but if Steph reacted the same way as these two men she'd just met did to her presence when she was feeling better, I figured we'd need to be friendly. Holding out on them now wouldn't be a good start. Plus, this was happening in their backyard too.

"Hey man, remember when we were introducing ourselves around when we moved into town?" I heard a snort of laughter and looked over at Barton. If word of our arrival had made it all the way into Avengers Tower, then I was quite proud of myself and my team. It also meant that he would have investigated us, and if I made it upstairs with only Darcy as an escort, I'd passed at least one step of approval.

"Yeah."

"I'm trying to remember. What did that one guy say?"

"Which guy Boss? There were a lotta guys, and most of 'em didn't like you."

"I don't know why, I'm perfectly charming." Silence. I had trained my team well. "It was a group that we were surprised seemed to be operating so close to Avengers Tower. He said something about how alphas like me should watch our step."

"Hold on," I heard a snap, a whistle, then a crashing thunk.

"If whatever that was was something of Steph's you better replace it before she gets back."

"Santos will replace it for not fucking paying attention to me!" Tank growled out.

"Yeah, well if it was the stapler, he better get on it because I have no idea where the fuck she bought that thing, but she loves it and I wouldn't be surprised if she's back by morning."

I heard Tank relay the message and some cursing in the background. When Tank came back on the line he said, "he's working on it. Now, I have the transcript from that… neighborhood orientation meeting. Let's see, we don't know the guy's name, but we'll start digging into that crew. He said, 'All you macho alpha punks better watch yourselves. I know a guy who is going to level the playing field. He's going to cut us in if we help him find testers, and we'll be something better than alpha real soon.' That's all I got, we mostly dismissed it as posturing. Why?"

"Because I'm looking at Peterson right now, and he's not a beta, he's an alpha. From what I hear he's a little stronger than he should be too."

"Well, shit. Little Girl's going to be okay?"

"Yeah, her new friends came along and helped her out."

"You know, I'm looking at these notes of hers, and I'm seeing where she probably was looking for Peterson today. Seems to me it's about midway between here and about the only place I can think of in the city that might take in someone who'd been injured while not allowing public visitors."

If he'd started pumping me for information, that meant he didn't have any more to give me. "Email me everything you have on Peterson and that neighborhood orientation meeting." So saying, I hung up the phone.

Black Widow was staring at me with an eyebrow raised, and I just returned the favor before turning back to check my email on my phone, "I don't hire people who aren't smart."

"What's the deal with the stapler?" Darcy asked.

I softened my look a little as I said, "he threw it at Santos's head to get his attention."

"How'd you know that?"

"It sounded like when he throws a stapler at Santos's head to get his attention."

"That a regular occurrence?"

"It's not irregular."

"Huh, well, what's so special about the stapler?"

"Stupidest thing I ever allowed in the office. It's bright red, shaped like a gun, and it makes a little 'bang' noise every time she uses it. It's a piece of crap gag gift, so it breaks all the damn time and she's always bugging someone to fix it."

I looked over and saw that Tony Stark had a picture of it already up on the wall. I nodded at him in acknowledgement, and he said, "tell your man it'll be there by midnight."

"Me too, me too!" Darcy said quietly, and I saw Stark nod at her.

"Told the man not to go out drinking like that when he's got a shift the next day," I said. "He can search for one all fucking night. Then I'll tell him once Steph is on her way back."

"What if he finds one?" Darcy asked.

"Then we'll have a backup for next time."

The man who was one of the newer Avengers whose real name I didn't know but was pretty sure went by Falcon decided to speak up. "We're pretty security conscious here, which I'm sure you can respect given your occupation." I inclined my head in agreement and he continued, "but if you'll give us names and let us run checks, I'm sure we can arrange for at least some small groups of visitors. They'll have to check any weapons at the door, so to speak."

I looked over at where Rogers was still standing guard over Steph, watching Banner carefully and making sure no one else but the Winter Soldier got close. "I really don't think that's a good idea right now."

"I don't need you running interference for me, I can handle myself," Rogers growled.

"I'm sure you can, but it's a delicate situation and they're all wildly over protective of her. If they decide to try to run you off, I don't have a contingency plan for my entire workforce being out until bones heal and heads are regrown. And their tempers are always high when she's hurt."

"What he called her," Bucky indicated at the skip on the floor and spoke steadily, tone making it clear he was expecting me to fill in the blank, not asking me to do so.

I shrugged, "we aren't together that way, but she had a run in with a pretty bad gang a while back. I got in some people's faces, and people started calling her that. On one hand, I'm not wild about the implication of the phrase or the lack of respect it shows. On the other hand..."

I trailed off and Barton filled in, "you have a reputation as someone whose things shouldn't be fucked with in any way, and it helps keep her safe when she's on the streets alone. Especially in gang territory where that kind of claim is at least somewhat understood and respected."

"And sorry if I'm the slow one here, but why exactly is she on the streets again?" Darcy asked.

"She works as a bounty hunter, part time for me tracking down the ones she doesn't want to bring in herself and passing off the info for my team to bring in. The rest of the time, she works solo, but she can borrow a partner if she wants backup. Generally she takes the non-violent, lower stakes FTAs for herself. Uses my men to bring in anyone she's concerned about or who is an alpha."

"And what's an FTA?"

"It stands for Failure To Appear," Steph's voice croaked from behind me, and we all turned to look at her. Thankfully, Banner had already pulled a blanket up over her after he finished the stitches a few minutes ago. Captain America carefully started to step back when he realized she was awake, not wanting to startle her, but Steph just touched his arm gently and smiled to let him know he could stay. Then she turned her attention back to the relative strangers across the room, took them in, and just rolled with it. "It means he got released from court on bail, used Mike's Bail Bonds to pay for it, but didn't show up as scheduled. That means Mike will lose money, in this case next week, if he doesn't wind up back in jail. I track them down and bring them back to court to reschedule, which is my nice way of saying that they get thrown back in jail and have to stay unless they take out another bond."

Steph looked over at the man on the ground and I could smell the fear coming off of her even as I heard the heart rate monitor pick up. Rogers just shifted himself to be more clearly between her and the man and she calmed right down.

"Okay over there, Babe?" I asked gently.

"Yeah, somethings wrong with Peterson, though, Ranger. He's supposed to be a beta and he's definitely not. But more than that, I think he's on something."

That pretty much confirmed what Rogers had said, but Black Widow still asked, "why do you say that, Steph?"

I heard Steph mutter, "hi, I'm Steph, it's nice to meet you," under her breath and couldn't contain a chuckle. I noticed the Widow's lips twitch, and she said, "hi, Steph. My name's Natasha. It's nice to meet you. I'm sorry for being so curt, we're just trying to figure out if there's a larger problem here. Some new drug or something possibly bigger that we need to be concerned about."

"I got him with the pepper spray, my stun gun, and I kicked him in the junk. It hardly phased him, and I know I'm not fast, but he was much faster than you or any of the Merry Men, Ranger." Before anyone could ask, Steph added, "long story, but that's what I call Ranger's employees. They do not like it, but they let me get away with it because I'm their favorite."

Everyone turned to look at me, and I just nodded in agreement. Steph was their favorite.

A/N: Thanks everyone who is reading and reviewing! Things are crazy for me this week, and I'm reading your reviews, but I haven't found the time yet to respond to all of them. I promise to do so this weekend or early next week! *hugs*