Chapter 3

Bobby's POV

Bombshell has been at it for two weeks and hasn't been late once. By all reports she's been happy and engaged the entire time. There have been no breaks in personality and there has been zero sign of tears. In some ways she's been kicking ass, but something is going on.

She looks deathly pale with large dark circles under her eyes. She's also lost way too much weight in such a short period. I mean she never did any sort of physical activity before, except for possibly chasing a skip for about a block before she got too winded, so we expected her to lose some weight but the woman has become gaunt in a two week period.

Lester, Tank and I, being partners in RangeMan, were now having a meeting in Tank's office.

"What do you make of it? I've talked to all the guys and they all say the same thing. She's acting completely normal, no crying, no emotional break downs," asked Tank.

"She's training hard but she's starting to resemble a zombie to the point that I want to yell for Rick Grimes and hit her in the head with a shove," said Lester.

"Nice," I nodded approvingly of the Walking Dead reference which Lester and I recently discovered on Netflix.

Tank cleared his throat.

"She's really improving but something is clearly going on. I think its stress possibly over Ranger being in the wind," I said

"Could be a girl reaction to Ranger not saying I love you" said Lester pretending to stick his finger down his throat. This is one of the reasons I'm "the sensitive one" of this group.

Tank leaned back and his chair and rubbed him eyes. "Bobby, considering you're the medic, I want you to partner with her to keep an eye on her. You will be the one in charge of her physical training as well as being there for her meals so that we can see what's really going on," Tank said.

I nodded my agreement.

"I have an idea myself for a little stress relief Tank," said Lester.

"Santos, I'll call you to the mats at 0500 if you say what I think you're going to say," Tank said in a stern voice.

"No, but that is also an idea. Bomber needs to work on her coordination so figured I'd teach her how to dance," Lester explained.

"Dance?" Tank asked quizzically.

"Yeah, I only know Latin stuff but I'll get her to loosen up and have some fun," Lester explained.

"It's not a bad idea," I chimed in.

"Fine. We'll reconvene in two weeks to access the progress of the situation. We need to take care of her. It's the last thing I promised Ranger before he went into the wind," Tank said.

XXXXXXXX

Later that day I asked Bombshell to come to my place for dinner so we could discuss her next phase in training.

She showed up at right at seven wearing black yoga pants, a white tank top and a zip up. Her hair was up and I couldn't detect any signs of make-up. She looked like shit.

She was so pale and the circles under her eyes were starting to look like she had been hit. Her arms were disturbingly skinny and in the tight pants I could see her hip bones poking through. I pretended not to notice any of this and gave her a hug and a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Come in Gorgeous! I have great news I'm going to be your partner and in charge of your fitness for at least the next phase of your training," I said.

"That's great Bobby! Does this mean I'm going to be able to start going after skips again?" she asked excitedly.

Shit. She was in no shape to be in the field. "Actually Tank really needs help around the office and you're the only one who knows how to handle everything so he was hoping to keep you in the office for just for a few more weeks until he's caught up," I lied. Note to self, talk to Tank immediately about that.

She looked disappointed but replied, "Sure! Whatever you guys need I'm there."

"Perfect! Sit down dinner's pretty much ready." I said as I guided her to the small table and chairs I had in my apartment. I placed her in front of a plate of steak, green beans and roasted potatoes and opened a bottle of malbec and poured her a glass.

"Bobby, this looks fantastic but I'm not supposed to be drinking," she said.

"That was during phase one of your training, the first two weeks of no booze and no sweets. We're officially in phase two so you can have a little alcohol," I said smiling.

I was really hoping she didn't see through my really obvious plan of trying to feed her, getting her a buzzed and then asking what's going on.

She smiled and sipped the wine as we started eating. "Bobby, this is really good. I didn't know you could cook," she said in surprise.

"There's a lot of things you don't know about me," I replied attempting a flirty grin.

Part way through dinner I noticed she was just picking at her food and not actually eating it. Being the smooth sensitive guy that I am, I blurted out, "Are you not eating to starve yourself for Ranger?" I cringed as soon as the words were out of my mouth. Once again, I'm the sensitive one out of the group.

Her eyes flashed. Shit, this isn't going to go well. "No Bobby. I'm not some fucking sixteen year old Beverly High Schooler who either starves themselves or vomits after every meal" she said coldly.

"Whoa Steph! I'm sorry and I take eating disorders seriously, I'm just concerned and clearly did not approach this is a good way," I said.

"Clearly" she said dryly.

She the sighed and said, "I'm sorry. I know you're concerned and I do take eating disorders seriously. It's just that it pissed me off that you're assuming I'm starving myself over a guy."

"So, what's actually going on?" I finally asked. Probably should've started with that one.

She sighed. "It's my stomach. It's constantly in knots. I can't eat because I already feel full and I can't seem to get more than three hours of sleep," she said taking a long sip of her wine.

"What's going on in your head right now? Maybe it would help just to talk about it," I suggested.

Steph took another sip of wine. "I keep playing back that night over and over. It's like 'Groundhog Day' up in here," she said tapping the side of her head.

"I think about what kind of danger he's in, that I might never see him again and the last conversation I had with him I said the one thing he really didn't want to hear. I think that I'm angry with him sometimes and then I feel guilty for being pissed off because he's out there saving the world and I'm in Trenton chasing down drunks who missed their court date. Who the hell am I to tell him that I love him? Then I get mad at myself for thinking that because if anything bad did happen to him I would've wanted him to know. But does that make me selfish? Is what I told him a distraction when he's on a mission? Do you understand anything that I'm saying right now?" she asked looking up at me.

"It's hard for me to believe that one person can have that many conflicting feelings and thoughts at the same time," I admitted.

That actually got me a laugh. "I'm a woman Bobby. We're amazing at emotionally multitasking," she said.

"Look Gorgeous, all I know is that anyone going into any combat situation would be thrilled to be told that they were loved, even if they don't reciprocate those feelings. I'm not saying that Ranger doesn't love you or that he does. I don't know and I'm not going to guess what goes on in his head. All I know is that when going into a situation that you're not sure you're going to come back from, being told that you're loved in the best gift any of us could get," I said. That got me a smile and several more bites of dinner.

"Thank you Bobby," she whispered.

"Any time, seriously. You need to talk about this stuff," I said.

"I will. Can we change the subject now?" she asked.

"Yeah we can be done talking about this…tonight," I agreed.

We ended up talking about movies through the rest of dinner and I'm happy to say she ate half her plate. We ended up watching a documentary on our country's failing education system. I could watch a documentary on pretty much anything and I think Steph was just looking for a distraction.

Part way through she fell asleep on my shoulder and I carried her to my bed so she could finally get some sleep. I climbed in after, careful not to touch her. Once I was in she immediately threw her leg over mine and snuggling up against my chest, I complied by putting my arm around her. It felt a little too nice to have her in my bed. She slept soundly while I got to stare at the ceiling trying not to be physically effected by her closeness and wondering what the hell was wrong with Ranger.

Steph's POV

I woke up with Ranger's arms wrapped around me tight with my head on his shoulder. I moaned a little and tried to snuggle closer.

"Uh, Steph?" came a voice that was definitely not Ranger's. My eyes popped open and the chest I was currently laying on was not mocha latte colored. I jumped up and gasped.

"Bobby?" I whispered.

"Yeah Steph?" he answered.

"Why the hell am I in your bed?" I asked.

He chuckled. "Relax, nothing happened. You fell asleep on the couch and I wasn't going to wake you considering this must have been the first full night of sleep you've gotten in awhile. My bed is big enough that I didn't think it was a problem until you attacked me in your sleep," he said smiling at me.

"I attacked you? What did I do?" I asked, feeling more than a little embarrassed.

Bobby continued chuckling as he climbed out of bed. I noticed he was only in boxers and averted my eyes. Not before drinking it all in, his body is a work of art. I'm only human and he's really hot.

"I literally got in bed and you attached yourself to me and no matter how many times I tried to remove you and get you on your side, within minutes you were back clinging to me," he explained. He started throwing on gym shorts and a t-shirt. I could feel myself blushing at the thought of throwing myself at him all night.

"Go to your apartment and change. I am in charge of your training and now that I know you got a good night's sleep I'm going to come at you even harder today," he warned.

He wasn't kidding either. Everything was turned up today, whether it was the incline, speed or the repetition. My muscles felt like they were on fire.

"Come on Bombshell," said Bobby pulling me to my feet.

He walked me into his medic office and gestured to the padded table. "Hop up and stick your leg out," he ordered. I complied and Bobby started rubbing. I couldn't help but let out a moan. Bobby just grinned at me then kept rubbing. He then moved onto my other leg and my arms and back.

I was complete putty in hands. "How are you not taken?" I moaned as he worked on my back.

"Because I spend all my time with you assholes" he answered with a smile.

"Well, you're going to make some woman very happy someday," I said returning the smile.

"Alright Gorgeous, hit the showers warm not hot," he instructed.

I jumped off the table and turned to look at him "Thanks Bobby… for everything. I know I can be a pain in the ass but you've really been good to me when I needed it the most," I said shyly.

He gave me a small smile, and replied "You're welcome," quietly.

XXXXXXX

The next few weeks Bobby was my ever present shadow. He was waiting outside my door every morning to walk down to the gym with me so we would work out. Then we'd have breakfast together, always something healthy and no sweets. He would check in with me during the day when I was busy doing searches and helping Tank too have lunch.

He would also stop by the weapons training with Vince and Ram and my new dance lessons with Lester. Bobby and sometimes Lester would work on self defense and hand to hand combat every afternoon. Bobby would stop by every night for dinner sometimes bringing groceries and forcing me to learn how to cook and then we'd watch documentaries or Lester would stop by and then they would demand that I watch the "Walking Dead" with them.

It was a pleasant few weeks and I was starting to eat and sleep better. The knot was still in my stomach but ever since I talked to Bobby that night in his apartment it didn't feel as big and all consuming. I was starting to come to terms with Ranger not loving me. It didn't change the way I felt about him and if he could just come back safe I would be able to handle anything else. I could handle him not loving me, thinking I'm a joke or even hating me as long as he was safe. So all my thoughts of Ranger consisted of where he was, when he would be back and if he was okay.

The dark circles were basically gone at this point and my color returned to somewhat normal, I mean I'll always be pale but Lester and Bobby stopped comparing to me to the zombies on the Walking Dead. The biggest changes have definitely been in my body. I was starting to see muscles definition while my waist and ass were starting to shrink. Maybe the exercise stuff isn't so bad after all?

Dancing with Lester has been amazing. I was nervous at first when he brought it up to me. I've seen Les dance before and he is really good but he is also what he likes to think of as a "Ladies Man" and what I like to think of as a "Horney Frat Boy". I was scared there would be a lot of groping but Lester Santos was a perfect gentleman during lessons. I never thought gentleman and Lester Santos would be in the same sentence but there it is. Outside of lesson…umm not so much, but I was really having a good time working with Lester.

Also, Vince started stopping by apparently his parents also made him take lessons when he was younger. He knew more dances like the waltz and shit and between the two of them I'm actually not half bad.

I was wondering how two guys at RangeMan, surrounded by extreme alpha males, managed to teach me how to dance and not get completely ripped apart by all the other guys so I asked Vince.

"First off, Les and I get laid way more than the rest of guys, second if you want to hang with alpha males you better be secure and you better be able to take a joke. Guys will endlessly rip on you unless you show them that it doesn't bother you. Third, they're all jealous that Les and I get to spend so much time with you," Vince said with a grin as he dipped me. Did I mention Vince is charming?

Valentine's Day was fast approaching and I wanted to something nice for all the big scary mercenaries who have supported me for the past six weeks. Not to mention but February 15th was a big day for me. I was going to be able to go back to bounty hunting in the afternoons which means I can FINALLY get to see Lula and Connie!

Lula is a former prostitute who I met when working my first case as a bounty hunter. She put her ass on the line to give me information and a complete psycho path tortured her for it, leaving her for dead on my fire escape. I blamed myself and thought she would want nothing to do with me.

Lula on the other hand thinks that I saved her and that incident gave her the strength to quite the prostitution game and get her life together. She has to be one of the strongest people I've ever met. Not to mention she has the same weakness for shoes and sweets that I do. She now works at my cousin Vinnie's bond office with Connie.

Connie is straight up Italian with mob connections and a size D chest, which we're all jealous of. Connie is a "tough bitch" as she would put it and three of us were inseparable when we were all working for Vinnie. I may like my new job but I really miss my girls and I've been practically on lock down the past few weeks and I'm dying to get out and have some serious girl time.

For Valentine's Day I bought superhero themed cards and wrote each guy at RangeMan a card and what I loved about them and then ordered a large edible arrangement for the break room (just fruit, Tank still has me on a no sweet diet which we're going to have discuss soon). When I was preparing the cards I purposefully didn't give any of the guys the Batman ones because I always called Ranger Batman. I picked up one the Batman cards and stared at it. I sighed and wrote the message:

To Batman

Happy Valentine's Day, you may be away but you're not forgotten. Be safe and come home soon.

-Wannabe Wonder Woman

I got up. left my apartment and walked to the elevator where I hit the seventh floor button. I had a key fob to Ranger's place that he told me to use whenever I wanted but I haven't been up there since Ranger was in town.

I let myself into his place and walked to the bedroom I picked up the pillow and placed the Valentine underneath it. I guess I felt like he was getting my little note even though he wouldn't. I looked around and just inhaled. The smell of his Bulgari body wash, the sent that clung to him. was in the air. I felt an ache in my chest and the knot in my stomach doubled in size. Yeah, I have to get the hell out of here.

I ran back to my apartment to find Bobby waiting for me. "Out for a stroll?" he asked.

"Yep, just needed some air!" I replied.

Bobby nodded and turned to go. "Bobby did you need anything?" I asked.

"Nope, just wanted to say good night," he replied.

"Good night!" I called after him.

Hmm. That was strange.