Everything recognizable belongs to the author – I'm not her –I'd have more Naked Ranger in the books – so I just took her characters out to play.

***Sophie POV

I sat in shock, staring at the doctor. Seven men in black cargo pants, tee shirts and boots stood to the left, expressionless and hard. Morelli, the Plum family and several of her closest friends to the right looking a mixture of shocked and concerned.

"Can you do it?" The man in front of me asked.

He was my boss and friend; he'd had to give me time away to help the FEDs with special cases similar. I nodded, "I can make it look real enough."

"What's real enough?" The doctor asked me. "It could do damage if she began to question things before her mind was ready."

I shook my head, "I can make it look so real only the people in this room will know it's not true."

My boss nodded, "She's the best. If anyone can piece together the evidence of a fake life its Sophie."

I nodded, "I've constructed lives for people before. They know I'm doing it of course and I give them the role but in this case it will obviously be different, ruled around the role in her head but I can make it as real as anything else."

"Constructed lives?" Mrs. Plum murmured.

"I've been a CSI for four years but growing up my father was FBI, working for the unit that created and monitored Witness Protection, I worked with the same unit from the time I graduated, and still help them occasionally." I also created identities for the CIA and being a CSI was only my cover but that was classified and I knew my boss was right, if anyone could make this real to the world it would be me.

"How will we handle Morelli?" The sister, I thought her name was Valerie asked, "Won't she remember her relationship with him?"

"We broke up again three weeks ago." Morelli admitted though everyone knew it.

"You always get back together." Mrs. Plum insisted. "We should tell her the truth of things and bring her home, she'll feel better with things going back how they should."

"I'm afraid that one of three things would result from that." The doctor spoke up, his expression was deadly serious and I knew when her medical doctor had brought her case to psych he'd requested it, something about it was almost, personal, to him and I didn't think it had to do with the patient so much as the illness. "The first is that she'll remember what happened, maybe be a little confused but accept the truth. Dreams and reality blended in her mind so things would be a bit fuzzy and she wouldn't be sure what was and wasn't real in her memories for a while but things would eventually fall into place."

Mrs. Plum nodded, "So we'll just go tell her and Joe can make sure she's ok."

"No." Joe spoke up. "Being near me could put her in more danger. It's safer for her if Manoso is taking care of her."

"You want her to be with that thug?" Mrs. Plum looked shocked.

Morelli shook his head, "I love her. I want her safe."

"She loves him mother." Valerie spoke up. "She's always trusted him."

Mrs. Plum snorted and crossed herself.

"We can tell her the truth without her and Morelli getting back together." Cloughn suggested, "That way she's safe." He glanced at Manoso and looked away quickly.

"Second?" Mr. Plum spoke up his eyes on the doctor.

"Second?" Eddie Gazarra asked with a frown.

"Doc man said there were three things possible." Lula spoke up her attention back on the doctor. "What are them other possibilities?"

The doctor nodded, "The second possibility is that the delusion was created by her mind to protect her from something, trying to break the delusion could do great harm to her mind in one of two ways that I'm aware of."

"How?" Morelli demanded.

"The first is one I've seen first hand," He swallowed. "My sister in fact." And there is was, the reason he'd taken this case, sometimes I scared myself howI could read a person, "Her mind held so firmly to the delusion that when it was taken from her, she could not emotionally or mentally handle the reality. She became all but catatonic and hasn't spoken a word in the last eleven years."

I swallowed back tears, "The second." I voiced the question I wasn't sure any of us really wanted to hear.

"The second was a case I came across in med school during my psych round at a secure asylum. The young man in question was unable to give up his delusion and has been institutionalized since he was sixteen. When the delusion was forced away, he became a danger to himself and others. Left alone in his delusion he converses with his dead twin brother, goes about his daily routine and after twenty years still believes he is sixteen and he and his brother are in boarding school. He has no recollection of being in a car accident at all let alone the fact that he was driving and spent three hours with his brothers decapitated head next to him while rescue workers tried to get him out of the river. Any attempt to disrupt his delusion would turn him violent to those who sought to help him and had him attempting to kill himself. He'd been sedated after the first attempt and woke up remembering nothing the following day, firmly entrenched in his delusion again. Records were made of an attempt being made to remove the delusion four other times with the same result, anger, confusion, violent behaviour and attempts at suicide."

No one said anything for a long time. "What's the third possibility of trying to tell her the truth?" Connie finally asked.

"I've heard of one rare case of a woman whose delusion came from a head wound, when she was forcibly faced with the truth, her mind, unable to cope with the reality shut down."

"Like your sister?" I asked unsure I understood the difference.

He shook his head. "My sister's case is different. Emotionally and mentally she cannot handle the truth of what happened to her, so she shut down. The third case is quite different in that the delusion was broken and her mind came up with a new way to protect her." His eyes looked around the room, "She suffered complete dissociation and retrograde amnesia. She was completely healthy and able to communicate but had no idea who she was or who the people in her life were. After spending time trying to remember her life she gave up and left. She married, had three children and lived until she was eighty-seven. She never went back home, never remembered her parents, husband or two sons, in fact, once she left she never contacted any of them again. They were strangers to her. It was only because of her new husband any of them knew she was alive and well or had passed away." He sighed, "It's doubtful this would occur with Stephanie but I have to consider all options here."

"There is only one option." Grandma Mazur told him while the rest of us sat in shocked silence. "My granddaughter is going home with her hottie husband and everyone is going to go along with anything she wants."

"She'll need wedding photos." Mrs. Plum spoke up with tears in her eyes.

"I can manufacture them." I told her softly.

"You be good to my baby." Mr. Plum glared at Manoso.

Manoso nodded, "Of course."

"What about sex?" Cloughn asked before blushing.

"What about it?" Lula demanded.

"And babies?" Valerie asked. "Well they're married. In her mind at least." Valerie shrugged at her mother's horrified look.

Her mother closed her mouth and nodded, "If that's what she wants." She turned to glare at Manoso, "You better make it real before my grandbabies are born if you have to tell her it's a renewal of vows I don't care, my grandbabies are being born in wedlock."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves." The doctor calmed everyone down. "Chances are Stephanie will remember everything soon."

"Chances?" Morelli demanded, "Is there a possibility she wont?"

"It is very unlikely." The doctor tried to assure everyone. "I believe her mind will eventually allow her back into reality."

"Eventually." Morelli repeated.

"What about when she does remember?" Connie demanded. "Wont she be a little pissed we all lied to her."

"We are talking about letting him take advantage of her." Mary Lou spoke up quietly.

"She be happy if Batman took advantage of her. Hell I'd be happy he wanted to take advantage of me some time." Lula spoke up.

I noticed one of the expressionless men with Manoso glare at her, jealousy flashing for an instant before his face was again impassive.

"Well it ain't like you take advantage of me no more. Guess I can appreciate a good looking man without that look Mister." Lula told him, having seen the flash of emotion as well.

"Can we get back on point please?" Morelli said rubbing his head.

"Stephanie remembers everything, because she's added things that didn't happen it all feels a little fuzzy as she tries to piece it together. Her mind will adapt to the new time line and it will be as real and solid as all of her memories. Her mind chose Mr. Manoso, likely because of a previous relationship, I don't believe she is diminished in any form in her ability to make decisions or um… future plans." The doctor again spoke up.

"So we go on as before but under the guise that Beautiful and Ranger are married." Another man in black spoke up from his place on the wall.

The doctor nodded, "Nothing else in her life seems to have altered in her mind. If anything comes up we will have to meet up and adjust to that how we can. I will be sure you all have my emergency contact information and will be available to you at any time, night or day."

"Sophie?"

I turned to my boss, "How long will you need to set this up?"

I shrugged, "A week."

"She'll be in the hospital at least that, if not longer." The surgeon spoke up.

"Good." My boss nodded. Everyone was silent a minute absorbing everything.

"Manoso?" Morelli finally spoke.

Their eyes met and Manoso gave the barest of nods. Morelli seemed to understand. It was like a whole conversation had occurred in the meeting of their eyes.

Manoso turned to me, "If you need any help come to RangeMan and we'll do what we can." Then he turned to his men, "I want it spread across RangeMan in every location that Stephanie and I eloped, Lester, call your mother and ask her if she'd heard about it from my mother as though it were just leaked through RangeMan."

"Aunt Marisol and Abuella Rosa are going to kill you." The man he'd spoken to said nodding.

"Just do it." He turned to another man, "Are you on top of all her medical here?"

The man nodded, "Not so much on my psych other than PTSD but I'll converse with her doctors and get what I can."

"Chances are you could be faced with symptoms of that too." Her doctor said, referring to the port-tramatic stress comment.

The man nodded and Manoso turned to yet another man in black, "Help Miss…" He looked over at me.

"Sophie Blake."

"Help Miss Blake with any necessary information she needs about me and Stephanie and get us a damn marriage license."

"Ranger?" Someone inquired.

"I don't care how you get her to sign it without seeing what it is but make sure its official. I want the marriage certificate on my desk before she gets out of the hospital."

The man nodded and he turned to Morelli, "Stay away from her and stay alive."

Morelli nodded, "Take care of her."

"Always." Ranger nodded and then left, followed by all the terrifying men but two. The one he'd told to help me organize their married history and the one who was going over her medical requirements with her surgeon and the psych doctor.

"I'm Manuel, Manny." He held out his hand for me to shake. "I'll bring you to her apartment and to his at RangeMan, we have a file, a large file on Bomber you can look over and some very good video of the two of them we can get stills from for photos."

I nodded and let him lead me from the room. We drove to Stephanie's home first and I felt a little awkward entering and packing up her things. The doctor had mentioned that she knew she still rented here so we wouldn't have to take much, just enough to show she lived where she thought she lived.

Manny went into her kitchen and pulled out cokes for us both, "Rex is already at RangeMan and Ella already cleaned the place so it shouldn't be much to pack up."

I nodded, "Rex?"

"Her hamster."

"Right." I nodded and turned back to the sparse place, "Was she robbed?"

He laughed, "No but the place has caught fire twice, guess it kind of kills the clutter."

"Right." She nodded.

"Ranger once said something about her not having enough."

"Enough of what?"

"Everything." He looked away. "She wouldn't let him do things for her, drove him batty because some times we weren't sure she ate enough. I think he scared a couple skips into going FTA a few times so she'd have the bond money, then she finally gave in and came to him for a job and we were all happy."

I nodded. He looked sad as he looked around for a minute or two before the expressionless mask was settled on his face again.

"Manny?" He lifted a brow. "She'll have everything she needs now."

"Ranger and the team will make sure of it." He said with a nod. "Come on, I'll show you where everything is."

"Have you been here often?" He shrugged, "I've broken in three times."

"What?"

He grinned at me, "Wifey's apartment is terribly easy to get into."

"Wifey?"

He shrugged, "I got injured not long after first meeting her, she told the ER we were married so she could check on me and send updates to RangeMan. I've called her that since."

I nodded. "Why did you break in?"

"Last time?" I nodded; why not start there, "To get Rex so Ella could take care of him while she's in hospital."

"Before that time?"

"She was in another mishap and Ranger was away. He asked us to check on her and plant another gps since her bag had been in the car." He shrugged, "The time before that it was to get her size for Ella when she was at RangeMan hiding from the Slayers." I nodded again. "Come on." He led me to her bedroom and took out a duffle bag. I began to load it with some of her belongings, half the clothes, most of the makeup and hair product and I was just loading her shower things when Manny stopped me. "She has that stuff already." I didn't ask. I was already far too curious about the Manoso, Plum, Morelli triangle and sharing rumors and I wasn't sure I really wanted to know. Instead I looked around her place and took a couple personal items, I went to take the cookie jar and found a .38 inside. Manny gave a sad smile. "Pack that." He nodded.

I nodded and put it in the bag and then zipped it. Manny picked it up and led me back out locking up behind us. I'd taken about sixty percent of everything she owned and it fit in one duffle. There was just her furniture and maybe ten percent of the rest of her belongings remaining. I almost wanted to cry.

Manny loaded the bag in the SUV and drove us to RangeMan. He beeped us into a garage and up an elevator to level five. The large guy who'd had the jealous flash in the meeting was waiting and handed Manny a key fob.

"Bombers file is in conference room d when you two are ready for it, we've been working to add a few things while you were busy so you should have most of what you need in it." He turned to me, "If you need anything else Manny will help you access our systems."

"Want to see the file now or unpack first?" Manny asked me.

"Her apartment didn't give me much to go on for her personality. It might be better to see the file first, since I'm reconstructing her life around the delusion and not creating a whole new past."

Both men just nodded and Manny pocketed the key and backed us into the elevator and hit the button for the fourth floor.

"That was the control room." Manny told me. "Bomber has a desk there. This floor is conference rooms, I don't think she's ever been down here."

He led me to a conference room and there was a box about the size of an evidence box on the table.

"File?" I asked him with a lifted brow.

He just shrugged and motioned me in.

I went in and opened the box. There were a few files. One labeled Bombshell Bounties, one Bomber Cars, Bomber on Deck, another R & B, then Surveillance. Also in the box were a few odd items I could only think of as keepsakes, including several hospital id tags and a stun gun.

Manny grinned, "This is the stun gun Wifey got Hal to hand over to her to look at before she juiced him with it." He said pulling it out. Then he pulled out a pair of handcuffs, "These are her first handcuffs. Ranger had to go un-cuff her from them after Morelli handcuffed her naked to the shower rod."

"The hospital bracelets?"

Manny grinned, "The Merry Men who've been admitted after an encounter." He chuckled, "Mine's in there somewhere."

He pulled everything out of the box and spread it out. I lifted a brow at the bottle of Bulgari body wash.

Manny shrugged, "We keep track of everything."

"Body soap?"

"She loves it." He said with another shrug.

I found menus or cards from various restaurants as well and set them aside.

I flicked through the Bomber Cars folder and found pictures of cars, some very expensive and black, others clearly junkers. There would be a photo of the car, then a wreck and a page detailing how it got wrecked and how long she'd had it for.

I set the folder aside and looked into Bombshell Bounties and found records of all the skips she'd worked. Bomber on Deck was her work record here at Rangeman. I moved on to the Surveillance folder and found reports and photos. Those I could use so I flicked through them and picked out several. I had saved R & B for last.

"The guys put that together. Its stuff of the two of them they thought you might be able to use." Manny told me.

I nodded and flicked it open. Inside were photos, some obviously stills taken from video feed, of Manoso and Stephanie. I wished someone would look at me with half the passion or affections shown in some of these photos.

I picked out several and then told Manny I had what I needed.

"I'll take you up to seven then." He nodded.

"Seven?"

"That's Ranger's apartment."

I nodded and followed him out. "What is she like?"

"Wifey is the best."

"I need more to go on than that please."

He just looked at me with an eyebrow raised. I sighed, "I need to know her to pull this off right, what's her relationship with you and the others, you call her Wifey and obviously Bomber and Bombshell are nicknames, does she know those, does she have any for you? Do she and Manoso argue? What's her favorite movie? I need, not all but a few details."

He nodded, "She's called Bomber by most of the other men and it's her handle when she's doing a distraction for us, she's also called Little Girl by Tank, Beautiful by Lester, and Angel by Cal and Hector though I don't know if that was to her face or not, we hear her called Firecracker and Little Sister on police bands but again I don't know if those are known to her or not. Morelli called her Cupcake and Ranger calls her Babe. She and Ranger don't fight, not that any of us know about. She calls him Batman, us the Merry Men and her favorite movie is Ghostbusters."

I just stared at him and he sighed and the emotionless mask faded away as he turned to meet my eyes "She's the light in our darkness." I gave him a sad smile to encourage him to continue. "Most of the men in this building are broken or damaged in some way, we've all done things that haunt us, some come out of the military and others prison but all of us know darkness, all of us are loyal to Ranger with our lives, he's our commander and our brother. Stephanie is his heart and she's the balm on our souls and there isn't a man here that wouldn't more than protect her with his life. I would die for her, kill for her or anything else she needed and more than a few in this building would say the same." His voice had turned hard as he now glared at me, "Wifey is about the single most important thing in the world to any of us, we'd go to hell for her. You want to know about her? She's everything beautiful and good in the damn world so you had better make this right because if anything makes her question this delusion no Witness Protection will hide you from me or these men. We will find you and everyone else responsible and no one will find what's left."

He'd transformed from friendly, a little sad and very distant but amicable and unthreatening to the most terrifying man I had ever been faced with. I nodded and bit my lip.

His jaw clenched and his eyes shut as he breathed out and when he opened his eyes, he was again the same quiet, sad, distant but cordial man he'd been before, "I'm sorry."

"I understand, you're afraid for her." I told him still a little off balance. "I can't make any guarantees but I'll do everything possible to make things fit her delusion."

He nodded and finally moved to swipe the fob and hit seven. We rode the elevator in silence. He let me in to the seventh floor apartment where another man in black and a very pretty older woman were waiting.

"I'm going to get the marriage taken care of, this is Ella and Junior. They'll help you finish."

I turned to him, "I can manufacture the marriage license and certificate."

He shook his head; "Ranger wants it real."

I didn't argue with him, I was still a little thrown from his earlier transformation to scary badass, so instead I turned to the woman, "Can you show me around first?" The woman nodded and led me through the place. I noticed the hamster on the kitchen counter and female clothes in the closet. "The clothes are Stephanie's?" I had to make sure, she couldn't come back here and find anyone else's things.

"Of course they're hers." The woman snapped as though I'd insulted Manoso.

I held up my hands, "I meant no offense, I just have to be sure she doesn't find anything from a previous relationship Mr. Manoso might have had while she was with Morelli."

She nodded but her expression was still hard, "Stephanie is the only woman Ranger allows here besides me."

I nodded, "Does she have anything else here?"

I was led into the bathroom where makeup was in a drawer and in the cupboard below was a hairdryer and hair product. There was also shampoo and conditioner in the shower. "She likes Rangers body wash." She said as I examined the bottles, recognizing the Bulgari from the box. Next I was led into the kitchen and a cupboard was opened, in it were pop tarts, peanut butter and Tasty Cakes, "This is her cupboard."

"She and Mr. Manoso keep separate groceries?"

"I do the groceries. Ranger is generally specific about what he eats, Stephanie likes desert." The hard look fell from her face to be replaced with sadness, "She's so nice to cook for."

I smiled softly at her. "She'll be home for you to cook for soon."

I must have said the right thing because she smiled at me and I seemed forgiven for suggesting Manoso had another woman here… ever. It made me even more curious about the triangle but again I pushed that all away not sure I really wanted answers to the questions and knowing if I hinted at asking this woman would not be the only one angry and defensive and I really didn't want to see the scary bad asses in black downstairs all pissed at me, one minute with Manny had been bad enough. She helped me unpack and put away Stephanie's things as well as place her personal items around to make it look natural.

"Does Mr. Manoso not keep photos or personal momentos?" I asked, looking around.

"Not here." The woman shook her head and then regarded me for a minute before motioning me to his office. She opened a locked drawer in his desk and took out a folder, handing it to me. Inside were three photos, "That's his daughter with Stephanie after the Scrog kidnapping." She told me quietly. "This one is his Abuella Rosa." She told me nodding to a photo of an older woman. "The other was taken of Ranger and Stephanie after a distraction." I nodded looking at the three photos. She smiled at them and then took them back, locking them up in the desk and leading me out of the office. I had noticed in the drawer there was also a gun, passport, dog tags and a large bundle of cash. I didn't say anything though as I took a last look around. The place hadn't changed much in the unpacking.

"I'm going to manipulate some photos and make a photo album or two, I'd also like to frame one or two photos if you can put them where you think they should go later."

"I'm on the sixth floor, you can call me when they're ready, I can frame them." She told me guiding me out of the apartment.

Just outside the door, Junior was waiting. "Finished?"

I guessed he'd been there to keep me from snooping more than to help and I was glad Ella had let me peak at Manoso's hidden drawer while he wasn't looking.

I nodded and let him lead me down to her desk. I left it the way it was and was led to a computer where I was able to make a digital photo album and get two good photo's of her and Ranger printed, one that I manipulated into a wedding photo, if it didn't fit her delusion of their wedding it could pass as just a beautiful photo of her in a white dress. I manipulated Manoso into something other than black but didn't think it looked right being as every item in his closet had been black. I left him looking as scary as normal, obviously that didn't phase her. I searched through records and made sure there was evidence in all the right places so anyone who went looking would find no evidence of their not being married, I got her a drivers license, passport, credit cards and changed all of her accounts to her 'married' name, her bank balance was low and her credit cards while not high to most standards were obviously something she struggled to keep paid. I sent the book and photos up to Ella and then followed another terrifying man out. He offered to drive me back but I opted for a cab, not sure my nerves could take much more of the RangeMen.

Everything was set and it had been so much easier than I expected, my one-week deadline had taken one-day, a long day but still just one day. Thinking about it made me sad. I could create a persons whole back story and life in a week, I'd been doing it since I was a kid but somehow it seemed so different to manipulate a persons life into something new, it should have taken longer than a to change everything.