Chapter 3

~ At the heart of mankind's existence is the desire to be intimate and to be loved by another ~

Now that I've decided to find out what makes Tank tick, I needed to figure out how in the world I was going to accomplish that. If I all the sudden just started hanging around him and acting like a love struck teenager then he would know that something was up and close up tight. Tanks smart, he knows that I care for him but he also knows that I'm not all that close to him as I am with the others.

"How do I go about this?" I ask myself while I watched Tank retreat into the Tank cave that's was his office

"I must be crazy to think I can get him to open up"

I sat back in my chair, my second cup of coffee long soon forgotten, but to tell you the truth I was now fully energized and wide awake. I took in a huge breath and let it out slowly, I was thinking hard on how to wiggle myself into Tank's life and get him to notice me and not kill me. With Ranger, Lester, or any of the other Merry Men it wasn't hard to get them to notice me because you could see and know how they felt but with Tank I don't know if he even thinks of me like that. You never know what Tank feels or cares about, little is known about him and he made it that way. I've seen him talking with Ranger and I've seen him speak with the men but other than that I couldn't tell you but just a smidgen of stuff that I know about him.

I made my way back to my desk to resume the search that I was reading before I went for coffee. Maybe I was hoping that while reading the search, I can come up with something and think of a way to approach Tank.

"Come on Steph think" I said as I clicked the mouse "he is just a normal red blooded American male"

"Yea right a big man with lots of muscles that could break me in half with his bare hands"

OHHH those hands I thought as I was reminded of the dreams I had, the ones of his hands running up my leg and causing me to moan in ecstasy. I wasn't scared of him then on the contrary I was in heaven and he was the one that took me there.

"Yea but those were just stupid dreams" I said to myself as I got up and retrieved my print out

I sat back down at my desk and signed my name on the form that I had just printed out. I couldn't focus on my work I was so wrapped up in trying to come up with something that would allow me to get closer to Tank. I tapped my pen on the pile of papers that sat in front of me, lost in deep thought.

"Bomber?" I heard and looked up to see Lester standing there looking at me

"Huh?"

"What you doing? Looks like you were a million miles away"

"Oh just thinking about how to do something and can't figure it out"

"I'm sure it will come to you"

"Yea let's hope" I said as I drew my attention back to the screen

As Lester walked away from my cubicle to go to parts unknown the thought of me reading my book and figuring out that Lester liked to bring me gifts when I would work with him. He always brought me stuff like coffee or donuts and he even shared in them with me without Rangers knowledge.

"That's it that's what I could do, I could use my book on Tank. It does say that once you know the language of the other person it opens a line of communication and brings each other closer to the other one" I said the light bulb going on over the top of my head

"But what is Tank's?" I asked thinking about some of the stuff I knew about him

I looked up and stared at his office door willing the answer to come to me but knowing it wouldn't.

"Gahhhh I have no frikken clue what Tank's could be he is so closed off and lets no one in really, I think he could be worse than Ranger"

I thought more on the little purple book that was sitting on my coffee table in my apartment. The more I thought on it the more it seemed to be a good idea to base my plan on, kinda like the outline of my mission.

"First thing is I gotta figure out what his language is. I guess I'll just start with Language number one and then experiment through the list until I find the one that suites him. Then when I have that figured out I can speak it to him when he's around" I said working it all out in my head. I briefly wondered if this is what goes on when Ranger and the team gets Intel on something, do they sit around and think on plans and then brainstorm on how to do the mission? Well I know they do some because I'm in on some of those planning stages.

"Ok operation Love Tank is a go" I said as I looked up at his office door again. Tank was safely secured behind that door "he's not gonna know what's hitting him"

Now that I had a plan in place, I rushed through my work so that I could go home for lunch. Not because I had some fabulous food there to eat but I needed to get my hands on the book and read the first chapter over again. When I finally made it into my apartment I threw everything I had brought with me onto the floor and rushed over to the couch grabbing the book and flipping it to the first chapter.

"OK its words of Affirmation" I said as I read "well that shouldn't be too hard"

I read the chapter as I put together a peanut butter sandwich "ok it says that the tongue has the power of life and death and an anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up"

"All righty" I said dropping a piece of my crusts into Rex's aquarium "now how do I do it?" I asked as I flipped the page

"Ahhhh with encouraging words, kind words, and humble words" I said as I read

Before I closed the book, I read the little side note that was printed in the middle of the page it said if we are to develop an intimate relationship, we need to know each other's desires. If we wish to love each other, we need to know the others wants. I hoped this is what happens as I do my little experiments. I must have gone crazy to go after the big guy the one who is Ranger's best friend and walks behind him incase snipers try to get at him, but if I succeed in my mission the rewards could be very highly enjoyable as I remember the pleasure he gave me in my dreams.