The rest of this story is pretty light on the angst and it winds down very quickly. Lots of split feelings on this little ditty. It's okay. My job is to extract a response. I did get a rather vulgar review yesterday, but like I said before, I won't make all the readers suffer for one bad apple. You can see my response on my blog if you are so inclined to read it. You may also, talk about this story. Again, I appreciate the readers and mostly get a big kick out of all your opinions and reviews!

Another note. My beta who is not American pointed out that my slang is hard to understand sometimes and she can't even get a handle on it by Googling. LOL I know she's right because American slang is crazy and different depending on where you live. She wanted me to explain toot and Suzie Q. I apologize to my readers across the globe that find yourselves frequently scratching your heads in frustration. Feel free to ask when in doubt.

Toot = blow of a car horn or a fart (LOL)

Suzie Q = In the south a curly-headed little girl. I should have made it Curly Sue after a movie and many more of you would have gotten that.

Previously -

He glanced at my stomach. "Is it mine? Tell me." He knew that I hadn't been with Joe for almost two months before that night that I called him and then I left within two days and the fact that he could think that I would sleep with someone after what he did flashed me flaming red with anger. I took two steps and slapped him across the face as hard as I could. He didn't move, but he sure blinked and I did see the eye on that side of his face watering just a little.

I growled out, "Leave and go back to Trenton, Ranger. You have no business here."

Chapter 6

He looked down at the floor and I could see his posture change and when he looked back up at me, his face had changed. "Babe, I came to apologize. I made a mistake."

I had roaring hormones riding on top of this raging rhino and I was trying to hold my water. My eyes and my bladder. I said sarcastically, "Durn right you did! You want me to say something to make you feel better? I said never again and I meant it. You don't want me except for your favorite play toy and you don't want a commitment with anyone except Ranger. I'm working on making some positive changes here. Go back to the Bat cave."

He sighed. "I would like for us to talk in private."

I waved my finger at him. "Oh, no. I know you. You'll try to use your super stuff on me and touch me. Not going to happen. You used me when you made that first deal because either you were curious or just wanted to fuck with me and Joe, you hurt me with your actions and all your words and qualifiers. Any man that can send a woman back to another man's bed is more in love with himself. I knew that, but I thought I saw something in your face and your eyes that day when Scrog... I still took a chance and put it all out there and I was wrong and it hurt. Anyway, I put a lock on that love door and it's closed now. I'm moving on, buster! So, go on home."

He blanched a little at my words. "You never told me that you loved me."

"It's irrelevant anyway now. Ranger, I broke up with Joe and I got your name tattooed on my backside. I was all in and I had hoped for better results. Guess I didn't give it as good as I thought," I said sadly and plopped down in a chair. I began to feel nauseous.

"You got pregnant that night? I would say that you gave it too good." He looked down at me with the corners of his mouth twitching.

I had to look away and I hung my head. The thought that this baby could have been a true love child struck me and tears began rolling down my face.

He whispered, "Babe?"

I looked up at him. "I'm sorry, Ranger. I didn't want this to happen. I don't want anything from you, I just want to move on. The days of the Professor and Eliza are over, not much trust between us anymore."

It was hard to describe the look in his eyes. He went to speak and nothing came out just like that morning that he broke my heart. I shrugged and smiled and got up and turned my back to him and walked into Mason's office and shut the door and walked into his open arms and sobbed. He held me and let me snot and slobber all over his shirt until I felt a little better.

He just waited for me to talk and then I let loose like I had diarrhea of the mouth. I was waving my arms and stomping around his office like a crazy woman. "He was my mentor, he protected me, he made a dumb deal to sleep with me and discarded me and sent me back to my old boyfriend, he let me blow up some cars and injure some of his men and still stayed close to me. I even think he might have killed for me. Then he asked for my help with something that was precious to him. His daughter. Then he was shot in my apartment and almost died and I realized how much I loved him. Two months later, I tried to prove how much and failed miserably. He chucked me aside again. And, somehow he managed to get a bat baby in the oven. Now, we're nothing. The end of Stephanie and Ranger."

I sniffled and wiped some snot off his shirt and on to mine. "I had no idea that I was preggers when I accepted your job and I would have never put you in this position. Mason, I'm so sorry he came into your place today and aimed a gun at you because of me."

I lowered my head and opened the door. "I'll help you to find somebody to replace me as soon as possible."

He said softly, "Stephanie, like I said before. Shit happens. You know he might just care about you more than he's even aware. How long has he been looking after you?"

I turned to him. "Three years."

He smiled and said, "That boy is in love, but if you're sure that you really want him to go away, I have a plan."

I was dreaming about my Prince Charming. He had arrived dressed all in white and dismounted from his noble white steed to kiss me and wake me and then a gun went off and he dropped in the white fallen snow before he got the chance to kiss me awake As his red blood began to pool and spread outward, a dark figure loomed over me and put his cold lips to mine and began to devour me and at first I whimpered and then I screamed.

I was breathing hard and heard footsteps and the bed moved and then the door opened. Light flowed into the room and a woman appeared. Nell. "Stephanie? Are you alright?"

I was confused. "I think that I just had a bad dream. I'm sorry that I woke you."

She asked, "Can I bring you anything?"

"No. I'm fine. Thanks. Goodnight."

She smiled. "Goodnight, dear."

I looked into the darkness and said, "Ranger."

The bed moved and without seeing, I felt his hands reach for me and I said, "No. I meant it when I said never again and I'm moving on. I don't get you at all." I used my bad dream to get back at him. "You gave me a nightmare. Please don't touch me again."

In about a minute, I felt the bed move and I heard the rustle of clothing and I didn't hear the door open, but I saw the light from the hall and I knew within another minute that he was gone.

I knew that I would eventually find her. I just had no idea that I would find such a different person. She was wearing her hair different, it was neat and up in a twist on her head. She was dressed like a professional woman in a suit and boots. It was because she was so thin that I felt the knot that was her baby belly. I know her body and realized what I was touching almost immediately. One painful thing I noticed was that her blue eyes were no longer bright and smiling. They were dull and sad. I sat in my car outside the house and laid my forehead against the steering wheel. I deserved this. I did hurt her. I've pushed her away and left her and said so many stupid things to her. What she'd said about locking away the love and the end of us had twisted my guts a little. Damn. I'm going to be a father again, but this time, had I not been an idiot and a total cad, I could have been there for every blessed minute of it. I was surprised that I felt that I really wanted to be a part of it all.

Stephanie was sorely hurt and angry that she'd given herself to me and I walked away the next morning without a word. What an ass I am. She detests my touch? Dios! She had a nightmare about me? I could have lost myself in that brief moment when I had the chance to touch her warm sweet lips. I've missed her and those kisses. Querido Dios.¿ Què voy a hacer? (Dear God, what am I going to do?) I rubbed my eyes and started the car and headed to the hotel. I needed sleep and I needed to re-group.

I woke up the next morning grinning. I dreamed of Stephanie smiling up at me and holding a tiny baby boy in her arms. I was determined now to make that dream a reality. As I had driven to Buffalo, I had felt lighter every mile that I'd gotten closer. My Babe was here and I had felt the pull like a magnet.

I quickly ate some breakfast and called Tank. "Yo."

"I'm in the wind."

"You can't be. Your contracts up."

"Tank..?" I growled.

I heard typing. Then he snickered.

"You found the Bombshell. Buffalo, huh?"

I sighed. "If I don't stay, I'll lose her forever. I fucked up bad."

He chuckled. "Good. Work your shit out. We were ready to go to Washington on your behalf and sign your grouchy ass up for a mission to outer space."

I sneered, "Watch it, Tank!"

He laughed, "This is real good. The great Manoso, groveling. Man, I'd like to have that on video."

I growled again, "You're dangerously close to a demotion by ass whipping. I have to stay. I'm going to be a father again and keep that under your hat."

Then I heard in the background whoops and whistles and congratulations.

I snapped, "Fuckers." I heard Tank's booming laughter as I disconnected and then I grinned.

I pulled in next to her car a few minutes before 1700 hours and got out and walked in the bonds office. Her boss, Bedford, was waiting for me inside the door.

"I was expecting you back. Your business in Buffalo has concluded. Stephanie is now my wife and my business. We would both appreciate it if you would leave."

I narrowed my eyes at the man and stilled myself to keep from tearing him apart. "What do you mean your wife? She's carrying my baby. She is mine!"

He shook his head while grinning at me. He said one word. "Wrong."

I gave him a glare that had made men piss themselves before. "You're bluffing."

He walked over to a desk and snatched a document off of it and held it up to my face. It was a marriage certificate with today's date on it.

I roared, "Stephanie?!"

He said calmly. "She doesn't want to see you again. It is both our wishes that you leave town and go back to Trenton and your own life." Dios, she is my life and I was too stubborn to realize it. I can't go back without her.

I changed my stance and crossed my arms over my chest. "I won't leave until I hear this news and request from her directly."

I turned as she walked out of his office. She looked me in the eyes. "It is my choice to make a life here with Mason. Goodbye, Ranger."

I slowly shook my head. "No. You still love me. I can see it in your eyes, Babe."

"Ranger, please don't make this harder than it already is. I figured you out. You don't want me for yourself, you just want me hooked and dangling for your enjoyment. Joe was safe because you knew I wouldn't marry him. That is just really awful and you should do the right thing and let me off that hook and walk away." She turned and walked back into the office and shut the door. I slammed the steel door shut that I had built so long ago to hide my emotions and the fact that I even had a heart. Then I turned and walked out the door.

Mason walked in the office and looked at me. Tears were rolling down my face and he put his hand on my shoulder. "He's gone. Do you think he's going to leave now?"

I sniffled and shrugged. "Who knows. I don't even know why he's here. He doesn't want a real relationship with me. He stayed away from me and let me go back to my ex boyfriend even after he was shot saving me and his daughter, Julie. Thanks for what you did, Mason. I know he gave you his mercenary face. Most men would have turned and ran, leaving a pee trail behind them."

He started chuckling. "You don't know much about me. I don't scare that easy. I was a green beret in the military. I will say that he is intense. Are you sure that you don't want to talk to him again. He is going to be the father of that little baby and I think he sounds pretty damn sincere about wanting you back in his life. I've been a jackass before too. Plenty of times. I think it's secretly part of all men's DNA." That made me giggle. I got up and gave him a big hug. Then I got my purse and left to go home to Nell and Rex.

My eyes snapped open as I heard a car door shut and I looked around and turned as Ranger climbed into the driver seat of his Porsche and turned the key. My eyes turned to saucers. "Wha...what the hell are you doing?" I looked down at the blanket I was wrapped in. "Are you seriously kidnapping me?"

He turned and gave me a wicked grin. "Yeah, Babe. I am."

"You can't do this. I'm married, my husband…"

"Lied." He finished my sentence for me. Shit. Figures he would find out the truth about that. There are probably a half-dozen or more pee pee trails on the floor of the stupid courthouse right now.

"Please don't do this, Ranger," I pleaded.

He glanced at me and his knuckles gently touched my face. "I have to do this and do it now, Babe. For us and our baby and his future."

"His? You think it's a boy?"

He grinned at me. "I dreamed about him. I saw him. I love you both and we're going to be a family."

I was temporarily stunned by the fact that number one, he was talking very un-Ranger like and weird and two, he said he dreamed about us. I touched my stomach. A baby boy that looks like Ranger. He's going to be so handsome. Did he just say that he loved me? I'm dreaming again here.

Ranger turned to me and gave me a 1000 watt smile. "You bet he's going to be handsome and that's what I said, Babe."

I sighed. "Batman ESP or did I say that out loud?" He just kept smiling and took my hand and brought it to his lips and kissed the back and then turned it and kissed my palm and I felt a tingle shoot all the way to my nether parts. Durn doodah!

He winked and said, "You lied too, Babe." Then he started the car and pulled away.

There wasn't a damn thing that I could do right now. I was strapped into the Batmobile and he was flying down the interstate taking me God knows where. I just pushed the button on the side of my seat and leaned back and closed my eyes.

TBC -