AN: I actually didn't plan on mixing POVs and I won't for the remaining parts of this story. But I reached a point where I was wondering whether a chapter in Ranger's POV was maybe not the worst of ideas. This is in no way meant as justification or "Can you see his point", as a matter of fact when I started the story, I didn't even intend to him not respond to her. It just came with the flow. And after that I didn't intend on all of this escalating the way it did. I actually had chapter 3 written with him coming to her apartment and admitting he needed time to come around. Well… as you can see that didn't happen J

Strangely enough I get very influenced by reviews. Usually I have a general idea for the next chapter and then read a review and go down a different path from what I intended.

And apparently I have found my love for long ANs K

Also, never wrote Ranger POV before – so I hope I didn't screw this up too much

Ranger's POV

Stephanie Plum was an enigma to say the least. Whenever I thought I finally got a hold on her and that I managed to figure her out she pulled a 180.

I never had as many problems reading someone as I was experiencing with Babe. The biggest mistake one could make when it came to her, was underestimation. As a matter of fact that was why I secretly believed Morelli and Steph would never work out – he constantly underestimated her and to make matters worse, he belittled her as well.

But Morelli wasn't the only fool who made that mistake. All of us, Vinnie and Helen Plum, Tank and the rest of my guys and even I myself were guilty of having made that very same mistake.

Vinnie only hired her when she threatened him, assuming she'd quit within a week. But she pulled through, got Connie to call me for help and never looked back. Helen Plum thought her daughter's sole purpose in life should be to become a proper 'burg wife with a respectable husband, the two point seven kids and a white picket fence to hold up all pretense. She never saw past that idiotic and old-fashion portrait for a young woman and therefore never saw the extraordinary woman Stephanie Plum was.

I made the same mistake Vinnie had made. I met her and figured she wouldn't last a week. She looked cute in a girl next door kind of way – not usually the woman I would go for – and ate like she planned on dying of a heart disease before she reached the age of 50. She was surrounded by an innocence and fatuity that would eventually break her neck, I figured. Being a bounty hunter required a certain attitude and ruthlessness. Something I didn't see her acquiring anytime soon.

The streets and the thugs that came with the job would eat her alive sooner or later. Or so I thought.

She was in way over her head with going after an FTA like Morelli, without any sort of experience, never having fired a weapon or having any clue how deep this thing could run. I expected her to throw in the towel quickly, realizing her time was better spent shopping at Macy's for tableware or getting her hair and nails done. Steph had to take a lot of crap in her first few days, with plenty of people betting everything they had against her. She proofed them all wrong.

She got her man, the money and the respect she ultimately deserved. And I realized that day that there was more to Stephanie Plum than met the eye. Stephanie Plum quickly proved, she always got her men! And never played by the rules.

From that day forward I swore I'd never underestimate her. And only broke that promise recently.

She and I had developed a rather delicate dance over the years. Truth was that our relationship couldn't be explained. It was a …grey area with parameters that hadn't yet been defined.

I should have known she'd figure out a way to find out what Cameron and I had said. That was the first mistake, when I assumed she wouldn't. The second one was that I didn't think she'd ever actually make a move outside her comfort zone and go for the uncertain – namely a future with me.

I didn't expect anything she did – and certainly not an ultimatum. No one ever had given me an ultimatum. But it fit with her. She wasn't like any of the women before her. She didn't play by any of my rules. It were usually people like her that annoyed the hell out of me. I had set rules that I hardly ever disregarded, but with her… I hardly ever stuck to them.

She laid it all out – putting the ball in my court and exposing herself, making herself vulnerable. Tank's sudden appearance and the emergency with a security breech and a safe house was almost too co-incidental. But it worked in my favor – that's what I at least thought.

I needed time. Time to figure out where to move from here. I knew I wanted her and I wasn't stupid enough to try and argue otherwise. But I knew she deserved better. Better than me, or Morelli for that fact.

If Morelli and I had been the only two men left in this world, I would have been her best choice. But not because I was an arrogant bastard who thought he was better than Morelli. No. Though, that maybe as well. But Morelli treated her like a convenience at best. And Stephanie Plum deserved so much more than being treated like she was only convenient.

I wasn't good enough for her. And truth was, I wasn't sure whether there was anyone out there good enough. In retrospective I could have handled things better and I knew I screwed up when Tank looked at me irritated, mentioning that Lula had just asked whether I was laying unconscious in some hospital bed or worse, a morgue.

The thing was just that I couldn't get back to Stephanie before I didn't know what my answer would be. I knew what it should be, but would and should were two very different things. And since her ultimatum didn't have an actual time frame I could always pretend if I didn't see her I wouldn't have to come up with an answer.

My job wasn't necessarily the safest and life expectancy was not really 100. I didn't want her to wake up one day, with me brought down on a mission and having to realize she threw her life away to take a chance with me. What I did was what I'd done throughout my life. It had become my life one way or another. And I certainly didn't want this to become her life as well.

Stephanie Plum deserved someone better than me. She deserved someone on whose head wasn't a bounty in at least fifteen countries of this world. She deserved to live her life without having to worry whether she'd have to make funeral arrangements for her guy in year from now. I had plenty of enemies and while most were harmless, some weren't.

She hit me right where it hurt – without even meaning to. Jealousy had never been something I'd felt before. When I saw her sit down with Diego Garcia-Hernandez, who was considered to be one of the most dangerous man right now and seeming like she had a good time I realized my reasoning had been wrong. The rational part of me argued that I should be worried for her safety seeing who her dinner companion was. But mostly I felt jealous. And maybe that was my answer right there. Maybe it didn't matter what I did, or that I could technically die any day of the week. Maybe what mattered was only the time we could have. And who knew, maybe we would grow old together and nothing would ever happen.

There was one thing I should have learned from my Babe by now, and that was to live in the now. And worry about tomorrow when it actually came.

It was time to get my head out of my ass and finally give her that answer that I had already known days ago. But finally my brain caught up with my heart.

She spit fire – that's how mad she was with me when I busted her date. And that was something I loved about her. She would never back down. She didn't become intimidated like previous women had. She wasn't impressed with my built or height. She stood her ground and made her voice heard and her opinion known.

And then she walked away – after leaving me speechless once again. I watched her leave the restaurant, head held high and wanted nothing more than to go after her and get this all out of the way. But I couldn't. I had Diego to take care off and get him to the FBI.

Unfortunately, she and us – if she still wanted an us - had to wait – again. But if we eventually sat down and got the us taken care of I would make sure she'd be my priority – my only priority.

When I only reached her mailbox the next day I left a message – and maybe twenty more the hours following that first one.

Soon I'd come to realize how much I'd screwed up. She would be gone – and I would have no way of finding her.