I don't own the characters. Sorry this chapter didn't want to cooperate with me and I had to start it 3 times before I managed to get it out.

Words in bold belong to the Babecakesrus challenge, and the bold and italic words belong to the PerfectlyPlum challenge. Thanks for reading.

We had been standing there for several minutes when Bobby reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. He gently took my hands and released the cuffs that I had forgotten I was still wearing.

Ranger pulled my wrists to his lips and kissed each one gently before taking a step back and leading me to a chair. He gestured for me to sit down before grabbing a bottle of water opening it and taking the first sip. I had to smile as he placed the bottle in my hands with his eyebrow raised. It was a challenge and it was just what I needed.

I drank the water, swallowing greedily until the bottle was completely empty. A plate with two chicken sandwiches each missing a bite was placed in my lap. A second bottle of water was set on the table next to me. I looked up to see Ranger smiling at me.

"Babe, eat your sandwiches and we will talk." Ranger gave me a thinking about smiling smile, and continued. "If you do that I'll have one of the guys go get donuts for you."

Wow, it must be pretty bad if Ranger was willing to buy me donuts. I sighed and picked up the first sandwich. If it were not so obvious that now was the time to be totally serious; I would have told him I don't eat meat anymore just to see what would happen. Which would actually be fairly close to the truth, I had given up, or got rid of a lot of my bad habits/addictions. The Tasty Cakes were a thing of the past, but the donut addiction was another story. They don't have Tasty Pastry in Nevada, but they do have Krispy Kreme's. Picking up the first sandwich I took a large bite. The quicker I ate them the faster we could move on to something else.

Ranger took the seat next to me with a file in his hand. He took a deep breath and looked at me. "Babe, I know you haven't keeping up with the news." He started. "Unfortunately there has been a recent prison escape."

He closed his eyes like he was trying to gather strength, but Ranger will always be the strongest person I know. What could be so bad, and then I realized that there had to be a reason we were all here together, Ranger, Julie, Rachel, and the rest of the Martine family. My breath caught in my throat, and I choked on the bite of chicken I had just swallowed. I stared at Ranger, begging him with my eyes to deny the fear screaming thru my brain.

Ranger's face was blank and yet I could see that I was right. "Scrog." I rasped, as Ranger nodded in agreement. "How…why…oh God I…" I could feel myself hyperventilating; the harsh rasp as I tried to draw in air and it wasn't enough. Black spots were dancing in front in my line of vision, sweat was accumulating on my forehead, and my stomach churned with acid. The plate on my lap was pulled off, and my head was pushed to my knees. I closed my eyes trying desperately to center myself and get control of my body. Focus on Ranger, I told myself. Ranger, Tank, Lester and Bobby they would keep us safe, they were veteran soldiers, trained warriors. Protective arms lifted me out of my chair and I was in Ranger's lap again. Funny I seemed to keep ending up there, maybe I should stop trying to leave his embrace. A person would have to be crazy and stupid to even dare considerto removing me. I wouldn't go without a fight and I would not give into my terror. Scrog was a loser from the beginning and I would not let him conquer me. My breathing slowed easing toward normalcy.

I lifted my head and stared into the kind and concerned faces of the rest of the room. My lips tilted in the semblance of a smile. Ranger's arms tightened around me.

"I'm sorry, just the thought of that asshole running around loose, it frightens me. But well, you all saw that. So there must be more to the story. How did he get out, do we have an idea of where he's at, where he's going?"

Perhaps I was over compensating a slight bit. Besides everyone in this room, well almost everyone in the room knew me well enough to know I was diving head first into denial. As for those who didn't know me that well, I had a feeling that would change, and I could see on Rachel's face especially clearly that they had reached denial before me.

The voice that answered me was surprising in it familiarity and its complete lack of hostility. "Edward Scrog escaped from maximum security at the Federal Correctional Complex in Florence, Colorado two days ago. In his cell we found journaling detailing his beliefs as to why his first attempt failed. We also found evidence that you Stephanie are his first target and he intends to take you out, and then go for Julie, and finally remove Ranger and take over his life. He blames you Cupcake for most of his failure. Steph, he was able to track you down when none of us could. Which would be why, I know nothing about your kidnapping, and interstate flight." There was a smile in his voice I would not have believed him capable of when discussing legally grey behavior for morally right actions.

I turned my head toward the voice, and I had to smile when I caught sight of Morelli. We had not parted on the best of terms but right now it didn't seem to matter. The truth was, last I heard Joe wasn't welcome in my parent's house and his Grandma Bella had threatened to put the 'eye' on him. My mom caught Joe in a position I asked her not to describe with Joyce Barnhardt. The truly gratifying part, at the time anyway was that his mother and Grandma Bella were with Mom when she walked in and had seen it all as well. That gave me something to smile about for a quite a while afterwards.

"Babe, Morelli has been assigned to this case because he worked on the case last time. For now the plan is to stay here and try not to attract attention." Ranger smiled and looked around at his men, "and Babe none of my men will let you touch their stun guns."

There were several chuckles and I joined in. Happy that even after everything that had happened I was still a part of this group of people. They were my champions, my heroes. The realization that we still had some unfinished business had me twisting around in Ranger's lap to glare at him face to face.

"Man I have to say I don't miss that one bit. Glad it's you Manoso and not me that pissed her off this time." Morelli's voice held far more glee than I thought was strictly necessary, but I kept my focus on Ranger.

"Why did you fire me?" I asked and my teeth were clenched so tightly I was concerned they might shatter soon.

"Stephanie, I did not fire you." Ranger said with fire hardened steel in his voice. "Have I ever lied to you?"

I shook my head, wishing now that I was not sitting on his lap. I was completely unable to get off of him as his arms tightened to bands of iron as soon as the thought cross my mind.

"Then you should know that I am not about to start now. I did not fire you." He sighed and then continued. "My computer system was hacked and the person who hacked in fired you in my name and sent me a letter of resignation in yours."

I blinked; I didn't think that was possible. Silvio was a computer genius I had always thought that there was no way anyone would be able to hack a system designed and protected by him.

"Who did it? Did you catch him?" I asked.

"We know who did it, but we only figured that out recently." Ranger answered me. "Apparently Scrog was able to get computer and internet access in prison and he taught himself some new tricks. It appears he's been planning this escape for a long time."

I shook my head, amazing, just when you think that things couldn't get any crazier, they did. My eyelids were beginning to droop, I didn't know what time it was but my body was demanding unaided sleep in the worst way. Probably I should finish my food and ask for a bed, but all I really had the energy for was to lay my head on Ranger's shoulder and allow myself to drift again.

"Are you sure you didn't put something in my food again?" I asked in a clearly teasing tone.

"I made your sandwiches Stephanie, and I promise I didn't put anything but food in them." Julie's weet voice said. "Come on I will show you where your room is." And with that she grabbed me by the hand and pulled me off Ranger's lap and out of the room before I had a chance to protest.

We climbed a flight of stairs and took the hallway to the right stopping at the third door from the landing. I opened the door and realized it was the room I escaped from earlier. The window had been closed again, and it was warm and inviting in shades of slate grey, cream, and blue. The walls shone with an iridescent glaze that added to the calming influence of the room subtly. I thanked Julie, and closed the door. After making use of the bathroom I shucked my clothes and climbed into bed.

Word count: 1656