Okay, so I meant to get this out yesterday, but I was running late and then I didn't finish before I had to get to the lab to work. Sorry about that.

I also forgot to mention that someone brought it to my attention that while I was describing Lester, I called him Anglican. I think I was having a slow day and I meant 'Anglo' instead of the other one. For some odd reason, I thought that Anglican was correct. So good catch Babe and if anyone sees anything else, please let me know. I have no Beta (because I prefer my lone wolf status like Ranger when it comes to my writing) and you guys are my second pair of eyes.

Sorry for the long rant, I blame Mountain Dew. It literally makes me nuts.

Not mine, but we all knew that, right?


"So, did you enjoy the visit with your dad?" I asked Julie. We were enjoying our dinner at a little Italian restaurant Lula and I stumbled upon trying to apprehend our FTA. Donnie DaMicco, who was arrested for indecent exposure, ran past the place. I was right behind him until the garbage can jumped out at me. I found Lula, with a bowl full of pasta, in the restaurant.

To this day, I still don't know how she got a bowl in two minutes.

Julie brightened and looked up from her penne and alfredo sauce. I had fettuccine alfredo with sausage. Not only is it my favorite, it transcends restaurants in tastiness. "It was good. I'm glad I got up here before you guys went on your trip."

I was shocked. I didn't know that he had told her. "How much did Ranger tell you?" I asked, curious to see how much he was telling her.

She took another bite of her penne and shrugged. "Not much. Just that there was a bad guy in Texas and that you and him were going to take care of him."

I nodded. That pretty much summed it up. You know, the PG version of what we were doing. "You and your dad have gotten closer."

"Before everything, we barely talked. He'd send me birthday cards and Christmas gifts, but he was always someone who lived in New Jersey who I shared DNA with. After…" She shrugged. "It was different. He comes for visits and brings gifts instead of sends them. We e-mail and text every week."

"I'm glad to hear that. He should get to know you."

"He's hard to get to know since he's so quiet." She looked at me. "How do you do it?"

"What do you mean?"

"He listens to you more than he listens to his own workers."

I blinked. "I don't…"

"He says that Tank is his right hand man, but I think it's actually you."

I sat back from the table. This girl sees more than everyone thinks she does. She was her father's daughter. I smiled at her. "I see so much of your father in you."

"Thanks. Don't change the subject."

Oh man, she was going to be a killer with the boys when she got to that age. "But it's not true. He value

Tank's opinion more than mine."

She rolled her eyes in true New Jersey fashion. "Right. And I'm the tooth fairy. For an adult who claims to know more than kids, you sure do miss a lot."

I had no response to that. She was right. I do miss some things.

But in no way was I going to tell her that.

"Eat your dinner." I said.

She smirked. "That's the same voice that my mother uses when she's deflecting because I'm right."

My heart did a flip flop. I wanted to think about that, but for two reasons, I really couldn't. One, there wasn't a bed nearby so no thinking position. And two, anything personal about Ranger and our relationship is being filed for later.


"Did you girls have fun?" Ranger asked Julie when we got back from dinner.

"Yep! I'm stuffed." She rubbed her stomach as she placed the leftovers in the fridge. "I'm going to call Mom."

Ranger nodded and turned back to me. "Any leftovers for you?"

I snorted and rolled my eyes. "Please. Have you met me? I inhaled that sucker in five minutes."

Ranger grinned.

"I had a good time with your daughter. She's so much like you. She can read me like a book, just like you."

"Babe, half the stuff you say out loud and the other half is written all over your face." He teased. "She was excited for a week when I told her you wanted to have dinner."

"She's growing up on you."

"I know. It's too fast."

We looked over at her. "What?" She said.

Ranger shook his head. I giggled.

I looked over at Ranger and was surprised to see a wistful look on his face. "You're going to miss her." I said, shock coloring my voice.

"Sure I will. She's my daughter."

I shook my head. "It's more than that. You've done a complete one-eighty since I met you. Before, you would've shied away from her. Now, you act like her father."

"I am her father."

"I know, but now you're acting the part."

"You're not making any sense."

"I'm glad to see you changing. It gives me hope."

He looked at me for a minute. "You'll figure it out, Steph. You always do."

"I wish I could be as confident as you."

"Trust me, Babe." He said, turning his head back to Julie. "You have more confidence in one pinky than most of the guys in the office do."

"Including you?"

"Don't push it."

I glowed for a second and then remembered the time. "I'll be back on Sunday."

He nodded. "Plane leaves at eight. We'll meet here at seven."

I waved to Julie. "I'll be there."

Ranger pulled me in and kissed me softly. "Everything will be fine."

"Mmhmm." Mental head slap. Why after so many years of friendship does he still make me stupid with one kiss?

Ranger just grinned. "Later, Babe."

"Yep."


"I don't get it." My mother asked when I joined them for dinner. "You're going where?"

"Texas." I replied, shoveling more mashed potatoes onto my plate.

"Why?"

"Work, mom."

"For how long?" she added a piece of meat loaf onto my plate. My mother worries through food.

"Ma, I don't know. For as long as it takes."

"Stop grilling the girl, Helen, for Christ's sake." My father said when he came up for air.

I had decided to have one more family meal before shoving of to Stepfordland as I was now calling it. The place where dreams are crushed and babies are popped out.

Silly me for thinking that my family would be normal for one night.

"I remember Ranger." Val piped in. "He was sexy."

"And you wanted to marry him."

Albert's head popped up. "What?" Potatoes fell out of his open mouth.

"That was before, snookiekins. When my hormones were wacky."

Snookiekins. Ugh, I'm going to throw up.

I looked over at Angie. She rolled her eyes.

Maybe there was some Mazur blood in her after all. I winked at her and she smiled.

"But I came to my senses and married you."

Only because I knew if I had actually asked Ranger if he would marry my sister, he would've ran as fast as he could away from me.

Albert, finally soothed, went back to his meal. A few months ago, my dad took Albert to the garage. They shared a cigar and my father told him about the lay of the land. Ever since then, he has taken to acting like my father and keeping his head down as much as possible.

My mother hasn't had to replace her tablecloth in six weeks.

"I wonder what he wears under all that black." Grandma piped in. She was eighty, going on two hundred that loved to act like she was sixteen.

If we could all be so lucky when we get to that age.

My mother crossed herself. "God, why me?"

Grandma turned to me. "Do you know?"

I swear, every fork stopped. Mary Alice, who was using her face instead of a fork (she still thinks she's a horse), lifted her head.

"You had better not." My mother scolded. "I raised you Catholic."

"What did you think she was doing with Joe? Baking cookies?"

Sometimes there were cookies involved. Mental head slap.

My mother crossed herself again.

"Well?" Grandma asked me.

"Well what?"

They all waited.

No way was I answering that one. I'd rather diffuse a bomb than tackle that question. I turned to my father. "So, how about them Rangers?"

"What?"

My mother sighed. Grandma groaned. Everyone else went back to eating.

Crisis averted.

As I was leaving, dad pulled me aside. "You'll be safe on this trip?"

My father always knew more than he was letting on. I could tell that he knew exactly what Ranger and I were going to do. I nodded. "As safe as we can be prepared."

"And if something happens?"

"Ranger's covered all his bases."

He nodded now. "Good." He paused for a minute. "You know, I really like that boy. More than I ever liked Joe. He stole my cookies when I thought he wasn't looking."

I laughed.

"But not Ranger. Not even once. I left my plate alone and he didn't even touch it."

"That's because he doesn't eat cookies very often."

"Even better."

"I love you dad." I hugged him tightly. He stammered an 'I love you' back and blushed while scurrying back to his chair.


The next morning, I woke slowly. Today was the day.

I was going to be Ranger's pretend wife.

Butterflies filled my stomach as I showered and dressed. I pulled on a self-respecting blue blouse and nice dark jeans. This way, I would look cool and sophisticated with a hint of sexy.

I slipped on my black boots and was touching up my make-up when there was a knock on my door.

"Hamster sitters." Joe called out.

"I was going to drop him off." I said, coming out into the living room.

"Yeah, well I was passing buy, so…"

I smiled. "You were at Nina's."

He blushed. I had never seen Joe blush before. "Yeah."

"Good for you!" I went over and got a replacement soup can and his crunchies. "Just feed him whenever you get home. And if you're not going to be home for a while, just leave some and he'll graze."

"You know, I did take care of him while you lived with me."

"Shut up. I'm already nervous as it is. Just let me do this."

"Stephanie," he said, putting his arms around me. "You'll be fine. Ranger's going to protect you. It's second nature to him." He smiled softly. "Like it was what he was born for."

I hugged Joe. "You know I love you right?"

"Yeah. I love you too."

We let go and I tapped on Rex's cage. "Be good for Uncle Joe."

Rex wiggled his butt.

"I guess that means he will." Joe translated. "Have a good time."

"Yeah, right. This is going to be a blast."

He grinned once more and left.

A few minutes later, I grabbed my bags and headed out. I drove myself over to Rangeman and we would leave from there to the private airport. Natalie got us a nice DEA plane.

"You nervous?" Natalie asked when I had gotten out of my car.

"A little."

"Well don't worry. You'll have Ranger with you on the inside and me, Tank, Bobby and Lester will monitor the cameras and mics that we put all over the house only a street away. Any time you need to get out of there for a moment, come to us."

I nodded. I took a deep breath. Knowing that they were so close made my gut churn less.

Ranger and Tank were still upstairs doing whatever it is that they do and Bobby was making sure he had all the supplies he needed while Lester was ominously cleaning his gun.

"Any particular reason why?" I asked him.

"Nope. I want it to look good."

"He's bringing a whole can of gun cleaner." Bobby said, snickering.

I grinned. "Just don't kill anyone."

"If she starts it, I'll finish it."

I just rolled my eyes. At that moment, Tank, Ranger and Hal walked off the elevator.

Ranger came straight to me. "You okay, Babe?"

"Sure. Why wouldn't I be?"

"You're trembling."

Oh. That's why my hands looked funny. I took a deep breath and the trembling slowed. Ranger smiled.

"Better." He looked at the others for a minute. "Can you give us a minute?"

The guys nodded and walked a safe distance away.

"Last chance." He said.

"For?"

"To get out of this. Once we start, we can't stop. Are you sure you want to do this?"

Inside, some small part of me was screaming 'NO!' but the other part wanted me to soldier on. I couldn't let the guys and Natalie down.

I especially couldn't let Ranger down. I closed my eyes and centered myself.

When I opened them, I said, "I'm good."

Ranger looked into my eyes and cupped my cheek. "I'll protect you until I can't anymore."

Oh boy, that sounded ominous. Ranger shook his head. "Don't worry. We aren't expecting something to happen, but just know that I will."

I nodded and smiled. "Let's hit the road, hubby."

Ranger grinned. He nodded to the guys and we started to pile into the SUV. Ranger tugged me back by my collar. "Call me that again and there will be a punishment."

I shivered. I had a feeling I might like the punishment.

Hmm, something to remember.