Fall Carnival Ch 8

A/N: As always characters you recognize belong to JE. I am just enjoying playing with them. Happy Memorial Day to everyone. Thank you for dropping a note and letting me know what you think. :)

BOBBY POV

Her lips were soft and tasted sweeter than I imagined. I'd fantasized about a moment like this. I could feel my body reacting the second her lips touched mine. She was manhandling me which couldn't be sexier! She pressed me against the wall of my apartment with her body. Her lips traveled over my neck. I started to say something but only got as far as clearing my throat when she bit me. "No talking, Mister Brown" she growled and bit me again. Damn if this wasn't making me hard as hell!

Her hands made quick work of the buttons on my shirt. She had it open and was running her hands over my stomach and chest. Our lips meeting in hungrier and hungrier kisses. My hands couldn't move fast enough to untie her dress. She had my pants unfastened and reached in... "OHHH!" I moaned.

LESTER POV

My eyes popped open and I stretched my arms over my head and extended my legs as far as I could feeling the stretch the full length of my body. For some reason, I always sleep good on this couch.

My mouth was a little dry and my breath smelled of stale beer. I sighed and looked around the dimly lit room and just enjoyed the peace of the yet undisturbed morning. It wasn't long before my bladder made itself known and I ambled toward the bathroom.

I did my business, swished a mouthful of Listerine around and was headed back out when I heard Bobby moan.

At first I wasn't sure what kind of moan I'd heard so I peeked in on him to see if he was OK. He was asleep and clearly having a good dream. The sheet was tented at his waist. I wondered if it a was the nurse from St. Francis with the huge rack starring in this fantasy. "OHHH Steph, don't stop!" he moaned louder. "Holy shit," I said catching myself. He stirred . Before I could leave to give him his privacy LMFAO's Sexy and I Know It, pulsed out of my pocket. "Les," Bobby groaned, "Your phone is ringing." He seemed to still be mostly asleep and probably unaware of what I just heard. I'll keep my little discovery to myself for now.

I darted into the living room and pulled my phone out of my pants pocket. "Yo." "Well good morning sunshine, you planning to grace us with your presence?" Tank asked his deep voice dripping with sarcasm.

I glanced down at my watch, "Be there in ten!" I said and hung up. I barely let the shower splash me in my hurry to get cleaned up and meet Tank. We had a skip we were picking up this morning and Tank is not one you want to keep waiting. The big guy isn't really known for his patience.

TANK POV

"It's about damn time!" I said looking at my watch as Santos strolled into the control room. I will give him credit he said ten minutes and it was nine minutes and thirty-five seconds later. I saw a stupid smirk on his face.

"You know you love me," he said grabbing a set of SUV keys.

"I'll drive," I said ignoring his comment and snatching them from his fingers. "Anything you need to tell me?" I asked as I started the motor.

Lester shrugged. "Ric went up to 7 when Beautiful got here. As far as I know neither have left."

"Good," I said hiding a grin. She's good for him.

"I had the trash dumped."

He didn't need to say more, I knew what he meant. "Hector is monitoring the situation?" I asked.

Les nodded.

The rest of the drive was quiet. Lester seemed to be hatching something he wasn't ready to share with me yet and I was wondering if Rangeman stepped up and told little girl how he feels about her. For a brief second I recalled that kiss with her and chuckled silently to myself. I wonder what Lula is doing tonight...

We drove over to Stark Street and pulled to the curb about a half block from Wayne Motese's apartment. He is known to stagger home from a night of boozing and carousing as the good folks of this neighborhood are heading out to worship in the local Baptist church about 3 blocks from here. It was a morning like this that got ole Wayne into trouble.

He was staggering home a few Sunday mornings ago and got into a fist fight with a teenage boy accompanying his grandmother to church. He struck the kid and granny clubbed him with her purse. He didn't dare mess with her anymore so when she grabbed her grandson and pulled him toward the church, Wayne took his anger out on the convenience store manager, grabbing a long umbrella and beating him with it when he wouldn't sell him any beer. The store manager ended up in ICU thanks to Wayne, his anger management issues and his alcoholism. The bond was fairly high.

After about an hour of silence, I grabbed a container of tic tacs out of the glove compartment and offered Santos one. He held out his hand and popped a couple into his mouth and gave me a nod of thanks.

"You gonna let me in on this plan of yours?" I asked scanning the nearly empty street.

"You know that girl from junior high?" he began.

"Heidi something?" I asked.

Les nodded. "Steph ran a search for her and it came up with some interesting results."

"Interesting how? And does Rangeman know?"

"I don't think he does. She started it on her laptop before she headed to Haywood. She doesn't know the results came in or that her laptop is in my kitchen."

"Explain," I said.

"I went to her place to pick up her hamster after she came to see Ric. I figured he needed her here. This way she didn't need to leave anytime soon," he said, "which reminds me I better text her and let he know." Lester pulled out his phone and sent her a message. "Anyway," he continued, "her laptop dinged and I took a peek to see what she was working on."

"Didn't occur to you that it may be private?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Glad I looked because now I know where Heidi is and what happened to her."

"Well?" I asked, then spotted Wayne. I grabbed the keys and unfastened the strap holding my gun secure in my shoulder holster.

Wayne was staggering up the sidewalk across the street. I decided to let Les approach him since someone of my stature tends to make people nervous and try to avoid me. I didn't really feel like chasing him this morning.

Les likes to play characters when he is approaching someone. I could hear him pour on a southern drawl asking Wayne for directions. When he got annoyed he took a swing and Santos grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back quickly cuffing him. He marched him to the SUV and secured him in the back.

After a drop off at TPD, I asked for the rest of the story with Heidi.

Les rubbed his chin. "Feel like a drive?" he asked.

I phoned control and let them know we'd be offline for a few hours and I would call when we were back.

RANGER POV

Mmmmm. I could feel Steph's body molded to mine. We had shifted in our sleep. I had migrated to my back and she was now wrapped around me. Her head nestled into my neck and shoulder, her leg swung over my knee and resting between mine. Her hand rested in the middle of my chest. I pulled the blanket up higher around us and noticed what looked like a damp towel dangling from the side of the bed.

I don't know how we got like this but I am not going to complain. I closed my eyes and just savored the feeling. A few minutes later I heard what sounded like a truck horn. I realized it was Stephanie's phone alerting her that she had a text. I spotted it on the nightstand and reached for it to look and see who it was. I contemplated for a moment on whether to see what Santos wanted or respect her privacy. In the end, I had to know what he wanted with her.

"Brought Rex to office. Need 2 talk 2 U." What the hell? Before I could call him and find out what he was up to Babe began to stir. I set her phone down and kissed the top of her curly head. "Morning Babe."

"Mmm, morning Ranger," she said not yet opening those beautiful blue eyes. "You're still in bed," she mumbled.

"So are you," I smiled.

"Yeah, but you usually get up at the butt-crack of dawn, Batman," she said raising her head to look at me.

I couldn't help but laugh. "Taking the day off, Babe," I said finally.

"What are your plans?" she asked.

I ran the palm of my hand up and down her back and kissed the tip of her nose. "I was hoping to spend it with you."

She looked surprised. "Really?" she asked eyes widening.

"Unless you don't want to," I said hoping that wasn't the case.

"No, I mean yes, I want to," she said.

I responded with a smile. "Good, do you want to shower first and I'll call Ella and have her bring up some breakfast?"

She bit her lip pensively.

"What is it Babe?"

"Could we go to to the diner instead?"

"Anything you want Babe." She grinned at me in response.

"Anything?" she asked softly. I nodded.

"All day?"

I started to wonder if I made an error promising her anything but truth is I'd give her anything I could. "Yes Babe," I said finally, "What do you have in mind?"

"You'll see," she said brushing a quick kiss across my lips and hopped up and rushed into the bathroom.

I grinned to myself and sighed in contentment. I actually sighed?

STEPHANIE POV

I climbed into Ranger's shower and took care of my hair first and worked my way down my body with his Bulgari shower gel. Taking in the heavenly scent I pulled down the shower head to take the edge off. My gut was telling me that Lester was right and I needed to step up. Batman was relaxed and seemed to be open to me, and I didn't need my Hungarian hormones confusing the situation. I want the long haul- it doesn't need to come with a ring but I need Ranger in my future. I was a little nervous about taking a chance that he would walk out not able or willing to accept my "proposal".

I don't know if it was Lester's assurance or what, but I suddenly felt it was time to take a chance...a real chance and let the sexy man in black know how I feel. Take a chance Plum. You can't have what you want unless you try.