Disclaimer: See ch. 1
Spoilers: Through 14
A/N: Okay, so someone (can't remember who, sorry) said that they were going to hold their breath until Steph and Ranger had their 'talk'. I wouldn't want to be responsible for that tragic asphyxiation, so here you go!
I was sitting on my fire escape, enjoying a nice margarita. The sun was shining, the smog was smogging, then suddenly the platform of my fire escape was floating in midair. I looked up: Nothing. I looked below me: Air, and far, far below, hard, black asphalt. I turned to the window, frantic to get off of the floating platform. It was locked. Locked? How would I lock it when I was outside? How in the hell was I going to get down?
"Cupcake!"
I peered cautiously over the edge. Joe was standing below me on the ground. He looked about three miles away.
"Jump to me, cupcake. I'll catch you."
His arms were extended to me. He looked solid and strong. My Joe. I prepared to jump. I was one step away from the edge of the platform when Joe turned away from me. I watched, awestruck, my foot trembling over the edge, as Jeanne Ellen threw herself into Joe's arms and attached her mouth to his.
My arms flailed, my breath caught, I was falling. Then suddenly, I stopped falling. Warm, strong hands grasped me around the waist and hauled me back onto the platform.
"Come on, babe. I've got you. Just climb through the window."
I turned around to tell him that it was locked, but there was Ranger, leaning out the open window, his arms extended to me.
"Come on, babe."
I took a step towards him. There was a high, feminine giggle from inside and Ranger's dark eyes flashed behind him, then back to me.
Oh, God, no.
I stumbled back and I was falling, falling. Down and down and down, until I landed in strong, warm arms.
I opened my eyes and looked up into the too-green gaze of Edwin Mortars. I screamed.
The scream was still on my lips as I sprang up in bed. Oh God, only a dream. I had just enough time to register the fact that I was alone in the bed when Ranger flew into the room, gun drawn. His quick eyes surveyed the room.
"Babe, are you okay?"
I nodded, sucking in deep breaths.
"Why did you scream?"
I had screamed out loud?
Ranger came to sit beside me on the bed. He placed a hand on each side of my face and peered into my eyes.
"Babe?"
"I…I had a dream," I said, scooting unconsciously closer. "A nightmare."
Ranger's thumb stroked my cheek while his other hand came down to rest on my hip.
"You want to talk about it?"
I shook my head. Ranger pulled me close and held me for a moment before pulling back.
"Breakfast?" He asked.
I nodded. "I have Poptarts."
Ranger smiled gently. "No Poptarts. I made breakfast." He stood up and moved towards the door. "Get dressed, I'll be in the kitchen."
I watched him walk out of the room. Out of one nightmare and into another; it was time for my 'talk' with Ranger.
"Mmmm, this looks delicious." I glanced down at the omelets and fresh fruit on the kitchen table. "Where's the bacon?"
Ranger's almost smile was in place as he pulled out a chair for me.
"Babe."
I sat, then waited for him to do the same before taking a bite of my breakfast.
Who knew an egg white and veggie omelet could be so good?
"Babe," Ranger groaned
I cut off mid-moan and looked up at him. "Oops."
I watched Ranger take a bite of melon and bring it to his perfect lips. Mmmm… Then I pictured those lips on another woman's and my heart thudded in my chest.
"Uh…what did you want to talk about?" I asked around another bite of egg. Better to just get it over with now, I told myself. Like ripping off a bandaid. He'd say 'I'm seeing someone, Stephanie' and I'd say 'That's wonderful, Ranger. I hope you have a happy life together with loads of gorgeous children.' Yeah, right.
"Eat first," he told me. "We'll talk afterwards."
I couldn't really enjoy my breakfast with the 'talk' looming over my head. I ate without really tasting until an empty plate sat before me. Why hadn't I eaten slower? Delay the inevitable, you know.
Bandaid, I reminded myself. Remember the bandaid.
Ranger brought the dishes to the sink and rinsed them, then sat facing me once more. "Babe."
"Did I thank you, for the refrigerator?" I blurted out.
Again with the almost smile. "Yes. Wouldn't want your food to catch death cooties, now would we?"
I cringed at the memory of our death cootie conversation. It seemed like forever ago.
"And the food," I said. "Did I thank you for the food?"
"You're welcome."
"The Ben and Jerry's?"
"Hector's idea. Should help prevent late-night ice cream runs."
I cringed. "I had no idea what he was saying."
"I know," Ranger said with a smile.
"Will you teach me Spanish?"
"Babe."
I was procrastinating, prolonging the torture. Just shut up, I told myself.
"I'll teach you if you really want to learn, but right now we really need to talk."
I closed my eyes and nodded.
"Why don't we go sit on the couch," Ranger said.
I followed him into the living room and sat on the opposite end of the couch. He watched me for a moment, blank face horribly present, then turned to face forward.
"The cops will want to talk to you about last night," he said.
"Which part?" I asked. There had been so many parts to last night, I wasn't even sure how to begin processing them.
"Morelli's stalker," Ranger said.
I nodded.
"I spoke with them this morning." This got my attention. Why hadn't he waited for me? Ah well, they probably would have split us up for our statements anyway.
"Who is he?" I asked.
Ranger turned to look at me. "A guy named Egan Swarz. Morelli picked him up in connection with an ongoing murder investigation. He was released as not being involved. Apparently, he saw you two together and hopped on the Stephanie Plum bandwagon."
"Then he found out about Jeanne Ellen?"
Ranger nodded.
"And he thought I should know?"
"Apparently."
"Well, at least his heart was in the right place," I said sardonically.
Ranger reached out like he was going to touch me, then obviously thought better of it and lowered his hand.
"He'll go away, babe. Probably for even longer because he messed with a cop. And when he gets out, there'll be a restraining order."
I nodded. To be honest, I wasn't all that worried about Swarz. Grossed out? Yes. Afraid? Not really. Mortars was the one who really frightened me. But even that was nothing in comparison to the fear of what Ranger was about to tell me.
"That's not all you wanted to talk about, was it?" I asked.
He shook his head.
"Who is Edwin Mortars? Why can't we go to the cops?"
Ranger let out a little breath, a Ranger sigh.
"Babe."
"Ranger, you don't have to give me specifics, but don't you think I have a right to know?"
Ranger watched me for a moment, his eyes shadowed, then he nodded once.
"Short story: Mortars works for a guy named Gene Trotter. Trotter deals in cocaine. We want him out of Trenton. If what Mortars tells us is right, there's not enough evidence for the l.e.o.'s to do anything about it."
"That's where your team comes in," I said. Batman: cleaning up the world, one crack dealer at a time.
Ranger nodded. "Trotter finds out Mortars spoke with us and Mortars is a dead man."
I shuddered. "So, he's gonna shut us up."
"That's probably the idea."
We were silent for several moments. I was busy absorbing all of this new information. For all I knew, Ranger was doing long division in his head.
"Babe," Ranger chuckled. Stupid Batman ESP.
"I've got some more questions for you, Mister," I told him.
He was silent, apparently waiting for the interrogation.
"You tapped my phone," I accused. Now, I wasn't really mad about the phone tap anymore, but it was another excuse to put off the real 'talk'.
"Babe."
"Don't you 'babe' me. You had no right…And speaking of rights," I said, my voice rising, "what the hell is a 'hands-off notice'?"
The amusement faded from Ranger's eyes and his mercenary mask slid into place. I sucked in a breath.
"What?" He breathed.
"You heard me," I said, standing up. I was working up a real steam now. "Apparently, the people on the 'streets' think that I'm your woman. There was something about a 'hands-off notice' and that if they touched me you'd kill them." I ended on a high, frantic note, willing him to contradict me.
"Babe."
"Ranger," I yelled. "Tell me what the hell kind of right you had…"
"It was for your safety."
"How in the hell…"
"Sit down, Stephanie." His voice was deadly quiet, cool and calm. His burning eyes told a different story.
I crossed my arms over my chest and sat as far from him as possible.
"Who told you?"
"It doesn't matter," I said, staring straight ahead of me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him clench his jaw and take a deep breath.
"After the thing with Scrog," he said, "I realized that we didn't actually need to have a relationship for you to be in danger."
I turned to look at him. What was he saying?
"Ranger, I…"
"Just listen."
I closed my mouth and nodded.
"Some people see us and just assume…well, that we're together. That could be…dangerous for you, as we both found out."
Why did it feel like he was saying goodbye? I fought to take my next breath.
"Ranger, it's not…"
He scooted closer and placed one finger over my lips. "Shh, listen. I realized that you would be safer if people actually thought that you were mine."
I began to protest his terminology, but his finger was back on my lips.
"People are afraid of me, babe. I put out the hands-off notice so that they'd know that if they harmed you, there'd be a price to pay."
"I hate it when you have to kill people," I whispered against his finger.
He closed his eyes briefly. "I know, babe."
"Not many people on the streets are crazy enough to defy you," I said, borrowing the vendor's words. "Is that why there haven't been as many stalkers lately?"
Ranger said nothing.
"So why now?" I asked. "Two in one week."
Ranger shrugged. "I can't take credit for the first one," he said. "That was all Morelli. Clearly that guy hadn't heard that you're mine."
He smiled briefly and I whacked him on the shoulder. Then his face sobered.
"I take full responsibility for Mortars. And I'm sorry, babe."
I shook my head. "No. I knew what I was getting myself into. It's my responsibility, too."
"Babe…"
"End of discussion, Ranger."
He contemplated me silently for so long and with such intensity that it felt like he was peering into my soul.
"I hate this," he said suddenly.
I felt my brows draw down in the middle. I was about to ask him what he was talking about when he spoke.
"I'm leaving, Steph."
I stopped breathing.
"I'm going out of town. I want you to stay at Rangeman."
"Wha…how…how long? I…"
He reached over and pulled me against him.
"Breathe, Stephanie."
I took a deep breath.
"A few days, maybe a week."
I closed my eyes and let the relief wash through me. For a second I'd thought…well, I didn't really want to think about it.
"Where are you going?" I asked. "What are you doing?"
"Babe," he sighed into my hair.
He wasn't going to tell me. Or he could, but then he'd have to kill me. I wondered briefly if he was going away with her. I quickly forced the thought from my mind. It wasn't any of my business.
He was silent, watching me. He pulled me to him and planted a long kiss on top of my head.
"I'll try to call," he said once he'd pulled back.
"You don't have to, Ranger. I know you'll be busy."
He stood up and moved towards the door, his eyes never leaving me. I forced myself to meet his gaze without flinching. He was leaving again. He'd left so many times that I should have been used to it by now. It had never hurt quite this much to watch him walk out my door. But I'd always had Morelli to go home to then, I told myself. Yeah, that was it. And now I had no one. Not even Ranger.
"You okay, babe?"
I nodded quickly.
"You'll stay at my apartment?"
I nodded again, crossing my fingers behind my back. No way was I staying anywhere he'd been with her. But he didn't need to know that. Right now he just really needed to leave so that I wouldn't fall apart in front of him.
He nodded once. "Take care, babe."
"You too, Ranger."
He watched me a moment, then turned and walked away down the hall.
I shut and locked the door, then slumped down against it and cried until my eyes were dry.
It wasn't until later that I realized he'd never said a word about his girlfriend.
The next day flew by in a haze. I toddled around Trenton, trying my luck at a couple of skips, my Merry Man guard always visible in the rearview mirror. They felt no need to hide now that I knew they were there.
I went to my parents' house for lunch and told them about the Morelli thing. I left out the part about the stalkers. I tried to play it out like we'd just decided that we weren't meant to be, but my mom saw right through it. In the end, she somehow got me to admit that Joe had been cheating and with whom. Apparently Ranger wasn't the only one with super powers; mom had a super truth detector. She was surprisingly sympathetic.
After lunch, I headed back out to do my job, ridding the streets of court-skipping scum. Lula sat beside me, in the driver's seat, unnaturally silent. It was as if my melancholy mood was rubbing off on her.
"Is something wrong?" I asked to break the tedium. We had been camped out in front of Tony Gemima's house for two hours now, with no sign of him.
"Naw, girl. It's just…" She glanced over at me, back at the house, then back at me. "Tankie's been tryin' to convince me that getting married isn't such a good idea. He says that with his job and all, well…"
I held up a hand. "Do not finish that statement." Damn Tank. He was pulling a page right out of Batman's playbook and Lula was suffering for it. "You know what?" I told her. "I'll have a chat with him. He knows better than this."
So that was why I found myself, about 20 hours later – after failing to apprehend Mr. Gemima, mind you – in front of the gate leading to the Rangeman garage.
I reached into my purse only to realize that my key fob had gone up in a cloud of noxious smoke about three cars ago. Then my hand brushed something smooth and plastic. I wrapped my fingers around it and slowly extracted it from my bag. What were the odds that it was an explosive device anyway? Probably Mortars had just slipped some kind of tracker into my purse. I shuddered at the thought of him getting close enough to do that.
It was a key fob. Huh. Wonder where that came from?
Ah well. My 'Burg upbringing had taught me well; never look a gift fob in the mouth…er, you know what I mean.
I pressed the button, waited for the gate to rise, then pulled into the lot. I vaguely registered the black SUV pulling in behind me, Vince behind the wheel. I parked in an empty, non-reserved-for-Batman spot and shut off Big Blue. Then I sat. And I sat. I was slightly amazed that Vince or one of the other Merry Men didn't come to investigate. I was just now realizing the hastiness of my decision to come here.
I couldn't just go up there and tell Tank off for being an arrogant ass, could I? I'd never done it to Ranger. But then, Ranger was my arrogant ass. It was my feelings he was messing with. Mess with me all you want, but leave my friends the heck out of it.
All the way up to five, I contemplated what I'd tell Tank. I figured I'd tell him exactly what I'd tell Ranger if I could just grow the balls. Too bad I'd never ironed out that conversation either.
The elevator stopped on five and the doors opened. Manny and a guy I didn't know were on the monitors. They didn't look up.
"Tank?" I asked.
Manny raised one finger and pointed in the direction of Tank's office.
I didn't bother with such trivial things as knocking or waiting for an invitation. If I was a big bad-ass army guy, I might have put my boot to the door. As it was, I was wearing flip-flops, so I used the handle.
Tank was pacing in front of his desk. He froze and looked up when I entered.
He opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off. I was on a warpath, damnit.
"What the hell do you think you're doing pulling this Batman bullcrap with Lula? Your job doesn't lend itself to relationships?" I spat. "Oh, like I haven't heard that before."
"Ste…"
"Oh no, Tank, you're going to shut up and listen, because I've got a whole lot to say. You think you can get away with using your job as an excuse to break off the engagement with Lula? Well, you can't. Who cares about your fucking job? She loves you and I know damn well you love her. If you don't want to be with her, just suck it up, be a man, and tell her that. Don't use your fucking job as an excuse."
"Steph…"
"Nuh, uh. She knew going in that you could get hurt or killed on any one of these jobs. You could say the same about her current occupation. I'm not exactly the safest person to have as a partner. And it's not like it would be new for psychos and creeps to come after her, what's a few more?" I froze. I wasn't talking about Lula anymore, was I?
"Bombshell, I…"
Maybe he hadn't noticed my slip-up. I hurried on. "Just think about what I've said, Tank. Are you really willing to give up the woman you love just because you might get shot to death next week? Hell, I could get hit by a bus on my way to get a donut." I sighed. "Doesn't that make it even more important to spend what time we have with the people we love?"
"Yeah, but…"
I cut him off with a wave of my hand.
"Just marry her, Tank. You know you want to."
Then I left his office, closing the door behind me.
A/N: I'm gonna go hide now, because I'm pretty sure that's not the talk you all had in mind…I promise it will get better! And if you're all very, very good, maybe I'll post the next chapter very, very soon.
Please, let me know what you thought! Just…do try to be kind, it'll all work out in the end, I promise. Besides, if I bundled it all up neat and tidy too soon, the story would be over…and that would be sad, right?
l.e.o. – law enforcement officer
