Thank you so much for all the great reviews, and special thanks to Amy for pointing out a few things to me about the last chapter, Liz
I own nothing everything was done by JE I am just taking her charters out for a spin.
What Now?
I got up and ran to the apartment, I tried to get the key in the door but my hands were shaking too much. I dropped the keys to the floor, when I went to pick them up my knees gave out again and fell to the floor once more sobbing. What was I going to do now?
RPOV
Steph walked out of the office leavening me and the guys in shock. Had she really just agreed to be on lock down? I looked at the others faces and they were just as surprised as myself, I was ready for her to fight me on it not to just give in.
"Did that really just happened?" Lester asked
"I saw it Les but I don't believe it, Bomber has never given in so easily before."
"Tank, it's just how she said, she knows how much danger she is in and she knows what his guy will do if he gets her." Bobby told us, he was the first to recover from the shock.
"He won't get her, we will see to that." Tank growled out, "I don't care what it takes we will find him and keep him away from her."
We all nodded in agreement, "First we need to hear back from the General and see what Intel he can give us." I told them. I was really hoping that he would be able to give us permission to tell Steph about the mission from our point of view. Just as I was about to go on the office phone rang,
"Yo."
"Sir, I think there is something wrong with Ms. Plum." Woody told me.
"What do you mean? What's wrong with her?" I had the guys attention now.
"She got onto the elevator and headed up to seven when she got a phone call. Her legs gave out and she fell to the floor. The call ended as the elevator stopped and she rushed out to the apartment only to collapse again at the door."
"Shit." I hung up the phone and ran for the stairs.
"Ric, what happened?" Tank called from behind me.
"Not sure, Steph got a call."
"Shit." I heard from the three of them as we entered the stairway.
When we ran out onto seven we saw Steph on her knees in front of the door. The moment I got to her I knelt down next to her and put my hand onto her back, I could feel her shaking and I saw the tears that were falling from her eyes. If she kept this up she would dehydrate herself.
"Babe?" She didn't look at me or answer and I knew that the phone call that she had gotten had to been from Rodriguez. I picked her up into my arms, Tank grabbed the keys from the floor and opened the door for me and I carried her into the coach.
"Babe, what did he say?" I asked as I sat down with her in my lap.
"Rex…" was her muted reply.
"Babe?"
"He said that I didn't have to worry about Rex anymore."
I looked up at Tank, Bobby and Lester, and saw realization on their faces. He had been to her apartment. I was thanking Morelli right now, if he hadn't fucked up we would never of known about this, Steph would most likely been at her apartment when Rodriquez had shown up and more then likely had been missing by now. By the time we would of found out he could of taken her anywhere.
"Beautiful, how bout Bobby and I head over to your apartment to get you things and check on Rex? I know you had wanted to go but this would be for the best."
She nodded her head, "Is there anything special you wanted us to pick up?"
"No, I was just going to go over and grab some clothes and Rex. Thank you Les, Bobby for doing this for me."
"Anytime Beautiful." He bent over and gave her a quick kiss of the fore head, and Bobby did the same, then they were out the door.
I knew that they were stopping back at there apartments on four to get fully dressed. They would go to her apartment fully load, incase Rodriquez was still in the area. Now I had to find a way to keep my Babe busy, even if she said that she would stay in I knew what she could be like if she got bored.
"Babe, while the guys are out do you want to finish the searches on your friends?"
I was rewarded with a smile, "You won't mind if I do the research myself?"
"Babe, they are your friends and you know better where to look for them then we do."
"Kay. I just want to get a shower. Would it be okay if I worked from my old cubical?"
"Yeah, Babe that would be fine. Will you be okay by yourself up here?"
"Yes I will be fine."
"See you on five Babe."
Tank and I left her to take her shower and headed back down stairs. This was the most important project on our plates right now, but we have also been gone for months and have other Rangeman project we need to be up dated on and we had a meeting at 1100 with Hal to go over it all. We walked into the conference room to find Hal and Zero waiting for us.
Woody's POV
Something was going on with Ms. Plum, Steph, but what? Hal, Zero and I have made sure to keep a close eye on her while Rangers been away. Did we miss something? Shit if that was the case we are all dead men.
Ranger and the rest of the core team was on edge, I knew if the moment they stepped foot on the floor this morning, something big must be going on. Normal when they come back from a long mission they spend at least a week at their compound recouping, but they came straight her this time with Steph in tow.
Then later on in the morning Steph leaves the apartment and heads for the gym, she hates working out yet she went on her own. The guys said something about her being serious this time about it all, and made we wonder even more about what was going on. We all sat their and watched her run for over half an hour before she came running up stairs to her old cubical, to only shortly be carried into a closed door meeting with Ranger.
Something was definitely going on, but I was even more confused when she came out of the office laughing, but then moments later she is in the elevator crying and then also in the hallway up stairs. They Ranger and the others take off up stairs after her and carry her into the apartment.
I was racking my brain to see if we have missed anything the past few weeks. Everything was fine till yesterday. So what happened yesterday to change everything so much? Maybe I should call Hal and give him a heads up for his meeting.
Just as I was going to pick up the phone, I watched Lester and Bobby run out the apartment and down the stairs to each of there own apartments. Moments later they both came back out in full swat mode. Whoa, now there was no doubt in my mind that something was up. I picked up the phone and call Hal.
"Go."
"Hal, looks like we may have a Code Red Tastykake." Lester came up with this code for when ever Steph was in danger. It was meant as a joke, but it stuck.
"What? What the hell happened?"
"Not sure, but the Core team is going crazy, just wanted to give you heads up before your meeting."
"Thanks Woody keep me posted."
Hopefully Hal would find out what the hell was going on, because with Steph it could be anything.
Sorry it took so long to get the next chapter up I was having uploading problems. Hope you enjoy, Liz
