Disclaimer: The characters you recognize as J.E. are hers. Any other character is a figment of my imagination.

Spoilers: Possibly any book from 1-18.

Chapter 9: More Searches Come In

Stephanie's POV:

I stood and made my way out to the kitchen. I recognized the voices as I neared the kitchen. It looks like Tank, Bobby and Lester had joined us. I walked in to see the guys enjoying some of my mom's famous pancakes with the syrup we had made. The elevator dinged and I turned to see Ranger walk in with a scowl on his face. "What is that smell? I got a whiff of it when I entered the elevator on 5."

My mom smiled and said, "Pancakes with homemade syrup. Would you like some?"

Ranger glared before stalking over to the stove and looking in the pan. I had to smile at the look on his face. I had no idea what he was expecting to crawl out of the pan…Geez! He turned to my mom and I could see her getting flustered. That look on Ranger would have me flustered too. He lifted the pan and sniffed before quickly moving the pan to the sink and dumping the contents.

Mom was outraged at his actions and tried to say something but it wasn't coming out right. She was getting more and more flustered as Ranger made no comment, just gave her one of his bad ass looks. I wanted to say something, but there was just something about the scene that struck my funny bone and I was doing all I could not to burst out laughing. Finally, daddy came to her rescue and said, "I'll have you know my wife is the best cook around. You're missing out if you don't try her homemade syrup."

It was at that moment that grandma piped up with, "You went and wasted all that goodness. I could have poured it all over your package and had myself a smorgasbord. Course, I would have needed all four of you nice young studs to get my fill."

The look on their faces! I lost it. I was on the floor laughing so hard my sides hurt when Ranger came over and lifted me to face him. He had one eyebrow raised and I could tell he wasn't happy with my reaction. It took me several minutes to get myself under control, and Ranger wasn't helping by looking at me that way because every time I met his gaze I started laughing all over again. Finally, I managed to get myself under control and noticed everyone looking at me with varying looks of disbelief.

My mom whispered, "Aren't you afraid to laugh at them? I mean…" She didn't finish her thought but I had an idea what she meant.

Daddy was looking at me to see what was so funny. I think he wanted to make sure I wasn't laughing at mom.

Grandma was smiling ear to ear, "I'd love to be a fly on the wall when you and the super stud talk about this."

I turned to the guys and noticed their pouty expressions. Then there was Ranger. His look said he was pissed, but his eyes said something totally different. I smiled and said, "All the times you guys laugh at me because of my rolling in garbage and my cars blowing up and stuff…its about time I get to laugh at you guys for a change."

I turned to grandma, "Sorry to burst your bubble grandma, but if anyone gets to pour syrup on Ranger and enjoy the buffet, it will be me. He's mine. You can take your pick of the rest."

Three frantic voices asked, "What!" Followed by, "Beautiful, I thought you liked me!" And two voices saying, "Bomber, you wouldn't really throw us to the wolves?"

I smiled at the guys as I turned and leaned into Ranger. I leaned up and whispered, "She had a good idea. Too bad you threw out the good stuff."

Ranger whispered back, "Babe, I can more than make up for that. I don't have any bad stuff."

I moaned. I reached up and kissed Ranger on the cheek and softly said, "I'll be back in a minute. I need to check my searches."

Ranger covered my lips with his and kissed me thoroughly before releasing me. I hurried into his office and checked the computer. I noticed several things were in so I printed them all off. When I lifted the stack, I screamed at what I saw on the top sheet. Ranger had me in his arms in seconds while he was scanning the room to see what had made me scream. I held out the paper to him and he swore.

Daddy asked, "What's wrong?"

I took a deep breath and said, "I printed out the info from the searches and when I picked them up, this was on the top."

I held up a sheet of paper that said,

I'm sorry I missed you. Next time I'll get it right. Tell daddy goodbye.

The guys were swearing. Ranger's voice was deadly soft, "I want to know how that got in with the searches. Tell Hector to set up an electronic barricade so we can make sure no more get through."

Tank nodded and left. Lester touched my cheek gently and said, "Don't worry Beautiful. We'll keep you safe."

I nodded, but didn't say anything. I leaned into Ranger and let his closeness comfort me. Suddenly I had a thought. What if the note was meant as nothing more than a distraction? Something to get our focus going in another direction. I moved slightly back and looked up at Ranger. "I think whoever sent that wants us focusing on the note instead of what the searches uncovered. I need to read through them and see what might be in there someone doesn't want us to find."

Ranger nodded, "Alright Babe. Let's go through the searches."

"It's okay Batman…I can do it."

"I'm not leaving you on your own so just get used to dealing with it."

I smiled. As far as I was concerned, Ranger could stay by my side 24/7 and I'd be just fine. I mean really! He is one hot guy. I felt his body shake with silent laughter and gave him a puzzled look before looking around the room. Mom was redder than I've ever seen her, daddy was looking anywhere but at me, and grandma Mazur had a smile a mile wide and a twinkle in her eyes. I looked back up to Ranger. "Out loud?"

Ranger was smiling his full 2000 watt smile. "Oh yeah."

I leaned my forehead against his chest and whispered, "Shit!"

I would like to give a special thanks to trhodes9 for the suggestion of the scene at the beginning of the story. Thanks a lot, hope I did it justice.