They aren't mine. I wish they were. Just going to borrow them for a while. Continuation of Christmas Eve Visitor, Starting Our Life Together and Holy Matrimony, Batman!. People, places and things in the story may or may not be totally factual or real.

Christmas Past and Present
By JayCee08

Chapter 9
Getting To Know You

We got to the house. Ranger took Julie's suitcase and carried it in. He took it upstairs and placed it in her room.

"So how about a quick swim and then we grill something out on the patio and then watch a movie?" Ranger asked.

"Sounds good to me. Julie?" I asked.

"Sure."

We went to our rooms to change. I found a one piece swim suit that was some what conservative even though it showed some cleavage and was high cut in the leg. Ranger put on some board shorts. We met Julie in the hall. She had on a two-piece barely-there bikini. Ranger just looked at her.

"What. Are. You. Wearing. Young lady?" He asked.

"It's a swimsuit." She replied.

"THAT is not a swimsuit. There is no way you can swim in that without giving every guy a show."

"Ran-ger." Julie whined.

"I don't ever want to see you wear that outside of this property. You hear me?"

"Well, you aren't here most of the time. So you won't see me wear it."

"You did not just smart off to me, did you?" Ranger growled.

"Um, um, no, sir." Julie said meekly.

"Good. I suggest you put on a different swim suit." He ordered.

Julie turned around and went back into her room to change.

"She is testing me to see if I will let her get away with that." Ranger explained to me.

"Does she do that often?"

"Once in a while. I think she is seeing what I will do with you here."

Julie came back to join us by the pool. She had on a different bikini that covered her more. It had a matching wrap skirt.

We swam a little bit. Ranger dunked me when he figured I was trying not to get my hair wet. He then came over by me and gave me a heated kiss that had me fisting my hands in his hair.

"Oh, yew! Too much PDA in front of the kid here!" She shouted. Ranger and I broke apart. He went over to Julie and grabbed her from underwater. She screamed before she went under. When she came up for air, she jumped on Ranger's back and pushed him under. Or rather he let her push him under. We got out to dry off a little before making dinner.


We went into the kitchen to see what was available. There were freshly made hamburger patties in the refrigerator. I found hamburger buns on the counter. We pulled out all the condiments from the frig, along with a platter that Olivia put together with lettuce, tomatoes and sliced onions and placed them on a tray. We found some plastic plates in a cabinet and got some silverware. We decided on chips rather than baking some fries. Olivia provided a fruit salad.

Julie grabbed the plates and buns. I took the tray with the condiments and the chips. Ranger took the plate with the burgers and the bowl of fruit.

"There might be some drinks in the refrigerator out on the patio." Ranger said. We trooped out. I set the tray down on the table. Julie began to set the plates around. Ranger started up the grill and unlocked the refrigerator. There were water, soda and coronas.

"Babe, what would you like? Corona or Coke?"

"I'll take a Corona for now." I said.

"Julie?" He asked

"I'll have a Corona too." She said with a smile.

"I think not. Coke or water?" Ranger said.

"Coke." She said.

Ranger put the meat on the grill. We sat down with our drinks.

"So, you never said when you two finally got together." Julie stated.

Leave it to her to remember that we didn't really answer that. I looked over at Ranger.

"I don't see the relevance to the question." Ranger stated.

"I just want to know. Has it been a month? Two months? Have you talked about getting married? Are you living together?"

I choked on my beer when she said that.

Ranger got up to check the burgers. Julie was waiting patiently for an answer.

"I guess you could say that it has only been . . . three days." I finally said.

"Three days!" She shrieked.

"Um, um, yeah. Christmas Eve."

"This Christmas Eve?"

"That was three days ago." I said.

"Wow. Three days. So why has it taken so long?"

"It's complicated."

"How complicated can it be? You either love each other or you don't."

"When you get older, maybe you will understand it better." Ranger said.

"So, what are we going to do the rest of the week?" She asked. Good. A change of subject.

"Well, I thought we could show Steph Little Havana. Then take a Duck Tour."

"Oh cool!"

"A duck tour? We are going to see ducks?" I asked.

"No. A Duck Tour is a tour of the city. But instead of riding a bus or a trolley you ride in this special vehicle that goes on land and in the water. Kinda like a duck." Julie explained.

"Does it fly too?" I asked.

"No, silly. Oh wait. Ducks fly too, don't they." She said.

"What will we all see on this tour?" I asked.

"We will see Millionaire's Row. That is where all the Millionaires have really big houses or villas. We get to see Versace's Mansion. South Beach. The Art-Deco District. The Port of Miami. All of these islands. Some are only connected with one road." Julie gushed.

"Didn't we drive on one of those roads to get to Jungle Island?"

"The same. You will see some of the same places we drove past today." Ranger said. "But you get to see it from the water."

"Sound like fun."

"Oh the best part is the splash down. You go fast into the water and you all get wet." Julie gushed some more.

"O.K. the burgers are done." Ranger said. He brought them to the table and placed the platter down. We passed around the buns and started to put our burgers together. We had lettuce and tomatoes, cheese, ketchup, mustard, pickle relish, pickles, onions. We sat in silence for a while as everyone bit into their hamburgers.

"These are really good." I said in between bites.

"Thank you, Babe." Ranger said. "So what do you want to do tonight? There are some DVD's, movies on demand or would you just prefer to sit around and talk?"

"Let's just sit around and talk." Julie said. "I want to get to know Stephanie better. Is that O.K.?"

Ranger smiled. "That's fine with me, Carina. I want you to get to know Stephanie better too."

"Wow. Does that mean you two are going to get married and Stephanie will be my step-mom?"

"I don't think Ranger and I are going to be getting married anytime soon, Julie, if ever."

Julie frowned a little. "But I thought that was the reason Ranger brought you down here?"

"Well, I am sure he wanted us to get to know one another. But neither one of us is ready to get married again."

"You were married before too?"

"Yes. It was short lived." I said.

"I get it. So you're gun shy?" Julie asked.

"Something like that." I replied.

"Wow. I thought when people started to get old, they'd want to get married so they aren't alone anymore."

"We aren't alone. We are together. Who says you have to get married?" I said.

"My mom." Julie stated. "She says that I can't have sex until I am married."

I choked on my drink. Oh boy. How do you come up with an answer to that statement? Mom trying to give her daughter advice so she doesn't wind up like she did. "That is very good advice." I said. Ranger gave me a look.

"I guess the two of you are sleeping together, aren't you?"

I dropped the chip I was trying to eat. Where does this kid get these questions? "Well, we both were married before, so I guess it doesn't apply anymore." I stated.

"That makes sense." Julie said.

Ranger gave me a little smile. "Nice save, Babe." He said as he leaned over to whisper in my ear.

I tried to come up with some questions to ask her so we could get off the subject of Ranger and me. "So how is school? What is your teacher's name?"

"School is fine. My teacher is Mrs. Harris. She is a witch. She gave us homework to do over break. That is why I have my backpack with me."

"What do you have to do?" I asked. Good. New subject.

"We have to come up with our family tree. How do I do it? I know that Ranger is my real dad, but my dad adopted me, so who do I put down as my dad? And where do I put you?" She asked. O.K., not quite a new subject, just a new angle. We are still on the subject of relationships.

"Do you have a form that you have to fill out?" I asked.

"It is a tree with spaces on it to fill in with the names."

"O.K. Is there anything written on it like Mom, Dad, Grandmother, Grandfather, or do you write those things in?"

"No it just has blank lines and stuff."

"O.K. then it should be easy. You can list your mom and Ranger as your parents and then on the other side of your mom's name, add another line and put your dad's name. I am sure that you aren't the only child to have parents that are divorced."

"True. But none of them had their real father give them up." She said sadly.

"Julie, I did it because I thought it was best for you. It's not because I didn't love you. And maybe looking back, it wasn't the best decision I ever made."

"But you still came to see me. You still brought me gifts and sent money. Maybe you should have stayed away permanently!" She got up and ran into the house.

Ranger and I looked at each other. Ranger blew out a breath and sat back in his chair. I reached over and placed my hand on his arm.

"She is confused and she is hurting. I think that she feels that by loving Ron she is being disloyal to you and by loving you she feels she is being disloyal to Ron. I don't think she realizes that you can love more than one person. Would you like me to talk to her?"

"No, this is something that I need to discuss with her. I need for her to understand why I did what I did." He got up and walked toward the house. I sat back and finished my second beer. Then I got up and started to clear the table.


I had just finished putting the last plate in the dishwasher and turned it on when Ranger came into the kitchen. "How did it go?" I asked.

He shook his head. He came over to me and put his arms around me and pulled me to him. He put his head on my shoulder the just stood there for a while. Then he lifted his head and looked at me. He pushed a curl behind my ear. "Did I send you mixed signals too? Is that why it took so long for you to realize that I love you?"

"You told me on numerous occasions that you love me, but then you would say something else like--"

"'I don't do relationships'." He finished.

"I'm sure there's a logical explanation for the most asinine statement you've ever made, but it eludes me right now. I knew from your actions that you love me too. You were always there whenever I needed you. You helped with cars and bodyguards. But yeah, there were a lot of conflicting things that made me question if what you felt for me was really love or just lust." I said quietly.

"I'm not very good at letting my feelings out. I'm not very good at relationships as you can tell. I've hurt my daughter. I've hurt Rachel. I've hurt you. I am sure I've even hurt my family by not visiting more and keeping my distance."

"You did what you did because you thought you might bring danger to them. Whether it is a real threat or just an imagined one."

"You don't think that by being associated with me is going to bring a real threat. What about Scrog? He was real. He took both you and Julie."

"Yes, he did. And it was real and it was scary. He followed you without you being aware of it. He got to Julie when you weren't around to protect her. And I purposely put myself in harms way so I could get to Julie and try to help her. But, I have had more stalkers and people trying to hurt me or kill me than you have had. I think that by being associated with me will bring more of a threat of harm coming to those around me and that includes you and possibly Julie."

"Babe."

"It's true. Just think about it. Ramirez, Jimmy Alpha, Constantine Stiva, Allen Shempsky, Eddie Abruzzi, Clyde Clone, Junkman and the Slayers just to name a few. They have all been after me because of me. Not because of you. And none of them were any of the FTA's that I have had to go after. That is another list I could make. Now let's name those that came after me because of you. Scrog obviously. Habib and Mitchell they were following me in hopes of me leading them to you. Homer Ramos I guess you could say. So let's see that is four. Four compared to at least seven. So who brings more danger to them, you or me?"

"Babe. There are people in my past that could possibly find out where I am and come after me and anyone that is related or associated with me."

"They haven't yet, have they? You aren't exactly low profile. Even though you claim to have one. You are known on the streets. You have a reputation. Today with the internet and cell phone and such, if they really wanted you, they would have already found you.

Look. All I am saying is that you can't use this danger thing as an excuse for not getting close to people and having a relationship. Whether is it with your daughter or with me. Maybe if you keep the ones you love close to you, you can protect them better if a threat should arise."

His blank face was in place.

"Do not put your blank face on. If you don't want to have a relationship, you better say so right now. I'll get on the next plane out of here and I will be out of your life. Permanently. So you decide here and now. Do you want me or don't you?"

He said nothing and just looked at me.

"I guess you made your decision." I pushed him away and stormed off to the entry way and started up the stairs. I got up half way when a hand grabbed one of my hands.

"Babe."

"Let me go!"

"No!"

"Let. Me. Go."

"No. I don't want you to leave. I want you to stay."

"Why?"

"Because."

"Because why?"

"Because I love you. I want you. I want to share my life with you. I want to grow old with you."

Tears started falling down my face.

"Babe. Now I've made you cry again. I've hurt you again. If you really want to leave, you can go. I won't stop you."

I shook my head. "They are mostly happy tears. I'm happy because you want me in your life. You want to share your life with me. To grow old with me. I love you." I whispered.

He took me in his arms and held me tight. "You are right. You do bring more danger into our lives than I do. And maybe you have a point that by keeping those I love closer. I can protect them better. You know the old saying 'Keep the ones you love close and your enemies closer'. Don't leave, please."

"I love you, Ricardo Carlos Manoso."

"And I love you, Stephanie Michelle Plum."

TBC Chapter 10 - Teenage Problems