THIS IS NOT MINE…ALL JANET EVANOVICH'S. I JUST LIKE PLAYING WITH THEM.

*********************STEPH POV*******************************

I woke up with a start, unsure of where I was. The aches in my body reminded me quickly of where I was and why. I glanced over at Bruce was still sound asleep in his portable crib. I got up, padding my way over to the bathroom door. When I was done, I had fallen asleep in the Joe's t-shirt and really just wanted to get it as far away from me as I could. Glancing over at the clock I noticed that it was 1030. I had been sleeping for about an hour, and had run away from "home" over 3 hours ago.

I opened his closet and pulled out one of his black Rangeman t-shirts and a pair of SpongeBob boxers before heading back to the bathroom. I left the door open so that I could hear if Bruce woke up and took a very quick and very grateful shower. Pulling on Les' clothes and putting my hair in a loose bun I walked to the door and stepped out.

Les, Tank, and Gabi were sitting around the coffee table staring into space. When I walked out they all jumped to their feet.

"Did we wake you, Beautiful?" Les asked, before smiling and looking at what I was wearing. "Never thought I would live to see the day you not only were in my bed, but wearing my underwear." He gave me his wolf-grin. I laughed.

"Pizza is in the oven staying warm." Tank said, walking towards the kitchen. "Want something to drink?"

"Yeah. A bottle of water would be good." I called to him. He nodded as he rounded into the kitchen and disappeared.

I took a seat next to Gabi, who smiled and patted me gently on my leg. "It's all set up for you, hon." She said. Knowing that she meant the meeting with Ranger, I nodded. Tank came bustling around the corner with the box of pizza, a roll of paper towels and four bottles of water.

"When?" I asked taking a bottle from Tank and sighing as he flipped open the box to the cheesy goodness within.

"Anytime. He will be in his office until you come." She said nonchalantly, grabbing a slice of pizza before taking a huge bite.

"Great." I grabbed a slice myself and moaned as I bit off my first piece.

"God, I've missed you Beautiful." Les growled playfully. I rolled my eyes and smiled as he winked at me.

"Les, knock it off." Tank spat. "Poor girl doesn't need you harassing her right now."

We ate in relative silence with only a few 'please pass' and 'thank yous' spoken. When the pizza was completely gone I turned to Gabi.

"I am going to need something other than Les' underwear to go talk to Ranger." I tugged lightly at the hem. "Although, SpongeBob is fun…it's not exactly what I was thinking."

"Your dad left a care package of goodies in the spare room." Les said. "I am sure that he brought something for you to wear, as well as supplies for Bruce."

"Thanks." I nodded, walking back to Les' bedroom to check on Bruce. He was still sleeping, but I knew that he would be up soon. Leaving the door to his bedroom open I walked into the other bedroom, more than aware that all three of them were watching me intently. "I am just going to get dressed." I called out softly before I closed the door.

Leafing through the contents of the duffel bag my dad brought for me I found a pair of jeans, a blue v-neck t-shirt, white cotton bra and panty set and socks. I even found a tube of mascara and some lip gloss tucked into a pair of black CATS that I had left at my parents' house a few Christmases ago. My eyes teared up a little as I thought about how much I must have put my family through, how much I put all my Merry Men through, and…oh, God…what I put Ranger through. I don't know when he got back, and I don't know how much he knew. I was out of the loop in so many ways, for so long that I could barely tell you what month it is. Tears were flowing and sobs wracked through my chest.

"Stop it." I told myself. "You can't do this now." I shook my head, and wiped my eyes with my hands. Taking a deep breath I sat down on the edge of the bed and slipped on my boots, loving the familiar feeling. I swiped my lips with lip-gloss and added the minimal application of mascara for bravery. I stood, smoothing out the non-existent wrinkles before heading out the door to the crowd waiting for me.

"Looking good, Little Girl." Tank said as he got up and wrapped his large tree-trunk sized arms around my shoulders.

"Beautiful…you are BEAUTIFUL!" Les smiled, following Tank's actions and kissing me gently on the cheek.

"I know that Bruce is going to be waking up soon, and is going to want to eat. I noticed that my dad packed cereal, and some pureed foods for him. Would you be able to handle that?" I looked at all three of them. Tank and Les whipped their head to Gabi.

"Shit, guys…really? Just because I am a girl doesn't mean I know how to do this shit." Gabi scoffed. "Plus, are you telling me that you big bad-asses can't handle feeding a little baby?"

I laughed, "If anything, just give him a bottle. Hopefully I will be back before he would get to cranky."

"If anything," Les added. "We could call Ella down. She is good with babies." My heart broke a little as I remembered how I had told Ella that I wished he would adopt me. I hope that she would be able to forgive me. I nodded and shook my head softly to clear it of the tears that were threatening to fall.

"I need to do this, or I am going to back out." I said, wringing my hands. Tank pulled me into his chest and wrapped his arms around me.

"Do you want one of us to come with you?" His voice muffled as my ears were currently being surrounded my massive Tank chest and biceps. I nodded, tightening my grip around his chest but not able to touch my hands. When he released me I stepped back and bit my bottom lip nervously.

"Who wants to face Ranger with me?" I asked, unsure of who exactly I wanted to put between me and Ranger if things went badly.

"I will go." Les said. "He's my cousin. We're family. I can threaten him with calling abuela." I nodded and Les took my hand and lead me towards the door. "Come on Beautiful, I know that you are nervous, but trust me everything will be okay."

"Good luck." Tank and Gabi called to me as we walked out the door. I was really nervous about stepping outside of Les' apartment door. All of Rangeman was monitored, and I knew that my presence, if not already known, would be office gossip within minutes. Les, noticing my apprehension, placed his arm around my waist and pulled him close to me.

"You are safe here, Steph." He said softly into my ear. I turned to face him, his green eyes soft and filled with love and concern. "You are mi familia. My blood. Even before all of this. I have your back as well as every man in this building…including Ranger." I smiled and he kissed the top of my head. We rode the elevator just like that, his arm protectively curled around my waist. I lavished the comfort and the support it gave me.

The elevator doors opened to the COMM room. I gasped as the entire floor was on their feet staring at us. Hal, Cal, Binky, Zero, Hector, Benny, Bones, Junior, Woody, Vince, Silvio, Ram, Rodriguez, Manny, Roy, Cesar and even more faces that I didn't recognize. We all stared at one another for a moment, before Hector squeezed his way through the crowd. As one of the smallest Rangeman employees, it involved a lot of gently coaxing and pushing. He finally broke through the crowd and ran to me.

"Bonita!" Hector cried, disengaging me from Les' grasp and hugging me tightly to his chest. "Gracias a Dios que están de vuelta a casa. Te extrañé tanto, mi Bonita."

I wrapped my arms around him, snuggling my face into his neck. Hector and I always had a strange relationship. He didn't speak English, and I didn't speak Army. We often "talked" over contraband ice cream in the stairwell. He was always one of the first ones on scene when I was hurt, or one of the first to visit when I was laid up in hospital or my apartment. He was also the one that always brought me box of TastyKakes on every holiday, birthday and sick/lockdown day I had.

"I missed you too, Hector." I whispered. I didn't know exactly what he had said, but I knew what he had meant. He pulled back and cupped my face in his hands. Looking into his eyes I saw how concerned he was. I shook my head and told him that I was okay. He nodded and kissed me on the end of my nose before handing me back to Les.

"Ready Beautiful?" Les grinned, grabbing my hand and squeezing gently. I nodded, and followed him as he walked towards Ranger's closed office door. I was pretty sure that he was aware that I was there. The silence of the COMM room and Hector's greeting were pretty evident. Les knocked and pushed the door open before a response was given. I took a deep breath as we walked into the door. Les was directly in front of me, but I could already feel the familiar tingle at the back of my neck. Right away, even without seeing the majority of the room, as Les was so broad, I noticed that the room was nearly empty. All of the beautiful hard-wood furniture was gone, as were the pictures, books, and various knick-knacks. I peeked around Les cautiously, unable to gather my courage enough to stand tall. My heart fluttered frantically when I laid eyes on Ranger. He was slumped over his desk, his hands fisted on top of each other, and this forehead resting on top of that. His hair was short, just barely falling over his first knuckle of his fist. His white button-up shirt was rolled up to his sleeves and was open three buttons down from the collar.

"Ranger." Les said softly, causing Ranger to jump and look up at him. Immediately seeing me, he stood, pushing the chair out hard so that it clamored against the wall.

"Babe." I could hear him whisper as he stepped around his desk and walked towards us. Embarrassment and shame caused me to jump back around Les, grabbing a hold of the back of his shirt. I wanted to apologize, to tell him why I did what I did, knowing that it wasn't a good enough reason to do what I had done. I wanted to run to him, wrap myself around him and kiss him. I wanted to tell him how much I loved him, and for him to tell me that he loves me too.

"Beautiful." Les whispered, reaching back and pulling my hands from his shirt and twisting me in front of him, his front to my back. I covered my face with my hands, and slunk my shoulders slightly. Serious regret flashed through me. 'There was no way he was going to forgive me, let alone want to be part of our lives. I never should have done this.' I thought as tears began to burn my covered eyes. Les placed his hands on my shoulders and whispered into my ear. "He loves you, Stephanie. Please tell him."

I nodded, took a deep breath and uncovered my eyes. Ranger was standing right in front of me. His eyes filled with concern, frustration and …love? Seeing him after all this time broke my heart all over again. Tears fell uncontrollably down my face. Without hesitation, Ranger pulled me into his arms, kissed my hair and whispered to me.

"Babe…Steph..Dios, Babe..I love you, please…Please, talk to me." His voice was soft and kind. After a minute or so, I gained control of my crying and pushed gently back against his chest.

"I...I...have to tell you something." I stumbled out. "But I don't know where to start."

He picked me up and carried me to one of the few remaining pieces of furniture, a large burgundy sofa near his desk. He set me down on the sofa, and kneeled at my feet his hands gently holding mine. His fingers stroked my knuckles as he stared into my eyes.

"Where ever you want to start, Babe." He said, lifting the corners of his mouth into his mysterious smile.

"Okay." I took another deep breath and began. "After you left, I began to work full-time at Rangeman. I was mostly doing searches and stuff, but occasionally I got to go out in the field at help Hector and Vince. I also did the low-level FTAs for Vinnie, and I was getting good at it." I smiled of how well I actually had been doing. Ranger smiled at this too. "After a month or so, Tank asked me to do a distraction job. It was pretty easy, and went off without a hitch for the most part...until Joe showed up and not only broke my cover but got me sliced open. He took me to the urgent care clinic to get stitched up. That's when I found out I was pregnant. He was furious, and took me 'home' which ended up being his house. I asked him to take me back to my apartment, but he refused telling me that we were going to get married. He told me that if I didn't I would never be able to live with what was going to happen." I gulped, forcing down the vomit that was threatening to reveal itself. "He explained that he had been looking into you, searching your background, your family. He threatened that if I didn't marry him by that Friday that he was going to have Julie, your mother, sisters, grandmother…murdered. He knew people, and would tell me every time we got into a fight about how he still was in contact with them. He threatened me daily with the murders that would be over my head. I couldn't let that happen, I still don't know if I can stay away. I can't let anyone you love be hurt because of this."

"Babe." He pulled me into his arms. "Why didn't you call Tank or Les? They would have helped you."

"I couldn't. Joe locked me down until after I had the baby, then he threatened that if I ever talked to anyone that associated with you that he would ….he would kill Bruce." Tears poured out of me now, nothing holding them back.

"How could he threaten the life of his own child?" He asked, pulling me back to look into my eyes. "He's crazy and stupid, but too prideful to kill his own child."

I couldn't speak. I began almost panting, trying to gather my breath, my thoughts, and my courage. My gaze flicked up to Les, who had pulled out his cell phone.

"Beautiful, show him this." He handed me the phone, and I looked down at it. There on its 2" by 4" screen was my beautiful Bruce, eyes twinkling brightly. Looking up from the picture I gulped, before speaking again.

"Ranger….Carlos," When I called him by his name he gripped my free hand tighter. "I need to…You see…I was…We…Shit." It was like my mouth and my brain weren't cooperating. "I'm sorry." I turned the phone to him, showing the picture of Bruce. He looked from the picture to me, back to the picture, to Les and then back to me.

"Is that?" Ranger's voice was tight, and his eyes sparkled with what could almost be tears. I heard him gulp loudly, and clear his voice. "Is this my son?"

Looking deep into his eyes, I nodded. Ranger launched himself at me, wrapping his arms around me and holding me tightly to my chest. The cell phone fell with a thud onto the carpet. I sobbed into his chest, wrapping my arms around him tightly and apologizing over and over again. We sat tightly embraced for a few minutes before he pulled back slowly, wiping the tears off my face with the pads of this thumbs. I reached out and ran my thumb over the two rouge tears that he had shed, breaking my heart even more.

"Steph," He croaked, his voice filled with unshed tears. "Can I see him? Can I see my boy?"

"Yes!" I cried, thankfully. "Yes, Carlos, you can see your boy." He smiled, cupped my face in his hands and kissed me gently, barely touching my lips. "I love you, Babe."

"I love you, too, Ranger." As I spoke his lips crashed against my own, sparking a whole new set of tears. This time it wasn't about shame, but relief. I was home, and Ranger not only wanted to see his son, but he loved me.

*********************AUTHOR'S NOTE********************

Thank you all for being so patient with me this week. It's been a rough one in my real world. Hopefully I will be adding another chapter within the next couple of days…I would say Wednesday at the latest. Enjoy, and PLEASE REMEMBER…..I love feedback. Let me know that you are liking (or not liking) the direction that this is going. I know that this is hard to believe…but it hasn't even been 24 hours yet! Don't worry…time is going to start moving along now that we got the heavy stuff out of the way.

Obsessed Reader22

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