All the usual, the characters belong to JE, not me.

Fredda (Rangergirl1234) you are simply amazing with such fast and thorough beta skills.

Chapter 10 – 1 in 8

Stephanie's POV:

I couldn't believe Lester had just kissed my head and walked out without so much as a single word. That was really strange. I turned to Ranger and said, "I've got to do something," and walked out of the conference room.

I walked past the cubicles but Les was gone. I checked the break room next but he wasn't there so I went to the control room and saw Cal just taking his seat. "Can you do something for me?" I asked stepping closer beside his chair.

"Name it," he replied hooking his arm around my waist to bring me closer still. I rested my hand on his shoulder to keep my balance since my leg was pressing against the arm of his chair.

"I need to know Lester's current location. Can you get a feed on him in the office after the meeting?" I asked and waited as Cal brought up the footage of the meeting's end when Les walked out of the room. The camera in the hall caught the front of his face and the grainy black and white picture still showed an expression that seemed to be a cross between anger and hurt. I couldn't place why he'd feel that way. Maybe he was upset that I hadn't told him about my suspicions, but it wasn't like Les to be mad about something like that.

Cal followed his progress from the hall to the stairs but he didn't go down like I expected, he went up. It took a few minutes to work through all the shots but eventually Cal pointed to the screen and said, "There he is, on the roof."

"You're the best," I told him squeezing the hard muscle of his shoulder under my hand. I started to leave but Cal had placed his arm around me so I couldn't get away.

"Not without a proper thank you," he teased lifting his cheek in the air like a father asking his daughter for a goodnight kiss.

I was more than happy to oblige and place a quick peck on his offered cheek, then gave him a bonus smack on the skull tattooed on his forehead. "Thank you," I whispered with my lips still on his head.

While I was taking the stairs to the roof I wondered if Cal was being so affectionate just because of my diagnosis. Did it matter if the answer was yes? Not really, I finally decided as I began to pant from climbing up the stairs. As I willed myself to go up the last ten steps pulling on the handrail to force myself to keep fighting gravity, I made it to the door to the roof. I stood there for a minute, taking deep breaths while trying to calm my respirations down enough that I could talk if Les would let me.

Feeling like I had it under control, I pushed the door open hard and jumped when it thudded against the door loudly. Les turned around with his hand drawn back as though he had considered going for his gun. Seeing me he relaxed and turned back around to look over the rooftop at the city.

I stood next to him and took in the view for a brief minute, hoping he would talk. But his silence convinced me that he wasn't going to give up the secret of his anger that easily.

"Are you going to tell me why you're mad at me?" I started and then figured I should go ahead and apologize for not telling him sooner. "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you earlier but I just found out today for sure and until I knew for sure, I just didn't want to worry you guys."

He turned and interrupted my apology just as I was beginning to gain some momentum. "Beautiful, I'm not mad at you. I'm mad for you."

"H-huh?" I stuttered out in my eloquence.

His face relaxed into a soft smile at my confusion. Then he ran his fingers through the spikes in his hair letting out a long breath. "My mom," he finally said as though that were the answer to all my questions.

Not picking up on the clue quick enough I repeated, "Your mom?"

"Yea," he agreed. "She had breast cancer when I was in high school."

"Oh, and hearing about my diagnosis brought back the memory of it?" I tried to reason, since getting information out of the Merry Man that was typically the most talkative was proving to be next to impossible.

"Something like that," he told me. His jaw tightened and his eyes narrowed while he looked out over the city once more. It seemed as though he were deciding something important so I waited and eventually he rewarded my patience by speaking.

"We didn't have a lot when I was kid. I remember there being hushed conversations for weeks or maybe months between my parents when I was a junior in school. My mom was often crying when I came home from school, but nothing I said or did would get her to open up about what was happening. One day I cornered my dad in the garage and asked if he and my mother were getting a divorce. I was convinced that was the only thing that would keep her upset like she had been." He started.

I put a hand on Lester's arm and he covered it with his other hand. "My dad quickly told me I was no where near the truth, which was a relief because I always thought my parents were in love. So he made me go in the house and then called my mom and sister from the kitchen and had us all sit down. 'It's time,' he told my mom and she nodded so he began to explain what was wrong."

I could see him swallow as though preparing himself for the hard part of the story. "He told us that my mom had cancer, breast cancer, and that the doctor's didn't think she would live more than a year. We were stunned so he went on to explain how the doctors wanted to do all the fancy treatments but we couldn't afford them. We only had major medical, which didn't cover this kind of thing, so we needed to prepare ourselves for the fact that our mother was going to die."

I sucked in a quick breath and Les moved to put an arm around my shoulder pulling me closer to him. "The doctors hadn't given her long but once we all knew she didn't seem as sad. It almost seemed like she had made up her mind to fight as long as she could to see me through high school. My sister graduated a year before me and my mom was still fighting. I made it through graduation and was accepted to college. She was so proud, but the effects of having fought for so long were apparent and she quickly went downhill. Three weeks after I graduated she died during the night."

"Oh Les," I said putting my arms around his waist to hold him closer.

His arm tightened around me and he finished his story. "I knew she only held on for me and everywhere I looked around the house I saw her so I had to get out. Instead of going to school like I planned, I went to the local army recruiter and enlisted one week after her funeral. My crazy cousin was in the military and I figured if he could hack it there I could too. Plus I had so much anger in me that my mom was taken from us that I needed to do something that allowed me to fight like she had."

We were both silent for a while and he finally spoke up to say, "Beautiful, when Bobby said you were sick I was furious at the idea of the fight that is ahead of you. I know you'll have all the advantages of a great medical team to look after you, but in the end you are still going to have to fight to beat this. If you give up, we all lose and I can't lose you like my mom."

My first instinct was to remind him that we were just friends but my gut told me he knew that so I kept that thought to myself. "Les, I want to beat this. It's still early and I don't know what they're going to want to do, but I promise not to give up."

"We need you around here Beautiful," he assured me. "You'll never be alone. We'll take you to your appointments and stay by your side if you get sick from the treatment. We'll help you fight, all you have to do is tell us how."

By this point Les had pulled me to his chest and was holding me in his arms. "Can I ask you a question?" I spoke up from the comfortable and warm place against his heartbeat.

"Anything, you know that," Les replied looking down with an expression of curiosity on his face.

"Since Bobby announced I was sick you guys have been a little more touchy feely. Is this just a temporary thing or can I expect to have strong arms nearby from now on?"

I could feel his chest shaking a little so I figured he was laughing a little at my expense. I wasn't that upset about it like I normally would be. I was glad to see he was letting go of a little of the initial anger he had come up to the roof top with.

"I can't speak for the other guys, but I plan on keeping my hands on you as much as Ranger will let me." He answered, giving me a reason to laugh.

"What makes you think Ranger would care if you touched me?" I wondered.

"You're kidding, right? Have you seen the way that man looks at you? Do you know how often we get called to the mats just for looking at you walk by or making a comment about how good you look." He offered as an explanation.

"What makes you think he won't still call you to the mats?" I pressed, trying to point out the flaw in his logic.

"We don't. The difference is that we don't care anymore. Our desire to support you is greater than our concern about something as insignificant as an ass kicking." He told me with a smile.

I decided to try lighten up the mood further by saying, "That's a shame because you all have such drool worthy asses. I'd hate to see them all bruised or swollen."

"If you promise to kiss it to make it feel better I for one think it would be well worth it." He said back.

Then he got serious once more and said, "I've missed this." He used a finger to point back and forth between us. "Going to see the doctor is why you haven't been yourself, right?"

I nodded. "I knew I couldn't do anything about it but the waiting nearly did me in. Somehow I almost feel relieved to know what's wrong, even though it's bad news."

We talked for another ten minutes before the door banged open once more and a very worried looking Tank and Ranger burst onto the roof.

Tank's POV

We stayed in the conference room after everyone left going over how smooth his transition back had been. There was no mountain of work that Ranger had to catch up and there was no long list of clients that needed to be calmed down. We laughed over how Stephanie was the reason for the lack of chaos, which was unexpected since she normally left a wake of destruction in her path.

"Speaking of Steph, where is she?" I asked.

"She said she had something to do after the meeting," Ranger said looking around to the clock on the wall. It had been more than forty-five minutes since she left and I could see his eyes narrow, probably worrying about where she was.

I followed him when he stood and walked to the control room where Cal was seated with a glazed expression, common after too much time staring at the screens. "Pull up Steph's tracker," Ranger said harshly when we walked in.

Cal sat up straight and began clicking away. "It says she's here," Cal reported.

Ranger didn't miss a beat before saying, "Then find her. I need to know where she is right now."

Cal began pulling up camera angles beginning at the bottom floor and working to the roof Ranger turned to me and started to talk but Cal interrupted to say, "She's on the roof!"

"What's she doing on the roof?" I asked without thinking.

"Just standing at the edge…" he started to say but Ranger cut him off by yelling, "Damn it!" and taking off at a mad pace to the stairs.

I knew exactly what he was thinking and took off after him. We needed to get there in time before she did something stupid. I knew she was upset about the diagnosis, but I didn't see this in her. I never thought she'd do something like this. She wasn't one to give up on life and jumping from the roof would just be quitting without giving it a fight.

When we got to the top of the stairs Ranger hit the door to open it and we barged right through to see a very surprised Lester holding Stephanie in his arms. "What the hell is going on?" Ranger barked.

Lester's face went from surprised to hard in less than a second. He narrowed his eyes trying to decide if he wanted to tell his boss and cousin to buzz off but Stephanie spoke up before he could reach a conclusion. "I could tell Les was upset about something after the meeting and I followed him up here to find out what it was."

Apparently, that wasn't the answer Ranger was expecting because he bent over and put his hands on his knees. He wasn't winded so it had nothing to do with the three flights of stairs we'd just run up.

Stephanie came over to him immediately and put her arm around his shoulder on his back. "Ranger, what's wrong?"

He stood up and pulled her in his arms, holding her tight enough I figured she had to be suffocating. "Ranger?" she asked once more snapping him out of the trance he had been in.

"Babe, when Cal said you were on the edge of the roof I just assumed…I mean, I thought the worst." He tried explaining. I felt bad for him. Not only had he just been through the rush of assuming his woman was considering taking her life but now he had to deal with the aftereffects of the adrenaline let down without worrying Stephanie.

"Ranger, I'm not going anywhere. I don't know what the doctor is going to tell me Wednesday, but I can promise whatever it is I'll go along with the plan for treating me. I'm going to fight this with everything I have. We've just begun to open up to each other and I refuse to bow out early without seeing how good life can be by your side." With every word she spoke Ranger relaxed some more and by the end it almost felt like we were intruding on a very private moment.

Unexpectedly Les walked over and kissed the back of her hair, "That's right Beautiful, go get 'em." He encouraged her.

Ranger made a sound like a growl at the close contact but Stephanie stepped back, "No!" she yelled at him. "You can't do that. The guys understand that I'm yours, but this…" she tried saying before giving up on finding the right word and just pointed at her chest instead, "This is scary to them too. No one can take your place, but I might need the support of you all to get through this. You'll have to get over threatening everybody when they try to be encouraging."

"Damn, cuz! You just got your ass handed to you by a little girl," Lester said through his laughter.

"Lester Santos, get out of here before I tell him I've changed my mind and let him kick your ass anyway," she threatened him with a hint of teasing in her voice.

He stopped laughing immediately and began to back up to the stairs, "Yes ma'am."

I decided to leave the lovebirds alone and put my hand on Steph's back without saying anything more.

When I grabbed the door to close it behind me Stephanie said, "Thanks Tank."

"Anytime, Little Girl, anytime." I shut the door behind myself feeling like even though Steph had gotten the news I had prayed she wouldn't hear, that somehow we would all be okay. In her usual manner Stephanie would find a way to use this to pull us together and we'd find a way to pull her through.

Stephanie's POV

When Tank and Lester left I turned around to look at Ranger. He had the good sense to look a little sheepish about growling at Lester earlier and as I replayed my words to him in my mind I began to think I might have been a little harsh. "Ranger, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to jump on you."

He put his hand up indicating I needed to stop talking. "Babe, you had every right to speak to me the way you did. I'm just glad it was only in front of those two instead of more of the guys."

"I know we've only had one talk about what's going on between us and there is still a lot that's been left unsaid," I tried to explain.

"As long as you understand that I love you, and I'm not going anywhere despite what the doctor said this morning, then most of what I need to say is out there," he said leaving no doubt how he felt.

"How can you want this?" I asked stepping away a little to make thinking clearly possible. "I'm enough trouble on my good days, but no matter what the rest of the tests show there are going to be some hard days ahead for me. Why would you volunteer to be there for that? I'll be sick, and emotional, and a wreck." I tried warning him.

"Babe, on your good days I want to be with you to share in what makes you happy. But, on the days when things are hard and you're a wreck I need to be there. It's like I told you yesterday, I would be beside you either way, but if you'll believe me when I tell you that I love you then it will keep you from questioning why I'm sticking around." He explained before stopping for a minute and asking, "Where would you be if the roles were reversed and I was the one that was sick?"

"That's different; of course I'd be with you. I'd do anything I could to help," I quickly explained.

"Then let me do the same thing," he spoke softly, walking to look me in the eyes so that I could see the pleading on his face for me to believe him.

I half smiled before sharing the conclusion I'd already come to about us. "Alright, but just so you know I'll understand if you think I'm a bit much and need a break sometimes."

He pulled me tightly to his chest. "Never," he swore and God help me I believed him. Everything inside me relaxed knowing he'd be by my side all the way, even at my worst, which I feared was quickly approaching.

"Come on, let's go in. I don't know about you but it's been a long day already and I could use some dinner and an early night," he suggested.

"Okay," I replied suddenly feeling exhausted too. "I just need to grab my stuff from Tank's office and I'll be ready to go.

He stopped walking when I mentioned leaving. "Um, Babe, I don't want to push you but I had hoped you would stay with me on seven. I don't want to smother you but do you really need to be alone tonight?"

I felt my teeth digging into my lip and realized I was biting it without meaning too. "I don't know," I told him honestly.

Ranger leaned against the door to go downstairs and pulled me to him. "Tell me this then; if you were at your apartment, what would you do tonight?"

That was a good question. "I don't have plans for the night; most of the time I just sit in the quiet and then fall apart. I don't mean to, but it's hard to fight it all day without giving into the emotions when I'm by myself."

"How would you feel about me coming back to your apartment tonight? I don't want to intrude but if you're going to fall apart I'd like to be there for you," he volunteered

"You wouldn't mind going to my place?" I asked, wondering why on earth he'd want to be there when he has such a luxurious home upstairs.

"You're going to be there; I want to be where you are." He assured me.

I smiled to let him know my answer and hand in hand we went down the stairs. I had to admit when we walked in my apartment I didn't feel as lost as I had for the last few weeks. Obviously, I was still holding Ranger's hand and I didn't think it was possible to get lost when you were with him.

Of course, now that I wasn't alone I wasn't sure what to do either. Sensing my confusion Ranger offered, "Just do whatever you would normally do but this time I'm going to be sitting on the couch with a bottle of water in my hand. This is still your place and you're free to do or feel whatever you need to. The only difference is that you aren't alone."

I yawned before I could respond so he pushed me to the bathroom. I decided a quick shower might help me to relax so I jumped in as soon as the water warmed up and began to scrub away the day. I used extra shower gel to insure I had enough bubbles and then I began to rub my skin trying to wipe off the words from my doctor. Then I pressed a little harder trying to get rid of the announcement that more waiting was going to be necessary. I pushed into my skin to erase the look on Bobby's face when he got to the pathology report and knew I had cancer. The soap was gone but I kept trying to wash away the look on Lester's face when he left the conference room and the story of his mother, the tragedy of losing her and the effect it had on his life. Then I kept working to try and rid myself of his plea for me to fight because of how they all needed me.

I don't know how long I had been in the shower but when the curtain moved and revealed a very concerned Ranger I realized the water was cold and my skin was red despite the lack of heat against it. "Babe," he spoke quietly, easing the shower puff from my hand and then turning off the water.

"I just needed to get the day off of me," I defended realizing I might have taken it a bit too far. I hadn't exfoliated, I'd sanded off the top layer of skin.

I'd never been handled so gently as he wrapped me in a towel and pulled me to him allowing the heat from his body to warm mine. He picked up a bottle of lotion on the shelf beside the shower and then grabbed the towel around me to pull me with him into my bedroom.

He softly dried what water remained on me and then tossed the towel to leave me naked in front of him. Strangely, I didn't feel the need to cover myself. There was a look in his eye that told me this wasn't a sexual moment; this was a time to care for me. In a motion so smooth I hardly recognized it, he untucked and then pulled off his shirt before pushing it over my head leaving me standing there inhaling his unique smell and feeling the warmth from where his body had been in the clothing only seconds before.

With his hands on my shoulders as a guide he turned me around and then pushed me to the bed, indicating I should lie down on my stomach. I obeyed without a word being spoken.

When his hands began to touch the backs of my legs I shut my eyes and focused on the way it felt to have him rubbing lotion on my skin to soothe the damage I'd done over-scrubbing in the shower. His hands worked up my legs, over my rear end, and all over my back under the material of his shirt. I'm sure I moaned a few times but it was nothing compared to how much I wanted to. This was heaven.

Once he was sure he'd gotten my back side he rolled me over so he could begin again with my feet but working on the front of my body. Amazingly it didn't tickle at all as he worked on my toes and then past my knees. Once he got to my hips he skipped to my hands and arms and then jumped up to my neck and face carefully avoiding everything that was covered by the t-shirt. Once all the exposed skin was taken care of he took both my hands in his and pulled me to a seated position so that he could remove the t-shirt.

Once again I was naked in front of him but had no shame. The room was nearly dark as evening had come and the day I had dreaded for so long was drawing to a close. The only light was coming from the bathroom, casting a soft glow in the room while creating more shadows than clarity and giving me the courage to lie before him, surrendering to his touch.

This time when he began applying the lotion on my torso I shut my eyes and concentrated on the movement of his strong hands beginning at my hips, working over my stomach around my navel and up each rib. He then started at my shoulders and went across each collarbone before whispering my name with just enough voice to get my attention but leaving the silence in the room somehow intact.

I opened my eyes and saw the question in his. The only places he hadn't touched yet were my breasts. I refused to look at them and instead focused all my attention on the brown pools of adoration that were drawing me in. I nodded my consent, grateful that he'd asked without assuming it would be okay to touch me there.

Ranger is the most sexual person I've ever been around. Everything about him exudes confidence and his mastery of every action qualifies him as the most attentive lover a woman could ask for. This isn't something he can turn on or off, yet the way he was touching the skin around my right breast wasn't sexual. His palm applied lotion over my nipple and I knew it was probably a rock hard pebble but he wasn't doing this as some sort of foreplay. He was loving me and right now that included loving all of me, even the parts that were damaged. I thought I was handling it very well until his hands moved to my left breast and they began mirroring the same movements he'd just completed on my other side. But knowing where he was touching me, just under the surface was a growth that didn't belong; the tears began to leak from my eyes.

I didn't try to stop them. I just focused on his eyes and watched them change from loving to pleading. He didn't want me to shut him out like I was tempted to do. I wanted to push his hands away from me, not wanting his perfect hands to run over my diseased body. This was one of those defining moments and we both knew it. If I allowed him to continuing touching me, to stay with me tonight, then we would be connected in a way that could not be undone. But if I put up a wall here saying you can be around me, but I won't let you in, then despite how we might feel about each other, there would be no coming back to this place of vulnerability.

A decision of this magnitude should have taken me a few moments to decide but I went with my gut and put my left hand on top of his stopping the movement but holding him to me. He raised an eyebrow slightly allowing me to tell him what I wanted even if it meant hurting him.

"Stay," I said quietly, though it sounded as though it were echoing in the stillness of the room.

His shoulders relaxed slightly and he nodded. "As long as you want me," he promised.

He rose from where he had been half kneeling on the bed and stood to remove his remaining clothes so that he was naked beside me. He scooped me in his arms moving me to the center of the bed and crawling in beside me, pulling me back to be as close as possible to him.

There was no layer of cotton to define where I stopped and he began and in the last moments I was awake I felt as though even our skin ceased to be a barrier for us as we molded into one heart beating with a shared love.

There might be rogue cells eating away at healthy tissue in my chest that I was powerless to stop. But Ranger was now protecting my heart and I knew he'd never allow any harm to come to that which he held most dear. With that great measure of comfort I shut my eyes and sighed into sleep.

A/N: I realize the title of the chapter might not make sense so I thought I should explain. According to the CDC one in eight women will develop invasive breast cancer in their lifetime. With that statistic being true I felt that someone at RangeMan needed to have a first hand experience with the effects of this disease that would make him a real champion for what Steph was about to go through.