A/N: I've been posting two chapters at a time, but today's post is just one chapter, as the only thing left after this is the epilogue. I have been overwhelmed with the reviews and interest in this story. If I've missed reponding to anyone, it was unintentional. As always, I use them for fun and not profit.

Part 5: Here's Mud In Your Eye

Chapter 19

Lester made a move toward my side, in response to Ranger's command. "Stay here," Ranger ordered Lester, "Howdy, you take her."

Howdy's arm was gentle as it wrapped around my shoulders. In less than a minute I was ensconced in a RangeMan SUV. I was in shock, and although it might seem natural after I'd seen JP's legs extending from under the bus, I was in shock from something entirely different. Ranger was beyond pissed. I'd never seen anger emanating from his eyes like it had earlier. I'd seen his eyes black and his mouth in a tight line before, most notably when I'd fallen from the cabinet at Stiva's house and he'd caught me. He'd thought for a moment I'd been dead. They way he'd looked at me tonight was more in the line of the way I imagined he would have looked at Stiva, if he'd gotten the chance. I'd gone against his wishes that night, too.

Howdy was silent for most of the trip, and I was as well. We were about a mile from RangeMan when he spoke. "I knew you were there."

"You knew?" I asked. "How?"

"I don't know how," he said. "I didn't see you, but I was sure you were there. The minute I saw that Sally guy earlier today, I knew there was something fishy going on. Then, when I was sitting at the table at the Snake Pit, I knew you were there. I can't explain it, but I knew. I started looking for you, but I was looking for you, not an old lady."

The spidey sense thing Howdy and I had going on was a little unnerving. The only other person I felt it with was Ranger, and that was on a whole different level. Howdy could always sense when I was in danger. It probably worked both ways, but I wasn't sure because Howdy had never been in danger. It was always me. I gave my head a shake to toss the curls out of my eyes. Maybe it was the curls. Maybe my curls and Howdy's curls gave off some sort of energy that gave us ESP. My introspection was cut short when Howdy started talking again.

"I didn't know what to do," he said. "I thought Ranger would listen to me, but he was with JP and we were there to watch only, unless there was trouble. I didn't say anything to Tank or Lester, because Tank was preoccupied with Lula, and Lester was preoccupied with every other woman in the place. In the end, I just decided to say nothing and keep my eyes open. I never did see you, until Ranger pulled your wig off. I guess he has spidey sense too, because I don't think he would have recognized you without it."

"I think he does have it," I agreed quietly. Howdy pulled the SUV into a parking stall at the back of the RangeMan garage, and got out. I searched the interior for Sally's gray wig and my purse. The wig was MIA, but I found my purse on the floor. Just as I reached to open the door, Howdy pulled it open for me. He stretched out a hand and grabbed mine to steady me. His eyes opened wide as my breasts swayed to and fro' with the impact of my feet on the garage floor. We stared at each other for a moment and both broke into grins, his open and engaging, mine a little rueful.

"I'm glad you and the baby are safe," he said giving my hand a squeeze. "The evening didn't go exactly as planned, especially for JP, but you don't have a stalker anymore and you're not injured."

"Thanks, Howdy," I appreciated his words, because I thought maybe they'd be the only kind words I'd hear for awhile. I hadn't thought in terms of ridding myself of a stalker. My mind had been reeling back and forth between the image of Ranger's cold eyes and JP's mud soaked legs protruding from the bus, like a parody of the Wicked Witch of the West.

Howdy acted hesitant to leave, but I was in no mood for company. "It's okay," I told him. "I'm going upstairs and I'll stay there until Ranger comes home. I think your babysitting duties are over." I gave him a smile and a little finger wave as I walked toward the elevator.

The apartment was quiet without the usual noises of night. I turned my head to watch the blue luminescent numbers click off the minutes. Each one seemed like an hour as I laid waiting for Ranger. Eventually I drifted into a restless sleep, and when the click of a lock turning woke me, it reverberated through the apartment like a gunshot. A quick look at the clock caused me to shift my eyes to the window where I could see the soft light of an early dawn edging in under the hem of the draperies.

I waited for what seemed like forever, for Ranger to come into the room. There was an absence of sound, but Ranger was notorious for his stealth. The apartment had been enlarged to twice its original size a few months earlier, and we now had a guestroom. Was that why I didn't hear Ranger? Was he so angry he'd moved out of our bed? I wanted and I didn't want the answer, in equal measure.

The covers slipped off the bed as I pushed them away. My feet hit the floor, and in my panic I nearly tripped over the comforter as I made my way to the bedroom door. I made a cursory glance toward the living room before I turned to go down the hall to the guestroom. I stopped and turned back, doing a double take.

Ranger looked unfamiliar in a white shirt and jeans. He was sitting in the big leather chair; his head tipped back exposing a long column of throat. His elbows rested on the over-stuffed chair arms and his hands were collapsed in his lap, from what I was sure had been a steepled position. He was asleep. I stood and watched the slow rise and fall of his chest and listened to his quiet breathing. After a few minutes, I moved to the sofa. We were both motionless, his sleep being deep and my observation of him intense.

The breathing remained constant, without change, but the energy changed in the room. It was a palpable force. I let my eyes drift up toward his face and when our eyes met I had to hold my breath to keep from gasping. There was no blank expression, just the opposite. Emotion had his face contorted. I saw anger, and maybe, I saw hurt.

He didn't speak, just stared at me. When I couldn't stand the silence anymore I said, "You're home late. Is everything taken care of?"

"Yes," his voice was flat betraying none of the emotion I saw on his face.

"What happened," I asked.

"Santos stepped up, and spun a believable tale to the Trenton PD, about being at the Snake Pit with JP. He said she challenged Lula and Mary Maggie, and when she was defeated she ran from the bar. The rest of the story was true, so it was corroborated by the bus driver and several eye witnesses. Then Lester and I went to see the old man, and JP's brother to tell them."

"Oh no," I said. "Her father. Is he okay?"

Ranger shrugged his shoulders. "He's as okay as you can be when you lose a child." His eyes were focused on my belly.

"I, I'm sorry," I stammered, "about JP I mean. I know she was my stalker, but…"

Ranger stood from the chair and faced me. "I don't give a flying fuck about JP," he said, interrupting me. "She was an unbalanced woman who put her own wants before anything else, and she would have killed to have her way. Lula stood next to Tank tonight, and sold the Trenton PD her story about JP challenging her and Mary Maggie to a match." I felt ill. Lula hated cops and yet she lied to them to keep me out of the story.

"I don't know how to deal with this," Ranger said.

"Deal with what?" I asked.

"I told you once, Stephanie," he said, "that I had more muscle, but you had all the power. I don't know how to deal with that. I can't take you to the mats as I would with any other employee who disobeyed me. I can't walk away from you, because you're my wife, and I took a vow. Until death do us part. I don't understand why you'd knowingly put your life, and the life of my unborn child in danger."

"I didn't," I said. "I didn't knowingly put my life or Adriano's in danger. You told me not to go to the Snake Pit. I thought you meant you didn't want me to be seen there, so I thought if I went in disguise everything would be fine. I'd be there for Lula and no one would see me. If you'd told me I shouldn't go because you were taking JP there, I'd never have gone. I'm not an idiot. You can't just order me around Ranger."

"No shit."

"What now?" I asked.

"Now," Ranger said, "I'm going to the gym and then I'll shower and go to work. At least I can quit worrying about staffing problems. The O'Malley account is safe. The old man and Brian actually thanked me for what I did last night. The installation is complete, so it should be business as usual." He got up and walked into the bedroom. I remained unmoving on the sofa until he left the apartment a few minutes later.

After Ranger was gone, I dressed quickly and pulled my hair back into a messy ponytail. I didn't shower and I didn't put make-up on. I just wanted to be gone when Ranger came back to the apartment. I took the stairs, because I didn't want to wait on the elevator, then I stood in the garage staring at the RangeMan vehicles. I was indecisive for a moment, and then opened the door to Ranger's turbo and slid in. Somewhere in the building, someone was watching me and I knew I'd be tracked. That was fine with me, because I wasn't interested in going off the grid. I just needed to be alone.

I parked on the street in front of the store and let myself in, locking the door behind me. The store was starting to look like an actual place of business and I'd be open within two weeks. When Lula and I'd stocked shelves last week I'd imagined where I'd place the baby carrier, and later on the play pen. I walked to the far wall and leaned back looking out over the stocked shelves, mostly silhouetted in shadows from the early morning light. Slowly, I slid down the wall and sat on the soft carpet. The store felt new, and it no longer had the musty smell I'd associated with Mary Maggie's book store.

I'd fallen into and out of bounty hunting. The store represented the first career choice I'd made and I was proud of what I'd accomplished. I felt grown-up. Adriano started turning somersaults and I realized I'd made another choice as well, and this one I wasn't so proud of.

Being pregnant was a choice and how I handled the pregnancy was also a choice. I settled in for some serious thinking.

After an hour, the sounds from the street brought me out of my introspection. I realized the day had started and I was hungry. I stood, took one look around the store and left, locking the door behind me. I made my way down the block to the bonds office. I knew there'd be donuts.

Lula was in the middle of telling Connie about the events of the last evening. She made no attempt to hide the fact she was talking about me. She just held the donut bag toward me and kept right on talking. I grabbed a glazed and parked my ass on the sofa to listen.

When she was finished she turned to me and said, "Well, I guess my mud wrestling career is over. There ain't anywhere else in Trenton that has mud wrestlers, and the Snake Pit is gonna be closed for repairs for a long time. How you doing, Stephanie?"

"I'm okay," I said. "I owe you my life, Lula."

"You ain't gonna do that weird shit, where you follow me around until you can save my life to make us even are you?" she asked. I smiled and shook my head.

"Well, that's good, because the way I look at it we're even now. Everything okay with Ranger?"

Again I shook my head, but this time the tears fell. Before I could explain the door opened and Tank walked in. He went straight to Lula and wrapped her up in a huge hug. When he turned and saw me, he came and sat beside me.

"I'm going to give you some advice," he said. "Somebody once said, 'Learn from my mistakes', so I'm telling you go back to Haywood and talk to him."

I gave Tank a watery smile and said, "Thanks, for throwing my words back at me. The thing is, I don't think Ranger is in the mood to talk."

"Oh, he is," Tank said. "Give me an hour and then go see him,"

"I don't know," I said.

"I'm asking you to do this for my godson," he said. "Go talk to him, please." I was a sucker for the word please, even when Tank said it. I nodded my acquiescence and Tank turned and gave Lula a slow appraisal. He winked at her and said, "Later, baby," as he walked out the door.

When I exited the elevator on five an hour later and made my way to Ranger's office I heard Tank's raised voice. "Get the sand out of your vagina. Quit being a pansy-assed coward, and talk to her. Man-up, Ranger. You owe her the chance to work this out."

"Remember your position here," Ranger growled.

"I've never forgotten my position here," Tank returned. His voice was full of tightly controlled anger. "I'm not here as a RangeMan employee. I'm here as your friend, and as her friend. You're the best at everything you do. It's time to start being a good husband and work this situation out with Stephanie. You know what happened last time there was conflict. You went to Boston. You can't run away again."

"You don't know what you are talking about," Ranger said. "There was more to that story than you knew." The sound of something crashing against the wall made me partly hesitant and partly anxious to enter the room. Hesitant, because I didn't want to be the focus of the wrath of Ranger, but anxious because I didn't want the conversation to escalate into violence between the two of them.

"Bullshit!" Tank exclaimed. "You left because you were full of guilt because you thought you'd caused Steph to lose the baby. This situation with JP arose out of that original action of yours and you're still feeling guilty. You can't run away and leave her and the baby this time, so you're working your guilt out as anger with Stephanie."

"Where'd you buy your fucking psychology degree?" Ranger asked. His tone was so derisive I had to intervene before there was an explosion of violence.

I stepped into the doorway. Ranger was standing behind his desk and Tank was in front of it, and testosterone was bouncing off the walls.

Ranger saw me first, then Tank turned around to see what had caused the grimace on Ranger's face. "Don't fight because of me," I said. "I've ruined enough around here. I couldn't bear it if I ruined the two of you."

Ranger turned to Tank, "Get out," he said. Then he motioned to me. "Come in."

Tank walked through the door and I'd barely moved inside when I felt the whoosh of air as the door slammed shut.

I took a deep breath and tried to relax my bunched muscles. "You said earlier you didn't know how to deal with this. I do. We can talk. It may not solve anything, but at least you'll know why I did what I did."

Ranger nodded and then said, "Upstairs."

When we were in the apartment I didn't waste any time. "I'm sorry," I said. "Going to the Snake Pit was wrong. I know it's a dive and I shouldn't have gone. Even in disguise, I'm a magnet for disaster."

"You shouldn't have gone, because I told you not to go. You disobeyed me." He turned away from me and stood staring at the wall. Goodbye to meek, penitent Stephanie.

"Oh, wait just a minute," I said, "I shouldn't have gone. I agree with that. But I don't remember vowing to obey you. That wasn't part of our vows. I'm my own boss."

"What about honor, Babe? Did you vow to honor me?" I noticed the word Babe, and my heart felt the first flicker of hope. He continued. "Did you vow to love me? How is going against my wishes honoring me? It's not the act of a woman in love. It's not the act of a woman concerned for the safety of her baby. Did you think before you acted, or did you just go off half-cocked in an attempt to get one over on me?"

"I love you," I said, "and I love our baby. I can't explain why I went against your wishes yesterday. Except that you gave me no real reason. If you'd told me why, I might have been more prepared to listen. I wouldn't knowingly put myself, or Adriano in jeopardy as you accused me of doing. I thought you just didn't want your wife to be seen at a dive like the Snake Pit. I thought going in a costume was clever, because your wife wouldn't be seen there and Lula would have my support in the audience."

Ranger turned to look at me and I became aware my hands were cradling my belly protectively. He took my arm and moved me toward the armchair. His hand on my arm was our first physical connection since he'd seen me outside the Snake Pit and I covered his hand with my free hand. I wanted to maintain the contact.

He sat and pulled me on his lap. He was quiet for a long moment and his hand started to move softly along the small of my back. "You're right," he said. Another long silence followed as I wondered what I was right about. "I should have told you I was going to be with JP. I didn't because on some level I felt guilty about spending time with her, even though there was a hidden agenda. I'm sorry for that. But it doesn't make what you did any less irresponsible."

"And you're right about that," I said. "I'm sorry." I'd been successful up to that point, but I felt the tears threatening. "I don't know what to do to fix it. Ever since I've been pregnant, my life has been about what I can't do. No beer, no junk food…well, not much. No unhealthy behaviors. When you said 'no' to my being at the Snake Pit, it was the last 'no' I wanted to hear."

Ranger ran his hands through my hair and pulled me to him for a soft kiss, which was broken up by my sobbing. Would these hormones ever return to normal? "It's a start, Babe. I'm not sure we're through this, but I'm thinking we'll get through it. Tank said I was the best at what I do. I want to be the best husband, and the best father but I'm not there yet". He reached out and tugged on one of my curls.

Tears were running uncontrollably down my face now. "I'm not the best either. I love you and I want our baby, and I want you."

"I love you too, Stephanie. You and Adriano are my life. We need to quit playing games with one another. You need to realize I'm always on your side."

"I'm always on your side," I said. "I just need to know what your side is."

He pulled my face close to his and his lips found mine. The kiss started as a soft meeting of him and me, but it changed and his mouth became hungry. He was reestablishing a connection in a way that was very pleasurable for me, and judging from the way he suddenly shifted me on his lap, it was pleasurable for him too.

"I didn't sleep last night. Let's go take a nap. I want to hold you and Adriano close to me," he said.

"You want to sleep?" I asked.

"Eventually."

As we walked arm in arm toward the bedroom I asked him, "Is this a pot-hole in the road to happily ever after?"

"Babe, it's a full-fledged, fucking sinkhole. But I'm willing to climb out of it if you are.

Not quite the end...TBC