Disclaimer: JE owns the characters.

A/N: As always... I'd still be sitting in front of a blank screen without the wonderful Mrs. Linda. Love ya, Babe!

January 2nd, 3:45 P.M. RangeMan, Forth Floor, Stephanie's office.

I've been feeling off all day long. It started while I was in the shower after Bobby and I worked out this morning. I wasn't able to put my finger on the feeling in the pit of my stomach until about an hour ago. That's when I realized that I hadn't heard from Ares in eight days. Something wasn't right. I had called Alexander and he had told me that Ares was perfectly fine. If he was fine, then why was I feeling this way?

"You okay?"

I lifted my head out of my hands and looked at Bobby as I straightened up. He looked relaxed as he leaned against the door to my office. But, I could see the concern in his eyes and some tension in his neck.

"Something's wrong," I said quietly. I wasn't use to having such a vague feeling. My senses were always so much stronger and acute. "It's Ares."

"Have you tried calling him?" Bobby asked as he came all the way into my office and shut the door.

"He isn't answering," I said as I shook my head. "It goes straight to his voice mail. I know that something is wrong."

"What has Alexander said about this?" he asked as he sat in one of the visitor's chairs on the other side of my desk.

"He said that Ares was fine and that I was worrying about nothing," I huffed as I flung my hands up in the air.

"Why don't you see if Silvio can track him down?"

"I'm one step ahead of you there," I said as I leaned forward again and rested my head on the edge of my desk. I had ended up telling Silvio and Trip about my association with Alexander. I thought that it was important for the two of them to know since we were working so closely. "We ran all of his aliases, but we didn't come up with much. We were able to track him back here to the states. He was on a plane that landed at JFK three days ago and then he disappeared."

"I'm sure that he's around somewhere," Bobby said as he came around my desk and knelt beside me. "He'll turn up sooner or later."

"At this point, I'm worried about how he's going to turn up," I whispered. I closed my eyes tightly when I felt the familiar burn behind them. "I'm afraid that he might turn up in the river."

"You can't think that way right now," Bobby whispered as he rubbed my back.

"You're right," I said as I sat back up and gave him a small smile. "What can I do for you?"

"I wanted to let you know that I have to go 'in the wind'," Bobby said slowly as he gauged my reaction.

My first instinct was to cry, so I leaned my head back down into my hands. My second instinct was to ask questions. I thought that the second one was the better way to go. "Can you tell me what's going on?"

"Ranger, Vince, Binkie, Lester, Zero, Hector, and I are going to South America," Bobby said quietly.

"That's a lot of Merry Men to go 'in the wind'," I said warily as I looked over at him.

Bobby just nodded his head. It was like he was waiting for me to catch up with him. I ran the list of names through my head again and looked for a common thread. I searched his eyes as the common thread popped into my head. "Simultaneous hits?"

Bobby nodded his head again and leaned back like he was waiting for something more. I knew what he was waiting for. He was expecting me to get pissed that I wasn't invited. I'll admit that I was. I just wasn't about to blow up about it.

"How long will you be gone?" I asked after I took a deep breath to knock down my anger by a notch.

"A week."

"Do you think that they might need me in the field while you are gone?" I asked as I reached out and took his hand in mine.

"I'll tell Tank to hit you up if he needs help," Bobby said as he squeezed my hand. "You are taking this a lot better then I thought you would."

"I was going to cry first," I admitted with a small smile. "But I didn't think that crying would help."

"You're right," he said with a nod as he turned my chair so that I was facing him. He got on his knees and leaned up between my legs. He cupped my face and pulled me closer to him as he whispered, "I'm proud of you."

I love Bobby. But, the man is driving me crazy. He decided that we should wait to have sex until the time was right. Yeah. I didn't know that there wasn't a right time to have sex. Well, maybe it's not the right time while we're at the office. But, if he was going to continue to kiss me the way he is now, I might not be able to stop myself from ripping his clothes off. He must have read my mind because he broke off the kiss. Air rushed back into my lungs and my head started to clear from its aroused haze. He smiled up at me and then stood up.

"You do that on purpose, don't you?" I asked with a scowl.

"Do what?" he asked with an innocent look on his face.

"That's not funny, Brown," I warned. "One of these days…"

"Yeah," he said as he reached out and tucked a curl behind my ear. "One of these days."

I leaned back in my chair and watched him leave my office. I could stare at his perfect ass for hours. I hated to watch him go, but I loved to watch him leave. I wanted to sink my teeth into his backside. I wanted to feel his skin under my lips. Hell, I wanted all of him! But, these thoughts weren't helping me at the moment. They were only turning me on more.

I took several deep breaths to calm my raging hormones and thought about what Bobby had just told me. I was a little pissed that Ranger hadn't thought about asking me to go with him. The old Stephanie wouldn't have minded not going to a third world country. But, the new Stephanie felt that it was a slap in the face that Ranger wouldn't have thought about taking me along.

It was that thought that had me turning towards my computer. If he didn't ask me, maybe he just needed some references to my work. It took thirty minutes to compile a folder with newspaper articles that I had pulled off of the net from the last four months. Then, I pulled my passport out of the safe, that I now kept in the bottom drawer of my desk, and made copies of most of the pages.

I stuck the photocopies into the folder with the news articles and left my office. I took the stairs up to the fifth floor. I decided to take it upon myself to stop by Tank's office. I thought that it might be better to talk to him myself, instead of having Bobby as a messenger. I knocked on his door and walked in when I was given the go ahead.

"What's up, Bomber?" Tank asked.

"I can't believe that you guys still call me that," I said with a sigh as I sat in one of the visitor's chairs in front of his desk.

"It's a nickname," he said with a very slight shrug.

"I haven't blown anything up in over five months," I pointed out.

"Did you really come in here to talk about your nickname?" Tank asked as he leaned back in his chair and leveled his gaze at me.

"No," I said as I shook my head. "I thought that I'd stop by and let you know that I'm game if you need me in the field while the guys are gone."

"I was actually going to come up and see you about that," Tank said as a slow smile spread across his lips. "I'm having scheduling issues."

"Just let me know when you need me," I said warily. "Why are you smiling like that?"

"I have a bunch of surveillance shifts that I need to cover."

Tank knew how much I hated surveillance. It was so damn boring sitting in a Bronco all night long. My butt always fell asleep and my legs would cramp up. It was definitely low on the fun scale. I sighed and shook my head. I wasn't going to have a big choice in this.

"Clear it with Trip and then drop a schedule on my desk," I relented.

"That's my girl," Tank said as his smile got bigger. "I'll have it to you by the end of the day."

I stood up and walked to the door. I was about to open it, but I stopped and turned back to Tank. He was still smiling at me. I opened my mouth and then quickly shut it before I turned back to the door to leave. Tank's voice stopped me before I opened the door.

"What were you going to say?"

I turned back and looked at the large man that sat behind the desk. He had frightened me the first time that I had ever seen him. He had been closed off and had seemed dangerous after he had thrown a guy out of a window. Things change over time and I had discovered that Tank was an easy person to talk to. But, I had been absent for so long, that I wasn't sure if we were still on the same page as we were before I left.

"I was going to say thank you," I finally said.

"For what?" Tank asked as his brows furrowed.

"For giving me a chance."

He stared at me for a moment. The brows finally relaxed as a smile spread over his face once more. He stood up and walked over to me. I was engulfed in a tight hug that was warm. It was a real hug from a friend.

"I want to see what the last five months have done for you," Tank whispered into my hair. He leaned back and looked down at me. "If you show improvement, then I'll see about getting you out of the office some."

"That sounds fair to me," I said as I gave him a squeeze. "If that's your intention, then partner me up with Cal."

"Why Cal?" Tank asked as he finally released my waist and took a step back.

"I've spent a lot of time on surveillance with Cal," I said with a smile. "He's the one that would be able to tell you if I've improved at all."

"All right," he said with a nod.

"I'll see you later," I said as I opened the door.

"Sure, Bomber," Tank said as he rounded his desk and sat back down.

I spotted Bobby as I walked towards Ranger's office and gave him a thumbs up. He smiled and nodded at me. I had better ESP with him than I did with any of the other guys. He caught my drift about Tank and was happy for me. Bobby was one of my biggest supporters when it came to my abilities. He was always pushing me in the gym and on the range. We pushed each other.

I knocked on Ranger's door and opened it once I heard him call me in. Damn cameras. I walked in and sat in one of his visitor's chairs as I dropped the file on his desk. He looked from the file to me.

"What's that?" he asked as he pointed at the file.

"References," I said simply.

"References for what?" Ranger asked as he flipped the file open.

"References for being a hit man."

Ranger looked up from the file and raised an eyebrow at me.

"I figured that you didn't invite me on your little mission tomorrow, because you didn't have any references," I said calmly, even though I was starting to get angry again. "I thought that you might want to see what I'm capable of."

Ranger looked back down at the file and started looking through the papers. I had taken the time to highlight names and dates in the articles for him. He froze when he got to the first page of the copies of my passport. I guess my alias threw him off. I thought that it was funny to use his last name. I was glad that the humor wasn't lost on him when he tilted his head back and let out a bark of laughter. He has a great laugh.

"Nice alias," he said once he got himself under control.

"It was my downfall," I scowled. "That's how Cal found out."

"Probably would have been better off using Smith or Brown. Those are more common names," Ranger said as he studied the rest of my passport. "Or, having more then one."

"One suited my short term purposes," I said with a shrug.

Ranger leaned back in his chair and studied me for a moment. I thought about putting on my blank face. But instead, I let him see the anger and hurt that he had caused by not considered me for their mission.

"I'm already set for this mission," Ranger finally said. "But, I will let you know if your skills are needed on any further missions."

"That's all that I ask," I said with a nod as I stood up. "I want to be a part of this team, Ranger. That means that you are going to have to use me the way you use the rest of the guys."

"I'm sorry that I didn't think about bringing you in on this," Ranger said as he stood up.

I held my hand up to stop him from coming around the desk. The innocent contact that I had just had with Tank had stirred my hormones up and I didn't need to go through that again with Ranger. Just the faint smell of his soap was starting to get to me in my weakened, horny state. Jeez, I really need to get laid.

"It's a little new for the both of us," I finally said. "Just think about me next time."

"Okay," Ranger said with a nod. Then he tilted his head to the side as he looked at me and asked, "Are you okay?"

"No," I said with my hand still raised as I backed up to the door. "Bobby isn't putting out and the smell of your soap is messing with my senses."

"Babe," Ranger said with a wolfish grin.

"Stay back, Batman," I warned as I opened the door. "I'm a woman very close to the edge and I can't be responsible for myself."

I could hear Ranger's laughter as I made my way down the hall on my way back to the elevators. I made a last minute decision and took the stairs. I thought that it might be a wise idea to burn off some of my excess energy. Since I was in my RangeMan uniform, I ran down the stairs to the garage. I hit the door to the garage and ran around a cluster of Broncos a few times before I headed back towards the door to the stairs. My cell rang when I hit the door and I pulled it out as I started heading back up.

"Evey," I answered once I got my phone to my head after I checked the I.D.

"Hal was wondering why you were running around the Broncos," Cal asked.

"I needed to calm down," I said as I ran up the stairs.

"So you are running?" Cal asked, slightly confused.

"Yeah, V,"

"Okay," he said in a not quite for sure tone before he hung up.

Ten minutes later, I spotted Bobby standing on the landing on the fifth floor. He handed me a bottle of water with a smile as I passed by and then went back to work. I kept running for another twenty minutes. I felt like I had gotten control of my hormones and I thought that I would be all right to get back to work.

I sat down at my desk and pulled my phone out when it started ringing again. The caller I.D. said unknown. I usually don't answer those calls, but my gut told me to answer this one.

"Hello," I said once I got my phone to my ear.