Four days to go:

It was getting dark as Steph pulled onto Joe's drive and put her car into park. His SUV was already parked up for the night and so she took a deep breath and straightened her back before getting out. The bright light from the kitchen lit her way as she slowly walked towards the front door. As she passed the kitchen window her breath caught in her throat as she saw what was clearly going on. She fell to the floor and propped herself against the wall as she gathered her thoughts, lost in the shadows of the building. A few minutes passed before she picked herself up and all hunched up she crept back along the pathway and into her car where she quickly turned over the engine and pulled away from the house.

o0o0o0o0o0o

"Yo."

"Yo yourself."

"Babe?"

"Sorry, I shouldn't have called."

"You ok? You sound upset?"

"Yeah, sorry, I shouldn't have called. Sorry to disturb you." She hung up.

Ranger stared at his phone then looked at his clock, it was 3.30 in the morning. What was going on that she would call him at 3.30 on her mobile? Why hadn't she called the cop? He'd noticed how sad she'd become over the last few weeks and put it down to her impending move. Perhaps this was to do with that, or perhaps... he couldn't voice it, even to himself. He couldn't give himself any hope, he didn't deserve a second chance, but by God if he got one he'd never let her go. Ever.

He called through to Hal who was working monitors on 5. "Where's Steph?" he asked, mentally tapping his feet impatiently as he waited for an answer.

"At her apartment Boss."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, car's there and her mobile is too."

"Thanks" he said as he got out of bed and quickly pulled some clothes on. What had the fool Morelli done this time?

It took him 8 minutes to get to her apartment and 15 seconds to let himself in. He could hear her on the phone. He decided to listen in from the lounge and settled down on the couch to wait.

o0o0o0o0o0o

"Joe, is there something you need to tell me?" she asked her heart was racing. She was sure Mrs Bestler could hear it in her apartment next door. She wanted the truth and she wanted it now. No matter how much it hurt. She couldn't commit to him if he lied. Hey, what was she saying, unless there was a totally plausible explanation, she was through with him. Over the years she's always thought Terri was her rival, how wrong could she have been.

Joe's reply dragged her from her thoughts. "What makes you think that, Cupcake?" he said defensively.

"No reason, other than that I decided to come up and surprise you but when I arrived I could see you were kinda busy in the kitchen. On the island, to be precise."

She heard him groan.

"I'm so sorry Steph..."

"If I hadn't have turned up, would you have told me?"

Silence

"What is it about the men in my life and the tables in communal areas?" she yelled. She waited for him to respond, to say anything, but he didn't, or couldn't.

"How long, Joe? Hmmm? Did you plan to fuck her a few times and then come crawling back to me?"

"It wasn't supposed to happen. I didn't intend..." she heard him sigh "I'm so sorry Steph. I hadn't realised how much this job would take over my life. I'm up to my eyeballs and I'm not even sure that I've even been given all the responsibility yet. Coming back to Trenton last week has really set me back. I'm recruiting as fast as I can, but that takes time that I don't have. I'm drowning and it's killing me. I just needed time out and to relax."

"Bastard!" I spat back. "Was it me or Aly that you were taking for a fool? No, don't answer that, I don't want to know. But why? Could you not keep your dick in your trousers for four months? Four fucking months!" She was losing it and she knew.

Suddenly she knew she wasn't alone. She felt Ranger's presence. Why had she called him? What a stupid thing to do. Now he would know about her humiliation. At that moment a hand settled gently on her shoulder and gave it a comforting squeeze, she looked up at its owner and suddenly, she knew it would all be ok and she calmed down enough to finish her talk with Morelli.

"I never meant for this to happen" Joe said, again pulling her back to the conversation "I like Aly and it's not what you think, Steph, honest. We're just friends. She's just here when you're not and she's in pretty much the same boat as me."

Yeah right.

"Joe, you're making it worse! Aly does not deserve to be a substitute, no-one does, including me. I was going to move my life to be with you. I was going to leave my job, my friends and my family to start over with you. I had blind faith in us, how wrong was I? I was prepared to give it all up and become something you wanted. What a fool. I should have known, you're a Morelli man and eventually I knew parts of you would revert to type." She stopped to take a breath and felt Ranger kneel down behind her. He was rubbing her shoulder and back gently and she was starting to lose focus. Focus! Steph!

"But now, we're the past. I won't have a future with someone who's cheated on me, I'm sorry, Joe. It's over."

"Cupcake" he said, whining. Steph hated it when he whined.

Silence. Hey this single word answer thing is quite empowering...

"Please. I just need to get my head round my job."

"Have you slept with her?"

Silence

"Bye, Joe. Good luck."

She put the phone down and turned round to sob into Ranger's arms. He just held her, giving her his warmth and strength, comforting his heartbroken friend.

o0o0o0o0o0o

It had been three months since the breakup and Steph had started to put her life back together.

A lot had happened since then.

Steph phoned her parents the next morning to tell them she wasn't joining Joe. They were very happy that she was not moving away but angry with Joe as to why. She'd told them every detail of what had happened from meeting Rhianna to the end of the conversation with Joe. The only detail she left out was that Ranger was holding her all the time she was talking to them.

Within 15 minutes, Steph was the hero of the piece thanks to the Burg Grapevine and even Angela Morelli couldn't or wouldn't defend Joe's behaviour.

Wonders will never cease, thought Steph when she'd found out later.

Lionel decided to quit Bounty Hunting so Steph resumed her work for Vinnie. Although Lionel had gotten quite good at being a BEA, he decided to move away from the area with his new girlfriend. Girlfriend? Yep, Rhianna. She'd never left his apartment after the Brewster thing and he'd begun to treat Britney as his own. They made a great family. Steph offered them the balance of the reward money but they would only take $20,000 towards Britney's college fund so Steph asked Ranger to invest the rest for her nieces' education, which he did.

Steph did a lot of thinking in a lot of areas and discussed much of it with Ranger, using him as her sounding board – her muse. He'd helped her to sort out her physical as well as mental well being – target practice, self defence and exercise as well as desk based research for Rangeman. Turns out she was getting really good at everything he suggested. Steph wondered whether his good karma was rubbing off on her one day when she managed to park right next to the front door of her apartment building. This was short lived as for the next two weeks she ended up by the dumpster again. Gotta start somewhere he'd told her when she whinged at him about it a few day's later in the gym.

Ranger got called up the week of Thanksgiving and wasn't expecting to be home before Christmas so Steph'd spent her time catching up with her friends and family. On her own again. Not quite what she'd envisaged six months' earlier when she'd still been with Joe but she was much happier than she had expected to be. It hadn't taken her that long to realise that Joe and her wouldn't have made a great future and their breakup was a lucky escape.

She was amazed at how long ago that all seemed now. A lifetime. She'd heard through Eddie that Joe and Aly did not last long. The attraction had only ever been physical and once they'd attained that there was nothing else left. Morelli was totally buried in his work and she felt a slight glimmer of sadness for the lonely life he now had - he was far away from friends and family. And her. One day she hoped they'd be friends but that was a long long way into the future, there was still a lot of anger, from her side at least.

Upon his return from saving the world, Ranger gave Steph a beautifully carved intricate wooden puzzle and told her that there was something precious inside. When the time was right she'd work out how to open it and discover its secret. She'd put it carefully on her bedside table and would spend hours each evening holding it, admiring its beauty and, obviously, trying to figure out its secrets.

Just like the giver, Steph thought.

Ranger had been her rock through everything but had never once over stepped the boundary of friendship. He knew that she needed time to sort her life out and put her heart back together. What he didn't realise was that part of her heart had always belonged to him, so she was almost ready to consider dating again. The only person she wanted to date was her dark knight, but did he want her for more than friendship? Would someday ever come? Could he give her what she wanted? Did he want to? But she realised that he was there for her always and all she hoped was that he'd realise that they could be and should be more than just friends. Everyone around them could see it was only a matter of time before they got it together, bets were furiously changing hands over when that would be.

Last night, she woke with a start from a strange dream that she couldn't quite remember, the only thing she could recall though was a phrase she'd read somewhere:

"He is my world. The air I breathe. His heart beat makes my heart beat. He is my everything."

And then she knew it was time...

Thanks for your all feedback so far.

A lot of what happened to Joe and Steph was based on what happened to me 22 years ago (not sure you ever forget a heart break) but I got my happy ending. Will they?