Disclaimer: All characters in this story other than Ray belong to JE.

Wanda517, as always I am incredibly grateful for all your help in making sure I put the right details in place.

Bobby's POV

"I have a brilliant idea, why don't you four sit up here and figure it out. Draw straws or thumb wrestle for all I give a fuck, just figure out which one of you is going to die for Stephanie Plum, so I can start grieving now."

Before any one of us could respond to the outburst, Ray had stormed out the door. We all sat looking at each other in stunned silence. Sometimes it was hard to remember how forceful Ray's personality was. When she loved, she did so with every fiber of her being, and when someone raised the Mama Bear instincts in her, carnage was sure to follow. I knew that for a fact. I was looking at the faces of the men that were more than my brothers in arms, there were my family. They, and the Hunter family, were all the family I had ever really known. Growing up in foster care, it seemed like as soon as you started to fit into a family it was time to move you.

I remember the first time I met this whole group. It was in basic training. Robin, Ric and Tank Lester all enlisted together using the Buddy Program. I only joined up because it seemed like my only option after I aged out of state care. I watched the four of them, and I knew that we were supposed to be close to our unit, to the guys who had our backs, but the relationship between them confused me. After basic, we were given two weeks leave before we started AIT. I didn't have anywhere to go, so I had planned on heading into base early. Robin wouldn't let me. He insisted I come home with all of them. I remember when Mr. Hunter picked us up at the airport. He looked at 5 young soldiers standing in front of him and just smiled.

"Well now, I send my four boys off to the Army, and I get 5 back. If you guys keep multiplying I'm going to have to build an addition on the house."

I couldn't imagine why he wasn't upset, and the whole His boys made no sense to me. We all loaded into his mini van and he headed home. He kept up a one sided conversation the whole way. Telling us Kestrel was cooking

up a storm for a big welcome home meal, and that Raven had managed to get leave and had gotten in the night before. He warned us that even though

he was making the girls bunk together so us boys had two rooms that it was going to be tight quarters. He apologized that one of us was going to have to

crash on an air mattress. He just talked about everything.

When we pulled up to the house there was a huge welcome home sign on the garage, with the Marine Corps emblem on one side and Army on the other. I was pulled out of my memories my Lester slapping my arm.

"One of us needs to go talk to Ray." Lester said as everyone looked intently at me.

I shook my head. "Oh hell no, I'm not going to do it. She'll shoot me before I get through the door."

"You two have always been close. You could always get through to her when no one else could." Tank reminded me.

"Yeah once upon a time maybe, but since she came up here, it seems like every time I breathe I just piss her off."

Ric didn't say anything he just got up and walked to his room and came back a few minutes later with his Kevlar vest. He tossed it to me. "It's unanimous. We nominate you."

"Hey wait, don't I get a vote?"

"No." all three of them chorused.

"Thanks guys, way to have a mans back." I said as I stood up and tossed Ric his vest. I really hoped I wasn't going to need it. Of course if I walked in wearing a vest Ray would probably shoot me just to prove a point. I walked out of the apartment and took the elevator to the fourth floor.

I walked to my apartment and knocked lightly on the door, but she didn't answer, so I used my key to let myself in. I poked my head through the door and didn't see her in the living room, so I walked in and closed the door behind me. I walked towards the bedroom, but stopped when I heard her voice. Part of me wondered who she was talking to.

"Daddy, I want to come home."

That answered that question. She had called Dad, he was always there when any of us needed an ear.

"I know I promised I'd help him, but Kes could do it. She's a cop. She would be fully qualified to work here."

It hurt me to hear the unshed tears in her voice. I took a few steps forward. I wanted to make her feel better.

"Daddy Please. All I want you to do is pick me up at the airport."

There was another pause as she listened.

"Ok. I'll try, but…" She let out a long sigh. "Fine. Ok Daddy, I love you too. I'll call tomorrow."

I could hear her moving, she must have picked up a pillow because the next thing I heard was her muffled scream. Ray always was one to hide from her feelings, it was almost as if she refused to acknowledge them then they weren't real. I tried to make a little more noise as I walked back towards the bedroom. "Ray? You back there?"

I heard a little more shuffling, and I figured she was trying to make herself presentable. "Yeah, I'm just picking up the mess Steph and I made in here."

I walked into the bedroom, and she was sitting on the bed with her back to the door putting things back into her duffle bag. I walked over towards the bed, but kept some distance. "You know you can use the closet. You don't have to live out of bags."

She laughed a little, but there was still a rough edge to her voice as if she was holding back tears by sheer force of will. "I appreciate it, but packing it sucks, and as soon as my stuff gets here I will be doing the sea bag drag again."

I smiled and sat down on the bed lightly leaning against her shoulder. "It's a duffle bag."

Her laugh came a little easier this time. "To you maybe. The Army uses duffle bags, the Marines and Navy use sea bags and the Air Force uses Lucite luggage on wheels."

We both laughed and she stopped shoving stuff into her duffle bag. We sat there in silence for a few minutes. I didn't want to say a word, I was afraid of setting her off. She took a deep breath and scooted away from me slightly. I braced for another break down, but she once again surprised me.

"I should apologize again."

I didn't give her a chance to finish. "No, you have nothing to apologize for. You were partially right, we don't think much about Bombshell duty because no one has ever been permanently injured or killed, and that was our oversight. I think Ric just doesn't want to see her hurt, especially by something he could have prevented. And you my dear, would her feelings no matter how hard you tried not to."

Ray snorted and looked at me. "Gee thanks Bobby, you make me sound like the wicked witch of the west."

I shook my head. "That's not what I meant and you know it."

She sighed softly, and I watched her shoulders sag with exhaustion. Today had been an emotional roller coaster, and for Ray, that was ten times harder than anything else she would have to deal with. I moved so my back was resting against the head board and patted my chest. She didn't need a second invitation. She crawled up between my legs and laid her head on my chest.

"Like I was saying, Someone does need to get Steph to take her safety more seriously, and I think it has to be you. Ric can't do it, because she sees him as the only person who believes in her. Tank, Lester and I can't do it because to her it would be the same thing as Ric doing it. I know the cop tries in his own way to get her to be safe. He just pulls her away from the situation and pressures her to give up her job and her friends. I think you are the only one who can do it." I lightly ran my hand up and down her back as she laid perfectly still against my chest. Eventually I slid the tie out of her hair and began loosening her braid.

"You know that I won't be easy on her. I can't afford to be. She's going to hate me." she said sounding sad. I knew that even though Steph might piss her off, or drive her crazy, Ray genuinely liked her. Ray might come off as being rude, crude, and full of attitude, but that was because she had the biggest heart of anyone I knew.

"I know, and she is going to hate you for a while. Do you remember boot camp? I bet there were days that given half a chance you would have killed your Drill Sergeant."

"DI."

I had to laugh, and ran my hand through her hair taking out the rest of the braid. "Whatever. My point is, by the end of it, not only did you have respect for them, but there might have been one or two you even liked."

Ray sighed softly. "I guess you have a point. It's just going to be hard. It's going to be a lot like boot camp for her. I'm going to have to tear down, to build up. That is a hard process."

I sighed too. I hated seeing her so conflicted, I also knew that the minute she stepped out of this apartment she would once again be the hard edged smart assed woman we all knew. "You'll make it through. I know you will. We'll all help anyway we can."

She snuggled a little closer resting her hand on my chest next to her face. "Bobby, I spent all day with Stephanie, and I met Morelli last night. If you were to ask me where Steph will be in five years if she stays with Morelli, my honest answer would be Dead. I felt that earlier, and listening to what you guys have told me about how he acts, and his history I'm almost positive that is how it would end."

I was so shocked I stopped moving. I tried to follow that theory, and I couldn't see how she arrived at that conclusion. "I'm afraid I don't follow. How did you come to that conclusion."

"If you made a list of the top 30 warning signs that a woman is likely to become a victim of spousal abuse, and homicide, What I have witnessed and heard in the last 24 hours matches more than a few of those signs. I know that is something no one wants to think about, but I have an advantage that you guys don't. I'm not from here, I am able to look at this from the outside."

I resumed running my hand through her hair. "That can also be a disadvantage. You don't have the same context that we do."

She looked up at me and shook her head. "No, there is no mitigating circumstances, or contexts that can make it right. Just think about it Bobby, we aren't dating or anything, but is there any circumstance that you would have a right to keep tabs on me, knowing where I was, and who I was with at all times?"

I thought about it for a minute and shook my head.

She lowered her head back to my chest. "Then why would it be right for Joe to do it to Stephanie? He called her at the mall, and she went from being in a good mood, to withdrawn and telling me she had to go home and get ready to go out with Joe. It was in the middle of the afternoon! I've had to get ready for dates, but this was a little extreme, she looked like she was going to her own execution."

I closed my eyes and wrapped both arms around her lightly. None of us would like to think about it, but she may be right. There might be more danger in Stephanies romantic affairs than we could protect her from. "So what do we do about it?"

She put her hand over her mouth to cover a yawn. "We teach her to be stronger, to listen to her spidey sense as she calls it and hope she figures it out herself. If we say anything negative about Joe, she will feel obligated to defend him. All we can do is hope, she finds out that it isn't good for her to stay in the relationship."

I looked down at Ray as she laid on my chest. "I just hope she does realize it before it's too late."

Ray nodded and yawned again. Today had been both physically and emotionally draining for her. She was trying valiantly to keep her eyes open, and was failing. I picked her up gently and set her down on her side of the bed. I climbed out of the bed trying not to jostle her as I knelt down and removed her boots. I pulled the blankets over her, and it seemed to wake her up a little. "Bobby?"

"Yeah"

"I'm glad we're friends again."

"Me too, Ray. Me too." I walked out of the bedroom and closed the door behind me. I was glad that we were friends again, now I just had to figure out how I was supposed to be friends with the one person I was head over heels in love with.