AN: Hello everyone! I want to thank all of you for the wonderful reviews again! :-) The story is going to take a dramatic turn, but I'm hoping to keep some humor in it so everyone gets a feel for the comraderie between Steph and her girls :-) Here's the newest chapter for you :-) Please Read and Review!

Rediscovery

Chapter 10

"Santos." Ranger barked Monday morning. Lester sighed and came into his cousin's office. He knew the fact that no one had seen him all weekend was going to have to be explained.

"Ranger." He shut the door and waited for his lecture. When he met Ranger's eyes he saw a speculative look on his normally blank face.

"Where've you been?" Ranger finally asked.

"I spent the weekend at Penelope's." He admitted.

"Do I have to remind you that she's a close friend of Stephanie's?" Ranger raised an eyebrow at him. He was aware that his cousin was hanging out a lot with Penelope and if he didn't know better he'd swear his cousin had a crush on her.

"Nothing happened." Lester told him. "You took Beautiful out to dinner Friday so I figured I'd keep Penelope company for the night. Things changed when I got there and she answered the door with a gun in her hand and fear in her eyes." He explained the phone call Penelope received at work. "I didn't want to take a risk of something happening to her over the weekend." Plus, he thought, the idea of something happening to her made him sick.

"Where is she now?" Ranger asked.

"At work. I didn't think I'd get away with following her to work and hanging around her office. And," Lester grinned, "We provide the security for her firm's building."

Ranger chuckled. "What do you plan to do when she's not working?"

"Make an excuse to spend as much time with her as I can." Lester shrugged. "She says it's nothing, she's been threatened before, but something about this particular call has her spooked."

"I agree." Ranger leaned back in his chair. "With the Kazarra case being as big as it is, we might have to consider keeping Penelope safe."

"I've thought of that. I get the feeling she and Beautiful have the same temperament when it comes to being locked up." Lester sighed. "But Kazarra still has some pretty strong connections. If they can't buy Penelope off then I get the feeling they'll try to do something more physical to convince her."

Ranger nodded. He was in complete agreement with his cousin. Kazarra was dangerous and he was already thankful that Stephanie hadn't been part of that takedown. He didn't know what Kazarra would be able to get away with from jail, but if someone was already trying to get the prosecution to swing their way…

He shook his head. He knew Stephanie was still having a hard time dealing with Kaylee's death, even after all these years. The idea of her having to deal with losing someone else close to her hurt his heart.

"We'll keep an eye on her, Lester." Ranger said. He saw his cousin relax marginally. Lester has always been a playboy, but when threats came around that dealt with people they cared about the soldier emerged in him. Because Ranger knew what he was capable of as a soldier, and it rivaled what he was capable of, he wanted to ease Lester's mind in advance. Once the soldier in him fully took over it would take a lot to bring Lester back.

…

Stephanie was sitting in the bonds office laughing with Connie and Lula over doughnuts. The women had noticed the change in their friend and were glad to see it. They could see her coming alive again. Tank had told Lula about Steph's old friends and she couldn't wait to meet them. If they were anything like her girl they'd be a riot.

Vinnie was currently hiding away in his office trying to avoid the cackles of the women. Of course as far as they were concerned he could just stay in there. Lula finally said, "Ya know, Joyce has been hanging around a lot. We think she's gunning for your job again."

"When isn't she gunning for my job?" Stephanie rolled her eyes. "That's never going to change. The only thing that will is her boob size."

Connie snickered as Vinnie came barreling out of his office. He pointed at Stephanie. "You! I don't pay you to sit around doing nothing, do I?"

Stephanie rolled her eyes. "You don't have any skips today, Vinnie."

"You have RangeMan's skips." He pointed at a pile of folders in her lap. She looked down at them and back at him.

"Yeah," She drawled, "Because I'm really going to go after these skips without help. Are you insane?"

"I could have Joyce do it." He threatened.

"Do it. Then you can explain to Ranger why you gave his skips to someone who makes barnyard animal noises for you." Stephanie replied. She stood up when Vinnie visibly paled.

"Don't you have a duck that needs your attention?" Lula demanded.

Vinnie hustled back into the office, locking the door behind him. Lula started to speak again, but Connie held up her hand motioning them into silence. The other two women realized that Vinnie had bugged the office again. All three of them moved quietly around the office searching for the bug.

Ranger opened the door to the bonds office to the sound of dead silence. He stopped in the doorframe and watched the scene unfolding before him. Stephanie was balancing on the back of a chair searching for something. Lula's spandex colored butt was up in the air while Connie looked as though she was searching underneath the desk.

He cleared his throat. Stephanie looked at him and held a finger to her lips. Raising an eyebrow he gave a smirk and shut the door, leaning back against the door to continue watching. Suddenly Stephanie snapped her fingers toward the other two and held up an object. She hopped off the chair and hustled to the restroom. Seconds later they heard the toilet flush.

"Little prick." Connie announced when Stephanie came out of the restroom.

"Amen!" Lula said flopping herself down on the couch. "I'd suggest bugging his office but I don't want to hear those sounds!"

"Do us all a favor and pretend you never had that thought." Stephanie suggested. Connie nodded in agreement. She walked over to Ranger. "Here're the RangeMan files."

"Vinnie wanted to give them to Joyce." Lula piped up. "He probably would have made her sound like a goat first."

Ranger looked at Stephanie, who shrugged. "I'm just related to him."

…

The trial had started. For the most part things had been going smoothly. Penelope had been fierce and controlled. Cal, Tank, Bobby and Ram were both impressed watching her go through the motions. They could see why Lester had such a thing for her. Tank could tell the jury was already leaning the way Penelope was leading them.

The impressive move had been when they'd been contacted about the move in trial date. Penelope had gotten it moved up much sooner. From their spot they could see even Morelli looked impressed with Penelope. They didn't have the highest opinion of the cop given what he was putting Stephanie through but they knew he was definitely a good cop. They'd had to work together nicely when it came to taking Kazarra down. The whole take down had happened a few weeks before the Vegas Incident as Stephanie referred to it.

A sudden sense of unease shifted in Tank's demeanor. Something was wrong. He could feel it and he could tell Cal and Ram felt it too.

Penelope was standing in front of the witness stand interrogating her witness, who was answering everything perfectly. Adrenaline was pumping through her veins. She loved being a lawyer and at the moment this was why. She was great at arguing and she loved having the last word. After the phone call she received last Friday she was more determined to make sure Kazarra ended up in jail.

At one point during the trial she had looked at him and felt the cold hatred radiating off him. If she wasn't already pissed that he had someone trying to threaten her she might have thought of being scared. But that wasn't what he was getting from her. He was dressed in a suit and could easily pass for a respectable member of society, which for several years he had. His file said he was in his early forties. He looked good for someone in his forties. His black hair was slicked back away from his face and his grey eyes held a level of calculation in them that matched hers.

Penelope moved back to her table to let the defense take a turn. Before she sat down shots rang out, shattering the windows. Instinctively she ducked.

Chaos erupted in the courtroom. People screamed, cops and the Rangemen that were there acted quickly. Tank was beside Penelope quickly, keeping her down, his own gun drawn. The jury was trying to hide in their seats, the judge was yelling for order. The cops that were acting quickly got Kazarra away from anyone he could use as a potential hostage. The bailiff came forward and helped get him restrained.

"Cal, Ram, get out there and see if you can locate the shooter." Tank ordered.

Bobby was already moving looking for those who were injured.

Tank looked at Penelope, she was sitting still, watching everything, doing what she could not to move a muscle. "Penelope? Are you okay?"

"Yeah." She said faintly. Her right arm was stinging. She looked down at it and sighed. "Tank. I think I was shot."

Tank looked at her right arm. She was right, she'd been shot, although from what he could see it was more of a graze. Nothing a few stitches and a band aid couldn't take care of. Morelli was beside them, "Everyone alright over here? We've got some others that are injured pretty badly."

"Penelope was grazed with a bullet." Tank informed him. Bobby came hurrying back to Penelope. They helped her out of the coat of her suit. Bobby took a quick assessment and verified what Tank already suspected. Penelope would need a few stitches to close that up. Bobby looked at her. She was pale, just sitting there in a kind of stupor. He wanted to take a better look at her but there were others who were more injured and he had to get them help as much as he could until the paramedics arrived.

"Is it safe to leave?" Someone asked.

"Not yet." Eddie Gazarra replied. "We're making sure no one is around to hurt anyone else."

In the distance everyone could hear sirens coming. The police made sure the building was secure and they hurried to help get people out of the courthouse. Ambulances were surrounding the courthouse, loading those that had taken bullets and hurrying off with them. Other paramedics were taking care of those who had small injuries due to trampling and scrambling to get away from the chaos.

Penelope was sitting in an ambulance her mind racing. Did this have anything to do with her not taking the offer to swing the jury? She grit her teeth together. From what she'd gathered from those talking around her no one had been killed, but it fueled her anger even more. Now she was just pissed even more. If it didn't have anything to do with her, she surmised, then she wouldn't be surprised if it had something to do with someone trying to create a distraction so they could try getting Kazarra. Pity for Kazarra the TPD had acted quickly to make sure he stayed in custody. He was already back behind bars and was going to stay there.

"Pen, are you alright?" Bobby was standing in front of her. The ambulance was getting ready to take off. She nodded. He squinted at her trying to figure out if she was in shock.

He was left standing there as the ambulance took off only to find Ranger and Lester and Stephanie coming toward him. He started speaking before they could say anything. "Someone shot up the courtroom. Cal and Ram got out trying finding who it was. No one was killed. Best guess is that someone was trying to get Kazarra out, but TPD acted quickly getting him back in custody before anyone could get him free."

"Pen?" Stephanie asked in a whisper.

"She was grazed, needs some stitches but other than that she's fine." Bobby replied and was surprised to see the sudden rage in Lester's eyes. Lester turned on his heel and marched to one of the black SUVs.

Stephanie looked at Ranger before hurrying off to join Lester. She knew he was heading to the hospital. The drive over was done in silence. She could feel the anger and fear radiating off Lester, but knew talking to him was going to be futile. He was too much like Ranger in that aspect. He shielded himself as a playboy, but the fact that he and Penelope seemed to match each other in temperament told Stephanie that her friends had met their matches in one another.

They found her sitting there staring at her arm as they finished stitching her up. Penelope was staring blankly at her arm, like she couldn't figure out what to feel. Was she in any pain? No, they'd taken care of that. Was she angry? Well, duh, she wanted to say to herself. She'd never been shot at but the lack of response she had was surprising, even to her.

"Pen?" Steph stepped toward her and hugged her softly.

Pen smiled at her. "So, is this a typical day in Trenton?"

Knowing what she was up to, Stephanie smiled and said, "Actually, it's a little slow today. Tomorrow might pick up a little bit."