The characters belong to JE. I receive nothing from this, but it sure is fun.

Chapter 10

Steph's POV

Thank God I decided to wear pajamas tonight, instead of sleeping in one of Ranger's t-shirts and a pair of panties. I have developed the habit of stealing Ranger's shirts to sleep in, quite some time ago. The smell of Ranger always helps me sleep at night. The only reason that I wasn't wearing the t-shirt was Ella had packed three pairs of pajamas in the overnight bag. I had already worn the other two pair while I was at Tank's and felt guilty not wearing the third pair, since she went to the trouble of buying them for me. Of course, in retrospect the t-shirt would have covered more than the blue Victoria Secret spaghetti strapped tank top and short set that I was currently wearing.

"Cute pajamas. New?" He said from the chair in the corner. I almost moved that chair out of my bedroom once, but I couldn't go through with it. The chair may be old, but he's sat in it enough that the chair permanently smells like him. Sometimes when Ranger's 'in the wind', I will sit in that chairs for hours praying that God will bring him home to me, safe and unharmed. I know that most women would find it creepy knowing that a man sneaks into their bedroom at night to watch them sleep, but not me. Sometimes I pretend to sleep, but other times I'll sit up and spend a few hours talking to him, since it's one of the few times we can hang out without being interrupted. If he's just came home from a mission, I'll pull the covers back and tell him to climb in bed and get some sleep. He's the only person that I like breaking into my apartment. But that's not something that I'm willing to admit out loud.

"Yes." I answered raising my hand to rub the back of my neck. The tingle on the back of my neck was still going strong. "Are you planning on telling me why you're here?"

"I saw the Buick in the parking lot." He responded.

"So you just happened to be driving by my apartment building, at three in the morning, and thought that it would be a nice time to pay a visit?" I glared.

"Something like that." He said quietly.

"Try again." I challenged.

"I needed to see that you were okay. I was worried." He said as he stood up, walked over and sat on the edge of my bed.

"Alright Joe, you've seen me. I'm fine. You can go now." I said as I reached up and rubbed my neck again. The tingle was growing stronger. I've never felt it before with Joe, only Ranger. Ranger must be somewhere nearby. I stood up and walked over to my bedroom window. I searched the parking lot for one of Ranger's vehicles or one of the Rangeman SUVs. I was growing more confused since the tingle was growing so strong that it felt like I was vibrating. It was so strong that I had expected to see Ranger on the fire escape when I pushed back the curtain. I guess that I shouldn't be surprised. Ranger's like smoke. You won't see him unless he wants you to see him.

"Is Ranger with you?" I said turning to face Joe.

"Do you see Ranger?" He asked.

"No." I answered quietly. I couldn't bring myself to tell Joe that while I didn't see Ranger, I could certainly feel him. Joe may be a controlling jerk that never listens, but I know that he does care about me. I just couldn't rub my connection to Ranger in Joe's face, even if he did deserve it.

"You're being strangely quiet." I said walking back over to the bed and sitting down. I grabbed my pillow and used it as a barrier between me and Joe. The Ranger tingles were was causing my Hungarian hormones to hum. I was afraid that my hormones would mistake Joe for Ranger, causing me to lose control and jump him. I didn't want to give Joe in false hope that we would get back together. Just because I knew that I had no chance of having an actual relationship with Ranger didn't meant that Joe deserved to be my second choice. Somewhere out there was the perfect woman for Joe that would make a perfect 'Burg wife. He deserved a chance to find her. That would never happen if we continued to get back together only to break up again. This on-again off-again thing wasn't good for either one of us. I want Joe to be happy, even if that means that I'm alone for the rest of my life.

"I can be quiet." Joe replied, interrupting my thoughts.

"Joe, I've known you my entire life. You yell. You wave your arms in the air. You, Joe, are never quiet." I argued.

Joe opened his mouth to speak, but quickly closed it. Then a blank face slammed down. I've seen Joe with his cop face before, but I had never seen Joe with a blank face. Joe's cop face always has traces of what he's feeling, unlike Ranger's blank face which is impossible to read. This blank face reminded me of Ranger's.

"Listen Joe, you're obviously exhausted, otherwise you wouldn't be acting so…strange. We need to talk, but I think that it would be best if we waited until the morning. The way I see it, you have a couple of options. The first option is that you can go home and come back in the morning. The problem with that is you're not acting like yourself, probably from being tired. I'm a little worried about you driving home."

"The second option?" Joe asked with a raised eyebrow.

"The second option is sleeping on my couch." I offered. "And we can finish out talk in the morning over breakfast."

"And if I don't want to sleep on the couch?" He replied.

I rolled my eyes. I should have known to expect this. "I guess you can sleep in here, but you need to realize that this does not mean that we are back together or an invitation to have sex. IF you sleep in my bed, you will keep your pants on and your hands to yourself. If you try to initiate sex at any time during the night, I will assume that you decided on option number one and you can leave immediately."

Normally Joe would make a comment about his 'boys' missed me before crawling into bed. Instead Joe quietly walked over to the other side of the bed, removed his shoes and shoes, and emptied his pockets of his jeans. He looked at me for a moment with longing in his eyes before crawling into bed. I turned my back to him, hoping that it would discourage him from trying anything. Once he was settled in bed, I felt him reach to pull my back against his chest.

"No touching. Just sleep. You stay on your side of the bed and I'll stay on mine." I said moving over to the edge of the bed. The no touching rule was more for my benefit than Joe's. The tingle on the back of my neck was still going strong. I was afraid that it would cause me to dream about Ranger which would cause me to attack Joe in my sleep.

Despite the tingle, I was finally able to doze off to sleep. I'm pretty sure that I was dreaming when I felt someone lean over, kiss my hair, and say "I love you, Babe", to which I automatically replied, "I love you too, Ranger". It was a good thing I was dreaming, right?

The next morning I woke to the smell of breakfast and the back of my neck still tingling. I dragged myself out of bed and into the shower. Once I was prepared for the day, I walked into the kitchen in search of coffee and determined to convince Joe to move on and get on with his life.

"I heard you get up. I fixed your coffee for you, cream with two sugars. Breakfast will be ready in a few seconds." He said handing me a coffee with cream and sugar. In all the years I've known him, this was the first time he's ever fixed coffee the way I like it. I didn't know that he knew that I took cream with two sugars in my coffee

"Thanks." I said taking a drink. "This is the best coffee you've ever made."

Joe didn't say anything as he slid an omelet on my plate which already held bacon and toast.

I was too busy moaning through my delicious breakfast when I noticed that Joe's plate was different than mine. He had one scrambled egg, toast with no butter, and fruit.

"Since when did you stop eating bacon?" I asked.

"I overdid it with the saturated fats this weekend." He shrugged, taking a drink of his coffee.

"Okay, but when did you start taking your coffee black?" I asked. Joe normally used a touch of cream and a half of teaspoon of sugar. I should know I've fixed his coffee a hundred times.

"I overdid it on the sugar, too." He replied.

"That's never stopped you before." I said.

Joe reached over and grabbed a slice of bacon off of my plate.

"Hey! That's mine!" I yelled.

"I thought you said that I was the one always yelling." Joe countered.

"No, we both yell. You just do it a lot more than I do. It's what makes us dysfunctional." I explained.

We ate the rest of our breakfast in silence, which is usually how I eat breakfast with Ranger, not Joe. Maybe he's up to something. First he sits in Ranger's chair, then he's quiet, then he sleeps in my bed without trying to have sex (that's a first, believe me), and now he's eating healthier. I'm starting to think Joe is up to something, but that still doesn't explain the tingles.

Once breakfast was over, we moved into the living room to talk.

"You said that we needed to talk." Joe said sitting down on my couch. I decided to sit on the opposite side of the couch, just in case Joe got upset and starting yelling and waving his arms around.

"Yeah Joe, we do."