Disclaimer: Still not mine.
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Chapter 11 - Working Together
Over the next two months, Stephanie and Rodriguez fell into a comfortable partnership. They successfully captured numerous skips and did countless hours of surveillance together. Their friendship was natural, so that made their partnership easy. Stephanie learned more about Rodriguez during their first two months as partners than she ever thought possible.
Stephanie and Ranger had also fallen into a comfortable relationship. Most nights, she stayed on seven even though they hadn't discussed living together. The only nights she stayed in her apartment was when he had a late night surveillance shift and wouldn't be there any way. That didn't happen very often though. They spent every free minute together and their love grew stronger every day.
Ranger even took Stephanie to meet his family. His parents welcomed her into their lives without hesitation. They knew that it was Stephanie's influence that changed their hardened son. They began to see subtle changes in him the minute he started talking about the woman he met. Ranger's mom was even planning in her mind for their wedding. She could see their love and knew that it was only a matter of time before they made it permanent.
Stephanie's mother, however, didn't like her daughter's relationship with Ranger. She took every opportunity to chastise Stephanie for not accepting Joe's proposal. She wanted her youngest daughter safe and sound. Married and popping out babies preferably, but she'd settle for her in a stable relationship with someone safe. And she wanted Stephanie far away from Ranger Manoso and her job.
After the first dinner showdown with her mother, Stephanie hadn't been back. She occasionally had lunch with her father and grandmother, but she stayed away from her mother. Stephanie didn't want to be around her if she couldn't accept her relationship with Ranger. Stephanie could take criticism about her job and about her lifestyle, but when her mom started calling Ranger and the other guys thugs, that was enough to send Stephanie into rhino mode. Her mother would never understand and Stephanie didn't want to be around her negative attitude.
It wasn't like Stephanie didn't have people who loved her surrounding her. Between the Merry Men and Ranger, she was constantly supported. She and Les were friends before she worked full-time at RangeMan, but afterwards, they became best friends. Les loved Stephanie more than he had any other woman. He knew she belonged to Ranger, but he settled for being her friend. He told her things about himself that no one else knew. She made it easy for the guys to open up to her because no matter what they said, she didn't judge them. She loved them no matter what.
One Friday afternoon, Stephanie and Rodriguez were out chasing skips. Lula was stuck at the office filing, so they were left to their own devices that day. Not that that's always a bad thing. Lula tended to cause more chaos than was necessary and from the way Stephanie looked, she didn't need any extra chaos.
"You feeling okay, Steph? You're looking a little rough." Rodriguez looked at his partner who was currently driving them around Trenton. Stephanie glared at him and then turned her attention back to the road. They were looking for thirty-four year old, Frankie Humphries. He was arrested for assault and battery, possession of a controlled substance, and felony fleeing. Why Vinnie bonded him out is a mystery, but he did and now the pair was tasked with bringing him back in.
"Thanks. That's a polite way of saying I look like shit." Rodriguez chuckled at Stephanie's annoyed statement.
"I'm just worried about you. You haven't been yourself for the past few days. You even turned down Pino's yesterday!" Stephanie waved off his concern.
"I've just been tired lately and a little nauseous. It comes and goes so I'm not too worried about it. Right now, I feel pretty rough." Rodriguez thought about what she said. She'd been moody the past couple days too. He was about to ask a question when Stephanie jerked the SUV into a parking lot and threw open the door. He watched from the passenger seat as she leaned out the door and threw up all over the parking lot.
After she'd emptied her stomach she sat back up in the driver's seat and took the offered bottle of water from her partner. He looked at her with concerned eyes. "Steph, maybe you should see Bobby. This isn't normal."
"I think it's just a bug. I'm okay." Rodriguez shook his head and shrugged it off. He wasn't going to make her talk to Bobby. That was the fastest way to piss Stephanie off. Make her do something she didn't want to do.
"Why don't you and I head to my apartment? I need to check on some things and brush my teeth." Stephanie looked at her partner hoping he wouldn't object to her idea. He simply nodded and she turned the SUV toward her home.
It had been weeks since she'd been there and she really wanted to check stuff out. "So when are you making the move to RangeMan permanent?" Rodriguez questioned his partner. The guys had a pool open and were all anxious to have her there permanently.
Stephanie smiled at Dante and parked the SUV in a front spot in her apartment's parking lot. Maybe it wasn't Ranger who had good parking karma, maybe it was the vehicles. "I guess whenever the big boss man decides to ask me. We haven't really talked much about it, but I usually end up staying there anyway." They both hopped out of the SUV and made their way up the stairs to her apartment. They cleared it together and then Stephanie took a look around.
Her stomach lurched again and she took off running to the bathroom. She felt her hair being pulled back as she threw up in to the toilette. When she was finished, a cool rag was placed into her hand and she used it to wipe her face and mouth off as she rested her head against the cool tile wall and closed her eyes.
"Steph, can I get you anything?" She opened her eyes and looked at her partner.
"There's some Earl Grey Tea in my cupboard. Would you boil some water and fix me a cup of that. Maybe it will settle my stomach." Rodriguez nodded and immediately went out of the bathroom to her small kitchen.
Stephanie stood up off the floor and looked at herself in the mirror. She was exhausted and looked like shit. She quickly washed her face and brushed her teeth before walking into her kitchen. Rodriguez was at the stove messing with the knobs. "I think something's wrong. It won't come on at all." Stephanie groaned and took his place messing with the stupid stove.
After about five minutes of fiddling and multiple curses, Stephanie gave up and put a mug of water in the microwave. While it was heating up, she called the building manager, Dillon, and told him about the stove being broken. It was up to the owners to replace the appliances. Dillon assured her that he would take care of ordering the new stove and let her know when to expect the delivery. After hanging up with him, Stephanie fixed herself a cup of tea and sat down on her couch next to Rodriguez. He looked at her with concern in his eyes.
"How you feeling?" Stephanie looked at him and smiled as she sipped her tea.
"Better. Thanks." Rodriguez looked at Stephanie and tried to come up with a way to ask a sensitive question. He'd seen all her symptoms before and he was concerned for his friend.
"Steph, can I ask you a question and not have you get mad at me?" Stephanie raised an eye brow as she looked at him. She didn't speak, just simply nodded her head. "Are you pregnant?"
Stephanie stopped with her mug of tea half way to her mouth. Her eyes got wide as she thought about what he asked. Was she? She tried to remember her last period and realized that it was over a month ago. Her hands started shaking and Rodriguez gently took the mug of hot tea out of her hands.
"Okay, I'm going to guess that it's a huge possibility. Let's put this down and take some deep breaths." Rodriguez could see the panic written all over her face. He pushed her head between her knees and whispered into her ear, "Breathe Stephanie."
Once he felt her calm down he released her head and pulled her eyes up to look at him. "It's going to be okay. What do we need to do?" Stephanie looked at him again. She looked like a lost puppy that had no idea how to find her way home. "Okay. Do you have a pregnancy test here?" Stephanie shook her head no frantically.
Rodriguez nodded and pulled out his phone. Stephanie freaked again. "Who are you calling? You can't tell anyone. Fuck...fuck...fuck! What am I going to..."
"STEPHANIE! Relax. I'm going to text Santos. He's off today and you trust him, right? He can run to the store and get a test or steal one from Bobby. Is that okay?" Stephanie looked panicked again but she nodded.
Rodriguez sent a fast text to Les: Steph needs a huge favor! Grab a pregnancy test from the clinic and get to her apartment ASAP. Tell NO ONE what's going on. She's freaking out and needs a friend.
He got an immediate response: Shit! You better not be joking with me but seeing as its Beautiful we're talking about, I'm guessing this is serious. I'll be there in ten. Tell her to hang on for me.
Rodriguez pulled Stephanie into his side as he tried to comfort her. He wasn't the one she wanted, but he had a feeling neither was Les. Ranger needed to be there for her, but there was no way he was broaching that subject.
Exactly ten minutes later there was a knock on her door. When no one answered it, Les let himself inside. He saw Stephanie curled up beside Rodriguez and he felt a surge of jealousy shoot through him. Not that he had any reason to be jealous though.
Les approached Stephanie and squatted down in front of her. He brushed the hair away from her face and smiled at her blank look. "Beautiful, I have a present for you. You think you want to do this now or wait until later?" Stephanie looked at him and sat up. She didn't say anything as she held out her hand for the test.
She disappeared into the bathroom leaving the two men in the small living room. "What the fuck do you think is going to happen? Have they even talked about kids?" Rodriguez looked at Santos.
"I have no idea man. You know they don't talk about anything until it's like a second away from catastrophe. I know Beautiful is terrified of kids and Ranger always said one was enough for him. This is going to be interesting. If anything bad happens between them, Beautiful is going to be destroyed."
Rodriguez looked at Les perplexed. "He wouldn't dump her because of this would he? I've seen the way he looks at her and I don't see him backing away just because of this." Les just shrugged and turned his attention to the bathroom.
Stephanie walked calmly out a minute later and right into Les' open arms. He stroked her hair and told her that everything was going to be alright. They all stood silently in the living room until Stephanie's alarm beeped on her phone. She let out a long sigh and pulled out of Les' arms. When she didn't make a move toward the bathroom, Rodriguez looked into her eyes. "Would you like me to go read the test, Steph?"
Stephanie shook her head and straightened her spine. She smiled a small smile at the two men and walked into the bathroom. The apartment was quiet as she read her fate. The guys heard a whimper and they both knew what the result was. She reappeared a minute later with tears in her eyes. "What am I going to do? Ranger's going to kill me." Les took her in his arms again.
"No he's not. He loves you, Steph, and he's going to be thrilled about the baby. I've never seen that man happier so I doubt this is even going to be that big of a deal to him." Rodriguez raised an eyebrow at him and Les just shrugged. Stephanie needed comfort. "Just relax for now. You don't have to tell him just yet. Find a doctor and have them look at you. These tests can be wrong." Stephanie looked at him hopeful. Les knew the truth that false positives were rare, but he didn't want to tell her that.
"Okay. I can do that. I'll call now and make an appointment for Monday. Thanks Les." She gave him a kiss on the cheek and then walked into the bedroom for some privacy.
"Now what the hell do we do?" Rodriguez never took his eyes off the closed bedroom door. He knew the likelihood of the test being wrong was slim too.
"We do whatever we have to do to be there for her. I don't think Ranger would kick her to the curb for this. He's beyond happy and I think what they have goes so far beyond just love that it's sickening." Rodriguez nodded his head in agreement. "But you're going to have to be careful with her until she gets word from the doctor. She's not going to want to back off bounty hunting until then. Keep an eye on her."
"That shouldn't be a problem. We're off this weekend and I can convince her to be done for today. Let's just hope her appointment is early on Monday." Les nodded and smiled when Stephanie reappeared with a smile on her face.
"I have an appointment at 0820 Monday morning." Both men let out a sigh of relief. They were about to ask a question when her cell rang.
Stephanie answered the call when she saw it was Dillon. "Hey Steph, you've got a new stove being delivered at four-thirty tomorrow. Can you be there to accept the delivery?"
"Sure thing, I'll be here." Dillon thanked her and hung up. She turned around to see two sets of raised brows.
"My new stove is being delivered tomorrow at 1630. I think Ranger has a late surveillance shift, so I'll just plan on staying here. I can have some alone time to think." Les and Rodriguez nodded. Neither of them knew what to say to her next. Stephanie looked at each of them and asked a favor. "Can you two, please, keep quiet about this? I want to be the one to tell Ranger when it's time."
Rodriguez was the first to respond, "My lips are sealed, Dulzura." She smiled and hugged her partner. Les pulled her into his arms when she was done. "You've got my word, Beautiful. I'll keep my mouth shut."
Stephanie knew she could trust these two guys to keep her secret. There wasn't anyone else, aside from Ranger that she trusted more. She just hoped she still had him when she told him that she was pregnant. Her biggest fear was Ranger deciding that he wasn't ready for kids and walking away. She really didn't think that was going to happen, but she wanted to prepare herself for the worst case scenario.
They were all sitting around her living room talking about work when her phone buzzed with an incoming text. She smiled seeing it was from Ranger. Babe. I'm done with meetings for the day and thought we'd have an early dinner and then an early bedtime. Come home whenever you're done being a badass bounty hunter. Love you!
Stephanie responded quickly that she was on the way and looked at the two men sitting with her. "Boss man needs me back at Haywood. Are you two ready to roll?" The guys smiled at her knowing exactly what the boss man needed from her.
Fifteen minutes later, Stephanie walked into the penthouse apartment. She could smell amazing things coming from the kitchen and was shocked to see Ranger cooking when she entered the room. He smiled at her and stopped stirring when he saw her.
"Hey Babe, how was your day?" Stephanie stepped up and gave him a kiss, and peeked into the pots on the stove.
"It was good. We didn't get our guy, but we will. We talked to some friends of his today." Ranger smiled and returned to the food. "What smells so freaking good?" Stephanie's mouth was practically watering from the aromas.
"Ropa Vieja, it's a shredded beef Cuban dish that I love. My mother taught me to make it years ago and I thought you'd enjoy it." Stephanie stood amazed at the man in front of her. She had no idea he could cook. "You have time to shower if you want to. I'll open the wine to let it breathe and we should be ready to eat in about fifteen minutes."
Stephanie kissed him again before turning and heading into the bathroom. She took a fast shower and then slipped into a clean pair of panties and one of Ranger's T-Shirts. She didn't bother with the pants because it was just going to be them tonight and pants would only get in the way later. She walked back into the kitchen to see the table fully set and the meal waiting for her at her place.
Ranger gave her a passion filled kiss before pushing her down into her seat. He poured her a glass of wine which she eyeballed suspiciously. She remembered hearing her sister Valerie talk about drinking a glass of wine while she was pregnant so she decided to sip it so Ranger wouldn't think something was up. She took a sip of the wine and then smiled at the man next to her. He was watching her and she couldn't figure out why. She picked up her fork and took a bite of the heavenly food in front of her.
She couldn't help her reaction and moaned in delight as she tasted the explosion of flavors on her tongue. "Oh my God! This is so good! Why haven't you cooked this for me before?" Ranger laughed and shook his head. He picked up his fork and dug into his food too.
"I guess because I never had the time. Most of my meetings got cancelled today so I had some free time and I wanted to use it to treat you." Stephanie melted at his words and continued eating. She decided to broach the subject of her staying in her apartment the next night when she was about half way done with her meal.
"Do you still have that late night surveillance shift tomorrow night?" Ranger nodded and continued to eat. "Okay, I think I'm going to stay at my apartment then. My new stove is being delivered in the evening, so I'll hang out there and then probably just crash after it gets installed."
Ranger didn't like that she wasn't going to be staying at Haywood, but he knew better than to push her. He wanted her there permanently, but he didn't know if she was ready for that step yet. They hadn't discussed much about their relationship because it came so naturally for them. Ranger realized that he hadn't said anything to her and he didn't want her to pick up on his disappointment. "That's sounds good, Babe. I won't be back until after 0400, so I wouldn't see you much anyway. Can we spend tomorrow together before your stove gets delivered?"
Stephanie smiled brightly at him before nodding. "I'd really like that. We don't have to do anything special besides be together." It was Ranger's turn to smile at her. He leaned over to kiss her deeply. She moaned into his mouth and he could feel himself getting hard. He pulled away and smirked at her.
"Hold my place for later. I'm going to clean up real fast and then we can go to bed and continue where we left off." Stephanie shuddered as she thought about continuing and decided that they could get done quicker if she helped.
"You wash, I'll dry." She hopped up and carried her plates to the kitchen. Ranger trailed behind her laughing at her enthusiasm.
They worked together to clean up the kitchen and then immediately retreated to the bedroom where Ranger picked up right where he left off earlier. They spent most of the night wrapped in each other's love. There was nowhere else on the planet that they wanted to be.
A/N - There you have it. Let me know what you thought about the chapter. Good, bad or ugly, I want to know!
