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Chapter 11
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"Please. Stay here, Babe."
Ranger had whispered the words in her ear only moments before he had to leave. Stephanie knew that he was worried that she would not be safe if she left the building, but there had been no time for him to explain why. Now, hours later, Stephanie was trying to decide what to do. What was going on? She trusted that he was worried about her, but she could not imagine how she could be in any harm. Why would anyone be after her? Who even knew who she was? The people who needed protection were here, and she didn't think that she was one of them.
Still sitting at her desk, Stephanie had been trying to pretend that she could get some work done. All she had been able to do, however, was replay Ranger's words over and over in her mind. She had been blankly staring at the screen for an hour before admitting to herself, that it might be a good idea if she tried to get some rest. She just needed to decide where she was going to go. Rex was at home, she didn't want to leave him all alone, but Ranger had asked her to stay. He had even said please. That made her smile. He knew she had a hard time saying no to him when he did that.
The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to stay. Besides, being here at RangeMan would allow her to feel a bit closer to Ranger, and would give her a chance to listen to any news there was about the team. So far there had been nothing to report. Not that she expected anything, they had not even reached their destination. She had looked it up. If they were going to Nicosia, like she had seen in the messages, they would not be there for hours yet. No one was going to know anything until they got there anyway, so she might as well try to get some badly needed sleep.
"Yeah, right!" she muttered as grabbed her purse and pushed her chair back. She knew full well that, as much as she knew she should, it was not going to be easy to make herself rest. Not until she knew that Ranger was going to be safe, and that could take days. The prospect of waiting, and wondering and worrying, filled her with dread. One thing that she knew for sure was that she did not want to be alone. Staying here would keep her surrounded by people who knew what was happening. She could really use that, but she was going to have to find Ella, to let her into an apartment.
Just as she stood, Stephanie was surprised to see Ella as she peeked around the corner and smiled at her.
"Hey, Stephanie," Ella said, as she took a step toward her. She held out her hand. "I was asked to give this to you." Placing the key fob into Stephanie's hand, she looked into her eyes. "It will be good to have you here," she said softly. "I will feel better too, knowing that you are safe."
Ella's comments surprised her, and Stephanie didn't know what to say. It was obvious that Ella knew a few things that she didn't, but she all of a sudden didn't want to ask about it. Not yet. Stephanie nodded at her and wrapped her fingers around the small keyring. It was apparent that Ranger had made arrangements for her stay. She wasn't going to refuse his offer.
"Thanks Ella," Stephanie said softly. Her emotions were very near the surface. She swallowed and looked up into Ella's eyes.
"Go on up when you are ready," Ella said. She patted her hand before she turned and walked down the hall.
Now that it was decided that she would stay, Stephanie knew that she should get that rest that she needed. It was time to at least try. As she gathered her things, she suddenly remembered that she had left the laptop in Rangers office. Thinking it might be a good idea to have it, she made her way to the office to pack it up.
Her hand reached out to close the lid, and the moment she touched it, the screen came back on with a flash of light and sharp beep. She was startled and almost jumped back, her heart pounding hard in her chest. Suddenly the apprehension she had been feeling all afternoon was replaced with the curiosity that had prompted her to continue looking into Miss DJ Miller.
Stephanie took a deep breath, she was surprised to see the page that was still open. Sinking into the chair, she started to read. This was the information that she had been searching for, just before Miss Miller had made the announcement that changed everything this morning. She had almost forgotten about the train of thought that had led her to look for this information, but one look at the report in front of her brought it all back to mind.
It had been tricky to even find these documents. Someone had hidden them well, filing them under a code name. Looking at it now, she was glad that she had followed her instincts. Anything this important was not going to be in the normal files, and it had proven to be just the challenge she had anticipated it would be. After trying every code name that she could think of, she had finally typed in Phoenix, just moments before Miller had spoken and Stephanie's attention had been torn from the laptop.
Now, here it was, that bit of information that she had been searching for. This was the report that showed the date of Phoenix, or rather, DJ Miller's incident in Turkey. Stephanie was not sure if she should be surprised that it had happened two days before the family had died in Iowa. Debra Jean had never made it home. She had not been with her family when the accident happened. In light of what she had been discovering about Kinkaid and Smith in the past few hours, Stephanie had no trouble at all believing that there had been some influence in the mistaken identity of the woman who had been killed in the accident.
Of course, solving this piece of the puzzle only brought more questions than answers. The most glaring of which, to Stephanie, was whether Ranger could count on Miller during their mission. She had already found out that it had taken a year for her to recover, that was a huge ordeal. What if Miller was not emotionally over the the trauma from the accident? Wouldn't going back, to the same area where it had happened, bring back awful memories?
Stephanie lowered her head to her hands and tried to force the alarming thoughts from her mind. It had been a good three years since DJ's release from the hospital, surely that was enough time to heal and get over it. And the general wouldn't put her in harms way if she was not ready, would he?
Taking several deep breaths, Stephanie looked up and finished reading the report, searching for the answers to her questions. She found nothing that would help, so she shut down the computer and shoved it into the bag. All she could do now was keep a prayer in her heart that everything was going to be okay. Ranger had his team with him, thankfully, not everything depended on Miller. Stephanie would cling onto the hope that the guys would have Ranger's back, and that they would all come home soon.
ONE BY ONE the small panels on the windows in the cabin were pulled shut, making the airplane as dark as possible. Ranger watched with a wry smile. Controlling their environment when they could was always a good thing, but he knew that all of his men could sleep wherever and whenever they had the chance to do so. It was an important part of their training. He was no different, and now it was time for him to finally get the sleep he needed too. With one last look around, Ranger was about to put himself in sleep mode when he noticed Gutierrez in the back. At first he was startled, he hadn't expected to see the guy who worked with Hector, but he quickly remembered that Tank had mentioned that he would would be coming. Something about tech support.
Of course, his first thought was that he should have been sleeping, like the rest of the team. Ranger could have said something to him, but chose he not to. He figured that it was understandable, this was Gutierrez's first op. He could cut him a little slack. Then Ranger noticed that the man's eyes were intently trained on someone. Following the gaze, he was surprised to see that DJ Miller was in his line of sight. That was interesting.
It was not easy to read the expression on his face, like the rest of the men, he had been well trained to use a blank expression. So, maybe Gutierrez was curious about her. Ranger could understand that too, no one knew who she was before this morning, and the RangeMan teams had never worked with her before. Ranger shrugged, other than being an interesting observation, it did not seem to garner any kind of response. So he turned and settled into his seat, instantly falling asleep.
IT WAS NEARLY four in the afternoon before Joe Morelli had a break. The life of a detective was always unpredictable. Looking at his watch, he remembered that he needed to call Stephanie. They really did need to talk. Pulling out his cell phone, he punched the numbers, and was immediately annoyed that it went directly into voicemail. He had played that game all night, and he was not about to do it again now. He just did not have the time.
"Steph, call me. I'll be over tonight, we need to talk," he left the message for her and ended the call.
He would go past Pino's on his way to her place tonight. She was always in a good mood when she had her favorite food to eat. Plans made, he went back to work. They would get things worked out tonight. It was time to move forward, they both knew that. They had been apart long enough to know what they wanted to do next. There were so many things that he wanted to say to her. His attention was once again redirected to his job, and it wasn't until he stood outside her empty apartment that he started to really wonder what was going on with Stephanie right now.
A bit angry, he unlocked the door and walked in. Everything looked the same, so he knew that she still lived here, she just was no where to be seen. Joe heard a noise by the door and spun around expecting to see her walking in. To his surprise and disappointment, it was not Stephanie.
Dillon, the building super, looked seriously at the cop and cocked his head to one side. "You here to take care of the hamster?" he asked.
Joe's confused expression let Dillon know the answer to that question. He walked forward and passed Joe on his way to the kitchen. Picking up the cage, he turned and walked back to the door.
"I was asked to babysit the little guy," Dillon explained. "You should probably go now, I'll just lock up here."
Without any other choice, Joe took his bag of meatball subs and walked out into the hall. All he knew at this point was that Stephanie was gone, and she had made arrangements for Rex. He figured that she must be okay, if she could do that. So he started to leave. He looked at Dillon and shook his head. Joe was too tired to argue, and too irritated to wonder where Stephanie was this time. He would look into it tomorrow.
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