I'm not going to lie. There have been a number of times that I've fantasized about being with Ranger on a more permanent basis. We've had some really great moments together, and he's fun to work with. We're compatible in a very strange way. It's kind of like oil and vinegar: when you combine the two, sometimes you get a killer salad dressing, but most of the time, they remain separated. And yet over the last few days, Ranger was being even more oily than usual. It was obvious that he was distancing himself from me. And the idea wasn't sitting well. I was still puzzling through everything in the elevator when I had a terrible thought.

I pounded the buttons in the elevator and shot through the doors when they once again opened on the seventh floor.

"Ranger!" I yelled pounding on his door. I heard movement on the other side, and he opened the door looking concerned.

"What?" he asked. "I thought you were leaving. Did something happen?" I walked past him into the apartment.

"No, but I need to get to the bottom of something." I turned and looked at him. "You're sick aren't you?"

He raised an eyebrow at me as if I was crazy. "I got poisoned this morning, but I'm pretty sure you already knew that."

"No, not that. I mean really sick." I paused. "Are you…dying?" Part of me didn't want to know the answer, but the whole thing was driving me crazy.

"What makes you think I'm dying?" he asked cleverly evading the question.

"You've been acting really weird lately. I've seen more emotion from you in the last few days than our entire working career together. What's up with that?" He frowned obviously debating how to answer.

"I was going to wait to tell you."

"Oh no! Wait, I don't know if I want to hear this. I can't handle… Ok," I took a deep breath. "Yeah, I can take it." Another deep breath. "How long do you have?" He shook his head and smiled.

"It's not like that," Then he got serious. "Well, at least not for me anyway. Rachel's sick."

My jaw dropped. Rachel was Ranger's ex-wife who lived in Florida with his daughter, Julie. He had kept their existence a secret until someone tried to take over his identity a few years back. Julie had been kidnapped, and the whole ordeal had ended with Ranger in the hospital. It was probably the only other time I could think of when Ranger had shown an abnormal amount of emotion. It was also right about that time when I realized I had some real feelings for the guy. It was a horrifying realization: I was in love with two men.

"Rachel's sick?" I repeated dumbstruck.

"Yeah," he said running his hand through his hair. "Julie's been calling me a lot lately. She's pretty shaken up. I even went down there for a couple weeks recently. I'm afraid it's not looking good for Rachel." It all sounded so terrible, but I couldn't hide the fact that I was a little relieved. At least Ranger was ok. But then I started putting everything together.

"You're leaving, aren't you?" I asked quietly.

"Once everything's tied up here, and I'm sure you're not in any serious danger, I'll be moving down to Florida to be closer to Julie." He watched me, waiting for my response. I didn't know what to say, so I just stood there.

"For someone who usually has something to say about everything, you're being oddly quiet." I started to open my mouth, but nothing would come out. I didn't know if I should be begging him to stay, asking to go with him, or just walking away. It was utterly absurd to think about Trenton without Ranger.

"Oh," I finally said. I'll admit it was dumb, but I needed more time to think. Probably over donuts, a really big piece of cake, or a bag of Oreos. Maybe all three. I wondered how I managed to miss something so earth-shattering, but it occurred to me that Ranger didn't have many belongings and he mostly kept to himself. It's not like his apartment would have been strewn with moving boxes. And we really hadn't seen much of each other until recently. I felt like a terrible friend.

"You're doing that weird thing where your eyebrow creases and you look like you're thinking too hard about something." I rolled my eyes.

"I just feel bad I didn't know," I said in an exasperated tone. I wanted to start pacing around or go lay down or something. I really needed to process all of this. "How are you holding up?" I finally asked.

"That's a loaded question. I was managing alright until all of this started. Then seeing you…" he trailed off. "It's complicated."

I leaned up against the kitchen counter. "Were you going to leave without telling me?" I asked.

"I thought it might be better. At first. We hadn't talked in a while. You seemed to have things figured out with Morelli. I didn't want to…confuse you." I leaned my elbows on the counter and plopped my face in my hands.

"That's never stopped…I…it's not like…well, I think I'd deserve at least a goodbye." I could feel my emotions starting to get the better of me.

Ranger walked over and pulled me off the counter. "Babe, the problem is goodbye with me would probably turn into something else." He pulled me over to him and kissed me. And I kissed him back. And before I knew what was happening, we were in his bedroom. Clothes were flying, and I was only marginally aware of the growing mass of guilt that was forming in my gut. I had just found my favorite spot on the bed when there was a loud knock on the door.

Ranger's lips were working their way down my body. "Want to ignore it?" he asked between kisses. The knock came again, only this time louder.

"You don't get many visitors. It might be important," I sighed. Ranger crawled off me and pulled some clothes on. I fell back into the bed. That was close. I obviously had zero self-control where Ranger was concerned.

I got dressed and smoothed my hair before making my way out to where Ranger was talking with a Rangeman operative. It was a new face, someone I'd never seen before. Ranger glanced up at me.

"The police have a suspect for the car bombing," he said handing me some papers. "Its makeup was pretty rudimentary, and the guy they have in custody seems more like a drug dealer than the person we've been dealing with." I frowned as I put some of the details together.

"What do you bet he's tied in somehow with Bruno and the Rhino?" I asked. Ranger nodded his agreement then sent the Rangeman guy back downstairs.

"I guess that solves the car stuff, but that still leaves us our other problem." I wasn't sure if he was referring to the person leaving us unwanted gifts or the fact that we'd almost slept together.

"I should probably go," I said heading for the door. Ranger was still looking rather irresistible, and I didn't trust myself to hang around.

"I'll be in touch," he said walking me to the door. There was an awkward moment when we didn't know how to say goodbye. On any other occasion, I'd probably get a kiss, but Ranger kisses were dangerous, so I did a stupid finger wave instead and left.

The drive back to Morelli's was miserable. I was bummed that Ranger was leaving. I was bummed that Rachel was sick. I was bummed another car had been torched. I was bummed there was still a psycho on the loose, and I was really, really bummed that I wasn't still curled up in Ranger's bed next to Ranger. Ugh! What in the world was wrong with me?

Morelli was sleeping on the couch next to Bob when I walked through the door. I didn't blame him; it was late.

"Hey," I said quietly. "You should probably head to bed." He gave me a sleepy smile.

"Only if you're joining me." I didn't feel tired, and I still felt really guilty about my activities earlier that evening, so I shook my head.

"I think I still need to wind down from today. I'll be up in a bit." He seemed a little disappointed, but got up and trudged up the stairs anyway.

I flipped the TV on, but my thoughts kept coming back to Ranger. I was feeling flustered and a little turned on, so I decided to think about the flowers instead. The other packages had been chopped up animal innards. They were disgusting and definitely gave the psycho vibe, but the flowers and the poison had been uniquely personal.

A few people knew about Ranger and my ambiguous relationship. Connie and Lula knew some details, Morelli was always suspicious, and I'm pretty sure some of the guys at Rangeman knew I'd stayed over before, but it was really anyone's guess what was actually going on.

Ranger was always doing things under the radar. The feelings he had or didn't have for me were kept the same way. It was strange that whoever was doing this seemed to know there was something more between us. I could hear the frightening voice ask the question again. Did the cop know? Did Morelli know more than he let on about how Ranger felt about me? I wasn't sure if I even knew how Ranger felt about me.

He had told me before that he loved me…kind of. He'd even mentioned thinking about marrying me at one point, but it was always in that humorous not-to-be-taken-too-seriously kind of way. And it sure didn't seem like he was begging me to come to Florida with him. If anything, it looked like he was ending everything. At least until tonight.

Whoever this was knew personal things about Ranger, which was no easy task considering everything that made up Ranger, the real Ranger, was locked away in an emotional vault with extremely limited access. I wondered exactly how many people made the list with the access code. As I paced around rummaging through my thoughts, I noticed a note on the kitchen table.

"Dinner at your mom and dad's? 6:00?" it said. Great. I'd totally forgotten about the weekly dinners we'd been having with my parents. This week wasn't exactly the best for adding the stress of dining with my family, but maybe it would give me an opportunity to get away from everything and clear my mind.

I turned off the TV and made my way up the stairs. I washed my face and brushed my teeth and crawled into the bed next to Morelli. His arm reached out and pulled me over to him. I let out an enormous sigh. He rubbed my back and kissed my shoulder. "It's going to be ok, Cupcake," he said quietly. A tear slid down my cheek. I really wasn't so sure anymore. But he was warm, and I was beyond tired, so I fell asleep anyway.