Chapter 11 - A Game is Afoot

After a night spent packing up and cleaning my old apartment, moving some belongings to the rental, donating the few items that might have value to Goodwill, and taking the junk to the dumpster, I had plans for the morning. I wasn't a bond enforcement agent anymore, so I didn't have to work, and I was newlywed and newlybonded to a freaking god of a man.

My plan for the morning involved riding him. Or letting him have a go at me. I wasn't picky, I just wanted to start the day with a little bit of magic before I inevitably had to face my family at some point.

So when I awoke to the sound of my phone ringing, I thought it was only fair that I grumbled, shoved my pillow firmly over my head, and snuggled more adamantly into Thor. Blissfully, the phone stopped ringing, but it picked up again ten seconds later. I sleepily reached a hand to the other side of the bed, flailing with it uselessly until I finally grabbed the phone. Then I dragged the it under the pillow with me.

"What?" I snarled at whoever was calling.

"Babe," came a familiar voice on the other side.

"It is way too fucking early in the morning for a phone call, Ranger! Do you know how I know that?" I asked, waiting for him to respond. He didn't, but he also didn't say anything else, so I continued my rant, "because Thor is still in bed, and he likes to wake up at the ass crack of dawn just like you. Oh, yeah, and because it's still dark out."

I thought I just might have heard Ranger sigh a little before he used a tone that told me he meant business and said business was serious as he repeated, "Babe."

Scrambling up, I stumbled over the side of the bed, cursing as I stubbed my toe on the bedside table as I tried to right myself. Into the phone, I demanded, "what? Who died? Do I need to go to a hospital?"

I was trying to pull on a pair of pants, and I noticed Thor roll out of bed, watching me with concern but quickly dressing himself. When he finished, he came over and saved me from the jeans I was convinced were trying to kill me.

"No one is dead," Ranger said in response. "But I'm outside, and we need to talk. I brought doughnuts."

"Fuck," I muttered under my breath as I hung up the phone. I grabbed the shirt Thor was holding out to me and pressed a kiss to his cheek. After I threw the shirt on, I looked down and laughed. "Marking your territory?"

Thor's eyes twinkled as he said, "oh, does that have a depiction of Mjolnir? That escaped my notice; I merely selected the garment which was easiest to find."

I rolled my eyes as I pulled on a pair of socks to ward off the chill as I made a noise of disbelief. When I opened my mouth though, what I said was, "you can go back to sleep. Apparently no one is dead, but Ranger is here, he needs to talk, and he brought me happy food, so whatever it is... it isn't good."

"Then we shall find out together," Thor insisted, helping me to my feet once more. I dashed into the bathroom, and when I scurried back out, Thor stopped me in the doorway as he went to take his turn saying, "I started the coffee; I will be but a moment."

Nodding my thanks, I moved down the stairs as quickly as I could while still hopefully not waking up everyone in the house and rushed to the front foyer. I paused long enough to cram my feet into some boots and wrap a jacket around myself before I opened the door. At the curb, a black Porsche Cayenne was idling. Ranger.

Walking forward as calmly as I could in case anyone else was watching, I moved to the passenger side, and just tapped on the window. When it rolled down, I bent down to see in and said, "come inside, Ranger. I need coffee if I'm going to deal with whatever shit is going on."

By way of response, Ranger simply shut off the engine and stepped out of the car.

"Did you lie about the doughnuts?" I asked, voice tinged with hurt.

"Would you have gotten up and dressed so quickly if you didn't think you were getting a treat?" Ranger asked.

I sulked and pouted at him as I crossed my arms across my chest and said, "of course I would if you said it was important."

Ranger's lips quirked into an almost smile for just a split second. We both knew I was fibbing, but he didn't call me on it, just paused at the back and opened the car trunk. Curiously, I watched as he leaned in then came out with a mismatched stack of five of the largest bakery boxes I'd ever seen. Rushing forward, I helped him by shutting the car once more and there was definitely even more of a bounce to my step as I led the way back to the house.

"Where did you even get this many doughnuts this early in the morning?" I asked excitedly.

"I sent my men to a variety of shops," Ranger told me. "I didn't want to have to watch you murder an Avenger for stealing a doughnut from you, so I brought plenty to share."

"Oh, well, no one else is awake yet," I told him as I opened the front door.

"Babe," came Ranger's one word reply.

When we reached the oversized dining room, Thor, Sif, the Warriors Three, Bucky, Steve, Darcy, Natasha, and Clint were all slumped over various mugs of coffee, so it seemed Ranger had a point. Though I could tell he just wanted to get on with business, Ranger made polite small talk and waited for everyone to settle down with food and a drink.

"You brought in Munson yesterday," Ranger started, making it sound like a question even though he already knew the answer.

I shrugged and explained, "it wasn't very difficult to find him as it turned out. He was squatting in my apartment, waiting for me."

Ranger's eyes darkened when he heard that, but he merely nodded his head. Then he blew out a breath and said, "I think we have a problem."

I was studying Ranger carefully, and took a guess based on what I saw, "more prison escapes?"

Ranger gave a brief nod and said, "Kenny Martin."

"He was a pretty tame take-down," I mused, remembering the man only vaguely. "He might not come after me."

Ranger just added, "Kenyon Lally."

"Same," I insisted. "Though he had a long history of beating his wife, so odds are he did not enjoy the fact that a woman brought him in."

"Kenny Mancuso," Ranger said softly.

I sucked in a breath and felt everyone's gazes zero in on me. "Yeah, he might be a problem. The last thing I ever heard him say was, 'these Plum bitches are goddamn animals!' after he and I had a bit of a scuffle where I fought a little dirty and Morelli had to break it up and restrain Mancuso. That was after he spent days taunting me, threatening me, and sending me things like body parts as 'gifts'."

"What body parts?" Darcy sounded both disgusted and fascinated at the same time.

"Oh you know, the usual. Fingers," I said. Then I tried to speak too quickly to actually be understood as I added, "penises, etc."

The men pretty universally flinched and grabbed for themselves, which I would have been amused by if not for my overwhelming concern at the recent turn of events.

"What are the odds that it's just a big coincidence?" I asked Ranger.

"That four of your skips have broken out of prison in just a couple days?" Ranger sounded incredulous.

"Yeah, I mean, I'm sure lots of people break out of prison every year," I actually wasn't sure, but I desperately wanted it to be true. "I bet there's dozens. Maybe even a hundred."

"Between two and three thousand," Bucky supplied. "Most years."

"Yeah, but there are somewhere around two million people in prison," Natasha argued. "She's put such a small fraction of those in prison, but the fraction of her prisoners that are escaped is comparatively HUGE. There's no way it's a coincidence."

"How'd they get out?" Steve asked Ranger.

"No one knows, there's no evidence. One minute they're there, and the next, they aren't," Ranger supplied.

"Which prisons?" Clint asked.

Ranger listed them off, and Natasha, Bucky, and Clint each named one and disappeared from the room.

"What are they doing?" I asked.

"They're going to go figure out how the men broke out," Steve told me.

Thor had been silent the whole time, which I thought was odd. From what I could tell so far, Thor liked to be in charge and lead, especially on Asgard, but for some reason, he didn't do that here. Perhaps it was in deference to the fact that Steve was officially the Avengers team leader, or maybe it was just that he wasn't as sure of how things worked on Midgard.

Catching my gaze, he offered me a reassuring smile and said, "I have no doubt that the papers under the last box of these delightful breakfast pastries give you, Stephanie, the right to collect these criminals and that you will attempt to do so. I will remain by your side, so I am available to you should you need assistance."

Ranger slid the stack of papers out from under the box in question and along the table over to me. After a quick glance, I saw that they were exactly that and nodded my head. "Yesterday I thought maybe I'd be on my way out of Trenton sooner than expected," I murmured. "But I can't leave until we figure this out."

Thor must have heard the genuine regret in my voice because his hands came up and started massaging my shoulders gently.

"So, what's your plan?" Steve asked me, and I couldn't keep my jaw from dropping.

"This is your town, you know the lay of the land, and you've brought these men in before," Darcy explained with a laugh. "Just because he's Captain America sometimes doesn't mean Steve's just going to run roughshod all over you and start barking orders."

I looked over at Ranger, and he raised a brow at me before saying, "Babe."

Right, if Ranger brought the paperwork to me in my name, that meant he was letting me take lead. Not to mention he'd had to shift things around to catch my stalker, then he'd no doubt had to pay overtime to cover for me when I left the planet, so I was thinking he probably really needed to focus on Rangeman more than anything else at the moment.

To start, I nodded at Ranger and said, "Ranger's going to go back to work once we're done here and return to business as usual."

"Steph-" Ranger started, but I just cut him off.

"I'm serious, Ranger," I said, pointing my finger at him. "You have a business to run, and I'd bet the men have been running extra shifts since the last stalker before I left. I have plenty of backup here, even if the Avengers need to head out."

Ranger's eyes darted over to Volstagg, and he leaned over to whisper to me, "he's bigger than Tank."

Rather than letting a statement like that get awkward, Steve instead reassured us, "even if there is a mission, most of us who are here should be able to stay or be swapped out. Half the team is still back at the base."

I shifted my head from side to side while I contemplated and then decided he of all people would know. Continuing on, I said, "Mancuso will make himself known, if he's in town. And he poses the largest risk. Today should be about getting myself seen and letting slip the location of where I'm staying. I don't want him to harm any of my old building's tenants, and this place has way more security than he's dealt with before. So today I'll focus on making myself visible while also trying to get some leads on Martin and Lally. At the end of the day, we'll see how it's gone and reassess for tomorrow."

Darcy raised her hand, so I nodded at her and she told us, "you're all forgetting one very important thing. Today is Tuesday."

"Right," I nodded, not having actually been sure what day it was, but not really caring either.

"Tomorrow is Wednesday," Darcy paused to see if anyone was going to catch on. "And Thursday is Thanksgiving?"

There were a couple beats of silence, which I broke by muttering, "oh shit. My mother's going to expect me to eat dinner with them. How has she not just flooded me with messages?"

"Did you check?" Ranger asked. "Because I got so sick of the damn thing ringing from her calling that I changed her ringtone to mute. And I turned off voicemail notifications."

"That would explain it then," I readily agreed.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, you can't go, Steph," Darcy informed me.

"And why is that?" I asked, well aware that my tone was fairly clearly begging for her to be telling me the truth.

"You have to go to some big shindig at the White House for ambassadors and such," she told me as though it was some everyday thing and not abso-fucking-lutely terrifying.

"President knows you're married," Steve added. "Don't think you're going to get out of that. Immunity was helpful though, right?"

I wondered to myself if diplomatic immunity still held if you stabbed a politician in the eye for being smarmy or boring, and when everyone laughed, I realized I'd spoken out loud. Hastily, I added, "not that I would."

"It's no big deal," Darcy soothed me. "Steve, Bucky, and I have to go too because of the whole Captain America thing, so I'll make sure it doesn't get too boring for you."

Steve and Bucky both groaned at that, and I stifled a smile of my own. "Don't suppose it's casual," I inquired hopefully. When Darcy shook her head, I huffed out a sigh and added, "okay, well, the mall was probably on the list of places I was going to go to try to get noticed today, so I'll add that to the list."

"Look for shoes," Ranger told me. "Ella will handle the rest."

I pumped my fist and shot off the chair to do a victory dance, and when Darcy looked confused I explained, "Ella is Ranger's housekeeper and more, but sometimes she's had to procure clothes for me. She has excellent taste and knows my size, so that means I don't have to worry about it at all. She's like a magic fairy godmother." Then because I was looking at her, I added, "you know, Darcy, this might not be the safest place for you to be-"

She cut me off with a wave of her hand and said, "I'm sure I'll have some super soldiers glued to me when I go out, and like you said, security here is good. And someone's got to make sure everyone takes care of themselves. And I have a feeling you need a 'regular' to take out and about with you who won't scream 'it's a trap!' at the people you're going after. I'm not completely useless; I have a taser!"

"That and Bucky's been working with her for months now," Steve added, pride evident in his voice.

"I'm also good Mom back-up," Darcy told me.

"Alright, I don't know about you all, but I'm not going to be able to go back to sleep." Casting a sideways glance I announced, "so I'm going to go change into something more weather-appropriate. And weapons. Then I'll make myself seen. People know about Thor, so I feel like he should at least start out by being here with me, but if we don't get any leads I'm leaving you at home tomorrow."

I'd finished looking right at Thor, who nodded his head in agreement. Then he stood and waited for me to do the same. He waited for me to see Ranger off, then guided me by a hand on the small of my back to our room once more.

When the door closed behind us, I prepared myself for a fight. Instead, Thor pressed a quick kiss to the top of my head, then walked over to the closet to begin perusing what he had available to wear.

"Aren't you going to yell and scream and tell me it's too dangerous and I can't do it?" I asked him in confusion.

Turning back from his activity, Thor studied me carefully. He walked forward and grabbed onto my hands and gently pushed me back to sit on the bed. Kneeling on the ground in front of me so that we were eye level, Thor said, "I do not wish you to be anyone other than who you are, and for the time being, the course of action you describe is a wise one. I am more concerned with whoever is helping these men escape confinement, if it is true that one person is. But we can do nothing more than live our lives, try to capture the prisoners, and take care of each other."

"That's…" I trailed off, trying to figure out exactly what I wanted to say. Eventually I settled on, "refreshing. It makes me feel like you trust me to take care of myself."

"I do, and I also trust that you will ask for assistance if you require it," Thor spoke with a pointed tone that practically told me that's what I'd do. But I could tell it was out of concern and affection, so I quietly agreed.

"Odds are pretty good we'll wind up running into my mother or having to deal with her in some way," I told Thor as we moved about getting ready for the day.

"This troubles you why?" Thor asked.

"My mother has never understood me, or made too much of an effort to do so. I don't fit into her cookie cutter idea of what a perfect daughter does or is, and she is very vocal of her disapproval. She will, I'm sure, have loads to say about the fact that I married an alien," the last was said with a roll of my eyes.

Thor studied me and urged, "and how do you feel on the matter?"

Stunned, I turned to look at him. Seeing uncertainty on his face I walked over, pulled his head down, and pressed a kiss to his lips. Once he pulled back, I said, "I love you, and I'm glad we're together. Married. Bonded. I wouldn't change it for anything. I guess I just want to say 'I'm sorry' in advance because whatever she's going to say, I can assure you, won't be nice."

"My brother tried to take over your planet."

"Huh," I hadn't really thought about it in that context. "Maybe I met the only other person in the universe whose family's levels of crazy can relate to mine."