Thank you for all of your wonderful reviews and encouragement, as always! This is it for Limericks and Lovin', starring Steph and Lester. I hope you all enjoyed reading it because I've enjoyed writing it!!! Your input is always welcome and appreciated. --Jill

Steph's POV

"I need to put these on your cuts, Steph," Bobby said to me. He held up a bottle of betadine and a few packages of sterile bandages. "The deeper ones'll need butterfly strips to hold them together while they heal." Bobby set to work, handling my arms and legs like I was made out of a rare and precious china. I gasped when I felt the cool antiseptic hit some of the deeper leg wounds, making them sting.

Lester had been the one to help me bathe when we all got back to the hotel, since my wrists were bruised and sore from the cuffs and the soapy water in my cuts stung badly. He'd washed my hair and helped me dry off, all the while checking my body for any other potentially hidden signs of Garza's sick and demented brutality. I was now sitting between his legs on our bed in one of his oversized RangeMan tee shirts and a pair of my tiny boxer shorts. He nuzzled his cheek into my curls and pulled me back against his bare chest when Bobby's actions became too painful for me to bear. I guess my grimacing and moaning got to Les.

"Sorry, Steph," Bobby said quietly from his seat beside the bed. "I know this hurts, but if I don't disinfect these wounds I'm afraid you'll get an infection. There's no telling what kind of bacteria were on those knives they used to cut you."

Another groan escaped my throat before I managed to reply. "It's fine," I breathed. "My wrists actually hurt more."

Bobby glanced at the dark purple and black bruises that circled my wrists like torturous bracelets. When I'd come around after being stun-gunned, Garza had put me in cuffs and had closed them way too tightly around my arms. He'd told me that it was to keep me from trying to slip out of them. Evil, rotten bastard. I hoped he was festering in the sewers of hell and getting sodomized by Satan's minions.

"I'm afraid not much can't be done about that, Bomber." Bobby placed two butterfly sutures over a two-inch gash in my calf and covered the wound with sterile gauze before wrapping a thin bandage to hold everything in place. "The best I can do is some pain medication and maybe some cool compresses every now and then for the next couple days."

Lester had been very quiet from the time he'd carried me down the stairs and out of the house to the waiting Expeditions until now. I hated to think about what he must have been feeling while I was with Garza. The idea was almost too much to entertain and a huge wave of nausea washed over me. "You're doing good, Steph," Les mumbled against my cheek. He bent his head down to brush a kiss against my neck. "There's just a few more cuts to clean."

I nodded and gulped before turning my head to Bobby. "What about the burn on my thigh?" There was a cigar burn about the size of a quarter dead center on top of my left thigh, put there by Garza after I'd tried to kick him in the nuts for sticking me in that grimy bathtub full of stains from God-knows-what. If I thought my wrists hurt like hell, nothing compared to the pain of having him press that lit Cuban against my leg until I smelled my own flesh burning. I was surprised that my screams hadn't alerted the neighbors to call the cops. Or maybe I was just screaming in my head. I wasn't sure anymore.

"I'm saving that one for last," Bobby told me. "It'll probably be the most painful. I can inject some lidocaine into it before I start, but that may not make much of a difference."

"Are you positive that he didn't so much as go near your panties?" Lester asked me. "Because I'll bring him back from the dead and fucking kill him again." I wanted to point out that he'd have to go through the L.A. County Coroner in order to do that, but I quickly deferred my thoughts before I got Les all riled up.

I shook my head. "No. Nobody did. Unless something happened while I was stun-gunned, but I think I would have realized that something had gone on down there once I came around." I winced as Bobby got to work on a particularly deep cut near my left knee. Ranger was the one Garza had wanted most, not Lester. And Garza knew that Lester and I were obviously involved because he had been watching us interact here at the hotel. Now if I was Ranger's girlfriend, there's no telling whether or not Garza or one of his guys would have molested me out of spite to Ranger. They probably would have. But since I was connected in many other ways to Ranger, I made the perfect hostage.

"When was the last time you had anything to eat?" Bobby asked me. I thought back on the day's events. Lester and I had eaten McDonalds at dawn. I'd taken a sip of the Coke I'd gotten out of the vending machine not long after breakfast, got myself stun-gunned, and spent the rest of the morning, afternoon, and evening feeling nauseous as all hell. One of Garza's cronies had made me a sandwich and brought me some water, but my stomach had been so messed up that even the smell of peanut butter and jelly had made me feel queasy.

"Early this morning," I replied weakly, from my coccoon in Lester's protective arms. "McDonalds."

I watched as Bobby put down the betadine swabs and picked up his cell before dialing Cal in the next room. "I need a little something to feed Stephanie," he said as soon as Cal had answered. "Nothing greasy or spicy, though. That'll make her feel sicker. Thanks, man." Bobby disconnected and turned his attention back to the laceration on my left knee that spanned an inch and a half. He placed another set of butterfly sutures over that cut and repeated the gauzing and bandaging procedure that he'd done on my calf.

Ten minutes later, Cal swiped himself into our suite, fresh from a shower in a black tank top and baggy blue athletic shorts. A huge bandage covered his right shoulder from where the bullet had grazed him earlier. He was carrying a plate loaded with plain toasted bread, half of a sliced banana, and chunky applesauce. A small styrofoam cup was balanced in his other hand as he shut himself inside. "Tea," Cal explained, holding the cup out to me. I took a sip moaned. The warm, sweet liquid was like heaven going down.

"Where'd you get all that?" Lester asked Cal. Cal handed me the plate of food and sat down on the edge of the other bed, across from us.

"From the chef who was cleaning up down in the restaurant kitchen. Told him I had a sick friend upstairs who needed a little nourishment."

"Did you convince him to prepare all of that or did the barrel of the Glock stuffed into your pants do the trick?" asked Lester, wide-eyed and grinning.

"Neither. I think it was the tat on my forehead that ultimately came through for me." He smiled back and waggled his eyebrows. Cal's flaming skull forehead tattoo was known to be the cause of loose bowels all over America. As I took a small bite of toast and washed it down with another sip of tea, it became painfully obvious why Cal usually has such a hard time finding normal women to date.

Bobby finished up with all of my cuts and lacerations. He took a tube of ointment out of his medical duffel bag and twisted off the cap. "This is for your burn. It's silver sulfadiazene. Squeeze Lester's hand because it won't feel too good to have me messing around in the wound." I did as he asked with only minimal grumbling from Lester. Bobby squeezed a huge amount of cream onto a fat cotton swab and gently rubbed it over the second-degree burn on my thigh. It felt like tiny warriors with pinpoint spears were doing the macarena on my charred flesh. Cal looked on, pale and grimacing. He never did well with medical stuff.

"How's the shoulder?" I managed to grit out, in between puffing for air and whimpering in pain.

"Not bad," Cal replied. "The bullet just tore across the surface of my skin. Can't feel a damn thing right now. Brown's got me pumped full of a local numbing agent." He shook his head.

"You should be thanking me for that, dawg," Bobby replied darkly. He tossed the used cotton swab into a wastebasket and dug around in the duffel bag before emerging with a Telfa dressing. He placed the dressing cautiously over my burn and snapped off his latex gloves. "That oughta do it, Steph."

"Thanks, Bobby," I said, allowing my head to drop back onto Lester's chest. I was exhausted. I'd managed to finish the toast and banana and a little bit of the applesauce. "Can I have a few aspirin?"

He nodded towards a container of pills sitting on the nightstand. "Take two right now, while you've got some food in your stomach. You should try to get some rest." Bobby got up from the chair and pushed it back over to the table in the corner. He gathered up his medical supplies and started towards the door with Cal on his heels. "And Santos. Go easy with her." He gave Lester a dark look and pointed an index finger in his face. With that, he and Cal let themselves out of our room and the door quietly clicked shut behind them, leaving Lester and I alone at last.

Lester gently laid me down onto my back and stretched out beside me, propped up on his elbow. His dark eyes were intense as they focused on mine. It was all I could do to keep the tears from spilling out of my eyes and dropping onto the pillow underneath my head.

"I'm sorry I put you through all this," I whispered to him, feeling his warm hand stroke up and down my upper leg. "I'm sure you've been a wreck since this morning."

He pressed his lips to mine and buried his face in my curls. "I thought I'd lost you, Steph. How could I lose you when I just found you?" Lester's voice cracked and he hugged me closer to his body.

"You didn't just find me, Les," I whispered. "I've been here all along."

"You know what I mean," he whispered back.

I needed to be close to him at that moment. As close as two people could get. "I need you so badly right now, Lester," I whimpered, pulling him to lay on top of me and situating him between my thighs. He was so gentle with me and so careful not to touch my burn or my cuts that it made my heart swell with emotion. "I need to feel you inside me, filling me."

"Christ," he whispered against my lips, his voice strained. "You have no idea what you do to me, Stephanie. None at all. Since the moment I laid my eyes on you I have wanted to be with you in every way possible. Dios." Lester groaned as I pushed his basketball shorts down over his lean hips, freeing his hard length from the confines of the silky garment. He carefully slid my boxers from my bottom half and discarded them over the side of the bed, onto the carpet. When he saw that I had no panties on, he swelled considerably and moaned in anticipation. He gently lifted the tee shirt up off my torso and carefully brought it over my head before tossing it onto the floor to join my shorts.

Lester eased his weight onto his forearms and dropped his head down so that our lips were a breath apart. His eyes were darkened to almost black, framed with thick lashes and burning holes into mine to proclaim his intense desire for me. His warm breaths, sporadic and deep, blasted down into my face as he made attempt after attempt to gain control of his trembling body. At last, his eyelids fluttered shut and he drew his full bottom lip between his teeth. And I suddenly didn't think I could wait any longer to feel his silky length pushing into my wet, writhing body.

"Please, Lester," I whispered, desperate nearly to the point of begging to feel him sliding into me. He dropped a hand between us to part me and he let out a groan when he found me wet beyond belief for him.

"Oh my God," was the frustrated growl of a reply. "So fucking wet..." Lester sucked in a deep breath and buried his face in my curls as two of his thick fingers slipped amongst my folds and slowly slid back and forth across my swollen, aching clit. I bit my lip to keep from crying out and didn't succeed because the orgasm his talented digits was causing hit me ten-fold and had me practically screaming at the top of my lungs for more. When he sucked his fingers clean and pulled my tongue into his mouth with his own, I became undone. Lester then focused his bone-dissolving kisses on the sweet spots of my neck; my pulse point and just below my jaw line. I clutched at the smooth skin of his back when his hot tongue flicked lightly into the curve of my ear and I couldn't help the cry that strangled its way out of my throat.

When his kisses began to move even further south, my stomach coiled tightly and my drenched folds twitched in anticipation of what was to come. Lester sandwiched his hands between my upper back and the mattress so that he could push my chest towards his face, causing my back to arch and my breasts to rise towards his waiting mouth. I nearly died of pleasure when his soft, pillowy lips closed around one of my nipples and he swirled the tip of his tongue around the stiff pink peak. My lower half turned to molten lava as the sensations his tongue and lips were creating caused fire to flash through my wet depths. He knew he was torturing me because I felt him smile against the swell of my left breast.

"You want more?" Lester husked out, looking up at me with those lust-filled onyx eyes and turning me on to the point of insanity.

"God, I want you inside me, Lester," I groaned forcefully. My frustration ran deep and my body desperately seeked release. He clearly sensed my vexation because he positioned himself at my slick opening and slowly, inch by antagonizing inch, he filled me and stretched my body to capacity.

"Fuck," he breathed out as he slid in to the hilt. I adjusted my hips to better accomodate his, making the penetration deeper and more intense. When Lester began to move within me, my body morphed into a shimmering, blissful being and my mind spun away. The ensuing moments were flashes of colors and feelings and sounds that burned into my memory as we moved together, creating a well-orchestrated promenade of fervent passion. We exploded simultaneously, my name on his lips and tears in his eyes as he worked to control his breathing above me. I had never seen anything so gorgeous in my life as watching Lester Santos bury himself into my body and spill his heat deep within the confines of my tightened inner walls.

We laid together in a tangle of sweat-slicked arms and legs (and bandages) when we were done, coming down off of the adrenaline rush that the last twenty-four hours had provided us with. Lester pressed his lips to my sweaty temple and let his head fall down onto the pillow next to mine, all the while making little swirls on the skin of my belly with his warm fingertips.

"You are so amazing, Stephanie," he said, his voice deeper than usual. "So fucking amazing."

I smiled against his cheek. "You keep saying that," I said. "What have I done to have earned myself such an honorable title?"

"Everything," Lester replied. "It's who you are. You're strong-willed and brave, fierce and sexy as hell. You have a kind heart and an intelligent mind. I don't think you realize just how special of a woman you are." He smiled sadly at me.

I propped myself up on my elbow and gazed into his eyes. "What about you? You're all of those things, too, Lester. Every single one of them. They're what I admire most about you. But our friendship is still so important to me. I'd hate for something to go wrong with us relationship-wise, and have that end up ruining what we've had for ages as friends."

Lester pulled my face to his and kissed me gently. "Let's make a promise, then. Whatever happens from now on, we embrace it, good or bad. And if our friendship is strong enough to withstand the worst, it'll be forever no matter what."

"Should we hook pinkies on that, or will a verbal contract be binding?" I joked.

"For good measure, we'll hook pinkies." Lester linked both of our little fingers together and we kissed our fists in a solemn pledge. We were such dorks. Lester stifled a yawn and stretched his arms over his head. "I'm tired, beautiful."

"Me, too. But I think one or both of us needs to hunt down Ranger and explain to him what's going on," I said quietly. "He saw us kissing in the hallway earlier at the house in Ladera Heights, after you guys made Swiss cheese out of Garza and his cartel of hooligans."

Lester blew out a sigh and buried his face in the pillow. "I think I might know where he is. Like I promised you before, I'll take care of this. Don't worry about a thing, Steph." Les kissed me quickly and slid out of bed. He located his basketball shorts and a clean tank top and began dressing. My breath hitched in my throat as I watched him. He was so damned beautiful, all cut muscle and smooth caramel skin that begged to be licked and sucked. And bitten, when the mood called for a little rough-housing. I smiled at him from my pillowy nest of sheets and blankets and watched as he glanced at me and returned my grin with a naughty one of his own.

"What if I want you to kiss all my cuts and things later? You know, to make me feel better?" I asked him, pouting. Lester laughed and crawled back into bed with me once he was dressed. He hovered over me and the gold crucifix hanging from his neck lightly tickled my nose.

"Does my Stephie need her boo-boos and bruises kissed?" he asked in a kid-like voice that quickly turned husky. "Because I can make that happen, baby."

Dear God, I'd died and gone to heaven with this man. But I found myself laughing and saying, "Go find Ranger before I cuff you to this bed and give you some bruises of your own."

Lester nibbled on my earlobe before scooting down off of the bed. "Will you be here when I get back? You won't run off to get sodas or God knows what else they sell in the vending machine room?"

I laughed and then yawned. "I'll be here. I might be asleep, but I'll be here. Just be sure to lock me in."

"I will." Lester bent down for one last kiss and jammed his feet into his Nike soccer sandals. "Sweet dreams, gorgeous." He let himself out of our suite and the door clicked shut quietly behind him. The room was dark and cool and the Egyptian cotton sheets felt like heaven wrapped around my overheated body. I turned onto my side and let my eyes slide shut, the day's exhaustion finally overtaking me.

I awoke to the familiar prickling sensation inching down my spine that was usually reserved for one certain person only. The room was still cool and dark and almost completely silent, except for the hum of the central a/c and the faint din of the TV blaring out some kind of military movie in Bobby and Tank's room next door. I felt the space in bed next to me for Lester, but only sheets and pillows met my touch. I appeared to be alone. Then why did I feel the prickle? I wrapped the sheet tighter around my naked curves and struggled to sit up on my elbows.

The dark outline of someone seated across the room in the corner stole my breath away and I gasped lightly, frozen in terror.

"Relax, babe. It's just me," Ranger said quietly. He sounded tired, like he'd been defeated or something. I slowly let out the breath I'd been holding and my heart rate returned to semi-normal. I tucked the corner of the sheet into my bust so that I stayed modest and sat up fully in bed before switching on a small bedside lamp.

"Ranger?" I croaked out. "What are you doing here?" The corner of the sheet began slipping and I yelped as I rushed to tuck it back in.

Ranger let out a small chuckle. "I've seen it all before, you know." He rose up from the armchair in the corner of the room and slowly ambled over to the extra bed before lowering himself onto the edge, across from me. He had changed out of his RangeMan attire into shorts similar to Lester's and a white tank top and his hair was damp from the shower.

"Yes, you have," I agreed. "But I think we both know those days are pretty much gone."

Ranger nodded once and focused his eyes on mine. "You had us all scared today, babe. Especially Santos."

I sighed. "I feel awful for making you guys go crazy, worrying like that about me."

"It wasn't your fault," Ranger said to me. "I hope you realize that."

"I do, but I can't help but feel somewhat responsible. I should have taken Lester with me to the vending machines since we knew that Humphreys was still at large. But I had no idea some other creep had been tailing me, too."

"Again, not your fault."

We were silent for a few beats while I tried to think of something to say to break the ice about Les and I. "Did Lester find you earlier?" I asked him gingerly.

Ranger nodded again. "Yeah. He found me."

"So, did he tell you anything?" I pressed, chewing a crater in my lip.

"What, about how you and him are seeing each other? Wouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out, babe." Ranger smirked.

"Um, so what are you saying, Ranger?"

"I'm saying that I had an idea all along. I didn't fall off the turnip truck yesterday, Steph. You may have had the guys all fooled, but certainly not me."

I blew out a sigh and blinked back tears. "I'm sorry," I choked out.

Ranger softened. "For what, babe? For developing feelings for Santos? For being attracted to him? For wanting more than what I can offer you?"

The tears fell and I sobbed shamelessly in front of Ranger. He got up from the extra bed and sat next to me on mine, wrapping me in his strong, warm arms. It felt like my heart, that had already been shattered by him once before, was repeating the agonizing process.

"You're right," I whimpered. "The only thing I have to be sorry for is the fact that we didn't come to you first about all of this. We waited until you found out the hard way because we were so afraid of how you would react to seeing us together." Ranger reached over to the nightstand and got me a tissue.

"When you think about it, I didn't really find out the hard way. And when you say 'hard way', I'm assuming you're referring to the kiss you shared with him in the hallway of Garza's place. I told you I suspected this all along, since the whole Pancoast incident."

"That's when it all started," I told Ranger. "It started out as a night together for Les and I. And somewhere along the way it progressed into something more." Ranger nodded knowingly. I assumed Lester had told him that already.

"He's more than willing and able to give you what I can't, babe," Ranger informed me quietly. "Santos cares for you deeply. I know that not only because of what he's told me, but because of what I see in his behavior. He's changing, slowly but surely. I think he's had feelings for you for a long time now."

I nodded. "Yeah, he has. And I know our friendship has changed into something more. To tell you the truth, I'm really excited to see what happens with us. Les makes me truly happy and I think that's something I've needed now for a long time."

"I agree," Ranger said. "I know you wouldn't settle for anything less, Steph. If I'm going to be forced to see you with another man, I'd rather see you with him than with anyone else. He's a good man, and a good friend to all of us. I know he'll treat you right and be there for you when you need him most."

Ranger and I grew quiet again and my eyes filled with silent tears. "If you didn't have the kind of life that you have, would we even be having this conversation?" I whispered.

Ranger's voice cracked. "No, babe. We wouldn't. There would be no question." He crushed me to him and held me tight while he stroked my back through the thin sheet and I sobbed whole-heartedly into his bare shoulder. God, he smelled like Bulgari and the tears began to fall faster. Before I even realized what I was doing, I took his face in both of my hands and pressed my lips to his. He responded with more than I gave him and when our tongues touched I felt my heart contract painfully in my chest.

The kiss felt like good-bye. Something that we both needed, almost like closure.

I pulled away from him and managed to smile through my tears. "I love you, Ranger. You're my best friend."

Ranger leaned his forehead against mine and sighed. "And you, babe, are mine."

THE END!!!!

I need to go and read a whole bunch of Babe stories to make up for what my fingers have just typed!!! LOL So Ranger has accepted Steph and Lester together and will give his blessing to their relationship and wherever it happens to take them. I hope you have all enjoyed the S & L pairing, because they're such rare gems in the fabulous sea of Babes and Cupcakes! I'll be updating Oh, Baby! soon and I hope to write some more Babe stories in the near future, once my muse returns. Happy reading, everyone! --Jill