Disclaimer: The characters you recognize as J.E. are hers. The rest belong to me. Thanks to Knitter (Sandy) for the basic idea for the story.

Spoilers: Anything from the first 18 books.

This is probably more AU than canon. Although there may be material from any of the 18 books, I have changed the reality of Stephanie and the rest of the characters from the Plum series.

I would like to thank all of you that have reviewed. I try to respond to all reviews, so for those of you that reviewed as guests or have your PM turned to off, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for your reviews. Special thanks to mandyh for her help with it's and its for future reference.

Chapter 13: Busted

Stephanie's POV:

That first week Ranger was back went semi-smoothly. Every time I looked at him though I kept remembering that damn dream and how he told me he would be myTastykake. I had managed not to destroy any more of his cars. Ranger ordered another automatic to be parked in his spot by quitting time and obviously these guys worked fast because the new Porsche was there. Not only that, but it was fire engine red! No way could anyone not see that car. As a matter of fact, Woody teased Ranger about the color but after a look from Ranger nothing more was said. I loved driving that car. Every night when we got home I had a smile on my face and every morning when we arrived at work a similar smile was gracing my face.

Lula took one look at me and gave me a knowing look. She spoke in an exaggerated whisper, "Girl, you and Batman get it on before you come home?"

I looked at her like she was crazy, "No!"

"Uh huh….then what put that satisfied grin on yo face?"

I leaned in and whispered to her, "It's the car."

Lula's voice came out a little louder than I liked as she asked, "You mean ta tell me that car give you a climax girl?"

I frantically whispered, "Shh!" but I had a feeling it was too late because I felt Ranger's heated gaze on me. I turned and panicked at the look in his eyes. Before he could say anything I took off up to my room and shut the door. Just as I started to relax my phone rang.

I answered the call to hear Ranger's voice on the other side saying, "You can run Babe, but you can't hide."

I slammed the phone down and threw myself across the bed. By dinner time I had recovered enough to join the others at the table. When I got a look at the table I was shocked. I looked at grandma and saw her smiling but Lula looked no happier than I did. Ranger on the other hand was throwing out the compliments to grandma left and right. How the fish was perfectly cooked and the salad was the perfect compliment. How did she get such a perfect blending for the dressing and she must have worked all afternoon to get this fabulous meal on the table. I looked at Lula and she made a gagging motion and rolled her eyes placing the back of her hand to her forehead. I had to agree. It was a bit over the top.

The next morning I put three of the bars Bobby gave me in my bag and headed downstairs. Ranger was just finishing up breakfast and pointedly looked at his watch. I put up a hand before he could say anything, "I know, I overslept. Again."

"Don't worry Babe. I'll start making sure you get up on time so we can be to the office by 8 a.m."

I glared at him but said nothing as I made my way out to the car and waited for him. By the time I ate my third bar I was feeling pretty good. I was able to stay awake through the morning meeting and was feeling pretty good. The guys had managed to close out most of the files I'd searched for them without any problems. Jorgio Lubnick however, was back out on bail and once again had skipped out on bail. Since he knew me, Ranger refused to let me act as a distraction to bring him in.

Lubnick wasn't letting me stay in the background though. He started sending me black roses with the message he was watching me. Ranger put Hector on him and all of a sudden Jorgio ran screaming from a back alley right into the path of a Rangeman SUV screaming, "Take me back to jail! Don't let him kill me!"

The strange part about it was that when Ranger asked Hector what he had said or done to the man, Hector said he had just learned where he was staying and was planning to go visit him. Jorgio wasn't talking to the police either. His family wanted to bond him out again but Jorgio refused. He said he was safer in jail and he wanted to live. Of course this put the guys into hyper-awareness mode and I had a 24 hour shadow no matter where I was. The security system at the house had been installed and we were as secure as we could be.

By the second week, I found my in box was getting a real workout. When I caught someone taking files from the other guys' in boxes and adding the files to mine. I went storming into Tank's office without knocking and both Tank and Ranger looked up from something they were looking at. Ranger nonchalantly rolled up the plans and sat on the edge of Tank's desk, the look in his eyes telling me I had breached protocol. Tank's look softened, "What can I do for you Little Girl?"

"I just caught someone taking files from the other guys' in boxes and putting them in mine."

I could see Tank wanted to smile but he was making a valiant effort not to react. "Well, you do the best searches. Even Rodriguez says he can't get the results you do."

I narrowed my eyes, "So that gives someone the right to go around taking files from the guys' baskets and putting them in mine?"

"Well no, but you do seem to get them done a hell of a lot faster than the guys."

"Maybe they aren't using the right search engines. The one you showed me how to use when I first started isn't worth crap."

Both Ranger and Tank stilled. Tank frowned and asked, "Just which search are you using?"

I shrugged, "If I know them from the Burg I put in what I know or sometimes I'll ask grandma or Lula what they know about them. I put everyone through the new search engine that was installed three weeks ago."

Tank paled, "How the hell did you find that?"

I shrugged, "I just typed in what I wanted and saw you guys already had it installed so I set up my computer to run the searches through that program."

Tank and Ranger exchanged looks. Ranger got up and went behind Tanks desk. He booted up the computer and did a few checks. He put in a code and stared at the monitor before him. Suddenly he threw his head back and started to laugh. I gave him a funny look and he turned to me. "Tell me. How is it a civilian with no clearance managed to get a government search program to work when to date no one has been able to figure it out? That's why it was sent here. It was hoped that we could figure out where the glitch was. It was on my agenda to look into it, however I was…" he looked at me and continued, "distracted and didn't get around to looking into it yet."

I rolled my eyes, "All I did was ask the computer a question and a window popped up. It asked me if I wanted to try the new search program installed on the computer and I said yes. Next thing I know a program popped up and I clicked on it. It asked where I worked and I typed in Rangeman. Next thing I know I'm doing searches on it and it's giving me detailed information on the people I'm running the searches on."

Ranger cleared Tank's computer and directed me to come stand next to him. I did as he asked and ran through how I got the program on my computer. When he typed in Rangeman another screen came up. I leaned forward and frowned. "That page never showed up."

Ranger looked up at me. After several seconds he turned to Tank and said, "Let's have Hector backtrack the program." He turned to me, "Go ahead and continue using the program. I'm going to have Hector trace where the information is coming from."

I bit my lip and turned to look at Ranger, "I'm sorry if I did something I shouldn't have."

Ranger winked at me and said, "Don't sweat it Babe. You may have found the key to what's wrong with the program."

At the end of the second week I stopped by Bobby's office to see if he had any more of those delicious bars, and to get the cast off my hand. How was I to know Ranger was also in the back behind a curtain having his foot checked. I walked in asking, "Bobby, isn't it time for me to get this cast off?"

Bobby stepped out from behind the curtain and smiled. "I'll be with you in a minute Bomber. How about having a seat."

I nodded, "Any chance you have any more of those fabulous bars you gave me?"

Bobby's eyes nearly bugged out, "You're out of them?"

I shrugged, "Yeah."

Bobby lowered his head, " Bomber, remember I told you only one a day?"

"Well yeah. But they were so delicious I couldn't resist. The first day I ate 6 of them. I kept it down to three the rest of the time though."

Bobby looked at me in stunned horror. He ran a hand through what hair he had and sighed, "Steph, each of those bars had the sugar equivalent of 2 Tastykakes."

The curtain separating Ranger from us was pulled back and he shot Bobby a look. Bobby winced and put a hand up, "I know boss."

Ranger nodded, "Triple time."

I thought Bobby paled a little but I was too pissed that he hadn't told me what was in those damn bars. I narrowed my eyes and said, "You had no right to slip me sugar without my knowledge."

"I thought I was helping you."

"I ate the equivalent of a whole box of Tastykakes! I crawled into Ranger's lap and took a nap! You might as well say I've been eating 6 Tastykakes a day! Do you know why I make sure to only eat 2 each morning unless it's that time of the month? You remember what I told you about what happens if I don't eat enough sugar then? Well too much sugar before makes it twice as bad."

Bobby paled, "Steph! I am so sorry. I thought I was helping."

I glared at him and held out my hand, motioning to Ranger with the other, "Now hard ass over there is going to make it even worse because he won't let me have any sugar and if you think I was bad before….well, you better tell the guys this is all your fault and not to hold it against me." And then I knew I'd had too much sugar because I burst into tears. Great big racking sobs.

Bobby tried to comfort me but I only smacked him away from me. I didn't see Ranger stand and make his way over to where I was sitting. He lifted me like I was a baby and sat down in the chair with me in his lap, his arms were wrapped around me. He whispered to me softly in what sounded like Spanish. I found myself resting my head against his shoulder and settling down. I was vaguely aware of Bobby removing the cast from my left hand. Bobby bathed my hand and placed it in a brace. By the time he was done I'd settled down and was able to listen as Bobby told me I would need to wear the brace for the next 4 weeks till the hand had regained strength. When he was done I nodded before standing and hurrying from the room embarrassed about my outburst. When I got to the car I realized I would need to wait for Ranger to join me so we could make our way home.

I was debating going back up when I saw movement just outside the garage. The figure was all dressed in black with what looked like a ski mask on their head to make identifying them impossible. It looked like they were looking right at me and there was something in their hand. I had a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach and just as I was thinking I should get out of there, a black SUV pulled into the garage at the same time as the sound of a gunshot was heard.

Unknown POV:

I was rewarded for the hours of watching from my post across the street. I saw her come out of the elevator and I got ready to take my shot. I'd waited a long time for this. Too long. I smiled as I took aim. I had just fired the gun in my hand when I saw the black SUV had pulled into the garage. I didn't have time to see if I hit my target or not. I had to get out of there.

I have to apologize. In the last chapter, Allen Flusher should actually be Allen Flush. I have corrected the mistake in chapter 12 and would like to thank the reviewer who pointed it out.