Tot ch 25

Sorry guys, I dropped my laptop when I was out with my kids at a soft play park, so had to get it fixed (I did a real number on it - if it hadn't been for the fact I couldn't see a great deal, it was really pretty - lots of feathery floaty bits!)

Anyway, back in the game so have been typing away like a mad thing…

Thank you so much for all the wonderful reviews to my last chapter. I had been worried that you would all stop reading as it's been taking me longer to update than I would have liked, but luckily you're hanging on in there with me.

So, without further ado…

Ranger looked at Tank and then at the men that had been 'shot'.

One from New York and Miami.

Two each from Trenton and Atlanta.

None from Boston.

"Ok men. You are officially out of the games and I'm sure all of you are wondering what happens now." He looked at the blank faces.

"You will be staying on site and assigned new tasks, working with the skeleton team we've brought in from outside agencies. You will not have any more contact with the rest of the contestants or try to influence anything in any way, but you will still be involved - by assisting us instead. Do you understand?"

Five heads nodded.

"Ink?"

Ink snapped to attention, a look of surprise on his face.

"You're quite handy with a cooking pot I understand. Plus you can't do any worse than Lester…"

"Hey! I heard that, Cuz!" came an indignant reply from behind a pile of boxes not far away.

Sniggers rattled round gently.

"…so if you can promise not to poison anyone, you're in charge of catering."

Ink grinned and nodded "Sir Yessir!" he replied confidently.

"Silvio? You will assist Hector and Freddie..."

o0o0o0o0o

Spirits in the Atlanta camp were mixed as everyone gathered round for their evening meal of some sort of grey reconstituted meat and vegetable gloop with hard biscuits, stale tepid water and piping hot coffee, happy about their win in the last event but saddened by the loss of their team members.

Mungo had just returned with his arm in a sling.

Bobby had taken him to the local A&E for x-rays but deemed him fit enough to come back and Ranger had ok'd for him to join the rest of his team. Everyone knew he would only be able to plan rather than participate in any further events so he, Chase and Connor had shuffled things round accordingly to accommodate both his loss to active duty and Ink and Ralph completely.

"Where do you think we stand overall in the competition, Boss?" a voice spoke out, mirroring what everyone was thinking.

"Difficult to say."

"Didn't recognise anyone from Boston in the hangar, but it looks like we weren't the only office to lose men to Tank's snipers." Mungo added round a mouth full of food. Fuck it tasted horrible, he thought, but his stomach would have won any argument his mind might have come up with right now. He'd missed his last meal by taking a trip to the hospital and his stomach had complained all the way back to camp.

Heads nodded, then silence descended as everyone returned to their metal trays, too cold, tired and hungry to notice the high temperature of their food.

Steph was starting to feel full so paused, looked round and smiled. They might be two and a half men down, but for some reason there was a camaraderie she hadn't felt before – as if they'd shifted up a gear and were now operating as one. Taking a deep breath she focused back on her nearly empty plate. Maybe, she thought hopefully, the confidence crisis of last night had been averted as a sort of 'Dunkirk Spirit' took hold instead.

Before long, one by one the men slipped away out of the mess tent and into the fading light. Some to wash up, others went to relieve team members that had been on duty or crashed in sleeping bags to get some shut eye. Connor, Chase, Mungo and Steph went to look over the events so far and try and prepare them for what tomorrow and probably even tonight might bring.

o0o0o0o0o

Ink shovelled piping hot roasted potatoes, carrots, broccoli and green beans onto china plates using a large shiny serving spoon that he'd found in the well equipped kitchen Lester had set up in one of three offices along the back wall of the hanger. His mouth watered as the smell of chicken in a white wine sauce he'd just finished preparing hit his nostrils. The reconstituted stuff was ok in an emergency but this fresh food was way, way better. Perhaps there were perks to being sidelined he thought guilitily.

"Come and get it!" he yelled as he picked up a couple of the large plates he'd just piled high and took them to the table now set up with napkins, cutlery, glasses, salt, pepper and a large jug of iced water.

o0o0o0o

Ear defenders in hand, Lester grinned at Freddie who was sitting behind the wheel of an open sided flatbed truck with his ears already covered, before giving him the thumbs up and switching on the pa system stored on the floor at the back. Covering his ears Lester jumped into shotgun position beside his partner in crime. Immediately the air filled with the noise of sirens, blaring across the landscape. They set off to torment the teams, sound screaming from the four loud hailers secured in a circle on the roof of the cabin. Hector and Bobby followed in their own, similarly kitted out truck and sped off in a different direction the sounds of loud booms emanating from their speakers.

Steph groaned and rolled in her bag. Oh, for fuck's sake, what now? She growled out as she rolled over onto her front, pulling her pillow over her head to try and deaden the sound. As her actions were not in the least bit effective, she climbed out from her pit with a deep and frustrated sigh and exited the tent she'd been in, zipping up her jacket against the cold as she went.

The rest of the team were assembled in the mess tent as she walked in. Clearly they'd been right to assume noise would be used against them she thought. As the tent closed behind her the sirens faded away. Off to invade a different camp's dreams.

"Thought things were too good to be true." Connor said grimly as he handed Steph a set of wax ear plugs.

"Ok, guys. I know these will not drown out all the noise, but it should keep the sounds down and allow us to communicate with each other." Chase said, just as the sound of loud booms flooded the air around them.

Rolling his eyes, he nodded and everyone filled their ears. Waving his hands slightly he shouted "time to go to sign language."

'Go. Sleep. Dismissed' he gestured.

Tired heads nodded and everyone returned to their tents trying to block out the noise as they did so.

o0o0o0o0o

"Report." Said Ranger into his walkie talkie.

"Looks like Atlanta have ear plugs." Said Hector.

"Ha ha! You should see the chaos in Miami's camp." Grinned out Freddie.

Ranger smirked as the team updated him on the effects the noise was having on each of the five teams.

Later, when all the fun had stopped and Ranger had returned to the comfort of the family run hotel they'd booked for the duration of the games, he lay on his bed, thinking about his own blue eyed 'siren'.

She'd lured him into her arms ensnaring him with her magic and he'd been powerless to stop her. Jezebel! He grinned at the parallel. She certainly ruled his life he thought.

His cock and his heart both swelled as he ruminated about the last few weeks and how she had accepted him so easily back into her life. Dios, he'd fucked up and nearly lost her for good! Thankfully she HAD forgiven him.

He'd been a total fuckwit and hadn't even realised what he'd nearly lost until it had come back to him. She completed him, mind, body and soul…

He rolled over to trap his growing erection against his soft, crisp white sheets, attempting to tame his body as he continued to wonder about his good fortune.

Perhaps he did deserve her. Perhaps his years of sacrifice for the good of others, no matter what ugly things he'd had to do, had given him brownie points with the man upstairs after all...

He hoped the games were an eye opener into his world for her.

Steph'd recently told him that most of the time his actions were more of an indication of who he was and what he was thinking than his words and he hoped this was true. She would never truly understand what he'd been through on his many missions, but he hoped that what she was experiencing now – the cold, the hunger, the uncertainty, the adrenalin, the camaraderie, the highs and lows – would give her better insight into his life than any words he could ever use. He also hoped she'd forgive him for putting her through it all once it was all over!

He chuckled as he imagined her crumpled, sleep filled face and wild hair as dawn appeared over the horizon and wondered whether the others would see the vulnerability wrapped around her steely resolve. His wonderful, chaotic, vibrant woman…

Mine!

His smile turned sour as his thoughts turned to Ace and Falcon and how the three of them had kept the truth from him. He'd been going insane with jealousy thinking about Steph in Rees' arms.

Flashback:

"I just don't want the same triangle to happen with me, you and Rees…"

"Ah, well I might have a little confession to make… Ace and I decided that no-one outside Boston was to know about my private life or Rees' either. We did go on a date one time but by 10 minutes in Rees realised that I didn't see us ever becoming a couple. He hooked up with the new girl, Vera, a week or so later with a little help from yours truly and I think they're pretty much tied at the hip…"

"So… you and him… er…"

"No! We slept in a bed together but all we did was talk. I was too hung up on some other idiot guy and would have felt guilty…"

"So… This other guy… The one you felt guilty about… not Morelli?"

"Definitely not Morelli." She'd whispered back knowingly.

End flashback:

Ranger groaned as the look she'd given him that night flooded his brain. It was a look of promise and hope, shyness and ferocity. Mine...

At some point he would have to deal with his meddlesome brother, but right now he had more pressing matters he thought as he sat up and leaned back against the padded suede headboard, pushing the sheets down to expose his aching manhood. Taking a deep breath he leant over to the nightstand to grab the box of Kleenex with one hand and his aching cock with the other.

o0o0o0o0o

Steph lay in her cramped narrow cot, the sounds of the world muffled by her ear plugs. They had an added benefit in that they also helped drown out the snores of the men in the tents around her. Canvas was good at concealing, she decided, but crap for noise abatement.

Looking at her watch she could see it was 03:23 in. the. morning...

Sighing, she shifted onto her side and scrunched her eyes shut as she pulled out an ear plug that was sitting uncomfortably. Why on earth was she so wide awake for Chrissakes?!

Someone coughed and rolled noisily and another man farted. Was this what being on a mission was like she wondered as she re-rolled the wax and jammed it back into her ear.

She shivered and pulled her jacket closer round her body, snuggling in for warmth, wishing it was her own personal Batman. Praying that thoughts of her had given Ranger a reason to come back from his missions - in the same way as her own thoughts of him gave her the strength to go on right now.

Ok, so not much of the contest here, but I felt we needed to see how our two lovers were coping…