Disclaimer still applies.

~oooOOOooo~

Avoid caffeine in all its forms in the afternoon and evening (its effects can keep you buzzing for up to six hours). Ditto for sugar (especially combined with caffeine, as in chocolate), which will give you an energy boost when you least want one and then leave your blood sugar levels wobbly during the night. – What To Expect When You're Expecting

Chapter 25: February
Stephanie's POV
Six Months Pregnant

I groaned quietly and shifted again, unable to get comfortable and unable to fall asleep. This made for the fourth night in a row, and it was driving me nuts. I was just about ready to try to sneak out to the living room so my restlessness wouldn't disturb Ranger when the man himself slid an arm around me.

"Can't sleep again, Babe?" he murmured into my neck.

I let out a disgusted huff. "No."

"I think we need to call the doctor tomorrow," he said, continuing when he could feel me getting ready to protest. "Stephanie, you aren't feeling well at bedtime and aren't sleeping well. That's not good for you or the babies."

With a sigh of resignation and acceptance, I nodded. "You're right. I doubt there's anything she can do, but I guess it can't hurt."

After a minute of lying there in silence, I finally patted Ranger's hand. "Let me up. I'm going to go watch a movie and see if I can get tired enough to sleep."

When he released me, I stood carefully and reached down for my robe on the chair beside the bed. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ranger start to get up, too, and I shook my head. "Go to sleep, Carlos. You have to be rested for tomorrow, and you know it."

Ranger, Tank, and some of the guys had a big bust tomorrow, and he needed to be firing on all cylinders. He wouldn't be going out with them, but he would be supervising over comms.

"Babe—"

"Please," I said quietly. "I don't want you or one of the guys getting hurt simply because you were up with me when I couldn't sleep." He hesitated, so I continued, "I'm just going to be out in the living room. If I need you, I'll come get you, okay?"

He finally nodded and leaned over to take my hand. "Call if you need me, Babe."

I smiled and squeezed his hand once before turning and making my way down the hall.

The living room was dark, aside from the soft glow of the moon coming in through the drapes. I made my way to the couch, pulling the throw from the back before settling myself into the pillowy cushions and burrowing under the warmth of the thick blanket. I grabbed both remotes from the table beside the couch and used the first to start the gas fireplace to warm up the chill in the room. Once the fire was going, I used the other remote to turn on the TV and DVD player, starting the Ghostbusters DVD already inside from the beginning.

When the opening strains of music began playing and the library came into view on screen, I slipped my hand into the pocket of my robe and pulled out a handful of Hershey's Kisses. Mmmm, chocolate and a movie. There was nothing better. Well, okay, maybe one thing, but he was currently sound asleep in the bedroom!

The next thing I knew, I awoke to the feel of Ranger brushing the hair back from my face and telling me softly to wake up.

"Whattimeisit?" I mumbled, rubbing my eyes blearily.

He frowned as I looked up at him. "Nearly nine, Babe. You need to get up. We have an appointment with Dr. Le in an hour."

"Okay," I said with a yawn.

"Babe, what time did you fall asleep?"

I shrugged. "The last time I looked at the clock, it was almost five."

Ranger gave a sigh worthy of any 'Burg teenage girl and looked down at me. "I was up at five, Stephanie. You didn't get nearly enough sleep."

Then he looked at the table in front of me. "What's all this?"

I gave him a sheepish smile when I looked at the pile of chocolate wrappers strewn about. "I wanted chocolate."

To his credit, Ranger didn't say a word. He simply picked me up and carried me to the bathroom, ignoring my protests that I was able to walk just fine on my own, thank you very much.

"Get ready, Stephanie. I'll have breakfast for you when you get out of the shower."

Any protests I might have made died in my throat at the tone of finality in his voice, and with a quick kiss to my forehead, he backed out of the bathroom and left me to do what I needed to do.

~oOo~

Just over an hour later, Ranger and I were seated in Dr. Le's office. The nurse had checked my vitals, I had peed in a cup, and Dr. Le herself had just finished listening to the babies' heartbeats. She had claimed everything looked good but said we would get the results from the urine test in a few days. Now, she was seated on her little rolling stool at the built-in desk. Ranger stood beside me as I sat on the edge of the exam table.

"Aside from not sleeping well and feeling kind of blah—your words, not mine—in the evenings, how are you doing?" she asked, looking from me to my chart and back.

"I'm good. I'm becoming more tired easily, but I just figured that's to be expected."

"And your appetite?"

I laughed. "Back to normal, although I can't eat as much at one sitting now as I could before I got pregnant."

Dr. Le nodded with a smile and asked, "What does your daily diet consist of normally?"

I felt my face flame as I thought over the last few days.

~oOo~

"Ooooh, girl, you brought donuts! Didn't your man make you breakfast this morning?" Lula asked as she grabbed two donuts from the box I set down on Connie's desk.

I laughed. "Yes, but on the way here, the babies demanded sugar. Who was I to deny them?"

"Is that chocolate milk, Steph?" Connie gestured at the bag I was carrying.

Nodding, I pulled out a large bottle. "It sounded good," I said with a shrug. "Got some glasses?"

~oOo~

As I sat at my desk, entering searches on the computer, I broke open a new bag of Hershey's Kisses. I'd finished the last bag the day before and decided the new one today should be the ones with almonds, so Les and I had stopped at the store on my way home from my visit with Connie and Lula.

When Ranger called three hours later to say he would be back in time for lunch, I looked down and realized more than three-quarters of the bag was gone. Oops! Maybe I could convince Lester to make another run to the store for me.

~oOo~

"Babe, Ella brought up dinner while you were in the bathroom. It's in the oven keeping warm. I've got to run. Have to meet a client at their office to look at their system. Hector's going with me to look at the alarm itself, but the client wants me there personally."

I tugged him to me for a kiss, murmuring, "Be safe," against his lips.

With one last kiss, he slid his gun into his waistband and left the apartment.

I went to the kitchen to get the food Ella had left for me and grabbed a Diet Coke from the fridge before making my way into the living room to watch Bones while I ate.

While Booth and Brennan were investigating the death of the crooked politician by his wife, I ate a big piece of chocolate cake left over from the night before and waited to hear from Ranger.

~oOo~

"Stephanie," Dr. Le began, "I really hate to tell you this, but all that sugar and caffeine is the reason you can't sleep at night and the reason you've been feeling kind of off during the day.

"An occasional small slice of cake or piece of chocolate is okay, but you should avoid caffeine completely in the afternoon and evening, as well as sugar, especially in things like chocolate, where it's combined with the caffeine. It's true that those give you an energy boost, but it also affects you adversely when you begin to come down from the sugar or caffeine high."

Dr. Le smiled and looked like she was bracing herself for my reaction as she continued. "Try cutting out all extra sugar and caffeine for a week, and if you're still feeling bad and unable to sleep by this time next week, make an appointment, and we'll double check that nothing else is going on, okay?"

I sighed and nodded. "Okay. I guess I didn't realize it was affecting me as much as it was."

After a few more questions and comments, the doctor said she would hopefully not see us until my regular appointment in a few weeks, and then Ranger and I walked out to the SUV.

"Babe, are you oka—"

I held up my hand to stop him. "I'm fine. I don't really want to think about it right now. I kind of just want to get back and go to work." I smiled tremulously at him, afraid if I thought about it too much, I'd cry.

Thankfully, Ranger respected my wishes and just squeezed my hand before helping me into the passenger seat.

I was fine all the way to the RangeMan. I mean, I was an adult. I could handle being told I couldn't have any caffeine or sugar. Sure, that might mean more sexy-times with my husband, but who in their right mind would have a problem with that?

"Meet you upstairs for lunch at noon?" I asked before we parted ways at his office door.

When he nodded and pulled me in for a kiss, my head swam and chocolate and caffeine were the furthest things from my mind. I stumbled to my office, my body not working quite right after Ranger's drugging kiss, and pushed the door closed behind me before sitting down at my desk.

I needed to finish the searches Rodriguez had left on my desk the day before. I had left them in the drawer of my desk overnight, so as I booted up the computer, I opened the drawer, and that's when reality slapped me in the face.

Sitting on the stack of files were two and a half bags of Hershey's Kisses and four individual packages of Tastykakes.

I immediately burst into tears—gut-wrenching sobs that even I knew were over the top but that my hormone-laden body was seeming to produce on its own. I scooped up all the now-contraband items and dumped them into the trash can beside my desk, sobbing harder when the open bag fell short and spilled all over the floor.

I was still sitting in the chair, looking down at the candy on the floor, when my office door burst open. I looked up to see Ranger in the doorway, his face full of worry.

"Babe? What's wrong?" He quickly walked over to me, kicking candy out of his way with his foot until he could kneel down in front of me. "I could hear you crying from my office."

"Files...throw away...spill...no more..." I sobbed, unable to clearly get out what I was trying to say.

Somehow, some way, my husband knew what I meant. He scooped me into his arms and carried me to the elevator, murmuring quietly in Spanish the entire time. When we got to the apartment, he sat down on the couch, holding me gently in his lap as I got out all my tears.

"Better?" he asked, rubbing his hand up and down my spine while I buried my face in his neck.

I pulled back to look at him and nodded, reaching up to wipe the tears from my cheeks.

His hands beat mine to it, and he lovingly used his thumbs to sweep away the dampness before pressing a kiss to my forehead.

"Want to talk about it?"

"I don't even really know why I was crying. I hate that I can't have chocolate and sugar right now, but I know it's not that big a deal—in theory, anyway." I shrugged, clearly unable to articulate why I'd broken down like I had. "Plus, you know how I get when I'm off sugar," I whined, feeling irritated with myself for my reaction.

He raised an eyebrow suggestively. "Bring it on, Babe," he teased, his voice husky. "Bring it on."

~oooOOOooo~

One Week Later
Ranger's POV

I pulled Stephanie against me, breathing heavily after our second round of love-making this morning. She had surprised me in the shower, and once we were back in the bedroom, she had pulled me down to the bed. Who was I to deny her? When the doctor had told her to cut all sugar and caffeine last week, I'd known I would benefit. Still, combine the lack of sugar with her regular pregnancy hormones, and even I was reaching my limit.

Steph let out a sigh beside me, yawning. It was early, and she was clearly still tired.

"Sleep, Babe," I murmured. "I'm going to take another quick shower and then head downstairs to do some work. Come see me when you get up."

She was asleep before I got out of bed.

After a quick shower to wash away the sweat from our bedroom activities, I threw on some cargoes and a T-shirt, stuck my gun in the waistband of my pants, grabbed my cell phone and keys, and ran downstairs.

When I play-hobbled into Tank's office, he barked out a laugh, trying immediately to stifle it behind his large palm.

"Don't, man," I groaned as I sat in the chair opposite him.

"Never thought I'd see the day," he chuckled.

"Steph off caffeine is one thing, but add in her pregnancy, and she's insatiable." I shook my head. "And that's coming from me!"

Four hours later, I was just finishing up paperwork when my cell phone rang.

"Yo," I said without looking at the Caller ID.

"Carlos," Stephanie purred. "When are you coming back upstairs? I have a present for you."

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but the sound of her sex-kitten voice had my dick standing ramrod straight, as if I hadn't been buried in her wet heat only a few hours before.

"I'll be right up, Babe," I told her with a grin.

After all, tired or not, there was no better feeling than being inside my wife.