Chapter 26

The pucker factor for John's situation decreased tremendously. It still didn't mean that Ranger would let his guard down yet. Gangs' next generation seemed to lack the loyalty of his time. A favorable fact for John. Ranger still thought about taking everyone to the Longport beach house this weekend. It would get them all out of town and give them a change to relax and unwind.

Now, Ranger needed to unwind. Stephanie's snore resonated throughout the apartment. She didn't snore before she gained the weight. And he would rather be recaptured and tortured again by the Columbians than tell Stephanie that she snored. She had a hard enough time dealing with her expanding waistline. There was no way in hell that he would give her something else to cry about.

He toed off his sneakers and slid between the sheets. Stephanie didn't budge. Watching her sleep always calmed him. Why? He had no idea but gave up trying to figure it out a long time ago. He snaked a hand around and splayed it on her belly. Last night, he actually felt some movement. His fingers gently explored the ever growing baby bump. Bump didn't seem to fit anymore. It wasn't quite a basketball yet either.

Her body sensed his presence as she molded herself against him. The snoring subsided when she rolled on her side. The rhythmic rise and fall of her torso began to immediately center him. The tension drained from his body. Taking a short nap with Stephanie sounded like a great idea. He would need his strength for dinner with her family later. He liked Frank. Her mother left little to be desired, but Ranger noticed that she looked like she had been trying to improve her relationship with Stephanie. He didn't dislike Grandma Mazur. Actually, she could be fun. It just made him uncomfortable when she talked about his package all the time.

Later that afternoon, Ranger led Stephanie to the garage. Being late for dinner would bestow unspeakable ills upon Stephanie such as the withholding of pineapple upside down cake. He didn't realize he had been staring until she spoke.

"What?" She frowned.

"You look beautiful."

She did. The turquoise Henley under the stone-washed denim jumper made her blue eyes look as if they were backlit. The pregnancy book talk about the glow pregnant women had. He could really see it now.

Stephanie just rolled her eyes. Before she had a chance to comment, she bumped into Lester as the elevator doors opened.

"Hey Beautiful," he greeted. He gave Ranger a friendly nod. "You were great last night. Barbara said you rocked."

Stephanie snorted. Yeah, she thought, looked like Barbara rocked last night too!

"So where are you 2 going?" Lester asked.

"Dinner at my parents," she explained.

Lester shuddered at the thought of Grandma Mazur. "You're a better man than I am."

"Always was," Ranger muttered.

"So what are you doing tonight?" Stephanie enquired.

Lester broke out into a full grin. "Got a page from Barbara. She's coming by tonight because she's got a lay-over in Philly. Get it? Lay over?"

Ranger shook his head as he grabbed Stephanie by the hand to pull her towards the Porsche.

"I'm not going to say it, Babe."

Stephanie and Ranger kept Frank's secret and didn't mention seeing him the night before. Helen showed off the blue blanket she had almost finished crocheting. Frank pulled out a bag of clothes he bought for his future grandson.

"Look at these," he told them proudly.

He held up a blue onesie that read Grandpa's Little Boy.

"Aw Daddy," Stephanie and Valerie gushed in unison.

"And these." He pulled out two more that read I Love Grandpa and Grandpa's Best Boy.

"But what if the other baby is a boy, too? Which one will be your best boy?" Stephanie asked.

Frank gave her a dismissive wave. "I bought 2 of each just in case."

"I want to wait until we know what the other baby is," Helen added. "Then I'll work on the second blanket."

Stephanie admired the stitches on the blanket. Her mother always did great work. She must have made hundreds of baby blankets over the years. Never in a million years did she ever think her mother would be making not one, but two, for her!

"This is really nice, Mom," Stephanie told her.

"I learned a new stitch," Helen answered proudly.

If people didn't know their history, they wouldn't have understood how profound that comment was. Helen did a lot of things for Stephanie. Maybe more that Stephanie gave her credit for. But her mother went out of her way to do something special this time. The tears began to fall. Damn pregnancy hormones!

"Thank you, Mom." She threw her arms around her mother's neck. It took a second before she felt her mother's arms encircle her.

Before allowing herself to get too caught up in the moment, Helen pulled back.

"I have to check on the roast," she announced before bustling into the kitchen.

The conversation over dinner contained light banter about local gossip. The focus again turned to the twins while Helen served the pineapple upside down cake.

"So have you picked out any names yet?" Frank wondered.

Stephanie swallowed the mouthful of cake with an audible gulp.

"We need to come up with another boy's name in case the player to be named later is a boy, but Ricardo Carlos…after his father. And if it's a girl…Rosa Marie," she told them.

"Those are wonderful names," Valerie agreed.

Helen forcefully attacked her piece of cake with the fork.

"Carlos lived with his grandmother, Rosa, for a while. She was a very special person in his life. And I thought it would be nice to remember Aunt Marie. We really don't talk about her…" Stephanie trailed off when her mother shot her a sharp look.

"It's because it's too painful. Why don't you name her after you own grandmother?" Helen bristled.

Edna jumped in. "Oh yeah, right! You would want to name a child Edna? I don't know what my mother was thinking when she named me. Now, the only good thing is that at the Senior Center I am known as Head-na." She removed her teeth and wiggled her tongue at Ranger.

Frank gagged while Ranger blanched. Mary Alice giggled while Valerie's and Angie's jaws dropped.

"I know what that means, Grammie," Mary Alice told her as she wiggled her tongue back at her.

"You do not, Mary Alice! Stop telling a fib," Angie warned.

Mary Alice put her hands on her hips and replied, "I do so. Tony Morelli told me all about it at school. And he showed me about French kissing and everything!"

Stephanie bit her lower lip to keep from laughing. Joe's brother Anthony's son, Tony, was in the same grade as Mary Alice. Talk about history repeating itself!

"Mary Alice!" Valerie cried.

"I need a drink," Frank groaned as he rose from the table. He placed a hand on Ranger's shoulder.

"Care to join me?"

Ranger immediately jumped up and nodded. He knew Frank would take a shot of his private stash that he kept hidden in the garage. Along with that shot, he would offer him a cigar. At this point, he wouldn't care if Frank offered him a glass of mule piss. He wanted to get as far away from this conversation as possible.

The more one-on-one time Ranger spent with his future father-in-law, the more he liked him. They shared similar combat experiences. Frank Plum knew the horrors of war having fought in Vietnam. The bond between combat vets rivaled no other.

Ranger saw combat in Afghanistan, but most of his experience came from covert operations. Assassinations and hostage recovery were his specialty. It didn't matter where it happened. The rules were simple…kill or be killed. That can have a profound effect on a man.

Lester zipped up his pants as Barbara reapplied her lipstick. Her rental car sat at the curb across the street from the Rangeman building. He felt like a new man. Barbara coming to town had been a God send. No pun intended! They always had this no-strings relationship because she also just wanted sex as well. Her lifestyle and work schedule made hard for her to see one person regularly. Well that…and she didn't want to limit herself to one man yet. Nothing wrong with that.

He kissed her goodbye as she promised to call when she would be in the area again. He exited the car, and she pulled away. Smiling, he sauntered towards the lobby doors. He replayed his sex fest over and over in his mind. Barbara had many talents. She used to be a gymnast in high school. She could bend her body like a pretzel. And that was nothing compared to what she just did with her mouth.

"What the fuck?" Lester hissed as his crotch suddenly dampened from a sprayed liquid.

"Lester Santos!" Xylia cried. "I saw that Strumpet of Satan defile your manly parts with her mouth!"

Lester winced. This is so not happening, he groaned to himself. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the exterior cameras repositioning themselves to get a front row seat.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded.

He spied the white Jesus mobile about half way down the block. Damn. He must have really been into that blow job to miss that thing.

"I came to try to win you back," she told him. "I believe you that nothing is going on with Stephanie. I saw her with her pimp at the book store. I tried to save their bastard children from the pits of hell. They will be judged at the altar of sin. I can still save you, Lester. Please come back to me!"

Stephanie had gone to sleep earlier while Ranger stayed up to finish some research. The phone rang as he prepared to join her in bed. Ranger pinched the bridge of his nose as Junior gave his report. He gently shook Stephanie awake after he hung up the phone.

"Babe…you're not gonna want to miss this."

Ranger pulled up the exterior feed on his laptop as Stephanie ran to the living room window.

"Xylia…," Lester began, "I told you. This isn't going to work. It's over."

"Don't say that. I love you, Lester. We can work this out. Look…."

She pulled a pamphlet from her handbag. From the cross on the cover, he knew already he didn't want to hear it.

"This is a bible class. You can take this course and learn more about Jesus," she suggested as she tried to get him to take the pamphlet from her hand.

Lester didn't have to turn around to know that the windows of the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th floors were filled with pairs of eyes. The building probably bent over like a question mark from the weight of the bodies that had converged on that side of the building. The Rangeman office would give the Leaning Tower of Pisa a run for its money.

"The agents of evil have been brain washing you. This class will help you see the light!"

"I'm not drinking that Kool-Aid, Xylia. This is getting ridiculous. I tried to be nice, but you didn't get it."

Xylia reached into her bag once more and retrieve that heinous Jesus head. Gripped in her right hand, she brandished it like a talisman warding off an evil spirit. Shit. It was uglier than he remembered. Between Xylia's pleading eyes, the ugly Jesus, and the weight of the Rangeman building, Lester's patience evaporated. The last thing he wanted to do was to be mean to her, but he had no choice. Anger replaced the guilt, and he exploded.

"Fuck Jesus and fuck you!" he shouted.

Xylia recoiled as if slapped. A twinge of guilt broke through the anger and almost made him reach for her to comfort her. He caught himself in time. Stand your ground, Santos, he warned himself.

"Don't you blaspheme, Lester Santos!" Xylia scolded.

"According to you…," Lester retorted as he pointed his finger in her face, "we're all going to hell anyway. So take your holy water, that ugly-ass Mr. T Jesus head, and your bible school and shove it up your ass!"

Without waiting for a reply or response…okay so he didn't want to see her cry…he barreled through the lobby doors and jogged towards the stairs. Zip locked the doors behind him with a smirk. Lester flipped him the bird before he disappeared into the stairwell. Once again, he didn't stop until he made it safely inside his apartment.

Lester flopped on to his couch with his face in his hands. He felt the building right itself as everyone went back to what they were doing before the ambush on the sidewalk. After rubbing his eyes, he looked ruefully at the wet spot on his crotch. What went wrong tonight? He went from getting amazing head to being attacked with a Jesus head….and holy water. His phone rang, pulling him out of his pity party.

"Hey Beautiful."

"Are you okay?"

One thing Lester would never do…let any woman get in the way of his friendship with Stephanie. The genuine concern in her voice oozed through the phone.

"I'll be all right. Did you enjoy the show?" Lester smirked.

"Uh…w-what show?" she stammered.

She needed to work on her fabrication delivery. He couldn't help but smile.

"Oh…did you mean that little scene out front? I might have heard something about it."

"Beautiful…you can sing the hell outta of a song, but you can't lie for shit."

He jumped at the knock at the door. Lester squinted into the peephole to see Stephanie biting her lower lip and holding a plate with chocolate cake. He swung the door open as he disconnected the call.

"Um…I thought you could use this. Chocolate cake always works for me," she sheepishly explained.

He stepped back to let her inside. As she handed him the plate, she frowned at the huge damp spot in his crotch.

"I didn't piss myself," Lester insisted. "It's holy water. Something about Satan blowing his trumpet on my manhood. I don't know, and I don't care. I wasn't really paying attention." He gave her a dismissive wave as he headed to the kitchen to get a fork. That chocolate cake looked better and better.

"That's the problem, Lester," Stephanie said. "You do care. I just wanted to make sure that you were all right. Did you want to be alone? I could leave…"

Lester grabbed her by the hand and led her to the couch. "How about you sit with me and help me eat this cake? Then I need to get to bed. You know our boss can be a Nazi about being late."

After sharing a few bites of Ella's magical goodness, Lester placed the fork on the plate and leaned back.

"I really didn't want to hurt her like that," he admitted. "She begged me to take her back and go to bible school. What if she doesn't get it through her thick skull that we don't belong together?"

Stephanie shrugged. "I don't know, but I'm sure we can get Lula to kick her Amish ass."

"Oh…the good news is that she finally believes that your bastard children aren't mine. She saw you with your pimp."

Stephanie snorted and began to cough up her chocolate cake. Lester slapped her between the shoulder blades.

"You all right?"

She nodded as her coughing spell subsided. "I was just picturing Carlos dressed like Huggy Bear from Starsky & Hutch. You know…with a big felt hat and red feather."

Both chuckled at the thought. They quickly finished off the cake before Lester walked Stephanie to the door.

"Thanks, Beautiful." He started to hug her tight but eased up when he felt her stomach poke him. Damn thing grew bigger every day. He rubbed her belly.

"Good night, Rangebabies."

Stephanie rolled her eyes. "You better get some sleep. You're gonna need all the rest you can get for the meeting tomorrow morning," she joked.

"Aren't you going to tell the guys they can't bust my balls?"

"I won't be at the morning meeting," she admitted. "It pays to sleep with the Nazi-pimp boss, so I don't get in trouble for being late."

Shit.

Stephanie finally made an appearance on 5 at 10:30. She missed the roasting Lester had gotten from the guys about his stalker. At least someone else has a stalker for a change, Stephanie told herself.

Ranger had John chained to her cubicle to finish up his final exams. Valerie entered the shift reports into the database. Ram and Woody got stuck with monitor duty. Both of them looked as if they would rather be getting a root canal. She found Tank and Ranger reviewing a new catalog filled with the latest security gadgets.

Ranger glanced at his watch and raised one eyebrow. "Nice of you to join us, Babe."

"Morning, Bombshell." Tank grinned as he read her shirt. "Excuse me…Bio-Mom."

She rolled her eyes as she brushed past him and hopped onto Ranger's lap. "Anything interesting happen?"

Ranger shook his head. "Other than making fun of Lester…business as usual. How about you? Thinking about working today?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. Do you have something I can do?"

"Sounds like a loaded question," Tank muttered.

Ranger reached around her and slid a file towards her. "I have these body receipts that need to be dropped off, and Connie has a couple of checks ready. I figured you could handle this…and maybe let John tag along."

Stephanie smiled as she nodded.

"I think he's just about finished with his test. I'm sure he could use a break," Ranger explained.

"You know me," she agreed. "Always a team player. If you need someone to take John to lunch, I'm your girl."

Valerie buzzed Ranger on the intercom. "Jorge Velardo is on line one."

"Thank you," he replied.

He looked up at an expectant Stephanie and Tank.

"I used him to overhaul this building. I want to talk to him about renovations to the 6th and 7th floors," he explained. "We need to add room for the twins, and I'm adding another apartment to the 6th floor."

Tank frowned. "For who?"

"You," Ranger answered curtly before talking his call.

Stephanie and Tank exchanged confused looks. Ranger made an appointment for the man to come to evaluate the space later in the week.

"I already talked to Stephanie about converting the storage space on 7 into rooms for the twins. The 6th floor has that same space. I think my second in command deserves a better apartment than that little breadbox on 4. We have plenty of extra offices on the 2nd floor that we don't use. We can use that for storage."

"You ain't gonna get an argument from me," Tank joked. "Thank you. All kidding aside, I appreciate it. It's amazing how small a space can get when it's not just you anymore."

"So who's going to get Tank's apartment?" Stephanie asked.

Tank had the largest apartment on the 4th floor. It had its own bedroom and a den of sorts due to an alcove off the main room. The kitchen and living area were the same as the rest but had a larger bathroom and extra closet. The layout of the 4th floor elevator bay and stairwell gave that corner apartment the extra square footage. Because Ranger wanted an open area to be used as a shared recreational area, it didn't leave much space for another apartment. With the unfinished areas on the 6th and 7th floors, it left room to grow. Everyone would want Tank's place.

"We have plenty of time to decide. Bobby and Lester have seniority. It would probably be between those 2," Ranger suggested.

"So what are you going to have done for the twins?" Stephanie prodded.

Ranger raised his hands palms up. "Jorge's going to check out the space and let us know what our options are."

"What about me?" Tank jumped in.

Ranger smirked. "It will probably be similar to the Guzman's apartment."

"Are you really going to stay on 7 after the twins are born? I thought you would want to get a house." Tank leaned back in his chair.

"The apartment will be fine for now. After the wedding and the twins are born, we'll talk about a house then," Ranger told him.

"But we won't have Ella if we get a house," Stephanie whined.

She had gotten used to being spoiled rotten. Ella cooked and cleaned for them. Not only did she cater to their every need, Ella had become a mother figure for Stephanie. And a very good friend and confidant. She would need Ella more than ever after the twins were born.

John knocked on the door. Ranger nodded for him to enter.

"I finished." He held out the answer sheet.

The school provided all of John's assignments. The principle Fed-X'd John's finals with the Scan-Tron answer sheets. Ranger agreed to monitor the tests and overnight them to her by the end of the week. Two of his classes required term papers which John already submitted. He completed two of his four finals on Friday. Now he only had one more to go.

Ranger slipped the answer sheet into a golden envelope. "Stephanie's going to take you to lunch. Then you can take the last exam when you get back."

"Great!" John exclaimed as he pumped his fist. "I need to get out for a while."

"Well if the DNA results prove that Bombshell was chauffeuring Jimmy Hoffa all over Trenton, we'll be on lock down. Enjoy it while you can," Tank teased.

Stephanie rolled her eyes. "Let's not talk about Jimmy Hoffa. We all know it was him in the trunk. And if it's not Jimmy Hoffa, it will turn out to be Amelia Earhart, or DB Cooper, or Elvis, or like someone else that disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle, or the missing alien body from the Roswell crash site. The more I think about it, Jimmy Hoffa would be the least of my worries."

She kissed Ranger before rising from his lap. "Come on, John. We'll take these body receipts to the Bond's office. Then we'll go to Pino's for lunch."

Ranger turned to Tank after they left. "She's right. I was hoping it would be a John Doe, but this is Stephanie we're talking about. If it's not Hoffa, it's probably worse."

Tank chuckled. "Like Elvis?"

Ranger smirked. "No…the alien body."