A/N not mine, I own nothing but the plot.

Sorry for the delay. I had surgery on my shoulder two weeks ago and am just starting to feel a bit better. I am working on a few things, this story, two more, and my original piece. It's slow going as I cannot use my right hand because of one of the things they repaired in my shoulder is the tendon that connects the bicep to the shoulder and it has to stay immobile until it fuses to the large bone in my upper arm instead of my shoulder.

What The Heart Wants

The days flew by and before she knew it, it was Saturday. She was starting to become nervous, other than with Dickie, she can't remember the last time she had a real date. When she was with Joe, it felt like she embarrassed him; with Ranger it was always a paid job. Looking back she could only shake her head. She didn't know how she missed it before. They both used her for their own end game. They both had an agenda and she was only a means to reach it. She couldn't keep from thinking that Dickie had had one too. He needed a woman to make him look like a family man to further his ambitions. He at least had the decency to make her feel like someone cared for a little while.

What had her nerves wound up was the thought that Tank had an agenda as well. After all, it's what her past had taught her. She knew that she shouldn't dwell on it, but everytime she tried to get ready, it came back to the forefront of her mind. After an hour she finally made a decision.

'Suck it up buttercup,' she thought. 'Tank is different. He's not from my past, but he could very well be my future.' She grabbed a pair of slacks and a blouse from her closet. She spritzed on a tiny bit of perfume and considered herself ready. She took a deep breath and opened her bedroom door. Tank was leaning against the wall across from her door. The grin he gave her melted her heart just a little bit. She wanted to protect it, but he was worming his way in one smile at a time.

He held his arm out for her to take. She wrapped her arm around his and smile as they made their way to his car downstairs. He helped her into the passenger seat before going around and getting into the driver side. She was surprised when he didn't plug an address into his GPS and it took everyting in her not to ask where they were going for dinner. Her nerves were rising to the top again and he must have noticed, because he took her hand into his and ran his thumb across the back in a soothing motion.

The drive felt as though it took forever, but in reality it couldn't have been more than 45 minutes. Tank handed his keys to the valet and helped her out of the car. She took note of the name, Cafe Bretton. She had never heard of it, but was curious about what they served. She was surprised when he spoke to someone in what she thought to be French. She knew that he knew Spanish, but wondered how many other languages he spoke.

They were quickly shown to their table where they both requested ice water to drink and handed their menus to look over.

"Steph," Tank asked.

"Yes, Tank," she replied looking up at him.

"Please call me by my first name, Pierre when we aren't working," he paused before asking his question. "Would you let me order for you? This is one of my favorite restaurants and I think I know something you may enjoy."

She smiled at him and nodded, relieved that she wouldn't need to decipher the menu on her own. "Thank you. I think I would like that, Pierre."

The smile he gave her was probably the biggest one she had ever seen from the mountain of a man before her. She knew he was a handsome man, but his beauty with that smile was truly breath taking. He placed their orders and a glass of wine each to be delivered with their meals.

As they waited she decided to ask a few questions, after all dates were a way to learn about each other.

"Why did you pick this restaurant, " she inquired softly.

"I was stationed in Germany for two years and I had the chance to go to France while on leave. I fell in love with the country, and still visit when I have the chance. I wanted to share a little bit of that with you. This restaurant is the closest I've come to some of the food I've enjoyed there over the years."

"Is that why you learned French?"

He let out a small chuckle before answering, "Actually it's not. I grew up learning Spanish and once I joined the military they discovered that I have an aptitude for languages. I started taking classes and learning the romance languages first. I know fourteen different ones which was heavily utilized during my time in the service."

"Wow! I know enough Italian to hold a half way decent conversation, I couldn't imagine learning more. I only know enough Latin to get through mass," she said with a slight giggle. "Mom made sure we could go to Latin services around the holy days of obligation, and my Plum grandparents spoke Italian to us growing up. They didn't want us to lose that part of our family history. It's something I would love to learn more of and maybe go to Italy one day."

"Italy is beautiful too, maybe one day we can take a trip to France and Italy."

"You would go with me? Really?"

"Of course, I would love to see both place through your eyes. I can already imagine the look in your face when you see them for the first time. The look of pure wonder," he stopped there as their food was placed in front of them.

He watched her as she took her first bite and was giddy when she closed her eyes and softly let out a moan that she was straining to hold back. Their conversation soon began again. When they were done, it was late and they realized that they had missed the movie that they planned to go see. They laughed over that as they got situated into the car before heading home.

Once they were safely tucked away back in the apartment they settled in on the sofa with the big fluffy throw blanket around them. He pulled her into his side and felt more content than he had in a long time. They fell asleep together just enjoying each others company.

The next morning Tank woke up and looked down at the beautifully mussed woman laying on his chest. He became aware of another presence in the room; looking towards the recliner he spotted Hector glaring at him. Hector nodded toward the kitchen. Tank carefully disentangled himself from Stephanie and followed the terrifying former gangbanger.

"Hurt her and die," was how the smaller man started. "That's not why I'm here. There is some information that you need to protect her."

"What," Tank growled out.

"Ranger seems to be heading this way. He should be in Baltimore this afternoon."

"Fuck!"

"Should we stop him?"

Before Tank could reply, Stephanie walked in and interrupted them by saying, "Let him come. I think it's time to confront him in person, so that I can move forward with my life...with our life, Pierre."

He felt as though he had swallowed his heart as he said those words. He wanted to move forward with their life too.

"I would like you both to be here, Cal too, when I talk with him. I don't think he would physically hurt me, but after the last time I saw him..." she trailed off.

A/N We hit over 500 reviews! Squeee! I'm am so excited! Had a few issues with who the actual prize went to, so I'm doing a combination. One was that it was a Babe story, and the other prompt has a full story (not just a one shot) forming in my head. It's definitely a twist on a theme I've seen crop up here, and boy oh boy as Ranger would say, "We're gonna do this Babe, and it's gonna be good."