I apologize for this story not being finished but my heart wasn't in it. This story was not written originally this way and I got to the point I was not happy or pleased with it at all. I re-read the story itself and all the wonderful reviews. I knew then I had to finish it. Have I been writing? Yes, but I couldn't get anywhere on any of them. Maybe now I can. The story is finished and I will post weekly until it is done. For those of you still hanging with me, thank you. I haven't decided if I will re-do this story the way I originally had written it, if so, I will post it on another site. If people want to read the other version, let me know, give me feedback please. It is written just not typed up. From here on, Rainbow and I have decided to get an entire story done first before posting the first chapter. I don't like the pressure I have put on myself to complete the story. Rainbow, thank you for your help and staying with me through everything, story and personal crap. Without further ado, here it is...

If it is familiar, they are not mine. Christy, and the body shop crew are mine. So are the mistakes.

Starting over after Failure

Chapter 36

In Trenton the big day had arrived, time to draw for the '67 Impala. Over ten thousand tickets had been sold at twenty dollars a pop. More than two hundred thousand dollars had been raised for the animal shelter and Trenton PD. The hundred thousand the police department would receive would more than pay for the body cameras, the balance they were going to use to start upgrading the vests for officers.

For the shelter, it meant no animals would have to be euthanized unless they were deemed too sick for the next year.

Rangeman and the body shop had agreed to add a hundred thousand dollars each, bringing the totals up to two hundred thousand for each organization. It was a huge surprise for each one. Chief Juniak had the honor of drawing the winning ticket. When he read the name of the winner everybody cheered.

"Eddie Gazzara."

Christy's POV

I was thrilled when I heard Eddie's name called out as the winner of the car. He had been to the shop several times when we had problems with Derrick and all the other issues going on. I thought he was a good cop and a great person. Steph had told me he was married to her cousin and was a wonderful man. Eddie had helped her out several times when her cars blew up and Morelli was screaming at her about being a fuck up.

Fortunately for Steph, Morelli moved to Chicago to take a detective position. From what I gathered, Morelli was a first class ass, it was in Steph's best interest that he was gone. Truth be told, it was probably Trenton's best interest he was gone. When I learned about Joe being gone, I suspected Carlos had something to do with it, still wouldn't surprise me, I knew he cared for Stephanie a lot.

Eddie followed me to the office to fill out the paperwork on the Impala. He was excited and like a kid at Christmas. As we walked past Carlos' Porsche Eddie asked, "How is Ranger's car coming along?"

"It is finished and just waiting on its owner to get back from whatever hell hole he is in currently."

"I'm sorry it got shot up along with Les. I guess you have it good as new.?"

"Better than new. It will go one-eighty without nitro. I won't have either one of them getting hurt again."

"The PD won't be able to catch it."

"As long as you are not trying to kill either one of them you won't need to catch it. And we know the police won't be trying to kill them. Let's get that paperwork done so you can enjoy your new car."

CLCLCLCLCLCL

When the paperwork was finished, they returned to the festivities. Scarlet had helped Christy by arranging for a live band to perform. The group played a lot of 'beach music', the Beach Boys music abounded.

Eric and Dale had put together a classic car cruise-in. The turn out for it was great, cars from the twenties, thirties, up through brand new came out to participate in the event, in total two hundred and five cars showed.

Several inquiries were made on some of Christy's cars that were on display and for sale.

The pet adoptions were the biggest success of the whole event. Seventy-five dogs found their 'furever' homes along with forty-eight cats. At the end of the day all of the cages were empty, it gave the staff of the humane society another reason to smile. One lucky tuxedo kitty went home with Tank.

Christy and Les were thrilled with the volunteers who hung around to help with clean up once the festivities were over. To help with refuse, a local trash company donated a dumpster with pick up and removal. There was a couple loads after clean up. A rental company was coming to pick up the tents that had been set up for the animal shelter and police department. The only thing left for them to do was collect the money from the food vendors, who had donated a percentage of profits to be split between the two charities. All in all, the day was a success.

A very tired Les and Christy fell in bed late that night. She snuggled into his side before sleep claimed both quickly.

RJRJRJRJRJRJ

In Colombia, the time had come to finally eliminate José Sanchez and his cartel. The villager who had fed the men at different times over the last few weeks had shown Manny and Ranger an underground entrance into the compound. Two men guarded each end of the tunnel.

The tunnel overall was approximately a half mile in length. The outside guards were villagers that had been forced to help the cartel, but desperately wanted their freedom back. When the crew showed to make entrance to the compound, Ranger told the men, "Leave now, don't look back and alert no one of what is going on if you want to live."

Both men ran from the area, the old man who had helped Ranger, met the running men and escorted them back to town. Cautiously Ranger and the men advanced through the tunnel staying alert for trip wires and other traps. At the other end was another pair of villagers that had been taken captive. Ranger made the same offer to them. Disappearing into the darkness the men ran through the tunnel.

The plan had been to use knives as much as possible to avoid alerting cartel members of the team's presence inside the compound. They were met with little resistance along the way since they knew who most of the captives were. All of them wanted out with their lives. Bobby escorted groups of ten at a time back to the tunnel entrance, allowing them to escape.

Ranger and Manny moved to the bedroom where José would be asleep at this time of night. Outside the bedroom door were two guards. A pair of well placed Chinese throwing stars eliminated them as they slowly slid down the wall courtesy of Hector.

José had a little surprise for Ranger and Manny, two more guards were on the other side of the door. Each guard got a slash in, one for Manny and one on Ranger. Luckily the slashes were on the arm of each man and neither slash hit their gun sides. The guards received their own slashes thanks to Ranger and Manny. Theirs were worse, their wounds were fatal.

José woke when the guards in his room were eliminated. He pulled a gun that had been under his pillow. For once it paid to bring a knife to a gun fight. Before he could fire, a knife lodged itself into his Adam's apple. Hector had struck again.

With the 'head of the snake' cut off, the other members of the cartel were easier to deal with. Several of them voluntarily gave up, allowing themselves to be arrested. Others escaped into the darkness, while a few went out fighting. In the end, the Colombian government cared less about it looking like a rival cartel and more about Sanchez being eliminated.

Slipping out under the cover of darkness, the men went to the clinic. Bobby took care of Ranger's and Manny's arms, each of them needed about ten stitches. Both men would be on a round of antibiotics as a precaution. In the morning, la policía would have gone after concluding their investigation, not that much investigation would have taken place. The plan had been to take a few villagers at a time to the compound to retrieve their belonging taken by the cartel.

Ranger and Manny got some much needed quality rest while Bobby and Hector treated villagers who came in the clinic. It was needed to keep up appearances in case they were still being watched by any possible rival cartels.

Later in the day, they began taking the villagers to the compound. Many found items that were of no value to outsiders, but were sentimental to them. There were pictures of the villagers that had been taken when the cartel was forming in the area. Young girls and the men were who most of the pictures consisted of. Sadly, the girls were probably gone for good since nobody really knew where they had been taken.

The team remained in Colombia for two more weeks after the killing of José. During that time Bobby arranged for 'Doctors without Borders' to come in and help the village. They would over see training for a couple of people to be able to do first aid in an emergency.

Finally it was time for the team to return stateside, none to soon as far as they were concerned.

Upon arrival they were whisked away for debriefings. It wasn't until the following week they were able to make contact with their loved ones.

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Christy's POV

I was sitting in my office working on payroll with Les when my phone rang. "Hello."

"How is the most beautiful woman in the world doing?"

"CARLOS!"

"I am stateside, unfortunately I do not know when I will get to come home. We are in meetings again."

Lester's face broke out with a huge smile, just before he did a fist pump in the air. I quickly put the phone on speaker. "Les is here with me and I put you on speaker."

"You taking care of our woman, primo?"

"On every level I am. When is your ugly ass going to be home?"

"Next week sometime I do not have an exact day. They are busting our chops over this whole mission. It was FUBARED from the start."

"God I've missed your voice. Are you okay?" I asked him.

"A little banged up, but overall, I am okay. I have missed more than just your voice, my hand was not the same as much as I tried to imagine it as yours... it was a little to big," he quipped back.

"Well, I've missed more than your voice too but Les was an okay substitute."

"I'll remember that later when you want some," Les groused.

"I gotta go, but I should have more time now to call. I love you Precious."

"I love you too."

After I hung the phone up, I looked at Les before cheering that Carlos was home safe. "I think we need to celebrate. Let me call Steph."

Steph wanted to do some retail therapy... yuck. I'm not much of a shopper, I prefer to get it and get out but I went anyway. Some new lingerie for Carlos would be nice. Les went to chaperon us, translation, carry our bags. We had a wonderful time. At Victoria's Secret, Les picked out something he would like for me to wear for him. It was cute and who was I to say no to that man. Then he picked out something he said Carlos would like, I agreed.

He said Carlos would like a lacy teddy with a 'v' neck that went to my belly button, with a thong style bottom, and basically a 't' shape in the back. I got it in black. Les wanted me to wear a 't' backed babydoll with a matching 'g' string. I went with purple on that one. In either outfit I felt sexy and knew I would be appreciated.

We returned home after grabbing a sub sandwich in the mall. The animals had been taken care of for the evening and I anxiously awaited a call from Carlos.

Around 8PM that call came. "Hey sexy man," I said as I answered the phone.

I kept it off of speaker so he and I could have a few minutes of alone time so to speak. The dirty talk that came from him had my juices flowing. Had he been home I would have thrown him on the bed and had my way with him, instead Les would get that benefit later. I know, I can't throw him on the bed, but he would go with it.

After he had me tore up, he asked to speak with both Les and I. "We need to plan a memorial service for Rich. He does not have any family that I know of but he should still be respected."

"Are you sure about this Carlos? He did after all betray you and the team," I pointed out.

"Let's just keep it small mainly so Rangeman can have closure," Les suggested.

The three of us agreed and Les said he would handle the arrangements. We talked about the three of us going on a honeymoon and where. I'm not a big traveler so Point Pleasant was fine by me and I promised them I would not go to any car auctions.

Carlos confirmed that I would be getting up at 0600 and told me he would call then before we disconnected. When we got off the phone, I showed Les what Carlos had done to me. He was a happy man.

LCCLCCLCCLCC

Between that night and his return home, Carlos called at 0600 and 2000 hours to talk for a little while.

Les made arrangements the next day for a memorial service for Rich upon Ranger and the rest of the teams return. It turned out his parents were deceased and was buried in the Dallas, Texas area. Since there wasn't a body to bury, Les made arrangements for a plaque to be placed on the headstone for Rich's parents. His name, date of birth, and death would be engraved on it, then at least an acknowledgment for his life would be present somewhere.

Finally the men returned home on Wednesday of the following week. They held a private memorial service for Rich at the office. Ranger spoke briefly along with a couple of the others who had spent some time with Rich. Nobody mentioned he had betrayed the men on the mission. Ranger wanted to remember the man Rich had been when they served together. Per Rich's request his clothes and personal effects were donated to a local church to help the homeless. His car would be sold and the cash given to the same church to help with the soup kitchen.

After the service, Ranger spent a couple days alone in the penthouse before he felt ready to see Christy. On Friday night, Shorty's had been rented out by Rangeman and the body shop. Christy was finally going to see Carlos.