Chapter 37

We got really busy during the holidays. Lots of people end of committing crimes, either because they don't have money for the holidays and they helped themselves to presents or cash, or because it's cold outside and they figure jail won't be so bad for a while until they're actually in there and they realize it is actually pretty darn bad. So Connie and I stayed busy bonding out people.

Then after the holidays, Lula and the mid-range agents I hired and RangeMan stayed busy with the people who decided they didn't need to show up for their court date.

Luckily, Les's ribs and shoulder were pretty much good as new now. He was finally able to get back to fieldwork, so he was no longer cranky. He'd hated being cooped up in the office all the time, but I was able to dust off my distraction skills to keep his mind off the fact that he was pulling office duty. He definitely didn't mind it when I dug out some of my old distraction outfits for private viewings! But now that he could track down bad guys, he was a happy camper again.

So we were busy over the next couple of months as the depths of winter started to slowly fade towards spring.

Connie and I had worked it out so that neither of us was constantly on call and we could actually have a semi-normal life. She was dating Woody now, and they made a cute couple. I enjoyed having uninterrupted weekends with Les. Yeah, I enjoyed those a lot.

I was alone in the office when I heard the door open. Connie was out to lunch and Lula was out chasing a skip with one of the new guys, Jordan, so it was just me in the office.

I finished the sentence I was typing and stood to head towards the front office.

I'd only made it about two steps before I froze in my tracks. I couldn't believe my eyes, so I blinked a few times. Nope, still there.

"Ranger?"

"Babe?"

He moved almost faster than I could see and pulled me into his arms for a tight hug. I hugged him back, I was glad he was okay. When he tried to kiss me, I turned my head so he kissed me on the cheek. No way was I going to do that to Les! Plus, I was still slightly angry at Ranger for how he'd left things, so even if I wasn't with Les now, there would be no kissing. He should just be happy I wasn't driving the Buick or he'd have to worry about broken limbs.

He sighed slightly and let me take several steps back when I struggled to get out of his arms.

"When did you get back?" I asked once I got my tongue to work again. He looked paler and thinner than I'd ever seen him, including after he got shot point blank in the neck by Edward Scrog.

"This morning. What are you doing in Vinnie's office?"

"Not Vinnie's office anymore, it's mine. I'm the Plum of Plum Bail Bonds now."

He blinked twice, which in Ranger-land, is a major reaction. "How?"

Some things never change, I guess. Still one-word responses. I had to smile.

"Lucille got pregnant with twins and it's been a really hard pregnancy for her. She was worried about Vinnie needing to be gone nights and weekends to bail out crooks, so Harry decided that Vinnie should get a new job with more family-friendly hours. So he asked me to take over the bond's business permanently and after consideration, I did."

I got the 200-watt smile. "Proud of you, Babe."

"Thanks, Ranger." There was awkward silence for a moment before I spoke again. "Are you okay? You don't look so great."

"You're good for my ego."

I rolled my eyes at him. "At least sit down." He did, sitting casually on the couch, so I sat back down in my office chair behind my desk.

"I hadn't heard you were back yet," I said after another awkward pause.

"I wanted to see you before I went back to Haywood. Went by your apartment but you don't seem to live there anymore. Tank wouldn't tell me anything when I called, so I figured Connie or Lula or Vinnie could tell me where to find you."

I froze. He hadn't spoken to the guys yet?

"So you haven't spoken to Tank or Les yet?"

"No."

Oh. Shit.

"So where did you move to?" he asked casually, but I could tell by the tense look in his eyes that it was anything but a casual conversation.

I blew out a sigh. "A lot has changed in the last year, Ranger." A whole hell of a lot.

"Like what?"

I shot an agonized look at the clock on the wall. Les should arrive soon so we could go to lunch together once Connie got back. Shit, fuck, hell, damn and double fuck.

"Babe?"

"A lot, actually," I said nervously, trying to figure out how to tell Ranger that I was married to his cousin.

"Such as?"

I reached up to push my hair back from my face and his face went completely blank. "You're married."

Oh that's right, he's Mr. Observant. Holy hell.

"Yeah."

"The cop?"

"Hell no!" I retorted. "Bastard cheated on me. Some things can't be forgiven."

"Then who?"

I let out a sigh. Shit, I'd like to introduce you to fan. I hope you hit it off. "Les."

"Les?" he parroted.

"Yeah."

"Lester Santos?"

"Yeah."

"My Lester Santos?"

"Yeah. But I'd say he's mine now."

"You're married to Lester Santos?"

"Yeah."

"You're kidding?"

"No."

"Lester Santos?"

"Yeah, Ranger. Lester Santos, the tall, gorgeous, green-eyed man who swept me off my feet. Your cousin. Your business partner. That Lester Santos. My husband."

He went deathly still and sat staring at me, almost unblinking, for several minutes while I valiantly fought the urge to fidget. It freaked the hell out of me.

The silence was finally broken when my cell phone started ringing.

"Hi," I said quietly to Les.

"Hey, Beautiful," Les said somberly. "I'm really sorry, but I'm going to have to miss lunch. But I've got big news."

"Um, I think I already know."

There were several seconds of silence. "He's there, isn't he?" he asked in a soft growl.

"Yeah."

"Does he know?"

"Yeah."

"Do I need backup?"

"It's a strong possibility."

"Fuck."

"Yeah." Understatement of the year, there, Les.

"Love you, baby. I'll see you in a minute," he promised.

"Okay."

I hung up and looked back at the still blank-faced Ranger. "Santos?" he asked after a few seconds.

"Yeah." I honestly think that was about the only damn word I could say today.

"We going to have a problem?"

"Only if you start it," I told him. I hoped. Les was still kind of pissed about how Ranger had treated me.

"How did you end up married to Santos?" Ranger asked, his eyes drifting to my flat stomach. Bastard. Why did everyone think the only reason Les would marry me was if I was pregnant? Hell, we didn't even have sex until we'd been married for over a month!

"Maybe we should wait for Les to get here to go through all this," I said softly. "He'll be here in just a minute."

Ranger nodded once.

We went back to awkward silence. "So how was your trip?"

"Babe."

Oh well, worth a shot.

I honestly think it was one of the longest few minutes of my life until the door squeaked open again and I heard the sound of boots moving quickly across the floor. Then Les appeared in the doorway.

"Welcome home, cuz," Les said to Ranger as walked to my side.

Ranger leaned back and looked at the two of us. "So tell me how the two of you ended up married."

"Well, you see, Ranger, when two people fall in love, they get married," Les started. I smacked him on the arm and he turned to smile at me. "No, I'm serious. We fell in love. Well, I fell in love, a long time ago actually, and then we ended up drunk in Vegas and got married. And then I convinced her to fall in love with me too. And that's how it happened."

Ranger kept his blank face on. "Explain."

I rolled my eyes. That was how it happened.

"Well, it started with your dickhead order to keep all the guys away from her," Les said in a hard tone. Ranger had the grace to at least wince at that. "Tank told me and I went to check on Steph to see what the hell happened. She told me about your conversation, that contrary to how it looked, to what you let us all believe, that you two never had a relationship, and that she was sick of your push-pull bullshit. She said that you told her to move on, and that she was going to move on. And that was my opportunity and I took it."

"So you took advantage of her when she was upset?" Ranger said in a deceptively calm voice.

"No!" I all but shouted. "No, he was a great friend. He never once pressured me into anything. We hung out, spent time together. He let me really get to know him as a person. I got to see behind the man in black mask. I fell in love with him bit by bit over months."

"So how'd he get you drunk in Vegas then?"

"Rex died," I said softly, still a little sad at the thought of my little buddy.

"Sorry, Babe."

I nodded. "Yeah. So of course I called my best friend, Les, when I needed someone to come hold me while I cried. He made arrangements for us to go to Vegas for a week so I could get some of the sad out. And while we were there, we went skydiving. Ohmigod, it was great! I went flying! But after that, we had a little too much to drink to celebrate my first skydiving experience and we were both trashed, but a Frank Sinatra impersonator convinced us to get married. So we did. It took us a little while to come to terms with that, but we did."

"He took you skydiving?" Ranger asked in a soft, almost defeated voice.

"Yeah. He knew I'd love it, and I did."

"Fuck."

"That part came later," Les joked.

Ranger shot him an angry glare.

"She's my wife, man. Do you really think I don't make love to her every damn chance I get?" Les challenged.

Ranger dropped his head into his hands.

"Are you happy, Babe?" he asked a moment later, his head still in his hands.

I nodded. "Yeah, I am. I love Les, and he loves me, and we're happy together."

He looked up and just stared at me for a long time. "That's all I wanted for you, for you to be happy. And I didn't think I could make you happy."

"You're right, you couldn't," I agreed.

He blinked in shock.

"You could have never made me happy because you made all the decisions for me. Do you know how much it hurt to hear that you told Tank to keep all my friends away from me? Do you have any idea how unhappy that made me?" I said.

Ranger actually sighed. Out loud. "By the time I realized what a fucking idiot I was for doing that, it was too late and I was incommunicado. I couldn't call and rescind it at that point."

I blinked back tears. "Why'd you do it in the first place? What did I do that was so wrong that would make you want to keep all my friends away from me?"

"Babe, you didn't do anything wrong," he said softly. "I just… I didn't expect to make it back from this one. I thought it might be easier for you to move on if you were mad at me, if you didn't have reminders around. I just wasn't thinking very clearly when I left your apartment that night. I was pissed with the mission and how it was designed. I was angry and I took it out on you. I'm sorry. I only intended to make it easier in case I didn't come back, but I wasn't thinking."

I swallowed hard. "Oh, Ranger," I said as I moved to hug him. "I'm sorry."

He squeezed me tightly for a moment before letting me go. I stepped back reluctantly and felt Les wrap an arm around my waist. I leaned against him and tried to absorb a little of his strength and calm.

"You realize how stupid that was, right?" Les asked in a gentle tone. "I mean, this is Steph we're talking about. The dumbest thing you can do with her is try to make decisions for her. I've learned that one the hard way."

Ranger nodded slowly. "I know. But what's done is done," he said in a voice of finality.

"I'm glad you made it back," I told him.

Les nodded. "Me too. Tia Maria and Tio Ricardo have nearly gone nuts missing you this time," Les said, explaining that Ranger's parents had really missed him. I'd met almost all of Les's family by now, including Ranger's family, and I could say that they really did miss Ranger. We had all missed him, even me, even when I tried hard not to miss him. Up until I'd gotten to know Les more, Ranger had been one of my best friend, and I hoped we could still be friends.

"I guess this is why Tank ordered me back to Haywood?" Ranger asked Les.

Les nodded. "Yeah. We wanted to have a chance to tell you before you heard about it somehow else."

"Anything else?" Ranger asked with another quick glance at my stomach.

"Oh for the love of God! Just ask the damn question! You want to know if I'm pregnant, right?" I asked lividly. "I'm not. Why's it so damn impossible for everyone to believe that he could just love me enough to want to marry me without getting me knocked up?"

Les pulled me into his arms and kissed me to stop my rant. "Shh, baby. Ignore him."

I looked up at Les in time to see him shoot an evil glare at Ranger. "She's not pregnant, man. You know how she feels about kids, and God knows my brothers and sisters have ensured the Santos line won't die out. Neither one of us has any burning desire to have kids at this point, and likely not ever. We just got the damn 'Burg gossips to shut the hell up about her being pregnant and you have to get her upset again? Estupido."

Ranger was glaring at Les and Les and I were glaring at Ranger.

I sucked in a deep breath. "To the best of our knowledge, I am not pregnant," I told Ranger. "And if you try to insinuate that's the reason why we got married, I'll punch you in the eyeball."

"Babe."

"I've been training her since right after you left. She's pretty damn good," Les said casually. "Mean right hook. Lethally fast knees. Wear a cup if you spar."

"You got her to train?" Ranger asked in apparent shock. "How?"

I smiled up at Les. "He asked."

"I tried to get you to get training a dozen times," Ranger replied in askance.

"You ordered. You showed up and dragged me out of bed and made me go running. He just asked. Told me how much it upset him when I was hurt, and asked if I'd please let me show him some moves. So I did. So we've practiced every week except when he was hurt since then," I informed Ranger.

"That's all it took? Asking?"

"Yep."

"Shit," Ranger muttered.

"I'm actually not that hard to get along with, Ranger. Just don't try to order me around, it's pretty easy," I replied.

Les snorted. "Easy, hell! I've never worked so hard to get a girl in my life!"

I grinned at his chagrined tone. "It was worth it."

He smiled back. "Definitely," he said right before he kissed me gently on the forehead.

"Damn," Bobby said in disgust. "You're doing it again."

I blinked. "When did you get here?"

"Santos called and said Ranger was here. I stopped by in case you needed me, but you were too busy being all lovey-dovey to notice me coming in," Bobby explained before turning to Ranger. "Good to have you back, Ranger."

"Are they always like this?" Ranger asked Bobby.

"No, they're usually much worse. They aren't groping each other yet," Bobby replied.

"Bobby?" I asked sweetly.

"Yeah, Bomber?"

I flipped him the bird and Bobby laughed. "Yeah, yeah, I love you, too, Bomber."

"I'm going to remember this when you finally meet someone. For all the hell that you've given us, you're getting it back twice as bad."

"Shit."

Then Bobby looked at Ranger and his eyes widened. "You okay, man?"

Ranger nodded tiredly. "Nothing a little sleep and some decent food won't fix."

Bobby studied him. "I think it's a little more than that."

Ranger glared at him, and Bobby glared right back. "You know I'll be doing a full physical, including labs, before I clear you back to active duty. So don't try to bullshit me."

Ranger looked faintly shocked. I don't remember Bobby being quite so blunt with Ranger before. I guess a lot really can change in a year.

"Let's get you back so I can get you checked out. You look anemic," Bobby said.

Ranger shot one final indecipherable look at me and Les and walked out without another word.

I leaned against Les's broad chest for a few minutes while the importance of the situation sunk in. "Les?"

"Yeah, baby?"

"Are we going to wake up in one of the –stans tomorrow morning?" I asked.

Les laughed softly and hugged me to his chest. "No, Beautiful. He's clearly not happy, but he has no one to blame but himself."

"Are you two going to be okay?" I asked.

"I think we'll be okay eventually."

I looked up at him with tears in my eyes. "I'm sorry this is so awkward."

"Shh, baby," he said as he wiped away one of the tears that spilled down my cheek. "Nothing for you to apologize for. We fell in love. Now I'm sorry if that causes him any pain, but I wouldn't trade you, us, for anything in the world. And if he's sad about losing his chance, well, too damn bad. He had his chance, and he screwed up. You're mine now, and I won't apologize for being over the moon happy about that."

I sighed and I rested my head over his heart, letting the steady beat of his heart sooth me. I had a feeling that this was not going go as smoothly as Les predicted.

Author's note: And Ranger's back! I debated back and forth between having there be a big confrontation of some sort and having it be a less intense situation. Obviously I chose the less dramatic route in the end, but don't worry, the story isn't over yet!

So what do you think of the first meeting between Ranger and Stephanie/ Les? And do you think Steph's feeling is right, that it won't go as smooth as Les predicts? What do you think should happen next?

Thanks to my little incentive in the last chapter (guess I made you an offer you couldn't refuse, ha!), I got all kinds of reviews, including a number from first time reviewers. So now that I know you're out there, please review! Seriously, it makes me insanely happy to get that email with a review, and I was so motivated by all the reviews to get this chapter up earlier than usual.