Thank you to everyone who has reviewed. I appreciated it very much. Special thanks goes to Annie, who came up with the cookout idea.

Standard disclaimer applies.

Chapter 34

I woke up with a warm presence snuggled into my back, also known as Ranger.

"Morning, Babe." He had his face hidden in my hair, but I turned around to kiss him good morning.

"Morning, Ric." He grinned at me. He always loved it when I called him by his given name, because it happened rarely.

I was reluctant to start the day, fearing what it might bring with the cookout and our families colliding.

"You know, today my Mom is gonna meet your Mom."

He didn't look so amused anymore. "I know. Be prepared that they might want to plan the wedding."

Huh? Wedding? "What wedding?" I was getting a little freaked, okay very much so, but we weren't even engaged.

"Our wedding." Now he had sent me into a downright panic attack.

"What?" I was shrieking and my eyes were probably as big as saucers.

"Shh, calm down." He was rubbing soothing circles on my back. "Nobody said that we're going to get married right away. But how do you feel about marriage?" Ric looked tense, like my answer was very important to him.

"I don't know if I ever want to get married again. The last one was a disaster and relationships aren't exactly my strong point. I don't know if I ever want kids, but I don't want them right away. Same goes for marriage. I love you, but I..."

Before I could get any further with my fretting he interrupted me. "Shh, it's okay. We don't have to get married right now. We have all the time in the world. But I would really like to see you grow big with my child inside you one day."

He spoke softly, and I thought about what he said. The thought of getting married to Morelli, having children with him, had always frightened me. I had always been afraid he would use it to cut my wings, to ground me. But with Ric, I wasn't afraid of it. In fact, the thought of having a baby together with Ric made me smile. I started wondering what I child of us might look like, would the kid have his straight hair or my rats nets, what skin tone would the kid get? Ric's mocha latte, or a blend between the both of us?

Ranger interrupted my inner musings, and I was sure he had read every thought written out on my face. "Already planning what they'll look like?"

I nodded. Ric was smiling affectionately at me.

"There's no rush for kids. As long as we're happy with what we both do, we can wait. Because once you're pregnant, we won't go on missions anymore."

"Wouldn't want it any other way. I don't want my children to grow up without parents, only knowing us through the tales the Merry Men tell them."

He kissed me again, gently and with a lot of love and affection. I was relieved that we had discussed that topic without either of us blowing up.

"So what's the plan for the day, Batman?"

"I intended to take you shopping, but I've got a much better idea now. We don't want kids yet, but there's nothing wrong with practicing." He threw his wolf grin at me and I was getting warm and wet in all the right places. "So what do you think? Wonna practice?"

Smut ahead. To avoid it skip down to the row of hyphens.

He didn't give me a chance to answer, as his mouth descended on mine. He traced the outline of my lips with his tongue, asking for entrance. I granted him, kissing him just as eager as he was kissing me.

He pulled back a little.

"Do you trust me?"

"Yes." I didn't hesitate. I knew that this man would lie his life down for me, just like I would for him.

"Are you okay with trying something new?"

I nodded.

"Okay. I want you to lie down on your back and get your arms under your head. Don't touch me, just enjoy."

I nodded and he kissed me again, before I assumed the position he wanted me in. Before I knew what was happening he had me blindfolded with a silk scarf as well.

We were naked, so I didn't have to worry about any clothes that might come in the way.

It was arousing, but also a little frightening to lay on the bed, displayed for him to see, but not knowing what was going to happen next. Loosing my sight and the ability to touch had heightened my hearing. I strained to hear what he was going, but with Batman it was a futile attempt. If he didn't want me to hear anything, I wouldn't get to hear what he was doing.

He got off the bed and a moment later the bed dipped, indicating that he was back, but I had never heard him move.

He settled down beside me, his leg touching me, and then he leaned over, pressing a soft kiss to my lips, but before I could deepen the kiss he pulled away.

"My rules, Babe. You try to touch me, I'm gonna tie you down. Understand?"

"Yes." I was already slightly breathless, the expectation of things to come enough to arouse me.

He leaned in to kiss me again, this time he deepened the kiss, but he never let me take over, keeping the pressure to his liking. He had my head cradled in his hands, his fingers massaging my scalp. He added his tongue to the mix, dancing around my own, teasing me, before his lips left my mouth to trail kisses down to my ear and the sensitive spot behind. His hands left my head to lightly trail up and down the inside of my arms, causing goosebumps to erupt and I shivered.

"You like that?"

I was already too far gone to respond, but my purring was answer enough for him. And it was getting hard to keep my hands to myself, the urge to touch him nearly overwhelming.

He trailed kisses over my body, stopping his descent at my pulse point to suck, marking me as his. He laved and bit the spot time and time again, until I was writhing underneath him.

His hands were now beside me, holding his weight off of me, using only his mouth on me. Ric trailed kisses from my neck down to my breasts, taking one nipple into his mouth, suckling gently on it until it was hard, then switching to the other one, repeating the attentions. When he had them hard to his satisfaction and moved further down, his mouth never loosing contact with my skin. He trailed kisses over my ribs down over my belly and then to my belly button, tonguing it.

My hips were bucking off the bed, trying to get closer to him. I was craving his caresses, but had no way in increasing them. Ranger was setting the pace and he wouldn't budge.

He trailed kisses down towards my pubic bone, but when I expected him to reach my clit, I felt a vibrating sensation, combined with a buzzing sound? Was he using a vibrator? Before I could ponder that thought any further I felt the vibration move towards my wet and throbbing entrance, running in circles around it as his lips closed over my clit. He was licking and sucking it, alternating with gentle bites and he was driving me crazy with desire.

I was moaning and trashing on the bed, barely able to contain my screams of pleasure. I could feel the heat pooling in my belly, indication the coming orgasm. I was getting close to release, the vibrations adding incredible sensations, but when I thought I would come he backed of, leaving me hanging on the edge of release.

I couldn't help the disappointed whimper that escapes me.

Ric chuckled. "Patience, Babe. You know that it's gonna be that much better if you're a little patient." He leaned up to press a quick kiss to my lips, but then resumed his ministrations on my clit again.

He brought be back up nearly to orgasm, but stopped again before I could find release. He had tensed again, and I was getting frustrated. I deserved my orgasm. I was so wet I could feel my juices flow down towards my butt and I was trembling.

He repeated the progress several times. Bringing me close to the edge, only to stop again to let me come down a little to start again.

Ric started again, trailing the vibrator from my opening down to my anus, moving it around a little. I had never been into butt stuff, but I really liked the sensations he was creating.

"That feels so gooooood." I was moaning again.

"Relax, Babe." And he added a little more pressure to the vibe, entering me barely with it. My hips bucked off the bed and as he sucked at my clit again, entering me with a finger I climaxed. So hard that I could see the lights explode behind my eyelids. My whole body was spasming and I couldn't control my movements, I was trashing around and could barely breath. And then I fainted.

After long minutes I finally came down a little, my ragged breathing evening out a little. When my eyes finally made an attempt to flutter open, Ric had the blindfold removed an was cradling me in his arms.

When he noticed that I was looking at him, he kissed me.

"Wow, that was unbelievable."

"Yeah, Babe. There's nothing as sexy as watching you come, trashing and writhing all over the place."

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He could feel how much he liked it pressed into my stomach. And he knew what I was thinking. "But we need to get a move on. It's already 1000 hours and the people get here at around 1600 hours."

"And just how long have we been practicing?"

"A little over an hour and a half."

"Okay, how long have I been out?"

"Ten minutes."

"Oh."

He kissed me again. "Yeah. I think it was pretty intense for you."

"But you got nothing out of it." I didn't like the fact that he was pleasuring me so unbelievably, but didn't get an orgasm himself.

"Don't worry, there's enough time for that tonight. But for now we should get cleaned up. There's a lot that needs to be prepared before all the people arrive."

We made our way through the bathroom, actually to take a shower without indulging in some quality time and had an early lunch, courtesy of Ella.

After lunch we got dressed and for the first time since I got home from training I was just wearing hipsters and one of the tank tops to show off my tattoos. I didn't do it intentionally. It only registered when Ranger pointed it out to me. And I had still stitches, but at least I didn't have to bandage it anymore. I was pretty sure about how my family would react, but I was taking this chance. Even Ranger was wearing blue jeans, although combined with a black tee.

I had finally overcome my problems to adapt, so I was comfortable with my weapons again, not fearing I might shoot anyone. I only left one set of throwing knives in the safe, the rest went with me.

"Babe, you're carrying?" His question was accompanied by a raised eyebrow.

"RangeMan policy," I responded with a cheeky grin.

He leaned down to kiss me. "Babe." He shook his head before he started again. "You know, one year ago, I could only hope that one day I might be fortunate enough to have you in my life permanently. But I could have never imagined that you would go through training and go on missions with me, let alone safe our asses. I just love you so much."

"I love you, too. More than you'll ever know." And I leaned up to kiss him.

After that we finally went up to the roof, and I was impressed. There were large tables and chairs and Ella was preparing a large buffet table. The guys were milling around, decorating like Ella told them, setting the tables, placing large heaters around the place. Apparently they expected the party to go long into the night. And the barbecue they had purchased was big enough to hold enough meat for a whole army. Considering who would come it was appropriate.

I walked over to Ella. "Hi Ella. Can I help you with anything?"

She looked up and took one look at me, before she smiled at me. "Don't worry, Dear. You just go sit and enjoy. You have to be exhausted."

Damn. "Ella, how do you know this. Everyone who looks at me can tell if we indulged in some quality time."

"You just have to look at yourself. You're relaxed and you're glowing. You just ooze the happiness." She smiled encouraging at me and I knew she was right. Ella steered me towards one of the recliners and told me to relax.

I did as I was told and promptly fell asleep, only waking up when I heard some girl squealing, probably Mary Lou.

Someone had provided me with my Seals cap, probably Ranger, so I wasn't that burnt yet. She was looking around, looking for me and she spotted me when I sat up. The fact that I had been able to sleep with all the activity going on around me indicated that I was back to my normal self, well as normal as I was going to get.

Mare came running, dragging me out of the recliner so she could hug me.

"You're back, and you nearly shot Joe and you've got a tattoo." She was squealing, but than it registered what she had said. "You've got a tattoo?" She looked at me incredulously.

"Actually, I've got two."

"What? Where? Why?" She was bouncing up and down with excitement. For us Burg girls it was pretty unusual to have a tattoo, let alone two of them.

"Dragon and tassei, the dragon I got in my third month of training, tassei after six. For the stories ask Tank, he has way more fun telling them than I have."

"Okay, I see the dragon, but where's the other one?" I turned around so she could see it, and she traced it with her finger.

Before we could talk any further the rest of the troops arrived. Val's girls took of to play with Mare's boys, only MA came towards me, Ranger right behind her. She came up and hugged me as hard as she could.

"I'm so glad you're back."

"I'm glad to be back, MA. Did you have lessons while we were gone?"

"No, Mom didn't want me to train with one of the Merry Men. She only allows me to come here when you're around." Damn. I had thought we had cleared that, but apparently I would have to talk to Val again. Ranger had heard it as well and he wasn't happy, but he knew I wanted him to keep it quiet for the moment.

After I welcomed my family we settled down to eat. Luis was manning the barbecue, providing us with loads of steaks and burgers, everything you could want. Courtesy of Ella we even had the healthy stuff I had come to love. Ranger just grinned at me when he saw my plate.

"You know Babe, I would have never thought that you would pick up my eating habits." He loved teasing me about it, but I just gave him a kiss and got to eat. I was starving.

Conversation was light, but loud. The Merry Men and their girlfriends and families were sitting at another table. On our table were our families and the core team.

MA was sitting between Bobby and Lil, chatting happily with them, getting to know Lil and updating Bobby on what had been going on while we were in the wind.

I was just sitting down again with dessert, when Val started in on me. She was sitting on the other side of the table, five people down, so she had to talk pretty loud. Loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Stephanie, why do you have a tattoo? It's not like it would be proper for a women to have something like this. It's for sailors and soldiers." She spat it out like an insult. I counted myself to this group, and what was even more important, all my friends, the ones who had saved my ass again and again were a member of this group.

Ranger sensed that my anger was flaring, so he put his hand on my thigh, trying to calm me down.

"You won't even be able to wear a backless wedding gown. And all that just for a little fun, for trying to play with the big ones? You can't even defend yourself. Hell, you got shot again."

Everyone had heard it, and all the Merry Men sucked in a collective breath, waiting how I would handle her.

"I'm proud of myself, of what I have become. These tattoos remind of the hard way I had to go before I could come home, stronger than I have ever been. And when I marry, I'll wear a backless gown, to show off the tattoo. This tattoo is me, it symbolizes me. Do you even have an idea what it means?"

She shook her head.

"It's Japanese and it means tassei, it means that I'm courageous, that I have great instincts, but also that I can be very aggressive. And that's what about to happen here Val. Did you not hear about what happened at the cop shop when we were back the first time?"

"Yeah, heard that you took Morelli down. He was probably unaware, so it was no big deal. Even I could take him down."

"Valerie, I've had enough. We're going to settle this down now, once and for all."

I stood up. "Ranger, I'm going down to change. Could you please bring Valerie down to the combat room in ten minutes? And please tell Hector to bring a set for her to change into, wouldn't want to ruin her clothes." He nodded, I gave him a last kiss and left.

I went down to our apartment and changed into combat gear, cargoes, sports bra under a regular tank top, along with my full armory and a leather jacket, and last but not least the boots, my hair in a tight braid, making it harder to pull..

I went down to the combat room, where everyone was waiting for me. Val had already changed. I only had ten minutes requested to give me some time to calm down a little.

Val was smirking at me, sure she would win. I walked over to her and dragged her with me to the treadmills. "Get on it."

"Why?" She looked like she couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"I said get on it." I was already running, doing my regular warm up.

"But why? We'll only do self defense. That's no big deal, it won't even take long." She was right, but she had no idea how far away her thoughts from reality were.

"I know that it's not gonna take long, but that's not a reason to chance pulling a muscle. Now get on the stupid treadmill and run." She gasped, but in the end got her ass in gear.

I did my three miles, talking with Lil who was standing beside me. Everyone beside Angie, Val and Albert was grinning at me.

Valerie was sweating like she had won a marathon, do I took pity ob her. "Okay, that's enough. Now show me the stretches they thought you."

She looked like a deer in headlights. "Stretches? They never said anything about it."

She was getting annoying. Where the hell did she go for her classes? "Okay, just do what I do."

We went through a series of stretches together. When I looked up I saw that Ranger had changed into combat gear as well, so I indicated for him to get onto the treadmill as well. He knew what I had in mind.

"Let's get you suited up." I provided her with a helmet and some padding, before I went over to Lil and started undressing to a point comfortable for sparring. I had made it a point to carry all the stuff for my run.

I took of my jacket and Val gasped. "What the hell is this?" She pointed towards the throwing knives. Good thing the stars were in the safe.

"These are throwing knives. There have been situations when they came in handy." I took them off as well, giving them to Lil. Next to go were the two guns I was carrying.

"How much weapons do you carry? You can't defend yourself, you have to shoot the people." I had no idea how she could be so stupid.

"Trust me Valerie, you're better off not knowing. Are you ready?" I glanced over at the treadmills. Ranger was watching us with interest, a small smile playing around his lips.

"Yeah."

We went over to the middle of the room where the mats were. I wanted her to get the point, but I didn't want to hurt her.

"How do you want to play this Valerie?"

Please let me know what you think.