When I got back to the spot that Stephanie and I was I looked over to the table that was next to us and saw a bunch of discarded food like someone had left in a hurry. I stood still and got a clear look of the area and to find where they were. With my heart beating and the adrenaline pumping in my ears, I felt so alive. To be back out and hunting someone, it felt like the old me. Standing for another minute or two, I heard a woman scream and knew that woman was Steph.

"GET OUT OF THE WAY" I heard her yell. I hurried up the path as fast as I could, you would think getting the casts off I'd be faster, but that was not the case. I had a huge limp and my leg was burning and killing me. When I came upon the scene, Steph was running after Mays and yelling for people to get out of her way. Roger never looked back, he knew that he was successful running on the paths before, but this time he didn't count on a pissed off RangeMan boyfriend.

I watched as I made my way to them, Steph gaining ground and took a flying leap. She landed on Mays's back and went down to the ground. When the dust settled and the tumbling around stopped. Mays rolled on top of Steph and she began bucking wildly to get him off. When I got to them a flash of black came around us, I grabbed Mays by the shirt collar, turned him around, and started wailing on him. I vaguely heard Stephs screams for me to stop, but I was seeing red and nothing could get me to stop. Finally as I was gonna land another blow, hands came around my shoulders and hauled me off the guy. When I came back to myself I looked to see Lester holding me and Hal was over with Stephanie.

"Man stop it, its over" Les said and I looked down at the ground at Mays writhing around, blood coming out of his nose. I looked over and saw one of our trucks sitting in the grass by the path and knew Hal and Lester had driven the truck into the park to find us. Looking over to Steph, I saw Hal talking to her and her nodding her head. Hal walked up to Mays, cuffed him, and I shook Lester off of me to go over to Steph.

"I told you to wait" she said as I got up to her

"I couldn't just let you go in alone. I remembered what he did to you the last time you went after him"

"Yea, but I had him and you are not cleared yet for duty, you could have killed him"

"He was on top of you"

"This is what I'm talking about, you can't keep doing this. I am going to be harassed, touched, and hugged; you can't come in and kill everyone"

"You ok Beautiful?" Les asked after securing Mays in the truck

"Yea I'll live, just some scratches and dirt" she told him looking down at her knees, the knees of her jeans were torn out and her knees were scratched and lightly bleeding from taking Mays down.

"Don't worry about taking Mays in, Hal and I will do that for you, go get yourself cleaned up" he told her

"Thank you"

Steph and I walked back to our truck and she noticed that I was limping more that I was. She asked me if I had re-injured my leg, but I told her it was from trying to get to her to help her. She gave me a look telling me that was why I was to wait and not do anything yet; I pulled her to me before she got into the truck.

"Well did it feel good?" she asked and at first I wasn't sure what she was asking about. "Did it feel good to be back in the action, even though you were not supposed to be?"

"Ohhh yea" I said and a big goofy grin came on me "It felt great to be on the hunt again" I told her and she grinned. Steph looked up at me and I leaned down to capture her lips with mine. The kiss started out slow, but then with all the excitement of capturing Mays and all the pent up frustrations my hands slid over her ass as my tongue delved into her mouth. When the need for air was too great, Steph pulled back panting.

"My apartment is close by" she said

"Let's go" I told her and we both hurried and jumped into the truck.

When I slammed the door to and Steph turned the engine over, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket, getting it out, I read the message and groaned.

"Change in plans head to RangeMan" I told her

"What?" she asked and I showed her my phone

"From R. Manoso… MY OFFICE NOW!"

"DAMN" she said turning right to RangeMan instead of turning left to her apartment

In the elevator as it was rising to the fifth floor, I turned and told Steph that when I got off to go down to Bobby's and have her knees looked at and cleaned. When the doors swooshed open, I stepped off and felt that someone was following me, turning around I found Steph standing behind me.

"I thought I told you to go see Bobby?" I asked her

"And you should know I don't follow order well" she said

"Steph"

"This is my fault; I'm going in there with you"

I did not want her to go with me and by me sending her to Bobby I was protecting her. Ranger was not in a good mood and I knew what was going to happen when the door to his office closed. We were not going to be sitting down to a tea party eating dainty little sandwiches. I'd seen Ranger like this and I could handle it, I don't think Stephanie has ever been a witness to his anger and I didn't want her to be now.

"DIAZ" I call over to his cube "Take Steph down to Browns, she needs her cuts looked at" I told him

"NO" Steph said stomping her one foot to the floor, Diaz looked at me.

"Stephanie please go, let me go and talk to Ranger. I told her. We all knew the way to get Stephanie to do something that you wanted her to do was to say please. That word had something on her and we knew and used it sparingly. This situation I felt the need to use it and it was working till Ranger messed it up.

"Cal" Ranger called from his office door. Looking back at Steph, I saw the spell was broken and knew there wasn't anything I could do. When she saw Ranger she walked passed me, up to him, and passed him, and walked into his office. I followed her feeling so defeated, not because of Ranger, but because of Stephanie.

"Before you jump in on Cal it was my fault" Steph said " I was the one that spotted Mays and it was me that wasn't dressed to take a skip down , so I got Cal to give me some supplies from the back of the truck…." she was saying and I could see Ranger was getting annoyed.

"Steph" Ranger said but she kept going "STEPHANIE SHUT UP" he yelled

"Hey don't yell at her and tell her to shut up" I said stepping in front of her. "She doesn't deserve any of your anger, I did it, it was all me."

"Do you have any idea how may calls I've received telling me on the condition of Mays?" he asked

"No, but I'm sure you're gonna tell me"

"Can the attitude, what where you thinking?"

"That Steph shouldn't go in there alone" I told him

Ranger slammed his fist on his desk, Steph jumped and I glared at him for scaring her. "WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING? YOU ARE NOT CLEARED FOR DUTY AND THE ONLY WAY I SAID YOU WOULD BE WAS THROUGH HARTLY"

"YOU'D DO THE SAME THING AND DON'T STAND THERE AND TELL ME YOU WOULDN'T" I yelled back

"I DIDN'T GET THE HELL BEATEN OUT OF ME AND JUST GET THE CASTS OFF. CAL YOU GOT A PROBLEM AND YOU NEED TO GET IT SOLVED"

"AS YOU WISH" I told him walking out. As I did I heard him address Steph

"Babe"

"Cal wait" Steph called as she came running after me. We got on the elevator, but no one dared to say a word, Anger was rolling off me in waves. As I got into my room, I was bouncing on my feet wanting something to hurt and destroy.

"He's gone after you too" I ground out

"I know he would and I know he knows it" Steph said coming to stand in front of me, gutsy move on her part. She placed her palms flat against my chest and locked eyes with me.

"Look at me and breath with me, in out, in out. Calm deep breaths"

"Stephanie" I said and she saw that I was close to loosing it

"I need your help" she said and I looked down at her, she had my attention. "My knees are hurting can you clean them for me?" she asked stepping back from me. I watched as she unsnapped her jeans and pulled them over her hips leaving her standing there in front of me in her panties. No doubt she got the beast and put him back in its cage, she knew if I placed my focus on her and helping her I wouldn't explode, nice change of topics there.

"Sure I've got some stuff in the bathroom" I said and went to retrieve the stuff to clean her knees. When I got back with the stuff, Steph was sitting on the couch, I knelt down in front of her and gently began cleaning her knees up.

I heard and saw her gasp as the peroxide fizzed on the small open wounds and dried blood that was on her knees. I knew Steph hated to have this done and to sacrifice herself to have this done to help me was pure love. I looked up at her and love burst in my heart for this woman, no one had ever cared about me as she had. I sat up on my knees and came over her causing her to fall back into the couch, when her arms came around me I lowered my mouth to hers and hungrily kissed her. I didn't have the words to tell her how much I loved her or how much she meant to me, but I could show her.