I pulled into the parking lot of Stephanie's foot doctor and out of habit scanned the lot for any trace of her. Not seeing her and then reminding myself that she wasn't taken by RangeMan or driven herself so even if she was here I wouldn't know it until I went in. Waiting for a car to pass I jogged across the parking lot to go inside the Doctor's office building, turning the handle to Orinda's office I went inside and didn't see Steph anywhere.

"Hi I'm usually with Stephanie Plum has she arrived yet?" I asked the girl behind the desk

"No but we have a room open that I was going to put her in I'll just take you on back so you can wait on her and when she comes ill bring her on back" she said pushing her chair back

"Ok"

I was hoping that as I sat down in the chair in the room that I would have a little time to think on what I wanted to say to her when we meet, but as soon as I started to think on her the door opened again and the girl with Steph walked in. She turned and told Stephanie that her boyfriend had come in and that she just put him in the room for her. Steph stopped in her tracks and stared at me and just like that she turned her head and ignored me the rest of the time. While we waited on the doctor and since we weren't talking I took the time to look her over to see if I could tell how she was doing and what I saw made me want to go to her and hug her.

The woman I knew as Stephanie plum always wore makeup, heels, had her hair done, and always had on some kind of cute outfit that made us weep when we saw her. I know she's ran into some bad luck recently where the cute outfits had to go and the heels but she still made her RangeMan uniform rock. The woman in front of me today was not the one I knew. She had on a pair of well worn jeans, some kind of shirt that I don't even think she has looked to see she was wearing, her hair was just brushed up into a pony tail with a ball cap on her head, and the thing that makes me pause the most is she isn't wearing makeup not even a trace of Mascara and we all know what a staple that is to Stephanie Plum. She was looking as bad as I felt, I went to open my mouth to talk to her but when I did the door to the room opened and Dr. Orinda came in greeting us and shaking our hands.

I watched in silence as Dr. Orinda did an oral exam on Steph asking her how her ankle felt and how she was walking on it. She told him it was fine and that the only thing that was bothering her was the two worse spots that she had. I watched as the Doctor opened her chart and read off that he had put her in a boot six weeks ago and saw Steph close her eyes at the painful memory.

"How does getting out of that boot sound?" he asked her and I saw her whole face light up

Steph squealed yes when she answered him. Doctor Orinda told her that she could get out of the boot and now concentrate on doing Physical Therapy. When he excused himself to get her settled Steph slid out of the exam chair and started to dance around with a huge smile on her face chanting I'm free. Even though we were at odds with each other I couldn't help but smile and share in her happiness that her nightmare was over. What shocked me was she wouldn't even acknowledge me when she got here but in her celebrating she turned to me and the old Steph was looking at me.

"BOBBY DID YOU HEAR?" she called out and then jumped all around the room

"Yes congratulation" I said hoping this would open up some dialog between us

As Steph kept jumping around the room I stood up and she eventually bounded over to me because the room that we were in is only so small. When she got to me her arms flung around me and then our eyes locked on each other. The spark that has been between us was still very strong and we found ourselves drawn together moving closer and closer. As our lips where to meet the doctor came back apologizing for taking his time, the moment was broken but it gave me hope that we could repair or relationship.

Doctor Orinda started telling Stephanie about how he would like her to start physical therapy and that he had wrote out a script for her, when he looked at me I then knew the shit was going to hit the fan. When Steph was first told about the possibility of starting therapy, Lester made the comment that I should rehab her ankle. I hadn't thought about it but after he said it I started digging into the center Steph would go and then looked up stuff that she would need to do and saw that I had most of the equipment here in our gym. I thought on it for several more days until I made a decision. I sat down and typed up a history of myself in the service and my duties at RangeMan. I told how I thought I would like to rehab her ankle and that we had a state of the art gym on the premises where Steph worked. I thought with being with me and working here she wouldn't have to travel and would be more at ease than she would at the center. I printed everything up and then faxed it to the number I had from the little card of the therapy office. I never told Stephanie what I was doing because I didn't know if they would accept me since I wasn't licensed. I wanted to have the option and then tell her but when I was going to tell her the whole boot thing happened and then the Ranger thing. When Doctor Orinda spoke to me I saw Steph watching and listening carefully. When she heard that I was accepted to co work on her ankle as PT she nearly had a heart attack asking the Doctor excuse me.

"Your Boyfriend got in contact with me and told me who he was and who he worked for and that he thought you'd feel better by working with him. The center thinks its ok but they want him to come to the first visit so they can show him how to do things and every few weeks they want to evaluate him and see how you're progressing and change things if needed"

Steph was stunned and couldn't speak. She just would say uhh huh and accepted the script the Doctor held out for her. When he left I told her that I wanted to talk to her. She put on her extra shoe and then narrowed her eyes at me.

"Oh we'll talk but not right here and not right now" she said and walked out of the office with me following behind her

I watched as she made an appointment for a month to see the foot doctor again and then followed her out into the lobby. She went over to the window and looked out over the lot and then walked over to the door, opening it, and walking out. I caught up to her outside in the lot and called to her.

"STEPH CAN I GIVE YOU A RIDE HOME?"

"NO IM NOT GOING HOME" she yelled back as she got into a taxi that I saw was driven by her dad.

When she was inside the car and they pulled out I hurried to my truck and followed them. I was surprised that they led me to the gate of RangeMan. Steph got out of her dad's taxi and leaned in the window and spoke to him. When she was done her Dad backed out and then I slid into his spot, Steph looked at me and I knew she wanted me to open the gate so she could go in. Once we were both inside and the gate closed again, Steph stood there with her arms crossed glaring at me.

"Where are my keys?" she asked as I came around my truck

"Keys?" I asked not understanding right away what she wanted

"You know what keys. My car keys I want to leave now"

"They are in my desk drawer upstairs"

"Get them"

I took my phone off my belt and called up to the command floor. I told the person who answered to go into my left desk drawer and grab the set of keys that were lying in there. A few minutes later the elevator came open and Lester handed me the set of keys. Steph walked up to me and held out her hand.

"We need to talk" I said dropping the keys into her hand

"Pino's seven o'clock" she said turned on her heels and went to her car

Lester and I stood there with our hands on our hips watching as she made the car roar to life, back out of the spot she was in, go up the ramp, wait for the gate to open, and then screech out of the garage, and down the road.