So I recently started rewatching Full House for the first time since I was a kid, and I realised that there is a very real possibility that I have been subconsciously basing Lester and Bobby's banter on Jesse and Joey from the show for years. I was watching an early episode where they were bathing the baby and it ended up with Jesse crooning to Joey as they both sat in the bath tub and the baby was in a baby chair outside of the bathtub and I thought, "That is something Lester and Bobby would do..."
Chapter 36
The thing about being so completely bone tired as well as emotionally exhausted by the time I arrived at my apartment was, I didn't even get the chance to cry myself to sleep. Hector had taken the time to sweep the apartment while his sister waited in the car when he dropped me off, giving it the all clear and making key turning actions to remind me to lock up when he left. I'd complied with his mimed instructions and dragged my suitcase into the bedroom to start unpacking, and the next thing I knew I was swimming up through a thick fog of sleep, following the sound of voices nearby. I was still forty percent asleep when I reached the surface and was able to command my body to move and stretch out the niggling kink in my back only to have my efforts thwarted by an unmovable object preventing my legs from straightening.
The suitcase, I thought on a sigh, bracing my feet flat against it to try and push it off the bed. Most of the contents needed to be re-washed anyway, so it wouldn't matter if they spilled out onto the floor. My comfort was a greater priority right now than maintaining the cleanliness of a few items that had already been snuggled up to the dirties for twenty-four hours.
The case refused to budge, which was odd, since I could easily lift it and, thanks to my training with Brandon these last few months, my legs were much stronger than they had ever been. With a quiet grunt, I redoubled my efforts, bracing my hands against the headboard above my head, but still the suitcase wouldn't budge.
"If you want me to move, all you have to do is ask," said a low, rumbling voice from extremely close by, bringing my attention to the fact that the voices I'd been following out of sleep had ceased at some point.
My eyes shot open with a gasp as I scrambled back away from the weight I'd been shoving at, retreating up onto the pillows my head had been resting on until I encountered a hard resistance that was definitely not the headboard. A scream escaped me and I tried to get away from that, too, my eyes struggling to make out shapes in the darkness, when an arm wrapped around my shoulders, holding my in place against the body it was attached to.
"Beautiful," Lester's calm voice cut through my panic. "Relax. It's just us. It's Lester, Tank and Bobby. You're okay. You're safe."
"Jesus fucking Christ," I uttered, pressing a hand to my chest, trying to calm my racing heart and slow my agonised breathing. The bedside lamp was switched on and, took in the three men on the bed with me. Tank was seated on the edge of the bed diagonally opposite from where I now sat with Lester's arm keeping me in place as he leaned against the headboard, and Bobby was cross legged at the end of the bed, watching me carefully. The suitcase, I noted, was nowhere in sight.
Reassured that there was no immediate threat to my life, I shifted slightly, allowing myself the appropriate space and angle to deliver a swift fist to the gut, smiling slightly when he released a pained OOF and released my shoulder. "You scared me half to death," I admonished, settling myself against the headboard and pulling a pillow into my lap while Lester struggled to regain his composure. "You're lucky I didn't shoot you."
Tank smirked at me in the half light. "With the unloaded gun that's on the other side of the apartment?" he questioned, so sure of himself. "I'd like to see that."
Maintaining his eye contact, I leaned over to the bedside table closest to where I'd woken up, dragging out my gin, releasing the mag and tossing it to him for inspection. "You wanna revisit that thought?" I asked when his eyes widened. He didn't reply, just handed it back to me and sent a look to his companions. "What are you all doing here?" I questioned as I returned the gun to the safety of the drawer. "What time is it?"
"I told you we'd be over for dinner," Lester pointed out as he straightened. "Geez. Brandon did a good job with that right hook."
"Does it rival her knee?" Tank asked, smirking at him.
Lester shook his head, still rubbing a hand over the spot I'd connected with. "If this is what she's capable of with her fist now, I don't even want to contemplate what her knee could do to my crown jewels."
We all laughed at the notion of me doing damage to Lester's manhood until my stomach voiced it's anger at having been denied food for an extended period of time. While the guys made noise about how they'd missed me and my stomach's demands, I located the glowing numbers of the clock across the room on the dresser and tried to do the math on what time I was in England as to weather what I was about to eat would be classed as dinner by my body's standards. Turns out it was more a midnight snack kind of deal, no wonder I'd been dead to the world when the guys had arrived. It was now dinner time in Trenton, but it had been breakfast time in LA when I'd last eaten, meaning I'd likely skipped a meal somewhere along the way without realising.
"Come on," Lester said, wrapping his arm back around my shoulders and dragging me off the bed. "Let's go feed that beast before it, too, decides to sucker punch me."
Out in the kitchen, we managed to fall right back into our old routine for our shared dinners. Tank uncovered the decadent pizzas he'd picked up from Shorty's on his way over, insisting I take my share first and then dividing the rest between the three of them. Lester retrieved drinks from the fridge (which was miraculously full after my three month absence). And Bobby made his way into the living room to find something to watch on TV while we ate. We all settled into our usual place: Tank settled in the armchair, Bobby and I on the sofa and Lester on the floor in front, leaning back against it. It felt familiar. It felt comfortable. It felt easy. It felt like home.
"So, how was your layover in LA?" Tank asked, halfway through his second slice of pizza.
It felt too good to be true…
I sighed, setting my slice and my plate down on the cushion beside me. "Not great," I admitted. "But I don't want to ruin dinner by talking about it now."
Lester pivoted on his ass so that he was facing me. "Steph, you're not going to ruin dinner by talking about it. We're here because we love and support you. If you're having a hard time, we want to hear about it. Besides, talking things out helps. Maybe things aren't as bad as they seem in your head.
Something told me he'd be singing a different tune once I told him everything I'd learned that morning, and I really didn't want to ruin the nice vibe we'd settled into by making them angry, so I asked for a reprieve at least until we'd finished eating. They granted my request, dissolving into an easy banter about a little mishap that had happened on a recent job, and I was all too happy to just sit and listen to them talk forever. Eventually, though, someone realised that we'd all finished eating and transitioned the topic back to LA.
"So tell us about LA," Tank requested. It wasn't a very smooth transition, to be honest, which showed just how curious and concerned they were. They wanted the information so they could prepare themselves for whatever came next. Knowledge, as they say, is power. And as far as these three were concerned, the more power the better.
The guys were already aware of my intentions for visiting LA. I'd talked at length with them about wanting to resolve things with Ranger. Wanting to clear the air so that we could move on with our lives and regain some semblance of normality. I hated being angry at him, and I'd realised that I hadn't given him a chance to properly explain himself in full, so I wanted to allow him that chance, hoping that it would give us both some closure. They'd been sceptical about how much a conversation with the man would actually help, given the way he'd been acting since I left for England, but they hadn't tried to forbid me from going. They knew it was my life and my decision. And they also knew that bad things tend to happen when other's try to exert control over me. So, they let me do my thing with a cautionary warning. Part of me wished I'd heeded their words and come straight home.
I must have hesitated too long for their liking, because Bobby pulled my feet into his lap, beginning a message as Lester prompted me to let them know what was going on in my head.
With a sigh, I leaned my head back over the arm of the sofa, covering my face with my hands, and started the sordid tale.
They were, as always, the perfect audience: listening intently, gasping in all the right places. And when I revealed Ranger's bombshell, they were moved to angry shouts. As I continued to explain my thoughts and feelings on the matter, however, they calmed down. Until, that is, I suddenly found I could no longer sit still. Nor could I contain my emotions or regulate my volume.
"… and then!" I yelled, building to the big finish as angry tears streamed down my cheeks unchecked as I paced back and forth between he coffee table and the TV cabinet. "THEN! I'm abut to walk away and call my name, so I stop to see what he wants, and he just says 'Don't wait for me,' Like I was going to in the first place?! He has no right to turn it around like that, to make out like he was the one who'd been utterly side swiped by my actions." I let out a frustrated growl, plonking down on the couch next to Bobby and using the hem of my shirt to wipe away the tears on my face. "I tried so hard to be mature and reasonable, and he just ruined it all. It's all I can do not to hate him," I ended on a sob that broke free of my chest so suddenly that it caused my entire body to jerk, sending a jolt of pain down my spine.
In the next moment, I found myself surrounded on all sides by formidable muscles as the three men who had become my best friends wrapped me in a group hug. I couldn't tell who was where, nor which of their shirts was copping the worst of my waterworks, but as someone stroked my hair, someone squeezed my shoulder and they all murmured in soothing tones, I managed to take some deep breaths and calm myself down.
Eventually, Lester and Tank retreated to their own space and I was left with Bobby's arm around my shoulders as he kept me pressed into his side.
"What's the plan moving forward," Lester asked, tapping my knee to draw my attention. "You've got all this training under your belt, what are you going to do next?"
I shrugged as well as Bobby's arm allowed. "Get back to work, I guess," I said, sniffing back some lingering snot. "I'll go see Connie tomorrow, hopefully get some files and get to work earning some money so I can start paying you guys back for keeping my rent paid while I was gone."
Lester and Tank exchanged a look that was all furrowed brows and questioning eyes for several seconds. Slight headshakes ended whatever silent communication had passed between them before they both turned their focus to Bobby. I couldn't see his face in this position, but given the looks on Lester and Tank's faces, I could only assume Bobby was providing the same kind of expressions back to them.
"We didn't pay your rent, Steph," Tank announced after they all shook their heads again. "I tried to the first month, but Dylan said it had already been paid."
"And I tried to the second month with the same result," Lester added. "We assumed you'd figured out a way to cover it yourself."
Now it was my turn to shake my head. "No," I said slowly. "My funds are at an all time low. And I'd completely forgotten about rent until Hector pulled into the parking lot this afternoon. I half expected to find that I'd been evicted and my belongings thrown in the dumpster."
"Well that's a conundrum," Lester murmured. "I wonder who did it if it wasn't one of us?"
"Ranger?" Tank suggested. "Maybe he was feeling guilting for what he'd done and decided to pay Steph's rent as a kind of atonement?"
"That does seem like the kind of thing he would do," Lester agreed. "Steph's Dad might have done it, too," he added. "He's always been a quiet supporter. And no father wants to see his daughter homeless."
I just shook my head. For some reason neither of those options felt right to me. "I don't know," I said slowly, stifling a yawn that sprang up without warning. "But whoever it is, I'm grateful. And I will find a way to repay them."
"You're exhausted," Bobby said, squeezing my shoulder a little tighter and reminding me that he still had a voice. He'd been quiet all evening, only speaking up a handful of times, and if it hadn't been for the fact that I was acutely aware of his physical presence, I might have forgotten he was here at all. "We should let you get bed." He removed his arm, standing from the sofa and collecting the pile of paper plates from the coffee table. Tank retrieved our empty drink containers, and Lester was moving to follow them both out to the kitchen by the time I managed to find my voice again.
"Hang on a sec," I called, scrambling after them.
"What is it, Beautiful?" Lester asked, slinging an arm over my shoulder as I caught up.
"I promised Brandon I'd keep up some of my fitness regime when I returned home," I explained, "So I was wondering if I could join you guys for your morning run?"
"Well," Tank said, casting a glance to the other two men. "It'd have to be with Bobby, right?"
"True," Lester agreed. "He's the only street runner among us," he added. "Tank and I both prefer a treadmill: less chance of getting run over. And since I take my run in the gym and Rangeman and Tank only has one treadmill at his house, that makes Bobby the obvious choice."
I nodded, accepting this information even as something in my stomach did a flip at the thought of spending time alone with Bobby for the first time since what happened at the airport when he dropped me off. "That works for me if it's okay with you, Bobby," I said, looking to the man in question. He nodded silently. "When and where should I meet you?" I asked.
"I'll be at your door at oh-six hundred," he informed me, a twinkle in his eye. "If you haven't emerged by five past, I'll pick the lock and drag you out in your pyjamas if I have to. "
"Got it," I said even as I made a mental note to wear my activewear to bed just in case.
I should now go and work on the assignment that's been hanging over my head... Emphasis on the word 'should'... we'll see how well that works out by how soon another chapter is written and posted...
