All familiar characters belong to Janet. Mistakes are mine alone.

"I agreed with Lula years ago that you're a Superhero," Steph was saying, as she turned her back to me so I could zip up the back of her dress, "but I'm a full believer now."

I would have preferred to be taking her dress off, not helping it stay on her body, but Olivia and the mutts are currently monopolizing our bed so we wouldn't have access to it even if we had time to wreck it properly.

"Did you honestly think for even a second that your mother would agree to speak to a mental health professional? Or treat you or Frank the way she always has in front of one?"

"No. But I would've started with telling her Dad isn't going home until he wants to, which I know would've led to a twenty-minute rant from her that would have ended with a list of all the ways I screwed up her life again. 'Allowing' this to happen to kick that secondary tirade off."

"Which is why I wanted to field the call, Babe. You weren't going through that, especially if your mother could be stopped before she even got started. If Frank chooses to stay here, she can't do anything to make him leave. And no one except for you and our daughters have any influence over my decisions or actions, so there's no making me do what she wants. He's here of his own free will, I'm not holding him hostage. And I am legally allowed to keep her off my property if I so choose. She has to play by our rules or play all alone now."

"You really are the perfect man, you know that?"

"I do."

Instead of glaring at my undenying that, she smiled at me. She also mistakenly sat on the edge of our bed to slip on her heels. Recognizing a vulnerable position, our baby and dogs pounced. Olivia got her Mama in a semi-effective, completely precious headlock.

"What do you think you're doing, Olive-Pie?" Steph asked with her head tipped back to see our daughter, always more curious than alarmed at what Olivia's doing.

"Mama! Pay-pay!" She shouted, trying to pull Steph back with her onto the bed.

"Oooh, you think I can't win against you while in a dress?" My wife said, before she turned her body and the tables on our baby.

Julie knocked on the edge of the bedroom's door frame and peeked around the cracked-open door. "What's going on in here? I can hear you guys all the way in my room."

"I made the mistake of sitting down near your sister to put my shoes on instead of staying standing," my wife answered. "You could be a hero and rescue me here."

My daughter shook her head. "Sorry. You do the crime, you do the time, Steph."

A second later, my wife's head popped up in-between Olivia's and Mo's to mock-glare at Julie. "Thanks a lot for the help."

"Do you really want some?" Our eldest asked.

"No," my wife's voice sounded from somewhere under the pile of baby girl and dog boys.

Julie glanced at me. "We'll need to figure ten minutes into our leave-time so Steph can fix her hair."

"I was thinking she'll need a good twenty," I replied.

Steph wrangled her way free and eventually out of the bed with Olive in her arms. "Hah, you're both wrong. I'll go with the casual-crazy look and just leave my hair down. We can head downstairs whenever you two are ready."

"I'm good," Julie said. "I'm anxious to see Angel. Is she crawling yet? Oooh, maybe she'll be a butt-scooter like Olive was."

"Harper has reported that Angelique is trying her hardest to crawl, but is so far only managing a few push-ups," I answered. "But if she takes after her father, she's going to go from a dead-sleep straight to running laps around their home very soon."

Steph winced in sympathy. "I hope not. Harper has her hands full already. She's earned some regroup time."

She let Olivia down so our baby could play chase with Gunny and Mo one more time before we leave, and also so she can finally slip her shoes on.

"You guys pick on him an awful lot, but you know Uncle Kane is fun to be around," Julie said.

"He is," I agreed, "but in small doses, like during an intimate post-wedding reception."

I waited until Steph was completely upright, defying gravity as she stood on stick-thin stiletto heels, before escorting my ladies out of the bedroom and down the hall. We said goodbye to the dogs and headed down a few floors to the rooms Ella, Steph, and Julie, had staked out to create suitable ambiance for a Rangeman-only party as not to overwhelm Cal.

The Cole family had arrived only moments after my family did a walk-through to make sure everything and everyone is where they should be.

"Another one of your guys has to get hitched for me to get an invite back?" Kane asked, mostly ignoring me while he kissed my wife's cheek just to irritate me.

"Since when do you wait for an invite?" I stared a warning at him before cutting my eyes to Harper. "You may trust your husband, but I don't."

"Yes, you do," Steph reminded me. "He wouldn't be welcomed here if you didn't."

"We discussed this in the car, Kane," Harper said to her husband. "You're only allowed to kiss me and our daughter. Ranger's wife is a big no-no."

"I've been called many things," Steph said, "but a no-no is a first."

"Clearly our spouses are threatened," Kane teased with a wink.

I know my wife, and I know his joking around isn't going to end well for him. Not having brothers, my wife adjusted pretty quickly to what that may have been like.

She shoved him away from her. "As if Ranger ever feels threatened by anything. And not only would Harper gut you if you aimed your flirt seriously at someone else, anyone with eyes and ears knows that you'd rather shoot yourself than upset her. But you do like making your presence memorable, I'll give you that."

"Et tu, Small Fry?" He said not to my wife, but to Olivia who had decided to place both chubby hands on her Uncle Kane's leg to push him further away like she just saw her Mama do.

"That's my girl," I said, but Kane didn't respond to my comment as he scooped Olivia up.

He slung her over his shoulder and brought her to where Steph's now holding a sleeping Angel. His baby girl is resting in a dress looking like a pastel version of a rainbow, while Olive's appearance is bolder today in a red and white flowered dress that Steph thought was dressy but also comfortable enough for her to run around in.

"She's our girl," Kane said. "She loves her Uncle Kane, don't you, Princess? You know, your big sister used to say she was gonna marry me someday."

"I was seven, Uncle Kane," Julie told him with a grin. "I didn't know any better."

"Hey ... what's this? Beat up on Kane day?"

"No, it's a day to celebrate Cal and Kenzie being as lucky as we are," Steph told him.

"We are lucky," he agreed. "Maybe if the happy couple get down to business quickly, they'll get a princess of their own this year."

"Pipipip," Olivia said to him.

Kane glanced at me. "Tell me the truth, do you instinctively know what the hell they're saying when they don't use actual words? Or do you and the missus just guess?"

"Olive likes the 'P' sound … save the jokes, Lester. I'm talking about the consonant, not the bathroom by-product. She'll create her own words using the letter. Good luck with teaching both Angel and Kane the things they'll need to know to reach adulthood," my wife told Harper.

"It's been interesting, but I wouldn't change a thing," was Harp's response.

"That's what I love to hear, Darlin'," Kane told his wife.

"I don't know how you did it, but you actually found someone who can tolerate you," Tank said to him, entering the meeting room that's been designated a party zone today. "It almost makes me believe in miracles."

"Make Santa happy, and he may bring you someone who'll put up with you."

"Tank already has people who not only tolerate him, but love him to death," Steph said. "He's who Olive, Julie, and I, count on after Ranger. Anyone who wants him has to prove to us that they deserve him."

"Good luck," he told Tank. "It's gonna take a saint to appease this crew."

"Kane's not wrong," my wife warned Tank before greeting another party guest. "Hey, Dad. Glad you and Grandma Mazur decided to come."

"I heard you had some in-laws living with you now. What'd you do wrong?" Kane asked me.

"He didn't do anything wrong, in fact Ranger did something very right," my wife said in defense of me. "It didn't involve a knife fight or a possible stint in the slammer for teaching a much-needed lesson to a couple of idiots, but he stepped in to improve a seemingly irreversible situation. Dad, you remember Kane, Harper, and their literal 'Angel', Angelique, don't you? They were here for Olive's birthday party pre-Angel, and New Year's Eve with her riding along."

"Of course. Nice to see you again," Frank said to the couple, full Burg manners on display.

"If you don't feel comfortable making small talk with everyone," Steph advised, "stick close to Kane. He does most of the talking in any group he's in."

"If I weren't so interesting, people wouldn't be so interested in hearing me speak," Kane said to her before glancing at Frank. "Army, right?"

Frank went still for a beat, but breathed through the unexpected question. "Yeah."

"Cool. You can keep me company so Tank won't have to kick my ass for saying 'ass' in front of the wee ones."

Kane passed Olivia to me, hugged Julie, and checked to see if Angel is awake yet, before steering Frank to a quiet corner to swap war stories. Despite the ball-busting that goes on, he and I talk at least once a week for his safety and my and Harper's sanity. So he knows Frank needs some added encouragement from someone who's also been through hell and not only survived, but has found peace and - with help - has created a fulfilling life.

"See?" Steph said to Cal, who had been hanging back a few feet away from us with Kenzie's arms wrapped tight around his midsection in support. "We all get to say we love you and are happy for you, while Kane, Grandma, Olive, and Angel, redirect almost all attention away from you. Say the word and we can add Gunny and Mo, too. Those two are always ready for some action."

Kenzie included my entire little family in her smile. "Thank you for doing this for us, but especially for Cal. I keep trying to get him to see that it's not just me who loves him and respects the man he is, and times like these reinforce everything I've been telling him. He means so much to so many. He's not 'the scary tattooed guy', he's my husband, Olive and Julie's Uncle Cal, and a valued Rangeman employee ..."

"And an irreplaceable friend to every person here," Steph added. "I'm including myself and the Boss in the friend category."

"You chose well," I told Cal.

He didn't hesitate with his reply. "Kenzie chose me, I was just smart and didn't fight it or her."

"Did you just call me dumb?" Steph asked, finally letting Harper have her daughter back.

While Angelique doesn't look exactly like Olivia did at her age, there is enough of a similarity that had me understanding why Stephanie was reluctant to let Baby Cole go. Time really does pass too quickly when it comes to your children growing up. Some days I wake up believing Julie is still a happy two-year-old, completely innocent to the dangers of the world around her.

Cal looked confused. "No. I would never call you names, Steph."

"I was kidding, but not really kidding, since everyone here knows I fought everything and everybody for a really long time before I smartened up and stopped."

"We wore you down," Brown noted, not willing to miss a Rangeman gathering or an endless amount of free food.

"Yep, you all played a part in me ending up happy and here. And I want to do that for everyone else. So do me a favor," my wife said to the newlyweds, "don't try to do what Raphael and Aubrey did ..."

"And failed miserably at," Raphael added, steering his wife over to our little group.

Julie nodded knowingly. "You didn't stand a chance, Uncle Raph. When Dad decides to do something for you, it's waaaay easier to just nod, say 'thank you', and back away fast."

Olivia wanted down so I let her escape before addressing Julie's comment. "You didn't seem to mind when I sprung a vacation on you," I pointed out to my daughter. "I doubt Cal and Kenzie will think a complimentary honeymoon trip is a form of torture. Once they accepted that it was a non-refundable gift, Raphael and Aubrey warmed pretty quickly to the idea of a trip."

"Cal and I don't mind the gift at all," Kenzie said. "We can't thank you enough for not only the thought, but also giving us room to decide where to go and when it'll be okay to."

"We're a family here," I said to both of them. "We always take the best care of our own."