A/N: Once again, thank you to all of you who have left reviews, or have followed or favorited this story.

Many wondered what was going through Ranger's mind after Newark, and your comments gave rise to this chapter. Please keep those reviews and comments coming. Just when I start to get a feel for where I think we're going with this, someone posts a comment that makes my mind go "Oh, that's a thought..."

Chapter 13

Ranger POV

It took all of my control to hold myself together while I held Steph and waited for her to fall asleep. I knew I shouldn't be here. Mission protocol on this particular mission required no contact with known associates. I didn't give a damn about mission protocol right now. Everyone knew how much Steph hated hospitals and she wouldn't go unless it was absolutely necessary. I had taken a chance that she would be here and not at Morelli's house. Steph would stay in denial as long as there were others around, but she couldn't hold it back forever. At some point, she would need to process everything that had happened. I didn't want her to be alone when the events from today came crashing down on her.

When I let myself into her apartment earlier, I could hear the shower. I was surprised to find her in a heap in the bottom of the tub. I didn't know how long she had been there, but she was chilled through from the cold water still pouring from the shower head.

After I lifted her out of the tub and dried her off, I found one of my Rangeman t-shirts in her drawer and slipped it on like a nightshirt. I told myself I was just trying to warm her up as I crawled in bed with her, but I really just needed to hold her a make sure she was okay.

Bobby had put a field dressing on my wounds back in Newark, but it was still painful to lay on my back. Instead, I laid on my side and pulled her back against my front. I wrapped my arms around her and kissed the top of her head. "Babe" slipped out like a sigh as I felt the tension leaving her body. I continued to hold her while she slept and I thought back over the events of the day.

When I had walked out of the townhouse and saw Morelli sitting in a Rangeman vehicle with a cold pack on his face, I wondered if Chantelle's men had been after the cop and conveniently found my Babe in his bed, or if they had been after Steph and took Joe as a little added insurance. It occurred to me that Steph had been working to save Morelli's worthless hide as well as mine. There was no doubt in my mind that he would have hell to pay if Steph ever found out he had given me up to save his own sorry ass.

I had an overwhelming need to get that rotten bastard out of my sight before I did something I knew I wouldn't regret, so I ordered my men to get Morelli and Steph away from the scene. My first priority was to make contact with my handler and get a sanitation crew on sight as quickly as possible. I couldn't risk the mission by having a circus waiting on the front stoop. While I sorted out the details of the clean-up, Bobby moved behind me and started dressing the wounds on my back. There must have been some skin laid open because I could feel the burn of the antiseptic as he did his best to clean me up. Gauze pads loaded with antibiotic ointment felt cool and soothing against the heat of the lash marks. I continued my conversation with my contact as Bobby taped the gauze in place.

Once Bobby had finished, I nodded my thanks to him while I continued with my briefing of what had happened and what I knew about Morelli and his part in this whole debacle. I confirmed the original target had been eliminated and was anticipating being called in to finish my debriefing in person before being released from the mission. However, life is never easy and my alphabet agency decided they wanted to pee in another alphabet agency's pool. I now had a longer mission and a new target.

From what Chantelle had told me during our little "chats," I surmised that Morelli must have been working undercover for a domestic agency, most likely the FBI. I knew he had done some undercover work with them in the past so this made the most sense. The agency I was contracting for covered international crime. It was entirely possible that the two agencies were running independent operations, and neither was aware of the other's interest in Chantelle's operation. Interagency rivalry runs rampant since they are all competing for the same budget dollars. Niceties like cooperation and communication can be almost non-existent, especially between agencies with a long history of rivalry.

Once Chantelle told me she had offered me and Steph to Sergei to gain her brother's release, I was hoping my men would keep her safe. I didn't trust that Morelli would. I didn't think he would purposefully put her in harm's way, but if it came down to protecting himself or protecting Steph, I wasn't sure what his choice would be. With my men, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that any one of them would lay down their life to protect her. And not because they had been ordered to, but because she was one of theirs.

However, knowing her capacity to find trouble, or more aptly, the capacity for trouble to find Steph, I wasn't surprised to see her brought into the room by Boris. What did surprise me was the strength behind the slap she delivered and the way she confidently held the gun as she pointed it at me. From my point of view, I could see she was aiming for my arm and not taking a kill shot, but Sergei couldn't see that. It took guts to pull the trigger and I was damn proud of my Babe.

Watching her move towards Sergei, I recognized the body language from almost every distraction I've seen her work. I still wasn't prepared for the kiss or the way she ground herself into him. That was farther than I had ever seen her take a distraction before, but she never missed a beat. I almost lost it when she started rubbing him through his trousers. I was sick with the thought that I was responsible for putting her in this position.

As she freed him and sank to her knees in front of him, I saw Sergei watching me intently to see how I would react. Steph was up to something, and if I could distract Sergei from whatever she was doing, that's what I would do. For the first time since I had awakened in this room, I dropped my blank face and let every bit of emotion I was feeling show. If Sergei wanted a reaction, then by God, he was going to see one. As she began to stroke him, I showed him the monster within my soul. And then I saw Steph slide her free hand down toward the floor.

Faster than I thought possible, Steph had the gun out of his ankle holster and crammed into his balls. He taunted her, trying to make her doubt the gun was loaded. I wondered for a split second if she would pull the trigger. Then the bastard tried to bargain with her. That was when I had had enough. But before I could make my move Steph was distracted by the wounds on my back.

Sergei used that momentary distraction to yell for Boris. As soon as Boris threw open the door my Babe turned and fired. I don't know who she has been training with, but clearly she had been putting in some serious time at the range, and her efforts showed. With Boris eliminated, I slipped my cuffed hands to the front of my body and quickly and efficiently dispatched Sergei. I would have loved to make him suffer for what he put Steph through, but I didn't have time for that.

I knew I had done irreparable damage to my relationship with Steph on this mission. Like a fool, I had allowed, and even encouraged, the superhero image she seemed to have of me. But now, the curtain had been pulled back and the Wizard had been exposed for the fraud he was. I wasn't Batman. I was a mercenary who slept with the enemy to gain information and killed men with my bare hands. A man who was was completely unworthy of a woman like my Babe.

I thought about what she had done because of me. When she knelt down in front of Sergei, I would have gladly traded places with her. I would have sucked his filthy cock dry if it meant saving her from the horror she must have been feeling. Then to follow that with the taking of a human life. Forget that it was kill or be killed. Every time you take a life, you lose another piece of your humanity, a piece of your soul. For a man like me, there isn't much soul left. But for Steph, there is still tremendous pain as that bit of soul is ripped out. And all because she was protecting me. And that ass Morelli.

That still irked me. She had obviously been manhandled before she was brought into the room with me. The blood on her neck was dried, but the bruises on her face were fresh and the split lip was recent. Why hadn't that fucking asshole protected her? What else had been done to her? I knew I could trust Bobby to give her a complete check over and he would have insisted on taking her to the hospital if she had needed to be there, but not all injuries can be seen.

She squirmed a little in her sleep as I tightened my arms around her at that thought. I forced myself to relax and kissed the top of her head once more. This seemed to calm her and she relaxed against my chest with a small sigh.

I continued to hold her as the night passed far too quickly. I knew I had to be gone before sunrise but I hated the thought of leaving. I regretted not getting the chance to talk with Tank or Lester about what had been going on with Steph while I was away, but we had to get the scene secured and then everyone out before the cleaning crew arrived. Boris and Sergei would disappear from the face of the earth and no one would ever know what had happened. I knew the agency would send someone in to try to find some trace of the women Sergei had trafficked but it would be difficult to find them. Most would probably never make it home. It still made my blood run cold to know that Steph could have been one of them.

All too soon, it was time for me to leave. Even if my mission protocol had allowed me to be here, I wasn't sure if Steph would want me in her bed after what she had seen me do. Sliding my arm out from under her, I leaned over and gently brushed the hair back from her face. Even with the bruising and the swelling, she was still beautiful. Steph's beauty came from within, and no amount of discoloration on her skin could hide that. Kissing her softly, I slid from the bed and tucked the covers in against her back. Without a backward glance, I walked out of her bedroom and stepped back into the wind.