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Chapter 24

Another ford explorer drew up and I watched calmly as Lester, Woody, Ram and Bobby climbed out. Guess Ranger let Lester and Woody live. Bobby quickly came over.

"She's in shock." Ranger said softly.

Bobby nodded and dropped back to the car. He came back with a blanket and a twinkie. Ranger wrapped the blanket round me and returned me to his lap. He opened the twinkie and gave it to me. "Well that's it." I said softly, "It's the apocalypse. Ranger just willingly gave me trans fats."

Bobby smiled at me. "You ok Steph?"

"I killed him." I said dully, "with a frying pan. I've always said I'm deadly in the kitchen."

I zoned out a little after that. Some policemen came, but Ranger handled them. I was sent off to the hospital for a rape exam. I was strenuously not thinking about it, not thinking about anything. Tank drove Ranger and I to the hospital. I guess it was quicker than waiting for the ambulance. I kept looking at my hand in fascination. It was still shaking. I wondered when the adrenaline burn off would stop.

I could tell I was freaking Ranger out. I hadn't said anything in a long while, which frankly wasn't me. Normally by now I would be making jokes and bouncing back, but today I didn't feel very bouncy.

Ranger carried me into the hospital. I was quickly admitted into a private room. I suspected Ranger's insurance was covering it rather than mine. I was given an oxygen mask and intravenous fluids.

Ranger was talking softly to me and stroking my hand but it was like my head was under water, everything was distant and muffled.

A female nurse came in with a rape kit and tried to make Ranger leave. He gave me a doubtful glance but stood to go. I reached out and grabbed his hand and pulled him back to sitting. I was not doing this alone. I knew it was no more invasive than a smear. But I was sick to my stomach at what the results were going to be.

The nurse did her thing while I looked at Ranger. He was still talking to me, stroking my hair. The nurse went away, presumably to process the swab for semen.

A policeman came to speak to me but I wasn't up for talking to him, so I didn't. I just kept looking at Ranger and he kept talking to me, stroking my hair, soothing me like I was a child in distress. The policeman left.

I don't know how long the test took but eventually the nurse came in and gave us the results. My ears were still buzzing. I couldn't face hearing her words. I looked instead at Ranger. He looked at me and then deliberately shook his head no.

A harsh breath exhaled out of me like I'd been punched. And just like that, I was back.

"No?" I said to Ranger.

He shook his head again, "no sign of trauma, no bruising, no semen present, no latex detected; you weren't raped Babe."

I took another deep breath and blew it out. Ok Stephanie, so you've just been kidnapped - well you've been kidnapped loads. You killed a guy, but it's not your first rodeo. He was nuts and he was going to rape and kill you. But he didn't. You've survived. So put it away.

I spent a good few minutes shoving my experience into my denial box. It wasn't going to break me, it wasn't going to define me. When I was done, mentally cleaning house, I looked up to Ranger.

"Yo," I said, "can we go home now?"

He smiled a little at that, "You need to finish this bag of fluids before we think about getting you home. Are you up to speaking with the police? The detective is waiting outside. He came in before but you were a bit out of it then. It's probably better to get it over and done with Babe, like a ripping off a band aid."

I nodded, then looked around, this wasn't St Francis. "Where are we?"

"Newark Babe."

Well at least I wouldn't have the whole of Trenton PD here, and oddly it felt better to give my statement to a stranger.

Ranger called Tank and the police officer in. Ranger introduced the cop as Detective Moreno. Moreno was about our age, and he kept calling Ranger "Sir" with quite a bit of awe. I guess Ranger has made a name for himself in Newark too.

"I'm glad to see you're feeling a bit better," he said with a kind smile. "We'll keep this as painless as possible. It's best if you tell me in your own words what's happened." Moreno suggested, "and then I'll ask any follow up questions I can think of."

I nodded. I started my story with the presents I was receiving, and the connection with Stephanie Orrato and then going to the Batcave with Ranger. I called it a safe house; I didn't think he would get what I meant by Batcave. I explained about the bodyguards and then I explained about my best friend being upset and throwing up in the toilet. I said I was definitely stun gunned, but I expect he then used chloroform or something similar on me. He had been able to completely undress me without rousing me at all, not too mention the length of the trip from Trenton to Newark.

I explained about waking in the room with nothing in it, wearing nothing but a smock and no underwear. I explained that for some reason he had left on my shoes. I was zip tied arms and legs to the chair. I told them all how I had tipped the chair back to free my legs from the chair and how I had unlaced my shoes and used the laces to create friction, snapping the zip ties. Tank gave a low whistle of appreciation.

"You're amazing," Ranger said, shaking his head in disbelief before giving me a quick kiss on the forehead.

I smiled, "I am pretty awesome," I agreed.

Ranger let out a soft exhalation, his eyes met mine. "There you are." He said, smiling.

I gave him a finger wave, "Can't keep me down long Batman."

I cut my attention back to the police officer and I told the rest of story as calmly as possible. He asked a few questions about how I felt, about what my intentions were. I answered them as well as I could.

"Anything else to add?" he finally said.

I thought about it, "Ranger did you have me on speakerphone in the car?"

He nodded.

"Well then can you get the car's internal dash cam and audio to the police? Our conversation will help verify how it went down." The conversation had taken place after the fact, but how shaky I was, how I instantly had said I hadn't meant to kill him, all of it would help.

Ranger nodded and made a call to Hector. The footage and audio file would be sent to Newark PD ASAP.

Moreno thanked us all for his co-operation. He advised that he would give a report to his boss and to the prosecution service, but his view was that this would be ruled self defence and no charges would be brought against me. They had already recovered some torture tools which had bloodwork on it. He was confident the DNA would come back as Stephanie Orrato's. Closure for her family as well. I thanked Moreno for his time and he left to go and make his report. It was clear to me he was being so open to us as he had a bit of a hero worship of Ranger going on. I couldn't fault him. I worshipped Ranger too.

I snuggled into Ranger. "Can we go home now?"

He pointed to the nearly empty fluid bad. "Soon."

I huffed. I brightened, "hey," I said to Ranger fluttering my eyelashes at him in an over exaggerated way, "You know how you love me? You think you could get me a donut?"

Before Ranger could respond, Tank said "10-4" and off he went to get me a donut.

"I like him." I said to Ranger. He gave me an almost smile. "The feeling is mutual Babe."

"I'm surprised Lester and Woody are alive - you too busy tracking me to kill them?" I joked.

Ranger frowned, "Tank wouldn't let me kill them or fire them. He's such a killjoy. Desk duty for 2 months each and the mats with Tank for a week. Tank didn't trust me not to accidentally kill them if I took them to the mats."

I bit my lip, "it wasn't really their fault. They waited till I was in the house and everything."

Ranger shook his head, "If they had been running a perimeter you wouldn't have been taken. Luckily for them they had the GPS on and as soon as you moved out of the house they were on it. They called me, we were all converging, and then…the signal died."

His jaw clenched and I knew how horrible that moment was for him. The GPS device was in my bra, so he knew I was taken, in trouble and my kidnapper had had his hands down my bra. All in all, not the best situation for the woman you love to be in.

"Turns out Phoenix Matthews can do some evasive driving." Ranger said grimly, "We lost him in Newark. It was a stolen car, nothing to say it was Matthews who took you. We stayed in the Newark area and Hector was running down the list you had given us from Renee. He flagged Matthews as a possible, especially as he had rented a house in Newark quite recently. We were headed to the rental when you called me."

Ranger's hands were opening and closing into fists, I'm not even sure if he knew he was doing it.

"Hey," I said softly, touching his face so he would look at me. "You got to me. And the rest, as they say, is history. We won Batman. You got the girl, now, what are you going to do with her?" I said archly.

His eyes turned dark and predatory. He looked at me like I was lunch. I was pretty ready to be eaten too but then Tank walked back in with a donut.

The moment was broken.

I sighed, "I think that's the first time in my life I've been annoyed at seeing a donut."

Ranger grinned at me.

"I can eat it," Tank offered.

I glared at him, "I said I was annoyed, not repulsed. Gimme!"

Tank passed me the donut, looking like he was trying not to smile.

"Less sass Tank," I said frowning at him, "go and get me released."

Tank blinked, "no one has ever called me sassy before." He paused, "I like it." He winked at me as he left to go and see if he could get me released.

Ranger was flashing me all 200 watts, "you never disappoint Babe."