All familiar characters belong to Janet. Mistakes are mine alone. If you need help and don't have 'a Stephanie' to call, The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available for the US and Canada 24/7 at 1-800-273-8255.

"You told me to call you."

I'd reached for my cell while I was still half-asleep and mumbled 'Lo when I finally managed to pick it up before I could knock it off the nightstand.

"Nell?" I asked, feeling Ranger sit up in bed beside me and flick the lamp on.

"Yeah. You told me to call you anytime if I didn't feel safe. I didn't know if you were just fuckin' with me or …"

"I wasn't. I told you I'll be there for you after you got bonded back out. And I meant it. Did your ex show up? Did your family make contact? Please tell me you didn't get arrested again."

Nell's one of the few skips I've brought in where I actually felt guilty for doing my job. After hearing a brief summary of her life during the eighteen-minute drive to the police station to turn her in, I could understand why she was wanted on a drug charge and also why she didn't show up for court. She'd traded abusive and amoral parents for a controlling and cruel, anti-authority boyfriend. When I talked to her last at the court hearing she did show up for, she'd changed her hair color from blue to blue-black, lost two-hundred pounds of bad influence, and had been clean and sober for the first time since she was thirteen.

"No to all of those," she answered. "I need a little saving from myself tonight. I don't think it's smart to be alone and I didn't know who else to …"

"I'm on my way. DO NOT do anything except sit on your couch holding the phone in both hands so you can't do anything else with them. Are you still living in the same apartment?"

"Yeah. I can't afford to move."

"Good. Don't start moving now. I'm about ten minutes away. Do I need to stay on the line while I drive?"

"Nah, so far I've been able to keep it mostly together. That's why I took a chance and called instead of withdrawing from everything again."

"I'm glad you did call," I told her, for the first time cursing the fact that I usually sleep naked on nights Ranger is, for the most part, off duty. "Now sit and stay."

I felt a hint of a smile through the line. "Yes, Ma'am."

"What's going on?" Ranger asked, when I paused before believing it was okay to disconnect.

He's now watching me with interest as I ran around his bedroom grabbing clothes to put on.

"One of my past FTAs needs some company. She's a good kid with a sucky past. I told her months back to call me if she finds herself getting stuck in it again. I'm going to head over to her place and camp out on her couch until she leaves for work in the morning. Go back to sleep. Your day starts in like three hours. I'll stop by your office when I get back and fill you in."

He ignored me and reached for the cargo pants he'd discarded when he came to bed. "I'm not going to sleep if you're somewhere else. I might as well do what I can to help."

"I suppose looking at you could get her interested in something, but even that's a long shot. I suggested she talk to someone about what she's been through, but she's not there yet. I have hope, though. Tonight/today proves it. Maybe you could slip a card for the Doc the guys talk to into your wallet? Before I leave her, I'll try again to get her to agree to open up to somebody more qualified than me."

"We'll take my car," he told me, attempting to ease my nerves.

I'm terrified I'll do or say the wrong thing and mess up the progress she's made. I shouldn't be surprised that he'd made up his mind so quickly to come with me. Sensing I'm scared will for sure get his protective instincts up.

I tried one more time to spare him while I tied my Chucks. "It's not a great neighborhood."

"All the more reason for me to come along. And no one will touch my car."

"Alright. Let's go then. Her building is just over the line into Bordentown."

I grabbed my bag on our way out the door, and kept everything crossed that Nell meant what she said about not being in danger of hurting herself again. Ranger parked as close as he could to the entrance of the building and we took the elevator to the fourth floor of the apartment complex.

Nell opened the door, and I released a relieved breath because she actually listened to me. She was white-knuckling her cell. "You came," she said, as if not really believing I'd show up.

"I did. Now what do I need to do?"

"Who's the bodyguard?" She asked, stepping back to allow us inside.

"My boyfriend/bodyguard/roommate/sometimes boss."

"Carlos Manoso," Ranger said, holding out his hand.

She cut her eyes to me, not sure if he's real, and wondering if she should be afraid of him if he is. I completely understand the feeling. For the first year of his and my friendship, I'd felt the same way ... that he's too hot to be a mere mortal and probably too scary to be left alone with. He's still hot and freakin' scary, but these days I'm only scared of how much he means to me.

"He won't bite," I assured her. "As long as you don't pull a gun on me, you're good."

She shook his hand but quickly released it and took great care to close and relock her door, which put some distance between her and us.

"I'm more known for hurting myself than harming others, but I'll file away the warning. Sorry to bother you."

"You're not a bother, Nell. If you're in trouble, I'm going to be here for you. You've come too far to backslide now."

She picked up a throw pillow that said "Stay Weird" and plopped her body down onto a couch that's older than the one I owned before I gave the Rangeguys permission to torch half the stuff in my apartment.

"It's not that I want to feel like shit," she said, while Ranger took a chair across from where we're sitting, "it's just that I can't seem to help it. You can't survive hell and not drag yourself out of it a completely different person. I'm glad I changed … but apparently not enough. Just keeping myself alive when I don't wanna be ... is feeling like a full-time job."

I grabbed her hand and squeezed. I'm not a touchy-feely person unless Ranger's the one inspiring me, but I want her to really pay attention to what I have to say.

"You're great the way you are," I said, not breaking eye contact with her. "You don't need to be somebody you're not to have someone care whether you live or die. I'll be the first one to admit that I'm nuts, but do you have any idea how many times Ranger has talked me off a ledge despite that? And I'm not just talking figuratively."

"Who's Ranger?"

I nodded my head towards the beat up wing chair. "The boyfriend/bodyguard/closet-Batman I brought with me. He's saved me too many times to count, whether it was helping me stand up to my own crazy family, providing backup on a job, or literally standing in my way when I didn't care if I lived or died while chasing a bad guy. He loved me when I didn't feel worthy of it. We all have our issues, and no one's perfect, but the important thing to remember is that we all deserve to be here, and to be happy. Feeling that way is easier for some, but you can't give up trying to make it happen for you whichever way you can."

I paused trying to come up with something that will resonate with her.

"You're going to have bad days, Nell, and really horrible-feeling moments, but you've got me to lean on during every one of them. Ranger's been that person for me, and since I am still here because I had that kind of support … I understand how vital it is. I can't save you if you don't want to save yourself, but you should know that I don't give up easily. You're a good person who was surrounded by really shitty people. I'm here to say that it doesn't have to stay that way. You're free to build the kind of family you never had. So … you're going to find a movie for us to watch while I go ransack your kitchen for snacks to eat during it. And then the three of us are going to watch TV until the sun's back up and things look a little brighter. Okay? You don't even have to talk about anything important unless you're ready …"

"I'm not," she was quick to say.

"And that's alright, we'll come back to that subject later. I just want you to see that you're not alone tonight or any other day or night you need company. Got it?"

She finally gave my hand a reassuring squeeze back. "Yeah. Thanks."

"No thanks are needed. This is how Ranger and I get through our bad days."

I glanced over at him and the last couple of years passed between us. Him loving me but not believing he deserved to be in a relationship, or with someone who loves him as much as I do. Me surviving my mother and Morelli multiple times before accepting the fact that I had to cut them out of my life in order to stay sane. The close calls we've both had on and off the job. And the one thing that has kept us alive, and together in some way, is the unshakable belief we've had in each other. Nell may not have met her 'Ranger' yet, but she has the next best thing … me knowing that she will survive this, with us having her back every step of the way.