Disclaimer: I don't own them, but I wish I did.

Thank you to my wonderful Beta Heather (Txbabefan) for getting this back to me so quick.

Chapter 18

Compromise

Steph POV:

I sat next to the bed, staring at Carlos. Right now, he was taking a nap. I stroked my thumb back and forth over the top of his hand. The door opened and I glanced over my shoulder to see Maria and Ricardo coming in.

"How is he, hija?" Maria whispered as she leaned down to hug me.

"He is tired," Carlos answered. I smiled and kissed the back of his hand. Ricardo chuckled and Maria sat on the bed next to him.

"Carlito, how are you feeling?"

"I am feeling better, Mama." Carlos said. I stood and kissed him softly.

"I'm going to run out and check on the guys in the hall. I'll be back in a minute," I said softly.

"Don't be too long," he said, pulling me down for another kiss.

I walked out into the hallway. Ramon and Cal were on watch, standing outside Carlos's door. "Thank you," I said.

Cal and Ramon both smiled at me. "We're doing what we're paid to do."

"We all know you volunteered for this," I told them. "I owe you two a round at Shorty's."

They grinned. "That'll do," Ramon said.

I grinned at them; out of the corner of my eye I saw Rage coming down the hallway. I turned completely and smiled at him. "I heard he was up," Rage said.

"He is. His parents are here," I told him as he came to stand next to me. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and led me back into the room.

"Luke!" Maria said, smiling. I barely managed to hold in my giggle. I walked over to Carlos's bed as his parent's welcomed Rage.

Carlos pulled me into bed, on his good side. I smiled up at him. Not long after his parents left, Tank, Les, and Bobby filed in.

"How soon can I get out of here?" Carlos asked.

"When the doctors say," I told him. He looked down at me.

"Babe, I'll be fine."

Bobby weighed in. "No, Ranger. You're not getting out of this one. You need to stay here until they want to release you. Normally I would feel comfortable with treating anything that happens, but with this I'm not. The bullet ripped clean through you. It almost hit your spine. You're lucky you're not paralyzed."

"Bobby..."

"We're all advising you to stay here for the next couple of days," Les said. "You died on the table."

"Give us a minute," I said softly. The guys all glanced at me and nodded before stepping out.

"Please." I said softly. "I need you to be okay, Carlos. I know its selfish. I don't want you to get worse if you go home too early."

"Babe..."

"Carlos."

"Two days." He sighed.

"Four," I countered.

"Three," he said. I smiled and kissed him.

"Thank you. It makes me feel better. I'll even give you rub downs after Physical Therapy," I purred to him. He growled.

"Jesus, woman." He groaned. I smiled up at him.

"I love you, Carlos. I only want you to be okay. I'm not trying to control you; you know that, right?"

"I know, Babe." He said kissed the back of my hand. "And I love you for it."

"Ya'll can come back in!" I called. They filed in and I snuggled into Carlos's side, making sure not to hurt him.

"What should we do about Morelli?" Carlos asked.

"There's not much we can do, until IAB gets off their ass. We've handed everything to them and they're investigating. He hasn't been placed on administrative leave yet," Les said.

"Because he's in with the Captain and Chief. A lot of the structure of the police department is in with Morelli," I told them. "They're all Burg; they're all going to stick together. We leak info and they're going to start going after each other, they'll reveal who's in on it. I think we need to get the state police involved."

"Let's hold off for now. If we can get more evidence on them, it'll be a shorter action period," Carlos suggested. I nodded.

"Let's get some men watching them. Have Hector bug they're their houses and cars. Put trackers on their cars. I want this shit over with."

"Got it," Les said.

Bobby and Les filed out. Rage leaned against the wall and Tank took the chair. "Have you found anything?" Carlos asked directing the question at Rage.

"No, Morelli has been staying off of Stark. He's watching Rangeman and Stephanie's apartment. He's been trying to follow Tank home. He seems to have other cops following Tank and some of the other men around." Rage smiled suddenly. It was a dark smile. "I shot out his tires this morning with the blow gun."

I laughed softly and Carlos shook his head. "Tank?"

"Everything is running smoothly. We haven't had any problems," Tank answered. Carlos nodded.

"Alright, get out. I want to get some sleep, so I can get out of here quicker."

"You agreed to three days," Rage informed him as though he didn't already know. I think Carlos would have rolled his eyes if he could.

"How did you even know I agreed to three days?" Carlos asked with a raised eyebrow. I looked at Rage too. He had the decency to seem a little embarrassed.

"Out!" He said.

"Already back to being a cranky boss," Tank said. I smiled and Carlos growled.

They left and Carlos pulled me closer. "Did you really read me General Patton's autobiography?"

I smiled. "Yeah, it was boring as hell. You remember that?"

"Bits and pieces. Mostly your voice." He paused before continuing. "I could hear you; I could feel you holding my hand, but I couldn't do anything. I couldn't open my eyes, I couldn't touch you, I couldn't talk to you. It was like a living hell."

"Your body was trying to rest," I told him. "It was hard, but you're okay so I'm okay."

"How was it meeting my parents?" he asked. "They seemed familiar with you."

"They are wonderful. I really like your parents."

"They like you too," he said. I could tell he was getting tired, but there were things he still wanted to talk about. And I wasn't going to tell him to be quiet. "How did Morelli get in here?"

"He paid someone to grab a nurse. She's okay, but the guys went after him," I said. "You woke up when I was trying to figure out what the hell he was doing here."

"I saw," he said, smiling. "It was very impressive, Babe. If I didn't have a catheter in at the time I would have been hard."

I laughed softly and kissed him. "I love you, Carlos. I'm glad your you're okay and I can't wait to take you home."

"I bet you can't," he growled softly. I laughed.

"I don't think you'll be doing that for a little bit," I told him. He smiled.

"We'll see," he said.

XXXXXX

It was day two of three of the deal I made with Carlos and I thought about smothering him with a pillow. He was being so difficult and he was driving everyone nuts.

I loved Carlos to death but if I heard one more thing budget reports and client contracts. I stepped out of the room. Bones and Zero stood outside. "How's it going?"

"I need coffee."

"I'll go grab you one." Bones said. "I could use one to, Zero do you want one?"

"Sure." He said. We watched him leave.

"What's he doing now?" Bones asked.

"Reading budget reports out loud." I told him. He chuckled.

"Do you think he could be doing it on purpose to annoy you?" Bones asked.

I slid my eyes over to him. "Do you think he could be?" I asked him.

Bones smiled. "To try and annoy you, keep you from making him promise to stay here for three days."

"Ohh." I growled. "I'm going to smother him."

Bones laughed. "Its one more day, and you love him."

"I know." I sighed. "He better not do this when we get home."

Bones chuckled. Zero was back with the coffee. I took mine, thanking him. I stepped back into the room. Carlos opened the laptop and rushed to put the book under his pillow.

"Cut the act Carlos. Stop making this hard on the both of us." I told him. "I love you but you have me at the point I'm going to smother you."

He chuckled. "Come here Babe."

I sat on the edge of the bed. "I really do feel couped up."

"We can fix that when we get home. We can walk the fifth floor and the gym." I told him.

He grinned. "Steph, I hate sitting still. I need to keep my mind and body occupied."

"We'll figure it out." I told him.

He took my hand and kissed the back of it. "We will Babe."

XXXXXX

Carlos POV:

Today I was finally being released from the hospital. When the nurse brought in the wheel chair, Steph forced me to sit in the wheel chair. I still couldn't believe I let her threaten me with withholding sex.

Tank wheeled me out while Steph walked next to me, her hand on my shoulder. When we got outside I climbed gingerly into the SUV that had Hal behind the wheel.

"Ready to go home Boss?" Hal asked.

"Yes." Steph answered for me. I smiled and wrapped my arm around her waist, pulling her into my side.

We rode in silence, my hand sat on Steph's thigh, rubbing up and down. She shook her head at me and I grinned at her. When we got to the garage Ella, Bobby and all the men on shift waited for us.

They all welcomed us, mostly Steph before we stepped onto the elevator. I wrapped my arm around her shoulders, leaning on her slightly. Her are wrapped around my waist. We walked off of the elevator with everyone following.

Steph helped me into the bedroom and settled me into the bed. She kissed my forehead. "I'll be right back."

Steph left the door cracked. "Alright, everyone out. I know where everything is, I can take care of him. Today he's resting. Tank you can bring him up paperwork tommorow. I'll be hitting the gym between from 8-9, you two can have your own meeting to talk about everything that's going on. He can do paperwork. Ella, well I'm not kicking you out. Bobby, well you know what you're here for. Check his vitals, we'll see you again tommorow. I'll let you know if we need anything."

I had to grin. Steph was taking charge. She walked back into the bedroom, Bobby following. He set the pills on my bedside, and pulled out his stethoscope.

"I want you walking the apartment a couple times a day."

"What do you think about in a few days him walking around downstairs?"

"In a few days yes." Bobby said.

"Thank you Bobby." Steph said.

Bobby left and Steph looked at me. "Do you want to shower and eat or eat and shower?"
"Eat and then shower."

"I'll go grab lunch." She smiled at me.