.Author's After Party: A lot of little of things in case you were still wondering…about Sunny's pixie and the wedding and Dr Angela...
These were written in 3rd person flowing narrative prose and not in polished novel format.
While resting at Hayward, Stephanie told Ranger about Sunny's visit and the truce. That no pixie would bite Ranger, her, or their people. Stephanie said she understood their people, to mean family and maybe close friends, but she was not sure it meant the merry men. Ranger said it better mean his men or he would visit Dros and say hello again. Ranger knew he could get away with another intense hello if he was pushed into a corner and Sunny couldn't retaliate, now they had the agreement.
Dr Swatt complained and whined horribly when he overheard that Sunny offered Stephanie a pixie "Accept it my dear and give it to me for study!" he told her.
Ranger growled he would not be responsible for a pixie biting patients and hospital staff. Dr Swatt gasped that'd never happen, incensed at the idea. But he readily assured Ranger he wouldn't be liable even if it did. Ranger still refused stating he is sure it would happen, and he didn't care about the mess but his Babe would feel guilty if people got hurt. Once Stephanie is sad, then he would have to raise hell and fix the situation. IF he ever had a pixie he'd send it to Dr. Angela Winters.
Ranger did take Stephanie on a honeymoon for a year to various locations around the world. He was so well paid by the Hunter Association for killing the unmentionable, that he didn't have to work for a year, even after paying his men. He told Tank to run Rangeman with their current clients and when he got back, they'd worry about new ones. Of course, the merry men got a few new contracts for the company while the couple were away.
Ranger said it wasn't necessary and not to call him unless the company went up in flames and he needed to sign the insurance papers for the payout, so they could start all over again from scratch, WHEN he and Stephanie were done with their honeymoon. Tank and Lester knew this meant don't call unless the place is literally burnt to the ground in ashes.
While Ranger and Stephanie were away for the year, Hal, Luis and Hector decided to see what would happen if they wandered into Dros' domain. They always returned without issues. On new years Lester came along too and they got smashing drunk and decided to catch pixies to play beer pong. Instead of cups the drunken idea was to play ring toss on the tied-up pixie. I know, who ever said drunk people are anything but idiots.
They trashed a few buildings but never found a pixie. No surprise there, since a person can't find a pixie even when sober, unless a pixie comes out willingly. After making a drunken mess, that neither of them remembers clearly, they woke up at Rangeman to a fuming Tank and a disgruntled Sunny standing over them. But not a single pixie bite or scratch was found on their pretty boy skin.
It doesn't usually matter what they do when off duty as long as it doesn't affect their work. But this did reflect badly on the company, when Sunny who they had a working truce with, picked their drunken arses up and delivered them safely to Rangeman headquarters. It was a tad embarrassing to say the least, and on the more severe side, it showed drunken unprofessional conduct and unprovoked destruction of Dros's property. Luckily the Pixie Queen is not the type that demands formal apologies and Dros just smiled at them devilishly like he now had something on them.
Tank decided this affected work and assigned them remedial training. The first day they read the entire Rangeman code of conduct and courtesies manual. The next 3 days they had monitor duty because this is where employees hone their basic quality of patience and discipline. Monitors take focus, and attention to detail and most of all discipline in a situation where it is tempting to slack off.
The next week they were sent on low level security patrols. After they completed 9 total work days of remedial training they were released back to their regular duties. Lester laughed and said it was the easiest 2 weeks of work he had in years. A paid work vacation. Being a head supervisor is grueling. This just made Tank turn red but what could he say? After 2 weeks he dumped Lester's supervisory load and projects right back on him, despite his complaining. Because there really was no one else qualified to do his job. Yes, it may be easier to be a regular grunt, but Lester must wear the big boy pants. He is good at it too. Tank just won't say it to his smirking face.
Once Stephanie and Ranger returned home, her mother was overjoyed and very repentant. She explained she had a huge, solemn respectable wedding planned full of tradition and beauty that would showcase all that is good and right for her beloved daughter.
Ranger said she has a ridiculous cheesy wedding planned full of boring froufrou nonsense. Stephanie said, " Sure Mom what a lovely thought" (and barely held in all her giggles) "As long as you pay for it," and smiled sweetly.
Ranger stood calmly through the whole confusing thing. His men were ushers looking delectable in black suits. They were the most delicious thing there, because the wedding cake was beautiful, but tasted awful.
Ranger exuded an air of solum mystic to all the ogling church ladies during the wedding because he was silent almost the entire time. He didn't even say a word about Stephanie's giant white dress with puffed sleeves the size of grapefruits and a humongous bell skirt that had layers and layers of ruffles and tule.
For the first time ever he thought, 'Stephanie's a cupcake with white icing.' But he didn't say anything until she groaned. "I look like a f*%#ing cupcake!" he laughed and laughed his deep melodious laugh and soon she started laughing to. When they finally stopped Stephanie felt lighter and she didn't care about the dress anymore. This was for her mother.
"I'll see you at the finish line Babe" he whispered and left to take his place after kissing off all her lipstick. They finished the wedding ceremony without worry. Only smiles and laughter in their eyes. Ranger wasn't sure if the dress or her swearing was the most hilarious.
"Serves me right for just giving her free reign on the dress." Stephanie grumbled as she stripped out of it shortly after of the ceremony, with Ranger's eager help.
"Mmmm, as long as I get to eat you, I don't mind." he rumbled, changing her mood again so drastically she got through cutting the 17 layer wedding cake that tasted like posterboard and all the rest of the reception in the pink reception dress her mother selected especially for her.
"At least I am not a cupcake" she muttered.
"Nope, just a pink frosted cookie" Marylou whispered back, and Ranger nodded, his eyes laughing.
When Ranger party came, he really did throw a 3-day fiesta. Stephanie had a gorgeous outfit for each day, that she had bought while Ranger and she were abroad.
The first day the party was sort of tame and he invited his Mother, Abuela (grandmother), and Stephanie's family. The second day was rowdy, and the 3rd day was a complete uproar all around Rangeman. Food, live music, dancing, pranks (uh I mean games, Lester says). It was one giant crazy party.
Ranger surprised Stephanie with a different cake each day of the fiesta to make up for the horrible cake from Helen's white wedding.
On the first day was the family or guest's cake. He technically had 2 cakes. A small tres leches for his Abuela since it is her favorite and beloved by his family. The main guest cake was a giant dulce de leche. A confection sandwiched with creamy dulce de leche between each of the 10 layers of precisely thin cake. Both are well known fiesta celebration cakes. The moistness of the tres leche layers, and the rich caramel like dulce de leche cake was so delicious, Stephanie was enchanted.
The second day was the bride's cake. Fluffy perfect white frosting with the most delicate of vanilla flavors enveloped a perfect white sponge. Light tones of sweet pineapple infused the sweet sticky sponge, among perfectly suspended pieces of the golden fruit. It was the goddess of upside down pineapple cakes.
The last day was the groom's giant devils food cake. A tower of dark luscious chocolate. The silky layers melted on your tongue followed by an explosion of rich sinful chocolate bursting in Stephanie's mouth. In between the chocolate layers at the top, was a mocha flavored mouse layer, adding a bitter deep undertone, to the heavy punch of sweet explosion.
"This cake is an ode to sex…with him." Stephanie gasped on a dazed flavor overload. Ranger's eyebrow raised and his face darkened. Stephanie glanced up at him, "The real thing is 10 times better, lasts longer and keeps a lifetime. But if you ever leave town without me, make sure to order me this cake"
"You.." Ranger's voice rumbles low in his chest, his lips twitching. Grabbing Stephanie, he pulls her to him, roughly kissing all the delectable chocolate off her lips.
Bobby invited Dr Angela to come. Ron and Don were not invited but crashed anyway teasing Bobby about liking Dr Angela and claiming she is too smart for him with her doctorate degree. He told them smart women are sexy.
The two squints laughed and continued to crack jokes about Bobby's intelligence. They weren't malicious at heart, just a tad tipsy and socially stupid. There is more than one kind of intelligence Bobby said giving them a hard challenging look then grinned devilishly. Taking Ron and Don down to the basement firing range, he completely wiped the floor with them, then took a quick dash to the gym and ran circles around them. When he was done, he told them next time they would go outside into the real world and play in the woods instead of just doing kindergarten puzzles in the building. Ron and Don never made fun of a Hunter or a Merry Man again.
Sunny also showed up to the party and Ranger was not pleased. Stephanie said let's see what he has up his sleeves. So they patted him down and he didn't have a pixie or any weapons on him so they let him into the bottom floor. He stayed a while and drank enough to make Tank drunk 4 times over without getting buzzed. Then he offered a pixie to Stephanie and Ranger said he'd accept it. Ranger locked the present in a metal strong box and Bobby delivered it to Dr Angela, who studied it for a year.
Sunny was horrified when he found out the pixie was in a lab being experimented on. Stephanie assured him it was just being studied, not tortured. But Ranger didn't care if it was, which didn't help the tense situation. Stephanie visited Dr Angela to see how things were going and they became good friends. Eerily, the pixy would sing and coo every time Stephanie showed up. Don't ask me or Stephanie why. Maybe because it was hers. Ranger thought it was funny but also disturbing so he told her to make sure the pixie was always locked behind the special plexi-glass container. Duh! Both Angela and Stephanie are giving Ranger a much-deserved eye roll.
At exactly 13 months to the date of the pixie gift, Ron and Don snuck into Angela's lab to graciously take over her strenuous pixie project.
"Steal it you mean," Angela grumbled after it got loose
Ron and Don kindly stayed to stubbornly get in the way in hopes of snatching the prized magical being. I mean they stayed in the lab to help find the little lost creature. They searched the lab and then the entire building but found nothing until Angela flushed the lab airducts.
Suddenly it appeared zooming along the vaulted ceilings. Unfortunately, by then it was nighttime. Not only was it faster but its bite 10 times more potent. It proceeded to bite the male research duo, but did not touch Angela even though she caught hold of it before it slipped through her fingers like lightening and disappeared never to be seen again. When Stephanie heard this, she was pleased to see that Angela, her friend, was protected from pixie bites by the truce.
Sadly, Dr Angela hadn't discovered how pixie poison turned a person blank, summoned them to the queen, or made it possible for the queen to control a person. So of course, she didn't have an antidote for the pixie trance of Ron and Don. Instead they lock the researchers in a padded cell used for people turned viciously mad by dark creatures for 24 hours to keep them from mindlessly wandering away to the queen. The hangover headaches were horrendous. Luckily, Dr Angela had figured out how to counteract the poison's side effects. She cured the vomiting throbbing PhDs in an hour. The medicine was so effective she patented it and sold it as a super migraine medicine and made a small fortune. The fortune was sustainable enough she did not have to rely on the resources of the Hunter Association to do her research. She soon quit the Association and set up her own lab.
Angela left on an unknown expedition a few years later. 6 months into it she disappeared without a trace. Bobby was devastated. They had been dating sort of. She reappeared 8 months later with no memory of what had happened. But it was hard to tell anything for sure because she was completely out of her mind and rather vicious.
"Definitely touched in the head" Ron and Don said.
"Probably bitten by werewolves or almost drowned by naiads. She is lucky she wasn't devoured." Don said and Ron nodded that it was possible, if she came across something spectacular. But he doubted she had found anything supernatural.
"Just too much jungle fever. The ladies are more delicate" Ron responded since he thought Don was being ridiculous, not all insanity is caused by dark creatures.
Bobby was angry and Ranger annoyed. Werewolves and naiads don't exist, they're purely fictional and if werewolves did exist, they're human friendly. You'd think a couple of PhDs would know Werewolves are fantasies. They were made up by humans who wished for a powerful protector against unmentionable dark creatures, Bobby said shaking his head. Ron and Don are silent and refuse to say they are wrong. Maybe they have some evidence or ancient text about these mystical beings. Ranger and Bobby forget, everyone thought pixies didn't exist a few years ago.
After about 3 months of madness, Angela's mind started to come back to her. Her accounts pointed to a possible run in with a goblin or a troll. Both were thought extinct ages ago.
"Don't ever do that again!" Bobby scolded her for running off without a large backing of Hunters. Sure, it is annoying to work with Agency politics and bureaucracy, but everyone needs experienced back up. Bobby instructed her to work with a Hunter team if she ever went on an expedition again.
"Who are you to tell me what to do!?" she demanded viciously, being still a bit touched in the head. Bobby immediately married her ending that argument. She eventually fully recovered 3 months after their marriage and rejoined the Hunter Association as the department chief of dark creature research.
Ranger of course quit the Hunter Association. No one, and he means NO ONE, is even going to think about using Stephanie to help trap, lure or apprehend a dark creature in any way. He knew the Association would want her to work for them and eventually team up with him as possibly a power couple. But he would not stand for that.
Stephanie' mother is rather pleased with her currently. The big wedding was the talk of the neighborhood, and it gave her a new view of Ranger. He stood there so quiet and polite the whole time and saved her thousands of dollars in usher fees by offering his strong men for free.
They were the most talked about ushers of any wedding in the past 5 years because they looked so strapping and handsome in their suits. They also were very prompt and polite noticing everyone the moment they arrived and taking their belongings to the bag and coat check. That is something no one else ever had at their wedding. They were so organized almost like security guards, watching the guests and insisting they check in everyone's coats and bags. But that would be not nice, if they were watching everyone like guard looking for threats. They were clearly there to show people to their seats and make things pretty. These boys behaved so nicely, and Carlos was very sweet and handsome even though he is tough.
Because Ranger is such a nice tough boy, he keeps Stephanie out of trouble and her car never blows up. He is much better than that troublesome Morelli boy that was always hanging around. Helen is as content as she can be with Stephanie. But I think that will change once grandchildren show up. Mothers always have lots to say then.
However, Ranger and Stephanie can't be bullied, so of course they lived happily ever after.
El Fin.
04/01/2001