I know, I know, I keep drip feeding you bits and pieces but if I gave you everything to begin with you'd all know too much and quite honestly, I'm not sure our main characters know everything - yet...

Thank you so much for your wonderful words and without further ado, I present chapter 4.

R&R, you know you want to ;-)

x0x

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It was midafternoon when Steph reached the outskirts of a small town where she'd figured they'd bed down for the night, but things seemed to be going from bad to worse when she realised they might need to find somewhere to stop, sooner rather than later if her latest POS car's engine noises were anything to go by.

"Please don't die, please don't die, please don't die…" Steph muttered softly, hoping against hope that if they needed to stay she'd find a job in the town they'd just passed the sign for which read: "Welcome to Grapevine – the Christmas Capital of Texas!".

Ironically, the sun beat down on the roof of the car, it was going to be another relentless day of cloudless skies and dust in 'Christmas Town'.

"Mommy? Mommy!" Charlie wailed nervously, clutching Bunbun as the car gave a death rattle of epic proportions, jostling them both. Steph signalled then manoeuvered out of the traffic and managed to nurse the car over to the side of the road just as it gave its final gasp then stopped completely. Steam poured from beneath the hood as Steph turned to look at her daughter.

"S'ok, Sweetie" She said reassuringly as she patted her knee then quickly turned, pulling her keys from the ignition and scrabbling for her purse which had fallen into the passenger's footwell.

"Mommy? Mommy! Look! Fire, Mommy! Fire!" Charlie screeched, her voice now laden with panic.

What Steph had thought was steam had in fact been smoke and small flames were now starting to appear on the once blue, now mottled blue/grey paintwork of her Ford Escort and the putrid, toxic emissions were now starting to trickle into the interior and across Steph's feet.

Steph threw herself out of the driver's door at warp speed, wrenching the back door open as quickly as her panicked state would let her as she dived to wrestle her now hysterical daughter out of her car seat. Staggering with Charlie in her arms she pulled her to safety by the edge of the road where her knees buckled and she folded herself somewhat gracefully to the sidewalk with her precious bundle in her arms.

Worried onlookers were starting to gather and stare at the curious sight of her latest POS that now had smoke and flames pouring out from under the hood. They watched in morbid fascination and horror as the fire took hold and began to lick its way across the hood and up the windshield. A few people tried to take photos and a couple of them were on the phone, hopefully to the emergency services. An older man hurried over to them to see how they were - his focus and concern reminded her so much of Ric and his reaction during similar scenarios so many years ago and her breath caught in her throat.

By the time he'd reached them a small group gathered round them, checking that they had not been harmed in any way and he posed the question they all wanted answering. "You ok, Lady?" he asked with a deep, gruff voice as he got down on his haunches so that they were at the same level as Charlie who was sobbing into Bunbun and wrapped up in Steph's arms, her nose buried into the crook of her mother's neck.

She nodded stiffly, numbly in dazed shock.

She could hear a siren gaining ground in the background and was immediately dragged back to another time. How long had it been since a car of hers had gone to the heap big happy hunting grounds in the sky? Too long to even think about, that's how long ago. A lifetime, too painful to contemplate, ago.

Dismissing her thoughts angrily she tried to focus on the here and now.

Nope, no siree. A long time ago she vowed she would never ever go there again, she wasn't strong enough.

Not. Never. No-how.

The man was still visually checking the pair of them over, patiently waiting for her to collect her thoughts.

Steph shook her head sadly. No, she wasn't alright. Everything they owned, with the exception of her purse and Bunbun, had just gone up in flames. Her precious photo albums, the lock of hair from Charlotte's first trip to a salon, the tiny socks she'd worn when she brought her out of the hospital for the first time. Gone, all gone…

The look of defeat in her heart broke something in him.

"S'ok Lady. You'll be ok. I've got your back." He said gently as he pulled the two shell shocked casualties into his embrace.

Onlookers new to the scene assumed the embrace was a three generation thing, that the man carefully holding the woman in his arms was her father.

"Shh, Lady." He said as he began to rise taking them with him – the position they'd been in was killing his knees and his back. "It'll be OK."

A flicker of something filled her "Maybe, just maybe," the angel sitting on Steph's shoulder whispered hopefully, "we're on the way back up. After all, we can't go any lower surely?!…"

o0o0o0o0o

"Report!" Ranger barked out at the beginning of Monday morning's meeting. He'd been back in the US for four days and back at Rangeman since late last night.

He'd spent a day de-briefing during which he'd resigned his commission with immediate effect. Once he knew he was free the newly retired Lieutenant Colonel had returned to civvy street with a new resolve. To right the wrongs of his past - his first and only port of call so far had been to Chez Manoso.

Flashback

"Carlos? Oh oy God! Enrique! Carlos is here!" his mother sobbed out emotionally. "Our hijo is here! He's home!" she yelled joyfully as she launched herself at the man who just come up the path and knocked on their front door. The last time they'd seen him was at Chico's funeral and he'd kept right back from the burial site then run like a jack rabbit at the end of the service before anyone could approach him.

Ranger caught her as he staggered over the threshold and buried his face in her hair. "Mama! I'm so sorr…" he managed to get out before he was shushed.

"Oh Baby. It's going to be OK" his mother sobbed softly pulling his face down so she could take a good look at him "It's ok, Momma's here…" she kept repeating over and over as she pulled him back into her neck as she stroked his buzz cut. The gentle mantra which had been used from the time he was a babe in arms to encourage him to sleep when he'd been poorly or when his teething pains got too much, started to calm them both down.

"Maria? Maria?!" a smaller and older version of Ranger asked as he rushed to join them both. "You're here! You're actually here! You're home…son… I never thought I'd see you again…" Enrique sobbed out as he clutched them both fiercely as they stood in their large hallway.

"I've fucked up, Mom, I'm so sorry but I've fucked up, Dad..." he tearfully whispered again and again.

Time stood still as Maria continued to whisper the soft chant over the top of his words in an attempt to calm her son's raging mind. As far as she was concerned he was home and the rest... well they'd deal with the rest later.

End flashback

"The Taylor account goes live today so Lester and Timo will be overseeing the switch over. It should all go smoothly as the testing was finished yesterday. If they're happy with the results then we stand to roll the solution out over their other eight sites." Tank began.

Ranger nodded outwardly calm even as he fought to stop his knee from jiggling.

"We will be installing large blow up clowns with laser beam eyes in all the malls in Trenton and Boston to blow up naughty or noisy kids... We can't get these elsewhere so we'll use bunnies in Miami…" he continued. Ranger said nothing.

"Goddamit, Cousin! Have you heard a word Tank just said?" Les questioned with a grin before slamming his palms down on the table for effect, making everyone jump.

"Sorry? You were saying…" Ranger replied, startled by the noise but clearly not listening.

Shaking his head in exasperation, Tank tsked loudly, frowned then continued, properly this time. "Bertram Taylor will be heading up the test team from his end so that we can liaise…"

Ranger could contain himself no longer so abruptly stood effectively silencing his second in command.

"I'm sorry." Ranger began as he ran his hands through his non-existent locks. His Babe had loved his long hair so it had been the first thing to go after she'd gone, taking her light with her. Maybe it was time to let it grow back…

"Focus soldier…!" his inner voice commanded.

Cautious bemusement at his obvious indecision filled the room as he let out a deep sigh, making his shoulders drop. There'd been a lot of sighing recently but something about Ranger's latest sigh gave them all hope.

The core team gave each other knowing looks. This had been a long time coming and God knows what had heralded it, but it looked as if Ranger had finally come to his senses. Maybe this time the office would still be a good place to work in an hours' time.

Tank leant back, his eyes missing nothing as he silently implored his friend / boss / hero to continue.

"I know I've been a nightmare – a complete bastard…"

Comments muttered under the men's breath such as "No? Surely not!" "Ya think?" and "Harrumph…" (That was Tank) cut him off.

He gave them all an apologetic look before continuing. "I've been like a bear with a sore head since… that night."

"No, wanker's more accurate…" someone ground out. Now that was definitely Lester – Ranger knew that much as ever since their trip to London where they'd picked up the swear word, Lester used it constantly as he liked the way it sounded.

"Ok, Les! I get it! I've been an absolute wanker*!" he growled out forcefully before dropping his head "but like I said, I'm sorry…" he added softly, placing his extended arms on the table looking down momentarily, with one leg bent and the other stretched out behind him, before looking up pointedly at each and every one of the men round the table.

"I'm going to get my shit together and start trying to mend bridges. I've started with my folks and Julie is next on my list but to do so I'm gonna need to take time off. Real time out if I'm going to sort myself out once and for all."

Tank nodded for him to continue, worried that he was about to cancel his leave.

"Once you get back from your honeymoon, Tank, I'm going in the wind."

There was a collective groan which Ranger stifled by using the universal stop sign with his hand.

"I've resigned my commission and am now a free agent." He explained once things had calmed down.

He thought he heard a softly hissed "yes!" from several places and a couple of "about fucking time's!"

"This next mission will take a lot of planning and research as my… target has been missing for just over three years." 'Three years, one month and 22 days, actually' his mind reminded him petulantly as it crossed its arms and glared at him.

"I don't know how long it will take to search, apprehend and persuade her, er my target to talk to me but I'm hoping to bring her home. Back into all of our lives, not just mine. I have a feeling I may be gone some time."

Everyone in the room knew he was being extremely optimistic about the possible outcome of this particular mission. When the shit hit the fan and Steph galloped out of Trenton three years ago as if the flames of hell had been licking at her heels, Ranger had forbidden them all from going after her. By the time the dust had settled and Ranger had gone into the wind so they could ignore his orders she'd completely disappeared.

It was ironic that someone who'd been so good at uncovering the hiding places of her skips had used this knowledge against them all.

They all just hoped and prayed that she'd landed on her feet and was in a better place than she had been on that dark night.

After the meeting wound down and Ranger left, Tank got out his phone and texted Hector back at Trenton. If anyone could work out where she'd gone it would be him. He'd get him to start trawling through camera footage using the latest face rec software. Needle in a haystack perhaps, but at least it was a start and for the first time, sanctioned by the boss.

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* I love this word - the verb to wank means to jerk off but when used as a swear word is a general insult

Until the same time next week, peeps

Mwah