Hi guys

Sorry for the confusion in ch 5 (now amended) where I said Lucas was married to Celia. Nope. He's married to Angela and if you pop over to my pinterest account you'll find the Garcia family tree under my fanfiction board - and a lot of answers too. Maybe...

Anyway, in honour of my birthday today, I'm sitting on the wonderful campsite at Montaigu De Quercy in France that we usually go to for the whole summer, (but this year it's a week due to the house development, kids, yada, yada, yada) with a large chunk of french bread slathered in blue berry jam, a bucket of mocha coffee and the sounds of a wood pigeon serenading me. The kids are comatosed in their tents and the sky is blue. Nearly perfect. Only thing missing is my hubby, stuck in England working ️

Hopefully you'll enjoy thus latest offering. going to the last for a couple of weeks due to house, kids... you get the idea

xxx

o0o0o0o0o

Lester rolled back into Trenton bright and early on the Red Eye from Miami. He'd usually be in the gym anyway so it was no hardship to board a plane at about the same time instead.

His Tia Maria was having a surprise 60th birthday party later and he'd been drafted in by Team Garcia to move tables and other such large pieces of furniture around while Lula kept his Aunt distracted and out of the way by taking her out for the day to look at the final arrangements for her and Tank's wedding. Tia Maria was a smart woman and knew something was going on, but with Lula on board doing her thing she'd be totally engrossed in the wedding hurricane being orchestrated by the big black woman so they'd be able to put the finishing touches to her surprise party in relative peace and quiet.

Santos decided to volunteer his services before Celia even asked him to so he could still get his daily work out but as an added bonus he show off his guns and maybe just maybe persuade a particularly cute and recently graduated helper, (cough) next door neighbour Ana, (cough) to meet him later in one of Celia's many spare bedrooms…

His dick twitched in anticipation.

o0o0o0o0o

"Over here…er…no. I think, over there" Celia said shaking her head in confusion as she pointed to a different part of the large, shade dappled yard.

"You sure? It's not like I'm carrying something heavy or anything…" Lester grunted out as he readied himself to pick up the large sturdy, round table. Again.

"Sorry, Les. I think that's going to work better. Anyway, Ana's been watching you 'peacock' so…" She added with a giggle, eyebrow raise (yes, just the one) and a knowing look. Lester grinned back and flexed his guns before setting off with the large round oak table. Again.

Celia's phone rang so she grabbed in out of her pocket "Yo. Wassup?" she asked as she walked away to take the call.

At that moment two men rounded the edge of the large, three storey house that was Celia and her husband Edwardo's home and headed in her direction. The younger one, Trey split away and made a beeline for his brother Lester leaving a tall, older figure with snow white hair and an easy smile to continue his journey towards her. Finishing the call quickly she rushed to meet him half way.

"Tio!" she cried out as she grabbed him into a fierce hug. "How's tricks?" she added as she led him past the workers beavering away to set up the yard and onto the large decking before gesturing him inside to grab a drink.

"Oh, can't complain." He began, wandering round the large great room, Lucas stopped to look at the photos carefully placed to look casual while Celia delved into the fridge looking for cool drinks.

"Your wife is out running an errand right now. She'll be back later." Celia explained from deep within the fridge as he picked up and put down a couple of the frames.

There were photos he remembered well: family gatherings including Chico before he died; candid shots of Celia's kids. Ones of the whole extended family at the 'great meet' a couple of years before that. Memories of the whole Garcia clan with wide smiles, dubious haircuts and even more doubtful clothing choices.

And plenty he'd not seen before - after all, it had been a while. One in particular caught his eye. No, it couldn't be. Could it?

Picking it up Lucas stared at the couple in the photo. Carlos with his arms round a more filled out, longer haired version of a doppleganger of the woman in his mother's house, who was clearly holding a small bouquet of bridal flowers. He was wearing long cream shorts and an off white linen shirt that hung loosely over the top. She was in a gauzy, pale blue it was almost white, floaty dress that came to her ankles. They were on a beach, the sun was setting and they were gazing lovingly at each other.

Asked to take a lie detector test, he'd swear up and down that Carlos was Charlie's missing father…

"Oh crap! Sorry, should have put that away in case my brother decides to grace us with his presence - not that we want his mopey face here, tends to put a downer on things, ya know?" Celia added rhetorically as she pulled the frame gently from her uncle's hand and popped it carefully into a nearby drawer.

"Carlos got married again?" Lucas asked, clearly stunned at the revelation.

"Yeah, for about a minute. Steph was the best thing that happened to him. She was the woman who saved Julie from that weirdo pretending to be Carlos. Do you remember that?"

Lucas nodded his head. It had been all over the papers – Julie kidnapped by a Carlos wannabe. A female colleague had stepped in to help and between the pair of them they'd rescued her.

"They finally got their act together " Lucas' sorta niece or was it second cousin? Maybe first cousin once removed? – whatever, he mused – continued.

"They'd known each other for years but it was complicated – and once they'd realised they couldn't live without each other they hopped onto a plane and went off to Hawaii and got married. First and last we heard was that photo. They split up not long after, less than a year I think if memory serves me right. Les said it was ug-lee but wouldn't go into further detail. Not sure he knew them but if he did he wasn't sharing. Anyways… I always hoped they'd get back together, she was so good for him and they seemed genuinely in love. I keep it out to remind me that even though he seems lost these days, he once loved. And loved deeply."

Lucas nodded quietly. "What ever happened to her?"

Celia shrugged "Not sure. Les muttered something about her being thrown out of the building with only a few belongings in full view of the people that worked there. It all happened just after Chico died."

"Ouch."

"Yeah, ouch. My brother never does anything by half. He must have had his reasons but even for him, that was a shitty thing to do."

Lucas nodded with a thoughtful look on his face.

"You know something, don't you?" She stated.

"Nope." Came the unconvincing reply.

Before Celia could probe any deeper, one of the band members wandered in, looking for an extension cable and the moment for further questioning was lost.

Lucas set off determinedly to make a phone call to a man who owed him a favour…

o0o0o

Ranger looked at his watch and sighed. From his base of operations at the house Steph had dubbed the Bat Cave, he had begun his search but he had scant few details to go on. She'd ditched her Honda Civic – her latest POS (they'd all laughed when she insisted there was no point in buying anything worth having and had pitched up with it a few weeks earlier, much to the Merry Men's delight and Ranger's exasperated "Babe") at the first car dealership she'd come to. Swapping it out for an equally dubious but more generic Ford Focus. It had taken him a few days to find this latest car but by then it had been traded in again and the trail went cold as she'd boarded a greyhound bus to Chicago. After that, it was as if she'd never lived. Stephanie Michelle Manoso, neé Plum had gone to ground.

Last week when he'd told the core team that he intended to search her out, Les, Tank and Bobby had confessed that they'd tried to find her as soon as he'd left to into the wind, but they too had hit a dead end, even with Hector running traces through everything he could hack into. Although they had all been impressed with her ability to use their skills against them, right now, he'd have given his right arm to find her and tell her to her face how wrong he'd been.

Flashback

A couple of months after Steph had fled Rangeman, Ranger had returned from his latest mission and desperate for reassurance that he'd done the right thing by Chico he visited Jean Ellen Burrow's two bed bolt hole in the Pine Barrens…

"What do you mean, you're glad she's gone?" he growled out as they stood face to face in the small kitchen. Carefully putting her ice cold glass of white wine down she wrapped her arms round his torso and kissed the perfect mocha latte skin that peeked out from above the black fabric of his open necked shirt.

"Hmm? Oh? I'm glad that I finally get you to myself, is all." She smiled out nonchalantly as she suggestively dragged the ends of her nails slowly down his back and round the front before beginning to undo the buttons that were now in front of her perfectly manicured fingers. "She was only in the way." She cooed as she kissed the skin she was revealing.

Ranger stilled her hands and looked down at Jean-Ellen. "Pardon?" he whispered out, the softness hiding the danger behind his question.

"Oh Carlos! She was no good for you, can't you see? We make a much better team. She was a danger magnet and was never good enough for you. You need someone who matches you. Not just in the bedroom but in your life too. I'd always known what you did not seem to realise. We are the perfect partnership but that last mission we did together? It was then I knew. We were more than good together. You are my soulmate and…"

"And what?"

"She had to go…"

"…The only reason she's gone is because of Chico, not because of you. I loved her more than anything I have ever loved and yet she betrayed me. In the worst possible way. Chico was my brother and now he's dead. Because of her." He spat out, pushing her away from him, even as he unconsciously rubbed the scar on his shoulder from that night.

"What! What?" Jean ground out, her eyes narrowing as she processed what he'd just said. "You are mine, Ranger. Mine! She was never good enough for you!" she added as she began to scowl. This day was not going how she planned, but she would pull things back. The beautiful black soul before her was hers and determination was written all over her face.

"I don't know what you or your stupid brother saw in her but for some reason he adored her too. It was her fault that he died on those tracks…"

Ranger suddenly stopped. He'd not told Jean about the disused railway line where Chico had died. How did she know? Clarity hit him like a wrecking ball. Somehow Jean had been involved. Grabbing her by the shoulders he shook her hard enough to make her teeth rattle. "How do you know where she died?"

"You told me."

"Wrong answer. Try… again…"

Two days later he trashed the gym at Rangeman.

End flashback

o0o0o0o0o

Hector grinned as he rubbed his hands in delight at the news, moments earlier, Lucas Garcia had imparted then turned to his programs and began his search for Stephanie Maria Richardson, DoB 10th August 1985. Sitting back to wait for the results for the first time in three years he felt hope. Hope that he'd finally found his Angelita.

About an hour before Estephania was thrown out of the building, Hector had been playing with a new piece of parabolic software that allowed him to listen to anything within a certain range, using the LAN within the building as the signal provider. He'd put out a company wide test and had been surprised that he was suddenly listening to the conversation, strike that, shitfest yelling match that Ranger was raining down on Steph in their apartment. To this day, he doubted either party were aware that he knew what had been accused. Even if he never heard Ranger in all his powerful glory issuing his powerful and cutting accusations nor her pathetic, futile attempts to provide uncertain answers again, it would be etched on his brain till the day he died. He'd only heard of how Ranger could be and he knew she had never witnessed anything like it before, but the whole thing had been hideous to listen to and her attempts to defend herself had broken his heart.

But now? Now he finally had a chance to rectify at least some of the damage. If he could only find her and bring her home.

Despite all that had happened and the conflict it had created within him, he was still duty and honour bound to Ranger so had stayed at Rangeman, even though part of him wanted to help her run away. But if he could find a way to get the pair of them into a room he would gladly do it so they could revisit the conversation in light of how they'd both coped in the last three years.

Just as the results came through his phone rang. It was Ranger.

"Yo."

"Back at you. Have your engines turned anything up yet?"

Looking down at the results that showed a 99.999% positive match between Stephanie Richardson and Stephanie Manoso. Even as he looked at the most recent picture of his angel, resting in bed with a tiny bundle wearing a pink cap in her arms, his reply was an emphatic.

"No"

o0o0o0o0o

So there you have it. The bones of what happened... is there a chance they could get back together? How will Ranger react to having another daughter? Will Hector save the day... SO. MANY. POSSIBILITES...

You know me though, it aint gonna happen in just a few short chapters...

(insert evil laughter)