A/N: Thank you to everyone who is taking time to read this story. I also appreciate all of the feedback that Ranger and Steph aren't too OOC!

Disclaimer: I don't own them and I'm not making any money.

Previously

"You have the FBI in your contacts?" I asked incredulously.

"I bounty hunt for them too," he said, lifting his head and smiling at me before going back to scrolling.

Of course he did.

—-

I tried to listen to Ranger's side of his phone call with the FBI, but he wasn't any more chatty than he'd been on his earlier call. Since he didn't say much, I wasn't able to gather more than I already knew.

"So?" I asked when he disconnected. I was trying to control my impatience, but I'm pretty sure my bouncing leg was giving me away.

"You're officially in protective custody."

"What does that mean?" I asked. I wasn't sure I liked the sound of that.

"It means we stay here until we're given the okay to leave."

"Why here? Are you part of the FBI and just moonlighting for Vinnie?"

"No," he said, seeming amused by that idea for some reason. "I'm an independent contractor with the FBI. Like I said earlier, I'm getting into the security industry and some of the services I plan to provide include body guarding and protective custody. My contact at the FBI knows that and since I'm already in their system, they want you to stay here rather than risking moving you."

"Oh."

"In the meantime, some agents are headed our way to take your statement and review the evidence you collected."

I slipped back into my chair at the kitchen table and woke my computer back up. I was feeling more than a little overwhelmed. My previous experience with FBI agents hadn't exactly been fun. "Do you know how long I have?"

"I would say at least an hour because they're coming out of Newark."

"Thanks. I want to clean some of this up so it's more organized."

"I'll go get you a thumb drive to load it to. I'm assuming you don't want to give them your whole computer."

"I'd rather not," I said, getting a nod as he walked out of the room.

I got everything organized and ready to hand over to the feds just minutes before there was a knock on the door.

Two agents in suits were standing on the stoop and Ranger quickly ushered them inside. Their appearance screamed 'feds' and I guess he didn't want them hanging out outside of his safe house.

He seemed to know one of the agents, so we traded introductions and then I got to work going through what I had learned the last few months for the third time today.

Like Ranger, the agents seemed impressed by what I had put together. Unlike Ranger, they seemed more than a touch annoyed once we were done.

"This is very useful Ms. Plum, but what you did was incredibly dangerous."

"I gathered that when the shooting started," I said.

I could see Ranger from the corner of my eye and I would swear he was working not to laugh. I don't know how I knew that because there was no change to the blank expression on his face, but I could feel it all the same.

The agents, however, just nodded. Apparently they didn't appreciate my sarcasm and they wrapped things up quickly after that. Next thing I knew we were all shaking hands again and suddenly they were gone.

"Now what?" I asked Ranger.

"Now, we wait."

"That's not exactly my strong suit."

"I think you're about to get some practice."

My dissatisfaction must have shown on my face, because Ranger suddenly had that amused 'thinking of smiling' look on his face again.

"Have you ever heard the term 'hurry up and wait'?" he asked.

"No, and that doesn't make any sense."

"It's a military term, but I think it probably applies to the FBI and all the other alphabet agencies. They rushed out here and now we're on standby until we hear otherwise."

"Great," I said, not trying to hide the sarcasm.

"Why don't you go get settled in? We may be here a while. The bedrooms are back the hall, pick whichever you like and I'll take the other. Let me know if there's anything you'll need to stay here a few days and I'll have Tank go get it. You can also call anyone who may need to know you're off the grid."

I just nodded and headed back the hall, grabbing my duffle bag on my way. I'd packed all the basics for my trip to Port Paulsboro and I should be covered if we weren't going anywhere.

I probably should call the personal products plant and my parents though.

My first call was to work. I figured it would be the easier of the two.

After navigating the robo directory, I was able to enter my boss's extension and by some stroke of luck he picked up.

"Hi, Josh. It's Stephanie Plum."

"Hey, Steph," he said.

His voice had dropped a bit from the initial greeting and I couldn't repress a small shiver. Josh Mason was a burg native that I hadn't known very well until recently. He was four years ahead of me at school, his brother was three years behind, and our mothers were more acquaintances than friends. I'd pretty quickly gotten the message that Josh wasn't opposed to us becoming more friendly, but I'd been trying to keep my distance.

My mom had somehow gotten wind of his interest and she found it much more exciting than I did. Fortunately, she'd respected my argument that dating wasn't the best idea right now and had backed off a bit. I guess the reasoning that I was waiting to see if I was going to prison for a felony actually worked against her match making.

Snapping my mind back to the conversation, I powered on. "I may need some more time off."

"I can approve two more days, but you haven't been with us long enough for more," he said, shifting back to line supervisor mode.

"I'm not sure if I have a say."

I wasn't clear on how much I was allowed to tell people about the whole 'protective custody' thing, so I tried to be vague. "I'm kind of tied up with the FBI because of my arrest. I can probably get something like a doctor's note from one of the agents."

"Okay. I'll run it by HR and let you know."

"Thanks. Bye." And I disconnected before he had a chance to say anything further.

I didn't have the heart to tell him it was unlikely I was coming back. I was pretty sure the current sequence of events was going to end with me cleared, in jail or dead. And I'd decided that once all this was over, the only place I was stuffing a tampon ever again was up my own hooha.

On that fun thought, I dialed my parents' house.

"Plum residence."

"Hi, Mom. It's Steph," I said.

"Stephanie! You skipped your court date," she started.

"Yeah, I figured that out. I had the wrong date written down."

"You need to be more organized. Your cousin Vinnie was nearly having a stroke when he called here looking for you. I told him you were at the beach and he got very upset."

"I talked to Vinnie earlier today. We got everything sorted out," I said, rolling my eyes. Vinnie was a turd and it would serve him right to have a stroke.

"Good. He said he was sending someone to help you get rebonded."

"He did," I said, suppressing the urge to roll my eyes again at Vinnie's idea of 'help'. At some point eye rolling has to be bad for you. "I was just calling to give you a heads up that I'll be out of town a bit longer than anticipated."

"You need to come back! I was talking to Mrs. Mason. I think Josh really is interested in you despite your little legal problem. I know you don't want to date now, but you should keep his attention. I'm sure everything will get cleared up and he's quite the catch. I hear he has a house in Ewing township and everything."

I cut her off before she could get further into her dream of me married and raising babies in Ewing.

"Mom, I'm not interested." And I really wasn't. Even under good circumstances, Josh was very much not my type. An image of Ranger flashed through my mind and I shook it loose before my mom picked up on any positive vibes I may be giving off. "Anyway, I talked to some FBI agents working my case and they need me to be available for questioning and to work through some stuff."

I was pretty sure my explanation from earlier was all they needed from me, but I also felt like they wanted me alive. Alive was a kind of available, so I figured it was an acceptable bending of the truth. But just to be safe, I wrapped up the call and disconnected before she had a chance to ask any questions.

While I'd been talking to my mom, I had unpacked my handful of belongings and come to the realization that I didn't really need anything new, but I did need to do laundry. I tossed my clothes back into my duffle bag and headed back out to the main part of the house in search of Ranger.

I found him sitting at the kitchen table. He had a gun in front of him and seemed to be methodically cleaning it. I was a bit shocked, but it definitely fit the whole tall, dark and dangerous thing he had going.

"So, I'm guessing you don't only get shot at?" I joked.

He gave me a grin as he looked up. "I like to be prepared."

"I can see that. I need to prepare by doing my laundry if we're going to be here longer than a day. Is there a washer here?"

"It's in the basement," he said, nodding at a door to the right of the kitchen entrance. "Everything you need should be down there."

I headed down the steps, expecting dark and creepy, but was pleasantly surprised to find a finished basement. In addition to the washer and dryer, there was an oversized couch, another TV, a shelf full of board games, and one full of books. There was even some exercise equipment.

I walked over to the washer and dumped everything in before hunting for detergent. I found it in a cupboard beside the machine and dumped some on top. I could feel my mom cringing at my terrible laundry habits, but shrugged it off. I wasn't the domestic goddess idolized by the Burg, but I was starting to think that may be okay…