A/N: Thank you everyone who has been along for the journey! This is the 'official' end of the story as I originally wrote it.

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

Previously

"I've never been good at avoiding bad ideas."

"Neither have I," he said. He pressed his lips to mine again, but this time the kiss was gentler and more of an exploration. When he pulled away, he tilted my face up to look at him. "No pressure. If you want this, or just the job, or neither now, the ball's in your court. Think about it. I'll call you tomorrow. We can set everything up for work if you're still willing to work with me. And if you're interested we can go on a real date."

He gave my hand a last squeeze and then he was gone.

Six Months Later

"What do you think?" Ranger asked as he led me into the empty seventh floor of the building he had just bought to house the RangeMan headquarters.

We'd been working out of a small rented office space in a strip mall since I'd joined the team. A handful of very profitable captures had financed the purchase of this building on Haywood Street and would fund a lot of the planned modifications.

I was pretty sure the control room he had planned would be able to communicate with the space station. I kept my opinions to myself though because it seemed to make him and Tank really happy whenever they talked about it.

I had spent the bulk of my time doing the research I was originally hired to do. Somehow, Ranger had tricked me into learning to use a gun. I'm still not sure how that happened. Or how he talked me into letting Tank abuse me in the name of self defense.

He'd probably been kissing me. His kisses tended to have that effect on me.

Shaking myself out of those thoughts before I got distracted and attacked him, I looked around the empty floor. The whole building had been used as office space and most of the cube farm was still standing up here.

"It's nice. Are you thinking of using it for more offices or keeping the cubes?" I asked. I really wasn't sure why he'd brought us all the way up here. Especially considering the fact that the elevator was out of commission and we'd had to climb all seven flights of stairs.

"I was thinking of turning this into an apartment."

"I thought the fourth floor was going to be apartments," I said, confused.

"No, I was thinking of making this into a penthouse. For me. And I was hoping you'd move in with me."

"Really? We've only been together six months and we've been taking it so slowly. Living together is a pretty big step."

And we had been taking it slowly. Infuriatingly slowly.

It was something we had decided on that first dinner date. Neither one of us had the best track record with relationships. That's actually when he'd told me about his own marriage and daughter. We also didn't want to move too fast and damage our professional relationship.

That was the part that Tank had become very invested in.

Apparently he viewed my involvement in the company as a long term win for him. The part of his and Ranger's original plan he had been the most hesitant about had been his involvement in the administrative side of the business. As far as he was concerned, I could split his original share of the company as long as I took care of his portion of the paperwork. I was fine with that, because it turned out that I was a natural at running the business side of things. Guess I had picked up more than I thought while getting my business degree.

The downside had been Tank becoming a 'fucking nanny'. At least according to Ranger. From what I understood, he was afraid Ranger would 'run his dumbass mouth and fuck everything up'.

But, I think he'd been worried for nothing. While Ranger and I had had a few disagreements, we meshed very well. Well enough that I was actually considering his offer.

"It wouldn't be right away," he said, gesturing around us. "I don't think construction will be finished up here for at least six months."

"Okay," I finally said, looking up at him with a smile.

"Okay?" He seemed like he almost couldn't believe that I'd agreed.

"Yeah." I was trying not to laugh at his shock, but it was hard to keep in.

"Thank God. I know I told you months ago that my life doesn't lend itself to relationships. But once RangeMan is really up and running I'm going to be working long hours plus the unpredictable bounty hunting schedule. I want to see as much of you as possible."

"Ranger," I said, placing a hand on his chest and interrupting his uncharacteristic rambling.

"Yeah, Babe?"

"Show me where our bedroom will be."

The End

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