Kai took me downstairs to the family room. I could see out the window and would know when the guests were arriving, which I was quite pleased about. Kai arranged me on the sofa with my legs in front of me. "How is your pain level?" he said.

"Overall? About a five. The sleep was good, and the meds were even better."

Kai laughed.

"You know that I am going to feel guilty about taking up a whole sofa for myself."

Kai smiled. "Steph, there are six living rooms in the place. I think, quite seriously, that if they can't find somewhere to sit, then they aren't looking hard enough."

I laughed.

I could see the different vehicles approach. Maggie must have emptied out the Castle Force office to drive our guests around, and as I looked out the window Kai left to help people at the door. I could hear Ranger join Kai at the door, and the three little ones followed their father like imprinted chicks.

As the cars all stopped in front of the castle, the guests got out and stared at the castle in amazement. My team were less awestruck. They had seen pictures, but their families hadn't and Cindy and Kate looked at the castle with their mouths hanging open.

Kai walked out and gathered all the guests together. I assume he was telling them that they had to be careful of my legs. While my team would understand, the children wouldn't unless someone pointed it out to them. For that matter, my parents might not either.

Shortly afterwards, Julie and Kai and Ranger helped everyone carry in their luggage, and Ranger sorted out who was sleeping where. With having the fourteen bedrooms on the second floor and the twenty bedrooms on the third, there was plenty of room for everyone.

Several minutes later, people started filtering down into the family room. Miguel and Dirk and Nick all gave me hugs. They had tears in their eyes. "See? This is what I was saying", said Dirk. "You were supposed to be careful because we weren't there to watch your back."

I laughed.

Ranger came in and sat on the arm of the sofa behind me. I leaned my head back against his thigh, and he put his hand down and massaged my shoulder. I sighed with happiness and could feel my body relax.

People sat on chairs, on knees, on window seats. My parents carefully gave me a hug, the kids carefully gave me a hug, Cindy and Kate carefully gave me a hug. When everybody was sitting somewhere, even if it was on the floor, Hal walked in. He had a shoebox that apparently the kids had decorated on the plane. They looked mighty proud of themselves. Everyone settled down and looked at Hal.

"Steph, as you know, I used to be a SEAL. We value teamwork, leadership, resourcefulness, and bravery. You embody all those skills. I have never met someone more courageous, more caring about other people. Hearing that you ran into danger to save someone is so typically 'you'. Hearing you did it while battling pneumonia and recovering from an operation is even more so. In recognition for your service, we have made you an honorary SEAL and would like to award you with the Medal of Hooyah." He passed me the box, and I peeked inside. I started laughing and crying at the same time. In the box was a round cardboard circle with 'Medal of Hooyah' printed on the middle, that was attached to a ribbon with a safety pin on it, so that it could be attached to my shirt.

As I thanked everyone, Hal removed the award from the box and pinned it to my chest. He stood up and saluted me and, as he did, all the other men stood and saluted me as well – and then I really started crying. "That is one of the nicest things that anyone has ever done for me. Thank you", I said.

"So what's your battle cry?" said Hal with a grin.

"The only easy day was yesterday. Sir", I said.

"Hooyah", said Hal.

Ranger groaned. "Hooah", he said.

Hal grinned. "Nuh-uh. She's an honorary SEAL and SEALs say 'hooyah'. If you wanted her to say 'hooah', you should have made her an honorary Ranger."

"Didn't I do that when we got married?"

"I don't know. It might have been funny if you had yelled 'Rangers lead the way' when you were getting married."

I snorted. "It might have been even funnier if he said it on our honeymoon."

All the adults started to laugh. My kids especially looked ticked as they didn't understand the joke.

"How are you feeling, baby girl?" said my mother.

"I'm not on oxygen, I'm at home, I have good painkillers, I feel great!" Everyone smiled. "Honestly, all kidding aside, I feel better than I did, and every day out from here I will feel better and better. I'll just need a little help remembering that at times."

"She must have been dosed recently", said Dirk quietly.

I laughed hard. "How could you tell?" I said.

The group laughed, but the soldiers looked the most comfortable with what happened. All the civilians looked concerned, but then they hadn't seen injuries of that magnitude before. They also weren't familiar with bad burns, whereas the soldiers were all too familiar with them. Enemy fire was a terrible thing.

Ranger smiled at everyone. "I don't know what everyone planned, but we have trays of macaroni and cheese and a large salad in the kitchen, and I was wondering whether people would like to have some lunch. For snack, which I will put out between three-thirty and four, we have raw vegetables and ranch dip and a pumpernickel loaf with a spinach dip. For dinner, we have rouladen and vegetarian toad in the hole. To accompany that, we have mashed potatoes, green beans, carrots and, for dessert, chocolate cake."

"God, you've been busy in the kitchen", said Cindy.

Ranger laughed. "To tell you the truth, we arranged for the next two months to be catered. I knew that I would want to help in the search and would want to concentrate on the takeover, and I wouldn't want to spend all my time in the kitchen, as appealing as that sounds. I have heard this caterer is very good though, so I will be interested in seeing what she comes up with."

"I hope you are paying her well", said Kate. "There are a lot of people here."

Ranger and I laughed. "She seemed up to the challenge", he said.

Ranger got off the arm of the sofa, lifted me up, and moved me into the dining room. He went into the kitchen, got the trays of macaroni out of the oven and put out the spinach salad, and left it on the granite counter to let people help themselves. He also put out the crate of plates and cutlery so that people could get what they needed. As per the caterer's suggestion, Ranger had arranged for a shipment of clean dishes and cutlery to be delivered to the castle every morning and, at that time, they would take the dirty plates and utensils back with them. It would stop us doing dishes constantly. I knew that I was very glad of the option.

He then dished me up a tiny portion of macaroni and cheese, and a larger portion of spinach salad. I smiled when I saw the strawberries in the salad. One of the first salads I had made myself I put strawberries in, and it was the best salad that I had ever eaten. I had since experimented with mandarins, blueberries and apples, but although they were all good, strawberries remained my favorite.

Ranger returned a minute later with his own serving as my mom and dad helped the girls serve up. I waited until everybody was sitting down before starting to eat, and I was glad that the dining room was large and able to accommodate everyone.

As we ate, Cindy said, "so let me get this straight. The Castle Force company is now Ranger's."

"Yes", I said.

"And the castle is yours, Steph?"

"And the three hundred acres it is on, as well as the cottage that Maggie is in. She is the steward of the property and helps us out immensely", said Ranger.

"I thought you were renting it", said my mom.

"Nope", said Ranger. "Steph owns the castle."

"Holy moly", said Kate. "Did you ever think that you would own a castle?"

I laughed. "I didn't think that I would own anything myself. I mean, our apartment is in the company name, my car is in the company name and so on. And while I understand why that is, I wasn't particularly happy with it. However, Colin was there when my sister was expounding her views on the fact that I was nothing, that everything I had was because of Ranger, and that I was a worthless being. And Colin was there when I got away from her and started to cry and told him that I agreed with my sister. I was nothing and I had nothing. I thought I was worthless. That is why he gave the castle to me." I paused and took a deep breath, and willed the tears away.

"It was to remind you that you aren't nothing", said Ranger quietly as he leaned over and rubbed my back. "It was to remind you that you're everything. You're everything to me and you were everything to him. You're my reason to breathe and you were his reason to keep fighting for as long as he did. It was a reminder to you that you represent home and without you, I have nowhere to come home to."

I sniffled as Dirk smiled. "Aw", he said. "That was the sweetest thing that I ever heard. How come you never say things like that to me?"

Ranger grinned. "One guess. I'm giving you one guess." Everyone laughed.

I finished my lunch and looked around the table. "What are people planning on doing this afternoon?"

Cindy said that she thought both the kids and she could use a nap for a couple of hours. Nick said his kids could use the same thing. "However", said Nick, "after I get the kids down, I was thinking that I would start to look at the data for this explosion."

"Thank goodness that you said that", said Miguel. "I'm itching to see what was going on."

"Me too", said Dirk. He turned to me. "Are you up for some investigation, or do you want to sleep for a bit?"

I smiled. "I thought you'd never ask. I was thinking that we could make the morning room a command central."

"Only if we can carry in a sofa for you, Steph", said Kai. "I don't want your legs down that long, and neither will you. It would cause unbearable pain tonight."

I sighed, then smiled. "Y'all going to be envious that I can stretch out on the sofa."

Dirk smiled. "We could carry in four other sofas, couldn't we?"

I laughed and turned to Ranger. "Did we get the security video of the people who attacked Ben?"

"You're pretty certain that Ben was the intended victim?" said Ranger.

"It makes sense."

"I know." He turned to the group. "Okay, the Gurus are going to the morning room to review the security footage and try to run the faces through facial recognition programs. The ERT and I are going to blow off some steam and go for a run. Kai is going to become an honorary Guru and will add his Special Ops experience to the work being done. He is also going to keep tabs on Steph and make sure she isn't overdoing it, and personally I don't know what is the hardest of those assignments." I laughed and stuck out my tongue, and the rest of the guests laughed as well. "And anyone else can either explore or sleep, depending upon their preference."

People carried their dirty plates into the kitchen, and Ranger put the plates back into the crate, ready to go back to the rental company. While he did that, my parents sat beside me. "What can you do about what happened?" said my mother.

I smiled. "First, we are going to try to identify the people responsible. That will largely be done through facial recognition. Now that we own Castle Force, we have access to all the private data banks in Europe. Before, we had some access but only complete access to the data banks in the US. Before I came I did a lot of amalgamating the programs, so Dirk and Nick and Miguel and Julie and I have all those programs with us. We also have access to the Castle Force mainframe and can look into work they have already done."

"I thought Rangeman was a security guard company", said my dad.

"It is. Sort of. Ninety percent of our staff are security guards. However, that is a front for what we really do, and what we really do is a secret. We have, between the two companies, almost fifty thousand security guards on staff, and they bring in thirty percent of our net revenues. But that isn't all we do. It would be dangerous to us if what we really did got out." I looked at my parents, and they seemed to understand. "We work hand-in-hand with the government and supplement their services. We do a lot of high-end investigation for various governmental bodies, from the CIA to the FBI to the DEA and down to multitudes of local governments. We also provide highly-trained military teams to capture and arrest the bad guys. There is no one that does the same thing that we do. The Gurus, as we call them, are Miguel, Dirk, Nick and Julie – and me. The five of us are known as the dream team of researchers. We do Amber Alerts, find kidnapped victims, feed information to onsite staff for hostage negotiations, and so on. Our research at least halves the amount of time to close cases. I don't know about me, but the rest of my team are known as the best researchers in the United States."

Hal sat down beside me. "Steph's department counts for less than one percent of the company complement of employees. She only has one hundred and thirty-seven people on staff – with another two hundred and three in Castle Force. However, despite only having less than one percent of the staff, her department brings in about a third of our net revenues. Her staff are paid well, but they literally bring in hundreds of millions of net revenues a year.

"Because Steph's department does such high-end work, she gets the cream of the crop working for her, and she requires people to be trained extensively in the areas that she needs. Most of her department have post-grad degrees, fifty percent have their doctorates, and at least a third of her department are military vets who have been trained in security risks. A significant number of other staff are former police officers who, again, have been trained in criminal matters. As for Steph, she is the most talented researcher in the company. The staff got together and bought a crystal ball and gave it to her for Christmas one year. They said that her research is so accurate that the only way she could be getting those answers were through the use of a crystal ball. She has an incredible instinct and a fabulous way of leading her team. To her, the team is her family. She knows every single one, knows their family history, their likes and dislikes, and she cares deeply about her staff. That's why her staff get so mad when Val comes to the building and screams and swears at her and tells her that she is useless and worthless. Steph is the most brilliant researcher in America right now. I have had to talk down more than one person who has begged me to be able to teach Val a lesson after Val has assaulted her. The only way I can stop them is by telling them that it would upset Steph. And when Val says that, if Steph can do it, she can do it better?" Hal shook his head. "Val is showing that she is an idiot, because there is no one, probably in the world, who can do it better than Steph."

Ranger came and sat down. "It is, in fact, why Colin gave us Castle Force. Yes, my name is on the ownership papers but Colin told us both that the reason he was interested in merging with our company was because of our research department. He said, and I agree with him, that what Steph did was magical and he wanted her to train his staff to do the same thing. He said he had thought his staff were good – and they are. But Steph can dance circles around them, and Colin believed that if Steph joined the two research departments and shared abilities, we would become the most kickass research department in the world. So yes, Colin gave his two-and-a-half billion-pound company to me, but he made sure that Steph understood that it was because of her – and he gave Steph the castle so that the next time Val said she was nothing and worthless, Steph would know that she had a castle and that she had it because Colin had incredible respect and love for her, that it was given to her because of what she could do and the person that she was. He gave it to her because his baby had died when his pregnant fiancée was killed in a car accident, and he had adopted Steph as his daughter because he liked to think that he'd been expecting a daughter and she was just like Steph – brilliant, beautiful, and the most compassionate woman that he had ever met. It was the home that he had bought for his family, and with adopting Steph as his daughter, she was the only daughter he had."

My parents stared at Ranger and Hal in shock. My face was flaming and I was looking down at the table in embarrassment. Hal smiled slightly and rubbed my back. "Steph, it's about time that your parents know why Ranger and the Rangeman team get so upset by Val's venom. You are a talented person, and your team is breathing a sigh of relief that you are back."

I smiled. "How are the guys doing?" I said quietly.

"This will be good for them. Their mental health took a nosedive after that Amber Alert. I have ordered them to twice-a-week counselling, and they each have set up phone appointments while they are here. However, I think seeing you recovering will be the best thing for them. When they found out what happened, they were very upset. Through their Special Ops work, they have seen burns and know the debilitating pain associated with them. Similarly, they have seen friends suffer from muscle tears and they know the debilitating pain associated with that as well. Seeing you laugh and tell jokes after they got here? You could see them all start to settle."

I sighed and smiled. "Good", I said.

The men went by carrying a sofa, and Hal smiled as he saw them. "I think that's your cue. Where is your computer?"

"In the family room beside the sofa."

"I'll get it for you in a minute. Are you ready to be taken to the morning room?"

I smiled. "Thanks, Hal."

Ranger looked at Hal. "I set a muster time for fifteen minutes from now for our run. Julie said that there is a great run through the forest, and Kai estimates that it's about fifteen miles long. I'm looking forward to it."

Hal smiled. "I definitely could stretch my legs. I had a lot to do at the ranch to prepare to go, and I could use a run to settle my body down."

"There are benefits from having injured legs", I said. Hal laughed. He pulled out my chair and lifted me. I told my parents that I would talk to them later and, as Hal carried me to the morning room, I quietly said, "getting to work with the Gurus will help me too. It will make me feel more in control, and it will make me feel more useful, less dictated by pain."

"I would feel the same. Just remember that the Gurus are excellent at research and they can continue researching while you sleep. When you are awake, you'll be able to draw all those links and relationships that you are known for."

I sighed. "Thanks, Hal."

He carried me into the morning room. The men had already placed the sofa at the side of the room, and Kai walked in with my triangle pillow and placed it on the end of the sofa so that it would comfortably hold me up. Hal placed me gently on the sofa and arranged me carefully so that I was comfortable, and he left for the family room. He was back a few minutes later, put a pillow on my lap, and he handed me my computer and plugged it in. "Need anything else?" he said softly.

I took a deep breath. "I think I am good, thanks."

Hal smiled. "Then I am going for a run."

I smiled. "Enjoy. It looks like it is only misting out, so you shouldn't get too wet."

Hal laughed. "I'm a he-man. A little mist won't bother me. It will, in fact, be nice when I'm hot."

I laughed. "Then beware of the cannibals when you are out running."

"The cannibals?" said Hal. He smiled, knowing a joke was coming.

"Yes. A man was lost in the wilderness in Scotland, and he wandered around until he was surrounded by cannibals. He looked at the group of hungry people and groaned. 'Oh God, I'm screwed', he said under his breath. Suddenly, he heard God answer. 'No, you aren't. See that big rock over there? Hit the chief on the top of his head hard enough to kill him.' The man picked up the rock and bashed it down on the chief's head. Brains and blood exploded everywhere. As the angry cannibals advanced on him, God said, 'now, you're screwed.'"

The men laughed, and I could see them relax further. Hal patted me on the shoulder and left the room with a smile on his face, and I looked at Kai. He smiled and shook his head, and I winked at him before turning to the guys. "Who wants to pull up the security tapes?" I said.