Stephanie pulled into the garage at Rangeman and looked over at the building as the butterflies in her stomach took flight. She'd made a point to avoid everyone at Haywood over the weekend, so she could take a few days think about the discussion she'd had with Ranger on Friday night. The last thing she needed was their presence influencing her decision.

She stepped out of her latest POS car and headed for the building. This growing up business was hard, but over the last year, she'd done a good job of becoming more responsible. It started with kicking Morelli to the curb for the last time and continued with her finally asking for proper training.

Having a serious discussion with Ranger about commitment and marriage still hadn't been on her immediate list of things to do, but when he showed up Friday night wanting to talk about her upcoming birthday and their future together, that's exactly what happened.

He didn't exactly proposed, but he had told her that their Someday could finally happen if and when she was ready. She'd be the first to admit that the idea of getting married again scared the hell out of her. After the spectacular implosion of her marriage to Dickie and then the years of back and forth with Morelli, she never really wanted to get married again.

She steeled her nerves as she stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for Five.

More than once she'd told Ranger that she didn't need a ring or a piece of paper, she only needed him. What she'd realized over the last two days was that she loved him beyond reason. So, if he was willing to give her everything, she had no legitimate reason to say no.

Stephanie stepped off the elevator onto Five and headed for Ranger's office only to come to a quick halt as she looked around the control room floor. Contract workers and guys she recognized from Miami, Atlanta and Boston were all working the floor. Not one of her Merry Men were anywhere to be seen. What in the hell is going on?

Spotting Hawk, from the Atlanta office sitting at what would be Cal's desk she headed in his direction. Steph knew Hawk from a short stint she did in Atlanta while helping Ranger to flesh out a mole in the office.

Hawk spotted her and with a huge smile on his face he stood to greet her. She reached out to give him a hug. "Hawk. What are you doing here?"

"Got called up to help," he said as he pulled back, but kept her hands in his. "You look amazing, Poppet. Manoso treating you well?"

Steph's smile widened. "He is."

Hawk cocked his head to the side and studied her. "The contented look on your face tells me that you're telling the truth."

"I have no reason to lie about that," she said. "Now, don't take this wrong, but where in the hell are all my Trenton guys and where is Ranger?"

Hawk held a hand up to his heart. "I'm not good enough for you, Poppet? I'm wounded."

"You're something, all right," Steph giggled and leaned in to give him a kiss on the cheek. "Boy, I've missed you."

He dropped his hands to his side as his smile returned. "I've missed you too. The Atlanta office isn't the same without your shining light. I hope these Trenton guys know how lucky they are."

"We do," Lester's voice came from behind her, causing Steph to spin around to face him.

"Les. Where were you?"

He slung an arm around her, then pulled her back to his side. She knew it was a not-so-subtle move of laying claim to her and she barely refrained from rolling her eyes. Sometimes her guys could be a bit overprotective. "I was down in the gun range when the guys on monitors notified us that you were here."

He turned them back toward the elevator and Steph sent a finger wave over her shoulder to Hawk before turning her attention back to Lester. "Speaking of that, where is everyone?"

Les walked with her to the elevator and pressed the button for the basement. "Practicing."

Confused, she shifted to lean against the elevator wall and looked up at him. "Practicing for what?"

The elevator opened in the basement to a muted cracking sound. While it wasn't unusual to hear the gunshots from the range this noise didn't sound like shots. Steph stepped out and paused as she glanced back at Lester. "What was that?"

He grinned. "You'll see." She followed him into the gun range and stopped short at the sight before her. Ram was crouched just inside the door with a facemask and chest pads on. She blinked, then turned her attention in the direction he was facing. At the other end of the hall leading to weapons storage was Cal holding what appeared to be a softball and glove.

Confusion wracked her brain as she stared at the two of them. "Baseball?" she finally murmured as Cal threw a pitch to Ram.

"Softball," Lester replied.

Steph held her hands up in front of her. "Wait just a sec. You're telling me Ranger brought in people from other offices and contract workers to cover shifts so you guys could play softball?"

"Not just softball, Babe," Ranger said appearing like smoke behind her.

She turned to look at him as her confusion continued. "What do you mean not just softball?"

"Let me explain," Lester said as Steph moved so she could see Zero, Tank and Hall all practicing batting inside the firing lanes. "Last week Bobby and I were at TPD dropping off a high bond skip when we overheard Big Dog and Gazzara gloating about how TPD had won the Badges and Bats League championship and were this year's league champs."

"Badges and Bats?" Steph repeated looking from Lester to Ranger and back.

"It's a slow pitch softball league put together by a bunch of the surrounding police departments," Bobby said as he walked up and pulled off his baseball glove. "I'm surprised you didn't know about it."

Steph shook her head. "Morelli isn't really sports inclined. He watches baseball. He doesn't play it."

"Gazzara or Big Dog never mentioned it to you?" Lester asked.

Steph shrugged as she thought back on various conversations she'd had with her TPD friends. "Possibly, but I probably wasn't paying attention."

"Well," Lester said. "Apparently, they beat out fifteen other teams in the league to win their 'World Series'." He air quoted the words with his fingers.

Bobby motioned to Lester. "Of course, Santos here smirked and then said that the league should probably be called Badges and Beers instead of Bats, since quite a few of the TPD tend to be sporting some larger beer bellies lately."

Steph put her hand over her face and shook her head. "You didn't."

"Of course, he did," Ranger said. "Because he can't keep his mouth shut."

Steph dropped her hand and looked around the gun range. "That still doesn't explain the coverage upstairs while you're all down here playing ball."

"Costanza walked up in time to hear Lester's comment," Bobby said. "So, he issued a challenge to Rangeman for a bragging rights game. At first Les waved him off, but then Big Dog called us all chicken."

"So, I told them if we were going to re-arrange our schedules to free up enough people to play a damn game, then they had to make it worth our while and bragging rights wasn't enough."

"So?" Steph motioned with her hand, indicating he should continue.

"So, the betting ensued," Bobby began. "Rangeman now has five thousand dollars on the line."

Steph's eyes widened in shock as she looked Lester. "Five grand? What in the hell were you thinking?"

"I was thinking that their five thousand combined with our five thousand would greatly benefit the Boys and Girls Club," Lester said.

Steph turned to look back at Ranger. "I'm surprised you agreed to this."

"Babe." Ranger slid an arm around her waist pulling her against him. "Rangeman's reputation is on the line here. We can't allow TPD to think that they're better than us. Besides, it's for a good cause. If we lose, TPD's charity of choice gets the money. If we win-"

"You men when we win," Lester interrupted.

"When we win," Ranger corrected as he eyed his cousin. "Not only do we get bragging rights, but the Boy's and Girl's Club will get the money."

One way to guarantee that Ranger would get on board was to toss in a good cause. She grinned and shook her head. "Okay, so when is this game supposed to happen?"

Lester and Bobby exchanged panicked glances before they both turned to look at Ranger. Their reaction caused Steph's spidey senses to activate. "What's that look?" She turned to Ranger. "Carlos?"

"It's Saturday," he said on a sigh.

"Saturday," she repeated. "This Saturday? As my birthday weekend? The weekend that you promised we'd go away to celebrate?"

Lester and Bobby both took a step back in response to her raised voice.

"Steph," Ranger began. "We can still go away."

"We were supposed to leave Friday after work," she countered feeling her temper continue to rise. He was the one to make a big deal about the fact that he had to work on her birthday and wanted to do something special for her. He was also the one who suggested the weekend away and got her all excited and now she was being bumped for some damn game?

"We're only going to my shore house," Ranger said. "We can leave after the game on Saturday and then stay through Monday instead."

She stared up at him as she mulled over this new information. "When is the game on Saturday?"

"Zero nine hundred hours," Lester replied.

Steph rolled her eyes at him. "In real people time please?"

"Nine am, Babe."

So, the game should be done by noon, which mean's they'd still have most of Saturday, plus he was now giving her Monday. That wouldn't be so bad. "Okay," she said. "We can leave after the game, and I won't give you a hard time about it."

"Thank you," Ranger said, then leaned down to give her a kiss.

When she pulled back, a new thought popped into her head. "What are you guys going to be wearing for the game?"

Lester frowned. "Uniforms, what else would we wear?"

Steph angled her head and rolled her eyes again. "Thank you Captain Obvious. I know uniforms, but what kind? Your Rangeman uniforms or actual baseball uniforms?"

"Actual baseball uniforms," Ranger said. "Ella is making the arrangements for the uniforms as we speak." A flash of heat coursed through her at the thought of not only Ranger but also her Merry Men dressed in baseball uniforms. Oh, Happy Birthday to me!

"I gotta go." She quickly leaned in to give Ranger a kiss then spun on her heel and headed for the door.

"Wait, Babe."

Steph stopped and glanced back at him. A look of concern claimed his features.

"Why did you stop by today? You weren't scheduled to work."

She thought about her original reason for showing up at Rangeman. This wasn't a conversation she wanted to have with him in front of the guys. At this point, it could wait until after the game. Hell, it could wait until they were at his beach house in Deal. "Oh, it wasn't important."

"Are you sure?"

She nodded. "Positive."

"Are we still on for your birthday dinner Thursday night?"

She grinned. Dinner and dancing with Ranger and her favorite guys. Hell yeah. "Absolutely." With that, she headed out the door and back to the elevator. While she had her outfit for Thursday night already picked out, she needed to find the perfect outfit to wear for the game on Saturday. She also needed to get a cheering section together. No doubt TPD would have their families there to cheer for them. She was going to make sure Rangeman would have fans cheering for them too.

Steph slid into her car, then pulled out her phone and hit the speed dial for Mary Lou. She answered after two rings. "Hey. I need your help with something."