Surviving Stephanie Chapter 29

Disclaimer: Didn't do it. Wasn't me.

Note: Sorry this is short. Trying to work on my art project and using this as therapy for when I start to feel like throwing it out the window. Not at all the best chapter, but here it is. Blame my art teacher, I guess. Thank you all for your reviews. It's good to know people are finding this amusing. :)

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We made it all the way to the fourth floor before Ranger mentioned me wearing his sweatshirt. Well, okay, he didn't mention it out loud, but a significant look and the eyebrow lifting amounted to the same thing.

"I borrowed your shirt," I shrugged. "It was cold. I promise not to blow it up."

He laughed softly and brushed my cheek with his thumb. "Looks good on you."

I smiled and hoped I wasn't blushing.

Five minutes later I was hoisting myself into the spaceship-inspired interior of the Bat Truck. Boys and their toys… Further confirmation of that cowboy theory, I'm telling you. My dad would have turned green over this truck.

"How's your mental health?" Ranger asked. I tilted my head, wondering where that had come from. I guess I had been a little off last night…

"I'm better," I said honestly. "Daylight helps."

He smiled a little. "Yeah, it does."

I didn't want to ask any questions along that line, and I really didn't to hear any of the answers to the questions I could have asked. Instead I settled for relaxing back into the seat and enjoying the music he had going. It was rap of some description- I thought maybe Lil Jon and his crew, but I didn't follow the scene close enough to recognize groups much beyond Nelly, Usher, Ja Rule, you know the bigger ones. Except for..

"Hey, Ranger, you ever heard of Tech Nine?" I asked, suddenly curious. I doubted Janet could possibly have known of him, so he couldn't by any stretch have gotten into her story, right? So he shouldn't exist here…

Ranger actually looked away from the highway, his brows raised. "Yes."

"Do you have any of his CDs?" Okay, so maybe he was mentioned. Surely not enough to have his….

"Under your seat, in the black case."

Half in shock I reached down and yanked out one of those big black flip cases, filled with CD's. Wow. He took his music seriously. Or his image… Whichever. One and the same, sometimes. I leafed through until I caught sight of the CD: Absolute Power.

Now this was creepy. Tech was a local type rapper, hugely popular in the KC area. He hadn't really shown up on the national scene much… hell, he had lyrics specifically about the towns around KC MO… no way. The lyrics would be different or something. Had to be.

"Mind if I play this?" I asked, sliding out the CD. Ranger gave his minute little shrug. Geeze, saving energy today, I guess.

"Go ahead. Didn't know you liked rap, Babe," he remarked. I laughed. Yeah, there's a lot you don't know soldier boy.

'Ladies and gentlemen let me welcome you to my… purgatory…'

I drifted off into the music, listening for any changes, but if there were any, they were too small for me to notice. I never was any good at music anyway. Notes, numbers… yeah. I can count, I can dance,just don't ask me to figure out half, whole, quarter notey thingies. But the lyrics were the same. As much as you could tell with Tech anyway. So this world went beyond whatever Janet knew?

Maybe it was a parallel universe. Mom had all sorts of books on that stuff. Supposedly there could be infinite universes all separated by like 7 degrees or something… or was that people's minds? Had to be universes, because I didn't see my mind being anywhere near that close to Abruzzi's. So maybe this was just a similar universe to Plum World? I mean it stands to reason that if you had infinite universes, there were infinite possible realities and infinite versions thereof right?

So how did I get here? To this one specifically, which contained apparently, elements from my world (Dad) and elements from Stephanie's (everything else)? How did I get back? And even if I could get back would it be the one I left behind or some other world? Would I wake up as Merry Gentry?

And where was Stephanie anyway? I bit my lip at that question. Honestly, I was adjusting to this place. Okay, it was weird and scary, and callous… but there were at least good people. Or semi-good, I amended with a quick glance at Ranger. Mostly good? Okay, Alyssa, you're rambling. Focus. No, not on Ranger's godly abs… Stephanie.

I still sort of had a feeling that maybe she and I had switched places. Or she was dead and I'd made some sort of bargain with some scatter-brained St. Peter person that I could get to live out the rest of my time as her. So how come the casting switch? I'd seen Frank Plum at the hospital when I woke up.

Another idea was surfacing in my brain but I wasn't sure I was happy about it. Let's not think of it then. Let's think about the scene at the airport. See if I can remember any helpful lines…

The airport went the way I expected, more or less. The only problem I ran into was when Evelyn actually talked about her experiences. When she said Abruzzi "did something," I almost lost it. The look on her face… I'd never seen anyone look like that.

I'd never dealt with rape. Not really. It's something they warn you about at school, or you see on TV. Sure, I knew it happened theoretically. I'd just never had to see anybody it actually happened to. If I had had any last small thoughts that Abruzzi was slightly human the look in Evelyn's eyes pretty much killed them. I was pretty sure I could pull a trigger on him now and not feel too bad about it.

"Good luck," I told her as they took off. I almost wished I was going with them.

As the group disappeared into the plane, a warm hand settled as the base of my neck. "They told you a sob story didn't they?"

I didn't turn, just nodded. Stephanie was supposed to be tough. The "something" wasn't supposed to bother her. I felt like screaming. When that happened, weren't you supposed to be able to go to the cops? Wasn't there supposed to be someone in a uniform to take the bad guy away?

My thoughts were back home, a home I'd probably never see again. I thought of our cops; of Chief and Jeb, Jerry and Sheriff Coon. Men I had known since before I could walk. Suddenly I missed living in a Mayberry world.

"Babe?"

Ranger would be laughing if he had a clue where my thoughts were at. Well, assuming he knew I wasn't Steph. Mayberry worlds didn't exist to him. I took a shaky breath and turned to him. "I remember they always told us, go to the police. They'll help you. The cops or the sheriff or… or you know, law enforcement. Guys with shiny badges," I frowned up at him, knowing I was probably asking something I didn't want the answer to. "What happened? Where are they?"

His face was typically unreadable. "Come on. We'll grab some lunch."

"I don't think I'm hungry."

"Babe," Ranger sighed and slung an arm around my shoulder to guide me outside.

For once I was glad I couldn't figure out the paragraph he managed to squeeze into that one syllable. I didn't want to know. I wanted the script and I wanted Mayberry. I wanted to be back in Steeleville for the summer, getting into silly scrapes with Monica and Caitlin. Maybe Chief or Jerry would bail us out like they usually did. Maybe we'd throw a party out in Headless Woman Woods.

I used to daydream about cruising the Caribbean with Captain Jack. What happened?

"Deep thoughts?" Ranger asked, surfacing from his zone. I smiled.

"Yeah." Wonder what he'd say if I told him about the endless summers I was remembering. Probably he'd just say nothing and do the little head-shake thing. "Just missing old friends."

Ranger looked at me curiously but he didn't say anything until we were seated in a small cafee with a definite Cuban atmosphere. "You need a new job," he said. I was pretty sure he was only half serious. "Maybe arranging flowers."

I made a face. "I suck at flower arrangements. I'm not actually good at much beyond dancing and acting. So I guess I just need to get tough."

His hand covered mine. "Don't rush into it."

I smiled at him. He really was sweet, in a severely understated way. He was sneaky sweet. "Um, is this where I cower and look afeared?"

He flashed the wolf grin. "That comes later."

"Rats," I tried to look disappointed. "And I've been practicing it with Tank. He can almost look at me cowering and not laugh. It's so hard to effectively cower. It's worse than 'being the tree.'" I made a face. I had always loathed that exercise What good is it to be a tree when no self-respecting tree would ever be onstage anyway?

"You worry me."

I smiled innocently. "And I haven't even revealed my plans to take over the world yet."

He didn't get a chance to not reply because the waitress showed up to ask for our orders. I just wanted something to drink until Ranger gave me one of his scary looks. I interpreted to mean: 'Eat, or I find an IV.'

It was a relatively silent meal. Suddenly conscious of my lack of appetite, I tried to demolish the salad. I gave up about two-thirds of the way through. I just couldn't do it. My brain kept going back to Evelyn and then death cooties, then to what was probably going to have to happen with Abruzzi. When we got back in the truck Ranger had me nailed in his crosshairs. Uh-oh. Nobody expects the Cuban Inquisition…

"You need to eat," he said as I was trying my best ignore the squicky feeling of upcoming speechifying.

"I eat."

Silence.

"I wasn't very hungry."

Ranger sat back and kept me locked in his sights. Oh boy, I didn't think I'd be winning this round. "Babe, your jeans are falling off you. And as cute as you are in my shirt, you look like a waif. People are thinking I kidnapped you." It must really suck to have ESP sometimes…I smiled in spite of myself.

"These are cargos. They're supposed to be baggy." I remembered snarking at Joe that his maternal instincts must have kicked in hard after thirty. Ranger was beginning to worry me. Maybe I'd been on to something… Eh. When in doubt, distract.

I smiled, unbuckling to slip across the seat and give him a hug. "Thanks, Ranger. I'll try to watch it a little more."

His arms came around me and somehow I ended up in his lap. Funny how that happens. I let myself be held and the back of my head whispered that actions always spoke louder than words. I wondered idly if Ranger even knew what he was saying. Then again, I didn't even know what I was saying. Something along the lines of, 'I'm not scared of you. Let's hug!' I guess… Great. I'm a Care Bear. I hoped I at least got to be the pink one. I liked Cheer Bear.

Ranger's hands were rubbing gently over my back and making a little harder to think. "How's the bruising?"

I blinked. Took my brain a moment to get organized. "It's okay," I said, pulling my head off his shoulder to look at him.

"Liar," his voice was quiet and very, very sexy. I wondered what phone sex with him would be like. Something to add to that list, right behind shower sex. I'm thinking about sex a lot lately…

Must be the stress.

"What are you thinking about?"

Hm, I could say 'nothing,' and leave it at that. But that wasn't fun. And maybe I could shock him…

"Wondering what phone sex would be like with you." I kept my face innocent and curious, as if this were simply a remark about the weather.

Ranger took in a deep breath. "Phone sex?"

"Yeah. You have a really nice voice."

His eyes were locked with mine now. "We have got to get you off those meds."

I eased myself off his lap and into the middle seat. "Why?"

"Because you're making it difficult for me to remember you're hurt."

"Hm. That is a dilemma…. Speaking of them," I put in, another thought occurring to me. Mainly the thought of the apartment. And where I should or would be staying tonight. Rex was still at Ranger's and Tank had packed me enough clothes for a week.

Ranger glanced at me, his eyes were already back on the road when he spoke. "There still isn't a security system at your apartment, Babe. I could send one of my guys around tomorrow."

"Um," I thought about it for roughly a millisecond. "I guess that's okay. I mean, it's not rude if I accept is it? Only it's going to take me days to get ahold of a security guy and I don't think it's a great idea to be in Fort Lockless with psycho Teletubbies blowing things up…"

"I'll send Hector tomorrow."

I really meant to ask him about where I'd be spending the night, but I liked the song that came on the radio and got sidetracked. I guess I fell asleep, because I don't remember if I heard the end of the song or not. Disappointing because I'd wanted to know what it was. It was fun and boppy. But the next thing I knew there was a hand settling on my shoulder and a someone asking me to wake up.

"I'm up," I protested around a yawn. Ranger's lips quirked. I stuck my tongue out at him and looked around. Oh, a garage. Lots of black vehicles… Wait a sec. This wasn't the Cameron parking garage. It was just a really big garage with lots of cars, like the one in Sabrina. No street entrance… just doors. That didn't look like they led onto a street.

Country lane, maybe. Or a driveway…

"Ranger, where are we?"

"Come on," he said, getting out. I debated staying put. This didn't look like it was attached to safe house. I was intrigued. Okay, curious, but intrigued had more dignity. Besides, I wasn't about to thieve Ranger's truck.

I got out slowly- my bruises were starting to hurt again. "This," I told him as I slammed the door and stalked toward him. "Is the last time I fall asleep with you driving. This is kidnapping."

"You know you love it, Babe." Ranger grinned. I contemplated kicking him in the shins. Yes, I know, I have a fixation, but it really helps. And it doesn't make them as mad as when you kick them in the balls. Plus you get the benefit of seeing a guy hop around. It's amusing. Amusing and relaxing. What could be better?

Instead, I rolled my eyes and let him lead me through a door and into a kitchen that would have made a great home for Wolfgang Puck.

"Ranger, again I ask, where are we?" I had an odd sensation that I knew the answer. Trepidation again. I was filled with trepidation.

"Welcome to the Bat Cave," he said softly in my ear, sending a small wave of lust through me. I turned to look up into his eyes, wetting my lips and watching his gaze darken considerably.

"I'm flattered. Thank you…." I shifted my weight forward and smiled. He leaned in for the kiss.

I pulled my foot back and kicked as hard as I could, nailing him on the shin. Sucker.