Story: Those bloody questions
Chapter 2: Kind request
Author: Ann
Rating: (G to NC-17) G
Spoilers/Warnings: None in particular.
Summary: Aurelia has a request for Stephanie…
I didn't have any plans to continue this story, but I couldn't resist the requests I got. Many thanks for the nice reviews! Hope you like this second chapter! Please review!
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, except for Aurelia…
Kind request
I was sneaking into Ricardo's room where he was sleeping like a baby. I grinned at myself; he had never seen it coming.
After one day in bed he had started to say that he was feeling much better now, and that he would go home and rest there. Yeah right, we all knew that as soon as he was out of our sight he would go straight back to work again. So I had worked up this little plan. I knew that I couldn't physically keep him in bed and to convince him to take some pills or a shot would not work, he would simply not allow me. I didn't feel like calling in our 3 brothers to hold him down, he wasn't that sick that I wanted to risk his revenge. But I didn't like the idea of him starting work while he was still having the flu. So I had made a deal with him (or at least he thought so). I would allow him to go home without protest if he stayed in bed until after dinner and his temperature wouldn't be too high. You see, I knew he would drink this glass of healthy stuff after dinner and the taste of that stuff was eh… strong. So I had these sleeping tablets that he wouldn't taste at all, especially mixed up with that eh… liquid. And the plan had worked like magic. He always drank the glass in one go, hadn't done anything different tonight. Nobody had known about the tablets except for me, to limit the chance of getting caught. He was after all still an ex-Ranger, sick or not sick and he usually was pretty aware of his surroundings.
About half an hour after dinner I had gone up to check his temperature and to let him go (at least that's what he thought earlier tonight). I went into the room and he was sitting head slumped on the edge of the bed. He had obviously been walking around, getting his stuff together when the pills had started to take effect. He looked at me with dark eyes.
"What did you give me?" I didn't want to lie, I had no reason to lie.
"Sleeping pills."
"Why?" he growled at me.
"Because you aren't better yet, and we all know that once you leave this house you will be going back to work immediately."
"So?" Slightly pissed off.
"So I don't think it is healthy what you are doing."
"So?" Slightly more pissed off.
"So I don't feel like seeing if you can make this worse in stead of simply doing what your doctor asked you to do."
"Why?"
"Because I don't like to get a call in the next few days from a hospital to hear that you collapsed or worse, that a skip got to you because you were actually too sick to work but too stubborn to admit it."
"I can take care of myself."
"Sure you can, but right now I decided to take care of you, whether you like it or not"
"Well, I don't like it at all. You know I hate it when you drug me."
His speech was starting to sound a bit slurred. I couldn't help but smile, he was so cute sitting there on the bed in his black outfit, looking all pissed off with red cheeks of anger and fever while his eyelids where drooping. He was trying with all his power to fight the drugs, but I knew he would loose that battle. I learned from experience how much was needed to take him out.
"Come on, Ricardo, it's a lost battle and you know it. Take off your clothes and go to sleep."
"I don't want to." I laughed softly at that. Not many people got to see Ricardo whining. He shot me another dark look, but I wasn't afraid of him. I knew he would never hurt me, he was a big big softy when it came to his sisters. I walked to him, and started to pull his shirt over his head. With a deep sigh he relented and lifted his arms in the air so I could pull it off. I bend down and untied his shoes and took them off together with his socks.
"This is … getting … embarrassing." He slurred, but he didn't sound like it was bothering him too much at the moment. I pushed him back on the bed and started to pull his trousers off. He had closed his eyes, well on his way to dreamland.
Suddenly he stirred a little.
"Mmm… Babe… no…. rush." He chuckled softly. He sounded like his mind was somewhere completely different, like he was thinking something … erotic. Mmm, okay I was pulling his pants of him and I had drugged him, maybe he wasn't complete aware of his surroundings. I had finished with his pants and started to pull him so he would scoot over to the middle of the bed in stead of laying on the edge with his feet dangling over the side.
"Come on, Ricardo, work with me here. Move." He made a half assed effort to move further on the bed. I quickly pulled the blanket back and pushed him some more.
"Steph…. I … didn't…. mmm…" He was truly gone now, but I on the other hand was on full alert.
I had heard him mention the name Stephanie a few times in work related stories. She was also a bounty hunter and on occasion they worked together. I remember that Tank had said something about cars and things blowing up. I hadn't really paid attention. But after my little "discovery" yesterday night (okay, he never really admitted anything, but I still knew I was on to something by the way he responded) and Ric's words just before he went to sleep I was starting to wonder if this Steph woman might be the one that stole Ricardo's heart. After all, he called her "Babe", and for Ric that was a serious term of endearment. He had called my friends a lot during their (usually short) relationships, but "Babe" hadn't been on the list. Mmm, I was getting really curious about this woman and wondered if there was an item in the room that I could "accidentally" stumble upon to check my theory. Suddenly I spied his telephone which was lying on the bedside table next to his gun. Surely I would have to take his phone, he shouldn't be disturbed by it now that he was finally sleeping, right? I mean, I only took the phone with the best intentions, that should be clear. Glad we got that out of the way…
I was standing in the hall with the phone in my hand. Mmm, what to do next? I didn't want to "alarm" the rest of the family yet. Ricardo would seriously kill me if I would do that. It was bad enough that I had taken his personal phone from him without his knowledge. Setting the rest of the family on a possible trail of a girlfriend would be enough to make him come after me big time. And I couldn't really blame him; I knew he liked his privacy, probably because during his youth he had had no privacy at all. Living in a Cuban family house with grandparents, parents and 6 children was just like living in a small village. At the door you liked a girl, at the back of the house you were engaged to be married. Ricardo had more than once cursed it, especially when he became a teenager and got into trouble regularly. I don't think he was able to hide one thing he had done, and lots of times things were blown out of proportions. And I don't need to explain to you how lots of his girlfriends never returned after one visit to the house. Dinner with our family was quite an experience. I smiled, I sort of liked our family culture, but I had never been on the receiving end of the negative side as much as Ricardo. Being the eldest simply draws more attention to you than being number 4. I think a large part of his decision to go into the army was to enable him to get away from the house, from the gossip and continuous pressure on him. And he had done well in the army, and even better after he came out. But he had kept everybody at a distance since then, choosing to live in a different part of town, working long hours and not visiting as much as our parents would have liked. Despite that, our mother still adored him and our father had great respect for his achievements. And I secretly suspected that Papa was jealous that Ricardo had managed to escaped the madness while our mother still loved him.
I startled out of my daydreaming when Ricardo's phone started ringing. Oh shit. What now. The display showed "Babe calling". Double shit. Dilemma, dilemma. Quick, decision time before it went to his voicemail. I pressed the green answer button and said tentatively:
"Hello?"
"Eh… Hello?" The women sounded slightly surprised. No wonder, she probably had expected Ricardo to answer the phone.
"How can I help you?" Always be polite right?
"Sorry, but who are you?" She sounded a bit irritated. Hang on, if he liked her and she liked him, than a strange woman answering his phone might make her think the wrong thing. Quick, got to fix it!
"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm Aurelia Manoso, Ricardo's sister" Oops, I just realized I didn't even know if she was actually the Stephanie that I suspected Ricardo liked so much. If it was just another of his "acquaintances" I would love to pretend for once that I was his new girlfriend to scare them off. Serve him right!
"Oh, I see" Silence.
"And you are?"
"I'm Stephanie" Yes! Babe is Stephanie. I was right.
"Can I help you?"
"I was calling Ranger." Well duh, that was to be expected.
"He can't talk to you right now. He is sick." Let's see how she responds to that, see if she is worried about him.
"What's wrong with him?" Was it my idea, or did I hear worry in her voice. Yes, I was sure she sounded worried.
"He has the flu."
"Oh, I see" Silence.
"Will he be alright?" I smell an opportunity to play matchmaker here… I know, he's going to kill me, but still… He just doesn't know what is right for him!
"Well, he will be fine in a few days, but he actually needs someone to take care of him for the next 3 days."
"Oh, uh huh." Come on, lady, take the bait!
"I would do it myself, but I am really busy at the moment and I know that Ricardo would prefer to go home as well. You see, he got sick at our parents house. So uh, are you free the next couple of days?"
"Well eh, maybe, eh, I could help" Yes, finally! No wonder they weren't together. Both of them were way too careful. Yes, this all started to make sense to me now. They were probably madly in love for years now and both of them too scared to tell the other one. I knew I had to help them, I could feel it calling me! Okay, so I get a little carried away occasionally, but doesn't everybody want to give love a hand?
"If you wouldn't mind? It would really help us out." No need to tell her yet that Ricardo had no idea about this.
"But is Ranger okay with this?" Mmm, okay, she knew him well probably. Time for a little improvising.
"Well, he said he really wanted to go home. Why don't you come by, so I can explain things to you and then you can drive him to his house tomorrow."
"Why tomorrow?" Okay, the girl could read between the lines!
"He uh, he is sleeping right now, but uh, I've got an important meeting tomorrow morning, so I'd rather explain to you tonight." Come on girl, just get yourself here so you can see him sleep like a baby and I can get my plan going!
------------
Where the hell was this conversation going? Sure, I was a little worried hearing Ranger was sick, but it didn't sound too serious. And why did I have the distinct feeling that his sister wasn't telling me the complete truth about this situation. I mean, if the man wanted help, wouldn't he have called me himself? Sure, the idea of taking care of Ranger woke up some nice feelings so I wasn't against it, but I didn't want to do something that Ranger didn't want me to. He had enough friends to take care of him. But then again the idea of getting to spent 3 days with him was very appealing… wait, maybe his sister would tell me where the Batcave was… Oh, what to do, what to do!
"Okay, I'll come over. What is the address?" Did I just agree to take care of Ranger for 3 days without even knowing what was going on exactly and if he actually wanted me there? But who could say no to the request of taking care of Ranger, I mean we're talking about Ranger here!
Oh shit, nothing good could come from this!
