Chapter Eleven

"I have a picture of that," said Jamie, sitting up.

"I want to see it," I said. Jamie grabbed her clothes from the bedside table and started to shuffle across the room.

"So are you coming home with me or are you still staying with Ranger?" I asked.

"She's staying with me." Said Ranger. End of discussion.

"Whatever floats yer boat," said Jamie, disappearing into the bathroom.

She came out fully clothed in slightly baggy jeans, same boots and jacket, and same bandana. "Hey ya know? We should become pirates. I'd be pretty good at it."

Aaah what pain killers do to a person. "Uh…maybe next time we're at the shore." I said.

Jamie nodded and looked over at Ranger. "You could be captain," she said, "we could give you a cool nickname like…Mercenary-Beard or something."

"I'll think about it," said Ranger with a smile.

It was nine when we reached Rangeman. I had followed behind in my Mini, and was now pulling into a parking space besideRanger's Mercedes.

"I figure I'll lay low for a couple of days," said Jamie, "Jack knows the police are after him so he'll be more careful. When my arm heals I'll hit the road." The pain killers were wearing off; her eyes were now in focus. I really didn't want her to leave. I wanted Jack to get arrested and put away forever.

"You're going to leave? You just got here," I said.

"I don't want to keep endangering you, and besides, I haven't been to Egypt yet. I mean come on, I've got to see Egypt."

I followed Jamie up to her apartment. Someone had called Ranger and he left in a hurry. She flopped down on her couch with a sigh and pulled the big box of letters toward her, trying to lift it onto the couch. I noticed she was having a little trouble with one arm, so I lent her a hand. I peered inside the box. Along with tons of polariods, envelopes, letters, and the cocoanut, there was also a small teddy bear, half an arrow, a bottle of some Asian wine, and a mini Jamaican flag on a stick. Jamie was digging one-handed through the box. She pulled out a stack of Polaroid's and started shuffling through them.

"What are you looking for?" I asked her.

"The picture of Lester," she said. "Ah. Here is it." She handed me the picture. It was of Lester, duct taped to a fancy chair, shooting daggers at the camera. I could see Tank and Ranger in the background and they looked like they were laughing their heads off. Jamie hadn't held back on Lester's makeover. He had on lipstick, eyeshadow, blush, eyeliner, mascara, the whole works. How Jamie got him on the chair was a mystery. There was a white strip at the bottom of the picture to write captions on. Jamie had written I'm just a sweet Transvestite from Tansexual Traselvania! I laughed at that.

"What was the teddy bear for?" I asked. It was small, white and fuzzy with a big red heart on the stomach.

"I won it in one of those fifty cent claw machines," said Jamie, taking the bear out of the box, "And anyway it was valentines day so Igave it to Ranger." She smiled, remembering.

"What's the arrow?" I said, holding it in my hand. It was just a wooden stick with a metal arrow head attached. It looked like it had been snapped in half.

Jamie looked at the half arrow in my hand and frowned. "I forget. Probably we were just playing 'William Tell' or something."

I looked up at Jamie and found her going through pictures, a faraway look on her face. Taking a walk down memory lane. I grabbed a stack from the box and flipped through them. Mostly they were pictures of jungles or waterfalls or beaches. There was one of Ranger, Tank, Cal, and Woody laying side by side on a beach all wearing bathing suits. The caption Jamie wrote on the white strip on the bottom read drool. The next one was of Ranger, eyes narrowed,hands on hips, except that his hair was curly. REALLY curly. As curly as mine but not as frizzy. The caption read it's Shirly Temple gone ARMY! I looked over at Jamie.

"How much did you have to pay him to curl his hair?" I asked.

"Eh I forget. It was probably a lot." She said.

I laughed and went to the next picture. There was a picture that Jamie took from a boat, looking at Ranger in the water below. Ranger was looking up at the camera. If looks could kill…. The caption said ooh did I just see a shark fin...?

"I guess this was when you shoved Ranger off the boat," I said, cutting into Jamie's secret thoughts.

She looked up, "Oh yeah. That was fun."

The next picture was of Jamie, clearly asleep, tied to a buoy. "I can't believe he tied you to a buoy," I said, shaking my head. There was a caption, hand written by Ranger. You need to be more aware of your surroundings, kiddo

"He taped that picture to my head," said Jamie, "It was fun. And it's not like he would've let me die of starvation or anything. He left me a bag full of water bottles and granola bars."

"You were on it for eight days, right?"

"Yup."

I looked back down at the next Polaroid and froze. It was of Ranger and Jamie; somebody else had taken the picture. And they were kissing. Not friendly kissing. This was like…Omgiod I want to make sweet love to you kind of kissing. His arms were wrapped tightly around her waste and her's around his neck. The captionwas in somebody else's handwriting. Not Ranger's or Jamie's.Cripes get a room will ya?Wow. This is new. My eyebrows were threatening to disappear into my hairline.

"Um….Jamie?" I asked.

She looked up at me and noticed the picture I was looking at. "Yeah?"

I was speechless. So I just looked at her, jaw dropped, eyebrows raised.

She burst out laughing. She laughed so hard she fell off the couch.

"Well?" I said to her once she stopped laughing, my voice about eight octaves higher, "care to explain?"

"There's not much to explain, sis. Ranger, Tank,and I were up in this jungle somewhere and our native guide was so fascinated with my camera I let him take a picture. So he was just going to take one of me but then Ranger just grabbed me. That's it."

No way was she getting away this time. She was going to tell me the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. "Uhn-uhn, Jamie, that's not going to work. You have to tell me everything. And this time you're not getting away. So unplug the phone."

Jamie looked up at me from the floor. Her face fell and she looked pretty sad. She sighed heavily and slouched back down on the couch. She put her head back and closed her eyes.

"Well?" I asked.

Grunt.

"Fine. I'll ask the questions, you explain. Capeesh?" (A/N...sorry I don't know how to spell that...)

Another grunt. I guess she agreed. "Have you slept with him?"

The corners of her mouth twitched up. "Yeah. A few times. He was my first."

"OMIGOD!" Holy crap. Holy shit. Holy tomato sauce.

"I know. Pretty scary, huh?"

"When, where, why, how!"

"Uh…a year ago…in Italy…I don't know, it just happened….and I'm assuming you've had sex Ed, right? I mean, I don't really want to explain all that."

I rolled my eyes. "Har har. So tell me ALL the details."

Jamie sighed. "We werewere renting ahouse in Romeand I had just got out of the shower…so I came out of the bathroom with only a towel on to get some clothes out of my bag and Ranger was sitting at the table on his laptop. So I was on my way back to the bathroom and he followed me in and you know the rest."

"You did it in the bathroom?"

"No, god, jeez, what kind of girl do you think I am?"

"Wow."

"Yeah."

I thought for a minute. "You were TWENTY! You waited THAT long!" Jesus that makes me sound like a slut or something.

"I was in too much danger most of the time to think about it," Said Jamie.

"Jeez."

"No freaking kidding."

"So. What happened after that?"

Jamie opened her eyes and looked straight ahead. Again there was a look of longing on her face. You'd think time spent with Ranger would teach her to do the blank-face thing.

"We had a fling for awhile…but then he just disappeared. Like I didn't see him for months. Then finally we ran into each other in some bar someplace and he told me about being your mentor. Every time you did something stupid like blowing up a car he'd tell me about it and I knew by the way he talked about you that I didn't really stand a chance." She looked really sad. REALY sad. And it was scaring me.

"Jamie…" I began, but I truly didn't know what to say.

She flashed me a half hearted grin. "It's no big deal. When he first mentioned you I knew he had fallen for you so it's not like I tried to remind him of what we had before he disappeared. I knew it useless. So I just accepted it and moved on. You have that effect on men, sis. And besides, it's better to have him as a friend than not know him at all."

Damn. Poor Jamie. God, what does she think when she sees Ranger looking at me or kissing me? It must be hard. Though if it is, she hides it very well. I have that effect on men? To make them forget of any other relationship in the past? Yeah, right. What about Morelli and Terri Gilman. Ugh. All those late nights working on cases.

I didn't know what to say. I just stared at her for a beat. She shrugged and murmured that it really wasn't a big deal and went back to looking at the pictures in her hand.

We were both silent for awhile. Jamie's cell phone chirped—the theme song to Jaws.

"Yeeeeeesshh?" she answered. "Yeah, yeah, I know I'm late just give me minute, Penelope." She snickered and hung up the phone. The afore melancholy mood was apparentlylifted.

"That was Tank," she said, standing up, "I'm late for my security room duty."

She walked into her bedroom and came out wearing black sweat pants. "You likey?" she asked, turning around, displaying Rangeman embroidered in cursivy white on her rear end. "I did it myself. I thought Ranger's uniforms were kinda boring."

I grinned. "Those are the shit." I said.

I followed Jamie up to the control room. Lester, Bobby,and Woodywere on control duty. Ranger was there too, talking to Tank. Jamie walked in and swatted Ranger on the ass before taking her seat next to Hal. Tank threw her a glare. Probably becuase she called him 'Penelope'.

eh...I didn't really like this chapter...I didn't really put my heart into it...