AN: As I knew it would be, it's been pointed out that no one could really see Joe as that much of an ass to Stephanie. Yeah, sure, he'd be a little sore about it, but he'd take it out on Ranger, not Stephanie. Well, I've got a totally legit reason. It's just going to take a loooong time for Stephanie to figure it out. And since this is in first person…well, that means you're not gonna figure it out until she does. Bwa ha ha.

Even though, personally, I can't stand Joe, I know some of you still like him. And, lets face it, Steph's always going to have a soft spot where Joe's concerned. So he will get better. Eventually, we'll figure out why he's all of the sudden so high strung. I promise.

But for now, we're just focusing on Ranger and Steph. Now, I'd like to tell you that this isn't going to be Janet Evanovich, happy go lucky Babe stuff. There's going to be issues in the story. Quite a lot, actually. But I won't tell you it all now. Just wait. It's the next chapter.

And I have to say, I am so flattered by the reviews. I honestly can't believe I've gotten this much feedback, because, like I said, this story came to me halfway through the hair-rinsing bit. I seriously developed the entire plot in the shower. And then I had a dream about it that night.

PlumCrazyRangerBabe- Wow. You're review stuck out. It sounds like you hadn't been having the greatest day. It's awesome to think that my little ficlet made it even a tiny bit better! I hope you like this little Babe bit. I have to say, I'm particularly proud of it. And there isn't even any smut!

Decadent Dreams

We made it to the lobby and into the elevator, soaking wet. Mrs. Bestler gave us looks as we settled in that I pretended to ignore. Ranger held me loosely in the circle of his arms, keeping me warm while I shivered with the sudden cold that washed over me once out of the rain, the shift of his weight and location of his hands warming things that hadn't been touched by the rain. "Second floor," I told Mrs. Bestler, and she nodded.

"Second floor, designer purses and better dresses."

My head rested on Rangers shoulder, and his hands alternating between making small circles at my back and rubbing my shoulders.

The elevator door opened, and we stepped out, waiting a moment for the doors to close. Ranger gazed at me, then bent to kiss my forehead. "I should go."

"Hm." I snaked an arm around his waist, tipping my head up. "Don't I at least get an actual goodnight kiss?"

He slid an arm across my back, the heat from his hand leaving a trail of warmth along the dampness of the dress, and his head moved forward. He kissed me lightly on the lips, and my eyes drooped closed. I managed to wrap an arm around his neck, and tugged him closer, pulling him back into the kiss. He gave a groan of protest when my tongue moved across his lips, but a moment later gave in. I stumbled backward, moving along the hallways with our mouths still attached and tongues in battle, reaching out blindly to check on doors, counting them off until we finally reached mine. We broke apart, breathing heard, when we got to it. His eyes held mine, dark with desire, and his lips looked slightly swollen. Inside, I gave myself a huge pat on the back.

I leaned against my door, pulling him with me, and our lips met again. For a while, we stood there, with our tongues battling, my hand fisted in his shirt, his in the ruined bun that was my hair. He broke it, bending to drop a trail of kisses down my neck, and I seem to remember dropping my clutch to fist my other hand in his hair. I fell back against the door after arching against him, creating a loud thud that was, for me, muffled by Ranger's sigh. Then a few doors opened along the hallway, and voices flew to each other across the way as Ranger bent a little more to flick his tongue out against my very sensitive collarbone.

"What's going on?" someone asked.

"Sex in the hallways," Mrs. Karwatt responded before slamming her door closed again.

Ranger groaned, burying his head in my shoulder, his lips against the base of my neck.

"So…" I started, when my breathing had evened. "Do you want to come in?"

He moaned this time, breathing against my ear. "Yes," he said. Then he pulled away. "But I can't."

I think I may have stuck out a pouty lip, because his eyes gazed there for a particularly long time. "Why not?" I asked stubbornly. Yep. I'd definitely worn the dress on purpose. I definitely wanted him to come and get it.

"Because if I do, it will feel like I took you out for sex."

"Didn't you?"

He sighed, backing away as if to keep from touching me.

"I took you out so that I could take you out again. And again, and again, which would eventually lead to that point, but…that wasn't the point of the date."

"So…"

"So I'm taking things slow."

"Slow."

He nodded, running a hand through his hair.

I mirrored the movement. "Okay. Slow is good."

I bent to grab my clutch from the floor and took out my key, playing with it for a moment. He reached for me, cupping my face in his hands, and dropped a chaste kiss on my forehead, and another, lingering one on my lips, as if he was leaving me with a promise of something. Then he turned and walked toward the elevator. Very slowly.

I fumbled with my keys, managed to unlock the door, then twisted the knob, turning to look at Ranger. The elevator light blinked, doors opened, and I heard Mrs. Bestler speaking.

"Ranger, are you sure you…?"

He moved back toward me, in a moment reintroducing his mouth to my neck, and I gave a noise of encouragement as he reached behind me and swung the door open.

We stumbled into the entry, hands too busy roaming to use them for anything else, and Ranger shut the door with his foot, kicking off his shoes as I flung his jacket to the floor. His lips caught mine and I groaned, breaking the contact to point to the door. "The lock. We should get the lock."

He stumbled slightly to the door, engaged the chain and the two locks, then leaned his head against the door. "This is not slow," he said.

I moved forward, copying his movements from earlier that night, slipping my hand into his and tugging him forward. "Not slow is good too."

And then he kissed me.

By the time we'd made it to the section of wall that was missing, connecting the living room to the kitchen across the hallway, my dress was strewn across a lamp, and I was clad in a bra and the lace underwear, and I was bending to unbuckle the shoe I had left on with one hand while my other reached to pull my hair free.

Ranger moved forward, taking charge of the hair while I successfully pulled the shoe off.

Ranger's shirt lay in a puddle near the shoes, the his watch and keys lay cozily next to mine on the little table I'd put in a few months ago, after Morelli and I had called it quits. (For some reason, the table felt like a step in the right direction) It was the first time all night I'd taken notice of the fact that he wore no pager, no cell. No gun. Which kind of scared me. He obviously meant serious business. The implication was that he wasnted no interruptions.

Scary thought.

He pulled me up, hands moving to my waist. His lips whispered across my back, and I leaned back into the touch. The pace had slowed suddenly, something I wasn't really accustomed to. With Morelli there had been a lot of sex, but it was always energized, exciting. It wasn't fast per say, but there had never been any undertones, like the ones I was feeling now. Ranger had this intoxicating slowness about him. It didn't feel like foreplay, but for some reason it was enough to make my knees shake and the shivers from earlier seem like nothing. The way he was touching me seemed sensual, rather than sexual, two things I'd never thought could be different.

I turned in his arms, hoping to speed things up a bit, just enough to stop the sudden, aching need I felt to have him near me. Dark eyes caught mine a mere second before he dipped his head again, kissing me full on the lips, and his hand moved to the clasp of my bra, backing us toward my bedroom as he flung the bra away.

I woke from slumber feeling slightly sore, but utterly joyful. It was dark out, and what little traffic there had been outside was down to a crawl. Obviously it was late. I couldn't remember a time when I'd stayed awake long enough on a Friday night to see that traffic had slowed.

I turned to look at the clock on my bedside table, careful not to disturb Ranger from his slumber.

2:30.

I stretched a bit, then moved back into Ranger's embrace. His eyes blinked open, and he stared groggily at me.

"Babe?"

"Go back to sleep," I whispered back.

He made a muffled grunt, blinking away sleep, and sat. I pulled the covers back up, hiding my chest from view. Ranger smiled, kicking his legs off the bed, reaching for his pants.

"Where are you going?" I asked, slightly distraught.

He leaned back, smoothing hair from my face. "I'll be right back."

"Hm."

He stood, buttoning the pants. "Just going to the car."

"For what?"

"Clothes."

He left me to contemplate this, disappearing from my bedroom. I lay still, listening for the opening and closing of the door, and then sighed, a smile inching it's way onto my face. I took a moment to take stock of everything, and after a moment's thought realized my cell phone was almost dead. I sat, stretching languidly, letting the sheet drop now that I was alone, then slinked over to my dresser, picking up the phone. I moved back to the bed, sliding under the covers, and turned to set the phone on the charger. After making sure it was in place, I let my head fall to the pillow, and tried to fall asleep again, knowing it wasn't likely to happen. I listened intently to the noises of my apartment at night.

Far off, I could hear the faint noise of Rex on his wheel, his claws clicking on the metal with each rotation. There was a TV on a few apartments down, the drone of it slightly electric. It sounded like it was muted. The rain continued outside, the soft patter lulling me into peace.

I almost missed the sound of the door opening again, so immersed in this world I was. But I heard it, and my breath left me in a puff of air, wonderingly. I hadn't expected to feel this happy just hearing him open my door. The locks clicked into place, and I waited with bated breath for his shadow to appear in the door of my bedroom. I smiled when he slipped in, his hair wet again. He slid a bag along the floorboards, then moved toward the bed again. I sat up, and we stared at each other for a moment, and then I crawled forward a bit, slipping my arms around him, pulling the shirt off of him with some difficulty, then kissing his shoulder, brushing hair back from his face and neck to continue my assault. My hands moved toward the button of his pants, and he pushed me back against the pillows, his eyes dark and caring, desire etched into the dilated pupils. I closed my eyes, and he dropped a kiss onto each one of the closed lids. I reached for his waist again, and his tongue darted into my mouth.

Together, we managed to get the pants off, and I flung them off in another direction, reaching for him, trying to guide him where I wanted him most. He shook his head, his fingers dancing across my stomach, moving lower, doing things that made me totally forget about what I wanted.

I woke up to the ring of my cell phone. My head was planted neatly into my pillow, and Ranger's arm was slung around me, his elbow at the small of my back, holding me down. He groaned when I moved, pulling me closer and burying his head in my hair as I reached blindly toward the phone on my nightstand. Hooking the phone up to the charger had been a bad idea.

Ranger groaned. "Just leave it," he mumbled, his voice groggy.

"I can't. What if it's an emergency? What if Albert got into a car accident?"

"Everyone dies eventually."

Finally, I grabbed the phone, flipping it open with vehemence, turning slightly away from Ranger. Through a voice still leaden with sleep, I managed half a greeting. "illo?"

"Stephanie?"

The voice sounded vaguely familiar, and I wracked my brain, trying to connect a name to it. "Oh my god. Tank?"

Ranger's arm moved up my waist to smack at the phone. "Bastard," he muttered into the pillow, still swatting at my ear.

"Yeah. Listen, is Ranger there? Because he didn't bring any means of communication with him, and the Mercedes GPS is turned off, and—."

"God, Tank, what time is it?"

"Four forty-five."

"Four what?"

"Four fort—."

"I'm hanging up on you."

"Ranger has a meeting at noon."

"Oh no, the house is going through a tunnel, you're breaking up…the rain is melting my phone, I—."

I closed the phone and slammed it onto my nightstand, scooting into the warmth of Ranger's arms again.

"I hate Tank," I mumbled into Ranger's chest, the words muffled as my lips met with his skin. "And you have a meeting at noon."

"He called to tell you that?"

"He called because you bit through his doggie leash and ran away. I'm never answering that phone at night again. Albert can die without me, for all I care."

Ranger chuckled, pulling me flush against him. "Go to sleep."

"Like it's that easy."

He sighed softly, his fingers dancing across my neck, up into my hairline, his other hand rubbing circles at my back as he spoke in soft Spanish. My eyes grew heavy, and I feel asleep thinking that this was the most comfortable I'd been since I was a kid.

AN: Half of this was written while I waited for the teacher I TA for to bring back Taco Bell. I think maybe I should have people promise me food all the time. Because this was some awesome writing right here.

I'd also like to credit the writers of Gilmore Girls for the "house is going through a tunnel" line. That was all GG. And, okay, Lauren Graham, who executed it perfectly. And in her own sparkly "Come and Get It" dress, no less!

Eventually, I'll re-upload this when it's been properly beta'd, (most likely when I type up seven) but I really wanted to get this out and see people's reactions. And to keep up the tradition (because you guys are all awesome at leaving reviews…of course, 38 reviews out of 607 hits isn't exactly stellar, but…to those of you who did, this is a little extra. And for those of you who didn't, well, this is incentive. The more reviews, the fastest I work, man. I'm a review whore.)

Upon reaching the door, we were met by Big Dog and Carl. Big Dog grinned at me as he bit into a powdered sugar donut, using the hand holding coffee to wave at me. Carl nodded to Ranger, staring at our intertwined hands.

He smiled amusedly at me. "Hear Morelli got his ass kicked outside Antoni Manoso's restaurant last night." He cut his eyes to Ranger. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

Ranger gave him a cool look, then broke into a grin. "You got a warrant to ask me that?"

Big Dog bit back laughter, swallowing. "Hey man, I won five hundred dollars off that scuffle. I just want to thank the guy that gave him matching shiners."