Author's note: A little longer one.
Steph rushes up the stairs, in a hurry to get back to her apartment. Her first stop in her apartment is to grab the phone, before flopping onto her bed in her thinking position. Dialing the number from memory, she waits for the phone to be picked up. "Mary Lou?"
"Uh no. It's Lenny, but let me get her for you. Just a minute."
"Hi Steph." Mary Lou says after a short pause, in which Steph hears Lenny yelling, "Steph's on the phone for you, Mary Lou."
"I think I'm in trouble."
"What now? Do you have another crazy after you?"
"Of course not. Would I be calling you if I did? I'd be calling Ranger and speaking of Ranger, he's my problem."
"You remember what I told you about him last time we talked? How he said his life doesn't lend itself to relationships and then I saw him with Jeanne Ellen and Amy at the Rangeman Christmas Bash?"
"Yeah, Steph I remember. What's happened now?"
"He kidnapped me."
"What? You've got to be kidding me."
"Nope. I'm dead serious. Then when I found out it was him, I called him and he said that the only way he would let me go is if I came and talked to him and let him explain what was going on."
"Really? What did he say?"
"Well, after I finished yelling at him."
"You yelled at him?"
"Yeah. I was hurt and upset."
"Ok. Then, what did he say?"
"He gave me some bullshit excuse about not being able to get close to me at the Rangeman Christmas Bash."
"Oh my god. Then what did you do?"
"What any good burg girl would do. I called him on it."
"And what did he say when you did that."
"That's when things started getting strange. He started telling me the truth."
"The truth? Oh my god. I don't know if I can handle the truth. Come on tell me, what was the truth."
"Well, he said the truth was that he was scared that if he admitted his feelings that I wouldn't return them and that I would rip my heart out."
"What did you say then?"
"I asked him how I could rip his heart out after he had already ripped mine out."
"Oh my god. You didn't?"
"Yes, I did. Then he started asking how he could make it up to me."
"He did? What did you say?"
"I said that I didn't know and that I would have to think on it and I'd get back to him in a week."
"You told him to wait a week, before he could talk to you? Bet that went over well. Come on what did he say to that?"
"He told me he wasn't sure he could last that long without seeing or talking to me. Then I told him to tough it out."
"You didn't? What could have possessed you to say that to Ranger of all people?"
"I don't know, but he seemed to take it ok. He did say that he was going to do his best to show me he loved me even if he couldn't see or talk to me."
"He did? Oh my god. I wonder what that means."
"Come on, Mary Lou, focus. I need your help here. What am I supposed to do now?"
"What are you supposed to do? Well as I can see it you really only have two choices.