I refuse all responsibility, the story has a mind of its own. I swear, I have no control over where it's going…stay with me!

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Spoilers: None. It's its own universe, I blame it all on the gin

Rating: PG13 for language, adult situations and whatnot

Disclaimer: I made the whole thing up, I own none of JE's characters, and I'll probably give them back good as new

Out of my Mind Chapter 15

It was 2 o'clock in the morning. With a few interruptions, I had been staring at the ceiling for just about five hours.

The first thing I had done when Ranger had left was take a cold shower. I knew it was a cliché, but I couldn't come up with anything better. Well, it hadn't helped.

I had tried pacing for a while after I had been unable to find anything interesting on TV, and I had been surfing the Net. The only thing useful to come out of the latter was that I had a lot of my friends' phone numbers back. I had called information again to get Joe's number off his voicemail. I had tried calling Jess and had gotten her answering machine again. What I really wanted to do was talk to Joe, but I was too chicken to call him.

So I had gone to bed. Five hours ago. And I hadn't slept a wink.

Whenever I managed to push images of my burning motel room or a dead Moreno out of my head, they'd be replaced by the replay of the accident, when for a moment I had been sure I was going to die. And if that wasn't bad enough, I was sexually frustrated and felt rejected by two men, so their images kept coming up frequently as well.

I had a notepad and pen on the nightstand, in case I'd get any good ideas, for any of my issues, but it was blank.

Joe had promised to take my mind off of all my worries. Ranger had promised I'd be fine, and then he had called me 'Babe'. The Senor hadn't promised anything that I knew of, but had a mind to get me out of the way.

And as hard as I tried, I couldn't find anyone but me to blame for every single problem: I had called Joe, I had pursued Ranger, I had found Moreno.

I turned and grunted in frustration.

Blaming myself wouldn't resolve anything, nor would it help me fall asleep.

What if I woke up Ranger and asked him if he couldn't sleep either? That had always been funny in college. May not work for a guy that probably sleeps with a gun under his pillow though.

Still, the thought made me smile.

I didn't know when I had finally fallen asleep, but the phone woke me at 9:15.

"Yuh." I wasn't used to answering the phone first thing in the morning, and my voice was heavy with sleep.

"Hey sleepyhead, ready for some breakfast?"

Ranger's voice sounded way too cheerful. Since when did Ranger do cheerful?

"Mmm."

Actually, I was only ready for more sleep, but I would make a concession for coffee.

"Come up to the seventh floor, there's a card on your coffee table."

And he disconnected.

What the…?

I put the receiver back in its cradle and fell back, closing my eyes. I'd get up in just a minute.

The next thing I knew, the covers were flying off the bed. I yelped as the colder air swept over me and my eyes flew open.

Ranger was standing next to my bed, the comforter in one hand, the other fisted on his hips.

He was dressed in his usual black and wore a grin on his face.

I was too embarrassed to be angry, as his eyes wandered down my body, taking in my tank top and panties.

"What are you doing?" I tried to glare at him, but I could feel the color rise up in my cheeks.

"I called you an hour ago. Time to get up!" He said, the grin never leaving his mouth. Clearly, I was his entertainment section for the morning.

I didn't have a good comeback, and the covers were out of reach, so I got up and quickly hid in the bathroom.

Ranger was waiting for me in the sitting area when I emerged a half hour later. The clothes fairy had left yet another outfit for me, I was clean and dressed, and my hair was up in a ponytail. My make-up was supposed to look like I was hardly wearing any and was just a natural beauty, I hoped I was pulling it off.

He looked up when I entered "I liked your previous outfit better."

That remark didn't help with my blushing problem.

"I'm ready."

Ranger gestured at stuff on the coffee table.

"You left your goodies in my car."

"Thank you." What else could I say?

I busied myself with clipping on the gun and the cell phone, ignoring the stun gun and maglite. My waist didn't provide enough circumference to wear everything comfortably.

Ranger stood and looked at me.

"Now you're ready."

I let out a sigh. "Actually, I won't be ready until after my first cup of coffee." I even managed a smile for that.

He returned the smile and put a hand in the small of my back, pushing me towards the front door.

"You'll get your coffee."

He hadn't lied. There was coffee.

There was also a team of merry men around me, we were all in the conference room.

While they were focusing on setting up some surveillance, Ranger was double-tasking by explaining the day's plan to me.

"You move into the apartment. It's a furnished place with no security, and it's widely known the landlord rents it out to people who for one reason or another don't want to stay in a hotel. He's also known to not ask too many questions or run a credit check, it's strictly cash with him. We use the place as a safe house from time to time, but it's not likely anyone remembers the last time."

He put two keys on the desk before me. One was an apartment key, the other was a car key.

"I'll have your clothes packed and a car ready for you."

I was staring at the keys in front of me, trying to focus while the merry men were discussing security challenges of a completely different nature.

"Lin!" Ranger forced my eyes up by putting a finger under my chin. "Pay attention!"

No need to go all schoolteacher on me, I thought. "I am." I assured him "Apartment. Clothes. Car."

"Right…" He ran a hand through his hair.

"We will know where your car is at all times. Your cell phone is a tracking device as well, when you miss a checkpoint, we will activate it." He was pointing towards the cell phone on my hip, but stopped short of touching it.

"You'll also wear a panic button," he placed a gizmo resembling a small pedometer on the desk "When you activate it, we'll get to you within minutes."

I swallowed.

"Do you think all this is necessary?" If all this equipment was supposed to make me feel better, it failed; it would only make me paranoid.

"Can't hurt. There's no such thing as too much protection."

I disagreed on that, but didn't say anything.

"The apartment is completely wired. You will know if someone's been in there while you're out, and we'll know if someone's in there with you." He continued. "Do you have any questions?"

A lot, actually. But most of them didn't make sense.

"What do you want me to do?"

Way to think independently, Sandra.

"Just be yourself."

Not an easy task, I didn't know who that was anymore.

"Do whatever you would do if the Senor wasn't in the picture. Get your FTA's, collect your rewards."

Oh, be that self. Fearless bounty hunter with no clue. Small, insignificant, tiny little problem with that.

"I lost all my files in the fire. My driver's license, too." I cautioned.

Ranger placed a wallet on my table, a black Velcro one.

"Your license is in your wallet, along with your credit cards. And Connie will have copies of the files for you." He smiled at my obvious look of surprise. "We're a full-service agency."

I stood up, took the keys and wallet and put them in my pockets. I reached for the panic button, but Ranger caught my hand.

"Put it somewhere invisible. The idea is for it to be your last resort. I won't help you if it is removed first." I thought I saw his eyes wander down the front of my shirt, but I could have just as easily imagined that, my attention was focused on his hand around my wrist.

"Okay." I finally said.

Ranger released my hand and stood straight.

"I have to finish up here, I will call you later. Cal is all set to help you, he'll meet you outside," he inclined his head towards the control center "Call me if you see anything unusual. And be careful."

Cal was waiting for me with a box in his hands and a duffel bag slung over his shoulder.

"You ready?" He asked as I entered.

I nodded. As ready as I'd ever be, I figured.

"I have your stuff," He held out the copy paper-sized box for emphasis "I'll take you down to your car."

Cal waited for me to enter the elevator first and we rode down to the garage in silence. I had hoped Ranger would be with me, but it had been silly to believe that he would just put all his other cases on hold to help me. He probably had rearranged a few things to give me as much of his time as he did.

I had felt a little bit less guilty about taking up so many of his resources when Ranger had explained to me the Senor was more or less his target, and had been for some time. He was hoping to lure Najar out by using me as bait. I was fine with that, since I really didn't have anything better to do.

Cal led the way out of the elevator, he walked by the black company cars to a silver VW Beetle convertible, parked in a visitor spot.

"Black was too obvious?" I asked.

Cal just shrugged and waited for me to unlock the car. I liked the car, it was cute. Hopefully, I would leave it in one piece so that I wouldn't have to pay for another repair.

We got all my stuff into the trunk and Cal gave me directions to my new place of residence on a sticky note. They looked simple enough.

Ranger had told me that there wasn't going to be any merry men following me, no one was assigned to watch my back. I was fine with that, I didn't think being followed around was all that much safer. So, as he had pointed out, as soon as I left the RangeMan garage, I was going to be on my own.

What upset me about that was that the thought actually scared me. I was used to being on my own, hadn't done such a good job at it since I had come here, but I was okay. Spending a day with Ranger had changed that. I had seen how easy it would be to sit back and let someone else make decisions for me.

Well, no more. I was determined to take back the steering wheel. Literally, even!

I gave Cal a little finger wave as I backed up the Beetle, and he nodded in response.

The directions had me driving by the bonds office, take a left a few blocks afterwards, and turn right a mile down onto Liberty Street. I counted off numbers and was soon parked outside a grey three story concrete block that looked about as inviting as a dungeon.

My instructions had me in unit 205, so I shouldered my duffel bag, grabbed the box, locked the car and made my way up the front steps. The box had looked a lot lighter when Cal had carried it, I realized. I knew it had the laptop in it, but I didn't know what else.

Unit 205 was directly across from the elevator and stair case. Pretty handy in case I had to make a speedy getaway, I assumed.

There was no one in the institutional-green hallway as I unlocked my apartment's door.

I was pretty anxious to see what a genuine safe house looked like on the inside.

The front door opened to a small foyer with coat hooks on the left wall. I dropped my luggage right inside the door and started exploring.

Through an arch, I could see a living and dining area, two couches around a wooden coffee table in front of a TV chest, a bookshelf, a table with four ladder back chairs off to the right. Floors were marble-colored grey linoleum with a few area rugs, walls were off-white.

Around a corner, the dining area led into a small kitchen with newer appliances.

Off the sitting area, a curtained doorway led to the bedroom and bathroom.

It was a cozy little apartment, and the windows let in plenty of sunshine. The furniture was pretty new and tasteful, in that neutral kind of way. Some prints had been hung on the wall to give it a homier atmosphere and it worked to some extend.

The bedroom held a queen-sized bed with nightstands, a dresser, and a desk with file drawers.

I was just trying to decide what to unpack first when the cordless phone on the desk rang. The sudden noise made me jump and I swore under my breath.

If it wasn't the fastest telemarketer ever, it could only be Ranger, since no one else had the number.

"Tank here." A voice said when I had pushed the 'Talk' button. I had been close, it wasn't Ranger, but still a merry man.

"We show your car parked outside the apartment building. Are you inside and all set?"

"Yes, thank you, I'm good." I replied, and it was true.

Tank reminded me of the checkpoint in an hour. Every two hours, I was to call RangeMan to check in. Just to say hi, so to say. I didn't know if the frequency was too high or too low, Ranger had said we could adjust it after a day or two.

I hung up the phone and my cell phone chirped. I was just Ms Popularity!

"Yo!" I said, it seemed like a fitting way to answer a RangMan-issued phone.

"Yo yourself" Ranger replied. "How is your new place?"

"I haven't checked the bathroom yet, but Brad Pitt wasn't waiting for me in bed, so it's lacking."

I really didn't know why I sometimes just couldn't give a straightforward answer to a straightforward question.

"You didn't specify Brad Pitt, but on short notice, I can have someone warming your bed within the hour. Pitt may take 24 hours." Ranger shot back, not missing a beat. Or maybe he was serious.

I laughed out loud. "The place is awesome, it has everything I need and more."

"Good." He replied "Then get decent, I see you in an hour." And he disconnected.

Hadn't he told me earlier he was going to be busy? Wait, when he said he was going to be over in an hour, he wasn't referring to filling my empty bed, was he? No, of course not, that was ridiculous. He had called to tell me he'd be over in an hour, I had interrupted with the Brad Pitt talk.

So I had an hour to make myself at home.

I set up the laptop on the desk, turned in on and verified I had a wireless Internet connection.

Then I unpacked my loaner clothes and put my toiletries into the bathroom, all of it took maybe fifteen minutes. I was about to start talking to myself nervously, when my wandering eyes fell on the tiny security camera on top of the bookshelf. Right, Ranger had said the apartment was wired. Probably I did not want to entertain Tank or whoever was listening with my ramblings.

I made a mental note to ask Ranger about the bathroom though.

Now I finally had some time to inspect the contents of my new wallet.

It had the RangMan logo embroidered, black on black, but was pretty simple otherwise. The kind that middle school boys carry, maybe.

It wasn't what I was interested in, anyway, I was looking for the driver's license.

Sure enough, the license was there, with my picture and everything. I wasn't an expert, but it looked as real as my old one. It had a different picture that I didn't remember and the name was different: I was now Lindsay Taylor.

I checked the two credit cards, a Visa card and a MasterCard debit card, both issued to Lindsay, a sticker with a PIN code attached to the debit card.

Probably, I'd have to give it all back when Ranger wrapped up his case, yet I couldn't help but wonder what the credit limits may be.

I studied my new driver's license some more, it looked perfectly legit, even though my birthday was not August 28 and I wasn't 27. But both discrepancies were fine with me, I didn't want anyone to know in the first place.

I was making myself a pb&j sandwich in the kitchen when I heard the front door open.

I glanced at the clock on the microwave. Yep, about an hour after our call.

The good thing about small apartments is that you can see all nooks and crannies within a few steps. I leaned back to see beyond the corner.

Ranger entered, his expression much less friendly than before.

"The door was open." He stated, no emotion in his voice.

"I forgot to lock it." In all honesty, it hadn't crossed my mind. The new apartment, the new license, it was way too much excitement to remember to lock a stupid door.

"Don't let it happen again. Anybody can just waltz in here." He still didn't show any emotion. There was no trace of the fun Ranger from that morning or earlier on the phone.

"I have a gun for those cases." I said, tilting my hips up slightly to show him.

"You are holding a sandwich."

"I was expecting you."

His eyes narrowed slightly. Okay, I could see his point about the door, and I should have locked it, but there was no need to get all testy about it.

"Consider this our checkpoint. You don't need to call in. Vinnie's office is open until five or six. Make sure Connie gives you enough skips to keep you busy for a few days. Have dinner in public, be seen, and don't forget to call in. Let Tank know if you need anything."

And he left.

I just stood open-mouthed and stared at the closed door he had walked through.

What had just happened?

Okay, so I hadn't apologized for leaving the door unlocked, and I hadn't promised to never do it again, but that didn't seem severe enough to turn Ranger into an iceberg.

Our earlier phone conversation had ended friendly, so I knew that wasn't it.

I shook my head slowly, replaying the conversation, staring at my half-eaten sandwich that had apparently annoyed him. Nope, still no clue.

Men!

Fine, I'd do as I was told. I was antsy to get out of the apartment anyway, it might as well be to see Connie about some FTA's.

Screw Ranger, and screw Morelli, and while I was at it, I cursed all men in general. It was one of those moments, and it made me feel better.

My Ranger-issued cargo pants had replaced my purse, there was a pocket for everything I needed. If I remembered to put my keys in them every time I came in, I'd never have to search for them for hours. I located them in the left butt pocket and grabbed them, making sure I locked up, I wasn't going to suffer the wrath of Darth Ranger again if I could help it.

My plan was to get copies of the files, and then take them with me for easy reading, but not start the actual bounty huntering until the next day. I had had enough excitement for the time being.

I drove over to the office on Hamilton, releasing my anger on all drivers that dared to get in my way. By the time I parked at the curb in front of the office, I actually felt somewhat better. Maybe if I'd get to punch someone before the day was over, I'd be as good as new.

I entered the office and stared at the woman in front of me, I had almost run her over on my way in. Or rather, had we collided, I would have probably bounced off of her shield of day-glo orange spandex that seemed stretched to its limits.

Lula, I presumed. I didn't think there were many other big black women walking around in 4-inch heels and much-too-small hooker outfits while holding a bucket of fried chicken in their hand and leaving a bail bonds office.

What were the odds?