Disclaimer, since I forgot one earlier: this is not mine except for the original bits that are, and written purely for the enjoyment of myself and others. The thought that I'd make money of it is just laughable.

Those who are easily offended should refrain from reading. These characters talk, think and behave like adults.

Range Day
Chapter 4

Waking was slow, unhurried. Nothing pressing to do today. Nothing to think about except for the impending fiasco of RangeDay and the impending doom of a talk with Ranger. Last time they'd talked he'd made it clear there could never be anything between them… well anything… in the way of a relationship. Obviously he didn't include lethally hot one-night-stands in that rule.

And she didn't want another one. She'd started to become aware of just how much she cared for him – as a friend, maybe even as something more. And he seemed to care for her too. There were even fleeting moments when she thought it was something else apart from fond protectiveness. He'd called it love, then qualified it. He loved her, in his own way. What did that mean?

Well, maybe she loved him too, in her own way. So that was okay. And another night with him would probably upset that balance, make it not-okay. Make her want more of him, more than he was willing to share. So, no more of that.

It was an easy enough resolution when she was hanging on her own couch clad in old sweats, with him not there. When he was close it felt more like a new year resolution, the kind you made fully knowing that you'd break it within a month.

"Lula, I'm going nuts here. Want to go for some therapeutic shopping?"

"Sorry girl, kinda busy today…"

Hmm, Lula not up for shopping? She sounded… odd. Like she didn't really want to talk right now. Stephanie listened to the explanation but concentrated on the background sounds. Yes, there it was. Low rumbling whisper.

"Doesn't matter Lula, some other time. Have fun with Hal."

Heh, Lula speechless. Stephanie disconnected with a grin. The fact that Lula wasn't telling about this made her suspect there were serious feelings involved, and there was no way she'd give her friend a hard time about that. She just couldn't help teasing a little.

That left her without shopping partner – Mary Lou was visiting her in-laws for the weekend. No doubt she was by now pulling out her hair and wishing she was at home, but that didn't help Stephanie right now.

She stood before the bathroom mirror and looked at herself, trying to determine if she could psych herself up into powershop-mode.

Not really. Figures. When she couldn't afford it, shopping seemed like the most urgent need. When she could afford, she couldn't get in the mood for it.

"Something else," she told her reflection. "Something new."

The hair maybe? Hmm yes, she could go see Mr Alexander. He might be pleasantly surprised that for once she didn't have a hair disaster that needed fixing.

"I want something… different. Fresh. I don't know."

"A whole new look?"

Whoa, on reflection, that sounded too drastic.

"Maybe just colours. Highlights?"

Mr Alexander fluffed her hair for a long moment and considered it.

"With your hair just highlights might look a little… forced. If you're feeling adventurous, we could do highlights and lowlights mixed. It'll all blend together, natural and very vibrant."

Hmm. Vibrant sounded good.

"What colours would you use?"

The board with the colour samples came out, and Mr Alexander pointed out some light, some copper and some dark tints.

"We don't do this on straight hair, but with curls like yours it'll look good."

"Go for it. I promise not to run away."

Mr Alexander gave her a look that said that he'd believe that if she handcuffed herself to the chair, but went to work anyway.

Blues Brothers was the film of the day, popcorn wasn't all that unhealthy according to Xander (even if she did cheat by buttering it slightly) and her hair looked great. All in all, a pretty good day. She still didn't have THE idea for RangeDay, but a whole stack of brochures were now winging their way to Tsuy's mailbox, so at least it felt like she was doing something about it.

Plus, it was Sunday evening and she wasn't sweating about the Monday, like in her lingerie-buyer days. She even kind of looked forward to going back to work, though the gun-range session with Lester looked to be trying. An hour in close quarters being cornered about her plans? At least she'd have a gun in hand. And if that failed to work, she could always threaten him with sensitivity workshops…

She woke with the nagging sensation that something was wrong. It tugged her from sleep and had her trying to remember where her gun was before she even moved. Crap, it was in her pocketbook, and that was standing next to the bedroom door. A quick look around told her that as of yet, she was alone - in her bedroom at least. Knowing her luck, probably not for long. She scooted to the side of the bed and reached down, feeling for the 3-inch stiletto heel she knew was lying there somewhere.

Sitting up, the improvised weapon in her hand, she looked straight into Ranger's face as he appeared in the bedroom doorway. He took her in - wild hair, faded pink T-shirt and shoe in hand - and smiled wide in the gloom.

"Killer shoes, Babe."

Ranger humour. She lowered the shoe, feeling a bit silly.

"What are you doing here?"

He hadn't broken into her apartment since she'd said she wanted space.

"We're going running."

"We are?"

"You won't have time for your mid-day workout--"

"I won't?"

"--because we're going to a meeting."

"We are?"

Uh-oh, she could only blame being-woken-early crankiness. Pissing off Batman? Not a good idea. She couldn't stop herself though, it was like some evil entity had taken possession of her voice.

"Is this Ranger-my-boss that's standing in my bedroom or is it Ranger-my-friend?"

He blinked. Guess that was as good as a stunned look in anyone else.

"The second."

"Ah, so what you meant to say was 'good morning Stephanie, sorry for waking you at this ungodly hour. I want to take you along to a meeting today and you probably won't have time for your usual work-out because of it, so would you like to go running with me now?' but for some reason it all kind of came out wrong."

She hid a smile as he seemed to need a second or two to process that. Guess it was early for him too. Then his smile grew, his teeth gleaming in the half-dark of her bedroom.

"Babe."

She sighed. Guess that was all she was going to get. One word, though he did give it what she supposed was a fond tone, as if she was amusing him again.

"Make some coffee and I'll be out in minute."

It took a couple of minutes to get into sweats, her hair into an acceptable ponytail and find a ballcap. Then another few minutes to calm the wild thoughts that were running through her head. Was he still planning that 'conversation' that he'd threatened on friday? Would he want to discuss things during running or would it be silence as usual? She didn't figure him for talking while he ran, but then again he rarely said much when it didn't concern a job.

She psyched herself up in front of the bathroom mirror and promised herself she had nothing to worry about - her condition had improved and she could always blame friday's drunken outburst on the margaritas.

She came into the kitchen and found Ranger watching Rex, who was attempting to stuff a small round carrot into his cheek pouches. He was feeding Rex now? She smiled. He turned around and nodded at seeing her running clothes.

"You ready? Coffee when we get back."

They were halfway through their route before she remembered to ask about the meeting.

"It's a possible new account I'm meeting. Dress suity."

She rolled her eyes.

"You want to elaborate on that? Exactly what am I there for? What do you expect me to do?"

"I just want you to sit in, pretend you're a secretary, make note of things. Be an extra pair of ears for me."

"Notes of what?"

"Things that make that infamous spidey sense of you tingle."

Ah HA.

"So I'm not there as secretary."

"That's what they'll assume, and it will be useful to let them. They might say things around you they wouldn't around me."

"So I'm there for my instincts?"

He nodded.
"And because it's time you learn more about the organisational side of RangeMan."

Hmm. That was good. They turned a corner and to her surprise she still wasn't out of breath. Damn, those workouts with the day shift definitely made a difference.

"Do you normally go on your own to meetings like this?"

"Tank usually goes with me. He says that since he's going with you Wednesdays, you've got to take over this."

She chuckled. "Anything to get out of wearing a suit?"

"Not a lot of people see more to Tank than his size and his colour, Babe."

She sobered, knowing it was true. Ranger could morph into Mr Mañoso, international businessman. Tank always looked like… well, like Tank, and the assumption was all too often that he was just muscle, someone who didn't think, didn't reason, didn't care. It had to be grating to be ignored when Tank was in fact office manager, and usually knew more about the daily running of the company than Ranger did.

What Ranger didn't seem to realise was that the assumption toward her was more or less the same; she'd seen that in countless business meetings in her time as lingerie buyer. Unless she actively tried to disprove it, she was assumed to be a bimbo playing at having a real job just until it was the right time to start a family. 'Playing with pretty lingerie', an asshole of a boss had once summarised her job as buyer.

They ran in silence for a while. She was slowing down, but they were not far from her apartment anyway. Sweat ran down her spine. It was march and too chilly for just a t-shirt, but after five minutes running the sweatshirt had felt too warm.

"How are your self defence lessons coming along?" he asked suddenly. Ranger making conversation? Didn't happen often. Or maybe this wasn't just conversation. Only one way to find out.

"You mean you don't get regular progress reports?"

He chuckled.

"Tsuy would never give them even if I did want them. She's your teacher, and I just sign out the checks."

Oh. Somehow that was unexpected. She'd thought he was keeping himself updated about it. He must have read her thoughts because he continued with the hint of a smile.

"You're not doing this for me, Babe. I'm just giving you the opportunities to learn."

"Did you ask her to teach me the physical stuff or the whole… philosophy as well?"

"Philosophy?"

"She's giving me books to read and all."

"Are you enjoying it?"

She just nodded, feeling strangely unwilling to reveal that she was enjoying a book on strategy. Especially since she was almost sure it was one of his favourites.

"Maybe she's trying to be a friend to you."

"I thought about that. Guess I didn't want to be… assuming."

Really she had been worried that Tsuy was doing these things because it was part of the lessons, and would not be comfortable with being asked to go out shopping or something like that. And it was not like asking her about it would be a good course or action... implying she was acting as a friend because she was being paid for it would most certainly offend.

"This culture thing is complicated," she finally said with a sigh. "I don't want to offend."

He nodded slightly as if agreeing with her, and slowed to a walk to cool off.

"So what have you learnt so far?"

"Well, we've done basic blocks, punches and kicks… fall-training… so maybe I won't be pushed around as easily… or at least not hurt myself when I fall. And we're doing throws. Oh, and we've been working on the whole aware-of-your-surroundings thing."

"And is it working?"

She glanced at him, thinking that he probably already knew if she was more aware of her surroundings or not.

"I don't know yet. Still working on the 'soft eyes' thing. Have you tried to sneak up on me lately?"

He flashed her a smile as he opened the apartment building's door. That was her entire answer. She decided that since he rarely let pass an opportunity to tell her she needed to be more aware, either he hadn't tried, or he hadn't succeeded. Interesting.

"Did Tank really offer to go with me Wednesday?"

"He did."

"Why? What if he gets hurt? I've broken his leg, gotten him blown up…"

He opened the door to her apartment.
"Babe."

One word, so many different ways to say it. From the look he gave her as she walked in after him, this time it meant something like 'you really should stop blaming yourself for everything bad that happens'. Or perhaps it was 'and I'm still paying a fortune in heightened employee insurance rates' but she rather hoped it was the first.

She went into the kitchen and switched on the coffee machine that Ranger had made ready earlier, being sure to add another scoop of ground coffee. He drank it too weak. Liked the taste – a leftover from his cover when he was FTA - hated to poison his body with the caffeine. That always made her grin.

"You get on with him, and he's one of the few people who can leave their ego outside a dojo."

Well yeah. Probably it was easy to be confident in your masculinity when you were six-foot-four and weighed about 230 pounds.

"Most of the guys wouldn't be able to resist…" he made a small gesture, searching for the right words. "Making sure you knew…"

"That I had nothing on them."

He nodded, and she realised he hadn't really want to tell her that. Probably didn't want to discourage her.

"It's okay, you can say that. I'll probably never be able to field any of your guys in sparring."

He just looked at her for a moment.

"Babe, sparring is just practise. Training. What matters is that you can handle yourself in a real situation. When it's crunchtime, anything goes. Be sure to get Tsuy to teach you the dirty tricks. Then we'll see if our Rangers training knows any she doesn't, and teach you those, too."

She was glad to have the excuse of the coffee, because he would have noticed her blinking away moisture. Why her eyes grew wet, she didn't really know.
Perhaps it was the realisation that no matter if there would ever be anything… more… between them or not, she had his complete support. In the daily Stephanie vs. World struggle, he was utterly and completely on her side. Amazing how strong that could make her feel.

"Milk?"

He was watching the black stream as she poured the coffee, and she saw him grimace.

"Lots of. You've made it stronger again."

She smiled a little at his long-suffering tone.
"Sorry, couldn't resist." His lips twitched a grin. "And… thanks."

"For what, Babe?"

"For being such a good friend."

He nodded in acknowledgement, but perhaps there was a moment of… something… in his eyes that suggested that wasn't quite what he had hoped to hear. Or perhaps she was just imagining that.

"Mr Mañoso, shall I begin with explaining our current situation?"

Stephanie sat back and let the neat, nasal voice wash over her. She was trying to pay attention, but she didn't really know what she was supposed to listen for and it soon all blurred to a drone. To entertain herself she scribbled some notes and observed the faces around the table.

The company was an upstart computer business, wanting a security system because they had extremely expensive machinery system on the building. The people around the table were evidence to the fact that the company was a marriage between technical types and financial people. An uneasy marriage at times, from the looks of it. Assuming Ranger would be listening to the words – he understood more of it anyway – she concentrated on figuring out the dynamics around the table.

The techs and the financial people seemed at odds in some way; when a young-ish man with a long ponytail and a barbell piercing through his nose spoke up she understood why. He said the technology was so important it had to be kept safe at whatever cost. Now those last three words were like red rags to a bull for financial people. Especially in front of the owner of an independent security company.

There was one person at the table she couldn't place. A young guy, flashy suit, brash attitude. Business hotshot. Didn't fit with the geeks. Didn't really seem to be part of the conservative-suit brigade either. He'd leered at her despite her conservative trouser suit and low-key make-up and hair, and then dismissed her completely. Brash was sitting next to Barbell and it was clear that there was no love lost between these two men.

The conversation moved on to the current security measures and the history of the building, and she couldn't help but note that this seemed to be an uneasy topic for some of the people around the table. More than that, Barbell, who turned out to be more or less the representative for the techs, seemed to notice this as well.

She studied him covertly, fascinated by his unusual appearance amidst the suits. Apparently bountyhunting wasn't the only profession where you could get away with jeans and T-shirt in a meeting. Barbell wore threadbare old jeans and a black longsleeve with a simple drawing of a penguin on it.

He noticed her looking and she gave him a small smile before letting her eyes drift on to the person to his right and jotting some notes.

Ranger had said that they might not be able to speak about the meeting while they were in the building, but that she could write it down and he would find a way to read her observations in the break. So she made a little table diagram and wrote down things about people with arrows to their place at the table.

'Clash in company between techs and suits'. She drew an arrow to Brash and wrote 'where does he fit?'. Then about several at the table: 'Fidgety during discussion about current measures/history of building'.

Then, thinking back to the way one of the suits had toyed with his notes, she added 'Why added security now? Break-in? Threats?'

The turned her attention back to the speaker in time to hear him announce a break in the meeting. Everybody got up and Ranger gestured her close, asking her to retrieve something from his coat in the reception area. He didn't need anything, but it gave her a good excuse to walk around a bit, maybe overhear something interesting.

She smiled, passed him her notebook, and followed the crowd.

The inside of the Mercedes was an oasis of rest, the tinted windows blocking out the curious stares of the receptionist. Ranger started the engine and classical music washed over them, soothing.

Stephanie leant back and closed her eyes. Then she undid the tight bun at the back of her head. Thank God she hardly ever had to wear her hair like that these days. She shook out the curls, grimacing because her scalp hurt.

A large hand curled around the back of her head, fingers gently digging into her hair, massaging her scalp. She turned the back of her head toward Ranger and leant into his hand. This felt divine.

"You did good, babe," he said after a little while, and his quiet tone made her feel like she was ten feet tall. "If you hadn't noticed that, I would have entered this contract with the wrong ideas and for the wrong price."

She couldn't answer since she currently felt like melting into a puddle on the fine leather seat of the Mercedes, but he didn't seem to mind.

"I like your hair, by the way," he suddenly whispered from a lot closer. She jumped, not having heard him shift in his seat. His other hand joined the first and she almost moaned. God, the man knew how to use his hands. Don't take that thought any further, Steph. Stop right there… damn, too late.

"The receptionist is probably still watching," she managed after a couple of minutes of bliss. "Probably she's waiting for the car to start rocking."

And I'm trying to resist the urge to jump you.

Ranger released her, a little reluctantly it seemed. She turned back in her seat and he flashed her a 200-watt smile as he steered the car out of the parking lot.

(to be continued)

feedback always welcome! I love to hear what this made you think, feel, wish, hope for, and so forth.