Standard issue disclaimer: This is not mine except for the original bits that are, and written purely for the enjoyment of myself and others. If I made money of this I wouldn't be writing it on this rickety old computer.
Those who are easily offended should refrain from reading. These characters talk, think and behave like adults.

Rangeday
Chapter 15

Wednesday morning April 12 had finally arrived. Hospital day! Not that she enjoyed hospitals, but with any luck the cast would come off today. She closed her eyes and fervently wished that the bone had healed enough that she would be allowed to go without. She'd certainly been careful enough. Well, mostly, anyway.

Okay, that one kiss with Ranger had turned a little enthusiastic, but…

Anyway.

She hadn't seen him since Saturday; he'd gone on some undefined trip. Business or personal? He could be securing a third world country or watching Ghostbusters with his daughter. She had no way of knowing.

She had used the time to sort out Rangeday details. Told herself that it didn't matter that she didn't know where he was. She hadn't asked, knowing that he wouldn't tell her anyway. Not wanting to hear him say 'babe' in his why are you asking this tone.

She had an uneasy feeling about the situation though. She couldn't even ask him about it these days, because she didn't want him to feel she was intrusive. And she didn't want to be intrusive, because he had parts of his life that he didn't want to share and she wanted to prove that she could live with that. Wanted to prove that she wanted him for what he was, and that she didn't want to change him.

She'd just quietly hoped that things would be different now they were seeing each other.

And why did it feel like a month instead of just four days?

Her doorbell rang. One of the men would drive her to the hospital and then take her to the office. It turned out to be Lester.

He grinned when she struggled with her seatbelt and reached over to help her. That grin made her a little uneasy. Had he volunteered for this job because he could corner her about Rangeday?

"Don't like the look of that grin," she said. "What are you smirking about?"

"Just nice to have you alone," he shrugged. "Been wanting to talk to you."

"About what?"

"About that grin Tank's been sporting lately."

Whoa, change of gear. She blinked.
"Has he? I hadn't noticed." Yeah, right. Lester wasn't fooled.

"He's been disturbingly cheerful, and Bobby and me reckoned that if anyone was up on the gossip, it'd be you."

"What makes you think there's any gossip?"

"Come on, you've seen him!" Lester called out, exasperated. "The man was smiling. When does Tank smile? He just won't tell us anything."

"Well maybe that means he doesn't want you to know."

"Steph, girl, you have a few things to learn about Rangeman. Around here, if you wait for information to come to you, you'll wait till you're blue in the face."

"And if you pry in Tank's business, he'll help you get blue in the face."

His laugh boomed around the car.

"The X-ray looks good, but don't think you're there yet, okay?" the doctor said, giving her a strict look. "You need to go easy on it for another couple of weeks. No crazy stuff."

"I promise," she said solemnly. "I'll be good. Just please, please don't give me another cast."

He looked from the X-ray to her bare arm and back.
"All right. I'm sending you to a physiotherapist for some exercises. And use this elastic bandage."

"Moshi moshi."

"Tsuy?"

"Good afternoon Stephanie. How are you?"

She couldn't contain her enthusiasm.
"The cast is off!"

"Congratulations. That must be a relief." She could hear her friend smile.

"Absolutely. I just called to see if there was anything we could do tonight… I have to go easy on the arm, so…"

"I could think of something."

Stephanie smiled as she spotted Tank watching her from across the room.
"I think Tank is wondering if you want him there as well."

"He is always welcome, but we won't have much to do for him as victim," Tsuy said after a moment of hesitation. Stephanie sensed that her friend felt awkward about asking Tank along just because she wanted to see him, so was leaving it up to her.

"I think he may have some tricks to show us from his army training," she said. She needed to speak to her friend in private, but that could be another time.

"Ask him if he could come along, then," Tsuy sounded relieved.

She was startled from her concentration by her desk phone.

"Hey Steph, Al's here for you. He's out front," Hawk said.

On her way to the lift she walked by the window and spotted a dark blue truck. Her eyebrows rose. That couldn't possibly be HER truck...

On her way down she tried to think of an explanation, and couldn't think of any. She'd just asked Al to fix the seats!

"That rotten—!" she said under her breath when she stepped outside and walked up to the truck. Then to Al, who'd gotten out: "He replaced it, didn't he? This is a different car." No need to clarify who she was talking about.

Al looked at her dumbfounded.
"Nope, same car. I just civilised her a little for you." He patted the hood, proud of his work. "New seats, new dashboards, put in air, fixed up the bodywork and the coating, different bulbar... plus the standard bountyhunter package."

"Al, I didn't ask for all that stuff!" she was almost wailing now. Al's time didn't come cheap.

"Said I'd fix it up nice for you, dint I?"

He gave her the keys and got into a waiting car.
"Good luck with it!"

"But what about the-" The car drove off, "bill," she finished lamely.

After a long moment she remembered that the guys were probably watching out of the windows upstairs, and got into the car to park it in the garage. The seats were faux leather, comfortable and easy to clean. There was a roll cage she didn't remember, floorbolts at the passenger side and a reinforced sissy bar to lock an FTA to. The dashboards were all new, and she found a GPS hidden in a small compartment. There was a note there too. She wasn't surprised when it had Ranger's scrawl on it.

'Enjoy. R'

He was out of town until at least tomorrow, so she couldn't run upstairs and yell at him… thank him… kiss him senseless… Any of the above. All of the above. She pulled out her cell phone and got his voicemail.

"Go." beep

"Hey, it's me. Al just brought the car. Jeez. Just… I don't know what to say. Thanks. You're insane, but thanks."

"New car?" Tsuy greeted her while she took off her shoes. "Saw it from the attic window. Good choice."

"I noticed that everybody around here seems to drive Toyota," Stephanie said. The RAV, the LandCruiser… actually most of the cars in the lot were Toyota's.

"Family thing," Tsuy smiled. "In 1937 Mr Toyoda helped my great-grandfather set up a business."

She seemed to think that explained everything. Maybe they all drove Toyotas as some form of loyalty? Or maybe it was about buying Japanese. She smiled because it reminded her of her father.

"You drive a Mini," she said as they walked into the dojo room.

"The Mini was a gift from some British friends. And one of the uncles of my mother still doesn't talk to me because I drive it."

"Someone gave you a Mini off the racing track?"

"It's been raced on the Nurburgring in Germany. One day I just got a call from a shipping company, that they had a birthday delivery for me."

"You have crazy friends. Speaking of friends, where is Tank? He said he'd be here."

"He called, he will be."

She grinned. She was still getting used to how her friend suddenly spoke more with Tank than she did.

"I saw you made the front page of the paper," Tsuy smiled. Stephanie groaned.
"My grandmother was so excited to have new material for her collection. There hasn't been that much since I stopped bounty hunting."

"I could have made a better photo, but I thought the article was all right."

"You do photography?"

"I study it… or rather, studied. I put things on halt when I came here."

"How far along are you?"

"Just need to do the final project. Well, design it first. Maybe a year more work. I actually just had my cameras shipped in from Tokyo, I'm going insane with boredom. Figure I can get started here."

That was interesting. Did this mean she had no plans to return to Japan anytime soon?

"You could finish it here, couldn't you? I'm sure there's an Arts college that does a similar program around here."

"I'm considering that."

Steph felt an idea stand up in the back of her mind and do a snoopy dance. She wanted to have some photos of Rangeday, and had been planning to buy a bunch of disposable watertight cameras so the guys could make them themselves. Nobody would want to get stuck with being designated photographer if that meant missing out on the fun. However if Tsuy could come by to make some photos… Having good quality images opened up a world of fun. Like having posters made afterward. She made a mental note to discuss with Ranger if it would be okay to invite someone to come by and make photos.

"Shame we didn't meet a couple of years earlier, you could have made a project of my cars and their demise."

Tsuy grinned.
"That would have been the talk of my school, that is for sure. I have a good feeling about that Hilux though."

"That's what Ranger said. I'm not so sure."

"I figure that if that blows up too, you should go to Hollywood and make major money working for a special effects company."

"I didn't make the last one blow up! It just happened!"

"Those joyriders say different," Tank said suddenly from behind her. She jumped, and then got distracted watching an almost-smile pass between her friends. It was the only indication that they saw more of each other these days. No kiss, no 'hey babe'. If they had been anyone else, she would have thought it cold.

"Hey wait, what did those guys say? And where?"

Tank sank down smoothly to sit cross-legged. He settled down so that they formed a little circle and waited a moment, a grin playing at his lips. That probably meant it was amusing to him and embarrassing to her.

"Sold their story to the paper. They took your car for a dare."

"What?"

"It was a college bet. These guys got high and bet some friends that they could drive your car for an hour and it wouldn't explode."

She rounded her back and let herself roll back, groaning.

"Did they make it an hour?"

"Forty nine minutes. They had a stopwatch with them."

Stephanie rubbed at her eyes with the palms of her hands and sighed.
"This didn't happen. I'm having a really wacko dream."

"Gets better," Tank announced.

"It never does."

"Trust me, you'll love this. They are in their police statement as saying, and I quote 'she has super-mutant-turtle-ninja powers and detonated the car with her mind rays.'"

"You're making that up."

"Would I?"

She used the weight of her legs to roll herself back up to a sitting position.
"Absolutely you would."

Tank tilted his head to concede the point.
"I didn't, though. But don't take my word for it…" his eyes glistered with glee, "it will be in the paper tomorrow."

"My life is a statistic improbability."

Later that night she curled up around a pillow and sighed happily. They had exchanged some interesting ways to defend yourself with common items; keys, shoes, cell phones... everything could be used if you knew how, and she knew now. She'd need some more practise, but once the ideas were there… her arm already felt less stiff. She'd go to the gun range tomorrow to get back into practise.

And tomorrow Ranger would be back. He'd called briefly earlier tonight, to ask how it went at the hospital. They'd talked for a little while. Imagine that! Talking on the phone with Mr One-Word Answer, for at least 5 minutes, about nothing in particular. Maybe this was an alternative universe.

It hadn't made her feel breathless this time, and that was a relief. It was scary enough that she would actually miss him when he'd been gone for just four days. Over the years she'd known him there had been plenty of times that she hadn't seen him for weeks on end, and she had noticed, but it hadn't really felt like it did now. Like there was a Ranger-shaped emptiness in her life. And that, frankly, terrified her like nothing else. She was more than walking on thin ice. She was walking a tight rope over the Grand Canyon after half a bottle of wine. In gale-force wind.
Blindfolded.

"Hey Wonder Woman!"

She let the door to the control room fall shut behind her and blinked at Bobby, not exactly awake yet. He grinned wide and pointed at the outside of her cubicle across the room. There, copied and enlarged to A2 format, a newspaper header said:

BOMBSHELL BOUNTY HUNTER HAS SUPER POWERS

Several Rangemen were watching her, she noticed. Maybe they were waiting for her to impersonate her mother and wail 'Why me?'.

"Damn, my secret identity is out."

"We've ordered you a T-shirt," Hawk grinned.

"Cool. Black? Don't tell the boss. Maybe I can get away with it in the office."

She spent 40 minutes on the shooting range with Lester and did a short session in the gym over lunch. Then she spoke with Ella about some practical details for Rangeday. Much to her own shock, everything seemed pretty much sorted. It was getting kind of disconcerting.

Any moment now things would implode. The company would cancel. The cook would get a hernia. The material would get wrecked in a fire. There'd be a hurricane and they couldn't get on the beach. The weather would turn and in an unseasonable cold spell it'd start to freeze. The guys would figure out what the activities were and she'd lose the bet. The guys would hate the activities.

Calm down. Picture the ocean. Concentrate on the surf. Breathe with the surf.

She forced herself to take deep, slow breaths. This was going to work out. And if it wasn't, it wouldn't be for her lack of effort.

I need a donut.

It was just past three when there was a hush in the office. Felt like static electricity suddenly filled the room. Officer-on-deck silence. She heard Ranger talk to the men at the monitors in a low voice, and then it grew silent. Now, she had to time this well…

"Yo boss," she said, turning her chair to face him. The little intake of breath said she'd caught him. Hah, go Steph!

He looked edible in black slacks and button-down shirt, top button open. She tried not to stare while he stayed outside the cubicle for a moment to look at the enlarged article. His eyes smiled.

"Babe." It meant 'only you', she thought.

"Since I'm officially Wonder Woman now, do I get a raise?" she grinned.

"I'll consider it. Come to my office," he said. She chose to take it as a request rather than an order, and followed him. He closed the door behind her and then pulled her close, hands on her hips.

"I try to behave professionally toward you in the office," he said with his lips about an inch away from hers. "It's not easy when you look at me like you just did."

"Did what?" being this close to him didn't do wonders for her higher brain functions.

"You looked at me like I was the first Boston Crème you'd seen in weeks."

She rose up on her toes and leant in, capturing his bottom lip and giving it a nibble.
"Yum."

The next moment he was kissing her, and his hands on her back held her to him and upright and that was good, because her knees certainly weren't working properly.

"Babe."

He sounded a little out of breath. Well, good. At least she wasn't the only one.

"Mm."

She pressed her nose against the side of his neck as he pulled her tighter against him. Mmm, he smelt good. His arms were around her, strong as if he didn't intend to let her go for a while yet.

"Missed me?" she joked.

"Mm," he hummed just above her ear. It meant 'yes'. She thought.

"How long have you been home?" It was a quarter past three. He'd said he'd be back mid-morning.

"About 97 seconds."

"Funny."

He was slowly rocking them from side to side while they talked, almost like dancing. Seductively soothing. She struggled to keep her brain functioning. It was altogether too tempting to let herself drift away on clouds of warm fuzziness.

"The men are getting worried about RangeDay, Babe" he said after a moment. She resisted the urge to smirk and went with a trembling bottom lip. Not that he could see it, with her forehead against his neck and his chin resting on her head.

"What, they don't think it'll be any fun?" she said, putting a bit of dejection in her voice. "I really am trying…"

"You're not fooling me, Babe," he whispered over her ear. "But by all means, continue for their sake."

Damn. Note to self: fooling Ranger takes acting lessons.

"And you, are you worried?" she asked after a long moment. His soft breath over her ear was a little distracting. Probably that was the point.

"Not about RangeDay," he said with a grin in his voice. She wondered what he was worried about.

"While we're talking about that," she started after a long moment.

"Yes?"

"Would it be okay to invite someone to come for a few hours during the day, to make photos?"

"Have anyone in mind?"

"I just found out that Tsuy studies photography."

"And you're not telling her the activities?" He was probably thinking of Tank finding out.

"No." There's no need. "I could let her know the location last minute."

"Go for it," he kissed her. "It'd be fun to have good photos of the day."

She lay in bed that night and tried to pretend she was in a tropical place, swinging lazily in a hammock. Some handsome Cuban looking man bringing her a drink with a little umbrella in it.

It wasn't working tonight. She was swinging back and forth between feeling warm fuzz about Ranger's return – because had he actually kind of told her that he wasn't home until he saw her, or had that been her imagination? – and apprehension about that warm fuzz.

Warm fuzzy feelings for someone who disappeared into the unknown for days were not sensible. Warm fuzzy feelings for someone who did possibly lethally dangerous things in that same unknown… well that would inevitably lead to heartbreak of a sort.

Stop thinking about this. Hammock. Soft sound of the ocean. Warm breeze. Swinging lazily…

"Bombshell! You gonna come shoot pool or what!"

Another day had passed. She shook herself from her thoughts and got up to join Hawk and Bobby at the pool table. Lately Shorty's was trying out some entertainment besides beer and pizza. After an unfortunate trail-run of a darting board, which had invoked some 911 calls and a short but memorable police investigation, he had settled on a pool table. Not that pool cues couldn't be used to do damage, but there was no risk of that now because there was a crowd of Merry Men around the table and no one else was even going to come near the cues.

"Sure, I'll give it a go," she shrugged, accepting a cue from Hawk. "Aren't you supposed to do the blue-crayon thing on the tip?"

Around her the betting began. She accepted the chalk from someone and took her time making the tip of the cue blue. She had had one drink and it hadn't hit her as hard as usually, but they didn't know that. She smiled at the blue tip while she worked.

"It's done, Steph," Hal grinned.

"Missed a bit," she said seriously, and continued. Then, while it grew quiet around her, she declared the cue "pretty" and looked up to smile at Bobby. The betting seemed to be mostly in favour of him, and she wasn't surprised. Apparently he'd gotten a reputation for it in the service. Mathematical mind, gift for strategy – it really wasn't surprising that he was good at it.

Hopefully it would be a surprise that she was, too. With a bit of luck these guys were in for a surprise. She'd practically majored in pool at college.

"Ladies first," Bobby grinned. One of the new guys called that it was only fair that she start, or she'd never even get to play. She leaned forward and afforded the other side of the table a look down her top. Not that there was anything to see with this high V-neck, but it was the principle of the thing. A murmur arose.

She broke the rack and proceeded to sink balls, no longer pretending to be tipsy after the fourth ball or so. Nobody was fooled, anyway. It was very quiet around her, and she smiled to herself. Guys. Maybe this would teach them to bet on her and her life. The rangemen didn't do it to the extend that the cops did, but it still irked her sometimes.

The last ball hit the pocket with a thud and she straightened up. Everybody started talking at once. Bobby looked bemused, and then started to laugh, warm and deep. Hector was suddenly in front of her and gave her a hug, raving about something in Spanish.

He let her go and she was rocked by Ranger's force field as he came up behind her, his body skimming hers.

"Very impressive," he whispered over her ear, and she scolded her knees for going weak. "The acting and the playing."

A lot of wallets were suddenly in hand and Ranger and Hector were given money. Ah, her supporters. She half turned so Ranger could hear her.

"How did you know?"

"You told me about your college days," he grinned. "And Hector is convinced you're really Wonder Woman."

He gestured at Shorty for another round and guided her back to the booth.

It was late – or early, depending on how you looked at it – when he drove her home. She sat sideward in her seat, watching him be in his driving zone.

Who is this man?

The thought rose to her Margarita-addled mind before she could stop it, and now it was there it wouldn't go away. She tried to answer it.

This is Ranger. He's my mentor, my friend and I think that I might be in love with him.

Yes, but who IS he?

Ranger is Ranger. Ranger supports me and says he loves me. He is he and I am me.

But you know about you. You know who your parents are, what your favourite food is, where you'd like to go on holiday, what you want out of life. You don't know anything about him. Where was he this past week? Why doesn't he tell you? Where do his cars come from? Is he willing to be there when you're not in a jam? And how can you claim to love someone you don't know anything about?

She let out a long sigh, suddenly feeling rather down. For the longest time she'd considered the idea of a relationship with Ranger, and now she had the chance she was reconsidering. How could this ever work? They'd only been going out a few weeks and she already caught herself thinking 'if only'. If only he was more open with her. If only he'd tell her where he went when he was on those secret missions. If only…

To be continued.

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