Disclaimer: Hey! I don't own anything, so give me a break!

Authors note: Thanks for the feedback, I love reading the reviews so please keep r reviewing. Thank you for reading.

Chapter 8

I left Joe's shortly after the pizza was gone and I drove back to Valerie's. I tried to open the door but it didn't budge – locked.

Crap.

I got out a slender tool and opened the door with ease. Now I can finally pick the lock – go me!

I opened the door smiling but it soon dropped off my face when I saw Ranger sitting on the couch looking at me with a raised eyebrow.

I sighed and closed the door, I turned back to him, "What are you doing here?"

He didn't answer just got up and walked over to where I was standing.

"Why did you ignore me?" he said obviously referring to this afternoon.

I rolled my eyes, "Ranger, think about it. Why would I? You're the one with esp."

He raised an eyebrow and sighed, "Babe, It was two years ago."

"And…? Your point is?" I said looking bored.

"It was a long time ago, why do you even still care?"

"Why do you?" I said sighing.

"You blanked me. Never do that" he sad pushing and pinning me against the wall.

I pushed him off me and he stumbled backwards in surprise.

"You can't order me around any more Ranger, I'm a different woman from the one you met two years ago." I said coldly.

Ranger looked at me with a stony expression, "Babe, I'm sorry, I really am. I know you probably hate me because of what I said."

I looked at him with a scowl, "You have no idea what your words meant to me. Don't bother wasting your breath trying to tell me what I probably do. You have no idea what you are talking about so I suggest you shut up." I said frostily.

Ranger looked stunned at my sudden hate towards him and maybe a little hurt too.

I was being a complete bitch; it wasn't his fault he didn't fancy a relationship with me, well it sort of was but he couldn't help it I guess.

I rubbed my eyes and looked at him, "I'm sorry, I'm being a complete bitch. Ignore everything I just said. Ranger, I don't mean to be angry with you, it just hurt is all." I said genuinely feeling sorry.

He shook his head slightly, "Babe, you don't have to apologize to me. Ever"

I frowned, "But I should"

"No babe"

I sighed not really wanting to argue.

"Thank you by the way"

"For what, babe?" he said frowning slightly.

"For being concerned for Mary Lou for me. I know you don't really care about her all that much, and that you had checked up on her for me, for the record, it means a lot to me that you would do that. Thank you." I said giving him a genuine smile.

He gave the 100-watts and I tried not to swoon.

"No problem babe." And he skillfully leaned in and kissed me full-on.

I should have pulled away, I knew I should have…but I didn't. Stupid me never does what I should do. I'm kinda stubborn like that…

I kissed back until he pulled away and walked towards the door, leaving me slightly breathless. He opened the door, gave me short "Babe" and disappeared.

I couldn't respond, still completely numb over the kiss.

Man, could he kiss.

I took a nice long shower to calm down and stayed in there until I felt my skin go prune-y then I got dressed in some sweats and an old t-shirt and just flopped on the bed in the spare room. I tried to close my eyes but my legs felt restless, I had a bad-case of jumpy legs. I really need to get to a gym so I could calm down and get my legs to relax.

Where was the nearest gym?

I flipped open my cell.

"Yo"

"Yo, yourself" I said getting back to my old habits.

"Babe, what's up?"

"I was wondering…is the gym open in RangeMan?"

"Babe it's 24/7."

"Is it oka…"

"Babe, you're welcome to come to the gym whenever you want."

"Thank you Ranger." And I hung up.

See how he likes to be hung up. He's done it to me enough times.

I looked at the clock, it was only 10. I was surprised Val and Albert weren't back yet.

Nevertheless I left them a note so they didn't worry and slipped on my new Nikes before grabbing my sports bag and running out of the house.

I ran down main to RangeMan, my legs already feeling a little better from the run. It was only a 2-3 mile run so I wasn't worn out just yet. I showed my old I.D and Hal let me in. I came up to the desk and said hi.

"Bomber? I haven't seen you for ages…"

I nodded, "It's been a long time yeah?"

And I hurried towards the stairs.

I ran up the stairs to the fourth floor gym and entered it a little precautious. I slowly slide into the gym unnoticed and I went into the corner where there were a couple of long blue mats available. I vaguely remember the people from the building so I could barely put names to faces. The only ones who I could actually recognize properly were Lester and Cal. Who were doing weights and hadn't noticed me yet. Thank god.

I lay on the mat on my back and closed my eyes concentrating. I slowly lifted my feet and legs up about 30 cm off the ground and, keeping them dead straight, I held it.

I let my mind trail as I kept my mind off of my legs.

What to think about? Hmmm…

I decided to focus on Spain. What my new job was going to be like. My boss was quite easy on the eyes and he was obviously a very nice guy to let me cancel and re-arrange the whole interview thing. I wondered why I hadn't opted for it in the first place.

But still, what's done is done.

The 'Burg sure has changed without me. Morelli's got a girl, Lula's got skinnier, Xena.

Xena, that girl needs some talking to. Bitch was quite nauseating. Thinking she knew all that about me and everything. Stupid asshole.

I felt someone come near me and I opened my eyes and looked around.

"Bomber? What are you doing here?" Lester said looking at me with furrowed eyebrows.

"Les, what does it look like I'm doing?" I said grinning, "I am exercising."

He raised an eyebrow, "Since when do you exercise? According to the old you exercising was a waste of time."

I frowned, "I'm not the old me any more, I've learnt a lot of new stuff and changed my perspective on things a lot."

He nodded and lay down on the mat next to me, doing the same exercise as me.

"Jeez, I remember this we used to do this in the force" he said to me.

Out of all Rangers' guys, Les was the least secretive. Hell he was secretive, all of them were but he was a tiny fraction less.

Teeny Tiny.

"Yep" I said then my eyes widened and I clamped a hand over my mouth, "Shit"

Les looked at me with wide eyes and a shit-eating grin, "No way…"

"Don't say anything to anybody Les, your not supposed to know. If my mother got wind of it she'd kill me, as would my father." I said desperately.

"I won't say a thing Bombshell. Don't worry."

I sighed with relief, "Thank you"

He nodded, "So what did you join? What were you?"

"I was only an Army Cadet, nothing serious, I was going to go on to become a General but I couldn't stand any more shit showers or early mornings." I said shivering at the reminder of the showers.

Lester looked at me with a new line of appreciation and pride, "Good on you Steph." He said smiling.

I nodded, "Yeah well…" I felt my leg muscles start to scream at me so I slowly lowered my legs and turned over onto my stomach, "So what have you been up to since I've been gone, anything funny happened? Any cars blow up?" I said laughing slightly.

He laughed but shook his head, "Nope, we all missed you Bomber. Though I'm glad you're enjoying yourself."

I did 30-40 press ups and stopped feeling my leg muscles nice and relaxed. I got to my feet and grinned at Les, "See ya around."

"Bye bomber", he said smiling.