Title: It's all about living life
Chapter 23: Life's little facts.
Author: Ann (Chrystalsandsnowflakes)
Rating: (G to NC-17): G
Spoilers/Warnings: Takes place in the future, so after EOT
Summary: Update on Steph, Morelli and Ranger.
Disclaimer: None of these characters are mine, I just play with them. Thanks for the reviews!

Life's little facts

I looked over the fields at the grazing cows. It was early September and the leaves were starting to get a hint of brown, red and yellow. We had had a wonderful summer, but the last week, the air had begun to cool down in the evening, and we had had some heavy rain. Today however, had been a wonderful sunny day and we had spent most of it outside. Jenny and I had worked in the garden, getting it ready for the winter. During the past few weeks we had started talking about more personal things, and Jenny was now completely up to date with my current situation in life. She hadn't judged me in any way, and had laughed at the stories from my bounty hunting years. She had listened quietly when I told her about the reason my marriage had failed and had nodded understandingly when I had told her how I had ended up in Canada. Today we had had a long conversation about what would happen when I went back. This week would be my last week at the farm, and then I would start the drive back from Canada to Trenton which would take me another week probably.

"What would you like to happen, Steph?" She looked at me intently.

"Mmm, I would like to settle into my new life first, and then I would like to see if Ranger and I would be able to have a relationship."

"So is there any reason why that couldn't happen?" I thought about that. I could think of 1000 reasons why it wouldn't go according to plan, but on the other hand it would still involve me also allowing other people to change my plans.

"Well, my life never was exactly standard."

"No, and you have had many wonderful adventures because of that." I nodded and thought that that was a nice way of looking at my mostly successful attempts to catch skips.

"But when you got married, you slowly allowed Joe to make your choices, even if you weren't happy with them. And that gave you a feeling of being lost and unhappy." I nodded again, a little more thoughtful this time. Jenny was right, though.

"Did you ever have that feeling when you were still catching skips and not involved with Joe?"

"No…" Where was Jenny going with this?

"Was your life more predictable then?"

"No…"

"But you still made your own choices then."

"Uh… yes."

"You see, you don't need predictability to still be able to make your own choices. But that takes courage and strength. And you've got both in spades. Just don't be afraid to use them!"

I was cleaning up some leaves while I thought about Jenny's comments. It was true. Before I got involved with Joe my life had been pretty interesting and absolutely not standard. I made the papers on a regular basis, my cars seemed to go out of their way to catch fire and blow up. But despite that, I was happy with my life. I chose when I would do something and how I would do it. Hell, I was even able to resist Ranger and we all know that that takes strength and courage! I had made the decision to choose Joe and had not regretted it, until I had allowed Joe to make choices for me and had started to feel unhappy about my life. And in the end I had then made the choice to end the marriage and from that moment on I had started to feel happier again. I was still very sad that the marriage had ended, but I had started to make my own choices again and that had made me feel more at peace with myself again. Jenny was right: I knew what I wanted and should just go for it. It wouldn't be easy to make sure that I kept making my own choices, but I had to. If I wanted something, I would go for it. If I didn't want something, I would not go for it. I wanted to try a relationship with Ranger, but not under all circumstances. I could understand him when he said that he couldn't tell me everything that went on in his life, but there is a minimum amount of sharing necessary to make a relationship work. If he couldn't do that, I couldn't do a relationship. Wow, I even surprised myself with this insight. I looked up to see Jenny looking at me intently. I smiled at her and she smiled back to me.

"You'll get there, Stephanie. Give yourself the time and be true to yourself and you'll get there."

"Yes, I think I will." I nodded to myself one last time and then continued raking the leaves together with a delicious light feeling in my head. Happiness.

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"Morelli, in my office."

"Sir." I got up and walked towards the office of Juniak. Wondered what it was this time. I hadn't done anything that could have made him angry lately. I quickly scanned my memory. Nope, I had been pretty successful with my cases lately, arresting two wanted criminals in the last 2 weeks. Still, Juniak hadn't sounded like he wanted to pay me a compliment. Big Dog and Carl looked at me curiously, and I just shrugged my shoulders. They didn't know what this was about either. I went inside the office and closed the door behind me. There was another person in the office with him. She was currently looking outside the window. I was curious, I didn't think I had seen her before, so I still had no idea what this was about.

"Please meet agent Fresco from the FBI." At his words she turned around and I looked into deep light green eyes. Wow!

"Pleased to meet you, detective," she said in a soft voice while giving me a small smile. We shook hands and I didn't know what to say. She had straight deep brown hair which was currently tight in a bun at the back of her head. Her skin was olive tanned and even. Her eyes had sparks in them and she had lush full lips. She was wearing a short navy blue skirt that had a small split on the right side, a white top and a navy blue jacket. I wondered what kind of gun she had.

"Agent Fresco would like to discuss a case with you," Juniak said.

"Which one?" I asked. I was working on several right now, but I couldn't think of one that could interest the FBI. Agent Fresco smiled at me again. She had wonderful even teeth.

"A new one, detective Morelli."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Carlos, I've got Ms. White on the phone for you." I could hear the smile in Tank's voice.

Ms. White was a new client that had a very successful business but also had very wandering hands. I had discovered that recently when she had come in to sign the contract. She was a beautiful woman, very sophisticated and very rich. And she liked men. From what I had found out she wasn't looking for long lasting relationships, but for a lot of fun. Couldn't blame her for the way she looked at life, but still. She had called the office one day to ask for a meeting to discuss security possibilities for her business, so I had gone there together with my business manager John. We had sat down around a small round table with her next to John. She was a tough negotiator but it was a good contract. John had started squirming after about 10 minutes and had looked very happy when it was time to leave again. I had asked John what was wrong on the way to the car and he had told me that her feet had not been in her shoes, but everywhere else. I had laughed at him and said that he must have imagined that, it probably had been an innocent misunderstanding. But when she came in to sign the contract it had taken less than 2 minutes before I could feel her foot tracing up my leg. I had tried to shift away from her, but found out that she had had very athletic feet. The 15 minutes it had taken to sign the contract had seemed like an hour. And when we stood in the elevator together after the signing of the contract she had placed her hand on my ass and said in a very low voice:

"Looking forward to working with your company, Carlos." I was so surprised about this direct approach that it had shown on my face and I hadn't known how to respond. I felt like a teenager all over again. I was about to step away from her when the elevator doors had opened and with one last squeeze and sexy smile she had exited. I had needed a moment to calm down and then suddenly realised the camera in the elevator. Shit! But before I had made it back into the comm. room John had put the video from the elevator on the big screens there and they were all laughing their assess off.

"Still thinking I misunderstood her foot, Carlos?" he asked me while he exited the room with a satisfied smile on his face. Everybody had wiped the smiles of their face except for Tank. Somebody had been smart enough to stop the tape and the screens were showing the normal camera feed again. I had glared at Tank and then turned to go to my office. There is not much you can say after an incident like that. We had sent 2 people to her office to install the security cameras and other gadgets. There had been many volunteers for that job, but I had made it clear that under no circumstances were they allowed to initiate or respond to any of her advances during work time. It would take them 2 days and Tank and I paid regular visits to check up on them. By lunch on the first day they were ready to leave. I told them they had volunteered for this job and they should take it like a man, but had asked Ms. White to stop harassing my men while they were at work. She had smiled a small smile and said:

"Pity, they were fun to play with. Maybe after work then, huh?" She was testing me. I tried to look intimidating at her, but she smiled at me and said:

"You look sexy when you're angry."

"Just let them do their jobs in peace." I turned and walked to my car. Behind the tinted windows I ran a hand through my hair. Men used to break out in sweat and woman used to run away when I looked at them like that, and she just smiles and says it's sexy. Right. Since then there had been 1 incident to which Rangeman had to respond. The incident was real, but the men had returned looking hot and bothered anyway. I wondered what today's call was about.

"Tell her I'm out of the office."

"No can do."

"Why?"

"Reception already said you were in." Damn.

"Fine, put her on."

"How can I help you, Ms. White?"

"Please, call me Alexandra." She had tried this before, but I wasn't about to get on a first name basis with her. She was a client. I decided to ignore her request.

"How can I help you?"

"I'm very satisfied with Rangeman's services so far." I almost snorted at that. She probably meant 'Rangeman's employees'.

"Thank you."

"So I would like to hire Rangeman to secure my house as well."

"I'm pleased to hear that." I'm a business man and this meant business.

"So I would like to make an appointment with you to go over the possibilities." It hadn't escaped my attention that she had said 'you' in stead of Rangeman.

"Let me put you through to Marketing. They can make the appointment and give you all the information you want."

"Well, I was hoping you could come, since you handled my account before and are aware of my eh… situation." She had me there. Her business was a very discrete and elite escort club. She provided highly educated and beautiful women to men who wanted a companion for a business dinner or other formal occasion. We had double checked her business and it came back clean. Not once had it been investigated for anything. She had assured me that sex was absolutely not a part of the job and I was inclined to believe her. She had a reputation to uphold and getting investigated doesn't do much for your business. However, some of her customers seemed to think that the 'no sex' policy only existed on paper. There had been problems with customers in the past, who had threatened her and the women that worked for her and one had become physically violent. That was the reason why she had hired Rangeman and why she didn't want people to know where she lived. And I could relate to that. With an internal sigh, I gave in and looked at my diary. Next week I had some time. But I wasn't going alone.

"Okay. Do you have time next week Tuesday at 9 am?"

"For you, always," she purred in my ear and told me the address. I felt myself shiver. That wasn't too far away from where I had a house. She'd better not find out about that.

"Okay, Tuesday 9 am it is."

"Looking forward to it, Carlos." Now what do you say to something like that.

"Have a nice day, Ms. White." She chuckled at my response.

"You too, Mr. Manoso," she said, laughing softly. I put the phone down and rubbed my face with my hands. Then an idea popped into my head. Tank still had payback waiting for laughing at me openly in front of my men. I grabbed the phone and called his number.

"Go."

"Next Tuesday, 9 am." See how long it took him to understand. He remained silent for a while, thinking.

"Doing what exactly?" he asked carefully.

"Your time to meet the infamous Ms. White."

"Oh man!"

"You shouldn't have laughed at the elevator tape… man." And I ended the conversation. I'll let him think he has to go alone. That'll teach him. Thinking about the issue I realised that this wouldn't have been such a problem if I had a few women working here. Mmm, interesting thought. Maybe I should ask Jeanne Ellen to go next time. Mmm, maybe not. She didn't work for Rangeman and she was expensive and come to think about it, in the end she wanted the same as Ms. White did: me. I leaned back into my chair and folded my hands behind my head. I realised that 5 years ago I wouldn't have hesitated to sleep with Ms. White. She was a professional woman, obviously not looking for a relationship, so ideal for a man in my situation. But now, I had other things on my mind. Or more particularly, one other woman: Stephanie. She has been gone for 7 weeks, 2 days, 12 hours and 47 minutes. But who's counting? And I had no idea where she was. I secretly admired her for being able to disappear with so little traces, but it made me restless. Every day I was coming closer to giving out the order to someone to start searching for her. There had been nights that I had woken up from nightmares in which she had never returned, or worse, had died during her trip and I hadn't been able to protect her or to be there for her. I checked her apartment regularly for any clues but so far, nothing had turned up. I sighed and checked the clock. 5.24 pm. I needed a break from work and decided to drive over to her apartment. I would come back to the office later to work tonight, because there was a lot of work currently. I called Tank that I was leaving and got in my car and left the building. The drive took a bit longer due to traffic, but that didn't bother me tonight. I needed the time to put my thoughts in order. I parked, got out and opened her mailbox. Several items had arrived since my last visit and I took them out and upstairs. I let myself in and looked around. Nothing had changed since the last time I was here. I quickly went through her mail. Bills, advertisements and a postcard. On the front was a picture of a few green hills in autumn setting. Could be anywhere. Curious, I turned the postcard around to see who sent it. The postmark wasn't clear, so I couldn't see where it had been sent from. The stamps were Canadian. Wait, Canada. Steph had bought a ticket to Canada. I looked at the handwriting and my heart skipped a few beats. That was Steph's handwriting. Slowly I read the address: To R.C. Manoso. She had sent a postcard to me, using her own address, clearly knowing that I would go through her mail. I felt caught. She knew me better than I thought. I took a deep breath and moved my eyes to read what she had written.

Ranger,

I need this time away. Please remember what I said and don't try to find me.

Steph.

It took a while before the pain in my hand registered. Then I saw the blood on her wall and realised it must have been from my fist connecting with it.