Chapter 30b: Yes or No? .

WARNING: LIFE IS UNFAIR,… oh, and some language

Ranger POV

I looked at her standing there. I could see the unshed tears in her eyes if I would turn her down and the insecurity about my answer. It was heartbreaking to see. I took a step in her direction, but she held up her hands, indicating me to stay where I was.

"Just tell me, Ranger." Another whisper. She closed her eyes and hung her head. She had put up all her defences to take the blow if I would say 'no'. No physical contact, no eye contact, exit nearby. And looking at her standing there, I felt my love for her grow. She had done the gutsiest thing that somebody can do. She put her heart on a plate and offered it to me to chop it into two broken pieces or to take it and embrace it. I might have done some dangerous things in my time, but never something like this. I was about to answer her when my phone buzzed in my pocket. Without thinking I flipped it open and listened. Control was asking me if I could come down to help with something.

"I can't…" Ram objected, but I interrupted him.

"Not now. Later," and ended the conversation. When I closed the phone again and looked up, Steph was gone. I looked around the apartment, until it registered what I had said. She hadn't been looking at me… she hadn't seen the phone...

I ran to my computer to look at the cameras to see where she was, while at the same time I tried to dial the control room to tell them to keep her here, at all costs. Fuck! I'm not left handed and the phone fell from my fingers… Finally I managed to get the elevator camera on screen… Empty. No, no, NO! I picked up the phone and tried again while I used my right hand to key in the commands for the garage camera... At the same time that control picked up I got the images from the garage... Her car was gone while the gate was slowly rolling down, locking with a firm click...

The phone slipped from my fingers and I slowly sank to the floor. I was paralysed, no training had prepared me for this. The pain was incredible and I felt like I couldn't breathe. How could I have been so stupid? Why had I answered that stupid phone?

It took a moment before I realised that it was me who was screaming.

She was gone.