I pushed myself out of the offices but, when I got to the bridge over to the residence tower, Ranger pushed me. I was grateful that he had understood that it was important to me to leave the office under my own steam. Having said that, I was also grateful to hand over the pushing of the wheelchair to Ranger. I was beyond exhausted and was well on the way to being close to tears.

"How are you doing?" said Ranger softly.

"I'm beat. With not sleeping well last night mixed with the excitement of the day, I need some serious time in bed."

"It also is almost two, and that is three hours past the time that you would normally stop for the day", said Ranger. "Add in that you probably didn't have lunch?"

"No, but I ate muffins and fruit when I was on the floor."

"I'm glad. I have to fatten you up."

I smiled tiredly. "That's what Miguel and Dirk and Nick said as well."

"Maybe some lunch and a sleep this afternoon?"

"Maybe just a sleep? To tell you the truth, I'm so tired I feel sick. I just want to crash."

"Should I wake you for dinner or just let you sleep?"

"Just let me sleep, thanks. If I wake up later, I can eat then and always choose to have a sedative if I can't settle afterwards. However, right now I'm on the verge of chucking and I don't want to add food to my stomach and test its stability."

"Tracy brought some meal replacement drinks and put them in the fridge", he said. "What about having one of those before sleep?"

"Nope. Not a good idea."

We got up to the apartment and the four kids swarmed me. "Mommy!" said our three. "Auntie Steph!" said Eli.

I smiled. "Guys, although it's great to see you, I don't feel so good and I need some sleep. I'm sorry, but can I talk to you later?"

"Yes", said the four kids. They looked subdued though, and my heart broke as I looked at the uncertainty and worry in their faces. Tears came to my eyes as I saw their upset, and Ranger brought his hand down and massaged my shoulder.

"I'm too tired to eat right now", I said. "However, when I wake up I will feel like eating. And you know what I would like? Fruit salad. Would it be possible to make me some fruit salad while I sleep?"

The four of them grinned. "We will make the bestest fruit salad ever, Mommy!" said Alix. She gave a little bounce.

"We have mangoes to put in the salad as well", said Tracy. I could tell that she could see the exhaustion on my face. The kids all cheered again as I sighed.

Ranger smiled. "I also didn't have lunch today and would love to eat something." He turned to the kids. "Would it be possible for you to make me something to eat?"

"Yeah", said the four kids with grins.

They wheeled around and went into the kitchen, and Tracy looked down at me. "Anything I can do to help?" she said quietly.

I sighed. "I didn't sleep much last night. I was so convinced that I could do it without a sedative that what ended up happening was that I only got about two hours of sleep and had panic attack after panic attack. And when I was sleeping I had nightmare after nightmare."

"How come?"

"I was afraid that I could no longer do my job. I kept waking up in tears."

"Oh boy."

"I know. My stomach is rocking and rolling, despite that Kai gave me medication this morning to help me keep my stomach down. Even my vision is going spotty."

"Pain levels?"

"About a ten? It's time for a pain reliever. The one I took this morning wore off a couple of hours ago and I have been struggling to cope since."

"Oh boy. Okay, I'll help you get settled in the bed. If Ranger and I work together, we'll be able to get you to sleep sooner. I think it would be a good idea for you to spend the rest of the day in bed – not just a four-hour nap – and we should change you into nightwear."

I smiled sadly at Tracy. "As long as it's fast, I don't really care what you do to me."

"This has possibilities", said Ranger as he quickly pushed me down to our bedroom.

"I said it has to be fast", I said. "Possibilities should never be fast. Possibilities should be slow and thorough."

Tracy laughed. "There is always room for a good fast and hard."

I laughed quietly, and I laughed a little harder when I looked up at the flush on Ranger's face.

Ranger pushed the wheelchair to the side of the bed for me and angled it so that I would be able to get into it myself if I woke up. He lifted me and gently laid me down on the bed. Tracy undressed me while Ranger retrieved a nightgown, and Tracy changed my diaper. Ranger dispensed a pain reliever and handed me a glass of water, and Tracy gave me the duvet that a friend had given me. It was as light as a cloud and it was one of the few bed coverings that was light enough not to be painful on my burns. She spread it over my body, looked at my face, and turned to Ranger. "Perhaps", she said, "if you can cuddle Steph and soothe her into sleep, we could make you some lunch and it will be ready for you when you come out."

Ranger smiled at Tracy in appreciation and, as she left the room, he climbed into bed and pulled me into his arms. "How are you doing, babe?" he said softly.

"Awful", I said as I sniffled. "I'm so damn tired."

"Go to sleep, and hopefully you sleep through to tomorrow."

I buried my head into his chest and tried to ignore the tears as they squeezed out beneath my lids. I tried to purposely relax my muscles, and Ranger massaged the tense muscles at the base of my neck. He periodically kissed the top of my head but, when I didn't fall asleep immediately, he whispered to me, "let go."

I breathed deeply and swiped the tears from my face but crying allowed me to relax. Soon after, I fell asleep.

I woke up when Ranger was getting ready for bed. He smiled at me as I opened my eyes. "Kai said that, when you wake up, he'd like to do an exam. He has to change your dressings as well. He was just changing into his sleep pants and a t-shirt, and he said that he would be in to do that in a few minutes."

"Hunh. Too bad that I didn't sleep through the dressings change."

Ranger smiled in support. He knew how painful the dressings changes were, and it was something that Kai did twice a day. "How do you feel?"

"Dopey. I don't think that I have yet woken up fully."

"Did you have a good sleep?"

"I had a great sleep. I'm looking forward to more."

"Do you want something to eat?"

"I might be able to keep a meal replacement drink down."

"While you wake up then, I will get you a drink."

"And a glass of milk?" I said. "I'm quite thirsty."

Ranger smiled with relief as he left the room, and as he came back, Kai accompanied him. Kai grinned at me. "Let me guess – you overdid it today."

I sighed. "I didn't realize that I was overdoing it until I had, and then I had to get to bed very fast. Luckily, Ranger was with me and he pushed me home and got me to bed quickly."

"How do you feel?"

"I'm still exhausted. I'm just not crying with it now."

"You were crying with fatigue before?"

"Yes."

He listened to my lungs and heart and took my blood pressure. "What are your pain levels?"

"About a ten for my left leg, a seven for my right leg, a seven for my muscle tear, and my lungs are a little tight."

"You know, when I approved you going back to work it wasn't so that you could do twice as many hours as I had approved. I approved three hours for a reason, Steph. Not six, and especially not six after a sleepless night."

"I know", I said. "But I was pulled into a meeting at eleven that I wanted to be there for. There is a woman who is trying to sue us for discrimination. She says that we aren't hiring her because she is in a wheelchair. However, the truth is that she made it past the introductory interviews, but she bombed the second stage, the psychological testing. You need a minimum of eighty-five percent to be considered for our staff. Our employee average, however, is ninety-three percent. She scored a sixty-four percent on her testing, and that was why her application was turned down. Unfortunately, that meeting was about forty-five minutes long, and then I told everyone my theories, and then I proved my theories need to be taken into consideration, which led to Joe being called in, and before we knew it, it was almost two and my vision was going spotty, it was all I could do not to throw up, and I started to cry. I'm just glad that Ranger got me out of there before it became obvious that I was in trouble."

"Steph, you can't do that to yourself."

"I didn't mean to, but the woman is trying to say that we discriminate against people with physical disabilities. And that's bull. She said that she would go away if we give her a million. She is just a con artist, and we are going to take her down. I don't even think that she needs a wheelchair. She looked too ignorant of how to use it properly. I mean, I look more comfortable in my wheelchair and I have only been in it for one month, part-time. She said that she has been in her wheelchair for five years. It doesn't make sense."

"How's your stomach?"

"Rocking and rolling. Between being tired and then taking the pain reliever without food, just because I felt too nauseous to eat, I have totally trashed my stomach."

"Okay." He opened his medical bag. "I'm going to give you a shot of Dramamine. You can take that in addition to the regular antinauseant that I normally give you. It will make you sleepy but, given you are going to bed right now anyway, that isn't a bad thing."

"I don't think I can imagine what it would be like to be sleepier."

Kai smiled. "After fifteen minutes or so, I'd like you to drink your milk and your meal replacement drink and, when that settles, I would like to see you eat some of the fruit salad that the kids made you."

"Oh God. I forgot that I had to eat that. I don't know if I will be able to keep it down."

"Alix was very determined that I was to tell you that there were mangoes in it."

I sighed. "Mangoes are one of Alix's favorite foods."

Kai smiled. "I asked her if there was pineapple in it. She said no. I said that I wouldn't gobble it all up before you got to eat it then."

I smiled. "What did she say?"

"She was quite horrified and told me rather emphatically that it was your fruit salad and I was not allowed to have any. I asked her if I could have just one small bite, that it looked very good. She said that she would make me some tomorrow just for me, but this fruit salad was specifically for you because that bowl had the most mangoes in it."

I smiled with tears in my eyes. That was one of the things that I appreciated about all my children. Every single one was incredibly generous and giving, and they cared so damn much about people. Ranger said they took after me. I say they take after him. Whomever they take after, they were deeply caring kids.

"So, do you want some fruit salad?"

"Let's give the Dramamine a little more time to settle."

Kai sighed. "That bad?"

I took a deep breath. "Yeah", I said. I sat up and reached for the barf bag on the nightstand.

"Oh boy."

Ranger came back from the washroom. He had changed into his sleep pants and a t-shirt, and he sat on his side of the bed. He reached over and rubbed my back. "Is it time for the dressings to be changed?"

"Not yet", said Kai. "We are letting the Dramamine work for a few minutes, and then will try a light snack. I've heard that mangoes are very good at settling tummies."

I smiled. "You did, did you?"

"According to Alix, they are the miracle cure for all evils."

I laughed.

We talked about the case for a few minutes while I tried to settle my stomach. Ranger told us that Cal had put Carrie and Will on surveillance. Like Ranger and me, Cal thought it would be a good idea to start surveillance right away – especially if Joe was going to be contacting her and telling her to get assessed by an MS specialist. Because of that, Joe agreed to not contact her until the end of the week.

"Your phone has been beeping with messages coming in", said Ranger as he passed my cell to me.

I opened my text app. There were three messages from Carrie. "Got her", she said in the first. She included a video of Darla loading grocery bags into her car, returning the shopping cart, and walking back to her car again. She was wearing the same clothes as she was when she had come for the interview. She was walking confidently and strongly, displaying no problems with gait or balance. I smiled. Carrie sent a second one. "What a fraud", she said. The video was of Darla carrying out the garbage for the night. The third message didn't have any text with it. It was just a video of Darla taking her dog for a walk.

I smiled after opening the three emails and sent copies of them to Ranger and Joe. "Don't know if you have seen these yet, but just in case I am sending them to you. It looks like we got her. Looking forward to seeing what happens next."

Seconds later, Joe responded. "Didn't know you were so bloodthirsty. I like it." I laughed.

As Ranger looked at the video, Kai handed me the meal replacement drink. I slowly sipped it. When I had finished, he handed me the fruit salad. I slowly ate half before my stomach rebelled. But I made sure that I ate all the mangoes.

Ranger smiled as he got to the end of the videos, looked at me and kissed me lightly. "Once again, you did it, babe."

I smiled.

"What did Steph do?" said Kai. He gave me my painkiller in an injectable form rather than through an oral method. He explained that he didn't want to see me throw it up.

"Steph noticed that Darla looked a little uncomfortable in her wheelchair, as though she wasn't totally familiar with it. At the same time, however, she said that she had been using a wheelchair for the last five years. Because of this, Steph surmised that Darla likely didn't really have MS and was doing a con job on us. It went with her bully-tactics and insistence that we pay up and quickly. We sent Cal's team out to do surveillance, and these are the videos they shot."

Kai looked at the video and growled. "So what is your plan?"

"That's not the only video. This was shot by our security cameras today." Ranger showed Kai the video of Darla using her wheelchair.

"I can see what Steph means", said Kai. "She definitely is not comfortable using her chair."

"Steph identified the discomfort with her wheelchair, Cal's team got pictures of her not needing a wheelchair, Steph is going to do in-depths on Darla and her brother Zack, and Joe is going to ask for medical consult notes and a visit to a specialist to prove her MS. He also told me this afternoon that, if she refused to see a MS specialist for a consultation, he would show the video taken by Cal's team to the MS specialist and have him or her do a consult based on the images. By the time we have the consultation results, mixed with the video, mixed with Darla's and Zack's history, we'll have a lot of information and proof on our side that Darla is trying to commit fraud."

Kai smiled slightly. "I'm glad. There are many people with MS who struggle with the illness. It is a progressive disease that is very difficult to live with and having someone fake having the illness is trivializing the illness for those who are sincerely suffering from it. And quite frankly? That's disgusting."