The Gurus walked into the apartment, and Nick laughed when he saw my outfit. "Letting the kids pick your clothes again?" he said.

I sighed. "When I finished getting dressed, the kids told me that I looked pretty. They are currently making me bead necklaces to wear with my outfit. I am anticipating something sparkly. Ranger told them that it was nice of them to make me the necklaces because he learned from his sisters that the right accessories make the outfit. They were very enthusiastic about that thought."

"At least it's not gold lamé."

I snorted. When I had first met Nick, I had also let the kids dress me. That time I had a limited wardrobe and had made sure that everything coordinated with each other when I had packed it. Even so, the kids had been happy as they had dressed themselves to match and were very proud about that. At the time, Ranger told Nick about the time I let the kids dress me and they dressed me in a metallic gold sleeveless blousy top with red sequinned lips emblazoned on the chest that I had bought for a Hallowe'en costume, and a prim green flowered skirt that Val had given me. Although they didn't go together, the kids were so proud of themselves that I wore it anyway. Unfortunately, I was going to a school open house where the parents met the kindergarten teachers and toured the facilities. Double unfortunately, Ranger got pictures. I didn't know about the pictures until Ranger was teasing me about the outfit in front of Nick, and he showed Nick the pictures in the other room. It wasn't my most stellar moment.

I glared at Nick and Ranger. "I will disown you from my family if you take pictures."

Ranger laughed, but Nick put out his hands and laughingly said, "no! Not that!"

I sighed. Somehow, I thought pictures would soon be shown to my whole staff. "Suddenly makes a uniform look more appealing."

The men all laughed.

I wedged my spill-proof container of banana smoothie between my legs, and I wheeled myself into the sunroom. Ranger looked up and asked Grant if he wanted to come, and the three Gurus, Hal, Tank, Grant and Ranger all followed me into the space.

I turned my wheelchair and smiled at them. "I brought my own chair. I know how you mammoth he-men all take a lot of room."

The men laughed. "We'll make it work, Steph", they said.

As they all got settled, Ranger said, "now that Miguel is the Vice-President for Research and Investigative Services for North America, there is a vacancy as the Executive Director for Individual Research. I know that Steph has a recommendation for who should be promoted into the position, but we also are taking recommendations from all of you."

"Noah", said Nick. "He is brilliant both administratively and in analysis. He is excellent with people, supportive of his staff, and can research circles around almost everyone else in the unit. Personally, I think he is wasted where he is."

"I would have said the same thing", said Dirk. "He is also a great guy who is dedicated to his job and is easy to get along with, stays calm under pressure and would fit well with the rest of us. Additionally, with being a Forensic Psychologist, he has a different skill set than the rest of us and is one that would be helpful for our intense analysis. Think how helpful it would be for Amber Alerts or hostage negotiations. Besides, I think he would just gel with us personality-wise."

"I would say the same thing", said Miguel, "and I know that Noah is the person that Steph was about to recommend as well."

"I agree", said Tank. "Noah is a good man."

"He would be a great addition to the Gurus", said Hal.

Ranger looked at me. "I know that was your recommendation as well. Make the promotion effective immediately?"

"Yes", I said, "and he can use my office. With having the extra person I won't feel as bad about not being able to work full days."

Ranger smiled. "Excellent. You know that I'm not going to commission the building of another office until you are better, don't you? This means that you'll have to stay home and work from the apartment for a while."

I snorted at the pleased look on Ranger's face. I figured that it truly made no difference – Ranger would sit on me if he had to in order to keep me home for a while. And for the sake of his anxiety, I was going to have to let him. While being in such pain was devastating for me, it was even worse for Ranger to watch me go through it and know that there was nothing he could do to stop me from dying. I was glad that he was meeting regularly with his therapist, and I rather thought that Gabriel was pulling him through.

Ranger picked up the phone and called Noah and asked him to come over to the residence tower. He said that he would go down and meet him in the lobby and bring him up to our floor.

He got off the phone and looked at us. "You know what I hate? When you pull someone into your office to give them a promotion and, because the person is dedicated and takes pride in the job they do, they immediately worry that they have done something wrong. By the time they get to your office they have convinced themselves that you are getting rid of them, and they are worried about their job and are trying to figure out where they made the mistake."

"That's true", said Tank. "However, the smile of relief as they realize that you are giving them a promotion rather than firing them makes it all worth it."

Ranger left to descend to the reception area, and as he was out of the room we talked about my infection and my prognosis. "Steph is actually doing very well", said Grant. "If it wasn't for the nausea and the fatigue, she would be feeling much better than she had been in several days. She has been shocking Kai and me with how fast she has been healing, especially after such a vicious infection."

"How vicious?" said Dirk.

Grant looked at me, and I sighed and nodded. "If the infection had turned worse, she would have died. If the infection had stayed the same and hadn't healed as fast as it did, she could have lost her legs. She has been very sick and in excruciating pain. However, because she has been healing as fast as she has, I suspect that the infection will be gone in a few more days, and in five days she will have finished the course of antibiotics, which means that she won't be in danger of losing her stomach on a daily basis. The week after that, I anticipate that I will be approving Steph to work two hours a day again, although I am going to ask her to work them from her office up here so that she can split the time into two allotments, and so she can more easily stop when she is tired."

I looked at the men, and they all looked grave. "Steph", said Dirk, "you know that we can do the work. Take a few weeks off and get this under control, and come back healthy and strong. We'll miss you, but you are still in the building and we can come and visit you and bounce things off you. You'll still be a part of it."

I sighed. "I appreciate the offer, but as much as I can – even if it is only two hours a day – I plan on doing work for the office. Quite honestly, I need it for my mental health, for the distraction and the ability to think about normal things. I can immerse myself in something that is all-consuming and rise above the pain and discomfort and fear. Just like this case has helped pull me through this time, I need it to cope."

"I understand", said Miguel. "However, if you need us to do anything or even to work in tandem on a project so that you can reduce the hours that you specifically do, let us know. Every single person in this room would be honored to be asked to help."

My eyes filled with tears and I looked at each of the men. "Thank you", I said huskily.

Seconds later, Ranger walked into the room and Noah followed. He looked sharply at me, and I smiled. "Grant and I were giving an update to everyone", I said, "and my eyes welled up when the men all expressed their undying devotion."

"Ha!" said Dirk with a smile. "Is that what you heard?"

"Undying devotion", I said with a giggle. "That's what I heard and that's what I'm going with."

The men all laughed and looked at Noah. "Hey", said Miguel. "How are you doing?"

"Depends upon why I was called up into an executive meeting", said Noah with an easy smile. However, even though his smile was easy his eyes were worried.

"Then we'll get this first part over with fast. It's like pulling off a band-aid", I said. "Noah, with Miguel moving into the role as a Vice-President, there is now an opening for an Executive Director of Individual Research and part of the Guru team. We talked about it and it was unanimous. We'd all love for you to take the role. You are an exceptional researcher, a fabulous person, a supportive teammate and a strong leader. Would this be something you would consider?"

Noah looked at everyone, his mouth open slightly in a look of shock. "I thought I was getting fired."

I snorted. "Good God, no. You are an incredible researcher, and our product wouldn't be as strong without you on the team. Now, before you give us an answer, I should outline what the Executive team does. As you know already, you would be doing about thirty percent administration and teambuilding, and seventy percent research. You will no longer be responsible for training new staff, but you will be responsible for helping staff research the difficult assignments that require more knowledge to find the answers, and for teaching the staff member how you did it so that they can do it themselves again another time. About twenty percent of your time will be spent doing that. Additionally, you will be on the elite team, or what the rest of Rangeman calls the Gurus. The remaining fifty percent will be spent doing work for the elite team. The other people on this team are Miguel, Dirk, Nick, Julie and me, although Julie can only participate as her schoolwork allows. The Gurus do the more intense or complex assignments. While three weeks out of the month the work is more challenging and we do it as a team, for about one week of the month the work is time-sensitive and requires us to work extensive overtime. During those times, the corporate apartment is available for people to stay in so that you don't have to waste valuable sleeping time travelling back and forth to your home. Things we have done in the past are Amber Alerts, kidnappings, terrorist actions, and so on. The Gurus help solve crimes and identify locations of victims and perpetrators, and they work hand in hand with all levels of governmental organizations to identify and arrest those responsible for heinous crimes. Is this something you'd be interested in?" I told him the salary. "We don't have an office available for you right now. You'll be taking over Miguel's office, and Miguel will get a bigger office built to represent his role as Vice-President. Until that happens, you can use my office to work in."

"I don't need a bigger office, chica", said Miguel.

"Don't knock it – a bigger office comes with a private bathroom, and that's worth its weight in gold."

Miguel laughed. "I accept then."

I grinned. "I thought you might. I know how you prefer to have fuzzy toilet seat covers and how you miss them in the communal bathrooms."

"I especially like the pink fur ones", said Miguel. "They warm my tush better."

"With sparkly tinsel mixed in with the fur? Oh yeah, baby", I said. I looked at Miguel and we both broke out laughing at the same time. The rest of the men chuckled and Ranger shook his head with a grin, and I turned to Noah. "I don't know if you need to think about it…"

"No!" he said. "I don't need to think about it at all. I definitely accept. I had thought that I had reached the pinnacle of what I could do at Rangeman, and I am beyond excited to think that I'd be an Executive Director. However, there are many qualified people who would do well in the role. Are you sure you want me?"

"Yes", I said, "we have a good team and we have a number of people who would be qualified. However, your work is head and shoulders above the rest. There isn't one area that you aren't strong in, whether that is research or analysis or leadership or administration. You get along with everyone, are determined to do the best that can be done and, even better, you have a degree in Forensic Psychology. Dirk and Nick are both accountants and specialize in corporate overviews. They can read finances and spreadsheets with the best of them. Miguel's specialty is weaponry. If we have a terrorist attack, it often involves bombs and other explosive devices, and that is what Miguel has his doctorate in. He also has extensive experience as a bounty hunter. Julie's background is in criminology and she has incredible analytical abilities. And me? I've watched all the Die Hard, James Bond and Mission Impossible movies and you can't beat that experience. I've even watched 'One for the Money'. However, your forensic psychology experience will fill a hole that we currently have. And no one else suitable for promotion has that experience."

Noah grinned. "This will be fantastic, thanks."

"Good", said Ranger. "Now that we have conned Noah into joining the elite team, let's talk about our case that we have before us. I'll start from the beginning – with the exception of Noah, everyone knows a little or a lot about the case but I don't think that anyone knows everything."

I looked at Noah, and he had a grin from ear to ear on his face. I was glad, because I knew that he'd be furious when he found out what was going on.

"We have a person attempting to con us into paying her a lump sum of a million dollars. This woman, Darla, uses a wheelchair, says she has MS, and says that she wasn't hired because she is disabled. She has also said that she will go to the media if we don't pay her hush money. However, I am proud of our inclusive hiring practices and I believe we always hire the best person for the job. Physical abilities in many of our jobs are completely irrelevant to the job performance, and they are not a part of our hiring criteria. Add in that we don't think she is even disabled, her brother who is masquerading as a lawyer was formerly a Rangeman security guard who had been let go for poor performance, and that she had done this same con to a lesser degree with three separate companies previously, we are all a little annoyed. We think that Rangeman was always the end game, and that the other companies were practice for their efforts in taking us down."

"Why do you think that she doesn't have MS?" said Noah.

"I have video coverage", I said. I scrolled through to the video of her in the conference room and showed it to Noah. As he looked at it, I said, "she said that she's been in a wheelchair for five years, but she doesn't know how to use her wheelchair properly." I looked at Noah and the expression of disgust on his face. When he finished reviewing the video, I took the phone back, scrolled to Carrie's text, and handed it back to Noah.

He reviewed the footage and looked up in anger. "That's disgusting", he said. "Having a disability is more challenging than not having a disability, and for someone to use the difficulties that people with disabilities experience every day to try to con money out of a company is absolutely revolting. Please tell me that we are going to take her down for fraud, rather than simply use this to get her to go away."

Ranger grinned. "Of course. You had the same reaction as the rest of us had. Because of that, we are now working with the police on this. I know that I usually work in the shadows, but there are some issues that you have to stand up and fight about. Just because people are differently-abled doesn't mean that they are disasbled or are bad employees. That's ridiculous. Every single person on staff – differently-abled or not – is a valuable team member, and I will get up in front of the media and say that if I have to."

"Do you want to though?" said Tank. "I know that you are fired up about this, but having a public face is not a good idea."

Ranger sighed. "I know. Although I would like to, I know it isn't smart. Because of that, I was thinking of having Adele do the face work for the public. She is much prettier than I am to start off with, she's a brilliant lawyer, and she's better at keeping her cool."

"You would do a good job at being a public face", I said. "You are great at thinking before you speak and you are very pretty too, " I said as everyone laughed. "But you don't want to be on the television, do you? You have done such a good job of living in the shadows."

Ranger sighed. "This case means more to me than most, partly because of your struggles, babe. I have a lot of respect for people on staff who have challenges of any sort. They make it look so easy – but it isn't, and after watching you for the last few months, I have a greater appreciation for the effort that goes into learning to live with a disability, and a greater appreciation for the difficulties that those with disabilities face every day, difficulties that most people without disabilities never even consider."

Noah smiled. "Ranger, you've always had an appreciation for those with different abilities and you do a lot personally as well as within the company to make sure that people can contribute to the best of their abilities. I know that I was in trouble until you came along. The government doesn't do enough to help those vets with injuries resulting from their work overseas. I was in a rehab hospital. The government provided me with a standard wheelchair that didn't work well for me. I was about to be discharged from the hospital and I had nowhere to go, no one to help me, and not enough money to rent a wheelchair-accessible apartment. I had no family and my friends had all moved on when I was overseas. I was feeling quite desperate and didn't know what I was going to do." He smiled. "And now, because of you, I have a kickass job, a great apartment that you helped me find, a car that you helped get adapted so that I could drive it. With your help, I have regained my independence. With the support that you offer all staff, I have made friends and have regained my life and my self-respect. And I'm not the only person you have done that for. I know in my apartment building alone, there are five other Rangeman employees and I suspect that you bought the building so that you could make sure that it was kept up to par and suitable for staff with disabilities."

I looked at Ranger and laughed at the flush that appeared on his face. "Ranger, you do so much for other people and I know that you are incredibly humble, but it's okay to let your friends know that you are an incredible person."

Nick laughed. "As I said, I thought I knew you well when I was on your team in the sandbox, but almost every day I find out more and more about you that I never knew before."

Ranger looked at the look of confusion on Noah's face and sighed. "I guess I'd better explain that. This is not to leave this room", he said to Noah.

"Absolutely." Noah leaned forward a bit and Ranger sighed again. He told Noah about his past, everything from jacking a car when he was a teen to becoming a Ranger and the role he held when he was one, to the fact that he had a price on his head. He also went over his role in PMC and the fact that he had a price on his head there as well. He then told him about his membership in the National Security Leadership Team and what they did, and he revealed all the roles that Rangeman played, from supporting the FBI to the work that we did for the big nine national security organizations, to the spies that we provided to a multitude of countries in Europe.

Noah looked at him in shock. "Holy shit!" he said.

I laughed. "Many of the research jobs that the Gurus do relate to those other functions that we provide. For instance, we stopped a bombing by the KKK which could have started a race war in the States. We did that for the FBI. We shut down all the drug and sex trafficking routes in Costa Rica and practically eliminated the people involved. They are still recovering even though it happened nine months ago. We did that for the CIA and the DEA. We shut down a terrorist cell for MI6 when we were in Scotland and, afterwards, we stopped a serial killer for the Inverness Police Department. We do big assignments, assignments that have long-reaching impacts if the perpetrators aren't caught. We do Amber Alerts for the police, find kidnapped people for the FBI and the CIA, and have rescued victims from further tortured. The work that the Gurus do is serious, often time-sensitive, and requires us to work together quickly and effectively to solve the issue. Our work is used by the ERTs to guide their captures and it requires a strong team, a well-oiled machine, to be successful. We think you are the best person for the team. Are you in?"

"Hell yeah."

I laughed. "Excellent", I said. I turned to Ranger. "Have you heard from Joe at all?"

"I talked to him a few minutes ago. He said that he took the video to an MS specialist, and the doctor said unequivocally that Darla does not have MS based on the footage that he saw. Joe has finished talking to the other companies and has a solid case for four counts of fraud. He was wondering whether we could look further into her past to find out if she is a serial con artist, or whether this con of discrimination claims was her first kick at the can. He is arresting her today, so he would like for us to cross our T's and dot our I's and get the information package to him."

"Is there anything else that you want us to do, other than to look further into Darla's past?" said Nick.

"We should also look into her brother's past and pull his HR file. I was also thinking, if Noah was up for it, that perhaps a psychological evaluation of Darla based on her past and her current actions, might be useful. Would that be possible?" I said.

Noah grinned. "Absolutely", he said.

"Excellent", I said with a smile. I looked up at Ranger. "Is that everything for this meeting?"

"Yes", he said as he assessed the fatigue on my face. "Noah, I've talked to HR and they are waiting for you to come and sign the new contracts. Everyone, thank you for coming to the apartment for the meeting. Babe, I think we have exhausted your awake time."

I smiled tiredly. "Yes, it is definitely time for bed." I said goodbye to everyone and, as Grant wheeled me out of the meeting, I said, "I hate it when you're right."

Grant laughed. "What was I right about?"

"Now that I'm tired, a milder painkiller won't do the job."

"What do you want then?"

"Supercharged turbo power, all the way."

Grant lifted me and put me on the bed. He rehooked up the IV and quickly injected the medication. "You'll feel better in a moment", he said. "What is your pain level?"

"Tens pretty well across the board."

"Then sleep, Steph, and take a break from the pain for a while."

I smiled, closed my eyes, and slept.