All familiar characters are Janet's. The others and any mistakes are mine.
Stephanie wasn't interested in separating Olivia from her guests, even while she's out cold after finally giving into her nap, so Cal went to retrieve one of the office chairs specially ordered for the men of his and Tank's size, and he brought it to the darker, black light-lit ocean room without needing to be asked. Still holding our one-year-old, Steph sat down on it, kicked her heels off and crossed her beautiful legs underneath her. Her entire body became the throne our tiny queen rested on when she could no longer fight sleep.
It didn't take long for the party to come to us, but not for the reason I was expecting. Kane slid a regular chair close to Steph's and gently 'urged' Harper to take a seat on him so he could annoy me but still keep an eye on his wife and impending child.
"You're going to regret doing this all the time," Harp warned her husband, "when mine and our daughter's combined weight ends up taking out both of your knees."
"A little piece of advice, Harp," Steph said lowering her voice ... not worried about Olive waking up, just trying to tease Kane and I, "you might as well save your breath for Angelique. I wasted A LOT of time and energy telling Ranger the same kinda things when I was hugely pregnant with Olive, and he'd haul me around extra just to prove he could."
"Told you so," Kane told Harp.
"Keep it up," she replied, "and I'm not going to have your baby."
"Now that I didn't say. Ranger's baby is the only one I would've had," my wife shared. "Can you believe it? A little over a year from today, you guys are going to be where we are right now ... celebrating your daughter's first birthday."
"My Angel's not even here yet. Don't go rushing that shit," Kane said. He then cut his eyes to me. "Speaking of birthdays, since your wife has informed everyone that she's hogging you for yours ... a few of us thought we'd bust your birthday balls a little while the Princess is down for the count."
"It's nothing personal," I told him. "Steph just knows that I prefer not to make a big deal out of it."
"See? Not only is Ranger sexy as hell," my wife told the room, "he's humble too."
"Guess you're the opposite … being the greedy woman who wants to keep him all to herself," Kane mock-pouted. "Like there aren't other people who'd like to make him really uncomfortable with all our well wishes?"
She kissed Olivia's head and proceeded to smile. "Guilty as charged. I, along with his girls, have a really hard time sharing him."
"Which is the side reason we're here ..."
"We'd be here to say 'Happy Birthday' to Olivia regardless," Harper was quick to tell us. "If I wasn't in active labor or put on strict bedrest, I was coming today."
"Don't remind me of that fight."
"It wasn't a fight, Kane, it was a simple discussion."
"Same thing. Anyway," he said to me, knowing he didn't have a shot in hell of winning against his wife, "I know how bitchy you get when someone tries to be nice and give you something, so I tried to work around that. During one convo with my mother when I needed to pick her brain to help me figure out what I'd done to piss off my wife ..."
"You got arrested, Kane. That ticked me off. If it weren't for Ranger, you may not have gotten out as quickly … and I needed you. I was really worried about our daughter, too. Let's cut to the discussion that came out of that call," Harper said, "or I'm hitching a ride home with Aubrey and Raphael."
"Over my dead body, Baby. Like I was trying to say ... you know how my mom's been putting her degree to use heading support groups?" He asked me. "Which, given your photographic memory, you'll unfortunately remember was how I told you Harp and I met?"
"Yes."
"Well, my mom and I got into what you do for - and with - fucked-up guys like me … so I maybe I can avoid getting locked up next time ..."
"I've got this one," Steph told Harper, before Harp could gently nail he husband in the shin with the flat heel poking out from the hem of her flowered-sundress. "You aren't 'fucked up', Kane. Neither is anyone else who works for, or is friends with, Ranger. You guys only need understanding, a mission, and a daily sense of purpose ... and then you're good to go."
"There's a little more talking, feeling, and healing, that goes into it, Babe, but having daily goals, helps considerably."
"Which leads me to my/everyone's birthday gift to you," Kane replied.
My gut kicked in when more of my men banded together and inched closer, as if this was something planned well in advance.
"Don't shoot us," he continued, noting how I'd tensed. "This ain't bad. I, with at least half of your guys, put our money where your mouth is. There's about to be an not-for-profit organization, tentatively called 'Ranger's Reserve', opening very soon in my neck of Jersey to offer support, counseling, and everything else wounded Vets may need, whether it be physical, financial, or mental. My mother, God love her, had been looking into how she can expand her skills and organizational-expertise to include more than Harper's kind of everyday fighters. You can't bitch and moan about a gift if it's being used to get other men and women like us from where we were to where you are today."
I couldn't say anything, but my daughter saved me by shifting in her sleep. Immediately all eyes shot to Olivia as she smiled and issued an unspecified laugh with her eyelids still securely closed, just as Julie left Steph's nieces and wandered over to us.
"What's going on?" She asked.
Knowing I would downplay what is being done for me, Steph was fast in answering.
"For your Dad's birthday, your Uncles banded together and gave him another way of helping people."
"Cool," my daughter said. "He'll appreciate that more than anything you could buy him. Dad is probably the only person who actually believes it's the thought that counts when it comes to gifts, not the present itself."
"That is one of his live-by mottos. Trying to get the guy who can get anything he wants, whenever he wants it, is really tough," my wife added. "I should've thought of something like this."
"You've done more for my men and I than you know, Babe."
"You're not making this about me, so don't try diverting the attention my way to get it off of you."
"The wife knows you," Kane said. "Maybe not as well as I do, but she's gettin' close. Since I knew this place would be overrun with rugrats today, the other gifts I, Harp, and my family, brought you ... are locked up nice and safe in the lobby. I'll give you a hint to what they are ... one you can pop open and share with the Missus on your birthday, the other you can use to shoot anyone who looks at her."
"Damn, he does know you really well," Steph said, glancing over at me.
"If I didn't feel how much Kane loves me, I'd be jealous," Harper playfully chimed in, earning her a glare from her husband.
"You know ... suddenly I can feel my legs ready to give out," he told Harp, raising and lowering each of his knees so she was rocking as if on a small boat hitting rapids.
"Okay," she said, ready to accommodate his supposedly fatigued limbs. "I'll just move ..."
The idiot didn't see the flaw in his threat, but he recovered quickly and wrapped both arms around his wife and his daughter's current living quarters so they couldn't leave him.
"If you're done," Tank interrupted, "do we get a chance to say something before Olive wakes up?"
"You're here everyday, this should solely be my time to drive Ranger nuts."
"You've completed your mission there," I informed him. "We can move on."
Olivia stretched in her sleep, and Steph adjusted her own position and her hold on our daughter to make them both more comfortable.
"Do you need something, Babe? Some Stankovic-made refreshments? Maybe something to eat?"
"I'm good. Like you say all the time, especially around your birthday, I have everything I need."
I did get out of the pre-birthday wishes relatively unscathed. I appreciated my gift and the pay it forward mentality it represents. As Julie correctly stated ... it is the thought behind the action that matters. And it mattered a whole fucking lot when Zero waited until Olivia was awake again and she, Stephanie, and Julie, were occupied, to come over and hand me a birthday card.
Not being a man who's into displays of any kind, I was curious why he'd chosen an obviously private one. I felt like I'd done what I'd promised every one of the men I've worked with … to do everything I can to keep them alive, when I opened Zero's card. For the most meaningful of gifts, he decided to give me the chip he earned for reaching his eighth year of sobriety, something he continues to this day to credit my guidance and unwavering belief in him for.
