Chapter 6: Forced Family.
Ranger and Stephanie walked hand and hand up to Sandra's office. They entered the waiting room. Stephanie and Ranger looked at each other as Sandra came out of her office. "Come on in," Sandra said. "How are you two doing this week?"
"Better, we made love for the first time since we got freed from Stevens," Ranger said. He was sitting close to Stephanie and had his arm draped over her shoulder.
"It was so nice and natural," Stephanie explained to Sandra.
"That is a good thing. It means you both have accepted what happened and can start to move on," Sandra told both. "Ranger?" Sandra asked.
"I have accepted that I will be a father, and Stephanie is pregnant with my baby. I look at Stephanie and see how much she loves me, and I can see the woman I love. I have accepted that Stephanie had not conceived the way I preferred. But the baby is a part of me with Stephanie. Granted, Stevens forced us to concede a baby like that. But the baby belongs to Stephanie and me, not him," Ranger told the women.
"I have also accepted my fate from what happened. My child belongs to Ranger. Stevens may have forced Ranger and me to make this baby. But this baby is ours," Stephanie put a hand on her small baby bump, which expanded each day.
"This is a very good thing for the both of you. You two have accepted the events that happened, but you also refuse to let the events control you. That is what needed to happen for the two of you to get back to normal. I am going to recommend that you, Ranger, return to work. Only a couple of days to start. Stephanie, I also recommend that you go back to work a couple of days a week but only at Rangeman, preferably office work. Whatever is the usual type of work you do for Rangeman. Find new clients and so forth, but no bounty hunting for you," Sandra told them.
"Got it," Stephanie let out a sigh. She didn't like getting stuck behind a desk. It made her ass cramp.
"Okay, if you two need to talk again, my door is always open. I still want to see both of you, but I don't think we need to meet as often. I was thinking one visit every two weeks," Sandra stated.
"Yeah, we can do that," Stephanie said as she looked at Ranger.
'Yeah, we can handle that," Ranger agreed. Ranger and Stephanie looked at each other. They saw the passion build in each other's eyes. The same passion that Steven's tried to take from them. Sandra opened her door for Ranger, and Stephanie to exit her office.
After the door closed, they reached for each other's hand and returned to the penthouse. When Ranger and Stephanie entered the penthouse, Stephanie looked around and noticed a small black box on the table opposite the stove."Ranger," Stephanie turned to him.
He walked to the table to pick up the black box. Ranger took a deep breath before asking, "Stephanie Plum will you marry me?" He knelt down on one knee.
"Yes, I will."
Ranger stood up and gave her a deep kiss. He put the two ct ring empire cut stone with two rows of small stones surrounding the larger one on Stephanie's ring finger of her left hand.
"Thank you, Ranger," Stephanie said as tears filled her eyes. He picked her up and carried her into their bedroom to celebrate.