After Ranger left, I buckled down and worked on the in-depths. I was flying and by midnight had finished two of my three. I had made everyone stop for fifteen minutes at eight to eat some of the leftover Thai and to walk around the department and stretch. The men all seemed to appreciate being pulled out of their research long enough to take some sustenance. Just like me, the three men all lost their contact with the real world when they were deep in research. Their concentration was absolute. It was impressive to see.

Ranger came down to see how everyone was doing, and we had a pow-wow in the middle of the hall. The men were flying as much as I was. Dirk had two in-depths left to do, Miguel had one, and Nick had two. Dirk offered to do Miguel's last one and Nick offered to do my last one so that Miguel and I could start creating capture plans for the felons. I know that I looked as thankful as Miguel when we heard that.

Ranger looked at us and assessed our faces. "I move that we take a four-hour nap break and reconvene here at four-thirty. You are all exhausted, and you are going to start missing things if you don't power down for a while. You have done an amazing amount of work in a short period of time, but I know how tired it can make someone to use that much brain power. Take a break, guys."

"Okay", said Dirk. "I second that. I'm starting to fall asleep, and I agree that I need to power down for a while." Miguel and Nick nodded.

Ranger handed him and Miguel each a key to the apartment again. "See you here at four-thirty."

We all dispersed to shut our offices down, locked our doors, and left wearily to our respective beds. Minutes later, Nick and Ranger and I arrived at our apartment. As we walked in, Joe got up and came out to the kitchen. Ranger looked at me. "Go to bed before you fall over. I'll talk to Joe for a minute and join you soon."

"Night, Joe", I mumbled as I nodded at Ranger's plan and padded off to the bedroom. I quickly used the bathroom and fell into bed, and I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

At four o'clock the alarm went, and Ranger and I had another tussle like we did the morning before. Ranger called me, I put the pillow over my head, Ranger removed the pillow, I pulled up the blankets, and Ranger pulled them down and said in frustration, "if you don't get up, I will carry you down to the gym and put you on a treadmill and make you run for half an hour, just to get your blood flowing."

I was out of bed five seconds later, and Ranger snorted quietly as he shook his head. "I'll have to remember that one", he said.

I groaned, pried my eyelids open, and stumbled into the bathroom. I used the facilities and discovered my stomach cramps were indicative of my period starting, and I sighed. That was all that I needed. I brushed my teeth, stepped into the shower, and turned the water on cold. I thought, if I had a warm shower, I might fall asleep while leaning against the tiles.

The cold shower worked. I was a little blue and shivering afterwards, but it had woken me up sufficiently to get dressed and ready to go out to the kitchen for my first cup of coffee of the day.

Just a few months ago, I had been struggling to stay awake with another early morning and I had ordered chocolate-covered coffee beans from Amazon simply because they had the highest amount of caffeine of any foodstuff. I found out that they were seriously good as well, and I started popping them like candy. Ranger wasn't as pleased when he saw what I had ordered – or how much of it I was consuming. He said they were too hard on my heart. I, however, didn't really care about my heart. I did care about my eyelids though, and I liked my ability to keep them open after eating the coffee beans. It was the hand-shaking, hair-raising, teeth-chattering, heart-pumping, eyes-popping, stay-awake experience that I had always wanted, and I thought that I could easily become addicted to them.

However, after the first time that I ate too many and had a headache, insomnia and dizziness, Ranger quietly took my coffee beans away. I was not very happy with him. But then, he wasn't very happy with me either. He told me if I ordered more he would throw them out and he would keep throwing them out until I stopped ordering them. He said they were killing me. I told him that he was being overdramatic and they were, in fact, the only thing keeping me awake during the day. I told him that I needed them. He told me to hold my hand out in front of me and, if I didn't have the jitters, he would consider handing them back in small amounts.

My hands, of course, shook like a trembling aspen and he told me that my hands proved that I was consuming too much caffeine. He only made decaf coffee for the next week. The headaches were excruciating, I was irritable and bitchy, and I begged him for more of my coffee beans. Ranger held firm though. He took the moodiness and gave me massages to help with the headaches. He made me tumblers of lemon water and fed them to me constantly. He covered for the kids and gave me lots of time in bed to feel sorry for myself and, when I was coming out of the withdrawal, he printed off a list of the symptoms associated with withdrawal and a list of the symptoms associated with overdose, handed them to me, and told me that I'd experienced both and those were the reasons that he threw out my coffee beans.

Since then, he had been trying to give me more time in bed. I regularly got up at six-thirty, and Ranger had changed our bedtime from eleven at night to nine. That gave me a good nine and a half hours in bed to sleep. He got up with the kids on the weekend just so that I could sleep in and get caught up. The extra time in bed was helping. It didn't provide as much of an eyes-popping-out-of-my-head feeling, but at least I could keep my eyes open naturally, without feeling like I needed toothpicks to prop them wide. It was the first time in years that I had been able to do that. It was also the first time in years that I felt like I had natural energy during the day, and I wasn't dragging my butt around trying to pretend that I was okay.

But I still missed my coffee beans.

I yawned as I walked out into the kitchen, and met Joe and Tracy. They had started the coffee and, as I pulled a loaf of bread over and put a slice in the toaster, I smiled my thanks at them. Tracy laughed. "I understand", she said. "I had shifts like that at the hospital."

The toaster popped and I spread on some peanut butter, cut the toast in half, lifted a slice and took a bite. As I chewed and swallowed and swayed on my feet, I realized the toast wasn't going to stay down and I ran to the bathroom.

Ranger followed me in. He rubbed my back and, as I finished, he handed me a cold wet cloth to wipe my face with. "What's going on?" he said softly.

"I am so fucking tired it is all I can do not to cry", I said. "And like anytime when I am overtired, my stomach is upset and I'm dizzy. My period arrived and I feel like crap. I'm pushing myself to the wall and beyond."

"I'm not surprised. In the last two nights, you have had a total of just over ten hours of sleep and for someone who would normally need twenty, that is about half. Babe, you need to go back to bed for a while."

"I can do this."

"I'm sure you can, but I don't think it is a good idea. If you are this tired, you are going to miss things."

"I can't ask the guys to do the work if I'm not willing to do the work as well."

"They aren't throwing up. That's the first point. The second point is that you need at least nine hours at night, and the guys said that they need more like five or six. Over two nights, they would normally get ten to twelve hours. You would normally get twenty. You should be getting more sleep because of that. The third point is that, although I know that you like to lead by example, sometimes you have to listen to your body. Everybody has different strengths. Your staff needs less sleep, and that is one of their strengths. That is not the same as yours. Your strength is having a freakishly correct intuition telling you where people are. It was that intuition that told you to concentrate on Roscoe. There won't be any member of the team who will resent you needing more sleep."

I could feel the tears flow down my face. "I hate not being able to do something."

"I know, but sometimes you have to listen to your body. Babe, it's okay to need sleep. There isn't any man on the team who would resent you for it." He stood up, picked me up, and carried me into the bedroom again. "It's quarter-after four", he said. "I will work in your office and review the in-depths that everybody has done. I will be there to make sure that the men eat breakfast and take breaks. I don't want to see you on the floor until ten o'clock. You need the sleep, babe. If the capture plans aren't done until the end of the day rather than the middle, which is what you had anticipated, that's okay. We probably won't do captures until the tomorrow anyway. Take the time to sleep."

I swiped at the tears flowing down my face. "I feel like such a wimp."

"Babe", said Ranger with a laugh. He laid me down on the bed and pulled up the blankets. "You are the farthest thing from a wimp that I have ever seen." He climbed in beside me and started to massage my stomach. I shuddered in a breath. "Shh, babe. It's okay. No one will mind. I'll come get you at ten." He might have said more, but I didn't hear it. I was asleep.

At ten o'clock, Ranger came through and lay down beside me. He pulled me into him and kissed the back of my neck. I smiled and moaned, and I could feel Ranger smile. "Not today, babe", he said. "I have things to tell you."

I flipped over and burrowed into Ranger's chest, sniffed his scent, and woke up slowly.

"How are you feeling?"

"I haven't moved yet, but better. I need some ibuprofen, but my stomach feels steady. That was bad. It's been a long time since I have felt that bad. Probably when I was doing the two jobs and was pregnant with Tia at the same time."

"I brought the guys up to the apartment to have some brunch. I figured that I would make them french toast and fruit, and that would be a good way for you to wake up and have a staff meeting with your team while still having a relaxing get-up and go."

"Thank you."

"It was as I predicted. The guys didn't get upset at all for you needing more sleep and instead were worried about you. They actually suggested that you didn't come in until noon, but I thought you might castrate me if I didn't wake you when I promised that I would."

I smiled. "Probably."

"If you didn't castrate me, you definitely would have used your signature move on me, and I've seen the effects of that move too many times. I luckily haven't been on the receiving end of that move yet, and it's a streak that I'd like to continue."

"Sacking Steph hits again?" I said. Ranger gave a pained noise and eased his midsection away from me as I laughed. "Don't worry. I think you are safe. As I have often told Grandma, your balls are my balls, and if I sacked them I would be putting my own enjoyment in jeopardy. No matter how much I might want to, it's not worth it in the long run. I'm just too selfish."

"May you always be selfish", said Ranger with a groan. "I love your selfishness. Did I ever tell you how much I love your selfishness?"

I laughed again, and Ranger smiled as he kissed my forehead, my nose, and finally, my lips.

"So what did you have to tell me?" I said as I pulled away.

"So impatient", said Ranger with a smile. He started kissing me again.

I poked him in the stomach. "Hey, mister. Start talking."

"Or what?"

"I don't know yet, but I'm sure I will think of something."

Ranger grinned. "That does not sound promising for me. Okay, first of all, Dirk and Nick only have one in-depth each left to do. Your team, as usual, has been doing an excellent job. I reviewed the in-depths, and they are comprehensive and enlightening, and have enough information to hang people for a very long time. They then want to analyze the Death Dogs' books to see if there is anyone else that they are missing. They also want to do overviews of each of the prostitutes to make sure that they have everyone. They have suggested that, with the number of STIs that the Death Dogs members have, it would be a good idea to get the prostitutes off the streets as well. They are spreading illnesses, and they need to get cleaned up. I have approved the investigation, although I have suggested that they go home and spend a normal evening with their loved ones tonight. Even so, with earning time and a half for their overtime, each of the guys has had another five days added to their vacation bank. I told them that already, and the guys were quite thankful for the recognition.

"We plan to have both ERT teams working tomorrow to do the captures. They will do them in conjunction with the police, and they will clear the houses and find the gang members using your capture plans, and hand them over to the police right away to be taken in. We are planning on doing the prostitutes the next day.

"I also talked off the record to Neil. He is equally as upset about what happened. I presented my cost-benefit analysis to him and he was shocked. I also told him that, in the last ten months, for the cost of keeping Brett in his undercover position we could have provided proof to arrest over a hundred and twenty-five felons and, if you had looked at the last four years that he had been undercover, we could have looked into over six hundred felons. When I said that, there was a silence on the other end of the phone. After a minute or two, Neil swore. He said that he has been trying to keep costs down to appease the Board, and the Board isn't so fond of the TPD using outside help. After all, we are not police officers, even if we have been deputized. However, the numbers show that it makes sense to hire us as regular consultants and he will be able to get a better product overall by employing us. He said that he currently has five researchers on staff and, for the price of their salaries, we could look into over eight hundred different felons each year – which is more than they do per year. He wonders if it would be time for him to farm out all the TPD research needs. He asked whether we would be able to hire his research staff. I said that I would talk to you about it, and that although eight hundred felons were a lot of felons, it was my estimation that we would only need two more staff to handle the inflow of work. You will need to work out with the guys as to whether you could use the extra three staff. But that is the way that Neil is thinking and personally, I think it is the smart way of doing things.

"The other thing is that, if we get more TPD work, we will also be getting more capture plans to do. You might need to hire another TPD staffer to do the capture plans."

"That could be a good role for the displaced TPD researchers. They would already be familiar with the concepts."

"That's true. You would have to run them through the assessment process to see where they would best fit."

I sighed. "Okay. So lots more work coming down the pipe. And lots more hiring needed. And training." I groaned. "The guys are going to kill us." Ranger laughed. "What other good news do you have for me?"

Ranger grinned. "I was thinking of using this case study to present to other police departments, and see if we can pick up more research requests. The numbers that Dirk came up with are astounding, and I think they will shock a number of people."

I groaned. "Crap", I said. "This day keeps getting better and better."

"I was looking around your floor this morning when I was working out of your office, and I think, too, that your staff are starting to get a little cramped. There is more space on Cal's side. The Investigations department doesn't need as much space as it has, and I think you should start claiming some of that real estate for yourself. If you start to grow too much more, I think it would make sense for a whole floor to be designated for your department."

"Oh boy."

"I think Hal and Tank were only partially kidding when they said that I would soon have to build another tower for you."

I snorted.

"Also, I don't need an answer to this now, but Hal and Tank and Nate and I have been talking. Hal has suggested that we break your and Cal's departments out of Operations, and start another stream in the organization with the two departments in it. You would become the Vice-President of Research and Investigative Services. He was thinking that it would make more sense, that you would be a better Vice-President for those functions as he doesn't fully understand them, and with the growth in both your departments you account for roughly a third of his staff anyway, if you don't count the security guards. He's worried that you aren't getting proper representation just because he doesn't understand the topics well enough."

I leaned back and stared at him. "You want to make me a Vice-President?"

Ranger smiled. "I'm not going to force you into the role, but I think it would make sense. I wanted to mention it so that you could think about it. Hal and Tank and Nate and I think it is a good idea, and have been thinking about it for the last few months. Personally, I would like to have you on the senior management team. You would do a good job there."

"You realize that I barely passed college, right?"

"You realize that I didn't even go, right?"

I snorted.

Ranger wiggled his hand under my hair and massaged the back of my neck. "You would do a good job at it, babe. I have no concerns about that. You have incredible leadership skills and your research and investigative skills are top-notch. It's whether you want to have the added responsibility. Personally, because we already talk about all the senior management decisions together and I run everything by you already, I think it makes sense to add you formally to the team. You are doing the work of one anyway." He paused. "The other good thing is that, if you become Vice-President, Dirk and Miguel will become directors. I'd also propose that Nick would become a director as well. You would have the three of them and Cal as your management team. Cal would continue to be the Director of Investigative Services, Dirk would be the Director of Corporate Research, Miguel would be the Director of Individual Research, and Nick would be the Director of Investigative Research."

"You really want me to take the position as a Vice-President, don't you? You keep trying to sweeten the pot."

"Hal first floated the idea across to me three months ago. Our worry was that you are such a talented researcher that, if we did this, you wouldn't be as involved in research and there was no one on staff that could fill your spot. However, now we have Nick. Because of that, you and your directors would be able to work together as your dream team and do all the complex research projects, and the directors would be able to farm out the rest. It would be much like we had done over the past week. I would anticipate that forty to fifty percent of your role would be administrative, whereas right now it is about thirty percent at its high end. The rest of your time would be taken up by the projects that require both research and investigation. What do you think?"

"If I take the role, will the three guys get a pay increase with being promoted into a directorship?"

"Yes. The guys are currently earning one hundred and fifty thousand a year. When they become directors, their pay would increase to two hundred, and you will increase from two hundred to three hundred thousand plus a portion of our net profits for your bonus."

I stared at him, stupefied.

"What are you thinking, babe?"

"I'm not working the drive-through at the Cluck-in-a-Bucket any longer."

Ranger laughed.

"Can I keep my office on the research floor, or do I have to come up to the executive floor?"

"You can keep your office wherever you want."

I smiled. "I like being with my team."

"Then you can keep your office there. We can build you a bigger one on your floor, and we can size up Nick's and Dirk's and Miguel's at the same time."

"Okay then, thank you. As long as I can remain accessible to my team and as long as the three guys all accept, so will I. I love being with my team, and dropping in at their desks to let them know personally when they have done a good job? That is one of the best parts of being a supervisor." I smiled. "Are you sure you want me for Vice-President? Cal would be good in the role as well."

Ranger smiled and kissed me on my nose. "We absolutely want you. Ninety percent of the work in that division is research, and the remaining work is investigation. You understand both streams of work. Cal only understands investigation and doesn't understand anything to do with research. You are absolutely the perfect person for the role. Do you want to talk to the guys about it over breakfast?"

"Only if you lead the conversation."

Ranger smiled. "I can do that." He kissed me again. "Up and at 'em, babe. I'm making french toast now, so if you want a shower you need to hustle."

"I had a shower earlier. Now I want coffee. After that conversation, I think I need one."

Ranger laughed.