I was still reeling over my promotion by the time I followed Ranger out to the kitchen. I had always thought of myself as a loser and now that I was being promoted into the role as Vice-President in a billion-dollar company, it was shaking my foundations and the way that I looked at myself. I had never been attracted to titles before, but I could definitely see their appeal. It did mean something to say that I was the Vice-President. It just had a more substantial ring to it, but more importantly I felt honored that Ranger and the rest of the executive team wanted me to take the role.

The men were sitting around the table briefing Joe, and all four of the men looked worriedly at me. "How are you feeling, cupcake?" said Joe.

"Much, much better", I said with a smile. "I'm sorry that I bailed on you this morning."

The three researchers laughed. "I called in the rest of the team", said Nick. "While you and Miguel are the best at doing capture plans, I got the two people who normally do them to help prepare the plans. They started at eight and in the last two hours approximately half of them have been done, and there are only eleven more to go. We are in good shape for finishing early today. It's okay, Steph. We are well on schedule, and we were just estimating that we'll be finishing the entire project by the end of the day."

"I just wanted to say thank you to you for arranging the time in lieu", said Dirk. "I would have done the project anyway, but my wife and I were talking about maybe using the time to take the kids to Disney World at the end of January or early February. The kids are at a good age for it, and I think we would have a lot of fun."

I grinned. It meant a lot to me that he'd be able to use the time off to spend with family.

"I was thinking of taking Kate away for a few days as well", said Miguel. "We both love to ski, so I was wondering about taking her out to Whistler or Jackson Hole for a week. She would like that, I think. Depending upon when she gets holidays, I'd like to do that sooner rather than later. I had been looking it up online the other day, and with the cold snap that they've had out west, the snow is deep and the trails are open."

I grinned again.

Nick laughed. "My plans aren't nearly as exotic. I have been saving hard, and I almost have the down payment for a house. I was thinking of saving my week for moving in, so that I can do some painting and things and get the house ready for us to live in it."

"If you need help moving", said Dirk, "let me know. Cindy and kids and I would love to help you, even if it is the kids keeping the other kids busy while the adults do the work."

Miguel laughed. "I can also help. I am a mean person at doing repairs that need done, whether it is painting or putting in closet organizers or simple repairs on the house to get it ready to live in it. Just let me know."

"I may not be good on the repairs", said Joe, "but I definitely am good with lifting and packing and unpacking."

"Same here", I said. "Just don't ask me to set up the kitchen. The last time I did that was my apartment. My sister had given me a stick blender and I thought it was a sex toy. Ranger couldn't figure out why he found it in the bathroom."

Everyone laughed.

Nick's eyes filled with tears. "Thank you, everybody. You are the best friends that someone could ever have."

The men grinned. "We are just hoping that you put a kick-ass grill in and invite us over in the summer for a barbeque", said Miguel.

Nick grinned. "You're on."

Ranger finished cutting the fruit for the topping for the french toast, made the egg mixture, soaked the bread, and started to cook the pieces. "I was hoping to talk to all of you", said Ranger, "about potential changes to Rangeman and what that could mean for you. Hal and Tank and Nate and I have been bouncing this around for a while, and I just bounced it off Steph. She said that she'd be interested in doing it only if the three of you want to do it too. If the four of you decide not to do this, then we won't. It is up to you."

The men's expressions went from concerned to curious.

"We are thinking of breaking Operations in two. Hal will remain in charge of the ERTs, Personal Security, Onsite Security, System Design, and Cybersecurity. Steph would be made the Vice-President of Research and Investigative Services, and would be responsible for Investigative Services as well as Research Services. I anticipate that her day will switch to being sixty percent research and the remainder of her time administration. She will have four directors working under her. Cal, as head of Investigative Services, will be one. We are hoping that the three of you will be the others. Dirk, you will be the Director of Corporate Research. Miguel, you will be the Director of Individual Research, and Nick, you will be the Director of Investigative Research. I anticipate that your day would have more administration than you currently have – about twenty to thirty percent – and would be research for the rest. The four of you work well together, and you make a strong team. I envision that all the time-sensitive and complex projects, like this one, would be done by you four primarily and other people as needed. That means that there might be more times that you have to work around the clock again, although I hope that it isn't often. However, with the time-sensitive projects, we might not have a choice. The four of you are amazing researchers, and those are projects that require your expertise and speed to do. With these promotions, you will each increase in salary to two hundred thousand. Your holidays will increase to four weeks plus one day for every year you have worked for the company. Would that be something that you were interested in?"

The three men looked at Ranger, their mouths hanging open.

"We'll rework your floor so that you have bigger offices", said Ranger. "Steph has made it a condition of her promotion that she be allowed to keep her office on the research floor."

The men continued to look at him, absolutely shocked.

"Crap", said Joe. "Tell me again why I am working at the TPD?"

I smiled. "Because you like the challenge of working in an environment that is cash-strapped and unsupportive of staff?"

Joe groaned. "Yeah, that must be it."

I laughed.

"Are you serious?" said Nick. "I think of how much I earned as a soldier, and earning two hundred thousand is astronomical. I never thought that I would earn that much money ever in my life."

Miguel smiled. "I've been thinking of proposing to Kate", he said. "I could buy a kick-ass ring for her."

I grinned. "That's awesome! When are you planning on popping the question?"

Miguel grinned. "When we are away skiing."

Joe smiled. "Maybe that's not the best idea. If you were up at the top of the mountain, what would you say? It's all downhill from here?"

I crumpled up a napkin and threw it at Joe. "How about you make me feel like I'm on top of the world when I am with you", I said. "It's all downhill from here", I said under my breath with a disgusted shake of my head. Miguel laughed.

"Like each snowflake, you are one-of-a-kind?" said Dirk.

"It's you that I want to soften my falls?" said Nick.

"I want you by my side as we slip and slide through the trail of life?" said Ranger.

Miguel laughed. "Although those are all 'excellent' suggestions", he said, "please don't take offence if I don't follow up on any of them."

"Hey, I thought mine was pretty good", I said.

"Uh, no", said Miguel.

We all laughed.

"If I had that kind of money coming in, my wife and I could buy a new house", said Dirk. "We are finding with the baby that the house is a lot smaller with five people than it was with four."

"I could buy a house period", said Nick. "As I said earlier, I have been saving hard and am almost there. However, with more money coming in we could make it into a house that we'd be proud to live in. We'll be able to afford to buy antiques to furnish the place." He sniffled. "Breaking out of jail and walking to the chalet in Vermont, and stumbling upon your team really was the best thing that ever happened to me."

I rubbed his shoulder. "It's been good for us as well." I turned to include Miguel and Dirk. "Do you accept the new roles?"

All three of the men grinned. "Absolutely", they said.

I smiled and turned to Ranger. "I guess you have three new Directors and a new Vice-President."

Ranger smiled. "I'm glad. I have a feeling that you are going to do amazing things."

I groaned. "Tell the guys about your expansion plans now that you have signed them on to their new jobs." I turned to my team. "Remember that you already accepted. It's too late to back out now."

Ranger laughed. As he served the french toast and put out the bowl of fruit, he told them of Neil's reaction to the cost-benefit analysis – and his decision to recommend to the Board to get rid of the TPD research department and farm out all research to Rangeman. Ranger also mentioned that he was going to take the same cost-benefit analysis to the other police departments that we serviced, and show them the potential cost efficiencies that they could use if they transferred all research needs over to our staff to complete.

"You know what the good news is about this?" I said with a smile as the men looked a little overwhelmed. They turned to look at me. "Your managers will be responsible for doing the training."

The men laughed. "Thank goodness", said Miguel. "I've had enough of training to last me a lifetime."

"I would assume that you want Gwynne and Lauren as managers?" I said. "I would suggest Darcy as well. She is excellent at doing capture plans and has been doing them for a long time now. She is also good at doing in-depths, but her specialty is capture plans. She would be an excellent manager to work in the Investigative Research branch."

"She is very talented", said Nick. "In fact, I didn't understand why you didn't pick her to be the team lead in the first place. She would have been better at the role than me."

"Impossible", said Dirk. "You have an incredible amount of natural talent, and with being an accountant you are comfortable doing both corporate and individual work. You are picking up capture plans quickly, you excel at doing both overviews and in-depths, and you instinctively know how to manipulate the program so that you get the most from it as you can. Darcy is good. You are better."