~7~
The ride back to Trenton was rambunctious. Ranger was driving and was in his zone, while Steph and the guys were laughing back and forth with stories and teasing Steph about blinding them with the rock on her finger. They stopped a few times along the way and at the last stop, Ranger moved him and Steph to the back seat and let Bobby drive. They were snuggled together, quietly talking and before too many miles had passed, Steph fell asleep. Ranger relaxed even more and soon felt himself drifting off to sleep, with one arm around Steph and the other one had his fingers entwined with Steph's. Lester turned around to ask Ranger a question, but instead ended up taking a photo of the sleeping lovebirds.
They pulled into the garage at RangeMan and were greeted by Tank, leaning against the wall by the elevator, arms crossed. He came over to the car and opened the door for Steph. She got out and he looked at her through slatted eyes. "Did you get it?" She laughed and said, "It's in the back." She walked him around to the back and opened the door. She pointed to the cooler and he pulled it out, lifting it up and down testing the weight on it. He nodded and said, "Seems to be good, did you have enough money?" She reached into her purse and gave him back the wad of cash he had given her a few days earlier. "Seems someone knows two somebodies and I got it all for free." She gestured to the back of the SUV again and he saw two more coolers. He glanced over at Ranger who just stood by the SUV watching what was happening, an expression on his face like he was watching a drug deal going down in a back alley of Stark Street.
Tank nodded at Ranger and leaned down to kiss Steph's cheek. He then turned and headed up the stairs, presumably to his apartment to put the ice cream away. Ranger reached out to grab Steph's hand and pulled her to him. "Babe, do you want to come upstairs or do you need to go home?" "I'll come up with you. I need to pick up Rex and I thought you'd want to tell all of the guys." He smiled and said, "I don't think we'll need to say anything because Dipsy and Doodle are already up there spilling the beans." She kissed him and said, "Let's go and get it over with so I can go home and eat ice cream." Ranger shook his head at her and said, "Babe."
When they got upstairs, Lester had hooked his phone up to a projection screen in the control room that she didn't even know was there. He was playing the videos from the weekend, including Ranger opening the hotel room door naked and pointing his gun at them. Ranger wrapped his arm around Steph's waist and glanced at her. She was staring at the screen and then looked over at him. "You really did answer the door naked. What if it would have been someone from room service or housekeeping?" They turned their attention back to the screen in time to see the big moment. There were several gasps from the crowd and before she knew it, Ella had thrown herself at both of them, with tears in her eyes. "Oh Ranger, I knew you would eventually smarten up." Steph laughed and then looked at Ranger, who stood stoically while Ella squeezed him into a tighter hug. He actually rolled his eyes and said, "Thank you Ella."