Recap of last chapter: Ranger finds Steph in the firing range shooting a mock up of Morelli. She reveals the extent to which he's been emotionally abusing her, something the just realized herself. They kiss, and both want more, but Ranger delines to take advantage of her while in such an emotionally raw state. Instead they go to sleep.

Stephanie's POV

I was in a strange dream about wandering in a dark jungle. There was a light ahead, and I was trying to get to it, but there was brush and undergrowth in the way. Then the darkness was pierced by a high pitched beep, filling the forest with a really annoying sound.

I opened my eyes to realize it was Ranger's watch going off. He was gently extracting himself from being wrapped around me, our bodies pressed together and his face in my hair. The clock said it was 4:30 and I was going to go back to sleep when the night before came crashing back. I tightened up as the emotions hit me like a literal punch to the stomach, and I curled up tighter into a ball.

"Babe?" he asked. He sounded concerned. I had so many emotions roiling around in my head and I just couldn't deal with them quite yet. "Babe." He said again, this time more forceful.

I reached my arm back to touch him, my hand landing on his thigh. "I just….I don't think I'm ready to figure out last night yet. I think I have a lot to process." I turned over to face him, our noses barely touching and my forehead pressed against his. I whispered to him "Do you have to go? Can you stay here with me? At least for a little while?"

"Sure, Babe." He wrapped an arm around me and gently rubbed my back. It was comforting and intimate, but not sexual.

I thought about the night before. "Thank you. For last night. For caring for me, for keeping me safe, for letting me know I'm not crazy."

He chuckled lightly. "I don't know if I'd say you aren't crazy. You're here with me, that's not the action of a sane woman." Then his voice sobered. "Aside from caring for me, which I still don't understand, you need to know you're not crazy. I'm so sorry I didn't realize what he was doing to you. I can't ever make up for it, but I can promise it won't happen anymore."

I nodded slightly, then started to cry as I thought back to every hurtful thing Joe had ever said to me. I reached my arm around Ranger and held him to me. The scent of his Bvlgari still clung to him, surrounding me just as much as his body was.

"How could I have been so blind for so long? How did I not notice all the things he said to me? All those subtle little jabs at me. And when something upset me, just blowing me off as being a damned cupcake?"

I looked at Ranger, his eyes just barely visible in the dark room. "Are you actually asking me?" He inquired, hesitantly. It was strange, normally he never hesitates with anything."

"Do you know?" I responded. Did Ranger know me better than I knew myself?

He tilted his head slightly, giving me a gentle kiss. "I have a theory. Morelli interacts with you in much the way your mother does. Your mom loves you, but constantly criticizes your life. So when Morelli does the same thing, you interpret it the same way. Everyone you've loved, aside from your crazy Grandma, has been trying to tie you down your whole life. Since it's all you've ever known, you can't see the shackles."

"Almost."

"Almost, Babe?"

"Almost everyone I have ever loved has tried to tie me down. You don't tie me down, you give me a rope ladder."

"Babe."

'Babe' covered a lot of territory for Ranger. I'm pretty good at reading them usually, this one I wasn't sure of. Hope? Concern? Maybe it didn't matter. He loved me, in his own way. And I loved him, I'd known it since Scrog. Ranger had made it clear he couldn't be what he thought I wanted. But suddenly that didn't matter anymore. I would take him anyway I could. I would take the man I could barely have who lifted me up, rather than the one who tried to keep me by tearing me down.

I ran a hand through his hair, pulling him closer to me. Then I hooked my leg behind his hip and pressed us together. Our lips met, and then I didn't know where my mouth ended and his began. He rolled so that I was on top of him, wrapped his arms around my back, and the world fell away.