Recap: Frank and Stephanie keep a lookout, with Frank trying to find out her jewelry preferences. He buys a necklace for Mary.

Stephanie

I saw the one with the scarf first. It was too nice out to be wearing a scarf, but this guy had one wrapped tightly around his neck. He was also wearing a pin with a cartoon frog on it, which I'd learned was a mascot for parts of the white supremacist movement. It seemed a shame to do that to a cartoon frog. It gave all imaginary frogs a bad name. What if Kermit got caught up in it? I couldn't imagine Kermit as a racist. He knew what it was like to have a different skin color, and how it wasn't easy.

Skin color. I'd hated to point out that Ranger and I would stick out to these assholes, but when I'd seen my hand in his as he kissed it, I realized what a strong contrast we made. My light olive-toned skin contrasted with his mocha-latte coloring. At least he seemed to understand and agree. It was something we would eventually have to deal with, especially once we told my parents. But not now. Now we had some Nazis to catch.

I turned to talk to Frank, but my attention was on scarf boy. Across the street I could see someone in a red sweater, and Ranger and Mary were working their way over to him. I concentrated on frog-guy. Frank and I stopped in his path and carefully arranged ourselves so we would be on either side of him when he passed. As each team approached their target, Ranger gave a quick nod, and we pounced.

Frank grabbed the guy by his wrists, twisting his arms behind his back. From the corner of my eye I could see sweater-guy already on the ground with Ranger's knee in his back. I was trying to grab scarf guy by the collar, but he twisted and slammed against me, plowing my left side into a pole, my already injured arm taking the brunt of the blow, but my head also banged against the metal.

White-hot pain seared down my side, and I fell to one knee, gasping for air in an attempt to control myself. I felt nauseous and fought to hold back the vomit my stomach was trying to rid itself of. I was dizzy and disoriented, but soon felt myself being gently lifted to my feet as a familiar scent washed over me.

Ranger

Steph and I identified our targets at the same time. It took only a second to subdue the little shitbag on our street, but Frank had more trouble with his. The guy managed to slam into Stephanie and she hit both her head and arm on a pole. I sprinted across the street, completely oblivious to traffic honking at my sudden appearance on the road. I reached her in less than 3 seconds, and pulled her to me.

"Babe, are you alright?" I stared into her eyes, looking for signs of a concussion. She focused on me, and leaned her head against my chest.

"I'm OK, I think. Just sore. And I feel like I'm going to throw up."

"We should get you checked out, but I think you'll be fine." I told her, hoping desperately that it was true. " We'll go to an ER, then I can take you back to the condo afterwards so you can lie down. Maybe we can try the whole 'Netflix and chill' thing the kids rave about."

"Ranger, if I have a concussion, I don't think that would help it. Do you even know what that's code for?"

I had been ignoring the guy Frank now had handcuffed and pushed up against a wall. But he had been staring at us with contempt. "What's a nice white girl like you doing with a boy like that?" He sneered. "You should get with a real man like me, have some nice white babies, not pollute yourself with the likes of him."

Stephanie pushed away from me and took the few steps to get her where Frank had him shoved against the side of the building. "That "boy" is 8,14,18, and 88 times the man you are or will ever be. And any other numbers you've decided to corrupt. And I'd rather fuck a pineapple than let your Nazi hands ever touch me." And with that, she made an impressive sound in the back of her throat and landed a gob of spit on his face about the size of her hamster's head.

Mary came up beside us, dragging our guy behind her. She looked at me. "Your girlfriend set quite the standard for you to meet. 177,408 times better than these assholes." She yanked at his arms, revealing a swastika tattoo on his wrist. "Nevermind. That's an easy bar to clear."

Three other agents came out of the woodwork and took custody of the two men. I turned to the one in charge. "Can you take it from here? I want to get Stephanie looked at, she may have a concussion. Let me know what you get from interrogating these guys."

He nodded and I wrapped an arm around Steph, helping to support her to a bench around the corner. I was worried about her being nauseous, since that was a symptom of a concussion. I sat her down then knelt beside her. "Babe, I want to bring you to a hospital. We should get you checked out."

Stephanie

I shook my head at Ranger's suggestion, and immediately wished I hadn't as my brain screamed at me. "I can't afford to go to the hospital. I've got a high-deductible plan. I don't have the money to do the co-pay. Just take me back so I can lie down."

Ranger shifted uncomfortably, which was an odd look for him. "What?" I asked.

"Well, first of all, since you got hurt while working, you're covered. But even if you weren't.."

"Even if I wasn't what?"

"I added you to my policy. You have Rangeman insurance."

"But we've only been dating a few days. You can't add someone to a policy in the middle of a month."

"About that. I added you as a domestic partner shortly after the incident with the Slayers. I figured that if you had slept in my bed it counted."

I stared at him. "You've been paying for health insurance for me for years? Why? And why not as an employee of Rangeman?"

He stared into my eyes. "Because as lucky as you are at avoiding serious injury, you have a very real potential of getting hurt someday. I wanted to make sure you weren't bankrupted for life because of it. It was cheaper to pay for health insurance than potentially pay for a large hospital bill out of pocket to save you from that. As for listing you as a domestic partner," he coughed in a way that was thoroughly unconvincing. "I liked the idea of it. Even if it was just in my imagination. It also happened to be cheaper, as employees of Rangeman get hurt far more than average people. Partners are generally at much lower risk."

I was taken aback. He had been doing so much to protect me, even without me knowing it. I acquiesced. "OK, take me to an Urgent Care or something to get checked out."

"Babe, we're in a city with one of the 10 best hospitals in the country. You're getting first rate care." He scooped me up and carried me to the car, settling me in the soft seat, then headed for University City.