Recap: They catch the white supremacists, but Stephanie is thrown against a pole and hits her head. One of the people they capture makes racist remarks about them being an interracial couple, as white supremacists are wont to do. Ranger tells Stephanie he put her on his insurance plan as his domestic partner back when she first spent a night at his place.

Ranger

In 10 minutes I had pulled into the entrance of the University of Pennsylvania ER. I gave my keys to the valet, along with a huge tip to make sure my car would not get scratched. Then I lifted Stephanie out of the car and carried her in.

"Ranger, I can walk. Or you can put me in a wheelchair."

I gave the right side of her head a peck and gently carried her to a chair in the waiting room. "Not with a head wound. Rest here, I'll get started on the paperwork."

It is amazing how much paperwork you have to fill out going to a hospital. If you don't enter with a gushing wound or chest pains they give you paperwork longer than the US Constitution to fill out. I carried it back to Steph and got to work on it while she leaned her head on my shoulder. I talked with her, both to keep her awake and to judge how alert she was. If she became at all incoherent or disoriented I'd storm the gates to get her seen by a doctor. While small talk isn't my strong suit, I'd do it so I could evaluate her.

"Tell me about your nieces."

"They are so much like me and Val, it's scary. Angie is just this model child. Quiet, respectful, good at schoolwork. She'll grow up to be this perfect model Burg wife probably. Or a doctor. Maybe a lawyer, probably a better one than her dad.

"Mary Alice though, she's like me. Wild, untamed. Thinks she's a horse. Watching her grow up, I can sympathize a bit with what my mom must have had to deal with. I just hope Val doesn't try to squash her the way my mom squashed me."

I hoped so too. The thought of Stephanie as a small child, jumping off the garage roof because she wanted to fly both pained me and made me smile. It pained me because I wanted to protect her. It made me smile because I could still see that little girl inside her. It's part of what makes her so magnetic, so full of life.

"She has something you didn't." I told her.

"What's that?"

"An Aunt who went through the same thing."

I kissed the top of her head, gently. She snuggled into me, and I carefully wrapped an arm around her, making sure I didn't touch any bruised parts.

"What about you? You don't talk much about your family. I know more from Lester than I do from you."

"Typical Cuban family. 6 kids, more cousins than you could fit on a schoolbus, and enough extended family to fill a movie theatre. My parents and Grandparents all came to the United States after Castro took over. My parents met in Miami, then moved to Newark to look for work. I was born there."

"I can't imagine you as a child. You seem like the kind of person who would just spring fully formed from your dad's head, all decked out in battle gear."

"Are you calling me Athena?"

"Of course not. I'm Italian. I'm calling you Minerva."

Before I could come up with a witty reply a nurse came in and called her name. "Stephanie Plum?"

I scooped her up and carried her into the ER, to the nurse's shock. "We have wheelchairs, you know. Or is she hurt too badly to move herself?"

I shook my head. "As long as she needs me, I'll always carry her."

And I would.

Stephanie

Hospitals are boring. You sit and wait, then have 2 minutes seeing someone, then sit and wait some more. Ranger tried to keep me amused by telling me tales of his childhood, and a few from his army days. Most of his missions were classified, but his antics weren't. Seems Lester was even more of a clown back then.

It took an X-Ray, a CAT scan, and a cognition test, but eventually everyone was satisfied that I had no major damage but a bruise on my head. As the doctor wrote out instructions for care he made note of Ranger's arm protectively around my shoulders.

"For the rest of the day keep an ice pack on your head for 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off. And for the next 4 days no rigorous activity."

I grinned at Ranger. "Ha. I guess that means you won't be able to get me into the gym."

Ranger looked pained. "How do you define rigorous activity?" he asked the doctor.

The doctor coughed. He looked like he was just barely out of puberty. When did doctors become younger than me? This was disturbing.

"Anything that would cause your blood pressure to rise. Avoid stairs, running, and, ah.." The poor kid was almost stammering.

"I assume you mean no intimate activity that would cause an elevated heart rate?" Ranger said, matter-of-factly.

The doctor nodded. "We want to give all the blood vessels a chance to heal. We didn't see any damage, but we don't want to take any chances."

Ranger took the paperwork as Dr. Killjoy left my 'room' that consisted of a bed with curtains. "This sucks. Less than a week into a relationship and we have to be celibate for 4 days?" By the time we could have sex again we would have spent nearly half our time together not sleeping together. I pouted a bit.

Ranger kissed the corners of my frown. "We'll deal, Babe. Do you want to stay in the condo tonight, or go back to Trenton?"

I considered. As wonderful as this time alone with him was, there wasn't a lot to do together if I had to stay still. "Let's go back. I miss Rex."

An hour later we were packed up and on the road back to Trenton. Ranger had insisted on doing all the packing while I sat on the couch. He'd also carried me from the car to the condo. On the way back, however, I put my foot down. Literally. "Ranger, I can walk. I can't go jogging, but it's ridiculous for you to try to move 2 bags and me all in one trip." He looked a little abashed, but agreed that it would be far simpler to move without juggling a duffle, a rolling suitcase, and a person.

We were almost back in Trenton when my phone rang. It was my mother.

"Stephanie, I want you to come to dinner tomorrow night."

"I don't know mom, you aren't going to invite Joe are you?"

"Stephanie dear, I don't know why you got into a tiff with him, but you really should work it out."

"Don't invite him mom. In fact, I'll bring someone with me, OK?"

"Your friends are always welcome. I'll make extra fried chicken."

I blanched internally at that, thinking about Ranger eating something fried. I didn't doubt he'd do it to please my mother, but I didn't want to put him in that position. "Any chance it could be baked instead? "

There was silence on the other side. Questioning a Burg housewife's food was simply not done. "I suppose. I'll see you tomorrow at 6." And she hung up. Without telling me what was for dessert. That was the Burg equivalent of threatening to disown you.

I turned to Ranger. "Hey honey. Want to come to my parent's for dinner tomorrow?"

"Babe."