Recap: Stephanie spills coffee on her arm while at on a pizza run, exposing her arm and a hickey to half the 'Burg. Joe walks her to her car, then back at the office Val calls her, asking her to fetch and take care of Mary Alice.

Ranger

My attention was split, not a common fault of mine. With most of my mind I was listening to details from Agent Mankiller, but my thoughts kept wandering to Stephanie. I had lost control this morning. Not in a big way, but any loss of control is unusual for me. This forced celibacy was going to drive me crazy by the time it was over. I'd started trying to relieve the tension when I was in the shower, then was hit with a wave of guilt. Not at masterbating, but at being able to take care of my needs when she couldn't take care of hers. So I'd stopped, and was still wound up when I saw her in my room, sleepy-eyed and tousle-haired.

Stephanie was pacing outside in the hall, looking agitated. I'd heard her say 'Val' before the door closed, so it was a family matter. As she came in she looked resigned, and I decided to give her a break.

"Let's take a break. Reconvene here at 1230 hours sharp."

Everyone stood up and stretched, some grabbing an extra slice of pizza. I kept an eye on which of my people did, they'd owe me extra laps later on. Stephanie looked relieved and got over to me as fast as she could without drawing attention to herself.

"Ranger, I'm sorry, there's an emergency and Val needs me to pick up Mary Alice from school. Something about a water main breaking. I tried to tell her no, but she insisted and hung up on me."

She looked harried and frantic, and I didn't want her to feel that way. "No problem. Go get her, I know what she can do when she gets here."

Steph looked surprised and relieved, and rushed to the elevator.

Zip

I was on monitor duty again, for the fifth time in two weeks. It's dull work, staring at a bunch of screens that have routine stuff going on 99.99% of the time. But you have to be vigilant for that .01% of the time something goes wrong. I closed and rubbed my eyes for a moment, trying to get them to stop watering from eye strain. When I removed my hands I nearly jumped out of my chair. Bossman was standing right in front of me, one eyebrow lifted.

"Sorry boss, just trying to get my eyes to focus."

"Uh-hu." he said in answer. Hmm, he's talkative today, not sure that's a good sign.

"I have an additional assignment for you, but it's volunteer."

I'd never had a request quite like that. But whatever I had done to deserve so much moniter duty, I wanted to make up for it. "Absolutely. What is it?"

A small child stepped out from behind the corner. At first I was flabbergasted. Ella and Steph are pretty much the only women ever in here, at least on this level. I don't think we'd ever had a child here. She was looking at the floor and twirling in a nervous fashion. I had absolutely no idea why she was in my work station, but I assumed she had something to do with the volunteer assignment.

"Mary Alice here needs someone to look after her while her Aunt and I are in a meeting. I'd like her to spend the afternoon with her. I assume you can carry on a conversation while still paying attention to the monitors?"

"Absolutely sir." I replied quickly, still having no idea what I was supposed to do with a little kid.

"Excellent. I'll return once our meeting is done." He turned his head to the kid. "Mary Alice, this is Zip. He grew up on a horse farm not far from here." And then he walked away.

The kid - Mary Alice? - looked at me with eyes the size of half dollars. "You grew up around horses?" she asked, her voice full of wonder.

"Um, Yeah, in Bucks county, across the river. Do you like horses?" That seemed like a safe question for a kid her age. Lots of them like horses.

"I am a horse. See my hooves?" she stated, handing up her hands that looked, well, like hands.

"Um, sure. Sorry, I shouldn't have assumed you weren't a horse."

She nodded solemnly. "Sometimes I'm a reindeer near Christmas, but in October I'm a regular horse."

Oh, I get it. "So, you're going to be a horse for Halloween. Do you already have your costume?"

She looked at me like I was an idiot. The kind of look I thought only teenagers could pull off. Kids these days seem so grown up. "No, I told you already. I'm a horse. Only Mommy says I only get to dress up in my horsy clothes on Halloween."

Ok, this was a little odd. "OK then. What's your favorite kind of horse?"

"I like Palominos. What's your favorite?"

"I like Appaloosa's"

"What's an Apolsa?"

I smiled a bit, and had to remind myself to look at the monitors while we talked. "A breed of horse from the Nez Perce tribe. Strong and tough, they protected the people when they were being chased away from their land. Most had spots on them. They're rare, because they were so strong the settlers feared them and killed the horses." I glanced over at her, and she was staring at me, enraptured. It occurred to me that talking about genocide with Stephanie's niece wasn't a great idea, so I changed the subject. "Have you ever ridden a real..I mean, another horse?"

She bowed her head. "No. Mommy says it's expensive, but that if Daddy wins this case, maybe I can go to horse camp in the summer."

There had been a Girl Scout camp nearby that had horses, Tohikanee, but it had closed a few years ago when three councils merged and they closed several of the camps. It would have been affordable, even for a family that was struggling. "Well, I think someone who loves horses, I mean, is a horse, should totally have a chance to ride one. Maybe you could come visit my family farm. We have a gentle one I bet you would love."

I've never really wanted kids, or understood why people would want them, but I will admit that the flying leap of a hug I got from that girl made me understand it, just a little bit.