Recap: Chaos after the shooting. Ranger arrives at the hospital, POTUS comforts Tank, Lester and Stephaine try to follow them.

Lester

I was trained as a driver in special forces. I've driven in traffic hells like Seoul, Cairo, Ulan Bator, Lagos, and even Boston. But I've never driven like this before. I could hear Beautiful next to me uttering 'Faster, Faster' as I careened through the city streets. Horns blared as I blew through traffic lights and took corners without slowing down. At one point I seriously considered driving up onto the sidewalk. In the back of my head I knew I might get pulled over and how much that could slow us down, but I hoped the police would be busy trying to control the chaos at the rally. Finally the glass-fronted face of the hospital came into view. I screeched to a halt at the entrance to the Emergency room. Stephanie threw the door open and tried to climb out, but got tangled in the seatbelt.

"Fuck!" she yelled, getting the attention of the two men in dark suits and shades standing by the door. I scrambled out of the SUV, hoping to head off disaster.

"Sir, you can't leave your car there." said one of the men, who I assumed was a Secret Service agent. Good, that means we were at the right place.

"I know, I know. I'll move it. But please let her through. Her boyfriend is in there and he may be hurt."

"Sorry. Security procedure. You can't come in."

Bomber looked like she was going to cry. I hadn't seen her like that before. Angry, frustrated, exasperated, I had seen all those. But tears were a rarity, despite the insanity that was her life. Then a calm came over her. It was like flipping a switch. I wonder if Ranger had been giving her tips on how to hide her emotions.

"Look, we were security at the rally. My name is Stephanie Plum, I worked with Agent Mankiller. Call her, she'll vouch for me."

The man shook his head. "I can't call her. If you were there you know why."

I bet. If Agent Mankiller was running the investigation into what happened, she wouldn't appreciate a phone call.

"Please." she begged. "Isn't there anyone you can ask? I need to know if he's OK."

Tank

I've been in a fair share of hospitals, Generally the doctors don't come in to see you within 1 minute of you being in a room unless you are bleeding, short of breath, or have chest pains. Seems there are benefits to being the president. As he was getting poked and prodded a voice came over our earpieces. "We have a woman here claiming her boyfriend was on POTUS detail and may have been shot. Protocall is not to let civilians in, but she says she was also on guard. Please advise."

"That's Stephanie." I said. "I'm sure of it. I have a picture of her, can I forward it to the door guards to confirm her identity?"

More Secret Service people had arrived since we had gotten to the hospital, and had been working on putting the building as much on lockdown as was possible. Ambulances were being diverted away for all but the most dire circumstances, and guards had been posted at every entrance.

"Go, bring her in." came Obama's strong baritone voice. "It would be a poor way to repay the man who saved my life, keeping his loved ones out of the hospital."

I looked to the other agents. Sure, the president had just given me permission to go, but technically I was working for the Secret Service, not him. And I didn't want to abandon my post, as much as I wanted to update Stephanie.

"Go. We've got it," said the agent in charge. "But she probably can't get any farther than the waiting room. She'll still have to follow hospital rules."

I nodded, and left the examination room.

Stephanie

The agents were talking into their wrists and I couldn't hear what they were saying. Lester stood behind me, a hand on my shoulder in what was supposed to be comforting. But nothing could comfort me, not at this moment.

The door behind the agents opened, and Tank came out. He rushed towards us, swallowing me up in a bear hug. "Ranger was hit in the leg and was bleeding pretty bad. He's in surgery, Bobby's friend Susan is performing it. I don't have any other details. We can go to the waiting room until we get more information."

My body felt like it had been held together with rubber bands that had just snapped. Before I hadn't known what had happened. Ranger could be completely fine, or he could be dead. Now I had the combined relief of hearing he had been alive when Tank last saw him, but the terror of knowing he had been hurt. My vision swam, spots dancing before my eyes. My legs started to give out from under me.

"Whoh, Beautiful." said Lester as he caught me. "Let's get you inside."

"Sir, you can't leave your car there."

Lester swore in what I can only assume was very colorful Spanish. "I'll be right back. Tank, can you get her inside and give her some sugar?"

I felt Tank's arm wrap around me. "Can you walk?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I think so."

Lester pecked the top of my head. "I'll be back in a couple minutes. Stay strong Beautiful." Then he climbed into the car and drove away, presumably to the parking garage.

There are few things more boring but also stressful as a hospital waiting room. The last time I had been in one was also when Ranger had been hurt. When he'd been shot by Scrogg. I was staring at a magazine, and hadn't absorbed a single word, despite looking at the same page for an hour. Lester was pacing, his hair a wild mess from all the times he had run his fingers through it. Tank simply sat in the corner and watched the door. The water fountain made me jump every time it turned on the compressor, and I nearly flew out of my chair when Lester's phone rang.

"Bobby? What's going on? No, Ranger's in surgery, but we haven't heard anything. Steph and Tank are here, but they aren't letting other people in. Ok, ok that's good. We'll keep you updated."

He jammed his phone back into his pocket. "That was Bobby. He went with Ram to another hospital. Broken ribs, a fractured ankle, but nothing that won't heal in a few weeks."

I let out a sigh of relief, but also felt guilty. I hadn't given Ram a single thought since we'd left the rally. I'd thought of nothing but Ranger. With that thought, I put my head in my hands and started to shake.

"Hey, hey Beautiful." Lester said as he sat down next to me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. "Tell me what you're thinking."

I took a deep breath and managed to choke out what had been rattling around in my head for the past 3 hours. "I waited for so long. Ranger took care of me so much for years, and we've been together for such a short time. And now I think of all the time we COULD have had together. And I just feel so damn alone without him here."

Lester turned my face gently with one finger. "Beautiful, no matter what happens, you won't be alone. We'll always take care of you. Not just because Range would want us to, but because WE want to."

I saw the love in his eyes. I couldn't tell if it was romantic, or sexual, or just friendly, but I could see he was telling the truth. No matter what happened, I wouldn't be alone.

I started sobbing into his chest, letting out the feelings that had been bottled up inside me. He patted my back comfortingly, but didn't say anything stupid like that it would all be alright, or that things work out for the best. We both knew we couldn't know that.

5 minutes later Tank stood up. "I see Susan. She's coming here."

Authors note: this story will be coming to an end soon. I had originally meant for it to be written in 2 weeks (finishing on 10/31/16, the day the rally takes place) and a few chapters long. But I kept thinking of cool stuff to add, and now it will be almost 3 years. Still, all good things must come to an end. I had an idea today of a crossover fic with JE characters, but in the True Blood/ Sookie Stackhouse universe where Vampires start living in public. Do people think that sounds interesting? Let me know in the reviews, and follow me as an author to make sure you see the new story if I come up with a good plot.