A/N: You get an extra chapter today (so I'll still update tomorrow) because I'm so excited to go see Avengers: Infinity War tonight!

Hopefully it doesn't totally kill my muse... that HAS happened before.

Chapter 3

Ow.

That was all I could think when I woke up. I'd been awake a few times before, but it had been different. I'd been in more of a dreamlike state.

Floating. So much floating.

I remembered the sensation of being moved. I definitely remembered being on a cold metal table, strapped down.

At the time, it hadn't bothered me because, well, I couldn't really feel ANYTHING. But now I was pissed about that. I'd done the whole strapped down to a metal table thing before when someone had been freezing me and it was scary as shit.

I didn't like being strapped to metal tables.

Where was I? I thought I remembered a warehouse or open space from before, definitely wasn't in my Jeep or the hospital or at Rangeman.

Ranger. I'd been on the phone with Ranger. He would know something had happened.

Ranger would go to Connie and get the information on Jason. Maybe she even had a more in depth report at least partially ready. That would be good. That would mean Ranger had more information than I ever had in the first place. He would find me quickly.

Doctors. I thought I remembered doctors. Or scientists maybe. People in lab coats at any rate. Maybe I was in the hospital.

With a groan, I managed to finally get my eyes to open again.

Ow.

Bright. Bad. Eyes open was a bad thing. Taking a deep breath, I made myself open my eyes once more and keep them open this time. I started bargaining with myself. If I could keep my eyes open for five minutes, I would let myself close them again. That seemed fair.

Probably I'd already killed a minute deciding that. Four minutes to go.

I looked around and it definitely wasn't a hospital. Crap. Some sort of garage or warehouse that was being used as a lab. And yep, damn it, there was the cold metal table and straps around me again.

Fuck.

Okay. Wiggling. I could wiggle my fingers and toes, so that had to be a good thing. I didn't see lab coats around.

In fact, I didn't see much of anything. It was weird. The table I was on seemed to be in relatively good shape, but above me was a ceiling that definitely had seen better days. I was no expert, and my vision was still pretty fuzzy, but that looked like water damage to me.

Probably they should get that checked.

"Focus Stephanie," I muttered, instantly regretting it. Almost no sound had come out and my throat now felt like it was ON FIRE.

I looked around some more and noticed that although the ceiling was quite tall, which was what had given me the impression of a warehouse, the area I was in was small. There were actually walls around me, but not real walls. They didn't go up all the way, and they looked like they were made out of some of that industrial corrugated metal.

Had they made this little area for me?

I didn't see my messenger bag or phone lying around anywhere conveniently. So even if I could get off this table, I wasn't going to be calling Ranger for a rescue. And I was in some sort of flimsy gown, so I couldn't hope that he'd stashed a tracker in my clothes somehow or anything.

That's okay, Ranger was basically Batman. He'd found me with almost no clues before, I just had to be patient. He'd find me again.

My stomach growled, and I hoped that he brought doughnuts with him when he did. And cookies. Maybe some pineapple upside down cake.

I decided it had been five minutes, so I let myself close my eyes again. As I lay there, I thought of Ranger. And dessert. Two of my favorite things.

Was it odd that I wasn't thinking of Morelli? Sure, I'd moved out, but we hadn't actually broken up. And even when we did break up, it never stuck. In the past.

I blew out a breath. Morelli was going to be so mad, and I was exhausted even just imagining the fight. It always came down to the same thing. Morelli hated my job, and I wasn't willing to give it up.

If you thought about it, it wasn't even really my job's fault that I was in this position. I mean true, I suppose I'd been picked to look for Jason because I'd theoretically picked up some skills over the years of being a bounty hunter. But Jason wasn't a skip, so really this wasn't a bounty hunter thing.

I don't know if that made it any better though. Probably not. Sometimes I thought that Morelli just liked getting mad at me, maybe that he didn't even really like me that much. I mean, he thought I was a disaster, that was clear. And I was pretty sure he did NOT want to marry me after all. So what was the point even?

The sex was good, but it was better with Ranger anyway. Not that I would tell Morelli that. Or Ranger for that matter.

Ranger was another problem altogether. Together we were magic, but there wasn't really the option of anything long term there.

I blew out a breath because my love life was depressing. It was like a love-triangle but a hopeless one. I was pretty sure that both men loved me at least a little, but I wasn't sure if they were actually IN LOVE with me. At least enough for it to really matter.

I wanted marriage and kids eventually, right? I was pretty sure I did. I definitely wasn't going to find that with Morelli.

Of course, if I didn't get out of my present situation, I'd starve to death and die here, and it would be irrelevant.

With that thought I realized I really didn't regret the way I'd left things with Morelli. I didn't care about Morelli at all. Probably I should try to remember that if I did get out of this.

Now Ranger. How did I feel about Ranger? That was a loaded question-

My train of thought was cut off by the sound of an explosion, and in that moment I absolutely loved Ranger. Not in the romantic, in-love way. But in the friendship way with a healthy dose of gratitude because he was going to get me out of this… whatever… that I was in.

I listened as the sounds of action happening around me increased. There was machine gun fire, more explosions, handguns. I heard yells from time to time and told myself it wasn't Ranger or his Merry Men (what I called the men who worked for him at Rangeman). They were good at what they did. Those yells were definitely the bad guys and not Ranger or my Merry Men.

I had to tell myself that or I was going to freak out.

Then it stopped and there was nothing. I waited. And waited. And waited. Nothing.

"Hello?! Over here!" I yelled. Except I couldn't yell. Because I was so tired, and my throat hurt, and I had no voice. This sucked.

Finally I heard the sound of footsteps getting closer. Things were still kinda fuzzy, but I was pretty sure someone was approaching. I turned toward the sound and saw a figure of a man, and he was huge.

But for some reason I wasn't scared, even when I felt a needle in my skin.

I watched the motion and was confused because it looked like one of his arms was metal. He was undoing the restraints and picking me up, and one arm was definitely harder than the other.

"Who?" I tried to ask, but I felt the slurring starting to happen again and sleep calling me.

When I woke up again, I was warm. There was an all-too familiar beeping sound, and I took a deep breath into my nose and I was pretty sure that was the good stuff. Oxygen. Which meant hospital.

I shifted, wondering to myself why they didn't make hospital beds more comfortable. But then again, it wasn't a metal table, so there was that.

"Cupcake?" I heard, and I couldn't hold back the groan. That wasn't what I wanted to hear. I didn't want to deal with Morelli right now. It was going to be a fight; it was going to be ugly.

I felt myself getting more and more worked up, which I could also hear thanks to the handy dandy heart rate monitor I was attached to. Bastard, giving me away.

"Babe?" I heard from the other side.

Ranger. I took a deep breath and let it out, finally opening my eyes.

"Yay," I couldn't stop myself from saying.

"Babe?" I'd amused Ranger with that one. Maybe surprised him a little. Granted, he had a point, I didn't think most people woke up in the hospital happy.

"It doesn't hurt to open my eyes," I told him as I turned in his direction. "Last time it did. Where am I?"

"St. Francis," he told me.

That made sense. I was in the hospital, and I was apparently in Trenton.

"What happened?" I asked.

I startled when I felt the bed start to move, and I gasped, looking over to Morelli's side. He had the remote in his hand and was moving me into a sitting position, not stopping even though I was fairly certain I had groaned. Jerk.

And ugh, he had his cop face on. "Why don't you tell us what happened, Cupcake," Morelli insisted.

"Don't call me that," I spat out. Then I continued, "and I don't know what happened, that's why I asked."

Seriously, what was wrong with him. I'd just woken up from God knows what in the hospital. I was confused. I, well, I actually wasn't very sore come to think of it, but I was definitely discombobulated. That was a fun word. Had he always been this much of a dick, and I just hadn't noticed it?

Morelli made a strangled noise and his face turned red. He crossed his arms across his chest and looked MAD.

"Oh shit," I turned wide eyes toward Ranger but quickly filcked them back toward Morelli not wanting to lose sight of him when he was that mad. Not that Ranger would let anything happen to me. "Did I say that out loud?"

"Maybe you should step outside," Ranger told Morelli diplomatically. "It seems Steph may not want you here."

No, I did not.

Ooops. By the way the red in Morelli's face turned purple I thought I might have said that out loud too. I grimaced and hoped that my face looked at least a little apologetic. And I just waited.

"I need to get her statement," Morelli ground out. "Plus, I'm her fiance."

I couldn't help it, I audibly scoffed at that. "Like hell you are."

"We just talked about this!" Morelli sounded absolutely incredulous. "You want to be engaged and get married, so you can quit your job. So alright! We're engaged."

I stared at him in fascination for a moment before I said, "Did you just propose?"

Morelli stammered for a moment, "well, not exactly."

"THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!" My voice had gotten very loud all of the sudden, and it frankly surprised me since I hadn't been able to yell back in that warehouse…

"Well, what the hell do you want from me, Cupcake?!" Morelli yelled back, arms flailing around.

I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath and grounding myself before saying, "I want you to take my statement if you must and then leave me alone. Leave anything you have at your house that is mine at my parents' or the bonds office. I'll get it."

"WHAT?!" Morelli yelled.

"Babe," Ranger said, clearly wary of getting in the middle of what he probably saw as a domestic. "Maybe now isn't the time to be making big decisions."

"I'd already decided," I said stubbornly. "That's why I moved out."

"What is going on here?!" A nurse burst into the room. "Oh! You're awake! They were supposed to call me if you woke up."

"Yeah, Morelli doesn't always do what he says, big surprise," I muttered.

"What the hell, Cupcake? What's that supposed to mean? Is this because I never proposed? I just said we could get married!" Morelli just wasn't letting go.

"You aren't seriously going to marry me," I told him. "And even if you did SUDDENLY want to out of nowhere; I don't want to. We're over. Done. Finished. Take your damn statement and get the hell out of my life."

Morelli was muttering to himself about insane women, but he did turn on his heel and stomp out of the room. As soon as he did, my heart rate noticeably slowed down and I looked over at the nurse. There were alarms going off, and it was really annoying.

She looked dumbfounded, so I quietly and as politely as I could muster said, "could you do something about that?"

Quickly, she turned off the alarms and started taking my vitals. As she did, she said, "I'm so sorry. He said you were his fiancee, so we let him in. Technically, we shouldn't, but he's a cop too. Plus everyone knows you've been living together, and we just figured it was new and you just hadn't made an announcement yet."

Gotta love the Trenton gossips.

"It's fine," I told her. "Just don't let him in again. And feel free to spread the word that we are definitely over."

I heard the door open again, and I looked up, death glare at the ready for Morelli. But it was my friend Eddie Gazzara, a uniform cop who was also married to my cousin Shirley the Whiner. He held his hands up as though to show he wasn't a threat, and when I smiled, he walked the rest of the way in.

"I'm, uh, here to take your statement," he said.

"Were you outside?" I asked.

"Yeah," he answered, looking sheepish.

"It's okay. I should have ended it long ago," I told him on a sigh. Then I cleared my throat a little. Ranger silently held out a cup of water with a straw, and I took a sip gratefully before I continued. "Truthfully, I don't think I can be of help here. I don't remember much of anything."

"That's okay," Ranger said using the most soothing voice I'd probably ever heard from him. "Just tell us what you do remember."

"I…" I closed my eyes had a flash of a memory of a lab coat come across my mind and felt myself start to panic a little.

"You're okay," Eddie said calmly.

Taking another deep breath, I forced myself to think. "My dad asked me to look for someone. Jason… uh… Simms. Yeah, Simms. I think that's right. He was the son of one of my dad's former coworkers. His parents thought he was missing, but it hadn't been very long and the cops weren't able to investigate yet."

"I talked to Missing Persons," Ranger cut in. "They didn't have the power to enter his apartment, and there was no sign anywhere that anything had happened to him."

"Did you find him?" I asked.

Ranger shook his head no.

"Okay," I continued. It was all coming back to me, "I went to Jason's apartment. I knocked and the door just swung open on its own. I thought it was odd, and I wasn't going to go in. But then his neighbor across the hall opened her door to ask me what I needed, and I didn't want her to call the cops on me. I made up an excuse and went in. It was… kinda freaky. The place was like covered in some sort of foil. I walked through really quickly and grabbed a few loose papers and things, but it was mostly clean and empty. I rushed out, and I called Ranger on my way to the car."

"Covered in foil?" Eddie interjected.

I was busy trying to remember what happened next, and I heard Ranger explain to Eddie what I had described to him on the phone.

"What happened then?" Ranger prompted.

"I'm not sure," I said slowly. "I remember feeling really weird."

"You said sorry," Ranger said. "Who were you talking to?"

"You," I said softly. "I hadn't been aware of my surroundings like you always tell me…"

I trailed off feeling guilty, and Ranger surprised me by taking up my hand and giving it a gentle but brief squeeze.

"What happened after you felt weird?" Eddie asked quietly.

"I really," I thought hard on it. "I don't really remember. It felt like dreaming, and I don't think I actually could tell you whether it was real or it actually was a dream."

"That's okay," Ranger said. "Just tell us whatever it is. We'll figure this out."

"I remember moving. I'm sure about that. I felt like I was moving."

"That's good," Ranger told me. "You were definitely moved. I tracked your car and I had a man there within 10 minutes. You were gone. Phone and bag on the ground. Jeep door open."

Okay. So maybe I was remembering real things.

With that in mind, I said, "I remember this space… it had tall ceilings, and I thought it was a rundown warehouse. But then I was in a small room with walls that didn't go all the way up. There were people in lab coats. I remember thinking they were either doctors or scientists. But I was sure I wasn't in a hospital."

"Why?" Eddie asked.

"The ceiling looked… old. Damaged. And it didn't smell like a hospital. It smelled dirty." I told him. Then I looked over at Ranger again, and I continued, "I think I woke up a few times. They must have injected me with a sedative or something. I have no idea how long it was. When I woke up there the last time, I was more awake than I had been in the past. I realized I was strapped to a table, and I tried to move, but I couldn't. Then I heard an explosion, and gunshots, and more explosions. I thought Ranger had found me."

"It wasn't me," Ranger needlessly explained.

"No," I squeezed his hand that time to let him know it was okay. "There was a man."

"A man?" Eddie perked up with interest. "Was it one of you captors? Can you describe him?"

"No…" I trailed off. I didn't know why, but for some reason, I didn't really want to tell him about the man. "I'm sorry, I was still feeling the effects of whatever they gave me. I suppose it could have been a woman even, I couldn't really see. But whoever it was came in, and I wasn't scared anymore. But he injected me with something and then picked me up… the next thing I remember is waking up here."

Ranger was watching me closely as Eddie asked some more follow-up questions. When he was done, I was tired, and Eddie took that as his cue to leave. He walked out, and Ranger and I sat there in silence for a full minute.

"Tell me about the man," Ranger prodded. "You didn't tell Eddie everything."

I looked Ranger dead in the eye, and I said, "I didn't get a good look at him. I don't know who it was."

It was the truth, really, so Ranger eventually nodded his head. I wasn't sure if he believed me or not, but he let it go and that was good enough for the time being. I was tired.