A/N: Hello friends and welcome to chapter 3! Thank you SO MUCH for all the love!!!

Stephanie POV

The alarm started buzzing at 6:15 , giving me enough time to take care of bathroom business, down some breakfast, and load up on coffee before meeting Lester downstairs for my hand to hand training at 7:00. As it was making that horrible racket I laid there for a second, staring at the ceiling. I had gotten maybe 2 hours sleep, between Rangers visit and the nightmares I had because of it, I couldn't rest. Finally I got up, turning off the alarm and quickly got dressed. After using the bathroom, I wandered out to the kitchen and made myself some toast and coffee before dropping some cheerios in for Rex and heading downstairs to the gym.

SMACK. I laid staring up at the ceiling again , this time because Lester had just flipped me over. It stung but I wasn't about to at him know that.

"Damn beautiful, you are really off your game this morning. " I see Lester standing next to me, peering down. He held out his hand to help me up . "Not enough sleep? No offense Steph but you look like shit."

I take his hand and he pulls me up to a standing position. "So , not so beautiful then huh?" I rub my hands over my face. "Can we take five Les? I'm tired of getting the wind knocked out of me." We walk over to the bench on the edge of the room and sit.

"What's going on?" Lester can be sweet and caring at times, it evens out his personality between the snarkiness and smarmy parts .

I debated telling him. Lester and Ranger are family, but I knew if I didn't he would hear about it through the Merry Men grapevine anyway, better to just tell him myself. "Ranger came by this morning while I was in the shower. He hijacked my towel and wouldn't leave, said he wanted to make sure we were okay after everything that went down. That was just an excuse though, he had been watching the feeds and saw Bobby had come by a few minutes earlier and he wanted to know why." I took a long drink from my water bottle before continuing. "Bobby asked me out this weekend… on a date." I waited to see if Lester would respond and when I looked over at him I saw conflicting emotions on his face. "Hey what's this look for ?" I gently poked him in his shoulder.

He made a noise deep down in his chest. "Well, first off… it's about damn time Brown stepped up and asked you out. That man has been pining over you for years. I was about to tell him if he didn't take the chance he lost out and I was gonna do it." That made me grin and flush red. "Second, what the hell is wrong with my cousin ?? Stupid cabrón. (Asshole). What was he thinking??"

"I don't know Les, you'll have to ask him."

"Oh, I intend to." I heard Lester do that half growl, under his breath muttering thing that the men excelled at. "Listen beautiful why don't you go back upstairs and get some rest. You're no good to me like this. I can't teach you anything when you can barely stand on your own two feet."

I sighed. He was right, training this way was dangerous, but I also didn't want Rangers antics to ruin my day. "You sure Les?" I was already up and halfway out the door hoping he didn't change his mind.

He laughed and grabbed me, pulling me into a tight hug. "Of course. We'll pick it up later. Get some sleep."

I laid my head on his chest and squeezed him around his middle as tight as I could. "Thanks Lester, I appreciate it." I felt him kiss the top of my head and he smacked me on the ass as I was leaving- there was the Lester I knew. I was so tired I didn't even respond to him, just walked out of the gym and tried to make it to the elevators without dropping. I ended up running straight into Ranger, of course. And when I mean run into him…I bounced off him like a quarter into a shot glass and fell straight backwards. Lester came out of the gym at the same time I fell, because falling in front of Ranger wasn't embarrassing enough.

"Babe – You okay?" to his credit Ranger held out his hand towards me to help me up, and I just stared at it from my position on the floor. I could feel Lester come up behind me, he picked me up under my arms and hauled me to my feet.

"Stephanie, go. " Oh damn, Lester is pissed. He never and I mean NEVER calls me by my full first name. "Ricardo, we need to talk." Oh… my inner child was jumping around taunting "Oooooo Ranger is in trouuuubllleeeee!"

I turned and gave Lester a kiss on the cheek, nodded to Ranger and walked away. I could hear the siren song of my bed calling to me, and I was ready to answer it.

Ranger POV

I knew showing up in her apartment this morning was a bad idea… I knew waiting in the bathroom for her was one too, but I hadn't seen Steph dressed the way she had been last night in a very long time, and it affected me. I miss her, but I get it. I screwed up. We were doing pretty great for awhile… I had convinced her to work for Rangeman more doing research and helping out on large skips more than she was working at her stupid cousins shop so I could keep an eye out on her. All the feelings towards each other finally collaborated in to one amazing… no, that's not the right word. Breathtaking? Shit it was the best sex I had ever had. I saw myself getting married to her, and us having little Cuban, spunky, curly haired babies together… which is when I had my moment I call Rangers idiotic epiphany . Usually an epiphany is a good thing… maybe freak out is the better term. Basically I realized I was in too deep with her and shoved her back towards her no good ex Morelli. I know, I said it was idiotic. She was pissed, of course, she had every right to be. And even though I wanted her more than anything in the world, distractions cost people like me my life, and that's how I saw her. A distraction. So I shoved her away, but not far enough that she wasn't still around from time to time. The men all loved her, I knew at least half if not all of them were IN love with her, so they hadn't reacted very well when I sent her back to Morelli. In fact, I think I took every core member to the mats multiple times in that first week because of their attitudes towards me. Again, I understood, but it's the principle.

Then her apartment building went up in flames, and I offered her the empty apartment on 4. Thankfully she didn't put up a fight. The men were thrilled (some a little too much) with the prospect of having her here permanently. Which brings us to last night. She called me on my shit when I showed up, knowing I had been watching the feeds for the building, and of course she was right. It's my building, I need to make sure it's secure. When I saw Brown come to visit her at 1 am I was intrigued. When I saw her answer the door in nothing but her bra and panties I was pissed (and turned on.) Then she pulled him in to the apartment and shut the door, and my mind went into hyperdrive. I didn't want to raise suspicion by asking Hector for audio, so I just watched. And watched. And finally he came back out, I noticed she had put a robe on, and he had a shit eating grin on his face. No, scratch that. Actually he just looked really happy. I sighed and told myself DON'T GO DOWN THERE RANGER. But my feet didn't listen. Or they just flat out ignored me… either way that's how I found myself in her apartment at 1:30 am, making the excuse I just wanted to make sure we were okay, but Steph is observant. She knew right away why I was there, and when she told me Brown had asked her out my heart sank a bit. I did this – I pushed her out of my bed straight into the arms of my men.

Joseph Morelli is a mediocre cop, and an even worse boyfriend. I knew things were over between him and Steph before she started working for us on a more consistent basis, but it didn't stop me from telling her that's who she should be with. Yeah I've heard all the names my men have called me because of it. Idiota , Estúpido , el hijo de perra, pendejo all versions of me being an idiot or asshole. I actually took off to Miami to visit my daughter for a week to give everyone some distance. I was on my way to the gym to talk to her about everything when she ran straight into me and bounced off, landing on the floor. I leaned down and offered her my hand "Babe- you okay?"

She sat there staring at me. At first I thought she didn't hear me, but then my cousin came up from behind her, lifting her up and sending her on her way. Before she left he commented "Ricardo, we need to talk." I swore I saw her grin. Then she disappeared into the elevators after giving Les a kiss on the cheek and nodding to me, and he turned towards me, eyes blazing.

"I take it she told you I came to visit this morning." I moved around him and walked into the gym to start my routine, might as well get it in while I'm down here. I didn't even bother to correct Les about using my real name in front of Stephanie. He was pissed, and she looked like hell, entirely my fault.

I could hear Lester come up behind me. "What. The. FUCK RANGER?! What were you thinking? Watching her on the feed and trying to get information out of her? This is Stephanie we're talking about, not a target. You shouldn't be treating her this way!" I let him rant because, let's face it, he was right. "And being in her bathroom while she was in the shower?? What gives you that right pendajo? You pushed her away months ago, what are you doing??"

I had been running on the treadmill while he was laying all my mistakes out for me like a road map, so I stopped and hopped off , turning to stare at him. "I get it Lester. I fucked up. Massively. You really think I don't know that? I'm trying to make it better, I am. I just… I needed to see her. After last night, I just…" it was stupid, I couldn't even finish the thought.

"You miss her?" Lester finally stopped berating me and stood there , his glare still prevalent.

I nodded. "When I saw Bobby to go her front door, I felt my heart breaking . I couldn't hear anything but from his expression when he left I knew he had asked her out… I just… needed to hear it from her." And although I would never say it out loud, I needed to see her naked again. Best sex ever, remember?

Lester jumped at me like a coiled snake , it took me by surprise and I landed backwards on to the mats. "SO WHAT! YOU screwed this up Ric! Not Bobby, not me, not any of us and DEFINITELY NOT Stephanie! She deserves to be happy! And you need to stop making her sad!!!" We wrestled around after my initial shock wore off and I didn't even fight back. He was right, I just keep messing things up. After he realized I wasn't moving he stopped and stared down at me. "Let her be happy Ric. And let her come to you if she wants to talk, otherwise you're just going to keep pushing her farther and farther away. " he jumped up and held out his hand, helping me up. He walked out and I went back to running in silence.