Janet has hers, I have mine. They sometime play nicely together, sometimes not. We make no monies.
"What's the plan tonight," Ranger asked as we stripped to get into the shower. We weren't that dirty, but I know I felt dirty dealing with another murder and all that complicated DNA contribution stuff.
"The plan is to meet Brian and Kate at Le Chef's for dinner and then get a really good night's sleep," I put my hand under the water to test the temperature and then stepped into the shower.
"But…"
"But I think we'll be lucky to make it through dinner before we get called to the body drop spot," I said honestly.
"I'd really rather you didn't go to the body drop," Ranger said tugging me against his body and just holding me still against him. "You're still in the first trimester of your pregnancy. You're fragile. I've already let you take too many risks."
"LET me," I craned my neck to look up at him with a raised brow.
"You know what I mean," he growled.
I sighed and relaxed against him, "I know what you mean. If we get the call, I'll stay back."
"Thank you," he sighed and rested his chin on my head. "So who has a thing for Jake? Is it Amanda or is it Brady?"
"Probably both," I said seriously.
"He's had a lot of women in his life…Brady," he reached for his shower gel with a sigh.
"True," I agreed. "But he didn't have healthy relationships. All of his relationships were violent. You know rape isn't about the sex, it's about control."
"I know," he nodded. "So you think it's both of them?"
"Yea," I nodded. "I think so."
"I'd be interested in getting Dr. Addison's take on that," Ranger said.
"I'll text him when we get out of the shower," I said seriously.
"Babe, after this can we go somewhere far away from people and just chill and enjoy ourselves. I mean can we go somewhere there aren't going to be any dead people or homicidal maniacs just for a little while."
"Do you know a place like that," I grinned up at him.
"Smart ass," he sighed. "How about that place in Hawaii we went after Boston?"
"Sure," I agreed. "That was a restful vacation."
"It was," he agreed. "And nobody turned up dead."
"Yea well, that was then, this is now."
"What do you mean," he asked.
"I think I'm getting more powerful," I admitted.
He stared at me for a moment and then sighed, "Duly noted."
"Thanks," I tried not to smile.
"We need to work on getting you able to harness these powers of yours."
"That would be a feat," I smiled to myself.
"Yea, in the meantime, you can just harness my powers," he reached for me and tugged me against him.
"Which powers are those," I looked up to meet his eyes just as I was nudged in the hip. "Oh those powers," I grinned. "I will do all I can to harness those."
Kate and Brian beat us to the restaurant. They had a table already in the quieter section of the restaurant.
"He is such a boy scout," Ranger said as he watched Brian pick up the menu Kate dropped on the floor. "You'd have never worked out with him."
"Ric," I gaped up at him.
His eyes darkened, "he's still the only threat I ever really had."
"Shut up," I glared at him and then sashayed to the table in front of him to punish him.
"You're in trouble," he muttered from behind me.
I just grinned. "Hi guys," I dropped into the booth and slid over so Ranger could get in. Brian and Kate were sitting in the chairs leaving Ranger and I against the wall…sort of. There was a window behind us to outside so we could see people's feet passing by.
"No good spot," Brian said apologetically.
"My wife keeps reminding me we're at Disney World. I do not need to constantly evaluate the threat."
"Well, maybe more than I thought," I said and picked up my menu. "Oh boy, this menu looks yummy. Eww…snails," I moaned and put my hand to my stomach.
"Not that yummy," Brian groused.
Kate grinned up at Ranger.
"Kids," Ranger shrugged.
I looked up to meet Brian's eyes with a slight smile, "Any cheeseburgers?"
"Nope," he grinned at me, "but it looks like a killer Mac n Cheese."
"Sold," I put my menu down and smiled sweetly at my husband. "You were saying dear?"
He winced, "nothing honey."
Kate laughed. "I'm leaning toward a salad and the salmon."
"Copy that," Ranger put his menu on top of mine.
"I'm sure," I rolled my eyes.
Ranger leaned over and kissed my ear, "do you want a spanking?"
"You and what Army," I hissed.
He narrowed his gaze on me, "is this because of the boy scout?"
"Is this because you're an ass," I raised a brow.
He sighed, "Later."
"Good plan," I agreed.
Most of the meal was pleasant enough. There were a few moments when they delivered our food that I thought Ranger was going to press the children issue since Brian and I had the mac and cheese and they had salmon, but he took a breath and let it go. He can be smart sometimes when it comes to relationships.
By the time we got to dessert, he'd relaxed more.
"What this meal called for and didn't get was a nice wine," Kate sighed.
"I miss wine," I sighed.
She laughed, "right now we all miss it."
"Why didn't you drink," I asked with a slight frown.
"Well, if your intuition is right and I've learned to believe it will be, then I'll be called to the body some time tonight and I'd rather have a clear head."
"And I appreciate that," Ranger nodded. "But you're right, a nice wine would have really made the meal."
"Stop with the wine. It will be forever before I can drink again."
"You can have a glass of wine during pregnancy," Kate said seriously. "It won't hurt either you or the baby. I mean, don't go crazy and drink a bottle. But a glass now and then won't cause any harm whatsoever."
Brian snorted and I kicked him under the table.
Ranger grinned at Brian.
"What," Kate asked.
"Stephanie doesn't do alcohol well," Ranger said with a smile.
"What," she frowned.
"He means that I can't hold my liquor. One glass of wine to me is like three to someone with a normal metabolism. And it makes no sense to me either. I can eat anything I want and metabolize it just fine, but add a little alcohol to the mix and I'm drunker than a skunk."
"So you don't drink much," she asked with a smile.
"No, not really," I shrugged. "I might have a glass or two making dinner and with dinner. But not really much more than that or I'll be on my ass."
"Perhaps its best that you refrain then," she nodded. "How did you do the distractions which I understand took place mostly in bars in that case?"
"I ordered gin and tonic, the bartender always skipped the gin," I shrugged. "He was always one of our guys."
"Smart," she nodded. "You guys think of everything."
"Not everything," I sighed, "or we'd have already solved this case."
"Okay, I'm no expert at this or anything, but I watch a lot of real life crime shows on TV," Kate grinned at the expression on Ranger's face. "From what I can tell, you guys do a great job. I mean in a place where the number of visitors that day was just over 44,000 plus the cast, I'd say with a suspect list that high…you've done a fine job."
"Holy crap, really over 44,000 people," I blinked at her.
"Yea," she grinned. "So you see, you've narrowed it down to 2 from like over 48,000 including cast. You're doing great."
"That is pretty good," I admitted with a laugh.
"We are that good," Ranger nodded.
"Without doubt," Brian agreed. He leaned forward, "I've been thinking about your theory and putting everything together with what I know from my own experience and I think what we have here is two people who are going to push each other to higher and higher limits."
"They're just getting started," Ranger asked.
"Left alone, they'd go on a killing spree," Brian said seriously. "That's my opinion based on evidence and experience."
"Then we need to find them fast and put a stop to it," Kate blanched.
"Yea, because after they get Jake, they'll start killing strangers and stranger murders are the hardest to solve," Brian said seriously.
"I feel that you're right," I sighed and sat back. "The bad thing is that we're kind of reliant on local law enforcement at this point to find them. They have the resources, man power, and not to mention rights to find them that we don't have. I mean without a clue as to where they are or where they're going, we're sitting sort of helpless here."
"We need more data," Kate said seriously.
"I'll get the check," Ranger said.
"I'll start working on searches of likely places they'd go," I nodded.
"Start with Idaho," Brian said seriously. "There are a lot of places to get lost in Idaho and a lot of people who wouldn't mind hiding out someone running from the 'man'," he put his air parenthesis around man with a sigh. "He's from there. He knows it. If I were him, I'd go there."
I nodded. "Good, that's a great place to start."
"Why did you leave the FBI," Kate asked him as the waitress dropped the checks on the table.
He laughed, "It wasn't my bliss."
"And this is," she blinked at him.
"You'd be surprised," he smiled.
"Interesting," she said thoughtfully and put her card down with their check. "That's really very interesting."
Back in 'mission control' I sat down at one of the computers with Kate beside me and explained what we had to do for in depth searches. I put her to work on Amanda thinking she'd be easier and went to work on Brady. Ranger and Brian went to check on Jake and hang out with him and give the guys on duty a little down time.
It was almost an hour before she said anything and I was honestly surprised that it took her that long.
"So this is his bliss," she said rather offhandedly.
"So it seems," I agreed gathering some papers from the high powered printer and sorting it into piles and giving Kate hers. I picked up a highlighter and marked through a couple of things and returned to my search.
"Is this your bliss," she asked.
"Ranger's my bliss," I looked up at her with a smile. I paused, "yea, I guess it is. I mean I feel useful. I feel like what I do makes a difference. It's not like selling lingerie to chain stores. I mean bras are useful, don't get me wrong," I laughed. "But now, I know I save lives with what I do. I can make a life so much better with so little effort. It's worth getting out of bed." I took a breath. "Granted other than the special cases I keep getting tossed into I haven't worked much at Rangeman full time for a while, but when I do I feel valuable to society."
She nodded.
"I am sure you feel that way, don't you? I mean you get to be there when a new life comes into the world. There can't be much cooler than that."
"It is cool," she agreed. "And it is my bliss."
"What's bugging you Kate," I asked.
"You know…he's gorgeous."
"You mean Brian," I raised a brow.
"Yea," she blushed.
"Yea, he is," I agreed with a laugh. "But don't tell Ranger I said so. Before we met, he was tailing me when I was working on a case…by myself really. I made him as a fed pretty quickly in his Crown Vic and shiny shoes. Granted his suits were a little better than the average G-man, but then you can just tell looking at him he was born with a silver spoon."
"Yea, you can," she laughed.
"I used to call him Agent Goodbody instead of Agent Goodman," I grinned.
She burst out laughing, "Yea…yea, I can see that."
"He's all long lean muscle," I said with a smile. "He's like a predatory cat. Not like Ranger…he's a lion. He's got to be king of the jungle. No, Brian's more of a Mountain lion. He's more a loner, stealthier and just as deadly when necessary."
"Yikes," she blinked.
"He's not a housecat," I said simply.
"Oh no, I didn't think that," she said seriously. "I just…"
"You're disappointed he's not a fed anymore? You know I dated him while he was a fed and to be honest he was a long way away and too busy to call for a good amount of that time. I would have been thrilled he was out of the FBI back in the day."
"Yea well, I am not sure how I feel," she said thoughtfully.
"Listen Kate," I said seriously, "you guys just met. If he's not what makes your merry go around, then don't worry about it. Let it go. It was a nice time in Florida and you'll have some good, I hope, memories of the time later. But it doesn't mean you have to get married and have kids. You know?"
"Yea, I know," she agreed. "He's just really, really hot."
I laughed, "Yea, he is." I sighed.
"What," she frowned.
"Do me a favor," I said softly and met her eyes pleadingly.
"Sure, what is it?"
"Don't break his heart. Just…be straight with him, okay?"
"You still love him?"
"I do love him," I admitted. "I'm not in love with him. But I do love him. He's done right by me in more ways than I'll ever be able to repay. So…don't hurt him. I am asking you."
She nodded and turned back to the computer. "I hear you."
I had just gotten my focus back on the task at hand when Ranger and Brian came into the room with grim expressions on their faces.
Ranger said quietly. "We have a body."
"Shit," I sighed.
"Tank is going to stay on Jake. Steph, you'll stay here. As for the ladies, I'm just going to need Kate and Connie. The rest of you stay back here, understood?"
The girls nodded.
He strode over to me and kissed me hard, "stay safe."
"Always," I whispered.
"No you don't," he said against my lips. "So…make it a point to do so now."
I smiled, "yes sir."
"Good," he gave me another hard kiss and straightened, "load up."
