When I woke up it was getting dark. Ranger was right, I had been tired. He was also sitting in the chair by the bed watching me sleep.

"What are you doing," I smiled lazily.

"Watching you sleep. You look so innocent when you sleep. You don't look like the kind of woman who would drain her husband of any and all of his life's essence so he could hardly function."

I laughed, "Is that what I do?"

"Succubus," he nodded in confirmation.

"It's not that bad. Do you need a break?"

"No," he said adamantly. "Manuel called."

"What did he say?"

"He found the link. He put it in his daughter's name. Brian's working on getting a way to pull it legally. He and Fenton both believe we can do it legally without either of their knowledge, but we'd have to have a government official sign off on it."

"Like Robert," I raised a brow.

"Like Robert," he agreed and slid out of the chair and onto the bed beside me in a single fluid motion. He wrapped his arms around me and held me to him tightly, "you're never going to leave me right?"

"I'm not leaving," I assured him. "You've certainly done your best to make me in the last several months but…"

He sighed, "I know…I've been an ass. Believe me enough people are telling me. Your father wanted to kill me. He knew I wasn't drunk. He knew I had to have had a hand in the wedding. He knew Manuel wouldn't have done it on his own. He knew…"

"I figured that. I told him that I'd told you I wouldn't trap you that I loved you and I didn't want to do that to you. He said he wondered if you'd do the same for me."

He groaned, "He's been giving me hell. If he didn't think he knew how I felt about you, he probably wouldn't have given me the time or the chance to fix things."

"I'm sure of that."

"Your father is a good man."

"I know. My husband is a good man too."

"I try to be, but I've made a lot of mistakes in my life."

"We all have honey."

"I mean big mistakes. I've killed people."

"But they were all bad," I teased.

"I certainly believed that," he agreed with a slight smile.

"You're a good man," I said softly and rolled over to look up at him in the darkened room. "If your core wasn't good, I wouldn't…I couldn't love you."

"Thank you. You have always believed in me. But you have stopped calling me Batman."

"Dr. Addison said to give you a real name. Your name is Ric."

He nodded and kissed my nose.

"Who are Miranda and Angela," I said softly.

His entire body tensed.

"It's too hard?"

"No," he shook his head, "yes, but I want to tell you."

"Tell me."

"You know when I was younger I was a…"

"Slut," I suggested.

He laughed, "You can say slut. I'd say lothario."

"Right," I rolled my eyes.

"Anyway," he sighed. "I met Miranda when I was sixteen. I was pretty sure that I was all that. I mean I believed it. She was a girl from the other side of the fence. Most of the girls who liked me were Hispanic like me and usually Cuban too. But Miranda was blonde with green eyes and legs two miles long. She was beautiful. She was sixteen and I fell in love. Well, I sure thought I was in love." He sighed. "We were together all the time. Her parents didn't approve. They called me all the names reserved for someone of my ethnicity that was derogatory. Miranda fought it. We talked about running away when we turned eighteen and getting married and just escaping Trenton and her parents and my parents and all the rules." He laughed. "I think I really believed it would happen at the time. One Saturday night, we made love for the first time. She was a virgin. I finally told her that I loved her. Before that I'd just said me too when she said it. I took her home after that and the next day I tried to call her and got no answer so I went over there. I guess I thought her parents must just know what we'd done and grounded her or something. There were police cars all over the place. Someone had broken into their house and killed everyone in it. It was later found to be a gang from my side of town. They were my people. I was probably related to some of them. I figured they had to know about her through me. I blamed myself. I was sixteen."

"Oh honey," I sighed.

"Then after I joined the Army I met Angela. Angela was Cuban and therefore a little more safe. I spent every moment with her when I had any kind of leave. I was nineteen and horny as hell and I think she was as bad as I was. It kind of reminds me of us," he chuckled, "only our sex is much better."

"Good answer," I shook my head.

He smiled and kissed my head. "I thought I was in love. Anyone having that much sex had to be in love. And she did things that other girls I'd dated wouldn't have even thought of doing. So I decided I was in love. I came home on leave and I proposed to her and told her that I loved her. She accepted and I went back out." He sighed. "She was killed in the spring of 1995 by gang bangers. The general consensus was that it was random. But in my mind, it was all connected. I'd told two girls that I loved them, and they were dead. It was my fault."

"Oh," I whispered. "So…you never said it again."

"Right," He sighed. "In my mind I completely equated loving someone with their murder. Maybe inside me I knew I was in love with you, but I couldn't say the words. As the feeling got stronger…I was more terrified. How I feel about you makes how I felt about any other woman seems so…" He sighed and ran his hands through his hair fighting for control.

"It's okay," I said softly.

"I never even thought about saying it till you," he finally said with a sigh. "Rachel and I were sort of a wild couple of months when I was home on leave. It was all about the sex. She'll tell you that. Back then, she was a lot wilder than she is now. She turned out pretty good, but that summer she was a wild child. I wasn't in love with her, but she was like Angela sexually…you know willing to do anything, so we spent the summer doing it. When I found out she was pregnant I married her and moved her into base housing. She left me about a month later. A summer of passion was one thing, but full time Ricardo Carlos Manoso was another thing all together."

"I don't know," I smiled. "I kind of like it."

He laughed, "I like it too." His expression sobered. "I felt it pretty soon after I met you. It scared the shit out of me and I didn't want to do anything to hurt you. Besides, my life was pretty fucked up. I was running high octane black ops back then and I was a risk to everyone including myself. I didn't want to bring you into that. I cared too much about you. Then before I knew it, you told me that you were in love with me. I think I knew before you told me, but I was floored. Every fear I'd ever had came crashing down on me and I let you go because I was afraid to keep you. I was afraid that some fucking gang from my old neighborhood would kill you too…like the fucking Slayers weren't close enough."

I sighed, "Ric…"

"I know," he sighed. "But I've been this way for almost twelve years Babe. It's hard for me to let go of the fear. That's what's draining me so much in therapy. Oh hell, I talk about other stuff too. I've told him about things I've done for God and country and it's good to just say it out loud. He doesn't judge me. He's a good therapist."

"Yea, he is," I agreed.

"We should get one on staff," he sighed.

"Manuel said that himself," I sighed.

"Manuel," he frowned.

"Yea, when I told him to check on the five million," I said absently.

"Right," he nodded.

"Why are you telling me this now? Is it because I asked you about them or what?"

"I had already decided to talk to you about it, but yea that pushed it. I watched Brian look at you and saw how much he cares about you. He does love you. He wants you to be happy and he's willing to sacrifice what he now believes is his only chance at happiness for yours. Do you see that?"

I sighed.

"It just made me think about whether I really deserved you and if I did deserve you, didn't you deserve to know the truth? You do deserve it Steph. I deserve you and you deserve the truth."

"I know you deserve me," I sighed and snuggled into his warmth. "Who else could tolerate all my insanity? You think you're getting such a prize, but in all honesty you've gotten a big old albatross."

"That is a matter of opinion," he smiled and nuzzled into my face.

"Yea," I sighed.

He groaned as his phone buzzed on his hip. He flipped it open, "Yo." He paused to listen. "We're on our way down." He flipped the phone closed. "Well…so much for sharing. We need to head to the conference room on two."

"What's up?"

"We have updates," he said seriously.

"Okay," let me wash my face and do my business and I'll be down."

"I'll wait for you," he said softly and kissed my forehead.

"You so love me," I grinned and hopped out of bed.

"You know even when I was qualifying things, I never said I didn't," he said softly.

I paused at the door and looked back at him in wonder, "no, you didn't, did you?"

"I didn't," he smiled.

"Hmm," I sighed and disappeared into the bathroom.

We walked into the conference room to find it loaded with our most trusted people. Tank beckoned us to the front of the room. This was the room we'd have briefings in when we got back to normal. It had a podium with a table and chairs on a dais. On the floor in front of it were lines of comfortable chairs with small tables that folded up.

Tank leaned over and whispered to Ranger.

"Move him here. Hire whatever staff we need. Bring everybody into the house. I mean it…everybody."

Ranger got to his feet and leaned over the podium. "I'm glad to see you all here. We have a lot going on and unfortunately, it seems that bad stuff is taking over for the good stuff. But before we get into the bad, and there's plenty of it, let's light on some good stuff. We're here in our new facility and it's fully operational."

There was a cheer.

"Those of you who are already living in house, I hope you've found your digs comfortable. Get ready to share though; we've got rough seas ahead." He paused. "I'd like to welcome some new members to our team. First is Walter Douglas Dumphry," he smiled. "Most of you know him as Mooner and he's got a bit of a rep here. But you don't know he's a bio physicist who graduated first in his class at MIT and he's brilliant. He's like scary brilliant. He's taking over our bio department. He's going to be detoxing for a while, so be patient with him please. He's a good man."

Everyone clapped and welcomed Mooner.

"We're also welcoming Jenna Herschel and her dogs Andromeda and Perseus. Andromeda and Perseus are special dogs. Andromeda is a blood hound of the highest order. She's a tracker. Perseus is a cadaver dog. The way things are going with us this is an important thing to add. We also believe this will be a valuable service to our clients. We'll be adding more people and dogs to this department as the service becomes more needed. Welcome Jenna."

I followed Ranger's hand to see the woman in the back of the room leaning against the wall. She didn't have the dogs with her, but she had to be the right person. She had an air about her that made me believe she wouldn't take nonsense from man or beast. She was also very, very pretty. She was a few inches shorter than me, and in the rhat room full of men she appeared absolutely diminutive. She was also very curvy. I saw Lester glance over and lick his lips as everyone clapped and welcomed her. Marina wouldn't like that. I grinned. She must have caught it too because she rolled her eyes before she met mine and grinned back. We'd be friends.

"We are also welcoming Manuel Forturo to our midst." He looked up and saw a sea of surprised faces. "I know, Manuel is believed to be the head of the former Forturo drug family. It's never been proven. Before he was alleged to hold that position, he was in the Los Angeles Crime Lab. He's a genuine CSI. He wants to come back to the states, and we're happy to welcome someone with his credentials to our family."

They clapped, but they were confused.

"We'd like to welcome Judge Fenton Goodman to our team in Acquisions. He's going to be hobnobbing with everyone and may take on more responsibility or different responsibility as time goes on. But getting him is a huge coup for us."

The crowd clapped loudly and I grinned and winked at Fenton.

"We're also adding Brian Goodman as our legal representative. You all know that Brian is a highly decorated FBI agent. He also graduated first in his class at Harvard Law. To have him with us is flattering to no end."

The crowd thundered its applause. Brian was already liked.

"Besides new people and more will be added, we'd like to recognize a few others. Tank would you like to take this?"

Ranger sank down beside me and took my hand and Tank took the podium.

"I'd like everyone to congratulate Bobby Brown as head of our Medical Department. Most of you know that Bobby went to medical school and passed but he never got his license. He's licensed now. You may now call him Dr. Brown. He will be leaving the field and operating here at the facility as our Doctor in residence. Our new state of the art facilities will enable him to care for us here without bothering other medical professionals in Trenton. We will be adding to his staff, but Dr. Brown will be the head of that department from here on."

Thunderous applause again filled the room.

"Taking over as the head of security will be Cal Henderson when he gets out of the hospital. Cal did what was necessary to save almost everyone in the building when our facilities were attacked a few days ago. He will be dialed in completely in the future. He will also be coming off rotation and manning a desk primarily. He will also evaluate you in the field. You may expect that department to grow as well."

After a few moments of applause Tank continued again. "Taking over as head of Sales will be Lester Santos," he grinned as they all clapped and laughed. "Everyone here knows Lester. They know he can charm the pants off of anyone including Stephanie's Grandma Mazur," they all howled with laughter. "Since Stephanie is stepping down to become a mother…we think Lester is the logical replacement. He takes over as head of sales immediately."

"Hal Green takes over as head of personnel. He will handle all hiring and field assignments. If you want to stay in the US versus Siberia, I suggest you find a way to be nice to him. He can make your life pleasant or miserable." He paused for their applause. "Woody Johnson takes over as head of special projects as soon as he comes back from a medical leave. Woody has also been with us from the beginning and I know you'll all be supportive to him as well." He paused again.

"And Ram…we haven't gotten to talk to you, but we have something in mind for you." He looked at the man in question pointedly.

"Last but not least Mitch Wheeler will be taking over as lead tactical advisor and administrator. I know you all realize how important this position is in our company. We need someone ready willing and able to make strategic decisions and plan operations all the time. And Ranger and I want to take more family vacations," he grinned and everyone laughed. "So thank you to everyone who's willingly agreed to take over these assignments. Please note that while the names mentioned with Unit, that doesn't mean that if you weren't in our Unit there's no place for you. Fenton and Brian are proof of that. It just means that these men have been with us from the beginning and they absolutely have been loyal. They earned their position and there are plenty more to be filled. That being said, for the most part for the corporate facility of Rangeman our executive staff is in place."

He paused, "more of you will take over in other areas of the business over the next several months. Ranger and I want this company to be able to run without us. We believe we've hired extraordinary people who are capable of anything they want to do. We believe in you all. We are going to be offering all kinds of incentives soon including educational opportunities as well as other chances for advancement. This office isn't the only one changing. Our Miami, Boston, Richmond, DC, and Atlanta offices will be making a few changes as well, but know that corporately…the people we've promoted here will be over everyone. We intend to be national eventually. And we're also very interested in diversifying as you know we already have Sizzlin and its brought a bigger influx of revenue in that expected under Natalie's leadership. We will probably buy other companies and invest more in others. We need good men and women in order to do that. There will be opportunities for anyone who is willing to do the work and make the moves. I'm going to turn this back over to Ranger now so he can get to the bad stuff."

They nodded grimly and Ranger got back up. He sighed and leaned on the podium tiredly. "We're facing a big challenge. We've lost two men, two innocent men, who had nothing to do with the problem at hand. The problem as we believe it to be is a rogue government official who has operated outside the law for more than fifteen years. We believe he committed treason and he's trying to erase the only US citizen he believes can identify him as being a traitor."

The men and women in the room gasped in shock.

"We're bringing everyone into the facility or sending them somewhere safely out of reach," he held up his hand at the murmurs of protest. "We've lost two men. We almost lost Cal and if not for his quick thinking we could have lost at minimum two more. You need to take this threat seriously. This man doesn't care who he hurts. We believe he is responsible for the loss of more than seven thousand lives during one incident alone." They gasped again. After a few moments of silence he began again. "If you're currently dating anyone that you've been seeing for some time to the point that people consider you may be headed for permanence, we'll send them far enough away to keep them safe until this is over. Husbands, wives and children will be brought inside. We want to keep you all safe. If there is some reason why that won't work for you and your situation, please get with Hal as soon as possible so he can work with you to reach an agreeable solution to both of us.

"If you have questions that we haven't answered yet or we are not able to answer publicly yet, several people are dialed in who can help you. You may ask several people here in this room. Stephanie, Brian, Fenton, Lester, Bobby, Hal, Tank, Mitch and I are all completely dialed in. The rest of our core team will be dialed in as they arrive. Ask if you need to know. Share what you know. We need to keep the lines of communication open. You could have seen something you don't realize you saw. No piece of information is insignificant. Talk to the people I've mentioned if you think you know anything.

"We'll be available for questions for the next hour right here. After that, the core team will move upstairs and meet again for about two hours. During that time we need privacy unless something significant happens. Thank you."

We were all busy for the hour. There were a lot of questions. There was some information to be shared. The hour was important and informative.

At the end of the hour Ranger whistled and the core group left the conference room and headed upstairs for our private meeting.

"Impressive," Fenton nodded. "They grasped the situation quickly and asked important and pertinent questions."

"I've been to a million briefings," Brian sighed. "They never go that well."

"You must have worked with a bunch of idiots," I teased and nudged him.

"No kidding," he rolled his eyes.

By the time our two hours holed up were done, we'd learned a lot and made a lot of decisions. First we learned that the money had been transferred and could be traced, even after all this time, to an anti-American terrorist group. When George set the account up in his daughter's name, she was a newborn. The money in that account had grown over the years to almost one billion dollars. It was clearly illegal. We'd also been able to clear Robert completely and we'd been able to reassure ourselves that he was clean in every other way. We discussed all of our options, and after a long and arduous discussion on legalities and protecting our asses and coming out as clean as we could, we made the biggest decision we had to make.

We decided it was time to dial Robert in.