AN: Hey! Back again! Sorry it took a while. I have momentous news! I have a beta, DimariS. Thank you Di!

Hope you enjoy this instalment! As always I don't own anything. It all belongs to JE.

RSRSRSRSRSRS

"How are you not hung over this morning?" I asked. I had my mirrored sunglasses on in the conference room.

"Just lucky, I guess." Meagan was impossibly chipper after last night.

"I'm such a light weight." Tequila, drinking games, lots of margaritas...everything hurt.

"Evidently." she was laughing at me and I was reconsidering my feelings towards her.

"Ranger had to carry you from the car."

"What about the others?"

"Connie and Lula took a cab back to the Bonds office for the night. They couldn't remember where they lived. Lenny rescued Mare."

"I don't remember anything after Spice Up Your Life." I groaned and put my forehead on the blissfully cool conference room table. The boys had crashed ladies night. It had been epic. Meagan and Lester did body shots off of each other; she said something about him owing her from that time in that strip club. Yeah. It was that kind of night.

The door opened and I smelled fries. I lifted my head up from the table. Ranger fed me one and I started to feel better. I took a sip of the Coke he held out for me. "I love you. Have I told you that yet?" He just chuckled as I was finally able to take over feeding myself. I offered some fries to Meagan. She declined. "How are you in such good shape? My hair hurts."

"Multiple orgasms." Lester said. I nearly spat out my Coke and ended up snorting it up my nose instead.

"You're an ass." Meagan said and slapped him on the back of the head. Upon closer inspection, I realized she was practically glowing. Holy shit, he's serious! I looked at Ranger. I was pissed. How come I was death warmed over and she got to be perky?

"Babe, it's a well known cure for a headache that I'd be more than happy to help you with, but you have to be conscious and interactive for it to work."

I glared at the room of people laughing at me. "Ella will save me. Ella will give me sympathy."

"I bought you McDonalds, didn't I?"

"You are making me come to a meeting on Saturday instead of letting me die in peace." He scooped me out of my seat and put me on his lap. He was still laughing at me but at least now I was cuddling him. A few minutes later Bobby, Tank and Hal came into the room followed a few minutes later by Hector, Vince, Cal and Manny. Basically, the gang was all here and most of them were wearing sunglasses.

Ranger called the meeting to order, "It's your show, Hermana."

"Yesterday we started doing a favor for the FBI. We're helping them with the investigation of Anthony Beals. We think it's possible that he is involved in a series of serial killings and the FBI wants our help." Meagan put a picture up on the screen behind her.

"What makes him special?" Cal asked.

"A few things, first and foremost is that he was already a client in Miami. He's moved his family here and wants us to set up the security for his property," Tink said. "We also think we have a bit of a renaissance man on our hands. It looks like in addition to his murderous tendencies might also be into human trafficking."

"Nice guy." Bobby said and he started to read the file.

"So what's the plan? We set up his surveillance and plant a few bugs for the feebs while we're at it?" Vince asked.

"He's paranoid so he does frequent bug sweeps. No, it turns out we have another in. His daughter, Linda, is being stalked by her ex-boyfriend. At least she thinks she is. We picked him up the other day on some minor charges and he's currently sitting in a cell. The Beals family doesn't know the identity of Linda's stalker, nor do they know we have picked him up. He's fairly early in his obsession and hasn't done anything more than scare her a little.

"Two weeks ago she spoke to the police. They knew we were looking at her father and they brought us in thinking that it was connected. It isn't but it gave the FBI what we needed to take over her stalking case. Last night, before the Tequila happened, I hooked her up with Morelli." She looked up and cocked an eyebrow, "Hector?"

Hector started speaking with Lester translating for him, "After you guys invaded ladies night - And by the way, I'm hurt that I wasn't invited- Morelli got her out of the bar and he told her who he was. His story is that the FBI has been looking for a serial rapist with a long dormancy period and they are pretty sure her stalker is the rapist. He suggested that they pose as a couple to try and draw out the stalker which has the added bonus of keeping FBI protection on her at all times without it being obvious."

"Where do we fit in?" Cal asked.

"Lester, Stephanie and I are going to take up a new hobby," Tink said, "We are going to stalk Linda. We are going to up the pressure so that her father hires Rangeman as body guards. Beyond that I'm still waiting on the victimology from the BAU. They have their hands full right now and are happy to send us their case notes. Until I know fully what we are looking at as far as the serial killings go we are going to have to sit back and rely on Joe to provide us with intel for this investigation."

She started going into the technical aspects of the surveillance. I would not be involved in that so I mentally checked out. I was still sitting on Ranger's lap and I leaned forward and grabbed my Coke. When I started to fidget, Ranger clamped down on my hip and held me still. I thought he was irritated with my inability to sit still so I went to move to my own seat but he gripped me harder and I shifted a bit. OH! Ranger was bothered alright. Ranger wanted to get friendly and it was obvious. I was acting as a shield for him. Since this little meeting was boring, they were now debating having Meagan plant listening devices on existing body guards, I decided to have a little fun with Batman.

First I shifted positions again and he stopped breathing. Then I stretched forward to grab a pen to take notes allowing my shirt to ride up and my low rise pants to slide down a bit. I wondered if Ranger would realize that I was trying to keep him in a state. Oh, goodie, a text message! Maybe there's a skip I needed to go get...like right now. I shifted again to grab my phone.

I saw the sender and furrowed my eyebrows. Why the hell is he texting me?

Ranger: PAYBACK IS A BITCH.

Huh I guess he knew what I was doing.

RSRSRSRSRSRSRS

Connie and Lula looked up as three unbelievable black vehicles pulled into the lot. First the elegantly understated Turbo, then the flamboyant, ridiculous, bad ass, nearly black Veneno followed by the massive black Range Rover. They watched as Ranger angled out of his car. The scissor door of Tink's Lambo opened and she climbed out followed by Tank from his Range Rover.

"He in?" Ranger asked after they had all descended upon the office.

"Nope. Harry is pissed so Vinnie decided to take a mental health day," Connie said, "To what do we owe the pleasure? The little missus picked up your files already."

"Yeah and, uh, why are there three of you?" Lula asked. Ranger leaned up against the door, Meagan perched on Connie's desk, her legs dangling like a little kid's and Tank sat beside Lula on the sofa. He tossed an arm around the back of the sofa and Lula glared at him. She still hadn't forgiven him for the cats.

"We're getting out of the local fugitive apprehension business. The feds keep calling us in and the money is better; but for the moment we don't have the manpower. So until we go on a massive hiring spree, we're canceling our contract." Meagan said and pilfered a doughnut. Connie paled. This was bad. Without them this business would go belly up and she wouldn't have a job.

"I wanted you to have this before I left." Ranger tossed a black file folder onto Connie's desk and went back to leaning against the door frame.

Connie opened the file. "This is a job offer," she stated. She looked shocked. "I can't just leave Vinnie in the lurch."

"It's not as bad as you think. Les Sebring just bought Vinnie out." Ranger said, "Vinnie is about to become very wealthy. He's shutting down this office."

"Then I accept. When do I start?" she asked.

"Week from Monday. We're drowning in paperwork so your job will be to work with Ella to streamline us. She runs our private lives; you'll run our work lives. If you need help, you tell us what you need and we'll make it happen."

"What about me?" Lula's voice was barely above a whisper.

"Tink?" Tank prompted Meagan.

"Lula, we would't forget about you. Not in a million years." Meagan started, "You have been doing Behavioural Studies at night school?"

"Yes."

"You are going to keep them up. During the day, if you accept, you will be going through the Rangeman training program in firearms, fitness, self-defense etc. Once you are finished school - and you will have help from me there - and your training, you will be assigned a partner and become a member of our team."

"Damn skippy! Sign me up! Where do I sign?"

"Lula, you know what this means right? The men on my team have to pass certain physical fitness requirements, you will have to wear the uniform when you are at work and you will have to follow orders." Ranger explained.

"Can I do what I want with my hair?" Lula asked.

"Yes."

"Sign me up for Badass School." Meagan beamed at the quasi compliment.

Tank handed Lula a folder she hadn't seen in his hand. "Until the end of the semester you will do your training in New York. We have a sensitive operation getting underway and we can't have new recruits around the building while things are being set up." Tank said. "If the commute starts to interfere with your schoolwork, your training will be suspended, with pay, until you graduate."

"And after I graduate?" She asked.

"Miami." Meagan said, "and Boston probably. Julio Santos sort of floats between those three offices making sure everything is running smoothly. You go where he goes. Each office has its own strengths and Julio will make sure you are trained by the best."

"So that means you're going to teach me breaking and entering?" She asked Ranger and he shook his head.

"Who do you think taught us? Julio only seems like a choir boy." Meagan grinned, "In addition to your training, Bobby requires all staff to do stints in the infirmary so that in the event something happens to him there are other people around that can take over. He's also asked to be the one to do your firearms training. He's a great teacher so listen to him." Meagan suddenly looked distracted and pulled her phone from the back pocket of her black jeans and looked at the read out. "All right, I'm out. I get to go stare at crime scene photos and read incomprehensible case notes." She hopped off of the desk and turned, "Con, you and me in the firing range on Monday. I wanna see what you got?" And then she turned and trotted out of the office and back to the car.

"We have a meeting." Tank said and hauled himself to his feet, "Good luck, ladies." With that he to walked to his car, though with noticeably much less exuberance than Tink had. Ranger was at the door when Lula worked up the courage to ask to speak to him alone.

"Yo, Batman, can I talk to you before you go?"

He inclined his head towards the door and led her around to the alley where he and Steph had spent so much time. He leaned up against the wall of the bookshop with his arms folded while she chewed her lip.

"Why you offerin' me a job?" She asked, "Is it because Steph asked you because…."

"She asked and I told her I'd think about it. I brought the issue before my partners and we discussed it at length. They all think you have potential and Rangeman believes in giving second chances to those who have earned it. You have earned it."

"You said 'They' you didn't say 'We'. We got a problem, Batman?"

Ranger cocked his eyebrow slightly, "Starting next Monday I'm your boss. Get out of the habit of calling me Batman, you won't be allowed to take liberties in front of the other men. It isn't fair and I can't take you to the mats. Meagan will and believe me when I tell you that you don't want her to do it for disciplinary reasons." He said evenly and Lula nodded, "As for your question, I don't have a problem with you, Lula. You've proven to be a good friend of Stephanie's and you've proven that you would like to improve yourself. I do have some concerns and I have voiced them."

"Which are?"

"Your cop allergy, your inability to follow orders and your inability to keep your mouth shut."

Lula looked at him soberly, for once not showing all of her bluster, her Rhino mode suppressed at the moment as she considered his frank appraisal.

"You have to get over all of that. You leave someone at the station even once or you leave someone stranded at a scene because you either got scared or you got bored, you're fired. You fail to follow an order without a very good reason, you're fired. Talking about our cases outside of the building will not only get you fired but could land you in jail. If you don't think you can handle those conditions, I'm sure there is something administrative you can do around the building that isn't sensitive, but you'll still have to do the training and finish school." he continued.

"Can I think about where I wanna be?" she asked. Ranger's lips tipped up in an almost smile and he nodded.

"You have until the end of your training. I'll tell Julio you are considering both options."

"Anything I should know about Santos' brother?"

Ranger let out a full smile, "Probably." He pushed off of the wall and left the alley without elaborating.

RSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRS

7 months later

Meagan and Bobby were on the dance floor and they were putting on quite the show. Lester was on the other side of the room where he had a vantage point of both Meagan and I. The girl could dance. Like seriously dance. She wasn't dancing with Lester because he was looking at her like he would drag her to the Men's room if he got within six inches of her. "He's in the club; he's on the way to the bar." Meagan said into Bobby's wire. Apparently, in the past when they needed a couple undercover, it had always been Meagan and Bobby. They had enough chemistry to make it believable but not so much that they lost focus "How do you wanna play it Steph?"

We'd given up skip tracing on the local level but were still very active on the Federal level. We had word that one of the guys we were looking for was going to be at this club with a friend of his. They had a reputation for picking up a girl (or a pair of girls that were open minded) and then taking them back to their hotel to share. Tonight Meagan and I were to be those girls - at least as far as the door. We'd gone shopping for our distraction outfits together and now Ranger refused to look at me. At first I thought he didn't like the outfit, but the problem was, he liked the outfit too much. He was waiting outside of the club for that exact reason. He was having trouble focusing on anything but my ass. I'd driven over with Meagan and if the strangled sounds coming from our comms, and Bobby's comment about Meagan's dress deserving a Nobel Prize and the tortured sound of Cal involuntarily saying "boots" were anything to go by, the rest of the boys approved of the spoils of our shopping trip.

"I've got an idea." I murmured into my drink, "I'll get his attention. When I have it, come to the bar and act like a ditzy blonde who's had too much to drink."

The skip approached the bar. We made eye contact and I gave him an almost smile before I turned my attention back to Meagan and gave her a blatant slow body scan as she danced with Bobby. She looked at me over her shoulder and returned the favour. I kept my face slightly amused and then looked back at our skip who was now very interested. He approached me, "Can I buy you a drink?" he asked and I gave him a slight nod of my head. He signalled his friend over.

"Heads up." I heard Manny say, "Wifey has them both at the bar."

"I'm up." Meagan said and I watched her as she ran her hand over Bobby's abs.

"You're killing me, Gorgeous," he groaned.

"Sorry, B. Gotta make it look real." she teased, gently shoved him away and made her way to me at the bar. She got to within a few feet of me and stumbled and I reached out and caught her before she fell.

"Babe." I admonished, smiling slightly.

She giggled, "Aren't you going to introduce me to your friends?"

"They haven't told me their names yet but they want to buy me a drink."

"Oh, I could use another drink!" She clapped and stumbled a little bit, this time into the skip.

"Babe, I think I need to get you home and into bed." I said, amused.

"Just one more drink, please?" she begged and I reached out and tugged one of her curls before tucking it behind her ear and nodded slightly. There was choked laughter coming through the comms and Meagan's eyes were alight with amusement. So maybe I was doing Ranger a little. He'd pay me back for it later but it was worth it for the pure entertainment value.

I ordered Meagan a Tequila shot which she made a show of tossing back before biting and sucking on the lemon wedge I was holding. Our skip and his friend were riveted. "Time to go Babe." I said and she pouted prettily.

"But we just met these nice men. Shouldn't we at least dance with them?" I shook my head no.

"Let us walk you to your car at least," our skip's friend offered, "Just so we can make sure you get there safely. She's looking a bit unsteady in those heels. You might need someone to carry her."

"You going to follow us home, too? You know in case I need help getting her inside?" I smirked.

"Our hotel room is closer…" The skip offered. I nodded my head and we made for the doors.

Meagan and I had a surprise for Ranger and Tank and I was just hoping I didn't screw it up. As soon as we made it to the parking lot, about ten feet from where Tank and Ranger were going to take over for us, Meagan gave me a signal. She stumbled and I used the distraction to grab my cuffs out of my back pocket, stuck my foot out and tripped the skip as he reached to steady Meagan. He went down face first and I put my knee in the small of his back then slapped the cuffs on one of his wrists. He tried to struggle but I had him pinned and his arm was twisted painfully behind his back. I grabbed his other arm and slapped the cuff on his the other wrist.

Meagan was standing with a stiletto on the back of his similarly trussed up friend, her was gun drawn so he wouldn't struggle. I hadn't seen her in action but she didn't look the least bit ruffled. I looked the outfit over and briefly wondered where the hell she'd kept the cuffs and gun.

"We don't have papers for the friend." I pointed out.

"He's got an eight ball in his pocket. It's cool. I'm booking him on possession." She replied. Ranger and Tank came and took them off of our hands, and loaded them both into the Range Rover where they shackled them to the floor.

"Why were we here exactly?" Tank asked.

"To do the heavy lifting of course." Meagan chirped and patted him on the cheek, "Well done, Steph!"

Ranger pulled me into a deep kiss, "Proud of you Babe." He said when he released me, "though we do need to discuss the insubordination in front of the men." The heat from his look could have melted asphalt.

A yelp of surprise drew my attention away from Ranger and we looked as Lester pressed Meagan up against the Range Rover and proceeded to kiss the hell out of her. He really liked the dress. Ranger raised an eyebrow and reached into his pocket and pulled out a quarter. He flipped it at Meagan who snagged it neatly out of the air and broke the kiss to check the results of the toss.

"Fuck." Meagan whispered and Ranger laughed. They had standing sides for heads or tails? That's just weird and you just gotta ask yourself what precipitated that or do I even want to know? With them you couldn't always be sure.

RSRSRSRRSRSRS

Morelli fobbed his way up to five and stepped out of the elevators and into the control room. He didn't recognize the face staring at the monitors. "You must be new." He said. Like all of the men of Rangeman the guy was huge and built like a linebacker. He had even features with blonde hair, blue eyes and a slight dimple in his chin. He might have almost looked normal if his eyes weren't so cool and he didn't have a deep scar on his right cheek. Despite that he was still somewhat affable and he held out his hand to shake Joe's.

"Yeah man I'm Jimmy. Just finished training in Boston and started my first shift here in Trenton fifteen minutes ago."

"Hi, Joe Morelli. I'm just checking in with Ranger."

"He's out. The whole core team is out. They had a scofflaw to pick up for the Feds." He pressed some keys on his keyboard and it brought up the trackers. "Tank's truck is at TPD for some reason and Ranger, Santos and Brown are on their way back - about two minutes out." He pulled up the garage on the monitors. Hal and Cal came into the comm room. They did a complicated handshake with Morelli. When he had been with Steph, most of the Merry Men had strongly disliked Joe. As Tink's partner, however, they got to know him. Ranger had always maintained he was a good man and they saw it now. He and Steph were good friends and Meagan loved him like a big brother. That's all they needed to know now that the boss was happy.

Joe watched the Turbo, the Veneno and an Explorer pull into the lot. "How does Brown like driving that when he gets to see Santos and Ranger in their rides?" Joe's chuckling stopped abruptly when he saw the legs getting out of each of the sports cars. "Damn." He breathed.

Stephanie was wearing a black leather skirt that was only a couple of inches below her ass, a slinky black halter top that barely covered her breasts and left her back almost completely exposed and in a pair of fantasy inspiring, unfeasibly high- heeled boots. Meagan was in a dress with a skirt that was longer than Steph's but still showed off a phenomenal amount of leg. It was pale metallic gold, the top was little more than a bra that was connected to the skirt by zillions of fine gold chains. Her heels matched her dress. Several fine gold chains hung from a strap at her ankle down the back and sides of her sandals. The chains at the front of her shoe were attached to the toe strap, the rest dangled from the ankle strap to the ground and were just barely short enough to avoid tripping over them.

"Jesus, looks like the bosses brought home some entertainment." Jimmy said with a whistle of appreciation. Hal and Cal exchanged amused expressions.

"Don't let them hear you say that." Joe warned with a smile.

"The boss isn't real fond of sharing." Hal explained.

"Neither is Santos." Cal added.

On the monitors, Stephanie was laughing at something Meagan was saying, Ranger was looking at Steph like she wasn't just dessert but a full seven course meal he was going to take his time enjoying. Meagan had just given Santos a playful shove and he was looking pained. Ranger grabbed Stephanie and pulled her into a deep kiss and led her to the elevator where the cameras promptly went off. "Uhhh, looks like you will be waiting to talk to the bossman. He's going straight up to seven,." Jimmy said.

Lester knelt in front of Meagan, she put her shoe on his chest and he seemed to become fascinated with her footware. Brown got out of his car and laughed at Lester. He kissed Meagan's cheek and got into the elevator next while she laughingly put her foot on Lester's shoulder and kicked him away. He stood and kissed her and they were next to catch the elevator. Much to Jimmy's surprise, this time the elevator stopped at 5. Meagan and Santos were still kissing when the doors opened but as soon as the door chimed to indicate they were at their floor, she gave him a playful shove and backed out of the elevator.

She noticed Morelli and her face lit into a pleased smile. "Joey! My hero! I need you!" She sounded slightly tipsy but Joe knew better, "I have a problem that Les just couldn't handle. Since you have helped me out in this department before, I thought you could take care of me?" Considering what Jimmy thought she was, it was a pretty funny opening line and Morelli tried to keep a straight face. She winked at Lester as the elevator doors closed and he shook his head, his expression promising a retribution she was going to enjoy.

"What can I do for you, Princess?"

"If you can't help me, I'll have to get Ranger to do it. I really don't want to interrupt him. Bobby has already tried but he couldn't fulfill my needs either." She pouted, obviously enjoying herself.

"Uh huh. What's your problem?"

She sat down on the Comm desk and stuck out her leg. Morelli looked down at her shoe. One of the chains had managed to tangle itself around the buckle at her ankle.

"There is a stone in my shoe and I can't get the damned shoe off." she whined.

Joe knelt down on the floor in front of her and began working on the chain. "Jesus, Princess, Santos is going to kill me, I'm getting turned on here. I just saw where your gun is."

She laughed. "Report!"

"Nothing to report, Tink. It's been quiet." Hal said. She looked at Jimmy who was staring at her in complete shock.

"You will have to forgive Jimmy. He's new. He thought you and Bombshell were party favours." Cal said.

"Oh man, are you ever lucky it's me in charge until Tank gets back." she teased.

Joe finished untangling her shoe and freed her foot and a rather sizeable pebble fell out of the high-heel.

"Oh, thank God." The relief was real, that rock had to have hurt, "Les just kept making it worse and my foot was killing me."

"He was distracted." He unbuckled her other shoe for her as he was down there already, "If I thought I had a shot with you, I wouldn't have been able to save you either." She reached into the desk drawer in front of Jimmy and pulled out a fob and tossed it to Joe.

"Come on. I'm beat, Ranger is offline for the rest of the night and Tank will be back any minute. I'm putting you up on 4 and then I am going to bed. Hopefully, if things stay quiet I'll actually get some sleep." she said.

"Thanks, Princess." He didn't bother to ask how she knew that the safe house he was living in was no longer safe. He was just grateful that he'd get a good night's sleep. Seven months of undercover work was about to go down the drain because of a chance meeting in a bar. He picked up a stack of files he'd put on the Comm desk when he'd dealt with Meagan's shoe crisis.

They took the stairs to four and she pointed to the door to his apartment. Joe fobbed it opened and they went inside. As soon as the door closed behind them Meagan slapped him in the back of the head, "You could see my gun? What the hell?"

"Jimmy just needed to know who you really are. Nice outfit by the way." She grinned. He was forgiven.

The apartment was utilitarian. It had a small kitchen, double bed, small love seat and a large television. Joe sat on the foot of the bed and took off his shoes.

"Distraction job. It was fun. Steph is unbelievable. She snagged both of their attentions in like five seconds flat. I just had to go over there and be her arm candy."

"I find it hard to believe that Santos didn't want to drag you upstairs, too. Christ you and Steph as lovers is like every man's wet dream."

"I lost the coin toss. I get to be on call tonight." She replied. "What happened Joe? Why am I offering you refuge tonight? How compromised is the safe house?"

"Oh, I'd say burn it down," he said as he ran his hand through his hair, "it's about as compromised as it can get. I found no less than six bugs in it yesterday, Silvio's alerts went off on every computer in there, I haven't had a good night's sleep in a week afraid I might say something in my sleep."

"Oh man."

"Yeah exactly. I've emptied the safe; I'm positive that they didn't get anything from it."

"Unless they can fake an iris scan it's not likely." She said dryly, "I assume all of your notes were in there?" He nodded. "Give them to me. I'll go over them tonight." she held out her arm and made a gimme motion with her hand.

"What do you need me to do?" He handed her the files and a couple of notepads.

"Get some sleep. You look like shit." she said not unkindly, "There isn't much more we can do tonight."

"Thanks, Princess. It's possible we might be able to save this. I don't see how, but you are the expert so I leave it in your capable hands," Joe said on a yawn. He pulled off his belt and his shirt and tossed the shirt towards the laundry basket in the corner. Meagan turned and started to leave before he stripped anymore. She needn't have worried. He didn't get further than that. He fell asleep on top of the covers with his jeans and socks still on.

Lester was going to be pissed. Not because of her shameless flirting with Joe. That was all for show and he knew it. No, he was going to be pissed because she was going to spend the night working.

She sighed and looked at the file in her hands. She had to go back to the control room to rescue her shoes anyway, if she scanned the notes while she was there, she could have them on her iPad. Joe wasn't a prolific note taker so she could take her iPad into the tub with her, have a cup of tea and get through his notes in an hour. She could make her own notes and send them to Ranger and then maybe, just maybe, she might actually get a couple hours of sleep…

When she got back to the control room, Zero stood up and took the file from her without asking and Jimmy brought her a cup of tea. "Santos took your shoes up already; he said to tell you everything would be ready on 6 for you. He's already called Ranger who agrees that there isn't much more you can do tonight, your meeting is set for 1000 and Ranger has us cancelling your client meetings tomorrow." He hesitated for a second, "And, apparently, I have the pleasure of you handing my ass to me at your leisure."

Momentary confusion crossed her face and then she grinned and reached inside her top. She pulled out her mic. "Thanks Baby! I forgot I was still wired." She switched it off. "You don't have to worry about me schooling you on the mats. You assumed what I was dressed to make men assume. It's not your fault you didn't realize that I'm your boss. How could you possibly know? It's not like we've met before."

"If it's any consolation, I assumed that you were expensive,." Jimmy said. She grinned.

"Thanks for that." Zero returned with the folder.

"Damn, Tink, I wasn't paying attention before. You look fine tonight!" He said and she twirled. Her chains spun out and Jimmy stopped her.

"May I?" She nodded. He pushed aside the chains on her back, "Jesus." He was looking at the scar on her back and then light dawned, "Holy shit, you're the Pixie!"

"Used to be. Now I'm mostly just Meagan or Tink," she said.

"Or Mrs. Santos." Lester said from the door, "You going to be much longer Gorgeous?"

"Nope, I'm ready to go." Lester pulled her rings out of his vest pocket and slipped them onto her finger, a little post mission tradition that they had developed. The massive pink diamond was just too tempting for the bad guys they went after. When Tink took to the streets she did it without her wedding and engagement rings. Lester was fine with it as long as he got to be the one to put them back on her. She kissed him spontaneously. He was really very sweet.

She took off towards the stairs, "Race ya!" She called and then disappeared into the stairwell. Lester grinned and took off after her. They watched on the monitor as he caught up to her and pinned her to the wall. He held both her hands above her head with one hand and with his free hand he used her keys to scramble the cameras.

"Lucky bastard." Jimmy muttered. He wasn't sure who he was directing the phrase at either; Lester because he got to enjoy the benefits of being married to a woman like her who had so much fire and energy or himself because of the job he landed. An injury during Ranger training ended his career in the military and he'd been floating from job to job since he'd come home. He was having a hard time adjusting to civilian life. During a rehab session for the knee injury that ended his career, he got to talking to another vet about his inability to adjust. The vet had a friend who worked for Rangeman, a call was made, a surgeon was consulted. The doctor, a man named Julio Santos, booked Jimmy in for surgery, did some repairs to the knee all the while bitching about the hatchet job that had been done on him before.

Once another round of rehab was finished he was back to training. His knee was stronger than he could remember it being; the quality of physiotherapy provided by Rangeman was the best possible. Everything was taken care of as part of the job offer they had presented him with including room and board. When he found out who his boss was, he almost needed oxygen. Ranger was a legend. He shouldn't have been as surprised as he was that the Pixie was also part of Rangeman. He had heard about the injuries. Hell, everyone had when she was found outside of that hospital. He didn't realize that she was related to Ranger through marriage. She was one of those women you don't picture dating. Hell, you didn't even think of her as human; she was the ultimate in unattainable.

"There are five women who work here," Zero said. "All special, three of them are spoken for. Tink, real name Meagan Santos. Ella who is Rangeman's mother, Lester and Ranger's aunt and responsible for raising Tink. She's a sweetie and she looks after us. Then there is Bombshell. Formerly known as Stephanie Plum. She's the boss's woman. She's something else. When they ask you to do something, you do it. No questions. Tink and Ranger might as well be the same person. Ella is, well, Ella. You'll understand. And it's best if you read the Bombshell file. Girl's got as much natural ability as Tink and Ranger without the training. She brings chaos but she has great instincts."

"The other two?"

"Connie Rossoli. She's the office manager and works reception. She's connected so if you wanna have a go at her just be warned that when she says she wants you to meet her family, she means that with a capital F. Then there is Lula, former Ho, Bomber's sometimes partner and a whole lot of woman even though there is much less of her now."

"Interesting mix."

"Yes, but we love them all so don't fuck with any of them unless you want to get hurt."

"You gonna do the hurtin'?" Jimmy was fairly certain he could take Zero.

"Nope, they'd do it, then the rest of us would be right in line behind the boss."

RSRSRSRSRSRS

"Yo. Someone better be dead." Ranger said into the phone. At the moment Stephanie was passed out and sprawled on top of him recovering from what had started in the elevator and ended with a trail of clothing that lead to their bedroom. He had been considering rolling her under him for round two when the phone rang.

"Just our case probably.," Lester said into the phone, "and maybe Morelli if he doesn't stop looking up Meagan's skirt. Tink left her ears on. She's put Morelli up on four. The safe house has been compromised. She's going to go through his notes and debrief him fully tomorrow. He must be in rough shape if she isn't demanding a debriefing now." Fuck! If he was hurt, Stephanie would be pissed. She'd find a way to make herself think it was her fault.

"Have you laid eyes on him? Does he need medical attention?"

"Yeah, he's dead on his feet but otherwise fine."

"Let him sleep. If she doesn't think it's worth questioning him now, then it isn't; but tell her I am ordering her to get some sleep tonight. It's going to be a long day tomorrow."

"Zero is going to scan Morelli's field notes."

"Send me a copy."

Stephanie moaned and was about to turn over. She'd become adept at knowing when he was going to leave for work even in her sleep. He tightened his grip on her. He might have to work but he could do it from their bed. He was going to read Morelli's notes the same way Meagan was going to - on his iPad. There was no need for him to get out of bed yet.

RSRSRSRSRSRS

AN: Hey the good news is that I will have another chapter to post soon. To all of you who review as Guest that I can't thank personally, Thank you for your reviews. I love them!