A/n: Chapters 17 and 18 really go hand-in-hand, and I couldn't find a satisfactory way to break them in a way that allowed the story to flow…so I'm posting the two back to back. All will be revealed in the next chapter…thanks for hanging in there with me.

And a special thanks to the reviewers who guessed and then outed my plot twist. If you'd like, I'll give you my address and you can come tell my kids there's no Santa come December. Yeesh. I, like every other author, spend a lot of time writing for others' enjoyment. So thanks for intentionally being a fun sponge.

On a happier note...my Beta is better than yours (: She's the best cheerleader ever, so thanks, snapesgirl21

Vaughn lay in his bed, staring at the ceiling. A quick glance at the clock revealed he was approaching hour two of 'going to sleep'…so with a frustrated flip of his comforter, he rolled out of bed and stomped to the kitchen. Maybe some of that nighttime tea his sister insisted he buy would help him relax enough to sleep.

Fuck it, who was he kidding? His problem had nothing to do with being tired and everything to do with being worried. Hector was out there, somewhere, unsafe, possibly injured, possibly dead…the uncertainty was agony, the inability to communicate with him a deeply felt misery. What he really needed to aid him in his pursuit of a good night's sleep was a sinewy, sexy Latin body curled next to his.

Still, he dutifully boiled the water and steeped the tea bag, staring out his window at the New York City nightlife drifting by his building. As quickly as he'd fallen in love with his apartment, he'd lately been chewing on the idea of moving. Sure, he'd need to make frequent trips to the city for work, but he could write and compose anywhere…and lately, his mind and heart were somewhere far from his cozy little home in Hell's Kitchen; specifically, in Trenton, New Jersey.

Just as he was blowing the steam from his mug, his cell phone rang. The caller I.D. was blocked, and he almost rejected the call. With a shrug, he decided that maybe listening to a telemarketer try and sell him a vacation condo in Ronkonkoma might be just the thing to put him to sleep. With a sigh, he answered with a quiet, "Hello?"

Less than ten minutes later, Vaughn had abandoned his nighttime tea and had a hastily packed bag on his shoulder. He wrenched open the door to find Juice, the New York Rangeman assigned to him this evening, waiting for him. With a terse nod, Juice walked quickly to the garage and secured the him in Vaughn's car. With a quick prayer for green lights and distracted cops, Vaughn set off for Trenton and the man he loved.

After arriving at Rangeman: Trenton and being summarily greeted in the parking garage by his sister (her presence didn't exactly register as odd to him, so great was his anticipation of seeing for himself, finally, that Hector was okay), Vaughn was finally allowed to quell the unease that had colored his days dark. Holding Hector, touching him and breathing his scent, nearly unmanned Vaughn. After an hour or so of reconnecting and loving each other, Hector pulled away and told Vaughn they needed to talk, and that Giana needed to be here for the discussion.

Vaughn took the news of his sister's abduction surprisingly well; he only looked at Hector and said, "We need to talk more later about how I wasn't called." and motioned for Gia to continue. When she delicately explained the real story of her 'emancipation process', as she called it, Vaughn covered his mouth and closed his eyes, raising his other hand to halt her story.

Hector remained stoic and unmoving, save for a slight tightening around his mouth. This was what he'd always feared, why he'd never desired a relationship before Vaughn fell into his life – he didn't want anyone touched by the ugliness and brutality that Hector found himself involved with. He waited, breathing shallowly, for his lover's disgust and anger at putting his sister in danger, and for what he'd had to do to those men to rescue her.

It never came. When Vaughn opened his eyes a minute later, he looked at Hector and whispered, "Thank you." with such love and reverence, Gia blushed and had to look away from the pair. Knowing Hector wasn't a physically demonstrative man with anyone but him, Vaughn settled for caressing his hand and kissing the back of it. Slowly, the trepidation receded and Hector relaxed in the circle of his boyfriend's arms.

Gia cleared her throat to bring attention to the matter at hand. "So our fear is that I'll be arrested and interrogated; I don't want that to happen, V. I don't want you two separated, and I don't want Hec in jail. I've got a plan…but you're not going to like it."

She was right. He didn't like it, not one bit, but after raging about Hector's apartment and refusing to go along with it, Vaughn wound slowly down and finally hung his head in defeat.

"You're right," he whispered, "your plan is airtight and it makes sense. But I fucking hate that we're being forced into it."

Giana approached her brother. The two were the closest of friends, constant companions; they'd shared a womb and neither had never really been interested in detaching from the other. She'd known what his reaction would be with more surety than she'd known how she would respond, but she also knew this was their best shot at keeping Hector free from prison. It had to be done.

"I know you do. But if we do it right, it'll be temporary. We'll be safe, and you'll have Hector back, forever. No more hiding, no more running…it's a means to an end, Bawn."

The use of Gia's childhood nickname for her brother, whose name was too difficult for her toddler mouth to pronounce, was oddly reassuring. He answered in like fashion. "Okay, GiGi. What do we do first?"

As Giana laid out their plan, Hector and Vaughn took turns trying to shred it. They presented unlikely scenarios, played devil's advocate, and questioned the legality of it all. After almost half an hour of the third degree, Gia had enough. She threw her arms up and snapped, "Look! I'm not a complete moron! I busted my ass and graduated college a year early, WITH Honors! I also roomed with Pam, the anal-retentive law student, who didn't take a pee break unless it was booked into her study schedule, literally! I helped her cram, I quizzed her for hours on end about this stuff and I am telling you both, the law will be on our side. Trust me; if we do this, we've got a great shot at keeping Hec safe."

Hector stood and said, "There's one thing we haven't discussed." He stepped forward and took her hand. "Do you want to do this? I appreciate, very much, the offer and I trust you, but this is a lot to ask of anyone. If you do not want to go through with it, I will understand."

She sighed, the sound of a long suffering, matronly martyr, and pulled Vaughn over. Wrapping them both in a hug, she said, "You saved me, without a thought for your own safety. What you did, Hec…I can't ever repay that. What I'm doing is so small compared to what you risked for me. So yes, I do want to do this. With Bawn's blessing, of course." Here she smiled slyly at her brother, who in turn kissed her cheek.

"So, when do we get this show on the road?" he asked as they broke apart.

"Give me an hour to arrange the necessary paperwork." Hector said, then kissed Vaughn soundly before striding to the door that led to his office.

The following morning dawned, hot and humid. Stephanie thought, for the millionth time, that maybe they should consider moving the Rangeman, Trenton location to a milder climate…say, the sun? Hell? An active volcano, perhaps? The weather was giving even the industrial air conditioners at Rangeman a run for their money, and it wasn't yet nine a.m.

After making her way downstairs and greeting the guys on monitors, Steph slid through the door of the Conference room just in time for the morning meeting.

Ranger leaned forward and steepled his fingers under his chin, signaling the beginning of the meeting.

"Hector won't be joining us this morning. He emailed me and said Giana had a rough night, so they're sleeping in. Where are we at with the Rosollis?" He asked. Stephanie huffed out a quick breath and turned to address the men.

"We're nowhere. Connie has called her uncle a couple of times, no answer, so she called her aunt. Linda said that Jimmy told her he had 'business' and she hasn't seen him since yesterday afternoon. She didn't sound too concerned – I guess she isn't in the dark about how Jimmy got his nickname – but Connie said he's very rarely unreachable for so long. I think we may have to lend credence to Vince's theory; Jimmy might be doing some investigating inside the Family, now that Rangeman has put a bug in his ear about it." Stephanie finished with a flourish of her hand toward Vince, who sat with a smug expression on his face.

Ranger nodded at Stephanie in thanks. "What's the situation at TPD? Anyone have a lead on their course of action?"

Again, Stephanie spoke up. "I called Carl last night after everything went down here. He's on compassionate leave, but he's been going into the station to keep his hand in it, you know? He's also itching for the office gossip, so I told him about Gia and Hector, and Morelli coming back in with a search warrant, looking for her. He agrees with us – Morelli is going to move and arrest Hector for suspicion of murder, and probably Giana, try and get her to testify against him. Carl thinks he'll be desperate to save face, and that if he can't produce the gang and lead the DEA and ATF to the source, he can at least pin eleven murders on someone."

Lester leaned forward and wondered, out loud, what most of the men were thinking. "She wouldn't go along with that, right? I mean, the story she gave us protects Hec initially, but we all know it's not what really happened. Would she roll on Hec?" He hated himself for even thinking it. The esteem he felt towards her was absurdly high, yet solid as stone. Since his mother, and since Michelle, he'd always erred on the side of caution when it came to trust. He trusted Bobby, that was a given. Ranger had been his cousin, Ric, long before he was a certified badass, and the history between them proved he was trustworthy. There were a very small handful of others Lester felt, with certainty, could be relied upon, but in general, he was suspicious of people's ulterior motives. Still, he couldn't shake the niggling feeling that Giana was pure and genuine.

Ranger leaned back in his chair, linking his fingers behind his head, and carefully considered his position. "My gut says she's solid." He said slowly, and Lester felt a small, smug burst of happiness in his gut. "I can see how hard Morelli's going to go after this, and that concerns me. How far can he push her before she gives him something to work with?" Here Ranger paused, then said, "Maybe we should bring Hector into this meeting."

"I'll get him." Les offered, sliding out of his chair and striding through the door. He'd been eager to lay eyes on Giana since the police questioned her, but Hector had kept her shut in his apartment. He'd also gotten a report late last night that Vaughn had arrived and been taken to the second floor, and had been worried ever since that he was there to provide support to Gia. That she would need him enough to merit a late-night visit made Les anxious, and he was eager to relieve the knot that had formed in his stomach.

Stepping off the elevator on the second floor, Les stepped around the computer equipment, servers, wires, monitors…Jesus, didn't Hector ever clean this place up? He'd continually declined Ella's offers of housekeeping, insisting he had a 'system' that he'd rather keep up himself, so she eventually quit hounding him and left him to his solitude.

"Hector! Hey, Hec, where you at? Come on out, man, Ranger needs you upstairs." Les called. He was met with silence. Approaching the door that led to Hector's apartment, Les knocked, waited a moment, and knocked again. After several minutes of not hearing any sounds stirring behind the door, Lester cursed silently and pulled out his lock picking tools. Making quick work of Hector's locks, he swung the door open and was greeted by a dark apartment. After checking each of the rooms and finding them empty, Lester turned to head back up to five. He nursed a sense of unease in the pit of his stomach, wondering where she – they – could be. Easy, Santos, you're two steps away from calling for the Maalox and sounding like Morelli, he thought to himself.

He made his way to the conference room and strode in, eyes on Ranger.

"They're gone." He said.

Ranger, never one to waste words, pursed his lips and strode out of the room purposefully. He stopped at the monitors and asked the guys to pull the feeds in the garage from last night. He watched Vaughn arrive, Giana greet him and usher him into the elevator at around 2330, and then the three of them exited the garage at 0300.

"Why wasn't that on the logs this morning?" He asked, deceptively calm.

Hal gulped and said, "Sir, I was on monitors at 0300, and nobody left. I mean, I can see now that they left, but I'm…I, uh, I'm fairly certain there was no activity at 0300, Sir."

"Can you explain how I'm watching three people leave my secured garage, then, and how that information missed the morning report? The report that's been sitting on my desk for more than three hours now?"

"Son of a bitch wiped the camera feed so we wouldn't see him leave." Tank observed, stepping forward. "But why? He ain't stupid enough to run, and why take Giana with him? Hector wants to disappear, ain't nobody findin' him." He looked at Ranger, his eyebrow raised.

Stephanie leaned forward, squinting at the monitors. "Well," she sighed, "I guess we'll find out soon enough." The street view showed a half dozen Trenton squad cars pulling to a stop outside Rangeman, lights on for full parade effect.

Cursing under his breath, Ranger made his way to the doors to see what the hell was going on now.

Downstairs…

Ranger opened the door to Joe Morelli, who stood flanked by several of Trenton's finest. He was smirking, anticipating Rangeman's long overdue comeuppance, and was almost giddy at the thought of being the merchant of Ranger's pain.

"I have an arrest warrant for Hector Gutierrez, signed by Judge Atlee. This warrant enables me to search the premises for Mr. Gutierrez; these fine officers are accompanying me today to ensure your rights are protected, Mr. Manoso. May we come in?" Joe stated insipidly, barely hiding his grin.

"Mr. Gutierrez isn't here, Detective. But I'd be happy to give him the message when he gets back." Ranger said.

Joe's smile slipped a bit before he bit back, "You won't mind if we take a look for ourselves, this being his workplace and residence, after all." And with that, Joe Morelli walked into Rangeman in search of his career bust.

After a quick search turned up nothing, a more lengthy search went underway. Several agents from Agent Smith's team at ATF were brought in, and after several hours declared that Hector Gutierrez was, in fact, not there.

"I want Giana McGovern. I need to question her regarding this investigation," a now pissed off Joe Morelli said through gritted teeth.

Lester was standing nearby and took great pleasure in bursting Joe's bubble. "She's not here either, Detective, and she's not at her house…but seeing as you don't have a warrant for her, you'll just have to take our word for it."

"Goddammit!" Joe kicked an empty trash can and sent it flying across the room. "What kind of shit ass fucking luck do I have that they're both fucking gone!? Put a warrant out, I want all eyes looking for him, and for her! I want them in by tonight!" he yelled at Big Dog, who looked more than a little embarrassed at Joe's antics.

While Joe stomped off to confer with Agent Smith, Lester made his way to Stephanie's side.

"Where do you think they could be?" he asked in a conspiratal voice. Stephanie could hear the underlying concern in Lester's voice, and placed her hand on his back between his shoulder blades, rubbing small, soothing circles.

With a sigh, she said, "I don't know, Les. She's with Hector, and I know he'll keep her safe, but I really wish they'd let us in on what they were doing. We're all sitting here, clueless…." Here Stephanie's voice trailed off; a look of concentration furrowed her brow, her bottom lip between her teeth, looking thoughtful.

"What, Beautiful? You got something?" Lester perked up considerably at the thought.

Stephanie took care with her statement. "No, not really…but what if they didn't tell us for a reason? Did they want to give us all plausible deniability? What could they possibly be doing that would require all of us being in the dark?" She gasped and looked at Lester with alarm. "You don't think they're going after the rest of that gang, do you? Hec wouldn't do that with Giana, right?"

Lester considered that theory for only a moment before shooting it down. "No way would he put Gia and Vaughn in harm's way. Hector's too smart for that. He wouldn't stash them anywhere, either – he'd leave them here, at Rangeman, if he was going vigilante." He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, closing his eyes. "I just don't know. Hector doesn't do anything impulsively. I just wish he'd clued the rest of us in on whatever it is he has planned. And…I'm worried about Giana. She's had a rough few days. It's driving me nuts that I can't see for myself that she's recovering from it all." The last part of Lester's musing was said with a small amount of embarrassment and a tinge of shame; he had no claim on her affections, no right to feel so possessive over her happiness.

Stephanie, ever sensitive to her friend's feelings, slid her arm around his waist and squeezed. "You care about her, Lester. That's a good thing. You've been taking steps toward making a future with her a possibility; give yourself some credit."

When he looked at her quizzically, she smiled and said, "Do you think I haven't noticed the fact that you haven't been going out with the guys lately? You've been here, working out every night. That says a lot about you, Les." With a quick, affectionate peck on the cheek, she whispered, "You're almost there."

They were interrupted by Ram's approach. "Sir, Bomber, there's a woman here to see you. She says Giana told her to come to Rangeman and ask for either of you, or Ranger." With a frown, Steph motioned for Lester to follow her to the lobby to greet their mystery guest.

"Pam!" Stephanie exclaimed, hurrying over to greet their guest, Lester right on her heels. "What's going on? Sorry, you remember Les, right?"

With a nod and a smile in Lester's direction, Pam shrugged. "I don't know. I got a call from Gia, she asked me to be here by 2pm and ask for Les, you, or your husband. That was it. After she made me promise to be here, she hung up."

Their eyes swung up to the large clock in the Rangeman lobby – 1:45. Whatever it was Hector had planned, they were about to find out.

After discreetly calling Ranger and instructing him to come down to the lobby, now, Stephanie huddled with Les and Pam, whispering conspiratorially and glancing at the clock every few moments. Ranger approached them and they quickly brought him up to speed; he had no inkling what Hector could be planning, either. As the four stood, anxious and waiting, Morelli took notice and positioned himself so he could keep an eye on them. If something was happening, this was the pulse of the operation. He could watch them and figure it out, as long as he was discreet.

Two o'clock came and went, and the excited energy Stephanie felt was slowly waning; had something gone wrong with Hector's plan? Were he and the McGoverns in danger? Ranger was following the spate of emotions crossing his wife's face and rubbed her arm reassuringly. He, too, was concerned, but kept his worry in check. Stephanie had run the gamut between feeling guilty, scared, worried, angry...a hundred emotions, in the past few days. He silently prayed for a break, just a small break, for all of them. But for now, all he could offer his wife was the comfort of his body, there for her to lean on and take comfort from. And for Stephanie, that was enough.

As the small group stood just inside the entrance of Rangeman, a fleet SUV pulled up at the curb just outside where they gathered.

"Ready?" Gia asked, her fingers resting on the door handle. With a last fast kiss, Vaughn and Hector nodded and, together, they exited the SUV.

As they hit the sidewalk, they stood, side by side, and waited in silence. They'd rehearsed this, talked it into the ground, and each was sure of their role. After a only a couple of minutes, Lester pushed the doors open and hurried to them, followed closely by Ranger, Stephanie, and Pam.

"Where have you guys been! The cops are here with a warrant, why did you come back?! You need to leave, now, before they see you!" Lester said, low and urgently, glancing over his shoulder while trying to usher them back into the waiting SUV.

Just as Vaughn opened his mouth to respond, there was a shout from the lobby doors.

"FREEZE!" Joe Morelli yelled, rushing toward the group. Big Dog, Eddie Gazarra and Brian Simon followed closely on his heels. As they cuffed Hector and Mirandized him, Vaughn joined a worried Stephanie, his face ashen. This was difficult to watch, but he knew it all hadn't played out yet. Not by a long shot.

Having secured Hector, Morelli approached Giana. She'd stepped away from Hector calmly while he was being handcuffed, into Lester's waiting arms. Lester's relief at having her, finally, where he needed her, was short-lived.

By now, most of the Rangeman employees (at least those not on monitor duty) had spilled out of the building to watch the culmination of this mornings search. The remaining police officers were also flitting about, trying their best to look important and official in a bid to get close enough to get a good look at the man Joe Morelli insisted was responsible for the murders they were currently investigating.

"Ma'am, I'm afraid I'm going to need you to accompany me to the station. We need to ask you a few questions pertaining to a murder investigation." Morelli's contrition at inconveniencing her was so obviously for show, and not one person there bought what he was selling. But Joe Morelli was of little concern for the key players. Giana knew they'd squashed his dogged pursuit of her testimony and any hope of a conviction in one fell swoop. Now, it was time to put their plan into action.

Like a choreographed dance, Giana turned her head toward Hector. He was pressed against the SUV, trapped between it and Brian Simon's body as Big Dog guarded him, waiting for the patrol car to maneuver close enough to transition him easily into its back seat. This was the signal Hector had been waiting for. When her eyes met his and she nodded, Hector raised his voice and called out, above the din, "Detective…my wife had better not have a scratch on her when she arrives at the station."

And with that edict, Hector was led to the waiting patrol car and pushed into the backseat. Giana wordlessly allowed herself to be led to a second waiting car, helped into the backseat, and secured before Morelli crawled into the driver's seat. The two cars set off for the Trenton Police Department, leaving the employees of Rangeman, Inc. slack jawed and in stunned silence.