My Beta totally came through for me on this chapter - thanks, Brittany!
Freedom has never felt so good, was the first thought that Hector Gutierrez had as he was released from his holding cell. Fifty hours was hardly more than a minor inconvenience; he'd certainly spent a lot more time behind bars than a measly two days, but knowing what waited for him on the outside had made his confinement much more tedious than he remembered it being.
Really, as he reflected on the past two days, it hadn't been too bad. The last time he was in jail, he'd been a gang member who had absolutely committed the crime he'd been accused of and had been summarily punished. He'd been treated like a criminal and had vowed to turn his life around…which he had, as was evidenced by his latest stay. His status as a Rangeman had elevated him above that of a normal murder suspect, and he'd been pleasantly (albeit quietly) surprised at the number of officers and admins that had found an excuse to check on him and offer him some small creature comforts; an extra blanket had found its way into his cell, as had an older Spanish language 'Sports Illustrated' and a small cache of snacks. Really, all he'd missed were Vaughn and his coworkers – friends, he corrected himself. And my wife, he thought with a snort.
Once he'd arrived at the processing desk, Robin Russell greeted him in a friendly manner and started going over the paperwork with him. Eddie Gazarra stopped to shake his hand and promised to keep Stephanie update on any developments, knowing she would share them with Hector, before wishing him well.
Noticeably absent from the general booking area was Detective Morelli. Robin whispered conspiratorially that Joe'd been so angry when the chief announced they had to release Hector that he'd turned red, gotten a double nosebleed and had to be driven to the emergency room before he had a stroke. The chief had tried to tell Morelli that there was no physical evidence of Hector's presence at the crime scene and he had, in fact, a documented alibi for the evening, but Joe had gone ape-shit crazy and almost blew up his heart. She'd heard a rumor that while the investigation would remain ongoing, Juniak was considering taking Morelli off this case, and Hector smiled internally at how much that was likely to piss Joe off.
Robin handed over Hector's personal effects and asked him to tell Stephanie she said 'hello', and just like that, Hector was free. He turned and was met by a grinning Bobby and Giana, who was doing some kind of happy-dog-rump-wiggle dance with a huge smile on her face. She was, after all, his wife now, and it had been decided that she needed to be at the station when he was released. Not that she'd have stayed at Rangeman anyway, he thought with a smile, and scooped Gia up in a bear hug. They exited hand-in-hand and made their way to the waiting SUV and headed for Rangeman.
It had also been decided that Giana needed to stay at Rangeman for a few more days, in order to give the men time to ferret out anyone out there with a vendetta. The gang had been 'taken care of', according to Jimmy 'Curtains', but Hector didn't want to chance anyone harboring loyalty to Carmine Radicci to make a play for her. Ranger, thoughtfully, had offered to host Vaughn for a few days while any possible loose ends were being tied up, and Giana firmly told Hec that she was staying in Bobby's apartment while Vaughn stayed on two with Hector.
"I refuse to be anywhere in the vicinity of my brother having sex, Hec. I'm not staying in your apartment." She said by way of explanation. "Bobby has a two bedroom apartment on the fourth floor and it's just for a few days; he was nice enough to offer it to me, I'll be fine there."
"That was nice of you, Brown." Hector said frostily, staring a hole in the back of Bobby's head. In the driver's seat, Bobby shrugged uncomfortably and made what he hoped was a reassuring noise while Gia elbowed Hector in the ribs and rolled her eyes.
"I can control myself, you know. I'm not going to take advantage of Bobby or anything. Besides, I'm a married woman now. He'd never dream of encroaching on the sanctity of marriage." Her cheeky ribbing made Hector relax enough to return her smile and they reached Haywood in high spirits.
Rangeman was not what anyone would call a casual work environment. Precision and outstanding job performance was expected, and celebrations took place outside of the office. Except for today. Stephanie had pulled rank – okay, she'd seduced Ranger and had gotten permission while he was in a post sex haze – and arranged a 'Welcome Home' celebration for Hector. An Ella cake, with reduced sugar frosting and whole grain bakers flour, but a cake nonetheless, sat in the break room alongside balloons and a certificate for two nights at a beach front cabin on the shore. Stephanie thought the least Hector deserved was the two nights he'd spent in jail back, only this time around, he would be in much nicer digs.
After the fanfare ended and the cake was eaten, the Merry Men returned to their various duties and Hector was shooed off to rest in his apartment, Vaughn trailing behind him. At Bobby's invitation, Giana joined him in the gym to start the first of the physical assessments. Purely by luck, Lester had drawn the short straw and was their guinea pig for the day. He arrived in the gym, dressed down and ready, and approached the mats.
Clapping his hands together, he announced, "All right! Let the healing begin!" With a snort, Giana began putting Lester through a series of stretches and low-impact exercises, pointing out his deficiencies to Bobby along the way. After a half hour and a brief run-through of a treatment plan, Bobby excused himself to go type up notes on the session.
Lester turned to Gia and asked, "Want to spar?" with a grin.
She snorted again and snarked. "Sure. I'd say we're pretty evenly matched; why not?"
With Hector tucked away on the second floor and with Vaughn to distract him, Les wasn't about to let the opportunity to spend time with Giana pass him by.
"Come on, I'll show you a few easy defense moves. It'll be fun!"
Stepping onto the mats, Les stood behind her and pulled her snugly against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her waist and lowered his head to her ear.
"Say you're dancing in a club," he murmured, "and some guy pulls you against him and won't let you go. How would you get out of this hold?"
She shivered at his close proximity and answered, a little breathlessly, "Assuming he doesn't back off when I tell him to? Push him away?" she guessed, trying to turn and shove Les off of her.
He held his grip and said, "Nope. Try again."
After several failed attempts, Lester showed her the correct maneuver to escape and made her practice it several times. By now, they'd drawn a small crowd of spectators. Someone called out, "We should just have Bomber teach her The Knee and be done with it.", drawing laughter from the men and a confused look from Giana.
"Steph has this move where she uses her knee to shove a guys, um, business up into his abdominal cavity." Les explained. "She's pretty good at it and she's gotten a reputation for it."
Gia grinned and said, "Sounds effective. When do we start training for that?"
Lester shuddered and said, "We don't. You're going to have to talk to Beautiful about that. I can't even mimic it without turning green."
As Lester positioned her for the next hold, Gia said, "You call Stephanie 'Beautiful'." It was an observation, rather than a question. Lester nodded and Giana continued, "Ranger doesn't strike me as the kind of man who lets other men call his wife pet names." She was in a playful mood, and smiled to take any sting out of her words. "How do you get away with it? Do you have dirt on him?"
Lester grinned. "He's family. I've got a whole truckload of dirt on him. I started calling Steph 'Beautiful' well before they got married. She…well, she's beautiful. She's a good person, she helps other people with no thought for her own safety, she doesn't ask anybody anything she wouldn't do for them...she's one of my best friends, really. Maybe that's why Ranger doesn't make an issue over it."
"That's a really sweet thing to say about Stephanie. You should tell her all that sometime; I'll bet it'll make her day. I think women are taught to be helpful and compliant from the time we're children so we don't really think about it being exceptional; hearing that from you would mean a lot to her."
Lester filed that information away. Gia thinks appreciation is important. "I might just do that. But you're not getting out of learning these escape maneuvers. Come on, show me how to get out of this one!"
After another hour of teaching her to break restraint holds, Lester relented after she begged for a break. They headed for the break room together and grabbed a few sandwiches and some fruit, settling at the table farthest from the door.
"You did good. With my help, you could be the best." Les said, trying his hand at an Ace Ventura impression. Gia laughed and said, "Stick to security, Santos, I don't think you have a future in comedy."
Making short work of their early lunch, they finished quickly and Lester offered to take her back to the mats and show her a few more moves. She stood to clear their lunch trash just as Vince and Woody were settling at the table with their own lunch.
"I can't." she said. "I've got to go into work. I called out the day I got married." She made a face and chuckled. "Geez, that's probably the weirdest sentence that's ever come out of my mouth. But I really do have a shift to cover. Maybe another time?"
Lester grinned and said, "Definitely." at the same time Vince said, "I could show you some moves." A moment of awkward silence was broken when Vince explained, "I'm proficient in Aikido, I'd be happy to show you a few tactics." He said with a wide smile, staring at Giana and ignoring Lester's glare.
Giana smiled and thanked him, then excused herself to go dress for work. Lester followed her to the elevator to head to his own apartment, still pissy about Vince's interference. Shaking it off, he asked Gia if she was doing okay in Bobby's apartment. She shrugged and said, "Sure. It was nice of Bobby to let me stay; I'm just ready to go home. My mom's been blowing up my phone, doing 'weather checks', just seeing how we're doing. Now that they pulled the guys from her, she's itching to come visit and see for herself that Vaughn and I are alive."
Les smiled and said, without thinking, "That's nice." At Gia's questioning look, he hurriedly added, "That she's so worried about you guys. It must be…nice."
Thankfully, the elevator dinged and he stepped off, holding the door so Giana could exit behind him. She smiled in gratitude and, mindful of Lester's admitted non-relationship with his own mother, said, "You're right, it is nice. I should be more grateful."
They made their way down the hallway toward Lester's and Bobby's apartments and Lester attempted to lighten the mood. "I hear from Mark she makes a mean pot of gumbo."
She grinned and nodded. "It's righteous, and I'm not saying that just because she's my momma. Maybe when she comes to visit, you can come have dinner with us?" She phrased it like a question, and Les jumped on the opportunity.
"I'd like that."
"Her birthday is coming up, and coupled with the lockdown and Hector going underground, I think a visit is imminent. I'll let you know when she sets a date." Offering one last smile, Gia unlocked Bobby's apartment before turning and saying, "Oh! I've still got your security badge from the night I got here, let me get it for you."
Les waved her off. "Later. I've got a temp badge for now."
After making his way to his own apartment, Lester checked his cell phone. There was a text from Mark waiting.
Hey! G doing alright? She says yes but…
Lester typed a quick reply. Seems to be. Staying here at HQ a few days, promised me gumbo when Charlene visits (:
We're not telling momma about anything happening, right?
Les grimaced and typed, We definitely are not.
Clubbing? Soon? You owe me, you've ditched the last few times!
How to skirt this minefield? 'Gee, I'd love to, but everything I want is taking a shower across the hall and even though it's technically not, grinding on some piece in a club feels a lot like cheating'? That'd go over well, Les mused. He knew, with certainty, how Hector felt about his attraction to Giana. He guessed Mark would probably feel about the same; after all, he'd seen Les in action, and had proven to be quite protective over her.
Maybe. Overtime scheduled this week.
There, he mused, that should buy him some time. Just as he was turning away to shower, his phone beeped again. Figuring it would be some ball-busting comment from Mark, he went ahead with his shower and redressed; he had the day off and had a few personal errands to run and thought he might spend the afternoon at the shore. Grabbing his phone, he checked the text message from earlier and froze.
There were two stills pulled from the Rangeman security feed of his earlier gym session with Giana, showing his arms wrapped around her and her body curved into his, and another of them standing close together on the elevator. The text message from Hector that followed them read, You need to stop before I stop you. That he'd accessed the security feed wasn't surprising, but the fact that he used an innocent training session to harass Lester incensed him.
After reflecting for several moments on the text, Les dropped his phone and his keys and strode purposefully into the kitchen. He opened the cabinet above his stove and removed a bottle of tequila and a cutting board. After slicing a lime, he settled in. If ever there was an occasion to get day drunk, this was it.
Giana arrived back at Rangeman relatively early; her later patient had cancelled, and the vet she'd worked with for two hours had become well-acclimated with his new prosthetic leg. His mobility was improving almost hourly, and she thought to herself for the millionth time, I love my job.
Seeing as it was still mid-afternoon, she intended to track down Stephanie to see if she wanted to do something. First, she needed to change, and she'd need to hit the fourth floor for that.
After sending a text message to Stephanie, Giana spied the security badge Lester had loaned her and picked it up. She made her way to Lester's apartment to return the badge, fully intending to slip it under his door. As she was squatting in front of his apartment, she heard a solid thump and a muted curse from inside. She stood and knocked, concerned that Lester had hurt himself. When the door swung inward, she was hit with the smell of liquor almost before she was able to finish the thought, He's drinking!
"Hey, I just wanted to return this." She waved the badge limply in front of him, concern dotting her features. It was just after 3pm, for crying out loud, and Lester was hammered! She wasn't sure if she should let Bobby or Stephanie know or just leave Lester to it.
All these thoughts raced through her mind before Lester replied. He smiled at her, lazy and inviting, and said, "Hey there! You wanna come in?" He gestured into his empty apartment with the mostly empty glass bottle clutched in his hand, the movement throwing him off balance and causing him to wobble. Instinctively, Gia grabbed him and steadied him, shutting the door so Les wouldn't make a spectacle in front of the other Rangemen.
"How much have you had to drink?" she asked, easing him toward the small table he had in the kitchen. He needed food or he was going to be in a serious amount of pain in a few hours.
"Lil' bit. Not enough to make me forget, but it's better." He slurred, giving her the same sexy smile as before.
"What is it you need to forget, Les?" Gia asked, trying to keep him talking. If he passed out now, he'd have to lie where he fell; there was no way she could move him. She hurriedly opened his refrigerator and pulled out bacon, eggs, and cheese, intending to make Les a big omelet to soak up the booze.
"Her. Maybe you, too."
This gave Gia pause. She turned to look at Lester, who was staring at her with an intense look on his face. She poured him some juice and carried it to him, before asking "Who are you talking about?"
He snorted and rolled his eyes. It would be comical if he wasn't so obviously hurting from whatever drove him to down almost a quart of tequila on a weekday afternoon.
"Michelle." When Gia only stared at him, he said, "You know, Michelle." while making a prompting gesture with his hand.
"I'm sorry, but I don't." She said, turning back to get the bacon started. "Can you tell me about her? Why do you need to forget her?" And why would you want to forget me? was her unasked question. She needed to keep him talking until he ate, but now curiosity was playing a bigger part of her motivation.
Here Les sighed and said, in a small and pitiful voice, "Because I don't know how to fix what she broke when she left. Might help if I just forget her."
Oh, God. Feeling like she'd opened Pandora's Box and ashamed of herself for being nosy, Gia left the bacon cooking on the stove and made her way to Lester. Squatting in front of him, she took his hand in both of hers and looked into his bleary eyes before speaking. "I'm sorry, Les. It's not my business but… I'm very sorry for whatever she did." Gia was at a loss, not knowing what happened, but she must have said the right thing because Les tugged her onto his lap and wrapped his arms around her. He buried his nose in the crook of her neck and just held her there.
Gia raised her arms slowly, haltingly, and finally sunk one hand into Lester's thick hair while the other rubbed small, soothing circles on his back. He took a deep breath before asking, in a thin voice, "You're not like her, right?"
Still clueless, Gia gave what she hoped was a comforting answer. "I've never intentionally hurt anyone, Les. I'd go out of my way to make sure I didn't hurt you."
Apparently, that was the right thing to say. Les pulled away with a happy smile and said, "See! I knew you were good! But Gee-ah-nah…" he enunciated each syllable with forced clarity, "your bacon is starting to burn."
She jumped up and hurried to the stove, leaving a cackling Lester in her wake. He stood and came lumbering over toward the small breakfast bar before sliding into the seat to watch her cook. He grinned his sloppy, sexy drunk grin and teetered toward the edge of his stool before sliding back into place.
"I like you cooking for me. And I mean that in a totally respectful way. Not in a caveman way." He tried to paint a serious expression on his face and only managed to look constipated, making Gia throw her head back and laugh. When she looked at him again, he had a tender look on his face and he said, wistfully, "I really love that sound."
Fighting a blush and shooting for levity, Gia asked, "Bacon frying?" With a snort and another eye roll, Lester informed her that he needed to use 'the little soldier's room' and shuffled down the hallway.
She spent a few busy moments whipping eggs and crumbling the bacon for omelets before she noticed Les was back, staring her intensely, eyes unfocused and lost in thought. She smiled and asked if he was almost ready to eat, expecting a cheeky answer. Instead, he said, "She took everything, you know."
Gia paused and said, slowly, "Michelle took everything?"
"Mmmhmm. We dated for awhile, like, nine months? Ten months? A while. And I hadda deployment, jus' a training ex-er-cise, an' I came back and she took everything." Here he made a grand, sweeping gesture with his arm, almost upsetting the juice glass Giana had poured for him.
"So…you were deployed and she'd taken everything while you were gone? She stole it?" Gia asked, her heart sinking into her stomach.
"Yup." He said, popping the 'p' while nodding. "I din care about most of it, but losing abuelo's medal was pretty hard." He looked downright dismal as he said this bit. "She pawned it and left with some dude named Andy. ANDY! Is that a pussy name or what?!" he chortled loudly
Gia was appalled, and she was sure it showed in her voice. "She pawned your grandfather's medal?" She searched her memory; Lester had told her the story the night he'd stayed with her, just before she was kidnapped. "The Distinguished Service Cross, the one you scratched your name into?" she asked.
Lester nodded, drunkenly, the movement sending him reeling off balance. "Whoooa!" He giggled and grabbed the counter for support. Righting himself, he continued. "She sold a bunch of my stuff to the pawn shop and left with Andy the Pussy. When I came home, there was no home. I mean, the building was there but there was nothing in there, you know?" He was starting to sound agitated, the pauses between sentences disappearing. "All my stuff was gone, but the medal…shit, I wonder what happened to that? I mean, who buys a dead man's medal?"
He was staring at his hands, folded on the countertop, with a haunted look on his beautiful face. Giana plated his omelet and slid it in front of him, then gingerly eased herself into the chair next to him. "Eat." She instructed him in a gentle voice, one hand resting on the small of his back. He seemed to enjoy the gesture and leaned toward her so his torso grazed her arm while he ate the food she made.
As he stabbed another massive bite of egg, he shrugged and said, "I guess I should be grateful the baby wasn't mine, after all." By now, his inebriation was so acute that it took her a minute to decipher what had actually come out of his mouth: I guessss I sho' be gray-fill th'bay-be wasn my, afder awl.
Knowing Lester probably wouldn't want her having unfettered access into his private thoughts, she ignored the nearly overwhelming need to pry and didn't comment on his admission. Instead, she leaned her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes briefly, thinking, You poor sweet boy, you've been so misused. She wondered, briefly, if there were anything she could do to right the wrong that had been inflicted on him, and resolved to speak to Bobby or maybe Stephanie about it.
She also thought of the conversation she'd had yesterday with Stephanie over lunch on the seventh floor apartment. Stephanie'd been very…forceful in her ascertain that Lester had suffered greatly at the news of Gia's kidnapping and had single-mindedly run down any possible lead. He had been, according to Steph, unbearable to be around until Gia had walked out of Bobby's medical suite with a bill of clean health.
Yes, Gia decided as Les finished the dish she'd prepared for him, she owed it to him to try and make this albatross he'd been afflicted with at least a bit more bearable. With renewed purpose, she helped Lester to bed after making him swallow a few Tylenol and a large glass of water. As she pulled the sheet over him, Lester murmured something, his eyes already closed. Gia leaned in, thinking he needed some assistance, and was further cleft when she heard his sleepy voice mutter, "Not like her, not at all…" before soft snores replaced his musings.
As she softly closed the door, she fished for her phone and noticed an earlier reply from Stephanie, asking if Gia wanted to shop this afternoon. Thinking quickly, Gia fired off two texts – one to Bobby, asking him to check on Lester in a bit and make sure he was okay. And a second to Stephanie, citing a change in plans and asking if they might be able to meet in Steph's office. I could use your advice, she typed, and let herself out of Lester's apartment in search of Stephanie.
A/n: my husband dated a Michelle before he met me, and I detest her. She's a dreadful, life-sucking bitch, so I decided to name Lester's ex after her. This will be my last update until next week – for those in the U.S., enjoy your holiday weekend!