Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Chapter 7

Step Seven: Be honest to yourself and others concerning the problem

It was really strange. Here he was, just sitting there on a chair in my apartment and looking like this was normal, whilst I was close to a breakdown just because of the way he was watching me.

That was so not how I had imagined my reunion with Ranger.

I was trying to stay calm and get my mind to start working instead of freaking out as I waited for him to answer my question.

Why was he here?

His solemn gaze caressed my face for a moment before he stood up and slowly, deliberately walked over to me.

"I'm here to talk."

He came all this way just to… talk?! "Huh?"

"You've had enough time to yourself. Now it's time that you and I clarify some things."

"I don't understand," I murmured, leaning my head against the headboard and watching him stop a few metres away from the bed. "I mean, we did talk, remember?"

The left corner of his mouth lifted in a humourless smile. "We didn't. But now we're going to and I need you to listen to me and to let me explain some things."

That did it.

"How dare you!" I yelled. "How dare you come here in the middle of the night and demand of me to listen to you! You had your chances, and you didn't use them! Instead you treated me like crap! Like a whore, like a child, like a…." I ranted, letting off some pent-up frustration.

And Ranger was just standing there, looking at me with those incredible dark eyes and not denying anything.

"What?" I snapped.

"Is that really what you think I did?"

I was instantly alerted by how softly he uttered these words. I could practically feel the weight that lay on my answer.

Something occurred to me then.

He wasn't Batman anymore. He was just Ranger, the man I wanted.

And that could only mean one thing: He was telling the truth. He really came to have this talk.

I faltered.

"Yes, it is," I hesitantly replied, tucking a curl of hair behind my ear self-consciously.

Why did I feel like taking the words back as soon as I'd voiced them? In short sentences I'd told him truthfully how I felt about his treatment of me. I should be glad that I finally told him when he's willing to listen. I had the right to be angry and hurt.

But why was there this urge then to move over to him and massage his clenched jaw with my fingertips?

"What do you want?" he softly asked and I was taken aback by the sincerely wish his whole facial expression displayed to make things right between us.

"I don't know," I stuttered. I really had no idea how he could make me forgive his behaviour from the past couple of days.

"What do I have to do?" he continued, and I felt a faint ache in my heart. It seemed so surreal that he came in the middle of the night to my resort only to be grovelling at my feet. All right, he wasn't literally grovelling, but figuratively he was very much so.

The seriousness of the whole situation; him voluntarily following me to Spain and demanding to have a godforsaken conversation that didn't involve any sexual comments or safety issues but him and me as persons was… hard to swallow.

Feeling quite overwhelmed, I threw my hands up in the air helplessly.

"I don't know, okay? I mean, you disregarded my wish of being left alone and sent your men after me; you insulted me by not taking my feelings seriously and you hurt me in every freaking way possible! And now you're here, the place I last wanted you to be, and expect me to just forgive you?! I think not!" I yelled, and it felt oddly good to voice everything that was bugging me. „Remember the note, Ranger? Remember what it said?" I shrieked slightly hysterically by now.

"Forget the note," he calmly interrupted. "This is about us."

My eyes widened in shock. "About us?" I stuttered, unable to grasp the full meaning of his words – my mind was a little dazed by his seemingly ordinary usage of the term "us".

"But I still need time… to think."

"I'm tired of waiting and having you think the worst of me. You've had enough time to yourself. Now it's time we talk," Ranger countered, and I was honestly surprised by his verbal aggressiveness.

I just stared at him wide-eyed, not liking how he managed to throw me off-guard with every word he said. Damn him..

Ranger though seemed satisfied.

In return, I narrowed my eyes at him. "Why the hell did you behave like a jerk these last couple of days anyway?"

Before he had the chance to say something, we were rudely interrupted by someone throwing the door to my apartment open.

And this someone was none other than Joe Morelli.

I subtly pinched my arm, just in case, you know…

Unfortunately, it wasn't all a product of my fantasy, and Morelli and Ranger really stood right here in my room, both now wearing identical blank expressions on their faces.

"Hey, Steph," Morelli eventually greeted as he came to stand beside my bed. He bent forward to kiss my forehead lightly and a small smile played on his lips. "I missed you."

I just stared at him for a moment like he was an alien, before I screamed at the top of my lungs, "Lester!"

A somewhat guilty looking Lester appeared in the doorway.

"Uh, yeah?"

"What the hell is going on here?!"

"We're here to talk," Morelli said with an icy glare towards Ranger, "and to hear your decision."

Disregarding the fact for a moment that even Morelli now doubted my feelings for him, I couldn't help but think that I'd never heard the two of them utter the words "We have to talk" this often ever before… Usually the only things they liked to emphasise and to repeat were related to my safety or sexual references.

It occurred to me just how serious they exactly were…

I gulped. "My, uh, decision?" I repeated, twiddling with a lock of my hair nervously.

"That's what you're here for, isn't it?" Morelli said, watching my reaction carefully.

"How come you're here together?" I asked instead, trying to retard the inevitable for a little longer.

"We have a truce," Morelli grudgingly explained. "We came here together."

"And they're going to stay as long as it takes," Lester joyfully added, sending a proud look to his boss who remained indifferent. Morelli, however, just looked determined.

"What?!" I yelled. "No! You can't stay here!"

"I've already booked a room before flying down here. And now I just got my room key," Morelli informed me.

I opened my mouth to yell, but changed my mind and sent Morelli and Ranger a contemplative look.

"You're sharing a room?"

I'm quite sure that Ranger desperately wanted to roll his eyes.

"No," he said. "I'm going to take Mary Lou's room."

Great. There was definitely something wrong with this picture… and why the hell was Lester so happy anyway?

I cast his smiling face my best imitation of the Burg glare and ordered, "Out, Lester. Now."

Lester's shoulders drooped in disappointment. "Damn," he cursed good-naturedly and walked out of my apartment.

After the door closed firmly behind him, I focused on the two men still standing in the middle of my little apartment.

"I can't believe you're both here," I muttered, sighing.

"You better believe it," Morelli countered, crossing his arms over his chest. "And like Lester said, we're not going anywhere until you've made your decision."

Argh. There's nothing worse than stubborn men…

"But why here?" I bristled. "Why now? Why couldn't you give me a little more time to sort things through until I was ready to come back to Trenton?"

"Chances were high you'd still be afraid of making a decision and the situation would never get solved," Ranger answered.

"Plus, solving our problem here is much better than doing it back home only to have all of the Burg meddling with our business out of morbid fascination," Morelli added, disgusted. "Now it's really just the three of us."

Well, Morelli did have a point there.

So I turned to Ranger, very annoyed, "What? You mean I was the one that always ran when the topic of love and commitment came up? Funny that you say that, Master-of-relationships."

Ranger's eyes narrowed imperceptibly. "Stop playing around, Stephanie."

Ohh, no Babe! I should be careful now, I guess…

Or not.

"And Morelli who can't decide whether to love or to strangle me, and you with your 'I love you in my own way' is not playing with me?" I shouted incredulously. "That's odd, because it damn well feels that way!"

Ranger neither flinched nor showed any other sign that could equal a reaction. Freaking frustrating that man. "That's why Morelli and I are here." Morelli looked at Ranger, and Ranger stared right back at him. They did their manly stare contest until Ranger turned back to me. "We need to talk about that."

Good God. How often could you hear the word „talk" and actually avoid doing it? Well, let's see…

„Ranger, it's now two-thirty in the morning, I'm freaking tired, and being visited by both Batman and Supercop within one night is a little much, don't you think?"

I was facing two stoic faces in return. Great, just great. Now the two men in my life suddenly decided to gang up on me. Why must this world be so cruel?

"It's safe to say that you're both attracted to Morelli and me," Ranger said, easily ignoring my previous words. His eyes were firmly locked with mine as they searched for affirmation.

Mutely, I nodded.

"But you did tell me you love me. Shouldn't that solve the problem?" Morelli somewhat smugly added.

Ranger's gaze turned to me sharply and his whole body tensed visibly.

I gulped nervously and averted my eyes to the ground, not wanting to see the reaction of either man as I quietly confessed, "I kinda love Ranger, too."

There was a moment of a stunned silence, before Ranger softly inquired, "Kinda?"

Swallowing again, I raised my eyes to his and for a minute I was overwhelmed by the storm of unrecognisable emotions that were raging in them.

"I'm in love with you," I whispered.

Ranger's hands clenched into fists and it seemed like he had to restrain himself with all his might from rushing over to me and kissing me senseless. His deep brown eyes were molten chocolate, holding a clear promise of sensual and passionate love-making as soon as Morelli was permanently out of the picture.

Wait. Love-making? Where did that come from? Ranger loved me like a teenage boy loves his own car – its only purpose is to entertain, look good and provide fun. He may adore and love it for a while, but only until he finds a better car.

Ranger didn't love me like a grown-up man loves the woman whom he couldn't live without. I couldn't be the one he wanted to keep and cherish forever…

I mean, he's Batman and I'm a stubborn and quite disastrous human being for whom donughts are on the top of her food pyramid.

"Well," Morelli muttered. "That's new." There was fear in his eyes. And the dejected look he sent me showed that he had suspected my feelings for Ranger for quite some time.

And all of a sudden I felt incredibly terrible. It was the moment I realised that Ranger was right: I was toying with the both of them. It might not have been intentionally, but I had given both men the impression of being something more to me than just a guy friend or casual lover. I cheated on Morelli, who wanted to marry me, by fuelling the sexual tension between Ranger and me only to chicken out in the end.

Guilt now flooded me in strong and repetitive waves.

"I've made my decision," I blurted out, causing both men to scrutinise me curiously. "It's over, I'm ending whatever we have. With both of you. I can't be with either one of you."

I gave them a minute to fully comprehend what I just said before calling out Lester's name, who I knew had been eavesdropping on the other side of the door.

There was a clicking sound before the door swung open and a curious looking Lester entered.

"Please bring them to their own rooms. Our business here is finished."

"Like hell it is!" Morelli yelled, looking hurt and confused and more furious than ever. "First we establish that you love the both us and now you're breaking it off with us? Why are you doing this?"

"Lester?" I weakly pleaded and he quickly threw a cursing Morelli out of my apartment.

Ranger straightened his posture slowly, his dark eyes never leaving mine.

„Don't fool yourself by thinking you could get rid of me that easily, Babe," he said. "Tonight you've made your point clear, next time I'll make mine."

Then he left.

Well, it seemed like Ranger had come to the conclusion that now was the time to make his move – no matter if I wanted it or not.

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Flashback

„I think you need to corner Batman and talk to him about where you two stand," Connie said, as she took a sip of her drink.

"Nah," Lula disagreed. "Talking is boring. There are other ways to make Hotstuff melt in your hands." She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

"I'm not really fond of either suggestions," Stephanie muttered and asked the bartender for another beer.

"Why not?" Lula asked.

"I'm not so big on talking about feelings myself, you know. With Morelli it was always kind of easy – he told me he loved me and I chickened out. Despite that he always knew how I felt about him. But with Ranger…"

Connie narrowed her eyes at her. "Are you… afraid of talking to Ranger about that?"

Stephanie's eyes widened. "No! Of course not!"

Lula raised an eyebrow at her.

Rolling her eyes, Stephanie admitted, "Okay, maybe I am. A little bit."

"That's a big bit if you ask me," Lula replied.

"Well, what do you expect? I've known Ranger for how many years and I still only know bits and pieces of him. He's the one that's not letting me come close, so why should I be the stupid one running after him and begging him not to shut me out?"

Lula and Connie exchanged a significant look.

"You're so far gone," Connie said with a small smile on her face.

"Thank God," Lula said. "I always thought Batman was hotter than Supercop. Plus, if you're with Batman I got a reason to see Tank again."

This time both Connie and Stephanie rolled their eyes.

"I just don't know how he feels…" Stephanie whispered. "He's important to me, you know, and I'd really like to know how he sees our relationship – if it even is one," she continued a little louder. "But I guess I'd only freak out if the day ever comes that Ranger opens up to me."

Connie and Lula watched her unhappy friend down the beer. They knew there was something special between Ranger and Stephanie. But they also knew it depended on Ranger's decision to finally make his move on Stephanie how that "something" between them would develop. They just hoped he'd make a move soon.

End Flashback