All Spanish is done with Babel Fish, so I apologize for the incorrectness and stuff.

I woke up around noon the next day in the guest bedroom. I didn't remember moving, but I supposed Superman moved in mysterious ways. I rolled out of bed, got showered and dressed, and padded down to the kitchen. The room felt empty without the presence of the children, which reminded me again why I was staying there. I wandered from there into the den, where I saw Grandmother Maria knitting in her rocking chair.

"Oh," I said quickly, "Sorry-"

"Alto."

I froze, then turned back to the old woman. "I.. I'm sorry," I stuttered. "I don't speak Spanish-"

"Abajo."

What?

My confusion was clear on my face, because crazy as she was, she understood. Her face struggled for a moment, as if she were trying hard to think of a word, then she smiled and nodded.

"Si," she said to herself. She turned to me and slowly, deliberately, she said, "Sit."

Hesitantly, I perched on the corner of a couch.

"No, no." She shook her head, and motioned at the seat beside her. "Aquí."

I sat beside her, watching carefully. She didn't seem to be as.. crazy.. as she had been that night at dinner. But again, anybody who dealt with that family for a few weeks would be driven certifiably insane, anyway.

She set down her knitting and picked up the small, dainty teapot in front of us that rested on the coffee table. "Té?" she asked, gesturing toward the small cup resting in front of me. At my nod, she began to pour, her hands shaking from the weight of the teapot. She watched me anxiously as I took a sip. It was.. different. At first I had to fight from making a face, but at the second sip, it wasn't quite so bad.

"Good?" she asked.

"Yes.. si," I said, smiling. Who would've figured that I would be having a conversation with Ranger's grandmother over a cup of Cuban tea? Lula would never believe me, that was for sure.

"You and Ricky find mi nieta?" she inquired, picking up her knitting.

"Trying," I said, wondering if she understood what I was saying.

"Bueno."

We sat in silence, her humming quietly, me sipping on the tea, until a clock in the distance rang. A few minutes later, a young woman that I assumed was a servant (if they even have those anymore) walked into the room.

"Hola, Senora Manoso," she said politely to Grandmother Maria. To me, she said "It's time for her to take her medication.. You can see her again in a few hours."

"Okay," I said dumbly, standing up. I smiled down at Grandmother Maria, then turned to walk away. I was stopped by her frail hand on my arm.

"Él le ama. Él es demasiado absurdo justo para decirlo. No dé para arriba esperan, mi querida. Él realizará esto también, en tiempa. Ruega solamente que esté viva ver el día."

I had no clue what it was she said, but she looked at me so honestly that I just nodded. "Adios, Senora," I said, using two out of six of the only Spanish words I know. I headed from there back up to my room, on a sudden mission. If Grandmother Maria can be sane at a time like this, then so can I. Once in my room, I flopped down on the bed and into my thinking spot.

Nothing jumped out at me and said boo.

"Well, Rome wasn't built in a day," I muttered after an hour of absolutely nothing, sitting back up. As I sat up, I came face to face with a clown.

"AAAIGHHHHHHHH!" I screamed. Out of instinct more than anything, I threw a sucker punch directly to its giant red nose.

BULLSEYE, JACKASS.

I continued to scream as its nose made a loud cracking noise. The clown cursed loudly and jumped away from me. I screamed louder and louder as I reached for the gun that I knew was in the drawer of my nightstand, but before I could reach it, the clown was out my window. Not even two seconds later, my door crashed open and a figure ran in. He surveyed the scene quickly, from my screaming, to the blood on my bed, to the open window that I was pointing at. Tony ran to the window, gun in hand, but it was obvious that he didn't see anything.

"Damn it," he swore aloud, glancing at me, then back at the window. He looked as though he were about to speak when his cell phone rang. "'Yo.. She's fine.. Yes.. I'm with her.. No, he's down at the dock. Lester's with him. All right." He hung up, then walked over to me.

"Hi," I said to him. My heart was still beating fast, but my voice held only a small amount of hysteria in it. Not near the amount I was feeling.

"Hi," he replied, taking my head in his hands and moving it around. Trying to make sure I didn't get anything broken, I suppose.

"I'm not a bobble head," I told him finally, pulling my head out of his grasp. He raised his eyebrows at me, then looked down at the blood.

"Good aim," he said. He then pulled the bloodstained sheet off of my bed.

"Hey," I said, "That's my bedspread."

He looked at it, then me. "It has a puddle of blood on it."

What's bad is, that's not really a rare occurance for me. But I understood where he was coming from, and sighed. "Fine, take it."

He gave me a look similiar to the one from the night before, then wadded up the cloth and put it on the ground. "You're a strange woman," he declared.

Hmph.

"I prefer to call it stubborn," I frowned.

He snorted. "More like shit stupid. Does it ever occur to you that someday Ranger isn't going to be there to save your ass?"

My cheeks flamed. "Does it ever occur to you that you're an ass?"

"Daily." He picked up the bloodstained sheets and walked out of the room. Curious about his sudden interest in conversing, I followed.

"Do you always call your brother by his street name?" I asked, following him. I had to slightly jog to keep up with his pace, but he didn't seem too annoyed that I was there.

"Do you?" he asked.

"Yep." I figured that maybe if I kept talking, he would talk. "He introduced himself to me as Ranger, so that's what I know him by." We began to descend the stairs into the giant basement where the laundry things were kept. "What about you?"

Tony flipped on the light switch at the bottom of the steps and continued walking, paying me minimal attention. "Did you introduce yourself to him as Bombshell?"

"Huh?" It took a second to realize he was talking about my being referred to as "Bombshell Bounty Hunter". "Oh, no, it was actually the Merry Me- I mean, Lester, Bobby, Tank, Cal, and Junior that gave me that nickname. See, I have this thing about blowing up cars. Well, I don't blow them up, other people do, but I'm always around when it happens. I'm surprised I haven't been charged for being an accomplice, now that I think about it. I mean, whenever I'm around a parking lot, there's a 25 increase that something will blow up than when I'm not. But it's not my fault."

"Merry Men?" he asked, finally coming to a stop at the washer.

"Um, yeah, I didn't make up that nickname, it was Connie and Lula. By the way, you never answered my question."

Tony shoved the sheet into the washer, dumped detergent and a peice of fabric softener, turned some dials, and slammed the lid shut.

"I was only a kid when he became 'Ranger'. He introduced himself to me as Ranger, so that's what I know him by." He gave me one of his trademark 'Looks', then turned and headed back up the stairs. I stood there, staring at the washing machine, feeling sorry for Tony. The reason he had never participated in the "Hey Ricky" joking was because he was never accepted into that loop of companionship.

"Are you coming?" Tony yelled from the top step.

"Does this mean you don't hate me?" I yelled back as I climbed up the steps. He waited for me at the top.

"Not really," he said, "I still think you're shit stupid."

"Well," I said, "I still think you're an ass."

For the first time, he gave me a real grin. "You can think about my ass anytime you want, 'Babe'."

My jaw dropped at the sudden joke. I stood there in silence as he walked off down the hallway in laughter.

I eventually made my way back to the den, where I found Ranger and my overnight bag waiting.

"You're going home," he said to me. My eyes widened.

"What?" I asked meekly. "Why?"

From the other room, I could hear the raised voices of Diego and Tony. Ranger noticed me listening in on them and pulled me outside. "It's too dangerous for you here," he said shortly.

"So you're sending me back to my apartment?"

Ranger led me to his Porsche and held the door open for me to get in. He handed me my bag, then moved around to the driver's side. "You're not involved in this anymore. Your neices will be released back to you. They have who they want now."

I felt a rush of relief at the thought of my neices returning to safety, but it was quickly filled with fear for the other children. "What about Adriel? And the other two?"

Ranger's silence answered me.

"Jesus," I whispered. I couldn't hold back the shaking at the thought of what the kids were going through.

"Why did he stop calling?" I asked him, trying not to think about Tia's daughter's laughing eyes. "Clown person? Why hasn't he called me?"

Ranger glanced over at me, seemingly ignoring my shivering. "He has what he wants. He doesn't need you anymore."

This brought on a whole new thought.

"What if he.. 'disposes' of Mary Alice and Angie and Lisa now? Since he doesn't need them?"

"He won't," Ranger said sharply. He pulled into my apartment's parking lot and killed the engine. Together we left the car and walked up to my apartment.

"Stay here," he said. I stood in the doorway while he went in to do his routine search. I felt my arms and realized that I had goosebumps -- sometime over the month the weather had gotten cooler, and I hadn't even noticed. I rubbed my arms together to try to get warm when I heard a small, barely-there crunching sound from behind me. As I turned around to investigate, I saw a flash of red clothing, then everything went black.

Don't forget to vote on who is your favorite Merry Man..