Note from Amy Lynne: Ahhh, I know, I know, I said I would have this up by Monday! So sorry, I was sucked into Transformers by my brothers (not that I'm complaining, I grew up with it, too). Then I realized that I have four Harry Potter costumes to make before Tuesday and went a bit nutso. (Don't hate on my nerdiness!) But don't worry, I'm going to make it up to you. You may be asking yourself, how Amy, how are you planning on doing that? Well, not only do I have this chapter written, but the next two as well. Haha! I have a friend of mine looking over the next chapter as we speak, so that should be up sometime today. Chapter 10 will probably be up sometime tomorrow (tonight if we're all lucky). There's some good things coming up!
I just have to say that I reallllly really like this chapter. XDD I know, I'm biased because I wrote it, but I usually don't like anything I write, so yeah.
Also, I know I said that I have the basic idea of what's going to happen all planned out, but if there's something that you want to see, I'm very open to suggestions. Just leave a comment either as feedback, or e-mail (with TGW as the subject), or any of the other contact info that I have on my page. The more feedback that I get the more I'm going to want to update.
Disclaimer: I'm just playing with Janet Evanovich's characters. She was nice when I met her and I don't think she'll mind. She should have told me where the RangeMan building is supposed to be, though. XDD

Ranger and I sat in silence (as usual) while we drove down 571 to get back towards the highway. It was dark, there were lots of trees around, no street lights, and I was starting to feel like I had to pee. I should hold it. I really didn't want to have to leave the comfort of the Turbo to go squat in a bush, especially not with Ranger present. I would rather pee myself. The problem was, the longer we sat in silence, the more I found nothing else to focus on other than the fact that I had to pee. Not good.

"So," I said looking over at Ranger. Still in the zone. One hand on the wheel, the other at the side of his face as he leaned towards the car door while driving. "How long have we known each other?" Ranger looked over at me. I swear, for a moment I thought I saw him shrug.

"A few years now." I nodded my head and looked out the window.

"What's your favorite color?" And now I was getting the crazy person look. "It's just that, if we've known each other a while, it seems that I should know you favorite color." Still just staring at me. "I would think it's black, but I could be wrong." Ranger looked back to the road. "I like blue. There's lots of different shades, and I like them all. Makes me think of summer."

"Babe?"

"Yeah?"

"You're rambling." I nodded my head.

"Yeah, I know. But if I talk then I don't think about how much I have to pee. If we went to the shore we wouldn't have this problem."

"I thought we settled this?" Oh boy, I don't want to annoy Ranger. Backtrack, Stephanie, backtrack!

"Oh, we did, I'm just ... making conversation."

Silence, again. We were passing the Russian churches for a second time, and the light where we would be turning to get onto the highway was coming up. I didn't have to pee as much, maybe the thought of having to pee in front of Ranger was making my body work backwards.

I reached down onto the floor of the Turbo and picked up my bag, digging around in it and searching for my cell phone. I wouldn't tell people this, but the woods at night sort of creep me out. I've probably seen one too many horror movies, but I always feel better knowing that I have cell phone reception, which I didn't. I knew I wouldn't, I've been down to Seaside every summer since I've been alive, by the time that I was six I could have walked there and home and not get lost (not that I would), so I knew that reception in this area was a big no.

We reached the light and waited for it to turn. I was half expecting Ranger to ask what I was doing and why, but I figured he probably knew that I didn't like the woods at night. Just another thing about being Batman, you know everything. At least I didn't have to launch into an embarrassing story about when I was a kid and tried to "run away" during a camping trip. That would be bad. I don't need Ranger knowing another story like that. Hell, him knowing about Zorro is bad enough.

My eyes drifted from staring at my phone and hoping that the Gods were shining down and would give me a signal when a tractor-trailer pulled up behind us. This idiot still had his high beams on and I was going to go blind. Jerk.

Wait, how did a truck that size sneak up behind us? I looked over at Ranger and saw that he was staring intently into the rear view mirror. He inched the Turbo up a few inches. The truck moved closer to us.

Living in Jersey means driving in Jersey, and once you do that you will realize that we are a different breed of people. Our favorite hobby is road rage. My two biggest driving pet peeves are morons who leave the high beams on and fuckers who come right up to your bumper at a red light. I turned slightly in my seat to check out the truck but all I could see was the grill right us. I felt like I was in a Wes Craven movie.

"He probably won't see if I gave him the finger, would he?" I kept my eyes trained on the truck.

"Wouldn't be a good idea, Babe." The light turned green and Ranger started driving. I was a bit surprised we didn't go left, back the way we came. "Going straight will take us to the highway too. We'll just be by Jackson Outlets." I nodded. Jackson Outlets is amazing, not as good as Jersey Gardens as fall as malls are concerned, but since it was an outlet strip mall and not a real mall, it made sense. Ranger should consider himself lucky that it was the middle of the night and the stores were closed.

We reached the intersection for the mall and, of course, could see the jerk in the semi coming up behind us.

Before I knew what was happening, I heard Ranger mumble 'Shit' and try to turn the car left into the shopping center against the light, and the trailer had hit the back end of the Turbo. The car started to spin and I grabbed the oh-shit-bar (at least that's what I call it, what the hell are those bars there for if not to hold on when something like this happens?!) and screamed my head off. I started making promises to God, saying I would go to church and not abuse shower heads if Ranger and I were both fine. I pretty sure God knew I was lying about the church part, but I guess he was willing to see if I would follow through on the shower heads, because Ranger got control of the car, and with screeching tires, finally got us to stop.

I looked around quick. No truck.

Ranger was out of the car in a flash, at my door, and pulling me out of the Turbo. I saw the back end, or what was left of it. Complete smashed. I saw the bumper lying in a ditch across the road. The driver side back tire was gone (no idea where it could be), rear window was smashed, and the the back was compacted to half it's side.

"That fucker hit us," I finally managed to get out.

Ranger was standing, hands on his hips, and shaking his head. "I liked that car."

Huh?

"That's all you're going to say, I like that car? Ranger, he hit your side! You could have been killed!"

"Couldn't turn right. Nowhere to go and he would have hit your side of the car."

"Couldn't you have gone straight?" He stood, looking at me for a moment.

"Babe."

Either I was completely missing logic on him taking the hit or Batman actually didn't think about running the light and going straight. I'm going with the first option. Ranger thinks of everything. I was staring at the car. I liked the Turbo, too. Nice leather seats, smooth riding, and it always smelled of Bulgari.

"We got a problem." I turned my head towards Ranger. When the hell did he get on his cell phone? I looked down at mine (how exactly did I manage to keep that in my hands?) and saw that reception was back. Of course it was, we were once again in civilization. "Steph and I were just involved in a car accident. Semi hit the back drivers side. Turbo's toast. How far out?" Ranger just nodded his head and hung up the phone.

"I doubt the Merry Men can see you nodding over the phone."

"Tank will be here in fifteen. He's making arrangements to get the Porsche moved. We need to get off the road, go stand stand by one of the shops and in the light." Ranger walked to me and grabbed my arm, pulling me in the direction of the stores.

"Wait!" I pulled myself from his grasp. I pretty sure that he let me. I went to the passengers side door and started digging around in my purse. I found a small pack of tissues and pulled a few out before going and attempting to tie them together on the antenna of the car. "You should put the flashes on." Ranger just stared. "You could get a ticket for just leaving the car here! If you put the white on the antenna you won't be in trouble as long as you call it into the local police station!"

"Babe, we're not calling this in. The car will be gone before the police get here." I should have known he was going to say something like that.

"How is Tank getting here in fifteen minutes?" I asked. I thought it was a good question. Having an idea how far away we were from where Tank was and how far ahead of him of him we must be once we turned around made me know that he wasn't that close. "He's going to have to do a 100mph to get here that fast. He'll run every light in town. He'll get a hundred tickets when he gets caught on the camera thingie's that are up! And what if a cop tries to pull him over? Is he supposed to just keep driving until he gets here?"

"Babe, a semi-truck just slammed into us on purpose. We could have been killed if he hit the car at a different angle, and your worried about Tank getting some speeding tickets?"

Well, no. Mostly I was purchasing my pass into Denial Land and was rambling about anything that came to mind. Worrying about Tank seemed like a much better alternative at the moment than admitting that I was almost, once again, killed. When this news got back to Trenton (and I was sure it would, somehow) someone at TPD was going to win a lot of money. Last I heard from Big Dog was that when I was going to destroy the Turbo was bringing in some big money. How I was going to destroy was worth even more. I knew that the accident wasn't my fault, but I doubt anyone there would care. The Turbo was done with.

Ranger walked over to me and took the remaining tissues from my hand before pressing them against my forehead.

"What are you doing?"

"You're bleeding." Shit, I was? When the hell did that happen?

I quick looked over Ranger. Once again he looked fine, but who knows with Batman. Sometimes it's hard to see through the Batsuit and get a look at what's underneath.

Ranger put his hand on the small of my back and started guiding me towards the entrance of the outlets.

"You know I'm not really Batman, right." I turned to look at him as we reached the poll holding up the traffic light. I really, really, really need to stop talking out loud. Hopefully my wishes to God were kept in my head.

"When I was little Valerie used to calling me. Teff." Ranger just gave me a look. To most people they would think it was a blank stare, but I knew that as the 'what the hell are you going on about now' look. "She called me that for years, even when the rest of my family stopped, she called me Teff until she was out of high school." Still just getting the look. "My point is, it was a nickname, one that took a really long time for me to grow out of. Even if I stopped calling you Batman, Lula and Connie would call you that. It's stuck. And why I may have had a glimpse of Bruce Wayne, you going to have to suck it up and deal with the fact that Batman is not going away."

Ranger just nodded his head and gently started pushing me to move again.

Ha! I was sneaky, I never admitted that I didn't think he was Batman. I was pretty sure that he wasn't, but he still had a lot of Batman-like qualities, and until they were explained, I wouldn't know for sure.

"And what exactly do I do that's Batman-like?" Shit, I just said that out loud, didn't I? Maybe I should ask God to help me stop that if I promised not to buy any new shoes for a month.

I opened my mouth to answer (what I was going to say, I had no idea) when a large black SUV pulled up behind the Turbo. Saved by the Merry Men.

"How did they get here so fast?" I asked. Ranger just smiled.

"Boss," Tank said as he got to us. For a big guy he sure could move fast and quietly. Tank nodded at me. "You alright, Bombshell?"

"Did you fly here?" Tank stared. Ranger laughed.

"We're fine. Stephanie has a cut on her head. Nothing serious. Didn't get a plate number. Got on 195 heading towards Belmar." Tank nodded again, and turned towards the second and third SUV's that were pulling up. Where the hell did they all come from? Ranger said that he only had three men go down to the house. These cars were packed. "Tank called the local back up." Ranger explained.

We were at the SUV that Tank pulled up in and Ranger opened the passenger side door and gave me a hand in.

"Lester is going to take you back to RangeMan. When you get there, call Morelli and let him know to keep an eye open for any semi that looks like it's about to hit him. That would probably hurt more than you in the Buick."

"Was that a joke?" I heard Lester open the drivers side door and hop in.

"Babe." Ranger closed the door and jogged over to Tank. I thought I heard something about sending one car in the same direction as the semi to see if it was still on the highway, but I wasn't sure because Lester took that moment to start the SUV. I gave him the best Burg glare I could muster.

"Eavesdropping isn't nice, Bomber." I gave him a half-assed smile as he started to move the car in the direction of the highway.

We drove down 195 in silence. We got off our exit towards downtown. Lester weaved his way in and out of streets until we reached ours and used his keypad to get into the garage. Before I could unbuckle my seatbelt, Lester had the car off and had jogged over to my side and had the door open.

"Want me to make sure you get to the seventh floor okay?"

"I think I'll be fine. Not like anyone can penetrate the Batcave, right?" Lester laughed as we started to walk towards the elevators.

"I thought the Batcave was were Ranger lived?" How the hell did he know that? I gave him a look. "Lula tells Tank things. Tank tells the guys."

"So you're all like a group of teenage girls?"

"Not quite." I sighed.

"I've been thinking about the Batcave. Batman does all his Batman duties and has all his Batman toys in the Batcave. Wayne Manor, though, is where Bruce Wayne lives. I've decided Ranger lives at Wayne Manor. He's been more Bruce Wayne there than Batman."

"Haven't the bad guys gotten into and destroyed the Batcave before?" I looked over at Lester has he hit the button for the elevator. We got in and he pushed the button for the fifth floor.

"I'm ignoring that fact." The elevator stopped and Lester got off.

"Call if you need anything." I gave him a finger wave as the doors closed.

I stood there for a few seconds like an idiot waiting for the elevator to move when I realized that I left everything (my purse, stun gun, keys, cell phone- and I don't even know when I dropped that) in the wrecked Turbo. I groaned. All I really wanted was to get some sleep in Rangers heavenly sheets.

I hit the button for five and the doors immediately opened, seeing as it hadn't moved. I walked out and looked for Lester. Nowhere to be found. Great, just great. I saw Hector sitting over at one of the monitors. Maybe I would get lucky and he would know where Lester was. And maybe he would understand what I was saying.

I smiled as I tapped him on the shoulder and he turned in his chair to look at me.

"Do you know where Lester is?" He pointed towards the door leading towards the hallway with conference rooms. "Thanks."

I turned and walked towards the door and swung it open, and heard a thud. I quickly sneaked to the other side towards the hallway and looked.

Lester was on the floor, knocked out cold. Another Merry Man out of action thanks to Stephanie Plum, the Bombshell Bounty Hunter.

I looked up towards the ceiling and flapped my arms at my sides. Why me?

I felt bad for Lester, just lying there. If I could move him, I would, but I doubt that was going to happen. Instead I bent down and searched his pockets coming up with his cell phone. Ranger was going to love this. I wouldn't be surprised if the guys started taking bets on which Merry Man I was going to take out next.

I punched in Rangers number, it rang once.

"Talk."

"Hi," I said. Real smooth, Stephanie, real smooth.

"Babe? What's wrong?"

"Nothing, really." Best to start with the easier news to take first. That way at least I had a place to sleep before Ranger showed up and shipped me off somewhere for knocking out another one of his men. "I left my purse and everything that goes in it in the Turbo. I don't have a key to your apartment, so I was wondering where I should sleep."

"Have Lester call Ella, she'll let you in."

"Yeah, about Lester... there's a problem with Lester." Ranger didn't say anything for a beat.

"What kind of problem?"

"I sorta knocked him out."

"Babe." He was amused.

"I swear, I didn't mean to! I just opened a door which he happened to be on the other side of and he just went down."

"Where is he now?"

"Lying in the middle of the hallway with the conference rooms."

"You never disappoint, Babe." I scowled at the phone. "Have you seen anyone else there?"

"Just Hector." This time I could swear I heard Ranger laugh.

"Put him on the phone."

"Hold on." I opened the door as best I could again and squeaked through, before walking back over to Hector. I tapped him on the shoulder again, he turned again. I held out the phone. "Ranger." If they could talk in one word sentences, so could. Ha!

Hector took the phone and started talking in Spanish with Ranger. I swear one of these days I was going to learn it, that way I could know what they were saying. Even better, maybe I would learn a different language that they didn't know and talk about them right in front of them. Maybe Welsh. I had a friend in elementary school who's grandmother spoke it. I used to go over there after school and her grandmother would talk to me in it, like I knew what she was saying. I remembered my friends mother always blushing and yelling at the grandmother whenever she spoke in Welsh, so I had a feeling this grandmom was a lot like my Grandma Mazur. Knowing my luck, though, Ranger had a Merry Man on staff that spoke it, and I would be saying something highly inappropriate and would get busted.

I was knocked out of my fantasy by Hector handing the phone back to me.

"Hector is going to call Ella and have her take you up. Don't worry about Lester, he'll be fine." It always amazed me that Ranger could tell when I got back on the phone. "Take Lester's cell phone with you. Call Morelli with it when you get to the apartment. I'll bring your stuff back with me." I saw Hector getting on his phone.

"And when are you going to be back?"

"Not sure. You get some sleep. It's almost five in the morning. Ella will leave her number with you, so whenever you wake up, just call her and she'll bring you up some breakfast." I nodded my head. "I thought people weren't supposed to be able to tell when someone was nodding over the phone." I had to smile.

"Maybe people who aren't superheroes."

"Babe." And then he hung up.

I stood there for a few moments, staring at the phone. I didn't expect him to say anything else, but it would have been nice. Ella walked into the room and smiled at me.

"I'll take you up now, dear. I'm sure you had a long night." I smiled at her as she pushed the button for the elevator, which opened and we stepped on.

"I appreciate this. I hope you weren't woken up." Ella pushed the keypad so that we could ride up to the seventh floor.

"I usually get up around this time, so it was no trouble." I took in what she said.

Then it hit me all at once.

I started bouncing up and down, and shifting my weight from foot to foot. The elevator doors opened and Ella looked at me worried for a moment, before walking over to the door to Ranger's apartment and starting to open it.

"Is everything alright, dear?" I shook my head like a madwoman.

"Yeah, I just remembered that I have to pee."