I'm sorry for not updating for so long but I had my Italian exchange-partner here and so it was pretty stressful. I'll try to make up for it.

Like always, I don't own anything and so on.

Joy and Pain

Chapter 11: Under attack

I woke up and immediately knew that something was wrong. I moved and my stomach hurt. It felt hard.

"And your belly feels normal?" I remembered Ranger's father asking me yesterday.

I took a deep breath and sat up. It felt pretty uncomfortable and I put one hand on my belly.

"What's wrong, babe?" Ranger sat up next to me and took my hand.

"My stomach feels uncomfortable."

"How?" He reached for the phone.

"It feels hard."

He was already calling Ella.

"Could you come up, please? Stephanie's feeling uncomfortable. Her belly feels hard."

"I'm coming up."

Half an hour later we were sitting in Dr. Meek's waiting room. She had opened up only for me, on a Sunday, and was getting the equipment ready right now.

Ranger had his arm wrapped around me and Ella was holding my hand.

Dr.Meek walked back in and smiled at the sight of us. She gestured towards the open door behind her. "Come in."

We went into the room and I lay down on the couch. Ella sat down in a chair near my head and Ranger sat down on my side.

He took my hand while I once again told Dr. Meek about the hardness.

She did an ultrasound and printed the picture while she told us what we could see. "Here is the head , it's already pretty big at this time and the face is forming slowly, too. Arms and legs are already there but only rudimental."

Ella had tears in her eyes and Ranger looked at the monitor, his eyes gleaming with love.

Dr. Meek turned towards us and smiled. "Everything looks normal, the baby is okay. I will take a blood test, now. To make sure the mommy is okay, too."

Uhhh, I hated it when somebody took my blood.

"Babe" I looked at Ranger. He kissed me and smiled. "I'm here, babe."

I looked into his eyes while Dr.Meek took the blood. She excused herself to test it.

Ella moved towards us. "Stephanie, tha baby is okay. That's what's most important."

I nodded and felt the cliff that rested on my heart slowly crumble.

We looked at the picture again.

15 minutes later, Dr. Meek walked back in. "Okay, that's a little low on iron but everything else is good. I guess you suffered from Braxton-Hicks contractions. They are a little early, normaly you have them later lets say around week 34 as practice for the birth.

I want you to stop working. You don't have to lie down but take it easy. Stay at home until Friday then you probably can go shopping or take long walks. But no work, okay? And drink much and stay out of the biggest heat."

I looked at her, tears rolling down my cheeks. Ranger hugged me.

"We wanted to look for a house." I couldn't think.

"You can do that." She took my hand. "Just look at papers and don't visit them right now." I nodded and Ranegr kissed my forehead.

So now I was sitting in Ranger's living room (I still didn't think of it as home), looking at houses.

It was Wednesday and Ranger's brother-in-law ,Jake, had brought them over yesterday.

I was already counting the hours until my appointment with Dr. Meek at Friday. She would then decide if I could go out again. I felt caged in although I was always telling myself it was for the baby and that was for the best. My mother called every day. We were talking more than at any time of my life, now. I loved it and she seemed to feel the same.

Ranger and Jake were looking at a house right now. I had liked three of the five Jake had suggested and they were looking at a nice new house half an hour from the Burg.

I looked at my clock every five minutes wanting them to come back.

At 6 o'clock in the evening they came, finaly.

Ranger stepped in, he smiled at me. He came to me, hugged me and kissed first me then my belly. "How are you feeling?"

"Good. So, how was it?"

"Nice, but I don't really now if it's right for us, but you can see yourself." With that he pulled a tape out of his pocket, still smiling, and went to the tv.

Jake stepped in, kissed me on both cheeks and sat down on one of the armchairs.Ranger sat down beside me, put one arm around me and started the tape.

It was so sweet.

They had filmed everything. The area, the outside of the house, the inside… that was what had taken them so long.

Ranger was right. It was nice but it wasn't bright enough and the garden was sweet but too little. And there was a big street near.

So we would look on.

On Thursday Jake and Ranger visited, and filmed, a house that we actually liked. It was new, big and comfortable. I only didn't like that it didn't have a fireplace but Ranger and Jake said that they could change this easily.

They wanted to look at it again on Friday, the area was very popular, this time together with the owner.

At 2 o'clock it knocked on the door and Carlos, Marta, Rita, Jake and , to my disdain, also Carleen stepped in. All of them, with one exception of course, hugged and kissed me and asked about me and the baby. Carleen looked around for Ranger.

Half an hour later, when I was just showing his family the pictures of the house we liked, Ranger stepped in. Carleen ran towards him and hugged him. She whispered something into his ear. He frowned and looked concerned. Rita narrowed her eyes. He told Carleen something and came towards me. He kissed me and hugged his family.

"I have to take care of a problem. I will hurry." Another kiss for me and he was gone. With Carleen.

Two hours (!!!) later, I had just finished my afternoon nap, he came back. Without Carleen.

It seemed as if Torner concentrated on Carleen, now. She had gotten hate mail. I had a funny feeling about everything, but I felt bad about it so I didn't say anything.

Ranger had moved Carleen into a safe house with Tank as a bodyguard. He wrote me an SMS, telling me how "happy" he was about it. It seemed as if we were of the same opinion concerning the pet of the Manoso family.

From that on everything went in a hurry. Ranger worked all through the night and had to postpone the visit of the house. He came up at 3 to take me to the doctor. He looked so exhausted that I wanted to send him straight to bed but he refused to go.

At 4 o'clock, we sat in Dr. Meeks room again. "We" wasn't Ranger and me though. "We" was Ella, my mother and me. Carleen had called Ranger the minute we left the RangeMan building. He had to go to her. I tried not to think about it.

Dr. Meek had taken an ultrasound and a blood test again. Everything was good. I was alowed to go shopping tomorrow, so that I could buy a present for my mother, and I was allowed to go to her birthday, too. I made another appiontment for Monday, the 23rd July.

One hour later my mother, Ella and me were sitting in my mother's kittchen, eating cake, when the door opened. My father came in, followed by Lester and Bobby. I took one look at them and immediately knew that something was wrong.

"Did something happen to Ranger?" Lester shook his head. He came towards me and crouched down in front of me. "No, Stephanie, nothing happened to Ranger and everyone else is okay, too."

"But…?"

He sighed. „The house you and Ranger liked was blown up." I went numb. Somebody wanted to destroy our life. My eyes filled with tears.

"Oh, honey." My mother pulled me up and hugged me. My father was, as always, standing on the side, silently observing.

Twenty minutes later we were sitting in the car on our way to RangeMan. I was sitting in the back with Lester, Bobby was driving. Lester turned towards me. "Ranger seemed concerned." I tried to raise an eyebrow. "More concerned than usualy."

I thought about it and decided to tell them. Both of them deserved to know what they were getting into.

"You know about Torner?" Both of them nodded. "You know that he's after me?"

They nodded again. I took a deep breath. "You cannot tell this to anyone, okay?" They nooded again. More warily this time. Bobby looked at me through the mirror and Lester took my hand. We were stuck in traffic, luckily.

"I'm pregnant." There were silent for a minute then they started to smile. Lester pulled me towards him and hugged me. "I'm so happy for the to of you."

"Me, too." Bobby said. I smiled back at them.

"Thanks, we're very happy about it, too. But remember that you cannot tell anyone." They nodded, still smiling.

The next morning I was at the mall with Grandma Mazur and Lester.

I had only seen Ranger for a few seconds last night because as soon as he had pulled my into his arms the phone had rang. Caleen. She aparently had gotten another letter. To the safe house. Ranger had immediately dressed again and left.

Since he had most of his men on Carleen and the others had to work on the other jobs he could only spare Lester. He wasn't happy that I would be out with only one bodyguard. Me telling him that Grandma Mazur carried a gun didn't really help.

We already had the presents for my mother and were now looking for a new pair of jeans for me. I was starting to feel a little bit cramped.

I was just looking through a few black jeans, I wanted to look as thin as possible, when the shooting started. Lester knocked me over and covered my body with his.

Everything went so fast and the next thing I remember was Grandma Mazur shouting: "Hey. Stopp shooting, there're people standing here! You could hurt someone!" I would have laughed if I hadn't been so shocked. Lester looked up and decided that it was safe again. The security man was running after another man. He kneeled down beside me and looked me over.

"Are you okay? Are you hit? Do you hurt anywhere?" I just wanted to shake my head when I leadned on my right arm and pain sliced through me.

"Arghh, my arm." Lester immediately picked me up and sat me down on the airmchair beside the changing room. "Show me." He looked at my arm. It hurt to move it and it was sensitive to pressure.

"Probably just a bruise from falling onto it." He looked into my eyes. "I'm soory, Stephanie."

I stroked his cheek. "You couldn't have done anything."

Grandma Mazur stepped behind him and laid one hand on his arm. "She's right, boy. You protected her and there isn't more you could have done."

"What the hell happened here?" Juniak was running through the mass of people, followed by , groan, Morelli, Constanza and a paramedic. Constanza and the security men started asking the people to leave. Morelli and Juniak came towards us.

"Cupcake, are you okay?" Morelli crouched down in front of me.

"The old problem?" Juniak asked and I nodded.

"Where are you hurt, miss?" The paramedic asked. Lester told him that I fell on my arm and he looked at it while I told Juniak, and Morelli, who refused to leave, the whole thing. When I was finished Juniak looked at me concerned. "And you're sure you're okay?"

I just looked at him. I looked around for Ranger. "He called Lester, I told him you were okay. He's with Carleen. There was a break-in." Grandma said. I looked down at my feet.

"I want to take you to the hospital, we'll need to do X-ray." I looked first at Lester then at Grandma Mazur. "Is there a problem?" the paramedic asked. Both of them nodded.

I sighed. "I'm pregnant."

"Okay, than we'll just have an orthopedist take a look at you."

I looked at Morelli. He was looking back at me, his cop fce in place but I could see the hurt in his eyes. I swallowed. I hadn't wanted him to get to know it like this.

"Joe…" He shook his head and walked away.

I started to go after him. But Juniak and Laster held me back.

"I will talk to him and tell him everything. Ranger probably won't like it but he deserves an explaination and he's a good cop." I nodded. " Tell him to call me tomorrow, please."

He nodded. "I will, now go to the hospital."

The paramedic took a step back and Lester picked me up. Together with Grandma Mazur we walked to the ambulance.

Grandma Mazur rode with me, Lester followed us in the car. I whished Ranger would be here.

"He'll probably be at the hospital, honey." I nodded and she took my hand.

6 hours later, it's 6 o'clock in the evening, I was lying in Ranger's bedroom. He had really waited at the hospital. He was hating himself because he hadn't been there and he was cocksure that this wouldn't have happened if I had had another bodyguard with me. We had talked for a long time and I hoped he was feeling better now.

Right now he was talking to his mother on the phone, telling her that the baby was all right and that I was okay, too.

Dr. Meek had been at the hospital, too. She seemed to like me and had wanted to look if the baby is okay, personally.

My right arm was sprained. Normaly it wouldn't be a problem but pain killers weren't healthy for the baby, so I couldn't take them and was currently feeling a little bit uncomfortable.

Besides that I was feeling sad because I would have too stay at home for a few days, again.

Ranger came back into the room. He sat down beside me and took my hand with his one hand, the other rested on my belly. He looked at me then leaned forward to rest his head between my left shoulder and my neck. He breathed my scent in and placed soft kisses on my neck. I sighed and leaned my head against his. We sayed like this for a long time until his phone rang.

He looked at the number. "Juniak. He wanted to call me when he was here." I nodded, sad, that he would have to leave again.

"Morelli knows?" I nodded.

Surprisingly he just nodded, too. I looked at him questionly.

He smiled and kissed me. "You're mine, now, babe. We're a family. No need to be jealous anymore. Besides, he's a good cop."

I smiled and kissed him.

"I have to go now, sleep a little bit. We'll have dinner when I'm back. Ella's making chocolat cake." I smiled and closed my eyes.

When I opened my eyes again, Ranger's family was standing inside my room.

"What are you doing, here?"

That's a good question!" Ranger, who had just stepped in asked, obviously angry.

I hope you like it.

Review, please.