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

Joy and Pain

Chapter 12: One problem solved, thousand more to go

When I opened my eyes 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.

Ranger moved to my side and sat down.

"We just wanted to know, how Stephanie's feeling." Marta defended herself.

"I told you on the phone, mother."

"That isn't the same and you know it." Rita interferred.

All of them were looking at me, their faces concerned. I must look pretty bad.

"Do you want to drink something?" Marte asked like a tipical mother.

I looked to my right. My glass was empty. I nodded. She moved out of the room.

Ella sat on the other side of me.

"So how is she? And the baby?" Rita asked Ella. Why not me?

I looked at Ranger and saw that he had narrowed his eyes. He was obviously wondering the same.

"It's okay, but it was trouble. She had already trouble with a hard belly and after this stress and panic she could have lost the baby." I was starting to feel sick, was it really that bad? I must have looked sick, too, because I noticed Rita becoming even more concerned and Ranger's mother hurried to bring me the water. Even Carleen seemed unnaturally silent.

"They don't really now if her arm is just sprained. It could also be broken but because of her pregnancy they cannot do X-ray. And she can't take pain killers because they're bad for the baby so she's hurting the whole time. Once she isn't as exhausted and in shook as she is now she will probably have problems getting the amount of sleep she needs. And she needs much sleep because of the pregnancy."

Okay, now I was really feeling bad. I had my eyes closed and my head was burried into Ranger's shoulder when he spoke.

"Is there something wrong, Carleen?"

Awww, not that BITCH again. This was about ME and OUR BABY.

I looked up ready to fight with her and Ranger when I notice his hard look. I looked at Carlee. There were tears rolling down her cheeks.

"She wants to take you away from me." She wailed.

Ranger's eyes narrowed and he pulled me even closer.

"How did you get that impression?"

"She is just using you. She got pregnant so you would marry her and she could get your money. And so that she would get your whole attention. You're just too blind to realize this."

Ranger shook his head, looking disgusted. "No, Carleen, I was just too blind to realize what a spoiled brat you are."

She opened her mouth.

"Silencioso! Dou you know, that I missed an appointment with our doctor? I could have seen my baby instead of dealing with you. And if I had been with Stephanie during the shooting she may wouldn't be hurt right now and we may wouldn't have to worry about the guy. And about the life of our baby."

She cried even harder. "But you love me and you were just paying attention to HER."

"Yes, I love you but I love Stephanie and our baby more than everything else in the world and nothing is going to change that. Because of you I was paying too less attention to Stephanie the whole time and look where that got us."

He breathed in and out deeply for a few times, obviously trying to calm down.

"So, how did you do it?"

"My boyfriend helped me. He's a computer genius so it was easy to fake the letters. His friends were the ones who "broke in". They also followed you around so that I knew where you were."

"And when to interfere." Ranger's father said.

She nodded.

Ranger just looked at her.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't tell that to me, tell that to Stephanie."

She looked at me. "I'm sorry. Really. It was just..."

"Enough!" Ranger barked. Everyone jumped, including me.

"We're going, now. You had enough excitement for today." Ella said, and hugged me. The others hugged and kissed me, too. Then they walked out of the room. Cerleen followed them, looking down at her feet.

Ranger and me sat silently until the door closed.

"I'm sorry babe." Ranger said, hugging me to him. "I'm so sorry, babe." His voice shook. I wrapped my left arm around him and stroked his back.

"It's okay. I forgive you. You didn't know."

"But I should have! My family noticed that something was wrong."

"You are no superhero, Ranger. You're human and you were under a lot of pressure." He nodded but I knew that he still felt bad. He probably would for a while.

The next morning I woke up to the ringing of a phone. I was snuggled into Ranger. He had his arms around me, carefully avoiding my right arm and shoulder.

"Babe, answer it." I looked around. Oh, it was my phone. Probably my mother.

"Mom?"

"Not really."

„Oh, hey Joe...umm, how are you?" I felt Ranger tense up beside me and he accidently touched my arm. I winced and he immediately loosened his grip.

"I'm good, Stephanie." I sat up against the headboard.

"Juniak told you everything?"

"Yes."

"I'm sorry you were just taken by surprise like this. I had wanted to tell you myself during a quiet moment. But I couldn't yet."

"I know." I started to stroke Ranger's hair. He was starting to relax, watching me the whole time.

"That's good."

"So, are you happy?" I smiled and put my hand on my belly, Ranger covered it with his.

"Yes, I'm very happy."

"You finaly learned to fly, huh?" I laughed.

"Definetly."

"So, when's the wedding going to take place? And am I invited?"

"Uhmmmm, we haven't really had time to talk about a wedding yet. But I'm sure you will be invited." Ranger raised an eyebrow.

"How are you feeling?"

"Okay, I'm a little uncomfortable because I can't take pain killers but it's okay."

"And the baby?"

"Is absolutely fine."

"That's good.

„Hmmm, can I still call you cupcake?"

"Of course you can."

"And we can still meet for pizza or a game?"

"Sure, you don't think I can only live from rabbit food, do you?" Ranger growled.

"Is he with you?" I smiled at Ranger and leaned down to place a short kiss on his nose.

"Yes, he is?"

"Okay, then let me talk to him. I'll tell him what we found out."

"Okay. Bye, Joe."

"Bye, Cupcake."

I gave the phone to Ranger. He got up and went out of the room. Huh, but he gets to lsiten to my converstaions.

I slowly got up. I didn't need the toast and the tea anymore. My morning sickness was better. Now I only was sick for the first ten minutes after standing up but I didn't have to throw up anymore.

Twenty minutes later I was sitting in the kitchen together with Ella, having breakfast. Ranger was talking to Tank in the living room.

My mood wasn't really good since my arm hurt and I couldn't have coffee because of my baby. Well, it was worth it. I smiled and put my left arm around my belly.

"So, can you still go to your mother's birthday?"

I sighed. "I don't know yet. Dr. Meek wants to see me on Wednesday. She will decide it then. Until then I have to rest and am not allowed to leave the building."

"That's not so bad. Besides it's really hot outside. The weather makes you crazy."

I nodded.

"I have something for you." Ella went out of the room and came back with a present.

"Ella, you shouldn't have. I should buy you presents."

"Come on, open it."

I opened it. It was a book. "Italian cooking".

"You seemed to like my cooking lessons, so I thought…."

Ella seemed a little unsure so I got up and hugged her. "I love it."

And I really did. I had liked the cooking. It was quite nice if you knew how to. The only thing I didn't like was the cleaning afterwards.

"Okay, then go sit in the living room, while I tidy up."

I went to sit on the sofa. Ranger had just finished his talk. He came over, took one look at the book and smiled. "Lucky me, that I have very good smoke detectors." I narrowes my eyes but he just laughed. He sat down beside me and carefully pulled me towards him.

"So, cooking, babe?"

I nodded and opened the book. "Ella taught me a few thinks while you were away so that my food would be well-balanced. She noticed that I liked it and since I have nothing better to do, she will teach me a few other things."

He kissed me. "You have to be careful or you will turn into a Burg-woman."

I laughed, "you wish."

"Never." He kissed me again. Longer this time. I sighed.

"Hey, no excitement for the young mother." Tank had come back in. Ranger growled and glared at him but he just laughed.

"Hey, Tank. What's up?" He became serious. I had a bad feeling. Not again, please.

He came over and handed Ranger a note.

"Lester just got this."

The next time you won't be there. And I won't miss again.

I took a few deep breaths. Ranger pulled me close to him and I felt Ella stroke my head. I hadn't even notice her coming in.

Ranger was angry.

„I cannot believe we can't get this guy."

"What information do you have?" I asked. I wanted to do something. I needed to do something.

"We know everything but where he is. We know how he looks, what he does, hell we even know that he had chickenpox with 6."

Ranger took a few breaths and burried his face in my hair.

"He has to have someone, who's helping him." Tank said and Ranger nodded.

"Why?"

"Because some of the information he has have to come from the RangeMan computers, he has to have someone who hacks into them."

"We could ask Randy Briggs if he knows something."

Ranger looked at me and smiled. "That's good. I didn't think of him. Ram and Samuel are good with computers but maybe he can help them. And my brother is going to come soon. He's been out of the hospital for three days now and will fly in tomorrow. He will live here with us if that's okay with you."

I nodded. "Of course it is."

"Good, I'm going to talk to Juniak again and tell him about the note and about Briggs."

"Do you need his number?"

He shook his head.

"Okay, then I'm going to call my mother now and then we can look through the book." I turned to Ella. She smiled at me and nodded.

I hope you like it.

Review, please.