I still don't own anything, so I'm still not making any money…

CHAPTER 11

Breakfast lasted nearly an hour, as the guys caught up, talked about some of their missions that weren't classified and allude to some that were. I spent the time watching Ranger relax. I'd seen the other guys goofing off like this plenty of times, bur Ranger rarely joined them… at least when I was around. None of the guys were acting like his behavior was out of the ordinary, so I decided it must not be. And I have to admit, I was really liking this side of him.

Eventually, it was time to get to work for those of us who had been here, and time to catch up on business for those that had been 'away.' The guys and I had just about finished piling the breakfast dishes and few leftovers onto a tray for Ella when the room suddenly went silent.

Usually that means Ranger had shown up, but he was helping scrape the last few plates to be stacked. Curious, I turned around to investigate. What I found, was a petite Cuban woman who looked to be in her mid twenties, standing in the doorway, hands on hips, foot tapping,

Once she had the attention of the entire room, she strode across it, stiletto boots clicking, to stand in front of Ranger.

"Is it really that difficult for you to pick up a phone and call home?" she asked, jabbing her finger into Ranger's chest.

"Mira, I…," Ranger started, when she held up her hand.

"I don't want to hear it. It just would have been nice to know you're still alive," she said, before turning to where Bobby and Tank were standing by Lester's chair. "And did you three forget how to operate a phone as well?"

"We, umm, no," stuttered out Bobby.

"Didn't any of you think we would be worried when you disappeared, yet again, without a word?" she asked, including Ranger this time. By now, any Merry Men who weren't a target of her rant had disappeared, so it was just Ranger, Tank, Lester, Bobby and I with the mystery girl.

"Mira, you know we have to leave on short notice…" tried Ranger.

"Like I said, I don't want to hear excuses," she answered, cutting him off.

I must have let out a small gasp at the way she was talking to Ranger, because suddenly she turned her gaze on me for the first time.

"Mira Manoso," she said, extending her hand towards me.

"Stephanie Plum," I replied, taking her hand in shock. Mystery girl must be one of Ranger's four sisters…that would explain her getting away with talking to him like that.

"Yeah, Babe, Mira's my sister," Ranger said, coming up behind me. "And she only gets away with talking to me like that 'cause she's the baby."

"What have I told you about calling me 'the baby'?" she asked.

"Not to," Ranger said simply, before wrapping her in a tight hug. "It's good to see you baby girl."

"It's good to see you too," she said melting into him. You'd never know that minutes before she had been ready to tear him to pieces.

Once she was loose, she went over to the Merry Men and proceeded to give each of them a similar hug. Once she was through, she turned back to Ranger.

"You probably guessed, but Mama sent me. How she heard you were back, I don't know… I swear the woman has super-powers. Anyway, she expects all of you for the 'agradezca a dios, they made it again' dinner on Sunday. And bring Stephanie," she said before turning to me. "I'm sure Mama would like to meet you. We've all heard quite a bit about you over the last year or so." Thank God

"Umm," I started, not sure how Ranger would feel about this. Apparently it was enough of an affirmative for Mira, though, because she started chatting again.

"Well, I'll see you all on Sunday," said, with a stern look at Ranger. "Stephanie it was nice to meet you. Now I gotta go… things to do, people to see. Adios.

With that, she blew out of the room as suddenly as she had shown up. I was left standing completely befuddled. What had just happened?

There were a million questions racing through my mind, and I couldn't believe I'd finally met a member of Ranger's family. I know he'd told me about them, but it's always good to get some more confirmation he's human and all… When I finally came back to reality, I found Ranger looking at me, and the other guys gone.

"Go ahead babe," Ranger said, with a little smile.

"Go ahead, what?" I asked. I had no clue what he was talking about.

"After Mira, the human whirl-wind, I'm sure you've got a few questions."

"Huh, I'm not sure where to start."

"Let me know when you are."

"I think I'm about ready," I said after a minute or two more of staring into space.

"Okay, shoot."

"So, dinner?" I asked. Right now that seemed like a big concern. I wanted to learn more about Ranger and his life, but meeting the Bat-family? Was I ready for that?

"They're not so bad," he said, coming behind me and wrapping me in his arms. "I've met your family, and if you can survive them, you can survive dinner with the Manoso clan."

"Clan?" I asked.

"My brother, my sisters, their spouses and their kids will be there, Babe," Ranger answered, with a slight grimace.

"Oh," was all I could manage.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine," he repeated, giving me another squeeze before releasing me.

"If you say so. What should I wear?"

"Nothing dressy. Just jeans and a sweater would be fine."

"Okay. Ummm, are you okay with me meeting your family? I mean you're always so… well you never talk about them or anything."

"Yeah, Babe. I'd like you to meet my family. And I don't talk about them, because it's a habit. I try to keep them from being linked to me to keep them safe. I guess I went a bit overboard."

I just gave that an eye roll.

"But I'm gonna have to break that habit a bit now," he said. "Now that the guys and I are finally free men again."

"What? Free men?" I asked quickly.

"Babe," he started, "there's some stuff I need to tell you. It might take awhile, so do you mind if we move this conversation upstairs?"

As much as I was dying to know what it was he had to tell me, the look in his eyes told me this was important to him. So I agreed, taking his hand and leading him to the elevator.

We rode up to the 7th floor in silence, my back to Ranger's front. Once we were there, he positioned us on the couch with me between his legs, nestled against his chest. It was unbelievably comfortable, so I just snuggled in and waited for him to start talking.

"The reason the guys and I have always be so overly careful about security and our personal lives is that we were part of one of those government organizations no one knows about, Babe," Ranger explained. "We were recruited right out of the Ranger to do black-ops."

He paused there, seeming to want some response from me. I wasn't sure what to say, and I didn't want to say the wrong thing, so I nodded against his chest. That seemed to be enough though, because he started talking again.

"We were told we could have civilian lives, but had to be ready to go at a moments notice. We would have to just up and leave when we got a call. Sometime we were gone a few days or a week and others times we were gone for months on end. It didn't take us long to figure out the 'civilian life' wasn't going to work out. The jobs we did were extremely dangerous. We ticked off some bad people, Babe, the kind I wouldn't want finding out about my family."

Here, he paused again and this time I felt like I needed to say something. I focused in on his style of speaking which was niggling at my mind.

"You say this like it was in the past," I said. "But you just did a mission."

"Yeah, Babe," said Ranger with a small smile. "We'd wanted out for the last year or two, and they'd been cutting down our missions, but wouldn't let us go. When this job came up, though, they offered us a deal. They needed a good, experienced team, but it was the kind of job we'd been trying to avoid. They told us if we did it, they'd let us go. So, we're free men, Babe."

"But, so, ummm… what's that mean?" I asked. What I really wanted to know was if this meant his life might suddenly lend itself to relationships.

"It means, I'm a regular guy now," he said with a smile.

"Regular guy?" I asked. Somehow, I couldn't see it.

"Well, as regular as regular as I can be and still be a bounty hunter working in the security industry."

"Oh," was all I could get out. That didn't sound too relationship friendly. I started trying to think of a way to slink off to bed. With all this new information I really needed to spend some time in my thinking position. That and I just couldn't listen to Ranger tell me he didn't do relationships one more time…

"Babe?" Ranger was saying, when I wrenched my attention back to him. "You alright?"

"Ummm, yeah. The excitement of the morning must have been a little much though. I'm tired and a bit queasy, so I'm gonna go lay down for a bit. Okay?"

"Sure, Babe. Uh, do you mind if I join you?"

Did I mind? I had only spent the last month wanting him to return so I could lie in his arms and feel for myself that he was alright. Only, I was really confused… it wasn't like Ranger to take a nap in the middle of the day.

"Haven't had much sleep in the last week, Babe. I'm still not feeling quite like myself," Ranger explained. Seems like his ESP's functioning just fine.

I looked up at him and realized I probably should have responded, but really he just threw me off. What with wanting to nap and then asking to join me.

"Sure Ranger. It is your bed," I said trying to joke.

He didn't say anything, but came up behind me and walked us into the bedroom. We parted as he made his way to his walk in closet and I ducked into the bathroom. I needed to empty my bladder if I didn't want my nap interrupted.

When I came out of the bathroom, Ranger was climbing into bed in his lone pair of boxers. 'You can do this' I told myself as I ducked into the closet he had vacated. My emotions were spinning between the desire to go after what I wanted with Ranger and the fear of him rejecting me. And on top of that, the sight of him in his boxers had sent my hormones into hyper-drive again.

Sighing, I pulled one of Ranger's large, black shirts over my head and walked back into the room. With any luck he'd be asleep, I could slip into bed without waking him and then manage to get some sleep my self… I really was tired.

But no such luck. As I approached the bed, Ranger flipped back the covers for me so I silently climbed into the bed beside him.

Before I could squirm and try to get comfortable, Ranger grabbed me and pulled me against himself. Yep, that's comfortable, I thought, nestling my head onto his shoulder. Just go with it, I reminded myself. I wanted Ranger, and here he was offering cuddle time, so I'd take it.

I was just closing my eyes, because I really did want to sleep, when I felt Ranger press his lips to the top of my head.

"This feels nice," he said, softly.

"Yeah," I agreed. And that was the last thing I remembered.

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A/N: Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it, but please review and let me know what you think!!