Author: Feather (Flightf)
Warnings: Spoilers all the way through Twelve Sharp.
Disclaimers: I own nothing…JE owns it all….I will return everything when I am finished
Rating (K-M) M (for language)
A/N: This was a challenge sent by the Twelve Sharp group. 'Ranger in the hospital of any point of view.' This is 10th in a series of 12. Thanks to everyone who gave me feedback…it is always appreciated.
Also a very HUGE thank you to Melle who has been acting as my editor extraordinaire. Without her my story would be full of creative grammar and would consist of the never-ending sentence. I think that I am trying to set the record for the most use of "and", "but", "or" and of course just the plain commas in one sentence. MagnificentSin…..I salute you! Thanks for being my second set of eyes. I really appreciate your tough love !
Every girl that grew up in my neighborhood had one goal in life. They wanted to get married, have a few kids, and have the perfect house. It's a type of competition that's instilled into the girls. You don't want to be the only girl in your class not married. You don't want to walk down the street and have people feel sorry for you for being a failure. In this competition, I'm considered a first place trophy. I'm handsome, I have a good job, I own my own house, and I'm ready to be a father. Unfortunately, I'm the dumb ass who fell in love with the only girl I have ever met who didn't want to win this game. In fact I'm not sure she is even playing.
I'm sitting in this chair trying to decide if I should be on cloud nine or jumping off the closest bridge. For the past three years I have been waiting for Stephanie Plum to say the three magic words. I was starting to fear that it would never happen. I would think that she was on the brink and then I would hear, "I'm sorry Joe; you know that I feel it." And it finally happened tonight.
Just when I was positive that she was gone to me forever, Stephanie turned to me and said the three words I'd been waiting to hear. When I walked into that apartment it was clear that Stephanie's heart was breaking. She screaming but you could tell by looking in her eyes that she wasn't really there. She couldn't face what everyone had known all along and she'd been denying even to herself.
As we drove to the hospital, I could see her returning. I could see the panic changing into fear. I tried to reassure her that everything was going to be fine, that it was worse than it looked. That it wasn't her fault that Ranger got shot. I was in the process of describing Ranger before he entered her apartment, when she turned to me and finally said those three magic words. I said the only thing that I could get out of my mouth, "Yeah I know, but it was nice to hear you say it. I love you, too."
As we walked into the Emergency Room I held onto Stephanie as tight as I could. I was trying to be supportive because I knew that Stephanie needed to make sure that Ranger was okay. I figured that we would be here until the doctors reassured us that he was going to recover, then I could take Stephanie home and make her repeat the "I love you until she was hoarse. I thought that I could make her throw in a few "Gods" and maybe "Oh's" before "I love you" but the gist would be the same. I really needed to hear those words in that circumstance.
When Ranger was finally out of surgery I watched as Tank lead Stephanie into Rangers ICU room. Watching through the glass was like watching a play. Stephanie stood at the end of the bed just looking at Ranger. One of the things that I love about Stephanie was that she was so open and honest. Typically you can read exactly what she's thinking by her expressive face. Tonight was no exception and what I was reading sent me into full panic mode. At first there was a hint of relief, which turned into anger, and then I saw love for a brief second, which turned into panic. At that moment Tank stepped into my view and lead Stephanie to the chair beside the bed.
I couldn't take my eyes off of Stephanie, and what I saw was killing me, an internal battle raged inside of me. What does all this mean? Had I been in the dark this whole time? Have I lost her? Did I ever really have her? No, I couldn't have lost her; she just told me that she loved me. He was only her friend. Stephanie wouldn't be with me if she wanted to be with him, would she? The fact that she kept coming back to me meant that was number one in her life. Of course Stephanie loved him; he was her friend. Stephanie loved all her friends. If this were any one of her friends she would be doing the same thing. My mind was racing at 100 miles and hour. It was screaming at me and I couldn't get it to stop. I didn't want to hear my own voice telling me that my deepest darkest fears were coming true.
I heard the sliding of a metal chair against the floor and I realized that I was standing at the window. I didn't even realize that I had moved. If looks could kill Lester would have killed me on the spot with the look that he was giving me. I put my cop face firmly in place and returned to my seat.
I scanned the room as I sat down finally settling on Stephanie. I could feel the panic rising in my throat, as I watched Stephanie absently stroke his hand. Touching him came very easy to her, it was obvious that she was used to touching him. I squashed the panic back down willing myself to stay calm. I needed to stay calm; this is not the place to loose control.
I needed to stay in control; it was time to come up with a plan. I needed to convince Stephanie that we belonged together. I needed to make her see that it was time to settle down, get married and have a few kids. It was time for her to find a safe job, where she would be home every night waiting for me, or better yet to quit work and stay at home with our kids. As we accomplished these goals she would grow apart from Ranger. She wouldn't need him to save her anymore. He would stop involving her in his problems. She would realize that his lifestyle was too drastic to stay in her life. She would hang curtains and our life would be perfect. I just needed to convince her that we could have the perfect Burg life.
Direct quote from 12 Sharp hardback page 305.