Chapter 31: Harsh reality

Warning: language and serious subjects.

As soon as I kicked open the door, I knew we were in big trouble. Gruber and Wilder were in here, and they were prepared for us. They weren't alone, they were armed and they were angry. I shouted in my radio for back up as I started fighting the four guys who jumped me... I felt blows everywhere on my body… I punched one guy hard enough to make him fall to the floor and kicked another in the knee. But then I felt something hard hitting the back of my head and I felt myself go down on my knees, temporarily loosing vision. Just as I heard Tank shouting in my ear that he had kicked the shit out of the four guys attacking him and was coming to help me, I saw something from the corner of my eye… fuck… a gun… I tried to move away while making a grab for my own gun, but I was too late and too slow because of the blow to my head and I felt the two sharp stings as bullets entered my shoulder and leg and I thought why the hell am I wearing a vest if they are shooting me in my arms and legs. Then another blow to my side of my head made stars explode behind my eyes and the last thing I remember was my Babe, and how I didn't get to see her today…

Stephanie POV

Juanita and Carlos were lost in thought for a moment, and Aurelia picked up the story.

"We were very surprised when he told us he had enlisted for the army. He had never shown much interest in the army, so we had no idea where that came from. However, he went in and it turned out he was a natural. He became Special Forces after about 2 years and seemed well on his way to build a solid career, until he suddenly came home telling us he was married, with a child on the way. We were very surprised, he hadn't mentioned any woman at all. We knew he went out with his army mates, but we never heard him talk about anything other than drinking and watching a game. He explained the situation, told us he would divorce her again after the baby was born, but that he wanted to do the right thing and provide for his child. He found it very difficult to talk about it, and he seemed very aware of the moral issues involved, since she was a Catholic girl and everything. He seemed to be doing the right thing at the time and so we never thought much of it until 3 years later."

Aurelia took a sip of her coke and offered me another snack before she continued. This time I didn't even look at the plate and just picked the first thing that I saw. It tasted delicious anyway, but I was so wrapped up in the story that even food came into second place now. After everybody had something in their hands, she put the plate down again and resumed her story.

"Three years later, he had just returned from a particularly difficult operation. We never knew exactly what he was doing or where he was, but he had been away for almost a year. He came home and was very quiet, emotionally withdrawn. It wasn't unusual for him to be quiet or tired after a mission, but this was different. He was easily annoyed, angry about little things, he would spend hours on his own in his room. We tried to find out what was going on, but he wouldn't say a word. We thought it was related to whatever mission he had done, thinking he maybe lost a friend during this mission, or something like that. One night he got completely wasted, which was very unusual, and he started talking. First it made no sense to me, but slowly I began to understand what he was telling me. During that last mission, he had met a woman. A woman he fell in love with, but she had betrayed him. Turns out she was sleeping with the enemy, literally in this case. She was a local woman who had realized that those foreign soldiers were easy targets. She was pretty, did anything for cash and she was smart. She soon learned that she could find out a lot of information from tired, weary and sex deprived soldiers and she sold her secrets to the highest bidders. Although she never got any information from Ricardo, she did manage to get some information from another guy in the same camp, and as a result a good friend of Ricardo and team member was killed."

I was quietly thinking about this information. Ranger was the most moral person I knew, even if his moral code was different from the average. I had never realized that usually something very testing happens before your convictions become very strong. Before I could ponder this thought, Aurelia continued.

"Ricardo found out what happened because he caught this other guy and this woman in bed with each other. He had hit her and had kicked the shit out of this other guy and that emotional response bothered him extremely. He said he had behaved just like his biological father, using violence when he was angry. He said he never thought he could hit a woman ever in his life, but that he had wanted to kill her right there and then. He said he was no better than the bastard that had made his mothers life a living hell, and that he now realized he couldn't escape his genes, only suppress them. So he had vowed to himself to never ever get close to a woman again."

Chapter 32: Trouble

When Aurelia said that last sentence, it was very quiet for a moment. My mind was busy processing that last bit of information. Ranger thought he was a danger to me, that he would hit me in the end because I would push him over the edge on a bad moment. I couldn't believe my ears: he was the one who always kept me safe, he was the one who was always in control. I had never ever felt threatened by him.

We all have moments when it becomes too much, that is what makes you human. Granted, Ranger could do more damage than an average guy due to his training, but still. I knew Ranger killed a man for me, but that was to protect me. And I still remembered the evening when he was FTA and I had met up with him in the Bonds office because I had wanted to bring him in, and he had cuffed me so he could take me to a safehouse. He had released me in the end, despite his frustration. And during the time that Julie was kidnapped he must have been under a lot of stress, but he had never taken it out on me. Actually, it seemed in those days like he wanted to be closer to me, in stead of keeping his distance.

"But…" I started, wanting to say something about how the situation during his army mission and today were in no way the same, when Aurelia nodded.

"I know, I told him that same evening that he was making a big mistake. That yes, he had hit a woman, but she had pushed him to his limits and he hadn't killed her, despite his wish to do so. He hadn't killed the other guy either, in stead he told his commander what had happened and testified against him later on. But you know Ricardo, he is as stubborn as hell, once he sets his mind to something, it is no use trying to stop him. So from that day forward, we never heard him talk about a relationship, family or anything like that ever again. He did financially take care of his daughter, made sure he provided for her, but he remained emotionally distant. To him, the subject was closed."

A painful look crossed over the face of his mother, and she softly continued.

"We thought he would change when he got out of the army. We found out that he had started using his second name, Carlos, to honor my husband and because he felt that that was his real father and we thought that maybe he would also change his point of view on relationships, but he didn't. He started Rangeman and he worked really hard, so we didn't get to see much of him, but when we did and we asked him about women, he would simply tell us that there were no women in his life, and that he didn't want a family. He said he was happy with his life, that it was complete, but when some of our children married and had children of their own, we could see the longing in his eyes. We urged him to spend more time with Julie, but he said that that would only be dangerous to her."

"We had really given up hope when one day he came over for dinner and he was different. None of us could say exactly what was different about him, but we all noticed it. We thought maybe he had signed a good business deal or something like that, until a few weeks later he started mentioning this woman that he was training to become a bounty hunter."

Juanita smiled at me, and I could only guess what kind of stories they'd heard about me in those days. I could feel the color rising to my cheeks.

"He admired you for your tenacity and your instinct. He told us how you brought that police officer that was FTA into the police station and he was smiling and laughing during the whole story and for the first time we realized that you might be that one woman that he would fall in love with despite his intention to never get close to a woman again. However, he must have realized it himself as well, because after a while we heard less and less about you. But we did find out a few things through Tank. One day we asked him what was going on, because Ricardo seemed 'off' for some reason. Tank said he didn't know everything, but that he thought that Ricardo had fallen in love with you and was now fighting it. He told us about your relationship with the police officer and we thought that that was it, no hope left. Ricardo would keep his distance if you were involved with someone else. But we were glad to find out that you always remained in his life and that you helped him whenever needed. And then we heard that you and the cop had broken up, and we got our hopes up again, but nothing happened."

I almost laughed when his mother said she thought that Ranger would keep his distance because I was involved with Morelli. He had stopped just before we got naked on several occasions, but you couldn't say he hadn't brought it up… Aurelia smiled at me and I got the feeling she had a better idea of what Ranger's idea was of "keeping his distance" and took up the story.

"We couldn't believe it! Ricardo was in love and the woman was available and he didn't make a move! He was scared shitless. So when he got sick and you called, I finally saw a way to meet you and to get things moving between you two. We weren't sure about your feelings for him, but as soon as we saw you two together, we knew. You two are perfect together, so I set up a few plans to get you guys together. Of course it is always dangerous to interfere with Ricardo's life, but in this matter I saw no other way."

His parents were smiling at me and I was blushing again after the "perfect together" comment. Aurelia smiled too and gave me a quick hug.

"I'm so glad that you called me to tell me you wanted to get involved with him, you made my day. I was getting desperate myself and…"

Her phone rang and she looked at the display and frowned.

"One moment," she said and got up while she answered the phone.

"Hello?" She listened to the person on the other side and her whole body stiffened.

"When?" she practically barked into the phone.

"How bad?"

"Okay, I'm coming." Aurelia flipped her phone shut and looked at me with a very serious look in her eyes.

Uh oh, this couldn't be good.

"That was the hospital. Ricardo, Lester and Cal are on their way to the ER with various injuries. Apparently something went wrong during a capture of an FTA. They didn't have a whole lot of information for me yet, but I need to go there. Do you want to come, Stephanie?"

I felt panick rising in me and I could only nod my answer. I automatically got up and followed her to her car without saying a word.

While we were driving to the hospital there was only one thought in my mind: please let Ranger survive.

Chapter 33: Wakey, wakey

I slowly regained consciousness and tried to remember what happened. Problem was that a very loud and irritating noise was all around me and it took me a while to realize that it was a siren. I tried to open my eyes, but the light was too bright and I quickly squeezed my eyes shut again, pain shooting through my head. I heard some noise around me and I felt a hand on my head, opening one eyelid and shining a light in my eyes. I tried to move my head away, because the light was causing a piercing pain in my skull, but I discovered I couldn't move my head. Shit.

The light was shone in my other eye now and suddenly I felt my stomach turn and threw up. For a moment I was choking but then I was turned on my side. When my stomach was empty, and I was rolled back on my back I felt a lot of pain everywhere. Something was placed over my mouth. I realized I couldn't remember what had happened, but I felt like I had been thrown down the stairs. More sounds around me, until I realized that somebody was actually talking to me.

"…hospital… hear me?... open… eyes…" Whatever. I couldn't be bothered right now. It was more important to find out where I was and what was going on. First of all, with me. I slowly started to move all my limbs to see if they were still attached when I found out that I could only move my feet and one hand, but no legs and no right arm. Okay, this was bad news. Something was quite tight around my neck, preventing movement, and I decided that that was the first thing that had to go.

It was about time for me to get away from this blaring siren anyway, so I moved my left hand to my neck and felt whatever it was that was around it, when my hand was grabbed and pulled away. More talking noises in the background, while I pulled my arm free and moved it back up. Whoever it was, he/she was a pain in the ass. First with the light, and now this. My arm was grabbed again, and this time the other person held on to it firmly, above my head this time. A different voice, close to my ear this time, talking to me. Something in the back of my mind told me that I knew this voice, but because I couldn't come up with a name, I let it go. Thinking hurt my head too much anyway.

I started moving my body, only to discover that I was strapped down on something hard and that movement hurt. Damn it. The talking close to my ear got louder, and it pissed me off. I needed some peace and quiet so I could think, not some screaming siren and someone shouting in my ear. My headache was bad enough already. I tried to move away from the sound, but found I still couldn't.

"Ranger… Ranger!... Wake up… Open your eyes…" Screw you, my eyes were staying closed! I tried to pull my hand back, but somebody was squeezing it.

"Come on, Ranger, open your eyes!" No, damn it. I am busy. I was again trying to move, a bit more forceful this time and found out two things. First that movement resulted in a lot of pain and secondly that the talking got louder every time I moved. I felt a hand on my shoulder which tried to stop my movement and I tried to shake it off. It wasn't working… Hmmm, I needed to think about this, so I stopped moving.

Tank POV

"Try to keep him as still as possible," the paramedic said to me. Hell, I was trying, but I didn't think that Ranger understood what was going on right now, and consequently he was moving all over the place, or at least as much as the straps allowed.

We were on our way to the hospital, and I was glad that he had started to regain consciousness, but I had no idea if there was any brain damage after the two blows to his head. There was an open wound on the back of his head which had resulted in quite some blood loss and there was a big bruise on the side of his head. Already, his left eye was almost swollen shut.

The paramedics had put him on a backboard with a neck collar to protect his neck. They had cut all his clothes off and a lot of damage was revealed. They had attached him to a heart monitor, given him an IV and placed an oxygen mask over his mouth, and they had fixated his right arm because of the bullet wound in his shoulder. There was another bullet wound in his leg and bruising all over him. It looked like some ribs might be broken and he had sprained an ankle. The bruise from the elevator door was clearly visible on his arm by now as was the bruise on his hip which he got from the FTA when Hal had sprayed him with pepper spray earlier today. But that would heal in a matter of days or weeks. My biggest worry right now was his head. So I squeezed his shoulder and started urging him to open his eyes once again.

Ranger POV

"Ranger, open your eyes." Jeez, this person was insistent. So to please whoever it was, I opened my eyes, only to close them straight away because of the light.

"That's it… Come on, open your eyes." The other voice was at it again as well, so I tried again, slower this time and with a lot of blinking I managed to open my eyes. Hang on, only one eye was open, the other wasn't… What the hell?!

"Ranger… Ranger…" I looked up and saw Tank. Tank! That was the voice I had heard earlier, I remembered now.

"Hey, man," Tank said. I tried to say something back, but my voice wasn't working. My throat was dry and raw from the throwing up. I swallowed and cleared my throat.

"Hi," I said back.

"Do you remember what happened?" Tank asked with concern. I had to think about that. Nope, couldn't say I remembered what happened, so I tried to shake my head.

"You got shot and hit on the head." Really?! Well, that would explain the head ache.

"Hi, my name is Dean and I'm a paramedic. You're on your way to hospital." I shifted my eyes to Dean and just nodded.

"How do you feel? Are you in any pain?" Dean asked. I was thinking about this question when I saw Tank sitting near my head.

"Hey Tank," I said, wondering what he was doing here.

"Ranger," Tank said slowly, looking at a second guy who was sitting to my right.

"I think he has a concussion. He will probably ask a lot of questions again and again. Just answer them every time in the same way, because right now his memory doesn't record anything," the guy said. I hope he wasn't talking about me.

"What am I doing here?" I asked, trying to move but finding that I couldn't.

"You're on your way to hospital, you have a concussion and you got shot." I just nodded and tried really hard to think about how I got this concussion, but my mind went blank. Great. A horrible thought occurred to me.

"Babe! Where is she? Is she alright?" I started to move, but Tank put a hand on my shoulder and held me down.

"She's fine, Ranger. Don't move." I settled down again and closed my eyes against the bright light inside the ambulance.

Some moments later, I felt something on my arm and opened my eyes again, and saw that someone was attaching a blood pressure cuff to my arm.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"My name is Dean and I'm a paramedic. You're on your way to hospital because you got shot and hit on the head," he said. Tank moved into my view. He looked worried.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him, but he didn't answer me. In stead he looked at Dean.

"Is this normal?" he asked Dean. Dean nodded and said:

"Yeah, don't worry about it. So far he is showing classic signs of a concussion, and they will give him a scan in the hospital, just to be sure."

"Is what normal?" I asked, but nobody answered. How rude.

Chapter 34

When we arrived at the hospital, I was beyond worried. Aurelia talked to some people at the desk and then walked back to me.

"Ricardo is in the Trauma room. I'm going in now to see what's going on. You can follow me to the entrance of the room, but you'll have to wait outside, okay?" I nodded and Aurelia guided me through a short hall on the left. We were standing in front of a large area with a few beds and a lot of equipment. The doors had windows, but were closed. However, some sounds drifted through, like the beeping of a heart monitor and some shouted orders. I could see that one bed was taken, and with a grasp I realized that it was Ranger who was laying in that bed. Aurelia grabbed my upper arms turned me to face her.

"Steph, don't worry yet, okay. It might look really scary and serious, but remember that a lot is just precaution. I'll let you know as soon as I can what's going on. Just wait here, okay?"

"Okay," I whispered and she was gone through the doors.

I looked at Ranger, or what I could see of him. He was strapped down to a backboard and there was a brace around his neck. He seemed to have bruises everywhere, and there was a bandage around his upper leg and shoulder. There were maybe 6 people running around him, doing all kinds of things. He was hooked up to a monitor, there were 3 IV's hanging next to his bed and he had an oxygen mask over his face. Blood seemed to be everywhere. I couldn't do any other thing than just stare and hope that it wasn't as bad as it looked.

I could see Aurelia approach Ranger and talk to him. Ranger seemed agitated, he was constantly trying to move and his one free hand was trying to get the neck brace off. Aurelia grabbed his hand and held it away from the brace, and Ranger squirmed some more. A nurse took over Ranger's hand and held it while Aurelia shone a light in Rangers eyes. I could hear his voice, but I couldn't make out the words. Suddenly there was a lot of movement and they turned Ranger on his side, with backboard and all and I could see Aurelia jumping back, but apparently too late because she now had a large stain on the front of her shirt. After a minute they turned Ranger back on his back again and someone wiped his face and replaced the oxygen mask. Aurelia exchanged a few more words with Ranger and then walked towards the door again.

As soon as she was through the door, I almost jumped her.

"How is he, what's wrong with him, is he going to be okay?"

"Slow down, slow down, Steph. So far it looks like he has a lot of injuries, but none of them life threatening. The biggest problem right now is that he has a concussion, and he keeps forgetting what happened, so he is very combative. He was shot twice, in his leg and shoulder, he has a lot of bruises and one head wound which will need stitches. He will need a CT scan of his head to see if there is any damage, he will need surgery for those bullet wounds and the laceration to the back of his head, he'll have a few x-rays taken to see if he broke any bones and he will need a lot of ice and rest so the bruises can heal."

"But he will be okay?" I asked anxiously.

"Right now it looks good, but we'll have to wait for the CT and x-rays."

"What happened to your shirt?" I asked, looking at the stain.

"He threw up, it is very common for people with a concussion to throw up, and unfortunately he threw up over me. I'm going to change and then I'll go back in."

"When can I talk to him?"

"You will have to… hang on," Aurelia said, because several sounds erupted from the room. It looked as though Ranger had managed to pull out an IV and was trying to loose his neck brace while two guys desperately tried to keep him down. I could hear someone shout for security and Aurelia mumbled something in Spanish under her breath and then ran back into the room.

Ranger POV

I still didn't know where I was, and I was getting pissed off.

"Ricardo!" I suddenly heard and realized that that was my sister's voice. I stopped my struggle for a moment in surprise and immediately I felt my left arm being tied down. Shit.

"Aurelia, what the fuck is going on?"

"Ricardo, calm down. You're in the hospital, you were shot and you have a concussion. You have to stay still while they treat you."

"What are you talking about?" My memory was one big empty space right now, so I had no idea what she was talking about.

"Ricardo, you were shot about 30 minutes ago and you took 2 blows to the head. You're in the hospital now."

"What happened to your shirt?" I asked, because she had a huge stain down the front.

"Ehm… someone got sick," she said. Suddenly I felt a familiar tingle and looked around.

"Where's Stephanie, is she okay?" I didn't know why, but I knew I had to see her. So I tried to move again, but found out that all my limbs were tied down now. My left arm was tied over my head, my right to the side of the bed and both legs were tied down as well.

"Ricardo, stop moving!" Aurelia's voice was very stern.

"Let me go, I need to see Stephanie."

Aurelia POV

Ricardo was getting combative again, and I wasn't sure what to do. I could always knock him out with some sedative, but that was not advisable while we weren't sure what was going on in his head. However, all this moving and squirming could increase any damage to his neck and had to stop. I decided it was time for a gamble and motioned to Stephanie who was still waiting outside, nose to the glass. She seemed to hesitate, but I motioned her again, while grabbing Ricardo's head in order to stop him moving.

"If you keep this up, I'll sedate you. Lay still, I'm serious!" I told him.

"Don't you dare to sedate me!" he bit back.

"Not much you can do about it, brother," I said to him, and showed him the syringe with the sedative.

"Move again and I'll sedate you, is that clear?" His eyes were large with anger, but he did stop moving.

I looked up to see Stephanie standing about a meter away from the bed, eyes huge and unsure. Ricardo couldn't see her yet, so I motioned her closer.

"Ricardo, Stephanie is here," I said and pulled Steph closer to the bed. Ricardo looked at her for a moment, and I could see his heart rate drop 10 beats while he gave her a small smile. Wow!

"Ranger, are you okay?" she asked him and he was quiet for a moment. He probably had forgotten again what was going on, but didn't want to tell her that. I had to smile at that, my brother always wanted to appear strong and in control, even when he was tied down to a hospital bed with injuries all over him and was under threat of sedation in order to keep him still.

"I'm fine," he said, and Stephanie actually snorted. I laughed as well, and he glared at me.

"You probably will be much better in a few days, but first you will get your ct-scan," I said while I pulled the protective barrier on the side of his bed up and covered him with a blanket so we could transport him upstairs.

"Just wait down here, Steph, we'll be back in about 20 minutes."

"Okay," she said, but her eyes never left Ricardo's and she followed us right up to the elevator. 'He'll be fine' I mouthed to her, because she looked so worried and she gave me small nod, not yet sure.

As soon as the elevator doors closed, Ricardo looked up at me and said:

"What's going on, where am I?" and started moving again.

I sighed and realized he must have forgotten my earlier threat. Don't you just love guys with concussions?

Chapter 35

I was looking at Ranger while he was asleep. The heart monitor showed a steady and regular beat and his breathing was deep and even. He had kicked off most of the blanket, and the only thing he was wearing was a boxer short, which didn't cover much. I slowly looked him over, noting all the damage. His right lower leg was in a cast and his knee was swollen and blue. There was a bandage on his upper thigh where a bullet had left a flesh wound. Aurelia told me that there was also a large bruise on his hip, of which I could only see the upper half see because of the boxer short. His ribs were covered in bruises, of which one was particularly large and dark. I knew the x-rays had shown two cracked ribs, and my guess was that they were under that bruise. My gaze traveled further up, over his broad chest and the lines and stickers for the heart monitor and noted the white bandage on his shoulder and across his chest, which covered the second bullet wound. His arm was in a sling to give his shoulder some rest. His other arm had 2 IV's in it, one in the back of his hand and one on the inside of his arm. Three bags of fluids hung above him, each of them dripping at a different rate. His face was very colorful, with a large bruise on the side of his head where he was hit with an iron bar and several smaller bruises in other places. There was a bandage across his forehead and around his head, which covered the cut in the back of his head. He was receiving oxygen through tubes in his nose and the tubes were placed over his ears and tied together under his chin. Aurelia said he would probably wake up in a few minutes, but right now he seemed to be far away.

His head had been scanned and I was more than relieved when Aurelia told me that they hadn't found any damage. She did tell me he had a severe concussion, but that he would have no lasting damage if he would follow instructions. They had operated on him to remove the bullets and stitch the back of his head. The operation had lasted about an hour, and after 30 minutes in recovery he had been transported to the room he was currently in, and Aurelia had asked me if I wanted to stay with him until he woke up. Hell yeah! So for the last 20 minutes I had been sitting next to him, watching him, softly stroking the hand with the IV's in it, waiting for him to open his eyes. According to Aurelia he would probably be a bit disorientated when he woke up, but would be able to remember most of what happened. She said that he had become much more coherent just before they operated on him. I really hoped she was right, because forgetful Ranger scared the hell out of me.

Tank had stayed with me while Ranger was in surgery, as had half of Rangeman. When the news came back that it went okay and that he would recover, a few cheers were heard and most men had returned to Rangeman to resume their duties. Tank had said he would check up on Lester and Cal, who had minor injuries and had been waiting in the ER for treatment while I was sitting with Ranger.

A small moan escaped his lips and he moved his head. Probably it was painful to lay on the back of his head, with all those stitches in it. He was definitely waking up though, because he was starting to move and he was sighing. I grabbed his hand and gently squeezed it.

"Ranger…. Ranger… open your eyes," I said softly, watching him. Suddenly, with a short intake of breath he opened his eyes and seemed startled. He started to sit up, only to stop when he was about 1 inch of the mattress and drop back with a groan. Instinctively I grabbed his good shoulder and squeezed it a little.

"Shhh, don't get up…" He looked at me for a moment and his eyes became a bit clearer. He slowly looked around the room and looked back at me again.

"You're in the hospital, you've had surgery," I said and he slowly nodded and then pointed to the water that was standing on the bedside table. I grabbed the cup with straw and held it in front of him. He slowly took a sip and swallowed.

"How do you feel?" I asked. He cleared his throat before he spoke.

"How are the others?" he asked in a raspy voice. The others?

"Who?" I asked.

"Lester and Cal… how are they?" he croaked. I had to smile. This was typically Ranger. He was the one who was seriously injured, but his first question was about his men.

"They are fine, minor cuts and bruises," I said. Relief showed on his face.

"We were more worried about you…" I continued and Ranger grimaced.

"How bad… is it?" he asked. It was clear that he was starting to feel some pain.

"Let me get Aurelia," I said. I had promised Aurelia I'd get her as soon as he'd wake up, and as much as I liked this private time with him, I wanted a doctor to look him over again, just to be sure. He really looked worse for wear.

I pressed the bell and Ranger groaned at the mention of his sister, but not from pain this time.

"Aurelia is here?" he asked with his eyes closed.

"Yeah, she treated you in the ER and assisted during the surgery," I said, wondering how much he remembered.

"Great," he said, and Aurelia chose that moment to enter the room.

"Ricardo, you're awake," she said happily and he just glared at her.

"How do you feel?" she asked him.

"Fine," he gritted out while Aurelia was attaching a blood pressure cuff to his arm.

"Don't lie to me, Ricardo," Aurelia said smiling, inflating the cuff and pressing her stethoscope just below the cuff on his arm while listening and slowly deflating the cuff. She grabbed the chart hanging on the end of the bed and wrote something down on it. She looked at him and started asking questions.

"How is your headache?"

"Bad."

"Are you feeling nauseous?"

"No."

"Do you remember what happened today?"

"Yes."

"Tell me," Aurelia said.

"I'm in hospital after surgery because I got shot twice by an FTA," Ranger said. Aurelia nodded.

"What did you have for breakfast today?" she asked him. He seemed to think for a moment before he responded.

"Nothing, I ran out of granola and yoghurt." I rolled my eyes at that.

"What did you have for lunch?"

"Two bites of a hamburger and a few fries," Ranger said, and I felt my eyes popping out of my head. Ranger eating fastfood?

"What?" Even Aurelia seemed surprised.

"Long story. When can I get out of here?" Ranger asked, obviously changing subjects.

"I'd like to keep you for a few days, monitor your condition," Aurelia said.

"No need, my condition is just fine."

"Right," was all Aurelia said, and then proceeded with the check up.

"Tell me when it hurts," she said, while gently probing his face. When she got to the bruise on the side of his head, he tried to move his head away.

"Does it hurt?" Aurelia asked again, and he just glared at her.

"Does it or doesn't it, Ricardo?" she persisted.

"Yes, it does," he said through clenched teeth.

"Then tell me, Ricardo," she scolded him. She continued to feel around his neck, but everything seemed to be okay.

She grabbed her stethoscope and placed it on several places on his chest, listening to his heart, and then asked him if he could sit up so she could listen to his lungs. He slowly moved himself into a sitting position, taking careful breaths and grimacing in pain. I realized that it must be very painful for him to do that with his two cracked ribs and all those bruises. Aurelia quickly listened to his lungs and then helped him to lay back down again. It was the first time I saw Ranger accept her help without complaint, so I realized he must be in a lot of pain. When he was laying down again, he closed his eyes for a moment. The heart monitor showed a much higher rate, an indication of the level of discomfort that Ranger was experiencing, and then one of the machines started beeping. Aurelia checked the machine and pressed a button, and the beeping stopped.

"Your oxygen level is a bit low, I'll give you a mask," Aurelia said to Ranger, and she opened a cupboard and grabbed one. She plugged it in and then gently removed the oxygen tubes from his nose and placed the mask over his nose and mouth. Ranger hadn't protested, moved or opened his eyes, and I was feeling a bit worried.

"Ricardo?" Aurelia asked.

"Mmm?" was all the sound that he made.

"Do you want a painkiller?"

"…Nooo…" he said, slightly slurred. Aurelia placed a hand on his good shoulder and smiled at me.

"He's falling asleep again, perfectly normal after the anesthetic. He'll probably wake up again quite soon, because of the pain."

"How long does he have to stay here?" I asked.

"I would like to keep him for a few days, but I'm not sure if I can make him stay. I'm gonna try, though, and I've got some tricks up my sleeve," Aurelia said, while smiling at me. I was wondering if she was talking about sedating him again…

Tank POV

I had to admire Aurelia for her guts. She is the only person I know who will take Ranger head on. I'm second in command at Rangeman, but even I pick my battles with him. Currently she was trying to get him to stay in the hospital when he was hell-bent on getting out of here. And we were only on day two.

Last night, Stephanie had stayed with him and he had been in too much pain to protest his stay in hospital anyway. Finally, Aurelia had given him a strong sedative that had knocked him out for the night and Stephanie had slept in the room with him. This morning he was a lot more awake than last night, and he wanted to get out asap. I knew he hated hospitals, and the very thought of being in his sister's care scared the shit out of him. However, Aurelia had explained to me in clear words what could happen if he went back to work too soon. His concussion was serious, and he should stay in bed for 2 weeks, flat on his back. No pillows, no sitting up other than for eating or drinking, no nothing. Just laying there. If he didn't do that, he ran a serious risk of long term after effects, such as severe headaches. But how the hell do you get a former Special Forces guy to stay in bed, doing nothing, for two whole weeks?

"I'm serious, Ricardo, if you so much as move your big toe, you're in big trouble." Aurelia's said, her anger and frustration clearly visible and audible.

"I'm no child, you can't keep me here against my will," Ranger shot back, his eyes black with anger. Stephanie stood on the side, watching the exchange between them like a tennis match. I was standing next to the door, waiting to see where this was going. I agreed with Aurelia, Ranger should stay in hospital for a few more days at least, but I was waiting to see how this fight would end first.

Luckily, his parents chose this moment to come in, and I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing. Aurelia looked up and smiled and Ranger groaned when his mother asked them what was going on. This could get interesting!