Ranger and Stephanie belong to Janet. The mistakes are mine. I decided to try out a third challenge. This one is 'a romantic scene in an unromantic place' with ten new words so warnings for a little Babe alone-time fun.

Chapter 3

Ranger's POV

"I really hate the idea of leaving this place," Steph shared.

That isn't a surprise, given how Stephanie has taken to the island, but her admitting that while we're currently stranded is unexpected. Technically, we aren't stranded. If I wanted an elbow to the ribs, I could suggest we bundle up the essentials and take a four-mile walk/hike back to the warehouse where we've been stationed these past two weeks. But I decided just she and I hanging out here in our truck while we wait for R.C. to arrive with a new rocker arm has its benefits.

Warm temperatures, an impending rain shower, and the woman I can't live without in an extremely good mood despite the difficulty Puerto Rico was still facing when we and Wright's team touched down here. If my mother had joined us, she would've had her Bible out in record time to put some weight behind her prayers for everyone's morale and safety, her brown eyes lighting with a renewed spark at a new opportunity to help out others. This trip has shown me a similar side in Stephanie, and I see a lot of the same determination and compassion my mother has in her.

"I know," I told Steph. "You've gone from a woman who hated getting up before noon, to one who wakes up too early and immediately rolls out of bed as she asks what we're doing that day."

"Give me a direction and some motivation, and there's no stopping me," she said, clearly joking.

I'm not.

"Proud of you, Babe."

"I have to say ... I'm proud of me, too. I wanted to do something with my life, but I never thought I'd be able to accomplish anything beyond catching a few bad guys. This is something else altogether."

"I'm glad you see that. A lot of people are either blind to those around them and their suffering, or blind to the positive impact they have made on the lives of others."

"I know which of those people I want to be."

"No wanting required. You're already there."

"Thanks for saying that, but we both know I'm only here because of you."

"Yes ... I put this trip together, but you're the one who chose to come. And you're the one who continues to bust her ass everyday to make outlooks and homes better wherever we find ourselves. You could be back in Jersey right now, emptying my bottle of shower gel in my bathroom in one of your preferred hour-long showers, afterwards sleeping ten to twelve hours in a king-sized bed in my climate controlled environment. But instead, you're here ... some nights too tired or sore to even consider showering, scooting out of a hotel bed right behind me before dawn, knowing your body will only be stopping a few hours before morning happens all over again."

"That's not completely true. We're stopped now, aren't we? You know ... if we had a horse, all we'd need is advice from a blacksmith to get back on the road and back to business again, none of this waiting around for a part."

"Julie has been taking riding lessons since she was seven, Babe. Horses require more care and gear than you'd think."

"Figures." She cuddled up closer to me as we watched a few raindrops splatter against the windshield. "I shouldn't admit this, knowing why we came to the island, but this particular moment is kinda nice. Just the two of us, alone like we usually aren't until we call it a day, and a passing rain cloud is giving us background noise that sounds slightly musical if you let your imagination run with it. If we had a tent and some barbeque, we'd have what the Merry Men would call the ideal vacation."

"Only you, Steph."

"Okay, so this would be luxurious accommodations for them after the places they've 'camped', but you have to admit ... this does feel oddly romantic."

"Being in a non-moving truck, sitting almost front bumper-to-tree, on a heavily-forested road that only became cautiously usable yesterday, is romantic to you?"

She made good use of what is an almost extinct bench seat by sliding closer and wrapping both of her arms tight around me.

"Maybe it's just the company I'm lucky to have with me that has me feeling this way," she said into my pec.

That's all my body needed to hear. My mind was a little more focused, knowing Kurtis' man R.C., won't be here for at least another fifteen minutes. That knowledge, and the fact that we can't be seen from the road where I'd managed to coast the truck to, had me turning my body towards her so I could lower my head and kiss her.

My tongue touched hers as I deepened the kiss. Her moan, which she still vehemently claims not to do, encouraged me to take things further. I slid my hand under the "Wright Way" t-shirt she was given as a 'welcome to the family' gift by Kurt's team, and my fingers moved beneath the bra covering the soft skin I was after.

"Should we be doing this now? Here?" Steph asked, when I ended the kiss in preparation for the next one.

"We can't help anyone except ourselves at the moment. I don't see why we can't celebrate life, given how many lives have been lost here."

"I'm not sure bringing up the thousands of people who have died on the island over the last year is the way to keep a sexy mood going."

"That wasn't my intention. What I was saying is that I understand more than most that life is precious and unpredictable. And I refuse to take you, or any time I have with you, for granted. If another hurricane hit right now and I was killed due to it, I want you to know, and actually be able to feel, how much I love and appreciate you. It would be disrespectful to every victim here if we act as though we're invincible and that tomorrow is always promised to us."

"Enough talking," she said, bypassing my shirt and going straight to undoing my belt buckle, "more kissing."

I wasn't spouting introspective shit just to get into her pants ... in her shorts in today's case. Puerto Rico has had a profound effect on me as it has her, not only because Jersey has already been hit with Frankenstorm Sandy, and having to worry about Julie with what feels like every hurricane that has formed over the last decade, has made a natural disaster always a concern. But Steph and I also have jobs that could get us killed every time we leave the building. Celebrate life and respect death has been my motto, and how I've lived my life, since enlisting. And it appears Stephanie has taken my message to heart.

Her shirt and bra were pushed up so I could tease her nipples with my mouth, lips, and tongue, as I helped her out of her shorts and panties. But before I could get my body out from behind the wheel, or stop her to extend the play until time took the matter out of my hands, she straddled me and slid her body down onto mine.

She began to roll her hips and I did what I could to hold on, driving mine upwards every time she came back down. It wasn't as leisurely as I would've liked, but what we made was even more love regardless of our short window of opportunity.

Every second, every kiss, and every body roll, she and I made count. Our ten minutes was as thorough and satisfying as entire nights we've spent together. When the emotions are there, everything comes together quickly ... quite literally today when it came to us inside this pickup.

"I love you like crazy, you know," she whispered, when we had stopped moving and started breathing again.

Our foreheads are still touching and the curls that were loose at her temple caught the beads of sweat streaming down the left side of my face. My t-shirt will have to make a pass over the rest on the right side if she doesn't kiss them off me as we got each other presentable again.

"I do know that," I assured her. "I hear and feel it everyday."

"Good. That means I'm finally doing something right. And in case I've been too subtle in saying it ... I'm so glad I came to this island with you."

"So am I ... and so is every person you've encountered, helped, and have quickly befriended, here."

A/N: Since writing the last chapter, I was happy to find out that there's actually a charity similar to Ranger's buddy Kurt's ... called Team Rubicon. For anyone interested, you can learn about their disaster relief efforts by googling their name and/or website that fanfic won't let me provide here.