JE created the characters below. I definitely deserve no credit for that stroke of brilliance.

Jenny (JenRar), you take the role of beta to a totally different level so that the title doesn't really fit what you do. Unfortunately, I think calling you the "grammar correcting, sentence structuring, run-on ending, punctuation guru, phrase re-worder and general plot suggesting queen" might be a bit of a long title to type out each day.

Chapter 19 - Debriefing

While I had been completely focused on Manny, the guys had moved enough of the old scrap wood and shelving that I could stand up. My legs were shaky, but I felt like they could manage to get me into the house at a bare minimum, so I moved to where Manny was leaning on his cane and nodded to the house.

He looked down at his leg and then seemed really upset as he admitted, "I'm sorry I'm not enough of a man to carry you inside."

"Enough of a man?" I repeated, always hating it when he referred to his injuries as somehow equating with a decrease in his manliness.

"Yeah... You were just buried under rubble and seem to be barely making one foot move in front of the other. I think this would be an ideal time to have someone carry you," he explained.

"I know it's one of those romantic things that all women are supposed to want," I began as we slowly made progress toward the house. "But in all honesty, it's never done that much for me. It makes me feel helpless, which isn't my favorite emotion."

"No," he quickly agreed, obviously knowing all about the feeling of helplessness.

"Besides, I'd rather have you by my side any day," I added, fully planning on blaming the stress of the last hour for any corny thing I said right now.

The back door of the house was open, so we moved right in and settled ourselves side by side on his bed in the middle of the den. In the back of my mind, I thought that we were both dirty from being outside and we were ruining his sheets, but I couldn't make myself care enough to get up and do anything about it.

My head fell on Manny's shoulder, and I shut my eyes, pretending it was just the two of us, the way we'd spent so much time since we first arrived in this house. The noise around us as the guys began to move in and out of the house was easy enough to filter.

Bobby was the first one to attempt speaking to us. "All right, you two. Let me take a look at you to see what the damage is."

He started with me, poking and prodding, cleaning a few gashes, but announced that nothing seemed to be broken and the cuts weren't deep enough to need stitches. "You're going to have some wicked bruising, but other than a few days of soreness, you'll survive."

Then he eyed Manny and said, "Dude, for all you've been through, I can't figure out how you were up and walking around, much less firing on hostiles and taking them down."

Manny's mouth gave a half smile before he said, "I've always been a fast healer, and Steph's taken really good care of me." Then he leaned closer to my ear and whispered, "And don't think I haven't noticed the stuff you've been floating in my bath and sticking in my smoothies. I'm guessing some of your gypsy magic is probably the case for some of it, too."

I couldn't help but repeat Nagypapa's words and said, "I'm not a gypsy." But my attempt to feign righteous indignation was foiled by the grin on my face.

"That's too bad. Since we got inside, I've been picturing you in a gypsy outfit, with your hair tied up in another of those colorful scarves," he teased.

Bobby was looking at the two of us as though we'd lost our minds. "The last time I was here, I was worried that I might receive a call to come and patch one of you up from the atmosphere turning ugly. If I didn't know any better, I'd say the tide turned the opposite direction and something happened all right, but it wasn't violent."

I looked at Manny, hoping he would respond, because I didn't want to say too much. We hadn't had a chance to discuss what was going on between us and how we wanted to present it to the guys.

"Let's just say I finally got over being pissed off about being locked up here and realized how generous you guys had been in who you chose to take care of me," he offered cryptically.

"Glad you changed your mind," Bobby replied firmly.

"Not a change of mind," Manny looked away from the medic and at me to add, "I had a change of heart."

Having Manny's attention focused solely on me caused me to miss any reaction Bobby might have had before he walked away. There was an intensity in his gaze that made me want to shut my eyes. I'd never been on the receiving end of such devotion and I wasn't sure what to do with it. I decided to put my head back on his shoulder as a way to end the eye contact.

The next thing I was aware of were voices around me, speaking in lowered tones, and I could tell that Manny had shifted us so that my head was on his chest and his arm was wrapped around me.

Tank's voice was easy to pick out when he said, "So how did you guys know to get out of the house?"

Ah, the RangeMan debrief. I figured I should probably rouse myself and participate, but I was overwhelmed with a feeling of exhaustion, and it felt so good to just go limp against Manny that I couldn't make myself open my eyes.

I was touched that when he answered Tank's question with one of his own, that he kept his voice low and quiet to keep from waking me. "A better question is why did we have to get out of the house in the first place? There's no way Hernandez connected me to this location without help."

A thickly accented voice spoke next that I was pretty sure belonged to Hector. "Estephania sent me a check on Hernandez, and told me to pass it along to Jefe. When I looked at it, one of the family names belonged to a new guy on monitors. I think he told his family so they could find you."

"Shit," Manny replied, summing up how I felt about it too. "Is he still employed?"

"No," Tank quickly replied. "He's not employed, and he's not likely to be seen or heard from again either."

There was a second of silence in response to that. I probably should have been upset that it seemed like Tank was implying a guy lost his life for turning in our hide away location, but when I dug deep I didn't have any regret, only relief. Then Tank changed the subject, "So that explains why someone showed up here, but I still don't know how you guys knew to get out of the house."

Cal spoke up first. "We had been planning out what made the most sense and decided to move out to the back yard in case we got company before you guys made it here."

"But you called the control room and requested backup," Tank replied. "How did you know to do it?"

"Steph said we were about to have company, and that was good enough for me," Cal replied.

"How did she know?" Tank pushed for more information.

"You know her spidey sense," Manny answered, not disclosing the fact that we were both hearing the voices of my deceased great-grandparents, who had tipped us off in time to get out.

"How did you guys have time to hook up a smoke bomb like that in the backyard? Hell, I haven't seen fog that thick except at the movies. That's probably why they weren't able to just storm the backyard and find you before we got here."

Cal offered, "That was all Steph, too. She had some kind of dried leaves that she set on fire, and they just billowed out plumes of smoke. It was pretty cool."

I could tell from the sound Tank made in response he wasn't going to push anymore, but he wasn't totally impressed with the answer, either. "Then who the hell was the guy that seemed to be leading the attack? How was he attached to the Hernandez family?"

This time, Manny spoke, and I could feel his body tense up as soon as Tank mentioned the family. "That was Juan Hernandez, the cousin of Mateo."

"The guy that Ranger took out this afternoon?" Tank interrupted, but since he gave me a piece of information I was curious about, I was glad to hear it.

"Him," Manny agreed with a single word.

Tank followed up, "And was his cousin somebody important?"

"Seemed to be his enforcer based on the search Steph ran a couple of weeks ago. My guess is that with the elimination of him and the whole force he brought with him, a strong enough message has been sent to whoever attempts to take over the Hernandez family next," Manny explained.

"I take it his beef with you was of a personal nature," Tank offered a leading question, and I knew a simple yes would have ended the discussion. These guys and their tight-lipped allegiance to each other was amazing. If they were all women, this conversation would be so much further along by now.

Manny's chest rose and fell as he took a deep breath before responding. "Our paths had crossed a few times on missions I'd run with Ranger for the DEA, but the reason he tried to take me out was completely personal. He blamed me for ending the relationship he had with my sister several years ago."

"How did you bust them up?" Tank wondered.

"I told her truth of who her boyfriend was, and when she dumped him, he tracked her down and put a bullet in her head," Manny explained flatly. He had definitely come to terms with the loss of his sister since he'd been here, but discussing her death wasn't easy, either.

"Any other loose ends from the family RangeMan can help tie up?" Tank offered.

That single sentence was why I loved these guys so much. Somebody had hurt the family of one of them, which was a wound to the whole RangeMan group. They'd do anything to finish this off to right the wrong and make up for the loss of an innocent life.

"I'm pretty sure this will do it, but thanks for the offer," Manny replied, sounding surprised.

"So were they after you or after Stephanie?" Tank wondered. "You, I get, but the fact that somebody took out the building makes me a little unsure that you were all they were after."

"I'm pretty sure they came here with instructions to get us both. Most likely to take her out so that I could see it just to make me suffer all the more, but I saw the bastard when he attempted to take aim so that Steph could begin to move. Then I got him in the leg so that when he fired, his aim was off and he destroyed the building by hitting the foundation, not by shooting into the room itself. I hadn't considered the building being barely stable and collapsing on her in the process."

So now I knew why he yelled for me to run and how the shed came to be on me instead of behind me.

"One more thing," Tank surprised me by saying. "What's the deal with you calling her your wife? I know we set it up that way to get you out of the hospital, but the way you said it while the dust was still settling made it sound a hell of a lot more personal than just an electronic filing."

Strangely, the question seemed to relax the tension that had built up in Manny's body while he was discussing the Hernandez family. I would have thought it would have made it worse, so I continued to play like I was dead to the world and waited to hear the answer.

"It's been an intense few weeks," he tried to get away with as an explanation.

"True, but that tells me nothing," Tank argued.

Then Lester jumped in with his unmistakable playful voice. "What he should have said was he finally realized what the rest of us have known for years, and while they were stuck in here together, he couldn't help but fall under the spell she's got the rest of us under."

I expected Manny to either ignore that comment or shoot it down by disagreeing. Instead, he said, "The first part was close enough to what really happened, but the spell I'm under better be a lot different from the one you guys fell for, or there's going to be some serious battles at the gym when I'm back."

"Shit, you two…" Les must have gotten the point. "I mean, not just because of the cover, but for real?"

"Yeah, for real," Manny replied, basically outing us to the guys all at once. At least now I didn't have to worry about how he wanted to handle things at the office.

"Boss man is going to kill you," Lester responded. "I mean dead."

"That would be a total waste of all the effort to save his life," came a voice I knew nearly as well as my own.

My eyes blinked open, and I grinned. "Ranger, you're back."

I felt Manny getting all tight and stiff again, which was definitely not what I wanted. Too late, I realized he was probably worried about what was going to happen between us now that Ranger was here. I knew he'd heard me explain that Ranger and I would never have a romantic relationship, but that didn't mean he believed Ranger saw it the same way.

I felt his fingers brush my hair away from my face and tuck some of it behind my ear in a motion he'd performed hundreds of times. I guess the scarf that had been keeping it back had gotten pulled off with the blast outside.

"You okay, Babe?" he asked. Despite seeing me for himself, he obviously needed to hear that the assignment he'd pulled me in for hadn't caused me any permanent damage.

"Nothing a band aid won't fix," I replied, loving to tease him for his famous comment about the first bullet wound he got when we were together.

He nodded and then glanced over at Manny so quickly, I nearly missed it, before repeating the question. "You okay, Babe?"

Getting that he needed to hear from me that things between me and Manny were okay, I moved so that I had a hand on Manny's chest near his heart and said, "Better than I've ever been."

His eyes narrowed marginally, like he was doing some kind of superhero lie detector trick, so I patiently waited for his analysis to finish. Once he'd satisfied himself that I was telling the truth, he shifted his gaze to Manny, and his whole body language changed. The relaxed man who cared deeply for me was completely gone, and the machine capable of inflicting great pain with no warning had taken his place.

"You hurt her, and I'll kill you, slowly and painfully. Are we clear?"

I couldn't let him threaten Manny like that, so I asked, "Why didn't you ever say something like that to Joe?"

That question earned me a raised eyebrow. Manny spoke up before I could push him again for the answer.

"I hurt her, and you'll have to get in line to make good on that promise."

A chorus of responses, including, "Damn straight," and "I got dibs," rang out, with Lester ending it by summing up, "Hooah!" Apparently, that said it all, without saying anything intelligible to me.

"As long as we're clear," Ranger replied after the guys quieted down.

"Hernandez?" Manny asked.

"Taken care of," Ranger assured him.

"Thanks, man," Manny replied, proving once again that these guys refused to use multiple words when they thought just one or two would do.

A slight shrug from Ranger was the only response to the gratitude. "I've got a debriefing to get to in DC. I'll be back in a few days. You two going to head back to Haywood for a while?"

I looked up at Manny, completely okay with whatever he wanted to do but wishing we had a little more time here without the boards on the windows and the threat of certain death if we ventured outside.

It was such a relief to hear him say, "I think we'll hang here for a few days to get over everything and then head back into work next week."

Ranger nodded and then leaned over and kissed my hair to give him a better proximity to whisper, "You can trust him, Babe. Now that his drive for revenge is over, he can give you the kind of future you deserve."

"And if he doesn't?" I couldn't handle being serious right now, and even though I knew Ranger and I were only friends, I wasn't completely comfortable discussing my romantic life with him.

"Then introduce him to the things your knee can do," he replied with a sexy wink.

"Did you set this up?" I asked before I fully considered the question.

"I'm no cupid," he answered, struggling to keep from smiling, which made me wonder all the more if my recent hunch that there might have been an easier way to care for Manny had been correct, but he had some other motive for calling me instead. Of course, the idea of Ranger as cupid was kind of funny so I couldn't help but grin at the image of Ranger in red tights, holding a bow and arrow set.

He was ten steps away before I thought of one more thing and called out, "Ranger, wait."

Ranger spun around and waited for what I needed to say.

"I should give you this ring back. I understand it came from your safe."

Then I got a full-fledged grin, the kind he held back for special occasions. "Keep it, Babe. It looks good on you."

"I can't accept a ring like this from you," I blurted out, somehow forgetting that we were still surrounded by the guys from the office.

"I didn't pick it out, and if you have any questions about where it came from, ask the man next to you. As far as I'm concerned, you keeping it now makes a lot more sense than it continuing to sit in a safe," Ranger said with an edge of finality that told me I needed to let it go until I had the whole story. Of course, the fact that he practically disappeared in the next second took away my ability to argue the point, so I had to choice but to let it go.

Manny was suddenly finding the texture of the cast on his arm very interesting.

"Are you going to explain what that was all about?"

"Can I do it later?" He sounded almost unsure of himself. "When our audience isn't as big."

"Fine," I conceded, before reminding him, "But don't think I'm going to forget that you promised to tell me."

He tightened his arm around me and said, "Don't worry; I've spent enough time with you to realize you don't forget a thing. Especially not something you're interested in."

Tank had a few more questions for the file, and Manny convinced a few of the guys to start yanking the wood panels off the windows, allowing light in the house for the first time in twenty years. The sun was just coming up, and I smiled as a beam came into the room and landed on the carpet.

Cal let out a long whistle and looked around. "With the light in here now, you can totally see the effect they were going for. I mean, this place is a little on the bright side, definitely retro, but it feels homey all at the same time."

I looked around, as though seeing the room for the first time, and got what he meant. I wasn't blind about how out of date the décor was, but at the same time, there was a comfort in it, and it made me want to smile instead of cringe.

"You want me to make arrangements to get the bed out of here?" Bobby asked, pointing to the spot where we were currently stretched out.

Manny answered for me. "That'd be good. I'm tired of the reminder."

"Man, you have any idea how close you came to not needing a nurse but needing a mortician instead?" Bobby pushed, apparently needing to drill in how close Manny had come to dying.

"I get it," Manny replied, not happy with that topic of discussion.

"And don't think just because the hospital bed is disappearing that you're all clear. When that cast comes off in a few weeks, you're going to have a hell of a lot of work to do to see what you can demand of that leg," Bobby wasn't exactly trying to sugar coat Manny's prognosis.

"But in the meantime, as long as he isn't hurting, he can walk or do whatever he wants to, as long as he's mindful of the pain?" I asked, hoping he'd say yes.

"Sure, but that doesn't change what he'll need to work through." Bobby didn't seem to get the message that I wanted to change the subject.

I decided a more direct approach was going to be required. "Good. Then you all need to get out," I abruptly announced.

"Oh, come on," Cal pretended to complain. "I was hoping we could set up a table and have a great night of poker."

"Later, I promise, but for now, you guys probably all have a mountain of paperwork to file, and I'm exhausted, so you have to get out." I pretended to be firm in my resolve to clear the house, hoping they wouldn't push and see how quickly I'd cave.

There was a low level of grumbling when I mentioned paperwork, but no one pushed the point, and the ones who remained in the house began to gather up to leave.

I eased myself up and walked them to the front door.

Tank stopped just before leaving and said, "Turn the alarm on and lock up behind us. You guys aren't in any danger that we know of, but he'll rest better knowing that RangeMan's keeping you covered."

I agreed, and just as the big guy walked out of the house, I remembered something. "Hey, Tank..." I waited for him to turn around so I'd know he was listening. "I know that while this was a safe house of sorts, you had the ability to listen in and record any conversation that happened, right?"

Ever the efficient communicator, he nodded once.

"Can you kill that feed now?" I asked, hoping for once, the guys would respect my need for privacy.

A slow grin spread over his face, and he replied, "I'll make sure Hector takes care of it right away. I take it you're tired of the jigsaw puzzles and are looking for some other form of entertainment."

I laughed at the unexpected joke and then stepped back into the house. "I think it's safe to say we're not going to be doing puzzles and leave it at that."

That just increased the volume of his laugh as he turned and moved smoothly to the waiting SUV. I waited to see them pull away from the house and then turned back and set the alarm as I'd promised.

Manny was getting himself back to a standing position when I came into the den, so I moved to his side and asked how I could help.

"I'm not staying in this bed anymore," he announced. "And Bobby assures me this cast can get wet," he explained, pointing to his leg. "So as long as you can help me cover the one on my arm, then I'd love the chance to shower."

"Wrapping that up will be easy," I assured him, before taking the chance to ask for something in return. "But you're going to have to tell me the story behind these rings before I do anything."

"Aw shit... You'd hold a man's shower hostage when he hasn't been able to get completely clean in weeks, just to get a story about a piece of jewelry?" he attempted to sway me.

"I'll turn the water off from the wall since I know you can't get down on your knees to turn it back on," I threatened, to show him just how serious I was. Then I held up my left hand and demanded, "Start talking."

He laughed, which helped me to relax that my demanding approach wasn't pissing him off. "We've only been married a few short weeks, and you're already nagging me for stuff."

"This is just the tip of the iceberg," I warned him, before shutting my mouth and attempting a look that would make it clear I was willing to wait all day if necessary to get the information I wanted.

"All right, I'll tell you," he admitted, grinning as he accepted defeat. "But it's not an exciting story."

"Don't care. I just need to know the truth of how these rings came to be in Ranger's safe at Haywood and why he'd say it made sense for me to keep them in light of everything that's happened," I pushed once more.

Manny took a deep breath and then started talking. "We had a short window to prepare our cover this time. Ranger never goes into a mission without at least one exit strategy. He told me he needed a set of wedding rings in case he needed to manufacture a wife to get out of town if things turned on us. We'd used an emergency call from home before, so I didn't have a reason to question his motives. Then he gave me a list of supplies to pick up the day before we left, and on the bottom of the list, he told me to go to Masterson's Jewelers and get an engagement ring and wedding band that would be obvious to anyone who saw the woman's hand. When I questioned him about it, he said it was just to be sure every possible base had been covered. Then he gave me the size and told me to pretend I was picking out something for you."

At that point, I could have sworn his face colored slightly.

"How long did it take you to find this?"

He looked down and lifted a shoulder, trying to pretend it was no big deal.

"How long did it take?" I repeated, unwilling to let him get away with putting me off.

"Two hours," he admitted, before saying, "But only because the guy working with me insisted on showing me each set individually instead of letting me look at them all at once."

"So you picked out this ring for me?" I asked, trying to be sure I understood him correctly.

"I picked it out because Ranger told me to, but I tried to pick something that would be noticeable like he said and still fit your personality."

"But you didn't really know me," I pointed out. "How did you think it fit my personality?"

"I tried to keep my distance, figuring of all the guys at RangeMan that would be capable of keeping you safe, I was the least qualified," he confessed. "If I couldn't protect Laney, then I definitely wasn't up to the challenge of keeping you safe. But that doesn't mean I didn't still watch you, that I didn't smile every time I heard about one of your exploits, or get pissed every time a skip got the better of you."

"You said you didn't see me as an angel and that you didn't hold the same opinion of me that the other guys did," I reminded him of his harsh words when he first woke up and found out he was stuck with me.

"Damn, I was hoping you'd forget that part of our time together," he admitted, seeming to regret what he'd said.

"I'll never forget it," I felt the need to inform him.

"I was a real ass, and yet, you didn't give up on me," he replied, moving to touch my face. "And I still don't see you as an angel, just because I'm hoping you have a bit more mischief in you than that. But the last part is probably true."

Before I could get upset about what that could mean he plowed on. "Because while they see you as an amazing woman, I see you as that plus a whole lot more. Hopefully, I see sides of you that they've never gotten the chance to see. I'd like to think that I know you better than anyone else."

"Well, I don't know if you can lay that claim yet, but hopefully by the time we get back to Haywood, it will be true," I teased, smiling to let him know that I liked his answer.

"Now, I think I owe you a shower," I said, attempting to change the subject.

"That you do," he replied, following me down the hall. "And I'm going to need help getting clean, because I'm feeling really dirty, and once I'm done, I don't plan on getting up from bed again for quite some time."

For some naughty reason, my mind went back to my childhood, and I remembered the *bubble bath I was occasionally allowed to use that had the slogan, "Makes getting clean almost as much fun as getting dirty." After this shower, I didn't think I'd be able to look at a bottle of bubble bath the same ever again.

*That was the slogan on ever pink bottle of Mr. Bubble, a bubble bath for kids. Obviously, I don't get credit for the catchy slogan either.