Here's chapter 10!

Thank you for the reviews and I agree, Ranger's very stupid :)

Not mine (Expcept for what's mine), not making any money.

Stephanie POV

The storm calmed and I was able to breath again. The waves vanished and were replaced with voices. They were murmuring too quietly for me to understand them. The voices sounded worried. I struggled to listen, trying to hear even one word of reassurement.

Ranger POV

We sat there in the little waiting room, waiting for any news on Charlotte. The weird feeling in my heart stayed there, even though I tried to ignore it. This was the feeling Steph used to make, but she wasn't anywhere near. At least that was what I thought. Charlotte did look like Stephanie but this ridiculous thought was pushed back. That would be too weird anyways.

Hours ticked by agonizingly slowly, a minute seemed like an eternity. To my surprise Tank and Lester stayed there with me and Adam. They seemed anxious, more so than I had expected. Lester was pacing on the corridor. Adam hadn't moved, he sat on the edge of the couch with his head in his hands, fingers pulling his hair. Tank had sat down beside me, to the untrained eye he seemed calm. But I could see that he breathed more quickly than normally and his hands were clenched.

Little by little the room was filled with more Brown employees. There were about ten woman now sitting in the waiting room with us and about 12 men. All with the same face of horror, worry and love. Charlotte was loved by all of them and they were worried about her.

Then, after four hours, twenty-three minutes the door to the room where she was, was opened. A man walked outside. He was about the same built than Lester, dark hair and large eyes. He was dressed in blue scrubs, and they were covered in something red. I didn't want to think about what it was, but there was a lot of it. He walked towards us, no one daring to move or breath. He took of his gloves and threw them in the trash. He looked tired, like someone who had to focus on something extremely small, under a huge stress in over four hours. He looked at the amount of people in his waiting room and then stopped. The tension was unbelievable.

"She's stable." Everybody in the room started to breath at once and relaxed a bit. They who had stood up, sat down again or leaned against the walls.

"Stable but in critical condition. We're lucky." he continued looking mostly at Adam. He stood up and started to follow the doctor. He turned around.

"Lester? Tank? Want to come with me?" he asked and in a second they were all walking away from us. I was left there, completely puzzled. Why did they go with him? I guess it was because they were there to rescue her. They had been trained well, all these years of looking after babe. All the cars, fires and rescuing her from Morelli.

Adam POV

Lester and Tank followed me as I walked to the room. We were led in and were greeted with the most horrifying sight. Stephanie was laying on the operation table, huge cast on her leg, bandaged stomach. The area covered was larger than I had thought, leading me to think that there had properly been massive internal bleeding. Her neck was still in a collar, supporting her spine. The cut on her head had been bandaged. She looked incredibly small, vurneable laying there. We helped a couple of the nurses to move her into a hospital bed. I took the blanket and pulled in over her, it helping to keep her warm.

There was a room next to this, a normal patient room we used for critical patients. It had a door leading into the operation room, making it quick to move the patient. We pushed her through it, followed by a ton of mashines that were hooked to her, heart monitors and the rest of them.

We got her into her place and the nurses left us alone. Lester sat down on the couch in the room. It was blue, going with the rest of the decoration. A huge window looking over the backyard was on the opposite wall. Another door led to the hallway outside. A large bathroom was on the right side. The beeping of the monitor was calming, her heart beat stable, normal.

"Wow. That was too close." Lester said from the couch, voice cracking a bit.

I nodded. Too close.

"I must organize security outside her room." I said to them and brushed my hair out of my sight, still looking at her small frame on the bed. She was alive.

"I'll stay here tonight." Lester said. "You go get some rest. Organize your stuff. Go to the gym, take your time."

"That's very kind of you" I said, approving the thought of a cold shower after a hard work out. Tank and I stood up, leaving the room. The waiting room was empty. Everybody were back to the same routine.

Lester POV

I sat there on the couch, just watching her for a couple of hours. She looked peaceful and that made me glad in a way. She was away from the stress and anger for a while at least. It looked like she was smiling at the world. I smiled too. The stress was getting to me, adrenaline vanishing from my body. I stood up, shacked the tiredness away, walked over to her and took her hand.

"Hey, beautiful." I said to her quietly. "Thank god you are alive and almost fine. It's not that bad, don't be afraid. I'll be here with you. And, no I haven't told Ranger about you, so don't worry about that. Worry about getting better for me and the rest of the guys. Adam's so sad, you know? He don't show it but I know. It's like me, sad but still happy. We'll hunt the bastard down who did this to you and teach him a lesson. Don't worry, beautiful, I'll be here holding your hand the whole day and night too. Get some rest and get better."

I moved the stool beside the bed and settled there. The stress of the day made me fall asleep there, holding her hand.

Stephanie POV

The waves disappeared totally. I was laying in the shallow waters, in the calm water the sun shining on me but it didn't make me blind. Birds flew above me and as I laid there I heard a voice. I couldn't move my head to search for the origin of the voice.

"Hey, beautiful. Thank god you are alive and almost fine. It's not that bad, don't be afraid. I'll be here with you. And, no I haven't told Ranger about you, so don't worry about that. Worry about getting better for me and the rest of the guys. Adam's so sad, you know? He don't show it but I know. It's like me, sad but still happy. We'll hunt the bastard down who did this to you and teach him a lesson. Don't worry, beautiful, I'll be here holding your hand the whole day and night too. Get some rest and get better."

It was Lester's voice. I could feel another type of warmth in my hand. The sun shone and life was sweet. I smiled.

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