. .oOo.

Chapter 3

After having her little chat with Ella, Stephanie had decided it would not be a good idea to try to have the conversation that she really didn't want to have with Ranger anyway. Deep inside she knew that if he had called her and asked her to stay, she would have. No question. But there had been no call. As it was, she had barely had more than a quick glance of him all night.

It just made her feel that much worse. She hadn't meant for any of this to happen. Never, in a million years, could she have had any idea that something like this was going on. How could she be so naive? Sometimes she just hated feeling so clueless. Her idea had seemed so fun, so innocent. It was supposed to have been a nice thing to surprise Ranger with. Instead it had been the worst thing that had ever happened to her.

Stephanie had to blame it on her curiosity. Or, to be more accurate, her obsession with finding out every little detail that she could about Ranger. As much as she was in love with him, he was still something of an enigma to her. A mystery that she wanted nothing more than to explore and uncover. And she had been having so much fun doing just that, reveling in each new thing that she found out about him.

That night, at Pino's last month, had given her another little clue to follow. She couldn't forget how exciting it had been, she lived for moments like that. It had all been in fun, and what she had learned had given her an insight to Ranger that she had never thought of before. Another captivating fact to savor.

The whole evening had been great. She had been watching Ranger with such fascination. He had smiled a lot. And laughed. Stephanie loved hearing his deep laugh. It was like the sound of it wrapped itself around her heart, drawing her further in. Absolutely irresistible.

It had been toward the end of the night, when Lester had flippantly tossed out a question to the group. His chair scraped on the floor as he stood up, to get their attention, and he was laughing when he asked, "What is the strangest thing you ever had to eat?"

Of course, all of the guys had stories that they were eager to share. Stephanie was not surprised to know that the answers that they started coming up with sounded absolutely disgusting. For over an hour they tried to gross each other out with their detailed descriptions of things with exotic names like Khash, and Balut. Before long, her sides were actually hurting from laughing at their stories.

Stewed cow's head and feet, duck embryos, and fried bugs were bad enough, especially when described in such explicit details, but it had been Cal's story about something called Kumis and the fact that it had ended up being the most effective laxative that he'd ever encountered, that had had everyone laughing so hard they were in tears.

Finally, Ranger spoke up. In his deep low voice, he simply reminded the guys of who used to find a way to make amazing things to eat, even when he had the weirdest ingredients to work with. Several heads began to nod in agreement. And soon the story of 'Chef' was being told.

Stephanie had watched Ranger's face as the memories were being shared. She could tell that this guy, Chef, had been a good friend. She got the feeling that maybe he had kind of been like the little brother who they had always looked out for.

As much as the tales they had been telling had been hilarious and fun to listen to, Stephanie discovered something. Something absolutely amazing. She had always thought that Ranger's eating habits just seemed very restrictive. But there she was, hearing that he loved to eat, and that he appreciated really good food. It blew her mind. Up until then, she had never considered that he had ever chosen foods for anything other than their nutritional value.

The more she thought about it the more impressed she was. And when it was mentioned, in passing, that Chef had been so good at what he did he not only ended up as a chef in the White House, he had a book too, Stephanie had had a brilliant thought, her greatest idea. A plan started to take shape in her mind.

The very next day she googled Chef Ben Davron. It popped up immediately, showing him on the cover of a cookbook featuring some of the chefs to the presidents. Seeing it there made her smile, she couldn't wait to set her plan in motion. And on a whim she ordered the cookbook.

How she wished that she had waited. With all that had happened since then, she now felt that that impulsive action had completely backfired on her.

Now that the book was here, it only served as a reminder of what her research had uncovered about the man known as Chef Ben. She shook her head, this had not turned out to be anything like she had imagined.

In her excitement, she had wanted to know about the man that Ranger remembered with such fondness. But not in her wildest dreams did she expect to find that he was not the kind of man she thought he would be. It was still hard to wrap her mind around it all. He had worked with Ranger and Tank and Bobby. Had been on their team. How could he not be like them?

Stephanie couldn't believe what she had been finding. And as hard as it had been, she had felt compelled to pass on the information to Ranger, she thought that he needed to know. She hated the idea that he could be blindsided by it some day soon if she did not warn him about it.

It had been a reasonable thing to think, at the time. But now, after not being able to talk to Ranger for so long, she was second guessing herself, wondering how she could have been so stupid. They all loved the guy, and being the bearer of bad news had not exactly felt very good. Why did she have to go and tell him what she had found? She hated feeling like everything had fallen apart because she did.

And now Stephanie couldn't stop torturing herself about it. Though it was the last thing she wanted, her mind played that last scene over and over again. Ranger hadn't said a single word. He had listened in silence. Then suddenly the team had taken off and he was gone. All Stephanie had wanted to do tonight was apologize to him.

She had had two weeks to think about it, fret about it, and nothing felt right. She was so worried that everything had changed between them in that moment. If she could, she would erase the whole thing, so that she could take them back to the way they had been before she had known anything about Chef.

Her heart ached at the thought that she had ruined everything. Her biggest fear, no matter how unfounded, was that Ranger would always associate her with the fact that his friend could have done all of those things. And now he was dead.

There had really been no words left to say, so she had left Ella's apartment and come straight home. Getting to sleep had proved to be impossible, however. Her mind would not shut down. Replaying everything that Ella had just told her, and then continuing to agonize over the things that she'd had to tell Ranger about Chef, kept her wired and tense. So Stephanie ended up throwing a movie into the old VCR, forcing herself to sit down, pretending to watch it.

In actuality, her mind seemed to be picking up on every noise in the room. Creaks from the old building, that were usually just normal background sounds, echoed in her aching head. The water dripping from the bathroom faucet pounded relentlessly. But it was listening to Rex getting into his nocturnal exercise routine that finally got to her.

Suddenly she stood and walked into the bedroom. Shutting the door only helped marginally, she realized, as she flopped down on the bed. She could still hear Rex. The little hamster's rhythmic pacing, that had always been so comforting to her before, now threatened to be her undoing.

Maybe she should call Dillon. Could a drop of oil fix it, she wondered. Were hamster wheels included in the duties of a building super? Those rambling thoughts were the last to go through her exhausted mind before she was finally able to doze off.

The next morning, Stephanie thought about the events of the night before. Wandering into the living room, she sat down, careful to avoid the middle of the couch, where it was starting to sag. Still somewhat in a daze, she stared ahead, not really seeing anything that was in front of her.

The package, that she had once been waiting for with such anticipation, sat unopened on the coffee table. It had arrived sometime yesterday. She had found it propped up against the door when she got home last night.

Rays of early morning sunshine began to stream through the window, demanding her attention. They slanted through the room, landing on the table. On the package. How could they be so damned cheerful, she thought. And try as she might, Stephanie couldn't tear her eyes away. Finally, in frustration, she stood and walked away.

To think that she had been so excited about it, envisioning the the amused look on Ranger's face when she showed him the book. Thinking that maybe he would share some more stories with her, giving her another glimpse inside of the man that she was so fascinated with.

What a stupid idea it had turned out to be. Stephanie slammed her open palm against the wall. She was heartsick and scared and unable to shake the feeling that things were just not right. By now Ranger was gone again. Ella had told her last night that the general was there to get the team together. He wanted them to help him find out who had killed Chef.

She shook her head, and started pacing. Stephanie could feel her heart pounding. Anxiety, fear, and panic were all building up inside of her chest. It just couldn't get any worse. Given what she knew about Ben Davron, she had no doubt that chasing down his killers could be every bit as dangerous as any mission Ranger had ever gone on.

Her pacing took her back over by the window. Turning away from it she ended up with her back against the wall. Slowly Stephanie slipped down until she was sitting on the floor. Tears dripped from her eyes. As usual, she didn't know where Ranger was going, how long he would be gone, when she would ever hear from him again.

Allowing herself a few more minutes of self pity, she finally took a deep breath and stood up. She would get ready and go into work, just like it was any other day. It would be torture to stay home, knowing that her fears would cause her imagination to go wild. Keeping busy was the best thing, so she hurried through her shower, pretended to eat some breakfast and got out of her apartment as quickly as she could.

. .oOo.

Tiny beeping sounds from the watch alarm penetrated the cabin of the plane, alerting each of the men inside that their time for rest was at an end. Heads lifted and eyes met.

Kinkaid was pleased to see that they all looked better. He knew that none of this would be easy on any of them, but they were alert and sharp, and they would get the job done. He had no doubt about that.

The plane would be landing in just a few minutes. Ranger peered out of the small window, getting his thoughts in order. The rest had helped, and he was grateful for it, but there was no remedy for how he was feeling about leaving Stephanie behind again.

He took a deep breath. The sooner they got this done, the sooner he would be able to get back to her. It was all the motivation he needed to get on with it.

. .oOo.