Almost done! Scary huh? Thanks for the reviews and PMs. I'm taking some liberties with the medical information here, just a warning. (Just because I come from a family of nurses doesn't mean I am one, :D)

I woke in a dimly lit bedroom, my hands were cuffed behind my back and my purse was nowhere to be found. I slowly stood and tried to quietly make my way to a window. The view didn't do much to ease my mind; it looked out over an alley, probably off Stark. I heard foot steps in the other room and laid back down. Williams came in mumbling to himself. When he saw I was awake he stopped in his tracks.

"You shouldn't be up yet! None of the others woke up so soon." He moved to the edge of the bed and reached for me. I kicked out and up and connected with his jaw just as the window shattered in.

Lester and Bobby came smashing through the window after Williams as Ranger and Tank came through the door. Williams recovered from my kick enough to put up a fight, but he was quickly subdued. Ranger came straight to me and had me uncuffed in moments. I must have taken more volts than I thought, because things were still hazy and seemed to be getting worse.

"For a minute there I was afraid you didn't follow us." I smiled up at Ranger but was distracted by his hands on my stomach. "Ouch, what are you doing?"

"Babe, Williams took you so fast it took us a while to find you. Your tracker fried from the shock you took, and we had to trace you cell. You've been here for five hours." He was prodding my stomach the whole time he was talking and only looked up when Bobby took his place. "Don't worry Babe; we've got an ambulance on the way..."

I'd never seen so much emotion on his face before; too bad I was confused as to what emotion it was. "What do you mean five hours? I just woke up before you guys showed up. It couldn't have been that long…"

Bobby was pressing a towel against my stomach and barking out instructions to the EMTs that were coming through the door. "Why do I need to go to the hospital I'm—" The last thing I remembered was glancing down at my stomach and seeing the once white towel steadily turning red.

***

I could hear hushed voices, but couldn't see anything. I tried to rub my eyes but my left arm was tethered to something and my right felt like it weighed a ton. I cracked open one eye and found the reason for the heaviness; Ranger was gripping my hand like a lifeline. As soon as he saw I was awake he was talking to someone on my left. Ah, Tank. He left the room and I realized I was in the hospital. "What happened?"

"We think Williams realized we were on to him. When we realized he'd already taken you I thought that was it. As it was we didn't find you soon enough; the doctor is going to explain everything to you, but he cut you, Babe. I didn't get there in time to stop him."

I tugged on his hand until he leaned over me. I raised my head up enough to kiss him softly. "I'm here, Ric. That's all that matters. As long as he's rotting in a cell somewhere and we're all okay, we did our jobs."

He let out a shaky sigh and caressed my cheek. "I'm glad you're safe, but I feel like you're attitude might change when the doctor gets here."

As if on cue there was a soft rap on the door and a woman in a scrubs and a lab coat came in and started looking me over. She removed the gauze on my stomach and I resisted the urge to throw up. I mean seriously, a little warning would have been nice. There was a long nasty looking gash across my lower abdomen and a few smaller cuts crisscrossing my tummy. "I'm glad to see you're awake, Miss Plum. First let me say that I'm pretty sure the smaller cuts wont scar. I'm not positive, but the larger one shouldn't leave much of a scar. Mr. Manoso had one of the best plastic surgeons in the country stitch you up."

She hesitated, and then gave me a sad smile. "The bad news is that there was quite a bit of internal damage. We had to remove your appendix, and repair your intestines and uterus. There's no easy way to tell you this, but it's almost certain you won't be able to carry a child Miss Plum."

I looked at her for a few minutes, and then turned my attention to Ranger. I was please to hear my voice was steady. "Is this what you meant, about my attitude changing?"

He just nodded, and there was that emotion again. This time I realized it was fear. "Ric?" I let go of his hand long enough to tip up his chin and meet his gaze. "I know we've never really talked about it, but I've never even thought about having kids. I mean look at the life I lead. Maybe later I'll be devastated about this, but right now I'm just grateful to be alive."

The doctor cleared her throat and smiled at us both. "If there's ever a time you want to consider children, there are other ways. I'll leave my card with you along with your surgeon's. Feel free to call me any time."

We sat quietly for a while, and surprisingly it was Ranger who broke the silence. "Babe, I don't know if you've really processed everything or not, but either way we're going to make sure Williams pays for everything he's done."

I smiled and squeezed his hand. "I know we will. I do have a question though…What happened? Didn't you say he'd had me for five hours? I should have woken up about four and a half hours before I did."

"When the other victims were found, there was no trace of drugs in their blood work. He must have kept them alive long enough to metabolize it. Bobby said we were lucky we got to you soon enough, Williams was definitely escalating. That wound was deep enough you might not have made it another hour without help. I don't think he realized how much damage he was doing."

I nodded. "When he first came in the room he was mumbling something about finally finding the right one; like he'd been looking for me and the others were just practice or something. How do the crazies always manage to zero in on me?"

I don't know what he'd have said to that, because the door opened and a sea of black poured in. Lester was first to reach me and kissed me noisily on the lips, earning a low growl from Ranger. "Beautiful, don't ever do that again. I think we all have a few new gray hairs."

I smacked at his arm playfully and put up with about a million more hugs and kisses from the others. "No promises, but it's not something I'll go out of my way to experience again."

The rest of the morning was peppered with people stopping in; Connie and Lula, my mom and dad, Joe and Eddie, and surprisingly Sunny (from the shooting range). Ranger sat with me, his hand held firmly in mine, until lunch when I told him to get to work since they were giving me another dose of pain meds. "Ric I'll be asleep, and I know there are at least two men outside that door. Come back and have dinner with me, but for now I'll feel bad if you waste the day here watching me snore."

"Alright, you win. I'll see if you can have real foods yet and maybe Ella can make us dinner. Promise you'll rest, and call me if you need to." I nodded and laughed when he pouted at me.

"Better not let the guys see you doing that…"

"I'll be back around five." He kissed me softly and left. I think I lasted about five seconds after the shot was pushed through my IV.

Extra thanks to Connie, you rock Babe! Only one or two chapters left I think, maybe a little more if I can persuade the Muse ;)