This is the last pre-written chapter of this series. The following chapters will not follow on as quickly. Sorry in advance. Enjoy this one now that it's here.

Ranger's POV

When I first heard Lester's voice, I was ready to tell him that they needed to take precautions. Instead, he was the one that told me that they thought it was a trap.

"How do you know that?"

"Lula found some construction numbers that didn't add up and Beautiful's spidey sense helped her put two and two together. We've got the scanner and some other equipment so we'll check out the walls to see what's going on."

Fiona and I moved into the centre of the building. If the walls and door were indeed rigged with explosives, we wanted to be as far away as possible. Fiona looked at me and asked, "Who's Lula and this Beautiful Lester's talking about?"

"They're two women that work at RangeMan. Stephanie Plum is a good friend of Lester's. He likes to give out nicknames, and that's the one he chose for her. Steph is known for her spidey sense. She tends to put things together that nobody else sees and she's rarely wrong. She and Lula realised that the construction costs for this building didn't really add up and then Steph had a feeling that something was wrong."

"They sound like interesting women. I'd like to meet them and thank them for all their hard work. If it wasn't for them, Lester, your men and us might not be here right now."

I was grinning at this and said, "I'm sure we can arrange for you to meet them."

"Stephanie is more than just an employee, isn't she?"

"Why do you say that?"

"Your face just light up when you spoke of her and her abilities. You are clearly proud of her, but there's more to it than that."

"I guess she is more than an employee to me. I think I've been in love with her for as long as I've known her, but because of my work with the General, I've never felt comfortable entangling with a woman. When I was done with missions and all my enemies had been eliminated in one way or another, I was read to explore things with her. Now this situation with the General has thrown things a bit off schedule."

"How does she feel?"

"I think we're pretty much on the same page. We had a long talk and actually went out on our first date the night that Lester went missing. I just hope I get out of this so I can hold her in my arms again."

I heard somebody on the roof and then I heard Ram yell, Boss, we're going to cut a hole in the roof right where I'm standing." He stomped on the room so we could tell where he was. "I need you to be as far away as possible for the next little while."

"Will do. Be careful." I yelled up at the men.

Fiona and I had to endure 20 minutes of loud saw noises, but once a hole was made, we could see Lester's smiling face.

"Hey you two. I hope you're up for being rescued."

"How am I supposed to fit through that hole Santos?"

"You'll have to squeeze Boss. Any larger and we'd hit wires and steel beams."

We watched as Lester squeezed through the hole and then repelled down into the warehouse. He then handed a harness to Fiona and helped her into it.

"You will both need to climb straight up the rope because we can't put any pressure on the sides of the hole. We have a frame set up that is taking the weight at the moment, but we can't have anyone pull you up because the frame won't hold. I hope you learned how to climb a rope in school Firefly."

Fiona was taken aback with Lester's new nickname for her but she didn't say anything. She looked up and looked a bit pale. "Would you think less of me if I said I was horrible with a rope?"

Lester laughed and said, "No, I didn't want to assume, but I brought along this pulley thingy that helps you to climb up."

I watched as Lester got Fiona connected to the rope and showed her how to attach the pulley mechanism and use it to pull herself up the rope. Fiona was a bit apprehensive, but once she got into a good rhythm, she successfully got to the top and was helped out by Ram, who threw the rope back down.

I looked at Lester and said, "You're turn. I'm not 100% sure I'll fit through that hole and I'd hate for you to be stuck down here because I get stuck."

"I'll be up top and I'll help you out once you get near the top. You're going to have to get one shoulder out at a time, but the tricky part will be avoiding putting any weight on the edge of the opening itself. "

I watched Lester shimmy up the rope and caught it when he threw it down to me. I made short work of the climb, but it was clear that getting out would be difficult. I ended up reaching up with one arm and grabbing hold of the top of the frame that was set up. I then twisted my shoulders but was having a hard time getting the second shoulder free.

Both Ram and Lester took hold of me so all my weight wasn't on my one arm and between the three of us, I was finally free of the roof. Unfortunately, the last tug through the roof dislocated my left shoulder. Lester and Ram had to help me off the roof and once we were far enough away from the building, Hall pressed a button and blew up the warehouse.

Lester patted me on the back and said, "There's someone on the phone that wants to talk to you."

I took the phone in my good arm and said, "Babe."

"Thank god you're alright. I've been going crazy here ever since I found out."

"Well Babe, it's thanks to you and Lula that I'm here at all. Lester told me about your spidey sense and Lula's mistrust of the construction costs. Hiring the two of you has proved to be one of the best decisions I've made in a really long time"

"Are you OK though? When will you be home?"

"I'm fine Babe. They didn't hurt me. They were hoping that my rescue would kill me and the people who rescued me, but we managed to get away without any injuries. As for when I'm coming home, I don't know just yet. We're on our way to a safe house that I'm sure the General doesn't know about. Once we're safe, I'll talk to George and we will figure out our options. I will call you later Babe."

I got off the phone with Steph and looked at the guys who had rescued us. I didn't want to let my guard down quite yet, but looking over at Fiona, I saw that she had let hers down. Fiona was sound asleep leaning against a willing Lester. He kept looking down at her making sure that she was comfortable and the look on his face. Normally such a sappy look would have provoked teasing, but I'm not sure either of us was in a position to tease the other about the women in our lives.

A/N From now on, things may come a little slower because I have to write the rest from scratch. Hopefully it won't take too long and my holiday prep won't get in the way too much. Of course, there will be a bit of a stand still soon, so if I don't get the rest of this story posted before Christmas, I'll do my best after the weekend.

L.