Thanks for hanging in there. I'm sorry that this has taken longer than usual, but I've been busy and I wanted to go over it a few times before posting to make sure it made sense.

Enjoy!

Tank's POV

I can't believe this is happening. Stephanie talked to the lawyer and gave her a list of actions that Ranger needed to take. The lawyer would put the paperwork together and have it faxed over by the end of the day.

I was putting off calling Ranger and everyone involved knew it. This news would anger and devastate him. I feared the rage this would invoke in my friend could potentially be catastrophic. Hopefully Stephanie would be able to calm him a little. I walked out of my office and waved to Lula, Stephanie and Zip. I motioned for them all to follow me back into my office. Once everyone was inside, I turned on the speaker and dialled the safe house.

It was very early in the morning, so when George answered the phone with a very groggy voice, I wasn't surprised. Moments later, Ranger's breathless voice came on the line.

"What's up Ranger, you sound out of breath?"

"I was in the basement with Lester. We were sparring, trying to work off a bit of excess energy. We lost track of time. It seems that we were at it for several hours. It was dark when we started and I can see the sun fighting to start a new day. What news have you got?"

"Well, we have news and it's not good. We know who is behind this but we don't know why exactly."

"Explain Tank."

I sighed and continued. "It appears that West is having an affair and he and his mistress are in this together. We still don't know what they hope to achieve, but it can't be good."

There was silence for moment before Ranger asked, "What woman? Who would want to force me to sign another contract? It makes no sense."

I grimaced and said, "It's your ex-wife Ranger. She's the one having an affair with West. She accompanied West to a D.C. bank and opened an account in the General's wife's name. We can only conclude that they are using that account to incriminate him and blackmail him for some purpose or another. West was also with the General when he was in Atlanta during Lester's kidnapping. At this time, we are unsure of why she is involved. My only guess is that she's hoping another mission might result in a bit of a windfall for her."

The venom in Ranger's voice was clear for us all to hear. "Why on earth would she think I would leave her anything in my will? Anything I planned to leave for Julie would be in a trust so Rachel had no access to it. Why would Rachel do this? It makes no sense?"

"I'm not sure Ranger, but it might have something to do with your new relationship with Bomber. Rachel might see Stephanie as competition for the money she expects to get. If you retire, there is less of a chance that your will would be needed.

"I have already contacted the Miami office. They are tailing both Rachel and West. Silvio is also running a more in-depth search on Rachel and it should be finished by later this afternoon. Anything suspicious will be passed along. I'm pretty sure you are no longer in danger from the General, but you might want to keep a low profile anyway. I have no idea if they are even aware that you are still alive."

Ranger was silent again and we all heard him take a deep breath. Finally, he said, "Is Stephanie there?"

She leaned toward the speaker and said, "I'm here Ranger, what do you need?"

"You, I need your help more than ever before. Can you fly down to Miami? Take a commercial flight and hire a car. Take a satellite phone and call when you land. I am almost positive that you will have a tail as soon as you leave the airport. We might actually be able to use that to our advantage. When you spot your tail, call me and we'll work out what to do then."

Steph looked a bit nervous and said, "OK. What do you need me to do?"

Ranger was silent for a moment and said, "I'll tell you once you get there, I still need to work out the details of the plan. Once you're done in Miami, I want you to head up to D.C."

She nodded and said, "OK, I'll call when I get to Miami and you can fill me in. On a separate note, I talked to Dan Perry today. He says that you need to sign some paperwork. I'll bring it with me. The search that Silvio is running should be done by the time I get there. I'll take a look at it to see if anything jumps out at me. I'll see you soon Ranger."

While Steph was on the phone, called Ella and asked her to pack a bag for Stephanie as quickly as possible. I also booked her on a flight to Miami that was leaving in just under three hours. I printed her boarding pass and handed it to her when she got off the phone, indicating that she needed to hurry.

She took the paper, ran up the stairs, and came down 5 minutes later with her bag in hand. Lester drove her to the airport, and once she was out of the building, I called Ranger back to find out the plan.

"Hey, I'm sure you already have a plan for Bomber. What is it?"

"I asked Ella to put Julie's birthday present in Steph's bag. She will deliver it to Julie and see if Rachel says or does anything out of character. After that, I'll get her to fly to D.C. I need to see her. It will make this whole nightmare a little more bearable."

I smiled at Ranger's confession. It's not often that Ranger bears his soul, and I wasn't about to tease him about it. I asked, "Do you want me to book a flight for Bomber to D.C.?"

"Yeah. Get her on the last one out tonight. She'll need a bit of rest I'm sure and I don't know how long she'll stay at Rachel's. It will also give Silvio time to finish his search."

"Will do. I'll send the boarding pass to the Miami office for her."

"Thanks Tank. Thanks for everything that you've done for me over the past week."

"No worries Ranger. You'd have done the same for me and you know it. We are all working our asses off trying to bring an end to this fiasco. Bomber and Lula have been instrumental. Now that Bomber is gone, I'm going to have to keep encouraging Lula. I think she feeds off Steph and she'll be missing her while she's gone."

I could hear Ranger mumble something in the background and then he said, "I'll tell you what, as soon as I get back, we'll take the ladies out somewhere as a thanks for all of their hard work."

I smiled at the thought and realised that it sounded a lot like a double date. I'd have to do something before then to progress a relationship with Lula so the double date wasn't so awkward. I wished Ranger luck and told him to call if he needed anything.

As soon as I got off the phone, I wanted to pull up the internal surveillance cameras to find out where Lula was at this moment. I wanted to talk to her. I looked at my watch and saw that it was only 6. Lula would normally be in the gym at 6:30, but since she was up all night, I wasn't sure if she'd make it. If not, I wouldn't complain about it. She's been working hard and needs her rest.

I was also tired, but I also needed to relieve a bit of tension and stress. The gym was better for that than sleep, so I headed down to the gym to get changed. When I came out of the changing room, I saw Lula on the mats stretching. I walked over to her and said, "If you're tired, you can have the morning off to catch up on your sleep."

She looked up at me, smiled and asked, "Are you taking the morning off? You were up just as long as I was. Besides, somebody once told me that a good workout can rejuvenate even the most tired person. I figured I'd give it a try."

I held out a hand when she was finished stretching and helped her to her feet. We then walked together over to the treadmill and we talked a little until we both got too winded to carry on a conversation. It was a nice companionable silence. I kept looking over at her and noticed that the gym clothes that Lula bought for her the previous weekend were already a little loose on her.

I noticed that she was concentrating on what she was doing so hard that she ignored the sweat that was dripping down her nose. I also noticed how much I liked her plain hairstyle. It suited her perfectly. I was grinning as I watched her and groaned when Bobby appeared and made a comment.

"What are you smiling about big guy?"

I glared at him and said, "I'm just in a good mood. I'm tired and stressed and a little giddy. Is that a crime?"

Bobby laughed and hopped up on the treadmill on the other side of Lula. He looked at her settings and said, "You've increased your speed I see Lula, great job. Pretty soon you'll be running those 5 miles."

Lula looked at him with raised eyebrows and said, "When I'm able to run 5 miles, I'll be sure to do it outdoors when the weather permits. I'm not sure I can handle the monotony of this treadmill much longer."

Bobby grinned and said, "That's probably a good idea. It's easy to count down the time and distance left on a treadmill. Sometimes that can make the workout seem much longer than it really is. Running outdoors removes that obstacle and sometimes results in a more satisfying workout."

I watched as Lula looked down at her time and said, "I agree. I see the distance tick down and the time increase. I try to not look at them, but sometimes it's hard not to. Talking helps though, until it becomes too hard."

Bobby pointed up to the television in front of Lula. He then handed her the remote control and said, "Maybe there's something on here that will hold your attention."

Lula smiled and flipped through the channels as she looked for something to watch. I was quite surprised when she stopped and watched a program about a zoo in New Zealand. Every single person in the gym was completely mesmerised by this show. I don't know what it was about it, perhaps the accents of the presenters or the fact that it was a show targeted towards children, but we all watched in rapt attention.

There was only 20 minutes left in that episodes and just as the credits came on for the second episode, Lula's machine went into cool down mode. This caused her to lose her step for a second. She quickly righted herself and looked down to see what happened.

The look on her face with priceless. She managed to finish her 30 minutes on the treadmill and the time flew by when she watched the animals at the zoo. She beamed at Bobby who said, "I think Lula should be in charge of the remote control from now on. I've never seen that program before and I loved it. Ooh, look, it's on again!"

I looked up and smiled as I followed Lula to the resistance machines. We watched the program as we did our weight training, and when the 2nd episode was over, Lula was ready for the free weights and matt work that Bobby had her and Bomber doing. I joined Lula and since there wasn't a 3rd episode of The Zoo, we talked in between bouts of very loud music.

By the time Lula was finished with her routine, I was feeling great. We talked and laughed and I realised that I really did like this version of Lula. I liked her before, but this new confidence and relaxed version was even more enjoyable.

I walked out of the gym after waving good bye to the guys and met Lula at the stairs. She was just about to open the door when I said, "Lula, do you have a minute?"

She nodded and let go of the door. I pulled it open and let her go first and as we descended the steps to the 4th floor I said, "I know things between us ended rather awkwardly when we were dating." I paused for a moment to see if Lula had anything to say, but when she stayed silent, I continued. "I was wondering if you'd be interested in going on a date with me. One that starts with me picking you up and ends with me dropping you off, maybe with a kiss good night?"

Lula stopped and since she was three steps above me, she could look me almost straight in the eye. She stared at me for a long while before saying, "I'd like that Tank. I know the whole engagement things got out of hand last time around and I'm 100% to blame there. You were just so nice to me and I wasn't used to that. I freaked a bit and I have regretted it ever since."

I grinned, she grinned and as I walked her to her door I said, "I'll let you know the date and time. It might have to wait until this whole Ranger thing is sorted, but I don't want to wait too long."

I watched her walk into her apartment and went into Lester's to shower and change. I have been staying onsite ever since Lester went missing, but I had to run back to my house twice a day to feed my cats. Ella helped out when I couldn't and at the moment, I wanted to hold my cats so after I changed, I made sure Bobby knew I was leaving and headed home.

I do apologise if the next chapter takes a while. I've re-written it about 3 times and I'm still not happy with the way it turns out. I will get it up as soon as I can. Encouragement is always welcome. Thanks.