A/N: This chapter is basically fluff. There are some plot related discussions, but not many. You won't miss much if fluff isn't your thing. There are also three scary stories told in the middle. If you want to skip those for any reason- they start and end with stars.

Ranger wasn't home when I came in. There was a note on the counter telling me that he needed to go to work for a few hours and that he would bring dinner. My eyes paused on his sign off. Love, R. Oh, boy. Heat flushed through me. I knew that he loved me in his own way and well, we were kind of living together, but he had written it in such a subconscious way. He really loved me. Before I became a pitiful mess, I went and showered to wash off the sweat residue from the fighting and climbed into my PJs.

I fell back into my thinking position. It had changed when I started sharing my bed on a regular basis. Instead of draping across the whole bed diagonally, I flopped onto my side of the bed and draped myself over onto Ranger's side. I had a mystery to solve, but once again, I had no idea what way to go about figuring it out.

I knew that Jack Finney had been originally charged with stealing bodies from funeral homes and he had spent ten years in a mental institution. He finally managed to escape and more bodies go missing, except he get's killed. How could Jack Finney have stole Birdie if he ended up dead? Maybe he had an accomplice? Some thing nagged my sleepy mind as I dozed off, but what ever it was, it was lost.

I woke up in Ranger's warm arms much later. I rolled onto my side to face him. He smiled sleepily and I kissed him softly. I remembered his note and pulled back a little. He looked so relaxed with me, not losing the edge he had. More like I just saw more of him, instead of different things. I grinned, thinking about the things I wouldn't mind seeing and he kissed me hard, his ESP reading my mind.

He rolled me onto my back, kissing down my neck. He stopped at the neckline of my shirt and lifted it up, not quite pulling it off. His soft lips touched my belly and moved agonizingly slow downward. I lifted my hips impatiently and he grinned up at me. Moving downward, my only thought was that dinner could wait.

XxXxXxX

Late Sunday morning the only thing that drug us out of bed was our grumbling stomachs. As I warmed up the Chinese takeout, Ranger sat at the counter with his laptop, working. Ranger was very street but it is amazing how good he is with a computer. He closed down when the food was ready and we crashed on the couch. I told him about Mallory and taking down the two men and he told me about the emergency at work while we ate. I got off the couch and found a movie. I was dying to watch The Terminator. Like our lives aren't violent enough, right?

We passed the afternoon on the couch taking turns picking movies and arguing good-naturedly about points in the movies.

"John Connor knew that Kyle Reese was his father when he sent him back."

"No, she must have edited the tapes."

"Why wouldn't she have told him?"

"Because John might not have sent him back to his certain death. She even said she might not tell him because of that."

"If she truly loved Kyle that much, she would have told John. That might have saved his life."

"But that's ridiculous. She wouldn't have risked her own life and had given up the future's only resistance just to save the man's life. She was hardened by that point."

Okay, it had been a long week. Neither of us were thinking all that rationally. Besides, dissecting 80s movies with Batman was fun. I would have argued any stupid point just to keep it going.

"Andy is worse than a chick with his mood swings toward Marcus." I murmured as the credits rolled for Reign of Fire. Oh, come on. Christian Bale is a mega hottie.

"He just likes him." Ranger shrugged.

"He acts like he hates him!"

"That's because he just doesn't have confidence in himself."

"And he takes that out on Marcus?"

"Maybe he just thinks Marcus is too good for him and he is trying to make himself not like him."

"How could I have not seen that? He's one of my closest friends."

"Maybe you're just too close to him to see it." Ranger tweaked my nose and jumped up out of the way, grabbing his choice movie. It was called Six Days, Seven Nights and it was hilarious.

We were very relaxed by the time Andy knocked on our door with the makings of chocolaty goodness.

It was getting dark and I got out all the pillows and a few blankets to make a nest on the floor. Ranger grabbed some of my candles and we created mood lighting. I had just planned to roast the marshmallows on the stove, but Andy came up with the brilliant idea of using a big candle with multiple wicks. We settled down and waited for nightfall.

*****

"Who goes first?" Andy asked, as we got comfortable. Ranger and I looked at him. Well, he suggested it. I was a teensy bit nervous about have a spook night with Ranger. Well, I didn't want to look stupid in front of him. Besides, what if he wasn't into this kind of thing? I didn't realize how foolish it was for me to worry.

Andy settled in and started:

"There was once a rich woman who was in search of a husband. She was old and she wasn't a very attractive woman but her wealth attracted many suitors, especially, her golden arm. One man in particular caught her attention and she fell in love with him. They were quickly married and settled into life together.

Now, you see the man was very clever and he knew that old woman wasn't going to live much longer so he just waited. She fell more in love with the charming and attractive young man that was so attentive to her and despite her wealth, she was sure that he loved her, too.

When she died, he was horrified that she wanted to be buried with her golden arm. She had left him everything else, but he had to have that arm, too. When the darkness fell, he went out and dug up his late wife's body and took her beloved golden arm.

He ran back up the stairs to his bed, tucking the golden arm under his pillow. Soon, it was midnight and he was brought out of his fitful sleep by a chilling voice.

"Who stole my golden arm?"

He was sure that he was imagining it.

"Who stole my golden arm?" The voice was at the bottom of the stairs.

He buried his head in his pillow, still sure that he is asleep and dreaming.

"Who stole my golden arm?" Bang, bang, bang. The chilling voice was coming up the stairs.

The man clenched his eyes shut, praying that he would wake up.

"Who stole my golden arm?" The voice was right outside his door. His eyes opened in terror.

"Who stole my golden arm?" The door swung open and there stood his dead wife with a knife raised in one hand. Her other arm was missing.

"Who stole my golden arm?" The chilling voice came out the woman. It moved closer and closer until she stood over his bed.

"You stole my golden arm!" Andy lunged at us and I shrieked.

"Gee, sis, it's just a story." Andy grinned at me and Ranger shook his head.

"My turn," He spoke with a wicked glint in his eyes.

"A lonely rich man was on business in London when he met a charming girl. He was instantly in love with her and he told her so. They were quickly married and he brought her back to his estate. She didn't like the cold house but she tried her best to make it her home. She was given to reading in her bed for hours when the master was away from the house. After a month of marriage, she began to get sick. This was the age of cholera so the husband immediately fetched a doctor.

The doctor couldn't find anything wrong with her and assured the man that she would get well soon, but she didn't. She grew steadily worse until she was completely bedridden. After that, she would never let the chambermaids fluff the pillows or change the bedding because she was too exhausted and their chatter hurt her head badly.

She became deathly ill very quickly after that. The husband again fetched the doctor. Again, the doctor could find nothing wrong with the girl except her symptoms. The next day the girl felt a little better and she went out walking in the gardens with her husband. It was her favorite part of the estate. After their walk, she felt much better but very tired.

She went to sleep early that night. The next morning a maid went in and found the girl dead. The man was so filled with grief all he could do was pace in the next room for hours after her body had been removed. The maid who had found her went in to strip the bed and suddenly screamed. The man rushed in and found the chambermaid deathly pale beside the bed.

"What is it?" The man shouted at her.

"It's very heavy, sir. It startled me." She pointed a trembling hand at the pillow. The man grabbed it and found that indeed, it was very heavy. He carried it to the dining room table and grabbed a knife to slit the pillow open. The staff of the house gathered around the man as he pulled the pillow apart to reveal a giant, bloated spider. The thing waved two tube-like things up at the man.

The spider had been feeding on the woman while she slept. As her condition grew worse, she had rested more and it had feed more until it had killed her."

I shivered with disgust as Ranger finished. I was imagining that spider.

"Ugh," I groaned. They both turned to me. My turn. Let me think…

"Okay, this is an oldie." Andy nodded, already getting in to it. I smiled, I loved a captive audience. I looked at Ranger and found that he was focused on me with the similar intentness as Andy. They were like little boys, loving to be scared.

"Jenny had a date. She was getting ready and trying to figure out what to wear, when a broadcast interrupted her music to inform her that there was an escapee from a nearby insane asylum who had a hook for a hand and was a known killer. She ignored it and selected a dress that was probably too short, but she wanted to look good for her boyfriend. He picked her up on time and they went out to the movies.

After the movies, they drove up to the local lovers' lane. He was happy with the dress and they were really getting into the make out session when an emergency broadcast interrupted their music. It said that the killer had been spotted in the area. The girl suddenly wasn't in the mood and she told her boyfriend that she wanted to go home.

"C'mon, baby. Nothing is going to happen. I won't let anyone get you." He teased her and tried to kiss her again. She pulled away when she heard scratching on her door.

"Please, can we just go home?" He rolled his eyes.

"Stop being such a baby."

"Please, I'm scared." He sighed impatiently.

"How about I go out and check it out? If there's nothing there, then…"

"No! I want to go home right now." He stared the car, completely irritated and accelerated out fast, showing her how mad he was. He didn't speak to her all the way home and when he got her home, he went around to open the door for her only out of subconscious manners. He stopped dead outside her door and stared at the handle. The girl waited for him, staring up at his bulging eyes. He lifted up the bloody hook that was stuck in her door handle and she screamed.

The next morning in the papers, she saw that a couple of kids had been murdered not too far from where they had parked."

*****

The guys nodded in approval and we got the marshmallows out to toast over out candles and made gooey s'mores. Until really late, we took turns trying to scare each other and we finally fell asleep, curled up on the living room floor together.

The stories were: The Golden Arm (or Golden Hand), The Feather Pillow by Horacio Quiroga and The Hook.