Hey, guys! Just letting you know (in case you haven't figured this out for yourselves), I'm not Janet Evanovich. Who would have thought?

I tromped into the apartment, thoroughly abused and in a bad mood. Ranger was sitting on the couch and when he saw me, he chuckled. I smacked his head as I walked by on the way to the bedroom. I never heard him behind me, but I supposed that was the point. He picked me up and tossed me on the bed. I shrieked and landed in the middle. He walked calmly up and smoothly kneeled on the bed. Before I had a chance to block him, he straddled me and held my wrists above my head.

"Problems, babe?" He asked with a grin.

"You don't play fair." I grinded out. I was in a bitchy mood. He was a big guy, he could take it.

"All's fair." He shrugged and increased the pressure slightly on my hands.

"So, I'm supposed to get out of this?"

He grinned then leaned in and kissed me. "Only if you want to." I shoved up with my hips purposefully into some sensitive areas. He smoothly shifted and my move was pointless. I bit my lip and consider the situation.

"Give me some motivation here." I twisted my arms, but he simply loosened his grip and moved with me.

"Why?" He asked and leaned in closer. With sudden inspiration, I kissed him. At first, my kiss was hard, I was mad, after all but I softened and he kissed me back. I felt him begin to relax and I oh so carefully shoved him up and rolled him over, not breaking the kiss. I repositioned my legs and began to kiss down him neck. I grabbed his hands and stretched them over his head as I returned to his lips.

"How was that?" I asked and pulled up, grinning.

"Sneaky."

"All's fair." I kissed him, then slid off and rummaged through my drawers looking for pjs. None. Hunh…maybe I needed to do the laundry. His arms wrapped around my waist and he touched his lips against my neck. Mmm…He moved up to my ear and bit the lobe. He paused for a second, then lifted his head.

"Got to go."

"What?" I saw slightly in a haze.

"Games on." He began to walk away and I slapped him with the tank top in my hand. He chuckled and I shoved him on the bed and tried to tickle him.

"Hey!" He shouted and laughed a little. He managed to catch me and flip me beside him on the bed and reversed the torture.

"Ahh…Stop!" I slapped at his hands. He grabbed them and held them to my chest.

"Say mercy!" He released my hands and continued his assault.

"Never." I flipped him off me and we both fell to the floor. I landed on top of him, both of us breathing hard. I looked down into his dark eyes with my half closed ones. I realized that I wasn't in a bad mood anymore. I grinned down at him and kissed him. "Thanks."

He rubbed my back. "Anytime, babe."

* * * * * * * *

The sun streaming in my east facing windows flooded my closed eyes. I frowned and covered my eyes with my arm. I heard a chuckle over my shoulder and I rolled on the bed toward Ranger.

"Hey," I grinned. He touched my wild hair and kissed me before sliding out of bed, heading for the bathroom. I sat up, swung my legs over the side, and followed him. The door was mostly open and he was brushing his teeth. I looked in the mirror and groaned. Never go to sleep with wet hair, it makes a real mess out of curly hair. Ranger grinned and kissed my temple.

"It's cute." He started shaving while I brushed my teeth.

"What are you on for today?" I asked around my Spongbob toothbrush. Hey, it was cheap, okay?

"I did background searches on the eleven clients and Deedra. Want to help?"

I nodded. I had been thinking about Deedra. "Maybe she's connected. It's a really big coincidence if all of a sudden she goes missing, too."

"I agree." He said quietly. "I also think Andy knows something."

"He would have told us." I was absolutely sure. Andy would lie to me, we had been through too much together.

"I don't think he knows." Ranger leaned against the counter, watching me wash my face.

"Like a case he was working on."

"Exactly." I started working on my makeup and he was pretty intent. I looked at him with one eye done and the other bare.

"What?"

"Why wear makeup?" I almost giggled when I realized why his look looked familiar to me. I used to watch my mom the same way when she "put her face on" and I had seen my nieces do it with Val. It was fascinating, I supposed, to watch a woman change her appearance.

"Because." I made a face at his question and went back to my eyes.

"You're beautiful without it." I snorted at his statement.

"Oh, yeah. I would real good without it." I brushed him off and started fixing my hair, trying to move the subject back to the case. "Why would someone target the homeless?"

"Maybe they saw something."

"What would they do? No one believes the mentally unstable. They're powerless." Ranger nodded in agreement. I sighed and just pulled my hair back in a ponytail. "Where to, boss?" I turned to the guy leaning next to me.

He kissed my jaw. "Files are on the table." Ranger moved to the bedroom and started dressing while I went to the kitchen and made some tea. Connie's coffee yesterday made me crave something a little lighter. I sighed and sat down, pulling half the files toward me.

First up was Jonathon Casing. White. Vietnam vet. After returning from the unpopular war, finding work was hard for Jonny and he slowly lost everything. His wife couldn't understand how much he had changed and took the kids and moved to Seattle. He found solace in the bottle and lost the house. He has lived on the streets since the early eighties. Andy had been helping him get his back pension from the VA.

Ranger walked into the room and sat beside me, pulling his half to him.

Gloria Denney. Black. Former teacher. She was a wild teenager, misdiagnosed with schizophrenia in her early twenties. She completed college and began a nice teaching job at a private school. All that time she was on an antipsychotic called ativan that seemed to be a lesser evil. She became dangerously depressed on ativan so she quit taking it. Her performance at the school ran well after that, but she became increasingly manic. Her parents forced her into a treatment center and she was put on Lithium. She apparently became catatonic after that. When her parents died in 1989, she was put in the care of her brother. He removed her from the treatment center and in a moment of lucidity, she ran away. Now, after a decade of living off the antipsychotic medication, she started to have severe stomach pain. After being checked out by the urgent care center, she was diagnosed with renal failure. Andy was helping her sue the treatment center and doctors for misdiagnosing her and putting her on medication that would have such dangerous side effects.

I got up and refilled my tea, handing Ranger a mug as I passed. He was as engrossed as I was in the lives of these people. I opened my next file and took a sip.

Arron Alonso. Mexican-American. He was a teenager with a bad past and a family immersed in poverty. He had been in and out of trouble for years. His father was abusive and a drunk. Arron had been in juvie a couple of times and was in a gang. He had a record of being a runaway. Arron had been in rehab with his father and twin brother when he ran away and hit the streets. He had nowhere else to go. Arron had somehow stumbled onto Andy and just kind of had a general plea for help. Andy was still trying to see what action he had should take when Arron disappeared.

I set the file down and rubbed my eyes. Ranger rubbed my back, not looking up from his file. I picked up the next one and found an Asian woman who discovered a rush for stealing cars and got caught. The fallout left her facing 20 years in prison and little incentive to stick around. She became a fugitive and went underground. Now after five years, she went to the street lawyer to help her reenter society. Before the proper authorities could be alerted, Amy Zhan came up missing.

Xavier Thomas. Black. An up and coming lawyer who had lived in the fast lane. Working hard all week and partying all weekend. He discovered cocaine and the rest was history. He was on the streets in months and he switched his addiction to heroin. He went to Andy in need of rehab.

I sighed and closed the file. Ranger was switching files, too. He had two clients left and I had Deedra Jones. I reached for her file and tried to push away the fact that she was a friend.

Deedra Jones. Latino. She was from Denver originally and her father was Pastor Jones of Carbuncle Lutheran Church in the suburb Aurora. I already knew how she ended up on the streets. She had started hooking on Colfax. Colfax was the old part of the city and now it was one of the most dangerous parts of the Mile High city. She traveled to New York with a pimp and had ended up on in Jersey. She had only been a 'ho on Dotter Street for six months before Andy and I picked her up. Now, she was missing.

Ranger sat back and looked at me. He jerked his head toward the couch and I nodded, grabbing my tea. We moved into the living room and discussed the files.

"So, there's absolutely no connection between any of them." I sat back in defeat.

"Except Andy."