Unapologized

By: PricklySare

A/N: Thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed this story. I'm trying to respond to everyone, but there just doesn't seem to be enough time. :) I appreciate each and every response. Thanks goes out to the M's and Stayce as always. Marge, beware of impressive zucchini, and Stayce, This Gnomes for you. :) Now, on with the story!

Sare

Chapter Forty: Steph Gets a Crash Course in Asset Management

Steph's POV

Gnomes had taken up residence in my head and from the pounding that was going on it felt like they were mining for treasure and had hit the mother load. My body felt like it'd been bludgeoned with one of those really large zucchinis that grow in the corner of the garden; the ones that aren't found until they're the size of Ranger's...arm. I would have laughed if it wouldn't hurt so much. Instead I rested my head on Lester's shoulder and kept my eyes closed.

For the first time ever, I was glad to be seeing a doctor, though I still didn't particularly like the idea. Doctors, in my mind, always represented the bad side of life. They represented needles, x-rays, and bed rest, the medical version of the boogeyman. Needless to say, those weren't my favorite things. In this case, however, I was willing to ignore my dislike of all things doctor related in favor of making sure that Deputy Dumbfuck hadn't done anything to me while I was unconscious. I already wanted to tear him apart; if I found out he'd raped me, death would be too good for him.

I heard Cassidy speaking to someone, and I figured it was the doctor. Wanting to ignore the pain in my head for a few more minutes I continued to keep my eyes closed. Lester's hand was trailing up and down my arm, and I found it comforting, although I couldn't help but wish it were Ranger's fingers I felt.

"The doctor is here, Beautiful," Lester whispered in my ear. I knew I needed to open my eyes, but they were feeling so heavy that I wasn't sure I could manage that small task. I'd been doing so well all day, and I knew that Ranger would be proud of me, but now I could feel my body wanting to shutdown. The nap I'd snatched in the SUV wasn't enough, and I didn't know how much longer I was going to last before I couldn't function anymore.

"Ms. Plum, can you hear me?" I wanted to say something, to acknowledge the voice that sounded like melted honey, but I couldn't get my voice to work. "Ms. Plum, open your eyes for me. Ms. Plum," the voice said again. The last thing I remembered hearing was someone saying "fuck", and then there was blessed silence.

When I woke up I was lying on my left side in a comfortable bed, with heavy blankets pulled up to my chin. Cool light was beginning to come through the blinds, and the clock on the table next to me read five thirty. Ugh. I hated mornings. Nothing good ever happened before ten. I wondered briefly how long I'd been asleep, and whether the doctor had ever checked me out. I actually was feeling pretty good considering everything that had been going on. Rolling to my back I bumped into a large, warm body. "Morning, Beautiful," Lester said to me in a quiet voice, rough with sleep. "Glad you've decided to wake up."

"How long have I been out for?"

"About fifteen hours."

I was glad to know that I hadn't been out for longer than that. "What have I missed?"

"Not a whole lot. The doctor checked you out," he paused when my eyes widened. "It's okay, Beautiful," he picked up my hand and entwined our fingers, rubbing his thumb in slow circles on my palm. "Bobby and I were with you the whole time."

I nodded my head, I'd been through enough exams that I knew what to expect, and some of those things would require me to be conscious. "How did he check my reflexes while I was passed out?"

"You woke up a few times. Don't you remember?" I tried to focus on the hazy images that were playing through my head. Then I just shrugged my shoulders. I'd worry about it later.

"What's the verdict? Am I free to go?" I really didn't want to stay locked up, or stuck on bed rest. I had a life, and a job I needed to get back to.

"The Doctor said that aside from a mild concussion and a few bruises, you're perfectly fine."

I really didn't want to ask, but I knew I needed to. "Did he do a rape kit?" A look passed over his eyes and I felt the fury radiating off him. When he didn't say anything my heartbeat sped up and black dots appeared in front of my eyes. "Lester," I said, a mixture of anger and fear in my voice. I was going to hunt that asshole down and castrate him. "Answer me, please."

"He brought in a female doctor to perform a rape kit, and the results were negative. There was no sign of sexual activity." My stomach clinched in relief and I let out a sigh.

"Why are you so angry then?" I asked him.

"You really need to ask that, Beautiful?" Lester sat up, releasing my hand. His hair looked like he'd styled it with a light socket, and the five o'clock shadow on his face was starting to sport its own shadow. "You were in jail for two days, denied your rights as a citizen, beaten and possibly raped, and you can't figure out why I'm angry?"

When he put it that way, I could see the need for anger. "Lester, I'm okay. It wasn't fun, and I'm pissed as hell that I had to go through it, but it's over and I'm okay." I slid over to the side of the bed he was sitting on and leaned against him, mimicking his posture.

He wrapped an arm around me and rested his cheek against the top of my head. "I don't know how Ranger does it, Beautiful."

Since I wasn't expecting those words my body tensed, "What?" I asked him.

"You were gone two days. Two days when I had no idea where you were. Ranger has experienced this more than I have, and I don't know how he's done it. I have a new appreciation for the way he felt when Stiva kidnapped you." He placed a kiss on the top of my head, and after a moment of silence he said, "You're my best friend, and I can't stand the thought of losing you."

I felt a single tear slide down my cheek and wiped it away with my finger. "You're not going to lose me, Lester. It'll take a lot more than a two-bit asshole with a badge to keep Wonder Woman down." I lifted my head and looked him in the eyes, "Besides, you're my best friend too, and I have to stick around so you can be my maid of honor." I felt him laugh right before he wrapped his arm around my neck and gave me a double Jersey cheek pinch. "Dammit, Lester!"

He jumped off the bed in a single graceful move and called over his shoulder as he headed for the door, "Better get dressed, Beautiful. There are still a lot of things that need to be discussed. I bet the guys are already up."

Picking up a pillow I tossed it at his retreating back, "There'd better be coffee," I called after him.

Ten minutes later I'd found the bathroom, gotten dressed, and wrangled my hair into something that loosely resembled a ponytail. I wasn't going to impress anyone, or win any beauty contests, but I was fully clothed, and feeling better than I had since this whole mess started. While I'd gotten dressed I'd gone over what Agent Cassidy had told us yesterday, and knew there were a lot more questions he had for me. I also knew that I had my own questions for him, and he was going to answer them. I'd spent too much time in the dark the last few years, and it wasn't going to fly anymore.

Stepping out of the bathroom, the smell of fresh coffee assaulted my nose and I could feel myself perking up. The next thing I smelled was food. Wonderful, greasy, artery clogging food. I followed my nose to the kitchen and found the guys lounging around a huge table. "I hope you saved some for me, guys," I said as I walked in.

"Check the oven, Bombshell," Tank said as I poured myself a cup of coffee. "We needed to keep it away from Lester. You know what a pig he is." I smiled at the expression of disbelief on Lester's face.

"Thanks guys," I said as I opened the familiar brown bag. "So, am I on lock down here, Agent Cassidy? Or do I get to leave this particular prison?" I kept my eyes on him as I removed the breakfast sandwich from the bag, and began unwrapping it. That's right, I can multitask with the best of them.

Instead of answering me he asked, "How are you feeling?"

I took a bite of my sandwich while I thought about how I was feeling. My body was still sore, and I had a slight headache, but otherwise I wasn't feeling too horrible. "Nothing I haven't handled before," I said before taking another bite and sighing. "This is the greatest food ever." I received a few smiles and chuckles from the guys, before I lapsed into silence, enjoying my breakfast. "Thanks for calling the doctor for me yesterday," I said when I'd finished my last bite of food.

"You're welcome. I'm just sorry it took so long." I waved away his concern. There were more important things on my mind.

"You never did answer me." Cassidy just raised his eyebrow at me. "Don't try it Cassidy. I've spent the last few years around Ranger. Your silence isn't going to intimidate me or keep me here any longer than absolutely necessary."

He remained silent for a few more seconds before seeming to come to some decision. "I'm releasing you into Rangeman custody today." I was the only person who showed any surprise so I guessed that the guys had already been informed of this. Probably while I was visiting dreamland.

"What else was decided while I was checked out?" I asked, figuring it would be better to get caught up now instead of whenever they felt like doling out the information. Cassidy looked at Tank, and Tank looked directly at me, his face a blank mask.

Cassidy finally spoke, "Before you go anywhere, we're going to finish our discussion from yesterday."

I snorted, "Don't you mean your interrogation?" Just then I looked around realizing that Haver wasn't there. "Where's Haver?"

"He had a few things to attend to, but he'll be back," Tank said. "It's okay to talk to Cassidy without him." It was moments like this one that I wished I could lift one eyebrow. It would really come in handy.

"It's not an interrogation, Ms. Plum. There are questions that need to be answered, and you're the only one with those answers. If you want my help, I need you to work with me." This conversation was starting to sound like a broken record, and I was getting tired of it. Unfortunately, as much as I didn't want to trust him, my gut was telling me he was trustworthy and on our side.

"I'm willing to answer your questions, Agent Cassidy. On two conditions."

"What conditions, Ms. Plum?"

"First, my name is Stephanie, or Steph. Not Ms. Plum."

"Okay, Steph. What's your other condition?"

"You'll answer my questions in return. I will not be left in the dark about anything that is going on. This is my life. It's happening to me, and I deserve to be part of it. I'm done being protected, and left out of the loop for my own good. Ranger's done it, and I didn't appreciate it then, and I sure as hell won't appreciate it now." I watched as he looked at Tank, and the rest of the guys in turn. "No," I said, startling Cassidy. Score one for the 'Burg girl.

"No, what?"

"No, you don't look at them for the right answer. This is between you and me. That ESP shit that you ex-military guys seem to have mastered isn't going to fly anymore. I'm either included completely, or I will walk out that door and take my chances with Deputy Dipshit and whoever it is who has me in their sights. I'd rather be completely alone than alone while in a room full of people."

"Steph, I'm releasing you into Rangeman custody. You can't just walk out that door." I looked at him like he'd lost his mind. Apparently his research didn't clue him in on how well I took orders. Turning over a new, mature leaf or not, I was not going to sit around and let anyone control me.

"So, I take it your research never told you just how often I've managed to slip by them? How many times I walked right out the front door of their secure building? Because, trust me, Agent Cassidy, if I want to walk away without their knowledge you can damn well bet I'll do just that. That's a guarantee." My head was beginning to pound again. Either I needed more caffeine, less caffeine, or a normal life. I was pretty sure it was the latter, but I was willing to believe it was a lack of caffeine, and poured myself another cup.

We spent several long minutes in tense silence, Cassidy watching me, me watching him, and the guys staring at me like I'd suddenly had a sex change. Guess they weren't used to me being quite that blunt. "I have no problem answering your questions, providing I can answer them," Cassidy finally said.

"That's all I want. I'm not asking for information on the next third world country that's going to be taken over, I just want to know what's going on that concerns my life. Anything else, I honestly don't care about."

"Then let's get started," Cassidy said as he headed out of the kitchen. I looked around at the guys and gave them a small smile. They each had huge grins on their faces and I knew they were finding me amusing again. I just shrugged, what else could I do? It was still earlier than I was normally up, and the day already seemed far too long. Would this day ever end?

By lunch time I was ready to tear my hair out. I'd answered every question that Cassidy had thrown at me. Some didn't even seem to have anything to do with what was going on. I was still a little pissed that he had known about the conversation I'd had with Val the night that Ranger had gone in the wind. I half expected him to ask me how big Ranger's cock was, but then I figured he was probably able to find that out from his medical records, or some other mysterious file.

"Okay, Cassidy," I said, finally dropping the agent from his name. I figured at this point he was calling my Steph, and he was going to be working closely with us so I might as well try to be friendlier. "I've been answering your questions all morning, now I'd like to ask you a few, but first," I said, looking over a Tank, "Can you order food? I'm starving."

He gave me a huge smile and stood up from the chair he was in, "Sure thing, Bombshell. Chinese work for you?"

I could feel saliva pool in my mouth, "Most definitely," I said. When he walked out of the room I turned back to Cassidy. "Okay, my turn."

"What would you like to know, Steph?" I thought about what I wanted to ask, the questions that had been running through my head, and tried to decide where to begin. I decided to begin with something that I hadn't understood yesterday, and that I had been too tired and sore to worry about.

"What does a Director of Asset Management do?"

"They manage assets within the agency," he told me. Gee, I never would have guessed that. I just gave him a look with as much 'you've got to be kidding me' attitude as I could, given gnomes that were still in residence in my head. When he didn't elaborate further I sighed. Why were men always such a pain in the ass?

"Okay, what exactly is an asset?" Cassidy had his version of the blank face on and I knew that he really wished I would ask other questions. Oh well, sucked to be him.

"An asset could be anything of importance to the agency. Programs, Property, People." People? Really? I guessed that made sense. It was the government after all.

"How are people assets?" I'm sure I was showing my ignorance of how the government worked, and it was obvious I'd never been in the military, but I was having a hard time understanding how a human could be considered an asset. Especially since we had free will, personalities, and other things that seemed to make being an asset rather complicated.

"People are the government's biggest assets. Their very humanity makes them far more dangerous and valuable than any program or property. They are a threat to other countries, and because of that, they represent power."

"Are the guys in the military considered assets?" I asked.

"To a lesser degree."

"Explain," I said, once again channeling Ranger. Maybe if I used fewer words, he'd start using more. It was a thought.

"In the military, soldiers are trained to follow orders without thought. They work as a cohesive unit, and seldom are expected or allowed to perform individually. Their numbers alone make them a less cost effective choice than sending in a handful of specialized people. Our government is all about saving money. Not to mention, there are jobs that need to be done that the military can't do."

"Like what?"

"Anything that the government doesn't want to accept responsibility for, or doesn't want plastered all over the ten o'clock news."

"Oh," I said. "So what makes a person an asset?"

"An asset is an individual with exceptional skills; one that is expected to be capable of operating alone for extensive periods of time. They're expected to be able to follow as well as lead, working with others as needed. They are not allowed to have emotions, and are expected to act like machines, locking back any feelings or moral codes. In most cases they are closer to weapons of mass destruction than to regular everyday people."

"You're making them sound like they've checked their humanity at the door," I told him, feeling sick to my stomach. I didn't doubt for a minute that this was exactly what Ranger was; an asset, but I also knew that he was one of the most moral people I knew.

"In some cases that's the truth, but not in all. Sometimes, they're simply good people, highly trained to do something that needs to be done, but nobody else would want to do. There are horrible things happening in the world every minute of every day, and because of our government operatives, our society gets to sleep the sleep of the innocent at night. No blood stains their souls." I sat there silently contemplating what he'd told me.

"So, what's the manager's role? And don't say 'managing the assets'," I told him.

He chuckled and flashed me a smile, and for a moment I was stunned. He would definitely fit in at Rangeman. I mentally shook my head and brought myself back to the conversation. "Because these people have such extensive training, and the situations they go into are highly classified and guaranteed to be dangerous, possibly even deadly, they are assigned to what is known as a 'handler'. A person who handles everything that has to do with them from assignments, to intelligence, to making sure that they stay alive and well."

"Essentially a handler is the federal equivalent to 'Watchtower'," I said. Cassidy looked confused so I explained, "You know, from the Justice League? Watchtower was the home base where all the information came through." I admit it, I'm a nerd. I spent years reading about the Green Arrow, and then I'd caught a few episodes of Smallville recently so it really wasn't a surprise that my brain connected the two.

"Yeah, pretty much," he said with another grin. "It's the handler's responsibility to keep each of their assets safe. Whole missions would fail if they weren't on their game." No pressure there or anything. I'd hate to have that responsibility.

"Handlers have more than one person they're responsible for?"

"Usually. In rare cases there have been handlers who only worked with a select few, and usually those operatives were extremely important. Now, keep in mind, that I don't have a lot of first hand experience with handlers or their assets, just what I've learned from training and my years on the job. They're a very secretive bunch who would lie to their own mothers if the job required it, and they're not necessarily wired the same way the rest of us are."

That comment drew my interest, "What do you mean?"

"Let's just say that the few I've dealt with wouldn't pass the psychological screening required to join Rangeman." Holy shit. I wasn't sure what to say to that so I figured it was a good time to move on with my interrogation.

"You said that Bonnie was the assistant to a Director of Asset Management, would she have known anything about the operatives that the Director was in charge of?"

"If she was doing her job correctly, and the Director wasn't asleep on his feet, then there was no way she would have known anything. The assistant's clearance wouldn't give her access to that kind of information," he said.

"Then why would someone kill her and frame me for it?"

"It might not have had anything to do with her job at all, that was just the excuse I used to get you out of Shifting Sands."

"You asked a lot of questions yesterday and today, Cassidy, have you come up with any ideas on who is responsible for this mess?" I was really hoping he pop out with a name and then I could move on with my life, but this wasn't fiction. This was reality, and in my reality things like that never happened. I had a better chance of blowing up another car, or getting another stalker than I had of moving on with my life.

"I have a pretty good idea who actually committed the murder and framed you, but he's got some serious pull coming from higher up, and I'm still running up against dead ends every time I try to find out who it is." What? Was he waiting for an engraved invitation or was he going to tell me who?

"Telling me who it is might ensure you a much happier existence, Cassidy," I told him, trying hard not to grind my teeth when he threw a cocky smile my way.

"Deputy Lemprik," he said.

"Deputy Dumbfuck?" I asked completely bewildered. "How? Why? I'd never even seen him before he arrested me!" I said.

"I think it has something to do with his guardian angel. When we find out who that is, I think we'll figure out your connection," he said just as Tank and the guys came strolling back into the living room with the Chinese food. Honestly, I hadn't even noticed that all of them had left. Guess I still needed to work on the whole 'being aware of my surroundings' thing.

"Lunch is served, Bombshell," Tank said placing the bags and containers on the coffee table. "You can finish torturing him after we've eaten." I rolled my eyes at him, once again forgetting my headache. Ugh!

"I need something for my head," I said. "It's killing me."

Bobby stood up from the chair he'd just sat down in, "I've got Excedrin in my bag."

"Bobby, you've always been my favorite," I said with a smile. The look on Lester's and Tank's faces were priceless. I just smiled wider and took the pills Bobby handed me when he came back in the room. I really hoped the pills kicked in fast, I was tired of the gnomes.