I love you all! Many thanks for sticking with this story – it's been so good to write. Not many more chapters to go, so buckle up and enjoy...
R&R as ever, you know you want to...
Stepping off the Rangeman jet Steph shuddered as both the heat and realisation hit. Two days ago she walked away from the altar a single woman and she'd spent the rest of the time either planning her escape or thanking her lucky stars that Morelli was nearly five thousand miles away.
Ranger had helped her take her stuff to the airport and had loaded her onto the plane. Giving her a brief hug and a kiss to her forehead, he'd patted her butt and shoved her up the stairs, into the warm, 'first class all the way' interior.
His quick exit had made things easy for her and she thanked the Gods for his friendship. Once on board she'd even texted him to say thanks for all his help, again.
'No price, Babe.' He'd texted back.
She knew when she returned to Trenton she'd have to face Joe, but it would seem that her own Mother had smoothed over most of the troubled water between the Plum and Morelli clans. And to top it all, would have guessed Angela and Helen could persuade everyone that the wedding should never have taken place and that they were partly to blame for the mess in the first place.
She smiled the first carefree, happy smile for months as she settled into the black Rangeman SUV that met her at Miami's airport and set off to the safe house.
Moments later she was asleep, dreaming of a simpler life.
o0o0o0o0o
Lester looked at the scum he'd just scooped up off the streets and deposited into the back of his black Explorer. Hal was riding shotgun and they'd found Oswald Picks at the poorer end of Stark Street, pedalling his drugs and almost under aged whores. He'd tried to run but they'd caught him easily, giving him a few bruises along the way to match the ones on his girls.
Bumping fists and grinning, Lester swung his vehicle round and headed for TPD. As they pulled up into the parking lot his phone rang. Gesturing to Hal to take Picks in to be processed, he pressed the button on the console to accept the call.
"Yo" he said distractedly as he watched Picks hit the floor a couple of times when Hal 'helped' him out of the back.
"I've got to go on a mission, Les. You and Tank are in charge, you know the drill."
"Steph get off ok?" Les said, changing the subject, knowing he'd gain no further information from him about where he was going.
"Yeah. In fact she should be unpacking right about now."
"Good. How long you gone for?"
"Three weeks, tops."
"Want me to keep an eye on Bomber for you?"
"No. She needs time and the Batcave will give it to her. Plus if any of us turn up she might start to wonder why we're there."
"Yeah. Like perhaps you care more than you want to admit, Bro?"
"Half Bro, and keep your thoughts to yourself will you? You know I don't need this right now."
"Did I ever tell you what an emotional retard you are?"
"Once or twice."
"Good. Now go. Save the world and come back in once piece."
"I'm too old for this" Ranger gritted out as he heard Lester guffaws as he ended the call.
A smile spread across Lester's face. With Ranger being out of the picture for a while he'd have free run of his 7th floor apartment where he just might be able to lift enough dirt on his big brother to use against his stupid no relationship rule. And somehow that little pile of stuff hidden might mysteriously make its way to the Batcave...
Mentally rubbing his hands with delight, he picked up the phone and dialled his partner in crime.
o0o0o0o0o
"How's it going, Pumpkin?" Frank asked, when he phoned that evening. He'd just finished his dinner and was comfortably situated in front of a Rangers match waiting for the players to come out.
"Great! I feel like a rock star, not a refugee." Steph replied, giggling like a teenager. "I flew in Ranger's private jet, got picked up at the airport by one of his guys and was brought to the most beautiful three bed beach house. How you could call this a safe house I'll never know." She said in wonder.
Frank smiled indulgently. She really had no idea, he mused. Ranger had obviously rented her somewhere to stay, but he bit his lip. She'd work it out in her own sweet time. "Not all safe houses are the same." He said, technically stating the truth. He just hoped she didn't figure out what Ranger's version of safe really meant. Let her enjoy his protection, without feeling guilty, for a little longer, he rationalised.
They talked for a while about this and that then ended the call.
Standing quickly, Frank forgot the game and went in search of Helen. Both to update her on his conversation with their daughter and to find out how she was getting on with her investigations into the nursing world.
"Hi, LD" he said as he stole up behind her. She was leaning against the sink, gazing out of the window.
"You haven't called me that since before the girls were born" was her smiling reply as she turned to face him.
"Well, as you're revisiting old dreams, I thought it was time to revisit old nicknames." He replied, scooping up one of her hands in his own and kissing her nose. "What have you found out, Little Dumpling?" He asked.
"Well, looks like I could go into a couple of different areas, I was thinking paediatrics. What do you reckon?"
"I reckon that you should go for whatever makes you happy and fulfils your dreams, LD." He said, giving her hand a little squeeze.
"My Dad was right, you know."
"?"
"You really are one in a million." She explained softly as she wrapped her free arm round his neck and pulled him in for a kiss.
o0o0o0o0o
Steph called Ranger's mobile to thank him again and to ask him a couple of questions about how the TV remote worked, but got his answer phone instead.
Leaving a quick message of thanks for his generosity, she decided to give Tank a call. After all, she decided, the pair of them were joined at the hip and Ranger had always told her to give his right hand man a call if he was unavailable and it was an emergency.
"Desperate times call for desperate measures, Plum" she said out loud, pulling up her big girl panties. After all there was a re-run of Friends about to start and she knew it was the one with Brad Pitt and Jennifer Anniston in it and she really wanted to watch it again.
She held her breath as she called Tank's number and waited for him to pick up.
"Bomber, what can I do for you?" came the deep voice she knew so well.
"Hi, Tank. Ranger around? I need to know how to work the TV remote, it's kind of an emergency."
She thought she heard amusement in his reply "No, he's in the wind for a coupla weeks or so. Can I help?"
"Er. OK. He didn't mention anything to me..." she said, a little bit confused.
"No, only got the call after you'd taken off. What make have you got?"
"?"
"The remote, Steph."
"Oh! Yeah, sorry! It's a Sony..."
Ten minutes later they'd successfully sorted out Steph's 'emergency' and she'd only missed the opening credits of the show. Weirdly though, her thoughts were not focused on the interaction between Pitt and Anniston, but on her superhero and which part of the world he was busy saving.
o0o0o0o0o
"Ooh, this one fits the bill, and this one, and this one..." Tank said, like an excited four year old at Christmas. He too had clearly had enough of Ranger's inability to get his head out of his ass.
"Yeah, yeah Big man, bring 'em all. He's definitely gone for at least a coupla weeks, you sure?" Lester asked as he hunted through Ranger's safe.
"I checked with our handler, not gonna be around for at least two but maybe longer."
Tank grinned and held up his findings. Lester quickly went through everything and pulled out several photos.
"Ella gave me these, they should do." He said happily as he threaded the selected shots into the frames she'd given him.
"There, looking good. Now, what else can we add?"
"These?" Tank asked, holding up a couple of his army medals.
"Nah, she'll smell a rat, but perhaps if we put in his Rangers graduation certificate and his letter from the President plus his flag then we've a good selection. Anna has agreed to get a couple of pictures from Celia of him with Julie and I think we can safely say we have the makings of a good show."
The two men bumped fists then carefully put everything back where it belonged, minus their takings of course, and set off to find Ella and some packing tape.
o0o0o0o0o
The next few days were sun filled and relaxing but Joe knew he needed to go home and face the music, aka his mother. Although the honeymoon had been booked for two weeks, he was now starting to climb the walls, being on his own was not all it was cracked up to be and he missed the hustle and bustle that his day job brought. Who would have thought he would miss the crap and shit dished out by Trenton's finest.
He'd spoken with his mother a couple of times on the phone and he knew that the gossip mongers in the Burg had already moved on. Largely it appeared, due to the scandalous news that Emily Morrison's son had been found in bed with his brother and they were not acting in a brotherly way. As someone had once told him, today's news is tomorrow's hamster bedding. He smiled as he wondered how his ex-fiancée and her rat were doing.
The time in Hawaii had been pleasant and restful and had made him take a long hard look at himself and although he had plenty to be happy about – for a start he'd not turned into the drunken bastard his father had been, part of him was surprised at how much his pride had led to the ending of his almost wedding. He was not proud of what Helen had said about him in front of the whole congregation and unfortunately the more he thought about it, the more badly he realised he treated someone he supposedly cared about, namely Steph.
Time to put things right, he decided as he picked up the phone before he could change his mind.
o0o0o0o0o
Steph smiled as she ran her fingers over the azure blue marble counter top, stopping when she reached the state of the art coffee machine. Picking up a large fine bone china mug she carefully made herself a huge skinny latte to accompany the home baked muffins that Anna had brought over earlier for her, together with a rather delicious looking fish and rice combo that she'd been assured would be fine to pop in the oven for ten minutes before serving.
The more she'd thought about Anna, the more something did not seen to stack up. After all, who the hell would need to be put up in such a fabulous house and have such a wonderful housekeeper? Surely not the sorts of people that normally went into safe houses, right? Just look at the bathroom in the master suite. OK, scratch that she argued to herself, who has a master suite of such grand proportions in any house? The more she thought about it, the more sense it made that this was Ranger's own place, perhaps even the Batcave...
The thoughts of what that might mean started the tiniest tendrils of hope, deep in her inner being. She quickly squashed that thought by replaying his comments about entertainment, rings and condoms. She couldn't afford to get her hopes up, after all she was here because she was in hiding from an ex-fiancé that she'd dumped at the altar less than a week before.
And let's face it, she rationalised, Ranger would never offer her his heart, it just wasn't his thing and his friendship was too precious to her to destroy with a night of meaningless sex.
Much as she loved every inch of the man, there, she'd finally admitted it to herself, she was not about to get her hopes up about a future with him.
They both knew where things stood, or at least it seemd that way, but the Batcave? Hmmm.
She bit into the muffin and groaned, closing her eyes as the blueberry flavour exploded on her tongue, savouring the sweetness and tartness. How could anything taste this good? She questioned as she opened her eyes, picking up her plate and mug and heading for the den.
As she entered the room she noticed one of the cupboards in the bottom left hand corner of the TV unit was not shut right. Thinking she mustn't have shut it when she was snooping earlier, she carefully placed her snack on the coffee table and went to investigate.
o0o0o0o0o
Joe sat down on the lounger, picked up the phone and moved his flight to tomorrow morning then taking a deep breath to centre himself he dialled Stephanie's cell phone.
"Hello?" came the hesitant reply.
"Hi, Steph, it's me, Joe, don't hang up. Can I talk to you for a few minutes, there's something I really need to say."
"Oh Joe. I'm so sorr..."
"Stop right there!" Joe said, slightly more forcefully than he meant "Please" he added more softly.
"K" He thought he heard a slight sniff.
"It's me who should be saying sorry." He said gently, running his fingers through his hair and leaning forward to rest his elbows on his thighs as he stared at the floor. "I should never have pushed you into marrying me. I've taken a long hard look at why I asked you and your Mom was right, we should never have planned a wedding. You, me, not such a good combination. I mean I do love you, Steph, but I would only have made you change from the vibrant woman that you are into something that suited my needs, with little or no regard for what you wanted. I have to admit I'm not proud of what I was trying to do, even if it was subconsciously."
"Joe, I don't know what to say. I'm just sorry that I didn't have the courage to face the truth earlier, I'm so sorry that it took my Mom to end it for me." Steph replied sadly.
"Just say that one day we can be friends?"
"Sure."
"Oh and don't worry about the gossip sluts in Trenton, they've gotten their teeth into a far more juicy story" he said, smiling, breaking the tension. He could almost hear Steph's curiosity and waited.
5-4-3...
"Tell me more." She said happily.
The tension in the air was gone and they both started to tentatively rebuild their friendship.
Sometime later, Steph sat on the floor surrounded by the contents of the box she'd found in the cupboard. There were pictures of Ranger in his early years, surrounded by some of the MM and a few others that she didn't recognise. One showed them dressed in desert fatigues and grinning broadly at the camera. Another was of them sitting in and standing around a tank, proudly waving the American Flag. There were pictures of him with Julie at various stages of her life and one of him with his parents. There were a couple from Trenton, including one of the pair of them hiding in the alley, looking as if they were about to kiss, their emotions shining on their oh so close faces. She gulped as she studied the look of love that they were both displaying. Had they really been that close before the engagement? She knew when it had been taken it was less than a week before Joe had proposed, she was just surprised at how her own feelings had been reflected in his eyes too.
What had she been thinking when she'd agreed to marry Joe? Oh yeah, Ranger did not do relationships and she'd just been held hostage for three days.
She raised the flag she'd found neatly folded at the bottom and held it to her face. She took a deep breath and detected cordite and alpha male with the merest hint of Bulgari.
Oh, this was Ranger's house alright!
She so desperately wanted to find that she was in the Batcave. The small flame of hope she'd been nursing since her suspicions had first been alerted started to burn more brightly.
Perhaps... She smiled indulgently, still clutching the flag to her chest.
When he got back from wherever he'd gone she planned to have a very long conversation with the man in black.
Decision made, she went in search of her dinner, calm in the knowledge that Ranger was looking after her and protecting her, as usual.
o0o0o0o0o
Steph smiled as she thought about the phone call with Joe last night as she showered the next morning. She was pleased at how easily they'd slipped back into good friend mode. She just knew they were going to be ok. After all, Chuck and Jim Morrison had provided a much more interesting story – incest in the 'Burg! Who would have thought it!
Once she'd finished in the bathroom, she fingered the box of memories that lay on the ottoman at the foot of the bed, then looked out at the beach and decided a walk was a good idea. She knew now she was in a better place and it would soon be time to head home, but she needed a few souvenirs and remembered seeing a couple of great little concession stands a few day's ago selling the cutest things about half an hour up the beach.
Quickly changing into white mid thigh shorts and a bright pink tank, she slipped on her gold sandals, picked up her purse and headed out to snag a few keepsakes.
Life was looking up she thought, brightly as she set off, the flame of hope licking up her insides and making her feel dizzy with anticipation while butterflies danced in her stomach.
o0o0o0o0o
The slight breeze took away some of the heat of the morning and allowed her to concentrate on her goal without turning her into a hot sweaty puddle so it wasn't long before she found the stall she'd seen with the really pretty shell jewellery on it. She picked up a rather delicate pendant on a long pale pink leather cord that she figured would sit just nicely between her breasts and was just holding it up to see how it looked in the mirror when something glinted out of the corner of her eye. She turned slightly to get a better look in the mirror and gasped, dropping the pendant to the floor where it shattered into a million pieces.
Her feelings of peace and hope immediately morphed to ones of screaming pain and churning sickness. Turning quickly she ran as fast as she could to get away from the scene she'd just witnessed. The worried sounds of the shop assistant calling "Ma'am? Ma'am, you ok, Ma'am?" Ringing in her ears.
Time stood still as she fled back to the safety of the beach house where after several attempts she managed to get the key in the lock as the scene of Ricardo Carlos Manoso laughing as he wrapped himself round a woman unfolded in her head. It had been the dazzling sparkle of their wedding rings that had caught her eye as she'd held the necklace to her chest.
Moments later she collapsed in an untidy heap on the floor for the second time in recent history, her thoughts racing and her heart and soul broken and scattered across the hard stone floor, intermingled with the contents of her purse.
For a long time, the only sound was her weeping, each excruciatingly painful sob pulled from her body one by one.
Eventually darkness fell and with it the blissful release of sleep.
Please don't shoot me...