Shelter from the Storm

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a/n: This story references Adalind's Better the Devil You Know id:5706042 and mentions the guys' job with her character Bailey. You don't have to read her story to understand mine, but it's a cool Ranger and Anthony fic that takes places either before Ranger met Stephanie or in a very different world...Sometimes our world's collide? bump gently? anyway, enjoy...

Chapter 41 ~ Just Two Guys, Talking

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Anthony

"You ever think about all these rooftops, man?"

?

"You know, like how many roofs, how many hours—how many scumbags?"

"No."

"Gotta be, like, lots."

"Mmmm."

Ranger and I were lying on yet another rooftop in a small city in southern XXXX. Urban warfare, lol. Our field of expertise.

The target was yet another terrorist wannabee, sigh again. Yeah, still here after all these years, saving the world for freedom and democracy and what all. We were working the paired sniper bit and right now we were both spotting because our mark had not come out to play for the two days we'd been sitting here. Ranger was watching though his rifle scope and I was using my high res binoculars.

A long silence passed.

I said, "Remember that first job when you got me back into this shit, bro? Sitting on that rooftop, in—where, Philly?—looking for Bailey, thinking she was a guy?"

'Uh huh."

"Man, I was so pissed at you. And you were totally into it, like—are we gonna bond now?"

"Did you want to?" said Ranger.

"Hell no, I mostly wanted you dead and gone, man."

"Too bad."

"Naw, I realized pretty quick that you needed me to watch your back again. Couldn't kill you under those circumstances, could I?"

?

"And in the end I was grateful—cos, oh man, Bailey, she was something. Something else."

"Hot," said Ranger.

"Oh, yeah. And scary. Remember how she was like doing the aka Dervla? Cracked me up."

"Maybe it got lost in the translation, maybe it's a normal name in Ireland."

"If she's really from Ireland," I pointed out. We both grinned and shook our heads, remembering the feisty young woman with the long black hair and more personal weaponry than Ranger and myself combined.

I said, "You ever hear from her?" Bailey was way in our past, before Trenton, or Stephanie, or, well...

"Not since Zoë was born."

"Yeah…"

Silence prevailed.

After an hour or so I said, " Have you ever thought about doing things differently?"

"How do you mean?" asked Ranger.

I said, "I don't know. Being somebody else? Someone... normal?"

Ranger, after a long pause, said, "No."

I waited and he finally added, "But I can see the appeal sometimes. Or at least I am aware it's important to other people…."

"Like…?"

"Julie is applying for early college admissions now," explained Ranger. Non sequitur, anyone? I tried to look omniscient and nodded sagely. He went on, "She has to decide on her main college choices by May 1st—there's a deadline for applications."

"Isn't Julie, like, sixteen?" I could swear I just went to her Sweet Sixteen party a few months ago, Ranger gave her a cute little pink Boxster…?

"Yeah, that's why they call it early admissions."

Finally I caved and asked "What's that got to do with normal, bro?"

"It's Rachel—she and Ron hired this get-into-college coach."

"Julie is a straight A student, who plays sports and has an IQ that's off the charts. Not to mention a trust fund….Why an admissions coach?"

"They paid this coach guy a four grand retainer to help Julie get into the college of her choice. Rachel wants Julie to go to FSU."

"Florida State is a major party school, dude."

If looks could kill! I added, "I figured Julie was headed to Harvard, for sure."

"Yeah, me too—or Yale or Princeton if she keeps up with the modeling career, wants to be close to NYC. Or even Columbia or NYU. But no—Rachel wants Julie to be effin' normal."

"Geez."

"And they don't want to put me down as her father, just Ron and Rachel as her parents,"

"Oh well, um." In a way that part of the story made sense even if it did hurt Ranger's feelings.

"And get this—the coach wants Julie to file as a minority student, they want her to apply for these government freebie Pell grants."

I'm a banker, I know about Pell grants. But I know more about trust funds and Ivy League creds.

I said, "You've got to be kidding. Minority—what minority? The infinitesimal minority of the truly exquisitely beautiful, man? Isn't that what they said about her in, like, Vogue?'

Ranger stared at me dead-eyed. This bonding and sharing shit, although it passes the time while surveilling whackos, can be a minefield in itself. Yeesh.

I said, "What?"

"She looks like me, bro. Like us."

"Yeah, you're still hot, man. And still thirty. How's Rachel doing with that?"

Ranger finally smiled. "Not well. She's, what? Thirty-five, thirty-six?"

We both laughed, rather meanly—but still.

Ranger went on, "So they want Julie to apply for these Pell grants as a non-Caucasian Hispanic. They don't even say Latina."

We considered that in silence for a few minutes then I said, "Does Julie still want to be a doctor, like your mom?"

Ranger grimaced.

I hastily added, "Well, maybe not just like your mom—different personalities and all. But—MD?"

"Uh huh, but maybe research…."

"So MD from Harvard and PhD from MIT in nuclear bio-chem or something. She can decide later specifics—that seems like the way to go."

?

"Will it be an issue for Rachel?"

"Julie usually gets what she wants. I'm not concerned. Yet."

"And the scholarship grants, the Pell money?"

"It seems absurd to apply for free government money when I've been putting all that government money in her college fund all these years. You administer the kids' trust funds, you know that."

"Yes but you—we—earned that money," I said.

"Yeah, earned it the old-fashioned way—killing assholes for fun and profit."

I said, "Speaking of—isn't that our guy?"

We focused on the mark. Kaboom—figuratively speaking, of course. Our weapons are always silenced.

Ka-ching….

the end, series tbc

a/n 2 The option of citing minority status when filing for grants for education assistance in no way reflects a positive or negative assessment on my part. It is not intended to offend anyone and if it does, my apologies on behalf of whatever bureaucrat thought this stuff up. Pell grants are/were available to non-minority persons also, as well as, believe it or not, non-US citizens.