Yay! I got this out sooner than I thought! Good deal for all involved...

I hope you love the Natalie/ Lester action... I had a little fun...

Not mine. Just the plot and all mistakes people find (and some I find months later).

"Okay, I think we should abort." I said, barging into the bathroom and ripping the shower curtain open.

"Jesus, is this payback or something?" Ranger said, shocked that I was in there. His head whipped around to look at me.

"No. Why would it be?" I blinked at him. "Back to my earlier statement."

His shoulders relaxed, clearly seeing this as a fixable problem. "We're not aborting."

"Why not? I don't think I can do this. Maybe get Natalie in here and we can tell everyone I'm her sister! Yeah, that'll work!"

"Sure, it'll work for about five seconds until people start to wonder why the married man is making lusty eyes at the sister."

I snorted. "Lusty eyes?" Did he really just say that? Out of all the things he's ever said to me, that one seems to be the most ridiculous.

Ranger glared at me. "You know what, I'm in the shower. I don't have to be witty."

Then it dawned on me.

Ranger was in the shower.

Wet.

Naked.

I tried to look at my shoes, but I never quite made it.

He was fully aroused.

I looked at the ceiling and thought about anything other than Ranger's large, now throbbing (holy cripes!) member.

I could feel Ranger mentally laughing at me.

"This is the price you pay, Babe, for interrupting my shower." He whispered in my ear. Oh man, his wet skin was so close and all I wanted to do was lick my way down…

I may have moaned. Quite loudly in fact if we were going by Ranger's laughter.

"Now what's the real problem?"

"I can't do this."

He shook his head. "That's half the story. What's the other half?"

I blew out a sigh and continued staring at the wall. "I forgot your cover story."

He blinked. Twice. "What did you forget?"

"Where you worked. I didn't say anything because I was completely flustered." The by your ass thankfully stayed internal.

"I'm an importer of computer chips. Is that all?"

"No. What the hell is a tea strainer?"

"It does exactly what you think it does. It strains tea. It's the other option to the bag. And it makes better tea. There's one in the small box on the island."

"Is there anything you don't know?"

"How many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop." He said stoically.

"Har har. Funny man laughing at my pain." Of course, he probably knows how many licks to the center of my tootsie pop, I thought mentally. Holy crap. I have to get out of this bathroom.

His eyes were dark and his voice was husky. "Eight with a few flicks thrown in."

I blushed. Hard. "Damn it! Out loud again?"

"Completely." His face turned serious. "Look," he cupped my cheek. "Take a deep breath and calm down the crazy look in your eye. You're doing great so far. Most people would have made up so many lies already that they couldn't keep them all straight. And when that happens, people die. You are up here making sure that you have everything right and that's a hell of a lot smarter than some of the guys I've worked with before. When I went on my run, I didn't see any terribly difficult security around the house, so when Natalie gets the warrant, we'd like to put some bugs in. Why don't you go down there, charm her with your New Jersey charm and invite her and her husband over for dinner. Lester and Bobby can have time to plant some bugs and look through some things."

I did what Ranger said and took a deep breath. Surprise must have been on my face because Ranger nodded. "See?" He said. "Worked, right?"

"No one likes a smarty pants." I opened the door and sauntered out.

"Aw, Babe, no fair!"

I grinned to myself. We both knew that I almost said 'smartass', but I figured after that last comment, he needed to suffer.

He's not the only one that can dish out punishment.

"Sorry about that." I said to Anne. "I needed to tell my husband to add tampons to the grocery list."

"Oh no big deal. I completely understand." Anne waved her hand at me. "My Richard needs to be told three or four times to take out the trash."

"Now, about that tea…" I said, heading right for the box Ranger told me about. And sure enough, I found the strainer.

Go me!

As I made the tea, I tried to act as nonchalantly as I could. "You know, I don't know anyone here yet and I spend pretty much every day alone since Carlos is on the road so much with his job with shipping computer parts and what not. We don't get out much and I would love it if us and our husbands could get together and have dinner. Just so we can start making friends before it's too late and awkward."

Anne brightened. "That would be fantastic! There are some ladies on the block that I know you'll just love as well! So when your husband is out of town, then you'll have someone to talk to."

I sat the mugs down. "Sounds great!" I said, feeling nervous. Great, more housewives to fake in front of. But before any more negative thoughts could get into my head, I followed Ranger's advice and took a deep breath.

Once again, I was stunned at how well that worked.

Stupid Ranger.

We chatted for a few more minutes when Anne realized that she had a prior engagement.

"But I will definitely call you after I talk to Richard! We'll set a date!"

"Great!"

I shut the door and sighed.

"She gone?" Ranger asked from behind me.

"God!" I put a hand to my heart. "That's it. I'm getting you a bell." He just grinned at me. Thankfully he had found some clothes. I was worried he was going to come down here in a towel and I knew that if he did, my heart would have stopped. "Yeah, she's gone. Good idea about the dinner do you think that…"

Ranger stuck a finger up in the air and stopped me. He went over to a box and grabbed a pen.

Bugs in basket? He wrote.

"What? No, I didn't look for…" He stopped me again.

Wait till I check it.

"Jeez." I rolled my eyes. He just grinned at me some more. I followed him into the kitchen as he searched every inch of the basket.

"Paranoid much?" I asked him when he called the all clear.

"Careful is the words I'd use. I'm going to call Lester and have him do a deeper search."

"Potato, potahto." I murmured.

Ranger winked at me as he talked to Lester. "He'll be here in a half an hour. They're getting the shift schedule all worked out."

I nodded and went back into the kitchen and started to unpack. Ranger picked up my mug of tea. "Not bad."

"How did you know that one was mine?"

He shrugged. "Took a stab."

"That's just gross."

He grinned again.

Bobby's POV

"Ranger wants you to pick up something and scan it for bugs." I said to Lester. He grunted from the seat next to me and continued to clean his gun. The house was pretty much set up the same way that Ranger and Stephanie's house was set up, minus the good furniture. We had set up camp in the living room by moving the couch and setting up the surveillance table (which was just a large card table and plastic chairs facing computer monitors), and furnished two bedrooms for shift sleeping. If there were fewer beds, we were less likely to fall asleep and screw this up.

And the last thing we needed was the two of them screwing up and getting killed.

"Dude." I said, kicking his chair.

"I heard you!" Lester said, sounding annoyed.

"Whoa, back off man, you were so intent on getting that speck of lint off that I wasn't sure you heard me."

"Loud and clear, dumbass." He mumbled.

I went back to watching the monitors.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him look at me. "Jesus, stop pouting."

"I'm not pouting."

"You so are." He sounded like the normal Lester. Pre-Natalie Lester.

I miss that guy.

"I'm just waiting for that bottom lip to protrude."

"Shut up."

We sat in silence for a minute. Tank and Natalie went out to get supplies and Lester and I were monitoring Stephanie and Ranger. Everything was going smoothly so far.

I was keeping my fingers crossed for the rest of the trip.

Lester sighed. "Spit it out, man."

"What?"

"Whatever's making you pout."

"I'm not pouting."

Lester just waited. He turned to me and raised an eyebrow.

Not that I was ever going to tell him, but when he did that, he looked exactly like Ranger when he did that.

"Have you slept with her?" I asked him.

"Who?"

Who indeed. "Natalie! Who else?"

"Stephanie, that woman down the street, the girl at the car rental…"

"Okay I get it. Just answer the question."

"No."

I was stunned. "No?"

He didn't look up, but continued to clean his gun.

"Why?"

He stopped now. "It hasn't come up."

I wasn't sure how to respond to that. I blinked and waited for him to continue.

"Look, it's not that I don't want to…" He sighed. "It's that she's so hot and cold that I can't figure her out."

I looked at him for a minute and then started to laugh. "Oh man, she's playing you."

"Yeah, got that one, dumbass."

"No. She's really playing you!" He glared at me, making my laughs increase. "How many women have you called since you started this game?"

He thought about it. "None."

"How many have you thought about other than her?"

He blinked for a minute. "Son of a bitch!"

"Yep. She's good."

"I can't believe her!"

"I can. You're hard to get through. She has in a very sneaky way. I like her more now."

Tank and Natalie chose that moment to come back. Tank, Lester and I were all wearing our black Rangemen uniforms. Natalie looked strikingly different in her yellow dress and green purse. She had put her hair up into a ponytail and was removing the sunglasses from her eyes. Tank dropped the keys on the sideboard and took two of the bags into the kitchen. "We got you your jerky, Bobby."

"Great, thanks."

"Hey there, sweet thang." Lester said to Natalie when she bent down to give me my jerky.

She looked at him funny. "What the hell are you on?"

"Just you. I'm so addicted and I never want to go to rehab."

I just rolled my eyes. He was pulling out every line he could think of.

"Aw that's so sweet, baby!"

Ha! I love her.

Lester looked shocked, but recovered quickly. "Anything for you sweetums."

Okay, I might gag. I looked at Tank, who was shaking his head. He didn't want any part of this.

"You know, if you need anything, I'll make sure to get it personally." She batted her eyelashes now.

"Thanks. I'll keep that in mind."

She winked now. "You do that." She straightened. "By the way, the pharmacist said that the herpes medication should be in by tomorrow. I'm sure, like your herpes, that should be all over the city by then as well. I showed him a picture." And she walked away.

Strutted was more like it.

Not that she didn't deserve to.

"What?" Lester shot out of his chair. "What the hell is wrong with you!"

"That's what you get for ruining my panties!"

"Oh please, you did that all by yourself!"

"Well if you didn't have your grubby hands…"

"Next time, don't throw them at me!"

"I didn't throw them at you. I…"

"Oh you threw sweetheart. You have nice aim."

"You're disgusting!"

"You're crazy!"

She stormed to her room.

"I'm going for a beer. Send Tank to Ranger." And he stormed out.

Tank and I stood there, motionless.

Natalie came back out. "Is he gone?"

"Yep." I said.

"Good."

"Did you really give the pharmacist his picture?" Tank asked.

"Nope." She popped the p.

Tank and I grinned at her. "You're perfect for him."

She smiled and winked at us before flouncing out.

"There's no place like home, huh?" Tank said, clapping his hand on my shoulder.

"Exactly what I was thinking, brother."