The characters belong to JE. I receive nothing from this, but it sure is fun.
A/N: Thank you for all of the reviews! I read each and every one of them.
Chapter 6
Ranger's POV
This is freaking unbelievable. I'm being escorted to my own apartment by two of my own men. Of course they think that I'm Morelli. Its protocol that anyone that is not an employee has an escort at all times while they are in the building. It was one of the first rules I put into place when I purchased the building. When it comes to owning a security company every possible precaution needs to be taken to protect our client's information. I have a special rule that applies to Morelli. When Morelli is in the building there are to be two escorts at all times. It's actually more for the intimidation factor than a necessity. That rule is why I am currently riding in the elevator with Cal and Hector. Other than my Core team, Cal and Hector are two of the most intimidating employees I have in the Trenton office. I know I made the right decision in hiring each of team because the looks they are giving me are making me uncomfortable.
Cal is one of my biggest employees standing over six feet tall, solid muscle, has his head shave bald to show off his flaming skull tattoo. Cal like most of my men is former military, serving in the Navy as a SEAL. He's never revealed the story behind the tattoo. All I know is that he didn't have when he left the Navy, but a few months later when I hired him to work for Rangeman the tattoo was on his forehead. I know my Babe is dying to find out the story about the tattoo. To be honest everyone that works here wants to know the story, but we refuse to sit around sharing stories and feeling like girls at a slumber party. But if anyone can get the story behind the tattoo out of Cal, it's my Babe.
Hector, on the other hand, is one of my smallest employees. Hector is a couple of inches shorter than Babe. People often underestimate Hector do to his size but the man is lethal. Hector is a former gang member with two teardrops tattoos that are a testament of his former life. I offered Hector a job after he decide to leave his gang. Not only is Hector dangerous, but he is also a electronic genius. Hector calls Babe his Angel, and although she would never ask, he would kill for my Babe in a heartbeat. A feeling that I can definitely identify with.
Cal and Hector stayed with me until the door to my apartment opened. Morelli was standing in the doorway wearing my clothes. We stood there glaring at each other until Cal and Hector disappeared behind the elevator doors.
"Not fun being on the other end of armed escorts, is it?" Morelli smirked.
"Morelli." I growled.
Morelli stepped back, and waved me into the apartment. MY apartment.
"Have you ever cleaned your house? Your living room looks like you threw a frat party. And how do you sleep in that pigsty you call a bedroom?" I asked
Morelli shrugged. "I don't clean unless I think that Cupcake is coming over. When it gets too bad my Mom and Grandmother will come over and clean it."
No wonder he wants Babe to marry him. Morelli doesn't want a wife. He wants a maid.
"You're wearing my clothes." I growl. Morelli is standing in MY living room, wearing MY Rangeman uniform.
"Yeah, sorry about using your clothes. I couldn't find any of my clothes so I put on the first thing I found when that guy downstairs called to say that you were here. Do you own anything that isn't black? Why are there ladies clothes in your closet? I'd ask you if you were a secret cross-dresser, but the clothes are too small for you to fit in." Morelli laughed.
"What color of clothes is in my closet is really none of your business. The women's clothes belong to Stephanie. You know she works for me on occasion. Sometimes she needs to change her clothes after she uses the Rangeman gym. We don't have a ladies locker room, so she uses my shower and closet." I shrug. "Right now we have bigger problems than Stephanie's clothes in my closet."
Joe sighed. "You're right. Any idea of how this could have happened? I thought I was dreaming, but it's obviously not a dream. I don't think the odds of us having the same dream are very likely."
"Diesel. I'm not sure how, but there is no doubt in my mind that Diesel is the one responsible for this." I tell him.
"That weird guy that showed up a Cupcake's apartment? I was kind of surprised to see him yesterday. Normally he only shows up around holidays. I'm not sure how he could be involved in this." Morelli runs his face over his face. "Okay, so how can we get a hold of him so he can change us back."
"Honestly, I don't know. I'm hoping that Babe will know how to get in touch with him. In the meantime, if we are going to have to trade lives for a while we should probably set some ground rules." I suggest.
"Ground rules?" Morelli asked. "What kind of ground rules?"
"We both have reputations to protect. And we should set some rules involving Babe."
"I would hate for you to get me fired. I actually like my job." Morelli reasoned. "I'm not sure that I can trust you to do things by the book."
"And I have a company that needs to be taken care of. Morelli, I know you're a good cop, but you don't know anything about running a security business. I'll promise that if I have to work an investigation, that I will run it by the book, if you promise that any business decisions that need to be made you will defer to Tank." I tell him. "And do not go out to pick up FTAs."
"Come on, Manoso." Morelli glares. "I can pick up a stupid FTA. I am a police detective."
"I realize that, Morelli, but the skips we go after are dangerous and I would rather not take a chance of you getting killed and me not getting my body back. I'm not asking you to do anything that I'm not willing to do myself. I'll make sure that I don't take any chances that could risk you not getting your body back either. I'm sure you're as ready for this to be over as I am."
"I see your point. Alright, I'll agree to not go after any FTAs." Morelli agreed.
"Not that anyone would believe us, but we also can't let anyone know that we switched bodies. They would think that we lost our minds. You could lose your badge and it could ruin my company." I add.
"You're right. I'm living it and I still don't believe it." Morellie said. "Okay, next rule: You can't sleep with Cupcake while you're in my body. I know that you've been wanting to, but it would be wrong for you to sleep with her when she thinks it's me."
"That rules goes both ways, Morelli. You can't sleep with Babe while you're in my body."
"That shouldn't be a probably since you and Babe have never slept together before." Morelli said as he sat down on the couch in my living room, looking smug."
I take the seat in a chair across from Morelli and grin. Counting down the seconds until he realizes what he just agreed to. 5….4….3….2….1
"YOU SLEPT WITH MY CUPCAKE!" Morelli yells.
"Cool your jets, Morelli. It only happened during off phases of your relationship." I explain.
"Did you say phases?" Morelli yelled. "YOU MEAN IT HAPPENED MORE THAN ONCE!"
Babe, I hope that when you find out I told Morelli about us that you can forgive me.
"Do I need to remind you about Terry Gilman AND Robin Russell? Does Babe know that your contact list reads like a little black book?" I ask raising an eyebrow.
"How do you know what's in my phone contact list?" Morelli says as he continues to let his Italian temper show.
I hold up his phone which shuts him up. "Okay, next rule: We have to keep up the appearance that nothing unusual is going. You're going to need to try to control that temper of yours, at least when you're with people. If you want to lose your temper in private, that's your business. But if you destroy anything of mine, you will pay for it. If you need to punch or kick something, the gym is downstairs. That brings me to another point. When I'm in the gym, I make a point to not speak to anyone unless it's absolutely necessary. Babe is my only exception to that rule."
"Alright, I can to that." Morelli nods his head. "Speaking of keeping up appearances, my mother will expect you to come over to dinner at some point this week. She'll know something's wrong if you don't show up and will hound me, I mean you, until you're miserable."
There goes me getting out of dinner tomorrow night.
"That's should cover just about everything. If you are unsure about something, call me on your cell phone and I'll do the same." I say standing up to leave. I've already stayed longer than I planned to. I really need to be looking for Babe.
"What if you get called on a mission?" Morelli asked.
"I haven't told anyone yet, but I'm done with missions. The government will only call me now to do special training for new teams." I explain.
"Thank God. I really don't want to be sent to a third world country." Morelli said, relieved. "One more thing, as much as I would like to make you look bad in front of Stephanie, I don't want you to make me look bad either. In other words, you don't tell her about all the girls phone numbers in my phone." Morelli pleads.
"I won't tell her." I agree, but I can't help it if I lay Morelli's phone down and she discovers it on her own.
"Well, I guess that means that we're living each other's lives until we can figure out how to switch back or we can find Diesel." Morelli says. "Man, this is weird."
"Not exactly how I planned to spend my day." I agree. "You better call down to the control room."
"Why?"
"Because my men will know something's wrong if you don't call for Cal and Hector to escort me back down to the lobby."
"Oh, right." Morelli grabbed the phone off of the end table. "How do I call the control room? Heck, where is the control room. Until today you've never let me about the second floor conference rooms."
I can't stop from giving Morelli an eye roll that would make my Babe proud. It's only a matter of time before Morelli screws this up.