The characters belong to JE. I receive nothing from this, but it sure is fun. May contain spoilers to the Wicked series.

I apologize for not getting this chapter out yesterday. Real life got in the way. I hope to be back on schedule tomorrow.

Chapter 18

Steph's POV

After Diesel left the hospital, I had a hard time falling asleep. I spent most of my time staring at Ranger in Joe's body. I guess I was looking for some type of sign that they would switch back. I'm not sure what I was expecting to happen. I guess I thought that maybe I would see his body levitate or something, so that I could know that things were back to normal. All I do know was that I was desperate for some type of sign.

I must have dozed off at some point because I woke up with my head resting on the mattress of Ranger's hospital bed and someone stroking my hair.

"Good morning." I said as I yawned.

"Good morning, Cupcake." Joe said, as he grinned at me.

I snapped to attention. If I wasn't awake before, I was definitely awake now.

"Did you just say…..? Are you…..?" I stammered.

'Yeah, Cupcake. It's me." Joe said with a full blown smile.

"How? When?" I questioned.

"Honestly, I'm not sure when it happened. I remember going to sleep in Manoso's apartment. The next thing I knew, I was waking up in this hospital bed."

"But Diesel told us…." I continued to stammer.

"That Diesel guy was here?" Joe asked. "Is he still here?"

"No, he left a few hours ago. He went to look for some type of loop hole so that you and Ranger could switch back. Ranger's heart, or should I say that your heart, stopped beating during the surgery. Diesel told us that it could prevent the two of you from switching back." I explained.

"Well, it obviously wasn't a problem because I'm back." Joe said.

A knock on the hospital room door interrupted us.

"Excuse me." Darla said from the door way. She smiled shyly at Joe as she said, "I wanted to stop by and to say thank you for coming to our rescue yesterday. I know how awful hospital food is, so I thought I would bring breakfast with me. I made a breakfast casserole and some fresh cinnamon rolls. I wasn't sure if you would feel up to eating anything or not."

"Darla, why don't you come in? You can sit in my chair next to Joe's bed. I'm sure Joe would love the opportunity catch up with you. Wouldn't you Joe?" I said, hoping that I wasn't being too obvious, but Joe would still get the hint.

"Have a seat, Darla." Joe said as he gave Darla a blinding smile. I don't think it's going to take Joe long to move on.

"You know what? I think that there's someplace that I need to be. I'll leave the two of you alone so that you can catch up." I said giving Joe a knowing smile, as I began to back out of the room.

"Stephanie, would you like to take a cinnamon roll with you?" Darla asked as she sat the casserole and cinnamon rolls on the roll-a-way table next to Joe's bed.

"No thanks." I said and then paused. "Oh who am I kidding? Of course I want one." Or maybe two I said grabbing a couple from the plate. Hopefully, the cinnamon will help cover the bad case of morning breath that I'm sure I'm suffering from. I had the first one ate before I even stepped out of Joe's room.

I hurried down the hallway, towards the elevators, as I stuffed the second cinnamon roll in my mouth. Yeah, I realize that I'm probably going to be sick later, but I couldn't remember eating anything since before the robbery yesterday. I was almost to the elevators when the door leading to the stairs swung opening and the most beautiful sight I've ever seen came rushing out.

"Ranger!" I yelled, entirely too loud, considering that I was in a hospital at 6:30 in the morning.

"Babe!" He replied as he wrapped me in his arms and kissed me. "Yum, cinnamon."

"Your back!" I said as I tucked my face into his neck.

"I remember the nurse injecting me with a sedative to help me sleep, even though I asked her not to, after Diesel left. The next thing I remember is waking up in my apartment on seven." Ranger said giving me a smile that made Joe's look dim in comparison.

"I have so much that I want to tell you." I said as Ranger continued to hug me.

"Me too, but we should probably have this conversation without an audience." Ranger said, nodding his head towards a group of nurses that were watching us.

Actually, I think that they were drooling over Ranger and didn't even realize that I was there. I laughed as I told me, "They can't help it, Ranger. Have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror? I'm surprised that t he nurses aren't fainting like a preteen at a One Direction concert."

"Babe." Ranger said, raising an eyebrow.

"What? Valerie told me that when she took Angie and Mary Alice back to school shopping in New York last fall, that Angie saw one o them getting into a car outside of a store. Angie got so excited that she fainted. It scared poor Valerie to death." I explained.

"Babe, your gene pool…" Ranger began.

"Yeah, I know. We're scary." I laughed. I probably shouldn't tell him about the time Mary Lou and I had front row tickets to a 98 Degrees concert. Mary Lou fainted when Nick Lachey touched her hand. He would probably think that Mary Lou and I were worse, since we were in out early twenties at the time.

Ranger laughed.

"Did I say that out loud?" I asked.

"Yeah, Babe. Out loud." He smiled.

Before I had a chance to realize what was going on, Ranger threw me over his shoulder in a fireman carry and began to race down the stairs.

"Uh…Ranger? What do you think you're doing?" I asked. If anyone else would have grabbed me and started running down stairs, I would be scared to death. Since it was Ranger, I wasn't worried. I knew he would never let me fall.

"Babe, we'll get to my car faster this way." Ranger explained.

Once I was safely buckled into the passenger seat of Ranger's Porsche, he asked, "Your place or mine?"

"Yours." I replied. "I didn't sleep well last night and you have better sheets."

"Babe." Ranger laughed, as he started the car and sped towards Haywood.