The characters belong to JE. I receive nothing from this, but it sure is fun. May contain spoilers to the Wicked series.
A/N: I plan on writing an epilogue, but I'm not sure when I can post it. I plan on posting it on Friday, but we have an impending ice storm and they expect us to lose power so it might not be able to post it until Monday.
Chapter 19
Steph's POV
Ranger and I made it to Haywood and up to his apartment on seven in record time. The moment to door to his apartment closed, Ranger began kissing me as he backed me up against the wall. By the time he broke the kiss, we were both out of breath.
"Ranger, I…" I began, as he led me into the living room. He sat down on his leather couch and pulled me into his lap.
"No, Babe. If you don't mind, I would like to go first." Ranger told me. "Please?"
He knows I can't say no now.
"Uh…sure." I nodded. "But do I still have a toothbrush in your bathroom. I really need to brush my teeth to get rid of my morning breath."
"Morning breath. I hadn't notice." Ranger said nuzzling my neck. "There's probably a new one in there. Ella replaces things like that on a regular basis. Do you want me to call her and order breakfast while you brush your teeth?"
"That sounds wonderful. I've already had those two cinnamon rolls, but I could never turn down Ella's cooking." I said, before hurry to the bathroom to brush my teeth.
I found a new pink toothbrush in the top drawer of the vanity. I noticed that I Ella still had my brand of makeup and hair products in Ranger's bathroom. I wonder if Joe noticed that this stuff was in here.
As I brushed my teeth, I began to get nervous about the conversation that I was about to have with Ranger. I wanted to believe that he loved me, but it wouldn't be the first time that he's run hot and cold with me. The last thing I wanted him to do was push me away again.
When I came out of the bathroom, Ranger was sitting on his bed waiting on me.
"Come here, Babe." He said motioning for me to join him. "I asked Ella to wait before she brings breakfast up. I wanted us to be able to talk without being interrupted."
I climbed onto the bed next to Ranger. He quickly moved me over to his lap, before beginning. "Babe….I'm sorry. "
Did Batman just apologize? I'm sure if there was an award for the best impression of a goldfish, I'm pretty sure that I'd win right now.
"Excuse me?" I asked, dumbfounded.
"I said that I'm sorry." He replied. "Since I met you, I've treated you like a yo-yo. I pull you in and then immediately push you away again. It's my fault that you have run back and forth between me and Morelli all this time. If I had been honest with my feelings for you from the beginning, maybe this competition between Morelli and me wouldn't have got this bad." He explained.
"The beginning?" I asked confused.
"Babe, usually I'm the one with the one word sentences." Ranger laughed. "Yes, the beginning. Babe, I never believed in love at first sight. I was always more of a lust at first sight kind of guy. The day I met you in the diner, I tried to convince myself that I what I felt for you was lust, not love. The whole reason I made the Decooch deal was to prove to myself that it was only lust. I thought that if I could get the sexual tension out of the way that I could go on with my life."
Ranger paused for a moment and took a deep breath. I started to open my mouth to say something, but decided against it since I've never heard Ranger say so much at one time in my life. I was afraid if I interrupted that he would lose momentum and never start again.
"The morning after, I could no longer deny that there was more between us. Babe, I've been to some of the most dangerous, God forsaken places on earth. I've been in situations that I should not have made it out alive. Not one of those times have I ever been scared. But that morning, I realized just how deep my feelings are for you. I realized how much I love you and it scared me. Babe, you're not the only one with fight or flight mentality. Instead of fighting for us, I chose flight. I pushed you away and I've regretted ever since." He explained.
"Ranger, it's not your fault, at least not entirely. You're not the only one to push me back to Joe. My mom was constantly encouraging me to marry Joe and have babies. But it's not her fault either. I'm a grown woman. I could have refused to go back to Joe. Instead, I continued an unhealthy cycle of breaking up and getting back together." I reasoned.
"It's not like I gave you much choice in the matter." Ranger said looking deep into my eyes. "I convinced myself that I couldn't give you everything that you deserved. I convinced myself that I could never make you truly happy. I guess I thought that somewhere deep inside that you wanted the whole white picket fence with two kids and a dog."
"I notice that you left husband out of that." I giggled.
"That's because I refused to picture you married to anyone, but me." Ranger smiled. "Babe, I'm still not exactly family material. I will probably always carry two guns and a knife, but I want to give us a chance. I want our someday. And if you decide that one day you do want to get married and have a family, I want to be the one that you do that with."
It was hard by somehow I found the inner strength to keep myself from standing up on the bed and doing a happy dance.
"I want our someday, too." I smiled. "And if I do decide that I want a family, I want that family to be with you."
Ranger lips came crashing down on mine. When he pulled away he said, "Babe, before I came to the hospital this morning, I stopped by my office." Ranger reached down into the side pocket of his cargo pants and pulled out a velvet jewelry box. "This necklace belonged to my Abuela Rosa. When she gave it to me, she told me to give it to the woman I love. She said that it belonged on neck of the woman that made my heart soar. She also told me that I would know who the right woman is when I would do anything in my power to help that woman fly. Babe, I think it's pretty obvious that woman is you."
Ranger opened the box to reveal a beautiful necklace with an angel wing pendant. The wings were extremely detailed and completely breathtaking.
"Oh, Ranger." I gasped. "Can I wear it now?"
"Nothing would make me happier." He said, removing the necklace from the box and placing it around my neck. "I love you, Babe."
"I love you too, Ranger." I smiled.
Ranger leaned in and kissed me. Ranger's kisses have always been full of passion, but this kiss was different. This kiss was not only full of passion, but it was also full of promise of our future together. Unfortunately, we were interrupted by Ranger's cell phone ringing.
"This better be important." Ranger snapped. He listened for a few moments before saying, "Escort him up to seven."
"Who was that?" I asked.
"Diesel's here. Somehow he got up to five undetected. The only reason my men didn't shoot at him was because Tank recognized him. I'm going to call Ella and tell her that there will be one more for breakfast." He told me.
It didn't take long for Diesel to arrive, escorted by Hal. I'm pretty sure that Diesel told him some inappropriate jokes on the elevator ride up, because Hal looked like a combination of uncomfortable and embarrassed. Poor Hal!
Once Diesel entered the apartment and said, "Congratulations!"
"Thanks, it's great to be back in my own body." Ranger said. "But I'm the one that should be thanking you for getting us switched back so quickly."
"Oh, that too." Diesel grinned. "I meant congratulations to both of you for finally admitting how you feel about each other. Unfortunately, I can't take credit for switching you and Morelli back."
"What do you mean? I thought you went back to your headquarters to look for a way to switch Ranger and Joe back." I said.
"Well, I did go back to headquarters and talked with Simone. Remind me to never wake her up in the middle of the night." Diesel shuttered. "Anyway, we were going over the case file she started at the beginning of the switch. When we reached the end of the file, the last sentence said that the switch was reversed. I had nothing to do with it."
"Then how did it reverse?" Ranger asked.
"Simone has a theory. Your heart should not have been able to restart itself, at least not without the help of the doctor. Simone thinks that your soul refused to be trapped in Morelli's body because you wanted to return to your body so you could tell Steph that you wanted a life with her. Simone has decided to call your case file 'True Love Conquers All'." Diesel explained.
I couldn't help but to look at Ranger and smile.
"Listen, I need to get back to Salem, but before I go I wanted to stop in and see your parents. I get a real kick out of the strange looks your father gives me. Do you think that we could run by this morning?" Diesel asked.
I looked over at Ranger, who said, "We could go after breakfast. It would give us a chance to tell your parents about us before the entire 'Burg finds out."
"That sounds good to me, Ranger." I agreed.
"But I think you should start calling me Carlos. Your mother may cross herself if you continue to call me by my street name." He said.
"You want me to call you Carlos?" Diesel asked Ranger. Ranger shot him a death glare which caused Diesel to say, "Relax, I was only kidding. Sunshine, I hope that you can teach him to take a joke."
"Don't count on it, Diesel. I love him just the way he is. If he can't take a joke, it doesn't matter. I would never ask him to change." I said as I wrapped my arms around Carlos waist.
"Babe." Carlos said leaning down and kissing me again.
After a delicious breakfast, Diesel, Ranger, and I headed over to my parent's house. When we arrived my mother was sitting on the front porch, drinking coffee in her robe. I wasn't sure what was going on, but it had to be bad if my mother was willing to risk the 'Burg seeing her in her robe.
"Mom, what are you doing out here?" I asked.
"Your father and grandmother have been arguing all morning. I couldn't take it anymore." She explained. "Right not they're arguing over the bathroom again. Maybe you can talk some sense into them."
Yep, it's bad. I'm pretty sure that she didn't realize that I had brought company with me.
We followed mom into the house. Just like she said Dad and Grandma were arguing over who turn it was to use the bathroom. They were so loud that I was surprised that we didn't hear them outside the house.
"Dad! Grandma! I brought company. Ranger's here! And Diesel came all the way from Salem to see you!" I called out.
Instead of coming downstairs and greeting their guests, as 'Burg manners would dictate, they ignored us and continued to argue.
"Dad! Grandma!" I tried again, before noticing that Diesel was making a call on his cell phone.
"Hey, Simone! It's me again. We need to do another switch…" Diesel said.
Ranger and I looked at each other, in panic, before lunging at Diesel and yelling, "No!"