Chapter 7
A/N: Thank you all for your patience! Character thoughts in italics. All recognizable characters belong to Janet. Everything else is mine.
Stephanie's POV
Stephanie became aware of the soft velvet feel of the little white rabbit with blue button eyes cuddled up in her thin mocha latte colored arms. Mocha latte colored? I must be dreaming. Rubbing her cheek against the stuffed animal's head, the thought Oh, Blanco, you are my best friend crossed her thoughts as if a small child spoke those words. She felt the overwhelming sense of safety and security well up inside, with her little white toy cradled against her chest. Mixed into that was also a feeling of pride and joy for working so hard to earn the little rabbit, all wrapped in a blanket of love that surrounded her.
Larger hands crossed into her view and snatched the rabbit away, inciting a sense of panic and loss. She looked up and saw Celia with a smug smirk on her ten year old face, holding her beloved toy over her head just out of reach. "You are such a baby, Dodo. Look at you, almost seven years old and still playing with stuffed baby toys. I think I will just throw this in the trash," she taunted. Celia made to move to the garbage can.
Stephanie jumped up and stood before her sister, glaring up at her. Sister? What the hell? This wasn't Val. I don't know anyone named Celia. Hmmm. Still must be part of this weird-assed dream. "Abuela gave it to me, Cee! It's my special gift! Give it back!" Stephanie felt the big hot tears of frustration well up and begin to track down her cheeks. She tried in vain to jump up and grab her rabbit, but Celia kept moving it up just out of her reach.
"Oh come on Dodo, you want it that bad? Well, tough! It's mine now. Besides, it's a girl toy, not a boy toy for a little baby like you." Stephanie frowned in her mind. That makes absolutely no sense, I'm a girl too. What the heck did I drink last night?
At that moment Mami came into the room. "Children! What is all of this noise about?" She stood in front of the two of them, looking down with one eyebrow raised and the corners of her mouth turned down in a frown. Hands placed on both hips, she began to tap her left foot, anticipating an answer to her question.
"Dodo wanted to take my rabbit from me, Mami. He thinks Abuela gave it to him, but it's a girl toy, so it must be for me." Celia held the small white rabbit in front of her as if to snuggle it gently to her, while she tried her hardest to convey earnest sincerity with her big brown eyes. "It means so much to me. I love it." Steph watched in horror as Celia started swinging the little rabbit roughly around by one of its ears.
"Celia, do not call your brother that name. It isn't nice."
Celia gave Steph a saccharine laced smile. "I'm sorry, Ricar-DOH. But this is still not just your rabbit."
Mami turned toward Steph. "And what do you think, little one? What have you to say?" Mami kneeled down to look her directly in the eye. Her first instinct was to fight tooth and nail for her beloved Blanco. After all, it belonged to her. Mine. She felt herself still as she searched Mami's face for a clue how to react. Even in her small six year old frame of mind, she realized that the more she pleaded for the rabbit, the more she demonstrated her desire to have her beloved Blanco all to herself, the harder Celia would work to make sure that Blanco never came back to her.
Making a split decision, Steph told her Mami "Abuela gave me the rabbit as a gift for my grades." Mami touched her gently on her cheek. "And did she say the toy was just for you, or were you to share it, niño?" Steph looked down at her scuffed sneakers and shrugged. She knew if she fought for her little white rabbit, Celia would fight harder and ultimately tear it apart and destroy Blanco just so she couldn't have it.
"It doesn't mean anything to me. If Cee wants it, she can have it." Those words tore at her insides, making her small frame feel an overwhelming sense of loss. She worked hard to remove any trace of emotions from her face in order to convince her sister and mother of the sincerity of those words. I would give Blanco up if it keeps him safe. Cee will never love him like I do. She tried to push down all of those painful feelings deep inside, but those uncomfortable sensations swallowed her, pulling her back into darkness.
xxxx
"Why Carlos? What were you thinking?" Mami's voice rang out loud and clear as Steph slouched down in a straight-back chair, cramming her hands in the pockets of her oversized black hoodie. A mirror caught her eye, shocking her to see a familiar angry face of a Latino teen glaring back at her. The black ball cap sat at an angle over a gold colored bandana that was tied around straight silky black hair. Mami was standing across from her, pacing next to a plain stainless steel table in what appeared to be an interrogation room at a police station.
Holy shit! I'm dreaming about Ranger! Wait – What? Why am I dreaming I'm him? This makes no sense….
"Carlos. Please, son, please." Mami came up to Stephanie and placed her hand on her shoulder. Steph could feel herself shrug Mami's hand off. "Please listen to reason. Your father needs to hear your side too. What you are doing is not the answer." She saw the loving concern and sincerity in Mami's eyes, yet could only feel an overwhelming sense of distrust, anger, and resounding resentment in response. Those feelings pounded her in intense waves, making her feel like running away.
With no control over it, she turned to glare with stony eyes at Mami. "It doesn't matter what I say or do anymore. You all will believe what you will about me, truth or not. Papi has already passed judgement on me, so I might as well go out and earn some stripes. You know, do the deed I'm getting credit for." She felt herself cross her arms across her chest and sneer.
Mami's face fell and tears welled up in her eyes. Leaning in toward Steph, she made to grab her hands out of the hoodie pockets. "My son, please for the love of God talk to me," she pleaded. "You never defend yourself." She paused and whispered "Please, before things get out of hand."
Steph felt a sliver of guilt invade her heart for a split second, causing hurt and pain to lance out through her. Quickly, she pushed the guilt away. Better to be pissed off, than show weakness. Where did that come from?
She heard herself sigh. "I will never be enough, Mami. I'll never be Celia or Marco. I'll never be cute and funny like Lucy or Mariella. It's always been 'Try harder Carlos', 'You know better Carlos'. Or better yet, "Why can't you be like your brother or sisters?' I will never measure up to Papi."
The door to the room opened and a tall, distinguished man of Latin heritage entered, stopping a couple of steps inside the door. He stood still, taking in Stephanie and Mami's interactions, then crossed his arms and scowled. "Well, Ricardo Carlos. What could you possibly say to defend yourself this time? How stupid can you be?!" Throwing his arms up in the air he turned and faced the wall, giving Stephanie his profile.
Ranger looks so much like his father. At least, I assume this is his father. Since it's my dream, I'll just make him good ol' Papi.
Stephanie just glared at Papi, in spite of trying to will herself not to. Papi turned toward her. "Stealing! A car! This will not be tolerated! I will not have this under my roof."
Steph continued the silent glare, but inside she could feel a knot of anxiety forming in the pit of her stomach. Papi walked over to the table that separated them and smacked both of the palms of his hands on the surface, causing Mami to jump. He put his weight on his hands, leaning in closely toward Stephanie. "I will not let you bring shame to our family. We have worked too hard to leave the dark shadows that you threaten to bring back to us. I have contacted your Abuela in Miami and you are going to stay with her." Papi stood up and walked toward the door, then paused before leaving. "Maybe she can work a miracle on you that I couldn't."
Stephanie felt her stomach roll with hurt and pain. Abandoned and rejected. He's only a boy! My God. It was so intense, she tried to physically move from it. All she was able to do was drift back into the darkness again.
xxxxx
It had been forty-eight hours since Steph and Ranger were admitted to the hospital and Tank tried to keep vigil at both of his friend's bedsides, alternating places with Lester and Bobby. Tank's attention was pulled away from the latest edition of Modern Soldier by the loud chirping of Stephanie's heart rate alarms. He reached over and hit the call button for a nurse. As the nurse entered to check out Stephanie's alarms, he thought he saw her eyes moving underneath her closed eyelids.
"Did you see that? I think her eyes are moving." He pointed at Steph's face. The nurse silenced the alarms and checked Stephanie's vital signs before she was satisfied her condition was not changing for the worse. The nurse stopped to observe Steph's face for a moment and was surprised when she saw the same thing that Tank did.
"I'm going to call Miss Plum's doctor and let him know what we just saw. I don't want to speculate here, but she may be trying to come out of her coma." As the nurse exited the room, Tank scooted his chair closer to the side of Stephanie's bed and gently took her small hand in his large one. He knew he should call and tell Steph's parents about this, but knew if they showed up, so would Morelli.
That rat bastard. Junior and Woody had reported to Tank the overheard conversation between Morelli and the nurse named Marie. It was all Tank could do not to find him and pound his sorry ass into the concrete. Citing a conflict of interest, he did request that Marie not be assigned as Stephanie's caregiver any longer. He wondered how long it would take before they figured out Rangeman was aware of what went down in Steph's room. He prayed that Bobby kept Lester in check or Morelli might wind up in the hospital too. Regardless of how he felt, he would not cross that imaginary line in the sand and tell Stephanie's parents about what Morelli had said.
-tbc-
A/N: So, if the formatting confused you, Stephanie is seeing things through Ranger's eyes/point of view. I will be using this style off and on now. Thank you all for the reviews and follows of this story!