Ch. 13: The Sparking of Insight
A/N: Character thoughts appear in italics. All recognizable characters belong to Janet; I'm just giving them a bit of an adventure. Thanks again to Susan for proofing this!
Tank quietly closed the door on Ranger's hospital room, then leaned back against it and closed his eyes. He was ready to take them both back to Rangeman, and seriously wondered if Stephanie's little incident just now could've slowed down their plans. He had gently picked Stephanie up and laid her in the bed next to Ranger after she fainted. Not surprisingly, all of the blaring alarms that belonged to him quieted as soon as Steph was pressed up against him. Steph's nurse came barreling into the room just a few seconds after he had moved her from her wheelchair, concerned about her heart rate. Apparently it had gotten erratic, whatever the hell that was supposed to mean. The nurse was amazed that as soon as Steph was placed next to Ranger's side, her heart rate converted back to what it was supposed to be.
Tank smirked just a little. The nursing staff may be amazed by that, but he wasn't. Opening his eyes back up, he slapped his hands together and nodded at the latest batch of Rangeman guards standing sentry. He figured it was time to get something to drink, but he would just have to settle for coffee.
xxxxxx
Stephanie shifted the gear controls and steadily pushed down on the gas pedal. She could feel the layers of stress peel off her as the turbo accelerated down the open highway into big blue skies filled with puffy white clouds that framed the sun. She felt herself flip on the cruise control, then settled into the leather seats.
Ranger's turbo. God, I love that car. Almost as much – no, nope. Don't go there, Plum.
She felt herself reaching for the radio with the intent to find some Metallica but found herself tuning into the soft, soothing strains of classic harp accompanied by piano and flute. The feelings that anything was possible washed over her, and her lips curved up in a smile. A thought danced through her mind, a visual of ….herself?
In her mind's eye, she saw herself as Ranger saw her. Big blue eyes the color of the summer sky. A halo of chestnut brown curls begging to have his hands run through it. Perfect curves in all the right places. Her smile, zeroing in on her luscious, kissable lips. Her witty and intelligent mind acted as a stimulant to his. She felt his craving of her, of being around her as intensely as she felt about him.
Her heart soared, but quickly crashed. She felt him do a mental about-face. Snippets of thoughts popped into her mind uncontrolled, followed by feelings of fear and of regret. Much to her surprise, a large amount of angst enveloped her.
…Have to distance myself from her…
….I just can't be with her that way….
…Stay in control of the situation…
A cell phone chirped, and with the press of a button on the steering wheel, a bodiless voice drowned out the music.
"Boss, got some news that you wanted."
She looked into the rearview mirror and saw Ranger's aviator sunglasses perched on his nose reflected back. She heard Ranger's voice come out of her mouth.
"Report."
"Got the information regarding Steph that you asked for. Vinnie hasn't been working her for almost three months now. Bank statements show no deposits for almost two full months, and the balance is in single digits. I talked with Santos and Brown and neither of them have seen or heard from her in a couple of weeks."
Stephanie felt her stomach drop out beneath her. She couldn't tell if this was what Ranger was feeling or if it came from her. Tension creeped back up her spine, settling in her shoulders. This drive was anything but pleasurable now. She felt herself turn the turbo around and head back the way she came.
'Have to fix this, have to take care of her' floated through her mind, followed with resigned determination. In an instant she was aware of the plan that Ranger began putting together – the arranged stakeout, the falsified documents, pulling Tank and Lester in on his plans. The money. The night of the surveillance. The storm.
She wanted to scream. She wanted to cry. Wanted to hug him for caring, then in the next instant wanted to beat the shit out of him for staging this whole thing, for lying to her.
I don't know what to do with this.
Stephanie didn't know how to process all of the revelations she just had, so she willed herself away from the dream.
xxxxxx
Stephanie slowly woke up, thinking that this was the most comfortable she had been in a while. She mentally cataloged her aches and pains and was surprised to find them gone. As she became more alert, she realized her pillow was gently rising and falling. Opening her eyes, she was greeted with a view of Ranger's side profile. He was sleeping again, but seemed to be restless.
She grimaced, then reached over him for the call button, trying carefully not to disturb him. She needed to get away from him and all of the feelings her dream-memories were still evoking. She saw the nurse poke her head into the room and motioned that she wanted to go back to her own room.
Once settled back in to her own bed, Steph tried her best to deal with all of the emotions that swirled around in her. Feeling betrayed and manipulated, she didn't think that she could talk to Lester or Tank right now without losing her cool. She came to the conclusion that the best course of action was to keep this latest dream-memory to herself.
A knock at her door drew her attention.
Bobby poked his head in and grinned at her. "Can I come in, or is this a bad time?"
Steph grinned. Waving him in, she said "It's always a good time if you're bringing me good news. What's up?"
Bobby walked over and pulled a chair up next to her. Leaning in with his elbows on his knees, he just looked at her with his eyebrows raised for a minute.
"Any idea what caused you to faint earlier? You feel okay, Steph?"
Rolling her eyes at him, she sighed heavily. "I think I just was so surprised by everything. You know, relieved that Ranger was waking up. Plus, I may have overdone it just a little." She hastily added "But I feel much better now, much stronger."
She didn't mention that now she was back in her room, the pins and needles feeling was back with a vengeance in her chest and her thigh was aching like a bitch.
Bobby chuckled and shook his head a little. "Fine, fine. I thought I would tell you that while you took your little nap in there, Ranger came a little more alert and stayed awake for a couple of minutes before drifting back off. He didn't settle down until Tank put you up on his bed next to him."
Stephanie turned her head towards the window and stayed silent for a couple of beats. "Well, I guess that's good news." Turning her head back towards Bobby, she locked eyes with him. "Now, when do I get out of here? Spill it, Brown."
"Okay Miss Impatient. Word from the nurse's station is that if you stay stable or continue to improve without any setbacks, you'll be dismissed tomorrow into my care. The conditions are that you have to go back to Rangeman and stay there for your full recovery."
Steph didn't hesitate. "Deal. Just get me out of here."
Bobby reached over and patted Steph's arm. "Patience is a virtue, you know. I think that Ranger will be here a little while longer, but I foresee you both back at Rangeman within the next few days."
He stood, bent to hug her goodbye, and then left her to her own thoughts.
xxxxxxx
Ranger tried to open his eyes but found he couldn't. However, he could hear and hear very well. He became aware of rhythmic beeping around him, and a deep pain in his right leg.
I thought I hurt my left one? Was there more damage than I remember?
He felt a large hand with callused fingers push a loose curl off of his forehead, then he heard the scraping of chair legs as they scooted across tiled flooring.
Loose curl? Oh, hell.
He inwardly steeled himself for one of these bizarre Stephanie dreams that continued to plague him. He was a bit surprised that he couldn't see anything. He willed his eyes open again but they stayed shut.
He heard Morelli's voice say in a very put-out tone "Jeez, Cupcake. I seriously don't think I can deal with this any longer. I don't want to have to worry constantly about you getting hurt and that's all you seem to do these days."
Ranger really wanted to shoot his eyebrows up in surprise, but couldn't make them move. After a couple of beats, he heard Morelli continue to tell Steph "I need stability in my life, not this. I tried, Steph. I really did, but I can't be in a relationship where I'm the only responsible one. It was great while it lasted."
Responsible my Cuban ass! The only thing he's responsible for is trying to hold Steph back and beat her down.
Ranger wanted to roar with anger on Stephanie's behalf. He wanted to jump out of the bed, wrap his fingers around that Italian prick's neck and snap it for hurting her when she was at her most vulnerable. He wanted to beat Morelli to a bloody pulp for not cherishing Stephanie as she deserved to be cherished – deep down how he wanted to cherish her. Instead, he was forced to lay there and listen as Morelli hit on a nurse while justifying his actions. He was swamped with Stephanie's pain from this. He felt her feelings of rejection and of overwhelming sadness and loss. Her grief was palpable to him. Ranger died just a little emotionally when he felt her tears run down her face as that rat bastard left her room with his new booty call.
xxxxxx
Later that night, Bobby sat in Ranger's room going over some lab work he had privately run on Ranger. As he suspected, Ranger's bloodwork showed the same thing that Stephanie's did. Bobby mulled over the implications of this. Ranger would heal faster from injuries and would be able to withstand worse injuries than ever before with minimal effects on his body from them.
Damn. If the ABC guys catch wind of what he can withstand now, there's no telling where they'll send him or what they'll make Ranger do for them with the right coercion. He'll be a walking experiment for them.
He wanted to ask him if he had dreams like Stephanie did, but decided that it was better to let Ranger bring it up first. He certainly didn't want to tip Ranger off that Steph was dreaming about his memories. Actually, he didn't want to let anyone know. If those ABC guys got wind, they would use Steph to coerce Ranger into being their puppet without any thought to their actions.
Rubbing his eyes, he stood and stretched the knots out of his back. As he turned, he noticed Ranger blinking while tentatively moving his hands to feel over his face and upper torso.
Moving over to the side of Ranger's bed, Bobby sighed with relief. "Hey man, good to see you back."
Ranger turned his eyes to Bobby and nodded.
"Brown." He cleared his raspy throat. "Damage report. Now."
-tbc-