A/N: Character thoughts are depicted in italics. All recognizable characters belong to Janet. All recognizable mistakes and the plot line are mine. Thanks again Susan for proofing this and giving me feedback – this one was hard for me to get right. Also, thanks go out to everyone who still is following this little story of mine.

Chapter 15

"Knock, knock. You busy, Les?" Stephanie made the motions of knocking on air outside of Lester's cubicle and smiled nervously. It had taken two days for her to get her thoughts straight, then build up the courage to talk with Lester about why everyone had set her up on the fake stake out that led to her accident. Another day had passed before she was able to corner Lester to actually talk with him. She had considered talking with Ranger now that he was back in the building but that wasn't going to happen. True to form, he was like smoke and shadow with her, managing to avoid her for the past three days. She figured if she was going to maintain a productive conversation without losing her temper with anyone, it would have to be Lester so that she could understand why her friends did what they did.

Lester pushed away from his desk, spinning toward her in his computer chair. Grinning at her, he leaned back and put his hands behind his head in repose.

"I'm never too busy for you, Steph. What's up?"

Leaning her crutches against the wall of the cubicle, she paused for a moment before answering. "Well, I…. uh…. I kind of want to talk to you about the night of the accident." Steph avoided eye contact with him, suddenly becoming very interested in her thumb nail.

Lester nodded. "Okay. I told you what happened in the tree and after, but if you need to hear it again –"

"No, not that part," she interrupted. Finally looking up at him, she continued "I want to know about the before part. The stake out."

The grin Lester wore slowly disappeared as he got the gist of what Stephanie was asking him. He straightened up in his chair and reached out to take her hand, squeezing it gently.

"Why don't we go down to your apartment and talk? I think this might be better discussed somewhere more private, Beautiful."

Steph nodded and sighed. "I was afraid of that."

Once back to her apartment, she let Les in and made her way to the small sofa that was turned away from the entry, managing to minimize the limp that plagued her movements when she refused to use her crutches. "Make yourself at home," she called over her shoulder as she carefully lowered herself to sit down, trying to avoid the painful pulling of healing muscles in her injured left thigh. She heard him go into the kitchen and rattle around in the refrigerator. He came back out carrying two Cokes. Handing her one of them, he sat down next to her on the sofa and turned toward her.

Steph looked at her soda, then gave Les a half grin. "The real stuff, huh? Not diet? That doesn't bode well for what you're going to tell me if you're plying me with sugar already."

Lester's eyes twinkled momentarily. "It was worth a try."

Sobering up, he leaned forward, putting his drink on the coffee table, then propped his elbows on his knees and looked at her.

"What do you want me to tell you, Steph?"

After taking a deliberately slow drink of her Coke for some intestinal fortitude, she stared at the can in her hands.

"I know it wasn't real, Les. I had one of those dream memories about Ranger planning it. You know I can't stand it when people lie to me or manipulate me with half-truths in order to get me to do something without my knowledge. You know how important it is for me to be included in any decisions related to me." Steph paused, searching for the right words. "I want to know why you, Tank, and Ranger all lied to me. Why my friends that I trust more than anything to be honest with me weren't. Help me understand this. Can you do that?" She stared at Les intently.

Sighing, Lester ran a hand through his hair, then rubbed the back of his neck. He looked over at her.

"Just so you know, we didn't lie to you to hurt you, Steph. We were trying to help you. You might want to prop up your legs, because this is gonna take a little bit."

xxxxxx

She didn't know if she wanted to kiss them or kill them. With her eyes closed, Steph lay reclined back on her couch with her feet propped up on Les' lap. Tank, who had shown up about 10 minutes after they got to her apartment, was waiting in her recliner for her to say something. After listening to Lester and Tank explain in detail how Ranger had contacted them with the express desire to make Steph feel like she was earning the money as opposed to taking a much needed handout, it all made so much sense to her. It certainly explained the first part of that dream memory to her.

She gave a little snort of derision and shook her head. It sure didn't explain the last part where Ranger decided for both of us that he didn't want me, she thought bitterly. She began to remember all of those snippets of Ranger's voice that seemed to float in and out of her mind randomly.

Steph sat up abruptly and scooted herself so that she was propped up in the corner of her couch, staring intently at Lester. Lester looked over at her and widened his eyes.

"What? We told you everything and for my part, I'm truly sorry Steph. I never meant to hurt you or for you to get hurt."

Steph shook her head and waved her hand in the air as if to dispel that idea entirely. "It's not that. I forgive you and Tank, but don't ever keep me in the dark about stuff that involves me again." She paused, trying to gather her thoughts so she didn't sound crazy. "I need to run something else by you two and as my friends, I need you to promise me you won't go blabbing it all over Rangeman."

Lester looked at her for a long moment, then narrowed his lips. "I really want to promise that to you, Beautiful. But if you want complete honesty here, if I think it's something that needs to be discussed with Bobby, I will and I want you to know it." He looked at Tank, who nodded in agreement.

"Fine. But this isn't about me, it's about Ranger. Well, it's about me but I keep dreaming and hearing Ranger." Steph shook her head and grimaced. "I'm not making myself very clear here. Let me start over and you two don't interrupt."

"I know you know that I have been having all of these dream memories since the accident. You both told me that it wasn't my imagination, that these were things that really happened in Ranger's past." Steph looked down at her hands that were clasped tightly in her lap. "I, uh, I have also thought I was imagining hearing Ranger. You know, like hearing his thoughts but he wasn't speaking. A couple of times, I wasn't in the room with him."

Tank and Lester shared a look. Tank sat up, leaning forward. "Go on, Little Girl."

Lester gently patted Steph's knee. "It's okay Steph. Just tell us and we'll talk about this. You wanna tell us what you think you're hearing?"

Steph gave a frustrated shrug of her shoulders. "Well, I heard him in my head while we were in the hospital. I heard his voice say 'my light' and 'it just can't happen'. I mean, what the hell does that even mean? And I swear I heard him when I was in the ambulance because I remember hearing sirens and thinking that I needed Ranger, then his voice said clear as day 'anything for you, Babe'. "

Tank nodded, processing this. "It could've been the start of your dream memories. You were pretty banged up, Little Girl. It could've been your imagination or from the trauma your body experienced."

Steph shook her head. "I really thought so too, Tank. But I keep hearing him – snatches of his voice in my head at random times. I'm not sleeping or tired or medicated when this happens. I feel like I'm losing my mind here, because if I were imagining it, I sure the hell wouldn't imagine hearing him tell me he needs me and that I'm the only one who can fix him only to push away from me and leave me with a broken heart."

Realizing what she just said, she groaned in embarrassment and covered her face. "Well this is just craptastic. I didn't mean to tell you all that."

Gaining the courage to uncover her eyes and look at her friends' response to her confession, she was surprised to see both men looking at her with compassion, understanding, and…sympathy? Yep, definitely sympathy.

Well, that's not good.

Tank stood up and started pacing. He stopped in front of Steph and looked down at her. "Steph, I've known Ranger for a long time. We've been through some serious shit together. Never, in all the time that I have known him has he let any woman, including family, into his life like he has you. I know he has feelings for you, but even I won't speculate on what those feelings are. He's all messed up inside and he thinks he's broken."

Steph pulled back as if someone had physically slapped her.

"I heard him - I mean his voice in my head - say that. He said he's been broken for a long time. And I'm the only one who could fix him. It was the day I went home from the hospital, when Lester took me to see him. But then why is he pulling away from me? Guys, I can feel what he is feeling, not just thinking."

Lester reached over and gently wiped a tear from Steph's cheek that escaped. He looked at the anguish in her face and decided to take the metaphorical bull by the horns.

"Steph, I have to ask you a question and I need an honest answer here. Are you in love with my cousin?"

Stephanie wiped at the tears that were flowing freely down her face now. Putting her fingers to her lips to try to keep from sobbing, she gave up trying to hide her feelings to her friends.

"Yes, I have been for a long time," she whispered through her tears. "But it doesn't matter. He doesn't want me or anything I have to offer, based on what I felt in those damn dream memories and floating Ranger voices."

She gave both Tank and Lester a pleading look. "Guys, you can't tell him. You can't tell anyone. Promise me." Her voice took on a frantic tone. "Promise right here, right now. This stays between us three."

Tank walked over to where Steph was on the couch, gently picked her up and sat her in the middle section so that he could sit on one side of her while Lester sat on the other side. Each took one of her hands.

"I promise."

"I promise too, Steph."

Lester cleared his throat and looked around Steph at Tank, then back at her sheepishly. "I think we kinda knew that already, Steph. But what about Morelli?"

A look of utter disgust settled on her features. "Morelli is a douche bag. I stayed with him at first because we were friends and I didn't want to be alone and well, no one else wanted me. I was meaning to break it off with him again but the accident happened. We had a bit of a disagreement at Pino's a couple of months ago and I haven't trusted that jerk-faced skid mark on New Jersey's underwear ever since!"

Lester mouthed 'jerk-faced skid mark', shook his head and grinned.

Tank's eyebrows shot up to the top of his forehead. "What the hell did he do?"

Steph bit her bottom lip, preparing for the fall out. "He tried to force himself on me in the parking lot." Feeling both men tense up with anger on each side of her, she quickly added "But I handled it gentlemen. The Morelli family jewels took a direct hit from my knee. Matter of fact, I don't think I've seen him since, but I remember hearing him in my hospital room and boy was he still bitter. The sleezebag decided that he needed to break up with me because I wasn't meeting his needs, then had the nerve to hit on some nurse."

Steph looked down at her lap again, avoiding eye contact with her friends. "It hurt at first, you know. I thought that even though we weren't going to make it as a couple, he was still my friend. But friends don't do shit like that. I say good riddance."

Trying to hold back a smile from her colorful description of Morelli, Lester gently squeezed her hand, then stood up and motioned for Tank to join him.

"Well, now that's all cleared up, I guess we should leave you alone and let you rest."

"But, what about my problem, guys? You never said what you thought or gave me any suggestions on what to do about it. I need some guidance here."

Tank stood up, bent down and hugged Steph, then squatted down in front of her. "Little girl, you need to trust your instincts on this one. I believe you. I think that somehow, this weird-assed connection that you and Ranger have has been magnified, like a million times. I don't doubt what you're feeling or hearing for an instant but remember, we don't know if he is experiencing the same things you are. He hasn't said anything and he doesn't like to talk about feelings and shit in general."

Letting themselves out of her apartment, they waited until they heard her move on into her bedroom before they walked toward the elevator.

Wordlessly both men looked at each other and nodded, silently agreeing that this powder keg was going to blow up real soon.

-tbc-