One Month Later
I wipe my mouth with a tissue and pray to god that I won't throw up again. This week has been hell and I have no idea what kind of bug I got, but it isn't going away.
The bystanders are looking at me strangely, while I make my way over to the Airport toilet to wash out my mouth. I had to puke into the nearest bin, because there was no chance in hell I would have made it to the toilet.
Thankfully the toilet is empty and I can go about my business without any more stares. After rinsing out my mouth with water and then mouthwash which I keep in my bag since all of this started, I feel a million times better. I had the foresight of not putting on makeup this morning, so I don't have to worry about it being ruined, when I splash cold water on my face.
Lula and Connie are arriving on a plane any minute now and will be staying with me for a week. I had really hoped that this bug was gone by the time they got here, but apparently that isn't going to happen. I wanted to have fun and get drunk with my friends, but just thinking of any other drinks or food than ginger ale and crackers, makes me want to throw up again.
My phone beeps and I fish it out of my bag. 'Have fun with the Girls x'
Ranger. I sigh. Things have not been much better. We still only talk occasionally and text messages are getting shorter and less frequent every day. I tried visiting him three weeks ago, but he was called to DC for some Urgent meeting. Every day I am getting more frustrated by the distance between us and keep questioning how we are going to make this work.
But every time these thoughts pop up, Ranger has a way of assuring me from afar. If it is a text message like this one or flowers and Doughnuts delivered early in the morning. Tears pool into my eyes and I take a couple of deep breaths to keep them at bay. I miss him a lot and I don't think I can do this long distance much longer. Maybe I just need to suck it up and move back to Trenton.
With another deep breath, I pocket my phone and leave the bathroom.
"White Girl" Lula shouts and barrels through the arrivals terminal with her carry on suit case banging and bouncing of people's calves and feet. Connie, who is walking behind her, just shakes her head.
Lula is dressed in yellow from head to toe with a pink Fedora hat fashionably put onto her jet black hair which has yellow highlights. She earns a few stares from men and women alike. Not sure if that is because of her get up or because she doesn't care who she hits with her suitcase. Connie looks quite plain in comparison in her white cotton trousers and her low cut beige top which puts the ladies on full display. I have never seen her so modestly dressed.
"HEY WATCH IT" An angry man shouts at my friend, who just plainly ignores him.
Before I can prepare myself, Lula has already thrown herself at me, hugging the life out of me. "So many years you have been living here and this is the first ever invite we received. You should be ashamed." She grumbles.
"I am sorry Lula." I tell her and hug her back.
"You are forgiven white girl, as long as there are some hot men in this god forsaken town." She pulls away with a huge grin.
"We did see some hot Cowboys getting off the plane with us" Connie pipes in. "Hey girl" she hugs me as well.
"Come on, I am parking in a no parking zone and I don't want to get a ticket." I start pushing my friends towards the exit after seeing that the angry man is coming closer. "So hot cowboys?" I ask to distract them.
"I mean nothing like that new guy at Rangemen, but man…." Lula fan's herself with her hat.
"New guy at Rangemen?" I raise an eyebrow at her in question.
"You should see him….he isn't hotter than Ranger...I mean no one is, because Ranger is one fine specimen... but man he is a for real cowboy" Lula fans her face again and shoots me a grin.
"He is from Corpus Christi and in is off time he wears these snug jeans and black cowboy boots….I swear my panties are dripping wet every time I see him" Connie adds with a huge grin of her own and dreamy eyes.
"You have a crush" I grin at her. "And how do you know what he wears in his off time?"
"She has more than a crush...she got him to put his dick into her huh ha" Lula grins from ear to ear.
"WHAT?" I screech and look at Connie, whose smile turns smug.
"Oh man...we have so much catching up to do. We need a bar and a mountain of alcohol." Lula decides and throws her suitcase into the trunk of my car.
Halfway to Ed's Bar, I feel the urge to throw up again. I quickly pull up on the side of the road and as soon as I open my door, my breakfast makes a reappearance. "I was hoping I was over this" I groan, when I pull myself back into the car. "Sorry...I have had this bug for a couple of weeks now and it is not going away."
"Did you go and see a doctor?" Connie asks and I only manage to shake my head, before having to throw open the door once again.
"White girl...we are going to the chemist right now!" Lula demands and once I am able to pull myself together, I drive us to the next chemist.
"Hey, counter is that way" I protest, but Lula pulls me into another aisle.
"You don't need the counter...you need these" She says and points towards the products in front of us.
"No...no I don't…" And then a light goes off in my head. "Shit…" I sink to the floor and stare up to the home pregnancy tests. "How….Fuck…"
"People are already staring at us...let's grab some and just go." and with that Connie pulls me of the floor.
Positive. Shit.
"White girl, you ok?" Lula shouts from outside the bathroom door. "Yeah Steph….come one, what does it say?" Connie pipes in. "We are dying of curiosity!"
As soon as we made it to Ed's, I forced a litre of water down and locked myself into the bathroom. Due to my nervousness, peeing onto the sticks took a while, hence my friends now beating down the door.
I unlock the door and point at the five tests sitting neatly on top of the sink. All are showing a pink happy face with 'POSITIVE' written next to it. How am I going to explain this one to Ranger? How is he going to react? He never wanted to have more children. Julie was always enough for him. Am I going to keep it if he doesn't want it? As soon as I think that question, the answer is an instant yes. I will keep the Baby, no matter what happens with Ranger and me.
"WHOOOO" Lula squeals, throws her arms around me and starts bouncing up and down. "You are having the bat baby….so that would make it Robin...right?"
"Congratulations" Connie throws her arms around me as well before I can answer Lula, making this a very awkward hug.
"You gotta call Batman right now" Lula urges when she lets go of me.
"I can't, not yet. I need the definite confirmation from the Doc first." I tell her and my gaze falls back onto the tests. Liar, liar pants on fire. I am just scared of what Ranger will say and would love to put off that conversation for a while longer.
A baby. Me. Who would have thought?
"Call the Doc right now…" Connie draws out her phone and almost throws it at me.
"There is no way I will get an appointment for today...so I can still wait until tomorrow….come on you guys only just got here and I want to show you around town and have a good time" I hand the phone back to Connie, who just pushes it back towards me.
"We are here for a whole week, besides better to be sure." She insists.
"What is going on? Why are you so hell bent on this?" I narrow my eyes at her. Something is off.
"The suspense is killing me...I mean you hear all the time that these home tests can be wrong, so we want to know for sure...you cannot wait until after we leave." Lula chimes in.
"While the home pregnancy tests can be wrong, they are usually right as well. And five tests from different companies cannot all be wrong." I blurt out.
"While we are here, we need to go Baby shopping if you are in fact properly pregnant" Lula insists.
"Properly Pregnant?" Despite all, a small smile tugs at my lips. She just shrugs and shoots me a grin. "Fine, I will call."
A couple of days later
"Are you sure this is the right place?" I look up at the office building which is located next to Lincoln Park, close to the 805. The ten storey Building doesn't look that old, but it has no signage, a big construction container is sitting in front of the underground garage gate and the grass is unkempt.
"This is the right place" Connie assures me and pushes me across the street.
A couple of days ago, Lula and Connie told me that they found a Pop Up Shoe Sale store while they were waiting for me at the doctor's office. Turns out I am properly pregnant and have yet to grow a pair and call Ranger. But with him being so crazy busy with the Miami office and DC Meetings, I don't want to disturb him, or so I tell myself.
According to my two crazy friends, the shoe sale is happening at this address today. And hey, I am the last person to say no to a shoe sale, but one look at this Building makes my spidery senses tingle and has me grabbing my gun from its place at my back. There is also the fact that apart from my car, there is only a black SUV parked on the road, which only makes me more suspicious. If there is a shoe sale, there should be more cars.
"You won't need that" Lula tells me, but I am taking no chances.
"I won't put the gun away until I am seeing a shoe sale" I retort and open the door to the building, which is surprisingly unlocked.
The Entrance is empty, apart from a Desk sitting on the left side of the large room. There is no indication that there is supposed to be a security guard here.
"Apparently it's on the 5th Floor" Connie informs me, while looking at her phone.
I press the button for the elevator, but there is no sign of it being alive. "Great..stairs it is." I grumble and start walking up, with Lula and Connie following hot on my heels.
"Are you sure this is the right place?" I ask, just as we pass level 2 and train my gun ahead of me. My spidery senses are going haywire and I am not taking any chances.
"I am sure" Connie answers from behind without any hesitance.
Once we get to the fifth floor I stop. "What are you doing, let's go in." Lula tries to reach around me to open the door, but I stop her.
"Shh" I hush her. Nothing. I hear nothing. "We should turn back. I have a bad feeling about this."
"Shagging up with Batman has made you far too suspicious." Connie waves off my comment and opens the door before I can stop her.
A "What the hell?" escapes my mouth when I follow Connie through the door, with my gun still raised. There are no shoes and it looks much like the 5th floor in the Rangemen Trenton office. The large room is filled with cubicles, on the far end seem to be three office and from where I am standing right now, I can see a fourth room full of monitors towards the left of me. "What is this?"
"This is the secret project" A familiar man's voice calls out and seconds later my very own Batman appears in front of me, dressed in his usual attire of black Cargo pants and black Cat boots. But instead of a Rangemen Shirt he is wearing a black, button-down dress shirt with the top button left open and untucked.
"What...what do you mean?" My face cannot decide what face to pull, shock of seeing him or a wide smile because he is here? I must have settled onto something in between, because Ranger's face splits into a big grin.
"I mean that this is the secret project the guys and me have been working on for the past three months. A brand spanking new Rangemen Location." He starts walking towards me and with every step he takes, my heart starts pumping a little harder into my rib cage. "Babe, do you mind putting the gun away?"
For a second I just stare at him confused, before realizing that I am still pointing my gun at him. "Sorry" I reply sheepishly and tuck it away. "You are here…"
"Yes and I am here to stay." he is finally right in front of me and the smell of Bulgari hits me hard. Relief and happiness flood through me and I throw myself at him. "Heyy...wow." I wrap my arms around his neck and my legs around his midsection. Ranger wraps his arms around me to hold me up and has to take a step back to keep us from falling backwards.
"I can't believe you are here...what about Miami?" I ask, while tears gather in my eyes and I have to swallow hard to keep them at bay. Damn Hormones. Yesterday we watched Die Hard and I was crying my eyes out throughout the whole movie.
"I smoothed things over in Miami and Les has gone to put together a new team, so I could come here to be with you." Ranger answers and his breath hits my ear with every word. "And I am here to stay. Recruiting starts in a couple of weeks and I have some men coming in from the west coast to help with the training. I am not going anywhere."
"But the building doesn't even look ready" I whisper.
"When we open, it will be ready, don't you worry" He chuckles.
"I am pregnant" I blurt out and I can feel him freeze. "I know that this is not what you want and if this means that you will go back to Trenton...well I suppose I have to deal with this...but I can't give this Baby up. I really am on the pill, but apparently your boys are wayyyy too powerful….so yeah...I am pregnant." I rush to explain and almost whisper the last part. Squeezing my eyes shut, I braze myself for his reaction. He tries to pull away but I hold on tight. This is it….this is the last straw. We are never going to come back from this.
"Babe, please let me look at you" He pleads and something is his voice makes me lose my grip. Ranger pulls away slightly, so that our faces are only millimetres away from each other. "You are pregnant?" I nod and his face splits in half with the biggest grin I have ever seen. Before I know it, his lips crash onto mine and he gives me the mother of all kisses.
"Wow, this place is amazing" I tell Ranger, when we walk up the stairs to the last floor he still needs to show me. The elevator is down, because Ranger is getting a completely new one fitted, so we had to make our way up the floors via the stairs. Lula and Connie have disappeared somewhere to give us some space, which I am grateful for. "How is it that this is already so far along? How long has this secret project been going on?"
"Since your first day in Trenton" He replies and I gasp. "I will tell you all about it once we get to the top, I promise." He adds and pulls me in for another kiss.
We walk the rest of the way up to level ten in silence. On top of the stairs there is an open door and once we walk through it, I find myself in an apartment that seems to be covering the whole 10th floor.
"Come on" He tugs at my hand and leads me through, what I assume will be the living room, down the hall and into what I assume will be the bedroom. It has an amazing view, looking over Lincoln Park, with a staircase leading up to another floor. The Ensuite Bathroom is to the right, next to the walk in closet.
Ranger leads me up the stairs, into another smaller room, which goes out onto a roof terrace. All along the edge is a glass barrier, there are outdoor lounges placed onto a wooden deck, with a BBQ next to it. Still holding my hand, he pulls me over to the couch before sinking into it and tugging me onto his lap.
"The moment you came to Trenton, I knew you wouldn't be happy there and I knew we wouldn't be able to do the long distance thing." He looks at me and brushes a unruly curl behind my ear. Just his touch makes me shiver. "The past few years I missed you so much it hurt and I don't want to be hurting anymore. So I talked to the guys. We always wanted to open a branch on the east coast and after a bit of research, we found that San Diego would actually be a great place. It's close to LA and the Mexican border, which means there are different types of Security needed here. So Tank and I flew out here and scouted locations, until settling onto this one."
"You were here, but you didn't come to see me?" I ask a little hurt.
"I couldn't, Babe. Had I come to see you, I would have not left your side. I needed to find a location to get the ball rolling...I am sorry" He explains and his eyes reflect how sorry he is.
"It's ok...you are here now" I smile and kiss him.
"I know we still have lots to talk about, but I know we can make it." Ranger tells me once we have to come up for air. "I don't want you to get rid of this Baby, I want to be there every step of the way. Until the 10th Floor is done, I would need somewhere to crash for a while, but after that I will move in here" he laces our fingers together and starts running his thumb up and down mine. "I will wine and dine you, I will take you out on dates and eventually...eventually I am going to marry you….I don't want an answer right now...because to be fair, I am bound to screw up, but I love you and I will make this work."
"Ranger…" I swallow hard and bury my face in his neck. "This is insane" I laugh softly and shake my head. "I love you too" I pull my head away and kiss him again.
He is right. We have a lot to talk about and work on. Not all is forgotten, but it is certainly forgiven. We love each other and despite all that has happened we found each other again. I am certain I will screw up and I am certain we will fight, butt heads and annoy the crap out of each other, but I am also certain that we will make it.
It is done, this is the last chapter. I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for sticking with me and for all the comments and favorites