AN: Thanks for the reviews everyone! I'm glad y'all got a kick out of the last chapter! I had a hard time not laughing while I wrote it! As usual, I don't own them, I just play!

Chapter 4

Third World Countries and the Devil

She felt like she was walking into a battle. Her heart was racing, the adrenaline was pumping furiously. Her dog tags were burning. She was in trouble. She knew it. They all knew it, but they had to survive. They needed a good strategy. They could use Cami. She was the baby and all but had Ranger wrapped around her finger. It could work. They could say she was tired from the night and the previous day. Could it work?

"Okay. We have to come out of this alive." Elise muttered to them as they walked slowly toward the door.

"You sound like we're going into war."

"What do you think this is?"

"Um…"

"War." CJ grumbled shifting his sister in his arms. "Let's not mention I was in jail tonight."

"No? What should we say happened to your face? You walked into a door a few times?"

"Sounds good."

"CJ."

"Sis."

"CJ!"

"Sis."

"God, you sound like Dad."

"Yeah, but I'm not the one they call Rangerette." He shot back.

"I hate you." She growled.

"Yeah, yeah. All talk." He chuckled as Julie opened the door.

All three of them froze in the doorframe. Stephanie and Ranger were standing there, arms folded over their chests. Ranger was looking particularly furious. Stephanie had started looking furious but saw CJ's face and became the worried mother.

"CJ! What happened?" She asked hurrying over to her son.

"I hit a door." He muttered.

"All of you in the living room. Now!" Ranger barked.

Obediently they followed him. Julie paused on the way when she saw Alan sitting at a table clad in a tank and jeans. He was looking intently at the screen of his laptop, with glasses sitting on his nose. Dios! She thought, feeling herself warm up. He looked hot with those glasses…and the muscles… She nearly had an orgasm on the spot thinking of what he had done to her the previous night.

"Hi." She murmured sidling up to him real quick. She leaned to kiss him, but he pulled away.

"Sorry beautiful, I'm under orders not to touch you tonight." He replied.

"What?"

Alan shrugged. "Your sister petrifies me. I've seen what she can do in battle. Your father has promised to have me meet the devil if I touch you before he's done with all of you. I'm more terrified of pissing him off right now."

"You're kidding."

"Nope."

"Julie!" Ranger yelled.

She winced, then looked mischievously at Alan. Leaning down she bit his neck softly, then whispered, "Have I ever told you how sexy you look with those glasses on?" She left him there with a discomfort and wondered how long he'd last tonight before going against Ranger's orders.

Julie walked into the living room and saw Ranger pointing at the couch where Elise sat on one end, and CJ in the middle. Julie sighed and took her place beside CJ. Cami was still nestled in CJ's arms. She wondered if her brother was going to try to use their sister as a shield to diffuse their father.

Ranger sat down across from them. Resting his elbows on the arms of the chair, he drummed his fingers together as he looked at his children, all of them met him with the same blank, hard look he was throwing at them. He couldn't believe this! One of them was supposed to crack! CJ was too much like him to crack easily. Julie and Elise…well, Julie had been trained by RangeMan and had learned from him. Elise was a soldier, but he'd learned early on that she would eventually cave. At least to him and Stephanie she would. He'd seen her face off with teachers at school who had caved to her looks. Cami was like her mother and wore her heart out on her sleeve. But she was sleeping in CJ's arms right now.

Stephanie walked back into the room to find four people have a silent face off. Part of her wanted to laugh at the sight. She knew that Ranger would have his work cut out for him finding out what happened tonight. The mother in her worried about her children, but at the same time she understood their need to feel free from the tracers and feel like they were living their lives. She had gone to get the first aid kit to take care of CJ's bruises. There was a small cut on his forehead, and while it didn't look bad, she didn't want it to get infected.

Cami moaned and stretched in CJ's arms. She mumbled. "Timeizzit?"

"It's nearly one in the morning." Stephanie said. "Come on, sweetheart. I need to clean your brother's face."

Cami shot up in his lap. "Omigod! CJ did you become someone's bitch in the slammer?"

"Fucking A, Cami!" He ground out glaring at her.

"Jail." Stephanie said slowly raising her eyebrows.

"God…Cami winced and wrapped an arm around her stomach. "My tummy hurts. What did you guys let me eat?"

"The whole McDonald's menu." Julie muttered.

"Oh…oh…" Cami swallowed and looked like she wanted to be sick.

"Who wants to explain?" Ranger said softly.

All four became silent. Cami shifted over so she squeezed in beside CJ and Julie. Stephanie cleaned and bandaged the cut on CJ's forehead. Stephanie sat down in a chair next to Ranger. Ranger gripped the edges of the chair. "I want an explanation. Now."

"Sibling Confidentiality." All four of them said at once.

"I hope all of you are aware that I have enemies." Ranger said quietly. "Not only do I have enemies, your mother has enemies. On top of that, Elise, I'm sure you've made enemies. Going offline does not ensure your safety for me. You are my children. I expect your tracers to stay on so we can find you in case of an emergency. "

Four blank faces met him.

"Do I make myself clear?" He growled out.

"No." Cami snapped out suddenly surprising all of them. "If you'd just give me a little freedom I wouldn't have to ask them to sneak me into places!"

"Cami shut up!" CJ muttered.

"All I wanted to do was go have some fun so we went to a bar and…oops." Cami's eyes got wide and she shrank back into the couch when her father glared at all of them.

"You took her to a bar?"

"She had valid points." Elise replied.

"Cami…" Ranger looked at his daughter's outfit. "What are you wearing?"

"Oh, isn't it cute?" Cami grinned proud of herself.

"It really is." Stephanie nodded giving her a smile. "You did a wonderful job altogether! You've got a great eye for fashion!"

"Babe." Ranger stressed. "How are you not angry?"

"Carlos, I snuck into bars before I was 21. I'm not foolish enough to believe our children weren't going to do it. Besides, Cami does have great fashion sense." Stephanie shrugged.

"How could you let her leave the house in that?" Ranger looked at CJ, who had the decency to look uncomfortable this time.

"There was talk of third world countries." He pointed at Elise with a thumb. "She scares me."

"Not only did you turn your tracers off, you took your baby sister out to a bar, dressed way too old for herself I might add, and you come home looking like you got into a bar fight. Which I'm sure is what happened." Ranger fought to keep himself in his chair.

"I'm almost an adult, Daddy." Cami said. "Plus the fight wouldn't have happened if I'd just had a drink with JJ."

"JJ?" Stephanie raised an eyebrow. "Joe Morelli's kid? What is he doing in Miami?"

"We already told you, Cami, JJ was provoking CJ. It wouldn't have mattered." Julie sighed, not answering Stephanie.

"But still…"

"No buts, Cami. What he said was insulting to mom and our family." CJ snapped out, his anger fueling up again. "It didn't have anything to do with you. It had everything to do with Joe Morelli's unending infatuation with mom!" With that he got up and stormed out of the living room, not caring what happened.

"Girls, what happened?" Stephanie said quietly.

All of them shifted uncomfortably. Elise finally said, "CJ was letting Cami defend herself against JJ. He was trying to win Cami over, but she wasn't having any of it. We told him to leave. He said he was only going if Cami was going with him. CJ told him to get out of there. Then JJ provoked him by saying if Dad hadn't come into the picture…"

She trailed off not sure she wanted to finish that sentence. Julie picked it up for her. Julie's voice was quiet as she said, "JJ said if Dad wasn't in the picture you'd still be on your back under Joe."

Ranger looked in the direction his son had stormed out. He understood completely. He had responded to the insult of his mother by lashing out at the perpetrator. Ranger would have done the same. In fact there were times in the past where he had done the same.

"I see." Stephanie said after a moment, then shook her head. "How utterly insulting to believe I'd be on my back for any man other than your father."

The three girls groaned loudly. Stephanie looked over her shoulder and winked at her husband. His lips twitched up briefly. He sighed. "Girls, I love all of you, you're my children. I'd hate to lose any of you to something from my past."

"But I need some freedom!" Cami said stubbornly. "Elise joined the freaking Army to get some peace!"

Elise looked at her in shock. "I did what?"

"Isn't that why you joined the army?"

"No."

"Oh." Cami blinked. "God, that brownie must have done something to my brain."

"Brownie?" Ranger raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I bought a brownie from some guy outside the bar when JJ and CJ got arrested." Cami shrugged. "I needed some sugar, but it was really weird."

"I'll bet." Ranger muttered looking at the ceiling. His youngest daughter had spent part of the night higher than a kite. That was just terrific.

"Carlos," Stephanie murmured looking off in the direction CJ had gone.

"I'll talk to him." Ranger stood and kissed her lightly. Before he left he said, "Cami, you'd better make plans for being confined to a tower if you're going to keep dressing like that." Elise snickered. "Elise, if your brother ends up in a third world country, you're going to find yourself in one as well."

She narrowed her eyes. "You'd have to find me first."

"Don't think I can't." He left the room.

Stephanie sat down across from them. "Cami, I can't believe you got high." She sighed.

"Elise handcuffed me to the handle in the car." Cami replied.

"You were a driving hazard." Elise shot back. "You were going to make me crash!"

"Are we still in trouble?" Cami asked Stephanie.

She let out a small breath. "I don't think so. But for the next couple days, everything that happens all of us go as family. No ifs ands or buts!"

…

He'd gone into the gym below the house. He hit the punching bag as hard as he could with his bare hands. He could still hear JJ's words floating around in his head. He hated hearing those words. The fact that JJ had tried to get into Cami's pants was bad enough. He had stepped back because Julie had been right. Cami could and would defend herself, despite what the over protective brother inside him said.

JJ hadn't always been bad, CJ reflected briefly through his angry punching. They'd gotten along in elementary school when Joe had been married to JJ's mother. They had divorced when they were in third grade and the rumor through the burg was because Joe had never truly gotten over Stephanie. JJ's mother had died of cancer a year later and Joe had full custody of his son. Perhaps that's when things started going downhill.

When they were in high school, it seemed to be an unspoken competition over girls between them. They did their best to ignore each other for the most part, but occasionally there was a girl they were both interested in at the same time. Things would get really bad whenever Stephanie's name would get involved. By the time they were pulled apart, Ranger and Joe were already pulling up to the school. CJ couldn't remember them actually having a conversation with each other, but he could remember there being unpleasant looks between the two men. He could also remember the iron grip Ranger would have on his shoulder leading him out of the school.

The anger seeped out with every punch. Finally he sagged against a wall, dripping with sweat. He glanced at the clock, it was close to two now. He was surprised he'd been down there for so long. Sitting on the floor, he rolled his head around a bit then saw Ranger leaning against the door watching him.

"Feel better?" Ranger asked walking over to him. He sat next to him.

CJ shrugged. "It's always been about Mom. The fights." He knew he'd never admitted to Ranger why they'd fought. They'd just let everyone think it was over a girl. "It could start out about a girl, but he'd say something about Mom and that was it."

"I figured." When CJ looked surprised he chuckled. "CJ, you're usually pretty calm. Your mother is your mother. You want to protect her. I wanted to protect my mother too, even knowing she could defend herself and had my dad."

"I can't tell if he's jealous or hates Mom."

"Who knows." Ranger said. "Joe hated me for a long time. Probably still does. I imagine JJ has been pretty well brainwashed by Joe. Let's just hope you two don't follow Joe's and my footsteps all the way."

"Cami told him she'd run him over with an SUV and make sure he had more than a broken leg if he touched her." CJ laughed.

Ranger let out a good solid laugh. "That's my girl."

…

Julie lay back in bed sighing. She was surprised that Ranger hadn't shipped any of them off. Not that he could with three of them. He could've put Cami in a convent, she surmised. In fact, there was probably a good chance he was thinking of that.

Her door opened quietly. Propping herself up on her elbows, she raised an eyebrow as Alan locked the door and crept over to the bed.

"Aren't you afraid of meeting the devil if Dad finds out you're in here?" Julie teased.

Alan chuckled softly, slipping out of clothes. He crawled under the covers and quickly helped her dispose of her pajamas. In a quick, deep thrust he'd buried himself in her. She let out a delighted gasp at the feel of him.

"If I can spend tonight in heaven, I'll meet the devil with a grin on my face." Alan smiled as he kissed her deeply while they moved.