AN: I have to thank all of you once again for your wonderful reviews for the last chapter :-) I'm glad so many of you liked the way Ortega was taken out. I thought it was rather fitting myself :-D So here is another chapter for everyone. I hope you all enjoy this one as well. I wanted to show there were still some issues that Elise has never dealt with, or rather her method of dealing isn't all that great, and that there are pieces to her that Steph and Ranger are just finding out about b/c she's been too good at hiding her emotions about certain things. I hope everyone likes this!

Disclaimer: Don't own the original JE characters, the ones created to continue the story are mine! And I'm not making any money for this.

Please read and review!

Brotherly Revelations

The waiting room was filled with men cloaked in black. They made the nurses nervous, and drew the curious looks of those brave enough to stare straight at them. Those who were not with the Army Rangers tried to make room but the waiting room was not large. They looked intimidating and were almost afraid to say anything. Most of them were extremely polite already and moved for those who were also waiting for some word of their own loved ones.

Stephanie almost found the sight comical, but new in the past whenever she had been injure, or Ranger had, the waiting room was always filled with Rangemen. Why would their oldest be any different? The little time she had been with the men who had flown in to help rescue her had told her Elise held a lot of respect from others she had worked with. It filled her with pride thinking of her daughter's success. But that pride was quickly overshadowed by the fear she felt waiting to hear from the doctors.

Beside her Ranger sat quietly, an arm around his wife, trying to center himself. He had been here so many times in the past for his own men, for Stephanie, but being here because of Elise was nerve shattering. No parent wanted to outlive their children. The logical side of him said that this was something that had always been a risk when she joined the Army, then the Rangers. He knew that. He knew from years what the fatality rate was.

But it was so much worse when he knew what happened and was waiting to hear.

His mind kept replaying the flight back to the states. Bobby and Alan had stabilized Elise from nearly the moment they had gotten onto the plane. Her left leg was broken, and they had decided to set it immediately to avoid any complications. Unfortunately right as they were about to do it, Elise had come back to consciousness.

"Elise, we have to set your leg." Bobby told her. "We can give you medicine—"

"No." She growled, her voice raspy and filled with exhaustion. "Just set it."

"You need the medicine," Alan butt in, "I know what your medical says, but this is going to hurt."

"Don't care." She gasped out. "I won't be her. Just do it!"

Alan and Bobby looked at each other for a moment then nodded. Bobby looked at Ranger. "Boss. Hold your girl down."

And he had. He'd held Elise down and had wished fervently that he could have taken away the pain she was in. The scream she let out when they set her leg still filled his mind. Her words echoed repeatedly, I won't be her.

Across from him and Stephanie Cami sat fidgeting. She was trying to wait patiently, but she felt so torn between where to go. She wanted to be here to hear about her sister, but at the same time she wanted to be with Richard. She knew they had brought him back. She could feel him in the hospital. He had been taken straight into the back due to his injuries. Bobby and Alan had given her a brief description of his injuries. She knew he had been lucky not to endure worse than he had. Neither man believed Richard would be staying in the hospital overnight. He would take some patching up, but he should be just fine.

CJ and JJ sat next to her silently. CJ waited in silence due to inheriting his father's patience level. JJ was silent because of his training in the military. CJ wouldn't say it out loud but he was glad he and JJ moved past their issues. The utter panic that had disrupted his family for the last few weeks had been maddening and while he would have done anything he could to get out of the house and try helping, he knew JJ had been there to keep him from escaping. Although he was pretty sure a good part of that was due to JJ being scared of Stephanie.

Julie sat next to Alan, leaning into him seeking silent comfort. She knew Alan had worked hard to make sure Elise came back alive. They had worked hard to make sure she was stable enough to fly back to the states. They had been unwilling to risk landing anywhere other than Miami. All she knew for sure was that her sister's injuries were bad. Bobby and Alan seemed confident that she would make it through the surgeries just fine, but the doctor had come out at one point to talk to Ranger and Stephanie. They had taken the two medics with them to make sure they understood what was going on. It turned out that Elise's fight with Ortega had caused internal bleeding. There was damage done to her due to the fall through the burning building, smoke inhalation, broken leg and her entire body was going to make itself into a giant bruise. The doctor was cautiously optimistic about her, but he'd gone back in to continue the surgery quickly after speaking with them.

Now they sat silent, waiting to hear that Elise did indeed make it out of this whole ordeal alive.

Billy leaned forward after several minutes and pulled out his wallet. He couldn't take the silence anymore. "Randy. I got thirty says Captain wakes in the middle of the surgery and tries to take everyone out in that operating room."

Randy laughed. "Fifty says they've sedated her enough to keep her down for the next week."

"Sixty says they knock her full of pain meds to keep her down." Kyle said.

Victor leaned forward, "Eighty says she raises hell when she finds out they pumped her full of pain meds."

Stephanie watched them pull out money and hand it over to Alan. She was furious. "You're betting on my daughter?" Her voice was so cold that all the men in the waiting room looked at her surprised.

Billy spoke first. "No ma'am. We're not betting on her. We're betting on what she's going to do. Or what the doctors have to do."

"I fail to see the difference." Stephanie said stiffly. Ranger's arm around her tightened in comfort.

"The difference, ma'am, is that we would never bet on her life. As far as we're concerned, Captain's coming out of this. Someone like Ortega isn't going to be what takes her out. God himself is going to have to come take Elise." Billy said with a level of finality in his voice. "She's like our sister. We know what she's capable of. Most of the men here saw her at her finest tonight. We're betting because this is how we deal with waiting. She's done it with us too. I promise Elise would be pretty surprised if she found out we weren't."

"Yeah," Darren said, "Once Billy was in surgery and Elise bet that he wouldn't be having sex for two months due to his injuries."

"It was a sad day when it was true." Billy sighed depressed.

Stephanie felt her lips twitch slightly. "And whoever wins is going to do what with the money?"

"Buy Tastykakes." All the men replied.

That startled her. "What?"

"We all agreed to spend the money on one thing." Kyle told her. "That way, we all win."

"It started when you sent Elise a care package to the base that had some Tastykakes in it. She let us have one and we sorta got completely hooked." Victor said with a grin.

Stephanie let out a choked laugh at that. Cami looked thoughtful for a moment, then asked, "You said she was at her finest tonight? Why?"

"If you see her fight…it's something else." Billy leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes. "There is something epic about the way she does it too."

"She's fast." Kyle nodded. "They capitalized on that when we were training."

"No, that's not it. Not completely." Billy shook his head. "Captain's got a lot of repressed anger and rage. That's what fuels her when she has to fight."

"What?" Cami looked confused. "Why would Elise be angry?"

"Birth mother was a crack whore who would have sold her to the first willing man who had a thing for little girls and her birth father was killed by a maniac before she got a chance to really know him." Billy opened his eyes and looked at her. "Solid reasons for being angry if you ask me."

Cami chewed on that thought for several minutes. While she knew Elise had been adopted, it had never fazed her attitude toward her older sister. She had always seen Elise as her big sister. She was part of the Manoso clan with all its madness and love. It had never occurred to her that Elise might resent being part of their family. That she might have preferred being with her birth father, or blood relatives. Was that why she had joined the Army? Did she want to stay away from them as much as she could without hurting anyone's feelings?

"Does she not want us?" Cami asked softly unaware that she had spoken aloud.

"No, Cami, don't." Billy sat forward and reached over grabbing her hands. "Cuteness, you are her family. She'd die to protect all of you."

"But…"

"Wouldn't you be angry if your parents were killed?" He asked gently. Cami nodded. "Elise is angry that Mac Donahue was taken from her after he saved her from a bad place, but she does love all of you." He grinned, then pulled out his phone. He pulled up a picture and showed it to her. Elise was sitting on a bed reading a letter with a grin of peace on her face. "I took this when she wasn't looking. She was reading a letter from your mom." He nodded towards Stephanie. "I think it had something to do with your first date."

Cami laughed, remembering the debacle that had been. Randy smiled from beside Billy. "Cami, when she was done reading that letter all she could do was laugh. She said when she got home she was going to help you go on a date without all the trackers and GPS system your dad put on all your cars. We could see how much she loves you guys."

"A few years ago, we came back from a bad mission." Billy said. "Elise took a bad hit. She was going to be in the hospital for a few weeks. After her surgery the doctors were giving her a rundown of all the injuries, the expected time it was going to take for her to heal, all that jazz. She just watches him until he's finished. Then she asks what the date was."

"And given the mission dealing with Ortega, it brought up a lot of concern that she could have a head injury as well." Darren added.

"Doc asks her what the last date she remembered was. When she told him we were all relieved because it had only been a couple days. She'd been under some heavy anesthesia to keep her down during surgery." Billy picked the story up again. "Doc tells her the date and she's quiet for several moments then pulls him down and says, "Doctor, my little brother is graduating high school in two weeks. You have exactly ten days to get me cleared to leave." He tried to argue with her, but she wasn't listening to him."

"Elise didn't show up until my graduation day." CJ said. "She almost missed it."

Billy grinned and looked at Alan who was looking very smug. "Well, that's where it gets fun. After a couple days of lying in bed, refusing to take pain meds or anything to help, she decided to get up and check herself out."

"She's as good a patient as you." Stephanie said to Ranger.

"Babe."

"Unfortunately for her, Alan caught her before she could finish signing the papers." Victor started laughing.

"Why is that funny?" Julie demanded.

"Because he sedated her so fast she never saw it coming."

"Course, then we learned how deceptive Alan can be. He knew Elise was going to wake up and raise hell. So he did the next best thing." Kyle said.

"What was that?"

"I called Bobby." Alan replied.

Bobby laughed. "That was what my 'business trip' was. Alan didn't want worry you guys, so I went down to DC to deal with Elise."

"And that was epic. Elise had woken up and was chewing Alan out when Bobby walked in." Darren was nodding. "You sure as hell didn't waste time getting in her face."

"I've dealt with Steph and Ranger when they're patients. I learned." Bobby grinned, "Plus, I knew it would take one good threat to call them and she'd behave."

"You threatened to call us? Why didn't you?" Stephanie demanded.

"She didn't want CJ to miss his graduation and knew that's what would happen." Bobby replied. "Plus, Alan and I kept sedating her for a week to keep her under so her body could heal."

"That's what she meant!" Stephanie exclaimed suddenly. She told them about the conversation they had with Elise the night of the business dinner when they had met Richard for the first time had been given some headway into where Cami was.

"Yeah," Billy shook his head. "It was awesome watching her shrink back from someone."

"Elise wouldn't shrink back." Ranger said. "She's probably still plotting against both of you for that."

"Not me," Bobby said. "She knew I wouldn't hesitate to call you if she didn't behave. She couldn't sweet talk her way out of anything with me that week."

"Are we talking about the same little girl?" Lester asked. "The one who sweet talked all of us into playing tea party repeatedly? The little girl who could have, and probably still could, talk us into committing murder for her?"

"The very same little girl who put make up on you after you fell asleep, Lesley," Bobby replied cheerfully.

The men laughed. The conversation made Ranger realize what Elise's words meant. I won't be her. Shit, he thought, she was afraid of taking any sort of medication on the chance that she would become addicted to them like her birth mother. That just wouldn't do, he decided. He was going to make sure Elise knew that she could handle pain medication, that it would not turn her into a druggie. He knew he was the pot calling the kettle black by deciding his daughter was going to take pain medication, but he had heard of some of her injuries thanks to some of his connections. The fact that she'd allowed herself to suffer through it for fear of falling into her birth mother's footsteps was just completely unacceptable.

"Wait a second," Julie said when everyone calmed down, "Is that why Elise stayed at RangeMan when she was in Trenton that week?"

"Yep." Bobby and Alan both had satisfactory smug looks on their faces. Bobby continued talking. "I told her she was staying at RangeMan so I could monitor her and keep track of her injuries and if she fought me on it I was getting Ranger and Bomber. The fact that she was at CJ's graduation would say she agreed to it."

"See, cuteness, you're her family." Billy grinned and patted her hands which he still held. Letting go and leaning back he said, "She won't let anyone tell her differently, and she won't let them tell you any different."

"Sir! You can't be out of bed—sir! You're very injured and need to—sir!"

They all looked over to the commotion. Trevor was walking toward them. The nurse followed him trying to get ahold of him to lead him back to his own room to no avail. He continued towards them ignoring the nagging of the nurse. When he got to the Manoso's he turned and barked at the nurse. "Go get my fucking papers and I'll sign myself out if it'll get you away from me!"

Alan smothered a chuckle, "Ma'am, I'll keep an eye on him. I'm our medic."

"See that you do." She turned off in a huff, "Insufferable man."

Trevor ignored the insult and looked at everyone. "How is she?"

"No word yet," Julie told him.

Trevor sighed and sat down. Stephanie looked at him with a motherly look. "Trevor, you shouldn't be out of bed yet. We would have come to you to let you know what Elise's condition is."

Lester and Tank watched Trevor give Stephanie a blank look. "I'm not leaving until I know she's fine."

"Have you noticed," Lester said conversationally to Tank, "That all Ranger's girls have gotten themselves men like himself?"

"How do you figure?" Tank asked.

"Richard did everything he could to make sure Cami came home to us, even sacrificing himself for her safety," Lester made the first point.

Tank nodded, "Ah, yes. Similar to the many times Ranger did it to Stephanie."

"We're right here you know." Stephanie said loudly.

They ignored her and Lester continued, "And Trevor has the hide the emotion attitude that Ranger made famous."

"That's true." Victor joined the conversation. "You wouldn't believe how long it took Elise and Trevor to admit how they felt. All of us could see it."

"Sounds very familiar." Tank nodded again.

"And then there's Alan, who we're learning is trickier than he gives off." Lester said. "I think we're just starting to scratch the surface with him."

"And he's was a Ranger." Bobby said.

"You know what they say," Tank said grinning at Ranger who was giving all of them his patented glare, "Girls always marry their daddies."

"Good thing I had boys." Lester snickered.

"Too bad for the women of the world," Stephanie sighed.

"That's where she gets it!" Darren pointed at Stephanie laughing. Stephanie grinned at him.

Trevor barely listened to the conversation. His eyes were glued to the hall where the doctors were currently working on his lover. He knew her, he knew she would fight Ortega with every ounce of strength she had. She wouldn't give up until one of them was dead.

"Ortega?" He asked not removing his eyes from the corridor.

"Taken down by the father/daughter duo!" Billy told him.

His lips quirked upward into a small smile. He continued to stare down the hall willing the doctor to come out and tell all of them Elise was fine. He could only imagine the grouch she would be when she came out of this. He loved her more than anything in the world, but he knew how much it was going to bug her being stuck in the hospital for any length of time.

"Current pool?" He asked.

"We're betting on what she'll do." Billy told him. "We didn't finish because we were telling Cami about the couple weeks leading up to CJ's graduation."

Trevor turned his head from the hallway and looked at all them. Amusement lit his face. Stephanie saw how handsome he looked when he relaxed briefly.

"Yeah, Alan didn't get to place his bet." Julie said.

"Alan is not allowed to bet on medical things." Billy said.

"That's not fair if it's all going to the same thing." She argued.

"It's the principle of the matter."

"How?"

"He's the medic." Billy glared at Alan who simply grinned and crossed his ankles. "He knows exactly what it will take to put Elise down for surgery and knows the likeliness of her waking up, what she'll be like after she's awake, etc."

"So what you're saying is it's a sucker bet if he gets in on it?" Tank asked.

"Pretty much."

Trevor pulled out his wallet. "Second pool. Fifty says Elise wipes the floor with your asses for telling that story."

"I'll take that bet!" Cami said suddenly and grabbed her purse.

"Cami!" Stephanie couldn't stop the surprise that came to her face.

Without looking at her mother, Cami said, "Mom, they brought Elise and Rick back to us. I'd buy them the whole damn Tastykake factory if I could." Then she did look at her mom and Stephanie smiled softly. Her daughter was right. Cami was saying thank you by joining them in something that helped them cope, and gave them something sweet to enjoy.

She looked at her husband, "Carlos, I need your wallet."

Ranger raised an eyebrow and grinned slightly. He pulled it out and pulled a couple hundred out. "Both of us will take that bet too."

Cami couldn't help but grin as she watched CJ and Julie and her uncles pull out money themselves and all handed it to Trevor. She and Stephanie shared a grin. Steph watched as her daughter's face turned from smiling to one of puzzlement. She reached up absently and touched her neck. Looking around she suddenly exclaimed, "Rick!"

Cami took off down the hall at the sight of him coming toward her. Without thinking she launched herself into his arms. Those who saw Richard's face saw a look that said home as he embraced her. Stephanie gave a mental sigh of relief, glad that Richard had come to see Cami and was there with them. If he had simply disappeared to keep her safe, well, Stephanie had been prepared to make sure Ranger went on a hunting trip to bring their daughter's love back whether he wanted to or not.

"Rick." Cami breathed softly in his ear. She pulled back and cupped his face in her hands. "Are you okay?"

"I am now." He assured her.

"Oh! Did I hurt you?" She asked realizing she had probably grabbed him too tightly since he was injured.

"It's a pain I gladly take." Richard kissed her softly, enjoying the feel of her, knowing he was home with her. "By the way, your sister…she's insane."

"How so?" Cami asked leading him back to where she'd been sitting. He told them most of the conversation they'd had.

"Before we landed, she was humming." Richard shook his head.

"What was she humming?" Billy demanded.

"Why is that important?" Julie asked.

"It just is."

"Enter the Sandman." Richard told him. "And she looked a little evil."

All of Elise's men grinned and nodded. Kyle leaned back. "I love it when that's the song she's humming."

"It means we get to have lots of fun." Alan explained to Julie.

"Metallica's Enter the Sandman tells you that you're going to have lots of fun?" Julie raised an eyebrow at him.

"Well…yeah." Alan shrugged. "We have a few different songs that we hum or sing when we're going to mission."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Darren said. "Whenever we leave for base, Victor breaks out his guitar and we do a strong rendition of Leaving On A Jet Plane."

"Just be glad she wasn't humming Beethoven's 5th," Billy told Richard, "Things would have really been ugly then."

"Uglier than they were?" Ranger asked in a dry tone of voice.

"Dude…I mean sir…It was OP TLC. Anything and everything could have happened." Billy said as though it were matter of fact.

"Carlos." Stephanie said softly clutching his hand.

He looked at his wife and saw her gaze riveted at the end of the hall. Turning he saw the doctor walking slowly toward them.