Sorry for the delay, guys - RL has been hectic and I've not had a moment to myself. Hope this chapter makes up for it though. Next one is nearly complete so I plan to post it next week.

R&R, please, the only form of 'payment' for all the writers here in FF. Warms my heart (and after the weather we've had here that's been arctic, I sure as hell need it!) and my fingers...

OK, well here goes...

Steph was livid as the engine cut and the seat belts disengaged.

"Stop him!" she yelled as Enzo ran his eyes up and down her disgusted body, winked, licked his lips then clambered, quick as a flash, out of the vehicle. Before anyone had time to react he was gone. Running into the scrubby landscape as far as his long, young legs would carry him.

"Steph, what the hell happened?" Ralph said, as he ran round the side of the vehicle, grabbing her by the shoulders and forcing her to look into his worried face as she stood in shock, staring at Enzo's retreating form.

"I gave him tissues to to to blow his nnnn nose!" she stumbled out her eyes wide with disbelief.

"And?…" he demanded.

"He stuffed them down his pants and and and " she took a great big lungful of air "then blew his nose…" her words were accompanied by actions as she held onto her crotch and thrust forward to emphasise what had happened.

Ralph took a deep breath to slow down his reaction as understanding took over then burst into laughter.

"You think it's funny?!" Steph screamed incredulously, pulling herself out of his grip and smacking him hard on the chest with both fists.

"Sorry, Steph!" Ralph sputtered out between snorts of glee. "Can't wait to see the reaction Ranger has when he finds out…" He looked at Steph.

"You have to admit that despite it being a lot creepy that a 14 year old wacked off while looking at you, not that you're not gorgeous – you are and I'm sure others have done the same thing, just not in public – but I doubt even Manoso could have planned that little stunt…" he paused as he let his words sink in, hoping she hadn't noticed his words might just have had a tiny bit of a confession about them.

"Now, what say you we go teach the little punk a lesson he won't forget before your man feeds him his dick on a stick, eh?" he added quickly before she thought too hard about what he may or may not have just told her, ruffling her hair.

Steph shook her head as she thought about the funny side of the scenario, she huffed out a big breath then giggled "Yeah, you're right. I have a sneaking suspicion that Enzo was our payback for getting into base camp, but I also think his latest exploit will win him a one way ticket to a very remote place!"

They bumped fists just as a loud pop, fizz bang! went off on the other side of the tents.

"Enzo!" They both yelled at once, giving each other a knowing look as they started to run in the direction of the noise.

o0o0o0o0o

"What the fuccckkk!" Ranger barked out slamming his fists onto the steering wheel before slumping back in his seat next to Lester. "I thought you said he was into fire, not... firing!" He turned and glared at his cousin who looked like he wanted to be anywhere else other than next to him right now.

Lester held his hands up in the sign for surrender. "Sorry, 'Cuz." He said "I'm just the innocent b-stander here, Hector was the one that found the little shit." He added, trying to shift the blame. Rule number eight, "when in doubt, throw your partner under the bus" he thought.

"I'm so going to have a word with Enzo when this is all over. Just hide all the knives when I do, ok?!"

Lester nodded like a bobble head before clambering out of the SUV and scuttling off to find Hector. "Why oh why the fuck me?" He whined as he rolled his eyes, muttering about the injustice of it all.

o0o0o0o0o

Jed stood holding Enzo by the shoulders of his hoodie, growling softly as he balanced the kid on his tip toes when Steph and Ralph reached them.

"What do you want me to do with him, Boss?" he asked as he nodded towards his captive.

"Put him down." Steph sighed out heavily "you don't know where he'd been."

Jed looked surprised "Don't even ask, Bro!" Ralph added, shaking his head. "But I might reveal all over a beer later…"

"I say we strip him and tie him to a tree." Jed added, helpfully.

"What like the time in 2008 when we …" Chase added as he joined the group, giving Jed a knowing look.

"Hmmm, maybe. But aren't we supposed to be guarding his body?" Jed replied, a glint of mischief in his eye.

Enzo was starting to look a little white round the edges while trying to pretend that the intimidation tactics of the huge men glaring at him wasn't having an effect.

"Yeah, but it doesn't say anywhere that we need to keep all the parts joined together." came the calm reply.

"True. Go get the rope and a knife then." Jed said nonchalantly as he looked heavenward while he tried to stifle his laughter.

"No guys. I don't think that's necessary, it wasn't as if he meant to throw the food round, steal cards or groom small kids in the park." Steph added, totally getting where the men were going with this conversation. She too wanted to know exactly what the deal was. "And it wasn't as if he whacked off all over the leather seats on the way here. He did keep it in his pants and he did use some Kleenex, ya know?"

By now a few more men had joined them and they were clearly very unimpressed with Enzo's pyrotechnics as well as Steph's revelation.

All of them were watching with glee at the subtle changes that were taking place to the colour of Enzo's face even as he stood tall, trying to look tough.

Currently, pale grey would have been an accurate description.

"Well I say we gut him." Someone growled out. "No-one disses our girl. Fuck man, if Ranger ever found out…"

"Nah, let's just tie him up and leave him for the wolves... or the bears. Maybe paint his dick with some honey for the bees to find…" Someone else added gruffly.

"Fool! It's far too cold for the bees and way too early for the wolves to be out – orders were that we return him this afternoon, our furry friends won't feed until much much later…"

A rumble of agreement at the logic went round as heads nodded and coughs hid snorts of laughter. This was so much fun.

Enzo was now a lovely shade of pale green and he'd started to quietly whimper.

"Awww, looks like our poor boy done wet hisself." Someone chuckled out as a wet patch spread out across the front of the boy's jeans and down one leg.

"Ok, fun's over!" Connor said, realising that perhaps things had gone a little too far. Granted the boy was trouble and had been their reward for storming Ranger's fortress, but they needed to get even with Manoso, not traumatise him completely.

o0o0o0o0o

Lester looked at Ranger, concern on his face. "Do you think we need to step in?!"

Ranger shook his head. This whole payback thing had totally back fired. What had they been thinking when they'd let Hector get involved?! Maybe he should have gotten a kid with learning difficulties or tourettes or… something, anything! He dropped his head into his hands. Why did everything seem so out of control!

Trust Steph to bring out the worst in a plan!

"Ok, fun's over!" they heard Connor say.

Thank fuck for that. Enzo was not about to be cut up for fish food, well not until Ranger got hold of him, anyway.

"Right, you little punk." Connor added. "Let's get you out of those soiled clothes and cleaned up. Then you and I are going to have a little chat… capiche?"

The sounds of a minor scuffle could be heard but a small whimper was the only audible reply.

Ranger looked at his watch.

"They've only got another 50 minutes then they need to give him up, Cuz." Les said hopefully.

"Yeah. A shower should take say… 5 minutes, then 2 minutes to shove some clothes on him… that leaves 40 minutes for them to play with him before they need to start heading back this way. Nah, he'll be fine." Ranger replied, looking anything other than convinced.

o0o0o0o0o

"I feel like I've let everyone down, Chase." Steph said with a sigh as she grabbed a cup of coffee from the main tent, Chase and Mungo at her side.

Enzo was with Jed, Ethan and Connor and was currently having his body, and probably his mouth washed out with soap. She shuddered to think what they were doing to other parts of him.

"S'ok, Sweetie." he said, rubbing her upper arm gently. "It's not your fault that we got that little punk assed kid."

"Yeah it is – it was my idea to raid Chez Manoso and I think Enzo was payback."

"Steph. We didn't have to go with your idea, we all thought it was a brilliant one. Hell, half the boys wanted to get in on the act just because it was sooo insane. It just happens that we like insane."

"But…"

Mungo raised his good arm as he decided to join in the conversation. "Steph, I don't think any of us have had so much fun in ages! So what if we don't win this challenge. As you said before, they wouldn't have introduced the whole idea of a joker card if we hadn't rattled their cages. Hell no!"

At that moment Connor, Ethan and Jed walked in with a very subdued and damp looking Enzo, however at least he was no longer green. They'd managed to find him some pants that fitted and clean trainers but apart from that he looked to be wearing his own clothes.

Pushing him forward Connor stood to one side and said "Steph, Enzo has something to say" as he gave him a menacing and knowing look.

"Sorry, Miss Plum." Enzo said softly to the floor.

"I didn't quite catch that." Connor growled out. "And look at Miss Plum when you're apologising."

Enzo snapped his head up to look at Steph "Sorry, Miss Plum." He repeated a bit louder.

"We had a bit of a chat while he was getting cleaned up so I think we're all sorted. Right Enzo?"

Enzo nodded.

Steph noticed he had a bit of a bruise coming up on his cheek and another above his eye. "Ok. Apology accepted!" she said brightly. "Right." She added, rubbing her hands together. "We have maybe half an hour. What say we go and play a bit of baseball?"

Steph put her cup down and waved at everyone in the tent. "Anyone want to go hit a homerun or two?!" she asked as she exited the canvas.

"I'll tell you later." Connor whispered so that only Steph could hear. She nodded in understanding and the team eagerly followed her. Yay, time for some fun with a bat and a ball.

o0o0o0o0o

The game was fun, even if there had been loads of 'creative play' otherwise known as good natured cheating.

The bat had in fact been a frying pan and the ball one used for tennis rather than baseball, but that didn't seem to matter.

No-one hit a home run, or even reached 4th base at all. Anyone who got near was ambushed before they could get with five yards of it.

Despite the appalling flouting of the rules, the half hour went by in a flash but the one thing that came out of it was that Enzo was a really good pitcher.

A really really good pitcher.

On the way back to Ranger's hangar, Steph quizzed him on it.

"So Enzo. Now that you're acting like a regular kid and not something straight out of a gang, wanna explain a few things…" she said, looking at him pointedly. "Like how you got so good at throwing a ball."

Enzo ducked his head, twiddled his fingers a few times and took a deep breath.

"Mighta been a gang member." He started with softly as he looked up at her.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

A pregnant pause filled the cabin.

"And…?" Steph asked putting her hand on his lower arm which stilled his nervous hands.

"I got caught. Hector. 'Bout a year ago."

"And…" Steph repeated.

"He got me out. Sorted my head out, found out I was accurate with a missile and the rest is history."

"Seems too complicated to have been that easy." Steph added. "So, what really happened."

"I was into drugs, fire, pussy. Usual stuff. Gotten a bit of a rep for all things nasty. Even killed a man…" Enzo looked up, his eyes filled with remorse.

Steph took one look and realised he was just a screwed up, over done kid. "I've killed a man too.." Steph said as she gathered him to her and hugged him.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Didn't make me feel too good."

"Me either."

They sat, silently, holding each other for the rest of their ride, nothing left to be said.

As they got out Enzo turned to her "You really are cool" he said sincerely, then added with a gleam in his eye "for an old chick."

"Yeah, whatever, kid." She replied, grabbing him and giving him a noogie before pushing him away playfully.

"See ya!" he grinned out as he walked away.

"Wouldn't wanna be ya!" she yelled back.

From the edge of the hangar door, Ranger stood and watched. He'd never been so proud of his woman as he was right now. As usual, she had out played and out smarted him and yet it made his heart and possibly another part of his 'brain' swell. Shame he couldn't rig it so that she won the points for this game, New York had won this round. They had done everything right and still managed to stay out in the field till the end of the allotted time - textbook.

Their eyes met across the black top. "Proud of you Babe." He mouthed.

Steph smiled with delight then headed back to the SUV. Climbing up she turned and blew him a kiss before climbing inside.

He grinned his 200 watt smile "Dios! What you do to me, Babe." He said, under his breath before saluting and heading back inside.