XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Standard FF disclaimers apply.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I Need You. Revelation

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Walking to the porch with Stephanie, Helen gave her daughter a small hug. "Any time you need me…" she said softly. As she pulled away, Stephanie smiled at her and nodded. With a warm smile of her own, Helen handed her the bag of leftovers. Even though she knew that she did not need them anymore, not with Ella taking care of her, Stephanie was somehow comforted by the familiar gesture. Squeezing her mother's hand, she said her thank yous and goodbyes. Ranger had already started down the walk, Stephanie hopped down the steps and ran to catch up with him before he reached the car.

He was adjusting the carseat,and she was putting the diaper bag and the leftovers in the back, when both of their cell phones sounded. Simultaneously they pulled their phones out and looked at the screens. They each had a text message from Julie. 'Call me when you are home.' the short message read. Ranger had a concerned look on his face. He immediately pressed the preset dialer.

"Are you home?" Julie answered the call with the question.

"No," Ranger said. "Is there a problem?" he quickly asked.

"No dad, no problem… Just call me when you get home" she ended the call and Ranger stared at his phone for a moment. Perplexed.

"I guess that we had better get home," he said as he helped Stephanie into her seat. He quickly rounded the car and got in. "What could she want?" he wondered out loud.

Stephanie was looking at the message on her phone. She was as curious as Ranger, but they were going to have to wait to find out what was going on.

The moment they walked in the door, Ranger called Julie's phone.

"We're home," he simply stated when she answered.

"Oh good," Julie sounded elated. "Go to your computer. You have Skype, right?" she asked. Ranger looked over at Stephanie.

"Yes," Stephanie said, nodding at him. "I have skype." She tried to hide her smile, since Ranger looked so confused. Sitting at the table with her laptop, Stephanie smiled to see that she already had a skype message waiting for her. Within moments, the video call was connected and Ranger could hear Julie laughing.

"Hi Steph," she said, waving into the camera. "Where's dad?" she asked.

Stephanie motioned to Ranger to come sit by her, she adjusted the computer so that Julie could see him. "Oh, hi dad!" she said, nearly bubbling over with excitement. "This is great, I had an idea and I wanted you to see if it can work." Ranger nodded, both as an answer and the signal to continue.

"You know how mom said I can't get up there to see you until the end of the month?" she shrugged, and tilted her head to one side like she always did when she was disappointed. Ranger realized just how long it had been since he had seen her, he had missed those little things about her. She was growing up. Her hair was longer now and something in her face had changed, her features were not so round and soft anymore. He found himself staring at her, so glad that she was back in his life again. While he was thinking, she was still talking.

"Well, I didn't want to wait that long to meet Mat. So I thought that maybe we could get together every night and I could maybe tell him a bedtime story or something like that." Stephanie was about to tell her how much she liked that idea, but Julie kept talking.

"That way, when I finally get to visit you, Mat will know me. At least he will recognize my voice, and he'll be comfortable with me." She paused, for only a second before she asked, "Do you think that would work, will it be okay with you?" "Where is Mat right now?"

Trying not to laugh at Julie's enthusiasm, Stephanie smiled and stood. Mat was still in the portable part of his carseat, and she gently freed him from the straps. The movement woke him, but he was still tired and just cuddled into Stephanie's arms. "He's here, Julie," Stephanie said as she sat back down next to Ranger.

There was a long silence, and Stephanie glanced at the screen to see if the connection had been lost. But just then Julie sighed, "Oh, he is so cute!" "He's so tiny!" She paused once again, and then the nonstop chatter continued where she had left off.

"I have a story here, do you think this would be a good time to read it to him?" "Is he too tired?" "Do you think that this will work okay?" "Do you think that this is a good way for him to get to know me?" "I can't wait to get there to see him!"

Finally Ranger got a word in. "Yes, Jules," he said. "I think this is a great idea and Mat is lucky to have you for his big sister."

Her face looked slightly embarrassed, though they couldn't tell if she had actually blushed at his heartfelt compliment. "I love him dad," she said quietly. "Maybe I am the lucky one."

Ranger sat watching Julie on the monitor and Mat in Stephanie's arms. He was mesmerized by what he saw. His little girl, almost all grown up and now his little boy, sharing this connection. Julie read the short story, holding up the book to the camera so that Mat could see the pictures on the pages. When she was done, she blew a kiss to the baby. "Goodnight Mat," she said softly. "I love you."

Tears were in Ranger's eyes as he said goodnight to Julie and confirmed that she could Skype this same time tomorrow night. Stephanie said goodnight too, and when Julie was gone she was still looking at the screen. "She is a special kid," she said. Ranger nodded and pulled both Stephanie and Mat into his embrace. More than ever, he knew that he was the lucky one!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A career in sports was never meant to last forever, and Jasper Walters knew that he was close to being finished with his. Unlike many of his friends, he had no interest in becoming the next greatest sportscaster or on a staff of coaches working with the new up and coming athletes. He actually surprised himself when he discovered what his ambitions for his future were.

He remembers the exact moment that the idea came to him. It had been a cold and very windy game day. He was taking a break from the game, standing on the sidelines wrapped in a blanket. One of the team assistants handed him a plastic bottle filled with the usual hypotonic sports drink that his coach recommended. For the longest moment, Jasper stared at the container. His mind spinning as he recalled the many discussions that he had had with the coach and also with the team doctor. Needless to say, there had been a difference in opinion concerning the drink.

While the formulation was much better than the Gatorades and Powerades on the market, it was still not what the doctor felt was needed for optimal performance of the players. He had been listening to their arguments for years now. A smile came to his face, it was time for him to join in the debate. But he would have his own opinion to share.

Walking over to the bench, he dragged his bag from under the seat. His own bottle was filled with a proprietary blend of natural juices and minerals. Tossing the coach's drink back the assistant, he drank deeply from his bottle and then stood ready to join the game again.

Looking at his watch in the dim light from passing street lamps, Jasper inwardly groaned to see how late he was. Unavoidable delays all along his trip had put him hours behind schedule. Fortunately Richard was not worried, he would wait at the office for him to get there. Even Paul Markus was willing to wait for him. Both men were more than glad that Jasper was making the moves to take reins of the company. They just hoped that it was not too late. Something was brewing and they had not yet been able to trace exactly what was happening.

Richards patience was appreciated. Jasper was glad they had seen some promise in his initial proposal. This idea had been over a year in the making, and Jasper really thought that it was the right time for Humelik to introduce a new product line. With recent economic challenges, he hoped that it was the answer that could save his father's company.

The irony of that thought was not lost on him. He had spent so much of his life pretending that he didn't want anything to do with running the business. But now that he had found the passion of product development, he could not wait to let Ed know that the sole responsibility for the company was no longer going to be left on his shoulders.

Jasper truly thought that, given the recent kidnapping incident, that Ed would want to get as far away from the company as he could. He felt so horrible that Karl had tried for so long and had not been able to speed up the negotiations for their release. The whole company felt the relief of knowing that the men had been rescued after all that time. Now, all things considered, Jasper felt it was exactly the right time to take the helm and lead the company into the future.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Dark wood in the office positively gleamed from constant polishing. The short woman in her light blue uniform stood and stretched her aching back. She hated cleaning this office. Every single surface was smooth and shiny and needed attention. The paneled walls, the cherry wood desk, the console table under the window. She spent hours shining it from top to bottom. Making sure that everything was perfect. Knowing that if it wasn't, she would be out of a job. And the truth was, she would never find employment anywhere else, he would see to that!

There was a very fine line between fear and respect when it came to this man. He demanded perfection, from himself as well as everyone around him. He was a hard man. No one would disagree with that. But fair in his own strict way. She backed out of the room, taking care not to touch what she had just spent all that time cleaning. She knew that he would be there in just an hour or two. She also knew that he expected the flawless sheen, but he would not take time to notice or appreciate it. It is just the way it had to be.

She was long gone by the time the large man entered his office. As she knew he would, he walked directly to his desk, neither inspecting nor recognizing the immaculate job she had done. He was there for one purpose and one purpose only.

As a broker for the most sophisticated and dangerous weapons of war, he dealt with unscrupulous men from countries around the globe. Always operating under assumed names, they did not know who he was, and they thought that he did not know who they were. They were wrong. He knew exactly who he was dealing with. He knew what they were capable of doing and he knew if they were able to pay the price he asked for his services. It was easy to work with these men. He understood them. Black and white. Straightforward. Even as corrupt as they all were, he preferred them to the suppliers he had painstakingly found.

These were the geniuses, scientists and other clever individuals who developed the amazing array of weapons that he bought from them to sell to the highest bidder. These creative type people, so often worked in their own little worlds. Many of them did not even know that their inventions were more effective as weapons than they would ever be as their intended purposes. The large man only had a slight regret that he was misleading these innocent people who had such humanitarian intentions. They would be appalled at the ultimate use of their work.

No, he had no use for their sentimentality. He only had a business to run. And they were the pain he had to put up with in order to be the very best at what he did. So he patiently worked with them, gently encouraging them to move the process along. With no concept of time. These people had no head for deadlines. It would be done when it was done. And they saw nothing at all wrong with doing things that way. They knew that they would finish with the final product just as soon as humanly possible, and they would get it right. That was their goal. Pure and simple.

In his custom, hand stitched italian suit, he braced his elbows on his desk and held his head in his hands. This was the first time that he had messed up. And he had done so in the most colossal way! He had a buyer, in fact he had several interested buyers for the newest chemical weapon that he had offered. The bidding was almost getting out of control. He would make more money with this one transaction than he ever had before.

His problem, his mistake was they he had not fully investigated the supplier. When Edvard Aslak had represented that his company, Humelik, was developing a serum that he could not afford to pass by, he thought that he had finally found a real company and another businessman who understood the demands of this business. Aslak was the consummate professional. He had offered the information, the estimated cost and the projected time of delivery with the confidence of a man who was in control.

Now it was fast approaching the deadline and he had nothing to show for it. On top of that, Humelik had gotten themselves into the world news lately. A dramatic kidnapping involving, among others, Aslak himself. It was the new reports themselves that had been most enlightening. Seems that he had misinterpreted exactly how much the company was involved with Aslak's ventures. That was his biggest mistake of all. Humelik was not connected to the product that he was being promised.

He hated working with more than one contact person. His deadline was the only reason that he had to work with Karl Verner. The man had tried numerous times to reach him. It was now time to find him and see exactly where they stood with the serum. He stood to make a fortune on this deal. Or have his reputation ruined. There was no happy medium.

This Karl person had tried to explain that the deadline had been pushed back only because of the unfortunate kidnapping incident that took both Ed and their key researcher away from being able to finish the formula. He went on to assure him that they would have an answer about the time frame by this time tomorrow. He had no choice, he had to wait.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Dreams came unbidden and unwelcome. Curled up on the seat in the airplane, Tom Dutton twitched and turned as the images, that he usually kept hidden away, were pushing themselves into his nightmares. It had been years since he had allowed this. He had trained himself to control his mind. But some part of his brain knew that the fatigue from the kidnapping ordeal and the strain from this recent journey was to blame for the lapse in the safeguards he always had in place. It also recognized that the insane flight schedule had been on purpose. He would have done the same thing, once, but that was in another life.

He had been so young, to start out on this journey. Right out of high school, he had joined the army, something about family legacy and expectations. But he had found that he was good at it. He never enjoyed it, necessarily, but he was great at strategy and became an expert marksman. He also had something that set him apart from his father and grandfather, as well as the majority of other soldiers. He could compartmentalize his feelings, exercising incredible control over his mind. It was exactly what they needed for him to become one of the elite forces in the Rangers.

He was all that they had hoped for and more. He was a fast learner and could adapt to nearly any situation, traits that had him involved in one mission after another. At first he did everything that he was asked to do, out of loyalty, patriotism. Then it became his life, it consumed him. And it was at that point that he decided that it was not for him. They were not happy when he walked away, but that was just too bad.

Right out of the Rangers he had joined an alphabet agency. Once again, he had been chosen because he was one of the best of the best. And because he had won first prize in a science fair. Wasn't that just one of lifes little mysteries. They told him that he was uniquely qualified for this mission because of his love for and proclivity for science. He had been asked to become a scientist. To become Dr Tom Dutton. And once more, his life was consumed by his mission. By the time he realized just how much he had committed to, it was too late.

The transformation had been complete, not even his own mother would recognize him. While his height was above average at six feet, his shapeless large clothes and awkward length white lab coats gave him the appearance that he was stocky, shorter. The clothes also concealed his muscular physique that he had worked on since first joining the military.

He, like all of his brothers and sisters had the same color golden blond hair like their mother's. Tom had always kept his hair neat, but now it was a super short buzz cut. With a gel type of hair product, his hair took on a light brown appearance. And his once hazel green eyes, were now a dark chocolate brown thanks to some colored contacts. To top it off, some ugly horn rimmed glasses completely changed the look of his face. Giving him a decidedly nerdy look.

Dr Dutton had kept up this look for nearly a decade. He became a scientist and started to carefully document everything that he did. It was important to become well known in certain circles. Dr Tom Dutton, with a little help from his friends, wrote several articles for several key scientific journals. Including one based off of the writings of Dr Brian Taylor. He moved around in the research teams, getting to know as many of the men in this field as he could. After only a couple of years, his name was mentioned frequently when talk of environmental sciences came up. He was not only a brilliant researcher, but people liked him. He was a little bit quiet and never talked about himself or his own work unless specifically asked. That single fact endeared him to almost everyone he met. He was accepted and was never considered a threat to anyone else.

It had taken several government grants that allowed him to hopscotch across the islands of Indonesia, doing his research before he 'accidentally' ran into Dr Brian Taylor. The research projects that they were each working on, very conveniently complemented one another. These two scientists worked together perfectly in the islands for over three months. Then suddenly, when his research took a decided turn, Dr Taylor needed to pursue some leads with birds and insects found in the Amazon jungles as well. It turned out to be the first step in the partnership between the two doctors that led them to the contract with Humelik. In his absence, Tom was able to be sure that the correct information made it into the hands of Leo Markus and Ed Aslak

The night before he left, Brian sat under the canopy of the rain forest trees. He was still, listening to the sounds of the many birds that resided in the branches above him. He would not do so now, but he recognized the calls of nearly every bird he could hear, and could recite volumes of information about each one.

This thought did enter his mind and it caused him to smile. "What's so funny?" Tom walked out to join him and broke the silence.

"I know too much about birds," Brian said with a laugh. This was an inside joke between them and Tom smiled as he sat down on the rough wooden step.

The conversation they had was in hushed tones, a discussion about the type of research grants that were up for grabs recently. Smoothly Tom planted his seed. It was nothing more than a suggestion, but three weeks later it had grown into a full blown idea, bearing fruit. Tom knew that his friend was not shy about going after what he needed, or wanted. Brian sent Tom a message to let him know that he had already contacted the Humelik corporation and had begun negotiations for the grant they offered. Tom smiled when he got that information. Another step in the right direction. He was closer than ever to the ultimate goal of his mission. So close that he allowed himself to daydream about what he would do when he was no longer Dr Tom Dutton.

Tom awoke with a start, jerking upright, his eyes popping open. At first he did not see his dark surroundings. But after a few deep breaths, he was able to take control once more. Above his head a yellow light flashed reminding all passengers to fasten their seatbelts. The flight was nearly over. In just a few more minutes he would see if Tank was going to be able to help him.

Dragging himself from his thoughts, he reached over and tapped Brian. "Almost there," he said quietly when Brian raised his eyes to meet his. He got a nod in response, but nothing else. Tom felt so bad. He was really going to have to get the notes back to him as soon as possible. But first things first, they had to find their way out of here as quickly as possible. Tank was the only one he trusted right now. And the only reason he had was his gut feeling that they were on the same side. He had always relied on his instincts, he just hoped that they did not let him down now.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Just as Stephanie was starting the bedtime routine for Mat, she could not help but notice how restless Ranger seemed. He tried to hide it, offering to help, teasing Mat. But she could tell that something was wrong.

"You want to tell me about it?" she finally asked him, when he walked back into the room with a bottle for Mat. Once again he tried to hide behind a blank face, but she was having none of that. As he handed her the bottle, she grabbed his hand and pulled him down to be close to her. Kneeling next to her now, he looked into her eyes. Stephanie kissed his cheek. "We are in this together," she said softly. Ranger looked down and Mat and back at Stephanie. She was right. The days of carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders alone were over. She deserved to know what was going on.

He returned her kiss and stood. Turning back to face her, he took a deep breath. He explained about the men that Tank had talked to in DC, the scientists who had been kidnapped. He told her that a large pharmaceutical company was interested in their work, but that had complicated things for their research. The doctors were both convinced that their breakthrough was going to bring some significant changes to the medical field. He was pacing the room and Stephanie knew how serious this was to him.

He kept talking, and told her that some other groups had become interested in the formula for the substance that had been discovered. These people had no intention of safely using the serum. Unfortunately no one knew just how close that the doctors were to perfecting the serum. Gene had been trying to sift through their notes and research to determine if there was a final product ready to go. Unfortunately, he had incomplete data to work with.

This put the doctors in great danger. They were coming here. Tank had arranged for them to be taken to a safe house. And sometime soon, they were going to have to figure out what they were dealing with. At this point, Ranger took a deep breath and sat down on the edge of the bed.

Stephanie rose, Mat was onher shoulder and she motioned to Ranger to follow her. "Let's take a field trip, shall we?" she asked sweetly. She instinctively knew that he wanted to be in on the efforts to come up with answers. And the best place to do that was down with the activity on the fifth floor. She walked out of the room, not looking back to see if he was following her. She didn't have to, she could feel that this is exatcly what he needed to do.

With a bemused look on his face, he did in fact follow her. He was able to change his expression before they stepped onto the elevator, but not before she saw it. He wondered, again, how he got so lucky to be loved by this woman.

it was getting late, most of the lights in the comm room were dimmed. the glow from the monitoring screen created an eerie atmosphere. By comparison, the lights in the corner were practically blazing. Gene was there, moving between his computer and stacks of papers. Without hesitation, Stephanie and Ranger headed in his direction.

When Gene heard their approach, he looked up and was surprised. "Ranger," he said, standing up straight. "Stephanie," he nodded in her direction. And then a slight smile lifted his lips. "Mat," he said.

Stephanie smiled at him. "How's it going down here?" she asked him almost conversationally. She knew that she would not understand the technical explanation of what he was doing. But she knew that this was important work. As she knew they would, Ranger and Gene started to discuss the progress, and the frustration of trying to find the answers.

As the men talked, she took Mat on a little tour of the area. There were papers everywhere. The books that were stacked on the floor looked like scientific text books. Some were open with notes scribbled on the pages. At first she was shocked, then she suppressed a smile. Never in her life had she been able to bring herself to write in a text book, or any other book for that matter. On the contrary, she tried to read books so carefully that she did not even cause a crease in the spine, keeping them new looking for as long as possible.

Gene was still trying to show Ranger what the problems was, and Stephanie did not understand half of what he was saying, so she turned her attention to one of the long tables piled with papers. It was a very tidy mess. The papers were in separated piles. And it was one of these piles that attracted her interest. Each page looked like it had been crumpled up at one point. Like they had been balled up and thrown away. Someone had smoothed them out again.

She stared at them, they were familiar. She looked up at Ranger. He caught her look and held up his hand in a signal to Gene. Slowly he walked over to the table, standing beside Stephanie as she pointed to the stack of papers. With the question written on his face he turned to her.

"This is the same kind of paper that Maria used to write her story on," she simply said.

Ranger nodded slowly. Gene looked on with a shocked expression. "There are more of these papers somewhere?" he tentatively asked. Ranger looked at him, still nodding.

A piece of the puzzle fell into place. They would never have known that Maria had to use only what she had. In those lonely months of captivity, she stole every moment she could to share her history with her baby. She had started recording her history by using leger pages, out of the book left from her fathers business. But trapped in that hut, she only had the pages that she had gathered up from the floor in the lab. At the same time that she knew they were probably very important, nothing was as urgent as putting down her family story for her child. She wrote on the blank sides of every paper that she had saved, even the wrinkled ones that she tried to smooth out as best she could.

Without another word, Ranger returned to the apartment and grabbed Maria's story. After making copies of the pages, he handed the box to Gene. Like a kid in a candy store, he immediately started sorting through them, pulling out this one or that one as he scanned the scribbled notes.

"This is it," he said under his breath. He had forgotten that Stephanie and Ranger were still there. HE turned to his computer and started tapping the keys furiously. Suddenly he leaned back in his chair. Staring at the screen, he held his breath. "They have the formula," he said.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX