Great reviews! Great insights and questions. You guys are very sharp. I love the comments.

Put your castration knives away, and check the tunnel vision, chicks. It's only been two days. Can't build a bridge in that time or soften a heart. LOL

The last chapter was crass guy stuff, but fun for me to write. I'm an equal opportunity Plumfic abuser. I've been angry with all of them. This one, I'm kind of leaning the sympathy more toward Ranger. He does remember some very important things where she is concerned this chapter...

Alix33 is still coming up behind me and cleaning up my punctuation. Thanks girl!

Chapter 12

Lester and I went for a run before breakfast. It was a relief having him here now. We both agreed that the hardest thing to get used to this last two years, was not just our broken brotherhood, but not having our partners around. It was like being half-dressed for battle, two knives and no gun. After so many years together, it was an uncomfortable, and insecure feeling at first.

I had checked my emails, and Tank had left word that I had some Rangeman business that needed my immediate attention. I was getting behind on my paperwork anyway. Heading to my home office, I wanted to make one important call before I began working. We had some psychologists on retainer for all our Rangeman offices. They specialized mostly in stress and traumatic related illnesses. I wanted to get a recommendation for someone for Stephanie to begin treatment with.

Sara called before I had a chance to dial our Miami psych guy. "Sara…?"

"Carlos, I contacted an associate about the baby. He's an ear, nose and throat specialist. How is the documentation issue going?"

"Slow. It's going to go much slower that I thought. Isn't the social and all that just mainly for insurance purposes? We'll pay him cash. This is just a preliminary examination, right?"

"Yes, but..."

"Dammit, Sara. I've been told that I may have to become the guardian, and I may even have to marry her to help this baby. Then try to explain to Child Protective Services how this whole clusterfuck happened. This is a government agency we're talking about. How many months is your guess before the whole mess is straightened out, and we get a birth certificate? Six months? A year, two years? Realistically, how long do you think we'll have to wait to get this baby the care it needs?"

She sighed. "Okay, I get it. Let me talk to him. I'll get back to you."

"Thank you. I appreciate your help with this."

I called the number for Derek Sacks, our Miami psych guy, and told his secretary that I needed to talk to him about a recommendation for a female friend. Ten minutes later, I got a call back from him. "How are you Ranger?"

"Good. You got my message?"

"Yes I did. What kind of problems is she having?"

"She's been through some traumatic life changes, and eventually ended up in a desperate situation the past year. She'd been prostituting for five months when I found her."

"I see, sad. One of my associates here would fit her case. Might be easier for her to talk to a woman, and she's very good. Her name is Joan Ortiz."

"Could you have her secretary call me, please. I want to get this therapy started as soon as possible. There are some other issues going on with her as well. She'll need the support."

"I'll transfer you over right now, Ranger. Hang on a minute."

I waited a minute and then a woman came on. "Hello, Mr. Manoso? I'm Eva, Dr. Ortiz's assistant. We can get your friend in tomorrow morning at 9:00 am. Would that work for you?"

"Yes, fine."

"Her name, please?"

"Stephanie Plum."

"Thank you. We'll see her then."

I sat down at my desk and started through my paperwork. Tank had forwarded me an email marked urgent and when I read it, I cursed. It wasn't bad news, it was badly timed news. I opened the door and called for Lester, then forwarded him the email.

He walked into the room. "What's up?"

"I just forwarded you an email. Read it. Tell me if you remember that guy."

He grinned. "Yeah, he's that MI-6 guy we met on that mission in Somalia a few years back. What's the story with this?"

"He contacted me months ago. He retired from MI-6, and started a security company similar to Rangeman. His company was doing well, then he started losing contracts to this bigger company in Spain, and that company is huge. They do security all over the world."

"You mean all the battlegrounds, and shit holes in the world."

"Yeah. Fenton doesn't want to compete in that arena. Too fucking dangerous, said he retired so he wouldn't have to go back to those places. I get that. He thinks the only way that he can compete with this company is to get bigger and fast. Said he'd heard good things about Rangeman, and we do similar security work. He wanted to know if we'd thought about expanding overseas, and maybe interested in a merger. At the time, he was in the middle of some big jobs and expanding. Now he's ready to talk business."

He shrugged. "I vote yes, as far as taking a serious look at them."

"I agree. The timing is just bad. He wants to meet soon, in the U.K. I can't leave until I get this problem with Stephanie and the baby moving in the right direction."

He made a face. "Don't fall back into bad habits, man. You put her before the good of this company for years. Look what happened, the cop still got the girl, and my best friend got dead."

I understood his point and his pain, but I still said, "Check it, Lester..."

He stood and leaned over the desk. "No, I won't. I own part of this company too, and with Bobby gone, it's pretty much my life now. She is not going to come before Rangeman again, ever. You weren't even supposed to stay in Trenton. This was meant to be our home office. The year and a half before Bobby died, every mission you went on was because of her. Every fucking time something didn't go your way with her, you called and asked for a mission. Every time, but one. Yeah, we knew. Rangeman didn't need the money by then, we needed you. You should have quit when we did, and focused on the company. Instead, you chased her dumb, reckless, irresponsible ass all over Trenton like she was a bitch in heat. Somebody else's bitch, I might add."

"Santos, I'm warning..."

He growled, "I'm not fucking finished yet. You used and wasted company resources on her for almost three years. Do you want a dollar figure? I have it. Last, you put men at risk. For that piece of tail that didn't...choose...you… I hope that little taste of pussy you did get was worth hurting a bunch of our men, and sacrificing your friend's life."

Before he finished I was blind with rage. I was up and flying over the desk so fast. I punched him while I was still in the air, and followed him to the floor. A side table toppled over and a vase crashed, shattering and sprinkling our faces with tiny shards. We were both growling, he had me by the throat, and I had him in a headlock squeezing. We were almost immediately at a stalemate.

I was almost out of breath when a sudden deluge of cold liquid hit me in the face, shocking me. Then I heard a voice, "What the fuck is goin' on? You supposed to be good friends, and kin to boot. Why are you in here tryin' to kill each other? At least go outside and stop breakin' this nice shit you got in here."

I let go of Lester. His face was blood-red with anger, and his lip was split and bleeding. Dammit. I said, "Lula, give us a few minutes please."

I slowly stood up and held out my hand to Lester. He looked at it a few seconds before taking it. When he was standing, I said, "Lester, there are a couple of things that you didn't mention in that speech or don't remember. One, she dropped everything, no questions asked, to clear my name, during the Ramos thing. Second, she did the same thing again, and risked her life, to save my daughter from Scrog. How can I not help her now, when she's at the lowest point in her life? Les, you were always a compassionate and giving person. Could you send her back to the streets along with another innocent life. I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'm done with the bitterness and anger. It's time you let it go too."

He lowered his head and ran a hand through his unruly hair. "Ranger..."

"I'm not finished yet. The one and only time that she asked me what we were to each other, I rejected her, and told her to go back to Morelli. I told her that I didn't do relationships, I told her love for me came with a condom, not a ring, and I told her I loved her in my own way. Everytime, she went back to him, moved in with him, I was angry and jealous, but not enough to take those words back. Not enough to tell her the truth. She didn't choose me, because I let her believe the bullshit."

His eyebrows furrowed. "Jesus! That's fucked up."

"Yeah, I'm paying now because I'm an emotional retard, and I'm still fucking up with her. I let her go, but I won't abandon her. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, okay. We need to call Tank and talk to him about this. He and I can maybe go, and do a preliminary assessment of his operation in England."

"We'll work it out. Stephanie has an appointment in the morning with a shrink our company guy recommended. Do you want to talk to her today, or during one of her sessions?"

"Is she able to talk about it and process right now?"

"She's not talking much. You could tell her about Bobby, and give her time to process it..."

"I think I'll go that route. After lunch then, I'll take her for a walk on the beach."

"Fine. Lula can take Angel."

He held up a finger and said, "One more thing. You know that baby looks like you."

"You haven't changed that much, Lester. You still haven't learned when to shut-the-fuck-up. It's not possible. So, don't make me hit you again."

Stephanie was quiet as usual during lunch. She fed Angel out of a jar of baby food. The little girl smiled and worked her little hands. She was like Stephanie used to be, she seemed to love her food. I hadn't yet seen Stephanie excited about anything, not even Alonso's food.

When Betina began cleaning up, I asked Stephanie to let Lula take Angel. "Babe, Lester wants to go for a walk and talk to you."

She looked up like she was terrified. Lester said, "I want to talk about Bobby, but I'm not going to repeat the words I said to you that day, or anything like that."

She finally said, "Okay," then handed Angel to Lula.

They headed out the patio door together, and Lula looked at me. She sniffed the air and held up Angel, and turned her butt to her nose. "Mmm, hmm. Thought so. Well, you might as well get used to playin' baby daddy. You got a baby livin' with you. Here you go..."

She held Angel out to me. I started to protest and then the baby smiled at me. I sighed and took her from Lula. "I'm not afraid, Lula. I prefer not to, but I've changed a few diapers before."

I heard Lula snickering as I headed up the stairs with Angel in my arms.

I laid her on the changing table and unwrapped her diaper. "Between me and you, I used to be considered a hero by some. I'm working on earning my cape back. I can start by rescuing you from diaper rash." She smiled and kicked her little legs. I rubbed her tiny ear with my finger. "I hope that we can rescue these little ears of yours."

I finished and tickled her belly. She reached a hand out and took my thumb and pulled it to her mouth. I really looked at her then. Shit. Santos and everybody else is right. She does kind of look like me. I picked her up, and headed back down the stairs.

About fifteen minutes later, I heard the patio door slide open, and walked out of my office. Stephanie turned to me her eyes red from tears, and she slowly walked up to me, and stood looking for a moment at my face. Without warning her hand shot out and struck me hard, literally stinging to the point that one of my eyes watered. Then she turned, and fled up the stairs.

I turned to Lester, "What the hell did you say to her...?"

TBC -