For the record, the characters originated from JE.

Here's the next chapter in this story. I hope you enjoy.

Stephanie's POV

When morning visiting hours were over, Ranger and Ron asked to talk to Julie and I while everyone else waited out in the hall. Ron explained that he would be going to Trenton tomorrow and that Tank, Lula, Diego and Emma were going to join them. He then gave Julie the choice of accompanying them to Trenton or staying here with Bobby, me and Ranger.

Julie looked at Ron in surprise and said, "Why are you giving me the choice?"

Ron smiled and said, "You are a smart little girl and we feel that you are more than capable of making these sorts of decisions on your own. I know you love Ranger and I know how worried about him you were. I just want to make sure that you know that you have a say in where you spend your time."

Julie hugged Ron and said, "Thanks Dad. I really appreciate that. Mom never really wanted me to spend time with Papa, so it means a lot to me that you let me spend time with him. I would love to stay with him and Stephanie. It sounds like it will only be for a few more days anyway."

"There," Ron said, "That settles it. You will stay here with Stephanie, Bobby and Ranger. The rest of us will fly back to Trenton tomorrow. You can join us when Ranger is allowed to come home. But for now, I think Tank and Lula have something planned for you kids this afternoon. You can come back and see Ranger later."

Julie hugged Ranger and I and left the room with Ron. Just as he was leaving, Ranger spoke up. "Ron, thanks for that. Under the circumstances, I think it would be best if you started to call me Carlos. Ranger is for work, but you're family."

Ron smiled at Ranger and said, "Sure thing Carlos. I'll be back soon with the plans and drawings."

After Ron left, Ranger looked at me and asked, "Have you seen the plans that Ron has come up with so far Babe?"

I nodded and said, "I have. He was never in the RangeMan building in Trenton, so it really surprised me when I saw that he really understood some of the notes you made on what you wanted. You'll really be impressed when he shows you what he's come up with. I know I was.

Bobby came in a little while later and said that Dr. Hahn was here earlier than expected. I wasn't expecting her until around 4, but it was just after 1PM now. I looked over at Ranger and took a seat on the chair beside him to wait for Riley.

If someone had told me that one day I would prefer to stay in the hospital rather than be discharged, I would have told them that they were crazy. Annoyingly, that's exactly what happened today. Dr. Hahn said that there was no medical reason for me to stay in the hospital any longer. Now that Ranger was awake, there was no reason for him to need me either.

I looked at Riley and said, "Am I going to be restricted to visiting hours?"

Riley smiled and said, "I will make arrangements so you can stay from 9AM through to 10PM. That's as good as I can manage and what's best for your recovery. You still need your rest and you will not get it here, sleeping upright in an uncomfortable chair."

I didn't like the answer, but she was right. I wouldn't get much rest sleeping in a chair. Ranger took my hand and said, "It will be OK Babe. I will be sleeping at night so there's no point in you being uncomfortable while I am asleep."

"I know Ranger, but I don't want to leave you alone. What if something happens?"

Ranger laughed and said, "I'm in the hospital Babe. There are dozens of highly trained doctors and nurses here. If something happens, they will be able to take care of me. Bobby will let you know if anything happens as well."

I sighed and said, "Fine, but expect to see a lot of me during the day."

"I'll look forward to it Babe." Ranger grinned at me and I started to laugh. He was going to be fine and it would only be a few days until we could go home. I decided to focus on that fact rather than being forced to spend time apart from the man I loved.

Ranger's POV

Dr. Hahn and Bobby disappeared to go and get Steph's discharge paperwork sorted. Since her bed was still in the room, we took what would be our last chance in the next little while to be together. Steph crawled up onto her bed and we lay in each other's arms as best as we could. We managed pretty well considering Babe's cast, my stitches and the narrowness of our beds.

At least an hour passed and I was positive that my Babe had fallen asleep. I could understand why, it's been a long few days for her. She was worried about me, but she was forced to keep everything together for the sake of Julie and the rest of the kids. She is an amazing woman. She treats those kids with such respect, even though their mother turned her life upside down.

I thought for a long time about the circumstances that brought us to this point and I realised that I was actually both angry and grateful for Rachel's role in this whole fiasco. Rachel had always refused my requests to spend more time with Julie. I was restricted to birthday and Christmas gifts and one visit in person per year. Rachel always made sure that the visit was as short as possible and she was always openly hostile towards me in front of her family.

That reason and that reason alone made me wonder how a woman like that could raise three such wonderful children. All three of them were well behaved, polite, intelligent and strong. Most kids in their current situation would act out and misbehave. Instead, those three kids accepted that their mother was going to be gone and let the people around them take care of them.

I remembered what little Emma called me. Papi Carlos. It made me smile because Emma always seemed afraid of me when Rachel was around. Ron is a good man and I'm sure that's why the kids turned out the way they did. He influenced Rachel and that resulted in three pretty great kids. If only they could teach that to Steph's sister and her husband. Maybe their kids would be a little less annoying.

Steph chuckled and said, "Whatever you're thinking about must be pretty good. I've watched you smirk, smile, giggle and even grin. What's going on Ranger?"

I turned and met my Babe's blue eyes and said, "Actually, I was thinking about how great Ron's kids are. I am also glad that Julie has decided to stop calling me Ranger, and little Emma was so adorable when she called me 'Papi Carlos.' She even rolled the 'r' when she said it.

My Babe laughed and said, "I'm glad you like it Ranger. Julie was pretty sure she wanted to stop using your nickname. To quote her, "You are her father, not an action figure."

I laughed at that. I looked at my Babe and said, "Would you consider calling me Carlos?"

She looked a bit surprised and said, "If that's what you want."

"It is. As you said, Ranger is a nickname that I use for work. Other than Julie, you are the most important person in my life. I want you to know me, the real me. Ranger is just a name, it's not who I am inside."

My Babe smiled at me and said, "I will call you Carlos in private, but since we still work together, I will probably keep calling you Ranger at work and for work-related situations."

"That's fine with me. When we're alone, when we're in private, I would love it if you called me Carlos. Even more, I want to hear you to scream it."

I grinned at my Babe as she blushed. She tried to glare at me but that only caused me to laugh out loud. We were both laughing when Bobby and Riley returned. They took one look at our cosy position and Riley said, "I don't want to interrupt you guys, I just wanted to say goodbye. Now that you have been discharged, I am no longer needed here. It was really nice to meet you Stephanie, and I with you both all the best."

I watched as my Babe crawled out of the bed and hugged Riley. She whispered something in Riley's ear that caused her to blush and then waved as Riley left the room with Bobby.

"What did you say to her Babe? She blushed as much as you did when I mentioned my desire for you to scream my name."

She laughed and said, "I wished her luck tomorrow night. Bobby is taking her out for dinner. It's too bad that they live so far apart, they're perfect for each other."

I smiled at my Babe and said, "If they're right for each other, distance won't keep them apart. Let's get up. Ron will be here soon and I'm excited to see what he's got."

We got up and Babe's bed was moved out of the room. It was replaced with a table by two orderlies 10 minutes later. Bobby had already asked if they could remove the bed and bring in a desk of some sort. It was good that he did because Ron turned up a little while later with a laptop and a whole bunch of drawings.

I let Ron get set up and walked over to the desk when he indicated that he was ready. I sat beside Ron while he showed me everything he had come up with. I was impressed at his take on my requirements.

In his drawings, the ground floor of the building housed a reception area, a separate security room, a fully equipped conference suite, a small catering kitchen with a medium sized dining area, a wet room, a storage area and restrooms. When I thought about few the requirements I had, Ron's additions were genius.

I looked at Ron and said, "Your addition of a kitchen, storage room and security room are great."

Ron smiled and said, "You can thank Stephanie for the kitchen, it was her idea."

I looked at my Babe and said, "That was a genius idea. It means that we can have customers, other law enforcement agencies and prospective clients for meetings without worrying about bringing them into our more secure areas. Food can be prepared and served without accessing other areas. It's a great idea."

Stephanie smiled and Ron continued to show me what he had so far. The 1st floor was like I wanted, but better than I could have imagined. It was filled with warehouse like storage rooms, pressurised clean labs for assembly and repairs of our equipment and a very sophisticated secure storage area akin to a bank vault with safety deposit boxes.

The parking garage was underground but adjacent to the building itself. A visitor parking lot was above the garage. This idea was also not in my original plans, but Ron gave Stephanie credit for it as well. She wondered where people would park when they visited because the new RangeMan building in Boston was not on the street. It would have a driveway and a front lawn and everything.

There would be a basement for the gym and a large swimming pool. There would be a sub-basement for the firing range and weapons storage, and there would be a sub-sub-basement with interrogation suites, fugitive holding facilities and more storage.

The 2nd - 4th floors were filled with offices, cubicles and small, medium and large conference rooms. The layout of these floors was not exactly as I pictured it, but with a few small tweaks, we would get there. Ron was very open to any suggestions I made or if there was anything I didn't like.

The only question Ron had at this point in time is whether I wanted another floor of offices or 5 full floors of apartments. I thought about it and said, "Why don't we leave that open for the moment. I'd like to see what you have for the top 4 floors."

Ron agreed and showed me how the layout of the building would allows for 8 apartments on the 6th and 7th floors and 2 or 3 each on the top 2 floors. After seeing these numbers, I said, "OK, if we can accommodate that many people on the top 4 floors, I vote for the 5th floor to be more offices. Maybe we can put the control room on the 5th floor, separate from the offices and other distractions."

Ron made a few notes and then showed us a mock-up of one of the smaller apartments. It looked a lot like the ones that used to be in the Trenton building. They were laid out in a similar manner. The main difference was that the bathrooms were not ensuite. I bet this was Steph's suggestion as well. She always hated having to go through the bedroom to get to the bathroom in all of the apartments when she visited.

After we went over all of the floors, I said, "I'm 100% happy with the basements, the ground floor and the 1st and 2nd floors. I'm also impressed with the smaller apartments, but I want to think about that for a day or two before I sign off on them. The office floors need a bit of work, but that's not your fault. I didn't really provide any information on the number of cubicles, offices or conference rooms that were required. In fact, I'm not even sure of that myself. I should probably talk to Dan before we finalise those floors. Would we be able to start construction without those floors finalised?"

Ron thought for a moment and said, "I don't see why not. Cubicles don't require and structural support and office walls are easily configurable once the steel shell has been put in. The only issue will be if one of your conference rooms wants to be larger than ½ the width of the building. We would need to place the steel support beams in a different location."

I nodded and said, "Let's get the foundations started and the basements dug. We can finalise the higher floors before we will need them. We can just file a generic layout with the city and resubmit once we've finalised."

Ron agreed and said, "Do you already have a building company lined up to do this work?"

"I'm betting that the RangeMan lawyers already have this organised. I'm sure they've been talking to different companies. They'll be able to tell us when we can get started. I'll ask Tank to put you in touch with the lawyers and the building company."

Stephanie was getting a bit restless so she said, "I think I need to go take a walk. My leg is getting a bit painful from sitting still. I'm sure you guys can get along without me."

I watched as my Babe picked up her crutches and hobbled out of the room. Ron sat there for a few minutes and I said, "I'm really impressed Ron. You have done a great job in such a short time. Would you be willing to oversee the actual construction? I don't mean that you need to be there on a daily basis, but keeping a close eye on the building manager would be really helpful."

Ron smiled and said, "I was actually thinking about being the building manager myself. I realise that will be difficult with the kids, but it would be great experience."

I laughed and said, "If you wanted to wait, you could manage the much larger building in Trenton. I'm so impressed with what I've seen so far that I have another project if you're interested."

Ron thought for a few moments and said, "The building in Trenton would be much easier to manage. What's this other project?"

"Well, I would like to build a house on a piece of land I've owned for 4 years. I have no idea what I want, but I do know that I want it to be family friendly and Stephanie's dream house."

Ron looked at me closely, smiled and asked, "When are you going to marry that woman? I see the way you are around each other and it is clear to all of us that the two of you belong together."

I laughed and said, "I plan on marrying her as soon as she'll have me. She wants to go through all the traditional steps beforehand though. That means dates, engagements and a wedding. I don't care what it takes. I'll do it if it means that I get to spend the rest of my life with her."

Ron smiled and patted me on the shoulder and said, "I'm glad to hear it. I'll head back to the hotel now and alter the designs based on your feedback. The kids will want to come by before dinner to see you, so I'll see you then." I shook hands with Ron and thanked him for his hard work.

Once I was alone, I stood and then walked back over to my bed. Sitting for such a long time without moving has aggravated my back. I crawled onto my bed and pressed the call button. I needed something for my pain.

A nurse arrived moments later and gave me a shot. I would have preferred something a little weaker but the nurse insisted. I must have fallen asleep after the shot because the next thing I knew, Babe was sitting in the chair beside me and Julie was at the end of my bed.

I looked around trying to get my bearings. I saw Bobby, Ron, Emma, Diego, Tank and Lula and looked back at my Babe. "Thanks for joining us Carlos. How are you feeling?"

"Better thanks. I guess I was so impressed with your work Ron that I neglected the warning signs. When I stood up, I was in a lot of pain and was given a shot to help. I guess it made me a bit drowsy."

Julie smiled at me and said, "Papa, you push yourself too hard. We're going to let you get some rest this evening. We're going to go out to dinner. Since some of us are leaving tomorrow, Tank thought it would be fun to go out on their last night here."

"You're right Julie that is a great idea. I'm pretty tired anyway so I'll probably just get some sleep."

Julie hugged me and turned to Stephanie with a raised eyebrow. I knew that Stephanie would refuse to leave me so I decided to give her a bit of a push. "Babe, why don't you join them? I'm feeling pretty tired and I'll probably sleep most of the evening."

I didn't wait for her answer and turned to Bobby. "You should go too. I'll be fine here. They will call you if anything happens."

Both Bobby and Steph looked a little uncomfortable with the request, but they both agreed to go to dinner with the rest of the gang. Julie looked happy with this outcome and said, "We'll be back first thing in the morning Papa. The others will head to the airport and we'll come straight here."

Before they left, both Emma and Diego came over to say goodnight. "Papi Carlos, get well soon and hurry home. We look forward to seeing you again soon."

I smiled at the sweet girl and said, "Sure thing Emma. I'm sure you and Diego will love Ella and Luis. They're going to help take care of you once you get to Trenton."

Diego looked at me and said, "Stephanie tells me that Ella makes the best fudge cake. Is that true Carlos?"

I laughed and turned to my Babe and said, "Well Diego, Stephanie is the expert on cake, so if she says it's the best, it must be the best."

"Great! I love cake!"

Stephanie smiled at Diego and said, "You'll get along with Ella just fine kiddo."

Lula came over and gave me a hug. I thanked her for all her help and she waved me off by saying, "All in a day's work. Don't think nothing of it Ranger. Get well and come home soon."

Tank was a little less wordy when he shook my hand. He simply said, "I'll be in touch," and walked out of the room. Ron was the last to say goodbye. He shook my hand and once again thanked me for the opportunity I was giving him. I smiled and told him that I was also benefiting from his presence. I wished him a safe journey and then I was left alone with Julie and my Babe.

Julie hugged me and skipped out of the room to join the rest of the group. Stephanie leaned down, gave me a soft kiss and asked, "Are you sure you don't want me to stay?"

"I'm sure Babe. You deserve a nice night out. I'm just sorry that I can't join you. Go have a good time. I'll still be here in the morning."

Stephanie reluctantly left and I dragged my sorry ass around the floor one last time before bed. I walked as quickly as possible and ended up making 5 loops before I got too sore to continue. When I walked past the nurses' station on my final loop, the nurse on duty followed me into my room with a dosage of pain meds. Once the meds were administered, the pain in my back subsided and I drifted off into a peaceful sleep.

The next chapter will be posted in a day or two. It might not come as quickly as these recent chapters. I apologise in advance and thank you for your patience.