Here we go again. These characters don't belong to me.

Lula's POV

When Carlos offered to let us stay the night, I was beyond grateful. I was getting better with early morning, but as a result, late nights were now hard for me. If had to sit in a car for an hour before actually getting to bed, I doubt I'd be very functional tomorrow.

I was kind of nervous about sharing a bed with Tank. I mean, we've been intimate in the past, but not recently. We have been taking things slow and even though we are living in the same house, we have yet to sleep in the same bed. I know nothing will happen tonight. We're both tired and have a lot of work to do tomorrow.

I got ready for bed and came back out to find Tank sitting on the end of the bed, looking very uncomfortable. He looked up at me and I asked, "Is there something wrong Tank?"

He looked a bit startled and said, "Um, I didn't know what side of the bed you wanted. Do you have a preference?"

I laughed and said, "Nah, I'm good with either side."

Tank looked very relieved at that and said, "Good. I have this thing about sleeping on the left side of the bed. I can't sleep if I am on the right, I tend to wake up in a panic and because I'm disorientated, I tend to hurt anyone who startles me."

"I'll take the right Tank. I have no preferences whatsoever. Come on, let's get some sleep. Tomorrow will be here soon enough."

Tank looked at me for a few seconds and then he reached out and pulled me down to him. He kissed me and then said, "I can't believe you're OK with this and that you didn't ask me why. You are an amazing woman Lula."

I smiled at him, took his face in my hands and said, "I know you Tank. I know that you will tell me when you're ready. I have come to realise that no amount of nagging or asking will get you to do anything but shut down and shut me out. I'm willing to wait until you are ready. This time around, I know that you are worth waiting for, regardless of what you think."

Tank just sat there staring at me. I had my hands on his face and he was looking at me with such a loving expression. He reached up and touched my face and said, "I've been afraid my whole life to open up to anyone. People rarely see past my size and as a result, it's easier to let them think I'm a bad guy. You never once looked at me like I was anything other than a man. I know we're taking things slow, and I want to continue to do that, but when we decide to take the next step, I hope you'll consider doing it as my wife."

"Was that just a proposal Tank?"

He looked a bit sheepish and said, "Actually, it wasn't."

My face must have shown my confusion because Tank quickly said, "I do want you to be my wife Lula. I just want to wait until we're both ready. I will ask you again, and when I do, you will be in no doubt that it is a proposal. I love you Lula. Please be patient with me."

"I already told you that you are worth waiting for and I'm not going anywhere."

I leaned into him and kissed him and then said, "C'mon big guy, get in and we can talk in the morning."

I watched Tank walk to the left side of the bed and crawl under the covers. Once he was situated, I turned off the lights and walked over the right side and crawled in beside him. Neither of us said anything, but I heard Tank's breathing regulate after a few minutes. I smiled to myself and closed my eyes as I drifted off to sleep.

Fiona's POV

I was terrified. Up to this point, Lester and I had kept our relationship strictly unphysical. I knew his reputation and I was afraid to be alone with him in a situation that could result in us having sex. Despite his reputation as a lady killer, Lester has not once pressured me for anything. He has been patient, romantic and completely understanding about my reluctance to get involved with him.

He once told me that his playboy days were akin to eating an appetiser at a cocktail party. They were tasty and fun to eat, but they didn't really fill you up or satisfy you like a good home cooked meal. At first, I was annoyed that he was comparing women to food. Next, I was annoyed because he insinuated that a woman was like a home cooked meal, or somehow implied that they needed to stay home and produce said home cooked meal.

Lester spent three days trying to calm me down after that. He explained that he wasn't comparing woman to food and that he wasn't interested in having a woman cook for him. He was capable enough of doing that for himself. What he meant was that he wasted a lot of time on the wrong women so he could know when the right one came along.

He never came right out and said it. He has never really told me what his feelings were for me. He has taken me on several dates and expressed interest in being more than just a friend, but I've always held back. The one time he kissed me, I thought I was going to melt into a puddle, so I've avoided situations like this ever since. Sharing a bed with him would make me vulnerable, and I'm not sure I'm ready for that.

I was currently hiding in the bathroom, putting off being alone with Lester as long as possible. I couldn't keep this up all night, but a few minutes more would be OK right? Who am I kidding? I've already been in here for 20 minutes. Lester is bound to realise that I'm freaking out. I looked myself in the mirror and rationalised that without nicely combed hair and a bit of makeup, Lester might not like the look of me. I might actually be safe. I sighed, grabbed my overnight bag and headed to our room.

I was debating whether or not I should knock when Lester opened the door. He was grinning and wearing a pair of sweat pants. He looked at me and said, "Were you just hiding in the bathroom, debating on whether or not you'd be able to keep your hands off me? Or were you worried about whether or not you could trust me?"

I looked at Lester and thought about what he asked. I'm sure I turned beet red as I thought about what he said. I stuttered a bit and said, "I think m-maybe a little b-bit of b-both." I never stutter unless I'm really nervous, but Lester didn't tease me about my stuttering. Instead, he grabbed me and hugged me tightly.

"A little of both, eh Firecracker? I'm both honoured and slightly offended. I promise that I will be a perfect gentleman tonight. It's late, we've had a long day and I'm tired. Come on. Let's get to bed."

Lester held out his hand and I didn't even hesitate to take it. I followed him into the room and then let him lead me to the side of the bed. He then leaned in and kissed me tenderly and then left me to climb into the bed as he walked around to the other side. I climbed under the sheets and lay back on my pillow. I turned on my side and faced Lester. He was already facing me with a huge grin on his face.

I smiled at him and said, "Goodnight Lester." I closed my eyes and tried to quiet my mind and fall asleep. A few minutes later, I opened my eyes to find Lester's grin unchanged. "What?" I asked.

"I'm just taking this opportunity to observe you when you're not so guarded. When you had your eyes closed just now, you looked so relaxed and beautiful."

"Go to sleep Lester. I can feel your eyes on me and it's keeping me awake. I'm tired and you don't want me to get grumpy."

"Sure thing Firecracker. Sleep well."

I smiled at Lester's nickname for me. Some of his earlier attempts were a bit annoying and less than desirable. Luckily, he moved on with each groan or eye roll. When he finally landed on Firecracker, I was annoyed. The more I heard it, the more I got used to it. The more I got used to it, the more I liked it. Lester rolled onto his back and I did the same moments later, right before falling asleep.

Steph's POV

Lula walked into the kitchen about 5 minutes after I did. She looked a little tired, but she seemed in good spirits. She smiled gratefully as I handed her a cup of coffee made in the way we both liked it. She took a large drink and looked around. I knew she was looking for Tank so I said, "Tank and Carlos went for a bit of a jog along the beach. Carlos isn't really cleared for that kind of physical activity, but he promised to take it slow and Tank promised to keep an eye on him."

Lula nodded and I started pulling out things for breakfast. Lula and I each ate a bowl of muesli with yogurt and fresh fruit. It wasn't as good as a donut and some Frosted Flakes, but it was good enough. Lula emptied her bowl and looked around. "This is a nice place Steph. Is it the Batcave?"

I laughed and said, "No, this house actually belongs to Carlos' parents. They didn't need it and they offered to let us stay here. I love it here, but I don't know how much longer we can stay here. It's just not close enough for us to commute every day. Both Carlos and I are still recovering and the trip is quite exhausting."

"Are you looking for something closer to Trenton?"

I nodded and said, "Carlos has contacted a real estate agent. They will come up with a list of properties for us to view soon."

Lula smiled, stood and said, "OK, let's go review the last dozen searches. Maybe something will jump out at us."

I agreed and we walked into the library, closing the door behind us. Lula pulled the stack of searches towards her, took the first folder and handed me the 2nd. I focused on the papers in front of me. As I finished a search without any questions, I'd set it aside. I got down to the 3rd last folder before something popped up that hit me as odd.

I finished the entire folder before I said anything. I closed the folder and looked over at Lula. She was deep in thought and I waited until she closed her current folder. She noticed that I wasn't moving for a new folder and she looked at me with a raised eyebrow. How come she could do that and I couldn't? I ignored that question and handed her the folder in my hand. She opened it and I let her read it before I said anything.

She marked something in the folder and then continued reading. A few minutes later, she closed the folder and looked at me. "I am assuming that there was something in Henry Paradis' file that stood out to you?"

I nodded and Lula took another look at the page that she marked. She looked back at me and said, "Why would the General's aide visit him in prison? The General was relieved of his duties, so his assistant was no longer employed by the General, or employed at all."

I looked down at the paper Lula was holding. I hadn't noticed that fact. I said, "I didn't even notice that Henry Paradis was the General's aide. The thing that stood out to me was the fact that he visited both the General and his wife. So far, he's the only one who has visited them both."

Lula looked back at the file and asked, "Where did you see that he visited Gina? I didn't notice that."

I took the folder from her and showed her the first page. It states that he visited the prison to visit the General, but he left before seeing him. Instead, he had a meeting with another inmate. Only the number was listed. That's Gina's number."

Lula's eyes widened. "That is odd."

"It's even odder now that I know he was the General's assistant. Let's go see if Carlos and Tank are back."

We left the office and walked out into the lounge. Nobody was there, so we continued into the kitchen. Nobody was there either, but we could hear voices. They were coming from the patio. We walked outside and we were greeted by Carlos, Tank, Lester and Fiona.

Carlos stood and gave me a quick kiss and then asked, "What's up Babe? You look like you have news."

I nodded and said, "Both Lula and I found something in this one file."

I handed it to Carlos and he read through it without showing any expression. When he was finished, he looked at both Lula and me and said, "I think you'll have to spell it out to me. I don't see anything out of place."

I looked at Lula and she nodded for me to go first. I looked around the room at the guys and realised that telling Fiona could go against the legal agreement we had signed. Carlos must have realised the problem so he turned to Fiona and said, "Fiona, Stephanie and Lula had to sign legally binding confidentiality agreements. These agreements restrict the sharing of information relating to this case to RangeMan personnel only."

Fiona stood and said, "I understand Ranger. I will go have a shower and get ready for the trip back to Trenton."

Before Fiona was able to leave the room, Carlos blocked her way and said, "Actually, before you go, I have a question for you. Would you accept a job with RangeMan? "

Fiona looked a bit shocked and asked, "Why would you want me to work for you?"

"The skills you learned in the army and as an operative will be useful to RangeMan. If you want to think about it for a while, that's fine. We can talk a little later."

Fiona stood there with a bit of an open mouth. She didn't seem like she believed what she had heard. She looked around the room at each of us and finally said, "I'd like to work for RangeMan. When do you want me to start at RangeMan?"

Carlos looked at her and said, "Come in tomorrow with Lester. He starts at 08:00. You can shadow him for the day. Tank will come up with a way to get your training organised and then fit you in to the regular schedule once we sort out the rest of the consultants. Speaking of consultants, you should come to the event we're hosting this evening at Pino's. We're recruiting new consultants from the Trenton PD. It would be good to show them that we're open to employees from other branches of law enforcement. You can bring Lester if you want."

Fiona laughed at this and headed upstairs to get ready. As soon as she was gone, the rest of the guys looked up at me expectantly so I began to explain what was going on for the benefit of all present.

"Lula and I were hired by the FBI to run background checks on everyone who visited the General and Gina. We ran these checks and it wasn't until we were near the end of the pile that something jumped out at us. It's almost funny, but something different jumped out at each of us. I reviewed the Henry Paradis file and noticed that he visited both the General and Gina on different occasions. In one particular visit, he only visited Gina and forgot to visit the General. The General was called for a visit, but Henry left before the General was brought down. This was the day before Gina was killed and the General was injured."

Everyone was listening to me intently. I then turned to Lula. She stood beside me and said, "I reviewed the file myself after Stephanie was finished and I missed the visits with Gina because they were listed by inmate number rather than name. Anyway, the thing that struck me as odd was who this man was in relation to the General. He was his personal aide.

"At the time of his visits, the General had been relieved of duty. His aide was no longer an employee of his, so I don't see why he would visit the General."

Both Lester and Carlos were listening to use with blank faces. As soon as Lula mentioned that Henry worked for the General, both of their eyes met and they had a silent conversation. As soon as I was finished, Lester looked at Carlos and asked, "Ranger, wasn't there some young guy with the General at his reception when we first met Gina?"

Carlos nodded and said, "Yes, and as I recall, he was frequently present when we discussed debriefing schedules and deployment schedules. He was never there during actual classified conversations, but he was there for scheduling. He would have known when I was going and for how long. He wouldn't have known where I was going though."

Carlos looked at me and Lula and said, "Can you please do an in-depth search on this guy? There might be something in his background that can shed light on this whole thing."

Lula and I nodded and left the room straight away. We sat down and went through the various searches and divided them between us. We got to work and promised to let the guys and Fiona know if we found anything.

Carlos' POV

OK, we now know that the General's aide was involved in this somehow. He's quite young so I figured he was just another pawn. I looked around the room and saw Fiona standing in the doorway. I then remembered that she worked for the General as well and asked, "How well did you know Henry Paradis?"

Fiona looked at me and said, "I ran into him every time I visited the General. He was present when we discussed schedules, but no actual classified information was discussed. All schedules were made using codenames."

I nodded in agreement. My interactions with him were the same. Lester looked over at me and said, "You know what Ranger? I keep thinking about the first time we met Gina. I remembered that it was Paradis who started to talk about various missions. He would have known dates and personnel, and if he knew Gina beforehand, he might have set us up."

"I agree. Let's wait to find out what the searches return before we make any decisions. It could all be a coincidence."

Lester nodded and asked, "How long do you think the searches will take?"

"I'm not sure. We need to leave here by 3PM in order to get to Pino's on time. If the ladies are not done by 2, they will have to decide whether to finish today or not. We're also brining Ron's kids back with us tonight, so I'm hoping we can finish this today."

Since there was little to do but wait, Lester and Fiona disappeared back upstairs to pack. Tank sat back and relaxed on the sofa and I pulled out my phone to make a few phone calls. I wanted to check in with the other 3 offices to make sure things were up and running well.

Boston was struggling with manpower still so I promised Dan that I'd get him some help. I then talked to Atlanta. They were running well and had the capacity to send 3 men up to Boston to help out. Miami was also doing well and offered to send 2 men. I then called Dan back to let him know he would get an additional 5 men the following day. Dan was very grateful. I told him to call if the 5 men were not enough. I also encouraged him to step up his recruitment, but not to skimp on the usual RangeMan employee checks and minimum skill requirements.

After Dan promised to adhere to RangeMan hiring procedures, I got off the phone and turned to Tank. "Do we have all the paperwork we need for this evening?"

Tank nodded and sad, "Ram will bring it when he arrives at Pino's to set up for tonight. We have reserved an entire section and we have pre-ordered the food and drinks so they are not overwhelmed when we arrive."

"Great. Sounds like you have everything under control Tank. Keep up the good work."

Tank smiled at me and said, "No worries Ranger. Just take your time and get better. I can make sure things run smoothly day-to-day."

"As always Tank. I'm never worried when you're in charge."

Tank and I sat in a comfortable silence for a while. Tank broke the silence a little while later when he asked, "What kind of bachelor party do you want?"

I looked at him and thought about it for a few minutes. "I'm not really sure. I do know that I'm not really interested in what is typically expected at a bachelor party. Something fun with my friends would be better than a strip club or getting drunk."

"I'll think about it for a bit and then come back to you. I can understand the whole strip club reluctance. Celebrating a marriage with naked women has already confused me. I didn't mind being one of the crowd, but if I were the one getting married, I am not sure I'd appreciate it as much."

Lester must have been standing at the door because he added his own 2 cents. "I have to agree with Tank. A strip club or hiring a stripper seems pretty tacky. I'd be happy with something a bit less typical."

Both Tank and I turned to look at Lester. Usually, he would be the guy pushing for us to go to a strip club or hire a stripper. He raised his hands in defence and said, "Come on guys. People change. I can understand your reluctance to celebrate your wedding with a stripper. It's cheap and doesn't really respect your relationship with Stephanie."

"Wow Les, are you joining us in the land of relationships?"

"I'm trying. Fiona is a bit reluctant because of my history with women. I'm trying to show her I have just been waiting for the right woman."

Neither Tank nor I was surprised by Lester's confession. We could tell by the way he deferred to Fiona and gave her the choice to join him. He was very protective of her and he rarely ever treated her like she was a woman he wanted to sleep with. I'm sure he does want that, but he doesn't just want that. He's never treated a woman like this before. As a matter of fact, he's never spent this much time with a woman before, not even Stephanie. I wished Lester luck with Fiona and he disappeared back upstairs, presumably to find Fiona.

Stephanie's POV

For a young guy, Henry Paradis has been around. He went to college in California. He taught for 3 years at a primary school in San Diego. There was a 5 year gap in his history before he turned up in Washington. Try as we might, neither Lula nor I could find out where he was for those 5 years. That in itself was newsworthy. As a result, we gathered our search results and returned to the lounge where Tank and Carlos were sitting.

Both men looked up expectantly as we entered the room. We sat and I started. "Henry Paradis had a typical childhood. We went to school and then college in northern California. He then went to college in San Diego to be a teacher. His first job at primary school lasted for 3 years after he graduated from college. After that, he disappears from all record for 5 years. The next time he turns up, it's in Washington D.C. where he becomes an aide to a junior member in the General's staff. He moved his way up and became the aide to the General 6 months later."

Carlos looked at me and asked, "You have no idea where he was for those 5 years?"

Both Lula and I shook our heads. "There are no financial records. There are no legal records. It's like he dropped off the face of the earth."

Lula thought for a moment and then said, "Or he went abroad or used an alias."

Carlos looked at me and said, "Put this all together in a typical RangeMan search report. We can pass this information to the Feds and they can figure out if Paradis went abroad. We don't have access to that kind of information at this time. I will contact Saunders now if you can give me the date range during which his whereabouts are unaccounted for, they can check if he was out of the country during that time."

I nodded and flipped through the files. I wrote 2 dates on a sticky note and handed it to Carlos. He walked over to me and kissed me, saying "Proud of you Babe."

He did the same thing with Lula, except substituted her lips with her cheek. Lula beamed at his compliment, as did Tank. I smiled back at Carlos and said, "Well, Lula and I will go clean up our stuff and then get lunch ready. There are plenty of leftovers from the BBQ last night, so we should have plenty of food for everyone."

Lula and I returned to the library and organised our searches into folders. We locked the folders into the drawer of the desk and cleaned up any waste that was lying around. When we were happy that we didn't miss anything, we headed out into the kitchen and started pulling things out of the fridge and setting them on the kitchen island.

Fiona and Lester came in to help us and after about 15 minutes, we had all the makings of a nice lunch set out on the table on the patio. The hot food was reheated and everyone moved out onto the patio. I looked around and didn't see Carlos. I looked around and Tank leaned over to say, "He's still on the phone with the FBI. He'll be in shortly."

I accepted this and accepted Fiona's help to make up a plate for myself. I was managing a lot better with my crutches and cast, but balancing a plate of food was still one of those things that I was incapable of doing for myself. I thanked Fiona and sat down to eat. It wasn't until I was finished my lunch that I looked up and noticed that Carlos was still no there. I looked at Tank and he shrugged. I decided to go find Carlos and see what was keeping him.

I approached the lounge and I could hear his raised voice. Something had happened and whatever it was, Carlos was not happy. I stuck my head in the room and saw that he was currently facing away from the door. I walked in and I saw how tense he was. I didn't want to touch him so I made my presence known by stumbling over something.

Carlos heard the noise and turned quickly. The angry look on his face evaporated when he saw that it was me. He waved to me to sit down, so I walked over and sat on the sofa to wait for him to get off of the phone.

The next chapter will be up in a few days, or at least that's my goal. Thanks for reading, your comments and encouragement.