Disclaimer: I own only Ray, the rest of it is the property of JE.

AN: I wanted to give everyone a heads up, that this will most likely be the last post until after the Thanksgiving holiday. I will post the next Chapter Monday November 28th.

I woke the next morning feeling more refreshed than I had in a long time. Falling asleep while listening to Bobby's heart beat had done wonders. I sat up slowly in bed, every muscle in my body ached. I forced myself out of bed, and to get dressed in my PT gear. I would have loved to skip a work out this morning, but I knew that if I did, I would just hurt even more later. One of my DI's used to tell us, "The best cure for a sore body is more of what made it sore."

I walked to the bathroom and grabbed my toothbrush, and started brushing my teeth as I walked through the apartment getting everything I would need for a morning of Yoga ready. I was just pulling a bottle of water out of the fridge when I heard a knock on the door. I went to answer it, and found Bobby on the other side, holding two large steaming cups of coffee.

"Morwing." I took the toothbrush out of my mouth. "Come in."

I left Bobby at the door as I went to the bathroom to finish brushing my teeth. I came back out and grinned at Bobby who was setting the coffee down on the kitchen counter.

"Ok, let me say this with out a mouth full of toothpaste. Morning."

"Good morning to you too." He picked up a cup of coffee and handed it to me with a smile.

I took the coffee and inhaled it's rich aroma, already feeling much better than I was a few minutes ago. "Thank you."

"Ray… listen I had another reason for stopping by this morning."

I shrugged and took a sip of my coffee leaning my hip against the counter. "Hey, you brought me coffee, that entitles you to just about anything except the invasion of a third world country. I don't have an opening for that until at least a week from next Thursday."

Bobby laughed and shook his head. "Nothing like that, I just thought since today was Saturday and we're off, that maybe you, me and Lester could get out of here for a while, and talk."

"Sure." I shrugged my shoulders immediately regretting that action as it sent pain shooting down my back. "Is there anything in particular you wanted to talk about?" I asked as I put my coffee down and picked up my yoga mat and gestured for Bobby to follow me to the living room. I pushed the coffee table aside and unrolled my mat. I could stretch and talk. I was never into Yoga for the spiritual aspect, just the physical one.

Bobby stood off to the side of the room and watched me as I began my routine. "I thought a lot about what you said last night, and I want you to tell Lester what you told me."

"No problem, but why not tell him yourself?" I asked while looking at him upside down between my legs as I bent over to put my palms flat on the floor.

Bobby winced and made a face. "Doesn't that hurt? I hurt just watching you. Anyway, I wanted you to talk to Lester because first hand Intel is always better than second hand, and to be honest, I'm not sure I completely understand your logic behind this conclusion."

I let out a deep breath and switched positions before returning my gaze to Bobby. "That's the problem Bobby, you are trying to find logic where only intuition exists."

Bobby came over to sit on the couch shaking his head. "But you said there was a list, I thought you meant some sort of check list or something."

I finally gave up on doing my full routine, I was stretched out enough that I wouldn't suffer from stopping now. I walked over to sit next to Bobby on the couch. "It's not a check list, it's a guideline. Just because someone has some of the traits on the list doesn't mean they will become an abuser, and just because someone is missing some of those traits it doesn't mean that they won't. I don't know if I can explain exactly how I came to the conclusion I did, but I will give it one hell of a try."

Bobby gave me one of his heartbreakingly beautiful smiles. "That's all I can ask of you. Will meeting at 1300 be ok for you?"

I looked at my watch and realized it was almost 0800. I thought about it for a minute. I finally decided that it would be enough time to put together the information I wanted to before we got together. "Yeah, that will be perfect. Just promise me, you two will both listen with an open mind."

He nodded and patted my thigh lightly as he stood up. "Of course we will. We trust you Ray. If you think it's important, then we'll listen."

As soon as Bobby left I hopped up off the couch and hurried to the bedroom. I picked up the huge rolling suitcase and put it on the bed unzipping it and flinging it open. I dug through the books I had packed, and found what I was looking for. I zipped the suitcase and pulled it of the bed to stick it back in its place. I was about to go upstairs to make photo copies of things when I realized I was still in my PT gear. I tossed the book on the bed, and headed to the bathroom.

After I got out of the shower I grabbed another pair of jeans and a T-shirt from my sea bag. I got dressed, and looked down at my T-shirt of the day and thought that Stephanie really wouldn't appreciate this one. My T-shirt read "Don't ask me; I was hired for my looks." I slipped on a pair of boots with a small heel, they went up to my knee, and I know Steph said these boots should be worn over jeans, but I thought that looked silly, so I pulled my jeans down over them.

I grabbed my book and headed upstairs. I needed to misappropriate office supplies. The first place I went was to the Copy machine. I photo copied a couple pages from the book. I took the copies and my book back to my cubicle and sat down booting up the computer.

I spent the next several hours getting cozy with Google, and by the 1230, I had compiled quite a few print outs. I separated them out into three piles, and then stuck them in file folders. I shut down my computer, and headed back down stairs to get ready to go out to lunch.

When I got back to my apartment, I took a minute to pull my hair back into a pony tail, and went into the bathroom. I grabbed my makeup kit from under the sink and opened it up. I found my favorite neutral lipstick and swiped it on. I was about to reach for eye shadow when I stopped myself. I wasn't going on a date. I was going out to lunch with two of my dearest friends. I tossed the makeup back under the sink and headed out of the bathroom. I just needed to grab my keys, and I was good to go. I walked into the bedroom and grabbed my car keys and stuffed them in my pocket.

As I was leaving the apartment I double checked to make sure I had my back up weapon, keys, and files. Once I was sure I had everything I headed down to the garage where Bobby and Lester were waiting by my car.

I unlocked the doors before tossing the keys to Bobby. "I don't know where we're going, and you guys are horrible at navigating. You always tell me 'Hey Ray, you were supposed to take a right on that street back there.' and there is no way I'm going to be flipping u-turns and disregarding traffic laws in this town."

We all laughed as we climbed into the car. I got into the back so when I blew my smoke out the window it wouldn't go in their faces. See, I can be considerate if I want to. I leaned back against the seat and relaxed. I rolled down my window and lit my cigarette as Bobby drove out of the garage.

"So where are we headed to eat?" I really hoped they weren't going to take me somewhere healthy.

"I was thinking Souper Salad." I closed my eyes and shuddered as Bobby told me his idea and Lester laughed his ass off.

"Bobby, honey, darling, sweetness of my existence, sweetheart, enter any other annoying pet name here, You do know that veggies are what food eats."

He laughed and looked back at me through the rearview mirror. "It's better for your body Ray."

I shook my head. "Nope, not going to buy it. If God had wanted me to be a vegetarian, he put the wrong kind of teeth in my mouth. He gave me teeth like a dog. You know the ones made for ripping, holding and cutting meat."

Lester was laughing so hard at the two of us, I felt the need to reach up and lightly smack him on the back of the head. "Knock it off. Now really where are we going for lunch?'

Lester rubbed the back of my head and took pity on me. "We're going to take you to Shorty's It's got the best Pizza in town."

"Thank you."

"You know Ray, its amazing that you eat the way you do, and still manage to stay in shape, especially when you add in the smoking."

I just shrugged and blew a stream of smoke out the window. "What can I say, it's an old Indian trick." I said with a laugh.

That was the answer my Dad always gave us kids when he would do something and we would ask how he did it. Finally we arrived in the parking lot of Shorty's and we all climbed out. I made sure to grab my files for the guys before I shut the door.

We walked in, and I immediately loved it. The clientele were not what you would call high class, and the interior of the place had last been decorated in the Carter administration. It was little places like this that often had the best food. The guys led me to a booth in the back and we all sat down, I sat with my back towards the door. It didn't bother me to be exposed like this as much as it did them. Once the waitress had taken our drink orders I slid a folder across the table to each of them.

"Bobby, last night I told you what my intuition, or my gut feeling, was about the relationship Steph has with Detective Morelli. I couldn't really explain with a logic you could understand why I feel that way."

I opened the folder and glanced down at the first page, and watched the guys do the same. "This first page, is a graph depicting a general overview of Spousal or Partner abuse in the US. These numbers are low, it is believed that as much as half of the abuse is never reported. I have included other charts and graphs for you to look at at your leisure. Moving on to pages ten and eleven. Here is where you will find a very basic list of Pre-Incident Indicators for Spousal abuse and homicide. Now I have observed, some of these PIN's in Morelli, others that I attribute to him are because of things I have heard."

The three of us picked up our folders and sat back while the waitress dropped off our drinks, and took our pizza order. I put my file back on the table and picked up my coffee to take a sip. I firmly believe that there is nothing as a truly undrinkable cup of coffee, but Shorty's might just actually prove me wrong. While I was blinking my eyes to clear them from my small coughing fit, Lester decided to start asking questions.

"Are you sure you can really say you think she is in danger when most of your information on her is second or third hand at best?"

I set down my cup of coffee and rested my folded hands on top of my opened folder. "Yes. I'm not saying that to be cocky either Les, I did my share of time in a patrol car, I've seen hundreds if not thousands of cases of Domestic Abuse. I've seen these cases prosecuted, I've seen the charges dropped. I've seen any combination there of. What I do know is I know what it looks like."

"But we don't know that there is anything like abuse going on." Lester pointed out.

"No, we don't not with 100% certainty anyway. But if it's not now, I can almost promise that it will. Take number one. 'The woman has intuitive feelings that she is at risk.' Could I definitively say that Steph feels that way? No. Call it an educated guess. I've heard about the back and forth between them, I've heard about their fights, and most importantly I saw the way she reacted when he called her yesterday. The look on her face told me she didn't really want to have dinner with him, maybe it was because he was in a bad mood, or because she was tired. I am making assumptions, but in my gut I know she was scared of him when he called."

"Ray," Bobby said softly. "It's not that we don't trust you and your instincts, but that is kind of hard to swallow."

I nodded, I wasn't offended at all. " I understand, so for the benefit of this discussion we will take that one off the table. I'll move on to a different point. Now, because some of these tie together, I am going to jump around a little. Ok, so now 29, He has experienced or witnessed violence as a child. You two told me yourselves about the Morelli Male Curse, so I think we can all agree that point isn't in dispute. Right?"

I looked at them both, and I could see that for the most part they were humoring me. I decided that maybe it was time to hit on some of the more appropriate points, the ones that everyone had become accustomed to ignoring.

"Ok that one was a gimme point. What about number 4. He is verbally abusive."

Lester shook his head. "He is trying to protect her."

I took another sip of my coffee and set my cup down slowly while looking at him. "Really? Let's play pretend for a minute Les. If someone were to tower over you and scream about how incompetent you are, or how much they are embarrassed by you. I think you might have a few adjectives other than protective that went through your mind. How is doing these things, especially in front of a group of people protecting her? Has he ever broken her down enough to where she actually quit her job trying to make him happy?"

I watched them think about it for a minute, and then I could see the realization that I might be on to something sink in.

"I am not going to hold your hands and walk through the entire list, you guys can look it over and see if the behavior holds to a pattern. I also want to say that this list is not the end all be all of predictive tools. You can have some of these traits, and not be abusive. Take you for instance Bobby, you witnessed Violence as a young child, you also like your guns. But as we all know you have a hell of a time raising your hand to a woman even in a controlled setting, which is why you are no fun to spar with." I grinned at him before picking up my coffee and taking another drink, moving stuff out of the way for the waitress to drop off the pizza.

"This list being an imperfect tool, is what I meant about having a gut feeling about this. I may be completely wrong, it has happened once or twice, but not in recent memory."

We all closed our folders and tucked them away, so we could get down to the business of eating.

"Let's say you're right. What do we do about it?" Bobby asked as he put a slice of pizza on my plate before taking one for himself.

Well shit, piss, damn, fuck, and all those other words you can't say on TV. I didn't want them to ask that question, because to say that they would dislike the answer would be like saying WWII was a small field exercise.

"Truth? We do nothing, and we say nothing, at least not to her. If we make a big deal out of how we feel about Joe, it will make her feel like she has to defend him. If she feels like she has to pick sides, she will pick him. We watch and wait, and we do our best to teach her how to be a stronger person, and that real love doesn't act that way."

I took a bite of pizza trying to ignore the fact that the guys were staring at me like I had spoken a foreign language. Lester was just shaking his head and even though I had told Bobby the same thing last night, I don't think he thought I was serious. We ate in silence for a few minutes until Lester cleared his throat.

"You do know, you are going to have to talk to Ranger about all of this right?"

I swallowed hard, trying not to choke on my pizza. I hadn't put much thought into where to go from here. Telling Bobby and Lester my suspicions was relatively easy. I showed them a few bits of information to back me up, and they accepted that I might be right. Telling Ranger is going to be a whole different story.

"Lester's right Ray. You can't keep this from him, and you can't come at him right out of left field either. He isn't going to like what you have to say, but you are going to have to bring it up nice and easy."

I sighed softly as I nodded my head. I knew all of this, I just hadn't come up with a plan yet. I better come up with one fast. We were finished eating, and after Bobby paid the check we headed back to the car. I was so preoccupied with coming up with the right way to do this, I didn't even smoke on the way back home.

By the time we made it back, I finally had an idea. I walked to my apartment and picked up a well worn copy of The Gift of Fear. I held it tightly in my hand as I swung by the fridge to grab a bottle of water. I ran over my plan one more time in my head, just to make sure I couldn't see any major flaws.

I walked up to the fifth floor hoping Ranger would be in his office. I knocked lightly on the door.

"Enter."

I opened the door and poked my head inside. "You you have a quick second?"

He looked up from his computer monitor and motioned for me to come inside. I walked into his office and closed the door behind me. I sat down in the chair across from him.

"Ric, I needed just a minute of your time because my gut has been yelling at me ever since I went shopping with Steph yesterday." I pushed the book across the desk at him.

"I got this book as a gift when I graduated from the police academy. It has saved my ass more than once over the years."

Ric raised an eyebrow at me as if wondering what the hell a book had anything to do with why I wanted to talk to him.

"Please, just read the book. Come see me when you're done and then there are things I really need to say to you." I didn't give him time to respond, I just stood up quickly and made my escape back to the safety of my apartment.