Tink

by SammyMae

While on a takedown in Vegas Joe calls Ranger with news of a contract out on Stephanie. When that threat turns out to be from the California branch of the Slayers, Joe calls the FBI for help. That help arrives in the form of a beautiful blonde with strong ties to Ranger... And she knows all of his secrets. R/S. Don't own anything. Just playing.

6. Chapter 6

AN: So here is a nice long chapter for you. It has some cheese in it but I figure with Tink over the top is kind of her thing so I rolled with it.

Ranger hung up his cell phone and put it in his pocket. He looked at his cousin who was using this moment to draw upon an ability fall asleep instantly and nap anywhere. He was slouched down in his seat, arms folded across his chest, legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles. His sunglasses were on so to everyone else he just looked bored. Only his deep even breathing gave him away and well that was only noticeable if you were right beside him.

He needed it, he'd been up since yesterday at 0500. Ranger would have liked to send him home but he was needed here. Ranger shifted minutely; the closest he came to pacing impatiently. They'd been kept waiting. Not something he had time for. He nudged Santos, partly out of a childish impulse it irritate his way too relaxed cousin for sport, but mostly out of a need to covey some information.

"What?" He grumbled.

"Your girlfriend just put Finch in the hospital. He needs surgery." Ranger said. He kept the satisfaction out of his voice but the smirk on Lester's face let him know that he knew Ranger had enjoyed disturbing him and that payback was probably gonna happen.

"Perfect. What happened?" He asked like they were discussing the weather. He sat up and popped his sunglasses up on top of his head, instantly awake and wondering how he could use Stephanie to irritate Ranger.

"He made the mistake of trying to carjack her. He pulled a weapon, so she broke his elbow, his trachea and dislocated his shoulder when she disarmed him."

Santos winced, "Seems like overkill."

"She was having a bad day." They exchanged a grin and the receptionist that had been watching them discretely, fanned herself.

"She in trouble?" Lester asked.

"No, the whole thing was caught on camera and it happened outside of Pino's in front of a dozen or so off duty cops. I'd say she'll be fine with self defence. Finch said he was going to take the car and her because she looked like fun. Given his reputation, Morelli figures he deserved what he got."

"Where was Morelli when this went down?"

"In the lot with his gun drawn. She took Finch out too fast for anyone to do anything besides watch," Ranger said smirking. Santos laughed. The receptionist almost fell out of her chair. Too much sexy in front of her now that they weren't looking terrifying.
"That's my girl; God I've missed her. You'd think it would bother me that my fiancée doesn't need me to protect her but it doesn't."

"Maybe not physically but you look after her in other ways."

"Yeah, speaking of that, she's not in a good place right now and most likely completely unspooling because you told her we were going to Washington. So tell me again what we are doing here a few days after I got her back?"

"Solving a problem."

"Thanks, that's really helpful primo," Lester said dryly.

Ranger said nothing. They were at the Pentagon waiting for a woman to show up and then they were going to meet with two Generals. The Generals weren't the problem, the woman was. He'd tracked her to a day spa and called her to explain the problem. She said she was leaving right away, and she was just going to go home to change and pick up a few things. That had been two hours ago. He checked his watch again when a tall blonde, former model,approached them, "You Ranger?" She asked.

"I am."

"This Santos?" A nod from both. She had the same conversational skills as most of his men. Ranger grinned internally, it would have driven Stephanie crazy. "I've heard a lot about you both. None of it good; which probably means you're both very good men," she said, and handed Lester a familiar ring box, "He told me the jewellery store screwed up the ring size and because they are eternity bands they couldn't be resized. Both rings are there." Santos opened the box. Sure enough Meagan's ring and the matching wedding band were there.
She looked at Ranger, "Let's go nail the bastard."

RSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRS

I was lying in bed awake because something had woken me up. I listened quietly for a few minutes and heard nothing so I nestled back into Ranger's embrace. It took a second and then my eyes flew opened and I sat up. "Ranger! I thought you were in DC for the night!"

"Mmmmm," he mumbled, still mostly asleep.

"When did you get back?"

"Half an hour ago; go back to sleep."

"Did your hear Meagan caught…"

"I did. We'll talk about it in the morning. I've been up for 23 hours; I'm tired."

"Joe said..." I didn't get to finish, as he yanked me back down to the mattress and pinned me.

"What did I tell you about saying his name in our bed?" Ranger growled sounding very awake all of the sudden. His mouth was on me, and he was being just aggressive enough to set my body on fire and make me completely forget what I was talking about. Sometimes a little competition is a very good thing.

Four hours later I sat at the breakfast bar eating waffles with Meagan; Ranger and Santos were still asleep. It was Saturday and technically we didn't have to work. We would still probably make an appearance downstairs, but for now at least we weren't in the office.

Ella brought the paper and handed it to Meagan who nodded thanks and opened it. Her black eyes went wide and her mouth fell opened "Shit! Fuck! Oh my God Shit!" Okay so she isn't always a girl Ranger. Sometimes she's just as spastic as me. Like now for instance. Her entire body was visibly tense. She whipped her phone out of her back pocket and hit a speed dial button and took off for Ranger's den so fast I half expected to see a Meagan shaped cloud of dust in the kitchen. I looked up at Ella who was staring where Meagan had been sitting with a look of complete shock on her face.

"What?"

"I've known her since she was 8 years old. I have never seen her do anything even remotely like that."

Ranger came out of the bedroom looking impossibly fresh after three hours of sleep and saw us staring at the spot where Meagan used to be.

"I take it she saw the paper," he said. It was more of a statement than a question. So I didn't bother to respond. He poured himself a cup of coffee. He dropped a kiss on my temple and took her seat and helped himself to Meagan's untouched toast.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"They are terminating her contract, with a nice bonus and an apology. In exchange, she is going to testify against General Humphries at his court marshal. She's also going to meet the President who will give her the Medal of Honour which, after seeing her service record yesterday, she has more than earned. She's not being told about it beforehand so keep it to yourself. The President is apparently talking about more medals but we'll see. The General who stole the rings set her up several times by forging presidential orders; he's going away for a long time and she will be allowed to retire with her full pension."

"Cool about the medals," I said. The concept of being retired before thirty was something that was blowing my mind. Knowing Meagan she wasn't going to be playing canasta anytime soon though.

"Babe the Medal of Honour is a huge deal. Only something like a little over 3400 have ever been awarded. Think about the size of the armed forces and the fact that they started awarding it during the civil war and the fact that almost half of them were awarded during the civil war..."

Holy shit so it's a really big deal.

"Do you have one?" I asked. Ranger shook his head no.

"She's done some pretty incredible shit over the last three years. It's no wonder she's burnt out though. No down time at all. I thought Lester was going to kill that bastard when he saw what she'd been ordered to do since we saw her last. I don't know how she's alive. We saw the pictures of her injuries right after he back was scarred, she shouldn't have lived. She had a severe infection, was massively dehydrated, and had several fractured ribs, and serious sunburns. According to the pilot who dropped her off, she was a three day walk from the army hospital she turned up at. She was barely stable when Humphries gave her, her next orders. That's when our former handlers stepped in, and had her transferred to DC. When we searched Humphries place last night we found orders for deployment dated for today."

"She's feisty."

"That's one word for it." He chuckled and poured himself a glass of fruit juice.
"So what does it mean for her? The medal I mean."
"It means she's getting recognition for what she's done. All of it highly classified. She'll get a ton of respect for it and it will go a long way to restoring her confidence."

I almost choked on my coffee, "She has a confidence issue?!"

"Babe, she asked me yesterday if I thought that Lester hated her for what she did."

And I snorted my coffee again, "You have got to be kidding?"

"Nope."
Fuck. Lester looks at her like she hung the moon. There is no way that man hates her.

"I know you probably can't answer this but what exactly did she do on the mission where she supposedly died?" I asked.

Ranger stared at me for a long time; I was getting used to his blank faces and I was starting to be able to read them. This one was not telling me to back off, it was more like he was trying to decide what he could say.

"It can't leave this room and parts of it will be vague," He warned. I nodded enthusiastically at possibly getting a Ranger story. He half smiled at me and tugged a curl playfully, "We were in South America. She was able to...uh... Convince the son of someone not very nice to give us some information we needed. She not only got the information but she made him think it would be a good idea to be a regular informant. That was supposed to be it, an then we were supposed to get out of there. We were about to ship out and it had been days since Tink had slept for more than a few minutes here and there. She does that; she'll gets focused and she'll refuse to sleep. She'll go until she literally collapses, and sleeps for days. Even before she met him, she used to sleep in Lester's room when she had leave. My aunt Mira changed the drapes in his room to black out curtains. Meagan would come home, eat her weight in whatever Tia Mira put in front of her and then she would go to Lester's room, because it was the quietest in the house and she would sleep until they woke her up to feed her again. Usually 18 hours later."

"Before she met him?"

He chuckled again, "It's complicated but yeah."

"I'll want that story," I told him and he smirked.

"Of that I have no doubt Babe. Anyway the fact that she was exhausted is the only explanation we can think of that explains why she didn't see through Humphries. She was tired. She wasn't thinking straight when Humphries showed up. He told us the intel wasn't good enough, and we needed physical evidence. Considering the mission had been to capture the son and do exactly what we did this was a bit of a surprise.

We were given new orders; I was to recapture our new informant and I was to escort him stateside. I argued this with Humphries, and he said the orders came from the President; I didn't have much choice. She was to get into the compound, copy the contents of a hard drive and get out. Where I should have been was watching her back. A point I argued strenuously, but Humphries said he had a better idea; Santos and Brown were to watch her position and provide sniper cover for her. They were told that their position would give them full coverage of the office so that if someone came upon her position they could take them out. If she went in alone she could get out easier. She's like smoke when she needs to be."

I smiled at that. That's what most people said about Ranger.

"Why her? Why not you? Wouldn't she have been the better escort, if she was the one to convince him to work for you in the first place?"

"You're right but she was set up remember? The General said that it was because she could hack into the computer. Which is true; she knows what she's doing because Hector was her college room mate and he taught her some tricks. If she couldn't get in, she would give Hector access. That little piece of information doesn't leave this room; she could get into serious trouble if anyone found out that's how she was always able to get around every system." I mimed locking my lips closed with a key and he thought about smiling.

"From what I understand she was able to get in and into the system and make the copy. Santos said their position was crap; they could see the computer and that's it. They were going to go find a better vantage point when they saw her get spooked. They saw commotion in the window below her and then they saw her shove the USB into her top and raise her hands. That's when Santos got shot in the back. Bobby reacted and took out the two militia that had been given their position. When he turned back Tink was gone and Santos was bleeding out. The rest you know."

"Where was Tank?"

"Behind a desk," Ranger said with disgust, "Like I said, she was set up. Bobby and Les couldn't do anything from their vantage point; Tank, who should have gone in my place, was behind a desk and I was babysitting someone who didn't need babysitting. As soon as we found out the op had failed we were told to let our informant go because he would be more useful on the street."

"And that's when you had to fight to go looking for her."

"That was more Santos than me. He was channeling his girlfriend when he threatened Humphries. He was half dead and shouldn't have been a physical threat but he was anyway and he reminded Humphries that he was one of the best snipers in the world. I just made sure Humphries was paying attention."

"I don't know if I want to know how you did that."

"Most likely not."

"Wow Ranger, I think that's the most words I have ever heard you use at one time." I teased because I had no idea what else to say to that.

He looked like he might be thinking about smiling. "Babe, I've only told you what I can. It's what I always do; it's just that most of the time what I can tell you is nothing at all. Some of what I have told you may end up in the newspapers because it turns out the orders were falsified.

Humphries told the President that Bobby, Santos and Meagan acted of their own accord. He claimed that they were convinced they'd found something huge and were going after it and that Humphries hadn't okayed the mission.
He was the one who suggested that Tink being presumed dead was a good thing. She was a fairly well known agent; if it got out that the Pixie was dead, they might be able to use her in places they couldn't anymore. On paper it was a great plan. She was unmarried and had no living family."

"Why would she agree to that? She was supposed to marry Santos. She was supposed to be here when you started the company. She had a life and she wanted out."

"Extortion, and that's all I can tell you. He found her biggest weakness and he exploited it. He just didn't realize how connected she was, or that sashed would be lot more difficult to kill than he thought she would be. She played her own game back at him, kept his focus on her instead of on her weakness. He could threaten her all he wanted but she fought right back without him even realizing it. Giving her time to figure out what she had on him. That ring made it possible to bring him in on a felony theft charge. She was keeping it from us but he was applying pressure, she was going to have to re-up in a few days and he would have reassigned her to some hell hole. You took that pressure away Babe."

The phone rang and Ranger reached across the counter to answer it. He grunted in the affirmative a few times and hung up.

"You really need to work on your phone manners."

"I've used enough words today. If I talk anymore I am going to get laryngitis." Ranger humour everybody.

A few minutes later Santos came into the apartment and Ranger did a head jerk towards the office. Santos didn't say anything and walked to the den. When he went in Meagan was still on the phone. I saw her look up and walk into his embrace, he held her and kicked the door closed again.

"She's been afraid and he's been grieving for three years," Ranger said, "I think I might give them our tickets to Fiji when this is all over."

RSRSRSRRSRSRSRSRS

Meagan hung up the phone, "It's over," she said, looking up at Lester, her black eyes bright. "They want me to bring the thumb drive to DC so they can analyze it and press further charges against Humpfried. My contract has been terminated; I get to keep my FBI credentials and TPD has made a request that I continue to work with them on a part time basis until the Slayer issue is cleared up. I've agreed but I am on permanent loan to Rangeman who will be in charge of my salary. I have the option to leave the FBI whenever I want and I'm getting a massive bonus. I think they are afraid that I am going to write a book or something and are trying to buy me off. Guess what? I can be bought."

He laughed, "I know; I was there."

He was in on the negotiations for her compensation. The President had been woken up with the news of Humphries arrest and was given the files pertaining to Meagan. An aide of Humphries' who was in love with her, had been gathering copies of everything, including several falsified or forged order Humphries had given her. He was just sitting on it waiting for Meagan to tell him it was safe to use it.

Humphries had been smart in the way he'd set her up. Nearly every mission was sanctioned, he rarely sent her on something illegal; what he did do was send her in without backup, or cover of any kind. He'd limit her intel, usually only giving her the mission objective. She'd gather her own intel, come up with her own plans and carry out the missions.

She never refused an order he gave her but she fought back every time he tried to hurt one of her men. She'd use her contacts and fly over his head, pissing him off and redrawing his focus back on her. He was slowly trying to wear her down and Meagan refused to lose at anything. This was no different for her than playing an extremely strenuous game of chess against a man she thought of as an idiot.
Upon reading the body of work she'd done, solo, the President insisted on meeting her and when Humphries' Aide demanded that she get recognition for her work the President brought up the Medal of Honour.

"When do you go to DC?" Lester asked, hoping it wouldn't be for a while.

"They are sending a helicopter to pick me up in three hours. Apparently the President wants to speak to me."

He tried to mask his disappointment but he was dealing with the master here, "Oh and did I mention I'm to bring a date? Know anyone who might be interested?" She asked innocently.

He hugged her again. "How long will we be gone for?"

"24 hours. I hate leaving Steph and Carlos like this and I made it clear that I was needed here. The President is insisting so I don't have much choice."

"I'll tell Ranger. You go pack."

RSRSRSRSRSRSRS

Green was always a mistake. Not that it looked bad with her colouring it just played up her resemblance to her nickname. The First Lady had chosen the dress so she couldn't say no. She also sent a hair stylist to the hotel and she was now wearing her hair in an elaborate braid that had been twisted into a knot at the nape of her neck. Lester had taken one look at Meagan in the dress deemed her beautiful and had left.

She was now standing in front of a full length mirror in their suite at the Watergate, in a one shouldered pale green cocktail dress with an asymmetric skirt and six inch silver Manolo Blahnik slides. Apparently the First Lady had a sense of humour. The dress while formal was definitely a nod to her nickname. Lester entered the room and smiled, she was stunning.

Lester Santos in his dress uniform was more than stunning he was decadent, and she grinned as she blatantly checked him out in their reflection. "You need something," he said critically, "This look isn't quite finished." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pink and orange sapphire and white diamond choker. The sapphires were round with smaller rectangular diamonds in between each sapphire.

"You are just way over the top you know that?"

Then he held up the garment bag containing her uniform. She looked at him with a question in her eyes.

"This was dropped off. You have to wear this first and then change into that after you meet with the President." She nodded.

She'd been surprised by the dress, she wasn't retired yet, class As were required for trips to the White House so the dress delivery had been unexpected. She had him unzip her and he grinned when he saw the hot pink lace underwear. Not standard issue. She dressed efficiently, her shoes had been provided by Ella. Custom made soft Italian leather shoes that fit Meagan perfectly.

Once she was ready he sat down on the bed and patted his knee. She sat down on his lap. She smiled at him but she could tell that he was agitated. She stroked the back of his neck, a touch that normally soothed him, it didn't work this time and suddenly she felt nervous.

"Meagan, I was thinking today; three years is a long time. Things change..." She stopped breathing and her heart stuttered, she was searching his face, all she saw was the agitation, everything else was carefully blank.

She willed her eyes not to fill with tears. He's alive and safe because of you. If he decides to end this now, stay with the FBI and burry yourself in work. Ranger will understand.

"I'm pretty sure I know how you feel about me. I just don't want to make assumptions," He took a deep breath and reached into his pocket, "So I'm doing this again. Meagan Harris, will you marry me?"

This time she couldn't stop the tears and she flung her arms around his neck and hugged him as hard as she could. "Is that a yes?" He laughed she nodded not trusting her voice. He put the ring on her shaky hand and then kissed her. "Baby why are you crying?"

"I thought you were breaking up with me," she laughed shakily.

"You are insane Gorgeous," he held her tighter.

"Oh there's no doubt about that."

"I love you too much Meagan." He pulled back so he could see her face. He traced her lower lip with his thumb before he kissed her. The kiss quickly became heated and her jacket was about to hit the floor when they were interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Can we just skip it? I have a cold." She mumbled against his lips.

"It's the President. You are being ordered to the White House by our Commander in Chief, and they are throwing a reception in your honour. As much as I admire the sentiment Gorgeous you kind of have to be there."

"Damn." She slumped her shoulders dramatically and he grinned and kissed her hair. She stood up and straightened her uniform.
"Let's get this over with," she said.

RSRSRSRSRSRS

Lester was distracted and was watching her across the room. She was chatting with the First Lady and they were talking like they were old friends. The First Lady was admiring her engagement ring and Meagan was laughing. To anyone else watching they would swear that she was completely at ease. She was graceful and laughing easily, but Santos could tell that she was nervous, her posture was too perfect. It was her tell. She had a few but this was one only he knew of. She didn't even know about it. Her smile was genuine though so he knew she wasn't in need of moral support. Meagan caught him looking and she winked at him cheekily and continued chatting. He couldn't help smiling back at her. The choker he bought earlier was in his pocket, replaced by her Medal of Honour.

He was so proud of her. He couldn't believe she'd done half of the things in her file. Her ceremony had been private, like the reception. Agency Directors and their wives, The Joint Chiefs, senior staff and a few military personnel and that was it. They lined the walls of the Oval Office. Meagan, used to being around power didn't do the Presidential flame out, she'd been poised and charmed the President to the point that he'd declared her trouble and she hit him with the same cheeky grin she'd just aimed at Lester, and a bat of her eyelashes.

Generals Vadrine and Frakes, the men who had been her handlers up until her death, had presented her with the Army Cross. She'd also been given a Purple Heart for the injuries she'd sustained from the IED.

Then the President started reading off the list of her achievements and acts of valour over the last three years. He spoke for twenty minutes and then presented her with her Medal of Honour. When she was saluted by all military in the room the tears did fall. Vadrine and Frakes had filled in the role of father since she was 18. There was nobody she respected more, and it was their obvious pride in her that caused her to crack.

The ceremony over, the President ushered her towards the terrace, she would be getting changed in the residence at the insistence of the First Lady. She exited the office to find that the terrace had been lined with junior staffers and any military that had been present on the building. The military men and women snapped to attention and saluted. The junior staffers applauded. She had recovered some of her composure by that point and was beaming as she shook hands.

After that he didn't see her until she met him outside of reception dressed in her cocktail dress. She apologized for not wearing the necklace.

"Baby, I knew you were getting the medal; that's why I bought you this." He produced the bracelet that went with the choker and attached it to her wrist. She kissed him and wiped the lipstick from his lips before they were announced. There was more applause, more salutes. She wasn't used to praise and she'd beamed and fought another onslaught of tears.

Now she was less emotional, more relaxed. The women she was speaking to kept glancing at Lester who was only half paying attention to the conversation the Generals were having. He was used to women looking but it was starting to get awkward. All of these women were married and their husband's were extremely powerful men who could make his life hell. He didn't really want their attention.

"You set the bar high Lieutenant Colonel," a voice with a slight southern drawl said behind him. Lester turned to face the speaker, "Half of the women in this room are jealous because they want to be in her tiny shoes. The rest are wishing their husbands would come to you for pointers. Don't think for a minute that bracelet went unnoticed; my secretary saw you give it to her outside and she spread the story like wild fire. You're killing us son."

Santos chuckled, "Yes Sir."

"You waited for her for three years after you were told she was dead because you refused to believe it? That's one hell of a romantic story son. I think my wife is in love with you."
"Well sir to be honest Meagan did let me know she had survived the mission." He told him about the charm bracelet.

"Great. Now I have to tell my wife that part. Makes it worse for the rest of us."

Santos chuckled again, "Yes Sir."

"Have you set a date yet? I'm expecting to be on the guest list."

"Of course sir. No we haven't set a date. I lost three years with her sir; we'd like to get married as soon as possible but it may take some time."

"Why's that?"

"Red tape." He said. This was a surreal conversation. He had a feeling it was about to get weirder.

"Oh?" Yup. Weirder.

"Legally she's still dead sir. All of her ID is for her alias as Meagan Harris and 4 days from now that Meagan Harris will no longer exist. We have to resurrect the Meagan Harris she was before she died and according to our lawyers that might take some time."

"Let's do something about that."

"Sir you don't have to. We're..."

"Nonsense. Did you nod off during that ceremony? We owe her one. Hell more than one." He waved to get someone's attention, "Tommy! Come here please I have a job for you," The President called.

Tommy, aka the Attorney General and the President discussed the dilemma. The First Lady was called over and consulted. A plan was made and staff got on phones.

"Colonel Harris, may I speak to you please?" The President asked.
"Of course Sir." She approached and stood beside Lester. Lester put his arm around her and kissed her temple. Her posture relaxed and he stifled a smug smile.

"I'd like you to be our guest here tonight. I'll have someone go to your hotel room to collect your things," The President said.

"Sir?"

"Humour me."

"Yes Sir."

RSRSRSRSRS

Ranger's phone rang while we were eating breakfast. "Yo."

He listened for a bit. He took a sip of coffee, his eyes went wide and he swallowed painfully, "Well that's a new one." He listened some more, "it's not like I would say no man." He laughed, "I can do that. She's already pissed at me anyway... Does she have her cell phone on her? Good luck man. Take pictures."

He hung up and dialled a number. I was now dying of curiosity. "Yo. I'm to tell you that this whole thing is surreal and if you want to put it off he will understand but he personally can't wait." He said something in Spanish, his voice tender. He listened for a bit and hung up.
He dialled again, "You're good to go." He hung up. He dialled yet again and started speaking Spanish. He winced and then spoke some more. Then he started laughing and hung up.

"What's going on? Please tell me what's going on. Puh-lease." I begged. Anything that could make Ranger react like that had to be a good story. I was praying it wasn't classified.

"Lester just asked me to call Abuela Rosa and tell her that he and Meagan are getting married in about ten minutes. The President is his best man, Lester's brother was flown in and he's giving Meagan away and the First Lady is acting as matron of honour. He wanted me to break the news to Abuela Rosa that yet another one of her grandsons has eloped."

Yup. Good story.

RSRSRSRSSRRS

"Hey Princess! How's Washington is everything okay?" Joe asked.

She'd texted him to let him know she was leaving but couldn't say why. When he saw her number on the call display he'd snatched his phone up so quickly Eddie thought he was going to break it. Joe listened stunned while she chattered in his ear for five minutes. When she was done he burst out laughing, "You don't do anything small do you Princess?" He waited and listened, "Stop. I can't believe you are calling me about that; let me worry about Finch for the rest of the day. He's still in the hospital anyway." He waited a few more minutes and frowned "Are you sure? Thanks. When? Uhh yeah I think we can do that. Hey I wish I had seen it! I hope there are pictures. Congratulations Princess." He disconnected.

"What's up with Princess?" Gazzara asked. TPD had adopted Morelli's nickname for her after the incident in the parking lot. Half of the force was utterly devoted to her after that little display.

"She got married twenty minutes ago at the White House, in the Oval Office. It was going to be in the Rose Garden but it was raining," Joe said. Gazzara choked on his doughnut and Joe patted his back, "But wait it gets better. The President was Lester's best man. Apparently there was a reception for her last night for something she can't talk about. Santos mentioned that they wanted to get married but there were issues; the President said that if he got to be Lester's Best Man, he would make the issues disappear. Her wedding guests included: the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the Chiefs of staff of the Army and the Airforce and the Directors of the FBI and CIA."

"Jesus Christ."

"They all just happened to be in the building for meetings and the President called them all in."

"And after all of that she called you about Finch?" Eddie asked incredulously. "She's either a workaholic or she has a thing for you and Santos better watch out."

"You obviously haven't seen her with Santos," Joe said grinning. "You know how Meagan says that the D in Big D stands for 'Dumb Ass'?"

"Yeah?"

"He was driving to Jersey from L.A. and got tired somewhere around Salt Lake. He decided that there was no chance the cops would be looking for him in Utah, and he was picked up a few hours ago trying to board a plane to Newark. They are bringing him to us for questioning."

"Hey at least he still got to fly here."

RSRSRSRSRSRS
Meagan sat down in the interrogation room with an exasperated sigh and put her feet up on the table. She didn't even look at the man in front of her she just picked up her iPad. There were several cameras in the room; she'd made note of them and chose to sit at an angle that made it possible to see what was going on on her iPad by looking at one of the tv screens in the observation room.

"Shit she's playing Angry Birds," Joe said as we watched from the other room. He was smiling, "you realize we are watching a highly sought after interrogation expert and she is playing Angry Birds? Badly. She's a genius and a world class strategist how can she be this bad?" We watched her for about five minutes when Joe let out a frustrated sigh and sent her a text message. She held up a hand like "oh of course" tapped her screen a couple of times and messaged him back. He laughed under his breath and I sent him a questioning look.

"She was stuck on the level. I told her where to aim the red bird. It was driving me nuts watching her do that a million times," Joe said. She moved on to Facebook next.

"Wow for a dead chick she has a lot of friends," I noted, he nodded. "Does she look bored to you?"

"Nope. She looks like she's having fun. Meagan bored is irritating; worse than you actually."

"Hey!"

"She hums annoying songs that shouldn't be hummed ever and then I spend half my day trying to figure out what she's humming, when I should be thinking about more important things. The other day it was Blurred Lines."

"Sure it's a little over played but she has a beautiful voice and it's a good song."

"Hum it."

I tried it. I annoyed myself. "I'm sorry! That's horrible! Though I think I am going to try that on Ranger the next time he refuses to talk on a stakeout."

"He doesn't talk on stakeouts? He just sits there silent for hours? That's worse than humming."

"The man is a machine," I said.

"TMI Cupcake," he said wryly, "Oh here we go she's put her iPad down."

Megan stood up, walked over to Big D, and unlocked the cuffs securing him to the table. Joe frowned but didn't say anything. Big D's legs were still shackled to the floor but at least this way he would be more comfortable. She went back to her seat, and sat down with a graceful flop.

"You know what would be cool?" She asked as she put her feet back on the table.

"I don't talk to snatch," Big D said. Big D lived up to his name. He was huge, at least as big as Tank and Meagan looked like a toy sitting across from him. She was relaxed though, dressed in Jeans and a t-shirt, and completely unconcerned with his size. She'd come directly from the airport to interrogate him. Directors orders. She wasn't to be on the sidelines for this one.

"Good because that would be a complete waste of time. If you are going to bother getting up close and personal with snatch, there are waaaay better things you should be doing with your tongue," she said with a casual disinterest.

I was glad the observation room was soundproofed and he couldn't see us because Joe and I both cracked up. The only reason I was there was because I was asked to drop off Meagan's iPad so she had her notes on Big D and she invited me to watch.

"I can't believe she just said that," Joe said as he wiped tears from his eyes. Probably he was glad this interrogation was being recorded because he had missed a few minutes of it trying to compose himself. She was trading extremely crude one liners with Big D and Joe was having a hard time keeping it together. I thought I was gonna pee myself.

"What should I be calling you? Big D is too, I dunno, weird for me and I doubt you want me to call you..." she flipped through her notes and made a face, "Gilbert? Really?"

He laughed, "Bitch you lookin' at the wrong file, my name is Anthony they call me big D because I have a..."
"Yeah I know," She held up a hand with a chuckle, "I've heard tell. I was just messing with my colleagues behind the glass." She waved at us, "See the thing is Big D, I need you to tell me where to find the guys you hired and call them off."

"I don't know what you are talking about sweetheart; I'm just here to visit some family."

"Of course you are; for Thanksgiving no doubt."

"That's right."

"Hey do you mind if I take your picture with this?" she held up her iPad.

"What? You want something to keep you warm at night sweetheart?"

"You know I do. I like big men and I know that this is a big waste of time. I just need to kill some time here so my boss thinks that I have been doing my job. Angry Birds is pissing me off and I'm all caught up on Facebook so I thought we could chat. It doesn't have to be about this if it's not going to get me anywhere."

He grinned and she snapped a picture of him. "I'm glad you see my point. You know you're alright for a Bitch Cop."

She shrugged, "I am. To be honest with you I'm out of here in a week. I kind of roughed someone up that I shouldn't have. Instead of having my back and putting up the blue wall they are giving me a pink slip so I'm not exactly motivated if you get me."

He barked out a laugh, "Little thing like you roughed someone up? Tell me another one."

She grinned, "I'm feisty. So anyways, like I said, I'm just you know, killing time." She ran her hand through her hair and Joe checked something on his phone and dialled. Meagan let it ring for a bit and she theatrically rolled her eyes.

"Yes?" She sounded bored. Joe grinned.

"Hey Meagan. Rangers are up 2-1 in the second."

"Keep me updated. Why don't you go get some food? This isn't going anywhere," Joe hung up his phone.

"What the hell was that?" I asked.

"Hockey score. That's what that hair flip meant; she wanted me to call her with the score." Joe said.

"Why? I mean I know she likes hockey but she has to have a reason."

"I'm sure we'll find out."

"Baby what the hell was that ringtone?" Big D asked, looking insulted, "I thought you were cool. That was just wrong."

"What? You don't like Britney Spears? She's fun to dance to."

"You ain't dancin with the right guys if you think you need to shake your fine ass to that crap. Gimme your phone; I'll show you some real music." She handed him her phone and he punched something in and handed it back to her. She entered her password and downloaded the song. "That's my brother, he does something you can dance to. That's real music." She hit play on her phone and some house music started blaring out of the small speakers.

"This is a weird interrogation," I said to Joe, "What is she doing? Establishing a good rapport with him?"

"I have no idea what she's doing," he said, "Director of the FBI and my Chief both said to let her play. Whatever that means. So that's what I'm doing. She needs a new phone, the sound is terrible."

"I'm a little white girl from New Hampshire I don't know how to dance to this," she said, with a chuckle, and then she thought about it, "Nobody's watching. Why don't you show me?"

"You got it girl come here," he said, and stood up, beckoning her over; she walked around the table.

"Can you do it while still shackled to the floor?"

"I can make do sweetheart," he said. Big D put a massive paw on the small of her back, and he led her in a slow grind against him. She turned her back to him, and his hand slid to her hip, and the dancing definitely had the potential to get seriously indecent. When D's hand slid her shirt up, exposing a diamond stud, in her belly button, Joe called her again. She turned so she was facing him, a smile on her lips as her eyes strayed to his. She picked up her phone and put on a show of reluctantly backing away from him, as she answered Joe's call.

"What's up?" She asked. Her voice deeper, seductive even. Her eyes never leaving Big D's.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing special. Just you know, conducting an interrogation."

"It looks like you are doing your damnedest to get Lester Jealous."

"Are you kidding? I'm just turning him on," she winked at D, "Shit, he's coming now? Okay thanks for the heads up." She looked at Big D.

"Sorry, that was my partner, probably the only one in this damned building who has my back. I have to cuff you again, my boss is coming. He thinks that you are going to hurt me, here, in the middle of the police department, while shackled to the floor." She rolled her eyes, "I don't really want to get yelled at with a week left you know what I'm sayin'?" he shrugged and he helped her cuff himself to the table.

She sat back down in her seat and looked bored. She flipped through Big D's file some more. About fifteen minutes later, her email pinged and she grinned. She stood up and put her hair in a ponytail. Joe and I shifted forward. Hello Tink.

Until then, she'd looked relaxed, the atmosphere, almost pleasant, but with her hair tied back, it was like when she bound her hair, in the conference room. She was gorgeous, no doubt, and there was definitely serious sex appeal with her hair off of her face. But she no longer looked playful, and there was no longer any doubt that she had roughed someone up.

She looked utterly heartless; she looked like she was about to enjoy herself and it wasn't going to be fun for Big D. He pulled at the cuffs and she calmly tightened them with one hand, and perched on the table next to him. We were all thinking the same thing; What the hell was in that email?

"So Big D, here's where thing stand with us, I keep my job if I get you to talk. Now, the reason they are even letting me in here, is because, I can look very innocent and timid if necessary, no jury ever believes anyone when someone claims I've gotten a little rough. I just cry and say self defence. They alway believe me, now, there are cameras everywhere, but have you ever seen one of these things?" she held up a little grey box, and D's eyes snapped up to her face. As she put on a pair of rubber gloves, and wiped the box clean. She pressed a button, "Damn, looks like the cameras have gone out, now," she leant forward, getting close, "Why are you here D?"

She slammed her hand down on one of his wrists, and put the device in his hands. Her voice was deeper, but instead of being warmer it was ice cool. Her eyes were hard; her movements more fluid, the image of self control. She calmly slipped the box out from his hands, now with his fingerprints, nicely on it, and she slipped it into his pocket.

"I told you I'm here for Thanksgiving," he said. Though he didn't sound nearly as sure of himself as he had, "How many strikes do you have against you?"

"You sure that's why you're here?" She asked, ignoring the question.

"Yeah, bitch," he said, she raised an eyebrow, "Who are you?"

She chuckled, and leant forward, and whispered in his ear. He jerked his hands in his cuffs trying to get away. She straightened, her smile a little smug, as she carefully spun her iPad to face him. "Let's start here shall we?"

She had completely avoided the cameras so we couldn't see it on the monitors either. She scrolled through whatever was on her iPad, "I'd hate for these to get leaked to your second in command. I mean it might make things tricky for you in LA. A guy with your reputation. This would look pretty bad."

Big D slammed his fists on the table and tried to stand up. He was shackled firmly in place. She walked around and stood behind him and whispered something else in his ear and he blanched. She walked around the table again and sat down.

"So Big D, what do you say? The woman you want to take out, is under my protection. You might want to start talking, or this is just the beginning of how things are going to get bad for you."

"I can't call off the hits," he said. "It would be as bad for me as..as..that." He pointed to the iPad.

"Uh huh. That's true but you have bigger problems. First of all there's what I just showed you, second, you are probably going to prison. I wonder how that stuff would go over in prison?" She closed the program on her iPad and put it down on the table. She was quiet for a few minutes. When she spoke again you had to strain to hear it. "I want to know where these guys are staying. I want them off the street and I want you to contact your second and I want you to tell him that it's not worth it here. Tell him that the guys here are weak. If you have to send more people out here it will be strategically bad for you out West."

"What's in it for me?"

"That never goes public and if you are found guilty I'll see to it you end up doing time in the prison of your choosing. Not one dominated by a rival gang, who I guarantee will get that information if you don't co-operate. I mean the man who sent it to me isn't exactly the most ethical if you know what I am saying? And I think you know who I'm talking about. You know he'll do it."

"How do I know you are telling the truth?" she grinned and walked around the table and whispered again, her smile was sadistic. He blanched further and, she looked like she actually was enjoying what she was doing.

"Start talking D," she said. She pressed the button that killed our audio. I guess she didn't think we were going to like what he was going to say.

RSRSRSRSRSRSRS

"Okay Meagan what the hell was that?" Joe demanded when she walked out of the interrogation room.

"I did my job. I did nothing illegal. I used some information that came into my possession in order to make a deal. Whether or not the information was accurate doesn't really matter does it?" she said and she grabbed a drink of water from the fridge in the break room. "I killed your audio because I didn't want Steph to hear the gory details. He was pissed and trying to shock me and I wanted to sensor it a bit. There are some things she just doesn't need in her head. Watch the video later Joe if you want to hear it all," Joe nodded.

"Between the task force, the FBI, and Rangeman we should be able to round these guys up. It turns out that our real problem isn't Big D. It's Terrance Brown, brother of Eugene Brown, an old friend of Stephanie's. Big D told him to stay in Cali and that Steph was going to be a gift for him. Terrance disobeyed the order and Big D has no idea where he is."

"Shit, that's not good," Joe said. You think? Eugene was the whole reason this was an issue at all. I'd run him over, and he wasn't pleased about that. The last time I saw him, he was about to rape me, until I relocated his nuts, into his stomach. Then Sally mowed him down with his bus, or maybe his Uzi, I couldn't remember which. I didn't think Terrance was going to be all that predisposed to liking me.

"He's apparently twice as crazy as Eugene and he told my pal D, that he had something pretty big and twisted in mind for Stephanie."

"Shit," my voice came out really small. When it went down, I was mostly just mad, so I was taken aback by what the nightmares afterwards. My mind kept cycling through all the what ifs, and now someone wanted to do something worse to me, than what was going to happen in that circle? I saw spots flash before my eyes, and Joe pushed me down into a chair, and forced my head between my knees. Meagan put the water bottle on the back of my neck, and crouched down in front of me, "It's going to be okay Steph. Tank is on his way here to pick us up, and for now we're going back to Rangeman, and we'll stay there for the night. After that, I'm in charge of your protection, which means, you don't go anywhere without me. And Steph? the only way they hurt you, is if they take me out completely, and I'm fucking hard to kill."

RSRSRSRSRS

Cal, Hal, Hector and Vince sat in the conference room at Rangeman watching the feed on the big screen. Tink had given Hector access to the CCTV in the interrogation room and they had full audio. Ranger and Tank were watching the men react to Tink in action. So far it had been same old same old; she had been sitting there waiting out Big D. Lester and Bobby walked in, "What are we watching?" Lester looked at the screen and frowned, "She's actually in the room?"

"Director's orders," Tank said.

"He knows she prefers to..?" Bobby started but Tank held up his hand to stop him.

"Unfortunately we are on borrowed time and she is the best," Tank said. Hector had a laptop in front of him with a photo editing program open.

"I haven't seen her work in a while; do you know what her plan is?" Santos asked.

Ranger nodded and told Lester, in Spanish, her plan of attack. Hal, Cal and Vince didn't speak Spanish and Ranger wanted them paying close attention. They were here to see why Tink got paid the big bucks.

"I don't know if you want to watch, she said it could get.. interesting. You know how she can get. Are you going to be able to handle it?" Tank said. Lester grinned.

"It wouldn't be the first time and I don't think she'll lose sleep over this one so it should be fun... Is she playing Angry Birds?"

"Yeah and she fucking sucks at it," Tank said, "Are you sure she's a sniper? How can she be this bad? Aim the red bird at the bottom fucking log!" A few minutes later they saw the text on the screen and she aimed the red bird at the bottom fucking log.

"Remind me to send Morelli a thank you note," Ranger said.

She finally started talking to Big D a little after that. The first part of the interview drew general laughter. She was very funny; charm and disarm. Even Ranger laughed a couple of times. When she asked D to dance Hector sat forward in his seat. He was receiving a direct feed of her dancing with D on his laptop. It was a different angle than the CCTV feed. He took a few screen shots of the two of them grinding and then cut Big D out of the pictures. He quickly superimposed them onto pictures Hector had taken of some men dancing in a gay bar. All of the pictures obscured the other dancer's faces and any identifying features but they showed Big D getting indecent on the dance floor with several different men. He emailed Tink the pictures.

"Shit those pictures will get him killed," Vince said. Ranger nodded; That was the point. She might as well have held a gun to Big D's head in there. They watched the screen in disbelief as he helped her re-cuff him. They watched the whole interview after that point with complete awe. At first his answers were hostile, and he was answering her questions with as much graphic detail as he could. He told her what each hit man was famous for and it was sickening but informative. She was completely blank faced for it; dhe'd seen and been through worse. When he was done she spun her iPad and deleted a picture.

His head snapped up, "I have the only unsecured copies; keep talking."

She prompted him here and there but he told her everything she wanted to know. She deleted picture after picture and kept only one and stood up. "Wait Sweetheart; they aren't your real problem."

He answered her questions for fifteen more minutes and then she stood. She deleted the last picture and she wrapped up.

"Wait for it..." Lester said as she went to the door, and the junior team members looked at him.

Big D mumbled something almost inaudibly and Meagan patted him on the shoulder and walked out of the interrogation room.

"Did he just thank her for helping him?" Vince asked, completely stunned.

"That's my girl," Lester said.

"She's fucking scary," Vince said.

"She's not done yet," Ranger said.

RSRSRSRSRSRSRS

Meagan showed me what was on her iPad when we got into the car, "Joe wouldn't like this," She said,"It's not really classified; I just didn't feel like dealing with him when he lost his cool."

"I thought you deleted them?"

"No, he just thought I did," she said, "I just moved them to a secured folder that I named Trash Can. Joe's damn near a luddite he wouldn't know the difference and D was too stressed by the pictures to pay attention to what I was doing. "

"Sneaky. Ohmigod these are pictures from a gay bar Hector and I went to a month ago!" I said. "You photoshopped him into them!"

"I did no such thing. If however someone else did and emailed them to me and I used them before I had a chance to verify them… well oops!"

"But it's a lie; he's probably never been to that bar and..."

"Actually it looks a lot like a bar I've been to in LA. Why do you think he didn't deny the veracity of those pictures?"

"Ohmigod he's actually gay?!" Meagan nodded and looked out the window. "You used his sexuality against him."

"He's Bi actually. And of course I did, and I'm not even going to lose sleep over it and neither should you. The man is implicated in several violent crimes, including rape and murder. He chose men who get off on torture and disfiguration to bring you in. And he was going to hand you over to someone who wants to do things to you that nearly turned my stomach. While I don't give a shit where he puts his dick as long as it's consensual, his men do. Street gangs aren't exactly known for their tolerance. Now D knows I know and he knows I'm willing to spill the beans if it means protecting you."

"And if the leads don't pan out and he's lied to you?"

"Then those pictures find their way to his second and Big D learns what happens when you fuck with me."