AN: Thank you again for reading! I like writing Tink's character, so I am glad other people like her too! Nothing major has changed in this chapter, again, just cleaning things up.

Meagan went straight to her apartment when we got back to Haywood. She looked tired. I guess it had been an interesting kind of day. Hell she had just gotten married this morning and then boarded a plane back here and walked straight into interrogation. I don't think anyone knew about it besides Ranger, Joe and I. If what I understand is true she hates interrogations, but damn she is good at them. A little unorthodox but he thanked her after she threatened him.

I walked into the conference room where the guys were sitting around the table, Santos wasn't looking very happy for a guy who had only been married for about 6 hours. "What's going on?" I asked.

Santos' head snapped around, "Where is she?" He demanded.
"She went up to your apartment." I said. Santos looked to Ranger.
Ranger nodded, "Go. She's going to have a long night; she'll need you."

"I don't like it man, I fucking hate this shit! You know she hates this shit; you know what it does to her."

"I know. This was the deal Lester and she agreed to it. She does this and she gets to call the shots for both the FBI and TPD on the Slayers situation. She's been butting heads with the director of the field office and we don't want to run the risk of his sexism getting in the way of putting an end to this. It was her idea. We don't want anyone else in charge." Ranger said.

"She hasn't slept in a while."

"I know; I'll be watching her back."

Santos stormed out.

"What's going on?"

"Tink is going to Stark Street to introduce herself to Trenton. In exchange for being given complete control of this operation she has agreed to help The New Jersey office with a completely different problem. She's going to convince someone to turn informant for them," Rangers said darkly.
"She's going to Stark street at night by herself?!"
"No,Tank and I will be going with her. We have a redecorating job we need to do and some skips to pick up. One of them being the guy she is going to have a chat with."

"Ranger. Is this a good idea? I mean she just did an interrogation that she..."
"Bombshell, what you saw was nothing. She's fine." Tank cut me off, "It's important that she gets out there. It's one thing for her to have a reputation in here but if she's going to be able to intimidate as a bodyguard she needs to make an impression. She will have fun. That's not what he's pissed about."

"What's he pissed about?"

"She's been asked to turn Alexander Ramos against his family."
"There is no way that's going to happen." I said. He was the head of his Family with a capital 'F' but he was starting to step back and let the next generation take over. Ranger and I knew him personally, "I mean not in a million years is she going to turn him against his Family."

"She will," Ranger said, "She's never failed to turn someone yet."

"Why? Why is she doing this?" I asked, "It had better not be for me; There has to be a better way."

"There isn't. This was the deal she made. If she does this for the Feds she gets to run the show as far as the Slayers go and she is given a great deal of leeway. If this works then that's it. That's the end of the Slayers. You don't have to worry about them again, and you get one more buffer from the usual hoods on Stark Street."

"When we are talking persuasion are we talking torture?" I asked, "He's an old man."

"No, she doesn't do that unless really provoked," Tank said, "It's not her style."

RSRSRSRSRSRS

Meagan was gearing up when Lester walked in to their apartment. "Does it have to be tonight?" He asked as he watched her strap a gun to her thigh. Her hands were slightly shaky from exhaustion.

"It does. Timing is crucial. TPD and the FBI are co-ordinating right now to go after the four remaining hit men in the morning. We have confirmation on their whereabouts. Once they find out that Big D and Finch are in custody they are going scatter. We need to put on a show tonight so I have more clout in the interrogation room. I want them to hear about me before we bring them in. I want them scared. I need to establish a reputation tonight so I'm letting the Pixie out to play," she chuckled, "It would be easier if we were dealing with The Princes... But we aren't. So I have to get out there."

"Then if it's happening in the morning you should be here sleeping. I know you haven't been sleeping much, late night recreational activities aside. You are tired. Get Bobby to give you something, sleep tonight. You don't need to have a reputation to get people to talk. You know you don't."

"I slept great last night Lester. I am fine." It was a lie. He knew it and she knew he knew. She said it reflexively. She'd lied about her level of exhaustion many times. With a mind as active as hers she was no stranger to insomnia. "You know me. I can't sleep while I am this close to finishing a mission or in this instance, a case."

"And Ramos? Have you got a plan for him?"

"Don't need one," she grinned, "I met him in Italy on a beach. He knew who I was Les. He walked up to me and he actually said, 'well if it isn't the Pixie, I thought you were dead.' We started talking and he said that if he shared information with a dead woman then it wasn't snitching. He has already told me everything they are looking for. I kept it to myself. He wants to be an informant, he's already been mine since Ranger was framed a couple of years ago, in fact it's why he sought me out. He's been feeding me information about the crime families since then. I was talking to him just last week. The plan is for me to pick him up as an FTA on a small charge. I bring him in, he answers our questions about his family and we let him go again."

"Does Ranger know this?" Santos asked.

"You are the only person besides me that knows this," she said.

"Tink, Meagan, you should be telling Ranger."

"I can't. I made a deal with Ramos," she said.

"Why are you telling me then?" She kissed him on the cheek.

"Because you are worried about me. You are the only one who knows what this sort of thing really does to me. I don't need you pissed off at Ranger all night for no reason if we need backup. We will be back here a little after midnight. Please wait up. It is technically our wedding night."

He folded her into his arms and held her. He was basically only hugging her head and shoulders their size difference was so great. He let her go and walked over to her jewelry box on the dresser and pulled out her charm bracelet. He attached it to her wrist, "Go kick some ass Mrs. Santos." She stood on her toes and kissed him and walked out.

RSRSRSRSRSRSRS

He was six feet easy. She had a foot on his throat and he was clutching his arm. She hadn't broken anything this time. She just made him wish she had. Ranger and Tank stood back looking amused.

"So what was that you wanted to do to me?" She asked. He looked terrified. That might have been because she was aiming a gun where his nuts used to be before she had kicked them up into his stomach. Ranger had serious doubts that this guy was ever going to be sexually active again.

"You know Tink, we don't have papers to arrest this guy,"Tank said, while picking some dirt out from under his nails.

"That's a bummer. He probably shouldn't have tried to rape me."

"Tink I don't think that's gonna fly. He grabbed you, said he was going to fuck you until you screamed and then you made him cry like a little baby. Hell your hair isn't even messed up,"Tank said evenly. This was their third apprehension of the night. The guy on the floor wasn't the skip. He was a friend of the skip and he had taken offence to his buddy being arrested. He tried to hold a gun to her head and it hadn't gone well for him.

The Pixie, Ranger, and Tank were out to play. Just like old times. So far her introduction was going well. "Let him go Tink. He's not going to be going after any other women for a while. You kicked him so hard I almost threw up," Ranger said. She sighed theatrically and took her foot off of his throat. She took a step back and the idiot, that's the only way to describe this guy, pulled a knife out of his pocket and tried to jab it in her leg. She saw him reach. She disarmed him and gave him a solid kick in the kidneys. This time the idiot did throw up and Tank was sure this guy was going to be pissing blood for the next little while.

"See now you are just pissing me off." She aimed her gun at him and shot a hole in the floor right beside his shoulder. He screamed and wet himself.

"Feel better now?" Ranger asked mildly.

"Yes. Much." She said. She took her knife and dug the slug out of the floor. She looked down at the idiot, "Are you done yet or do you have anymore tricks up your sleeves?"

"Nope. I'm done,"he groaned.

"No what?"

"No ma'am."

"Alright then. Now apologize to the nice men over there for messing with their schedules."

"Sorry sirs."

"Good boy." she patted him on the cheek. He flinched and they walked out of the room.

They made it out to the car before they started laughing. "I can't believe you made him apologize," Tank choked out.

"Hey, he'll remember me," she said with a shrug that set both her partners off again.

The night had been successful. By the time they finished the redecorating job people were running not only when they saw Tank and Ranger but when they saw her as well. Tank and Ranger were scary because they were fast, huge and dangerous. She was insane and fought dirty. Hopefully word about their little adventures this evening would reach the LA contingent by morning. Now all they had to do was go pick up Ramos.

Tank and Ranger went in to do the actual apprehension. She waited by the car, she'd removed visible weapons, let her hair down and pulled her rings out of one of the many zip pockets in her cargos and put them on. Ramos came quietly and when he saw her at the car he beamed, "Special Agent Harris! Are you moonlighting as a Bounty Hunter?"

Tank and Ranger exchanged a glance.

"No I am kind of a free agent at the moment," she said. He raised an eyebrow and she helped him into the back of the Explorer. She joined him there and once they were out of sight of the house she kissed his cheek, "How's it going Alex?" she asked.

"I'm well Miss Harris. Ahh but I see not Miss Harris anymore. Did you marry your young man then?"

"Yes. This morning in fact. Would you like to see a picture?" Tank started and smiled broadly. He glanced at Ranger, the corners of his mouth were tipped up. They hadn't exactly told everyone at Rangeman yet and Ranger made Stephanie promise to keep it to herself. Now Tank was wondering if the proposal at Versailles had been bumped to fourth place.

"I would love to sweetheart," Ramos said. She showed him a picture of her and Santos in front of one of the windows in the Oval Office. It wasn't readily apparent where they were standing so it wouldn't cause awkward questions. He was wearing his uniform and she was wearing an actual wedding dress that she was frankly still amazed about.

They had woken up a bridal shop owner and told them the situation and Meagan's size. The owner sent over a selection of dresses and gowns that would fit Meagan and they had collectively chosen a gorgeous lace mid calf length dress with three quarter length lace sleeves and a champagne belt that combined with the full tule skirt made her waist look impossibly small. The dress required only minor alterations to be perfect and they were able to do the alterations that night. "I wish I had known you were getting married! I would have come to your wedding."

"Well Alex they kind of sprung it on me or I would have invited you," she said with real affection. He was a charming man. "Now you are sure you want to do this for me?"

"Can you still be my contact?"

"I've made arrangements for it so yes."

"Then yes. I'll do this. You have to do it quickly. My nephew wants to rebond me in the morning. As far as he knows this is a pain in the ass charge and you have no reason to keep me longer than it would take for the courts to open."

"My boss just has a few questions about some military assault weapons that have disappeared from the base. You shouldn't even be up too late."

"Okay Chickie, for you, as a wedding present, I will do this thing. Now that you are no longer a Fed it should make it less suspicious for me to contact you. I would like to invite you and your new husband over for dinner sometime soon," he said.

"I don't know how Lester will feel about that Alex but maybe you could take me shoe shopping again like you promised? The last pair you bought me finally gave up the ghost a few weeks ago and I have been looking for a new pair since then. I lived in those heels and they never made my back hurt."

They had arrived at the station and she took off his cuffs.

"It's a date Beautiful but I need you to do me a favour."

"What's that?"

"Go home! This is your wedding night! You should be with your husband and not in a smelly police station asking a dirty old man questions!" he admonished. She kissed his cheek again. He patted hers. "You look tired Meagan, promise me you will get some sleep. Don't make me lock you in a bedroom in my villa again."

Her lips twitched, "You know that was kidnapping you just confessed to?"

"Chickie you refused to sleep; I call it a humanitarian effort. The world doesn't need a grumpy Pixie let loose on it. You had a nice bed and a very nice lasagna and a pretty decent bottle of wine; it wasn't exactly Sing Sing. If I remember correctly you slept for 12 hours and were a much better person for it," he said and she burst out laughing, "Now go home."

"I will. I promise. My friend Joe Morelli will be the one asking you questions. He's a good man and he knows to call me if there are any problems; ok? I shouldn't be seen bringing you into the station." He nodded.

Tank and Ranger brought Alex in and she waited in the car looking at the wedding pictures on her phone. She couldn't believe that she was married just that morning. Two weeks ago she was wondering if she was ever going to see him again and now they were married and a huge weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. The Santos clan were demanding that she and Lester make their way to Miami as soon as this problem was wrapped up. This time next week she hoped to be stretched out on a beach soaking up the sun without a care in the world.

She thought about the little house they owned that they kept hidden from everyone. She hadn't been offline, really offline, in almost four years. Maybe after the Santos clan had been satisfied with her return she could convince Lester to take her away. A month with nobody able to call them. No knocks on the door in the middle of the night getting her up, no helicopters landing on the roof to take her away at a moments notice.

She waited patiently for Tank and Ranger to come back. She wasn't entirely sure what their reactions would be. Either pissed because they had been worried or amused that she had turned Ramos into an informant simply by being his friend. Frankly she didn't care what they were thinking. She had her reasons and they would have to live with them either way.

She closed her eyes, aware of everything that was going on around her but just resting. She would not be involved in the arrests tomorrow. She would be going in in the afternoon to handle the interrogations. Hopefully someone, somewhere had a line on Brown. The more she read about him the worse he seemed. She yawned enormously and laughed to herself. It had been one hell of a wedding day.

RSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRS

"You're back already?" I asked as Ranger walked into our bedroom. It was a little after midnight and I honestly wasn't expecting to see him until tomorrow after lunch. "She finished already?"

"She was done by the time we got to the station. She knew him; he buys her shoes. He's been her informant ever since you met him. She met him on a beach in Italy and he knew who she was; they hit it off and apparently once a year he buys her a bunch of shoes because he likes her legs and thinks she has nice feet. The only condition he has is that she gets pedicures at least once a week so they are always nice when he sees them."

"You are kidding me."

"Babe." Okay this is utterly unbelievable.

"Are you mad at her?" I asked.

"No. I'm a bit pissed that she didn't tell me that she had already turned him but I understand her reasons."

He ran his hand over his face. He looked tired. "I"m going to shower. If you want to keep talking you should join me; otherwise we'll continue this at breakfast. When I am clean I am going to sleep," he said.

"If I follow you into the shower will there actually be talking?" I asked looking at him as he started shucking his clothes. His utility belt hit the floor with a thud. He gave me a look. The way his pupils dilated and the way he almost smiled told me that there would probably be no talking in the shower. I was out of bed like a shot and naked before my feet hit the floor. Ranger chuckled and followed me into the bathroom.

RSRSRSRSRSRSRS

"Mom...mom...MOM!" I gave up. She was in full Burg mom mode. Ranger and I needed to have a reception apparently. She had been speaking to Ranger's grandmother and found out about Lester and Meagan and they had decided between them that we would have a double reception for us.

"Stephanie I have seen the dress that Meagan wore and it's perfectly acceptable. She will wear it again at the reception; your dress was lovely but it's too informal and you need something else. Now I have shown Betty, Meagan's dress, and she said she has a few things for you to try on that will make you just as pretty as she will be for pictures." I rolled my eyes. What my mother was really saying is that Meagan's dress was gorgeous and mine was slutty.

"We don't even know if they want to have a formal reception. What if we just want to have a barbecue?"

"Don't be silly, it's November dear. Now I was thinking that the Saturday after Thanksgiving would be perfect because everyone will be in town. I want you and Meagan to come over for dinner tonight; Your father will be taking Ranger out for supper so we can have the house to ourselves, for planning," she said.

"Mom I don't think today is going to work. Meagan has four interrogations to run and Ranger is assisting TPD in arresting a bunch of hit men. They can't spare the bodyguards to take me to your place for dinner. Can't we just postpone until after this is all over?"

"No. I was only able to get the hall on short notice because Mrs. Frankle's daughter had her baby early and they had to cancel the hall because it was too late for the baby shower. I was able to get a good rate because..." I checked out then. There was no way to get her to stop. I sat there thunking my head against the counter when Meagan strolled in dressed in dark jeans and an oversized black sweatshirt that probably belonged to Lester. She hitched it up on her shoulder and made a gimme motion with her hand.

"Hi Mrs. Plum! It's Meagan!" She put the phone down on the counter and poured herself a coffee. She picked it up again, "uh huh." She put it down again and took a few sips. I can't believe I never thought of doing this! She picked it up again, "you know what Mrs. Plum I have to run. My pager just went off and I need this phone to return the call. Well because it's secure ma'am. Uh… I think 10:00 should be fine and I'll get back to you about dinner. If we can't then breakfast tomorrow should be fine."

She hung up, "Quick turn your cell phone off." I did as I was told. "There it will go straight to voicemail and she'll think your phone is dead." She fished out her own phone and sent Ranger a text message telling him to call the apartment and not my cell if he wanted me.

"Pager? Who uses pagers?"

"Your mom probably doesn't know they are obsolete. I figured it was the easiest way to get her off of the phone."

"Where are we going at 10:00?"

"To try on acceptable dresses for you to wear to our reception," she said, "Just how short was that skirt? Your mom is scandalized. Lemme see." I went and got it out of the closet. "Oh I like. Your legs would look fantastic in isn't at all trashy; I've worn much shorter skirts." I didn't know how that was possible without actually being naked, so I took her word for it.

"It wasn't the length of the skirt so much as the backless nature of the dress combined with the short skirt."

"Good for Vegas not so good for the Burg," she said. She finished her coffee and grabbed another one, "God I hate this shit. Unfortunately I don't think tea is going to cut it today, and I hate energy drinks more than coffee." She took another sip and grimaced, "So here's the deal; normally I'd say stay inside until these idiots are rounded up, but we don't want them to know we are on to them so it has to look like business as usual. We're kind of short today so it's just you and me. I want to go over some procedures with you okay?" I was just happy to be getting out of the apartment.

"We're gonna take Ranger's Porsche; it's recognizably his car and nobody local is going to go after you if they think you are with him. We will go straight to the bridal shop and go straight inside. I will be coming in the change room with you to zip and whatnot. I don't trust anybody but myself for this job; I don't want you out of my sight. Lula is going to be watching the street while you change. Once we have your dress we will leave. If anything happens you do exactly what I say without question."

I nodded again. I was in no hurry to be kidnapped. I've done it enough times to know how much it sucks.

"Oh, leave your rings at home. If something happens and they do get us you don't want them to steal them," she got up, "we roll in twenty minutes. Meet you downstairs."

I took off my rings and called Ranger. Not surprisingly it went straight to voicemail. I left him a message telling him where we were going and what we were doing and that I had left my rings home under orders. I went to jump in the shower and the phone rang.

"Babe, do everything she tells you to do," he said and I heard a grunt and then some swearing, neither of which came from Ranger.

"I will. Where are you right now?"

"I'm cuffing someone at the moment. He's resisting."

"Should I let you go?" I heard a muffled "Stay!" And then a groan. The stay was him, the groan was not.
"No I'm good. One of the punks has already given us a bead on Brown. You still aren't safe until we are sure it's him but I am fine with you going out with Tink. Take your gun."

"Will do."

"I loaded it this morning; the only way I want those bullets to come out of it.."

"Are of I am emptying my clip into someone?"

"You got it Babe. Be careful, I love you. - I said stay!" There was a thump, a crunch and then "gotta go babe." And he disconnected.
He said our life together wouldn't be normal.

RSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRS

"What about this one?" My mom held up what had to be the largest collection of lace and taffeta in the world. The sleeves made the ones on Princess Diana's gown look like they could have used some volume.

"Mom, I'm not walking down the aisle. I'm already married, and it's not 1985! I want something simple and easy to dance in," I said for probably the 57th time in twenty minutes. I was getting a migraine and Meagan was having too much fun with this. I think the bridal shop my mom picked hadn't updated their stock since the mid 80's.

My mom handed me a different dress and shoved me into the change room. Meagan was trying hard not to laugh as she zipped me into the dress. She lost the battle when she looked at me. "Ohmigod it's a satin mullet!" I glared at her, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry," she gasped, "How did she find this place?" The dress, from the waist up actually wasn't bad, it had lace sleeves and a sweetheart neckline like all dresses from the 80's, and there was no pouf at the shoulders; it was actually sort of flattering. The whole thing fell apart below the waist. The dress was shorter than my Vegas dress in front and had a massive train in the back. Like floor length with a 4 foot train. It was actually a mullet wedding dress.

"I can't deal anymore," I whined, "This place is horrible."

"No problem," she said through her gales of laughter, "We'll go to New York tomorrow and find something at Saks or Barney's. Let's get you out of this before I wet myself laughing."

She got me out of the dress and ushered me back out to the main salon, "Sorry Mrs. Plum, we couldn't get the zipper up on the last one and we have to go. I just got a call from the station saying they need me early and I have to get Stephanie back to Rangeman before I can go," she lied smoothly and I resisted the urge to bow to her skills of parental manipulation.

"But what about getting a dress? I won't be able to get an appointment tomorrow!" my mother was about to start the guilt trip when Meagan cut her off.

"My personal shopper at Saks has already said he would squeeze us in. I've sent him her dress size and a picture, he's pulling stuff for us as we speak," she said soothingly, "We'll go to NYC after breakfast tomorrow if that's alright?"

"Oh I guess that's fine then. So you won't be able to make it to dinner tonight?"

"No I'm sorry."

"Okay then, see you later dear. You too Stephanie," she turned to Lula, "Bridesmaids do you think?"

"Oh hells yes!" She shouted and made for a traffic cone orange pile of velvet. I shuddered.

We got back out onto the street and into Ranger's car. I waited until she was out of the lot before I spoke. "Okay, what just happened?"

"What do you mean? You wanted out of there and I got you out."

"Nothing humiliating happened, nobody but you got to see me in an ugly dress, I got out of dinner at my parents and we are going shopping in New York tomorrow."

"That sounds about right," she said as she glanced into the rear view mirror.

"Well normally something crazy happens like my grandmother makes a shocking comment, Lula demands food, my mother badgers me, and I get all flustered and rip a dress," I said.

"I take my body guard duties seriously. That includes saving you from your own family."

"Can you just follow me everywhere I go?" I asked. She smiled and looked in the rearview mirror, again.

"Steph, I want you to get the gun out of the drawer under your seat and hand it to me. Then I want you to hit your panic button," she said this almost like she was asking if I could give her a Tic Tac. I grabbed the gun and hit my panic button before I even realized what she was asking me to do. She checked the gun, and let it rest on her lap, "Hang on," she said.

Meagan shifted gears and shot through the yellow at the intersection. She swerved into the lane of oncoming traffic to get around a slower moving vehicle and slid in front of it to the sound of the horns of about fifteen pissed of New Jersey drivers.

"Holy shit! Fuck! What are you doing?!" I shrieked and clutched the holy shit handle.

"Oh just trying to lose our tail, it's not working yet. I need to get out of this traffic or he's going to catch us. Fuck I hate driving this car. Why the hell doesn't he buy something mid engined so I don't keep having to fight it. Precision instrument my ass." She shifted again and shot through a red, "Fuck he's still there. Hang on Steph."

My life was flashing before my eyes. She was driving the shit out of Ranger's car, cursing it to hell and back and was in complete control but I was scared shitless. Saying hang on was redundant. My nails were going to leave a permanent imprint on the seat leather.

She cranked the wheel suddenly to the left and I felt the car go up on two wheels as it took the corner, she slowed, which I thought was crazy and then she slammed on the breaks and spun the car around and shot back down the street the way we had come. If she kept driving like this I was going to throw up.

"Get down Steph!" She yelled just as the back window shattered. I hit the deck and the car swerved violently as she lost control when a bullet went through her arm. There was an explosion as the airbags deployed and the world went black.

RSRSRSRSRSRSRS

I opened my eyes and shook my head. "Well shit," I said.

It pretty much summed up how I felt about things as I took stock of the situation. I was tied up and sitting on the floor in a warehouse. Story of my life. The good news was that I was still wearing my batman necklace. The bad news was that I wasn't wearing much else. My bra and underwear seemed to be in tact so I was taking that as good news. I looked over and saw Meagan slumped against a post unconscious. I scootched over to her and nudged her. She was in a similar state of undress and was also tied up. I nudged her again with my foot. Her arm was bleeding and she looked pale.

She woke up. "Fucking Porsche. Wouldn't have happened in an Audi or a Ferrari. Stupid unbalanced rear engined super car."

"Would your Mustang have been better?"

"Of course not. It's American it corners like a cruise ship." She looked around, "Anything you can tell me that's good news?"

"I have my panic button on still."

"Sweet. They won't be far away." She wiggled a bit and got her hands under her ass and then she got them out in front of her. "Amateurs," she grumbled as she untied her feet. She came over to me and freed my feet and hands and I untied her. She broke off her bra strap and had me use it as a tourniquet on her arm. She winced as I tied it but then was all business, "Okay so listen, Brown is a freak. He wants you to be afraid: so he's going to keep us here for a few hours. Get us all cold and vulnerable feeling, and then he's gonna come in and torture one of us, probably me first, while the other watches. That's how he gets his rocks off. He liked to give his real victim a preview of what's in store for them. So in theory we have time to wait for our men but I don't know how long we were out for because he took my phone, the fucking bastard. And since I don't want to risk being tortured, cause I've done that before and you know what? It kinda blows. We are going to have to be self rescuing princesses." She looked at me, "I hope you aren't shy; we don't have time to look for our clothes."

"Meh, I've been through worse," I said. Then I actually checked out her underwear, "Wow!" Yeah her underwear was obviously designed to cause heart failure. It was lime green lace that had cut always on her hips that made everything look fantastic. When she turned around I nearly had a hot flash. There was a strategically placed cut out on her ass. Yowsa.

"Yeah, I don't want to talk about it; I wasn't expecting a public viewing or I'd have worn briefs that my ass didn't hang out of. The only reason I have them on in the first place is because I wanted to fuck with Lester's head."

Meagan was acting like this whole thing was an inconvenience to her and not some terrifying situation. Her irritation had made me bypass panic and fear and move straight on to pissed off. It was a useful place to be.

She looked around and picked up a piece of the rope that had been used to tie us. It was the only thing in the warehouse besides some gravel and a puddle of some unidentified liquid. She grabbed a handful of gravel and dirt and made a ball of mud and packed it tight. She took the roped and tied an elaborate knot around it and rolled it in the puddle and then on the ground. She tossed it to me. It was a heavy rope ball about the size of a baseball.

"It's the best I can do for a weapon right now and we need the other rope to get out of here. I don't think we are going get out doors that easily."

Considering they looked like they were wired to do something loud if we tried to open them, I figured she was right. She looked up to the windows about ten feet above us. They were big enough for us to get through if we could just get up to them. They were about four feet high and ran the length of the building. "Let me stand on your shoulders. All I need to do is be able to reach the ledge and I'll be able to hoist myself up." I looked at her dubiously and she ignored me. She took the rope from me, it was about a quarter inch in diameter and he used lots to tie us up; we had about 30 feet of it if we tied it all together. She quickly did just that and then coiled it and slung it over her good shoulder.

I crouched down and she sat on my shoulders like we were going to chicken fight. Once I was on my feet she stood up; for someone as dainty as she was she was certainly heavy. I only felt the strain on my shoulders for a second as she grabbed the ledge and pulled herself up.

"Can you hotwire a car?" She panted.

"No."

"Okay so I've got good news and bad news. The good news is that there is a car in the lot. The bad news is that I can probably get you up here and back down there but it's a longer drop to the ground and we are going to have to jump the last 6ish feet."

"Better than waiting around in here."

She nodded in agreement.

She wrapped the rope around a pipe a couple of times for leverage and then tied a harness in one end and lowered it to me. I slipped my legs through the loops and she pulled me up until I could reach the ledge and was able to help her hoist me the rest of the way. "Do you have the monkey's fist?" She panted. I knew the gun shot wound had to hurt but she was ignoring it. Her heavy breathing the only concession she was willing to give to her pain.

"The what?"

"The knot I tied."

"Oh that's what it's called? Cool!" I handed it to her and she used it to break the window. She cut a bit off the tail off of monkey's fist off using a shard of glass and used it to wrap around one end of the shard to make a handle for the shiv. "Now we have two weapons; things are looking up!" Her hand was bleeding quite badly from the glass, she had reopened the wound on her arm and we were mostly naked but if she wanted to believe things were looking up, I wasn't going to say anything. She took the rope off of the pipe and coiled it again and handed it to me.

She stepped out onto the ledge and motioned for me to stay put. She walked around the outside edge and broke another section of the window so that the glass shattered inside. She edged herself inside and said, "we'll go down here. I don't want to jump onto glass. Last thing we need are a million painful lacerations on our feet and legs while we are trying to escape." She took the rope from me and tied it off on the same pipe but closer to our exit.

I went down first. The harness was still tied in the rope so I stood in one of the loops and she lowered me most of the way with our weapons. I tossed the shiv before I jumped so I didn't accidentally stab myself and then untied the harness so she had more rope to work with on her climb down. As I picked up our shiv, she rappelled down the wall like it was nothing and that her hand and arm were in no way killing her at the moment. She looked awful though, and her, breathing was really labored.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Steph, I've been trying to keep myself angry to keep my adrenaline up but it is going to wear off soon and I've lost enough blood that I'm not doing so well. I am going to lose consciousness; I'm fighting it but it's going to happen," said as she started to shake. "You are going to have to drive; get us to the nearest phone that you think is safe and call Ranger."

"Hey I've got my bat signal going; they should be here soon anyways right?"

"Yeah. Sure. Maybe. The fact is they should already be here; something has gone wrong. Maybe it got damaged during the crash; it doesn't matter anyway, we have to move." We ran to the car and she smashed open a back window and leaned around to unlock the front door. She quickly hot wired the car and got into the passengers seat. That's when we heard the first gunshot. The second one tore through the tissue between her shoulder and chest and we took cover. "If he grabs you, hit him in the throat as hard as you can," she gasped, "then run like hell." And she passed out.

"This is New Jersey Meagan, fuck that," I said. I popped my head over the dash and saw who I could only assume was Brown coming towards us with his gun drawn. He was aiming for Meagan and not me; I pushed her down onto the floor and put the car in gear. I aimed it at him and floored it, bouncing him off the hood. I threw the car into reverse and backed over him once more just to be sure, and took off. I rounded the corner and saw an army of black SUV's. I hit the breaks and t-boned one of the SUVs. There were no airbags this time, and my seatbelt dug into me as it engaged, that was going to leave a mark. Meagan didn't look alive, and I jumped out of the car. "Bobby! I need Bobby!" I yelled, "Meagan's been shot twice! We had nothing to stop the bleeding with!"

Ranger, Bobby and Santos came charging out from around the vehicles. Ranger pulled off his windbreaker and wrapped it around me and dragged me over to one of the cars and cranked the heat while Lester and Bobby went to Meagan. "Babe, give me that you don't need it anymore." I didn't realize I was still holding the glass; I let it go and he wrapped me in his arms.

Then I heard Santos pleading, "No no no no no Baby stay with me. Don't do this. I just got you back. Open those Beautiful eyes Gorgeous. Meagan come on!"

"Shit. Lester back off and let me work on her," Bobby ordered as he shoved Lester to the side. I looked up at the sounds of a medivac helicopter coming in to land. The percussive whomp whomp of the chopper blades wasn't enough to cover the note of anguish in Bobby's voice when he yelled, "Shit! If you die on me again Meagan I'll never forgive you."