AN: So any medical stuff is basically what I could get from WebMD and stuff I've accumulated from TV. So not terribly accurate probably. But hey making shit up is why writing is fun! Enjoy! Don't own anything, just Tink and the plot. Thank you for reading and for your kind reviews!

We were all crammed in a waiting room at St. Francis, and by all I mean it was like Rangeman had emptied out and it was standing room only in the waiting room. A friend at the hospital had given me her street clothes to wear and for once I wasn't the one hurt. The only one not there was Lester, because Bobby had slipped Santos a sedative and he was resting. This is a gentle way of saying he stabbed him in the ass with a syringe of knock out drugs. Apparently the last time he thought he lost her Lester had been out of control and they wanted him well and truly sedated if the news wasn't good.

Meagan was barely alive by the time the medivac arrived; heart had stopped twice in the Helicopter but Bobby had been able to get it started again. She had woken up as they were landing, apologizing and and asking for Lester before as they rushed her into surgery. They had given her blood and got the bleeding under control but the bullet had ricocheted off of a bone and collapsed her lung. It was touch and go for a while but she was out of surgery and the prognosis looked good. We were just waiting for her to wake up.

Ranger was handling his family in the cafeteria. They descended en masse when they found out that she had been alive all this time and was now in the hospital with two gunshot wounds. They were full of questions and he and Tank were fielding them as best they could.

Lester's mother had yet to stop crying and the last I saw, Ranger was holding her while his uncle was sitting with his heavily sedated son. Julio, a surgeon, had driven in from New York to observe the lengthy surgery and was sitting with her in recovery. I had an army of black surrounding me and we were all very quiet.

Joe came into the waiting room and sat down beside me, "Want to tell me what happened?" he asked, "We found Brown in the lot of the warehouse. He's not dead but he probably wishes he was. He won't walk again." I told him how it all went down. Trying not dwell on the fact that I'd now run over three different men in three different Buicks.

"I don't know why all of this happened?" I said when I was done, "I hit the panic button as soon as she noticed the tail. How come it took them so long to find us?"

"Apparently a contract worker, who is going to wish he had never been born, fucked up," Bobby said. "You hit the panic button and instead of telling us about it, he figured it had to have been an accident since your tracker was with Meagan's in Ranger's Porsche. He shut off the alarm and made a note without calling to see if everything was all right. We didn't know there was a problem until Ranger asked for a report when we got back to Rangeman and were told that there had been a glitch. He's been fired and will never work in this business again. I think Ranger said something about making sure he understood precisely what the consequences were for ignoring SOPs."

"Just let me be a part of his instruction." Joe said. I looked at him, "What? She's my partner and I like you a little."

A doctor came out and spoke to Bobby, "She's awake and asking for her husband, I understand you sedated him?"

"We thought it best in the event that she didn't make it so we could restrain him when he got the news," Bobby said.

"She's been asking for Mrs. Manoso."

"That sounds so weird," Joe said under his breath and I sent him a death glare and he took a step back. I had been through enough today; I didn't want to hear him dissing Ranger. "Sorry Cupcake, it's just going to take some getting used to."

I followed the doctor. I had been to the hospital enough times that I knew where the ICU was and that's where Meagan was being held for the night. When the doctor turned left when he should have turned right my spidey sense went off and I hit my panic button for the second time that day. I tried to do what Meagan had done and attempted to summon up irritation at the situation instead of panic. It wasn't working. I guess I had already gone through my stores of grace under pressure today. I looked down and realized that the doctor was wearing CAT boots. Yup this is bad.

"Hey uh doc? How long is Meagan going to have to be in the hospital for? We are supposed to have a joint wedding reception in a couple of weeks and I need to know if I need to postpone." I allowed myself to fall out of step with the doctor so that I was slightly behind him. I was ready to bolt if I needed to.

"She should be out of here in no time; it was just a flesh wound." Okay yeah not her doctor. We paused at the stairwell entrance, "We should take the stairs, the elevator is out of order on this side of the hospital."

That was so not going to happen. At my hesitation he reached behind him and I saw the stun gun so I did exactly what Meagan told me to do. I reached up and punched him in the throat as hard as I could. He made a choking sound and stumbled backwards through the door way. I gave him a shove and he tagged me with his stun gun on the way down. There was a sizzle and then it was lights out.

Fuck!

RSRSRSRSRSR
"Hey Babe, wake up," Ranger's voice was encouraging me out of the darkness. That wasn't a voice promising morning sex; it was the voice he used when he wanted me to go to the gym. Fuck that! I needed five more minutes sleep… or fifty…Then I realized the sheets weren't soft enough to be the ones in our bedroom and it all came rushing back. I opened my eyes and saw Ranger laughing silently. I must have said most of that out loud.

"Hey the Bat signal worked properly this time," I said. I tried to sit up and the clanging in my head told me that it was a bad idea. I flopped back down on the hospital bed.

"Yeah it did," My flop brought two pieces of information to my attention. My right arm was in a sling and my shoulder was killing me.

"Oww," I whined.

"You dislocated your shoulder when you fell. Otherwise you are fine. You don't even have to stay the night here," he said as he helped me sit up.

"What the hell happened?" I asked and gingerly swung my legs over the side of the bed. The clanging bells were gone so that was good news.

"You threw a very nice punch and then fell down the stairs when he nailed you with the stun gun."

"I meant who was he?" I asked, "Who the hell did I manage to piss off? I swear I haven't done anything recently."

"That was my fault; I fired him today for not reporting your panic button. I guess he took it badly and tried to take you to prove a point. He just didn't know who he was dealing with," he chuckled, "On the upside I think Morelli may have broken the bastard's nose. Morelli is having a bad day."

"What you didn't want a shot at breaking his nose?" I asked.

"Babe he's got bigger things than a broken nose to worry about because I have had a bad day." I was fine with him not elaborating on that.

RSRSRSRSRSRS

"Meagan!" Lester bolted upright.

"She's going to be okay Les," Bobby said, "She's in rough shape but she will be okay."

"You fucking drugged me again," Lester growled and swung his legs over the side of the bed.

"I was a afraid you'd go off all half cocked if there were complications. Last thing we need is for you to wind up with an assault charge."

"Has she said anything yet?" he asked.

"She hasn't woken up yet but she will."

"How bad is it?"

"She has a natural Iron Deficiency which is why she is always cold. She was anemic already when she got shot and she lost a lot of blood. Her heart stopped twice and she needed transfusions. The doctors are concerned about long term issues from two major injuries in less than two years…." Bobby stopped and looked at his best friend, he could give him the full report later. "She's going to live, she's gonna have two new scars but she's going to be fine."

Lester was only half paying attention anyway; he was staring at her in the bed next to his. She looked so small lying there hooked up to machines. The last time he'd see her like that was just after she'd saved his life and had forgotten that basic things like food, water and sleep were sort of important for her own health while she was doing it. She'd fallen asleep beside his hospital bed waiting for him to regain consciousness. He'd woken up and she'd been completely unresponsive. Sort of like now. He promised her then that if she would just wake up, he'd put a ring on her finger as soon as he was released from the hospital. True to his word he found a jeweller and started shopping for that spectacular diamond on her... he frowned her hand was bare. It took him a second to remember that he'd found the rings in a dish on their bathroom counter and put them in his pocket with every intention of being the one to slip them back onto her finger when she got home.

He swung his legs over the side of the bed, and slowly stood so he could go to her. He placed a gentle kiss on her lips and sat down on the edge of her bed. He unzipped his vest pocket and pulled out her rings and gently slid them onto her finger and placed a kiss on each knuckle on her left hand before lowering it gently back to the mattress without releasing it. With his free hand he gently stroked the hair off of her face. It glowed unnaturally bright against her deathly pale skin. She was very still but she was warm and she was alive and that was comforting. He stayed that way for what felt like an eternity until he felt her hand twitch. He gave it a gentle squeeze and her eyes fluttered opened.

"Hey Meagan, welcome back," he said and she smiled at him. Bobby walked out to summon her doctor and to give them a moment of privacy.

"Hey you, I knew you'd be here when I woke up." She winced as she tried to sit, "Damn. I hate getting shot."
"Yeah, it's a bitch," Lester said, "But hey at least this way I know you'll get some rest."

"Ass," she said and she pressed a button on the side of the bed to raise it to a more upright position, "I want a kiss."

"You're easy to please," he said.

"With you, I've always been easy," she replied and he chuckled as he kissed her.

"Special Agent Santos?" The doctor asked when he walked in with Bobby. Lester couldn't help the smile at how he had addressed Meagan. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I got shot, wrote off a Porsche, climbed a wall, jumped out of a window, stole a car and got shot again."
"Memory is fine," the doctor said. He checked her over. "You will be here with us for a little while but we'll be moving you to a private room in the morning. You are out of the woods, but your recovery will be slow."
She nodded not really paying attention. She turned to Lester, "Listen there has to be a change of plans; Joe is going to have to take over from me for the next phase. I'll speak to my Godfather about putting him in charge of the task force that will be doing the final round up of the Slayers out West. Joe is going to need everything we can get out of Big D and his band of Idiots. If you can get me a feed I can talk you and Bobby through the interrogations the way we used to..."

"I don't think so Princess," Joe said from the door.

"It's my show," she growled and winced, "Don't think you can start ordering me around because you've decided to pull that protective alpha male shit on me. Even like this I could still kick your ass without even pulling one of my stitches, so don't even try it." Joe laughed and the doctor looked at her like she was crazy.

"I can put off the interrogations for another day, does that work for you? Brown isn't going anywhere. He's not even conscious yet." She nodded and her eyes began to droop. She hadn't noticed the doctor injecting the pain killers into her IV while she was speaking to Lester. Her mind was getting foggy and she was fighting it. There was still too much to do.

"Sleep Baby, it'll all still be waiting for you when you wake up." and she closed her eyes. The doctor looked at Lester.

"What is going to agitate her more? Telling her to take it easy or letting her run these interrogations?" The doctor asked.

"Honestly? Telling her to take it easy is most likely going to get her trying to sneak out of the hospital. She has some powerful friends that would spring her. If we can get her a feed at least she'll stay in bed."

"It's better than nothing I guess. But I will be monitoring the situation closely. If I think for a second this is causing her undo strain..."

RSRSRSRSRSRSRSRS

I sat in the hospital room looking at Meagan. She had a command centre around her hospital bed and a head set on. She was muttering into it asking questions through Lester and Bobby and, weirdly, talking to my mother about the reception at the same time.

Ranger and I were on visitor duty today. Our job was to do whatever she needed and getting whatever she needed from file to a drink of water. Whatever. So far we'd done nothing more strenuous than get coffee for each other. To be honest she was so focused I wasn't sure she even noticed that we were in the room. Ranger assured me that not only did she know we were in the room but she was also aware of just how many times I had snuck out to eat donuts.

"Handsome, tell him we don't care about that. Tell him I have no problem with sending him to Gitmo or someplace equally unpleasant. Explain to him the concept of a federal warrant. I think he's the one with the information we need so maybe you wanna mention me. I recognize him, I'm almost positive our paths have crossed before... No I won't lose sleep over him either...Bobby he's only going to talk if you talk street when you go in there...Helen, I'm telling you right now, you are going to need more bacon than that. Have you seen my boys? Fuck Les Tell him about Peru. Helen I don't think blood sausage is a good idea. Bobby I'm dying here. I'm gonna use that..." I tuned her out, briefly wondering why they were talking breakfast meats for an evening reception.

I leaned into Ranger, "I want to learn to do that."

"What? Interrogation? She'd teach you in a heartbeat."

"No multitasking like that. She has three conversations going on and she's not missing a beat."

"I don't think you can learn that Babe. I don't know if there are many people who can."

"Sir?" Meagan said, "Bobby's in; just tell him what you need." The Director of the New Jersey Field Office switched on his headset and walked out of the room "Les?" Meagan's voice had taken on that creepy quality, "Let me talk to him." The men standing around her bed took a step back and the nurse taking her vitals swallowed hard and was a little shaky when she wrote Meagan's blood pressure down.

"I want to learn that too." I said.

"What?"

"That thing she did. You do it too. She went from businesslike to imposing and it was like there was a pressure change in the room and everyone was intimidated. I want to learn that."

"That can't be learned either Babe. That's earned and you don't want the experience we have that makes that possible."

Damn.

"I just think that it's not fair that she's sitting there in a hospital bed looking like that and she just caused everyone's nuts to go north with one sentence. My skips laugh at me while I'm holding a gun,"I groused.

"Babe."

Meagan was in bed in a silk robe that Lester had given her. It was possibly the brightest pink I had ever seen. Like painfully pink. It suited her though. Nobody had even batted an eye seeing her in the robe; squinted maybe because it was so loud, but she still conveyed professionalism. Seriously it wasn't fair.

"Thanks Les. I'm sure he needed to know that I have a nice ass. Sir? He's all yours." She chuckled as she motioned for her Godfather to take over the interrogation through Lester.

From what I understood the way it worked was that Bobby and Lester sat in the room while she observed. They'd ask questions and press buttons she'd wait until she saw a vulnerability that she could exploit and then she'd give it to them. Lester and Bobby would take over from that point working the stressor with the occasional guidance from Tink until they collectively got them singing like canaries. At that point whoever was in charge, in this case her Godfather aka the Director of the FBI and the Director of the New Jersey Field office, would take over. They'd tell the boys what they needed and the boys would get it out of the detainee.

It would probably have been easier if Bobby and Lester just did the interrogations themselves except that it actually went faster with the three of them working together. What could have taken days had actually taken them a few hours to accomplish.

"Helen, I would actually kill for pot roast, thanks for the offer. The food here is terrible. Ranger and Steph are keeping me company today and I'm sure Steph would like some too. Thanks, I'll talk to you later."

She pulled her head set off and collapsed back into the bed exhausted, and closed her eyes. Her nurse rushed over and checked her vitals again. Meagan sighed and her breathing evened out. She was asleep. The nurse began clearing away the debris from the bed and adjusted Meagan so she would be more comfortable and shut down the monitors.

"Manoso."

Both Ranger and I looked up as her Godfather walked into the room again. Ranger squeezed my hand and the corners of his mouth tipped up, "We'll let her rest now. We'll make sure she gets the recordings. If either of these go sideways we can pick them up again when she's up. You're lucky to have her back; I hope you're willing to loan her to us on occasion?"

"She needs a break from it. A long one. You know her though; in a few months she'll be bored and we won't be able to keep her away," Ranger said. The Director nodded. He looked at Meagan with obvious pride.

"She looks so young when she's sleeping. Hell she is young. My daughter is her age and they are worlds apart maturity wise." He smiled sadly, "I would have taken her in, in a heartbeat after her parents died, but I wasn't in the position to give her what she needed. She was better off with Ella, but then I see her like this and compare her to Lisa and wonder if I did the right thing. Her father would have been very proud of the woman she's become. It's not exactly what he had planned for her and her mother is probably rolling over in her grave..." He chuckled and stroked her hair off her face,"But her father would have been so proud." He tore his eyes away from her face with reluctance and looked at Ranger, "You know who wants to visit her right? We are trying to talk him out of it until she is out of the hospital."

"Her apartment will be finished in a few days, and our building is as secure as his house. We'll have to give a lot of our men the day off but there is a helipad on the roof capable of taking his ride. The whole thing can be done without anyone needing to know it's happening."

"I'll check it out and let him know."

The Director left the hospital room and went across the hall to where they had taken over a waiting room as mission control.

"Who is this house guest?" I asked.

"He threw her wedding for her," Ranger said.
"My mother is going to flip when she finds out; if you let me meet him I will never have to hear ,'what will the neighbours say?' Ever again. Seriously she can always trot out that one and..."

"Babe, you can't tell anyone he's coming. You have to keep it to yourself."

"But..."
"Babe."

"Fine. Can I tell her after he leaves?"

"No."

RSRSRSRSRSRSRSRSRS

"You know we haven't talked about what happened in that warehouse." Ranger said after we were alone with a sleeping Tink. Lester had returned from TPD and was speaking with the director of the FBI. Meagan might be an orphan but she had, that I knew of, three very powerful men who looked at her like she was their daughter.

"It was like being held prisoner with MacGuyver," I said, "An angry MacGuyver. She doesn't like you car." He grinned.

"She likes my car fine. She was just trying to keep the adrenaline going as long as possible by getting herself worked up."

"No she started bitching about it before she got shot. I believe the words she used were 'Precision instrument my ass.' And then she muttered something about if you are going to drive something that's hard to drive just because you want a challenge, then why the hell are you driving a boring assed 911? She said a car name that sounded like a sneeze and then she told me to get down and she got shot."

"A sneeze?"

"Yes it started with a K. I was kind of scared out of my mind at the time so I wasn't really paying attention. She was driving like a rally car driver and I was afraid of puking on her and destroying her concentration."

"Koenigsegg," he said.

"Bless you," I teased. And he almost rolled his eyes.

"That's the car company." He kissed me and bit my lip in mild reproach and I momentarily forgot my name.

"It's Swedish," Meagan mumbled from the bed, "Where's Les?"

"Here Baby," her voice must have conjured him up because I didn't even hear him open the door, "Did you need something?"

"Just you," She smiled weakly. "Tell Ranger his car isn't cool enough for him."

"Can't do that Gorgeous; I don't have that kind of death wish." He kissed her forehead and then whispered in her ear for a few minutes and she seemed to go back to sleep.

"Not cool enough for me?" Ranger cocked an eyebrow and half smiled, "When did she become a car expert in the first place?"

"Undercover assignment in Italy. She played a spoiled rich girl with a car collection," Lester said, "She got a little obsessed. It's kind of hot."

"Well Les," I said,"In fairness you think everything about her is hot."

"True." He perched on the edge of her bed and she slowly shifted so he could stretch out beside her. Once he was situated she snuggled up to him. I assumed that we were on guard duty as Ranger hadn't seemed inclined to leave all day but it was starting to feel like we were intruding. It was like he was waiting for something, "She thinks Tank needs to ditch the Hummer and get a Range Rover. You need an R8, Bobby should drive a Jag, and Steph should get a TT. She gave you all car makeovers the other night after she came home from dealing with Ramos."

"What do you get to drive?" I asked.

"She couldn't decide," he said, "she said it would have to be unbelievably cool because we'd both be driving it and it would have to have a coolness factor that could compete with ours."

"She'll have to ditch the Ford then."

"Not a chance," she mumbled, "My car has personality and you're still trying to figure out if there is a way to drive it and still maintain your image."

Ranger chuckled softly and stood up. "Let's go Babe," he said.

"Don't we have to stay?"

"Lester has her covered and she's going to be fine. Let's go."