Chapter 20: Down Time

The investigation would continue, but they let Stephanie, Ranger and Tank leave after only a couple of hours of questioning. Ranger refused medical treatment. His wound was a graze, but Stephanie knew it was probably very painful. "Just a graze" meant that the bullet had taken off a hunk of skin, and that he was going to have a scar on his beautiful face. Knowing his luck, it would only add to his dangerous persona and good looks. She was relieved it was just a graze though, and she was blissfully content in the knowledge that at this particular time, no one was hunting her or Ranger.

"First things first," Tank told them as they stood in the RangeMan garage getting ready to go their separate ways. "You need to see Bobby. I'm sending him up."

Ranger nodded. He was still suffering the after-effects of the drugs, and probably still had some residual drug in his system. Stephanie wondered if her hangover cure would work for him, but decided Ranger wasn't really a Coke and fries kind of guy. Probably sleep would be best.

As they stepped into the elevator, Tank called out to Stephanie, "I'll give you today, but tomorrow, 0600—the mats!"

The door slid shut and Ranger looked at Stephanie questioningly. "I sort of went rogue," Stephanie said. "I went without backup and tried to find you. Tank was a little upset and … I'll tell you all the details later. There's no hurry. We need to get upstairs and have Bobby take a look at you."

Bobby came up immediately and cleaned and dressed Ranger's head wound and the cuts on his wrists. "That was wasted time," Ranger told him, "because as soon as you leave, I'm getting in the shower."

"That's okay, boss. If you get it wet, Stephanie can change it for you. I'll leave you some supplies." Bobby looked at Stephanie for confirmation.

She nodded. "Yes, I can do it." She remembered the time not so long ago when she was changing the bandages on Grace's wound daily. She'd killed two people since then. She pushed the unsettling thought to the back of her mind and rejoined the conversation.

"How long will the drugs Terry gave Ranger stay in his system?" she asked Bobby.

"I don't know. What'd she give ya', boss?"

"Ketamine, and…" Ranger frowned, trying to remember. "And maybe Nitrazepam."

"Shit! And you're still alive!" Bobby exclaimed. "At the same time? She hit you with both of them at the same time?"

"I'm not sure," Ranger said. The frown lines on his forehead deepened with his attempt to remember. Stephanie saw how weak he looked, and for the first time glimpsed a little of what Ranger might look like as he aged. He seemed vulnerable, but she didn't think he'd appreciate her saying that.

"Thanks for your help, Bobby," she told him. "We can take it from here. I'll call if I need help with the dressing change."

As the door closed, Ranger sat heavily on the sofa. "Thanks," he said.

"For what?"

"For getting him out of here so quickly. I need to take a shower and then I need some rest."

"What about food?" Stephanie asked. "Do you need food?"

"Not now. First, I need a shower, and you're coming with me." He held out his hand to her.

"Sure," she said, laying her hand in his. He must be feeling very shaky. "Because you're exhausted and you'll need help?" she asked.

"Yeah, that too."

They stood in the shower, arms wrapped around one another for a long time. Stephanie started to pull away and reach for a loofah, but Ranger stopped her. "Not yet," he said. "Let me hold you a little longer." So she did. Eventually, the Bulgari shower gel was opened and they scrubbed one another with long languid strokes. It was sensual, but not sexual. She didn't have any energy left for sex, and she didn't think Ranger could, anyway, because of the drugs.

After they exited the bathroom, Stephanie put dry bandages on Ranger's wounds and they fell, exhausted and naked, onto his high thread-count sheets, and slept. When she awoke hours later, Ranger was still deeply asleep. She slipped out of bed, and made a detour to the bathroom before she found a RangeMan t-shirt to pull over her head.

Her stomach was telling her it was way past lunchtime so she went to the kitchen. She opened the fridge door and noted with satisfaction there were several containers of food left by Ella that just needed reheating. She was trying to decide on her lunch when she remembered the box of chocolates Ranger had brought her the night they'd gone to Shorty's. She closed the fridge door and found the box on the kitchen countertop. She picked out the four nicest looking ones and set them on a small plate. She almost had the top back on the box when she decided five was a better number.

She took her candy into the living room where she found Ranger's iPad on the coffee table. She sat down on the sofa and got ready to do some research while she had lunch.

She lifted her head a half hour later to see Ranger in black silk boxers, standing in the doorway. The white bandages were in stark contrast to the mocha latte skin and his disheveled black hair. She took a good long look at him. There were scars on his body, but they didn't detract from the perfection that was Ranger. He'd likely have a new one on his face, but maybe not so noticeable. It didn't matter. He'd carry it well, in any case. He looked much better than he had earlier. Almost like his old self, but, Stephanie glanced at the iPad in her hands. He wasn't himself if what she'd read was to be believed.

"What're you doing, Babe?" he asked.

"Oh, just some research. How are you feeling? Those are powerful drugs Terry was giving you."

"Is that what you're looking at?" he asked. "Information on the drugs?"

"Yeah," she said. She set the iPad down and rose to go stand close to him, since he hadn't moved from the doorway. "Are you feeling okay? Are you hungry, or thirsty? Do you need more sleep?"

"No, to all your questions," he responded. "You seem upset. What were you reading?"

"Oh, just about some possible complications from the drugs. Bobby was right. The mixture of those two drugs could have been deadly, depending on the amount you were given."

"I'm not sure what the dose was or if I had them at the same time. To be honest, I'm not sure what I had. I have no way of knowing if she told me the truth or not. What kind of complications?"

Stephanie blushed and looked away. She mumbled something that sounded remotely like, "important."

"What?" Ranger asked.

"Nothing," she said, her cheeks reddening even more.

"You said it was important," Ranger insisted.

"Impotent!" she exclaimed. "The drugs might have made you impotent. And ... um ... it can last for a while."

He moved closer to her and reached around her to place his hands on her bare butt, under the t-shirt. He pulled her in tightly so their pelvises were in close contact. He moved slightly. "That's not going to be a problem, Babe." He continued his movements.

"Oh!" she exclaimed. "Oh … oh … Ohhhh."

Later, when they were tangled in sheets, Ranger lazily trailed his fingers along her thigh. Stephanie was equal parts satiated, hungry and sleepy, but the fingers that were skimming so gently along her thigh and now even farther north, were starting to make the hunger and sleepiness recede.

She rolled over on her side to face Ranger. "Did you do that to show me that you are stronger than the drugs?" she asked.

"Maybe partly," Ranger said. "Mostly it was because I had an overwhelming need to be buried deep inside you. I wasn't really home until that happened."

"Oh." She sighed in deep contentment.

"You've been saying that a lot today," he told her.

"Saying what?" she asked.

"Oh. You've said 'oh' a number of times." He moved his hand between her legs and her thighs involuntarily spread a little wider.

"Oh …I mean, I, uh, didn't realize that," she said.

"I'm not complaining, Babe. I'm just commenting. And I'm warning you."

She lifted her head off the pillow and looked at him. The hint of a smile and the glint in his eyes should have warned her. "Warning me about what?"

"I'm getting ready to help you exchange all those ohs for some moaning, and if I do my job right maybe some screaming." He rolled over on top of her and slowly started kissing his way down her body.

"Oh, I mean …ahhh…" His prediction had been right on the mark. It was the last oh she said for a while.

The next time she woke, she was in the bed alone. She picked up the discarded t-shirt and went to look for Ranger. She found him on the sofa, back in his silk boxers, with a half-eaten dish of Ella's cold chicken pasta next to him. He was holding his iPad, and she wondered if he was doing research on the drugs that had been given to him.

"What are you doing?" she asked as she picked up the plate and sat next to him. Her stomach growled and she put a forkful of the salad in her mouth. "This is good," she said. And she took another bite.

"Help yourself," he told her with a smile. "I'm making a list. We've got lots of ground to cover in the next couple of days."

"What kind of ground?"

"While we were sleeping, things were going on in the real world. I have messages on my phone. Vito Grizzoli wants to meet with me, ASAP, for starters."

"Uh oh," Stephanie said. "That can't be good."

"Probably not," Ranger agreed. "I also have a message from Brian Simon. Do you know him?"

"Yeah, he's the guy Joe got Bob from. He's a TPD detective. What's he want with you?"

"He's the liaison officer between the police department and the organized crime families in Trenton."

"My gosh! Is there really such a position?" Stephanie asked.

"There is. He's good at his job. He keeps the families from going to war with one another. Even though he's a cop, they seem to respect him. I probably should talk to him before I give Vito a chance to blow my head off."

"Oh!"

"There you go with the ohs again, Babe," Ranger said teasingly. "You don't need to worry about Vito. I'm sure he just wants to hear the story from me, about Terry. If he wanted to blow my head off, he'd just do it. He wouldn't have a meeting with me to tell me he was doing it."

"Oh …I mean … darn you, Ranger!" She punched his arm and was rewarded with the full-on 200-watt smile.

"Also, I just checked," he said, waving the iPad. "I need to be at City Hall between nine and eleven tomorrow morning."

"What for?"

"That's when they issue the wedding licenses."

Her heart skipped a beat. But it wasn't fear of being married. After what they'd been through, being married would be a snap. It was with excitement. Three days! She'd have to go shopping!

"Your phone has been dinging, too," Ranger told her. "You'd better check your messages."

Stephanie rolled her eyes. She could almost guess what her message list looked like, but she got up to retrieve her phone. She looked at the missed call list.

"My mother, my mother, my mother, Lula, Grandma, my mother, and a text message from … Joe. He wants to talk to me ASAP."

Ranger raised an eyebrow in question. "We haven't had time to talk it all out," Stephanie said, "but you should know, I wouldn't have found you without Joe's help. He knew about the apartment in the warehouse where Terry had you. He told me how to find the place."

"Well, then I owe him a debt of gratitude," Ranger said. "Make arrangements to talk to him," he continued, "but have him come here. I don't want you going to his place. I'll make myself scarce, so you'll have privacy."

"Okay," she said. She didn't want to see Joe, but she knew she should. How would he feel when he found out she'd been responsible for Terry's death?

"There's one more message on my phone that you need to know about," Ranger said. "It's from Tank. He said to let you know if you aren't in the gym downstairs tomorrow morning at 0600 he is going to come up here and personally haul your ass down there. Do you want to tell me about it now?"

"No."

"Babe."