Disclaimer: Janet Evanovich is one clever lady. Characters and everything you recognize are hers. I'm just playing.

A/N: Wow! Thanks again for all your support and reviews! They mean so much to me, and are 100% why you're getting a chapter today! I decided that nothing really happened in 21 to scare me away from continuing this story, plus it just wouldn't leave me alone this week, so I'm going to keep going with it. I hope that's okay with you all! Sorry for the "this is going to end" fake out. Maybe some mild to moderate smut and a visit with the Merry Men will make it up to you? I'll probably play here for a bit longer before we move on to another story and/or sequel.

Chapter 6

I woke up the next morning, slowly. At first, I wasn't sure what was going on; I'd had the best dream ever. I dreamed of Carlos, getting married, the Bat Cave, and oh my god married sex is even better than engaged sex!

And then I felt it. I was sprawled on top of Carlos and my ring finger felt just a little bit heavier because right next to my relatively new engagement ring was another ring. And I could feel Carlos's hand firmly pressed along my lower back with what I'm pretty sure was a matching wedding band on his finger. It wasn't a just the best dream of my life; it is real!

I propped my chin up on my hands on Ranger's chest and I looked up at him with a big smile on my face only to see a huge smile looking back at me.

"Hi, husband," I rasped out.

"Hi, wife." Carlos replied with his hands tightening and pulling me deeper into him. "I love you."

I pulled myself higher along his body until I could give him a good morning kiss. It started out light and quickly escalated to full-blown passion. I felt him stir against me and moaned deep in my throat. I felt his grip slide down my back and tighten on my butt. I pulled my knees up along side him and teased us both a little, dragging my core along his impressive erection.

With a growl, Ranger flipped us and buried himself inside of me. And then he just paused, looking down at me. I knew all the love I felt for him was shining through my eyes (along with some tears of happiness), and I could see that love reflected back upon me through his.

He started a gentle rhythm in and out, but never pulling too far out as though he didn't really want to part with me. Our eyes stayed joined just like the rest of us as we rocked together, the sound of the waves from the beach outside mixed with our heavy breathing filled my ears. He leaned down and kissed my eyes shut right when I couldn't hold it back anymore. I cried out and brought him to orgasm with me. He collapsed on top of me and I held onto him as we both returned to earth.

Eventually, he rolled off me and pulled my back to his chest, spooning me. I felt his hand rubbing along my belly and I sighed, dreaming of babies with skin somewhere between mocha-latte and cream, maybe with my blue eyes. If that was even possible, I mentally sighed, knowing that it may never be something that Ranger wanted. And while I never really thought I'd want kids, when I felt Ranger's hand on my belly I just knew that I wanted it someday. But if he never did, I'd be okay with that.

"They'll be stubborn as hell and drive us crazy jumping off of roofs pretending to be superheroes, but they'll be gorgeous and we'll love them so much, Babe."

"Huh?" Did he really just say that? Was he ESPing me and was he talking about what I thought he was talking about, or was I caught in my own daydream and it caused me to hear things?

"I want babies with you. As many as you'll give me. We should probably wait until I finish out this last contract since we don't know how long I'll be gone if they send me off and I don't want to miss one thing. Then again, we haven't exactly been careful this week, so maybe we've already started."

That gave me pause. He had a point there. I still couldn't believe that's what he wants, it's what I want too, but…

"No, Steph, I don't expect you to stay home with them. If you want to, you can. Hell, if we wanted to, we both could, we have more than enough money to last us a lifetime. But we'd probably both go crazy if we did. We'll figure out something that works for us, but I'm thinking we can live at Rangeman during the week and come out here on the weekends or just whenever we need a break. They can stay with us in the building since goodness knows it's secure and there's more than enough babysitters if we both have to go out at the same time. If you want, Babe, we can have kids and still be ourselves."

"I want that too, Carlos."

I felt him smiling as he leaned in and pressed a kiss to my shoulder. His hand drifted down and he started stroking me. He picked my top leg up and pulled it back and draped it over his; then he pushed into me from behind. The hand that was under me stayed down holding my hip and keeping me pressed tight against him, while the one that had been on my thigh moved back around to my clit, bringing me closer and closer to ecstasy.

His mouth moved up from my shoulder pressing kisses along my neck and nibbling here and there. He moved to the spot that drove me absolutely wild and I lost it. My orgasm seemed to just keep going and I felt his mouth at my ear, licking and then he whispered, "that's right, make me a baby" and I cried out and forgot to breathe as the sensation just took me somewhere I'd never been before.

I woke up a little while later and realized I must have drifted off after that last round of lovemaking. That had to have been the most intense one yet. I couldn't help but wonder if we actually had made a baby that time. Either way, once we decided to actually try, I knew we were going to have fun doing it.

Carlos's hand was on my belly again and his breathing was even behind me, so I guess he must have drifted off too. Suddenly I felt him tense up and roll away from me. Quickly grabbing his glock of the bedside table. I looked at him, and I didn't even have to ask the question, he just responded "gun safe, in the closet, lovemybabe - 5683692223".

I tucked that away for later and quickly got myself a gun, checked to make sure it was loaded. We went through the bedroom door together and crept to the front of the house. I was trying not to get too distracted by the house that I hadn't really paid attention to on my way in last night while Ranger's tongue was causing havoc in my brain.

At that point I heard what Ranger must have heard from much further away- maybe he was part bat. At any rate, there was a car in the driveway just shutting off. Ranger peeked out of the curtain and said, "Courier service. We aren't expecting any deliveries."

Before the delivery guy could even ring the doorbell Ranger, clad only in a pair of cargos, had the door open, the delivery guy against the wall and a gun to his head. "Don't move."

The poor kid, and really, he didn't look like he was hardly old enough to drive, and he was stammering. Ranger asked him, "what's your name?"

"P-p-peter J-ones" he stuttered out.

Ranger looked at the package. it was a legal sized envelope addressed to "Mr. & Mrs. Carlos Manoso".

Ranger had his phone pressed to his ear somehow without letting the kid up. "Peter Jones, New Jersey Courier service, need background and confirmation of employment. And who the fuck did you tell about last night?!"

Had to be talking to Tank then.

"That's right, you better not have. So, the kid checks out? Yeah, unexpected delivery. We'll be back later today." Then he hung up.

He let the kid go and removed the gun. "Sorry about that, Peter, you can go."

Ranger dragged me back inside and locked the door. He eyed the envelope cautiously and then opened it. He gasped. I know, I wouldn't have believed it either if I hadn't heard it and seen his eyes bug out. He frantically flipped through a bunch of papers disbelief showing in his eyes. Then his lips twitched into a hint of a smile and he handed me the stack of papers.

"I'll have my lawyers look this over, Babe, but it looks legit. It seems Uncle Sam has a wedding gift for us. Though how they know about the wedding, I'd like to find out. I'll put Hector on it when we get back."

I looked at the paperwork I was holding in my hand and I almost couldn't believe my eyes. There was a sticky note on the front page that said "Congratulations" on it and then it appeared to be Ranger's contract with the government marked "fulfilled".

I put a shaking hand to my lips, and Ranger leaned over and kissed me. "I know, I'm almost afraid to believe it. I'll have my lawyers start verifying it as soon as we get back to Trenton. Come on, let's get cleaned up, and we'll stop for some lunch on our way back to Haywood."

"Okay. Speaking of… where are we? I mean, I know we're at the Bat Cave, but where are we?"

Ranger chuckled, "Point Pleasant" he whispered in my ear.

We settled into the Turbo and as Ranger pulled out of the garage he picked up my left hand from the center console and pressed a kiss to my rings.

"I love you, Steph."

"I love you, Carlos."

"I don't want you to take off your rings."

"I don't want you to take your ring off either."

"People are going to talk."

"So let them. I don't care what they say."

"Okay. If you're sure, then why don't we stop at Pino's for lunch on our way back?"

I thought about that for a minute. Really, that was the fastest way to get word out, and I was surprisingly okay with that. If we showed up at Pino's with matching rings and the well-satisfied glow that I knew there was no way I was going to be able to hide, the entire Burg would know something was up before our waitress even came to take our drink order. Hell, the whole state might know. This was going to take a lot of people by surprise.

"Sure," I said, "but, can we actually make a stop at Haywood first? I want to let the guys know before the rumor mill starts. Then we can go to Pino's."

Ranger smiled, it seemed that was getting more and more common as this week wore on. "Sure, babe, that's a good idea. And maybe after Pino's we should drop by the bonds office, Mary Lou's, and your parents' house? I'll call my parents tonight and let them know."

I smiled, "if you're willing to brave all that, you must really love me."

"I do."

"I know, you told me last night!" I swear he rolled his eyes that time, "but sure, that sounds like as good a plan as any."

As we pulled into the Haywood garage, I noticed Ranger hitting the button to scramble the cameras. He unscrambled the garage cameras and scrambled the elevator cameras as we stepped into the elevator. I looked at him with a questioning gaze.

"Gotta keep them on their toes, Babe."

When the door opened on the 5th floor, Ranger placed himself in front of me and nodded with satisfaction when he noticed several of his men tensed and waiting outside the elevator, guns in hand, to see why the cameras were off and who was inside. He kept his left hand in his pocket and covered mine up by holding my hand and yelled out, "unless you're on monitors, conference room in five!". He pulled me with him to the head of the table and pulled me onto his lap and waited patiently as everyone scrambled in behind us.

"Report!"

Tank stood up, "No alarms, no issues, everything is running smoothly." With that, Tank sat back down.

"Go ahead, Babe." Ranger said with a grin on his face.

The Merry Men gaped at Ranger, clearly never having seen him with that kind of smile on his face.

"Hey guys," I said, with a small finger wave with my right hand. "As you probably already know, when Ranger got back from his last mission, he asked me to marry him."

"Yeah, so what? We already know that!" exclaimed Lester.

I just shook my head as Ranger yelled out, "Santos mats…" he looked at me and smiled… "0700".

It looked like a few of the Merry Men were having a difficult time not making a comment at the "late" hour Ranger chose.

"As I was saying," I continued, smirk, "Ranger and I got engaged when he got back. And last night we got married." I held my left hand up showing them my second ring and reached over with my right hand and pulled up Ranger's left to hold up next to mine.

There was a beat of stunned silence and then everyone burst out in cheers! Lester got up first and before I knew it he had plucked me off Ranger's lap and was spinning me around and hugging me. Then I was passed off to Bobby and down from one Merry Man to the next until I got back around to Tank who gave me a hug as well, even though he had been there last night.

With that, Ranger grabbed my hand, I picked up my purse, and he shouted out "Core team, backup now at Pino's. Everyone else, dismissed!"

"That was fun!" I said as we stepped into the elevator, "too bad this next bit won't be quite so fun."

Ranger pushed me against the wall of the elevator as we headed down to the garage and kissed me senseless. "Maybe not, but I'll make it up to you when we get back to seven, Babe."