A/N: I am blown away and humbled by the reviews so far for this story. Thank you to everyone who has read my story, and an extra thank you to everyone who has taken the time to review any of the chapters. And to Rangersbabe76 for the original idea for this story and the cheerleading, brainstorming and small plot ideas throughout, thanks, Babe!

Chapter Twenty

Jeanne Ellen POV

After Steph took Zoë to the pool house for the evening, Tank and I retired to our bedroom. We had a communal shower, in which we got very, very dirty before getting clean again, then we got into bed and spent hours making love and talking. We didn't discuss Steph or her problems, needing to reconnect as a married couple.

The next day, we spent time as a family. We went to the park to feed the ducks early in the morning, then drove to New York. Tank wanted to go to the space and aviation museum, which we all enjoyed. When we returned to Trenton, it was nearly eight p.m., and Zoë fell asleep in the car. We had dinner in a little diner in New York before we got onto the road, so Steph took her directly to the pool house to bed.

The following morning over breakfast, Tank and I were discussing everything we needed to do this week when Steph and Zoë came in. "Morning, guys!" Steph said sunnily, and Zoë ran over to the table and hugged us both.

"Good morning, Auntie Gigi and Uncle Tank," Zoë greeted in her high, childish voice.

"Good morning, Squirt!" Tank said brightly.

"Morning, Squirt," I said with a kiss on her forehead.

Stephanie was preparing Zoë's breakfast for her. She toasted a piece of whole-wheat bread and plated some of the fresh-cut fruit we were already eating. She poured Zoë a glass of milk and settled her into a booster chair at the table.

She sat down with a cup of coffee and toast and said, "I decided on Trenton."

I understood immediately what she meant, and I smiled widely at her. She smiled back and winked. "What do you have going on today?" she asked.

"I will check in with Sebring to see if he has any files for me. If he does, I'll pop into Rangeman to do some research, then, depending on what I find, I may go after them today.

Tank said, "Steph, I talked to Ranger this morning. He said you could bring Zoë to the building if you keep her out of the control room and gym until you can find childcare. If you've decided on Trenton, we should discuss a permanent solution to some of your logistical problems." He was speaking a bit cryptically to keep Zoë from following our conversation.

Steph nodded her understanding and asked, "Ranger has been doing a lot to help me. Is he normally that generous?"

Tank shrugged. "If you're a member of his family or the Rangeman family, there's not much he won't do. You're a member of the Rangeman family."

Steph's expression changed, and I could tell she was trying to hide some of her feelings. Likely, she was embarrassed to accept any help but grateful at the same time. Our so-called mother, my stepmother, really did a number on her.

"If Sebring has no files for me, I can hang out with Squirt today. But permanent arrangements need to be made soon; I'm starting an alphabet case two weeks from today and won't be available during the day for a few weeks after that," I told her.

She nodded. "Do you know where to look or who to ask? I could enroll her immediately if I had a good place to do so."

"I can ask around; Ella might know. She seems to know everything," Tank said.

He whipped out his phone and dialled someone. After a moment, he started speaking Spanish to the receiver and, a minute later, hung up. "Ella says her yoga teacher's daughter runs a daycare. She's met the daughter and says she's a lovely woman with a little girl and has the daycare to make extra money. It's fully licensed, and she's an early childcare development doctoral candidate."

"Wow. Well, I'd like to meet her," Steph replied.

Tank said, "Ella's texting me her info. I'll forward it to you when I get it."

"Let me call Les and see if he has any files. If not, then I can go with you to the daycare, Steph. If you want me to," I added.

"Yes, please. Zo-zo, are you finished your breakfast?" she asked Zoë.

Zoë said, "yes, Mama," and brushed her hands over the plate. "Mama, are we moving here?"

Steph took her daughter's hand and kissed the back of it. "Yeah, Zo-zo, I think we are. Are you okay with that?"

"Yes, Mama, but what about Daddy? Are we going to live with Auntie Gigi and Uncle Tank? Is Daddy going to come live here too?" she asked. I grimaced behind my mug of coffee and waited for Steph to answer. I had no idea what she would say, however.

Steph sighed. "Sweetheart, Daddy and I decided not to live together anymore. He still loves you very much, and he'll always be your daddy, just like I'll always be your mama, but we just can't be married anymore."

Zoë's eyes filled with tears, and she said in a choked little voice, "Daddy won't live with us anymore?"

"Steph pulled Zoë into her lap and held her close. "I'm sorry, Zoë. He doesn't love you any less, though, and I promise you'll still get to see him all the time."

Steph held her daughter as she cried, rocking her in her lap and stroking her hair. My heart was breaking watching the two of them, and I was filled with rage at my errant brother-in-law, who threw away these beautiful people with his disgusting behaviour. I picked up all the dishes from the table and loaded them into the dishwasher before I left the kitchen with a sympathetic look at Steph. Tank followed me, and we went to our bedroom to shower and prepare for the day. He kissed me goodbye before he left for Rangeman. I called Les Sebring, who informed me there were two FTAs for me, and both were due two weeks from today. I told him I'd be by sometime this afternoon to pick up the files, then hung up and decided to work out before starting my day. I changed into my gym clothes and went down to the basement.

Stephanie POV

I felt helpless listening to my daughter cry, knowing there wasn't anything I could do to fix it. Likely, this was not the last time she'd cry in this situation, and I probably will again too. I rubbed her back while she cried and tried to keep tears from forming in my eyes.

She eventually cried herself out and fell asleep in my arms. I texted Tank, told him I'd be in later, and took Zoë back to the pool house for a short nap on the couch. I hopped in the shower and got ready for the day before putting on a pair of jeans and one of my favourite tee shirts.

I went into the tiny living room and woke Zoë, who seemed to feel better. I took her into the bathroom and helped her shower, trying to stay dry but failing miserably. I dried her off, took her into her room to pick out her clothes, and then dressed her before disappearing into my bedroom to change my clothes again. Rookie mistake, and I'd already made it once this week. We went to the main house to connect with Jeanne Ellen before leaving for the day and found her returning from the basement gym. I told her Zoë was coming to the Rangeman building with me today, and she asked if she could pick her up after she retrieved her FTA files from Sebring's bond office.

"She'll be bored there all day, Steph, no matter how many things you bring for her to do. I can come to Rangeman around one o'clock, do preliminary searches on my files, then take Zoë home around three o'clock. We'll hang out, make dinner and see you then. Tomorrow morning, we'll check out that daycare before meeting with your lawyer. That's tomorrow, right?"

I agreed to Jeanne Ellen's plan, and soon Zoë and I were on our way to Rangeman, accompanied by my iPad with some Zoë-friendly apps, her colouring book and crayons, snacks, toys and her teddy bear and special blanket so she could take a nap on Tank's couch later.

The day seemed to fly by once I got into a rhythm of the searches. I was sitting in a cubicle now, and I'd set up Zoë in the empty cubicle next to me. She was behaving really well, for which I was thankful, and keeping herself occupied. I'd input one name into the main search program, which could handle credit and financial searches and personal history, and when that started, I'd put the name into the web crawler, which would search for the name on social media and indexed sites. These searches were for potential employees, and when I was done with my portion, Tank would do the government searches that I was not yet cleared to view. He said if I ever came to work for Rangeman full-time, they'd obtain a clearance level for me, but for now, he'd do it himself.

We stopped for lunch, and Zoë moaned over her turkey sandwich and carrot sticks, and I took the opportunity to ask Tank if I could put Zoë down for a nap on his couch for an hour or so.

"I wish you could, Steph, but I have employee reviews this afternoon. Ranger's out in meetings, though; you can use his office."

"Are you sure? I don't want to invade his privacy and personal space," I replied.

"I'm sure he won't mind. Anything classified will be locked up, and he doesn't keep personal things lying around anyway," he reassured me.

"Okay, thanks. Zoë really does function better with a short nap after lunch."

I gathered up my laptop and all of Zoë's stuff and took it into Ranger's office while Tank held the door open. I settled Zoë down on the couch with her bear and blanket and read her a short story. She closed her eyes, and soon she was breathing evenly. I let out a sigh and opened my laptop on Ranger's desk.

About forty-five minutes later, Ranger came into his office and stopped short at the sight of Zoë and me having taken over his space. I didn't notice him at first, and when I did, I stood up, a little embarrassed. "Sorry to take over in here," I whispered. "Tank assured me it'd be okay to let Zoë nap on your couch. He said you'd be out in meetings this afternoon."

He sat down in the chair in front of his desk and pulled at his tie a little. "It's fine. I have more meetings, but I just needed a break from people for a few minutes."

"Do you want us to leave? I can wake her up," I said, gesturing to Zoë.

"No, no, let her sleep. It's fine."

I sat back down and returned my attention to the laptop. This search was done, and I saved it to print when I was back in my cubicle. I felt Ranger's eyes on me, but I ignored him and kept working. My new search was on a potential high-dollar client, and after I put the name into the two leading search engines, I sat back. "Can I ask you something?" I asked.

"You just did," he said with a slight smirk.

"Funny," I said with an eye roll.

"What's up?"

"Why do you research your clients before you sign them up?"

"We don't want to do business with shady companies or the crooked executives of those companies."

"Oh." I thought for a moment about that. "That's quite commendable."

He shrugged. "There are enough clients out there that we don't need to get caught up in someone else's bullshit."

"Still, though. I imagine some other security companies wouldn't care about that and take their money."

"We have government contracts here. I like to keep everything strictly above board regarding contracts and the like. The government is shady enough for us," he added with a wink.

I giggled softly, looking over at Zoë. She wasn't awake yet, and I'd ideally like to give her another half hour before I woke her.

"Tank told me you achieved your goals this weekend regarding your paperwork and evidence and such," he said.

I nodded. "I am ready for tomorrow's meeting with your dad. I still need to talk to Hector about some of the computer stuff. Maybe when Zoë wakes up, I can go see him."

Ranger frowned slightly. "Maybe you can leave Zoë with Tank for that meeting."

"Why?" I asked.

"Hector might scare her."

"Why would he scare her when Tank doesn't?"

"Hector can be intimidating. He's a former gangbanger, not ex-military. He intimidates half the staff here."

"Is he dangerous?"

"He can be, but not usually without reason," he replied.

"Do you think he'd hurt Zoë or me?" I asked, curious as to why Ranger would hire someone who made half his staff nervous.

"No, not at all. His moods are unpredictable, and I don't know how sensitive Zoë is to that sort of thing."

"Zoë is growing up in New York City. She's pretty fearless. She gets that from me. If you don't think Hector would hurt us, I'd like to meet him and introduce Zoë to him. He's been wonderful with all the help he's been giving me, and I'd like to put a face to the name."

"Okay. I'll call him and make sure he knows to expect you when your daughter wakes up."

"Thanks. Tank said he can show me where his office is."

He nodded. "He can, or I can ask him to come up here."

"I don't want to take him away from his work for too long. I just sort of wanted to pop in and thank him."

"Okay, whatever you want. I should get back out there, I have a meeting with a client in thirty minutes, and it's a twenty-minute drive to their location. Have a nice afternoon, Babe." And he left.