EYES WIDE OPEN

Ranger POV

Chapter 8

oOoOo

Stephanie was not in hiding, nor was she in a lockdown situation. Surprisingly, she was calm about being confined, to a degree, but it was mostly by choice, her choice, and that made a difference. She had nowhere to go as in a safe quiet place to reside while recovering in peace. We were able to offer her that safety net and the opportunity to recover with medical support and our respect.

I smiled as I entered my office, seeing her sleeping peacefully on the couch. Bobby had propped the pillows accordingly and Ella had brought down a pretty throw rug to cover her.

The fatigue was taking its toll but she reluctantly gave in to this. There was no point in fighting it. Rest and recovery sounds so simple, it was her body's way of telling her to take note. Rest. Then recovery can do its magic.

I was concerned about her state of homelessness. She implied that she couldn't be with Morelli, "Not after what happened this morning." Initially, I was worried because that left the possibilities wide open. After her revelations, it was explicitly clear to me. She also made it absolutely clear that there was no relationship with that asshole. There was no chance ever of a reboot either.

Unfortunately, we were aware of his indiscretions and screwing around. Stephanie discovering for herself was a better way. Maybe if it was her friend Mary Lou it would have been a plausible way to find out. But, somehow, us telling her about his infidelities would appear like rivalry. Especially if it was me telling her. It was not an easy decision. If she asked outright, we, Tank, Bobby and Lester, would confirm that information. It was after all, not our decision. Hal and Hector were eager to let her know, but did not want to lose her trust and especially not her friendship. Her friendship meant so much to all of us. It meant so much to me. It was not an easy decision to make especially while she seemed to be reasonably happy with that on-off relationship. Well, after this week's events, it appears to be permanently off.

I was reflecting on the events that followed. Like, when Morelli came in to Rangeman, apologising for his serious mistake and misdemeanours. Morelli eating humble pie in our conference room was a most unexpected occurrence. The Morrisville police officers must have rubbed his nose in it showing him the front page of the Morrisville Gazette which clearly declared Stephanie as a heroine. Or perhaps the Chief and the Mayor had a hand in that.

"It's eating at you, isn't it?"

Tank grinned at my puzzled expression. He'd walked into my office, quietly sat down in his chair, watching me, assessing me at the same time. We both glanced over at Stephanie, sleeping peacefully on the couch.

"Yeah. Just thinking how vastly different the two newspaper reports were. Also, how stupid Morelli is. How much credence has the Trenton Times given him over the years?"

"That is something I have often wondered."

"Yes, same here. Maybe he's fucking one of the reporters too, or the junior editor," Tank pondered. "But that performance just now? Pfft. I'm not buying it. I call bullshit. He's up to something."

"I agree. It was all so pseudo-humble with all that grovelling. Red flags are waving wildly for me. 'Fessing up to us? Really?! He makes me instantly suspicious because it is so out of character." I paused, thinking, Tank watching me intently.

"Ha! What's a bet he has all these unsolved crimes …"

Tank chuckled, stifling a laugh so as not to disturb our Sleeping Beauty there on the couch.

"Yeah, Rangeman. Nailed it. He needs her help to keep looking good with his allegedly crime solving acumen. Never gonna happen, stupid fucker."

I stared at Stephanie feeling blessed to have her here.

"How could he get it so wrong? Morelli never really understood her. He just wanted to control her, use her and own her. But he still wanted his side pieces. I don't know. To him it was like winning a trophy. Yeah. She was a trophy, and she didn't like it at all."

"Yes. You got that right."

Stephanie stirred and smiled as soon as her eyes fell on me, stretching languidly as best as she could. It stirred those emotions in me again, my heart warming at the sight. I walked over and knelt beside her.

"Hey."

"Babe."

"I fell asleep."

"I know."

She smiled and tried to sit up so I helped in getting her re-positioned.

"I think I need to visit my Mum and Grandma. I think Daddy will be there today."

"As it turns out, I am free this afternoon. I can take you. Would you like me to come in as well?"

She sighed with relief and nodded. "Please."

Just as Stephanie predicted, her mother and grandmother were waiting expectantly as if we had made an appointment. I opened her door and helped her out of the car. She kept a hold of my hand and it felt comfortable. The smile she gifted me was radiant as we walked hand in hand to the porch. She was feeling confident, prepared for anything and everything that might eventuate from her mother.

"Oh my! Baby Granddaughter. Are you alright? You look like you really took a beating," Grandma Mazur gasped.

Her grandmother hugged Stephanie gently with teary eyes, steadily surveying her injuries, while a tight-lipped Mrs Plum ushered us hurriedly inside, casting furtive glances at the neighbours before quickly shutting the front door. Quite a different reception from Stephanie's mother, as she harrumphed at her mother's fussing. What's with that, I wondered? No warmth, no concern at all. In fact, I detected disdain and disgust at her daughter's appearance. Stephanie did warn me, but I thought she was exaggerating a bit. Dios! The pursed lips were a dead giveaway. Helen Plum was aghast that her daughter arrived, in full view of the neighbours it seems. Did she expect her to come by the back door?

"Mum, Grandma, this is Ranger, Ranger Manoso. He's been taking care of me."

"Pleased to meet you Mrs Plum and Mrs Mazur. Thank you for inviting us in."

Instead of a hello in a welcome reply, the instant sharp rebuke surprised me. "Is that what your mother named you? Ranger?"

Yes. Stephanie did prepare me for her snide tone. I just smiled politely, which caught her unawares for a moment as she blinked. Stephanie nudged me. Grandma Mazur was beaming, winking at her granddaughter before rolling her eyes at Helen Plum.

"My name is Carlos, Mrs Plum."

She collected herself, with a terse nod. Her eyes frowned at our joined hands, but before she could make a remark about that, Stephanie was already dragging me into the sitting room to meet her father. At the same time, Grandma Mazur directed Helen into the kitchen, "Let's make coffee and serve that nice cake you baked this morning, Helen."

"Daddy. I'd like you to meet my friend Ranger. Ranger, my Dad, Frank Plum."

I shook hands with him. He had a firm grip. From behind us I heard Grandma make an aside, "Frank never shook hands with Morelli, ever. Or any of those other creeps you invited for dinner, Helen."

Stephanie's blue eyes widened and sparkled. "Told you so," she grinned.

"Good to meet you Ranger, face to face. Army?"

"Yessir."

"Still serving?"

"Yessir." He nodded in approval. Then he gently hugged Stephanie after assessing all her injuries and sighed as he held her good hand.

"Pumpkin. Are you alright? Ranger called me to update the circumstances and your injuries. He wanted to assure me that you were safe and in good care, and where you would be recovering. I appreciate that very much, son."

"Yes, Daddy. I'm alright. Really. I have had lots of rest and recuperation as the doctor ordered. Rangeman has its own medic so I am in really good hands, doing my physiotherapy as I get stronger."

He smiled at his daughter indulgently. "You are truly amazing, Stephanie. I am so proud to call you my heroic daughter. Cars can be replaced, but you are too precious. You saved those people. It's incomprehensible with these injuries."

She smiled then glanced at me. "That's what Carlos said. But, you know, no broken bones," she said, shrugging her good shoulder nonchalantly.

"Thank goodness. I am relieved to hear that. Pumpkin, you would never have had any peace for your recovery here. Good call. You're a good man. Rangeman? Hm. The new security firm in Trenton? Ranger … as in Ranger Manoso?"

"Yessir." I smiled standing a little more to attention. I figured he was military as well.

"Let's talk in my workshop. You can tell me about Rangeman. Pumpkin? Will you be alright with her? Your grandmother has your back and together we have been on Helen's case. She's deep in denial. If she gets out of hand just come get us."

Once we were inside his garage workshop, he pressed a button and a code panel, making the tool board wall move aside. He hit a fob to scrambled any reception, winking at me knowingly. This was a little military work station with weapons in locked drawers and cabinets as he pressed another handprint ID to reveal them. A laptop, twin monitors, a printer, a mini bar fridge, a generic map and some phones charging in a hidden file cabinet. Nothing was as it seemed from first glance. I instantly recognised his Rangers insignias. Holy shit! I was in the presence of the illustrious army hall of fame, a living legend … Phantom. General Frank Plum was the infamous, lethal and elusive Phantom. I was in awe. I had encountered him in our Special Ops training but never connected the two. Stephanie said her father retired from the post office and was driving a cab nowadays. Good cover. He grinned at me as he watched my thoughts come to realisation.

"It's an honour to meet you, General Plum, Sir."

"De nada. Meh. Here I am just Frank." I nodded.

"So, I have a similar set up in the basement, but larger, with my uniforms and other essential equipment. It's totally sectioned off and disguised neatly with a hidden room. Stephanie's curiosity enabled her to discover it. Helen has no idea."

With a sly smile and a raised eyebrow, I offered him a Cuban cigar from my inside pocket. He grinned warmly, sniffing it, savouring the rich smell of the fine tobacco aroma. From a little cabinet, he poured a single shot of rum over ice for each of us. We mulled over the rest in silence, as the smoke lingered and swirled in the sunbeam filtering through the upper window vents, savouring the rich moment of the Cuban cigar with Cuban rum. Switching on an extractor fan, we were relaxed and just shooting the breeze, mainly about my deployments, the missions and Rangeman. He knew a lot about me, saying he'd been following my progress. He was impressed.

"Let's see how Stephanie is handling her mother and, more importantly, if Helen is behaving herself," he chuckled. "She can be a real piece of work. Somewhere, with her need to gossip and malign others, including her own daughter, her brains have become somewhat addled. That's mainly due to her friends, Jack, Jim and the Turk. She thinks I don't know. Edna and I often remove or hide the bottles. Sadly, I have to admit, she's an alcoholic and her days are numbered before we put her into rehab to dry out, again."

He activated the listening device. It felt kind of invasive, eaves-dropping like this. "De nada," he justified, waving me off, "I have had to keep a close watch on her for indiscretions and disclosing information she may have overheard and then misinterpreted. Loose lips sink ships, as they say. She is inclined to overshare for one-upmanship. She knows nothing of this or that my alleged post office conventions and seminars were just a cover for covert ops. She thought I had finished with the army, completely unaware of my rank. Hell, if she knew, then the whole of Chambersburg, all of Trenton and the entire tri-state area would know. That is too risky." He tapped his nose with a chuckle. "She couldn't handle it, if she knew what I did in the army. Now Stephanie, she is a smart intuitive woman. She worked it out. Oh. Here we go."

Helen's snide voice came through loud and clear as she remonstrated her daughter.

"Stephanie. How could you?"

"How could I what?"

"Coming to the house looking like … that!"

I smiled at Stephanie feigning naïvety. Frank grinned.

"What do you mean, like that? I'm dressed neatly, clean clothes and all, which you washed and ironed for me. Even my hair is neat. Carlos braided it for me. So, what's your problem?"

In the background we heard a little Grandma Mazur snigger. "I wondered who braided your hair. Nice job. He must have sisters to do such a fine job. Don't you think, Helen? It's so professional." Frank grinned at Edna's diversion. "That's it, Baby Granddaughter," she encouraged in a softer voice.

"Look at you! All this, this with the bruises and the black eyes. Even some large, dark sunglasses would suffice to cover up your black eyes. I can't believe you didn't cover yourself up. Shameful it is. Oh, my Lord, what will the neighbours think? Why me?"

"I don't give a damn what the neighbours think, mother. I have done nothing to be ashamed of."

"The least you could have done is covered up, maybe with a scarf, and some of that concealer on your face."

"Oh, for Pete's sake, Helen. She was injured. Putting on concealer might cause an infection."

"Pfft." That was a typical Stephanie retort as I could imagine her blowing a wispy curly off her forehead at the same time.

"Mm. This cake really is delicious. Is this Aunt Mabel's cinnamon streusel coffee cake recipe? I think it's my new favourite. Mm-mm."

No reply.

I chuckled. "Good deflection, Babe."

"Helen. Are you serious?" Edna asked obviously horrified by her daughter's critique. "She was in a serious car accident."

"Well. It's high time you quit that job, Stephanie, and settled down," Helen went on, ignoring her mother, "because it's far too dangerous. You could work in a safer place, like the personal products plant, or the button factory. I mean, you look a mess, and frankly a disgrace!"

I heard a growl. "Oh, no! She did not just say that. See what I mean?" I nodded. Stubbing out his cigar, Frank quickly secured his secret compartments and returned his workshop to the standard garage workshop and fobbed it secure. The tool board hid everything from view leaving no evidence of movement. He turned the fan off and we exited the garage, entering the house through the back door.

Pouring a cup of coffee and cutting a slice of that cake, we joined the ladies in the dining room.

"There was no disgrace about it. I was not working in my bounty hunter role. I was going for a nice drive to get some doughnuts from across the river, from the Newtown Farmer's Market."

"I read the newspaper, Stephanie! I saw those terrible photos with the cars burning. It was all over the front page of the Trenton Times, again. How many –"

"And she survived! Helen! What did I tell you? Here, this is the newspaper which has the facts right. Our daughter is a heroine, saving the two people in the car ahead of her. They crashed into the bridge, see? Here. It explains how the driver bounced off the bridge trusses in avoiding the deer." Frank was tapping the newspaper headlines with controlled annoyance.

Helen rolled her eyes but was not interested, deliberately ignoring the Morrisville Gazette he indicated. She pointed to the Trenton Times report citing "Detective Morelli was there. See? He's quoted –"

"Joseph Morelli was a raving idiot, Helen. He wasn't there when it happened. We watched it on the news last night, you and I did together. They showed the dash cam footage which showed Stephanie's car swerving before crashing to avoid the other car which had already crashed into the bridge. It also showed our wonderful heroic daughter leaping out of her vehicle to rescue those two people and then her car caught fire from their vehicle! This newspaper is a heap of shit. All lies, quoting Joseph Morelli with all his nasty diatribe. Which do you believe now Helen?"

"But they were from PA, not from Trenton," she argued. "Joseph is from Trenton PD and it happened on the New Jersey side of the Delaware."

"Helen," he said through gritted teeth, "Joseph Morelli lied!"

She gasped, clutching her chest.

"He lied and was quoted by the usual idiots from the Trenton Times. Presently, Joseph Morelli is suspended and on a number of charges, pending an investigation. He was arrested at the scene for assaulting our daughter. Not only that, he was obstructing an investigation and resisting arrest. That's just for starters. Joe Juniak, the Mayor, was furious and is charging the editor of the Trenton Times for slander, false reporting and damaging our Stephanie's reputation. He's demanding a formal retraction. I have already lodged my complaints and pressed charges."

Frank Plum spoke calmly yet assertively to his stubborn wife. Her eyes were wide. He already had all the charge details.

"Resisting arrest? Why would they arrest Joseph? He's a detective and –"

"He was interfering and had no authority, nor was he acting in his capacity as a detective. And, I remind you again, he assaulted Stephanie in front of the two police officers while they were praising her and checking on her welfare. It's all over the social networks."

"Yes. I've seen so many videos uploaded. He is a horse's patootie, and he yanked her injured arm. Everyone is disgusted with his behaviour. Such an abusive brute." Edna was angry. Stephanie put her good arm around her grandmother and kissed her temple.

"Have a look at Stephanie," Frank chided Helen, "You see the sling? She had a dislocated collarbone from the impact. Her seatbelt held but now she is sporting a massive bruise across her chest diagonally, but thankfully her ribs are fine. Her black eyes are from when her head hit the steering wheel when she hit the bridge truss in avoiding another deer. That was defensive driving in avoiding their car as well. She has a cut to her forehead. She has concussion and is wearing that cervical collar because she has whiplash from the impact. Her wrist is sprained as well. But still, with all those injuries, our brave, wonderful daughter was able to save herself and rescue those two people from the burning vehicles, Helen. She dragged them to safety and in the meantime had already called for emergency assistance, ambulance, fire and police. You should be so proud of her. All the bystanders were busy filming on their phones, with only a few helping her."

"Oh."

"I am disappointed in you Helen. You would rather believe this crap in the Trenton Times than know the truth. You are such an embarrassment. Have you even asked how she is? No. I didn't think so. You were too busy tearing strips off her based on your precious Joseph's biased and despicable opinion. He wasn't even a witness. I don't trust him, never have. His track record with our daughter, now that is a disgrace!"

Helen fidgeted with her apron, eyes downcast. "I'm sorry Stephanie. I got it all wrong. I just –"

"Nuh-uh. Oh no, you don't."

"H-how are you feeling now, Stephanie?" Helen stammered.

"I am getting better but still very sore and fatigued. I'm just glad I didn't break any bones. It could have been worse."

"Is Jos- … um … who is looking after you?" Frank had growled as she began with that question, making her jump.

"Carlos is looking after me, and the men at Rangeman, and Ella. I have a medic supervising my physiotherapy and the guys are taking time to assist me with balance and certain exercises I am permitted to do while I am in recovery." She smiled and squeezed my hand appreciatively. "I needed peace and quiet in my recuperation. It's the perfect place."

"Oh. You didn't think to come here?" Helen asked with a tinge of disappointment.

"I did, but peaceful it wouldn't have been. You've just shown your disdain and I didn't need nor deserve that. I knew you wouldn't be able to deal with my injuries without criticising everything I do."

"That's the truth," Edna remarked, making Helen glance at her mother in surprise.

"Carlos suggested Rangeman after he took me to the hospital for tests and imaging. I am receiving exceptional care in my rehabilitation process. Besides, you know my apartment was not repaired yet."

"I am so proud of her, Mrs Plum. My men are calling her Wonder Woman for her heroics. They are in awe of her strength and bravery. They are respectful and honourable men."

"But..." Frank growled cutting her off bluntly.

"Helen. Don't you dare say what you are about to say! I know for a fact that Carlos runs a respectable, successful business here in Trenton. He also has branches for Rangeman in Miami, Boston and Atlanta. They are honourable men, many of whom have served our country. The company has the Mayor's endorsement of approval. They serve our community in so many ways. They are not thugs and criminals, which is another malicious lie spread by Morelli."

"Thank you, Daddy."

"As much as we'd like to stay longer, I think it's time to go home. Babe? You are looking fatigued. Time to rest."

Helen got up and rushed into the kitchen, returning with a tin of cookies and a container with some of that delicious cake.

"Thank you, Carlos," Stephanie yawned.

As we left, with warm hugs and a kiss from her father and grandmother, we heard Frank ordering Helen to sit down and read the Morrisville Gazette reports while he threw the Trenton Times in the trash.

Seeing us to the door, he shook my hand. "Take care Pumpkin. So proud of you. Thank you, Ranger."

Before we got to the Porsche, Stephanie yawned again as she waved to her family. By the time we reached the corner she was asleep.

I was so proud of her holding her stance firmly against her mother's ridiculous criticisms and judgments. Mother of the year she never will be. I honestly didn't believe she would be that callous and unconcerned towards her daughter, but seeing and hearing it is believing.

oOoOo

TBC