CHAPTER 6

It was another two weeks before we saw Ranger again. After Bobby and Lester took him to get his ankle checked out (a bad sprain), they dropped him back at the safe house with orders to decompress-or-else, and refused to leave until he'd made an appointment with his psychiatrist. Bobby had checked in with him several times over the fortnight to make sure he was resting and healing, but aside from those brief updates, we hadn't heard a peep from him. I had a feeling that between his fuck-up during the meeting with O'Shea that put Steph in unnecessary danger and ultimately caused his own injury, and the way Steph had shut him down, he'd finally had his eyes opened to the pain and suffering he'd actually caused over the years, whether he meant to or not.

He was waiting for me by the stairwell door when I arrived for work, dressed in his usual black t-shirt but paired with loose basketball shorts and black sneakers. A hint of strapping peeked out from the top of his right sock.

I stopped several feet in front of him, arms crossed over my chest and one eyebrow cocked. "You cleared yet?" I asked pointedly. It was an unnecessary question, since I knew from the meeting I had with Bobby the previous afternoon that Ranger wasn't on the list of injured employees that had been cleared for fieldwork, but was due to return to the office this week. Bobby hadn't been able to confirm whether Ranger was planning on staying in Trenton, or if he trusted Patch down in Miami with his recovery. I can't say I was surprised that he had decided to ambush me for a meeting, though.

"No." It was a typical Ranger answer, and I expected him to leave it at that, but a moment later he surprised me by opening his mouth again to offer reassurance. "You'll be one of the first to know when I'm available for ass-beatings again," he said, relaxing his posture somewhat and letting the blank mask slip just enough for me to see the sincerity loitering underneath. So he was here to apologise, it seemed.

In deference to Ranger's ankle, we took the elevator up to the fifth floor in silence, and made our way down the hall to our offices. When we reached the door to mine, Ranger stopped, clearly intending for our discussion to happen in my domain rather than his. I didn't miss the obvious message that was sent about who had the powers in this situation.

I took a seat behind my desk and Ranger sat in one of the visitors chairs like he'd done so many times over the years, the slight tension in his shoulders the only thing giving away that this wasn't just another one of our casual catch-ups.

"I need to apologise for the way I behaved when I returned from my mission," he started, getting right to the point of his presence. "I hadn't had the chance to reset my headspace before I received the report about what had been happening, so I snapped straight into problem-solving mode. And then, before I could solve the problem, she was in the middle of a shootout. I acted on instinct to get her out of harm's way."

Keeping my expression blank and my eyes locked on Ranger's, I sat and waited for him to continue. If he was smart, he'd know that there was more for him to say.

"I should have asked for a SitRep before I took over," he went on, somewhat reluctantly. Talking wasn't either of our strong suits, but apologising was an even more foreign concept. Regardless, though, I wasn't going to just let him off the hook with an 'it's all right brother' and a manly slap on the back this time around.

A heavy sigh fell from his lips and he scrubbed his hands over his face. "Shit, man, you're not making this easy."

I shrugged and continued to wait him out.

"I knew that you and Steph were getting closer," he breathed, his body deflating as he sank lower in the chair. "I heard some of the guys mention it in passing. Talking about how you hang out a lot, and she always seemed happier when she saw you. But I didn't contemplate the possibility that what you had could be anything more than friendship, the same way that Lester and Bobby had become her friends over the years. The night at the safe house, though…"

He paused, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly as he shook his head. His gaze was squarely on the table between us. "When I saw you standing between her knees, and the way she was looking up at you… it's the way she used to look at me, but more. She loves you, Tank, and I'm still struggling to come to grips with the fact that what Steph and I had wasn't love. It was infatuation, obsession… it was." Another sigh and a shake of his head and he finally lifted his gaze back to me. "It was unhealthy. And I didn't realise just how unhealthy until you pointed it out."

I tipped my head, acknowledging the remorse in his tone; he really had had his eyes prised open that day. "You're welcome," I replied. "I should have pointed it out sooner."

He agreed, but the expression on his face told me he knew it wouldn't have made a lick of difference in the outcome. After Rachel and Julie, he'd vowed to never get involved with anyone on a serious level again. Something he'd clearly struggled with where Stephanie was concerned. As far as I could figure, that was the reason he'd constantly pushed her to reconcile with the cop. To keep her out of his reach so he wouldn't succumb to his feelings for her and do something stupid like get into a relationship.

As it was, I'd overheard him confess his yearning for her on several occasions while playing bodyguard, and Steph had clued me in to several more over the course of her healing journey. If he wasn't so emotionally stunted he might have been a good match for Steph. As a peace offering, I told him so now.

Ranger snorted. "It's not just Steph that I was an ass to," he pointed out. "I knew from that first redecorating job that you liked her. You only actually throw people out of windows like that when you're trying to impress someone. And the fact that you volunteered to take a surveillance shift with her… I knew I had to stake a claim before you realised how amazing she was." He shook his head again with a wry smile, and corrected himself. "How amazing she is."

"She's got moxie," I agreed. And it hadn't taken me long to realise at all. As much as she'd protested the mission Ranger had laid out that night, she'd put her all into the task. And from the way she'd bounced back after our surveillance shift together when I'd been shot and she narrowly avoided being blown up, I knew she was more resilient than this town gave her credit for. Ranger was right, if he'd given me the opportunity, I would have tried my luck with Steph right from the get-go.

Instead, I'd spent years keeping a quiet vigil from the sidelines, providing her the support she needed wherever I could and slowly building trust and friendship. And as much as I'd like to blame Ranger for all the hurt he'd put her through in that time, I had a feeling Steph and I wouldn't be together right now if Ranger hadn't staked his claim on her. Being her friend first and foremost had allowed me to get to know her as a person. I learned her hopes and desires, her dreams, her nightmares, her fears. And each nugget of information I learned dragged me further under her spell. A spell I was certain she had no idea she was casting over me.

"She never initiated things with me," Ranger pointed out. "I think it's telling that she turned to you so readily. The way you've supported her over the years has laid a good foundation, and you've had enough practice at patience while fostering all those cats over the years to wait her out." Another shake of his head, accompanied by the hint of a frown. "Not 'wait her out'," he said. "That makes it sound bad. You gave her the time and space she needed to realise you were always going to be there for her in whatever way she needed."

I nodded that I understood and we sat in silence for a couple minutes. I couldn't tell what thoughts were running around behind Ranger's eyes now that he'd gotten his apology out of the way and basically given Steph and me his blessing - not that we needed it, but I used the time to process everything he'd said, and accept that he was human and humans made mistakes. I could forgive him for his actions from two weeks ago, and in time, if he continued to show changed behaviour, I could probably look past his treatment of Steph through the years. But that didn't mean he was off the hook.

I tipped my chin up so I could look down at him across the expanse of my desk and let a smirk tug at the corner of my lips. "Apology accepted," I said. "But don't think you're completely off the hook. As soon as you're back to active duty -"

He grinned, a hint of gratitude shining through his blank mask. "Like I said, you'll be the first to know when I'm available for ass-beatings again," he assured me.

We changed the topic to work, then, and I gave him a run down of everything that had happened in the Trenton office over the last couple of months before a calendar notification popped up on my phone, reminding me I had a call scheduled with the Miami manager, Diana, to see if I could borrow the expertise of her tech guy to assist Hector with a project he'd been planning. Ranger bowed out to let me get on with business, but paused at the door to ask if Steph would be in the office at all today.

*o*

Later that afternoon, I was coming out of the breakroom, a mug of coffee in each hand, and my mother's voice jabbering on through my bluetooth earbuds about how my sister could go into labour any day now. Out of habit, I cast my gaze over to Steph's cubicle, knowing that she'd arrived several minutes ago thanks to the text she sent me while she was waiting for the elevator downstairs. I'd made my way to the breakroom when she'd sent the previous text to say she was on her way, and had intended to meet her at her desk with the coffees, when Mom had called, distracting me with a mandatory life update on every member of my extended family.

I'd accidentally knocked both mugs over, causing a god awful mess on the counter, when Mom had explained how Aunt Josie had finally found her cat that had gone missing several months ago. Tied up in a sack in the back of a cupboard in the garage. Head bashed in. Dead. When she'd questioned her husband on the matter, he'd gone on a rant about it scratching his favourite recliner.

Needless to say, Aunt Josie kicked him out and promptly filed for divorce. No one in my family took kindly to animal cruelty in my family.

It had taken me a few minutes to clean up the mess and refill the mugs, by which time Steph had made it to her desk and Ranger had apparently caught wind of her arrival, because as I watched, he paused at the entry of her cubicle and knocked lightly at the dividing wall to gain her attention.

Her expression was guarded when she turned around, but quickly smoothed out as Ranger spoke to her, presumably apologising for everything he'd done and caused. At the end of his speech, he handed her what I was pretty sure was a TastyKake and I couldn't help but scoff at the memory of Lester's rant about Ranger not being an alpha after we'd retrieved Steph from O'Shea's mansion. Where's your cargo pocket full of TastyKakes, Ranger? Was he trying to prove he was an alpha after all?

While I assured my mother that I wasn't scoffing at her and hurriedly ended the phone call before I could make another mistake, Steph hesitated for the briefest moment to accept the snack Ranger offered, then immediately set it aside on her desk. They spoke for another couple of minutes, Steph's expression earnest, before they shared a platonic hug and Ranger headed for the elevator.

Her gaze found me when I was halfway across the command floor, and the solemn expression that had been lingering on her face, split into that smile I was starting to think of as exclusively mine. She accepted the second coffee mug when I reached her, taking a grateful sip before setting it down on the donut-shaped coaster Hal had given her for her birthday last year. She then wasted no time in leaning up on her tiptoes to press a hello-kiss to my chin.

I caught her waist with my free hand, holding her to me as I deposited my own coffee on the corner of her desk and leaned down to give her a proper kiss. I was rewarded when she responded in kind, a happy sigh escaping her as we parted a minute later.

She flopped into the office chair when I released her, and I took a moment to shift some of the mess of paperwork on her desk before perching there, passing her her mug with one hand while I retrieved a TastyKake from my pocket with the other. Unlike the reception she'd given Ranger, she automatically took the snack from me with a grateful smile and ripped it open. The enthusiastic bite she took left a smear of icing on her cheek, and I couldn't help but smile. This was exactly how I liked her. Relaxed, safe, and happy.

END

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