The older woman in the seat beside Stephanie on the flight reminded her of Gia, her paternal grandmother. Their conversation shifted from exchanging pleasantries to discussing her wants and needs while weighing the pros and cons of each. Stephanie wanted to use her time in Virginia as a new beginning, relaunching bombshell as she decided in the apartment. It was time for Stephanie to move on from Trenton and become the best version of herself.
Stephanie arrived in Quantico, Virginia, a few hours after the plane took off from Philadelphia. Her Grandpa Plum picked her up from the airport and drove home. He teased Stephanie about the amount of luggage she packed for the trip. Stephanie confessed she was unsure if she would return to Trenton, giving her grandfather hope she would stay.
They exchanged small talk during the drive to ease the tension Stephanie felt. She briefly felt that running away wasn't the wisest decision. The pain of Ranger's rejection after wringing at least eight orgasms from her body entered her mind. She wanted to escape into Denial land, though it wouldn't do her any good.
Upon arrival at Grandpa Plum's home, Stephanie used the living room phone and called her father, announcing her safe arrival. Frank told Stephanie, "The guys haven't noticed you left. Someone will check on you once Mary Lou takes Rex."
"What makes you say that?" Stephanie asked.
Chuckling, Frank said, "I found a tracker in the cage. One of the men at Rangeman hid it in the lid."
Groaning, Stephanie suggested, "Remove the tracker and attach it to the coffee maker. They'll never notice the difference. As long as my trackers show I'm at home, they won't think to look for me."
"Already done. Morelli dropped by. He wanted to know if we had seen you today," Frank surprised Stephanie by sharing.
"Dad, I already told you why Joe and I broke up over a month ago. He needs to move on. Besides, if by some miracle Joe changes his behaviour, I'm not interested in being his side piece when Terry Gilman is busy running her uncle's business."
"What are you talking about?" Frank demanded.
Stephanie sucked in a deep breath and explained her suspicions. She mentioned the incident where Morelli got caught leaving Terry's bedroom through the window while Terry displayed her barely clothed body in the skimpy lingerie. Joe was supposedly dating Stephanie at the time. When Stephanie did his laundry the following morning, he had dried semen on his boxers, indicating he had sex with someone, and Stephanie knew it wasn't her. Joe had changed and showered before Stephanie spent the night. She gave up on trying to make it work with him. Joe wanted Stephanie to marry him and raise his children. Stephanie suspected it was a front for him to continue fucking mob Barbie to keep his job safe. Most importantly, Stephanie doesn't want to marry an abuser.
"And your mother wanted you to marry him? I should have killed him when he wrote those disgusting poems in the men's washrooms," Frank snarled.
"That's not all he did," Stephanie scoffed. She told her dad about the choo-choo incident, and he reacted as expected. Frank was furious. He never knew, having been on a mission when the incident happened. Helen was responsible for childrearing. She was supposed to tell him the important things. "Mom punished me for a week," Stephanie claimed. "Stop blaming Morelli for the Tasty Pastry thing. I was curious and never said no. Morelli and I were equally responsible. We talked about it, Dad. There's no use getting upset about things we can't change."
"I'll let you get some sleep. You had an emotionally charged day," Frank said when he kept hearing Stephanie yawn. She was exhausted from the night of passion with Ranger and travelling with minimal sleep.
"Thanks for helping me, Daddy," Stephanie sighed.
"I would do anything for you, Pumpkin," Frank replied. "I love you."
"I love you too, Dad," Stephanie answered and hung up.
Gia watched her granddaughter ascend the stairs to her bedroom. She waited until the coast was clear before talking to her husband, Francis. "Stephanie seems distraught," Gia said.
"Frank said that Stephanie finally lowered her walls to be with Manoso. After a night of passion, he sent her back to Morelli. Stephanie found the perfect man, and he rejected her," Francis explained.
"Why is she here? To recuperate?" Gia prayed Stephanie wasn't in Quantico to mould herself into the ideal partner for Manoso. Stephanie was a robust, intelligent and tenacious woman. She could accomplish anything if she put her mind to it.
"Not recuperation per se. Stephanie wants me to train her on weaponry and martial arts," Francis replied. Francis taught Stephanie when she was younger, and Helen forbade him from spending time with his granddaughter. Stephanie tended to find trouble through no fault of her own. She was too trusting unless her instincts warned her of danger.
"Does Helen know?" Gia asked. Francis wrapped his arms around his wife. Gia returned the embrace. She looked into his eyes and waited for the response.
"She thinks Stephanie is away for a vacation," Francis chuckled.
Stephanie could hear her grandparents talking in the living room. She smiled and rolled over to face the wall. It didn't take long for her to fall asleep. Stephanie was excited to train with her grandfather. He was her idol when she was a child.
She dreamed of Ranger and the future she hoped to share with him. Even in her dreams, Stephanie and Ranger eventually grew apart. He knew everything about her life while withholding basic details about his past. Stephanie never asked about his missions because those were confidential. Maybe Carlos learned to remain silent during training for the Rangers. It was a question for her father since he used to be one.
The following morning, Stephanie woke up starving. She went to the kitchen and was pleased Grandma Gia made pancakes, scrambled eggs and sausages for her breakfast. Grandpa Francis joined them ten minutes later. He ruffled Stephanie's hair and sat beside her at the table. They ate breakfast and discussed the training program Stephanie would begin that morning.
"Is your boss okay with you training me at the facility?" Stephanie asked. She didn't want her grandfather to get into trouble.
Francis quickly explained, "We have an odd number of female applicants. Having you train with the others evens the numbers." He described various scenarios when men and women dropped out of the training program. They had to last at least ten weeks before applying to the bureau's analysis departments.
"But I'm not interested in working for the FBI," Stephanie exclaimed. "I only want to acquire the skills to do my job. Bounty hunting is exciting. My mind would wither away if I got stuck at a desk."
Gia wiped her hands on the apron and sat across the table from her granddaughter. She picked up her fork to eat and said, "Don't sell yourself short, Steph. Your father said your capture rate is ninety-nine percent. It's the highest in New Jersey."
Stephanie sighed heavily. She understood Grandma Gia only wanted the best for her. "You're right, Grandma. I shouldn't sell myself short. Let's see how the training goes before I make other major decisions for my future," Stephanie said.
Gia smiled at her granddaughter and said, "You will do well, Steph. I know it. One day, you'll find happiness. It might not be with Carlos Manoso, but you will find someone who will love you just as you are."
"But if I train, then I would be worthy of Ranger's love," Stephanie mumbled under her breath.
Shaking her head, Gia said, "Stephanie, if you're here to train for Carlos, to earn his affection or be deserving of his love, it's the wrong reason. It would be best if you did this for yourself. How are you supposed to learn to stand on your own, as you keep insisting you're doing, if you're busy making everyone else happy?" Gia never waited for Stephanie's response. She cleared the table and rinsed the dishes to load into the dishwasher.
"What does that mean?" Stephanie whined at her grandmother's tough-love response. The strong girl Francis remembered was visibly missing. In her place was a weak version created by the browbeating of the harpy woman who claimed to be her loving mother. It broke Francis and Gia's hearts to see how much Helen had destroyed the beautiful woman sitting in their kitchen. Stephanie needed more than defence and weapons training to make herself stronger. She needed a therapist to move past the abuse facilitated by the Burg.
Francis watched the various emotions cross Stephanie's face. "Pumpkin," he said, using Frank's nickname for her, "improving yourself should only be attempted when it's something you want, not something you must do to make someone love you."
Stephanie dropped her head to the table, burying it in her arms. "Why can't I do anything right?" she cried. She was too embarrassed to look at her grandfather. "Grandpa, I want to do this for me. I have to do this, or one of my skips will kill me one day. Lula usually helps me with the challenging skips, but she takes off and leaves me in a heap of shit. I can't continue relying on sheer luck to survive. I've had one too many cars blown up by some explosive or a burning cocktail, and my apartment is dangerous. I'll do anything to get better at my job."
"What if skip tracing isn't for you? Your father said your instincts and intuition are better than Manoso's," Francis queried.
"Daddy said that?" Stephanie asked, peeking above her folded arms. Francis nodded and motioned for Stephanie to sit upright in the chair before continuing the conversation. He briefly left the table to collect a photo album filled with newspaper clippings.
Stephanie tentatively opened the book and groaned. It wasn't a photo album but a scrapbook. Her grandpa collected stories about her mishaps and procured copies of the police records for the skip involved. Francis waited for Stephanie to listen to his interpretation of the events. He weaved a story about how a woman down on her luck and joblessness turned an opportunity to capture the man who took advantage of her as a young child. She not only captured her fugitive, but she proved that the man was innocent of the murder charges.
Story after story, Francis described the brave young woman who, despite her fears, plucked the courage to go after the scofflaws in Trenton and returned them to the system. Though she had no formal training, that woman saved a hooker's life when Ramirez left her for dead on the bounty hunter's fire escape. "The woman in those articles sounds like Wonder Woman," Stephanie said.
"That woman is you, Stephanie. Everything you have is inside, buried deep because of those nasty words uttered by your mother and Morelli. I know Ranger supports you, but he isn't doing you any favours by forcing your hand," Grandpa Francis replied. "Even untrained, you get your man. I'm proud of you, and you should be proud of yourself."
"Thanks, Grandpa," Stephanie sighed as he hugged his favourite granddaughter. Stephanie inhaled his scent. She loved the smell of his cologne. Not cologne. It was the scent of Irish Spring soap. Her grandpa gently rubbed circles on her back, allowing her time to collect her emotions and form her resolve. Stephanie was stronger than the bumbling mess that left Trenton. She was Wonder Woman, as her grandfather proved with the scrapbooks.
"We leave in thirty," Francis announced, releasing Stephanie from his embrace. He looked into Stephanie's eyes, waiting for her to acknowledge his words.
"Okay." Stephanie excused herself from the table and went upstairs to change. Taking a shower before training seemed silly, so Stephanie pulled on her yoga pants. She grabbed one of Ranger's shirts from the bag. "I can't do this while smelling you," Stephanie sighs. She returned the shirt to the bag and grabbed another one. Stephanie pulled the tank top over her sports bra. After combing her hair and forcing it into an elastic, Stephanie was mentally prepared for training with her grandpa.
"Do you have CAT boots?" Francis asked his granddaughter. Stephanie shook her head.
"Ranger had trackers in the ones he gave me," Stephanie confessed. Francis shook his head at Ranger's stupidity.
"How do you know?"
Sighing, Stephanie replied, "Hector gave me a device to search for them. Ranger had the tracker installed in the rubber sole. I couldn't remove it without destroying the boot."
The recruits training at the facility had to wear an FBI-issued uniform. Though not an official recruit, Stephanie had to wear the same clothes to blend in. She must visit the physician before receiving her uniform and boots. Francis explained the situation as he drove to the training facility. Stephanie asked, "Do I have to live there?"
"No. You can live with us. Only the FBI's candidates live on site," he replied. Stephanie sighed in relief. She didn't want to live with a bunch of strangers while in her emotional state.
Francis parked his car in the employee lot and fobbed his way into the facility. Stephanie had to visit the welcome desk to receive her temporary credentials to access the building's shared floors and the training camp. Each person entering the elevator had to scan their cards. You could exit at any floor, but the alarm would sound if your identification indicated it was off limits.
Stephanie noticed the setup of the floors was similar to Rangeman. You can access the elevator from the shared hallway but must scan your card to enter the other areas. At Rangeman, you could only enter floors four, six and seven if your fob permitted access. Stephanie realized she had access to every floor at Rangeman. It proved how much Ranger trusted her not to abuse her freedom. However, it never meant Ranger loved her. Trust? Yes. Love? Debatable. What man would send the woman they love to another man? One who only wanted to scratch an itch.
"Ma'am? Are you okay?" the man asked.
"Hmmm? What did you say?" Stephanie distractedly asked.
"I asked you to step to the left so I can take your picture," he repeated.
"Oh. I'm sorry," Stephanie replied before following his instructions. Like she had experienced at the Passport office, the man told Stephanie not to smile. She pasted a neutral expression on her face and resisted the urge to blink when the flash blinded her.
Stephanie went to the physician's office for labs and to get the injection for birth control. She was honest about not being on contraception and lack of condom usage during her latest encounter. The doctor smiled and gave her the injection despite there being a tiny possibility of Stephanie being pregnant. "I rarely see women getting pregnant on day eighteen of their cycle. The chances of that happening are less than one percent. I feel confident giving you the injection to prevent pregnancy. However, I will need another blood sample in ten weeks before administering the next injection."
"Thank you," Stephanie replied. She doesn't want a child, especially Ricardo Carlos Manoso's child. He would marry her out of duty to give the child a name and support. Stephanie refused to become another Rachel. She shook her head, hoping to dislodge the thoughts. It wouldn't do her any good to stress over an improbable pregnancy.