A/N: This chapter is for all of the reviewers for my stories, whether you're logged in or not. It's the best gift to know that something I wrote gets any reaction, so thank you.

Chapter Five – Christmas is Coming

"Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the wayyyy…"

"Excited for Christmas, dear?" Ella asked with an amused smirk as I rounded the corner in the hall on the sixth floor.

I laughed. "I used to hate Christmas. It was so stressful with my family's craziness, and I was always broke. Except for that one year when I was married…that was a different sort of disaster."

"You were married before?" came from a voice behind us.

I spun around and saw Ranger approaching us from the stairwell he'd exited. I hadn't heard his arrival because the fire door hadn't yet closed, and the man moved like a cat.

I nodded. "Yep. Worst five months ever. I had just bought a dining room table because our families were coming over, and I planned to make my first turkey dinner for everyone. I came home early one day to find Dickie and this evil red-haired bitch I went to school with going at it on that table. I was so mad I threw a bag of groceries at their heads, and while Dickie was yanking his pants on, Joyce slunk out the front door wearing nothing but a bra."

Ella was shaking in silent laughter, and I smiled before continuing. It had been beyond painful then, but I could look back and smile about it all now. "Anyway, after the loudest divorce in history, he got the house he owned before we got married, but I got all the furniture, including that dining set. I took an axe to it and left the pieces on his front lawn. He's a lawyer with political aspirations, but they were dead in the water after all the stories came out during our divorce."

"Good for you, Stephanie," Ella said. She patted my shoulder and continued into the laundry room. She was fully healed, and the cast disappeared about a month ago. During our cooking lessons, we had grown close, and I regarded her as family—probably the best family I'd ever had, except Grandma Mazur.

Ranger asked, "Was that the only time you were married?"

"I'm surprised you don't already know everything," I replied. "Didn't my background check go into that?"

His lip twitched in the way he had, which meant he wanted to smile, but his face had too much control to allow that to happen. "I didn't read the personal parts of your background," he acknowledged. "Only the parts that pertained to your employment here."

I raised my eyebrows. "That…doesn't seem like you. I still barely know you, but you seem like someone who wants to know everything."

He didn't reply. Instead, he tucked a wayward curl that had escaped my ponytail behind my ear, and that's when I felt it. This frisson of energy zoomed up my spine and settled at the back of my neck. I shivered involuntarily, and he cocked an eyebrow at me. I shook my head and said, "I better get to work. Today's my turn to make breakfast. What would you like this morning?"

"The usual is fine. Thank you." He turned to leave, and I watched him for a few seconds. What was that? I still felt that tingle on my neck as he disappeared into the stairwell. I sighed, went into the kitchen, and started preparing breakfast.

"What are you doing for Christmas, Stephanie?" Ella asked me a week later. We were starting another cooking lesson for tonight's dinner, and I was excited to learn how to make the turkey chili Ella had planned. She would even teach me how to bake cornbread.

"Um, I'm not sure. I usually go to my parents' house, but I'm not really looking forward to it."

"If you're not looking forward to it, why not skip it?" Ella asked while pushing a sack full of onions toward me. "Can you chop five onions, please?"

I grabbed a knife from the drawer and an onion from the bag before cutting it into small pieces. I used to stress out about cutting everything in exact increments so everything was perfect, the way my mom taught me, but Ella took a much more relaxed approach. "It doesn't matter if it's perfect because it's going to be gone twenty minutes after you finish cooking," she had said. As long as it was roughly the same size, it didn't have to be magazine-ready. That was a huge breakthrough for me, and I started to believe I could do it after that revelation.

As I chopped, I answered her last question. "I don't know why I don't just skip it," I said slowly, thinking about the possible ramifications of doing just that. "My mom would be angry. I've never missed it, not even that year I was married to Dickie. Once I left him, I obviously didn't make my own Christmas dinner, so I went to my parents' house instead. It's just what you do in the 'Burg."

"If you don't want to go, you shouldn't," Ella said. "And, in fact, if you don't want to go, I have a proposal for you."

I sniffled from the onions I had nearly finished chopping. "What proposal?" I asked.

"Well, as you know, Luis and I go to Albuquerque every other year to spend the holidays with our son and his family. In the years they go to his wife's family's house, we stay here, and I make a great big feast for the employees who don't have families to go home to." She paused and added, "Those onions look good, Stephanie. Next, we need five chopped red peppers. Anyway, this year is our year to visit Albuquerque. I thought, if you were going to be around, you might want to take over the Christmas dinner."

"An entire Christmas dinner for the men? All me? Do you think I'm ready for that?" I asked. I was super stoked about Ella's confidence in me, but I'd only been taking lessons from her for a couple of months, and I wasn't sure I was ready for such a massive undertaking. "How many of the men typically stay at RangeMan during the holidays?"

"Well, Ranger and Tank always stay to cover the men who want to take time off to visit their families. Vince, Junior, Manuel, Ramon, and Cal also stay. There may be a few others." She stopped and looked at me. "Stephanie, I know that look in your eye. You think you're not ready, but I know you are. I know you can do this. But no one expects it, so you can still go to your parents' house if you'd prefer."

"Can I think about it?" I asked. Part of me really wanted to stay at RangeMan and cook a big dinner all by myself. I'd grown to adore the men I worked with, who truly had become the brothers I never had. They all acted like big brothers, even though I was older than half of them.

"Absolutely, dear. Now, we need to mince these garlic cloves."

We finished making the turkey chili and baking the cornbread. When we set it all out in the break room, the men on duty swarmed. Before we knew it, word spread to everyone, and the food disappeared. Everyone loved it, and I felt so good that I could finally cook something that didn't make anyone sick.

A couple of days later, Ella and I were shopping at Costco for the special Christmas dinner I planned to cook. We were having fun, testing all the samples dotted around the store and checking out the seasonal holiday décor. I contemplated setting up a Christmas tree in my apartment but ultimately decided against it. Luis had set up a massive tree in the lobby, which was absolutely beautiful.

While we looked at the lit Christmas tree display, I thought about my decision to stay at RangeMan and celebrate the holidays with the men who had no families to go home to. I had thought long and hard about whether to go home for Christmas and ultimately decided to skip it. My mom had gotten increasingly vocal about her disapproval of my life and my lack of a man and children. Grandma told me Valerie and her girls were coming home to visit, and though I wanted to see my nieces, I didn't want to hear the inevitable comparisons of my life to my saint of an older sister's life. It would be much more pleasant to spend the holidays with the guys. Ella planned to walk me through cooking the entire dinner, and I'd have index cards and everything. During today's shopping trip, we'd pick up all the ingredients to make a great turkey dinner, and Ella would bake some pumpkin and apple pies before she left. Baking was still beyond me, and judging by the precise measuring required, it probably always would be.

We were testing some new moisturizing lotion in the pharmacy area when we heard a commotion behind us. I turned to see what was happening and saw a man standing at the pharmacy counter. He was shouting at the staff, but I couldn't make out what he was saying. I turned back to tell Ella we should leave, but the woman holding the lotion had paled. She squeezed the lotion bottle, and a large glob squirted on the floor in front of me. She didn't appear to have noticed and started walking away.

"We should get out of here," Ella said. She started pushing our full cart toward the back of the store. I hesitated and then noticed a blur moving toward me fast. Before I could get out of the way, the man from the pharmacy counter had slipped on the lotion on the floor, barrelled into me, and bowled me over.

I heard a cracking noise, felt a sharp pain shoot up my left arm, and I cried out. Our limbs were tangled, and he was trying to use me to push himself up. I grunted and tried to roll away from him. He smelled awful, like pee and BO and bad breath. He smelled like he had never heard of a shower or a toothbrush. I finally felt his weight lift off me, and I looked around. An extremely large man with shaggy blond hair had lifted my assailant off me and was holding him with one hand, dangling like a ragdoll.

"You alright?" he asked in a gruff voice.

I shook my head. "My arm hurts badly; I think it might be broken."

He nodded. "Are you here with anyone?"

"My friend, Ella," I said, nodding toward her.

He addressed her calmly. "Ella, can you please call 9-1-1 and tell them there's an armed robbery at this location? The suspect is in the custody of a Robbinsville police detective, and I'm requesting backup and transport. Tell them you also need an ambulance for your friend here, with a possible broken arm—"

"Oh, I don't need an ambulance," I interrupted. "Ella and I can drive to the hospital ourselves."

"Miss, when you were knocked down, you hit your head on the concrete floor. You may also have a concussion. I'd really feel better if medical professionals checked you over," he said, and I sighed.

Ella added, "Please, Stephanie. Our insurance covers ambulances; you don't need to worry about that."

"Alright, fine," I grumbled. Ella smiled encouragingly, plucked her cell phone from her purse and started dialling.

The Robbinsville detective laid the guy he was holding on the floor and kneeled beside him. He grabbed a set of handcuffs from his coat pocket and quickly cuffed the guy's hands behind his back. He looked around and started directing store employees who had gathered around to disperse the curious shoppers and leave the immediate area cleared.

Ella was still talking on the phone, and I sat there, cradling my left arm in my right, trying not to wince with the pain. It was really hurting now, and I was sure it was broken. Finally, Ella hung up and said, "The police, ambulance, and some of the Rangemen are on the way." I gritted my teeth and nodded. I hoped they'd be here soon.

Twenty minutes later, the scene was swarming with police officers, at least six Rangemen, and two EMTs attending to me. Bobby, the RangeMan medic, was hovering over their shoulders, watching to make sure they did everything to his satisfaction. "It surely is broken, Ma'am," the sandy-haired EMT, Laura, said. "It'll have to be set and casted at the hospital." She wrapped my arm in a sling and added, "Try not to move it much." She grabbed a pen from her pocket and had me follow the movement as she waved it back and forth, then shone a light in my eyes. "You may have a slight concussion, too, I'm afraid."

I wasn't surprised by this. My head was starting to pound, so I resigned myself to a hospital visit. Eddie Gazarra, a guy I'd grown up with in the 'Burg, was now a police officer and assured me I could come to the police station later or even tomorrow after I'd had my arm and head taken care of at the hospital.

While the EMTs were doing their thing, Ranger paid for all the groceries Ella and I had picked out, then sent Tank and Lester back to RangeMan with them. He came back just as the EMTs bundled me into the ambulance, and I was shocked when Ranger jumped in at the last moment before they drove away.

"What are you doing, Ranger?" I asked.

"Coming with you."

"I see that, but why?" I was still confused. Ranger had been around more often, but I attributed that to his still being unsure of me.

He just looked at me. "You need someone to go with you, wait and then take you home."

I didn't reply. I had no idea what to say, and my head was killing me. We spent about four hours at the hospital and finally got to leave with instructions for Ranger to wake me every few hours to check my cognitive function. I was also sporting a bulky new cast, and when they asked me what colour I wanted, I smirked and said, "Black." I swear, even Ranger was thinking about smiling.