Been there, done that

My day usually starts off with one of two things.

Someone standing over me after just letting themselves into my apartment.

My alarm going off.

I don't get a lot of variety. This particular morning, it was my on again, off again boyfriend, Joseph Morelli: currently on again.

"Good morning, cupcake, it's time for you to wake up." He set a cup of black coffee on the small bedside table. I inhaled and realized, not for the first time, what a god Morelli is.

"Nope. Not getting up yet. Sorry." I made no effort to reach for the coffee, even though it was giving of a heavenly smell. If I had reached for it, Joe would have pulled it away to get me out of bed. I was not in the mood.

"Sweetheart, you are working today aren't you? I'm sure Ranger doesn't appreciate tardy workers. You might be fired again…" At my glare, he realized that may not have been the best thing to say to me as I was getting up.

"You, get out of my room." I groaned. He smiled and closed the door behind him.

I got up slowly. What had possessed me to accept a job from Ranger, of all people? The man who could scare the Crap outta me and get me hot at the same time.

It was close to eight when I rolled out of the shower. Morelli had already left, saying he needed to be at the office early. Dressed completely in black, eating a pop-tart and half an apple, I walked out my front door.

A black Escalade sat on the other side of the street. The window rolled down and I saw Ranger's man Hal, sitting in the passenger seat. Another man I couldn't quite see was in the driver's side.

Quickly I walked across the road.

"Morning, Hal." I said cheerfully. He half grinned, as though unsure whether I would bite.

"Morning, Ms. Plum." He said politely. "Ranger sent us to pick you up since you were currently, uh…"

"Car challenged?" I smiled, "Yup. Morelli told me last night." He had mentioned something like that, but I hadn't been paying much attention at the time.

"Are you ready?" Hal said sitting straight up.

"As I'll ever be, let's go." I hopped into the car and we drove to the RangeMan building. In the underground parking lot, Hal and the other man, Ram, got out and Hal kindly opened my door. "Thanks." He grunted in reply.

The elevator, which I had already ridden many times when I was in hiding, was small with the two hulking RangeMan employees standing there.

As I stepped into the control room, I saw five men sitting around twenty computer screens.

Ranger was passing through a hallway on the other side of the control room. Somehow he felt my eyes on him, or maybe someone was thinking really loudly again because he looked through the windows and saw me. His eyes were dark and unreadable from this distance.

The tall man next to him was Tank, whose real name, I had just discovered, was Pierre. Honestly, the name Tank said it all; the man was no tiny thing. Tank kept talking and after a moment his eyes found what Ranger had focused on. When he saw me, his eyes rolled and he adopted a smirk.

Ranger was not oblivious to his second's expression. With eyes still on me, Ranger said something that shut Tank up and removed the smirk from his face.

The control room went silent as Ranger stepped through a glass door. He glanced at a man with longish brown hair, Lester, and walked toward me.

"Babe." He beckoned me toward his office and I swore some of the guys in the room grinned at me. I couldn't be sure though since my whole body was focused on the Cuban man in front of me.

"Hey." I smiled nervously. "I'm here." He nodded and guided me through the door of his office with a hand on my back.

"You know the drill, Babe. Paper work isn't too hard this time of year." Ranger shrugged. "Who knows? You might be going out on skips with us before too long."

I smiled politely and didn't agree. Bounty hunting was off the list for now. I needed a break from all the garbage that accumulates on my skin.

I returned to my desk. There were even more files then I remembered. Sighing I hunched my shoulders and settled in.

Halfway through the morning, I had finished three files and was through a second search for a fourth one. Ranger popped out of his office, shoving his gun into the back waistband of his black cargo pants.

"Gotta go babe; break in at one of our buildings." He gave his corners up smile. Ranger is like a drug. He had the ability to knock me off my feet with a touch. I smiled and nodded. He was gone from view after a moment. I knew he only told me he was leaving so his crew would leave me alone.

Which of course they paid no attention to.

"Beautiful," Lester stalked up to my cubicle. Everything, to Lester, is a game; I usually don't like playing with him. Today was no exception.

"Lester, go away if you want to keep all your parts." I said ignoring him. He chuckled and sat in the extra chair I keep in my 'office'. He stared at me until I sighed and took out the gun from my top drawer.

"Wait!" he yelped getting up quickly. His hands were held in front of his privates as though that would stop my bullet from going straight through.

I waited to see what he wanted. He smiled hesitantly at me and sat back down.

"I just wanted to tell you that Ranger's unofficial birthday is on Saturday and the guys and I want you to come and party with us." He smirked at my open shock. I didn't think the guys ever went out together. And why had no one told me sooner that Ranger's birthday was coming up.

"Unofficial?" I asked hoping to distract from my shock.

"Have you ever seen a license of his? The only thing in common on all of them besides the pic is the birth date." Lester shrugged. "So we've decided to throw him a little party. Of course he already knows about it, so a surprise is out of the question."

"Yeah, I'll be there." I smiled at him.

"See you around, Beautiful."

He returned to his monitoring.

Then I realized; I have one week to find something suitable for Ranger, the man who can get anything he wants, at any time.

My search ended and I started a new file just before lunch. Bobby, the resident medic, met me in the kitchenette.

"Hey Steph." He smiled at me. Out of all Rangers men, Bobby was the one I could call my friend. He was polite and the most huggable of all the men on Ranger's paycheck.

"Hey Bobby, what do I get for Ranger? How can I get him anything he doesn't already have?" Bobby gave me a serious look.

"Steph, you don't have to give him anything. Just go and have fun and Ranger will be… content." I smiled at his avoidance of 'happy'. He smiled again. "You'll do fine."

As the day came to a close, I had finished most of the 'urgent' labeled folders. I was packing up and waiting for the net search to finish on the last folder as Ranger emerged from the elevator.

"Babe." He sounded exhausted. His dark eyes fell on his office door and I could almost feel them trying to burn a hole into the wood. Then his eyes and their heat fell on me. I gulped, which made him almost smile.

"How was your building?" I asked mainly to draw attention from my girly parts that were on fire.

"Fine, it was a squirrel caught in the rafters." He looked me over and I blushed. "What about you?"

"Almost done with the last urgent folder." I turned and shuffled papers while trying to ignore those scorching eyes.

"Saturday, meet me on seven before the party." I blushed again and nodded. Reaching into his pocket, he threw me car keys. I could tell they went to something black, shiny and nearly indestructible. He turned away from me and headed toward the elevator.

"Good night, Ranger." I said to his back. He glanced over his shoulder and nodded.

"Babe," the doors closed and he was gone. I breathed a sigh of relief. Grabbing my coat and shuffling papers away, I fled the building; finger waves were sent to all the men as I climbed into a blinking SUV.

Rex was waiting for me, running in his wheel. A note on the fridge assured me that Joe had already eaten and had to work late. There was pizza in the freezer for me if I wanted.

"Nice Joe." I sighed. Pino's was great, but lately I'd been feeling more towards coffee ice cream and donuts. Or maybe a nice salad. I'd heard of a body craving vegetables when it realizes what it's missing, I had never had that problem until now. I couldn't understand what my body thought it needed green stuff. I got some when I went to Sunday dinners at my parents.

Clicking on the TV I realized that it was too early for the late night shows and too late for any afternoon shows. I settled on the couch and stared out the window.

If I had been working for Vinnie, I'd be checking out some lead or another at this moment. I called Lula.

"Steph?" She answered. Damn, she must have known I would be bored.

"Hey, what's up?" There were a couple of skips that I knew Lula would need help on. Or at least I hoped.

"These mother fucking skips keep gettin' away. I can't hold 'em for more than a minute! I don't even want to know what you did to stop them from gettin' away."

"Its okay, Lula. You've only been on the job a weekend. You'll get the hang of it." Listening to her reminded me of why I'd given up on bounty hunting.

"It was great talking to you. Maybe I'll stop down at the office sometime." I hung up an hour later. Lula was one of my best friends, but man could she talk.

I went to bed feeling lonely and tired. In my one little apartment that I lived in, it was big at night with no cop or Cuban to fill it. I sighed and found sleep.

It was near five in the morning, when I woke up next. For a moment, I couldn't tell what had woken me. There was no alarm going off and no man standing over me. Then I realized, it was the peace and quiet. There was too much of it. Five O'clock meant Joe getting ready or making me breakfast. Five meant Ranger stalking into my bed room with need for help on a male skip.

Five meant I was trying to get back to sleep in all the noise. But there was no noise.

Joe wasn't in the kitchen starting coffee. Ranger wasn't in my bedroom picking out my clothes. Rex wasn't even running in his squeaky wheel.

I missed the sounds of morning.

Getting up was hard. It was early and I'd had a distressing dream about a killer donut. I managed to roll out of bed and into black clothes.

Black felt too oppressing for my happy mood today so while I shoved my hair into a neat pony tail, the rubber band was bright pink. It would be my little secret happy thing. I read once that you should do that every day, because happy secrets made you feel better about the day.

I would test it and see, but for now, it was just something other than black.

The building was unusually quiet when I pulled up. There was no one rushing out or driving back. I suppose it was early, but it seemed as if the building were holding its breath.

As I key fobbed myself in, the prickling on my neck seemed to intensify. Giving my customary finger wave to the camera that focused on me, I sensed something darker than a storm cloud hanging over me.

Getting on the elevator to the fifth floor, I checked myself over mentally, I hadn't forgotten anything, and I was wearing all required clothes and color, besides my rubber band.

When the doors opened, there were five men sitting at their stations, Tank was taking a break at the coffee center and Hector was sitting in a chair next to Ranger's office. When I stepped into the room, nearly every eye turned on me.

Tank was busy at his coffee. He beckoned to me and I walked over to him.

"Ranger is in a less friendly mood than usual." Tank said his mouth barely moving. "We all think it has something to do with you, so just be careful." I frowned. I hadn't done anything reckless lately to make Ranger mad. It was part of my attempt to move on from bounty hunting.

When I passed Ranger's door to get to my cubicle, said door opened and Ranger stuck his head out.

"Babe." I understood this to be a command of 'Get in here now.' I did so. Inside Ranger pointed to a seat where I sat and waited for him to talk.

"Stephanie." He stopped. The odd thing was that he wouldn't look me in the eye. Ranger was going to tell me something I wouldn't like.

"What did I do this time?" I asked trying to joke about it. He shook his head.

"Steph, I would never say anything to hurt you. You know that right?" he looked at me and I nodded frowning. He took a breath. "Morelli is…" I stopped him.

My eyes began to tear as I considered the possible endings to that sentence.

"Since I haven't gotten fifty calls from my mother, I'm assuming we aren't talking about a dead man. Since I haven't gotten a call from Morelli himself, I can assume we're not talking injured or leaving. And since I'm talking to you and you're mad, I imagine it has something to do with me. Am I right?" Ranger nodded very slowly. I took a deep breath and nodded. "So what or who is the rat bastard doing?"

Ranger looked at me with almost awe.

"He is screwing around, isn't he? As long as he's not doing an animal, or Joyce Barnhardt, then I think it can wait until the end of the day." I stood and walked out of the room into my cubicle and took another deep breath. My day began and I filed grief into the back of my mind, determined to get through the day and ask for tomorrow off.

When I stood up to stretch and walk to the kitchen, Bobby came to me and proved that he was the most huggable of Ranger's men. Tank was next with a hand on my head and a small sad smile. Lester, silly bastard that he was merely kissed my forehead and walked away.

The end of the day came too soon. Ranger waved me into his office and I sat down heavily.

"This room has no cameras and it is sound proof." Batman was giving me time to cry, when all I really wanted to do was get mad. But I cried anyways.

Ranger held me as I cried into his shoulder. When I calmed down, he rubbed my back.

"How…"

"He and his… squeeze were sitting in a car together near my building. I'm sorry, babe." I shook my head. I had known that it was either time to give up Joe or finally marry him.

"I'm surprisingly okay with this." I said sniffing. Ranger gave me a doubtful look and I ducked my head. "Not the cheating on me thing, the leaving Morelli thing." He smiled at my words, looking an awful lot like a cat with a cream mustache.

"Proud of you, Babe." Getting untangled from Ranger's comfortable arms was a hard task. One that I was not sure I could do. Somehow I managed and Rangers arms came out from around me.

"Take the truck, go to his house and confront him." Ranger handed me a ten from his wallet. "Go buy ice cream and sleep it off." He smiled at my shock. "You have dinner plans with your parents tomorrow night so you'll need all the strength you can get." Still smiling he kissed my forehead.

"Thanks Ranger. I owe you." He shook his head.

"No price tags, Babe." Then I was lead to the elevator and down into the parking garage. There was an almost normal looking truck sitting in a space near the end. It was black, but less glossy and less expensive looking. It looked like the kind of truck even someone like me wouldn't be able to blow up in one sitting.

Ranger caught my smile.

"Babe." Which in this instance I thought meant something like 'I'm glad you like it. You will drive this car until you have a clean record for at least a month then if I feel lucky, I will give you something nicer.'

I sighed. It was going to be a long night. Getting into the truck, Ranger stood in the door.

"Go castrate him, Babe." He kissed me on the forehead and shut the door.

I threw the truck into reverse and bolted out of the garage. Now I was mad! That Morelli had played with my heart too many times. This was it. I was done with it all.

As I drove, my anger seethed itself out, so that when I reached Morelli's house I was bone tired. His new car sat in the spot where his garage used to stand. I parked in the street. I wasn't going to stay long.

I opened Morelli's front door with the key I still had. Morelli himself was sitting on the couch, head in his hands.

He glanced at me and sighed.

"Steph, I… I have something to tell you." Joe was going to tell me, which lightened me the slightest bit. He wasn't going to leave it behind him.

"I do too." He looked at me and nodded.

"Ranger, Right?" I nodded and he sighed. "I'm sorry Stephanie. I know how you feel about that and I realize this is the end." He turned away from me. "I hope that with time, maybe you won't hate me."

"You aren't going to insist it was an accident? Or that you weren't in control? Or try to tell me what happened?"

"Would that change the pain you're feeling right now?" I shook my head and tried to get rid of tears in my eyes. "Then you probably don't want to know."

"Thank you, Morelli." Then I left. I stopped on the way home, at a gas station and bought Phish food with Ranger's ten. When I got home, Rex sensed my pain and anger and sat on top of his soup can. I dropped a piece of bread into his cage and grabbed a spoon from the drawer.

I spent the night sitting on my couch eating ice cream watching Ghost Busters and crying all the tears in my body.

AN: Okay so as a first chapter alot of things happened. I get this. Really i do, but if i try to drag it out, i will NEVER get there. Sorry.

I've been collecting key phrases from stories I really liked. SO if you see a Line that you think is yours then PLEASE tell me because I am a horrible person and didn't write down where i got things. I would love to hear from you! Thanks!