Disclaimer: All credit goes to JE for creating her characters and writing the books. Original characters I've created are all mine (muahhahaha).

Warnings: It's a Babe story. Rated M+. Bad Language, Alcohol, Drunken Decisions, Sexual Situations, Violence, Attempted Sexual Assault, and a Happy Ending. Not cupcake friendly, but no brutal bashing…

A/N: So we've finally reached the end. I want to thank each and every one of you who has read my story! I have loved reading all of your reviews and kind words and have really enjoyed sharing this story with you all.

Chapter Nineteen

"Babe. Babe! Steph, you're dreaming," Ranger's voice said as someone shook me.

The nightmare of Talavera's laughing face melting with Jeanne Ellen's faded into darkness and I jolted awake. I found Ranger's gorgeous face inches from mine, the fear of my nightmare fading almost instantly. What a beautiful sight to wake up to.

"Ranger." My eyes traced over his features. His jaw was clean shaven once more, and he smelt strongly of Bvlgari soap, Ranger and clean skin. Mouth-watering, in other words. His bare chest was inches from mine. If I took a deep breath my nipples would brush against his, my shirt, or rather his shirt, be damned. My nipples practically hardened at the mere sight of him, the traitors. God, I wanted him naked right now. No, not just now. Any time. I always wanted him, morning, noon or night.

"I'm here .You're safe, Babe," he murmured a second before his lips descended on mine and he proceeded to take my breath away with a soft reassuring kiss. My heart fluttered, my toes curled and my body warmed. God I'd missed this. Missed him. Wanted him. My abdomen contracted with feelings that were too strong and mixed up to describe.

After thirty seconds… okay, maybe more like two minutes, I remembered I had a bone to pick with him. I shoved on his chest and he disconnected his lips from mine. Barely. Our breathing intermingled and our lips caressed each other as we breathed heavily. Electricity sizzled between us; my skin tingled where we made contact.

"Ranger. What the hell is all my stuff doing here?" I gasped.

He sat back slightly and cupped my face with one of his hands. His thumb stroking across my bottom lip was making it kind of hard to concentrate. Each swipe seemed to send a jolt straight to my doo-dah.

"I didn't make things clear enough when I left, Babe. That's my fault. Your tattoo told me pretty clearly where you stand; I just failed to return the favour."

Ranger never missed anything! I knew he had to have seen my tattoo when my shirt was ripped open. Wait, what was he saying? "What are you saying, Ranger?" I whispered, staring up at him with wide, cautious eyes. I wanted so badly to hear him say the words.

"Steph. I love you."

That was it. No qualifiers, no monologue of admiration, no poetry about how stunning my face was, or how my eyes struck him down or how he wanted to worship my body; no unnecessary words. Just a simple I love you. It was more than I could have ever asked for. I threw my arms around his shoulders, my heart just about bursting in my chest as tears filled my eyes.

"Oh God, I love you too," I cried into his neck, unable to hold back my tears of relief.

His arms wrapped around me tightly holding me securely to his body. His hand ran up and down my back reassuringly. "I know, Steph. I know," he said quietly.

His hand slipped under my chin and he brought his lips back down on mine, giving me a long passionate kiss that went a hell of a long way to reassuring me he meant what he said. "Don't cry, Babe. Please," he murmured, his lips moving to kiss and lick my tears away.

I laughed as he nuzzled into my neck and shrieked when he blew a raspberry. I shoved him back and rubbed my neck to stop it tickling.

"I'm crying because I'm happy, Ranger. So ridiculously happy and relieved that you love me too," I explained quietly as I took a few deep breaths and calmed myself.

"God, Babe. You have no idea," he whispered, drawing me back into a heated kiss. I had no idea what I had no idea about, but if remaining clueless meant I'd get kisses like this, I'd happily stay in the dark.

"I could have lost you today, Babe, and you'd never have known how I feel." His lips moved against mine even as he spoke, kissing me again with a kind of desperation I'd never experienced before. Christ, I could have lost him today just as easily, and he'd have never heard me say I loved him either.

"I knew, Ranger, or more I hoped. I just never thought we would be on the same page at the same time," I panted, giving him a wobbly smile. His returning smile stole my breath away.

He gently urged me back down onto the bed and covered my body with his. His weight pressed down on me lightly; I could feel every muscled and hard inch of his body pressed up against my soft curves and all the right places. I wanted him desperately, as desperately as he'd kissed me a moment ago. I needed to know this was real, that he was here, alive, that we were both safe.

"Now we are. I'm not letting you go, Babe. Not again. Never again."

His tongue touched the tip of mine and fireworks exploded inside my body. I shivered as the air around us became charged with more than just love. It positively crackled with our frantic desire. I slid my hand down to cup his heavy erection. He groaned into my mouth as I squeezed and stroked him gently.

"I want all of you this time, Ranger. However much you can give me, I want it. Do you want that too?" I whispered into his mouth, my eyes staring deep into his.

A tender smile danced across his lips. "You're mine, Steph. I'm yours. You have all of me."

His hands grasped the edge of my shirt and tugged it upwards. I lifted my arms lazily and kept kissing him until we physically had to separate to get my shirt off. His lips touched back to mine instantly as I heard my shirt land somewhere on the floor. My skin was electrified where it met his bare skin. His nipples rasped against mine and I whimpered into his mouth. I felt him smile against my lips before he sat back.

I mumbled a pitiful, "Ran-ger."

He smiled down at me softly and then shifted his gaze down to my right side. His eyes traced over every inch of my tattoo, no doubt memorizing each little detail.

"Ladies Night, Babe?" He glanced up at me questioningly as he carefully straddled my hips, his hands resting on either side of my waist, his fingers lightly teasing my skin, setting me on fire.

"Yeah."

"You spent all your money on this?"

"Most of it."

"Worth every cent." His head bent down and he brushed his lips ever so softly over my tattoo, making me want to start crying all over again. His hair tickled my skin, making me shiver in longing.

"How come you never dug? You could have found out where I'd been, who I was with, what I'd done within hours of me blurting out something had happened on Ladies Night that I didn't want you to know about," I wondered, running my hands through his hair gently.

"Did do some digging. Made sure you were safe and nothing bad had happened. But I wanted you to come to me. Wanted you to tell me. Wanted you to realise you could trust me with your secrets, Babe," he said, his breath gently teasing my skin as he spoke. My heart practically melted right out of my chest. Of course I knew I could trust him. His eyes flashed up to mine. Dark, intense and serious. "I want a photo of you, naked, wearing nothing but this tattoo."

A bubble of laughter escaped my lips. I was laughing at how absurd I had been. I'd been so terrified of him finding out about it. If I'd just worked up the courage to show him straight away, we might have reached this point weeks, if not months ago. "I thought you'd be angry," I explained.

A frown darkened his features. His eyes strayed down to my tattoo again, his gaze almost reverential. "Babe." His eyes flashed back to mine. Translation, why the fuck would I be angry about this?

I shrugged uncomfortably. "Angry that I was too attached to you. Angry about your face on public property for all the masses to see."

He crawled up my body, pressing the length of his against mine with just a delicious amount of his weight. "Just how many people see you without your shirt on, Babe? I want their names and addresses."

I bit my bottom lip and stared at the smile that was on his face. I'd seen him smile more in the past fifteen minutes than I had in the past year or two.

"When I'm at the beach?" I phrased hesitantly.

The look in his eyes made heat rush through my body. "We'll just have to go to a private beach," he murmured. Oh yeah, I was all for me, Ranger and a private beach. Imagine the possibilities.

Then he was up on his knees, dragging my shorts and panties off of my legs and forcing his own down and off. His weight pressed back down on me, our naked bodies touching from lips to toes. Heat rushed through my veins as our mouths tasted and tormented each other. I couldn't get enough of him. I'd never get enough of him.

"You on the pill still, Babe?"

"Implanon," I mumbled, arching my body up to try to reach his lips once more.

His cock slid between my slick folds and I froze, both of us groaning in ecstasy.

"You get checked out after the Cop?" he growled, shifting back and forward once more, his cock sliding through my wetness again.

My eyes crossed at the pleasure of him. How could he even think straight at a time like this? I wrapped my arms around his neck tightly, ignoring my bulky cast, entwining my fingers in his hair to hold him to me. I wanted as close to him as physically possible.

"Yes, all clear," I panted desperately.

His lips descended back down on mine, his tongue stroking roughly in and out of my mouth.

"More," I moaned into his mouth as he continued his skilful seduction of my mind, body and soul.

His hand had somehow managed to slip between our bodies; his finger rubbing up and down my centre before plunging inside without warning. I gasped into his mouth, so turned on by him that after a few strokes, I could already feel my walls starting to contract.

"I want you inside me, Ranger. Please," I begged shamelessly, tugging not so gently on his hair.

"Shhhh, Babe. We'll get there," he said as a second finger joined his first.

His mouth trailed wet kisses down my neck and found my right breast, licking and sucking it enthrallingly. His thumb joined his two fingers, circling around my clit. When his teeth gently bit down on my breast, I flew apart, crying out his name as pleasure washed over me. When I came back to myself, Ranger was hovering above me, his eyes watching me intensely as he gently thrust his hips forward, his cock brushing against my now sensitive clit. My eyes rolled back and I jerked against him.

"Babe," he whispered, shifting back and lining his cock up with my entrance. He waited and waited. My eyes snapped open and when our gazes collided, time stopped. He pushed forward, his tip stretching and filling me. And then he paused.

"Don't stop, don't stop," I cried out raggedly.

His mouth covered mine, silencing my cries. "Easy, Babe. I don't want to hurt you," he said against my lips.

I rolled my hips and he growled into my mouth, taking it in a bruising kiss. "I'm ready, Ranger. I've never been so ready," I panted. That was all it took for him to slide all of the way inside me. My eyes closed in pure bliss.

Perfect.

"Not quite perfect, Babe," he whispered, his lips finding mine as he slowly drew back and thrust forward.

I whimpered in pleasure. Yes. Now it was perfect. I lost myself in each thrust of his tongue and each driving plunge of his cock as he brought us higher and higher. There was a reason I called him The Wizard.

As our bodies moved together I was rocked to my very soul at the intensity of feelings that rushed through me – desperate need, shaky want, a gentle longing for him, all-consuming love, hunger, and savage greediness to be the only woman in his life from this moment on.

I dug my hands into his back and wrapped my good leg around him. My hips rose off of the bed involuntarily, my body arching closer to him as waves of pleasure crashed through my body.

I was seized by a rush of sensation so intense I couldn't contain it. I let out a wild scream of pleasure that resembled his name. The immensity of it was magnified even further when I felt, deep inside me, the spasms of his release.

"Oh God, Steph. I love you, Babe. Love you." He buried his face in my neck, as our bodies rose and fell.

I didn't know if it was seconds, minutes, or an eternity that we lay tangled together in a state of complete exhaustion, the comfort of Ranger's body pressing heavily down on mine. Naturally, he was the first to recover. He propped himself up on one elbow and gazed down at me, his eyes warm, soft and, oh yeah, definitely satisfied. His other hand came up and brushed my loose curls away from my face.

"Why'd you leave, Babe?"

Way to kill my buzz, Batman. I tried to turn my face away, but his hand caught my jaw, keeping our eyes connected. It was kind of hard to run from him, physically and emotionally, when he was still semi-hard, buried deep inside me.

"I thought I had overstayed my welcome. You didn't – we weren't… I thought by going out of town, you were trying to give me space to pack my things and leave. You didn't say you wanted me here when you came back."

His face softened and he bent to give me a sweet kiss. "Like I said, Steph. My fault… and Bones' for believing you."

I snorted. "Don't blame, Bones. I can be very persuasive when I want to be."

"Don't I know it," he murmured, kissing me long and slow. "But, you lie to my men again, Babe, I'll paddled your ass so hard you won't sit for a week."

A shiver rushed through me at the thought of Ranger paddling me, but then my brain caught up with the rest of his statement.

"Hey –!" I started to protest. He kissed me again, his lips gentle against mine.

"And I want you here, Steph. Wherever I am, that's where I want you to be, too. Always."

I melted under him and dragged his mouth back down to mine. It was countless minutes before we broke apart for air. We just lay quietly together, Ranger's hands stroking my skin affectionately as we basked in our post-coital bliss.

"I talked to Joe, today," I murmured, rubbing my hands up and down his fantastic arms, entranced by the strength I knew he had there in contrast with the gentle care he used with me.

His eyes narrowed at my words and he shifted his hips forward, as if to remind me he was still buried inside me. I knew. Believe me, I knew. The feeling of Ranger inside me was forever branded in my memory.

"I don't think he'll give us any problems. He's let me go," I finished quietly.

His eyes studied me carefully before he flashed a broad smile. "I know, Babe. Spoke to Morelli myself. Told him you'd made your choice, and that he wasn't it. If he wanted to be stupid, and lose you from his life completely, he could keep acting the way he was. If he wanted to stay friends, he needed to check his attitude. He checked his attitude."

I stopped breathing. He talked to Joe. Actually talked and got him to come around? That actually explained a lot.

"I can't believe you," I said softly. His smile disappeared and he frowned again. I reached up and cupped his face with one of my hands. "You always take care of everything, even things I don't realize need taking care of," I whispered.

The smile came back, and he turned his head so he could press a kiss to my palm. "You're welcome, Babe."

"Thank you, Ranger. Really."

He dipped his head down, his nose brushing mine sweetly. "Love you, Babe. But if Morelli puts his lips on you again, I'll cut out his tongue."

I flinched and my eyebrows shot up to my hairline. "What?! What's that got to do with anything?" Dammit, he must have heard about Morelli kissing me today. Tank, the tattletale.

Ranger flashed a grin, letting me know he was just teasing. At least I thought he was teasing. "Tank's got a big mouth, Babe." His lips tenderly brushed mine, cutting off my rant before it had even left my mouth.

I mentally sent my thanks to drunken Stephanie as Ranger flexed his hips and rolled us so I was on top. This might not have gone exactly according to her plans, but it sure worked out pretty darn perfectly in the end.

"Babe, you do know Santos drew a dick on the bottom side your plaster, right?"

"What?!"

Well, almost perfectly.

The end.

Thank you all once again! I hope the ending didn't disappoint.

I am working on some other fanfics, but this one alone took over a year for me to write and edit so it might be a little while before you hear from me again. I hope to go on another journey with you all soon!

Sasha :D