Disclaimer: Not mine!

Notes: Huge thanks to Fallharvst for the read through!

Sorry this one took longer then expected, the muse didn't want to cooperate and I've been hella distracted by real life!

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Thanks for all the reads/fave/and reviews!

Edited 5/23 because I missed a mistake and Fallharvst set me straight! Oops! LOL

Chapter Thirty-Two

About ten minutes after Ranger left Ella came into the apartment buzzing like a bee. She called out a hello to me at the doorway and immediately began collecting the plates I'd moved in Ranger-kiss-induced-daze to the sink and started placing them in the dishwasher. She eyed the pan on the stove and smiled at me eyes sparkling. "Ranger cooked?"

I nodded surprised she even asked, clearly it wasn't me—the building was still standing.

"That's lovely, what did he make?" She started rinsing the pan in the sink before placing it into the dishwasher beside to the dishes.

I didn't know if I could pronounce it. "Something Cuban, with chicken."

She smiled at me. "Did you like it?"

"It was delicious."

"Wonderful!" If she smiled any brighter she'd be glowing. "I put some snacks for you in the cupboard beside the fridge. Did Ranger tell you?"

I shook my head no.

"Well, I'm sure he was in a rush to get out of here." She stated drying her hands on a dish towel and closing the dishwasher before turning it on, she opened one of the top doors and I could immediately make out the colorful outer wrapper on a box of tasty cakes, a jar of peanut butter, and two more boxes I couldn't make out but they bore the same bright eye-catching colors used to lure kindergarteners towards sugar laced breakfast cereals.

"Just in case you get hungry later, and if you need to you know; you're welcome to stay with me and Luis on six."

"Thank you Ella. Oh, and thank you for the Clothes, again." I felt color rising in my cheeks. Poor Ella has replaced the most basic essentials for me more times than I could count. I sometimes wondered if there was a secret storage room somewhere in the building stocked with all my favorite brands and spare uniforms for whenever disaster struck.

"Nonsense, happy to do it. You call me if you need anything, anything at all."

I promised her I would and she bustled out the door onto her next mission. I went to the kitchen phone and dialed 03 waiting a split second for the line to connect me to Bobby.

"Hey Bomber."

"How'd you know it was me?" I wondered.

"Because Ranger just left, and you're the only other person who would be calling me from seven." Bobby replied with a hint of teasing in his voice.

Oh, Right. Duh.

"So, what can I do for you?" Bobby continued with an offbeat note of trepidation.

"Um, Ranger told me Lester's on four and said I should talk to you before going down?"

"Oh, yeah Les would love to see you Steph, just keep your voice down, don't turn on the lights; and you shouldn't stay longer then fifteen minutes."

Wow. That sounded pretty severe.

"He's lucky it wasn't worse, dumbass." Bobby scoffed. Before I could comment on that he distracted me by continuing. "I have a replacement cellphone for you on five, it's programmed with your number and we've got it connected to your voicemail and Hector downloaded your contact information so it will just replace the phone you had in New York."

And it no doubt carried a state of the art tracking device and some kind of panic button function unlike my store bought android. "Thank you Bobby."

"You want me to bring it up?"

"No, I'll come down and get it, and then go see Les."

"I'll give you the keycard so you can get in he doesn't need to answer the door. He's on severely limited activity. His brain needs rest." He repeated clearly trying to drive the point home though he wouldn't discourage me from going to see him.

I agreed and hung up even more concerned for Les, and wondering what the Hell he said to Ranger. Guess I'd just have to find out. I went back to the bedroom and grabbed a pair of running shoes from my side of the closet slipping my feet into them. I left the apartment and went to the elevator taping the down arrow so I could ride to five. Bobby was waiting for me when the doors popped open. He eyed me for a split second, something in his posture, off.

"Are you okay?"

"Fine."

I hesitated. "Do you not want me to see Lester?" I didn't want to make him worse—I just wanted to see that he was okay.

"No, no that's fine Bomber."

Then what was going on? Bobby never looked uncomfortable. "Is Ranger okay?"

"Ranger's fine. Made his contact on the roof and he should be arriving in DC on time."

"Then why do you look so tense?" I shot back.

Bobby blinked, and the set of his shoulders relaxed marginally. "Tank is handling a take-down in Camden; I'm responsible for keeping you safe until Ranger is back."

"I'm standing right here, relax." Then it hit me. "You think I'm going to run out of the building."

"Ranger said not to stop you." He didn't look like he agreed with the order.

"I'm not going anywhere," I reiterated for the second time tonight. Bobby didn't look convinced, and maybe that was fair, but it still rankled. "I promised."

"You've made promises before."

Ouch. I felt my teeth grind and toyed with the idea of leaving just to piss Bobby off—but that was childish even for me. "I promised, and I'm staying here. Can I have my phone please; I'd like to go see Les."

Bobby handed over a plan black phone in a protective probably drop proof case and a slim black card without markings. I stared at it.

"Just wave it in front of the door and the lock will disengage, he's used to me coming in to check him every few hours. The phone doesn't have a password so you'll want to set one."

I nodded and turned around to punch the elevator button. Bobby kept standing behind me. I could feel the tension coming off him in waves. I sighed fighting the urge to snap at him. "I'm not leaving Bobby. I'll come tell you if that changes." The elevator doors opened and I stepped inside turning to hit the button for four. Bobby was still watching me, the patented blank Rangeman expression now in place. It was starting to really piss me off. I slapped my hand out stopping the doors from closing and growled, "What?"

He shook his head, "Fifteen minutes." Then he turned and walked away through the cubicles turning into the control room doorway, probably to watch me on the monitors—make sure I went to four instead of leaving the building.

What the fuck? I let the doors slide shut. I considered flipping the camera in the corner of the ceiling the bird, but didn't. Bobby was just trying to keep me safe. I should be grateful that I had friends and colleagues willing to bend over backwards and risk their lives to keep me safe. I finger waved to the camera instead.

The apartment was completely dark when I opened the door using the keycard Bobby had handed me.

If felt oddly criminal to just walk into someone else's apartment without knocking first. I might indulge in the occasional B&E while skip tracing with Lula but this was a friend, and it felt wrong. Keeping in mind Bobby had told me to keep my visit short and noise to a minimum I didn't call out announcing my presence. He said Lester was used to him coming and going from the apartment so hopefully I wasn't about to get shot.

I stuffed the card in my front pocket so I wouldn't drop it or set it down and forget it, moving towards the hallway that led to the bedroom and bath using the faint blue light someone had set into one of the outlets at knee height. Considering nightlights were hardly Rangeman style and the guys were comfortable in almost complete dark in unfamiliar places like Stark street with all their stealthy training it was probably so Ella could come and go to check on Les too without tripping or needing to turn on the lights. The guys were as mindful of Ella as they were of me, possibly more so. I'd arrived more than once to find a string of men unloading one of the SUV's and carrying all the groceries or home supplies upstairs so that all Ella had to carry was her purse.

Nobody carried my groceries…maybe because I'd never brought any, and I'd probably try to punch them if they did.

The door to the bedroom was open, lights off, the curtains pulled across the expansive wall of windows that would normally look out over the street below. The view inside from the sidewalk obscured with one-way mirror glass that coated most of the building turning it into an urban reflecting pool, smooth and perfect like a pond on a still morning.

I could just make out the outline of a king size bed without a headboard, light colored sheets drawing the only light in the room minuscule as it was as my eyes adjusted to the darkness. The large body in the middle, silent and unmoving, I didn't really want to wake him. Maybe I should leave and come back later.

"This seriously blows man," Lester's muffled voice emanated from the lump on the bed stopping me before I could sneak back out.

I bet. I had to empathize with him. Poor Les. I'd be losing my mind in about five minutes being told I had to sit in the dark with no sound for two weeks. I'd be climbing the walls in under a day.

"Bobby?" Lester shifted and I realized I hadn't said anything yet—and with what Ranger had told me earlier about Lester, maybe standing in the dark doorway of his bedroom while he was injured and possibly half asleep without speaking was the wrong thing to do. I didn't want to cause him any distress, and even half dead in total darkness Les could probably still shoot at me and not miss.

"Not Bobby," I announced and Lester pushed up on his elbow.

"Beautiful?" Les called out sounding confused.

I moved closer to the bed, dropping to sit on the edge of it where I could see him a little better. It was so dark I could barely make out the outline of his features, his strong nose and high cheekbones that gave him his playboy good looks, the normally ordered hair, sticking up in disobedient waves.

"I thought I'd come keep you company or a little bit," at least until Bobby showed up to kick me out.

"Mmmm," Lester slumped towards me and I gasped as his head landed in my lap, one arm slung around my back in a bizarre side hug, his cheek smashed against my thighs. "This is my favorite dream."

Shit. Before I could formulate a response to that he was speaking again.

"It's usually better than this though," he moaned rubbing his cheek against my leg like a cat.

Like a big, warm, sleepy Lester cat without a shirt, oh boy.

"My fucking head is killing me." He whined a second later, voice sleep slurred and soft.

The quiet admission brought my hand up hoping to soothe him somehow. I start running my fingers through short locks normally twisted and perfectly styled on top of his head. Now they were a wild sea of soft wavy curls sticking up in disorderly spikes completely free of any styling products, a sleep swept sea of chaos. It made me think of my nieces when they woke up on Christmas morning at my parent's house when they were really young and visiting from California. All tousled curls and big wide innocent eyes glowing with happiness and magic. For Lester, the clown it was an even more apt comparison. Despite the constant innuendos Lester is almost childlike compared to the guys. He still manages to appear innocent somehow despite being an Ex-Army Ranger that's probably seen more horrors then the average person could ever imagine.

"I'm sorry Ranger beat you up."

"I deserved it." He moaned into my leg, though whether it was from pain, or the fact that I was still sliding my fingers through his curls I don't know.

Curiosity was winning out over my previous concern, clearly Lester was talking—even if his words were a bit slurred either from sleep or pain meds. "What did you say to him?"

"I was trying to convince him to tell you how he feels, before it was too late." Lester mumbled sullenly.

Oh. My heart sunk into my shoes. "And he punched you in the face." So hard that Lester had a grade two concussion. I swallowed, trying to ignore the ache in my chest, tried to focus on running my finger's though Les's disheveled locks making him sigh again.

"Probably the wording." Lester admitted a moment later.

Probably the subject. I thought with a stab of pain.

"Naw, Beautiful it's not that I promise you. Ric is completely head over heels in love with you. He's just too arrogant and bullheaded to admit it. I don't know what his fucking problem is; I'd take you to bed and never let you out of it. My cousin is an idiot."

My fingers froze near the back of Lester's neck. I swallowed, but it didn't seem to help how thick and tight my voice sounded. "That's the problem Les, he wants me in his bed and that's it." I couldn't make the words come out any stronger than a whisper—even in the partial anonymity of the dark, admitting them to someone else was painful.

"Tha's fuck'n Bullshit," Les mumbled. "No fuck'n way. Not possible. He loves you, he's an idiot."

"How do you know?"

"Cause everyone loves you Beautiful, you're so amazing."

I wanted to laugh, but it sort of got strangled by my emotions and died in my throat. "Yeah, that's me."

Amazing at getting in over my head, blowing up cars, endangering his men, screwing everything up...

"You shut your damn mouth and lis'en to me." Les said with more force then before, but the same soft slur telling me it was probably drugs loosening his tongue and command of hard consonant sounds and not just sleep.

"Ranger is a great man, but he's not perfect. He doesn't talk, but I see it, we all see it—he's a wreck when you're in danger, after Scrog, and that fucking Stiva shit where he pulled you out of the cupboard? He thought you were dead, he was so fuck'n wrecked that night Tank had to pry the bottle out of his hand before he destroyed half the building. When he couldn't find you in New York, and Tank didn't know where you were he was tearing this place apart, he was going to New York every night just driving around—looking for you. Like he'd see you just standing on the street. So he can't say it, and that's wrong, but he's screaming it every time he does something for you if you'd pay attention. You two are the only ones that can't see how great you are together, it's killing him."

I opened and closed my mouth like a fish. "It's killing him? Him?! He's killing me! He was the one that sent me back to Joe! And pushed me away! And told me he didn't do relationships!"

"Owww! Fuck Steph not so loud."

Shit. "I'm sorry," I started running my fingers though his tangled hair again in apology. "Sorry,"

"I think I'm starting to see the problem." Lester grumbled. "Ignore all the bullshit he said before, and I'm sure there's a fucking boat load of it because I know that mother fucker and he doesn't do shit halfway. Just listen to him now Beautiful, and give him a chance."

I wanted to so bad, but I was so afraid Les was wrong and I was just setting myself up for more heart ache.

"Beautiful, you don't give a guy a concussion and break his nose for saying he wants to sleep with a woman you just want to be friends with.".

My fingers froze again. He beat Lester up because Lester was interested in me?

"Relax," Les grumbled. "Everyone is interested in you. And I'm dumb, but not that dumb." He huffed then I felt him wince against my leg. "I know you're in love with him. I could see the way you two were tearing each other up when you were here, the whole building was holding its breath. I didn't know if you were going to kill each other every time you started going at it, or fuck the shit out of each other on the floor. Tank was pulling out his hair."

"Tank doesn't have any hair."

"Now you know why." I could hear the smile. "I thought maybe with you putting some pressure on Ranger, with things changing in front of him he couldn't control he could finally get his head out of his ass."

"What did you say?"

Lester hesitated a moment. I felt more then heard the heavy exhale through my pant leg, warm against my skin. "You promise not to punch me in the face?"

"Yes."

Maybe.

"I said if he'd stop wearing his ass like a hat you'd have your legs wrapped around him instead of a pole, and if he wasn't interested enough to work his shit out he should step aside so other very interested parties could have a chance to ride that."

I stared down at his outline in the darkness, feeling him tense against my leg the longer the silence stretched on.

"You're lucky you lived."

"That's what Bobby said," Lester blew out on a sigh. "My cousin loves you Steph, he's just been a moron about it."

"He loves me, in his own way." I repeated Ranger's own words.

"No. He loves you in every way." He sighed. "He just can't let go of the need to keep you safe."

"How is ripping my heart out keeping me safe?" I snarled in frustration.

"He's got himself convinced that if he lets everyone know how important you are someone will hurt you to get to him."

"What the Fuck? Scrog! That's already happened, it's going to happen regardless because everyone already knows how important we are to each other!" I snapped furiously.

"Bingo." Lester said. "He's an idiot. Or he was, he's trying Steph—just give him a chance."

I'd give him a million, even knowing he'd probably break my heart a million and one.

"He won't." Lester whispered hugging me tighter and sighing his voice sounding thicker with each word. "and if he does, I'll kill him myself." He yawned despite the venom in his words.

"Go to sleep Les," It had probably been fifteen minutes anyway.

"I'd ask you to stay," he mumbled sleepily.

"But then Ranger would rip your head off your neck." Bobby pointed out from the doorway and I jumped with a squeak of surprise making Les chuckle, probably he knew Bobby was there the whole time.

"That and I'm not wearing pants." Les slurred obviously grinning against my leg.

"Get off me." I rolled my eyes as he shifted over and Bobby announced he could have more Percocet as he moved closer to the bed to hand Lester what looked like a little cup and a glass of water.

"I'll come see you later." It would give me something to do, and maybe if I Les was willing to talk and I found questions I was brave enough to ask he might answer.

"Okay Beautiful, just think about it."

I doubted I'd be able to think about much else.

I was back upstairs a few minutes later, and after grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge and drinking half of it I couldn't really stall any longer. I pulled out the replacement phone Bobby had given me and eyed it with a deeply engrained wariness.

I hit the button to call up my voicemail and dropped onto Ranger's leather sofa blowing out a deep resigned breath as the message's started up. "You have, eleven new messages." The lady intoned smugly.

The first message started and ended with just one word "Babe," but my breath caught in my throat just the same. The next three messages were also from Ranger's Cellphone. The first two he hung up without a word, the third call started with silence and ended just as he started roaring at someone in seriously pissed off Spanish.

I pulled the phone away from my ear and stared at the screen, the time and date stamp for the message. Two nights ago, when I'd dropped my phone and hadn't answered for an hour and a half.

I knew I'd freaked Ranger out, but thinking about what Les said I felt like I should apologize to him again. Ranger was always so calm and collected I couldn't really imagine him freaking out the way Lester said he did, I tried—but my brain was having trouble picturing it. Meanwhile my heart was beating erratically in my chest afraid to read too much into Ranger's reactions and the reasons behind them.

The next message brought me crashing back down to earth faster than a meteor.

"Stephanie, please call me back. I'm sorry for earlier—I just need to talk to you so I can explain—"

Alex. I pulled the phone from my ear and hit delete. The next two messages were pretty much the same. I guess I was really going to have to move Alex from the 'persistent gentleman caller' category to the 'possibly off his rocker/stalker' category. I hate when that happens.

I sighed, seriously why does this shit always happen to me?

"Stephanie this is your Mother. I don't want to alarm you; I know you're busy with your job but I don't know what else to do. I called Joseph and he said unless you decide to press charges the police can't do anything about him sitting on the street in front of the house, but the neighbors have noticed—"

What the Hell? Who was she talking about?And why the Hell would my Mom call Joe?

"Joe suggested I call your friend Ranger, and I just wasn't sure—"

Whoa. My mom was considering calling Ranger? I played the time stamp for the message; ten am this morning. I was about to hang up when the next message started.

"Hey Steph, its Joe. Listen your Mom called me and as much as I hate to say it; I think you need to get Ranger involved on this one. I may not like some of his methods—but this Alex guy might be bad news. I'm in Atlantic City until Sunday night or I'd have gone by unofficially to help them out. I hope New York is still treating you well, bye."

Now my head was spinning. I hung up and dialed my parent's house. The phone went straight to a busy signal. Shit. Of course, the 'Burg gossip mongers hard at work.My mother was probably ironing the wallpaper by now.

This time it really, really wasn't my fault!

I redialed my voicemail and listened to the last two messages, then promptly wished I hadn't.

"Stephanie, baby please we just need to talk. Everything will be fine if you'd just talk to me!" He didn't even sound like Alex anymore, his voice was all high pitched and thready, making me wonder if he was drinking or strung out on something when he left it. "Look, I know I messed up; but I'm going to make it up to you. I brought flowers for you, I gave them to your Mother, did she tell you? You haven't given me your address so I was hoping you'd come home to get them and I could take you to dinner, somewhere really nice—maybe we could still go to AC. I bought you something else really special, but I'm not going to tell you what it is yet, I want you to be surprised. I'll give you a hint though—it's lace and it matches your eyes. I can't wait to see you wearing it on the beach and nothing else."

Holy crap on a mother fucking cracker!

"What the Hell?" I stared at the phone in my hand. What was he, Bi-polar?! Seriously! "What the Hell?!"

The last message started automatically time stamped this morning at 11:37am.

"Just a friend huh? That's bullshit! That guy is a psycho Stephanie! He just made a huge scene in front of your parent's house, and all the neighbors saw! Your Mother was beside herself! You're fuckin him aren't you? That's why you'll tell that him where you live but not me? How do you think that makes me feel?! That arrogant ass was rubbing it in my face! He wants you to believe I'm the bad guy, but that fucker shows up in black swat with a bunch of gang bangers! That's not the kind of man you need to associate with Stephanie! You know, I brought you flowers and he ruined them! You better call me right now or I'm pressing charges, and you'll be sorry Stephanie!"

Oh shit.

I hung up and tried dialing my parent's house again. Busy signal. Shit. Fuck! Why could I never get through when I needed to?

I was hitting the button to call Ranger before I'd even processed the thought. It got through half a ring and I had just enough time to realizeOh Shit, I was calling Ranger during a Government meeting where he had to fly to Washington—by Helicopter, and I should probably hang up before he answered…

"Babe?"

Too late.

"Shit! I'm sorry! I panicked and I didn't know what to do!"

"Calm down, what's wrong?"

"Alex left all these insane messages on my phone, and he said he was at my parent's house and then he said you were there and my Mom was upset and something about flowers and I couldn't reach the house—"

"It's fine. Your mother is fine. I made Alex leave. That's it."

"Are you kidding me? She's probably freaking out!"

I could just hear it now. The phone has been ringing off the hook, Stephanie! Ranger threw that nice boy Alex off the lawn, like a Frisbee! What will the neighbors think?Jessica Polisnik's daughter doesn't need to have big scary men throw potential suitors off her mother's lawn!

"Relax Stephanie she called me, and he didn't fly like a Frisbee." Ranger said. "Probably didn't flick my wrist enough."

Great! Batman was cracking jokes and I was having a mild panic attack. "He said he's going to press charges!" I bit my lip; the last thing I wanted was for Ranger to get into legal trouble because of me.

"He can try, but going through your parent's mail and opening it is a Federal offense."

"He was opening my parent's mail?" Why the Hell would he do that?

"Presumably to find an address for you. Your mother said they received two birthday cards for your father in the mail the last three days, both from old army buddies that happen to have return address in New York—one still had the gift card to Rossini's inside, so clearly he wasn't looking for cash or gifts."

I was stunned.

"You actually spoke to my Mother?"

"Yes, briefly—we had coffee. I would have stayed longer but we were meeting with Brentley and I wanted to be there for you."

My head was spinning. "So, you were at my parent's this morning?"

And he had coffee, with my mother…What planet was I living on?!

"Yes, your mother called me because Alex was going through the mailbox and your father was out with the taxi, she was concerned about confronting him herself and I think she made a wise choice."

"And you threw him off the lawn."

"I suggested it was in his best interest to leave of his own free will." Ranger stated in a tone that made me certain he'd done a Hell of a lot more than just that. Oh boy.

"…and what happened to the flowers?" I croaked.

Ranger paused for a beat, "he decided to eat them. Gotta go Babe," and he was gone.

I stared at the phone in my hand again completely speechless, mouth hanging open mentally picturing Alex eating a bouquet of flowers while Ranger stood there arms crossed over his chest looking deadly. Yikes! That shouldn't give me a hot flash, but it totally did.

Guess that explained why Ranger was late to the meeting!

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To be continued...