A/N: Hey strangers *wink*

Read On!

Previously:

"Beautiful! Who do you think organised all of this? Bossman was going to keep you for himself, but I said No!" Lester threw his arms out in theatrical gestures as he spoke and Stephanie couldn't help but grin at the playful man.

My mother's going to have a coronary.

It'll be worth it.

Chapter Eight

SPOV

"I won AGAIN!"

Lester ran circles around his sandcastle, his Cuban colouring in contrast to the tribal-like dance movements as he laughed and taunted his co-workers.

Co-workers who then promptly tackled him onto his prized sandcastle, completely obliterating it.

Four men rolled around in the sand, laughing madly. They were, for all intents, just a rambunctious group of friends – albeit friends that doubled as sculpted specimens of male virility who performed complicated martial arts moves amongst their 'playful' wrestling. Two more had taken to the water with surfboards, and the remaining man, woman and child surveyed the motley group with a sort of bemused fondness.

Well, that's stretching the truth a bit. Steph looked on with bemused fondness. Ranger was a mystery behind mirrored sunglasses, but his face was relaxed in a way that Steph was sure she hadn't seen before.

It was as if it were the first time they'd let themselves have any sort of fun, mused Steph. She thought about it a little more, the long hours the men worked, the physical labour of their jobs and mental taxation their military roles must have cost them.

What they must have seen on tour. What they still did see, working amongst the muck of Trenton's lowlife bail jumpers.

These men, more than anyone, deserved a day off.

For the life of her, Steph couldn't imagine why they had decided that their perfect day off comprised of holding a sand castle completion judged by a four month old little girl who awarded first prize by blowing spit bubbles. It seemed preposterous that right now, back in Trenton, RangeMan was running on a skeleton crew so that these men could spend the day seeing who could make Lisa laugh the most.

Men who nearly passed out from the hilarity of when Ram made Lisa laugh so hard she farted and crapped herself.

Even Ranger had smiled at that.

Steph was drawn out of her reflections by the unearthly sound of her hunger announcing itself to the world.

She wasn't sure what was more embarrasing: that Ranger, Tank and Lester (aka the Merry Men who had spent more time with her) remained relaxed or that Ram and Hal had fallen into a defensive crouch.

There was the slightest lift to the corners of Ranger's lips at the response. "At ease, men."

Steph lightly smacked his arm in reprimand, then turned to Tank.

"Should we call the Bobby and Woody in so we can vote on lunch?" she asked her fellow food enthusiast.

Tank picked up Lisa, a startling contrast of size and colour in his near coal-black arms, and glinted Steph a smile.

"Ella packed."

Lester ran down the beach, hollering at the Rangemen in the water so loud Steph could hear him back against their sheltered spot against the sand dunes, whilst Hal and Ram followed Tank back to the SUV's to retrieve the food.

Both the men coming in from the beach and the men behind them in the car park could be seen and heard to be bantering, jostling and ribbing one another. Tank in particular was having fun directing Hal and Ram to gather what looked like a nation's worth of food from the cars, claiming he couldn't carry a single thing since he was holding Lisa. Their deep voices intertwined with Lisa's high pitched babbling, good-natured, and Steph felt a warmth at seeing the light-hearted sides of the men.

The wind picked up slightly, blowing her hair back from her face as she lazily lolled her head sideways, peeking over at Ranger to find him looking back at her.

"This is nice," she said simply.

He smiled, and nodded. A rare moment of ESP passed between them, and Steph realised Ranger was also pleased his comrades were enjoying themselves on their day off.

"Many of the men aren't from Jersey Babe," Ranger spoke quietly as he leaned back on his hands. "Their families, those that have them, are far away. I don't know what the men do on their days off, besides pick up overtime or hitting the clubs. This is good for them. Wholesome. Thank you."

Steph ducked her head, a little shy, a little overwhelmed that he was thanking her for the spontaneous trip he and Lester had improvised during her babysitting stint. She hadn't felt like she'd done anything, or contributed at all besides showing up, but it made her feel valuable that maybe she and Lisa had been the ice breaker that brought the men together for reasons other than work.

It felt nice that she might have done something for the men that always seemed ready to leap to her aid.

There was a loud clap of an open palm hitting someone's head and a yelp from behind them.

"Ow! Steph, Ram hit me!"

"Taddle tale! Ignore Hal, he was sneaking food."

"Was not!"

"Was to!"

"Don't make me come back there!" Steph warned them, trying to be serious. "And if you were stealing food, you deserve to get hit!"

"That means we can hit him!"

"No it doesn't!" Steph turned around just in time to see Tank punch Hal in the shoulder.

"Hey, no hitting while holding the baby!"

Tank turned to Lester. "Here, hold the baby for a sec."

Ranger was all out grinning from beside her. "Babe... You may need to rethink your parenting style."

End.