382AN: This is the last chapter of this story. I've posted three today, so if you're just tuning in, go back to Chapter 22! I really don't want to leave you guys hanging any longer, so I thought I'd spend my day, locked in my office, editing so I could get it all out. Thank you so much for reading. I'll be gone for a bit, because i'm working on a couple of stories, but I promise I'll be back!
Apparently, the phrase, 'honor among thieves,' was a foreign concept to the Muppets. Once they had all been brought into the station, they all began talking, almost unable to stop themselves. All of them that is, except Bucky, who refused to speak without a lawyer. It didn't matter; the others rolled on him so fast he might as well have been a rug they were tossing in a dumpster.
Ed hated the button factory. He hated that it was the only work he could get. He'd been fired from the Factory Foreman job John had secured for him because there had been an accident on Ed's watch that had cost the company a lot of money. Justin Lewis had been willing to overlook it, but his board of directors hadn't. Ed had been fired, so Lewis had paid the mortgage on Ed's house, and Ed rented it out under the table to earn extra income. It wasn't exactly the lifestyle he'd been envisioning for himself back when there was still the chance he could go pro. When he saw Dickerson in Trenton, Ed wanted revenge, so he called the old players, and they started plotting.
Bucky transferred to Trenton from Boston to keep an eye on the police end of things. He was the one to suggest arranging for Debbie to have her name on the house in Cape May as a decoy if they needed to getaway. North was Canada, where they planned to take a plane to someplace without extradition until the statute of limitations on the stalking charges ran out. Then Dickerson got killed, and they started to panic, but then they got lucky, Bucky was assigned to his murder, and Ranger had called me off.
Then Angie found the skeleton, and I started digging. They knew when I spoke to Ed that I was getting close to figuring everything out. There was no way they would get away with the murder they thought they had committed, so they came up with the plan to lure Joe, Ranger and I out to Moonachie, where we would disappear.
Bucky would continue to investigate, and when we were found in November, the trail would be stone cold. He'd quietly drop the investigation into Dickerson's death, and they would be in the clear.
He hadn't done enough research on us to know that Ranger was "Captain Prepared" and that I usually walked around with a panic button on me now. The funny thing was, Dickerson had gone to the factory voluntarily, with the intention of staging his death. Any lawyer worth anything would have been able to get that kidnapping charge dropped, saying that there was no proof that Dickerson hadn't tied himself to the machine. Dickerson had destroyed any other evidence against them for the stabbing and shooting. Meaning the only thing they could be charged with, the only thing there was any evidence of, was Menacing Dickerson. Their time would have been minimal.
It was the kidnapping of Joe, Ranger and I, at gunpoint, and then actually shooting me that they were being charged with. They made deals to have their sentences run concurrently. Once they were behind bars, Ranger brought Dickerson out of hiding. He went immediately to the hospital to see Bernadette. She was still sick, but he was able to be at her bedside as she made her slow recovery, and since he had all kinds of research under his belt about her sickness, he could help the doctor's help her more efficiently, and she began improving much more quickly.
I, however, was still shot, and it fucking hurt. Bucky had shot my right arm. So I was basically useless. I was bored, I hurt, and I was getting cabin fever again. About the only positive was that Lula's present was ready and had arrived far more quickly than I'd been expecting. I took it over to her house, and she had squealed with happiness and then started crying again. The day of the shower, I had called Trina at Parade headquarters and asked if I could commission a replica of the Mrs. Claus outfit and a mini one for Lula's baby. When Trina found out what had happened in the parade float, she spoke to her bosses and convinced them to let me have one of the backup dresses. Trina made the baby version of the costume in about a day and had them both express shipped to me right away.
Lula's reaction had been the bright spot in an avalanche of boredom. Despite the pain in my arm, it had been a good day. But that was days ago, and I was back to being couped up and bored.
"I have something to cheer you up," Ranger said, turning off the television that I'd been staring at but ignoring.
"Yeah?" I said. "We can't have sex. It hurts to move too much."
"I know," Ranger said. "Feel up to a car ride?"
"Sure," I said. Ranger helped me into a pair of sneakers and draped a sweater over my shoulders. We took Ranger's 911 since it was the easiest to get in and out of, and we started heading toward Princeton. It wasn't long before we pulled into the gated community that was mostly under construction and would be our new home. We pulled up to the new house, and I looked at him. "It's done?"
"There's some cosmetic stuff to do in a couple of bedrooms, but yes," Ranger said. Our house was a bungalow with a finished basement. I didn't want an upstairs. I had this weird fear of being alone in the house with someone creeping around downstairs. The basement was being set up as a gym for Ranger, and I guessed, me, when I felt squishy. There was a huge laundry room down there as well, which was good because it meant I could actually do my own laundry for a change. One of the things we had loved about the house in Florida was the massive indoor-outdoor dining room. While that wasn't really possible in New Jersey, we found a compromise, and the dining room was under a curved glass ceiling and wall that looked out over our backyard and into the wilderness. And because Ranger was paranoid, the glass was bulletproof and tinted. It was a bit 80's, but I really loved it. We had a huge bedroom, and because I had always been in love with them, a sunken living room with an enormous fireplace. The kitchen was fully decked out to Ella's specifications since she would probably be the one cooking in it the most. She had a granny suite in the house, above the garage, that she'd designed for herself. The plan was for her to live here and commute into Rangeman to take care of the boys, and the apartment, four days a week, and for the other three days, she would tend to the house here. She was excited about it and looking forward to having a garden to work in for a change.
Ranger and I walked in, and I kicked off my shoes and let my socks slide on the hardwood floor as I walked around, exploring our new house. Julie's room needed painting and trim. The guest bedroom and my office needed some love, but the rest of the house was perfect. The plush grey carpeting of the sunken living room felt great on my feet as we stepped down into it. A sofa, identical to the one on Seven, was the only piece of furniture in the house, except for an 80-inch television that was mounted above the fireplace. Ranger helped me sit down on the sofa and turned on the television.
We were looking at a loading screen, and Ranger grinned as he sat next to me on the couch.
"What?" I asked.
The garage from Rangeman Miami appeared on the screen. All of the fleet cars had been changed out to a variety of minivans in a rainbow of colours—all of them with stick figure Rangemen on the back. Ranger reached into his pocket and pulled out one of the decals for me to put on my iPad. "I've had the garage closed all day for an inspection," he said.
"What kind of inspection?"
"I didn't specify," Ranger replied. He pulled out his phone and sent a text that simply said:
-Go
About a minute later, three Rangemen came down to the garage and stopped dead. There was panic on their faces as they realized all of the regular vehicles were missing. Someone called upstairs, and Bulldog, the Miami Tank, came down and started running his hands through his hair. He immediately called Ranger. "Boss, the man who did the inspections for you, how well do you know him?"
"Very well," Ranger said. "Why do you ask?"
"All of the cars are gone," Bulldog said.
"No," Ranger said. "From what I can see on my screen, the garage is full. I think you'll find that the keys for the vans are in the valet box on the wall."
"Oh god," Bulldog said. "I was hoping she'd forgotten."
"Nope," Ranger said. "You're more or less fucked."
Ranger disconnected, and we watched as the men got into one of the vans. The engine caught, and we heard the stereo blast the Frozen soundtrack. I knew what would be happening. The men would be trying to turn it off using the stereo in the dash. But it wouldn't work. Those stereos would be disconnected, and a second, secret, hidden stereo was connected to the speakers. Each car was different, each with annoying music that would totally get stuck in their heads.
"This is fantastic, but I was sort of looking forward to the upside-down offices," I said.
"That's for when your arm is better," Ranger said and kissed my temple.
Ranger made us popcorn to enjoy while we watched the men experience the cars. After a while, I realized that Ranger wasn't looking at the tv, but watching me instead, with a funny expression on his face. It was the same face he made when he was thinking about how much he loved me. I grinned up at him, "What have I done?"
"I was just thinking about this house," he said. "And how you have a way about making me change my viewpoint when it comes to certain things."
"Like marriage," I said.
"It's working out pretty well so far."
"I think so," I said.
"Well, if I could be so very wrong about what a bad idea marriage would be, it's possible I'm wrong about other things as well."
"What sorts of other things?" I asked.
He put his hand on my belly. "Other things I thought I'd never want to do again."
AN: My next story will be like Molly. It will be a spin off of this series, but not with Ranger and Steph as main characters. It will run concurrently with Molly in the timeline. I'll be back in a while!