A/N: Thank you Elenimou32 and JB (Guest) for giving my brain food for thought on this chapter. And thank you for all who left such positive and encouraging comments. I honestly thought it would take longer to get the second chapter out, but you know how it is when the story demands to be told. Who am I to argue? Please review and let me know what you think!

Chapter 2

As consciousness slowly returned, I registered a couple things at once. From the antiseptic smell, I knew I was in the hospital. And, there was someone sitting beside my bed with a hand on my wrist at my pulse point. As I struggled to open my eyes, I also realized I had the worst hangover of my life. My McDonald's french fries and icy Coke were going to need some help this time.

I decided it was better to keep my eyes closed and asked the person beside me, "Where am I?"

I don't know what I was expecting, but I felt a flash of disappointment when Bobby's voice responded, "Lenox Hill Hospital." I knew Ranger was in the wind and wasn't going to turn up beside my bed but still, I couldn't help my initial reaction. I knew I was in good hands and the guys would take care of me.

"Did we get the asshole?" I asked quietly.

"Yeah, Steph. You did an amazing job. As soon as I saw you take that drink I was headed in to extract you, but Tank told me to hold off and just keep an eye on you. He said to trust you and you would get the job done."

I gave a weak smile at that. It was nice to know Tank had that kind of faith in me. "So when can I get out of here?"

Bobby must have known that was coming because he said, "I've already rung for the nurse. Your stomach was pumped last night and they wanted you to stay overnight for observation. The doctor said once you were awake you could go home, as long as there was someone to stay with you for today."

The nurse came in with some Tylenol for my headache and discharge instructions. Someone had packed up my things from my hotel room and I slipped on a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt for the ride home. Bobby brought in the wheelchair and gave me a lift out to the waiting SUV. Tank and Hal had headed back to Trenton after turning Marc over to the authorities and making sure I was going to be alright. Lester and Vince had decided to stay and wait for Bobby and me so we could all ride back together. I sat in the back with Bobby while Vince drove and Les rode shotgun. Bobby pulled me to the middle of the seat so I could snuggle against him and doze on the way home.

I woke up as we were leaving the Turnpike and entering Trenton. The Tylenol had helped with my headache but now I was starving. I hadn't eaten dinner last night and was nauseous when I woke up this morning but now my stomach was demanding some attention. Bobby must have heard my stomach rumbling because he told Vince to stop at the next McDonald's he saw. Before long, I was inhaling a Big Mac and a large fry and starting to feel human again.

We pulled into my parking lot just as I was licking the last bit of greasy, salty goodness from my fingers. I was still feeling a little weak and tired, but there seemed to be no lasting effects from last night. Blood tests had confirmed that I had be slipped GHB, a common "date rape" drug. Aside from the hangover, I would be fine but it was frightening to have absolutely no memory of what happened between the time Bobby carried me out of the hotel and when I woke up in the hospital.

Bobby walked me up to my apartment and made me wait outside while he did the required sweep for psychos, stalkers and killer dust bunnies. Once I got the all clear, I walked in and dropped on the couch like a marionette who lost her strings. Bobby offered to put a movie in and we got comfortable and settled in for a Die Hard marathon. It always amazes me when I watch all five movies. This series was made over twenty-five years, but aside from Bruce Willis losing his hair, the characters don't really age.

I dozed off at some point and when I woke up, Bobby was gone and Joe was sitting on the end of the couch watching a baseball game. There was an open beer and a Pino's pizza box sitting on my coffee table so I assumed Joe had stopped by for dinner. My stomach let out a loud rumble at the smell of the pizza. I sat up and helped myself to a napkin and a slice of pizza while Joe continued to stare at the television. I could tell by the way his jaw was clenched that he was trying to get a handle on his temper, so I decided to eat my pizza and wait him out.

Our on again/off again relationship had been in a comfortable 'on' stage for the last few months. If I were being completely honest with myself, I would have to admit that we had settled into a bit of a rut. We got together several times a week for take-out, television and sex. We hadn't been arguing much at all, mostly because the cause of a lot of our arguments had been in the wind for the last three months. The rest of our arguments were almost all about my job, but things had been going fairly well with bounty hunting lately. In fact, I hadn't rolled in garbage in several weeks and, through no fault of my own, I had only sent one car to car heaven.

Because of this, I wanted to maintain the peace as long as I could so I kept munching on my pizza. Joe stood up and walked into the kitchen. I heard the refrigerator open and close before Joe came back with two more beers. He set one down in front of me and took a swig off the one in his hand.

"Want to tell me what happened last night?" he asked, still looking at the television rather than at me.

I contemplated his question as I continued to chew. Truthfully, the answer to his question was "no", but I don't think that was the answer he was looking for. I swallowed my pizza and took a fortifying sip of my beer. I knew the calm was over and the storm was about to begin.

"I helped Rangeman out with a distraction. The guy had skipped on a five million dollar bond and we were able to bring him in without anyone getting hurt," I said with a note of pride.

"No one got hurt?" he asked, still focused on the game. "Then why did I find Bobby sitting on your couch babysitting my unconscious girlfriend who was recovering from a date rape drug hangover after having her stomach pumped and spending the night in the hospital?"

Well, when he put it like that, it sounded a lot worse than it was. "I meant no innocent bystanders were hurt. And I'm fine."

He finally turned to me with a look of disbelief on his face. "How can you say you're fine? You were given GHB by a man accused of kidnapping and rape. How could Ranger put you in such a risky situation? Anything could have happened."

"Ranger didn't ask me to do the job, Tank did. Ranger has been in the wind for the last three months. He didn't know about this job." Joe's face registered surprise at this bit of information. I guess he didn't know Ranger was gone. "And it was my own fault I was drugged. I knew this guy was suspected of drugging women's drinks and Tank told me not to drink anything he gave me. But when I saw Ranger walk in with this gorgeous woman on his arm, I just reacted and took the drink without thinking." As the words were coming out of my mouth some small part of my brain was screaming at me to shut up, but it was too late.

Joe sank back into the couch with a scowl on his face. "I guess that explains a lot." He looked over at me and continued, "Now I understand why we have been getting along so well lately. Ranger hasn't been around to distract you. Of course, I love to hear that my girlfriend," he said the word with a sneer, "was so jealous seeing Ranger with another woman, she forgot that she had volunteered as bait for a rapist and chugged her roofies willingly."

I'm not sure if it was the tone of his voice or the fact that he had pretty much hit the nail on the head with that last statement, but I was pissed. "You know what, Joe? You can take your insecurities and sarcasm and get the hell out. I knew as soon as I took that drink last night that I had screwed up, but I kept my head in the game and was able to finish the job."

I had been around the guys at Rangeman enough to know that jobs could go south for any number of reasons. The key was to stay focused on completing the mission and learn from what went wrong. I wasn't looking forward to the after action meeting with Tank, but I wasn't going to sit here and take crap from Joe about it.

"Fine, Cupcake. Head back to the Land of Denial if you want. But you and I both know what I said is the truth." With that, he grabbed the pizza box and went out through the door.

For the first time since everything went down, I was finally alone with my thoughts. My first thought was damn, he took the pizza. Probably not what my first thought should have been, but I was hungry. I got up and went to check my refrigerator to see if the food fairies had been by. Finding nothing more than a couple of dehydrated looking carrot chunks and some moldy cheese, I pulled out my trusty jar of peanut butter. Since I didn't have any bread to put it on, I grabbed a spoon and dug in.

Rex heard me slamming around and poked his head out of his soup can to see what all the fuss was about. I dropped the dehydrated carrot chunks in his bowl and started to explain. "Joe has this stupid idea that I was jealous when Ranger walked in the room with another woman. How stupid is that? I would have to be involved with Ranger to be jealous. Besides, I have a boyfriend, sort of. So why would I be jealous? Ranger can be with whomever he wants. Obviously he doesn't want me, but who cares? I don't."

I stopped my rant long enough to lick some more peanut butter off the spoon and let Rex weigh in with his thoughts. Apparently he agreed with everything I had said, because he tucked the carrots into his cheek pouch and headed back into his soup can.

"Good talk." I mumbled around a mouth full of peanut butter. I grabbed another beer out of the fridge and headed back to the couch. I was no longer hungover from the drugs and I wanted to take some time to think about everything that had happened last night. The first thing I wanted to do is find out more about Chantelle Chagall. I didn't have the invasive search programs Rangeman had, but you'd be amazed what you can learn about someone by typing their name into any standard search engine, especially if they are rich and beautiful.

Looking through the articles and pictures that came up, I understood what Marcel had meant by Chantelle's 'flavor of the month.' She was always on the arm of a handsome man, but rarely the same one twice. Maybe I was biased but, although all of the men were good looking, none could compare to Ranger. When she called him Rafe, my first thought was that he must be undercover. Her comment about the amazing sex made it obvious he was definitely under her covers. And from firsthand experience, I know how amazing that man is under the covers, and on top of the covers, and in the shower, and….oh bloody hell. I couldn't let myself go there.

Of course, if Ranger was undercover, I had no way of knowing who his target was. Maybe he had been after Marcel as well. Ranger went into the wind a little over three months ago. He wouldn't have known Rangeman had been hired by the insurance company covering Marcel's bond to bring Marcel back into the system. Tank wouldn't have known Ranger's mission was related to the Chagalls when he accepted the job on behalf of Rangeman.

The alternative was that Ranger had returned from his mission and was blowing off some steam with a gorgeous socialite known for her voracious sexual appetite. Rafe could be a pet name. Just because her brother was a kidnapper and a rapist didn't make her a bad person. Yeah right, I thought.

I was driving myself crazy thinking about Ranger being with another woman with no good reason to be jealous. Ranger's life did not lend itself to relationships, so I was with Joe. As that thought crossed my mind I wondered how much truth there was to that statement. Was I settling for Joe because I couldn't have Ranger? What if Ranger's life suddenly did lend itself to relationships? Would I still be with Joe? What did that say about me?

"Ugh!" I yelled and shut the laptop with a sigh. I had had enough self-reflection/torture for one night. I knew I had to go see Tank tomorrow and face his wrath for nearly screwing up the distraction. I wasn't sure if Tank had the authority to ship me off to a third world country, but I figured I would find out tomorrow.