This is a little something that came to me when I was hanging out my washing the other day. It's fluffy, possibly OOC, but I thought to myself, Ranger has known all along that Stephanie wanted to fly. Why not let him give her the opportunity? So this is where it's come from. It doesn't really have a place in the books, and let's all assume, since I'm Babe all the way, that they've been dating seriously for a while now :D

RiRi17

Tank grins at me from across the tiny death trap the Merry Men call an airplane while I hold my stomach, trying not to throw up. While I trust him, I have a feeling I'm being set up here. We're ten thousand feet above ground and climbing. We've been circling for way too long in my opinion. Every time I look out the tiny porthole Tank keeps calling a window, I get queasy.

"Where's Ranger?" I demand, trying not to sound too shaky. I've never really flown in a plane before. At least not one as tiny as this. And Ranger promised he'd meet me when we were on the plan, almost forty-five minutes ago, but unless he's hiding in one of the huge backpacks lining the wall of the plane, he's not here. My hands are shaking so much I'm having trouble gripping the strap next to me.

There aren't any seatbelts on this plane.

Tank glances at his watch before answering. "He should be dropping in soon."

My mind goes into a panic. "Tank!" I shriek, my eyes watering. "I hope to God you're not saying what I think you're saying!" My voice is high pitched with fear. He gets up and duck walks to me, pulling the strap from my hand, joining it to one that criss-crosses over my chest. This then joins to a clip on the floor in between my legs. I'm essentially tied to the plane. Oh God. If we crash, I'm going to crash and burn with it. "Tank," I whimper, grabbing his hand. I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life and he notices.

He rubs the tears away with his thumbs. "Do you think we'd ever let anything bad happen to you?" He gets up and heads over the sliding door on the side.

I completely lose my mind, crying and shaking as everything not tied down gets sucked out the open door. I squeeze my eyes closed, positive that if I'm going to die, I'm not going to see it happening. Nuh-uh. No way. Batman himself couldn't get me to open my eyes at this point.

My eyes fly open at the loud bang. I scream, pretty damn sure that the plane is about to explode in a huge fireball. Out of all the damn cars that have exploded, it's the one plane I've been on in my entire life that kills me. My mother will have a field day with this. Maria Zolovsky's daughter doesn't go on planes and blow them up. She works in a nice safe job at the tampon factory. Why don't you get a job at the tampon factory, Stephanie?

But we don't fall out of the sky. The plane keeps flying steadily as Ranger grips Tank's hand and the handle with his other, hauling himself into the plane. He's wearing a jumpsuit I've never seen before, but it's black with the RangeMan logo on the breast pocket. With a huge grunt, Tank slams the door shut. He throws the hatch, locking it firmly.

Ranger grins at me, eyes wide with excitement. That is until his eyes take in the state I'm in and he's before me in a second, unclipping the restraints and pulling me into his arms. I'm basically vibrating, I'm that scared. I wrap my arms around his waist, pressing my face into his chest, reassuring myself that he's okay, even though he did just jump out of one plane and into another. At this, I pull back and whack his chest. "What the hell were you thinking?" I yell, slapping him again.

He's not fazed. "Babe."

"You just jumped out of a plane!" I shriek, flapping my arms around. "Into this one! Are you out of your mind, Ranger! How could you do that! You didn't even have a damn parachute! What if something went wrong?" I finish my rant by throwing my arms around his neck, crushing him to me. I press kisses everywhere I can reach as he grips my waist in his hands.

"I was safe the entire time, babe. Nothing was going to happen." He pushes me away gently to kiss me on the lips. "Trust me."

I narrow my eyes at him when I notice Tank shouldering one of the huge backpacks. "Is he…?" Ranger nods at me, eyes assessing my reaction. Then it clicks. "Hell no! Are you out of your fucking mind?" I push him away and jump up, backing away from both of them. He just hands me a jumpsuit similar to his. I shake my head.

Tank tightens the straps and looks up at me. "Bomber, we've been doing this for years. We know the drill."

"But what if something goes wrong?" I ask weakly, feeling faint at the idea of jumping out of a perfectly good plane. The parachute might not work, or one of the ropes holding it to the pack could snap.

Ranger comes to stand in front of me again, dropping the jumpsuit to cradle my face in his hands. He meets my eyes, and they're soft with compassion. "Do you think I would ever put you in danger, babe?" I shake my head 'no'. "I thought you wanted to fly. All your life, you said. Don't you want to fly anymore?" he asks gently.

I know if I said no, he would sit down with me, hold my hand and tell the pilot to put the plane on the ground. He would never ridicule me for being scared. "I do," I whisper, gripping the hand stroking my cheek. "But I'm scared."

"You've faced maniacs pointing a gun at you fearlessly and this is the one thing that scares you?" he asks, confused. I nod. "I'll protect you, babe. You'll be strapped to me. Tank will be opposite us, holding your hand, okay?" He kisses me soundly again before stepping back to let me decide.

Ranger obviously brought Tank up here with us for a reason. Tank's his right hand man. He trusts him with everything, and more often than not, his life. I should be able to do the same. "Okay," I say shakily, holding out my hand for the jumpsuit.

Ranger gives me his 1000 watt grin as he gets me dressed. Fortunately, I get to keep my clothes on underneath. Tank sets up the tandem harness, helping Ranger to get strapped in, and then helping him to sit down. Ranger spreads his legs and pats the space between them. "You need to sit to get harnessed, babe."

I take a deep breath before sitting between his legs. He holds both my hands tightly as Tank practically superglues us together. While this makes me feel a tiny bit better, my hands are still clammy and my heart is still trying to pound its way out of my chest. "You'll be fine, Bomber. We've done this in the middle of war zones with fatally injured men and got them out safely." Tank grins. "This is just for fun."

I squeak with the final tightening of the harness as Ranger stands us up and walks us to the door. Before he opens it, he hands me a thick helmet and thick, clear plastic glasses. When it's on, he knocks the front of his helmet into the back of mine affectionately, pressing a kiss into my hair. "You'll be fine, babe," I hear in my ear. I put the glasses on.

Tank steps into my line of vision. His helmet is the same as mine. "We're linked, Steph. What we have to do now is open the door and have both your legs hanging out, okay?" I nod, my eyes watering again. I feel like I'm going to pee my pants. "Ranger will count to three when he's ready for you to push off. I'm going to be right behind you, alright?"

I nod again.

He kisses my cheek, smiling like a proud father. "Okay, sit down again while I open the door."

My hair swirls around Ranger and my faces as the door opens. When I look down, the ground seems much further than it should be for ten thousand feet. I feel nauseous again. Ranger releases my right hand so he can grip the handle on the side of the door, pushing both our legs out of the plan. "If I die, I'm going to haunt both of you," I growl, trying to be intimidating. I close my eyes when they chuckle. If I look again, I'm pretty sure I'll have a heart attack and die without even jumping from the plane.

Ranger is still holding my left hand and I feel something slip over my ring finger. "Marry me," he says suddenly.

"What!" He asks then as we're about to go plummeting through the sky towards the ground! Is he kidding! Why not when we were having dinner the other night? That was an appropriate setting! It would have been just as romantic then!

Tank is purposefully checking over his gages and other equipment strapped to his wrist.

"I love you, babe. I want you to be my wife," Ranger murmurs into the microphone on his helmet. "I know I've done some stupid shit, but letting you go would be the worst mistake of my entire life."

"What if I say no?"

I feel him shrug. "Then we just stay how we are." So casual. Always calm and collected. If I were in his shoes, I'd be freaking out. He knows I'm a commitment phobic. It took him four months to convince me to move in with him.

It's because he's not forcing me, I say yes. "Of course," I reply, my eyes watering for an entirely different reason.

"You've just made me the happiest man on Earth, babe." He doesn't sound like the happiest man on Earth. He sounds like normal Ranger.

"But we're not on Earth!" I cry, cringing back into him.

His legs tighten around mine. "On three. One." Oh no. "Two." Can I change my mind? "Three!" Fuck.

And then he pushes us out of the plane.

I scream as we free fall through nothing but air. Tank appears in front of me suddenly before diving away again. My breath stops when I can't see him anymore before he literally flies back into my field of vision. It feels like the skin on my face is being sucked off with the force of us moving. "Hold your arms out, babe," Ranger instructs, taking both my hands in his and extending them.

And then we literally start flying. Ranger mimics Tank and we follow him through the sky. I keep my eyes trained on the huge man in front of us, refusing to let myself look at the ground. Ranger suddenly pulls our arms in and we plummet towards the ground, tumbling through the air. I scream again before black dots start dancing at the corners of my eyes.

Except they're getting bigger. And they're soaring and whooping through the air just like we are, except I'm not whooping; I'm closer to crying. Lester and Bobby and the rest of the Merry Men enter my line of sight. Lester holds both thumbs up, grinning as he spirals around us. "Ranger!" I shriek as he disappears again. I squeeze my eyes closed as we keep hurtling towards the ground.

He laughs as he wraps his arms around my waist. Ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod, we're going to die. "Relax, babe. Take a deep breath, cause I'm going to open the 'chute now." I do as he instructs and take a huge breath, filling my lungs to bursting point. "I love you," he reminds me, just before pulling the thingy to release the parachute.

I understand why he told me to take a deep breath, because as soon as the parachute is out, we're jerked to a stop and all the air in my lungs is pushed out in a huff. I grab for his hand and he willingly gives it. "Oh my God…" I breathe, my heart rate calming down now that we're not actually free falling anymore. While we're still going faster than I would like, I sigh as I watch the Merry Men pull their parachutes as well. While we drift, they're spinning and looping and laughing through the air. I find myself smiling as I watch them.

"They're like children," Ranger sighs, spinning my new engagement ring. "I can't take them anywhere."

"We can hear you," Bobby reminds us over the headset in the headphones, breezing past us.

Ranger pulls one of the handles and we swing right, swerving past Hal, who looks content to follow us at my pace. When he sees me looking, he winks. "I don't like skydiving all that much," he informs me. He stays to my left as I look around with wide eyes. I can hear the plane we jumped from somewhere above us, probably circling to make sure none of us actually fall from the sky. There are no clouds near us, but I can see what looks to be a huge storm coming in from the west.

I point at the smog a ways in front of us. "Is that Trenton?" I exclaim.

"Good to hear you're still able to talk, Bombshell," Cal chimes in. "You had us worried for a minute."

I give him a stiff Italian hand gesture before Ranger answers me. "Yeah, babe. We have to get out of the city so we can land. We're over upstate New York right now." He grabs my chin gently and directs my gaze down. I can see the huge mansions dotted over the landscape, but most of them seem to be located closer to the beach.

"Where are we landing?" I ask, now that I'm looking down, unable to stop. I want to see everything I can while we're up here. I know for sure I will not be able to do this again without peeing myself, so I want to take advantage of the chance.

"On the beach!" Lester yells as he swoops past, moving in loops as if he was on a rollercoaster.

I cringe again. "Please don't make us do that," I whisper to Ranger, forgetting that we're all connected via the headsets.

He chuckles. "I think I've scared you enough today, babe." He lets go of my hand, gently shaking my fingers off when I make to grab his again. "I need to steer us," he reminds me. And he does just that, trying to be as kind as possible, but the turns and swings are still exceptionally sharp.

I grip the side of his jumpsuit, gazing at the world around us as we descend slowly. "I don't think I want this to end," I say quietly. Even though Trenton looks positively dirty from here, it's beautiful in an odd way. I guess it's a Jersey thing. In the womb, we're breathing in the toxic fumes we call air. We're just used to it.

"It's addictive, isn't it?" He swings us around to face the ocean, sparking the fear inside me. What if we get stuck out in the middle of the ocean? We'd drown before getting the harness off and unattached to the parachute. "Relax," he orders firmly. "Nothing bad is going to happen."

The Merry Men stop being clowns and seem to fall into some sort of formation around us as we circle down towards the beach. We probably look like the outline of some giant bird swooping down from the skies. I have to squint my eyes and find a giant black cross painted into the sand on the beach. I point to it. "Is that where we're landing?"

"Yep," Lester says cheerfully, appearing out of nowhere to hang beside us. "Enjoying yourself?"

I nod, still taking everything in. The skin on my face is still rippling in the wind, I can tell. I probably look like a beagle, all droopy skin and ears. "Where did you guys jump from?"

"Same plane as Ranger. We just waited for you guys before we jumped."

"But you caught up to us so quickly!" My mouth drops open. How did they do it? Jump out of one plane, shoot past another and then practically swim through the air around us.

Lester grins at me. "You forget that we've all been in some sort of Special Forces unit or another. We've been trained to do this for years. Ranger got the fun part though." At my confused look, he continues. "He got to jump into your plane." He pouts, looking put out, as he adjusts his speed so not to crash into us.

"You call that fun?" I ask, dumbfounded. Of course they do. They're all insane. They probably do this every week for a team bonding session or something.

"Yeah. I wish we could teach you how, but for some reason I don't think you'd like it all that much. Man, when you're aiming for the plane and there's nothing stopping you… you just feel alive." He smiles wistfully at me. "I haven't been able to do it for a few years cause I screwed up my knee on my last mission. But if you think this," he gestures to the Merry Men floating around us, "is flying, you've never done the jump."

Nothing stopping you, he said. Does that mean…? "Ricardo Carlos Manoso," I scold.

"Yeah babe?"

"You jumped out of a plane without a parachute?" I demand, my voice going squeaky. He could have missed the plane entirely! Or got caught in the propeller things!

Ranger lets out a small breath, which is the equivalent of a huge groan. "Nothing would have happened," he says simply, continuing before I can start ranting again. "And if it did, Tank was ready to help out."

Help out, he says. Nothing would have happened, he says. I roll my eyes so far back I'm surprised they didn't fall out of my head.

"Babe."

"What?"

"Can you just focus on the fact that right now, you're flying," he requests. "Forget about me doing what is second nature to me. Forget about work, FTAs, Lula, Joe, your mom or anything else, okay?" He kisses the back of my head. "You're flying."

A slow grin spreads over my face as I realise we actually are flying. "Yeah," I agree.