The men all left the room, and I heard some quiet thuds in my earpiece. I didn't hear anything outside my earpiece though. "Got them", said five of Ranger's men in turn.

"So, Kanye. Are you planning on taking off your pants, or is this more like wishful thinking?" I said. "The last I checked, you needed to take your pants off to get a blow job."

"I look forward to filling that sassy mouth with my cock", he said. He groaned and winced as he pulled his pants down.

"Let me help", I said, and I went over to him and pulled his pants and underwear completely off. "There, now that you are naked and your men are out of the room, we can get down and dirty."

"Yeah, baby", he said. He started to pant and fondle himself.

"Do you really need to have a gun on the bed while I take care of you? It's putting me off what I'm going to do."

"You need to get moving, bitch. I think I'll just aim it at you so that you do what you said you were going to do."

"What are you planning on doing to me if I don't?" I said.

He turned his gun towards Mary Lou, and my heart stopped in fear. Mary Lou looked at me, tears running down her face, as she silently begged me to help her.

"Big man with a gun pointing it at Mary Lou. Wow. Way to impress me. If you have to resort to guns to get respect, then you don't deserve respect." I walked up to him and held out my hand. "Give me the gun."

"No, bitch."

"The door is locked", said Tank. "We don't want to make any noise by picking it. Can you open the window so that Hal and Hector can get in?"

"Look. What can you do to me? You have all your guys standing outside the door waiting for you to finish with me. There is literally nowhere that I can go. Do you think that I'll jump out the window?" I went to the window and opened it up. I looked down and smiled at Hal and Hector as they perched outside. I left the window open as I turned back towards Kanye. "We're on the second floor. How the hell do you expect me to get down that way? I'd break my leg, and then you'd have one bitch with broken ribs and another bitch with a broken leg. You might as well shoot us if we can't perform."

Mary Lou looked at me in fear and made mumbling noises around the tape.

"You never shut up, do you?" said Kanye.

"Guns make me nervous. I talk when I'm nervous."

"Just come and eat some Kanye cock."

"Put the gun down." I sidled between Mary Lou and Kanye so that he could no longer sight the gun on her. Mary Lou mumbled some more.

Kanye looked at me. "Are you going to come over here and give me a blow job or what?" he said. I walked up to him. "Just give me that blow job or I'll shoot you."

"Little man hiding behind your gun."

"I'm giving you fair warning." He sounded a bit frantic, but he was pointing the gun at me now so I was happy.

"You need to stop playing with guns." I thought I would be able to disarm him, but Mary Lou moved frantically as I reached to take the gun away from him and, out of surprise, he pulled the trigger and shot me square in the chest.

I fell down, winded, and smacked my head against the floor. I barely had time to register that my head hurt before everything went black.

My thought, as I came to, was that it should have been raining. Just like when I had been stunned, Ranger was calling my name and brushing his thumb across my cheek. Unlike when I'd been stunned, my pants weren't wet and it hurt to breathe. I could hear the sounds of Kanye being marched out of the room in cuffs. Morelli was the arresting officer, and I could hear him 'accidentally' pushing him into a wall as he walked out of the room. I could hear Hal tear the tape off Mary Lou's mouth and her screams of terror as he tried to cut her out of her restraints, and the paramedics pound up the stairs to assess Mary Lou and me.

I opened my eyes and looked at Ranger, and he looked relieved as he saw my eyes open. "Babe", he said.

I froze for a moment, before remembering that it was Ranger and he wouldn't yell at me. I smiled at him. "Help me up", I said.

"Take a minute. The paramedics want to check you out before you move too much. How do you feel?"

"Like I broke my rib again."

"And you might have. He was pretty close to you when he shot you."

"I almost had him disarmed."

"Hal was looking in the window and saw the whole thing, and said the same thing. I could hear you and you were doing a good job of keeping him off-balanced."

I grimaced. "I'd really like to sit up."

"No."

"Come on, Ranger. Let me sit up."

"Now I know that you're okay", said Morelli as he came back into the room, "if you are already causing trouble."

I smiled in my best conciliatory fashion. "I just want to sit up."

"Babe", said Ranger.

"Ranger." I glared at him as he smiled.

He moved to the side as the paramedic undid my jacket and lifted my top. He inspected my skin and felt my ribs. "You may have a broken rib. I can't tell if it is just severely bruised or broken and I'd recommend for you to go to the hospital to check it out." He felt my head and used a pen light to check my pupils. "You have a concussion and should also get that checked out as well."

"Damn", I said.

"Thank God she's yours now", said Morelli to Ranger. "She's a bitch when she has to spend time recovering."

Ranger smiled.

"Can't I just go home? They can't really do anything for little concussions or broken ribs."

"No", said Ranger.

"Please?"

"No", said Ranger and Morelli at the same time.

"I don't understand", said Mary Lou. "I saw you get shot, point blank, just three feet away from the gun."

"Bulletproof jacket", I said. "That's why I'm wearing Ranger's clothes."

"We'll have to get you a jacket of your own", said Ranger with a smile. "You know what this means, don't you?" He grinned.

"What?"

"You won't be able to carry Rex's cage for a while with your ribs." Ranger grinned at me. "And I refuse to move him out of my apartment." I blew out a breath, shook my head at how pleased Ranger was, and laughed.

"Are you going in the ambulance?" said the paramedic.

"I'll take her to the hospital", said Ranger. "I think, if I made her take an ambulance, I would be sleeping on the sofa tonight."

I made a face at him, and the paramedic patted him on the shoulder. "Good luck", he said to Ranger.

Ranger laughed.

"Now can I get up?" I said.

Ranger turned to Mary Lou. "Do you want to come with us or do you want to take an ambulance to the hospital?"

"I'll go with you."

Ranger lifted me to my feet and only elicited a small hiss of pain from me, and Hal helped Mary Lou to her feet. "What are you planning on doing when you get out of the hospital?" I asked Mary Lou. "You are perfectly welcome to stay in my apartment."

"I think I'll go home", said Mary Lou. "I don't think I'm cut out for the life of a bounty hunter. Lenny and I have done a lot of talking. We have agreed to do couples' therapy. I figure that he may be an alcoholic, womanizing asshole, but he's my asshole. And nobody shoots at me at home."

"You've had enough excitement?"

"Sanity has its benefits."

I slung my arm over her shoulder and kissed her on the side of her head. "Love you", I said.

Mary Lou grinned. "Love you too, Steph."

I smiled. Nothing more needed to be said.

~ The End ~