*****AN: It's been a great ride! I've loved this story and hope that I have succeeded in entertaining you in the process. I want to thank all of my readers for their support and good wishes while real life intruded in the finishing of this story. My special thanks goes out to Angie who has held my hand through this process. You're the greatest beta ever and I really appreciate all of your input and hard work. To Cara, thanks for standing in and helping me with getting this final chapter written. I intended to make this a trilogy, however, Ranger, Stephanie, Olivia and Trae may have more words to say in the future…..who knows?

Previously:

Ranger leaned in and brushed a kiss across her lips. "I love you, Babe. Try not to get shot."

"Love you, too and don't get shot! I'll be really pissed if you get hurt again."

He gave her one more lingering kiss, before they parted. He took the stairs as she made her way up the grassy hillside and towards the front of the cabin. Opening the door, he thought it's payback time mother fucker.

"After the Darkness"

Chapter 14

"Happily Ever After"

Stephanie took one more look at Ranger's retreating form, before rounding the corner of the cabin. Creeping along the side, her mind churned with thoughts from earlier and how she felt about the employees at RangeMan, especially the new editions. Her 'spidey sense' was telling her that her suspicions were correct about who has been helping Sullivan all along.

She moved quietly, but was sure that Ranger's backup was already aware of her presence. She made the signal that Ranger had shown her and like magic, Ranger's men descended from the surrounding trees onto the ground. Laughter almost bubbled out as she thought about how this looked like something from a spy movie. Four men approached, after detaching themselves from zip-cords.

Lester immediately pulled her to him, wrapping her in a bone crushing hug. Woody and Cal gave her a salute, while the other man nodded. . She should have had some sense of relief at having the guys there with her, but she couldn't fight off the warning bells that her 'spidey sense' was sending out. One of these men was the inside man, she just knew it. She tried to make eye contact with Lester to ESP him, but he was already making signals for their approach.

She gathered her thoughts and tried to think of a way to communicate with Lester. However, there wasn't enough time, and she still had to think through how she was going to communicate to Lester without giving herself away. She was just going to have to wing it and hope that he played along with what she had planned for ferreting out the traitor. Woody and Cal went around the back to go in through the balcony doors behind Ranger, while Lester motioned for her and Burcham to follow him through the front.

As they entered, Stephanie's heart skipped a beat as she took in the scene. Ranger had Sullivan on the ground with his gun to his head. Sullivan wasn't completely at a disadvantage, because his own gun was stuck to Ranger's chest. They were at an impasse, and the room was thick with the tension as all guns were trained on the deadlocked men.

Ranger's voice was low and lethal, "I'll ask you for the last time, who the fuck's been helping you?"

Stephanie watched Burcham out of the corner of her eye and saw his body become rigid as he moved directly behind her. This was not good, definitely not good. The person Sullivan was about to rat out was standing behind her with a gun trained on her back. Her brain went ninety miles a minute trying to figure out a way to deflect Burcham's attention.

"Ranger, go ahead and take him out. I've already figured out the culprit." She certainly hoped this worked. She slowly turned her head and gave Lester a wink, hoping he got the message. Then she drew her gun on him as he drew his on her at the same time. She breathed an internal sigh of relief thanking God for the Merry Men and their ESP.

"Did you think I wouldn't figure it out, Lester?" She certainly hoped Lester's ESP was working. Burcham was behind her and couldn't see her roll her eyes towards him.

Lester watched the play of her eyes, listened to the inflection of her voice, and rolled with the punches. He just needed to get her out of the way.

"Beautiful, I was never going to hurt you. I just needed Ranger out of the way. That way you and I could be together." He certainly hoped that was what she was going for because it was all he could come up with.

"Why didn't you just tell me? I would have come to you a long time ago. I've always had feelings for you." She took a big gulp and swallowed down the fear that Ranger wouldn't believe this hunk of bull she and Lester were spewing.

She walked slowly toward Lester, with Burcham stalking her movement with his eyes. Lester could tell by Burcham's body language and puzzled expression that he hadn't figured out what they were up to. He just hoped that Ranger didn't kill him when this was over. He'd been to third world countries and didn't plan on going back. If anything had the potential for sending him there, what he had planned would definitely do it. He made silent plea for Ranger to forgive him as Stephanie approached.

When Stephanie was close enough, he reached around her waist, pulling her in for a hard kiss. He then quickly spun her around behind him and immediately buried the gun into Burcham's throat.

"You didn't really think you'd get away with betraying the boss, did you?" Lester almost laughed at the surprised look on Burcham's face.

Stephanie wanted to do a happy dance but the sound of gun fire caused her to spin around in surprise. She'd been so caught up in her and Lester's drama that she'd totally tuned out the struggle between Ranger and Sullivan.

With horror churning in her stomach, she ran towards Ranger, falling beside him and struggled to turn him over.

"Ranger, dammit! You'd better be alive." She screamed.

A warm chocolate hand reached up smoothing her hair out of her face. "Yeah, Babe, I'm alive."

"You're bleeding." She started frantically running her hands over his body.

"It's just a scratch, really. No more than band-aid level injury." His voice turned husky as he buried his hands in her curls. "Not enough to keep me from making love to you tonight and every night for rest of my life … that is if you can tear yourself away from Lester." He chuckled.

She saw the twinkle in his eye and knew he was joking. She swatted his arm and shrugged. "It was the best I could come up with."

"Proud of you, Babe."

Several hours later …

The General came to retrieve Sullivan's corpse and took Burcham into custody. Turned out that Burcham was Sullivan's third cousin and that was how he'd gotten roped into helping Sullivan. The man who traded places with Sullivan was a good look-a-like because he was also a cousin.

Lester, Cal, and Woody packed up the truck, while Ranger loaded her overnight bag into the rental car. They couldn't stay in their cabin until a clean-up crew came in to take care of Sullivan's blood.

Once in the car, Ranger turned to Steph, ran a hand through her hair pulling her to him for a bone-melting kiss. Pulling back he searched her face for regrets, finding none. He asked, "Where to Babe? We're offline till Friday and we could use some R&R."

She grinned, "How about we just drive and see where the road leads us?"

His eyes grew molten dark, "As long as the road leads to a bed and the valley between your legs, I'm game."

Ranger started the car, and began driving. She didn't know where they were going or when they'd get there, but she knew for certain that they'd do it together.

About five years Later…

Stephanie watched as Ranger pushed their four year old daughter in the swing and thought about how their lives had changed. Olivia Michelle Manoso was born nearly nine months after Valentine's Day. She marveled over how their lives had changed. Ranger had turned over the day to day running of RangeMan to Tank and promoted two others at the Miami and Boston branches. He'd decided to be a full time husband and dad.

For years she'd fought the 'Burg expectation to be a stay at home mom, but it was different with Ranger. The stay at home part didn't exactly fit since they traveled extensively. Olivia wasn't old enough for school yet, so they just bundled her up and took her with them wherever they went. Well, Olivia and a contingency of Merry Men turned uncles.

The last four months though, Ranger insisted they stay close to home. Steph sighed and rubbed her stomach, hefted the duffle bag over her shoulder and went outside to intrude on Ranger and his daughter's special time.

During the past five years, Ranger still struggled with his memories. As he pushed his daughter in her swing, he was thankful his memories of Stephanie fully surfaced. Other things still remained a mystery to him, like how in the hell they managed to elect Obama as President? But, problems like who the commander in chief was and the strength of the military weren't forefront in his mind anymore.

Instead, his days were filled with laughter, piercing blue eyes and silky curls that blew in the breeze. A broad smile spread across his face as his mind drifted to his nights, those were filled with a passion he'd only dreamt about. No matter where they were, at night his arms were filled with his true love, his Babe.

He heard Stephanie come out the back door and immediately started pulling Olivia to a stop. He watched as Stephanie walked toward him, well, not exactly walked, more like she waddled like a duck. With Olivia she'd gained weight all over. He cringed when he remembered her swollen legs and ankles and how miserable she'd been during that entire summer. This time, from behind, he could hardly tell she was pregnant. She was all stomach. It was the bulge she carried that caused his pants to tighten. Seeing her big with their second child was like an aphrodisiac for him. They'd had to be creative last night and he still wasn't altogether sure they should have at all, but she'd insisted. Boy, had she insisted. She'd been all over him from the time they'd finished their nightly routine of reading to Olivia, singing songs, and tucking her in.

Stephanie rolled her eyes at the lust she saw beaming from Ranger's eyes. Well, he's just going to have to hold that thought, for six long weeks.

"You're going to have to remove those thoughts from your brain for a while. It's time." She told him in a breathy voice.

Ranger picked up Olivia and immediately went to take the duffle bag from her shoulder. "Did you hear that Livy? Mommy says it's time for us to meet your brother."

Stephanie watched in amazement as her ever efficient husband made calls and shuffled them to the truck. He snapped Olivia into the car seat and helped her into the truck. Ranger gave her a soft kiss as he fastened her seatbelt and reclined her seat.

"How far apart are your contractions, Babe?" Control. He knew he had to stay in control, but the idea of her giving him a son today of all days was beyond exciting. It was his birthday and he couldn't think of a better present.

"Five minutes. We've got plenty of time to drop Olivia off at my parent's house."

Her breathing was a little harsher now and Ranger wanted to object about making the detour. But, he also knew that a hospital delivery room wasn't the place for a four year old.

Four hours later, Ricardo Carlos Manoso, III was welcomed into the world. Stephanie and Ranger decided to call him Trae since he was the third generation to bear the name. She watched as Ranger held their son with a look of such total devotion on his face. It had been a long road, but they'd finally made it out of the darkness and into the light.

The End.