J: Ever since I've been rereading all of Janet's books and reading fantastic fanfictions I've been attacked my hundreds of ideas for stories of my own. This one was inspired when I learned that Ranger's birthday had come and gone, I honestly don't know when his birthday is I just know I missed it XD I am aware of my grammatical errors in here but I am horrible at editing, I do not have a BETA and I was eager to share this with you other Babe lovers :)

Thanks to Financebabe for the encouragement and pre-read for advice on minor bits.

Disclaimer: I do not own any Janet Evanovich characters.

P.S. This is going to be a short story AND it is Joe friendly despite them not being together. I like Joe so I see no reason to turn him into a monster.

It had started out like any other day, I was low on cash for rent, all my FTAs were hiding from and me and Joe had hit the 'off' switch on our relationship. Our argument had been a doozey with plenty of hand gestures and yelling that could be heard all the way to Newark. Or at least loud enough for Joe's neighbor to hear and send the news travelling down the Burg grapevine for my mother to hear about it less than an hour later.

Supper on the night of our fight was filled with my mother's usual spiel about me not getting any younger, to give Joe some time to cool down and for me to look into another job.

I let my mother continue these rants and chants each time because I was a good daughter and I knew it made her feel better to say something that was supposed to be as good advice. Unfortunately I was the daughter that tried to fly off of rooftops, so the good advice doesn't really sink in until I'm getting shot at by one of my skips or whoever decided to kill me that month.

With all the negative energy hanging over me I decided to change the scenery and gave my friend/mentor/sometimes-lover/part-time boss Ranger a call asking for work. One thing that I will never take for granted is the good company and friendship I receive from Ranger's Merry Men. They liked me since I could give them a good laugh once in a while, and I didn't mind admiring their finely tuned bodies when they weren't looking.

I didn't know why but when I walked onto the fifth floor of Rangeman I had a twisty uneasy feeling in my stomach. Had I given it more attention I would have realized it was my Hungarian intuition giving me a warning.

Each cubicle I passed got me a smile and greeting including Lester's usual greeting of, "Morning Beautiful." Having slept poorly earning me a hairdo from Hell that was being contained by an elastic the nickname Beautiful made me feel just a little better.

Things went smoothly with the searches for the first two hours, when my computer decided to freeze on me I took it as a sign to take a break.

Lester, Tank and Bobby were in the break room already snacking on healthy sandwiches and talking about something in hushes tones. When I entered the room the talking stopped and all three smiled at me. Knowing those smiles weren't innocent I stopped before reaching the small fridge, "Alright what rumours are you boys spreading around now?"

Lester glanced at the open door then gestured for me to join them by taking the seat next to him. Thrilled to be let in on some office gossip I took the offered seat. The thrill vanished when Lester slapped a handcuff on my left wrist and attached the other cuff to the arm rest on the chair. My mouth agape in astonishment I squeaked, "What is with the cuffs?!"

Bobby held his hands up in surrender while Tank went to the kitchen door to do look out, "We need your help but you'd probably bolt before giving us a chance to fully explain the problem."

Suspicion coiled through my brain but curiosity already had my mouth moving, "What kind of problem?"

Lester leaned forward, "Every year for Ranger's birthday we set up a game that makes him take a day off from work."

At the word 'game' suspicion began to restrict my heart beats, "I already don't like the sounds of this, take the cuffs off."

"Let me finish! This year we thought maybe you'd want to play the game with Ranger, it wouldn't put you in any danger and it's just for one day." Lester's eyes flicked to Tank in the doorway watching for a signal that the person being spoken of didn't catch them plotting.

Suspicion and curiosity came to an agreement on my next question, "Exactly what kind of game are we talking about?"

Bobby answered with his own question, "What is Ranger the best at?"

A burn built up on my face thinking about the answer, "I'm not sharing my sex life with you! I've told you that thousands of times!"

Tank spluttered fighting back a snicker with a blush of his own showing under his dark skin, Lester grinned, "One day Beautiful. No, what is Ranger's best skill in the field."

That was a no brainer, "Finding people."

"Right and he's the best at it because he enjoys it. That's why we thought a game of Hide-N-Seek would be awesome for Ranger's birthday this year." Bobby was smiling as wide as Lester he was so excited about the idea.

I shook my head, "You guys are insane. Hide-N-Seek would be an insult to Ranger's skills. It would take him seconds to find me."

"Not if you're constantly in motion and Ranger gets his resources taken away." Lester and Bobby watched my expression as I mulled over this. At first I thought they wanted me to hide in a closet or under a bed here in the building. What they really wanted was a game of 'Stephanie pretends to be FTA.'

Whenever I had crazy psycho stalkers after me I usually ended up being chased in some way or other. In those scenarios I got a good dose of adrenaline to keep me going and vigilante. The thought of Ranger chasing after me spiked my heart beat up to rabbit speed. "I guess it would be fair if Ranger didn't have his army and toys."

"So you'll do it?" The eyes Bobby and Lester were giving me were like that of children waiting for their parents to agree to get a puppy.

Who in their right mind could say no to a pair of adorable eyes like that? "I'll do it under one condition."

"Name it."

"I get to keep a stash of contraband sweets." I loved Ella's cooking but the none-sweetened food available in the kitchen got old after one day.

Bobby took out the handcuff key and unlocked my wrist, "Deal. Meet us at Shorty's tonight and we'll go over all the details of how the game will work."

Lester's eyes flicked to Tank in time to see his hand waving a warning. A second later Ranger walked passed Tank and set his eyes on the four of us sitting, "Babe what did you do that they needed to cuff you?"

Wanting a little revenge for my sore wrist I jerk my thumb at Lester, "He was trying to interrogate me about my sex life."

Behind Ranger Tank's mouth twitched at the corners trying to restrain his laughter. Ranger slid his stare over to Lester, "Mats tomorrow 0500." The punishment given Ranger gestured with his head for me to follow him. As I got up I gave Lester and Bobby a wink. I'd probably have to watch my back for Lester for a while but he should know better than to cuff me.

"I saw that." Ranger whispered this into my ear as he walked me back to my cubicle with his arm draped around my shoulders.

The Merry Men clearly wanted to keep the game a surprise so I played innocent, "Saw what?"

We stopped at my cubicle and Ranger gave me one of his scrutinizing looks that told me he was amused but not happy about whatever I was doing. He moved in closed so he could whisper right in my ear, "If I have to I will drag you upstairs for my own interrogation."

My nipples stood at attention and a hot flash coursed through my body. The temptation to push Ranger's buttons for that interrogation to happen sat on the very tip of my tongue; instead I went with throwing Ranger a hint, "Maybe we can play Interrogation on your birthday?"

Ranger's eyes studied my face to follow that tidbit to the truth, he figured out something because he gave me a small smile made by the twitches of his mouth. He planted a kiss on my forehead and left leaving me to wonder just what he thought was going to happen on his birthday.