22 Caliber - A Stephanie Plum-inspired Story

Chapter Eleven

I met Ranger in his office on the fifth floor of Rangeman. We reviewed the cleaned up version of the security tape, but still could not recognize anyone. Ranger printed off the pictures of the computer users and fed the pictures into the facial recognition programs. Leaving the computer to do the work, we headed up to Ranger's apartment.

We were stumped. There had to be a connection between one of the three users from today with one of the six users from the other day. We just weren't seeing it. "Don't worry," Ranger said calmly, "we'll figure it out." I'd worked previous cases with Ranger and I knew his philosophy was to not get caught in self-doubt but rather to keep taking steps forward, even if they were just baby steps. He was using this same philosophy now. I wasn't quite as certain as him that we could solve it, but I was willing to try being positive.

Ella brought our dinner up to us. It looked and smelled delicious – medium rare steak, baked potato, asparagus, tossed green salad. No dessert. Ranger never has any real dessert. Fruit sometimes, but never any real dessert. I wasn't hungry anyway and sat playing with my food.

"You okay? You're not eating", Ranger asked.

"Sorry – I feel pretty bad. My throat hurts, my body aches and I feel cold and sweaty, both at the same time."

Ranger put the back of his hand on my forehead. "You're burning up." He went to the cupboard and came back with a bottle of pain reliever capsules. He dispensed two and gave me a glass of water to take them with. He then went to the phone and called Ella to ask her for some lemon juice and honey. Ranger led me over to the couch and instructed me to sit while he cleaned up dinner. He boiled some water in the kettle. When Ella came up he mixed the hot water with the lemon juice and honey. He then brought it over to me and told me to drink it. "It's the Manosa cure for sore throats. The honey soothes the throat; the lemon juice cuts the phlegm", he said.

I smiled. "My mom's cure is gargling with salt water", I said.

"That works, too. This one tastes better." I tasted the drink. It did taste pretty good.

Ranger got a blanket from the closet and put it over me. He sat behind me so I was leaning in against him, put his arm around me and turned on the TV. He kissed the top of my head and told me to finish the drink.

The last thing I remember is putting my mug on the coffee table and falling asleep.

In the middle of the night I woke up struggling to breathe. There was a weight lying across my chest. I panicked until I realized the weight was an arm. I opened my eyes and looked around. I was in Ranger's bed. I checked my body – I had a t-shirt and underwear on. It didn't feel like my t-shirt. As I fully woke up I vaguely remembered Ranger carrying me to bed, undressing me and putting one of his t-shirts on me to sleep in before tucking me in. The shirt was now damp, my teeth were chattering and I was freezing. Ranger stirred. He leaned over and tested my forehead again. "You're still running a fever, Babe." He put the light on and got me another couple of pain relievers and a glass of water. While I was taking them he gave me a clean, dry t-shirt to wear, and helped me switch shirts. Ranger turned off the light and cuddled in like two spoons in a drawer. "Don't worry, you'll be warm soon." He gave me a kiss on the top of my head and I relaxed and warmed up. My teeth stopped chattering and I fell back to sleep.

I woke up the next morning to the sound of the water running in the shower. I lay in bed feeling crummy. My throat was still sore, my teeth were chattering and I was freezing again. I was tired but my body ached and I felt too sick to sleep. Ranger came into the room with a towel around his waist. "I had hoped you would sleep longer. How are you feeling?"

"Terrible", I croaked out.

Ranger came over and placed his hand on my forehead. "You are still burning up", he said, "and your clothes are soaked again." He went to the cupboard and threw me a clean t-shirt and a sweatshirt and sweatpants. "I know these won't fit, but they will keep you warm now that you won't have my body heat beside you. You can wear one of your Rangeman uniforms when you leave here later. Your own clothes are damp. I put them in the hamper for Ella to wash today." He got dressed in a Rangeman long-sleeve black t-shirt that fit him like a second skin, fatigues and put his gun on at his hip. He was dressed for work.