Warning: Another skip, sorry if I confused anyone, I just kind of wanted to get the ball rolling. Steph is around seven to eight months now.

I smiled to myself as I padded around the empty hall barefoot. The house was still new to me and more than a little frightening, but exciting as well. Ranger had wanted nothing shy of the best and had opted for a completely remodeled home. I had gawked and shied away from the cost but Ranger had paid for it without blinking an eye. Something that I had felt guilty about, up until he showed me the actual house and I fell in love with it. I still hated the idea of living in a house, especially with Ranger, it was, after all, much more permanent then shared apartment space, but I also liked the idea of a pseudo-conventional family.

Plus, he had agreed to allow me to do the babies' room exactly how I wanted it. That was where I was right now, pausing just slightly in front of the door, my bulging stomach just touching the door. I was now seven months pregnant twins, hormonal and huge, and couldn't wait for my children. I had gotten rid of most of my insecurities about raising them and about Ranger and now excitement had taken its place. I just couldn't wait for what my mother and sister had described as the best moment in their lives – holding their newborn child for the first time. Well, newborns for me.

I always came in here, every day. It was exciting to see the prepared room, just waiting for the batbabies, and since I was on maternity leave from the bail bonds office and no one was trying to kill me, it was really the only excitement I got. That and bed with Ranger, but that was a different thing altogether. The room was a neutral-gender shade of sunshine yellow with cartoon trees and birds painted in the background. The two cribs were cherry wood, as was the two dressers, and the changing table. There were boxes and stacks of clothing and baby supplies everywhere and I had only gotten through about a quarter of it. I figured I had another month or two before the babies came and another year before they would be interested in half the crap here, so why bother?

Besides, the part of my brain that handled excuses and denial, pointed out to the smaller rational part, I would be leaving soon which meant no time to sort through the extensive amounts of supplies that had swarmed in from the Burg and what I had come to call the Cuban Burg. A true pity. Not that I wouldn't have minded missing the stupid Lamaze classes my sister and mother had forced me into. I knew it was complete bullshit, as soon as the contractions started I would demand medicine and most likely lots of it, but I figured it was better to just go along with my family. After all, I hadn't gotten married and that alone had nearly given my mother a heart attack.

The alarm sounded for the door and I quickly made my way to the front hallway. Ranger stood there, torn between amusement and irritation. "Babe," he told me but I just stuck my tongue out. I had fought hard for the alarm system that beeped every time an outside door was open and it was staying, damn it. No more sneaking in, even if we lived together.

"You know the rules?" I asked as I grabbed my flip flops. Being almost to term when it was still hot out had its distinctive perks, one of which being shoes that I didn't have to bend down to wear. I would have been beyond embarrassed if I had to ask someone to lace my shoes every time I wanted to leave the house. Ranger nodded in silent agreement to my question. I hated the classes and the only thing worse would be if Ranger saw me in them. I would never live it down. So I forbade Ranger from stepping into the classroom and instead he would sit out in the front lobby with backup cars circling the parking lot. He was nothing but thorough, at least.

The drive was quick and silent, like most of ours. I didn't mind though, I didn't need to talk to Ranger to understand how he felt. He was still worried about Scrog of course and I was too. The idea that Scrog had evaded capture not only from the Rangeman but normal PD as well for violating his parole for this many months was terrifying. So was knowing that in another month or two, he could very easily be after my children as well as me. But Ranger was also, maybe not excited, but something similar for the twins. My guess was that he wanted boys, God knew he couldn't handle little me's, and like most men, was begrudgingly looking forward to teaching them all he knew.

The only difference being that while most fathers settled on teaching their boys to play catch, Ranger would most likely be teaching any son we had how to catch bullets with Kevlar vests. Which, with our combined genes, would probably be useful. Sadly.

"Have fun Babe." Ranger said with a small, amused grin as he parked the car and got out to take watch in the lobby of the family center. I glared at his back. The bastard knew I hated the stupid, pointless classes. I paddled into the room, smiling at all the other heavily pregnant women, one in particular. Jessica Graceland was another woman pregnant with twins who took the classes alone. Her husband was supposedly overly busy at his workplace and could never make it to a class. Lucky him. We were partners in the class and she had become quite a good friend.

"Hey Steph," she greeted with a warm smile as I sat beside her, "I'm doing some baby shopping after class today. Clothing and stuff, wanna go?" She asked me this question almost every time in the past month or so and I've unfortunately never been able to go. Always had something else to do or Ranger didn't want me out on my own. That and thanks to my family, I didn't particularly need any baby supplies at the moment.

"Maybe," I told her, unable to give a straight answer. I did sort of want to get out of the house for a bit and maybe if I promised Ranger to be good, he'd let me. There hadn't been any recent sightings of Scrog after all, and he could quite possibly be out of the Trenton area, at least for now. The class started and ended with minimal embarrassment and I had a blast making fun of the overly preppy, never-been pregnant teacher with Jessica. I had also made up my mind to finally take Jessica up on her offer. Ranger had to go on some skip tracing with Tank and the idea of staying at home and sorting through baby stuff wasn't appealing. No matter how cute some of the baby clothes were.

"Hey," I told her, "Let me go talk to my boyfriend outside and I'll see if I can swing some time with you this afternoon, alright?" Jessica smiled ecstatically and I wondered what it would be like to apparently always be alone. Her husband worked long hours accordingly and she didn't have family in the area.

"That would be great, Steph!" she squealed and I smiled. Some good one-on-one girl time would be great, especially with a girl as huge as I was. Ranger was waiting exactly where I'd left him, an impassive expression on his face as he watched us both approach. Jessica stiffened beside me, like always. Most likely she was scared shitless about his large figure. I had been when I first saw him, and still was at times. But that was almost always only when he was angry.

"Hey Ranger, you've met Jessica." Ranger inclined his head in greeting at the still stiffened Jessica before turning back to me, an unspoken question in his eyes. "She invited me to go shopping with her and I wondered if it would be okay? Just some baby things she needs to get." Ranger raised an eyebrow and folded his arms.

"It doesn't seem like we need much more baby things, babe." He told me. I could hear the flat no in his words and quickly thought of an excuse. Surprisingly, Jessica beat me to it.

"Come on, it's not like anything's going to happen. We are just going to the mall, I need some help picking out things and my husband's too busy with work. I promise I won't let her spend too much." Ranger seemed caught off guard by Jessica's suddenly warmer demeanor, not that anyone but I could tell. I took my chance.

I kissed him softly on the cheek and took the time to whisper in his ear, "I have the tracker in my purse, it'll be okay. I'll be home by dinner." I pulled away and said more clearly, "I won't buy anything, like Jess said, promise." I looked at him pleadingly and finally he relented.

"Fine, but I'll be watching you," he smiled as if it was a joke but I got the message. A Rangeman vehicle will be following me. I couldn't say whether I was annoyed or glad at the fact. I kissed Ranger one more time, for my benefit rather than Jessica's, and walked out to the parking lot.

Whatever Jessica's husband did most have made some considerable bank because she led me to a shiny black Porsche, same model as Ranger's, and beeped us in. I smiled at the familiar scent of the upholstery and slid into the passenger seat comfortably. Jessica slid in beside me and smiled brightly. "Ready for some fun?" She asked with a grin. For a moment I felt uncomfortable, akin to a quick tightening of my gut, but figured it was just the babies being rambunctious and ignored it.

"Yeah." I said, answering her smile with a grin of my own.

Sorry for the excessively long wait, my baby cousin's birthday is coming up and my aunt is working us all to the bone to get it all done. It's angry birds and it's gotten so extreme that my uncle actually made a life-size angry birds catapult for the kids to shoot "angry birds" at paper mache pigs on cardboard block so it's been really hectic. That and trying to write this chapter was surprisingly hard, I just couldn't figure out what angle i wanted this to go through. I actually rewrote it twice before this came out. Any ideas about Jessica? Also, twin genders have been established but I'm not going to tell you. You'll just have to wait, like Stephanie and Ranger. Thank you for reading and I hope you liked it. I will update again as soon as possible.