New story time! Well, this idea hit me like a ton of bricks, and it wouldn't shy away! now I gotta warn you, some characters in here are extremely OOC! I think you'll like it though, gotta warn you, this may cause a few tears to be shed. WARNING YOU ALL IN ADVANCED! So tell me how you like it so far, this one shouldn't take too long to write, fairly simple plot, I hope :3

JE characters are not mine, shoot, I know, I know! D: I KNOW!

A Healing Hand

Stephanie sat on the cold hard hospital examination table, staring out into space. Her one good hand, the one not in a cast, gripped the thin blue hospital gown she wore tightly. Her doctor was talking softly to her, a comforting hand on her shoulder, as she rattled off about the things that needed to be done. Stephanie could hear her soft voice, it was calm and reassuring, but she couldn't comprehend what she was saying. All her mind could wrap around was the one little phrase her doctor told her.

"The CT scan reveal several tumors on some of your bones, Ms. Plum, they could be cancerous."

Stephanie could hardly believe it, she didn't know rather to laugh, or to cry. She was Stephanie Plum, many of her friends and family had told her many times that she was a walking good luck charm, no harm ever fell to her, no matter if it was a gunshot wound, or a group of gang bangers after, she came out of all her situations with maybe a scratch. Out of all the things in the world to stop her in her tracks why did it have to be this, why did it have to be cancer?

"Now, Ms. Plum, we're going to schedule you for a biopsy. We'll go to several different areas, the lower spine, and the upper femurs are places of importance, since the tumors seem to be much deeper than in any other areas." Her doctor said kindly, looking through Stephanie's medical file, "Is there anyone I should call, Ms. Plum, someone to get you home?"

"No, I'll be fine," Stephanie said softly, letting go of the gown she wore, "I can get home fine, just, give me the time you want to do this biopsy."

"We want to do it soon, no later by the end of this week, we can get a true diagnoses of these tumors, they could be benign, for all we know." The doctor said, though she didn't put much hope in her voice, "For this procedure, you'll need someone to go with you, we'll be putting you to sleep for a bit."

"Okay," Stephanie said softly, watching the doctor write something down in her folder, "Can I go now, I need to go back to work."

Stephanie's doctor nodded her head and she said in a soft voice, "Take it easy, there's always help, if you need support, here's some numbers to places that always have an open ear."

Stephanie thanked her doctor, accepting the brochures she gave her. when her doctor left, she let a few tears fall and a tiny sob escape her mouth, that's all she would let escape, she would have to be strong, maybe they weren't cancerous, maybe they were blips in the CT machine.

Stephanie snorted at that thought, as she got dressed, she had a feeling that they weren't going to be happy cancer free tumors. She would have to wait until Friday to get the news.

(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)

"Hey White girl," Lula said watching Stephanie walk over to her in the waiting area of the hospital, "Everything alright with your scan?"

Stephanie gave Lula a smiled, though, Lula noted, that it never reached her eyes, "Oh, I'm fine Lula, just a broken bone, it should be healed soon, thanks for taking me to the hospital, by the way."

"It ain't no problem, white girl, just helping a friend out," Lula said as they walked out the hospital, "No how about we go and get some lunch, I'm fucking starving!"

"I am too," Stephanie said, letting out a big yawn, "And sleepy, I think after lunch, I'll go home and sleep."

"Lunch is on me, white girl," Lula said as they walked over to Lula's firebird, "You know, cause I'm such a nice friend."

"Thanks, Lula," Stephanie said with a tired smile, climbing in the car, "I have a hankering for a burger."

"Mcdonald's it is," Lula said, peeling out the hospital parking lot, "Then I'll take you home."

Lula turned to Stephanie, not getting an answer, but found her fast asleep. Lula shook her head and sighed. She was worried for Stephanie, for the last few weeks, Lula noticed that Stephanie would come down to the bails bond office tired, not like, just woke up and trying to shake the sleep off tired, but she was dead tired, like she hadn't had an ounce of sleep at night. Lula knew damn well that Stephanie had gotten plenty of sleep at night. There had been times in which Stephanie would be so tired that Lula would drive her home, or she'd call one of the men from Rangeman to drive Stephanie home. Usually by the time her head hit the head rest of the seat, she was fast asleep.

Not only was Stephanie tired, she was losing weight too. At first Lula and Stephanie had joked about her weight lost, it was almost summer, she would look good in a bikini now. Lula had become concerned, when Stephanie started losing more weight. Lula knew that something was wrong with Stephanie, but Stephanie kept telling her that it was nothing, and not to worry about it, but Lula wasn't one to leave her friends suffering. She made sure that either she or one of men from Rangeman was always with Stephanie, when she went after skips.

It got worse when Stephanie began to complain about the pains in her joints, and bones. She had told Lula, in passing, that it was a deep ache, one that was always constant, and no amount of pain killers could help her. along with the aches, came the bone fractures and several broken bones. It had been the last straw for Lula, she had taken Stephanie to the hospital to get a CT scan. Stephanie had assured her that it was just a few broken bones, nothing to worry about. Lula was extremely worried, nobody should break their arm, just from tripping on the curb and landing in soft grass.

Lula shook her head, made her way to the drive thru. She ordered food for Stephanie and her and then drove to Stephanie's apartment. she wouldn't leave Stephanie alone for the time being, just in case something happened to her friend.

(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)

Diesel let out a yawn, leaning against a wall of ancient stones. He turned his head to the set of doors made of oak and made a face at the person situated on the other side of the doors, "I swear, Gina, you get fuglier and fuglier with each passing second."

"Shut up, you twat," the person named 'Gina,' said rounding on Diesel, who suck his tongue out at them and turned back to stare at the blank expanse of stone wall, "I don't know why you're here, you are an annoying louse, who needs to be squashed."

Diesel placed a hand over his heart, feigning horror, "Gina, why are you so cruel to me?! just because you're fugly, doesn't mean you have to take your aggression out on me."

"Why you-!" Gina started, but the doors they were by opened and a woman walked out from a dark room, only lit by candles. Diesel turned to the woman and said with a smile, "Hey Baby, how you feeling?"

"I am fine, Thaddeus," The woman said with a kind smile, patting Diesel's cheek with pure affectionate, "Though, I wish you would stop calling my friend, Fugly, or whatever it is you call her."

Diesel smiled wrapping an arm around frail looking shoulders, "Baby, you know I'm just messing around with Gina, she's a cool cat, right Gina?"

The woman was not fooled, "You need to be nicer, Thaddeus, least you find yourself on the couch tonight," before she slid out of Diesel's grip and over to Gina, "Jeanne, all this meditation has left me weak with hunger, let us go find something to eat."

Diesel blinked, watching the two women walk off, "Baby! I am nicer to Jeanne, or at least I try to be, baby! I can make you something sweet, like those chocolate puffs you like! Baby?!"

Jeanne Ellen Borrows turned to the woman beside her and said, "I still can't believe you're dating that jerk, Diesel's such a dick, you should have gone out with someone else."

"Thaddeus has his moments, but his heart is in the right place," The woman said, tapping her chin with a frail looking hand, amber eyes closed with concentration, "I've yet to see him do much wrong, apart from the cruel teasing to you."

"Well, you should have done better, instead of this jerk, you should have attracted someone much more handsome, richer and nicer." Jeanne said as they entered a kitchen, "Now, what's calling your name, my dear, we have leftover pasta, some ham, uh…roast beef."

"Give me all of it," The woman said, grabbing a bottle of wine from the wine cooler, "I am starving, that last case had me in the meditation room for 3 days."

"We all know," Jeanne said, giving the woman a plate piled high with food, "You need to be careful, you could die on us, if you're not."

"Hardly," The woman snorted, looking over to Jeanne, " I have been doing this for a long time, way before you were born, I can handle myself."

"I just worry about you, you know," Jeanne said, sitting down beside the woman and hugging her, "You're so frail, it's like a gust of wind could knock you down."

"Please, looks can be deceiving," The woman said with a wink, before she dug into her meal, "Now, let us enjoy the peace and solitude we have now, I have a feeling I will be having another client soon."

(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)

Tank smiled as the ringtone he put for Lula went off. It didn't matter if he could have the shittiest day in the office, Lula's voice always made him feel better. Right now, he could use some Lula loving. With Ranger off in Boston helping out there for a while, Tank was stuck with all the important work here in Rangeman Trenton.

Tank picked his phone up and answered with a, "Hey Lula honey bear."

"Hi Tankie Wankie, I was just calling to see how you were doing," Lula said to the man, "I hope you're not working too hard."

"I'm almost done," Tank said with a small smile, looking at the picture of Lula on his desk, "I'll be home soon."

"Tank, I'm worried about Stephanie, you've seen the changes, haven't you?" Lula asked Tank, causing the man to lean back in his office chair with a sigh.

Lula had been adamant that something was wrong with Stephanie. Tank could see something was wrong too. Stephanie had been losing weight , she was tired all the time, and she was always in a cast. Lula hadn't wanted her out chasing skips, so Tank begged Stephanie, yes, a man built like a tank, begged for Stephanie to come back and work at Rangeman. she was now working at Rangeman part-time and bounty hunting low, easy bails.

It was a start, now all Tank needed to do was to get her at Rangeman full time. Ranger would kick his ass if something serious happened to Stephanie, in his watch.

"I'm worried too, but unless Stephanie tells us something, there's nothing we can do, and you know how Stephanie is like, she keeps it bottled in, thanks to all those lessons the 'burg taught her." Tank let out a frustrated noise, earning one back from Lula.

"Those damn robots," Lula huffed, before she said, "I'm over at Steph's I'm staying here for a bit, just to make sure she's alright, I don't want her alone."

"Good idea, Lula honey bear," Tank said smiling, "I'll be over there too, once I'm done with work, I'll bring take out, how about Chinese?"

"That sounds wonderful," Lula said with a smile, "I gotta go, I'm going to clean up Stephanie's place, Rex's cage could use some new bedding."

"Okay, I'll see you soon, honey bear," Tank said earning a, "I'll see you soon, Tankie Wankie."

Tank hung the phone up and sighed, hopefully, Stephanie would tell us what's going on. Hopefully, Ranger would be home from Boston too.

Hopfully….

(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)

Lula let a sound, throwing the dirty bedding that was once in Rex's cage in the trash. She turned to the hamster and watched with amusement as he dug happily in the soft pine bedding, an olive in his mouth and his rump in the air. Lula smiled and said, "Now that you're all fixed up, I'm going finish the rest of the apartment.

Lula started with the kitchen, washing what little dishes Stephanie had, and cleaning out her cabinets and refrigerator. She made a mental note to make a list of groceries for Tank to get for Stephanie. no matter how much Stephanie would whine and complain about 'charity', Lula was going to make sure that Stephanie was looked after, something in her gut told her to look after her.

After the kitchen was sparkling clean, Lula went into the living room/dining room area and straightened it up. She closed the door to Stephanie's bedroom so she could run the vacuum, but she highly doubted that Stephanie would wake up from the noise the vacuum made, lately Stephanie would fall into a deep sleep and nothing could wake her up.

Lula made a sound, as she knocked over Stephanie's purse off its perch on the coffee table. Lula turned off the vacuum and picked up all the contents that fell out of Stephanie's purse. Lula paused, picking up a group of brochures from the floor. She got up slowly, leafing through the papers, her heart dropping with each turn.

"Oh no," Lula said, sitting down on the couch and looking down at the brochures, "Oh no, oh no!"

Lula felt tears blur her vision, but she could see the words as clear as day: "You don't have to face cancer alone; we're here to help!"

TBC…..

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