Plum Danger

Summary: Stephanie's just lost the most important person in her life and a new terror has entered it. Can she solve the case and save herself from the danger or will Stephanie's bounty hunting days be over?

Warning: It's not a happy story, at least not the start of it, but without giving away too much, it will have a happy ending. It is definitely not a Babe fic. The only man I can see Stephanie with is Joe, so don't worry about her ending up with Ranger. Give it a chance and you'll see that there's more than meets the eye with this one.

Disclaimer: All characters in this story were created by Janet Evanovich, save for the ones I've created for purposes of my storyline.

Chapter One

Phone calls in the early hours of the morning never bring good news. So when I was dragged out of sleep by the ringing of my phone at three in the morning, I knew it was a bad sign.

I picked up the phone and when I heard Eddie Gazarra, one of Trenton's police officers's voice, my stomach leapt into my throat.

"Eddie, why are you calling so late?" I asked, knowing that whatever he had to tell me wasn't good.

"You're at your apartment, right?" he asked, and I blinked in confusion. He'd just called my landline phone, in my apartment.

"You just called my apartment, Eddie. What's going on?" Something was really wrong, I just knew it.

"Just stay at your apartment. I'll be right over," he said.

"Tell me what's going on," I demanded, while feeling my stomach coil.

"Just stay there," he said and I heard the 'click' as he disconnect.

I pulled on my bathrobe over the tank top and shorts I'd gone to bed in and went to the living room to pace, feeling panic rising up in me. Or maybe that was just the bile rising in my throat. I felt like I was going to be sick at any moment.

I heard a knock on the door and almost ran to open it. Eddie was standing there, in full dress uniform, with his hat held in his hands, and looking more solemn than I'd ever seen.

"Eddie?" I asked and swallowed the lump in my throat.

"You should probably sit down, Steph," said Eddie, turning his hat over in his hands and I obeyed without question. He sat down on the couch next to me and looked down at his hands.

"What's going on?" I managed to choke out.

"It's about Joe, Steph," he started. "He's been in an accident."

"I want to see him," I said immediately and jumped up. I needed clothes on. Where were my shoes and purse? I put them down somewhere when I'd come back to my apartment. Where were they? Eddie took my hand and pulled me back to the couch.

"He didn't make it. I'm sorry…"

I couldn't hear anything else Eddie said over the rushing in my ears. The room started spinning and I could feel Eddie gently pushing my head between my knees.

"It's not true, it's not," I mumbled softly. "It can't be…"

Joe wasn't dead. We were supposed to go to my parents' for dinner Friday night. We'd made plans. Any minute now, he'd call and tell me it was all a sick joke, and I'd drive to his house to smack him for making me think he was dead.

I sat back up and shook my head. "You're lying. This is all some stupid joke, isn't it?"

"Steph, I'm really sorry. Joe is gone," said Eddie quietly. "I need to get back to the station and start filling out paperwork. Do you need me to call someone?"

I shook my head. He was lying. All I had to do was keep telling myself it wasn't true. I'd go back to sleep and when I woke up, this would all be a bad dream.

When Eddie was gone, all I felt was emptiness. I stumbled back into my bedroom, determined to go back to sleep. When I woke up, everything would be back to normal. My phone was still lying on my bed, and I picked it up and stared at it for a moment, then I dialed Joe's home number. It rang and rang, until finally the answering machine picked up.

"Joe, call me back, please," was the message I left, then I promptly dialed his cell phone. It went straight to voicemail, and I left a similar message there, then I collapsed onto the bed. I just needed to sleep and it would all be okay in the morning.

When I woke up in the morning, I felt better… at least, until I remember what had happened. Joe… I stumbled out of bed and went to check the answering machine. My heart sank when I finished checking the messages. There were messages there from nearly everyone I knew, asking me how I was. I deleted every one of them. Maybe he'd called my cell phone. But there was no message from Joe. The phone slipped out of my hand and landed with a 'thud' on the floor.

Hot tears slid down my face. Joe was gone and he wasn't going to call me ever again. And then I ran to the bathroom to throw up what little was in my stomach.

I don't know how long I stayed slumped against the toilet, fighting dry heaves before I finally dropped, exhausted, to the cold tile of the bathroom floor. When I woke up, there was knocking on my door. I didn't have the strength to get up and find out who it was. If I didn't answer, they would go away eventually. If it wasn't Joe knocking, then I didn't care. I closed my eyes against a fresh wave of tears. Without Joe, life wasn't worth going on.