Not the Marrying Kind
By Misha

Disclaimer- I don't own Stephanie Plum or any of the other characters (though I wish I owned Ranger). They belong to the incredibly talented Janet Evanovich and I'm just borrowing them. I'm not making any money off this, so please don't sue me.

Author's Notes- This is a short one-shot set during To the Nines. It's Ranger's reaction to learning that Valerie wanted to marry him. It's short and mostly fluffy with a little angst thrown in. Enjoy!

Pairing- Mild Ranger/Stephanie.

Summery- Missing scene from "To the Nines". Stephanie talks to Ranger on Valerie's behalf...

Spoilers- Up to "To the Nines".

Rating- PG-13

"By any chance have you changed your mind about marriage?" I asked Ranger, deciding to just get it over with.

Ranger gave me a look. "Babe..."

"My sister wants to marry you." I rushed out, realizing that he was getting the wrong idea. Not that I wouldn't like to marry Ranger, but I knew it wasn't in the cards. Plus there was Morelli.

Ranger raised one perfect eyebrow. "The pregnant one?"

"I only have one sister." I told him nervously,

I'd promised Valerie I'd talk to Ranger, but I hadn't exactly relished doing it. Still the expression on his face was almost comical.

"My mother wants her to marry Kloughn before the baby comes," I explained, "so I tried to talk her into it, but she's decided she'd rather marry you and I told her I'd talk to you."

To be fair I'd rather marry Ranger than Albert Kloughn as well, so I couldn't really blame Valerie. But I wasn't pregnant, I had a prior relationship with Ranger and I knew it wasn't going to happen, so I was a little less delusional than my sister. Besides, Kloughn would probably make a better husband, given that he at least wanted to be a husband.

To my relief Ranger didn't get angry, in fact he burst out laughing. This was like only the second time I've ever heard and its a nice sound, so I was kinda glad that Valerie had made me do this.

"Babe, I'm not marrying your sister." Ranger told me.

"I didn't think you were." I told him. "In fact, if you said yes, I would have died of shock. Or at least been really pissed."

Ranger looked me in the eye. "You have nothing to worry about, I'm not a marrying man."

I knew that all too well, it was one of the reasons that Morelli was a better option.

"However," Ranger continued, "if that were to ever change, Valerie wouldn't be the Plum sister getting a proposal."

I froze when the meaning of his words became clear. "Do you thing it'll ever change?" I asked trying to sound casual.

"No." Ranger told me flatly, his eyes sad. "But, sometime I really wish it would."

I just nodded. Nothing had really changed, Ranger was never going to marry me, but now I knew that he wished he could and that was everything.

"So I have to tell my sister 'No'?" I said with a grin.

Ranger just gave me a look. "Babe..." He said warningly.

Nothing had changed between us, it was still doomed to go nowhere, but it felt deeper, because now I knew we both wished it could be different.

- End