AN: Well, hi! It has been a loooonnng time since I was inspired to write. Real life has just been overwhelming - moving to a new house, selling the old house, major upheavals at work, changing jobs, trying to get pets settled... But there have been three ideas rolling around in my head in the aftermath of 22. And with 23 looming, I finally felt the faint itch of my muse stirring, finally. So this is the first one – just a short one-shot.

Although I don't know how JE will see it, at the end of 22, it seemed inevitable to me that this would happen… Inspired by 'Secret Love Song' by Little Mix and Jason Derulo. I kept hearing it on the radio and it wouldn't get out my head that it was totally canon R/S.

Everything belongs to JE… especially Tricky Twenty-Two! That is NOT mine!

Inevitable

STEPHANIE POV

I guess it was inevitable I would end up here, but as I stand here, I can't for the life of me remember how I got here. I am standing in the middle of the VFW, surrounded by family and friends, and too many people who are neither, and wishing I could be almost anywhere else. I hate parties like this, and this one was particularly bad. Because it was my engagement party, and I wasn't even remotely sure I wanted to be engaged. I was looking at this (not very big) diamond on my finger, which seemed to indicate that I was engaged. But I didn't think I had actually agreed to be engaged? Though the point really did seem to be moot at this stage.

I had tried to fob him off that my mom would need a ring. He told me we would be "engaged to be engaged". He told me all it involved was getting me out of my Pilates pants. He lied.

Two days later I was wearing this ring and sitting at my parents' dining table while my mom and my grandma alternately cried and squealed and planned the wedding. My dad just ignored it all, as usual. Guess it wasn't very interesting news for him. Probably just groaning inside at having to pay for another wedding.

The next night was worse, as we sat at his mother's dining table, while she looked somewhere between relieved that we were finally doing this, and unsure if we really should. Grandma Bella was suffering no such confusion. She was completely sure we shouldn't be doing this, and making her opinion clear. I don't think she had ever got over the vordo thing. So Mrs Morelli looked constipated and Bella looked furious and I just wanted to get drunk and pretend it wasn't happening.

But it was. It did. And now here I stand in the middle of a hundred people drinking and eating, and my mom telling everyone that she was booking halls and churches and setting up appointments for dress fittings.

Perfect. Another 'Burg wedding extravaganza for Stephanie Plum. And when I looked at how the last one had turned out, I wasn't inspired with a lot of confidence that this one was going to be much better.

Nobody seemed to care, or even notice much, that the bride-to-be was standing in the middle of this gala feeling oddly detached and a little nauseous. Mary Lou had shot me a couple of curious, slightly concerned looks, but I had deflected her with a bright, fake smile. But I really didn't want to be here. It wasn't like I could leave though. I just had to suck it up.

Did that mean I would just have to suck it up at the wedding too? It seemed like it. The way things were going, I wasn't going to get much say in anything. Nobody was asking my opinion. Joe was happy to dump everything on my mom, and Mrs Morelli might not be sure about this wedding, but 'Burg pride would dictate it should be a typical, extravagant fiasco… I mean fiesta. So it looked like I was pretty much stuck. Doomed to wear some lace-and-satin concoction that made me look like the cupcake Joe called me. Doomed to yet another unwanted extravaganza in front of hundreds of people who didn't really care if this marriage was a good idea; whose only interest would be if something gossip-worthy might happen?

Joe just stood around smiling smugly at everyone, and accepting the congratulations of all his cop buddies and cousins. I could tell he thought he had won something, some contest I wasn't even aware of. Did that make me the prize? Or the stakes? Maybe there was a pool on when we were supposed to be married, and Joe had the winning ticket. Wouldn't surprise me. Everyone seemed to bet on every other aspect of my like, why not this?

And the marriage, how much would I just have to suck up to make that work? Joe had seemed to be as uncertain about marrying me as I was for so many years. But since I had 'agreed' to this marriage, all of a sudden it felt like two years ago, when he expected me to quit my job, move in with him, and start thinking about babies. Babies. Yeah, that's enough to give me hives. Just the thought of that is enough to give me hives!

So Joe seemed to think I should just suck it up and become the 'Burg wife I never wanted to be. I was sure the walls were closing in on me; an ever-tightening coil around my throat, threatening to suffocate me. But I could see everyone expected me to just suck it up.

My mother was fully on side with it of course, and it was starting to show in so many ways. I looked around and I could see Lula and Connie talking to Sally Sweet. Aside from Mary Lou, though, they were the only genuine friends of mine here. I hadn't been allowed to invite anyone else, and even inviting Lula had been a stretch for my mother.

I had tentatively mentioned inviting Ranger, and maybe a couple of my other friends from Rangeman, and you'd think I'd suggested a drunken striptease in the middle of the VFW. The disapproval was overwhelming. "You can't invite an ex-boyfriend to your engagement party, Stephanie!" An ex-boyfriend? Was he?

I'd invited him anyway, but I didn't think he would come. I hadn't heard from Ranger since the engagement was announced. Didn't seem like his kind of thing anyway. He was probably in Boston or Miami, probably even travelled there deliberately so he had an excuse not to come…

So I stood here feeling superfluous to everyone's excitement and satisfaction at this inevitable wedding. Listening to the chatter of a hundred people I didn't even want to talk to and watching a few people dance to the music playing in the background. Nobody danced with me though. Joe doesn't dance.

The music changed to a current hit that I recognised vaguely. It was a slow, slightly mournful tune about love denied and unacknowledged. The girls' voices were sweet as they sang it though, and the emotion of the song was something I could identify with.

Suddenly I saw him through a gap in the dancers and chattering throng. Him. The one I thought I would never see tonight. The one I wasn't sure I would ever see again. And suddenly the whole night came alive again for me. Suddenly I could feel again, see again. He was wearing Armani, and he looked achingly desirable and overwhelmingly sexy. I swallowed and tried to breathe.

He walked purposefully toward me, and led me gently onto the dance floor. He drew me close to dance, but not too close. I guess he knew he had to maintain a respectful distance with an engaged woman… Still the heady scent of Bvlgari filled my nostrils and the warmth radiating from his muscles was the first thing to penetrate the chill that seemed to envelop me tonight.

Suddenly, the words of the song seemed immediately relevant and disturbingly poignant. We swayed to the music. He said nothing. I said nothing. It'll never be enough…

The next verse began speaking of how two people were so perfectly suited, but never showed it. I could feel tears building behind my eyes at the pure sadness of the song and the way it seemed to be talking about us, as we swayed there. The chorus began, asking again why it had to be this way. Why can't we be like that?

I wondered for a second if he had somehow arranged for this song to play. It seemed ridiculously unlikely; how would he even know this song? Ranger listened to classical music. But somehow the lyrics were just too perfect for our fractured, tortured relationship. It seemed almost as ridiculous that we were dancing to this music as a coincidence.

Jason Derulo's plaintive voice began asking if I thought of the other man while with my partner. Would you leave if I was ready to settle down? A single tear slipped out of my eye and tracked down my face.

We got a love that is hopeless…

The music played to its inevitable conclusion.

Why can't he kiss me on the dance floor?

As the last strains of the song died his hold tightened momentarily, but then immediately loosened as he stepped back. He leaned in and brushed a light kiss on my cheek and murmured, "Good luck, Babe."

He turned and walked away and another tear escaped to track down my cheek. I knew I was watching him walk away for the last time. I knew he wouldn't be a part of my life anymore. I knew I had just lost one of the most important people I had ever had in my life, maybe the love of my life. Probably the love of my life. Walking away. Forever.

Joe would be happy I guess.

Almost as if someone was playing with a sound mixer in only my ears, the other sounds of the party seemed to ramp back up in volume. I had only been hearing the music and the slight sounds Ranger had made, otherwise some kind of protective bubble had enclosed me in a tiny pod of awareness. Now I could see the avid looks of the people who watched our little confrontation, and there was an angry glare from two in particular. I could almost hear the gossip gathering on their tongues, and could guess the vindictive pleasure if Joe exploded as he seemed want to do.

But still I couldn't bring myself to care. I was trapped there in my grief at the inevitable.

He was gone. And he wouldn't be back now.

AN: Sappy I know, but it was stuck in my head. And I'm trying to get back into the writing groove. I want to finish Epiphany, but my muse is stuck on that bloody book… Ah well, let me know what you think. Go on, I can take it! :)