Author's Note: Good Morning. I am a woman of my word. Hello and welcome to my new JE story. Okay, once again, I've decided to take a Babe fic staple and put my own special CMW2 twist on it. The prologue is kind of long but all of it is needed to establish the two plots I picked. This story is probably going to be heavy on the drama and more serious than Unstoppable. It doesn't mean that it won't have humor and smut and an HEA (because those are my favorites to read and write) but…yeah. So, here's the prologue and the POVs will start in the aftermath.

WARNINGS: Stephanie's definitely gonna be straight up OOC. I don't think it's in a bad way but I've basically taken JE's mold and chucked it to the moon, the stars, and the desert. Also, I think Joseph Morelli is a chauvinistic, manipulative pig who deserves to be castrated with a rusty spoon, despite the fact that he is a fictional character. I also think that Helen Plum does not deserve the title of mother and I would love to see her be annihilated by a flaming meteor, despite the fact that she is a fictional character. These two characters will not be portrayed favorably in this story or any other one that comes to mind, regardless of flames. Fans of them: leave now or forever hold your peace.

Disclaimer: "Honestly, it's not mine!"

"I'm not leaving until he can and then, I'm still going to be with him. You want me to choose, Joe? Fine. I choose him. Now, later, always…him. He's my best friend and he's always had my back when I needed him. He deserves the same from me. You say that The Burg needs me to take my place? Well, I say fuck them. All The Burg's done for me is chew me up and spit me out for daring to be different. No one's ever bothered to give a damn about me unless it makes them look good. They talk shit about me, cause shit to happen to me and then you've got the nerve to wonder why I don't want anything to do with it anymore? Fuck them and fuck you. You cheated on me with Terri Gillman in my bed and then you had the audacity to invite me to join you. I need to grow up and marry you, already? I'll shoot myself in the fucking head before I marry you. Fuck the Burg, fuck you, and my mother can go to hell, too. She sent you to talk sense into me? You know what, I like being senseless in her eyes. It's a lot of fun. Besides, I've always been the fuck up oops baby that brings her nothing but shame and misery. She's told me that since I was 7. So, I wanna know why she keeps in contact in me. I'm not gonna change. Hell, I can't and you know what? I finally realize that I don't fucking have to. All I have to do is be myself and those who truly give a shit about me will stick by me and love me for me. You're not one of those people. You never have and you never will be. We're soul mates, huh? Not on my part. The man I love more than fucking anything's laying here because he was protecting me and I am not leaving his side for anything or anyone."

To drive her point home, Stephanie Plum carefully climbed into his hospital bed and rested her head on his bandaged bare chest. Her words resounded through the entire ICU like a cannon blast. Even though she hadn't raised her voice once, the steely resolve was there, belying her current condition. She was practically drowning in some salmon pink scrubs, her wild hair was tangled and barely contained by a makeshift headband. Her eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep and the constant flow of worried tears down her cheeks. She was shaking from cold and from a lack of a substantial meal and her skin was near translucent under the lights. She had been sitting by Ricardo Carlos Manoso's bedside for 6 days and counting. The Merry Men and her friends stopped trying to make her leave after day 2 and now just brought her a sandwich or took up sentry outside.

Joseph Morelli had been let in with Eddie Gazarra to attempt to take her statement and Morelli had blown up at her. He had yelled, gestured, and done his usual shtick: The Boys miss you…Bob misses you…see what your job does…look at where you're gonna end up if you stick with this nut…stop being so damned stupid and just marry…no. No. Not anymore. Stephanie was tired of making the same stupid mistakes over and over again. She was tired of trying to make a round peg fit in a square hole. She was sick of being a doormat, of denying her happiness just to make everyone else look and feel good. What about her? What about what she wanted? What about what she needed? Morelli never thought about that…

Since the only person who did currently had a tube down his throat, she had finally decided to take matters into her own hands, leading to her blowup. Even though it was blatantly rude and even though she had done it near the epicenter of The Burg, she had no regrets whatsoever. She was damned near 40, now. It was time to grow up…

"Eddie, if you want me to talk about what happened, I will but Detective Morelli needs to leave first."

"I'm not going anywhere, Cupcake!"

"Leave on your own or be thrown out! We're done, Morelli. I've made my choice now and I'm sticking with it…sticking with Ranger. I love him, not you. Not anyone else. Since you're not going to accept it, we have nothing left to discuss. Get the fuck out of my face. Eddie…"

Eddie shook off the shock and pulled out a digital recorder, sitting in her previously occupied chair.

"Morelli, take a walk."

"You've got to be fucking kidding me!"

"Take a walk or I'm calling the captain. He's still pissed that you were schtupping Gillman when you were supposed to working and you heard Steph. She wants you to fuck off so just do it, already. Look, I told you two months ago that she was done with you and you didn't believe me. Do you now?"

Morelli just shot her an ugly glare and with a snarled, "This is far from over", stalked out of the ward and out of the hospital. Stephanie could hear the Merry Men outside close ranks and she knew that he wouldn't be getting back in anytime soon. Not like he'd try. She knew that he was heading straight back to her mother's and into a bottle of Old Turkey, just like every other Morelli excuse for a man…

"Okay, Stephanie. He's gone. Now, what happened?"

"Samuel Anderson happened."

"As in the gun runner that's been on America's Most Wanted for over a year?"

"That would be correct. He's from here and was spotted by a Good Samaritan on the way to get his latest titty mag from Stark Street. RangeMan was contacted to bring him in and Ranger…Ranger called me in because he was hiding in the Burg near the high school. I know the area real good, especially all the hidey holes and…and he trusted me not to do anything reckless."

"Did you do anything reckless?"

"No, not this time. I suggested to him, Tank, and Lester that we split up to cover more ground. On the way back to them, Samuel grabbed me and put a knife to my neck. He started dragging me back towards the old key factory and I was screaming loud enough to wake the dead. He dropped me when he spotted Ranger and bolted. He went after him and I went after them and…and I saw the fucker shoot him. He had some of those special bullets that can cut through Kevlar so Ranger dropped and Anderson was about to shoot him in the head so…I shot him first."

"Four rounds to the chest and one to the head."

She shuddered and confirmed, "Yeah. I rolled the asshole's body out of the way and starting trying to help Ranger. I managed to get him to stop bleeding in 2 places but the other two…if Tank and Lester hadn't been there, he would've bled out. They helped stopped the bleeding and you know the rest."

Eddie nodded and shut off the recorder, awkwardly patting her on the back.

"I'm sorry you had to do that."

"I did it for Ranger. I'd do it again in a heartbeat."

"Cause you love him."

"Mm-hm. All hell's about to break loose, isn't it? Whether Ranger lives or…d-doesn't, what I said to Morelli's not gonna blow over anytime soon, is it?"

"Nope and it shouldn't. As fucked up as it was, you did the right thing, Steph and I support whatever you're trying to do now. I don't really get it but I'll support it. That's for damn sure."

"Thank you, Eddie."

"Let me know if anything changes."

She nodded and let her eyes drift shut, finding the comforting scent of Bulgari even under the hospital soap.

I'm here, Ranger. I'm not going anywhere. I love you. Please wake up soon…