Disclaimer: The characters you recognize, know, and love are not mine and I'm not making any money. I'm simply playing with them and when I'm done, I'll put them back like I found them.
Author's Note: Hi Guys! It's nice to be back!
Spanish is in Italics.
The Power of a Christmas Tree
Steph walked into the bail bonds office and frowned at the quietness of the new place. Connie was behind her desk, dressed for the holiday spirit in a tight red mini skirt and a green button up blouse with poinsettias on the collar. Her large bosom spilling out the top which called attention to the little jingle bell on a strand of red ribbon around her neck.
"Where's Lula?" Steph questioned.
Connie coughed; a hacking cough that made her whole body shake. "She's out sick."
Steph grimaced and nodded towards Vince's office. "He in?"
Connie shook her head and squeezed into a tissue. "Nope, he's out sick too."
Steph's clear blue eyes widened. "I guess everybody's sick right now and you're not looking so good either."
Connie nodded and then let out a moan of pain and clutched her head. "Who else is sick?"
"Joe's been sick."
Connie cocked an eyebrow in question. "I thought you weren't seeing him any more."
Steph nodded in reply. "I'm not. We had an argument and split."
"Another argument? What was this one about?"
Steph sighed. She really didn't like talking about her personal relationships, but what the hell. They had arguments all the time and eventually worked it out.
"Over him being sick. He wanted me to drop everything and come cater to his every need. I told him I couldn't because I had a job and bills to pay. We argued and broke up."
"Y'all get back together, always do."
Steph shrugged. "I guess so." She replied. She was however getting tired of the on and off relationship they had. She loved him, she really did, but was it enough for a forever type of relationship.
Connie nodded as though she understood, but she really didn't. Steph's relationship with Joseph Morelli wasn't normal by any standards, especially theirs. However so far it seemed to work for them. "There isn't skips right now." She told Steph while coughing.
Steph nodded. "That's okay. I'm going to go home, pop some popcorn, and watch one of my favorite Christmas movies."
"Which one is your favorite?"
"National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation."
Connie was confused and it showed. "That's your favorite movie?"
Steph nodded. "It's sappy, it's funny, and even a little sad at parts and it celebrates Christmas in the funniest way. It's the perfect holiday movie."
Connie shook her head and sneezed. "If you say so." She sneezed again and Steph flinched.
"You should go home. Screw Vince. If he can stay home than so can you."
Connie nodded and sneezed again. "I will. Bye Steph."
Steph said good bye and then headed back to her car. The older lighter blue model two door Ford Mustang was her new favorite car. She bought it outright after saving money for months. It had been hard to save that money because it meant no more eating at Pinos or Cluck N' Bucket and it definitely meant no more buying Boston cream donuts, but she did it and she was losing weight too. She bought groceries instead and she didn't waste money on Tasty cakes or Ben & Jerry's or even beer. She bought bologna, bread, cereal, milk, ramen noodles, and she drank water from the tap and ate dinner at her parents' house every night. Now after months of saving and buying her own car everything was changing. She was still saving money and was even able to buy Christmas presents.
She was rolling in less garbage, getting hurt and stalked a lot less, and she wasn't blowing up cars as much either. So eating dinner at her parents' place wasn't so bad anymore because there wasn't gossip about her. She wasn't blowing up funeral homes or businesses or people for that matter. She hadn't been doing anything different really except for studying her skips first. Instead of jumping in before looking, she watched them. She waited them out to see if they had any hobbies or habits that she could use to get to them quicker and a lot less messy. So far it was working for her.
She entered her quiet and clean apartment and locked the door. She let out another sigh of contentment when she did a walk through of her apartment and it once again came up clean. She was getting used to having her apartment to herself. She still never used her gun, she just didn't like it. However she was trying to be safer and so far it was working. She placed her coat and pocket book on the hook beside the door and dropped her keys on the counter in the kitchen.
"Hey Rex. It wasn't a busy day at all since everybody was out sick with the flu." She greeted with a smile as she put a bag of popcorn in the microwave and grabbed a beer from the refrigerator. The only reason why she had the beer and popcorn was because she had actually gotten Christmas presents for everybody and her bills were paid and her cabinets full of food. For the first time in months after paying those bills and buying those Christmas presents, she had just a little over a hundred dollars in her bank account. So as a Christmas gift to herself, she bought the Christmas movie, the popcorn and a six pack of Coors.
The microwave dinged and she pulled out her bag of extra butter movie popcorn. Another thing she was very proud of was her kitchen. She still couldn't cook with a darn, but she had a microwave, a toaster oven, and a few pots and pans and baking items. She could fix macaroni and cheese, any hamburger helper, and she was pretty damn good at cooking up a nice juicy hamburger. She even made a cake last Sunday to take over to her parents' house for dinner. It wasn't perfect, but her mom did say it was pretty good.
She dropped a few pieces of popcorn into Rex's bowl, grabbed her beer and popcorn and headed into the living room. Popping her movie into the dvd player, she relaxed on the couch and watched her movie.
"We're kicking off our fun old fashion family Christmas by heading out into the country in the old front-wheel drive sleigh to embrace the frosty majesty of the winter landscape and select that most important of Christmas symbols." (A quote from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation)
She paused the movie and got up to grab another beer. She should have grabbed another one before she started her movie but she had a lot on her mind. Two in one night will probably be her limit because right now it probably wouldn't take much to get her drunk since she hasn't had a good beer in a while. She deposited the empty bottle in trash can, grabbed a full one and then returned to her movie.
"Two hundred fifty strand of lights, one hundred individual bulbs per strand for a grand total of twenty-five thousand imported Italian twinkle lights." (quote from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation)
"I dedicate this house to the Griswold Family Christmas." (quote from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation)
Steph paused the movie again, grabbed her almost empty bowl of popcorn and went into the kitchen. She tossed the rest of the popcorn in the trash along with the empty beer bottle and washed the popcorn bowl. Once finished she turned and leaned against the sink. She looked around her apartment, deep in thought. She had decorated a little, just mostly little knickknacks that she purchased from the Dollar Store. She got a little Santa Claus with a huge green sack pitched over his shoulder. Another little Santa Claus that had toys surrounding his feet and a child in his arms and then one of him sitting in a huge red chair with a little girl in his lap. She then found a snowman that reminded her of the song, Frosty the Snowman with its corncob pipe, button nose, and two eyes made out of coal. She then bought a string of lights and put them around her windows. She didn't spend more than ten dollars on any of her decorations and she was proud of that, but it now occurred to her that she didn't have a tree. She needed a tree with lights and ornaments and garland.
Steph went back into the living room and plopped down onto the couch. Maybe she could buy a fake tree from the local Wal-Mart. Just a small one so that way she could get a few things to put on the tree like lights and ornaments. Garland wasn't really that important. Yeah, that's what she could do. She pressed play and returned to her movie.
"Hey! If any of you are looking for any last-minute gift ideas for me, I have one. I'd like Frank Shirley, my boss, right here tonight. I want him brought from his happy holiday slumber over there on Melody Lane with all the other rich people and I want him brought right here, with a big ribbon on his head, and I want to look him straight in the eye and I want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey shit he is! Hallelujah! Holy shit! Where's the Tylenol?" (A quote from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation)
As the movie credits rolled, Steph laughed until tears came to her bright blue eyes. She just loved this crazy movie. A lot of people thought she was crazy, including her family, for loving this movie but it was just so funny. She really did enjoy it even after watching it several times every Christmas season and she still loved it. And now she had this brilliant idea and she was going to follow through with it rather or not she had to do it by herself.
She got up, grabbed her lap top and sat down at the small kitchen table. She looked up local tree lots and found exactly what she was looking for, but who should she ask. She didn't really want to ask Joe because he would take it the wrong way. He would assumed that this was her way of telling him she was ready to get married and settle down to start that crazy family he was set on having. That wasn't what she wanted at all. She just wanted a tree to put in her apartment, in her living room so she could decorate it. She could ask her dad, but he already did so much for her that she hated to bother him during the Christmas season. She could ask Lula or Mary Lou, but she was sure she was going to need a man to help with the tree. She could only do so much, but that was probably something she couldn't do.
So that left Ranger or one of the Merry Men. She wanted Ranger to go with her, not one of the Merry Men. She didn't have anything against them or anything. She loved each one of her Merry Men and each one for different reasons. No, she wanted Ranger for entirely different reason. She loved Ranger and not the same way she loved Joe either. No, she had to face the truth; she was in love with Ranger. She had fallen in love with the mysterious man a long time ago. There was just something about him that called her to him. He was always supportive, always there for her and he never critiqued her. He loaned her cars, guns, his building, his men, and himself as often and as much as she needed it. She knew that no matter how much time went by or how much time she spent with him, he was never going to love her as much as she loved him. Although she would never get over him, she would deal with it and in the process spend as much time as she can possibly can with the enigma man.
Looking at the time, she was happy to see that it wasn't too late to call Ranger and ask him. She pulled her phone from her pants pocket and hit speed dial one. She smiled as he answered.
"Yo."
"Yo yourself." Steph responded.
"Babe." His way of asking how he could help her.
She took a deep breath. "Are you busy tomorrow?" She asked.
"Depends."
He wasn't going to make this easy. She should have known better. "I want a Christmas tree." She blurted out.
"Babe?" She confused him, of course.
"There's a place not far from Newark that sales Christmas trees."
"And?"
Another deep breath. "And I want one."
"Getting those feelings again?"
She sighed. "I just want a Christmas tree, Ranger."
"And this involves me, how?"
Oh she left out a big part. "This lot is where you go out and find the tree you want and cut it down yourself."
He was silent for the longest time that she wasn't even sure he was there anymore. She finally heard him take a breath. "You want me to come with you to help cut down this tree?" He questioned his voice hard as if he was angry.
Steph wasn't so sure anymore. "Yes. Please."
"No." He bit and hung up the phone before Steph could respond.
She laid her phone down on the table and resisted the urge to cry. He had never sounded like that as long as she had known him and she wasn't sure what to think of it, but what she was sure of is that his rejection stung. She wanted to cry. She wanted to throw herself on her bed and sob her heart out. Ranger had rejected her and there wasn't a thing she could do about it.
The Next Morning—
Steph heard the locks tumble on her front door, but for the life of her she couldn't manage to drag her ass out of bed to see who was letting themselves into her apartment. After Ranger's rejection, she honestly hoped whoever was at her door was there to kill her. She had never known anything to hurt as much as his rejection did. Even though he only said he wouldn't help with the tree, it felt deeper than that.
The smell of coffee and caramel made it up her nose and she sighed in disappointment and relief. So who ever was at the door was not there to kill her. Maybe another time. She didn't hear anything so it was either Joe or Ranger and since Joe was sick at home, it had to be Ranger. Another sigh left her before she could stop it. She didn't want to come face to face with Ranger, especially after his rebuff. So why was he here after his refusal to help just last night?
Her bedroom door opened and at the same time the back of her neck started to tingle. She still didn't hear him, but she could sense him. It was beyond amazing how she could just sense his presence when he was near. She wondered if he could sense her. She would probably never know.
"Babe."
Steph almost smiled. That was Ranger speak for 'I know you're awake'.
Steph rolled over to look at the man she had fallen in love with. "What?" She asked.
"Get up. I brought coffee." He told her and left the room.
She wanted to rant and rave at him for even being here. She wanted to scream at him and tell him she didn't want him here, but she knew it was a lie and he would know it too. She would always want him around, no matter what took place between them. So even though she dragged her feet, she got out of bed and went into the kitchen where coffee was waiting for her.
Ranger was seated at the small kitchen table, his back to the wall and his feet stretched out in front of him and his arms crossed over his chest. He was the symbol of pure masculinity for all mankind. Other men worshiped him and women just wanted him. He cocked an eyebrow at her before his eyes roved over her body appreciatively. She looked down at herself and blushed. She had forgotten that all she had on was a RangeMan t-shirt.
He unfolded himself from his chair and crossed the room to stand in front of her. He ran a single digit across her collarbone and down between the vee of her breasts.
"Babe." He said, his lips hinting at a smile even though his eyes were sad. She hadn't a clue where his blank face went to.
She frowned. "I don't know what that babe means."
He actually smiled at that and his face changed. The sadness was still there, but the worry lines at the corner of his eyes and mouth were gone. "I like seeing you in my shirts. Makes me feel like I'm marking my territory."
She didn't know what to say to that so she backed up and went around to the sink. "Why are you here, Ranger?" She asked.
His eyes met hers and she felt lost. "You still want to go cut down that tree?" He asked.
Her eyes widened and she nodded. "I do. Why are you asking?"
He nodded towards the bedroom. "Go get dressed and I'll take you."
"You wanna help?" She asked and he nodded. She didn't say another word. She left the kitchen to go get dressed.
The Tree Lot—
"How big of a tree do you want?"
Steph shrugged. "A smaller one definitely since it's going into my living room of my very small apartment, but I want a full one too. I don't want a sickly looking tree."
Ranger gave her a look and she smiled. "What?"
He gave a slight shake of his head. "Babe."
They hadn't been here long and Steph wasn't interested in getting back into the small confines of the large Ford truck Ranger had driven. Ranger was normally always silent while driving. She called it his zone, but the long trip to the tree lot in Newark had been an uncomfortable one. The silence was filled with tension and almost a sadness. Steph didn't understand it, but she wished she had enough guts to ask Ranger what was wrong.
"That one." Ranger replied pointing to the right where a small tree sat off in the distance.
Steph shook her head. "It's not full enough. I want a beautiful tree that speaks to me."
"Speaks to you?"
Steph nodded. "I can't explain it, Ranger. I'll know when I see it."
They continued to walk until Steph knew exactly how the girl from her favorite Christmas movie felt. It felt like her whole body was frozen solid. She couldn't feel her toes or her legs or even her hips or fingers or even her nose. It was all frozen. She looked around at each tree she passed. She wanted to be sure that she didn't miss her special tree and she was sure that when she saw it, she would know it was the tree for her.
She suddenly realized that Ranger was no longer walking beside her and she stopped. She glanced around and spotted Ranger. He was standing in front of a large and very full tree. It was a very beautiful tree, but sadly it was too big for her living room.
"I like it, Ranger but it's too big." She said, but Ranger didn't reply nor did he move. She slowly walked over to stand next to him. She didn't say anything at first, she just waited to see if he would. However when he didn't she couldn't take the silence anymore.
"Ranger?" She said his name softly as if not to spook him.
He took a deep breath but he stayed silent. He was starting to scare her.
"Ranger?" She said his name again as she moved to stand in front of him. It was then that she went from a little scared to full blown terrified. He had tears in his eyes. Ranger never cried. Ranger crying was like Pinos pizza being healthy. It just wasn't possible. She had no idea what to say or how to handle this particular side of the man in black.
She took a deep breath and laid a hand on his arm. "Ranger, tell me what's wrong. Please." She offered softly.
Ranger gave a little breath and shuddered before sinking down to his knees in the soft snow. Steph crouched in front of him and waited. She didn't have to wait long.
"The first time we went and cut down our own tree I was five. My older brother and sisters grumbled and whined, but I thought it was the greatest thing in the world. My Papa carried me on his shoulders the entire time. He would point out a tree and I would be the judge of that tree. It was my job to pick out the perfect tree. I always took that duty seriously. I wanted to make sure we had the perfect tree for Christmas."
Ranger went silent again, but Steph just waited him out. She knew something had happened to make Ranger talk, but she wasn't sure what had happened. She was sure however, that she wasn't going to like it.
A single tear slid down his cheek. "My Papa had a heart attack yesterday morning, Babe. They aren't sure if he's going to make it or not."
Steph's heart broke. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he wrapped his around her and pulled her against him. He buried his face in her neck and wept. She had never known Ranger to fall apart, but she was glad that she could be there for him as he had been there for her many times in the past. She could feel the tears against her neck, but Ranger was quiet while he cried.
She wasn't sure how long they sat there; both of them on their knees with their arms around each other, but to her it didn't matter. She just kept her face hidden in the crook of Ranger's neck and cried with him.
"Babe?" Ranger whispered in her ear.
She pulled back to look at him. His eyes were clear just slightly red and filled with sadness. "Yes." She replied.
"My Papa taught me at a very early age that family is everything and without family you are nothing. My family; my Mama, my Papa, my sisters and brother, they have been the only family I know, but I realized while watching my own family yesterday that I want what my Papa and what my Mama has. My Mama hasn't left Papa's side since yesterday morning and neither has any of the family. My sisters with their husbands and my brother with his wife and all of them with their children made me realize what I've been missing. I can't believe all this time I've been ignoring what I've been feeling and now to have it thrown in my face."
Steph was a little confused. He couldn't possibly mean what she thought he meant. "What do you mean, Ranger?"
Ranger cupped her cheeks with his large hands and brushed a kiss across her mouth. "Babe, I've been so stupid and I hope eventually you're forgive me for taking so long. I want our Someday, Babe. I want to be with you and only you. I can't imagine my life without you and I most certainly can not imagine it with anyone else. Babe, I love you. I've always loved you. I was just scared to admit it."
Steph smiled and placed a hand to his cheek. "I love you too, Ranger. I'm in love with you."
Ranger returned her smile. "Thank God for that. So what do you say? Just you and me, Babe and our someday."
Steph nodded and tears came to her eyes. "I would love that."
Ranger got to his feet and pulled Steph into his arms and covered her mouth with his. The kiss was full of promises of better things to come. Steph poured her heart and soul into that one kiss until Ranger groaned and pulled away.
"Which tree do you want, Babe?" Ranger asked, breathless.
Steph grinned and pointed to the one he had been staring at. "What's wrong with this one?" She asked.
Ranger cocked an eyebrow. "It's too big for your apartment." He replied.
She giggled. "Yes, but it'll be perfect for your family."
Ranger kissed her forehead then smiled and nodded. "It will be perfect for my Mama and Papa's house."
She wrapped her arms around his waist and gave him a squeeze. "Then let's cut this tree down, take it back to your family and then head to the hospital to check on your Papa."
Ranger gave her a hard kiss then leaned down to grab his ax. "Babe, I would love that."
One Year Later—
"Babe, are you froze yet?" Ranger asked with a cocky grin. They had been tree hunting for the past hour with Ranger's family. They still hadn't found the perfect tree. Ranger took his job very seriously.
She glared at him. "I was froze thirty minutes ago. Now I'm freezer burnt."
Ranger's Papa laughed and pulled Steph into a hug. "Oh my son, she is a beautiful handful. You are a very lucky man."
Ranger grinned and nodded at his Papa. "Yes Papa, I am. A very lucky man indeed."
Merry Christmas My Wonderful JE FanFiction Readers! I hope you have a beautiful and safe holiday! Please read and review!