Tittle: Unexpected

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Janet Evanovich's books.

Summary: Steph and Morelli have been taking a break for a while now. Ranger has been gone for a while now. Ranger comes back with an unexpected person who has to rent out Steph's couch. Steph finds out some interesting things about Ranger while they go, and Morelli makes one hell of a mistake. (set after ten big ones).

Authors Note: decided to go through this story again, might end up changing it, sorry to those of you who liked it before, but I just don't like how it ended up at a road block for me.

Chapter One: He's back

I walked into the office to find Connie and Lula already there, enjoying a fresh batch of donuts. They saw me come in, and they had big smiles plastered on their faces.

"What?" I asked them. They seemed weirdly happy, they were only ever this happy when Ranger was in the office, and he wasn't here.

"Rangers back," Lula said with a lot of enthusiasm. Ranger had been gone on business for around three months now. A lot had happened in three months.

To start off with, I'd blown up another car, with the Buick sitting ten metres away, completely un scratched, I'd finally gotten my apartment back off of my sister, who was now living with her future husband and three kids in a house that actually fitted them. And last but not least, Morelli and I were having a break, a long break. This break had lasted two and a half months, that's too long. We of course saw each other from time to time, not dating anybody else, like an unspoken rule or something. He'd tried at least three times a week to get me back into his bed; I'd given in a few times, but not much, not completely until he stopped trying to change me.

"When?" I asked, trying not to sound too excited.

"He was in a few minutes ago, he said to tell you when you got in to call him," Lula almost sang the last part to me. "I think I'd have an orgasm on the spot if he told me to call him," she added.

I wasn't sure how I felt about Ranger being back, I think I was happy, more excited. And him wanting me to call him, that could mean anything, but I really wanted to know what it was about.

"Got any new skips?" I asked Connie. I really needed money, so I really needed to get a few FTA's.

"Give her the drug dealer one that we just got," Lula told Connie as Connie searched her desk. "It's real good, this guy's got a bond out for a hundred thousand big ones," Lula told me.

My head was spinning; I'd get $10,000 if I caught this guy. I really needed that money.

Connie found the file and opened it. "Aaron Duke, 24 year old male, living with his parents in the Burg, neither of them will be home, on some holiday or something, not armed at arrest, first time offender. Easy ten grand going your way," Connie told me as she handed me the file.

Lula was standing there, excitement bursting out of her. "You coming?" I asked her. How could I not have?

"Fuckin' A, I gotta protect your skinny white ass," Lula told me as she picked up her hand bag. Only God knows how much she has in there. Stun gun, pepper spray, and of course her baby; her Glock. Lula would scare the guy at the sight of her. She was a big black woman whose old profession was a 'ho. She now worked doing the filing at the office, and sometimes helped me, but no one could stop Lula from wearing spandex. She was wearing a bright pink halter neck top with a leopard skin jacket, and a bright blue mini skirt, all of which were two or three sizes too small.

"No shooting," I told her as we headed out to the car. Lula had a habit of not listening to me, so I didn't think the Glock would stay in her bag.

I got out my cuffs from my bag and looped them around the back of my jeans, for easy access.

We drove through the Burg to Dukes house. It was at the opposite end to where I grew up, I didn't know it great, but I knew it all the same.

We walked up to the front door and I knocked twice. Duke answered in seconds. I loved first timers. Duke was dressed in jeans and a shirt that seemed three sizes too big. He had a remote in one hand and the other on the door handle. I put my foot in the way of the door subtly so he couldn't shut it in my face.

"Aaron Duke?" I asked him, he looked at me like he was stoned. Me next favourite skips, ones that were stoned. He looked at me and he just nodded. "I'm Stephanie Plum from Vincent Plum Bail Bonds agency, you seemed to have missed your court date and I'd like to take you down to the police station to reschedule," I explained nice and slowly so that he heard every word.

His face finally registered and he tried to close the door, but it ran into my steel capped docs. He looked at me and turned to run. He stopped instantly, let out a little squeak and collapsed.

I turned to Lula to find her stun gun in hand. "What?" she asked me as if she was completely innocent and did nothing wrong.

"Now we have to carry him to the car," I told her as I bent down and cuffed his hands behind his back. Given Duke's size, me and Lula might have been able to carry him. "You take his feet and I'll take his shoulders," I told her as I tried to pick him up.

We very slowly moved him to the car and got him in the back seat. I told Lula to mind him while I went and closed the front door, to at least make it look like it was locked, hopefully it wouldn't get robbed.

I drove us to the police station and drove to the pick up, I didn't feel like carrying him in as well. I went up the stairs and asked through the little speaker box for someone to come down. I went back to the car and waited for someone to come down.

It was Carl Costanza. He was an ok guy but always had a joke about almost every situation. This situation was no exception.

"You gotta be kidding me, what did you do to this guy? He looks stoned, did you really need to knock him out, or was he just too smart for you?" Carl asked as he tried to heave Duke out of the car and up the stairs.

I followed Costanza up the stairs while Lula stayed in the car and into the station to retrieve my body receipt and get out of there fast enough not to see Morelli.

For once my luck was looking up; I got out to Lula within seconds after getting my body receipt. We drove beck to the office so we could get Connie to write out a check.

"You know what; I think we should go shopping after you get your money. We deserve a reward, we earned it," Lula told me on our way back to the office, "anyway I gotta date tonight and I need a new outfit," she added.

I knew there was a reason, but I felt like shopping too. "We'll go after I've rung Ranger when we get to the office," I told her. Lula nodded and looked at my radio, or lack there of, obviously wishing it had a CD player.

We arrived at the office and parked out front. I noticed Rangers truck was out front, I didn't know whether to be excited or afraid. Lula looked like she was about to burst at the sight of the truck.

We went inside and Ranger wasn't there, I figured he was in with Vinnie. Connie was sitting there painting her nails red, to match her V neck blouse.

I put the receipt in front of Connie and she just smiled at me. "Told you it'd be a piece of cake," she said as she wrote out the check. "You see whose truck's outside?" she asked as she handed me the check.

"Uh-huh," Lula answered. She didn't seem to stop smiling. "How long he been here?" Lula asked Connie quietly, just in case Vinnie had a bug around.

"Around ten minutes, asked if Steph had been in yet," Connie told us, looking at me expectantly.

"What?" I asked innocently, I really wanted to know what was up.

I saw the door to Vinnies office open and Ranger walked out. When he saw me he motioned for me to follow him. He walked out front to his car and leaned on the door and looked at me.

"So, what you wanna talk to me about?" I asked him as I stood and stuck my hands in my pocket. Ranger just stood there for a minute and inspected me, up and down, not that I minded of course.

"I need to ask a favour," he told me as he looked me in the eye, after the long inspection. Ranger's favour's varied, some I liked, some I didn't want to think about.

"What kind of favour?" I asked, kind of curious that he'd ask me for a favour.

"I have some one coming into town and I have nowhere for them to stay that's safe," he told me, "I wanted to see if they could rent out your couch," he told me.

I was shocked at this request. Ranger had around a hundred safe houses, my apartment wasn't even safe for me, how could it be safe for someone else?

"Firstly, my apartment isn't safe; don't you have places to keep people safe? And secondly, who is it?" I asked both questions. Who would he want to keep safe so badly he'd ask me for a favour?

"I need to put them somewhere where nobody will suspect until I get their apartment set up, anybody would suspect any of the Rangeman buildings," he explained to me, not answering my second question, not even whether they were male or female, but he did answer that they were important in some way, because he was setting up their apartment.

"You still haven't answered my second question." I asked again, really wanting to know the answer now.

Ranger thought for a moment, as if trying to think of what to say. "It's my little sister," he told me finally. Wow! He had a sister, and I got to meet her, I might be able to find out some things about Ranger.

"You have a sister?" I asked him, still to surprised about what he just told me to actually think.

"Two but you'll only be meeting my little sister. She's been in Australia for a few months doing some work for me, that's where I've been mostly. She's moving here to help with Rangeman and I need to set up a place for her to live, in the mean time, I need somewhere for her to stay that's safe, I need some one to watch over her. She'll just get away from any of my men but I don't think she'll run away from you. I need you to tell me what she's doing while she's with you. I need to know where she is," he told me.

"So if she stays with me you want me to be a snitch?" I asked him, not really liking the idea of ratting on her.

"Please Steph, don't give me a hard time right now, I haven't slept in two days and I need to sort this out first. Just let her stay and tell me where she's going, no intimate details on her personal life, just where she is," he explained as he rubbed his hands up and down his face. He did look really tired.

"Okay," I told him. I wondered what had happened, why he needed to keep her safe.

"I'll drop her off at eight tonight," he told me, looking me straight in the eye again. "And one more thing…"

"Yeah?"

"She doesn't look like me, more…" he stopped, trying to find the words, "more Irish," he finished.

"Irish?" I asked raising an eye brow. How could his little sister look Irish, he was Cuban.

"She was adopted…just after she was born," he told me. "Thanks babe, owe you one," he told me as he grabbed the front of my shirt and pulled me towards him and kissed me. Ranger's kisses were good, really good. "See you tonight," he told me and got in his car and drove off.

That had to be the most information I'd ever gotten out of Ranger about himself. I was surprised he'd told me so much, but then again he told me so little, he only told me what I needed to know.

I walked back into the office and tried to avoid questions from Connie and Lula. They asked me what he wanted anyway. "He just asked for a favour," I told them. "You wanna go shopping or not?" I asked Lula when she asked what the favour was. They took it I wasn't allowed to tell. Ranger hadn't said that, but I didn't say anyway.

Lula and I drove to the mall and went straight to the Macy's shoe department. I wanted shoes, good ones, especially now Ranger was back.

"Omigod, Steph you gotta get these," Lula told me as she picked up some knee high black vinyl boots with chunky heels that were at least four inches. Pure fuck me boots. "You have to get them, they're so you, try them on," Lula told me and pushed me towards a seat to sit on while I tried on the FMB's.

They had no zip, just stretchy vinyl up the leg. I pulled them on up to just under my knee and they fitted perfectly. I looked in the mirror and thought they'd go great with a little black dress that I just happened to have in my wardrobe.

"You gotta buy them," Lula told me as I tried to get them off; it took a while to though. Lula kept looking while I followed, carrying the shoe box. Lula bought some bright pink heels that probably matched most of her outfits.

We payed for the shoes and headed for the car. Once in the car we made a silent agreement that we needed to go to McDonalds for some lunch. We went through the drive through and I ordered a quarter-pounder meal, and Lula ordered two chicken fillet burgers, three large chips and a chocolate thick shake.

"It's only a snack," she told me after she ordered and I looked at her open mouthed.

"For who, just you, or are you planning on feeding a whole third world country while you're at it?" I asked sarcastically as I passed her the bag of her feast.

We ate in the car and then I dropped Lula back at the office so she could get her car and I headed home. My apartment building car park was pretty empty when I got in. It was till mid-afternoon so most of the tenants would be out somewhere doing God knows what, probably the women getting there hair done or something.

I walked into the foyer and debated whether to use the stairs or elevator. I chose stairs, I'd see Ranger tonight. I took the stairs two at a time and then quickly rushed to my apartment. I walked in and greeted Rex and then walked to the living room to see how messy it was. It looked like world war three had struck.

I picked up my laptop from the coffee table and placed it in the kitchen and started cleaning for Rangers sister. I wondered what she'd be like, a mini Ranger, or the complete opposite. Once I had cleared away most of the washing from around the room and it looked clean, I started cleaning around the rest of the apartment, I had a whole afternoon to kill.

I cleaned Rex's cage first. I put him in a pot while I emptied him fish tank and but new wood shavings in the bottom and put back his soup can. I placed Rex back in the tank and put in a grape and a peanut. Rex ate the peanut on the spot and took the grape into his soup can.

I moved on and cleaned the rest of the apartment and by the time I was done it was around 5:30. I really didn't feel like cooking so I thought I'd mooch dinner off of my parents.

I dressed in clean jeans and stretchy T-shirt, grabbed my hand bag and headed down to Big Blue. I drove at the speed limit for the first time for as long as I could remember to dinner at my parent's house. All the other times I seemed to be late. I drove into the Burg and my cell phone went off, and I almost went off the rode trying to answer it.

"Hello?" I said into the phone.

"Hey cupcake," my heart almost stopped at the sound of Morelli's voice. He called, that meant he still cared about me, loved me. I loved him, but had never told him, but he knew.

"What do you want," she asked suspiciously. I wanted Morelli to not judge me, to not tell me to get a new job; I wanted him to want me for me.

"Dinner, unless you'd rather eat at your parents," he told me, I could hear him grinning on the other end.

"What did you have in mind?"

"Pino's at my house," he told me suggestively.

I would have loved to take him up on all offers, but I remembered my favour to Ranger. "I wouldn't be able to stay long, I'm doing a favour for Ranger," ok so I was testing him. I could have just said I had to work, but to add in Rangers name would mean that I could test him too, see if he would accept it.

"What kind of favour?" Morelli sounded a little annoyed, I'd give him that, it was much better then before.

"His sister is renting my couch; he's dropping her off at 8. Don't ask why, she just is," I told him, wondering if he knew Ranger had a sister.

"Ranger has a sister?" Morelli commented in disbelief. He considered this for a second before he spoke again. "You could still come over for dinner." How could I resist.