Disclaimer: I do not own anything. All recognisable characters belong to Janet Evanovich.
I'm just borrowing them
Chapter 1/Prologue
Life has a way of taking you down the paths that you least expect. Sometimes it gently leads you down an easy path and other times, it'll knock you down and drag you through the mud. My life was always the latter; nothing ever went smoothly in any aspect.
The old me was a fugitive apprehension agent (fancy way of saying bounty hunter), whilst I wasn't great bounty hunter I was always relatively lucky with my capture rate. However, they were always messy. I would end up covered in garbage, get shot at and have my car explode or end up with a stalker. Like I said, messy.
Back then I was in love with 3 men. Yeah that's right, 3.
As most people know, I was in an on and off relationship with Trenton Cop, Joe Morelli. Our relationship was unhealthy but fun, minus the constant screaming matches. We decided to call it quits after I had received another stalker. Joe is now married to a teacher.
Then there was Ranger aka Carlos Manoso, the dark mysterious man in black. He was tough, sexy, generous and amazing in bed. But he didn't do relationships; all he could offer me was a job, cars or a roll in the hay whenever the urge arose. Whilst I didn't want the whole white picket fence lifestyle, I did want a relationship. So we decided it would be best if we remained friends, with no 'funny' business.
Which brings me to man three, the one and only, Lester Santos. We had been dating for three months before he one day disappeared on a mission without a word. Up until then our relationship had been amazing, well at least I thought it had. We hung out every night and he took me out to dinner at least twice a week. He wasn't the playboy that until then I had known, he was a sweet, caring and funny guy.
But one night when we had a date planned he never showed, no phone call nothing. Then two weeks later I found out he had left for a mission.
I sighed shaking the thoughts from my head. I focused my attention back on my text books, marking passages I thought might be relevant.
Checking the word count on my paper I let out a groan. I felt like I had been typing and making notes for hours and I had only typed 3,428 words out of 10,000.
A whimper caught my attention from down the hall. I quietly got up and made my way to my bedroom, peering in I saw my gorgeous boy stirring in his crib.
Studying? Baby? I bet you're thinking, 'what the hell is going on?', how very un Stephanie like.
After Lester left, I discovered I was pregnant. When I told my mom she demanded I marry Joe as she would not tolerate a child being born out of wedlock. After I told her the baby wasn't Joes and I would never marry him we had a huge screaming match and she kicked me out, practically disowning me. Thankfully my Dad and Grandma Mazur stuck by me when they found out.
I decided that living under the burgs microscope whilst being pregnant and unmarried wasn't my idea of fun.
When I went to Rangeman to give my notice I heard a couple of the guys talking about Lester, saying that he was going to dump me but got called on a mission before he got the chance. I didn't recognise the two guys who were talking and as I walked past they nodded at me, obviously having no idea who I was either.
I quickly gave my notice to Tank telling him I was going to try something new and a little less dangerous, and then ran out before the tears could fall. Woody found me crying in the stairwell as he entered from the garage.
After blubbering everything to him about Les leaving to being pregnant with his baby and my mom telling me to that I was never welcome in her home again, I told him I was going to move and he decided to help me out. He told me he had a place in Texas that I could live in as long as he was allowed to visit when he was in town.
So two weeks later, we loaded up the back of his Dodge Ram and left in the middle of the night. He helped me get settled in his house, a lovely 3 bedroom house in Cherry Creek about 10 miles from Austin.
I enrolled at the University of Texas in Austin, studying psychology before the baby was born. 3 months later I discovered I was having a boy. Woody came down for the ultrasound and was smiling like a madman when he saw the ultrasound and heard the heartbeat.
Woody would come down every couple of weeks, which nobody thought was suspicious as he would always go home most weekends.
Our friendship was amazing and only got stronger over time. He was like a big overprotective, caring brother and to be honest, I actually enjoyed it.
He helped me settle into Texas easily by introducing me to his family and some friends he grew up with or went into the marines with.
At 7½ months I woke up to really bad cramps. I got up and paced around for a bit when a crippling pain caused me to double over and dig my nails into the door frame letting out a slight scream. I knew something was terribly wrong so I rang for an ambulance then called Woody. He stayed on the phone with me until the ambulance arrived telling me he was on his way to the airport now and would be there soon.
I was rushed into emergency surgery and gave birth at 12.39am October 23 2010 to a tiny little boy, Aaron Miguel Santos Plum. He was rushed off to the NICU, weighing only 3 pounds 4 ounces.
When I came back to after my surgery Woody was running his fingers through my hair softly speaking Spanish.
He stayed with me for the next few days and came with me to visit Aaron as often as we could and held me when I cried of a night before having to go back to Trenton for work.
A month later he flew back to bring us both home together for the first time. Having him around was so helpful.
Here we are now, a year since I left Trenton, with a gorgeous 5 month old boy and a quiet life I never thought I'd enjoy.
I reached into the crib and picked Aaron up, giving him a cuddle on the way to the kitchen.
Life was perfect. At least for now it was, because nothing lasts forever.
This is my first ever Fanfic, so please let me know what you think.
It's just a small 5 chapter story that I threw together.
Please R&R
Thanks