Although I am not new to fan fiction, this is my first Stephanie Plum fic. Just a little about my style and then I'll shut up and let you read. I like AU, if I wanted to speculate on what Janet was going to do, I would just wait and read the novel. So I don't always hold to cannon, and my portrayal of the characters will be different.

There will be smut, so the rating on this will change and I will let you know at the beginning of the chapter if there will be smut. I like reviews, what author doesn't? I know most people don't leave reviews, but they help to gauge people's interest. So if you get a chance, please leave a review.

Prologue: Two Blue Lines

For Stephanie Plum, it was hard to imagine the road her life had taken when two blue lines had appeared in the window of a plastic pee stick. She had stared at that innocuous piece of plastic and felt her world crumbling around her, the sense of impending doom on the horizon. She wasn't ready to be a mother; and she definitely wasn't ready to be Joe Morelli's wife. A voice in the back of her head had whispered that it might not be Joe's baby; would she be ready to be a mother then? She had squashed that thought as quickly as it had surfaced.

She had managed to keep her pregnancy a secret from everyone for close to four months. The only person not fooled had been Tank, oddly enough. She hadn't completely given up being a bounty hunter, she just went about it in a different way. And that way had her back at Rangeman, and under Tank's watchful eyes. When he had finally broached the subject with her, Stephanie hadn't even try to deny it; she had become so weary of the secrecy it was a relief that some one else knew. The one thing she had asked Tank, was if he had told Ranger.

Stephanie had known that Tank wouldn't keep secrets from their respective boss, so it had come as a bit of a shock when he had replied that up til then he had said nothing to no one. He was giving her the chance to tell Ranger herself, and he would only give her until the following morning; after that all bets were off. She had shook her head, realizing that her time was up, and promised she would tell Ranger when he came back that evening. He would be the first person she actually told; there had to be some irony in that.

Before he had let her go, Tank had asked one question, "Whose baby?"

Stephanie's laugh had been brittle, and she had looked at Tank and replied, "Would it make a difference?"

With a shrug of his shoulders he had said, "Maybe, maybe not."

Several hours later, she had let herself into Ranger's seventh floor apartment, wolfed down two sandwiches, taken a shower, dressed in a pair of black lace panties and one of Ranger's black t-shirts, slipped between the cool sheets of his bed and let exhaustion claim her.

Stephanie had come awake the moment Ranger had entered into the apartment. She had listened as he tossed his keys in the bowl, turned off the lights and slip into the darkened bedroom. She had felt the warm caress of his gaze as he took in the fact that she was in his bed, and his muttered, "Thank you God," had brought her a surge of satisfaction.

She had felt him move around the room, gathering items, and then the sound of the shower being turned on. She had let the sound of running water lull her into a light doze, while she waited for Ranger to join her.

Awareness had rippled through her when Ranger pulled the covers back and got into bed, pulling her against him. She had sighed when his arms circled her and he placed a light kiss behind her ear. His hands had been pure magic when he cupped her breasts. Desire had raced through her, as his hands moved down her sides and slipped beneath the black t-shirt she wore. She had waited, eyes tightly, closed, heart hammering against her chest, her breathing shallow and quick.

"I'm guessing we need to talk," he said, his hands caressing the slight baby bulge.

"Only if you want to."

"Morelli will be thrilled."

The silence had lingered in the wake of Ranger's last statement. Stephanie wanted to believe she heard regret in his voice, but more likely than not, it had been her imagination.

"I don't know how this happened," she said, breaking the silence. "I mean, I know HOW it happened, but we were always careful, always used some sort of protection."

"Nothing is ever 100% guaranteed," he replied. "Even we slipped up once."

"What do you mean?" Stephanie asked, turning in his arms so that she faced him.

"The Abigail Drake incident," he answered. "Babe, don't tell me you forgot."

No, she hadn't forgotten. Stephanie had been absolutely enraged when she saw the raven haired heiress, Abigail Drake clinging to Ranger, like they were long lost friends (or lovers). She had no right to be angry, Ranger wasn't hers; but that didn't stop the fury that had exploded within her. She made a couple of scathing remarks to him, and stormed away. She hadn't missed the look of suppressed anger that briefly flared in his dark eyes, or the triumphant look from the bitch.

Stephanie had driven around Trenton, anger dogging her every step. She tried chasing down her FTAs and ended up covered in noodles with sesame sauce, one shoe missing, torn jeans and her car on cinder blocks, all four tires gone. Her visit to get the Buick had grated on nerves already stretched to thin, and she left before she said something she would later regret; and she left without cake.

She had showered and changed at her parent's, but nothing was helping to ease her fury. Her and Morelli were on one of their off cycles; still she thought about swinging by his place and picking a fight with him as a way to burn off some of the rage. Instead she headed for Rangeman. She was angry with Ranger (and herself); if she was going to get into a fight with anyone, it was going to be him.

She had been surprised when she was allowed to pull into the underground garage. She thought he would have denied her access; but maybe he was spoiling for a fight as well. The anger had her so worked up, that she fidgeted and paced in the small confines of the elevator, and she didn't take the opportunity to wave a the camera. Upon reaching seven, she bolted out of the small space and slammed into his apartment, ready for round one.

Ranger must have been ready for round one as well, because as she stormed into the apartment, he strode from his bedroom, body bristling and dark eyes trained on her. Stephanie faltered for a second, Ranger never did, and he walked to her, backing her against the wall. Too late she saw that along with anger, he was also burning with desire.

"How dare you," Stephanie had started to say, but she got no further than that.

"How dare I indeed," he had replied, his voice soft and filled with both threats and promises.

After that no words were necessary. Ranger had taken her mouth in a fiercely possessive kiss, lifted her off the floor and wrapped her legs around his waist. He took her against the wall in a frenzy, shredding their clothes in his haste to get them both naked. Neither stopped to think about protection, and Ranger surged into her in one long stroke; sans condom.

Well damn! She hadn't seen that coming. The Abigail Drake incident had shaken both of them so badly. They had spent the whole night completely wrapped within each other, letting the outside world take care of itself. When Stephanie woke the next morning, Ranger was gone; and he stayed gone for damn near six weeks. She had gone back to Morelli two days later.

"The timing from the incident is off," she had informed him. She did a quick calculation in her brain, and realized that it was off, but not by much. Still, the chances were slim and the odds were heavily in Joe's favor.

"Babe, I'll want to know," Ranger had said against her ear.

"What about no attachments, no strings, no relationships?" Stephanie had asked him.

"We don't always get what we want," had been his reply. "Joe will give you the life you want; the one you grew up wishing for. But passing my child off as his; that's not acceptable to me."

It had been difficult for Stephanie to keep Ranger at arms length, and once she told Joe, the animosity between the two alpha males intensified. Joe had wanted marriage, wanted Stephanie to stay home; he had wanted the whole nine yards. She had conceded some things; she had moved in to his house, finally giving up her apartment. She would temporarily give up going after FTAs; but she refused to stop working. That had caused arguments, and when he had realized that she was working for Ranger, the war between those two exploded.

She hadn't told Joe there was an extremely small chance that the baby was not his, but he had seemed to sense it, and it had eaten at him. He had taken solace in the fact that she was with him; that she was planning her future with his. It also helped that Ranger seemed to disappear; he was always on some business that took him away from Trenton, kept him away from Stephanie. Joe would thank whatever force was making that happen.

All the way up to the delivery, Stephanie had been plagued with doubts. She had no clue what she was doing, if this was what she really wanted. She had put on a brave front, especially for Joe; but she missed Ranger, and his constant absence was like an open wound.

Nothing had prepared her for the moment when a red faced, squalling eight pound baby boy was placed on her chest. She fell in love instantly, tears streaming down her cheeks, the rest of the world forgotten in the wake of her son's birth. Joe had been by her side, as had her mother and Lula; what she had not known was that Ranger had been in the parking lot of St. Francis with Tank. She hadn't noticed when Lula slipped quietly from the room, digital camera in hand.

She hadn't been able to look at her son, and tell who he looked like. He had dark hair, his skin was darker than her's, an attribute that both Joe and Ranger possessed. His eyes were that shade of blue that was common among newborns. She couldn't tell with a look, and it didn't matter to her; but she had made a promise. So she had used a Buccal swab, one for the baby's cheek, another for her's and passed them off to Tank to be processed with the one that Ranger had supplied. Her son had been two weeks old.

She had left him snuggled on Joe's chest, both fast asleep. She had kissed them both, scratched Bob's head on the way out the front door, and joined Lula for breakfast and a day of shopping. It was also a chance for her to find out what was going on at Rangeman and with Ranger himself.

They had been knee deep in shoes at Macy's, when Lula's phone rang.

"I'm not answering that," Lula said in a huff. "I got important business going on here. Don't they know shoe shopping is sacred; you can't mess with that, cause if you do, the shoe Goddess will see to it that you never find a pair in your size."

"Now what if that was Tank," Stephanie said with a smile. "The sex God might not take to kindly to you ignoring your man."

"Well damn," Lula replied. "He better call back, cause I can't be making the sex God mad, Lula's got to get lovin' or nobody will be happy."

Lula gave a little thrill of laughter when her phone began to ring almost immediately. Stephanie couldn't help laughing at her friend's antics. She became absorbed in trying on the mound of shoes in front of her, so she missed the change in Lula's tone. Something skittered down her spine, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up on end, causing her to look at her friend.

"We'll be right there," Lula said, closing the phone, her eyes catching Stephanie's.

"What?" Stephanie questioned, knowing something had happened, something bad. "Ranger, is it..."

"Morelli's been shot," Lula replied, grabbing Stephanie's hands and pulling her towards the exit. "We have to get to St. Francis."

Lula thanked all the stars in the heavens when she saw Lester and Bobby striding towards them. She hadn't told Stephanie all of it, she couldn't be the one to change her friend's life irrevocably.