Author: Ren Kayashima

Rating: T

Disclaimer: As much as I wish it was so, the Stephanie Plum series and the characters portrayed in the novels do not belong to me. They are from the extremely creative mind of Janet Evanovich.

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Prologue:

"Secrets are made to be found out with time." Charles Sanford

At eighteen Stephanie Plum was carelessly walking down the streets of Manhattan. She had come to visit a friend who was going to NYU. She held a plastic bag of goodies she had just bought from the small corner store. The late night sweet tooth had struck once again. She hummed off key to an old Beatles song she had been listening to earlier.

Cold calculating eyes watched the eighteen-year-old walk in her short denim skirt and white t-shirt. Easy Prey, he thought. He pulled a simple switch blade out from his pocket and made his move.

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Two hours later a young man was walking the streets trying to sort through the many thoughts that had accumulated in his mind. He had a respectful air around him in his brown slacks, grey cashmere sweaters, and slightly scuffed brown loafers. His shaggy thick brown hair was styled back to keep the long strands out of his eyes. His blue eyes sparkled slightly when the street lights hit them at just the right angle.

His fleeting thoughts came to a halt when he heard a low moan. He looked around in confusion; wonder if he had possible imagined it. He saw a clean white tennis shoe at the opening of an alley and the color instantly drained from his face. Was it possible that someone had been hurt?

He walked carefully to the side of the alleyway and peeked around the corner. The sight that met his eyes was enough to push him into action. He rushed to the young woman's side and took in her tattered and beaten appearance. "Ma'am? Can you hear me?" he asked frantically. He crouched down beside her and avoided touching her. "What's your name?"

"S-Stephanie Plum," the woman muttered her cheek already had a dark bruise forming.

"Miss Plum, I'm going to pick you up," the man said. "My name is Cayden; I'm going to take you to the hospital.

Stephanie moaned and weakly shook her head. "No, no hospitals. I'm okay," she insisted.

Cayden shook his head. "You've got some cuts and bruises. You need medical attention."

"I'm not going to the hospital!" she shouted. She tried pushing the Good Samaritan away but winced in pain.

"Then please, let me get you off the streets," Cayden stated. He waited for her to nod before picking her up gingerly. He held her bridal style and looked at her. "My father's house is just down the street. He's a doctor. You should let him look at you."

Stephanie felt herself getting drowsy, but she forced herself to stay awake. Could she actually trust this man? She knew that he wasn't the man that attacked her. His voice was different from the gruff, malicious voice she remembered. "Say one word and I'll gut you where you stand!" came from her assailant. She would never forget his voice.

Five minutes later and Stephanie was seated on a plush brown couch as a man in his late forties cleaned up the cuts on her arms. "Miss Plum, can I ask you some questions?" he asked. His brown hair had started to grey at the sides and his blue eyes were looking at her from behind a pair of half-moon glasses.

Stephanie's lip trembled as she avoided his gaze. "Why?" she asked.

"I need to know what happened. You don't have to answer right away," the man started. "We'll start with introductions. My name is Braden McAllister. Where are you from?"

"Trenton," she whispered.

Braden smiled and kept his voice soothing. "Why are you here in New York?"

"I was visiting a friend. She's asleep, but I wanted some snacks…"

Braden nodded, his son had a similar affinity for late night snack runs. "Okay, is there someone I could call for you?"

Stephanie shook her head. Even if her parents were awake, what would she tell them? She would have called her grandmother, but she too was asleep.

"All right, now the hard question," Braden said as he tossed an alcohol swab into a small trash can beside him. "Were you raped?"

Stephanie burst into tears the minute he asked the question. She buried her face in her hands. How could she let this happen? She grew up in the burg; burg women were strong and independent.

Braden rested a comforting hand on her shoulder as his wife Clarissa came into the room with two uniformed officers. Cayden watched quietly from a piano. How someone could be sexually assaulted in this neighborhood. It was a nice place to raise families. Very little crime and never anything violent.

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Stephanie sat on a queen sized bed nine months pregnant. She had allowed a rape kit, but in her naiveté had refused the pill thinking she couldn't possibly get pregnant. She had been wrong though, and by the time she had figured it out, it was too late.

The room had cream walls with white wood furniture and a pale green bed spread. A small desk rested under a window where a couple books on pregnancy sat dog eared and bookmarked. The nightstand had a picture of her grandmother and Stephanie at a young age.

Stephanie held The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in her hands as she stared out the window.

Out of fear of discovery, she took the school year off in New Jersey and was living with Cayden. Since saving her life, the two had become good friends. She didn't worry about him because he was gay. She knew that he wouldn't hurt her.

The two of them were staying in the small guest house behind his parents place in Manhattan. While he attended school at Columbia, she waited tables at a local diner, and helped out around the house when she could. Cayden's parents were both reluctant about keeping Stephanie's pregnancy a secret, but were supportive nonetheless.

Cayden came to the open door and knocked on the side "How are my favorite ladies doing?" he asked with a big warm smile.

"She's really moving around today," Stephanie smiled back. She moved a hand to her stomach and rubbed it up and down.

Cayden came into the room and sat on the bed beside her. "Can I?" he asked looking at her round belly. He always asked permission to touch her, knowing that she still jumped at unexpected touches.

Stephanie nodded. "I still don't know how I'm going to tell my parents."

Cayden placed a hand on her stomach and a comforting arm around her shoulders. He smiled when he felt a small kick from the little baby. "You'll figure it out, your grandmother and Mary Lou know, and they've been sworn to secrecy, but when you do tell your parents about your baby, they'll be there to support you. So will I. You know that right?"

Stephanie nodded. Her eyes began to tear up. "I got a call form Officer Reynolds today," she said. "He said they caught the guy who raped me. They need me to come in tomorrow and make sure that it's really him."

"Do you want me to come with you?" Cayden asked worry taking hold of brain. She had been through so much. She would only talk about it with her grandmother and his mother.

Stephanie sniffed and leaned into his chest. She nodded quickly and began to cry.

"Now, now, crying makes your cheeks all blotchy," Cayden smiled. "You know that man can't ever hurt you again."

Stephanie took in a deep breath and furiously wiped away her tears dropping the book into Cayden's lap. "You're right. I was looking at baby names to day," she stated.

"Yeah?" Cayden asked. "Did you find a good name?"

Stephanie nodded. "I think so. What do you think of Allegra?"

"Like the music term. It means 'quickly with a happy air'," Cayden recalled thinking about the music lessons that had been drilled into his head at a young age. "We could call her Allie for short."

"That's what I was thinking."

Cayden picked up the mystery novel and opened it. "Can I read to her?"

Stephanie nodded and leaned back on a stack of pillows. She let out a tired sigh and looked at the man next to her. "Thank you Cayden."

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Author's Note: Well… what do you think? I know, I know, there are OC's in it. It was an idea I got and I just want to know what you think. If you hate it, then I'll take it down. If you like it then I'll actually turn it into a story. It's slightly AU in that Stephanie has a daughter, but it will follow the events that have happened in the books.

So drop a review my way and we'll see how this goes. Also, I haven't decided on the pairing, I can go either way on this one, so tell me who you think Stephanie should become romantically involved with. Morelli or Ranger?

Ren