Fool For Love
By Misha

Disclaimer- I don't own Stephanie Plum or any of the other characters (though I wish I owned Ranger). They belong to the incredibly talented Janet Evanovich and I'm just borrowing them. I'm not making any money off this, so please don't sue me.

Author's Notes- This follows "No Happy Ending" and is not a happy piece. It's Babe-ish, but in a very angsty way. It's from the PoV of Ranger's wife and is very bitter and angry and angsty. There will likely be two more stories to follow this one, one from Morelli's PoV and one from Ranger's. This takes place about a year after "No Happy Ending". Well that's all, enjoy!

Pairing- Ranger/Stephanie, Stephanie/Morelli, Ranger/Other

Summery- Sequel to "No Happy Ending", Ranger's wife reflects on the third person in her marriage.

Rating- PG-13

Spoilers- All Fifteen books, I guess.

Babe!

I hear the word escape my husband's lips as he moves in his sleep and I stiffen. I hate that word, hate these nights when I lay here in bed, listening to my husband call out for another woman.

A year ago, I considered myself the luckiest man in the world. I was going to marry Ricardo Carlos Manoso, the man of my dreams. Then, it didn't bother me when he called for Babe in his sleep.

Back then I believed that the Babe he called for so distressfully was a person from his past--probably from his military days that he didn't talk about.

I figured it didn't matter, that I could help him, soothe him and take his mind off whatever had happened. My naivety lasted through the months of our engagement up to the first month of our marriage.

Up until the day, I decided to broach the subject with his men, to see what I could do to help him. As soon as I saw how uncomfortable they were, I knew there was more to the subject that I had originally thought.

I kept pressing until I learnt the answer, but it wasn't one I liked. Carlos' mysterious Babe was none other than Stephanie Plum-Morelli.

Not an old friend or even a long lost love tragically ripped from him, but a woman still alive and well and still first in my husband's heart. A woman who chose to marry another man.

For a while, at least, I was able to console myself slightly with the fact that Carlos' feelings were one-sided. After all, Stephanie was a married woman, she even had a new baby, obviously whatever obsession my husband felt for her, it was not returned.

Except that's where I was wrong. She came to Haywood with Joe Jr. after the baby was born, to introduce him to Carlos. I got home earlier than I was supposed to and stood in the hall, listening to them talk.

That conversation tore me to pieces...

"He's beautiful, Babe." Carlos said, his voice husky with emotion.

"Thanks." She said softly and then sighed. "He should have been yours, not Joe's."

I froze at the words.

"Babe." My husband said, but his words weren't warning, more pleading.

"I was a fool, Ranger." Stephanie said softly, her voice full of painful emotion. "That night you came to me and asked me not to marry Joe, I should have said yes. I should have chosen you. I've regretted it every day since, no day more so than the day you married Gina."

Hearing my name was like a slap across the face. It made the whole sordid conversation that much worse, if that was even possible. It meant that they were perfectly aware of me and of Joe, but that we didn't really matter.

"What do you want me to say Stephanie?" Carlos asked, his voice colder than I ever want to hear it.

That coldness warmed me, made me think that my world wasn't ending--after all he didn't seem happy to hear Stephanie's confession. His next words destroyed that warmth.

"Do you want me to tell you that I felt like I was being stabbed in the heart when I watched you marry Morelli? That every time I saw you big with his child, I thought it should be mine. That I lay awake at night, torturing myself with images of you and him making love. That I hate myself because I married a wonderful woman and I don't love her the way I should, that even on our wedding night, I imagined she was you."

His words took the floor out from under me. Any illusions I had about my marriage were destroyed in that moment. My husband didn't love me. Not really, not the way I loved him. His words made it painfully obvious.

"I..." Stephanie began and trailed off. "I never wanted it to be like this." She whispered plaintively.

"It was your choice, Babe." Carlos reminded her, sounding more bitter than I'd ever heard him before.

"I know." She whispered and the longing and regret in her voice broke my heart.

It was bad enough that my husband was caring a torch for another woman, but she was carrying one for him too. Listening to them, was liking watching a great love story, you could hear the passion and intensity that they felt for each other in the voices and it would have been tragic and romantic if it hadn't been my husband.

I couldn't sand to hear another word, so I tore myself away from the door and ran out of the building, desperately wishing I'd stayed away as long as I was supposed to and I'd never had to hear that devastating conversation...//

I have no idea if Carlos knew I'd been there that day or not. It's possible, the buildings monitored, but it's also possible that his men didn't tell him, aware of what I'd walked into. I never got the impression that any of them particularly liked me, not the way they liked Stephanie, but I don't think they hated me either and they certainly felt sorry for me. So it's possible they kept quiet to save me any further pain. I don't know.

Either way, Carlos never mentioned it and neither did I. We just went on as if it had never happened, as if I'd never heard him declare his undying love for another woman. Never heard him say that he thinks about her every time he makes loves to me.

It's been three months since that day, three months when I've tortured myself every day wondering if this is going to be the day it all ends and Carlos asks me for a divorce to be with Stephanie.

I'm not an idiot, I know that day is going to come. They love each other too deeply to stay apart forever, whatever good intentions they might have.

I'm not that much of a fool, I know I'll never be the love of my husband's life and that I'll never be able to banish Stephanie Plum from my husband's heart. Maybe I should leave him, that way at least I'd be able to keep my pride. But I can't do it.

You see, I love Carlos as much as he loves Stephanie and I value every day with him, even if I know it can't possibly last. I'll never be Carlos' everything, but he is mine and I'll keep him for as long as I can, no matter how pathetic that might make me seem.

So I just pull the pillow over my head to block out the sound of Carlos' cries and tell myself that at least it's another night I have him--even if I've never really had him at all.

The End