Title: Finding the Strength to be Yourself CH1
Pairing: Stephanie / OC
Disclaimer: I own no one from the Plum universe, I am only having a little fun with the characters.
Rating: T
Summary: AU in a way. This is femslash so if you aren't into it then this is not the story for you. Steph went away to college much younger, she is very smart and driven, she also hides a secret from everyone except for her Father, Grandmother, and best friend Mary Lou. At college she is free to be herself, but once she returns to Trenton she hides and almost succumbs to her mother and the Burg's wishes. Finally she does find the strength to start a new life with the help of her father and a few of his old army buddies. When the woman once known as Stephanie reappears in Trenton she will be a much different person than the one who left. Please read and give it a chance you just might enjoy it.

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CHAPTER 1

Laying in her thinking position Stephanie Plum stared up at her ceiling spotting a few cobwebs in the corners that really should be taken care of sometime. Her life was so not going the way she had ever dreamed it would. She had always wanted to do more with her life than be a burg wife. Steph wanted to see the world, but things hadn't turned out so well so far. She had started college a few months before her 16th birthday. The curly headed brunette had always been smart and advanced through school quickly, taking as many classes that didn't involve cooking or homemaking as she could, much to her mother's dismay. Her Grandma Mazur and her Dad had been her biggest supporters. They had been thrilled when Steph received a scholarship to Princeton. Her Dad had used some of his connections and checked out her future dorm mate to make sure they would be okay for his young daughter to stay with. He also made sure she was placed in an all-girl dormitory.

College was a great time for her, Steph was able to really be herself for the first time ever in her life. Her Grandma and Dad both knew something about her that would cause her mother to disown her in a heartbeat and the 'Burg to ostracize her. The only bad time was one weekend when her mother made her come home to help out at her old job because Betsy couldn't find anyone to watch her shop that weekend while she went out of town to see her sick son. Her mother had volunteered Steph. That weekend turned out to be one of the most traumatic of her young life, but her mother didn't want anyone to know about what happened and blamed her for letting the Morelli boy take her virginity behind the counter on the floor and then writing about it on restroom walls all over the Burg'. Helen didn't believe Steph when her daughter said that she hadn't wanted it.

From then on Steph didn't come home on holidays or during the summers. She threw herself into her school work. Not long after that incident she met someone that changed her world. Steph met Jaq. Jaq was a sophomore, pre-med major. They were a couple for three years until they both graduated. In those three years Steph worked hard graduating Summa Cum Laude with a double major in business and in finance and a minor in computer engineering. Steph had more scholarships to stay and get her graduates degree in both fields as long as she stayed at Princeton, unfortunately Jaq had been accepted to the medical school at the top of Jaq's list, Stanford in California.

They had talked and even though they loved each other the couple decided to part ways. Jaq said it would be too hard to have a long distant relationship when both of them would be so busy that they wouldn't even have time to maintain a relationship if they shared the same apartment. Jaq also said that Steph needed to spread her wings and see what else was out there. Steph was only 19 and could now truly get into the full college experience. Jaq still had medical school to complete and residency and hoped to get fellowship training as well. All that would take years. Jaq had also started college early, but only by a year and was 21. The two women decided they were too young and had too much in front of them to tie themselves down just yet, but if they were really meant to be their paths would cross again when they were older. Steph and Jaq had spent one last weekend together loving one another before reluctantly parting ways.

Steph had stayed at Princeton and threw herself once more into her studies taking on as much as she could and at the age of 22 graduated with a doctorate in both her major fields of study and a masters degree in her minor. EE Martin had offered her a very decent starting salary and she had succumbed to pressure from her mother to stay near her family in Trenton. EE Martin was in Newark. Close, but not too close. Her mother had also set her up with a young 'Burg lawyer with political aspirations. Steph didn't really want to date him, but her mother kept pushing until she relented and found herself in a relationship with a man she didn't care for, who luckily didn't press her for sex. He thought she was pretty and well educated and was a good woman to have on his arm. That unsatisfying relationship died a quick death when she dropped by his home one day to pick up a jacket she had left and found him ramming it home on the dining room table with Joyce Bernhardt, a woman who had made Steph's life miserable when they were children. Steph was relieved to have a good excuse to end the relationship, one she thought her mother couldn't argue with, but of course she was wrong. Her mother wanted her to bring home some of the lingerie that she bought at her job and use it to make up with Richard Orr, aka Dickie. Really who called themselves Dickie on purpose? She was just glad she had never let herself be pressured to have sex with the creep.

The one bad thing about living so close to her mother was that she couldn't take the chance of letting her true self free. Her Grandma and Dad worried about her and told her they would support her no matter what. After that, life went back to normal with her mother nagging her at every turn, but fortunately she still had her good paying job. Unfortunately, six months after her break-up the FBI raided EE Martin and even though Steph had nothing to do with the money laundering the owners were doing for the mob, her resume had a huge black mark on it. She went six months without a job living off of her savings and ended up in a crappy apartment in Trenton on the edge of the 'Burg, her nice car repossessed, and blackmailing her cousin into letting her try her hand at bounty hunting.

Stephanie sighed up at her ceiling blowing curls out of her face. She was now known as the Bombshell Bounty Hunter, with the cops making bets on her, Joe Morelli chasing her with her mother's encouragement, stalkers and crazies always breaking into her apartment, cars and buildings had an uncanny habit of blowing up around her, and she had a mysterious man in black that liked to call her Babe and kiss her a lot. She cared for him as much as she thought she could any man, but the feelings weren't the same as she had felt for Jaq. Ranger, aka Batman had been pressing her to sleep with him and that he loved her in his own way, but his love came with a condom and not a ring. He had also said she was a line item in his budget under entertainment. Steph didn't want to be anyone's fuck buddy and she was so tired of being entertainment.

The feisty brunette actually liked the hunt and she was good at the whole bounty hunting thing except for the physical stuff. It was time to get serious about her job and her life and she felt that Trenton wasn't the place she wanted to be. A talk with her Dad and Grandma was in order.

SP/SP/SP/SP/SP

I know this is a bit of a departure from the norm for Stephanie Plum fans, but femslash is what I write for the most part. This story mostly focuses on Steph's strength. Strong Stephanie stories are my fave so I decided to write one myself. Please let me know what you think and please no flames because of Steph's sexual preferences no one is making you read this story.

Drop me a line in the little review box below I would love to hear from you. Until Next Time…Holly