Disclaimer: not mine, all recognizable belongs to JE.
A/n: sorry so many ideas hit at once I've got like five of these going. Don't ask why I'm so obsessed with kids right now either because I have no idea.
Chapter One
You know how sometimes things happen and you make decisions based on the information available, and then things change and the decisions you made turned out to be awful? Yeah, that was what my life was right then. I mean, I'd always figured that split second decision at age sixteen would bite me in the ass, but I didn't realize it would do it quite so brutally.
At sixteen, the neighborhood bad boy, Joseph Morelli, knocked me up. Being the good Catholics our families were, they insisted we get married. Joe joined the Navy and we spent the next two years pretty much apart while I finished high school, and he finished basic and A school in Virginia. I could have gone with him, and brought the baby with me, but my parents wanted me to finish school with a support system in place. Joe did drive up a lot of weekends to be there, both during my pregnancy while he was in A school, and after Izzy was born, but we didn't feel married.
We eventually moved in together on base, and I got the pleasure of spending more quality time with Joe, pleasure being the operative word. He was deployed three times, and each time I managed to pop out a baby. I wasn't sure how it always happened because I was on the pill and we used condoms. The first time he was deployed was just a few short weeks after moving in together on base. Izzy was only nineteen months old and I was already pregnant again. He was deployed for nine months, and then home for five, and during that five months I got pregnant again. And you see how this is going. Izzy was just over two years and three months old when Abigail was born, and Abigail was eleven months old when Theodore was born. Theodore, in turn was thirteen months old when Jameson was born. Joe hadn't been home for a single one of the births, either because he was deployed or on a training exercise. By the time Joe left the Navy, I had a 5 year old, a 3 year old, a 2 year old, and a 1 year old. I was so very far done.
Joe and I ended up just massively incompatible. I found out he didn't take his vows too seriously, and he found out I couldn't cook. Somehow that detail had eluded him when he was home during his time in the service. We tried, for the kids. And Joe was a fantastic dad. Better than I thought he would be, quite frankly. He was even a great cop But at the end of the day, he was a shit husband and the final straw for me was when he impregnated a girl sixteen years into our marriage who was only five years older than Izzy. Five years older than our daughter, fourteen years younger than him, not even old enough to buy alcohol. And he was having a baby with her. He had the nerve to be excited about it when he told me, too. He finally got to be there for a pregnancy.
But here I was, at thirty two, newly divorced, with full custody of not one, not two, not three, but four hormonal kids with serious resentment issues towards their dad. I was supposed to be level headed and fair and I wasn't supposed to bad mouth their dad, because I expected to be talked about respectfully too, but god did I agree with most of what they said.
Joe didn't even show up to pick them up for visitation half the time, like now he was getting this new baby so the kids I'd given him no longer mattered. That's the way the kids felt, and that's the way it seemed. His mother took my side in the divorce, and so did his Grandma Bella, which was saying something. He was their baby who could do no wrong.
I remember when they showed up at the house I was renting, since Joe was taking the house we had bought when he left the Navy, and sat down at my tiny secondhand kitchen table. We talked over coffee cake.
"Stephanie, dear, I am so sorry for Joseph. I don't know what is wrong with that boy," his mom said.
"I do, Angela. That boy spent so much time making us proud, serving his country and his town, not beating on his wife, the first Morelli not to, you know. He got cocky, and now his pride and his penis is his downfall," I'd never heard Grandma Bella speak so bluntly before. She was right though.
Joe was in a tough spot.
Within our divorce agreement was an alimony clause because I had always been a dependent wife at his insistence, and a child support clause. Joe hadn't met either of them, and the judge just upped the amount of both because of it. He was also going to be garnished soon. The new girlfriend, with the new baby, weren't going to be eligible for his medical benefits because he was maxing out his premiums every year on the four kids he already had. I hadn't had his insurance in years, and in fact I was currently uninsured.
I had found a job at a private security firm, known as Rangeman, almost immediately after we had separated. Joe hadn't liked that much. He had a working relationship with the owner and felt it was a conflict of interest for his soon to be ex wife to work for someone he occasionally did business with. I felt like it was a conflict of interest for him to put his penis in vaginas that weren't his wife's.
I loved my job. The pay was decent, although not great. My coworkers were all nice, although quiet and all men. It worked for me, because I had eyes in my head but I didn't want to fraternize. I knew the owner, a guy everyone called Ranger, worked out of the Trenton office where I did but I hadn't seen him as of yet. I ran searches for everyone in the office, and although it wasn't exactly fun, it was interesting and a fairly easy paycheck. I got home within a few hours of the kids, too, and I had weekends off.
Angie and Bella still hadn't gotten over the way Joe was acting, and the girlfriend had had the new baby. They refused to even visit her after the initial meet of the new grand baby. Joe was over the moon happy with his daughter, and meanwhile Izzy, Abby, Theo, and Jamie were angry and jealous of a newborn named Princess. Like, literally, that's what they named her.
It was affecting their behavior in school, especially with the way kids were picking on them. Izzy and Theo had both been suspended recently because they both got in separate fights with separate people in the same day. At fifteen, Izzy was feeling especially vulnerable, in particular her self esteem. Some little bitch, excuse my French, decided to pick on her for the fact that even as a first born she was clearly not her Daddy's princess and judging by the Burg gossip, not wanted by him either. Theo got into a fight with another kid who apparently insulted me. The boy apparently made some comments about how no matter how sexy I was, I clearly was a bad lay because Joe had had to roam elsewhere. Fact of the matter is, I put out every day for Joe, that was about the only part of our marriage that was good.
Because of the suspensions, I'd had to call my boss, Tank. He'd suggested I bring the kids with me, since at 12 and 15 it was unlikely they were going to cause major mayhem there. I was a little hesitant, mostly because I didn't know my coworkers too well, and I didn't want to get in trouble with the owner. Who again, I had yet to meet. Word around the office was he in the wind, whatever the hell that meant.
I found out, though, when he showed up at work and practically bit poor Theo's head off. Theo was hanging out with Lester, one of the guys who routinely did field work and was rarely in the office except for monitor duties. Lester was funny, laid back, and extremely hot. I figured it had to be a job requirement because no one here was below an eight on the hotness scale.
Anyways, Theo and Lester are hanging out, and Theo is asking Lester questions about the different parts of the business, and all of a sudden I feel this tingle on my neck followed by a man snapping out the word report like he was telling a dog to heel.
"Ranger! This is Theo. He's joining us in the office today," Lester offered. He wasn't giving details, which I appreciated,
"We don't allow kids in here, Santos, you know that," the man, I guess Ranger, snapped back.
I turned my chair, ready to stand up and defend my right to have the job but Tank ambled over just then, and indicated my cubby with a tilt of his head. I could see their heads and shoulders over the top of cubicle and all I could tell about Ranger was he was tall, dark haired, and had dark skin at least on the back of his neck.
"He's the new researchers boy, Ranger. Her oldest daughter is here, too. I gave her permission to bring them."
Ranger turned around and looked at me just then. It took me a second to catch my breath. He was the most beautiful man I had ever seen, and that was saying something. He had dark caramel skin, and a strong jaw. He didn't even look real, honestly. His eyes were a very dark brown, almost black, and they were poring into mine.
"Hi. I'm Stephanie. That's Theo, one of my middles," I said stupidly.
"Uh hi. One of?"
He thought I was young. Well, I am, but not nearly as young as he's thinking. I get it all the time. Just then, Izzy came back from wherever the heck she had run off to, and I heard her suck in a breath like someone had shoved a fist into her stomach. She shook her head before turning back to me.
"Mom, Dad said he wants us to come see a Princess this afternoon. Jamie said he'd only go if I went with him and I don't want to come between him and Dad. He said he could pick me and Theo up at Shorty's in twenty minutes?"
Christ. I'd asked Joe if the new girlfriend could watch the kids today, not that they needed much watching. I'd had to sign papers to the effect of they wouldn't be home alone while suspended though, and Joe insisted it wasn't Trixie's responsibility. No, it wasn't, but jeez. Now he wanted them.
"I won't go. I don't want to see him, please don't make me, Mom," Theo piped up.
Fuck me. I sighed and nodded my assent to both Theo and Izzy. Izzy would go, Theo would stay.
Joe could suck a dick if he didn't like it.
"Stephanie, can I see you in my office please?" Ranger said to me half an hour later.
I really hoped I wasn't going to get fired.
I made my way into his office, where he had cushy chairs against the wall. He was sitting in one, so I took the other. We just stared at each other for awhile. I was a little surprised when he finally spoke.
"Here's the deal. I don't hire women. Most aren't cut out for a majority of the aspects of the job here, and on top of that, every woman I've ever hired except my housekeeper has filed a sexual harassment suit against my company hoping for a quick payday. I trust my instincts and they tell me you're not going to do that. I do, however, need full honesty here. I need to know the situation with your children's father, and pretty much every aspect of your personal life, because if something happens I need to be able to protect you. So you said Theo was one of the middles, tell me about your other kids."
I'd never had a boss tell me they needed my personal info to protect me. Couldn't he find all this out in my employee file.
"My name is Stephanie Morelli and I'm thirty two. I used to be Stephanie Plum, but I got married in high school to Joseph Morelli. Because of Izzy actually. Full name is Isabelle Elise, she's fifteen almost sixteen. Abigail Maria is thirteen, Theodore Francis is twelve, and Jameson Maxwell is eleven. I found out my rat bastard husband was cheating on me when he came home with the wonderful news he was going to be a father again, only instead of his wife being the mother it was his side bitch, Trixie Lynn. I don't know her last name, I do know she's twenty fucking years old and living in my house. Bastard hasn't paid alimony or child support, he should have just given me the house."
I took a breath before continuing.
"They named their kid Princess. Don't make that face, I'm serious. Joe hasn't wanted to see our kids in months and suddenly the new Princess is here so let's bring the older kids over. Izzy and Theo got suspended for fighting. Separately. One little girl goaded Izzy saying she was unwanted and clearly not daddy's princess and a little boy kept making cracks about how hot I am but how I must be an awful lay since Joe had to cheat. Both of my kids punched the other ones. I signed papers they'd not be home alone and Joe didn't want them over at his house because they might disturb Trixie. The only danger I'm in is killing Joe next time I see him for what he's doing to my kids, and not paying me a dime."
Ranger was making a fist on the arm of the chair and his eyes were tight around the edges. He looked calmly furious.
"What I'm about to tell you doesn't leave this room. I have a daughter, about Theo's age. I let her step dad adopt her and I send them almost three grand a month voluntarily. I didn't want my daughter, and I don't think she'd be safe with me because of the jobs I do, but I love her. I don't have any legal obligation to send that money. If she asks to see me, I make it happen. So the fact you're telling me that Morelli doesn't do either of those things makes me furious on both your behalf and that of your kids."
"That said, I'm going to do what I can for you. Your job is safe, and if you have a need to be at home with your kids, call me and let me know. I'll have one of the guys bring you a secure laptop to do your work as you're able. I'm sorry about how Joe treated you, too. I can tell you're a good woman and you didn't deserve that."
I knew that. It was nice to see someone else did, too, finally. If only it wasn't my boss.
