The Truth Will Set You Free
By: ~Ber
A/N: NOT MORELLI FRIENDLY, LANGUAGE! Standard disclaimers apply. Thanks to Meg and Jen for their help.
Some days it just does not pay to get out of bed. Other days, it can be a lot of fun, but today it just so happens to be plain confusing. I am Stephanie Plum and unfortunately I happen to have plenty of those days.
I live in Trenton, am currently working for a security company doing research and attending business meetings, and I just so happen to be married to the sexiest Italian cop Ive ever met. Between my boss, Carlos Manoso, aka Ranger, who has been known to make women fall over dead or walk into walls and my husband Joe Morelli, who makes a woman drool from a hundred yards, a lot of my days are spent just hanging onto my hormones. If you take a minute to add in the guys who work at Rangeman, its almost impossible to keep a pair of my panties clean. I usually have to change them way too frequently.
When I got into work this morning, I knew something was up, but I didnt know exactly what it was. The guys were acting off, no one joked with me, hell; Lester didnt even flirt with me today. I wanted to know what was going on, but sadly I didnt have time to ask; Stupid Rodriguez. He had fifteen URGENT searches sitting in my box, the bastard. And on top of that I was doing interviews today for researchers and a secretary. Gah! That left no time to ask any questions or do anything but hustle. So I let it go and figured I would get it out of Ranger later.
Thankfully today is Friday and tonight we go out and relax as a team. Ranger allowed me to implement a weekly night out, in order for the team to bond more and so I could get to know everybody. Not all the guys could make it every week but the ones that could usually did. Lately they had even started bringing their women with them, but I didnt take Joe with me. He wouldnt have come anyway. He hates Ranger and I just can't find it in me to care anymore. He hates him, I hate Terry and we both live with it. It has taken me a long time to trust again after Dickie the Dickhead, but I finally decided to pull on my big girl panties and break the unhealthy pattern, that Ranger had pointed out to me once upon a time.
Some people may wonder why with both these guys running around in my life I picked Joe. The answer is simple; Joe Morelli has been around for over half my life. When we're not fighting, I already felt married to him. It's not that I didn't want Ranger, God knows my body did. But we had too many hats to wear with each other as it is. And also, it might sound stupid, but he didnt ask. Who knows, things might have worked out differently if he would have made a few clear overtures.
Anyhow, we were headed to Shorty's tonight, a place at first I was afraid of, but now I'm just one of the gang. No one looks at me funny anymore, and Shorty makes me dessert. So its all good. Startled out of my internal musing, I heard a rap on my office door.
"Bomber, you about ready?" Bobby asked.
"Yeah, I'm ready." I got up and grabbed my purse. The rest of this stuff could wait. Rodriguez be damned. We headed for the garage and climbed into the SUVs. The guys were joking around and starting to unwind but Ranger and I both chose to ride in silence. I know hard to picture it, but I've gotten used to it.
When we walked into Shorty's and the carefree attitude we had been enjoying suddenly evaporated I was confused. Huh what's up with that? All the men in my life had suddenly tensed and because I'm the shortest I couldn't see.
"Fuck," I heard Bobby say conversationally, everybody was tense and I couldn't tell what was up with that, probably, I shouldn't want to know and probably I was going to regret this.
I ducked under Bobby's arm and I felt my eye start to twitch. There at our table was Joe, who was supposed to be at work, and he wasn't alone. The Mob bitch was on his lap, Dickie the ass was across the table and the Whore was on his lap. Gee, this looks like fun. I sucked in air, I couldn't breath. I heard the Stephs start to argue in my head and I can't really tell you which one won. The next thing I knew, I was walking across the room and the guys were still standing at the door trying to decide what to do.
"I'm done! I see the boys are really missing me especially when I just talked to you twenty minutes ago. God, I should have known this was going to be bad after you cohabitated with HIM but hell what is it with you boys? You can't even wait for the ink to be dry. I guess some things never change." I had Terry by the hair and everybody was just staring at me. Hmm, I shook the ring off my finger brought her hand up and slid it on. Hell, I wasn't even mad anymore. I was just plain done.
"Cupcake," I cut him off.
"Can it Morelli after all the shit you've given me about how Ranger wasn't going to satisfy me and you wanted a family and you'd be there for me. I could just laugh at you. Well, now you can be there for Terry. At least I still have one thing I know neither she nor Joyce ever will. Ranger. And just so you know, he satisfied me more in one night than you have in the last three years or ever could have!"
At this I stalked back to the boys grabbed Ranger by his ponytail and stepped up on my toes to show him exactly how much he satisfied me. And to prove the point that I could have him. His hands snapped around my waist and pulled me tight against him. I felt his body relax as the surprise washed away from him. This was where I wanted to be, and this was where I would stay.
In that moment I decided to fight for what I wanted and deserved, not what anyone else thought was right for me. Hell, I was even going to sacrifice the catholic guilt. Everybody else does it why not. In this moment I knew I had changed. I had decided to walk away from the burg and into the real world. And my mothers dessert could go straight to the Morelli's or the garbage can. I would still have Ella but I was so done with this shit. I pulled back from Ranger, finally hearing the catcalls from the guys, and looked into his eyes. There was a glow there I had never seen. He leaned his head down to touch mine.
"Proud of you Babe, you never disappoint," He whispered. I looked up at him.
"Neither do you. Let's go home." Then I gave him my own version of a wolf grin and headed for the door. I heard Tank speak just before I opened the door.
"Well isn't this a sight to behold, watching the Mighty Morelli lose to the little thug. Sleep well asshole. Your security policy just got terminated. I'd look over your shoulder a little more often and sleep with one eye open." Tank turned and headed for me, " Let's go! We'll come back when the garbage gets taken out."