Thanks so much to Haleigh for editing this and giving me some tips and pointers. This chapter is more setting up and background, but the in the next one, the games began! Stay tuned...

Chapter 2

Stephanie drove home thinking of various ways to maim Morelli and Ranger. Unfortunately, she couldn't come up with anything horrible enough so she gave up on that and settled on deciding which one she would kill first.

It had been an all around crappy month, and it seemed to just keep getting worse. Two of her cars had gone to car heaven and she was no longer on speaking terms with either of the men she loved. Life's a bitch. She banged her fist on her steering wheel in frustration.

It had started almost exactly a month ago when Morelli had proposed to her at Pino's. Pino's of all places! He couldn't even have freaking taken her to Rossini's and pretended to be romantic. She'd told him maybe and then put off thinking about it for as long as possible. Finally, when denial had deserted her, she'd decided that maybe they should sit down and talk about it like two rational adults. Big mistake.

Steph had sat Joe down and outlined what she wanted from a marriage; namely support, fidelity, love, common goals, and understanding. Also, she expressed that she wasn't sure if she wanted to ever have kids, and she wanted to continue working at her job. She hoped Joe would reply to her similarly, but instead he'd laughed and said, "Cupcake, you're going to change your mind about having kids once we're married. And you can't be running around catching crazies while you're pregnant. Then when they're born, you're going to have to stay home for a while until they're big enough to go to daycare. Once they're big enough though, I fully support you going back to work; maybe I could get you a job filing down at the police station or something."

Stephanie did some deep breathing exercises rather than shooting him outright. He had completely missed the point! More than that, he hadn't even tried to listen to her. Steph had done a lot of thinking since the proposal, and as much as she tried, she wasn't able to come up with a scenario where she would actually want babies. Hell, she couldn't even come up with a scenario where she wanted to be responsible for something bigger than a hamster. The fact that he completely glossed over her desire to keep her job was the final straw. In the end, she had given Joe his ring and told him that if he didn't respect her or her wishes it was better for them to remain friends. Joe, of course, had disagreed.

Ranger however, was an entirely different story. Since Joe had proposed at Pino's the news had traveled around the burg in three seconds flat (long enough for every patron to whip out their cell phone). She didn't want to make a scene, so she had told Joe she would think about it, and took the ring from him.

The next day she returned home from a long day of bounty hunting to find Ranger sitting on her couch. She greeted him, and he had nodded in return.

"I heard the news," he said stoically. "Congratulations."

She had opened her mouth to tell him that she hadn't decided one way or the other, but he held up a finger to stop her. "This is a good thing Steph. I just stopped by to pick up my key fob from you, and tell you if you need anything before you quit, call Tank." He hadn't said it out loud, but there was an unspoken suggestion in his voice that she was no longer welcome to call him personally for help.

She was absolutely stunned, but fought back tears while she searched her bag for his fob. Silently she handed it over. He leaned over and whispered, "Have a good life, you'll make a great mom."

Assumptions about what she should and would do was something she expected from Joe and her mother, but never from her friend and mentor. He had always been supportive and there for her, so this behavior was far more devastating than it would ever be from Joe. He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek, then walked out the door, never to be seen again. Well, until tonight when she had walked into that bar.

What was that about anyway? She had just gotten home from the movies with Lula, who had been trying to cheer her up with the new movie about a vampire nymphomaniac. Steph was undressing for bed when she got the first of twelve consecutive phone calls. She answered the phone to a breathless Mary Lou, who told her she needed to get down the bar on twelfth street immediately. She threw her clothes back on and sped off in her 'new' nineteen ninety-four Chevy cavalier while fielding phone calls on her cell.

She screeched to a stop and rushed inside the bar, to a sight she had never expected to see. Ranger and Morelli were rolling around on the dirty floor, trying to beat the living daylights out of each other. What shocked her the most was that they were both obviously drunk. She had seen them both drink on occasion, but had never seen Ranger remotely intoxicated. Morelli rarely had more than a few beers anymore either, so his condition was surprising as well.

That hadn't been her first thought when she'd seen them rolling on the floor though. Her first thought had been, 'I'm going to shoot them,' followed very closely by, 'I left my gun at home'. So instead she'd settled on giving them each a good satisfying kick to whatever body part had been most convenient. She hoped they both had a nice little fuck-me-pump shaped bruise tomorrow. It would serve them right.

Back at the bar on twelfth street, Ranger and Morelli had ordered another beer in celebration of their agreement.

"I suggest our first rule should be no sabotage," Ranger stated.

Morelli nodded. "Agreed. I also want a no interference policy."

Ranger raised an eyebrow and motioned for Morelli to continue. "If Steph agrees to go on a date with me, I want to be assured you won't contact her until it's over, and vice versa." Morelli took a drink of his beer to signify he was finished. Ranger thought it over for a moment, then nodded.

Morelli took a deep breath. His next rule pained him a little bit. In his experience, sex with Steph was phenomenal, but he always worried a little that her mind was somewhere else. Or, more accurately, with someone else. "I also want an agreement than neither of us will attempt to seduce Steph during this. If she initiates…it's free game. She needs to make her choice free of pressure." Morelli wanted to end this creepy little love triangle once and for all, and as much as he wished otherwise, he knew sex would complicate the issue for Steph.

"Alright Morelli," Ranger said after a moment of consideration, "The only other rule I want to instate is a winner takes all policy. After Steph makes her choice, the other one walks away. This is up to her, and she needs ultimately to make her own decision, free of guilt.

"Deal." Morelli and Ranger shook hands. The rules were set, and unbeknownst to Stephanie, the battle for her heart had begun.