Part 2
Bobby drove her around the town and pointed out some of the spots he frequented as a kid. She was amazed by the quaintness of the small town, it was so different than Trenton. This looked like the perfect all-American town. He even verified that they held an annual 4th of July parade and carnival. It looked like she would be in town when this happened and he promised to take her to it. He pulled into the grocery store's parking lot and they got out and went inside. He pushed a cart and she piled food into it. He laughed at her choices, but she just glared at him. "Oh Baby, you've got that mean mom face down already!" They filled up the cart and headed to the checkout. Once the groceries were paid and bagged, the store clerk followed them to the car and helped load the groceries into the trunk of the car. He drooled a bit over the car and made small talk with Bobby about it. The Porsche was not a typical car in this town.
While they were driving towards the farm, he filled her in what it was like growing up in this small town, the only black kid for about 30 miles. He told her he was adopted when he was a baby and there were a few difficult moments when he was in high school, but for the most part, he had no issues. He joked with her that she hadn't mentioned it last night, but she said that it never occurred to her to bring up. She said she knew his father had passed, so she just assumed he was the reason behind Bobby's beautiful chocolate skin. He laughed and said that his father was just as pale as his mother. They had tried for many years to have children but it never happened for them. They adopted Bobby and then a few years later, they adopted his younger brother. She looked at him in question and he laughed. "Brian is from an Asian family so he looks as out of place as I do."
He went onto say that the community has changed since he moved on and there are a few more people who in his words, were just like him and his brother. People from the closest college town, which was about 30 miles away, had started to appreciate the small farm town lifestyle and were moving to this town and others in the area. They pulled into the driveway and he got out and helped her out of the car. They both grabbed the grocery bags and headed into the kitchen. She helped him put away the groceries and pulled out some food to make lunch. She wasn't much of a cook, but she could make a mean grilled cheese sandwich and put together a salad. Bobby headed out to the barn to make sure things were under control and then came back a few minutes later with his mom. They all sat down for lunch and his mom finally broke the silence and asked about the appointment.
Bobby laughed and Steph just rolled her eyes at him. She looked at his mom and said, "Well, I'm definitely pregnant. So pregnant that it multiplied and there are two of them in there."
Elaine got up and hugged Steph and wiped the tears away from her eyes. "Oh, twins, what a blessing for you and your young man. Bobby told me a bit last night and it didn't surprise me one bit. Over the past few years, he's told me about your adventures and your relationship with Carlos. Such a nice young man, he was here a couple times over the years. Such a hard worker with the farm chores he insisted on helping with and such a looker, too." Steph laughed, but Bobby looked mortified. "Mama, please don't talk that way about my friends. Ranger is close enough to me to be a brother and you talking about him like he was dessert, just about makes me want to throw up."
After lunch, Steph went up to take a nap and Bobby spent some time with his mom. He filled her on Ranger's absence right now and that he didn't know about Steph being pregnant, let alone pregnant with twins. She told him that Carlos needed to know as soon as possible, as she knew from the way he talked about Steph that he loved her. Bobby looked surprised, but she said that last year, after he returned from a bad job out of the country, he contacted her and asked if he could spend some time on the farm. He didn't want the guys to know where he was because he needed some time to be alone and wind down from the job, so he showed up and said that he'd not contacted anyone in Trenton that he was stateside, and spent almost two weeks here. They'd had some really good talks about life and he confessed his feelings about Stephanie. He wanted to marry her but first he had to end his military career, which still had about two years left on his current contract. Bobby did the math in his head and said, "This might be his last job, then, right?" Elaine agreed and said she hoped he would be back before babies were born.
The next few weeks progressed too quickly for Bobby. He knew he was going to have to head back to Trenton soon, but he knew that Steph needed to stay. With Ranger still out of the country, there was no way she would be able to handle going back. She was helping Elaine with what she could do in the house and she spent a lot of time outside learning about the farm. She now knew about the farm equipment that the hired help used and Bobby was teaching her about the corn and soybeans that grew in the fields. She'd made friends with one of the horses and she almost always spent about an hour a day with the horse. She'd feed him apples and brush him. She'd talk to him like he was her therapist and even though the horse couldn't talk to her, as Bobby watched from a short distance, it seemed that the horse understood her troubles.
"Steph, do you have some time to talk to me about a few things tonight after supper?"
"Sure, no problem. Just come to my room after we eat."
After supper, they headed to Steph's room and both sat on the bed. Bobby looked at her and didn't know how to approach the subject, but in the end, he just blurted out, "I have to go back to Trenton next week."
She looked at him and nodded. "Steph, I've talked to mom and you are welcome to stay here with her or you can come back to Trenton with me. Now, before you start, let me finish. If you choose to stay here, I would need to do a bit of updating to your background so you are not trackable by anyone in Trenton. You are still on Rangeman's health insurance so right now, anyone could track the activity on your plan and see exactly where you are, based on your doctor's appointments."
She just nodded at him so he continued. "I know you're going to need something to do to keep you busy while you await Robert and Roberta's arrival, so I can set you up as a contract worker for Rangeman and send you searches to do from here, we'll just give you a different name to work under. I can get your insurance updated to the new name as well."
She laughed and said, "There is no way I am naming my children Robert and Roberta. Seriously, Bobby, what kind of crazy do you think I am? Wait, don't answer that question. If your mom will let me stay, I'd like to stay with her for a bit longer and then maybe find someplace to rent in town, so I'm closer to the hospital. I'd like to continue working to have an income and get things I need for the babies. I do have a bit saved up, but didn't think about withdrawing it before I left Trenton. I suppose I could have a new bank transfer it for me, but that would leave a trail."
"Baby, give me a few days to get things set up, but for now, let's plan a trip to town in the morning and see what we can get arranged. I'll leave you and the munchkins to get some sleep." He dropped a kiss on her head and walked out of the bedroom, shutting the door behind him.
He walked into his bedroom and pulled out his phone. He'd gotten another text from Lester, asking when he'd be back and if he'd found anything out about Steph. Tank was doing a good job leading Lester down the wrong trails he made up for Steph's departure from Trenton. He called Tank and told him what he needed and Tank promised he'd get on the job. He did say that he'd probably have to involve Hector, as he has the best hacking skills of any of them. Bobby reluctantly agreed and said he'd call again tomorrow. He got into bed and thought about the confrontation that was sure to happen with Hector.
The next day they spent in town and ventured to the nearby college town. Bobby let Steph loose at the shopping mall with one of his credit cards he insisted that she use. She was starting to get a baby bump and would need new clothes for herself and he wanted her to get a few things for the baby. He headed to the electronics store and bought her a new cell phone with a different number and a laptop. He also got some equipment to update the internet connection at the house. Steph would need it to be able to run the search programs for Rangeman. He caught up with her at the food court and even though he'd only been gone from her for an hour, she was overflowing with shopping bags. "I still need to hit a couple more stores, but the babies were hungry so I decided to take a break. Can't starve the children."
Bobby laughed and after her snack, he walked with her until she stopped in front of Victoria Secret. He started shaking his head and said, "There is no way I'm going in this store. Give me the bags and I'll take them to the car." She laughed but handed over the bags. She finished up and met him at the car. They headed over for her next doctor's appointment with Dr. Sarah.
The appointment went very well, they were able to pick out both of the heart beats this time and the ultrasound showed that they were progressing on schedule. Dr. Sarah did mention that things would be happening faster for her since she was cooking two babies, but just follow common sense with things and to make sure she took a nap whenever she felt tired. The morning sickness was almost gone but she was tired a lot of the time. Dr. Sarah warned it would only get worse as the pregnancy advanced. Steph headed out to make her next appointment and to update them with her new cell number while Bobby talked to Dr. Sarah and told her that he was going to have to head back to Trenton and she shouldn't be surprised when some of Stephanie's records were updated with a new name. He promised to keep in touch with her and he said he'd be coming back more often while Steph was here.
They headed home and filled Elaine in on all they had done. Bobby had decided to fly back instead of drive and was leaving his car with Steph. He made her swear on the babies that she wouldn't wreck his car, as it was his baby. She laughed and promised to do her best, but she couldn't make any promises. He drove to the airport the next morning and Steph went with him and then hopefully manage to drive herself back to the house. Their goodbye was sad at the airport and to anyone looking at them, it was apparent that they cared for each other and would be missing the other once he left. He promised to call her when he get into Trenton and to keep her up to date on things. He went through security and then was gone. Steph wiped her tears and headed for home.
The next week went by quickly even though she missed having Bobby around the house. Elaine was trying to teach her to knit a baby blanket, but after the second day, she gave up and said she'd do it and it would be her gift to the babies. Steph logged onto the new laptop and decided to check her old email before closing out the account. Bobby had set her up with a new Rangeman email account using her new name he came up with. Michelle Sandman was her new name. Michelle is her middle name and Bobby said he picked Sandman because of the old song about the girls singing Mr. Sandman bring me a dream, since she slept so much. She just rolled her eyes when she read this in the text he had sent and reminded her that she was from the south, near the Atlanta office, but was working from home due to a disability. This helped her so no one from the Atlanta office questioned why she wasn't in the office.
She opened her old email address and discovered that Lester had sent two emails every day since she left Trenton. She started reading the oldest and by the time she had worked her way up to the one from this morning, she was crying. The first few emails were just asking general questions about her leaving and asking her to call. By the end of them, he was begging her to get a hold of him. He thought she was dead. She needed to talk to him and sent Bobby a text. He called her a few minutes later and she told him she needed to talk to Lester. He said he'd work on it and let her know.
The next day, Steph's phone rang and the same time there was knock at the door. Elaine had gone to town so Steph went to the door. It was a Fed Ex man with a package for her. She signed for it and answered her phone. "Bobby, I just got a package delivered. I assume it's from you?"
"Yep Baby, it's a phone that you can keep to call Lester. It's not traceable, as the signal will bounce from tower to tower, all across the country. I had a little bit of help getting it set up so now Hector knows that I know where you are. He doesn't have a location on you as of now, but don't be surprised if you eventually hear from him. Please call Lester as soon as you can, he's driving everyone nuts."
"Will do. Thank you Bobby for the phone, and for everything. I wouldn't have made it this far without you."
Steph hung up from Bobby and pulled out the new phone. It had one number programmed into it and it was Lester's. She hit the button to call him and he answered immediately. "Hey Les, how's it going?"
"Beautiful? Oh my god, it's you. Where are you? Why did you leave? When are you coming back? Don't you miss us? You need to come home."
When he finally stopped asking questions, she started talking. "Les, I can't tell you where I am, but be assured that I'm safe. I needed to leave town. I couldn't be there with Ranger gone for so long. It's different this time without him being in Trenton. I can't tell you why it's different, so don't even ask. I won't be coming back to Trenton not now, maybe not ever. I do miss you and the guys, but I need to be away right now."
They talked for about an hour. He filled her in on his searches for her and she told him she was in good health and with a friend. She said she'd call him once a week if that would help him feel better and he made her promise. They ended the call with their usual sarcastic remarks and a big kissy sound on the phone. She hung up the phone and immediately felt better. She sent Bobby and text that just said "Thank You".
The next few months went by quickly. Elaine took over Bobby's role and went to all of her appointments and enjoyed seeing the ultrasounds of the babies. Steph held off on learning the sex of the babies. She wanted to share this experience with Ranger and if he wasn't available, she would settle for Bobby. He was coming to visit in a few days. Her work for Rangeman as Michelle Sandman went well. She had to laugh at an email Michelle received from Lester that compared her search skills to a former employee. If he only knew…
Bobby's first quick visit back came over the 4th of July holiday. He called her from the airport and she drove up to get him. It had been a spur of the moment trip and he didn't tell her he was coming. When he saw her at the airport, he was shocked by how large she had grown. She was almost 7 months pregnant by this time, but looked about full term. He hugged her and felt a swift thump on his stomach. He pulled back and looked down. Steph laughed and said, "One of the double trouble just saying hello to Uncle Bobby."
He got in the car and drove them back to the farm. On the way, they talked about how she was feeling, how things were back in Trenton and unfortunately, he had to tell her that no one had heard from Ranger yet, although Tank was able to find out that he'd been making all of his check-in's on time, so they were hoping it was going to over soon. She caught him up on the farm, especially about "her" horse. Seems the horse took a liking to her baby bump and each time Steph goes to see him, the horse nuzzles her bump and the babies kick at it. He asked some questions about the babies and found out that she's been feeling okay, just tired and can't walk too far at one time. She complained that the last time she rode to the mall with Elaine, she ended up sitting in the food court most of the time because she was too uncomfortable to walk.
The next day, he loaded Steph and his mom into his mom's car and drove them into town for the parade and carnival. He brought along a chair for Steph and got her situated to watch the parade. He took a quick walk and came back with a lemonade, funnel cake and bag of cotton candy for her. She happily accepted it all and sat back to watch the parade. When the flags came by to start the parade, Bobby snapped to attention and saluted. She knew he was ex-military, but he'd never shown anything like this before around her. The parade took about an hour and then Elaine went off to join her friends at the Bingo tent. Bobby ended up taking Steph back to the house. She tired and feeling a bit nauseous. Bobby reminded her of what she ate at the parade and she tried to punch him in the stomach, but it was too hard to do anything to him. He laughed and helped her into the house. He got her situated in the living room and she insisted he head back to town. She teased him that Dr. Sarah always asked about him at Steph's appointments. He left her and she promised to call him if she needed something.
She watched the television for a bit and then had to use the bathroom, again. She hauled herself off the couch and headed down the hall to the bathroom. She had just finished washing her hands when she heard a knock at the door. She walked over to it and opened it. She looked up and just stood there, unable to move or speak.
"Babe?"