Chapter One.

"Alright," Said an angry looking Joe Morelli, with hands on hips. "Tell me again why you have to go?"

Stephanie sighed, stuffing a pair of jeans into her duffel bag. "Joe, we've already went through this."

"Humor me." His face was no nonsense and straight faced. She sighed again and turned to stare down at him as he stretched out over the bed. He had just came gotten home a few hours ago after working a case and even though he looked relaxed, his shoulders were stiff. Stephanie didn't like that. She had hoped to tell him about the little 'mission' with Ranger when he was in a good mood. Preferably, after they played hide the salami.

"I'm going because he asked me."

"That man has a gang off crazy, psycho madmen, just as huge and terrifying as he is, ready to kill anyone who sneezes too loud at his disposable and he wants you, The WORST bounty hunter in Trenton, NO, the wost bounty hunter in the WORLD, to go with him on an important 'mission'?" The tone coming from Morelli told her that he was not in a good mood. At all.

Stephanie narrowed her eyes and felt her cheeks get red from anger. "FIRST of all, they are NOT crazy or terrifying or murderers." Liar."As a matter of fact, he IS taking a few of his 'gangbangers' to tag along as well. And second of all, I'm glad to know how you feel about my job and that you have such faith in me." She tried her best to match his tone and felt that she succeed at sounding just as irritated. Probably because she was.

Morelli threw his hands up in the air and got to his feet. "You're impossible."

She said nothing for a beat, packing her bag once more. "You think Ranger is terrifying?"

"No but you do."

Stephanie opened her mouth to retort but then thought better and shut her trap. He was right after all, more or less. She wouldn't use the word "terrifying" though. He was more like "Frighteningly complicated."Instead or facing that fact and staring at Morelli's know-it-all expression, she threw some extra shirts in her bag to keep herself occupied.

"You're also oblivious."

"Am I?" Stephanie zipped up her bag and moved to the bathroom. Morelli padded after her.

"Yes, you are. Do you ever wonder why Ranger always asks you to come along on everything he does?"

Stephanie sighed heavily. "Don't start with me. I'm seriously not in the mood." She was never in the mood actually.

Morelli raised his hands, in a silent surrender and grabbed his coat. He started out of her bedroom and she panicked, following him as he headed into the hallway towards the front door.

"Aren't you gonna drive me to the airport? See me off?"She asked him, biting her lip and wringing her hands.

He kept on walking. "Nah. I'm beat. I'm gonna go home and rest."

He's acting nonchalant! She thought angrily. "But..I'm not going to be back for a few days."

Morelli stopped, turned and grinned, giving her a small, friendly kiss on her forehead. "I'll see you then." He opened the front door to her apartment."Give my greetings to Ranger."And then he was gone.

If there was one thing Stephanie hated about her fights with Joe, it was how they would walk away, both angry and upset with their own thoughts in mind. But this was worst. He had never, in their recent history, NEVER acted like that. It was like he had given up. Completely. If only for that minute, it felt as if he was done. With the argument and her.

And Stephanie would be lying if she said it hadn't disturbed her to the core.

At exactly Ten o'clock, Stephanie heard a knock at her front door. She scrambled out of her bedroom, dutifully decked out in all black. Black, long sleeved, stretchy T-shirt, tight black pants, black furry boots and a short, stylish black jacket. She opened the door wide and almost freaked when she saw who stood behind it.

"I thought so." GrandmaMazur stoodthere, hands on hips, giving her a saucy look. Unfortunately, she was in all black too with a knit, cap on her stringy white hair. The site was surprising and a bit disturbing.

"What are you doing here!?" Stephanie asked, peeking out and checking the hallways. They were deserted. Grandma Mazur hustled her way inside the apartment and starting glancing around.

"I heard you were going on some top secret mission." The old woman stated, hiking up her frilly black dress. Stephanie had a thought that the dress was the only piece of black she owned. "And I heard you was going with that Latino man."

"Ranger."

"Yeah him. Where's he at?" Grandma Mazur craned her neck every which way. Stephanie put a hand to her eye to stop the twitching and felt a migraine coming on. She was tempted to ask Grandma Mazur who told her all that but the answer was pretty obvious. Stephanie suddenly regretted letting her mother know about her short disappearance.

The thing that nagged at her however was that she hadn't told her mother that the 'mission' included Ranger so how had Grandma Mazur known? "Who told you Ranger was coming?"

Grandma Mazur gave her a glance over. "Morelli did. You're dressed in all black too, ain't that his favorite color or something? Are you telling me Ranger ain't coming? I put on perfume and bought a whole new purse and he ain't coming?"

Stephanie's eyes narrowed subconsciously and her teeth clenched. If someone would have looked closer, steam could probably be seen coming out of her ears. So, Morelli had planned to ruin this didn't he? She felt her face burn. Maybe she was overreacting a tad? Maybe Morelli had just simply told Grandma Mazur because he was angry. Maybe he hadn't had an agenda to try and foil the trip?

"He also told me what time to be here."

Or maybe he had. Stephanie checked her watch and grabbed the old woman by the wrists. "Listen, you can't go okay? This is only for uh...bounty hunters and stuff. If Ranger sees you here, he might shoot you." Which was probably true but not for those reasons. She dragged Grandma Mazur out the door, stuffed her in the elevator and pressed the down button.

"Wait I left-" The doors to the elevator closed and down went Grandma. And then up came Ranger.

He stepped out of the elevator doors and nearly made Stephanie go into a panic attack. He was dressed in his usual. Black shirt, black cargo pants stuffed into black boots with a black windbreaker and his Seals hat covering his short hair. The expression on his face gave her the impression that he was amused.

"Your grandmother was dressed in all black." He told her.

Stephanie shrugged helplessly. "Night out on the town?" She laughed but he didn't. "Uh..did she see you?"

"No."

"She put on perfume and bought a new purse for you."

"I'm flattered."

"I thought you were coming at ten?"

"I was. I saw your grandmother though and stayed in the shadows."

Stephanie gave him a pained look. Smart man, she thought. "Morelli's mad at me."

"Is he?"

"He doesn't want me to go. Or..spend time with you...Period."

"Shocker."

"He tried to sabotage it." Stephanie said, her voice raising an octave due to the remaining anger at the idea. "He told Grandma Mazur to come over."

Ranger raised an eyebrow and she found it hard to tell if he was amused, annoyed or indifferent. "He must be pissed. Telling Grandma Mazur on us? That's a low blow."

Stephanie gave him a withered look. "I'll go get my bags and then we can go." She started off towards her apartment.

"Bags?" Ranger called. "I told you to pack lightly."

She turned to shoot him a smile. "I did."

"This is packing lightly?" Ranger asked as he stuffed the 5th suitcase of Stephanie's stuff into the back of his car. He would have put it in the trunk but she had already filled that up with her four other bags. He picked up the last bag, which was number six by his count, threw it in the back seat and slammed the door closed.

"Hey! Don't throw my stuff around." She pouted, pursing her lips. He gave her a look. "What? I have things in there. Personal items."

"Next time, don't pack personal items." He told her, walking around to the driver's side.

Next time? The thought made her a little nervous. Was he indicating that they'd have to travel across the world again or just making a simple statement? Boy, was she taking everything seriously today. "What did you pack? Socks and shoes? Normal people change clothes." She hadn't meant to sound so testy but her mood wasn't one of the best.

Ranger gave her an almost smile. "I packed the necessities."

"Which would consist of?"

"Clothes. Weapons. Condoms." Stephanie's throat went dry as he stared at her and then got into the car. She put a hand to her heart and felt it speed up.

"Great.." She muttered before getting into the car also. Maybe he was only joking? She turned to the man beside her and saw him start the car and drive out of her apartment's parking lot. Maybe he hadn't really packed condoms? He was just trying to scare me? Or just being funny, which is actually unnatural for him.

Ranger turned his head and gave her another look that said alot before turning back to the road.

Tch, yeah right, She thought, and maybe rats would grow wings and take over the world.

Since, according to Ranger, they were running late, four minutes late to be exact, he briefed her in the car.

They were going to Asia but their destination was a country in Asia which happened to be Nepal.

"Now remember this because it comes in handy," He has told her, as they drove towards the airport. "Nepal has 75 districts. Seventy Five. The district we're going to is called Kathmandu which is the capital and also has a city named after it. It's also one of the few places that gives Mountain flights and where the Prime Minister is, who asked us to come."

"Why should we care about mountain flights?"

Ranger ignored the question. "So when we arrive, "He said, pulling into the New Jersey Airport. "We're going to meet up with Tank and Hal along with my contact named Junji. Lester and the others are staying here to hold down the fort. Junji is going to take us where we need to go and it's on there from."

Stephanie had tried to keep up with it all.

"Any questions?"

Yeah, a whole bunch, She thought in exasperation. Like, what the heck are we doing again!? All she remembered was Nepal and Seventy Five something. Why the hell did she have to remember the number of districts? Who knew! "Uh...yeah, were we suppose to pack guns?"

Ranger turned to look at her as he parked the car in the airport parking lot. "You didn't?"

"They didn't seem very necessary."

Ranger make a sound between a sigh and a huff. "Get out of the car."

"You sound angry."

"Get out."

Stephanie sighed and pouted and did as told, like a little girl being denied candy. "You don't have to get snippy." Snippy? Where the hell had that word come from?

"Snippy?" Ranger voiced her thoughts as he rounded to the trunk. She shrugged. "We're going after an A classed criminal and guns didn't seem necessary?"

"I don't like guns."

"Babe, you're a bounty hunter."

Stephanie pursed her lips again and he shook his head. "Are they even gonna let us through with weapons? Don't they check bags and stuff?"

Ranger shut the trunk closed after he had loaded out all of Stephanie's bags. "They don't check mines."

"What about when we get to Asia? Then they'll check."

Ranger shot her a look and an almost smile came to his lips again. "They don't check mines." He repeated. Then he started into the airport. Stephanie grabbed her remaining suitcases and things and followed, wondering vaguely about the car and who was going to take care of it.

Stephanie was estatic. Completely blissful, beaming and smiling and looking around like she was a puppy that had just got a bone. No one was going to believe this! She made a mental note to tell Lula and Connie about this when she returned. She hoped that the messages she left on their phones got to them.

Stephanie Plum, labeled "Worst Bounty Hunter in the World." Courtesy to Joe, was flying First Class! Her head was swirling.

"You look happy." She turned to see Ranger who was placing their things into the compartments above the seats. The cushioned, shiny, nice looking seats by the way.

"I've never flew First Class before." She told him, not being able to hide her excitement.

"I can tell." He looked amused and that made her happier.

"Are Hal and Tank flying on a different plane?"

"Yeah. They aren't in New Jersey right now. They'll meet us when we get there." He took a seat beside her which was weird because there were about 50 other open seats available.

Yesiree, it was only her and Ranger in this class.

"So do the people in Asia speak English?"

"Our contact will. But don't expect anyone else to. It isn't their native language."

The statement made her get a bit nervous. She wasn't good with people she couldn't understand. Her gaze went to something in the room an her face lit up."Oh my god, is that a T.V!?" Stephanie exclaimed, pointing at the ceiling.

"That's what they're called."

She started squealing and shaking her hands. "Well turn it on! Turn it on!" Ranger chuckled silently, and did as told. By his surprise, she poked him. "Hey mister, whats so funny?"

"Nothing. You just look cute when you're excited."

She turned away and regarded the T.V intensely to hide her red face. Hadn't he said he packed condoms before? She instantly felt guilty and zipped up her coat subconsciously. Ranger got a call on his phone and he took it, standing up and excusing himself. She heard a guy on the speakers say that the airplane was going to take off in a few and to buckle up.

Stephanie did as told, strapping on her seat belt and checking the emergency harnesses and what not. Afterwards, she snuggled into the seat and relaxed, watching some sort of game. Her mind traveled to what was to come when they arrived at Asia and then to Ranger and how he had looked at her. Then to Joe and their earlier conversation.

Or argument. Her stomach dropped and something like sorrow filled her heart. She had tried to forget about it since he had walked out but it wasn't going to great. Maybe she should have stayed? Argh, but this was her job for crying out loud! And she needed this money.

"Do you ever wonder why Ranger always asks you to come along on everything he does?"

Okay, so WHAT if her and Ranger had had one night stand before? It hadn't went anywhere and technically, Joe and her had been broken up so she hadn't cheated. Besides, Ranger kept his distance.

Sorta.

"I'll see you then. Give my greetings to Ranger."

That was the last sentence from Morelli that drifted into her mind before she fell asleep.

I finally updated. Look at that! :D I feel pretty proud of myself. And as for the actual states and districts, I looked them up on Google but other then that, I know NOTHING about them so please, just roll with it.

Now, you guys, do what you do best!

Read and Review :D Thanks.