Okay, so I don't own any of this, although that would be cool. Um, sorry about the length of this one, it just kept coming. I'll try to keep it shorter in future. I know I hate long chapters.Thanks heaps for all the wicked awesome reviews... keep 'em coming, i need support.
"Really, Morelli, I'm fine. Actually I'm getting used to it." I sat on the side of the bathtub, waiting to regain my balance before I had to stand to have a shower.
"It's been two weeks, Steph, you need to see a doctor." Morelli was leaning against the vanity, dressed and ready for work. "You can't just pretend it's not happening."
I took a deep steadying breath. "Look, give me an hour and I'll be fine. You should go to work."
Morelli sighed. "Stephanie, you're sick. You need to stop being so stubborn."
"This is my life, Morelli. My life and I'm living it and I don't need a dictator. What I do need is someone who will respect my decisions and let me do what I feel is right. Can you do that?" He was silent. "Morelli?"
"Fine!" He threw his hands up in resignation. "But don't think it will be as easy to convince me if you're still like this in a week."
I looked up as he was heading toward the door. "I love you," I called.
He turned, half way out the door and smiled. "I know."
An hour later I was on the phone to Mary-Lou with my dilemma.
"How do I tell him?" I asked. Mary-Lou was an expert at these things having done it an average of two point five times.
"He seriously has no idea? Geez, I knew he was stupid, but come on! Morning sickness for almost a month, most of it spent with him. Hello?"
"Yeah, I know, my fiancé is dense. How do I tell him?"
There was a moment of silence as she thought carefully. "Well, there's the whole candle lit dinner deal, if you want to be cliché… Oh! I know, take another pregnancy test and 'accidentally' leave the stick on the vanity counter!"
"You really don't like Morelli much, do you?" I deadpanned.
"I did it when I found out about Michael. It worked alright."
"It's mean."
"Oh, okay, you party pooper. Ummm…" After a moment she spoke again. You could always tell him outright."
"Never mind, I've worked it out. I'll talk to you later. 'Bye"
Joe's POVI got home at six that night and found a note on the kitchen counter.
Joe,
Gone shopping. Be back around seven. Bringing home a pizza.
Cupcake
PS. I have something very important to tell you.
Important? Cripes, I don't like anything important she has to tell me. Last time she had to tell me something important it was that the two biggest gangs in the city were after her. Important was NOT good.
By the time Steph walked through the door at ten past seven I had already drunk three beers and scoured the bathroom. Why, I had no idea. I ambushed her in the entryway, taking the pizza and her shopping bags, and kissing her before demanding to hear her news. She smiled nervously and suggested I sit down.
She dropped her bag on the counter in the kitchen and got herself a glass of water. Plain. With no additives! I can't remember ever seeing her drink a plain glass of water. And she was so nervous and fidgety, okay, that ones not so unusual, but she was nervous and happy at the same time. That was new.
I did as I was told and sat down at the table. She pulled a chair up beside me and took my hand in hers squeezing tightly as if she felt she were going to faint.
"What is it?" I asked again.
She took a deep steadying breath. "I'm pregnant," she gushed. For a moment I thought I had misheard her, but the I reflected on the past few weeks, the sickness that was gone by midday, rapid mood swings, cravings for ice cream and olives, together, in the same dish (oh, wait, that ones was her usually).
"That's… That's… that's um…" I stammered, unable to think of a single thing to say that didn't sound false. I gave up, instead pulling her onto my lap and kissing her deeply.
"Wow," she breathed when I finally released her.
Steph's POV"So? When's the big day?" My mother asked as she passed me the peas a week later.
"Um." I met Joe's eyes over the table, filled with love and ecstasy (the good kind). He shrugged. "We haven't exactly set a date yet," I said.
"What do you mean you haven't set a date yet?" Grandma Mazur asked.
"We just haven't had a moment free to talk about it," Morelli answered for me. "What with the rising crime rate and all the skips."
"That's no excuse," my mother says, "You should make the time. This is the happiest day of your life we're talking about. For God's sake, make an effort, Stephanie."
"Mum, it's not such a big deal. Besides, it's my life not yours. Can you just let me live it?"
"Well, excuse me for wanting to help my daughter and see her happy!"
"That's the thing, mum; it's not helping! Nothing you ever do helps! You don't understand my life, yet you're always trying to fix it. Will you just BUTT OUT?"
The table went completely silent with the exception of Dad's fork clattering to the floor. Tears were burning behind my eyes; tears that I could not let Mum see, so I left. I stood and walked calmly from the room and out the back door.
A few minutes later, as I sat in an old lawn chair in the dark, I heard footsteps in the kitchen followed by the door opening and closing.
"Steph?" It was Morelli, my night in shining armour, for want of a better clichéd phrase. "Steph, are you out here?" I sniffed in response and he turned the porch light on. "Are you okay?"
Is he serious? I just screamed at my mother and left so she wouldn't se me cry! "I'm fine." My voice was small, but it travelled quickly in the night air. "Go back and finish your dinner, I'm not hungry anymore."
"That's too bad," he said as he reached my side. "'Cause I brought you pineapple upside down cake."
I looked up and smiled weakly, how could I refuse cake? Morelli upended a nearby crate and planted himself on it, handing me a plate and fork. I ignored the fork and picked up the huge slice of delicious, mouth-watering cake in my hand.
"I just don't know what's going on with me," I managed through a mouthful of cake.
"It's the hormones. I saw it with my sister too. She'd have huge screaming matches with mum and then dissolve into tears, unsure of what she had just been screaming about. Its perfectly normal." His hand moved to my arm reassuringly. "It'll pass. I promise."
At that moment the screen door opened again. We turned to find my dad walking across the lawn with a glass of something fizzy. He smiled at us as he came near. "I'm glad you finally put her in her place, Pumpkin. She's needed it for a long time and nobody's been game enough."
"I shouldn't have," I sobbed through my cake. "She doesn't deserve it. She was just trying to help."
"No, Pumpkin, she does deserve it. She's deserved it for years now."
"I still shouldn't have yelled at her."
"Pumpkin, it goes with the territory."
At first I just agreed. It wasn't until I was lying in bed later that night that his words really took on some meaning. Morelli was snoring beside me, as always, but I could not sleep. I just kept replaying the night's events over and over in my mind. Suddenly it hit me; I sat bolt upright, startling Morelli. "He knows!" I breathed.
Morelli rolled over so he was facing me and stared groggily. "Huh?"
"He knows!" I cried, "Cripes, I didn't think it was that obvious. What am I gonna do? Then again, he should know the signs by now, he's seen it twice with Mum and three times with Valery… Shit, shit, SHIT!" I rambled on a moment longer before Morelli pulled me back down onto the pillow.
"It's okay," he soothed, stroking my hair off my face. "So what if he knows. This is your father we're talking about He's not going to tell your mother." Leaning over, he kissed me hard on the mouth, more as an effort to Get me to stop rambling than anything else, but, like any other kiss, it lead to other things.
"I'm giving you three seconds to be on the floor with your hands above your head," I whispered menacingly, holding the vermin at gunpoint. I know I'm not usually the violent type, but this guy had really pissed me off. "If you're not on the floor at the end of those three seconds I will bring you to the floor and I refuse to pay the cleaning bill if I have to persuade you." I gestured with my gun.
"Shit, lady, what are you on? Alls I did was open the door and now you're telling me I'm gonna cop a bullet if I don't lie down on the floor?" He was slowly making his descent to the floor, his hands in full view the entire time. "What did I ever do to you?"
"You missed your court date, that pisses me off." Okay, so I was a little touchy this morning, I blame the lack of caffeine in my system. "Now, I'm gonna slap these cuffs on you, and you're gonna stay quiet and not pull any stunts. Then I'm gonna help you to your feet and you're gonna stay quiet and not pull any stunts. Then I'm gonna walk you to my car, and you gonna keep quiet and not pull any stunts. Then we're gonna drive across town to the pig station and you're gonna keep quiet and not pull any stunts. Then I'm gonna drag your ass to the guard's desk and you're gonna stay quiet and not pull any stunts. And if you pull anything there'll be a cap in your ass. You understand?" Evidently, while I was explaining the game plan he had slithered to the other end of the hall and grabbed his own gun. He was now sitting on the floor about two metres away with the gun trained on me. "Oh, no you don't," I told him. "You are so not getting away from me. Not today. If you had any idea what was going on in my life at the moment you would not cross me."
"Listen, lady, I don't know who you are, or who you think I am, but you have to believe me when I say I'm not going to jail! It's my kid's birthday, how do you think he'll feel if I miss his party again? I can't let him down! This is my last chance to redeem myself. If I don't turn up he's gonna disown me forever…Please."
Usually I don't give in to these sob stories, but this one hit me right there. I lowered my gun a bit. "How old is he?"
For a moment he looked taken aback. "Uh, four. He, he's four."
"What's his name?"
"Gareth. Gareth Jonathan Teldums. Gareth was his grandfather's name and Jonathan is mine… but you know this already…"
"Gareth is a nice name. What time's the party?" By this time I imagine my eyes had glazed over.
"What is this? Twenty questions?"
I raised my gun again. "Look buddy, I'm trying to do something nice, now do you want to go to the kids party or not?"
He lowered his gun to the floor abruptly. "Noon, at the pool hall."
Isn't it just great when they co-operate? This made me much happier. "Okay, new game plan," I said sweetly, "I'll take you to little Gareth's party, we'll stay long enough for cake and presents then you're going to come quietly."
"Mmm, anything for you Baby."
Okay, he did not just say that. I can't believe he just said that! "To jail! Jeez. If you make another crack like that you can just forget about the kids party!"
I took a hand off the gun to push my bangs out of my eyes and noticed the chip in my nail polish. Things just weren't going my way. I cuffed the poor sucker that sat in front of me. Stuffed him in the back seat of my second hand Yolks Wagon (Don't ask, it's a long, sad little tale about cheap imitations) and slid in behind the steering wheel. Ten thirty, what am I gonna do for an hour and a half with this sucker in my car?
"Hey, girl! You lookin' good!" Lula enthused as I walked through the door, cockroach in tow. Today she wore a hot pink halter-top that showed everything but her nipples (and even they weren't exactly hidden) and pin short shorts (at least I'm pretty sure they would have been short shorts on the right size person, but given that they were at least three sizes too small they looked like underpants). When she bent over to put a file away in the bottom draw I caught a lot more than a glimpse of a pink g-string with lime green polka dots. "Dang, I ain't seen you lookin' this good since that little goings on last year with You-know-which-hunk-of-man-meat."
"How'd you find out about that?" I hadn't told her. I hadn't told anyone! Dammit, all men are the same!
"I guessed. I mean, Morelli never made you that happy, did he?"
"Uh, hello? You're talking about the man I'm going to marry!"
"Oh, yeah. Well, it's working for you, that's the main thing." Her eyes moved past me to Skippy McSkip who stood silently with his hands cuffed in front of him like a good little insect. "Who's this?"
"Skip."
"Skip, that's a name you don't hear too often," Connie put in from behind a stack of files so high anyone would have mistaken it for the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
"His name isn't skip, he is a skip. Jonathan Teldums."
"Oh, I thought he look familiar, he's the DV, right?"
"Shoplifter."
"Wait, there wasn't a shoplifter in that pile you picked up yesterday. There was a Domestic Violence, an armed robber, an arsonist, and a peeping tom."
The lock tumbled on the door to Vinnie's inner office. "Teldums is the armed robber!" he called. This sent Connie on a rampage; practically pull her desk apart to find the device.
"Like I said, 'Shoplifter'."
"What the fuck is he doing in my office?" Vinnie yelled.
"If you want to talk to me you'll come out of that damn office! I'm not yelling through the door!""
"It sounds like you are to me!"
I decided not to respond to that comment, considering the only adequate response would be a bullet in his ass and at this point in time it was hard to determine where he was standing in his office. Instead I told Lula to keep an eye on Teldums while I took a stroll into the back room.
When I returned with another set of cuffs which I had intended to use to cuff Teldums to the leg of Connie's desk while I went out for lunch, he was gone. I look over at Lula who simply shrugged and went back to her filing.
"I need a doughnut," I said to no one in particular, flopping down on the scarred leather couch and covering my eyes with my forearm. "Not just any doughnut, either; I need a huge ass doughnut filled with cream and coated in chocolate icing and sprinkles."
"Wow, sounds like one really bad day," Connie said, "Wanna talk about it?"
"No," I sulked, feeling very much like I was seven again.
"Okay, well, if that's what you want…"
"I yelled at my mum last night for always trying to fix my life when she doesn't understand it, but all she was trying to do was help because Morelli and I still haven't set a date for the wedding and she just wants me to be happy, but the fact is I yelled at her and now she's going to cut me off form pineapple upside-down cake forever. Then I was lying in bed thinking about what happened and I realised that my dad knows, and I know e knows and I'm hoping he doesn't tell mum 'cause if he does I'll not only be cut off from pineapple upside-down cake forever, but from any leftovers that would previously have been sent home with me. I have the worst cramps imaginable. I haven't had a cup of coffee in at least two weeks and my skip just got away. AGAIN!" by this time I was on my feet pacing the floor, totally oblivious to everything around me. "But hey, I should look on the bright side! AT least I haven't rolled in garbage! And my rent isn't due until at least tomorrow morning!" I stopped pacing and glared at Connie and Lula as if it were their fault. "My life is absolute CRAP!"
"Your dad knows what?" I jumped at the soft voice in my ear.
"THAT'S ANOTHER THING! IT SEEMS THAT EVERYTIME I START BLURTING STUFF OUT ABOUT HOW CRAP MY LIFE IS YOU'RE RIGHT THERE LISTENING! IT'S OVER! WHAT DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND ABOUT THAT!"
"Well, it is a phrase I've only ever heard once before in my life, and the person who said is long gone, but I'm pretty sure I understand it."
With this happy little thought in mind I promptly fainted