Disclaimer: Not mine! All the characters you recognize belong to JE, I'm just playing.

Warnings: Up to book 18.

Previously:

I turned to my Grandma and told her to call me anytime she needed to go somewhere and that I would find other ways to see her. I asked her to have my Dad call me when it was convenient and I grabbed my purse and walked away.

Ch. 3

Once I was sitting in my car in took me a good ten minutes to get my breathing under control and to fight back the tears threatening to fall. In all honesty, I don't know what I expected. My mom has never openly accepted me, but up until now I have been mostly ok with that. But hearing her speak so poorly about Ranger and his men was definitely the last straw. I wasn't going to allow that, not in front of me. So, I did it. I finally walked away. I was finally the one to have the last word and set for the ultimatum. And no threat of losing dessert would have changed my mind. Until my mom comes to her senses and apologizes to me and openly accepts my relationship with Ranger, I'm done.

My relationship with Ranger! I still can't get over that. Relationship and Ranger both in the same sentence and in the positive form. Yay! As I mentally did my happy dance I motored off to the Bonds office where I was certain the reaction would be quite different than the one I received from my mother.

"Hey White Girl! 'Bout time you got your skinny ass back here. These skips be crazier than usual," Lula said by way of greeting. "Let's go get some donuts and catch us some skips."

At that point I remembered that I hadn't eaten any breakfast since I never got that far at my mom's house. My stomach agreed with Lula in the form of a loud rumble.

"What do you mean the skips are crazier than normal, Lula?"

"Well, this here Benny Wandowski got arrested for peeing on his wife at the park. He claimed her dress was on fire and there was nothing to put it out so he peed on her. Problem was there was no singe marks on her dress."

"Yuck! Have you found him yet?"

"Yeah, I knocked on his door, but he came out locked and loaded, so I took off!"

"He came at you with a gun?"

"No…the jerk was gonna piss on me. And I was wearing these suede pumps. I don't want no one peeing on me period, but I sure as shit wasn't gonna let him ruin my new shoes."

I tried desperately to hold back a laugh. Truth is, I wouldn't want anyone peeing on me at all either, but what really got me was the look on Lula's face when she was talking about it. She had her lip curled up and her nose scrunched up and it was just funny. But I know better than to laugh at Lula so I sucked it up and held it in.

"Ok, Lula, who else do we have?" I had the distinct feeling it was just going to get worse from there.

"Well, we have Connie Mankowistz. She took a metal baseball bat to her husband and a 'ho he was in her bed with. Did more damage to the husband than the 'ho. Claimed the 'ho just got in her way, she really only wanted to beat her husband."

"I have a hard time blaming her. I can't say I wouldn't have taken a bat to Dickie and Joyce if I'd had one handy at the time."

"Yeah, well the crazy biotch told me I looked like a 'ho her husband would be with and she tried to take her bat to me too. I tried to 'xplain I wasn't no 'ho no more but she wasn't hearing me. I tell ya, she had a crazy look in her eyes!"

"Ok, anybody else?"

"These two just came in," Connie chimed in. "Just Mooner and Dougie. Seems they both missed this time, so it shouldn't be too hard for you. You can probably get them both at the same time."

"Let's hit the Tasty Pastry and get them first. I haven't seen I Love Lucy in a while," Lula said. "Plus I ain't in no hurry to get pissed on or have a bat swung at me today."

Might as well start with the easy one, I thought so I grabbed the files, signed my apprehension forms and got ready to leave. I couldn't believe they hadn't brought up anything about me, Joe and Ranger yet so once everything was signed I just looked at them and waited to see if they were going to mention it.

"Whatcha waitin' for white girl? I'm starved, lets move!"

"You guys aren't even at all curious about Hawaii? Where are my friends and what have you two imposters done with them?" I asked, still shocked that they hadn't even mentioned it.

"Oh Honey, we heard all about how Joe dumped you and that Ranger has been in the wind probably avoiding Trenton thinking you came back from a wonderful beach vacation that you didn't even want him to go with you on," Connie said with a sympathetic look on her face.

"Yeah, White Girl, Officer Hottie's been spreading it all around town how he came to Hawaii just to dump you after he and Terri decided they were leaving Trenton together. Said he owed it to you to tell you in person bein' as you have history and all," Lula added.

Once I got over the need to impersonate a fish I was finally able to speak. "What?" I know it wasn't much, but it was all I could come up with at the time.

"Yeah, sweetie, Joe and Terri are leaving Trenton. Joe got offered a job in Philly. He figured it was close enough to his family but far enough that he wouldn't have to see you every day. He's been saying he cares about you too much to rub his relationship with Terri in your face. Apparently they are talking about marriage," Connie said.

"Wow!" Again, I think I was channeling my inner Ranger and his knack for one-word responses. I finally gained composure enough to say, "That isn't exactly what happened, but I'm glad Joe came out smelling like the rose he thinks he is."

Connie and Lula looked at each other, then looked and me and asked in unison, "What did happen?"

I took a deep breath and decided to give them as much of a condensed version as possible. I knew that my relationship with Ranger would most likely break land speed records across the Burg once my mother gained her composure, so I knew I had to at least divulge that much.

"Joe did come to Hawaii and we did break up. We did discuss Terri, but him leaving Trenton and the subject of them and marriage never came up. I would like to think that our break up was mutual, but however it is portrayed, I'm just glad to be out of it. I was tired of feeling like a yo-yo and I knew that deep down there was no way I could ever marry him."

Lula and Connie were nodding their heads and looking at me to continue hoping there was more for me to say. "And as for Ranger being in the wind, he wasn't exactly in the wind, unless you call being with me in Hawaii being in the wind."

"What! White Girl you had that fine man locked away in your room in Hawaii and you just now tellin' us?"

"Come on, Steph, what gives? That is something you should have led with not buried in the story!" Connie gasped out.

"I just assumed you would have known. I never anticipated Joe to twist the story quite so much, but I should have known his pride wasn't going to allow him to tell the whole truth. If he and Terri really are leaving Trenton I wish them the best. I will miss him, he is a good friend, but I want him to be as happy as I am."

"You just happy cause you finally got naked with Batman or is there more to the story that you still ain't tellin' us?" Lula asked with her hands on her hips and a sparkle to her eye. She looked hopeful. And while I couldn't give her all the details, I did open up enough to say, "Ranger and I are going to explore having a relationship. We are going to take it a day at a time and see how things work out, but I'm really happy with that. I'm in no rush to get married and certainly not to have kids. But being able to call Ranger mine and to finally be his, well, it just makes me happy. I'm not sure how else to word it."

"Fuckin' A! White Girl this calls for donuts and some Cluck-in-a-Bucket. Let's get out of here before I waste away and we miss I Love Lucy!"

"You can fill me in on the rest of the details later," Connie said. "And bring me back some chicken after you take in Mooner and Dougie."

"We'll do our best," I said and we were out the door.

Once we were loaded into my older than dirt, new to me Chevy Tahoe, Lula looked at me and asked, "Ok, white girl, it's just us now so give me all the details. What's Batman like in bed? Did you skinny dip with him while you were in Hawaii? Did he get there before Joe did? Was there a big fight? Come on, quit holding out on me!"

After Lula finally paused to take a breath, I decided I could afford to give her a few more details, but nothing specific of course. "No skinny dipping, yes he was there before Joe, no one fought. It was all surprisingly civil."

"You left out what he is like in bed," Lula said.

I just glanced at her and then back out the windshield as I pulled up to the Tasty Pastry. Saved by the donuts. "Ok, white girl, you wait here and I'll run in on account of you don't usually get enough and you boring and only pick those Boston Creams. I know they good and all, but I need some variety."

Lula had just closed the door and headed inside when my phone began ringing out with the Batman theme song.

"Yo!"

"Babe, that's my line."

"Yeah, I know, but I thought I'd give you a familiar greeting," I said grinning.

"I'd like a familiar greeting, but I had something else in mind," Ranger said through a chuckle that warmed me in all the right places.

As I grinned I answered, "What kind of familiar greeting did you have in mind?"

"Meet me on seven for dinner tonight and I can show you the kind of greeting I was hoping for."

"Sure, what time?"

"Well, I'm in between meetings now and I have meetings most of the afternoon, so how about 6:30? I'll have Ella prepare some of your favorites and drop them off about 7?"

"Sounds perfect Batman. But is 30 minutes enough time for you to show me this greeting?" I asked with a grin on my face. I knew I was baiting the tiger but I couldn't help it.

"Babe, all night wouldn't be long enough for me to greet you properly enough, but I'll make sure the food is something that will hold if necessary. Just in case we carried away greeting each other."

"Sounds great Batman, I'll see you at 6:30."

"Babe" was all I heard before the line went dead. We are going to have to discuss phone manners.

Not long after Ranger and I disconnected, Lula was back with two bags of donuts. We decided to wait to get the chicken so we could take some back to Connie after getting Mooner and Dougie rebonded.

Just as we anticipated, Mooner and Dougie were watching the I Love Lucy marathon and after only two hours of watching together they went peacefully with us to the station. I was really glad that I avoided Morelli at the station. Even though things ended on a decent note, and I was curious about him moving with Terri, I just didn't want to have to face him today. Especially since I couldn't get "greeting" Ranger off my mind and I'm sure it was showing all over my face.

True to his word that night, Ranger spent quite a long time showing me the different ways to greet him and none of them involved the word "Yo". Although, some other words were definitely screamed to each other. That was the first night I called him Carlos. He definitely approved of that greeting and had me greeting him with it early into the next morning.

TBC…