A/N: Thanks for all the great reviews and PMs! All characters belong to Janet Evanovich and all mistakes are mine.

I parked my car in front of the bonds office and looked inside to a familiar sight. Lula was sitting on the couch filing her nails and eating from a bucket of fried chicken. Connie was painting her already filed nails blood red and drinking coffee. The usual Friday morning routine. If I was still working for Vinnie I'd be chewing on a doughnut and choosing which FTA's I was going to go after.

I got out the car, taking my pocketbook with me. Lula and Connie's faces lit up when they saw me walk through the door.

"Hey girlfriend," said Lula. Her hair was sandy blonde and she was dressed in her usual Spandex outfit. Before becoming a filing clerk Lula was a 'ho. She's a plus-sized black woman who attempts to shove a size 16 body into size 10 spandex.

"Hey girls," I smiled and sat down on the couch.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"What? I can't just drop by and say hi to my friends?" I took a chicken wing from her Cluck-in-a-Bucket box. I took a few bites and threw the rest away, suddenly feeling queasy.

We sat and talked about my previous night with Ranger and my lunch with Morelli. After all, there's no such thing as privacy or a secret in the 'Burg.

We heard the lock on Vinnie's office door click and he poked his head out. His dark was greased back and he didn't look happy. Not that he ever did.

"Am I paying you people to lounge around, doing your nails and gossiping all day?"

Connie snorted. "If you did, Vinnie, we'd be rich."

His eyes squinted and he glared at her. "Exactly," he looked like he trying not to hit something.

"You," he pointed a finger to me. "In my office."

I sighed and rolled my eyes before following my rat of a cousin into his lair. I had to bite my tongue to keep myself from laughing when I heard Connie and Lula gulp. Usually Vinnie just yells at us through the wall, he means business when he actually calls us into his office.

He pointed to the seat in front of his desk, but I shook my head and stayed standing, images of him and Joyce Barnhardt flashing through my mind. I gave an involuntary shudder, which he ignored.

Vinnie sat down in his chair and looked at me. "I guess I have to say congratulations."

"Thanks," I said, eyeing him.

"I just want you to know that your relationship with Ranger had better not change anything. I can't have him letting the FTAs of Trenton run loose because he has daddy duties."

I had to smile at that. Somehow, I could never see him doing 'daddy duties'.

That was another thing I had to worry about. Who would look after the baby once it was born? The reason I broke up with Joe was because I refused to stay at home and raise kids. Ranger obviously wouldn't have time and I didn't want to let my first born (or any of my borns for that matter) near my dysfunctional family.

"Don't worry, we're not in a relationship."

He let out a sigh of relief. That asshole! Aren't families supposed to want other family members to be happy? I guess that rule doesn't apply to pervert cousins. Seriously, how does his wife put up with him? He drives me crazy and I only see him a few times a week. Then again, she MUST have something wrong with her to actually marry him in the first place.

I gave Vinnie a finger wave and walked out of his office. Lula smiled and shot me a questioning look. I shook it off and looked at my watch. It was almost one o'clock.

"You busy this afternoon?" asked Lula.

I mentally went through my schedule and shook my head.

"Want to ride shotgun while I go after FTAs?"

I hesitated for a moment. "I don't know. I told Ranger I wouldn't."

"Girl, its just a few first time offenders. They got arrested for shoplifting a couple of bags of chips, nothing serious. Besides, I'll have you back."

I didn't think Ranger would be very happy with me after I promised him I'd stop going after skips, and I didn't think that 'Lula had my back' would go down to well with him. But I agreed to help her anyway. After all, first time offenders were easy and often came willingly without any problems…well OK, sometimes they came in without any problems.

"OK, I'll see you once I get back from lunch," I waved goodbye to them and got into my car.

I pulled up in front of Pino's, the smell of meatball subs and pizza filling the air. I could see Morelli's SUV parked by the curb and the nauseous feeling in my stomach got slightly worse. This would be the first time I'd seen him since we broke up.

Might as well get this over with, I thought as I got out. I saw Joe sitting at the back, his arms folded over his chest. He caught my eyes and pointed to the chair in front of him. I sat down and took his appearance in. His hair – as usual – needed to be cut, he wore faded, tight jeans and a T-shirt. His eyes were cold and hard. Tension was radiating off him and he looked like he hadn't slept in a while.

"Hey," I said.

He just looked at me, his dark eyes travelled down to my stomach the same way Ranger's had the previous night and then travelled back to meet my gaze.

"You slept with Ranger," he finally said.

Not knowing what to say, I just nodded. I mean, I couldn't very well deny it could I?

He ran a hand through his hair and gave me a questioning look. "Why?"

I gave a small shrug. My mouth was dry and I was unable to look at him. I didn't want to hurt him, as much as I was still angry about the fight we had, I still cared about him.

"Tell me, Stephanie. I need to know. Why Manoso, why him?" he demanded, raising his voice.

He slammed a fist against the table making everything on it shake. I jumped slightly in surprise. His voice was filled with hurt but he was wearing his unreadable cop face, his emotions safely hidden behind it.

"Because he cares about me," I said, standing up. I knew we were causing a scene, all the cops who had stopped for lunch were watching us, but that was the least of my problems.

"He only wants you for your body, Steph. He doesn't care about you, not the way I do."

I shook my head and walked up to him, stabbing a finger into his chest. I couldn't believe what I was hearing, the crap that was coming out of his mouth. He didn't know Ranger; he didn't know him the way I did. I knew he cared about me.

"Listen Morelli, your wrong. You've never been more wrong in your life. He accepts me for the way I am. He doesn't try to change me every time one of my cars goes up in flames. He doesn't try to convince me to get another job, he encourages and helps me," I hissed at him, my eyes never leaving his. "If you cared about me you'd let me make my own decisions and not try to pressure me into doing something I don't want to do. That's why I could never have a serious relationship with you, Joe, because you don't trust me. I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself!"

He looked guilty; obviously realising what I had said was true. He looked like he had been slapped. He pushed my finger away, picked his jacket up and stormed out of the restaurant, never looking back. I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down before looking up. Every one quickly snapped their eyes away and became very interested in their food. I walked over to the counter and ordered three meatball subs to go. I waited until I saw Morelli drive away before going to my own car and heading to the office.

Lula and Connie must have sensed that I wasn't in a good mood, as they didn't ask how lunch went. Either that or they had already heard it from Carl, who I saw on my way out of Pino's. I wordlessly handed them both a sandwich before unwrapping my own and taking a bite.

The three of us made small talk for about ten minutes. I spent the time thinking mostly about Morelli and what he had said. Ranger cared for more than my body…didn't he?

"Have you thought of any names?" asked Connie.

My train of thought was interrupted. "Hmm?"

"For the baby? Any names."

I smiled. "It's months time it's due," I said, making a mental note to find out when it actually was due. "I think it's a bit early to be thinking about names."

"What does Batman make of the whole situation?" said Lula through a mouthful of meatballs.

"He seems to be OK with it," I smiled again and rested a hand on my stomach. I really hadn't thought Ranger would want anything to do with it at first. Just because we weren't together didn't mean that we would be bringing an unloved child into the world. I'd make sure my child would be the most loved around and prove to my mother that I'm not a complete failure.

We cleared up the food wrappers and Connie told us to be careful as we got into Lula's red Firebird and went after the FTAs.

First on the list was a Gary Collins, arrested for trying to rob a convenience store. He looked about eighteen with bright carrot-red hair and blue eyes. He lived just outside of the 'Burg and probably lived with his mother. We parked outside his house and Lula turned to look at me. "OK, since you got to be careful in your condition," translation: since I don't want Ranger to kill me if this goes wrong, "You take the back door and I'll take the front."

I rolled my eyes and gave the no guns talk. Usually I would say that I should take the front door, but the meatball sub felt like it was threatening to make a sudden reappearance. I went round back and heard her knock on the door. There was a brief silence followed by some yelling and some door slamming. The back door burst open and Collins ran out and stared at me for a brief second. Realisation hit him and he took off down an alleyway. I ran after him and cursed when I realised I had left everything in the car. I didn't even have a stun gun with me!

Luckily, he was a slow runner and I soon caught up with him. I tackled him to the floor. He grabbed a chunk of my hair and pulled hard. I let out a scream and tried to get him to let go. He didn't and soon we were rolling around on the ground, trying to get the other one off. I had just pinned him to the ground when I felt my stomach turn. I tried to prevent it, but I threw up all over him. Some of it splattered onto my shirt, but the majority was on him. He looked at me in shock and then down at himself in disgust.

I looked up and saw Lula coming down the alley with her Glock in her hand. Her nose crinkled. "Girl, what is that smell? Did you roll in garbage again?"

I rolled off of Collins, clutching my stomach and gagged. "I got him," I mumbled.

Lula smiled and nodded. "You got him good," she agreed.

Pulling a face, she grabbed the back of his shirt and yanked Collins to his feet. She snapped a pair of cuffs on his wrists. He looked at me and said, "What the Hell did you eat for lunch, bitch?"

Lula smacked him upside the head. "Don't you call her that!" then she looked at his shirt. "Ain't no way he's getting a ride to the station in my car."

I nodded and rolled my eyes.

"Are you OK?"

Again I nodded. "I'll call Ranger, ask him to pick Collins up."

I dug my cell phone out of my pocket and dialled Ranger. He answered on the second ring and I could almost picture the smile on his face when he saw my name on the caller ID.

"Yo," he was a man of few words.

"Yo yourself. Can I ask you a favour?"

"What is it?"

"Well, Lula and I were chasing a skip and –"

His tone of voice changed ever so slightly. It was almost barely noticeable. "I thought I told you to stop working for your cousin."

"It was a first time offender, a shoplifter. He's only a kid, he's not dangerous. We have him in custody, but we need someone to bring him in."

"Did you blow up Lula's car?"

I scoffed. "No, but I did puke on the FTA, and now she refuses to put him in her car," I said, giving him the address.

I heard him give a low chuckle. "Babe," he said before he hung up. I swear one of these days I was going to get the last word in.

I told Lula he was on his way and we dragged Collins to wait by the curb. Two black RangeMan cars appeared a few minutes later and Ranger and Lester got out.

"Hi Bombshell," Les smiled when he saw the skip. "You should take it easy, Beautiful. It'll only get worse."

With that he shoved Collins into the back seat of his car and was gone. I really liked Lester. He was different from the other Merry Men. He often spoke more than two words at a time and definitely had a unique personality.

I said goodbye to Lula and waved as her Firebird disappeared around the corner. All the hairs on my neck stood up and I knew that Ranger was behind me. I felt his arms wrap around my waist and he pulled me close to him. "How are you feeling?" he asked, slowly stroking my stomach.

I turned around and put my head on his shoulder. "Better," I said.

He kissed my hair. "Come on, I'll take you home."

He helped me into the car and drove in the direction of my apartment. It had started to rain, light drizzle falling onto the road in front of us. I wasn't feeling so hot again and I made a mental note to talk to Bobby. He knew a lot about medicine; maybe he'd know if there was anything to ease the morning sickness…or afternoon sickness as my case may be.

A/N: I'd like to apologise in advance for any of the baby facts in later chapters that may be, and probably will be, incorrect. I'm only fourteen and have a tendency to daydream during Biology. Thanks for reading!