Previous Chapter: "Finally this damned day is over," I let out a sigh of relief and bolted the door.

Tomorrow, however, would be a whole different story.


CHAPTER 4

"So what are your plans tonight, Cupcake?" Joe asked.

Apparently I wasn't the only one who had a rough day, Joe told me he called so that he could take his mind off of work. And he must've been excruciatingly exhausted because when I told him about my carjacking and the need to change the locks, he didn't even yell. He just simply said he would take care of it when he got home.

He didn't even complain about the amount of acid that was building up in his stomach when I told him about the take down at the Cluck in a Bucket. Something just didn't feel quite right.

I spent the entire day chasing idiots across town for a measly $50 bucks a pop and was in dire need for a release.

"I'm heading to Shorty's for dinner and drinks with the girls. So when are you coming home tomorrow?"

"Why do you want to know? Have some dirty secrets to hide before I show up?"

"Yes." Like in the form of dirty dishes and clothes.

"Well, at least you're honest. I should be home sometime in the evening. Not sure what time so don't wait up."

"How can I not wait up? I want to give you a proper welcome home."

"Oh is that so?"

"Get your mind out of the gutter, Morelli. I just want to be the first to put my arms around you."

"Me too, Cupcake. I've missed you. Hopefully this will be the last assignment for a while. I don't like being away from you this long."

"I miss you too, Joe."

"I have to go. Have fun with the girls."

"Thanks. Go catch some bad guys."

"Love you, Cupcake."

"Lump butts," I replied and quickly hung up the phone. Lump butts? What the hell? I was all kinds of seriously messed up not being able to tell her own boyfriend that she lump butts him back. What the fuck, I can't even say it in my own head.

I walked into Shorty's and spotted Misty, Lula and Connie at a table in the back corner of the restaurant with a bunch of…Merry Men. I sighed inwardly, so much for having a girls' night out.

"Hey, Short Round," Lula hollered next to Tank.

"What happened to our Girls' Night Out?" I asked and quickly added, "Not that I don't want to hang out with the guys. It just wasn't what I was expecting," I quickly added glancing around the table at Bones next to Misty, Lester to my right along with Bobby, Binkie, Cal and Ranger at the end of the table.

"Babe," he said steadily.

"Ranger."

"Little Girl, take a load off. We've ordered a couple of pies and pitchers of beer," Tank informed me.

"See how thoughtful, my snuggle bear is?" Lula gushed.

Ok if the lovey dovey-ness continues through the night, I'm going to puke.

Lula's face twisted in horror. Shit, did I just say that out loud?

She quickly recovered and kissed Tank on his jawline. "She's just jealous cause she ain't gettin' any from Supercop."

My mouth dropped open and I'm pretty sure my face turned fifty shades of red.

Before we could continue this conversation and make it even more awkward we were saved by Misty answering my original question. "We just happened to run into them, so we decided to sit together," Misty she replied sipping on her Cosmo next to Bones. Honestly if you didn't know the two, you'd never guess that they were together.

Misty was a beautiful 5'7 leggy blond with poise and class. Bones was well…you could probably imagine just from his nickname alone. Think brooding biker type. The two were just sitting together casually interacting with the rest of the table and every now and then throwing insults towards each other.

The one thing that I can always count on is Misty being a constant in my life. No matter what life throws at her, she is never going to change…at least not as far as I can tell. She sticks to her guns and it's nice to see that now she's kind of tied down that she's still the same person she was before she got involved with Bones.

I think I inhaled an entire pizza by myself and tried to pace myself with the beer. My college nickname was "the two sip wonder" for my lack of tolerance to alcohol. And honestly, I didn't need a hangover the next day when Joe came home.

Hanging out with the Merry Men actually turned out to be pretty fun. Of course Les cracked a bunch of jokes, the guys told stories of their time in service which was absolutely fascinating. I mean I always enjoyed my time with the Merry Men but this was the first time that we actually spent time with each other outside of work.

"Uh oh, Supercop is heading our way," Lula interrupted our random chatter.

"What? He's not supposed to be back until tomorrow," I said in shock turning around to see if it really was him and my eyes caught the most beautiful sight. It was Joe. He let his hair grow out a little causing his hair to curl around his ears and he was very scruffy. But that man could make a paper bag look good.

I leapt out of my chair and took two long strides towards him and threw myself into his arms.

"Cupcake," he responded by pulling me into a hungry kiss.

"Joe," I caught my breath as I pulled away from the kiss, "I thought that you said you weren't coming home until tomorrow."

"I wanted to surprise you."

"Well, mission accomplished," I smiled.

He glanced behind me in the direction of our table and his eyes went from warm chocolate to narrowed and sour. "I thought you said you were having a Girls' Night Out. What are Ranger and his thugs doing here?"

I pushed myself away from him angrily. "It was supposed to be a Girls' Night Out and we just happened to run into Ranger and his men here so we decided to hang out together."

"Yeah, that sounds mighty convenient."

"Look, do you really want to start that here?" I asked.

"No, you're right. I'm sorry, Cupcake," he pulled me in for another kiss.

"I'm glad that you're back home safe and sound."

"I'm glad to be home too. I wanted to stop by to see you before I headed over to my mom's for dinner." He paused, "Which was another reason why I stopped by to see you first. There's something else I wanted to talk to you about."

Silence.

"Ok are you going to tell me or not?" I eyed him suspiciously.

"Well, I spoke with my mother on my way here," he said carefully. "She and Grandma Bella would really like for you to join us for Christmas dinner."

I stepped away from him bumping into Lester slightly. "No."

"Why not?"

"Because I always go out of town for Christmas."

"Then make an exception this year. This is Christmas and my family wants to make it up to you for the misunderstanding during Thanksgiving."

"Joe, I know your family doesn't like me and I honestly don't want to go through it again. Your family ordered Chinese takeout separately for me!"

"It was their way of trying to make you comfortable."

"And inviting the family that owns the restaurant to join us for Thanksgiving was their way of making me feel comfortable too? They couldn't even speak English. I'm not fucking Chinese!" my voice raised. "Did they think cause we have the same skin color and chinky eyes that we would somehow relate to each other?"

"Your eyes aren't that chinky," he teased. "They're trying, Cupcake," he tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear.

"Joe, please just drop it. I'm not going to change my mind."

"Why can't you just put up with my family for one day?" he threw his hands up in the air in frustration. "I put up with things for you all of the time."

"You put up with things for me?" I shouted indignantly.

He ran his hand down the length of his face. "You think that I like watching you prancing around with that asshole?" he pointed towards Ranger.

"I work with him and he's my friend," I grit out swatting his arm. "And that's really what you think I do? You think that I fucking prance around all day? I'm fucking working! What I do is not so different from what you do for a living, Joe. I try my hand at taking scum off the streets just like any other cop out there. I'm not flipping my hair and fluttering my eyelashes. I'm getting down and dirty and dragging in the criminals. It's my fucking job."

"Yeah, some fucking job you have. Do you know how embarrassing it is to have my colleagues be front and center to all of your disasters? Everyone on the precinct knows we're dating. What do you think that does to my reputation?"

"The guys are making fun of me, not you, Joe. And I could give a shit what people think of me. Maybe you should try that too."

His eyes grew so intense that I could see the steam rising from his head, "You know it's bad enough that we haven't had sex in the last two months after you were kidnapped by Ramirez. I can understand. I can be patient. But what I can't understand is that I have to comfort you during your night terrors in the middle of the night as you cry out his name in your sleep!"

I was speechless. For once I didn't know how to respond to him. Honestly, this was the first time I've learned that I was acting out my nightmares in my sleep. I didn't realize that I was being vocal much less calling out Ranger's name in the middle of the night.

"Joe — I-I didn't know. And I'm not sure why I call out for him instead of you. Maybe it's because you were in a coma during the time and subconsciously knew you weren't coming for me. I do care for you," I softened my tone.

"You can't even tell me that you love me!" he shouted.

I shifted uncomfortably. I really didn't know how to respond to that. I mean Joe's been telling me for months that he loves me but he's never actually called me out on not reciprocating the feelings back to him.

"Can we talk about this later at home?" I said quietly.

"Fine but I just need to understand why you won't spend Christmas with my family. It's just one day. My mother is going to ask me when I show up tonight."

"Joe, any other day I would be more than happy to accompany you and put up with your family but not on Christmas day. I'm sorry," I tamped down my temper and tried to reason with him.

"Why?" he spat angrily. "It's not like you even have a family to spend it with."

My jaw dropped open awe struck by his outward burst of cruelty. I could feel Les' muscles tense up next to me as Joe reached out for my arm.

Les stood up between us and held me behind him protectively simultaneously as the sound of several chairs being pushed out echoed around me.

"I think you should leave, Morelli," Les responded in a low threatening voice.

I could see Joe's jaw flex as he spoke around Les, "Cupcake, I didn't mean it. It just came out. I was angry."

I quickly grabbing for my bag. "Umm…sorry guys. I need to go," I said softly.

"Alyssa, you stay. You need to fucking leave, Morelli," Misty said angrily.

"Misty, it's ok," I reassured her.

I could feel the heat radiating from the people behind me as I stepped around Les but honestly I couldn't focus on them right at that moment.

"Cupcake, please," he desperately grasped for my hands.

I pulled back violently and ran towards the door just as I heard the sound of flesh hitting flesh echoed behind me.

"Oh my God, you just get dumber every day! How do you survive out there on the field and not get shot? You fucking donkey's uncle, her parents died on Christmas!" Misty laid into him.