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Chapter Four

I had the pleasure of initiating the truly uncomfortable talk with Joe about what Jamie had overheard. Ranger had spent the night on my couch, since he'd been exposed already, and sure enough he got sick in the early hours of the morning. He got over it fairly quickly, as though he had ordered his body to make itself well and it followed suit like a good soldier. I hated him.

Not really, but seriously.

So now it was early afternoon and I was knocking on the door of the rental I'd lived at for a year. "Stephanie?" Joe answered the door shirtless and with Princess in his arms. Looking at her I could see none of Joe I also had no idea what Trixie looked like when she was natural.

"Hey. I should be safe, I've sterilized my entire body and the clothes. If she does get sick, ill take her for you. I already cleared it with Ranger."

Joe's mouth gaped open as I pushed myself in. The place was a wreck. I immediately started cleaning up, a habit leftover from when the boys didn't clean up after themselves because they couldn't. Now they kept their stuff tidy but the compulsion never left. I'd felt like the old lady in a shoe for years, and it was worse with mess.

I babbled to Joe about how the kids were feeling while I straightened the living room and washed the bottles. I put a pot of water on to boil them, just in case, too. I started the laundry and yet the time I was done it had only been a half hour and Joe was staring at me bemused.

"Sorry. You know how I get. Listen, I came over for a serious talk and you need to let me finish before answering me, okay?" At his nod I continued, "I've been seeing Ranger, as in dating, on the weekends you have the kids. No, don't blow up yet. This is important. I cancelled last night, but he showed up anyway with soup and plain broth and tea his housekeeper made us. I didn't ask, he just showed up. He hadn't realized I hadn't told the kids about us yet, so he let it slip to Theo. I decided to tell the rest of them, too. I figured if they were going to be mad, they wouldn't have enough energy to be nasty. We told Jamie first, and he told me about a a disturbing conversation he heard over here."

Joes face was pinched tight, whether because I was dating, I'd told our kids without informing him, or because he had an idea of what was coming.

"Jamie told me he heard Trixie talking to the baby about how Doug was her real daddy. He didn't want to tell you because you hurt his feelings and were mean to him before, and he was afraid you would do that to Princess. He said, and this is a direct quote, he's really nice to Princess and I figured she needed someone to care. I didn't want Daddy to stop caring for her because of me. I think maybe he was scared you'd stop visiting her or playing with her like you did him, and he didn't want to get into trouble for eavesdropping, or in trouble for telling you."

Joe was silent, his lips pinched together. This was a combination of his angry and hurt face. He was pissed but he was hurt, too. I would be willing to bet his anger was directed at Trixie and his hurt because Princess might not be his, not to mention the knowledge that Jamie had felt so uncared for by him. I don't think Joe fully understood the ramifications of his actions over the past eighteen months until now.

"I already had a paternity test done. I'm not the father, but I am legally on the birth certificate. I asked a lawyer what that meant, and if she acted to defraud the state by naming me wrongly she can be charged with fraud. I have all legal rights to this little love, and since she has abandoned her I'm it. I walked away once. I won't do it again. And I'm sorry for that, and I am trying Stephanie. I am. But I fucked up and I don't know what I'm doing."

I knew that. I could even understand it. Never the less it wasn't my problem. But I couldn't in good conscience not help him out with Princess. She was innocent in all of this.

"I left Ranger with our kids, but I can help with a few things around here. I'll talk to your mom, too. But I can't keep calling that child Princess. Honesty, Joe, what were you thinking?"

He laughed, and told me, "I didn't get a say. I've been calling her Anna. That's her middle name."

Anna. I could do Anna. I couldn't call this child Princess. I finished up his housework and I called his mom. She told me she would think about helping out, but that she agreed that Anna shouldn't have to suffer because of adults actions.

I went home, and I spent the rest of my day cuddling on the couch with Ranger and Theo. The girls were still sleeping it off upstairs, and Jamie was still feeling uncomfortable about the entire situation with Joe. Hopefully everyone could move on happily, and Trixie was gone. I shouldn't wish a child to be without their mother, but I've seen stumps that had more maternal instinct than that girl, and Anna deserved better.

I just couldn't bring myself to hate the child anymore. I couldn't even call forth the resentment, I thought on my drive home. Probably because it led me to Ranger. I'd never had a man treat me like that. Ranger treated me the way I figured Joe should have been since day one. I hadn't known that though.

My examples of marriage were pretty limited to the Burg. In my family, my parents didn't show affection through actions or words, but food. As a Burg woman, your job was to get married, preferably young, and give your husband children. As many as you could, and I figured I'd done a good job covering both of those requirements. You then had to keep house well and cook. I wasn't as great at either of those, but I managed it fairly well now. If your husband cheated, you ignored it. The rules for husbands were different. Provide for your family, don't beat your wife or kids too bad, make sure you're home for dinner at six. If you had extramarital affairs, your cardinal rules were not to have extramarital babies or diseases.

So my examples of a how a man ought to treat a woman were sorely lacking.

The way Ranger cared for me on a regular basis, the effort he put into spoiling me, I'd never had that. He hadn't pressured me to sleep with him, and he was good with my kids. Jamie and Theo adored him now that Theo wasn't scared, and Abby and Izzy just thought he was hot. I believe I'd heard them whispering together something along the lines of Go Mom!

Indeed.

Pulling back into my driveway, I smiled. I wanted to go to bed with him, it had just been awhile. I'd been a one man woman my entire life. I was wary of starting something new with someone, sexually at least. What if I really wasn't good in bed? What if he wasn't? That would be serious disappointment. Just one touch of his palm to the small of my back and my whole body was tingling. I knew what he was working with under those cargos, too, and if he sucked in bed I'd be amazed but it could happen.

When I got inside, Ranger and the kids were all watching The Little Mermaid, and he looked up and smiled at me. I'd noticed he wasn't a big smiler, but when he did he was really happy and it transformed him from beautiful to oh help me I'm star struck.

"I made lunch. Everyone's kept it down, and I cleaned all the bathrooms again. I hope that's okay, I just thought maybe you needed the break."

He looked worried but he didn't have to. He really was the perfect man