I do not own JE's characters, I just like to play with them. This will be my collection of one shots highlighting ways that Stephanie could break free of Morelli and break up with him. I have about twenty chapters already planned, but none of them will be related unless it is by a request. I will take some suggestions. Just let me know what you think.

How about one from Morelli's POV:


#9 The Hat Trick

I was so freaking excited! I had won two seats in the station pool. They were center ice, nine rows back and in the perfect location for me to see all of the action. I was right behind the penalty box. I had agreed to let my girlfriend, Candace come with me, but she is not a Rangers' fan. She was wearing a dress for cripes' sake. I mean don't get me wrong, she was beautiful, but she was not what you would call a deep person. She was a pharmaceutical rep and she tended to like more girly things.

"Joey, did you get the snacks?"

I sighed. I tended to wait for the vendors to come to me, but fine. I get up and muscle my way through the crowd until I get to the hot dog line.

I get bumped from behind and I turn to snap at the person to find it is a little girl and her brother and they are shoving each other. Both of them are dressed in Rangers jerseys and jeans. The boy has a backwards cap on his head and the girl has a headband. They were cute and about 7 years old. They had stopped with the shoving and now they were threatening each other.

"Raphy, please do not shove me again. I would hate to have to injure you. You would miss the game."

The boy snorts.

"Mari, please do not issue threats that you cannot back up. You know that I can beat you."

The girl looks at her brother with loathing.

"I will just take your collection of movie posters and burn them."

The boy glares at his sister.

"Then I will just have to sell your collection of cars on the internet. I think that I will have a buyer easily. Then I can buy new posters."

The little girl screams a little and pulls out a gun on her brother. He does not look concerned.

"Just give me a reason to do it, Raphy!" I move the crowd back. These kids are crazy!

"Mari, you know that Mom will be upset if you shoot me. You will get my jersey dirty."

He is worried about his jersey? I look at the little assassin and she has a deadly aim and a very serious expression on her face.

"Are you scared, Raphy? I have you and I will not miss. Apologize."

He looks at his sister with a bored expression on his face and very quickly pulls his own gun and aims it at her heart.

"Do you see that you cannot beat me, Mari? I train all the time while you just mess with your cars and computers. What were you doing the other day? Baking cookies? How domestic of you."

His sister takes off the safety on her gun.

"You ate the cookies, didn't you? What is wrong with me doing something with Dad anyway?"

What? She baked with her dad? I had to focus on the fact that they both had guns. What kind of security did they have at this place?

The line moved and the kids moved with it while they still had their guns trained on each other. The boy sighed.

"Fine, I am sorry that I said you could not do the obstacle course with me, Mari. I just did not want you to be hurt. You are my sister and I am supposed to protect you." The girl nods at him.

"Fine, I will call off the bomb, Raphy. I am just as deadly as you." She puts her gun away and yells into the crowd.

"Stand down, Mikey!"

Another kid, a year younger shows up and he is putting things back into his backpack. Where were their parents?

"You always take her side, Mikey. I am your big brother." The younger boy shrugs.

"Girls are scarier than us, Raphy. You know that. Mom is scarier than Dad, right?" They both shudder and then straighten up when someone calls them.

"Kids! Were you holding each other at gunpoint again? I told you not to do that in public! Why can't you behave? You know what? Maybe we should just go home."

They all band together in the face of their angry mother. What? Is that Cupcake? She still looks amazing; not at all like a mother of three.

"Mom, calm down. We were just playing. Nobody got hurt and no clothes were ruined. We even made up! It's almost our turn and we can get hot dogs. You like hot dogs, right?" The little girl is trying to calm her mom down. Cupcake sighs and runs her hands through her hair.

"Fine. I am glad that you all made up. Was Mikey going to be backup for you again, Mari?" The little girl preened.

"You know it, Mom. Where is Dad?" She looks around.

"He is looking for vegetables or tree bark or something. You know how he is." All three kids shudder again.

"I hope he does not get those vegetable kabob things. They taste horrible, Mom." She kisses her oldest son on his forehead. He looks like her a little, but his coloring is darker. The line moves again and that is when she notices me.

"Oh wow! Hello, Joe. Kids, this is Joe Morelli. We grew up in the same neighborhood." The kids give me the once over and nod and turn back to their perusal of the crowd.

"Hello, Cupcake." The kids look at me sharply. Damn, they look scary. The little girl stands in front of her mother.

"It has been a while, Joe. Are you here with someone?" I smile and nod.

"Yes, my girlfriend is waiting back at our seats." She smiles politely at me and pulls her son away from some guy.

"But, Mom! He was staring at your behind!" She rubs his shoulder.

"Raphy, people have eyes and they can use them, but when they try to touch, then you can shoot him." What?

"How can you condone them shooting people, Cupcake? Why do they have guns anyway?" She snorts.

"Joe, they are paint pellet guns and they have guns because they like them. Raphy could hold a gun when he was a year old. So could Mari here." What a benchmark to be proud of.

"So, you got married after all, huh, Cupcake?" The kids glare at me. What is their deal?

"Yes, she did, Morelli." It can't be. I look over and see Manoso. He looks the same, except he is wearing jeans and a jersey like the kids.

"Mikey, please put that grenade away." What?

"Dad, he called her Cupcake like three times! She does not like it, either. Grownups are too nice! If you call me a name I do not like, I am going to let you have it." Manoso sighs.

"This is why we had to come to your school, Mikey. Behave, now or no climbing wall later." The boy gasps.

"You promised!" Manoso gives him a look and he puts the grenade away.

"Why do your kids have weapons?" Manoso smiles a small smile.

"They take after their mother."

I look at Cupcake and she is wearing cute capri pants and a jersey that fits her like a second skin, but I notice that she is armed and that her purse has another noticeable bulge in it. What was going on?

It was my turn and I bought my snacks and stalled while they bought theirs. Manoso looked pained at the amount of junk food the kids and Cupcake bought.

"Babe, that stuff'll kill you." She kisses him briefly and the kids yell that it is gross.

"Stop nagging me, Batman. I will work it off later." She winks at him and herds the kids to their seats which happen to be right next to mine. Wonderful.

Cupcake sits next to me with the kids between her and Manoso. The little girl sits next to her dad and even eats one of his vegetable things without shuddering. He smiles at her and ruffles her curly hair. I hand Candy her snacks and turn to Cupcake.

"What did Manoso mean that the kids take after you, Cupcake?" She smiles.

"I got Ranger training and I work as a trainer for women and kids in self-defense. I am usually always armed."

Throughout the game, I barely pay attention to Candace. I keep looking at Cupcake. We cheer for the team and I notice that she holds her youngest on her lap for part of the game. She explains some things about the players to him and she stops another argument over the last hot dog by breaking it in half for the oldest kids. They smile at her.

"You are a good mother, Cupcake. I always knew you would be if you just tried it." She looks at her kids and at Manoso who winks back at her.

"Joe, when we were dating, you tried to force me into a mold. You gave me ultimatums. You wanted a stay at home mother who was a Burg wife, right?" I nod at her.

She shakes her head and smiles at me. "I work, Joe and the kids sometimes used to come with me to work. I cook, but so does Carlos. We make our own rules. We are not Burg and we don't even live in Trenton anymore."

I knew that. Her mother had almost had to be committed when Cupcake had moved away. She would not tell anyone where she moved to. She just said that she was taking charge of her life. I never realized that shortly after that happened, you never really saw Manoso around anymore. Things were run by Santos these days.

"I guess you always were different, Cupcake." I hear the safety being taken off of a gun and look into the eyes of the youngest Manoso.

"Mister, my mom has a name. She uses yours. Be respectful and use hers." They are very protective of her. It would be cute if they were not banding against me.

"Sorry. I have always called her that. I will try to watch that in the future."

He stared at me and then he put his gun away again. I did not even see him draw. These kids were good.

She laughs and kisses his head again. "If you promise not to shoot anyone, when we get home, you can pick the movie, Mikey." He beamed and kissed her cheek and raced to tell his siblings.

By the end of the game, I had observed the kids and their parents. They moved around a lot and changed seats. They all ate the vegetable things, despite their earlier teasing of Manoso and he let them climb all over him. It was weird to see him behaving like a normal guy.

We all stood up to leave and I motioned to Cupcake. "It was nice seeing you, Stephanie." She smiles and it is still the beautiful smile I remember.

"The same to you, Joe. I heard about your promotion to Captain. Congratulations." I smile.

"Thanks. Well, you take care." She smiles and picks up her youngest, who is a little sleepy. The other two are following their father.

"I will. You do the same." She waves and leaves and approaches Manoso. He takes the kid and she hugs the other two and they leave together.

All I can think is that that could have been my life with her if I had not tried to force her to be someone that she is not. Who would have thought that Manoso would ever settle down and with three kids?