Author's Note: Okay a couple things- I'm sorry I realize it's more fun to just jump right into reading. Anyways, firstly- I am reading every comment that is made on my chapters. However being that I am loaded with school work I figure you would all rather me save that comment back time to write a chapter. So another big thank you to everyone!

Item #2... I won't say much about this, risking that I will give something away :P But there is a lot of story left… And a lot of unanswered questions. Questions I'm sure you're wondering about, some have asked them- others may be just a curiosity… Well I left them there for a reason- but I promise our girl wants to know the answers to some of these questions too. So both Babes and Cupcakes… You can't count either of them out yet! And of course there is another Stephanie twist coming up- So keep reading =]

Oh- One more thing… Some of the other older characters like Lula, Connie, Vinnie, Mom and Pops- may come up here or there if the story calls for it. So if there is a request to actually see some of these characters- Please let me know. Because at this point they won't be making huge appearances- if they show up at all.

Disclaimer: You know the pieces that are mine, and that which is JE's

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Aly woke up at 6 o'clock that next morning, I was still so tired and had spent half the night tossing and turning so I had her crawl into bed with me. However, a half hour later we got up anyways- not only could she not sit still, but all she wanted to talk about was her daddy. She ran through the entire day she spent with him, even the parts I was sitting in the room for. I found myself wishing this girl had a PAUSE button. I truly was happy that Joe and Aly hit it off so well, but I would have been even happier with a few more hours of sleep under my belt before the Joe tangent took off. I decided if I had to wake up early on a Sunday and hear about Joe- I wasn't going to be the only one. I grabbed the house phone next to my bed and dialed an all too familiar number. All the while Aly was still babbling away- probably not even breathing with how fast she was talking.

"Hello?" A half asleep Joe answered into the phone. I held the phone out so he could hear.

"Isn't it great that daddy loves Belle too. Oh and he loved the ninis mom, next time we need to make him another nini. Did you see him push me on the swing, mama? He pushed me high! But not too high, mama. Daddy can't really hula hoop- I need to learned him how. Daddy said he loves me mama, do you think daddy loves me? I love daddy."

Aly kept talking but I put the phone back up to my ear and I could hear Joe chuckling.

"Joseph, it is great that you made such a great impression on your daughter. But you need to make her stop talking about you."

"What's wrong with that? I enjoyed listening to her."

"Yeah because once I hang up the phone you can go back to sleep. By the way this is going- I'm not sleeping until next week." I could practically hear his smile over the phone.

"Put her on."

"Aly, here- talk to your dad. Why don't you go downstairs and sit on the couch and see how high you can count." Joe laughed again but Aly's face lit up.

"Hi daddy."

"Hey princess, how are you?" Was the last thing I heard Joe ask before she left the room to sit on the phone with him. I tried to go back to sleep- but mom instincts were telling me I couldn't go back to sleep because my daughter was awake. So instead I zombie-walked into the shower and stood there with the hot water beating down on me for at least 15 minutes before I even started to wash up.

An hour later I was dressed in shorts and a T-shirt waiting for the toaster waffles to be done. Aly had finally hung up with Joe 10 minutes ago, and before he hung up I asked him how it went.

"Cupcake, I missed almost 4 years of this. Waking up to the sound of my daughter ranting on about me- is probably the single best way to wake up. Next to that other thing- but that other thing has been pretty non-existent lately. So this surely beats out everything else."

I tried to keep my mental happy dance to a minimum to hear that 'other thing' was currently not happening in his world. Not that I cared- maybe. I mean I ran out on him, I took off and moved 17 hours away- I don't get to care, right? Besides- Joe could have come see us, which he didn't.

This was something I tried to hide from myself over the years, the thought that he never came was eating away at me. But I couldn't let myself think about it- at least not yet. I would find out- I'd have to, sometimes no matter what the answer is you'd rather have a truth that hurt you, than a lie that was nothing but words.

I still was lacking energy by 11 o'clock while I laid on the couch watching some really bizarre cartoons that Aly had put on the TV. Aly wasn't paying any attention, she now had her very special coloring book out and was on her 10th picture she was drawing for daddy. I heard the inside of my head pounding, this must be some type of killer migraine if I could actually hear the pounding. Aly looked at me.

"Mommy, someone's at the door." Shit, it wasn't my head pounding…

"Coming!" I yelled- I wasn't expecting anyone, and I was praying it wasn't someone trying to sell something pointless I wouldn't use for a hundred years. Because right now, I really didn't have the energy to fight off those people. When I pulled the door open though, I wasn't pleasantly surprised.

"Hey Suzanne."

"Oh man, I woke you up- didn't I?" I'm sure the bags under my eyes looked like I was planning an around the world trip.

"Nope, you're 5 hours late to that party." She smiled.

"Well- I heard it's supposed to be hot today and well, I have a nice built in pool in my backyard. Do you and your daughter want to come over and hang out, swim a little?"

"That sounds perfect actually." Nothing was more beneficially when you were drained of energy than to soak up some of the sun's rays and take a nice dip in the water.

"Okay great, well I will leave the back gate open, just come on back- Oh and if you need towels, I have extra ones."

"Alright great, we'll just get our suits on and head on over."

Aly was more than thrilled to be able to go swimming, she changed into her rainbow one piece suit with a pink swim skirt we found for her. When I was living in Wisconsin- Mandy insisted I buy myself this suit we found. It was way more expensive than I wanted to spend but she said I simply couldn't let it go. It was a deep purple two piece that cupped my chest pushing together what I had, making a pretty fantastic cleavage if I had to say so myself. Each strap twisted making a cool two strand braid look and meeting together in the middle of my back. The bottoms were pretty typical bikini ones, that tied on the sides. But since I didn't want to just go around in that at all times I bought the matching purple sheer wrap around that I always so cleverly tied into a skirt. We lotioned up, Aly with her kid's sun block and me with my Banana Boat tanning lotion, grabbed our towels, and Aly's floaties and toys and walked over.

This backyard was great, the pool looked so blue and inviting, there were about 5 chairs spread out around the pool and a barbeque grill in the corner. Suzanne was laying on her towel on one of the chairs, with 2 more seated next to her and her radio program tuned to one of the stations for "New" hits. She waved when she saw us, her suit was a white and black two piece. Since Suzanne was a little fuller in the chest area than I was she had picked out a sports bra style top and short bottoms.

"Hey guys!" She said as we walked up to her.

"Hey this pool is amazing."

"I know, right. I looked at about 1000 houses before I finally settled on this one, and well as soon as I saw the pool I knew this place was mine."

"Oh right, Aly this is Suzanne, Suzanne this is my daughter Aly." Aly held out her hand and with a wide smile Suzanne shook it.

"Nice to meet you, Aly."

"You too." Aly's eyes lingered over to the pool, it was like taking a kid to a candy store. You had their attention for all of 2 minutes before they were in their own world. Knowing I couldn't keep her out for long I got her into her arm floaties, and gave her the bag of swim toys and let her jump in.

I laid out my towel on the chair next to Suzanne and laid back, feeling the sun beat it's way into my skin.

"So you said Aly's dad was going to meet her yesterday- how did that go?"

"It went great, she absolutely loves him- and he is already completely hooked."

"That's really good- what about for the two of you?" I smiled, yeah I figured this was what she was really wondering about. Oh well, for the past few years Mandy had successfully pried her way into all of my business, not only that but it felt great to have an outsider to talk to. Someone who didn't grow up hearing everything the moment it happened, and with Mandy not here- maybe Suzanne could be someone else I can talk to.

"It went pretty good, I mean we didn't talk a whole lot because he was there for Aly. But it's like every time I see him there's a part of my heart that just aches for him." Okay- so maybe it wasn't just my heart that ached for him.

"How did you guys meet?" I smiled remembering the afternoon we spent as kids playing Choo Choo in his parent's garage.

"I've known him since we were kids."

"Were you guys like high school sweethearts?"

"Ha- no. Joe was quite the little playboy back then- he did have one girlfriend in high school. Otherwise he took it upon himself to personally get to know every girl he could." She laughed.

"He must be pretty attractive then?"

"Oh yeah, and the older he gets- the more attractive he gets. We started dating years before I got pregnant and it was great- but then one thing or another would get in the way and we would split, then get back together."

"Oh yeah- would that one-thing-or-another have a name." I looked over at her.

"You're good, but yeah- his name's Ranger. I mean Joe and I had other problems too, but Ranger certainly wasn't helping any."

"His name's Ranger?"

"Well that's just what he goes by."

"Okay, just checking. What happened with the two of you?" I wished there was an ending to our story- where I could say that we were just best friends [that had this ridiculously intense sexual tension]. But I knew my story wasn't over with Ranger, I missed him a lot- I feel like I talked to him more when I was living 17 hours away. Not only that- but there was still something about him that didn't seem right. No matter what I knew I'd have to find out before I could move forward in my life- whichever way it was that 'forward' was going to lead me.

"Well, with Ranger he's very private doesn't say a lot. But if you know him, just standing near him you know what he's saying, with one word he can sum everything up. He used to tell me though that his love doesn't come with a ring, and I think I really liked that. Ranger was like this superhero that could never really be yours, but you couldn't pass up a chance to be with him. We're still great friends, he helped me move back- but since I moved to Wisconsin there hasn't been any heated passion between us."

"Why do you think that is?"

"I wish I knew, I come up with a lot of theories- but the truth is until you hear the words come out of his mouth, you will never really know."

"Did you want to be married?"

"Not back then, I didn't even know who I was. There was no way I was going to become Mrs. Someone Else without even really understanding myself first. In the beginning I wanted to marry Joe, but it was like our marriage wavelengths were always going in two different directions. When I wanted it- he didn't and when he wanted it, I ran from it. And well, Ranger's lifestyle just doesn't allow for a serious commitment. He's in to private security and some other things that I will never know. The one thing I do know about Ranger is for some reason I will never understand- he cares about me and worries about the both of us."

"Damn girl, I would kill for a past like that." I laughed.

"What, you don't have a really confusing past with men, that really isn't in the past?"

"Ha- no. I spent my life working to become an artist- and that's what I cared about. I didn't want anything serious, but now that I've made a name for myself, I wouldn't mind to find someone. I love what I do, but now here I have success and money and no one to share these moments with. Like when there are gala openings that I get an invite to, they expect you to bring someone- a date. I don't even have an old boyfriend I could drag along and say he owed me because of all he put me through. I mean- don't get me wrong, I definitely dated but once senior year of high school hit- pretty much no one could get through my paintings to talk to me. So eventually people stopped trying."

"Well, you definitely need to get out there. Being alone really sucks." Being forever torn between two guys- was worse.

"You're one to talk! Sure you're not alone- you have Aly, but you're alone too."

"It's complicated."

"It always is. There's never a right time for something, you have to make it right." Suzanne was right, I kept waiting for life to hand me the answers and tell me what I wanted, and who I wanted. But there was no script written for my life with lines to follow, sure there may be a higher power watching my every step- my destiny already planned, and Angels in Heaven getting a kick out of just how bad I screw up something that was essentially handed to me. But at least now I know who I am, now I just have to decide who it is that fits with me. Suzanne stood up to change the station on the radio and once she was done and took a couple steps closer to the pool to listen to something Aly was saying. I stood up, unwrapped my skirt setting it down on my seat.

"Enough of this sob fest." I ran forward grabbing Suzanne's arm and yanked her into the pool with me.

At 5 o'clock we were walking into the back sliding door I left unlocked so we could get in and out as we needed. My hair was wet the curls were hardly showing, my suit and body weren't wet anymore so I threw both our towels down the stairs. We went upstairs into the bathroom, she stripped out of her suit and hopped into the nice warm tub. I figured I wouldn't change out of my suit until I could hop into the shower.

There was a knock at the front door a few minutes after Aly got into the tub.

"Who do you think it is, mommy?"

"Probably Suzanne, you had about 100 pool toys over there, I'm sure we forgot something. Stay in the tub please."

"Okay!" I swear this girl was part fish. She loved the water, never cried as a baby when it was bath time and when she first learned how to crawl, she'd crawl to the tub and sit next to it and point.

I pulled open the front door and suddenly felt like maybe I should have grabbed a robe or something.

"Hey Joe." His eyes went from my long wet hair to my enhanced cleavage, down to my bare toned stomach, over my hips, down my legs. I felt the blood beginning to boil under my skin and when his eyes finally found their way back to mine he gave me the look that used to tell me we weren't going to be getting any sleep that night.

"Am I interrupting something?"

"Uh not really, Aly's just taking a bath." He crossed his arms across his chest, I could tell it was more for self restraint than for comfort.

"Do you always walk around the house in a bathing suit? Because I feel that's something I would have remembered, especially since I probably would have lost my job for my failure to leave the house and show up." I thought about slamming the door and running upstairs and hiding under my blankets, riddled with embarrassment. But I didn't spend the last 3 years working off the added baby weight to hide my accomplishments, especially not from Joe. He's seen everything anyway- and I couldn't deny it, it felt good to feel his desire for me seep out of him.

"Nah, I just started doing it, I usually have heels and an apron on too."

"Want to go put them on, I'll wait." The seductive smile that made its way to my lips was no plan, that was just Joe's effect.

"What are you doing here?" If I let this conversation go any further down that path I knew I wouldn't be able to remember my name, let alone that my child… our child was right upstairs.

"This morning Aly told me to come by tonight because she had something to give me, I tried calling your house and cell phone- there was no answer."

"Oh we were over at the neighbor's pool and I forgot my cell phone."

"What's your neighbor's name?" Translation: What's your neighbor's gender, because if it's a guy I have to go arrest him on some bogus charge and make sure I run him out of this neighborhood.

"Her name is Suzanne. I met her Friday night and she invited us over because it was going to be hot today."

"It was definitely hot." His eyes sweeping my body once again, arms tightening against his chest. I had to admit- it was rather satisfying to know I still had this effect on him.

"Well, I can go get Aly out of the bath and have her come down here."

"Yeah, that would probably be good."

"Do you want to go wait in the living room?" He nodded and extended his arm forward.

"After you." I probably would have smacked him if the smirk on his face wasn't so damn sexy. I had to get him back someway, there was no way I was going to leave the room letting him have the last sexy move.

"Okay, one second." I reached down and adjusted my bikini top, moving my chest back and forth. Then I ran my fingers through my hair and turned to walk away.

"No fair." He whispered- staying as far back as he could.

"Aly babe, your dad is here. Why didn't you tell me you asked him to come over?"

"I don't know." I wrapped her in a towel and she threw her night gown on and ran downstairs. After I showered and dried off I dressed in a tight form fitting tank top and shorts. It's June and it's Jersey and it's hot, I have every right to wear this in my own house. I told the voice in my head that was really telling me I was doing it because I liked watching Joe squirm. I thought about putting my wet hair up because I hated the way it made my back cold, but decided I'd just let it hang there for now.

Joe was looking at the pictures Aly made for him, a genuine smile on his face. Then he looked up at me and did a double take and shook his head, mouthing the word "Jesus."

"Do you want to stay for dinner, daddy?"

"I'd love to Princess- but I need to go." His eyes darted to me. "My dog Bob needs dinner too, yesterday my cousin was watching him so Bob didn't get hungry. But Bob's waiting for me."

"Oh okay, I'll walk you out." Aly jumped up and ran for the door. Joe followed her and stopped inches from me leaning close, his breath touching my ear.

"I'll see you at work tomorrow, cupcake."

"You sure will." He started walking towards the door. "Have a good night, Joe." He turned back to me and winked then headed towards Aly.

"Is that seriously what you're going to wear on your first day of work, Stephanie?" My mother barked at me as me and Aly entered her house the following morning.

"What?" I looked down- I had spent almost 2 hours getting ready, between picking out my outfit, taking a long hot shower and spending an extra few minutes making sure my long curly hair laid nice and didn't leave fly-aways all over. Not only that but there was an extra couple layers of mascara surrounding my blue eyes. When I was shopping with Mandy- no good ever came of it. Well good clothes sure, but a lot less money in my bank account. We found these pants that she made me buy, and I had to admit they looked great. Black dress pants that sat a little lower on my waist hugged tightly around my butt making it look cute and full. Then the pants hugged tightly to my thighs and at the knee slowly started to add a flare. I had loved the black ones so much after I bought them that I went back got a pair of grey ones, and black with pin stripes. For the top I wore a blue tank top that was longer than my torso. Over the tank top I had picked out my black work jacket that was short sleeved and when I buttoned the middle button it came in making my waist line look great, with the blue of the tank top showing underneath. I even went as far as wearing some of my nicer black heels not quite FMPs but definitely close.

"You look like you're going to a single's bar."

"Well who knows mom, maybe the case Eddie assigns to me requires me to go and do detective work at a single's bar. Then at least I'll fit right in." She rolled her eyes at me it was 8:30 and my mother was already in need of a drink.

"Why don't you dress like a single mother who needs to find a husband."

"Gee mom, I don't know what that type wear. But if I see a single mother that is searching for a husband, I promise you I will write down what I see her wearing." I heard my father chuckle from the living room.

"What about your daughter huh, doesn't she deserve a father."

"She has one, speaking of which- I told Joe that Aly would be here and that he is welcome at anytime to stop over on his lunch break and spend it with her." My mother got a devilish look in her eyes.

"And just so you know- you are not to ask Joe about his love life, or hint that the two of us need to be together. Because I promise you ma, if you push either of us in any way- I will put Aly in a daycare so fast you won't even have time to pull out the ironing board and iron away how big of a disappoint I am before you realize we're gone. Got it?" She stared at me- never had I talked to her like this. But it felt damn good, not that I wanted to talk back to my mother but I was tired of always being a disappointment in her eyes. No matter what I did- it wasn't good enough, where Valerie could do anything and was still little miss perfect. So what if I was a "screw up", I could think of a few people that didn't care about any of that- only about me. One of those people being Ranger- man I needed to call him soon, but for some reason I felt guilty. I had no idea why.

"Bye Aly, love you baby."

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Eddie spent the first couple hours of the day catching up with me about life- telling me about my cousin and the kids. I told him all about Aly and we decided in the near future to get the kids together for a play date. When he finally got down to business he gave me a stack of files of all the current cases I would be working on. Some of the people I just needed to do some interviewing with, others I needed to find missing pieces to the puzzles in order to lead to an arrest. Eddie took me to my desk and asked one of the college student interns to show me how to work the computer system. He spent most of his time trying to see down my shirt and even though I would have been flattered if I caught Joe or Ranger doing that- this guy just bugged me. Finally around 3 o'clock Joe came to my desk giving the intern a look that almost made him wet himself.

"I can take it from here, junior." Not knowing what to say he got up and just about bolted away, and Joe sat down on my desk and faced me.

"So is there anything that I can help you with?" By the seductive look in his eyes- I knew he wasn't simply just talking about the cases or understanding my new job. So I answered his other question instead.

"No thanks, I've actually gotten pretty good at helping myself." He smirked.

"What a shame. Well you know don't hesitate to ask, it's not fun having to do all the work by yourself."

"Yeah, but it sure is a lot easier." He smiled and his expression changed.

"Oh by the way- did you threaten your mom?" I turned my face back to the computer screen.

"Why do you ask?"

"When I went to visit my daughter I was trying to make polite conversation with your mother and she would hardly even look at me. Then your Grandma came in and goes 'You should have seen it Joe, Stephanie practically took Helen's head off this morning. It was great'. Know what she's talking about?"

"My Grandma's crazy Joe, you know that."

"Steph?" He asked raising his eyebrows at me.

"I told my ma not to question you or us about any relationship stuff. I told her not to hint at me being a single mother, which is one of the most embarrassing things in her eyes. I told her if she didn't keep her opinions to herself that Aly would be going to a daycare." He chuckled.

"Your Grandma was right." Joe got up and started walking away but stopped and turned to face me again.

"Oh and don't forget, if you need anything at all Steph. I am here to help."

"Thanks, that intern said the same thing. So did half the guys that work here- people are really nice here." I could see Joe's face tighten up as he turned to leave. I couldn't help but smile, Joe was jealous- I bet he expected working together to be great. Quickies all the time, on the copy machine, broom closet, wherever- I guess he just never took any one else into account. Before I had been Morelli's woman, but now- even though I had Morelli's daughter I guess my moving away cancelled the other stuff out.

I smiled- let the games begin.