Thank you so much for all the reviews so far, and everyone who has taken the time to read this and review.
I own none of these characters, and make no profit
Rating for mild language and violence
…
A lifetime to go…
Steph drove to her apartment. She went inside and set Rex on the counter.
"We're home, buddy," she said, her voice cracking. She gave Rex a grape and looked around. Dust was everywhere. Good. If she had to think any longer, she was going to shoot herself in the head. Put herself out of her misery.
She blared Metallic on her stereo, and set about cleaning the apartment.
What had she been thinking for the past month, anyway? She knew Ranger didn't want a relationship or a family, and she had let herself get sucked in by the fantasy.
And what a fantasy. It had been perfect for the first ten days. And then Ranger left, like it hadn't mattered at all. And maybe it hadn't. After all, it was just a temporary situation his mother had bullied him into.
But for Steph, it had been something magical. And it was over.
…
Steph didn't bother to stop at the office the next morning. She just couldn't handle the questions.
She needed to take Isaac Bender to court, so he didn't miss it again, and she needed to nab Walter Emory. She headed for Isaac's apartment first.
"Yo, dude," he said when he opened the door. His huge dog, Vinnie, came to investigate. He sniffed around Stephanie for a minute, but wandered off.
"Guess he had enough fun last time I was here," Steph said.
Isaac nodded. "Guess so. What brings you by, friend?"
"Court. You have to go to court this morning."
"Oh, okay. Vinnie seems pretty calm today, so I guess we can go."
"Great."
Steph drove on autopilot to the Courthouse.
"Hey, dude, aren't we going the wrong way?"
Stephanie looked around. "Shit." She had passed the turn off for the Courthouse. "Sorry about that."
"No problem. Hey are you okay? You look kind of…down."
"I'm, um, having a bad day."
Isaac patted her on the arm. "It'll be okay, dude. These things always work out end the end."
Steph smiled absently. There was nothing to work out this time, but it was a nice sentiment. "I need to introduce you to my friend Mooner."
"The Moon Man? Dude! I know him. He's going to get me a matching super suit!"
…
Steph sat and stared at her phone. It was sitting on the coffee table and singing the Batman theme song. This was the third time today he had called, and the third time she hadn't answered it.
She pushed the 'ignore' button on the phone, and sighed. She couldn't avoid Ranger forever, but she couldn't talk to him yet. It hurt too badly. She'd wait a few more days. Try to get her head on straight before she called him.
…
One month later…
Steph was curled up on her couch, eating Ben and Jerry's, and watching Ghostbusters. All in all, it had been a pretty good day. In the month since Julie had gone home, Steph felt like she had finally gotten her equilibrium back. She was heartbroken still, and would be for a long while, but she was functioning again. She never did try to call Ranger, and after a couple days, he stopped calling her.
A knock startled her and she paused her movie. She was surprised to see Joe when she glanced through the peep hole.
"Hey," she said, opening the door for him.
"Hi Cupcake." He had a grocery bag with him, which he took into the kitchen. Steph followed him.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm feeding you. You've lost weight."
Steph felt her face heat up. She thought she had been hiding the weight loss with baggy clothes.
"Don't worry," Morelli said, "it was Anna who noticed. No one else has said anything or seemed to notice. She sent me over with some food she said would help."
Steph smiled at Anna's thoughtfulness while Joe started pulling out food. Steph and Anna had gone for lunch at Pino's one afternoon, and the two women had chatted for an hour. Anna was spunky and sarcastic, but with a genuineness that shone through. All around, she was perfect for Joe.
"So, Cupcake, what have you been up to now that you're hands aren't full with mommy-duties?"
"Just working." In truth, she had thrown herself into work. And while she was no better at catching skips than she had been, it at least kept her busy. She'd been going into the Bond's office late to avoid Ranger, and hadn't seen him since she had packed her stuff and left.
"No stalkers or crazies, right?"
Steph shook her head.
"You'd tell me if there were?"
Steph grinned. "Maybe. You still buying Malox by the case in anticipation?"
He rolled his eyes at her. "I'm always going to worry about you, you know. And I want you to tell me if you get into trouble. I worry about you more now with Ranger gone…"
Her head snapped up. "What? What do you mean he's gone?"
Joe cringed. "Shit, Steph, I'm sorry. Tank told me a couple weeks ago. I just assumed you knew."
Steph shook her head and walked back into the living room, sinking down onto the couch. "What did Tank say?"
Joe came over and sat down beside her, picking up one of her hands in his own. "He wanted to make sure I was keeping an eye on you. He said Ranger left a couple days after Julie did."
She leaned back and closed her eyes. "Is he coming back?"
"Why don't you call Tank, Steph? I really don't know anything more. He should be able to fill you in on the details."
Steph nodded.
"Here, you call him while I put this food away. I'll make you a snack," Joe said, handing Steph her phone and heading back into the kitchen.
She picked up her phone, scrolled through for Tank's number, and pushed send. He answered on the first ring.
"Hey Bombshell."
"Hi Tank. How are you?"
"Good, what can I do for you?"
Steph took a deep breath. "Um, well, Joe is here, and he mentioned that you told him Ranger was out of town. I was, uh, wondering if you could tell me what's going on.
In the moment that Tank hesitated, Steph was afraid he wouldn't answer. Or would give her some lame line like 'keep the faith.' But he didn't.
"I really don't know what happened, Bomber. He got a call that Tuesday, the day before Julie left, about a mission. He has the option to say no on some of these, though he never does. But this one, he said no. Started talking about buying out his contract with the government. Then Saturday, he came in, already packed, made some calls, and took off. He wouldn't explain when I asked him what changed his mind."
"But, that doesn't make any sense…if he said no…why…"
"I don't know, Steph. It didn't make any sense to me either."
"Do you know when he's coming back?"
"He hasn't been in contact, other than his routine check-ins. Originally, it was only a month. But now they're saying it should be wrapped up by Christmas."
Steph took a deep breath and tried to blink back the tears rapidly forming in her eyes. "He didn't even tell me he left. He usually at least calls me."
"He did leave strict instructions to keep an eye on you and keep you safe. I've been watching your skips – you've been doing good, Steph. You'll call me if there's anything you need, right?"
"Yeah, thanks. I'll call. Joe said the same thing."
"Good."
Steph set the phone back on the coffee table and leaned back against the couch. Joe came and sat back down beside her.
"You gonna be okay?"
She had never been this un-okay in her life. She had felt horribly betrayed when she had overheard Ranger's phone conversation. But this was worse. She had been holding out a faint hope that she had heard wrong, misunderstood. She kept thinking that he would come find her – that after the weeks they had spent together, he couldn't bear to be without her. But besides the couple phone calls it hadn't happened. He had just left town. Like he didn't even care.
But she gave Joe a fake, bright smile. "Yep, I'm good. It's not like we were a couple or anything. He can go run off to save the world if he feels like it. I've done just fine without him for the past month. Doesn't really change anything."
Joe chuckled. "Nice try."
"No really. I knew it was over a month ago, I just didn't want to admit it. Well, now I have…confirmation. And I'm fine. Closure is good for you, you know." And she would be fine. Not right away, but eventually. So what if Ranger didn't want her? If he didn't want a family? He would rather have his dangerous job and long missions and two guns and a knife. That was the life he wanted, and as much as she tried, she couldn't find it in herself to hate him for living it.
After all, hadn't she done the same thing to Joe? She had loved Joe, but not enough to change her life. Not enough to make the sacrifices that a real relationship, a partnership, would have required.
She looked down at Joe's hand, still entwined with her own.
"I'll be fine," she said again. A bit more firm this time.
Joe leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. "Good." He got up and headed back into the kitchen, reappearing a moment later with a peanut butter and olive sandwich for her.
"And on your way to being 'just fine,' eat this."
He grabbed a couple beers, and then came and sat down beside her and flipped on a Yankees game.
"You staying?" she asked around her mouthful of peanut butter.
"Yeah. Anna's at work, Bob's at my sister's." He shrugged. "Thought we could hang out."
She smiled and nodded. "That'd be nice."
Joe slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her against him. She gave a contented sigh and sank into him, relishing the comfort the contact brought. It wasn't the highly-charged sexual contact they used to share, but it was nice. Easy. The comfort of a friend.
And more than anything right now, Steph desperately needed a friend.
"Hey, whatever happened with that assault case you were working last month? You had six victims, right?"
Joe nodded and frowned. "We still haven't caught the guy. The assaults were scattered. Sometimes two in one week, sometimes a couple weeks between. It's been almost five weeks now without an attack. I'm getting antsy. I need the evidence that another attack would bring, but I also want to catch this guy before he has a chance to hurt another woman."
"How bad were the attacks?"
"Bad. Not fatal, but they were badly beaten."
"Yuck."
"Yeah."
"If there's anything I can do to help get this guy…"
He kissed her cheek again. "Thanks, Cupcake. Now that I'm not quite so terrified for you, I may take you up on that at some point. For now, just don't go wandering around the bad parts of town alone at night."
She nodded. "Don't worry," she said with a shiver.
….
Three months later…
"Walter Emory? Didn't I go after him back in August?"
Connie nodded. "He did 60 days, got out, got arrested again, and skipped his court date. Again."
Stephanie sighed. Funny how quickly this job turned into a freakin taxi service. "What'd he do this time?"
"Same thing. Drunk and disorderly," Connie said.
Steph turned to Lula. "Wanna ride along? He's not violent, but he's wiley."
"Of course I want to ride along. Your skinny little ass needs all the help you can get. You just ain't the same since Batman left town."
She hadn't been the same at all. "I'm perfectly fine."
Lula just exchanged a look with Connie, and then grabbed her purse. "Come on, we got to go get ourselves a disorderly-er."
"A what?" Connie asked.
"You know, a disorderly-er. Someone who commits disorderly-ness. Like someone who commits murder is a murderer. And someone who stalks you is a stalker. A disorderly-er."
"Yeah," said Steph, "let's go get this disorderly-er." She waved at Connie, who was busy shaking her head, and followed Lula out to her firebird.
They pulled up in front of Emory's row house. It was a standard two story home connected to fifteen others, in a neighborhood that was run down and sullen looking.
Lula parked one house over and turned off the Firebird. "How'd you catch this guy last time?"
"I have no idea."
Lula looked at her. "You have no idea how you caught this guy?"
"The details are a little hazy."
"Huh."
"Why don't we just go up to the house? You go to the back door in case he runs."
Lula nodded, and they both got out of the car and headed for the house. Lula disappeared around back, and Steph went to the front door and knocked.
There was no answer.
A minute later, Lula opened the door.
"Lula! What the hell?"
"Turns out the back door was…uh…open. So I came on in. This dumb Emory guy is passed out cold, layin on the floor in his drawers."
"Uggh. Okay, let's drag him out."
Between the two, they managed to drag Emory to the Firebird, shoving and poking limbs in order to make him fit into the back seat. Ten minutes into the drive to the station, Emory managed to rouse himself.
He took one look at Steph in the passenger seat, and started yelling. "You! You bitch! You're crazy. You held a gun to my head last time I missed a court date."
"I did?"
Lula slammed on her brakes and pulled over. "You always tell me no guns. Now I hear you're going around threatenin' to shoot people. Why don't I get to do that? The one day I'm not with you…"
"Lula!" Steph yelled, cutting her off. "I didn't hold a gun to anyone's head."
"Yes you did!" Emory said.
"Are you sure?" Steph asked, turning around to face him.
Lula mumbled something and leaned over. She grabbed Steph's handbag from the floorboard, and pulled out a gun.
"Was this the gun?" she asked, pointing it toward Emory.
Emory yelped and leaned as far back into the small backseat as he could. "Get that thing out of my face! You're both crazy!"
"Was this the gun or not?"
"Yes! A glock with a dark handle. That's definitely the gun. Now get it away from my head!"
"Well calm down, you're givin me a headache, all that yammering," Lula said, dropping the glock back into Steph's handbag. She turned to look at Steph. "Didn't hold a gun to anyone's head, huh? I think you're holding out on me. I think you just don't want your partner to be helping you no more."
"Like I said, the details are hazy."
"Huh."
"Lula, that was the day after I moved out of Ranger's house. I don't even remember getting out of bed. I wasn't trying to ignore you, I promise."
Lula wrinkled up her nose. "Well, I'll let it slide this time, seeing as how distraught and all you were. But the next time I hear about you pointing a gun at someone…" Lula put the car back in gear, and pulled into traffic. A minute later, Steph was pulling Emory out of the car and shoving him toward the police station.
"Are you going to wait for me?" she asked Lula, leaning into the open window.
"You know, I want to say yes, but…"
"Tank's inside."
"He is?" she said, craning her neck to look around. "Where?"
"That's his truck, right?" Steph said, pointing to a huge SUV with blacked out windows. It belonged to one of the Merry Men at least. "I'll bet if you wait, he'll come out and talk to you. Maybe he can take you to lunch."
Lula nodded and Steph headed inside with Emory. Tank was standing right inside the door.
"Boy, I'm glad to see you," she said.
Tank raised an eyebrow.
"Lula's waiting for me outside. If you go out before I do, she's going to take off. The only reason she's waiting is cause she's hoping you'll take her to lunch."
Tank grinned. "I could go for lunch."
Steph firmly blocked out the sexual suggestion in his tone, and turned her attention back to Emory. He was sulking. The second the desk sergeant appeared, he started hollering.
"This bitch tried to kill me! I got rights, you know. She almost blew my head off."
Steph stuck a toe in the back of his knee, causing Emory to lurch into the desk in front of him. "The gun wasn't even loaded, you idiot."
Tank's booming laughter rang out. He leaned forward and kissed Steph on the cheek. "Good to have you back, Bombshell."
…
Steph heard the phone ring as she struggled to unlock her door and balance the sack of groceries she had bought with Emory's capture fee.
"I'm coming," she yelled into the door.
She shook her head at the ridiculousness of her words. "No one can hear you, dumb ass," she mumbled to herself.
Finally, she got the door open and lunged for the phone a second after the recorder picked up.
An unfamiliar voice floated up through the machine.
"Hello Stephanie, this is Rachel Martine, Julie's mother…
Steph frowned, curious, and picked up the phone.
"Hi Rachel, sorry I was just coming inside when I heard the phone ring."
"Oh, hello Stephanie. How are you?"
"I'm good, how are you?" she asked, her manners forcing her to make small talk, in spite of her confusion over Rachel calling her.
"I'm good." Rachel paused for a minute. "I know this is awkward, and I'm sorry for that. I tried reaching Carlos, but Tank tells me he's off somewhere at the moment."
"Yes," Steph said. "He should be back in the next couple weeks, it looks like."
"Well, the reason I'm calling is that I wanted to talk to him about the two of you taking Julie for the rest of the school year."
Steph didn't say anything for a moment, trying to wrap her mind around what Rachel was saying. "What?"
"Well, Julie is having a lot of problems in school. Her grades are down, she's getting into fights, she's hanging out with the wrong kids…"
Rachel trailed off and Steph nodded, forgetting that Rachel couldn't see her.
"I was going have her transfer schools," Rachel continued, "but I thought maybe it would be better if maybe she tried to go to school up there."
"Rachel, I don't…"
"I know I'm asking a lot, and I wouldn't if I didn't have to. Ron and I have been talking about this for a while. Julie had similar problems last school year, but she did so well for a while when she got back from Trenton this fall, that I thought we were past all that. She spent weeks talking about you and Carlos and how much she liked living with you guys. The school counselor thinks that maybe this whole thing has something to do with her kidnapping. You went through the same thing with Scrog, and the counselor thinks maybe that's why she relates so well to you. She seems to listen to you better than anyone else."
Stephanie didn't respond. She knew she should say no, should explain that she and Ranger weren't together, and didn't live together. But she also knew from her emails with Julie how miserable the little girl was. And she was also sure that Ranger, if he were here and knew how much trouble Julie was getting into, having a shockingly delinquent youth himself, wouldn't hesitate to let her move up here.
"When would this need to happen?" she finally asked Rachel.
"We were thinking between Christmas and New Year's, so she could start the new semester up there."
Stephanie sighed. That was only a week away. "Can I talk to Julie?"
"Sure, hang on."
A minute later, Julie's voice came on the line, with none of the usual cheerfulness the girl exuded.
"Hi, Steph."
"Hey, Julie. What's going on with you?"
The little girl sighed. "I don't know. The counselor at school says I'm projecting violence from when I was kidnapped."
Steph laughed. "Projecting violence, huh?"
"Yeah. A couple boys were mean to this little girl who's kind of weird, so I beat them up. I got into a lot of trouble."
Steph tried not to smile.
"And then some girls were mean to me," Julie continued, "so I beat them up. Then I had that stupid in-school suspension for two weeks. It was terrible. And Mom and Dad are mad at me for getting in trouble at school, so everyone's fighting…"
Julie trailed off and Steph could hear the tears she was trying to hide.
"Can I come live you and Daddy, Steph? Please? I promise I'll be good."
Steph's heart broke at Julie's words. She couldn't even help what came out of her mouth next. "I think so, Julie. But I need to call Tank and see if he can get a hold of your dad first. But you need to understand something. You're father and I don't live together. He's out of town right now, so if you come up, you can stay with me until he gets home, and then you can stay with him. But we won't all three live together, okay?"
Julie gave a shaky 'okay.'
"Let me talk to you mom again, okay?"
"Okay. Thanks Stephanie."
A moment later Rachel came back on the line.
"I need to call Tank and see if he can get a hold of Ranger before I give you a definite answer. But I think it'll be fine," Steph said.
"Okay. Please let me know as soon as you can."
Steph agreed and hung up the phone. She stared at it for a minute before she remembered the bag of groceries at her feet. She put them away and fed Rex one of the grapes she had bought.
Then she sank onto the couch, staring at her cell phone. She needed to call Tank, but she had no idea how to go about having this conversation. Ugh. Finally, the tears she had heard in Julie's voice forced her to get over her nerves enough to dial.
"Hey Bombshell, what's up?"
"Um, hi Tank. Um, listen, I have kind of an odd situation here."
"You need help with a skip?"
"Nope. For once, it's even weirder than that." Steph gave an awkward laugh and took a deep breath. "Rachel just called me."
"Rachel, as in Ranger's ex-wife, Rachel?"
"One and only. Seems that Julie is getting herself into all sorts of trouble down there. So Rachel, apparently unaware of our little situation, wants Julie to move back to Trenton with Ranger and I before school restarts in January."
Tank didn't say anything for a minute. When he spoke, the confusion was evident. "She wants you and Ranger to take custody of Julie."
"For the rest of the school year."
"Uh…"
Stephanie smiled. It was rare the Merry Men were at a loss for words. They never spoke, but it was rarely because they were so confused they didn't know how to respond.
"I know you can't get a hold of Ranger," Steph said, when it sounded like Tank wasn't going to continue. "But I figured you would know better than anyone how he would respond."
"How much trouble is she in?"
Steph recounted what Julie had told her.
"Yeah, she needs out of there. Ranger would let her come."
"That's what I thought too. I was thinking maybe I could get Julie and stay with her until Ranger gets back, and then let him take over at that point."
"You don't have to do that, Bomber. Julie's not your responsibility. She could stay with Ranger's mom, or Celia until he gets home."
"I know. But they're in Newark, and she needs to be in Trenton schools. There's no point in enrolling her only to move her a week later. And I don't mind. We did just fine that week I was alone with her. And with her in school, it'll be even easier. She'll be in the same class as Angie, and she can stay here with me."
"It's great of you to do this, Bombshell, but there's no point in you two being cramped into your little apartment. Not to mention it's un-secured. Why don't you both stay at Ranger's house, so she'll have her room."
Steph hesitated. It was one thing to watch Ranger's daughter for a week or so. It was something else entirely to move herself into his house, when he very vocally didn't want her there. "No. We can stay here. I don't want to stay in his house without his permission."
Tank sighed. "You two can't stay in your apartment, Steph. We'd have to do round-the-clock surveillance, and we don't have the manpower at the moment."
"No you wouldn't. There's absolutely no threat. I haven't had a stalker in months!"
"Stephanie, this is Ranger's daughter we're talking about. She's not staying in an un-secured location for an indefinite period of time. Celia's house has an extensive alarm system that we monitor. She can stay there, or at Ranger's house."
"That's not fair, Tank. She wants to be with me, not Celia. Celia has four kids. She's not going to get the attention she needs there, and she'll have to switch schools when Ranger gets home."
"Then stay with her at Ranger's house."
She knew from Tank's smug voice that she had lost. And she really did want Julie with her. She couldn't even really articulate why – she just felt a connection to Julie, and knew she needed to do this.
"Fine. We'll go live in the Batcave."
Tank chuckled. "Let me know when you're going to meet Rachel. I'll go with you and make sure you both have everything you need."
…
Thursday, December 29th…
Four days after Christmas, Tank was driving Steph to Philadelphia, her bags in the back. She hadn't brought much. Just make-up, shower stuff, and a few days worth of clothes.
"Her flight gets into Philly at 2:00. Looks like we'll be a bit early," Tank said.
"That's fine."
"You get everything with the school arranged?"
"Yeah. It's a good thing I know the principal. It took some convincing, since I'm not Julie's legal guardian. Mom went with me and handled it. I just need to bring her birth certificate on Monday."
"I'm glad you handled that. I wouldn't have any idea what to do."
Steph grinned. A Merry Man not in control. It was cute.
"Lula is excited to have Julie back in town," Tank said. "Maybe she can come and help you out some."
Steph smiled, but didn't reply. She wasn't sure how much help Lula would be when it came to parenting, but she'd be grateful for the company.
"Amaya was over there yesterday. She cleaned up some, and put some dinners in the freezer for you guys."
Stephanie looked over at him, surprised. He was being talkative. Must be nervous about this whole thing. God knew Steph was. She hadn't been able to control the butterflies in her stomach for days.
"I talked to Ranger this morning," he said. "He's about got that wrapped up. Should be back in Washington by Monday. They sometimes keep him a day or two. So you and Julie won't be alone long."
Steph nodded. "Did you tell him?"
"No. We only had a minute, and a bad connection. Besides, I don't want him distracted. I'll let him know when he gets back."
Steph leaned back in her seat, relieved. She was pretty sure she was making the right choice. But the less time she had to worry about Ranger's return and subsequent reaction, the better. It was Thursday now. Only four days till Ranger got back. Maybe 5 or 6 if things in Washington went poorly. She could handle that.
It really had been a mess to get Julie enrolled in the 6th grade at Dunn Middle School. Principle Watkins, who, as a much younger man had taught Steph's math class, had been hesitant to enroll Julie without a family member present.
He had finally called Julie's school in Miami, and it was only after the stories matched up that he consented. Luckily, the Principal down there didn't go into detail about Julie's disciplinary problems. Steph was glad. She hoped this offered Julie the fresh start she needed.
She had told her family at Christmas about Julie moving back. Her mom had just smiled, nodded and offered her help.
Valerie had morphed in mom-mode. "Oh good. I carpool with Nancy Sweirz. We'll grab Julie too. Maybe you can take all the girls Monday…"
"Valerie! I can't carpool."
"Why not?"
"Because no one can know where Julie lives."
"Oh. Well, then, can you drive my girls?"
Steph sighed. The joys of children. "I'm only taking care of Julie for a week or so. If I drop your girls off in the mornings, will you take Julie after school for me that first week?"
Valerie nodded. "What's going to happen when Carlos gets back?"
Steph had shrugged. "Then I go home. She's his kid."
And that was the crux of her worry. As Tank ate up the miles down Route 1, and then onto I-95, her stomach got tighter and tighter. She was making decisions for Ranger, changing his life without his permission. He was not a man who took that well.
Steph watched the miles count down on the exit signs. As they passed exit number 13, her breath started to come in gasps. They took the long ramp for exit 12. Her hands started shaking. Finally, Tank signaled and veered left on 12A towards the airport. They wound around, and all too soon, came to a stop before the arrivals terminal.
…
So…what do you think?? Please, please, please review! Anything you'd like to see happen? Any questions or comments?
