This chapter is a response to two different challenges from Margaret. The first one was a prompt, which I put in bold. The second challenge came with a picture she emailed to me. I pinned it to my board /spiffytgm/plum-diamond. It's the one with the vacuum cleaner. I hope you enjoy!

Any characters you recognize belong to JE. Except for Sarah. She came straight from Roscommon's story: A Second Chance. Ever since I started reading that story, Val's fourth daughter (who is still unnamed) has been Sarah.

Sometimes life moves in mysterious ways. I had finally given up on my relationship with Morelli. We were permanently in the "off" phase of our never ending on again – off again relationship. This time it didn't feel like that switch was ever going to be flipped back on. Joe was all about his needs, and there was no way I was just going to magically become the stay at home wife and mother that he wants me to be. At the end, we didn't yell or scream, but we finally admitted that we weren't right for each other. It was a very grown up discussion, and I felt like it was a good one, even if it hurt.

That left one other man in my life. Ranger is the man of mystery. He's also Batman, the Wizard, my best friend, and occasionally, my lover. If I was being honest with myself, I would admit that I was also in love with him, but he doesn't do relationships, and I live in denial.

It was Sunday morning and I decided that I was thinking too deeply. What I really needed to do was forget about men and go back to sleep. Unfortunately, the pounding on my door told me that wasn't going to happen anytime soon. I went and opened the door to find my sister standing in the hallway with four very unhappy girls. Angie looked like she would rather be at the library, MA looked like she wanted to go back to bed, and Lisa and baby Sarah were too young for me to even begin to figure out what they wanted. Val herded the girls into the living room and gave me a look of desperation. "Please can you watch the girls for a couple of hours?"

I was instantly afraid. Me watch four girls? Had she lost her mind? "Val, wouldn't mom be better for this sort of thing?"

Val shook her head. "Mom's already half plastered. I think she's still drunk from yesterday. When we got there, she was crossing herself and muttering something about vampires. Please can you do this for me?"

Everyone knows that I'm a sucker for the word please. I blew out a sigh. "How long?"

She looked relieved. "Two hours. Three tops. Albert's mother was just taken to the hospital, and I can't bring the girls to the emergency room with us." Crap. There's no way she's going to be back in two hours. There's an unwritten law somewhere that says that an ER visit lasts a minimum of six hours. She handed the baby to Angie, and went into the hall to get Sarah's portable crib. While she was unfolding the contraption, I put some cartoons on the TV for Mary Alice and Lisa to watch. Once the crib was set up, she handed me a couple of bags. "There's cereal and milk in there for the girls, and diapers and stuff for Sarah. I can't thank you enough for this." She looked at the girls. "Be good for Aunt Stephanie and I'll be back later." She raced out the door, leaving me standing there.

Mary Alice looked at me over the couch. "I'm hungry."

I remembered the bag Val had just handed me. "Well, let's see what your mom packed us for breakfast, okay?"

I went into the kitchen to grab bowls and start coffee while the girls got themselves situated at my table. I put the bag on the table and pulled out two boxes of cereal. Mary Alice looked like she was about to mutiny. "There's no Mini Wheats here. Horses need wheat and oats, not fruit loops and Cocoa Puffs."

I thought about it. My coffeemaker finished brewing, and I needed to get in there and get myself a cup. An idea struck me. "Horses eat apples, right? I'm sure the fruit loops have apples in them!" Actually, I'm pretty sure fruit loops didn't even bear a passing resemblance to any fruit, but my argument worked. I got the girls to eat and peeked in Sarah's crib to make sure she didn't disappear, then I went to get some much needed coffee.

After breakfast, the girls went back to watching cartoons and I decided to clean my apartment a little. I was vacuuming my bedroom when the cleaner stopped working. I admit that I'm not the most domestic person in the world, so I stood there and looked at it for a few seconds. When that didn't seem to work, I tried pushing the power button a couple of times. Finally, I gave up and turned to go see how the girls were doing. I took about two steps when my vacuum cleaner just started back up on its own again. I went back to waging my epic battle against the dust bunnies under my bed. I was half under the bed when it stopped working again. Again, looking at it and hitting the power button did nothing for me. Once again, when I was about two steps away from it, it started back up. Stupid vacuum cleaner. This happened twice more before I finished the bedroom. I was pushing the vacuum out into the living room when I saw Mary Alice unplug the cord and giggle. "You little snot rocket!" The look of shock at being busted was priceless. I ran over to her and tickled her while she shrieked and laughed. Not wanting to be left out of the fun, Lisa jumped on the pile too. I tickled both girls until they were begging for mercy.

I figured that was all the cleaning I was going to get done, so I got the girls some paper and pencils so that they could draw. Lisa started humming something familiar. When I asked her what it was, she started singing.

"There are seven days, there are seven days, there are seven days in a week,

Someday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday."

Mary Alice interrupted her. "You're a dummy. There are seven days in a week, but Someday's not one of them." Lisa started crying at being called a dummy, and Sarah started crying because Lisa was crying. Angie yelled at Mary Alice for making Lisa cry, which got Mary Alice crying. Chaos was reigning in my apartment, and all I could do was sit on my couch, stunned. Someday's not one of them. Mary Alice was right.

The girls noticed my dazed expression and quieted down. Lisa crawled into my lap and turned her tear stained face towards me. "I'm sowwy, Aunt Stephanie."

I hugged her to me tightly and kissed the top of her head. "It's okay, baby." I couldn't stop the tears that were now falling from my own eyes. Mary Alice and Angie both came to sit next to me and apologize, too, Angie holding Sarah on her lap.

By the time Val came back for the girls that afternoon, they had gone back to playing, but I was exhausted. Val thanked me profusely while she herded the girls to the door. Apparently Albert's mom just had some acid reflux, and would be fine.

After I locked my door behind them, I flopped onto my bed in my thinking position. Mary Alice's words kept coming back to me. Someday's not one of them. I wanted to cry again. Was I fooling myself? Was a Someday with Ranger just a dream?

I was still laying on my bed hours later when I heard my locks tumble. I'm sure I was a wreck, but I couldn't bring myself to care. When the tingle got too intense to ignore, I looked at Ranger standing in the doorway. He walked in and sat on the bed next to me. "You okay, Babe?"

I shook my head as the tears started to gather. "No, I'm really not."

He looked me over from head to toe, probably trying to spot any injuries. "Wanna tell me about it?"

Again, I shook my head no.

He raised an eyebrow. "Please, Babe?"

"If I tell you, it'll be real."

"If you don't tell me, I can't fix it for you."

I took a shaky breath. "Val came over and asked me to watch the girls this morning. Lisa was singing the seven days song, you know the one?" at his nod, I kept going. "She kept saying someday instead of Sunday. Mary Alice yelled at her and told her that there was seven days in a week, but someday wasn't one of them."

He ran his hand down my hair. I started sobbing in earnest. "I want to believe in Someday, Ranger. I want it to be real, and I want it to be with you."

"Why?"

I decided to put it all out there. "Because I love you."

He picked me up from the bed and sat in my chair, settling me on his lap. He held me while my tears continued to fall. When I stopped crying, Ranger tipped my chin up to look in my eyes. "Babe, I've told you."

I looked away. "I know. Your life doesn't lend itself to relationships."

He pulled my chin back. "Listen, please?" I nodded, and he continued. "I did say that, and I meant it. What I didn't tell you is that all I want is our someday." He pulled on the chain around his neck. "Do you know what this is?"

"It's your dog tags."

"And you know I never take them off, right?" I nodded. "Go ahead and pull them out."

I slowly pulled the chain out from under his t-shirt. When I got to the end of the chain, I saw a diamond ring attached to the smaller loop of chain. "The first time we slept together, I knew that you were the woman I wanted to spend my life with, but I was in a bad place, emotionally. I bought that ring to remind myself of what I wanted. It was in my safe until the day you were thrown off the bridge." I shuddered at the memory. "That day, I took it out of the safe and put it on the chain. Every mission I've been on since then, this ring has come with me. Even though you didn't know about it, it was a part of you that I could keep with me always. Please don't give up on me when we're this close. I love you."

I was crying again, but this time they were happy tears. Ranger never lied to me. "Are you willing to be in a relationship with me?"

Ranger gave me his full 200 watt smile. "Babe, we're already in one. You're my someday, too."

That sounds good to me.