How about those showers? The guys know how to make the mundane fun, don't they? I know it sounds cruel what I'm about to reveal about Val. In the story, there will be some good come from it later on. A guest had a good idea again for the job situation. Thank you for the idea. Might know where I'll go with that now too. Toddlers are funny, so I decided to take the story into the future a little so that you could get a glimpse into life with the Bean. Happy reading and thanks for the reviews!

Regarding that Kentucky crack, my husband is from PA and moved to the south and he makes the incest crack all the time. He says bluegrass music is romantic bang on your favorite cousin tunes. I know, he's sick!

Previously,

She started laughing hysterically all of a sudden and looked up. "Maybe if I move to Kentucky or somewhere like that it won't be as bad when people find out about us." What? I was starting get frustrated and a little scared she was acting so weird.

I said, "Val, just tell me what the hell has happened already. You're not making sense."

Chapter 21

Stephanie's POV

Valerie let out a great big sob and looked up at me as tears began rolling down her face. "Angie's father is..is Joe Morelli."

Holy shit! This was way over the 'Burg. This was real 'Peyton Place' stuff. I was still stunned speechless and hadn't had a chance to recover when she started talking again.

"It was during that time when Steve was on that trip for a couple weeks and I came and stayed here for a month. We hadn't been married long and I guess we were trying to adjust. We were fighting and not getting along that well during that time. That's why I decided to stay longer. We hadn't had sex for at least two weeks before I left. I was in a club with some friends and ran into Joe. I remembered him and he was so much hotter than high school and I had crushed on him like every other girl during those years. I was tipsy and he came on to me and I went home with him that night. The timing was..shit..I just know. Angie even looks like him. My marriage got better and I had another baby and I just buried it."

Oh, jeez. I really, really wish I hadn't heard this. This was a total bleach the ears moment. What it is with the women in this family and the deep dark secrets? She's opening her mouth again. Fuck, she's not done.

"Dad is leaving Mom. He said that he couldn't take her judging you and mistreating you. He said that she didn't love him and never really did." She sounded defeated and then a minute later laughed hysterically again and I instinctively jumped back a little. "Why didn't all of it just stay buried? You know her. If she knew what I did, she would make me carry a sign with big bold letters saying 'The Incestful Daughter!' and parade me all over Chambersburg." I kind of cringed at those words and the picture and Bean did a flip-flop and kicked me hard.

She mumbled, "He talked about the rest. They didn't know I was there. I was supposed to be at work and came in while they were arguing."

I finally said, "Val, I am so sorry. I just don't know what to say to make you feel better."

She slowly got up and started toward me with a sick smile on her face. She said, "Daddy loves you more because you're his and he just dug all this bad up recently because of you and he's leaving Mommy because of you! This is all your doing. All..your..fault! She suddenly reached out and slapped me in the face. I was still recovering from the slap when she growled and reached for me again. Cal was there in an instant and grabbed her and hauled her to the door and pitched her out.

I stood there in shock watching and not believing the whole surreal scene. Cal walked back in the living room and before he could say a word, a pain hit me like none other that I had ever felt before. It took my breath and bent me over. He ran over and put his arm around me. "Steph? What's going on? Do I need to call somebody?"

Another sharp pain hit me and I cried out. I said weakly, "Maybe it's just the excitement of that confrontation. Maybe just help me to my room."

He reached down and scooped me up into his arms carrying me bridal style and groaned. I had to giggle a little through the pain. "I know I have to be heavy, Cal. You sure you want to try to take the stairs with me."

He said, "I'm fine, doll. Just an old injury lettin' me know it's still there. Let me get you up the stairs and I'll call Bob and Ranger."

He started up the stairs and another really sharp pain hit me and I whimpered. He had just made it to the top of the stairs when I felt a gush and my pants felt damp. I looked down and then up at Cal. He looked really worried.

"Steph, you just soaked us both."

I said a little abashed, "If it makes you feel any better, I didn't pee on us. I think my water just broke."

I watched as his eyes rolled back in his head and his skin turned pale and beads of sweat formed on his forehead and his knees buckled and both of us started going down. In seconds he was laying flat on the floor out cold and I was just sitting there on his stomach. I was trying to move off him when another very sharp pain came and paralyzed me. I started to panic and began fanning Cal with my hands. I said frantically, "Cal, I need you. This is not the time to be showing me your sensitive side."

He groaned and opened his eyes in about a minute and I looked down into his face. "Cal, we have to hurry and change clothes. I need your help. I think we need to get to the hospital and quick." He just nodded and set me on the floor and then slowly got up wobbling a little and shook his head a couple times. He finally scooped me up again and ran with me to my room.

"Tell me where your clean clothes are. I'll grab them for you and run and change mine." He pulled out his phone and talked while taking orders from me and digging in drawers and the closet and pitching stuff at me. He was still talking as he ran to the apartment. He was back in less than five minutes still pulling a clean shirt down over his head and trying to tie his boot laces. I told him not to worry about a bag. I knew that Ella would bring me one. He raced me back out the door and down the stairs in less than five more minutes.

On the way to the hospital the pains came closer and were even more intense and I was starting to get overwhelmed with the need to push. Cal was screaming down the road in the SUV.

I squealed and reached over and grabbed his arm and squeezed and he was grimacing and his eyes were like saucers when he looked over at me. I said, "Cal, I'm going to have to push."

He looked frantic and turned back to the road and slammed the pedal down to the floor. He gulped and said calmly, "No, no. You can hold it. We're almost there."

I grit my teeth and snapped out, "I couldn't even hold a fart in at half this pregnant, Cal! How am I supposed to keep this baby from coming out. He wants to come now!"

"No. No he doesn't. You just think he wants to. He wants to wait till we get to the hospital." I could tell he was really scared like me, but was trying to sound calm.

Another really bad pain hit me. "I'm pushing."

"Shit!"

I heard a siren and Cal just looked in the rearview mirror and kept his foot to the floor. I was screaming now and I was pushing. I couldn't help it. It seemed like almost right away there was another siren and Cal was weaving in and out of traffic and cursing an insane blue streak. I even think I heard a couple new dirty words through my screaming and groaning and whimpering. Finally, he squealed into the RWJ Hospital lot and up to the emergency room doors. The sirens seem to still be closing in.

Cal jumped out and ran inside the emergency room doors and four cops jumped out of cruisers and were yelling at him with guns drawn. Another pain hit me and this time it almost took me into the floorboard of the truck. I felt him. He was coming. The door was swung wide and a cop I didn't know was aiming a gun at me. I growled, "I'm having a baby here, smokey the asshat! Help me you fucking blue meanie!"

He started yelling and Cal was back now and grabbed me out. I was screaming and wiggling in his arms. The next thing I knew I was being dropped on a gurney and rolling away. Hands were all over me and my clothes were being removed and I was pushing again.

Ranger's POV

Cal called and left a message that he was taking Stephanie to the hospital. He didn't say why. The baby wasn't due yet. What the hell happened? Bobby was upset because he had been planning to stay in the apartment the last month of Steph's pregnancy. He had been studying to take the MCAT for med school and was due to take it the next week. He was driving the SUV and we were speeding to the hospital when we heard chatter on the police scanner about an SUV doing about ninety that wouldn't stop on Whitehorse Hamilton and that's the road that the RWJ hospital is off of. We both looked at each other and Bobby pressed the gas pedal harder.

We got there about five minutes later and ran past the black and whites with their lights still on and into the ER doors and looked around. As I passed a couple of the cops I heard one say something about the pregnant crazy haired lady in the SUV having a really nasty mouth and he didn't deserve to be called no names. Cal was sitting there with his head in his hands. I ran over to him. "Where is she, Cal?"

He looked up at me with concern in his eyes. The guy looked like shit. He said, "They took her. The baby was coming out, man. We almost didn't make it."

I ran to the desk and asked where Stephanie had been taken. The nurse said, "Sir, we don't know yet if she's still down here or if they took up her up to the maternity floor. Are you a relative?"

I barked, "I'm her husband and I want to know where she is now. Please."

She picked up the phone and spoke and waited and then spoke again and told whoever was on the line that I was there.

She said, "She didn't make it upstairs. A nurse is coming to get you." I nodded and thanked her.

I waited about five impatient minutes and then a nurse came. She said, "You're Mrs. Manoso's husband?" I nodded.

She smiled. "You have a new baby boy. He was very impatient. We barely had time to get her behind a curtain and he arrived."

I let the breath out that I didn't realize that I'd been holding. "Are they both alright?"

"They seem to be. Her doctor and a pediatrician have been called. We're waiting now. The ER doctor just finished the delivery and she's just resting before we take her up to the maternity ward."

We walked into the room and Stephanie was laying on a gurney with a sheet over her and on top of the sheet was a tiny bundle wrapped in a blanket. When I stood over them, two sets of eyes looked at me. The little one had dark blue eyes with a damp sprinkling of dark hair and he was a mess. He hadn't been cleaned up yet. He was a little darker than Steph and he was beautiful.

Stephanie gave me a weak smile and said, "You missed all the fun, Dad. Is Cal okay?"

I smiled back at her. "He looks pretty traumatized. How are you?"

"I'm okay. I think I must be pretty lucky. All I heard about was the horror stories of the twenty-four hour deliveries with all the pain. I felt the pain alright. I wouldn't want to go through it for that length of time. My biggest ordeal was trying to keep him from coming out before we got here. It was scary."

"Babe, he wasn't due yet. Did something happen? Did you have an accident or something?"

She snorted, "Oh yeah. The accident was my sister, Val."

A doctor came in and a nurse followed with a portable bassinet. He took the baby and told us that they were taking him up to neonatal to do all of his tests and he would be cleaned up and likely finished by the time she got settled on the floor.

Her doctor finally arrived and checked her and conferred with the ER doctor and deemed Stephanie completely delivered and in good shape and she was taken up to a private room on the maternity ward. She was allowed to shower and a nurse tended her after.

I had sent poor Cal back to the house. He had done good for Steph and Bean. While she was being cared for I had called Luis and Ella and had them calling my family and hers and Rangeman with the news.

When she got settled in bed, I kicked off my boots and got in bed with her and pulled her to me. I said, "Tell me about Val. What happened"

She groaned. "I don't even want to repeat what she told me."

I made a face, "It's that bad?"

She said, "Oh, it's bad. More fallout from my mother and her dalliance with Morelli. There are two more victims in the mess now. Val's oldest daughter and Joe Morelli. The whole thing just made me sick."

I couldn't think what she could possibly be getting ready to tell me. How could the daughter and Joe be victims?

"I don't understand, Babe."

She sighed. "Carlos, Val's daughter is Joe Morelli's. It happened while she was having marital problems and was here visiting for a month. They were drunk and ran into each other in a club and they had unprotected sex I'm guessing. When I think about it, Angie does look like him. Her husband was lighter in coloring and had light color hair. Angie has the darker Italian skin and look. Val was so upset she blamed me and tried to attack me. I think that's how this happened." She waved her hand around.

I whispered, "Christ! What a fucking mess."

We heard a gasp come from the doorway and looked up. We watched as Stephanie's poor Dad choked on a sob and turned and walked away.

Stephanie said, "Oh Lord, Carlos. Please go look after him. He's going to blame himself. Make sure he doesn't do anything... Like kill somebody or himself."

I nodded and got up and pulled my boots on. What a dysfunctional mess this family was. The only truly innocent one was Stephanie. She had struggled her whole life to fit in and be accepted for the person she was. She was brave and vibrant, special and loving and invisible in that family. Except for when she didn't behave the way her mother expected. It sounded more and more like most of the attention she got as a child and teenager was of the negative kind. No one really knew her or appreciated her except for maybe her grandmother.

The parents' mistakes just kept multiplying. The person I was the most pissed off at was Helen Plum. That loathsome woman's shit had now affected me and mine more than once. What I really wanted to do was make the hateful bitch disappear. Realistically, I would just have to settle for ripping her ice cold ass again. That whole mess should have been revealed to both daughters when they became adults. Valerie should have had the choice to have a sibling relationship with Joe Morelli, not this God awful debacle. This wasn't Joe Morelli's fault. If he knew about all of this, he would likely be sick too. The sister Val, is going to be the loose cannon in this. She just might be as nutty or maybe crazier than her mother. If word of this gets out, it'll be by her lips. And, you bet I'm going to get the details about her attacking Stephanie in our house. That shit won't be happening again.

I caught up with Frank going out the doors of the hospital and took his arm and asked him to come with me. We went to the cafeteria and got something to drink and sat in a quiet corner. The man didn't say anything and looked terrible. I said, "Frank, Stephanie and Bean are fine. I don't think your daughter Valerie is fine right now. What do you know about today?"

A tear escaped out of the corner of one of the man's eyes. He said, "I left Helen today. Naturally, we had words before. I guess Valerie must have overheard. I didn't even know that she was there. I planned to talk to Helen after Val went to work. I would have never wanted her to find out the way she did. I'm sure she was devastated."

I said, "I don't know the whole story yet. Apparently she showed up at our house upset and she attacked Stephanie. Did you hear what Stephanie said about Joe Morelli and the daughter, Angie?"

He put his head in his hands and sobbed.

"Frank, it's not directly your fault. I see you as a victim in this too. You and Helen both could have avoided exposing other victims by being honest with both girls when they became adults. Val should have had the choice to have a sibling type relationship with Joe, not this. It was irresponsible of both of you to try and bury Helen's mistake. However, what's done is done. You took on the responsibility of being a father to Valerie. She needs you right now and she may even need professional help. You need to go talk to her and Helen. I'll wait to deal with the fact that Valerie attacked my wife and caused her to go into labor early, but I will be dealing with her."

He looked up at me and started to speak and then just nodded. I walked him out and told him that whatever Valerie needed I would support her and pay for the help. He thanked me and promised to call me and come to the hospital the next day.

I went to the nursery to check on my son and found him sleeping and found my wife the same in her room. I kicked off my boots again and crawled in next to her and pulled her to me. Stephanie wiggled closer. She fit me perfect. The woman I loved and adored, my lover. All that mattered to me right this minute was that she was alright and my son was born healthy. I sighed and closed my eyes.

TBC -

I wrote a little ode to poor Cal. Did you guys get it. Know you did. Ha!