Halloween Special
A/N
Hey guys sorry for the late Halloween story. I just found the time to write a short one for this year.
"I do not understand the point of this" said Gabby for the fourth time
"well it is tradition; you go around and get candy"
"I never done this before" I nod.
The more I found out about the people who adopted her, the more I regret that choice. Would it have been so bad to keep her? Maybe not but this is not the time for regret.
"here baby we can all match" said Lula picking out a costume
"we can be kick ass Charlie Angels"
"I do not think that would be a good"
"we can all match" asked Gabby, she smiled at me. I give up, they win
"yes, we can all match"
she smiles and we buy the costumes and leave.
"okay we got everything we need to go trick or treating"
I know she has just been going through the motions,
"no one else will be this at your school party"
she nods. Luckily her school has an advance class but even the advance class is sometimes not enough. Her teacher is very good and Gabriella is his model student. Lula wants to do some more shopping but we decide to head home. We walk to my car and my heart drop, oh lord, why me! why every holiday! Diesel is leaning against my car. He smiles at me, then his face drops into a frown. He is staring at Gabby
"what are you doing here?" I ask walking up to him.
He is still looking at Gabby
"may we help you?"
he blinks and gives me a smile
"it is tradition for us to see each other during the holidays, who am I to break it up"
he gives me a smirk
"I was going to be in your apartment but you moved"
well there is another high light of living at Rangeman.
"I have nothing weird happening"
he nods
"well not yet"
I roll my eyes.
"who is he?" asked Gabby
"hello Gabriella" he says and he gets down on his knees
"how did you know her name?" I ask
"are you excited for Halloween?" he ignores me
"not really"
"well free candy is free candy, are you going to be a witch?" he asks
"no we are going to be Charlie's Angels"
he laughs
"well that sounds more fun, but be careful, we wear costumes to blend in with the monsters who walk the earth on Halloween"
she looks confused
"I thought it was to beg for candy"
"well you are lucky I am here to educate you"
he smiles
"yeah no we are going home"
"so what's up with you are Ranger? Living together?"
I frown
"none of your business"
I honestly have no idea. Ranger and I are co parenting Gabby but our relationship has not change.
"I will see you later" he leaves with that
"he is a weirdo" said Gabby, I laugh
"he is"
I help her into the car and we head back to Rangeman. I park and we head up to out apartment
"there is my baby"
"Uncle Lester!"
she runs up and hugs him
"did you get your costume?" he asks her
"yes"
I open our apartment as they chit chat. I put the costumes in my room. I sigh and call Ranger
"Babe" he says answering
"do you remember Diesel?"
"yes, what of him?"
"well he was leaning against my car after we were shopping but that is not what is bothering me"
"what's wrong?"
"he was smiling until he saw Gabby and then he frowned and stared at her"
he is silent
"could be nothing"
"it was just odd"
"don't worry about him, I will take care of it"
"you're not going to off him, are you?"
"Babe" he ends the call.
"can you tell me about witches" she asks him
"I have something even better planned, we are going to watch some movies I bought, there are witches in the Wizard of Oz"
I sit on my couch next to them
"how about some snacks?" I ask as I join them for movies
Ranger
I almost slam my phone down. I hate that man; I respect what he does but he is dangerous. Tank comes in my office
"what's up?" he asks me
"I need to find someone"
I look at the files in front of me
"I think he can answer some questions"
"oh? You find Gabriella's father?"
I give him a glare
"I am not looking for him, he does not matter"
which is not true, Babe has not asked me to help her find him, I am not going to look for him just out of spite.
"this one is hard to find"
"who?"
"Diesel"
he nods
"I will let you know when we find him, Lester, Steph and Gabby are having a movie night"
I nod. He leaves with that. After a few hours of paper work, Tank texts me the address. I change my clothes into my regular bounty hunting clothes and head out. He is staying in Babe's old building. From what I gather, her place is hard to rent out because of its history. I place my hand on the knob and the door opens
"you knew I would come?" I say walking in
"of course"
he is standing in the empty apartment
"are you her father?"
he shakes his head
"no, my family was going to adopt her but things changed. We arranged a good family for her"
"why?"
"we wanted the best for her"
"is she like you?"
he shrugs
"she hasn't shown signs yet, her adoptive parents were supposed to report to us if she did"
"what is so special about her? This has nothing to do with Stephanie so it has to do with the father"
he nods "
of course, it is better for all that she doesn't know the father and the father doesn't know of her"
"why?"
"not even you will be able to help Stephanie keep the child"
I sigh
"you will not contact them ever again" I say to him "they are both under my protection"
"Gabriella will always be watched"
"and what a great job you did, the child was neglected, not given a chance to be a child"
"everything was done for a reason"
"which is?"
"the child is now under your care, be careful"
and he is gone with that. I leave as well. I take a breath and slams my hands on the wheel. Should I tell Babe, if I tell her, she will want to hunt down the father and Diesel to solve the puzzle. I go to their apartment and walk in
"Ranger" Gabriella runs up to me and I pick her up.
"movie night?" I ask her
"yup"
I sit on the couch with her and next to Babe.
"Learn anything?" she whispers to me after the movie begins
"Nothing important but he will leave you alone"
She nods
"Thanks"
Stephanie
I am in the car picking up Gabby from school. We are going directly to my moms until it is time for trick or treating. Ranger had some emergency situation come up last night and he will not be back until late tonight, so he cannot come with us. Lester, Hal and Tank had to go with him so it will just be us and my sister's family. Gabby climbs into the car
"hey how did it go?" I ask her
"it was fun! We craved pumpkins like I did with Uncle Tank so I was the best at it. Also, we had a lot of snacks"
I nod and pull away from the school
"Grandma is going to make pot roast tonight".
She is quiet the rest of the drive to the Burg. I park and she hops out of the car
"Grandmas! Grandpa!" she says running into the house.
I see my sister Valerie pulling up behind me. I give her a wave. My sister and I have not spoken since I got Gabriella. She, like my mother does not approve of my life choices. I walk into the house
"hey" I say to my dad who is sitting in his chair watching tv.
I hear Gabriella talking with my mom. She is cooking with Gabriella on her hip
"hi mom" I say
"hello" she says giving me a smile and goes back to speaking with Gabriella.
I hear Angie and Mary Alice entering the house
"you were that last year!" I hear Angie yell at her sister
"I am a horse every year"
"will you two stop fighting!" said Valerie
"you are being terrible examples for your little sister"
I have not heard Lisa, but I am assuming she is out there as well. Angie comes into the kitchen dressed up as a clown
"Hi Aunt Stephanie" she says sitting at the table.
"Hey how was school"
"boring" she replied putting her head down
"I get made fun of for having the weird sister"
I was the weird sister so I do not know that pain. Valerie and Lisa come into the kitchen
"hey mom" she says looking at Gabriella
"it is nice to meet you" she said to Gabriella and then looks to me
"how's motherhood treating you?" she asks
"so far so good"
I give her a smile. After some small talk Lula and Grandma Mazur come walking into kitchen
"there is my baby" Lula said taking Gabriella from my mom
"time to eat"
she goes to sit at the table and waits to be fed. My mother dishes out the food and we call gather at the table. As much as I love Ella's cooking, I missed my mother's food. Luckily the conversation is light and my father once again does not stab my grandmother, a Plum family success. I offer to help my mom with the dishes but she refuses. Valerie, Lula and I get the kids ready to go out
"I think it's cute you are matching, when Angie was a baby, I dressed up like her" said Valerie
"Lula picked out the costumes"
"We are going to match every Halloween"
We hear a knock on the door. Must be an early trick or treater. I open the door and come face to face with Morelli
"trick or treat cupcake" he smirks at me.
I push him and close the door
"what are you doing here?"
"you haven't been returning my calls, my mom heard that you were going to be here so here I am"
he smiled and then frowned
"I am so sorry for what happened, I can't possibly tell you how horrible I feel for what happened"
I sigh
"I know I shouldn't have snapped at you like that. I was blaming you instead of myself. I should have told you she has a food allergy"
he nods
"so I was hoping maybe some how you can forgive me"
I give him a smile
"I do forgive you; I haven't called you back because well, everything has been stressful, getting Gabby set up at school and well life"
he nods
"I understand your daughter will always come first"
he takes a step forward; I almost take one back. I feel guilt, the guilt I felt whenever I was with Ranger, when Morelli and I were on.
"thank you" I give him a smile
"Oh look it is Mr Fine ass Cop" said Lula opening the door and walking out
"we are going trick or treating now" I say to Morelli
"I can come with, carry the bags"
I am about to turn him down
"that would be a big help" said Valerie
"let's go"
we all head out. Morelli and I make small talk but I still have that nagging feeling in the back of my stomach. Ranger has made is extremely clear he will never settle down, no matter how much he is helping me with Gabby, I know he still feels that way. I should not feel any guilt about this. He is trying with Gabby but she is mainly just ignoring him and holding Lula's hand. I will have to talk to her about that another day. After collecting a ton of Candy, we decide to head back to moms' house.
"Here cupcake"
he hands me two large bags and picks up Gabriella
"I got you" he says to her.
She is too tired so she just lays her head on his shoulder and falls asleep. Lula gives me a look and I almost just take back my daughter but part of me doesn't want to. We make it back and I should have known! The universe does hate me, this is punishment for not going to church. I see Ranger leaning against my car with his arms crossed. He looks over and glares at Morelli
"okay this has been fun really, thank you for all the help"
I hand a bag to my sister and take my daughter
"I will see you later"
he gives me a smile, glares at Ranger and then leaves. I turn and see Ranger still glaring. He looks at me for a minute and then goes into his car. This is not going to be a fun night. I put Gabby in the car and then her candy
"I will call you later Valerie and see you tomorrow Lula"
"Girl" said Lula "don't take any crap from him, you did nothing wrong"
I give her a smile
"you know me"
I climb into my car and drive. Lula is right, I did nothing wrong but I still feel the guilt. He walked around the block with us, he carried bags and Gabriella, everyone at Rangeman does that. I park in my space. Before I can get out. Ranger gets Gabriella and takes her bags. After an extremely awkward elevator ride, we are in my apartment and he puts her down in her bed.
"She was sad you couldn't come with us" I say getting a glass of water, hoping it would magically turn to wine
"if I could have, I would have gone with you" he says leaning against my counter
"how was work?" I ask
"what was he doing there?"
right to the point
"he heard I would be there and came to apologized again"
he raised an eyebrow
"and it worked"
"you know it wasn't his fault"
"I never said it was his fault"
"he offered to help and before I could say no, my sister agreed to it"
I took a sip of my water. He is just looking at me for a few minutes and the nods. I feel a weight being lifted off of me.
"now how about you help me sneak some of her candy?"
he gives me a smile and shakes his head
"no that is all yours for the stealing"
I smile "you sure?"
he nods
"how about a movie? A scary one since she is asleep"
he looks hesitant
"please? I do not want to watch on my own"
he nods and goes into the living room. I smile and put the glass in the sink. I pop the movie into the DVD player. I sit a on the other side of the couch until Ranger pulls me into his sides. I cuddle up with him and watch the movie. Happy Halloween to me.