Baby Blue
Disclaimer these are Janet Evanovich's characters, and her world. I'm just playing with them. I'll put them all back where I found them, good as new...
Note:my very first attempt at Plum fan fiction. And I haven't written anything in 2 years. So be gentle. And I have no idea where this is going, either.Baby Blue
By UFOBet you never thought
that time would go so fast.
Bet you never thought
a memory would last.
Is it wrapped up in boxes
With your fashion crazies,
Packed all away with life's scars and grazes?
Hey baby blue,
I still remember you,
Still remember you
In my life.
Hey baby blue,
Where you running now,
Where you running now,
In your own life?
Going round
And round and round
In my little world.
Going round
And round and round
In my little world.
Every time I saw your face
there was magic in the air.
I see a sunny San Francisco morning-
baby you meet me there.
Sometimes I'm left wondering,
Sometimes it makes me so blue,
Let me take you down to Mexico
'Cause I'm still in love with you.
Every time I get to thinking,
Thinking of you
Under a sweet corrella.
Does it burn you too?
And if sometimes I wonder when,
When sleep don't come at night
I still move and I groove
and I jump and shout…
oh God I'm still in for the fight.
Hey baby blue,
I still remember you.
Don't leave the world behind,
leave the world,
leave the world behind
Solo
Going round
And round and round
In my little world.
Going round
And round and round
In my little world.
Hey baby blue,
I still remember you,
still remember you
in my life.
Hey baby blue
where you running now,
where you running now
in your own life?
Prologue
It had been a very long night. Another ultimatum from Morelli, a strained dinner with my parents, and then a distraction job with Ranger and company. Is it a bad sign when the high point of the evening involves a group of former Special Ops guys, a particularly seedy bar, a massive and uncooperative drunken red neck, a couple rounds of gunfire, and Batman?
I thought so.
All I wanted to do was to take a shower and crawl into bed for the next three months. No such luck. We were still in the parking lot when my cell phone rang. I stared blankly at the number showing up on the LCD. What in the hell? Why would she be calling?
Cautiously, as if I was afraid the phone might develop fangs and chomp my ear off, I flipped it open and answered it. "Hello?"
"Steph?" gushed a familiar voice.
"Haley?"
"Oh thank god! I need help, cus. Major help. I'm at the Trenton airport."
"WHAT?! What are you doing there?! What happened? Are you ok? Hurt?"
The Merry Men were staring. Ranger lifted an eyebrow. "Problem babe?" I nodded.
"Can you come get me?" Haley's voice caught. She was about to cry. Oh shit. Bad things.
"Um... Ranger, could we swing by the airport. It's an emergency."
He looked at me blankly, but if it had been anyone else I would have said he was curious. "No problem."
"Haley? Still there?" Sniffling. "Ok. Just sit still. Deep breaths. What gate are you at?" She took a moment, finally locating a sign. Ranger had turned and we were heading toward the airport. I hung up, telling her that if anything happened or anyone came towards her she should call me again. Shit!
"What's up, Bombshell?" Tank asked.
"My baby cousin is at the airport. She is supposed to be in Illinois."
"Quite a side trip," Ranger commented. I rolled my eyes. He had no idea.
"She's getting ready for her wedding next month." I sighed. "This isn't her! Haley just turned twenty, she's never left home, she's never done something like this..." I sighed. I just hope she isn't pregnant.
Tank choked on a laugh. Guess I wasn't so quiet about that last bit.
"Cold feet?" he suggested.
:"No. This is the last place she'd go- she hates Jersey. Cold feet she would have gone to her dad's place..." Hell, Haley wouldn't run here period. New Jersey was the antithesis of everything Haley Thorne knew and loved. Haley's mother had moved to Illinois when Haley was a baby, and they only came back for the infrequent family reunions. From what she'd told me, they lived a quiet life revolving around school, the country club, and her stepfather's job as chief of police in the small town. Haley was about garden parties, ice cream socials, horseback riding, and dance lessons. Jersey was about Atlantic City, low-level mafia, and smog.
So why on earth had Haley taken a red-eye flight to Trenton? Something would have to have been very wrong. Maybe her step dad was a crooked cop, maybe she was being stalked? A violent ex had shown up?
Ranger had barely shifted the SUV into park before I was out the door, running for the building as fast as my 3 inch FMP's would allow. If something happened to her on my watch, her parents would kill me. I skidded to a stop, drawing stares from a couple of the security guards. Guess they didn't usually see a lot of women around here in cocktail dresses this time of night. They stared, I looked around frantically for a sign of my cousin. Finally I caught sight of her. Fashionably rumpled cargo pants, docs, silky chemise, great tan, petite... and curly light brown hair highlighted to achieve a beachy sun streaked look. Yup. I had her.
"Haley!!" I yelled, picking up speed, then barely managing to make a controlled flop into the seat next to her.
Tearful blue eyes met mine, a sniffle, and then a whole-hearted sob, and she was crying into my shoulder. Vaguely I wondered how the slinky blue dress would stand up to the supersoaker tear ducts of my favorite cousin. "Come on, Sunshine," I used a childhood nickname, hoping to distract her. "It can't be that bad?"
She took a shaky breath, and straightened up to look at me. "Oh god, Steph, I'm sorry. But- I didn't know where else to go! I just... couldn't breathe."
I hated to break it to her, but if she couldn't breathe in rural Illinois, she was really gonna be suffocated in Jersey. I noticed Tank and Ranger had crept closer, though they were keeping a respectful distance. Cowards. I rolled my eyes at them before looking back at Haley's tear stained and yet, annoyingly, still adorable face. What I wouldn't give to look like that after a crying jag... But first things first.
"Let's get out of here, pixie," I said, tugging her to her feet, and putting my arm around her shoulders and steering her out the doors. "We'll figure this out. Come on, you need to meet my ride." I couldn't help but smile. "They might make you feel better..." Haley just looked confused as we stood up, and I walked her toward the two hulking males. Comprehension dawned fairly quickly and the confusion died a quick and painless death.
"Ranger, Tank, I want you to meet my cousin, Haley Thorne." I couldn't help it, I grinned at the look on Tank's face.
"Oh jeez, there's two of them!" he gasped.
Ranger smiled, the full 1000 watt smile. I glanced at Haley to make sure she wouldn't melt where she stood. Nope. She was holding her own. Barely. Best to distract her.
"Haley, this is my mentor and friend, Ranger Manoso and his right-hand guy Tank."
Even a Ranger-induced hormone surge couldn't beat out those country-club manners, I reflected as Haley smiled her pageant-girl smile and offered a perfectly ladylike handshake to each of them.
Two huge men in full SWAT gear, obviously dangerous, and my cousin was saying, and I quote: "Mr. Manoso, Mr. Tank. I'm pleased to meet you finally. Stephanie has spoken highly of you both."
Ranger shook his head. "Just Ranger and Tank, Ms. Thorne. Street names," he said as they shook hands.
"Cool," Haley said, looking confused again. "Just Haley, then." I had to give her credit, most girls would have fainted at Ranger's touch, and she had just put together an entire sentence. Sort of.
Holly didn't even look phased when Tank's massive paw enveloped hers. "You gentlemen look like you've had an eventful evening," she looked over at me as well, "I apologize for interrupting-"
"You aren't interrupting, pixie." I told her with a smile. "We were just heading home. Come on, let's get going."
Tank still looked as if he just knew something was about to explode, and Ranger looked amused. "This way please," he said, leading the way.
"So, where's the ring?" I asked as we reached the doors.
"Huh?" Haley stared at me for a minute. "Oh. That thing." She rummaged in her purse for a moment, finally retrieving a small jeweler's box, and thrust it into my hand with distaste she normally reserved for arachnids and bats.
I flipped the lid. And stopped in my tracks. This wasn't a diamond. This was a sparkly boulder. "Geez! Can you even lift your hand when you've got this on?"
Holly sniffed. "Barely. I hate wearing it."
Even the men had given her a funny look at that comment. "He isn't...' I searched for the words, "mean to you or something?"
"What?" Haley looked aghast. "No, he isn't abusive. I just... I hate that ring. It's so..." She waved her hand airily, "gaudy. I just wanted something pretty, you know? I didn't want a freakin' boulder, but mom said I just had to have one bigger than Tammy or Aunt Brenda." Haley looked disgusted. "Never mind if it looks tacky and stupid when I wear it." I was speechless. I had never heard of any female declaring any gem stone too large.
And then we were climbing into the car, Ranger and Tank up front, us girls in the back.
I finally found my own voice. "Spill, Haley. No girl runs away from this!" I waved the diamond at her. "What happened?"
Haley gave me an appraising look, then looked carefully at our two escorts, probably weighing her options. "Dom came back," she said finally. "Among a few other things."
I knew who Dom was. He was one of her best friends, someone she regarded as a brother until a couple years ago when he moved to the West Coast and they lost touch. That didn't explain the panicked flight. Unless... Dom was back and she had dumped her fiancé- this looked straightforward enough.
I guess I had given her a fiercer look than I thought, because Haley paled like she'd seen a ghost. "It isn't what you think! I swear!" she whispered.
The boys glanced back at us. I kept my eyes locked on Haley. "Uh huh. You're dumping Mr. Diamonds for Dom?" I asked in disbelief. Haley was not someone I would have pegged as a two-timer.
"No! I just... I... Dom came back and Alec got all mean and angry and he wouldn't listen! Then my parents started yelling, and no one wanted to hear the truth! It isn't Dom, it isn't anyone. It's just that nothing fits and I couldn't stand all the yelling and I got scared and I couldn't think and I came here and... you believe me, right?" she finished it all in one breath, then looked ready to start the waterworks again. I had experience with Haley's crying jags. Haley could cry for days, even a week sometimes if it was bad enough. I was definitely not prepared for one of those. There wasn't enough Ben and Jerry's in the entire tri-state area for that.
"I believe you. Just... don't cry. I dealt with you after cheerleading tryouts, I am not about to tackle this one!" I sounded desperate to my own ears. I heard a chuckle from the peanut gallery. I shot them the most withering Burg glare I could muster.
"I'm not, I promise. No crying." She gave me a shaky smile.
"Ben and Jerry's chocolate chip cookie dough," I said without thinking. "I've got plenty at home. And Oreos and peanut butter." The smile got a lot bigger.
Haley laughed. "Nail polish?"
I rolled my eyes. "Please! Do you know who you're talking to? And," I held up a hand to stop the next question, "I have Top Gun and Practical Magic." I gave her a quick hug. We were pulling to a stop out front of my apartment building. "We'll get it solved."
I handed her the ring back, she put it in the purse, and we sat staring out the windows, lost in our own Zones. After a while, I looked over at her. Haley could have been a shorter, younger version of me. 5 foot nothing, the build of a cheerleader, she was fashionably rumpled in loose khaki cargos, a chemise , docs, oakleys, holding a retro duffel bag; she would have fit into an Abercrombie& Fitch ad, but definitely not a New Jersey airport at 1 am or in an SUV with ex-army commandos.
Thankfully, the car pulled to a stop outside my apartment building just then. I sighed- it was going to be an insanely long night. "Thanks, Ranger. I'll see you all later," I said as I jumped out, followed by Haley.
"It was nice to meet you!" she chirped, giving them her brightest smile.
We rushed across the lawn and into the building, mainly because I was dragging Haley with me. There was a lot more going on than her rushed explanation in the car. A lot more. And I couldn't wait to get the full story.
I love being a bounty hunter for a lot of reasons, but the big ones are: no pantyhose, and setting my own hours. That last comes in very handy, for instance, if you are unexpectedly forced to spend three hours grilling your favorite baby cousin for details on how and why she ended up in the Trenton airport at 1 am.
I drug myself into the shower at 10:30, leaving Haley passed out in the bed, though I did remove the bag of Cheez Doodles we'd fallen asleep munching on. Frankly, I thought, replaying the night/morning in my mind, I couldn't blame her for running here. I would probably have picked somewhere even more remote, like maybe New Zealand, but she had insisted she had needed to talk to me. Seemed to feel that as I had forsaken Burg conventions I made a good role model. I hadn't had the heart to squash her illusion. I'm definitely not a role model for anyone but I could sympathize with her problem- it was eerily similar to my own.
Haley was expected to marry a nice young man and have a nice bright future with a couple nice well-behaved kids, maybe even a nice normal career. Haley wanted to dance, to see the world, and she didn't love the nice young man she was marrying a month from now. Her spidey sense said marrying him when she didn't love him was a bad idea. Mine agreed. And my entire mind agreed when she laid out the full truth- that Mr. Nice aka Alec, had done all but sleep with her best friend. And told her about it, albeit sadly. He had compounded his mistake by admitting he probably would have slept with the girl if she hadn't been a virgin.
I would have been seeing red. I would have hit him with the Buick, backed up and hit him again. Haley, however, hadn't been mad. She hadn't been upset. She hadn't even cared. Was going to go ahead and marry him, because after all he was nice, and he bought her what she wanted and was good in bed and that was what counted wasn't it?. Then Dom had come back, and she had confessed what had happened, and Dom had made her swear not to do it- not to marry him, at least for another couple years. She had promised, but because she had only shown hesitation after Dom had returned and refused to embarrass Mr. Nice-Dickie-Jr, everyone had jumped to the wrong conclusion and insisted on her marrying him while he'd still have her. This was what was bothering her. This was what had caused her to jump on the first plane she could find.
I shook my head to clear it, and began styling my hair into the ever popular "I just had sex" look, because it took time and it gave me time to think about what to say when Haley woke up.
I almost wished she had just had a stalker. I knew how to deal with a stalker. Instead I did my make-up in full Burg girl mode, and tried to think. Hey, some people meditate, some do their make up!