Navigating Nine Chapter 04

Disclaimer: Janet's universe, not mine.

Note: Hm, this isn't quite up to par, but it's something. I'm afraid if I don't write something and get it posted, my muse might take off for Katmandu again.

00000000000000000000000000000000000

"What time is it?" I asked when I could breathe again.

"Almost five."

I frowned, there was something I was supposed to do tonight, wasn't there? "Shouldn't we have worked on the case?"

"It'll be there tomorrow, babe." Ranger nuzzled my shoulder and I sighed.

"I keep thinking there's something..." a vision of the police department flashed through my head. Oh, crap. "Mom. I'm supposed to go to Mom's tonight! Ranger, get dressed."

"What?" he raised an eyebrow.

"I said get dressed, Higgs. You're going with," I told him as I moved to get up.

"Why?" he asked, pulling me back.

"Because I'm begging."

"Babe, you're not begging."

I opened my eyes wide and thought about sad things, like missing a sale at Gadzooks or losing a new pair of Dollhouse jeans. "Please, Ranger? Pretty please come with me?" I asked quietly.

Ranger scowled. "I hate it when you do that." I blinked and kept my hurt look in place. "Fine. I'll go with you."

I grinned. "You're the best."

"You're a con artist."

"Well, I have to have some sort of defense."

"Get dressed or we'll never leave," he advised seriously.

I laughed and climbed out of bed, wincing at the sudden revelation of just how sore I was. My gasp of pain didn't go unnoticed and Ranger was at my side in a moment.

"Babe?" he asked.

"Just sore. I guess I just don't have that stamina built up yet." I smiled, but he looked less than amused. Apparently noticing my worried glance, he smiled faintly, but it looked forced. "Ranger?"

"Guess it got a little out of hand. Why didn't you say something?"

"I liked it. Rough can be fun, just the sore isn't fun… Seriously, I'm fine." My stomach was tensing, and I didn't like the sudden feeling that I'd stumbled into something. There was that dreadful sensation of squickiness and things that were being left unsaid. I hated it when that happened. "Ranger, say it. Whatever it is, just say it."

He shook his head and stepped away, heading for the closet.

"Ranger? Did I do something?"

"No. No, babe, it isn't you."

"What happened?"

Silence. Goddess take it, I didn't have time for it. Fine, be squicky. Squick yourself silly, Batman. I sighed and rummaged through end of the closet that my clothes had come to reside in. I blamed the maid.

I'm a college kid, I'm not exactly familiar with these odd-shaped plastic things they put clothes on to place them in the closet. My closet generally looked like a shoe store had exploded and taken a Bebe outlet with it.

I pawed through the hangars and glared at my assortment of clothes. Nothing. Nada. I had nothing to wear. Picking out clothes for dinner with mom when she had a surprise was more intense than picking out a prom dress. Maybe even a wedding dress, considering the fact I was never getting married. And if I did get married it would be over fairly quickly. Like when I sobered up the next morning.

As I contemplated my pitiful array, I caught a glimpse of white and latched onto it. White and gauzy was always good. I grinned down at the glorified white gauze tank top, with its pretty ethnic-y embroidery. Maybe a little bit more than nada after all. Some espadrilles and some distressed jeans later, I was set. I left my hair in the tousled bed head look, added some dewy blush, gloss, and mascara and giggled as I skipped downstairs. I looked like someone named Moonbeam. Sometimes it was fun to embrace one's less-sane genetics.

Tank and Ranger were in the front room, talking quietly until I stepped through the door. I frowned as the conversation was dropped a little too quickly and Ranger stood up.

"You look like a hippy," Tank commented, giving me a skeptical once-over. My lips turned upward, but I didn't quite smile.

"The name is Moonbeam, after all."

"This mean you're going to let the world know your secret?" I jumped at the unexpected voice. Bobby was huge, but all of the guys had too much stealth for my well-being.

"Don't do that," I said, swallowing hard. "It's creepy. You're going to give me a twitch."

Bobby stepped up beside me with a full smirk firmly in place. "Need to be more aware of your surroundings." My answer came out of my mouth before could stop it.

"I am aware of my surroundings. I'm aware of the auras and cosmic harmonies of all things around me. My mind is so enraptured in awareness of the spiritual realm that it's hard to focus solely on the material plane."

Tank, Bobby and Ranger stared at me. I just laughed.

Ranger was quiet as we drove. Belatedly, I realized we weren't heading to the office; instead we were heading through an area I didn't recognize. Oh well, my Jeep would show up. It was just part of life in the Bat Cave- cars or anything else would eventually pop up. And I was pretty sure no one this side of sane would be stealing my car again anytime soon.

My musings lasted until we pulled up to a two story, ultramodern house featuring sky lights and solar panels. I think I might have been out of the truck before it stopped moving because I was in the door and hugging my mom before Ranger was even to the front steps. Amazing sex, independence, age categories aside, I had missed my mama. She had called a couple times, but no one outside Ranger's people knew anything much about the Abruzzi Incident and she had been uber-busy setting up her new shop and doing last minute things about her upcoming book release.

Mom held me close for a few moments before putting me back to give me a skeptical look. "Bad day, sweetheart?"

"Long couple weeks, actually."

"I missed you too," she smiled, her green eyes sparkling. I took a second to look her over; she was in a red sarong type skirt and a white tank top, and she looked ridiculously good in it. Silver jewelry dangled and chimed whenever she moved- heavy silver earrings, bangle bracelets, ankle bracelets even, and a large silver medallion set with a garnet.

"I love the outfit, mom."

"Thank you. I hope you love the new recipes I tried—oh, Ranger!" Mom looked past me and nodded a greeting. "So glad you could come."

I stepped away to give mom access so she could hug him and give him a welcome speech, and I caught a glimpse of her latest male companion moving around the kitchen. Derek was a suit. Well, he was actually a CPA or something, which meant he lived in a suit. I wasn't exactly certain how he ended up with Mom except that she stumbled across him in Scotland. The poor guy was totally head over heels, like all her other guys had been and would be. Some women have the grace to have difficulty finding a man, or at least more difficulty as they get older. My mom was going to be a New Age Blanche Devereux.

"Would you like a tour of the place?" Mom asked, looking from me to Ranger. I shook my head.

"I'm fine. Right now all I want is food. Did you say something about a surprise?"

Mom laughed and waved me toward the kitchen. "Go ask Derek if everything's ready. Surprises after dinner."

I headed for the kitchen, leaving Ranger in Mom's tender claws. Hopefully she wouldn't flambé him.

Derek looked up and smiled as I entered. He was handsome in an aging All American way, his hair had gone gray but it just made him look distinguished, and his blue eyes were all bright and alert. He didn't have a bad body either, for an older guy. Honestly, he didn't actually look like an accountant. He looked much too active for an accountant, but what did I know? Maybe he just had an addiction to the gym.

"Hi, Moonbeam. I was just heading out there—"

"Don't worry about it," I interrupted. "She's out there sinking her claws into Ranger. Poor guy, I hope she doesn't leave scars. At least it won't be like James Kilroy. He was this linebacker I dated like junior year of high school, and she made him cry. He wouldn't look at me for almost a year."

Derek chuckled as I breezed past him to glance at what was on the stove. A couple seconds of staring and I realized I had no idea what I was looking at. "Thai?" I guessed.

"No idea. Something Eastern."

I frowned and turned my attention back to Derek. "Please tell me you have a stash of Pepto around here somewhere."

"Quarts of it."

"Thank god. So, are you living here?" I asked, tilting my head and giving him another once over. He crossed his arms and his lips turned up in an almost smile.

"More or less."

"You talk almost as much as Ranger. I have an urge to get you both trashed," I sighed. "Too bad Mom doesn't throw many parties anymore. I could spike the punch. That used to be such a fun game."

"She told me about that. Said you used Everclear and got a whole conference full of Reiki people hammered."

I giggled at the memory. "Yep. They were seeing all kinds of chakras. Colors were just floating everywhere. I was hoping she'd take me somewhere in Europe. I'd have loved to try it with absinthe."

He looked like he might have loved to give me a good long lecture on responsibility, but thankfully mom chose that moment to enter, followed by Ranger. The next few minutes were the controlled chaos of setting the table and Mom attempting to explain the food choices. If I had recognized more than about ten percent of the actual ingredients I might have listened closer. As it was I just took a small amount of everything and hoped for the best. I'd barely gotten two bites into the first mystery dish, which tasted just very much like curried something when Mom decided she couldn't wait any more.

"Moonbeam, Ranger, I know I said this would wait until after dinner, but I'm just too excited," she said, sounding almost bubbly. "Derek and I have decided to have a handfasting!"

My fork hit the plate with an ominous clatter that seemed to echo in my ears. "Handfasting?" I asked, my voice sounded oddly strangled.

Mom nodded, beaming as she took Derek's hand.

Wow, Derek would be the first accountant in history to be handfasted.

And he'd be handfasted to my mother.

"Are you making this official, or just a hand fasting?"

"I haven't decided yet," Mom shrugged. "Anyway, we were hoping you would join us. We only want a small ceremony. I think Glorianna will be doing the ceremony. She is so good with public speaking and—"

I nodded, swallowing hard to keep my stomach from jumping up into my mouth. This wasn't right. Mom wasn't supposed to get… tied down. So what if it wasn't a traditional marriage, it was close enough. This was Janet's doing, it had to be, damn it. My mom didn't get married.

I let out a shaky breath and smiled. "This is awesome, mom. Are you going to announce it on the tour or are you keeping it totally hush hush?"

"Oh, I don't know. Probably we'll keep quiet about it until after the ceremony."

I could feel Ranger looking at me, but I didn't dare glance at him. Not yet. Right now I was taking a moment to feel like an immature, unhappy kid. It wouldn't do to let Bat Man see me like that. As if he didn't already know. Stupid ESP.

"Oh, crap," I said, looking up from my plate with a show of mock-frustration. "We have to go relieve Les and Tank out at Mrs. Apusenja's don't we?" I looked at Ranger. Please, please just play along…

He blinked once, then inclined his head.

"Oh, a new case, sweetheart?" Mom looked interested.

"Yeah, some dude skipped out on his Visa bond."

"I read about Vinnie putting up that bond in the paper… he isn't the brightest is he?"

"Not always. He really should have let Sebring do it," I said, with a shrug.

"It said in the paper that the man worked at TriBro," Derek looked very serious. "You be careful around that place. You hear about the murder a couple years back?" he glanced at Ranger, who nodded again.

"Vivian Paressi. The police suspected Bart Cone but couldn't prove it," he said.

I stood up and gave Mom a quick hug. "Thanks for dinner. I'll stop by the store tomorrow."

"Be careful, sweetheart." Mom looked worried. "I don't like that name, TriBro. I have a bad feeling about it."

"Don't worry, Rhianna," Ranger said from behind me. Mom's eyes left me, to give Ranger a very searching look.

"Mm. You be careful as well, Ricardo."

We were in the truck and heading for the office before Ranger finally spoke to me.

"You aren't happy about your mother and Derek?"

"Not that. I'm fine with her dating people. But handfasting? That's a half step from marriage. She doesn't even believe in marriage."

"Maybe she's changed her mind."

"I don't want to talk about it," I snapped and turned to stare out the window. If mom was going to get married again… what would that mean? What was going to happen? My life was shifting around like the sands of the Sahara, and this was just one thing too many.

I let out a sigh of relief when we pulled into the parking lot of the bonds office. "Thanks, Professor," I said, giving Ranger a quick smile as I opened my door. "I need to go get some ice cream, and I'll see you back at the house, okay?"

"Be careful, Babe."

"Aren't I always?" I asked, grinning as I shut the door and ran to my Wrangler, the keys jangling in my hand.