Disclaimer: I still own nothing. Actually, I own the bad guy and Stephanie and Ranger's unborn child. But that's it.
melianarana, my novel doesn't have a name yet. It has a plot, but I'm not that far in writing it yet (because I just realized it sucked, so I started it completely over.), and I haven't thought of any good titles.
Chapter 2
I walked into the office and looked over at Lula and Connie. I wasn't sure if I should tell them about the baby yet. If they found out through the grapevine, they'd be hurt. And it was possible that someone had recognized me at the drug store. However, I didn't want them to tell anyone else, which was a huge risk if they found out about the pregnancy.
I walked in and looked at Connie. "Hi. Do I have any skips?" I'd decided to just casually mention that I was pregnant. Maybe they wouldn't notice. Then, later, when they found out from someone else, once the news had been found out, I could say that I had told them. This way, though, they wouldn't be able to tell anyone because they wouldn't have actually heard me. Connie passed me a few folders. I flipped through them, speaking idly as I did. "I think I can get this one easily. And Mooner will be really easy. By the way, I'm pregnant. Maybe this one should go to Ranger, because I don't think I can get him. And this one I can probably get, but it might be hard." I dropped the one that I'd said should go to Ranger on Connie's desk and risked a glance at both of them. Clearly, my plan hadn't worked, because both of them were staring at me.
Lula recovered first. "What! Did you just say you're pregnant?"
"Uh…Yeah. But you can't tell anyone."
Connie reached over and snatched the folders I'd kept from me. Or rather, tried to, but I had a death grip on them. We glared at each other. "You can't go chasing skips if you're pregnant!"
I managed to wrench the folders away, then I clutched them to me. "Sure I can. It's not like I'm going to pop out the baby today."
Lula interrupted what Connie was about to say. "Whose is it? Supercop or Batman? Or is there someone else?"
I looked at Vinnie's door, then at the front door. "It's Ranger's. But you guys can't tell him. He doesn't know and I don't plan on telling him."
Lula and Connie went back to the silent-staring thing.
Lula broke the silence. "Do you have a death wish? You're not planning on telling Batman about his own kid?"
"Uh…no. Not really." I paused a moment, then explained everything. I told them about the debt, and Ranger leaving abruptly afterwards, and then about sleeping with him after the distraction and him leaving just as abruptly.
There was silence for a while. This time, it was Connie who spoke first. "But he'd change for the kid, right? If you tell him, he'd do something about it, probably."
I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, like lock me in a safe house." I shook my head. "He doesn't do relationships."
"He said that?" Lula and Connie spoke simultaneously. Quite impressive coordination.
"The words he used were that his life 'doesn't lend itself to relationships,' but yeah."
Lula looked behind me and spoke in an angry tone. "Scumbag."
I looked behind me and saw Ranger coming into the office. I was pretty sure he hadn't heard Lula's not-so-complimentary description of him. I was hoping he hadn't, anyway.
Clearly, Lula didn't share my hope, because, glaring at Ranger, she repeated, loud enough to make sure that he heard, "Scumbag." Then she stood, swinging her purse, which surely contained a gun, onto her shoulder. "Let's go get a skip. I've got to help you on account of—" I glared at her and she amended what I was quite sure she'd been about to say "you don't even have a gun. Besides, I know you'll need some help. Who're we getting?"
I looked at the folder and grinned. "Mooner."
"Babe." I looked up. Ranger was about six inches away. I edged around him. Lula was already at the door, still giving Ranger the death stare. As I fled to Lula's car, I glanced back and saw Connie give some folders to Ranger. However, she didn't hand them to him, instead she threw them at his chest and they all fell to the ground. Ranger raised an eyebrow, looked down at the folders, and their contents, which were spread over the floor, and then looked at me with a confused expression.
That was when I got into Lula's car, so that I wouldn't stare as he bent over to get the papers. Ok, so I did look, but only a little bit. It would be a sin not to look, right?
As Lula pulled away from the curb, I caught her looking in the rearview mirror, at Ranger no doubt. "He may be a scumbag, but that man is hot!"
"I don't think he's a scumbag, he just doesn't do relationships." I'm not sure why I was defending Ranger, since I was sort of mad at him, myself.
"Hunh." Lula turned her attention back to driving. Soon we pulled in front of Mooner's house. I rang the doorbell and Mooner came out. To my surprise, he came right away. Probably a show just finished.
An hour later, I was outside my second skip's house, $500 richer than I'd been this morning. I rang the doorbell and my skip, Tyler Wilson, opened the door.
"Hi. I work for your bail bond company and you missed you're hearing. I need to bring you to the station and—" I stopped there because he'd slammed the door and was, if my hearing was correct, running through the house, and I didn't feel like talking to the door. I opened the door and ran after him. Because of the head start, he got through the house before I even had a chance at catching him.
He ran out into the backyard and I ran after him. The yard had clearly been watered way too much, because it was pure mud, with a few blades of grass sprouting up here and there. Slipping, while trying to run as fast as I could, I finally got pretty close to Tyler. I leapt and tackled him, wrapping my arms around his chest from behind as we went down. We hit the mud, with him facedown in it, and then he rolled over, squashing me under him in the mud. He tried to get up, but I held on. Lula, who'd run through the house with me, told me to let go. I did and he scrambled up, only to be stun-gunned by Lula immediately. He fell back on me.
I rolled him off me and cuffed him, then stood. I was covered in mud, as was he, but, somehow, other than her feet, Lula was spotless. I gave her an annoyed look, then pulled Tyler up.
To my surprise, Lula looked concerned. "Was that tackle a good idea? What about when he fell on you? Is the baby ok?"
"How should I know? I've never been pregnant before. Probably, we're fine." Lula nodded and helped me drag Tyler to the front curb. I went into Tyler's house and hunted around a bit and then found a sheet. Normally, I'd just get the cops to come get a dirty skip that Lula didn't want in her car, but today, I felt like dropping him off at the station myself. I brought the sheet out and wrapped it around Tyler so that no mud would touch the car, then put him in the backseat.
I was trying to figure out how I could get in without leaving mud, when Lula pulled a towel out from under her driver's seat and handed it to me. As I sat down on it, I gave her a curious look. She explained. "You and your skips always get covered in crap. It seems like having something to keep my car clean is a good plan."
I hated how incredibly logical that was. I shouldn't get dirty so often that someone starts carrying towels in their car so that I can sit in the car.
About halfway to the police station, Tyler woke up and tried to move around. However, his hands were cuffed behind his back, and he was wrapped very tightly in a sheet, so all he could do was squirm around a little bit. He gave up by the time we got to the police station.
I started to get out, then I stopped and looked at Lula. "Will you still be here when I get out?"
"Of course! When have I ever left you stranded somewhere?" I looked at her with a 'are you kidding me?' expression. She shrugged. "Ok, ok. So I've left you here a few times. But you were never stranded! You always had someone else to drive you somewhere."
I rolled my eyes and got out, then I got out Tyler. He was still wrapped in the sheet, so he just stood there, legs locked together. I unwrapped him and then grabbed his arm, bringing him and the sheet into the station.
A few people commented on my muddy status, but I just glared at them and then went back to ignoring them. I snatched my body receipt and left. Probably Lula was gone. I didn't know what I'd do then. As I exited the side door, I was surprised to see that Lula was still here. That's a first! Just as I took a step towards her, however, movement out of the corner of my eye made me stop and turn.
Ranger had, apparently, been waiting for me, because now he pushed away from the wall. "What was all that about back at the office?"
Since I had no intention of telling him, I gave him an innocent look and resumed my walk towards Lula's car. "What?"
"The sudden hatred you all seem to have for me. What caused it?"
I glared at him. "Nothing." It was true, really. After all, that's what our relationship was to him; nothing. And probably, if I told him about the baby, he wouldn't care. Ok, to be fair, that's probably not true, but I was getting angry again as I thought about how abruptly he always leaves.
"Right. Nothing is what had me sorting through papers in the office for an hour so I had all the information for each skip in the right folder after Connie threw the folders at me."
I looked over at him, surprised, but didn't respond. I'd reached Lula's car. I reached out to open the door and then Ranger stepped around me, leaning against the car door, effectively blocking my get-away.
"Really, Babe. What's wrong?"
I looked away. I suppose I knew that eventually, I'd have to tell Ranger about the baby. Or at the very least, I'd have to tell him I was pregnant, even if I didn't say who the father was. However, I hadn't planned on telling him now, in the middle of the Trenton PD parking lot.
"Babe?" I looked back at him. He actually looked concerned. "What happened since the last time I saw you?"
I really didn't want to tell him now or here. "Nothing. Ranger, move. I want to leave."
He narrowed his eyes slightly. "Not until I know what's going on."
As I tried to think of something to say that would make him leave, a very familiar male voice spoke from behind me. "Is there a problem?"
I spun and, when I saw the speaker, gasped.
A/N: Mauhaha! Evil cliffy! And Ally, as you no doubt noticed, there was a definite lack of mini-vans in this. I couldn't figure out how to fit it in without it being totally abrupt and idiotic looking. So, I'll try to put it in later. Sorry. Anyway, everyone, please review!
