(Still 1 year in the past.)

I sighed. He was still asleep. I sighed again, and stuffed the last of my necessities in a bag. I didn't know where I was going, just that I had to go. Ranger's form twisted a little, and I decided I needed to leave now, or never.

I threw my duffel bag of essentials in the seat next to me of my beat up old truck. It was a Chevy, but barely recognizable. It was on sale for $300 and it had run well for two weeks, so it was a decent deal. I had expected it to have blown up already though. I secured Rex's cage beside me, turned the radio on to calm my head.

And I drove off into the sunrise.

To tell you the truth, I didn't know where I was. All I knew was, at this moment in time, I couldn't go any farther. I was sitting in the lobby of a small town auto shop, waiting to hear the news on my truck. It had began to make chugging noises about an hour or so, and managed to roll to the town boundary then stop. I had to walk into town and find a tow truck.

The mechanic came out and wiped his hands on a greasy rag. "That truck is toast." He stated in a thick country accent

"What do ya mean toast?" I said.

"Toast, lady. I don't know where you're going, but I know you aren't getting there today. The engine's so busted, it would cost less to buy a new truck." He said sympathetically. "You aren't from around here. Pennsylvania?" He asked.

"Jersey." I said, a little disappointed. I didn't know where I was going, but I wasn't planning for here.

"Well Jersey, tell you what. Let me treat you to lunch, since you don't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon."

I had to think. I didn't really want to go to lunch, with the mechanic or with anyone. But he was right. I had no where to go. "I don't usually eat lunch with strangers, at least until I know their name." I said.

The mechanic looked at his jumpsuit, and fingered the breast where his nametag should have been. "Right. Forgot about that. Sorry." He stuck his hand out. "Slade. Slade McCormick."

I shook his hand. "Stephanie Plum."

"Well Stephanie, I know of a great burger joint just down the street. You like burgers?" Slade asked, and zippered himself out of the jumpsuit. Underneath, he wore a button down flannel shirt that was tucked into a pair of excellent fitting jeans.

"Throw in greasy fries and a thick milkshake and I'm in." This got Slade to smile.

"It's just a five minute walk from here. You mind?" He asked.

"Is it nice outside?" I asked. When I had been outside, I hadn't noticed what the weather was. I was more concerned about my car.

"It's on the warmer side. But, there's a breeze and with the trees, it's pretty nice." Slade explained, as he pushed the door open. He was right.

The street that the auto shop was long. It must have been the main street, or one of the main streets, because you could see shops in every direction. We walked in silence down the street, and Slade pulled me into the alley way. He climbed up the back wall, and sat at the top. "This is the quickest way there." He explained, and held out a hand to help me up.

"Won't they get mad at you?" I asked, and managed to climb the wall.

I balanced myself on the top, but felt myself teetering. Best hurry and get off this thing. As if I had said it aloud, Slade jumped down. I went to pull my other leg over the wall, and undistributed my weight. This set off an imbalance of my insides, and I teetered off the wall.

Lucky for me, Slade had been in the process of giving me a hand, and I fell on him. My sudden falling caused the two of us to go down, me falling on top of him. He looked pained, and I quickly rolled off of him. "I'm sorry. I usually don't do that the first day I've met a person."

He smiled and in a cat-like move, pulled himself to his feet. He dusted himself off and continued on his way. "As I was about to say earlier, this town's so small everyone knows everyone else. I grew up next to Mr. and Mrs. Grubber. They were always the ones who would find me getting into trouble and not tell my father."

I continued in silence. I wouldn't mind living in a town where everyone knew everyone. In Trenton there was a little of that, but mostly from the gossip mill and such.

The restaurant wasn't overly crowded, and the food smelled out of this world. Slade chose a table in the far corner, away from the other patrons. A waitress ambled over, introduced herself as Marianne. Slade asked her a few questions about her husband and kids, then proceeded to give our drink order.

The menu was simple. Burger and fries. You got a choice of cheese or without, normal or sesame seed bun, and if you wanted two meat patties instead of one. Marianne came back with our drinks, slipped an envelope to Slade and took our order. With the promise of being back in a few minutes, she left to attend to the other customers.

"So, Jersey, where are you headed?" He asked casually.

I sighed again. "I don't know."

Again somewhat of a weak ending, but again it is past time for me to be in bed. Now that you mention it, I should have done something embarrassing with Joe's clothing, but it didn't come to me in time. I am probably going to jump to and from different points in the past (we will get back to the Ranger thing, I promise.) I'll try to tell you with my little parenthesis time-notes, but plan on being mildly confused until the end of the story.