This will likely be the last update until the US Election. If you are in the US (and about ¾ of you are), please remember to go vote on Tuesday. If you let me know you've voted, I'll put you in a cameo role in the story later on (probably at the rally, since it will have the most people).

Luckily for you I have Jury Duty next week, so I expect to have lots of downtime to write while I'm waiting to be called. I will be updating another story, The Butterfly Effect, because it's already written, and just needs to be posted. If you would like to read it, it's at s/12217976/1/The-Butterfly-Effect

Recap: Stephanie asks for new locks on her door so Joe can't come in uninvited into her house. Ranger recalls the times he watched Steph sleep.

Stephanie's POV

I had to hand it to Lester, he certainly had a way of making target practice fun. We each set up a board of Battleship in our lane, the grid in the target holder, and the plastic ships on the normal game board on the shelf in front of us. The dividers kept them out of sight of each other. Then, instead of just calling out the name of the square we wanted to hit, like in the regular game, we actually had to hit the corresponding square on the poster. Communicating which square we'd hit while wearing ear protection was a bit tricky, but we'd figured it out. It really was a blast, and forced me to be even more accurate since the squares were smaller.

After a couple of games Lester and I were taking a break when the COPS theme song rang out from my pocket. I grimaced at it and silenced the phone. Lester looked at me with a calculating gaze. "Nice ringtone. Morelli I assume?"

I nodded and sighed heavily. "Yeah. I haven't figured out yet how to tell him. I haven't even figured out where to tell him. I don't want to do it alone, because he'd likely start insulting me again. But out in public it would become the biggest story of the year for the gossip mill. My mom would get 30 calls before I got my coat back on."

Lester pondered for a moment. "What about at Shorty's? It's not a Burg place, and I could blend in there if I wasn't in black. Morelli doesn't really know me, so if I sit with my back to him he's unlikely to realize who I am. But I could keep an ear out for you in case he gets…." Lester seemed to struggle to find the right word.

"Overly macho? Testosterone-poisoned?"

"Nicer than what I was going to say, but it works."

I pondered for a moment. "I like the idea. Just promise me you won't interfere unless I ask you to. I think this is a challenge I need to face myself, but having you there as emergency backup will give me more confidence."

"OK, Beautiful. How about you have a safeword. If you say 'Garlic', I'll know you want me to step in. But he he gets physical with you, I'm not going to wait."

"I doubt he will. Not in public."

Lester threw me a sharp glance. "Has he gotten physical with you in private?"

"No. Well, not really. I mean, he's grabbed me by the arm or shoulders and shaken me on occasion. Mostly he just puts me down a lot."

One of the most common charges I bring people in for is domestic abuse. I've seen the fear in their partner's faces. Women, and occasionally men, who had a haunted look in their eyes. Beaten down, withdrawn, like they were trying to fade into the background. Never sure of what would set the abuser off. That same look had haunted the eyes of more than one of the Morelli women. Joe had never made me scared like they were, but I wondered, had he really escaped his family's tradition of alcoholism and abuse? I shivered.

I pulled out my phone, almost calling Joe back, then wimping out and sending him a text. "Meet me for dinner at Shorty's? 6?"

A minute later I got a reply. "Sure, Cupcake, But why not Pino's?"

I pondered that. "In the mood for steak on my pizza. Pino's doesn't have that." I wrote, not sure if Shorty's did either, but he'd generally been accommodating to whatever he was asked to cook.

It took long enough for Joe to answer that I got nervous, but eventually I got a message back. "OK, Cupcake, but he better have a meatball sub that's up to par. See you at 6."

I breathed a sigh of relief. "OK, I'm meeting him at 6. You sure you don't mind?"

"Glad to, Beautiful. Just sad I won't get to see his face when you tell him it's over."

He wouldn't be the only one. I decided to give Ranger a heads-up on my plan.

Ranger's POV

I was working out the schedule for the next two weeks when the phone rang.

"Yo."

"Yo, yourself."

"Babe."

Amazing how we could communicate so much in so few words. Truth be told, I was thrilled to hear from her. I hated paperwork, so any distraction short of one of my people being injured was welcome, but listening to her always lightened my heart a little bit. She was more refreshing that a night of dream-free sleep. Or perhaps she was just the main cause of those peaceful but rare nights.

"So, I'm going to tell Joe that it's over, and why. We're meeting at Shorty's at 6. Lester is coming with me as backup, but only if I need him. I'd rather do this without someone else stepping in."

I was glad she was taking backup, but wished it was me. I had a few choice words for Morelli as well. "I'll come if you want me to, Babe. I'll even eat some pizza."

She laughed. I loved to hear her laugh. "Thanks for the offer, but I'm afraid you two will get into a dick swinging contest, and after what I told you last night…..Look, I don't want you to feel you have to protect me from every little thing in the world. And I don't want you to do something rash."

"Me? Rash? Babe."

"I saw the look on your face last night, before you put on blank face. You looked like you wanted to tear his arm off and beat him to death with it."

"Babe, I'd never be that messy."

"Maybe not, but you doing 50-life for murdering a cop would put a real damper on our date, and I'm really looking forward to it."

I was too. And she was right. I could use every resource at my command to keep her safe from psycho stalkers and violent skips, but some battles she had to fight on her own. This was one of them, and me not being there might make it go easier for her.

"Alright, Babe. Let me know if you need anything. If you want to come back afterwards, we can have dessert."

"Deal."