I have taken some poetic license with some characters owned by the delightful Janet Evanovich. I have changed their basic outlook on life, introduced color into their wardrobes and brought personality into their sometimes boring or sidekick placed lives.

I make not a thin dime, and neither does she.

As exhausted as everyone was, it was still a long time before the local police were gone and Disney was pretty much back to being Disney. I had to give my statement to law enforcement and naturally we turned over any evidence we had collected to Jack. He chose to loan most of it to SSD since Seminole County had agreed to take on the prosecution of Brady and Amanda. Not that there would be much of a trial. We had them hands down and they were confessing gleefully to their wrong doings.

By late afternoon I was on the phone with my parents and they met Bobby and Lester at Lucille's house and let them know the persons who had killed their baby girl was caught and would be punished to the full extent of the law. Lucille cried. My Mom did too. At least that's what my Dad said.

Again, I had no idea what time Ranger came to bed. I was out like a light. A little trauma makes a girl exhausted when she's carrying a baby. I needed rest. I was pretty sure Padma did too.

When I did get up, Ranger didn't even stir which shocked the hell out of me. That meant two things, he was totally exhausted and he trusted me. I don't know which of those things made my heart turn over more.

Natalie showed up at about ten that next morning with chocolate croissants and caffeine free lattés. Does this girl know her BFF or what?

"Come on in," I grinned and took the coffees from her. "You are a goddess, you know that right?"

"I do know that," she grinned. "Where's Ricardo? Is he still out?" She sat on the couch and curled up and opened the pastry bag. "Cal was so gone that I got up, took a shower and dressed and he didn't even budge."

I laughed, "so freaking aware of their surrounds."

"I know," she raised a brow. "Do you think we're a bad influence on them?"

We looked at each other and burst out laughing.

"Nah," I shook my head and sipped the delicious brew.

"Are you over the case or do you want to decompress?"

"I thought nobody would ever ask," I straightened with a grin.

"Okay, I know we think or suppose that Sandy cut both girls from her life because of the rape and because she was distancing herself from everyone and everything she thought was even remotely involved, right?"

"Right," I nodded and bit into a croissant and moaned.

She grinned. "So here's the thing…how did she know that Amanda was involved? Did she know?"

"I've been thinking about that," I said seriously. "We know that Brady and Joanna split about six months ago, right?"

"Right," she nodded.

"So our assumption is that Brady took up with Amanda then. It makes sense."

"You know, girls need a girl code like guys do," Natalie winced. "I mean, no girl should take her BFF's ex."

"No shit," I agreed with a sigh.

"So you think Sandy knew that Brady and Amanda were doing it," she grinned.

I laughed, "Yea, I think so. I mean, she would have to tell someone. She couldn't tell Joanna or her neat little world was going to go to hell in a hand basket and her psycho behavior wouldn't have manifested itself the way it eventually did. So Amanda tells her other BFF that she's doing Brady. Then when Brady rapes her, she has to ditch both of the girls."

"Yea, that makes sense."

"We may never know the whole truth," I said sadly. "Unfortunately for us Sandy didn't keep a diary where she wrote all of her intimate thoughts down so we could see how her mind worked. We had to look at the evidence and sort out the possibilities and probabilities ourselves. It's a pain in the ass, but it is what it is."

"So why did she let them back in her life again," Natalie frowned. "Why go back to meeting them for lunch on Friday? Do you think Brady had a hand in that?"

"I think it's more likely that she was taking her life back. If she had an inkling that Jake was getting ready to propose to her, she could have been tying up loose ends. He mentioned they would leave Florida if they got engaged."

"Oh," she said thoughtfully. "Maybe she blamed them and she was trying to prove to them that they weren't winning. You know, the best revenge is living well."

"You may be on to something there," I nodded. I ate the last bite of my croissant. "Do you have any other questions?"

"Nah," she shook her head.

"Cool, then let's just hang out till the guys come around."

"Sounds like a plan," she agreed.

At a little after noon I was sitting in the living room whispering with Natalie and giggling as we did our nails when he stuck his head out the bedroom door. "Hey Natalie," he smiled sleepily.

"Hey Ricardo," she smiled and got up. She walked over and kissed his cheek. "See you later Steph."

"You don't have to go," he said with a confused frown.

"Sure I do," she grinned. "If you're awake, then Cal can't be far behind." She winked and walked out the door.

He waited for her to leave and then came and sat beside me on the couch. He leaned over and kissed my head. "How are you?"

"I'm good. How about you," I asked.

"Good…still tired, but good."

"I bet you're hungry," I grinned.

"Starving," he admitted.

I got up and went into the kitchen and pulled out the food I'd ordered for him earlier and a bottle of water.

"Grilled chicken salad," I said handing him the plate and a fork. "There's Fat Free Italian dressing in that little thingy there."

"It's perfect," he sighed opening the lid on the salad.

I popped the bottle of water and put it on the coffee table in front of him. I let him eat in silence. I had grown enough as a person to be able to be still and let him have silence every now and then. And I knew he absolutely deserved some silence right then.

He finished eating and I took the plate to the kitchen and threw it away along with the heavy duty plastic fork. I got a couple more bottles of water and returned and sat back down beside him.

"Better?"

"Much," he agreed and took a big drink from the second bottle of water.

"How much more has to be done?"

"Not much. Manuel cleaned the evidence van with Gabe's help. And Manuel says Gabe has a grossly overwhelming nose for detail so he definitely chose the right job for himself. Someone from Miami is on their way to get the van. Mitch took care of dismantling the evidence room with Cal. Tank and I spent most of our time with Jack and the sheriff's department. Woody and Brian helped Jack's office catalog the evidence so he could turn it over to the sheriff with a good chain of evidence trail."

"And the girls," I asked.

"Well, Padma and you were sent to bed."

"And I don't know about her, but I'm grateful," I said and leaned up to kiss his cheek.

"You're welcome. Connie helped Manuel and Gabe with the van for a while and then Woody sent her to bed. Kate helped with the evidence and the rest of the girls helped Cal and Mitch with the room. You can't even tell we were there. We donated the boards and such to a local children's center along with those extra laptops after Gabe cleaned them. We were a hit."

"I know you were," I laughed. "Oh…," I blinked, "speaking of children. I got a call from Val. She put Julie down in Angie's class and said she was sending you a bill and as long as you paid it Julie was in."

"Thank God," he groaned. "That's one less thing to worry about."

"I told her the check would be hefty."

"You know me so well," he smiled. "Are you sure you're up for this? I mean she's almost a teenager. She's going to get lippy soon and you're going to have a toddler at the same time. It's not going to be easy Babe."

"Very little that's easy is worth having, is it," I reminded him. "Ric, I want her with us. I do. I have no doubt that this is the right move for our entire family including her mother."

He leaned over and kissed me and rested his head against mine for a moment, "I love you. If I was Jake right now, I would be… I understand where the kid is at."

"Me too," I nodded.

"And I think you're amazing to tell him to come to Trenton and to adopt him into our family…so to speak."

"So to speak," I agreed.

"You're not trying to find another guy to take over for Mitch, are you?"

"Ass," I rolled my eyes.

"I mean he's a good looking kid and all, but he's a little young for you, don't you think?"

"He's twenty-six," I gaped at him. "It would hardly be cradle robbing."

"Ha, I knew it," he grinned.

"You are such an ass," I got up with a flounce. "Fine, be that way! I won't tell you what we're doing tonight then."

He got up to chase me, "you'll tell me."

I squealed and ran.

We had dinner as a unit at ESPN because we all just wanted to go somewhere loud where we could cut loose and not worry about anything having to do with the case at hand.

Ranger and I shared some overtime fries with chili and cheese as an appetizer. He actually ate almost half of it. I'm not sure, but I think this pregnancy is hitting him in the temple. He knew it too. Even though he'd stop and look at each forkful of decadent fried potato with chili and cheese, he couldn't stop himself. It was weird…in a very good way.

Tank noticed it over his wings, but didn't say a word. But it was almost as though he measured each bite Ranger took as everyone talked.

Then to really flip me out he ordered a Cuban cheeseburger and I had the mahi, I know Tank didn't take real notes, he didn't have a pen. But somewhere in that steel trap of a brain, he noted what was happening. Then we ordered dessert. Ranger shared dessert with me. It was a truly decadent rocky road chocolate concoction and I'm pretty sure he ate more than I did.

We left the restaurant for a walk along the boardwalk. We'd take a boat to the Magic Kingdom from there and then we had a lot of options as to how to get to our resort from there. I was thinking I needed the walk. I was thinking Ranger needed it even more than I did.

"I know everyone is avoiding talking about it, but is it all right if I ask a question or two," Kate began.

Ranger laughed, "Sure…hit us."

"Okay, first question…Stephanie, how did you know there was a body on TTA to start with?"

I debated how to answer the question. Since I knew she wasn't into Brian that much and probably wouldn't be around as much as I'd originally thought, I decided to temper my answer. "When we went around the first time, I felt like there was something wrong with what I'd seen and I told Ranger."

"And how did you react to that," Cal chuckled.

"Not happily," he groused.

Everyone laughed.

"We are on our freaking honeymoon," he barked and grumbled under his breath.

I snuggled against his arm. "It's okay honey."

"Okay, so you found the body and you reported it and I'm actually following everything until…"

"Until…," Mitch asked.

"Until you guys started putting your suppositions together. I mean, anyone in law enforcement would have made Jake the prime suspect and it would have taken a lot of digging to remove him from that position, but it just didn't seem like he was your number one suspect even at the beginning."

I sighed.

"Babe," Ranger cocked a brow at me.

I took a deep breath, "you know how you've been delivering babies for a while now right. So you check your patient and you say…'you're dilated so far and I think you'll have the baby in ten days'?"

"Yea," she nodded.

"How much of that is based on knowledge?"

"What," she frowned.

"How much of your estimation of when the baby is born is based on knowledge and how much on other factors?"

"Oh," she frowned. "Well, some is knowledge. I don't know, I just have a gut feeling and it's almost always right."

"For me, crime is like that. I have a gut feeling. And like you, it's almost always right. I haven't always trusted it in the past…nor has everyone else, but now we all know to trust my instincts. Does that make sense?"

"It does," she nodded.

"Any more questions," Ranger asked.

"How in the hell did Ali dismantle those two psycho maniacs and live through it and nobody got hurt aside from a small cut on each of her hands?"

Ali laughed.

"I know you just started working for Rangeman."

"That's true, but I'm a tenth degree black-belt, I was a navy seal, and I'm very bendy. I'm a badass."

I laughed.

"I cannot dispute that," Kate agreed with a sigh. "Okay. So the basic gist of it is that you're all highly trained professionals who have actually taken what they've learned over time and begun to apply it to their work to have a greater success rate."

"Yea, just like that," Ranger agreed and helped me climb onto the boat.

"So…Rangeman," Tank began as he and Lula stepped onto the boat behind us with everyone else in line behind them.

"Yes," he said without even turning around. He found us some seats at the back of the boat and let me scoot in first.

"I've known you for a lot of years." Tank dropped to the bench on the other side of the aisle after showing Lula to the inside seat.

"Yep," he agreed.

"I've never seen you put chili cheese fries in your mouth before, and I would have bet my life that you never would have. But just to make sure that I knew we weren't in Kansas anymore, you followed it with a cheeseburger and a chocolate cake thing."

Ranger nodded with a grin, "and you know what Tank…it was fucking fantastic. I had no idea that food could taste that good. You have got to try it."

Tank looked at him like he'd lost his mind.

Brian cracked up laughing, "you know what this is, don't you Ranger?" He said as he leaned against the pole in the aisle.

"Yep…baby bump eating," he grinned and turned back around and kept walking. "If I can keep her pregnant, I can eat like this forever."

"Or until your arteries harden and you have a heart attack and die," Kate muttered.

"I heard that," Ranger called to the front of the boat.

"At least he's still got his hearing," Gabe said seriously.

"He's got more than that," I assured them as the boat left the dock.

Natalie laughed.

"This is actually really good news for us," Cal said to Natalie. "Now we can try some of our favorite recipes on them."

"Oh yea," Natalie said gleefully. "Hear that Stephanie, dinner at our place the first time we get a chance when we get back. Ricardo, prepare to have your taste buds amazed."

"I'm there," he said cheerfully and waved his hand in the air.

"And pie," Cal muttered to Natalie.

"Bring it on," Ranger grinned and turned to look out the window at the passing scenery. The moment the boat docked he stepped off the back and scooped me up over his shoulder and hauled ass toward the resort. "See you guys tomorrow. I'm going to take my honeymoon back right now."

Everyone cheered and clapped as he raced us back to our room with me laughing over his shoulder.

Hours later, and I must emphasize that none of that time was spent sleeping we finally collapsed back against the headboard breathing and relaxing. Yeah, you're jealous and you should be.

"Feel better," I asked.

"I feel like I've taken part of my life back," he sighed and scooted down the bed to nibble on my stomach. "This is what I wanted."

"This," I smiled as my fingers sifted through his hair.

He lifted his head and rested his chin lightly on my stomach and smiled, "yes, this. Just you and me," he kissed my stomach, "and the bean."

"And soon Julie," I said with a smile.

"And soon Julie," he sighed and laid his head on my belly. "All that time ago when we first crossed paths, I never imagined that someday we'd be here and all of my dreams would have come true."

"Yea," I whispered as tears filled my eyes. "But you're so good about keeping your someday promises. You shouldn't be surprised."

"No," he smiled up at me.

"No," I agreed with a happy sigh. "So you're happy?"

"Yea," he sighed. "I'm happy Babe. I'm not content. I'm not satisfied. I'm happy. Imagine that."

I nodded vigorously because I didn't even realize he couldn't see me over the haze of my tears.

He looked up and frowned and sat up and wiped the tears from my cheeks, "what's wrong?"

"You're happy," I choked out.

"That's bad," he asked.

"No," I sobbed and threw my arms around his neck and bawled.

"Babe," he frowned.

"It's good," I wrapped around him tighter and crawled up in his lap. "I love you. God, I love you so much. I am so happy that you're happy."

"Is this about hormones," he asked softly.

I sighed, "No. I'm just happy."

"I think that's how we're supposed to be," he said softly and stroked my back.

"I know," I sighed and relaxed. I leaned back and looked up at him. "All those years ago, a life like this wasn't even on my radar. A life with you wasn't on my radar. You were a guy…you were a guy to dream about, but not to have. And now, the dreams I was too afraid to dream have all come true.

He leaned down and kissed me. "Mine too Babe," he whispered against my lips, "You're the dream I hoped for, but never thought to have."

It was a long time before we slept that night.