*-These characters are the property of Janet Evanovich. I make no money from this. Any mistakes are mine.-*

**This chapter will be part Stephanie/ part Ranger P.O.V. This was the only way to get the emotions going through Ranger's head during the big reveal. I wrote it both ways, and the Stephanie only P.O.V I have used up until this point didn't really convey the point like I had wanted- so have patience, I never intended to get inside the head of Carlos Manoso. lol. Also, this is a huge chapter so bear with me with any mistakes that have been made. If you let me know, I will edit.**

Stephanie POV:

I stood in the bathroom braiding Julie's hair in the fishbone braid Ella taught me, and it hit me all at once. I would have been one of those crazy Moms crying when their kid went to Kindergarten.

I have been a "Mama" to Julie for 4 weeks now, and even though I work during the week, she could still visit me during the day. I feel like my heart is being ripped out of my chest, and she is only going to be gone for 8 hours. I seriously need to get a grip.

Julie looked like an absolute angel in her cute little jeans, Sperry shoes, and purple glittery 3/4 length sweater. I took her, and Angie to the mall a few days ago, and they got their ears pierced, so she was wearing the little diamond studs that her Merry Godfather's chipped in to buy both her, and Ang. Those men are so whipped, it is amazingly hilarious.

We headed out a little early to pick up Angie, and stop at the Tasty Pastry for some celebratory/good luck doughnuts, and headed to school. I forced myself not to cry, or act like one of "those Moms" to save Jules the embarrassment of a crazy parent on the first day of her new school, and was pleasantly surprised when she leaned over, gave me a hug and said "Love you, Mama- I promise I will be okay, and I swear I will put my phone on silent." before she got out. I got a "Love you, Auntie Steph" from Ang, and they were on their way in.

I sat in the parking area for a solid 30 minutes making sure she didn't run out crying or something, then realized it was me that was crying. Seriously, hold it together, Steph! I ate the remaining doughnuts, and drove to Mary Lou's house trying to hold my tears in. When I pulled into Mary Lou's house, she was standing on the porch with a half-smile on her face. She met me halfway, and told me I was holding it together better than she imagined, and she needed a Valium on Mikey's first day of Kindergarten. She told me next year I would be throwing a party when Jules went back to school. I highly doubt that.

After more "holding it together" doughnuts, and coffee, I headed back to RangeMan. I went straight into my office, and did a few hours of work to try to get my mind off of worrying about Julie's first day of school in a new place. I know she is an amazing, well-adjusted kid, I just never want her to feel anxious, or nervous. I know this isn't a feasible goal, it's just how I feel.

At 1:30, Tank, Lester, Bobby, and I had a meeting with the realtor about the amazing house that we picked out a few weeks ago. It is an amazing 3 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom house with a pool, and a basement so that we can put in a little home gym, and an open second floor just for Jules. I am seriously dying for this house, and we have them down to $299,500 in our negotiations. I am pretty confident they will take our offer, and hopefully close on the house in a few weeks. The owners are already almost out of it due to a job transfer, so they never argued with our offer of possession at closing.

I am pretty lucky to have all these big, tough men helping me get through this. I will find out by tomorrow morning if they have accepted our offer, and I am a nervous wreck about it, so the guys are heading to Shorty's to grab a table, and I picked up the girls from their first day of school, then met them there. We had a great time talking about the girls first day of school, and eating. The guys seriously adore those little girls.

After eating, and talking for a while, I took Angie home, and we headed back to RangeMan to get Julie showered, and settled in to do her first homework assignments of the year, and get to bed fairly early. Julie was in her room working on homework, and I had some chocolate chip cookies (Ella is a goddess... she can even teach ME how to cook.) in the oven when I heard the pop of the door lock, and my neck started to tingle which can only mean one thing...Ranger is back.

I took a deep breath, and walked into the living room just in time to see him walk into the room. He looked exhausted, skinny, and absolutely breathtaking. We stared at each other for what felt like hours before he finally spoke the one word I have been wanting to hear for 2 months..."Babe."

Ranger POV

I finished the debriefing of my last ever mission at about 3:45 pm, and pulled out my cellphone for the first time in two months to call Tank, only for it to go straight to voicemail. I hung up, and called Lester, and Bobby both with no success.

Dios! I pray something hasn't happened to Stephanie! With my heart in my throat, I quickly called RangeMan, and Cal answered the phone.I asked why the Core Team weren't answering their phones, and he said simply they are offline with Stephanie until 6pm, and if any important calls come in, for him to take the call.

My conversation with Cal hadn't even began to hamper my fears for what could possibly be going on in my Babe's life for the entire Core team to have to be involved. When I asked if Stephanie was in trouble, he only said "not that I know of..."

Clearly, I am going to get no answers until I get home, and find out for myself, so I told Cal to send someone to Newark to get me from the airport in an hour. I disconnected the call with Cal, boarded the plane, and tried my Babe's cell phone, only to get a "not in service" disconnected phone message. Something is seriously going on, and I am going to get to the bottom of it.

I spent the entire 45 minute plane ride trying to figure out what could be going on with my Babe, and how I could tell her my missions were over, and I want to try some sort of relationship with her, as long as the cop is completely out of the picture.

45 short minutes later, I disembarked from the plane, and jumped into the car with Hal to head back home. I looked over at him as we pulled out, and barked out-

"Report!"

"Sir, welcome home. All accounts are in good standing, no major break-in's, or problems with skips. Everything is running smoothly."

"Stephanie?"

"Uhm... Stephanie is quite well, sir. Thriving in her new work environment."

"Vinnie's?"

"No sir, RangeMan. She is seriously amazing at everything that she does."

"Want to elaborate on that? She is working for RangeMan?"

"Sir, I don't really have any details on Stephanie's life, she kind of threatened to kick our asses if we talked about her life to anybody, and I'm not exactly willing to have Stephanie seek revenge on me."

"Are you telling me that you are more afraid of Stephanie Plum, than you are of mat time with me?"

"Sir, I am respectfully telling you that I am so absolutely frightened of Stephanie Plum's bad side, that I would rather have mat time with the entire core team, than piss her off."

"Unfuckingbelievable. My men are scared of a woman who keeps her gun in a cookie jar like Rockford."

"Again sir, respectfully, you have missed a lot in 2 months. You are just going to have to see for yourself."

"Fine. Take me to her apartment."

"Yes, sir."

We spent the rest of the ride in complete silence. Hal in his zone, and I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone. What the hell is going on here?

We pulled into RangeMan, and I raised a questioning brow at Hal. He simply said that Stephanie moved out of her apartment over a month ago for personal reasons, and has been staying in an apartment on the 4th floor.

At this point I had about a million questions, almost no answers, and I was starting to get irritated. Since when do my men not give me sufficient answers to my questions, especially about Stephanie. I pray she hasn't moved on yet, I'm not sure I could handle seeing her be with anyone other than me, especially if it were one of my men. I'm pretty sure that would break me.

I got out of the car at about 6:00 pm, and Tank was waiting for me in the garage. He asked me to come straight to his office before heading to the 4th floor to find out what the hell was going on with Stephanie on my own.

I walked the stairs with Tank in silence, and sat down in the chair across from his desk. He congratulated me on my last mission, and safe return, then looked at me dead in the eyes and said:

"RangeMan... I just wanted to talk to you a minute before you went to see Bomber. First off, she isn't the same woman that she was 2 months ago. She has grown up a lot, and she is scary as hell. Trained, a sharp-shooter, an absolute office dynamo, she has her own office, and has re-vamped all of our payroll. She is pretty much kicking ass, and taking names. Most everything I am going to let her tell you, because she is hell-bent on living her own life now. I just want to warn you, if you say something that upsets her in any way; if you don't get your head out of your ass, and step-up now that your missions are over, I will kick your ass. My little girl has been through way too much the past few months, and you aren't going to crash her sense of self that she has built up. You are either going to step up, or walk away. This is it."

I looked at Tank, and was at a loss for words. I have no idea what has been going on with Steph, but I am about to find out. I gave Tank a nod, and walked to the stairwell, and headed down to 4. I will deal with him later. I don't know who he thinks he is trying to pull authority on me, but I am going to have to make some heads roll once I figure out what the hell is going on with my Babe.

I made it to the door of the apartment Tank said that Stephanie was using, and picked the lock. I immediately smelled fresh chocolate chip cookies, making me think of our first time together after the DeChooch deal. Dios, was I an absolute moron. I pray she lets me make all this up to her, I have a lot of mistakes to make up.

I made it through to the living room at the same time as she did on the other side. Our eyes locked for what seemed like a lifetime, before I gave a half-smile, and said "Babe."

She looked absolutely gorgeous. A little tank top, pajama shorts, and barefoot, with her curls pulled up on her head, and no makeup. I don't think I have ever seen a more beautiful sight in my life. This could be mine if I don't mess this up. Before I could say anything else, I heard a noise from one of the bedrooms, and my blank face immediately slammed down. Does she have a man in my place of business? Is she seeing one of my men? How will I survive this?!

Before any other thoughts crossed my head, I heard a young, oddly familiar female voice shout through the apartment

"Mama! I'm finished with my homework, do you want to check it?"

Uhm... Mama? Does Stephanie have a child I didn't know about? Who is the father? Why didn't she tell me about this? I disclosed to her that I had Julie... does she not trust me?

Stephanie glanced at me before taking a few steps toward the bedroom, and said;

"Sweetie, yes I want to check it- but we uhm... we have company. You need to come out here."

Apparently she is going to introduce me to her child, this couldn't get any more bizarre. I thought Stephanie had an aversion to children? What the hell happened in the two months I was gone?

I was brought back to reality when I looked up to see MY daughter walk through the doorway, stop, look up at me with a breathtaking smile, and jump into my arms, wrapping around me like a vine.

I had a lot of emotions swirling through me, mostly confusion, and pure joy seeing my daughter unexpectedly, but really confusion outweighed everything. Did she call my Babe "Mama?"

I put Julie down, she walked over to Steph, and Steph gave her the sweetest smile I have ever seen, hugged her and the kitchen timer went off. Julie smiled at Steph, and said

"Mama, I will take the cookies out, put them on the cooling rack, and then leave my homework on the snack bar. I think I will give you guys a few minutes alone to talk, and I am going to call Angie and talk to her before I go to sleep. Love you." Then she smiled at me, and walked out.

I just stood there rooted to the same spot in the living room absolutely floored. It takes a lot to floor me, and I am lost here. Never in a million years when Tank said Stephanie isn't the same woman, and grown up did I picture this scenario in my head. This is just... wow.

Stephanie finally spoke up after waiting on Julie to close her bedroom door.

"Ranger... uhm. This isn't exactly how I planned to talk to you about this. I figured you would go to 7, decompress, hell I don't know what you do after missions. I thought I was going to have a little warning before you walked in here to find this bizarre domestic scene play out in front of you. Let's sit down on the couch, and I will explain to you what has happened in the last 2 months."

I finally got my footing, and walked over to the couch, and sat down beside my beautiful Babe. I gave her a nod, and she gave a little smile, then continued talking.

"Well... a short time after you left, I caught Morelli cheating. It wasn't pretty. I have only had one encounter with him since, and it resulted in him slapping me in front of about 75 people, getting body slammed by Tank, and a restraining order issued..."

I opened my mouth to say I was going to kill him, and she put her hand up, and said;

"I promise, you are going to be more outraged, just pace yourself, or you will end up having a stroke. Let me finish before you interrupt, this is a lot of ground to cover."

I nodded my head, absolutely beyond pissed. Morelli is going to die, there is no two ways about it, I'm going to kill him.

"Anyways... I was sitting in my apartment one day about 4 weeks ago, and I got a call sobbing phone call from Jules. Apparently, Rachel and Ron were using her for a check from you, and mistreating her. Not physically but serious emotional abuse. Rachel told her she was ruining her marriage, and she needed to get out. You were in the wind, so she couldn't get you, so she called me."

I have never been so overwhelmed in my life. I have never wanted to kill so many people at once. She kept going...

"Well, I talked to Rachel, and she told me to come get her, and she would sign over all rights to Julie to me. I couldn't leave her in that situation, Ranger. I love her so much, you don't know how much I love that little girl. I came to RangeMan, and we formulated a plan. We headed out that night, flew all night, and met with Aiden in Miami. Aiden hooked me up with an iron-clad agreement, we got Julie, ended up having to call CPS for little Olivia, who by the way is being adopted by Silvio and his wife. Anyways, I went berserk on Rachel, and Ron- threw a lamp at their wall, they were asleep and didn't want to wake up all the while kids were running everywhere."

I just kept staring at her... this is like some kind of full-fledged nightmare. What the hell...

"So... we stayed in Miami at RangeMan for the night, got all the paperwork before a judge, and were approved to head back to Trenton. My apartment wasn't safe enough for me to keep Julie, plus I didn't want her having nightmares from the last experience she had there, so the guys talked me into coming to RangeMan to stay until I saved up the money for a down-payment for a house."

I finally broke my silence, seriously this amazing woman rescued my child for the second time, and has no idea how self-less she is. It is mind-boggling.

"Babe, I... I have no words to describe how amazing I think you are. You are seriously Wonder Woman! You rescued my child for the second time, and want no pats on the back, nothing... I don't know how to thank you. You are the greatest person I have ever met."

And I was telling the truth. I love that woman more than anything, she is perfection in my eyes. She kept going though...

"Thank you, it was nothing though. I didn't just rescue her, she rescued me. She has been the light of my life. I have no words for what she has done for me. We were meant to have each other. I'm not finished though..."

"Okay... I promise I won't interrupt anymore."

"It's okay, just a lot of ground to cover. So, we settled in here, Ella helps me with her, and she spends a lot of time with Val, her and Angie are best friends. I have been doing a little bit of everything here, and they gave me an office... I hope that is okay with you. I have a little area in there that Julie has an easy chair, and she spends time playing on her laptop. Today was her first day of school, so that is why we have homework going on. We found a house, and the guys took me to the realtor's office to finish up negotiations, and then take me, and the girls to Shorty's to celebrate hopefully my first ever house, and the girls' first day of school. I find out about the house by tomorrow."

Well... that explains the guys being offline today. Now that I know what is going on, I'm relieved they were there for her. Maybe I won't be kicking asses today. She kept on talking, but now with a little smile across her face.

"So... all of that has gone on, we have both also been taking self-defense training, and I broke the Burg. I took on Morelli, that's the fight that resulted in the restraining order, and the next day took on my Mom. If you want to see the Morelli fight, just look up -Bombshell Bounty Hunter slays Cop- On YouTube. I have to admit it's pretty epic. Grandma Mazur's friend video'd it, and it went viral. After that, I cut the cord from my Mom, and let out years of pent up aggression, and pretty much told her to stay away from my daughter, and I."

She finally stopped talking, and just looked at me. I guess I can speak now. I have to admit, her last 2 months have been pretty damned impressive.

"Proud of you, Babe. You are finally being the woman I always knew you could be. I am going to table this Rachel/Ron/Morelli/Helen Plum discussion for another time, I'm on overload, and I know you have to be too. How is it going with Julie... are you happy? Is she happy? Do I pick up custody now? How does this work?"

She took a deep breath, then let it out slowly.

"Well... Jules wanted a clean break from Miami, kind of like my break from the Burg. Her only request was a name change to have nothing to do with the Martine's. I couldn't get ahold of you to ask, so I allowed her to change her name to Julie Michelle Manoso. She wanted to honor the two of us, and never have to be a Martine again. I didn't know how you would feel about the situation, especially her last name being Manoso, but she agreed to the serious self-defense classes with me, and we have been working really hard to be able to defend ourselves in the event that either one of our pasts try to get back at us with her. She is always protected, has a panic button, her hello kitty ink pen tracker courtesy of the Core Team, trackers sewn into her shoes, and also her new earrings are diamond trackers. I have taken every step to make sure she leads a normal, but safe life. I want her to feel loved every day of her life. I want her to feel normal, not like she is a check. I want no money for her, and I'm not asking you for anything. If you want to be in Julie's life, I am beyond happy for that. I just don't want her taken from me, because I wouldn't survive it. I have done everything- school shopping, spa days, I have bought her an entire wardrobe because the Martine's refused to let her take a single item with her, I don't want you to have any pressure to have to have a relationship with either of us. I don't want you to be forced into a relationship with either of us out of obligation... that didn't work for you last time, and I don't want you to resent us later on. This is all your decision. NO obligation. I already have the money for a down payment on the house if it goes through, and I am able to stand on my own two feet for once. Julie asked to call me Mama, and she is already my daughter. She is my entire world. I just want you to know I love you, I mean truly love you. I sent mixed signals with the whole Morelli thing, obviously that is over... sorry, I'm rambling. Anyways, I understand why you would have been reluctant to want to be with me. If you have no feelings for me, that is okay. I will be sad, but I still want you to be a part of Julie's life if you want."

Wow... That was one hell of a speech. She is afraid of nothing now. I don't think she realizes that what she did just took more courage than old Stephanie could have ever shown. I'm blown away, she loves me... she loves Julie... I feel like I am waiting on the other shoe to drop.

"Babe, I know I keep saying this, but I am so proud of you. You took on all your fears, took in a child that needed you, and have taken every precaution to keep her safe. That is all I ever wanted for you. Keeping yourself safe makes me feel beyond relieved. I am sick to my stomach over Rachel, and Ron but I can't dwell on that at the moment. I promise though, they will get theirs. As far as my relationship with Julie... I want that second chance. I want her in my life in whatever capacity possible. I appreciate you making it about no obligations, you really don't realize how good of a person you are, you are giving me a chance to make right the two biggest regrets in my life. I didn't step up with Julie before, but I will now, and the biggest regret of my life was walking away from you when I could have had you all this time. I don't deserve the love of either one of you, but I swear I will live the rest of my life trying to be what you both deserve. I love you. I have always loved you. I won't be leaving you again, that was my last mission. My master plan was to wait until I was done with this last mission, and go to you to confess my undying love, but you kinda beat me to it. I can't say I am upset with how it played out, though. This is better than I could have ever expected."

I leaned over, and gave her a soft, sweet kiss on the lips. When I pulled away, we sat looking at each other, trying to soak it in. I'm just stunned that I have a chance to make it right with both Julie, and my Babe. I have to step-up, and it is all on me now. Steph has beyond stepped up in this situation. She has put in her own time, energy, money, and love into taking care of my child all without asking anything in return. She is amazing. I gave her a big smile, and touched our foreheads together.

"We are gonna do this Babe... and it's gonna be good."

She smiled, and nodded her head. I reached over, and pulled her into my lap so I could bury my face in the crook of her neck, and breathe in her amazing scent that I have been missing for these long two months. Dios! I don't deserve this.

A/N: So... Ranger is back. He is a little OOC, but the poor man is a little bit overwhelmed give him a little break. LOL. The man was just thrown through two months worth of events, and emotions in 20 minutes. He is a little frazzled. Hope I did Ranger's return justice, keep up the reviews, and messages. I appreciate them all. :)

xoxo-Brit*