Disclaimer: If you knew someone before I wrote this, then I don't own this.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter, it means a lot!
A very special thanks to Christie (MagnificantSin) who beta-read this chapter for and caught a big mistake.

&&&&&

At five fifty-five I was sitting in front of my parents house with Ranger, trying my best to come up with a way to get out of this. I saw Morelli's SUV parked across the street and I knew he was already inside. Both my mother and Grandma Mazur were standing at the door waiting for me to get out and join them; it was some instinct all mothers in the Burg had that let them know their daughter was outside.

"Go get 'em, tiger," Ranger said, as I launched myself out of the car.

The plan was to walk right past my family, sit at the table, and not move until it was time to leave. I would talk as little as possible and as soon as I was done with dessert I would be back outside with Ranger and heading back to RangeMan. And as much as I liked the plan, I knew that it was never going to work.

"Is that Ranger in that car?" Grandma Mazur asked, looking around me. Today she was wearing a lime green jogging suit, a lime green sweatband on her forehead, and lime green running shoes. Her hair was done up in her perm and she had on the brightest red lipstick I had ever seen.

"Yes, that's Ranger in the car. He's just dropping me off since I'm without a car." I got passed grandma, hoping that their attention would be diverted by the fact that another car of mine was now in car heaven, but my mother was blocking my way.

"Well, why don't you invite him in for dinner?" Grandma asked.

"I'll set an extra place," my mother said. And before I could do anything the wheels were in motion.

Grandma Mazur was walking down to Ranger, mumbling something about the size of his car. My mother was in the house scrambling for an extra place setting and another chair, and Morelli was at the door, looking down at me.

"What's going on?"

"I think my family is forcing food down Ranger's throat."

Morelli tried to smile as his face got tight, and I knew he was going to say something, but I felt Ranger's hand on the back of my neck and grandma was pulling them both in the door.

Grandma Mazur moved in with my mom and dad when Grandpa Mazur left to play the big poker game in the sky. My dad used to keep a .45 in the house, but when grandma moved in my mother wisely got rid of it. Grandma and Dad didn't always get along, and on one specific occasion Grandma had moved in with me to get away from him. Most of the time I thought Grandma Mazur was a riot, then again, I didn't live with her. She was currently dragging the two men in my life into the dining room to have a family dinner.

Wait until the Burg heard about this.

I followed my family into the dining room where my dad was already sitting at the end of the table, fork and knife in hand. My mother would sit on the other end, Grandma Mazur to her left, and I would sit next to ... I had no idea.

"Ranger!" my grandmother said from her seat, waving her hand around. "Come sit next to me dear." Ranger smiled and walked over to her, taking a seat beside her.

"It would be my pleasure." I think Grandma was blushing.

I sat down across from Ranger with Joe next to me, almost afraid of the conversation that was going to happen. My mother had all the food on the table already and it was being passed around. Meatloaf with mashed potatoes, string beans, and corn. I almost fell off my seat when Ranger actually took the meatloaf.

"I thought your body was a temple?" I asked, moving my meat around in my mashed potatoes before taking a bite. Ranger smiled and ate a forkful of string beans.

"It is. Doesn't mean I can't have a good home cooked meal every once in a while."

"Let me ask you something," Grandma said looking over at Ranger. "I have a Glock, but I was thinking about getting something new. Any ideas?"

"Mary, Mother of God," my mother said crossing herself.

My father grumbled something that sounded like crazy old bat.

Joe and I just froze with our food half way to our mouths.

Ranger put a piece of meatloaf in his mouth, before whipping it off with a napkin. "The only people that should have guns are people that need them for work."

"Nonsense," Grandma said now up and rummaging around in her purse. "Everyone has a gun." She pulled hers out. "I saw something on television the other night about how this woman got mugged walking to her car from a store. She said that if she had had a gun she could have defended herself." Grandma was looking at her gun and making 'pow pow' noises as everyone just stared at her.

"For heaven's sake mother, put that thing down!" my mom yelled.

"Don't worry. I don't have in bullets in it, see?" And with that, Grandma Mazur pointed the gun into the kitchen and pulled the trigger, effectively putting a hole in the blender and the wall. "Well, isn't that a pip! I guess I did have one in there." Ranger was up, carefully taking the gun from her hands and making sure there were no more bullets in it.

Joe leaned over to me. "I could have her arrested for carrying concealed." I just glared at him.

"Grandma," I said turning my attention over to her. "Why don't we let Joe take the gun and get rid of it?" Ranger walked over to our side of the table and handed the gun to Joe, who stuck it at his ankle.

My mother cleared her throat. "There was a man here looking for you today, Stephanie. Said his name was Christopher and that he had some information on a case you were working on." Joe stiffened up, I froze, and Ranger took his seat and kept eating green beans. "He was very polite, said he had been trying to get in contact with you for a few days so I gave him your cell phone number." Perfect. "He said he went by your place last night and you weren't home."

"I went out with Joe last night. You remember, I was supposed to come over for dinner but Joe called." Ranger cut his eyes to Joe and Joe was surprised that his name was being mentioned. He gave me a look.

My mother went to open her mouth when the phone rang. Grandma was the first on the scene. After a few minutes of words we couldn't understand, we finally hear,"Well isn't that something?" She hung up the phone and made her way back to the table. We all looked at her as she sat down.

"That was your cousin Shirley, she said Eddie got home from work today and said that Stephanie was on Stark Street last night all dolled up and sticking her leg out."

"Who wants cake?" my mother asked. And before anyone could answer she was in the kitchen crossing herself and tipping. She came back in the room with chocolate cake. "Stephanie, I heard they were hiring at Macy's for make-up girls. I'm going there tomorrow, would you like me to pick-up an application?"

There was a ringing noise coming from Ranger. He looked down at his cell phone. "Excuse me," he said before disappearing towards the front door.

"I like my job, mother," I replied while taking a bit of cake. I think I was in heaven. I might have actually moaned.

"Joseph, talk some sense into her."

Joe shook his head. "I've tried."

Ranger came back into the room and sat down in his chair. Grandma Mazur was eying him the whole way. He looked over at her and smiled.

"I'll tell you, if I was twenty years younger I would be all over you." Ranger laughed. "Stephanie, you are the luckiest girl. You could have either Joseph or Ranger. Personally, I'd take you Ranger, you always look good enough to eat, but I wouldn't mind getting a piece of Joe. He has a behind good enough to sink your teeth into."

Ranger and Joe were laughing, at the same thing, at the same time. I could hardly believe it, nevermind that my grandmother just said she would like to sleep with both of them.

"Thank you, Mrs. Plum, dinner was immaculate; but I'm afraid I have to get back to work," Ranger said while standing up. He was my savior. Ranger looked back at me. "You should probably come, it involves that skip you were working on."

I nodded my heading, shoving the last piece of chocolate cake into my mouth and looked at my mother. "I really need to go and get this guy."

Grandma Mazur stood up. "Let me get my bag and I'll go with you. We'll pop a cap in the scum-bag."

"No!" Everyone screamed at the same time. My dad was still working on his cake.

&&&&&

Morelli, Ranger, and I were standing in front of Morelli's house, staring in disbelief. Our friendly neighborhood Christopher and delivered my skip, Kyle Montelone, to Morelli's front door. How Ranger got the call before Morelli was a mystery to me.

Montelone was wiggling around the cement steps, hands and feet bound together behind him, gag in his mouth, and bare assed. I walked myself over to Ranger's truck and leaned on it watching the commotion.

The police had been there when we arrived. The neighbors called when they saw a suspicious man leave another man on Morelli's porch. At least Joe could rely on his neighbors to watch his back. People break into my apartment all the time and no one seems to notice.

Ranger walked over to me, standing much like I was, arms crossed. "Tank is going to take him down the station for you." I nodded my head. "Morelli is going to take you back to RangeMan. I'm going to stay here and talk to some of the neighbors."

I snorted. "These neighbors won't talk to you, you look like your from the CIA or something."

"That's the point."

"Is Morelli going to stay at RangeMan?"

Ranger shook his head no. "He's just going to make sure you have everything you need in one of the apartments." My stomach did a flip-flop and I guess it showed on my face.

"I'm not that awful of a roommate, am I?"

"Babe, you honestly think I would let Morelli in my apartment?" Point taken.

"Ready to go, Cupcake?" Morelli asked as he got next to us.

I looked over at Ranger. "Sure." Ranger pulled me close to him and kissed the top of my head, then disappeared to question people.

"What was that?" Morelli asked as we got into his truck.

"Nothing." The truth was, I didn't know myself. More and more lately Ranger had been doing little things like that and the truth was that I was getting more confused each time he did something.

The ride to RangeMan was quiet. I couldn't decide if Morelli was angry or confused or what, but knowing him he was at least trying to figure out who this guy was. He had his cop face on and I knew I would get nowhere by just looking at him. Apparently the cops hadn't gotten much information out of the neighbors and Christopher was driving a different car then I had seen the night before.

We got the gates of the RangeMan building and I dug out the keys so that I could open the gate. The trip up to one of the apartments was the same. Lester had met us at the elevators to tell me which apartment I was going to be using and then he disappeared, taking the stairs up instead of the elevator.

We got to my apartment and opened the door with the key that I had been given. I flipped on the light switch and placed my keys in the same silver dish on the sidebar as Ranger had and took a look around. The room was done in a dark hunter green. The couch, carpeting everything dark and beautiful. I would have loved to have this apartment all to myself, but not when Ranger was three floors up. I would much rather be there.

I went into the kitchen and opened the fridge. I wasn't exactly hungry, but I knew that I needed comfort food. Obviously Ella had been notified that I would be using the room and had stocked my fridge full of the essentials - TastyKakes, beer, grapes and carrots for Rex (who had been moved onto my counter) and what looked to be Pino's. I looked in the freezer after grabbing a beer and saw Ben and Jerry's and ice cream cake.

I felt Morelli's arms encircle my waist and I leaned myself back against him, my head resting on his chest. He kissed my neck and I sighed. His hands began to move up my stomach and find their way under my shirt, resting lightly on my chest when I turned around, staring Joe in the eyes. They were chocolate brown, never a good sign for me. Well, it could be a good sign depending on what type of mood I was in.

"Cupcake."

"Joe."

"I think we should try this again. I still care about you. I still think about you. I still worry about you."

I sighed again, but this time because of the direction this conversation was going. If Joe had just kept moving his hands and shut his mouth there would probably be sex going on, but he didn't do that. I don't know why suddenly I was willing to sleep with Joe again. Maybe it was from the events of my latest stalker, I still at times felt safe wrapped up in Joes' arms. Maybe it was the fact that we were in the RangeMan building and I knew if Ranger ever found out heads would probably roll. I was hoping that it was the first maybe, but I had a feeling it was the more the second. I think I might have had a death wish. Or I was subconsciously trying to make Ranger jealous.

"We're not having this conversation, Joe. We both know what happens. You freak out over my job and develop some new disease. I scream at you for wanting me to be what every other woman in the Burg is, and we can't get past that. Until you can understand that I'm not giving up my job to be a housewife, there's nothing more we can do." I leaned up and kissed Joe on the lips lightly, surprised that he would let me. "I meant it when I said I loved you Joe, you know how hard that was for me. But I can't be in a relationship when all we do is fight."

"Even if there's really good sex involved?" he asked looked down at me with that look in his eyes and a smirk on his face. Pig.

"No, not even if really good sex was involved."

Joe leaned down and kissed me on my cheek. "Call me if you need anything."

And with that he turned and walked away. I was amazed that that conversation and seemed to be civilized. That never happened, usually there's fighting over the topic of our relationship. Maybe this meant that we were both growing up a bit.