I don't own them, and I'm not making any money.

CHAPTER 3

My alarm beeped the next morning and I crawled out of bed cursing whoever invented mornings. Work shouldn't start 'til noon. I was half way to the bathroom when I felt the now familiar nausea and dashed the rest of the way. Thankfully, I managed to keep the contents of my stomach where they belonged, but spent five minutes leaning against the wall waiting for the feeling to pass.

Feeling better, I hauled myself into the shower and did my thing. While toweling off I decided to go to work in spite of the fuss my stomach was making. It wasn't constant and between bouts my stomach felt fine. The worst had been in the morning anyway, and as the day went on I got better. Something in that thought stopped me cold…sick in the morning…morning sickness? SHIT!

I ran to my calendar and flipped it back a month and did some quick calculations and realized I was about four days late. I started to think and a month ago would have fallen right in the middle of the hormonal reaction I had to sugar withdraw. Joe and I had been doing it like bunnies. Oh no… No. Don't panic. I needed to think.

Mary Lou! I needed to call my best friend. She'd know what to do! I grabbed my phone and pressed the speed dial for her house, praying she had the boys off to school already.

"Hello," she answered.

"Help," I gasped into the phone, once again on my way to a meltdown.

"Steph? Honey, what's wrong?"

"Are you free? I need to talk."

"Yeah, I just got the boys on the bus. I'll be right over. It's early, but do we need ice cream?"

Ice cream sounded good, until my stomach lurched at the idea.

"No. No ice cream, just hurry."

"I'll be there in fifteen." And she hung up.

I paced for a few minutes and realized I should have left for work already. I needed to call Ranger, but first I had to calm down or he'd hear the panic in my voice. I walked over to Rex's cage and focused on his little legs blurring as they flew around the wheel, it was like hypnosis and I felt myself calming down. Never underestimate the power of a hamster.

Steeling myself I picked up my phone again and hit the number one button for Ranger's cell. My heart beat faster as I heard it ring and almost hammered out of my chest when he answered.

"Yo, Babe,"

"Yo, yourself," I answered trying to sound normal.

"What's up?"

"Uh, I need the morning off. My stomach is still feeling funny, but I may be in later today."

"Okay, Babe. Are you sure you're alright? You don't sound like yourself."

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Mary Lou's coming to spend the morning with me," I said, hoping that would keep him from coming to check up on me.

"Alright, do you still want the guys to come this morning?"

"Yeah, Mare and I might go back to her house," I said, knowing I wouldn't want to be having the conversation we were going to have around Ranger's men.

"Okay, I'll call you later," and then I heard a dial tone. We seriously needed to talk about his phone manners.

I only had a minute to pace before Mary Lou was knocking on my door. I grabbed my bag and hurried out to join her in the hall.

"Steph, what's going on?" she asked worried.

"I'll tell you in a bit. We need to get out of here, Ranger's guys will be here soon to move stuff and I don't want to talk about this in front of them."

"Move stuff?" she asked and I realized she was really behind on the last few days of my life.

"Yeah, I'll explain that in the car."

On the car ride to her house I explained everything about my apartment building being made into offices and how I found myself with only six days to find somewhere else to live. She was properly sympathetic, but I could tell she was concerned when she realized this wasn't the worst of my problems.

"Why didn't you just move back in with Joe?" she asked out of the blue, as we pulled up to her house. "I know you guys had a fight, but you always make up and you've lived there before."

"I'll tell you about that when we get inside."

As soon as we were in the house she pounced.

"Stephanie Plum, what is going on?"

"Mare, I think I'm in real trouble this time."

I broke into tears as I told her about my last breakup with Joe and how he handled everything. It hurt to tell her that, knowing what I would be telling her in a few minutes. I continued to sob as I told her about the last few days and all the throwing up and my new views on why I can't stand sugar these days. I finished up blubbering about how only I would be realizing this the day that I moved in with another man. My life is so screwed up.

"Steph, Honey, look at me," Mary Lou said, prying me from where I was sobbing on her shoulder.

"I can't do it Mare. I don't know what to do. Kids were never a part of my plan. Still, it only took me half a second this morning to realize that I couldn't get rid of the baby, but I don't want Joe back in my life."

"It's going to be okay," she said in her most calming voice. "You lie down and rest, you're going to make yourself sick. Take a little nap and I'm gonna run to the store and get some tests. When I get back, you'll take them and we'll go from there. Okay?"

I just nodded my head weakly as I let her lay me on the couch and cover me with an afghan. I heard the door open and close and her car pull away from the house, but I felt like I was in shock.

What was I going to do? I couldn't be pregnant. Joe had been the one to want to do the 'marriage and kids' thing, not me, and now he had left me. Thinking about that I realized what I had told Mary Lou before was true. I didn't want him back in my life even facing having his baby. I knew that if I was pregnant I would keep the baby, I was already in love with it and I wasn't sure it was even there yet. But one thing I knew was that I wouldn't be having it with Joe. All he had done was supply the other set of chromosomes. This was mine.

I was in the midst of these protective maternal thoughts when I heard the crunch of gravel telling me Mary Lou was back. This threw me into a panic again and I sat up on the couch and stared at the door.

"You got them?" I asked when she walked into the room.

"Yeah, here," she said handing them to me. "Good luck."

With that I stood and walked into the bathroom. I lined the tests up on the sink, opened them and read the directions for all three. They were all pretty much the same…pee on the stick wait a bit and check the little results window. I could do that. I unzipped my jeans and grabbed the first stick…nothing happened, I couldn't go.

I walked back into the living room where I found Mare sitting on the couch nervously chewing on a fingernail.

"Come on," she said, after taking one look at me. She stood and grabbed my arm dragging me to the kitchen.

"What…?" I said, confused.

"I should have thought of it before leaving," she muttered, handing me a glass of water. "Drink that, refill it and drink another. Then go sit in the bathroom and before you know it you won't be able to hold it despite the nerves."

I just gave her a weak smile before emptying the glass and repeating like she told me. Then I hustled back to the bathroom and waited. Just like Mary Lou had said, it wasn't long before I had to go and go bad. I threw the tests one last nervous look before grabbing them and doing my thing.

As soon as I was done and had put all of the tests on their respective boxes I washed my hands and bolted from the room. I couldn't wait in there with the tests just staring at me.

"Come here, Honey," Mare said holding out her arms when she saw me.

I went willingly to my best friend for a hug. When she released me I leaned back and stared straight ahead before focusing on Mary Lou again. "Thank you," I said, realizing how much easier this was with her here.

"What else could I do?" she asked. "Do you remember when I got pregnant with Mikey?"

"How could I forget?" I gasped. It had been two weeks before Mare's wedding and she called me sobbing. We drove two hours to get the test since she didn't want anyone to know and I sat beside her just like she was doing for me while we waited for it to develop. It felt like forever ago.

"That worked out and so will this," she said, rubbing my back. "Your tests should be done. Do you want me to come with you to look at them?"

"No, I'll be fine."

I pulled myself up off the couch and walked to the bathroom with a funny feeling in my stomach. This was different from the last few days. It was all nerves, but I still felt like I was gonna loose another meal.

I summoned up all of my courage and picked up the first test and saw a little pink dot. I checked what that meant in the directions and moved on to the next test. This one had two lines in the window. I checked the directions again for what it meant before moving on to the last test. This one had a blue smiley face and according to the directions it was saying the same thing as the other two…I was pregnant.

I walked out of the bathroom with a dazed smile on my face and turned to find Mare waiting for me.

"Soooo?" she asked.

"I'm having a baby," I said as the realization finally hit me that I, Stephanie Plum, was having a baby. Yikes.

A/N: I don't know much about pregnancy tests or morning sickness so sorry for any mistakes.

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