They're not mine, and I'm not making any money.

Chapter 5

Once Ella was gone, so was my excuse not to call Joe, so I grabbed the phone and steeled my resolve. Settling down at the bar I dialed while eating the soup Ella had left…liquid courage, I thought.

"Hello," Joe answered after a few rings.

"Joe," I said.

"What do you want Stephanie?"

"Ummm, we need to talk."

"I told you last week I'm done with our on again/off again routine. No amount of talking is going to change that."

"I get that Joe, but…"

"I don't think you do, or you wouldn't be calling," he interrupted.

"Joe, I'm pregnant."

"Nice try, Stephanie. Now tell me how you heard so quickly."

"Heard what?" I asked, confused. This was definitely not the reaction I was expecting.

"Jenn's pregnant. We just told my mom and Grandma Bella today."

Shit. He thought I heard about that through the Burg Grapevine and was saying I was pregnant to try to get him back.

"Joe, I'm not making this up," I said. "I don't want you in my life or my baby's I just thought you had a right to know."

"Okay, Steph," he said with a small chuckle that told me he still didn't believe me. "And just so you don't try any other stunts like this, Jenn and I are getting married this weekend."

"Fine by me," I yelled into the phone and hung up.

I glanced at my half eaten soup, but I had suddenly lost my appetite, so I slid off my stool and wandered into the living room where I collapsed on the couch. I didn't think it would hurt that much to tell him about the baby, and maybe it didn't. Maybe it was the fact that he refused to accept the existence of the life we created. That he thought it was a trick or a joke. I broke into sobs and cried like my heart was breaking. I already loved my baby so much and that he could dismiss it like that hurt more than I would admit.

I don't know how much later it was when I was still crying and I heard the door open.

"Babe. What's wrong?" Ranger asked, rushing over to where I was on the couch.

"Jenn's pregnant," I sobbed.

"Babe?" he asked and I realized that didn't make any sense.

"The woman Morelli's with. She's pregnant and they told his mom and Grandma Bella today so he thought I was just trying to get him back when I told him I was pregnant."

"Oh, Babe," Ranger said scooping me up in his arms and cradling me to his chest. I continued to cry, while he murmured softly in Spanish until I drifted into an exhausted sleep.

The next thing I knew, I was waking up to my stomach growling. I spent a minute confused while I figured out where I was and why there was a heavy arm wrapped around my waist, and heat at my back. Then it all came back to me…living with Ranger…baby…Joe's still scum.

I went back to that 'baby' part and focused on the feeling in my stomach. I decided it was more hungry than a need run for the bathroom, so I carefully started to move the arm that was holding onto me. I was just about free, when a loud beeping filled the room, making me jump about a mile.

"You 'kay, Babe?" Ranger asked with a sleepy smile as he switched off the alarm.

"Yeah, I was just trying to get free so I could get a snack when your alarm went off."

"Okay, I'm going for a run. You wanna come?"

"Not a chance," I said.

"Then enjoy your snack," he told me, before grabbing a pair of sweats and disappearing into the bathroom.

Five minutes later I was munching on granola clusters when Ranger wandered into the kitchen wearing sweats and a black tank top. He peeked in my bowl and raised an eyebrow.

"You and the baby seem to have the same taste in food," I said by way of explanation.

"Poor, Babe," Ranger said as he filled a water bottle.

"Hey, it's staying in my stomach, so I'm happy."

"Then, enjoy your granola, Babe," Ranger said, as he headed out the door.

I did enjoy and when I finished it up I went back into his room and enjoyed having his big, comfy bed all to myself. Not that sharing it with him is a hardship, but it would have been awkward to have to put myself there with him. That got me thinking about how I got there in the first place. I must have fallen asleep while crying and Ranger put me to bed. Uh oh, I thought looking down my body for the first time. I was wearing one of Ranger's large black t-shirts and a quick peek underneath reassured me that I was still in my bra and underwear. It's not like he hadn't seen it all before, but I was kind of trying to avoid that sort of thing.

Oh well. I decided that I was definitely going to work today, so I reached over and set Ranger's alarm to ring again at eight and promptly dozed off.

The alarm rang and I hauled myself out of bed, fighting through a wave of nausea as I padded into the bathroom. It was still a little steamy so I figured that Ranger had come and gone after his run. I was just finishing up my shower when I felt the nausea come back full force. I barely had time to wrap a towel around myself before loosing it into the toilet.

"Come on, baby," I said looking at my stomach. "I thought we were over this. We made it all the way through yesterday without throwing up once. Can you please take it easy on me?"

I sighed, wondering if it was normal to address your fetus. Not that I really cared about normal, I was kind of thinking it would be nice to always have someone around to talk to.

I finished up in the bathroom, going light on the makeup and running some gel through my hair, hoping it would do the trick for the day.

"Hey, kiddo," I said as I fought my riot of curls, "you better hope you have the scum ball's hair and not mine."

I exited the bathroom and wandered into Ranger's closet, getting a look at where Ella had put my things. I only had to search for a minute to find my Rangeman uniform and slipped into the tight pants and short shirt, wondering how much longer I'd be able to wear them.

"Ella left breakfast," I heard from the kitchen when I emerged from the bedroom.

"Okay," I said wandering over to the platter of bagels and fruit, grabbing an apple and some grapes.

"How're you feeling this morning?"

"Okay, I only was sick for about twenty minutes while I was getting ready."

"That's good, but it's not what I was talking about. I meant how do you feel about last night? You were pretty upset. Do I need to find Joe and throw him out a window or something?"

"No, nothing like that," I said quickly, just incase he was serious. "I'll be okay. I just didn't think Joe could dismiss the baby like that. I guess it helps that he has another on the way from his soon to be wife."

"Wife?" asked Ranger.

"Yeah, they're getting married this weekend. Everyone's going to know the whole story and they're all going to feel sorry for me. I hate that."

"Just ignore it, Babe. It'll die down."

"I know," I said and munched on my fruit in silence for a few minutes.

"Are you going to tell the guys?" Ranger asked.

"About being pregnant or Joe being an asshole?"

"About being pregnant. But they're going to find out about Joe, then I'll have my hands full making sure Morelli stays in one piece. Are you sure that's what you want?"

"Yes! And I wasn't planning on telling them for a while. Why?"

"Well you can't keep taking self defense lessons and getting hit, kicked and thrown around if you're pregnant. It's bad for the baby."

"I didn't even think about that," I gasped. "I missed two days in a row of work, so Tank's going to be right on my case about having a lesson today."

"Yeah, Babe. They've been asking what's up with you so you better tell them."

"Alright. I'll tell Tank, Bobby and Lester since they're my teachers and then let gossip do the trick."

"Actually, Babe, they're all going to find out pretty quickly."

"How's that?" I asked suddenly suspicious.

"You're off all field rotations until after the baby's born."

"But I only do distraction and stakeouts. Nothing ever happens on stakeouts," I protested.

"Check out your contract. All expectant parents, male or female, are removed from all field work until at least three months after their child is delivered."

"Ranger," I whined.

"It's non-negotiable, Babe. I had that written in after one of my guys in Miami was killed while his wife was pregnant."

"I never really liked stakeouts any ways," I grumbled, suddenly seeing the wisdom of being careful 'til baby is born.

"Good," Ranger said, smiling. "Are you ready to head down to work?"

"I like this whole 'heading down to work' thing instead of driving," I said as we walked to the elevator.

"That's good Babe, because I was going to ask you to stay, at least until after the baby's born. I don't know how long you were planning on staying but I want you here until then."

"Ranger, I can't…"

"Babe," he cut me off in a stern voice, knowing I wouldn't come up with a good reason to leave.

"Fine," I agreed, wondering why I would protest in the first place.

My in-box was out of control when I made it to my desk and I was frantically doing searches trying to catch up when the first of the three amigos came to my desk.

I felt a shadow and looked up and up some more to find Tank standing over me.

"Hey, Tank. What's up?" I asked.

"Just coming to see when you wanted to do a lesson today."

"Ummm, about that…" I said. "I can't do them any more."

"What's the excuse this week?" asked Tank, knowing how I try to get out of training.

"I'm pregnant and it would be bad for the baby."

"Funny, Bomber. I'll see you in the gym at one." And he started to walk away.

"Tank! I'm serious." I said.

"Bombshell, you can't be pregnant. You and Morelli split and you and Ranger haven't…You're having Ranger's baby!"

"Why does everyone think it's Rangers?" I said exasperated. "Morelli is the father and yes, we broke up and no, we're not getting back together."

"Easy, girl," he said holding up his hands. "I get it, you're pregnant, Morelli's the daddy, no training."

"Morelli is not the daddy, he's just the other half of the DNA. He is no longer a part of either of our lives and will not be a daddy to this child," I said placing my hands on my stomach once again in a protective manner.

"Other than some obvious aggression towards Morelli, are you doing okay?" he asked suddenly concerned.

"Pretty good, I guess," I said shrugging my shoulders. "Morning sickness is turning out to be a bitch, though."

"Poor, Bomber, and you love your food so much. Well, I'm gonna go make plans for my free afternoon," Tank said, starting to walk away again, before turning back with a huge grin. "Oh, and congratulations."

I made it two hours before I was interrupted again. I was just getting to where my pile of searches was looking conquerable when Bobby and Lester showed up with shit eating grins on their faces.

"Hey, Bomber," said Lester.

"We just heard some interesting news from Tank," said Bobby.

"Oh?" I asked.

"Yeah, he seems to think you're pregnant," said Lester with a huge smile.

"Well, that would be because I am."

Without saying anything else, Bobby scooped me out of my chair and I found myself squished between him and Lester as they hugged me 'til I couldn't breath.

"Guys. Air," I gasped.

"Oh, sorry, Bomber," said Lester.

"What's Morelli think?" asked Bobby. "You two gonna tie the knot?"

"No, Morelli and I are not getting married," I said, proud of myself that this time I managed to stay calm. "And as for what he thinks, he doesn't believe that I'm pregnant."

"What?" yelled Lester.

"He thinks I'm trying to trick him into coming back to me," I said, enjoying the indignant expressions on their faces.

"What an idiot," said Bobby.

"Idiot's a little mild," growled Lester

"Little ears now, man," said Bobby, giving my stomach a pointed look.

"Guess we should start practicing. If you need anything, let us know okay?" said Lester.

"I will, thanks guys."

"Welcome, Bomber and congrats," they said as the left.

Now that my co-workers knew I figured I should probably let my friends know. Connie and Lula would kill me if I didn't tell them soon. I checked the clock and saw that it was about lunch time so I headed out of the building, giving the camera in the garage a finger wave. Just like I expected, I found my car there. Ranger is anything, if not efficient.

On my way to the office I decided to pick up a pizza at Pino's for the girls and a salad for myself. That should distract them for about half a second. While waiting I gave my mom and Mary Lou quick calls letting them know what I was doing so they were prepared for the calls they would get and they knew that they could confirm rumors of my pregnancy.

Fifteen minutes later, I was pulling up in front of the office and steeling my resolve for the interrogation ahead. I only had about half an hour before I would have to get back to work so I had just enough time to give them the details and not enough for them to grill me unmercifully. Perfect.

"Hey, girls," I said swinging through the door.

"Girl, where you been?" asked Lula. "We ain't seen your skinny white ass around here in days."

"Been a little under the weather." I said. "I have pizza."

Just like I thought that distracted them for all of two seconds.

"Girl something looks different about you," said Lula.

"And why are you eating a salad?" asked Connie.

"Well I thought I'd tell you before it hit the rumor mill…" I said before I was interrupted by Connie.

"We already know about Morelli breaking up with you for some chick in Philly," said Connie.

"Yeah, that and the fact that she's pregnant and they're getting married was old news by this morning," said Lula.

"Now, everyone wants to know how you're holding up," added Connie.

"Is that it? What I was going to say, before I was interrupted was that I'm pregnant."

Both of them jumped up and started squealing at the same time. I, once again, found myself squeezed between two people unable to breathe.

"Girls. Air," I said hoping it worked on them too.

"Oh, sorry, girlfriend," said Lula as they let go.

"Hey, why's Morelli marrying that other chick if you're pregnant with his kid too?" asked Connie.

"Who says it's Supercop's kid," said Lula. "Maybe it's a little Bat Baby."

"Ranger is not the father!" I found myself saying once again. "Why does everyone think that?"

"Have you not been in the room whenever you two are together? Sparks fly, you look at each other like lunch," said Connie.

"And you didn't answer Connie," said Lula. "If you got yourself a mini Supercop, why is he marrying that other skinny ass white chick?"

"Because she's gonna be a perfect Burg wife and he finally realized there's no way I'd ever come close."

"Humph," was all Lula could come up with to that.

We spent the remainder of our time with them questioning me and me answering until they had the whole story of Morelli leaving and me realizing I was pregnant. Lula wanted to 'bust a cap in his ass' and Connie offered the services of her family, but I turned them down. I didn't want Morelli hurt, I just never wanted to see him again.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed it…please review!