First Order of Business is to thank Diesel for his most excellent work as my temporary muse. He truly is the best … oh good, he's looking away – listen, he's arrogant and has too much ego and is rapidly sending this story spiralling into the absurd. He's difficult to work with and not…..He is the most reliable muse EVER! So a big round…Oh good. Geez, and he's attention driven. I almost think I'd prefer NO muse to him! But I won't complain too much, because this story is getting written. I Just wish Diesel would appear to help me at times other than 3 a.m.

So.. of course…Diesel needs your reviews to make sure he's doing a good job as my muse. Yes, the spinning and rolling of the screen that you see IS me rolling my eyes. Geez.

Again, written mostly in the middle of the night, and it feels rough, to me. But maybe that's because Diesel and I haven't found a rhythm yet…. Get your minds OUT of the gutter!!!!!

;-)

Chapter 3

"M-Marry you?!" I stammered. What the hell? I looked at the arrow that hung limply from Tank's hands. "What about Elaine?"

"What about her?" Joe looked genuinely puzzled. "She's not important. I want to marry YOU." He insisted.

"No, Joe, you don't." I said softly. "You want to marry Elaine."

"No!" he protested, getting agitated. "I want to marry you. Elaine was just a distraction. I'll even call her, and let her know it's over, right now." He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, flipping it open.

Omigod. I looked at the girls and they looked shocked. Celia's chin was on the floor, and Mary Lou was squeaking. Tank looked similarily shocked. I kicked him in the shin, and he snapped out of it. Thank god he was trained to deal with anything.

"What's her number again?" Joe fretted as he stared at his phone.

"Joe. What are you doing?" Tank said, his voice soft and quiet.

"Gotta tell Elaine it's over so I can marry Stephanie." I was digging through my purse, frantically. I came out with the stun gun and Tank glanced at it, then grabbed it from me. He flipped the switch and as Joe dialed the last digit in Elaine's phone number, Tank reached out and stunned him.

I pulled my cuffs out and we cuffed him quickly.

"He's FTA." I told the growing crowd of witnesses. Tank hefted him up on his shoulder, and we all got up and left in a hurry.

"We'll take him to Mary Lou's van. I'll take him to my apartment." I said, as I walked and dug through my purse. I was looking for that stupid little piece of paper with Diesel's number.

"We'll load him in the Bronco. Mary Lou can go home, and Celia too."

"This didn't happen." I warned them. "Do not breathe a word. I mean it, Mary Lou. This isn't gossip. I need to fix this." Diesel needed to fix this. Mary Lou nodded and hugged me quickly, before we split up and I headed with Tank to the Bronco, shopping bags in hand. We stuffed Morelli into the back seat, along with my purchases, and then headed to my apartment as fast as Tank dared drive. We did, of course, stop very quickly for donuts. I needed sugar in the worst way. As we drove, I dialed Diesel and left a message, demanding his get his ass to my apartment A.S.A.P. It wasn't a very nice message, but I wasn't feeling very nice right now.

Forty minutes later Diesel popped in, literally. Tank and I had Joe tied to a chair in the kitchen - to keep him from escaping - and he was arguing and protesting loudly. Tank stood silent guard over him. Pretty sure he making sure I didn't deck the idiot, as he went on and on about how he was going to marry ME, and how he needed to phone Elaine and break it off so he could marry ME, and he needed to do it NOW! Ooooh, I wanted to stun him again. Tank wouldn't let me, so I was pacing the living room. I'd already called Elaine and told her that we'd run into a problem and Joe would be running late for their date, but he'd call her. He could explain why I called instead of him. Now all that was left was fixing this problem.

"So you have a small problem, huh?" Diesel flashed me a wicked grin.

"Don't know that I'd call this small. What, exactly, haven't you been telling me?" I demanded.

"Well..." Diesel hedged.

"Don't WELL anything. An arrow hit Joe and he damned near ruined his relationship with Elaine! He had his phone out to tell her "sorry Muffin, it's been fun!"! What the HELL is going on?" I needed another donut. I grabbed one and stuffed half in my mouth.

"Cupid ran away, with his arrows, and he's on a mission to destroy love."

"Destroy love." I repeated around a mouthful. Great. Why can't my life ever, EVER be normal?

"Yeah. Pair people up with the wrong people. Make people miserable. Because apparently the rest of us don't take his job "seriously" enough. Geez. All I did was call him 'the lovebug.'" Diesel grinned at me. "He's rather sensitive."

"Ya think?" I scowled at him. I turned and pointed at Joe, who fighting the ropes keeping him restrained to the chair. "Fix that."

Diesel walked over to Joe, and Joe's eyes widened. Probably a nearly naked man wasn't what he was expecting. Then again, the only thing Joe was expecting was to marry ME right now, and that wasn't happening.

Diesel pulled a bag out of his diaper, did some magic thing with his fingers, sprinkled some dust over Joe's head, and stepped back. Joe sneezed once. Twice. Three times. Then...

"Cupcake?"

"Calling the wedding off?" I asked, and I couldn't keep the hope from my tone.

"What wedding?"

"Ours."

Joe went white. "I didn't...do anything...stupid, did I?"

"Like call Elaine and order her out of your life? No. We stunned you before you could actually talk to her."

"You stunned me?!" Joe's eyes narrowed. Then he gave his head a sharp shake as Tank untied and uncuffed him. "What happened?"

"Just a blip." Diesel told him.

"A blip."

"Yeah. A blip." A staring contest started, as Diesel and Joe both tried to silently demand supremacy.

Then Joe shrugged, and looked at his watch. "Shit. I was supposed to meet Elaine a half hour ago."

"I called her and told you you were indisposed and would call her as soon as you could."

Joe looked at me, and let out a breath. "Thanks Cupcake. You're one in a million" He stepped forward and hugged me. "I'm sorry for...well, I don't remember what happened, really."

"Just make sure next time you propose, it's to Elaine." I told him, hugging him back and then stepping out of his arms. "See you thursday!" I told him as he left, flipping his phone open to call Elaine as he walked.

"I'm off too." Tank told me, tugging on one of my curls.

"Plans with Lula?" I asked. Tank just grinned, and closed the door silently behind himself.

"So how does this Cupid thing really work?" I asked once Diesel and I were alone.

"Cupid tags two people for each other."

"With the arrows?"

"With filament, actually. He's just using the arrows for additional drama - he's kind of a drama queen."

"So... He tags these people..with filament. Cupid randomly picks people, tags them, and that's who they life happily ever after with."

"No. Cupid tags people who are already marked as soulmates, at a time when they are in the same vicinity. Everyone in the universe has a pre-determined match. Cupid just allows them to recognize their mate."

I thought about that for a minute. And then I wondered. "Who's mine?"

"You're denser than I thought if you don't know that already." Diesel told me, and then he was gone.

I huffed a sigh, cracked open a Corona, and flopped on the couch. I grabbed the remote and clicked the tv on, flipping through the channels. Nothing good on, Huh. I had sucked back half of the beer and still hadn't managed to finish debating my options when my phone rang.

"Come pay your bill." Ranger greeted me when I answered the phone.

"Again?! I paid you at noon!" Now that I was living in my apartment again, and Sin was still at Ranger's, Ranger had decided that I needed to pay for Sin's disastrous tendancies. Really, it was just his excuse for calling me when he wanted to get me into bed. Like when Joe would tell me that Bob missed me. Yeah. Right. Personally, I would have liked to live at Ranger's with Sin,but I didn't want to overstay my welcome. And really, Ranger isn't exactly shy in taking what he wants. If he had wanted me to stay there, he would have said so.

"You're staying overnight. Bring Rex." Ranger told me, and hung up. I'm easy, so I clicked off the television, dumped the rest of my beer, packed a bag, and grabbed Rex's cage, and my gun, on the way out the door. Ranger would be happy about the gun. I settled Rex's Hamster Habitat snuggly on the passenger seat, and drove to the building on Haywood.

"I need to shower." I told Ranger as he opened the door for me. I did need to shower, and dammit, if he was going to order me over here, I was going to use his shower gel. Sin rocket launched herself off of the counter top at me, hitting my shoulder with a thud. She dug her claws in to hang on and I almost dropped Rex. Actually, I did drop Rex - but Ranger's quick reflexes saved the day, and he caught the cage and relocated it to the counter.

I disengaged Sin's claws and cuddled her. She grabbed at my hair and chewed on it as she purred. Ranger pulled two beers and a plate of cake out of the fridge, and walked back to the couch with it. He muted the game as I sat down beside him. Sin hopped off my lap and curled up on his, the little traitor.

"I hear you've had a marriage proposal." he told me, as he handed me the plate of cake. I stared at it.

"Uh... Why is there cake in your apartment?"

"Figured you'd need it."

"You talked to Tank." I stated. Ranger didn't answer, so I looked up at him. He was looking at me with one eyebrow raised. Well of course he talked to Tank. "Cupid - the real Cupid, arrowed Joe. Joe thought I was his soulmate and proposed."

"Heard you wasted no time tying him up and hauling him away to have your wicked way with him."

"Depends on your definition of wicked way. It's all Diesel's fault this happened." I told him. "How was your afternoon?"

"Long, difficult, and exhausting." Ranger told me. "Now lets discuss why you called Diesel instead of me."

"You don't exactly have the skills needed to roust demons from Joe's mind."

"Sure I do." Ranger disagreed. "One well placed punch woulda done it."

"Ok, You don't have the skills to roust demons from Joe's mind without leaving physical evidence. So do I. Tank wouldn't let me." I said. He couldn't argue with that. "Apparently Cupid - the real Cupid that is - is antagonizing the word by matching people who aren't meant to be. He shot Joe with an arrow and Joe thought we were soulmates." I took a big bite of cake, and was silent until I chewed and swallowed. Then I finished explaining the entire thing to Ranger, without leaving out a detail. I had sensed a slight unease, jealousy even, underneath Ranger's even questioning. When I was done, Ranger slung an arm across my shoulders and I leaned sideways against him as I finished the cake. When I was done, I leaned forward to place the plate on the coffee table.

"Thanks." I sighed, and leaned heavier against Ranger. His arm tightened around my shoulders. "Do you believe in soulmates?" I blurted. I even shocked myself - I had been turning my worries over in my head all day, but I didn't want to sound like a sappy idiot either.

"Not really." He said. "Why?"

"Just curious. It's been a weird day."

"Arrows seem kind of dramatic." Ranger remarked. I knew what he meant - Cupid shooting arrows.

"Yeah. Apparently they aren't necessary. Apparenly Cupid is a drama queen."

"Probably gay, too."

I choked, hard enough that Ranger moved his arm, leaned me forward, and slapped me across the back a couple of times. "I'm ok." I coughed out. Ranger rubbed circles on my back as I coughed a couple more times, then I leaned into him again. His other hand moved to my face, cupping my chin as he brought his lips to mine. He moved forward, shifting me down into the couch, as his tongue touched mine.

Long minutes later he broke the kiss, and pulled away slightly. I opened my eyes to see him staring down at me, his own eyes dark with desire, but also almost pensive. My gaze travelled his face, and I noticed the lines of exhaustion around his eyes and mouth. I reached up and ran my hand through his hair. "You look tired."

"We should go to bed." He said. He got off of me, gathered the beer bottles and plate, and headed to the kitchen with them as I rolled off the couch. We showered together quickly and easily, although Ranger did stop once to kiss me thoroughly, and then we fell into bed together. I hadn't fully realized it but I was really tired too. I snuggled into Ranger, and closed my eyes.

"Mmm..you feel good." I sighed.

"So do you." He whispered in my ear, then rolled us so I was on my back, and he was on top of me. He nudged my legs further apart, and kissed my chin, then my nose. Then he pulled away a bit, and flashed m a wolf grin. "I'll feel even better in a minute." He said, his voice sly, and before I could react he kissed me. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back, and then I was lost.

We stayed tangled together, afterwards. Instead of pulling away and re-arranging us like he usually did, Ranger just rolled over until he was on his back and I was on top of him. One of my hands was buried in his hair, and both of his arms stayed wrapped around my back. I turned my face into his neck and kissed it, closing my eyes. I was lulled to sleep in less than a minute as Ranger rubbed slow circles on my back. My last thought was that I wished he'd told me he loved me.