Author: Ren Kayashima
Rating: T
Disclaimer: It is sad to say that my attempt to get the rights to the Stephanie Plum characters was unsuccessful. They still belong to Janet Evanovich, who is one lucky person for having a mind like that.
This is the second story in a series. The first story is The Best Kept Secrets. I recommend you read it if you haven't, or you may be lost.
0o0o0o0
Chapter One:
September 6, 2011
Stephanie Plum had lived a very interesting life. From the time when she was a little girl and thought she could fly off of her parent's garage, to the day she lost her virginity behind the éclair case to the infamous Joseph Morelli. There was her somewhat embarrassing, yet surprisingly impressive career as a bounty hunter for her cousin Vinnie, and four years of built up sexual tension between herself and the devilishly handsome Carlos Manoso. But possibly the most interesting thing about her life was her daughter who seemed to inherit Stephanie's natural propensity for trouble. It was all very interesting to say the least, and it was only guaranteed to become more interesting in the coming months.
Almost eighteen years ago, Stephanie had been raped while visiting a friend in New York, and for almost that long as well, she had managed to keep her daughter a secret. It hadn't been easy, but she wasn't without help. After she had been beaten and left for garbage in a dark alley, a Good Samaritan by the name of Cayden McAllister had come to Stephanie's rescue. He took her to this home, and over time the two had become best friends. Cayden even adopted Allegra when she had been born. Along with Cayden, only three other people in Stephanie's inner circle knew about her pregnancy: Mary Lou, Grandma Mazur, and her father.
It had been eight months since Trenton found out about Stephanie's best kept secret, and things had finally fallen into a rhythm. Stephanie left her sparsely furnished apartment, and moved in with Cayden and Allegra in Princeton proper. She finally figured out her feeling for Ranger weren't purely sexual, and started a long anticipated relationship with him. After years of an on again off again relationship with Morelli, the two had been permanently locked into the friend zone, and they were both okay with that. Ranger's daughter was now living in New Jersey with them so it felt more like a family than ever before.
There were still a couple downsides, like the attempted rape of Allegra and later Stephanie's own rapist escaping jail and coming after her and their daughter. But for the most part, things were looking up for Stephanie, and she was welcoming it with open arms.
Ranger and Stephanie were even engaged, which was perhaps the best part of everything. It was a thought that made her heart pitter patter with glee every time she looked at the small, simple diamond ring.
He proposed the day of their house warming party. He had pulled her from the loud house to the quiet, and more private, atmosphere of the backyard. Ranger never made big shows of emotion, so the backyard would be the perfect small setting. It was away from the rest of the guest, and he could do what he wanted to do without being interrupted. Unfortunately, Fate didn't like to listen to everyone.
0o0
June 23, 2011
Ranger reached into his cargo pants and pulled out an elegant red box. Stephanie felt her heart jump out of her chest as she realized what Ranger was about to do.
"Stephanie Plum, will you marry me?" he asked earnestly as he got down on one knew. Even he knew that this was not how he would normally express himself in this way, but Stephanie wasn't normal and this question called for tradition.
Stephanie swallowed as she moved a hand to cover her mouth. Tears sprung up in her eyes as the small diamond sparkled in the sunlight. "Oh," she whispered. She met Ranger's gentle gaze and smiled. "Yes," she said simply as the tears started to fall. "God yes!" she exclaimed as she threw her arms around his neck.
Ranger wrapped his arms around his love's waist to make sure the two of them didn't fall on the ground. He didn't expect her to say no, but it still thrilled him to hear her say yes.
Helen Plum had been working in the kitchen catering to the whims of every house guest as Allegra played the piano. Stephanie had disappeared, but she wasn't the kind of person who knew how to entertain anyway, so Helen was happy to take up hostly duties.
It was by chance that Helen looked out the sliding doors just as Ranger slipped a ring on her daughter's finger. It didn't take long for the mother to figure out that Ranger had just proposed and Stephanie had said yes. Helen gasped as Tank walked over to the fridge to grab some water. HE curiously walked over and felt himself smiled. Ranger had finally done it.
"He proposed," Helen whispered happily before it settled in. "He proposed!" she exclaimed.
The music from the piano stopped abruptly as party guest moved to the kitchen to see what had Helen Plum so excited. Helen pointed out the window and everyone's attention was then drawn to the newly engaged couple.
"Move," Allegra McAllister grunted as she bobbed and weaved through the large crowd. He white hair stood out as people were pushed and shoved. Her petit five foot tall frame bumped into Tank. She looked up and winced when the kitchen light his her sensitive albino eyes. "What's going on?" she asked Ranger's right hand man.
Tank bent down and lifted Allegra up so she could see over everyone else in the kitchen. Allegra braced her hands on Tank's shoulders. "Ranger asked your mom to marry him," he grunted.
Allegra tapped Tank to put her down. "Finally," she sighed. "Took the man long enough to get his head out of the sand."
Tank laughed as Helen found her husband. Helen started to cry tears of joy as Frank took her hand. "She's getting married."
Allegra opened the sliding door to get away from the crowd. She quickly squeezed through the small opening and shut the door as she smiled at Ranger and her mom. "Gram dropped the bomb on everyone. Have fun explaining everything, I'm going to avoid people on the front porch."
Stephanie buried her face in Ranger's chest in slight embarrassment. Everyone had their noses pressed against the glass, and she knew that her private moment with Ranger would now be the buzz of the Burg tomorrow morning.
0o0
Stephanie heard the front door open and glanced at the wall clock. School got out twenty minutes ago. "Mom," Allegra called from the front of the house. "We're home."
Stephanie sighed as she stood up. Allegra and Julie went to Princeton High School together along with their friends. Allegra was scheduled to take some of her core classes at Princeton University, but gave up the opportunity so that she and Julie could spend more time together in a regular school setting. The two teenagers came in with their backpacks in hand.
"How was school?" Stephanie asked.
Julie smiled and dropped her backpack on the ground. "I'm so happy to be going to school with everyone. Zook and I can finally hang out with the rest of the Wonderland Brigade." Julie was referring to the rest of Allegra's friends, who had all been given nicknames from Lewis Carol's Through the Looking Glass and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Julie was the Cheshire Cat and Allegra was Alice.
"Yeah," Stephanie smiled. Zook's mother had managed to snag a full time receptionist job in Princeton (and Cayden swore that he had nothing to do with it), so her son had been successfully transferred to the local high school. It was only by 'coincidence' that it was Julie and Allegra's school. In the previous school year, Zook and Julie had finished the year in Trenton.
"Mrs. Covington gave us our first reading assignment for American Lit," Allegra sighed as she slipped her messenger bag off of her shoulder after she dropped a stack of books on the coffee table. Stephanie winced at the loud smack it made against the wood.
"Why don't we get you a bigger backpack," Stephanie suggested. "I'm sure it would be easier to carry everything."
"I'm fine," Allegra stated as she moved over to the couch to sit down. She fell into the plush cushions and let out a content sigh.
"Can I borrow Red Riding Hood?" Stephanie asked referring to Allegra's old Volkswagen Beetle that had been painted Candy Apple Red.
"You aren't going after skips are you?" Allegra asked warily.
"No, I'm just going to check in with Connie and Lula," Stephanie almost moaned. Given her talent for blowing up cards, her daughter had yet to let her borrow the Bug. It was her precious car, and if anything happened to it, Stephanie was sure that her daughter would probably go postal.
Allegra bit her lip before pulled her car keys from her bag. "Okay," she said. "I just want my car in one piece when you get home. Where's Ranger's second car?"
"Ranger took it back to Rangeman to have standard maintenance done on it," Stephanie answered as she started tapping her foot. "Try and get the majority of your homework done before Cayden gets home. I think he's ordering Chinese tonight."
Allegra smiled and nodded. "I'll help Julie on her math if she needs it again."
"I'm perfectly fine when it comes to math!" Julie stated adamantly.
Allegra pulled the car keys off of a ring of souvenir key rings and handed them to Stephanie.
"Thank you," Stephanie smiled as she walked over to her large purse. "I'll see you two later. Happy studying."
"We'll try," Julie muttered.
0o0o0o0
Author's Note: Okay, so this should have been out like… four months ago, but I just couldn't seem to write a beginning that I actually liked. I'm still not sure how I feel about this chapter, but it recapped the important parts of the last story while also presenting you guys with some new information. I hope you guys enjoy it.
It's the middle of National Novel Writing Month, so The Best Intentions is one project that I'm working on when I'm not trying to get to that glorified 50,000 words in just a month's time. I seem to be okay so far. I'm currently at 16,586 words, so I don't need to worry too much about the word count thing.
Anywho, leave me a review, and I'll see about getting the next chapter out ASAP.
Shane