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.

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Chapter Four:

September 16, 2011

Stephanie and Cayden stood in the middle of their living room and gave it an appraising look. It wasn't dirty, but it wasn't tidy either. Scattered around the room were various school supplies, electronic devices, scraps of paper with sketches and written blurbs.

"We need to talk to the girls about taking their things upstairs at the end of the day," Cayden said shaking his head. "They'll clean all of this up when they get back from school. Allegra doesn't have orchestra tonight, so she'll be able to join us for dinner without passing out."

Stephanie laughed lightly. "Well at least there's that," she said. She made her way to the kitchen. "Why don't you go the store, I'll clean the kitchen."

"All of it?" Cayden asked.

"Cayden, I do clean," Stephanie sighed. "Besides, you always use the wrong cleaner on the counters."

"It's all-purpose cleaner!" Cayden exclaimed. "It works on everything. What do you mean 'You always use the wrong cleaner?'"

Stephanie rolled her eyes and walked into the large stainless steel kitchen. She came back out with a sheet of paper and held it out for Cayden to take. "Just get the shopping done. The list is pretty big, so it should keep you busy."

0o0o0o0

Ranger stood in Newark airport with a patience that was only seen around family and friends. After he had left the office to pick up his parents, Tank had called to let him know that there was an unexpected delay on their way up from Florida, so there was an hour long wait. Ranger didn't really see the point in driving back to Trenton, just so he could drive back.

Why his family had retired to Florida, Ranger never really understood, but he had been grateful. Julie had grown up knowing both sets of grandparents, and even a great grandmother. Julie needed to know her family even if Rachel's current husband had adopted Julie. You couldn't deny blood, and Julie loved being with her biological father's grandparents. Possibly because they spoiled her rotten.

Ranger checked his watch and then checked the arrival board. The plane had landed safely and his family would be coming into the baggage claim area any minute now. He felt his phone buzz.

It was a text message from Stephanie. Julie is bouncing off the walls. She can't wait until you all get here.

She likes spending time with her grandparents. They spoil her. Ranger replied.

I sent Allie and Julie to the bakery to grab some éclairs. That should keep them busy for a bit. Bobby and Lester are with them.

Is Julie's room clean?

Spotless, but I think it's all under her bed… Will your grandmother look under there?

Ranger felt his mouth twitch and he looked away from his phone and toward the walkway where recent arrivals flooded through. He heard a small spat going on in the middle of the mass of people and he knew that his family had arrived.

"Lupe, I swear, if you give this girl a hard time in any way, I'll stop going to bridge club with you," a woman stated.

"If she's going to marry Carlos, then I have every right to determine her worth to the Manoso line. I expect more little ones in this family, and she better live up to it," another much older woman responded shrewdly.

"I thought she already had a kid," A man butted in in an effort to keep the growing conversation from getting out of hand. "A girl, Julie's age. It's some weird Italian name."

"It's Allegra, dear," the first woman stated.

"I still don't understand the gay father part," the older woman said. "Is he a sperm donor who just wanted to be in the girl's life?"

"Mama!" the first woman hissed. "We're in a public place. Don't mention such things so loud."

"Carmen, I don't think you'll be able to stop her from saying sperm," the man sighed.

Ranger shook his head. Antonio Manoso, his father, frequently played the role of referee between his mother, Lupe, and his wife, Carmen. It was a common sight, so Ranger wasn't at all surprised to fine the somewhat tall figure of his father separating the two, much shorter women.

Lupe Manoso was just shy of five foot three, but the short stout figure was not to be underestimated. She had dark, piercing eyes that could see a lie form a mile away, a small nose that could small the worst alcohols, and ears like a hawk. Of course, she had to be this way after raising two demon boys only to be handed her delinquent grandson when he was only a teenager, and hardly the respectable man that ran Rangeman Security. Well… he was somewhat respectable.

Carmen Manoso was not to be trifled with either, but she didn't need to scare people into submission like her mother-in-law. No, Carmen possessed a bit of finesse that came with a college degree from New York University, and she was capable of using the deepest forms of logic to get her way. She also knew when to pass the baton, too. While Carlos had never once outright defied his mother (his father was a different story), Carmen knew that Carlos was not headed down a good walk of life as he grew up in New Jersey. A year or two with Lupe Manoso would sort him out, she thought, and as always with her instincts, she had been correct.

Ranger stayed where he was. He was strategically placed at a baggage claim station that advertised the arrival of his parent's flight. He needn't move any further to catch his family's suitcases.

Carmen was the first one to see her son and she let out a cry of joy. "Miho!" she exclaimed as she bustled over.

Ranger obligingly opened his arms out so that Carmen could wrap her arms around him. Carmen pulled his head down a bit so that she could properly greet him with a kiss on the cheek.

"Hi, Mom," Ranger said with a smile.

Lupe and Antonio stood only a few feet away as they waited for their chance to greet Ranger. It had been a while since they had had a chance to spend some time with Ranger. He didn't make nearly as many trips down to Florida now that Julie had been with him for several months now.

"You didn't bring Stephanie with you," Carmen said looking around curiously. She had been hoping that her son's fiancé would be at the airport.

"She's back in Princeton. She wants to make sure that dinner goes well, so there are some last minute preparations," Ranger explained. He didn't plan on bringing Stephanie to begin with. He knew that she was nervous, and getting things ready at the house was more her speed.

Carmen backed away with a smile. "Of course," she said simply. "Well, we look forward to meeting her nonetheless."

Lupe moved forward and stole her grandson away from her daughter-in-law. "Carlos, you look different," she said scrutinizing him carefully. "I see that this Stephanie had added a woman's touch. I just wish that you have brought her to come meet us sooner. I'm not getting any younger."

Ranger smiled. "I've missed you, Abuela."

Lupe patted him on the cheek. "You don't mean that," she chuckled. She quickly changed topics. "Now what's the deal with the whole gay father thing?"

"Abuela, I'm sure we can talk more about this when we get to the house. Cayden, Stephanie, and Allegra are all anxious to meet you," Ranger said giving the best diplomatic response he could muster. He wasn't sure how to tell them that Stephanie had been a nervous wreck for the entire week leading up to their arrival. Tonight had to be perfect.

Ranger gave his father a smile and a curt no, and the family turned to the topic of retirement in Florida. It seemed like the family was doing well. Antonio had taken up a weekly obligation to join a low stakes game of poker with some of the other retirees.

Carmen and Lupe had joined a Hispanic version of the Red Hat Society and they were overjoyed to have activities to do. "It gets so boring when you stay home every day," Lupe said woefully one day when she had called Ranger up.

0o0o0o0

Ranger stepped into the Manoso/McAllister/Plum house carrying two of the suitcases that had come with his family while Antonio dragged his own bag behind him. Antonio, Carmen, and Lupe surveyed the living room.

"There are a lot of books," Antonio said glancing from one full book shelf to another. He wasn't much of a reader himself, but from what Carmen said, the gay father was from a family that was well off. Perhaps they valued old books.

"Cayden is an English Professor at Princeton, Allegra and Julie are also making their way through the book collection while they keep adding more," Ranger explained with a glimmer of a smile.

Julie came running from the kitchen. "Grandma, Abuela!" she cheered. She bounced excitedly as she hugged everyone tightly. He long dark brown hair seemed to grow the more excited she got.

"You've grown a bit," Antonio noticed as his grin grew. He was a happy grandfather and he showed it all the time.

Cayden came out of his downstairs bedroom. He was in a simple pair of khaki pants and a knitted sweater. He was wearing a pair of black rimmed reading glasses that framed his smiling eyes. He held a book in one hand and waved with the other. "Hello," he greeted.

Stephanie poked her head out of the kitchen before she walked out. "Dinner will be ready in about a half hour. I sent Allegra to the store to get something we missed. Julie came back after the trip to the bakery because she didn't want to miss her grandparent's arrival." Stephanie gave Cayden a slightly annoyed look.

Cayden sighed. "I told you, I'm sorry," Cayden said. "Allegra will get the rice, and we'll be sorted."

Ranger narrowed his eyes and turned to face Stephanie. "Babe, Allegra isn't supposed to leave the house while my guys are off duty," Ranger said in a tone of false pleasantness.

"Tank took her," Stephanie said with a stiff smile. "He dropped off something for you to sign. It's up in the office, so he offered to take Allegra to the store so that she could pick up some rice. She also mentioned getting a new brush after the handle on hers broke."

"Why does Allegra need someone from Rangeman to be with her?" Carmen asked as her curiosity had been perked.

"Someone blew up her car," Julie said. "We're all being followed by dad's workers. Allie and I are always together, so Bobby and Lester are the guys who are with us most of the time. When Dad gets home, they leave."

"Oh," Carmen said as she gave her son a reproachful look.

"We're working on it," Ranger said quickly. "Allegra is just safer with other people around. She has a tendency to get in trouble like her mom does, though."

Carmen didn't look pleased. It was almost as if the idea of any child who was in remotest form of danger troubled her. It brought out the mother in her. "We'll talk about this later," she muttered. And they would talk about it. A lot.

The front door shot open and Allegra ran through it. Tank followed quickly behind her. "I've got the rice!" she exclaimed. "I saw Ranger's car, am I too late?"

She stopped next to Cayden and turned around to face the Manoso family.

Lupe let out a high pitched scream as Allegra's eyes turned ever so red in the light. The elderly woman's eyes rolled up into the back of her head as she moved to collapse to the ground. Ranger quickly moved forward and prevented her from falling to the ground where she would hit her head.

"Abuela!" Julie yelped as her father easily picked Lupe up and moved over to the couch.

Allegra looked at the ground as she linked her fingers behind her back. The bag of rice now lay are her feet as she kicked at the hard wood. "You didn't tell them I was an albino, did you?" she asked in a voice just above a whisper.

Ranger looked his grandmother over. "I forgot to mention it," he said. "Does it really matter?"

Allegra ran upstairs before anyone could say anything else. Ranger knew that it did matter, but his Abuela was a little more important. Julie frowned when she heard a door close. "Great," she muttered. She turned to her dad. "Is Abuela going to be okay?"

"She's just a little shocked," Cayden said. "That tends to happen when Allegra comes bursting in on people who don't know about her condition. I suspect you great grandmother screamed because of the red eyes that flashed momentarily."

Lupe moaned and mumbled incoherently. It took another minute for her to open her eyes. "I saw a ghost," she said.

"That was Allegra," Ranger said. "She's an albino."

"They actually exist

"They actually exist?" Lupe asked.

Ranger nodded and grimaced when his father let out an audible snort. "Babe, do you want to see if Allegra is okay?" he asked.

Stephanie didn't answer, but hurried up the stairs and turned down the hall towards Allegra and Julie's bedrooms. While Ranger's family was in town, Julie would be sleeping on the hidden trundle bed in Allegra's room, so that Lupe had a place to sleep.

Lupe sat up and looked at Ranger. Her eyes were red," she whispered.

"They're actually a light purple," Julie supplied. "There's a lack of pigmentation in her eyes which gives them a purplish color regularly. However, this changes when light hits them the right way. The light reflects on a part of the eyes and they look red. Think about it like red-eye on a picture, but in real life. It's the red blood cells you're seeing."

Ranger and Cayden both looked impressed. Julie's cheeks darkened in embarrassment. "Allegra explained it all to me after we met. She wanted to make sure that I knew about some of the things I might see. It's all really interesting."

Stephanie came down the stairs with a small smile. Ranger could see that it was the most she could muster considering the circumstances. "Carlos, she would like to speak to you when you get a chance." S

Ranger blinked. Stephanie had just called him 'Carlos', and he didn't know if this was good or bad. She had always called him Ranger. He looked back to his grandmother when she tugged on his sleeve. She had a small smile on her face. It was forced, but he appreciated the effort.

"Will you apologize for me?" Lupe asked.

"She would probably prefer it if you apologized yourself," Ranger shook his head. He had been around Allegra to know that she preferred apologies from the source.

"Allie doesn't expect you to Apologize," Stephanie said helpfully. "It's happened enough, she just hides away for a bit. She does it to give the people she frightened some space."

Ranger sighed. Every day was a learning experience with this family, and he wouldn't change it. Well, maybe he would make it a little less dangerous. He stood up all the way and looked at his parents. "I'll be back."

He slowly moved upstairs and knocked on Allies door. He heard her give a muffled consent for him to enter the room, and he pushed the door open.

Allegra was lying on her back with a stuffed longhorn sitting on the top of her face. She had picked it up over the summer when her grandparents had taken Julie, Allie, and her twin cousins Wendy and John, to the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas. If Ranger remembered correctly, the longhorn's name was Crockett. Julie had a bison named Travis, the lieutenant colonel who supposedly drew a line in the sand to see who would fight.

Ranger closed the door and glanced around. Julie's school things sat on Allie's desk next to her computer. "I thought you would be sitting in the window seat watching James as he worked on homework," he spoke carefully.

Allegra's window seat gave her a perfect view into her boyfriend's bedroom. Ranger had discovered that they would always talk when they were by their window. They wouldn't have to leave the house, but they could still see each other. He couldn't really understand it seeing as they spent every day at school with each other and then there was the night time orchestra practice.

"That doesn't sound creepy," Allegra mumbled. "He's not home. They took his younger sister to the mall to get her ears pierced for her tenth birthday. He went with to hold her hand. He also mentioned early Christmas shopping."

Ranger moved over to the queen sized bed and found that the twin trundle had yet to be pulled out. "I thought your mom told you to have the trundle set up before my family got her."

"Why?" Allegra asked. "This bed can handle two teenage girls. I only pull the trundle out when Wendy is with us."

Ranger stood there and stared at the longhorn covering the high school junior's face. She patted the open spot of the bed next to her. "Lay down, please," she ordered. "Make sure you take your shoes off."

Ranger looked at the desk chair and thought about how much he would have preferred to sit there with his shoes on, but knowing how stubborn Allegra could get (much like her mother), she wouldn't talk unless she was ready. This reminded the former ranger about climbing a tree just to talk to her. There was also the time when she stopped by his office for a chat.

It took him a minute to get settled on the bed next to the petite teenager. He rested his hands on his stomach and started at the gray ceiling. It was so bland compared to the rest of the room, but what could you do with a grey ceiling. Julie's room had a bunch of hand painted sunset clouds on her ceiling. Allegra's was just blank.

"Is your grandmother okay?" Allegra asked to break the silence.

"She's fine; she was just shocked a little."

"She feinted," Allie sighed. "I wouldn't call that a little shock."

"Nothing gets by you." Ranger stated sardonically.

"I should have expected it," Allie shrugged. She pulled Crockett off of her face and turned towards Ranger. "I guess it's just been a long time since it's happened I forgot that people can find my appearance to be the slightest bit unsettling."

"When was the last time it happened?" Ranger asked. He kept his eyes on the ceiling even though he could feel Allegra's purple eyes staring at him.

Allegra closed her eyes and tried to remember. "I was thirteen. Dad's teaching assistant came in on her first day. Dad hadn't had a chance to tell her I was albino and that I spent a lot of time in his office. She screamed so shrilly that another professor called campus security."

"Did you run away then?"

Allegra shook her head. "I hid behind my dad's desk and read a new book while he tried to sort everything out. He's used to explaining it all. The cop talked to me for a few minutes, but he could never look me in the eye. Then it was all over," she explained. "Are you sure your grandmother is all right?"

"She's okay. Are you going to come down for dinner?"

Allegra blew out an exaggerated breath and hugged the longhorn close. "I suppose I will," she said mockingly. "But if your family can't stop staring at me, I'm going to come back up here. I don't like when people stare at me."

"Why don't I talk to them first," Ranger suggested. Stephanie wouldn't be very happy if Allegra spent the entire night, possibly the entire week, locked in her room.

"Thank you," Allied said as Ranger pushed himself up.

Ranger pulled his shoes on and looked at Allegra. "Are you okay?"

Allegra bit her lip. "Would you be if someone screamed when they saw you?" she asked as an answer. She shrugged. "I mean, I will be. It'll take a couple hours, but I'll be fine. I just like to brood. Just because I know it's likely to happen, doesn't mean I like when it does."

Ranger nodded and left Allegra lying on her bed. He would talk to his family and hopefully everyone would be able to brave a dinner with his parents.

0o0o0o0

Author's Note: As much as I wanted to include the dinner, I think 3500 words for a chapter is long enough. I try not to go over that because then people tell me that my chapter was just a bit too long or something like that. The dinner will be the highlight of the next chapter, but that's not to say you'll see it, but rather its aftermath and a few snippets to make everything clear. I think I can get about one update a month for this story. School's pretty complicated right now, and I do have other projects, so my time is stretched a little thin.

Anyway, drop me a review and let me know what you think.

Ren