Disclaimer: I do not own the characters created by Janet Evanovich. I just really really wish I did! I am just using them in this story. I only own Carmella, but you can have her if you want her!

Carmella jumped out the car and walked across the road with Freddy to his house. She looked over at him and smiled. He was incredibly good looking. Maybe if they just…they hardly ever saw each other so it probably wouldn't even make things weird…maybe. He held the front door open for her and then went to get them drinks. She settled down on the sofa and pulled her cardigan off. Freddy walked back in and handed her a beer. Then he turned the Simpsons on. They chatted and watched TV for a couple of hours. She kept glancing over at him. Damn Freya had her thinking bad thoughts. Like what Freddy would look like naked….ah no! That was bad. Very bad. Thoughts like that would just lead to…Then Freddy leaned over and kissed her. It wasn't a friendly kiss either. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him back so he was on top of her.

"Lets go upstairs." He murmured. Carmella nodded breathlessly and let him lead her to his bedroom.

Carmella woke up the next tangled in sheets and with Freddy's arms wrapped around her. She smiled and nestled closer to him. He kissed her lightly on the forehead.

"Morning Caramel" He murmured. She kissed him on the cheek and grinned.

"Good morning…tired?" She asked. Freddy grinned.

"Hell no…"

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I woke up to the sound of babies wailing. That was going to take some getting used to. I clambered out of bed and walked down the hall. The babies had individual nurseries-an upside to such a huge house. Ranger was sat in Liberty's bedroom with both of them balanced on his lap. He glanced up when I walked in and smiled broadly at me. He really looked like he belonged there, with the babies…with me. He put Liberty back in her crib and then walked past me to put Carlos back in his. Then he came back into the room and beckoned me top follow him. We walked down the stairs and into the main sitting room.

"Babe, I need to talk to you. Don't look so worried, I'm not going to ask you to leave or anything. But…I still have a high risk job. Anything could happen to me out there. If you want me to give it up-"

"No! Ranger I'd never ask you to do that, at least not at the moment. You're your own boss, so you can work as much or as little as you want. We'll just have to work around it all." I smiled and kissed him on the forehead. Celia walked in and smiled at us.

"Hey kids. How are the bambinos?" She asked. Ranger smiled.

"They're beautiful." He told her. She grinned and hugged her brother. Then she turned and looked at me.

"I have some clothes that my mother sent over of the bambinos. She heard you'd given birth and sent over a little hamper of gifts." Celia announced. I looked at Ranger with an expression of complete panic. Celia smiled "Don't worry; she doesn't know that they're Ric's babies yet. She just likes you, that's all." I nodded and looked over at Ranger.

"Quick question, when are we going to tell your family?" I asked. Ranger looked like he'd swallowed a cactus. He croaked rather uncharacteristically and looked to Celia for support. She shot him an unsympathetic grin and raised her eyebrows questioningly. Ranger looked back at me and opened his mouth, then closed it again.

"See I was thinking about this and I think that maybe we don't tell them." He suggested. I stared at him in disbelief.

"Ranger please explain to me how that will ever work!" I stared at him in disbelief. I could see Celia shaking with laughter.

"Listen babe, if you think your family are bad about the whole marriage thing then you are in for quite a shock."

"It's true" Celia said "When Mama happened to find out Ric had sex before marriage she bitch slapped him all round the house and out into the yard." She grinned at the memory. I was having trouble keeping a straight face. Ranger glowered at his sister.

"I know we'll have to tell them eventually. Maybe we could leave the country then phone to tell them."

"They'd hunt you down and you know it." Celia told him "You better tell them sooner rather than later. If they found out you kept this from them I assure you there will be the mother of all bitch slaps in store for you." Ranger flinched slightly. After arguing with Celia for a further ten minutes, he fixed the babies in their car seats and we were driving to the Manoso family house. I was the one feeling nervous now. Ranger's mother may be angry at him, but she was the woman who had done the deed with the woman's son and then claimed that the babies were another man's. I mentally prepared myself for the slapping of a lifetime. We rolled up the drive and pulled to a stop in front of the huge house. The butler hurried out to open the door for me and help get the babies out of the car. We were led into the large lounge that we'd been in at Christmas. Ranger's parents and two of his sisters were sprawled out on the sofas watching 'The Simpson' reruns. His mother stood when we entered and gave us both a hug, muttering something to Ranger about not getting in touch for months. Then she flitted over to admire the babies, cooing about how beautiful they were. Then she looked up at me.

"Where is the father?" She asked suspiciously. Ranger cleared his throat.

"That would be me." He announced. There was a moments silence before his sisters jumped up and shrieked excitedly about being aunts again, his mother beamed and hugged us again and his father got up to shake our hands. I let out the breath I'd been holding since I'd walked into the house and smiled. Everyone was smiling and dancing around, asking to hold the babies.

"I think we could slip out now and no one would notice." I muttered to Ranger. He almost smiled

"We'd have to leave the babies though, there's no way they're letting them go now." He whispered back. I weighed this up in my head and decided it was probably better for me to get my children. Mrs Manoso looked over at us

"So when is the wedding?" She asked. I looked up at Ranger

"Forget the kids, let's go now." He put an arm protectively around my shoulder, presumably to stop me from running away.

"We're not going to get married." Ranger said firmly. Everyone stopped fussing over the babies and stared at us in shock.

"Of course you are. You have children now." Mrs Manoso tried to reason.

"We both tried marriage and it didn't work out well for either of us." Ranger explained to his mother. Her lips pressed together, but she nodded in what I took to be acceptance.

"But the babies, they will be christened?" It seemed more of a statement then a question to me, but what did I know. Ranger looked over at me and I nodded.

"Yes of course, we'll let you know when the date of the christening is." I assured her. She nodded again and went back to fussing over Liberty and Carlos. We spent the rest of the day chatting with Ranger's family and exploring the amazing house and grounds. It was very disorientating to see Ranger with his family; he was a totally different man. He was laughing with his father, taunting his sisters and chatting to his mother. He made sure I was always involved and didn't feel like an outsider. It was a side to his personality that I had never expected to be shown. I didn't even realise this part of him existed. But it was always very obvious that Carmella was missing. Ranger would occasionally mention her and then look around to see that she wasn't there. It was almost heartbreaking. At the same time I wasn't worried about her, Carmella could hold her own. She was so strong but sometimes she just didn't realise the effect her actions had on her father. Maybe one day she'd wake up and realise how much he loved her.

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"I think my dad will be kind of glad that I'm gone" Carmella told Freddy as they ate lunch. Freddy looked up at her with a questioning expression.

"Why would you say that?" He asked with his mouth full of pasta. Carmella frowned and told him to close his mouth. She sighed.

"I just think he'll want time to bond with Stephie and the babies. I'd just get in the way of that." She said simply.

"Well maybe he wants you there so you can all bond as a family." Freddy suggested. Carmella stopped chewing and thought about this. She hadn't even considered that as a possibility. Maybe Freddy was right. Maybe her being in Florida was actually really selfish. And now her conscience was making her feel bad. Stupid conscience.

"You're right. I'll go see Madre later and then I'll find out about flights back up. I just wish I could see all of you more, the flight costs are killing me!" She smiled. Freddy smiled sadly.

"I think it's the right thing to do. You have no idea how much I'm going to miss you though." He said sincerely. Carmella reached over and grasped his hand. Leaving was going to be hard, but staying would be even harder.

Carmella drove over to her mothers later that day. It was getting dark by the time she'd reached the house and she was still getting used to Freddy's car. She walked across the street and knocked on the front door. There was no answer. Carmella frowned; her mother's car was in the drive and the house lights were on. Something wasn't right. She walked around the back of the house and found the back door wide open but couldn't hear anyone moving inside. She walked into the house cautiously.

"Hello, is anyone here? Madre? Lucas?" She called and walked slowly through the kitchen. She walked across the hall and pushed the door of the lounge open. Her mother was lying on the floor; her swollen tongue was just visible in her mouth that was slightly open as if she'd been surprised. The bruising on her neck made it clear what had happened. Carmella shrieked and ran back out of the house to get her cell phone out of the car. She ran straight across the road with stopping to see if anything was coming. She ran straight out in front of a Volvo estate. Her body was pitched off the hood, flew into the air and slammed down onto the windscreen. Of course the driver hadn't seen her; she was dressed entirely in black and had just darted out. In fact, the driver could swear he saw her smile as she slammed back down onto the car. Maybe it was because she could now finally be at peace with her mother.

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Many thanks to everyone who read this chapter, I hope you all approve! Love it? Hate it? Please Please PLEASE review! As always, any suggestions and/or comments are welcome. I'm so sorry it took so long for me to update and I'm sorry it's short but wanted to keep it quite sudden. Thanks to everyone who wants me to continue, it means so much to me and all your words of support are brilliant! I'll try to update ASAP. Arigato!