Stephanie sat the phone down as the pizza arrived, she had asked Mary Lou the one question that would probably start the burg gossip mill going even more. It's a simple question. Who would want to hurt Joe so bad that they felt he had hurt them that way? Bad enough that they felt the need to take his child away without him knowing, if it is his child. Yes, that ought to do it. Stephanie thought.
"I told you, you're not supposed to meddle." Lula said.
"I'm not meddling, everyone else is." Stephanie smiled and picked up a slice of pizza and started eating.
"Shit! What you did isn't meddling? No one didn't have what you just gave them." Lula said.
"We're talking fifteen and a half years of cover up Lula. That is an awful long time for something this big to have stayed hidden." She took a drink of her coke.
Eddie walked over to their table after he came in with Big Dog. "I heard you and Joe are getting married once he has custody of his child. I also heard she could be yours? You holding out on all of us?"
Stephanie choked on her coke, and Eddie slapped her back until she could breath properly again. "Excuse me? I think I would know if I gave birth to a child." She looked at Eddie as he slid in next to her on the bench seat. "If she was mine. She would be a hamster. She wouldn't have her life together like she does. She'd be wanting to live in a fantasy world all the time. Not connected to reality."
Eddie laughed, "This is about Peter Pan again, isn't it?"
"Hey, it could have happened." Stephanie said as she picked up another slice of pizza.
Eddie laughed even more at Lula's face. "Stephanie thought she could fly when she was younger, jumped off the roof to try."
Lula started laughing. "Girl, no wonder you are so spaced at times. Peter Pan ain't real."
"I didn't stay in the Peter Pan phase long after that. I moved on."
Eddie put his arm around Stephanie's shoulder, "So what do you want for your wedding gift?"
"There isn't going to be a wedding." Stephanie glared at him, "I'm not marrying Joe, I'm not even seeing him at the moment. I'm seeing someone else."
"Who are you seeing?" Eddie asked, wiggling his eyebrows up and down.
"Batman's here with my man." Lula said.
Stephanie turned to see Ranger and Tank after the door closed behind them. Eddie turned his head to look towards the door, and saw Ranger and Tank come over to the table. "You're in my seat Officer Gazzara."
"Excuse me Ranger, didn't know my cousin-in-law had this seat saved for you." Eddie said as he turned back to Stephanie and kissed her temple. "Call me later." He got up and walked over to where Big Dog was sitting and sat down. Ranger gave him a nod.
Tank held had out his hand to Lula, "We need to swap side's love."
Ranger held out his hand to Stephanie, "It's more comfortable on the other side."
"Is it," Stephanie asked, "why would that be?"
"I'll be over there." Ranger told her.
Stephanie took his hand and then after playing Chinese fire drill around the table everyone got settled back in.
"You two have been behaving I hope?" Tank asked.
"Yup." Stephanie said as she pulled her phone over as it rang and answered it.
"Jason Wilson had a grudge with Morelli for winning first string spot as short stop." Mary Lou told her. "Jason was in Morelli's year, we know he let the air out of his tires after games. How deep in high school years are we going to have to dig for stuff Steph?"
"I don't think it would be Jason, he pretty much had that out in the open. I don't know, it could be in any year he was in school. Maybe it was some sort of love triangle." Stephanie told her.
She felt Ranger's arm go over her shoulder and pull the phone from her ear.
"Hey, give me that back." Stephanie told him.
"You aren't behaving." Ranger said with a grin, he put the phone to his ear.
"I don't know, I never heard of…Hello? Hello?" Ranger heard Mary Lou say.
"Mary Lou, don't you think Morelli can solve this on his own?" Ranger asked her.
"Oh shit, umm, Ranger?"
"Yes." Ranger answered as he kept his head away from Stephanie's hands as she tried to get her phone back.
"Good call, gotta go." Mary Lou hung up the phone.
Ranger handed Stephanie her phone back. "She didn't want to talk to me."
Stephanie groaned, "The last time she saw you she almost wet her pants. I wonder why." She moved her phone into her pocket. It rang again, but she resisted the urge to get it.
"Babe, I have that effect." Ranger said. "Are you going to answer your phone?"
Stephanie picked up a slice of pizza. "No, I'm eating. Lunch, it's this known meal during the middle of the day that I need."
"Food is a good idea." Ranger said as he reached over and wiped the sauce from the side of Stephanie's mouth with his finger and then licked it off his finger.
Joe pulled into the station parking lot, he saw Antoine standing by the back door of the station. He walked over to him, Antoine was grinning broadly.
"What's up?" Joe asked.
Antoine handed him the folder. "Got the records. I'm not sure if you want to go inside though."
An eyebrow rose on Joe's forehead, "Why would that be?" He asked as he took the folder and opened it up. He started going over the record of Alex's birth.
"They did something to your desk." Antoine started laughing, real hard and had to bend over holding his stomach.
Joe closed the folder and scowled at Antoine, "When did they do this? I haven't been gone but a little over an hour and a half."
"I was picking up the records when they did this."
"What exactly did they do to my desk?" Joe asked.
"I can't say, I was sworn not even to warn you." Antoine laughed again.
Joe hit his shoulder with the folder and then went through the back door after he swiped his coded key card to enter. Antoine followed him and stayed a few paces back. Joe walked down the hall and then turned into the department's office section. He walked into the detective's office section and around several cubed areas. He stopped short when he saw the balloons floating over the double desk cube. They were pink and white, the streamers were pink and hung from the ceiling. The banner read: It's a Girl! Joe bit his tongue and moved further in towards the shared cube. He noticed the room was deathly quiet. I'm so going to pay them back for this. I don't even know if she's mine. These guys are jumping the gun on this. Joe thought.
His eyes fell on the baby t-shirt onesie that was taped to the top of his monitor and hung down in front of the black screen. It was white, with an iron on design of a little girl in a diaper. The little girl was sitting down in a mud puddle, blonde curls hung on her head, she had little devil horns coming out of the curls. A halo was hanging askew from one horn and a little devil tail was coming out of the diaper from behind. Below the iron on the words written said: Daddy's Little Angel.
Joe put his hands on his hips, the next thing he saw was a bottle of Maalox with a pink bow on top and a slip of paper under it. He moved closer and read the paper, For the acid buildup waiting for her to come home. He saw the bottle of Crown Royal next and read the slip of paper under it, For the argument celebrations you actually win. He then looked to the paper under the box of Advil, For the arguments you actually lose, in case this doesn't work, go for the Crown. He then read the next slip of paper under the toy gun, Use instead of the real thing, for the time when the first guy breaks her heart.
He went to sit down and saw the big box that was wrapped in silver and pink paper, that had little baby angels all over it. "I'm almost afraid to open the box."
"I'm dying to see what's in the box." Antoine said, "Open the box."
Joe sat the folders he had on his desk and then picked up the box out of his chair, he could hear laughter from behind the other cubes now. He opened the wrapping and the top flap of the box. Inside he saw a hot pink plastic something, and then he pulled it out and found it was head gear. He looked inside and saw a whole set of karate sparring gear that was hot pink. He saw the note and took it out and read, Not intended for your daughter, sole use to be used by you, for your protection should the arguments become physical.
Joe shoved the gear back in the box. "As soon as I find out who gave me this gear, they are dead." Joe growled out loudly. He heard the roars of laughter coming from different cubes in the room. If this was anyone else other than me, this would be hilarious. I can't believe them. Joe thought. He looked at the bottle of Crown contemplating opening it right now and drinking it.
Alex followed Lester into the elevator at the office buildings on Haywood. Jose walked in, she looked at him.
"Answer my question, you said you would answer questions." Jose stated.
She wanted to slap the grin off his face, "I told you, I asked him if he knew anything about dragons. Then he asked if he needed to slay one. That's it."
"Bullshit!" Lester coughed into his closed fist.
"There is more to it. Give it up." Jose said.
Alex put her hands on her hips. "Only if I can workout and have you on the floor with me."
"No. I'm not looking for punishment from you. You said we could talk after court, it's after court." Jose said.
"I have been talking." Alex stated.
"Beating around the bush, over it, under it, and around it." Lester said with a short laugh.
"I never said I would talk about it." Alex stated as the elevator doors opened up.
"Let her work out." Jose said. "I can talk to some of the guys it's been awhile since I've been down anyway."
Lester groaned as he followed them out of the elevator. "You should have talked to Jose instead. I hate therapy sessions with him."
Alex laughed. "Now I don't feel so bad."
Lester put his hands on her shoulders, "Workout room, you'll have to shower some place else afterwards." He guided her down the hall and then opened the door to the workout room.
Alex looked around the gym that was in the office building that Ranger owned. She nodded her approval at the set up. Weight machines that worked every range of muscle the human body had. Mirror's lined the walls, half the floor was carpeted the other half had a mat that laid down. Alex left and went upstairs to where her room was across from Lester's, he had opened the door for her and she went in and pulled out clothes she could work out in. She changed into the black sports bra and looked in the mirror, most of the bruises now looked the horrid shade of green and yellow. She figured another couple of days and they would be gone. Pushing in on her ribs, she found they were still sore, but she hadn't worked out in awhile and she needed to get her muscles limbered back up. Alex pulled on the purple and black tank top, and then pulled on the black gi bottoms that had the purple dragon and silver dragon running down the left pant leg. She didn't put back on shoes or socks and grabbed the gear bag, she headed back down to the workout room.
No one was inside yet so she went over to the matted floor and started stretching, she was in the Chinese splits position with her body stretched out on the floor in front of her when Bobby and Lester walked into the room.
"Damn that hurts just looking at it," Bobby said.
Alex's head came off the floor and looked at them. "Just takes practice to get this limber."
"A guys body doesn't work that way." Lester stated.
Hal, Paco, and Tommy came in as Alex sat up and leaned all the way over to her right leg. She ignored the comments coming from the guys and continued stretching her muscles out. She just got into position to do push-ups when Lester and Bobby squatted down in front of her.
"Any day now." Bobby said.
Alex put her hands into fists and went to her knuckles. She placed her left leg over her right and went down and back up. "I'm almost done."
Lester watched as she did twenty push-ups that way and then switched legs and did twenty more.
"I think I'm going to let her do her stretch routine with Lula and Stephanie. Hers looks like it would hurt more." Bobby said.
Lester saw Alex's head come up, "At least they probably wouldn't pull a muscle." She pushed up on her legs and went into a hand stand on her knuckles and did five push-ups off the floor and came back down. "Okay, I'm ready, just need to put on my gear."
Bobby looked at Lester as Alex walked off, "I can't do a push-up that way, have you done a push-up that way?"
"No," Lester swung his head to watch Alex as she pulled out the thick feet gear, which was silver. "Don't get her angry while we spar, she'll go for blood."
"She's that good?" Bobby asked. He had seen her fight in the pit, but fighting with someone who knew something was different.
"Yeah, watch her feet, she's quick with them." Lester said as he saw her place thin silver gloves over her hands. She opened a mouth guard box and put the guard in her mouth to protect her teeth. She stood up. "Head gear." Lester told her, "put your head gear on."
Alex gave him a nasty look, spit out the mouth guard, "I'll be fine."
Lester stood up, "Put the head gear on, or no sparring."
Digging back inside the bag she pulled out the silver head gear and then strapped it on. Bobby was grinning, "I have a feeling this is going to be good."
Bobby pulled everyone in, explained twenty minutes sparring on, two minutes each sparring partner then rotate until the twenty minutes were up, five minute break, then back out for another twenty minutes, five minute break, and then last ten minutes. "No face contact with Alex." Bobby said. "Let's party boys."
Alex noticed how the first twenty minutes seemed to fly by. The only one that she had a problem sparring with was Hal. He tagged her ribs twice already. She had her hands crossed over her head and taking deep breaths. Her ribs stung, but she was determined to get a full workout.
Bobby grabbed Hal by the shirt and pulled him off by himself. "I saw that last tag. Lay off her ribs. Just because you didn't see that ridge hand she threw doesn't give you the right to tag her ribs that way. We don't do that with each other when sparring, you know that."
Hal pulled Bobby's hand off and bent over and grabbed his knees, "I wasn't thinking. Damn her feet are quick."
"Yes, just as fast as Ranger's." Bobby said. "Watch the power."
"I didn't mean to tag her that hard the last time." Hal said catching his breath.
Half way through the next round of sparring, Ranger walked in with Tank. Stephanie and Lula came in and Ranger pointed to a bench they could sit and watch. Ranger and Tank went and changed and came back out. Ranger saw Bobby's fist go out and Alex turned right into it.
"Shit!" Bobby grabbed Alex by her shoulder as she turned around. "Let me see."
Ranger walked over avoiding Lester with Paco to get over to Alex. Alex was wiping her left eye. Ranger grabbed the top of the head gear and tilted her face up. "Move your hand tiger." When she moved her hand away he saw a slight puff around her left eye. "You'll be okay." Ranger tapped the top of her head gear. "Rotate!" He yelled out to the room. "You're with me." He told Alex.
Alex turned away from Ranger with her hands above her head and walked in a small circle and turned back to him. Ranger watched as she set herself in a defensive stance leaving the weight off her front leg, for no chance of sweeping it. He moved in with a back fist, she blocked his fist and came over the top and Ranger ducked before her ridge hand made contact with his head. He backed up and shook his head. He saw her left foot tap the ground briefly and the leg came up in a crescent aimed right at his head, he backed up and had to back up another time as her right foot came around with a come around side kick. He spun to his left and came around and shot a back fist to her head gear popping her head slightly as he did it. Alex growled when she got tagged. Ranger grinned. Alex spun and then swept his front leg, Ranger hopped and backed away quickly then adjusted his weight.
Ranger continued on for another minute sparring with Alex and called rotate. They went on for ten more minutes and then he called for a break. He huddled his guys around him as he sent Alex over for water.
"Okay, give out the information." Ranger told them.
"Weak on the left side," Bobby said.
"Taps her left foot before her crescents," Tommy said.
"Fast feet," Hal said.
Paco laughed at Hal, "Over extends with her ridge hand."
"Drops her hand before the come around side kick," Tank put in.
"Tag her and she loses concentration for the next three combinations she throws," Lester added.
Ranger looked at Hal, "You didn't see anything other than she has fast feet?"
"Well, she hasn't fought with her right side out," Hal said.
Ranger looked around to each of them. He looked back over towards Alex. "Game plan, next ten minutes. We shut down her telegraph on those crescents she throws. Let her figure it out, don't give it to her. She throws that crescent catch it, and put her on the ground."