Author's Note: Okay, since I made you guys wait longer than usual for my last update- I'm going to treat you with another one. Again, I love the feedback. And I do have to say, I know all of you Babes and Cupcakes want to know who it is our Stephanie will end up with. And I know a lot of the summaries on the site tell you who gets the HEA- I on the other hand like everything to be a surprise. So all I can say- don't rule out either one as her guy- until she decides, and when she does- you will know. =]

Okay so… in this chapter I talk about Steph's new place. JerseySue helped me pick it out… So if you would like to see where her and Aly will live… Click the link. Oh and replace the (dot) with an actual . I put two (dot)s in there. Just because FF doesn't accept other links.

www(dot)prufoxroach(dot)com/8357788_CMNCMN_

Disclaimer: JE's original stuff, my version.

The drive was terrible- not that the company itself was bad, but 17 hours in the car was awful. We stopped for lunch and ate faster than I even thought was possible- but when you have a guy staring at you the whole time you ate, you ate quick. On the drive Ranger gave me 3 manilla folders and when I looked inside were 3 different houses. All of them were in Hamilton, NJ- it was right outside of Trenton, maybe a couple miles and only a 10 minute drive to downtown. I guess he had Ella find some places with potential to buy, Ranger even talked to one of the banks he did security for and gave them my information and I was already approved for a loan. Before I could even look at the houses and the pictures I stared at him with an open mouth for about an hour until I snapped out of it. Why would he go through all of this for me, and how did he do this so quick? Not only were the places he found beautiful, and now I guess they were even in my price range- but they were my style. Each one was better than the next and he kept assuring me I didn't have to choose any of them, they were simply suggestions. Which made me feel even worse, because now he felt bad for doing favors for me- he thought I really didn't want any help from him. But I thanked him profusely then I saw my house.

At first glance I knew it was mine- it had to be. The house had 4 bedrooms with two full-sized bathrooms, and an extra half (not that I needed this many bathrooms, but I'd rather have 3 toilets than 1 like at my parent's house). The front of the house was white with red shutters and a brick walkway in the front and a rock bed on either side of the front steps. Then was a fence that blocked in a huge backyard that had a swingset- and I guess Ella already found out they were willing to leave it behind. Then off the backyard into the back of the house was practically an entire wall of gorgeous windows, and a beautiful kitchen that actually made me want to become a chef. I also loved that I could be inside and still see Aly playing, and after living in Wisconsin- I couldn't imagine not having a big backyard. Although, here I wouldn't have Richie and the rest of the state zooming around on their riding lawn mowers, but I already decided I would get a push mower- the exercise would be better for me. There was another sitting area when you walked in the front door with a gas fireplace, and the bedrooms were huge. The master came with a walk-in closet and even if I didn't love the rest of the house, the sound of a walk-in closet made me want to buy it anyways. In the kitchen was also a little section of the counter that turned into a table perfect for a few people. I showed Aly the pictures and she loved it too.

"This is the one, Ranger. I have to have this one."

"You want me to set up an appointment?"

"No, I want to make an offer."

"Babe, you've only seen pictures of it- maybe you want to go and actually check it out."

"Nope- haven't you ever seen something and had this gut instinct about it. And you just know it's right, you don't need to know anything else because the feeling you have is enough?" He looked over at me and nodded his head.

"I have." There was that look again, I just wanted to ask him about his girlfriend. I wanted to know her name, her story and how she won his locked away without a key, heart. But in the middle of a long drive right after I found out everything he did for me was not the time to bring this up. He made a call to the real estate agent and after a couple conversations about cost- I had my house. I was officially a homeowner with a garage, a yard, a fireplace and extra rooms for company, I.e, Mandy and kids. Ranger called the movers and gave them the exact address and I grabbed his hand, laced his fingers with mine and kissed our fingers.

"I can't believe you would do all of this just for me." At first he said nothing, then after a few minutes he broke the silence.

"There is no just you. It's you, I would do more than this- because it's you."

When we got close enough to Trenton to know what time we would be home I called my mother and told her we wouldn't be there until after 11pm and not to wait up for us. I still had my house key and we would just let ourselves in- and we could catch up in the morning. After a 17 hour car ride, that Ranger refused to let us stay the night in a hotel, I didn't want to sit and talk to anyone- just get Aly and myself to bed. She had no problem agreeing to that, and she told me there would be clean sheets on my bed. She offered to make up Valerie's bed too but I knew if Aly woke up in a place she didn't know without me next to her, it would end up badly.

Finally we were pulling onto my parent's street at 11:30 and Aly was fast asleep. Ranger flipped a switch on my car so when we opened the doors the light wouldn't flicker on and wake Aly until I was ready to get her inside. He popped the trunk and we pulled out our bags and as I went to shut the trunk lid, Ranger's hand grabbed mine and stopped me.

"Okay babe, I need to know what's going on."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, trying to play dumb- the look in his face told me he wasn't buying it.

"Come on, I know you very well and something isn't right. After everything I've done for you- all I ask in return is for you to be honest with me." He was right, I owed him so much more than honesty- but this was the very least I could do for him.

"I know there's another girl in your life."

"Another girl?" He asked, crossing his arms across his chest.

"Yeah, like a girlfriend, or whatever and well I thought we were friends, I thought you would tell me something important like that." The amusement in his eyes was frustrating me.

"You think I have a girlfriend?"

"Okay maybe not an actual girlfriend because I realize you don't do commitment, but someone else that you love in your own way." He smiled now pulling me into his chest- pressing his lips into my hair.

"There's no one else, babe. Do you really think I would be doing all this for you if there was someone else in my life?" I shrugged my shoulders- who knew with him.

"Well let me put it to you this way, babe. If you were my girlfriend and I told you I was going to fly to a completely different state to help another woman move back. And do everything in my power to make sure she got home safely- would that be okay with you?" Fuck, no.

"Probably not."

"Okay then."

"Well you just seemed different." He pulled back a little and kissed my forehead. Then he released me and started walking the suitcases up to the house. Well good, glad to see this conversation was over. Just once I wanted to end a conversation with him and leave a million questions racing through his mind. Oh, well- I'll work on it. I grabbed Aly out of the car and carried her into the house as if she was my newborn baby once again. Ranger carried the bags into my room and told me he'd come over around noon to bring me to the real estate office to sign the papers and get my keys. Then we'd go to the new house and get everything else I needed for it, like groceries- while we waited for the movers to show up. I laid Aly down on the bed but she didn't want to sleep all by herself, so I joined her on the single bed. And we fell asleep and surprisingly had no trouble sleeping through the night just like that.

The next morning we were woken up by the all too familiar sounds of Grandma Mazur and my dad- or Papa as Aly calls him, fighting over the bathroom. We decided to get dressed and get some breakfast, since there was no way we were going to be able to sleep. I threw on a pair of black shorts and a pink tank top, I planned to change before meeting the realtor because I didn't want to show up and give the impression that I wasn't able to afford a decent outfit. My mother pulled us both in for a hug that I thought was never going to end. But I was happy to see her too, and I wasn't that surprised when I realized she had whipped up just about everything in the kitchen for breakfast. Not like Aly was going to eat all that stuff, she was in the nibble stage where she only had a few bites of something and would come back to it like a half hour later.

Soon Grandma Mazur meet us downstairs and I gave her a huge hug- I had truly missed Grandma Mazur and her crazy ways. Then my dad finally came down and I only gave him a small hug- because I really had to pee. While I was in there I decided take a shower, changed back into my clothes. Brushed my teeth and washed my face. With my hair being longer and my curls falling longer down my back I decided to put some gel through it to help keep the fly-aways to a minimum today. I was walking back downstairs and saw Grandma and Aly coloring in coloring books they must have picked up yesterday. I was about to join them but then I heard it- a Ducati. It was coming down the street, and I didn't even need to wait and see who it was. My mother was in the kitchen doing dishes, I needed her to keep Grandma Mazur and Aly in the house.

"Ma, there's someone outside I have to go talk to."

"Joseph?" She asked, not sounding too surprised.

"Yeah, please keep Gram and Aly inside." She nodded and I headed out the front door.

Leaning against his bike wearing jeans that had to be made for him, a t-shirt that showed off the fact that he certainly hadn't lost his abs and a leather jacket. Joseph Morelli had always had a place in my heart, at times that place would be like flames- burning with passion and desire. Sometimes it was just a smoldering flicker that didn't let me forget him, but didn't cripple me in needing him. For the past 4 years that smoldering flame just become hot coals, but it was like someone poured a little gasoline and made those coals burn again. He was even more gorgeous than I had remembered and his smile was contagious.

"Well well well, look who came back- Stephanie Plum."

"The one and only." I said walking down the steps, not missing the way he scanned me from head to toe with his eyes. His expression was friendly, but his eyes burned with a passion that almost made me want to rip my clothes off right here. But I certainly spend the last four years becoming a stronger version of me, to give it all up after about 2 minutes.

"That's for sure." He smiled to me again.

"How did you know I was back?"

"It's the Burg, cupcake. That's just how it works I had about 5 phone calls by 6 am letting me know."

"We just got back late last night."

"I know, I got a call then too." I smiled, but I knew this avoiding the real subject thing, couldn't keep going on- even if I wanted it too. "We need to talk." He said.

"Okay, just not in front of the house."

"Want to go to my house, at least it's quiet there and the only one listening would be Bob- and I don't think he'll report our conversation around to the rest of Trenton." Go on Morelli's bike, that was a turn-on as it was, to his house, alone. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that conversation would consist of moans and screaming out each other's names after we satisfied the 4 year absence. Only to get out of the heat of the moment and realize that probably wasn't the best idea, and it would only make things more awkward. Besides, I didn't trust myself enough yet to go for a ride with, or on Morelli right now.

"We can just take a little walk around here. People will seeing us talking I'm sure, but if we don't stay in one place too long that can't catch our conversation."

"Alright, give me a second." He pulled off his jacket and took his helmet, setting them both on my parent's steps. Then joined me on the sidewalk and we started off on our walk.

We were both quiet for about a block, unsure how to start the conversation- but finally he got up the courage to start.

"I want to know her, Steph. I understood the email communication about her when you lived in Wisconsin, but now that she's here I can't just not be there."

"I know." It was never my intention to keep him from Aly, Joe wanted a family and kids and while I couldn't give him a family- I still gave him a daughter.

"I realize she doesn't know who I am…"

"She hasn't met you, but she has a bunch of pictures of you. Do you remember during my pregnancy when Grandma Mazur decided she wanted to bring back disposable cameras and went through about 10 of them in a week?" He let out a chuckle.

"Yeah I think I'm still seeing spots from that flash."

"Well I gave them to her, I told her who are you and she held onto those pictures with her heart. We'd be going about our day as usual and she'd randomly say, 'I bet daddy would like this, mama.' or she'd ask if you liked the same things as her." I looked over and even though he was watching the sidewalk in front of him, his smile was stretching from ear to ear- just like any proud father.

"Did she really?"

"Oh yeah, did you know that when I left I took your pillow." He laughed and nodded.

"How did you know?"

"Well if you remember, I bitched about the old pillows for about a month before I bought the new ones. Then when I came home and went to bed that night, I had the worst night sleep ever. At first I thought it was the new pillow, already giving me problems, then I went to the closet and saw you had replaced mine with the old one." I guess I wasn't as sneaky as I thought.

"Well, I used that on my bed every night and for some reason every night- even when she was a baby, if I let her sleep on my bed it was only that pillow she wanted. Then when she was a little older I told her that pillow had been yours. So then one night while she was sleeping over at the neighbors house I went into my bedroom and when I turned on the lights your pillow was gone and in its place was one of her pillows with a Princess pillow cover on it. I went into her room and sure enough your pillow was the only one on her bed."

"You're kidding me?"

"Nope." He smiled again, I couldn't help but smile back. Joe was clearly happy to hear about her, and now I couldn't wait to let them meet.

"Well how are we going to work all this out? I mean, when do I get to see her."

"I'm going to be moving into my new home today. It will probably take me a couple days to get everything situated, and get Aly situated too. It was really hard for her to leave, she loved it there. So I don't know, maybe Saturday afternoon you can come over and I'll make some lunch and you can get to know her a little. I don't know how long you'll be able to stay- it will all depend on her and how well she handles it."

"That sounds good to me."

"Did you have any plans on Saturday?" I heard Morelli had been casually dating during the years, but according to my many sources he wasn't with anyone right now. But if he was I didn't want to make him miss a date.

"Nope, I was just going to take Bob to the dog park in the morning, and there's a game on later that night that I was going to watch if I was home." Yes, Morelli and his sports- I didn't care much about watching them on the TV, but when I first moved to Wisconsin I added the sports channels to my cable package. Every single game that I knew Joe would be watching- I watched it too, hugging his pillow close to my chest. I didn't care about what was going on in the game, but it was comforting to know Joe was out there- watching the same thing. Not that I would ever tell him that, or anyone for that matter. Mandy even became convinced I was a diehard sports fan because every time she'd come over at night once her kids were in bed- there was almost always a game on.

"Okay, I just didn't want to get in the way of your plans."

"Stephanie, I have missed the last almost 4 years of my daughter's life. There are no plans that would ever take me away from her." That touched a place in my heart, a place I was afraid to think about before. Because I didn't know how Joe would respond to his daughter now that we were home- and I was afraid that after all this time of telling Aly about him, that she wouldn't matter. To know that she really did matter to him, made me so happy.

"I think she's really going to like meeting you."

"I hope so, but you know- I don't just want to meet her. I understand at first that she will need to spend time with me before she trusts me and knows who I really am. But after that, I want time with her, and I'm willing to go at a pace that is comfortable with you and her. However, if you start cutting me out and keeping her from me I won't hesitate to get a custody agreement."

"Joe- I'll never keep her from you. Unless you give me a reason to, meaning you hurt her or start bailing on her, so I have to watch her sit on the front steps waiting for you. I will not let you have her then."

"Good, then I suppose we'll take it a step at a time."

"I think that sounds perfect." This conversation was going better than I ever pictured it would. We were finally on the same page and if everything went as I prayed it would- Aly would have an amazing father.

"What does she like right now? I'd like to get her a gift to bring over on Saturday."

"Belle- the Disney princess from Beauty and the Beast. She watches that movie at least once a day." Morelli smiled, finding out anything new about his daughter made his day, the way it did for me. The way I would smile everyday when I learned something new about her.

"I'll find something good for her then, we should probably head back. I have to get to work, and as I heard- you'll be working there too?"

"I sure will, I was surprised to hear Eddie had that job- I figured if anyone would have got it, it'd be you."

"They asked me, but I turned it down. I work so damn much as it is, I don't want to spend my life in that damn office." We reached his bike and he retrieved his jacket and helmet from the steps.

"Do you still know my number to call me with your address?" He asked sliding his arms into his jacket.

"Committed to memory." He was about to put his helmet on but then set it on the seat of the bike, he grabbed my arm and pulled me tightly to him. At first I didn't know what to do, but my body relaxed and breathed him in once again. We stood like that for what felt like hours, neither of us wanting to let go. But finally we did, his fingers held under my chin as he stared into my eyes.

"I've really missed you, cupcake."

I walked back into the house and stood at the front window staring at the place his bike had been moments ago.

"Was that, that sexy cop again?" Grandma Mazur asked as she walked up next to me. It sure was, I said, but only to myself.

The rest of the morning was spent playing catch up but at 11:30 I went upstairs to get ready to meet the realtor. I didn't want to look too overdressed that it looked like I was trying too hard, but I wanted to look good. After searching through my bag I decided on a pair of dark jeans, heels, and a purple top that was short sleeved, showed a little bit of cleavage and fit me to a T. I ran a few swipes of mascara over my lashes, grabbed my purse and went outside just as Ranger was pulling up in his Porsche. I wanted to run to the car and wrap my arms around it, this beautiful, beautiful car that I had missed so much. But if I did that, I was bound to get fingerprints on it- and that would make me feel guilty for ruining her perfect shine.

"You look nice, babe." Ranger said as he sped off to meet with the person holding the keys to my house. After signing the papers, shaking a lot of hands- I finally got my keys. The house was ready to move in to, the family that owned it had moved to another state and was pretty much just paying two mortgages until someone bought it. I was told they even left the sectional sofa that sat in the back of the house. Ranger drove me home to change into shorts and my tank top again since the movers were pulling up to the house. I grabbed our suitcases and gently set them in the Porsche before we drove away.

Sitting in front of my house was the moving truck and a black SUV, I didn't think much of it at first- I was more interested in staring at the big beautiful home that was now mine. Then the doors to the SUV opened and out came some of the Merry Men; Tank, Lester and Bobby. I ran from the car to them, and thankfully they were standing close enough for me to put my arms around all of them. I wanted to sit and talk to them for hours but with Ranger standing behind me, they knew to follow whatever orders he had given.

"Babe, why don't go open the house and take a look around. The movers and us are going to worry about your stuff."

"Are you sure, I would feel bad not helping."

"The movers are paid to do this, and these guys are on the clock so they're getting paid too. Besides the unpacking part is something I don't think anyone but you is going to want to do." That was true, unpacking was tedious and exhausting, but so was rearranging everything that people put somewhere I didn't want. The first thing I wanted to see was the bedrooms, obviously the master bedroom was mine and I wanted to pick out the perfect room for Aly. I picked the bedroom on the opposite end of the hall from where mine was, which was the next biggest one.

As the guys moved everything in, (which I was surprised the movers had actually marked the boxes with which room the stuff was boxed from), I stayed out of their way. Taking in everything about this place, it really was perfect- the pictures didn't do it justice. And I was right about my instincts, sometimes you just know, it's a feeling you can't explain. Out back I saw one of the stand alone hammocks, and immediately had to try it out. I was still laying on it when Ranger came out to find me, there was sweat stains marking his shirt, but that didn't bother me.

"Lay with me."

"I'm sweaty, babe."

"I can see that, so lay with me." I moved over and he laid beside me, keeping a foot on the ground to slowly rock us back and forth. I moved his arm so I could lay in the crook of his shoulder, I didn't care if he covered me with sweat. I wanted one of my first memories at my new place to make me happy and I think in 20 years if I looked back at this moment to the picture of my arm across his chest, his arm behind my back- staring up at the sky- I know it'd make me smile.

"Heard from Morelli yet?" Ranger asked, something I wasn't expecting to come up- at least not yet.

"Yeah, actually this morning he came to the house."

"What happened?"

"We talked about Aly, he wanted me to know he plans to be there for her and see her."

"Good." He said, a cold edge to his voice.

"Yeah, he's coming over on Saturday afternoon to meet her." Ranger let out a sigh, that I wanted to assume was from being tired- but something told me this was a different kind of sigh.

"I should get back to Rangeman, so I have to get you back home- then you can drive home in your car with Aly."

"Okay." I wanted to be strong enough to just hold him here for another minute, but I wasn't so instead I followed him back to the car and rode in silence back to my parent's house.