All familiar events and characters belong to Janet. The mistakes are mine.

As soon as I got my wife in my car, she called Mary Lou and put her on speaker so I would know how Olivia is, since that will be her first question to her friend.

"Tank and I are on our way back now, with Ranger tagging along. How's Olive?" Steph asked her best friend.

"As we speak, she's crawling through the blanket fort the boys rigged up. Ranger's Mom and Dad were advising them on what works the best for the most 'stable structure'. If an earthquake hits, I'm hiding in that. I've never seen my kids so well-behaved. I just might have to keep Olive and the Manoso Mom and Dad. So what's going on? Tank called and told Lenny that you guys ran into some car trouble and would be gone longer than just a quick bakery run."

"Car trouble is one way to describe it," Steph said, cutting her eyes to me. "I'll explain when we get there. Give Olive a big kiss for us."

"I will. It'll give me an excuse to squish her again. I was sooo right ... you two make cute babies."

"Bye, Mare, but squish gently. We've rigged our baby to blow chunks if she's not cuddled correctly. Bobby will testify to that one."

Mary Lou disconnected on a laugh.

"Drive safely, but quickly," Steph advised me. "She didn't sound scared enough of Olive's ability to share her food. I'm not kidding, Lisa had to be pried away from her more than a few times after Valerie had her."

"If you wanted Mary Lou scared," I replied, "you should've told her that your 'car trouble' was some psycho ramming your car."

She was already shaking her head. "Mare's like you. She'll take the news better if I'm standing in front of her without a scratch on me."

"The doctor said you have an abrasion along with a bruise, Babe."

I can still feel bile and rage rising at what that accident could have cost me. The park-kids could've hurt my family accidentally. To have my wife in danger on purpose was harder to get past.

"If you stop worrying," Steph said, interrupting my thoughts, "I'll let you personally attend to my 'injuries' once Olive's asleep tonight."

"I'll never stop worrying, protecting, and loving you, Steph. You'll just have to get used to it."

Tank idling in Steph's Cayenne behind us, got my thoughts pushed to the back of my mind until tonight when I know they'll all come out and keep me wide awake until dawn.

After an eight-minute drive through The Burg, I took the space in the Stankovics' driveway that Steph had vacated while Tank parked behind my parents' car. As Lenny let us in, we heard for ourselves what Mary Lou had been referring to.

"Don't give her that, Doofus. She could hurt herself," Mary Lou's oldest told her youngest.

"It's just the car's remote."

The kid's sigh spoke of a decade of patience being required. "Olive could crash the car into herself ... And. Get. Hurt."

Steph glanced at me. "Only our daughter can have a hundred-plus 'Uncles' and three older brothers without needing any matching DNA."

"She is fortunate to be so loved," I agreed.

Hearing our voices, Olivia peeked her face around her Grandmother's leg, smiled so we could see every tooth, and let out her war cry as she walked - and then crawled because it was faster - towards us. Steph got to her first and was riding the line of the 'gentle squishing' she mentioned earlier, but Olivia hugged her back just as hard. I couldn't be jealous since I was treated to the devastating grin that has her Daddy's name written all over it.

"Olivia's an angel, we know," Mary Lou said, finger-combing the ends of Olive's curls as she passed by. "Now tell us what we don't. What happened to your car? It was working fine when you got here."

"It got hit by the 'lady'," Steph told her, letting our daughter hook my neck with a baby arm, "I'm using the word 'lady' very loosely here, but the one Joe got involved in this."

"Sheena? Or as the Burg calls her, Sheena the Schemer," Mary Lou said to us.

"So that's her name," Lenny said with his eyebrows meeting his hairline. "Mary Lou kept calling her 'Hortence', but I thought that sounded old-fashioned even for the Burg."

"I would've told you what I know about her," Mary Lou said to Steph, "but I know you're much happier not hearing anything having to do with Joe."

"If only my life was that easy," my wife replied, "and that was enough to blot out his existence from it."

"Why are we just hearing now that this Morelli-man has been a problem?" My mother asked me.

"He's not a man, Mama," I told her. "He's an overgrown bully who gets his kicks harassing innocent women and children, most notably ... my wife."

"Why hasn't the police been called?" My father asked.

"He was the police until very recently," I explained. "And now the woman who targeted Stephanie is currently getting cozy with them, though there are bars between them."

"Nothing new there on either count," Mary Lou added. "She met Joe at the cop bar all the officers go to. Word on the playdate-scene is Sheena's ex was a police officer over in Bordentown, and she now shows up at the cop bar every time she's looking for a replacement. Guess she didn't like not being good enough to take your place."

"Your Mama is irreplaceable, isn't she, Olive?" I asked our baby.

"Mum-mum-mum," she hummed.

Tank couldn't resist catching Olivia's flying hand. Before he spoke, he kissed the back of it with an amount of gallantry that was just shy of adding a bow. "Your Mama's also hell on men trying to keep her safe."

"You aren't blaming the victim are you?" Steph teased.

"No. I'm saving all the blame and the retribution for those responsible."

"Pierre, what have I said about threatening people?" My mother asked him.

"Not to do it unless I can follow through with the threat?" Tank replied.

The displeased sound she made in the back of her throat lightened his mood, even had him grinning as the sound morphed into a pointed stare.

"Quick, Olive," Steph said to our daughter, "save Uncle Tank. Blow a kiss to your Grandma and distract her."

Steph blew a playful kiss to Tank to further encourage Olivia. The lucky SOB got two air-kisses, but my wife did successfully salvage the afternoon ... kicking just the thought of Morelli out of the Stankovics' home. There were no bakery cookies or deli meat hoagies for party fare. Instead, I went out and brought back an Italian feast from Marsilios to keep everyone fed. Since the family was all together, once Mary Lou insisted we call Valerie and Edna over because there was more than enough food, we all stayed in the Burg until Olivia was ready for a nap.

The asshole stayed out of lives until a week later when Steph let the control room have the honor of baby and dog-watching and snuck into my office, closing the door behind her.

"Remember what you said in the ER about New Jersey needing to hold its breath?" She asked me.

"It rings a bell. I don't take you being in danger well."

Considering Abruzzi's 'suicide', me kidnapping, transporting, and holding an old lady hostage to find where Con took Steph, and tossing a Russian terrorist off a building to protect her, I'd have to call my comment a definite understatement.

"Well, something strange just happened. Grandma Mazur called ..."

"I'll say your conversations with Edna tend to lean towards strange, but not the fact that she called you. It's a daily occurrence."

"Stop trying to divert or distract me. Grandma told me that Joe is rumored to be going on vacation with Mooch ... to go diving!"

"Babe, he just lost his job, his bedmate is currently in jail and will be staying there, and The Burg is now calling Morelli his father's son, and you think it's strange for him to want to get out of Dodge until this blows over?"

"No ... I guess not. But he always talked about going diving, but in all the years I knew him, he never left Trenton unless he was undercover or was just saying he was somewhere else as cover. You don't think it's too-convenient timing? He harasses me and then my car gets hit by someone he knows, and now is when he chooses to actually leave town?"

"I go to sleep every night listing ways to kill him, Steph. And I wake up every morning telling myself that you'll be upset if I do any of them. I assure you, I'm not about to provide that asshole with a relaxing vacation. If you heard that he was being sent to a war zone, you'd see my hand in it. He deserves to suffer, not go swimming."

She paused and then stared at me until she saw what she needed to. "Okay, but I'm going to be very suspicious if you have a sudden business trip while he's gone and Joe magically doesn't make it out of the Caribbean."

It is unfortunate that a simple abduction and quick body-disposal are frowned upon in a supposed 'polite' society, but it does allow those who are hell-bent on carrying one out to be creative. The ocean is a dangerous place, combine that with my ties and people in the area ... and Morelli's chances of survival are almost non-existent. I'm living proof that you can be so good, you don't even have to be there to pull the trigger.