Chapter 4! Enjoy! Thank you for the reviews, they're like eating skittles, delicious...
Warnings: None
Unbeta AF...
Parents Of The Year
Chapter 4
A Likely Story...
"Do you know your names?" Heidi asked the two children, as she made them both something to eat, since they had tugged at her dress and said they were still hungry, a few hours after their meeting with her father.
"No, we don't know them," Heidi looked over to the two from her small kitchenette in her office and found them looking at her sadly, "Why don't we have names, Mommy?"
"Hey now," Heidi said, as she put the last touches on the sandwiches she made and walked over to the two sitting at her office kitchen table, "You do have names," she set the plate of sandwiches down and gave them both stares.
"Your name is Carlos," Heidi said, looking to the boy and then she turned to the girl, "And you are Stephanie, you two are not without names."
"Carlos," the boy, hummed, looking over to Stephanie, "I like my name!"
"I like my name too, cause Mommy gave it to me," Stephanie said, kicking her legs with happiness, as she looked at the plate of sandwiches, "Mommy?"
"Yes?" Heidi's eyes twitched at that title as she scrounged around and found plastic cups in her cabinet, "What can I help you with, Stephanie?"
"You forgot to cut the sandwiches!" Stephanie said, pointing to the pile of cookie butter and jam sandwiches, "You have to cut them."
The woman raised an eyebrow as she walked over to the two, setting cups of mountain dew down, the only drink she had in her office that wasn't boozy or coffee, in front of the duo, "I forgot to cut them up?"
"They taste better when you cut them, Mami," Carlos agreed, folding his arms, his face serious, "It makes them magical!"
"I'll say," Heidi muttered but she only had the children's wellbeing in mind and so she grabbed a knife and then asked, "Do you want triangles or rectangles?"
"How do you cut it, Mami?" Carlos asked Heidi, who blinked and looked at the two, "What do you like?"
"Well, erm," Heidi said, flustered, before grabbed one of the sandwiches and cut it across, "Like this…"
"Then cut ours like that, please, Mommy," Stephanie said and then Heidi was doing just that, cutting their sandwiches across, "Thank you, Mommy," Stephanie smiled as Heidi placed the plate in front of her.
"Yeah, thanks, Mami," Carlos said, before he took large bite out of his sandwich and looked to Stephanie, "Stephanie! They taste really magical!"
Stephanie quickly grabbed a slice and bit into it, her eyes widening with joy as she ate, "Carlos, you're right! This is magical, Mommy made magical sandwiches!"
"T-they're just sandwiches," Heidi fumbled over her words and turned to see Carlos sniffing at his drank and wrinkling his nose, "Don't like Mountain Dew?"
"Too sweet, Mami," Carlos said, pushing the cup away, "Can I have water?"
"If Carlos doesn't want his drink, can I have it?" Stephanie asked, having finished her own drink, and was grabbing a second sandwich half, "Please, Mommy?"
"Knock yourself out," Heidi said as she gave Stephanie the cup, grabbed the empty one and got up, cleaned it and gave Carlos a full cup of cold water, "Here you go."
A chorus of 'Thank you Mommy,' filled the air and Heidi gave them both a painful smile and wondered where Diesel had run off to, leaving her to care for Stephanie and Carlos.
'They had lives back in Trenton,' Diesel said to Heidi, as he slid his leather jacket on and pulled his hair back, 'Yeah, there things we have to worry about here, with them, but if you think getting a 6-year-old boy to pee in the toilet without making a mess is an issue, you haven't met Steph mom then, when things are kept in the dark from her, let me go handle the cover story, it'll be believable, I've got this, I know those two.'
Heidi hoped the story cover was good, she looked over to the children who were chatting with one another as they stormed through the pile of sandwiches, where did all the food go? They were like bottomless pits!
When the last triangle was eaten and all hands and mouths were wrangled in and cleaned by Heidi, Stephanie and Carlos were struggling not to yawn or nod their heads off at the small kitchen table. Heidi tsked, looking at the two drowsy children and said, "I think it's nap time, don't you think?"
"Naps are for babies, we're not babies," Carlos argued but a giant yawn from him had Heidi herding the two over to the couch in her office, "Mami!"
"We're not tired!" Stephanie whined but she and Carlos were tucked in without much fuss, under a blanket, "We don't wanna go to sleep!"
"Children," Heidi shook her head as Carlos and Stephanie were both out like a light the moment they rested their head on pillows, "Silly, silly children…"
She cleaned up the sandwich mess and ate a meal, delivered from one of the eateries down on the first floor. She frowned, looking at the clock. Diesel had been gone for almost three hours. It was nearing the end of office hours but he hadn't return and they need to know what they were going to do about living situations, at the very least.
Heidi had just finished licking the vinegar clean from her fork, after demolishing a meal of fish and chips, when Diesel popped in her office, whistling a jaunty tune and with a duffle bag slung over his shoulder. He looked over to Heidi, sniffed the air and said, "Smells kind of sour in here," a smile on his face, as he looked at the remains of Heidi's meal, "Fish and chips, didn't know you ate such fatty foods."
"Agent Diesel, what in the hell have you been up to? The offices are about to close," Heidi said, tossing her trash in the waste bin and walking over to the man, who rubbed the back of his head, looking sheepish, "What's with the bag?"
"Well, first off, no welcome back kiss for Daddy?" Diesel asked, earning a punch to gut, causing him to grunt in pain, "I deserved that, second…cover story is set, no one is going to suspect a thing, regarding Stephanie and Ranger being missing."
"Okay, good," Heidi said, folding her arms and nodding her head, "What's the cover story?"
"I created a sure-fire way that the close friends and family members that Stephanie and Ranger won't come looking for them, you'll be really kissing me, for my genius," Diesel said, rubbing his sore abs, "Damn, you got some power for being five foot one."
"Five feet one and a half!" Heidi snapped, punching the man in the gut again, making him bend over and wheeze in pain, "And I ask again; what is the cover story?"
"So, on January 2nd, everyone will open the morning paper and see, on the front page of the local Trenton newspaper that Stephanie Plum and Carlos Manoso eloped on New Year's Eve and ran off on a long honeymoon for the foreseeable future," Diesel croaked, standing straight and looking down at Heidi, "Perfect cover story."
"…" Heidi's eyebrow twitch and she asked, "Will that be believable?"
"For sure, the sexual tension between those two is so thick, you can spread it on a cake like frosting," Diesel said, a smile on his face, "We're in the clear, Agent Heidi!"
"Well, good, I guess," Heidi said, and then she looked at bag, "And what…is this I ask again?"
"My clothes, we have to live together, right?" Diesel said, a smile on his face, "It's easier for me to move in with you than the other way around."
"Wha-?" Heidi startled, looking at the man, who nodded his head, "Agent Diesel, why not your place?!"
"I'm in the field nearly 24/7," Diesel said to Heidi as he set his bag down, "I don't technically, have a house or an address."
"Where is your tax information being sent to then?" Heidi all but raged, glaring at the man, who gave her a roguish smile and shrug.
"A P.O Box in Nebraska," Diesel looked over to the sleeping children and then to Heidi, "Besides, I think your place of residence should be fine, right?"
"You don't know that," Heidi said, her hands on her hips, "For all you know, I could be living in a loft in the middle of Zurich!"
"You, in a small space, no, I doubt it," Diesel said, waving Heidi off, "You're Senior Agent Evanston's child, no way would he let you live in a shoebox! Besides, I bet your place is the safest for Steph and Ranger."
Heidi opened her mouth to argue but then it closed with an audible 'snap' and then she muttered, in a low voice, "You're sleeping on the couch…let's grab the children and get out of here, this is the only time we're popping in and out, we have to sort of pretend we're not supernatural around them, okay?"
"Alright, Mommy-OOF!" another punch to the gut had Diesel wheezing and hissing in pain, "Again, I deserved that..."
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Helen Plum could proudly say that she was a model housewife, if THE model housewife of the 'Burg. She kept a cleaned house, went to church weekly, attended meetings with the other housewives to set up fundraisers and drives for charities and made sure dinner was on the table by 6PM sharp and Sunday dinner was on the table by 5PM.
She raised two lovely daughters in the 'Burg, and they had both gone on to live wholesome….ish lives. Her eldest daughter Valarie, she couldn't blame her for the issues that occurred around her life. Who knew her ex-husband was so…distasteful. Thankfully her daughter turned it around, though, and married a lawyer, how many mothers could brag about their daughter marrying a lawyer? (Helen was not about to tell them, the lawyer got his law degree online and barely passed the New Jersey bar exam and was banned from practicing law in Iowa.) Valarie gave her five lovely grandchildren as well. Helen was proud of Valarie, she was a model daughter.
Helen's youngest daughter, Stephanie, well, Helen was working on her. Again, she her first husband had been awful, but you don't go setting his things on fire in front of the house. She was a bounty hunter now as well, somehow finding herself in so much trouble and…literal filth. She made friends with so many unusual people as well, hookers, stoners, thugs, criminals, what was she to do with her daughter?!
And then there was that thug of man, one that Stephanie seemed to like a bit too much. Helen was not impressed; she could not let that bloom into anything. The neighbors would have a field day! She just needed to make Stephanie see that Joesph Morelli would be a good fit, yes, a few more dinners, make her favorite cake and then she would see how nice that boy could be. In fact, later on, she would call Stephanie and invite both her and that nice boy over.
Helen got the coffee going, she knew Frank would be grumpy if he didn't get by 7AM and walked out onto the cold porch to get the paper. She went to fix Frank's cup of coffee and set the steaming cup at the head of dining room table along with the paper. She looked at the title of the paper, looked away and then looked by, shock running through her body. Her vision tunneled and she picked up the paper quickly, looking at the front page.
There on the front page of the most read paper in the 'Burg, was her youngest child, Stephanie Plum, with her arms wrapped around the arm of that thug, smiling at the camera.
'JUST HITCHED!' the headline read and Helen looked down in shock and read the horror story. Married on New Year's Eve in Atlantic City, madly in love…gone on a honeymoon, don't when they would return?!
Helen's hands shook, as she gripped the paper and the only thing that came out of her mouth were choking noises as the edge of her vision began to darken.
"STEPHANIE MICHELLE PLUM!" The name rang through the house as Helen Plum fell backwards in the dining room, passing out cold.
If she had been awake, she would have heard her mother, whom she was working on as well, say, "It's about damn time! I need a Cuban American Adonis to get hitched to me!"
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"Why ain't she tell me she was getting married on New Year's Eve, I would have been there, Why ain't she say anything at all?! How in the hell could Steph keep this a secret from me, Tankie!?"
Married, what?! Tank had been pulled from his sleep by his phone. He was a bit upset, Rangeman wasn't set to open for another two days, he had just gotten back from visiting some family with Lula in the south, and all he wanted was to decompress and enjoy wait little time he had before he was back in the office.
Lula had called him, hollering, upset about Stephanie getting married. What?
"What?" Tank asked, sitting up in his bed, pausing as one of his cats let out a yowl of protest as he moved them, "Married, what?"
"Yeah, Tankie!" Lula's voice held a pout, "She got married, to Ranger and didn't even have the balls to tell me! But she could tell the damn news papers!"
"She married who?!" Tank was up in a minute, trying to pull some pants on, "She and Ranger got married?!"
"Yeah, they fucking did, and we didn't even get an invite to the wedding!" Lula wailed as Tank stumbled out of his bedroom and to the front room of his place, pausing to see the newspaper sticking in the mail slot, "Now we gotta buy them both a wedding present. No toasters though, in this day and age, they both should have one!"
Tank grabbed the paper and unfolded it, seeing the front page headline. Well shit…he looked down at the picture and read the blurbs and ran a hand over his face. Indefinite honeymoon, well…double shit.
'Ranger…Stephanie…what in the hell did you two get into…"The man thought as he tuned out Lula's whining.
What did they get into indeed!
TBC...
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Diesel has a handle on Trenton, he just needs a handle on his smart mouth :D