Chapter 31, ~cry~ Two more chapters to go after this one...
Warnings: angst
Unbeta AF
The Parent Trap
Chapter 31
Running on 'E'
"Oh my little cat," Anya gave Heidi a soothing stroke, over her furry form, "My goodness, she's so weak, and with a litter," she turned to Diesel, who was trying to fight off William as the man wielded a dagger to his neck, "William, enough, our child and that young man had a willing relationship, she would not be pregnant and in this form, if she didn't trust this man."
"You said our daughter looks to be several months with child, yet, almost three weeks ago, she was spitting fire at the thought of Agent Diesel, what did you do to her!" William snarled as he pressed Diesel against the wall, "I knew something was off the day you came to tell me your retirement, now, speak!"
"Okay," Diesel said as he slid away from William, sitting down in his favorite chair, "Alright, I'll tell you both but I don't think you'll believe me, but you must promise not to think I'm crazy."
(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)
"Carlos," Stephanie sighed as she turned her head to the side, slightly as she didn't look up from her files, as she walked out her apartment, "I can feel you there, come on out of hiding."
"Getting better at feeling me, does it work for everyone else?" Carlos asked as he slid from the shadows of Stephanie's apartment and walked over to, "Babe, Stephanie."
Stephanie leaned back against Carlos as he hugged her from behind, resting his chin against her collar bone. Being close to one another, helped filled that strange hole they had. Stephanie turned her head to Carlos's face and kissed his cheek, whispering, "I feel better now that you're here."
On New Year's Day, on a whim, Stephanie called Carlos and asked him to come over to her place. She didn't ask if he had plans, didn't ask if he was busy, she just needed him, she didn't know why but he needed Carlos to be close to her. He told her he would be there in ten minutes. She didn't know why but she could feel him close by, getting closer and closer until finally, the locks to her apartment were coming undone and then Stephanie was running into the man's arms, hugging him tightly, finding that the ache she was dealing with, felt better. He returned the hug and inhaled her scent, finding his void slightly filled as well.
They clung to one another for an hour straight and then Stephanie asked, in a soft voice, "Do you feel weird too? Like…empty?"
"I do," Carlos answered truthfully and Stephanie whimpered, as he rested his forehead on hers, "What's going on Stephanie? Why do we feel this way? Are we going crazy
They didn't know the answer to their questions, why they felt so empty and why only being near one another sort of helped. With each passing day, they were getting closer and closer to one another. It felt good, nice, right, so-so right.
Carlos and Stephanie stood there, with Carlos's warmth bleeding into Stephanie's back and his calm aura soothing her. They were running into another problem too, besides the empty feeling and that was….
Everyone was starting to notice weird little quirks from the two. First it was Tank, who heard the two talking in Carlos's private office, it sounded like an argument. Stephanie was raising her voice, Carlos was raising his voice. As they grew louder, they stopped speaking English and in turn began to yell at each other in German.
"Du bist der größere Arsch! (You are a butthead!)" Stephanie had snapped, stomping out the office, "Wenn ich noch einen Abend Currywurst mit dir essen muss...!(If I have to eat another night of Currywurst with you…!)"
"Du hast keine Geschmacksknospen, Stephanie! Es ist besser als Lachspizza! (You don't have tastebuds, Stephanie! It's better than salmon pizza!)" Carlos responded, leaning out the door of the office, "Und du bist der Arschloch! (And you're the butthead!)"
"Nein du! (No, You!)"
"Nein du!
"DU!"
"DU!"
"DUUUUU!" Tank stepped in between the two of them and gave them both a look. Carlos snapped his head over to Tank and asked, in a snippy voice, "Was?! (What?!)"
"You two are speaking German…when did you two learn German?" Stephanie and Carlos gave Tank a look and then both promptly ran off, Carlos back to his office, and Stephanie to who knows where, she had been hanging out a lot at Rangeman and Carlos had set in stone that she was allowed to come and go as she pleased. She even helped with administrative tasks and background checks. She did it all mostly from Carlos's office, which meant the door was closed often and who knows where those two were up to behind closed doors.
Practicing German, apparently.
Lester was the next person to notice something about them. Their Spidey Senses, was off the scale now. Lester was eating lunch at Pino's with Stephanie, shooting the breeze and enjoying a pizza with the woman, though her new found love of putting fish on certain foods was a little off putting. Every so often Lester had to cough and startle Stephanie, who now carried a pouch of tuna fish around with her and put it on everything. They were sitting there, eating pizza, when someone the boys in blue came in and sat in the booth in front of them. Stephanie was grabbing another slice of pizza but paused, turning her head slightly and then giggling madly as though she had heard he funniest joke. Lester had pestered Stephanie, as she giggled and finally, she told him, in between giggles.
"Eddie isn't too happy right now, because they ran out of the lunch special today, He's whining rather loudly now," Stephanie giggled as she tossed more fish on her slice of pizza, "I'm surprise anyone can eat with that whining!"
"Uh, Beautiful, he isn't even talking," Lester said and sure enough, when Stephanie turned to look at her cousin, he wasn't talking, he was still looking at the menu, his face covered, "How did you-"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Stephanie said as she ate another slice of pizza, "Eat your food!"
Lester let it be but then, when it came to Carlos, his face showed his shock. They both had been chasing down a high bond skip, a man wanted on aggravated assault and attempted murder. He had run into an alleyway pulled out a gun and pointed it to both men shouting, "I'll fucking shoot you fuckers dead, if you try to take me in! You can fuck around and find out, like that bitch did!"
"You're not going to shoot up," Carlos said and Lester let out a shudder as the air temperature around them dropped, suddenly, "You're not going to do anything at all." The cold air seemed to wrap around them, but it seemed to wrap around the man even more so, his teeth were chattering and his lips were turning blue.
"F-fuck you, bastards!" The man cocked the gun and tried to pull the trigger but he blinked as it flew from his hands and landed before Carlos's feet, "W-what in the-" the man let out a whimper as he looked up at Carlos and saw black.
"On your fucking knees," the man got on his knees at the command, "Hands on your fucking head, now!" Carlos all but snarled the words and the man listened, whimpering in terror as he did, "For fucks sake, stop that noise!" The man's mouth clamped shut and he went quiet, "Thank you…"
Lester let out a weak noise as the cold, oppressive air left and Carlos was handcuffing the man, picking his gun up with gloved fingers and tossing it into a bag. Carlos turned to Lester as he helped the man up and dragged him away, "Why can't they all listen like that, shit would be easy, right?"
"W-what in the fuck was that?!" Lester whimpered as he all but ran after his cousin, "Cuzzo, wait!"
Lula got the full force of Stephanie's changes at Vinny's office. They were eating delicious krispy kreme doughtuts, Lula and Connie were drinking coffee with their treat, Stephanie opted in on Chocolate milk, claiming she missed drinking it. Okay, one weird quirk, but that's fine, chocolate milk was pretty damn good when you had the munchies.
They were talking about Valentine's day and what they were going to do for the day. Lula and Tank were going on a hot date, Connie had a hot date with somebody and Stephanie shrugged and said, she and Carlos were going to stay in, watch the cartoon Justice League series and hopefully not eat currywurst.
"You two sure do sound like you're like very domesticated," Lula said slyly as Stephanie brushed the woman off and bit into a hot doughnut, "You two seem married than anything else!"
"O-oh, well," Stephanie said, picking at her doughnut, "It's just, feels nice, maybe even right, is the right word here, you know, things have been pretty weird since New Year's Eve, I don't know what's going on, to be honest."
"Huh," Connie and Lula shared looks and then Lula shook her head, she heard from Tankie that Carlos and Stephanie pretty much spoke fluent German, in private. Strange…
The three women looked up at the sounds of the front door to store front opening and Joyce Barnhart sauntered in, giving the three withering looks. She zeroed in on Stephanie and sniffed, "Plum, don't you have garbage to roll around in?"
"Stephanie, do you know, if someone is messing with you, you don't have to take it…" Stephanie blinked as she thought about that phrase, that strange woman's voice, who was that and why did it sound so…right?
Because, the woman was right, Stephaie didn't have to take this shit, not from, of all people, Joyce Barnhart! Stephanie silently stood up, rounding on the red headed bitch and said, "Nah, I don't need to go find garbage to roll around in, with all the pathetic desperation and yuck, coming off you, for what you're about to do, there's enough garbage to go around here."
Connie and Lula's mouths dropped, as did Joyce's who huffed and snarled, "I don't know what you're talking about, Plum!"
"So, you're not about to go back to my cousin's office, and let him pork you while you squeal like a pig, while he uses a questionable toy that looks a little too…wild for my tastes? Oh, my mistake, after all, it's the only way he'll let you get skips off him, every other bail bond office in the area uses Rangeman or someone who is truly capable, not a someone who uses their body to bribe others, which, I'm not knocking on all people, If they need to do what they need to do, so be it, I'm just knocking on you, because I just don't like you…"
"You little-" Joyce shrieked her cheeks hot and she was about to strike Stephanie but Stephanie held her hand up and smiled ruefully.
"You're going to have a bad rest of your day, if you hit me," Stephanie said, watching Joyce rear back to hit her anyways, "Your funeral…."
"Fucking-" Everyone in the front office but Stephanie felt as though death washed over them, as Carlos grabbed Joyce's arm, preventing her from hitting Stephanie, his brown eye dark with rage and his mouth set in a thin line.
"She wasn't lying, Barnhart," Was all Carlos said, as he looked at the woman, the oppressive air around him getting thicker, "Why don't you go back in that office and do what you do best…"
All the color drained from Joyce's face and she all but ran to Vinny's office, slamming the door shut as she did. Carlos gently brushed his shoulder across Stephanie's and asked, "Currywurst and Wonder Woman tonight?"
And just like that the cold oppressive air left and Stephanie was pushing Carlos out the office, snapping, "You and that fucking currywurst, get fish and chips! I'm tired of currywurst, you're going to turn into a sausage!"
Lula and Connie were stunned as Carlos laughed, a real laugh as he and Stephanie seemed to playfully bicker outside, before Carlos pulled her in for a heated kiss before they both left in Stephanie's car.
"Wh-what was that?" Connie asked, looking over to Lula, who was confused herself, "Did Ranger just laugh-laugh?"
"Did Stephanie do a Ranger?" Lula asked and she quickly got her phone out and began to text Tank what she just saw. Tank responded with a quick:
'Typical Tuesday, right?'
(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)
Carlos should have sprang into action, when he heard a pop beside his bed, but he instantly knew who it was and turned his head, opening on eye to see Stephanie beside his bed, playing with her bracelet, looking lost, "Babe, you popping in and out, you gave Ella a fright when she found you asleep in my bed when I was in Boston." He didn't even question Stephanie's ability to pop in and out. It should shock him but, he liked the idea of Stephanie being able to come to him, when she needed him.
"Carlos, I-I'm having strange dreams," Stephanie whispered, looking at the man, the moonlight pouring in from the partially opened blinds, "I don't know, they're not bad, but they make me long for something, and I don't know what it is."
"Come here," Carlos pulled his blankets back and then Stephanie was climbing into bed with him. Carlos curled his arm around Stephanie and she rested her head against his forearm and look at the man who looked back at her, "Still feeling that longing?"
"Yeah," Stephanie whispered, looking at the man, biting her lip, "What are we messing, Carlos?"
"…I don't know but I wish we could find it," Carlos said, as he and Stephanie fell into an uneasy sleep.
Along with their radical personality and spidey senses changes, Stephanie and Carlos were growing strong spines. It started with Carlos, yes, his spine was strong, but he was finding out how stronger it could be when he went to see his family.
He had a cool relationship with his family, from having to pretty much become the man of the house, when his father started to drink heavily and his mother placed pressure on him to pick up the slack around the house. While his siblings had been younger than him yes, as he grew older, the pressure grew as well, while his sisters and brother didn't have the same expectations. It was honestly why he ran off to join the military and when he got successful and rich, his family came looking for money, which he gave, but still, it seemed like it wasn't enough for his mother, his siblings, and especially his father.
"What do you mean, you can't give me more money? Are you spending your money on drugs, hmmm?" His father asked, as he looked at his son with dull brown eyes that were yellowing, a cry from his liver from decades of heavy drinking, "I gave you life, we put a roof over your head and for what, for you to tell us you won't give us more money?!"
"Pa-" it felt wrong to call his father Papi, he felt like that title was for someone else, "I already gave you, mom and my siblings money, the other day, where did it all go?"
"Don't question me, how I spend my money boy!" His father boomed and Carlos could feel his eye began to twitch, "This is the respect we get, from your ungrateful ass? I worked 12 hour days, to put food on the table!"
There was a rage bubbling inside of Carlos as he watched his father rant and rave about being owed money for taking care of Carlos. He hadn't taken care of Carlos since before Carlos was 5! Carlos had to work in his grandfather's store, before and after school, when he was six. He lost his summer vacations because of this man. He used to run off and hide at Lester's place, his cousin sneaking him in but when his aunt would catch him, he was taken back home, where his parents would yell at him, his father once swung at him, leaving him with a sore head for days. All that fucking money his dad worked 12 hours a day for neve went to the family, it went right into a bottle!
'I know, sometimes I get angry and upset, it's hard to control those feelings…take a minute and breathe for a bit, that always helps me, kiddo…' A man had told him that, once upon a time, Carlos thinks as he tried to control his breathing. A man that felt more like his father than his father before him, why couldn't that man be his real father, a man who was most likely a ghost, why couldn't that be the man standing before him now?
He was trying so hard to control his anger, but when his father pulled him out of his thoughts with a harsh slap to his face, something inside of Carlos just…snapped.
"You're a worthless son!" His father boomed and tried to slap Carlos again but Carlos caught his arm, his brown eyes blazing.
"Don't you swing at me again, old man," Carlos snarled, pushing his father back, "Worthless? I'm worthless?! That's rich coming from the man who could drink three bottles of tequila and piss himself in the foyer when he passed out! I had to step up and take over because you weren't sober enough to do so! Now look at you, still drinking and killing your liver! You call me worthless but still come begging me for money?! The only worthless sack of shit I see here is you!"
The house rumbled slightly with Carlos's rage and his father stumbled, red in the face with pure rage. How dare this little sack of shit get the balls to finally snap back at him, how dare he!
"You will respect me as your father, Ricard-" Carlos's father started but then Carlos snapped.
"YOU'RE NOT MY FATHER!" It felt so right to say that, "You're not my father, you're not-you're not my family." Carlos ended it softly, looking at his father, who was looking at him startled, "You're not my family, you will never be my family…this...this is wrong, you're wrong, you're not my father."
"Get out, I never thought you were man enough for the Manoso name anyways," Carlos's father snapped, pointing to the door, "Get out! You're no son of mine, OUT! OUT! I never want to see you again! You have no family now! GET OUT!"
"Glady, I hope you didn't spend all your money on the bottle, because as your ex-son, there's no more money for you," Carlos said, trembling with emotions, before he turned and walked out the house, slamming the door as he did.
He drove to somewhere quiet and then rested his head on the steering wheel. He wasn't upset at being disowned, no, that felt more like a relief. He was upset because his ex-father was right, he had no family now, that ghostly male voice wasn't his father, though he desired so much for him to be his father. Tears of frustration leaked from Carlos's eyes and his wept silently, confused and lost, longing for his Papi, why couldn't his Papi come comfort him?
(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)
"Look at you, Stephanie, pushing at 40 and still single, Valarie has a wonderful husband and darling children and what do you have? Nothing," Stephanie played with her peas, looking down at her plate as her mother spoke down at her, "You know the women in the 'Burg talk, about how hopeless it is to think some man would want you. I can't believe you rejected Joe so vocally!"
Stephanie stabbed at a pea and ate it, looking over to her mother, who was still ranting and raving. She looked around the dining room and Stephanie sighed, setting her fork down. She was sick of this, absolutely sick of being the punching bag of her family. Every choice and step she took, her mother talked down on. Appalled that Stephanie had snapped at Joe in the middle of the cop shop, when he demanded she stop being 'Manoso's Whore,' and get a fucking grip on reality and become his wife. Stephanie had screamed at Joe that she would rather be Carlos's whore than his wife, stating that those Morelli Genes seem to kick in the moment those Morelli men put a ring on some poor girl and knock her up. She had seen his thoughts, his fantasies of him, marrying Stephanie but keeping Terrie Guillman to the side or whoever he wanted. Disgusting! She had rejected him and he hadn't taken it well, so much so, Eddie stepped in and snarled at Joe that if he laid a hand on Stephanie, he would be dealing with not only Manoso but the Plum family as well.
The news of Stephanie's rejection to Joe reached Helen Plum before she even got in her car. Her mother had demanded she come to dinner tonight and Stephanie grudgingly agreed, since she knew, Carlos was going to see his parents about something.
Helen had laid into her before dinner, in front of her sister and nieces and during it as well. So much so everyone left, mumbling excuses while it was just Stephanie and Helen left and that pissed Helen off more. It irked Stephanie, made that longing that she felt harder to cope with. She had called her failure, her useless daughter. The black sheep of the family, who always waned to fly but instead broke her arm and embarrassed Helen. Looking back at the flying thing, it confused Stephanie, she didn't remember breaking her arm, she could remember screaming, floating and being loved on, or was that the fantasy life she had been thinking about, dreaming about with longing?
"I always knew there was something off about you," That stung, how could a mother say that to their child, "I don't know what to do about you, you're a lost cause!" Ouch, "No hope of fixing! Joe was your last chance, what am I to do with you?!"
"Do you even want to be my mother?" Stephanie asked softly, looking over to Helen Plum, "Do you even want me as your daughter?"
"I don't know what I want with you!" Helen shrieked and Stephanie could read her thoughts, see the emotions, the hatred for her, for not being a good traditional 'Burg woman, the self pity that always surrounded Helen when she thought of Stephanie and the longing for her to just…get…rid…of…Stephanie, "You can't do anything right, as your mother-"
"You're not my mother," Stephanie said, dabbing at her mouth, with a napkin and then suddenly standing up, "You're not, not anymore, Helen."
"Stephanie Plum you can't-" Helen started but Stephanie held her hand up.
"I can and I will, I don't need for you to tell me, you want me out of your life, you want the 'Burg gossip to stop about me, to never think about me, I'll do you a solid, Helen Plum, I'll leave," Stephanie grabbed her keys and her bag, "I'm disowning you, you don't have to worry about me tarnishing your reputation again."
"I am your mother-" Stephanie shook her head at that statement and laughed.
"I don't think you ever were my mother, I have a mother out there, I can feel it, it's not you, though," Stephanie said, looking to Helen, "You know what, I'm going to find her, I'm going to find my real mother, even if she's just a dream or fantasy, I'm going to look for her, she-she's not even real and she's done more for me in three weeks than you've done for in decades! I'm tired of being looked down on, I don't want to settle with Joe, I hate that fucker! I'm going to leave this family and find the one that makes me happy!"
Stephanie turned and walked out the front door of her parent's duplex, igoring the screams and shouts of rage from Heien. She started the car and was off, riding and riding, until she found herself pulling into a park, parking besides a black Turbo Porsche. In the street lamp that bathed light over the small jungle gym, she could see Carlos, sitting on a swing, slouched over. Stephanie climbed out the car and walked over to the man and sat in the empty swing beside him. He didn't even look up as Stephanie sat.
"Are we broken, Babe?" Carlos asked, a moment later, looking over to Stephanie, "This hole we have, the both of us ,why can't we fill it?"
"I wish I knew Carlos," Stephanie whispered, reaching out for Carlos's hand and taking it, "Maybe we'll just be broken together."
"….My father disowned me," Carlos said, finally, looking over to Stephanie, "But, it didn't hurt as much as I thought it would, it didn't hurt at all."
"I disowned my own family," Stephanie confessed, "I was tired of Helen talking down on me and those last thoughts I felt from her were those longing for me not to be her daughter, so…I made her wish come true."
"So, we're no longer a Manoso or Plum, what are we?" Carlos asked as they sat together.
"I don't-"
"Mew…." Stephanie and Carlos looked up from their musing to see an elegant black cat padding over to them, a very elegant black cat, with silky curly fur, a matching bushy tail and large ears on top of its head. It could pass as a Maine Coon, but this cat wasn't one. There was something almost human about its face.
"Hey there, pretty kitty," Stephanie said as the cat stopped before the two and sat on its hunches, showing off a silver chain with a white stone on it, "It must be an indoor cat that someone lost-oh, look, Carlos."
The cat stood, stretching and padding over to Carlos, jumping up into his lap and laying in it, purring with delight. Carlos rested a hand on the cat's belly and let out a soft smile, "Yes, I think she is pregnant with kittens."
"She's so beautiful," Stephanie said as the cat sat up and began to meow, looking at Carlos with almost human eyes and then gently licking his cheek, before jumping down and jumping into Stephanie's lap, giving her the same treatment. As Stephanie ran her hand across the cat's back, she felt a jolt of something, something that filled that hole in her.
"Did you fill whole, when petting the cat?" Stephanie asked Carlos, who hesitated but nodded his head, "What is going on here, Carlos?"
"Heidi! For gods sake, don't run off like that," A voice shouted and the cat perked up, jumped off Stephanie's lap and ran over to the man running over to the group, "You're pregnant! Going to be the death of me!"
Stephanie and Carlos looked at the man before them, as he picked up the pregnant cat and then Carlos asked, "Diesel, what are you doing here and when did you get a cat?"
TBC….
Turns out, love is a very, very powerful emotion, it might be something Heidi and Robi didn't account for, here's to hoping the ending surprises you all! If my German is off, my B, I used google translate!
