Step Up
By Jillian Peters

Rating: M for language and future chapters.

The phone rang, waking me from a sound sleep.

I quickly yawned before croaking, "'Lo?"

"Babe. It's time."

"Ranger?"

"Get up. It's time."

Time for what? What I knew for sure was that it was definitely time for him to hang up and let me get back to sleep. I glanced at the clock on my nightstand. Two-thirty a.m. Was he crazy?

"Steph, I need you. I'm going to be a father and you know I won't be able to get through this without you."

His latest plea hit me like a bulldozer. For the past six months, I'd gotten pretty good at suppressing the feelings that I knew for a fact would come out of hiding when D-Day finally arrived. And it was looking like this particular day would be the day that Ranger's infant son would be welcomed into the world.

Could my Queen of Denial crown get any larger?

I sighed. "Are you sure that Lauren Marie would even want me there? I mean, she's having a baby and probably wouldn't want to see anyone –

"The guys are already here and she's asking for you. Please, Steph. I need you here."

Several deafeningly silent moments passed while I fought yet another mental battle, this time having to choose between stay or go. If I stayed, I'd be a horrible, childish bitch and the close friendship I shared with the Man in Black would no doubt be sabotaged, possibly for good. If I went, I'd be the amicable, respectable friend who harbored no visible hard feelings against her former lover's perfectly nice girlfriend and who has appeared to have grown both mentally and emotionally stronger as a woman.

I sighed again. Eventually, go claimed the victory and I found myself replying, "Give me fifteen."

"I'm outside of the hospital's Emergency entrance. I'll wait here for you." The line went dead.

This might actually manage to steal the number one spot on Stephanie Plum's List of Totally Unpleasant Experiences, which was currently being occupied by the horror of all horrors: accompanied Grandma Mazur to the grand opening of the new Pleasure Treasures shop downtown and watched her pick out a variety pack of flavored lubes and a couple of videos that were entitled "Gangbangs of New York" and "Throbbin' Hood", and got our picture snapped outside for the Trenton Times while Grandma gave the reporter a full run-down of her purchases.

I didn't smile for the camera and, as usual, the photo wasn't all that flattering. My mother had to take the phone off the hook the day the article showed up in the paper and all I heard for a week straight was, "Why do I have a mother who shops at Pleasure Treasures? And why do I have a daughter who drives her there?"

I guess the asshole reporter was inconsiderate enough to leave out the fact that I was at Pleasure Treasures hoping to wrangle in none other than kinky old whack job Caroline Scarzolli, who'd gone FTA again following a situation involving a gun butt, several bottles of vanilla-flavored GooglyGlide, and the sidewalk out in front of McGinty's Pub and Tavern. And Grandma, not wanting to be left out of a bounty hunt at a porno shop, had jumped into the Buick with me and had also refused to unbuckle her seatbelt unless I let her tag along.

Needless to say, Scarzolli had managed to GooglyGlide her way out of my clutches and all I was left with that morning was a very horny grandmother and the newspaper article from hell.

Back to the problem at hand: Ranger's girlfriend Lauren Marie was about to give birth to their son at St. Francis Hospital and I had promised Ranger I'd be there in fifteen minutes (I probably only had thirteen left now) in order to witness the event.

Some clothes from the day before were strewn on the foot of my bed and I took a second to check them out in the mirror after pulling them on. The jeans were slightly creased and the tee shirt had a red jelly donut stain directly over my boob, but I figured as long as they didn't have globs of garbage or splotches of mud on them, I was good to go.

I grabbed my shoulder bag and keys from the hook in the foyer and said good-bye to Rex.

"I'll be back later on in the day," I said to him. I gave him a grape and a reduced-fat Wheat Thin before tapping gently on his cage. "And no sniveling over Ranger and the fact that he'll be a new daddy the next time you see him. Let's be happy for him."

Rex gave me a "yeah, right, lady" look and carried first the Wheat Thin and then the grape into his soup can. Several seconds passed and he didn't re-emerge, so I figured he was done with the conversation.

So much for a few moments of silent encouragement from my roommate.

Sighing, I let myself out of my apartment and headed down to the parking lot before getting into my car to do what I'd suddenly nicknamed "the unthinkable."

On my way to the hospital, my cell phone rang. It was Tank on the line.

"Bomber," he boomed. "Bossman just got called inside. I hope you're on your way over here."

"I'm around the corner," I told Tank. "Two minutes, tops."

"See you in the ER waiting room." Tank disconnected.

The Man of Less-Than-Friendly Phone Etiquette was pacing in front of a row of vinyl-covered lobby chairs in the ER waiting room when I trooped through the automatic sliding glass doors. As soon as he saw me, he strode over in my direction and threw a huge brown arm around my shoulders in a quick hug.

"Santos and Brown are already upstairs," he informed me. "Last I heard she was nine centimeters. When she gets to ten, they'll have her start pushing." Tank started towards the door to the main hospital and I followed, close on his heels.

The rent-a-cop at the security desk near the door stepped out in front of me before Tank and I could proceed any further. "Miss, you'll need a visitor's pass." He motioned to a pair of giant, purple rubber boot prints stuck onto the shiny laminate floor, in front of a small camera. "Please stand on the footsteps so that I can take your picture and issue you an ID sticker."

Awesome. Another unflattering picture to broadcast to Trenton. To make matters worse, it would be my own fault because I'd be wearing the photo. I glanced at Tank. A name sticker with his black-and-white picture printed on it was already stuck onto the front of his red Polo shirt. I sighed and let the security guard snap my mugshot.

When I received my ID sticker, I noticed that I had dark circles under my eyes and hair from hell. I stuck the sticker onto my tee shirt (conveniently over the jelly stain on my boob) and reluctantly followed Tank through the door and into the main hospital. Who was I there to impress, anyway? A hot obstetrician? Nah, not a good idea. If he came home to me one night and had to see just one more vagina, he'd probably shoot himself.

"I've been dreading this," I admitted to Tank as I trudged along after him.

"Why, Steph?" He turned to me, confused. "You've known this day was coming for six months now. You've had time to prepare for it."

I sighed. "Yeah, but just because I've accepted it doesn't mean I'm okay with it."

Tank smiled sympathetically and threw an arm around my shoulders again. "You've been through a lot and you've come a long way. Not a lot of women would do what you're doing. And not a lot of women would do it with a smile on their face." He nudged me, forcing a grin to surface on my lips.

"You're right. I should be pretty damn proud of myself."

"Yeah, you should be."

Tank stopped at an elevator and jammed the "up" button with his knuckle. We stood in amicable silence while we waited, each thinking very different thoughts as they blasted through our minds. Tank was there to support his long-time best friend during what would no doubt be one of the happiest moments of his life. I was there for the exact same reason as Tank, but while our bodies were in the same place, doing the same thing, our hearts were on two completely different floors of the hospital.

Tank's heart was with Ranger and Lauren Marie, up in L & D. Mine was down in the basement morgue, on ice along with the rest of the stiffs.

The day that Ranger told me he was going to be a father was possibly one of the worst in my life. I'd seen her around the building from time to time, flashing her beautiful white smile at the guys and tossing her shiny black curls over her shoulder each time she laughed. Although Lauren Marie was the twenty-three year-old daughter of a RangeMan client, she did most of the legwork and handled almost all of the business between Ranger and her father.

For awhile I thought Lester was banging her, because she was young and seemed like his type, but when I'd asked him about it he'd said wistfully, "I wish." The rest of Ranger's core team, which included Bobby and Tank, also both denied any association with her.

So when Lauren Marie showed up in the elevator that had come down from the seventh floor one morning, I knew, without a doubt in my aching heart, that something was up with her and the boss. And when Ranger had cornered me in my office not long after she'd left the building that day, I had absolutely nothing to say to him.

"Babe, just hear me out," he'd pleaded, once he told me Lauren Marie was expecting. "I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I fucked up, I was irresponsible." He appeared to be a mess, both inside and out. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. Please forgive me."

I'd stayed silent and stared blankly at up at him while he cried, thick tears rolling down his scruffy cheeks. I, Stephanie Plum, had finally mastered the all-reverent Blank Look. "Sorry for what, Ranger? For sleeping with someone else and getting her pregnant? Or for not telling me I really had no chance for a future with you, after all?"

He broke down then, sinking to my office carpet in a sniffling mass of smooth mocha-latte skin and sleek, hulking muscle. Batman, reduced to tears over the loss of his babe and the fertilization of his sperm and an egg in another woman. I actually felt bad for him.

"I'm sorry for it all," he croaked. "Please, babe. Don't desert me over this. I need you in my life, no matter what. I can't do any of this without you. I can't go through any of this without you. Please. Please, Stephanie. Please help me through this."

My anger cracked away and I slid down to the floor with him, holding him like a child in my protective arms. The poor bastard. My tears finally began to fall and we cried together for hours over the loss of our somewhat-relationship, over what could have been between us, over the fear that our friendship would never survive this, and over the reality that, in six short months, he would have a child with a woman that he barely knew.

When I'd finally exhausted my tear ducts, I found myself sniffling and telling him, "I'll be here for you, Ranger. I forgive you."

Ranger let out a sigh of relief and squeezed me to him. "You have no idea how much this means to me, Stephanie," he said through his tears. "Thank you for your forgiveness. I understand it'll take awhile for you to accept this, but please know that I care for you deeply and I need you in my life. I want you in my new baby's life. I want to try and make things work with Lauren Marie. She loves you and you know that. I feel awful about how I'd left things with Rachel eleven years ago, and I want to do shit the right way now. It's time I took responsibility for my actions. My child deserves a mother and father who are both equally in its life."

"I know, Ranger," I said quietly. "You're right. This will take me awhile to get over, but I'll do the best I can at supporting you and Lauren Marie."

"Thank you."

I hugged his head to my cheek and felt his sweat-dampened hair against my skin. "You're welcome, Ranger."

A huge scream broke me from my thoughts as a laboring mother was wheeled past us, into a delivery room. Tank and I had gotten off the elevator on the eighth floor and had walked right into a pink-and-blue nightmare. Giant stork murals covered the walls and the sounds of wailing babies drifted out of several of the rooms. We stopped at the nurses' station and were greeted by a friendly-looking woman in a brightly-patterned top.

"Can I help you?" she asked Tank and I.

"We're here to see Lauren Marie...I don't know her last name," I admitted. I turned to Tank. "Any idea?"

"I think it's Candelaria," he answered.

The unit secretary nodded. "She's in eighty-four eleven." She pointed down the hall to our right.

"Thanks," I said. Tank whisked me down to eighty-four eleven by my elbow and before my stomach had the chance to develop any more sickening butterflies, Ranger and Bobby stepped out of the room and Ranger's face lit up when he saw me.

"Steph," he exclaimed on a sigh. He dashed over to Tank and I and swept me into his arms for a hug. "Thank Christ you're here. You didn't miss anything."

I hugged him back and forced a grin. "It's almost showtime, daddy."

Ranger released me and yanked me into eighty-four eleven, where a tiny woman lay huffing and puffing in the middle of a huge hospital bed, her round beach ball belly poking up through the white sheets. From nearby, a galloping heartbeat thumped out of a monitor and a beeping IV pump shared in the telltale labor ruckus.

"Look who's here," Ranger announced to Lauren Marie. She turned to face me and a huge, warm smile broke out across her sweating, flushed face.

"Hey, Steph," she wailed before screaming to no one in particular, "Shit, this hurts!"

An older woman with a face and hair identical to Lauren Marie's came bustling over to her bedside. "I'm here for you, mi'jita. Let Carlos give you some ice chips."

Ranger approached the bed with a pink cup full of ice chips and began feeding them to Lauren Marie. "Chew on these, mami."

I hung back with Tank and Bobby near the doorway and watched as a doctor dashed into the room and checked the readout on the fetal monitor. He chased all of us out except for Ranger and Lauren Marie's mother and when the door reopened a few minutes later, Ranger poked his head out into the hall.

"She's at ten," he said excitedly. Suddenly, he paled. "Shit. This is it." He leaned against the wall and deep-breathed. "Fuck. I'm having a baby. Holy shit!"

"Ranger, relax," I said to him. "You'll do fine. I'll be right outside this door. Get in there and be with Lauren Marie. She needs you."

"But I need you, Steph," he protested weakly. He glanced between me and the door to Lauren's room and back again.

"No. She needs you more than you need me. Go."

With a surge of confidence, Ranger puffed out his massive chest. "I can do this. I'm a Ranger. Shit, I'm a mercenary. I never saw Julie being born. But I'm damn sure going to watch my son come into the world." He did the guy handshake with both Tank and Bobby and kissed my cheek one last time.

"Get in there," Bobby said, shoving Ranger toward the door.

"Tell Lauren good luck for us," added Tank. "We'll be right out here."

Ranger pounded a fist on his chest. "Hooah."

Bobby and Tank returned the gesture. "Hooah," they gruffed out.

The ungodly screams and wails that emanated from behind the closed door to Lauren Marie's room were enough to make me want to look into having my tubes tied. After an agonizing hour and a half of sitting outside that delivery room door, Lauren Marie's yells stopped abruptly and a baby's cries suddenly started up.

Ranger was a father. He had a new son.

Several minutes later, he emerged from the room, looking disheveled, sweaty, and happy. "It's a boy," he confirmed. "Ricardo Carlos Manoso the third."

"Congratulations, man," Tank exclaimed, hugging him tightly. Bobby did the same.

"Wanna see him?" Ranger asked us.

Of course we wanted to see him. Does a bear shit in the woods?

He was beautiful. Such a gorgeous baby. And usually babies look a little like aliens or like little wrinkly old people when they're first born, but not Ranger's son. He had Lauren Marie's nose and Ranger's full top lip. Two chins, thick black hair, round pink face. And he was crying, all wrapped up in a blue blanket with a little blue cap over his curls.

When it was my turn to hold him, he stopped screaming. He blinked open his squinty brown eyes and peered curiously at me. Like, who the hell are you? he probably wanted to ask me. And why are your eyes watering? He was just so precious.

I managed to hold it together long enough to pass him to Tank, who looked like a giant with such a teeny baby in his arms.

"What do you think of him, Steph?" Ranger asked me.

"He's perfect." I smiled at Ranger.

Ranger grinned back, looking exhausted but elated. "Yeah. He is."

I headed towards the door. "I guess I should check around for Lester."

Ranger walked me out into the hall and kissed my forehead. "Thank you for being here," he said softly. "I couldn't have gotten through this without you."

I was puzzled. "Well, I didn't do much," I told him.

"Just having you outside that door was enough for me." Ranger folded me into his arms and kissed my forehead one last time. "I'd better get back in to my girlfriend and our baby."

I smiled weakly to his retreating back. "Yeah."

At last I was alone in the hall. A few moments later, booted footsteps came up behind me and the familiar scent of D & G cologne wafted into my nostrils. When his huge arm cradled my shoulders and pulled my face against his plain black tee shirt, for the first time in a very long time, I broke down and cried.

"You look like you could use a friend, kid."

I only cried harder.

He held me tightly to his chest and smoothed my hair back from my face. "C'mon, beautiful. You know I hate seeing you like this."

I nodded and worked hard to calm my sobs. When they were reduced to short sniffles, I replied, "I know."

Lester kissed the top of my head. "Let's go down to the cafeteria for some breakfast. I overheard that they have chocolate chip pancakes."

"Sure."

After we'd popped into Lauren Marie's room to let Lester see the baby and to tell Ranger, Tank, and Bobby where we'd be, Les threw his arm around my shoulders and we started towards the elevator.

"By the way, you look like shit in that picture on your boob."

Damn that paparazzi rent-a-cop to hell.

Well? What do you think? Let me know, I'd love to hear from you!