207Summary: Joe questions Ranger's motives and learns some hard truths.
WARNING: Graphic language and sexual violence mentioned but not acted. Babe HEA
Mercenary for the Money
by Vulcan Rider
A/N: I've had many thoughts run through my head, conversations that I could see happening, but never before put them down for anyone else to read. This is my first attempt at writing anything here, so please be kind. Thank you to those who have encouraged me to write something, anything. You gals know who you are, especially you, Margaret! :-)
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to Janet Evanovich
WARNING: Graphic sexual violence referenced. Graphic language and scenarios from a bad mission. Mention of foreign sex trade of young girls, and the scene Ranger happens upon in his mission discussed. If these things disturb you, please be advised!
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Ranger saw Morelli waiting, hidden in the shadows as he walked out of the alley, relieved for once that Stephanie was so unaware of her surroundings. He walked Steph to her latest POS, kissing her once more before she drove off with a sweet smile on her face, then walked toward his adversary.
Morelli sneered at him, spittle flying from his mouth as he drove home his latest jibe. "Steph has some idealistic view of her hero, her "Batman" who can do no wrong. You come home after being gone for weeks and she thinks you've been off "saving the world." She doesn't realize you have no soul, how much you love the chance to play assassin for hire, and that you're only in it for the money. You don't give a shit about anyone but yourself, your glory and your fat bank account, that you use to seduce her away from the man who loves her, who wants to marry her."
Ranger almost never lost his tight leash on his control, but coming off this last mission, Morelli was able to find the right buttons to push and he hated it. Before he could regain his iron control, he had Joe raised off the ground by the grip on his collar while he hissed into his face, "Morelli, why don't you tell me that after you've gone into your third mission in a row, looking for young girls abducted by sex trade demons. After you've seen a roomful of girls chained to filthy beds, mattresses stained by semen and blood, with their legs strapped wide and their tiny little bodies spread open, gaping after multiple large, filthy men have been between their legs. Little girls and a few boys who no longer look anything like the photos in the jacket you were given at mission briefing.
"You look into the empty eyes of a 9 year old child that looks like the daughter you just visited three weeks before, and wonder if they're lucky because you got to them in time, or if the other two sets of girls were better off, because their captors got intel from corrupt officials and slit their throats moments before you arrived to rescue them. You look into the eyes of a four year old that could be your brother's little girl and tell me, 'it's all about the money,' you motherfucker." Morelli tried to hold his gaze, but his pale face turned away from Ranger's enraged eyes. Ranger released his collar and dropped him back to his feet. He started to walk away, then turned back.
"As for seducing Stephanie away from the man who loves her, who wants to marry her? You've never loved anyone but yourself, Morelli. At age 8 in your Daddy's garage when you were assaulting little kindergartners, or at age 18 when you "seduced" a sixteen year old girl on a nasty bakery floor, then walked away without looking back; but you couldn't leave it at that. You had to ruin her reputation by writing about it all over town, then running off to the Navy, leaving Stephanie to carry the burden of the gossip and shame, while this town you're so fucking proud of ripped her to shreds.
"Stephanie doesn't need that kind of LOVE. You don't love her, you just want to possess her, to show the 'Burg you won; that you finally got control of the girl that turned her back on everything she despised, that they wanted to turn her into. You want to trap her inside your house, cooking your meals, washing your clothes and sucking your cock; just so you can flip the finger at the 'Burg, who called you poor, white trash when you were a snot-nosed kid whose daddy drank away his paycheck, then came home and beat the fuck out of his wife and kids. You never learned the meaning of the word love.
"You wonder why she doesn't want that life? Why she doesn't want to raise the next generation of assholes who think love is screaming at their girlfriends in public and berating them in front of friends? It's not because I seduced her away from you with my bank account or cars. It's because she finally figured out that real love is actually support and encouragement, even if it's something she's not the best at. It's picking her up, dusting her off and telling her she'll get him tomorrow, then making sure she's got someone watching her back so she DOES. It's helping her to succeed and being happy when she feels proud of herself. That's the reason she ended your relationship last month and decided to move in with me.
"As for marriage, she's so fright-fucked of walking in to find Joyce Barnhardt on a table, or Terri Gilman in a negligee with you jumping out of a window for the neighbors to talk about, that even the word marriage makes her nauseous. The ring that's been sitting in my safe for two years will be on her finger as soon as she's ready, not because her mother browbeat her into believing she needs it, in order to be a good 'Burg girl.
"Joe, you're so busy telling everyone how much you've grown up and changed, that you don't even see the reflection of your father in yourself. Go home and ask your mother if her husband beat her before they were married, or just criticized her and told her what all she needed to change. Ask her if he ever encouraged her to do anything for herself, or if he just humiliated her in front of friends in the early years of their marriage, back before the additional stress of feeding extra mouths gave him reason to draw his fists. You might want to do that really soon, too, because the one thing you've always sworn you'd never be, is exactly what I'm looking at." Joe's anger could be seen in his flashing eyes and the vein throbbing in his forehead.
"And Morelli, here's something else for you to chew on. How many Vice cops do you know, arrested for murder, even if they're eventually exonerated, are ever invited to join an FBI task force? What's the normal procedure in those cases? Do you know of any who've come out on top, who've made Homicide Detective after a murder rap, without someone very high up applying pressure to boost their careers?" Joe's face paled, as a shocked look crossed his face. His thoughts were easy to read, his cop face nowhere in sight.
"Morelli, love is making sure that the woman who means everything to you is taken care of financially, in the event she decides to marry someone else. It's boosting the career of a good cop, even if you think he's an asshole personally, because the woman you love just might have married him before your government contracts were up, and you didn't want money problems to be the cause of bruises on her face or broken ribs that nobody else would see." Ranger walked away, stepped up into his truck and drove off, headed to Steph's apartment to help her pack. He never saw Joe step behind his own truck to throw up.