A Past Unveiled
By: Vulcan Rider

A/N: I have not abandoned "Mercenary for the Money" and will update it soon. Please forgive the lengthy wait for Chapter 3, as Real Life has taken precedence. My husband is almost recovered from his recent surgery, and my health issues have somewhat stabilized, so I hope to have the next chapter finished soon. However, this popped into my head Sunday, and I had to jot it down. Thank you all so much for taking the time to review my other work, and I hope you find this piece just as interesting.
Maggie M.

A Past Unveiled... "Need To Know"

Frank Plum was sitting at the kitchen table while his wife of 37 years paced the kitchen, pausing occasionally to scrub nonexistent spots of dirt on the counter-top. He furrowed his brow, then finally spoke up, "Helen, put down the sponge, grab a cup of coffee and come sit down. I want to discuss Stephanie with you for a minute." Helen spun around and faced him with her mouth open, ready to expel another mouthful of angry words about his pride and joy, his spirited daughter, but he stopped her before the first word left her mouth. "STOP! Don't say another word, yet. You've done nothing but run on and on about her and that man for the last twenty minutes, while I tried to enjoy my breakfast, and it's time for you to listen now."

Her face paled slightly, but she reached for her coffee cup, filled it half way with coffee and went to reach in the cabinet when Frank said, "And, Helen, this discussion needs to be made with straight coffee, NO Irish in it." She blushed from her forehead to just above her collar. He used to think she was so beautiful when she blushed like that when he'd flirt and tease her to make her cheeks pink. However, these days her flushed face was usually accompanied by a tightly-pursed mouth, like she'd been sucking on a lemon, or after a day of sipping her tea that wasn't fooling anyone in this household. How long had it been since he'd seen a genuine smile on her face? Not the sickly, false 'Burg version of 'polite company' smile? Too damn long, he thought. She added more coffee to her cup and a splash of cream, then sat at the table, smoothed her dress and looked at him as she folded her hands together around her cup.

Frank looked at his wife, wondering where to start, then decided to just dive headlong, straight into the truth. "Helen, do you remember the first several years of our marriage, back when I was in the Rangers, before I started working at the Post Office?" She shook her head yes. "Do you remember how we discussed the special contract I was offered when I was up for discharge? How excited we were that it would give us the money to buy our home, if I remained available for a certain number of missions for those first few years after I got out? How after I started working at the Post Office, I had to leave occasionally, when I'd get called up for special missions? That was a hard time for you, I'm sure, especially after we started our family. I know it couldn't have been easy; being the wife of an Army Ranger is pretty much like being a single mother, and I don't know if I ever thanked you, but I appreciated it."

Helen took a moment and really looked at her husband, his eyes showing several different things, but the honesty in his comment wasn't in doubt. He was still a handsome man and these days it seemed as though they spent most of their time going in separate directions. It was nice to have a moment of the closeness they used to share. "Frank, thank you for that. It was a difficult time, but I had Mother and Dad to help, along with several of our friends and family. But, I don't understand what this has to do with Stephanie and why you were so angry a few minutes ago." She had finally calmed down, and it had been a long time since she'd had a real conversation with her husband.

"The reason I wanted to remind you of that, is because I still have my Security Clearance, and I still do some Domestic Intel gathering for some government departments. It's just not something that is known, because gossip about that could put me, you and our daughters and granddaughters in mortal danger. I know how you love to gossip to your friends about every little thing, but THIS is something that better not leave this table." When Helen went to open her mouth again, Frank stopped her once more with a look of steel and said, "Just give me a moment to make my point, okay?" She nodded her head and took a sip of her coffee.

"I have an extremely high clearance level and can still get information on others that most people can't access, and when it comes to someone my daughter is involved with, you can bet your ass that I WILL find out what kind of man he is." Helen's eyes widened, knowing that since Carlos was an Army Ranger and had just returned from what her daughter called being "in the wind," that she might finally get all of those accusations that Joseph made against him validated, and she'd have real evidence to show Stephanie that he wasn't proper husband material.

"Frank, what did you find out and can you tell me without us getting in trouble?" she asked her husband, her eyes widened and a hint of excitement she couldn't quite hide from him, even though he knew she was trying.

"What I'm about to tell you has nothing to do with any classified mission, but is more about the man himself." Frank paused for several moments, finally took a deep breath and looked his wife directly in the eyes. "Helen, this doesn't leave this table, agreed? This is not gossip-fodder, but was information I shouldn't have been able to access, normally, and could cost me my clearance, not to mention my freedom." She nodded her head vigorously, holding up her hand like a Scout sign. "Okay, I truly believe that you love both of our daughters, although you seem to be harder on Stephanie about the choices she makes in her life, but we need to remember that she is an adult. However, I found out some things that shocked and disgusted me and made me question what kind of parents we were for not protecting our daughter better than we were." At this point, Helen's eyes were the size of saucers.

"You are always so insistent on Stephanie getting married and quitting the job she loves, having babies and settling down into the kind of life you and Valerie seem to enjoy living. Well, she will probably never want that kind of life, but at least we can know what type of man she would be tying herself to. When I pulled this file, it wasn't easy to get hold of, because it was sealed. That only happens when someone either does very deep undercover work, or there are things in there that the person involved committed and that someone high up helped cover up and get the records sealed. In this case, I found that in a matter of just three years, there were multiple charges of drunk and disorderly, eight separate stays in the Brig, which astounded me as to why there wasn't a court martial and a dishonorable discharge, but it was the last thing that I found that made me the sickest and explained the reason he was allowed to skate by unscathed. His best friend and 'partner in crime' was the son of a very high-ranking government official. After the last incident, he almost ended up in prison, and if it hadn't been for his friend's father, his career and his life would have been ruined."

At hearing this, Helen was feeling so vindicated; absolutely vibrating in her chair and as Frank watched her, he could see little things that reminded him of his Pumpkin when she found a puzzle piece and was ready to run off half-cocked into danger without preparing, or waiting for the rest. He figured Stephanie got at least some of her traits from her mother, aside from her Hungarian metabolism.

"The last time he and his friend were picked up by the MPs and charged, it was for the rape and physical assault of two under-aged girls in another country while on leave. It damn near caused an international incident. Needless to say, the friend's wealthy, influential father ended up talking to the twin girls' parents, paid all their medical bills, including plastic surgery for the face of the one girl whose cheek was broken, and the surgical repair of the other twin's vaginal and anal tears. In addition, the father paid the family the equivalent of fifty thousand US dollars, which is a pittance for what the girls went through, but is unheard of for the average person in that part of the world, in exchange for dropping all charges, recanting their testimony, and swearing to never speak of this again or face extreme financial and legal repercussions. They got a judge and the military powers-that-be to seal the records and there was only a very vague mention of a 'disagreement between intimate partners that was resolved without further legal action' on their records. NOW, what I want to ask you, is this. Is THIS the kind of man you want to marry your daughter, to have children with her, to bring home around Valerie's young daughters? To sit at your table and eat your pot roast and smile his charming, but deceptive smile across the table at you?"

"Oh, Frank, absolutely NOT. I'm so, so glad you thought to do this. We have to find a way to get her away from him. You have to show her this information or she'll never believe us. I knew that she should have stayed with Joseph and never gotten involved with that man; Joseph told us he was a criminal. She just never listens to me, but maybe she'll listen to you!" Helen sat back and tried to look concerned and furious, but all she could think was that she was finally being proved right; and now she finally had real facts to show Stephanie how wrong she'd been about that man, no matter how attractive and charming he was.

"Helen, the man I'm talking about wasn't Ranger, it was Joseph Morelli while he was on shore leave in one of the Asian ports, which I will not name because of legal implications. Joe was the one who got drunk and raped one of the twins. He'd hit her and shattered her cheekbone when she began screaming for him to stop, while his buddy was raping the other twin, also a virgin who suffered the vaginal and anal tears." Helen flopped back down in her chair in shock, all the color leeching out of her face, then turning a sickly green pallor. The shock was evident and Frank could tell that she didn't want to believe it, that she was about to refute his information.

Before she had a chance to gather her wits, he said, "Don't even try to defend him and say it was a mistake. I saw the pictures, the testimony, and the copy of the statement that the Ambassador got the parents to sign, along with a copy of the check. And Helen, if you think that this was an isolated incident, and that he'd never do it again, ask yourself just how many times Angie Morelli went to the Emergency Room after Anthony went after her the same way? You think this is something that just got out of hand? There were statements in his file from other seamen who said that those two were always talking about their "Cherry Collection" and how they were able to 'convince' any girl they chose, no matter the age. Not women, Helen, girls!

"I want you to know this, too... if Joe Morelli had NOT shipped out before Trenton woke up to poems about him taking my daughter's virginity on the floor of the Tasty Pastry, about how she was 'soft and sweet, and good to eat,' the 'Burg would have been convinced he got on that bus, turned coward and headed for Canada instead, and just went AWOL. He would be buried in about four separate shallow graves in the Pine Barrens. My years in the Rangers taught me a lot of things, and I would have taken pleasure in dismembering him slowly, and keeping him alive as long as possible while doing it. I spent the entire time he was gone thinking about it, but he's alive today because of Stephanie. I was never more proud of her than I was when she hit him with the Buick. There's a damn good reason she was never charged for that, because you and I both know that everyone knew it wasn't an accident. Joe Morelli isn't the only one with friends in high places, Helen.

"Now, I also pulled Ranger Manoso's file. It is much, much thicker since he didn't just sign up for the minimum enlistment like Joe, and there is a great amount of it that is blacked out, but I will tell you this much. That man as you love to call him, has spent over twelve years in some of the world's worst hell-holes, fighting for our country. Yes, he's a killer; he's killed a lot of terrorists and very bad people who would love nothing more than to destroy our country, but then I'm a killer, too. I did the same job while I was active duty and every time I went in the wind, before my contract was up and I began working at the Post Office full time. But, most of the missions he pulls now are ex-fil and SAR missions; going in, finding and recovering stranded, injured or captured teams, or VIPs who have been kidnapped by terrorists. Since he met Stephanie, he's been working toward finishing out his contract so he could tailor his life and his business to accommodate a relationship where he wouldn't have to leave the woman he loves all the time with no notice, and possibly either never be heard from again, or come home in a pine box. You know what that life is like, and he didn't want that for her. He's been nothing but wonderful to Stephanie. She's happier than she's ever been!

"Now, you look me in the eye and you tell me which man you would rather have sleep next to our daughter at night. The one who shows up at all of her explosions and incidents and calms and comforts her, no matter what crap she's covered in; who expends thousands of dollars and man-hours looking for her and finding her when she's kidnapped, who almost died walking unarmed into a room with a psycho to save his daughter and the woman he loved? Or would you rather it be the man who shows up and yells at her in front of his fellow police officers, firemen and YOUR neighbors, telling her what an embarrassment she is, how incompetent she is, how she can't do anything right and needs to quit and marry him so she can stay home and have his kids, all without ever checking first to see if she is okay or needs medical care? The very same one who fucked our sixteen year old daughter on a bakery floor and wrote about it all over town?" He stopped a moment and took a deep breath so his voice would return to normal, instead of the angry, grating fury he could hear in it.

"Helen, you say he's changed, that he's a respectable police Detective now. Do you want to put money on how long before it would go past just yelling and into throwing fists? You know enough to know that domestic abuse is a cycle, and Joe Morelli has never received any type of counseling or anger management, and his drinking has become a topic of interest lately around town. If you were to ask him about it, though, I'd bet you all new kitchen appliances that he'd tell you he's just been stressed out over all of Stephanie's 'incidents' lately. Sound familiar?" he asked, as he looked down at her coffee cup. "But back to the Morelli family, how many times did Anthony blame Angie for 'stressing him out' or 'not keeping the kids quiet' or anything else he could think of to blame her latest bruise on.

"There will always be a reason, and Joe has been manipulating you for three years to believe that Stephanie is the cause of all of their problems. He's had you helping him verbally and emotionally abuse our daughter and you don't even realize it. You're so hell-bent on getting her married off and pregnant, so that you can finally feel like you've done your duty to the fucking 'Burg, that you don't even realize how successful she's been at her job. My God, she went from being a lingerie buyer to being a bounty hunter with no experience in law enforcement, and she still not only brought in a street-smart cop, she cleared his name. You have no idea just how successful she is. But, Helen, she doesn't love Joe Morelli, anymore than she loved that piece of shit, Dickie Goddamn Orr, and Joe has been fucking around on her with three other side-pieces the entire time he was trying to get her to marry him. He turned out exactly like his father; the only difference is that he has most of the 'Burg snowed, you more so than most.

"How would you feel if I stood in front Giovichinni's and yelled at you at the top of my lungs about how useless you are because you can't control your own mother, how you're incompetent as a wife because you can't even keep your mother from causing scenes at the funeral home and you're an embarrassment to me? That I can't even bring my friends home because my WIFE can't manage to keep her oldest daughter from baby-talking to her grown husband, and her granddaughter from running around like a horse, or her 75-year-old mother from dressing indecently in my own home? If I stood in public and berated you at the top of my lungs, with all these hurtful things, how would you feel?"

Frank was watching his wife's face and saw the tears welling in her blue eyes and almost, almost felt bad for using this method to open her eyes to his daughter's constant humiliation and pain. "That is what Joe Morelli does to our daughter every time something happens with her, and from what I've heard from Eddie, your nephew by marriage, Joe may bitch at Stephanie about being humiliated because of all the bets at the TPD, but he has his money in on every single one of those pots. After all, he has the inside track on the FTAs she's going after, the ones who like fire or have a grudge against her. He has a better idea than most which ones will try to torch her car, or who'll throw food at her. Yeah, he goes through her files and hedges his bets. Where do you think he got the money for that expensive Ducati bike he bought?" Frank watched his wife sitting across from him. Just like with Stephanie, he could almost read the thoughts as they ran through her mind; everything was reflected on her face.

Helen sat there in her chair, silent, stunned, sick at her stomach. Frank's words about her being incompetent as a wife and mother, a grandmother and daughter hurt, even though she was almost sure that he was just using them as an example and didn't really mean them. She sat there and wondered if he was really embarrassed over her not being able to control her mother. Finally, she got up the nerve to ask him. "Frank, do you really think I'm incompetent and an embarrassment?"

"Helen, did those words hurt you? Did they shake your confidence in yourself?" he asked. "I said those things in private, and not in front of a crowd of your peers. Can you imagine how that would have felt in the middle of the grocery store? That feeling you're experiencing is something your child lives with all the time from 'poor Joseph', only he does it in front of the entire 'Burg. Why do you think you get so damn many phone calls every time something happens?" he replied.

She didn't want to admit it, she had her pride after all, but they'd always been honest with each other. "Yes," she said with a tear running down her cheek. "They hurt and they made me want to question everything I do and what I'm doing wrong. I'd want to die if anyone heard you saying those things to me."

"Then can you imagine just how much your baby girl hurts every time that bastard does that to her in public, week after week? Then he calls you and lies to you about her and you lap it up, and I hear you call her and let her know what a disappointment she is, how she needs to quit that ridiculous job. That she is going to lose her last chance at happiness, that Joseph isn't going to wait forever for her, and she'll never do better than him. Her mother, who is supposed to be her biggest supporter, thinks she's a disappointment and deserves a rapist and woman beater for a husband.

"Stephanie isn't a stupid woman, Helen. Like me, she has some of the best instincts about people that I've ever seen, and my instincts have saved my life and the lives of my men time and time again, so she knows the kind of man Joe Morelli is at his core. Why do you think she hasn't married him, yet? And now, she's in love with Ranger, and he's a good man, a decent man, a hero. He's proven himself to her over and over and he's never wavered in his trustworthiness. That's the kind of man that I want waking up next to my daughter. I don't care if he's from the 'Burg or if he's Cuban, Italian, Black or Green. That man bleeds Red every time he steps in front of a bullet for her, and he'd do it every time. Something Joe Morelli would NEVER do. Nor would Joe Morelli jump off a bridge to save her. How much more proof do you need?

"I'm not telling you these things to hurt you, or belittle you, but to open your eyes. Helen, you've been manipulated by a master all this time, even though you knew what kind of boys those Morelli kids were, how they grew up, and what Joe did to her when she was young. He might have gotten into the TPD because his record was sealed, but he's still the same man who prided himself on "collecting cherries" in the Navy and don't forget that he collected Stephanie's before he left, but that wasn't even the worst of it. He could have left and never mentioned it and I wouldn't have hated him nearly as much, but he had to brag about it on the walls all over town before running off like a coward, and leaving Stephanie's reputation in shreds. You grounded her for that, like she wasn't punishing herself enough over it? My God, woman, the girl didn't date the rest of her high school years because all of the boys thought she was easy and she was humiliated.

"Talking about my baby girl's virginity is the last fucking thing I want to be doing, but you need to realize that carrying a badge doesn't automatically make a person honorable. There are a lot of dirty cops on the street and there is more domestic abuse in law enforcement relationships than ever gets reported because cops cover for each other. It's hard as hell to get a charge to stick when a cop's buddies stand behind him and lie for him and that's one future I certainly don't want for my daughter." Frank leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath. His ass was starting to hurt from sitting so long in these damn hard kitchen chairs.

Frank looked at his wife and softened his voice, "Helen, you've been a wonderful wife and a good mother and I'm proud to be married to you. I always have been. I just want you to start seeing all of the wonderful qualities in Stephanie that other people in this town see in her. Ever since Stephanie divorced Dickie Orr, you have been riding her ass nonstop and it's been destroying her little by little. She married that prick because she wanted to make YOU proud. Do you remember how happy and joyful Valerie was when she was planning her wedding to Steve? How her face just beamed when you all came back from trying on wedding gowns? Now, what did Steph's face look like the day you finally found her gown? I saw her when she came in and went upstairs to go to the bathroom, and she stayed in there quite a while. She had a look of sheer unhappiness on her face. She wasn't glowing and happy. She HATED that 'huge, poufy monstrosity'! Those were her exact words to me. She wanted something simple, but classy and elegant. She'd had so many dire warnings about everything NOT to do, how NOT to screw up tripping coming down the aisle, so you wouldn't be embarrassed in front of the whole town, that she wasn't even thinking about the life she was going to spend with the man at the end of the aisle.

"And what was she told when she came home after finding that prick fucking the town whore on her dining room table? Do you really think a different pot roast recipe or cleaner windows would have kept his dick in his pants? I heard about his bachelor party. I'm not surprised that he got drunk and couldn't get it up on his wedding night. Yes, I overheard Stephanie and Mary Lou talking about that in Steph's old room when she was packing up the last of her stuff after she and Orr got back. I doubt that Pumpkin knows this, but he was so busy screwing every single one of the strippers the night before, not to mention the drugs he did when it was down to just him and his partying buddies, that he didn't see that one of his friends was filming it. And just so you know, Joyce Barnhardt showed up at the very end of the bachelor party to give all three of his best friends blow jobs before screwing Dickie in front of them for his last night as a 'free man.' Shit like that gets repeated in the mens rooms around town.

"Stephanie could have been the best cook, housekeeper, and best sex partner in the world and he would have cheated on her. It was in his spoiled rotten nature. I was so proud of her for ruining his political aspirations. I just wish she'd been as ruthless as he'd been, and I'm still a little pissed with you over getting her to sign that pre-nup without having an attorney look it over because she should "trust" her future husband. What kind of man sticks his fiancée or wife with his law school loans and credit card bills when he's the one who cheated? That was so wrong of you, pressuring her to sign that paper. That would have never happened if I'd been here and Dickie knew it, which is why he made sure to come by while I was gone. That's why I never hesitate to help her financially when she's desperate and finally swallows her pride to ask for a little help. We OWE her that. YOU owe her that.

"That wedding wasn't Stephanie and Dickie's wedding, Sweetheart. It was your wedding, your chance to show off your hostess skills to the 'Burg, and Stephanie was just a means to an end. She was miserable throughout the entire planning and the wedding, itself; every one of her ideas or wishes had been overridden. Even if that marriage had worked out, she would never have had happy memories of her own wedding. I'm just as much to blame, because I sat on my ass in my recliner out of the line of fire, or hauled ass the moment I heard the words wedding planning, while you bulldozed her in the kitchen, overriding every idea or suggestion she came up with for her own wedding.

"While we're on the subject of Dickie, and men screwing her over, let's get back to Joe again for a minute." Helen had been sitting with her elbow resting on the tabletop, her head in the palm of her hand, staring at her cold cup of coffee; but at that, she sat up straight. She had hoped that the subject of Joe Morelli was done and over with. She didn't think she could handle any more revelations about how badly she'd failed her youngest daughter, and how she'd so blindly allowed Joseph to make a fool of her.

Helen realized that Frank had started speaking again. "Do you remember back when Dickie was missing and Stephanie was running herself ragged, constantly worried that she'd be arrested for his murder at any moment? She was begging Joe for any morsel of information he could give her on the case, any scrap of a lead she could chase down so she could prove her innocence. He kept telling her that he couldn't help her, that the only information he had was "classified" but that she shouldn't worry too much, that he doubted she'd be arrested. Like that would ease her mind and she could just rest easy because Joe told her not to worry; after all the times he'd lied to her, or withheld information time after time to keep her out of his cases, which more often than not, ended up putting her in life-threatening danger. She ended up going after leads on the criminal activity that Dickie had been involved in and damn near died.

"Do you know what she stumbled upon at Joe's house after several times of barely escaping with her life, following up on Dickie's mob involvement? She showed up unannounced and Dickie was making himself a fucking sandwich. Making himself at home in Joe's house, big as you please, while Morelli just sat across from him, eating his own food and bitching about Dickie wearing the last of Joe's clean clothes. All that time, Joe had him in 'protective custody' in the goddamn house where he wanted Stephanie to raise his babies, and wouldn't even tell her that she wasn't going to be arrested because Dickie was alive, but she needed to keep it under wraps because of a Federal case.

"All that time, night after night after night, not being able to sleep, worrying that the cops were going to show up at any moment to arrest her, and thinking about how she would survive in jail with all the criminals she'd sent back there. What kind of man does that to the woman he supposedly loves and wants to marry? If it had been Ranger who had him in custody, he would have taken Stephanie and let her see Dickie with her own eyes so she would have known for a fact that she was safe. Then he would have fed her and watched over her while she slept. Another example of Morelli's selfish nature, how he always put his job over Stephanie's safety or care. He let her run around town, chasing down some of the most dangerous people in the worst areas of town and in the mob, rather than truly set her mind at ease and trust her to keep the information to herself. And Helen," his voice became quiet and very serious; "I don't doubt for a minute that if Ranger really believed that Stephanie actually killed Dickie, he'd know she would have had a damn good reason and he would have spirited her away if it looked like she really was going to go to jail. That man loves our daughter with everything in him and you've been treating him like scum, while pushing the bastard that is lower than scum at our daughter as a potential husband."

Frank watched as Helen's shoulders started shaking with her sobs as she realized just how badly she'd been treating her own daughter for more years than she could count. He'd already beaten himself up mentally for not being there for his daughter, and now the woman he loved was going through her own self-recriminations. And for what? Position in a town full of people who were so two-faced that they'd turn on you in a heartbeat, whose biggest entertainment was watching and talking about others misery. Helen finally realized just how much she'd contributed to her own daughter's unhappiness for years, her only concern being what all the neighbors thought; people who had nothing positive to contribute to her family's happiness, who didn't really care whether her family was happy or safe, but took pleasure in the entertainment of watching the misery of others. Those who would show up at her door with a coffee cake, only to try to find out if the latest news about her child was true, or how much the facts had been exaggerated. It was nothing more than a huge game to the entire 'Burg, and Helen had been blindly playing along for years.

Frank walked around the table and handed his wife a crisp, clean handkerchief, and as she stood and mopped her face, she thought about how many of those small, white squares she had starched and ironed since they'd been married. She wondered what it mattered in the grand scheme of things. She'd never asked him if he preferred them without starch. She looked up at him and asked, and watched the confused look come across his face. "I just realized how much time I spent on so many small things that don't really matter, while ignoring the most important things in my life. I wonder if Stephanie knows that I love her? I can't remember the last time I told her." As she stood in the circle of her husband's arms, she vowed to herself to first apologize to Stephanie and then Carlos. It would be a beginning. After that, she would get her priorities in order and start putting the feelings of her family first. She wouldn't make the same mistakes anymore that she'd made in the past with Stephanie. She wondered if she was coordinated enough to gallop around the backyard with Mary Alice.