"If I Put My Mind To It"

1/2/2021

I don't own the Characters or anything but the mistakes, just playing around. Rated M for wherever the muse might take me- smut, language, drama. Not particularly horrible to Morelli but I'm a Babe for life. My first attempt at a fic so please be gentle.

Chapter 1

Stephanie's POV

It had been 3 months since the last argument, which finally left my eyes open enough to see that Morelli and I weren't compatible. I mean, at the end of the day, we could have some good balls-to-the-wall-sex, and he was great to hang out with if you wanted to catch a pizza and a game, but as far as a partner in life – it was a no-go. Not that I was trying to head down the aisle anytime soon… My last marriage didn't last long enough for me to really know much about the whole husband-wife dynamic, but I'd say when you walk in on your husband of less than 3 months screwing someone who isn't you on your dining room table, that pretty much checks the box for "bad husband". But if I'm going to be with someone for any amount of time, it should feel like a partnership, right? Someone who has your back; someone you can count on regardless of the shit life throws at you; someone who's always on your team. Joe was never going to be especially good at any of those things, especially as long as I was still working as a bounty hunter for my cousin Vincent Plum. I knew after the last fight I was done for good, and about 6 weeks ago I cleaned out the apartment and returned everything that had accumulated from Joe over the many years of on-again-off-again. He wasn't particularly happy about the boxes I left on his porch while he was at work. Call me chickenshit if you want, but I just didn't want to have it all out again – or listen to his attempted guilt trips.

So here I was, settling into a new routine of my own. Work, friends, and my hamster Rex. It was Monday morning and I had 3 new body receipts to turn into Connie which would net me a little over $1000 which was a good start on covering my some bills for the month and keep me in pizza and Tastycakes for a few weeks. Plus working the weekend didn't leave much time for me to get sad and have any bad ideas – like calling Joe after a couple glasses of wine. Plus since today was Monday, it was the normal Shorty's hangout night for the Rangemen who had tomorrow off. They started inviting me a little over 5 months ago when Ranger left for another mission. I'd woken up to him in my bed at 3am (fully clothed, unfortunately) stroking my hair and muttering in Spanish. When he switched to English, he told me he had to go into the wind, but that if I needed anything to call Tank or any of the guys. I'd had mostly docile skips to pickup so I hadn't needed to call Rangeman for backup.

A week after the blowup with Joe, I woke up one morning feeling like a complete failure, only to find Tank, Lester, Hector, and Cal in my living room with donuts. They told me this was probably going to be a long mission and they had decided they didn't want me to feel like an island. Anyway, they invited me to Shorty's that night where we shot pool, ate pizza, drank beer and laughed more than I had in weeks. Since then I'd started doing some of my research on skips out of a cubicle at Rangeman, and it seemed more often than not I'd get sucked in to helping out on something they were working on. I didn't really mind, since I was picking up skills myself and becoming a better bounty hunter. Not that anyone really noticed.

"Wow, 3 receipts in one weekend? You get behind on rent again?" Connie asked as a greeting.

"Just trying to make a better use of my time," I replied curtly. "Can you set up the direct deposit to hit today?"

"I'll do my best" Connie promised. She handed me 2 new folders. Here's what we had so far this morning, but check back tomorrow, the docket today is full of Vinnie's losers, and I'm sure I'll have quite a few for you. Are you going to see any of the Rangemen today? I have a couple high bonds for them too."

"Sure," I replied, sticking all 4 folders in my brown leather messenger bag. I'm heading to the Haywood office now.

Vinnie's door flew open. "Christ! You're not moonlighting for Ranger again are you? You can barely keep up with the low bond losers I throw you now, I can't stay afloat if I'm only getting 70% of you! When is Ranger coming back?"

"No, I'm not moonlighting and I have no idea. He's in the wind," I replied. "Since Lula moved away I've been doing some of my research there, you know, better programs and all that."

"Not to mention the breathtaking scenery," Connie interjected. She fanned herself.

"Gotta go," I said, heading out the door to where my latest car waited at the curb. It was only a 3 years old, but it was a Kia Sorento. Yeah, once divorced, afraid of marriage, breaking out in hives at the mention of a pregnancy Stephanie Plum is driving a mini-van. Its insides had had an unfortunate run-in with a cigarette and smelled like a bowling alley covered by a crap-ton of Febreeze. But the price was right since the miles were so high. And I gotta admit, all the cupholders were pretty handy.

I made my way across town to Haywood and fobbed my way into the garage, easing into one of the open employee slots reserved for the men's personal cars. I took the elevator to the 5th floor and gave a little wave to the guys on the monitors. I was just paging through the files from Connie when Lester appeared at my desk.

"Beautiful," he crooned. "Your presence has been requested at the Core Team meeting this morning."

"It's nearly 11am. You guys normally meet at 8, don't you?" I asked, genuinely confused.

"We called a special meeting on Bomber time."

Oh boy. Just what could they possibly have in store for me today. If it was a new distraction, it wasn't worth this much of a setup. I shrugged out of my coat, and slid my bag into the bottom desk drawer. Having nothing else to stall with, I picked up Rangeman's 2 FTA files, pulled up my imaginary big-girl panties and blew out a sigh. "Lead the way."