Disclaimer: The characters of the Stephanie Plum series belong to Janet evanovich and are used here without permission. No copyright infringement is intended.
Pairing: Joe/Stephanie
Rating: Suitable for all ages
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Just Tell Me Why
By TT

The Burg is a fairly predictable place. Everybody knew everybody else and knew what to expect, how each person would react in a given situation. The people there generally lived their lives with little or no surprises. In fact, the only acceptable surprises in Chambersburg were proposals and birthday parties.

That was why, when Stephanie stepped into Joe’s house only to find him on his knees in the family room, hands cradling a familiar face, and pleading, she was struck utterly dumb and stood frozen in place.

“Just tell me why?” Joe pleaded. “I can understand so many things. I’ve put up with so many things, but this… This I don’t understand. Why? Why did you do it?”

Shaking herself from her stupor, Stephanie dropped her purse and entered the room.

Slowly, she crossed to Joe and knelt beside him. Resting a hand on his shoulder she looked at his face and quietly said, “Joe?”

Joe tuned and looked at her. His eyes filled with a hint of agony and something else. “Cupcake,” he breathed, moving his hands, he wrapped his arms around Stephanie and pulled her into a fierce hug, burying his face in her hair. “Oh, Cupcake,” he greeted, his voice shaky. “It’s horrible.”

Stephanie wrapped her arms around him and started stroking his hair as if he was a small child. “It’s OK, Joe. We can fix this. Just tell me what happened.”

Joe took several deep breaths, attempting to regain control. Finally he pulled back a little and looked into Stephanie’s eyes. “I left the television on for Bob again today,” he began.

Stephanie nodded. Television was just about the only way to keep Bob from eating the furniture when he was alone.

“I left it on sports center because he seems to like it.” Joe took a deep breath. “Somehow, Bob…” He had to stop to take another breath. “He ate the remote, or at least chewed it beyond recognition.”

“Oh, no!” Stephanie cried, trying to pull away to look at the devastation. She didn’t get far as Joe refused to relinquish his hold.

“It gets worse,” he continued.

“Worse?” Stephanie said, a feeling of dread creeping into her stomach.

“Somehow… somehow he’s got it so, even using the channel change on the set, we only get two channels.” Joe stopped and took another deep breath.

Stephanie could feel the dread creep upward until it nearly strangled her. “Wh-what?” she asked, not at all sure she wanted to know.

Joe visibly swallowed. “The Weather Channel and C-Span.”

“No!” Stephanie cried in horror. Wrenching herself from Joe’s embrace, she turned toward the offender and took up the position she had seen Joe in when she first arrived.

Cradling Bob’s face in her hands, she ignored the lick he tried to place on her face and she begged, “Why, Bob? Just tell me why?”

End.

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