Disclaimer: The Characters of the Stephanie Plum Series belong to Janet Evanovich and are used here without permission. No copyright infringement is intended.
Notes: This is in response to a Weekly Wednesday Challenge on the PerfectlyPlum list.
The Truth
By TT
Stephanie waved her arm in an expansive gesture as she declared, “All the world is birthday cake, so take a piece, but not too much or your ass will get fat.”
Ranger chuckled as he tightened his hold on her, trying to keep her upright. “That so, Babe?” he asked, as he gently settled her on the tailgate of his truck.
“Yep,” she confirmed, nodding her head and nearly falling off the truck. “He gave me truth serum so it’s gotta be true,” she replied seriously.
“He gave you what?” Ranger asked, his voice tense.
Stephanie didn’t really notice the tension, though; she was too busy watching the butterfly flutter around the garden across the street. “He knocked me out, tied me up and stuck the needle in me. He told me I’d tell him the truth now, it was truth serum in the vial. He thought I was an alien here to take him to my ship, I told him I was from the Burg and I was going to take him to jail. He didn’t like that so he stuck me again,” she finished.
Ranger cupped Stephanie’s face in his hands and forced her to look at him. “Babe,” he said, his voice now very serious. “Babe, look at me.”
Tearing her eyes away from the butterfly she looked in his eyes. “You have beautiful eyes, you know,” she informed. “When they go all dark and chocolate-y it makes me all warm and tingly in my stomach and doo-dah and makes my nipples stand up. It’s hard not to attack you then. Then you kiss me and my heart goes all gooey, because I love you and I’m in love with you. But I can’t tell you that because someday may never come and you don’t feel the same.”
“Babe,” Ranger said, his voice rough in response to her admission.
“Yeah, like that. Your eyes go all warm and brown and chocolate-y” she said softly, trying to lean forward and kiss him.
The distant sound of a siren broke the moment.
Clearing his throat, Ranger got back to business. “Babe, did you see what he gave you?”
“Nuh-uh,” she denied. “I was too busy watching the world go all weird. He just did something with a vial thingy and the needle. He put the vial back in the cupboard by the sink.”
Ranger nodded. “Good. That’s good, Babe.”
“Are you going to let your eyes go all chololate-y again?” she asked hopefully. “’Cause if not, I could really use some birthday cake. Even if it isn’t my birthday.”
“What’s going on here, Manoso?” a very concerned Joe asked as he approached.
“The skip caught Steph and injected her with something. He told her it was truth serum. I haven’t had a chance to check on it, though. She said it’s in the cupboard by the sink.”
Morelli turned and nodded to two uniformed officers to check it out. Stepping forward, he softly greeted, “Hey, Cupcake.”
“Joe!” she exclaimed, throwing her arms up and breaking Ranger’s hold.
Joe managed to catch her before she fell off the tailgate and held on as she hugged him.
“Do you have birthday cake?” she asked.
A look of helplessness crossed Morelli’s face as he looked at Ranger.
Ranger just shrugged.
“Birthday cake would be really, really, really good right now,” she informed as seriously as she could.
“I’m sure it would, Cupcake,” Joe assured. “Why don’t we let the paramedics take a look at you while Ranger and I find out what was in that vial by the sink?”
“OK,” Stephanie agreed as the paramedics appeared in front of her. “Oh, and if you could find some birthday cake, that would be great.”
The next morning
“Oh. Ow,” Stephanie said, reaching up to press her hands on either side of her head in the hopes of keeping it from exploding.
“You OK, Steph?” Connie asked, her voice softer than usual.
Slowly and painfully she cracked an eye open to find Connie and Lula standing beside her bed.
“What happened?” she asked, wincing at the sound of her voice.
“Truth serum, girlfriend,” Lula said, her voice slightly louder than Connie’s but both women were obviously making an effort to keep their voices down.
“I don’t remember,” Stephanie replied, her eyes drifting closed.
“Turns out Lars was a pharmacists who worked for the CIA from time to time. He liked to mix up his own special blends,” Connie informed.
“So what happened?” Stephanie wanted to know.
“He went nuts after trying out one of his personal mixes and lost his job with both the CIA and the pharmacy. He’s been obsessed with UFO’s ever since,” Connie finished.
“Yeah, that psycho really flipped out. Then he grabbed you when you stopped by and put some of that junk in you,” Lula explained. “Somehow you got a hold of Ranger and he came by to save the day before Officer Hottie and the rest showed up.”
“Huh,” Stephanie said, her mind drifting. “Did I say anything?” she wondered aloud.
“No one said,” Lula informed.
Just then the door opened and Joe and Ranger entered. They were each carrying something.
“Ladies,” Ranger greeted.
Joe nodded at Lula and Connie before smiling at Stephanie. “Cupcake,” he greeted.
“Hi,” Stephanie said, looking from Ranger on her right to Joe on he left. “What’s up?”
“Brought you some birthday cake,” Joe informed, placing the item he’d been carrying on her over-bed tray.
Shooting him a puzzled look, she simply said, “Thanks.” And then turned to Ranger.
“Same thing,” Ranger informed, setting the container he’d been carrying on the same tray.
“Um, thank you,” Stephanie said, her brow furrowing. “Why exactly did you bring me birthday cake? It’s not my birthday.”
The men exchanged a look and chuckled.
“No it’s not, Cupcake,” Joe informed. “But you seemed really obsessed with it yesterday.”
Stephanie’s eyes widened. “I talked about birthday cake?” she squeaked.
Ranger glanced at Lula and Connie and tilted his head toward the door.
Though disappointed, both knew better than to question Ranger on something like this. Saying a quick goodbye, they left the room.
“What he gave you was truth serum with a slight kick,” Ranger informed. “It was designed to make the recipient want to tell the truth, even without prompting. One of the side effects is an altered perception of the world around you. Others include food cravings and memory loss of the event.”
“The doctors were able to get a hold of someone at the CIA,” Joe informed. “Of course they didn’t want to say anything but a few hours later they called back with information.”
Stephanie slid her eyes toward Ranger and was met with a blank face. Yep, Ranger had been involved in that turn-around. “What did they say?” she inquired.
“That the drug was safe,” Joe replied. “There won’t be any long-lasting effects, but you’ll never remember what happened while you were under the influence.”
“Oh,” Stephanie said, relieved and disturbed. She had enough trouble controlling her mouth when she wasn’t drugged, she couldn’t imagine what she had said under the influence.
Joe was about to add something more when his pager sounded. “I’ve gotta run, Cupcake. I’m on duty,” he informed, giving her a quick kiss and leaving.
Stephanie looked from the door to Ranger. “What…? I didn’t…?” she stammered.
Ranger smiled. “Babe,” he said, his voice soft. He reached over and tucked a curl behind her ear. Leaning forward, he caught her lips in a gentle kiss.
Stephanie could feel herself melting into the kiss. The heart monitor betrayed her increased heartbeat and her hands seemed to rise up and tangle in his hair of their own volition.
The kiss was interrupted when Ranger’s cell phone rang.
“Yo,” he answered it. “There in ten.”
Turning back, he stared deeply into Stephanie’s eyes before leaning forward and placing a butterfly kiss on her lips. “Gotta go, Babe,” he informed. “Break in at a client’s.” He turned and took a step toward the door before returning to her bedside. Making sure he had Stephanie’s full attention he simply said, “Someday will happen, Babe. I promise.”
That said, he turned and left, leaving Stephanie blinking at the gently closing door wondering what that comment was about.
As she settled down into the bed and got comfortable, she couldn’t stop the smile that grew on her lips. She had wondered about and sometimes despaired of ‘someday’ ever coming for her and Ranger, but, today, he had promised her that someday would come and Ranger always kept his promises.
End