AN: I had the idea for this story since a while back and since I'm a bit stuck with Lost in Translation and my muse was coming back over and over again to this idea I wrote it down. It is just a 4-chapter mini-story. Rating will be M for the last chapter. Not very kind to Morelli-Fans, though no bashing of him either. Babe-Story.

As always: Rewviews are love and feed the muse!

Disclaimers: I own nothing and all characters are property of Janet Evanovich. I make no money, and trust me, if I actually did own them we wouldn't be with book 23 and still have them going back and forth.

"How good are you with a bat, Babe?"

A part in me wanted to answer something with Batman in it, but I wasn't quick enough to come up with something smart, so I just smiled. And then I wondered what he was asking. This was a rather strange question, even for me and Ranger.

"Why? You got another decoration job?" I asked intrigued. I swore to myself I'd never do one of these again. The possibilities of what and did actually go wrong were endless. And facing a junkie at midnight who was high and desperate for a fix was not my favorite past time activity.

"Annual Crime Fighter Baseball match," was all he said and quite honestly it was all he really needed to say. The Annual Crime Fighter baseball match was legendary. It was always for a good cause and was a huge thing. Since Trenton didn't have its own MLB team, this was as good as it got. In general all participants were more or less tied up with the law – police, fire department, medical first responders. That kind of thing. As far as I could remember every once in a while security companies made the cut as well. But I wasn't up to date to the current games, so I wasn't sure who'd meet this year in the biggest of all games. Judging by Ranger's question though, I figured I could guess one of the teams.

"I wasn't aware RangeMan participated in these kind of things, let alone that you'd have a team," I say incredulous. Though Ranger and his men were very active and did several kinds of sports and work-out, team sports weren't really their thing. Unless of course it was paintball or lasertag.

I saw him shrug noncommittal. "It's good showing your face once in a while. Also it helps people to stop assuming we are just a couple of thugs."

I had to laugh at that. Clearly none of these people had ever seen Ranger in a suit. If they had, the last thing they'd wonder about was whether Ranger was a thug.

"Who are you playing?" I asked curious, still not sure why he'd ask about my ability with a bat.

He smiled for a moment, which set of all sort of alarms inside my head. Ranger never smiled really. He had something that indicated amusement, but he hardly ever smiled. I wasn't the only one worried, since Lester who was a moment ago behind me, now stood next to me, looking alarmed as well.

"What happened?" he asked shocked. Ranger beat me to the answer.

"Stephanie asked who we're up against in the match next Sunday."

All of a sudden Lester was grinning. What the hell was going on?

"We are playing Trenton PD," Ranger said, before Lester cut in.

"And their captain Joseph Morelli."

And all of a sudden I might have understood why both of them were grinning like fools.

Oh I was hoping they'd beat them good and well. And teach Joe a lesson while they were at it.

For Joe Morelli a women was only good for three things: Giving birth to his kids, taking care of the house and giving blow jobs – well technically sex in general but I knew firsthand what his favorite sexual act was.

And all of a sudden I understood Ranger's question, which made me now smile as well. Not that I hadn't been smiling when Lester had mentioned who they'd play.

While we had been dating – and even before or in between – Joe had voiced his opinion about women and sports rather clear. For him women and sports was just a waste of time. Unless it was figure ice skating or gymnastics, why bother? That was at least his approach. I tried arguing a while back that the US women soccer team was currently world champion but his response was rather predictable.

"You want to handle some balls? I can show you some," he said with a leer and I couldn't help but think I'd rather kick these particular balls.

Shortly after that I decided to call it a day and kick Morelli out. Well, technically we had our own places and it wasn't a big change really, but I was done with him. For good. He thought I'd be back, since "I always came back" but I decided that last time was one too many. He wouldn't see me anytime soon – unless it was business.

I told Lula and Connie about the exchange and Lula must have told Tank. Otherwise I couldn't explain how everyone at RangeMan knew when I came in the next day. Ranger and his man surprisingly had a rather modern approach to women and sports.

And it wasn't that I was much into sports. As a matter of fact that whole US women soccer team being world champion was just brought to my attention by an article I had read in Cosmo a while back.

"So, you in?" I heard Ranger ask, bringing me back to the here and now.

I laughed for a moment. "Ranger, you and I both know I'm not the sportive type. And as much as I appreciate the offer and I really do, I assume you have enough people on your team already. You don't need me."

At that I saw Ranger step forward and lean into me, bringing his lips next to my ear.

"Babe, I'll always need you," he whispered and I felt goosebumps on my arms and hot shivers down my spine. The things this man could do to me without actually doing anything weren't normal any more. I so needed to get laid.

"All you have to do is ask and I can help you with that," I heard him say and assumed I had said that last part out loud again. Great.

Lester next to me just grinned and I assumed he was about to say something similar to what Ranger had replied.

"But in regards of the team… well, you might be surprised. Benson and Mitchell don't seem to be able to make a recovery until Sunday," Ranger explained and I remembered them being involved in some shooting when going after an FTA a few days back. Nothing bad had happened to them, but one bullet had grazed the shoulder of Mitchell and Benson had broken a finger or two when they lost control of the car.

"So, you are two players short?" I asked.

"Only one. Connie already agreed to fill one open position."

"And you can't find another guy?" I asked, really not sure about this. It wasn't as if I didn't want to help out, but this game was kind of important and I… well, I sucked at these sports. Any sports really.

"Well, between the ones that need to be here to cover the weekend and the ones that requested days off for personal reasons or are on vacation I can't find another guy."

I looked at him for a moment and thought about it. The thing is, not only did I suck at this, I was even worse.

"And it wouldn't be a problem with women on the team? Or that we all of a sudden appear after not having played until now?" I asked concerned.

"Not really. I think a few years back the fire department had a few female players as well. And well… in our line of job it isn't quite uncommon that "accidents" happen and the whole initial team doesn't show up for the final match."

I bit my lip, really not sure whether this was something I should be part of. The last thing they needed was me, ruining their victory by stumbling over my own two feet or over an undone shoelace. Which would probably happen, now that I thought about it. After all this had Stephanie Plum written all over it.

We stood in front of each other for a minute or two, just staring. Ranger seemed set on the idea that I should be part of his team. I on the other hand could name plenty of reasons why I shouldn't be. I'm not saying Morelli was right when it came to women and sports, but I wouldn't prove him wrong anytime soon. If at all I'd be the one that would prove his point, that's how helpless I was when it came to sports.

After thinking for another minute I finally nodded. "Ok," I said, surprising myself in the progress. It was obvious Ranger couldn't find a replacement and when I was his last hope he had at least been warned by me and my incapability.

Ranger just smiled. And so did Lester next to me.

"You'll like the uniforms, Babe" I heard him chuckle and wink at me and this was seriously starting to become weird. Ranger never chuckled. Or winked for that matter.