Meeting Lou

Warning: This story is pretty long (6 A4 pages). Be sure to have time and be comfortable while reading. Coffee, tea or hot chocolate would be advsiable :D

Review: As the Last Chance Garage is once again under attack from Lawrence Limburger, Charley drives off with the guys to fend him off. During the fight, Charley gets knocked out. When she wakes up, she meets a shadow from the past.

------------------------------------

She opened the box in her hands. Everything inside her told her that the ticking was certainly coming from a bomb. But she had to look anyway. Maybe she could save them. In the box was a green cabbage. They're not gonna like this, she thought disappointed. Then she heard a dull boom somewhere behind her. But her eyes were fixed on the cabbage. All of a sudden she was so hungry. Maybe she should just...

BOOM!!!

The explosion shook the Last Chance Garage like a rattle and sent Charley flying out of her bed and down on the floor. She was awake now and tried to figure out what was going on and what happened to the cabbage. She heard several more blows and then the eager voice of Vinnie, getting ready to another fight. Charley groaned. It was going to be another one of these days.

Ever since the stinking Plutarkian fish Limburger and his puppets had returned to Chicago, she and the guys had hardly had a day with peace. Too frequently the garage was attacked and the Biker Mice would dash out to save the garage, the city and the planet. Charley'd wish they could have just one peaceful week for once.

Now fully awake she picked herself up from the floor. The pillow had also been knocked down on the floor. She reached out to put it on the bed again. There, where the pillow had been before, lay the letter. She stared at it for a while with mixed emotions. Nothing had happened since she had received that letter. Then she laid the pillow on top of it. Nothing had happened and nothing would probably ever happen. She wasn't sure why she even kept the letter. Besides, the guys might find it someday, and she didn't want them to get any silly ideas.

With the letter hidden beneath the pillow, Charley went to the stairs and called out. “What's up today, guys?”

A howl of hysteric, triumphant laughter met her. “The stinkin' fishhead has brought out the big boys today. Join the fun, Charley Girl.” Vinnie, of course. Charley hastily climbed into some jeans and a jacket. Join the fun... Vinnie... Just as she made it to the stairs down to the garage, another blow hit the building and would have sent her face first down the steps, hadn't she managed to catch the railing first. She'd have the guys promise her that they would blow up Limburger's tower in a neat way this time.

When she had descended the stairs tolerably safe she went for her bike. It seemed that the guys were driving the bad guys away from the garage now, since the noise was farther out on the street. Charley was grateful. It wasn't cheap to have the building constantly renovated. She tossed her head and drove out to assist the bros.

Vinnie, Throttle and Modo were apparently having a good time. You could hear their horrible singing miles ahead as they drove around and bashed Limburger's pet soldiers. It was a wonder that their mere attempt of singing wasn't enough to make the enemy flee.

For a while it looked like the mice were managing everything by themselves. She wouldn't really be needed this time. Until a group of cars like those used by the enemies suddenly appeared from a small alley. They were behind the bros who hadn't seen anything. Unless they got a little help, they might be captured. And Charley was not in the mood to save them from some prison today. Silently she let her bike pass the alley and drive behind the bad guys. She didn't notice the hand that crept around the corner of the building surrounding the alley, neither the long braid that snug out in the light nor the two eyes that followed her intensely.

The chaos started pretty quickly. All of a sudden the retreating villains got sight of their allied and stopped their escape. Vinnie, Throttle and Modo started puzzled and looked back only to find them selves captured. Charley reached down the bag on the side of her bike and grabbed her new Martian laser cannon, neatly sending three cars rocketing to the sky before the others knew what was going on. Then the chaos came. Charley wasn't exactly sure what had happened but now all were engaged in shooting at each other. Throttle and Vinnie reached Charley quickly and helped her fight the bad guys off with the multiple weapons in their posession. Two guys with mohawks were send rocketing for the skies. “Am I the baddest mammajamma or what!” howled Vinnie happily. Charley smirked.

The fight was short, only about five minutes, and then the villains were retreating. The bros seemed disappointed, especially Vinnie, but Charley just looked forward to get home. She touched the throttle a little and heard the low purr of her engine. She smiled at the mice that had all gathered besides her. “How about I go home and fix things there and you clean up the mess here?” She drove off while Vinnie's disapproval rang as a high pitched wailing in the street. “What! We just beat the bad guys and then...”

His voice trailed off a second after she felt the violent shock in her back. She was forced up in the air and landed hard on her shoulder on the ground about three feet from her previous perch. She heard the exclamations of the three well known masculine voices and the sound of an engine that was driving away. But she also heard something else. A female voice calling her name cut through everything else. “CHARLENE!” the feminine voice screamed.

Then all was black.

***

Her head hurt. That was her first thought. Then there was something that cut through the air and made the headache worse. It was voices. Angry voices. Three that she found familiar and one she couldn't remember having heard at all. Oh, but they were so loud and her head hurt so much. Why did her head hurt? And by now her shoulder and back joined in the pain.

Then she remembered the fight. She remembered having won along with the guys and then all went black. The last memory was that hard blow in the back that had sent her flying off her bike. Now she remembered more clearly.

She could also distinguish the voices. The unfamiliar voice was deep but feminine. It was closest to her, and it was angry. She couldn't make out the words yet. The other voices were definitely the guys trying to soothe the angry woman. Then her head cleared enough to make out the words just as Vinnie tried to caution the stranger. “Hey hey, watch out, pretty girl. That thing is not a toy.” A blast sounded from a laser gun and something shifted besides Charley. “I know,” the woman said.

Charley finally opened her eyes slightly and looked at the scene. Her helmet visor blocked a good part of her vision, but her head was angled so that she could actually see quite a lot in the limited space. Right in front of her were a ridiculously long braid falling to the ground, making several little loops on the ground. It was a dark blond braid that went to the head of a young woman sitting between Charley herself and the guys. Throttle, Modo and Vinnie were all standing before them with their hands stretched into the air and a worried look on their faces. Charley couldn't believe it. They were still in trouble and she had to save them. From that girl!

All this had only taken a few seconds. She tested her arms. They seemed to obey her. With an effort she tried to push herself upright. A groan escaped her, and this seemed to get everybody's attention. The guys mumbled her name and woman shifted towards her and spoke in a low, calming voice. “Lie down, Charlene. I got you covered.” Charley was confused. Was the girl trying to save her? Then she heard Vinnie's disapproval. “Come on, talk about no appreciation.” And all of a sudden Charley was happy. Extremely happy. She had come. The promise in the letter had come true after all these weeks. And right now the girl was thinking that she was saving Charley from her best friends. It was actually comical. But at least it was something that Charley could help without much effort.

She stretched out her hand towards the young woman. “Louise, you're mistaking. They're my friends.” It really hurt a lot to move but she had to fix this misunderstanding. She heard all of the guys sigh in relief, and she saw Louise shift slightly towards herself. The girl's face was still turned anxiously towards the mice as she answered. “Your... your friends? But I thought... You were hurt and...”

Vinnie tried to move closer to the distracted girl, but luckily Throttle held him back. Charley was grateful. No interference would make her job of soothing Louise so much easier. She smiled slightly behind her visor. It was so annoying. She ignored it and stretched out her hand a little longer. “That was the bad guys, Louise...” The girl turned towards her. Charley put her hands to the ground at pushed herself up sitting. She flipped the visor open and stared at the girl. Yes, she had no doubt. She was so happy that she was here. Charley flung her arms around Louise's neck and started laughing. “Oh, your here! I thought you'd never come!”

Louise laughed back and gently freed herself so that she could look into Charley's eyes. “And miss out on meeting you, are you crazy? I've been traveling across half the country to find you.”

Charley smiled slightly. “I know, I know.”

Louise looked at her and then nodded understanding. “Oh yeah... Dad sent you a letter. He told me.”

Charley felt slightly annoyed when reminded of the author of the letter. But then they were disturbed by Throttle clearing his throat and taking a step towards them. “Er, excuse me, miss Louise, but could I have my gun back?” Louise got an almost guilty look in her face, as she looked down on the gun that had ended in her lap. She slowly took it and reached it towards Throttle with such care that Charley started to wonder if Louise was actually the cocky one who had fired it earlier. “Erhm, here you go. And just call me Lou. Everyone else does.”

Charley smiled. Lou, huh? She'd remember that. Then Modo came towards them. Charley got a little worried. She knew, he was the nicest person, but he was also tall and a little scary looking. But he had that cute almost boyish expression on his face as he turned towards Lou. “May I ask you one question, miss Lou? Who are you?”

Lou smiled nervously. It wasn't because she was scared of the guys, for she was obviously intend on getting along with Charley's friends, no matter how odd they looked. Charley understood the girl's confusion and decided to break the news to her friends. She laid her hand on Lou's shoulder and smiled to the guys. “Of course. This is my sister.”

The expressions on each of their faces was that of complete shock. Vinnie was the worst. He looked like he was about to faint. Then came the exclamation like a shockwave. “Your WHAT?!” Modo looked down at Charley and Lou with a puzzled expression. “Charley girl, you never said you had a sister.”

Charley squeezed her sister's shoulder and grinned. Lou met her eyes and grinned along. Then Charley turned towards Modo. “I didn't know until a few months ago. I got a letter that told me that my sister was out there, looking for me.”

Vinnie broke out from his spot behind Throttle and Modo and stood beside Charley. He looked at her with that usual look on his face that told her, that he was missing out on something vital and he didn't like it. “Sweetheart, how come you never told us about her?” Modo nodded in agreement. “Yeah, didn't you grow up with your parents?”

This was the worst part of the reunion for Charley. The guys had never met her parents and didn't know that her mothers husband was only Charley's stepfather and not her biological father. Only Lou knew. And she put her hand on Charley's shoulder before she turned to the guys. “We share the same father,” she said quickly. “Charley, your mother remarried, and he's a father to you, right?”

Charley bit her lip and nodded silently. “She did.” Lou looked at her and nodded silently. There would be no need to elaborate on this further and she was grateful for that. All of a sudden she felt the fatigue overwhelm her. She had been woken up so brutally and then the attack and at last her sister. She tried to get up on her legs only to be pushed firmly down by Lou. “Charlene, lie still. We need to get you home. You're injured.”

Charley smiled slightly and tried to push Lou's hand away. “I'm fine, Lou. I just need to get home and get some sleep. And just call me Charley.”

The look in Lou's eyes grew stern as she pushed Charley downwards. “Charley, keep still! You took a nasty fall. You might be concussive.” Lou looked up at Modo and Vinnie. “The garage is nearby, isn't it? Maybe you could carry her home...” Then she took a look around and obviously looked at the four bikes standing around. “Or maybe I should just call for an ambulance.”

Charley felt Modo and Vinnie sit on each side of her and soothing her. Modo smiled at Lou. “Don't worry, we can take her home.” Charley saw her sister look around confused. “But what about your bikes?” Just as she asked, the Martian bikes started to purr out of nowhere and drive closer to the group. Charley couldn't help smiling at her sister's gawking eyes focused on the living bikes. Lou swallowed hard. “Oh... Wow...”

Throttle gave one of his low chuckles and stepped closer to the rest of the group, but his glasses were turned towards his bike. “Pretty neat, don't you think?” Then he turned towards his bros. “Vincent, you better take care of Charley. Modo, you follow Lou to the garage and help her if she needs anything. I'll get Charley's bike home.”

Charley appreciated their efforts but also felt that they pampered her far to much. She tried to stand again. “But guys, I'm sure, I can...”

“NO!” everyone said as with one voice while turning towards her. Modo let her go, and before she could do anything to protest, Vinnie had scooped her up in his furry arms. She felt a hand on her arm and heard Lou speak softly. “Charley, you got knocked out. Let us help you.” And then. “Thanks for helping her.” Charley could hear Vinnie's steady heartbeat mix in with his answer. “No problem. Of course we'll help Charley girl.” His voice was unusually soft. Then she felt, that he started to walk.

***

Charley was sitting in her bed. Thanks to the helmet she had worn, Lou was convinced that no damage had happened to her head. After they'd come home, Lou had examined her gently and then tugged her up nicely. The guys had brought her soup and hot chocolate, and Lou had brought her a book. Then Lou had shooed the guys down in the garage. They hadn't said much while they were walking home to the garage, but now the guys started to ask Lou all kinds of questions. Charley was a little insecure about this. She wondered what Lou's side of the story would be. She heard Lou sigh as if she was going to tell a long story, and she strained her ears.

“I didn't want to say too much when Charley was here,” Lou started. “The reason why I'm here is because I found out a few months ago that my father had been married to another woman than my mother. They had a daughter together, but when she was a little baby, my father just left them.”

Charley sighed silently. So far Lou had the story right, which meant that her father had told her the same version. She heard Lou continue. “I was shocked, not so much because he had been married to another woman, but because of the way he had left her and their daughter. My sister. I pretty much then and there decided to take a semester off of my medical studies and try to find Charley.”

Charley heard Vinnie ask why she had wanted to meet a sister whom she'd known nothing of for so long. Lou continued. “My entire life my family has been all lovey dovey and perfect. Finding out what my dad had done pretty much crushed the entire picture. He loves my mum, I know, but he could just do it as easily to me and her as he did to Charley and her mum. Besides I alwys wanted a sister. So I went to find her. I had some savings so I could afford the journey. Of course my parents weren't exactly thrilled but they helped me anyway. I'd been traveling around America for almost three months when I finally got her address. My father knew the address and sent her a letter as soon as I set out, but I wanted to find it by my self. So that's why I hasn't showed up until now.”

Charley felt a lump in her throat. This young woman had done so much to find her. She couldn't believe that a stranger would care so much for her. And that she would care so much for a stranger. She felt the weariness taking over. The last thing she was aware of was Lou's question about why the guys wore those costumes. She smiled slightly at the confused mumbling beneath her as the guys tried to explain their appearance in the right way, and then she fell asleep.

***

She didn't sleep for very long. The silence in the garage was overwhelming. Charley opened her eyes at looked at Lou, who sat on a chair by the small window and stared into the gray sky. Charley looked at her back for a while and then Lou suddenly began to speak, as if she knew that Charley was awake. “This is an unusual place,” she mumbled against the window.

Charley looked at her and felt a slight guilt that she hadn't been there, when Lou found out the truth about the bros. “I know,” she said silently. She looked as Lou turned towards her. A slight smile played on her face. “I have imagined all kinds of meetings with you, Charley, but none quite as this.” Charley smiled back. “I can imagine.”

Lou started to play with the tip of her long braid. “I had imagined my self knocking at your door and you would just shut it in my face and you would have nothing to do with me...” Charley frowned slightly. She knew she would never have done that to her sister. Lou continued. “And I imagined us both run into each others arms. I also imagined that it would be indifferent or awkward but nothing like this. Nothing like...”

“Like meeting me during a battle and along with three giant mice from Mars?” Charley smiled. She could clearly see the insanity of this. Lou grinned. “Like that, yes.”

Charley looked at her. “But it wasn't easy to grasp, was it?” Her sister bit her lip and stared blankly into the room. “When you first realized that they told you the truth, you most of all wanted to run away screaming, right?” Lou looked troubled for a while and then nodded. Charley smiled slightly. “Do you think, you can cope with it?” Lou bit her lip for a while and then nodded again. “You seem to get along pretty well, and I am your sister, right?”

Charley smiled. “That you certainly are!” Then she looked around. It was very quiet in the building. She looked at Lou. “Where're the guys?”

Lou shrugged and looked out the window again. “They went to knock down the big fish's tower. Apparently they wanted to avenge you.”

Charley grinned. “That's more like it.” She felt good. Her head and body still throbbed with pain, but she was happy. The guys were obviously in a good mood, and the meeting with her sister couldn't have had a more happy ending. Then she thought of something. “Lou? Now that we've met, what are you going to do?”

Lou looked at her sister for a while before speaking. “I had no idea how this would come out, so I really have no plans at all. I thought of maybe finding a motel for tonight and then tomorrow find out what to do.”

Charley looked at Lou. “Why don't you stay here tonight? I got an extra bed and I'd love to have you stay. The guys would also love to get to know you a little more. I'm sure Vinnie is bubbling with unanswered questions...” Charley couldn't hold back a small chuckle. “Though I might have to warn you, that most of them will be about your opinion of him.”

Lou laughed back. “I'd love to answer all of them, I'm sure. They seem very fond of you. All of them. Throttle said you were long time friends?” Charley nodded her agreement and Lou sighed slightly. “I might have to trespass on your hospitality for a few days if I'm ever going to get any meaning out of all this.”

Charley heard a rumble that slowly grew louder. Soon she could hear Vinnie yelling. They were coming home. She looked at her sister and smiled warmly. Already now she detected a pleasantly expectant expression on Lou's face when she thought of meeting the guys again. “I'd like that.”