Last time:

"Clarisse?" Chip asked.

"Chip?" she asked.

Chapter 2: Remembering

Clarisse and Chip looked at each other in shock. They hadn't seen each other for years.

Zipper made a few squeaks to Monterey.

"Too right." Monty agreed. "I think they know each other."

"So," Chip asked trying to break the ice. "What brings you to New York?"

"Clark got a gig for me that begins in three days." She explained "We came early to sightsee. Instead, he was kidnapped."

"That's terrible. Don't worry. We'll find them."

"Gadget said that you guys had already met the villains." Clarisse said motioning to the female mouse.

Chip gave Gadget a confused look.

"Apparently," She explained. "Rat Capone and Fat Cat have teamed up."

"Chip?" Clarisse asked. "Where's Dale?"

"Give me one moment." Chip said going into the living room.

0000

In the living room,

Chip looked at his best friend watching the television and joining in the fight scenes. He turned the knob to kill the power of the TV.

"Hey! Whatcha do that for?" Dale demanded.

"C'mon. We have a case."

"Ah Nuts." Dale sighed with a pout. He had wanted to goof off.

"The client's Clarisse."

"Clarisse?" Dale asked wide-eyed, goofing off all forgotten. "Our Clarisse?"

"Do you know any others?" Chip asked.

Dale ran to the kitchen door and peeked in. Sure enough, the singer was talking to Zipper, Gadget, and Monty about the abduction of her brother and what had happened.

"Clark was captured." Chip told him as Dale closed the door.

"What now?" Dale asked.

"We help her." Chip said a little confused about the question.

"You know what I mean." Dale said.

It was true. The true nature of Dale's question was about how to handle reactions. After all, they had both fought over Clarisse much like they were now fighting over Gadget.

Dale, while he was watching TV one day, had overheard Gadget tell Monty that she enjoyed the flirting because it made her feel special. Like any best friend, he relayed the information to Chip. Yes, he got knocked on the head after he told Chip that he eavesdropped, but the info was still good. The question was, how will she react if she finds out that they were even more vicious when it came to Clarisse.

Dale had been thinking along the same lines as Chip. Images of what they had done to attempt to when Clarisse's heart appeared in both of their minds. Both smiled as Chip thought of when he had attached the water hose to Dale's bouquet of flowers and turned it on as Dale smelled them. Dale was smiling as he recalled switching Chip's chocolates with spicy candy. They hadn't done anything like that around Gadget.

"If the subject comes up," Chip suggested "We'll deal with it then. In the meantime, we'll act like it never happened."

"Okay." Dale said as he opened the kitchen door and walked in.

"Hi Clarisse." He said like a boy saying hello to a girl he has a crush on.

TBC