Turbo: Psst! Guys, it's Author Lady's birthday! So let's wish her a turbo-tastic day! :D And here's a happy flashback chapter to cheer us all up from the depressing mood she's been putting us all in. I apologize for anything perverted that comes out of my mouth...okay, not really, ha! Enjoy!

Save Me from My Dark Side

Chapter Ten

Jungle Hunt - January 1984

Inside the car, Rosie was sitting on her knees with her hands gripping the top of the passenger door, looking out at the thick jungle foliage that lay out before them with a look of worry about her. She and Turbo had been dating about seven months now and she knew that by now she should be used to him wanting to do something crazy every once and a while. Like right now. Turbo had already jumped out of the car, eager as usual to go on an adventure and had decided that Litwak's newest game would be the perfect place to go.

"What about the wild animals?" she was asking, turning her head around in all different directions every time she heard the slightest sound. "And I heard there were cannibals in this game." She gulped at the idea of being eaten alive.

The racer was propped sideways with one arm bent and rested against the car's spoiler, his fingers interlaced lazily together in front of him and one leg crossed. He playfully rolled his eyes at her with a little smile.

"They don't eat anyone after the arcade closes, silly girl," he pointed out in reminder that no one ever acts the way they do outside of gameplay.

That devilish grin of his appeared and he added cheekily, "Besides, I'm the only one allowed to do that to you."

The cheerleader blushed heavily and the hint of a smile played at the corner of her mouth, and his smile got wider in response. She never failed to make him feel good about himself no matter the situation, whether it be her cheering for him at his after-hour races or hearing her brag about him when she didn't think he was listening or by how she reacted to his, ahem, other certain skills of a private nature.

Rosie tried to not let the conversation drift off into the gutter, hard as that was. "They might," she told him, going back to the cannibals. "I mean, you still like to race after Litwak closes shop, maybe they like to eat people afterwards too."

Turbo changed his position so that he would be directly in front of her, leaned down to rest his forearms on the door in a way that his hands would cover hers and he craned his neck out to where he could talk close to her ear.

"I'll do that thing you like if you get out of the car," he propositioned using the same sensual voice that he used during intimate moments and just barely letting his lips graze that part of her jaw that connected to her neck.

Her face flushed even more and the rest of her reacted appropriately in response to the slight torment he was putting her through. It was a little embarassing to admit that he had the means to make her do whatever he wanted, even if it did pay off in the end in her favor. At the same time, it was most appreciated to be spoiled on a daily basis and she daresay she looked forward to it.

She was about to ready to suggest they just get back in the car, forget about this jungle shit, and go at it at the closest private location they could find (Tapper's washroom was becoming a frequent go-to spot) when some kind of animal screeched loudly from the foliage. It effectively snapped her out of the mood, disappointedly enough.

Rosie shrank back in response to the noise which was hard to do with him leaning on her arms like he was. "I am not getting out of this car," she tried to say firmly but it came out shakily instead.

Sighing deeply, Turbo released his hold on her and leaned back to stand up properly, turning slightly in the direction of the awaiting jungle behind them.

"How's this," he began, holding her chin with one hand so she'd focus on him. "I'll go out there and prove there's nothing to be scared of. Then will you get out of the car?"

Her eyes widened even more than they already were. "Hell no! You're not going out there by yourself!"

"I assure you, it's turbo-tastically safe," he told her, dropping down to give her one of those quick "mwah!" kisses and then walked off.

Rosie thought he was just pulling her leg, thinking he'd stop after a few feet and then say he was kidding, until he actually kept on walking. Panic seized her and she gripped the top of the door even harder.

"Turbo, get your dumb ass back here!" she called out, looking around warily for signs of danger.

She saw him turn and wave at her before disappearing into the brush. This wasn't happening, surely he wasn't going to really trek alone through the damn jungle just to prove a point. He'd probably come back after five minutes, or at least until he figured out that she wasn't going to follow him. Rosie sat there with only the occassional sound of the jungle to keep her company, drumming her fingers along the door's edge anxiously. At one point, she started humming her game's theme song and whispered one of her cheers under her breath to help calm her nerves.

She never once took her eyes off the location where Turbo had entered the jungle, hoping he'd pop back out after giving up on her following him. How long had it been? Five minutes? Ten? Longer? It crossed her mind to just drive off, since she could kinda-sorta drive, but he'd already taken the keys out and stuck them in his pocket.

"Turbo?" she called out loudly, under the suspicion that he had loitered around the edge and not really went in all the way.

She suspected wrong. The blood-curdling scream she suddenly heard was definitely from a good distance away. Goosebumps prickled her skin and her breath hitched. Without thinking twice, she leaped out of the car and high-tailed it for the treeline, shoving past low branches and brush and fighting through a few dangling vines once she made into the jungle itself. The canopy overheard cast a large never-ending shadow over the area though a few patches of light shined through which gave the location an almost other-worldly look. A few monkeys screeched from the distance in response to someone tearing through their habitat like a deranged person.

"If that idiot got hurt, I'll never forgive myself," she muttered to herself while she ran.

If it hadn't been for the river blocking her path, Rosie would have kept running. Luckily, she stopped herself before tumbling into it, taking the oppurtunity to catch her breath. Surely, he hadn't crossed the river? If he hadn't, then...where was he?

Her heart was pounding and her lungs were burning from her lengthy sprint. A few small unidentifiable noises came from the brush behind her and she spun around wildly, fearful of getting attacked herself.

"Ch-Champ?" she stuttered, rubbing her own arms in comfort. "Honey?"

Tears began to pool in her eyes. What if he had gotten hurt? What if something had gotten a hold of him and now he was nothing but dinner digesting in some wild beast's belly? Or getting cooked in some cannibal stew? Maybe if she'd just gone with him like he'd asked her to, that would've been enough to keep him safe.

A random notion came to her as she viewed the river again. Oh shit, what if he'd fallen in and hit his head and drowned himself? She hadn't even considered that possibility. Almost afraid that she was right, she slowly made her way back to the river bank and took every precaution in leaning over to view into the crystal clear water, praying that she wouldn't see-

"RAAAAAWR!"

"AHHHH!"

She jerked forward when she heard the growling roar behind her and did an awkward slip right into the river. Water came up over her head and she fought her way to the surface, her arms flailing about wildly in fear that whatever hungry carnivore had decided to sneak up on her was now ready to pounce and tear her apart. Her head popped up and she gasped for air, sputtering water out of her mouth and heard...laughing.

"I wish I could've seen your face!" Turbo was cracking up, doing everything in his power to keep from falling over on the ground in the process. "That was a Turbo-classic!"

Rosie wiped the water from her eyes and stared up at him with shocked astonishment.

"You...you're okay?" she asked as if she couldn't believe it. "You're not hurt?"

"Of course I'm okay," he responded as he rubbed the tears away with a sleeve. "I told you it was safe."

She was still stunned...relieved yet stunned. And a little pissed. "That...that wasn't funny!"

"Yeah it was!" he argued as the giggles subsided, still wearing that grin of his. He got closer to the edge of the river and bent down with his hands on his knees to look down at her. "Got you out of the car, didn't it?"

Rosie lowered her eyes piercingly, crossed her arms and turned her head away from him huffily, causing the end of her ponytail to fling some water from the sudden motion.

"Awww, now, don't get mad," Turbo chuckled lightly. "Gotta admit, it's the fastest I ever got you wet."

If her face hadn't already been red with anger, she would have blushed at that but she was too pissed off to respond to any form of dirty talk. She cut him a sideways glare before closing her eyes to him, holding her chin up haughtily.

Uh-oh, she must be really mad, Turbo worried to himself.

"Hey, come on, that was a good one," he told her, trying to lighten the mood.

She wasn't having any of it. Shit.

Turbo held his arm out to her, still staying in his bent over position, and snapped his fingers to get her attention. "At least let me pull you out," he offered. "Don't want the crocodiles to get you."

She turned her head at that but the scowl was still present. Her eyes went back and forth between his hand to his face, as if trying to decide if he was going to pull his arm back right when she reached for it. After deciding he was being sincere, she grabbed hold and...

Turbo felt himself get pulled forward with more force than he expected and was promptly flipped over into the river. When he surfaced, he was greeted with a tidal wave aimed at his face and he threw his arms in front of him defense, coughing as he did so.

"How dare you!" Rosie snapped bitterly, still bobbing in the water a good foot away from him. "You made me think you were hurt just so you could pull some stupid prank?"

"What are you so mad about?" he wanted to know. He took his helmet off to let the water drain out of it before putting it back on. "I always pop out and scare you like that. You normally think it's funny."

"Dumbass man!" she spat acidly, trying to wring water out of her ponytail. "I'm not pissed because you jump-scared me; I'm pissed because I really thought you had gotten attacked by something when you were just fine-and-dandy the whole time! You knew I was scared to come out here and you took advantage of that just for the sake of you getting a good laugh out of it!"

Turbo let the words soak in, not saying anything at first. Then he pulled one of his damn smug expressions and asked, "So...you were worried about me?"

He was honestly happy to know that she cared about him so much that she'd run off into what she felt was a danger zone in an attempt to rescue him. It was kinda cute actually. However, Rosie misunderstood the grin he was wearing and thought he was making fun of her for being concerned about him when there was obviously no danger around.

She shoved another miniature tidal wave of water in his face, making him cough some more and try to wipe his face off. By the time he was able to see again, she'd done crawled herself out of the river.

"Screw you, I'll just walk myself home."

She turned around on her heel and stormed off in the direction that she had come from earlier. How dare he, how dare he! She had really been worried about him and for what? Obviously he didn't give a shit how she felt if he was going to pull a mean trick like that on her. It hurt her feelings more than she thought it would and she felt herself start to tear up.

Meanwhile, Turbo didn't know exactly what the hell it was he did wrong. All he knew was that if he didn't fix it, she was going to walk away and possibly not want anything more to do with him...which was the last thing he wanted. He started pulling himself up onto shore and shook off the remaining water from his suit.

"Rosie, come back!" he called to her as he ventured out after her, whacking a few lower branches out of the way. "Wait up, I'm sorry!"

Obviously she didn't believe him because she kept on going. He finally caught sight of her after a few minutes of fighting his way through some more thick foliage and ran up to her.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Turbo said as he tugged her arm from behind so she'd stop and she jerked it away from him.

He was determined however and he got in front of her, putting his hands out on her shoulders to make her halt. Rosie turned her head away from him and kept her arms crossed, not going to say anything until he did.

"Look, I'm an idiot and I'm sorry," he said, giving her sad puppy-dog eyes. "I didn't know you were going to get worried about me like that."

She tilted her head towards him just enough to look at him through the corner of her eye. "Yes you did," she replied slowly. "Otherwise you wouldn't have even tried your stupid prank in the first place."

Turbo considered that. "Okay, you're right, I guess I did know."

She sighed in aggravation and he added gently, "But I wasn't doing it to be mean. It was just a joke, sweetie, I wasn't bullying you. I'm sorry if it came across that way."

Rosie looked at him studiously as she thought over what he said. Maybe he did really did care. She finally relaxed her shoulders and turned her head fully towards him. Turbo sighed to himself, glad to have succeeded in doing that much. She had him scared she was really going to leave him.

She still didn't say anything, so he took a breath to continue. "I really didn't think you were going to get that scared over me. I never would have done it if I'd known you were going to be that worried."

"So you didn't think for one second that maybe I actually cared what happened to you?" she asked with a mix of hurt and anger in her voice.

"I...guess," he shrugged, not really knowing how to answer. "I mean..."

She rolled her shoulders to get his hands off of her. "Well, I do care!" she peevishly informed him. "If I didn't, I wouldn't be in love with you!"

As soon as she said it, the color drained from her face and she slapped a hand across her mouth, taking a few steps back away from him.

I can't believe I just said that! Out loud! Oh shit, he's really gonna think I'm some stupid kid now!

Turbo stared at her in silent shock after hearing her confession, his jaw slightly dropped and his cheeks turning a shade of pink.

She...she said she...

Rosie had started wringing her hands together and looking at the ground, digging one of her shoes into the dirt. More than anything, she wished that the jungle floor would swallow her up and save her from this mortifying predicament she was in.

"I...I mean...I didn't...," she spat out, trying to figure out what to say to fix this mess she caused but she couldn't seem to think of anything. "Pleasedon'tlaughatme."

Turbo wasn't paying attention to anything she was doing or saying because he was off in his own little world. This warm fuzzy feeling came over him and the whole world fell into place like a finished jigsaw puzzle. It all made perfect sense. Why he liked being around her all the time, why she made him feel like a million bucks, why he got so freaked out at the very idea of her leaving him. It was because he-

Rosie tensed up when he stepped up closer to her, putting his arms around her in a way that pinned her arms down so she couldn't push him off. She didn't want to look at him, knowing that he was going to tell her that she was just some silly girl with a crush and that he hadn't meant for things to get to this point because-

"I love you too."

She snapped her head towards him and gave him a similar expression that he had given to her earlier. Turbo was giving her the most adoring look as he stared into her eyes with the sweetest smile on his face.

"Y-you do?" she asked in quiet disbelief.

"Of course, I do," he answered, secretly hurt that she thought she needed to ask that. "I wouldn't have said it if I didn't mean it."

"But..." She seemed confused. "But I'm not anything special."

Turbo's face fell, appalled that she felt that way. "Not anything..." he repeated as if it was the craziest thing he'd ever heard. "Why the hell would you think that?"

Rosie shifted her eyes away from his again, feeling stupid again. "It's just...it's just that...well, you're Turbo."

He appeared baffled, giving her a rather odd look before he shrugged as if to say "Yeah, so what?".

She swallowed hard, her heart going down into her stomach, trying not to look at him.

"You're this really cool fun guy that's...well, popular," she clarified, feeling worse now than she did already. "And you've been around a few years longer than I have. I'm still sort of new and don't know much about this sort of thing yet. So I sometimes think I'm not good enough compared to any of the other girls you used to date before we met or...just good enough in general."

Initially, Turbo stared at her in silence. Then he took his arms from around her, reached his hands up to frame her face and turned her head towards him. Rosie was a little caught off guard at his serious expression. He was never serious.

"You're special to me," he started off solemnly, looking deep in her eyes and caressing her cheekbones with his thumbs. "And you're the best girl I've ever had. Don't ever think you're anything but. When I'm with you, I feel like..."

He paused a second to think of how to word it.

"I feel like... how I feel when I'm on the racetrack," he finally said, inspiration coming to him. "With the adrenaline rushing and feeling like I'm king of the world...like...like I won the best and brightest trophy imaginable."

It was the sweetest thing she'd ever heard. Rosie felt her eyes start to water up.

"As for any other girl..." He had to chuckle at this part. "It's precious at how misinformed you are about me."

Turbo let go of her face and held his hands up as if he just got busted. "I'm new to this too; I've never had a girlfriend before."

She opened her mouth to ask what the hell he was talking about but he finished the thought before she could get a word out.

"You're the only girl that ever even had a real conversation with me, much less go on a date with," he confessed to her, holding her hands. "All the others...they were just looking for a romp, and that only happened when liquor was involved. So you're a hundred thousand times better than any of them because you're the first to give me a real chance."

Happy tears rolled down her cheeks and he smiled sweetly at her as he wiped them away, then wrapped his arms around her waist again while she threw hers over his shoulders.

"You weren't supposed to cry," he told her in light jest. "Feel special now?"

Rosie smiled back at him and managed to get "Mm-hmm" out without crying anymore, her green eyes shining at him brightly. Turbo grinned at her, feeling both glad and proud that he was able to make her feel that way...which was the same way she made him feel.

"I love you, pretty girl," he whispered as he locked eyes with her, gently pulling her close enough to where their lips were mere millimeters away from touching.

She had to swallow in order to speak, which was hard to do what with her heart feeling like it was ramming in her throat, and she whispered, "I love you too, champ."

The remaining distance between them was closed with a tender kiss. It shouldn't have had a different effect that any other kiss they'd shared had on them, but this one seemed...deeper, in a spiritual sense. This one actually meant something, it seemed, something beyond just petty attraction and desire to spend time with each other...No, this one was a true love kiss and it meant something deeper than either of them could ever try to explain...and there was no need to try and put a definition to it. The only thing that really mattered was that there was love there and at that moment in time, that was good enough for them.

Present Day

Champ...

He wasn't a champ anymore...not to her or even to himself. He was a chump...a chump that was now trying to drown out his sorrows with a bottle of borrowed vodka, sitting in the company of false friends. The more he drank, the more he forgot the heartache he felt that he had run her off for good, feeling that he didn't deserve any better than this. Whatever happened now, he didn't care; he deserved it. If she wasn't going to come back, it didn't matter anyway. If she did come back...

What makes you think she'd come back? You're a pathetic wimp of a has-been loser that had the nerve to yell at her for trying to make your day a little more tolerable. Yeah, that sounds like the kind of guy she'd love to come home to.

His eyes swept briefly over his left hand, the golden ring still faithfully there. He wondered if she still had hers on or if she'd chunked it somewhere because she didn't think he'd meant any of his vows.

Not like I'm doing a good job keeping them anyway...apparently, since I haven't done anything but make her so miserable that she LEFT.

So he sat there and drank...and drank...aaannd drrrraaannk...