Later that day after doing their afternoon patrol around the city, the mice sat down to lunch in Charlie's dining room. While Charlie talked to her friend on one of the little toy CB radios that Throttle had brought back for her and her friend from a local toy store so that the two women could talk without seeing each other. Since seeing each other while 'Dove' was healing was considered a very bad idea.

Charlie set down a small plate with BBQ chips and a turkey sandwich and then pulled out a chair at the table and set the CB down and sat across from Modo and Vinny then took a bite of her food while Dove talked over the CB about how she had moved back into town months ago, and Throttle couldn't help but notice the annoyed expression on Charlie's face before she picked up the CB and asked.

"If you've been in town all this time how come you never looked me up? I haven't seen you since Marks funeral you know." Throttle's ears twitched slightly as he slowed his chewing a bit, and found himself vaguely wondering who Mark was and why Dove had disappeared after his funeral.

"I did. I just did it in a freaky stalkerish way." Dove said.

Charlie frowned. "Define what you mean by 'freaky stalkerish way'."

"Every day at six forty five, I would drive by the garage. Every day at noon I would follow you out and about town while you ran errands. And this one time I saw you hugging a guy I wrecked my motorcycle outside of the garage."

Charlie was quiet for a second before asking. "That dork was you?" The guys looked at her, recalling that particular incident.

They had been standing out of the curb joking around and watching Charlie as she had talked to some guy that had stopped by the garage and had witnessed her hug him, when a sleek blue bike had come around the curb at about that time and the rider had slammed on the brakes and gotten thrown from the bike.

The mice had been about to call an ambulance when the rider had just lain there twitching and bleeding for a second or so before getting back up, grabbing the bike and riding off before they could recover enough to so much as ask the rider if he-er she had been okay.

They had always wondered what had happened to that person.

"Fraid so. I was so distraught by the fact that you were dating that I went right home and had a good long cry." Throttle looked away from Charlie for a second.

"Were you hurt?"

"Not terribly, no. I think I was more bothered by the fact that I saw you with some guy."

"I'm sorry doll..." Charlie said, not knowing what else to say.

"Whatever Charlie. I know that you'll want to settle down some day... Just don't settle down with anyone that I can't scare the ever loving hell out of. Okay?" Charlie's lips curved up in a small smile.

"I won't as long as you tell me all the news that is news."

Dove sighed on the other end. "What do you want to know?"

"Did you meet any nice guys while you were gone?"

"No. Not really. I met this one guy that I thought was nice, but..."

"What did he do to you?" Charlie demanded, an dark look on her face. Vinny, Modo and Throttle all pushed their plates away, no longer hungry. They were simply too curious now to care much about food.

Dove was quiet for several minutes. Perhaps several minutes too long since Charlie growled, "Did he hit you?"

Again Dove said nothing for a second before replying. "I've been hit by guys before Charlie. That's nothing that I can't handle..."

"Did he force-"Charlie's question was cut off by a loud.

"No! Jesus Christ girl, why would you automatically think that? I wouldn't stick around with a guy that did that shit."

"Then what did he do?"

"He tried to sell me to some of his friends- There you happy?"

Charlie's face drained of color and she got a horrified look on her face as the guys tensed. Sensing that there was more to the story than Dove was saying, and held onto their tempers while they waited for her to say more.

"Oh. Oh baby, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine Charlie. He didn't do much damage to me other than tearing apart my confidence in myself. It took some time, and a lot of drinking, but I'm fine now." Shara was lying. Charlie could tell by the chipper sound of her tone.

Her cousin never lied to her unless she was hurting bad. And even then, she normally lied about the small hurtful stuff.

She had never tried to lie about the truly painful experiences in her life. Nor had she ever tried to hide them from Charlie before. And Charlie didn't know how to respond to her cousin's pain. She wanted to say something comforting but all she could think of was, "He killed your white picket fence dream didn't he?"

Dove sighed. "Dreams often die Charlie. Whats one more?" Came the soft almost weary/sad reply.

"Did you kick his teeth in?"

A soft breathy laugh was Charlie's reply. "Oh yeah, I kicked his teeth in and then some."

"Good girl..." Charlie said softly as she tired to think of what to say next and decided to try and take Shara's mind off of what she had just confessed to her and finally she came up with something and asked.

"Do you remember some of the trouble we used to get into in school?"

"Would you hate me if I said no?"

Charlie's lips twitched a little bit as the guys propped their chins in their hands and listened, thinking that the stories that they were about to hear would be funny. It was a rare chance to know about how Charlie had grown up.

Not something that they could have ignored even if they wanted too.

"Okay, let me see if I can jog your memory... Do you remember the time you took a picture of Mark in his boxers and put it in the school year book?"

Dove laughed. The sound made Charlie smile. "I vaguely recall that. I think that was one of the few times that I had ever seen a nearly grown man cry-"