Disclaimer: What is it with you people

Disclaimer: What is it with you people?! I own NOTHING!!! N-O-T-H-I-N-G! Please don't sue.

Setting: a month after the last chapter.

Author's Notes: Feedback is greatly appreciated. You can let me know what you think at wlnessman@home.com. Or you can check out my new site at www.geocities.com/jcdracon/index.html Thanx.

The Blade and Angel Saga: Chapter 5

By Jcdracon

Copyright Jcdracon 2001 All Rights Reserved.

The roar of Lady's engine shattered the relative quite of the Chicago night. Her rider couldn't have cared less.

Moodily he let the bike do the driving as he concentrated on reliving the argument he'd had with his now ex-girlfriend.

I told you I'm needed here Babe.

That's Bull and you know it. We could send anyone else down there to handle the situation. We need you here. I need you here.

I can't just walk away from this.

You know what, I think it's not just duty holding you there Throttle Mouse. I think it's got something to do with those two girls you've been working with.

That's ridiculous.

Is it? They're almost all you ever talk about lately. 'Blade is such an awesome fighter.' 'Angel is a really sweet kid.' 'I'm glad their on our side.'

All of that is true. But it doesn't influence why I'm staying here.

You know I wasn't worried when they first joined up with you. What with you making Angel sound like some innocent little five-year-old and your bitching about what a pain in the tail Blade was. I'm still not, about Angel anyway. But you've changed when you talk about Blade. All of a sudden it's like she can do no wrong. Look at the way you freaked after that virus thing hit her.

She took a shot that was meant for me, she didn't have to but she did. For Gods' sake Carbine she almost died! And lately she's really been turning her life around.

Just answer me one thing. Are you sleeping with her?

What?! You're way out of line there Babe.

Am I? Prove it! Come back to mars!

I'm sorry Babe. I can't do that.

It's Earth or me Throttle. You're gonna hafta choose.

Then I guess we'll both have to find someone else to be with. Goodbye, Carbine.

He had turned off the CB and tore out of there like the demons of the nine hells were on his tail.

Which was how he'd ended up here, driving around doing nothing. The anger he'd felt after the fight had faded almost immediately after he'd left the score board, leaving behind it an odd sense of relief. Lately he'd begun to feel trapped, like the walls were closing in. The pressures of leadership were beginning to way on him and he needed someone to talk to. Before she'd started pressuring him Carbine had been that someone. But that changed as he began to watch his words, always careful never to give her something to use against him like she had with Blade.

Now that really Cheesed him off.

It wasn't that he didn't think she was attractive. Gods no, he'd have to be blind, deaf or gay not to notice what a beautiful bright green her eyes were, how soft and silky her hair looked or (A new discovery) what an amazing laugh she had.

He felt a slight tinge of jealousy at that thought because it was Vinnie who made her laugh. Vinnie who could tease her out of her bad moods, Vinnie whose company she sought out.

He even acted differently around her than other women. He seemed less the ego maniac when they were together unless he deliberately acted that way to a rise out of her, he didn't flirt with her, acting more like she was one of the guys. But what seemed the most odd was the fact that he never, ever referred to her as Sweetheart, something he had no problem doing to anyone else.

Before this wouldn't have bothered him, he just would have been thankful that someone had gotten her out of his hair and been done with it, but not now. Not now that she had started to change, Instead of brooding up in her room she'd started coming down to hang out, watching the game and arguing good naturedly with Vinnie over teams.

Her change in attitude didn't just include Vinnie, No she'd come down one afternoon and shyly asked Charley if she could show her how to do some of the work, later showing her some self defense moves and helping out in the garage whenever needed. She openly liked Modo now, if only because of the way he treated Angel. It was only him that she had failed to approach; she wasn't hostile towards him anymore, just really… uncomfortable.

Lady came to a halt, forcing Throttle to look at his surroundings. Above him the familiar sign of the Last Chance Garage crowned one of the few buildings in the area not yet destroyed by Limburger. He noticed a light on upstairs, odd, Modo had taken Angel out somewhere and Vinnie had mentioned taking the girls out for a ride. Blade must have decided to stay home. He squelched the perverse pleasure that thought gave him.

He hit the door opener Charley had installed on their bikes in the vain hope they'd use them and went inside.

As he headed for the stairs he mentally barated himself, Blade had just gone from hating him to ignoring him there was no way she'd be interested in hearing about his problems. That thought didn't stop him from climbing the stairs and starting towards her room, it wasn't until he'd reached her door that he stopped and reconsidered. As he turned to leave Blade's voice, slightly muffled from behind the door stopped him.

"You might as well come in Throttle, I heard you coming."

He pushed open the door and entered. She was sitting at her desk, obviously fresh out of the shower, her hair loose and damp around her shoulders, the brush she'd been using still in her hand. She hadn't been expecting company judging from the way she was dressed in a pair of navy track shorts trimmed with orange and a pale green backless top tying at the neck and waist. But what stopped him cold was the scars that covered her back, scars that the soldier part of his brain told him had been caused by a sharp blade.

Glancing over her shoulder and noticing his reaction Blade smiled grimly and said, "Not very pretty are they?"

"What?…How?" He stuttered.

"I paid the inevitable price for trusting the wrong person, I got stabbed in the back." She turned fully and stood, studying him with a look of concern. "But you didn't come here to talk about me. What's wrong?"

That question and her obvious concern finally caused his already tightly stretched nerves to snap and he began to laugh, almost hysterically, And then to his horror his throat tightened and a strangled sob worked its way out. The next thing he knew he was balling his bionic eyes out into Blade's small but sturdy shoulder.

As he slowly regained his composure, he became more aware of his surroundings; Blade's unbound hair was every bit as soft as it looked and smelt faintly spicy, like cinnamon. Small capable hands rubbed soothing circles on his back while her quiet voice murmured reassurances. With a final shuddering breath he pulled himself away and stepped back.

"Better now?"

"Yeah, sorry 'bout that."

"Forget it, as far as I'm concerned it never happened."

"Thanks. Still, I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable."

"Depends on whether you mean physically or emotionally, physically speaking I was a bit uncomfortable, You're not exactly a light weight you know. But emotionally speaking… well I've been playing mother figure to pretty much all the younger kids we hung with since I was ten."

"Somehow that doesn't help, thanks any way though."

"No problem."

Uncomfortably the tan mouse cast around the room for a change of subject, his eyes finally coming to rest on a large pile of books sitting on her desk. He walked over to it and scanned the titles feeling vaguely surprised at the wide range of subjects. Three were University texts, each on different subjects there was also a murder mystery novel, a James Bomb spy novel, a horror novel with a generous amount of blood dripping from the title and (This one almost choked him) A romance novel titled 'Sword of Desire'. Wordlessly he raised the book, holding it with two fingers as if it might bite him and arched an eyebrow.

She laughed and said simply "Charley recommended it but I don't think romance is for me, I got up to the line about 'Heaving bosoms' and had to quit."

"This is quite a collection, You interested in all this stuff?"

"Not all of it, mostly I'm reading a lot of them to see if it does interest me. I've been so busy wallowing in self pity these last few months I never really took the time to find out what interests me."

When his moved to protest she cut him off immediately "Don't argue with me it's true, I could have done this ever since we first got out and Robin taught us to read but I didn't. Just like I could have made an effort to get along with all of you but I didn't. I was too caught up in my own problems, Hells I still am to some extent but that's changing. Now we're going to stop talking about me, you're going to let me get changed and we're going to go somewhere to talk about what's bothering you."

With that Throttle found himself being herded towards the door, if he'd thought pissed of Blade was impressive than determined Blade was a force of nature. And right now she was determined that they were going to go somewhere to talk.

Five minutes later he was pulling out of the drive way and following Blade who seemed to know exactly where she was going.

She pulled to a stop in front of a bar that even Vinnie might have balked at entering, but she just swung off her bike and casually strolled inside, leaving him no choice but to follow, he was sensing a pattern here. With a glance at the beat up old sign aptly naming the place The Black Hole, he entered and received yet another shock at the sight of Blade chatting familiarly with the huge rough looking bartender. She looked at him and motioned him over.

"Throttle let me introduce you to Big Bruce McAlester, the owner of this fine establishment and my part time employer."

"Employer?"

"That's right," The huge man said proudly clapping a ham sized hand on her shoulder "B here takes over for me on Tuesday and Thursday nights, I wasn't too sure about hiring a little thing like her at first but she's been doing a first rate job."

"Thanks Bruce, but just what exactly did you mean by that 'little thing' crack?" She asked teasingly and pulling gently on his chestnut brown ponytail streaked liberally with gray.

"Nothing, nothing at all," He said with a twinkle in his gray eyes, "Now will you be wanten your usual table?"

"Sure, and can ya send over a pitcher of liquid numbness in a few minutes?"

"Why? Did somethin happen?" He asked with sudden concern.

"Not to me." With that she turned and led the way to a small table in a dark shadowed corner. You could barely tell it was there unless you knew where to look.

He'd hardly sat down before she looked at him with sudden intensity and said, "Okay. Spill."

He jerked as if she'd slapped him and said, "Boy, you sure don't believe in small talk do you?"

She just arched an eyebrow and waited.

He heaved out a sigh and stated simply, "Carbine and I broke up."

"And?"

He looked at her, startled.

She smiled and said "That break up was a long time coming and you're to observant not to have noticed. I have a feeling it was just the catalyst, am I right?"

His feeling of relief when their drinks arrived died instantly at the look she gave him.

Staling he asked, "What is this?"

"Rum and rootbeer, speaking from experience I can tell you for certain that if you get enough of these in you whatever's bugging you will go away for the night, and tomorrow morning you'll be too hungover to care about anything else."

"You do this a lot huh?"

"No, lately I cut myself off at two. But tonight isn't about me, I haven't forgotten about what we were talking about you know."

As the alcohol began to kick in he found himself talking about his fear that he was loosing his edge. Telling her about what he felt was his monumental bad call that at the warehouse that had nearly gotten them all killed, the guilt he still felt over her nearly dying because he hadn't seen the danger they were in. But most importantly he told her about the blinding terror he felt of becoming like his coach and mentor Stoker was for a while, more of a hindrance than help on the battlefield and not knowing it.

And she was quick to reassure him that he was in no way loosing his edge. Pointing out situation after situation in which he had made an excellent command decision and systematically tearing apart each of his arguments with the same dogged persistence she often displayed in battle.

After a few more drinks he finally worked up the courage to ask her about her sudden friendship with Vinnie.

"He makes me laugh, and we have a lot in common."

Throttle couldn't help a skeptical "Like what?"

"We both have parents who qualify for mars' Lousy Parenting Award for one thing."

"You mean you know about…"

"How his mother ran off with some guy when he was ten and his father taking it out on him with his fists until he could fight back? How he developed the whole ego maniac thing as a defense mechanism? Yeah, I know. That's another thing we have in common, we're both just a pair of giant defense mechanisms."

As the night wore on they both found themselves coughing up their life's stories. Throttle talking about seeing his entire family killed by Plutarkians and being saved from slavery by the Freedom Fighters in a raid. Then meeting up with his bros and having Stoker take him under his wing.

Blade in turn spoke about her life on the streets. Going into great detail on some of the stories about her and Gun while barely skimming over her mother. She told him about the attack and explained why she had changed her name after saying, "The bastard damn near killed me twice, first when he used my back for a chopping block and again when the cuts got infected. It kinda seemed fitting." she omitted a few details.

It was nearly dawn before they left driving down to the score board first. Blade dismounted and walked with him as he staggered unsteadily to the door. She turned to leave, then paused and hugged him whispering "It'll get better Throttle, I promise." before disappearing into the dark.

Throttle stood there stunned for a while and it wasn't until the sun was peeking over the horizon that he turned and went inside. In those immortal words this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.