"'Ow much longer?"

"10 minuets, Dad." Ren sighed as she watched her father jump up and down on the spot. Apparently he grew up, during her Mum's traumatic time in Osaka, but if she'd been walking along the street at that moment, she would've thought otherwise. Ren lazed against a tree an opened up her philosophy folder, she was revising for when she went back to university in the autumn. She remembered how after collage she was working 12 hours a day, 5 days a week in a car factory. But once again Jake (who she had reunited with her dad) came to the rescue, he dropped off an old philosophy book and as he planned within the next 5 months she had taken a course at the local university.

"'Ow much longer?"

"8 minuets. Why not tell me 'bou Mum while we wait?"

"Awright." 2D dropped down next to Ren and fumbled around in his pocket before bringing out some photos, "Ere's one of ya Mum after she arrived in the Fed-Ex crate, she couldn't speak any English, 'sept one word, noodle. So we called her Noodle."

Ren looked over the photo.

"Like the hairstyle."

"Yeah, so did Murdoc, he thought she wos a boy fer 'bou a week."

"Did he!" Ren laughed.

"Oh, look, ya'll like dis one." 2D passed over a photo of Noodle on the island to Ren, "Taken strait from our video, Feel Good Inc."

"Wow a floatin' island. Where is it, now?"

"Still tied up ta Kong, I think. When ya Mum wos in a mood with us she'd untie it a go away fer a few hours. Sent Russel mad with worry. Hey! That's sommin we should do sometime, visit Kong, ya can go on the island if ya like."

"I would like. You and me?"

"And ya Mum. Oh man, we'd better get going."

"No, you go, ya 'aven't seen her for a long time."

"Ya sure."

"Yeah. Go." Ren watched her Dad run off, with all the excitement of a ten year old. Then she put the photo into her folder, and ran down the road into the park, tears running down her face.

111111

"Damn!" Russel grumbled, "I'm late."

He hurried down the road, but before he got to the prison he saw a girl that looked a lot like Ren running into the park. He stopped and changed direction, heading after her. Once in the park he found her sitting on a bench, hunched over, her body shaking.

"Ren?"

"Go away, Russel." She said without looking up.

Instead Russel sat down beside her.

"Ya going to tell me what's up?"

There was no replay for about a minuet.

"I just d-don' k-know what t-ta think."

"Think what?"

"'B-bou' Mum."

"Ya aren't excited." This was more statement than question.

"D-dunno, should I be?"

"No, it is optional, ya know."

"Good." Ren was starting to calm down, although she looked a bit of a mess.

"So what do ya think about ya mom coming out."

Ren sniffed loudly.

"I don' know, I think... I think dad loves her more than me, they won't want me."

"They will."

"How do you know?"

"Don't tell me you never read those letters yo mom sent ya."

"Oh God, the letters!" Ren fished around in her trench coat pocket and pulled out some well worn and sodden, but still legible letters.

"Ya wanna read them."

"Yeah, at the beginning."

111111

"There, there Noodle, it's gonna be alright."

"But she's been gone for over two hours." Noodle sank down lower in her chair.

"She does this a lot.

"What." Noodle sniffed.

"Run off."

"But this is Osaka, not Crawley. She doesn't know her way around here.

2D had nothing to say to this, so he just hugged her.

"Why did she run away," Noodle wailed, "I've been waiting so long to meet her and she does a runner." And she put her head on the table and cried some more.

It was at that moment that 2D spotted Russel coming through the cafe doors.

"Russel!" He called, Noodle looked up.

"Russel, you haven't seen Ren, please say you have?" Noodle pleaded.

For an answer Russel stepped to the side to reveal a young woman, grinning sheepishly. Noodle jumped up and ran over to Ren, knocking over her chair, and hugged her. Ren hugged her mum back, all jealousy gone, she remembered how when she was little this was all she ever wanted.

"I'm sorry, I just needed time to work my feelings out."

"That's alright."

Then the door of the cafe and a rather grumpy man in his early 60s marched through it.

"You'd better be grateful I came, Noodle." But then he ruined the effect by smiling.

"Murdoc!"

And once Noodle's chair was the right way up the 5 of them sat down.

"Where are my cigs, Ren?"

"I dunno, oh yeah." She pulled a packet out of one of her pockets.

"Thanks. AHHHHH!" 2D threw it across the table where it tipped over in front of Murdoc, spilling maggots everywhere. The others jumped away but Murdoc grinned evilly, before picking one up and biting it's head off.

FIN

Yay, plot bunny won't kill me, thank God.

Info time! Ren has been my character for a while now and she has gonethrough quite a lot of changes, at one time she had spiky blue hair and was lanky, but I like her better now, with wavy brown hair and not quite so lanky.

Hope you don't mind having an OC, I don't usualy do them, but hey, blame the bunny. I am.