AN: Wow, I am really proud of myself. Two new chapters within a couple of weeks instead of months of each other. Let's get out the streamers and confetti while I'm still on a role.

I hope everyone likes what I did with the new chapter. The really serious plot will start in the next chapter or so. It depends on a couple of factors but it will start soon. I promise.

To everyone who reviewed I love you all. Special thanks to Nyte Kat and Etherweil. You two have read pretty much every Swat Kats piece I have written and reviewed almost everytime. To everyone else thanks for the review. Be sure to sign in so I can reply to your reviews and give personal thank yous to everyone.

Okay on with the chapter

Despite going to bed at such a late hour Jake woke up early. It was an old cycle with him. He hardly ever slept for longer than five or six hours in any given night. It aggravated Chance to no end and he constantly harped at him for not getting, what in was Chance's opinion, not enough sleep. It had never really bothered Jake though and he had gotten used to the pattern.

He rolled onto his side and tried to get back to sleep but knowing that it was a wasted effort he glanced at his clock and sighed in frustration. At wasn't even 7:00 am. The garage didn't technically open until 10:00 and he knew that Chance wouldn't wake up until the last possible minute. That left him two options. He could work on the cars that had been brought in for service or he could work in the hanger.

Knowing that the work load in the garage had been low over the last week he opted for the hanger. With another sigh he sat up and stretched. He had not taken the time to change when he had gotten back the night before and except for his boots he was still dressed as he had been. His sweatshirt and jeans smelled slightly of cigarette smoke and as he pulled his shirt over his head his nose caught the faint scent of Callie's perfume.

He still couldn't believe that the night before had turned out as it had. They would have to work something out if they wanted their budding relationship to grow. He couldn't be missing dates with her because of his alter-ego as a Swat Kat. To be truthful Callie called them in for most of the major things but still, having a relationship would be difficult.

He changed quickly and grabbed his MP3 player before he headed down to the hanger. The first thing he did when he arrived was put a pot of coffee on. Chance hadn't been happy when he had set up the coffee pot but the reality was that during the early days when he was working on the Turbokat he had spent more time in the hanger than he did the house.

When one got right down to it the Turbokat was his baby more than Chance's. Sure Chance flew her and he had helped him do the bulk of the heavy construction but everything else was Jake's. All of the design ideas, missiles, technical blueprints, and schematics came from his original plans. He had used some of the raw materials that they had found around the yard for the very basics but practically everything had been tweaked or altered by him to fit what he needed them to do. He had even designed the unique radar system that they used from scratch.

He knew that if he could move into the private sector and capitalize on even one of his ideas he could win a very lucrative military contract. Feral may have hated what the Swat Kats did but Feral knew top notch military technology when he saw it. Feral was the problem though. He had forced the two of them into running the salvage yard and kept them as a marginalized part of the Enforcer squadron. His role as a Swat Kat also prevented him from marketing his ideas because of their uniqueness. He would be giving away their identity in a heartbeat.

It frustrated him to no end and what hurt more was that he couldn't tell Chance about any of it. Chance loved what they did. As a vigilante he was finally free from all the restrictions that had hindered his abilities when they were in the Enforcers. Yes Chance was an amazing pilot but he was also hot headed and a glory-hound. He loved the attention that being a Swat Kat provided him and didn't even notice that Jake wasn't entirely happy with the arrangement.

He knew that if he complained that Chance would accuse him of not caring and that couldn't be further from the truth. He cared, he really did. He loved what they were able to accomplish. He was just frustrated with doing so much of the work and getting none of the credit for the time and skill that went into it. He was also sick of being constantly bashed by Feral whenever they did something that helped save the city. The kat had no tact in his opinion but he kept his opinions to himself and allowed Chance to vent every time Feral opened his mouth.

The smell of fresh coffee had filled the hanger and he grabbed one of the thermal mugs that had been draining on the dish rack near the sink and filled it. He added some cream and a couple tablespoons of sugar before stirring the hot liquid and screwing the mug's top into place. He took a small drink to test the liquid's heat and decided to wait for few minutes for it to cool before drinking the rest.

In the meantime he scanned the hanger and began making a mental list of what needed to be done. There hadn't been a major threat to the city in a while so most everything was still in good shape. He finally settled on working on his missiles. He had realized early on during their crime fighting career that it never hurt to keep a small stockpile of extra weaponry around if he had the time.

He took another sip of his coffee and sighed. He knew he shouldn't be up this early and that the coffee didn't help him sleep but he didn't care. Chance was going to be pissed when he found him in the hanger at such an early hour but he didn't care about that either. It had suddenly hit him about a week ago that he didn't really care about a lot of things anymore. The realization had been both a weight off his shoulders and a burden at the same time. He knew that he should care but he just couldn't muster the energy to do so.

The night before had been a perfect example. If he had really cared he would have left Callie and come back so they could go on patrol. That was what Chance would have wanted him to do but it had been so easy to brush off the fact that he had other responsibilities for an evening.

He picked up his MP3 from where he had laid it when he began to make the coffee and began navigating through his song library. If Chance was awake he would have just put the music on the stereo but he didn't want to wake Chance. He finally picked a band that fit his mood and almost immediately the loud mix of drums, guitar, and screamed vocals drowned out the world and he was able to concentrate singularly on the batch of match-head missiles that were his current focus.

SKSKSKSKSKSKSKSKSKSKSKSKSKSKSKSKSKSK

Chance awoke to the annoying buzzing of his alarm clock and immediately considered throwing the annoying instrument against the wall. He had been angry at Jake when the younger kat hadn't come home, angry and worried. He had had to fight the urge to go out and find his brother and drag him home by his tail.

He knew that Jake was capable of taking care of himself but there were times when he felt the urge to play the big brother card more than others. Jake's attitude of late was more than enough reason in his opinion. Jake was normally a very easy going kat but when something got under his fur he got moody and impossible to talk to.

Chance figured that whatever had gotten into Jake this time had something to do with his parent's death. It was a logical assumption in his mind. He knew that he had probably been a little hard on Jake the night before and decided that he should probably apologize. He might have over reacted but not knowing where his younger brother was had scared him. He reached over and shut the alarm off before pulling on a pair of jeans over his boxers and heading for Jake's room.

He found it empty and growled softly under his breath. It worried him when Jake didn't sleep. He rubbed his eyes tiredly and headed downstairs. When he didn't find Jake in the kitchen or living room he made a beeline for the hanger and was not the least bit surprised to find Jake working on a growing pile of, if he was not mistaken were the cores for scrambler missiles, to be truthful he honestly had no idea. He had tried to have Jake explain the different types of missiles they used but he had only ended up hopelessly confused. He knew enough to recognize them when they were fully assembled but other than that he was sunk.

Jake had his back to him and even from all the way across the hanger he could hear the faint sounds of music radiating from Jake's MP3 player. That meant that Jake had no clue that Chance was awake, let alone standing behind him. Chance suddenly noticed the smell of coffee and sighed as he glanced over toward the evil little machine that Jake had insisted in installing. He noticed with dissatisfaction that the pot was relatively empty which meant that Jake had been in the hanger for a couple hours at least.

He made his way over to Jake and walked into the younger kat's line of vision. Despite his proximity it still took Jake about a minute to actually notice him. When he finally did so he pulled the headphones from his ears but didn't turn off the music.

"Morning Chance, sleep well?" Chance ignored the conversational tone.

"Yeah I slept but you didn't. How long have you been awake?" He saw Jake bit his lower lip for a second. A sign which Chance had come to recognize as something he did when he was thinking about lying.

"Since about seven." Chance was surprised and a little shocked. Even though Jake had considered lying Chance was pretty sure he hadn't.

"So you got about what four hours?" Jake nodded. "That isn't enough and you know it." Jake shook his head defiantly.

"Drop it Chance, I'm fine."

"NO, I'm not just going to drop it Jake. Four hours isn't enough sleep and you know it." Jake sighed in frustration and buried his head in his hands.

"Do we have to fight this early in the morning Chance?" Chance, who had been ready to argue his point, was surprised.

"I'm worried about you buddy." Jake looked up at him.

"I know you are. You are always worrying about something. If it isn't how much I sleep, it's how much coffee I've had, or how much I work, or whether I've eaten or not. I know you worry and I appreciate the concern I really do but sometimes you need to back down and let me have my space."

"You are acting like me worrying about you is a bad thing." Jake shook his head.

"I'm not saying that."

"Than what are you trying to..."

"If you would let me finish you might know." Jake felt anger rising within him and he grappled to keep it under control. He did not want to fight with Chance. He took a deep breath and spoke. "I know you care Chance. I care about you too but I need you to back down a little. I'm stressed and I have a lot on my mind, if I need to slow down I will. Last night I needed some time to myself so I took it." He sighed in frustration and rubbed his eyes. "I'm sorry I missed our patrol. I shouldn't have done it but I needed the evening to relax." He sighed and took another breath to ready him for the last part and the outburst that would most likely follow. "Sometimes this job is too much."

Chance stared at him and Jake suddenly felt vulnerable and transparent. The little speech he had just given was probably the most open he had been with Chance in a long time but Chance needed to hear every word of it. Just as he expected Chance exploded.

"Fine, we will just cut patrols because you don't feel up to it. This isn't about us Jake. It is about the good we can do and the kats we can help." His words made Jake want to scream but he kept himself under control and glared at his older brother.

"Sometimes it needs to be about us too Chance. I know we do a lot of good but we can't keep giving and giving a hundred and ten percent of ourselves every time we fly."

"Maybe you can't but I can." That was the last straw for Jake. He narrowed his eyes at Chance and the older kat knew that he had gone too far.

"Fine do it yourself then. You won't be able to keep going without my help."

"Watch me." Jake couldn't help but smirk at Chance.

"What happens when you run out of missiles or when something goes wrong with the jet and you have no clue how to fix it?" Suddenly Chance didn't seem as confident as he had a few seconds before.

"I'll figure it out."

"That's a load of crud and you know it Chance." Jake picked up one of the match-head missile cores he had been working on and held it up. "What is this the core for?" He knew instantly that Chance had no clue but he waited for an answer. Chance for his part also knew he had no clue so he went with his earlier assumption.

"A scrambler missile."

"Match-head missile." Jake set the core back with the others and grabbed his MP3 player from the table. He walked towards Chance. "You had better learn quick. Now if you will excuse me I have cars to work on in the garage." He slipped the headphones over his ears and effectively blocked out any comment that Chance made to his retreating back as he made his way up to the house.

Chance watched him go with a pained look on his face before glancing back at the hanger. His eyes settled on the jet and he growled softly and balled his paw into a fist at his side. He knew that Jake was right. He was always right, damn him for always being right. They couldn't keep going like they did at times and there was no way that he could keep going without Jake helping him. Sure there were blueprints and diagrams for all of their equipment but the real knowledge was tucked away in Jake's head. Chance may have had enough mechanical skill to repair the cars that came in on a daily basic but mechanical engineering of the Turbokat's caliber was Jake's specialty and he couldn't match his younger brother's quality of work.

He growled again and hurried after Jake. He had to set things right between them. He had never meant to fight with Jake and the last thing he wanted was for a rift to be formed between them. Jake was his best friend and had been his best friend even before Jake had lost his parents. There was no way he was going to risk throwing it all away because he was being a jerk.

He found Jake working under the hood of a car that had been brought in near the end of their shift the day before. With a sigh he stood back and waited for Jake to acknowledge him. It didn't take long. Jake hated people hovering over him when he was trying to work and the younger kat finally turned around and glared at him.

"What Chance?" He pulled the headphones down and waited impatiently for Chance to say whatever was on his mind. Chance swallowed heavily and sighed. He had to force his hands to relax as he looked at Jake.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you mad. You are right, as usual." He paused to measure Jakes reaction for a moment before continuing. "Things get so hectic sometimes that we need to try and slow them down. We can cut back on the patrols if you want. To tell the truth it would be nice to have a quiet evening to ourselves occasionally." Jake nodded, thoughts of Callie coming to mind.

"Yeah it would." Chance continued.

"I can't do this without you buddy. I wouldn't know the first place to start. We wouldn't be doing this if you hadn't come up with the idea to and it just wouldn't be the same if I was flying solo." Jake sighed. He knew that this would be the closest that Chance came to an apology and he really didn't want to stop flying. However, if that was what it took to make Chance a little more aware than he had been more than willing to make the older kat work without him for a while.

"Fine. Just quit breathing down my neck. Give me my space when I need it and we will try to work past this whole mess." Jake leaned back against the car he was working on in order to watch Chance's facial reactions. The larger kat had never been one who could hide what he was thinking. He had noticed over the years that Chance's emotions almost always played out on his face and he was watching closely to see how the older kat was really taking the situation. He knew that he had hurt Chance with his comments and that agreeing to fly with him didn't really fix the underlying issues. When it didn't look like Chance was going to respond he took matters into his own hands and turned back to the car.

"Let's try to finish up the cars in the lot. We can talk more about this later." For a moment he thought that Chance was going to protest but he obviously thought better of it and nodded before turning and making his way over to another car on the other side of the garage. Jake waited just long enough to let out the breath he had been holding. He had gotten lucky just then but he had no doubt that by the end of the day Chance would be harassing him again. He also had to figure out a way to tell Chance about Callie.

Jake knew that Chance had a crush on Callie but he didn't know how deeply those feelings ran. His worst fear was that he would hurt Chance more deeply than anything else could but he would have to take that risk. He had cared about Callie for a long time and to know that she returned some of his feelings had left him reeling. It was too bad that he and Chance had so much tension between them right now or it would have been a lot easier to talk to him about Callie.

Deciding to follow his earlier advice he pushed the thoughts of Callie and their fight away for the time being and focused on the car in front of him. He really did want to finish the cars that they had so they could get them back to their owners. It was never a good idea to get too backlogged because they never knew when something would happen that would require the attention of the Swat Kats and it paid to be prepared just in case.

Okay, that was the chapter. I hope everyone enjoyed it. I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to create more angst between Jake and Chance. Those of you who read "A Decision In the Dark" know my love for angst all too well.

Callie will be addressed in the next chapter and Dark Kat will appear back on the scene soon as well. That is your teaser for the next chapter so everybody go review and tell me how much you love/hate my work. I appreciate all criticism just don't flame me.

TATA for now,

Coldfire