It's been quite a while since I've written here, but I recently watched some old Hey Arnold! episodes, Road Trip in particular, and the energy for this story was just there. I also want to practice writing scenes covering different emotional situations that I don't usually use in my work, so this might help.

This story follows on my previous one, Savior, so it's highly recommended that you read that one first. Savior came out on this site before the release of The Jungle Movie, so some things might be a bit different. I will incorporate the canon of TJM into this as much as possible.

I expect future chapters to be much shorter. This one needed to be long to set the proper pace and show the current fortunes of the Pataki family members.

Be sure to tell me what you think. Bonus points if you guess the references to characters from a certain popular sports manga.

"Ah criminy, Olga, do you really need to listen to this lame Christmas music in the morning?!"

Helga Pataki groaned. Even after nearly two years of living with Olga, many of her habits were still annoying, and Christmas was the time of year where her inherent perkiness reached its apogee. Right now, an incredibly upbeat, girly version of "Frosty the Snowman" was on blast downstairs.

"I'll tell you what, Helga!" Olga called up to her sister from the kitchen. "If you can go one day without saying something about that boxing match, I won't have the music on as much!"

Olga was teasing her. Helga couldn't help but chuckle. It was a bet she'd lose. She'd been looking forward to that match for months, ever since it was announced that summer, and now it was only a week away! It was the controversial, wild WBC Junior Middleweight Champion, Bryan Hawk, taking on top contender Mamoru Takamura, a man who was undefeated with 16 consecutive knockouts and who had exploded onto the world boxing stage from a country not normally known for such things, Japan. How could she not get excited about the match?! There was no way she couldn't talk about it!

So that meant she'd have to listen to Olga's music. Oh well.

"I thought so!" Olga teased some more in reaction to the silence.

Criminy again, Helga thought. She must have gotten lost in her excitement about the match for longer than she imagined.

"By the way, I think you should come down here already! Breakfast is ready and there's a surprise for you!"

That got Helga's attention. She now moved at double-time to make her final preparations for the day.

She looked at herself in the mirror. She sure did look different compared to when she first moved into this house. For one thing, she had gotten a lot taller. She was gaining on Olga in height now, and would probably be taller than her big sister in another couple of years. It was a surreal thought.

Though she still kept her pigtails, they fell diagonally downward, toward her shoulders, instead of sticking straight out like when she was younger. Her trademark bow was also still an everyday part of her ensemble, but she sometimes wore a blue cap over it, and she wore jeans these days with a pink and white shirt instead of a long pink dress.

Most significantly, she had gotten rid of the unibrow that had once been her calling card at P.S. 118.

She'd at first been reluctant to do it, but Olga had told her she would look better, and as annoying as that reason had been, she couldn't argue with the result. She was in 7th grade now. Middle school was just a different animal, and the man she respected most in all the world had told her that, like it or not, appearances would start mattering more from this point onward.

Then there was also the fact that the unibrow was beginning to remind her of her father, a man she hated like the gates of death. She never wanted to think about her old life again, and so it eventually became easy to discard. It was one more way of fully embracing the progress she had made over the past two years.

Helga swayed her torso, looking herself over in the mirror one more time. Certain...parts were filling out, slowly, but surely, a little more each month. She remembered when the big "event" finally came in September. Despite all the education she'd gotten on the subject, the onset had brought more than its fair share of confusion. Thankfully, Olga had been completely attentive and supportive, and that brought with it its own relief. She couldn't imagine how she would have dealt with it if she were still living in that old, unwelcoming house.

Satisfied with how she looked, Helga went downstairs, eager to see what this surprise was, although she actually smelled it before she saw it. Once down in the foyer, a certain piny scent started to waft through her nostrils. Then she turned into the living room and saw it. It was huge! It must have been at least eight feet!

"Do you like it?"

Helga snapped her head to the left to see her sister standing on the threshold of the kitchen, warmly smiling at her.

"We brought it in last night, after my show. You were already asleep when we got back home." She explained, walking over toward Helga and looking up at the tree. "I know I've been a bit of a pain with all the home decorating these last couple of months..." She turned back to Helga and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Yep! You sure do love micromanaging things!" Helga smirked sarcastically, cutting her sister off. "Only the office, the gym, and my room have been spared from your whirlwind! Are you sure you like this gig as a pianist for the philharmonic and the opera? I think you'd rather spend your time making everyone's houses as perky as you are!"

"Well..." Olga smiled. "We bought this big tree to make it up to you. This year, it's yours to decorate however you like."

"Thanks, Olga." Helga smiled and hugged her sister warmly. Olga returned it with just as much affection. "Although..." She finally trailed.

Olga looked down at her quizzically as Helga suddenly grabbed her left hand.

"Ever since he put this big rock on your finger, I'm surprised you can decorate anything at all. How do you lift anything else without falling over?" She grinned.

Olga smiled and rolled her eyes as Helga continued examining it. The colorless, flawless, 2.00 carat, princess cut diamond sat atop a shimmering 18 karat white gold ring. Helga had even overheard the proposal back in October. It was so characteristically him.

* Flashback *

Olga woke up. No sooner did she rub the sleep from her eyes and reach over to the nightstand than she felt a small, velvet box. The new sensation quickly dispelled whatever grogginess lingered over her. Automatically, she opened the box and saw the ring. She gasped, looking it over, like she wasn't sure what to do with it.

"Are you gonna put it on?"

She jolted her head upward to see him there, leaning against the threshold of the master bathroom, smirking. He was wearing only his trunks, partially to taunt her with his tall, muscular frame. Olga knew him well enough by now to understand that. It always worked.

"Is that your idea of a proposal?" She giggled, incredulous, not yet quite fully conscious of what was happening.

"C'mon Olga, you know I'm not the type to get on one knee." He sauntered over, lifting her off the bed by her hands. "The way I see it, begging would only devalue our relationship, because we're together in the same place right now. There's not many things we can be certain of in this world, but I want you there with me as my partner on the rest of the voyage. With you there, there won't ever be a day where there isn't something wonderful to see, because no matter how cloudy the sky might get, or how rough the seas might tremble beneath the ship, I'll have the most beautiful sight right by my side. All I need do is look at you. No treasure will ever be more precious than the woman I love right there with me, in union with one heart and one mind. "

Olga giggled more as her eyes began to leak. "Is that something inspired by Virgil?"

"Homer, actually." He said as he enfolded her in a hug and looked down into her eyes. "So, are you in or not?"

"Yes." Olga answered without hesitation. Then, when the full reality of the situation finally washed over her, she answered again even more emphatically. "Yes!"

Her leaky eyes developed into full-fledged crying and her body convulsed in happy sobs as he slid the ring on her finger. Then, he swept her up into a hug and kissed her. Finally, when the kiss was over and he was rubbing her convulsing back, a certain someone else heard him calling.

"I know you're out there, Helga!" He taunted. "Come on in and give the bride-to-be a hug!"

Helga burst through the door with a wide grin. Wordlessly, she nearly tackled her sobbing sister in an embrace.

* End Flashback*

"Don't you have anything better to do than look at my ring?" Olga asked sarcastically.

"Sure, I can talk about the Hawk vs. Takamura fight! Just in case you thought I was turning into a bubbly girly girl!" She quipped back and let go of her sister's hand.

"Ugh, that boxing match again!" Olga rolled her eyes. "Go eat your breakfast before it gets cold."

Wordlessly, Helga walked into the kitchen, smirking to herself. The wedding would be in May. Olga had already told her that she would be one of the bridesmaids. Much as she hated to admit it, she was excited, and getting more so. Still, she had a reputation to keep, and she'd done a decent job of it just now.

She moved toward the steaming omelette and hash browns her sister had made. The omelette had chopped tomatoes and parsley in it. She poured herself some orange juice and began eating alongside Olga.

"So, when are Henry and Penelope and aunt Cecily supposed to get here?" She asked.

"Five days." A powerful male voice rumbled through the room in answer.

The Pataki sisters turned toward the living room. Helga broke out into an admiring grin. She couldn't help it when she first saw him every day, especially when he was dressed like this.

Louis Burbon entered the kitchen, wearing a custom-made grey suit which was accompanied by a gold tie and matching pocket square. He donned light brown Armani shoes to go with the suit. His trademark silver belt buckle, cut in the shape of the sun with a human face, finished the ensemble. His skin gleamed. His black hair shined to bring out the best of his mirthful green eyes. He looked like a king, as usual.

Olga jumped up to hug and kiss him before he took his seat alongside her and began to eat.

"Henry's still on duty at Coronado." Louis explained. "He technically won't get leave until the day he comes. So he's cutting it a little close, but don't worry, as you've no doubt figured out by now, he'll be here to watch the fight with us."

"Yes!" Helga beamed and pumped her fist.

"Oh no Louis, not you, too!" Olga objected, though with a smile, as they continued eating. "As soon as he gets here, you guys are gonna do nothing but work out and talk about that boxing match, aren't you?" She was being sarcastic, though only slightly.

"C'mon Olga, this is a big fight." Louis sarcastically wagged his finger at her. "And besides, Helga's really excited about it."

"Yes, Helga is!" Helga agreed.

"We're also putting up with your perky Christmas music day and night, including as we speak, aren't we?" He challenged, with that cocky smirk that she found irresistible.

"I guess..." Olga sighed with a dreamy smile as the music rushed into her ears. Now, it was "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," again sung in an upbeat, bubbly manner.

"So..." Helga grinned, deciding to tease her sister a little more. "...I hear rumors that Takamura's weight management is...psyche!" Her grin grew as Olga looked ready to fade out of the conversation. "How far along is Penelope now? It's gotta be coming up soon. How's that for weight management, huh?"

"Seven months." Olga answered with a relieved smile. "The last time I talked to her, she was making acidic remarks about her swollen belly, but she's really excited about becoming a mother."

"Mom's even more excited about the baby." Louis interjected. "She's over the moon about becoming a grandma. And Henry? He's been keeping pretty quiet about it, but you can tell he's beaming with pride. Last time I saw him, he was containing his excitement, but just barely. He's even a little nervous, which is shocking, but I guess being a dad will be one place in the world even he hasn't been to yet. It's even weird on my part thinking about it. Soon, real soon, I'll be an uncle."

Helga smiled as she watched Olga grab his hand and give it an affectionate squeeze. The two looked at one another lovingly for a moment. No doubt, the imminent birth of Henry and Penelope's son was making them think of their future, too. Instinctively, they both probably saw the aunt and uncle thing as being a training program.

Yes, these two years had been the greatest of her life, but the one to come would be even greater, even bigger for her and her family. Henry, her hero's hero, was about to become a father with his beautiful wife, and she would become an aunt of sorts. Soon after that, her lovable, even if still somewhat annoying, sister was going to get married to the man she admired the most, who she credited with turning her life around.

He'd turned her sister's life around, too. As eager as she'd been to leave her old life entirely behind, Olga was equally so. Though she wasn't as prickly about it, Helga knew that her sister was counting down the days until she would officially become Olga Burbon and drop the Pataki name, and with it, the remaining connections to her own turbulent past, where she was expected to be nothing but a perfect, obedient doll that performed on command. That was Olga Pataki. Olga Burbon was and would be a happier, more complete woman.

Olga, of course, was becoming more renowned as a pianist. She was now one of the star attractions of the city's philharmonic and opera scenes. Louis, meanwhile, was building a reputation for himself as one of the savviest media guys in Hillwood, and indeed, the entire Pacific Northwest. With that, and his continued operations in New England, his business was growing fast. He was, quite simply, becoming "the guy" to go to if you wanted good press and advertising for your business. In fact, he was about to go to a meeting and close another major deal to round out the year.

For her part, Helga would be turning 13 in March. The thought of it fell in that awkward grey zone between exciting and terrifying. She was about to become a teenager. It shouldn't matter, Helga thought, but she knew it did. It would be a significant occasion, one which signified that she was entering a very different phase in life, leaving childhood behind.

In the meantime, she had joined her school's track and field team, and was doing well on it. At the last major event of the year, in November, she had won bronze in the 200 meter dash, and silver in the 100 meter hurdle event, though that one nagged her. If only her timing had been just a bit better...

"Helga, it's almost time!" Olga interrupted her reverie. "You better finish up and get to school!"

Helga looked up at the clock. She began to eat faster. Middle school was different, but she was navigating the work well. Her talents as a writer were also becoming more widely recognized. In fact, she'd been invited to participate in a citywide poetry contest, to take place right around the time of the wedding.

Most happily of all, her relationship with Arnold...if one could call it that...was...progressing? Either way, she was bursting at the seams with joy whenever she thought about it. She'd never show it at school, but she was on cloud-nine. She couldn't wait until May. Arnold would be her date to the wedding! Perhaps it would be a preview of their own...

"Ohhhh!" She held her hands up to her cheeks in a swoon as she finished her food.

"Helga?"

Reality smacked her in the face as she automatically snapped her head to the right. Louis was staring at her incredulously. She slowly sneaked her head a little closer and saw that Olga was giving her the same expression.

"What are you two staring at?!" She growled and narrowed her eyes. Her frowns weren't as intimidating without the unibrow. She knew it. But still, she tried her best, and usually succeeded.

The two of them chuckled at her and exchanged a knowing glance. Helga sheepishly rubbed her head as the sudden tension slowly melted.

"Your lunch is in the fridge." Olga informed Helga, who nodded as she got up from the table.

"Did you pick up my winter coat from the cleaners? Helga asked her sister as she opened it and pulled out her lunch box.

"Yes. It's in the closet by the front door."

"Thanks."

"Helga, hold on a minute. It's cold today. I'll give you a ride." Louis said as he finished his breakfast.

Helga's face lit up as he got up from the table and walked into the foyer with her.

"Olga, you have another show to do tonight, right?" Helga asked as she and Louis turned back to look at her while putting their coats on.

"Yes, but you have your appointment with Dr. Bliss after school anyway, right?"

"Yeah, so I'll be back a little later than usual." Helga replied as she slung her backpack on.

"Alright, I might be gone by the time you get back, but dinner will be ready. All you guys will need to do is heat it up!" She said as she came over to give Louis a hug and kiss. "And good luck to you, too." She gushed while gazing up into his eyes.

"Thank you, Olga, and I want you to remember something..." He said while looking at her with a seductive glint.

"What...?" She asked dreamily.

"My prediction for the fight is that Bryan Hawk will retain his title in eight rounds."

"UGH!" She groaned and dropped her head in her hands as Helga burst out laughing.

Helga rushed over to give Louis a high-five. She couldn't help it. That one was good.

Louis grinned as he looked over himself in the mirror one more time, checked his phone, grabbed a loosleaf binder which contained the facts and figures behind his latest business proposal, and opened the door.

"Hawk in eight rounds, huh?" Helga asked him almost disappointingly as the cold wind howled through the door and chilled Olga's skin.

"Well, yeah, because basically..."

The door closed. Olga instinctively smirked and shook her head, slowly, from side to side as she watched them go and heard the sound of Louis' car. The metallic blue corvette, its roof closed, pulled out of the driveway and roared off. She sighed happily as "Silver Bells" trickled through the otherwise calm air.

"AW FOR CRIPES SAKES, MIRIAM! GET UP!"

"HUH? WHA?" Miriam Pataki yelped as her eyes suddenly snapped open. In her hasty movements, she knocked one of the three nearby empty glasses off the counter and onto the floor of the kitchen, or at least what made for one in the dilapidated store that still bore the name Big Bob's Beepers. "Wha...what's happening?" Miriam finally asked as she finished fumbling with her glasses.

"NOW LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE!" The shattered glass on the floor only made Robert "Big Bob" Pataki more irritable. "I'm trying to run a beeper empire here, Miriam! I can't do it with you drooling all over the place and making messes! Now clean this up and go fix the displays in the window! And make it snappy!"

"B...you just know I'm not good in the morning..." Miriam slowly mumbled as she stared at the puddle of drool on the counter. Her head was splitting.

"Everything needs to be perfect! We're well into the Christmas season and we need to make the most of it! Just one good season I tell you... One good season and we'll bounce right back!"

"Uh...huh..." Miriam noised without thought or expression.

"Good. Now, I have to go pick up the latest batch of inventory from the warehouse. After you're done with the displays, I want you to go outside and get some office supplies. I've got the list here."

Bob handed Miriam a sheet of paper which she didn't look at and barely held onto. Her eyes slowly shifted to him as he left and went outside. Then they shifted back to the countertop. She still wasn't looking at the paper. Finally, Miriam put it down and went outside to get the mail. The mailbox was stuffed.

She went back inside and dumped the usual bills, which had been piling up, on the counter, but something strange caught her eye. The Arts & Culture section of the Hillwood Daily bore the image of a face she hadn't seen in nearly two years.

Her daughter.

She was positively ebullient, clutching a large bouquet of flowers close to her body. Because of the way she was holding the flowers, the shining object on her left ring finger was easy to spot.

Miriam's eyes finally picked up speed as she dropped the paper on top of the note Bob had given her. The picture had been taken after one of the performances of the philharmonic last week. The concert was a special one meant to "celebrate the recent engagement of Olga Pataki."

Now her eyes widened just a little bit. Her baby was getting married.

Miriam turned the page. There, she saw another photo. Olga was posing with a much younger girl who was wearing a pink gown and who's blonde hair was done up. She had to blink a few times to recognize her. The lack of a unibrow and her slowly maturing frame at first made it difficult, but that was none other than Helga.

Her other baby was growing up.

Finally, her eyes fixed on another picture.

Him.

He was dressed to the nines in a classic black tuxedo with a shawl lapel. It was obviously custom-made, doing the most to bring out his broad shoulders. Louis Burbon, the groom-to-be. Olga's arm was wrapped around his. She was happy as can be.

In yet another picture, Helga was with them, beaming. Miriam had never seen her giving off such a radiant smile.

His words from that night, now almost two years ago, flooded back into her still-groggy mind:

"Listen, I don't think the two of you are inherently bad people. I just think you're very misguided, but your flaws are seriously hurting both of your daughters, who I actually care about. So I'm stepping in to end it. Until you can prove to me that you can truly love your daughters and be positive influences in their lives, I'm getting them out of here, and you won't be seeing them."

He'd kept true to those words. And what had changed with her and Bob? The only change was that things had gotten worse. Bob was more irritable than ever, especially now that the business had fallen on hard times. Even though he had been selling them before, he hadn't been able to adapt to the pace of change with the cell phone technology that was quickly wiping out the need for most people to use beepers. The stress this created only made him more excitable in his business decisions. As a result, the one bedrock that she still had, the affluence of her upper middle class lifestyle, had vanished. Now look where she was - living in this store, with the constant barks:

"Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! I told you to put that stack of beepers in the right window, not the left!"

"Criminy! I said that you should put the bleepin' sign up right over the doors! Not in the windows!"

"AW, MOTHER SCRATCHER, MIRIAM, CAN'T YOU DO ANYTHING RIGHT?!"

It all reminded her of another thing he had said on that night:

"You know girls, it really is a shame...that someone so successful should have such poor manners."

In the two years since, the "successful" part had dropped from the equation.

Miriam closed the newspaper and simply let her chin rest on her fist. He had been right. Her girls were better off away from here, away from them. Those pictures she had just seen were even more proof positive. There was no use feeling anything about it. The facts were the facts. She could do nothing about them. She had her smoothies to make things better though, at least for a little while. They'd become an even greater presence in her life these past two years. They were her constant companions, the ones she turned to for comfort. They never failed.

She'd go out and get the office supplies. What else did she have to do? But she would make a smoothie first. A very powerful smoothie.

The tobasco was right at her side. Now she just needed her blender and the large bottle of Smirnoff she had in the cabinet underneath her. She began to blend. She cracked open the Smirnoff. How much to blend? She'd play it by ear. She just needed to keep pouring.

When it was all done, Miriam felt better, at last ready to run Bob's errand. She went outside, but everything was a blur after that. She certainly didn't feel anything after blacking out and collapsing on the sidewalk, hitting the pavement hard.