Chapter 3

As Christine approached the mirror, she was SHOCKED at what she saw! It was her, but different. This version had sun bleached hair, with a look in her eyes that said she would take no nonsense from anyone! She was wearing a leather vest, a stained shirt, and leather pants as well as a pair of above the ankle black leather boots that looked like they had seen a lot of dirt from being on the road.

"Just who are you and what do you want of me?" Christine asked, looking over the person in the mirror. There was something about her that resonated with her, as if looking at a dark reflection of herself.

"I'm you. Or, should I say, the wild side of you" Chrissy said, looking at Christine. "But, as I said, we need to talk. How much do you remember about the last 6 months?" The mirror image asked, looking at Christine, seeing if something would kick in.

Christine just shook her head. "The last thing I remember, before tonight, was driving up to Albany and my car going off the road. After that, nothing" she told her reflection.

"Its no wonder you don't remember. You lost your mind and memories that night until tonight" Chrissy told her. "In effect, I was born that night! I was wandering around and found the Piranhas, who were carefully riding the roads that night. They took me in, and in a matter of weeks, I was accepted full fledged in the gang. I road bikes with them, repaired them, drank with them, hell, I even fought with them and besides them!"

"But why do that?! We had a job, a life" Christine told her image in the mirror, disgusted at what she was hearing. She would never have left her job as a public defender to join up with a biker gang. It was just disgusting to her!

"We had no choice that night! The car was on fire, you had no memories of who you were, and I was just getting used to being in charge. The Piranhas offered safety and a way to live, as well as making people who would become a family for me. And over time, I earned a reputation as a lady who you did not want to mess with in a fight" Chrissy told her, remembering how the knives felt in her hands against some of the other gangs that they had run into.

"And look at what its gotten us: In jail, released under the care of that Leach. Dan Fielding, who had

wanted to get us drunk and in his bed! And if he had succeeded, there is no telling where we would have ended up!" Christine berated her mirror counterpart. Christine just shook her head over what she remembered in the past of women who had ended up with Dan. The memories were not pleasant.

"He's that much of a leach?" Chrissy asked, looking at Christine with wonder. While she was not that thrilled with Dan, she didn't think that he as that bad.

"Oh lord Chrissy! If you had seen some of the things that I had over the years, you would not be acting like this! Dan Fielding thinks that women are to be bedded, and if possible, used for his advancement in both power and money" Christine told her, shaking her head in despair.

"Maybe, just maybe, if the two of us worked together, we can deal with Dan" Chrissy suggested to her other half.

THAT brought Christine to a halt. "Just what do you have in mind?" she asked her mirror counterpart. wondering just what she had in mind.

"I'll fill you in on that later. Right now, we need to get you back in a position where you can pull this off" Chrissy told her. "And to do that, I need to fade into the background. If certain things come up, I'll offer advice and if need be, I'll step in. But, for the most part, YOU will be in charge!"

"You'd do that? Christine asked, surprised at the offer. She had some idea of what her mirror image was like, but to offer to do something like this shocked her!

"Like I said, you need to be the one on the scene. I can offer advice, maybe help out if need be, but for the most part, you need to be the face of the two of us. Once things have settled down somewhat, then we can deal with Dan Fielding" Chrissy told Christine.

"Then lets do this. I need my job back, and between the two of us, Fielding is going to wish he had kept his hands to himself."Christine told her mirror image. And with that, Chrissy faded from the mirror. However, Christine could still feel her presence in her mind.

In the weeks that followed, changes occurred in the court. Ms. O'Rourke got promoted to Circuit Court duties and became a top defense attorney. Soon, Christine was back in Judge Stone's court again, but there were times those who were regulars in the court could see differences in Ms. Sullivan. Christine would at times come in wearing boots, or leather skirts, she was even spotted wearing a slightly off the shoulder blouse from time to time. But, none of this affected her work in the court. She still managed to keep Dan at bay, while renewing her friendship with Roz and Harry, along with Bull. Her relationship with Mac remained cordial, but not on the same level as the others. For the most part in court, Christine was in charge of her cases, but there were times that it seemed that Chrissy was influencing Christine. But, they were wrong. Chrissy might talk with Christine, but she kept her word. Unless it was something that she could do something about, she stayed quiet

One day, as Christine was driving to work however, she came across something that she had to stop to get involved in. It was a warm evening, and Christine was driving into work. With the destruction of the Mazda, she had gotten herself a Volvo sedan to and from work. This evening, as she was heading to the courtroom, she saw a young woman off to the side of the road. The young lady was having problems with a BMW motorcycle. She was trying to work on the bike, and this caught Christine's attention.

"Now this is a dangerous situation" Christine heard Chrissy say in her head, as the Volvo pulled over near the motorcycle. The conversation between the two of them had started off slow, but now, they were not afraid to talk to one another mentally.

"A motorcycle off the street is a bad situation" Christine replied, pulling over to see what aid she could give the owner. Christine understood that a car off the side of the road was a bad situation, but a motorcycle could be even worse.

"You talk to her, I'll look over the bike. Maybe I can make a suggestion to help her out" Chrissy suggested. Being someone who had worked on bikes over the months, Chrissy would be able to figure out what the problem was, and how to fix it, while Christine would try and keep the driver calm.

"Hi. What seems to be the problem?" Christine asked, seeing the bike off to the side, the cover to the battery off, as well as the electronics exposed for this motorcycle. It looked like a mess and it was going to take some work to get it up and running again.

"I was carefully dealing with the traffic, when all of a sudden, it stopped! No lights, no power, no nothing!" the owner snapped, upset at the situation. The bike was fairly new. Less than six months since it had come off the dealer showroom, and this was the first major problem that had occurred.

"Lets take a look at it, Maybe a fresh set of eyes can help out" Christine offered. What she suggested made sense. Sometimes, a fresh set of eyes might find a problem that someone who had been at it for a while might not. And with that, the ladies went to work on the bike, even getting themselves covered in dirt and grease.

"Found it" Chrissy called out after 10 minutes of looking. It turned out that one of the fuses has burned out and needed to be replaced. "Simple as replacing the fuse. But, you might want to take it into either the dealership or a mechanic, and have them look at the electronics. You can use a circuit breaker as a temporary fix, but you really need to take it in for a solid upgrade" the owner was told.

The owner nodded, as she fired up the BMW and took off, making a mental note to take the bike into the dealership and have them work on the electronics. Since the bike was less than a year old, it was still under warranty, which would save a great deal of money on the repairs needed.

Afterwards, Christine headed back to her Volvo to head on back to court, However, as she sat down in her car, she was SHOCKED to see the dirt and oil on her outfit! "Great. Just great. I'm too far from home to go home and get changed" she muttered to herself. "Good thing we started leaving a spare set of clothing at the courthouse" Chrissy responded. It had been rough at first, listening to Chrissy's suggestion to have a spare change of clothing at the courthouse. She had found a locker on one of the floors and had put one of her better pant outfits in there; Up till now, she had never had to use it, but it looked like this would be the first time.

By the time Christine had changed and got upstairs to the Courtroom, she was running late. "Did we have a hard time getting away from lover boy?" Dan asked, a leer on his face.

"Put a sock in it Dan" Christine replied, giving him a cold look on her face. "You need some better material to deal with Fielding" Chrissy told Christine, realizing just how much of a louse that Dan was. "We will have to come up with a plan to deal with him and soon" Christine replied.