Trin was yanked into a dark street alley between two buildings. She was slammed against the wall and then a hunting knife was placed at her throat. She frowned, not because of the attack, but because of the timing; they were holding her from chasing after her outraged girlfriend. She turned to glare at the bastards that dared to hold her up. She saw that there were six young men before her.
Trin frowned deeply at the six punks that were going to regret their actions if she had anything to say about it. The young men were all dressed in jeans and tee-shirts. They looked like they were close to her age, maybe a little older or younger, but in her age-range. They were all well cut and muscular; she also guessed that they were all armed, especially since she had a knife to her throat. What a time to leave somewhere without her sword or at the least a shuriken, she thought with a huff.
“Hey, there, you little cutie. Where’s your chink boyfriend?” one of the boys demanded to know.
“Yeah, where’s Jet Li?” another inquired.
The blonde could not figure out why she seemed to attract idiots when it came to getting into trouble. She was tempted to correct them about her “chink boyfriend” since there were several things wrong with that remark, but she doubted that they would understand even if she used small words. She was not about to waste words on guys who obviously had so little to do with themselves that they still remembered her and Shin and they had not been around for four years. Her main objective was to get to her baby.
So, she did not even give them a chance to explain themselves. She did not care what their grievances were; they needed to complain to Shin since they wanted to see him so badly. Whatever Shin did to or with them had nothing to do with her.
Kim and Shego watched Lily, a woman that seemed particularly close to Trin, leave the bar that they were in. She smiled politely at them and waved as she exited the establishment hardly a minute after Trin had left. Kim then looked at Shego.
“Are you proud of yourself?” the redhead huffed.
“What?” Shego asked in a bewildered tone. What had she done?
“You just screwed with Trin and Tatsu’s relationship,” the teen hero pointed out. How could Shego act so innocent when she had just spent almost ten minutes trying to figure out what kind of kinky sex Trin must have been having with Lily to get her to cling to the blonde with Tatsu standing right there?
“What? I was just talking about the girl,” the green-skinned female argued.
“In front of Tatsu,” Kim pointed out through clenched teeth.
“Well, Tatsu was here, so yeah.”
The adventurous hero sighed; okay, maybe her girl had not done what she did on purpose, but she still had obviously started some trouble. “Shego, you were implying that Trin screwed that girl in every freaky way that would come to your mind right in front of Tatsu. How would you like it if someone implied I screwed some girl that was clinging to me?” the redhead inquired with a hiss.
“You’d better not screw some girl and there better never be some girl clinging to you either,” the former sidekick replied.
“This is my point,” Kim stated.
“Okay, fine, but Tatsu is cool. She’s knows I was just running my mouth and even if she doesn’t, she’ll talk the mess out with Trin like they always do. Then they’ll go back to being disgustingly lovey-dovey,” the ex-thief replied.
“Shego, come on,” Kim sighed.
The pale woman felt like she won the argument, just because Kim had not retorted with anything. She honestly did not see the big deal with her words because she truly believed that Trin and Tatsu would easily make up if anything of her bored words started something. She did not really think that she started anything because she had just been going on and on with only whatever was coming to her mind. Besides, Trin was the one that was allowing that girl to latch onto her right in front of Tatsu, so if anything, Trin brought it on herself if she was in any trouble.
The couple paid the bill and was thankful that Trin had left the car key behind when she charged out. Kim hopped behind the wheel because Shego did not have a driver’s license yet and they were not looking to chance any trouble with the police to have the older woman operating the automobile. They took off down the street toward the ranch and caught up to Tatsu, who was on foot and walking like she wanted to break something with her bare hands.
“Tatsu,” Kim called and the mechanic stopped. “Sis isn’t with you?” the redhead asked curiously because she had been so sure that her sister ran after her beloved.
“No,” the mechanic answered in a huff. “Why would she be?” the blue-eyed female inquired. Her lover was too busy with her curvy brunette to think about leaving the tramp’s company or notice that she had even left the bar.
“She left right after you. We thought that she came running after you,” Kim explained. Crap, if her sister did not go chasing after Tatsu, then where the heck was she?
“Maybe she left and mousy girl caught her first,” Shego mused aloud since Lily had left almost a minute after Trin did.
“What?” Tatsu demanded to know in a voice the couple had never heard. She practically charged the mini-van for information regarding her girl.
“Tatsu, get in,” Kim sighed. It seemed that her sister was in some trouble since she was nowhere to be found and Shego had once again let her mouth get away from her by suggesting that Lily had gotten her hooks in Trin.
“No, what the hell did she just say about my girl with that damn tramp?” Tatsu growled in fury.
Shego and Kim were very shocked at how angry Tatsu seemed. She was usually such a calm and quiet person. Yeah, they had seen her violent side quite a few times, especially when Shin was around and he was trying to get to her by doing something to Trin, but they had never seen her like she was now. Tatsu had actually never felt like she did at the moment because she could not think of a time where her girl might have left somewhere with a probable ex-girlfriend.
The mechanic had never seen her girl with a possible ex-girlfriend, or just some girl that she might have fooled around with considering the short time that she stayed in Montana. She was not sure why she was so angry because she had almost no definite proof of whom or what Lily was. But, maybe she was so upset because of the way Lily had disrespected her relationship by ignoring her and attaching herself to her blonde bombshell. Maybe it was the way her girl had allowed Lily to cling to her like a life-preserver in the middle of a rough sea. Maybe it was that she did not think that Trin had tried hard enough to get that curvy girl off of her. Maybe it was the fact that it seemed like Trin was not hers when that girl was holding her. Maybe it was all of those things and now they were telling her that her girl was missing and so was Lily. Damn it, she was livid!
“Tatsu, just get in the car. Trin isn’t with that girl,” Kim promised. She did not know where her sister was, but she was certain that her sister was not with Lily. Her sister was honest and loyal, so she would not even think to cheat on Tatsu.
“How the hell would you know?” Tatsu barked.
“Hey, Tatsu, calm the hell down,” Shego ordered. She was not going to let the mechanic talk to her Kimmie any way that she felt like just because she was pissed. She needed to save that ferocity for her own girl. “Just get the hell in the damn van,” she added to the command.
The blue-eyed female frowned, but she got into the minivan anyway. She had to be rational about things, she told herself. It was not like she could search the whole town to find her blonde bombshell. She did not know the area and she did not know if her lover had favorite spots in the town or anything. She sighed as she sat down in one of the single seats in the back. She stared out of the window as Kim drove off.
“Tatsu, what are you even worrying about?” Shego inquired since the redhead swore that everything was somewhat her fault.
“Yeah, Trin would never do anything to hurt you,” Kim added, seeing where her girl was trying to go with her question. She was proud that Shego was trying to be helpful.
“That’s like a contradiction in terms to even think that. You know that freaking harpy is so in love with you that she’d leap off a building if it would make you happy,” Shego commented. She believed that too.
“A high building and you know that’s saying something with her being scared of heights and all,” Kim said.
The mechanic nodded slightly, even though her mind was not at ease in the slightest. After all, if her girl was not out with Lily and had come after her instead, where was she? She had long legs, so why had she not caught up to her or why had Kim and Shego not seen Trin before spotting her? It did not make any sense. What was the woman that affectionately called her “baby” doing?
Trin threw one last punch before making her out of the alley and back onto the street. She had left her six attackers lying unconscious on the floor. She was not entirely sure why they had attacked her, but she was willing to bet that it had something to do with Shin since they were asking about him. She was not sure what their issue with Shin was since there were several plausible reasons why they would have a problem with him; the main was that he could have one or more of them doubting their sexuality. There was a possibility that he could have slept with one or more of them and now they were confused and looking for a way to prove their manhood; she had encountered such a thing several times in her life. She did not mind Shin’s behavior falling onto her since her behavior fell onto him, but she hated that fellows felt the need to prove themselves by trying to harm her. Since when was it manly to try to injure a woman?
The blonde had not gotten away completely uninjured since all of those boys had been armed like she assumed; they had all been carrying knives. She had disarmed them as quickly as possible, but it still was not fast enough. She had been cut across the top of her arm. It was not too worrisome in her opinion, but she would require stitches. She sighed because she had not brought any of her first-aid materials with her and her shirt was ruined. She made a mental note to never travel without her first-aid kit again. She should have known better since trouble followed her better than her own shadow did.
She sighed again; to add to her troubles, Tatsu was upset with her. She wished that Tatsu would have just spoken to her about Lily instead of letting her fiery jealousy and Shego’s big mouth get the better of her. She hoped that her beloved baby would be open to talking things over. She was worried with the way Tatsu had stormed off that it might be a real problem in their relationship. Tatsu might think that she had secret girlfriends all over the country since she traveled so much, she considered and that worried her. Her baby might think that she had or was cheating on her. She had to talk to Tatsu and straighten everything out.
Trin started running up the street, hoping to catch her love, unaware that Tatsu had been picked up by her little sister. She thought that she might be able to catch Tatsu, even in her shoes, but after a while, she realized that the mechanic was long gone. She stopped running and sighed. She wanted to get to Tatsu to clear everything up as quickly as possible.
“You guys are back early,” Anne noted as the girls entered the house and walked by the den. Anne was watching her husband and her brother-in-law play chess. James, though a genius, was not a chess player.
“Yeah,” Kim replied as her mother glanced over at the trio.
“Where’s Trin?” the neurosurgeon asked curiously.
“We don’t know,” Shego informed her as if it was nothing because that was what it was to her.
“What do you mean you don’t know? She left with you,” Anne stated as if they did not know that.
“Well, yeah, but then she ran out of the place after this one got all huffy,” Shego explained while jabbing a thumb in Tatsu’s direction.
“What happened?” the redheaded doctor asked the mechanic, who only waved Anne off because she did not want to talk about it. “Well, how is Trin supposed to get here if you have the van?” Anne inquired. She could not believe that they would just leave Trin.
“Good question,” Kim muttered. They actually had not thought about that one.
“Well, she could probably get a ride with that girl,” Shego offered to cover up their little mistake. Hey, Trin was a big girl with a sharp brain; surely, she would figure out how to get to the ranch, even if that girl did not give her a ride.
“What girl?” Anne asked in a puzzled tone. She was unaware that Trin knew people in Montana.
“Some girl that she knew,” Shego answered with a shrug.
“But, who was this girl? You all just left her out there, assuming that she would get a ride?” Anne asked in sheer disbelief.
“Mom, calm down,” Kim said, knowing that her mother easily panicked when it came to Trin being left on her own.
“Where’s my phone?” the surgeon said as she moved a couple of items and grabbed her cell. She quickly called up her missing daughter, hoping that everything was all right since Trin got into messes so easily. “Trin? Trin, sweetie, where are you?” the worried mother asked.
“I’m walking through town,” Trin replied calmly. She still had hopes of running into Tatsu, which was why she had not bothered to return to the bar and thus had not discovered that she had been abandoned in town.
“Hold on, I’m going to come pick you, all right?” Anne said.
“All right,” the blonde agreed because she knew how much her mother worried about her when she was one her own and then a realization hit her. Her mother must have known that she was alone. “Mom, why’d you ring me?” she asked curiously.
“Because Kimmie, Shego, and Tatsu came in and you weren’t with them,” the doctor replied.
“They’re at the ranch?” Trin could not believe that her own sister had just left her.
“Yes. Now, what street are you on?” Anne inquired.
Trin informed her mother where she was and Anne was ready to run off of the ranch to go pick her up; she did not want to chance something awful happening to her daughter. James and Slim stopped her, volunteering to go instead. She did not argue and turned her attention to the trio that had left Trin, all of them well aware of what typically happened to Trin whenever she was alone. It was quite possible that the blonde’s luck was just cursed with all of the trouble that she got into.
“Why would you just leave her in town miles from here in the dark?” Anne asked the younger women.
“Please, I pity whoever runs into her in the dark on her way here,” Shego remarked and she meant that. She had fought Trin enough times to know that the only way to probably stop her was bullet and the bullet had better hit the target the first time or the person would only piss her off.
“She makes a point, Mom,” Kim concurred. “I mean, Trin can take care of herself pretty well now.”
“I know, but I always remember when she was so little and…” Anne trailed off and sighed. She remembered how badly people used to hurt her child for no reason at all and she always thought about that when Trin was alone.
“She’s not so little anymore, Mom, and she’s probably the most dangerous thing in the state right now. Sorry that we left her, though. We thought that she was either with Tatsu or that girl that she knew,” Kim explained.
Tatsu frowned; she was sick of hearing about that girl, so she stormed off. Anne watched with a puzzled expression on her visage. Kim and Shego decided to explain what happened in order to catch the doctor up on the situation. Anne sighed at the end of the tale and decided to go talk to Tatsu, hoping to calm her down to make things easier on Trin when she came in.
Tatsu parked herself in another little den; she was there because she knew that when Trin came in, she would head right for the room. She did not feel like seeing Trin at the moment. She just wanted to be upset, but she was not going to get that chance for long it seemed. Anne joined her and sat down across from her.
“Tatsu,” Anne said, but she did not get a response. “You can’t just sit here and fume over the fact that Trin might have run into an old girlfriend. The girl might have just been an old friend,” the older female pointed out.
“She wasn’t,” Tatsu huffed. The girl was an old flame; it was obvious. Besides, Trin did not have any friends, so she could not run into “an old friend.”
“And even if she wasn’t, why are you so upset? You know Trin is with you now,” Anne stated calmly, not allowing the mechanic’s attitude get to her.
“Do I?” Tatsu countered. The woman that she thought was hers might have actually been several women’s and she would be none the wiser.
“Is that it? You’re scared that she isn’t yours? You do know that she loves deeply. You’re the only person in her life that isn’t family. You’re the only girl that she ever brought home. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?” the redhead asked.
“Should it?” Tatsu snorted. Of course it did mean something, but she was angry right now and she wanted to stay that. She continued to nurse the thought that Trin might be other women’s girlfriend too because it kept her vexed.
“Do you really want to do this to yourself? Do you want to hurt yourself like this and make yourself believe that the woman you love doesn’t feel the same? Do you want to make yourself believe that you don’t mean as much to her as you know you do?”
“No,” Tatsu admitted in a mumble. She knew that Trin loved her like no other person had or would more than likely. But, she was still so angry. She was furious because someone seemed to challenge her love and tried to steal her love. Trin was hers and no one was supposed to try to take Trin from her.
“Then what’s the problem?” Anne asked. She was glad that she had at least talked Tatsu out of thinking that Trin might be cheating on her; that thought was just ludicrous.
“The girl…she was prettier than I am and she was touching Trin and Trin didn’t stop her,” the mechanic confessed in a sorrowful tone. Lily was much prettier than she was and Lily had a better body than she did. Why would someone want her if she could have Lily?
“Tatsu, I’m not even going to address that the girl was prettier than you because you’re just depressed. You know that you’re pretty and you know that Trin would never think someone is prettier than you. As far as you saying ‘Trin didn’t stop her’ do you mean that she didn’t hit this girl?” the older woman asked curiously.
“Well, she didn’t,” Tatsu said. Her girl usually threw people hard to the ground for touching her at the very least, but not that Lily girl. She had been almost gentle with Lily; she did not even yell at Lily to cease touching her.
“Maybe she didn’t want to hurt the girl’s feeling. Isn’t she allowed to be kind every now and then? She can’t hate or hurt everyone, right?”
“She should’ve kept that girl off of her,” the ebony-haired female argued.
“So, you’re going to punish her for not hitting this girl?” Anne asked, hoping that it sounded ridiculous to her ears.
Tatsu did not respond. She would not say that she was going to punish Trin for what happened that night. But, she did want to be upset over it and Anne was making that tough for her by reminding her that her blonde bombshell loved her like no other. She seemed to be acting foolish, but she still decided to be upset. She just wanted to be vexed.
“What happened to you, Shorty?” Slim asked Trin as she got into the minivan.
“Just one of those nights, Uncle Slim,” Trin replied with a tired sigh as she took a seat and they took off back to the house.
“Are you sure you’re all right, Trin?” James asked because he noticed the cut on her arm. She seemed all right and he figured that once he got her to the house, everything would be fine.
“Pride hurts a bit, but I’m physically fine,” the blonde answered her father.
“Pride? Oh,” James said because he thought that Trin felt bad that she had been left behind by the others.
Trin did not explain herself; her pride was aching thanks to the fact that her girlfriend was furious with her. When they arrived at the ranch, she got her mother to stitch up her wound. She got rid of her ruined shirt and put on a new one. Anne then pointed her in the direction of her angry girlfriend. Trin sighed and hoped for the best as she walked toward the den. She was a bit nervous as to how things were going to go.
Next time: Trin and Tatsu talk and Joss finds out a secret, not to mention Kim and Shego have a little lovers’ quarrel. Man, it’s going to be a busy chapter.