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A high rise apartment complex in Mid-Town Parodipolis.

The art deco styled doors of the elevator open onto a typical look apartment floor. The floor's decor seems to be stuck somewhere between the late 1980's & the early 1990's. Inside the elevator is only one person. As she exits the elevator, she gives a quick glance back to make sure she's not caught in the doors (That happens at least once a month). She's not caught, so she turns right & walks down the hallway.

She dressed as she normally is: navy blue Chuck Taylor All-Star high tops, argyle socks on her feet. Her pants are a well worn, ripped & torn pair of blue jeans. She wore a greying black Hoodie. It's not zipped up & one could see her black t-shirt that read "Waffles United". Slung over her right shoulder is a olive drag colored messenger bag. On her wrists were a few too many bracelets & a couple of wrist bands. On her left wrist is an old calculator watch. A few of her fingers had some rings on them, On her right ring finger is silver Waffle ring. Her black nail polish was cracked & chipped in places. She had short sandy blond which was pulled back & into two small ponytails, one on each side of the back of her head. She had somewhat pale skin & was also wearing a pair of black plastic glasses.

As she walked down the hallway she was reading a comic book.

"After all these years you still can't draw feet can you, Rob?"

She reaches the corner, looks up for a moment & then turns left. Catherine was almost home. She looks up once more as she is about to past an apartment a few doors down from her own. It's been basically vacant for a few years. She's surprised that it hasn't be sold to some other person but according to her landlord the rent is paid every month so the apartment remains empty. It use to be & kind of still is the home of Misters' Ronald Arnold Gerrimoto Beeslyhuxtoy & Chadwick L. Swiss.

As she approaches that apartment her left eyebrow raises in puzzlement. Chad & Ronnie's door is open. She can hear someone inside the apartment. As far as she knows there are 5 people with the keys that apartment: The Building's Landlord, Her, Jane Tarzania, Chad & Ronnie. She saw her landlord as she entered the building, Jane hasn't been in the apartment in the apartment in at least a year.

Catherine pauses a few steeps from the doorway she took off her glasses. She put them & her comic book back in her bag. She then pulls a small silver plastic device out of a side pocket in her bag. She creeps slowly to the door & then inside the apartment. She presses a small button on her device & a green light on top of it lights up. As She entered the apartment, she had the device at the ready.

As she slowly moves around the apartment she can now tell that there are two people in the apartment. They are both in the back part of the apartment where the bedrooms are. She looks around the main living area & nothing seems out of place. It doesn't look like a robbery but did sound like they were looking for something. Were these people with Clive Hudgens?

"Hey!" Catherine called out.

This cause some discussion & commotion in the back bedroom. Catherine did motion that some one was about to poke their head out to see who she was. She sure hoped it wasn't one of Hudgens' goons. She's found that some of them can be quite large & menacing.

The head that poked it's out form the back bedroom had messy, dark brown hair & a pair of black horned rimmed glasses which were slight askew. It took Catherine a moment to recognized him.

"CHAD!" she yelled.

He smiled & then came out of the bedroom. He was still wearing the same thing he had the last she had seen him years ago. His navy blue canvas Chuck Taylor All-Star tennis shoes & on his feet were a pair of argyle socks. His wore a well-worn, ripped in places, pair of blue jeans. His unbuttoned red & black flannel shirt with his dark grey 1998 Inflatable Monkey tour t-shirt. The t-shirt with the ever present big, pink monkey shaped balloon animal on it. On his back something new: an Accordion. It wasn't that the accordion was new, Chad always carried his accordion on his back. It's just that Catherine hadn't seen this one before.

The two of them hugged as they meet in the middle of the apartment. Catherine wasn't sure how long the hug last be she didn't care. The hug was broken when the other person from the bedroom walked out.

"Chad…" He started to say. He paused for a moment & said. "oh… It's you."

"yeah. It's me." She said.

She & Ronnie have never really had all that great of a relationship. She did noticed that unlike Chad, Ronnie had changed his clothes in the past few years. He still had his bright neon yellow knee length trench coat. What was under it was new. A dirty pair of yellow Chuck Taylor All-Star tennis shoes. On his feet red & yellow striped knit socks. Moving up his body, he wore high water burgundy red tweed slacks with a black plastic belt. His belt buckle proudly told anyone who read it that Virginia is for Lovers! Partially obscuring anyone's view of the belt buckle is his mustard yellow/sangria red striped knit sweater vest. Under the vest is a mustard yellow dress shirt & his tilted to the left a bit fire engine red bow tie. He even had a different hairstyle, his maroon colored red hair is done up in what looks like a messy attempt at a pompadour. He also had on a pair of glasses but they were the kind that would would get at movie theaters if you were going to see a 3-D movie.

"What's that?" Ronnie said making mention of the device in her hand.

"oh. It's a Sonic Screwdriver." Catherine said as he pressed the button on the device turning off the little green light.

There wasn't any recognition of what that was from Ronnie. There was a sign of recognition from Chad & he smiled.

Catherine gave a small sigh & then said. "It's from the TV show Doctor Who. It's the Doctor's device of choice."

"So… it's a weapon or something?"

"Sort of. Not really."

"What were you planning on doing with it?"

"The Doctor has defeated many a fearsome foe with this little device & I thought that if it's works with The Daleks it could work with a few humans." Catherine said with a smile.

"ok." Ronnie said not really caring.

He then asked. "Do you know why our fridge is empty?"

"yes. I emptied it."

"Why? There was some good stuff in there."

"After a few months of you two being gone I went through your kitchen. I throw out all the stuff that was about to or had gone bad."

"ok. Thanks. But why didn't you restock the fridge?"

"I wasn't sure when you two were coming back so I didn't want to waste the money."

Chad nodded in agreement.

"And why is it so dusty in here?" Ronnie asked.

"You have been gone for three years & no one really has been in awhile. Last time I was in here was late last year."

"ok. I guess that makes sense. You could have dusted."

"I could have but it would have been a waste of my time."

"It would have been nice." Ronnie said as started to walk around the apartment a bit.

"So…. where have you two been?"

"Out." came Ronnie's reply. After a small pause, He then followed that up with "And about."

Catherine knew that was all she was going to get out of him regarding the last 3 years. Ronnie continued to look around & wander around.

"I'm fine in case your wondering." Catherine said, she knew he wasn't.

"oh.. ok. that's… good. Anything interesting happen while me & Chad were gone?"

"No. Nothing really." Catherine said thinking over the last few years. "Oh! There was one thing. The Universe tried to erase me last year."

"Really?" Ronnie stopped his walk around the apartment to say. He seemed a bit shocked.

As he continued on his walk, he said. "It took them that long to do so. Thought they would have done it earlier."

"yeah." Catherine said. "I was going to be replaced."

"hmmm… Me & Chad have been there, haven't we?"

Chad nodded in agreement.

"In '85 was the first attempt, wasn't it?"

Chad nodded once more.

"Got to meet my replacement. Or at least see her. She was a bit more… " Catherine paused to search for the right word. "Sluttier then I am."

"Shame we didn't get to meet her. She might of been fun."

There was a few moments of awkward silence as Chad & Catherine just stood there as Ronnie wondered around the apartment. To Catherine it almost looked like he was checking to see if anything was missing.

Catherine broke the silence by asking. "Ronnie, do you know a Clive Hudgens?"

Ronnie stopped in his tracks & then asked. "Why?"

"It's just that shortly after you & Chad's disappearance that he showed up looking for you, just you. He didn't seem to even know that Chad was your friend or even existed."

Catherine gave a brief glance over at Chad & saw that he was frowning.

"Hudgens claimed to work for a Beeslyhuxtoy family."

"That's a highly common name. He could be working for any Beeslyhuxtoy family." Ronnie said nervously.

"Not really. My last name of Gillespie & Chad's last name of Swiss are far more common then your last name, Ronnie."

"Maybe not around here. Where I'm from it's quite common."

"Where are you from?" Catherine asked. She really didn't know.

"What did he want?" Ronnie asked changing the topic.

"He said he was here to take you home."

"Did he say why?"

"Just that you had gone missing & that your parents are worried about you."

"Hmmm…" was Ronnie's only reply. There was a hint of smile on his face.

Catherine looked over at Chad & his frown had gone away. He looked frightened for some reason.

Catherine had little to no information of the pasts of either of them. They just never really talked about it. She would get little glimpses into their pasts. Mostly from references to things that they've done. Many of those events seem to either contract each other or don't seem to be possible to have been done by them given their ages. Catherine isn't exactly sure how old Chad or Ronnie are. She's assumed that they were in either there lat 20's or Early 30's with Ronnie being the older of the two. Hudgens appearance three years ago gave the most information on Ronnie's past but Hudgens wasn't exactly forthcoming with information. He much like Ronnie would drop hints of past events from time to time.

"Where is he now?" Ronnie asked.

"who?" she asked.

"Hudgens!"

"I think so. I haven't sen him in months. He or one of his goons use to come by my apartment every week to ask about you. Then it went to twice a month then once a month then once every couple of months. I guess he just moved on with his search."

Ronnie listened intently as she spoke. He nodded every so often as she did.

"They once even took at look Little Cat hoping to gain some insight."

"What?"

"Yeah. They wanted to know about your pet. His diet, personality, if he had any person quirks."

"How is he?" Ronnie asked.

"Fine, I guess. Not sure he's ever really gotten over you leaving him with me."

"I know. But it was the best thing for him. We didn't want him getting hurt." Ronnie said with some sadness to his voice.

"I could go get him."

Chad stopped looking so worried & smiled.

"Sure."

Catherine left the apartment to go down the hallway to her own to get the little fuzzball. Just as she was outside the apartment in the hallway, Ronnie started to talk to Chad about something, was now to far away to make out any of it.

A few minutes she came back with Little Cat, He was curled up in the corner of his cage. She placed the cage down on the coffee table & said. "Hey! You've got some visitors."

This caused Little Cat to uncurl a bit & lifted his little head to look up at who was there. His tiny little eyes got real big. Then in most action then she had seen him do in awhile he scurried over to the other corner of the cage. The corner closest to Chad & Ronnie. Little Cat then pressed himself up against the metal bars of the cage. She almost thought he was going either to press himself through them to get to Chad & Ronnie or break down the bars to get to them.

Chad walked over & open the cage, he reached his left hand in the cage to pick up Little Cat. But he was to quick for Chad, the little fuzzball ran over to chad's hand & ran up his arm. From there he took his rightful place on Chad's shoulder & then curled back up. He was also making a small cooing sound as he laid there.

"He looks happy." Catherine said with a smile.

"Thanks for taking care of him." Ronnie said.

"No problem." she said.

There was another few moments of silence which Catherine broke "You seen Jane since you've come back?"

"no. We came her first." Ronnie said. "How is she?"

"fine." Catherine said. Then she looked at her watch. "She's most likely still at work, you could go see her."

"sure. Let's go do that."

The four of them then left the apartment. Once they were down the hallway, The door across from it closed. It had only been opened slightly. Nothing that anyone would have noticed unless you were looking directly at the door.

The sole occupant of the apartment walked over his phone to make a phone call.

"Hello." He said once the call was picked up on the other end.

"Tell Mister Hudgens that they are back. Beeslyhuxtoy, Swiss, the girl & the hamster are all going to meet up with the ex-girlfriend."

He then hung up.

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TO BE CONTINUED…

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Footnotes

- This story takes place shortly after the story entitled Interrogation.

- Ronnie's current attire was first seen in the story entitled The Cornfield, it is not sure how long he has had it before then.

- The first appearance of Clive Hudgens & the first reference to the disappearance of Chad & Ronnie was in the prologue to Chad & Ronnie: Fugitives. That story has been left unfinished for the last 3 years. A conclusion to that story is forth coming.

- The Universe did try to erase/replace Catherine in a story from last year The Adventures of Old Catherine & she met her replacement in part 3 of that story. Her replacement still exists.

- The fact that Little Cat was left Catherine was first mentioned in part 1 of Chad & Ronnie: Fugitives.