The Knight is Still Young

Chapter 41

The next morning Ashley woke up a little late, having been so tired from yesterday, she sat up, yawned and stretched before looking around and realising that she wasn't in her room at the Rider's house.  She frowned for a moment, where....?  It suddenly dawned on her as the memories from the day before rushed back to her.  She was home.  A grin spread a cross her face as she pulled the blanket and duvet back before jumping out of bed and racing down the hall into her father's room.

When she got there she didn't bother to knock on the door before pushing it open, running in and jumping on the bed! She laughed as she landed beside him, jolting him awake.

'Morning daddy!' She grinned happily.

'Good morning Ashley.'  He turned his head to smile at her sleepily.  'I'm glad to see you're not upset with me.'

'Who said I wasn't?'  She arched a brow at her father.

'Well no one, but I think you will now...!'  He turned over completely and began to tickle her.  She squealed and tried to wriggle away from him, but to no avail as he sat up and pinned her down so he could continue his tickle torture. 'Surrender and say you still love me!'

'Never!' She giggled and tried to tickle him back. 'You surrender and admit I have every right to still be angry!'

'No!' He grinned and they rolled around on the bed until Ash let out a shriek as she nearly fell off the bed! Michael gasped and quickly grabbed her ankle while her upper body hung off the side of the bed, stopping her from hitting the carpeted floor face first. The young girl's squeals alerted her mother and the mechanic walked into the room, gasping when she saw her boyfriends daughter hanging upside down off his bed, giggling loudly.

'Ashley what on earth are you doing? You're going to get hurt!' She exclaimed, but Ash merely grinned up at her happily.

'No I won't! Oh and good morning Bonnie.'

Bonnie felt her smile droop ever so slightly, after the previous day part of her had hoped that the girl would continue to call her mum, but it seemed the rational part of her mind had won, it had only been for one night when the little girl was tired and upset that she had called her that. So now it was back to just Bonnie. Still she tried to keep smiling and pretending that she was fine.

'Good morning to you too. Well shouldn't you two be getting up? My son's birthday is in a couple of days and I want to do something nice for him, so get up and come help me.' She helped Ash back up onto the bed so she didn't fall and hit her head on the floor, then grabbed Michael and began dragging him over to the bathroom so he could have a shower.

Not wanting to hang around being bored Ashley went downstairs where she hoped to find something to do or someone to talk to. Upon finding no one she went to the garage and smiled as she saw both KITT and KARR parked there with Amber sleeping inside car with a fluffy orange puppy on the other seat. Ash couldn't help but smile, they just looked so cute and knowing that they were no doubt all exhausted she went back into the house and decided to get dressed before going and turning the TV on so she could watch cartoons.

However she was eventually interrupted as she heard a muffled yawn and she turned the TV off and went to see that her "sister" was now awake and hungry.

'Hi Hailey.' Ash smiled and went over to the other, hugging her. 'I'm sorry I didn't get to see you when you got here last night, Bonnie made me go to bed.'

'Who's Bonnie?' Hailey asked confused as she tried to stifle another yawn.

'My dad's girlfriend.'

'Your dad? As in your real dad?'

'Yep. I guess it's ok to tell you guys now, Michael is my real dad, my real name is Ashley Victoria Knight.' She explained then grabbed the other girl's hand and began walking down the stairs. 'Now come on, let's go and see if we can find something to eat.'  Hailey nodded and the two headed to the kitchen.

Upon arriving they discovered Bonnie already there making breakfast for all of them. Ashley smiled and went over to hug the woman, but as she did so a small frown appeared in her face.

'What's wrong?' Bonnie asked, noticing her expression.

'Nothing's wrong, but earlier you said your son's birthday is coming up, I don't get it. Who's birthday is it?'

'Well KITT's of course.' She smiled and Ashley's face light up as she understood.

'Really? It's KITT's birthday? When?'

'Not long away now, just a few days, and I want to give him a nice birthday this year.'

'Oh can we help?'  The young girl asked excitedly, glancing at her "sister" who flashed her a smile, feeling unsure about the car having a birthday party. It seemed so odd to her.  However she would soon learn just how much KITT was part of the family and that was far more than a car.

'Of course you can help!  Everyone will be helping in some way or another.'  Bonnie smiled.

It turns out that it wasn't only Bonnie who had been thinking about KITT's birthday, outside in the garage KARR sighed quietly to himself, he knew his little brother's birthday was fast approaching. He considered what he would do for him on that day, and if he could get him something. He would need to talk to mother later, when KITT wasn't near. He made notes of the weather amongst other things.

He too wanted KITT's birthday to be a fun event, believing his little brother deserved to have a day just for him that he could spend with his friends.  The only problem was he had never done anything for a birthday, or at least not one for his brother, and wasn't sure what the other car would like. He knew that asking the other car would potentially ruin the aspect of surprise if he went about it the wrong way or if KITT realised why he was asking, which wasn't something KARR wanted. He thought his brother would like a surprise of some sort and didn't want to put that in jeopardy by putting his "tyre in his mouth", so to speak, when asking him what he would like.

So what to do?  He didn't have long to think about it, KITT's birthday was in just a few days and he had no idea what to give him.  Perhaps Bonnie would know, she had spent a lot more time with the other car than he had and from what he had seen the two were very close.  Asking Michael was also an option, or maybe Ashley.  They should have a meeting soon to discuss these kinds of things so they could organise the party and give KITT the birthday he deserved.

The younger car, however, wasn't thinking about his upcoming birthday.  In fact it was the last thing in his processor right now.  Instead he was thinking about how he was going to tell Michael and Bonnie that there was a chance he could get the same deadly virus that KARR had.  It would crush them to know that he could end up in the same shape as his brother, but they had to know in case it did happen.  Though he really hoped it didn't.  That would be the greatest birthday present he could have, KARR being well again and not getting the virus himself.

-/-/-

Hey guys I'm back!  I'm sorry that I haven't updated this in such a long time but to be honest I've just run out of inspiration for this book.  So I'm warning you that I might start rushing through it a bit just so that I can finish it for you guys then maybe I'll come back at a later date and fix it up.  I know that's not great but I'm just not feeling this anymore.  If any of you have any ideas or suggestions that could help me get back into this story then I would greatly appreciate your help and support.  Thank you all for reading this!

~ Lexa