A Few Days of Peace – Part V
The child staring at Kim and Ron over the headrest of the high-backed First Class seat could have been anywhere from five to eight years old. Kim couldn't tell from just her small, cherubic face. She just stared at the two young adults, paying particular attention to their clasped hands. After a few minutes she could hear adult voices telling the little girl to get down and stop bothering the other passengers.
Leaving the island was proving to be bittersweet. It meant the end to their few days of perfect peace. It meant going back to the real world. Then again, it meant beginning their real life together. Marriage wasn't just about the honeymoon, it was about everything and both of them were eager to begin. Ron had his new job, Kim would soon start Graduate School and Team Possible would have its share of freaks and/or the crisis of the week to deal with. Except now they would do all of that, not just as a team, not just as partners, but as husband and wife.
Spankin!
"Mommy, Kim Possible is sitting behind us and she's holding hands with a man." They heard the child say.
"I'm sure she is, dear, now please leave the nice people alone to enjoy their flight."
"But Mommy, it is her, and she's holding hands with the Naco man!"
Kim looked at Ron, who was actually beaming. Of course he might have been even happier if he was recognized as her sidekick and partner, but at least he was finally being recognized, at least for the series of commercials Bueno Nacho had done with him after he accepted their job offer.
"Libby, I'm sure they just look like them. The real Kim Possible wouldn't be on a commercial flight. Now I'm sure the nice people spent an awful lot of money for First Class, so please don't bother them."
Kim couldn't help but smile. She wasn't about to call in a favor just for a flight home from her honeymoon. In fact, they stood in line with the rest of the passengers, went through security and everything. It wasn't until they were about to board the flight when a man in a rather nice suit with an airline ID badge came up to them and gave them an upgrade for First Class. "Miss Possible, er Mrs. Stoppable, it's the least we could do after you saved that jumbo jet."
"It's no big, anyone could have shimmied down into that landing strut and extended it manually."
About that time the father's curiosity had gotten the better of him and he turned around to look at them, his eyes getting big as saucers as he looked at the smiling couple. "Uh, Rachel, I think you ought to turn around and look."
The child's mother finally stood up to look at them, her mouth dropping open as Kim waved slightly with her free hand. "Oh, Miss Possible, I'm so sorry if Libby disturbed you."
"It's no big, we're used to it." She beamed, holding their clasped hands up slightly "This is my husband, Ron."
"Hi." He said, mimicking Kim's wave.
"See, Mommy, I told you." The girl favored her mother with a smug look.
"Your husband? You're married?" The woman looked slightly confused. "I thought you were just a teenager."
Kim raised an eyebrow, recalling Ron's comments from a couple days ago about how she still looked the same. "Actually, we just graduated from college a couple months ago and we just got married on Independence Day."
"Mommy says that people who just got married don't want to leave their rooms when they go on vacation. I think that's silly, why go to the beach and stay indoors all day long. When I get married I'm going to go on a big vacation and play on the beach and ride stuff at the park and have fun all day long." Libby ticked off a list as if she had the whole thing planned out ahead of time. "But I can do all that anyway, so I don't have to get married at all."
"Are boys a little icky?" Ron asked her.
"Uh huh. They just want to play in the dirt and make fun of girl stuff."
Kim watched the banter between the little girl and Ron. Her parents just rolled their eyes as Libby prattled on, launching into how great it was to eat at Bueno Nacho and how she still had the Lil Diablo toy she had gotten as a baby (it was the free 'replacement' for the Hephaestus laden version.)
Basically, Libby latched onto the two of them for the duration of the flight. Oddly enough, that didn't seem to bother either of them.
Kim just kept thinking how wonderful it would be to have a little girl of her own.
"Ron, can you come in here?"
Kim sat on the bathroom counter, staring at a tiny white object in the palm of her hand. Ron was out in the room, packing the last of their bags before the shuttle took them to the airport.
"Sure thing, KP, what's up?"
"We need to talk."
His face fell so quickly she thought he had been slapped. It was then she realized just exactly what she had said. "No, no Ron, I didn't mean it like that, I mean we need to talk about something important. Ron…" he still looked deeply shaken from her poor choice of words, "…Ron, I'm sorry, Okay? I won't ever say that again, I promise." She hopped off the counter, kissing him tenderly, wrapping her hands around his waist, though she was careful not to drop what she was holding in her right hand.
That seemed to help him a bit. Quite a bit judging from his reaction.
Kim hopped back up on the counter and held out her hand, displaying the white tablet she was holding.
"Is that what I think it is?" he asked trepiditiously. Kim simply nodded.
"Ron, I want kids. I think you do too, but the reason we need to talk is because we really haven't ever talked about this, not seriously, not just the two of us. I know we talked with Pastor Grayson and Rabbi Katz about this, but that was more about how we should make a decision, not the decision itself. I just need to know what you want."
"KP, I want what you want."
"Ron, that's so sweet, but it's not an answer. I was sitting in here just now, about to take this when I got this urge just to throw it in the sink and wash it down. I…I was about to do just that when I realized how ferociously selfish that would be, so, that's why we needed this talk."
"KP, Kim…I want kids too, it's just, I don't know. I kind of wanted you to myself, at least for a little while. In know that's really selfish, but I wanted to wait a little while, maybe till you're finished with your Masters." He gave her a forlorn look. "If you're ready, though, then so am I."
She looked into his eyes. That look, that lost look in his eyes had all the power of her "puppy dog pout." She couldn't refuse him anything when he did that. But that wasn't the reason she came to the decision she did. It was what he said and it made perfect sense to her.
Picking up a glass of water, she popped the pill into her mouth and washed it down.
"Kim? I thought…"
"Ron, I can be about what you want as much as you can be about what I want. It's not selfish for you to want some time to be just with me. A baby would change things and we've just now started our life together. You're right, we need to get used to that phase of our life before we run smack into the next." She hopped off the counter and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Besides, I'm not quite ready to learn how to be quiet." She whispered as she pulled him down to her. Then she led him back into the bedroom to show him how loud she could be.
Their bed in their old apartment was somewhat smaller than the one in their honeymoon suite, but it suited them much better it seemed. It was a "California Queen" size, just a tad longer than normal so Ron's feet wouldn't stick out. They had a King Size on order for their new home but they would have to wait for it. There was no way in the world they were going to fit a bed that size into the small bedroom, at least if they wanted any other furniture in there as well.
Ron lay on the bed, propped up with their multitude of pillows, casually flipping through TV channels with his remote. Kim closed the door of the bathroom shaking her head. There would be a TV in the den and in their multi-media room, but in their new bedroom…she had put her foot down. There wasn't going to be a TV, there wasn't going to be a radio. There wasn't even going to be a phone. It was going to be a refuge, a place that was for them and just for them, not for the rest of the world.
A lot of their stuff was already boxed up for the move. In a week the townhouse would be ready. It was going to be the perfect starter home, with plenty of room to raise two small children once they were ready, or in case of a happy accident. It would be nice to be out of the tiny place. At the time it was all they could afford. Now they were college graduates, Ron had a real job, they were both twenty-one (on the verge of turning twenty-two) and they were finally married. All the conditions had been met and Ron's trust was now his. They would still have a mortgage, on the insistence of their accountant (something to do with not having to tie up your own money in assets – or at least that's what Burn Berman tried explaining to them!) but they finally could afford a real home. It wasn't as big or nice as the custom designed home Kim had grown up in, but that would come. Until then, it would be home.
Kim pulled the towel off her head, patting the last of the moisture from her hair before brushing it out. Normally she didn't mind getting ready for bed right in front of Ron, but tonight, their first night home in their home (even if it was only for a week) she had a surprise for him. She hoped he liked it, if it didn't shock him too much. It was a bit…kinky. Just a bit.
She took a small box she had hidden in the towel cabinet out and pulled off the lid. She hadn't worn these for over four years now, but she was certain they would still fit. After all, she had only grown an inch in the last seven years and she still wore the same dress size. She slipped them on, feeling like she was shedding years off of her, like she was just a giddy teenager again. There was a pair of red socks in the box too, but she thought, considering the circumstances, she could forego the footwear.
Two more items in the box completed the ensemble. With a deep breath she opened the bathroom door and sprang out. "GIMME AN R! GIMME AN O! GIMME AN N!" She cart wheeled out into the bedroom, landing in a perfect split, her old yellow pom poms held high.
Ron sat on the bed, his jaw in his lap. The remote fell from his senseless fingers. Slowly his mouth began to work.
"That…is…so…wrong." He said, his mouth pulling first into a grin, then into a wicked grin. "So, Kimberly Anne Possible Stoppable! You want to be a bad girl?" he launched into his best Zorpox voice as he dove for one of the boxes stacked in the corner. He came up with a small metal cap and a dark red cape.
She crawled up on the bed, seductively picking up the hem of her Middleton High School cheerleader skirt. "Come on, Zorpox, let's just see how bad we can be."
FIN