Title: Drifting Apart, OR What are Little Kids Made Of?

Story summary: In a possible aftermath of 'Growing Older, Growing Together,' another former Middleton High cheerleader confronts some of her past decisions.

Disclaimer: Kim Possible (or Stoppable), Ron Stoppable, Bonnie Rockwaller, and the characters and events of the Kim Possible television series alluded to in this fiction are all the property of Disney, and are used without intent or expectation of profit solely for personal enjoyment. The debts I owe other fanfiction authors are indicated in my author's note after the end of the story.

~*~*KP*~*~

Drifting Apart, OR What are Little Kids Made Of?

by Slipgate

On a quiet suburban street, a little boy was running, hopping over sidewalk cracks and skipping from sidewalk to lawn and back. He'd left his mother lagging behind him a while ago but he knew where he was going and that mommy would catch up with him there.

Suddenly the little boy saw a blond-haired man he was sure he recognized. The man was strolling up the walk to a house, carrying a Golden Labrador on a leash. The only really unfamiliar aspect as the boy got closer was a pair of wire-rimmed glasses on the man's eyes. "Hi, mister!" he sang out as he reached the yard just as the man reached the doorway.

The blond-haired man, who had snagged the end of the leash across one wrist while he used his hands to check the mailbox, looked up at the unexpected call.

"Whatcha doing, mister?" the boy said once he saw he had the man's attention.

"Hi, little guy. I was asked by a friend to walk their dog and check their mail for them while they were out of town. But didn't your parents tell you not to talk to strangers?"

"Of course my parents told me that, silly!" the boy replied with a huge grin, rubbing a tiny itch on his brown hair as he stood there. Ron Stoppable couldn't help but smile. There isn't an evil bone in this kid's body, he thought.

"Well then?" Ron asked, indicating himself with a sweep of his free hand.

"But you're not a stranger to me!"

"I'm not?" Ron asked, both enjoying the game and puzzled as to who the boy was if he knew him.

"You're Ron Stoppable! You and that pretty red-haired lady were on TV last night!" the boy proclaimed, seeming proud of his special knowledge.

"You saw me on TV last night?" Ron asked. A moment's thought and he realized what show he must have watched. "Did your parents know you were up late?" he questioned.

"It was ok with mommy!" the boy insisted. "She told me 'it's okay this one time, sweetie' and she stayed up and watched with me!"

"Did she? Well that's okay I guess. But even if you know me from TV, you still don't know me as well as you know mommy or your brothers or sisters or your friends, right?" Ron asked reasonably.

"No, not yet." the boy admitted.

"Then I'm still a stranger. You should be careful about strangers, even if you see them from TV, okay little guy?"

"Won't you ask my name?"

"Well, I wouldn't mind knowing instead of calling you little guy, but you really shouldn't tell strangers your name either."

Ron feared this would be something of a circular conversation, but he couldn't help but take a lot of amusement and innocent pleasure in the chat with the little boy. He looked forward to when he could have chats like this with his own kids.

Thinking of Kim and he having kids to talk to and play with brought a big smile to his face. He certainly wouldn't mind 'getting there' either. But the thought brought a concern he'd been beating around on the back of his mind back to the forefront. "Is your mommy or daddy anywhere nearby?" he asked, hoping the answer was yes.

"I ran ahead of my mommy about three blocks back. We're headed home but I know the way already!" the boy boasted proudly.

Ron frowned. "That's still very dangerous. We're going to wait right here for your mommy to catch up, and then you're going to walk the rest of the way with her, okay?"

"Okay…" the child whined. He was just so eager to keep running around. And also, Ron muttered under his breath, she'll see me doing nothing instead of assuming I'm an ax murderer.

~*~*KP*~*~

Ron scanned the neighborhood around him, making sure to keep a grip on the leash and to put the mail he'd been looking at back in the mailbox for a moment to have a free hand. Gradually he saw a tall brown-haired woman come around the bend at an intersection, hidden briefly by a large oak tree.

He couldn't see a lot of facial details from here but he thought he saw relief on the woman's face as she saw her boy, and then she ran to him. "Come here, Billy!" she called out, and Ron was perfectly happy with the momentary glance of suspicion thrown his direction as she came closer. Yes, please be hesitant about the guy you don't know so that your boy learns to be the same way, Ron thought. However, as the woman got closer, he couldn't help but recognize… "Bonnie?" he blurted out.

Bonnie was just about to lay into her son about not talking to strangers when she caught the name and tone of familiarity and her head shot up. "Ron?" she breathed. "Why are you talking to my son, Ron?"

Before Ron could answer, Bonnie's face refocused on her boy. She cradled him in her arms and pleaded, "What have I told you, Billy?"

"Always say please and thank you?" he offered with that grin of innocence.

"No! Not to talk to strangers!" Bonnie cried out.

"But he wasn't a stranger mommy!"

Ron couldn't help but notice something Billy had said. "You taught your kid to always say please and thank you, Bonnie?"

She refocused on Ron. "Fine, yes, yes, I did. Are you happy now? By the way, I saw you and K on Shayla the other night. Just livin' it up, aren't you?" she huffed.

"Bonnie…" Ron began, paused, and then started again. "I always used to not let you get me down since you were kind of rough on everyone. Shayla's show invited us, we thought about it, we went. The experience had its ups and downs. But back on subject, can I seriously ask what I've done anytime in the last few years that has wronged you so badly? Even if I did something back in high school, that was a long time ago. Why the 'tude now?"

That brought Bonnie up short. She opened her mouth to retort, but it died on her lips. She looked down at Billy's face, and then up at Ron, and finally opened her mouth to speak. "You know, it's funny. You try teaching a kid right and wrong, but you're always afraid that you had been such a witch, so how do you know your kid will take to the lessons any better than you did?"

The quality of Bonnie's voice was vulnerable, and drained the brief surge of animosity in Ron. "Bonnie?" he asked, tentatively.

"You seriously don't want your pound of flesh out of me?" she suddenly snarled, her eyes flashing.

"Gorchy, Bonnie…" Ron grimaced. "I had enough of that reading Merchant of Venice for that lit class I had to take second year."

"Merchant of… what is this, upside-down world? Suddenly you're literate?" Bonnie couldn't help but bite back.

Ron's eyes flashed. "Hey, I'm not trying to puff myself up. I'm just saying that I did have to read that play for a class and it was… kind of a vivid image. I didn't need to be reminded of it."

"Hm, but you do talk a bit more like K now."

"I'll take that as a compliment, thanks. Better than calling anyone who doesn't meet my approval a loser," he grumbled with some faint traces of remembered hurt. "As for 'being literate' I tried being a jokester about some things, but it made me painfully alone other than Kim, Monique, and Felix. I've still got a sense of humor, but I'd rather not joke about something if it keeps me from having friends."

Before Bonnie could say anything to try to de-escalate the snippiness she realized had begun, Ron continued.

"Look, Bonnie, long story short, I just wanted to let bygones be bygones. Why would I be cruel to you? Or to your son? Why would I want to be? I hadn't known whose son he was, but even if I had, so what? What good am I if I return serve on you, huh?"

Ron again paused. Bonnie was silent, eyes wide, and Billy seemed silent too. "Look, when we began talking, it almost began civilly. You and I had issues a long time ago. I just saw a boy approach me and I chatted politely with him. You began politely with me and just concerned about what your son would learn from you, and now look at how you're acting in front of him? You really want him to learn to be polite to people, always say please and thank you, and not put people down, don't do it in front of him. I don't know what I ever did to you, Bonnie, but I clearly haven't done it in years."

~*~*KP*~*~

There was silence for a time. The dog made small sounds as it moved around, poking looks at the ground. A bird chirped here or there.

"So, uh, Ron. It's a surprise to see you again." Bonnie said at last, uncurling from her kneeling position and bringing her boy up into her arms with one arm supporting under him. "What are you up to? Is this where you and Kim live? That's a beautiful Golden Lab there."

"Thanks, but it's not my dog… or my house." he responded, slowly smiling. "A friend was out on vacation, and I'd offered to check their mail and walk their dog in the time they were gone."

Bonnie's lips curled upwards in a genuine smile. "That was nice of you. Who's the friend?"

Ron immediately replied, "Tara Mankey." Bonnie was once again brought up short. Ron's eyes widened a moment and one hand rubbed the back of his neck.

~*~*KP*~*~

Later, at their house, Bonnie was cooking lunch for her little Billy. The boy looked up from his coloring book (on the kitchen floor, Bonnie groaned inwardly in long-suffering amusement) and began, "Mommy?"

"Yes, Billy?"

"That man wasn't a stranger to you, right?"

"No, he wasn't, honey."

"If you tell me to always be polite to people, and to always say please and thank you, why were you so mean to that man today?"

Bonnie Senior-Johnson wondered if she had an answer for her little man.

fin

~*~*KP*~*~

Author's Notes: I am very curious to see how people react to this story, especially how it ends. Also, I'm curious to see if the interaction between Billy and Ron before Bonnie shows up sounds reasonable and believable, or if you don't imagine Ron's reaction as being a reasonable reaction to a boy who should consider you a stranger.

I've been weighing ideas for this story for days now, and I want to thank Pinky Jo Curlytail and Michael Howard for being willing to help me in figuring out which of a couple endings I came up with that I wanted to go with. I had also asked waveform's feedback, but I decided to go with this and go for it before he had a chance to respond.

Thanks to any readers who have been willing to read this small effort. If you leave a review, I will be glad to provide a response.