=All-Purpose Disclaimer=
Kim Possible is a registered trademark of Disney Inc. Any and all usage of its characters, locations and themes is without permission or profit. If you have any inclination of suing me, you'd better just toddle on and smeg off.
=Reviewer Response=
Frederick Aloysius
On the nose, lad. On the nose. Many kudos, and many more thanks.
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Kim Possible
A Hero to Me
by Cyberwraith Nine
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Kim awoke with a start to a warm, gritty surface. She shot upward, pushing onto her elbows as she spit up a modicum of sand from her cottony mouth. Her eyes fluttered open, squinting against the sudden and harsh daylight that assaulted her sensitive retinas as she looked about in a disoriented fashion. The dull lump of aching grey matter that passed for her brain strained mightily as she tried to recall what she had been doing before this, and how she had gotten where she was.
…and where was she, anyway?
The surroundings seemed familiar. When she had first discovered the sand beneath her, the first thought she had was abject fear that one of her enemies had drugged her, then dumped her in the middle of a desert to wander uselessly until she died of dehydration. It had happened twice before, and the ordeal was always murder on her complexion (to say nothing of missing classes for however long it took her to escape certain death).
Luckily, this desert had a perimeter made out of worm-ridden wood that stretched around a boxy shape filled with sand. A small structure stood in front of her, composed of multi-level platforms and jutting bars of rusted iron, and had some kind of emergency escape chute twisting from the highest stage. It took her a second to recognize it as a jungle gym, and a second longer to realize why it seemed so familiar.
"Middleton Pre-K…" she murmured, hauling herself to her feet. She dusted her clothes off, stopping only a second to note that she had somehow changed into her mission gear.
It all felt very strange, but stranger still was the fact that she was back at a school that hadn't been standing for over a decade. Regardless, there was no mistaking. The old swing set maintained a squeaky vigil in the corner of the gigantic sandbox, wavering gently in the breeze. Beyond the edge of the sandbox, towering above the tiny playground, was a homey-looking building where she had spent her tender developmental years learning how to fit into 'the system'. And near the corner of the schoolyard, Kim's eyes were drawn to a very familiar, very old oak tree beneath which her life had been changed forever by a very young, very clumsy, and very sweet little boy with tussled blond hair.
"Well," she muttered, turning in place to examine her surroundings, "This is about three steps left of bizarre." Memories began flooding back to her, but she did her best to block them out. However, she distinctly remembered the night an eight-year-old Kim and Ron had spent under the oak tree before demolition teams had torn down their first taste of public education. So how was it she was there now? And what happened to the party?
Kim cupped her hands together, calling out to the deserted school grounds. "Hello? Anyone here?" Save for the soft squeak of the swings, there wasn't a sound in the schoolyard. It felt wrong to be in such a place without the laughter of children, as if the very soul of the place had died. "Big person in trouble here… I promise I'm not going to offer you strange candy 'or' rides in my mysterious van."
A soft titter drew her attention away from the old schoolhouse. Kim turned back to the jungle gym and was surprised to see a pair of youths playing where just moments before there had been no one else. She hadn't heard anyone approaching. Nor did she see anyone else; just the pair of kids, who, like her surroundings, gave Kim a heady sense of deja vu.
"Hey!" One of the pair, a little boy with a scrub of yellow topping his head and wearing shorts with an adorable ducky t-shirt, pointed and shouted at Kim. He hung upside-down from the jungle gym's monkey bars, swinging to and fro by his knees. His face was slowly turning purple with blood, and he was missing several of his front teeth as he grinned. "You shouldn't be here!"
"Yeah!" his playmate agreed loudly. The little girl wore her carroty locks in a pair of pigtails pulled atop her round, cherubic head that matched perfectly with her summery denim overalls. She leaned over the guard rail next to the long plastic slide and grinned at the teen. "You're too old to play here."
Kim stumbled towards the pair, kicking up a cloud of sand as her eyes remained glued on them. Her befuddled mind was trying to make heads or tails of the situation, but nothing was making sense anymore. After what seemed forever, she reached the jungle gym. She leaned heavily on the tire swing for balance as she stared up at the children with slackened jaw and saucer-like eyes. "I…" she stammered, "I think I'm a little lost…"
The blond boy laughed. "How can you be lost?" he asked. His hanging arms swung up, pointing at the little girl on the tall platform. "You're right there!" The little girl smiled and waved at Kim with a little smile as the boy clutched at the bars, making his way back to the main portion of the jungle gym.
"You…You…Know who I am?" asked Kim through a growing sense of awe.
"Sure!" little Kimmie laughed in exactly the same manner as Kim would have. "How could I not?"
Having finally crawled back onto the platforms, Ronnie stomped up until he was standing next to his friend. He examined Kim openly, squinting a single eye as if it would help determine something. "I dunno," he mused with a devilish gleam in his open eye, "She's awfully pretty t' be you."
Kimmie stamped her foot, growing red and puffy about the cheeks, and it was all Kim could do not to laugh at the display. "I'm jus' as pretty as she is!" she huffed.
"Nu-uh!" Ronnie shot back, "'Cause she don't have little piggy pigtails! Oink oink oink!" He pulled his nose up with his thumb and laughed derisively at his own joke. That lasted as long as it took Kimmie's speedy arms to wrap around his neck in a ironclad headlock. Then he started shrieking like a panicked hyena; "Aaaahh! Leggo, leggo! Uncle!"
"No way!" Kimmie smirked, nearly jerking Ronnie off his feet. "You gotta say 'Auntie'!"
"Auntie! Auntie!" the little boy sobbed.
Kimmie yanked upward and let go, spinning him up and around. She caught him by the shoulders and held him fast. "Mmm… I think you need a little more punishment." And with that, she leaned in and kissed him briefly on the lips.
Unfathomable horror echoed in Ronnie's widened eyes as she pulled away with a smile. His little chest inflated like a balloon with air that hissed between his teeth. Then, shifting his mouth into an O-shape…
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Ronnie's howl could have awoken the dead as he clutched at his golden locks. He rushed to the edge of the jungle gym and leapt off, kicking and flailing through the air, lungs blaring like an air-raid warning, and fell into a heap on the sand beneath the play set. He pulled himself up rather quickly and ran off, screaming all the way to the schoolhouse as if his life were now forfeit thanks to Kimmie's lethal lips.
Kimmie giggled behind her hand as her elder self swung up to the top of the platform. The two of them sat down on the splintering wood, legs dangling over the edge and arms resting on the railing as they watched Ron zigzag around the schoolhouse, presumably to try and find some kind of antiseptic for his condition. The teen watched her counterpart with a growing sense of nostalgia. She saw the way Kimmie gazed at the young boy, and suddenly it all made sense. "You like him, don't you?" she remarked.
Her eyes never left her best friend as she nodded and turned slightly red at the cheeks. "Mmm-hmm," hummed the little girl. Then she looked over as Kim laughed lightly. Her pudgy features scrunched up as she demanded, "What's so funny?" with trembling indignation in her voice.
To stave off any tears or hurt feelings, Kim quickly said, "It's nothing, just…funny how little things change, that's all."
The little one's eyes grew wide and sparkly as a great grin broke her features. "You like Ronnie too?" she asked.
Kim watched Ronnie's upside-down face grow purple as he stuck his head between his legs and heaved deep, terrified breaths. If he kept it up, he'd probably pass out. Then they'd have to perform CPR or something, and then the whole ordeal would start anew. "Oh yeah," she grunted as she watched he heaving four-year-old, "What's not to like?"
Kimmie almost jumped off the platform as she clapped in glee. "I knew it!" The little girl pumped her fists in the air. "I knew Ronnie 'n' me get married!"
Now it was Kim's features that scrunched up. She eased the little girl back down, lest her younger self topple over in her mild frenzy. "Uh…not exactly," she drawled.
The little girl watched her older self shift uncomfortably for a moment. Her tiny pug nose wrinkled up in a confused frown as she asked, "What d'you mean? You're at least boyfriend and girlfriend, right?"
"Not in the…strictest sense of the word, no." Kim rubbed behind her ear, lowering her gaze. She couldn't stand the full force of Kimmie's accusatory glare.
Little Kimmie's hands shifted to her hips, a gesture the older Kim was all too familiar with. "But you're so old!" cried Kimmie indignantly. "You haven't been doin' nothin' all this time!?"
"Hey, watch it half-pint!" the teen heroine shot back. "I've been busy saving the world from freaks and nut jobs!"
"An' those peoples are more impor'ant than Ronnie?" Kimmie countered with a defiant pout.
"Yes! No!" Kim struggled, clutching at the air in front of her as though to throttle the very confusion that plagued her. "It's not that simple," she insisted.
"Why not? If you like him, you should just say so!" Kimmie folded her arms matter-of-factly, nodding as if it were the most simple concept on Earth to grasp. "Then he'll say it back, you'll get married an' live happily ever after!"
Kim's voice rose in a shout, "It doesn't work like that!"
"Why NOT?" Kimmie shouted back.
"Because," Her voice trailed off uselessly as she found herself without a reply. The self-righteous sense of smug superiority melted away as her chest deflated and her shoulders slumped forward. "Because…"
"Because what?" the little girl demanded with steely green eyes.
Kim sank back, slouching against the guard rail as she looked down at her dangling toes. With a start, she noted that her clothes had somehow changed to match Kimmie's exactly; she didn't even own a pair of overalls in her own size, but there they were, baggy and comfortable and atrocious from a fashion standpoint. But Kim's mind wasn't on style at the moment. "Because I'd lose him."
Surprisingly, Kimmie snorted at this. She stood up and loomed over her counterpart, once again with hand on hips. "Baloney!" she sniffed. "Ronnie'd never leave me!"
"Look, it already almost happened!" Kim squeezed her eyes shut as the flood of memories assaulted her from every direction. The last two months flashed before her eyes, and it was all she could do not to cry out or sob as she saw herself slapping Ron at the top of Upperton Towers. She watched herself dismissing him on the streets of Hong Kong all over again. She saw the hatred and the hurt burning in Ron's eyes again and again and again, and it nearly broke her, just as it had the first time. "You weren't there, you don't understand."
"Why is grown-ups always sayin' that?" Kimmie stamped her foot childishly as she shouted, "You ALWAYS say that! I'm you, I understand plenty!"
"I…I almost lost Ron because I was a bad friend." Kim choked, her eyes still closed as tightly as they would go. "And when I got him back, all these feelings…they just came out of nowhere. I didn't know what to do, so I…I just kept quiet. Then things cooled off, and I was so happy that things were finally getting back to normal…"
Kimmie stared quietly at her crying counterpart. Her little frown shifted to an expression of sympathy as she reached out, rubbing Kim's shoulder affectionately just as their mother used to do for them when they were upset. "You're a'scared." she murmured softly.
"I'm not afraid!" Kim sobbed. Her whole body trembled with silent crying as her younger self tried to comfort her. "I'm not afraid! I can do anything!" The lie seemed to break the dam as she moaned, clutching at her temples. Streams of salty tears poured from her cheeks, and she was helpless to do anything about it. "I'm not afraid…"
A pair of tiny arms wrapped around her midsection as Kimmie drew herself close, leaning her head against Kim's chest. "It's okay to be a'scared, Kim." she whispered as she squeezed her older self. "I get scared all the time."
Kim buried her face into the little one's hair, hugging her back. "I don't now what to do anymore," she moaned, sniffling back her outburst and swallowing hard as she hugged 'herself' back. "Ron and me…there's something between us, and I don't know what to do. If something happened, and it broke us up…"
"What about happily ever after?" asked Kimmie in a hushed voice.
The innocent comment forced a bitter smile to Kim's lips as she leaned her forehead against the top of Kimmie's head. "I don't believe in happily ever after."
"You used to," Kimmie retorted sadly.
Kim pulled away, wiping her eyes and feeling very foolish for having cried in the first place. She was a hero, she didn't have any business crying. With a sad thought, she realized she didn't have any business being here, either. This was just a memory, a place where she had played as a child. She was an adult now, and adults were supposed to come up with solutions. But why did every solution have to suck so much?
"I couldn't stand to lose him again," she admitted. "Ron's the most important thing to me. I…I can't love him."
"You don't love Ronnie?" Now Kimmie's eyes wavered with watery tears.
"No, that's not it." Kim sniffed, bending down on one knee to look her younger self square in the eyes. She wiped a tear from the girl's cheek, giving her a tiny, sad smile. "You and I care about Ron a lot. That'll never change. But…If I was wrong, it would break his heart and mine…ours," she amended. "I can't risk it…not even for something as wonderful as love."
Kimmie sniffed as well. "Being a grown-up sounds hard," she muttered.
"It is," Kim agreed.
"Shouldn't hafta be," she pouted stubbornly, releasing herself from Kim's grip.
Muffled footsteps plodded through the sandy box, heralding Ronnie's return from hysteria. "That was a dirty trick, KP!" he shouted bitterly as he wiped his mouth for the three hundred and forty-fifth time.
Kimmie's sadness seemed to vanish at her best friend's return. "You just watch out, Ron Stoppable!" Kimmie called back as she ran over to the railing. "I'm gonna do it again someday, when you ain't 'spectin' it!"
"Nu-uh, or I'm telling!"
Kimmie cast one last look at her future self before jumping onto the slide and zooming down to ground level. "'Fraid of cooties?" the little girl teased as her friend ran up to meet her at the bottom.
"No," he whined back, "I just don't want any your yucky germs!"
"Ha! One day I bet you want me to kiss you!"
They ran off, hooting and chasing after each other with peals of childish laughter. "Not ever!" Ronnie shouted decidedly.
Kim watched the pair run off. She leaned back against the opposite railing with a sigh as the pair vanished from view. All around her, a white mist was rolling in, obscuring the world around her in a cool chill. 'Not ever, huh?' she thought with dark amusement as the duo disappeared into the mist. The living memory flickered and faded around her, leaving behind it a field of pure white, and nothing else.
Kim wasn't sure what she felt for Ron; if it was the beginnings of love, or just some strange echo of friendship brought on by the previous disaster. Could she really think of Ron that way? Ron had told her not long ago that he loved her as a friend. It would be a terrible gamble to risk such a treasure…
…but what if it paid off?"
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Sunlight burned at Kim's fluttering eyes. The first thing she became aware of was a pounding brass band that had moved in between her temples. They played loudly as she sat up with a loud wince.
"Ooh," she groaned, rubbing at her head. She felt something cold and damp there, and peeled it from her forehead; it was a cool cloth, and it actually felt good against her skin. Regardless, she set it on her nightstand…then paused, realizing that she was back in her own room.
"I'm…home." she noted slowly, propping herself against her pillows. She looked down and was surprised to see her pajamas in place of her party outfit…or was it overalls? Her mission clothes? "What happened?" she asked aloud. The last thing Kim could remember clearly was drinking a toast with Bret at the Delta house. After that…some kind of playground? The apartment? None of it was clear.
Looking further, Kim noticed a glass of water and a bottle of aspirin on her nightstand. A soft snoring drew her gaze to the right. There, sprawled out in a stiff-back chair was her roommate with another cool cloth in hand. His head tilted back over the edge of the chair as he slept uneasily, shifting and snorting.
Kim blinked at the sight as she opened the aspirin bottle and popped a few hundred milligrams of relief, washing it down with the water he had thoughtfully left at her bedside. 'Did he stay here all night?' The thought was a little amusing, and very sweet, but why would he bother? And why did her head hurt so damn much? Aloud, Kim called softly to him, "Ron."
"Mah-shanala…" he drooled, rolling slightly to his left.
"Ron." she said again.
"Gotta catch 'em all…" he mumbled in his sleep.
She smiled and tossed the damp rag onto his face. "Ron!" she half-shouted, then clutched her temples in regret at the loud noise.
The cloth struck Ron's face with a wet slap, slipping over his eyes. He awoke with a start, sitting up as he cried out. His arms pinwheeled as he screamed, "I'm blind! Rufus, save the burritos!"
"Ron, chill!" Kim reached out, ignoring the pounding pain in her ears and catching one of his flailing hands. It took a moment for him to calm down and pull the cloth from his eyes. He looked over at Kim. The relief she saw pouring from his face made her smile. "Ron, what on Earth am I doing here?" she asked him.
"Kim!" Ron cried, leaping forward. He crashed into her and wrapped his arms around her body, hugging her with fierce devotion. She had to push him away before he broke something. Plus, she still felt like crap. "Oh man, I'm so glad you're okay…"
"Ron, what's going on?" Kim was tired of being confused. She folded her arms determinedly, lowering a steely gaze in his direction as he began to stammer. "Why am I home, and why don't I know how I got here?"
With a long, deep sigh, Ron launched into the tale of the previous night. As the story unfolded, Kim's face morphed from bemusement to shock, then to horror, until at last she masked her emotions behind an unreadable expression.
He paused as he reached the part where they got back to the apartment. "And…then we got home. You were feverish, so I tucked you in and kept an eye on you."
Kim sat there, clutching Ron's hand. She felt violently ill as she thought of what Bret and his stupid friends had tried to do to her the night before. She felt so violated, so…so dirty! Outrage welled up in her soul as she involuntarily squeezed, then felt her heart leap as Ron squeezed back. "Let me see if I understand," she said slowly in a barely audible voice.
"Okay," Ron worriedly replied.
"Bret put something in my drink that made me act like a horny, nymphomaniac slut…"
"I believe I said 'Bonnie-like'," he agreed, hoping to bring a little levity to break the tension.
"…then he and a couple of his skanky buddies took me upstairs to…to…" She choked on the last part, shaking with anger. Tears of outrage threatened to spill over as her jaw tightened and her teeth ground. "They were going to…"
"Hey!" Ron leaned back in, clutching her close to his chest as he whispered in her ear. "Kim, they didn't do anything. I know that doesn't make it okay, but I got there before anything happened."
"Oh my God…" Kim moaned into his chest, holding him back.
"I would never let anyone do something like that to you, Kim." he murmured, rocking her gently back and forth. Tears stung at his own eyes as he thought of how close it had come. If he had been just a few seconds late… "Never."
And they held each other as, together, they wept away the lost of their innocence.
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It was nearly an hour later that Kim emerged from her bedroom. After a heavy dose of consoling, Ron had honored her request for some time alone, and spent the long, agonizing minutes as he waited working in the kitchen. The more upset he was, the more energy he put into cooking. At this point, he was just putting the finishing touches on some crepes to go along with their three-cheese omlettes and fresh, diced assortment of fruits.
His eyes lit up upon seeing her exit the darkened, dour room. "Hey! How…how ya feeling?"
"Better," she admitted, rubbing at her red, puffy eyes. "Still angry as all get-out, but better." She sniffed the air, and a tentative smile grew on her face. "Breakfast?"
"Only the finest," he puffed proudly. The chef produced a pair of plates from behind the counter, setting one in front of Kim. He was just about to dive into the other when a naked pink blob dived into his food, inhaling at an incredible rate. With a sigh, Ron pushed his plate aside, leaving the masterfully prepared food to Rufus. Instead, he watched Kim pick at the food, keeping a neutral expression on his face. He didn't know what to do or say, and felt his handling of the situation was wholly inadequate. There must have been something he should have said, or done, to make it seem better…though he doubted it.
Kim poked at the food with her fork. She felt guilty for not feeling hungry, especially considering how much effort Ron must have put into the food, but her stomach just wouldn't let her eat at the moment. Instead, she set her fork down, staring at the food. Bits and pieces of her memory floated back to her every so often without control; she recalled parts of her delirium very vividly, though most of it was a blur. After a long moment, she looked up, and found Ron's concerned brown eyes waiting for her.
They stared at each other for a moment in uncomfortable silence. At last Ron broke the stillness with a question; "What?"
"I love you."
To say that Ron was shocked would have been akin to saying that Alpha Centauri is really, really far away. His mouth grew dry and his heart skipped at least twelve beats as he opened and closed his jaw uselessly. Finally, a single sound managed to work its way out as he grunted, "Uhn?"
She pushed the plate aside, leaning forward until her face was only a few inches away from Ron's. The vase of gift roses was slightly in her way, so that was budged over as well. "Last month, you said you were my best friend. You told me that nothing would ever change that. You said you loved me."
"I…I remember." he stammered. "But Kim, what I meant was-"
Her hand halted him in mid-sentence. "I know what you meant." assured the tussled redhead. "That's not what bothers me. What bothers me is, I didn't say it back. So now I am. I love you."
Realization finally made its way into Ron's befuddled system. "Kim, I always knew that." he leaned back with a sigh.
"But I never said it before." she insisted. Her hand reached out, pulling a rose from the vase and twiddling it as she stared down at her feet. "I should have. I should have said it a long time ago, Ron, because you deserved to hear it. Our friendship shouldn't be this big unspoken 'thing', right? And after what you did last night…"
Ron circled the counter slowly, also unable to look his friend in the eye. "I didn't do anything you wouldn't have done for me, KP."
Kim's rose reached out in her grasp, sliding under his chin and lifting it until they could gaze into each other's confused expressions. She stepped in close, so close that Ron began to grow very warm about the cheek.
"I said this yesterday," she reminded him, placing a hand on his chest. "And from now on, I'll say it more often. You, Ron Stoppable, are my hero." Reaching out once more, she kissed him on the nose with the tip of her rosebud. "And I couldn't ask for a better one."
This time, the silence between them wasn't awkward in any way. His goofy, trademark Ron smile split his face wide open as he took the rose and returned her flowery Eskimo kiss. "Only a hero when my damsel in distress needs saving."
"That's sweet," she smiled. "But if you ever call me a damsel in distress again, I'll have to hurt you."
"Duly noted."
They pulled away, with Kim heading slowly towards the bathroom as Ron moved to clean up the kitchen. Halfway there, she stopped, and turned around. "Ron?"
"Yeah KP?"
"I have to ask…" Kim rubbed at her neck, which still held the ill-gotten hickies Bret had given her. "Did I do anything…I dunno…embarrassing last night?"
The color drained from Ron's face, and he swallowed hard. "Embarrassing? Uh…No. No, not really. Just a few nonsense words before you passed out is all."
"Good." Her smile, sweet as sugar, beamed at him before she turned back. There was a teasing sway in her hips as she added, "Then I won't bother asking how I got into my pajamas between then and now." And with that, she closed the bathroom door behind her.
"Uh…I can explain!" he called after her pathetically.
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=Not Quite The End=
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Bret Bretterson held the remains of his nose as he sat on the Delta Kappa Phi fraternity's couch in the living room. The entire house had been trashed from the night before, and he hadn't even been around to enjoy the party. Instead, he had been asleep in the wall, where his two 'buddies' had been too afraid to pull him out for fear of encouraging the wrath of that lame freshman dweeb.
"Was just a lucky punch anyway," he muttered, pulling at a roll of athletic tape and putting it across the bridge of his nose. It had hurt unbelievably when he had set it himself (though he had broken it many times in football before anyway), and he didn't want anything undoing his painful handiwork.
Without warning, the front door slammed open with a terrific crack. Bret jumped at the noise, landing on his feet and whirling around to see who had entered so violently.
Ron Stoppable leaned against the doorframe. His arms were folded casually and he wore a haughty look on his pasty features that the senior couldn't wait to wipe away. "Lucy, I'm home!" he smirked.
"Stoppable," Bretterson growled, curling his hands into fists. "What's the matter? Come back for a 'real' fight?"
"No Bret. I have way too many ways of wasting my time as it is." Ron blew on his nails as he examined the cuticles, biting at a hangnail. "I've just come to see you learn the error of your ways."
"Puh-lease. We were just having a little fun with Possible." Bret snorted. "Besides, who's going to believe her? I'm the best QB this school has seen in forty years, you really think they're gonna bench me because of some stuck-up little frosh? Besides," he added with a sneer, "You think you can get lucky twice?"
"Hmm? Oh, no. I didn't come here to fight." Ron's smile doubled as he stepped in and leaned against the front wall, clearing the doorway. "Like I said, I'm here to 'see' you learn the error of your ways. And believe me, I wanted to get a front-row seat for 'this' show!"
A new frame filled the doorway, one considerably less built than Ron (who was pretty skinny to begin with). The curvy, wiry body struck a defiant pose, clad in tan cargos and a pink blouse, and wearing a malicious grin. "Hello, Bret." Kim uttered.
Bret's face became as pale as the walls as he stared at the teenage hero about to beat the holy bejesus out of him. "K-K-Kim…"
"Here's the plan," she said, cracking her knuckles. Ron watched on with the same humongous grin on his face as she approached the shivering senior. "I'm going to beat you senseless. Then, when you come to your senses, you're going to take all of your little fun-time supplies, go to the campus police, and make a full confession. I'd advise your buddies to do the same."
"I…I…I…" was all the QB could say.
Ron just shook his head. "Don't you just love a strong, confident woman, Bret?" he called.
Kim stopped just in front of him, cocking her fist back. "How about we drink a new toast, Bret? Let's make this one to modern medicine, 'cause I think you and it will have a very special 'liaison' very, very soon.
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=Now It's The End=
--Some Notes from the Author—
Love is stupid.
Don't think me a bitter old man of twenty for saying this. I've had some pretty bad heartbreaks, but I'm still looking for the woman I want to spend my life with. But let's face it; out of all the emotions, there is none so willing and able to completely screw us up as love is. Love can empty your bank account, ruin your career, destroy your self-esteem, and even lead to a painful double suicide ala Romeo and Juliet. So why do we do it?
Good question. Let me get back to you on that one.
But the point is, I wanted to take a little time to explain something to my readers out there, hopefully without alienating them all at once. You see, many of you have written in reviews demanding such things as "KR 4-ev3r!" and "Kim should just tell him!" and things like that. Well, I'd like to counter with a question of my own: How many of you have been in love? And not just a crush, not a passing fancy or a mistake, but honest love? If any of you answered "I have!" then you're lying to yourself and me, and only fooling one of us. The truth is, I don't believe anyone can 'say' they're in love. You have to feel it. Even I, who was so certain I was in love at one point that I would have married my high-school sweetheart, am not certain I was ever 'really' in love. And that's the really screwed up part.
Many of you complain about Kim. You think she's heartless, or wishy-washy, or any number of other things. Well, she can be. Do you know why? She's EIGHTEEN years old! This is the time when she's supposed to be shaping her life, and believe me when I say you can't build any serious relationship with someone when you're trying to discover who and what you are. The latter has to come before the former can even begin.
And, truthfully, just from watching the show, I've discovered that Kim can be a pretty bad friend. She's devoted enough, and rushes to his rescue, certainly. But she can also be condescending, rude, thoughtless, and downright mean at times. To stray from this in the story is to stray from Kim herself, and turn her into a WAFF machine. That's something I will not do, under any circumstances. I wanted to capture Kim's growth and change as a person in this, her most important developmental years. This is the time when Kim and Ron will decide who and what they want to be. Maybe their decisions will include each other, and maybe they won't. They don't know yet.
Ron, in the meantime, is doing the only thing he can; he watches out for Kim. That's all he's ever done, whether she knows it or not. I've tried to take Ron away from his roots in the show, give him a little growth while still maintaining his essential 'Ron-ness'. Sometimes I succeed. Sometimes I fail. Hopefully I do more of the first than the second. I'll let you decide.
I was actually inspired by the TV Movie, "A Sitch In Time," to develop the idea, 'What would Kim do without Ron?' And from there, it sort of grew into its own universe. I'm glad, because I've had a blast writing it, and am proud to have so many people enjoy my work.
Finally, several of you have wondered what the drug Bret used on Kim was. In all honesty, I don't think such a drug exists. When I came up with the concept, I wanted the effect from two different drugs; a mild sedative, and a mega-dose of an aphrodisiac. If it ever were created (god forbid), it would probably be the perfect date-rape drug. Which leads me to a final point; ladies, please be careful. Many men are slime, and many more make bad choices. Never party alone, and never without someone you trust close at hand to keep you from situations like this…or to keep you from making a fool of yourself.
To all my readers, I wish you good day, and good hunting. I will have the next installment of my Kim Possible series, The Power Trilogy (that's right, there'll be three major stories, as well as at least one other mini-sequel like this one) out at some point. It may be a while, as I have other projects ahead of it on the list. But rest assured, it will come, as it always does. After all, don't I always say it?
The best is yet to come.
Kim Possible is a registered trademark of Disney Inc. Any and all usage of its characters, locations and themes is without permission or profit. If you have any inclination of suing me, you'd better just toddle on and smeg off.
=Reviewer Response=
Frederick Aloysius
On the nose, lad. On the nose. Many kudos, and many more thanks.
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Kim Possible
A Hero to Me
by Cyberwraith Nine
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Kim awoke with a start to a warm, gritty surface. She shot upward, pushing onto her elbows as she spit up a modicum of sand from her cottony mouth. Her eyes fluttered open, squinting against the sudden and harsh daylight that assaulted her sensitive retinas as she looked about in a disoriented fashion. The dull lump of aching grey matter that passed for her brain strained mightily as she tried to recall what she had been doing before this, and how she had gotten where she was.
…and where was she, anyway?
The surroundings seemed familiar. When she had first discovered the sand beneath her, the first thought she had was abject fear that one of her enemies had drugged her, then dumped her in the middle of a desert to wander uselessly until she died of dehydration. It had happened twice before, and the ordeal was always murder on her complexion (to say nothing of missing classes for however long it took her to escape certain death).
Luckily, this desert had a perimeter made out of worm-ridden wood that stretched around a boxy shape filled with sand. A small structure stood in front of her, composed of multi-level platforms and jutting bars of rusted iron, and had some kind of emergency escape chute twisting from the highest stage. It took her a second to recognize it as a jungle gym, and a second longer to realize why it seemed so familiar.
"Middleton Pre-K…" she murmured, hauling herself to her feet. She dusted her clothes off, stopping only a second to note that she had somehow changed into her mission gear.
It all felt very strange, but stranger still was the fact that she was back at a school that hadn't been standing for over a decade. Regardless, there was no mistaking. The old swing set maintained a squeaky vigil in the corner of the gigantic sandbox, wavering gently in the breeze. Beyond the edge of the sandbox, towering above the tiny playground, was a homey-looking building where she had spent her tender developmental years learning how to fit into 'the system'. And near the corner of the schoolyard, Kim's eyes were drawn to a very familiar, very old oak tree beneath which her life had been changed forever by a very young, very clumsy, and very sweet little boy with tussled blond hair.
"Well," she muttered, turning in place to examine her surroundings, "This is about three steps left of bizarre." Memories began flooding back to her, but she did her best to block them out. However, she distinctly remembered the night an eight-year-old Kim and Ron had spent under the oak tree before demolition teams had torn down their first taste of public education. So how was it she was there now? And what happened to the party?
Kim cupped her hands together, calling out to the deserted school grounds. "Hello? Anyone here?" Save for the soft squeak of the swings, there wasn't a sound in the schoolyard. It felt wrong to be in such a place without the laughter of children, as if the very soul of the place had died. "Big person in trouble here… I promise I'm not going to offer you strange candy 'or' rides in my mysterious van."
A soft titter drew her attention away from the old schoolhouse. Kim turned back to the jungle gym and was surprised to see a pair of youths playing where just moments before there had been no one else. She hadn't heard anyone approaching. Nor did she see anyone else; just the pair of kids, who, like her surroundings, gave Kim a heady sense of deja vu.
"Hey!" One of the pair, a little boy with a scrub of yellow topping his head and wearing shorts with an adorable ducky t-shirt, pointed and shouted at Kim. He hung upside-down from the jungle gym's monkey bars, swinging to and fro by his knees. His face was slowly turning purple with blood, and he was missing several of his front teeth as he grinned. "You shouldn't be here!"
"Yeah!" his playmate agreed loudly. The little girl wore her carroty locks in a pair of pigtails pulled atop her round, cherubic head that matched perfectly with her summery denim overalls. She leaned over the guard rail next to the long plastic slide and grinned at the teen. "You're too old to play here."
Kim stumbled towards the pair, kicking up a cloud of sand as her eyes remained glued on them. Her befuddled mind was trying to make heads or tails of the situation, but nothing was making sense anymore. After what seemed forever, she reached the jungle gym. She leaned heavily on the tire swing for balance as she stared up at the children with slackened jaw and saucer-like eyes. "I…" she stammered, "I think I'm a little lost…"
The blond boy laughed. "How can you be lost?" he asked. His hanging arms swung up, pointing at the little girl on the tall platform. "You're right there!" The little girl smiled and waved at Kim with a little smile as the boy clutched at the bars, making his way back to the main portion of the jungle gym.
"You…You…Know who I am?" asked Kim through a growing sense of awe.
"Sure!" little Kimmie laughed in exactly the same manner as Kim would have. "How could I not?"
Having finally crawled back onto the platforms, Ronnie stomped up until he was standing next to his friend. He examined Kim openly, squinting a single eye as if it would help determine something. "I dunno," he mused with a devilish gleam in his open eye, "She's awfully pretty t' be you."
Kimmie stamped her foot, growing red and puffy about the cheeks, and it was all Kim could do not to laugh at the display. "I'm jus' as pretty as she is!" she huffed.
"Nu-uh!" Ronnie shot back, "'Cause she don't have little piggy pigtails! Oink oink oink!" He pulled his nose up with his thumb and laughed derisively at his own joke. That lasted as long as it took Kimmie's speedy arms to wrap around his neck in a ironclad headlock. Then he started shrieking like a panicked hyena; "Aaaahh! Leggo, leggo! Uncle!"
"No way!" Kimmie smirked, nearly jerking Ronnie off his feet. "You gotta say 'Auntie'!"
"Auntie! Auntie!" the little boy sobbed.
Kimmie yanked upward and let go, spinning him up and around. She caught him by the shoulders and held him fast. "Mmm… I think you need a little more punishment." And with that, she leaned in and kissed him briefly on the lips.
Unfathomable horror echoed in Ronnie's widened eyes as she pulled away with a smile. His little chest inflated like a balloon with air that hissed between his teeth. Then, shifting his mouth into an O-shape…
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Ronnie's howl could have awoken the dead as he clutched at his golden locks. He rushed to the edge of the jungle gym and leapt off, kicking and flailing through the air, lungs blaring like an air-raid warning, and fell into a heap on the sand beneath the play set. He pulled himself up rather quickly and ran off, screaming all the way to the schoolhouse as if his life were now forfeit thanks to Kimmie's lethal lips.
Kimmie giggled behind her hand as her elder self swung up to the top of the platform. The two of them sat down on the splintering wood, legs dangling over the edge and arms resting on the railing as they watched Ron zigzag around the schoolhouse, presumably to try and find some kind of antiseptic for his condition. The teen watched her counterpart with a growing sense of nostalgia. She saw the way Kimmie gazed at the young boy, and suddenly it all made sense. "You like him, don't you?" she remarked.
Her eyes never left her best friend as she nodded and turned slightly red at the cheeks. "Mmm-hmm," hummed the little girl. Then she looked over as Kim laughed lightly. Her pudgy features scrunched up as she demanded, "What's so funny?" with trembling indignation in her voice.
To stave off any tears or hurt feelings, Kim quickly said, "It's nothing, just…funny how little things change, that's all."
The little one's eyes grew wide and sparkly as a great grin broke her features. "You like Ronnie too?" she asked.
Kim watched Ronnie's upside-down face grow purple as he stuck his head between his legs and heaved deep, terrified breaths. If he kept it up, he'd probably pass out. Then they'd have to perform CPR or something, and then the whole ordeal would start anew. "Oh yeah," she grunted as she watched he heaving four-year-old, "What's not to like?"
Kimmie almost jumped off the platform as she clapped in glee. "I knew it!" The little girl pumped her fists in the air. "I knew Ronnie 'n' me get married!"
Now it was Kim's features that scrunched up. She eased the little girl back down, lest her younger self topple over in her mild frenzy. "Uh…not exactly," she drawled.
The little girl watched her older self shift uncomfortably for a moment. Her tiny pug nose wrinkled up in a confused frown as she asked, "What d'you mean? You're at least boyfriend and girlfriend, right?"
"Not in the…strictest sense of the word, no." Kim rubbed behind her ear, lowering her gaze. She couldn't stand the full force of Kimmie's accusatory glare.
Little Kimmie's hands shifted to her hips, a gesture the older Kim was all too familiar with. "But you're so old!" cried Kimmie indignantly. "You haven't been doin' nothin' all this time!?"
"Hey, watch it half-pint!" the teen heroine shot back. "I've been busy saving the world from freaks and nut jobs!"
"An' those peoples are more impor'ant than Ronnie?" Kimmie countered with a defiant pout.
"Yes! No!" Kim struggled, clutching at the air in front of her as though to throttle the very confusion that plagued her. "It's not that simple," she insisted.
"Why not? If you like him, you should just say so!" Kimmie folded her arms matter-of-factly, nodding as if it were the most simple concept on Earth to grasp. "Then he'll say it back, you'll get married an' live happily ever after!"
Kim's voice rose in a shout, "It doesn't work like that!"
"Why NOT?" Kimmie shouted back.
"Because," Her voice trailed off uselessly as she found herself without a reply. The self-righteous sense of smug superiority melted away as her chest deflated and her shoulders slumped forward. "Because…"
"Because what?" the little girl demanded with steely green eyes.
Kim sank back, slouching against the guard rail as she looked down at her dangling toes. With a start, she noted that her clothes had somehow changed to match Kimmie's exactly; she didn't even own a pair of overalls in her own size, but there they were, baggy and comfortable and atrocious from a fashion standpoint. But Kim's mind wasn't on style at the moment. "Because I'd lose him."
Surprisingly, Kimmie snorted at this. She stood up and loomed over her counterpart, once again with hand on hips. "Baloney!" she sniffed. "Ronnie'd never leave me!"
"Look, it already almost happened!" Kim squeezed her eyes shut as the flood of memories assaulted her from every direction. The last two months flashed before her eyes, and it was all she could do not to cry out or sob as she saw herself slapping Ron at the top of Upperton Towers. She watched herself dismissing him on the streets of Hong Kong all over again. She saw the hatred and the hurt burning in Ron's eyes again and again and again, and it nearly broke her, just as it had the first time. "You weren't there, you don't understand."
"Why is grown-ups always sayin' that?" Kimmie stamped her foot childishly as she shouted, "You ALWAYS say that! I'm you, I understand plenty!"
"I…I almost lost Ron because I was a bad friend." Kim choked, her eyes still closed as tightly as they would go. "And when I got him back, all these feelings…they just came out of nowhere. I didn't know what to do, so I…I just kept quiet. Then things cooled off, and I was so happy that things were finally getting back to normal…"
Kimmie stared quietly at her crying counterpart. Her little frown shifted to an expression of sympathy as she reached out, rubbing Kim's shoulder affectionately just as their mother used to do for them when they were upset. "You're a'scared." she murmured softly.
"I'm not afraid!" Kim sobbed. Her whole body trembled with silent crying as her younger self tried to comfort her. "I'm not afraid! I can do anything!" The lie seemed to break the dam as she moaned, clutching at her temples. Streams of salty tears poured from her cheeks, and she was helpless to do anything about it. "I'm not afraid…"
A pair of tiny arms wrapped around her midsection as Kimmie drew herself close, leaning her head against Kim's chest. "It's okay to be a'scared, Kim." she whispered as she squeezed her older self. "I get scared all the time."
Kim buried her face into the little one's hair, hugging her back. "I don't now what to do anymore," she moaned, sniffling back her outburst and swallowing hard as she hugged 'herself' back. "Ron and me…there's something between us, and I don't know what to do. If something happened, and it broke us up…"
"What about happily ever after?" asked Kimmie in a hushed voice.
The innocent comment forced a bitter smile to Kim's lips as she leaned her forehead against the top of Kimmie's head. "I don't believe in happily ever after."
"You used to," Kimmie retorted sadly.
Kim pulled away, wiping her eyes and feeling very foolish for having cried in the first place. She was a hero, she didn't have any business crying. With a sad thought, she realized she didn't have any business being here, either. This was just a memory, a place where she had played as a child. She was an adult now, and adults were supposed to come up with solutions. But why did every solution have to suck so much?
"I couldn't stand to lose him again," she admitted. "Ron's the most important thing to me. I…I can't love him."
"You don't love Ronnie?" Now Kimmie's eyes wavered with watery tears.
"No, that's not it." Kim sniffed, bending down on one knee to look her younger self square in the eyes. She wiped a tear from the girl's cheek, giving her a tiny, sad smile. "You and I care about Ron a lot. That'll never change. But…If I was wrong, it would break his heart and mine…ours," she amended. "I can't risk it…not even for something as wonderful as love."
Kimmie sniffed as well. "Being a grown-up sounds hard," she muttered.
"It is," Kim agreed.
"Shouldn't hafta be," she pouted stubbornly, releasing herself from Kim's grip.
Muffled footsteps plodded through the sandy box, heralding Ronnie's return from hysteria. "That was a dirty trick, KP!" he shouted bitterly as he wiped his mouth for the three hundred and forty-fifth time.
Kimmie's sadness seemed to vanish at her best friend's return. "You just watch out, Ron Stoppable!" Kimmie called back as she ran over to the railing. "I'm gonna do it again someday, when you ain't 'spectin' it!"
"Nu-uh, or I'm telling!"
Kimmie cast one last look at her future self before jumping onto the slide and zooming down to ground level. "'Fraid of cooties?" the little girl teased as her friend ran up to meet her at the bottom.
"No," he whined back, "I just don't want any your yucky germs!"
"Ha! One day I bet you want me to kiss you!"
They ran off, hooting and chasing after each other with peals of childish laughter. "Not ever!" Ronnie shouted decidedly.
Kim watched the pair run off. She leaned back against the opposite railing with a sigh as the pair vanished from view. All around her, a white mist was rolling in, obscuring the world around her in a cool chill. 'Not ever, huh?' she thought with dark amusement as the duo disappeared into the mist. The living memory flickered and faded around her, leaving behind it a field of pure white, and nothing else.
Kim wasn't sure what she felt for Ron; if it was the beginnings of love, or just some strange echo of friendship brought on by the previous disaster. Could she really think of Ron that way? Ron had told her not long ago that he loved her as a friend. It would be a terrible gamble to risk such a treasure…
…but what if it paid off?"
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Sunlight burned at Kim's fluttering eyes. The first thing she became aware of was a pounding brass band that had moved in between her temples. They played loudly as she sat up with a loud wince.
"Ooh," she groaned, rubbing at her head. She felt something cold and damp there, and peeled it from her forehead; it was a cool cloth, and it actually felt good against her skin. Regardless, she set it on her nightstand…then paused, realizing that she was back in her own room.
"I'm…home." she noted slowly, propping herself against her pillows. She looked down and was surprised to see her pajamas in place of her party outfit…or was it overalls? Her mission clothes? "What happened?" she asked aloud. The last thing Kim could remember clearly was drinking a toast with Bret at the Delta house. After that…some kind of playground? The apartment? None of it was clear.
Looking further, Kim noticed a glass of water and a bottle of aspirin on her nightstand. A soft snoring drew her gaze to the right. There, sprawled out in a stiff-back chair was her roommate with another cool cloth in hand. His head tilted back over the edge of the chair as he slept uneasily, shifting and snorting.
Kim blinked at the sight as she opened the aspirin bottle and popped a few hundred milligrams of relief, washing it down with the water he had thoughtfully left at her bedside. 'Did he stay here all night?' The thought was a little amusing, and very sweet, but why would he bother? And why did her head hurt so damn much? Aloud, Kim called softly to him, "Ron."
"Mah-shanala…" he drooled, rolling slightly to his left.
"Ron." she said again.
"Gotta catch 'em all…" he mumbled in his sleep.
She smiled and tossed the damp rag onto his face. "Ron!" she half-shouted, then clutched her temples in regret at the loud noise.
The cloth struck Ron's face with a wet slap, slipping over his eyes. He awoke with a start, sitting up as he cried out. His arms pinwheeled as he screamed, "I'm blind! Rufus, save the burritos!"
"Ron, chill!" Kim reached out, ignoring the pounding pain in her ears and catching one of his flailing hands. It took a moment for him to calm down and pull the cloth from his eyes. He looked over at Kim. The relief she saw pouring from his face made her smile. "Ron, what on Earth am I doing here?" she asked him.
"Kim!" Ron cried, leaping forward. He crashed into her and wrapped his arms around her body, hugging her with fierce devotion. She had to push him away before he broke something. Plus, she still felt like crap. "Oh man, I'm so glad you're okay…"
"Ron, what's going on?" Kim was tired of being confused. She folded her arms determinedly, lowering a steely gaze in his direction as he began to stammer. "Why am I home, and why don't I know how I got here?"
With a long, deep sigh, Ron launched into the tale of the previous night. As the story unfolded, Kim's face morphed from bemusement to shock, then to horror, until at last she masked her emotions behind an unreadable expression.
He paused as he reached the part where they got back to the apartment. "And…then we got home. You were feverish, so I tucked you in and kept an eye on you."
Kim sat there, clutching Ron's hand. She felt violently ill as she thought of what Bret and his stupid friends had tried to do to her the night before. She felt so violated, so…so dirty! Outrage welled up in her soul as she involuntarily squeezed, then felt her heart leap as Ron squeezed back. "Let me see if I understand," she said slowly in a barely audible voice.
"Okay," Ron worriedly replied.
"Bret put something in my drink that made me act like a horny, nymphomaniac slut…"
"I believe I said 'Bonnie-like'," he agreed, hoping to bring a little levity to break the tension.
"…then he and a couple of his skanky buddies took me upstairs to…to…" She choked on the last part, shaking with anger. Tears of outrage threatened to spill over as her jaw tightened and her teeth ground. "They were going to…"
"Hey!" Ron leaned back in, clutching her close to his chest as he whispered in her ear. "Kim, they didn't do anything. I know that doesn't make it okay, but I got there before anything happened."
"Oh my God…" Kim moaned into his chest, holding him back.
"I would never let anyone do something like that to you, Kim." he murmured, rocking her gently back and forth. Tears stung at his own eyes as he thought of how close it had come. If he had been just a few seconds late… "Never."
And they held each other as, together, they wept away the lost of their innocence.
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It was nearly an hour later that Kim emerged from her bedroom. After a heavy dose of consoling, Ron had honored her request for some time alone, and spent the long, agonizing minutes as he waited working in the kitchen. The more upset he was, the more energy he put into cooking. At this point, he was just putting the finishing touches on some crepes to go along with their three-cheese omlettes and fresh, diced assortment of fruits.
His eyes lit up upon seeing her exit the darkened, dour room. "Hey! How…how ya feeling?"
"Better," she admitted, rubbing at her red, puffy eyes. "Still angry as all get-out, but better." She sniffed the air, and a tentative smile grew on her face. "Breakfast?"
"Only the finest," he puffed proudly. The chef produced a pair of plates from behind the counter, setting one in front of Kim. He was just about to dive into the other when a naked pink blob dived into his food, inhaling at an incredible rate. With a sigh, Ron pushed his plate aside, leaving the masterfully prepared food to Rufus. Instead, he watched Kim pick at the food, keeping a neutral expression on his face. He didn't know what to do or say, and felt his handling of the situation was wholly inadequate. There must have been something he should have said, or done, to make it seem better…though he doubted it.
Kim poked at the food with her fork. She felt guilty for not feeling hungry, especially considering how much effort Ron must have put into the food, but her stomach just wouldn't let her eat at the moment. Instead, she set her fork down, staring at the food. Bits and pieces of her memory floated back to her every so often without control; she recalled parts of her delirium very vividly, though most of it was a blur. After a long moment, she looked up, and found Ron's concerned brown eyes waiting for her.
They stared at each other for a moment in uncomfortable silence. At last Ron broke the stillness with a question; "What?"
"I love you."
To say that Ron was shocked would have been akin to saying that Alpha Centauri is really, really far away. His mouth grew dry and his heart skipped at least twelve beats as he opened and closed his jaw uselessly. Finally, a single sound managed to work its way out as he grunted, "Uhn?"
She pushed the plate aside, leaning forward until her face was only a few inches away from Ron's. The vase of gift roses was slightly in her way, so that was budged over as well. "Last month, you said you were my best friend. You told me that nothing would ever change that. You said you loved me."
"I…I remember." he stammered. "But Kim, what I meant was-"
Her hand halted him in mid-sentence. "I know what you meant." assured the tussled redhead. "That's not what bothers me. What bothers me is, I didn't say it back. So now I am. I love you."
Realization finally made its way into Ron's befuddled system. "Kim, I always knew that." he leaned back with a sigh.
"But I never said it before." she insisted. Her hand reached out, pulling a rose from the vase and twiddling it as she stared down at her feet. "I should have. I should have said it a long time ago, Ron, because you deserved to hear it. Our friendship shouldn't be this big unspoken 'thing', right? And after what you did last night…"
Ron circled the counter slowly, also unable to look his friend in the eye. "I didn't do anything you wouldn't have done for me, KP."
Kim's rose reached out in her grasp, sliding under his chin and lifting it until they could gaze into each other's confused expressions. She stepped in close, so close that Ron began to grow very warm about the cheek.
"I said this yesterday," she reminded him, placing a hand on his chest. "And from now on, I'll say it more often. You, Ron Stoppable, are my hero." Reaching out once more, she kissed him on the nose with the tip of her rosebud. "And I couldn't ask for a better one."
This time, the silence between them wasn't awkward in any way. His goofy, trademark Ron smile split his face wide open as he took the rose and returned her flowery Eskimo kiss. "Only a hero when my damsel in distress needs saving."
"That's sweet," she smiled. "But if you ever call me a damsel in distress again, I'll have to hurt you."
"Duly noted."
They pulled away, with Kim heading slowly towards the bathroom as Ron moved to clean up the kitchen. Halfway there, she stopped, and turned around. "Ron?"
"Yeah KP?"
"I have to ask…" Kim rubbed at her neck, which still held the ill-gotten hickies Bret had given her. "Did I do anything…I dunno…embarrassing last night?"
The color drained from Ron's face, and he swallowed hard. "Embarrassing? Uh…No. No, not really. Just a few nonsense words before you passed out is all."
"Good." Her smile, sweet as sugar, beamed at him before she turned back. There was a teasing sway in her hips as she added, "Then I won't bother asking how I got into my pajamas between then and now." And with that, she closed the bathroom door behind her.
"Uh…I can explain!" he called after her pathetically.
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=Not Quite The End=
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Bret Bretterson held the remains of his nose as he sat on the Delta Kappa Phi fraternity's couch in the living room. The entire house had been trashed from the night before, and he hadn't even been around to enjoy the party. Instead, he had been asleep in the wall, where his two 'buddies' had been too afraid to pull him out for fear of encouraging the wrath of that lame freshman dweeb.
"Was just a lucky punch anyway," he muttered, pulling at a roll of athletic tape and putting it across the bridge of his nose. It had hurt unbelievably when he had set it himself (though he had broken it many times in football before anyway), and he didn't want anything undoing his painful handiwork.
Without warning, the front door slammed open with a terrific crack. Bret jumped at the noise, landing on his feet and whirling around to see who had entered so violently.
Ron Stoppable leaned against the doorframe. His arms were folded casually and he wore a haughty look on his pasty features that the senior couldn't wait to wipe away. "Lucy, I'm home!" he smirked.
"Stoppable," Bretterson growled, curling his hands into fists. "What's the matter? Come back for a 'real' fight?"
"No Bret. I have way too many ways of wasting my time as it is." Ron blew on his nails as he examined the cuticles, biting at a hangnail. "I've just come to see you learn the error of your ways."
"Puh-lease. We were just having a little fun with Possible." Bret snorted. "Besides, who's going to believe her? I'm the best QB this school has seen in forty years, you really think they're gonna bench me because of some stuck-up little frosh? Besides," he added with a sneer, "You think you can get lucky twice?"
"Hmm? Oh, no. I didn't come here to fight." Ron's smile doubled as he stepped in and leaned against the front wall, clearing the doorway. "Like I said, I'm here to 'see' you learn the error of your ways. And believe me, I wanted to get a front-row seat for 'this' show!"
A new frame filled the doorway, one considerably less built than Ron (who was pretty skinny to begin with). The curvy, wiry body struck a defiant pose, clad in tan cargos and a pink blouse, and wearing a malicious grin. "Hello, Bret." Kim uttered.
Bret's face became as pale as the walls as he stared at the teenage hero about to beat the holy bejesus out of him. "K-K-Kim…"
"Here's the plan," she said, cracking her knuckles. Ron watched on with the same humongous grin on his face as she approached the shivering senior. "I'm going to beat you senseless. Then, when you come to your senses, you're going to take all of your little fun-time supplies, go to the campus police, and make a full confession. I'd advise your buddies to do the same."
"I…I…I…" was all the QB could say.
Ron just shook his head. "Don't you just love a strong, confident woman, Bret?" he called.
Kim stopped just in front of him, cocking her fist back. "How about we drink a new toast, Bret? Let's make this one to modern medicine, 'cause I think you and it will have a very special 'liaison' very, very soon.
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=Now It's The End=
--Some Notes from the Author—
Love is stupid.
Don't think me a bitter old man of twenty for saying this. I've had some pretty bad heartbreaks, but I'm still looking for the woman I want to spend my life with. But let's face it; out of all the emotions, there is none so willing and able to completely screw us up as love is. Love can empty your bank account, ruin your career, destroy your self-esteem, and even lead to a painful double suicide ala Romeo and Juliet. So why do we do it?
Good question. Let me get back to you on that one.
But the point is, I wanted to take a little time to explain something to my readers out there, hopefully without alienating them all at once. You see, many of you have written in reviews demanding such things as "KR 4-ev3r!" and "Kim should just tell him!" and things like that. Well, I'd like to counter with a question of my own: How many of you have been in love? And not just a crush, not a passing fancy or a mistake, but honest love? If any of you answered "I have!" then you're lying to yourself and me, and only fooling one of us. The truth is, I don't believe anyone can 'say' they're in love. You have to feel it. Even I, who was so certain I was in love at one point that I would have married my high-school sweetheart, am not certain I was ever 'really' in love. And that's the really screwed up part.
Many of you complain about Kim. You think she's heartless, or wishy-washy, or any number of other things. Well, she can be. Do you know why? She's EIGHTEEN years old! This is the time when she's supposed to be shaping her life, and believe me when I say you can't build any serious relationship with someone when you're trying to discover who and what you are. The latter has to come before the former can even begin.
And, truthfully, just from watching the show, I've discovered that Kim can be a pretty bad friend. She's devoted enough, and rushes to his rescue, certainly. But she can also be condescending, rude, thoughtless, and downright mean at times. To stray from this in the story is to stray from Kim herself, and turn her into a WAFF machine. That's something I will not do, under any circumstances. I wanted to capture Kim's growth and change as a person in this, her most important developmental years. This is the time when Kim and Ron will decide who and what they want to be. Maybe their decisions will include each other, and maybe they won't. They don't know yet.
Ron, in the meantime, is doing the only thing he can; he watches out for Kim. That's all he's ever done, whether she knows it or not. I've tried to take Ron away from his roots in the show, give him a little growth while still maintaining his essential 'Ron-ness'. Sometimes I succeed. Sometimes I fail. Hopefully I do more of the first than the second. I'll let you decide.
I was actually inspired by the TV Movie, "A Sitch In Time," to develop the idea, 'What would Kim do without Ron?' And from there, it sort of grew into its own universe. I'm glad, because I've had a blast writing it, and am proud to have so many people enjoy my work.
Finally, several of you have wondered what the drug Bret used on Kim was. In all honesty, I don't think such a drug exists. When I came up with the concept, I wanted the effect from two different drugs; a mild sedative, and a mega-dose of an aphrodisiac. If it ever were created (god forbid), it would probably be the perfect date-rape drug. Which leads me to a final point; ladies, please be careful. Many men are slime, and many more make bad choices. Never party alone, and never without someone you trust close at hand to keep you from situations like this…or to keep you from making a fool of yourself.
To all my readers, I wish you good day, and good hunting. I will have the next installment of my Kim Possible series, The Power Trilogy (that's right, there'll be three major stories, as well as at least one other mini-sequel like this one) out at some point. It may be a while, as I have other projects ahead of it on the list. But rest assured, it will come, as it always does. After all, don't I always say it?
The best is yet to come.