The last of the orange waves ebbed into the deep ocean water. A slow blast. Impressive, incredibly impressive, but very slow. Garrison's oldest girl worked a little with explosives. He would have to ask her if that slow burn would do more damage. He himself knew very little about such things. Ah, well. Funny how he should be wondering about those details when a multi-billion dollar project had been reduced to spare metal.

He was going to miss it. At least his wife would be happy. No more of him trekking off to the bottom to "that fake Atlantis". It wasn't the money loss that got to him. He had appreciated that place. Ah, well.

At least he and most of the staff were alive. That was what mattered. Life was what mattered.

Garrison turned from the window to look at his guest. The cop. He liked this cop, and that was not something he could say for many of police force. Still, when someone saved your life, it was difficult not to feel some sort of liking. Officer Flagg was still drenched despite the towel wrapped around him. Still, he was in good condition, no serious injuries. He would probably expect to be checked at a hospital, and Garrison couldn't very well argue against that. But besides a few burns and singed hair, Officer Flagg looked respectably alive.

And had even remembered his manners to thank Garrison and his men profusely.

"I'm not a murderer," Garrison had said to that. "Despite any other actions."

Officer Flagg had accepted that.

Garrison figured they were equal, though one might question the equability between an emotional strangling and rescue from a bomb. But he wasn't going to quibble it. He would prefer to have the cop returned to the shore with the promise of silence and be done with the whole mess.

He did have to laugh. Maybe he shouldn't have released Kim Possible.

Shego decided she did not much care for the ocean. Or perhaps she had merely seen too much of it lately. And she didn't even get to intentionally damage the submarine.

"He's beautiful," Jackson said, smoothing down Brexton's hair.

"He is." Shego kissed Brexton's cheek.

The morning sun was creeping over the horizon, lighting up the grounds of Shego's apartment. Now what? Her son was back and she didn't even have to get Kimmie killed.

Maybe she missed the good old days of villainy.

And here was Jackson standing right next to her. Brilliant professor, nice guy. Son of a criminal. Damn cute and there had to be some evil in those genes. He had been pretty ruthless.

"Sorry about your bomb," she said.

He shrugged. "Well, we did get to see it in action. That has to count for something."

"Are you going to build another one?"

"Of course."

She smiled. "Wanna come up?"

"So this is it, then." The words sounded so weird coming out of his mouth. When had Ron ever planned on saying anything like them? They tasted horrible as well. And what was he meaning, exactly, when he said them? Hadn't he already wanted it to be over and done with? Hadn't he regretted it? So what was he saying right now?

It was a comfortable place to be having this conversation, sitting on the Possibles' living room couch. The rest of the family was gone. He was grateful for that. All he needed was Kim's parents chiming in with random phrases. Though they understood, didn't they? Hadn't they supported him and Monique this entire time? Wouldn't they understand?

Or did they expect him to dump Monique and take back up with Kim?

But these thoughts were all superficial. He already had the answers.

Kim nodded. She wasn't crying this time. Maybe she was all cried out. "This is it. I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry. There is nothing for you to be sorry about?"

"Letting a clone die for me?"

He couldn't help but laugh. "That wasn't your fault. Clone killer."

She laughed as well. Nothing forced. Like she actually thought he was funny. Well, she had put up with enough dumb jokes from him over the years. "Seriously, I like to think things would have ended up differently. You know, if things had gone differently."

"Maybe they would have." He took her hand. "I like to think that, too. I bet there is another parallel universe where we do wind up together."

"I just… I just can't do this to you and Monique. Mess everything up." She sighed and squeezed his hand. "I guess I had really awkward timing of showing up again, didn't I?"

"You have no idea."

For a long time she said nothing. Ron used to panic when girls didn't talk., but now… it was okay. It was not to break the silence that he said "You're still my best friend. You know that, right?"

She smiled. "I know. You are my best friend, too."

"That's not the "we're just going to be friends" line, is it?"

Another laugh and a shake of her head. She was looking so much healthier than she had been. Very pretty. "I don't think so. It's not to me, anyway. And that line was always a cliché."

He nodded. The line, at least, felt true. He could accept that.

"One more thing. For old times' sake." He knew Monique wouldn't mind. At least, he didn't think she would. He leaned forward and kissed Kim. She responded.

It was nothing like their other kisses of the past few days. Nothing passionate. Loving, definitely. He wouldn't expect anything else. Nice. Kissing Kim had always been nice. In fact, it was a wonderful kiss. Warm, soft, long, tender.

But there were no sparks.

Maybe that was a good thing.

"It's amazing," Monique said over the phone. "I'm a celebrity! I mean, it should be you, girl. You and you alone. Well, maybe Ron."

"Those kids are all under twelve, Monique," Kim replied.

"So they're naïve. Mystery explained."

"You did have a bullet in your leg. That's cool to kids."

"Not to Barkin. He just goes on and on with war wound stories. Mine is the equivalent of a paper cut."

Kim laughed. "He's still the same, isn't he?"

"He is. You need to come in and see him."

"I'll have to."

"By the way," Monique lowered her voice. "How are you doing?"

Kim paused. "It's been a couple of days. Still in shock, I guess. I've known Brick for years, so that's weird. It's like with Tara, but no surfacing of a Brick clone."

"I wonder what happened to that clone. But back to the point. I noticed something with you two."

"Maybe. I don't know what's what anymore."

"Don't worry. You're not expected to."

"I guess I'm just sad."

The door opened. "Babe?"

"Is that Ron?" Kim asked.

Monique grinned. Yes, it was Ron. Very much indeed. And she was thrilled. "Yeah. Want to talk to him?"

"Just tell him hi for me and that I'll talk to him later."

"Is it weird between you two?"

"Monique, I'm not going to let it get that way."

"I'm so glad."

Ron appeared, clutching a huge bouquet of carnations. "Who's that?"

"Kim. Who else? Are those for me?"

"I don't see any other girl laying up with a leg in a cast." He set down the flowers and kissed her.

"Sorry, Kim." She hung up the phone and kissed him back.

Kim hung up her end of the phone and smiled. It was odd that she was smiling when Ron was obviously kissing Monique, but she was. And she meant what she said. Things were not going to get weird. She wasn't just saying that.

It didn't feel that way. She had known Ron for too long for anything to get weird.

She fell back against the couch. Her mom was in the kitchen, cooking while watching a video of the last surgery she had performed. Her dad was in his office, tinkering away with who knew what. She closed her eyes and breathed in the smell of the house. This was home. She wasn't in a prison under the ocean. That place was gone. It felt gone, too. That was the nicest part of it. All gone and she knew it.

Something healed inside of her with that thought.

So Brick had gone with it. The bad part. Something had broken open inside of her.

She dwelt on the thought a minute. Another pain among many, but right now the biggest, the freshest. Monstrously huge. She had already cried over it plenty. Was it time to cry again?

There were so many other things to think about. Like, what now?

That did sound nice. Kim Possible. Back in action.

Maybe the sooner the better.

A knock on the door jarred her from her thoughts. She stood up and opened the door.

She nearly fainted, but the sensation passed and her arms were around Brick as she swore to herself she would kill him if he were a clone.

He hugged her back, nervously.

"I'm sorry," he rambled on. "I was at the hospital. Nothing big. But Garrison Wiles is so private, so weird about things… Then it turns out I was declared dead…"

The crying was going to start back up. She just hugged him all the tighter.

The End

Well, it took me forever and a day, but I did it!

Thank-you all who have read, supported, and given advice during this. You've been wonderful!

I apologize to anyone bothered by the ships. I really did imagine this was going to be a K/R fic. But… things happen, stories write themselves.

I know I did not clear up the Tara clone thing. I just couldn't bare to destroy the last evil trace of Tara in this fictional world.