Kim Possible: Another Sitch in Time

By Eoraptor

Kim Possible and all related characters © Walt Disney Corporation 2002-2007. This work is not for profit and solely for the enjoyment of the audience. Rated PG-13 for language and adult content. Reproduction or distribution of this work without the author's consent prohibited.

AN: This fic ignores the events of "So the Drama" and Season 4. Your might see an occasional 'borrowed' plot point from S4, but in general; assume that Ron and Kim never admitted their feelings, Kim never fought Warmonga, there was no Hana Stoppable, and Shego never became Miss Go.

It's been a few months since the last update; you might want to refresh yourself on the previous chapters before continuing. Thank you for your patience.

----- ----- ----- ----- -----

The Loade-Possible household had a rough night that night. Kim had another cryo-related issue; but since she simply refused to die, Wade was now calling them cryo-infarctions. Between her initial emotional state over her family, and then the excitement of talking to Monique, who promised to come see her that very weekend, and in finally finding out that she was worth somewhere in the high eight figures; Kimberly just couldn't handle it.

About nine o'clock that night Kim collapsed in a minor seizure that almost gave Joss a heart-attack. The rest of the long night was spent by a highly frazzled Wade trying to comfort both women, and himself. Finally, early in the morning, they managed to settle down to a fitful sleep.

"We have to start sticking to the schedule more carefully hon… Kim can't take it, and I'm beginning to wonder about you too." Wade squeezed his wife's hands as they sat across the brunch table after waking up late.

"Awwwe Pudgy… I know… I just had to tell her 'bout Ronnie's family though. I didn't 'spect her to get all wound up 'bout her own too." Joss's sea colored eyes were bloodshot from the short night's sleep, and she sighed as she sipped her coffee.

"Yeah… and I didn't expect Monique to spill the beans about her money either, that didn't help. I guess we're both at fault here." The big dark man shook his head softly and sighed.

"Well doll, ya'll couldn't have 'spected any of this, not no more than the rest of the world. Kim is Kim… Ron said that back when ya'll were getting started on this whole revival thing." She squeezed her husband's hand softly and sipped her coffee again, smiling warmly. "Everyone knows anything's Possible for a Possible. An it's only gonna get rougher from here, hon. Ah know she can handle it though, an' so can we."

Wade sighed softly and gave her a weary smile, "Yeah… I suppose so. I just wish he could have been here for her when she woke up."

"Well, Doc' dun told him to lay off those darn nacos of his." Joss chuckled sadly, sniffing back one small tear that threatened to fall into her mug. "Asides… you think Kim'd listened ta him that morning she woke up any more 'an she listened to you?"

"Maybe hon… Ron was one of the few people Kim ever listened to. Remember when she insisted on trying to charge in to Dementor's mountain stronghold to recover the Pan-dimensional Vortex Inducer?"

"Second or third time?"

The elderly programmer chuckled a bit and shook his head, "Third, I think… Anyways, Ron was the only one who could get her to slow down for five seconds and notice the laser grid and the trap-trap-trap."

"Oh yeah! Ah remember her tellin' me about that. I thought she was gonna kiss him or something when they came to the ranch an' she told that story." A warm smile of memory spread over Joss's face as she thought back. "Why they never got hitched up I'll never understand."

"Oh, like you never wanted Ron for yourself, Miss photo-bug. Wondering why they never got together like that? Sure you were…" Smirking and shaking his head, Wade finally took a sip of his own coffee, "It was like a sitcom with those two… I think Kim was waiting for some kind of sign, and Ron just never felt worthy of her that way."

"And you didn't want Cous' either?" Joss matched her husband's smirk with her own and shook her salt-and-cinnamon hair out. "Ah remember a certain husky little nerd's hidden picture files… triple encrypted they were."

Wade's charcoal skin took on a very faint pink and he chuckled, "I never should have taught you how to hack. But I think those two were sort of fated to be together… neither of us would have stood a chance with our little adolescent crushes. Besides, that's sixty plus years gone… and I'm very happy with the Possible woman I did win."

Joss laughed softly and leaned over, pecking her husband of fifty-one years on the lips softly. "Ya'll darned well better be! If you never taught me how to get in ta' computers, ya'll never would have found out 'bout Electronique's super-worm; and we never woulda ended up in that stock room that night." she winked playfully, "…an' remember, Ah can still whoop your butt if'n you start making googely eyes at a certain college girl."

"Making eyes at who?" A sleepy Kim finally made her way into the hotel suite's dining area from their conjoined rooms, led more by her coffee-hunting nose than by her bloodshot eyes or burning ears. She felt very haggard after her night, and weaker than usual thanks to the seizure and the meds that had followed it. Caffeine was needed badly.

"Oh! Ahem... good morning Kim!" Wade coughed and his dark cheeks took on even more rose tint as he looked anywhere but at the girl they had just been discussing. "Erm… just someone we both knew a while ago."

Jocelyn Loade eyed her husband wryly, wondering just how much the zombified Kim had heard or understood; she tried to resist the urge to needle Wade. "Coffee's on the warmer plate, cousin. There's continental breakfast too if'n ya'll dun want to wait to go out to lunch."

"Mmmrphh… lunch… but soon…" Kim managed to mumble around the mug already pressed to her lips. "I need to go out and get a dress or something anyways. If Monique is coming back in to town I need to at least pretend to be up on the fashions of the twenty-sixties."

-----

"Pudgy, have ya'll heard from Linny yet?"

Wade chuckled at his wife's pet name for him, even though he hadn't been considered 'pudgy' in decades. He shook his head slightly as they waited for Kim to come out of the dressing room. If they didn't hurry, they'd miss Monique's flight… four days and Kim still hasn't found an outfit she liked.

"No…" he sighed after a moment, again looking at his antique watch. Who wore wrist watches anymore, aside from an old fuddy duddy like Dr. Wade Loade? "I'm starting to wonder if maybe Harold didn't send her off on another story lead, but the post office said she signed for the letter a week ago."

"Ah swear, you an your 'letters!' Ya'll coulda just called like a normal person. And shame on her grandpa fer sendin' her out to relive his heroin' days like that!"

"Well, it's a reporter's life, hon. Harold and the other boys had a lot of adventures, and the public just eats that stuff up these days. You remember how well Kim's show did, and that was forty years ago. She still get's merchandising royalties, and Ron had to turn down a movie offer or two a while back, rest his soul."

Joss shook her head a bit and also stared at Wade's watch before continuing, "Well, Ah hope she decides to come see Kim. Cousin could use meetin' someone her own age."

"Or close to… Remember, Linnea is twenty-five, hon; Kim's only eighteen."

Kim finally stepped out of the booth, nervously doing a turn for 'grandma and grandpa' in her chosen outfit. "Well?"

"Ah dun believe it! Sixty Years and she still manages to find mission gear!" Joss clapped her hand lightly over her mouth to hide a pleasantly startled chuckle.

Wade stared, dumbfounded, as Kim turned. The cut of the outfit was a little different, but he could easily be looking at one of his old pictures and not a living, breathing Kim Possible. Black officer-style turtleneck, hidden-pocket khaki-colored cargo pants, and she'd even managed to find black fingerless gloves; which just happened to be back in style at the moment. A splash of color was provided by the red "winder" holding her hair in a loose pony tail, and the red metallic belt buckle on the military-style belt she'd picked out.

Kim mistook the boggled expression on Wade's face for disapproval and sighed, turning to go back in. "No good huh? Darn it!"

"N-no… No Kim, it's great! It's just…" Wade fumbled for words, trying to let her know what seeing her looking that way was like. "It's kind of a shock to see you… dressed like that… just like the old days."

The redhead blinked curiously, and then turned to look at herself in the full-length mirror, "Oh…! Oh gosh! I didn't realize! I'll change! I'm sorry!"

"Cousin, Wade and I think its fine… it's just a lil surprisin' is all…" Joss finally interjected after her mate had been sputtering for a few seconds and Kim was on the verge of retreating again to the dressing room and trying for the umpteenth time to find an outfit. "An besides… we ain't got time fer you to try more clothes."

The elderly woman rose and rested a hand on her shorter, younger cousin's shoulder, smiling softly, "Now, let's go already, huh?"

Kim blinked a bit confusedly as Joss and Wade just walked out, and then she remembered that there weren't any such things as cash registers in this store. The role of sales associate had long since been replaced by attendants who helped you pick out outfits, refolded items and stocked shelves, but couldn't once tell you how to make change for a twenty if they tried. You just touched your 'com to a bar on the wall when you entered and anything you left with was charged to your personal account automatically.

Of course Kim's 'account' happened to contain eighty-nine-point-three million dollars, so it wasn't like she'd be taxing her piggy bank, even if she decided to leave with half the store rather than just the one outfit.

There was a faint but audible beep as they exited the store, letting Kim know that her "purchase" had been registered correctly, and she just shook he head. Would the wonders of modern convenience never cease?

-----

As it was, Joss, Kim, and Wade arrived just in time to meet a heavy set, elderly black woman in a vibrant red and blue sun dress coming out of the debarkation area. Kim yelped softly when she saw how green Monique looked and ran up to her, "You look horrible Mo, was the flight that bad!?"

Monique LaRey Jenkins Browne Renton, for her part, was stuck in an awkward spot. Her mind was reeling from the sight before her, a girl sixty years out of time; while at the same time, her stomach was complaining about the ninety seven minute flight from Canberra to Upperton, especially the zero-G portion. After a long moment of being looked at concernedly by Kim, she managed to get herself under control, save for the tears rolling down her worn, leathery cheeks. "Ooooh! Look at you girlfriend! Just look at you! Never in my life have I seen…"

Kim found herself seized up in a surprisingly strong hug and swung around slightly by her now elderly and heavyset best friend. She giggled eagerly, relishing in being spun about and hugging tightly back. "No! Look at you! You look just like meema LaRey!"

Monique gave the redhead a playfully offended look, setting her down again and looking to Wade and Joss, "You let her run around insulting her elders like that? I don't look a day over twenty!"

Joss snickered and Wade rolled his eyes slightly. Of all the old gang, the years had been most telling on Monique. She looked a lot closer to her full eighty years than she cared to admit, with her heavy set body and alabaster hair dyed to its once natural black.

By the twinkle in Joss's ocean green eyes, it was clear that the auburn haired woman was on the verge of correcting the thrice-grandmother on her appearance.

"I swear… you women are impossible." Monique cut Mrs. Loade off with a chiding glance and word.

"Monique! Are you going senile!? It's pronounced Kim Possible!"

"Little Girl! I know you did not just say that to me."

The redhead stuck her tongue out at her elderly friend. The now much heavier woman mimicked the childish gesture and laughed loudly. Joss and Wade watched the years literally melt from the senior's face and caught a ghostly glimpse of the slender, fashionable teenager Kim still saw through her colored memories. It was a disorienting, strange sensation to suddenly see the eyes of an eighteen year old girl peering from the rounded face of an octogenarian grandmother.

Most of the ride home in Wade' car was filled with reminiscing on Kim's part; and rapt, giggling agreement by Monique, much to the Loades' relief. Thankfully for Kim's adopted caretakers, the girl was too enraptured with her best friend and the old days to pry in to current events.

Riding in Wade's "car" was still pretty disconcerting for Kim, even after three weeks. It was a car unlike any she was used to being in, and another sign of how out of date she'd become by virtue of leaving and living in the freezer for sixty one years. On the outside, it was essentially an upright roughly square box; and the only way for Kim to tell which was the front and which was the back end was that the front lights were white while the rear ones were red.

The inside was what was really distracting and a little discomforting. The car had a steering wheel, brakes, and an accelerator pedal, but they were there more as an after-thought. All four seats actually faced inwards to the center of the car, mounted on swivels so that each could turn to face the other three. The large panoramic windows were made of the same material as the screen-window found in Kim's hospital room, capable of changing from transparent "glass" to television displays. Wade usually left them clear, much to Kim's unease. She really didn't like, nor was she used to, watching the world go by in anything other than a facing-forward position. Now she routinely saw it go by in either a sideways or backwards fashion, with no one actually controlling the "car."

Wade had explained one day that driving now no a necessity, and was much less a pass-time and more an enthusiasts' hobby. As such, while all cars still had manual controls like steering wheels and brakes and whatnot, they were driven by the computer most of the time. The positive upshot of this was that auto accidents were all but extinct, since the cars didn't get distracted or bored, didn't worry about the weather, and never panicked or made over-corrections. Plus they could see and hear in conditions far beyond what their human occupants could and could react infinitely faster, which meant even in the country and in foul weather, problems were virtually non-existent.

Wade didn't say it, but Kim assumed that if the cars could see in infrared and react in fractions of a second, that deer strikes like the one that had led her to this time and place were also probably a thing of the past. She wasn't sure how to feel about that. It was a fabulous thing, but she couldn't help but feel sick and jealous that such a development had come decades too late for her and daddy.

By the end of the drive, the stress of riding in any auto, especially one which no one was controlling; Kim was again subconsciously rubbing her left temple, caressing the phantom hoof print as she talked with Monique.

A few hours later, as Kim and Monique made their way out for dinner, walking alone, Kim was still rubbing that spot concernedly, "Monique, what can you tell me about where my money came from?"