Kim Possible sat before a darkened computer monitor, clenching her fists so hard that her knuckles turned white. She was furious, as angry as she could ever remember being, filled with the kind of rage she only experienced when a villain interfered with her personal life. What the auburn-haired teen hero had just learned was heart-breaking: she had been manipulated and betrayed by someone she trusted implicitly, someone she loved and respected. She wished she were wrong, but there was no disputing the evidence, which she had reviewed twice, from start to finish, as painful as that had been.

Knowing the time to deal with this ugly sitch had arrived, Kim ejected the DVD from her computer. She looked at the disk with disgust, holding it at arm's length as if it were toxic, and then deliberately placed it in its plastic case. She then rose from her chair, made her way down the stairs from her loft, and proceeded to the living room, where her father was watching a football game on his giant plasma-screen TV.

"Dad? Do you have a moment?" she asked.

James Possible, upon hearing his daughter's voice, paused the game and turned to face her. "Of course, Kimmie-cub, what is it?"

"This," she said evenly as she handed him the DVD case which was labeled "Kim's Memory Album." "Would you care to sitch me?"

James looked at the DVD, then at his daughter. He'd never seen her so angry before. He pursed his lips, then sighed. "I thought we could enjoy some more father-daughter bonding if you were a Captain Constellation fan …"

The stunned look on Kim's face caught James by surprise. He held up his hands in placation.

"… I know, I know," he said. "It was wrong of me. I'm sorry."

Kim gawped at him for moment. "I so cannot believe this!" she exploded. "You are so flawed!"

James' expression hardened. "Now just a moment, young lady—"

"No," Kim said, harshly interrupting her father. "Don't you 'just a moment' me. Not after what you did," she said, her voice trembling with rage. "I've watched this two times, in slow motion, and there isn't a single image of me and Ron as a couple. Not one!"

"Well, there was only so much that could be fit onto the disk," James said defensively.

"You were able to cram in three years of TV trash but not one stinkin' picture of me with my BF?" she responded with incredulity.

"Ronald was there," James protested.

"But not as my boyfriend," Kim countered sharply. "Watching that, nobody would ever know we'd been dating for six months. I didn't know." She locked eyes with her father before demanding, simply, "Why?"

James forced himself to hold Kim's steady gaze. He sat quietly, gripping the DVD. "I felt it would be better if you and Ronald weren't dating."

"Excuse me?" she said, unable to believe her father had confirmed her darkest fear.

"Kim, I know that you and Ron have been friends since you were four and that you save the world together. But you're going to graduate from high school next year."

"So?"

"You have your entire future ahead of you."

"And Ron's going to be a part of that!"

"Which is why you didn't bother to tell him that you were applying to three colleges overseas," James retorted.

Kim's face reddened. "That was my bad," she said. "I should have talked with Ron about my apps. Anyway, I have, and I've applied to a lot of other schools since then, including a lot here in the States."

"I see," James said thoughtfully as he steepled his fingers. "Tell me: what happens if you get a full scholarship to that university in Hong Kong and Ronald's only option is to go to Middleton Community College? Are you going to walk away from that opportunity to stay with him or will you go to Asia?"

"I don't know," she admitted, not wanting to confront the possibility of being away from her best friend boyfriend for four years – but also not wanting to compromise on her college dreams.

"Kimmie-cub, I know how important Ron's friendship is to you. I don't want you to lose that," James said gently. "I thought this would help you avoid the trauma of a break-up. It's hard staying friends with someone you've dated."

"Dad, I'm not breaking up with Ron," Kim said. "We'll make things work."

"A long distance relationship isn't an easy thing," he said.

"Maybe, but I thought anything was possible for a Possible."

"It is," James said. He took a deep breath and looked like he was about to attempt leaping over the abyss. "Including making a mistake."

"Thanks for admitting that," Kim said, her relief evident; she didn't like being angry with her father.

James blinked. "Admitting what?"

"That you made a mistake."

"Oh, I wasn't referring to that," James said blithely. "I was talking about you planning on a future with Ronald."

"What?!"

"Don't get me wrong: I have tremendous respect for Ron. He's like a, well, a very hungry third son to me. But he's not exactly, well …" James shifted uncomfortably in his chair.

"What?" Kim said coldly. "Ron's not exactly what?"

James threw up his hands. "Ronald's not exactly a candidate for president of the Super Genius Cerebellum Society."

Kim crossed her arms and glared at James. "And that matters why?"

"Look, I don't mean to sound like a brain snob, but don't you want someone who's more of an intellectual equal? I mean, just look at your mother and me. We're great together and we've produced progeny just overflowing with gray matter."

"Ewww," Kim said with a grimace before she recovered from an unwanted mental image. "Dad, let's get a couple of things straight. First, I don't know what's going to happen with Ron and me in the future. We're only seventeen. It's not like we're planning on getting married or anything …"

"Well, that's a relief," James said.

"… But there's something you have to know. When I got my memory back, I not only remembered that Ron was my boyfriend but I told him I thought I loved him. I can't tell you how ferociously happy I was when I said that."

"I see," James said. "So you think you love Ronald?"

"No," Kim said with a smile. "I know I love him. Admitting it, though, was so the drama."

"How so?" James asked, genuinely curious.

"Because being in love means your take-charge, likes-to-be-in-control daughter is vulnerable."

"Why the concern now? You've dated other boys before. "

"True. But I never loved Josh. And Eric was such the infatuation. Ron's different. It's wonderful but it's scary," Kim said. "We've been best friends for thirteen years but now it's all different. It's ferociously weird – we're closer than we've ever been even though we spend less time with each other because of our jobs and his being on the football team while I'm on the cheer squad."

"How do you feel about that?"

Kim shrugged. "I wish we had more time to be with each other. But I'm so proud of him and what he's done this year. Who would have thought Ron 'Marinating' Stoppable would be doing laps and reps for Mr. Barkin and working for one of the world's five richest men? It just makes being together that much more special."

Kim knelt before her father. Given the fury she had directed towards him just a short while before, he was surprised when she took his hands in hers.

"Dad, I know Ron's not perfect. He's never going to be class valedictorian and he's never, ever going to be normal. When it comes to the ins and outs of dating he can be so dense sometimes. I still can't believe how many times he took me to that stupid claw machine at the mall. And those coupons!" She shook her head. But then she smiled. "But he's learning. He does some really sweet things …"

"Like not saying anything when you ate that bouquet he gave you after you lost your memory?"

"Exactly," she said with a knowing smirk. Soon her expression softened. "We're both learning, Dad. I know we're going to make mistakes. We're going to hurt each other. But I love him and he loves me. I honestly don't know what will happen next year. For all I know, Mr. Smarty will ask Ron to transfer to Tokyo. Then I can freak about Yori."

"Yori?"

"Beautiful, way-too-perfect ninja who's been eyeing Ron since junior year," Kim said. "I so don't trust her."

"But you trust Ron."

Kim nodded. "With my life – and with my heart. I can't explain it. I know people don't always get us. I've seen the stories on-line, the snarky comments that Ron's not good enough for me, that I should be with some hottie. But Ron's not only good enough for me, he's right for me. With him, I feel more, well, me. That he's a ferociously good kisser makes the whole sitch that much sweeter."

James' brow furrowed. "Maybe it's time for me to begin designing that deep space probe I talked about when you and Ronald went on your first date."

Kim groaned. "Dad, it's perfectly normal for me and my BF to kiss."

"Oh, I know that," he said, surprising her. "I was thinking about me."

"Okay, now you've lost me."

"Kim, that night, I told Ronald that I wanted you to be happy and said that if he did anything to make you otherwise, it was going to be a one-way trip to deep space." James sighed. "Well, it seems like I'm the one who's earned passage to a black hole. What I did was wrong. You're a bright, talented young woman who knows what she wants and what she needs in a romantic partner and I should have respected that. Instead, I hurt you. I owe you – and Ronald – an apology."

Kim looked at her contrite father. She was still upset with him and knew it was going to take a long time before she'd be able to get over what he'd done. That, however, didn't mean she couldn't forgive him. "Apology accepted," she said, gently squeezing his hands as she spoke. "Just promise that you won't ever, ever do anything like this again."

"Promise," James said with a chuckle.

"Spankin'" Kim said as she rose to her feet. "Well, I should jet. Ron and I are going to meet for dinner at Bueno Nacho."

"I'd rather you didn't," James said, catching his daughter off guard. Before she could protest, he reached into his pocket, withdrew his wallet and pulled out his credit card. "Why don't you and Ronald go somewhere special tonight, my treat."

"Dad, you don't have to—"

"No, but I want to."

"Thanks," she said, taking the proffered plastic. "It'll be nice to go to Chez Couteaux knowing that Ron won't be breaking the bank."

"Ronald pays?"

"Mr. Let's-Use-a-Coupon-and-Can-I-Borrow-a-Fiver has insisted on paying for every one of our fancy dinner dates since he got his job at Smarty Mart."

James nodded approvingly. "So, Ronald is a gentleman," he observed.

"Even better, he's my guy," Kim said, her smile speaking volumes of how much it meant to her that her tow-headed sidekick and lifelong best friend was her beau.

"Well, have fun tonight," James said.

"We will," Kim replied. She then turned to leave the room. She stepped into the hall, then looked back over her shoulder. "Dad?"

"Yes?"

"That episode where Captain Constellation and Sub-Commander Supernova travel back to the World's Fair and stop the Gormmetanians—"

"You mean Grommetites," he said pedantically. "The Gorme …"

Kim's arched eyebrow encouraged James to abandon his excursion into the finer points of fictional interstellar ethnography.

"What about it?" he said.

"I'm still so not the fan ... but I might watch that one again," she said with a playful smile. Then she turned and sprinted to her room so she could call her BF with the news about the change in their dinner plans.

James, meanwhile, sat quietly, considering the remarkable conversation he had just had with his daughter. He eventually turned his gaze to the memories DVD, which now sat in his lap. He looked at the disk and pondered what to do. It wasn't long before the perfect course of action presented itself. He rose from his chair and made his way to the garage where he found Jim and Tim working on one of their projects. "Boys," he said, "How about we blow something up?"

Many thanks to campy for proofreading this story. A Captain Constellation DVD would be in the mail if such a thing existed …

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