A New Page

XX

Midnight had passed and Annie had already been put to bed, but the Possible family and their two guests were still chatting in the living room. Monique had called earlier to tell Kim that she was going to take the tour of Middleton and hang out with Josh a little more. Seeing as Kim had totally forgotten about her friend until getting the holo-call, she was relieved that Monique only looked a little peeved at being left behind.

Kim yawned as she listened to Junior telling a tale of his escapades in the music industry. Had she or Bonnie been given the choice, Bonnie would have left already and Kim would be fast asleep, but their two husbands were keeping the conversation going well into the night.

"And so after we regained our consciousness the next afternoon," Junior said as he finished his tale, "we finally found Britina in the bushes below her third story bedroom window. Do not worry - she was alright, other than the two sprained wrists from the handstand the night before, but it was quite the out of control album release party, let me assure you!"

Ron laughed uproariously at the tale, while James Possible frowned a little disapprovingly at its conclusion. Anne noticed her husband's expression and rolled her eyes, laughing with her son-in-law.

"So what about you, Bonnie?" asked Kim's mother. "You've been fairly quiet all evening. We know what Junior does, but what do you do? I personally thought you showed some aptitude for the medical field when you shadowed me during that career study you had in high school."

"Me?" Bonnie seemed a bit flustered by the question, but collected herself quickly. "I'm a radio talk show host."

Junior smiled as he wrapped his arm around his wife. He was used to her using that excuse around anyone they did not know well. Kim watched the two of them and caught Bonnie giving her a strange look: not anger or impetuousness, but nervousness. As if Bonnie was waiting to see whether or not Kim would contradict her and reveal what she really did. Kim was fairly sure her parents knew about Junior's father being one of her old supervillain foes, but she didn't think they were aware of Bonnie's activities since high school. She had complained about her high school nemesis as a teen, to be sure, but she hadn't really mentioned Bonnie much since then.

"Radio talk show host," James mused. "Didn't think anyone listened to the radio anymore."

Kim felt the urge to strike down Bonnie's lie for the second time that evening, but something made her hesitate. Both she and Bonnie had been fairly quiet ever since they left the reunion; being anywhere near each other after the events of the evening was tense and awkward. The few times Bonnie had said anything, however, was when she had been talking to Anne. Kim wondered if Bonnie had some kind of respect for her mother that she was not aware of. She remembered Bonnie shadowing her mother during the job fair, but Anne certainly hadn't mentioned it since then. Whatever was the cause of Bonnie's strange expression, Kim finally decided she wouldn't say anything.

Junior's music industry tales had come to an end, and even Ron was starting to look a little tired, although he was still nibbling on a slice of pizza left over from what they had ordered earlier that night. The lull in conversation seemed to suggest to everyone in the living room that the night was drawing to a close. Bonnie took the opportunity to get up from the recliner she was sitting in. Her husband joined her.

"Well, I think we're going to start our trip home. It's a ways away, after all."

"It's pretty late," said Anne. "You two are welcome to stay the night. I'm sure Ron will be cooking breakfast for everyone in the morning," she said, winking at her son-in-law as she volunteered him into cooking duty.

Bonnie didn't want to deal with waking up and spending the morning around Kim, even though she was tempted by the memory of Ron's cooking in high school. She politely declined the offer.

"It was nice catching up, Ron," said Junior as he shook his old foe's hand.

"You too. I'll keep an eye out for your next album."

"Oh, that reminds me!" Junior pulled a card out of his pants pocket and handed it to Ron. "If you ever happen to be traveling through Europe – maybe with Kim on one of those silly crime-fighting missions of yours – feel free to drop by one of my performances. That is a VIP pass, with locations and dates, and even a ten percent discount on tickets!"

"Wow! Thanks dude!"

Ron looked awed at the gift, even though Kim thought ten percent was a fairly laughable discount. She escorted Junior and Bonnie to the front door with her family, and before Bonnie stepped out onto the driveway, she turned awkwardly back to Kim, unsure of whether to say goodbye or give her the cold shoulder.

"Um, well," she began, "This was interesting."

"Yeah."

A cool night breeze brushed past Bonnie, making her shiver. She looked back at her hovercar, which her husband had already entered to avoid the cold, and remembered the accident earlier. Fortunately their car had barely sustained a dent, which was more than she could say for Ron and Kim's heap of a car. Still, Bonnie felt a tiny, barely perceptible twinge of guilt – almost an invisible twinge, really - when she thought about how Kim had covered for her real profession around Anne Possible.

Bonnie remembered seeing Anne's career as a neurosurgeon as a teen and being very impressed. Anne had been very friendly and encouraging mentor, giving her tips on her future, telling her that she was quite the perceptive observer. The day had stuck in Bonnie's mind for some reason. Not that she was ashamed of what she did, and she certainly wouldn't apologize for it. But she supposed she didn't want Anne to criticize her. Bonnie grudgingly admitted that maybe she owed Kim - just a little.

"Uh, look, I don't know who was at fault in that accident, but Junior's right about the hovercar being pretty cool. You guys should get one. And I guess since I'm filthy rich, I can spare a few bucks to help you along. Don't thank me or anything, K. I'm just trying to be charitable."

Kim gaped at the comment as Bonnie fished a bill out of her wallet, slapped it in Kim's hand, gave the rest of the Possible family a hasty goodbye, and got into the hovercar with her husband. She looked down at the bill incredulously as the hovercar reversed out of the driveway and ripped down the street at breakneck speed. The peace and quiet in the neighborhood would have been shattered by the squealing of tires, had electro-buoys sounded anything like tires.

"What'd she give you?" Ron asked, sidling up to his wife and staring at her palm.

"A twenty."

"Man, it's like we're winning the lottery tonight!"

XX

The smell of Ron's indescribably good cooking filled every nook and cranny of the kitchen. Kim and her family waited in anticipation for Ron to finish making breakfast. It was the morning after the class reunion, and while some of the events of the night before still grated on Kim's nerves, her anticipation of breakfast was erasing all of that. Bonnie and Junior were already gone, Bonnie having insisted that they leave the night before. Monique also sat at the table, still a little miffed that she had been forced to bum a ride off Josh leaving the school in order to get to Kim's house.

"Sorry again for forgetting about you, Monique," said Kim.

"Yeah, sure."

Monique wasn't actually that angry, but she still felt like toying with her friend a little. Kim had already been apologizing profusely ever since Monique got dropped off at the Possible house late last night, and Josh had defused some of her indignation during the Middleton tour before she could take it out on her best friend. Still, acting peeved was providing her with a some extra morning entertainment.

"I'm kind of surprised you invited your old cheerleading rival to visit us, Kimmie-cub," said James Possible as he sipped his cup of coffee with a chuckle. "The way you complained about her back then, we thought we'd never hear the end of it!"

Normally, Kim was used to the fact that her father still used the childhood term of endearment to refer to her after all these years. This morning, however, it was a little annoying when combined with his false accusation.

"You're the one who invited them into the house, dad."

"She's right, honey," said Anne.

James frowned and put his cup down as he recollected the previous night.

"Hmm. I suppose you're right. I thought if you were getting a ride home with her, you must have gotten along with her at the reunion. I assumed that maybe you mended some broken fences."

"Not when I was forced to get a ride from them because someone broke our car."

Kim raised her voice at the end of her sentence, and a startled clatter from the kitchen counter indicated that Ron knew exactly who his wife was referring to.

"She didn't seem like the type you would expect to be a radio talk show host," said James. "I would have thought that would actually take quite a lot of hard work, and, well," - James thought about how to put it - "she didn't look like the working type. Her husband certainly wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, either."

"He's not gonna be curing cancer anytime soon, but he was a lot cooler than I remembered him," Ron said in Junior's defense. He turned off the stove and began piling his breakfast on plates for everyone at the table. After serving was finished, he grabbed his own plate and sat down with everyone.

"Junior isn't very bright," Kim agreed with her father, "but Bonnie's smarter than she first appears. She's shallow, completely self-absorbed, but she could be clever when she needed to be, even in high school. She just never applied herself. I guess after she graduated, she got a bit of a work ethic."

Kim thought about Bonnie's choice of career with a smirk. Being an international criminal probably did take a work ethic, even if it was applied to doing bad things. Kim didn't feel like spending the whole morning talking about Bonnie, however. Instead, she gave Monique an inquisitive look as she began to eat her scrambled eggs.

"So Monique, I saw you were hitting it off with Josh last night. Are we talking new boyfriend material?"

Monique, always eager to partake in a little gossip even if she happened to be personally involved, was about to relate all the juicy details of the previous night when she noticed Annie stumble into the kitchen, apparently just waking up at the smell of her father's cooking.

"Bacon?" asked Annie, her bleary eyes immediately brightening as she sniffed the air.

Perhaps her story wasn't exactly Annie-friendly. Not to mention that she wasn't sure just how much Kim's parents would enjoy the story. She frowned a little as she sat back in her chair, realizing that maybe she would have to hold onto some of the details for later.

"Uh, it went alright. He's a charmer, I'll give you that. But I don't think either of us are interested in anything too serious."

"No?"

Kim smiled at her friend. She was used to Monique avoiding anything too serious, but Kim liked to nudge her in the direction of guys she thought would work for her. "It's not the end of the world if you actually get a serious boyfriend, you know. I mean, Josh would sure be an improvement compared to that last guy. What was his name? Don?"

"Uh, I don't even remember," Monique laughed.

"Well, my point exactly. I bet you'd like Josh if you gave him a chance. And Wade could look him up in ten seconds, you know, if you didn't already get his number last night."

Monique rolled her eyes. "Yeah, with his amazing phone book reading technology. We'll see, okay?"

Kim grinned as she went back to her food. She knew that was the best she'd get from Monique.

The breakfast was interrupted by the doorbell ringing. Ron got up to answer it, knowing who was arriving, and came back to the kitchen with his parents. Mr. and Mrs. Stoppable had moved out of Middleton a long time ago, but being an actuary, Dean's job took him to many different places, and they had time to stop by and say hello while passing through town.

"Hey guys!" Kim said as she gave everyone a hug.

"Hello, Kim," Mr. Stoppable said. "Has Ronald talked to you about the hovercar yet? I've been doing some research and it might actually be a wise investment."

Mrs. Stoppable shook her head. "His friend George bought one, and he decided it looks neat."

"Gotcha."

Ron got a few more plates of breakfast for his family, having made a lot in anticipation of their stopping by in the morning, and they sat down to eat.

"How's Hana's training program going?"

"We know about as much as you do," Ron's father said. "They're keeping her very busy over there at Yamanouchi, and she doesn't like to give us too many details. But she sounds like she's enjoying herself, and she said she was looking forward to getting a break and visiting the two of you."

Ron looked a little disappointed at not getting any more about of Hana, but he knew the program was fairly secretive. He still kept in touch with Yori, Sensei – who seemed to live forever – and Hirotaka, but he hadn't visited Yamanouchi in years, and he was no longer the monkey master he had once been.

Experiencing the power he had wielded as he fought the Warlordians after graduation - and seeing the consequences of that power - had brought a heavy weight on Ron's conscience for a long time. Finally, he had decided that he did not want to follow Sensei's path. The wizened old teacher had understood Ron's reservations, but Ron could tell he was disappointed. Ron's connection with Yamanouchi had been strained afterwards, although it had gotten better over time. Hana, however, was on a semester-long training and exchange program in Yamanouchi, following her own path. Where that path was taking her, Ron did not yet know. But he had faith that his sister would excel in whatever she chose to do.

"She said she'd be interested in taking on Aviarius with Kim sometime, and she heard that there were some nice clothing boutiques in Go City," Ron's father continued.

"Nope," Monique said with a grin. "They all stink."

Everyone around the table fell into a brief silence as they focused on digging into Ron's delicious breakfast. Kim was enjoying a bite of her hash browns when she suddenly remembered something from the reunion that she had forgotten to tell Ron. She swallowed her bite, deciding that it was better to tell him sooner rather than later, even though it wasn't the best way to thank him for such a good meal.

"Hey Ron."

"Yes?"

"Um, I was talking to Mr. Barkin during the reunion in the gym, and it's kind of a long story, but..." Kim thought about how to delicately broach the news to her husband, gave up, and went for the direct approach. "Well, he might be moving to Go City and getting a job there and hanging out with us a lot."

"WHAT?"

XX

A couple of days had passed since the reunion, and Bonnie and Junior were back in their palace-villa-lair combination residence. Bonnie was glad to be home. After all, she thought, there's no place like home. She remembered some poverty-stricken rural girl saying it in a movie she saw a long time ago. Why the girl had said it, Bonnie had no idea, seeing as she would rather die than live in the character's home – it was so tiny that a tornado had sent the whole thing flying straight into the air, for God's sake - but the quote worked in Bonnie's situation.

She lay back in her massive water bed and looked at the bright blue sky outside the open balcony doors. A cool breeze blew into the bedroom, ruffling a glass vase of daffodils on her dresser that she had ordered a few henchmen to pick for her that morning. She had no work scheduled for today, and she was enjoying a lazy morning in bed. Junior was in the shower, humming one of the songs on his second album. The sound of his moderately competent singing reminded her of the karaoke at the reunion. Junior had seemed to enjoy the reunion, even though he didn't really know anyone there very well besides Kim and Ron. Bonnie was undecided about whether she had enjoyed it or not.

Things certainly hadn't gone the way she planned. She had expected to be the center of attention at the reunion, just like she was in high school, and yet no one had paid much attention to her. It didn't help that Kim had immediately outed her criminal escapades – not that Bonnie was ashamed of them, but she knew her classmates would hold it against her. All in all, she hadn't been able to lord her life over her old classmates, least of all Kim.

Kim Possible. Still little miss perfect – or Mrs. perfect now, Bonnie reminded herself. Still trying to be the best at everything. Now there was a person who hadn't changed one bit since high school. Bonnie had thought she would gain some pleasure out of seeing Kim at the reunion. In some part of her mind, she had expected that Kim's freak fighting and her association with the likes of Ron Stoppable would have dragged her down in life, but it didn't look like that had happened. Seeing Kim again had been largely unsatisfying.

And yet, that daughter of hers had been interesting. Bonnie had almost enjoyed talking to Annie, even though she normally didn't talk to children. She couldn't help but admit there was something adorable about the girl. Junior seemed to like her, too. He had been playing with all of the kids at the reunion, actually. Something about the way her husband had gotten along with them so well, something about watching Junior with Annie and that child of Brick and Justine's – it had set off a spark in her. Bonnie had been thinking about that part of the reunion ever since the two of them had left Kim Possible's house.

The sound of water running in the shower stopped as Junior finished up. He came out after a moment, clad only in a towel around his waist and a smaller one wrapped around his head. Bonnie snorted at the sight – she had no idea why Junior felt the need to wrap a towel around his head when he barely had any hair. Junior flopped down on the bed beside her, almost launching her into the air as the water rippled beneath them.

"Did you enjoy the reunion, my dear?"

"It was alright."

Bonnie's thoughts strayed back to her brief stay at Kim Possible's house. Being around Kim had been awkward, and her father's sense of humor had that good-natured corny quality that grated on Bonnie's nerves. Again, Annie had been cute enough before she went to bed, although Bonnie guessed that she would probably grow up to be a pain like her mother someday. Still, they were all clearly happy together. They were a happy family.

Bonnie and Junior, along with Señor Senior Senior, were also a family. One to which Bonnie had grown very attached, despite the many foibles of Junior and his father. She loved Junior, and he and his father had been there for her during a rough time in her life. After she had finished high school, she had found herself with no idea of what to do with herself. Bonnie had tried college on for size, but the experience had been very different than what she was expecting, and ultimately it hadn't worked out. What was more, all of her popularity, all the social connections she had enjoyed in high school, seemed to melt away as she grew up. It had been a shock to her system when she realized so much of what she had taken for granted about her identity had been so insubstantial and meaningless in the end. But Junior and his father had been there for her.

Señor Senior Senior had taken her under his wing, confiding in her that his son did not seem very interested in his line of work. He trained her in the art of villainy and gave her something to do in her life. Something beyond sunbathing and shopping, as much as she loved those activities. He had given her skills and abilities that made her proud. Although Bonnie's criminal activities were a little more subtle than those of her father-and-law, his help and advice had been invaluable.

Her father-in-law was ridiculously wealthy, and after the money they sunk into trying to force Junior into the music industry, his albums were making a small profit. But thanks to Senior's help, Bonnie could also make her own way in life if she wanted to. She was not dependent.

So Bonnie had a family that she appreciated, a family that made her happy. But when she had gone to the high school reunion and seen Kim with her family, Bonnie had realized that there could be an addition. An addition that would definitely please Junior's father, for one thing.

What if Bonnie chose to have a child? Could she raise a child? Bonnie thought she would be a good mother – certainly better than her incompetent sisters - and she could provide for a child. But then, what about her career? Hijacking, money laundering, scams, a number of other things – was a life of crime really what she wanted to teach to her child?

Bonnie had no moral qualms about what she did, but she didn't like the idea of her child going to jail if she chose her mother's path in life. She didn't like the idea of going to jail herself, either, but she knew that wouldn't happen. Kim Possible would never catch her, much as Kim might think otherwise. Bonnie wasn't blatantly obvious like Kim's regular foes were. She had subtlety. On the off chance that she and Junior did go to jail, though - theoretically speaking of course - that would leave her daughter without parents to raise her. Put into a stranger's care, probably.

Kim Possible could never convince her to make different choices in life, but just the sight of Annie was making her start to question things. She liked what she did, but maybe she didn't have to do it forever. Maybe people did change a little sometimes, after all. There were a lot of pages left in the book of Bonnie Rockwaller's life.

Bonnie smirked. There was something amusing about the thought that she might be defeated, not by Kim Possible, but by her own biological clock.

"Hey, Junior."

Junior looked up from the fashion magazine he had been reading.

"Look at this! There is an article about Monique in this-"

"Junior, listen."

Her husband put the magazine away and shifted on the bed to face her.

"Yes, my love?"

"Let's have a kid."

A moment of silence that filled the bedroom was quickly replaced by the sound of Junior's laughter. "I have not heard you use this new way of seducing me, Bonnie," he said, "but it is interesting."

"I'm serious. What do you think about it?"

Junior thought for a moment. He knew his father had been haranguing Bonnie about grandchildren for a long time now, but he had always been under the impression that his wife wasn't interested. Had his father managed to change her mind?

"I do not know. Tell me, is this just to compete with Kim Possible, since she has a little child of her own?"

"What? No. Of course not."

The two of them fell into another awkward silence as Bonnie was forced to consider Junior's question more closely. Maybe it was just another way to compete with Kim. That was the one obvious thing Kim had that Bonnie didn't, after all – a child. Bonnie did enjoy the mental image of herself walking into a 30 year class reunion with her husband and daughter. A daughter who was much more well-groomed, well-dressed, and attractive than Kim's daughter, of course.

The more she thought about it, though, the more she realized it wasn't just about competing with Kim. Or maybe that was a part of it, but it was something deeper than that. Something bigger. She just wanted a child.

And she wasn't worried about going down the same path in life that Connie and Lonnie had followed – she knew Junior had his faults, but he had stuck by her ever since the two of them had fallen in love. It took them a long time to get married, but Junior was faithful to her.

Sometimes, in moments of unusual self-perception, Bonnie recognized that she could be hard to get along with. She was who she was, and she liked who she was, but she could drive people away. Not Junior though. He shrugged off Bonnie's abuse like it was nothing, even when she was at her worst. She knew he loved her for who she was. And as borderline-incompetent as he could be sometimes, after seeing the way he acted around Kim's daughter at the reunion, Bonnie had no doubts that he would love their child as well.

"I've decided, Junior. We're making a baby."

"We are?"

"Yes."

Another breeze rolled in from the ocean outside of their open balcony, rustling the white drapes that framed the glass doors, twisting and turning its way through the room. Bonnie was wearing a gossamer nightgown, and the cool ocean air traveled over it like invisible feathers on her body. Her back arched imperceptibly at the feeling, and she looked at her husband with a twitch of her lips.

"We're making a baby, now."

Junior looked at Bonnie in confusion. "I am sorry to tell you, Bonnie, but I watched a show on the Knowing Network and they said it takes nine months to have a child."

Bonnie reached out and snaked her arm around Junior, rolling closer to him as the water bed rippled silently beneath them. She leaned over her husband. Hair tickled his face. Tanned skin brushed against his sculpted body as the breeze slipped between them. The ice-cold sensation of her diamond necklace pressed against Junior as she leaned in for a kiss.

"Oh. Now I see what you mean."

XX

Kim sat on the edge of the bed and leafed through the pages of one of her high school yearbooks. She had enjoyed the reunion – Bonnie's presence notwithstanding – and she had enjoyed stopping by her parent's house and chatting with them, but she was happy to be home. Ron would be going back to work again tomorrow, and Kim had a consulting job with a security firm, but today, they had the day off. Ron sat beside her and looked at the yearbook photos as she flipped through the book.

"Look how much different he looked," he said as he pointed to a photo of Brick.

"That was pretty shocking. And I don't think I heard him say 'dude' even once!"

Their reminiscing was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Come on in, Annie."

Their daughter opened the door and came in, hopping on the bed beside her parents. Annie looked at the yearbook with interest as Kim flipped the next page to arrive at a picture of her and Ron as teens. The two of them were waving at the camera, which Kim remembered was being held by Monique. Ron wore a powder blue tuxedo in the photo that almost matched the color of Kim's dress. The two of them were at the Junior Prom. Based on Kim's memory, and based on the somewhat stupefied expression on Ron's face staring up at her from the yearbook, the photo had been taken at some point after their first kiss.

"Wow, mommy, you looked pretty good back then," Annie said.

"Hey!"

Kim smacked her daughter playfully on the arm. Annie was growing up to be quite cheeky.

"Did you guys like each other back then? I mean, in the picture?"

Kim nodded. "Yes, we did. We always liked each other, though. It just changed a little when we got older. That was the night that when things were really different, even though we both knew things were changing for a while before that."

Kim and Ron were holding hands in the photo, their other hands free to wave at the camera. A small pink rodent was perched on their clasped hands in the middle of the photo, waving a tiny paw. Annie looked at the creature thoughtfully.

"Is that Rufus?"

Kim looked at her daughter in surprise. She had never heard Ron mention Rufus to Annie over the years, and only on a handful of occasions had the subject ever come up between her husband and herself. Ron must have brought Rufus up to his daughter at some point, however. Or perhaps she had picked it up from overhearing something Monique had said, or maybe even her parents.

"Yes, that's Rufus," Ron answered.

"He looks pretty smart. I didn't know a mouse could wave!"

"A naked mole rat," Ron corrected his daughter. "And yes. Rufus was very smart."

"Maybe we could get a pet rat, daddy?"

Ron was silent for a moment. The photo, along with his daughter's comments, had brought back a few memories that he hadn't visited in a long time. Eventually, though, his daughter's pleading expression dragged a response out of him.

"Do you think you'd be responsible enough to take care of a pet, Annie?"

"So not the drama."

Ron smiled.

"We'll think about it, then."

Annie had managed to gradually ease the yearbook out of her mother's hands and was looking more closely at the photos. She flipped to another page of Junior Prom photos and pointed to one of the pictures. "There's Bonnie," she said. "She looks pretty angry in that picture."

"Believe me, it's not the only photo you'll see where she looks angry."

Kim thought about the way her daughter had been hitting off with Bonnie at the reunion – at least, they appeared to be hitting it off, from what she had seen. An upsetting image crossed Kim's mind, and even though she knew it was outlandish, she could not help but blurt out: "Annie, promise me you'll never become a supervillain."

Annie laughed. "That's silly! Why would I do that?"

"I don't know – maybe Bonnie told you it was a good idea."

"No, she didn't. Bonnie was funny, but I don't want to be like her. I'd rather save the world like you do. Duh, mom."

Annie pointed to a photo on the bedroom floor, which had fallen out of a yearbook page it had been tucked inside. It was a picture of Kim Possible, dressed in her mission clothes and pointing a grappling hook at an unseen foe. Kim couldn't remember if it was a shot from an actual mission, or if she had just been posing for some reason.

"And I'm going to wear an outfit that shows my belly button, just like that!" Annie declared.

"You can save the world when you can buy your own clothes and start dating boys," Ron said to his daughter.

"You mean when I'm thirty?"

"Exactly."

Annie rolled her eyes at her father, and then returned her attention to the yearbook photos, sometimes laughing a little at an image of her parents, sometimes pointing to a person and asking if they had been at the reunion.

Kim looked down at her daughter as she leafed through the book, and she saw the newborn baby that she had once held in her arms. The toddler, tentatively standing up and taking her first steps. A grown woman, almost a mirror image of Kim, but with eyes and a smile that were definitely Ron's. Kim saw the woman engaged in a fearsome battle, putting herself in harm's way, and the image made her brow crease with worry.

Sometimes she wished that she could freeze the world just the way it was, and keep Annabelle how she was right now, forever. No growing up, no learning hard lessons. No danger. But it was impossible. Kim knew that her daughter had to go through those things, had to grow up. Kim even knew she would love the woman Annie would grow to become, whoever that woman ended up being. She'd always be her Annabelle, after all. Even if she kept insisting on being called Annie.

But that was the future. For now, Kim would enjoy the present.

The last page turned, and the yearbook was finished. Annie closed it and placed it on the bed. Ron looked at his wife with a smile, and she smiled back as she wrapped her arm around her daughter's shoulder and pulled her closer. Kim hadn't enjoyed the image of Annabelle fighting with supervillains and traveling across the world to dangerous places, but then, she supposed her parents had probably been forced to get used to the idea as well. Annabelle was certainly precocious enough to follow in her mother's footsteps, although hopefully that didn't happen too soon. And Kim had to admit that she could do a lot worse than saving the world.

She would just have to work on changing her daughter's mind about that outfit.

XX

Notes - That's it. Reviews are appreciated. :) This is an entry for the Writer's Challenge Contest, which can be found in a thread near the top of the Kim Possible Discussion forum - check it out, read the other entries, and vote for the story you like most when the voting poll goes up.

I noticed this story had some reviewers I haven't seen before, so if you haven't read some of my other stories, allow me to shamelessly plug them! A Date with Destiny focuses on Kim and Ron as young friends. A Little Lemon focuses on Kim and Ron in college (it's only rated T, get your mind out of the gutter!) Those are probably the two stories closest in tone to this one, IMO. If you like Bonnie, Going Green and Just a Jock both have her playing a big part.

I will have a small sci-fi/humor one-shot centered on Shego going up probably tomorrow, and shortly after that I will start posting a larger multi-chapter sci-fi/action story focusing on Kim and Shego as the main characters. It'll be kind of different in tone than anything I've written so far. Put me on author alerts if you want to catch that one.

Thanks for reading! And thanks for all the feedback, I really enjoyed reading it.