Hello again and thanks for joining us as we unveil another chapter in the lives of Unheard Flipper's AU, 'The Truth About Kim and Ron' while they are between missions once again. This time the pair just left Nana and the folks in Florida and are prepping for their next mission as their last mission comes up for discussion on some surprises and some things that just have to persevere for mission's sake.
Before this gets going, we'd like to thank the following for their Reviews, Faves or Alerts: Sentinel103, Jimmy1201, pbow and readerjunkie. Thanks to you all for chiming in.
Now to starve the sharks in suits with briefcases: Kim Possible and the inhabitants of the program are the property of Disney; their inclusion of them in our tales is not for any monetary gains so don't sue us. Roman Stopblaski is on loan to us from Unheard Flipper, who we graciously thank for the lend… Thanks and take care.
14
The Spy and the Operatives
Snort! "...Roman, you acted like such the loser. But are you sure that's what you wanted to do down at Nana's?", Kim asked her blond friend as she checked to see if his back was turned before she changed into her insulated underwear. Not an easy thing to do while on an airplane flying through turbulence.
"Et worked out in end; Eh kept meh cover. And Eh found out your Nana es very good et fighting.", Roman replied as he pulled on his black mission top, his eyes averted from his partner to give her some privacy.
"Really? Well we'll talk later about that…But getting back to my original concern, do you really keep a site up to maintain your cover?", Kim asked, hesitant to do so after one such site was snarkily brought to her attention by cheer rival Bonnie Rockwaller.
Shrugging, though she couldn't see it, "Et es best way nyet? Peeple see meh en dey don't know name but know meh as beg loser, which helps meh part of mission.", Roman said blandly.
As he directed a tangent away from the current topic, "Wade helps keep site current. He efen posted det Eh em Rufus' pet human. Dat Eh tink es one reason he ded so well et Chez Leisure..vell dat, en he hes totally badical belly flop.", the blond undercover operative chuckled as he tried to keep the banter light before Kim could get serious.
Not buying it for a second, "Roman it looks like you're trying a lot harder to look incapable,", she said, narrowing her eyes at his cavalier attitude, "maybe you should let a little more of the 'adult Ron' come to the surface, otherwise people won't take you seriously about anything and they'll think that you're a loser forever.", she suggested as her thoughts went back to all the things he had done to diminish or demean himself so that she looked good, "You can start by slouching less."
Sighing in resignation, "Kimika Eh remember what Colonel Barkein say, dat Eh em loser and you are popular. Et es better for Ruskie to be in background and fumble around, 'cause de bad guys have no notice for bumbling sidekick. Dis vay et es easier for meh to gather intelligence.", Roman reminded her as he finished dressing. "Now are you finished Kimika? Eh would like to check out equipment.", he asked her, done with his innerwear dressing.
"Yeah I'm just pulling my winter outerwear on, so you can turn around.", Kim said as she sighed. "It's a good thing Wade had our gear on the plane, it would have been tough to reroute back home before going south.", she smiled as she turned to face him, "Now what part of visiting with Nana did you like?"
Looking on in contemplation, "When she showed meh her better ground fighting skills and how to make it work with meh own...", then with a smirk, "Vell that en her lemon squares.", as he pulled on his winter pants. Then changing the subject again, "So, can you tell me why we are going to Antarctica instead of Guam like the original call said?"
"That was a diversion too so Mom and Dad wouldn't know what was up, you know how Barkin is with mission security.", Kim told him slipping on her over pants on also.
After fastening her pants, she asked in concern, "So where did you and my Grandmother go at 0300 Roman?" Then with a teasing tone, "Do you have the hots for her?", Kim giggled trying to get a rise out of him.
"Nana knows about meh and she and a few other retired agents at the home worked with meh. I think your Nana wanted to make sure that Eh em good enough so dat you don't have to save meh.", he sighed before he said with certainty, "So de site must be working.", Roman informed her.
"Oh? What happened?", she asked as she realized what he alluded to.
"Vell Nana was talking to meh about you taking chances and two of deh oters jumped meh. Eh dedn't know dat dey ver dere to see how good Eh was. Nana stopped et before Eh killed dem. Den she worked with meh to make meh better. Dat es vhy she sleep so late today.", Roman sighed.
"Oh, I see.", Kim said in placation before her demeanor darkened, "Well speaking of Nana and her friends, we need to check out how Drakken got into her records. If he can check her out, we might have a problem.", Kim told him.
"Eh already told Wade. Barkein ordered more security for our records. All ov meh available files at higher security levels are being shredded and deleted.", Roman shrugged, "ES are yours. Zhe files ov us hidden by Wade, no one can find."
After exhaling a breath of relief, "That's good; I hope no one learns more about us or our mission, but we dodged a very big bullet there when Drakken dug up more intel on Nana than I had ever been aware of.", she said her eyes widened in amazement. "And learning about it couldn't have been more surreal than when you broke in with all those Spring Break kids looking to party like they did.", Kim chuckled as Roman's face flushed lightly.
"Ah, I see I hit a sore spot there didn't I?", she teased, remembering Roman's undercover high school persona flaming out so very badly when he tried to hit on several of the college aged women the entire time they were in Florida. Something, that for some reason, seemed to unsettle her when she thought about it.
She was broken out of her musings by, "Vell, it vas part of vhat I vas supposed to do to keep the focus off vou vhile vou vere investigating Drakken and hes plot.", Roman replied while nervously rubbing his hand across the back of his neck.
Kim quickly rallied from her crisscrossing thoughts on the whole Retirement-Home/College-Spring-Break/Roman-hitting-on-'older women' vibe that mission carried by coming back to the here and now, "Ahem, I see…Sooo Roman, are you loaded up in case this becomes a 'hard takedown'?", Kim asked fully aware her partner always seemed to be packing something lethal in case someone decided to play dirty.
"Da as alvays but Eh em always ready even to play buffoon...", he said in resignation. Then he put together what Kim had admitted earlier, "Vou dedn't know Grandmother was Agent?", he asked.
Shaking her head, "Well I didn't know until a few days ago. I guess that explains why she was never surprised whenever I did something like this while growing up." Looking off, "She even knew about Ron and me...You know our adventures in the...well I wondered why she wasn't surprised by seeing you...She was at his funeral too.", Kim unhappily said, "She became very sad afterward."
Putting a hand on her shoulder, "Eh didn't know Kimika Em just dumb Ruskie, but your Nana es nice lady." Then shifting gears, "Now who es bad guy? We are now heading south and Eh'd like to know who ve are facing.", Roman said while pulling out a couple of MREs for him and his red haired American comrade.
"Wade told me while you were in the loo that Dementor is trying to break into Killigan's turf with mining exotic gems. So I would guess this is a whacked money making scheme or maybe a power grab between the villains.", Kim informed him, as she pointed to one of the brown plastic meal packages as her preference.
Nodding, Roman handed over the one indicated and received a small smile as a reward while he examined his own. "Now ef they added vodka, dis vould be good meal.", he laughed, then sighed as the vodka reference brought back some memories of home, many unpleasant, while Kim turned to inspect her dinner. 'Kimika has no idea what has happened to Natasha. Et es better des way.' Then lightly sighing again, 'Eh must send more money to her fater for de expenses.'
"Roman is something wrong?", Kim suddenly felt an uneasiness coming from the Russian.
"Must be last meal Eh had. Eh em fine, jest stomach.", Roman responded. 'She suspects something.'
"Are you sure? Normally you're not this quiet…Did Nana try and bully you?", Kim furrowed eyebrows in concern.
"Nyet Nana likes meh...Eh tink.", he said while scratching his chin in contemplation. Then brightening, "Here set next to me, beautiful woman always make dinner better.", he chuckled, but figured she wasn't going to buy his tangent ploy.
Kim's ability at hiding her blush having gotten better over the months, "You think I'm pretty?" The red head looked up with a bashful smile, deciding to let her previous queries drop for a while until she had more information.
Her face fell with his, "Nyet.", but her smile returned radiant with a blush chaser, "Eh said beautiful en Eh mean dat. Ron Stoppable knew what he had. Ef he had lived vou would be married, nyet?", as Roman once again deflected her delving into his life.
Her face paled, her voice choked from the rush of memories that suddenly came forth, "I…I guess so. It was so tragic...I was so tragic. I was broken. I started drinking…'cause it hurt so much.", Kim sucked in a ragged breath. "I guess I got mad and decided to do something about the type of people who were responsible for killing him.", Kim's voice trailed off before rising with an edge, "I really started studying and training harder. I got into Navy ROTC in college and was commissioned in the Marines." Now filled with determination, "When I graduated I took a chance and filed for Force Recon, then Sniper School, and got through both with high marks. The Kung Fu really helped, but throughout it all I developed the reputation of being a hardass.", Kim said looking off in her memories.
Shaking her head briefly, "So after a few twists and turns here we are, the hot cheerleader and her goofball sidekick taking down bad guys.", she beamed, then went pensive, "Roman...Do you think twenty years from now we will have made a difference?", Kim asked softly, looking down at the floor of their transport.
"Maybe you Kimika, but vhen ve are done, Eh go back to moter Russia. Maybe en twenty or forty years Eh retire…ef Em alive.", he smiled thinly with his head down, while he thought on his life in the Russian Military beyond these missions with Kim.
"You don't expect to live much longer after you return home?", she asked goggle-eyed at what he said.
"Nyet, et es not good to plan ahead at least not en Spetsnaz. Anyvay vhat is use. Eh cannot even see meh children.", he replied with a haunted look on his face, "Vou?"
Stunned at Roman's outlook on life after these 'missions', she quickly regrouped, enough, "Ye…yeah I'd like to find a guy and settle down. I mean I have to move on. Maybe this mission will make a difference.", she told him, "I'd sure hope I could find the right guy, though right now I don't know.", lost in her musings as she opened her MRE and absently began to dine on its contents.
X
"Here Kimika use meh shoulder, Eh keep an arm around vou so vou don't get cold.", Roman offered after they packed their mealtime trash.
"Thanks Roman. Now let's get some sleep 'cause we're going to need it.", Kim replied with a yawn and a full belly, more than ready for a nice sleep and satisfied with the knowledge their gear was ready to go.
"Da Kimika.", he told her as she rested her head on his shoulder as he pulled a spare parka up around her to keep her warm.
'Hummm this is nice. Almost better than with Ron when we snuggled in the car afterward.', she smiled as she drifted off, hoping to dream of her long lost love again.
XX
Three hours later the transport plane was on final to an ice covered runway where they exited their transport. Dressed in their heavy Arctic winter camouflage gear the two would be quite warm while blending very well in the snowfields they were about to enter.
Five minutes after landing they were aboard a different type of aircraft which carried two snowmobiles for their use. Waiting to brief them was someone those who had Military field experience could tell didn't have much, and appreciated being out in the field even less.
"Welcome aboard Miss Possible...and..Mr…Stuckable.", their contact called out, to Kim's annoyance. "I'm Captain Cummings and I'll be handling your pre-mission briefing. Now once we leave this area, we will come into a hover and land about ten miles from your target. You are to make your way to Dementor's lair and once you've completed infiltration you are to destroy all the equipment inside.", he said offhandedly as he briefed the pair. "And don't worry about the people Dementor has with him. Since this is a black-ops action those hard repeat-offenders will not be missed by the governments after them.", he smirked.
Assured of their compliance with the directive, he handed a black box to Kim, "When you begin to make your escape push the button on this box, and the device will let the rest of us know you're done so we can clean up the mess your egress made.", he said with a grin. "Afterward we'll pick you up and we can send you on your way home.", the Captain told them, smug in the knowledge that they were going out in this weather and not him.
"Yes Sir, Ron here is great at breaking stuff, but we're going to sneak in and see what they're up to because you never know with Dementor."
Waving off her comments about Ron, "Yes, I understand, but be careful it can get bad this far away from anyone.", he told her a little too condescendingly for her comfort.
Working hard at keeping her ire down, "Yes Sir, thank you. Come on Roman, let's get going.", Kim replied. 'Well at least he didn't call me 'Little Missy' like that big jackass at the cookie factory.'
After they had landed again Roman smirked noticing Kim was tweaked by the way she was trying to crank-start her snowmobile before she realized it was a key-start model, "Arrogant jerk isn't he?"
"Yeah, let's just do this and get home to Middleton.", Kim growled as she angrily revved her vehicle.
'And maybe a nice nap on the way back too.', she personally 'throttled down' at the thought.
Reaching out to him, Kim touched Roman on the arm, "Be careful OK?"
"Of course...Always.", the blond smiled back as he revved the engine on his snowmobile and followed the other white clad form as she cut through the snow, on their way to their latest mission together.
XXXX
A little light shone upon Kim of her Nana and her Partner. Appreciative she is now, of more than she was before.
