"It's absolutely unthinkable. Unconscionable. Outrageous even!" The male figure of the house continued pacing back and forth within his living room. "And at their age!"
"Yes, I know dear. Teenagers dating. Who would have imagined?" Mrs. Possible asked calmly. As her husband continued his rant, she retained her composure, sitting very still in her chair, pretending to read a newspaper in hand as she listened to the good Mr. Dr. Possible protest. He'd been going on like this ever since their daughter had returned from saving the world to rush off to her prom with her new boyfriend.
"This isn't just any teenager, this is our teenager! My Kimmie-cub and Ronald; I won't have it! I'm putting a stop to this before it starts!" Dr. Possible stomped his foot down on the ground as he announced his declaration.
"Oh, I think it's far too late for that dear." Mrs. Possible warned calmly.
"But, but… this changes so much!" Mr. Possible's voice took on a tone of panic.
"Oh yes." Mrs. Possible turned the page of her paper to maintain the illusion. "No doubt they'll be spending a lot of time together."
"Well…" Mr. Possible was about to reply when he took in his wife's words.
"And when they're not together, they'll probably be calling each other, even into the late hours of the night." Mrs. Possible seemed to shake her head at the tragedy of it all, maintaining a calm and collected voice.
"Yes, I-I gather that's how these things work" The figurehead of paternal authority slowly began to wave in his stance.
"If things get really serious, she might even end up bringing him over for the holidays."
"Ann, don't get cute with me. This is not at all the same thing!"
"Really?" Mrs. Possible just raised an eyebrow, not bothering to look up from her paper. "How so?"
"Well…" Mr. Possible seemed to be trying to force the words out. "… because now they'll be holding hands! And holding hands leads to hugging, and hugging leads to kissing and you know what kissing leads too!" James Possible's voice rose at the insinuation.
"Oh no dear. I'm just a middle aged doctor with three kids. I have no idea what comes after kissing." Mrs. Possible's tone of voice never cracked once.
"Hon, your sarcasm is not helping. You know full well I'm talking about…" James Possible paused, looking to all ends of the room to make sure that he and his wife were in absolute privacy before whispering in a hushed awe "sex."
"Ooh, sex. How silly of me."
"Now, don't you make me out to be the over worried parent on this one! We have a duty to talk to her about this!" James wore a look of iron determination.
"We have talked to her, hon. We've shown her all the informational tapes, we've given her every lecture in every magazine and book ever. She and Ron even went to that sex class that her school was offering. I really don't think there is anything more for us to say." Mrs. Possible carried a small hint of regret, but maintained her unchallenging composure.
"And?" The father asked expectantly.
"And what, dear?"
"And what else are we supposed to do?" Mr. Possible half demanded, half pleaded.
"Trust her." Mrs. Possible answered simply.
"I do trust her!" Mr. Possible replied somewhat unconvincingly. "It's Ronald I don't trust."
"You trust him with your daughter's life James. We both do." Mrs. Possible's voice became slightly stricter at this. Whatever else her husband may feel about their daughter and her apparently rapidly vanishing innocence, she wouldn't let him use that as an excuse to start attacking someone that was practically an adopted son of the family.
"That's different!"
"How?" Mrs. Possible could not keep her eyes directed at her paper any longer, as she rose up to meet her husband's gaze questioningly.
"Because Ronald is a young man and young men have ideas! They think about these things in their spare time." Mr. Possible stated in no uncertain manner, informing his wife that he had clearly given this matter more thought than was necessary.
"Oh." Mrs. Possible answered softly, summoning her tremendous willpower not to burst out laughing as she turned back down to her paper. "Well honey, given all the O Boyz posters in her room, I'm pretty sure our daughter thinks about boys a lot too and most likely in that way." She offered softly.
At this, James Possible sighed, letting the air out of his sails as he sat down on the couch opposite of his wife. "I don't suppose we can just stop her from seeing boys all together, can we?"
"Dear, our daughter is a super hero, not a nun."
The rocket scientist let out another sigh. "I always thought our Kimmie-cub would just wait for this sort of thing."
"Hon, I really think you're getting ahead of yourself now. It's just their prom." The brain surgeon offered as she discarded her paper to turn to her husband.
"Exactly! Kids are doing that sort of thing on their prom night!"
"Perhaps." Mrs. Possible could hardly argue with that. Every parent had been warned of what went on after prom, and every one of them had sweated it out just the same. "But I don't think our Kim would do something like that and if you didn't agree with me, you wouldn't have let them leave this house."
At this, James Possible seemed to relent, leaning back again into the couch. "I, I just want her to use her best judgment about this sort of thing."
"I truly think she will hon."
"But I… I feel like I'm losing my little Kimmie-cub." James Possible admitted finally as he seemed to slump even deeper into the couch than physically possible, finally in defeat. At this, Ann Possible could not be restrained to cross over the room to her husband's side.
"Honey, on the one hand, she's our daughter. Yours and mine. Nothing is ever going to change that, not even a boy."
"And on the other hand…" Mr. Dr. Possible's tone of voice made it abundantly clear that he was dreading this next part.
"On the other hand," Mrs. Dr. Possible's voice seemed to express a soft regret "this is Ronald we're talking about, and it's time to accept the fact that we may have lost her to him a long time ago."
James Possible rolled his eyes while letting out a sigh to signal his surrender. "This was supposed to make me feel better, wasn't it?"
"Hon, they do everything together. Whenever something is wrong with him, it worries her worse than any super villains. She'd rather spend a snow day with him than making snow men with the family, and she even ran out in the middle of Christmas dinner for him. Honestly honey, even if I wanted to, I don't think I'd compete with Ron for our daughter's attention. I just don't think that's a fight that we'd win. Maybe when they were little we might have had a small chance, but not anymore."
"But… it's just… they grow up so fast." Neither James Possible nor his wife could tell if he was speaking to her or to himself.
"I know." Ann Possible's voice echoed the slight regret of her husband's. "I know. But don't you think that if our daughter is going to be with someone, it should be someone who makes her laugh?"
"Absolutely." Mr. Dr. Possible replied without thinking.
"Someone who cares about her as much as we do and who is never anything but supportive and devoted to her." Mrs. Dr. Possible led on.
"Of course."
"And I think he should certainly be someone whom she feels she can confide in and trust and who will always be there for her when she needs him." She let out finally.
"Well, that goes without…" Dr. James Timothy Possible paused as he finally realized the game his wife was playing. "I don't suppose a pink naked mole rat would happen to be included amidst that itinerary?"
"It's not required," she admitted with a slight grin before adding "but in this case, I think it's unavoidable."
"Hi mom. Hi dad." The front door seemed to fly open. The rocket scientist and brain surgeon turned their gazes to see their teenage daughter in the same prom dress they had seen her wear earlier as she practically floated towards the stairs and up to her room.
"Hi honey. How was prom?" Kim's mother called out, asking for the sake of appearance rather than necessity. Kim's expression seemed to answer the question before it was ever asked.
"It was great." She answered dreamily as she moved, seemingly oblivious to the world around her, upstairs.
For a moment, there was a slight pause, complete and utter silence, as Mr. and Mrs. Drs. Possible turned back, sitting on their family couch, staring outward.
"We wouldn't win, would we?" Dr. James Possible asked finally in resignation.
"Two parents against a teenager daughter with a will that defies most super villains and her first love. We wouldn't have a chance." Dr. Ann Possible admitted sagely.
James Possible let out another sigh before adding "I suppose this means Ronald will be over even more often than before for dinner."
Ann Possible just nodded softly to herself. "We should probably get used to setting the table for six from now on. At least until they go off to college that is."
Another long pause.
"You know, they are still looking for a candidate for that deep space probe mission I was telling you about. I bet if I…"
"Dear…" Mrs. Ann Possible informed her husband in less than one sentence that the matter had officially been decided.
The End