Footprints

"How... how much further, Kim?" Ron asked, dragging his torn shoes through the desert sands. He was following behind Kim Possible as they trekked through sand that engulfed their feet.

"I don't... I don't know, Ron." Kim replied. His constant whining was beginning to grate on her nerves. Her mouth was parched and she could feel her midriff beginning to burn a bright red. Her hair had become soaked with sweat and had already dried again into a frizzy mess. This was one time she wished she wasn't wearing a black crop top. She looked down at her Kimmunicator. The casing had been shattered in the battle with Monkey Fist and buried for hours in the dunes before they had finally managed to dig it out once the Monkey man had escaped, leaving them to cook in the desert heat.

She heard Ron fall forward and begin to crawl. "Sand's getting everywhere."

"Ron!" Kim shouted. She literally bit her tongue before she spoke any more words. Her legs were weak and she shivered despite the heat. She fell to her knees and rested for a moment on her haunches. "We've got to keep going, Ron." she sniffed. "We're almost to the rendevous point."

"How can you tell?" Ron asked. "Everything looks the same out here." he stated with a frown as he crawled up beside his best friend and collapsed. "We're going to look like Pop Pop Porter's Crispy Fried Popcorn Chicken before we get out of here."

Kim was trying her best to keep her spirits up. Trying to hold onto hope that they'd make it out of this one alive. She laughed sadly at the irony that they would be baked under the sun of all things, rather than going out with a bang in some villain's lair. Hearing Ron's constant complaints of their dire circumstances wasn't helping. She touched her bare stomach with a gloved hand and winced. Even the enhanced sun screen that Wade had provided hadn't held out in these conditions. Not for a red head, anyway. "I know, Ron. I have to know. If I don't... if I don't know... then we're lost for sure." Kim said. She raised one leg to stand and quickly regained her balance against a flood of nausea. Losing any fluids now would be deadly, and she fought against the heat stroke induced retching. "Come on, Ron. We have to keep going."

"I can't Kim." Ron said, blowing sand away from his mouth as he continued to lay there in the dune. "Go on without me." Rufus tiptoed across the sand to tug on Ron's sleeve, chittering weakly as he did.

Kim looked back at their path. Two sets of footprints were dragged out in the sand. For the most part, hers were distinct with her habit of taking each step and putting one foot in front of the other, as opposed to Ron's, which were dragged lazily to form two lines, just off to the right of hers. She shaded her eyes with one hand against the sun, and noticed the twin paths curved slightly in one direction until the wind began to erase them. She curled her lips in frustration before turning again and continuing forward for a few steps. "I'll come back, R..." she began before falling forward.

Ron lifted his head slightly to look at Kim's motionless, face down, body. "Kim?" he asked, spitting out sand that he had breathed in. "Kim?!"

Kim Possible woke up to a bright white light and cringed in defeat. She brought up a weak hand to shield her eyes. A slight tugging on her wrist caused her to turn her head to find a clear tube sticking out of it that lead up to a stand that contained a clear bag. 'An intravenous?' she thought. She licked her lips out of habit and found that moisture settled on them. "Ron?" she asked, looking around the room, trying to block out the light that continued to hang above her.

"Kim?"

It wasn't Ron's voice, but it still felt good to hear. "Dad?" she asked. "What happened? Where am I? Where's Ron?"

Her father's strong hand gripped hers and held it tightly. "You're in the Middleton Hospital, Kimmie-Cub. You gave us quite a scare."

Kim focused her vision on her father. His greying brown hair, his chiseled facial features. It was a face she thought she would never see again. "Where's Ron?" she asked again, trying to push herself up in the bed and wincing at the horrible sunburn around her mid section, lower arms, and face.

Her father smiled knowingly. "He's in the room next door. Don't worry." he said with visible relief. He pushed his free hand on the call button that hung next to her bed. "Doctor, Kim is awake!" he said, nearly choking. A few moments later, her mother, twin brothers, as well Dr. Director and Will Du stepped through the door.

Instantly, her mother skirted around her bed and carefully wrapped her slender arms around Kim's chest. "I'm so glad you're alright, dear." she said, visibly trying to hold back tears. Jim and Tim stood at length, uncomfortably keeping their distance from their older, often seemingly invincible sister that had nearly succumbed to a treacherous desert. Kim gave them a wink of understanding as their eyes began to water.

"What happened?" Kim asked the new people that were now in her hospital room.

"Agent Du found you." Dr. Director said with a smile with her hands clasped behind her back.

"But we never made it to the rendevous..." Kim said, knowing it would have been nearly impossible to find the two in a GJ hyper jet without the Kimmunicator to track.

"I circled for an hour after I was supposed to and found a single pair of tracks in the sand." Will Du explained plainly.

"You disobeyed orders?" Kim asked in surprise.

Will Du lowered his vision despite Dr. Director's small smile. " I di..."

"Wait..." Kim continued. "One pair of tracks? Don't tell me I actually left Ron somewhere!"

"Err... no." Will Du began, suddenly uncomfortable. "Actually..."

Dr. Director interjected. "We're not sure where you collapsed, but Ron Stoppable carried you to... or rather, past the rendevous point."

Will Du set his jaw. "If it hadn't been for his lazy feet dragging, and your weight over his shoulders, I undoubtedly would never have discovered his tracks so deep in the sand."

The Possible family all exchanged glances for a moment before Dr. Director spoke. "Ron Factor. Amazing." she concluded before leading Will Du from the room.

"I want to see him." Kim said, gingerly swinging her legs off of her bed and grasping the steel pole that held her IV bag for support.

Kim stared down at Ron, who, along with Rufus snuggled up on his pillow, was still unconscious and renewing his fluids from the same type of intravenous tube that she was. Her family stayed at the door, speaking with the Stoppables, and allowing her a moment to watch her friend. Her friend that had complained their whole walk about how hot it was and how far it was. Her friend that she was about to leave in the desert in order to continue on to get help for them both. Her friend that had lifted her in his arms and continued on despite his discomfort and agony.

She sat quietly next to him and bit her lip, looking around the room in an effort to avoid Ron's sunburned complexion. Her vision settled on a plaque on the wall with a picture of a beach that she had seen hundreds of times before in many households of people she had helped. Written in black calligraphy was a poem...

One night a man had a dream. He dreamed
he was walking along the beach with the LORD.

Across the sky flashed scenes from his life.
For each scene he noticed two sets of
footprints in the sand: one belonging
to him, and the other to the LORD.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him,
he looked back at the footprints in the sand.

He noticed that many times along the path of
his life there was only one set of footprints.

He also noticed that it happened at the very
lowest and saddest times in his life.

This really bothered him and he
questioned the LORD about it:

"LORD, you said that once I decided to follow
you, you'd walk with me all the way.
But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life,
there is only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why when
I needed you most you would leave me."

The LORD replied:

"My son, my precious child,
I love you and I would never leave you.
During your times of trial and suffering,
when you see only one set of footprints,
it was then that I carried you."

"Kim?" Ron asked weakly. "My face hurts."

Kim smiled, fighting back her need to choke. "Ron, I'm so glad you're okay!"

"What happened? I can't even lift my arms." Ron said, letting his head fall to the side to look at Kim.

"We... you... made it to the rendevous. Will picked us up." Kim said, her voice cracking.

"Me?" Ron asked. "Last I remember, you fell face first into the sand."

Kim looked confused. "You don't remember anything after that?" she asked. "Will said you carried me on your shoulders until he found your tracks in the sand."

"Yay me." Ron said plainly, blinking slowly. He looked up at the clear bag of fluid hanging from the steel pole beside his bed. "Think the nurse would grind up a Naco and hook me up, cuz that would be badical..." he asked before his eyes shut again with a smile creeping onto his lips.

Kim touched his hand, but he didn't stir. She smiled slightly, looking back up to the plaque. She mouthed the words 'Thank you.' to herself before struggling to her feet to rejoin her family and allow the Stoppables see their heroic son.