Title: Losses

Story summary: They come in all types, shapes and sizes. And they always hurt…

Disclaimer: This story uses characters owned by Disney Corporation, but they lose nothing.

~*~*KP*~*~

Losses

by Slipgate

Kim hurried to the hospital room, not sure of what he would look like when she found him. She kicked herself for not having heard the message until she woke up this morning. She felt terrible and hoped they wouldn't wonder what had taken her so long, but her fear for Ron's welfare overrode the pity fiesta and quickened her steps.

So it was that she came upon the scene of Ron Stoppable in a hospital bed and Bonnie Rockwaller dozing lightly in a chair pulled near the bed. As if sensing her presence (or hearing her heavy, gasping breathing), Bonnie managed to rouse herself and saw her visitor.

"I didn't… hear the… message… until this mor…ning!" Kim gasped, her hands braced on her knees as she attempted to get control of her breathing. She saw no judgment in Bonnie's eyes, which relieved one small part of her mind, but she focused on the pain she saw in her friend's face and in the man laying quietly on the bed as a heart monitor mindlessly followed its instructions.

"Kim," Bonnie said, relieved, as she rose and hugged the red-headed bane of her high school existence. "You made it," she breathed as they embraced, with Bonnie slightly shuddering in her arms. The reason for the shuddering and the inability to focus on running let Kim's emotions catch up with her and she shuddered slightly as well, struggling to keep her composure.

"Bonnie, how… is he? What happened?" Kim asked, managing to get control of her heavy breathing at last.

"We were at dinner last night," Bonnie explained, pulling away and guiding Kim to another chair tucked into a corner of the hospital room somewhat behind and to the left of where the bed was situated, into which the frazzled redhead gratefully sank. Bonnie knelt near the chair in an unconscious desire to sit but still be near Kim. "After, we were just walking over to the parking garage we'd been able to find nearest to the restaurant. A guy who was sitting next to a light pole with a donation cup or whatever seemed to be paying attention to us as we passed, and Ron was hurrying us along without making eye contact because he wasn't sure that the guy really was in financial trouble."

"As we passed by, though, the bastard suddenly rose up and pulled something from a jacket pocket to come at us," Bonnie continued dully, eventually rising to go sit near Ron again and stroke his hand.

"Ron was surprised and the guy got him a bit in the side but near the front with whatever it was… they've stitched that wound up." By now Kim was rising from her chair and glancing a little under Ron's johnny at the spot Bonnie was indicating to see the dressings on the wound for herself. Satisfied, Kim covered the wound with the johnny again. She knelt at his bedside and held Ron's other hand as she looked into his face, even as Bonnie continued speaking softly.

"Ron grappled with the guy to get whatever his sharp thing was away from him and stop him from hurting us. Although Ron managed to push the guy off a bit and then sweep him, the guy managed to hop up really fast and barrel into Ron from below, managing to shove Ron hard into the light pole. Ron's back hit the light pole and that wasn't really much – it's like someone grabbing you and slamming you into a wall maybe?"

Kim nodded, familiar with the sensation – both giving it and receiving it.

"But the push had Ron's head clonk really hard into the light pole and he lost consciousness. Although they sedated him a bit for the care and stitching of his laceration, the sedative has worn off but Ron hasn't woken up yet. They paged your mom in, actually, and when she came she declared it as a head trauma case and did some stuff."

"And he hasn't woken up yet?" Kim confirmed.

"No. He's breathing, his vitals are there, and they aren't ready to call it a coma so quickly but he's otherwise all there. They want to see if he wakes up soon on his own."

Finished explaining, Bonnie returned to her silence. She didn't mind explaining it to Kim, but she was glad there was nothing more to say but to look at Ron and hope he'd open his eyes soon and say something like, "Whoa, what hit me?"

Kim looked at Ron with a small smile. They were still best friends. And, she thought, one thing that hadn't changed about Ron was the example the two of them had mutually helped each other set… helping or saving those who need it, being loyal. It was thanks to Ron Stoppable that Kim and Bonnie could now count each other as friends.

Kim sat there on her knees for a time, but eventually she stiffly got to her feet, her knees protesting as she headed back toward her corner chair, letting herself sink into it again.

Bonnie leaned quietly over Ron, looking into his face. Absently, she brushed his hair to one side, his cowlick hidden, pressed against the hospital bed's pillow. She leaned in further and kissed his pale forehead.

Into the room came a man wearing a white coat, with close-cropped brown hair and somewhat sunken eyes. Bonnie and Kim both almost rose to meet him but he gestured them to stay put. "I'm Dr. Cohan," he said by way of introduction. "I just wanted to give a look at our patient." The last he said as if it was more of a question seeking acceptance than a statement. Bonnie nodded. Kim somewhat pointlessly mirrored the gesture.

Dr. Cohan read the heart monitor and other information at hand, jotting them down on his clipboard. He then took a penlight from his breast pocket and used his other thumb to hold open each of Ron's eyes as he shone the light and checked for responsiveness. Eventually satisfied, he turned to the ladies again.

"My apologies for my manners. You are… Miss Rockwaller, I presume?" he asked Bonnie.

She nodded and shook the doctor's hand. A question was forming on her lips but the doctor anticipated it. "Everything looks fine as far as his health goes." Bonnie exhaled with relief. Kim realized she'd been squeezing the armrests of her chair bracing for what the doctor said, and the white in her hands slowly faded as she was able to relax her grip.

"And you, ma'am, are Kim Possible I believe. I shouldn't be surprised to see you here, huh?"

Kim acknowledged with a dip of her head, but then reconsidered and rose to meet him with a handshake before returning to her chair.

"Well, ladies, I'll be in this area… or down the hall at the nurse's station… any time you're looking for me. I just wanted to get a look at the patient at the moment, but for now I'm the one on-duty so if he does wake up I want you to come find me, all right?"

Bonnie nodded, but Kim, with a little more experience with this, asked, "Can I assume the other doctors who take shifts in this ward will also check in on him and introduce themselves so we know who to come find if he wakes up later than however long your shift is?"

"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised you're familiar with being around hospital procedures, Miss Possible." Dr. Cohan joked.

Kim only offered him a wan smile, then replied, "Call me Kim, Doctor."

"Only if you call me George. Or Michael – I tried going by my middle name in middle school."

"You got it, George."

"Okay, well, I'll be over there," he said, thumbing toward the nurse's station, "in the coincidence of him waking up in the next few minutes."

~*~*KP*~*~

Of course, Ron didn't wake up in the next few minutes. It was much, much later that day, when the light peeping through the slats of the hospital window were first slicing laterally across into Kim's eyes and then finally mercifully dipping to an orange glow in a rectangular space just in front of the sill. Kim and Bonnie had found little to say, simply quietly waiting.

At one point, they roused themselves into an animated conversation. They discussed Bonnie's time as a member of the second-year cheer squad at Upperton University and teased each other about old high school conflicts. However, this last topic cued the crickets again as they looked at the other room occupant.

Dr. Anne Possible had come by once or twice, bringing some roast beef sandwiches from the hospital's cafeteria and later lucking out with gyros with pita bread and tzatziki sauce as a dinner. The women ate somewhat sloppily and used the attached bathroom to rinse their hands after, as well as to get periodic glasses of water. But Anne's most significant contribution had been the deeply consoling hugs she'd foisted on both women.

Once the light had mercifully died away and the only light left in the room was artificial, the lethargic day had taken its toll on both women. While not (currently) asleep, Kim was leaned back into her chair, resting its back against the wall far in the corner. Bonnie had stopped holding Ron's hand and periodically wrung her hands in her lap as her outlet for her nervous energy.

And so it was when Ron Stoppable finally opened his eyes.

~*~*KP*~*~

"Whoa, what happened to me? Why am I in the hospital?" Ron muttered sleepily, looking around.

The welcome voice managed to rouse Bonnie and Kim from their light dozes. Kim would approach soon but she held her place to let Bonnie time with Ron first.

"Hey, Bon-bon! What are you doing here?"

"What do you think I'm doing here, goofball?" she asked, smiling and keeping her voice light. Bonnie had heard this statement many times before.

"I dunno. Hey, where's KP?"

At this, Kim rose from her chair and came closer to where she finally entered Ron's restricted line of sight from his position reclined on the bed.

"Hey Kim," he said, his smile growing much larger, "c'mere!"

Kim looked uncertainly to Bonnie, highly dubious about the request.

Noticing the hesitation, Ron pleaded, "Oh c'mon KP, no kiss? I'm waking up in the hospital here!"

Kim's eyes widened. She was too transfixed on Ron to steal a glance at Bonnie's reaction, but she could make a pretty good guess at it.

Ron looked at Kim, and his smile faltered a little. "Did I screw up somehow last night? I mean, I thought I came up with a pretty bon-diggety makeup halfaversary date, didn't I?"

Kim found her voice and tore her eyes briefly away from Ron to see the dropped jaw of one Bonnie Rockwaller. "Ron," she cautiously asked, "what's the last thing you remember?"

"Well, I gotta tell you, KP, I don't know why I'm in the hospital, but last night we had that halfaversary makeup date I put together once you had your memories back. You still have them back, right? I mean, we talked about that mind thing, and I thought we cleared it up. And we curled up talking in your living room for a while afterward. But then I went home and went to sleep once it was finally getting stupid late to still be hanging around or keeping you up. And, well, going to sleep at home last night is the last thing I remember."

Ron studied Kim's, then Bonnie's faces. "What happened to me?" he asked. He'd had a few other questions swimming in his head, but this seemed the simplest to get any and all of the answers he wanted.

Kim and Bonnie dithered a bit, but eventually Bonnie found her voice. "Let's get the doctor to tell you about that. He wanted to know the moment you woke up anyway, and I think we can still catch him on shift."

"Okay, but c'mon, KP, can't I at least get a KP kiss before you go?" Ron asked, putting a little whine into his voice for effect.

The reaction he got seemed like no reaction. Eventually he asked a different question, looking intently at Kim. "You've never hesitated before… did I make you mad last night somehow after all? Come on, spill, please?"

Kim and Bonnie's eyes flipped to each other. Kim looked hesitantly at Bonnie for what to do. Many unspoken thoughts passed between them. Finally, Bonnie offered a resigned nod. The effect of Bonnie's nod also twisted Kim's stomach up in knots.

Hesitantly, given that Bonnie was right there, Kim approached Ron's bedside. She leaned down to give him a peck.

Ron's lips were slightly dry – he'd been fed by IV for the last day and night – but chief on Kim's mind was not lip moisture but that this awkward display was right in front of his girlfriend. On many levels and for many reasons, Kim didn't want to be doing this.

Fortunately, Kim got away with a quick peck – she hoped Ron interpreted it as casual and familiar rather than unwelcome and hesitant. A sudden thought churned the insides of both girls… what if it wasn't possible to recover his memories?

How would we break it to him in a way that makes sense? Kim wondered.

Bonnie, meanwhile, bitterly thought, It's not like you can tell him where you stand if his mind is re-wound to when he didn't feel like that for you and did for K. He can't just turn feelings off and on, especially out of thin air. And neither can we…

As Kim straightened up, she flashed an apologetic look to Bonnie above where Ron could see it. Kim's eyes begged Bonnie to understand.

"Okay, you've had your good morning kiss," Kim tried to tease, "so now can we go talk to the doctor and then he can fill you in, 'kay?"

"All right, KP. Hey, Bonnie, thanks for visiting me too. That's new."

Kim and Bonnie finally managed to step out of the room, ostensibly to talk to Dr. George M. Cohan. That was part of their intention (that and discussing retrograde amnesia with him), but they didn't even need to share a look to know what else they needed to do. They found a quiet corner where they could talk.

"Listen, B, you know I wasn't trying to…"

"I know. We tried… we tried to dodge things without filling him in. I mean, it was awkward and it wasn't great to see, K, but there's not much else we could've done by that point without trying to uh, diagnose Ron or tell him some shockers… mental and emotional… before the doctor has a chance to evaluate where he stands mentally." Bonnie sighed.

"I really hope the doctor okays us telling him about what's happened since then, but considering his behavior and how you guys were back then, K, I don't think it will work very well. 'Oh by the way you're not in a relationship with Kim any more, you're in a relationship with me. You and Kim are just friends.' We'll have to tell him the truth, of course, but I hope the doctor okays us telling him the truth sooner rather than later."

"This could be extremely awkward otherwise and uncomfortable for both of us." Kim agreed.

Bonnie added, "I mean, I get it right now, but I know that my resentment will eventually break free, and I mean, for you, it's heartache you don't need. And for Ron? Even if we tell him, he might want nothing to do with me unless he actually gets his memories back. I don't know, Kim. This is hard. The worst part is that we can't just turn feelings on and off, either. And I'm really worried about what it will do to all three of us."

"Me too, Bonnie, me too."

fin?