AN: I found that I wrote my self in to a corner in my story KP: You Can't Go Home Again, so while I try to extract myself from that I figured my adoring fans might like to take a look at this other fic that I had been working off and on for a while now. Please read and review. Enjoy. And a big thanks goes out to A. Markov for the beta read.

Also, this story is a bit AU, but still about 90 canon. We know from the show that Barkin was a LT in Nam, so based on what he says about the village of My Lai; I assumed his tour of duty ran from 1971-1972, with Barkin being around 24 years of age then. Thus when KP starts in 2002 we can assume that he is about 54 years old.

KIM POSSIBLE: THE PRICE OF FREEDOM

CHAPTER ONE: SEMPER FIDELIS

I.

Steve Barkin was dirty, sweaty, tired, and happy. His rugby team, the Middleton Hatchets, had just trounced the visiting team from Upperton, again. Not only was this was the third time in as many months that the Hatchets had beaten the Upperton Cavilers, but it was the eighth straight win for the Hatchets. With a grin on his face and swagger in his step, Barkin walked towards the side line to retrieve his sports bag and change of clothes so that he could enjoy a well deserved "victory" shower. As he began to reach for his bag he heard the distinctive sound of his cell phone ringing.

"From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli..." Barkin sang along to the tune while digging through his bag to retrieve the phone before answering it.

"This is Steven Barkin."
"Steve, it's Betty. I need to talk to you about an important issue. An Agent Du will pick you up and bring you to me." The sudden sound of a dial tone told Barkin that he had just been hung up on and that the conversation was over. Somewhat taken aback by the abruptness of the call, Barkin wonder why his friend, Dr. Betty Alexandra Director, and head of the international anti-terrorism organization known as Global Justice, had just called him out of the blue. He only had a few seconds to ponder this question before his thoughts were interrupted by someone calling his name.

"Mr. Barkin, I'm Agent Du. I'm to take you to meet Dr. Director."

"Ahh, yeah I know. Let me go and shower and I'll join you in a few moments."

Agent Du shook his head no. "Sorry Mr. Barkin, but my orders are to bring you to her ASAP. If you'll just follow me I have a car waiting for us."

"Will do."

"Yes?" Will asked.

"What?" Barkin asked.

"You said my name."

"Ahh, yeah, never mind." Barkin said.

During the trip to meet Dr. Director, Agent Du proved to be insufferably boring. Not only wouldn't he answer any of Mr. Barkin's questions, but he drove at exactly the posted speed limit the whole way and religiously and invariably followed every traffic rule to the letter. He wouldn't even allow the radio to be turned on during the drive, claming that it may be distracting. It was enough to drive even ole "by the book Barkin", a name he picked up from his platoon leader days, crazy. Barkin smiled slightly at the though of his old nickname, even though his troops only called him that behind his back, they always took offense when any one out side of the platoon had called him that.

Thirty minutes later the torturously tame trip came to an end when a still some what baffled Steve Barkin finally found himself standing in the headquarters of Global Justice and about to meet its boss. Out of sheer habit, and one that he really hadn't tried to break through the years, Barkin knocked on the door twice and waited for acknowledgement before entering the room. He shut the door with his left hand while maintaining eye contact with the sole person in the room, and with military precision born of long habit and repetition, he closed the door and approached the desk, stopping exactly three feet from it.

"Steve. How's my favorite ninety day wonder doing, still doing things by the book I see." Dr. Director asked as she looked up from her desk. "It also looks like you're still playing rugby."

"As far as I know of I'm the only ninety day wonder that you ever knew, never mind liked, and the rugby keeps me in shape." Barkin replied.

"Well there weren't too many people who would admit to being in the military while attending Kent State. As for the rugby, yes I would imagine that it does, and you are still looking pretty good for that matter. Besides, I like your rugby uniform, it shows off your legs." Dr. Director said as she indicated for Barkin to take a seat.

"Don't you think your husband would be a little jealous if he heard you say that?" Steve asked with the smallest of grins. "But somehow I don't think you used your agencies men and material just to drag me here so you could flirt, so what is it?"

Smiling a little herself, Betty knew that Steve was right, and that what she had to tell him was important. Still she wanted to catch up with her old friend from college. It had been years, the summer of 1993 to be exact, since the two of them had sat down face to face and talked. She had missed talking with Steven Barkin, he was intelligent and knowledgeable, and wasn't one to sugar coat things. That was one of the things the future head of Global Justice had noticed when she first met him as a nineteen year old junior at Kent state. The other thing she had also learned of was his protective nature.

"Betty, you still with me?" Steven asked after the woman had been quite for several moments.

Snapped out of her day dream by the question, Betty simply answered with the first thing that came to her mind. "Sorry Steve, I was thinking about how we meet, and of the summer of 88."

"Ahh, I see." Steven answered solemnly.

"Did I ever thank you for what you did for me that year?"

"Thanked me? For what?" Steven asked confused.

"For helping me the way you did."

"I was there for a friend, a buddy. I wouldn't have done anything less. You know that Betty."

"That's not what I meant." Betty said with a sigh as she gathered her thoughts before she stood up. "Steve would you say I'm attractive?"

"Yes I would. You've always had a great body."

"Would you say I'm pretty?"

"Betty, I don't understand where you're going with this." Steven answered with both confusion and honesty. He had only her heard voice questions of self doubt once before and was beginning to fear he would hear it again.

"Look at my face and tell me what you see." Betty directed.

"I see…" Steven then stopped in mid sentence as he finally realized just what Betty was getting at. She was talking about the last time he had heard her voice her self doubts, and what had caused them. "This is about your eye isn't it?"

"No, it's not just about my eye. Take a good look at my face."

Steven stood up and leaned closer to take a good close look at Betty's face. As he leaned in to get a closer look, Steven realized the last time his face had been this close to Betty's face had been just over ten years ago, back in the summer of 93. The other thing he realized is that despite the years, the thin white traces of several scars could still be seen on her face.

"Steve, back then, after the accident, I was a mess. You saw how injured my face was while I was in the hospital."

Steven could only nod his head as he remembered how badly injured his friend had been, and not just her face but from head to toe. However, his thoughts were interrupted when Betty continued speaking.

"I've always been a strong, confident woman. You've known that longer than my husband, ever since college when you tried to protect me from that mugger." Then after several seconds Betty continued in a softer voice. "Well during that summer, I lost a lot of my confidence. I was really just a shell of what I had been. But then you came to visit me and helped me to recover."

"Betty, you know I would have done the same for any of my friends." Steven started to say before being cut off.

"After I got out of the hospital I still had this to remind me of my failure." Betty said as she pointed to her eye patch. "Lets face it, society isn't all that kind to women with a large facial disfiguration. So when you took me out for dinner after they discharged me from the hospital; that meant a lot to me."

"Umm, yes I figured you could use some real food after all that time in the hospital."

"It wasn't just the dinner, or the date Steve, it was the whole night. You made me feel like a woman again, something that a man would be attracted to. Yes I know it sounds shallow coming from me, but it's true. That's why I trust you and your judgment, and why I decided to call you to help me with another problem."

Steven Barkin was no shrink, but he had learned a few things over the years, both from being in the military and being a teacher, about helping people deal with their problems. Rule number one was to be quiet and to listen to what the person had to say. This was on time that "by the book Barkin" should have abandoned that rule. Instead he simply sat back in his seat and waited for Betty Director to tell him what her problem was.

"This all started about three months ago…." Betty began.

II.

Fifteen minutes later Betty had finished her tale.

"Oh come on, you've got to be kidding me!" Steven said rather loudly and in disbelief.

"No I'm not." Betty responded evenly from across her desk.

"You can't tell me any more than this and you want me to admit this kid in to my school? Forget it, its not going to happen. You may be queen of your little kingdom here, but I'm the king of mine."

"I'm sorry Steve, but you just don't have the proper clearance for that information."

"That's a bunch of bull and you know it." Barkin responded harshly, "I'm pretty certain that neither Miss Possible nor Mr. Stoppable have any sort of "official" security clearance, but some how I doubt that stops you from sharing information with them. Now if you want my cooperation then you need to be a little more forth coming with the information."

Sighing to herself, Betty knew that he had a point. She was asking a lot of him to do this favor for her, especially when it had the possibility of blowing up in his face.

"Alright Steve, you do have a point there. We both know that this is the right thing to do, but if you do this for me, I would consider it a personal favor. Think of it as helping out an injured friend again." Seeing that her change in tact had somewhat disarmed the strong willed principal, Betty continued. "Even I don't know all the facts, but here is what I do know about this young man."

Two hours later, after much discussion and haggling of details, Principal Steven Barkin wearily sat back in his chair.

"Oh come on, you've got to be kidding me." Barkin said again, only this time in shock rather than disbelief as his friend offered him a cup of coffee.

"Here you go Steve, one pack of sugar and just a splash of cream."

"I'm impressed that you remembered Betty, it's been what, at least eight years since you made a cup of coffee for me."

"Nine, but why quibble. It was 1993, the last time that we had dinner together. Did you know that when I told you about my engagement that night that you were the first person I told?"

"No I didn't." Steven answered while reaching for his cup. But he stopped in mid-movement as he heard the sound of a cork being removed from a bottle.

"Care for a snort?" Betty asked as she held up a small bottle half full of a light brown liquid.

"Betty, I'm surprised in you. Never would have thought you'd be one to keep whisky in the office." Barkin teased.

"I assure you, it's for medicinal purposes only." Betty said as she poured some in to each cup.

"But after what you've told me, yeah, I could us it."

After taking a sip of the now fortified coffee, Barkin asked the question that had been on his mind. He didn't know if his conscious was looking for reassurance or a way out.

"Before I fully commit, I want to know if you're sure about this Betty."

"All things considered, about as sure as I can be, and that's not much. We've never had to deal with something like this before." Betty confided

"All right then, thanks for being honest. Have the young man report to my office tomorrow morning after first period. I'll have Kim and Ron show him around. I'll also arrange the schedule so that he will have at least one of them in each of his classes through out the day."

Nodding her head in agreement Betty Director voiced her next concern. "Are you sure that there won't be a problem with him receiving his medication on time? It's very important that he retains that schedule. As it is now we are going to be wrecking his routine, it's important that he maintains at least that little bit of structure, in addition to the medicinal benefits. Steve, I don't need to tell you how important it is that we get this one right. I for one couldn't live with myself knowing that we messed up his life, again."

"I agree. I would prefer that he keep the medication on him, but school and state policy tie my hands on this one. But I'll be sure to let Kim and Ron know."

Standing up to leave, Barkin considered whether or not to listen to the last nagging thought that had been in the back of his mind. Glancing at Dr. Director's desk, his eyes fell on the picture of a young man. Even though his face had a scowl on it and gave him a tough kid look about him in the photo, Barkin knew that in the end he was still just a kid. Finally Steven Barkin made is decision.

"Betty, you said that you would consider this a personal favor if I did this. Well I'm going to go ahead and ask for payment now."

Betty raised her eye brow, not at the fact that Steven was seeking repayment of his debt, but at how quickly he was seeking it.

"Find out how this could have happened, who did it and why, and then shut them down. Air it to the public if you have to, but make sure this never happens again. At least Kim and Ron had a choice about this, but that poor kid never did."

Betty noted the way that Steve had used Kim and Ron's first name instead of calling them by their last name like he usually did with people. Then, looking him square in the eye, Betty could see the sadness in his eyes, the weariness of it all. She knew that look, that feeling. The feeling of being the old hand and having to watch as some young person had their innocence, their life irreparable changed long before it was their time. She had seen agents who on their first mission in the field had been killed, or worse, severely crippled. Or hardened veteran agents who had thought they seen it all to be forced to seek therapy after witnessing an especially depraved act by one human against another. She knew that look because from time to time it would stare back at her from the mirror.

"I'll do that Steve, you have my word on it." Dr. Director said as she stood and shook his hand before showing him the way out. "Oh and Steve, remember, the price of freedom is eternal vigilance".