RON STOPPABLE; HUSBAND, FATHER
A/N: This little plot bunny struck all of a sudden while I was on my way home from work and listening to a Gordon Lightfoot CD that was in the stereo. The song "The Pony Man" came on and inspiration hit me for this, so I figured I'd hammer it out before it drove me nuts. To those who are awaiting an update on The Adult Years, it is coming shortly, so stay tuned!
Five years.
Neither Ron nor Kim Stoppable could believe it had been five years since they'd been bound in holy matrimony, yet here they were coming home from a night out to celebrate just that. As they pulled in the driveway, Ron looked over at his bride and grinned his usual goofy grin. "Told you I still had all my bon-diggity moves," he said, squeezing her hand—which he'd been holding since they'd gotten in their car to go home.
"Yes, you did," Kim replied, "and I'm sorry I doubted you. You were terrific out there tonight."
"You looked like you were ready to incinerate a couple of the girls that were watching me," he commented with a note of humor in his voice as he parked the car and shut it off.
"Well, they were staring at you like vultures," the fiery redhead retorted, "and if any of them made a move, I would have!"
"I know you would have, but did you ever stop to think it wouldn't be necessary?"
"What do you mean?"
"Kim, tonight is our anniversary," Ron said, walking around the car to his wife and pulling her into an embrace, "a celebration of the day we committed ourselves to each other for the rest of our lives. I would never do anything to ruin that any other day, much less on our anniversary."
Sighing, Kim laid her head on her husband's shoulder and wrapped her arms around him. "I know, baby," she muttered. "It's not you I'm worried about, it's the lushes that like to hang out at those dance clubs. Married or not, one of them would be all over you if given the chance."
"Hey, the Ron-man might have the moves to drive the ladies crazy, but I'm a one-KP man," the towheaded young man said, squeezing his arms a little tighter around Kim's shoulders.
"And don't you forget it," she purred, pulling him in for a kiss… a passionate, curl-your-toes-and-your-hair kiss that left Ron both breathless and speechless. Pulling away, she continued in a normal tone, "Now, let's go in and relieve our babysitter from her duties; she's probably ready to go home."
Shaking his head, Ron blinked a couple of times as his brain started functioning again… sort of. "Babysitter… right," he mumbled, allowing his bride to lead him to the front door of their home. Opening the front door softly, Kim preceded her husband into the house, both of them slipping their shoes off before proceeding to the living room, where their babysitter for the evening was curled up on the sofa reading a Doneille Iron novel and drinking a mug of herbal tea.
"Hey you two," Anne Possible said with a smile, marking her page as she looked up at her daughter and son-in-law, "how was your night out?"
"Great," Kim replied as Ron slipped his arms around her waist from behind. "Thanks again for looking after Shavaun for us, Mom."
"Oh, it was my pleasure," the elder redhead replied as she got up. "It's not like I don't get to see her every day anyway, but it's always nice to have the chance to spend some quality time with my granddaughter."
"Did she give you a hard time when you put her to bed?" Ron asked. He knew that while three-year-old Shavaun Jeannette Stoppable was blessed with her mother's intelligence, the vibrant toddler had also inherited her father's phobic tendencies; one of which prevented her from going to bed until Daddy chased the monsters from under her bed.
"Oh, she was fine," Anne said with a dismissive wave. "I went upstairs with her and let her put her PJ's on by herself—which she did fine, I might add—and I laid down with her and read her a bedtime story. After her hug and kiss goodnight, she rolled over and was sound asleep before I even had a chance to turn her nightlight on."
"Wow," Kim said, obviously impressed with her mother's accomplishment, "normally Ron has to go chase the monsters from under her bed first."
"Rufus took care of that," Anne giggled. "He was waiting for us on Shavaun's dresser and when we went in, he chattered something to her before he took off under the bed. I'm guessing he went in to chase the monsters away for her, 'cause when he climbed up the bedpost again—I was probably halfway through her bedtime story at this point—he gave her a thumbs-up and went back to the dresser."
"Yeah, Rufus usually goes in with me," Ron said with a grin, "he fits under Shavaun's bed a lot better than I do."
"Either way, I haven't heard a peep from her since I put her to bed; she should be fine," Anne said, picking up the light jacket she'd worn.
"Can you stay for a cup of tea, Mom?" Kim asked, disengaging herself from her husband and heading towards the kitchen. "We're probably gonna be up for a bit before we go to bed."
Anne had just finished slipping her jacket on and was picking up her book as she answered her progeny. "No, thanks anyway, Kimmie; I have an early procedure tomorrow so I should get going," she said as she made her way to the door. "Why don't you two bring Shavaun over tomorrow for supper; your father would love another chance to spoil his granddaughter," she suggested with a wink.
"Okay, Mom," Kim laughed, seeing her mother out the door. Standing at the window by the front door, she watched the elder redhead climb into her recently-purchased BMW—with the boys off to college, a minivan was deemed to be no longer a necessity—and back out the driveway. Only when she saw the sports car's taillights disappear around a corner did she return to her original task of preparing tea for herself and her husband, only to find he'd already done so, passing her a mug of the steaming brew as she crossed the threshold to the kitchen. "Thanks, baby," she said softly, kissing him on the cheek as she accepted the mug.
"That's what I'm here for," he replied equally softly, a warm smile directed at the young woman before him. Offering his hand to her, she took it gently and allowed him to lead her into the living room, where they both sunk into the same couch her mother had vacated mere moments before, Ron against the armrest and Kim curled up against him, tucking her feet under herself as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, drawing her even closer to him. For some time they sat like that; no noise, no distractions, just two people madly in love and basking in each other's company. Finally, however, Ron broke the silence again. "Hard to believe, isn't it?"
"What's that, baby?" Kim asked, not moving from her current position.
With a half-smirk, the towheaded young man paused to kiss the top of his bride's head before answering her question. "We've already been married five years and it still feels like yesterday I was carrying you across that threshold for the first time," he said, pointing to the front door of their home.
"I know," she replied, her voice barely above a whisper. "I'm not sure which has gone by faster; the time since we got married or the time since Shavaun was born."
"It's definitely gone faster since she was born," Ron chuckled, taking a sip of his tea. "One minute we're still getting up at two-thirty to feed her, the next she's just about potty trained and talking."
"I think Daddy said it the best," Kim mused, staring into her mug, "it seems like you're on your way home from the hospital, then you blink and you're walking her up the aisle to give her to another man." Doctor James Possible had uttered those words as he stood with Kim, about to escort her down the aisle of Middleton's St. Jude's Roman Catholic Church on her last day with the surname of Possible; for some reason, it stuck with her.
"I think he's right," Ron chuckled. Disengaging himself from his wife, he stood up, placing his mug on the end table as he did. "I'm gonna go up and look in on her, make sure we haven't blinked yet," he said, "and then I'm gonna call it a night."
Kim got up and kissed her husband softly on the lips. "I hope you're not too tired," she whispered huskily, "I've got one more anniversary present for my husband and I don't want him to sleep through it." With that, the auburn-headed heroine picked up both hers and Ron's mugs and returned them to the kitchen, throwing an extra sashay in her hips to tantalize him even further.
Ron, for his part, was just about reduced to a quivering puddle of Jell-O as he watched her walk away. "Uh, yeah, right," he stammered as he made his way to the staircase, his mind still not firing on all cylinders as the possibilities of what his bride had in mind played through.
When he reached the top of the stairs, however, his train of thought was derailed by the sound of sobbing coming from his daughter's bedroom. Moving softly to the little girl's door, he listened for a moment with his hand on the doorknob, unsure whether or not to enter. Listening a little longer, he could hear Rufus apparently trying to cheer the toddler up, but to no avail, so he decided the time was right to enter.
Opening the door as softly as he could, his gaze was immediately met by two shining green orbs—much like his wife's—and a tear-streaked face with the same smattering of freckles across the nose as his own. "Daddy?" the little girl whispered in a voice still thick with tears.
"Hey, Pun'kin Head," Ron replied with a smile, crouching down beside Shavaun's bed. Seeing Rufus standing beside her pillow, he gave the naked mole-rat a scratch on top of the head in greeting before returning his attention to the strawberry-blonde little girl. "How come you're not sleeping, sweetie; what's wrong?" he asked, wiping a tear from her cheek.
"I had a bad dream," she said as she allowed her father to draw her into an embrace. "Nana Anne was watching something on TV about how Auntie Kate and Mommy used to fight all the time… they showed Auntie Kate doing bad things, hurting people, hurting Mommy and you."
Ron just pulled his little girl closer, holding her in his strong, comforting arms; much in the same way he would hold Kim whenever she felt scared or insecure. "Was that what your dream was about?" he asked, rocking her back and forth gently.
"Uh-huh," she sniffled. "I dreamed that Auntie Kate was fighting with you and Mommy in the living room, hurting you both."
"Well, you've got nothing to worry about, Pun'kin Head," Ron said softly, kissing his daughter's crown softly. "Auntie Kate's one of the good guys now; her and your Mom are almost as close as your Mom and Auntie Monique… you know that, right?"
"Uh-huh," Shavaun nodded again, "but the dream still scared me."
"I know," Ron said, still holding her close to him, "bad dreams can be scary; just remember that's all they are, they can't hurt you."
"Okay," she whispered. Father and daughter were both silent for a moment, then the younger Stoppable looked up at her patriarch. "Daddy?" she said tentatively.
"Yeah, sweetie?"
"Will you stay with me until I go back to sleep?"
Smiling at his little girl, Ron nodded in response. "You got it, Pun'kin Head," he replied. Instead of tucking her back into bed, however, he got up with her still in his arms and moved to the rocking chair beside the window, much to the curiosity of his progeny.
"Where are you going, Daddy?" she asked simply.
"I thought I might do something with you that your Grandma Stoppable used to do with me when I was your age and had a bad dream," he replied, settling into the chair and adjusting her small frame in his lap. "We had a rocking chair almost exactly like this one, and it was beside the window, just like this one is; if I had a bad dream, my Mommy—your Grandma Stoppable—would sit with me in that rocking chair just like this and she would tell me about the Pony Man."
"The Pony Man?" she repeated quizzically.
"Yeah," Ron nodded as he started rocking gently, "the Pony Man brings happy dreams to little boys and girls all around the world. Would you like me to tell you the story?"
Shavaun nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah!" she said with the first smile she'd had since Ron went into her room.
"Okay," he chuckled, squeezing his daughter a little closer before he started singing softly, rocking gently to the rhythm of the song. By the time he'd gotten to the second verse, however, he realized that the little girl in his arms was sound asleep. Trailing off, he lapsed into humming as he carried her back to her bed and laid her in as gently as he could and pulled the covers back up to her chin. Making sure Kim's old Panda-roo was within easy reach, he gave Shavaun a kiss on the forehead and softly snuck out, giving Rufus another scratch on the head on his way by. Rufus, for his part, gave his human a thumbs-up before curling into a ball and going back to sleep.
Once he'd shut the door, Ron looked down the hall and locked eyes with Kim, who was standing outside their own bedroom, leaning against the doorframe. She'd obviously decided to get ready for bed, as the dress she'd been wearing had been replaced by her satin summer bathrobe and she'd washed the makeup from her face. "It's only been five years and I've already lost you to another woman," she said, her eyes betraying the humor she was trying to hide.
"Sorry, KP," he said, kissing her softly, "Shavaun had a bad dream and I told her I'd stay with her until she went back to sleep."
"What kind of bad dream?" she asked as she followed her husband into the bedroom, closing the door behind her.
"I guess your mother must've been watching that documentary that we did the interviews for last fall," he replied as he peeled his polo shirt over his head. "She said she dreamt Kate came busting in here and beating the tar out of us and it scared her. I told her to remember that dreams were just dreams and couldn't hurt you, then I sang her the same lullaby that Mom used to sing to me whenever I had a nightmare when I was a kid."
"I'm guessing it worked?" Kim ventured, her left hand playing with the belt on her robe.
"Oh, yeah; she was out like a light by the time I hit the second verse," he replied, emptying his pants pockets onto his end table. "I tucked her back in, and here we are."
"I always knew you'd be a great father," Kim commented, slipping her bathrobe off while her husband's back was facing her.
By now Ron had stripped down to his boxers and was about to slip into bed when a bare, slender arm snaked its way across his chest from behind, its mate wrapped around his waist, just above the waistband of his boxers. He also felt the soft, warm form of his wife pressing against his bare back, the material that was between her and him feeling more like lace than the front of her satin bathrobe should have. Turning around, he came face to face with his wife, who was wearing what he called her "bedroom eyes" and an extremely flattering black lace baby-doll negligée. "Wow, KP," he stammered, having forgotten about the hint she'd dropped earlier, "that's… badical."
"Happy anniversary, baby," she replied huskily, pulling him into a sultry, passionate kiss as she pushed him backwards onto the bed.
Some time later, the couple lay snuggled together in bed; Ron on his back, Kim curled against him with her arm draped across his torso, basking in the comfortable silence of the afterglow; his boxers and her lingerie lying forgotten on the floor. Neither had said anything since they'd concluded their "celebrations," but finally Kim broke the silence. "Ronnie?" she whispered, tilting her head so she could look at her husband's face.
"Yeah, babe?" he replied, shifting so he could see her better.
"You know I meant what I said earlier, right?" she said, no hint of humor in her voice. "I really have always known you were going to be a great father; watching you with Shavaun every day just proves it."
"Thanks, KP, I learned from the best."
"You did?" she said, somewhat incredulously. While she did love her father-in-law, she knew he wasn't exactly the hands-on type of father that Ron was turning out to be.
"Yeah," Ron replied, "your dad; after seeing how he was with you and the twins, I knew that was the kind of father I wanted to be."
Smiling, Kim settled her head back onto Ron's shoulder, her hand wandering aimlessly over his chest, playing with the few light hairs there. "Well, I think you're doing a pretty good job of it," she said softly. "I do have one question, though."
"Ask away and I'll answer if I can."
"What was the lullaby you were talking about?"
"Oh, that," Ron chuckled. "You know Mom's big into folk music, right?"
"Yeah."
"Well, that song was on one of the folk albums she used to listen to all the time and whenever I'd wake up from a bad dream, she'd either sing it to me or put the album on and let me listen to it," he said with a shrug. "I figured I'd try the same thing on Shavaun tonight; I guess it worked."
"It sure did," Kim said with a smile. Scooting up, she leaned in and kissed her husband tenderly on the lips. "I love you, Ron," she whispered as they parted.
"I love you too, Kim," he replied, holding her close. Within minutes Kim was fast asleep with her head still on his shoulders, but Ron was still awake. Looking down briefly at his wife—his lovely, wonderful wife—he couldn't help but smile and brush away a tear at the same time.
Life had been somewhat harsh to Ron Stoppable at first; he was the weird kid, unpopular and not much good at sports or school. No matter how bad it got, though, he'd always had Kim beside him; laughing with him through the good times and holding him up through the bad. Now, though, life had dealt him a pretty good hand; not only was he celebrating five years of marriage to Kim, but they also had a beautiful little girl and a comfortable home in the same neighborhood they'd grown up in.
To top it off, Ron had managed to land himself a sous-chef position at Chez Couteaux pretty well right out of college. Coupled with his Bueno Nacho royalties (which his father had been smart enough to deposit in a trust fund after the initial fiasco), he was able to support his family while Kim concentrated on her graduate studies in Criminal Justice. When he and Kim had gotten married, the trust was turned over to him; he'd almost fainted when his father showed him the bottom line (he did faint when he saw how much the IRS had soaked him for). Using the trust, he was able to get a mortgage for the home they now lived in; his salary from the restaurant more than adequate to support the three of them with the mortgage payment out of the equation.
Thanks to understanding faculty at Upperton University and a flexible schedule at the restaurant, they were still able to take the odd mission, but now Wade would screen any and all hits on the site and only contact them if the situation called for their particular expertise or if all other avenues were exhausted (read: Global Justice didn't have enough in the budget to do it, so let's call the freebies). Both of them missed the days of jumping at the sound of the Kimmunicator and jetting off to some exotic locale, but the reality of it was they had responsibilities they hadn't had to consider when they were in high school… not the least of which was currently down the hall and hopefully having a better dream than the one that had woken her.
Feeling his eyes getting heavy, Ron slid himself a bit further down to rest his head on his pillows rather than his shoulders. Beside him, Kim automatically shifted herself in her sleep so she remained snuggled tightly against her husband; her soft, warm figure molded perfectly against his. Squeezing his arm a little tighter around her shoulders, he kissed his bride's forehead—he could almost swear he'd heard her purr as he did so—and closed his eyes, his chin resting lightly on top of her head.
As he drifted off, the last thought that went through Ron's head was how he wanted to be remembered when his time came. Through all he'd done, through everything he'd seen and been through, there were only two things that mattered:
Ronald Dean Stoppable – Husband, Father.
A/N: Yeah, this didn't turn out quite the way I expected it to when I first wrote it, but I figure I'll stick it up anyway… worst that'll happen is it'll get flamed into the realm of oblivion for all-time. With Father's Day coming up in a couple of weeks, however, I thought the timing was right to throw something out there on the kind of father I think Ron would grow up to be.
Like I said at the top, those waiting for an update on The Adult Years, that's coming soon (hopefully later this week or early next week); stay tuned for that!
As always, leave a review, get a response!
Cheers,
Deuce