The Chips of the Magi

"Kim - I know I've asked you this, like, a dozen times already – but are you sure this is a good idea? Do you really want to go through with it?"

Kim glared down at the holographic projection of Wade's head that hovered over the third-generation Kimmunicator (now seemingly nothing more than a simple rubber wristband with the slogan "Anything's Possible" stamped on it), and snapped back a reply.

"And, as I've said, like, a dozen times already – yes and yes! So lay off!"

Suddenly her face fell and the discernible traits of anger – the furrowed brow, the clenched jaw, the subsonic rumbling building in her throat – faded away.

What was left was something else entirely: a thin, drawn, and uncertain Kim Possible, sitting on the edge of her bed in her darkening Paris apartment.

She brushed a lock of hair out of her face and looked, guiltily, at Wade's image.

"I'm so sorry, Wade," she began, haltingly. "I just… I just don't know. I don't know what else to do. I feel like I've tried everything and, even if this is sort of crazy, I have to do it. I'm all out of options."

Wade looked back at her, worry quite evident on his face.

"I'm sorry, too, Kim, that I keep questioning you. But even though the procedure's not that complicated, it's just so… melodramatic, you know, to do this unilaterally, without talking it over with him."

Without warning Kim burst into sobs.

"I…I… Wade – you know I haven't been able to tell him… you know he won't talk to me!"

Wade just looked on, expressionless, trying to disguise his discomfort at her response.

She went on, wiping her eyes with the backs of her hands as she spoke softly.

"I've tried, Wade. First I tried to laugh it off - I sent him Bueno Nacho gift baskets by way of apology, for a month." She broke down again, weeping into her palms for a couple of moments before raising her face again to look at Wade. "That was a big mistake. So I tried to make up for it. I've apologized every way I know. I've sent flowers, emails, telegrams, handwritten letters, for heaven's sake. He hasn't responded to anything. So I went to his apartment in London a month ago. His landlord told me he had taken the semester off and gone back to the U.S.! And I still heard nothing from him."

"Until I got that email from him. Just last week." She looked rather intently at Wade. "I know you've read it."

Wade looked away again, then back. "How did you know?"

Kim smiled wanly, and her reddened eyes twinkled for just an instant. "I didn't. Just playin' ya."

Wade looked even more sheepish, if possible.

Kim lay back on the narrow bed and crossed her arms behind her head; the holo-Wade moved with her, now hovering over her face.

"Don't worry, Wade. It's ok. I figured you'd read it – how could you not? Ron emails me for the first time in three months… you'd have to be dead not to want to see it."

"Yeah." Wade paused, then rubbed the back of his neck. "Kinda cryptic, huh? 'Meet me at Middleton BN on Christmas Eve. We need to talk.' Not very Ronnish, if you ask me."

"I know. 'We need to talk'? That's what I've been trying to do for three months now." Kim's exasperation melted quickly into melancholy. "I don't know what Ron's going to say to me on Christmas Eve. That's why I'm doing this - I've got to be ready with something to prove that I'm sorry and that I trust him and he should trust me."

She sighed.

"This might sound silly, Wade, but...I need to atone, and I haven't figured out any other way to do it."

Wade sighed, his expression coming full circle back to the resignation with which he had begun the conversation. "I just can't believe, Kim, that Ron would hold a grudge this long. I mean, this is Ron we're talking about. And you. I mean, the guy's been in love with you forever. If you were any more together you'd be, y'know, married."

The moment the word was out of his mouth Wade knew he'd erred. Big time.

Kim's lower lip began to tremble and she burst into wracking sobs, finally rolling over onto her stomach and crying into her pillow for a few moments. Holo-Wade returned to the holding position over her wrist, while the real Wade waited patiently for Kim to look up again. When she rolled onto her side, clutching the pillow to her chest, his image immediately snapped to a comfortable focal length in front of her eyes, rotated 90 degrees so as to be properly oriented to her head.

"Oh, Wade. Please don't talk about marriage. I can't bear it." I thought this would be the year. I thought this would be the Christmas he'd ask me.

Wade was more than happy to return to the more clinical discussion they'd been having earlier.

"Listen, Kim, whatever you want to do – whatever you think would help - you know that I'm with you 100 percent. Y'know, I've got your back." He smiled, sheepish again, but also feeling a bit proud of himself. "Just beep me when you're back in Middleton and you can come right over. It shouldn't take any time at all. Then I guess you'll be ready to face the Ron-man."

Kim smiled sadly back at Wade. "You continue to rock, Professor Von Loadenstein. Sorry I'm such a basket case. I don't know if things'll be better after Christmas Eve, but I think they could hardly be worse. Anyway, at least I'll get to see you. Give my love to your parents. You gonna stop by on Christmas?"

"Wouldn't miss the brain meatloaf for all the world, Kim. See ya in a few days."

"See ya, Wade."

The holo-Wade blipped out and Kim was left alone, lying on her side on her bed, watching the shadows fall over Paris. The City of Lights. So why do I feel so dark?

Eventually, after a few more bouts of tears, she fell asleep.

TBC