Disclaimer: The Walt Disney Company owns all copyrights to the television series Kim Possible. I don't get paid for writing these little vignettes.
Author's Note: This is the third in my series of conversations between God and the character in the show. They all take place immediately after the end of the show, after Kim and Ron graduate, and are interconnected so you should read the other two first to understand certain aspects of this one.
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Conversation: Part #3
Dr. James Timothy Possible
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Dr. James Possible enter the hotel suite that he and his family were living in while their house was being rebuilt. The house had been completely demolished by a Lowardian Walker at the onset of the invasion but luckily no one had been injured or killed. The family had just left for the graduation ceremony of his daughter Kim, so the house had been void of people.
That didn't mean that there wasn't any loss. James' beloved, vintage Jaguar had been parked in the garage and there were all of the pictures and clothes and other items that had also been destroyed. Luckily again, he had taken out an all-inclusive insurance policy to cover the losses. He chuckled a bit when he realized that his twin thirteen year old sons, Jim and Tim, were the cause of the expensive insurance policy that would pay to replace everything. Their daily experimental antics were the reason he'd taken out the insurance in the first place. Because of that, the house was already being rebuilt, a new car was on the way and new clothing could be purchased when needed. He wasn't worried about the framed pictures that'd hung on the walls. His wife Anne had the foresight to digitally copy all of them so those could be replaced too. (She had been afraid that one of her son's volatile experiments might accidentally damage or destroy some of the pictures, so she'd taken the precaution.)
James tiredly dropped the door key on the small table in the entryway of the suite and headed for the comfortable recliner to sit down. He knew he was all alone at the moment, mainly because it was still early afternoon. The Board of Directors had dismissed everyone at the Space Center early today since the cleanup was progressing at a faster than expected pace and the staff deserved the break. Still, the rest of the family was busy working on cleaning up the mess from the alien invasion. Anne was busy at the hospital taking care of the injured, Jim and Tim were at the high school helping to clean up the little damage caused by one of the Lowardian Walkers there, and Kim was off somewhere with her boyfriend, Ronald, doing who knows what. He wasn't sure just what Kim was up to since he could never keep up with all of her missions and friends and school activities and such. And while the missions against the normal villains had dried up and they didn't need to go in to work, (Ron was given time off for taking out the alien threat and the mall where Kim worked was temporarily closed,) the two teens were keeping busy training or helping out with the cleanup around town.
Did that make him a poor excuse for a father, he wondered, if he didn't know what one of his children was doing?
Out of habit, James snapped open the newspaper and began to peruse the articles. He like to keep current with what was going on in the world so he always read the paper from the front page to the back. Unfortunately, the hectic pace at work trying to get the Middleton Space Center back up and running while trying to decipher the Lowardian technology had taken its toll on him and James was soon fast asleep.
James jerked awake to the sounds of a soothingly sweet instrumental number that he'd never heard before. He gasped out loud when he saw that he was still sitting on in the recliner, but it was floating somewhere in outer space near the beautiful rings of Jupiter. James' quick, analytical mind swiftly rationalized that if he was able to gasp, that also meant that he could breathe. Those facts, that he was in outer space but was still able to breathe, didn't sit well with him, but for some reason he accepted them. He was also slightly confused that he was able to hear the sweet sweet music since sound didn't travel in a vacuum, so he shouldn't be able to hear the music at all.
"Hello, James," a loud, kind Voice was heard over the music. "I suppose you'd like an explanation for the many questions that are racing through your mind right now."
"That would help the situation," James nodded as he searched around him to see if he could find where the Voice and music were coming from. "Otherwise I'd have to assume that I've either lost my mind or I'm in hallucinating... and I never like to assume anything."
"Yes, empirical proof is comforting to a scientist," the Voice chuckled. "Although there is more to life than empirical proof and rockets."
"Ah," James gasped. "Then we're talking about the realms of religion or mysticism; two subjects I know little about."
"We are talking about religion, James," the Voice laughed. "I am God and I thought I'd like to talk with you about a few things."
"Okey-dokey," James nodded in understanding as he folded up the newspaper in his lap and set it aside. "Being a rocket scientist, I'm not really up on my religious studies, but I do kinda believe in things not of science. I mean I haven't been to church in quite a while, but that doesn't mean you don't exist."
"I know all about your religious beliefs, James," the Voice jovially laughed. "More and more scientists today don't discount my influences in the world just because that can't prove I exist, and there are a few out there that use their skills to validate my existence by verifying some parts of the Bible."
"Yes, I've watched a few of the shows on the scientific channels concerning those scientists," James said as he defiantly crossed his arms over his chest. "Most seem legitimate, but there are a few who jump to unsubstantiated conclusions without examining their findings more closely. But I have a feeling that that's not what you want to discuss. I'd wager that you'd like to talk about my parenting skills."
"What makes you think that, James?"
"Wellll," James anxiously rubbed the back of his neck, "while I can still connect with Jim and Tim through their rockets and other experiments, I'm losing that special connection with my little Kimmie-Cub. I mean she's growing up so fast and she'll be heading off to college in the fall... and she's spending so much more time with Ronald than at home." He let out a heavy sigh. "It just feels like she has no more time for her old man and I'm going to lose her altogether sooner or later."
The raucous laugh from God stunned James Possible for a few seconds before the Voice said, "You do realize that that's the nature of things in the world which I created. Nothing is permanent and change is constant."
"Yes, yes." James waved off the totally obvious concept as he blustered, "Mountains will eventually erode and stars will go nova. But those things take millions of years to happen. I'm losing my little girl right now."
"To Ron?" the Voiced begged.
"Yes, to Ronald," James angrily answered. "He's the one who's taking my little Kimmie-Cub away from me!"
"And that's why you are always threatening him with a ride to the nearest black hole." It was more of a statement than a question, which threw James off.
"I..." James started before he realized what was being said. He was angry with Ron for dominating his Kimmie's time. James was afraid that Ron would take up so much of Kim's time that she would forget all about him and he'd never see her again.
"You will never totally lose Kim," the Voice benevolently said. "You and Anne have raised her well; to be a strong, independent woman. It shows in the leadership roles she's taken in school and in her missions."
"Yes, she is a pip," James laughed, but then realized that Kim's personality was the very reason he thought she would leave him in the dust. Without thinking about it, he voiced that thought. "But that's what leads me to the conclusion that she'll eventually forget about me. Kim will become involved in all of the different activities at college and forget about her old man."
"But you know she loves you, James," the Voice benevolently said. "That love will never die, so she will always have a special place in her heart for you and your wife." James could almost hear the grin coming through when God said, "You didn't abandon your parents when you headed off to college."
James thought back to his college days. Although he had been extremely busy with his studies and clubs and such, he always found the time to occasionally go home for the weekend, or at least give his mom and dad a call to tell them what was happening in his life. Thinking about it, Kim would probably do the same thing.
"I guess you're right," James sighed. "Kim has always taken the time to tell me about her latest mission, and she's been responsible enough to get to school the next day, even though she'd gotten home from France or Italy or... Timbuktu at a late hour. And she's kept her grade point average up, too."
"And Ron has been at her side, no matter what," God added.
"That's true," James nodded in agreement, thinking about how Ron would go on their missions and still be at his house, bright and early the next day, ready to eat breakfast before heading off to school with Kim. "Ron is so devoted to my little Kimmie-Cub, it's scary."
"Almost as devoted as you were with Anne?" the Voice chuckled.
"I..." James started as he thought about all the times he had walked Anne to her classes and helped her study for an important exam... just like Kim and Ron did all through high school. James suddenly realized that, despite his lack of smarts, Ron was a lot like him. They were both kinda geeky but totally devoted to the woman in their life. Ron might not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but he would never let Kim down, just like he'd always been there for Anne.
"I guess Ronald wouldn't be the worst guy for Kimmie to marry," James ceded. "They really do fit together like space exploration and a rocket."
"Does that mean you'll stop threatening Ron with a ride to the nearest black hole?" the Voice queried, "or will you continue just like Anne's father did to you?"
That brought back memories that James hadn't thought of in quite a while. When he'd started dating Anne, her father, a newspaper reporter by trade, had warned him to be a gentleman or James would find out what the inside of a newspaper printing press looked like. On more than one occasion, Anne's father had taken James on a tour of the printing facilities of the Middleton Examiner where he worked. Those twelve foot tall, eight foot wide, twenty five foot long presses fascinated James at first before he met one of the press operators. James had shaken hands with the old man and notice that he had lost two finger on one hand. When questioned about it, the old man had told him that he had gotten a bit too closes to one of the machines. The printing press operator had gone on to tell him about one of his coworkers who had been mauled and killed by the printing press and that it'd taken a crew of five men and one whole day to clean up the mess.
Those tours had place the fear of God into James and he never liked Anne's father much because of that.
Was he doing the same thing to Ronald? Would the blond boy grow to loath being around him because of his outlandish threats? (James knew it was impossible to send anyone to a black hole, but did Ron know that?")
"I guess I've been a little unfair with Ronald," James sighed. "He is devoted to Kim as much as I've always been with Anne... and I don't think Kimmie would even consider dating any other boy."
"It's good that you realize that, James," the Voice kindly said before it seemed to perk up and practically begged, "Now, what else would you like to know? Most people have a million questions they'd like to ask me."
"Wellll," James started as he rubbed the back of his neck while trying to think what to ask, "I would like to know when we'll have a vehicle that can travel at the speed of light. Will it be in my lifetime? What type of propulsion will it use? I mean will it be an atomic or a cold fusion reactor... or what?"
"You will have a vehicle that can travel close to light speed," the Voice answered, "but it won't happen in your lifetime. The work you are doing now will eventually lead to one, but that's not important. Don't you want to ask me about the meaning of life, or when you'll become a grandfather?"
"Well, the talk we've had so far has lessened my concerns about becoming a grandfather," James chuckled. "I now think that Kimmie and Ronald will be responsible in that matter. And as to the meaning of life... I'm not really into that sort of thing. I guess I'm more concerned about my family and our future. I'm pretty sure Kimmie will turn out okay, especially if Ronald will continue to support her with whatever she tries to do, but what about Jim and Tim? Will they continue to follow their old man into the field of rocketry or, like Kim has joked more than once, will they turn evil? Kimmie's always been concerned that she'll eventually have to stop them from taking over the world."
"While I'm sure watching Jim and Tim try to take over the world would be fun to watch," the Voice of God laughed, "they'll settle down from their wild ways shortly and become fine scientists in their own right. But the lesson I taught them while trying to rewire the Lowardian staff wasn't enough, so I have a few more surprises in store for them."
"You caused that staff to explode in their faces?" James yelped in surprise. He remembered a few days ago when the twins were helping him try to decipher the Lowardian technology left over after the failed invasion. They were working on a power staff which blew up in the twins faces when they tried to increase the power level.
"Of course," God laughed. "They've been a bit too exuberant with their creativity, which isn't a bad thing in and of itself. But they still need to learn that the consequences of their actions can be far reaching. They need to learn to respect other people and their property. Their creative minds just need a little discipline."
"I have been a little too lax in that aspect," James muttered to himself, even though he knew God could probably hear his thoughts anyway. He raised his voice and said, "You're right, and I'll have a word with the boys at the next opportunity."
"No you won't," the Voice responded. "Because I can not let you remember anything about this conversation."
"But I..." James started to protest before he caught himself and sheepishly grinned. "I suppose I'm not suppose to remember anything about our talk because of a little thing called free will?"
"Your mind is as quick on the uptake as your daughter's," God laughed. "She said the same thing. Yes, if you knew anything about the future, it might influence how you handle a situation. Although, I might let you remember a little about our conversation concerning Ron. You really should let up on the boy."
"You're absolutely right, sir," James nodded in agreement. "Ronald is a fine replacement for me; the perfect person to take over looking after Kimmie."
James Possible laid back on the couch and closed his eyes as the sweet sweet music swelled to a crescendo, then quickly faded.
"Is anybody here?"
James was snatched from his nap when Kim called out. She and Ron were entering the hotel suite, noisily chattering about what they'd like to do that evening, and the blond boy had slammed the door shut behind them which had jarring James more awake.
"Hi Kimmie-Cub," Dr. Possible called out as he struggled to stand up and yawned. "I guess I fell asleep while reading the newspaper."
"I'm sorry if I woke you up, Dr. P.," Ron quickly yelped in dismay. "I know you've been busy at the Space Center and need your rest."
"You're home early, daddy," Kim observed, hoping to distract her father from her loud greeting and Ron's door slamming. "You normally don't get home for another hour."
"Yes, but we finished one of the major cleanup projects today and Dr. Wong, the Chairman of the Board, decided that we deserved a break before starting on the next project."
"Nice lady, Dr. Wong," Ron observed, remembering when he and Kim had saved her from Drakken and his truth ray.
"We're home," Jim and Tim yelled as they ran in the door and immediately headed off to the suite's kitchenette for a snack.
"How was your day, boys," James asked as he, Kim and Ron followed the twins into another room. He noticed that his sons were a bit banged up, with small scratches, bruises and cuts scattered across their arms and faces. He growled in his stern, fatherly voice, "And why are you injured?"
"You know we were helping out at the high school," Tim said as he grabbed a loaf of bread and jar of peanut butter from a cupboard while Jim went to the small refrigerator and got out the jug of milk and some jelly.
"We got all of the bits of wood and concrete scattered about in a big pile out by the football field," Jim continued the story as he got two glasses out of another cupboard.
"We were waiting for the dump truck to pick up the pile," Tim said as he started to slather the bread slices with peanut butter and jelly.
"When we thought it'd be easier to simply destroy the debris," Jim finished the sentence as he poured the milk.
"So we got the leftover mystery meat out of the cafeteria freezer," Tim said before taking a bite of his sandwich.
"And put it on the pile, then added a bunch of baking soda as a catalyst," Jim said with a shrug as if it was the most natural thing to do.
The two teen boys calmly noshed on their snack as if that was the end of the story. The scene drew out for a few seconds before Kim, impatient with their antics as always, begged, "Aaaaand, what happened?"
"Well duh, the pile blew up," Tim condescended. "What'd ya think would happen?"
"So you guys got tagged by the shrapnel," Ron observed the obvious with a nod.
"Yeah," Jim admitted as he sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. "The mystery meat had a bit more kick to it than we'd calculated... probably because it was still frozen."
"Was anybody else hurt?" Kim curiously questioned in concern.
"All the other kids ran off when they saw us bringing the pot of mystery meat out," Tim answered.
"Only Mr. Barkin was around when the explosion happened," Jim tentatively added like he didn't want his father to know something.
James did pick up on Jim hesitation. He sternly asked, "Was Mr. Barkin caught up in the blast?"
"Not any more than we were," Tim quickly answered, waving his hand at the implication that the large teacher had been killed or permanently crippled. "He got the same cuts and bruises that we did. Except..."
"Except what!"
"Wellll..." the two young geniuses hedged in unison, obviously not wanting to tell what'd happened.
"Booooys!" James said in his best, fatherly warning tone that meant that they'd better come clean... and pronto!
"Well," Jim sheepishly started before he quickly spat it out, "there was one fairly large piece of concrete that wasn't totally destroyed in the blast."
"It landed on his foot," Tim swiftly added.
"He said something about giving us detention for the rest of our lives as he was taken away in the ambulance," the twins said together at the same time in their twin-speak way.
James angrily stared at his two sons. They had finally did it. One of their spur-of-the-moment, unauthorized experiments had finally hurt someone, and they knew they were responsible for Mr. Barkin's injuries. They had admitted their culpability. Now the only question was what their punishment would be.
"I'm very disappointed in you, boys," James started out, knowing he'd have to be the one to punish them, but not really knowing just what that punishment should be.
"We're sorry, dad," Jim and Tim chimed at the same time as if it had been rehearsed. (And after so many years of experiments that'd gone awry, the apology was well rehearsed.)
"Sorry isn't going to cut it this time," James menacingly warned before he let out a heavy sigh. "I just don't know what I should do with you two. Your experiments are fine but you lack the discipline to conduct them in the proper place and manner that a real scientist would employ."
"If you're talkin discipline, Dr. P.," Ron cut in, "then maybe they need to be sent to the Middle Military Academy. They're all about discipline." Kim gave him a look that said to be quiet; that this is a family matter. Ron quickly added, "At least so I've heard."
James hadn't seen the look his daughter had given Ron, he was too deep in thought about what he should do with the situation, but he had heard the suggestion. He briefly considered it before he said, "Thank you for the idea Ronald, but I think I'll save that for a Plan B. What we need is to institute some new procedures around here. Instead of the normal Observe, Hypothesize and Experiment, we're going to add a new third step to the scientific process. And that would be Clear." His voice turned harsh as he continued. "You two will now clear all experiments that you wish to perform through me. If I find out you're doing something without my supervision and/or input, then I'll implement Ronald's suggestion and send you to the academy... and I will find out about anything you try to sneak by me."
"But daaaad!" the twins whines in sync.
"No buts, boys. Now go to your room and think about what you've done today."
"Aw Maaaan!" Jim and Tim whined in unison as they dejectedly made they way to their bedroom.
"Now," James said as he glanced around the room, deciding what to do next, "I suppose I should call Mr. Barkin and find out just how badly he's injured." As he walked over to the telephone he turned to his daughter and queried, "What sort of plans do you two have for tonight?"
"Kim just wanted to change clothes before heading over to my house," Ron answered. "I thought I'd make us some dinner and then we'd veg out on the couch and watch a movie or two."
James stopped with his hand on the phone to talk to the teen couple. "But aren't your parents out of town, Ronald, at some convention or something?"
"Yes," Kim answered for her boyfriend. "Mr. and Mrs. Stoppable are in Washington D.C. attending some hearing on the future of the insurance industry. With all of the damage done by the Lowardians when they attacked, the industry is taking a big hit in the pocketbook from all the claims. Everyone associated with the insurance industry has been invited to discuss what needs to be done so the industry doesn't go under."
"And since dad was named the Actuary of the Year this year," Ron proudly added, "he was invited."
"So you two will be all alone in the house?" James cautiously queried.
"Ah, I guess so," Ron muttered as his anxiety rose to new heights. "Mom and Hanna went along with him."
There was a pregnant pause that lasted only a few seconds, although to the two teens it seemed to last for hours.
"Okey-dokey," James finally said with a beaming smile. "If the movies run late or you fall asleep, you have my permission to stay overnight, Kimmie. Have fun you two."
"We, ah..." Kim stammered, unsure what she could say after her father had just gave her the go ahead to sleep, as in either being unconscious with or making love to, her boyfriend.
Ron was also in a state of stunned stupor, and quickly blurted out, "Does that mean you're not going to give me the usual B-H-D speech?"
"B H D?" James queried.
"We were out with Monique today," Kim quickly clarified, "and she sometimes uses initials instead of words. B H D stand s for Black Hole Deep."
"Oh, that old threat," James lightly laughed as he casually slung an arm around Ron's shoulders. "No, Ronald. I'm not going to threaten you with a trip to the nearest black hole. You're adults now so I trust you and Kimmie to be responsible."
"Gee, thanks, Dr. P.," Ron nervously laughed, relieved that he wasn't going to get The Speech but thrown off with how the rocket scientist was now acting all 'buddy-buddy' with him.
"Don't mention it, Ronald," James said as he patted Ron on the back and headed back over to the telephone. "Well, I guess I'd better get that call to Mr. Barkin over with. As I said before, you two have a good time.
"Okay, daddy." Kim said and grabbed her boyfriend's arm as she hurried for the door.
Ron was too stunned to say anything until they were out the door and standing by the elevator that would take them to the hotel's parking garage. "Ah, KP. Weren't you gonna change into some different clothes?"
"That can wait until tomorrow," Kim slyly stated as they got on the elevator. "We now have all night to cuddle in front of the television."