Disclaimer: These characters belong to Disney. I own squat.

A single stone flew through the air on nothing more than the strength of a young boy's hand and a prayer.

And then the screaming began.


"I don't understand. Ronald would never do something like this." Mrs. Stoppable fretted as looked at the pictures in her hand. Her husband sat right next to her as she flipped through the images showing a boy with a face so bloodied it was hard to look at. There was just no way her Ronnie could have done this. Ron was a good boy! He may have acted out at times and was a bit strange but he was never one to pick fights! And he certainly could never have done this!

Principal Maria Gonzales sighed and tried to keep her face as neutral as possible. As a mother of five wonderful children, the failure of the Stoppable's to reign in their only son son was inexcusable. Already she could feel her thankfully still dark hair turning white from the paperwork this incident would create while Mr. and Mrs. Stoppable stared in shocked denial. She had seen this too often to count. Clueless parents. The brat was trouble.

She just didn't need this now, she was pushing 40 and her dream of early retirement was so close. Years of having to deal with other people's lack of discipline for their children and now this little monster, a career killer if there ever was one. A child like that should be locked up!

"Let's stick with the facts Mr. and Mrs. Stoppable. There is a child in a hospital right now because of your son. There are witnesses and your son confessed. Frankly, given the extent of the injuries the other boy sustained, I'm not sure if I can allow your son to continue." Maria said in the most reasonable voice she could manage. Lousy parenting was what allowed this to happen, and if she could raise five children to be fine upstanding role models than this couple in front of her were failures as human beings in her eyes.

"Wait a minute! You're kicking my boy out of Pre-K? Is that even legal?" Mr. Stoppable gaped, his mind still numb as he tried to estimate the damages and medical bills that they may have to shoulder. Years working as an actuary giving him a fairly accurate idea of the cost of rehabilitation and the difficulties they would be facing in the next few months in particular.

Even for someone with an inside track in the insurance industry like him, getting the funds needed would be a tricky challenge, and having just bought new home, their finances were stretched tight.

"I assure you it is perfectly legal Mr. and Mrs. Stoppable. In light of the danger your child, Ronald Stoppable, poses to the remaining student body, it would be unethical for me to not take any and all prudent precautions against further incidents. Also, due to this incident, Ron will be classified as a child requiring Special Services and as such, this school is not equipped to handle your son."

"What are you saying? You make my Ron sound…like, like a criminal!"

"Legally, he isn't. You two however, ARE legally responsible for your son." /And because this happened on my school and on my watch, so am I/ Principal Gonzales groused. Years of near perfect performance down the drain because of. She was a candidate for the district Educator of the Year award and along with that prestige was a nice sum she had already ear marked for her retirement and move to Go City. Now all of her hard work was going to count for nothing unless she could make this all go away.

There was no way to sweep this under the rug, not with who Arnie's parents were and nothing she could do wouldn't make it seem like she was trying to avoid responsibility. She didn't want to do this but it was time to call in a few favors from her special friend Norman.

Norman Rockwaller, attorney at law and grandfather to one Arnie Custer.

Someone was going down for this, and it wasn't going to be her.


Dr. Anne Possible sat in her office and sighed.

Twins.

She should have been overjoyed at hearing the news. She knew her husband was. James loved her daughter Kim as much as a man could but Kim wasn't the son the man wanted to have in his own image. The son she wanted to give him.

News that she was carrying his twins had him grinning like a mad man.

James Timothy Possible was already planning to name them after himself. Jim and Tim Possible. The next generation of rocket scientists. The next generation of Possibles.

Anne loved her husband. He was a sweet, smart, gentle man who was a wonderful father and a good and decent person. And the fact that he was a brilliant rocket scientist at the top of his field didn't hurt. But for all the man's brilliance, for all of his stupendous mental abilities, he remained impervious to the simple reality of dollars and cents.

She held the household budget. He insisted he do their taxes every year and she let him try, he tried so valiantly but in the end she knew she had to keep a set of tax papers in reserve just in case. His ability to focus on the mundane things in life was less than stellar.

Had he simply been able to curb his tendency to overspend his department's budget (or even just keep track), she supposed he would have been promoted to a much higher position and pay scale long ago. But the same zeal and passion that fueled the raging curiosity in the man, also bought about his downfall.

It doesn't matter how brilliant you are, if you can't be trusted to avoid spending yourself into a hole, then you're not going to be the boss.

Time and again, less brilliant but obediently budget conscious peers slipped by him to become his superiors.

There was just so much he wanted to do, so much potential that he could see, so many…possibilities….being told "no" didn't seem right to him. That some things he wanted to do were just not worth being done or possible was not something he believed in.

And now while her husband was off celebrating the upcoming birth of his twin sons, Anne Possible sat in her office and brooded.

She was a doctor, and her husband was a rocket scientist. Together, they could easily afford a family, a nice house in a good neighborhood, two cars and all those little extras that came with the good life.

In theory.

In reality Anne had struggled her entire life against colossal odds to get to where she was. An orphan, she diligently used every little bit of luck and opportunity she could get to put herself through medical school, trusting that the genes that gifted her with a brilliant mind and hard work would see her through.

But student loans were expensive. What little she managed to save over the years had been spent on the long road to a medical degree. She still had a few years of medical school to finish if she ever wanted to become a true specialist, where the prestige and money was.

One more child, the budget could take. But two….two meant that there might some unpleasant changes in their lifestyle.

That was why despite the voice inside of her that nothing good could come from this meeting with Norman Rockwaller, she silenced the voice with steely reasoning. It wasn't that unusual for a grandfather to visit the hospital his grandson was being treated at after all.

And being asked to testify by a lawyer in the field of your expertise wasn't unusual.

But Norman Rockwaller was a shady character who was part of the "old money" crowd in Middleton. While not exactly fabulously wealthy the Rockwallers did have enough connections to those in power and funds in their pocket to give them a bit of influence in Middleton as well as Upperton and Lowerton. They were part of the social elite, the in crowd. The type of people mere middle class people hoped to be one day.

"Look at it this way Mrs. Possible, what happened to my grandson is a tragedy but one that can turn out to be an…opportunity." The elderly gentleman spoke with authority, though short paunchy, and balding, he knew he was important and powerful and it showed in the way he carried himself as he stood in her office. Hands clasped easily behind his back while holding a folder as he look over the walls, her medical certificates being closely examined.

"You'll have to speak plainly Mr. Rockwaller." Rubbing stomach, Dr. Anne Possible willed the twins to settle down, she needed her wits about her now. They were kicking extra hard of late.

"Heheh, sharp and to the point, I like that."Norman turned and walked to her desk and then placed the file before her, opening it revealed a few photos of Arnie bloodied but Anne knew it was not nearly as bad as it looked. Nothing that would require major surgery. Just decent first aid, which the hospital had already provided. There also some assorted medical records there but they seemed fairly mundane.

"See here, Arnie's beat up bad. I know its mostly just show but no one else really knows that now do they?" Norman smiled cordially in the way that had more juries ruling in his favor than anything his team could dig up on short notice, like Dr. Anne Possible's...potential vulnerability to persuasion at this junction in her life.

"Arnie's medical records are rather sketchy but I fail to see what this has got to do with anything…"

"Dr. Possible." Arnie spoke quickly to press his point as he reached into his jacked and pulled out some heh, doctored medical records that would help his case. "All I want you to do, is to fully expound upon the damage my grandson is suffering from. Get him some help. Something that everyone needs from time to time. A little help. I'm sure you can understand can't you Dr. Possible?"

Anne quirked a brow but looked at the records. They SEEMED genuine but something was off about them. Skull fracture, compounding concussion trauma, BRAIN damage? These were without a doubt the test results from the Neurology department and at the same time she knew in her heart they were utter fakes.

"And what exactly do you want me to do Mr. Rockwaller? We both know that the treatments that Arnie needs isn't going to include brain surgery." Her voice icy, Anne leaned back in her chair, hands hovering protectively over her belly. Fighting the urge to cringe at the man.

"What I want you to do, is explain away Arnie's...problems and say its because he got a good thump on the noggin today."

Anne gasped and stared at the Norman who was now seated across her desk. The man wanted her to LIE! Was he insane! In her field, reputation was paramount. To be caught lying just once meant your entire career was effectively ruined. No paper you publish, no research you were involved in, NOTHING you touched could be trusted 100%. And without that trust, you were worthless.

"Do this, and I'll make sure there's an extra place for one Kimberly Anne Possible once the new wing in our exclusive pre-school is open. Heck, I'll even throw in a full scholarship."

Anne froze in the midst of yelling for him to get out of her office. The Rockwaller Institute for the Gifted and General Educational Disciplines in Upperton was an ultra elite and select school that accepted a mere handful of candidates from all over the world. Just setting an appointment for entry had a fee that was so high those who had to ask need not bother.

Get in, and you may as well be set for life.

"Well Dr. Possible?"

Dr. Anne Possible looked at picture of her daughter on her desk. The smiling, bright green eyed little girl was just turning four. The same age she had lost everything as a child.

"I'll testify." The words were dark and bitter, and the man's handshake made her feel queasy in ways that had nothing to do with the twins but she was determined to do this now.

For Kim.

Kim would never know about this. She deserved the best a good mother could offer.

Yet it didn't stop her from feeling dirty.