Partners, Again
Disclaimer/Author's Notes: Kim Possible and all the characters of the show are owned by the Disney Company. The original lyrics to the song referenced in this story and the music are the property of the respective author, artists and labels. All other characters can be blamed on the author (he, however, is not responsible for all of their actions at all times, being barely responsible for himself most of the time).
This is a strictly not-for-profit, just-for-fun work.
A/N Forward:
We've seen some of what's happening from Kim's and Justine's points of view, in chapter 1. Next are Wade/Joss, Rebecca Jane, and Felix/Mon's points of view, and some surprises (some bad, some not so bad…) in this chapter of Partners, Again.
The story rating has changed to 'M' for a reason….
Thanks in advance for reading, and please review.
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Chapter 2: Carry the Load
-----
Dr. Andrea Jocelyn Possible-Load was ready to kill her children.
Not literally, of course, but the thought had crossed her mind.
"WADE!" she called.
"Yes, Sweet Tea?" and Dr. Wade Load came into the living area with a kid under each arm: son under the left, daughter under the right.
"You caught 'em."
"Shore 'nuff, darlin'," he said with a straight face, and then chuckled. "They thought they could hide in the second garage. They should'a known that I was coming back," he added as he deposited them on the couches.
"Well?" she asked them, and they sat up and stared at her for a moment, then ducked their heads.
"Sorry, Momma," the daughter finally grunted.
"Yeah, I'm real sorry, Momma," the son echoed.
"Sorry don't clean up that mess in the kitchen, y'all. Get in there and clean it up so Daddy can make dinner," she pointed at the kitchen.
"Aw, Man, not Mexican food, again!" they both groused as they got up and shuffled into the kitchen.
Wade had to ask: "How bad is it, Joss?"
"It would have been all right if they'd just not cleaned up after lunch and left it all afternoon: the cats pulled all of the remains off of the counter and onto the floor and then played hockey with bunches of potato chips, is all.
"If they worked at it, they'll be out in 15 minutes.
"Since they're in 'a mood,' I figure it'll be at least 45 before you can get in there."
"No big; I've got to check messages before I start, anyway, and you still owe me that kiss from this morning," Wade added, with a Wade-style PDP.
Joss laughed, kissed her husband, then swatted him on the rear as he headed into the backup Command Center.
'How did I get this lucky?' she asked herself for the millionth time as she walked into their bedroom to change. 'And, can he cook...' she giggled to herself
She had just pulled off her shoes, wiggling her feet in her hose, when Wade came back in with a PossCom in his hand. He looked worried and concerned.
"What happened, Wade?"
"Kim just sent a message: Bonnie was attacked; she's in the hospital, in surgery. They're not sure if she'll live, but the surgeon is hoping she'll make it; he won't be sure if she'll be able to walk until after he gets in and assesses the damage."
"What happened?" she asked as she removed her blouse and dropped it on the bed.
"Officially, the police don't know. Unofficially, Rebecca Jane heard her scream, purely by coincidence: she was leaving the building after visiting friends when Bonnie was attacked, and RJ took two of the attackers out and wounded the last one. RJ took him back to the nearest GJ remote site for questioning, but all three had RI ids on them.
"Rockwaller Industries? Going after Bonnie?"
"She's gotten way too close, and they aren't amused, dear," and he watched as his wife removed her skirt and hose and padded over to the closet to get her second-favorite off-work attire: jeans and a t-shirt.
'Some things never change," Wade thought as he admired his wife's glorious body as she stretched up, the muscles rippling in her back framed by her wonderful red hair. She felt his stare, and turned to see his usual smile as he watched her come back to the end of the bed and deposit her clothes.
"What?" she asked as he continued to stare at her.
"Nothing, Jocelyn.
"I still enjoy watching you get undressed."
She crossed her arms and smiled, (she thought) inwardly. "That's because you're a typical man, Wade, and you have a butt fetish."
"No, it's because I have a beautiful and intelligent wife who's given me two wonderful children, I have a red-hair and a Jocelyn fetish, and I've had the Jocelyn fetish since I was two years old," Wade corrected her as he pulled her close and kissed her passionately.
"That, and I still love strawberries," he whisper-smirked, then swatted her panty-covered bottom and headed towards the door.
"It hasn't been that long, lover; what's for dinner?" she asked, and he stopped and turned back to her.
"What would you like for dinner, my gossamer-haired berry-goddess?"
"Ooooh, that just got you four more kisses," and she ran over to him and grabbed him, kissing him four times quickly, and then once with feeling.
"One for being you, Wade," she added as he looked at her and was about to question her math skills.
"How about we go over to booyah's and see if the new head chef is in a trouty-kinda mood?"
"I'll even get dressed for that," she replied as she pulled on her jeans.
"You'd better: I don't want them serving Joss-shine to any of the other patrons; that's my meal," and he left as the PossCom signaled an incoming recorded message, this one from Rebecca Jane (RJ) Casey-Carlos.
"Hold up, dear," he said as he listened to RJ's report, and Wade's face visibly changed to anger.
"They attacked Mike's school, Jocelyn," Wade growled, and Jocelyn Possible reacted as any mother would:
"THEY WENT AFTER A SCHOOL?" she yelled, and she threw a shoe at the wall. "THOSE S-O-B'S!"
"Yea, but Ron was there with Mike, so they picked the wrong time to attack," he replied, calmer than his wife but just as angry.
"Anyone hurt?" and she retrieved her shoe and calmed down a bit.
"Only the bad guys, Joss. They had RI ids on them, too."
"Stupid, too. Has RJ learned anything else about Mike and Justine's house?"
'Joss took a left at Denver,' Wade thought, 'and ended in Miami with that conversation curveball.'
"Yea, she sent that in the message. RI was the culprit, also: the retro-chemical analysis that I ran of the explosives confirmed that the makings had been stored at RI for the last 4 months before they were used. She just got the last of the analyses back from the team."
"Wade," her voice was softer as she patted the bed, and he came over and sat next to her.
"Yes, Sweet Tea?"
"Do you think it's gonna happen?"
"I'm afraid so, Jocelyn.
"We knew when we started, all those years ago, that sooner or later they would start to fight back.
"I just had expected that they'd have been smarter about covering their tracks, but this makes no sense: Rockwaller Industries has no basic connections to them, other than the two idiots now in charge."
"How bad, Wade, do you think it's gonna get?"
"Hopefully, not bad, love, but I'm worried: the projections don't look good, and I've run them half-a-dozen times each week for the last 2 years, and they keep trending worse in the long run. Short term, the trends are all over the map, but if you pull all of the data together, it's not good," he answered, and she looked even more worried that he felt.
"Are we talking about 'Retribution,' Wade?" she asked quietly.
"We planned for it, Jocelyn, even though we never wanted to use it," and Wade hit a combination and series of keys on the PossCom that he'd hoped he'd never use in his life.
The program that he activated:
- activated additional physical security plans for his families and their friends,
- transmitted key information to his NSA and GJ contacts and computers as well as the SecDef, including all of his projections and backups of the information that he collected in case something happened to him; he knew he didn't need to send to Claudia Rose, but he did it, anyway, just in case the information got lost in Washington somewhere; and
- activated all of the tracking chips that his friends had and knew about (and some of his enemies had and didn't know about) and fed the telemetry to the Command Center central databases.
Then, he did what he knew he needed to do:
He held his wife, and he silently prayed that Retribution would not now, nor would it ever, be necessary; he also steeled himself to execute his plan if it became necessary.
After all, he had decided years ago when he created the plan, Retribution was for Stephanie, her brothers and sisters, and all the Stephanies in the world.
-----
"OK, Wade, our one-minute pity party's over," Joss stated as she kissed him.
"Jocelyn?"
"Yes, love?"
"I think that we should send the kids to Montana. The ranch'll be safer than here, and the Command Center is hardened."
"Wade, what aren't you telling me?"
"Nothing, Jocelyn; I'd just feel better if we weren't worried about them if it goes down."
"You know that our son and daughter each have their own 'suits, don't you?"
"Yes, but they haven't finished all their training with them, and they're still young," and he heard himself say the last sentence, and he laughed hollowly.
"Well, they are lots younger than we were, but you know what I mean, Joss," and Wade wiped a tear from his eye.
"I'm worried about them, Sweet Tea."
"I know, my love, but you have to have the same faith that our parents had in us," she replied. "Besides," she grinned, "we didn't turn out too bad, now did we?"
"I hate it when you play that card," he grinned.
"OK, they can stay, but we'll need to let them know what's happening before it breaks.
"Don't you think they're smart enough to have figured out what's happening?" Jocelyn asked, and Wade dodged the question with another….
"Have you checked out your latest suit upgrades?"
"Shore 'nuf, pardner," she replied, and she chuckled as he groaned.
"I love having a husband who makes battlesuits," she added as she kissed him.
"Not as much as I love those personal fitting sessions, Sweet Tea," he smiled, and he went for Jocelyn-Goodness.
She didn't complain a bit; she never had, as he stood her up and reached down to remove her panties….
-----
"Wade?" Jocelyn came into the backup Command Center with her PossCom, and she looked devastated.
"They went after Mon and Felix, too, Wade," she told him, and he squeezed his hands into fists so tight that he drew blood.
"Are they all right," he was finally able to ask when he calmed down.
"They are, now. Felix has two broken arms and a deep chest wound, but he was lucky, and the chest wound isn't life-threatening. Mon only has a couple of cuts and bruises.
"The report states that Felix was trying to protect Monique in the car, but they pulled him out. They apparently didn't have current intel on Monique because she was the one who took out the three assassins."
"Good," and Wade visibly relaxed. "I'm sure glad that you and Kim trained Monique; I didn't want…" and his voice broke when he started the sentence, and he couldn't finish it.
"…to lose another 'big sister,' Wade?" and Joss came over and hugged him from behind in his chair, and he shook for a moment.
"Thank you, my love, for training her," he whispered; he was finally able to get the words out.
"Did you think I was going to let anything happen to my shopping fashionista, Wade? No way in hell," she grinned, thinking about the look on Wade's face after Joss and Mon came back from Joss' first shopping trip to Club Banana, then looked at his hands and winced.
"You'd better get some medicine on those cuts, Wade," she remarked.
"Can't you just kiss them and make them better?" he asked with a pout-ette, and she grinned.
"I could, but you might get sugar poisoning," and she backed up from the chair so he could get up.
"We'll have a request to activate 'Retribution' within the next six weeks, if not before; I'll try to delay it as long as I can, my love," he said sadly, and she held him and silently agreed.
-----
Rebecca Jane (RJ) Casey-Carlos was really pissed.
Not because they'd tried to kill Bonnie and her, although that was reason enough.
They'd ruined her new leather jacket, and she'd just picked it up that morning.
'Oh, well, I guess it doesn't matter too much; the new Kevlar micro-woven fibrous blend stopped both the bullets and the knives, even though it left the cuts in the surface material.
'But, weren't they surprised when their shots didn't kill me,' RJ thought as she removed the jacket and examined it one final time before sending it to GJ Post for an after-action analysis.
"Have you heard any more on the condition of Bonnie Rockwaller?" she asked the agent monitoring the wireless messaging from the hospital.
"She's out of surgery, and she's doing better," he replied, and he continued after she glared at him for more information..
"She's still in the ICU: the surgeons are worried about the severity of her injuries caused by the viciousness of the attack, and she woke up just long enough to confirm to our agents and the police what we already knew: it was RI employees that attacked her. The doctors expect that they'll move her out of the ICU and to a private room in three days.
"The doctors aren't sure about the injuries to her legs and lower back, and they're mixed in their opinions of her recovery.
"Bonnie still doesn't remember who was there, or who saved her life; she doesn't remember anything after the attack started.
"I'm heading over there in a few minutes to talk to her," Rebecca Jane told the agent. "She deserves to know more about what's happened to her and what's going on," she said to the air, and the agent nodded unconsciously and automatically sent the IM to have RJ's car brought around and readied for her to leave in a moment's notice.
Her PossCom gave off a single tone, and she didn't even have to look at the screen: distinctive tones were a wonderful thing and a pain in the ass when you knew who it was and couldn't avoid them. She visibly winced.
"The ED wants to talk to me," she told the agent.
"Where's the nearest shielded room?" and the agent pointed next door.
Rebecca Jane went next door, closed the door, ran one more scan for bugs, then plugged the PossCom into the GJ network, and her boss' face popped onto the screen.
"Executive Director," Rebecca Jane nodded, and the Executive Director snorted at her.
"RJ, please," Global Justice's Executive Director, Betty Director, nodded back. "It's still Betty to my favorite liaison," and she smiled with more than a hint of worry on her face.
"How bad, RJ?"
"I was just leaving to see Bonnie when you tone'd me, Betty.
"The last one hasn't given up anything," Rebecca Jane added as she gave a very feral grin, "but he hasn't met 'Mr. Sitdown' yet, either."
"I really wish you hadn't given him that codename, RJ," Betty replied, then grinned. "I can't get that picture from the kid's show out of my head when I hear his name."
"That's the reason, Betty: No one expects 'Mr. Sitdown,'" she grinned.
"Python, now, RJ?"
"'And now, for something completely different,' RJ dead-panned, and Betty whooped.
"I haven't heard that line in years, RJ."
"We'd better laugh, now. I talked to Wade two days ago, and his predictions are tracking ahead of GJ's for the perfect storm of 'Retribution.'"
"I'm so glad my hubby was smart enough to build this on, and as, a hardened site, RJ," Betty smiled, and a voice from behind her came out:
"Proper Planning, Elizabeth: I've told y'all that, and at least mah son-in-law listens to me," Slim Possible's voice came from the speaker behind Betty.
-----
"Felix?"
"mon?" his voice was weak, bur he opened one eye and saw his dream girl.
"FELIX!" and Monique Jenkins-Renton reflexively grabbed her husband, and he grunted.
"MON!
"Chest wounds, remember?" and she released him quickly, and he took a deep breath.
"sorry," she gave him the Monique-pout, and Felix smiled through his spouse-inflicted chest pain.
"I really wish that Kim hadn't taught you that," he smiled as Mon leaned over and kissed him on the lips.
"Ahh, but I'm sure glad you took her advice and went for Mon-shine, my darling," Monique replied, and their silence was broken by-
"DADDY!" and Felix grinned as he heard their twin daughters bursting into the room.
"I tried to stop them, son, but they wouldn't slow down," and Grandmother Dr. Renton came in after them, smiling as the girls pulled up as they saw Mom hold up the Stop-hand.
"Mom!" and she walked over to hug her bed-ridden son, her tears of relief flowing freely and priming Felix's tears, as well.
"Are you OK, son?"
"As long as you watch the arms, Mom, and only because Mon stopped them from killing me," and Mrs. Renton gasped as she realized what Felix said, and then motioned for Monique to come over.
Monique stepped over, and she was the recipient of a motherly hug of joy and gratitude and love.
"Thank you, Monique," she whispered, and Monique pulled back to look Mrs. Renton in the eyes.
"He's my husband, Roberta: nobody does what they did to him and lives," Monique smiled and growled, and Mrs. Renton pulled back, surprised.
"Kim and Jocelyn trained me in a few moves, and I learned some more things from my training with the Middleton PD and from Rebecca Jane with GJ: I just never thought I'd need to use it. When Felix threw himself in front of me in the car and kept me from crashing into the dash, and the airbag on our 4-month-old car wouldn't deploy, I knew that something was wrong, and I needed to be ready.
"They ignored me," Monique continued, both Felix and his mom staring at her, "relatively speaking, and I took care of them," she changed her language, remembering that their daughters were in the room.
"Mommy, did you kill them?" Kimberly Jane Renton asked, and Monique looked at her daughter in horror.
"Mommy, it's ok to kill when someone is trying to hurt you or trying to hurt someone you love," came out of the mouth of their six-year-old as she twirled her black curls, her nervous habit.
"Uncle Mike and Uncle Ron had to do it today, and they explained what they did to us after the police and the GeeJay men and women came and took away the bad people who came in," she announced excitedly, and her sister Melanie Keisha Renton vigorously nodded her agreement, her curly blond hair bouncing on her head.
"Roberta? What happened?" Monique asked her mother-in-law, and Roberta Renton nodded.
"KJ is right, Monique. Someone sent men and women into the school with Uzi-naZa's and grenades and suicide vests, and they intended to take and hold the entire school; they forgot, or didn't know, that Mike was on duty that day, and I'm certain that they didn't know or consider that Ron Stoppable would be there," Roberta Renton smiled, and Monique was glad that her mother-in-law loved her: she never wanted to see that look directed at her!
"What happened to you two, Mon? The hospital wouldn't tell me anything over the cell other than that you were here, so I went to the school for the girls and almost didn't get in: Ron saw me, and he signed the girls out under his responsibility; Mike countersigned, so they let me take them.
"Yea, Mon, I'd kinda like to know what my fashionista did," Felix grinned, and Monique buzzed for a nurse.
"Would you take the girls down for some milk?" Monique asked the nurse when he arrived, and as the nurse took the girls away, they were asking him all sorts of questions, and he was trying to answer them.
"After you covered me, my favorite love," and she kissed Felix, then backed up and sat back down next to the bed and Roberta, "they shot at you and missed, and then they shot out the tires and came around to each side to pull us out of the car. You were barely conscious and bleeding, and they punched you in the chest two times, hard, and then broke your arms while they held my head up so I could see what they were doing," and Roberta stared at Monique.
"I could hear each of your arms break, Felix," and Monique held back her tears. "They did it on purpose: she told me.
"So, I rolled the one holding me down and punched her out, then I grabbed her hair and banged her head into the street a couple of times quickly. I grabbed the gun away from her and shot her and the guy behind her as 'cause he was pulling a weapon from his back.
"Then, I looked up and saw the one that had hurt you coming around the front of the car, my love, and I shot him in the face three times, then I threw up on the ground and passed out.
"I woke up when the paramedics were working on my arm: I didn't even realize that I'd been cut until they were bandaging my arm, and IT HURT like a sonufabi," and Monique stopped, embarrassed, and her mother-in-law grinned at her.
"I told them to work on you first, but the lady grinned and told me that the other team had already taken you to the hospital, and then she gave me a shot and knocked me out.
"I woke up and saw you, love, and boy, was I scared! That's when I called your name, and you opened one eye.
"You don't know how scared I was, Felix: I thought they were going to kill you!" and then Monique broke down and cried, and Roberta held her as she sobbed.
Felix shouldn't have cried: his whole body ached when it started, but seeing his wife in that condition was more than he could take, especially since he couldn't hold her with two broken arms.
"Mon," he called, and Monique held up her head.
"He was going to kill me, but he was coming to shoot you, first, and then drag me over to watch you die. Then, he was going to kill me. He laughed as he told me this, then he heard gunfire and went around to find out what was happening.
"I guess he found out," Felix grinned, then laughed.
"You saved both of us, my 'fashionista with a 'tude,'" Felix joked, and winced as another twinge in his gut hit him as he laughed.
"Remind me to thank Kim and Jocelyn the next time I see them," Felix smiled, and Monique stared at him with Mon-ness, and he GULP'ED.
"Not like that!" Felix exclaimed, and Roberta started laughing, and was joined a moment later by Monique and Felix.
Felix looked at Monique while his mom stood up to stretch, and he mouthed 'Retribution?'
Monique nodded, and Felix's heart dropped while his smile remained as he said a quick prayer for all of them, but especially for Wade.
The nurse came back with their daughters, and they came over and tried to figure out how to hug Dad; they settled for kissing his cheeks until he was covered with 'daughter love', right next to the 'mother love' and 'wife-love' that he was getting and had received.
Monique had her 'game face' on, for her children and mother-in-law, and especially for her husband: the paramedic had told her, before she knocked her out, that Felix had coded twice, but they'd brought him back. "His heart is remarkably strong," she had stated, and Monique had nodded.
'I know his heart: I'd like to think it's strong because the girls and I are in there. He's such a wonderful man, and my H-BF: Thank you, for not taking him from me,' she thought as she hugged Roberta and her daughters, then lightly held Felix's hand as she silently hummed a thanks-prayer.
- - -
"You're going to have to feed me, you know," Felix said after a few moments of quiet except for the stereo beeping in the room.
"You think you get food?" Monique looked at him…and she grinned wickedly, and Felix pouted.
"No Bueno Nacho?" he whined, and she nodded.
"Oh, man…."
- - -
"Momma?" Jocelyn looked up to see both of her children standing in the door of her study.
"Come in," she waved her hand, and both children stepped into the room, but just barely.
Her son cleared his throat.
"Momma?"
"Yes, James?"
"I'm sorry I copped a 'tude with you and Daddy," James' words were sincere.
"Me, too, Momma," her daughter added, "I'm sorry, too, Momma."
"Did you apologize to your dad, Liz?" and she nodded.
"Yes, ma'am, and he sent us in here, but we were already coming to apologize to you," Elizabeth added.
"And, you, James?" Jocelyn quizzed her son, and he nodded.
"Yes, ma'am. I already apologized, and Daddy hugged us, Momma, and he cried!
"Momma, why does Daddy cry whenever we apologize for doing something wrong?"
Jocelyn took a deep breath, sighed, and stood up and went to the door, closing it.
"Sit down, you two," she smiled sadly. "I need to tell you about Stephanie."
"Are you talking about the same Stephanie in our God-blesses, the ones that Daddy taught us?" Elizabeth asked as she sat on the couch next to her brother.
"Yes, it's the same Stephanie," and Jocelyn placed a box of tissues on the table in front of them, and she started to tell them.
- - -
Thirty minutes later, Jocelyn was accompanied by two sobbing children and a mound of tissues.
"Momma, why? Why did her father beat her when she apologized?" Elizabeth cried out, and James took her and held his sister for several minutes before he spoke, again.
"Momma, I'm so sorry I ever did anything to make you mad," James said between tears, and he stood up. "I have to go apologize to Daddy for hurting him all those times," and he headed for the door.
"NO!" Jocelyn's voice was commanding, and James stopped dead in his tracks and turned around.
"Why, Momma?" He so wanted to go….
"Daddy doesn't want you to feel sorry for him, James, and he doesn't want an apology: think for a moment," and James thought, then figured it out and whacked himself on the forehead. "He just wants you to be yourself, to do the best that you can.
"The best thing that you could do for him is to not tell him but to show him that you're truly sorry, by your actions, not your words," Jocelyn said between her own tears.
"The way that you can honor your father and me and Stephanie is to do good, and never take anyone or their feelings for granted," Jocelyn said, and Wade took that time to open the door.
"Jocelyn," he started, and James and Elizabeth ran to him and hugged him, crying again.
"?" was Wade's response and Elizabeth spoke first after several minutes holding onto her father and crying.
"Daddy, we're sorry. We'll make you proud, and we'll never do those things, again," Elizabeth sobbed, and Wade looked at his daughter and smiled.
"She told you?"
"Uh-huh," Elizabeth said thru her tears, and Wade shed his tears for the lost innocence of his children.
"I had hoped you'd never hear that story, James, Elizabeth, but, in a way, I'm kinda glad you did," Wade responded to his kids.
"You've had the best life your Momma and I could give you, and you've had great family support from Grandpa Slim and Grandma Betty, and Grandpa Ryan and Grandma Rachel, and all of our friends," Wade told his children. "You've never experienced what my 'big sister' went through, and I will never do anything even remotely like that to you."
"DADDY!"
"You'd never do that to us!" James was shocked.
"And, now you know why, James: I love you, and I love your sister, and I love your mother, and I could never cause that kind of pain to any of you," Wade had more than the hint of tears on his face, and Jocelyn saw them.
"Daddy, we'll never disappoint you, ever, again," James promised, and Elizabeth nodded, and Wade shook his head.
"That's not true, James: you will disappoint me, but never think that I'll ever stop loving you or Elizabeth for it. That's the difference: I may not like what you do, but I'll never stop loving you.
"Now, go get changed so we can go out for dinner," Wade announced, and Elizabeth grew a wet grin.
"booyah's?' she asked, and when her mother nodded, she yelled "Catfish special!!" as she ran out of the room to change.
James took a look at his dad, smiled, and stuck out his hand. Wade shook it, and pulled him into a hug.
"I love you, son," Wade whispered.
"I love you, too, Daddy," he replied, and hugged his dad tightly, then let him go and looked at him, then put on his 'serious face,' and Wade chuckled.
"Dad, you don't always have to carry every bit of the 'Load' by yourself, you know," Wade and Jocelyn both groaned as James grinned. "Just because we're not adults doesn't mean we can't help. After all, we are Loads, Dad, and we're not idiots: we know a lot about what's happening," he added, and then he turned and left the room to go change.
"You did it to yourself, my love," Jocelyn grinned wickedly, and Wade braced himself.
"You've created more 'Loads' than you can carry by yourself, and you and I created the 'Loads' to hep' you carry all them 'Loads,'" Jocelyn smirked as Wade grimaced at each 'Loaded' pun and smiled as he mentally took in his son's words of encouragement and support..
"Have I told you, lately, that I love you, my wonderful husband Dr. Load?" Jocelyn stood and went to her husband, kissing him passionately as he responded to her with love. 'And such a good daddy, too,' she thought.
"I love you so much, Wade," she whispered into his left ear as he hugged her tightly.
"I love you, my Jocelyn," Wade responded, then pulled her head forward and kissed her with a hunger unfulfilled, and he reached for her completely, and she thought that she actually felt the last of his demons leave his body.
"Save it for dessert, lover," she grinned, and she felt him relax as he pulled back and kissed her nose.
"Promises, promises," he dead-panned, and she grabbed him low.
"Fact, my chocolate hero," she purred, and Wade smiled.
"We'd better go, I need to get back here real soon: I'm feeling a real urge for strawberry ice cream at home," Wade grinned as Jocelyn swatted at him as he left her study.
"booyah, indeed, my hero," Jocelyn whispered after Wade left the room.
'Stephanie: He's finally conquered the last demon. Thank you so much, for helping me help him,' she thought as she walked back to their bedroom to change shoes, and decided to change more than just the shoes.
'I hope he's ready to do what we have to do; no, that's not true. I know he's ready, I just hope it doesn't tear him apart,' she slipped off her flats and pants, went to the closet, and came back with a dark skirt and her current pair of cognac-colored tall boots. She'd lost count of the number of pairs that she'd worn out, and she smiled and got dressed.
'This'll take his mind off'n his problems,' Jocelyn grinned as she turned off the light and headed for their GJ drop chute.
- - -
chapter now complete….
- - - - - - -
A/N Afterward:
I know some of your questions:
What is 'Retribution?'
What does 'Retribution' have to do with Stephanie Watership?
What's happening that has Wade transferring backup files to the Secretary of Defense?
What's happened to Bonnie?
Who's running Rockwaller Industries?
Who's behind Rockwaller Industries that has Wade and everyone so worried?
How did Mike and Justine get together?
All will be answered….just not in the next two chapters.
Bonnie's attack flashback is next, and she gets to meet her protector, again, and a bit of info on 'Retribution,' coming up next, in chapter three of Partners, Again.
Mike and Justine tell their story over dinner, starting in chapter four…
Thanks again for reading. Please review: it makes my muse smile.