Second Chances

Disclaimer: Kim Possible (noun): A Disney Channel cartoon not owned by this writer.

Chapter Three: Happy Reunions

-Six Months Later-

Samantha squirmed in her grandmother's lap, at nine months old she couldn't quite walk yet but crawling and rolling about were well within her grasp and being in a new environment she wanted to get out and explore it with her newfound motor abilities. Suddenly she stopped squirming about, grunted and then smiled.

"I'd forgotten what having a baby is like," Mrs. Stoppable sighed, "as cute as you were as a baby Ronald I'm glad you grew up."

"Did she ruin another diaper?" Ron looked over at his mother, "I'll go change her, be back in a few."

"Don't worry about it dear," his mother stood up, "I'll take care of it, you've changed enough diapers already, and even if it is a bit smelly it's an opportunity to spend some time with my granddaughter."

Ron, his dad, and the Dr's. P all chuckled at that, his mom took it in the spirit of good fun and walked into the bathroom to do the honors.

"You were saying you had one last piece of news you wanted to tell us," his dad said.

"Yeah," Ron leaned back, "Felix and Tara asked Bonnie and I to be the godparents when their baby comes, which she's six months along so shouldn't be too long on that."

"That's great," Mr. Dr. P. said from the couch, "now how's the second restaurant doing?"

"It's doing great," Ron smiled, "my only complaint is that with two restaurants to run I've got even less time in the kitchen."

"I know the feeling," Mr. Dr. P. laughed, "finally made senior fellow at the space center and I spend so much time administrating projects that I've practically forgotten what it's like to design anything."

"No plans to try for a third restaurant?" His dad asked.

"Not for a good long while if ever," Ron sat back down, "I'd like to still be able to spend some time in the kitchen every now and then. Plus there were a lot of late nights getting the second one open and Bonnie had to watch Samantha all alone when I was doing that, I think if I tried that stunt again she'd kill me."

"And how's Bonnie doing?" His mom walked out of the bathroom holding Samantha, "still living with you and Samantha?"

"Yeah," Ron said, "I think by this point Bonnie moving out would be something I'd call about. But odd as it is it's still working out great for both of us, we're both close to where we work, we get along pretty darn well, and in any case it's become so routine that I don't think Bonnie is in any big hurry to move out and I'm in no hurry to have her move out."

"Well I think it's nice to see you happy again," Mrs. Dr. P. joined in the conversation, "you were so sad after Kim died and I'm glad your moping seems over with. I for one think that Bonnie moving in with you was the best thing that could have happened to both of you."

"And I think that too," Ron said, "but there are just times when I think it might be too good of a thing."

"Ron," his mom said gently, "I know there are days when you feel like you'll wake up the next morning and find out all the late nights were just a dream and you have to go through it all again all by yourself but you're nine months closer to being done with it, just hang in there dear."

"That's not what I meant, but there are days like that." Ron admitted, "what I meant though is that I know Kim's dead but it still doesn't seem that long ago and I just keep waking up in the night feeling guilty about getting so close to Bonnie so soon after Kim died. And the worst part is that I know Bonnie isn't trying to do anything; she just looks that good on her own, and she's just trying to be a good housemate and I'm starting to freak out and see double meanings in everything all on my own."

"If you're feeling guilty about that ski trip son don't." His dad interjected, "When your mother and I were in college we spent a whole week backpacking in the sand dunes, just the two of us. We weren't dating or anything, we were just friends having a fun time together. Plus your mother had just helped me pass the final exam in my macroeconomics class and I wanted to show her that I appreciated it. I'm not sure I would have taken her on a ski trip to Aspen but then a final and a baby are two entirely different things and it was May and not December."

"And besides," Mrs. Dr. P. followed up, "you both came back from that trip much more relaxed than you had been; some time to get to know each other without having to take care of a baby or worry about work obviously did the two of you worlds of good."

"Yeah but that's when all this started," Ron sighed.

"All what dear?" His mom asked.

"Feeling like I'm getting too close to Bonnie," Ron answered, "it was our second night in Aspen and of course we'd been skiing since the lifts started, we'd finished skiing and we were going to walk into town and get some dinner. Our cabin had one bedroom with two beds and Bonnie had changed first, I was in there changing when she shouted to me that I should wait up because she was going to take a shower. Only through the closed door and up the stairs I thought she said to wait up that I should take a shower. So I grabbed an extra pair of pants and walked to the bathroom, which it turns out Bonnie had forgotten to lock and she was just taking off her towel to turn on the shower when I walked in. She threw some stuff at me, I ran, and we cleared it up after that but still it was not a good thing."

"Not good how Ron?" Mrs. Dr. P. asked, "Did you see something bad?"

"No," Ron said, "and that's the bad thing about it."

"That doesn't make sense honey," his mom joined in, "how can it have been a bad thing if you didn't see anything bad?"

"Because I saw good things," Ron said, "and that's a bad thing."

"I still don't get what you're talking about," Mrs. Dr. P. had a curious look on her face, "how can seeing something good be a bad thing?"

"Because," Ron tried to explain, "it's a bad thing that I think what I saw was a good thing."

"Ron," his mom said, "you're going to have to be more specific."

His dad put a hand on his mom's shoulder and said, "actually dear it's just that what he's talking about is a male thing, as smart as you and Dr. Possible are he could spend all day trying to explain and I still don't think you'd understand."

"It's true," Mr. Dr. P. mimicked the gesture, "I understand what Ronald is saying entirely. And Ronald you shouldn't feel like you're getting too close to Bonnie too quickly, if we were having this conversation when you were picking up Samantha after the ski trip then I'd probably agree with you. Now that's not to say I think you should be rushing off to the altar, because I think it's still a bit soon for that. But I don't think that there's anything wrong in thinking that a woman, particularly one you've lived with for the last eight months, is attractive. Plus you're a young eligible bachelor, and from the sound of things you could do far worse than falling for Bonnie. Take things slow, but if you fall in love with Bonnie then that's that and you should be happy you're getting a second chance at love."

"Not that we're looking for any more grandchildren," his dad laughed, "but I think that's about everything I could have told you. As much of an angel as Samantha is, a nine month old daughter would probably turn most women right around. That Bonnie has been there for eight months period, much less how well you two have gotten along speaks volumes about how much she's grown since you and Kim used to complain about her in high school. And since she's not the Bonnie you complained about in high school I think that if the opportunity came along you'd have nothing to lose and everything to gain from taking a chance with her."

Samantha chose that moment to start squirming about again, pointing to her mouth, and generally making it known that she was hungry.

"Okay, this I'll take care of," Ron got up and took his daughter from his mom, as he did so his own stomach growled, "Well I guess if she's not the only one who's hungry anyone feel like lunch?"

"Your father has some hamburger patties in the freezer," his mom said, "I'm sure if you boys would like to grill those up we could have a lovely lunch. Ron would you like us to call Bonnie and her parents, see if they'd like to join us, we'd love to have them over."

"I don't think so mom," Ron said from the kitchen door, "I'm fairly sure Bonnie's parents wanted to spend the whole of our day here alone with her and I don't think her parents would be too happy to meet me."

"And why is that Ron?" Mrs. Dr. P. quirked an eyebrow at him.

"Well when Bonnie first moved in she called her parents to tell them what was going on," Ron said, "and a few weeks later they called, and I never really got what was going on in that conversation but it took two hours and a bar and a half of dark chocolate to calm Bonnie down. The second time they called I just happened to pick it up, and I thought I was perfectly reasonable during the call; I just pointed out that Bonnie is a grown woman and can make her own decisions, and that she seemed happy enough where she was. Mr. Rockwaller didn't quite take it that way, it was an interesting call though, first time I've ever been called a plebian. Bonnie took it fine though, she was laughing for the next two hours."

Samantha let out a small whine and squirmed in Ron's arms letting him know that he had waited long enough to feed her. He walked into the kitchen to grab Samantha's bottle to the laughter of his parents and the Dr's. P.

-Meanwhile-

Bonnie got out of the car and followed her parents into their house. Lunch with them at the country club had been unpleasant to say the least, a nightmare might be a better description, it was an experience she could go another number of years without repeating. But it was blessedly silent, her parents, high class snobs that they were, thought that talking while eating in a public place was horribly lower class. And while if she had been there with Tara or Ron or any of her friends Bonnie would have chatted away just to rile up the other high nosed people, with her parents silence was something she would do her best to maintain for as long as possible.

She wanted nothing more than for this day to be over and done with, she'd meet Ron and his family at the airport, and then he, she, and Samantha would all catch the evening supersonic flight back to Go-City. At least though with the advent of regular commercial supersonic flights a day trip to Middleton was feasible with their schedules, and thankfully they could do just a trip. Not that many years ago when air travel was still subsonic Ron and Bonnie would have had to come out for a whole week to make the time and cost balance out, but now Bonnie could say she had visited her parents and she only had to spend one day with them.

Bonnie figured that as long as she could simply keep remembering her dad's face when her parents had picked her up from the airport she'd be fine. She and Ron had met their families at the curb and when they walked out the door Bonnie made sure to be holding Samantha and the baby bag. Ron hadn't understood at first, protesting that he should carry something. But as soon as they'd stepped outside and he'd seen the look on her parent's faces Bonnie thought that Ron got it. Then handing Samantha off to Ron and presenting the perfect family picture while her parents stood at their car mouths agape was even better. The icing on the cake though had been whispering what she was doing to Ron's family and the Possibles whose laughter had driven her parents even farther up the wall.

Of course it had meant listening to, rather ignoring her parents on the ride back to their house bemoaning her association with the 'noveau riche,' a term they had thrown around like candy at Halloween. When they had gotten back to her parents house her mother fussed over her forgetting for what seemed to Bonnie like the millionth time that she was twenty seven rather than seven. Before going to lunch Bonnie had been forced to endure her parents gushing about the achievements of Connie and Lonnie, both were married, had three kids, and had what her parents termed 'respectable' jobs, another jab at Bonnie's career choice. Bonnie had gotten through that by reminding herself of her parents discomfort that morning and by running through her head the latest numbers of the sales contract she was drafting at work.

She had almost hoped that Ron or his parents would call asking if she and or her parents wanted to do something with them. However she knew that wouldn't happen; Ron and his families just didn't understand the depths of Bonnie's dislike for her parents and so meaning all the best they would make her spend the whole day with two of her least favorite people on the planet. Just as Bonnie was about to burst and scream her father had announced that they were going to go over to the Middleton Country Club for a 'civilized lunch,' Bonnie resisted the urge to let slip that most nights of the week she ate food prepared by a chef who ran a four star restaurant.

Still the chefs at the country club, while not nearly as good as Ron, did their best and Bonnie had nothing against the food at lunch, just the company. On the drive to the country club her parents had lamented that Bonnie's clothes were at least two months out of style and they would have to explain to all their so called friends that since Bonnie was traveling she had had to dress for comfort and couldn't wear the latest fashions. Bonnie hadn't been able to hold in her snort of laughter at that. Caring for a baby had quickly stripped Bonnie of the need to keep up with the latest fashion trends, that incredibly cute blouse she'd seen shopping last weekend would stain just as easily as the old shirts she wore around the house and would be much harder to clean

Bonnie sat down in one of the chairs about her parent's living room and waited for them to pick the next topic they'd belittle her about. She'd already had to endure their disdain for her choice of friends and the inevitable comparison that found her lacking before her sisters. Not to mention their not so subtle disapproval of her decision to become a lawyer rather than a job her parents would approve of like an event or wedding planner. And she mustn't forget her parents' disappointment with her failing to produce grandchildren, at twenty seven Connie and Lonnie had already had one child and were working hard trying for number two. Bonnie though was in no hurry to have children; being single, despite Tara's jokes to the contrary, was a major stumbling block to that, and the second larger one was Samantha, Bonnie might not have been her birth mother but she thought of Samantha as her daughter more often than not and when referring to the three of them Ron tended to call Samantha their daughter. The point was though that there were no new children in Bonnie's foreseeable future and her sisters had made sure the family line was in no danger of ending so she saw no reason to try and make her own contribution.

"So Bonnie," her mom said and Bonnie held in a sigh, "have you given any thought to at least moving back to Middleton? Your father and I could help you get an excellent job and we think it's time you started looking for someone new in your life to get over Josh."

"Mom," Bonnie groaned, "I already have a great job in Go City, I'm happier at Nakasumi Toys then at any job I've ever had. And I'm so over Josh, that right there was probably the first time in at least six months I've even given him any thought. And to answer the question you didn't ask that's the best way I could ever get back at him, show him that for all he tried to do to me it's failed miserably and in fact I'm better off without him than I was with him."

"Dear," her mom said in an incredibly condescending tone of voice, "working for a toy company, well people might think that it's not a real job. As a Rockwaller that's something you shouldn't have to deal with and your father and I don't want to see that happen to you. And even if you think you're over Josh and you've gotten back at him if you must bring that up other people might not see it that way. You need to find another nice man, get married and start a family that will really show Josh that you're 'over' him."

"Please," Bonnie scoffed, "have you ever seen my paycheck? No one would think that Nakasumi Toys isn't a real job if they saw how much I'm making there. And I'd just like to say this for both of your 'suggestions' I don't care what anyone else thinks, the opinion poll for Bonnie Rockwaller's life starts and ends with me."

"Young lady," her father said in a grave tone of voice, "you need to make a clear statement as a member of this family that you are strong, and the way to do that in this case is to marry someone and start a family, your mother has been talking around and she has several suggestions I think would work wonderfully."

Bonnie glared at her parents, "Just being married doesn't necessarily make a family you two should know that better than anyone. And married or not I am part of a family, Ron, Samantha, and I are a family whatever you might want to say, and at the end of the day we're a much better family than this one has ever been. So for the record, no I will not move back out here, no I will not get a new job to make you two happy, and under no circumstances am I going to get married just because you want me to. In fact if I didn't think him much better than that I'd go drag Ron to a chapel right now just to see the look on your faces, that is if you two could get your noses out of the sky long enough to actually see something other than your egos."

Bonnie felt very self-satisfied after her long overdue rant, her parents however didn't see it so well; her mom pursed her lips till they seemed to disappear and her father adopted an icy cold look, a sure sign that he was very angry.

"Bonnie Marie Rockwaller," her mother had the gall to sound scandalized, "you will not speak to your father and I in that tone of voice and you will not demean our family's good name. We aren't telling you to do anything just to make us happy we just want you to listen to us so we can try to help you figure out what's best for you. And on rare occasions, like this one, you have to trust that your father and I know from our experience what will make you happiest, and in this case you need to move away from that Ron Stoppable and stop leeching, it's unbecoming a Rockwaller. Find a job that in ten years you can look back on and be happy with, and start your own family to show Josh that you are in fact over him."

"That's the worst thing about you two," Bonnie half laughed half cried, "you really think that you're always right with your holier than thou art act. I still live with Ron because I want to, I've been making more than enough money from my new job to afford my own place for awhile now and you just can't accept that I'm there because I'm happy. And you don't know what's going to make me happiest, I'll look back in ten years and love what I was doing now, the same thing with Josh I'm over him and I don't care who else thinks that. It sounds to me like you just want me to be Connie or Lonnie and I'd be miserable if I tried to live like one of them."

"You could certainly do worse than your sisters for a role model," her father's voice was tense, "and you really don't think that Ronald let you into his house without expecting something in return do you? He'll want you to spread your legs and repay him soon enough."

"You just hate Ron because he was right and you were wrong," Bonnie's voice had real anger in it, "you are right about one thing though, I could do worse than Connie or Lonnie for a role model I could have either of you two as a role model. And Ron doesn't want anything from me, it's called doing something nice because it's the right thing to do, something I didn't learn until I left high school thanks to this family. So I don't want to hear you two ever accusing Ron of anything like that ever again, he's more of a man than anyone in this family ever had claim to and he'd never do anything like that."

"You will not speak to us like that!" her parents shouted at the same time.

"Or what," Bonnie laughed, "you'll give me the old our house our rules threat? In case you haven't noticed I don't live in your house anymore and I sure don't live by your rules. Or maybe you're going to try and make me care about the family enough to do what you say? Well nothing I've ever done before has made you the least bit happy and I doubt this will either so no thanks to you. Hey, you might even say that if I storm out of here I'm never welcome back to try and scare me into being your little lapdog? In fact I'd love for you to do that because I'd love to walk right out on you. Actually that's exactly what I'm going to do right now, storm on out of here and if I'm lucky it'll be another twenty seven years before I have to talk to anyone else with the last name Rockwaller again."

Then over her parents protests Bonnie got up from her chair and stormed right out. The Stoppable's house wasn't too far from her parents and since they were going to meet up at the airport Bonnie didn't think it would be too much of a problem to end her day with her parents early and just ride to the airport with Ron and his family.

-That Night-

Ron looked back and forth between Bonnie and the road as he drove from Go-City airport back home. Bonnie had walked up to his house just as he was about to call her and make sure her parents were going to get her to the airport on time. She hadn't said anything but Ron could tell that Bonnie's day with her parents had been anything but nice. Samantha was very tired after a day of travel and was asleep in her child seat in the rear of the car.

They had caught the seven thirty flight out of Middleton and after the normal delays and traffic it was almost nine before Ron strapped Samantha into her car seat and started up the car for the drive home. Bonnie's only words during the whole trip had been an offer to carry Samantha when they got back to Go-City, Ron had pointed out that she looked pretty worn out herself and that being completely awake he'd take it on himself to carry Samantha.

Bonnie blew an errant strand of hair away from her face and Ron chanced a glance over at her, the oncoming lights seemed to silhouette her features in a light that gave her an almost ethereal glow and Ron couldn't help but run through his head when his parents and moreover the Dr's. P. had given him some rather overt hints that they would be more than fine with him and Bonnie becoming more than just housemates. And looking over at Bonnie's pensive face Ron couldn't help but want to make her smile again, something he had noticed wanting to do for Kim when his feelings for her had turned from friendship to more.

Turning off the highway Ron guided the car down the smaller streets of Go-City past the shopping center where he and Bonnie bought groceries, past the mall he had run into Felix in and finally into their neighborhood. The sky was completely black by the time he pulled the car into their townhouse but the street lamps were on meaning that once he turned off the headlights there was still plenty of light to walk into the house with. Samantha stayed completely asleep as Ron got her out of the car, carried her to her room, changed her into her pajamas, and tucked her into her crib.

Walking into the kitchen he saw Bonnie, changed into her own pajamas, reach up to one of the upper cabinets and pull out the bottle of whiskey. Ron had bought it shortly after he and Kim were married for the purpose of having something to take a shot of when he'd had a truly bad day; he'd only ever taken one shot out of it. Bonnie walked over to another cabinet and pulled out a shot glass, she poured the whiskey into the glass and then downed it. Then she calmly screwed the top back onto the bottle of whiskey, walked it back over to its cabinet, and put it back in. After that she turned around to face Ron and leaned against the counter.

"So I take it you didn't have such a great day with your parents." Ron tried to sound as sympathetic as possible.

"Just once," Bonnie said in a soft voice he'd never heard her use, "just once I'd like them to be proud of something I do. I make more money than Connie and Lonnie together, but to my parents I don't have a 'real' job." Tears started rolling down her face, "My jerk ex-husband divorces me, if that happened to either of my sisters they'd be completely helpless. I come out of it better than I was before and they make me feel like it was my fault that bastard started cheating on me in the first place. And they think I'm some sort of second rate squatter or something living here, can you believe my dad thinks you want to proposition me for sex like it's some kind of rent for this place?"

Ron thought a little while for the best thing he could say to make Bonnie feel better but ended up walking over to her and wrapping his arms around her in a hug. Bonnie buried her head into Ron's shoulder and he could feel his shirt start to soak up her tears immediately. Bonnie completely broke down and cried for almost twenty minutes, Ron just stood there hugging her trying to let her know that he would do his best to be whatever she needed including being a shoulder to cry on.

Some twenty minutes later Bonnie finally stopped crying, she pulled her head of Ron's shoulder but still refused to look up as she spoke, "I'm sorry Ron, I'm usually much more in control than that. But I was just feeling so good before talking to my parents and I guess my mood just had that much farther to fall. And now I feel even worse because I just soaked your shirt right through."

Ron placed a finger under Bonnie's chin and made her look up at him as he started talking, "It's alright Bonnie I've got a shirt on under this, it's like I was ready to be a shoulder to cry on, and even if you did soak that one through I've got another shoulder for backup. And don't let your parents get to you, the list of people you need to please in life should start and end with you. Now tell you what, you get yourself something to drink that's not whiskey while I go change into my pajamas, then I've got a queen sized bed you can rant about your parents all you like from and I'll stay up all night if that's what it takes to listen to you."

Bonnie laughed softly and nodded, Ron walked back to his room where he quickly threw on his pajama pants and an old t shirt. He opened the door and saw Bonnie walking through the living room with a steaming hot cup of what he guessed was tea in her hands. He stepped aside and Bonnie walked into his room where she put the cup of tea down on one of the bedside stands and then took a seat on the bed tucking her knees under her chin. Ron walked over and sat down on his side of the bed, stretching his legs out and crossing his arms as he relaxed against the headboard.

"The worst part is that my parents make me feel guilty for more than what they're getting on my case about," Bonnie softly said from over her knees, "I mean right now I'm feeling guilty about how I always used to put you down in high school and tried my best to make your life miserable just to make myself feel a little better. Right now I can't imagine how you could have found it in you to make that offer to me when we ran into each other; I know I would have laughed at me if I'd been in your position."

Ron looked over at Bonnie and stretched an arm out around her shoulder; Bonnie leaned right over and scooted till she was up against him. "It's simple," he said at last, "I forgave you long ago."

Bonnie turned her head from staring out past her knees and looked up at Ron, "But... How? I spent nearly every day of high school calling you a loser, putting you down, keeping you at the bottom of the food chain, I was terrible to you."

"I just did," Ron lightly shrugged his shoulders, "plus you got a second chance of doing things after you moved out from your parent's house and look how you turned out, I'd say you did pretty good on your own."

Bonnie outright snuggled into him and even though Ron wasn't looking at her he could see the smile on her face when she spoke, "Thanks, can I ask one more favor though?"

"Sure," Ron said quietly, "keep in mind though that I'm very comfortable here."

Bonnie giggled a little bit at that but calmed down, "nothing big, can you just talk to me? Pretty much all I've heard all day is my parents telling me how I'm not good enough and how I haven't made the right choices. I don't even care if you just want to list off all the things they're wrong about, I just want to hear someone who's not my parents saying anything to me other than what a failure I am."

"Well for starters you're not a failure," Ron whispered.

After that Ron kept talking, quietly since he didn't want to wake Samantha, in the end he wasn't sure if Bonnie fell asleep and he just kept talking or if he fell asleep and she just didn't move. All he was sure of was that at some point he fell asleep talking and Bonnie was still curled up against him, and that she didn't feel at all bad there.

AN: So it's really cold in Colorado, like below zero. But unless you live here you probably don't care and you want me to move on to more important things, well ok. First off, never try writing drama to Flogging Molly; I had to rewrite the first half of Bonnie's scene while editing this. Second, for the record 'Ron's families' is not a typo it is in fact quite intentional and I don't think I need to elaborate on what it means. About the rest of this chapter, well I like it; I like how this whole story is going for that matter. That last scene though is probably my favorite out of this chapter, a much needed catharsis for Bonnie and what better to help her along the way then some Ronshine. And speaking of Ronshine, you'll all get another dose next Friday when the next chapter comes out, filled with stuff… cool… stuff!