Legal Disclaimer: Yeah I know – I don't own Kim Possible, Disney does. I did create Texas Tornado Tom but I'm not making any money off of his character or Disney.

Thanks to CajunBear73, JAKT and Ran Hakubi for reviewing.

-------------------

Second Mission, Second Thoughts

Chapter 10: All Tied Up

Kim's mind raced as she sat quietly, trying not to attract Shane's attention. "There's got to be a way out of this. Ron was right, we should have had some sort of cutting tool. I didn't even think to bring a pocket knife. Maybe there's something around here that I can use."

Kim glanced about the room; it was dilapidated with missing floorboards, holes in the wall and ceiling and rotted fixtures; but nothing that would help them get out of the mess that they were in. She was surprised that Mr. Stone decided to use the old ranch house in the first place. He would have to spend a lot of money to get this place running. Still, there was some progress; it was fairly clean, furnished with rudimentary comforts, and sported basic lighting. Kim rocked back and forth ever so gently to check the beam they were attached to. No good – it was solid and rooted firmly to the floor. She saw their gear off to one side, but way too far for her to reach. The redhead sighed and slumped.

------------------

Ron was also looking around the room. "Oh man, this is it. We're going to get dumped out of the middle of nowhere, get all cold and wet and then nobody's going to believe us. Maybe, Kim can get us out of this."

Ron gazed over at his best friend and watched her shoulders drop. "Aw man, she's giving up already. She can't give up, now. I gotta do something but what?"

------------------

Shane was hardly watching the teens. He eyed the Kimmunicator and wanted take it but didn't. Nervously, he rocked in his chair, glanced around and drummed his fingers on the table. He pushed his chair back but leaned in close, hovering over the object of his desire. He was just about to grab it when he heard shouts outside.

"The cattle are loose! They're escaping!"

Shane dashed out to the front door and confirmed that the bovines were pouring out of the gate. Several of them had made it to the front gate. Others were wandering throughout the complex. While one of them still remained in the open pen. Outside, two of the rustlers tried to shepherd them in but the chaos was too much for just them to handle. The blonde rustler shot a glare to the two imprisoned teens. Kim and Ron were just as surprised as he was and shrugged. Shane's stun stick erupted to life and he rushed up to the teens. He leaned close to Ron bringing the electrified stick close to his chin; the overpowering smell of ozone assaulted Ron's nostrils. Kim wriggled as much as she could; her best friend was in danger but the ropes rendered her powerless. "Just two of you?" Shane growled, "Who's the other one out there?"

"I-I-It's just me and Kim," Ron choked, "I swear!"

"Care to explain that?" he yelled, pointing outside.

"Eh, eh, uh, poor workmanship on the lock?" he squeaked, moving as far away as he possibly could.

"Wrong," Shane replied as inched the stun baton towards his chin.

"There's nobody else! Mr. Davis hired Kim and I came along! That's it!"

"Are…you…sure?" he asked as he readied the charged weapon to strike.

"Ahhhh! Kim!" Ron screamed and shuddered. His world started to spin and his head lolled to one side.

"H-he's telling the truth!" Kim blurted out with tears rolling off her cheeks, "P-Please…don't hurt him…" Kim sniffed, "I-I fiddled with the lock earlier but couldn't get it to open. M-Maybe it popped open or something."

Shane held his weapon over his shoulder, poised to strike as he examined the two. The blonde was sweating, shaking, and was on the verge of passing out. Tears flowed from the redhead's emerald eyes as she tried to wipe them away with her shoulder. She was in no shape to do anything substantial. "You're lucky your girlfriend spoke up," he huffed.

Kim opened her mouth in her defense but a voice called out from outside, "Shane!"

"Yeah?"

"Git on out here and help out with this mess!"

"But the intruders––"

"They're not going anywhere! Getting' this cleaned up is more important!"

Shane snorted as he made his way out the door. "Don't leave just yet," he mocked, "I haven't finished what I started."

------------------

After the rustler disappeared, Kim looked at Ron. "Ron," Kim sniffed, "I-I don't want you to go with me on these missions anymore."

Ron stared at her without blinking. "KP, I didn't mean to mess up – "

"No! It's not that! I…just don't want you to get hurt," Kim sniffed again, "That was way to close. I don't want it to ever get that close. If I lost you," Tears began to flow again. I don't know what I would do…In fact, I-I don't think I want to do this anymore."

"WHAT?"

"You heard me. If we somehow manage to get out of this, then that's it. The website goes – "

"NO!"

"Wha––"

"Kim, will you stop it for a minute and let me say something?"

His red-haired best friend sniffled and nodded a 'yes'.

"Good. We've been friends for a long, long time – since Pre-K. In fact, I don't think either of us has had any other friends for this long. And I'm surprised that you put up with me for that long," the blonde teen smiled. Kim, in turn, let out a small smile between sniffles.

"Scared, yes, but not hurt."

"You could have – and I don't know what I'd do if you were – especially since it's my fault for all of this."

"Wha – What are you talking about? You're not making any sense."

"I practically dragged you out here, I forced you stay when we should have left and called the police, and, and – "

"Stop right there, Kim. We'll get out of this. I'm not sure how or even when but we will. And…you didn't drag me out here; I came out here because I wanted to – because I needed to. I got your back and you got mine."

"Ron––"

"Not finished."

"Sorry."

"So don't give this up. Don't stop doing what you do because you're good at it – really good. Besides, if you gave up now, I don't think you'd ever be really happy. You'd be miserable...Now, what did you say when you started up your website? 'I can do anything', right?"

Kim nodded, "Ron…Thanks."

"No big KP, that's what I'm here for, back up. Besides, you got the mad kung fu skills."

Kim snaked her hand as best she could through the ropes. After a few moments of wandering, she managed to find her best friend's hand and grasped it tightly. Her eyes sparkled not from tears of sadness or despair but from happiness and gratitude. Drawing in a deep breath, she said, "So how do we get out of this?"

"I have no idea," he said, ending with an embarrassing smile.

"Well, we need some way out of here."

Ron noticed that Kim had not let go of his hand – not that he wanted her to, but it was unusual being longer than most times. Regardless, Ron let it pass, he was comfortable with it and they were just friends – best friends. Still, there was that small, nagging feeling, way deep down…

------------------

The two teens sat in silence pondering their fate. They had noticed that the noise outside was slowly dying down. Chaos was turning into relative calm, which meant that their time was almost up. Then, they heard different sounds; a truck revving its engine.

Ron could feel Kim's hand slowly increasing its grip. He was just about to say something when he had noticed a small shadow, too small to be a person, scuttling towards them. "K-Kim?" Ron said in a voice tinged with fright, "There's something crawling in here."

"I'm not surprised. Just look at this place."

"Kim that something is crawling this way! What if it's a spider or worse – a monkey! Ohhhhh, monkeys!" Ron breath became more rapid but shallow.

"Ron, snap out of it! There's no monkeys out here!"

"So it's a spider! A spider? Ahhhhhhh!"

"Ron! Calm down! It's not a spider," She pleaded but then saw the shadow as it approached. Her green eyes grew large as she uttered, "It's…too…big…to be…a spider." Her grip on his hand was crushing but Ron didn't notice. His fear went into overdrive and he started thrashing about. Screams issued forth, nearly deafening the redhead. Then, the form stepped into the light to reveal a pink, hairless mammal, standing on two legs. "Hiya!" he waved.

"Rufus?" Kim exclaimed, releasing her clasp.

Instantly, Ron's wailing stopped. "Rufus?"

"Yep, that's me!" he squeaked.

"Don't scare me like that!"

"Sorry," he muttered, putting his hands together before him in an apologetic pose.

"It's okay little buddy. Hey, was it you that opened the lock?"

"Uh-huh, uh-huh!"

"Good job! Can you chew through these ropes?"

"Sure!" he squeaked.

Kim just sat there and still couldn't believe that Ron was holding a decent conversation with his beloved pet. What was more incredible was the she was beginning to understand some of it.

------------------

After a minute of chewing, Rufus made short work of the rope. It might have been 'some really good rope' but it wasn't a match for the naked mole rat's teeth. As the rope loosed its hold, the pair stood up, letting the rope slough off of them. Ron scooped up his non-human best friend and both Kim and Ron slowly made their way to the door, only to hear the cowboy mastermind speak.

"Good work boys," Texas Tom yelled, "That little snafu actually turned in our favor. The cattle loading is almost done. Once we're done here, all we have ta do is clean up house and we're done."

Lightning flashed overhead. Ron would have let loose a scream if it were not for Kim's quick thinking, covering his mouth. As all eyes soared skyward, the tall cowboy declared, "And just in time too. I'm a guessing that the weatherman was wrong. Looks like we're going have some rain. Too bad for our visitors."

"We need to get out of here," Ron stated, slowly sliding Kim's gloved hand off his chin.

Kim's eyes narrowed. "No."

"No?!?" Ron's eyes widened, "Uh, Kim didn't you hear what I just said back there?"

"Yes I did. I also heard you say 'not to give up'. Remember your little inspiring speech?"

Ron was floored – and ashamed. He let fear get the best of him, at least momentarily. He sighed, "Yeah."

She continued, "We need to stop them here and now. You heard Texas Tom, once they get out of here, they're home free and they'll start up their operation all over again. We can't let that happen."

"Right. What's the plan, KP?"

"We're going to take them out right here and right now."

"And how are we going to do that?"

"Well, I have a call to make and then we're going to need that rope…"

To be continued…

-------------------

Chapter End Notes: As I said before, I didn't want to rush this as it gets down to the end. Plus I did want to highlight how dangerous a mission could be to both Kim and Ron. Stay tuned…