All characters and places in this story belong to the Disney Corporation. Original creators, Mark McCorkle and Robert Schooley I receive nothing for the writing of this story.
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Previously When she finally could speak in between sobs, she said, "Ron. You have to promise me something."
"Name it KP." He said as he kissed her neck, trying to hold back his own tears. He was just thankful she was calming down. "I swear. Whatever it is, I promise."
"When we find this thing," and she took deep breath and said, "we kill it. I know it's not alive, but we find some way to kill it. Dead!"
Ron pulled back and looked her in the eyes. Her nightmare had been the result of that "thing." Her almost suicide had been the result of that "thing." The regrets of her life she was feeling now were the results of that "thing," fucking with her mind.
Still looking her in the eyes, he said, "You got it KP. We kill it."
"But Ron. When we find Eric or syntho drone 902," And then her voice went frigid. "He s mine." And there was no doubt in anyone's mind what she intended to do to him.
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Dr Possible was headed home after a long evening at the Space Center. It was a government contract and they wanted it completed on schedule. They didn't care about any family emergencies that might take him away his from work.
"Oh, gosh darn those government people." He muttered to himself and then thought, "I guess I should be grateful for the work."
A lot of people blamed all the space research and launching for attracting the attention of the Lowardians in the first place. After the threat had passed, most of the available money had gone into attempting to back engineer their technology which kept James busy for a while, but most of the money went into rebuilding, restructuring the resources and creating better weapons, in case of a repeat attack. James could design a rocket that could go into a low orbit using the same amount of fuel as driving from Middleton to the state's capital, but creating a new weapon assembly to take out an invading ship wasn't really his forte. That was something better suited for his sons, "The little monkeys."
As he pulled into his driveway, he saw Kim's car parked outside the garage. "Good." he thought. "Kimmie is safe and sound at home." Hoping that their lives could finally get back to normal, whatever that was for his family, he went inside.
After almost 30 years of marriage, as soon as he saw the tired smile on his wife, he knew that that was not going to happen tonight.
"What's wrong Anne? Has something else happened?"
Knowing that she couldn't and shouldn't hide it from him, she said, "The kids came home, Kim wanted to take a nap after their meeting and they went upstairs."
"They?" interrupted James.
She gave him a look that screamed for him to back up and reconsider his last remark or else the best he could hope for, for the next two months would be the couch in the garage.
"Sorry Ann. I know they are both adults and I love Ron like my own son. He's not one of those three legged aliens whose brain is located in their middle leg and is a walking bag of sperm that I called "boys." He loves Kim as much as we do and he would rather die than do anything to harm or hurt her in any way. She couldn't have picked a better man than him to fall in love with. Sometimes I still see him as that goofy kid that just liked to hang around Kimmie. That's wrong and I know it, but..."
"Okay James, you can drop it now. You're forgiven." she said after making sure that she'd gotten her point across. "Like I was going to say, Kim was taking a nap on her bed while Ron was napping on her bean bag chair next to it. I went up to peek in on them to make sure they were alright and I guess I woke Ronald up. He came out to tell me what went on at the meeting. After he started telling me, Kim sat up screaming. She had a nightmare. One that would make Freddie Kruger want to stay awake."
"Oh my ..." he replied. "Is she alright now?"
"For now. We got her calmed down. Well, Ron did most of it. After that, she was able to tell us some of what the nightmare had been about. It wasn't pretty James. Some of my friends at the hospital warned me that nightmares might be an after effect of the brain washing she gone through, but I don't think it was directly because of that. There's something else that's she doesn't want to talk about yet. Anyway, we were able to get her to eat something and then I put both of them in the guest room for the rest of the night. She seems to sleep better with Ron next to her."
"Should one of us go up and check on them later?" he asked.
"I don't think so. So far they done a pretty good job of handling this and their own problems, except when some wacked out super villain comes up with a new plan to try to take over the world. They should know by now when to ask us for help and they both know that we will do whatever it takes."
After a few silent minutes of thought, "I guess you right Ann. They are both capable young adults. Call me if you need me. I need to go up and try and get some sleep myself before tomorrow."
"What's tomorrow James? Tomorrow's your usually day off."
"The government moved the launch date up to tomorrow at 3:00. They are delivering the payload in the morning and they want it in orbit by late afternoon, early evening. It has something to do with a new early warning system concerning the Lowardians. I have to make some final calculations to avoid the getting to close to the space science station where Fredrick was. We're getting in touch with the department of defense tonight so they don't launch an attack against the rocket."
"Well. Go up and try and get some sleep then. I'll wake you if they need us."
As he turned to head up to bed himself, he stopped and looked at his wife and asked, "Ann, are you alright?"
Smiling at him for his concern, she answered, "I'm okay James. It just unnerved me a little." She then added, "Oh. Would you take this up with you please?" as she handed him Ron's Kimunicator. "They called Wade and asked him not to call them unless it was very important. I told them I'd take it so they wouldn't just doze waiting for a call."
As he took it and headed upstairs, she finished by saying, "I'll be up in a moment too."
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Kim opened her eyes to a dimly lit room with someone's arm around her hip and the owner of the arm was snoring. It took her a second to realize where she was, in her parent s guest bedroom. She no longer really thought of it as her house anymore. Her house was almost finished, the one that she and Ron would be living in after they were married. A few seconds later, she realized why she was in the guest room and whose arm was wrapped around her hip. As she raised her head up off the pillow, she heard a squeak.
Rufus was in a shoe box sitting on the nightstand by the bed looking over the edge at her. He was sitting up in it and looking like he was going to try and wake up Ron.
"Shhhhh. Rufus. I'm okay. Really. He just snores."
Seeming to be content with her answer, he laid back down and went back to sleep. He'd long ago gotten use to his owner's snoring habits.
Slowly turning in the bed so she didn't wake him, she turned to face Ron and had to stifle a chuckle. Sleeping with his mouth open and a little bit of drool running out of it, it wasn't his finest moment. How many times had she seen this same face sleeping in the back of a cargo plane or on a train as they were coming back from one of their missions? Was there always that little bit of drool coming out also?
For just a moment, she saw his face as it had been, back before, "out there, in here." How hard had it been for him to say those words back then, sharing his feelings like that. The main thing on his mind back then was going to get his next Nacho. No worry lines back then. He had them now, even in his sleep.
A part of her started noticing them a couple months ago, but another part was happy about them. It meant he was feeling the unease within her and towards him. She wished she could make those lines disappear.
She thought she knew how. It had been about two months since they had shared themselves with each other. Way to long. But this was not the time or the place. Her parent s house with her father probably listening for any unusual noises come from the guest room and it was too soon for her after her...nightmare.
A chilling thought went through her mind as she tensed up. She started examining Ron face, trying to see if there was anything she didn't remember. She had done this once before in a very private moment. Trying to memorize his face, up close. Every whisker, pore and every freckle. Every line and blemish. She wanted to truly know him at the time.
After looking at him and even smelling his scent coming off his body, she relaxed.
This is Ron. He is real, actually and properly real. This is the reality. Not a dream induced by some machine.
Relaxing again, she took the edge of the sheet and was about to wipe drool off the corner of his mouth when he asked, "You alright?"
"I thought you were asleep." she said after being startled. "Yeah. I'm fine. How long you been awake?" she asked as she wiped his mouth.
"Every since Rufus told me you were awake." he replied as he stretched a little. "Sorry about the snoring by the way. What were you doing?"
"Oh...Just making sure you are...real. Actually and properly." she hesitantly answered.
"Sorry, but yeah. I'm real. Actually and properly." He smiled. "You must be the dream though."
"Why? she asked.
"Because how could I have fallen asleep in a bed if you were in it, if you were real? This must be the dream, and I hope I never wake up."
"After all this time Ron Stoppable, you still manage to surprise me." she said as she lightly kissed him and pulled him into a snuggle/hug.
As she drifted back to sleep, she realized she was looking forward to some of those times when he couldn't fall asleep right away.
But in the very back of her mind, a very, very small part of her wasn't.
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The next morning Kim said she felt better. The after effect from her dream had gone, except for the memory of it and the strong desire to finish off syntho Eric, whatever his number was now, herself.
Her mother gave back Ron's Kimunicator to him and handed Kim a box that had arrived for her this morning from Wade when they came down for breakfast. Opening it, she found her suit, her Kimunicator and a note. The note simply said, "Call me on this one!"
Turning it on and pressing the call button, Wade appeared almost immediately.
"Hey Kim. Before you say anything, have Ron turn his Kimunicator off." he said before she could even say hello.
After Ron turned his off and nodded back to Wade that it had been done, he continued, "Okay. I've repaired the problem with the button on yours Kim and the other problems. I've also set it up so it can't be hacked into by anybody or anything. A rotating frequency modulating sub program I installed in it should take care of that problem. I'll tell Ron how to copy it onto his after we're done."
"Good Wade. You still rock."
"Thanks Kim. Your brothers are good. I mean real good. We should be ready to start tracing Drakken's syntho computer's signal with the unit they've been working on around noon. They gave me time to work on your suit. I've disabled all communication programs and devices that I built into it. That will make it impossible for anyone to hack into it and get any info so far as your location or trying to take control of any of its systems or sub systems. Go ahead and put it on. I'll have Ron reprogram his kimunicator while you're doing that."
Kim returned to the kitchen after changing into the suit. Ron had already finished upgrading his kimunicator by the time she returned.
"Okay Wade. Now what?" she asked him.
"Hold your arms straight out in front of you, bend your hands down at the wrists and think "syntho drone." he told her.
When she did as she asked, her suit reformed itself into two blades on top of her wrists that came out about two feet from the tips of her fingers. The edges were razor sharp as well as the tips. "Spankin!"
Wade continued saying, "Since we are pretty sure you re going up against at least one syntho drone, I figured a way to do a quick slash to its outer skin might come in handy. You can cancel them the same way you do the other functions."
"The biggest problem after I made these modification is your shield bubble may not be stable for very long. It depends on communicating with the sensors throughout your suit and that might be compromised, so use it if you have to, but don't count on it for very long. You may have the same problem with the enhanced speed option too for the same reason."
"Monique took a simple modified com unit over to GJ and gave it to Betty. They should be able to muster two dozen agents to help us with the raid on the location once we have it."
"How long do you think it will take us to get a location once we start the trace Wade?" Kim asked.
"The twins will need to make several different attempts from different locations to get an accurate position. They will be using their Kiminator to travel as fast as they can, mmmm, maybe half an hour." he finished.
"So we have to sit on our hands and wait till then?" asked Ron. " Oh mannn. That's the hardest part."
"Sorry Ron, but that's the best we can do." said Wade.
"Well, at least I'll have someone to take my frustration out on this time." said Ron.
"I'll call you just as soon as I have something. Until then get some breakfast."
"Sorry Wade." said Ron. "Like Kim said, you still rock. We'll just have to wait."
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Not my best chapter, but I wanted to get some things out of the way before the crap hits the fan. Next, chapter the crap hits the fans.
TBC
I want to tak this opportunity to thank all of you that have reviewed any of my stories, favorited them or myself or are following said same. I also want to thank NMR68 for some very good information and suggestions.
I also want to wish CajunBear a speedy recovery and let him know he is in my prayers.
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Please review. There is always room for improvement and nothing is written in stone. Stone has no spell checker.