Home is where the heart is

James Possible looked up from his newspaper. He'd heard the front door open and close.
"Ann, honey? Are we expecting guests?" He got up from his chair and went to see who it was at the door.
He froze in his tracks. There, right before him, a big suitcase in her hand was his only daughter. The daughter he'd thought dead and gone for the last six years.
"Kimmie-cub?"
Kim put the suitcase down.
"Say something!" Her brain commanded but all she could come up with was a sheepish:
"I'm home now."
"James? Who was it? Oh my God! Kim!" Kim's mother had come over from the kitchen and like her husband could do nothing but stand and stare at the young woman with the eye patch.
A moment of stunned silence followed before everyone burst out in cries of joy and confused questions. The noise increased further when her brothers, Jim and Tim, came rushing from their room to see what was going on.
After many hugs and kisses Kim has hustled over to the dining room by her mother and father and was made to sit down.
Just as Kim was about to explain her long absence there was a loud knock on the door.
"James? Ann? Is everything all right?"
Mr. and Mrs. Stoppable had heard the confused shouting even from across the street. Being good neighbours they had hurried over to make sure nothing was amiss.
"Come in! It's Kim! She's back!"
Kim found herself subjected to a new round of hugs and kisses and questions. After a while Kim had to ask everyone to settle down.
"I'll tell you everything, I'm just a bit overwhelmed."
Kim sat down and told her family and Ron's parents of all that had happened since 1917. At first the words came slowly, as if she was learning how to talk to her loved ones anew but soon they came faster and faster, the words almost stumbling out over her lips as she warmed to the task.
She noticed vaguely that the Stoppables tried to interrupt her a few times but Kim found herself too caught up in finally having someone to share her experiences to pay them any attention.
Jim and Tim, eleven years old by now, sat wide-eyed and took in their sister's every word, especially when dangers and adventures came up. To them it all sounded like marvellous fun.
It was already evening when Kim finally came to the end of her story, or as much of it she felt she could tell. She left her last meeting with Betty Director out. It was something no one but her needed to know, she reasoned.
"And then, in Macao I found out, once again, that Ron had died. I'm so sorry, Mr. and Mrs Stoppable, I wish I could have gotten there just a little earlier to bring him home with me." Kim finished, tears in her eyes.
Mr. Stoppable looked at his wife who nodded and hurried out, across the street. It had gotten awfully quiet around the table and Kim grew worried that she had somehow offended everyone in some manner. Beyond not letting her parents know she was alive for six years, that was.
Mrs. Stoppable returned with an opened envelope in her hand.
"Here, Kimberly. Read this."
Kim looked at the back of the envelope and read the sender's name and address.
"This is from someone called Arch Stanton in Danville." She said, not understanding what it was all about.
"Look inside." Mr. Stoppable said.
A single sheet of paper was inside. Kim took it out and unfolded it. She read the three words written on the paper.
She read them again, her brain refusing to comprehend.
"Arch Stanton was my oldest uncle." Mrs. Stoppable explained. "He died in 1862, in the Civil War. My father used to tell Ronald stories about his brother all the time."
"But if he's dead, how could he write a letter?"
"Read the letter again and think about what I told you, Kimberly." Mrs. Stoppable encouraged gently.
"I am alive." She read out aloud. Then Kim thought about the words and how they somehow connected with what Mrs. Stoppable had said. "Told Ronald about..."
The chair she sat on tipped over as Kim stood up, leaned across the table and all but shouted:
"Ron is still alive! And you didn't tell me until now?"
"But, Kimberly, this is our way of telling you!" Mr. Stoppable said, holding up his hands defensively.
Kim gripped the edge of the table. Her head was spinning and the room suddenly seemed to grow darker.
"Mom?" She mumbled. "I think I'm going to pass out."
Then she did.
When Kim came to her senses again she lay in her own bed. She looked around. The room looked exactly like when she had left it the last time. She realized her parents had kept it that way in her memory.
The cool touch of a wet napkin against her forehead and her mother's worried voice brought her back from her thoughts.
"Are you feeling better, Kimmie? You fainted and gave us all an awful fright."
"I...I'm sorry, mom. It...I mean it was just too much for me."
"Don't apologize, dear. You're home and safe now. That's all that matters."
Ann Possible brushed a few strands of red hair from Kim's face.
"Just rest now, sweetie. It's been such a long day for you and having you back has left us all a little dazed."
"Yes, mom." Kim smiled. It felt so good, so wonderfully safe to lie in her own bed. To know mommy and daddy were there made every danger in the world seem tiny and so far away.
The last thing Kim felt before she fell asleep was her mother's kiss on her forehead.

The following morning Kim woke up to the smell of breakfast and all the familiar sounds of the Possible household. She realized she'd slept all through the night fully dressed. After a hurried change to clean clothes later Kim came downstairs.
"Hi Kim!" The twins shouted in chorus.
"Good morning, Kimmie-cub. Did you sleep well?" Her father said with a smile and scooted his chair to the side to let Kim get to 'her' place at the table.
"I've never slept better, dad."
Kim didn't notice her mother throwing James a concerned glance. Ann placed a cup of hot cocoa in front of Kim who soon forgot about anything but the familiar tastes and smells of her mother's breakfast.
After breakfast, Ann commanded James and the twins to do the dishes despite protests from the latter.
She took Kim gently by the arm and lead her out to sit beside her on the the settee on the front porch.
"Kim, are you sure you slept well tonight?"
"Yes, mom, why do you ask?"
"It's just that I heard you talking and crying out in your sleep several times tonight."
"I...I didn't know that. I'm sorry if I woke you up."
"No, no. Don't be sorry. After all you've been through, some nightmares are expected, right?"
Ann patted Kim on the hand.
"But I don't remember any dreams, mom. Honestly."
"You kept calling out for Ron, as if he was in some kind of danger. Maybe you should..."
Kim's mother went silent, as if unwilling to go on.
"What? Maybe I should do what, mom?" Kim insisted.
"Maybe you should go see him? Ron, I mean."

James had finished the last of the dishes and managed to shoo the twins out of the kitchen before they started making experiments with the gas stove. All in all he was quite pleased with himself when he found himself face to face with his wife and daughter.
Ann had her arm around Kim's shoulders in a gesture of support.
"Dad, can I borrow the automobile?"

The drive to Danville had taken several days and Kim had only stopped to refuel, get something to eat and catch some sleep.
The closer she got, the stronger a sense of anxiety and doubt got as well.
"What if it will be like Macao all over again? What if Ron's mother was wrong?"
Her mind would create all sorts of failures and disasters before her inner eye. Just when she felt as if she would lose heart or lose her mind she drove into Danville. There was no turning back now.
She had asked around for Arch Stanton and although her eye patch rendered her a few quizzical looks the locals were friendly and gladly helped her find her way.
Kim parked her father's car down the street and decided to walk the last part of the way.
It was already late in the evening and the darkness was falling. Lights shone from most of the windows in the houses along the street. When she reached the house she had pointed out to her by a friendly Sheriff Flagg earlier in the evening she could barely make out the name on the mailbox.
"A. Stanton." She read quietly to herself. Kim looked up towards the house. The lights were on and inside she saw a man walk by the window. She walked up the short path to the porch and stopped. Despite feeling like some sort of weirdo she peeked inside. Her heart almost stopped from joy. It was Ron! Her Ron was just a few yards away from her! She watched him quietly for a few moments, her heart pounding like a hammer.
"He looks so tired. And he's got a limp! Oh, my poor Ron! What have they done to you?"
Kim stepped back from the window.
She took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

Danville was a sleepy little lakeside town in the Tri-State Area, famous for absolutely nothing exciting at all. It was the perfect place for a man who wanted nothing but peace and quiet in his life.
Ron Stoppable was such a man. Here he was know as Mr. Stanton and lived with his little daughter in a small house with a large garden on the outskirts of town.
Ron had settled into his new life with apparent ease, on the outside at least. In reality he felt restless and often had trouble sleeping. Sometimes his leg wound gave him trouble, at other times he would lie away for hours, thinking back on what had happened and what could have been. And the feelings of loss and longing for the women he loved, if in different ways, never left him. This evening did not look like it would be any different.

Outside, the late summer night swept it's velvet darkness around the little town.

Rufus, like the sensible critter he was, was already asleep in his cage.
Ron had finally managed to put Hana to sleep after several bedtime stories and songs.
"I swear, if I knew where she got that stubborn streak..." He thought in a textbook example of the pot calling the kettle black.
He had just sat down in his favourite chair to read when there was a soft, almost timid knock on the door.
"At this hour?" Ron had been wary of enemies and betrayal ever since Burma. He got up and moved closer to his chest of drawers where he kept his Colt.
"It's open." He called loud enough to be heard through the door but softly enough not to wake up Hana.
If it had been the police, an assassin or even Lord Fiske who'd stepped in through the door, Ron would have known what to do.
Now his brain stopped dead in it's tracks. Ron's mouth fell open and he had to brace himself against the chest of drawers to avoid falling over.
"Hello Ron." Kim's voice was very soft, almost a shy whisper.
Hearing her voice shook Ron out of his stunned silence.
"Kim? You...you're alive?" He stepped closer, his hand reaching out towards her. "You're real? Please, be real, Kim."
"I'm real, Ron. I'm alive and so are you."
Carefully, as if touching would wake them up from this wonderful dream, Ron and Kim embraced each other.
"Your eye..." He reached up and touched the patch.
Kim became self conscious.
"No, don't look at it." She whispered and turned her face away. "I don't want you to see how ugly it makes me."

Ron cupped her chin in his hand and gently made her face him again.
"Nothing can make you ugly." He whispered. "Nothing."
"Ron...you're crying."
"So are you."
Slowly, as if it was their first time, they kissed. They clung to each other like children seeking comfort in the night.
For a long, long time they just stood there, kissing, holding each other close.
Tomorrow a new day would come.
Questions would be asked and answers would have to be given.
The future held good times and it held bad times.
Yet, for now, time seemed to stand still and two hearts beat as one.

The End