Chapter 25: There's A Possible Chance
Ron studied the document and read the files, he had to ask Wade a favor and give him the layout of the casino. Somehow, he was more than eager to do missions again, considering he was rejecting it before.
The flames in his eyes dimmed, but the burning need to put himself in the thresholds of combat intensified. He didn't see himself angry, rather he was ambitious, intense. He paced around the room, cramming what he read into his mind. Ron glances at the document, lying there on the bed.
It was then a beeping sound rang through the room. He groans and flops on his bed. He then answers the call. He wipes the angered look on his face and saw the girl who contacted him. Kim.
He had then voiced his concern for her. "Hey Kim… is everything ok? How are you feeling?" The road that led to healing and atonement was slowly being paved not for her, but by her. It's a stressful and daunting task, if she were to do it alone.
"I'm ok, I just wanna talk… if that's ok with you." Ron takes a glance at the document, then looks back at the redhead.
"Sure, I could probably use a break. There's a lot going on in my mind, it's nice to just let go for a bit." He responds.
"I've been thinking that… maybe it's time for me to head back to school, face the music and all of that. After what happened back there… I don't know if things'll be the same." Kim's mind was hectic about doing this, she felt squeamish, maybe she could ditch it for another day, until she feels more confident. But running away from it in a longer span makes things difficult for her.
"Nothing really ever stays the same. There's always something new around the corner." He brought his words of wisdom to the table.
"Yeah, you're right." She pauses for a deep sigh. "I know you're trying to help, but microchip or not, I still beat up Josh and Bonnie. Even if you're trying to help, maybe it would be better if I just faced the music. Just have myself punished, period." Kim knew her actions were inexcusable, Ron helped her see that. Even so, Ron still wants to give her at least a sliver of leniency.
"You'll get through this, don't let it eat you up." He says to her. He shifts to his side. "There's more to this than we know. But keep your head up for now."
"Ron, I know that it's a bit early… but can I ask you a favor?" She places a hand on her knee and wiggled a bit on her bed.
"Sure, I mean it depends…" Ron asked.
Kim began. "Well, it begins with my parents after our fight."
FLASHBACK
Anne came into Kim's room. Looking at her disheveled face. Yet the atmosphere in the room didn't spell out depression, tears weren't running down on her face, but she still had red eyes and a sad look.
"Kimmie, is everything alright?" She sat down next to her. She places her hand on her shoulder. During this time, even if the matriarch had seen Kim to be less angered, she can tell that her daughter still held weight on her shoulders that troubled her. Instead of making her infuriated, she just seemed to be more guilt-ridden if anything else.
"When… when Ron came back to Middleton, he was still angry and upset with what I did to him." She places her hand on her face. "I wasn't being considerate on how he felt and… I made things worse." She started.
"Tell me what happened." She didn't say it as an order, but she said it with compassion, with understanding. Kim was already suffering enough.
"Promise me you won't get mad." Her voice shakes at this statement. There was more to what happened than Anne heard. Seeing her daughter in a fragile state, she had to comply. She nodded her head in response to her question.
"When I was crying a couple of days ago… when Josh cheated on me, I went to school and I asked him why he would do something like that. He just says that I wasn't there… like he was expecting me to do more. I was so mad and I… I just hurt him… I hurt him so bad, he had to be sent into the hospital…"
Anne could understand her point in hurting that bastard. If someone felt cheated on, they would have this need to fight, to harm, to lose themselves in the berserk fury that was brought down upon them from the damned humiliation. She knows how she feels, from her friends personal experiences.
"After that, I was heading back home and then I bumped into Bonnie. We got in this heated argument about Ron and… it just went south. We got into a fight and… she went down." Anne could understand how Kim felt when it came to beating Josh. The redhead was so lovestruck with him, she failed to see his accursed side. But it was somehow different from Bonnie. Those two were never in good terms, she would fiercely talk and plot on how she would be the one ahead of the Rockwaller. Bonnie wasn't going to get the better of her, that was the thought that was read with clear eyes, but why did it feel… unfulfilling?
"Ron came back and… he heard about everything. We got into a fight and… he just stopped me and he said that… that he forgave me." Her heart sank when she heard her daughter's words. Kim and Ron may have fought once, but it was out of self defense, the emotional turmoil she felt didn't compare to this. It was probably worse than that. When she heard that Ron forgave her, she was eager to learn more.
"He hugged me… he told me that whatever's happening… that we can do this… together."
"Tell you what we can do… I want you to ask if Ron can join us for dinner, it doesn't have to be tonight, it can be whenever you're ready. We'll all talk about this and… it will get better."
FLASHBACK ENDS
"… and I was hoping that you'll come over. We scheduled it for tomorrow." she finished.
Ron looked at the window, but to Kim, it looked like that he was looking away from her. This sends out an incorrect signal as if that he didn't want to do it. She quickly notices it and responds. "I mean if you don't want to, we can just…" she quickly states before Ron gets up and talks.
"No, it's not that…" he begins. "I've been looking up some things, something that can help us." He stares at the document in emotionlessly. "I'm just… rattled, hopeful maybe. Forget about it, when's the dinner?"
"We can do it tomorrow at 6:30, since it's a Wednesday… maybe it'll help out." She suggested. Ron gave a small nod.
"Ok… tomorrow we'll sit down and talk." He says.
"Ok." She replied. When it looked to be dragging on, the conversation wasn't there anymore and they were just staring at each other. Ron brought it upon himself to hang up and lie back on the bed. Before he could try and get any shut eye, he got a message on the Kimmunicator. It withheld an address and a contact name; Betty Director.
'Meet me here alone now, I'll be waiting for you.'
Ron saw Rufus asleep and he wasn't going to wake him up. Seeing his rappel and mission gear, he sets out. As he defied gravity with his movements, from doing a 360 spin after zipping himself to an abandoned building, then he corkscrews himself out of the other window, Ron had to find this place, and the closer he got, the more elegant his surroundings became. He sees the house up ahead. He shoots the rappel at one of the ledges and he lands on top of the roof. He sees light emanating from the patio, this meant the house was occupied, right?
Sneakily drawing himself closer to the edge, he sees a woman underwater, rising up with her eyes closed. She looked to be a beautiful mermaid finally able to walk on land. She had a dark blue swimsuit that did her body justice. The water spilled from her skin. She whipped her hair from side to side and squeezed it in order to get the water out. Her physique was indeed something to be marveled. As she turned around and entered inside the house, Ron inadvertently got a good look of her cleavage… not just that it wasn't any woman, it was Betty. His eyes widened and he closes his eyes, pinching his nose. He takes a deep breath, desiring to keep his composure. Ron couldn't believe the thoughts that came from his mind as he saw his boss like this. He jumps down to the patio and was about to enter the home until the voice stops him.
"Are you finished staring at me Ronald?" She says as she places on a bathrobe, forgetting to tie it and cover her front.
"I had to make sure this was the right place." He says, avoiding her question. He's losing himself, he needs to collect his thoughts. "You didn't call me here just to taunt me, right?"
She chuckles. "No, we should get down to business. We have our little thing with Brotherson, so you need to be equipped with some better gear. You're here because you need to be… or" her tone transitioned into an alluring one "you're here for something else." Her hands rested on her hips, it was where the blonde boy kept his eyes glued on the woman's eyes.
"At least you have some decency Ronald, most people would want to stare at the body all day." They head downstairs to a basement and Betty used the retina scan that was on the sealed door.
In there revealed some equipment that varied and there was a considerable amount of gadgetry. Betty takes Ron's rappel and grabs one of the new ones.
"You've been using that old thing for too long, it's time for a little upgrade. This rappel may be reliable, but it's slow on its use." She aims at the wooden plank and shoots at it. The computer gives the screen time of how fast it went.
"This is an updated version of the rappel, the name and version was updated to be a grapnel, if anything else. You don't have to hold it like a gun, it can actually be attached to the gauntlet's on your wrists." She shoots the gauntlet, and it shot out almost like a bullet. It even penetrated the wooden plank. She retracts the grapnel and it escapes from the wood like a bar of soap. She tosses the grapnel to Ron, leaving him to catch it on instinct.
"Your 'Kimmunicator' is out of date, we've been working on newly improved communication devices, faster processing, hacking capabilities, the works." She gives him a new communicator. "Unlike the old one, this one is more durable and has a prolonged battery life. There's new features updated into the device, I'll leave that to you to find out." It looked sleeker than the original version, he places it in his pocket. "It also has a direct and secure line to me, if you wish to contact me on the missions."
Ron turned on and turned off the device. "Exactly why would I need to call you of all people?"
"You're still doing your little investigation. If there's really a GJ operative who's a double agent, he or she will be listening in and easily counter your movements."
"Funny thing… you keep saying that, but I still think that a higher up is responsible, and since you're one of them, I probably won't be playing nice 24/7." Betty has then shown him something else.
"You've already read the file, so I don't need to stress how important it is to get it done. He'll be collecting his income Thursday night, so that's where you will come in." She gives him a band that wasn't strapped to his wrist.
"If this is some sort of present, it's kind of disappointing." He says.
"It's a VIP band, since Brotherson runs the casino, he'll let certain people in, as long as they have that band on their wrists. You won't get into any scuffle with the security guards at the entry point."
"That's when they'll recognize me as Ron Stoppable, Kim Possible's former sidekick. Doesn't matter if I left to them or not, they'll still see it as a breach in security." He points out. His identity was out there. So it's only fitting that people would recognize him.
"That's where these come in." She gives him a small container and a patch. "In this box contains lenses that are able to change your eye color, this patch is able to change your hair color, whether you want to be a redhead or raven haired, the choice is yours."
"Thursday night." He says. "Thursday night, I get whatever you need to get from Brotherson. Is that it?" He asks her.
"No. If you actually pull this off and that this information is really potent and shows great security risks in the WEE, this…" she spreads her arms wide. "… will be all yours. Consider it a gift and a show of good will."
Ron gets this house, should the mission turn in Betty's favor? "Wait, but isn't this your house?" He asks. How does he know that it's paid for in full, or something along that caliber.
"It's a safe house, one of many. This one is paid off and this is somewhere you can live. You won't have to worry about agents barging in and stuff like that. This is an off the books hideout… no one knows about this but me and you." They both left the basement and went up to the main room. "See I'm not such a bad girl, I can be generous from time to time, if you can deliver on your promises. But for now, this may as well be my turf for now. I'd see you out but you already know the way." She takes off her bathrobe and goes back swimming. Ron heads back to his house.
He heads to his room. Falling into sleep as he entered the dream world, with his current thoughts in tow. All that mattered was that the next day was gonna carry weight.
He wakes up and heads to school, walking instead of the usual free running. This was where he contemplated into thought about what he's doing with the mission. It lasted long, even when he walked into the hallway into the lunchroom. As he was walking forward, he sees a certain brunette smiling at him, in school grounds no less. Wait a minute, where was the usual scowl and folded arms gesture? She was smiling at him in school. He could only hope that there was someone else behind him.
"Hi Ronnie!" She says as she hugs him in front of the school. His eyes blurred, but quickly cleared up. He looks around at the hallway, some students look at the two of them.
"What are you doing?" He mumbles, with shock and some fear. "What about the queen bee thing? We can't do this here?" He says to her.
Her hands touched his chin. "Take a look." She then turned his head to the students conversing with one another. His eyes were open to it, cheerleaders weren't just talking to jocks, rather they talked to everyday people. There was a guy who could be classified as a bookworm who was talking with one of the athletes in the basketball team.
"What are you showing me, some sort of fear factor? What's going on?"
"Chain's broken Ron." Bonnie gives him the answer to his question short, sweet and to the point.
"What?" He says. The blonde boy picked up on what he said, but he just couldn't believe his ears.
She pointed her index finger upward and placed it in front of her lips. That indicated that Ron shouldn't speak further. Rather, a vibrating tone came from his phone. "You can read all about it later, right now let's get to lunch, I'm pretty sure we still have our little project to talk about."
They both walked into the cafeteria, as they ordered their lunches and took their seats with both Felix and Monique. Conversation had began with the four of them, they were having a pleasant day with each other.
"I can't believe it, I mean I would always see Ron with the baggy clothes he wears, but you just change his style, just like that." Monique said as she snapped her fingers.
"Never had a say in it." Ron mouthed to Felix. He inconspicuously nods his head, telling him he got the message.
"Someone has to give him a… gentle nudge in the right direction."
"So Ron, when Kim and I try to do it, we fail, but when Bonnie does it, she actually wins, how did she convince you?" Monique asks him.
"There was nothing wrong with a little reinventing, so that's what I did."
"Boy, rocking that outfit, you'd save the world and look good doing it. A little style and flavor wouldn't hurt."
That was when Ron sheepishly laughed at the comment. "About that… I'm actually back in the game."
Everyone dropped their forks. "Wait…" Felix said. "You can't just go back to Kim after what she did, I mean it's like running to your own funeral."
"Nah man, I'm doing this by myself. I need to get some answers on what happened to me, and doing this is the only way."
"You sure you want to I mean you…" Monique was about to finish her sentence, but Ron looked at someone at the line. He saw Kim and they looked at her, leaving her to walk away from them.
"Better question is how can you be sure that you're doing the right thing with Kim… after what she did to us?" Bonnie asked.
Ron ran his fingers through his hair. "I just know ok… just trust me. Things will even out, I promise." Ron answered. "Things are different now, she'll come around." Ron decided to change the subject. "Least we have a few more classes left until we head to the gym right?" He says to Bonnie.
"True, we got practice going on, at least I can finally stretch my legs." She placed that innuendo into Ron's mind. He knew exactly what she was thinking.
The bell rang, after several more tortuously long classes, they made it to practice. Tara had still taken over the reigns of the captain while the Rockwaller was hospitalized and the redhead was… indisposed. The practice drew a lot out, enough for the blonde boy to take a seat on the bench at the end of the class. The sweat poured from his face.
"It hasn't been the real deal and already you're breaking a sweat." Ron looked to see the brunette, her smile obviously mocked him playfully.
"Oh please, I can still go a couple more rounds. This isn't my first rodeo." He defends.
"Well, I'm done with my routines." She does a little stretch by lifting her leg up. "I don't even feel tired yet." She still dons her cheerleading uniform. "I'm gonna get changed and head out. By the way, do you need a ride home?"
"Nah, I can walk, it won't be a problem. Besides, since I'm doing missions again, I could use the exercise. But I probably have to change to." He heads to the locker room, to his relief, no one was there. He quickly places on his pants, before he could fasten the belt. Someone was behind him.
"Ron?" The feminine voice said. He turned around to see Bonnie, she seemed to be flustered about something. "Listen, I gotta ask you something and be serious about it."
"Ok." He says. He slung his shirt to his shoulder.
"What happened back at the house, and what happened at the hospital. I keep getting these feelings."
"What kind of feelings?" He asks.
"I dunno, like this feeling that there was more. When we did those things, I felt like I was letting something go and… it just felt unreal… I wanna know that when we did those things… it meant something to you." She concludes. It's true that these feelings were there, not ignored. Even if they enjoyed the physical part, it's the mental and emotional fact that counted.
"It did… I didn't think that you and I would do something like that, but when we did… it just felt so amazing. To be honest, sometimes I just felt like I wanted more, but I didn't want to force you."
"Neither did I." Bonnie says, shying away from the blonde boy. It was then they heard a click, it indicates that a door was opening, Bonnie was in the boys locker room with Ron, this could spell either detention or suspension if caught. Ron quickly grabbed Bonnie's wrists and took her to the shower room to hide. It couldn't be one of the cheerleaders or students, it would leave Barkin as a possible candidate.
They could hear his footsteps echo in the gymnasium, they were in the shower room, with the door closed and void of light. It seemed to be that he was looking around and shutting off the lights before leaving. The minute they heard the clicking of the door, as well as the footsteps becoming more and more faint, Ron drew a sigh of relief.
"Oh man, if we were caught like this, who knows what he'll do." His heart raced. A pair of fingers touched his cheek and gently pushed his face to look at her. Ron could only stare into her eyes that shared the similar feelings he felt. Warmth, love, passion.
His hand rested on her cheek and he leaned in closer to her. It was when he could feel her breath on his lips. He kissed her, planting his own lips gently onto her own.
It was just lip for the moment. The taste of each other had stimulated and took control of their minds, they may have kissed on the cheek, kissed on the neck, but this was where they kissed each other on the lips. They didn't reject it, they didn't reject this feeling.
Bonnie's right arm snaked itself around Ron's neck, but the blonde boy pushed her toward him. She was on top and she still kept her lips on his own. She stuck out her tongue, her mind succumbing to lust. Ron wanted to satisfy her by giving her entry. This feeling that swelled in his throat and ran amok in his mouth. He slowly pulled her closer to him desiring to taste more of the sweetness that emanated from her mouth. He could feel his body shiver with excitement as this drags on further.
This ecstatic feeling that vibrated in the Rockwaller's chest danced sensually. They broke apart to breathe in the air. It was where the blonde boy came forward and whispered in her ear. "It's ok… we can stop when you want." Hearing those words gave her the encouragement that she was in control, she was on top, he wouldn't do anything that would be too much without her consent. With a barracuda smile, she took ahold of Ron's wrists and spoke. "If you say so." They kissed again. Bonnie was becoming more dominant with the kissing. This nectar was hers for the taking, she was going to help herself to as much as she needed. Ron had tried to get one hand free from her grasp, his left hand had no avail, but his right did. He snaked his hand to feel her smooth, flat belly, which had then moved down to her thighs. His hand had then risen up to trace her shoulder and went right to the middle of her chest.
They broke away, with a thin trail of saliva between their lips. "You were my first kiss." She moans. In a technicality, it went vice versa. Ron had to be subjected to CPR in times, there was some usual pecks on the cheek courtesy of some females who would be saved by the other dashing hero. The females that would kiss him actually touched his lips, but it was just a peck. For his first, kiss just had to be open, in his opinion. And so… this was his first kiss.
Bonnie pulled him up, they were both sitting on the ground. The carnal convulsions had come to an end. "Sorry Ronnie, this was building up for some time." She stands up, letting Ron squiggle's back and stands on his two feet.
"I know, same here… we'll uhh…" Ron stammered; completely flustered by this advance.
"Yeah, I'll see you soon." She finishes for him. They snuck out of the locker room and left the school grounds. Bonnie drove away and Ron zipped though the skies, both still contemplating about the relationship that was budding between the both of them. After several feet, he sees Kim's house in the distance. Today was the dinner, where things would be cleared up.
He felt like something was making him sweat, it made his neck uneasy and his stomach churning with fear. He could even feel his hand shake uncontrollably as it slowly moves toward the door.
"I can do this… I can do this." He repeats.