Disney owns KP stuff, someone else owns the other stuff.
XXX
38. Precious, he said
Tara stopped as her mother gasped at some loud noise coming from the TV. She stopped and looked. Eyes wide, she sat down next to her mother as Ron was shaking himself off.
…
The camera view shook a little as the operator flinched and took a step to steady himself. Two figures where shown diving out of the way of the flying glass. One ducked just around the corner, another dove onto the pavement and rolled up flush to the high sidewalk, glass raining harmlessly on and past him.
As the noise subsided. There was a sound a rushing feet, getting closer.
"Damn it! There was some kinda of accelerant inside there!" Came a roar with the footsteps. Chief showed up with a couple others.
"You ok, son!?" he yelled, heading toward Ron.
Ron got up shook himself off.
"Yeah. I'm fine, chief." He said. Shaking his head vigorously to get the glass out of his hair.
"How is everyone up there?" Chief switched gears immediately, looking past him and up.
"Almost done, chief. How did it break through so fast?" Ron asked, walking back beside the chief.
"Flashover." Chief grimly stated. "There was something in there to burn evidently. So it ignited too, whatever it was. Then boom." He pointed at the broken window.
Mac stuck his head around the corner.
"Two more! Then all clear! It shaken our rig, but it's all intact and going!" He yelled.
"Good." Chief replied. "One more truck just showed up. I'm parking it on your side, the entire opposite side is lost now. We will hold it for now, but after we got everyone out, just gonna let it burn out more or less."
…
The lower floor was an inferno by now. Half of the floor of the second and third stories have already collapsed inside.
Ron was helping the last person onto the ladder, then backed away from the window for a moment. The woman was frantically looking around, and not moving down the ladder at all.
A line zipped out and imbedded itself into the wall of the next building. Kim came out swinging on her grappler holding a girl. Yori pointed out to the woman, where Kim and the girl where landing safely on the ground. That propelled her into motion down the ladder.
Suddenly the flames shot up from the window they all just vacated.
"RON!" Kim shrieked.
The high pressure water was blasting out of the hose into the broken window. A desk flew out the other one and crash landed on the ground with a shower of broken glass.
"NO! You will knock him down!" Came a shout from both Kim and Yori at the firefighters trying to direct the hose into the new area.
Ron stuck his head out. Looked to the one side, then the other. Then dove back in.
Before anyone could register a protest. Ron came charging out of the window and leaped onto the light post on that side of the street. Landed on top of it, slipped on something, swung around on it awkwardly. Then simply half slid/climbed down pole.
Looked back up for a second, turned and started walking quickly toward the rest of the gathered folk there.
"Buttons!" the girl was wailing and struggling mightily against Kim's hold and looked like she was trying to go back toward the building.
"Who is Buttons?" Kim gently asked the struggling girl without releasing her.
"My kitty! Buttooons!" the girl cried, struggling against Kim and her mother now, as Ron approached.
Ron was still dripping wet, probably from the hose down blasting through the nearest window.
"Ah!" He started and jerked suddenly. "I think, that's what's eating me now!" He yelped, pulling his shirt up and started rooting inside.
He pulled out his hand and crouched before the girl, extending his open palm. On it was a heart breakingly pitiful-looking tiny feline specimen. Shivering, ruffled and wet. It looked around, disoriented, as a tiny "Meow.." escaped it.
"Buttons!" The despair evaporated immediately. The now released girl skipped to Ron, almost knocking him over along with the kitten he was holding. And wrapped her arms around his neck with a squeal. Then scooped up the cat and ran back to her mother.
Ron opened his mouth a couple times and rubbed his ear getting up.
"We are all clear. Both ends. Just making sure rest not going anywhere." Said the chief. Coming up to the gathered teens.
"Great." Ron said. "Oh, maan..." He added. Pausing in trying to tuck his shirt back in and picking up his pants off the ground instead.
Mac snorted loudly.
Yori silently hopped from one foot to the other with her hands in the air in an alternating cheering motion.
"Gravity. It's not just a good idea. It's the law." Rex quipped.
"Yeah. Yeah." Ron grumped, finishing with his wardrobe.
Walking back past the trucks. Rex said:
"Well, let us go on with what we came for then."
"Yeah! Snackage time!" Ron enthused.
"Ok. That too." Rex agreed.
"Yup." Mac added.
Kim shook her head and rolled her eyes at Yori.
"Men."
Yori giggled.
…
Catching Ron's eye as they all walked by. Helen gave him two "thumbs-up" and a huge grin. Ron winked back and kept walking.
"Well, this was a nice bonus. Huh?" She asked Sam over her shoulder.
"No kidding. Nice "feelgood" piece. We're golden." He pointed. "Look at those tools. I think, they saw Kim's hair, and now trying to catch up. Too late now, ha!"
…
Bonnie stared sightlessly at the screen for a while now, as the talking head droned on about something or other. She walked up to her room and sat down in front of her vanity mirror, still not looking. Ran her hand through her hair with a sigh. Suddenly she stopped with her hand on her neck.
The bow was still there! She has worn it all the rest of day and forgotten all about it. Now she stared at it in her mirror. She traced her finger along it to the bow. Swallowed hard as she tugged on the end to untie it.
She sat there for a while. Holding a ribbon in her hand in her lap.
"Precious, he said." She thought to herself. "Ha! Kitten." She mentally added, staring at the blue ribbon.
She snorted. Paused. Then smiled.
XX
Penny sat with tears streaming down her face watching the events unfold and end. She tried to raise the shirt to her face, when a hand stopped her.
"Penny, this thing you're doing is really unhealthy. You're developing a really weird obsession here." Jessica said.
Penny looked at her closet cheerleader friend.
"But he gave me this...and he..." She sobbed. "And now he... did you see?"
"Yes. I saw." Jessica sighed. "Penny, remember. He's taken. Off limits, hon."
"What is it, that is off limits?" Penny's mother asked from the doorway. Jessica sighed and pointed to the garment, that Penny was clutching in her hands.
Mother came up and pulled the shirt from her daughter's hands.
"Oh, this one. I was wondering about that, when you showed up wearing it. Your name is not "Ron" after all."
"Wardrobe malfunction. Ron gave her this to cover herself up. Now she has some serious case of hero worship." Jessica said, nodding at Penny.
"Penny, you where sniffing this thing..." her mother began.
"It smells like him.." Penny interrupted in a whisper.
"Penny-y. Taken, taken, taken. Done deal, let it go." Jessica stated at length.
"I'm going to wash it. Then, you can give it back to him." mother stated.
"No! Mom..." Penny almost wailed, until Jessica jerked her up short a little.
…
Dragging herself into the front door of her house now. Utterly exhausted, physically and mentally.
Adrenaline rush has worn off sometime ago, walking was a problem now.
But the physical exhaustion was the least of her current problems. Demands on the body you can sleep off. The mental one's weigh on the mind, they stay with you.
Waving to her mother and focusing on dragging her carcass up the stairs now. Familiar room brought some comfort.
Mission clothes strewn everywhere in her path, barely standing in the shower now. Letting the water cascade down her body. All the focus remaining is on standing upright.
Collapsing into her bed. Sleep should come easy.
It did not. The images played out in front of her eyes. The scratches on Ron's back where tattooed on the insides of her eyelids.
How did this happen? She shut everything off for the mission. She saw, she knew, she refused to accept.
Now it all came flooding back, like a dam breaking.
Why did it bother her so? Ron was never a "boyfriend material" before. Granted lately it kept coming back to her over and over again.
"Was not." she thought to herself. "Yeah, what "Was not", is now "Is so". And boy is it ever..." She stared at the ceiling for sometime.
"And this is not just that." She thought some more.
"This is more of "Your man" business now, not just "Your boyfriend", eh?"
The ceiling said nothing.
"Damn!"
Looking for some answers, any answers.
None came. After sometime, she started to contemplate.
"Where did I go so wrong?"
She knew the answer, she admitted it to Ron himself, after all...
Plagued but "What if's", her mind could not take much more of "Maybe's" and lost opportunities tonight.
Kim drifted off to sleep.
XX
"What. The. Fuck?" Bonnie said quietly, looking up.
The Marquee at Middleton High proclaimed:
"Gravity. It's not just a good idea. It's the law."
"Someone got up way too early today.." She mused. "Yeah, there is a tough call of figuring out whom that might have been." She added to herself.
She sat in her spot, as always, surveying the scene. Same old. But Bonnie was on a mission this morning, so she looked for specific targets.
She was fidgety. It was uncommon for her, she was always self-assured. Uncertainty, was not something she was accustomed to.
She did not know what might happen. But, sometimes one must gamble. Bonnie looked down to her hand in her lap and smiled again.
"Time to play a hand." She thought to herself. What she was looking for just pulled into the lot.
…
"I do believe, this is quite workable Rex-san." Yori was saying. "We could indeed..." Then she paused looking just ahead of Rex.
Rex looked at Bonnie, standing directly in his path, purposely. He stopped just short of her, looking at her calmly. Yori paused next to him, then walked on toward the school doors.
Bonnie raised her hand slowly and opened it slightly. The same blue ribbon unraveled from it. Rex stood and waited. So did everyone, who saw the byplay.
Bonnie took a step toward him, so she was within arms reach and held up a ribbon. Apparently waiting.
Rex's lips quirked a little. He reached slowly for her hand and grasped the piece of cloth. Pulling it out of her hand he held it up to her this time.
Bonnie raised her chin slightly.
…
"Nique!" Came a cheerful greeting. Monique turned. Ron showed up later then the rest. He grabbed
Monique by the waist and was about to twirl her or something. Then paused.
"Hola, KP! How's your bodiggidy morning going!?"
Kim smiled weakly at the greeting. As she approached her friends.
"Somebody got laid." Monique stated.
Ron still held onto Monique. That statement made him let go of her.
"Well.. Err.. I ...umm.." Ron tried.
"Settle down. Lover boy." Monique said. "You two missed something interesting just earlier."
Kim was still not functional enough to comment, apparently. Ron was still not sure if he was coming or going. Monique sighed.
"Come on." She said, leading them all to the school doors.
XX
Ron walked the hallways, oblivious to the doe-eyed love-stricken looks he was getting. Chatting with his friends and his new teammates. Or just some random people he ran into, that wanted to talk.
The looks stopped with almost audible gulps now, when Ron was in Yori's proximity for any reason. The female population of Middleton High might have been kicking themselves now for missing out, he did ask most, if not all, of them out for one reason or the other times before after all.
People may watch too much television, but they where not generally suicidal.
…
"Hope..." Rex walked over to the cheerleader table almost at the end of lunch. He looked at her for a little while. She was looking at the table, fidgeting a little.
Rex sat down in an empty spot between her and Tara.
"I was going to ask, if you had any preferences... But it seems that me, that you have been avoiding me. Like a plague." He drummed his fingers on the table. Hope looked up at him now.
"Is something wrong?" Rex asked, looking patiently at her.
Hope looked at him, still fidgety. He just waited.
"I.." she cut herself off, and looked down at the table again.
"Hope." Rex said calmly. "Something is causing you a great deal of distress. I'd like to think, that it is not me. But, evidently this bothers you a great deal. So it does have something to do with me..."
She looked back up at him.
"I would like to, very much, to ease your mind. But you will need to tell me, what is bothering you so much." He finished, looking patiently at her.
Hope looked at him for a moment, then took a deep breath.
"Rex. " She said finally. "I don't think it was a good idea of me asking you to take me to the dance." She stated with somewhat shaky firmness.
"Hmm... Very well. It is not like we owe each other anything. But, I would still like to hear the reason for you sudden change of heart. I will not preach trying to make plans for the evening for us, that's meaningless. But I would, very much, like to know the reason... Frankly. Hope, you seem terrified of me lately. I would like to know why. There should be no reason I can think of, as to why you should be."
Rex paused.
"Or, at least... I hope there isn't one. That bothers me, if you will." He tilted his head a little at her.
Hope stared at him for a while. Rex raised his eyebrows a little in an invitation.
"I would like to go with you. Very much..."
Rex nodded.
"But.. It's just Ron and Yori." She looked at him, questioning.
"What about them?" He asked.
"Well.. they are .. errr... you know.." She stopped.
"Yeah, they are. What of it? It's their business." He stated calmly to her with a shrug
"Yeah, I guess...But now you..." She paused. "You... and Bonnie..." She drifted off again.
"Ahhhh.. So that's what it's about." He chuckled.
Hope shot a puzzled look at him.
Rex looked at the table for second, drumming his fingers on it.
"Alright. First off. There is no me and Bonnie." He turned his head to Tara. "You know there isn't, Tara."
Tara nodded.
"I don't know what you two are doing, mind. But there is no you and Bonnie." She confirmed.
Rex nodded his thanks, and looked back at Hope.
"Alright. Now, as far at the other part is concerned...You are under the impression, that I would have certain expectations of you. Is that it?" He asked.
Hope hesitated. Then nodded.
Rex sighed.
"I'm gonna be blunt here. Hope, are you expecting to get laid on friday?"
Hope flushed and looked at him wide eyed, almost wringing her hands now.
"N-No! No! I was just.. well.."
Rex nodded and waited.
Hope took a deep breath and said:
"I was thinking, that it would be nice to go out with a guy who does not seem concerned with the schools' social strata." She said finally.
"Done. Not concerned at all. What else?"
"Else?" She asked back.
"Yes. There is more." He simply said. Motioning with his hand fer her to go on.
"Well. It always nice to have a hot date for anything. You said it yourself before!"
Rex grinned.
"So I did. So basically, you were looking to have a nice night out. But, based on here-say and some wild unrelated guesswork. You think now, that I will pressure you into doing more, then you have intended from the beginning. How close am I?" He asked.
Hope was looking at the table again. She nodded jerkily.
"Hope. Look at me."
She did.
"So, nothing but guesswork, huh? At least I trust you did not get any such indication from me?" He asked her.
She shook her head.
He smiled at her.
"So. Are we still on."
She smiled back.
"Yeah. We're still on." she answered, smiling.
Rex smiled a little wider then. Hope was looking a bit uncertain now.
"You sure you are not looking to get laid?" He asked her slowly. Tara snorted to his side.
Hope, flushing again, shook her head vigorously.
Rex chuckled and got up.
"Pity." He said with a grin. As Hope turned slightly more red.
He got up and started to leave, then turned.
"Oh. Make no mistake, Hope. All it will take is one word of affirmative from you. Just one word...just so you don't doubt." He said to the beat-red by now Hope. Tara was chuckling next to him.
Rex laid his hands on Tara's shoulders and leaned In close to her.
"Same goes for you, Tara." he whispered loudly next to her ear. Hope made a choking sound as Tara joined her in red-faced concert.
XXX
Author's note: This is a soap opera …
-RA
Mr. Aan – Pateience.
ST and SB - You both got the time line backwards :)