What She Can't Say

by The Wise Duck

Post STD - Continuation of 'As It Was In The Beginning'. Kim and Ron start their relationship while their lives and the rest of the world goes on. But change brings challenges; social, professional, personal. How will they deal with it?

38. Middlegame

"Kim?"

"Another five minutes mom, I was sleeping so good—"

"Kim honey, you weren't sleeping at all."

That cause the teen hero to stir, an activity with aroused her even more because—

I have my mission clothes on? What would I be doing in my bed with them on? And if I'm on a mission, why would my mom be here? I should be sleeping with Ron—which we haven't done in all too long and which I miss soooo bad.

Has something happened to Ron??? And that forced Kim to fight her way up through the folds of cotton which were holding her—

And that in turn made her fight harder for she realized that something had happened to her, this wasn't normal sleep for her . . . and if something had happened to her, something had to have happened to Ron for him not to be there as well—

Kim came awake and tried to sit up, only to be blasted back down by the power of a headache of an unbelievable migraine proportions which immediately blinded her and almost made her throw up.

"Mommy," Kim whimpered when she was sure that she wasn't going to hurl. She hadn't experienced pain like this since she had broken her collarbone trying to do forward flips off of the jungle gym in kindergarten (some kid had ran through her landing point just as she started her release).

"It's okay honey," Kim heard her mom say and she felt a pain in her arm like that of a shot going in (but which next to what was in her head, felt nearly like a flea bite). "Let this work a minute—"

"Mom?" Kim forced herself despite just how awful she felt—"Ron—?" she managed for she was putting into it all the urgency she could gather.

"He's fine honey. In fact he's better than you are in most ways but he's got a nasty bump on both the front and back of his head and there might be a concussion. He's resting over in the next ambulance; not a happy camper by the way because he wants to be with you but I don't want him walking right now. By any measure you're lucky that he didn't drop you coming out of that building."

Kim felt herself relax as that immense weight was lifted off of her, Ron would die before he dropped me she thought. Even though she had to say to herself, that I 'tried' to drop him and he wouldn't accept that either. No, she managed a faint smile, he would never drop me. And that she already was experiencing an immediate relief in her head as she relaxed and calmed down, the massive throbbing pain ebbing to only a miserably heavy ache.

And with that, it all started coming back to her.

Kim brought a hand up to her smarting head, biting her lower lip as she did so as—

"Mom, does anybody know what happened to me?"

Kim felt her mom's gentle hand on one of her arms. "Do you remember what happened?"

"I remember," Kim started then paused as a wave of pain/nausea flowed through her. After a moment, "I remember starting to walk into that weird glow—." Kim broke off and took a shuddering breath. "I take it that that was a mucho stupedo thing to do?"

She heard her mom snort. "Understatement city," came the half amused/half tweaked reply. "Although considering that you managed to survive it, with a little bit of help, I hope that this little incident recalls your apparently absent common sense."

Kim didn't argue the matter because her mom was soooo obviously right. "Ron got me out," and Kim said it as a statement rather than a question.

"Ron," her mom continued for her, "and Rufus and Monique and your father—"

"Oh my God!" Kim gasped forcing her eyes open, looking up into her mother's concerned but loving face. "What happened to me? What happened with the machine?"

After her mom had filled her in with what she knew, Kim lay quietly, a cold cloth now on her forehead. There was an . . . unreadable look on her daughter's face. Anne ventured to see if her hunch on its origins was correct. "So . . . was seeing Drakken worse in person than—"

Her daughter's eyes closed again and a wave of paleness swept over her. Kim had to take several swallows before even attempting—"he was—I—there's no way to describe—"

"I know," her mother answered her gently. "I've seen him."

Kim's eyes came open again but . . . there was a wary look to them—

"Drakken talked to your father, maybe got a clue on how to how to stop the device." Now it was her mom's turn to take a hard deep breath. "There hasn't been a conscious response from him since that moment with your dad but—"

"He's alive?" Kim whispered in near horror. "But—"

"The body is alive . . . yes. As for the rest of it all honey, I don't have a clue," her mom answered gently as she checked her daughters all around vitals. As Anne was flicking the penlight in Kim's eyes checking for pupil reaction—"but if I had to take a guess, based on what I was able to get out of Ron . . . I think that whatever it was that Drakken had been turned into . . . died. And now the real one is back . . . barely." And then Anne gave her daughter a deep look. "Although even that is iffy. Drakken has been transported by one of their air ambulances to the special Global Justice holding facility. Maybe he'll make it . . . depends on how much fight is left in him."

Kim's eyes left her mother and stared up at the ceiling of the ambulance for quite some time, memories and thoughts flowing over her features and through her eyes. When her mom thought it was time to bring her back—"How is it?" she asked, feeling the no longer cold cloth on her daughter's forehead.

Kim pulled it off and started to gather her arms under her. "Like three hundred of Monkey Fist's little monkey ninja's are playing massed trashcan lids between my ears. But I can function. I want to see Ron, and Rufus and Monique and I've got to see dad and find out what's going on."

Anne thought a moment about ordering her daughter back down—

But the crisis was still at hand and not going away—

And arguing with her daughter was the last thing Anne Possible wanted to do if it was in fact the last thing she was going to do.

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Ron lay on his back, a soundly sleeping mole rat on his chest, staring unseeingly at the ceiling of the ambulance, thoughts running around in his head like kittens chasing their tails—

I almost lost Kim because I couldn't come up with a plan—Rufus did. I didn't even really rescue her, Monique almost sacrificed herself for Kim and MrDrP had to save ME and everybody else because I wasn't thinking. I had nothing! The only thing I did was throw a stupid wrench at the stupid thing and all that did was break one light. Kim trusts me to have her back and I blew it! I—

Ron then started to jerk up when something touched him on the arm—

"Whoa there human-chain boy," came her voice to him, and he couldn't believe that it was flowing with love and concern—

Kim finished sliding into the bench seat beside him, the same love and concern radiating from her face as her hand continued up to carefully, tenderly, touch the knotted bruise in the center of Ron's forehead.

"You, know," Kim said in a suddenly low, sultry voice even as she bent in low over his prostrate form, "if you keep getting hurt like this, I'm gonna have to become your full time nurse . . . you know—shots in . . . interesting places and sponge baths and everything—"

Ron closed his eyes and groaned, turning his head slightly away—

"Ron?" Kim wondered, bringing herself back up, sounding hurt—

"KP," Ron was almost whispering— "I'm sorry—" he choked.

Kim blinked—perplexed. "Sorry," she repeated almost as quietly. "What are you sorry about?"

"The—I—you—Kim—your back—I didn't—" Ron flailed about with his words, unable to tell his girl just how he was feeling—

Then that soft hand cupped one cheek, and a soft, silky kiss graced the other one. And that was followed by a growl that almost frightened him out of his skin—

"Don't you for one single second think that you blew it Ron Stoppable—"

That same hand gently but irresistibly pulled his head over until his eyes were forced to look into a pair of blazing emerald ones—

Blazing with gratefulness and INTENSE love—

"We've had fate deal us bad hands. How many times has Drakken or Dementor or even . . . God help us-Frugal Lucre captured us and put you or me or the both of us into some kind of 'death-trap'. Somehow or another, that same fate has always rescued us, be it my skill or your 'factor', or Rufus's smarts. We've both survived . . . " and Kim's eyes went misty as her voice choked up, "we've survived so much the last couple of months that there is no way that I believe that anything is going to happen now. And the reason WE survived those months is because of you love. And I will never forget that."

A gentle, heartfelt kiss followed—

A self-conscious cough at the rear doors of the ambulance interrupted it—

Both of Kim and Ron's heads snapped to see her mom and Monique standing at the doors, intentionally looking in anther direction with arms crossed and impatient looks on their faces. The two teens faces turned some interesting shades of red. Then Kim started to slide back toward the doors and Ron made a move to try and sit up—

"Flat on your back mister," MrsDrP advised him very strongly as she turned into the pair at the moment Ron tired to move. "Right now, we are waiting for an exam location at a non-overwhelmed facility to be freed up so that we can send you there and they can check you out Ron. The combination of those cracks on your head in conjunction with going out from that weird field worries me to no end. You are down until I am satisfied that you're alright."

Agony hit Ron's face. "But MrsDrP—"

Kim's mom put her hands on her hips. "No buts Ron. I'm speaking as your doctor and your future MOTHER . . . in-law."

"But mom," now it was Kim's turn, her fear of not having Ron to watch her back—

MrsDrP answered with just a very firm and exaggerated shake of her head. Kim felt herself deflate in defeat. She turned while still sitting and held out a hand with Ron reached out and squeezed, saying softly too her, "I'm always with you KP."

But you can't watch my back from here Kim grumbled to herself, not wanting to make it any worse for Ron. She slid all the way out, stepping to the side so that her mom could climb up and in—"your father is in the big bus," MrsDrP said as she did so. "I'll be over shortly. You had better get over there yourself to get an update."

Kim nodded then turned to the black girl standing in front of her. Monique's head was slightly lowered and there was both an uncomfortable look on her eyes and in her face—

Both of which were blown wide open when Kim suddenly stepped up and embraced her tightly.

"Thank you," Kim said into her Best Girlfriends ear—it was all that needed to be said, and the hard embrace that Monique gave back—

And to Monique, then meaning and depth of this hug would only be superseded by the one she would get from Felix when he woke up. Monique knew all about fate and chance and the way things worked out—but she felt . . . she knew, that she was back. Because of Ron (whom she had already thanked) and the red-headed best-friend-in-the-world who was hugging her back, had thought enough about her to make sure that she was in a position, place and time that allowed her to do what she had to do—

Allowed her to become herself again—

And Monique wished that there was some way to let her friend know just how much—

But Kim would only say 'no big' and shrug it off—

Another reason why Monique loved her as the friend that no one else could ever be.

After the two of them broke apart, and with a glance and a little wave at Ron cowering under her mother's tender mercies, Kim with Monique started off for the bus. It was then that Kim noticed that Monique was limping slightly. "Are you okay," she asked, the concern plain. Monique actually laughed.

"Girl, now I know why you come back from all those missions black and blue and they aint from you and your man wrestlein." Monique pulled the neck of her top out and gazed down her front. "And it's a good thing I'm already black cause the blue is starting already."

Kim brought one hand up to the front of her mouth, not sure if she should chuckle or cringe. "What did you do?"

Monique allowed the collar of her top to snap closed—then she gave a little yelp with a 'that was a dumb thing to do' face followed by her tenderly rubbing—

"I was so totally targeted on your feet when I went into that field that I didn't give a thought to how I was gonna land. I cracked one knee real good—," as she spoke, she pressed the front of her chest again, wincing hard. "And I 'landed' right smack-dab on these poor girls—"

"Oh Monique," Kim gasped . . . and then kind of grinned. "I do soooo know exactly what your talking about," this time she did chuckle as she looked down at her own chest. "Believe me, I've done that particular form of self abuse toooooo many times for me to forget—"

It was Monique's turn to snort. "You've got less to hurt than I do."

Now Kim grinned. "Well, I would think that since your . . . shock absorbers as bigger than mine, that they would cushion your fall better."

Monique gave a single 'gwaffing' laugh which she covered with one hand before managing through her fingers, "girl! You are terrible."

I can't say how much I've missed this Monique Kim thought as the two of them snickered through their hands while all the emergency personnel around them looked at them as if they had gone strange. I can't tell you how much this is gonna help get me back to really being myself. Having Monique back to steady me and lighten me up . . . priceless! Then Kim sobered, all we have to do is survive this morning to get there, and a worried look came into her eye, and I'm Ronless. Not a good thing at a time like this.

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Half a continent away, an important man watched the clock on his desk flash through the minutes counting down. He had no regrets, no qualms about what he had done, but he also was not looking forward to the call he would have to make momentarily. He was required to 'report' prior to execution when taking an action this drastic. He was just waiting until the very last moment—

So that the inherently overcautious, weak-kneed, spineless, waffling, afraid to take decisive action vote-grubbing politicians who were his bosses would do their normal dithering and hand-wringing and be unable to order him to abort the action.

Someone had to do the shitty jobs—

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Kim came into the bus and immediately headed for her dad. Monique hesitated behind her, afraid that she shouldn't be there and that she would enter and someone would notice her and arrest her—

Monique had sworn that she would never be caged again—

Then Kim glanced over her shoulder, saw her friend, recognized the dilemma and responded with a welcoming smile and an encouraging jerk of her head.

So Monique gingerly came in, feeling like she was walking on eggshells and ready to bolt as soon as one of the government people looked at her—

Kim held out a comforting hand which took her friend by the arm, "it's cool Mo, I've got your back if there's a problem." Monique looked far from convinced but she didn't argue.

Now that they moved in close to Kim's dad, they saw that he was in an animated conversation with Wade on the spare Kimmunicator and another scientist (who looked vaguely familiar to Kim) on his laptop. MrDrP came to a stop when Wade looked over his shoulder, causing him to—

"Kimmy," her dad said, relief, pride and soo many other emotions in his voice as he turned about and started to get up out of his chair to greet—

Only to be forced back into the chair with an 'ooof' as his daughter wrapped herself around him. The "thank you daddy," came in a little girl voice from his big girl as she squeezed him as hard as she had in years. MrDrP hugged her back, one hand stroking her hair—

"Aahhh," her dad managed after a minute, the two of them pulling back at the same time. "Kimmy," and her dad then waved one hand at the familiar scientist on the laptop screen, "I believe that you've met Professor Allenford."

A bell, again distracting, went off in the back of Kim's brain, but she shoved it aside as the Professor looked out at her, "Kimberly."

"Professor," Kim returned the greeting. She then looked between her dad and Wade, "have you guys figured out anything about what's going on and what happened to me?" Kim then . . . with a slightly guilty smile, looked at Monique and thought about Ron and Rufus—"I guess I should be fair and say, what happened to all of us—"

Her dad moved and patted a second laptop next to his, "well—" Her dad then brought Kim up to date on Drakken's laptop and how they had acquired it. Kim was left open mouthed but after a moment, was able to blink and plow ahead.

"So, do you have any answers?"

"No," her father said flatly. "Just a lot of questions."

"But," Kim cried, then turning to Wade via the Kimmunicator, "don't you know anything—?"

"Kim," Wade said gently, "we're dealing with something that none of us have any real comprehensive knowledge in. I was able to confirm that the Kimmunicator you were carrying was completely drained of power during the time you were in the field."

Kim sucked in a breath, awestruck considering what she knew about the power capability of the device. Her dad then tapped Drakken's laptop. "We were able to find complete schematics and specs of the device in this as well as the requisite and applicable notes, formulas, and specifications from Dr Vaultaslof's research—" and he had to break off at that point.

Kim made a prompting motion with her hands, "andddddddd-------" her voice died out as she realized, "no one—that's what you meant, none of you really understand what Vaultaslof's notes or plans mean."

Her dad gave a shrug. "That's not totally true. Each of us understands certain specific aspects of what is in here (he patted Drakken's laptop), but we don't have a complete enough grasp of all the factors to really understand what is going on, how it works and how it can be stopped."

"We believe Kimberly," Professor Allenford said to her from her dad's laptop, "that the field being admitted is some kind of 'dispersed negatively charged plasma'. Considering Dr Vaultaslof's listed research, it seems likely that he was working on something that would counter his 'creation of artificial life' in the form of syntho-plasma with something that could take that life force away."

Both Kim and Monique frowned as they tried to absorb this. It was Monique who gave voice to, "you mean, this thing is . . . some kind of death ray . . . but its not a ray so it would be . . . cloud?"

'Remember," MrDrP interjected with a raised finger, "that whatever it is that Dr Vaultaslof was working on, has been modified by Drakken in his psychotic state. So exactly what the good doctor was striving for, the bad doctor—"

"So," Kim said pointedly, trying to force the conversation on, "just exactly what does, or did it do?"

If it was possible for one 'real' set of eyes and two 'two dimensional' sets of eyes on flat view screens to look at each other uncomfortably—

"As Wade said," her dad began very seriously, "the battery on your Kimmunicator was drained flat in minutes . . . it did the same thing to you," and MrDrP's eyes skewed to Monique, "and you . . . and Ron and my own hands when they went into the field."

Kim, looked stunned as she turned the inference over in her mind and then—

"You mean . . . it drained the 'power', what—the life? out of me?" Kim felt . . . 'boggled'.

"We," Professor Allenford said warily, "are in disagreement with what actually it does Kimberly. But the end result is as you describe it. Personally, I do not think it is a draining of, for a better word, life energy, rather than a cessation, a shutting down of it."

"Death cloud," Monique said as if the subject was closed.

Professor Allenfords face screwed up at that. "It's not a cloud . . . we're calling it a field . . . but none of that is right. More like a . . . a disruption . . . or a riff in the continuum . . . "

Kim's jaw dropped as another old memory sprang up in the back of her brain. Why was she hearing, amid all the scientific babble . . . things that she recognized? Why were terms like 'riff in the continuum' sending warning bells through her gut? When would she have studied—?

MrDrP was just in the process of turning back to Allenford—"now Al, as I said, I saw no clear demarcation like a 'continuum rift' would normally have—"

Wade however staring out of his screen—"Kim . . . what is it?"

Every other head snapped around to see—

Kim's eyes were wide open . . . but they weren't seeing, one hand had come up to almost touch her lips . . . or lip for she was biting the lower one hard enough to turn it white—

"Kimmy?" her dad managed to keep it to a whisper as he had recognized his daughter in extreme thought mode—

Then Kim's head and hand snapped down as, "I knew that things I was hearing in here were setting off all kinds of bells—" Her hand snapped back up from one of her utility belt pockets containing her . . . cellphone???

Kim had it open and was frantically flipping through menus mumbling, "please, please! I know I saved it—" then her face lit as she apparently found what she was seeking and she hit the 'call' button. Bringing the phone to her ear, her head snapped up, her eyes locking on—, "Wade! Contact the Middleton Police! We need them to escort, red lights and sirens to here from an address I'm about to give you," then Kim's eyes went inward as a 'pleading' look came over her. "Answer the phone—" she begged.

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A very important man hung up the phone after the most outlandish, unbelievable phone call he had ever received—

'Priorities and procedures as laid out in NSC Directive #—'

'Unacceptable threshold of danger to security nationwide—'

'Criteria met under DAND Corp ELE Scenario #—'

'Permission to activate emergency services plan #—'

'It is my considered and irreversible opinion that this order should stand'

The very important man dropped his head into his hands how many hundreds of thousands against maybe the population of the entire world—

Maybe—

The very important mans eyes strayed to the computer screen in front of him where he had just opened the latest update from 'Redoubt'. As if he was a drowning man frantically trying to grab a life preserver, he made his eyes focus on the screen—

For he hadn't gotten past—

'Doctor Drakken in custody but unknown device activated—'

'Unknown device emitting glowing 'field' that is slowly expanding and apparently causes the instant cessation of life when entered—'

In desperation, the very important mans eyes went further down the screen—

'Team Possible, fully functional and operational—is in action and dealing with the problem with the assistance of Doctor James Possible and associates from the Middleton Institute of Science—'

The very important man 'blinked'—

He did so harder the second time as his hands shot out to grip the edges of his desk—

He did so even harder as he shot to his feet—

The he grabbed his phone, punched a number and waited—

"'T-Rex'! 'Centurion'! For 'Ramrod' with all applicable NSC authority; abort the bird! I say again—abort the—!"

Then the very important mans eyes went wide, as one hand went to the phone—

Horror took the face of the very important man when he realized—"that ancient son-of-a-bitch hung up on me!"

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The important man sat numbly, staring at the phone knowing . . . that his life, everything he lived for, all his years of sweat, blood and service . . . was now at an end.

No prison, no trial, no inquiry . . . he would, like so many in his business simply . . . disappear.

. . . . . . he wouldn't die . . . he would just vanished (although a unrecognizable body was always found for the 'death certificate'), never to be heard from again unless 'they' required to 'interview' him at some later date regarding something that he had once been involved with. Not even the important man knew where the place was that he would be . . . sent . . .

He didn't think so—

And at leas by GOD! he was going out for a good cause! The world would be shown just how stupid and therefore dangerous these villain whacks were and how stupid and childish and unmanly it was to even conceive that some little hick-town cheerleading captain, (probably a hussy because they all were—he'd learned that lesson well way back when he had been in college after the war) could possibly be better than highly trained professional killers like he had been—

Because all evil must die! It must be destroyed! The fact that they wouldn't let him do what needed to be done was the whole reason why the country was going straight to HELL!

Then his phone started to ring—multiple lines—

Well, it wasn't going to happen today. He was going to have this one completed—

And then—

The important man reached down under the arm of his chair and pushed a button. In the seat of his chair, a hypodermic needle shot up out of the cushion and into his leg—

In his last moments, the important man was pissed—

They had said that the drug wasn't painful—

Like everything else in government work—they'd lied.

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'Redoubt's eyebrows about jumped off the top of her forehead when the 'purple' phone in her 'office' in the back of the bus in the Middleton command post suddenly buzzed.

Her mouth was dry and her hand was shaking as she picked it up—

"'Redoubt'."

"'Centurion' here. Declaring a Rouge Maverick in progress. High level of confidence that you have a 'Beagle' with an 'alpha' package inbound, unknown vector-unknown ETA! No squawk info so abort unlikely in the next ten to twenty minimum. Will advise if situation alters or abort successful. 'Centurion' out!"

In her entire lifetime, 'Redoubt' had never had a greater shock—

And what was worse, was that even with this information, there was absolutely nothing that she could do with it—

Except wait.

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The 'Beagle' (Bomb Eagle) was directly east of the Wyoming/Utah/Colorado boarder, losing altitude, lowering its speed, starting its knap-of-the-earth run in to the IP (initial point)—

Middleton was down to just about twenty minutes.

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A/N. Once again, a very big thank you to everyone who takes the time to read this. Am pretty well done tying up those loose ends that affect the climax—

So, as they get cleaned up—here it goes.

Events long awaited and events sudden and unplanned will come to Middleton. Chaos will spread, some will live, heroes will make the supreme sacrifice—

The fact is, that no sacrifice is wasted when it is a part of the ENDGAME!