KP – The Light at the End: Part 55


Ron took a moment to run his hands over the faux wood top of the old desk. There was something comfortable about touching the slightly uneven surface of the cheap piece of furniture. It wasn't that he wanted to take it back to the apartment with him when he finally went home to Kim that evening, it was just…something like a bit of home, something he couldn't figuratively put a finger on, despite literally doing so.

"Son, you're welcome to come use my office." Gene said, standing in the doorway of his son's one-time bedroom.

"Thanks Dad, but I'm good. Just had to get away from all the women-folk for a little while, you know, get some real work done."

"Are you having trouble with your sister?" A note of concern etched itself against the elder Stoppable's face.

"No, no, nothing like that, Dad. CJ's been a jewel. It's just…"

"Hard to concentrate with two children and Kim?"

Ron nodded. "Yeah, you could say that. Ammie by herself is real quiet all the time, likes playing all to herself, but the moment she's with CJ…man! Talk about a ruckus…and Kim won't do anything about it, says it's perfectly normal. Perfectly loud if you ask me."

"Just look at it this way, Son. In a couple years it might not be your sister and her new best friend taking all your attention, and it won't be so easy to come home just to escape all that."

"I know, I know. Just another week, then I'll be through with finals and I won't have to worry about being distracted. Until then…" He glanced at the screen of his laptop, which remained resolutely blank, just as it had on the desk he shared with Kim at their apartment. "Aw man, I still haven't started."

Gene smiled at his son, proud of him and not-so-secretly tickled pink that he asked if he could come home for a couple days, just to finish his last bit of college work. Much as the older man had agreed it was the best course when the two of them set out to find a home together, he missed having the older half of his children there under his roof.

"You know, son, it wasn't so long ago that, given this type of situation, you would have been reacting far worse than you are now."

"Huh? I'm totally panicking, Dad. I've got to get this summary done for my project, I've got to study, I've got to…"

"You've got to relax. It's different this time, Ronald. You're not a boy who has waited until the last minute. You don't need some last-ditch effort or Kimberly enticing you on our living room couch to do better."

Ron tugged at his collar. It seemed at once so long ago, yet so close that the two of them had been downstairs, alone while his parents were away seeking help at a fertility clinic in Denver, doing things that, while paling in comparison to what the currently did as adults, were far more than he ever considered at that younger age. That, and another realization was hitting him.

"You…knew about that?"

"Son, your old man was sixteen once, though dinosaurs may have roamed the Earth then, but it doesn't take a statistical analysis to figure out there was a little hanky-panky going on…and…" He looked around, making certain the two of them were not about to be overheard by his mother, "…to be honest, I was proud of you."

"Eh, heh heh, uh, yeah…can we change the subject please, Dad?"

"Sure. What I am saying, though, is you are far more ready for this than at any time in your life before. It's really simple, if you boil it right down. You're grown up."

"Grown? Dad, I don't…"

"Hear me out, son. Sure, there are things that I think will always seem like a little boy in you. That's what makes you, you, but when it comes to something that is important, you've taken the steps necessary to succeed. I have a strong feeling that you already know everything you need to know for your final exams. All that remains is a little work, then the real work begins."

"What, that thing with Bueno Nacho? That's no big, I'm just going to be somebody they can point to for promotional thingies."

"Not that. Well, I've got a strong suspicion your job is going to be bigger than you think, but I'm talking about the rest of your life. Just like we told you when you graduated from high school, this isn't the end. There is no great light at the end of the tunnel."

"Unless that light's a train coming at you." Ron joked, though immediately he wished he hadn't as his father's expression hardened.

"Yes, Ronald, sometimes there is a train in that tunnel, and sometimes the tunnel is flat and empty…and sometimes you start up a hill you think you can never climb, but that's what life is all about. You don't finish one part of your life and live in bliss forever after. It's one struggle after another, the next one always seeming harder than the one you just passed."

Ron screwed up his face. "Then what's the point? If everything's just a struggle…"

"That's just it, son. That's the good thing. Getting past all your struggles isn't success, it's death. One thing I've come to realize being an actuary, sometimes the struggles, sometimes the risks you take in life, sometimes they're worth it. Sometimes that is what life is all about and that's what gives it meaning. Look at what has happened to me over the last year. I consider myself one of the most fortunate men on the planet."

"Because you didn't have a heart attack?"

"That's a small part of it. I'm fortunate because I finally learned that, even if it did take nearly dying to get that through my thick skull. Fortunate enough that I can tell you about it, and hopefully take that to heart, and not live like all your struggles are the end of your life, but the meaning of it."

Gene stood there for a while, watching the gears slowly turning in his son's head as he processed what he had said. With a little wry smile, he turned and started out the door.

"Right now, though, I'd suggest you actually get some work done. Jean is going to have supper on the table in about an hour, and you know what will happen if you're not there."

"Yum!" Rufus squeaked, rubbing his belly from his perch on the empty shelves where his tube-city once sat.


"Mom, tell me I'm so overreacting."

Kim leaned on the door frame of her parent's kitchen, watching as both Ron's little sister and Sherry's daughter tore into stacks of pancakes as large as their respective heads, with little regard for the sticky syrup that was coating both their faces.

"Overreacting to what, dear? You don't seem to be overreacting to anything." Anne put a plate down in Kim's usual spot in the breakfast nook, nodding toward it so her daughter would understand she was meant to be eating breakfast as well.

"Ron going over to his old house for a couple nights. I know why he's doing it, and we talked about it…but it still feels…I don't know…"

"Like he's trying to get away from you?"

"Yeah."

"To be honest, honey, I think he is."

Kim froze with a forkful of pancake poised halfway to her mouth. "Come again?"

"Kimmie, it's not as bad as it sounds. Ronald and you have lived together, what, ten months?"

"Something like that. Mom, I know, I get it up here." She tapped her forehead a couple times. "I guess I'm just being nervous."

"Transitional anxiety, dear. Perfectly normal."

Kim leaned on one palm, nibbling her food. "I don't get it. We already live together, we already…" She glanced at the two little girls, who were utterly oblivious to the older women in the room."…what's the big? Why would I be having trans-whatchahooie?"

"That's easy, Kimmie. No matter how much you try to boil it down that what's about to happen is just a couple of ceremonies, you are about to graduate from college and you are about to get married. Yes, both are really just formalizing something that's already a part of you, but they still mean a lot to you. They represent a large change in your life, and it's something you've looked forward to."

"You get to go on miss-uns again!" CJ chimed in before reaching for her milk.

"Don't know about that, squirt." She smiled at her soon-to-be sister-in-law. "Ron got a call from BN Headquarters the other day, and I'm pretty much going to be tied up with graduate school, pretty much from the moment we get back from our honeymoon."

"Are Mommy and Daddy going on fun rides on their unny-moon?" Ammie asked, her own milk clinging to her upper lip.

Kim's cheeks reddened ever so slightly for a moment, until she realized the little girl was accustomed to going to amusement parks and the like when her family got away. She may have acted very mature for her age at times, but she was still just three years old.

Sensing where the conversation might lead, Anne poured Kim a cup of black coffee and held it up for her at the counter. Taking her mother's lead, she got up from the table and drank deeply of the dark liquid before continuing.

"Ron going to stay with his parents for a few days is feeling like a rejection, isn't it?"

"A little, I guess. I know I'm ferociously wrong to feel that way, but I can't help it."

Anne nodded, stirring a health portion of half-n-half and sugar into her own mug. "Actually, this is the sort of thing that made me upset when your father 'insisted' it was time for the two of you to move out. Maybe too I was the one in the wrong to be such a cheerleader for the two of you to spend so much time together before then, but that's all water under the bridge now."

"I don't understand."

"Kim. I know Ron is a very important part of your life, and don't get me wrong, there's nothing the matter with that. It's just, no matter how close you are, no matter how much you love each other, you are still Kim and he is still Ron."

Kim raised an eyebrow for a moment, trying to digest her mother's words.

"A few months ago, when Ron went with his parents to see the rest of his family, I saw something very alien in you. The very fact that you were alone and he was away, with other people he loved made you seem completely lost."

"I can't help that, Mom. That's how important he is to me."

"I know, sweetheart, but there's something you have to remember. You're not apart. Sure, he's about a mile away right now, and very likely he's starting to realize it's not so easy to get anything done, because he's feeling the same way about you, but you don't have to bephysically together to be together."

Kim leaned on the edge of the counter, downing more than half her coffee. "I know that." Once again she tapped her forehead with her free hand. "It's just a lot harder in practice when the rubber meets the road."

"Yes, Kim, I know…from experience really."

"Then what am I supposed to do? Ignore what I'm feeling every time he's away?"

"I don't have an easy answer for you, Kim. All I can say is that you really should think of it some other way, maybe think of how nice things will be when you are reunited…or put your mind on other things. For instance, how are your classes coming?"

"So not the drama, so long as something doesn't pop up to torch my schedule."

"Not a 'skedge'?"

"Mom, I…try not to talk like that all the time now. Anyway, for me it's just a bunch of hurry up and wait. Unless one of my professors throws me a major curveball…"

Anne grinned. "Did my Kimmie just use a baseball metaphor?"

"Ugh." Kim rolled her eyes. "Trying to be serious here. My projects are all wrapped up, I'm confident of my finals, and you seem to have everything about the wedding all nailed down."

"Ah, about the wedding…"

"Not now, Mom. One thing at a time. I know Ron and I still have to sit down with Rabbi Katz one more time, and I've got the final fitting for my dress, which shouldn't be a problem. Just let me get past grad and I'll think about the wedding."

"Honey, I think a lot more than baseball talk has rubbed off on you from Ron. If the two of you decided to get married right out of high school…"

Kim made a rather rude sound. "If I remember correctly, I had to beg Daddy just so Ron and I could go on a trip together, and even that had to wait until I turned eighteen."

"That's not the point. The point is, if you had done it then, you would be on the phone right now making sure the caterers, the florists, the church and maybe even the musicians were all lined up and ready to go, while standing in your dress while Monique adjusted every little detail, all the while trying to remind Ron to get his head in the game."

"I'm sorry, Mom, but I've learned how to prioritize stuff. No big, everything is under control."

"Famous last words." Anne said, setting her mug in the sink, then heading to the table to collect the empty plates and make an attempt to wipe the syrup off the girl's faces.

"Why, what do you know?" Kim cocked her head to one side, fixing her mother with her gaze.

"Oh, that any time you said something like that before, your Kimmunicator would go off, and you'd be off on some adventure, whether it was a school night, or you had a meeting with the Rabbi or our pastor…"

"Mom, that's how I've been able to relax a little these last few months."

"Yes, but I think Catherine might have a point. Your missions were a big part of your life, and I'm afraid that, now that you've stepped aside, it's going to be a lot harder than you think to simply pick up where you left off."

Kim sat back down at the table and picked at her cooling pancakes as the two girls ran headlong into the family room to catch whatever brightly colored toddler show was available on the television. "I don't know, Mom. Maybe I'll go back to it, maybe not. After all, I'll be starting Grad school not long after we come back after the wedding, and Ron will be working. Maybe it's time I gave all of that up for good so I can move on with my life. You know, in a few years, we're probably going to start a family of our own…" She glanced after the two youngsters, "…if I'm not consigned to the status of permanent babysitter."

"If that's what you really want, Kim. That's something that you alone can decide. No, I take that back. That is something you and Ron have to decide together. He's a part of the mission life too, and you owe it to him not to let him beg off with 'whatever you want, KP.'"

She smiled slightly. "He'd say that, wouldn't he?"

"He would, and has, and he has to have his own say in the matter. It may be a moot point. After all, you're Kim Possible, and the missions themselves may come looking for you. Take for instance your meeting with Justine Flanner this afternoon."

"So not a mission, Mom. She's just wanting to show off her big project to Ron and me before the big unveiling for the press tomorrow. I pretty much suspect she's going to bombard me with a lot of terms I have to look up, then reminisce about high school or something. Not a lot of 'save the world' potential there."

"If you say so, Kimmie. If you say so."


Justine Flanner took one more look at the super-collider array as she reached for the lights. Her heart was fluttering, both because she felt that her lunch date with her boyfriend might turn into something else, and that the culmination of her life's work was about to come to fruition. It wasn't when the press arrived the next day that she would realize her dreams, but that night, in the company of her lover and her friends. There was no way she was going to open the 'lens' for the first time wearing a dress, with cameras flashing all around her. That was just for show, with all her work proven and successful.

Smiling slightly, she switched off the light, never once noticing either of the shadowy figures hidden in the machinery.


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