Chapter 9
Return To Middleton
Kim and Ron arrived home early in the morning, whereas, they had left late at night,
"Excellent, this'll give us some time to check out the bar. See how much work we need to put into it." Ron said, looking at his wife, and smiling,
"Yeah, I'm only wondering whether or not it's going to need a bulldozer, and a new building." Kim said, rolling her eyes,
"We'll find out soon enough." Ron said, now walking to Sadie, which was waiting for them where it had dropped them off three weeks before,
"Welcome home, lovebirds." Sadie said, as Kim and Ron sat down in their seats,
"Take us to the bar, Sadie. Ron and I have to make an appraisal of the place." Kim said,
"Sure thing, honey, relax, and let Sadie do the driving." Sadie said, pulling away from the curb, and onto the road.
Kim and Ron arrived at a three-story red brick building on the edge of the downtown district, about four blocks from the mall,
"Convenient," Kim said, smiling, "four blocks from Club Banana."
"Yeah, I noticed," Ron said, smiling himself, "and about five blocks from Bueno Nacho."
"Typical Ron, always thinking with your stomach." Kim said, laughing slightly,
"Well, lets go in, and get this over with." Ron said, placing the key into the lock on the front door, which opened with a loud squeaking. The pub was filled with cobwebs, and the smell of mildew, and stale beer hit their noses as soon as they walked in,
"Ugh," Ron said, pinching his nose, "this place reeks."
"No kidding," Kim said, fanning her hand wildly in front of her face, "smells like a wild night of partying."
"With week-old beer, and stale bread." Ron said, making Kim snicker slightly,
"Well, we're going to need to get busy, we'll start down here tomorrow, now, we need to find out how bad it is upstairs." Kim said, looking over at Ron.
As it turned out, the upstairs apartment wasn't as bad as they thought it was, but there were a few things that needed to be done to it,
"Definite expansion." Ron said, looking at the cramped rooms, and frowning,
"We'll probably have to buy the building next door, but that's not a problem." Kim said,
"Not a problem, Kim, most of our money is tied up in investments in one way, or another." Ron said,
"Not all of it, I anticipated this," Kim said, "I socked back a couple hundred thousand dollars, just in case we needed it."
"And how much is the building next door?" Ron asked, hoping that Kim would come up with an answer,
"$35,000, we'll have more than enough to buy the building next door, and knock out a doorway between the two." Kim said,
"Not expand the bar over to the next building?" Ron asked, "Then what would we use it for?"
"Banquet hall, and reception room." Kim said, smiling,
"Rent it out for parties, okay, I like the idea." Ron said, smiling,
"I'll get in touch with the Real Estate agent, and make all the arrangements." Kim said,
"And I'll call some contractors out here, and get them started first thing in the morning." Ron said.
The next morning found Ron at the bar early, he was talking to two heavyset men in overalls, and hardhats,
"I need a doorway between this building, and the one next door, think you can do that?" Ron asked the oldest of the two,
"Done as we speak." the man said, speaking in a thick New York accent,
"Not that quickly," Ron said, making the man stop, "I still need to wait for Kim, she'll have the news on whether we got the place, or not."
"Anything else, boss?" the man asked,
"Yeah, look around, find out what needs replaced, and get on it." Ron replied,
"Right," the man said, then, looking back at a crew of men dressed as he was, he yelled, "All right, knuckleheads. You heard the man, and you know the drill. Let's get busy."
Kim stopped at the bar a few hours after the contractors had begun work,
"Well, how'd it go?" Ron asked, for answer, Kim produced the deed to the building next door, and a set of keys to the front door,
"Yo, Mickey." Ron shouted to the man he had been talking to earlier,
"Yeah, boss." Mickey replied, walking up to Ron, and Kim,
"Green light for the doorway, I want a doorknob that allows for the staff to go into the building next door, and back out of it, I think a cipher lock would work." Ron said,
"Staff door only, huh?" Mickey asked,
"You got it." Ron replied,
"I'm on it." Mickey said, now walking up to the wall adjoining the two buildings, and beating at the wall with a sledgehammer,
"I think we'll leave them to their work, lets go home, hon." Kim said, lacing her hand to Ron's, and leading him out of the bar.
By the next morning, Kim and Ron couldn't recognize the inside of the bar, Mickey, and his crew had torn out one entire wall, and had set in the new doorway behind the bar,
"Mornin', boss." Mickey said as soon as he saw Ron,
"Morning, Mickey, what'd you tear the wall down for?" Ron asked,
"Water damage, apparently, the floor between the apartment upstairs, and the ceiling down here leaks," Mickey said, "we got some plumbers up there now checking out the pipes, there was a water main that ran through the ceiling, and the floor of the apartment, that must be what caused all the damage."
"Take it underground, if you have to, and hide the septic pipes behind the walls, we don't want our patrons to notice that." Ron said,
"Way ahead of ya, boss." Mickey said,
"Excellent, keep up the good work, Mickey." Ron replied,
"If all goes well, we should have this place operational within the next couple of weeks." Kim said, smiling,
"'Bout three weeks." Mickey said, listening in from his current work area,
"What else needs fixed?" Ron asked,
"The cabinet behind the bar is unstable, so we're buildin' a new one, and the bar itself is bad, so we're buildin' a new one off-site." Mickey explained,
"What kind of bar?" Ron asked,
"Cherry, best wood to use for makin' a bar, it's hardwood, and it'll last a while, if cared for." Mickey said,
"Anything else we need to know about, Mickey?" Kim asked,
"Nope, that's about it." Mickey said,
"Thanks for doing this, Mickey." Kim said,
"What are ya, kiddin' me? It's the least I could do, after you saved my business." Mickey said,
"Oh, it's no big, subcontracting on that mall site was a no-brainier." Kim said, smiling,
"Thanks, Mickey." Ron said, walking over to Kim,
"Hey, I heard you two got married, congrats." Mickey said, smiling,
"Thanks, Mickey." Ron said, smiling,
"Mickey, we got a bit of a problem up here." came a voice from the top of a scaffold,
"What is it, Jack?" Mickey asked,
"Looks like the main up here broke." Jack replied,
"No kiddin'?" Mickey said sarcastically,
"We'll go on ahead and leave you to your work, Mickey." Kim said, now grabbing onto Ron's hand, and leading him out of the bar.
"Three weeks to our Grand Opening," Kim said, as she and Ron sat down in their favorite booth at Bueno Nacho, "wonder what it's going to be like?"
"Well, if Mickey follows the blueprints we drew up, it should be fine." Ron said,
"You mean the blueprints my dad drew up," Kim said, smiling, "I never thought he had it in him."
"Yeah, I know," Ron said, "he took our ideas, and turned them into a reality, I only hope that Mickey can make it all come true."
"Mickey's one of the best, Ron," Kim said, "if he says he'll be done in three weeks, he'll be done in three weeks."
One week before opening:
Kim was a little nervous, it was a week before the bar would open, and it was going to be a labor of love, she, and Ron, had put a lot of time, and effort into it, and there were a lot of memorable, and not so memorable moments. Among the memorable, when she, Ron, Drakken, and Shego, had installed the new chill box behind the bar, when the first order of liquor had come in, Monkey Fist, and Duff Killigan had helped load it into the chill box, and stopped to have wax figures made of them, to be put in the bar, (Kim and Ron had the idea of having wax figures made of themselves, and Wade, along with selected foes they had encountered, as part of the decorating scheme) and when Ron had gotten his license to serve alcohol. Among the not so memorable, when the tweebs had come in, and knocked over a small scaffold that ran above the front door, with Ron on top of it, Ron needed eight stitches to close up a cut under his hairline, and wound up with a slight concussion, the installation of the new bar, Drakken had accidentally brought a hammer down onto his finger, breaking it, and the selection of the new furniture, Ron had bought an entire set of bar stools that had matched the bar, Shego liked it, as did Drakken, and Kim, but the tweebs had set three of them on fire, they said it was an accident, Ron refused to speak to them for a week.
Tonight, Kim and Ron were to move into their new home, the apartment above the bar,
"Relax, hon. I'm sure it'll be great." Ron said, sensing Kim's apprehension,
"It's just, with all the work that's been done. Don't you think that it's a little big for just us at the moment?" Kim asked,
"Nah. We'll grow into it." Ron said, smiling.
Ron had walked up the newly made staircase that ran behind the building, with Kim closely behind him. Mickey, and his crew had enclosed the stairway, and put a storm door onto the enclosure, allowing for the summer breezes to pass through, but rain, and snow to stay outside, where it belonged. As Ron opened the main door to the apartment, and carried Kim over the threshold, they were greeted by a sight that neither of them could've guessed at.
The interior of the apartment had been done in an off-white, and the furniture was all handcrafted, and handmade, in the kitchen, all of the appliances were set into the walls, and a new center island made for the perfect kitchen table, placed into the counter top, was a beautiful electric range top stove, which looked as though it was made out of black granite, the counter tops were all made of black granite, which made the stove top hard to spot, if not for the knobs that stuck out of the top, near the burners,
"Me and gas don't get along." Ron said, pointing to the stove top, Kim had known this, she remembered when, not but a few days ago, Ron had burnt the nights dinner on the old gas stove in the old apartment the two had rented until this one was finished, which forced the two of them to eat at the new Chinese place near the mall.
The bedroom was more of the same motif, the bed was sunk into the floor, and the floor had a heavy white carpet on it,
"Wow," Kim said, "they really went all out."
"They put a lot of work into it, but we're not finished with the tour yet." Ron said, now taking Kim's hand, and leading her to a door they had not yet gone through.
When Ron opened it, Kim let out a loud gasp, sitting in the middle of the room, was a huge claw-footed desk, and on top of that, was a computer monitor,
"Where's the rest of the computer?" Kim asked,
"Built into the desk." Ron said, now moving Kim in a little closer, so that she could see the keyboard sticking out of the desk top,
"This is just too much." Kim said, smiling at Ron, "you are so sweet, Ron."
"I try." Ron said, smiling back, then adding, "There's a direct lead to Wade on this computer, and, it'll override all functions that are being made on it at the time that Wade calls in."
"That's considerate of you, Ron." Kim said, looking at Ron with a sweet smile,
"Again, I try." Ron said, smiling, then, the computer monitor crackled to life,
"Hey, guys, what up?" Wade said, looking at the decor of the new home,
"Not much, Wade." Kim said, turning to the monitor,
"Not a bad set up huh?" Wade asked, referring to the computer,
"I like it, all of it." Kim said,
"I think you built her dream house, Ron." Wade said, chuckling slightly,
"Yeah, me too." Ron replied,
"What, this was Mickey's idea, wasn't it?" Kim asked, whipping around to look at her husband,
"Nope, the work was done by Mickey, but the ideas were mine." Ron stated, throwing out his hands to indicate that he was the architect behind it all,
"Ron, you are something else, I married a man who can do it all, even though he says otherwise." Kim replied,
"But that's not my saying, Kim, that's yours, remember, 'Kim Possible: She can do anything.'" Ron said, quoting Kim's famous motto from her website,
"I couldn't do it all without you, Ron." Kim said, leaning in and kissing Ron, the two remained like that, until Ron broke the kiss, gasping for air,
"Don't you come up for air?" he panted,
"Who needs it?" Kim said, grabbing Ron, and planting another kiss on him.