"KP?" she heard his voice call softly.

She moved her head with a very slight jerk. She did it several more times, her ears, all the senses she had left straining to find him.

"KP?"

He was right beside her. She felt joy. She felt safe. She had to give him an answer. But she was so tired from fighting the blackness. She made it simple.

"Ron?" buzzed the mechanical box lying atop of her throat.

"It's past midnight my Love. Happy Anniversary. Sixty years of marriage."

Love flowed through her. She'd had no idea. She felt herself choke up. She found herself desperate for him. "Ron?" was all she could force through the box and after a moment's panic, she was able to find and recognize her one hand, hoping that she was generating enough movement that he would see—

She felt his touch. Warmth exploded through her. She tried to tell it to grip him. She wasn't sure if it was successful.

A long moment passed. She heard him doing something. Then she felt his hand withdraw. Blind fear gripped her.

"Ron! Ron!"

"Easy KP, easy, I want to show you something."

At his voice, she relaxed but she held her palm open, expectant, she knew her eyes were open and that she was looking up, but nothing but the darkness was visible. She cursed the darkness.

"Here KP, feel this—"

She took it and it took her a moment before—

Oh my God! "Ron?" and while the voice box couldn't, her face could—express her wonder.

"Now this," he continued, shifting to the next item.

She didn't say anything. But the wonder on her face grew and tears started to run from the corner of her clouded, sightless eyes. Oh Ron, this is so beautiful. But why? Why are you doing this?

"A—and finally" She heard the catch in his voice and found that it was two items this time and she— She began to sob softly. Ron, what is the meaning of all this? What is happening? Has something happened to you? Do you have bad news for me? Then she realized that he had now dropped the whole lot into her hand, closing her fingers over it and then taking that hand in both of his as he slid into the chair at the bedside.

"Kimberly Ann, it's been a wonderful life. Oh Lord, I know! And you have been the most understanding and beautiful wife that any husband has ever known, the most gracious and attentive companion a man could want, the sexiest, most sensual lover that any male has ever seen and the best friend that anyone could ever have. And you were the exact same to me my sweet man. And I regret that I never told you that as much as I should have. We have I think, live life to the fullest and it was all because of you. No, you're wrong, it was as much your work as mine. We were together, we were partners, we were a team. We couldn't have done it without each other! "

He had to stop and suck in a hard breath before going on. "But Kim, it all has to end sometime. Even you cannot avoid what awaits us all at the end of the road. And you have been trying to do just that and it is hurting you more—"

"NNOOOOO!" she tried to scream at him with her entire life force and being, suddenly, horrifyingly, realizing his intent, hating him and loving him with all her considerable might at the same moment.

She could feel his hand fiercely holding hers and just as fiercely he intoned to her, "Kimberly, for your sake and mine! It's time to let it go!"

Suddenly she heard something interrupt their moment. A door, footsteps, another presence. She heard a voice. "What—" She felt Ron give her hand another squeeze and the intruding voice, in an apologetic tone "her monitors suddenly went off the scale. We weren't sure what was going on." Steps again, then the sound of the door closing.

She took the moment to try and come up with something to counter, to fend off this horrible inevitability.

There was only the truth

"KP," she heard him say.

"Ron," she cried out through her heart although it came out only as a whisper. "I cant do it! I just cant. And I wont! I wont do it!" The hand in his scrambled again until she was able to get a part of her fingers holding his with a grip as strong as death. I have to let him know! I have to make him see. He has to know just why I'm fighting the darkness so hard.

"I don't want to be anywhere, even there, without you,"

She felt a mighty shudder go through him. Her heart broke, knowing that now; he would probably blame himself somehow. But it was the only way to let him know just how much he meant to her.

She felt movement, heard a chair scrape, shuffling, saw a shadow pass through her vision, a shadow that got bigger.

With cold startlement, she felt his warm lips come into contact with hers. She returned it with all the passion she could muster.

She almost cried out in physical pain when he broke it, so was her longing for him. She felt him shift, and his words were breathing in her ear.

"Then let it go my Love. I cant! For I will be right behind you. What? For my time has come as well, and together we will be once again, but without our pain."

"NNOO!" she whimpered back to him. But inside her, Ron, NO! What's happened my Love? You still have years! You have the Great-Grandchildren to tell stories to. Your healthy—aren't you?

"Yes my Love. My time is here as well. Only Ronald knows and I called him a short while ago. It's over. For the both of us. So—it's time. And as you always have, you need to take the lead. As I said. I will be right behind. We will meet on the other side."

"Ron," I feel like a frightened little girl, "I don't know if I can do this."

She heard a smile in his voice. "You can do this. You can do anything. And this is the greatest adventure of them all. And we will do it together, for all eternity"

There was a long, hesitant silence. He wouldn't lie to me; he wouldn't say something like this just to make it easier on me. It must be true. Something must have happened to him and his moment has come. He's ready for the final road. He's ready to embrace the darkness and find the light on the other side. He wants me to lead. Oh God, please, does the light wait for both of us? Will we be together on the other side? I couldn't live forever without him. She had to stop and take a moment. There was only one thing in which she could truly trust. So she asked him, "you promise?"

"I promise," he replied.

Okay, if he promised me that he would be there for me. I trust him. I've always trusted him. I've trusted him with my life, and now I'm going to trust him with my death. So here goes. I can do this, I can do anything, I'm—I'm Kim Possible, and going back sixty years from today I've been Mrs. Ronald Stoppable— and after so long, after so tough a fight, after so mighty a battle, the peace she found when she surrendered herself to the inevitable—

Because of him, for him, I can do this. Ronald my Love "Ron—I love you," and she, for what she hoped would not be the last time, felt his lips against hers and already eager for a reunion where she could once again embrace and love him, she tried to give him just a hint of what awaited. And she was rewarded with—

"And you know that I love my Kimberly Ann."