Chapter 2
Fallout
It didn't take long for the ambulance to arrive, but just as quickly, the media had arrived as well, several of them had asked Ron what had happened, but he had refused to speak to the reporters, once out of earshot of the local media, he contacted Wade,
"Get hold of Kim's parents, tell them what happened, and where they're taking her, it's Middleton Memorial, I'll meet them there." Ron said, his voice devoid of all emotion,
"No prob, Ron, and stop by my house on the way, I'm coming with you." Wade replied, Ron nodded, and shut the Kimmunicator off, stepping into his car, he had realized that at least one of the media had not congregated around the alleyway, and had instead, followed him,
"What do you want?" Ron asked, a little more forcefully than he meant to,
"I'd like to ask you a few questions, Mr. Stoppable." the reporter asked,
"No, thanks, I'm a little rushed." Ron said, now getting into his car, and closing the door,
"But Mr. Stoppable, Miss Possible was your partner, and best friend." the reporter said, it made Ron feel that the reporter had already sealed Kim's fate,
"She still is, she's not dead yet, and I would appreciate it if you didn't talk about her in the past tense." Ron said, his teeth clenched,
"At least tell us of your friendship with Miss Possible?" the reporter asked, now shoving a tape recorder through the open window, and into Ron's face,
"Do you like your hand?" Ron asked, glaring at the reporter,
"Yeah." the reporter said, looking at Ron,
"Do you like it attached to your wrist?" Ron asked, still glaring at the reporter,
"Yeah." the reporter said, before the reporter could blink, Ron reached out of the window, and had pulled the man's head into the car, so Ron could look him in the eye as he spoke,
"Then get it that tape recorder out of my face, or you're gonna pull back a bloody stump." Ron said, his voice rising in anger, the reporter quickly jerked his arm, as well as his head, back out of the window,
"Bright boy, now, if you'll excuse me, I've got more pressing matters to deal with, then to speak to the press." Ron said, tearing out of the parking lot, in pursuit of the ambulance.
At Middleton Memorial Hospital:
Ron and Wade had made it through the sea of reporters that had thronged outside of the hospital, hoping to get an interview with the virtual unknown members of Team Possible, Ron had decided to give a few words upon his arrival,
"Kim Possible was severely injured earlier this evening, the extent of her injuries are at this time, unknown to me, and that's all I have to say, now leave me alone." Ron said, before ducking into the emergency entrance, and up to the reception desk, once there, he calmed down, before talking to the nurse,
"I need to know about the patient that was brought in a few minutes ago, Kim Possible." Ron said, looking steadily at the nurse,
"She's out of surgery, apparently there were a few internal injuries, and it appears that she's gone comatose, are you family?" the nurse asked,
"Yes, and no." Ron replied,
"What do you mean?" the nurse asked,
"He's family as far as we're concerned, but he's not a Possible, if that's what you're asking." came a familiar voice to his right, he looked up to see Mr. Dr. Possible standing to his right, his eyes were pink, and puffy, as though he had been crying,
"Hey, Mr. Dr. P." Ron said, looking at Kim's father,
"Hello, Ronald, Wade." Mr. Possible said, no smile was on his face,
"How is she?" Wade asked, looking at the patriarch of the Possible family,
"She's in a coma, and the doctors were able to stabilize her, but it doesn't look very good at the moment." Mr. Possible said, he was pulling no punches,
"How bad?" Ron croaked out,
"She'll live, but they don't think she'll be waking up anytime soon." Mr. Possible replied,
"How long?" Wade asked,
"Could be a week, a month, or even a year, they're not sure." Mr. Possible said,
"Can we go and see her?" Ron asked,
"Come with me, Ronald, I'll take you up to her room." Mr. Possible said, leading Ron down the hallway, to a darkened room at the end of the critical care unit, as they walked in, Ron saw Kim, laying on the bed, her eyes were closed, and she had several lines running out of her right arm, there was a tube running under her nose, where they were pumping oxygen into her system, and from the looks of it, she was able to breathe on her own, she wasn't hooked up to respirator,
"That's a good sign." Ron said, after Mr. Possible pointed this out,
"I hope so." Mr. Possible said, walking out of the room, leaving Ron and Wade there,
"I'm sorry I wasn't fast enough, KP," Ron said, "if I could've gotten there faster, you might not be in here."
"Ron, stop beating yourself up over this, it's not your fault." Wade said, his face showing hurt, he knew that Ron was in pain, but he had no words of comfort that could help,
"It might as well have been." Ron replied, looking at Kim's face, she seemed to just be sleeping, her heartbeat was stable, and everything was going fine, it was almost like a bad dream, one that Ron couldn't wake up from, and he felt himself to blame,
"Ron, stop it, you know better than that, you and Kim have made a lot of enemies over the years, and more than a few of them want nothing better than to see the two of you dead." Wade replied,
"I know," Ron said, his eyes looking from Kim's face for the first time since entering the room, his eyes fell on something that sat mangled on the nightstand, "what's that?"
"I don't know?" Wade said, walking over to the mangled piece of metal, and looking at it,
"What do you think?" Ron asked,
"Not sure, but whatever it is, it's got blood all over it, and I'm betting that it's Kim's." Wade said, now placing the mangled piece of steel into a small ziplock bag he had brought with him,
"What are you gonna do?" Ron asked,
"I'm gonna check this out, as soon as I get anything on it, I'll get back to you, now, I need a ride home, I think I'll have Dr. Possible take me there." Wade said, bidding his goodbyes to Ron, and slipping out of the room,
"Kim, don't do this to me, please, don't leave me here alone. I need you, now more than ever." Ron said, leaning his head to Kim's forehead, and without another word, he began crying.
Middleton High School, the following Monday:
How Ron had gotten through most of the day was a mystery to him, if it weren't for his parents pleading for him to come home, eat something, and go to school that morning, he probably never would've left Kim's bedside, since Kim and Ron had all of their classes together, he felt a sense of loss whenever he looked to his right, and saw the empty desk that stood there, the desk that was normally occupied by Kim, it wasn't until later that afternoon, as he was closing his locker, and preparing to go home for the day, when he was jerked to his senses by a very rude voice,
"So, Miss Perfect went, and got herself shot, the world is gonna end, so not." Bonnie said, walking by Ron, who couldn't take it any longer,
"Why are you so down on Kim, Bonnie?" Ron asked, the anger he had felt since Kim was injured rushing to the surface, his face was red, and his hands had began to shake with uncontrolled rage,
"Like it's any of your business, loser." Bonnie snapped,
"Just drop it, Bonnie, I so don't want to hear it." Ron said, preparing to walk off, but he didn't get more than a foot away, when Bonnie said something that sent Ron over the edge,
"Now that Kim's out of the way, do you think they'll want a new captain for the cheer squad?"
Ron snapped, before anyone could stop him, he had grabbed Bonnie by the shoulders, and slammed her into the lockers behind her,
"I consider myself a patient man, Bonnie, but my patience has finally reached it's end, if I EVER hear you talk about Kim like that again, I'm going to FORGET that you're a woman, and TEAR YOU LIMB FROM LIMB! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR!" he shouted at the top of his lungs,
"Crystal clear." Bonnie said, shrinking under Ron's withering gaze,
"Now. GET OUT OF MY FACE!" Ron bellowed, that immediately earned him a look, and another argument with Brick Flagg,
"You owe Bonnie an apology." Brick said, his voice was angry,
"Like hell I do." Ron said, his anger not yet gone,
"You do, Stoppable, because if you don't, I'm gonna . . ." Brick began, but Ron quickly cut him off,
"You're gonna do what, kick my ass, bring it on, punk." Ron said,
"You asked for it." Brick said, pulling back, and letting go with a huge right, but it didn't make contact, Ron had ducked him as effortlessly as a river runs to the sea, before Brick could counter, Ron had lifted the quarterback off the ground, and threw him down the hall,
"Don't fuck with me today, Brick, I'm not in the mood." Ron said, making everyone around him stare,
"And what are you all looking at?" Ron demanded, causing everyone to look in another direction, once Ron was out of earshot, Bonnie spoke,
"What's his problem?" she asked,
"Are you that stupid, Bonnie?" Tara asked, looking at the tanned cheerleader,
"Enlighten me, please?" Bonnie asked, looking at the blonde,
"You said the wrong thing about Kim around the wrong person," Tara said, "without Kim around to keep him in check, Ron's gone out of control, and if he keeps this up, he's gonna end up killing someone before this is all over."
"Like who?" Bonnie asked,
"Well, let's just say, I wouldn't like to be the one who pulled the trigger." Tara replied, making Bonnie look down the hall at Ron's retreating back,
"Brick, do me a favor, keep an eye on Ron, the last thing Kim would want, is for him to end up in jail." Bonnie said,
"Done, and done." Brick said, following behind Ron at a respectable distance,
"And what are you gonna do, Bonnie?" Tara asked,
"I owe Ron an apology, I don't know how I'm gonna tell him, I've never been too good with such things, I just feel for him." Bonnie said,
"Strange, you never cared about Kim before?" Tara said,
"Yeah, but this is different," Bonnie said, looking down the hall that Ron had disappeared into, "if Kim dies, Ron's gonna be shattered, and one of the funniest guys in school will have no reason to laugh anymore, I don't think I could live with that."
Meanwhile, in D-Hall:
Steve Barkin was walking down the hall, when he spotted Ron Stoppable, walking alone to his next class, that in itself was unusual, Ron never walked the halls without a certain redhead beside him, but since said redhead was in the hospital, put in a coma by some lowlife punk, it was common to see Ron skulking down the halls, alone in his depression, or whatever it might be,
"Stoppable, you alright?" Mr. Barkin asked, as Ron approached him,
"Not really, Mr B.," Ron said, and before Mr. Barkin could ask, Ron spilled,
"I'm worried about Kim."
"We all are, Ron, we all are, you'd be a fool if you weren't." Mr. Barkin said, placing one of his massive hands on the young man's shoulder,
"Wow, you called me by my first name." Ron said, perking up,
"Get used to it, you've earned it, Ron." Mr. Barkin said, smiling.
Ron left the school a little happier than when he had arrived that morning, but it still didn't ease the dark spot in his heart where Kim belonged, the place that was at this moment, just a quiet shell.
And thus ends chapter 2, in the next chapter, Ron finds out what the piece of metal he found in Kim's room was, and he goes gunning for Drakken, who ends up at the top of Ron's suspect list. Stay tuned, it's gonna get a whole lot more interesting from here on out. As always, keep the reviews coming.
Until next time, see ya,
Doug