KP – One Oh One : Part X – The Pen is Mightier?
Ron sat alone on the curb at the edge of Freshman Parking lot 4. His knees were stained with grass and his hands were rather grubby, but at least he had been successful. Small victories he could take at the moment, considering his whole world had suddenly come crashing down around him.
Every so often he would open his hand and look at the two small rings. He couldn't even slip then on the tip of his pinky for safe-keeping while he waited for Paul Resnick to come pick him up. Paul was technically a 'commuter' student like him, but since he lived walking distance from the campus, he had to go home and borrow his father's car, and that was after he got out of class. Ron got lucky at least in catching his friend via cell-phone before he went into the lecture hall.
It had been a good dream, for a while. In fact it had lasted far longer and had been far better than he ever imagined it could be. They had been together almost exactly seventeen months, where once he didn't know if they were even going to last a whole two weeks. Heck, he was amazed that he didn't wake up the day after the Prom only to discover it was only just a dream, that somehow Synthodrone 901 had knocked some silly notion into his head that he could not only date Kim Possible, but become her boyfriend and eventually her fiancé. To think that earlier that morning they had been in a bed together, with only the flimsiest of night garments separating them, that if he wanted to they could have been joined in body as they felt they were joined in mind and spirit.
Amazing how quickly one little hand written note could change all of that.
Kim looked only mildly put off at worst when she held the piece of paper up to him. At least she did until she noticed the expression on his face. In that instant she knew the truth was far more than some small oversight on his part.
He only had two options at that point. A lie, or the truth. Actually, that was not much of an option. He didn't care if it was a big state secret, once Kim asked him directly there was no way in the world he was going to lie to her. Later he would learn the meaning of 'lying by omission' but that concept was unknown to him at that point. His only choice was to tell her the whole truth. He told her how Agent Alpha's cowl had come off during their final scuffle before the acting leader of WWEE escaped. The shock at seeing the man who was probably Kim's most dangerous enemy, the man who had done the most damage to her standing there free when he was supposed to be safely locked away in the state prison, was just enough distraction for the villain to make his escape.
Kim didn't wait for him to explain why he had not told her that Cary Allen On, the son of Aviarius, the villain known as Carrion had taken her captive and had her in his power until Ron and her brothers could affect a rescue. He could see in her eyes that the only thing that mattered to her was that he had not told her. That was nothing short of betrayal. That was something just as bad, if not worse than if he had cheated on her. She just looked him straight in the eye and pulled off her two rings, throwing them at him. One, which he later realized was her emerald promise ring, bounced off his chest, while the engagement ring sailed over his shoulder, disappearing into a field of grass that was on the verge of needed trimming.
She then got in her car and calmly drove away, leaving him standing there on the sidewalk, stunned.
After a few minutes standing there motionlessly, he pulled out his Kimmunicator, called Paul and set out to find the two rings. If there was any hope that something could be salvaged from their relationship, he would need to have them. The emerald was only a few feet away, though it did take him just a bit to spot it. He really was going to have to get his astigmatism checked since it was clear his eyesight was getting slightly worse. Then again, it could have been from the tears slowly pouring down his cheeks as he searched.
He almost gave up on the diamond before he ever started. Crews were nearby, unloading the large, fast-moving mowers used almost everywhere any more. Soon the whole area would be cut nice, short and neat, and it was highly likely the soft eighteen carat gold of Kim's ring would be sliced to pieces and the small stone would be lost forever in the dirt.
That thought still didn't stop him. He got down on his hands and knees and started looking, almost a tuft of grass at a time for the tiny band of gold and carbon. Not that there was any hope of finding it.
Not that there was any hope of recovering from this. The decided when they came home from their trip they would basically tell everyone they were engaged. It just wasn't like them to keep it secret, and Ron's parents really knew about it anyhow. From that moment on, Kim hadn't taken either ring off, and even went so far as to say she wasn't taking the diamond off until it was joined by a wedding band.
Yet, only a short time before, she simply pulled both off and flung them at him. That had a note of finality to it he could not ignore. Still, fruitless as it seemed, he looked on, somehow, oddly enough, thinking the super-suit, that he still had on under his sweatshirt and cargos, was riding up on him. Or maybe it was his boxers. He couldn't quite tell and at the moment, he really didn't care. He just wanted to find that ring.
I'm an idiot, a loser, a world-class, grade-A prime moron.
At least that's the way he felt, only, the thought kept crossing his mind, part of the reason he had kept it a secret was because he was afraid how Kim might react. She had made such good progress by then, to the point the therapist assigned to her case had fully released her and cleared her for all missions. If she knew Carrion was free, that could bring back the fear, the self-doubt, the nightmares.
It could bring back Kim involuntarily shrinking from his touch. That was just too much for him to bear, so he kept it inside, not wanting to tell her until the time was right and until he had some answers himself.
The first moment he thought it was safe to leave Kim's side, Ron found his way into Global Justice headquarters, demanding to know why they had not been told Carrion was on the loose. He almost didn't realize his mistake before it was too late. The only person at GJ who knew the whole truth was the psychiatrist who treated Kim. Those record were sealed, both by organizational directive and by law. The doctor would only divulge details if a life were at stake, and so far, that had not happened.
When Carrion was arrested, it was for kidnapping and simple assault. That was because Kim left the detail of what else he had threatened to do, about the little kiss he gave her on her neck. That she kept to herself and that, in its own time, had served her well, significantly reducing the amount of time she had to spend in court when he was convicted.
Doctor Director became very curious as to why Ron was so interested in what appeared to be a minor villain they had taken down. He backed down from his query so fast, he never even detailed how he knew he was out, or pressed for exactly how he got out in the first place.
As he puzzled out how and when he would tell Kim, the days stretched into weeks, and then into months before he realized he was trapped, that by then he couldn't tell her without something like that actually happening. In hindsight, he realized he would have been better off telling her and taking the chance she would end up back in some therapy than what was happening now. That she would have to go to some kind of counseling now, there was little doubt.
That was the length and breadth of how badly he had screwed up. What he intended to prevent had happened anyway, magnified perhaps tenfold by his stupidity.
It was still sinking in to him that fourteen years together, almost a year and a half of that spent as a couple, was actually over. The wedding was not only off, but how could their friendship survive this. That was always what he was afraid of most about starting a romantic relationship with Kim. If something happened to that, it would tear down their friendship right along with it. Crash and burn, baby, crash and burn.
But what will that do to our friendship? He once asked Steve Barkin. All along that was more important to him than all the kissing, touching and other stuff they had done since getting together, that was only secondary to him. What was more important…what was most important was their relationship and he loved her so much, so intensely that it didn't matter if they were friends or lovers, it was them being together that counted.
Rufus was skittering around nearby, adding his weaker eyes to the hunt. The lawn mowers were getting closer and closer. Soon he would have to abandon his search and watch helplessly as the hidden bauble was torn to shreds just like the dream of his life with Kim was.
Then, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted it. It wasn't in the grass at all, but sitting in a pile of cocoa mulch, clearly visible if you actually looked right at it.
The moment of slight joy he felt at the discovery was immediately lost in a fresh wave of guilt and sadness. He went back to the curb and sank down on his butt, waiting for his friend. There was a sudden pain in his gut as he realized Kim might not have even made it home safely. Normally she kept so much inside her, but something like this might be enough to finally break the dam. On top of the guilt he was already feeling, he added the notion that she might have been physically hurt because he let her get away without talking further.
The rings in his hand told him talk was out of the question.
He spotted the Resnick's old blue Century pulling into the lot at the far end. Standing up, he shoved the two rings deep into his pants pocket. About that moment he spotted another car pulling into the closer ramp…
…a bronze Jaguar S-type.
That meant only one thing to him. The night he picked up Kim for the first real, official, non-moodulator influenced, non-last-minute seeming rebound at the dance date, Kim's father sat him down for a little fam to Ron talk.
I don't ever want to see her hurt. Now I don't mean if you make her cry or the two of you have a fight or something like that. I mean if you hurt her, I mean really, really hurt her then I'm going to be the first of many S O Bs you will be answering too. Kimmie-cub is one of the strongest women I have ever known, but under all that she is really a shy, emotional little girl. Try to remember that.
All he could think of was that he had hurt her enough to make her rip her rings off and walk away from him without a word. Somehow he knew deep down inside what must have happened when she got home.
Right then, James Possible was precisely the last person on Earth he wanted to see.
Ducking between some of the other parked cars, he headed towards Paul, popping up at last and rapping on the window. The power lock snapped open and he ducked inside. The car may have been an 'old people's car' with bad paint, no CD player and a headliner that was starting to droop, but it had the largest V-6 that came in the 89 model, so they almost burned front-wheel-drive rubber leaving the lot.
"What's the deal, Ron? I thought you always rode home with Kim anyway." Paul asked as he headed for the expressway. It was a longer way around, but quicker to take the highway than to cut directly through the city.
"I screwed up." He muttered, thinking of a much harsher word than 'screwed.' "There was something I didn't tell her because I thought I was protecting her from it, then she found out." When it was safe, he pulled the rings out of his pocket and showed it to Paul.
"Ouch. Not good."
"Yeah, major not good." Ron looked around as they got off the expressway. "Uh, where are you going? My house is the next exit."
"Listen, Ron. You've got, what, fourteen or fifteen years of history with Kim?"
"Yeah, fourteen."
"And you think she's going to cut it off because you did something boneheaded?"
Ron just held the rings up again for emphasis.
"Come on, Ron. How many times do you think women have done that trick? It's their favorite drama princess moment. Yank the ring off, storm off. It's a woman thing."
"So, then explain to me why we're heading straight for her house and not for mine?"
"Because you're going to talk to her."
"Paul, you're not getting something. That Jag pulling into the lot the same time you were? That was her Dad. If something's happened to Kim, he's gonna…"
"Gonna what, Ron? I've heard the two of you talking about him. If something's wrong with Kim, something bad enough that she's thinking of ending things with you, I don't think he's out to hurt you, I think he's out to find out if you're okay first off. I bet he's just as worried about you as he is for his daughter. As long as you've been around, you're not just his daughter's fiancé, you're his son. Sure, I bet he's pissed at you, but the worry outweighs that."
Ron frowned. "You sure about that? Cause, first time we ever went on a sort of real date, he said he was going to put me in a black hole if I didn't make Kim happy."
Paul shook his head slowly. "Man, you've got to take some astronomy classes or something. We don't have a spacecraft that has any hope of reaching another star in our lifetime, let alone reach a black hole. They're that far away. If he's been serious about doing you harm, he'd have leaned on a shotgun or an axe or something that can do real harm. Take it from me. He loves you. Oh, and by the way, even if you've hurt her, Kim loves you. Aliens in space can see that."
"I hope she still does." They pulled up in front of the house. The last time Ron felt this much dread at going into a place that was as much his home as the one he grew up in was the night he picked Kim up for that first date. Even in broad daylight the house took on an almost sinister air.
Was he ready for this?
Paul put his hand on Ron's shoulder. "Come on, I've got your back."
Dorian Conyers didn't have to say anything when he walked away from the other Goth youths he hung around with. They didn't put much stock in the pleasantries the norms exchanged. He simply walked away, his stride quick and confident. He pulled up some images on his little camera and smiled that wicked half smile of his.
The first was of Kim Possible standing right in front of Ron. It looked like she was throwing something at him. The next image was of Ron, on his hands and knees looking for something.
The smile spread into a full grin. The teeth seemed perfect, though he knew some of them were implants. Well, that's what happens when you're hit in the jaw full force by a bo-staff swung like a baseball bat.
He let himself into the small, off-campus apartment he was renting, immediately heading for the bathroom. The first thing he did was grab a toothbrush and start scrubbing his entire mouth. The cigarette taste was completely revolting and he hoped beyond hope the nicotine wasn't taking hold in his system. The last thing he wanted to do was get hooked on the damned things. He brushed his teeth twice, then gargled.
Reaching up, he tugged on the mop of spiky black hair. It came away, revealing more hair, only it was not black, but the color of Nebraska corn. Wetting a rag with some fluid in a bottle, he set to removing the black eye and face paint, revealing the freckles on his cheeks and across the bridge of his nose. Lastly, he took the black contacts out of his eyes, revealing his natural, chocolate brown eyes.
After a quick shower, he got out his real clothes. Well, at least they were real for the time being. They served his purpose, at least until he could once again don the dark blue jumpsuit with the stylized red feathers and the soft, downy fringe around the neck. That day would come soon. For now, he simply pulled on the magenta and white uniform, pulling the cowl over his head.
He zipped up the front, joining what looked like the letter A, but was instead the Greek letter Alpha.
Everything was now going according to Carrion's plans, but there was still much work to do.
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