KP – One Oh One: Part XXXV – Black Swamp Deep

Nana's Chez Leisure cottage looked little different than the last time Kim and Ron saw it together, save for a three foot tall Christmas tree sitting on a table in the corner and a wreath on the front door. Being perhaps the first Christmas she had actually spent in this particular home they all looked new, probably purchased at the local Smarty Mart or Bullseye store. They realized late they really should have brought some decorations with them instead of just their gifts.

Kim took the spare room her parents had when they had stayed there several years earlier, which was a far cry better than the lumpy pull-out Ron was consigned to. For half a moment she wondered if it really would have been a better idea to get a hotel room in town. After all, they would be significantly cheaper and with Nana having more trouble getting around it might have been better just to visit. Then again, there was her reaction to what was, for them, a perfectly innocent show of affection. She may very well launch into a lecture if she became aware of their sleeping arrangements. They would also have to be careful what details they mentioned about their stop in Orlando. It was kind of funny the one night they spent together recently where all they really did was sleep and they still had to be quiet about it.

Ron was still happy to take the sleeper-sofa, as opposed to sleeping bags on the floor with Kim's brothers back when they were fifteen. Those two were in their 'not quite wanting to sleep' phase then, keeping him up half the night yapping about their inventions. This time he would be alone and could get some of his precious Zs, at least until Kim and Nana got up. From past experience he knew Kim's grandmother was not an early riser and both he and Kim had outgrown the urge to get up at the crack of dawn on Christmas morning. Ron's enjoyment of Christmas centered around Kim anyhow.

Ron helped Kim carry her luggage into her room; carefully making a point to leave the door wide open while he was in there. "You know, it's funny. When we stayed here before, we sorta shared a room."

"Sure, but then I wasn't even your girlfriend and we also had the Tweebs in the room with us, so even if we got the notion to do anything else, they would have run off to Mom and Dad in a heartbeat. Besides, we all shared rooms halfway down and would have halfway back if we didn't get sidetracked with that mission to Guam."

"Yeah. Guess Jim and Tim were about the only other ones just as clueless about how we felt about each other. They would have totally freaked out if we'd been together then. I just seems so odd. It's not like Nana's from the Victorian era; after all, your father was born in, what? Sixty?"

"Yeah, but just humor her. She's eighty two, after all, and she's entitled to be a bit old fashioned and on top of that, our sitch is, well, unique." Or at least she thought so. Lots of kids their age and younger had gone much further and there were plenty who had even been married by then, but few had their history.

He glanced out the sliding glass door leading to the porch. "So, what are the rules anyway? All I did was touch your waist. Wasn't like we were cuddling or anything. She acted almost like she caught us making out or with my hand a lot lower than it was."

"I dunno. Guess it was because you were touching skin. Let's just play it safe and save the touchy-touchy stuff until we head home, 'kay? Two nights isn't going to kill us."

Ron plopped down in the chair by the door. "I don't know if I can hold out that long without my daily 'Kim-jection.'" He held the back of his hand to his forehead like he was in distress.

"Oh, so not the drama. You lasted twelve years without it, you can last two nights."

"But I had no idea it was so addictive."

Kim finished putting her few things away and walked over to him, kissing his forehead. "You're weird, but I love you."

He sat up a little straighter, testing the air. "Ah, lemon juice, lemon zest and just a hint of vanilla. Do I detect your Nana's famous lemon squares?"

"More than likely. You're not going to do anything awful like stealing the recipe are you?"

"Me, steal? Come on, KP, you know me better than that. After all, I don't need her recipe, I just have to actually watch her do it once and I can do it myself. Kinda like you and kung-fu moves."

"It's not that easy, baby. Come on, Scram, I'm going to change clothes."

Ron wandered out onto the patio. He was still a little perplexed at the new wrinkle in Nana's over protectiveness where it came to Kim. It seemed to come right out of left field, especially considering the fact she had said in the past that she knew the two of them had strong feelings for each other and she didn't say a word that they spent quite a lot of time up in Kim's room on Christmas. Maybe she was just keeping her mouth shut, hoping they would see the light themselves then, though it took a few more months before it finally happened.

Oh well. Almost certainly they would go for a walk into town that afternoon after Sunday/Christmas Eve dinner. Then they could hold hands, walk arm in arm and, perhaps, find that one bench on the boardwalk and practically camp out there until after dark. That turned into one of the more romantic 'dates' they had early in their new relationship. Then they could walk on the beach. The moon would only be a slender crescent that night and with the town nearly deserted, they should have some privacy for at least some good lip smacking time.

He stretched, closing his eyes as he reached for the sky. The ride down had been tense for him, so he was looking forward to relaxing for a bit. There wasn't any reason to prowl the town until Kim was done changing, so he arranged one of the lounge chairs so it would have a better view of the town (he thought it was a shame there was no view of the beach, but hey, it was a nice place anyway.)

Before he could sit down, a large hand gripped his shoulder. Three big shadows fell over him.

"Squirt, you're coming with us." Said a low, husky voice.

Ron gulped as he was led away.

Kim changed into a pair of denim capris and a full length T-shirt. It felt a little strange tucking her shirt in with those particular pants, but perhaps that would placate Nana to some degree. It was a little funny to her that they had changed there in the same room that morning, yet had to do so in private at Nana's. Well, perhaps not so funny, considering she still used her changing screen and Ron would turn his head and shield his eyes in her own home.

Was it a mark of some lingering immaturity that she felt a little tweaked at Nana's reaction? On the one hand, she was utterly giddy about the two of them being engaged. She already made it a point to stare at her rings (she had on all three though normally she only wore just the big one) and went on and on about how wonderful it would be to see the two of them walk down the aisle together and bring her great-grandchildren (again making Kim wonder, like with Ron's parents, if they realized it was still going to be several years before the wedding and several after that before they would even consider having children.)

Her grandmother still turned a slightly disapproving eye on her as she emerged from the bedroom. "Dear, are you certain you wouldn't rather wear one of those sundresses I picked out for you? Honestly, a young lady your age, always running around in shorts, showing off your legs like that."

Kim rolled her eyes just a bit, considering only the bottom half of her calves were visible in the capris, but that was as much of a compromise as she was willing to make. The calendar might say it was winter and Christmas Day was less than twelve hours away, but it was still quite warm outside.

"Nana, you know I'm not much of a dress type of girl."

"Really? But you look so lovely in them." She finished turning the chicken frying in the pan and went back into the living room, picking up the picture of Kim and Ron at the Senior Prom.

Kim didn't have the heart to tell Nana that both that dress and Ron's tuxedo were utterly destroyed in a battle with Señor Senior Sr.

"Kimberly, look at Ronald's face in this picture. If you don't wear a dress for me, do it for him. You are a beautiful young woman; you shouldn't go around in boy's clothes all the time. It's Christmas Eve, so I think this is special occasion enough." She went back to the kitchen, checking on her dinner preparations.

Kim sighed and blew that one lock of hair back off her nose again. Oh, what could it hurt, it's not like anyone I know other than Ron is going to see me and he wouldn't care if I was wearing a sack. Going back into the room, she picked up the stack of dresses Nana kept handy for her. Most of them were quite frumpy, though a couple did have a little potential. Still, as she selected a sleeveless pink dress with a semi-poofy skirt she was thankful that even the rest of her family wasn't there to see her in it.

Ron didn't know what to think as the three large men led him to a boat tied up at the edge of the retirement complex. Without so much as a word they pushed him into a seat and cast off, heading deep into the swamp.

Every so often he would look at their faces. They were all elderly men, probably residents at Chez Leisure, but they were still formidable looking. Each was taller than him and at least twice as broad. Their expressions were implacable.

Finally they brought the boat to a stop in a stand of cypress trees. The 'civilized' land of For Summerdell seemed like a distant memory, even though they had only been in the boat twenty to thirty minutes.

"Whu…what do you want?" he finally stammered as the boat drifted to a halt.

All three of them looked down at him, making him suddenly feel far smaller than he was. In reality, they weren't as big as some of the henchmen he had faced at Kim's side, but something about them was far more menacing. Every instinct screamed danger.

"Do you know who we are?" The one at the outboard motor asked.

"Uh, friends of Nana?"

"That's right." The one at the bow said. "You might even say we are almost like family to her."

"That's good to know." Ron said nervously, not sure where they were going with this.

"That means her granddaughter is like family two." The third one explained.

"Miss Possible is a very special lady." The first one said.

"I couldn't agree more." Ron responded, trying to regain his composure a little bit.

"Do you know where you are?" The middle one asked.

"Uh, the swamp?"

"That's right." The first one replied. "One of the few places left on this earth where somebody could disappear."

"Forever." Another finished for him.

"That's…good to know." Ron was trying to disappear into the middle of the boat.

"The water here is black…" One said.

"…and deep. Just like a great big hole in the universe." The motor man finished.

"Black…hole…deep." Ron squeaked.

"Right." All three said in unison. Then the guy in the middle with him reached under the seat for a box. It looked for all the world like a tool box to Ron. What in the world had he gotten himself into? What were these men trying to do? And why would they be so protective of Kim? Just because they were close friends of Nana's?

Something was put in Ron's hand. It took his brain a moment to register exactly what it was. It was long, with a cork grip and a spool with a crank on it. Finally his fear addled mind said "Fishing rod."

"I think we should really introduce ourselves." The motorman said. "I'm Rab Harmon. This is Sam Mackenzie and up there at the front, that's Bud Roberts."

"We served with Miss Possible's Nana when she was in the Navy." Bud explained.

"She was the only woman in the unit, the first to complete the underwater demolitions training." Sam said in his raspy voice.

"So, what does that have to do with me?"

"We're getting to that, Squirt." Rab quickly cut him off.

"Like we said, Nana Possible is a very special lady." Bud stated.

"She's saved each of our lives on multiple occasions." Sam added.

"And we don't have to explain to you how special her granddaughter is, how much she means to her, do we?" Rab asked.

"Uh, no."

"What we want is real simple. We want your assurances that you will always treat her like she deserves. Always treat her like a lady."

"Nana just wants her to be happy." One said.

"If not…it's a one way ride to the swamp."

"Black swamp deep?" Ron asked.

"Exactly." All three of them responded.

Kim emerged once more from the dressing room. If anything, in the air conditioned house, the dress was cooler than the clothes she had temporarily worn. That was fine with her, considering how hot everything felt in comparison to her cool home.

The dress was a soft shade of pink with little flowers all over it done in lighter pink and white. The skirt did go past her knees, but it was airy enough to be comfortable. With the slightly too big waist cinched down with a white belt, she found it didn't look half bad on her. She liked looking feminine, though she still preferred pants over a dress. Dresses and skirts were mainly for 'dressing up' in her mind. Pants were just so much more practical, especially when she could be called on a mission at any moment's notice. Slacks, cargos and capris did not end up stuck in her underwear like that time she was forced by convention while protecting that prince.

"Now, isn't that better dear? You look absolutely stunning in that."

"Have you seen Ron?" She looked around, slightly concerned. Kim half expected to find him snoozing outside on the lounge chair. "I wanted to tell him to change clothes too."

"He went fishing." Nana said, setting some of the finished chicken onto a platter.

Normally the sight of her grandmother's fried chicken would set her mouth to watering, but what she had just said completely took her mind off of the pan-cooked poultry. "He did what?"

"Some of my friends decided while we fixed dinner they would take him out fishing. Have a little man-to-man talk with him. Don't worry; they will be back in plenty of time for dinner. Now, come on in here. Since it won't be long before you're setting up housekeeping with that fine boy, it's time you learned something special."

Ron dunked his line into the water, hoping he wasn't skinning his ignorance about fishing in general. If he was doing something wrong, none of the three gentlemen said anything about it. They each, in turn, baited their hooks and set to fishing. Nobody seemed to be catching anything, but that didn't seem to be the point of the trip.

"You love her, don't you?" Sam finally asked, pulling his hook up and checking to see if his bait had been stolen by a wily fish.

"Like everything in the world." Ron responded, mimicking the action as best he could. His bait actually was gone. Putting a fresh worm on his hook, he dunked it back into the water, wondering if he just plain lost it or whether it was eaten.

"Real nice, real nice." Bud said, not otherwise moving.

"That's something you need to remember." Rab said, casting his line further from the boat.

"Remember? How could I forget?"

The three men chuckled. Sam spoke up first. "Oh, there will be times. She's a woman isn't she?"

"Last time I checked."

All three of them looked straight at him. "How close have you been checking?" at least two of them asked.

He was utterly at a loss as to how to respond to that. He had absolute proof of Kim's femininity, but considering the mood of the three ex-sailors he was not about to go into that. "Uh, kind of obvious, considering we pretty much grew up together."

That seemed to satisfy them. "As I was saying." Sam continued. "There will be times when she ticks you off so much you could just go pulling that yellow hair right out of your head. That's when you need to remember how much you love her the most."

"Yup." The other two agreed.

Ron felt a tugging at his line. Before he could react his reel started playing out string as something fairly large and muscular tugged, apparently hooked.

"Whoa, get a hold of it, son."

He grabbed the reel and started cranking. Visions of the other creatures he knew lived in the swamp filled his head. Foremost among them was the alligator that almost got Kim. He didn't fear other creatures like manatees, but he didn't think they would be in this particularly dense part of the swamp. Gators, on the other hand, were plentiful, as he had seen at Drakken's lair. For all he knew, that particular hideout was just on the other side of the nearest grove of cypresses.

"Come on, now boy, you've got a biggun. Don't try to reel him in all at once, gotta work him, wear him out." One of them advised, though he was too intent on his pole to tell which.

"If he doesn't wear me out first. What is this? Moby Dick?"

"Probably a large mouth, the way it's fighting. Now, reel him in a few more turns and let him fight some more."

"I'm trying."

"Get the net, Bud, hurry, I see it."

"Boy sure knows how to hit 'em."

Ron strained for all he was worth, praying the rod, which was bent almost double, would hold. His palms, which were already sweating from the protracted grilling, could barely hold onto the pole. Then, almost without warning, the pole went slack. He tumbled backwards from his seat, almost tangling in another line. Had his line broken?

No, it hadn't. Bud was at the bow, holding a large fish of indeterminate breed in a net. Burly, wrinkled hands clapped him on the back. "Boys, I think we have ourselves a ringer with us. Said he'd never been fishin' before. My eye."

"Hah, Sam, you left that eye in Guam back in sixty-two." Bud said, dumping the flopping example of Piscean wonder into a cooler.

Ron glanced into the bucket. "It is a good one? Maybe dinner tonight?"

"Damn straight, though I'm willing to bet Nana's got plenty of food going already. Especially since she said she was going to have her granddaughter help her cook."

He sat back up suddenly in the boat. "Did you just say, Kim is cooking?"

"Yeah, so? What's the deal?"

Ron scrambled suddenly for the small outboard motor, pulling on the starter cord. "We've got to get back. Nana might not even know."

"Know what?" One of them asked as the motor sputtered to life.

"The danger she's in?" He grabbed the stick and started guiding the boat through the water, much slower than he wished. Then it hit him.

"Uh, which way is the dock?"

Kim held her breath, crossed her fingers and opened the oven. Nana had been utterly patient with her the whole time, guiding her through step by step, but there had been too many failures in the past. Not to mention Ron wasn't with her. She had a pretty good idea about the true nature of the impromptu fishing expedition, but she figured he was going to be okay. Freaked out a little, maybe, but essentially okay.

"Better check on them, dear. Don't want them to burn and waste all that effort."

"Right, Nana." Steeling herself, she opened the oven door, reaching in with a mitt. She almost closed her eyes, fearing what she would see when the cookie sheet came out.

Instead, the mass of yellow had a perfect, barely browned crust on top. She slowly let out her breath as she put the sheet on the butcher block counter. Nana came over to inspect her work, cutting a small bite and popping it into her mouth after blowing on it a moment.

"Kimberly Anne, I am surprised at you."

Kim slumped. "Is it that bad?"

"No, dear. I'm surprised that you would go on and on about how bad you are at cooking. These are perfect." She took her knife and cut the mass into squares.

Kim almost couldn't close her mouth. True, her grandmother had been coaching her through the whole process, but it was only her hands that had touched the lemon squares as she made them. "I cooked." She said, incredulously. "I actually cooked."

"See, it's not so hard. Now, put these on a plate and set them on the table." She winked at her granddaughter. "We'll tell Ronald what you fixed after dinner."

Kim took her time working the squares free, even though they weren't sticking. She just didn't want to screw up at this late juncture, like she did with the pierogi. She wasn't going to relax until they were all on the plate and safely on the table.

"Nana, how do you feel about Ron and me?"

"Well, how should I feel, Dear. He's a wonderful young man."

Kim bit her lip. "I mean, Mom and Dad are behind us all the way, and so are his folks, but…sometimes some of our other friends think we're too young."

Nana put a platter of chicken on the table beside the macaroni and cheese she had baked earlier. "Nonsense, Kimberly. Now, if you had just met him, that would be different, but I am the last person in the world to tell someone like you that you are too young. I was married at your age and I almost had a child right away."

"Almost? I never heard about that."

Nana looked sad for a moment. "You have to remember what my lifestyle was like then. You should know, considering all the missions you do. I actually lost two children before I finally had Slim. By that time I had finally retired from the field and resigned my commission. That's one of the great dangers I had to face, and something you are going to have to deal with two, especially considering the way you two act."

Kim's cheeks flushed crimson. "Nana, we're…"

"I know, dear. I may act old fashioned from time to time and I may be overprotective, but I know how much you love him. I really wasn't so upset with him this afternoon, it just surprised me a little. I've talked to your mother and father, they told me how close the two of you are, and I pretty much figure you stayed together in Orlando before you came here."

"You knew?"

"Of course. Now, that doesn't mean I approve, at least in my house."

Kim hugged Nana. "We're fine with it, Nana. It's not like we live together, we've still got our own rooms in separate homes. We just like to be together when we're away."

"Now, once you two do get married, that's a whole other story. I want to see great-grandchildren before I'm gone."

"Eventually Nana, even…"

Suddenly the screen door burst open, admitting a clearly distraught Ron. He skidded to a stop at the kitchen door. "No fire trucks, no smoke, good sign." He wheezed, apparently having sprinted straight from the dock."

"So not the drama, Ron. My cooking isn't that bad." She picked up a lemon square. "Here, have one of these and calm down."

He chomped down on it, taking half in one bite. Rufus appeared and helped himself to another one, also eagerly plowing through it.

"Nana, you have outdone yourself." He tried saying with his mouth full.

Kim and Nana exchanged winks, their faces plastered with smiles.

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