Where You Hang Your Hat Chapter 5: Part V, a kim possible fanfic

Where You Hang Your Hat: Part V

"Kimmie-cub, I'm sorry. I was being selfish yesterday morning. I've thought about it, I've talked with your mother and we've agreed that there is nothing wrong with the two of you living here together until you get married."

James gripped the rearview mirror of his Jaguar and turned it so he could look into his own eyes. Of course there was a vanity mirror on the sun visor, but being a man he never really thought about it, especially when there was a handy mirror already there out in the open.

The problem was he really didn't mean all those words that spilled out of his mouth so easily while he was alone in the car, sitting in traffic on the expressway. In reality, he no more wanted the two of them living in that situation anywhere, be it in his house or in their own place. Yes, he would be the first one to admit he was a hypocrite. Granted, he never actually lived with Anne until the day they got married, but that was just about the only thing they had waited for. They took trips together, sometimes stayed at each other's homes overnight. Really, the only difference was the fact Kim and Ron were that way full time.

He found himself asking the question whether if he had to do it all over again, would he have waited for the wedding for everything? It would seem so noble and right to say yes, but, in a fit of personal honesty he had been feeling, he knew that he really didn't regret any of it. What's good for the goose…

That didn't change the way he felt. There was a nagging wrongness to the situation he could not really put his finger on. It was the fact he could not articulate that feeling that kept allowing him to talk himself out of his earlier resolve.

Really, he would have preferred his precious daughter had remained a virgin until her wedding night, regardless of the fact her parents had not been. He wasn't the least bit angry at Ron for deflowering his girl, or at least he wasn't when he really got down and thought about it. No, that wasn't being honest either. He had forgiven Ron for her loss of innocence. There was a difference there. That meant at one point he did hold some sort of animosity toward him over it. Still, all of that was in his own mind, and when he came to terms with that, he could put those feelings behind him, realizing how much he did love the boy anyhow.

It just seemed so strange to have to say those words when he actually got home. About a month earlier they finally sat down and hammered out the date for their wedding. They were going to do it on the Fourth of July they following summer. At first they wanted to do it immediately after graduation, but a large number of their oldest friends expressed skepticism about actually being able to attend, since most of them would be finishing up their college careers as well at that point. Independence day had been Ronald's idea and they quickly agreed to it.

What struck him as odd, at least for him, was that by officially allowing the couple to live together in his house until then, they would actually be like that for more than a year. From his perspective, that seemed like an awfully long time, though it had, in reality, been going on for almost four months. In that time, despite his wish to avoid it at all costs, he had accidentally walked in on them on several occasions. Without banishing himself completely from her room during that time, he was sure it was going to happen again. Perhaps that was part of his discomfort.

He did grin slightly, though. Perhaps the thought about what was going on in the third floor loft made both him and Anne a little friskier than they had been in the last couple years. Back in February, during the big ice storm that crippled the Tri-city area over a long weekend, the kids had turned in not long after dark, considering there wasn't much more to do with the power off. With a little devilish smile, James got up from his place near the fire and did something that had not been done in several years. He shut and latched the pocket doors leading to the den. He poured a little glass of scotch for each of them and cuddled in front of the blazing logs for some time. In the process, both of them started discarding their clothing, one little bit at a time, until they broke one of the cardinal rules they had just set down for the younger couple. What made both of them feel even dirtier was the fact they had a fireplace in their bedroom. Still, that one was small and was gas powered. There was something special about a 'real' fire, with the logs crackling and occasionally sending a cascade of sparks up the chimney as they made love there for the first time since Kimmie was a baby.

Maybe the recent turn in the kid's relationship wasn't so bad after all. Their relationship was as deeply committed as anyone who was already married. Sure they were just twenty, but so was he once. He only wished he had something like his daughter had found, like what Ronald had found in his daughter. By the time they actually tied the knot they would have been engaged a lot longer than even he would have thought possible. He always assumed they would have a long engagement, but the more he thought about it now, the more he thought it had gone on long enough.

Even before they were dating, they did seem sort of like a married couple. They even dated, though they didn't call it that then. Those were the kinds of dates he wanted her to have at that age, where they were out having fun instead of doing things that would be appropriate later (as in now.) Anne may have had a 'what are they waiting for?' attitude about the physical stuff, but he was starting to feel that way about the big picture.

Still, the date they had chosen was a good one. That way they would be in a position to take on the rest of their lives together (though weren't they pretty much completely together already?) They both paid lip service to saying it wasn't about Ron's money, but by the conditions of his trust, if he got married to her after they turned twenty-one he would get all of it. If they were as careful and wise with the money as they had been over the last few years, then they would literally be set for life, even if they both didn't have careers in mind. With Ron working, plus having that kind of resources, Kim would be free to pursue the doctorate she always wanted. There was no doubt in his mind she would have achieved that anyway, but the path they were on was a good one.

The traffic started moving again. He twisted the mirror back so he could see behind him, but he kept replaying what he was going to say to them in his head. He hoped they would be home. If not, he'd simply call them. If they were over at Gene's house, he would simply drive over there. He would rather be able to sit down with them in his own home, hopefully with Anne there as well.

He really stuck his foot deep into his mouth on that one. When she finally came home late the night before, she was still visibly upset, though she didn't rip into him as much as he thought she would for driving the kids off to Gene's house for the night. She counseled that it was actually wise on Kim's part to do so, giving herself some time to cool off. Still, the air was a little chilly in the bedroom that night, and it wasn't because the thermostat had been turned down any.

As much as he loved his wife, there were some real differences in the way they thought that came up from time to time. It didn't become clear until later just how much she was trying to steer the kids together. Then, when it finally happened and they were actually dating, it surprised him how cavalier she could be about their sexuality. Granted, she was perfectly happy about them waiting, but by the same token, she was not concerned about their near misses. If that had happened when they were still kids, he would have been genuinely upset about it, to the point he might have taken it out on Ron, at least verbally and could have put the kibosh on the whole relationship.

He had come to realize just how wrong that would have been on his part. There was good and there was bad about them being together, but the good outweighed the other by so much that the bad really didn't matter so much. It all boiled down to him being uncomfortable from time to time.

He made the last turn into his subdivision. He was about an hour early getting home, but Wade had already wrapped up what the two of them had been working on and didn't want to get started on their next assignment until the next day. The young man was busy at work with an artificial intelligence and would likely be at the space center until he couldn't keep his eyes open, but the real work involving ion powered drive systems was coming along nicely.

James sighed in relief when he saw the internally modified PT Cruiser sitting in the garage as the door came up. Kim, and most likely Ron, would most likely be there.

Earlier that day:

It seemed a little funny to be in Kim's room, even though they had only spent the one night away from there and had been gone less than twenty-four hours. The reality of their new sitch really hit home when they got up there and realized it wasn't so much their room, but Kim's room…Kim's childhood room.

Her bed was exactly the same size as Ron's. It was nothing more than a standard 'full' bed, one official size smaller than a queen, yet being rather small, they always had enough room for each other. It helped that they spent the greater part of their time taking up less space than Ron's old twin bed.

Yet now it looked so small. It really was meant just for one person. Until they had started sharing it, Kim always stacked a pair of King-sized pillows right in the center. The few times they ended up in it together before they started making love those long pillows were always enough for them. Now there were two queen-size pillows on each side, making it officially a couple's bed.

It wasn't quite lunch time, but neither of them was the least bit hungry. Kim had gotten over a lot of her earlier upset, especially after the talk they had with Ron's father over breakfast, but seeing the room brought it all back for a moment. She lay down on 'her' side and curled up with Pandaroo, while Ron sat beside her, gently rubbing her back with his open palm.

Kim turned onto her back and twined her fingers with his. "I'm going to miss this room."

"I am too, and I've only 'lived' in it for a few months. I can only imagine how you feel, since you've been in here since you got out of the crib."

Kim reached up with her other hand and pulled him down to her by his shoulder, kissing him fiercely. He wrapped both arms around her body as he gave into the kiss. It was clear and sunny outside, so it was unusual for them to be indoors at a time like that, but neither wanted to be anywhere but there. Kim closed her eyes and tilted her head backwards as he placed small kisses on her neck and her ear, burying his face in her deep auburn hair where it covered her left ear.

Some thirty minutes later, as they lay entwined beneath the covers, bathed in the afterglow, Kim brushed back his hair, looking into his eyes. "Do you think this may be our last hurrah here?"

"Only if Dad P is really kicking us out. You heard my Dad, it's going to take us a little while to actually find a place and I really don't see Dad P getting all in a big hurry about all this." His fingers brushed the small of her back. "Maybe there isn't even a place for us to hang our hat and we'll be stuck here until our place gets built anyway."

"Actually, baby, I think both our Dads are right. Just think what it would be like if Nana knew about this. Remember how she was when we went down to her place for Christmas?"

"Nana was a lot cooler with us than you think. That was just her way."

"Yeah, but that's Daddy's way too, and what we did…I don't mean this." She put her forehead against his, "I mean not giving him any real say in the matter was ferociously wrong. That was Nana's house and this is Mom and Dad's house."

Ron laughed softly. "I think I heard your mother cheering that first time we came up here."

Kim echoed his laugh. "Don't think that was cheering, baby. Think that was something else. Okay, we're so not breaking up, ever, but do you really think we should go on like this? We can still go away on the weekends and all."

Ron rolled onto his back, looking up at the slanted ceiling. "I think that would have worked after the first week, but now, I really don't want to do that. We're a part of each other, always have been."

Kim nodded, putting her head down on his shoulder. "Then I want to find a place, a place we can call our own. I don't care if it's that little closet near school or a mansion across town. This was my room, that was your room. I want a place that is ours, not something we've taken from somebody else, even if that somebody else is our parents. When Mom and Dad get home, I want to tell them that we're going to look for something and as soon as we find it, we're going to move there. If they want us to sleep apart until then, which I really don't think they do, we'll do that. If they do, that'll give us all the more reason to find a place."

"You think we can actually find something good? You're kind of picky sometimes."

"Picky? I like that one place we looked at, if they guy hadn't been a jerk about Rufus."

"Yeah. The little guy's upset about coming out at the wrong moment. He liked that place too." He leaned back toward her and gave her a little kiss. "I still liked the thought of that bath tub."

"The newer places seem to have decent bathrooms. I think there are lots of couples out there that can see the benefits of a large tub. Don't worry, we'll find something." She wrapped her arms around his back and pulled him closer.

The house was oddly quiet when James let himself in by the garage door, making him think perhaps the kids weren't there after all. If they were called away on a mission, Wade would simply bring their new flyer in by remote. The old one had been destroyed over Greenland, but he wasted no time constructing a third one (the original was just a prototype with conventional jet engines and was slow, noisy and had a very limited range.) If they were home, he would have expected the television to be on. If Ron had some faults, one of them was being glued to the screen, especially if the afternoon cartoons were playing on channel 152. He didn't know how the young man could stand the things, cartoons made his eyes itch.

For a moment he considered sitting down in his easy chair and reading through the paper one more time. He discarded the notion, since he had read it cover to cover that morning before work. Anne was giving him a partial 'silent treatment' so he had plenty of time to occupy himself with reading.

Sighing, he mounted the stairs. With the house apparently empty he decided to go up to his study located in the brick tower centered above the house. There he could see the distant hills from the large, circular window mounted on one wall. He could also log onto his computer and chat with some of his friends. Chen and Ramesh were all excited about discovering a new, very large black hole. He wasn't much for their brand of astronomy, but they were old friends and their discussions really didn't revolve that much around work.

He chuckled slightly, thinking that he could joke with Ronald about the new discovery. It had been many years since he last made his jesting threats about sending him to a raging collapsar if he did wrong by Kim. In fact, the last time he could actually remember doing so was their first real planned date, when he had Doctors Eng and Michaels come over to mimic fitting him for a space suit. The poor boy had taken it all seriously and was scared out of his mind, prompting him to back off from it pretty much for good, though they did joke about it from time to time. Maybe Chen could fax over some of the pictures and he could write "Honeymoon Destination" on it. Ronald would certainly get a kick out of that.

The entrance to the tower was through a small hallway that was created by partitioning off part of the attic. That was how Kim's loft room had been created when she was a baby. So she wouldn't have to take the narrow attic stairs, he had a metal and wood staircase built that went directly into her room, but the door from the hallway had been left in place. As he walked by on his way to his private inner sanctum, he thought he heard soft voices. It appeared they were home after all, perhaps working on her computer.

Happy that he would be able to start apologizing and offering to have them stay after all, he opened the door and walked right in…