Where You Hang Your Hat Chapter 20: Part XX, a kim possible fanfic

Where You Hang Your Hat: Part XX

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Kim held her hands up in frustration as they got into her Cruiser. "Enough, Joss. I'm embarrassed enough as it is, just let it drop." Ron was still inside, standing in line to pay for their breakfast. The pancake place looked like it had been lifted out of any mountain resort in the world and plunked down in the middle of the tourist area. It was easily twice as expensive as the same kind of food at home, but they were sort of a captive audience, not knowing where the locals sought their morning repast.

Joss' smile was still stretching from turquoise-and-silver earring to turquoise-and-silver earring. "Kim, if I'd a known I was in for dinner and a show, I'd a come up her with you two a long time ago."

Kim slipped into the tan leather seats on the passenger side. The single pint of beer logically would have been long out of her system, but it didn't hurt to be careful. Besides, Ron could always use the practice and she was the one who had shot him down when he wanted to buy his own car. For the moment, she thought that would just be wasteful. They went almost everywhere together, including school. All that would change after they graduated. The last thing she wanted was to be stuck somewhere like at her graduate school lectures while she waited for Ron to come pick her up…or vice versa.

"Joss, how many times do I have to say I'm sorry?"

"Kim, nothin to be sorry 'bout. I'm not 'fended by you an Ron doin what comes natural."

Kim covered her eyes with one hand. "I had no right, there in front of you. Oy, I still can't believe I did that. Must have been that stupid beer."

"Oh, give me a break, Kim. You had one of those stinky dark beers and on a full stomach ta boot. You didn't have 'nough in ya to tipsy a termite. You were just…"

"Frisky?" Kim provided.

"Not the word I would a used, but it works."

Ron leaned in the open driver's side window. "You know, they do have a morning train ride. We could hop on that and see all the stuff we couldn't last night. I was just in there talking to a guy who turned out to the engineer, he said he might even be able to let me ride up in the cab! I mean, right up there with them driving the train. That rocks! No, it stadium rocks!"

"Amp down there, baby. Don't forget Mom and Dad are taking us all out to dinner tonight, and it takes two hours to get home in good traffic. If we hit the expressway at rush hour."

"Aw man. Come on, KP. If we're running behind we can have Wade send the flyer down to pick us up."

"No way. The Blue Fox Flyer is for missions only. I'm not calling it in every time we need to get somewhere."

"Pfffft. Like Wade cares. He's just stoked when you use one of his creations. Anyway, the excursion's supposed to be back around lunch time, we could hit Frontier Footlongs before we head home…it's not like it's going to spoil my appetite."

Joss leaned up between the front seats. "Ron, I think what Kim's tryin ta say is, she wants to get home in time for some afternoon delight."

He waved a hand dismissively. "Ah, we can do that any…"

"Ron!" Kim growled, dividing her glare between her fiancé and her cousin. "Keep that up and a certain somebody is going to be sleeping on the couch one more night."

"Don't worry, Ron. I'll come out and keep ya company."

"So not." Kim focused her stare on Joss, giving her 'the look.' "Besides, I've suddenly got a craving for a Naco, and for some reason this seems to be the only town I've ever seen that didn't have a BN."

"Better hop in here. You know how Kim gets 'bout her cravins."

"Urrrrgh! Keep that up, Joss, and you're going to learn you're not the only one here who knows how to hog tie something."

"I'd sure like ta see ya try."

"Oh, uh, KP, thought you'd like to see this." He handed her a newspaper he had rolled up in his hand. It was a copy of Inventive Chilling, a free publication that produced in Middleton, adding their own local stories to nationally syndicated fare. Apparently they were available there in Durango as well.

Kim unfurled the paper, looking at the cover. "So? Not sure I care about the alt-rock scene in Lowerton."

"Look at that teaser down in the corner."

She hadn't noticed it at first, but just as he said, there was a simple headline that read "Homeless Hero." With a good idea what it may be about, she turned to the indicated page. There, amidst dozens of ads for various dating services and other less-than-savory sounding ventures was a large black-and-white photo of her, standing in the lobby of the Middleton College auditorium, dressed only in a bikini and flip-flops.

"Gah!" She read the accompanying story. There was barely a mention of the fact that forty-nine other tenants, many with families, were forced out of the apartment complex.

"It so figures. They only seem to care about the fact we were living there together. Great, just great. Oh, come on. Don't they even know your name? And you're not just my boyfriend!" She growled again, noting the caption under the photo. "All grown up?"

"Er, maybe I should have waited until we got home to show you that."

Kim opened her door back up, throwing the paper face-down in the seat. She paced back and forth a couple times, wishing she could just go back into the breakfast place and grab every single copy. She knew better than to do that, considering the likelihood of there being somebody in the crowd with a cell-phone camera, and yet another bad picture of her would be floating around. It was bad enough that picture had been splashed all over the Tri-City area during the evening and late news that night, with her hair damp and matted down, no makeup, looking more like a beach-bound party girl than the conservative girl-next-door she had always tried to be.

"What's next? Me on the cover of Folks Weekly?"

"KP, there's no reason to get tweaked. They did the same thing that summer we were down there in Fort Summerdell, and they didn't even catch on that we were down there with our families."

"It's just not fair, Ron. Don't they get it that I love you like nothing else? If Rabbi Katz is okay with it, why can't everyone else. We're practically married for crying out loud." She sat down on the edge of the sidewalk, drooping her shoulders.

"It's not the end of the world, Kim. I know what we mean to each other. Who cares what they think?"

"I care, Ron. I don't want the world thinking I'm some kind of little tramp who shacks up with every Tom Dick and Harry out there. People see what they want to see, and they make their own minds up about it. Face it, there's real Food Chains out there everywhere. Maybe you don't see it, but people I know, people I like, trust and respect are going to read this thing and they're going to have a certain opinion of me. Those same people are the ones we go to when we have to trade in a favor, or sit in judgment of me when I'm making a presentation, just like that last one."

Ron opened the car door and got the paper out, turning it back to the picture. "Look, KP, what do you see?"

She glanced at it, then looked away. "I see me dressed like I'm ready for Mardis Gras in a story about me living with some guy.

He held it up in front of her. "No. Look closer. They might be majorly misinterpreting what's going on in the article, but what people are going to remember is that picture."

"Oh Yay." She said despondently.

"Kim. Look again. I think you're missing some important stuff. Yeah, you looked badical in that suit, but they caught some other things too." To make his point, he reached for her left hand, twisting the ring so the jewels were right in the middle. She didn't wear the necklaces or the emerald earrings so much any more, but she almost never took the engagement ring off.

She took the paper from him and looked again. Sure enough, the ring was clearly visible in the picture, as well as something else. She laid they paper down on her lap, twining her fingers with his. "Oh, I'm like so the drama right now, aren't I."

"No, but you're just a little itty bitty bit vain."

"How stupid can I be not to notice you were in that picture with me. Oh Ron, forgive?"

"Always. Babe, it's us together, and if the grocery store rags come calling, all I'm gonna say is that I'm with the most badical, beautiful, wonderful woman in the world. Besides, we're kinda-sorta married already anyway."

"That doesn't exactly count. The only people on Earth who know about that, who can know about that are our parents and Rabbi Katz, but I know what you mean." She got up and dusted her backside off. "Okay, let's see if it's not too late to get you a train ride, Choo-choo boy."

"Spankin." Joss agreed, climbing back out of the car. "See, they're already gettin ready to go over there." She pointed past some nearby rooftops, where a plume of black smoke was rising.

"That's weird." Ron said, raising an eyebrow. "I thought the tracks were back there." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder, in the direction of the restored depot where they bought their tickets for the dinner train the night before.

"That's an awful lot of smoke for a steam engine to be idling anyway." Kim said. She pulled her keys out and punched the button on the remote, opening the rear hatch. She grabbed the three backpacks, shrugging into hers and handing the others to Ron and Joss. "That may be nothing, could be some tracks we didn't see before, but I'm worried it's not supposed to be doing that."

The other two started after her, Ron struggling with the straps, considering her was walking and trying to put it on at the same time. Kim reached behind her into a Velcro slash, pulling her equipment belt out and snapping it around her waist. She knew it looked a little strange with her 'civilian' clothes, but there wasn't a good place to change into her mission gear. The smoke was too thick and too black to be from a steam locomotive in her opinion, and she had a pretty good idea what it was.

They broke out into a light run when the sirens started. They cleared a row of three and four story hotels and the source of the billowing smoke was revealed.

It wasn't a train, but an older hotel. The structure was built of brick, but like their own lost apartment, most of the interior and likely the whole frame was built of local timber. Smoke was pouring from a number of upper windows, but flames were visible even on the ground floor. What looked like an attached restaurant was going up in flames, taking the aging building with it.

There was no sign of the fire department yet. That was more than likely the sirens they heard, meaning the fire had only just broken out. It was already do large the whole building would shortly be engulfed, and the full parking lot around it told the tale. The building was in operation and there would be people inside.

Pulling her grappler, she took aim at a dormer on the roof. The super-strong line played out from inside the old style hair-dryer casing. She had several newer ones, with the molecular binding grappler instead of the retractable bladed one, but this was her trusted old one, the same one she first used when she raided Drakken's lair inside the World's Biggest Cheese wheel. She didn't have her super-suit or even her newer mission gear with the self-healing fabric, but she had been doing this before she even had the old cargos and turtleneck like the ones folded up in her backpack. They were going to help, and they were going to do it old-school.

The hook dug into the wood frame and held fast. Almost immediately the line went taught and she was sailing through the air. For half an instant she wished she had thought to get her gloves out of the pack as well, but she had little trouble hanging on. Her hand strength was phenomenal. It had to be considering the speed her grappler could pull her along, and the fact that sometimes Ron was hanging onto her for dear life.

She spun around as she neared the window, kicking outwards as she hit, thankful she was wearing full-length blue-jeans instead of shorts. Glass flew everywhere and her legs would have been cut to ribbons if it weren't for the heavy denim cloth.

The room she landed in was empty, and already filled with smoke. With a twist, the blades of the grappler retracted, freeing themselves from the wood. The line barely had enough time to snake back into the casing before it was back in it's home, an specially enlarged pistol holster. It was amazing how many people actually thought she was armed. Kim didn't use weapons, save the non-lethal type. Her way was to stop the bad guys.

There were no bad guys in her current sitch, unless one counted the smoke and flames. Once again she lamented not having some of her gadgets, like thermal imaging glasses. She would have to rely on her other senses. Still, with all the smoke, she was going to have to dig the down low pretty quickly and get back outside before she would be overcome herself.

Above the sound of groaning, burning wood, she heard another grappler go off. There was no way to tell from her current vantage point if it were Ron or Joss, but she knew either one would be able to handle themselves. Joss had a great deal of Global Justice training under her belt, and had already been performing rescues of this nature up around her home in Montana. Ron she simply trusted unconditionally, though she still worried about him. Fires were unpredictable and even the professionals sometimes didn't come back out.

There was no time to think about that at the present. Deciding the room was clear, she moved on, staying as low as she could to avoid the bulk of the smoke. Being on the top floor, she was almost blinded by it. Her eyes were already burning and she was fighting off the urge to cough. If that started, she knew she wouldn't be able to stop and would have to get out before she was able to help anybody.

Then she heard something that made her heart sink. The screaming was obviously coming from a child, though it was impossible to tell any more than the general direction it was coming from. She hesitated a moment at the door, recalling the lessons that had been taught in grade school. The door was warm, but not extremely hot. Taking a chance, she opened it, ready to jump back in case flames reached for her.

The hallway beyond the room was indeed ablaze, but she couldn't stop then. The screaming was alternating with crying. The smoke was even thicker and the heat was oppressive. The carpet on the floor was on fire and she noted with a great deal of anger there were sprinkler heads mounted in the ceiling, but no water was coming down. Either the system was damaged, or worse, was in such disrepair it was useless.

Shoving that though back into her mind, she pressed onwards. By then her eyes were just about useless. The smoke was stinging and it was getting harder to breath. She just had to concentrate on the screams. She reached another door where they seemed the loudest. She spun and kicked, smashing the wooden frame of the door, knocking it partially askew.

The girl was probably four or five years old. She was still dressed in footie pajamas and even in the thick smoke she could see the unmade bed. There was no sign of the child's parents, so she did the first thing she could. Scooping up the child, she made her way to the window. A couple tugs on the latch failed to open and it appeared that it had long ago been painted shut. A silent air conditioner unit told the tale. Whoever owned the building had set it up so their guests would have the greatest in comfort, never considering they might need the window as an escape route.

She looked back at the hallway. The flames were getting higher, cutting off any hope of escape that route. Putting the screaming child down for a moment, she grabbed the small round table from the corner and heaved it through the window. With the grip of her grappler, she cleared the worst of the remaining glass.

Grabbing the girl once more, she hooked the grapple to edge and swung her feet out, lower them quickly to the ground, into the waiting arms of a fireman who was just on the scene, about to charge headlong into the blaze.

The coughing started as she handed the child off. Tears were streaming from her eyes and it was hard to stand upright. She coughed and gulped, trying to get clean air into her smoke-filled lungs. As she blacked out she felt something being pressed against her face.

Kim opened her eyes, seeing the inferno raging nearby. She was sitting on a plastic tarp not far from an ambulance. The building would be a total loss, but the only thing she could think about were the other guests who might be trapped inside. Not only that, there was no sign of Ron and Joss. If she could be knocked out so quickly by the smoke, they were probably in deep trouble.

She sat up, realizing that an oxygen mask was strapped to her face. She had no idea how long she had been out, but judging from the looks of things, it must have been some time. The fire had spread throughout the structure, forcing the fire department to concentrate on keeping it from spreading to the adjacent properties. Water arced high through the air, which was filled with a mixture of steam and smoke.

Feeling better, save for her watering eyes, she pulled the mask of and tried getting up. An EMT rushed to her side, pushing her back down."

"Don't get up, Miss. You inhaled an awful lot of smoke back there."

She didn't care one whit for herself in that moment. "Where's Ron?...and Joss?"

"I don't know who that is."

"Uh, he's this much taller than me." She held her hand a few inches above her head. "Blonde, wearing a red hockey jersey. Joss looks a lot like me, but with brown hair. She was wearing jeans and a teal crop top."

The EMT, an African-American woman in her thirties just shook her head. "Don't worry, everyone is accounted for. That girl you got out was the last one."

"You don't understand." She was starting to gasp a little again, the urge to cough almost doubling her over. "They weren't guests, we were just trying to help."

The mask was forced back onto her face, calming the coughing a little bit. Just as she looked up, the entire roof of the structure caved in, sending up a huge cloud of black smoke and burning embers.

"Ron!" She wailed behind the mask.