It Finally Happened: Part VIII

If righteous fury were combustible, most of Middleton, or at least a swath leading from Middleton High school to a nice, upper/middle class neighborhood would have been scorched right down to the bedrock. In the halls of said school it was as if Miss Hatchet had left the confines of the library, stalking her next vic…student with an overdue book. No one who saw the out and out rage in Kim Possible's eyes would dare to even approach her as she stomped down the corridors of the school, right out the front doors without so much as saying a word. The class bells announcing the end of lunch went unheard by her as she crossed the parking lot, not even bothering to look if anyone would bar her path. Steve Barkin saw the teen leaving but, not having seen her expression, only assumed she had been called away from the school for one of her missions. He shrugged, knowing that somehow the young woman still managed to maintain stellar grades, despite the actual class time she managed to miss. He did find it odd that Stoppable wasn't with her, but he dismissed that, thinking it might be only a minor issue needing only her attention. That being the case, she would likely be back quickly.

Kim was not going to be coming back quickly. Rage, betrayal and despair all fought for supremacy in her head, the mix creating a tumult displayed on her face in an expression that would have done Shego proud if she were not cooling her heals in prison. In fact, if her hair had been black, her skin light green and her hands wreathed in emerald flame, she could quite easily have been mistaken for the villainess.

By the time she reached the door of her home, the rage had faded, replaced by tears welling in her eyes. The shock of the image burned into her retinas or Ron holding that nasty underwear for those other boys to see, those boys in particular was slowly being tempered by a sliver or rationality and a dollop of self-recrimination.

How could she have forgotten those were in her backpack? How could she have been so stupid? Ron was always going into it for one thing or another!

That aside, what gave him the right to brag to them about something like that? To outright lie about it? Didn't he love her? Didn't he respect her?

The answer to those questions was one she really didn't like. Ron was there for her when it really counted, but it seemed like every time he got a chance to rise above himself, it went to his head. He also was not above stepping on everyone around him to get ahead, just as he had when he was trying to secure a position with the school newspaper. He twisted her words, creating a story that was an out and out lie, leading her to be bamboozled into and unwanted date with Brick Flagg. Just thinking of that lumpish oaf, ogling those 'rip-em-off-and-take-me' panties caused her anger to bubble up once more, resulting in a low growl as she climbed the stairs into her loft, slamming and locking the hatch.

Anything good that happens to Ron and he forgets who he is, what he is, who his friends are and who loves him. It's all about him and his selfish needs. Is that what I am to him, just fulfilling another one of his needs?

Give the boy money, he's suddenly a snob who can't buy his friends fast enough. Get him a fancy haircut, he's a whole other person. Give him love, he turns it into a notch on his bedpost, just to improve his standing.

I opened my heart to him in open defiance of what people think of me and this is what he does to me?

Burying her head in her pillows, Kim wailed as what she thought was the most perfect thing in her life crumbled. The worst of it was that despite all the rage and hurt, she still loved him, still wanted him in her arms. She wanted him to hold her and tell her it was alright. Somehow she also came to the realization that it had not been a lie, that at least she would have had that before Ron fell once more into the trap that was him.

Ron stood there trying to get his brain to work, trying to figure our what just happened. Brick, Josh and Walter all seemed to disappear once Kim was there. For a moment both lovers stood there frozen in shock, his hands stuck half way through the process of balling the offending garment up after snatching it back.

Without so much as another word, Kim turned and walked away, her pace quickening with each step, leaving Ron in her wake, trying to force his mind into forming a useful thought, to send him into action to prevent this from getting any worse.

By the time he snapped out of it, she was gone.

The class bell rang, but he couldn't hear it. Barely remembering to recover the Kimmunicator, he ducked into the men's room and closed himself in a stall, uncrumpling the pink garment, trying to figure our what had just happened. Where had these come from? They couldn't be Kim's, despite what the three seniors were assuming. Kim was too…too…prudish. Had one of them managed to plant this in his pocket? That didn't seem likely. Yet how was it the three people who had ever had any kind of relationship, aborted or not, with Kim managed to be there right at that moment. They didn't even travel in the same circles. Jocks, artists and semi-rich snobs didn't mix.

Then it occurred to him. The panties had been snagged on the battery hatch of the Kimmunicator. These hadn't been in his pocket, they had been in Kim's backpack. The slow turning gears of his mind ground through several scenarios, all of which he discarded as completely unlikely. If anyone other than him even made a move toward her backpack, they'd be picking themselves up off the floor. That only left one conclusion.

These really were Kim's.

Feeling like an utter pervert, he looked closely at them, then balled them up, closed his eyes and smelled them. The smelled of soap and lavender. Kim smelled of soap and lavender. Memories of a movie she had made him watch with her about another red-haired girl turning sixteen popped into his head, where the skinny blonde boy managed to get a hold of said redhead's underwear, showing it off to the school.

Realization hit him like a lightning bolt.

He pulled the Kimmunicator out and hit the call button. It took all of two seconds for Wade to appear.

"Ron, are you in a bathroom stall?"

"Ignore that Wade, I need to find Kim."

"Uh, if you've got the Kimmunicator I don't know…"

"Wade, I know you've got me chipped. I figured that out a long time ago. How else would you know how to find me all the time, like Florida and Arizona?"

"Okay, yes, you've got a nano-processor tracking chip."

"And so does Kim, doesn't she?"

Wade looked away from the web-cam for a second, then down at his keyboard. "Yes."

"Does she know about it?"

"No. I've sort of made it seem like the Kimmunicator was the only way I kept track of her."

"Okay, Wade, we'll all talk about this later. Right now I really need to know where she is."

He went to work on his keyboard. "You mean she's not at school with you? Oh, no she's not, it looks like she's at home in her room."

"Thanks Wade." He shut off the comm, thinking it was not a good time to remind the boy that he rocked. If Kim wasn't aware of her own chip, then there were going to have to be long discussions, but this wasn't the time or place for that.

He burst out into the hall at a dead run, shooting past Barkin.

"Stoppable! STOPPABLE!" he raged as Ron hit the front doors.

Kim always heard the cliché about girls crying themselves to sleep. Now that she was crying that hard she realized that was just impossible. Her head hurt, her eyes were water now more from irritation than from tears and she couldn't breath through her nose. She sat up on the bed to get away from the soaked spot on her pillow, trying to regain some of her composure.

THUNK! "Ow!" she heard from the hatch. Her anger flaring once more, seeking a chance to leap from her to its next victim, she got up off the bed and unlatched the main entrance to her room. As she suspected, there was Ron, panting like he had just run a marathon and rubbing his noggin where he had run headlong into an unexpectedly closed hatch. The sight would have been hilarious if she hadn't been so angry with him.

She sat back down on her bed, her legs cross, giving him a look that said explain yourself.

Ron held up his hand, trying to catch his breath. Apparently he had run all the way from the school. Even a year ago that would have left him passed out only half way. "KP, it wasn't what it looked like. You've got to believe me, I wasn't showing those…that underwear to them. I didn't even know I had it and there they were before I could even realize what it was I was holding. The next thing I knew they were passing it around and I grabbed it back right when you saw me. I swear, Kim, I love you, I'd never do anything like that to you, especially in front of them."

Spent, Ron nearly collapsed into Kim's puffy blue chair.

Kim both wanted and needed to believe Ron, yet her emotions would not quite let go of the anger. It wasn't directed so completely at him any longer, some of it was now directed at her, making her question their relationship. It scared her how quickly she had assumed Ron had reverted to one of his false personas. Did she really trust him? Was the love she felt real if she didn't?

"Kim, we've been together for all of ten days now, and the whole time I've been scared to death I was going to do something stupid that would ruin it. I know I can get all big heady when something good happens to me but I swear to you, it hasn't happened and if I have anything to do with it, it's not going to happen this time. I love you too much to let my selfish crap get in the way any more."

She got up off the bed and crossed the room to where he was sitting, taking his hands in hers. She leaned over and kissed him, gently, her mouth staying closed. At least that was how the kiss started. In moments her hands left his as she cradled his head in her hands, passion growing as it burned away the hurt and anger she had been feeling, chasing away the stupidity that was crushing her spirit. This was Ron, her Ron, not the New Ron or Millionaire Ron or Bueno Nacho Ron…her Ron!

She pulled him up from the chair, her lips never leaving his, pulling him across the room, slowly lowering herself on the bed, her hands trailing down his back, further and further down. Kim knew they were alone in the house, and would be for some time. The twins wouldn't get out of school for a couple more hours and her parents wouldn't be home until even later, if her mother could get away from the hospital at all.

Ron was on top of her, his body pressed to hers, kissing her, his hands reaching under her, trying to emulate hers. She wanted this, needed this. She wanted the dream she had to come true, to make up to him for her doubts, for her mistaken anger.

He started kissing her down her neck, just as he had in her dream. "Were you wearing those on our date?" he whispered.

"Yes, Ronnie. For you, only for you." Her fingers started fumbling with his belt buckle, without much luck, considering she had never been in such a position before. She tugged harder and harder, trying to get it undone.

Ron suddenly sat up, letting go of her backside, rolling off and away from her. "Whoa, KP. I…I think we're getting in a little over our heads."

She rolled toward him, kissing him softly, running a hand up inside his shirt. "Please, Ronnie. I want you."

"Kim, no, this isn't right, this isn't us. Ten minutes ago you were mad enough to kill me. This isn't how I want our first time to be."

Sitting back, she halfway pouted "What do you want our first time to be?"

Ron took a deep breath and let it out. Then another. "Kim, much as my body is screaming at me, much as it confirms I really am a loser, I want to wait. I don't know when the time will be right, but it isn't now. KP, we're just sixteen and we've been dating for ten days. I know everyone assumes we've been together like forever but it really has only been that long. We don't know what we're doing."

"But if we love each other this much?"

"Kim, I love you with my whole heart. I want to be with you from now on, but this just isn't right. We've been raised better than this. We're both acting like a couple of monkeys in rut, not rational people. Besides, knowing our luck, you'd be pregnant, right from the start."

Closing her eyes, Kim rolled toward her nightstand, taking a small jewelry box out of the second drawer. She opened it and handed the contents to him.

"I've been taking those since right before I turned fifteen."

"Wha? I thought…uh…you…uh…"

"Ron, I'm still a virgin. Mom put me on those for other reasons. For one, my cycle was all over the place because of all the stuff we do, plus I was starting to have skin problems. Mom also wanted me to be protected in case something…really bad happened on one of our missions."

"Oh. So you mean…if we…you can't…"

"That's right, Ron. The only thing stopping us is, like you said, doing the right thing. Come here."

He leaned back toward her, but instead of a passionate embrace she hugged him tight, putting her chin over his shoulder. "Ronnie, I love you so much. You're so good to me, keeping me grounded. What did I ever do to deserve you?"

"Just being you. Plus, the way you kiss sure helps."

She leaned back, smiling at him before planting another one on him. Their passion under control, they both enjoyed spending the early afternoon 'innocently' making out.