Our Place in the Food Chain: Part XXXV

Kim sat alone in the office waiting. She was wearing what amounted to her 'business mission' clothing, a dark green dress skirt and a black long-sleeve blouse. It seemed appropriate somehow for this meeting. It seemed all the more so now that she was there, waiting for the office's occupant to return and begin their visit in earnest.

She had been in this office a number of times now, more so in the last few months after she was invited to come with Ron on a regular basis. Yet, here she was and Ron was still in Japan and would be for another week. She wished earnestly he was there, at least to hold her hand. There wasn't any logical reason she should be frightened of this meeting but it felt for all the world like she had been called to the principal's office, a feeling made all that more palpable by the very few times that had actually happened to her in her academic career.

As a near-straight-A student whose great stab at youthful rebellion was wearing belly baring crop-tops year round there never really had been any reason for her to be called on the carpet for some reason or another but when she was her heart would race like a champion horse. It was one more thing where it was hammered home to her that she was not the one in charge, though it often manifested itself in her cowering in front of her superiors.

That feeling would not leave her, though she tried her best to banish if from her mind as she waited. This man had been nothing at all but a total friend to her and Ron and there was no cause to fear him.

Was there?

She bit her lower lip ever so slightly as she looked at her watch. He wasn't late, she was still slightly early, but it still felt like an eternity waiting there alone like that.

Kim found she very much did not like being alone, especially lately. Had she become so dependent on Ron's company?

She wasn't kept waiting long. In fact, Rabbi Katz entered his office about a minute ahead of schedule.

"Good afternoon, Kimberly. I'd ask you how you're doing but that cast on your ankle seems to indicate you might have to tell me a polite lie." He shook her hand before taking a seat in front of his desk, right across from where she was sitting on the couch. It was the same place he always sat when he was 'officially' counseling the couple. Other times when they'd met him there, he always sat behind the desk, leaning on his elbows and steepling his fingers.

"It's no big, Rabbi. I'm supposed to have it off in a couple days, then I'll just have to wear a light brace. I heal really fast, you know."

"It's, how do you say it? Most def good to be young. Fast healing is a great thing, especially in your line of work."

That gave her slight pause to think. In all her scrapes, in all the fights, in all the years she had been doing this she had never actually broken a bone or suffered anything worse than some bruises of split ends (what was it with the villains and their electric powered thingamabobs?) Now she had nearly broken her leg and it wasn't even a real mission. More of a kidnapping.

Kim, she told herself, it was every bit, one hundred percent a kidnapping. Though somehow she kept falling back into the thinking that it had actually been a mission and she had only been in the same kind of physical danger she always had been.

It was no big. She was Kim Possible and that sort of thing happened to her all the time.

"That was something else, that boy from school turning out to be who he was."

"Yeah, something else." Kim repeated, starting to become uncomfortable again. "Um, Rabbi, why is it exactly you wanted to see me today? I know it's our usual day but since Ron was off in Japan…"

He smiled softly at her, the expression seeming even more gentle in nature framed by his long, thick beard. "Kim, I don't need to see both of you together every single time to help you when you need it. In fact there might be some things we'll discuss as the two of you become real adults that I might want to do one-on-one anyway, but that's getting ahead of things, most likely way ahead of things considering some of the thoughts the two of you have shared with me in our past sessions."

"Uh, yeah, sure." She said, biting her lower lip again.

"So, I guess I really do have to ask you that question. How are you doing, Kim?"

"Spankin!" She replied instantly. "Ron's going to be home in a week and we'll be together for the rest of the holidays and…"

He shook his head slowly, lowering his eyes slightly for just a moment. "No, I don't mean how are you going to be. How are you right now, Kimberly?"

"What do you mean? I feel pretty good. My ankle aches a bit but I think that's more because of this heavy cast."

It was Katz' turn to bite his lower lip. He was about to tread into things he almost wished he didn't suspect, all on the basis of another friendship. "Kim, what I mean is, how do you feel about yourself, especially after last Friday?"

Kim stared at him, blank faced, her mouth slightly open.

The Rabbi nodded and looked away from her for a moment. "A good friend of mine invited me to play golf with him yesterday afternoon after Temple services. Normally I really enjoy his company, but there was something on his mind, something he both wanted to talk about and to keep to himself. Turns out he was frightened, very frightened about something."

She just nodded, as if to say go on.

"He's got a daughter. Strong, independent girl. Can take on the world in a heartbeat. Now, a few times over the last couple nights or so, he wakes up in the middle of the night to a sound he never thought he would hear. That sound was his daughter screaming incoherently in her sleep. Now, given what I know about this girl, I somehow don't think that has happened very much before, despite all the horrible things she has faced.

"That tells me that maybe she's faced something new, something bad she just doesn't have all the right tools to deal with, maybe something so bad there is no good and complete way to deal with it, at least at first. Am I making any sense to you, Kim?"

Her chin went up and down once, slowly.

Katz nodded once more and rubbed his forehead, taking off his glasses and pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Kimberly. First, let me tell you, anything you decide to tell me is not going to leave this room on my lips. I tell you this before God. But I think there are some other issues that might not have been in the police report."

"Rabbi, like I said, it was no big. He turned into a bad guy and I took him down before he could hurt me."

"Then why are you looking at me with fear in your eyes like I was holding a gun to your head?" He asked earnestly.

She blinked maybe two or three times, realizing she was actually starting to shiver.

"Okay, now it makes me feel a good bit better that you said you took him out before he could hurt you, but that just means the damage I'm seeing didn't come from his hands. You already told me in counseling that the first time you met him, you were physically attracted to him." He didn't expect her to answer, but the slight look of revulsion that crossed her face momentarily provided it for him. "Did he, in any way, attempt to do more than…let's say hurt you in normal ways?"

"He…he…" Her voice trailed off in a whisper.

"It's okay, Kim. This is just between you and me. I might have to tell you to talk to some more people, but that's going to be up to you. For your sake and for Ron's sake and for all your loved-one's sakes, you need to get this out in the open and deal with it."

Kim closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Just thinking about it she could feel the simultaneous burning heat and icy touch of Carrion's lips on her neck, hearing him whisper those words in her ear.

"Carrion…"

"Is that what he's calling himself? I thought it was Cary."

"I'm sorry, I won't dignify him with that name any more. The person I thought was Cary, who I thought was a friend doesn't exist."

"Go on."

"He said he was out to get his revenge for what I did to his father. In reality all I did was help capture him one more time, something Team Go has done repeatedly over the years. He even said what his father wanted him to do was to give me a sort of bloody nose."

"Somehow I think this turned far worse than that." He stated, waiting for her to go on.

"Ferociously worse. Rabbi, I think right along with actually wanting to physically beat me up, I think his intention was to…he…"

"He was going to sexually assault you." He said finally, frowning through his beard.

"It wasn't just that. Everything he did seemed to revolve around that. He took the simple revenge his father wanted and twisted it into some perverse mission that first involved seducing me. Then he got me drunk at a party and if it hadn't been for Ron…well, you see what he was planning there. Then Friday night he literally said he was going to take a little bit of what Ron was having. I know Ron hasn't really been having that, but he meant he was going to…if I wasn't so well trained in martial arts…"

Kim was shaking so hard she had to sit on her hands. Never, in all the years, against what she thought was some of the most heinous evil on the face of the Earth had anyone ever actually threatened that. Sure, some of her villains had been attracted to her, specifically Junior, but that was different. That was honest and actually a bit flattering. What Cary had threatened was…revolting.

A sick feeling rolled through the pit of her stomach. A discussion she had with her mother a few years ago was coming back to her. Anne Possible has started her on birth control when she was nearly fifteen, right when the missions had started changing in character from outright helping people to fighting villains. In her mind, at the time, her focus was on clearing up her skin and evening out her cycle but her mother had mentioned the possibility she would one day run into just this sort of situation and at least that would offer some measure of protection, at least in one aspect.

In all the time that had passed since then she hadn't thought about that again. Sickness and anger mixed in her body.

She could feel those hated lips on her throat again. She didn't want that. She wanted Ron's warm lips there.

That thought froze in her mind.

What was she going to feel when Ron kissed her there? What if Ron did something tender like he always did, to walk up behind her and gently lift her hair and deftly place a tiny, light kiss on her neck?

"Kim, there's a whole lot going on here. Like I said, it's good nothing physical happened, but you're dealing with a threat that in all honesty, I think is even beyond what I can do to help you with. I think it may be a really good idea for you to talk to your mother and see if she can recommend a professional, at least to talk to. That boy not only threatened to do those things, but he pretended to be your friend. There's also a certain element of betrayal involved. Alone I don't think it would have hurt you like this, but as it is, it's just more salt in the wound.

"Tell me something, Kimberly…Kim. I've always liked the understanding the two of you have come to concerning physical love…have you recently considered changing that understanding?"

She just nodded numbly at him. It had seemed so clear last Saturday morning when she was talking to Monique. It was like the morning after any other mission.

Yet there she was eating a whole quart of ice cream, growling at her Mom when she tried to stop her and proclaiming to Monique that she was finally going to go all the way with Ron.

Why did that all seem so childish now?

Correctly reading what she was thinking, Katz said "Denial ain't just a river Moses turned to blood." He pulled a tissue from his box. Kim wasn't blubbing yet, but the tears had been flowing down her face and her nose was just starting to run.

"We've talked in the past how when things get a little rough between you and Ron, you tend to get even more physical with him. It's how you react to things. In his case, I think he enjoys that and it helps smooth things between you, but this time I think you were just trying to mask what you were feeling, probably not even consciously. Like I said, you really need to talk to somebody who's a lot more qualified to deal with this sort of thing. But, for right now, I think you really shouldn't be making any plans with Ronald beyond what the two of you might normally do. If you did more now it would be out of the wrong kind of need and that's not the kind of celebration of love it's supposed to be. I know the way you love him and you know that just wouldn't be right or fair, now would it."

"I guess not." She sobbed. "Rabbi, what if I punch him out the first moment he touches me?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Then I'd say you need a lot more professional help at the moment than I'm even suggesting, but the fact you recognize that as a possibility should be enough of a red flag for you. Look, I'm not sure if you're even aware of what's been happening to you at night, but the screaming alone should be enough. Now, are you going to get some help?"

"Does it mean you won't be able to help afterwards?" She asked, rubbing her nose with the tissue.

"Heaven's no, Kimberly. How you deal with something like this in faith is just as important as how you deal with it in science. Now, let's talk about something on a little happier vein." He tried smiling at her.

The sight of his beard twitching up at the edges made her giggle slightly. Last summer, when he first entered their lives as both Ron's spiritual leader and their couple's counselor, Monique had described him as having a ZZ Top beard. When she first met him she thought he was part of one of the more traditional sects of th Jewish faith, but after getting to know him she began to think that was highly unlikely. One look at the way he let his daughter, Phoebe, dress at school told you that.

"What are your plans for when Ronald gets home?"

"Well, I think, first off, we're just going to have some good quality time to be alone and talk about things."

"That sounds real good, Kimberly, but aren't you going to kiss him first?"

"Oh yeah." She said, smiling again though her cheeks were still a bit wet.

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