Our Place in the Food Chain: Part XXXVII

The approaching thunderstorms, visible through the giant, three story tall windows of Middleton International Airport, were making Kim nervous. It wasn't the rain she feared nor the lightning. Now, what made her heart nearly skip a beat was what such storms could do to airplanes They were just the kind of clouds that could produce micro-bursts; sudden, violent downdrafts that could slam a massive jet-liner to the ground like it was nothing but a sheet of aluminum foil. The actual danger of an airplane accidentally crossing into the phenomenon was relieved somewhat when they developed weather radar that could detect wind-shear but it still made it all the more likely the flight would be delayed or worse, diverted to Denver. Maybe the dark clouds only looked ominous to her untrained eye but it had been oddly warm the last week, especially at the end of November that was supposed to be more Winter than Summer in Colorado.

She had been awake now for more than twenty four hours, aching with the thought that by that afternoon her sweetie would come home to her. She went to bed at nine, hoping sleep would claim her and deliver he directly to that day. Instead, despite the mild sleeping pills she had been given, she lay there the whole night with her eyes wide open, picturing over and over what the scene at the airport would be like. She wanted nothing more than to run right up to him as he came through those doors and do everything she could do in public with him (and see what else she could get away with in the bargain.) Only now she was keeping herself wired up with cup after cup of hot black coffee from the overpriced Seattle style shop there at the airport. It took her three tries to convince the barista that all she wanted was plain black coffee. No milk or cream or sugar or flavors or fluffy muck… plain black coffee. After shooting the kid a look, he poured something steaming in her cup and took her money.

Kim said a short blessing in Hebrew that Ron had taught her. She wasn't planning on converting to Ron's religion, no matter how much she loved him and respected it, but the prayer itself seemed appropriate. It was directed at both her father and Rabbi Katz. She didn't know what had possessed her father to seek help with Ron's spiritual leader instead of Pastor Grayson but she was certainly glad he did. Grayson she really didn't know all that well. He had been her Pastor for about two and a half years and in that time she had probably spoken to him at length once. One thing was certain, there was no way in the world she would have opened up to him about her recent ordeal as she had with Gerry Katz.

The dreams were a surprise to her. It was a blessing she could not remember them first thing in the morning but the fact she had been screaming incoherently in her sleep to the point it had awakened her parents bothered her immensely. She ended up speaking to the Rabbi for most of the rest of that afternoon, not so much dwelling on the problem itself but talking about her relationship with Ron, with her parents, her brothers though in the end it did come back to what was troubling her.

What scared her most was the possibility this could affect how she felt about Ron, how she desired him. The very thought of her shrinking from his touch made her heart ache. She didn't want that, she wanted him to touch her. She wanted to touch him.

Kim wanted Ron to kiss away the burning, fouled spot on her neck.

Instead of going straight home from the synagogue, Kim pulled out her battered old Kimmunicator and scrolled through some pre-programmed numbers. She had a particular thought as one number scrolled by but the last time she tried reaching that particular woman it had been an exercise in frustration.

Well, Wade fixed it so she had unlimited minutes and this call would go through his mainframe anyway so all it would cost her was time. She scrolled back to the number and hit dial.

She was shocked when a dark-haired woman with an eye patch appeared instantly on her screen. "Good afternoon, Kim Possible. What can Global Justice do for you today?"

Kim glanced around, licked her bottom lip once and dove right in. "Dr. Director, do you have people your people talk to when they, well, need somebody to talk to after a particularly tough mission?"

Betty Director didn't say another word. She touched a control somewhere out of range of the camera and the ground suddenly dropped out from under Kim's feet. She rolled her eyes slightly at the tube-way carried her into the depths of Middleton, deep into the bedrock where an immense secret complex housing the headquarters of Global Justice sat. With the possible exception of unexpectedly happening to be standing right smack dab on the entrance to one of the transport tubes, the trip didn't bother as much as the first time. Then, she had screamed most of the way down, especially since she had no idea

Moments later it deposited her, not in the main control center but in what looked a lot more like somebody's comfortable living room. If it were not for the lack of real windows and the single tube entrance she would not have known it was part of the underground administration center.

It turned out she said something that amounted to 'the magic words.' Instead of having superiors trying to second guess a request for help, when a subordinate asks for the particular kind of help Kim did, they were required to send them immediately, no questions asked.

The person she spoke to was warm, friendly and very professional. For an organization noted for calling people like Wil Du their top agents, the did manage to employ competent mental health professionals. Without realizing it she spent another three hours speaking very frankly about what had happened to her. The doctor apparently even had a copy of the police report with her though she never even brought up the fact Kim left that very particular detail out when Carrion was arrested.

She left finally feeling somewhat better. The doctor made it a point to play up the fact she had been, in effect, rescued by her boyfriend and partner. It struck her on her way home that she had somehow felt comfortable enough to mention the fact that Ron had magically transported there from Japan. The doctor had only nodded like she already knew about that as well, though that just could have been professional cool.

It also made her smile the woman had not once called Ron her sidekick. It was partner, always partner, unless he was being referred to as her boyfriend. As far as that was concerned, the doctor made it a point that Kim needed to try and do everything she normally would with him, partly to show that what Carrion did to her was not deep or lasting and partly to see if there were other things they would have to explore.

Besides that she was given a prescription for a mild sleeping aid that might help with the dreams and orders to return weekly until such time as the doctor was satisfied. Since Kim considered her relationship with Ron important enough, she agreed. Of course, if she hadn't she was likely to be sucked into a tube transport and brought there anyway.

On the way out she ran into Dr. Director, who was ostensibly prowling the halls of the admin center but was more likely waiting for Kim.

"Thanks for the doctor, Doctor." She said cheerfully, feeling better about herself than she had in days. "Though I don't know how that regulation applies to me since I'm a civilian."

"Yours is a special case, Kim. I view you more as an independent contractor than as a pure civilian, even though we don't pay you. To be honest with you I didn't know whether the rules would apply to you or not, so I simply chose the option that would at least produce a good result even it if proved incorrect in the end."

"So, you're not the least bit curious what I was asking for?"

"No. I'm not supposed to be. Once you asked what you did I sent you right along. I trust what our doctors do. I have to. I can't be second guessing the mental status of every agent or other asset."

"So if I wasn't fit, then you would have already known?" Kim asked.

"Precisely. In fact, considering the work you have done for us and others I'm surprised it took you this long to ask. If you were an agent you would likely be called in front of them soon anyway just to make sure you aren't holding something critical back." Betty Director said in her direct, concise manner.

"I've got some pretty spankin people who've got my back." Kim said. "They didn't let me hold it back."

They stopped in front of a large bank of transport tubes. "That's one of the reasons for your success, Kim." She said, just as the door closed and she whooshed back to the surface.

The thunder was close enough now it was rattling the windows. It wasn't just a distant darkness now, it was all around them. Almost afraid of what she would see, she looked up at the arrival board, scanning for the flight.

"Let's see. 815, Tokyo to Middleton to Sydney. Whew, on time." She read out loud.

"You've waited a month to see your friend, a few more minutes aren't going to kill you." The other member of the school's 'official' delegation welcoming the two students back said.

Kim looked up at the woman, who was gulping down coffee herself, though she had the foresight to bring her own thermos full.

Normally, the parents would be on hand to pick their kids up, especially since Ron was still a minor, just like Kim. Even though Bonnie was eighteen her mother was waiting about fifty feet away from them. That was close enough for Kim. She had enough of the woman when she had been called in to help chaperone a ski trip a couple years earlier. It had been funny watching her rival squirm at first, until she realized just how embarrassing the elder Rockwaller really was.

Since it was Tuesday, Ron's parents made their usual mystery trek to Denver. They weren't overly concerned since he traveled all the time and of course Kim could go to pick him up. There wasn't any problem from her parent's end when permission was asked to take a half day off from class to go pick him up.

That was until Wilma Director stepped in and decided she wanted to be on hand to welcome the two students home. So, instead of heading straight for Mrs. Stoppable's old Pontiac (which was now sitting in the parking lot at school) and then straight for his house for some 'Mission Debriefing.' Instead Kim was driven there in Principal Directors big Chrysler and would have to ride back to the school first, likely having to finish out the day.

"Remember when he gets here, this is a school function, so all the regulations are totally in effect. Keep your PDA…reasonable." She told the teen.

Kim grumbled under her breath something about making Grandparents out of her Mom and Dad right on the concourse. The principal just didn't understand how much she needed to reconnect with him. She needed to have him in her arms, to be in his arms. This wasn't like the time he was away at summer camp. Then he was just her best friend and she missed him horribly. No, this was worse. Ron was still her best friend, but Monique came close in that regard so she wasn't left totally alone this time but she found herself missing him all that much more. He was the love of her life and she had blown past so much of the senseless triviality of teen dating with him. He was 'the one' and she knew it in her heart.

If Wilma Director thought she was going to greet him with a chaste hug and a peck on the cheek, she was sadly mistaken.

"Oceanic flight 815 from Tokyo now debarking, concourse eight." A woman's monotone voice drifted over the intercom. Kim's heart surged. She bolted up out of her seat, her half-cup of poorly made coffee forgotten as she bounded up. It was a large plane, booked to capacity so there were a large number of people waiting for new arrivals right along with her.

This was one of those times she regretted being relatively short.

With only her good leg to hop with she could only manage a couple feet in the air, trying to see over the crowd. She almost screamed when she spotted him. There he was, his dark blonde hair bobbing in and out of the crowd. Finally she was able to get a better look at him as he got in line at Customs.

Kim crossed her arms and shook her head when she realized he was actually carrying Bonnie's suitcases in addition to his own backpack.

She couldn't keep her eyes off of him. They looked at his passport and gave his backpack a cursory once over. Then he stood and patiently waited while Bonnie was checked through. Apparently there were no terrorist watches for a pair of super-Caucasian teenagers, so they sailed right on through.

A little growl escaped her throat when Ron picked Bonnie's suitcases right back up as they entered the rest of the airport. Unhindered, her robustly tanned rival reached her first.

"Hi, K. At least you've got him trained to be a proper gentleman." She said, wearing her usual air of superiority."

Kim was thinking it better be because he's a gentleman and not because you've played him you…

"See you at school tomorrow, Bon-bon." Ron said happily, putting the bags down finally.

"Whatever." She shrugged as she picked them up and headed over to where her mother was waiting.

Kim didn't see her go. She could see one thing and one thing only.

It was a face. Even though, amazingly, he seemed to have grown another inch in the short span of time he had been gone, that face was always the same. The mop of unruly blonde hair the color of Nebraska corn, the wide, almost goofy grin, the smattering of dark freckles that would never fade with age…

…the chocolate brown eyes that were so full of love and so full of hope as he said those words.

"Hi, KP."

She had rehearsed this moment in her mind a hundred times over the last forty-eight hours. She thought she was going to break into a run when he emerged from the plane. He would drop his bags and rush up to meet her and she would jump into his arms for a kiss that would last until the plane had been refueled and set course for its next destination.

Instead she was frozen there in the moment, just looking at his face. It was the face that came to her in the good dreams, the face that danced with her, the face that kissed her, the face that was there when they did other pleasant things that so far existed only in their dreams.

As much as she planned to kiss him, to actually start making out right there in the airport, she found herself simply holding him, crushing him tightly to her as if he would escape from her arms never to be there again. Putting her nose down on his collar, she breathed deeply. He smelled of stale peanuts, airplane air and apparently hadn't had a bath since before he climbed down the mountain from the school (he had described that aspect of the school to her on several occasions.)

She didn't care. He was the most wonderful smelling thing in the world. Later that night she would realize this was the same greeting she had given him when he came home from Wannaweep and from his first trip to Japan.

Ron leaned back, cupped her face gently in both hands and pulled her in for a kiss. It was tender and warm, slow, but powerful. When they finally broke away a fair number of people around them actually applauded.

"Wow." Was all Kim could say.

"If the two of you are through breaking as many policies as you can, then I'd like to get back to the school now, if you don't mind." Principal Director said.

They didn't care. They didn't even care that the quicker they got into her car and got back to the school, the quicker they could transfer his things to his mother's car and the quicker they could be alone.

They didn't care because they were kissing again.

Kim sat on the edge of Ron's bed, her nerves slowly getting the better of her. She could hear the shower still running and was consciously fighting down the urge to slip out of her peasant shirt and prairie skirt and join him in there. Two things stopped her. One, she knew that if she did that it wouldn't stop there and both Rabbi Katz and the GJ doctor thought that might not be a good idea at that very moment. The other reason was that Ron just spent a month having to share a bath with any number of strangers and would probably like to have a nice, civilized shower alone.

He finally came back into his room, wearing an open bathrobe and a pair of sweat-pants. The band of his boxers was sticking out of the top of the pants.

"That felt almost as good as one of your backrubs." He said, sitting down beside her and kissing her.

The pleasant soapy/steamy smell around him was almost overpowering. Getting into the kiss she started leaning back on the bed with him. It felt so good to be with him again, so good reconnecting. They weren't going to make love, but there were other bases to be considered yet.

Then she stopped.

"Something wrong KP?" He asked, his fingers deftly stroking the small of her back under her blouse.

"I…uh…here, Ron. I want you to do something." She stood up and once he followed, she faced away from him. "Stand behind me right there."

"O…kay." He said, confusion evident in his voice.

She closed her eyes. "I need…I want you to hold my hair aside and kiss me really gently on the right side of my neck."

"Sure, KP." He said. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with what he was about to do so he just shook his head slightly and reached for her hair. He was close enough he could pick up that mix of fragrances that drove him wild. Lavender and the faint scent of that particular soap she used, all mixing with the natural Kim-scent, all lingering there in her hair. A kiss on the neck would be oh, so good, so right.

Kim shuddered as she felt his lips touch her skin. With all her might she concentrated solely on Ron's face, trying desperately to banish that hated false mask that had been the other's face. The shudder became a shiver. She could feel her hair being held aside, she could feel the lips on her, but that other face was still there. The eyes, full of evil and malevolence were there, boring into the back of her head, craving revenge and violence.

This wasn't there when she could see Ron's face, when she kissed him straight on but now that he was behind her, doing something that should be so tender, so right for her, something that should be nothing but an expression of their love.

Involuntarily she stepped away from him. It was just by a few inches, but it was enough to break the contact.

"KP? Kim? Is something wrong?"

His voice brought her back, at least in that moment. She was with the man she loved again. "Do it again, Honey. Please?"

The moment his lips touched her neck the shivering started again. This time he realized it wasn't from pleasure.

"Kim. What is it?" He put a hand on her shoulder and gently turned her around.

She crushed herself against him, burying her face in his shoulder, breathing deeply, doing everything she could to remind herself that this was Ron who she was holding. "Ronnie, Ronnie, Ronnie." She said, stroking the back of his head. "I am so lucky to have you, so lucky that you are my guardian angel."

"Um, sure."

After holding him that way for a long time she sat down on the edge of the bed, pulling him to sit beside her. She turned to face him and took both his hands.

Then she carefully told him about everything that was said and done in the fight with Cary. Ron had only seen someone he knew to be the son of an enemy, about to strike a momentarily helpless Kim. At that moment it had been a fight just like any other. Fortunately his actions turned out to be the right one.

It was just he didn't know how much was actually at stake at that moment.

When she was done, Ron was sitting there on the bed, shaking with his own quiet rage.

"I can't believe I went back to Japan feeling sorry for knocking some of his teeth out." He said when he could finally find his voice. "KP, he needs to pay. I don't care if it means changing your report, that sort of thing gets left out all the time, they'll listen to you."

"No, Ron. It's over. Now that we know who he is, even if he beats the assault charges he can't ever hurt us like that again."

"But, that sort of thing…to you…"

"Honey…baby. Because of you he never got the chance to do anything…except that kiss."

"He kissed you? KP, I know how you feel about kissing and all and…he kissed you?"

"That's what I was doing just now with you. He never kissed me on the lips, thank God, but when he said that…those hateful things he held my hair and kissed my neck."

"And you didn't rip him a new one right then and there?" he asked, incredulously. It was not an accusation toward Kim for not reacting but more of his anger at the whole situation spilling over.

"He had my arm behind my back. When he did that, I threw him over my head. It almost broke my arm, but I was able to get away long enough for you to come help."

Ron stood up. He held his hands out toward Kim. She took them and he pulled her to her feet. Stepping around her, he once again held her hair aside and leaned in close to her neck. "Kim." He whispered. "When I kiss you, I will never, ever be holding you against your will. When I kiss you, when I touch you it's because we desire it, because we love each other. When I kiss you, I'll touch you like this."

His free hand gripped her waist just above her hips as his lips touched her neck again.

Kim shuddered once, then twice but this time she was able to concentrate on the glowing warmth she could feel from his hand. She breathed deeply, still able to catch his scent despite the fresh soapy smell on his recently cleansed body.

The hated face was still there, but it was not alone now. It didn't have the power it once did. It would not be gone that night and it might always be there in one form or another but Ron was right about one thing. She was not being held in pain and violence. She was free. Free to enjoy the kiss of the man who had the right to touch her that way.

Free to turn around and join him in a proper kiss, the frenzied, hungry type of kiss where their tongues fought for supremacy but surrendered to each other at every pass. Her hands drifted down, marveling at how certain muscles were ever firmer than they had been before. She had considered Ron a man from the night he confessed his love for her but his body was finally catching up. He even had a very faint beard now. It didn't show unless you were as close as she was and she would most def make him shave it off very soon but it was clear the last throes of puberty had finally stopped taking its time with him.

Breaking away from him for a moment she went over to his chest of drawers, pulling something out of the top drawer. He watched her with rapt interest.

"Turn around." She said, making a spinning motion with her fingers.

With one quick glance back he did so, facing the window, looking out at the night shrouded landscape.

In a quick motion she pushed her skirt down to the floor and pulled the blouse up over her head, not even bothering with the laces at the throat. She unfolded her bundle and let it slip over her head. She smoothed it against her body and checked herself in his sticker encrusted mirror.

She noted with a sly grin that he hadn't been looking out the window, he had been watching her reflection in the pane. She hoped he liked her pink heart panties and her gray and white cotton sports bra. That's all he was going to be seeing that night.

"What do you think?" She asked sweetly.

Ron turned around, grinning from ear to ear. He'd seen Kim dressed this way before, but he liked it every bit as much as when she wore her tiny little black dress or those tight, low-cut jeans.

Kim was wearing one of his red cream and navy jerseys. It was just long enough to hang like a mini-dress on her.

"Oh, I like, I like." He said, his mouth actually watering.

Kim walked by him and sat down on the bed. She pulled her legs up under her and patted the empty spot beside her. "I think somebody said he needed a backrub."

Ron slipped the robe off and put it on his desk chair, sitting down in the indicated spot.

"Here's the good news, baby." She said, kissing his shoulder rapidly as she pushed him down to his pillow.

"What's that?" He asked as he allowed her to turn him over onto his belly.

Instead of curling up beside him like she normally did for his backrubs, she straddled the small of his back, leaning into his shoulders and tracing his spine down to the band of his pants.

"Your parents told me they're spending the night in Denver tonight." She leaned down to whisper in his ear. "I want you to hold me all night."

"Booyah." He said quietly, his eyes closing as Kim worked her magic on his back.

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