Where Did the Time Go? : Part XXVI
Normally, Kim would have been happy about their current mode of transportation. In the past they had been forced to rely on hot air balloons, pack mules and, as she had mentioned the past Saturday morning, very slow trains. Now they were rocketing east in a Global Justice hoverjet at trans-sonic speeds. True, the vehicles were not the most comfortable in the world, being built for speed and near silence, but they were fast and they would be at their destination relatively quickly. Hopefully the expense of utilizing the transport wouldn't be deducted from whatever their meager 'pay' was going to be as independent contractors (how exactly did that work when they hadn't even signed a 'contract?')
Instead of enjoying the rapid flight, she was sitting in the acceleration lounge holding hands with Ron, thinking furiously what she wanted to say, what she wanted to ask him.
She wasn't anywhere near ready to discuss what she had learned during lunch. The two intervening periods were quite busy and she at least had the ability to focus on the task at hand. They ate in the cafeteria so they could take advantage of the microwave there, warming the expertly sliced skirt steak dish Ron had prepared. Even re-warmed it was delicious and it did help to take her mind off her current worries.
Every time she looked in his eyes she could see the warmth and affection he felt for her. He was still riding high on what had turned into the most fantastic extended date she they had ever been on. She wished she could feel that way too but Bonnie's words to the other girl had spoiled that somewhat for her. They spent the rest of the lunch period sitting quietly in their seats, holding hands and playing footsie under the table, a pass time that lost a little of its fun since they were both wearing hiking boots as it was snowing a little again.
Barkin was already in the Home Ec room as they walked in for the final period of the day. "Possible, a word?"
"Yes Mr. Barkin?"
"I just got a call from Mr. Load. It seems your communications device, your 'Kimmunicator' as it were, isn't on despite the exception you and Stoppable were granted. He wants to talk to you A. S. A. P."
"Oh, I forgot to turn it on. Excuse me." She grabbed Ron's arm and pulled him back out into the hallway.
"What up, Wade?"
"Kim, I've gotten a call from GJ. There's been a break in at…"
"A top-secret lab?" She broke in, as usual.
"Well, it's more of a high-tech manufacturing facility. Kim, it's the place that synthesizes the self-healing fabric your suits are made of."
"Okay, we'll be on our way as soon as class lets out. Later Wade."
"You think this has something to do with the missing suit?" Ron asked as they went back in.
"The thought crossed my mind. It would be an awfully big coincidence if it isn't."
"Stoppable, you have your car here today, don't you?" Barkin bellowed, looming over their desks, resting on his knuckles. Neither of them would call it leaning, since he never did so.
"Yeah, Mr. B. It's not the best thing in snow, but it's a lot better than walking here in the cold."
He pulled two slips of paper out of his jacket pocket. "Here, I want you and Miss Possible here to go pick up some supplies we need for the class. The store I want you to go to is across town, so you can bring them back with you tomorrow since you won't make it back in time for class today."
Kim eyed the big man warily. She scanned the short list. Everything on it could be picked up at the nearby supermarket and they could be back in fifteen minutes if it were not for the place he specified, which would in fact take them more than an hour round trip, not counting how long they would have to spend in there.
It was clear he found a way, at least this once, to get around the prohibition against leaving campus for a mission.
"The principal is going to have a cow." She said, folding the list and sticking it in her pocket.
"What she thinks is my business. I just want those supplies so I can proceed with my lesson objectives tomorrow. Do I make myself clear, Possible?"
"Yes sir." He wasn't smiling or even winking. As far as he was concerned they were simply leaving under his direction. She shouldered into her pack and pulled the stunned Ron out of his seat and headed for the parking lot.
The hoverjet was idling in the field next to her house when they got home. After quickly changing into their traditional gear, plus commando sweaters, they were on their way.
Fifteen minutes into the hour-long flight, Ron finally spoke up. "Something bugging you, KP."
Biting her lower lip she decided to plunge ahead. "Ron, it's about Bonnie. I know you think she deserves to be given a chance, but I don't think that will ever work."
He tensed up slightly, letting go of her hand. "Why? If both of us devoted as much energy into being her friend as you do hating her, she could be as close to us as Mon or Felix."
"Ron, I don't know what went on between the two of you in Japan, but whatever it was, she's just playing an angle. Baby, she's not interested in you as a friend."
"Anything is possible." He said with a hopeful expression.
"No, Ron, it's not. She is always looking for some way to get the better of me and now she's trying to do that through you."
He shook his head, crossing his arms over his chest. "It's not like that."
"Why isn't it like that? What is it that she said to you, what is this big secret she's got you keeping that you can't even share it with me, after promising you wouldn't keep any secrets from me."
"Kim, for one, I never promised not to keep secrets. I promised I wouldn't promise anyone else something that would come between you and me. Like when Monique kissed me, or Yori. That affects us and you were right to make me promise you that."
"This secret is coming between us." Kim pleaded.
Anger flashed in his eyes. "No…it's…not. What she told me has utterly nothing to do with us. You've got to believe me."
"Ron, she's using whatever it is she's holding over you to drive a wedge between us and the fact you won't tell me what it is isn't helping it."
"Kim." He growled, scowling at her. "I thought you trusted me enough that when I tell you it's nothing about us you would believe me. I guess that's not true then, is it."
"It is true, baby, but I found out something this morning that changes it all. It is about us, believe me."
"Oh, what could she have told you that makes you think I should break a solemn promise?"
Kim shook her head slowly, sinking down in her seat. "She doesn't want you for a friend. She wants you."
"And she told you that? What did you do, say something snarky to her and she came back with that?"
"No Ron." Anger started smoldering in her as well. "I haven't said one word to that witch today. I overheard her talking about me and you to one of her cronies in the bathroom. They didn't even know I was there. She kept going on and on about how impossible it was to get you away from me since we're doing it all the time."
She glanced at the forward compartment. The door to the cockpit remained closed and it was likely the pilot was wearing headphones, but she was still wary of raising her voice too much.
"Wait, Bonnie is still on about us having sex? I told her myself we're waiting until we're older."
"Well, that didn't seem to matter to her. She knows I take Ortho-Novum. Yeah, she even knows the name of the pill I take, but she doesn't know enough about pharmacology to know it's taken for skin conditions and to regulate cycles, so she just thinks I taking it so I can have sex and not get pregnant. In her twisted little mind that just means we're doing it all that time." She caught her breath, realizing she was raising her voice anyway. Then her eyes narrowed, "Just where the hell do you get off telling her about our love life anyway?" she almost screeched at him.
"Because…because we were talking, that's all…and I wanted to clear up all that business that led to YOU smacking her."
"I punched her because she said something horrible about YOU, Ron! That's right, the thing you want to make a friend just thinks you're some little puppy dog who follows me around because I let you hump my leg. That sound like friend material, does it huh?"
"She IS my friend. There, you wanted to know what the great big secret is? That's it. We're friends and she asked me to keep that between us. Now, you satisfied? I've broken the promise now, or do you think because I can't keep that kind of promise I'm going to break the one I made to you?"
Kim sat back in her seat again, somewhat deflated. Ron's eyes held a mixture of anger and despair. "KP, I love you so much it hurts sometimes, but for the first time in my life I've got friends besides just you. You're my best friend and my girlfriend and very soon, to the point it's going to seem like it's only tomorrow, you're going to be much more than that, but I have room in my heart for more friends. God knows I need them…and so do you.
"Look at that guy we met the last time we caught Drakken. We spent less than a week around him and virtually every person around him ended up his friend. You and I can't just build a wall around us and say we're all we need in the world. It doesn't work that way and as good as what we have together, that just isn't enough. Do you know how much it hurt all these years being an outsider? How much it hurt when I realized I was actually closer to your parents than I was with mine? Don't get me wrong, I love Mom and Dad but sometimes I thought Mr. and Mrs. Dr. P were much more to me."
"Ronnie, I'm just so afraid that she's just playing you to get to me." Kim pleaded, not willing to let her feelings about the girl go.
Ron looked at his feet. "That may be true and if it is, then I do have one less friend in the world than I thought I did, but at least I'll know in my heart it wasn't for lack of trying on my part."
They rode in silence for the next half hour, neither of them quite wanting to meet the other's eyes. Kim still knew what she had heard and felt in her heart that all Bonnie wanted to do was drive a wedge between them to simply get at her, but that knowledge, that conviction also made her ashamed at herself. Ron's attitude may have seemed naïve, but it revealed just how big a heart he really had and that was one of the many reasons why she loved him the way he did.
How was she going to reconcile this? It wasn't like it was something she could just kick or punch and make it go away.
There was also the fact she really did want to make love to Ron. She had a strong physical desire for him and she wanted to show her love for him that way as well. By the same token, it was that love that stopped her, making her honor the decision they made together to wait. It was only that reason Bonnie was wrong about them. She knew if they ever took that step there was a chance it would open the floodgates the same way their making out had.
Forcing a sort of half smile she put a gloved hand on his forearm. "You know, it's kind of funny. If I wasn't allergic to tetracycline Mom probably would have put me on those newer pills since it was supposed to help my acne."
"Guess Bonnie's not going to end up being a druggist." He responded quietly.
"Pharmacist." She corrected, her smile getting a tad bigger.
Ron scrunched his forehead in thought. "How would Bonnie even know exactly which one you're taking. I knew you were on them, but I had no idea which one. Not that I'd know one from the other anyway."
"I don't know. That's the part that doesn't make sense. I keep a couple spare pills in a vial in my purse just in case we end up on an overnight mission, but they're so tiny it would be hard to tell what they were, and Bonnie's never had a chance to go through my stuff. It stays locked either in my locker or lockers in the dressing room."
"Where do you keep them, Kim?"
"Ron, that's kind of personal, but Bonnie hasn't been in my room since that time we were stuck together and she most def did not find them then."
"Okay, so you said you only keep a couple spares with you, just in case."
"There's only one in there right now. I took one of them in Go City Sunday morning."
"What about a planned trip. I didn't even think about that when I set up the train ride, but if you knew we were planning to be away…"
Kim frowned, trying to think where he was going with that. Then it dawned on her.
"I took them with us to Mt. Middleton, but that doesn't make sense either. I never took the compact out of what I keep it in, I only popped the pills I needed out of it Saturday and Sunday morning and took them with my morning vitamins so nobody would notice…unless…"
She started shaking, her face morphing first into a full blown tweak before blooming into full-blown red-faced fury.
"That bitch went through my stuff!" Kim growled through tightly clenched teeth. "I can't believe her, pawing through my clothes and my underwear like that, she's…" Her voice trailed off to a whisper, her eyes getting big as dinner plates.
"That's where the super-suit was." She breathed.
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