KP Cross Country Chapter 9, a kim possible fanfic

Cross Country: Chapter 9

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Ron!" Kim shook his shoulders roughly as he lay in the mud and gravel, unmoving.

"Did he faint again?" Will Du asked, standing over them.

"He doesn't do that any…" She stopped herself, realizing he didn't faint any more because they didn't get themselves into this sort of thing any more. The last time he fainted was when she came out of the bathroom some six months earlier and showed him the test. Then it had been from an overload of joy, since they were trying to have a second child.

She tried furiously to think what might have caused him to black out. The first thing that came to mind was the combination of the old-style antihistamine combined with a massive adrenaline surge. That would make sense, and if that were the case, he would probably be bests served letting him sleep it off.

That's when Kim noticed the blood on her hand.

It was slowly soaking through his shirt, not immediately visible because the garment was already dark red, and the hesitant rain already had it partially soaked. The color was only faint on her hand, and was rapidly being rinses away as the mist turned into an honest downpour.

"What did you do?" She screamed at Motor Ed.

"Whoa, Red! Me an your little hubby bro just scrapped, mono-a-mono. Fair fight n everything, seriously."

Kim sprung to her feet, sailing over Ron's prone form and landing right in front of the large man. "Do you know what you've put me through? This is a new low, even for a…" She stopped herself. She almost said Lipsky, but realized just how that might sound to Amethyst. She didn't even know if the girl knew the mechaniaical genius was her second cousin, by marriage and adoption. "…for a bad man like you. Don't you realize there are small children in my car? You might not have known I was pregnant, and if you were just going after me I'd say bring it on, but when you try to hurt my family?"

"I just wanted to scare you a little, you know, payback for what you did to the do."

Kim put her hand on her hip, glaring at him. If he was concerned about his stupid hair, it had long ago grown back down to his shoulders in the back. "You mean to tell me, you would endanger the lives of my four-year-old son, my little sister-in-law and your own cousin just to get back at me because a warden made you cut off that ferociously stupid mullet?"

"Nobody messes with THE MULLET! Seriously!" Ed screamed, straining against the two large agents holding him by his cuffed hands.

What happened next, Kim would later put down to a lapse in her usual calm, most likely brought on by the stress of the sitch, as well as her out-of-control hormones. All of that aside, it felt really, really good.

That is, except for her bruised knuckles. Ed's face felt like it was made of solid granite. It had to be, to take some of the punishment she had dealt him in the past. She stood there for a moment, shaking her hand, wishing she had a pair of her old leather gloves on at the time. That certainly would have taken some of the sting out of the punch.

She looked at the two agents, who in turn looked toward their superior, who was kneeling beside the still-unconscious Ron. Kim realized that technically they would be within their rights to arrest her for assaulting a bound prisoner. In fact, it would be their duty to do so.

Will Du just shook his head, and the two led the fuming prisoner away, she assumed to a clearing large enough to land a hoverjet. Then she saw him do something that she had been taught one never did with an injured person. He turned Ron over.

"Agent Johnson and Agent Johnson! Get on the communicator and get a med-evac in here stat!"

A slight gasp escaped Kim's lips when she saw what Will had found. A large sliver of wood was sticking out of Ron's back, just below the left shoulder. That was wear the blood had come from. He probably got it when he tumbled from the speeding monster truck. She felt the gravel dig into her own knees as she skidded to a stop alongside her husband.

There was no telling how deep the wound was. The piece of wood that was visible was about an inch across, and only the fact that it was not bleeding profusely gave her hope that nothing critical had been hit. Then again, it could have punctured a lung if it had slipped between his ribs.

Du put an ear to Ron's face. "He's stopped breathing!"

"Ron!" Kim screamed. She grabbed both sides of his face, shaking him. In that instant she was so rattled she didn't even think to start mouth-to-mouth. "Ron." She was sure she was crying, though the tears were lost in the rain pouring around her face.

Will Du might have been a bigger buffoon in her eyes than her husband could ever be, but he was still professional enough to realize that she was at that point incapable of handling the situation. He took a deep breath, cleared Ron's throat, pinched his nose and blew deeply into this mouth.

"Come on, Stoppable, breath." He said between breaths, waiting for his chest to fall.

Kim put her ear on his chest. His heart was still beating, why didn't he breath?

Will kept up the mouth-to-mouth, hoping beyond hope what was supposed to be a simple collar would not turn into a murder arrest. That would mean so much more paperwork, so many questions and worst of all, that would mean he had failed in his mission to protect the people he secretly admired a great deal.

"Kim?"

She realized a hand was on her shoulder. She looked up for a second to see Amethyst standing there, reaching for Ron.

"Not now, Ammie." She croaked, watching helplessly as Du tried to revive the man she had loved for what seemed like her entire life.

"Aunt Kim, I can help."

She didn't look up that time, simply pointing toward the SUV. "Go get back in the car now!" She screamed.

The hand on her shoulder suddenly gripped her much harder, far harder than she would have thought such a small eight-year-old capable of. "I can help him!" She screamed back.

"Get away!" Kim looked up at her, her own fists balling up.

There was a sudden surge of green light. Every time in the past Amethyst had used her power to mimic her mother's, it had a purple glow. In fact, she never really had any of her mother's ability, it was only the distinctly different powers she had inherited from her biological father that let him mimic them so completely.

Kim suddenly found herself sitting on her backside, about two yards away from her stricken husband. She saw the green glow surrounding the girl's fists wink out, replaced with the more familiar soft purple glow. She opened her hands and placed them on her godfather's chest, the light spreading from them as she went to work.

Du stopped, sitting back on his haunches in wonder, watching as the little girl, who he knew very well to be the daughter of Shego, do whatever it was she was trying to with the slightly smaller man. The glow spread until it encompassed all of his upper body.

Amethyst did not know all that much about medical science, but she did not have to. The way her power worked, she instinctively understood what the damage was. She could sense the sliver piercing his lung. She could feel the blood pooling in there. It was taking more power than she had ever used to heal him, even more than the time she healed GJ's head injury.

She also knew that her secret was finally out, but Ron was indeed like a very much beloved uncle to her. At that point she no longer cared. His life was worth so much more than the secret. Even so, she was scared what would come next. If it had only been her family that learned of it, then it would be safe, but there were others there, other people who were aware of people with special abilities like hers who would be duty-bound to study her, to make the most of her hidden talents.

Ron's life was far more important with that. It was a decision no eight-year-old was supposed to have to make, but there was no way she could simply sit by and let him die, especially not after saving them the way he did.

"Pull it out." She ordered, keeping her eyes closed.

"What?" Du blinked twice at the girl.

"The thing in his back, pull it out!" She opened her blue eyes and locked them on the Asian man's black ones.

"He might bleed to death."

"I can't finish healing him with it there. You have to pull it out!"

Du grimaced slightly, then turned the blonde-haired man back onto his side. He got a good hold on the sliver and tugged. It wouldn't move."

"It must be jammed between his ribs."

Amethyst concentrated harder. The man was right, the piece of wood was wedged hard between them. She had to try something she had never done before. It was one thing to repair damage, it was quite another to make healthy tissue bend to her will. The bones were not broken, but she could not save him until the object was gone. Stretching her power like she never had before, she starting trying to reshape some of the muscles and sinew, just enough for the pressure on the wood to be released.

"Try again." She pleaded.

Du put both hands on the sliver and pulled. It seemed to shift slightly, but remained pinned. Amethyst scrunched her eyes closed once more. There was only so much she could do to reshape the bone. It was almost like there was some special limit on her power that she could only affect something that was actually wrong. She didn't know why it was that way, but it was. She could not make the old young, nor could she revive anything that was dead. She had always had fantasies that she could take a golden-winged monarch butterfly and change its wings to purple, but it never worked.

Putting his foot in the middle of Ron's back, Will Du gave the sliver one more pull. He fell backwards as it came free, covered in blood. Ron slumped over onto his back, with only the little girl there, her hands still on his chest. The purple light turned to fire, spreading all across his body, but still concentrating on the part where the most damage was. The flames also crept up her arms and her face showed the strain she was under. She knew she would be tired, possibly in pain herself once this was over, but if there was going to be any good to come from the gifts her parents had given her, this was going to be it.

Ron spasmed suddenly, taking a single choking breath. He sputtered and coughed as his chest started going up and down on its own once more. Spent, Amethyst simply slumped over onto him, the fire winking out like it had never been there.

Kim finally got her wits back and scrambled across the wet ground to the trio. Du was still sitting with the chunk of wood in his hands, the blood rapidly washing away in the rain. Both of them gaped in amazement as Ron opened his eyes, sitting up slightly, as if he was wondering why his god-child was lying unconscious across his chest.

With extreme care, Kim picked the little girl up, cradling her in her arms. She wasn't quite sure what had just happened, but she somehow knew the child had just saved Ron's life. How many other times had the child done something like that?

Du helped Ron sit up. He kept blinking in confusion, not knowing why he was lying in the mud. "Whu, what happened?"

Will Du put the sliver into his hands. It looked so small, so insignificant like that, only being about three inches long. The older man just smiled at him. "Mr. Stoppable, I believe you fainted on us again."

Kim smiled softly as she carried Amethyst back to the SUV. CJ and little Gene had their faces pressed up against the windows, watching as she carefully opened the rear door and laid her down on the seat. CJ quickly climbed into the middle with her nephew, making room for her.

Ron got unsteadily to his feet. "Man, have I ever got a headache. Last thing I remember I was grabbing Ed in his truck." He glanced up the embankment, where the wrecked truck sat. The steam had finally stopped pouring from the ruined engine block." His balance returned quickly as he walked back to his vehicle, checking the damage to the rear.

The external covering of the bumper was smashed and the back gate was slightly dented, but the SUV was otherwise okay. If they had been in either of their other cars, the huge truck would have just rolled right over them, then come back for more.

Kim walked right up to Will Du. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"You know what I mean, Agent Du."

"I'm afraid I don't, Kimberly. All I know is that I've got a lot of work to do here. We have to get Lipsky to a secure holding cell, we have to get some equipment back here to recover his assault vehicle, and we have to process the members of his gang. That will be the most difficult, since at the moment, until we can more directly link them with Lipsky, all they seem guilty of is impeding a state highway."

"Listen, don't play game with me, Du. I know what we saw, what you and your men just saw."

"What my men just saw was Mr. Stoppable pass out following combat with a wanted felon, then one of the children in his care do the same due to the stress of the situation. That is all that happened here today."

"Come off it, Du. I know you better than that. You've got to report this to Dr. Director, who in turn is going to report it to somebody else, who's going to order her to send her scientists to…"

"Kimberly, I'm going to tell you this just once. Shut up."

"What?"

"I said shut up. We have known about young Miss Lipsky's abilities for some time. After all, she nearly destroyed a pre-school when she was only three years old. We have also suspected she had this particular power for some time. If we wished to interfere with her life, we would have done so long ago. As it stands, she is not my mission, and as such, I do not care. As for my men, they all work for me and they will follow my orders to the letter. If that includes ordering them to forget what they have seen, then that is exactly what they will do. That's part and parcel of them being professionals like myself. They do their jobs. That alone is why the two of us have never seen eye-to-eye. You always have to do your own thing, no matter what your original objective is. There is a proper time for thinking outside the box, and frankly, you are one of the best in the world at doing so, but there is also a time to stick to the plan. My orders were simple; keep you and your family from coming to harm."

Kim's hand went to her mouth, realization hitting her like a thunderbolt. "You almost screwed up."

"What are you talking about, Mrs. Stoppable?"

"Ron almost got killed, and if he had, you would have been the one on the spot for it. You messed up and now you want us to be quiet if you stay quiet. You smug son-of-a… You don't care about that little girl back there. All you care about is your career and getting back your status as the number one agent at Global Justice."

"If it helps you to think that way, then very well. Good day, Mrs. Stoppable. Have a good time at the wedding tomorrow." With that, he turned and walked back to the modified Semi. Of the two agents leading Motor Ed away, there was no sign. She wasn't sure, but she thought she saw the man give her a slight salute as the vehicle backed up and turned around.

"KP, what just happened? And why is Ammie passed out in the back of the truck?"

She turned around and met his chocolate brown eyes. Suddenly all the anger and frustration she was feeling was washed away. Her arms wrapped around him, holding him tight at she kissed him. They stayed that way for a couple minutes until she quickly pulled away, putting her hand on her belly.

"Kim? Is something wrong?"

She looked back up at him, smiling. "No, not at all. Just think a little someone has her own little kung-fu dojo inside of me."

"Oh, Jean Anne kicking again?" he smiled with her. They had long ago settled on the names for their children, even before they were even engaged. Their first son would get their grandfather's first names, and thusly their first daughter would get their grandmother's. It was just a fortunate happenstance that they had a boy and had known for months the second would be a little girl.

She reached out and took his hand, realizing finally they were standing out in the rain. Later that night, once they were alone, she would explain what it was Amethyst had done that morning. For the time being they somehow needed to get out of their wet things and get back on the road, even if that meant the kids having to cover their eyes while the adults changed. Kim would change the young girl herself.

"Come on, Ronnie. We've still got a lot of road to cover." They slowly walked back to the SUV, climbing in. Kim made her way to the back, carefully climbing over Amethyst, who was simply sound asleep. More started dawning on Kim. Maybe that was why she sometimes was so hard to get out of bed. She had been using her powers in secret, leaving her utterly exhausted. That was against the rules, but there was no way she was going to punish the girl, not after saving Ron's life like that. Oh, there was going to be a long talking-to when they got back to Middleton, but that's all there was going to be.

Ron's features scrunched up as he struggled into a fresh pair of boxers in the front seat. He glanced backwards, hearing giggles coming from his sister, but she still had her hands firmly clamped over her eyes.

"What's the matter?" Kim asked, wriggling into a dry bra under her old cream-yellow peasant top. It was one of the few regular shirts she was still able to wear, though it was quite snug across the middle.

"Well, it's what's not the matter." He pulled open the band, looking down. "Remember the rash I had this morning at breakfast?"

"Let me guess. It's gone, isn't it?"

"Yeah, I mean gone-gone. I can see the rash itself clearing up, but I should have some good old scratches that should have taken a while longer to clear up."

Kim looked back over her shoulder at the little girl snoring in the back seat. She was wearing a dark purple tank top and violet jeans, her soaked purple and black 'team-go-esque' jumper thrown into the back with the rest of the wet, muddy clothes. She had muttered about being very hungry while Kim changed her, only falling back into a deep sleep by the time she got her hair fairly toweled off.

"Ron, I have a sneaking suspicion about why my own rash cleared up so fast." She leaned over toward him as she powered up the SUV, giving him a quick kiss. "I'm so ferociously sorry I gave that rash to you. Guess I wasn't thinking too well."

He gave her one of his trademark goofy grins. "Considering how I got it, it was worth it, if you know what I mean."

"Yes, it was." She smiled as well, putting the vehicle in gear.

Ten minutes later, as they carefully picked their way back up the rough gravel road, she grimaced slightly. "Damn."

"What now, KP?"

"It's happening again."

"What?"

"The bumpy road, the coffee and OJ I had at breakfast…"

"Oh. Wanna pull over? It's not raining so bad now."

Kim looked over at her beloved husband. "I don't care if it's a hundred miles to the next rest stop, I am so not going behind a tree ever again."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------