particles of hope, a Kim Possible story Chapter 3: 3: …how happy you made me, a kim possible fanfic

…particles of hope…. a Kim Possible story

Disclaimer/Author's Notes: Kim Possible and all the characters of the show are owned by the Disney Corporation. The original lyrics to the songs referenced in this story and the music are the property of the respective authors, artists and labels. All original characters are the property of the author. This is a not-for-profit work.

Enjoy! Please read and review.

A/N Forward:

It's Christmas Eve, the final one before Wade and Joss are to be married…and several gifts are given, including one that truly is the 'gift of a lifetime'.

This is my entry to Zaratan's 2008 Christmas contest.

…particles of hope….

Chapter 3: …how happy you made me.

Time reference:

Biological world: 12:02 AM

AI world: Day 2

To Gillian, the next days seemed to go by in a flash:

First, she came out of her room to a breakfast spread prepared by Woodrow, just for her, complete with vegemite. She laughed at the face he made when she opened the jar, dipped her finger into it, and smiled as she licked it off. "You really should try it, Woodrow," she grinned, but he graciously declined.

Woodrow was licking his fingers for an entirely different reason: Gillian, and how she had dressed for the day.

She had highlighted her olive-toned skin with an ivory-white blouse, and the blouse left no doubt as to the sex of the wearer. She had applied a hint of makeup that Woodrow wanted to get to know much, much better, with a personal and tactile inspection of her every square millimeter of her face. She had tied her ice-blue hair in a single ponytail draped it over her left shoulder, down onto her chest. She wore a tartan skirt, but the skirt-maker must have been short of material considering its length. Her bright ice-blue tall boots with the spike heels were shining, and Woodrow was doing his impression of Ron Stoppable: 'Mad Dog foams at the mouth!'

Gillian giggled and took another bite of her whole wheat toast and vegemite, watching Woodrow try to grimace and drool at the same time.

After breakfast, Woodrow gave her a tour of his home, from top to bottom, and he stopped to explain each and every artifact that he had collected that had anything to do with Team Possible, BlazeIT!, his work with Montana DCI and Global Justice, and his communications with Wade, Joss, Slim, and others at the Bunker.

Gillian could sense that he had strong emotions about these items and the individuals with which they were associated, but she still could not make a full connection to them.

The one room he avoided, however, was his study: "We'll save the best for last,"

Halfway through the tour, he brought her back to the kitchen for soup-and-a-sandwich: chicken noodle and sliced turkey, respectively.

She enjoyed the lunch, but she really was beginning to enjoy her time with Woodrow, the person: he was funny, caring, and he, in no uncertain terms, let Gillian know his feelings about his work and those he worked with:

He loved them all.

She envied him more than a bit for that, for having so many with whom he interacted, but she was enjoying her time with Woodrow, and she believed that he was enjoying his time with her, based on his smiles and his sidelong glances at her.

She was working while they toured the remainder of that day and the next (a part of her was always working, of course: she had her own responsibilities, after all), and she chuckled inwardly as she received an inquiry from the Bunker addressed to the home GJ MIS system; she acknowledged and responded immediately, of course, and she smiled as Woodrow processed the acknowledgement and response, and he acknowledged her response in kind.

She had believed that he did not know the scope of her responsibilities, but now she was certain, and that knowledge somehow made her...happy.

The third morning, at breakfast, Gillian looked up at Woodrow and saw him smile back at her.

Another click, and...

"So, you haven't shown me how you keep those buns of yours so tight, Woodrow," Gillian smiled.

Joss shot air and liquid out of her nose.

Wade wanted to crawl under his desk.

From the monitor, Mandy just smiled.

Woodrow grinned.

"Well, Gillian, I'll show you, even though you'll never have to worry about any problems with yours," he responded with a straight face and then winked.

Joss had made the mistake of drinking, and water went everywhere.

Mandy had done the same, and her camera was now dripping.

Wade wanted to high-five Woodrow.

"Lindsey?"

"Uh-huh? Lindsey Du was almost asleep, but her husband's hands were cold...

"What's wrong?"

"You mean, besides the fact that you have cold hands?" she grinned in the darkness.

"No," Will Du grinned, removed his hands from his wife, and reached behind him in bed and turned on his bedside lamp. "I mean, what won't you tell me?" He asked, sitting up in bed and looking at his wife.

"I told you: not until Chistmas," she chided. "Now, go back to sleep."

"But, it is Christmas," he shot back, and Lindsey opened eye and looked at the clock.

"Will, it's 12:04 in the morning," she whined.

"Well, it is Christmas morning," he responded with a smug smile on his face.

Woodrow snapped his fingers, and an opaque glass appeared in his left hand. He snapped his fingers again, and an opaque pitcher appeared, hanging in mid-air. He grabbed it with his right hand and poured the liquid contents into the glass. He lifted the glass to his mouth and drank deeply, and Gillian couldn't help but laugh as he lowered the glass, revealing his milk moustache.

"Well, they were right," Gillian smiled: "It does do a body good, even for an AI," and she grinned evilly.

Joss, Mandy, and Wade were all three laughing so hard that they fell from their positions onto the respective floors; Joss and Wade hit the cool bamboo floor, and Mandy hit her hardwood floor.

It didn't matter, though: they were still laughing, and it took a few moments to get back up.

Woodrow removed Gillian's coat from the closet and held it for her. She smiled and stepped into it, closing it around her. Woodrow pulled his coat out and threw it on, buttoning it up for the storm outside. They headed out of the house, into the snowstorm and across the grounds to the Bunker, and Gillian gasped at the size of the structure as she stepped into the lobby area.

"Dr. Possible built this, all by himself?" she asked as they stepped into the Control Center.

Woodrow laughed. "No, Gillian, but he designed most of it. Wade helped a bunch, but that was before I became involved more," Woodrow explained. "This started off as Slim's labs, but it's turned into a multi-use facility: Team Possible, BlazeIT! Search and Rescue, Montana DCI, and Global Justice all share the facility, and it's worked out for the best for all involved.

"Come on," and he led her to an elevator. They got in, and it shot down to level 3 underground (level 4, if you count the ground floor). The door opened, and Woodrow grinned as he pointed to the door across from the elevator: 'Bunker Workout Room Alpha-4.' "Come on in," he motioned to her as he opened the door. They walked into a small dark area, no more than six feet by six feet, totally enclosed in Plexiglas. "You stay in here, and I'll show you what I do for 'fun,'" he grinned and walked through the 'glass door, closing it and sealing it behind him after removing his coat and placing it on a chair in the room.

Lights snapped on, and Gillian realized that she was inside a protective room inside a small gymnasium, complete with gymnastic equipment: rings, mats, horses, and parallel, uneven, and high bars. Around the walls were small ports, scattered throughout the room, and four large ports on each wall. Woodrow inserted an earbud and spoke: "Can you hear me now?" and laughed as Gillian nodded with a grin, then he turned his attention to the task at hand. "Load Woodrow combat program DeltaGammaTheta17: random attacks, volume maximum, safeties off…execute," and Gillian was slammed into the walls by the force of the explosions in the gym.

Gillian felt the explosion and managed to move back to the front of the room where she watched Woodrow pick himself up from the floor and run to the mats, execute a perfect roundoff followed by a whip and then a double backflip, and then landed hands-first on the pommel horse. He executed several scissors moves, flares, and Russians on combination, dodging laser fire from multiple ports on multiple walls as he completes the moves then dismounted and slammed the side of the horse. A loud electric beep, a door in the wall opens, Woodrow yelled "Frackle!" and he headed for the board and launched himself to the rings. He grabbed the rings, performed two giant swings, then nailed a perfect Iron Cross, swung twice into a Maltese Cross, and then went from two more giant swings into a vertically inverted Iron Cross, all the while dodging laser beams once again and balls of energy firing from the wall ports. He executed a series of one-arm swings, switching arms in mid swing, and landed an aerial dismount that placed him only steps from the wall. He ran to the wall, slapped it, and grinned when a loud 'ding' sounded and a door opened. He stepped into the room and returned almost immediately, covered from head to toe in a suit.

A loud 'ding', and a large ball of plasma shot out of the wall toward Woodrow. Gillian watched, amazed, as he created a jai alai scoop from the suit on his hand, caught the plasma ball, and returned it full-speed to the wall where it destroyed the launcher. Three launchers fired simultaneously, and Gillian watched as Woodrow dodged two of the balls, caught the third, and flung it into the other two, returning the attack. The explosion lit up the room brilliantly, and every surface in the room was suddenly covered with ice.

The lasers retreated within the walls, and missiles began to spew from openings on each wall. Woodrow collapsed the jai alai scoop back into his suit and started to slide across the room's icy floor in a speed skater's moves, rapidly circling the room until he was moving faster than Gillian could have imagined, missiles targeting on him. He suddenly made a 90-degree turn, moved forward for about 10 feet, and then reversed direction; the missiles all began to crash into each other…

…all, but one.

Woodrow ducked as the missile shot over his head, ran for the high bar and launched up to it. The missile came back around and headed for the apparatus, and Woodrow executed a one-arm giant swing as the missile went where his arm would have been. He grinned and pulled out a small marble, tossed it into the air, and shot it with a laser blast from his battlesuit. The cartridge exploded, and an ice-blue web exploded and captured the missile on its return flight toward Woodrow. The web enveloped the missile, collapsed and shrank over it, and captured the explosion, bulging to twice its size before it fell harmlessly to the ground.

Woodrow dismounted and looked at the ball of exploded missile, then smiled…

…and turned quickly when he felt a soft touch on his shoulder, now smiling into the crystal ice-blue smiling eyes of Gillian.

Several objects had executed simultaneously inside Gillian: "that was…incredible, Woodrow," she spoke softly, and Woodrow wanted to capture that phrase and hold it forever in his mind.

He blushed. "Thank you, Gillian," he replied, and he removed his protective hood and mask.

"I mean it, Woodrow," she smiled, and she leaned in…

…and Gillian kissed Woodrow's cheek.

Woodrow felt the softness of Gillian's lips and the smoothness of her lipstick on his cheek, and he knew he wanted more, so very much more. He wanted to taste her lips, explore her mouth with his tongue, hold her and feel her in his arms….

Gillian placed her arm around Woodrow's waist and pulled him next to her. "So, I know how you keep in shape, now," she smiled, and Woodrow nodded.

"I think it's time to see the study," Woodrow's voice cracked on the first two words, and Gillian giggled.

Gillian led him back to the room and held his coat for him, and she gasped as he turned his back to her: the battlesuit had a major gash across the back, and there was skin showing.

"Woodrow! You were hit!" she stared at the wound, and then she watched, amazed…

…as the battlesuit, first coated the wound with a protective paste and, then, healed itself. In a few moments, there was no indication of the suit ever having been damaged. He slipped his arms into his coat and pulled it around him, buttoning it up. He crooks his arm, she takes it, and they head out of the room and to the elevator to go back to the house.

Woodrow hung both coats in the closet next to the front door in the living room and, taking her hand in his, led her to the study door.

"Welcome to my little hovel, my haven, Gillian," he said as he opened the door. The lights all came on, and Gillian gaped into the doorway at the expanse.

The doorway was near the corner of the room; the wall on the right was only a few feet from the door. The left wall, however, was a good 15 feet from the door, and the walls were at least 20 feet tall. Books lines the walls as far as Gillian could see, with ladders attached to each wall for ease of access of the material. She stepped in, and Woodrow followed her in, closing the door behind her.

"There's my desk," he grinned, pointing at the magnificent wooden desk with the multiple monitors in front of it on the wall rising up at least 15 fee and five feet to either side of the desk. Between the far right monitor and the wall where the door resided was the picture wall…

Gillian recognized Kim and Ron, and she, of course, recognized Wade and Joss, but…

"Who is that, by herself, Woodrow?" she asked. "She is very pretty."

"That was Stephanie, Gillian, and the reason that all of this is here," Woodrow replied, and Gillian turned at the catch in his voice.

"You're the first person in here, Gillian, besides me, and the only one who knows I have her picture in here," Woodrow's face was wet, and Gillian was surprised.

"Woodrow, what did she do?"

"She died, Gillian." Even Woodrow's voice was dead, stoic.

"How?" by now, Gillian was confused.

Woodrow pointed to a reading / relaxing area in the middle of the room, and he led Gillian to a couch. She sat, and he sat across from her on the love seat that faced her.

"Let me tell you about Stephanie Watership, Gillian, and the reason that Wade and Jocelyn are together today," he began, and he started to tell her Stephanie's story….

Woodrow began to speak, and Gillian knew that this would be a difficult story to tell because he brought out a pair of handkerchiefs and handed them to her before he brought out one for himself.

He started to tell the tale, and Gillian felt her entire body swirling in a maelstrom of emotions: fear and sadness for Stephanie and her brothers and sisters, pride at what the parents of Dr. Wade Load had done for Stephanie, anger at the people who harmed Stephanie, and the wrenching sadness she felt when Woodrow told her about Wade having to identify the body and sitting with Stephanie the night before she was buried.

She realized, quite suddenly, that her face was wet. 'So, these are tears?' she asked, almost as an aside.

She felt several methods, several algorithms click into place, and she felt an intense desire to hug Woodrow and an even more intense need to be hugged by him. She did not care if her face was wet or not.

She stood suddenly, walked over to Woodrow, pulled him to his feet, and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his neck and allowing those newly-found tears to escape onto his body.

Woodrow was surprised, but he was not holding back his tears, either. He wanted to enjoy the feel of Gillian in his arms, but he was too busy trying to help her heal.

"I do not know how to feel, Woodrow, but I am certain that I have never felt like this ever," she whispered to Woodrow. "And, what happened to Wade?"

"Wade stayed in his room, only coming out a very few times (and those under medication), until..." Woodrow smiled into Gillian's hair, "Miss Jocelyn came into his life, the summer before Kim and Ron graduated from High School," and, with a smile intertwined with his tears, he pulled Gillian from his neck, guided her to a spot next to him on the couch, and began to tell her about 'the summer that Wade would never forget,' and Gillian laughed at the name he gave in describing it.

She stopped him in mid-description with...

"Woodrow, I have two questions for you."

"Yes, my dear?" he replied with a smile, and another method fired off for Gillian.

"The first: how did you get all of this information?"

"I have all the files," he grinned, and he waved his hand. More lights came on, and Gillian gasped at the vastness of the shelves upon shelves of books that Woodrow had in his study, even further down the study walls than she had seen initially. "My books are the study's representation of all of the stored information of Team Possible, BlazeIT! Search and Rescue, as well as Dr. Load's and Miss Possible's personal files."

"You did not answer my question, Woodrow," Gillian grinned.

"Well," Woodrow reached behind his head with his right hand and rubbed the back of his neck, "I may have taken advantage of some 'opportunities' to perform some 'detailed study and analysis,'" he smiled, and Gillian laughed.

"That little…" Joss laughed, and Wade tried to hide.

"Like father, like son," Mandy chuckled. "He wants to know everything about you…and, I do mean everything, Joss, luv," she added with a chortle, and Joss glared at Wade.

"I didn't read anything, Joss: I swear!" Wade panicked, and Joss' glare turned into a laugh.

"That was when you fell in love with Joss, was it not?" Gillian poked, and Woodrow nodded.

"Yes," Woodrow admitted. "I admit it: I was a full-blown sheep, willing to follow Jocelyn to the ends of the earth, if need be; I loved her that much, Gillian." Woodrow grinned, but Gillian saw the tears form on his face. "I had it baaaaaad, Gillian," he added.

Joss looked at Wade in pure shock.

"Wade-A…Woodrow...was in love…with me?"

"Well, you have to admit you are DDG, Joss," Wade said, and Mandy snorted, "and I had already fallen in love with you. That was the logical next step for him, after all. Don't tell me you didn't know, all this time, Joss?"

"I knew he liked me," she whispered softly, "but I never imagined…." She started to blush.

"You see: those genius skills really do work well in the field," Wade dead-panned, and Mandy whooped as Joss turned redder.

"She was so beautiful, so strong, so amazing…I couldn't help it, Gillian. It took me a time to finally realize that it wouldn't work between us," Woodrow admitted. "I even kept asking Wade for a Jocelyn-avatar, but she kept turning me down."

"Why do you call her Jocelyn, Woodrow?" Gillian asked, and Woodrow blushed.

"Because, Gillian, I was so very much in love with her, and I wanted her for so very long. I finally had to understand that it wasn't going to happen," Woodrow replied, and Gillian saw sadness hiding behind his smile.

"When I finally accepted the fact that she was Wade's, I was able to move on...but, that was the most cumulative time in pain I've ever had, Gillian," Woodrow smiled a sad smile, "and I'd would never want to wish that much pain on anyone."

"How long, Woodrow?" Gillian had to ask.

"10.9248753 minutes, Gillian, real-time," and Gillian gasped: an eternity of pain, and she knew she could not let him live like that, ever again.

Woodrow picked up his description of the remainder of Wade's visit, and Gillian laughed loud as Woodrow's description of the swimming hole and the events that happened there.

She asked him to tell her, once again, about the picnic where Wade told Jocelyn how he felt, and she decided....

"I want to see it," she blurted out.

"What?"

"What? The place where love began, silly," she stood and walked for the door.

"All right," he looked perplexed for a moment, and he followed her, opening the door for her and headed for the coat closet.

They both donned their coats, and they stepped out to the sound of whinnying.

"Master Woodrow: Good day, sir," came from the sleigh in front of the house. Gillian, ready for everything, was not ready for a talking horse, pulling a fully-tricked-out open sleigh.

"Good day, Tornado. This is Gillian. Gillian, this is Tornado," Woodrow smiled.

"Good day, Mistress Gillian," Tornado dipped his head, and Gillian walked up to him and touched his neck.

"Tornado: such a destructive name for one so handsome," she smiled, and Tornado lifted his head and whinnied a thank you.

"Shall we go, my dear?" Woodrow opened the door, and Gillian stepped into the sleigh, Woodrow holding out his hand to assist her in the step into the vehicle. Woodrow stepped in behind her, closed the door, and assisted Gillian with her seat belt. When he lifted his head and saw her grinning, he smiled, sat up, and nodded to the smiling Tornado. Tornado stepped off, and they headed to the Bench.

They rode quickly, and Gillian also learned just how 'tricked-out' this sleigh was: the bench warmers as well as the foot heaters were welcome for the trip…

…and, they arrived to a majestic scene: the canyon that Gillian looked across was blanketed in snow, and the mountains beyond the canyon were dressed in white, evergreen trees and bushes hugging the landscapes, and just the hints of purple, red, green, and brown making the view even more magnificent. The snow swirled across the mountains, and the swirls appeared as dancers performing for them, alone.

Gillian could barely stand the beauty, and Woodrow smiled when he glanced at her face: there were tears of joy, and a huge smile covered her face. ZShe's even more beautiful than I believed,' Woodrow thought as the sleigh came to a stop.

"Woodrow," Gillian began in a whisper, but Woodrow took her hand and helped her step out of the sleigh, her boots making a crunching sound as she stepped into the fresh snow to behold the magesty.

"Woodrow, it is indeed beautiful," she continued.

"No," Woodrow interjected, and Gillian's head turned toward Woodrow. "You are beautiful, Gillian, even more beautiful than I imagined you could ever be," and Woodrow decided that it was time.

"Gillian, I'm certain of one thing: I have fallen, head over heels, in love with you," Woodrow confessed, and Gillian stared at him in surprise and shock.

"It's true, Gillian," Woodrow smiled and squeezed her hand.

"This," he smiled at her, and Gillian felt a rumbling inside of her, "this is real. I love you, Gillian. You make me so very happy; I'm so glad you came into my life," he added, and Gillian broke out in a major giggle fest.

"What?" Woodrow looked confused.

"Now, you are quoting the musical group 'Blood, Sweat, and Tears,' Woodrow," Gillian continued to giggle, and Woodrow thought for a moment before he smiled and, surprising her, lifted her hand, removed both his gloves and hers, and kissed her right hand, and he began to replace her glove for her, but she stopped him.

"Woodrow," Gillian's smile lit fires inside of Woodrow, "I am not certain I know what this is, but I think…I think I love you," she leaned in, lifted his right hand to her lips and kissed it, then smiled, leaned in…

She liked the warmth of his lips, the taste of his tip of his tongue, and the feel of his hands on her coat.

He really, really, liked the way she tasted, as well.

Tornado contemplated the pair: they were much like Mistress Jocelyn and Master Wade, yet they were individuals in their own right, and he filed the differences that he had observed into permanent storage as the blizzard swirled snow around their heads, their hoods allowing facial access while providing protection from the stark wind as it whipped through the small area, over the bench and table, and down into the canyon.

Their arms wrapped around each other and pulled their bodies closer; they pulled tighter and tighter, almost sharing the same coat.

They were quiet on the way back to the house, simply holding bare hands as the snow danced and swirled around them.

"Woodrow?" Gillian whispered, and Woodrow turned his smile towards its source…

…and Gillian initiated the kiss that curled both Woodrow's toes and hers, and all of her emotional methods slammed into place…all, save one.