Wade Load was tired. Exhausted, really.
He still monitored the website, police scanners, and agencies like he'd always done. He knew, though, that no one would answer those calls anymore. It made him sad.
Kim was like the older sister he never had. When he was younger, six or seven... still in high school, actually... she'd come to babysit him while his parents were at work in the summer. He told her that sometimes in daycare, which he had to attend during the school year when she was in school, he was picked on and bullied, called names because he was smarter than everyone else his age. He told her how he felt that he would never fit in, and that he was afraid and lonely. She talked to her parents and his, and that fall he went to daycare where the Tweebs went for after-school care. They became fast friends, and Wade slowly felt himself come into his own. He still preferred to be alone, very much so. But he was eternally grateful to her for helping him overcome his fear.
After that, he told her everything, and she listened with patience and kindness. He, in turn, began to watch her website. His loyalty to her had quickly surpassed loyalty to anyone else. He made it a point to be available for her twenty-four seven.
But then she died. Fuck, he cursed internally when his eyes watered. His mom chose that precise moment to pop her head into his room to check on him, and he mumbled about having to sneeze or something. He faked one, and she left, satisfied.
She died and he was left with hundreds of thousands of people that needed help, a best friend/boyfriend/sidekick that was the living dead, and the cold reality that no one in the world would ever replace Kim.
He decided to run a scan of hospital and morgue records and cross-reference them with missing persons lists. He did that at least twice a week... even though Kim wasn't around to stop super villains, the Team Possible website frequently helped missing persons be reunited with their loved ones. Some endings were happy, but most of the hits he got were from John or Jane Does that made their way to their homes to be laid to rest.
Something dinged, and he looked up blankly. A girl with no name, in a hospital in Montana. He read her description and gulped. A female. Red hair, green eyes... severe head trauma and no memory of who she was or where she came from. Her injuries were extensive, and she'd been in that hospital for months. Nine months, to be exact.
It wasn't possible... it wasn't Possible. She was dead, they found her body in the wreck in the mountains. It was charred beyond recognition, but her things were found. Her grapple-dryer, her glove. Her shoe. Her shoe had blood in it, and two of her toes. DNA had confirmed the toes were hers.
It wasn't her. He'd identified her things himself. Her family laid her to rest months ago. Ron had been destroyed. Dead and alive at the same time. The town had been two hairs short of rioting in the streets out of grief and rage after the FAA confirmed the plane was brought down because of sabotage.
He nodded to himself. It wasn't her. She was gone. This girl was someone else.
But something nagged at him. His gut felt like it was full of cinder blocks. He had to check, he had to see for himself that she wasn't alive. He picked up the phone.
She had a week left. With no idea who she was, the hospital bills were piling up. With no one to pay, they had to let her go. She could walk on her own, now, so she would be fine, that was their reasoning. She was terrified, though. It became clear to her that she would eventually lose her vision. They told her it was sympathetic-opto-something-or-other, caused by trauma to her brain.
But they were still throwing her out because she couldn't pay. They told her they'd done her a favor, keeping her as long as they had, and that was only because some of the nurses had fundraised to pay for some of those bills. But it was warm now, and she could move around, so they had to let her go.
She wished they'd just let her die.
Her nurse walked in, holding up her iPhone. "There is someone that wants to see you," she said quietly. She gently took the phone, turning it toward herself. An African-American boy stared at her. His features were sort of blurry, and the light from the screen was so bright she asked the nurse to turn the brightness down. She watched the boy in the screen, wondering who he was. His features were sort of vague to her, because of her vision, but she could clearly see his dark brown eyes and the way they'd become glassy in the last couple of seconds.
"Kim," he breathed, and in the next second, he was sobbing.
"Hi," she said, confused. "Uh—so, I take it you know me."
He forced himself to regain his composure and nodded. "Oh God... we all thought you were dead..."
"Can you tell me who Ron is?" she interrupted.
He stared blankly. "What?"
"Ron. I remembered his name... I dream about him all the time... but I can't think of his face, or why he means something to me. He's the only name I remember. Is he... okay? Please, tell me who he is."
The boy nodded, wiping at his face with his sleeve. "I can do you one better. Give me a day or two, and I'll send you Ron live and in person." He saw her eyes brighten and he knew he was doing the right thing. He frowned when her eyes watered.
"Please don't let them kick me out," she whispered. "I have nowhere to go."
His dark eyes somehow got even darker. "They're kicking you out?!"
"They said that... that there's no one to pay for me, but they couldn't leave me helpless in the street. So they rehabilitated me so that I could leave. I can't, I have nowhere to go... please..."
"I'm going to send help," he said. "They won't kick you out. Give me a few hours okay?"
"Okay." She paused. "What's your name?"
"Dr. Wade Load, pleased for you to meet me again," he said with a big smile. "I won't let anything happen to you, okay?"
"Thank you, Wade." Wade. His name seemed familiar too. But she didn't know his face. She was anxious. She knew her family would be hurt when she didn't remember them. "Wait," she whispered.
He looked up.
"Can you tell me about my family?"
Wade grinned. "I will tell you all about them when I call you back. Right now I've got to get your family and Ron on their way there, and take care of the stuff with the hospital. Then I'll answer all your questions. Okay?"
"Okay."
"We've all missed you," he said quietly. Then the connection terminated.
"Stoppable-san, there is someone calling you."
He frowned. He'd only talked to his mother yesterday, there was no reason she'd be calling back. He quickly bowed to his sparring partner and took his leave. "H'lo?" He said suspiciously.
"It's me Wade."
"Wade, why are you calling me here?!"
"Oh please, you know me, Ron. I don't just call people. I have to protect myself. I also know that place is secret. I've encrypted this phone call, 512 bit. It's safe."
"Okay."
"Listen to me. You have to come home right now."
"Why, what's wrong?! Are my parents...?"
"They're okay. But right now, the Possibles are packing their things. They're taking an extended trip to Montana. They've... I've located Kim. She's not dead."
Ron swallowed hard, his mouth suddenly dry. "She is dead," he hissed. "Wade, please don't do this to me, I can't take these kinds of sick jokes."
"It isn't a joke. I talked to her myself, I saw her face. It's her, Ron. And she remembers nothing except for your name. She needs you."
He felt his chest both squeezing and inflating at the same time. It was extremely uncomfortable, but he didn't care, because he knew Wade was telling the truth by the tears in the younger boy's voice. He exhaled, rigidly maintaining his composure. "She doesn't remember anything?"
"She remembers someone named Ron, according to what she told me. She said she knows someone named Ron was very special to her, and she has nightmares about you constantly."
"She... knows my name."
"You need to pack up now, Ron. A helicopter will be taking you to the airport in ten minutes. Your flights are booked."
"I'm... I'm on it, Wade. Thank you."
"Always."
Dr. Anne Possible was reading her daughter's chart. She didn't give a shit about hospital rules or anything like that. The girl was sleeping when they arrived, and the nurse advised them to let her rest, that she hadn't been sleeping well. So instead of running to er daughter and engulfing her in the tightest embrace she could, she took the charts from the wall and studied them.
Amnesia, of course. Head and back trauma. Multiple fractures that would heal. There was some neural damage, she could lose her vision. There were no known cures for this type of optical nerve trauma. But there were drugs and surgeries that could delay the loss of vision, some of which she was very familiar with. There was also research, experimental things she was also very familiar with, that were also very promising. She would definitely seek treatment for her baby girl. She'd exhaust every possible method to make her daughter well again.
She put the chart down and sat down with a sigh, preparing herself for a very long night.
Someone burst into the room and barreled past her, screeching to a halt at the side of her bed. "KP," he choked out. He slipped off his shoes and laid down next to her, burying his face in her shoulder, crying until he fell asleep too.
A few minutes later, her daughter gave a deep sigh. "Ronnie," she mumbled.
He was wide awake right away. "Kim?" He looked her over. "Am I hurting you, I'm sorry—"
"She's still sleeping, Ron," Anne said quietly.
"Oh."
"Welcome home," she said quietly, a small smile on her face.
"Thanks," he whispered hoarsely.
When she woke up she was warmer than normal. There was weight on her body. It wasn't unpleasant, but her back was starting to hurt, and she needed to shift. She opened her eyes, waiting for them to adjust and quit hurting. The lights were low, and it was night time. She cautiously removed the sunglasses from her face and looked up.
His face was inches from hers, and his mouth was open. His breaths fanned over her face. His eyes were closed, and his hair was in his face.
She studied his features as best she could. His face had light pink wrinkles from sleeping on his arm. His sweatshirt rode up, and she could see that he had a scar on his side. She reached out and traced it before she could stop herself. He jumped awake. "Hey," he mumbled, a big grin forming on his face. She found it endearing.
She didn't want this boy to go away, so instead of answering, she shifted on to her side, resting her head on his chest.
She felt him swallow hard. "I missed you, too," he whispered, his arms wrapping around her.
"Did you?" she whispered, already half asleep. She felt him nod and kiss her hair.
He hummed a song, seeing her falling asleep. His voice wasn't exactly operatic, and she was sure he exaggerated the fact to amuse her.
She giggled a little bit at his off-key tune, finally letting herself fall into slumber. "You're weird," she whispered, "But I like you. Please... stay."
Ron waited until she was asleep for his tears to fall.
He felt himself sway with exhaustion. He made tea. Black tea. With lots of caffeine. In Japan he'd lost the little bit of taste he'd acquired for coffee. He put one packet of sugar in.
He sipped it and frowned. That was obviously hospital tea. Well that was uninspiring. God.
Earlier, she'd woken up again, and he told her everything he could about himself, and about how they became friends. He told her that she'd said those same words to her the day they met. She hugged him so close then. "You're my Ron," she mumbled into his chest, not for the first time. "Don't go, okay?"
"Never," he'd said fervently, like he always did.
Tomorrow they would transfer her back to Middleton Medical Center where she would be undergoing treatments for her vision and rehabilitation for her back. He could tell she was nervous.
"What if they make it worse?" she whispered.
"They won't, KP," he said soothingly. "I don't know if you knew this, but your mom runs one of the best neurology centers in the country. She's met tons of famous doctors and researchers and stuff, and she's been pretty selective in what could work for you. You'll be okay, I promise."
She got to talk to Wade again. Ron was with her, constantly rubbing her arm or kissing her hair, or offering her some other form of affection. She reveled in it. She asked him how they got together yesterday, and he told her all about how that freaky Eric had wooed her into almost destroying their friendship, and how his blinding jealousy had been his moment of clarity. They got together officially, after they kissed twice at junior prom.
She'd touched her lips, remembering the tingle she always felt there. It was from a memory that dangled just out of her reach... it had been dark, and they were... there was something...
He'd grinned. "The first time you kissed me. In the North Pole. You kissed my cheek, we were under the mistletoe."
She'd felt the stubble of his cheek on her lips. That was why it tingled so much. The memory was not very clear, and she still did not see his face. But she remembered feeling his skin on her lips. She wanted to feel it again, and he graciously offered her his cheek. She kissed him lightly, and he responded with a blinding smile and a light kiss on her forehead.
She didn't understand why she liked this feeling so much, why she was so attached to him. Intellectually she knew that she'd been with him romantically for a long time, and that they'd maybe even been sexually active...
She flushed. Best not to think of that, or ask. He would be hurt that she didn't remember those things. She saw the flash of pain in his face every time she asked a question about their relationship. She didn't like to see him hurt.
"What's got you down, KP?"
She shook her head, offering him a weak smile. "It's nothing."
