1Disclaimer: Just the usual.
--
The fleet of Global Justice helicopters rose from the ground once again as Wagner blasted from speakers on one of them momentarily before being shut off.
"Is that really necessary?" asked Kim.
"I thought it was cool," said Will Du.
"Problem is, it's kind of hard to hear over the all the other noises associated with these choppers," Ron added. "Still a good idea." Agent Du mulled things over for a second, then responded.
"Good point. I guess it just sounded a lot cooler in theory than in practice." The helicopter bearing Will Du and Team Possible broke off from the others and in about a minute landed about a hundred yards from where the Sloth had been stashed. Kim and Ron uncovered the Sloth and Kim drove it onto the chopper. Shortly thereafter, they ascended back up and quickly caught up with their companions. The flight itself was pretty uneventful, even though their destination was very nearly the outer limits of the helicopters' range, and they arrived in Portugal a few hours after they had left. It had been a long day, and everyone just wanted to sleep on the day's events and complete all the paperwork in the morning.
Will led the high school graduates and Rufus to their apartment in the Global Justice barracks. He unlocked the door and began a quick tour of the accommodations, which were designed for use by a variety of people whom GJ needed to house, such as witnesses, family members, and those whom Will called "freelancers." The tour was brief, as Agent Du was going off duty, and when he went off duty, he meant it. There were two bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, one with two beds and one with one. Kim and Bonnie claimed the larger room, and Ron tossed his suitcase on the bed in the other one. This action was met by angry chattering.
"Dibs!" Rufus had already claimed the bed. Ron resigned himself to sleeping on the couch in the living room. He flipped on the TV, hoping to find something worthwhile on.
"Law and Order, Law and Order, Law and Order." Then Ron noticed that the batteries had fallen out of the remote. Re-installing them, he found an episode of The Fearless Ferret that he hadn't seen in a while. During the first commercial, Kim emerged from the other bedroom.
"Bonnie monopolized the bathroom in our part of the apartment. Can I put some of my things in your room?"
"Sure thing, KP." She brought a basket full of assorted lotions and other gooey things of compostion and use unknown to Ron from her room to the other one, and slid them under the bed on which Rufus was sleeping. She then emerged and parked herself on the couch as close to Ron as possible.
"I'm not sure about all this," said Kim after a little while.
"What do you mean?" asked Ron.
"The whole 'Bonnie going on missions with us' sitch. I mean, the first time, with the mysterious black helicopters and flying the Sloth; was that just a freak occurrence, or Bonnie trying to turn over a new leaf? I just don't know."
"And she has really been after my pants as well." Kim seemed to grimace at this statement. "When we first picked her up, she was using them as a handkerchief, and on this mission she was using them as, well, pants."
"I noticed. You didn't seem too disappointed with that on either occasion," Kim noted; Ron wasn't sure if her tone was more of anger or something less worrisome. He was about to rightfully defend himself, but what Kim said next helped to put his mind at ease. "I mean, I am your girlfriend. Why should she have all the fun?" All of a sudden, Ron liked where Kim was going with this line of questioning. This particular meeting of the minds and lips was more forceful than many of their other such encounters. After a good ten seconds of tongue wrestling, Kim pulled back just enough for her to shoot another idea off of Ron.
"I'm going to make you forget all about Bonnie getting into your pants." The two of them resumed their previous activity; this time, hands began to go exploring. Ron's hands found their way up Kim's back, nearly liberating her from the strictures of the top half of her mission clothing, while Kim's hands were working on Ron's pants, which were not coming down as rapidly one would expect, much to Kim's consternation. Before they could travel any further down the path they had taken on the night of their high school graduation, the door to Kim and Bonnie's bedroom burst open.
"KIM!!!" Bonnie yelled, "Your things are in the general area of my things! They're..." Bonnie's latest rant was cut short when she noticed that she had interrupted Ron rounding first and trying to stretch it into a double. Kim and Ron slowly pulled back from their positions.
"This isn't...well, actually it is exactly what it looks like," stammered an embarrassed Ron. Embarrassed not that he had been doing what he had been doing, but that he had an audience.
"Don't mind me...in the meantime, I'll just move everything over to your section of the bathroom. I'll be praying to the porcelain goddess for the next eon or so if you need me." Bonnie retreated to the bathroom.
"Now, where were we?" asked Ron.
"I'm just not feeling it now. I don't like being interrupted," Kim knew she was disappointing Ron. After a brief, awkward silence, Ron decided to resume their original conversation.
"So, umm, do you think Bonnie would actually change for us?"
"I don't think Bonnie's changed a bit," said Kim. "I thought she would be forcing herself to be nice to us so that we would take her on more missions."
"Unless she knows that if she was acting nice to us, then we would think she was up to something, so she would be acting like herself, but that would make it more likely..." Kim sensed that Ron was about to get himself caught in a loop. She took appropriate action, resuming the activity that had been interrupted by Bonnie's untimely entrance. The hands remained calmer this time; Kim and Ron knew that Bonnie could barge in again without warning. After a minute or so, Ron told Kim, "I'm going to go see if Rufus is willing to relocate out here."
"I suppose I could try to talk some sense into Bonnie. I don't think either of us will be successful, but just in case..." Ron knew where Kim was going with this, and he gave Kim the good night kiss he expected she would ask of him.
–
"BONNIE! Explain this!" Kim held up the trash can into which Bonnie had thrown everything that Kim had brought into the bathroom.
"Just putting your things where they belong," Bonnie said nonchalantly. Kim was ferociously tweaked. What had gotten into Bonnie? Did she really come here for the sole purpose of tormenting her. Was her explanation on the plane just a bunch of hot air? Bonnie was a lot of things, but in Kim's experience a liar was not one of them; as such, she knew she could get to the bottom of this.
"We need to talk," Kim told Bonnie sternly.
"I've been waiting to hear you say those words ever since you and Ron started swapping spit, but I was hoping that you would say that to Ron." Bonnie smirked as she sat down on the bed next to Kim.
"Okay, B. WHAT IS YOUR MAJOR MALFUNCTION?!? Whenever we've been anywhere near each other this whole mission, you have been getting on my every last nerve! I can't say two words without you turning around and spewing some sort of unfunny dreck in response! Not to mention that every time you and Ron are alone, you somehow find a way to separate him from his pants! Give me one good reason that this should not be your last mission!"
"I can not." Kim was stunned by this response, expecting a far more arrogant or condescending answer to her rant. She expected it more so when she asked Bonnie to elaborate. "Old habits die hard, K. I am who I am, and no one, especially not you, will change me unless I want to be changed. I need to close a chapter of my life, and I am willing to go so far as to actually subject myself to spending long periods of time with you two to get there. Let me have this chance, or you will regret it. Keep in mind that I have been nothing but beneficial when I have been around you on these little games you've been a part of for so long."
While this did meet Kim's expectation of a conceited response, not to mention that she had a gut feeling that Bonnie's sincerity was forced, Kim went into the conversation believing that Bonnie deserved at least one more chance and was about to leave it without a good reason to take that chance away. She was still not in the best of moods right now, and she knew the perfect way to exact a bit of revenge on Bonnie.
"Bonnie, you've proven your point with the bathroom. I'll just be in the other bedroom tonight. We'll see you in the morning." Kim got up and began to extract her personal items from Bonnie's storage system. While Kim was doing this, Bonnie began to put the pieces together; Kim plus Ron plus one bed plus pent-up frustration equaled a dangerously high chance of Kim hitting the high notes. Bonnie had to act fast to ensure they didn't try anything.
"You know Kim, if I move around some of my things, there should be enough room for you in my bathroom. Plus you get a bed to yourself, and I don't think Ron will let you get the rest you need tonight. You've had a long day, you don't want him to make it any longer, do you?"
"Nothing will get started in there unless we want it to happen," Kim replied to this latest suggestion. "Although I must admit, you almost made me think that you were actually being magnanimous for once in your life."
"Now who's the one unable go to two minutes without being snippy?" Point to Bonnie. Just then, Kim and Bonnie heard a tiny knock at their door. Kim opened the door a crack, but initially saw no one at first. Then she looked down and saw an extremely sleepy and cranky-looking naked mole rat.
"Hrnk! Trying to sleep! Keep it down!"
"We were just about to go to bed. Good night, Rufus."
"Night, Kim, Bonnie." Rufus trudged back to his bedroom and to his dismay found his bed occupied. Ron had placed a pillow on the ground that was plenty large enough for a rodent, but it was the principle of the matter.
--
Kim was the first one to awaken, beating the sun by a few minutes. She left the apartment and ran into Will Du, who was staggering down the hall.
"Miss-s-s Possible. You just getting back in, too?" He had evidently been out all night.
"I hope you don't have to work today." Especially after Kim caught a whiff of his breath.
"Nah, I'm off. Oh, and by the way, your flight leaves in three hours. And get your friend's number for me." Agent Du kept walking down the hall unsteadily while Kim went back into the apartment. Her first stop was Ron's room. When she went in, she originally planned to wake him immediately, but he looked too peaceful for her to act so quickly. So she crawled under the covers and slid under his outstretched arm. A few minutes later, Kim felt the arm pull her closer to Ron, and his eyes opened ever so slightly.
"I could get used to this," he whispered in Kim's ear. This was followed by a line of kisses along Kim's neck.
"Our ride home ships out in less than three hours. You start packing while I wake up Bonnie." Ron hadn't unpacked too much, but all the time while he was packing, he did so while having a just-awakened naked mole rat staring daggers at him.
"What? Why are you looking at me like that? What do you want me to do about it? Oh, okay, I'm sorry I took your bed while you were up last night. Happy now?" Rufus did not react at first, but eventually he ran off towards the lightly stocked refrigerator and left Ron to his devices.
–
Kim took a far less hands-on approach to waking Bonnie. This time, she merely set her bedside alarm clock to go off in a few minutes. She also left a note on said alarm clock, telling Bonnie, "Flight home leaves in about two and a half hours. Let's be ready to leave at ten - K." Kim was gathering her things when the alarm clock went off. Bonnie groaned, rolled in the general direction of the noise, and flung the timepiece in the general direction of away from her. Specifically, towards the bathroom and Kim. The still-buzzing clock skidded across the tiles, past Kim, and came to a stop against the bathtub. Kim bent down to pick it up and turn it off.
"So, when do we leave, K?"
"We should probably be out there by ten."
"Then you'd better hurry up. I take a while in the morning. Unlike Ron, I don't finish before you even know I've started. And unlike you, I actually care about my appearance." Kim let these comments slide; she was completely wrong about Ron, and Kim usually did care about her appearance, just not when she'd be spending most of the day on a plane. She finished clearing her things out of the bathroom and joined Ron in the main room of the apartment.
"So, how's Bonnie?" Ron asked after a moment.
"Back to normal," replied Kim.
"I'm sorry to hear that," Ron said.
"It's an improvement over yesterday. We mixed about as well as water and cesium on yesterday's mission. But I think she can do better, and truth be told, I'm a little more afraid of what she can do without us than with us."
"Keep your friends close, keep your frenemies closer," began Ron.
"And keep your best friends since pre-K closest," added Kim as she snuggled up closer to Ron.
--
Bonnie was ready to leave just before Kim's preferred time of departure. The three of them left the barracks and in a few minutes were at the Global Justice airstrip. After Kim drove the Sloth into a crate, which was then loaded onto their plane, Dr. Director herself joined them on board.
"We can fill out all the necessary paperwork once we're six miles above the Atlantic." She turned to Bonnie. "I believe this is the first time we've met, Bonnie." Surprised that the woman knew her name, part of Bonnie really wanted to find out what else she knew about her, while another part of her was worried about that same thing.
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A/N: After some fact checking, I determined that it was far more plausible for a helicopter to fly nonstop from the Canaries to Portugal than to Ireland. I have changed the end of chapter eight to reflect this. I thank all my readers and reviewers for sticking with this one.