Thanks again so much for all the reviews on this story! This has now officially become my "Most Reviewed"! It's also number two now on my Hits count, so a big shout out to all the readers also! Let me thank all who have left a review: calamite, Alphamech, AtomicFire, Whisper from the Shadows, sveta89, Aacire, and RealityBreakGirl… I really appreciate ALL of them! Now on with the next chapter…
Disclaimer: (Yeah, it's this again) If your wondering about the characters involved? Yeah, they're not mine…
Chapter 12
After the crushing hug from the Dr.'s P, Betty walked over to them and asked a question.
"I'm sorry to interrupt, but could I speak with Ronald in private for a little bit?"
"Of course." James said.
Anne quickly gave Ron another kiss on the cheek making him blush slightly, and then released him from her fierce hug. "OK, now you can talk to him. It's just so good to see you Ron. I KNEW you couldn't be dead."
Doctor Director led Ron out into the hall, and let the door close. They walked down the hall a few feet before Ron spoke.
"Why did you do that Dr. Director? I thought it was important for us to NOT be recognized."
"It's actually more important for KIM to not be recognized." She replied.
"Are you saying I've become… umm… what's the word I'm looking for? "Ex… Exper… no…"
" Expendable?" Betty finished
"Yeah… that's it."
"No Ronald!" Betty said a bit louder than she originally intended. "Not at all. You are very important to this operation. More important than you could ever imagine" She said her last sentence almost under her breath.
"What…?" Ron did a double take.
"How much do you love Kimberly, Ronald?" Dr. Director asked point blank.
"What…?" He said again.
Doctor Director took a deep breath, let it out, and repeated her question. "How much do you love Kim?"
"More than life itself. She's my heart, my soul… she's my everything." Ron spoke with conviction, staring Betty right in the eye.
"Good. Because Kim is going to need that love, more than either of you could ever know."
Ron narrowed his eyes. "What… are you talking about?"
"I can't tell you right now. I'm sorry."
"Are you going to tell Mr. and Mrs. Dr. P. about Kim?"
"No." Betty answered. "And that's part of why I asked you how much you love her. I can tell you this: I need your help to keep the two good doctors believing that that girl in there is Quinn Probable." She paused.
"Oh… before I forget, after they get Quinn back to working order, I need a report from you two about what happened yesterday."
…x x x x…
Two heavy-set men stood in the middle of a large storage facility. Many crates were strewn around that had a strange looking 'B' stamped on them, and the one man set a silver container on top of one. He then went to a cabinet nearby, pulled out a lap top computer, and walked back over to their crate table. He plugged the computer into a data port on the canister, and began typing.
"Very interesting. Very interesting indeed." The man said as he read. "It looks like we can change this drone to look like various people, but there is also a default configuration. For now let's just go with the default."
He selected the option, pressed enter, and then unhooked the computer. He stepped back slightly, motioning to his partner to do the same. The top of the canister whirred and turned a bit, and clicked into place. A slow ticking sound emanated from the canister, and it slowly speeded up to where it sounded like a constant sound, and then the lid popped open, releasing a red, oozing substance.
Moving on it's own, the blob moved across the crate, and onto the floor. It sat there changing, and growing in size. After about a minute, it started to take the shape of a person. Arms and legs formed, and next, a head.
Electrical arcs danced across the surface, and then it too changed. The hands and face began to look like skin, and the rest started to take on the look of clothing. Finally, a young looking man stood before them, short brown hair, brown eyes, and he wore a red and black uniform. He spoke.
"Hello. I am Synthodrone 901 version 2.0. You may call me Eric. I have been programmed to respond to a number of people, and I recognize you, Big Daddy Brotherson.
"You, however…" He turned to the other heavy-set man. "I do not recognize."
…x x x x…
Ron and Doctor Director walked back into the room, and Betty went up to Quinn as the two doctors were finishing a cursory exam. She quickly placed the voice-changing necklace on her as the two doctors were talking to each other. She quickly tucked it under the sheet before being seen, and asked her a question
"Quinn? Have you taken your medicine today yet?" She asked suddenly as if she had just remembered it, which she had.
"I never got a chance." She said through her teeth. "It's on the vanity in my bathroom, already measured out."
"I'll be right back." Betty said, and left the room.
"So… Ronald…" James said. "What have you been doing with yourself lately?"
"Well… umm…" He said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I… sort of lost my memory, and Drakken and Shego made me think I was someone else."
"I'd like to examine you soon, if I could." Anne said as she walked over to Ron and started to feel around on his skull. She noticed a lump, and placed a finger on it. "It seems that this is where you were hit on the head, making you lose your memory."
She moved the fingers that found the lump. "I'd say this happened… about 3 or four weeks ago?"
"Yeah, that's pretty close." Ron said. He didn't want to give them too much information.
"It usually takes longer for full memory loss to return completely." She removed her hand from the lump, and looked tenderly into his eyes. "I you sure your OK Ron?"
"Yes, Mrs. Dr. P. I'm fine." Ron said smiling. "You know I'm a fast healer."
"Huh…" Was all she said, and then turned towards the door when she heard it open. In walked Dr. Director carrying a glass of a strange looking liquid.
"Here you go Quinn." She said, putting a straw in the glass, and offered it to her. Quinn was able to get her lips around the straw, and sucked in about half of it.
Grimacing as she swallowed, Quinn hissed. "Dang that tastes terrible!" She then sucked down the last half, and was able to finally move her jaw as muscles began to relax. Next, she started to wiggle her fingers that were extended, and then slowly she started to get function back to her arms and legs.
After a bit of small movement, she was able to lay her legs flat on the bed, along with her arms. Quinn looked, and felt, much more comfortable.
"What was that stuff?" Anne asked as she picked up the glass and tentatively sniffed at it.
"An anti-rejection medicine that we came up with to help with both the bionics and her synthetic muscles. It's also chock full of vitamins to keep the rest of her in top physical form. I just happened to think that this might be what could happen if she didn't take it on schedule. I just didn't realize it would be this severe of a reaction."
"Did you exert yourself quite a bit yesterday?" Anne asked, looking at Quinn.
"Actually, yes. I was in a pretty good fight."
"To rescue our sons?" James asked.
Quinn looked over at Dr. Director, who nodded her head.
"Yes." She replied.
"Thank-you. Thank-you very much." James said, his eyes starting to well up with tears, but he choked them back down.
"That's probably why this happened. You remind me so much of our daughter, Kimmie." Anne said as she picked up strands of Quinn's hair. "If your hair wasn't black, and your eyes were a different color…"
Doctor Director nudged Ron forward, who realized what he needed to do.
"Umm… Quinn?" He said. "Are you feeling better?"
"Yes. Much better."
Ron's acknowledgement that this was actually Quinn seemed to pull Anne out of her reverie of her dead daughter. She set the strands of hair back down on the bed and turned towards Dr. Director.
"So what did you really need us here for, if you already knew all she needed was her medication?" Anne asked.
"Well… I, umm…" Betty stammered a bit. "I initially didn't know that was the problem."
"Well… there is one thing that I CAN improve on." Anne said.
"What's that?" Quinn asked as she sat up on the bed wrapping a sheet around her.
"I should be able to either make a pill, or some sort of injection system to replace the liquid medication. I could probably make it faster acting too."
"That would help a lot." Quinn said smacking her mouth. "It just tastes terrible. Ron? Could you please get me a glass of water to wash this taste out of my mouth?"
"Sure Quinn." Ron said, and got the glass of water for her.
"From what I've observed," James then said. "I might be able to do something with the bionics to have them react differently if this happens again. Maybe revert to a relaxed state, or even have them go into a default mode with limited ability."
That's my Dad. Kim thought sadly. Maybe he will concentrate on the bionics now, and not notice who I really am, along with Mom.
"Can we tell the school that Jim and Tim are OK?" Anne asked Dr. Director.
"I don't see why not." She answered. "Although, if you could tell them that it would be a couple weeks before they can return, that would be great. I really don't want them out in the public right now in case something else might happen."
"I understand. I think." James said.
"James…" Anne said. "Let's go check on the boys anyway, and see how they are doing. Dr. Director? Is there a place that we can get some breakfast?"
"Of course." Betty replied. "There's a cafeteria just down the hall from your rooms. If you look in one of your top dresser drawers, there should be a general map of the complex. Our head chef here makes a pretty good Denver Omelet."
"With extra bacon?" James asked, his stomach starting to growl.
"Yes, dear." Anne said pushing him out the door. "With extra bacon."
…x x x x…
After Quinn dressed in the bathroom, her and Ron proceeded to give Doctor Director a verbal report of what happened the previous day. It only took them about half an hour to tell her, and Betty just sat there, her fingers steepled.
"Hmm… It seems that Big Daddy has his fat fingers in this too. Although I can't help but think that he's not the only one here calling the shots. Mr. Hom never mentioned anyone else?"
"No, he didn't." Kim replied. Although, remember when you had me do that reconnaissance in Drakken's lab?"
"Yes…"
"I saw a symbol on a crate in there. Do you make anything of this?" Kim drew the symbol of a letter 'B'. The bottom hump a thinner line than the rest of it.
Doctor Director looked at it, and shook her head. "I've never seen that before."
"Let me see that please…" Ron asked as he took the paper from Kim. He turned the paper sideways, and then held it up to look at it with a light behind it.
"What if this wasn't a symbol, but two letters?" He finally said.
"What do you mean Ron?" Kim asked, taking the paper back and trying to see what he meant.
"If two letters were laid on top of each other, it would make the lines that match up look darker. I can only think of two letters that would make a symbol like this."
"A 'P' and a 'B'." Kim said, finishing Ron's thought.
"Exactly." He said. "Now what do the two letters mean? Peanut Butter?"
"I have a feeling that they are someone's initials." Doctor Director said as she took the paper from Kim. "But whose? I don't know."
"Maybe we can get Wade to help, now that Ron has come out."
"Umm… re-phrase Kim, please." Ron said, grimacing.
"Huh…? Oh, sorry Ron." Kim said when she realized the double meaning that she didn't intend. "Now that you aren't dead anymore, I bet he could help."
"Should I just… call him?" Ron asked.
"I've got an idea…" Doctor Director said.
To be continued…
Anyone have any ideas who P B is? Or what it is? Maybe its B P? I hope this still reads well, this chapter seemed a bit… forced. But it sounded OK when I re-read it. Let me know…