As with every chapter before and every to follow, Kim Possible and all related characters (other than those of my own creation for the purpose of this story) are the property of The Walt Disney Company. Everything else is all mine.

Once the Possibles were on their way to the hospital, Rachel Stoppable pulled out her cell phone and dialed her husband's hotel room number in Orlando. He picked up on the first ring.

"Hello?"

"Jon, this is Rachel."

"Hi, honey. Any news?"

"Jim and Kate are headed down to the hospital. They both really appreciated me coming over to watch the twins."

"Hey, that's what friends are for, right? I'm sure they'd do the same for us."

"Well, let's just hope they never have to."

"How are you holding up?" asked Jonathan Stoppable.

"I was pretty tired when Ron first called but I guess I'm over my "hump" for now."

"So, what are your plans for the night?"

"Probably just take one of their cordless phones in the family room, curl up on the couch and try to catch a few hours of sleep. The twins somehow managed to sleep through all the activity, which is for the best. I'm not sure where Rufus ended up, though. Guess I'll have to track him down and see if he's okay."

"You still want me to come home on my scheduled flight?"

"I don't see any point in you trying to catch an earlier one, Jon. You're flying non-stop, and any earlier flight is likely to have layovers. Plus, you were planning on meeting Bob Zimmerman for breakfast."

"And?"

"And you can tell him we'd be more than happy to have Raquel come live with us for a while."

"Good. I'm sure he'll be relieved and his daughter Mary will be thrilled."

"Just don't you two get so caught up in reminiscing that you miss your flight. Oh, and you do remember where you parked the car at the airport, right?"

"Now, Rachel, when have I ever lost track of my car in the airport parking lot?"

"Jon, I can't remember the last time you didn't lose track of it."

"Touché. Be sure to call me on my cell if anything changes. I love you."

"I love you, too. Sleep tight."

Before sacking out on the family room couch, Rachel decided to check in on the twins. Their bedroom door was slightly ajar. She opened it three or four inches and peeked in: both boys could be heard breathing steadily, sound asleep in their bunk beds. She pulled the door closed.

Since there was no sign of Rufus in the twins' bedroom, she figured he must be upstairs in Kim's room. Climbing up enough to scan the room, she heard his distinctive snore but was unable to tell where it came from, so she climbed the rest of the way.

Walking over to Kim's bed, she came upon one of the most adorable sights she had seen in quite some time: Rufus had crawled under the bed covers and was snuggled up with Kim's Panda-Roo.

"Now why didn't we think of getting him one of those?" she thought. "Oh, well, Rufus. I guess you're going to have to settle for the real thing. I'm sure you won't complain."

Descending to the main floor, Rachel made her way back to the family room, got all comfortable on the couch, said a short prayer for Kim's recovery and within minutes was fast asleep.

"K-i-i-m-m-m… Kimmie C-u-u-b-b… K-P…"

She could hear familiar voices calling her name, but it was like in a dream. Kim tried to answer but her own voice sounded distant and not wholly her own.

"Mom...? Dad...? Ron...?"

As she spoke, she struggled to open her eyes but the room light was too intense.

"Mom…? Dad…? Ron…? Are you there?"

"We're all here, Kim", reassured her father.

"Where am I?" Kim asked.

"You're in Intensive Care at Middleton General, Kim", answered her mother. "Don't try to open your eyes just yet. Let them adjust for awhile."

"How'd I get here? The last thing I remember… was Ron and I were out at City Park Lake… walking. I was doing some stretching… waiting for Ron to catch up… when something sharp hit me… in the back. That's… that's all I can… remember…"

"That's good, KP", said Ron, "I honestly hope you never remember any more, because I only saw it happen and it's something I'll probably never forget."

"How long have I been out?" Kim asked.

"Altogether, close to four hours", answered Mrs. Possible.

"What happened?" Kim asked.

"Kim, you were hit by a super-high-voltage taser", answered a familiar voice from a corner of the room.

"Wade? Is that you?"

"In the flesh."

"I gotta see this to believe it. Get over here where I can see you", Kim demanded.

Wade walked around and stood beside Kim's hospital bed. Kim slowly raised her right arm and hand to shield her eyes, then opened her right eye just a crack.

"It definitely looks like you. Ron, did you do the hologram test?"

"Oh, yeah. It's really him."

"Slap your hand again?" Kim asked.

"No, actually this time he ran over my foot with a large roller luggage bag."

"Huh?" Kim had a rather puzzled expression.

"Long story, Kim", explained Wade. "It can wait 'til later."

"Speaking of waiting until later", interrupted the ICU Night Duty Nurse, who had just stepped into the room, "I think it would be best if all further discussions wait until later today. Our patient here has had quite a night and Doctor's orders are for her to get plenty of rest."

"Thank you, Nurse", said Mrs. Possible. "Well, Kim, I guess we're getting chased out already." She leaned over the bed and gave her daughter a big hug. "You really had us scared at first, but I'm so thankful you're recovering so well. I love you."

"Love you, too, Mom", replied Kim.

"Kim, I'm going to run your Mom home and then I'll be back", said Mr. Possible.

"Dad, you don't need to stay here with me all night", Kim said.

"Kim, I'm not staying because I need to; I'm staying because I want to", replied Mr. Possible.

"Oh… thanks, Dad", Kim said with a smile.

"Mr. Dr. P., I'll stay here 'til you get back. Then I can come in later and take over watch duties, say, around eleven o'clock?" offered Ron.

"That would be great, Ron. Be back shortly."

"Good night, Wade", said Mrs. Possible. "Thanks yet again for all your help with Kim and Ron. Oh, and thank your dad for running you over tonight."

"Will do, Mrs. Possible."

Taking each other by the hand, James and Kathleen Possible looked once more upon their daughter, leaned together and smiled, then with some hesitation turned and left the room.

Ron walked over to Wade, who was making final checks on the portable laser grid system.

"Wade, you still planning to fire that up tonight?"

"I'm thinking I'd better wait, Ron, before I turn it up to full strength. What I can do is activate the perimeter grids in invisible detection mode and plug the alert system into my communications console. That way, we'll both be alerted if any unauthorized persons attempt to enter the room."

"Sounds like a plan. Wanna ride?"

"That'd be great. You mind if we swing by that all-night convenience store? I'd like to grab a "Giant Slurpster" to have when I get back to my room."

Kim quietly lay in her bed, her eyes not yet fully adjusted to the room light. She could hear Ron and Wade talking, but was only able to catch bits and pieces of what they were saying.

"Okay, you two, what's the big secret?"

"What do you mean, Kim? We're not hiding anything", replied Ron somewhat defensively.

"Uh-huh. R-i-g-h-t. You know, Wade, you still haven't told me what was so important that you were willing to leave your room to come visit me here at the hospital?"

"Kim, it's like I told Ron: if I was willing to leave my room after Team Impossible fried my system, don't you think I'd do the same for you?"

"Wade, that's awfully sweet, and I don't want to sound ungrateful, but my "Kim-sense" is telling me there's more than what you've told me. Am I right?"

Wade sighed, pulled up a chair beside Kim's bed and sat down. "Yeah, you're right: there's more. Ron, I think you'd better tell Kim the rest."

"Me? Why me?"

"Because you were the one who was so concerned about the supposed e-mail and you're the reason I came down to the hospital."

Wade and Ron continued this argument for a few more rounds until Kim declared a cease-fire. "Ron, you tell me the rest. If I have any questions, I'm sure Wade can answer them."

Ron related to Kim all that happened to her after she was hit by the taser, including the parts about the "Wanted" e-mail message. And, where necessary, Wade filled in gaps or explained certain parts in more detail.

"So, Wade, you think the e-mail was a hoax, but you're still setting up this grid system, just in case", Kim observed.

"Well, at first I was just doing it for Ron, but I've had a few more hours to think about things and, frankly, I'm no longer sure that e-mail was a hoax."

"But Wade, you said so yourself that if it was legit, you would have detected it the moment the "Send:" button was clicked, and Middleton would be crawling with villains by now."

"Kim, it might not have been a mass-mailing. It could have been an e-mail sent individually to people already in the Middleton area, used a phony subject heading, and the "Wanted" portion could have been an attached file --- an encrypted .PDF document, for instance --- which my e-mail detection system might not have detected or been able to scan to read the contents."

"Okay… ", interjected Ron. "Aside from Wade just making me wonder if he's reading my e-mail… "

"Only scanning them, Ron. I just do it to make sure you're doing what I asked and restricting all mission-related messaging to the Ronnunicator."

"…correction, scanning my e-mail, I still don't think we should take chances. While Kim's here at the hospital and while she's recovering at home, I really think we should have her protected by your grid system."

"What grid system?" Mr. Possible had returned to the hospital and reentered Kim's patient room unobserved.

"Oh! Hi, Dad!" a somewhat startled Kim greeted her father. "Wow, you're fast!"

"Well, Kimmie, there's not a whole lot of traffic on the road this early on a Saturday morning, so even your slow-poke Dad can manage to get home and back fairly quickly", said Kim's father with a grin.

"Now, tell me a little more about this "grid system" you were just discussing."

Wade went into a technical explanation of how the system worked, and Mr. Possible was clearly impressed at how far Wade had come in miniaturizing the system. Ron then talked about the "Wanted" e-mail and his feeling that Kim should be protected regardless of whether or not the e-mail was genuine.

"While I have some serious doubts about that e-mail, Ron, I agree: there's no point in unnecessarily taking chances. Wade, let's go over the system: I want you to make it fully operational, not just a monitoring device, and then give Ron and me some onsite training. You two up to that before heading home for some sleep?"

"Definitely!" answered Wade and Ron in unison.

Wade went over to the onsite controller and began making adjustments to change from monitor mode to full operational. Mr. Possible stood beside him, listening and observing while Wade explained each aspect of the unit. Meanwhile, Ron, knowing he was clearly out of his league, decided to stay over beside Kim's bed.

"You know", commented Kim, "you three are simply amazing."

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Yeah, KP, actually, there is", Ron reached down and took Kim's right hand in his left, cupped her chin in his right hand and gently tilted her head so he could look straight into her eyes. "You can rest, relax and allow God to heal that marvelous body of yours." He then leaned over and planted a long, warm, loving kiss upon her lips.

"Okay, Doctor Stoppable", replied Kim with a sigh. "Whatever you say."