Chapter 14: Normal

Growing up, a part of Cindy Vortex always wanted her childhood to be a little less… exciting. No explosions, no feuds with an alien race, no power outages because Jimmy had decided to power his new invention with plain old electricity because of a severe lack of uranium. While the adventures were always exciting, they got exhausting after a while and she was fairly sure that she had broken every bone in her body at least once. But, she reasoned, that was all part of a normal childhood, right?

It wasn't until she got to college that she realized what an abnormal childhood she had. Normal was not battling an entire alien nation, nor was it blasting off into space at a moment's notice. She was surprised to find out that the FBI did not actually take up permanent residence in most small towns and that no other mayor had ever banned someone from messing with the weather. In fact, the more she talked about it, the more people reasoned that she was as abnormal as her childhood.

Once she figured out this out, she stopped talking about her past. That was where it would stay. Now that she was out of Retroville and away from Jimmy, she could finally be normal. She thought that she would enjoy being normal for once. Normal life, normal friends, normal boyfriend. But it only took her a couple months to realize that normal was, well, boring.

But then came that fateful Christmas when she had, against all of her better judgments, decided to spend the holiday in Retroville. As fate would have it, Jimmy was in town at the exact same time and that spark between them that she could have sworn has extinguished had come back as a full force wildfire. She found herself thrown back into the chaos of her childhood when she agreed to marry him. Their period of engagement was just as abnormal as she would have expected it to be, with not even distance separating it. Back were the random blasts into space, messing with the weather, and of course, she found herself back on the FBI Watch List. It was wonderful.

Marriage to Jimmy Neutron was the whirlwind she expected it to be. They had been married for a month when she got a call saying that she probably should come down to NeuCo Tower right away. Her mind playing through the worse-case sceneries the entire ride, when she finally stepped out of the cab she realized that A) Nothing seemed to be on fire, B) There was a severe lack of blood, and C) She could spot her husband inside the police crossed perimeter, not in a body bag. Sighing, she ducked under the tape and went and stood by him, arms crossed and eyebrows raised.

The chief of police chuckled and silently excused himself as husband and wife stared at each other in silence. Jimmy coughed into his hand before saying, "So. Did you know Cindy that radioactive uranium when not stored in proper containers and exposed to air suddenly, tends to… make a small explosion?"

Cindy sighed and raised her eyes to the sky, shaking her head. "So are you hurt?"

"No."

"Is anyone else?"

"No."

"Very well." She turned and ducked back under the tape. "I'll see you at home."

It was established that evening that unless there was a lot of blood or Jimmy was in the hospital that she was not to be called. Which was probably a good thing, considering that emptying NeuCo because of a small explosion or the release of a potentially toxic gas was a bi-weekly occurrence. Which resulted in a text to her phone usually consisting of, "Regardless of what the news says, everything is fine. Promise. Love you! J."

Between being the Big Apple's DA and marriage to Jimmy, her life was a never-ending swirl of activity, and she loved every minute of it. It was normal for her other half to come bursting into her office at any given hour of the day, proudly holding up whatever invention NeuCo had finally finished only moments before, declaring it to be "The best thing in the entire world and Cindy, what until you see what it does!" Usually resulting in said invention not doing whatever it was supposed to do until Jimmy gave it a good natured whack, resulting in a beam of something zapping across the room and out the window. Likewise, it was also perfectly normal for her to come bursting into his office when she had been informed by his secretary, his head scientist, or one of the members of the board (that he was having a horrid day (And couldn't she do something, Cindy please?) with Purple Flurp and bagels from his favorite bakery. Combined with a make-out session on his couch, he was usually in a much better mood for the rest of the day, causing her to be bombarded with "Thank you!" texts from his office.

Normal, she realized one cloudy March afternoon when she had been called to NeuCo because there had been an explosion and her husband was bleeding, which resulted in her calmly taking over the situation and wrapping up Jimmy's arm, was not really a thing, it was merely an idea. A norm. And for Jimmy and Cindy Neutron, normal was explosions. Normal was space adventures at a moment's notice. Normal was each other, which were as completely opposite of normal as could be.

"There." She declared as she taped down the edge of the wrapping. "How's that?"

NeuCo's CEO paused to flex his arm at the elbow. "Better, thanks." He paused and looked at his wife. "You're the best. Seriously."

She smiled and stood. "All in a day's work being married to Jimmy Neutron." She paused to kiss his head. "Be careful okay?"

"Scout's honor." She tossed him a look and he chuckled. "Alright, alright, I promise. I'll put the radioactive work aside for today."

"That's all I ask. Some of us have actual work to do today." She paused to pick up her bag, ignoring the rolled eyes and muttering that her husband was doing in response to the comment.

"Hey!" She paused in his doorway to look back at him expectantly. "I love you."

She smiled. "I love you to."

Normality at its best.

A/N: Sorry about the lack of updates! Recently moved and we don't have WiFi. But reassured, I have the next 4 chapters written!