Disclaimer: The Walt Disney Company owns all rights to the characters and situations associated with Kim Possible. I borrow Kim, her family and friends for no monetary gain. I do this only to keep the entire Universe in harmonic balance so, if we're all blown to smithereens, you know I've stopped writing.
The Closet II
Chapter 15
Home Again, Again
Mr. and Mrs. Stoppable, along with the two Doctors Possible, stood in their teenage kid's kitchen doorway and watched the red headed girl and blond boy as they did their homework at the breakfast nook.
Without looking up from his intense reading Ron picked up the glass of soda in the middle of the table, took a sip then passed it to Kim. Not looking up from writing a term paper, she accepted the glass and took a sip also before passing it back to Ron who set it down and continued his reading. After a minute Ron, again not paying attention, absently reached into his backpack and dug around before he pulled out a small pencil sharpener and handed it to Kim. Still not looking up from her deep concentration she accepted the sharpener and went to work honing the tip of her pencil before handing it back to him. Neither of the teens broke their intense concentration on their homework and none of the handoffs were awkward or flubbed in any way. It almost seemed as if the two were actually paying close attention to the exchanges, which they weren't. Neither Ron nor Kim had so much as murmured a sound or lifted an eye to glance at the other during both of the seemingly choreographed exchanges.
"Fascinating," Ann Possible whispered as she turned, got the dinner plates out of a china cabinet and started to set the dining room table. "The telepathy Kim and Ron are exhibiting is extremely fascinating in two people who are non-related."
"You can say that again," Dean Stoppable softly said as he started to dole out the silverware. "It's almost as if the kids are sharing the same mind."
"Yes, they're so in sync now," Jan Stoppable said as she passed out the napkins around the table, "even more so than before they'd bonded."
"I'd really love to hook them up to an EEG machine and see how close their beta and gamma waves match when they work like that," Ann said as she looked around the dining room table to make sure everything was in order before she headed for the kitchen with Jan. "Well, the pot roast should be done so it's almost time for dinner. Let's go tell the kids and get started."
"I'll go find Jim and Tim and tell them dinner's ready," James Possible said aloud as he headed for the back door.
"I think they said something about turbo charging the Jacuzzi," Dean laughed as he accompanied James to the rear of the house. He saw the eyebrows of the rocket scientist knit in concern and added, "I told them it was okay as long as they didn't increase the water jet pressure enough that it would peel the flesh off of somebody. You look worried James, do you think they may actually go that far?"
"No, that's not what's bothering me," James said as he stopped at the French doors leading out to the patio to talk to his now the father-in-law of his daughter for a month and a half. "I guess I'm still concerned that my little Kimmie-Cub and Ronald got married far too early in life. I mean they're not even seventeen years old yet."
"And as that Sensei fellow told us before the wedding," Dean said as he laid a kind hand on James' shoulder, "our kids have experienced and done more for this world in their combined thirty-two years of life than you, me, Jan and Ann have in our combined one hundred seventy plus years on this planet. If you'd like to know, that's five point three one two five times longer."
"Well, when you put it that way Dean," James chuckled as he opened the French doors, "I guess I am being a bit selfish trying to hold on to Kim and keep her as my little girl for a few more years. Your boy Ronald is a fine young lad and I guess Kimmie really does love him. I suppose I should leave them be."
"That's the spirit," Dean enthused and patted James on the back. "Now let's find your two boys and see what damage they've done to the Jacuzzi so we can eat."
The Jacuzzi was found in normal working order but the two men discovered the young boys up in the gazebo rafters around the tub installing a tiny camera.
"Jim, Tim, what are you doing?" James Possible asked his two sons in a stern fatherly voice.
"We're installing surveillance equipment in and around the house," Jim enthused as he hopped down off the ladder.
"We want to find out why Kim and Ron act the way they do around each other," Tim said as he put a screw driver back into a toolbox.
"They act as if their minds are somehow linked, even closer than ours are and we wanna know why," Jim finished as the two boys walked over and stood in front of the adults.
"As fascinating as that sounds boys," James sighed in relief that they weren't doing something more destructive, then set himself for the lecture he knew he needed to deliver, "you are not to spy on your sister or Ronald. It's wrong and you know it so I'm afraid I have to punish you. There'll be no more J200 rocket fuel in our house for a month."
"But daaaaaaad!" the two whined in unison.
"Do you want to make it two months?" Dr. James Timothy Possible firmly questioned.
"No sir," Jim and Tim solemnly moaned and hung their heads in defeat.
"Okay, it's time for supper," James said as he playfully ruffled the brown hair on Jim's head. "But first, I want you to tell me where you placed your surveillance cameras."
"We didn't have much time since we only got here an hour ago after picking up Kim and Ron from the airport," Tim excitedly said as the two rambunctious boys perk up at the chance to spill their ingenious plan.
"So we were only able to put them in the master bedroom, living room and out here so far," Jim continued to explain the plot as he pointed up to the small lipstick camera that was well concealed in the wooden rafters of the gazebo.
"They all send a signal to a substation in the basement via ultra short distance, wireless transmitters," Tim added.
"And the substation is hardwired via video cable to our computer back home," Jim finished with a proud, beaming smile.
"So no one can view the pictures except whoever's at your computer terminal," Dean Stoppable said in nodding admiration. "That's very clever boys." Dean saw the scowl on the rocket scientist's face and quickly added, "Clever, but not very ethical. You're violating your sister's privacy which isn't very nice. How would you like it if someone spied on you, say in your bedroom… or the bathroom?"
"Gee, we never thought of it that way," Tim said in surprise.
"We'll take the cameras out right away," Tim finished, equally taken aback at the fact that someone might see him in his most private moment. After all, he and his brother were just entering their pubescent years and feared their father or mother spying on them when they could be naked.
"We'll worry about removing the cameras later," James reassured his young boys with a chuckle, "right now it's time for dinner. Go in and get washed up."
"Right dad," the twins yelled and raced into the house.
"Are you going to have them remove the cameras?" Dean slyly questioned James as they made their way to the house at a more sedate pace. "I mean it'd be a great opportunity to covertly keep an eye on your little girl without seeming overbearing or meddlesome."
"As tempting as that sounds," James said in deep contemplation as they reached the French doors, "I think I might be the person sent on a one way space probe to a black hole if either Kimmie or Ann ever found out about it."
xxxxxx
Monday Morning
"We Won! We Won!" the cheer squad all shouted and jumped up and down as Kim and Ron reached their lockers at school after their trip to Yamanouchi.
"You won what?" Ron questioned as he opened his locker and stowed his homework books and kept those for the first two class of the morning.
"Cheer Regional's silly," Tara giggled and playfully swatted the blond boy's arm. "We won the regional competition while you two were off playing kissy-face in Japan."
"That's great Tara," Ron enthused as the two blonds joined the rest of the squad at Kim's locker a couple of feet down the hall. "I knew you could do it, even without KP being your captain."
"What's that suppose to mean?" Bonnie Rockwaller growled menacingly and she set upon Ron. "Are you saying that you didn't think I'd be able to lead the squad to victory?"
"Just the opposite Bonnie," Kim cut in defending her husband. "We both knew you could take over and handle the team perfectly. That's why we weren't concerned about being attending school in Japan for a whole month. We both knew the squad would be in good hands under your leadership."
"Well, I suppose that's alright then," the teal-eyed girl said retracting her proverbial claws but staying on her high horse as she faced off with her high school rival. "But we really gelled as a unit while you were away so it'll be kinda awkward with you back in the picture."
"That'll make my decision all the easier to accept," Kim smugly said with folded arms and a glimmer of a frown. "Ron and I will be facing something extremely dangerous within the next month or two so I've decided to step down for now and not participate with the squad."
"You're not coming back to the team?" Marcella questioned in shock. "Why?"
"Ron and I need to train full time for the upcoming mission," Kim sighed as she lovingly clung onto one of Ron's arms for support. "We've been told that the upcoming mission could lead to total disaster for the whole world if we don't win so all of our extracurricular activities have to be put on hold for now."
"At least until after the mission and we've won," Ron quickly added with his goofy smile beaming bright and a knowing wink to Tara.
"Then we can maybe get back to a normal life," Kim somberly finished.
"Did you just say you're quitting the cheer squad?" Mr. Steve Barkin curiously begged as he walked up to the group to talk to Ron and Kim. "That might not be a bad idea Mrs. Stoppable, considering the telephone conversation I just had with the head of the Yamanouchi school."
"You just talked with Sensei?" Ron incredulously begged. "Why would he call you?"
"I called him," the large teacher informed his two students. "I wanted to find out how you two did while you were over there in Japan," He raised his hand to stop any questions from the group as he continued, "But don't worry none. Sensei told me you two were exemplary students while under his rule. Well, except for the fact that he received a coupla complaints from a few his students about one of you being extremely vocal late at night. Something about loud moaning and calling out your husband's name over and over again." The innuendo from Barkin was accompanied with a leaning, all-knowing wink and cheesy smile aimed at Kim.
"I, well… Um…" Kim stammered as her face turned the color of her hair and she endured the mixture of snickers and Cheshire Cat-like grins coming from the cheer squad. Ron equally blushed but missed the lascivious, lip-licking stare sent his way by Bonnie.
"But that's neither here nor there," Mr. Barkin casually waved off the innuendo as he straightened up but retained a smirk on his face. "What Sensei also suggested was that you two finish off the school year quickly so you can train for the ultimate battle you two are going to face soon. Since we only have one month left on the school calendar I've consulted with all of your teachers and have set up your final exams. You take them today."
"You want KP and me to take all of our final exams today?" Ron screeched in a bit of a panic, letting a bit of his old, non-confident self show through. "I don't know if I'm ready for that!"
"We're more than ready," Kim assured her blond husband with a calming hand on his shoulder. "We went over a lot of the final chapters on our way back from Japan." She turned to the girls from the cheer squad and added in clarification, "Ron and I like to keep ahead of what's being assigned in class. That way we don't have to worry too much about falling behind if we're called out on a mission."
"If you're ready," Barkin said as he turned and started to walk away, "then I'll see you two in the library in ten minutes. I'll personally administer all of the tests there."
"Kim and I will put our books away and see you in the library in a few," Ron yelled to the receding teacher.
As Kim turned to her locker, she was assailed by a barrage of questions from her cheerleading teammates all wanting to learn about the details of her nocturnal vocal outbursts at Yamanouchi. Kim blushed and giggled as she told the girls, "What can I say? Our sleeping quarters were no bigger than a closet so we had to be in very close contact just so we could both fit in the room."
xxxxxx
The two teen heroes finished their final exams with plenty of time to spare. Mr. Barkin, being the cautious man that he is, had Kim and Ron sit at opposite ends of the long, library table so they couldn't copy off of one another. Even with that precaution in place the two had no trouble communicate telepathically with their mate. While a few of the questions were "talked" over by the couple, it turned out they really didn't need to discuss the subject matter very much.
Mr. Barkin finished grading the tests and looked up at the two teens now sitting across the table from him. "I must say I'm very impressed," the big teacher announced as he tidied the papers in front of him and handed half of them to Kim and the others to Ron. "Mrs. Stoppable, you had perfect marks on all of the exams and Mr. Stoppable, you only had one question wrong in geography so you'll both end up on the honor roll."
"I missed the question on Pangaea?" Ron yelled in shock as he paged through his test papers and found the one red mark in them.
"You didn't miss the question," Mr. Barkin stated as he stood from the desk in the library and straightened out his jacket, "but you did misspell the name. I had to mark the question wrong because of that error."
"Is this a dig at me because of 'The Look' I gave you in Current Events class last year?" Ron vehemently queried the teacher, "because I had an itchy nose at the time. I couldn't concentrate on the class!"
"Itchy nose or whatever," Barkin said as he adjusted the knot in the plain black tie around his neck, "that's all water under the bridge, Stoppable. You may have misspelled a single word, but that doesn't mean you didn't graduate to the Junior level next year with straight A's. I'm proud of you son. Drop your textbooks off in the office and get out of here. You're both dismissed." With that said, the big man about-faced and walked out of the room.
"I'm very proud of you too Ron," Kim said as she took her husband's hand in hers and led him out of the library to their lockers. "You went from a gentlemanly C average in junior high to a B plus average last year to all A's this year. For that we'll stop at Bueno Nacho to celebrate before we head for home and start training for the ultimate mission, if we can ever decipher what that's supposed to be."
"Sensei said that it'll be some kinda danger coming from the stars," Ron said scratching his head in thought as they walked the empty halls. It was lunchtime for most of the student and the middle of the period so everyone else was either in the cafeteria or a classroom. "Wouldn't that mean it'll be some kinda meteor that's gonna hit the planet?"
"My MMP is telling me no," Kim said as they reached their lockers and started to take out all of her books. "We should contact Professors Chen and Ramish and warn them to be on the lookout for anything coming our way, be it meteor or maybe even a spaceship from a war-like other world."
"An invasion from outer space," Ron curiously mused as he finished emptying his locker and slammed the door shut. "Now that you mention it, that does strike a cord with the old MMP. Maybe we should also let Wade know and he can contact the rest of the observatories around the world."
"That's an excellent idea Ron," Kim said as she hefted her overfilled backpack onto her shoulders and began to walk toward the offices at the front of the school. She thumbed on the Kimmunicator and their tech guru's smiling face immediately appeared on the screen.
"Hey Kim, how did your final exams go?" Wade casually asked with a smirk before taking a slurp from his ever present soda cup.
"How did you…?" Kim began to query before she spied one of the school's surveillance cameras hanging from the ceiling near a hallway intersection. "Never mind," she sighed before getting down to business. "I called to let you in on what's happening. Ron and I passed all of our tests with flying colors so now we can start training for that ultimate mission Sensei told us about before we got married."
"That makes sense," Wade nodded in agreement. "Is there anything I can do to help?"
"Sensei said that the threat would come from the stars," Kim informed her young friend over the Kimmunicator, "so we were thinking you should contact all of the observatories around the world to let them know to be on the lookout for anything heading toward Earth."
"I've already done that," Wade smugly said as he leaned back in his chair and folded his hands behind his head to stretch out. "The only problem with that is only three percent of outer space is normally observed at any given time so it's a good bet that whatever is coming probably won't be seen before it gets here."
"Did you talk with Professors Chen and Ramish at the Mount Middleton Observatory?" Ron asked as the two teens reached the front office and stopped outside the door to finish their conversation with Wade before dropping off their textbooks.
"Of course," Wade casually answered and sat back up in his chair. "They told me they'll be extra vigilant until the crisis is over. They both said they owe you big time for saving them from Drakken's little reunion."
"As always, you rock," Kim enthused.
"I'll keep you in the loop and immediately contact you if any of the observatories spot anything," Wade said as he picked up his soda cup again. "In the meantime, train hard and have a pleasant summer vacation."
"We will," both Kim and Ron said smiling to their friend before Kim disconnected the call. The teens entered the office and dropped off their textbooks before exiting the school and started to walk to Bueno Nacho.
"Since both of us passed Driver's Ed this year," Kim said as they walked hand-in-hand down the sidewalk, "maybe we should start thinking about buying a car. That way we'll have transportation to get around town faster."
"My dad's way ahead of you on that KP," Ron jovially chuckled. "I forgot to tell you but he added a little extra to our household account so we can each buy a car and pay for the insurance, gas and maintenance and such. All we need to do is head over to Middleton Motors and pick out the vehicles of our dreams."
"How much extra did your father set aside for this?" Kim warily questioned her husband as they reached Bueno Nacho.
"I think he said one hundred thousand dollars," Ron answered, scratching the back of his head while trying to remember as he opened the door, "but I sorta started fantasizing about what kinda car I wanted to get when he gave me the news."
"I guess that's understandable," Kim giggled at Ron's guy-priority mindset, thinking only about the car instead of the how it'll happen, as they waited to be served. "We can check with your father tonight after he gets home and go car shopping tomorrow."