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Disclaimer: Kim Possible and related are the property of Disney which, contrary to common belief, I do not own.
Special thanks to Slipgate for beta-reading this chapter.
Chapter 1: Kim Possible, Middleton's hero
"Come here Mr. Fluffykins. Don't worry, I'll get you down… again."
Kim carefully ascended the next branch of the tree which Mrs. Feeny's cat had climbed into once again.
"Be careful," Mrs. Feeny called from the ground, "Mr. Fluffykins can be a bit grumpy right after dinner."
"If it had been right before dinner, Mr. Fluffykins would have gotten down by himself," Kim muttered low enough not to be heard.
"Come on KP, you're the best cat rescuer in the neighborhood," Ron shouted from the ground, "You can do it."
Kim had to smile; who could deny rescuing a cat with that kind of support?
Carefully putting her weight on the next branch, Kim inched her way toward the cat.
However, just when she was about to reach Mr. Fluffykins, the cat decided it did not want to be rescued and jumped down, right on Ron's head.
"YAAAH, it's on me!" Ron immediately began to run around in circles, but the cat easily jumped off and ran into Mrs. Feeny's house.
"Thank you so much," Mrs. Feeny said before heading inside herself as well. "Also on behalf of Mr. Fluffykins."
Kim sighed. "Oh well." She tried to turn around to climb back out of the tree.
It was then that she noticed smoke coming through the roof of the house across the street.
Eyes wide, Kim looked down to Ron, who was still trying to get his hair back to normal. "Call 911! I think the house across the street is on fire!"
Ron stared at her for a moment, but seeing the look in her eyes he immediately went into action; he ran to Mrs. Feeny's house and began pounding on the door.
Meanwhile, Kim did her best to get out of the tree as fast as she could.
Just as she slid backwards to the trunk of the tree, Kim looked at the house again. It seemed normal if not for the almost invisible trail of smoke pouring out between the roof tiles. But then Kim managed to look through the attic window and she could clearly see smoke hanging, and maybe even the glare of flames.
Her heart almost stopped when she saw the form of a small child running past behind the window.
The moment she saw the child, a part of Kim stopped thinking and an instinct she didn't know she had took over.
Without hesitation, Kim swung down the tree branches in a series of moves that would make Bonnie turn green with envy. She had barely touched the ground when she started a sprint toward the other house.
The redhead pounded on the door and rang the doorbell frantically, but there was no reaction.
Kim was just considering throwing a rock through the window when a neighbor opened their door. "Just what do you think you are doing?"
"There is a fire in the house!" Kim said in a frantic voice. "And there is someone inside!"
"What? Are you sure?" The man grabbed the spare key for his neighbor's house anyway.
A few seconds – that seemed like hours to Kim – later, he opened the door and Kim's suspicion was confirmed; a wave of heat rolled in their direction and they could see flames in the staircase. It made Kim wonder how this fire could have raged without anyone noticing.
There was a woman lying unconsciously at the base of the stairs. It seemed she had fallen down them.
"Meggy…" the man gasped before he turned to Kim. "Was it her you saw?"
"No, I saw a child, four or five years old I think," Kim replied.
"That's Joey… where did you see him?"
"I saw him through the attic window." Kim pointed up and then looked up the stairwell. "We have to get there."
The neighbor shook his head as he grabbed for the phone. "No, you'll never get up there with the staircase on fire… hello? I'd like to report a fire at 45 Lincoln Street… yes, that's correct… There is someone upstairs… yes…" he turned to Kim while holding on to the phone. "Someone already called them, the firemen should be here in a few minutes."
Kim nodded. "Ron called…" she replied. But within five seconds, she began to look worried again. "A few minutes may be too long… we've got to do something."
"Listen…"
"Kim."
"Listen Kim, you can't risk your own life to save Joey. It will only result in another person who has to be rescued. Let the firemen handle this!"
But then they heard a weak scream for help from upstairs and the feeling that Kim had when she was in the tree boiled back up. "We have to act now…"
As the adrenaline rushed through her system, Kim's sight and hearing seemed to expand beyond what she had ever experienced; she could hear the sirens in the distance and knew it would take them too long to get there, she could hear another, weaker, scream from upstairs, and she suddenly knew what to do.
She rushed outside and ran toward the drainage tube. Before the man could run out as well to stop her she had already climbed it up to the second floor.
The thought about the impossibility of the situation never occurred to her. It was as if a small but undeniable voice deep inside her kept repeating her website's slogan, "I can do anything…" like a mantra.
When Ron arrived at the house, gasping for breath, he saw only a man standing in the front yard, holding a portable phone in his hand. "Where's KP?"
The man seemed to be in a stumped silence; he didn't even react to the voice coming from the phone, so Ron just followed his gaze upward.
And he looked just in time so that he could just see his best friend's legs disappearing over the edge of the roof. "KP!"
Climbing up to the roof by the rain pipe was almost as easy as scaling a tree, and it took Kim only moments to reach the roof and climb to the attic window.
When she looked through the window, Kim could really see the scale of the fire inside the house; it was clear that the fire had started either in the attic or on the second floor and was slowly making its way down.
Fortunately the window was a tumbling window and Kim could easily push it open to get inside.
The redhead was greeted by a wall of heat, and the fire seemed to relish at the new oxygen provided by the open window. "Maybe that wasn't such a good idea…"
"Joey! Joey, can you hear me?"
Hearing nothing, Kim tried to look through the thick smoke. Holding the sleeve of her shirt in front of her mouth and nose to prevent inhaling too much smoke she began to walk across the attic floor, occasionally calling out of Joey.
Seconds stretched out and seemed like hours, and Kim was starting to wonder whether this had been such a great idea, but some drive deep inside her kept her going, insisting that she had to find the boy before it was too late.
And then she saw him, curled up in the corner of the attic while the flames were slowly creeping toward him.
"Joey!" Kim rushed to the child and noticed he was barely breathing; only an occasional wheeze emerged from the kid's lungs.
Everything that Kim knew about first aid was from tales that her mother told about what happened in the hospital, and since she was a neurosurgeon, that wasn't much to go on in this case. But Kim knew she had to get Joey out of the house as quickly as possible.
She picked the boy up and turned toward the attic window, hoping she could get the firemen's attention once they were on the roof, but the fire had already closed off that exit.
When the fire truck arrived, Ron was completely frantic, and Simon, the neighbor of the now clearly burning house, had to put in a lot of effort to restrain the boy.
"KP's inside, you have to rescue her!"
"What?" The fireman turned to Simon, who explained the situation as best as he could. "What was she thinking?"
He began to command his men to start putting out the fire and to get someone upstairs to rescue the – now two – trapped children. "Are there more people still in the house?"
"No," Simon said, "Meggy was a single mother and there's no sign of visitors."
Moments later, an ambulance arrived and the paramedics took the care for Meggy over from the firemen, who could now turn their full attention to the burning house.
"We can't get up the stairs," one of the firemen said. "The steps are weakened too much to carry our weight."
"Use the ladder from the truck and get up to the attic, and let's hope that that girl is still there and alive."
Kim began to feel dizzy as the remaining oxygen in the air rapidly diminished. And carrying Joey meant she had to use even more oxygen as well.
"Got to find a way out, away from the fire… water!"
It was a long shot, but if Kim could get to the bathroom, she could at least protect herself and Joey from the heat of the fire, because at this rate it wouldn't take long before either of their clothes caught on fire as well.
Fortunately, the attic did not have a hatch, instead opening directly to a staircase. But that staircase was also on fire.
Taking a mental deep breath – a real one would have sent her into a coughing fit – Kim jumped through the flames onto a patch that had not caught on fire yet.
From there she jumped up again and pushed herself off the wall with her feet. She flew over another piece of burning carpet and then she stood in front of the bathroom door.
Her first attempt at opening the door nearly caused her to burn her fingers, but when she covered her hand with the sleeve of her shirt, she managed to get the door open.
The bathroom was a haven compared to the rest of the house; even though it was filled with smoke, the fire had not been able to do much against the floor and wall tiles and the towel rack was still out of the fire's reach.
Kim dashed for the bathtub and opened the faucets, hoping that the water still worked.
"There's fire everywhere," one of the firemen who had gone up to the attic said into the radio. "I can't see anyone." Then the others who had remained on the ground heard him call Kim and Joey's names several times. "No response." After that they heard nothing because the rush of water from the fire hose drowned out any conversation.
A group of people had arrived at the scene to see what was going on, and the firemen were too busy putting out the fire to keep them away as well. Fortunately another fire truck arrived shortly after, as well as another ambulance and a police car.
One of the paramedics approached Ron, who seemed about to roll into a fetal position if he could've done so and still see what was happening.
"What's your name?" she asked, trying to comfort the boy.
"R-Ron," Ron replied. "KP is still in there. And she may…" he began to sob softly.
The paramedic had heard part of the story of the crazy girl who had tried to save the boy who apparently was still inside, and she assumed Ron was her friend, or brother. "Hey, they'll get her out, they'll get both of them out."
But Ron had suddenly gone completely silent, as if he heard something the others couldn't. "I hear water running."
"Well, yeah. They're putting out a fire…"
"No, in the bathroom!" Ron pointed at the bathroom window. "They're in there!" He began to run to one of the firemen; completely forgetting about the cordon the police had set up.
Try as they might, no police officer managed to catch the blond boy as he ran toward the chief fireman. "KP is in the bathroom! I heard the water running!"
Kim was relieved when the water still ran even though it was already lukewarm and not at full power; apparently the plumbing system was already taking damage from the fire.
After a few moments of blissfully cooling down under the stream, Kim took a glance at her reflection in the mirror, a soaking wet girl at the end of her stamina, with black stains all over her face and clothes and somewhat singed hair looked back. But the look in her eyes was still filled with determination to get out of this alive and with Joey.
"Is this me?" A part of Kim's mind wondered, but the adrenaline-filled side easily took over again and the redhead began looking for a way out of this mess.
Then, suddenly, over the roar of the fire in the rest of the house, Kim could hear a voice calling out. "KP!"
She could barely breath in deep enough to yell back. "Ron!" Before she could say more she was overcome with a coughing fit.
When her breathing returned back to somewhat normal, Kim began to hear more noises; cars, sirens, people. "How did I miss that before… and how could I hear Ron?"
But all those thoughts were pushed to the background when Kim heard a much deeper voice from really nearby. "Kim? Are you okay? Is Joey with you?"
"Yes." Kim suppressed more coughs. "I think I'm okay. I have Joey with me… he's not doing so well."
Moments later, the bathroom window was ripped away and a fireman appeared in front of the opening. "Get over here quickly, we have a ladder to get you down."
Kim picked up Joey as best as she could and staggered to the opening in the wall as the fireman reached in to take the boy over from her. Fortunately they were so soaked that the flames that were blazing close by had little effect for the moment.
The fireman moved away and Kim climbed out the window by herself. Then she felt the hand of a second fireman on her shoulder.
He leaned over to her, almost conspiringly. "Whatever they say later, you saved a life." Then he helped her to the ladder and they quickly climbed down.
"Were you even thinking? You could have just as easily died in there!"
Kim felt on the verge of tears by the – in her own opinion – worst dressing-down she had ever received. She sat on the edge of the fire truck with a blanket wrapped around her, fighting the urge to crawl completely into the blanket.
The second ambulance had left with Joey, and since Kim had come out of the ordeal without injury and with only a minor case of smoke inhalation the paramedics had agreed to let her wait for her parents, who had been informed as well and were on the way.
The fire had been successfully doused, and only two firemen were busy putting out the few embers that were still glowing.
Ron wanted to come to his friend's aid and shout at the chief that Kim had rescued Joey, but he was gently held back by one of the other firemen, even though the fireman didn't seem to be feeling too comfortable about this as well.
"And you put not only yourself at risk," the chief went on, "your actions also caused us to have to look for you, diverting attention from searching for Joey. What if you hadn't found him?"
Hot tears burned in the corner of her eyes, and Kim blinked them furiously back; she didn't want to start crying now.
The confidence she had when entering the burning house was completely gone, and Kim wished she could call upon it at least one more time.
"Anything is possible… I'm a Possible…"
"You're just a babysitter…"
"Joey could have died…"
"You could have died…"
"I'm Kim Possible!"
In the vortex of thoughts, Kim had not heard the last thing the chief had said. But it was probably intended to bring her down even more. But now he looked at her, as if he was waiting for her to reply or admit she was wrong.
"I am Kim Possible!"
"You would have been too late to rescue Joey!" Kim suddenly shouted. "By the time I got to him, the fire had almost reached him. I don't care what you think… so I put myself at risk, I'd do it again."
Kim crossed her arms over her chest and glared defiantly at the chief, but she was surprised when he was now sporting a warm smile.
"That's the spirit. That's what makes you a true hero. All we have to do now is file off the rough edges and we have an excellent addition to the team."
Kim stared back, confused. "But why did you yell at me for that?"
The chief, named Walter according to his nametag, turned serious again. "What you did was very dangerous, and I really don't want you to do such a thing again… not without proper training at least."
"Wait… you're offering KP a job?" Ron asked, wording Kim's thoughts. During the conversation he had managed to get away from the other fireman and took position next to Kim, making her feel much more at ease.
"Not a job per se," Walter said, "but someone like you could be a great asset to the team in a few years when you are old enough to actually help out. It would be a waste not to prepare you beforehand."
"KP already rescues cats from trees on a regular basis," Ron proudly stated, not noticing Kim's uncertain frown.
Walter smiled. "You're already helping people… no harm getting some training for it, right?"
"I-I'll think about it," Kim finally said. But then she noticed a familiar car pulling up. "Mom! Dad!"
When Kim ran over to greet her parents, with Ron following close behind, Victor, another senior fireman and the one who had held back Ron for a moment, turned to Walter. "Did you have to do that? She's just a little girl. Save the mental abuse for the adult wannabe heroes, okay?"
Walter shook his head as he watched the redhead hug her parents while she tried to convince them that she was okay. "She had the spark, didn't you see it? Right when she suddenly stepped up against me… I bet she had that same look when she decided to rescue the little boy."
Victor frowned. "Perhaps, but you know as well as I do that you can't recruit a twelve or thirteen year old."
Walter grinned. "Just showing her the ropes will be good. Believe me, that girl is destined to save lives."
This time Victor laughed. "All right you old fool, you convinced me with your idea." He slapped the older man's back as they walked back to the truck. "Cathy and Brigitte have been complaining that there are too many men at the station anyway."
Both men couldn't suppress their laughs as they stepped into the truck, earning them several confused looks from the younger firefighters.
"Mom, I'm fine," Kim said as her mother examined her skin again for any burn marks. "The nurse said so too."
It was true, except for a little reddening of her skin here and there and somewhat badly singed hair, Kim had come out of the fire unharmed. Even the coughing from smoke inhalation had completely stopped before they even got to the hospital.
"No pain? No ache anywhere? No irritated feeling on your skin?" Mrs. Dr. Possible asked as she critically checked over her daughter's arms and legs one more time.
Kim sighed; her mother was clearly in 'doctor mode.' "Really, only my hand hurts a bit from touching that doorknob, and even there I don't have blisters. And I'm getting cold sitting here in nothing but my underwear."
"Your dad will be back with new clothes shortly. Besides, you couldn't keep those old clothes on anyway," the elder redhead said. "They were completely soaked, and they didn't fare that well in the fire either. Maybe I can salvage the pants if I turn them into shorts…"
Kim rolled her eyes. "I just hope dad picks out something decent."
This time Anne Possible let a smile creep onto her lips; the things her daughter could worry about in a situation like this. "You sure instructed him well enough. Don't worry, he won't pick out a fashion disaster. Why don't you take a shower to get that smell of smoke out?"
Kim had just finished showering and had wrapped herself in a towel when she heard a gentle knock on the door of the hospital room.
"Can I come in?" Mr. Dr. Possible asked before opening the door a crack. "Sorry it took me a while. I had to bring Ronald home first."
"That's okay dad." Kim accepted the stack of clothes and inspected them briefly. Then she smiled contentedly. "You got the right set, thanks dad."
As his daughter walked back into the bathroom, Mr. Dr. Possible turned to his wife. "Whew, averted another disaster."
Anne chuckled. "You know how to follow instructions dear. Now if we could get your actual fashion sense installed…"
Both parents shared a laugh at that, but the mirth quickly turned to seriousness. Mr. Dr. Possible was the first to say something. "I just can't believe she went into a burning house to save someone. It feels just so… distant from reality."
Mrs. Dr. Possible nodded. "I know what you mean, and she already mentioned being invited to take a look at the fire brigade."
"Ron told me about it on the ride home. I think even he can't fully comprehend this one."
"What are you talking about?" Kim asked as she emerged from the bathroom while trying to get her hair in a ponytail. Several hairs that were shortened by the fire kept springing loose.
"Kimmie, why don't you sit down so we can talk." Kim's mother said, patting the spot on the bed next to where she sat.
"Here?" Kim asked, already having a good idea of what her parents wanted to talk about.
"As good a place as any." Anne looked at the clock. "Jim and Tim won't be finished with soccer practice for another hour."
Kim frowned. "Weren't you supposed to be there as a coach dad?"
"I'm only an assistant coach," Mr. Dr. Possible replied. "Mr. Wilkins still holds the reins… although the stress might be getting to him…" A gentle nudge from his wife brought him back on track. "But this was more important anyway."
Kim nodded silently and sat down next to her mother.
A brief but very uncomfortable silence followed.
Kim finally broke the silence. "I had to go in there. I had to save him."
"We understand that honey," Kim's mother said, "You always wanted to help people. But we don't want to lose you."
Kim sighed and looked down thoughtfully. "Maybe I should accept that offer from the fire brigade, because I want to keep helping people."
Kim's parents looked at each other; it was clear that Kim had made a decision and was going to stick with it.
"Kim." Kim looked up since her father rarely used her name, instead preferring the slightly embarrassing nickname 'Kimmie-cub.' "If you really want to do this, you'll have our full support. But you have to promise you will take every precaution, do anything, to ensure your own safely, okay?"
Kim smiled and nodded. "I will. I'll make sure to wear fire retardant clothing next time I enter a burning building."
Kim's mother hid her slightly pained expression as she stood up. "Would you like to check on the boy you saved today? Joey was it?"
Kim stood up as well. "Is he going to be okay?"
"Yes, he's recovering nicely." As they walked out of the hospital room Anne suddenly felt that this was the right thing for her daughter to be doing, despite how others thought of it, and even despite how part of her felt about it.
Ron was very excited as he and Kim walked from school to the fire station. Maybe they would let them sound the siren, or slide down the fire pole. And it would only be the two of them, not an entire class, like a couple of years ago during a field trip.
The past few days had been hectic to say the least. An actual TV reporter had interviewed Kim about her heroics, and Joey and his mother had been there too as well as several of the firemen.
Ron had been confused a bit when the reporter – Summer something – had them do the initial meeting with Joey and his mother three times over, even when Kim had already spoken to Joey's mother in the hospital a few days before that. But Kim just took it in stride, and the firemen even seemed to think it was very funny, joking about a 'genuine' report of events.
At school, the reactions had been mixed, ranging from, "What a hero!" to "She's crazy!", although the general consensus seemed to be positive.
As for how he felt, Ron wasn't entirely sure. He was immensely proud that Kim had saved a life, even though her actions had made his heart skip several beats.
But Kim had always been somewhat of a daredevil – pushing herself to every limit she could find, taking on seemingly impossible challenges, and generally doing things Ron wouldn't even consider doing, like climbing a nearly branchless tree to free a kite or diving from a thirty-foot cliff into one of the mountain lakes. The last had even seemed to shake Kim, seeing as she hadn't seemed much inclined to continue swimming that day. Although lately, ever since joining the swim team, she had been glancing at the sheer cliff that sided the lake again.
On some level, Ron knew that Kim would stop her danger-seeking if she found out how much it often scared him. But he couldn't bear the thought of depriving her of the joy of what Kim's mother used to call an adrenaline rush.
All those thoughts vanished when the fire station came into view and Ron could barely keep himself from running toward the building.
Kim chuckled when she noticed her friend's anticipation. "Relax Ron, we've got the whole afternoon."
But Kim was also looking forward to it. Lately she had been thinking about what happened during that fire, and how her parents thought about it, and she had tried to weigh the dangers against how good it felt to be able to do what she had done. In the end it had been her Taekwondo instructor who had given her the advice that convinced her to go through with it.
"Kimberly." Mr. Gyeong said in reply to her question on what to do. Her Taekwondo instructor had always refused to call her just Kim. "Would you say you were a natural at martial arts?"
Kim shrugged; she knew she could pretty much learn a fighting move by just watching it one or a few times, something her fellow martial arts students envied her for, but she didn't like to brag. "I guess… but I wouldn't have been nearly as good without your instructions."
"Indeed." Mr. Gyeong grinned; he was well aware of the fact that Kim had roamed around the – surprisingly abundant – dojos in the tri-city area over the past few years before settling down and focusing on two branches of martial arts to really master, Taekwondo and Yusul. "A few days ago you saved someone from a burning building. Would you have done that better if you had been trained for that?"
A small smile formed on Kim's lips. "I think I would have. Thank you."
Mr. Gyeong bowed slightly. "Good, but now would be the time to put the training you do have to practice. We have some eager new students and I could certainly use some help giving them an introduction."
"Hi Kim and… Ron was it, right?" Walter greeted the teens as they entered the fire station. "Welcome to our humble abode."
Kim smiled and looked around; she and Ron had visited the fairly large fire station before on a class trip several years ago, but not too much seemed to have changed. Only some of the equipment seemed more modern than she remembered.
The first thing that Ron noticed was the fire pole. He had to force his gaze away from it in order to hear what Walter was saying.
The fireman laughed. "We don't use that thing much anymore, health regulations and such."
"Besides, we have everything on the same floor now," one of the other firemen present said.
Walter chuckled when he saw Ron's longing look. "Hey, it still works. Victor, why don't you show him how it's done?"
Victor grinned and gestured for Ron to follow him. The blond haired boy nodded eagerly and quickly pulled something from his pocket. "KP, can you hold on to Rufus? He might not like the ride down."
"You brought Rufus along?" Kim asked with a frown, but she accepted Ron's pet nonetheless. She was still getting used to the baby naked mole rat and thought it a crazy idea for Ron to bring it everywhere he went. At least she no longer had an issue touching it.
"You don't want to give it a try?" Walter offered as they watched first Victor and then Ron descend the fire pole, the latter with a scream that held the middle between excitement and panic.
Kim smiled. "I hope to be able to get to try that more often as I gain some practice here."
The chief fireman raised his eyebrow. "So you are considering doing this? And here I had a whole speech prepared to convince you to join us."
Kim chuckled, but quickly turned serious again, more serious than Walter thought someone her age should be. "I really like helping people, but I know that when I put myself at risk, I'm hurting others, like my parents and friends. If I'm going to help people, I want to do it the right way."
"Besides," she added with an amused grin, "you do still rescue cats from trees as well, right?"
Walter's mustache wavered for a moment, something that only his closest friends would recognize for the emotions that coursed through him. "I think you will fit right in."
A/N: Well, as you can see, I'm going to divert further away from canon here, but I can't give Kim a mundane life, right? I hope you enjoyed this one, more to come soon.