Author's Note:
A few things; first off, this chapter is shorter than even the prologue, which, given the subject, makes sense. I know it's not exactly the roaring return I'd have preferred, but it came to my mind to do a chapter this way, and while I don't necessarily intend to write a chapter like this ever again, for this circumstance, I find it acceptable.
Secondly, this is all assuming that Team Possible began around 7th grade, and Ron went to Wannaweep around nine or ten years of age. If it was stated in the show the exact age he attended, then I made my one and only mistake of this caliber. :p
I do not own Kim Possible, nor do I have any intentions of buying the rights (if only...).
Any comments or reviews (I'll be honest, for this chapter, there's not a whole lot of room for reviews) would be appreciated, and with that, I hope you enjoy this chapter and I hope to have a more story-oriented chapter up within the next few weeks. I'm currently in the process of writing more stories, and I'm not sure how many I can juggle at one time and still be a responsible author, but I guess I'll find out.
And yes, the name of the chapter is cheesy, but as I said before, I stand by the bad names, and if you really hate them, just ignore them.
Hope this finds any readers well.
Kim had a dream, though unbeknownst to her at the time, it wasn't truly a dream; it was a memory long forgotten. After waking up, she never recalled the memory, aside from small glimpses, which made little sense to her, and as she was stressed at the time, she never thought to delve further into the scene, and it was eventually completely forgotten. What she dreamt may carry significant, or perhaps not (some people may argue that occurrences are random in life and carry no deeper meaning among introspection). Regardless of which choice people decide to believe, the dream, or more appropriately, memory, shall be examined.
Kim and Ron were seven years old, playing in the front of Kim's house. Perhaps it was tag; perhaps it was just what young children do, running around with no goal in mind aside from fun. Whatever the game, it's irrelevant until the young Ron Stoppable ran onto a nearby sidewalk, in front of an oncoming bike. He didn't see it; he was watching Kim at the time. The man on the bike tried to swerve, but the front wheel had already collided with Ron's right leg, causing a sickening crack to ring out.
Many things happened in succession: Ron screamed wildly while falling to the concrete sidewalk, not comprehending what happened; the bike rider stopped for a micro-second then sped away, not wanting to get any more involved than he already was; Kim saw what happened, and though she didn't know how hurt he was, screamed, "Mom!"; lastly, her mother heard the scream and starting moving toward Kim.
Ron was clutching his leg, rolling around on the sidewalk, tears and screams coming from his eyes and throat, respectively. Yelling in anguish, oblivious to Kim's childish promises that 'everything would be okay,' he felt as if he would die due to the pain. Her mother ran out of the house (this was luckily before she took on longer hours at the hospital), worried to death something terrible had happened to her daughter. It didn't take the skills of a brain surgeon, however, to see that it wasn't Kim that was in extreme pain, but Ron.
The young boy was screaming and Kim was standing over him, frantically jumping around, and trying to get him to calm down. Rushing up to the younger children, she asked in a hysterical tone, "What happened," already seeing that one of Ron's legs was snapped, and though she wasn't an orthopedic doctor, Ann didn't think it looked good.
Her daughter babbled back a summary, "We were playing and Ron ran into the sidewalk and a bike hit him and didn't stop and he started screaming and-"
"Kimmie, enough," her mother firmly replied, assessing the situation and worried that Kim would get more wound up than she already was, and she really didn't want to have to deal with two extremely agitated children. Quickly deciding (not that it was a difficult choice, by any means), to call 9-1-1, she ran back into the house, carefully watching her daughter and friend through the window to ensure nothing more happened. The call was quick to place luckily (emergency calls can sometimes take a while and become lost in the shuffle of other calls placed), but with Ron's never-ceasing yells as the background noise, to Ann it felt like half an eternity.
From Ann's point of view, she saw that Kim was still trying to calm Ron down, which was far from being effective, not that she blamed Ron. One of Ann's biggest fears, however, was not the immediate problem of Ron's broken leg (which was very concerning, of course), but the outcome of this circumstance. She did not think herself as a bad parent, and knew perfectly well that sometimes these things just happen, and nothing can be done about it. No amount of increased parental guidance would have prevented it, unless the children weren't allowed to leave the house, and that's hardly the way to raise a child. Still, Ann had doubts that Elaine, Ron's mother, would agree with this certain appeal of logic. It was her son going to the hospital, not Ann's, for God's sake.
Elaine could reasonably request (or just demand, should she be angry enough) that Ron no longer play with Kim after this, and Ann knew that such an event would destroy her daughter. Every night at dinner, Kim talked about Ron and the fun they had that specific day non-stop, as if trying to relive every second of it. James and Ann weren't always able to catch all of it (a seven-year old girl talking excitably in run-on sentences could sometimes be hard to follow and decipher, especially with the twins babbling in the background), but they could tell, without a doubt, that Kim's joy was completely genuine. From what the two delighted parents could tell, the friendship between their daughter and Ron was very special.
After the 9-1-1 call was placed, Ann ran back outside to attempt some pain management techniques on Ron, not that she had the confidence she would have preferred that they would work. Their home wasn't particularly near many other houses, so she wasn't worried a crowd would form (not that, she suspected, even if one had, Ron would be in any condition to notice), but the constant yelling was unsettling and causing Ann a minor headache. Indeed, she heard it in the emergency room often, but it was much worse, she discovered, when it was coming from someone you knew as opposed to a complete stranger.
Both Ron and Kim, when Ann returned, were frantic. Tears of frustration were coming from Kim's eyes as no matter what she said, Ron wouldn't cease yelling, and Ron was shouting still, stopping for a few seconds to clench his jaw tightly in pain, his throat very nearly raw by this moment. In short, it was a scene of chaos and a nightmare for any mother to have to deal with.
Thinking about it for a split second and deciding her choice was right, to Kim, she told, sternly, "Go inside and wait, Kimmie. It'll be fine, just go."
The flaw in the plan, however, quickly became obvious: Kim had no intention of leaving Ron when he was in this much pain. She did, however, back away from her friend a little to give her mother some room. Ann thought about scolding her but decided this was not the time to do so. Bending down and trying to non-verbally calm Ron down, she looked into his eyes and could see that the young boy was terribly frightened. He probably thought he was going to die, and though Ann knew this was far from the case, she knew it would be useless to try to tell him that.
Instead of trying to assure him all would be well or explaining he wasn't going to die, Ann's motherly instinct kicked into high-gear, and she pulled the boy into her arms. The tight hug did calm Ron, though it wasn't very apparent. Only someone very skilled at reading facial expressions would be able to tell, and at that moment, no one was looking at Ron's face (which was for the best anyway, as his head was buried in Ann's chest).
They stayed in that position for almost seven minutes, Ron holding onto Ann, vice-versa, and Kim standing feet away, trying to sniff away some of her tears. Finally, an ambulance came, and the paramedics carefully secured Ron in the stretched and loaded him into the vehicle. Ann took Kim to the hospital minutes later after taking her aside, calming her down and making her more presentable.
The importance of this event, Kim never fully understood (as she forgot about it nearly a year after it happened; she was young, and not everything, no matter how emotionally scarring, could be remembered). Elaine and Martin did highly consider not allowing their son to play at the Possible residence anymore, but in the end, it was Ron who convinced them otherwise. They forgave both James and Ann around a month after the incident, and since, they have had no reservations about each other.
Because of this, though, Ron was almost forbidden to go on missions with Kim when they started Team Possible. With no parental supervision, Ron's parents didn't think their son would be safe. This lead to Ann having a very serious conversation with Kim about keeping Ron safe, and as Kim was, by this time, more responsible, she agreed to carefully watch over Ron, but never once in her mind did she connect that conversation with the event she dreamed.
Remarkably, Ron's injury healed rather quickly. He stayed in the hospital for four and a half weeks (of which Kim was there every single day despite the concerns of Ron's parents), and when he got out, his limp was very subtle, and eventually disappeared completely. Unlike his best friend, he never quite forgot this event. It became hazy sometimes, but it never completely deserted his memory. He understood, though, that for some reason, the event slipped Kim's memory, and he never brought it up (as he didn't care to dwell on such a morbid and painful thought).
As said prior, Kim didn't remember the dream after she woke. In fact, the only indication of the dream at all were the tears on her cheeks, which she wiped off mindlessly, assuming they were remnants of the stress and depression she felt the former day. Afterwards, she quickly got dressed and felt prepared, at least more so than she had felt yesterday, to face the new day.