Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Kim Possible, any of the other characters from that show, or those from any other media I may reference in my stories.
What follows is not necessarily properly synchronized, time wise.
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When it took Wade a full ten minutes to respond to his request, Ron assumed something was wrong. He just erred in believing that it was his fault. But finally the tech-genius' face reappeared on his computer screen, with a resigned look on it.
"Let me guess," Ron spoke first, "I somehow managed to disable the tracking signal on my Ronnunicator again?"
A slight smile briefly lit Wade's face, but then he became serious. "No, Ron, I found it, all right, it's just where it is that has me...concerned." After a moment of lip-chewing indecision, he explained. "It's in your Dad's sock drawer." Having said this, Wade apprehensively awaited Ron's reaction. And found himself puzzled by what he saw.
A puzzled frown on his face, Ron leaned back in his chair, idly tapping his mouse with one finger as he thought about the information. Wade for his part began to grow even more confused by Ron's long contemplation. When the boy finally nodded his head and leaned forward again, Wade clenched both hands into fists as he awaited Ron's first words. Which didn't match his expectations at all.
"So, when did Kim talk to him?" Ron asked in a matter-of-fact tone.
Wade's jaw dropped. Truthfully, he already had reached the conclusion that something was going on beyond the obvious, and even that maybe Kim was involved, but he had honestly expected Ron to jump to the obvious conclusion, and maybe explode. Now he felt embarrassed for underestimating Ron. "D—do you think Kim asked him to hide it?" He stammered out eventually.
Ron shook his head. "No, she'd never do that, because she'd be afraid that if I found out it was hidden by Dad, I'd get mad at him, and she'd never cause trouble between us." Then he smiled faintly and looked Wade in the pixelated eyes, "Or in other words, she'd jump to the same conclusion about me that you did, right?" His voice held no accusation, merely a bit of humor. "That I'd automatically assume my Dad did it as punishment, or something?"
Wade blushed, then nodded sheepishly. "Yeah, I guess I did." Then he looked at one of his monitors. Something in one corner made him frown, but then his attention focused on the center of the screen. "In answer to your question, he called Kim, and by coincidence, it was just after she met Jen Paladin and the Nun. And according to my tracking program, your comm moved from...underneath your bedside table, to your Dad's sock drawer about ten minutes later."
"He probably called Kim to apologize for losing his temper in front of her." Ron reasoned, then he asked curiously, "When exactly was this?"
"Well, your Dad called Kim right after leaving Rabbi Katz." Wade replied.
Ron winced. "I knew he went to see the Rabbi, and I know he wouldn't give the Rabbi any details by choice, but Rabbi Katz is kinda good at getting the whole story, so...I think I have a talk with my Rabbi in my near future." He smiled ruefully, "And no urgent missions to get me out of it!"
"Well, I can't say much, since I don't even know all the details of how you got grounded!" Wade exclaimed, then blushed again. "Err, it's not like I actually need to know...let's get back to Kim and your Dad. Why do you think talking to her would make your Dad do what he did?" He again glanced at whatever was annoying him on his computer, frowning.
Ron counted on his fingers as he replied. "First, if Dad wanted to confiscate it, he wouldn't hide the fact, he'd take it openly. He let me keep it because he trusted me not to break the grounding. Two, if Mom wanted it confiscated, he'd still have done it, and made me think it was his idea! So, if he's hiding it, he's protecting someone. And the only person he'd let come between me and Kim is...Kim, if you get my meaning! Why, is the question!" He frowned. "Wade, when I called Kim in the middle of her mission on Isle Drakkon last summer, did I mess anything up?"
Wade shook his head emphatically. "No! In fact, she relaxed during the call, I think it was good for her, except for being embarrassed that you found out she'd gone there without telling you. But if Kim didn't ask your Dad to hide the comm, why would he do it?"
"How long did they talk?" Ron asked back.
"That's a bit of a surprise, just over an full hour, believe it or not!" Wade replied.
Ron's eyes widened, but then he smiled. "Bet Dad picked up on something bothering her, and pried it out of her! You don't happen to have any recordings of the conversation, do you, Wade?"
Wade shook his head. "I only record her Kimmunicator, not her cell phone, that's our agreement! So no way of knowing if you're right." He hesitated, then tentatively spoke, "Since we brought up Isle Drakkon...have you noticed any weird behavior on Kim's part after that second mission there?"
"You mean like her getting all tense when the Kimmunicator goes off, then relaxes as soon as you tell her it's just Monkeyfist or Killigan?" Ron responded without hesitation.
"Uh, Yeah...except that only applied when you were with her when the call came in." Wade grinned slightly at Ron's surprised look, "So there's some kind of call she expects to go through me, that she's afraid of you overhearing."
"Sounds like it." Ron agreed, then sighed, "Truthfully, it sounds like she's trying to protect me from something, it's not the first time." After a moment lost in his thoughts, he looked at Wade again. "Do you believe she told us the whole story of her trip to Isle Drakkon?"
Wade snorted. "'Course not!" he replied with a knowing smile.
"Do you know the true story?" Ron then asked him seriously.
Wade stopped smiling, and chewed his lip for a moment before nodding hesitantly. "Part of it, yeah." He turned his attention to his computers, typing away at something slower then his usual rate. "I got into the database of the Isle Drakkon Constabulary and read the official reports, but while they give a good overall description of things, they don't tell much about Kim's own experiences. Even Kim's own statement doesn't tell much!" He shot Ron a wry grin, "She tries so hard not to take too much credit, she leaves far too much out! A good defense lawyer might use that against her, I wonder if Doctor Director has spoken to her about it?"
Ron rolled his eyes briefly. "That's Kim! But you did find something, right?" He persisted.
"Of course!" Wade replied in mock outrage, before getting serious. "But the source is what you're not going to believe, possibly in more ways then one!" Then he hit the enter key, and the familiar voice of Motor Ed Lipsky filled the air.
"So, I'd nailed the one dude, right? Got his rifle, nice old model M-16, the kind you could go full 'rock-and-roll' on, right? And I was seriously ready to take on some bad guys..."
"Then you got surprised by a woman!" Another voice cut in. There was a long moment of silence, and Ron could imagine Ed's audience holding it's breath to see how he handled the interruption. It also told him that this was not the first time Ed had told the story, obviously.
"Dude, I'm telling this story, right? Do NOT interrupt me again, seriously!" There then followed a brief pause before Ed spoke again. "I had gotten a little distracted making sure the guy kept his gun clean, but yeah, this Paladin bro—um, she was standing right behind me." Ron thought he heard a muttered expletive from someone in the audience. "You met her too? Then you know what I'm talking about, when that lady has her game face on, she is one scary bro—woman!" Another very brief pause and Ed's tone became a little awestruck. "But man, what a bod on her! Man, my throat's dry as a bone..." There then came the sound of Ed hoisting one, only to be interrupted.
"And you got to get up close and personal with that bod, didn't you, Ed?" It wasn't the same person who'd interrupted before, this sounded like one of Ed's gang that Ron knew, "And her blonde partner..." He was cut off by what Ron assumed from the sound and his own imagination was a great deal of beer being expelled from Motor Ed's mouth with great force.
"Heh, not..no!" Ed spluttered in denial, "That was just a story I told Slug to piss him off, you know how he hates hearing how other people keep scoring, ever since he married his old hogmate." Ron exchanged curious glances with Wade, who shrugged. "Nah, the truth is I just had Janey for company after the fight, back at my crib. And trust me, she may have been kinda on the short side, but she was nearly more then the Motorman could handle! Something had her all revved up when I got back there, maybe big storms turned her on!"
"Get to the part about Kim Possible nearly being wasted." The first interrupter spoke up again. Ron's blood ran cold at the words, as he saw Wade's face turn grim.
"All right, I'm getting there, and be glad that wasn't an interruption, Seriously!" Ed replied testily. "Anyway, the two of us, with her leading...don't look at me like that, if you'd been there, you wouldn't have argued with her, either! Anyway, we had to go up the path to Cousin Drew's back door through this hedge, and just before we reached the veranda..."
"Veranda?" queried a new voice.
"Veranda, patio, whatever, who cares? Are you going to let me tell this, or not?" After ten seconds of silence with no response, "Anyway, I hear this guy's voice, saying 'What kind of fool brings Kung Fu to a gunfight?' Now this Paladin chick had a '16, just like me, but as she steps through the gap in the hedge, she lets it drop, just holding it in her left hand by the carrying handle on top. And before I can see what's going on, I hear her say 'If it's a gunfight you're looking for...' and she lets it hang like that."
Another pause as apparently Ed wet his whistle again before he resumed. "Now I can see what's going on, there's this big dude with a big gun, .500 Magnum Smith, it turns out, standing on the far side of the ver—patio, now looking at Paladin like he can't believe his eyes. And Red...she was down for the count, a good thirty feet from the guy, all bloody..at least her face was, she got her cheek ripped pretty good..." Ron winced, he remembered the dressing on Kim's face when he'd next saw her. The wound beneath had healed cleanly without scarring, but he'd never forget the twinge of guilt it caused in him just remembering it, and the fact he hadn't been there when it happened.
He was so distracted by the thought that he missed a bit of the recording, apparently someone saying something regarding Kim's supposed 'helplessness'. "No, Dude, seriously, I've seen Red in bad shape and still kicking ass, believe me! But this time there was nothing she could do, and you could see it in her eyes...never thought I would see it, but there it was!"
"Was the big dude dumb enough to try and pull his gun against Paladin?" Came yet another new voice. Ron now wondered about the lack of background noise, this sounded like a conversation that might have taken place in a club or bar. Then he realized that Wade had probably done some filtering.
"Yeah," Ed replied, "Dumb and dead, just like that! One through the throat, the other through his front teeth, one or both through his spine on the way out!" Ron winced again at the description, though he wasn't sure why. His thoughts drifted away briefly as he pictured the image in his mind, though the setting was all his imagination. He even envisaged Drakken watching the whole thing from inside the house, though the expression on the villain's face kept shifting in Ron's imagination. Then he became aware that Wade had cut off the recording.
"That's pretty much all the important part of the conversation." Wade informed him, "I've heard two versions of it he told in two different places, the first one I had to cut off short because he started describing his post-fight celebration, in vivid detail..."
"Fortunately, he learned better then to exaggerate in such matters." Wade's eyes seemed to nearly pop out of his head, while Ron barely restrained himself from leaping up out of his chair as a strange, female voice came from Wade's sound system.
It took a moment for Wade to find his voice. "W—who are you, and H—how the heck did you get into my system!" He stammered in outrage.
"We have a mutual friend, Mister Load." The voice replied, "And when you refused to answer my call, deeming it urgent that I speak with you, I asked him to gain access to your system, and he did." Ron was amazed to see how quiet Wade became, even as his eyes grew huge in his face. "As to who I am, my name is Jennifer Paladin, and we need to have a serious talk about Kim Possible's whereabouts, and whether or not she's traveling alone."
Wade and Ron's eyes met through their respective monitors, both stunned speechless.
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It might have occurred to Shego that it was a classic sitch, spotting the object of her hunt in the mirror behind the bar. Mind you, the mirror was only a 12 by 10 inch one that was probably one-way, rather then the big mirrors common in western movies.
But the only thing that went through Shego's mind was a sense of relief that something had happened to draw her out of her brooding thoughts about Milly Whitlock, thoughts she couldn't sort out herself. It was as if her feelings on the subject kept switching back and forth radically from moment to moment. "Maybe I should face up to the fact that I'm becoming Schizophrenic!" She thought sourly, just as the door to the bar opened and her eyes darted to the the small mirror.
She didn't make a positive identification from the small reflection, but that was provided by a voice she remembered well enough. "Hey, Griff." The bartender nodded in acknowledgment, and quite deliberately kept his eyes off Shego with an effort. The three men kept going towards one of the booths to Shego's left as she sat. At the same time the couple who had been sitting in another of the booths rose, the man dropping some bills on the table. They both looked unhappily through the windows at the still pouring rain, then the man called to the bartender, "Mind if we use the fire exit? It's much closer to where we parked."
Griff hesitated a moment before nodding. "Go ahead." The woman smiled gratefully at him before she and the man disappeared from Shego's sight. Her eyes left them anyway just before they vanished, drawn instead to where Tom Frailey and his friends were getting comfortable in their booth. Or rather two were, the third still stood upright. After a moment's conversation with the others, he headed for the bar.
Shego turned her head slightly to hide her face from him as he ordered beers for him and his buddies. Three different brands, two in bottles, and one draft. After he collected them and left, Shego caught Griff regarding her expectantly. She frowned and tried to center herself. Her primary instinct was still to just go to town on Tom Frailey to find out what she needed to know.
The idea that he had anything at all to do with Milly's fate had made her think of killing him. But that thought caused some rather extreme emotions in her. Not that she had ever desired to kill anyone, but the force of her negative reaction to the thought surprised her, almost as if her own disinclination to kill was being reinforced by something else, something almost distinct from her own conscience.
She hated the sense of uncertainty these thoughts caused her, but at the same time could hardly ignore them. But for now she had an excuse to put them aside, and try to make a decision as to how far she was actually going to go with Frailey. She wanted to know who exactly was behind all of this, and if Tommy-boy couldn't tell her, she'd have to go on to his uncle.
And then there was Kim Possible. Shego's feelings on that subject had changed a great deal since she had first encountered the teen, especially since last summer, when the girl had risked her life protecting Drakken and Shego from armed killers. "But only after actually making their job easier by disabling me!" She reminded herself, while grudgingly acknowledging that things could have gone a lot worse if Kim hadn't disabled her the way she had, ironically!
The fact was, the girl had been there, and had in fact saved Shego's life. And that fact had been an unsettling one to the thief ever since. She had never failed to pay her debts, and always tried to discharge them as quickly as possible. But paying the teenager back was a hard thing to do. After all, how many opportunities did she have? When they encountered each other, it was always as adversaries. Shego had considered actually following the girl on her missions, hoping the opportunity might come up, but dismissed the notion as pathetic.
Now here she had entered into an agreement with the girl, and practically every thought she devoted to that agreement urged her to break it. But somehow she mistrusted those impulses, but wasn't at all sure exactly why. Weren't they in keeping with being a villain? She snorted. What exactly was a villain, anyway? She shook her head, then tried not to smirk at the confused look on Griff's face as she stood up and dropped money for her drink on the bar, then headed towards Tom Frailey's table.
He was seated with his back to the wall of the large booth, engaged in conversation with one of his friends, and only peripherally noticed Shego approaching the booth. His eyes flickered towards her once, then twice, then as she actually reached the booth recognition dawned and he shot up straight in his chair, eyes wide. Though his tongue seemed momentarily paralyzed, he soon managed to stammer out "A—A—Ana, I—I mean Sh—Shego, Ahhh, I mean..."
"I don't care what you call me, Frailey!" She snapped, voice sharp as a whipcrack, "In fact, don't call me anything at all, just answer a question or two for me!"
Frailey looked at his two friends, who flanked him, trying to see what support he could expect if things went south. And received little encouragement. Nevertheless some instinct, machismo or suicidal, caused him to get a little backbone. "Listen! I don't know what you think I might know that you'd care about, or where you get off coming in here and asking..."
He broke off as Shego leaned on the table and stared into his eyes. "Milly Whitlock." she stated coldly. It actually took Frailey a moment to put things together, and then his face paled. All bravado gone, he stammered "N—now l—listen, Shego! I had nothing to do..."
She promptly cut him off. "Don't go there, Tommy-boy! Don't start a conversation about how much you're responsible for, just tell me a name, any name, that you think I might be more interested in! Because Milly's dead..." Frailey went so pale at that, Shego thought he'd faint, "And someone is going to pay for it!"
Tom Frailey's mouth moved soundlessly for a moment as he tried to find words. Then his gaze was actually drawn away from Shego to something behind her. As he actually became even more pale, Shego had to dismiss the idea that one of the other patrons was making an exit behind her back. That would have been inconvenient if they chose to call the cops, but she now suspected that her situation had just deteriorated due to an unexpected factor. And she quickly had her suspicions confirmed.
"It looks like we got here just in time." Came a voice, "And don't move, Shego, I know what you're capable of, but you have to be able to aim that power of yours, right? Also know you can't summon it instantly. So, one flicker of green and I'll also prove that you're not bulletproof! As for you, Frailey, you're coming with us, we also have some questions for you, and we're also determined to have answers!"
Shego resisted growling in frustration. She couldn't tell how many people, and guns, were behind her, there were no reflective surfaces available for her to spot them in. But she noted that Tom Frailey seemed to be puzzled by this intervention. "Unless these guys do something stupid, I'm stuck! Maybe grab Frailey as he slips out of the booth to use as a shield...only works if they don't mind shooting him!" Then an obvious thought slid reluctantly into her head. "But there's always Kimmie, if she noticed anything!"
0X0X0X0X0X0X0X0
"Mister Load, I really need to know if Kim Possible is in Go City, and whether she is with or following Shego." Jen Paladin's voice made Wade wince briefly.
Ron, however, was the one who first replied. "Why should we talk to you? You're the one that got Kim into this mess in the first place!"
"Exactly what kind of mess would that be?" Was the reply, and now Ron winced.
"Well, I'm not really sure she's in trouble, but since she's in Go City with She..." Then he broke off with a grimace as he realized he'd just answered Jen's question.
Both boys faintly heard a different female voice from Jen's end. "Well, now who do we notify? Civil Defense, National Guard, the National Imposer?" There was no verbal reply, but there was a few moments' silence before Jen spoke to the boys again.
"For the record, Kim learned more about this business then I intended her to. I had to interrupt our meeting to answer a phone call from an idiot in Congress, and had to leave her alone with the Sister for nearly twenty minutes. The Sister was a kind of fan of Kim's, and one way or another, she ended up telling Kim far more then was good for her. Now, why were you checking up on the Isle Drakkon story? Only reason I can think of for you to be doing it now is because you have concerns about Kim's behavior, and you're looking for some clue in what happened last summer."
The implied slight of Kim immediately triggered Ron's instinct to defend her, and he quickly snapped, "We trust Kim!" But even as he said it, he had a moment of doubt as to the truth of the statement. Wade's next words put things in a different light.
"We're just not sure we understand her right now." The young tech wizard said hurriedly, shooting Ron a guilty look.
After a moment, Ron sighed and nodded grudging agreement. "I'm thinking that she's trying to protect me from...something!" he admitted aloud.
"Or, she's thinking practically, and much farther ahead then I would previously would have given her credit for." Jen replied.
"Huh?" Echoed through the speakers as both Wade and Ron reacted identically, exchanging confused looks on their monitors.
They thought that they heard a small snort from the other end of the line. "It's just occurred to me that Kim Possible knew exactly where she'd be right now, from the moment our meeting ended. And though you won't admit it to me, I believe she's trying to ride herd on Shego, trying to stop her from going too far in her search for vengeance."
"Vengeance?" Ron echoed, still being in the dark about much of the story, while Wade nodded slowly in understanding. "You're saying she knew she'd be going to Go City, even before she went to Isle Drakkon? But the only way Shego would have known to go to Go City in the first place would have been if Kim told her the whole story...no, wait..."
"Where else would she have gone, once she knew it involved her childhood friend?" Jen asked reasonably, "Unless Kim fabricated a false story as to how Milly Whitlock died, one that Shego would have accepted?"
Ron was shaking his head even as Wade replied. "She'd never have done that, not under these circumstances. Lying to someone about someone they cared about...if she actually believed Shego could care about someone in the first place..."
"She's...she's been talking differently about them...Drakken and Shego, that is, since last summer." Ron stated, "Sometimes when she said things like she used to, she'd get angry with herself, but she never explained why." He hesitated, then sighed again, "But then again, I never asked her about it, either." Then he shook his head angrily, "But what's that got to do with her not wanting me there? I mean, if I wasn't grounded?"
"Well, tell me, would you and her be able to maintain surveillance on Shego successfully from a distance, through Go City?" Jen asked. "And Mister Load, could you at least point us to the right part of Go? We've already wasted thirty minutes being lectured by a pompous ass of an FBI official about how we had better not think we can just 'waltz in' and do what we please in 'his' city. I have never heard cliched dialogue sustained for such a long time in one speech in my life!"
Ron and Wade had both grimaced slightly at Jen's question concerning trailing Shego, and Wade delayed responding to that for a few seconds by answering the question truthfully. "They headed to the industrial district, looking for a man named Tom Frailey." Ron regarded his friend curiously even as he faintly heard what might have been a mild curse from whoever was with Jen Paladin at her end of the conversation.
"As to your other question," Wade continued ruefully, "Even Kim says that Shego can lose her if she wants to. She kinda exaggerated when she said it, but she meant it."
They could imagine Jen Paladin nodding, "So the only practical plan was to accompany Shego, in other words. And if that is the case, how well would it work if Ron was there with them, in close proximity to Shego for an extended period?" Ron and Wade's gazes met as they considered the woman's words, and Ron might have felt insulted at the doubtful look on Wade's face, if he didn't think it was justified. Nevertheless, he felt like being the Devil's advocate.
"Well, I may have a habit of annoying Shego..." Ron ignored Wade's eyeroll, "But I'm sure Kim could handle the sitch."
"By taking sides, you mean?" Jen's words caused a frown on Ron's face, because he immediately guessed where she was headed. "If Kim takes your side, then that puts more pressure on Shego to 'play nice', and right now, that's a bad idea." That drew a grudging nod from Wade. "And if she takes Shego's side, how do you react, Mister Stoppable?"
Ron opened his mouth to reply, but then stopped, a thoughtful look coming to his face. Though puzzled by that, Wade chose to defend him. "Ron could have handled it, he's not like he used to be! I mean, if you're going by his stories, he just continued making his character seem as shallow as he used to be...I mean, um...he's just a lot more mature these days, that's all! And Kim trusts Ron..." Wade trailed off as he saw Ron shaking his head, face sorrowful.
"No, she's got a point, Wade." Ron said quietly, eyes downcast, before looking him in the eye, "Tell her where to find Kim and Shego." He told Wade decisively, before addressing Jen, "I want to thank you for saving Kim's life, Miss Paladin, and I'm asking you to try and keep her safe this time, please, and I already know that's asking a lot, Kim's not the kind to make that easy!"
There was a moment's hesitation before he got his reply. "I'll—I'll do what I can, but as you say...listen, it would be far better if we could get ahead of the pair of them, though. More accurately, it would be better if practically anyone, us, the FBI, Global Justice, got to the man behind this before Shego!" Jen Paladin declared, "So if you don't trust us that much, give any info you may have to either of them, the main thing we should be preventing is a situation where Kim has to get between Shego and Armand Macheles! Kim may have a history of handling Shego, but right now, she may be playing on the fact that Shego owes her a debt. But that may not matter, I doubt even Kim knows what she's in for if Shego goes into a killing rage."
Wade was typing on one keyboard quietly as he replied, even as he nodded his agreement with that reasoning. "I have no idea how to get ahead of them, Miss Paladin, but they're currently at a bar called the Bolts Hole." He added the address. "Like I said, they're trying to find this Tom Frailey. His uncle was a benefactor for the orphanage that Shego grew up in, and it was him that arranged Milly's adoption."
"William Bryant Frailey is the uncle's name." Jen Paladin responded, "We checked him out during our research into this business. Right now, he's airborne, returning to Go from a trip east. It might be smarter to go see him first, but there's no clear indication who would most likely know where Macheles is. The nephew, or the uncle? Have to play this by ear. Listen, if you need to get in touch with us, here's my cell number..." She recited, then repeated it, "But for now, have to deal with a delicate situation, or a very explosive one, in all likelihood. I'll do my best for Kim, but no promises!" She then hung up.
Wade immediately focused an angry look on Ron. "Okay, Ron, why the heck would you think Kim wouldn't trust you on this? You haven't done anything to make her doubt...what am I saying, she'd never doubt you..."
"As a friend, no, I've never given her any reason to doubt me there, Wade..." Ron interrupted him, "But as a mission partner? As good as I've gotten since we first started, I'm still the one that messes things up. And don't say anything about always coming through in the end, because that's not the point when you're planning ahead! Because many times, I wouldn't have had to 'come through', if I hadn't gotten us in a mess, or made one worse, in the first place! And this sitch is a tricky one. As to acting and thinking more responsibly...Okay, I had been getting better..." He trailed off as if he'd run out of words, causing Wade to regard him quizzically.
"'Had been', Ron?" he asked pointedly, "When did you stop getting better?"
Ron seemed reluctant to answer for a moment, then burst out "When one person started treating me as an 'adult', or so I thought, I started thinking that I was one, and that my judgment and reasoning was more mature. Like...not worrying about making grades good enough to get into college, because I knew I couldn't get into the same college as Kim, if she went to one of the good ones her grades earned for her! Then I could just go wherever she did, get a job, hang around and still go on missions like usual..."
Wade groaned. "Ron, you went through all of this before! I mean, you and Kim talked about it...last summer! And the separation anxiety, I thought you got it out of your system when you wrote 'Sitch in Time'!"
"No! Yes...maybe, I don't know! It's not the first time I got that idea in my head, but this time, a couple of months ago, I thought I was thinking more maturely, and it really did make sense!" He idly played with a loose pen on his desk for a moment. Then he sighed and resumed, "This thing with my Dad, it's not just the other night that set him off, there have been things that have been building up, that I could have done something about, but I let them go."
Now Wade looked perplexed. "Like the grades thing? How did your Dad know you were thinking about slacking off? I mean, your grades didn't really go down..." He snuck a quick look at one of his screens, "Well, you blew two exams back in February that should have been easy..." He scowled slightly, "in fact most of your papers for a couple of weeks were low, but your grades came right back up in March."
"Because I came to my senses." Ron replied, then shook his head sadly, "Or rather, I realized that how Kim would feel about it if she found out was more important to me than anything else could be. But then again I thought I didn't have to choose between them, I could have both..." He saw that Wade was once again perplexed, and smiled faintly. "But what I'm talking about here is my Dad. He knew something was wrong from the way I talked when he asked how school was going, and he started worrying."
"Well, didn't he ask you about it?"
Ron made a face. "Not exactly...you see, the way we do things...the way we talk...okay, this may sound weird, but rather then him bringing the subject up, he'd just talk, and sort of skirt around the issue, and let me choose to actually address it. Not that he's shy about it, but he wanted to see me willing to recognize problems and talk about them. If I didn't actually do it, he'd eventually just come out and ask. But how long 'eventually' is got longer as I grew older, and he wanted to give me more time to show responsibility."
Wade shrugged. "I suppose that could make sense, definitely not how Mom handles things, though! But, where was the problem, this time?"
Ron tapped his head. "Right here. Again, I thought I was thinking more maturely, now, and not for the right reason." His cheeks colored slightly. "And for some reason I saw the way we had solved things before as him treating me like a child, don't ask me why, while someone else was treating me as an adult. I was wrong, he was just treating me the same as always, like a son. Anyway, I ignored his attempts to get me to open up, so his concern built up."
Wade considered that information, but still looked puzzled. "But, your grades picked up again, why was he still concerned?"
Now Ron's cheeks really reddened. "Because he didn't know they'd gotten better! I mean, we don't get report cards anymore, parents are just notified if our grades are close to failing. So the only way he could have known how well or how poorly I was doing was for me to tell him, and I didn't! Resentment, or something, I guess. Then came this trip, I think he hoped we were going to bond a bit, and I thought it was about time I did tell him the truth, but once we got there, all his old friends took up his time! And his old school won, they celebrated and had a couple of beers...just two for Dad, I think, but still we were so worn out, we fell asleep in the car on the way home."
Wade nodded. "That much I saw from my video surveillance camera across the street. The recording, rather, I was asleep when you got back."
Ron frowned. "Across the street? Why put the camera over there? I mean, I know you promised my parents not to put any in the house, but still?"
Wade rolled his eyes. "Ron, I lost five cameras that I placed in your yard! Two to hedge trimmers, two to the lawn mower, and one to a cherry bomb!"
Ron's eyes widened in surprise. "A cherry bomb? You mean, when Cousin Sean...you had a camera in the pink flamingo? That's not bad..." He broke off, then his eyes narrowed, "You never put any surveillance gear in the..." Then Wade cut him off.
"No, Ron, I absolutely did not put any surveillance gear in your garden gnome! Besides, you've been paranoid about it since before you even knew me!" He stated in exasperation, then grinned, "It was cool how Sean ran to his and your moms to accuse you of doing it, and found that you'd been with them the whole time! Which I only know about because I heard your mother tell the next-door neighbors about it!"
Ron smiled, but was still clearly unhappy. "Anyway, all I'm saying here is that Dad was thinking that I was making some bad choices about school and other things, and I could have prevented that. And if he picked up on my immature behavior, what about Kim? She knows me better then anyone! Miss Paladin is right, if I was there with Shego right now, sooner or later I think it would have gone nuclear."
Wade had to acknowledge the logic there. "But you still don't think Kim asked your Dad to hide the Ronnunicator?"
Ron shook his head emphatically. "She'd never ask him to, I know it! He must have picked up on something like I said before...or she actually did say something..." He thought about it in silence for a moment. "Taking the Ronnunicator just keeps me from talking to her directly. If she didn't want me to know where she was, or what she was doing, she'd ask you to keep it secret..." He shook his head again, this time in frustration, "I think we're missing something here!"
Wade scowled, but then tentatively suggested "Then again, we may be missing the obvious here." Ron waited curiously as Wade chose his words. "She may just be remembering what happened last summer, and may be thinking that this could be the same sort of sitch, because Miss Paladin is involved, Shego, and Isle Drakkon."
Ron shook his head in denial. "Kim isn't superstitious, she doesn't believe in omens!"
"They're not omens, Ron! They're signs that this may add up to a very serious sitch..." He trailed off as if unsure whether to continue, then did. "She may have been thinking, that if you had been there when the sitch happened that Motor Ed described, that you might have put yourself between her and the man with the gun...and taken the bullet for her."
Ron met his friend's worried gaze solemnly through their respective monitors. Then he nodded. "And I would have, too." He declared quietly. Which didn't alleviate the fear in Wade's eyes one bit. Especially since his knowledge of the power of the gun involved told him that he would have had a good chance of losing them both to the first shot.
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"Idealists." Jen Paladin muttered as she tapped her cell phone against her chin.
In the drivers seat next to her, Sam McCarron's lips twitched slightly. "Yeah, they're such a pain in the ass, aren't they?" When that drew no response, she checked the vehicle's navigation system that now displayed a route to the Bolts Hole, before adding "We're talking about Kim Possible, of course?"
"She seems to be the focus of things right now." Jen replied testily, "Rather then Armand Macheles, who should be!" She grimaced as she studied the buildings they were passing. "I should never have left her alone with the Sister, she was so happy to meet Kim..."
"Well, you were talking to a politician, you can't use that kind of language in front of a nun." Sam cracked.
Jen favored her with a sour look. "I should have arranged for the meeting at Kim Possible's home, or our hotel, rather then a public place!" She groused, "But the Sister liked the park, such a nice place compared to where she's living, and I suppose I didn't want to meet Kim's parents. Anyway, if we hadn't been in the open, you could have stuck with them, rather then sweeping for other interested parties."
Sam shrugged. "Wasn't much of a catch, one Imposer paparazzi, one Kim Possible blogger, and our mysterious young Asian woman."
Jen regarded her thoughtfully. "A well-trained young woman, you said."
Sam nodded. "Yeah, but nervous for some reason, and impatient, both bad things to let happen when you're trying to watch someone unobserved. And she in turn failed to notice that she was being watched."
"By a middle-aged Asian male." Jen responded, echoing Sam's original report, "And Kim recognized the woman when she intercepted her after the meeting?"
"Yeah, but I was too far away to get any reading on Kim's body language as to how she felt about it." Stopped at a red light, she now studied Jen's body language thoughtfully. "You think this is going to end badly, don't you?" When Jen only tightened her lips a bit in response, Sam sighed. "It's one of those again, dragging me out of our warm bed at Oh-dark-thirty in the morning, stuffing me and my ready bag on a plane, mystery trip to Central America, knocking on a hospice door in a really bad part of town, and not explaining how you knew about Milly Whitlock in the first place!"
Jen still remained silent. With the light turning green, Sam tightened her grip on the wheel as they began moving again. "I so wish I hadn't promised not to ask where these jobs come from!" She muttered under her breath.
"But you did promise, Sam." Jen said in a sympathetic tone. That caused Sam to smile ruefully and nod. Jen drummed her fingers on her jeans-clad knee for a moment, then shook her head angrily. "Maybe we should try and intercept the Uncle, he's far more likely to know where to find Macheles!"
Sam looked doubtful. "But that would leave Kim Possible alone with Shego, a ticking bomb if ever there was one, and we have no idea whether her temper will hold out until she reaches Macheles, she could explode far earlier. Besides, Shego owes us her life too, in a way, so we might be better served joining up with them, that way there will be more of us to contain the collateral damage when Mount Shego does erupt."
Jen snorted. "She's already forced to acknowledge her debt to Kim, do you think she could take being around two other people that she might believe she owes? And that's not the point, we promised to make sure that Armand Macheles was put out of action, that's our job. Kim Possible got involved on her own hook, she's very capable, maybe more then I previously thought, so maybe we should just let her do what she obviously thinks she can, handle Shego, and focus on getting ahead of them!"
"The fact that you said 'maybe' means you don't think that's a good idea! Besides, two people who know Kim far better then we do aren't sure what's going on with her." Sam pointed out, "And if two of her best friends, one probably the person who knows her best, have doubts, how can you be certain she knows what she's doing?"
"There's plenty of reasons why those two might be confused by her behavior, they haven't had the experiences she has." Jen countered, "And I think Kim, like all of us, keeps her own secrets, even from her best friends. Possibly including any doubts she herself has." Her fingers drummed on her jeans-clad knee for a minute. "Everett Deal delayed us enough, the smart move for us is to try and get ahead of them." She added with little conviction.
Rolling her eyes at the memory of their encounter with the FBI SAC for Go City, Sam smiled faintly. "But we're not going to, are we?"
"Just drive, Sam." was the weary reply.
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Mitchell was absolutely convinced that disaster was about to befall him. That conviction had jumped into his head as soon as he heard Tom Frailey say 'Shego'. He had no clue whatsoever why the villainess might be interested in Armand Macheles' operations, and his brain was too busy weighing his options to worry about it right now.
Perry had his gun out, trained on Shego's back, held firmly in a two-handed grip. Mitchell knew he was supposed to watch Perry's back, and was trying to do so despite his preoccupation with impending doom. Two of the three bar patrons had apparently taken cover in the rest rooms as soon as they heard the name Shego spoken. The third was pretending to ignore the altercation while trying to finish his drink. (And surreptitiously trying to take photos with his phone.)
Griff had disappeared, and Mitchell had no idea if he'd take a hand. Of course if either he or the absent patrons were calling the police, things were in danger of going completely out of control. All in all, Mitchell was rapidly approaching his stress limits. This partially explained why he let his own partner distract him. Of course by being distracted, he had Shego in his field of vision.
"Okay, you on the left, slide out so Frailey can get out!" Perry ordered one of Frailey's friends. When the man first looked towards Frailey, he emphasized his order. "I said move, NOW!" That caused immediate compliance. "Okay, Frailey, slide out, you're coming with us!"
"What the hell do you guys want with me?" Frailey protested, even as he complied with the order, sliding out of the booth and standing up, immediately moving two steps sideways away from Shego. Both Mitchell and Perry followed him with their eyes, but Perry never shifted his gun away from Shego.
If he was ever asked for an excuse for turning his back on the door, which he never was, Mitchell could list two legitimate ones. One, to keep Shego in sight. Two, there was a bell on the door that he would have heard if someone opened it.
The first hint that he might need such an excuse was a flicker of movement in his peripheral vision. But by the time he had redirected his attention enough to actually interpret what he was seeing, Perry was already halfway to the floor. His gun-filled right hand was pinned back against his shoulder, as he fell backwards over the leg of a girl with rain-soaked hair drawn back in a ponytail, too wet to tell it's true color. As Perry's head hit the floor, the girl shifted her grip to quickly twist the gun from his stunned grip, forcing him to let go or have his trigger finger broken.
After a long moment's hesitation, Mitchell instinctively leaped forward to help Perry. He couldn't tell later exactly how the girl had managed to kick him from her position astride Perry, he just knew that he had an afterimage of the sole of her shoe to accompany the pain of catching it on his jaw. He went backwards over one of the freestanding tables and crashed down to the floor on the far side, tangled up with two of the chairs.
Meanwhile, one of Tom Frailey's friends did something either out of loyalty or panic that could have been monumentally stupid. The one who had still been seated lunged up and shoved Shego hard in the back as she spun around in response to the sounds of Kim Possible's intervention in things. He actually sent the woman crashing into the arms of Frailey's other friend, and both of them fell into one of the booths. The shover then spun and dashed for the fire exit, crashing through and sprinting across the rainswept parking lot without a glance back.
Tom Frailey's survival instincts didn't fail him, and he took immediate advantage of the reprieve. Without a thought for the friend now entangled with a very angry Shego, he bolted for the fire exit, too.
With a curse, Shego thrashed her way clear of man and booth. Ignoring Kim and her struggles, she too headed for the fire exit.
The remaining bar patrons now decided to depart, or at least watch what was going on from close to the front door. Two had their phones out, using the camera functions to record what was happening.
Kim tossed the gun clear of the melee, into one of the empty booths, after first clicking the safety on. The thought of using it to control the situation just didn't occur to her, being so far contrary to her nature. But the distraction gave Perry a chance to rally slightly, and he clipped her good on her right cheek, then managed to toss her off. The only good part as far as Kim was concerned was that in rolling clear, he left Kim between him and the booth where she'd tossed the gun.
"Who the hell are you kid?" Perry snarled, "What the F*** is going on here, you and Shego butting in..." Then a thought popped into his head, and he stared at her with narrowed eyes.
Griff's voice came from somewhere out of his sight, though it was obvious the bartender could see him. "Yep, that's her, Mister. Kim Possible."
Perry's eyes widened. "Wh—why? I.." He cast a quick glance at Mitchell. The inattention could have had painful consequences, but Kim too was distracted in a way, determined to end this fight and pursue Shego.
Seeing that Mitchell was unlikely to be of immediate help as he painfully disentangled himself from the furniture, Perry cursed loudly, then shot Kim an angry glare. "I don't have time for this Bull!" He snapped, then turned and dashed for the front door, the remaining patrons scattering from his path.
Kim hesitated, and cursed herself in her head for her own indecision. Then she made her choice, and dashed for the fire exit.
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This was getting too long, a common curse for me, so I'll post as is. And probably work on 'Open Lair' for a bit before returning. And try to cut down on all the talking, get the plot moving faster.
For now, Please Read and Review.