My thanks to Boris Yeltsin, CajunBear73, campy, darth56, Eddy13, Quathis, Bobtrumpet, Jimmy1201, and Lostinthought319 for their reviews and to everyone for reading.

Thanks also to everyone who has added this story or author to their favorites or alert lists. I really appreciate it!

And, last but not least, thanks to campy for looking over this chapter.

KP © Disney. But you knew that.

Chapter 33: Next Steps

I.

"See you later, Roomie," Fern said.

"Thanks, Fern," Kim answered. "You rock."

"Don't I know it," she said with a broad smile before she left the dorm.

Kim and Ron were alone in her room. She seemed happy, though a bit focused, like she was already planning a mission. Ron was exhausted though still keyed up from the big game and trip back to campus.

"Where's she going?" he asked.

"Visiting with a friend at the Gamma Gamma Gamma house," Kim said before adding, "Overnight."

"So you get the room to yourself?"

"Ourselves," Kim stated, draping her arms around his neck.

"You mean …" Ron said, his voice hitting an unusually high pitch.

Holding his gaze and playing with one of his ears, she said. "No 'rents. No Tweebs' pranks. No Hana running on the ceiling …"

"What about Wade?" he asked, tugging at his collar.

"I told him to call Global Justice. I think Will Du can try saving the world for once."

"You think that's a good idea?"

"Betty Director will have his back."

"Uh, well, what about Rufus?" Ron sputtered.

"With Fern. He's already been voted honorary mascot of the Tri Gams and he's taken an interest in a huge piece of English cheddar," Kim said whispering in his ear. "It's just the two of us."

"Man, I'd call him a traitor but right now I'm all about being sold out," Ron said with a lopsided grin as he waggled his eyebrows. That pleased Kim and made her heart race faster. She loved seeing Confident Ron come out to play.

"Smart boy," she observed before bringing her lips to his.

II.

"So Kimmie-cub is okay?" James asked as he and his wife sat in the living room.

"She's a good as new," Ann said before she heard an explosion in the kitchen. "Boys, what have I said about detonations inside the house?"

"Sorry, Mom," Jim called from the other room.

"We were just—" Tim, looking worried, said as he poked his head in.

Ann smiled and waved her hand. "Just take it outside, please."

Looking relieved, Tim replied, "Will do!"

Moments later another muffled explosion, this one clearly outside, sounded.

James cocked an eyebrow. "It's good to know that not everything has changed."

"Tell me that when the contractor comes over to give us the newest construction estimate," she said wryly.

"And how about Ronald?" James asked, shifting conversational gears as he reflected on the Llenrock football game and what he saw unfold on television. "That was a sudden change for him."

"He'll be fine. And Kimmie will be there to help him."

"I bet," James grumbled, earning a raised eyebrow from his wife. In response, he relented and with a small grin, said, "Well, given the way he's stepped up, I'm sure he'll be okay. In fact, they'll both be okay."

Ann didn't hide her surprise. "So, you're not worried about them being alone at college?"

"Well, I could make myself feel better by threatening Ronald with a trip on a interstellar probe," he chuckled, "but he's already gone into space to save Kim. That boy has shown he's a man."

Ann looked at her husband, pleased by what she was hearing.

"To be honest," he continued, "I think it's past time for those talks. As her father, I hate to admit it, but she's growing up, and so is he. I'm glad they're together."

"I'm proud of you, dear," Ann said warmly.

James smiled, though his expression soon turned thoughtful. "Though maybe I could talk to the boys about borrowing their stealth drone …"

III.

"You ready for your first day, College Man?" Kim asked as she finished her breakfast. She was sitting across from Ron at a table in the Student Union dining hall.

"I'm all about the higher education," Ron replied smugly as he finished his omelet.

His best friend girlfriend cocked an eyebrow. "Oh?"

Ron shifted nervously in his seat. "Well, okay. I'm all about you. I'm all about the higher ed leaving me alone," he confessed. "But I'll manage as long as I've got the most bon-diggity girlfriend in the world and the books don't kill me."

"You couldn't lose me even if you tried," Kim said as she reached across the table and took his hands in hers. "I know this is going to be a lot of work, but I know you can do this, Potential Boy." Then she slowly began stroking the back of his hand. "I'm proud of you for trying … and I'll so make it worth your while," she added saucily, causing the young man to turn red.

"Eep."

She laughed and blushed herself. "You know, Ron," she said dreamily, "last night really was spankin'."

Ron's nervousness ebbed as the recalled what had happened between the two of them. They hadn't gone all the way but they'd gone a lot further and for a lot longer, and in the end with a lot less clothing, than ever before. "Yeah, it was badical. I guess growing up does have its up side."

"And I hear it gets even better," she said with an inviting grin. They gazed in one another's eyes, knowing they had moved to a new, more intimate place in their relationship, physically but also emotionally. After a few more moments of enjoying each other's presence, Kim rose from her seat and much to Ron's chagrin, she was wearing a far more business-like expression, the kind she reserved for missions. "But now we've got to jet," she said.

Ron just sat there, wearing a thousand-mile stare. "Barkin. Man, college tanks …"

Kim rolled her eyes, and then blew him a kiss. "Oh?" she asked.

"Well, not always," he admitted, standing as he took Kim's proffered hand.

"Good answer. Now let's get to class."

IV.

Ron and Kim took seats at the seminar table just before Reeve Barkin entered the room. The large, barrel-chested man surveyed his students, grunted, and began writing on the board. Moments later he spun around and glowered at his students.

"Stoppable!" he barked.

Ron looked to his left and his right. "Uh, you mean me, Coach B?"

"No. I mean your invisible twin," he sneered.

"Uh, I don't have a—"

"I know that, you rules subverting ignoramus! Emerson's Circles. What does it mean?"

"Professor Barkin, that's not fair," Kim interjected. "Ron just transferred this weekend. When was he supposed to have completed the reading?"

"Oh, so you're making excuses for him, Possible? Another save the world thing?" he leaned in, his imposing bulk filling her space, causing her to bristle.

Ron looked back and forth between the two. He didn't like Barkin trying to bully Kim and wanted to stop him. On the other hand, he knew Kim could take care of herself and would resent the implication she couldn't take care of an overbearing teacher by herself.

"So not. More like a fairness ish," she said with resolve.

Barkin glared at Kim. He didn't like students talking back to him, even if they were right.

"Uh, guys?" Ron stammered, drawing the attention of Kim, Reeve, and their classmates. "I think he was talking about relationships and how they're like circles, the kind that spread out when you drop an avocado or something in nacho cheese sauce. The closest are in the middle, like me and KP and then our fams, then our friends, and teammates, and our communities and then … the world?

After a long silence, the gruff teacher spat out a "That's an acceptable explanation," through gritted teeth. "Barely."

"Really?" Ron asked. "Coolio!"

Kim rolled her eyes, having seen her BFBF do things like this many times in the past, sometimes with success and other times without, while the rest of the class stared slack-jawed at their new classmate as Barkin seemed to mutter something unintelligible about hand grenades.

V.

Tim, thinking about the problem he faced, rubbed his chin as he walked around the petrified Englishman. DNAmy watched with nervous interest.

"So, Timmy, do you think we can do this?"

The rogue graduate student shrugged his shoulders. "Honestly, I don't know," he admitted. He and Amy had been working on possible cures for the Curse of the Yono since his arrival. The situation was bizarre, to say the least. Hopefully, the scientific method offered a way forward. "That's why we experiment, isn't it?"

DNAmy looked horrified. "You … want to perform ... tests on my Sugar Booger?"

Tim pulled a face. "Please tell me you didn't just say that. And, yes, I do. I don't know about you, but my experience of marrying cutting edge genetics to medieval mystical monkey texts is a bit wanting."

"But what if Montykins is hurt?"

"You mean more than all ready being an inanimate hunk of rock?" he retorted, rapping his knuckles on the statue's head.

"Well, if you put it that way …" she said petulantly.

Tim sighed. If only Kim Possible had stayed zapped as he'd planned. She'd essentially be a vegetable and he'd be on his way to big time villainy. Now, he was on the run and in hiding with his brilliant but cheerfully mad Aunt. Hopefully, this would work. Then he'd have his revenge on Possible and her goofy boyfriend.

VI.

Kim smirked at her boyfriend as they walked across the quad. "How did you answer that question? Wait, don't tell me. Dumb luck saved the day."

"Dumb skillz, Kim," Ron replied with a grin. "The Ronman was paying attention this fall at Middleton Community."

"You mean you actually read Emerson?" cocking an eyebrow and not quite hiding her disbelief.

"Yeah," he said defensively. "Last week. Me and the Transcendental Meditationists—"

"Whoa. Stop right there," she said turning to him and placing a finger on his lips. "It's Transcendetalists."

"You sure?"

"Pig puck sure, Swami," she said.

Ron's shoulders sagged and Kim sighed. "Look, Ron, you obviously did read some Emerson and it's my bad for just assuming you were making things up on the fly but you did that all too often in high school and—"

He looked her in the eye. "KP, I know that. I had the beginning of the semester to realize just how bad I messed up, and I hated being without you, and I just wanted to get a shot to make it right. And now I've actually got one! I may not be the sharpest tool in the box but the chance to go to school here with you? No way I'm going to blow my chance to star with you in 'Ron Stepuppable Goes to College'."

Kim smiled. "Just promise you'll stay focused, try your best, and you won't rely on your dumb skills. I need those for missions."

"Gotcha, KP," Ron said as he wrapped his arms around her waist.

"And don't you forget it," as she responded in kind and gave him a hug.

VII.

"Who are you?" Troy asked from his side of the Plexiglas divider.

"Hank Perkins, attorney, but more important, crisis consultant to some of our nation's most daring political leaders, including your father, Senator Troy Bell, Senior," the well-dressed, youthful man answered.

Troy looked at Hank. "You're a … fixer?"

Hank's huge grin faded and was replace by a look of disappointment.

"How come Dad's not here?" Troy said.

Hank's disappointment morphed into distaste.

"Your father is a busy man, Troy, or should I call you Junior?" he asked with a grin.

Troy shuddered. "I'd prefer it if you didn't."

"Okay, then. Troy it is."

"Hey, what if you confuse us?"

Hank looked genuinely surprised. "Excuse me?"

"Well, if we're together and you call 'Troy' ..."

"Easy peasy, your father is Senator or Sir, you're Troy or Junior. Now tell me why you're here."

"It's because of that freshman Kim Possible," he growled. "And that buffoonish so-called boyfriend of hers, Don Trappable …"

Hank listened to his client spew his bile and smiled. If Kim Possible was involved, that would be trouble, but it would also mean some big bucks in billings. After all, a problem was merely an unrecognized opportunity. Especially if it was someone else's problem …

VIII.

Kim watched with pleasure as Ron concentrated on his textbook; he was applying himself and that made her ferociously happy. She was tempted to pull him away from his work for some lip smacking but she had her assignment to work on and she wanted to set a good example. Besides, they were now in mission mode and they needed to be all about business; it was one of the reasons their professors were giving them dispensation to continue saving the world. Kim knew this was a big deal even in her case and an even huger one in Ron's.

They were en-route to a mission involving a new villain named Otto Bahn, a wealthier, and more sophisticated, automotive menace than Motor Ed. The heir to a scandal-tainted automotive fortune, the young man had just decided to create the world's worst case of gridlock in New York.

Once again, Team Possible had been called in to defuse a crisis …

To Be Continued …

A/N: Well, this chapter came faster than some of its recent predecessors. I hope to maintain a more robust updating schedule but with summer coming, we'll see what happens.