Kim Possible and all related characters are the property of Disney.
Doctor Who and all related characters are the property of the BBC.
This chapter features the Twelfth Doctor.
"No!" Kim Possible exclaimed. "Absolutely not!" The chief of UNIT's Denver branch had just been told by her ex-boyfriend and former sidekick, Ron Stoppable, that he was willing to sacrifice himself to a Zygon called Tolkran.
"Agreed," the Doctor said. "Really, Ron, your heart is in the right place, but we've faced Tolkran before. He murdered those monks and was planning to conquer this planet. What makes you think he'll settle for getting revenge on just you? You may have stopped him from killing Toshimiru, but I'm the one who locked him away for centuries. He has more of a reason to want me dead than you."
"I didn't mean for real!" Ron protested. "I was thinking of something more trappish!"
It was all Kim could do to not snicker. "Still so not a word," she said in a voice filled with relief. "I don't care that you used it in The Curse of Destiny."
"I had a major argument with my editor over that one," Ron said. "But the Ron-man eventually prevailed." This time Kim did chuckle.
"You want to be used as bait to lure out Tolkran when we find him," the Doctor said. "Not a great plan, but not a bad one either."
"I don't like it," Clara Oswald said. She'd followed Ron from the cafeteria. "Way too many things could go wrong."
"I think we should forget the trap and just let him have you," Reed Place said with a bit of venom in his voice. "One less rubbish writer in the world."
"I'm a 'rubbish writer' am I?" Ron was scowling at the man who had seduced Kim away from him a decade ago. "Tell that to my Bram Stoker Award, my two Nebulas, my Hugo, and the American Book Award I was nominated for."
"I'm thinking about A Death in the Dark," Reed replied in a snide voice. "You know, that murder mystery of yours that was panned."
"My fourth novel," Ron acknowledged. "And the only one of the seven books I've gotten published that didn't make the bestseller's list. The critics ripped me apart over that one, but I didn't quit. I really would have been a 'rubbish writer' if I did that."
"Reed, that's enough!" Kim exclaimed. "We have enough going on without you turning this into a measuring contest!" She turned to Ron. "As for your idea, no offense, but you haven't done any kind of a mission in ten years."
"True," Ron conceded, "but my mad running away skills are still top shelf! I may not be Middleton High's star running back anymore, but I'm still a runner. I do the Middleton Turkey Trot 10k run every year, and I've been training for the Boston Marathon!" He saw the surprised look on Kim's face. "I needed to keep in shape somehow. I mean, I work from home and I'm sitting on my butt behind a computer all day."
He gave Kim the first lopsided grin she'd seen from him in over a decade, and it warmed her heart. "I've got a few surprises, too." Ron's eyes flashed blue as he lightly tapped into the mystical monkey power. "I can take care of myself, Kim. Besides, I've faced off against this guy before."
"And nearly got yourself reduced to a pile of ash," the Doctor added. Zygons didn't electrocute, they disintegrated. "To be fair, though, you're the only person I've met who ever survived a Zygon's energy powers. Still, I want to resolve this with a minimum of violence."
"What's your deal, Doctor?" Reed demanded. "This Zygon has been abducting people and causing property damage and you want to treat this thing with kid gloves!"
The Doctor got in Reed's face. He didn't have a high opinion of the man, due in no small part to his treatment of Ron. "Tolkran is a Zygon, not a 'thing," the Doctor hissed. "And if it seems like I'm being too lenient for your militaristic tastes, it's because I feel responsible for Tolkran's current predicament. It was the Time War my people and the Daleks engaged in that destroyed his home planet, and it was me who imprisoned him. I owe recompense."
"Helping the bad guy," Ron said. "Just like Sensei would do. Booyah!"
As Wade and the Doctor got to work on the new and improved Zygon detector, Kim set about getting her team assembled. Like it or not, she was going to have to deal with her ex. Actually, with both of them. The funny part was Ron, the ex she wronged, wasn't the one being antagonistic. He was keeping his distance, but he wasn't being cruel. He was being cold, but not cruel, and she couldn't really blame him for his coldness. Ron had certainly changed since she'd last seen him. Then again, ten years was a long time. Unless you were a Time Lord like the Doctor, that is.
Then there was Reed. He had also changed, and not for the better. Kim had no idea why. His alcoholism didn't help. In fact, it made him almost like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It was this animosity towards Ron that she didn't understand. She pulled Reed aside before he could cause another scene.
"Let's get one thing straight right now," she told him. "While you're here, you're under my command. I don't want to see or hear you antagonizing Ron or the Doctor. Am I clear?"
"Coming to protect the loser ex like you did back in high school?" Reed said in a snide voice.
Kim took a breath and counted to ten. "What happened to you, Reed? What made you so bitter?"
"You kept coming to that loser's defense, that's what happened!"
Kim clenched her fists and growled. "Ron never did anything to you. We're the ones who wronged him!"
"That's where you're mistaken," Reed told her. "He did wrong me. I had to hear all about him buggering off to Japan instead of manning up and talking to you. I had to help you through that! I had to clean up his mess!"
"Reed," Kim said, trying to keep the venom out of her voice, "he was protecting himself. I see that now. Do I like that he did it? No! I so don't, but I'm beginning to understand why he did it."
"Just keep Stoppable out of my way, Kim," Reed said in a menacing voice. "I can't guarantee his safety if he decides to tick me off."
As Reed stormed off, he almost ran headlong into Clara. "Watch it," he growled.
"What's his problem?" Clara asked.
"I've been trying to figure that out for years now." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "What did I ever see in him?"
"I was about to ask you that same question. I mean, I guess he's cute, but he seems like the type to announce to every woman he meets that he's an alpha male and then get mad when we don't automatically drop our knickers in response."
"He didn't used to be like that," Kim said sadly. "Unless he had me fooled when we were together." She took a cleansing breath. "Let's go see what our resident mad scientists are up to."
"Right," Clara agreed. "The Doctor could probably blow this place up if he's not careful."
"Then it's a good thing my brothers aren't here. They could most def blow this place up!"
Ron had absolutely no idea what Wade and the Doctor were doing. He didn't have too big of a handle on the science stuff, despite having built a doomsday machine out of old junk, and a mega weather generator when he and Dr. Drakken had their brains flipped. He could feel himself getting a headache just trying to follow the two geniuses.
"Hey, Rufus," Ron said to his constant companion, "remind me to see if we can get Mr. Dr. P as a consultant on the science stuff if the Captain Constellation screenplay I'm writing gets the green light."
Rufus gave his human a nod.
"He'd love that," Kim said as she sat down beside him.
"It's my way of apologizing for taking off without saying goodbye," Ron told her.
"Yeah, he's still tweaked about that."
"Oh, I know," Ron said. "Boy did he let me have it when I came back from Japan. He probably would've launched me into Sagittarius A* had he not been happy to see me. And if your mom wasn't there to stop him."
Kim furrowed her brows. "Sagittarius A-Star…?"
"The super massive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way," Ron said proudly. "The Doctor took me there right before he brought me home. He said his people invented black holes, so he wanted to show me one of the really monstrous ones."
They sat in silence for a few minutes, just listening to the technobabble gobbledygook that Kim was convinced was a language shared by Wade and the Doctor.
"I'm sorry," Ron finally said.
Kim gave him a look of profound confusion. "For what? I'm the one who messed up."
"I wanted to say goodbye, but I was afraid you'd try to talk me out of going."
Kim nodded. "I would have tried. I was so delusional back then. I couldn't understand why you wouldn't see things my way. I had a hearts to heart with the Doctor a few years ago. He told me about the worlds you saved. I wanted him to take me back in time to stop myself from dating Reed before I broke up with you."
Ron's eyes narrowed. "Not to stop yourself from dumping me," he growled.
Kim shook her head. "I'm sorry, but no," she said. "Reed and I were happy. I still thought I'd done the right thing for me. Hindsight is twenty-twenty. If I knew then what I know now, I would have stopped myself from ever meeting him, and I would have told my younger self to get her head in the game and make sure she didn't lose you."
"Hindsight tanks," Ron said.
"It so does," Kim agreed. "The Doctor told me that time travel isn't an undo command for our mistakes."
"Or a reset button," Ron interjected.
"Yeah. He asked me some ferociously good questions back then. Where would I stop? And if my actions made things worse, would I keep trying to go back and fix it?"
"Wasn't that the plot of that movie The Butterfly Effect?" Ron asked.
"I don't know," Kim replied. "I never saw it."
"I think it was," Ron told her. "You know, I could put a Ron Stoppable spin on that idea for a cool sci-fi novel."
Kim said. "If you do write that, will I get a mention?"
Ron gave her another lopsided grin. "Sure. Oh, and this apology is definitely accepted."
Kim blinked a few times, then she realized that she had finally given Ron the excuse free apology she had intended to give him aboard the TARDIS.
"Thanks," Kim said with a smile. "This is the best conversation we've had in over ten years."
"I guess time really does wound all heels," Ron said.
Kim couldn't help but laugh. "It's 'heal all wounds,' Hemingway."
"Not according to Groucho Marx."
From across the room, Wade stopped working to watch his two oldest friends. "I really hope this isn't going to be some kind of sick and wrong fake out," he said.
"Sorry?" the Doctor asked as he started wiring the Gallifreyan data core into the housing he and Wade had cobbled together.
"Kim and Ron. They're actually laughing. It's almost like the old days." Wade turned his attention back to the Doctor. "You know what happens to them, don't you? I mean, you're a time traveler! You've probably gone to the future to see where Ron ends up, or at least read his biography."
"I actually haven't," the Doctor said. "I have, however, leafed through Kim's autobiography."
Wade's eyebrows shot up. "She writes an autobiography? When?"
"In about seven years," the Doctor said. He decided not to mention that it was written in response to a rather libelous tell all about her that would be published a year before that. "She'll dedicate it to her husband and their first child. And no, Wade, I'm not telling you who she's going to marry. I can't be sure you'll be able to keep the secret."
"That is so unfair," Wade groused.
The Doctor set the nascent device on the worktable. "Wade, there are a million ways their lives, and yours, can go. Me revealing that your papers will become part of standard STEM curricula doesn't change the course of your life. Those papers have already been published. I was just giving you a sneak preview of what your peers will think about your work.
"As for Kim and Ron, the story of their lives is still being written. Their futures aren't a fixed point in time. Their destinies could still be changed. All it would take is some future knowledge that could accidentally make them choose a different path. Even something as simple as turning right instead of left."
Wade looked back over at Kim and Ron. "They've both suffered."
"I understand, Wade, believe me, I understand. We have to trust them to make the decisions that are best for them."
"They didn't do that ten years ago," Wade protested.
"Debatable," the Doctor said. He saw the incredulous look on Wade's face. "I'm not taking about Kim's infidelity or Ron's decision to cut ties. I'm talking about the decisions they made after that. Kim was able to become part of UNIT's leadership, and Ron found his calling as an author. I admit, when I first met him, I didn't realize he was the same Ron Stoppable who would write several dozen bestsellers, and who will go on to be quite beloved in the future. That revelation made me look into his life, as well as Kim's, which led me to her autobiography. If it's any consolation, she'll devote an entire chapter to the impact you have on her life."
That gave Wade a small grin. "Thanks. It's just, I always thought I'd be helping their kids with science projects by now. It feels like, I don't know, like they got cheated."
"They'll be fine, Wade," the Doctor said. "As long as we do our job and get this new Zygon detector finished, that is. Now, let's get back to work."
Reed was pacing around like a caged animal. His strike team was assembled and waiting for the all clear, but that would require the Doctor getting his act together and finishing that stupid machine.
Reed hated being here. He didn't mind the United States, but he hated being anywhere that his ex had authority over him. He especially hated the fact that Stoppable was here. Reed didn't hate many people, but he hated Ron Stoppable with a passion. Reed could feel his heart rate increasing and his palms beginning to sweat. He was in full fight or flight mode, and he desperately wanted to fight. Stoppable was a loser, and all Reed needed to do was take him down a few pegs to prove it.
He was on his way to the lab where Wade and the Doctor were wasting everyone's time when he saw Stoppable strolling out the lab door without a care in the world. "Hey! Stoppable!" Reed bellowed. "I've got a bone to pick with you!"
Ron took a deep breath to center himself. He could tell from Reed's body language that he was aching for a fight. "Place, I'm telling you, dude, you don't want to do this."
"Reed, stop it!" Kim exclaimed. She was just coming out of the lab when she heard Reed shouting at Ron. She was about to get physically involved when Ron held up a hand to stop her.
"That's where you're wrong, Ronnie-boy. I really do want to do this," Reed sneered.
"What is your damage?!" Ron demanded. "You won! Kim chose you! She left me for you! Why are you trying to get clobbered?"
Reed sneered at Ron. "Yeah, right. Like you could take me in a fight! You're a keyboard jockey and I'm a soldier. You live in a fantasy world whilst I'm out there keeping this planet safe from alien threats! I hate you, Stoppable. I didn't win. You want to know why? It's because she," he pointed at Kim, "kept whining about you being a coward and not talking to her!"
"I talked to her," Ron said calmly. He looked over at Kim. "She just didn't like what I had to say."
Kim closed her eyes. He was right. She didn't like what he'd had to say.
"Then she brought you back into our flat!" Reed spat. "The top shelf of our bookcase had your name all over it! Anytime you vomited a bunch of words onto the printed page and called it a novel, that's where it went! I didn't win. If I had, then your books wouldn't have been sullying my home!"
"Whatever, dude." Ron turned to leave, but Reed grabbed his shoulder again.
"Not so fast, writer boy!"
Ron took Reed's hand off his shoulder. "Don't. Touch. Me," he growled.
"Or what?" Reed said with a sneer. "Is the little weakling gonna lose his trousers at me? I'm an elite UNIT commando, Stoppable, and you're nothing but a pretend tough guy writing stories about bigger losers than you. Besides, you couldn't lay a finger on me if you tried!"
"Last warning, Place," Ron said. His voice was grim and his face serious. "Back. Off."
"You owe, me, Stoppable, and it's time for you to pay up," Reed said. "Kim's brothers hated me and her father gave me the cold shoulder, all because I wasn't you. Her mum was nicer, but told me that you'd been part of the family for thirteen years when you and Kim split, and despite that, you would always be part of the family! How was I supposed to compete with that?"
"You still won," Ron said calmly.
"I should have! I'm stronger than you, better looking, richer! We Places are multi-billionaires, whereas you are worth a couple hundred million. Only an idiot gives that much money away, Stoppable. I did Kim a favor when I snatched her away from you. She was with a real man now, not some sniveling coward who ran away from everything!
"You want to know why I did it?" Reed asked. "Why I stole your girl? It's because I was saving her from mediocrity! I was saving her from settling for someone lesser, and trust me, Stoppable, you are so much lesser than me! You weren't man enough to keep Kim interested, you weren't man enough to fight for her, and you certainly weren't man enough to talk to her after she showed you the door! Well, now you're going to face a real man!"
Reed launched himself at Ron, swinging for his nose. Ron ducked, and Reed stumbled. As soon as he regained his footing, Reed kicked at Ron's midsection, but it was blocked. Then he threw punches at Ron's head, which were swatted away.
"Fight me!" Reed shrieked. "Come on, tough guy! Be a man and fight me!"
"You don't want that, Place," Ron said calmly.
Reed let out a feral roar and charged at Ron, who grabbed him and used Reed's own momentum to flip him over. Reed landed flat on his back. Ron wasn't even breathing heavy.
"This isn't gonna end well for you, dude," Ron warned.
"Reed, that's enough!" Kim exclaimed.
"Not till loser-boy here is bleeding on the floor and begging for mercy, Kim," Reed growled, as he struggled to his feet.
"Ron, don't hurt him," Kim pleaded. She knew who the better fighter was, and it wasn't Reed.
"Like he could," Reed said derisively. He went on the attack again, throwing a series of punches at Ron's head, all of which were either blocked or avoided.
Ron remembered when Toshimiru was fighting Tolkran, and how his predecessor let his opponent tire himself out. That's what Ron was doing now. Besides, Reed Place wasn't worth the exertion. Ron wasn't even tapping into the mystical monkey power. He was relying on his training instead.
"Come on!" Reed bellowed. "Fight me, you bloody coward! Loser! Buffoon!"
"Better people than you have called me those names," Ron said calmly.
Reed charged at Ron, who sidestepped the attack. Reed almost ran headlong into the wall. He staggered around, his shoulders heaving as he fought for breath. "Gonna… rip you… apart…" he panted.
"Hey, Place," Ron said, "remember when you told me I'd never lay a finger on you?" He stalked up to Reed, poked a finger into his chest, and gently pushed. The UNIT commando fell on his butt. Ron smirked as he looked down at the other man. "I beat you without throwing a punch. Boo and yah!" With that, Ron turned and walked back into the lab.
Kim came over to Reed and gave him a sad look. "You really did it this time. Your career is well and truly over. You used your parents' influence to survive the reprimands for drinking on the job and for sleeping with a subordinate, but attacking a civilian is what's going to end you."
"No proof…" Reed struggled to say. "You have no proof. My word against his."
"And mine. And," Kim pointed to the cameras on the walls, "the base's security system." She got on her Kimminicator. "Wade, I need security to my location. Reed's under arrest."
She looked at her ex with sad eyes. "What happened to you, Reed? You weren't like this before." Reed didn't answer.
"I'm sorry, Kim," Kate said. Kim had called her right after Reed was thrown in the brig. "His was the only strike team that could immediately mobilize. What a mess."
"Understatement," Kim said.
"You haven't dealt with Harv and Annie Place," Kate told Kim, "they throw money at any trouble their son got into, and they're the textbook example of litigious. They'll no doubt want to sue Ron for damages."
"Actually, I have dealt with them," Kim said. "They didn't like me all that much. They thought I was some kind of a gold digger. And my mom so didn't like the fact that she had the same first name as Reed's mother. As for a lawsuit, all Ron did was flip Reed when he was attacked, and then poke him in the chest. Ron didn't hit Reed once, and we have video proof. They can sue Ron to their hearts' content, but it so won't do any good. Then Ron can sue them."
"That would be nice to see," Kate agreed. "A little comeuppance. For now, though, we have other problems. We have a strike team with no commander."
"Who is Reed's second?"
"Sergeant Heath," Kate replied.
Kim groaned. "Of course it would be her. This is so ferociously messed up." The woman Reed left Kim for was now in command of the strike team. "This could be a bigger mess than Reed being charge."
"You're in command of that facility, Kim, meaning Heath and her people need to follow your orders. If they refuse, they can sit in cells adjoining that of their commanding officer."
Kim rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Maybe we should just go without the strike team. Have them on standby in case the Doctor's machine doesn't work." Silently she added, Maybe we should go with Ron's bait idea.
Before going to talk to Gretchen, Kim went to the brig to confront Reed. He was standing in his cell, leaning against the wall. "I wondered which of you would come torment me first," he said. "I should've known it'd be you. Stoppable's too spineless to come here."
Kim rubbed her temples. This was giving her such the headache. "I don't get you," she said. "You pursued me, even though you knew I had a boyfriend. In fact, that made you pursue me more! Then, like an idiot, I let you catch me."
"That was the only smart thing you did," Reed groused. He finally looked at her. "People like us, we take what we want, and I wanted you. Kim Possible! The girl who could do anything! I fully intended to have a life with you. Marriage, kids, the whole deal. I thought you wanted the same thing, especially after you finally cut loose that misfit you wasted your life on. Only, you never really did cut him loose, did you? He was always there, festering like a boil! You never really let him go. You held on out of some misplaced sense of loyalty!"
"Right, 'loyalty'," Kim growled. "I was so loyal to him that I was seeing you behind his back. You're right, though. I didn't let him go. I still loved him. Part of me always will. Just like, for reasons that are so beyond me, part of me still loves you, despite the way you betrayed me!
"That's what I don't get," Kim continued. She was finally going to get answers. "We were drifting apart, I understand that. The long assignments away from each other so didn't help, but that wasn't the whole problem. You'd been drinking heavily for years! And any time I begged you to get help, you gaslighted me! It was my problem, not yours. You even had the audacity to accuse me of being jealous of you because I'm such the lightweight! Oh, and you physically attacked me!"
Reed turned away. "Not your concern anymore."
"Probably not," Kim agreed. "What is my concern is you attacking a civilian! Ron did nothing to you!"
"He totally did!" Reed exploded, charging at the clear partition of his cell. He barely stopped in time before running face first into it. "He was always there! His stupid books were on our shelf! You'd stay up at night reading his drivel, and why?! Because you felt guilty? Tell me that, Kim! Why?"
"I was feeling guilty," Kim agreed, "but more than that, I was so proud of him! This is the man who avoided reading whenever he could! The only book I know of that he went out of his way to read was Martin Smarty's autobiography! And he hated creative writing! The highest grade I can remember him ever getting on a writing assignment was when he wrote 'The Naked Mole Rap!' More than that, it was me being able to have a peak into what he was doing. Those books were little pieces of himself that he was sharing with the world.
"You called Ron a coward, and he's so not! What coward would put himself out there the way he's done seven times now? People could read his work and hate it! Critics could pan it! And they did with that mystery he wrote, but he came right back with a horror novel that scared me so bad it made me sleep with the lights on for a month!"
Kim took a breath and slowly let it out. "Ron is one of the bravest men I know. And he's got the biggest heart. He forgave me for what I did to him, and now, I'm going to pay that forward. I forgive you, Reed, for betraying me. Life's too short to hold onto that much anger, so I forgive you. Who knows, maybe one day soon I'll be able to forgive myself for hurting Ron the way I did."
Kim turned to leave. "So that's it then?" Reed asked. "You've had your say and you're going to just leave me here? I thought you wanted to know why I took up with Gretchen?"
"I do," Kim admitted, "but it wouldn't change anything. It's over and done with. You'll be going back to HQ after this sitch is over. I doubt even your parents' money will save you this time."
Reed growled. "It's because I'm my father's son! My dad stole my mum from her first husband! Then he cheated on her. I found that out a few months before the first of Stoppable's literary abominations was forced on the world!
"Wouldn't you know, the prenups both of my parents signed to protect their respective family fortunes are so airtight, they'd both be out hundreds of millions of pounds if they divorce. So they're stuck with each other, even though they hate each other now! That's why I started drinking! It made things make sense! As for Gretchen, her family's almost as rich as mine, whereas your parents, although more than well off, are paupers compared to us!"
Kim shook her head. "You need help, Reed. Seriously, when you get back to London, make use of the base psychiatrists. You so need it. I'm sorry about what's happening with your 'rents. That is beyond messed up, but it's not an excuse for making my life miserable. And for the record, I so don't care about your money! I would have signed whatever prenuptial agreement you wanted if we had gotten married. I loved you, not your wealth. I think your whole family loves that wealth more than each other."
When Kim walked out of the brig into the main corridor, she found Ron waiting for her. "You okay?" he asked.
"I will be," she said. She let out a sad laugh. "I forgave him. I thought it would make me feel better, but it hasn't yet."
"Give it time," Ron said. "Maybe you just need a plate of nachos! That's when I finally started to feel better."
Kim smiled. "I've so missed you."
Ron returned her smile. "Right back atcha." Ron opened his arms and approached her. Kim, on instinct, melted into his embrace and rested her head on his shoulder.
"Thank you," she said, "for being here."
Ron said nothing. He just enjoyed feeling Kim in his arms again. Head in the game, Stoppable, he said to himself. Emotions are running high. We're just comforting each other. That's it!
Kim was having similar thoughts. Don't look too much into this. It's been ten years since you've seen each other, not to mention the fact that it hasn't even been a year since Rita left him. Nothing is going to happen. No matter how much you want it to.
When Kim walked into the conference room, Gretchen was already there. Gretchen Heath hadn't changed much in the last few years; her hair was still short, and she was just as muscular as before. No, the changes were in demeanor. She was standing taller and had a bit of an arrogant swagger.
"Where's the lieutenant?" Gretchen demanded.
"In the brig," Kim answered. "He attacked a civilian without provocation."
Gretchen huffed. "The civilian was probably that idiot author. If that's the case, it's provocation enough."
"Look, Sergeant Heath, your commanding officer is locked up, which means you're in charge of your team. I need to know that you'll follow my orders in the field."
Gretchen stalked up to Kim and got in her face. "Why would I do that?"
Kim didn't back down. Yes, this woman had a lot more muscle mass and more raw strength, but Kim knew how to use that against her opponent. She was already figuring out which kung-fu style would work better to take Gretchen down.
"I'm in charge of this branch, Sergeant," Kim said calmly. "That means while you're here, you're under my command. If you don't like it, take your team back to the transport and get out of here! You were sent here to do a job. If you refuse to do that job, you can leave!"
Gretchen sauntered over to Kim. She held her left hand up, showing off the diamond ring on her finger. "See this? It means I'll be Gretchen Place sooner rather than later. You never got one of these."
Kim was surprisingly calm. "Congratulations," she said. "That doesn't change the fact that you have two choices: follow my orders or leave."
"We'll be leaving then," Gretchen replied. "With my fiancé."
"He stays," Kim told her. "Until I hear different from HQ, Reed is going to be our guest here in Denver."
Gretchen snarled and got in Kim's face. "Not an option, Kim. Do you really think you have what it takes to stop me from leaving with Reed?"
Kim didn't take the bait. She remained calm and loose, but ready just in case she needed to act. "Think about your next move very carefully, Gretchen," Kim said in an even tone. "Your fiancé is already in the brig for attacking a civilian. See what happens if you make a go at me. Backing off now would be such the smart move."
Gretchen sneered. "I never understood what Reed ever saw in you."
"And I don't understand what I saw in him," Kim replied. "Here are two pieces of free advice. Lose the attitude before it gets you in a world of trouble, and be careful with Reed. He cheated on me, so he may do the same to you."
"'Once a cheater always a cheater,' eh? The same could be said about you."
"Get your team, get back on the transport, and get off my base."
"And if I refuse?" Gretchen asked flippantly.
"You'll be in the next cell over from Reed," Kim told her.
Gretchen laughed. "Reed said you were full of yourself, I just never knew you were this delusional. I can take you with one hand tied behind my back!"
With that, Gretchen threw a punch at Kim's face, which was caught. Kim used Gretchen's momentum to get the taller woman in a hold with her arm painfully behind her back, and Kim's free arm tightly around Gretchen's neck. She was screaming bloody murder as she felt her shoulder threatening to dislocate. "How did you do that?!"
"I know sixteen forms of kung-fu, remember?" Kim was glad her Kimmimicator was voice activated. "Wade, I need security to the conference room. Sergeant Heath is under arrest now. And inform the strike team's third in command that they can either do what I say, or head for home. I so don't have time for this garbage."
Kim met the Doctor and Wade at the hangar where the hypersonic transport was currently housed. Nine heavily armed people were filing aboard the oblong craft. "Seems like a waste of fuel," Wade observed. "They came all the way from England, and now we're sending them right back. Without their commanders."
"It's a mess," Kim agreed.
"Better to have them out of our way," the Doctor added. "I get the feeling they're more loyal to Lieutenant Place than to UNIT."
"They are," a woman in black combat fatigues and a red beret said. She had her gear slung over her shoulder. "Sergeant Pamela Mazing reporting, ma'am." She saluted Kim.
"Not that I'm not happy to have some help, Sergeant, but why are you breaking ranks?" Kim asked.
"I have my priorities straight, Chief Possible," Pam said. She was older than Reed and Gretchen, and looked like she had more missions under her belt than anyone currently serving. "My loyalties are to the planet, not to my commanders." She grinned. "And, I admit, I have a personal reason for coming along."
"Oh?" Kim asked. "What would that be?"
"I was at the Undergallery when the last incursion happened," she said before turning to the Doctor. "There were three of you there. One with a bow tie, one with a pinstriped suit, and one who looked like he'd been through never ending torture."
The Doctor scrutinized her. "It's good to have you here, Sergeant, but I don't really remember you."
"Call me Pam," she said. "And that's not surprising. There was a lot going on that day."
Kim motioned for Pam to walk with her. "We need all the help we can get. And if anyone gives you any grief about not going with your squad mates, I'll speak up on your behalf."
"Thank you, Chief Possible."
"It's Kim. I don't stand on ceremony. Now, let's see what we can do about our little Zygon problem."
Another chapter down. Sorry for the delay, but I had a couple of other projects that have needed my attention. I'm actually keeping a few chapters ahead in terms of writing, but the editing also takes time.
It may seem like Reed got off easy, but there's still more story to tell, and this isn't the last we'll hear from him. Just keep in mind that there are other ways to reap what you've sown other than a well deserved butt kicking.
And then there's Pam Mazing. What's her deal? Let's just say she has her reasons, and they're good ones.
Come back next time as our heroes start the search for Tolkran.