VIII.

A couple of hours later, Bonnie threw down the magazine that she had been reading in frustration. She and Ronald had tried to pass the time with a bit of conversation as they awaited the doctor's results, but with out them brining up topics they didn't want to talk about there wasn't a whole lot to talk about. Eventually, they had both started reading magazines, but even that couldn't completely take Bonnie's mind off of things.

"What's wrong?" Ronald asked.

"Ughh. I can't stand this waiting."

"I know it's tough, but you need to relax and not get yourself too worked up. You're still recovering, you know."

Bonnie shot him a dirty look but then quickly softened her gaze. "I know that. But I'm worried. What if I'm no longer able to have children?"

Before Ronald could say anything though Bonnie continued, "If I'm no longer able to have children, it will be my fault. That's what's bugging me the most. I want to know if this is my fault."

"What do you mean?"

"The scarring in my uterus that they discovered when the docs operated on me, it's what put me in the hospital in the first place."

"But the doc said that was due to internal bleeding." Ronald countered.

"Caused by a reopened injury." Bonnie said, cutting him off. Then, taking a deep breath, Bonnie knew that she needed to tell Ronald the truth about how she had received her injury.

"Ronald, when you first met me at the diner, I was looking pretty rough, wasn't I? Did you ever wonder why I looked that way?"

The nodding of her boyfriend's head told her she could continue her story.

"I hadn't had a decent meal or decent place to sleep in over a week. I had absolutely no money to my name, zero. I had spent it all the previous week to get a cheap hotel and some," Bonnie stopped for a moment as she considered her words, "Some stuff that I needed. I had to do that because…. Well, you know why, because I was pregnant and I needed to abort it. I did a back alley abortion on myself with a coat hanger, and that's how I ended up hurt, and now I might not be able to ever have children. And I finally found someone I wouldn't mind having children with." Bonnie explained as she broke down into tears.

Ronald was shocked by Bonnie's story. He knew she had had it rough prior to them meeting. Heck Bonnie had told him as much the night that Tara had come to visit, but he didn't realize just how rough. Now, she was facing the possibility that her actions from one night would be saddling her with lifelong consequences. However, a small part of Ronald was also surprised at Bonnie's rather brazen comment about wanting to have children with him. Unfortunately, that conversation would have to wait for another time. For now, as Bonnie continued to sob, Ronald wrapped his arms around her and began to gently rock her as he tried to soothe and comfort the woman.

"Shhh, it's ok, Bonnie. It's ok. I'm here for you, no matter what."

Ronald also mentally made a note that now was not the best time to tell Bonnie about Ron vs. Ronald. That conversation would also have to wait for another day.

"But it's not fair." She sobbed, "I did things I'm not proud of, I know. But why do I have to be punished like this?"

"No one is punishing you, Bonnie. Besides, the doctor might come in and say that you're healthy and everything will be all right."

"Do you promise?"

Ronald hesitated for a second before answering, "No, I can't say I can promise that. But I can promise you that no matter what, I will be here for you, Bonnie. No matter what."

Bonnie buried her face even deeper in to the Ronald's chest as he continued to gently rock her.

Meanwhile, outside of the recovery room, Nurse Shelia turned to the OBGYN doctor, "We need to give them a little time. Maybe you should come back in about half an hour."

IX.

After the OBGYN doctor had given her assessment of Bonnie's condition, Ronald had continued to hold and soothed his girlfriend for some time until she had gently pushed him away.

"Thank you, Ronald. I'm feeling a lot better now."

"That's good."

However, their conversation was then interrupted by a knock on the door as a familiar doctor poked his head into the room. "Mrs. Rockwaller?"

"I would rather you call me Bonnie." A chagrined Dr. Antonuci was chastised.

"Sorry, Bonnie, but I have some good news for you. Based on your charts, it looks as if you can be discharged tomorrow, assuming that you are feeling up to it.

"I'm feeling pretty good right now. Is there any way you can discharge me tonight?"

"Sorry Bonnie, but I'm afraid not. As a doctor, it would be against my professional opinion to do so."

"Well, I tried." Bonnie said as she squeezed Ronald's hand.

"But I do have some good news. I pulled a few strings and got the hospital to agree to absorb the vast majority of the cost of your stay here."

"You did?" Bonnie asked in surprise.

"Yes, I did. Bonnie, I'm a friend of your mother, but I'm also your friend. I feel bad for the way things turned out between you and your mother. If I had known how estranged you two have become, I wouldn't have asked her to come here to see you. This is just sort of my way of saying I'm sorry. Besides, it wasn't that hard to convince the hospital board to absorb the costs. Apparently, Dr. Possible had already made the same recommendation to the governing board."

"Why would she do that?" Bonnie asked.

"Well, I sort of ran into her, and I explained that my girlfriend was here, so I guess she took pity on me." Ronald offered.

Bonnie didn't entirely buy Ronald's story, but considering how expensive her hospital stay could have been, she wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

X.

After their conversation with Dr. Antonuci Ronald was finally forced to leave as visiting hours were over, and both he and Bonnie needed their rest. Returning to his apartment that night, Ronald found it difficult to sleep as he had become used to sharing the night with his roommate. The next day, Ronald was at the hospital as soon as visiting hours started to see if they would discharge Bonnie. Much to both of their relieves, Bonnie was found well enough to be discharged from the hospital that day, and by noon, the two were on their way back to Lowerton.

XI.

Letting out a deep sigh, Ronald finished the glass of water and placed it in the diner's dishwasher. Looking at the clock on the wall, he saw that it was after five already, and he was done setting things up for tomorrow. Locking up the diner for the night, Ronald was eager to get back home to get some rest and to be with Bonnie.

Unlocking the door to the apartment, Ronald made his way to the bedroom to check on Bonnie and found her asleep. He could also see by the tissues lying next to her that she had been crying while he had been gone. Gently closing the door, Ronald went back to the kitchen to get something to eat. Staring at the contents of the fridge for several moments, he finally settled on just having a beer for dinner. Flopping down on the couch, Ronald flipped on the TV and began to nurse his beer as he waited for Bonnie to wake up.

Half an hour later, Bonnie came out of the bedroom. "Ronald, how long have you been home?"

"About half an hour. I saw you were still asleep, so I decided to let you rest."

"Thank you. I guess I needed it more than I thought. I don't even remember falling asleep."

"Yeah, I guess you did."

Sitting down next to her boyfriend, Bonnie leaned her head against his shoulder and, in a matter of moments, was soon drifting off to sleep again. The next time she awoke, Bonnie found herself lying on the couch and being gently shaken by Ronald.

"Bonnie, wake up, dear. Here I made us some dinner."

"I fell asleep again?"

"Yeah, pretty quick too. I guess you just felt more comfortable leaning next to me."

Bonnie, who now that she had food in front of her, was quite aware of how hungry she was, simply nodded her head as she dug into her dinner.

Twenty minutes later, Bonnie, who had insisted that she could carry the empty dishes to the kitchen sink, let out a large yawn, a yawn that was mimicked by Ronald

"If you're tired, why don't you go to bed?" Ronald asked.

"I am tired, but I don't want to go to bed alone. I want to go to bed with you." Bonnie answered, "Oh, and don't worry, I cleaned up the tissues out of the bed."

Ronald frowned a little at her words but didn't say anything. He knew Bonnie was having a hard time dealing with what the doctors had told her at the hospital. After reviewing all of their tests and examinations in their medical opinion, Bonnie had about a one percent chance of ever being able to conceive and have children. He had, both physically and metaphorically, offered his shoulder for her to cry on, and cry she had, but it just didn't seem like anything he said or did could bring Bonnie out of her depression. So Ronald was surprised when as soon as they had crawled in to bed together that Bonnie had wrapped her arms around him.

"Ronald, I know I've been kind of depressed lately, and I know you've been trying to cheer me up. I just want to say thank you."

"Sure, Bonnie," Ronald said as he returned her embrace, "I've…."

"Shhh." Bonnie said as she placed a finger to his lips. "Just hold me. That's all I need from you right now. We can deal with anything else tomorrow."

I.

The next day, after a good night's sleep and over a delicious breakfast, Bonnie told Ronald that she felt well enough to work with him at the diner.

"Are you sure you up to this Bonnie?" Ronald asked.

"Yes, I'm sure. I'll take it easy, I promise, and if I get tired I can go and rest in the back office. Besides, I don't feel like spending another day rotting my brain on TV."

"OK, I'm just happy that you're feeling better."

"You mean you're not happy to get to spend the day with me?" Bonnie teased, giving him a playful stare.

"Oh I am," Ronald said as he gently embraced his girlfriend and brought her close for a kiss, "But remember the nurse at the hospital said that I need to take it easy since you're still recovering."

Bonnie pouted slightly, "Just a few more days." She said playfully, "I promise to be gentle right back."

Despite the PG-13 teasing, they were both happy with the prospect of getting to spend the day with each other, even if it was while at work.

The diner was busy that day, and the couple got to spend less time together than they hoped. Finally, after the last customer had left and the diner was locked up for the night; they had a chance to sit down to dinner and talk.

"Man, the diner was busy today. You would think people actually missed me or something."

"Nah, they just missed your great cooking." Bonnie replied as she took a bite of dinner.

"Oh, that's not nice." Ronald retorted.

"Hey, remember who you're talking to here, I'm known for not always being nice. Besides, I can at least understand why you were so busy cooking and helping to clear tables all day. People missed your cooking and wanted to get some while they could. But what I don't understand is how so much paperwork can build up over just a few days."

"Now you know why the office looked like the disaster that it did." Ronald supplied, "But at least you won't have to worry about that tomorrow since we'll be taking the day off to have dinner with my family."

"Are you sure you still want me to come?" Bonnie asked, "I know I'm your girlfriend, but we haven't been together that long. I don't want to take away from your time with your family."

"Bonnie, I want nothing more than to have you come over for dinner and to meet my family. Besides, what are you going to do? Sit here and try to rot your brain on Trash Heap TV again?" He joked.

"No. But it's just that you've seen how dysfunctional my family is and how bad my relationship with them is." Bonnie paused as she let out a sigh, "I don't want to cause any strife with your family."

"And you won't, Bonnie. Trust me, my folks and sister want to meet you."

"OK." Bonnie said, snuggling up against her boyfriend a bit. "Tell me about this sister of yours. I never knew you had one."

"She's not my biological sister. My folks adopted her my senior year of high school."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously." Ron suddenly paused.

"What?"

"I just thought of Motor Ed..."

"Who?"

"Never mind, another time, another place, many missions ago."

"Oh," She responded, knowing the less talk about Kim, the better.

"But if you start stuffing your face with hoagie sandwiches, then I will be concerned. Getting back to my sister, at first I didn't like her, and it took a while for me to warm up to her, but now she's one hundred percent family." He paused once again, grinning at the brunette. "Sort of like you."

"That's just wrong comparing your girlfriend to your sister. Fraud would have a thing or two to say about that." Bonnie said as she pulled away from Ronald and playfully smacked him on the shoulder. "But if you really do insist on taking me to meet your family, then I would like to pick up some nicer clothes to wear when I meet them."

As the two continued to chat over their dinner; and the night wore on; Ronald considered telling Bonnie the truth about who he really was. It was something that needed to be done, and the sooner, the better. But the thought of doing so scared him. Both he and Bonnie had been through a lot lately, and she was already nervous about meeting his family, and he didn't want to put extra stress on her.

Later that night as the young couple snuggled up in bed, Ronald decided that the best time to tell Bonnie about himself, his brother Ron, and Kim, would be after she had meet his parents and seen that they accepted her. Maybe he would even wait until after dinner and a couple of glasses of wine.

II.

The next day, at the brunette's insistence, the two went shopping for some new clothes. As far as Ronald was concerned, she looked fine, and his family would accept her as is. But Bonnie wasn't feeling as confident and felt she needed a set of nice clothes to make a good impression. Bonnie had to admit that it was sometimes hard to resist her impulse to go for the expensive latest fashions simply because they were new. But she managed, despite Ronald's insistence that she could pick out something pricier if looking nice meant that much to her, to stick to choosing from the more sensibly priced fashions from last year. A couple of hours later, the two had finally found a nice-looking dress that was a compromise between looks and cost that the two could agree on.

As they rode back to their apartment, Bonnie continued to wonder how Ronald was able to afford her new dress. After her recent trip to the hospital, surely Ronald must be drowning in debt? As she thought this over, she remembered something that Dr. Antonici had said that Dr. Possibly had also convinced the hospital to cover most of the cost of her stay. While Bonnie wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth, she still wondered why Dr. Possible had done that.

"Ronald, I want to ask you something." Bonnie asked softly.

"Um, OK, what is it?" Ronald was concerned about where this might be headed.

"At the hospital before I was discharged, you said that you ran into Mrs. Possible, and she took pity on you. That's why she helped convince the hospital to cover the cost of my hospitalization."

"Yeah, that's right. Why do you ask?"

"I just find it weird that she would do that for you. It's not like you and Kim are still together."

"No, but she does consider me to be family, no matter what my relationship with Kim is."

"And what is your relationship with Kim?"

Ronald paused for a second as he considered how to best answer that. Fortunately for him, Bonnie saved him from her own question.

"It's OK Ronald, you don't have to answer that... But I did notice that you took down most of the pictures you had of her in the apartment. When I first saw all those pictures you had, I thought that you were still pretty hung up on her."

"He he, yeah, I guess I kind of was still hung up on Kim more than I wanted to admit."

"And are you still hung up on her? I know you two were best friends for like forever."

"No, I'm over her now. Besides, it just seemed a little weird to have all those pictures of her now that we're dating." Ronald then turned and smiled at Bonnie, "But I guess I can always replace them with pictures of you. Maybe we can play fashion shots when we get home and you show me your new dress." He said with a slightly devilish grin.

"Down boy, don't want you to get too worked up before we get to your parents' place."

III.

Later that afternoon, Ronald's old Pontiac pulled into a peaceful neighborhood that was a suburb of Middleton and home to the Stoppables. Bonnie had been mostly quiet during the ride and had become even more so the closer they got to their destination. Making one final turn, the car came to a stop in front of a nice, if somewhat lower middle class looking, house.

Ronald got out and went to the other side of the car before he noticed that Bonnie hadn't moved from her seat.

"Are you OK?" Ronald asked as he opened Bonnie's door.

"Ronald, I'm scared," Bonnie admitted as she climbed out of his car.

Ronald looked at his girlfriend and smiled. He already knew that she was scared, by how quickly and strongly she had latched on to his hand when he had offered it to her during their trip to Middleton. Plus, the fact that she had told him twice during the course of the day.

"It's OK, you don't need to be." Ronald reassured her as he reached for her hand.

"But what if they judge me?"

"They won't. They already know that we're living together. Besides, my folks aren't that old fashioned."

"I didn't mean about that."

"No, they won't judge you about anything else either."

"What anything else?" She asked, "How much have you told them about me?"

"I told them about how we met; that you had been staying with me and that you were in the hospital, but not everything."

"So they don't know about…" Bonnie finished the question by gesturing towards her abdomen.

"No, they don't. But even if they did, they wouldn't judge."

"Promise?" Bonnie asked in an almost pleading tone.

"Promise." He said as he pulled her in for a small but reassuring kiss before continuing to the front door.

As the couple approached the door, Bonnie was surprised to see it suddenly swing open to reveal a young Asian girl standing there. The girl had to be about six or seven years old, and although she bore no resemblance to Ronald, it did nothing to stop her from racing out and hugging the man she called her brother.

"Hi Hana, it's good to see you again." Ronald said as he pried the young girl from his leg. "Hana, I..." They were playing a little game of 'pull then n'truder off', and it caused Bonnie to smile. "... want you to meet someone. This is Bonnie."

"Oh, your girlfriend."

"Yes, my girlfriend."

"Hi, I'm Hana." The little girl said as she offered her hand towards Bonnie.

"Hi Hana, it's nice to meet you." Bonnie said as she knelt down a little and returned the handshake.

"You're pretty." Hana commented; much to Bonnie's delight; and Ronald's amusement.

Before any other pleasantries could be exchanged, though, they were interrupted by a woman's voice from inside the house.

"Ronald, is that you?"

"Yes, it's me, mom."

"Good, I could use your help in the kitchen for a moment."

"OK, be right there." Turning to his sister Ronald suggested that Hana show Bonnie around while he helped their mom.

"Sure thing!" Hana enthused as she grabbed a hold of Bonnie's hand and began to drag her into the house. "This is the den, and this is the hallway where we keep our family pictures." Hana explained as she continued the tour.

Bonnie only had a chance to glance at some of the pictures as they walked by them. Some of them were of Hana, some of Ronald, some of the family, and a few include both Ronald and Kim. However, before Bonnie could either dwell or more closely examine these, she felt a tug on her hand as her tour guide dragged her along.

"This is the bathroom. But don't use it, Daddy's in there right now." Hana said as she pinched her nose shut.

Bonnie couldn't help but smile at her antics. She was starting too, really like Ronald's little sister, and could see how he had influenced the young girl.

Hana's tour continued for a couple of more minutes before they arrived at the patio in the back of the house. "This is where we like to eat outside. Come on, I want you to meet my brother and sister."

Brother and sister? Bonnie was beginning to wonder just how many siblings Ronald had not told her about as she was dragged along to the backyard by the excited young girl.

IV.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Ronald was removing a tray from the oven as his mother was busy attending to several pots on the stove.

"Thanks for the help, dear. I would have asked Ron to help me, but since you were here…"

"Wait! Are Ron and Kim coming over for dinner, too?"

"Well, why wouldn't they? All of my children are welcome to join us for a Sabbath dinner."

"You could have told me they were coming tonight. I could have warned Bonnie."

"Warned her about what? Do you have a twin brother?"

"Yes! Remember, she doesn't know that I'm a clone, and she doesn't know that's why I'm not with Kim. I haven't told her yet."

"Why should your girlfriend be worried about why you're not with Kim?" Mrs. Stoppable asked.

"Bonnie and Kim never got along in high school, but even then, she knew how much Kim meant to me as a friend. Now that we're dating, Bonnie has become sort of protective of me, and I know she would love to have a long discussion with Kim about how she broke my heart." Ronald then let out a sigh, "I guess I had better go tell her before Kim arrives."

"Oh dear, Kim and Ron are in the backyard."

"What? Their already here? I asked Hana to show Bonnie to the backyard."

"Oh, Ronald, stop overreacting. If Bonnie runs into Kim; it can't be that much of a problem, will it?" Mrs. Stoppable asked. The sudden sound of Bonnie's scream gave her all the answer she needed. "Oh dear."