Kim doubled and checked everything. Bueno Nacho bags full to the brim. Extra sauce. Two liter of Ron's favorite soda. Lots of napkins cause those are a must when that man eats. Oh, and the most important thing... the courage to tell him about her little talk with Ronald.

Well, almost everything was ready, Kim thought with a little grimace. The sound of the front door brought her out of her thoughts. Now or never.

"Babe, does my nose deceive me, or is that Bueno Nacho!" Ron called out from the living room.

Trying to sound as nonchalant as she could, Kim lifted her voice. "In the kitchen. Better hurry before it gets cold."

The whirlwind of food doom that was Ron Stoppable appeared as if by magic beside her. "You are the best wife ever!" kissing her square on the lips with a loud smacking sound before taking a seat at the table and digging into one of the bags.

Kim had wisely set aside her own food already lest she find herself going without. She'd known her husband's eating habits far too long to allow that to happen. Opting to just stand by the counter, she picked at her taco salad, not really hungry herself.

"So how did the meeting go?" she asked, hoping to stave off her own dreaded topic of discussion for at least a little while longer. "Barkin didn't give you any trouble, did he?"

One extra large naco had bravely given its life already, and Ron was well into vanquishing another, but her question made him pause. He chewed the bite of naco slowly while his mind sorted out just how to approach telling Kim about his trip to Lowerton today. The one he'd taken instead of going to a meeting that he'd fabricated in order to make that happen.

Oh boy, this was so not going to be fun. Better just get it over with, he thought.

"Yeah, about that..." he began as he set the remainder of the naco back in its wrapper. "See, the thing is, well... there, ah . . . well, there wasn't a meeting today."

Kim stopped her fork halfway to her mouth. "No meeting?"

"Yeah." Ron gave a nervous chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck as he did.

"So they canceled the meeting and didn't even tell you?" Talk about inconsiderate, Kim thought to herself. She had half a mind to call up Barkin and let him have it. He always worked Ron too hard and never gave him enough praise if you asked her.

Ron saw that she was getting the wrong idea and was just about to head off her train of thought when Kim suddenly switched rails on him.

"Hold on." Sitting her food aside on the counter, Kim crossed her arms and leveled her husband with a shrewd look. "So if there was no meeting, then where have you been all day?"

Gulping hard. "Well, I went to get a burger."

"Took you all day to get a burger?" Kim felt like something just wasn't adding up here.

"Yeah, well, it was in Lowerton." Ron amended sheepishly.

"Why would you drive all the way..." Then it hit her.

Seeing that his wife had just put two and two together, Ron stood and moved towards her. "Now, Kim, before you fly off the handle, let me explain."

She held up a hand to silence him. "Tell me you didn't try to find Ronald." Oh, that would so be a bad idea if he had. Those two couldn't even be in the same room together without wanting to throttle each other.

Rubbing the back of his neck and looking off to the side, he didn't present the most innocent looking visage. "Thing is I didn't have to try and find him." Offering a little grin that said please don't be mad.

Kim thought about it all of two seconds and face palmed. "Wade."

"Bingo!" giving two thumbs up.

Well, this isn't going as planned, Kim thought. Here she'd been ready to tell Ron about her going to talk to Ronald, and it turns out he'd beat her to the punch. Now, all she needed to do was find out just how bad things had gone between the two Stoppables.

"So what happened?" letting out a deep sigh as she waited to hear all the horrid details of what she was sure had to have been par for the course between those two.

"Hey, what's with the tone?" he was sensing that his wife didn't think he could talk with Ronald and not try to throw him through a window. Well, so ok, maybe that's how he normally felt, but this time had been different. He was proud of how he'd handled himself.

"Look, Ron, I'm on your side." rubbing her temples with both hands. "So no matter what went down, I got your back. I'll take care of it."

Smiling proudly, he came to stand in front of her and began rubbing her upper arms. "Not to worry, babe. The Ron man took care of things in his own way." giving her a little wink. "Nothing for you to do."

She highly doubted that, but then again, stranger things had happened. Reaching out, she placed her hands flat on his chest. "You're sure nothing went wrong?" still not entirely convinced.

"Babe, trust me." he assured her as he leaned in to give her a peck on the cheek.

A moment later, he felt her pushing him back with a firm hand on his chest. Her green eyes were staring right at him, and she had this oddly curious look about her.

"Uh oh." Ron squeaked.

"Ok, so let me get this straight." she began in a level voice. "Your meeting got canceled, and so you decided to just call Wade up and have him find Ronald for you. Then you drove all the way to Lowerton, where you not only met up with Ronald, but nothing happened between the two of you." narrowing her eyes. "Nothing at all?"

Ron tried to play everything off with a goofy grin and a wave of his hand, but he could see that Kim was having none of that. He resigned to his fate, he explained. "Yeah, pretty much just like that... except that I never had a meeting, and I just wanted to talk to Ronald on my own. Oh, and we decided to have a little talk with Dr. Director over at Global Justice so we can get some real answers about the whole clone thing." Grinning again at the end, hoping she wouldn't go all Mount Kim and erupt.

Kim was just about to call him out for lying to her, but the little voice in her head cautioned her about going that route, especially when she'd lied about working late so she could go have a talk with Ronald herself. So rather than head into that mine field, she focused on the other two things.

"Since when do you and Ronald have private chats?" she demanded.

Quick with an answer, Ron replied. "Oh, it wasn't private. Bonnie was there, well, at first anyway."

"So you obviously didn't want me there, but Bonnie was just fine?" she couldn't help but feel a little bit put out here.

Holding his hands up to calm her down, Ron tried to smooth things over. "Like I said, she was only there at first. She took her food and went into the office. Ronald and I stayed out in the diner while we ate and had our little talk."

"So it was a whole meal thing too," arching a single brow quite high.

Ron blew out a breath. "See, this was why I wanted to go alone. You're overreacting."

Kim blinked. "Overreacting?" What was he even talking about? "I am not overreacting. Ron, every time you and Ronald get together, I have to play referee."

"Not every time." Frowning.

"Yes, every time." Running a hand through her long red hair. "Like that one time, you almost broke his arm, Ron!" reminding him of the fight a few months back.

Ron turned away from her, walking a few paces across the kitchen, hands on his hips. "Yeah, I know. I was angry, and he was being a jerk."

Kim gave a short snort of a laugh. "No more than you were. Every single time the two of you are around each other, it's like oil and water. You just can't get along."

"We got along just fine today." he countered.

"Really?" her tone expressing her doubt quite clearly.

Turning to face her, Ron felt his blood rising. "Is that so hard to believe?"

"Frankly...yes." she admitted to him with a nod. "I can not believe you went to see Ronald without me. I mean here I was feeling horrible for what I'd done and after the reaming Monique gave me, I thought for sure I'd be doing damage control tonight, but here you go surprising me with this."

"Say what?" Ron asked.

Not catching on to how deep she was stepping into it, Kim being true to her hotheaded nature kept right on going. "I told Monique I had a good reason for not telling you when I was going to talk to Ronald, but there's no reason on earth that I shouldn't be with you when you talk to him. Somebody has to keep you two from ripping each other's heads off after all." sighing long and hard at the end of her little tirade.

Ron let that all sink in and licked the side of his mouth in thought. Then, he began to walk slowly back across the kitchen towards her.

"Hold on a sec." pointing a finger at his wife. "You said you told Monique you had a good reason."

"Yeah, I did." this time her voice was more subdued as she realized that she'd basically flooded the room with what she'd been hoping to say in a rational and calm manner, not as part of a verbal lashing towards her husband.

Looking over at all the Bueno Nacho bags on the table, it all suddenly made sense to Ron. "So you went to talk to Ronald, and you didn't tell me either, huh?" waving his hand at the table full of food. "Let me guess, this was all to bribe me so I wouldn't what... get upset?"

Kim started to form her patented puppy dog pout. "You have to admit that you do get upset whenever anything has to do with Ronald."

Moving even closer to her now, Ron stared right at her. "Oh no, not this time. The PDP isn't going to help you." standing firm, his finger pointed at her again. "So when did you talk to him and where?" he demanded.

Shocked that the PDP had failed her, Kim went on the defensive. "Ok, so maybe when I told you I was working late a while back, I might have gone to Lowerton after getting some help from Wade myself. Is that so wrong?"

"Actually, no, it's not." he said, surprising her with his words.

Ron might not have liked the idea of Kim going off alone to talk to Ronald, but he would have respected her wish to do so. Yes, he might even have gotten jealous about it, but he didn't control her. No, what was starting to upset him right now was the fact that both of them had apparently felt the need to keep things from each other. One of them doing that is a problem, but it can be worked through. However, when both of them were doing it, that hinted at deeper issues.

"What's wrong is that we're lying to each other, Kim. Lying to each other about Ronald." he pointed out.

Ron's mind replayed his chat with his clone from earlier. Ronald! Oh, that's right, he hadn't even told Ron about the fact that Kim had dropped by before. When they were supposed to be clearing the air between them and trying to work things out, he went and kept himself a nice little secret like that. Well, Ron was sure going to let his fake brother know exactly how he felt about that next time he saw him.

Kim recoiled from the accusation. "I'm not lying to you about anything. I'm just late telling you is all." meekly trying to spin things in her favor.

Ron shook his head. "Aw man, it just dawned on me. You told Monique about it." frustrated good and plenty now. "That makes me the third person to even know about you going to talk to him. I should have been the first."

"Well, I wasn't sure you'd have been ok with it." she shot back.

He deflected her words with his own. "Well, now you know I'm a big boy, and I'd have been just fine."

Kim locked onto the other part of what he'd said. "And just what is this about you guys going to Global Justice any way?"

"Just what I said. We're going to get them to help us get some real answers. Something we should have done from the beginning." he said adamantly.

She couldn't believe the two of them could even come up with such a stupid idea. "Ron, you know all GL wants to do is get their hands on Ronald and use him like a lab rat. How can you even consider going to them?"

"I won't let that happen." he was confident in that.

Kim did not share in her husband's confidence. "Really? Ok, so let's say I buy that. What do you mean real answers? We already had you both tested."

Rolling his eyes. "No offense to your mom, but I think we need something a little more than blood work and a physical."

Kim felt like she was being forced into a corner. On the one hand, it did make sense to get some hard evidence about Ron and Ronald, even though she had to admit that some points had been made recently after her talk with Ronald in that regard. However, she couldn't help but feel the need to balk at this idea. Could it be that maybe deep down, she didn't want to know the answers, especially if they weren't in her and Ron's favor?

"You know what...fine." throwing her hands up in the air. "You two just run off to a super secret government agency, and let's hope for the best."

Ron didn't understand where she was coming from on this. She should be happy that he was taking steps to not only get along with Ronald but to help him sort out his life. "Ronald just wants to know that he's got a shot at real life. One he can share with Bonnie. What's wrong with that?"

"Maybe it's like you said, Ron." she fumed with hands clenched at her sides. "We've started lying to each other all of a sudden. It just has me wondering what that means."

Moving towards her again, arms open, he offered her a look of understanding. "Babe, it just means we both have strong feelings about stuff. Couples don't have to agree on everything. They just have to make sure they're on the same page in the long run."

Kim moved to the side, avoiding his embrace and leaving him to stand there feeling awkward.

"Strong feelings or not, I think it would have been best if I'd gone with you." refusing to look his way.

Couldn't he understand that simple fact? Yes, she'd been wrong to lie to him and visit Ronald without Ron knowing about it beforehand, but it wasn't as if she was going to attack him or anything. Ron, on the other hand, could really hurt Ronald if he wanted to use that Mystical Monkey stuff. Somebody had to be there to keep something like that from happening.

Ron was starting to get the feeling that his wife was more worried about Ronald than the fact that he'd gone without her, really. "Do you think I'd try to hurt Ronald? Is that it Kim?"

Bracing a hand to her forehead, she took a deep breath. "Maybe... I don't know. You two just can't get along, and after the last time-"

"Kim, the last time he threw the first punch, and I was just done ok." he snapped. "I put up with a lot of crap since he showed up, and after what happened at the restaurant, I was not going to let you get hurt again."

"I can take care of myself." Kim declared heatedly.

"This isn't a mission, Kim!" his voice rising. "You don't get to call the shots in our marriage like that. I'm not your side kick any more, I'm your husband, and if I want to protect you, then I will." he vowed.

She glared at him, eyes narrowing. "Protect me from what, from who?" she demanded, her own voice rising. "From Ronald?"

"If I have to, yes." Ron wasn't backing down as he faced her.

She felt a derisive chuckle escape her. "Oh my god, do you hear yourself? Ronald wouldn't do anything to me, and besides, even if he tried something, I could take him without breaking a sweat."

Ron closed his eyes, running a hand down his face before wagging a finger at her. "There you go again talking like it's back in the mission days. We don't do that stuff anymore, Kim. You aren't running the show. The only team you need to focus on is us... the couple, not Team Possible. This team only works if we work together as equals."

"Says the guy who didn't want me tagging along today." tossing the words at him like a knife.

"Well, the woman who snuck away to talk to her husband's clone and then brag about it to Monique doesn't have any room to speak." his own words ice cold.

Mouth agape, Kim tried to formulate words for a good few seconds before her anger got the better of her. "I was not bragging! I wanted to get an unbiased opinion of things from Monique. Something you wouldn't know anything about!"

"Let me guess, that didn't work out for you, did it?" Ron was matching his wife's emotional level now. They were feeding off each other. "I bet Mon told you anything but what you wanted to hear, huh? Something like...Hey girl, you better not be lying behind your man's back...so how close am I?"

The fact that he was on the money did nothing to lesson her anger.

"Hey, I can talk to Ronald and not try to kill him, unlike you. So I'd say that going alone isn't nearly as bad as you." gesturing towards him with a wave of her hand.

Ron pointed off in a general direction. "I can go where I want and handle myself just fine. Thank you very much!" Then he closed the distance between them. "Just tell me something, Kim. When you had your little talk with Ronald, what was it about, huh? I know mine was about how he and I needed to get along better. How I wanted us to be more like real brothers for your sake. See, I went to see him because I wanted to make you happy. So tell me what you guys talked about?" looming over her now.

Kim bit back the words that tried to fly from her mouth. How could she say that she'd gone to Ronald in the hopes of getting him back in her life as her best friend? Was there any way that Ron would accept those words and not find fault in them in this moment, considering how riled up they both were? She knew there was just no way anything good would come from that right now.

She placed her hands on his chest and looked up at him with the intent to defuse the situation. "Ron, let's just take a minute and calm down. We're both letting our emotions get the better of us." her voice calm and soothing.

Ron felt a knot rise in his throat. She didn't want to tell him something, and that was so not a good sign. "Yeah, no."

Kim's eyes went wide. "What?"

"Last time we talked about Ronald, you said you loved him." Ron's voice was serious to go along with the serious face he was wearing right now. "Did you go behind my back and tell Ronald all that best friend stuff? Tell me you didn't go to him behind my back with the whole I love you, but it's not the same love as you have for me crap."

She shoved him away from her, now livid. "It's not crap! Why can't anybody understand that? It's real to me, ok? I can't control how I feel about that any more than you or him can about which one of you feels like they are the real Ron Stoppable!" Silent tears began running down her cheeks.

To say Ron was taken aback was an understatement. His wife didn't think of him as her best friend. After spending their entire lives together and finally becoming husband and wife, she still wanted Ronald. He hadn't even existed for two years yet, and she was so sure he was the only one who could be her best friend? Why?

"When did it happen, Kim...huh?" his throat tight, making it hard to speak. "I was always your best friend. Me...not Ronald... I was the one there from day one. Now you can't see me like that anymore? Why am I never enough for you? All through school, I watched you run after every cute guy that even looked your way. Then once I finally had you to myself, I thought...at last, this is it. This is my happy ever after. Then it got even better when you said you'd marry me. You made me the happiest man alive, but then Ronald comes along and...and..." eyes flickering blue Ron lashed out, making a fist that he slammed down on the kitchen counter so hard that it rattled the dishes in the cabinets.

"Ron I-" she covered her mouth with a hand when she saw what he'd done.

Ron locked his dark brown eyes on her. "I'm sorry, but I can't help but feel like Ronald is the latest cute guy to look your way, and it's happening all over again." his accusation cutting her to the core.

Backing a wounded animal into a corner is never a good idea. Ron had unwittingly done just that.

Kim strode with a purpose, going right past her husband and into the living room. She didn't say a word, only started pulling on her long coat. Behind her, Ron followed from the kitchen.

"What are you doing?" asking even as he watched her snatch up her keys.

Pulling her long red hair free of the coat, Kim looked at Ron with wet eyes, but she was done crying. "I think we both need to cool off."

Ron couldn't believe this. "So you're just going to leave? Where are you going?" he demanded, moving as if to get between her and the door.

She saw his intent and froze him in his tracks with nothing more than a look. "Right now, I just don't think either of us can talk to the other without saying something we may regret." taking hold of the doorknob she paused, but didn't look his way. "I'm not leaving. This isn't some dramatic breakup or anything. This is just me needing some time to think."

"Kim, I don't -"

"Ron, you need to cool off too." Kim sniffled. "Trust me on this."

With that, she opened the door and stepped out into the cold evening air.

Ron stood in the house they had bought not long after getting married and felt for the first time like it wasn't a safe refuge from the rest of the world. How had this gotten so out of control he wondered as he headed back into the kitchen to put up the food. For once, even he wasn't in the mood for nacos. Upon entering the kitchen, he halted in his tracks at what he saw.

"Aw man." he groaned as he braced an arm against the door frame.

The kitchen counter where he'd slammed his fist was a ruin of splinters and cracked granite.