I.

Bonnie slowly opened her eyes and blinked a time or two as she finished waking up. Tossing the sheets off of her, she climbed out of bed and drudged toward the bathroom. Arriving at the bathroom, Bonnie looked around and discovered two things, one that she wasn't in Ronald's bathroom. The walls were a dirty white, with the emphasis on the dirty part. In fact, everything else in the room looked rather dirty and generally unkept. After a few seconds Bonnie began to recognize some of the items in the room, there was a sink, a small mirror on the wall behind the sink, a toilet, and a small bathtub which had a missing shower curtain. Bonnie remembered this room, as much as she didn't want to, she remembered it at all. The second thing Bonnie realized was that she was only one foot tall and was standing on the side of the bathtub.

Bonnie's attention was then drawn towards the doorway. There hadn't even been a door on the hinges she recalled of the run-down hotel's bathroom. Walking through the door, her nakedness in full display, a giant sized version of Bonnie was visible to the smaller sized version of herself. In the giant Bonnie's hands were a variety of items which she proceeded to lay out on the cabinet before her, a small bottle of rubbing alcohol, a folded towel, a folded washcloth, a metal rod, and another bottle less than half full of some sort of brownish looking liquid. The tiny version of Bonnie shivered slightly as she recalled how vile tasting the alcohol in the second bottle had been. The smaller version of Bonnie continued to watch as the larger version of herself stepped into the bathtub and turned on the shower. Taking one last long swing of the brown liquid, the larger version of Bonnie then stuffed the rolled up washcloth into her mouth before bending the end of the metal rod into a slight hook The smaller Bonnie knew what was going to happen next and had no desire to watch the event again. She began to yell and scream at the larger Bonnie, pleading, begging her to stop. But the larger Bonnie didn't hear the smaller Bonnie's pleas and continued with what she was doing until bright red blood began to run down her legs and mix with the water as it swirled down the drain.

"No, stop, stop it, STOP!" The smaller Bonnie screamed until the real Bonnie suddenly bolted up right in bed and broke down crying.

"Bonnie, are you alright?" Ronald asked worriedly from the other side of the bedroom door, "Bonnie, answer me. Are you ok?"

Bonnie, through both the dark and tear filled eyes, looked towards the door that was keeping Ronald outside of the room. For a moment, Bonnie was torn as she debated just how much she was willing to let him in.

"Bonnie?" Ronald asked again. During the past few days He had seen Bonnie depressed and in tears a number of times, but this sounded worse than before. "I heard you call out and start crying."

"I'm fine." Bonnie lied, "I just had a bad dream, is all."

"Nightmare more like it." Ronald countered, "You sure you're ok? I'd be willing to listen if you want to talk about it."

"No, thank you." Bonnie said monotonely.

"I can sit with you a while if you want."

Bonnie slowly shook her head even though Ronald could not see it. "Thank you, Ronald, but no. It was just a bad dream. It's over now." With that, Bonnie lay back down in Ronald's bed and pulled the blanket all the way up to her neck as if she was trying to either hide or protect herself from something unseen. "Ronald, please go back to bed, I'll be fine."

"You sure?"

"Damn it, Ronald, I don't want to talk about it." Bonnie snapped as she sat up in the bed but still held the sheets around her. "It was about something I did that I'm not proud of." She explained in a dejected voice.

"Ok, Bonnie. I'm here if you need me. Goodnight and pleasant dreams." Ronald said as he gently went on the door behind him and returned to his couch to try to catch a little more sleep.

It would be several hours later in the day before Bonnie realized the significance of the event. Not only had she felt comfortable enough with Ronald that she hadn't bothered to double check if she had locked the bedroom door, but apparently Ronald respected Bonnie enough that he did not barge in to the room to check on the woman in distress or ignore her request to be left alone. Had Bonnie been able to actually see the look of worry on Ronald's face as he laid back down on his couch Bonnie wouldn't have had to wait for several hours to realize that she might have made the wrong decision. But as it was something else would convince her of that.

II.

Bonnie awoke the next morning feeling, despite her nightmare from the night before, pretty good about both herself and life in general. Despite what her subconscious was trying to tell her she was no longer living on the streets, was pretty much guaranteed three hot meals a day, she was actually positively contributing to something by helping Ronald run his diner, and perhaps most importantly she had found a friend who did not look down on her and cared enough about her to help Bonnie try to be a better person.

"Wow. I sure wouldn't have imagined being so happy over so little when I was in high school." The former cheerleader admitted to herself.

After grabbing a quick shower, Bonnie began to dress but soon stopped to look at herself in the mirror. Her shirt was feeling just a bit tighter as if she were starting to fill out. Considering how well, and frequently, she had been eating over the past few days, and how thin she had gotten over the past few months, that really wasn't much of a surprise. She was going to have to be careful, or else she would end up getting fat.

"Fat." She muttered to herself. She hated that word. And she hated how it sounded coming from her mouth even more. The last time she had uttered that word to someone else had been when she and Molly had had a big fight. To be fair, Molly was a big girl, but Bonnie still felt bad for how she had, in a bit of spite, called Molly a "fat pig."

Bonnie's musing about things from her past was cut short by a knock on the bedroom door.

"Bonnie, are you done in there? I need to get ready, too." Ronald said tiredly.

"Sure thing, Ronald." Bonnie said as she opened the bedroom door and was surprised at the sight before her. The dark circles underneath his eyes made Ronald look as tired as he sounded.

"Ronald, are you ok? You look like you didn't sleep last night."

"I'm fine." Ronald said flatly as he walked past Bonnie and towards the shower.

Bonnie was slightly taken aback by Ronald's actions and considered barging into the bathroom to give her a piece of her mind, or at least that's what the old Bonnie would have done. The newer and stilling trying to improve herself, Bonnie instead took a deep breath and considered that maybe Ronald hadn't slept well last night because he was concerned about Bonnie what with her nightmare and scream Maybe he just needed a hot shower and a hot cup of coffee to help take the edge off. If that was the case there wasn't anything Bonnie could do about the shower part, well one evil thought did creep in to her mind but she dismissed the idea of dumping cold water on him, except stay out of the bathroom and give Ronald a little privacy, but she could do something about a hot cup of coffee.

Fifteen minutes later, Ronald, now showered, fully dressed, but not shaved, walked out of the bedroom.

"Here, Ronald, I made you some coffee." Bonnie smiled as she handed Ronald a coffee cup full of steaming java. "Hey, that stubble look on you isn't too bad, sort of a roughed bad boy look."

"Thanks." Ronald said with little enthusiasm as he accepted the cup.

"Try not to sound so excited next time."

"I'll try." Ronald said with just a faint smile.

After a hasty breakfast and quick check of the weather, which consisted of looking out the window, the duo grabbed Ronald's umbrella and made their way to his car.

Exceeding all bounds of good passenger edicate, Bonnie reached to adjust the station on the radio till she found something she liked.

"This is Lowerton's favorite DJ in the morning Chris Cronkite on KROK 95.5FM. Today's weather sucks. Not only is it going to be raining all day, but that it would be getting cooler this evening. Now, with some music, here's Alice Cooper and Poison."

"Your cruel device, your blood like ice. One look could kill, my pain, you're thrill...."

II.

Pulling into his usual parking spot, Ronald put his car in to park and turned off the ignition of his car. Other than the radio, it had been a quiet ride this morning as both he and Bonnie seemed to be lost in their own thoughts today. Ronald had to admit that he was worried about Bonnie, her nightmare last night had to have been a pretty rough one, plus the fact that she seemed to be falling back in to old habits by trying to deal with things herself was a worrying sign. But there was also something else that he did not want to admit, something that would impact Bonnie greatly. That and in one respect his and Bonnie's spat last night about him running away from problems had been closer to the truth than he felt comfortable admitting.

"Ronald?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you for looking in on me last night."

"Are you saying that because you feel guilty for waking me in the middle of the night or for the bad coffee you gave me this morning?" Ronald asked with the first bit of humor he had shown all morning.

"For waking you. And the coffee wasn't that bad. I just made it a little too strong, is all. Besides, they say strong coffee will put hair on your chest."

"I think it put some on my tongue. But I didn't know you liked that in a guy, but then again, you did say you sort of liked how I looked before I shaved."

"Now you're reading too much in things." Bonnie teased as she held the umbrella over them so Ronald could open up the diner.

Bonnie spent the next hour helping Ronald get ready for the day by helping to fill napkin dispensers, filling ketchup bottles, wiping down tables, and generally getting the diner ready for customers. Through most of that time, something kept bugging Bonnie, something that was at the back of her mind and was trying to get to the front but just never quite made it. Bonnie was sure it was important, but she just couldn't remember what it was. Maybe if she didn't think on it too hard, it would eventually come to her.

Putting the last salt and pepper shaker on the last table to be cleaned, Bonnie was slightly annoyed that she still had not remembered what she was trying to remember. Hearing the door to the dinner open, Bonnie was also slightly annoyed to see that customers were coming so early in the day. All through high school, Bonnie had always attempted to keep an entourage about her, but just because she had people surrounding her didn't mean that she was exactly a people person. Thus, as soon as she was done helping Ronald get the diner ready for the day, Bonnie slipped away to the broom closet of an office she had been using to immerse herself in crunching numbers again.

III.

Bonnie leaned back in her chair with a smile on her face. She had been crunching numbers all day and had mostly closed the gap between Ronald's income and expenses for the diner, or at least for this month. Her accounting and reconciling of bills hadn't covered all of Ronald's expenses, but if he would raise the price of his meals by a mere twenty-five cents, then he would at least be breaking even. Twenty-five cents wasn't much, and she was sure that he would buy off on such a small price increase. Now, all she had to do was give this bit of information to Ronald, which would be much easier to do after she had used the restroom. Glancing at the clock on the wall, Bonnie observed that almost three hours had gone by since she had sat down at the desk. No wonder she needed to use the restroom so badly.

Ronald walked to "Bonnie's" office and was about to ask her to watch the register for him so he could take a restroom break. But seeing that Bonnie had stepped out of "her" office to use the restroom, Ronald decided that now was a good time to place the phone call he needed to make. Quickly dialing in the numbers on the card he held in hand, Ronald was soon connected with the person he was hoping to reach.

"Hello, Mr. Graves, it's Ronald Stoppable."

"Hi Ronald, nice to hear from you. How are you doing, young man?"

"Better than some people I know. Mr. Graves, I need to make this quick, but I wanted to schedule a time for you to come by and asses the value of the diner."

"So you've finally made up your mind to close down and sell it off then?"

"Yes, I'm afraid so."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Ronald. I had hoped that things would have worked out for you."

"Yeah, me too."

"Tell you what, how about next Tuesday around nine AM? Does that work for you?"

"Nine AM Tuesday, that'll be fine."

"Ok, Tuesday it is. And Ronald, I'll handle this one personally."

"Thank you, Mr. Graves, I appreciate that." Ronald said as he returned the handset to its cradle.

"Who was that?" Bonnie asked.

"Wha? I didn't hear you come in Bonnie." Ronald said as she mentally searched for a way to tell Bonnie the nature of the call, "It was no one."

"So you set up an appointment with a no one?"

"Ok, so it's someone. Mr. Graves."

"And why is he important?"

"He's important because," Ronald sighed, "Because he's going to asses my diner here and tell me how much I can get for it when I close it down to pay off my debts."

Bonnie stood there for a moment as what Ronald had just said sank in. Ronald was closing the diner. After all the hard work they had done, all the hard work she had done in straightening out his finances. Ronald had lied to her. He wasn't letting her work here as repayment to him. He was treating her as a charity case.

"Ronald Stoppable, how dare you do that!" Bonnie screamed at the man.

"What are you upset about?" Ronald asked? "You've seen it yourself that I'm losing money. It's better to get out now while I still have some money."

Bonnie couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Ronald, you asked me to work for you, to be your accountant, and to help straighten things out for you. Well, I did that." Bonnie said firmly as she pushed her way past the man and grabbed a sheet of paper off the desk. "And this is what I came up with. See it?" Bonnie said as she held up the paper that had all of her calculations on it, showing how Ronald's diner could become profitable.

However, before Ronald's eyes could focus on the document to make out any of the numbers on it, Bonnie crumbled up the paper and tossed it to the ground. "Well, forget about it then if you're going to go ahead and close this place down." With that, Bonnie stormed her way past Ronald.

"Stop right there, Bonnie!" Ronald almost shouted as he grabbed a hold of Bonnie's arm.

"No, I will not!" Bonnie snapped back as she attempted to shake off Ronald's hand, "If you can just up and quiet, then so can I."

"I don't want you to quit."

"Then why the hell didn't you tell me you were going to go close down the diner? You knew I didn't want to be treated like a charity case, but that's what you're doing anyway, keeping me on just till you close the place down. Why have I tried to straighten things out for you?"

"Bonnie, I need that stuff done anyways."

"No, you didn't. Mr. Graves could have done that. That's what those people do."

"Bonnie, please." Ronald pleaded, "You don't have to leave just because of that."

"Bull shit!" Bonnie was on the verge of tears now. "I trusted you, Ronald. Trusted that you were treating me like a real person, an equal. But I guess not. All you saw was poor old Bonnie who needed a hand out. Maybe you thought I would share your bed with you since you shared your roof with me, well forget it." With that, Bonnie broke loose of Ronald's grip and proceeded into the dining room filled with customers.

"Bonnie, wait. You know that's not what I thought."

"Goodbye, Ronald. Thank you for letting me stay with you, but I need to leave now before something happens that I will regret." With that, Bonnie grabbed the umbrella that she and Ronald had shared just that morning and dashed out of the diner.

Ronald stood there for a moment and watched as Bonnie disappeared into the rain that had been falling on Lowerton for the past several hours. He was torn as to whether to go after her or not, to find her and confront her about her misperceptions of his actions. But then Ronald remembers the last time he had been confrontational with someone it had cost him, Kim. Ignoring the pointed whispers and comments from customers about a "lovers quarrel," Ronald stepped back into his kitchen to continue to make meals.