Ron could only smile as Bonnie leaned against him on the plane ride home, cuddling up against each other. He kissed her softly on the forehead, causing her to snuggle even closer. "So, what did you think of your first mission?"

Bonnie squeezed him tighter, sighing deeply. "It was... interesting. Not quite what I expected. And to be honest, I never knew you were in such great shape, I mean, scaling that cliff like that and everything. And I mean, there wasn't even any fighting, though I did get worried when we ran into that woman..."

"Shego."

"Yeah, her. I guess I always just thought you tagged along with Kim, but there's a lot more to what you do, isn't there? I mean, scuba diving, bungee jumping... I have to tell you, I'm impressed. If more people knew what you could do, you would probably be so much cooler in school."

Ron gave her a bit of a look. "We're not going to get on this whole food chain thing again, are we? I really don't care what other people think of me."

Bonnie pulled away to meet his gaze. "I do though, and not just because of the food chain. Ron, if you showed people what you can do, what you can be like, you could probably own that school... with me. Because I would really like..."

What Bonnie was going to say was cut off by the beep of the Kimmunicator, and the pair pulled apart slightly. They shared a brief look before Ron pulled away and activated the device. "Go Wade."

"Hey Ron, just called to congratulate you on the successful mission. You did a great job."

Ron just beamed at the praise. "Thanks Wade."

"So how did Bonnie handle herself?"

"Oh Bonnie did great, like she's been doing it all her life. I couldn't have done it without her."

Bonnie gave him a bit of a look of incredulity, before snatching the Kimmunicator from his hands. "Don't listen to him Wade, I was just along for the ride. He did all the work himself, I could barely keep up."

Wade just nodded at that, smiling all the while. "Yeah, Ron can get like that."

Bonnie cast a glance at her boyfriend. "Does he always give Kim all the credit?"

"Pretty much."

"I'm sitting right here." Ron just gave them both a look, sitting back in his seat.

Bonnie just smiled sweetly at him. "I know sweetie. You just keep sitting there and looking pretty while I handle this."

Wade broke down laughing, and all Ron could do was sit there and sulk quietly, trying hard to hide his amusement. Bonnie turned back to face Wade, fighting hard to keep from laughing as well. "Wade, I want you to do something for me. I want you to spread the word about just what a great job Ron did, he deserves serious credit for this, and he's going to get it."

"Bonnie, I..."

Bonnie leaned over, kissing him quickly and silencing him. "Ron, you never get any credit for anything, and this time you deserve it. Did you know half the kids at school don't believe you even go on missions with Kim since you're never mentioned?"

Ron's eyes widened at that, and he sat back on the seat stunned. "Really?"

Bonnie nodded and smiled. "Yeah, but we're going to change that. No boyfriend of mine is going to get shortchanged. Oh, and Wade... do you think we can keep my name out of it for now? Just until we tell Tara and Kim?"

Wade's smile faltered for a moment. "You are going to tell them soon, aren't you? I don't know how much longer I can hold Kim off, and I don't like lying to her."

Ron leaned in again, nodding thoughtfully. "We will buddy, don't worry about that. We just... have to find the right way to do it without it involving a whole lot of pain and a demonstration of all sixteen styles of martial arts."

Wade winced in sympathy. "Yeah, I understand that." Wade paused for a moment, glancing at the screens in front of him. "Uh oh, small problem Ron. Looks like you won't be able to return this to the lab tonight. You'll have to store it somewhere until tomorrow."

Ron paused for a moment, glancing over at Bonnie, before an idea came to him. "I can take it to Kim's place, she'll have room for it. And that way, I've got an excuse to go over and apologize, show her what we did."

Wade nodded, and hit the keyboard for a moment. "Good idea Ron, I've got a truck lined up at the airport to help you load and deliver the Ray-X. They'll take you and the device over to Kim's."

Ron smiled brightly, and gave Bonnie a squeeze. "Thanks buddy, I knew I could count on you."

The screen went dark, and Bonnie smiled over at her boyfriend. "Well, we still have a couple hours until we land, and I think I have the perfect idea of how to pass the time, don't you."

Ron's eyes lit up and his smile broadened. "Booyah!"

Kim reluctantly rose to her feet from where she was sitting, at the kitchen table, to answer the door. She wondered who would be bothering her at this time of day, when most people were in school. Her parents were at work, and they had keys anyways, so that left her curious. She hoped it was Ron, she needed to apologize for the way she had treated him. Sure, he may be hiding something, but she could see he was torn about it. But with this bug she was fighting, it made it very hard not to snap at him. So when she opened the door and saw a very large ray pointing directly at her face, she did the only thing she could do in her condition.

She fell to the floor.

Ron poked his head around the device, smiling brightly. "Hey KP, what do you think?"

Kim lay still on the floor, trying to get over the wave of dizziness. "Ron, iz that..."

"The Ray-X thingee? You betcha. Came up with a plan, broke into Drakken's, and stole it right back from them."

Kim smiled brightly at that, surprised and with just a touch of admiration. "Ron, that's great!"

Ron moved around the ray, helping her to her feet, before pulling the device into the room. "Like you always say KP, no big, though we will have to keep it here until the lab opens tomorrow. I just wanted to try and make it up to you about the fight we had earlier."

Kim winced at that, and worked her way back to the kitchen and her bowl of soup. "Ron, about that... I'm sorry. This bug has been making me irritable, and I didn't mean to take it out on you." Kim watched as he wheeled it into the kitchen, pausing to open the pantry door. "So you had no problem getting that out of Drakken's? What about Shego?"

Ron moved back to the ray, trying to find a way to angle it into the small space. "Oh, we ran into Shego, but it looks like she caught what you have. She was in no shape to fight. Though she did sneeze her germy illin all over me. Thank goodness for the Stoppable fortress of immunity." Ron thumped his hand against his chest, smiling proudly, until he felt a little twitch in his nose. The itch got worse, and he raised his hands to his face in time to catch the very loud sneeze that issued forth.

Kim just grinned, holding tight to the spoon in her hand. "Stoppable fortress of immunity, eh?"

Ron sat sullenly in the living room, wrapped tight in a blanket. Kim had refused to let him go home, preferring that he stay there with her rather than risk spreading what they had to his family. Of course, that left him no chance to talk to Bonnie, and see if she was sick as well. Considering what they had been doing the last couple hours before landing, that was probably a good bet. He wasn't even paying attention to the television as he wondered how she was doing.

"This is so not believable. We did not act like that when we swapped brains."

Ron's head shot up, looking over at Kim. "What?"

Kim just grinned back. "You really must not be feeling well if you're not even watching TV."

Ron looked away quickly, not quite able to meet her eyes. "Sorry KP, I just... I'm going to go see if there's any more soup."

Kim watched Ron get up, concerned. She could see Ron wasn't telling her something, and it was now driving her crazy. She got up to follow him, when he yelled. Kim ran to the kitchen, glad she was feeling better somewhat. "Ron, what's..."

"The Ray-X, it's gone!"

The pair turned in time to see the device being wheeled past on the lawn, and both sprung into action, racing for the door. They were just in time to see Duff Killigan and some unknown male fly off in one of Drakken's saucers. Ron groaned, hanging his head. "Oh man..."

It took a couple of hours, but they quickly ruled out anyone else helping them. Global Justice was swamped with WEE and the remnants of Gemini's organization, that had splintered with their leader's capture. The military was no help either, as Drakken was no longer in the country, and they couldn't risk the backlash with anouther independent nation right now, though they would patrol around the island to ensure they didn't escape. That left it up to them to get Ray-X back, even if they weren't exactly in top shape at the moment.

And that bothered Ron quite a bit. He had hoped they wouldn't run into Shego again before he had had a chance to tell Kim about him and Bonnie. Now, they had to go back, and Ron had no idea what Shego would say to Kim. Kim had tried to talk him out of going, he was at the worst point of the infection. But there was no way that he was not going to go, at the very least to prevent Kim from hearing everything in the worst possible way.

"Come on Rufus buddy, we have to go back." Ron looked through the kitchen, then the living room, even looking under the couch. "Rufus, buddy, where'd you go?"

"Missing Tweebs too." Kim walked into the living room, concern etched across her features.

Ron's eyes went wide, and he patted himself down quickly. "Along with my operation Ray-X schematics!"

Kim grabbed up her Kimmunicator quickly. "Wade, I need a ride."

Wade moved quickly, his fingers flying, but he didn't look up at her as he normally would. "No problem Kim, I should have something for you..."

Kim's eyes narrowed. "Wade, you wouldn't happen to know what the Tweebs are doing right now, would you?"

Wade's head shot up, a guilty look written all over his face. "I don't... I mean..."

Kim groaned, shaking her head. "Never mind that right now Wade, just get us over there."

"Ron, you are not coming in with me. You can barely move."

Ron shook his head, regretting it a moment later as a wave of dizziness hit him. "No way KP, you need backup on this one, especially with Duff in there too."

Kim eyed him carefully for a moment, before finally nodding. "Fine Ron, but try to be careful."

"No problems KP."

Kim gave Ron one last look before heading into the vent. It was a tight squeeze, but not an unfamiliar one, and it wasn't long until they were looking out over Drakken's lair.

Kim could see her brothers, bound to the wall. The unknown figure they had seen with Killigan was pointing the Ray-X at them both, and Kim cast one final look over at Ron to see if he recognized him. Before she could leap out at him though, she coughed. Deciding stealth was no longer needed, Kim decided to get the primary question out of the way now. "Who are you?"

The man was almost chipper in his response, as if he was just going about his day, despite what he was doing. "Hank Perkins, hello!"

Kim gave him a strange look. "Do you work here?"

"Well, I am a temp, but a little birdie told me I might be kept on." Hank moved over to the Ray-X, and casually pointed it up at Kim, and began firing. The first shot went well wide, leaving it obvious he was unfamiliar with shooting, leaving Kim to leap up and over his further attempts, coming down to land in front of him and knocking the device away. Then, with a move that Drakken could have blocked, she gave him a quick but strong kick to the chest, sending him down to the floor.

"Sorry Hank," With a shake of her head, she moved over to the release button, freeing her brothers and Rufus. Kim just smiled, until she heard a voice behind her.

"Wow, looks like someone's been drinking lots of fluids... and retaining every ounce."

Kim's face hardened, as she watched Shego's hands flare up. "So not in the mood Shego."

Kim dashed forward, watching Shego do the same, and quickly dodged to the left when Shego came in for an overhand sweep. She could see Shego was frustrated already, so when she jumped up and over Shego's second attempt, she just gave her just a slight push to send her to the floor.

The pair launched a couple shots at the other, when Kim felt that familiar tingle in her nose. She twitched her nose, hoping to fight it off, and almost gave a sigh of relief when it was Shego who called a halt to the battle. The villainess promptly sneezed, at almost the same time as she did, and Kim's polite upbringing came to the forefront. "Gesundheit."

Shego sniffled slightly. "Thanks."

As Kim tried to wipe the mucous off her hands, she caught Shego flaring back up, and quickly moved to block the series of strikes, adding one of her own.

After a few moments, Shego smiled, her eyes drawn to Ron as he tried lowering himself down from the vent. "Surprised you didn't bring the new sidekick with you. She catch the cold now?"

Kim paused, her eyes narrowing. "New sidekick? The only partner I have is Ron."

Shego's grin broadened further, her eyes dancing with mischief. "Oh really? Than maybe Stoppable is holding out on you. Because when he was here only a few hours ago, he was in the company of a very interesting brunette."

Kim froze, her stance steady. "Brunette? I don't know who you're talking about."

Ron could see the smile on Shego's face, could hear their conversation, and he knew he had to end it now. He let go of the rope and pushed off from the wall as hard as he could, screaming as he dropped the last ten feet to try and hit Shego.

Shego just gave him a brief look and stepped to the side, watching as Ron tumbled past, landing square on his back, completely dazed. "You'll have to do better than that to get the best of me."

"Yeah, but he set you up for me just nicely." Shego turned just in time to see Kim's foot a second before it made contact with her face, and Shego fell to the floor quickly, knocked out before she hit the ground.

Kim turned, hearing the Ray-X being fired up, and prepared to leap out of the way, but Hank was firing at her brothers right now, and she smiled as she watched them slide away on the nearby carpet, easily dodging the beams. With Hank distracted, Kim just walked over and pulled him away from the machine. After some futile struggling, he easily gave in and surrendered.

Kim was contemplative on the way back from Drakken's lair, her attention split between keeping an eye on her brothers, and wondering at Shego's words back in the lair. It was too bad that Global Justice had shown up just in time to take her away, leaving Kim with a whole mess of questions and no answers. Finally, after much consideration, Kim decided to go to the source.

Ron was napping on one of the cargo plane's benches, and Kim pondered whether waking him up would be a good idea. She knew how she felt at this point, and she didn't really want to disturb him, but the questions going through her mind were too numerous to ignore.

"Ron... are you awake?"

Ron groaned, his eyes shut tightly, but he gave her an affirmative grunt after a few moments.

"Ron, what did Shego mean by a new sidekick when you first went there?"

Ron's eyes shot open in alarm, and Kim knew instantly that Shego had been right. "What? KP... Shego was sick, she was seeing things."

Kim's eyes narrowed. "Why are you hiding this from me Ron? What aren't you telling me?"

Ron kept shaking his head, his eyes furtive. "I... I'm not... I mean..."

That was more than enough for Kim. "Fine, if you won't tell me, your friend, who always tells you everything, then I guess our friendship doesn't mean as much to you as it does to me!" Kim gave one last sniff of indignation before stalking back to her seat, refusing to even look at him.

Ron groaned as he sank back into the bench, his head swimming. "Oh man..."

Kim stalked down the sidewalk, on her way to school. She had dropped off the Ray-X to the grateful scientists, but had barely stopped to say no big when they thanked her. She just wanted to get to school, where she wouldn't have to spend all her time thinking about Ron and what he was hiding from her. He had tried calling several times the night before, but Kim had refused to answer him. She was getting to the end of her rope about what Ron could be hiding that was so important he was willing to alienate his best friend. Her mind was so focused on that, she failed to notice the person trailing her until she was tapping her on the shoulder.

"Kim, wait up."

Kim turned, and tried to smile as Tara stood gasping beside her. "Sorry Tara, I... I just have a lot on my mind."

Tara took a couple of gasps before settling down. "You sure are tweaked, I've never seen you walk that fast. And where's Ron, doesn't he usually walk to school with you?"

Kim winced, and let Tara get her breath back before they started back to school. "He's kind of why I'm tweaked. He's hiding something from me, and he won't tell me what, and that really bothers me. He's never kept secrets like this from me before."

Tara nodded in understanding. "I know what you mean. Bonnie hasn't told me anything about this guy she's seeing now. It isn't like her at all. Personally, I think she's seriously in love, which is so sweet, but she doesn't want to say anything because of the food chain. But she's knows I don't care about that. I'm going to call her tonight, after school though, and hopefully she'll tell me something."

Something was niggling at Kim's mind, something she just couldn't put her finger on, but she couldn't figure it out. "Why don't you just talk to her at school?"

Tara just shrugged. "Oh, she's home sick right now. She missed yesterday too, which is strange, cause she sounded fine when I talked to her first thing in the morning. But then she said she had to go, her boyfriend had shown up, but she never came to school. I figure she ditched just to spend more time with him, but she's definitely sick today. She sounded just awful over the phone. So was Ron sick yesterday too, he wasn't at school?"

"No, with me sick, he went on a mission first thing in the morning and..." Kim froze in her tracks, her eyes wide, as pieces started falling into place. But the puzzle it was assembling sounded so outlandish, so unbelievable...

"Kim, what's wrong?"

Kim shook her head, not sure she could trust her thoughts at the moment. It was just so... so wrong on so many levels, and yet... Kim looked over

at Tara, wondering if she should share her thoughts, and decided against it. She needed to find out the truth first, before she jumped to the wild conclusion running through her mind right now. Because if it was true... if Ron and Bonnie were dating... Kim had no idea how she would react.

Author's Notes – Well, looks like Kim has got things figured out, but can she trust what the clues are telling her? Something so strange and bizarre. And very quickly, Kim, Tara, Ron, and Bonnie are going to discover just how much The Truth Hurts.