Chapter 9
"I'm glad this night is over," Shego mumbled as she stretched out on the bed. Despite being primarily intended for unmanned space travel, Dr. Freeman had outfitted Sappho with four small rooms for astronauts to sleep in. Shego was currently lounging in the room Kim had claimed.
"At least now I can take this off," Kim said, tugging at the collar of her green-and-black outfit.
Shego opened one eye and smiled at her. "Methinks Kimmie doth protest too much," she taunted. "You really want me to think you don't like wearing that, don't you?"
"It's confining," Kim said halfheartedly.
"So I can have it for a spare then?" Shego asked.
Kim hesitated.
"Never mind," Shego said, her eyes open and alight with laughter. "I'll retract the question. It can remain your guilty pleasure."
Kim blushed. Instinctively she looked at her chest.
"What are you doing?" Shego asked curiously.
"Oh, sorry. It's a habit from the time that, you know, I almost vanished because I blushed too much," Kim answered quietly.
"Oh," Shego said. Bringing up the past sometimes meant bringing up Drakken, something that typically ground conversation to a halt. "Sorry about that," she added. "I didn't really want you to disappear, it was just about - "
"Seeing me humiliated?" Kim asked wryly.
Shego looked down. "You did it to me often enough. Though I guess you had good reason to." She glanced at Kim. "If wearing that really embarrasses you, you don't have to wear it again. I didn't mean - "
"It was never about you, Shego," Kim said. "Okay, yes, you really pissed me off on a monthly basis, but I didn't actively pursue your mortification. I'm not, you know, Bonnie."
Shego growled. "Bonnie. You know she had something to do with Dementor's trap. She's lucky she's not in police custody with him!"
"Probably," Kim agreed. "But she also sent Josh after us - "
"We would have stopped Dementor anyway," Shego said with conviction.
"Of course," Kim said, humoring her antipathy towards Josh Mankey. "But considering how things worked out, I'm willing to let it slide, rather than having to look at her spiteful, shrewish face again."
Shego grinned. "Nice to see there's some anger there."
Kim smiled in return. "If you want, we can put Bonnie's face on a piñata when we get home."
"Ooh! I get first whack!"
"Oh, and in answer to your earlier question? It was a little embarrassing being seen by Ron in this outfit, but there were benefits." Kim's smile died, and she looked away.
Shego looked oddly at her. "Kim?"
"Sorry, I was just - thinking about how Ron will react when I tell him the truth about us tomorrow," Kim said quietly.
"You don't know how he'll react."
"Which is part of the problem."
"How are you going to do it?"
"Well," Kim said, "tomorrow morning we'll bring the time machine back to Justine at her laboratory. Then we'll fly back to Middleton, where I'll sit Ron down with you and I, and I tell him the real story."
Shego stared at her. "I have a better idea," she said.
"What?"
"How about tomorrow morning, I bring Justine the machine by myself. While I'm gone, you tell Ron." Shego chuckled. "You know I shouldn't be in the room when you tell him."
Kim blinked. "I'd like you to be there with me."
"I'll only make matters worse, Kim. Without even trying to. You do realize that on some level, we both resent each other for being a part of your life, right? Well, when he finds out we're dating, that's not about to change."
"Ron doesn't resent you. He just doesn't like you." Kim looked at the ceiling. "All right, I guess there's no point dragging this out. Although the flight home won't be pretty if he - "
"He won't," Shego sighed. "He looks up to you so much, it's sickening."
"What about you?"
Shego raised her head. "I don't look up. Our eyes are level."
Kim cocked her head. "After all those times I kicked your butt? Only if you used to be taller."
"I can freeze your sheets, you know."Bonnie slowly walked up the stairs. She was half an hour late for her class, and the halls were empty, but that was all right. Josh was back.
And since Kim Possible and her loser friends were okay, she didn't need to feel guilty about anything. She could go back to hating them, worry-free. Because Josh was back.
And so maybe she had to make a real effort to be nicer to other people, even complete strangers, both in public and private. It was a small price to pay, and anyway, wasn't she blessing these anonymous people with her generosity? Not just anybody got a smile from Bonnie in high school!
The fact that her filthy old stalker was in jail was just a bonus. Because . . .
"Remember me?"
Startled, Bonnie spun ninety degrees to her right and nearly toppled down the stairs she'd just ascended. Only the strong hand that grabbed her forearm prevented that.
"Careful, princess," Shego said coldly. "Wouldn't want to fall down the stairs, break a leg, would we?"
"You!" Bonnie hissed. "What are you trying to do, get me killed?!"
"If I wanted you dead, I'd take a more hands-on approach," Shego replied.
"Is that supposed to scare me?" Bonnie retorted. "The scary weirdo with the skin disorder, making threats?"
Shego hadn't let go of her arm, and now her grip tightened.
"Let go!"
"Funny how your boy-toy was a lot more concerned about our safety than we were," Shego said. "Kinda like he knew something we didn't. But that can't be, right? Because he got his information from the same person we did - you."
"I don't know what you're trying to suggest - "
"Because Kim's all right, I've decided not to kill you," Shego said idly.
Bonnie froze.
"And because you DID warn Mankey - not that his help was required, but still a point in your favor - I'm not going to break your leg, either."
"You're so kind," Bonnie said, but her mouth was strangely dry.
Shego smiled. "I am. That's why I'm just going to break your arm."
Bonnie tried to scream, but Shego slapped her other hand over the dancer's mouth. "After all, you dance with your legs, not your arms, right? But when they ask you what happened," Shego said, "you're going to say you slipped, you fell, and you landed down there."
Shego pushed Bonnie to look down the stairs at the landing halfway down. Then she made Bonnie slowly descend the steps with her.
"Because if you breathe a word to anyone about what really happened, I'll come back," Shego warned her as they approached the landing. "And when I'm through with you, the only dancing you'll be doing for the rest of your life is from a wheelchair. Got it?"
The murderous look in Shego's eyes, combined with the edge in her voice, left Bonnie completely convinced that she was dealing with a lunatic. She nodded pitifully.
"Who knows?" Shego added jauntily. "Your precious Josh can even nurse you back to health, and then you can get married and have lots of babies, for all I care. What you need to realize is that you may think you were some kind of bitch on wheels in your day, but you've never met a bitch like me."
Bonnie shrank away from her.
Shego lowered her hand from Bonnie's mouth. Then, with ruthless expertise, she used both hands to break Bonnie's left arm.
The dancer's high-pitched shriek reverberated through the entire school building, but Shego outran the noise as she catapulted through the air and landed flawlessly on the floor below. She darted out of sight before anyone even left their classrooms.
A few minutes later, as they were taking Bonnie to the hospital to have her arm looked at, one of the teachers knelt beside her. "Miss Rockwaller, what happened?"
Bonnie's lip trembled as new tears glimmered in her eyes. "I fell," she whispered."Hi, Ron," Kim said quietly as she entered his quarters. "Think we could talk for a few minutes?"
"Is that really you, Kim?" Ron asked dryly. "Because those clothes don't look like Shego's."
She sighed. "That's sort of, kind of, indirectly why we need to talk, Ron. Maybe without the rats?"
He looked at her, surprised. "Uh, yeah, sure. Rufus, Ruby, give me and KP a few minutes, all right?"
Rufus turned to Ruby. "Cheese?"
"Uh-huh, uh-huh," Ruby agreed. They scampered from the room, and Kim closed the door behind them.
"So what's the big secret?" Ron asked.
"No big," Kim said casually. Then she let her shoulders drop as she sat next to him on the bed. "Okay, so it's a pretty big 'big'."
"And it sorta, kinda has to do with Shego?"
"Yeah. Look, it's about what they're saying about us on the Internet."
"Rumor hasn't died down yet? Geez, you'd think Monique and Wade could have helped stem the tide by now."
Kim looked uncomfortable. "They haven't really been trying very hard, actually."
"Huh?"
"Because I asked them not to."
Ron was perplexed. "Why not?"
Kim inhaled deeply. "You know how even I get scared occasionally? And how that makes me not very good at dealing with it?"
"Yeah, I find running away works wonders."
"Well, that's what I did. I ran away."
"From what?"
"The truth."
Ron gave no sign that he had any idea where she was going with this.
"Ron," she said softly, "this isn't how I wanted you to find out. But the rumors are true. Bonnie saw me looking 'that way' at Shego."
"Say what?"
"After I was zapped by the time ray, it made me less inhibited, and so I was briefly unleashing my needs," she said, dancing around the truth.
Ron nodded slowly. "Okay, so you weren't yourself. You really weren't yourself. But if people find that out - "
"There's more, Ron," Kim interrupted. "See, Shego and I . . . we're dating. For real."
He stared at her. "Huh?"
Kim looked at her lap and squeezed her hands into fists. "We always had a connection, Ron, but it's become something more. We're attracted to each other, so we started going out. Just her and me. Doing, you know, boyfriend-girlfriend things."
After a moment or two, Ron's eyes nearly popped out of his head. "You slept with SHEGO?!"
"NO, no!" Kim said hurriedly. "Not those kind of boyfriend-girlfriend things! The kind of things you do before the sex part, actually. You know, dating, holding hands, the occasional, um, kiss?"
Ron was utterly dumbfounded. "For how long?" he asked.
"A few weeks. Right after Drakken was captured."
"So when you told me nothing was going on between the two of you . . ."
She closed her eyes. "I lied."
He stood up and took two steps forward, all the room would allow. "Why?" he asked as he turned to face her, his face turning red.
"I told you, I was scared!" Kim said. "I was in the hospital, and you were going on about how people would look at me like I was a freak!"
"People, I said! Okay, so I'm people, but I didn't mean 'me people', I meant 'other people'! All right, that doesn't make much sense, but c'mon, KP! Do you really think I'd change my feelings for you like that?"
"I know you don't like her," Kim replied.
Ron put his hands on his hips. "You're right, I don't like her, and I don't like the idea of you being with her, and I really don't like her being with you. And hey, I'm still dealing with you being with a girl anyway! What happened to Josh?"
"I don't know," she pleaded. "I still like boys, I guess. Maybe I'm not gay. Maybe it's a Shego thing. Maybe if she was a guy, I'd still want to be with her, or him."
"And I'm still dealing with the fact that you lied to me!" Ron yelled at her.
Kim looked away, ashamed. "I'm sorry, Ron," she whispered. "I didn't want to lose you."
"Lose what, Kim? My friendship? My trust? You obviously didn't think much of them if you thought I'd give them up so easily!"
"Ron - "
"No!" he shouted. Then he paused. "You said you asked Monique and Wade not to do anything about the rumors. Why would they agree to that?"
Kim flinched. "Because - I may have told them."
"Oh, I see! You just weren't scared of losing their friendship! Because you can trust them, but not me?!"
"That's not it!" she shouted back. "I'd already lied to you! I couldn't go on lying! The first lie was already tearing me up inside!"
"Right. Because Kim Possible isn't a liar. That's more of a Shego thing."
"Don't you dare talk about her that way," Kim warned him as the tears ran down her cheeks. "She wanted me to tell you the truth from the beginning."
"You know, maybe you belong in her clothes. I guess after a month or two on that island with her, you're becoming just like her," Ron shot back.
"I always was just like her," Kim said, "except for having a better moral compass. She's the one who's changed, not me."
"Really?" Ron asked. "Because I don't recall you being a lesbian last year."
Kim slammed her palms down on the bed. "Damn it, Ron! Now you're just being angry!"
"You're damn right I am!" he yelled at her. "You lied to me! Since when do we keep secrets from each other? Actually, you know, I was right before. You and Shego are just perfect for each other. So you don't need me any longer."
"Ron, wait!" Kim begged, reaching out a hand.
"God knows, you certainly don't trust me any longer," he spat at her before he stormed out and shut the door behind him violently.
Kim stumbled off the bed and put her hands on the door. "RON!!!" she wailed. She slid onto her knees and began sobbing in earnest.
Meanwhile, Ron stormed into the cockpit, only to find his mood worsened by the sight of Shego, leaning against the wall with her arms folded and a serious look on her face. "You'd better not have made her cry," Shego said calmly. "She's cried enough tears for one mission."
"Congratulations," Ron said icily.
"For what?"
"For winning. You've gotten what you always wanted, right? Kim's your friend now, not mine."
Shego rolled her eyes. "Doy," she muttered. "I get you being angry, but I didn't expect you to throw a temper tantrum."
"Sappho!" he called out. "Open the hatch! I'm going outside!"
"Sappho, ignore that order," Shego retorted. "Don't open that hatch until I say so."
Ron stared at her, shocked. "Say what?"
"Dementor's in custody. The time ray is back where it belongs. Bonnie and Josh are out of our lives forever. There's absolutely no reason for us to be here any longer. So we're leaving now, and I don't feel like waiting six hours for you to go meandering around Boston right now," Shego told him. "So you're staying, whether you like it or not."
"Sappho!" Ron called out again.
"Sorry, Stoppable," Shego said. "But Sappho likes me more."
"Excuse me?"
"Sappho?" Shego asked.
"Shego is right, Ron Stoppable," Sappho finally answered. "As my pilot, I consider Shego to be the commander of my vessel, and if she doesn't want me to open the hatch, then I won't open the hatch."
"It always pays to make nice with the CPU," Shego added.
Ron glared at her, enraged. "Can I return to my room, at least? I'd rather not go on looking at you."
Shego shrugged. "Go ahead."
He turned and walked away, swinging his arms angrily.
"Sappho," Shego said quietly, "prepare for liftoff. I think you may need to handle the flying yourself today. I don't think Kim wants to be alone right now."
"Of course, Shego," Sappho replied.
Ron went towards his room, but remembering Kim was still inside, he glared at the door as if seeing her face there. Then he took the fourth unoccupied room and closed the door.
Shego went to Ron's former room and knocked.
"Ron?" Kim's voice asked hopefully.
"It's me," Shego said.
"Oh."
Shego entered and found Kim on her hands and knees, her face a tear-streaked mess. "Kim?"
Kim hiccoughed as she looked up at Shego. "Could you hold me please?" she asked pathetically.
Shego hated Ron for reducing Kim to this, and was even angry at Kim for needing her to console her. Shego never considered herself to be a sympathetic person.
Then why was it so easy for her to lift Kim up and lie her on the bed, before slipping next to her and wrapping her arms around Kim's waist?
It was very strange, but Shego didn't think much about it. She just squeezed Kim closer and allowed the other girl to turn in her embrace and bury her face in Shego's body.
Shego considered saying that it would be all right. That was what other people did, like Kim. But she didn't. Because from Kim's point of view, Shego didn't know if it would.
To be continued . . .
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