~~~#The glow sticks were beginning to fade, they needed a real light and heat source soon or they would get hyperthermia and all Kim’s hard work would be for nothing. Taking one of the sticks she explored the boundaries of the bunker. Searching through cupboards and shelves her spirits rose when she dug out a bag of kindling and pre-chopped wood.
“This is far too convenient. But hey, I’m not complaining. But seriously, why would it be here?” A voice made her almost jump out of her skin.
“Because Dr D finally got himself a fire place, he said it made the lair look more homely. It stank the place out is what it did, he burnt it one night and refused to do it again when he lost his eyebrows.” Kim knelt at the side of the cot.
“How are you feeling? If it hurts too much I have some morphine over there.” Kim put her hand to the other woman’s forehead. She still had a temperature. Shego jumped at the touch and tried to move away, it was then that she realised.
In a sickeningly sweet voice she drawled, “Kimmie, sweetie, why on Earth am I TIED UP!!!” Kim fell backwards at the yelling. “You know I could break them don’t you? Like butter.”
“I know, I know, I figured it would help while I stitched you up.” Kim was rubbing the back oh her head in bemusement, why hadn’t the thought occurred before that it was indeed futile to restrain her.
“While you what?” Shego’s rage instantly left her, her hunched shoulders fell back and her features softened. As she fell back into unconsciousness.#~~~
Kim didn’t remember falling asleep, but as she wearily opened her eyes she was comforted by the welcome sights and sounds of a small fire. Lazily she smiled as she snuggled into the blanket still around her, across the flames she could make out Shego busying herself with something. She let out a yawn as she spoke sleepily, “Hey,” Shego turned and made an acknowledging gesture. “The fire’s good,” The other woman grunted in reply, Kim slumped her shoulders in defeat; even in such dank circumstances Shego still didn’t want to talk to her.
“So I guess I should thank you, I mean, uh, whatever.” Shego turned away pretending to fix something across the fire. Snuggling into the blanket Kim whispered ‘your welcome’ a small smile played across the darker woman’s face, she turned holding a small steaming bowl. She crouched down beside Kim, “Here, bite down on this,” she proffered a small thick piece of leather to her, “It’ll help, really.” Carefully she took the piece between her teeth; Shego took a cloth from the bowl and rung out the water. Very carefully she cleaned away some of the fresh cuts that hadn’t been tended to; she tried to ignore the red head’s cries.
Tears streamed down her face as she bit down against the leather. Subconsciously Shego’s hand stroked her hair; she couldn’t stop herself making quite calming noises. Neither paid attention to the parts of their minds screaming to get away from each other, they remained calm and silent against the raging storm. Kim even moved into the proffered hand just for the tiny amount of comfort it would give her. “How’s your back feeling?” Shego tried to remove the blanket to see; Kim just tightened her grip, “Please yourself Kimmie, but it’s only going to get worse before it gets better.” The red head’s shoulders slumped as she released her grip.
The skin was blistered and sore, even her tiny movements in the blanket had agitated the burn more. Gently cleaning away the dirt, Kim still bit down; more tears fell silently as she let the older woman bandage her wound. The blanket was replaced around her shoulders. In the glow of the small fire Shego cupped her face in her hands, wiping away the fallen tears with her thumb, “See, all better,”
“So have you managed to come up with some overly clever plan to get us out of here yet?” Shego sat back drying her hands from the warm water. “We can’t really stay here much longer, there isn’t that much wood and the storm has soaked the entire forest so cutting trees down is pointless. Let alone food and clean water, this was just meant to be a basement hideaway not a refuge.”
“Well I suppose there’s nothing left up top after the explosion. Are there any towns or villages near by? Drakken had to get electricity from somewhere. So there should be someone around.” Shego shook her head.
“Nope, everything was run from geothermal energy. He had to go and have an eco friendly kick this time. And the natural surroundings make for pretty good cloaking from GPS satellites. And there are no towns or villages, we brought everything with us; he obviously knew it wasn’t going to work there was no long term plan. Looks like you should have left when you could have Princess,” Shego looked up out of the hole in the ceiling; the snow storm was still going strong. But mainly she was avoiding eye contact.
“You know I couldn’t have left you behind Shego, I couldn’t have left anyone behind. This is no one’s fault, so stop paying the self pity game. How do you think I would have felt if I knew that you had to go through all of this alone?” Kim tried to shift closer to the older woman, but Shego stood and began to pace.
“But that’s just it; you’re too good at being the good guy. Why can’t you just let go for once, detach yourself from the situation. If I actually thought about what I was doing half the time I’m sure an attack of conscience would have stopped half of the things I’ve done. Kim I’ve hurt people, it’s my job, it’s what I do. If I even stop for a second to think about the people, the families I’ve hurt the guilt alone could kill me.” Kim went to speak, “I know what you’re going to say, but when you find something you’re good at, something where no one else can even come close. You do it, just because you can, because you know you’re the best. I might be on the wrong side, but I’m damn good at it. If you thought like me, you would have been out of here before the fire even started.”
Kim jumped up as Shego turned away crossing her arms. “If I thought like you Shego, you’d be dead.” The dark woman turned around,
“Look around you Possible; we’re going to die here! There is no where to go, no where we can stay. Kim,” She let out a defeated sigh. “No one is coming for us. And you know it’s true. Just this once, there is nothing you can do.” Kim’s face fell; she shook her head refusing to accept those words. She was Kim Possible, she could do anything, or at least she thought she should be able.
“There has to be something. We could go out there, dig into the snow, and keep heading north. Someone is bound to see us. Or at least far enough out for me to get a signal on my Kimmunicator, and we could try. Please help me at least try…” Kim’s arms had been waving wildly to make her point. Shego walked to her, she caught the red head’s arms and lowered them sadly shaking her head. “I have to try, I can’t just do nothing,” Kim’s body was betraying her; she was shaking in fear as the harsh truth kept repeating in her head. “I can do something. I can. I can.” Shego pulled her closer and wrapped her arms around her, she couldn’t distance herself any longer, and she couldn’t watch Kim beat herself down.
She rested her head on top of the cheer leader; Kim’s mantra was turning into body wracking sobs. She let go into the embrace and just cried out her defeat. Shego bit back her own emotions as she held her, she had accepted the futility of even thinking about trying to get out. Thinking back she should just have let Kim beat her, let herself be arrested and be safely taken by the helicopter. All of them should have got out; as the building fell down she knew she had to get out, but her damn stubborn nature to win took over. And now it was going to kill both of them. She just couldn’t ignore the guilt this time, if it was just her she wouldn’t be feeling sorry for herself she would have waited it out. But she wasn’t alone, she was responsible. She knew Kim wouldn’t leave her, she had counted on it.
She picked Kim up in her arms and took her to the empty cot, taking the blankets she wrapped her up. The fire was dying in the background, the little crackles and the occasional sob was the only sound that could be heard. The fires above had long burnt out, and the storm had covered everything in at least a four inch layer of snow. It was still coming down; the blackness of the clouds told her that it had no intention of stopping anytime soon. Going out there would be suicide, especially with the lack of equipment to help them.
“Shego,” She turned to look at the girl, “Why aren’t we fighting? I mean, I don’t want to, but I thought you hated me. Why aren’t you picking bits of us off the walls?”
“Who told you I hated you? Kim I’m not fighting you because I don’t have cause, I don’t have a reason. It’s a waste of time and a drain of energy. I’m not fighting with you because I don’t want to. Now come on get some sleep, it’ll make you feel better.” She sat next to the cot and threw the last few lumps of wood on the fire. There was maybe about 3 hours of heat left and maybe just 2 hours of light.
“I don’t hate you either Shego.” Kim rolled over burying herself in the blankets and wiping at her eyes. Shego smiled to herself, rubbing her arms as heat returned to her skin. Two hours silently passed, the flames had died down to the embers. There was still some heat left but Shego’s body shivered. Kim was waking up, she watched the older woman shake in the cold. Taking one of the blankets from the cot she wrapped it around Shego, surprised she turned to see the small smiling face.
“You’re cold.” Shego shook her head, “Shego, you’re cold and tired. You can’t keep this up. You said there was no way out. Nothing we can do. So what are you waiting for?” She reached out and laid a hand on her shoulder.
“You were right, we have to try and get out of here. It can’t all be for nothing. We have to do something.” Her eyes were heavy; she suppressed a yawn hoping she wouldn’t notice. Kim took her face into a hand rubbing her thumb over the cheek.
“Well you’re not much good to me tired. Come on, sleep for just an hour or two. Then we’ll try, we’ll do something. But you need to rest first, you’re still injured.” She stared into the dark eyes in front of her trying to comfort her and put her mind to rest. “The fire’s almost out and there isn’t much else we can burn without making some pretty toxic fumes. Come up here.” Shego’s eyes widened.
“What do you mean?”
“Come up here, there’s nothing else we can use for heat. Lay with me, and then we’ll both be warm.” Shego was still dubious; they were supposed to be enemies, now they were going to share the same space? “Just for a few hours, then we’ll try something. I promise.” She was shaking her head.
“I can’t, I can’t lay with you.” Kim stroked stray hairs back. Her face remained soft to try and convince her that it was for her own good. “Yes you can, unless you want to freeze, I can’t get us out of here if you’re a massive ice cube.” The darker woman gave in; slowly she stood and made her way to the other side of the cot. She lay behind Kim pulling the blanket across her.
Kim didn’t roll to face her but she reached back and pulled Shego’s arm across her. She wrapped it around her middle in an effort to make her move closer. Still wary and on guard Shego obliged and held her close in her arm. She could smell the calming scent of Kim’s hair, even through all the smoke and rubble she still smelt nice. Shego snuggled into the pillow. Soothed by the soft hand rubbing hers she deeply breathed in the sweet smell.
“This is only temporary Kim, after this it’s all business ok.”
“Ok, just until you wake up.” She didn’t wait for a reply she could feel the rhythmic breaths behind her telling her she was almost asleep. The exhaustion had knocked her out almost instantly.
The world was waiting with baited breath at every news report. Numerous search parties world wide had been started and called off. No one wanted to give up hope, but the storms in the valley were making it impossible to find anything. No satellite could locate the former complex to even give a radius to search. Every day they stopped, they watched and waited for words they didn’t want to hear. Day in and day out nothing was found, but no one dared give up hope.
“The storms in the glacier valley lulled this morning allowing rescue and search teams the welcome respite. Through the wreckage of the complex the teams managed to locate a small underground bunker. Inside they discovered the body of the notorious terrorist known only to authorities as ‘Shego’ and the frozen body of teen hero Kim Possible. Several countries world wide have sent messages of condolence to both team Possible and their families. She will be sorely missed.”