Kim sighed as she stared up at the stars above her, watching them silently. After a few minutes she turned her attention to the woman driving the car and studied her for a few minutes. “Shego… I’ve been dying to know. When did you get your teaching degree?”
Shego sighed a bit and gave a quick glance to keep careful not to take her eyes off the road for too long; they were doing 110 in a 55mph zone after all. Should she confide any further in Kim, the redhead knew her more intimately than almost anyone living? “Pumpkin I …”
Shego sighed heavily as she bites her lip, trying to figure out why this was such a big deal. It was only a matter of telling her a year, why was it so difficult? ‘Have I worked with villains so long I can’t even trust her? She’s the only thing close to a friend I have…’
Her thoughts were interrupted by a gentle touch on her shoulder, yielding but firm in its power. Slowly it drifted down onto her back and rubbed a spot right above her right shoulder blade, slowly easing the tension from that shoulder and side of her neck. Moments later the hand pulled away leaving her back feeling cold and lonely without the reassuring presence of the hand.
Turning her head she caught Kim’s thrice damned puppy dog pout out of the corner of her eyes before focusing on the road as Kim spoke. “I… I know that I’m prying Shego, but I thought… I thought maybe you and I could get to know each other more as friends.”
“Friends?” Shego asked trying to avoid sounding sarcastic, but the pained look on Kim’s face told her that it had. What surprised Shego the most was the pained churning in her gut she got when she thought that she was Kim’s friend and the danger that put her in, or was it something else?
Her eyebrows knit together in confusion before she sighed and asked, “I… ok promise that anything said in here will never be repeated outside of it to another living soul. Not even the buf… Stoppable.”
Kim smiled at the partial slip Shego had made before nodding her head while she whispered softly, “I promise Shego… what happens on this trip, stays on this trip.”
Shego eyed Kim for a moment before she remembered that the girl was honest to a fault and besides, something inside told her to trust the red head. With a smirk she responded, “If you break that promise, I will tell everyone what happened to you on a bit of catnip.”
Kim’s jaw dropped as a light dusting of blush formed on her cheeks, not that Shego could see it, but for some reason she could almost just imagine it. “That was the cat taking over,” Kim mumbled after she had regained her senses.
“Whatever you say Princess…” Shego replied with a small laugh. “But to answer your question, you’d have been a freshman when I got the degree, thanks in part to mom’s inside track on some college courses I could test out of easily.”
Kim smiled as she leaned back into her seat. “That seems so like you Shego… always doing things directly, not just plodding along. I had thought you were just doing online courses whenever Drakken bored you out of your mind with his babbling.”
“Good guess, but no, I had the degree before I turned evil,” Shego said with a laugh, “But now that you mention it, I had just finished up courses for a degree in mathematics when Nemmy bolted into my life.”
Kim scowled deeply, “Look could we not mention how you ‘met’ Nemmy? I was… scared to death … ok?”
“I could see how that would have been frightening,” Shego admitted with a smile, “But you have to admit, if you hadn’t panicked you would have beaten those mongrels.”
Kim's scowl deepened considerably, she had been in full panic mode and in a new body she didnt know the limits of at the time. “Honestly Shego … I don't think so.”
“Pumpkin, I know you,” Shego said while turning along the highway, “If you had not been out of your mind in the first place, you’d have used those skills that keep me on my toes to send them running, like I did with my plasma.”
“I was a cat Shego! At the time all I had going for me was speed reflexes and cunning,” Kim looked out across the expanse of forest they were approaching and sighed. “I lost them once … for a bit then they were right back on me and the cat part took over.”
“It did that a lot I remember…” Shego said quietly hurt evident on her voice, “The toys, the catnip, the naps… even those tender little bits of affection… they were all the cat, weren’t they?”
Kim looked Shego directly in the eyes with a sad smile; she wanted the pale woman to know she was telling the absolute truth. “No, well the catnip yeah that was mostly the cat but the affection was all me.”
Shego let out a breath she had unknowingly been holding, forcing her fingers to loosen off the wheel. After a moment she smiled letting the car drive itself through the forest as green signs for gas stations flash past.
Kim let out a soft whimper as she read the signs. “Shego? I know it’s only been three hours… but do you think we could maybe stop?”
“Why’s that princess?” Shego asked as they crossed over a bridge, nearly flying off the other side.
Kim felt herself blushing fiercely, as she did she wondered why she wasn’t lighting up the entire car with as bright she would have sworn it had to be. “I need to make a pit stop.”
Shego blinked as the idea of what Kim was getting at tickled the back of her mind. “Can you be more specific? If you want something to drink, there’s soda in the cooler in the back, water too,” Shego offered as the dull roar of a rushing waterfall sounded to the left of the car.
Kim bit her lip nervously as she squirmed in her seat, eyeing the sign marking the nearest exit a mile ahead. “Come on Shego… let’s just stop for a few minutes… stretch the legs… take care of calls of nature…”
Shego winced as her own body decided to remind her pointedly about how long it had been since she had visited the lady’s room. Turning on her blinker, she slowed down enough to catch the off ramp and slammed her brakes as she skidded into a truck stop, parking in a space near the door.
Kim was out of the car in a moment, leaping clean out without touching the side only to look down where she landed with a laugh. “You didn’t park in the handicap spot? I’m proud of you Shego.”
“Hey, I’m evil, not heartless,” Shego replied miffed as she got out of the car herself. “Shall we go?”
Kim’s eyes widened at Shego’s word choice a moment before she bolted for the bathroom, Shego a step behind as her own words came back to haunt her.
After a minor scuffle over the only unoccupied toilet, and a rather embarrassing incident, Kim and Shego were once again on their way. The pair was laughing about something as Shego sped out of the parking lot and back onto the highway. A few miles down the road Shego pulled over and Kim tossed a lumpy bundle into a dumpster behind some store.
For a few miles more neither woman said a word, but once Shego looked over at Kim and saw that mischievous smile and sparkle in Kim's eyes, she couldn’t help it and busted out laughing again. Kim followed suit and they both spent a while enjoying themselves. It may have been a bit embarrassing but it had relieved most of the tension they had felt up until then.
Kim leaned back in her seat, a faint trace of the smile she had lingering on her face. As she stared out the front windshield she let out a sigh, her body relaxing into the seat behind her. “Shego… What would it take for you to join Team Possible?”
Shego blinked and looked at Kim as if she had two heads. “Kimmie you can’t be serious … first I’m under contract to Dr. D … second I'm a felon … they wouldn’t let you let me on your team …
Kim smirked as her long hair flowed behind her in the breeze. “First, Wade has confirmed that you tendered your resignation to Drakken, and second, the only person in charge or membership on Team Possible is its founder, Kimberly Anne Possible.”
“And the warrants out for my ass?” Shego looked directly forward, she didnt want to risk looking at Kim.
“I have a lot of favors I can pull in to get them lifted, since the majority of them are started by me,” Kim replied evenly.
Shego slammed on the brakes; the traffic behind them didn’t appreciate the sudden stop anymore than Kim did. “Why? … Why would you do that for me after what I …”
“Why would I do something nice?” Kim asked as she readjusted herself in her seat. “I noticed that Drakken never listened to your advice, never took your input seriously. I would. You are an experienced criminal who would know what to look for when trying to find clues. Most of all… it would give us time to get to know each other more.”
Shego let off on the brakes and the car took off again though she didn’t rocket along as she had been doing, she didn’t trust herself to that speed just yet. “Oh trust me Princess,” She looked to Kim for a moment noticing once again how the seatbelt fit across her chest. “We'll know each other very well before this trip is over.”
“Then I will have your answer when we return to Middleton, and not a second before,” Kim replied with a smile as she leaned forward in her seat, inadvertently tightening it across her chest. “Oh look, a shooting star.”
Shego winced at the mention of something falling from the sky but looked anyway since Kim seemed to be pleased by it. This one was a brilliant white which surprised her since most falling stars have other colors. “Make a wish Kimmie.”
“Already did… but you make one for yourself,” Kim said as she watched the star’s path, “Oh look, it changed to green.”
Shego nodded. “I did but you know you can’t tell or they won’t come true.” She had long ago quit believing in such things but around Kim it felt… ok to believe. No, not just ok, but right. It felt natural to believe in something silly like that.
“So… what’s your mother like?” Kim asked after a few minutes of companionable silence. “I mean you know my mom… but I’ve never met yours.”
Shego arches an eyebrow and wondered if she should explain her mother or just leave it as a surprise. “Give me a minute on that one Cupcake.”
Kim fell silent at the shocked tone in Shego’s voice, letting the roar of the engine and the whistling of the wind be the only sound for a few minutes. Shego broke the silence with a quiet voice. “I guess, the best way to describe my mother is to say a living example of a hippie gone mental.”
Kim blinked slowly as her mind processed this. “I'm guessing you don’t mean chainsaw massacre or lector mental… right?” She honestly wouldn’t have been surprised at either though considering Shego’s hostile and slightly insane temperament.
“I wish, it would explain me… no… mom is a hippie that never grew out of it, and…,” Shego answered with a calmness she wished she felt.
After a moment, Kim’s interest caused her to ask, “…And?”
Shego glanced at Kim’s form briefly before lighting her hand up so Kim could see her curl her forefinger in a ‘come hither’ motion, she didn’t want to take her eyes off the road for too long. Kim leaned closer and when she was in hearing distance, Shego mumbled it out.
A second later she winced as Kim’s shriek of ‘SHE LIVES ON A WHAT?!?!’ echoed throughout the forest scattering birds to the winds. ‘Oh yeah… this is going to be fun.’ Shego thought grimly as she tried to stop the ringing in her ears.
A good ways ahead, Joss wound Ol’ Tornado through the dense shrubs and underbrush between the trees as quietly as the metal horse could go. Reaching a clearing a short distance from where her tracker put Kim and Shego passing on the highway she sighed and dismounted. She had needed to make this stop for a while now, but didn’t want to risk being spotted.
Grabbing the necessary supplies from her pack, Joss hit Tornado’s camouflage button, turning on the holographic projector, turning the metal horse practically invisible. Nodding at the hiding effect of the robot, she slipped off into the underbrush and started to answer nature’s call. A minute later she nearly jumped clean out of her skin as she heard Kim’s shrieking “SHE LIVES ON A WHAT?!?!”
‘What in tarnations is goin’ on in that thar car?’ Joss wondered as she tried to return to her business at hand.