They made a deal: He picked her up, she dropped him off. She’d agreed, but hesitantly. It was normal to their relationship for them to do something like that, but she’d been wondering about…well, them. She knew he loved her, and she wanted to say she still loved him, but lately, it wasn’t feeling the same…
A branch was down in the front yard. Ugh…Stupid storm. Probably what those sounds I heard when we left were. Great, and it knocked the tarp off the other car, too. Splendi-
The branch wasn’t long enough to touch the tarp.
CRINK.
“Oh my god.”
It was so cold. She cursed herself for promising not to use her powers. It was beyond shivering now.
A car. From the other side of the road.
Was it-
It turned into the driveway.
It turned into the driveway.
IT TURNED INTO THE DRIVEWAY.
Her heart would’ve raced if it hadn’t been shivering.
K-THNK.
Footsteps.
“Hey! You! What are you doin’ on our - SHEGO?”
Look up at her.
Look up at her.
FOR SHIT’S SAKE, LOOK UP AT HER!
She could barely do it. So cold – everything was so blurry…
“Shego? What – Why are you – Why do you have a box of chocol – What are you doing out of jail?”
“Happy Valentine’s Day, Princess.”
At least, that’s what she would’ve said if it weren’t so cold. The blur began to go grey.
At least there’s a note in the box…
“Hrpy Vrntns D-…”
“SHEGO!”
She instinctively checked the unconscious woman’s pulse. Still there.
The pale green skin was freezing to the touch. And those normally black lips…so blue…
“Christ…” She had to get her inside. Enemy or not, Kim Possible helped those in need.
She nearly kicked the door open, it was taking so long to unlock it.
She picked up Shego and made sure to keep the woman flat on her back. She was so cold, there was absolutely no way she’d just been sitting there on the welcome mat for only an hour and a half.
Please, let it only be mild hypothermia…
She put Shego on the floor and covered her with a thick comforter for the time being. Running into the garage, she grabbed the lowest temperature-rated sleeping bag she could find, and bolted back to the living room. Carefully placing Shego in the sleeping bag, she zipped it up and scrambled to her feet. Running to the closet, she frantically checked the closet. “RES-Q-AIR…RES-Q-AIR…Where is it?”
She knew her mother had bought it recently. But where had she put it?
Her mother… She smacked her head. Of course!
She headed back to the living room to check on Shego, and fished out the Kimmunicator as she did so.
The lights went out.
And she promptly tripped against the table in the darkness.
CRUNCH.
“Oh no…”
She felt around…and found crushed Kimmunicator parts all over the ground.
“Oh, that just had to happen, didn’t it? Great…”
The RES-Q-AIR ran on a battery electricity was out, but it was more like a car battery - and she knew her mother had stored the battery with the RES-Q-AIR, but when she didn’t know where that was…
The phones!
Maybe the landline still worked. She got up slowly, and took out her keychain flashlight to search for the phone. Knew this would come in handy someday…
“Aha! There it is!” She bolted over to the phone, picked up the handset – and got nothing. She desperately tried again and again, but each time got the same thing: Nothing. Not even a dial tone.
For one of the first times in her life, Kim Possible was actually completely cut off from the world.
Well, not exactly, but there was no time to run to the neighbors. Shego needed her help NOW.
“Guess I have to do it, then…”
She found her way to the bathroom and frantically turned on the hot water in the tub. “C'mon, c'mon…”
She returned to Shego and carefully picked the now very pale woman up, keeping her flat on her back. “C’mon, Shego…Stay with me now! I may be your enemy, but you’re not losing to anyone but me!”
Returning to the bathroom, the tub was almost to the level she wanted. she unzipped the sleeping bag and took Shego out. The unconscious woman’s clothes were still wet – and still freezing to the touch.
There was no time for self-debating. Besides, Shego was a woman, and she was a woman. Why should she feel uncomfortable seeing another woman naked? There – No! No time for self-debating! Hurry!
She forced herself to remove Shego’s clothes. Then she took her laser lipstick, and putting it on the low section, she extremely carefully cut the sleeves and leg parts to pieces, so that she didn’t have to risk putting Shego in a vertical position in order to get her sleeves off. Once she got Shego out of all her clothes, she picked the woman up, carefully stepped into the tub, and kneeled until Shego was in the water. Stepping out of the tub, she dashed as fast as she could to her room and found the largest-sized sweatshirt & sweatpants she could find. Running into her parents’ room, she hastily grabbed a pair of sweatpants and sweatshirts from the closet there. Forget that they weren’t green. Forget if they were for her father. Shego was going to have to live with whatever they were when she recovered.
She raced back to the bathroom, having only been gone 10 minutes. She checked Shego. No change.
“C’mon, Shego…Fight it! You fight me all the time!” Kim urged. She huffed. “Fine! I’m gonna stay right here until you snap out of this and try beat me to a pulp for me trying to rescue you, okay?”
Shego made no sound.
She sat for 5 minutes, waiting. She had never become so desperate so quickly as she was becoming now. It made no sense. Shego was her enemy. But, then again, Shego was on the verge of doing what she did not want to witness anyone do. Yet – something still ate at her insides. She was Kim Possible. She kept control, even in the worst of situations. She didn’t become desperate like this. The only time she’d felt as desperate as she was feeling now was—
Eric.
Before she knew he was a synthodrone, when she’d thought Drakken had kidnapped him.
But…That would mean I –
“No! That’s Ron! Not her!” she argued with herself. “And none of this matters right now!”
She checked the battery-powered clock in the bathroom with the Indiglo light. 15 minutes had passed since she’d brought Shego in from the cold. She checked the unconscious woman again – still nothing.
Shego was breathing and had a pulse, though. That was good.
But she’s not gaining consciousness. She has to wake up. Her body temperature – I need a thermometer-
“Stop it, Kim!” she told herself. “Just…Go try and find the RES-Q-AIR!”
Resolving to do so, Kim checked the living room closet. It wasn’t there. The garage. It wasn’t there.
“Where is it? Where is it?”
Okay – Calm down, Kim…Think…Think…
“Mom and Dad’s room!”
She raced back to her parents’ room and looked everywhere – literally, as her little keychain flashlight didn’t really illuminate much. But then she looked by her mother’s side of the bed – and found it.
“YES!” And the battery pack was there, too!
She grabbed the RES-Q-AIR and the battery pack and bolted back to the bathroom. No change in Shego. Remembering when her mother had instructed her on using the device, she set everything up, poured the 70mL water into the RES-Q-AIR, hooked the machine to the battery, opened Shego’s mouth, and put the face mask on the woman. She held Shego’s mouth open so the air could reach Shego’s lungs.
She stayed like that for what seemed an eternity. But when she checked the clock again, it had only been 5 minutes since she’d found the RES-Q-AIR. 20 minutes since she’d brought Shego in from the cold.
And Shego still wasn’t responding.
“C’mon, Shego! You can do it!” she urged.
Another 5 minutes passed. And nothing was happening.
“Come on, Shego!” she protested in a sterner voice.
Another 5 minutes. 30 minutes since she’d brought Shego in from the cold.
And she lost it – partially.
“Shego! SHEGO! C’MON! I’M YOUR ENEMY! I’M NOT SUPPOSED TO CARE ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS TO YOU! I FIGHT YOU! NOT RESCUE! I’M NOT SUPPOSED TO CARE ABOUT—”
She pounded the bathroom’s tile with her fist, kneeling over as tears began to form in her eyes. “I’m not supposed to care…” she whimpered softly. She didn’t want to sob, but she was getting there. “I’m not supposed to care for you. I’m not supposed to care about why you had a box of chocolates when I found you. I’m not supposed to care about why you were spying on me, or why you’d been sitting on my porch waiting for someone to come home. You don’t attack me this way. You attack me directly. C’MON! This isn’t how you are! You always get back up! I wait for you to get back up! I know you’ll get back up. I want you to get back up. I want you to keep fighting me. I want…” She lifted her head and looked at the sleeping pale woman as it all began to settle in with her. “…you. I – I gu – I guess - I love you…”
At the reveal of the revelation, she felt like a huge burden had just been lifted off her shoulders forever. Nothing was happening to Shego, though. Leave the RES-Q-AIR alone…If it does its job, it will. Go…
“The chocolates.”
Kim dashed into the living room, found the box of chocolates Shego had been clutching when she’d brought her in from outside, and bolted back to the bathroom with them in hand. No change in Shego.
Kim opened the box – and her heart raced as she found that there was a letter contained inside the box. She excitedly picked it up and read it out loud. “Hey, Peach – You know who this is from. Sorry I kinda had to wait until you were, y’know – 18 – to do this, but I wanted to let you know that if we’re gonna keep fighting, I’d rather we fight over – oh, I dunno – who gets to hog the covers at night? –Shego.”
When the room lit up in a green hue and she felt cold hands wrap around her chest, she didn’t even jump up & down, or hug the pale-skinned woman out of joy. She just leaned against the tub’s side and smiled.
Ron’s gonna seriously hate me now…
“Happy belated Valentine’s Day, Princess.”
FIN