“Hello?” Kim said tiredly. Figures someone would call when she FINALLY felt like she'd be able to go to sleep. The images and feelings that had been running wildly through her head for the last couple of days were finally dying down, she was finally able to put them out of her mind. It had just been a dream… that was all. It wasn't True. It wasn't… possible…
“It's me” Shego said.
Kim's heart nearly jumped out of her mouth, “Doc!”, she cried happily, unexpectedly overcome, before it occurred to her to wonder; why was she happy? Why did she call Shego 'Doc'?
But Shego didn't say anything about the 'Doc' part. Shego knew all about 'Doc'… Like Kim, Shego knew more than she wanted to; and also like Kim, the knowledge wouldn't leave her alone. She hadn't wanted to make this call. But she couldn't help it.
“I remembered something… Kim” Shego said. But it didn't sound much like the Shego that Kim knew. There was no sarcasm in her voice, no implied smirk on her face. None of that infuriating CONFIDENCE that Shego always showed off. In fact, she sounded a little like the Shego from her… dream.
“M-me too” Kim replied before she could stop herself. No! She hadn't “remembered” anything! It was a dream! Just a stupid, irrational, means-nothing dream! Dammit!
Once again, Shego seemed to let it go, not following up with the “Oh? What?” that Kim was expecting.
“I… I remembered getting rescued, Kim. I remember what happened. Is that what you remembered?”
“Uh… no. But – what happened? How did you remember it? I mean… are you SURE you're really… remembering?” Because it HAS to be something else! It CANNOT be real!
“We were there for twenty-one years. Twenty-one years, Red. Uh… I mean…” Shego never finished saying what she 'meant'.
Kim was too stunned to speak. The events in her 'dream' had taken place only ten years after the accident. That meant that they'd lived there for eleven years afterward. That meant… That meant… No! GOD-DAMMIT NO!
Her eyes squinted shut as if to keep the thoughts out of her mind, Kim resorted to her only safe option: ask about the mundane. “So how did we get rescued?” There. That was a safe question.
“You built a beacon. You called it a… a 'reality phase' something – I can't remember. You said it would either work right away or not at all” Shego reported matter-of-factly.
“I…I built it?”
“Yeah. You got us rescued, Red… I mean 'Kim'.” Shego stopped speaking, but Kim could tell there was more she wanted to say. Kim would have to drag it out of her, as usual… Really, Shego could be SO… wait a minute… how did Kim know how Shego could be?
Kim doubled over on the bed into a fetal position, phone still to her ear. Oh god… oh god… oh god… she thought. And for the first time admitted – it might have actually happened. It might be true. Oh god…
“Kim? Kim, what do you remember? Kim…” Shego's voice was almost begging. No, this was not the Shego Kim knew. It was the Shego Kim had COME to know. And then Kim realized: Shego was just as scared as she was. Shego wanted it to not be real as badly as she did. And finally – Shego hurt as much as she did, too.
It was so unfair to keep her guessing, wondering. Kim knew now… it was real. It had happened. She couldn't let Shego hurt the way she had been… it was simply not something Kim could do. Not to Shego.
Not now.
“I remember getting married.”
Silence. Fully ten minutes of silence while the only sound on the phone-line was each other's breathing.
Finally, her voice near cracking, Shego said, “T- to me?”
Under the circumstances, it was about the most stupid question Shego could have asked. There had been ONLY the two of them, for twenty-one years, apparently. But the irony and humor didn't even occur to Kim.
“Yeah. To you, Doc.”