Ron, who had heard everything, looked up to the ceiling, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. Boo-yahhhhh…
“Kim… I -”, Shego started.
“PARMESAN!”, yelled Ron from the kitchen. “Who wants paarmesan?”, he peeked around the corner to ask.
Dammit Stoppable!, Shego was thinking, your timing really sucks! She sighed inwardly. The moment had passed.
Sorry, Shego, Ron thought back, knowing what she must have been thinking, but this isn’t the time. Give Kim a chance to catch up.
Kim and Shego had been gazing at each other and sniffling, still in the doorframe. Shego had been willing to go that last little way, in that moment, to expose herself. Knowing that Kim knew, that Kim had figured it out, made all the difference. Shego had swallowed her pride, for once in her life, and it didn’t matter that Ron was her boyfriend, that Kim wouldn’t feel the same way towards her, perhaps couldn’t feel the same way… all that mattered was that she did, and she wanted Kim to know. After that, whatever happened wouldn’t have mattered. Shego could’ve just curled up into a ball somewhere and died happy. And Ron had ruined it.
Through her puffy and tired eyes she shot Ron a baleful look as she spun around, walked back to the table and sat down. Ron caught it and flashed her a wan smile, Really, I AM sorry, Shego. Kim followed, sitting at the end of the table, Shego to her left.
Kim’s mind was a vibrating silence. She didn’t know what to think, or where to start. She… I mean that much to her? But… and it pretty much went on that way, over and over, because Kim was unwilling to follow the chain to it’s logical conclusion.
Ron brought Shego a plate of spagetti and sauteed veggies, with mariniara sauce (heavy on the basil, pinch of oregano, half-cup cooking sherry, pinch of a pinch of nutmeg, etc, etc) and sat it down in front of her, pointedly. “Spagetti al la Ron” he said.
“Look, I told you -” Shego began. Her mound of spagetti was only about the size of a fist. Shego stared down at her food, expecting the dry heaves to start any moment. “ - that I - “ she continued, but then the smell hit her. The smell of the steam rising in front of her face… was… not… sickening. In fact, it smelled quite good… In fact, it smelled damned freakin’ delicious! Forgetting that she hadn’t wanted to give Ron the satisfaction of even eating –let along enjoying – his cooking, she began to scarf it down in front of them both.
“Daaaamn”, said Kim. She’d never seen anyone eat like a starving wolf before. Even the Tweebs – her little twin brothers – ate with more decorum than Shego was doing. In four bites it was gone.
She smiled sheepishly at Ron, “More?”
“Coming up. You go on like that, you’ll make yourself sick. Catch your breath. Drink”, still standing (he hadn’t had time to sit down), he put a bottle of cold water in front of her.
Kim regained some of her senses. “You say we’re in danger? From Jinn? You mean -”, she asked.
“No shop-talk at the table!” Ron hollered while dipping out Shego’s second helping, only a little bigger than the first. “I think we’ve all had quite the drama day, so let’s just leave the rest of it for tomorrow, ‘kay?” He sat Shego’s plate back in front of her.
Then they sat in awe as Shego again attacked her spagetti.
After a shower (Shego’d insisted), Ron had found her an old flannel button down shirt to wear for pajamas. They came down to just above her knees. Shego didn't even bother to make fun of the red-and-green plaid pattern, it felt too good just to be clean, fed, and… (and what she wouldn’t admit was, “in the company of friends”). It was not how she’d expected to end the day, to say the least. After obligatory calls home to the Stoppables and Possibles, Ron gave Shego the one twin bed in the apartment, while he took the recliner and Kim got the couch.
Shego felt soooo much better, in soooo many ways that she fell right to sleep. Which turned out not to be a good thing.
Ron and Kim were barely dozing off when they heard the wailing coming from the bedroom. All-out bawling it was, breathless and stuttering. The sound would have been terrible to anyone, but to Kim, it was absolutely, and literally, heart-wrenching. She ran to Shego’s bedside and shook her awake.
“Shego! Shego! It’s just a bad dream! Wake-up! Shego!”, Kim said desperatly, almost crying herself.
Shego grasped at Kim and, realizing who she was, pulled her close enough to bury her head between her pillow and Kim’s arm. The bawling quieted, but did not stop. She bawled at the memory of the dream, because even that was bad enough.
The wailing had awoken Ron too, who opened his eyes but did not move. He heard (because he didn’t look) Kim leave the couch and go to the bedroom. He had had dreams like that himself, back when Kim lay dying in the hospital. He knew the sound.
The monk, in the usual saffron robe, said “Wait here”, and Ron waited, studying the floor. He’d come here for someone to talk to, because it seemed no one he knew really had anything to say. Everone offered the usual platitudes, and he needed something more. He needed the dreams to stop.
Ron studied the pattern in the floor tiles while he waited… A circle divided into four equal quadrants, and in the upper-right quadrant, there was another, much smaller, identical pattern. Brownish-colored tiles marked various places, symmetrical, yet apparently without meaning, on the outer circle.
“This way”, the monk said, returning. Ron followed, still wondering about the pattern on the floor. Another monk, very, very old, appeared. He was smiling, as if at some sort of inside joke. This struck Ron as almost rude, considering. But still the old man smiled, as if at a long lost friend.
“So you find us again, eh? Heh heh. Come! You’re having bad dreams? Come. We’ll fix it”.
What’s he mean ‘find them again’? “Do I know you?”, Ron asked.
“You do and you do not. Like everything in Life, it’s a gray area. You always search for absolutes… Ron, is it this time? Which is why you always have to search. One day perhaps you will find peace. But that’s not why you’re here, is it! Heh. Lie down here. Oh, take your shirt off first.”
Ron removed his shirt and lay on a stone table, covered with a rough matress that was apparently filled with straw. The old man held up a small bottle of some clear liquid.
KPKPKPKPKPKPKPKPKP
“This is just water, Shego. Nothing special about it. Except to me”, Ron put the vial down on the dresser next to the bed. “We can make the dreams go away, Shego. Believe me.” The last part was a statement, not a request.
Both girls looked at Ron with something like bewilderment crossed with disbelief. There was an odd look in Ron’s eyes. It was like… professional detachment. Like he’d said the same thing hundreds of times, to hundreds of people. He didn’t seem to care whether they believed him or not. It didn’t seem to matter. It almost seemed like he must have other patients waiting, and so wasn’t really interested in their opinions.
He pulled the bedsheets up off Shego’s feet. “Open your shirt”, he said. “All the way”.
Kim’s eyes widened. “But… Ron, she’s not wearing anything under…”
Ron looked at her as if he were so tired of explaining. “Good”, he said simply. He went to find another chair to set beside the bed.
Shego gave Kim a look. Well… I guess… Whatever was about to happen, Ron seemed to know what he was doing. But he was so serious. Could I have been wrong about the whole “buffoon sidekick” thing? Or has he changed…
When Shego had finished unbuttoning her nightshirt, still under the sheets, Ron said, “Okay. I know this may be a little embarassing, and I apologize. But it’s the only way I know how to do it. Please don’t interrupt.”
Kim said, “I’ll just wait…”
“No. You’re part of… this too. You stay there”, Ron said. Again, it wasn’t a request.
Ron pulled the top sheet down to Shego’s waist-line, then opened the nightshirt, exposing her breasts and belly fully to view. He did it with total disinterest, like a doctor might. Kim kept glancing back and forth between Shego and Ron, half expecting her to jab him in the throat for his affrontry. She caught a look between them, just for an instant. Shego’s expression said in your hands, and Ron’s slow blink said Thank you for your trust.
Perhaps Ron seemed to be disinterested in Shego’s breasts, but Kim wasn’t. The effort it took her to keep from looking, coupled with the realization that she wanted to look, made her face burn with embarassment. Because Kim could easily admit she had feelings for Shego. Kim could even have said she loved Shego. But not that kind of feelings, or that kind of love.Luckily for her, no one was watching.
Ron sat up straight and closed his eyes for a minute, breathing evenly. Shego watched. Then he reached over and took his little vial of water and opened it. He dipped a finger into the vial, and then put it to his lips, as if testing it. Finding it apparently satisfactory, he wetted it again, and touched Shego’s forehead. Then her hands, and the tops of her feet. Just a single touch with the wet finger, like pushing a button. That done, he proceeded to “paint” a wet line from her lower lip to her belly button. Passing between her breasts, Shego’s nipples stiffened, and Kim felt as if her face would catch fire. Ron didn’t seem to notice - he seemed to be concentrating.
Next, Ron drew another wet line, left to right, directly under Shego’s breasts. Finally, Ron drew a circle with the water, high on Shego’s left breast. Above her heart, Kim thought. Two gleaming lines of water divided it into four equal parts. The pattern Ron had seen in the floor tiles was completed.
Ron opened his eyes. He tasted the water a final time, as if to ensure it was still all right. He screwed the cap back on the bottle, and closed Shego’s shirt back over her. He pulled the sheet back up where it had been.
“Okay”, he said, “that’s it. No more bad dreams. My word on it.” As Ron got up to leave, both girls were still speechless. The color in Kim’s cheeks was fading, and Shego seemed oddly calm, all things considered. “Kim, you sleep with her tonight”, he added matter-of-factly. He walked toward the bedroom door.
“But… but it’s a twin bed…”, Kim stammered. Sleep with her? What?
Ron spun around and fairly glared with exasperation at Kim, “Well, then! I guess you’ll have to snuggle-up, won’t you?”, he challenged. Turning back around he said, “Gah!”, and stuck his arms out as if appealing to the gods. He slammed the door behind him.
Kim and Shego stared at the door wide-eyed. Kim thought, Ron, and Shego thought, Stoppable? And they both thought, what the hell…?
They looked at each other, open-mouthed, as if each expected the other to explain. What just happened?
Suddenly Shego felt a grin start to spread on her lips. She covered it with her hand, but her eyes continued to narrow, until they were two green crescent moons. She kept looking at Kim, who remained frozen in abject bewilderment, staring back at her. And for the first time in her adult life, Shego began to giggle.
“What?” asked Kim.
Shego couldn’t answer, but only giggled harder.
“What!”Kim started to blush. “It’s not funny!” She grabbed one of the bed pillows and threw it into the other girl’s face. Shego made no move to avoid it. Kim grabbed it again and began beating Shego’s head with it, already fighting off the grin that threatened her mock anger display. “It’s not…”, Kim started again, but began laughing out loud before she cold finish.
“Oh! Schootch over!”, Kim said.
Both of them were asleep within minutes.