Disclaimer: I do not own Kim Possible or have any claim to it.

Author's Note: I don't have much to say about this chapter, so enjoy, and have a happy Easter!

Return to Routine

As it happened, Dr. Drakken did remember their conversation. He was one of those people who could fall asleep between one breath and the next but would remember everything prior to that moment. So the next morning, their partnership resumed, if a little tenuously. Shego went out with a list to get some real groceries, and she decided to actually pay for them. It wasn't a good time to bring the attention of the local authorities down upon them.

She then found herself needing to learn a little about cooking. She did the two-handed jobs, like peeling and chopping vegetables, while Drakken mixed and measured. Dr. Drakken also wanted some lab materials, which were a little more difficult to procure than food. Still, Shego didn't mind flexing her stealth skills, and she managed to obtain some basics in small amounts that wouldn't be noticed. High school and college science students were famous for breaking beakers and spilling reagents, so swiping a few items here and there was unlikely to arouse suspicion.

Over the next few days, they fell into a routine. They each claimed one of the bunkrooms to sleep in, but they spent most of their waking hours together – preparing meals, working in the lab, or sometimes just talking. Drakken's headaches receded, and his bruises turned a sickly green color before disappearing entirely. After about a week, Shego brought up the topic of setting up a new lair.

"Plans for that have already been set in motion, Shego," he assured her distractedly. She was confused by this because the only new thing she'd really noticed him doing was filling out some government forms. This was not the first time he'd been mysterious about something, however, so she shrugged it off.

In the meantime, Dr. D was busily working on something in his rudimentary lab, but it was nowhere near on as grand a scale as his usual projects. Despite acting as his left hand much of the time, Shego was mystified as to its purpose. While the work was still in progress, his ribs healed enough that the chest wrappings could be removed, and he took to wearing a button-down shirt that he'd put his right arm through normally but drape over his left shoulder. It looked a little like a comical cape, and it got in his way some, but it was serviceable.

At last, the object he was making was completed, looking something like a large, asymmetric pipe fitting. At Drakken's instructions – and against her better judgment – Shego removed his sling and splint. Then, between the two of them, they got the new invention fitted and snapped into place over Drakken's elbow. Only then did Shego understand that he'd created a kind of plastic cast.

"Much better," Drakken remarked triumphantly, moving his arm experimentally from the shoulder. He wasn't even aware of the dislocation there, and it didn't cause him any trouble. "Now I can actually use this hand once in a while, and I can start wearing shirts again." He flexed the fingers of his left hand, stretching out the disused muscles.

Best of all, as far as he was concerned, he could now take a proper shower, and he quickly excused himself to do so. He'd been giving himself sponge baths and rinsing his hair out in the sink, but today, he could finally wash away the grime of his fall.

Shego reclined on the couch while he washed up, flipping through channels on the television without really seeing them. She had to admit that Drakken was capable of coming up with some pretty incredible things when he had adequate motivation.

She recalled with envy all of the things Junior had said he and his father already owned, things she recognized as very difficult to obtain. Being fabulously wealthy, the Seniors had it made. Any time they wanted something built, they could simply hire it done, buying all of the materials themselves (legally or illegally). Dr. Drakken, on the other hand, was often limited by what he could beg, steal, borrow, or create. It gave Shego a new respect for the challenges her employer faced and how amazing it was that he'd come as close to conquering the world as he occasionally had.

Of course, Shego didn't know half of what Drakken's new invention could do. He'd lined the inside with a special adhesive that would bond with his skin and deliver calcium and other nutrients directly to the injured area, helping him to heal faster than he otherwise would. In principle, it was similar to a nicotine or birth control patch. In addition, there was an aperture on the outside through which he could inject local anesthetic, if needed. The pain had diminished greatly, largely replaced by itching, but he believed in covering all possibilities that occurred to him. Biology wasn't his strong suit, but he did dabble in biochemistry from time to time. He was also thinking about brushing up on his botany. Shego had mentioned something about plants that had started the seed of an idea (pun intended) growing in his fertile mind. That would take some time, however, so it would have to wait.

When Drakken rejoined his employee, newly clean and shaved and in a much better mood than he'd been in quite some time, Shego turned the TV off. She noticed that he was wearing a casual navy blue shirt with dark blue pants and wondered if the man owned a single article of clothing that wasn't either black or blue. Then again, with his coloring, it was probably hard to find anything that complimented him. That gaudy hip-hop outfit last year certainly hadn't done him any favors. Not that she was really in a position to criticize, considering that her wardrobe consisted almost exclusively of white, green, and black, but she didn't usually let that stop her.

"You know, that Lil Diablo plan was actually pretty good," she complimented him. Back before it had crashed, she'd mentioned being impressed, but the sentiment bore repeating. She'd been giving the matter some thought recently. "It came really close to working."

"Close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and thermonuclear weapons," he quipped. He didn't seem upset to be reminded of his failure, but knowing him, he was moving on to his next attempt. Dr. Drakken wasn't one to look back.

"I think the one thing you didn't consider was the buffoon," Shego persisted.

"The sidekick? What about him?"

"Well, he and Kimmie are an item now—"

"What!" Drakken exclaimed, jumping to his feet in his surprise. "Did the entire world turn upside down while I was gone? Kim Possible and the buffoon are dating?"

"Um, no and yes," said Shego in response. "I think." Drakken, however, had stopped listening by this point.

"Well, I suppose stranger things have happened, although nothing comes to mind," he mused. He began pacing the room as he thought aloud, gesticulating wildly with his good arm. "Yes, I see it now. Kim fell for Eric as planned, but that just led the buffoon to realize his own feelings for her. He didn't have a date for the dance…"

"Speaking from experience now?" Shego couldn't resist muttering, but she said it softly, and Drakken was on a roll.

"…so instead of going, he decided to get a snack from his favorite fast food joint, Bueno Nacho."

"Wait a minute, Doc," interrupted Shego. "You know his eating habits, but you can't remember his name?" Drakken ignored her.

"He must have been there when some of the robots were activated," he decided. "He went to the school to warn Kim, and…" Here, he stopped. He was having trouble with the next logical step. "Why did she go with him? Why did she leave the perfect date for a wild story told by a jealous teen?"

"I'm gonna go with 12 or so years of friendship here," Shego supplied. "And they'd spent three or four of those years working together to fight people like us. They trust each other. A hot guy she'd only known for a few weeks couldn't compete with that."

"Hmmm. Yes, trust is important in a team." His tone wasn't particularly biting, but Shego flinched involuntarily anyway. For all she knew, he wasn't even directing the comment at her, but she sort of doubted it. If anyone could hold a grudge, it was Dr. Drakken, and she had no illusions that he would not make her pay for her abandonment in small, subtle ways for a long time to come.

Strangely, she found that she didn't mind the prospect all that much. Both of them had escaped prison long before their sentences had been served, they were a team again, and Drakken had that gleam in his eye that indicated another plan was in the works. All in all, there was a lot to appreciate about where they were right now, and she didn't even really care that whatever he had in mind would probably be a gigantic flop. There was even comfort in the familiarity of that, and she could at least look forward to getting the chance to trade blows with Kim Possible again, thus fully restoring the natural order of things.

"And since it looks like they 'got together,' you know, romantically, soon after beating us, she probably already had some feelings for him, too," Shego added.

There was only one thing still bothering her, and it related to the Moodulator incident last year. She and Drakken had a tacit agreement never to speak about that day, but the fact of Kimmie and Stoppable's new relationship had brought it back to her mind.

Her memories of being under the influence of that diabolical invention were a little hazy, but she was pretty sure she recalled Kimmie chasing her sidekick even as Shego had been chasing Drakken. Now that the other team had made things official, it was forcing Shego to face some uncomfortable possibilities.

She had originally assumed that the Moodulator somehow took your brain waves and altered them to essentially create emotion. Lately, she had begun to suspect that it was something else entirely. When first affected by the "love" setting, Kimmie had been at school, meaning that she had a population of hundreds of eligible boys upon which to fixate. She had chosen Ron, and recent developments would argue for the idea that she'd already been attracted to him at a subconscious level.

Therefore, the inescapable conclusion was that the Moodulator merely brought forward an emotion that was already there, however deeply submerged, and made you feel it to the exclusion of all else. That meant that Shego held within her the capacity to fall in love with her boss.

There was a time, not all that long ago, when she would have laughed aloud at such a suggestion. Now, however, she was willing to entertain the idea. In fact, it was kind of hard to argue the point when she'd barged in here like a jealous lover at the thought that Dr. D might have found a new sidekick.

"Well, I won't underestimate him again," Drakken was saying, sinking back down onto the sofa. Shego wondered if she'd missed anything but quickly decided it didn't much matter. "Is there anything on?"

"We're kind of in between the afternoon soaps and the evening news," she said, handing over the remote. "Knock yourself out. I wasn't having much luck." She let him play with the (pirated) cable while she surreptitiously studied him. He wasn't handsome by any measure, yet his face was nearly as familiar to her by this time as her own. And what was love, really, but familiarity? At least, that seemed to have worked for Team Possible.

Drakken could be charming when he wanted to be, and he made her laugh. She even thought he was kind of cute when he got so angry that the veins stood out on his neck. Why else would she work so hard to rile him up?

Shego turned her eyes forward again and folded her legs up under her, getting comfortable. Dr. D probably knew how the Moodulator worked, but she couldn't ask him for obvious reasons. If it hadn't already occurred to him, she definitely wasn't ready to bring this awkward situation to the forefront of his thoughts.

The green-skinned woman suppressed a sigh as she rested her head on her hand. This line of thinking wasn't really getting her anywhere. Romantic love was basically a foreign concept to her. Sure, she'd seen the obligatory fairy tale movies as a child, and she'd had her share of crushes as a young girl. By the time she should have been in prime dating form, though, she'd had superpowers, and being part of Team Go had really cut into her social life. Not to mention the fact that she'd turned green, which was kind of hard for high school guys to see past.

Certainly, Shego knew now that she was attractive, but she'd just been an insecure teenager back then. It was very likely that her failures with the opposite sex in those years had laid the foundation that eventually led to her abandoning her family and becoming a criminal. Since then, men had become objects to be used when necessary. Life was cleaner that way, easier. Safer. It kind of galled Shego that Kimmie, young as she was, could actually give the older woman pointers on falling in love. Not that she actually intended to ask.

Her interaction with Dr. Drakken had been…different from the beginning. They'd always remained on a professional footing, as was proper, except in extreme circumstances. Nonetheless, what they had was far from a typical working relationship. They went bowling with the henchmen, they had karaoke nights together, and they remembered each other's birthdays, among other things.

Shego decided to spare a few moments thinking back on how this partnership had come about in the first place. She hadn't really had a clear idea of what she wanted to do after she left her brothers. The only thing she'd been sure of was that she was tired of putting her life on hold to serve others and sick of taking orders from Hego. So she'd finished her college degree while taking some odd jobs here and there. Eventually, she realized that wasn't for her. She wanted to put herself first for a change, and she stopped caring whether that happened at the expense of others. Thus, she embarked on her life of crime, turning away from her superhero past for good.

She'd only stolen for herself at first, but when that proved impractical, she worked freelance for a while and bounced through a couple of criminal organizations, where her mouth and attitude tended to get her into trouble. Finally, she'd offered her services to Dr. Drakken, who was looking for a sort of versatile bodyguard. After a 3-month probationary period, she'd signed a two-year contract, and they'd been more or less a fixture in the villain world ever since.

They were a mismatched pair, when you thought about it – she was the languidly sardonic fighter while he was the frenetic mad scientist. Somehow, though, their differences seemed to work for them. They might not be as seamless a team as Kimmie and Ron (and the naked rodent, don't forget that), but as recent events had shown, they were still better together than they were apart.

Some might wonder why Shego had stuck with Drakken, even after accepting that everything he did was likely doomed. Mostly, it was a good gig. She received room and board in addition to a very satisfactory salary, not to mention medical benefits and paid vacations. She also got to travel the world (her favorite lairs were the island ones) and was able to talk her boss into certain other perks, like hot tubs and sun lamps. She lacked any concrete goals, so taking his orders when she was needed and relaxing the rest of the time suited her.

And if she decided to be honest with herself, she kind of liked the guy. That was, after all, where this whole train of thought had started. She admired his drive and persistence, and his excitement about a new scheme was sometimes contagious. Maybe the most surprising thing was that he continued to put up with her, renewing her contract two years ago and taking her back after the alien fiasco. She was a tremendous asset, yes, but was she worth the aggravation? He seemed to think so.

Shego's head was starting to feel heavy. Her brain wasn't used to following these pathways, and it was more tiring than she would have expected. She wondered what it would actually feel like to be in love. She was pretty sure it wouldn't be quite like the rather monolithic Moodulator experience. Just as her normal sadness wouldn't make her weep copiously and her normal anger wouldn't cause her to hurl plasma bolts indiscriminately, she could assume that normal love (whatever that was for her) wouldn't lead her to throw herself at the nearest man like a drunk, horny college girl at Mardi Gras.

She shuddered involuntarily at what she did remember about that day. She was very fortunate that Drakken had not…taken advantage of the situation. She would not have resisted – in fact, she probably would have been more than eager. Despite being some 15 years her senior, Drakken was strangely innocent in some ways, and she doubted whether he had even seriously considered that. It was possible, of course, that he'd realized something was wrong with her and wanted to avoid the unpleasant consequences that could have resulted from any rash action on his part. She definitely would have been angry afterward, and the resulting awkwardness might have made it impossible for them to continue working together.

Still, now that she thought about it he'd never in her recollection indicated that he had any sexual needs to indulge. Not that she'd felt it was her business to pry into his private life. The thing was, he simply didn't seem to have one.

Maybe he'd just given up. She knew about some of his failures in the female department – for a guy with such a delicate ego, he wasn't that shy about expounding on his past humiliations. The memories actually seemed to fuel his world-conquering ambitions. She knew he was often lonely, though, and there were times when she suspected that he kept her around mostly for the company. Henchmen had their uses, but they didn't tend to be brilliant conversationalists.

Sighing, Shego closed her eyes. All that she'd managed to conclude was that love was likely to be quieter and far more subtle than what the Moodulator had made her feel, but she felt too weary to pursue the topic any further. Who knew that self-examination could be so exhausting?

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Author's Note: I know I've been spending a lot of time on Shego, but it seems to me that she has more issues to work through. Drakken has had two decades to deal with his personal flaws and enough solitude in which to do it. I think he will get a little more time next chapter, though.

Review responses:

Katsumara: I'm very happy to hear that you enjoyed it. Don't worry; the Kim/Ron ship is in the back of my mind. I just want to finish this story first. I'm thinking of tackling the college years or something.

saragil: I don't need the puppy dog pout to convince me to do more. I think there will be one or two more chapters of this.

shadowgirl416: Interpersonal chemistry and sexual tension are two things I enjoy both reading and writing, and I think I'm pretty good at them. I'm trying not to hit everyone over the head with it, though.

PoisonousAngel: Oh, thank you. I'm focusing on Shego a lot in this story, but I really enjoy writing Drakken's dialogue. Glad you enjoyed my speculation on his coat.

automaticloveletter: Any romance will be generally subtle and/or internal. I just don't think they're at a point here where they can be open about things. However, I've already planned the ending, and it will be slightly fluffy.