I do not own the Disney characters named herein, and am only using them for a nonprofit tale meant to entertain only.

Kim Possible: The Possible Factor

By LJ58

8

"So, how did the mission go," Shego asked when Kim reached the house, not bothering to debrief. She could already guess how that would go, since Dr. Director was out of town on some seriously secret meeting with her peers, leaving Will Du in charge of operations in the region.

"No big," Kim shrugged, smiling at the memory of Dementor begging mercy after she put down his Henches, and then bounced his helmeted head off a console. Or three. Or ten.

She was pretty sure they would have to cut that stupid metal bowl off his head this time.

She was finding it hard to care.

She just wondered if he would admit what she told him she would do to him next time if he dared come back. Time would tell.

She did know that Lucre was keeping a very low profile of late, and wouldn't even leave his mother's house now, even to work. Putting the fear of Possible into him had been easier than expected, but he was hardly one of the major threats in her growing gallery of rogues.

Still, better to ensure he didn't try to mature in the ways of villainy than ignore him while he tried to one-up his alleged peers.

"You always say that," Shego smirked. "So, why don't you tell me what really happened?"

"Not much. Dementor was relying on his oversized hounds again, but I pretty much got rid of them by driving a butcher's wagon into the lair, and throwing open the back doors. They were too busy fighting over the meat to worry about me."

"A butcher's wagon? You just happened to find…?"

"I knew a guy in the business that owed me a few favors. No big," she smiled, and threw down her pack after they reached her room. "I'm going to shower. If GJ calls, don't answer."

"But….."

"It'll only be Will. And he only wants to gripe. So, don't answer. I'll make my reports to Dr. Director when she gets back."

"He is a self-righteous prig," Shego agreed, following her to bathroom door.

"He is that," Kim agreed, and smiled back at her. "So, how was your day?"

"Five hours with the local therapist they gave me to ensure my 'good' side was still good after all this time? I can't tell you how much I wanted to stuff him under his own couch before I got out of there," Shego complained.

"Yeah. I remember my sessions. You know, after….Drakken? I sometimes wonder if people like those quacks didn't send most of those nuts out there nuts in the first place. It might help explain some of them."

"Not all of them. Let's face it, Drew was always a loon," she smiled blandly.

Kim eyed the green-skinned woman, and her smile faded slightly as she stood in the bathroom door.

"Do you….miss him?"

"Honestly? No. He was a job. You know, for the 'other' Shego. It was all about the perks, then. It could have been anyone. It just happened to be a blue jerk that couldn't negotiate a contract any better than he could balance a checkbook."

"Oh. Well, did your shrink say anything?"

"Other than asking me ten different ways why I was 'obsessing' over you? Not too much."

"Obsessing….over me?"

"Somehow…. Someone tipped him off that we might be getting….close," Shego admitted.

Kim said nothing to that.

"We'll have to talk to my folks eventually," she finally said.

"And Dr. Director," Shego nodded, looking less than eager.

"Yeah. Her, too. Frankly, I'd rather face her."

"Really?"

"You don't really know my mom, do you," Kim sighed. "Anyway, let me get cleaned up. Then we'll chat some more," Kim smiled, and shut the door.

"Take your time. I'll make refreshments," Shego shouted through the door, and headed downstairs.

Kim stripped down, careful of her new Kimmunicator before climbing into the shower. In spite of it being waterproof, she took it off, and put it on the back of the sink before stepping into the shower.

Why take chances? Besides, her wrist felt itchy from wearing it the past twenty-five hours.

As she stepped under the hot spray, she remembered another shower, and her mind slipped back more than a few weeks to the start of the last summer.

And her induction into Global Justice.

KP

Interlude: Four Months Prior

"I sure never expected to be inside a Global Justice training camp," Shego grinned, polishing boots she knew wouldn't stay polished once she hit the training course again. It was just one of the silly rituals she had to accept to get through this part of her rehabilitation in the eyes of the law.

And one woman in particular.

Not Dr. Director.

While she genuinely wished to live a moral life again, admittedly thanks to that weird ray, Shego found she didn't want to let Kimberly down. Even now, she found she genuinely liked, and respected her, and wanted nothing more than to prove that she wasn't the same evil hedonist that had caused so much trouble for her in the past.

"To be honest, neither did I. I mean, at the start, I was flattered that Dr. Director seemed interested in us. Me, and Ron. Then, the more I saw, the less I liked it. Will Du, and his stupid rules and regs. Dr. Director obsessing over anyone that looked like they might have a little more power than her entire group. Even the whole Ron and Rufus Factor kind of….soured things."

"That's not what really turned you off, though," Shego pointed out knowingly.

"No," Kim shook her head, eyeing her own highly polished boots she had just set aside to eye the green-skinned woman who sat on her own bunk just to the right of hers. "No, that was just….the tip of the iceberg."

"So, what really turned you off? Her personality? Her rigid insistence on following her way, or no way? Or was it just her eye," Shego grinned, looking just a bit more like herself in spite of the blue training uniform of a GJ cadet.

"Honestly, none of that. It was the whole law and order bit that came down on my head after…..Drakken," Kim admitted. "All that time, she didn't say a single word. Not one. She sent Will Du to speak against my 'vigilante' justice, but never even said a word herself. Not for me. Not against me. She just sat there, and feigned ignorance. That….irritated me," Kim admitted. "A lot."

"I can see that. Especially if you admired her at the time."

"I admired Global Justice. Or….what I thought they were supposed to be."

"And yet here we are," Shego said with a faint smile.

"Here we are." Kim agreed. "What about you? You didn't have to join, you know? You were free. You could have gone home? Gone on, and lived a….normal life. Wasn't that what you wanted?"

Shego sighed.

"I mean, especially since you got….switched around," Kim went on. "Mentally, that is. Or was it morally? Or…."

"It confuses me sometimes," Shego admitted. "I mean, I still remember being…..her. But I like me the way I am now, too. No more pretending to be something I wasn't."

"Pretending?"

"Kimberly," Shego sighed. "Face it, if I had been as evil as that other me claimed, I wouldn't even have left bodies behind me. Just ash. She…. I," Shego stressed, "Was playing. Even now, I remember Hego's….antics stressing me to the breaking point, and I just wanted to get away, and have…..fun. That was it. Everything since….that was….me, having fun. Especially," she smiled as she set her boot down. "When you showed up."

"Really," Kim frowned.

"I know I've said it before, but….I really am sorry about what Drew did to you that night. That whole thing? If I had known beforehand….."

"But you still fought me," Kim said quietly, well aware the barracks was empty, since few of the peers in their barracks cared to be around the two most infamous recruits too often if they had a choice.

Kim didn't care.

She did suspect that it hurt Shego's feelings, though.

"Fun," Shego murmured, staring at her now as she put her polish away, and zipped up the shine kit all cadets had to maintain on their own. "Unlike, say, polishing boots that will be muddy within thirty minutes of leaving this shack tomorrow morning."

Kim chortled.

"Yeah. A lot of this stuff makes no sense to me. How does polishing boots help prepare you to do field ops?"

"Like you need training. This is a technicality. For both of us," Shego told her. "You know what I think?"

"Hmmmm?"

"I think Cyclops just wants to see if we'll really stay, and jump through her hoops. It's her way of pretending she can really control us."

Kim stared at Shego, green eyes round with indecipherable emotion.

"What," the green-skinned woman asked.

"You called her Cyclops. You haven't done that since…."

"Really? Well, it fits," Shego smiled. "Doesn't it?"

"It does," Kim grinned. "You know what I think?"

"What?"

"I think, good, or bad, you're still Shego. You'll always be her. The only difference, now, being that you are trying to do right, instead of letting someone else lead you into trouble."

"But, aren't we both letting Dr. Director lead us?"

Kim smirked.

"She'd like to think that," the redhead grinned. "But, honestly, what better place to find out what she might really be up to, than right here in the heart of her own little clubhouse."

"Ooooo, I get it. Kimmie's being devious," Shego grinned.

Kim smiled.

"You want devious. Wait till morning role call," Kim grinned.

"No hints?"

"And spoil the surprise?"

KP

The burly man with a scar down one side of his face glowered at the twenty recruits lined up on the muddy field outside the isolated barracks.

"Who did it? I know one of you did. Step forward, and spare your companions a great deal of grief. Because you're standing here," the big man in blue growled as the rain continued to fall lightly from a gloomy, gray sky, "And catching colds until someone confesses."

"What if they don't," a willowy blonde almost whined.

"Do you know something, Kowalski," the big man growled as he eyed her.

"N-N-No, sir," she whimpered.

"Jeez, Penny," Kim muttered. "Don't faint."

"Possible," the training officer growled. "Do you have something to share?"

"Uh, just wondering if we should go get shampoo? Because we're missing a great opportunity to wash our hair here," she offered.

The man's teeth ground audibly as he eyed her, and Shego sniggered outright.

"I think I just found my jokers," the captain said, eyeing her. "Possible, step forward."

Kim took a step forward without hesitation.

"Sir," she barked, and stared him right in the eyes.

"Confess!"

"Confess to what, sir? I have to admit, I've got a long history of….."

"You know to what," he bellowed.

She put a finger to her ear, and made a show of clearing it.

"What was that, sir?"

The man growled.

"All right. Since no one wants to show us any integrity, or teamwork, then you'll learn the hard way. Ten mile run. In full gear. Get inside, and get those packs. Move, move, move," he shouted.

"You're enjoying this entirely too much," Shego grinned as they headed inside.

"You noticed he hasn't said what he's talking about either?"

"That bad?"

"Maybe to him," Kim grinned.

"I have to know."

"Let's wait. I want to see if he cracks."

"And if he doesn't?"

"Then I'll tell you."

"I didn't realize you had such a devious side," Shego chortled as their peers eyed the two women whispering as they carelessly filled, and shouldered their packs without care for the torment before them.

Seven minutes later, the twenty of them were led out by the training officer, who was driven in a jeep just ahead of them, along the muddy path that was the only road in, or out of the special training grounds for regional Global Justice recruits.

"You haven't lived with my brothers," Kim huffed, and kept up the pace the burly officer demanded as she and Shego easily paced the slow-moving jeep just ahead of them.

Inside of two miles, the others were already lagging, the gap between them growing larger, and larger, until the driver was finally ordered to stop.

Even as the burly Captain Benjamin Winslow gestured for them to stop before him, the others were still not even visible just then as he eyed the pair of them.

"I could run you two all night, and you wouldn't crack. Would you, Possible?"

"Crack what, sir," Kim asked politely.

His expression was suitably dour.

"I know you did it," he told her. "Do you think I haven't seen pranksters before now? Or outright spiteful recruits? Or clowns? You don't appear to be any of those, Possible. So, why?"

"Why, what, sir," she asked innocently.

He ground his teeth again.

"Oh? Why polish these boots," she asked, looking down at her muddy boots. "I've been wondering about that one myself? Do you have the answer? Shego and I were both wondering….."

"Stow it, Possible! We both know that physically, you two are so far ahead of the pack here that I'm wasting my time. But you have to learn to be part of a unit. A team. We are a family….!"

"No, sir," Kim growled now. "We're not."

"What's that?"

"I have a family, sir. This, if you will excuse my bluntness, is not a family. It's a sick joke."

"Explain yourself?"

"The whole destroy, and rebuild bit may work on Marines, or something. But honestly? We're supposed to be getting ready to go up against real baddies. You know," she said pointedly. "Like Dr. Drakken."

"I don't believe we have to worry about him any longer. Do we, Possible," Winslow demanded.

Kim didn't smile now.

"I said like Dr. Drakken. We all know that are more, and crazier loons out there these days. And polishing boots, and playing head games is not going to help anyone prepare….."

"Listen, Possible. You may not get it. You may be….peerless. You, and Miss Go here, too. But for the rest of us, we're ordinary men, and women who believe in something greater than ourselves. And we do that job by depending on, and trusting one another. You cannot do that if you demonstrate an inability to….."

"Down," Shego shouted, and shoved them both aside even as a bolt of lightning hit the nearest tree, severing and igniting several heavy branches that fell just where they had been standing.

The driver howled as one branch fell over the hood of the jeep, just big enough to crush the hood, and flatten both front tires.

Kim rolled over in the mud, eyed the jeep, and started laughing.

"That's funny to you," Winslow demanded incredulously.

"Well, no one's hurt, so, yeah," Kim grinned impenitently.

"Why," the officer demanded.

"I think she realizes that it looks like we're all hoofing it back to camp," Shego said, standing over Kim to offer her a hand up.

Kim chortled, and took the hand without issue.

"Bingo," she grinned.

"Don't get cocky. I'll just radio the motor pool….."

Kim pointed.

The aerial on the jeep had been snapped off near the base when the thick, smoldering branch that might have injured them struck near the rear bumper of the jeep. The base was there, but the long whip was gone. Snapped off like a twig.

Ben Winslow stared, saying nothing.

Then, shaking his head, he eyed the pair, and spat, "Back to camp. Shower, and prep for the written exams tomorrow morning."

The two started to turn, the others only now coming up the road, most of them panting, and looking ready to drop.

"Possible," the officer spat.

"Sir," she asked, glancing back at him.

"Let's try another tact," he said, handing his driver his cap. "We race back. The winner gets what they want. You choose anything within reason, if you win," he added.

"And if you win," she asked, stressing the opinion it wasn't likely.

"If I win, you will confess what you did, and accept your punishment."

"Ready when you are," she said, and turned to face the group barely managing a slow jog.

"Go," Ben spat, and surged ahead, sure that even Kim Possible couldn't beat him when she had already been running for over three miles, and was still wearing her full pack.

KP

"I really don't think he liked losing," Shego said, soaping her long, dark hair as Kim and Shego showered together, the others having come, and gone, and in no state to do more than collapse on their bunks after they cleaned up.

"I considered letting him win, but…."

"You're too competitive to let a poser best you," Shego grinned.

"I noticed you let him come in second."

"Well, let's face it, I could have beaten you, too, if I felt like it," the green-skinned woman drawled indolently.

"You think so," Kim smiled.

"I know so. You're good, Princess," Shego called her, sounding very much like herself again. "But let's face it, I'm comet-powered, and have more juice than even Dr. Director knows about."

"Really," Kim murmured.

Shego smiled.

"So, are you saying….all those fights? You let me win?"

Shego only smiled.

"I didn't want to crush your ego too badly. Not that you have much trouble with confidence," she added. "Except when it comes to dating. Seriously, you're….."

"Let's not go there. Okay," Kim frowned, her own smile fading now.

"Oh. Right. Sorry. Again," Shego added. "But I do hope you know, I've always….liked you. Even more these days. And now…. Now I can finally even admit it."

"When you say….like?"

Shego actually blushed a darker green, then turned, and stared right at the naked redhead standing under the shower to her right.

"I mean, it's too bad you're still a minor. Otherwise, I might just show you how very much I do like you," Shego daringly proclaimed.

Kim still saw the hesitation in her. The uncertainty. The hope that glittered in those bright eyes.

Kim looked back, unable to help blushing as she eyed the voluptuous woman whose unusual coloring made her a very exotic creature.

"You do know I'm an emancipated teen?"

"Yet you still live at home?"

"Well, it's not like I have a real job. Yet. But with all my….missions, it was easier to be declared emancipated, so I wouldn't face needless complications about curfews, and that kind of nonsense while I was doing my thing."

"I get that. Are you saying….?"

"I'm saying, why should either of us care about nonsense about 'adult' ages if we both care about one another," Kim boldly declared.

"Both," Shego asked, both brows rising.

"I….have to admit I've been coming to know you a lot better than before. Especially lately. I always admired you. Even respected you, too. Like I said before, it's part of why that seeming betrayal hurt so much. Lately, I have wondered if there might be….more. I don't know how much more, but…. I'm willing to find out. If you are," Kim said, smiling at her.

Shego swallowed hard.

"If only we were in a more private place."

"Can't get much more private than this," Kim smiled, gesturing around the otherwise empty showers.

Shego smiled, and stepped into the arms of the redhead who welcomed her eagerly.

The next morning, Ben Winslow walked into the barracks to wake his current team, and gaped.

"What the hell are you two doing," he thundered as he saw Kim and Shego's bunks pushed together, making a single bed out of the two.

"Well, jeez, Captain," Shego huffed, sounding very much like the old Shego just then as she stared up at him after coming awake. "If you don't know by now, I doubt we can help."

Kim burst into laughter.

End Interlude…..

KP

Kim came down after her shower, and saw her mother was home, sitting with Shego.

"Hey, mom. I didn't hear you come in."

"We just got a call, Kim. Ron's at the hospital."

"Hospital," the redhead gasped. "Is he….?"

"It's not him. Bonnie is having her baby," Anne told her daughter.

Kim actually felt blindsided by that one.

"Already," she squeaked.

"It's not that early, dear," the neurosurgeon smiled. "Recall, you've missed out on a lot of her development by being….away."

"Right," Kim murmured, and glanced toward Shego. "So, I guess we better forego the chat for now. I should go down, and….."

"It'll likely be a while," Dr. Possible told her daughter. "So, before you need to go down, and congratulate your friends, you and I need to have a chat, young lady."

"If it's about Dementor…."

"No. It's about another call I got from your boss. Just when were you going to tell me you spent most of your training making out with Miss Go?"

If Kim had felt blindsided by the news of Bonnie's baby, she felt run over by a train at the way her mother eyed her.

She gave a tiny yip, and tried very, very hard to come up with words that would explain things.

To Be Continued…