A/N: WOO-HOO! I'm back! As is this story. Sorry about the delay, I've just finished with some major life changes, not least of which includes moving from Upstate New York to Southern California. Many thanks to my faithful beta-reader, Joe Stoppinghem, who has continued to be instrumental in helping me with this story.

Disclaimer: Kim Possible and affiliated licenses are the property of Disney. They do not, nor will they ever (most likely) belong to me.

Dedicated to my wonderful readers, who have hopefully not given up on me in my 13-month absence! You guys rock (in stereo)!

The Strange Life After

Chapter 10: Date

"So," Kim started, "what do you do for a living, Mr. Blake?" Her question, innocent though it was, caused Blake to frown.

"Well, Ms. Possible…" he began, noting her slight squirm with a smirk. "See, doesn't feel too good, does it? Call me Alex, please. Having a beautiful young woman like you, referring to me like some friend of her father... It makes me feel old."

Kim, though taken aback slightly at the undisguised compliment, could do little to hide her blush nonetheless. The pair had left the hospital the very second Blake's tests had come back healthy. Soon as they were out on the streets, Blake was dragging Kim to dinner at a relatively upscale restaurant before she had had the opportunity to say no.

Although she had intended to return to what she was now inwardly referring to as 'The Quest for Ron', Kim was simply too nice to say no to the poor man after having already ruined his day. And besides, she was hungry.

"Okay then, Alex. What do you do for a living?"

"I'm a reporter," was his proud reply.

"Not to sound condescending," Kim started, "but how does a reporter afford such nice clothes. And that truck looked pretty nice, too, at least from what I could tell after the accident."

A sour look passed over her companion's face at the mention of the accident, but he said nothing about it.

"As a matter of fact, I inherited a family fortune this last spring," he explained. "But ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be a writer, or a journalist, or basically anything that let me put pen to paper. As they say, 'Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life.' The inheritance is just unexpected ."

"So what kind of reporting do you do? You mean like photography, writing for magazines, that kind of thing?" Kim ventured.

"Minus the photography, yeah…" Blake clarified. "I used to write advice columns under a pseudonym, but it got kind of weird after a while, never being able to take credit for my own work. Especially when I would meet girls who would try to use the advice they had gotten from my own column on me."

"Oh, so you used to write a dating column, then?" Kim asked, more intrigued now. Perhaps she had read it. She'd gobbled up more than her fair share of dating advice columns back in her high school days, pre-Ron.

"Not strictly for dating, but the questions I got usually fell in that category…" Blake blushed ever-so-slightly, and the reflex reminded Kim of Ron and his awkwardness. "But now I work for more reputable news outlets. I'm actually out here to report on the epidemic of recent criminal activity in Go City."

A dark look of recognition passed over Kim's features as she answered. "Yeah, I know Go City has definitely seen better days. It's like the new gang capital, right?"

"Right, but not just gangs. Mafia, Yakuza, hell, even Super-criminals are carving up the city in recent years. Everybody wants a slice, it seems."

"Seems like an awfully dangerous place to want to report in, any reason you were interested?"

"It's not that I was interested," Blake replied, a look of resignation apparent on his face. "The higher ups don't really like me too much. I write stories that tend to make waves." He chuckled darkly then perked up again, "But hey, way I look at it, it's an opportunity to do some good work, put the word out. People can't help if they are unaware of what's going on. And besides…" he paused. "It's not as if I can't handle myself. Wasn't it only a couple of hours ago I saved the life of some world-famous hero?"

He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, another gesture that reminded Kim of her lost BFBF. 'I wonder what he's up to in an awful place like Go City.' She was startled out of her thoughts as she realized Blake was speaking again.

"Sorry," she said, embarrassed, I was thinking about my boyfriend." She made sure that he heard that last word. "Mind repeating that?"

"I said, 'What about you?'" Blake repeated. "What brought you out to this neck of the woods?"

"Well, it's kind of a long story…" She tried to deflect.

"And this going to be kind of a long evening, seeing as how our food hasn't even shown up yet," Blake replied, stressing the last few words as their waiter hurried by, receiving a small glare in response.

"Trust me. I used to get letters that contained people's entire life story, just to lead up to a single question. I'm used to long stories." He sipped his cola thoughtfully, before adding: "And lest we forget, I'm also used to giving advice. C'mon, share with the class!" He finished, pointing his straw at her playfully.

"Alright," Kim began, drawing a large breath. "It all started a couple days ago…"

One state over, another young couple were each preparing, in their own way, for their respective date.

'I cannot BELIEVE that this is happening' thought the raven-haired woman, as she picked through her closet for something appropriately stunning. 'Who would've thought that the buffoon would ever grow enough of a spine to ask me out on a date? To think I used to be that kid's worst nightmare…'

She took pause at her word choice, suddenly becoming painfully aware of their eight-year age difference. After a moment's contemplation, she shook off those concerns. 'Hey, I used to steal things for a living. I used to be bad in every sense of the word. 'What's it to me if he's younger?' She sniggered quietly to herself. 'It's my chance to break him in properly.' Grinning at what just crossed her mind, 'You know what they say about big ears and feet.'

She reflected briefly on the story Stoppab—no, Ron—had told her about his former girlfriend's infidelity. 'Kimmie probably doesn't know what she's missing.' Something about this train of thought bothered her, but she couldn't immediately put her finger on what it was. She filed it away for analysis later, before returning her attention to her closet.

A short distance up the street, Shego's companion for the coming evening was just putting the finishing touches on his own look. Ron had purchased, using more of his ahead-money from Wade, a charcoal black three-piece suit. He had also purchased several ties he thought would go with the ensemble perfectly, all in varying shades of green, as he had no doubt that the color would heavily feature in whatever outfit Shego had chosen for the evening.

He had been concerned initially, he was over doing it. Remembering the time Kim was 'convinced', he needed a new haircut, boy that exploded into new pants, shirt etc.

"La-goop," was all that came out when he shuttered.

However, he had decided, after some consideration, that he would rather be overdressed in comparison to his companion than underdressed, considering how stunning she would look regardless.

'Oh, yeah, the Ronster is lookin' good!' He thought approvingly, after a quick once over in the bathroom mirror. A glance at his (also new and oh-so-expensive) watch told him that it was almost time to pick up his date.

'Date! With Shego…jeez, who woulda' thought?'

Deciding that it was better to be slightly early than exactly on time, Ron departed to his Aston Martin, put the key in the ignition, and hummed in pleasure as the engine roared to life.

Within moments of fixing her earrings in their proper place, and thus completing her appearance, Shego heard the unmistakable sound of a high-powered engine pulling up outside of her apartment. As she descended the stairs to the door, she could not hide her curiosity as to what kind of car a kid—no, a man—like Ron Stoppable would buy specifically for a date. She hoped it would be something expensive, while not being so over-the-top as to be tacky.

She turned out to be half-right. She was scarcely outside before noticing his car, a jet-black Aston Martin DBS Volante, sitting primed and ready. Even more obvious, if possible, was the soft-pink decal ('The same color as that little rat he always had with him' she noted humorously) on the door reading 'The Rufus Mobile'.

As Shego stood gaping at the vehicle, wondering how Ron could possibly have afforded it, the individual in question exited the car. Going around to the passenger side to open the door for her, the blond young man was taking in his companion's appearance with wide eyes.

Shego looked, quite literally, stunning. She was clad in a black, low-cut, backless dress, which was complimented with elbow-length emerald green gloves, and matching emerald pumps. In a highly uncharacteristic move, however, she had foregone her usual black lipstick in favor of a dark shade of red.

"I never would have thought she'd wear that shade', which contrasted with the rest of her appearance quite nicely.

The entire ensemble was capped off with long earrings which contained both red and green stones, bringing the whole look together. Ron, noticing that she was still watching him expectantly, realized had forgotten to open the door. He quickly corrected his mistake, practically yanking the door off of its hinges.

"After you, milady" He said, sporting a grin the size of a small state. As was typical, Shego was the picture of indifference.

"All the myriad cars available to rent in this city and you chose THIS?" She asked, seemingly sarcastic, but unable to keep the sarcasm uniform throughout. Her tone betrayed her true feelings on the matter quite clearly.

"Haha, you like?" Ron replied cheekily. "Oh, and it's not a rental, by the way."

"You bought this?" Shego asked skeptically. "How the hell did you afford it? I'd have to take five, six jobs to buy a car like this…"

"I called my friend, on the advice of a certain beautiful woman I know,"

Ron could've sworn he saw her blush at that, but as soon as it was there, it was gone again.

"And while I was at it, I had him give me some of my Naco royalty money up front so I could buy some stuff. Car, suit, you know, just the essentials." He grinned slyly as he finished.

Getting into the car, Shego resisted the urge to ask where they were going, lest she be disappointed. As they pulled away from her apartment, she realized that there was a part of that last statement she'd like more information on.

"Why would the nerd have to front you your Naco money?" She asked, genuinely curious.

"Well," Ron replied coolly, "after someone liberated my first 99 million dollars-" he saw Shego wince visibly at that—"I decided that any further royalties I accrued would have to be stored in the most secure way possible. Who better to go to for that than Wade? So for the last few years he's been storing it, cent by cent, in thousands of different banks with accounts around the world. He said it would take a while to bring up any significant amount, so in the meantime he forwarded me some of his money to live on, and he'll just grab that same amount bit-by-bit from my accounts."

"If you're expecting an apology," Shego said deadpan. "You're gonna be disappointed"

Ron appeared to be in deep thought for a moment.

"Nah," he said finally. "It wouldn't suit you." He snorted with amusement at her look of disbelief. "Hey, you think if I held a grudge against you for any of the stuff you've done in the past; I would've asked you out on a date?"

"Well," Shego said, recovering her powers of speech. "Why don't you? Anyone else would."

"Way I see it," Ron explained, "You were doing a job you were paid to do. It's not like you ever killed anyone. And at the end of the day, I'm still pretty well off. What's the point of rehashing old material?"

'Pragmatic AND attractive' Shego thought. 'Wait a minute! Attractive? Where did that come from…' She stole a sidelong glance at her companion, who currently appeared like the most suave individual for in the entire world, this side of James Bond. All helped by his slicked back hair, gorgeous three-piece suit, and uncharacteristic cool demeanor.

'Well, isn't he? He's definitely not my usual type. But I wouldn't very well have agreed to go out with him if I didn't see something there.' She also noted, with some amusement, that he had chosen a dark-green tie to compliment her attire, although since they had not correlated their outfits deliberately, it was a shade or two too dark to match her outfit.

'Thoughtful, all the same.'

She was jolted from her musings by their arrival at 'Au Poivre', Go City's finest faux-French establishment. Evidently this was their final destination.

'Very posh, very expensive… very impressive…Mr. Stoppable.'

"You gonna ask how I afforded it," Ron snarked with a smirk that made her slightly proud. "Or can you fill in the blanks for yourself?"

'I really am rubbing off on him.'

"Veeeery funny, smart guy. Seriously though, it takes more than money to get into this place."

Indeed, from what she had heard, the reservations list at this particular restaurant ran weeks in advance, and he had only had a day's notice.

The valet came to take Ron's keys, and Shego was forced to suppress a hearty chuckle when he introduced himself as, "Stoppable. Ron, Stoppable." As the valet practically jumped into the driver's side (ecstatic at getting to drive such a gorgeous car, no doubt), Ron moved to help his date out of the passenger seat. Although he meant well, Shego was not used to being helped by the hand out of a vehicle, and the action irritated her slightly.

"You know I'm not some China doll, Stoppable. I can exit a car by myself."

Ron gulped, realizing his blunder. "Uh…chivalry isn't dead?" He tried hopefully.

"Maybe not to you" she replied. "I'm just not used to going out with such a, 'gentleman'" she continued, punctuating the last word with air quotes.

Ignoring the small sting that her air quotes had left him with, Ron let the comment pass, before taking Shego by the arm (ignoring her small grunt and wriggles of protest) and led her into the restaurant.

"Hi there," he began, shades of his natural awkwardness poking through as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm here for the VIP table, should be under 'R.D. Stoppable'?"

The maître d' immediately led them through the restaurant, up the stairs at the back, and out to a majestic balcony, where exactly one table was laid aside with Ron's last name on a card in golden letters.

"Your server will be right with you, monsieur and mademoiselle" the maître d' said, before taking his leave.

As soon as he was gone, Shego turned to look her companion in the eye.

"Okay, Ron, spill it!" She said, in a tone that sounded far too much like Kim for Ron's own liking.

"Okay," he began, placing his hands in his lap nervously. "As soon as you said 'yes' to my date question yesterday, I went out and scoured the city, looking for people who owed me favors from the mission days. When I saw this place, I thought, 'Well, someone on staff there might be indebted to Kim and me'." He winced slightly at saying Kim's name aloud, a fact not lost on Shego, who decided, in light of what had happened last time she pressed this issue, to let it pass.

"Go oonn," Shego said, drawing out the last word expectantly.

"Well I figured it was a long shot, but as it turns out, the gods were with me! I walked in, and the chef happened to be walking past because they were closing and he was getting ready to leave. I recognized him, vaguely, so I flagged him down and introduced myself. He was pleased to see me, and I begged him for a table. He said 'I'll do you one better, go home, don't worry about it, I'll call you in the morning.' So I did, and this morning, he called and said that he had pulled some strings to set aside a VIP table for me!" He finished, before adding. "Actually, I think he was under the impression that Kim was going to be my date, and I figured 'Hey, he didn't ask I didn't suggest it, so no harm, no foul'."

Satisfied (and perhaps the tiniest bit impressed, if she was honest with herself) with this explanation, Shego nonetheless couldn't resist teasing him.

"Aw. And you went to all that trouble just for little old me?" She drawled, then, a smirk. "You must REALLY want to get into these panties, huh?"

Ron, who had been sipping his complimentary water at that moment, had enough good sense to aim his spit take over the balcony, safely away from his date.

"NO! I mean, not to say that… I mean—"

Upon seeing Shego's expression, he realized he'd been had again.

"Ugh…I'm terrible at this 'verbal jousting' stuff, aren't I?"

"Yeah," Shego conceded, nodding once in agreement. "But you're getting better at it, and at least you're catching on quicker these days." She sipped her water far more delicately than Ron, before adding. "Who knows, stay with me and you might be a pro soon enough."

Her word choice was not lost on Ron, who noted that she had said 'stay with me' with certain finality to it, as if that's what he was expected to do.

'I can't believe it' he thought, unable to hide his grin, 'She LIKES me! Enough that she wants to do this again! Booyah!'

Just then, their server appeared to take their orders, and the date commenced in earnest.

Conversation flowed much more freely than either one had expected, even without alcohol to sand off the rougher edges. It was truly a pleasant surprise. Any time that a topic came too close to Kim, however, Ron would become uncomfortable, and after this happened a few too many times, Shego became aware of what had been bothering her earlier, when she was getting ready for the date.

"Ron?" She began cautiously.

"M-hm?" He grunted, mouth filled with one of the bread rolls they had been given as appetizers.

"You and Kimmie are 'Over'", right?"

By now, her companion had swallowed his food, and gave her a questioning look.

"That is to say," she continued, "you've broken up, officially? You've let her know…"

Shego trailed off as Ron sunk guiltily into his seat.

"Because I will NOT be misconstrued as 'The Other Woman' in this situation, Buffoon!" She finished, using the derogatory name to make her point.

"N-not yet…" Ron replied, sulking slightly.

Before she could open her mouth to reply, he continued.

"But first thing tomorrow! I was waiting for her to come here so we could, you know 'have it out'…but you're right, you're right. I can't have my cake and eat it too. I can't go out with you if she still thinks we're together. So first thing tomorrow, I'll call her. Make a nice clean break." He realized the bad word choice immediately. "Well, maybe not entirely clean. But as good as I can make it."

"Promise?" Shego said icily, eyebrow raised.

"Pixie-Scout's honor!" Ron replied, nodding his head enthusiastically in a rather Rufus-esque manner.

"Good" Shego responded, her demeanor becoming relaxed once again. Just then, the main course arrived, dispelling the last remaining tension.

"Alright! Food's here!" Her companion shouted with glee, snatching his plate from the waiter in a manner normally unbecoming of such a fine establishment.

As Ron stuffed his face, Shego couldn't help but laugh. 'Okay, so he's a little tough around the edges yet…but we're getting there.'

After Dinner, Kim tried to get moving on her Ron-Quest, really she had tried, but the long day she had had made her quite tired. This, coupled with Blake's insistence that she 'really shouldn't be traveling when her eyes looked anvil-weighted' had made her concede that she should spend the night in a hotel. It had also been decided, since they were going to the same city and she had caused him to destroy his truck, that he would travel with her via a 'Wade-ride' first thing in the morning.

Blake—no Alex, as she had to keep reminding herself-being familiar with the area, had recommended a hotel, and had oh-so-generously agreed to walk her there. She knew what the older man was trying to do, having been wise to him ever since he dragged her along to dinner, but she really did need a friend in an unfamiliar place like this one, and he seemed innocent enough, she doubted he would try anything without her consent. And even if he did, he was certainly no threat to her, despite his well-built physique. She had dealt with worse.

So it was that Kim found herself checking at the lobby of the Metro City Ritz-Carlton, an establishment so upscale for her that she normally would have turned around and found somewhere else to stay, but Alex had insisted that she stay, and had even paid for her, ignoring her extensive protests.

"Just think of it as me helping out my new friend" he had said. "I don't have many, so I treat the one's I do have, well."

It was with no small measure of guilt, then, that Kim was now lounging on her fancy queen-sized hotel bed, contemplating the day's events. She wondered if it counted as 'leading him on', letting him do all of these nice things for her because he was so obviously interested in her. After all, she had already destroyed his truck and his shirt, and put him behind schedule on his story by detouring them to the hospital. The dinner, as well, but that had been his idea.

In the end, she decided it was harmless, so long as she continued to stress in conversation, as she had been all evening, that had a boyfriend already. Something about the situation bothered her though, spurred along by a comment Alex had made right after she had finished her explanation of her travels.

"Sounds like a hell of a guy" he had said, rolling his eyes. "Doesn't even trust his girlfriend enough to stick around and wait for an explanation."

She had played it off at the time, said she would have reacted the same way were the roles reversed, and if she was honest with herself, she knew that to be exactly true. But now the small voice of doubt that had caused her to question why Ron had been spying on her by entering her dorm and opening her laptop was growing. 'If he really loved me, wouldn't he trust me? And Wade said that he had refused to call me and explain, too…' She filed away the matter to be analyzed in the morning, and rolled over to sleep. Still, though, her thoughts were filled with doubt as she drifted off to sleep.

"Ron, why don't you trust me?" She wondered aloud, feeling her eyes begin to droop…

Aaron Xander couldn't suppress his smirk as he reflected on the last few days' events. His plan was working perfectly! 'It's ironic' he thought, still wearing a villainous smirk, 'that for all their grand plans, the other fools I've involved could never thwart Team Possible, could never see their grand plans of Global Conquest come to fruition, despite the myriad players involved…when I, with a far smaller plan, and a circle of exactly one person, have come so far.'

Of course, his plan, being of a far more personal nature, didn't require anyone other than himself, but that still didn't diminish his mirth at how easily it all seemed to be going. From what he had seen of Dementor, Drakken, and Fist, he had always gathered that being the 'bad guy' was hard work. How very wrong he had been.

Of course, there were others involved in his plan. First Dementor, now Lipsky, but they were mere pawns. Tools, to be used and disposed when their usefulness expired. Dementor was rotting at that very moment somewhere inside a Global Justice compound, while Lipsky would, in all likelihood, soon follow.

As soon as Lipsky went to James Possible, and the press (hopefully in that order, but if not, Xander could adapt, as always) with his knowledge of Stoppable and the woman, their reputations would be ruined, and then, when Xander leaked the 'evidence' of his own creation, linking Lipsky to the theft as well…ah, yes. Soon all three would locked away in matching cells, while he himself could put the final touch on his plan, and ride off into the sunset with everything he had ever wanted.

Things were going exactly as planned.

As the pair exited Ron's car, leaving it lovingly parked in the firm's built-in three vehicle garage, Ron attempted to say goodbye, before Shego had him forcibly pinned against the garage wall, her left leg riding up on a certain part of his anatomy seductively.

"Oh no you don't," she whispered huskily, making Ron gulp slightly. "Our night's not over yet, Stoppable."

Normally, Ron would have insisted on her using his first name, but the way she had purred his last name then left him speechless and utterly embarrassed by how quickly his body was reacting to the situation.

"Sh-Shego…" he strangled out nervously. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, you don't know?" She replied, still using that sultry tone, befitting of a seductress. "I'm the kind of woman who fucks on the first date."

The way she had drawn out the dominant word in that sentence was so dirty, so tawdry,so downright sexy, that Ron was afraid he would faint right then. 'Is this really happening? This CAN'T be real.' He made to pinch himself, a movement not lost on the woman currently pressed against every spare inch of his body.

And suddenly, she was kissing him, and so much better than anyone had ever kissed him before. Her tongue lapped at his mouth, asking for entrance, and he was helpless not to acquiesce. And after a few heated minutes, she stopped as suddenly as she had started.

"Why don't you come up to my apartment for some coffee, Ron?" She said, her tone now more nominal.

Knowing what she was getting at, ever rational part of Ron's mind seemed to scream 'NO!'

But as is so often the case in these situations, these profound struggles between the mind and the body, the needs of the body betrayed the logic of the mind, and he nodded dumbly, before finding himself being led by the hand up the street towards Shego's apartment.

A/N: Feels good to be back!