Chapter 10: Stalling.
They walked down the empty gray corridor, their given trainers squeaking on the tile floor. Dr. Ann Possible stared at the back of Dr. Caroline Hewitt, watching the way her curly hair bobbed up and down as she walked. She found herself hating the woman's calm manner and her smile. She would've preferred it if she had been a cold and sinister woman. Her warmth, which felt irritatingly genuine, was misplaced and almost twisted in light of their circumstances. She sniffed sharply, causing the woman to turn around and smile at her.
"Are you alright Dr. Possible?" she asked. "I trust you had a good rest?"
Ann refrained from glaring at her and rather gave her a cool, blank stare. "How would you have answered that question if you were in my position?" she queried.
Dr. Hewitt frowned, despite her smile and shrugged. "Yes and very well?" she offered. "The rooms are very comfortable, we are so sorry for not being able to give each of you a separate bed. Did you all manage to get some sleep?" She looked at the other two.
Sandra didn't answer, rather keeping her gaze firmly fixed on the ground in front of her but Adrian shifted angrily and pulled himself up to his full height.
"You speak as if this is some sort of hotel woman," he snapped. "How can you be so calm? Do you have any idea what your boss is going to make us do? How do you think we must feel?"
She frowned again in her pristine way. "Honoured," she said and turned away from them. "You are the best, which is why you were chosen. Very few people can say that."
Sandra Johnston spoke up for the first time. "What?" she queried without looking up. "That they've been chosen to perform some macabre surgery on a young man? Gosh, that really is something to put on our résumé."
Adrian smiled at her encouragingly, pleased that she voiced her opinion. Ann glanced at Sandra but it was Dr. Hewitt's reaction that she was interested in. The woman didn't seem phased by Sandra's words.
"Do you understand what we're going to do?" Ann queried suddenly as she stopped walking. "Are you aware of the consequences of this surgery? Do you know or rather, understand that your boss wants us to cut into his son's brain as if it's a piece of butcher's meat?"
Dr. Hewitt seemed irritated that they had stopped and glanced at her watch. "I understand that it's more refined than that," she said patiently. "Now, can we start moving again?"
A brief look passed between the two captive doctors as Adrian went to stand beside Ann. "I don't think you understand how major this operation is," he stated calmly. "Dr. Hewitt, Caroline can't you see that if anything goes wrong then Mr. Monsieur's son will be, for all clinical purposes, a piece of butcher's meat as Ann said. This is an impossible feat that you're asking of us. The chances of this succeeding, with the results that your boss wants, are close to zero. There's a reason this practice was discontinued."
The blond doctor gave him a patient look. "But there's also a reason they performed hundreds of these operations during the 1940s," she said, sounding exasperated. "They wouldn't have continued with the practice if it was a complete failure. Now, can we please start moving again? They are waiting for us."
Neither of the two moved. "Do you care about the family Caroline?" Ann queried before they could be ushered forward. "How long have you known the boy? We don't even have a name for him."
Dr. Hewitt looked at her watch again, clearly growing impatient. "For your information," she said blankly. "I've known the family for a very long time. Mr. Monsieur put me through medical school; I wouldn't be here if not for him. I trust him to make the right decisions and to do what is best for his family and his business. I wouldn't be standing here if I didn't, now can we please move on?"
Again Adrian and Ann shared a look; this time instead of saying anything they both crossed their arms stubbornly. Dr. Hewitt frowned at them and then sighed softly. She glanced up to the guards beyond them and just made a brief gesture with her hand. They walked forward and turned on their stun lances. Sandra squeaked and leaped forward as one waved it at her. She grabbed the two doctors by their arms and pulled them forward after Dr. Hewitt who had already started walking.
"Don't be stupid!" she hissed under her breath. "And for heaven's sake don't antagonize them!"
Ann sighed softly, but glanced over her shoulder slightly nervous. "They won't hurt us," she hissed at the nurse. "If they do, we won't be able to perform the surgery."
Sandra looked at them with a pleading expression on her face. "You are irreplaceable," she said softly. "I'm not. She can do my job just as easily in a pinch. I think that's why I'm here, so that you two can be... encouraged." She grimaced. "I've been thinking about it. Why else would they pick me?"
Adrian stiffened. "Surely not," he whispered softly, looking at Caroline Hewitt's marching back. "And, don't say things like that – you're irreplaceable, don't give them any ideas otherwise."
Sandra gave him a grateful look, but she didn't look convinced. Ann was too unsettled by the idea to say anything. She patted Sandra's arm before she quickened her pace and fell instep next to Dr. Hewitt.
"Tell me," she said. "Where are we going?"
Dr. Hewitt glanced at her and smiled; her calm demeanour back. "The operating theatre, of course," she said. "We're all prepared for you."
Ann stopped again. "No," she said aghast. "You can't just do this. I'm... " She glanced at Sandra. "Not prepared." The blond blinked at her surprised.
"Dr. Possible," she said patiently. "How can you not be? I made sure that you have everything in your room. I was told that you managed to get through all the information yesterday."
'Yesterday?' Ann thought as she pulled her bedside manner around her like a shield and slipped her hands into the tracksuit's pockets. 'How long have we been here? How long since this ordeal started?' "True," she said. "But, needless to say Dr. Hewitt – I've never done an operation of this kind. I need to consult some medical journals, run my own tests on Mr. Monsieur's son and take my own x-rays and CT scans. I can't just leap in and start cutting him apart."
She could see immediately that she had the woman's attention by the way she frowned. "That makes sense," Dr. Hewitt said as she regarded the three of them. "I told Mr. Monsieur that he was a bit overeager."
Adrian didn't look at Ann as he too stepped up to the blond woman. "Why don't you let us run some tests today?" he offered. "Sandra and I can do that, with the help of your technicians of course, and then Dr. Possible can do some research. She is right, this is a very delicate procedure, I really don't feel comfortable just leaping into this. I presume you have all the facilities available?"
Dr. Hewitt was reaching into her pocket to produce a mobile. Ann looked at it longingly, wondering what had happened to hers. 'If we can get that one, or our property, then I might be able to phone home or Wade could track us.' Her heart rate increased as she found herself taking a step closer to the doctor, wondering if she would be able to grab it from her and have enough time to phone Kim's assistant. Dr. Hewitt turned her back on them and walked a bit away from the group. Ann took a step to follow her but found herself restrained by a hand on her arm. Sandra had grabbed her by the arm and was looking at her with a pleading expression. Ann sighed softly and patted the woman's hand as she turned her attention back to Dr. Hewitt. 'Probably not,' she thought miserably. 'They might not catch me but they could hurt the others.'
"Yes Mr. Monsieur," she heard her say. "But, they have suggested another course of action. Dr. Possible first wants to look at Jeremy herself, run her own tests and do some research on top of the information that we've given her." She hesitated. "No sir, I think that it's a reasonable request. It is a difficult operation... Yes sir." She listened for a bit longer then said her good bye and slipped the phone back into her pocket. She looked back at them and smiled.
"He gave his approval," she said and started walking back in the direction that they had come. "Let me take you to our medical rooms."
Ann followed her, her legs suddenly feeling as if they weight a ton. 'Time,' she thought relieved. 'We just got some extra time... Hurry Kimmie, please... '
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The apartment was empty when she was finished with her shower.
Kim stepped out of the bathroom hesitantly in the bathrobe and pushed some wet hair behind her ears. Looking around, she slipped into the main bedroom and saw that Shego had put out a pair of boxer shorts for her as well as a hairdryer.
'The good host,' Kim thought as she picked up the hairdryer and took it back into the bathroom to where she saw a plug by the mirror. 'Who'd have thought?' Before she started drying her hair she studied the plug to try and see which adaptor it used. It might give her a clue to which continent she was on. The hairdryer was American, but she was dismayed to note that the wall socket had a built-in universal adaptor.
'I can be anywhere,' she thought as she washed a comb that was on the sink and started drying her hair, teasing the knotted strands apart with the comb. 'And nobody knows where I am. For the first time in my life, nobody has a clue.'
She couldn't decide if the thought was invigorating or petrifying. She had never had to make a decision alone before, not one of this magnitude anyway, and it was frightening to think that she was completely responsible for her own actions. She wondered suddenly if this was how Shego had felt when she left the shadow of Team Go.
'Don't be silly,' she told her reflection. 'You're not quitting Team Possible, you're merely helping your mother. You can't compare yourself with Shego.' Despite that thought, she suddenly found it very difficult to meet her own gaze. While she was busy with her hair, she heard the front door open. Her first instinct was to rush out and see if Shego was back but she schooled herself and diligently finished working with her hair. When it was dry enough she let her hair settle, made sure that her bathrobe was still securely tied and calmly stepped into the front room again.
It was empty save for a couple of bags of groceries.
Kim let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding and scolded herself. She looked around the apartment but the person who had brought the groceries was gone. She went to the front door and tried to open it but found that she needed a security code. Fighting a sudden burst of panic and trying hard to tell herself that she wasn't a prisoner, she went to the grocery bags and rummaged through them. She soon discovered that the items were placed in colour coded bags, depending on whether the items were meant to be frozen, refrigerated or just packed in a cupboard. Feeling giddy with nerves at being alone in the woman's home Kim found herself unpacking the bags and clearing up the grocery bags. She wanted to clean up the mail ash that Shego had left on the living room table but discovered that the villainess had already done so and also packed away her mail. Still giddy, with every one of her senses waiting for any sign that Shego was coming back, she made herself a cup of camomile tea and got a bagel and some cream cheese from the things that had been brought. There were some odd salad bits as well so she added that to her creation. She tried to imagine Shego doing the same on an ordinary night but the thought was as unsettling as the first glimpses of Shego's private life that she had seen in the hospital.
'She's not a villain to me anymore,' Kim thought as she finally settled on the leather couch by the window. 'I see her as a person, and that's what's scaring me. That's why my stomach is twisting around like it is.' She bit into the bagel and stared out of the window at the city lights. She couldn't help but feel that the view was very lonely.
The bagel was finished before she wanted it to be. Kim washed the plate that she had used as slowly as she could and tidied the kitchen up again, all the while wishing for Shego to return. When she was finished she remembered the catalogue Shego had left her and went to the bedroom to retrieve it. At first she was delighted to see that it was a Club Banana International Edition then, when she noticed the prices, she felt a little guilty to think that Shego would have to spend money on her. She tried to console herself by saying that Shego had earned her money illegally and by spending it on legal merchandise was a way of using her money for good.
She hoped that it was legal merchandise.
Deciding not to think on it too much Kim quickly found her mission clothes and wrote both their codes and her clothes size down on a pad Shego had provided along with the catalogue. She found herself wondering what Shego's monetary value was and if this small shopping spree was like pocket money for her. Not for the first time she found herself cursing the unfairness of the world. She saved the world and did babysitting and she barely made ends meet at the end of the month. Shego assisted a man who was constantly trying to rob the world of breathable air and clearly earned millions.
She started to flip through the magazine more slowly but soon found herself yawning uncontrollably. Shego was right, she had been awake for hours and she had not been sleeping well. Yawning again, she put the catalogue and notepad down on the kitchen counter and went to the bathroom to retrieve the shirt Shego had left for her and brush her teeth. She had found a new toothbrush in the shopping bags and had assumed that it's for her. Shego had certainly thought of everything else. In the bedroom she slipped into the boxer shorts and shirt and carefully lay down on the black covered bed. She stared at the ceiling for a bit before she got up and turned off the light. She didn't know whether to leave the door open or close so left it slightly ajar. She went back to the bed and slipped in underneath the covers. The bed linen was clean and smelled fresh and almost familiar. When she closed her eyes she was taken back to those precious moments that she had shared with Shego in her hospital room. Despite all the overlaying smells of the hospital this smell had been there as well, a lingering fragrance unique to Shego.
She liked it.
Inevitably, as sleep started to drift closer, Kim found herself thinking that she had always liked the way women smelled. Her mother, Mrs. Stoppable, her third grade teacher Ms. Brown, the list of women was endless. She had even noticed that every one of her cheerleaders had a different smell. It had never been unpleasant but rather comforting.
It wasn't that men smelled bad, she just... liked the way women smelled more.
That didn't make her a lesbian...
Did it?
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She stalled going back to the apartment, she couldn't help herself.
Shego was still wondering what the hell she had let herself in for when she decided to help the teen hero. Having dear Kimmie sit next to her death bed was one thing, having her in her apartment was a completely different thing. What was she going to do with her if none of her contacts knew anything about her mother? What was she going to do if they did?
Having Kim Possible here made her uncomfortable. She couldn't quite pinpoint the cause of her unease. She had spent too much time thinking the past couple of weeks and hadn't fully prepared herself for leaping into action of any kind. She was strangely concerned for Kim's mother who she knew had shown her great compassion during her stay in the hospital. She had also felt indebted to Kim and her whole kindergarten for saving her life, something she wasn't use to feeling. And, above all, she felt ridiculously fond of the teenager herself. She had tried to forget the way it felt when Kim touched her, or the way they kissed but it was very hard.
Kim was vulnerable at the moment and seemed to have placed all her trust into Shego's hands. In the view of Teryl's betrayal, Shego was painfully aware of how precious a thing it was to hold. She wasn't ready for the implications of losing herself in the teen's desperation to find her mother, nor was she ready to have the teen in her house.
But, she was there now and there was nothing she could do about it.
It frightened Shego that the thought pleased her.
So, she left the apartment to phone her contacts, but also to get away from Kim's presence. She dialled every corner of the criminal community that she knew and was eventually, after an hour's struggle, given a vague line of hope. Even then she didn't speak to the information source directly but rather to one of the many henchmen that made a living of answering telephones. It wasn't good enough for her, so she insisted on a direct meeting.
She was told that they'd get back to her and cut off.
It was very vexing.
Shego went back to her jet to retrieve her overnight bag and remembered that she had to order some clothes for Kim. Realizing that it had to be done as soon as possible, she reluctantly returned to the apartment, wondering what she'd find. The main room's lights were still on when she entered it, but the bathroom and bedroom were in darkness. The teen hero was nowhere in sight, so Shego presumed that she had gone to bed.
She immediately felt a flash of anger because she thought that the groceries had not come yet but upon closer inspection she realized that Kim must've packed everything away. The few things that remained on the counter were probably items that she didn't know where to put. Shego snorted but found herself smiling as she placed the items into their proper cupboard.
'Very nice of you Cupcake,' she thought and looked around the rest of the kitchen. There was a plate in the sink and it was still quite wet. Shego touched it and glanced at the bedroom. The door was still slightly ajar and it beckoned her like a flame did a moth. She bit her lip and snuck over to the bedroom making, as Drakken had said, less noise than a ninja. Barely breathing she pushed the door open and looked into the room.
Kim Possible appeared to be asleep, very discreetly curled up on one side of the bed. Shego listened to her breathing and found herself stepping closer to the bed. Halfway there she realized what she was doing and backed out, cursing herself.
'If she wakes up,' Shego thought bitterly, 'she'll probably leap up with one of her cheerleader-ninja style kicks and break your ribs again. Let sleeping heroes lie.'
She went back to the kitchen and made herself a bagel, taking note of which ingredients Kim had used. 'She likes her bagels the way I do mine,' she thought as she went to sit on the couch by the window to eat it. She loved this apartment for the view, it was part of the reason she brought Kim here. She found that she wanted to give the girl a different perspective of villainy. Shego saw a small reflection of herself when she was younger in the girl and knew how destructive it could be not to know about the gray expanse between black and white slivers in life. She didn't want to turn her to crime of course, but she felt obligated to change her world view.
'She's ready for it,' Shego thought dryly. 'She wouldn't be here if she wasn't. And, there was of course the other matter to consider... '
She found herself remembering the kiss she had shared with the teen hero. She was pretty sure that Kim came here wanting to answer some questions about the other gray areas in her life. It was only natural, Shego was pretty sure she had opened a floodgate of emotions inside the hero. As Teryl had done for her...
Her mouth thinned as she abruptly lost her appetite. She stood up, tossed the half eaten bagel into her waste bin and went for a shower. She made it a long one, so hot that it almost scalded her skin. She remained under the water until she felt clean again then stepped out, feeling very tired suddenly and very drained. Her chest was hurting, more out of habit she guessed than anything else, and it took a lot of effort for her to dry her hair with the hairdryer Kim had conveniently left in the bathroom. Wrapped in a bathrobe, she found herself drawn to the bedroom again. She went to stand by the door, looking at the teen hero. She was still lying in exactly the same position as she had before. Again Shego found herself stepping forward and this time she made it all the way to the bed. She sat down on the edge slowly, watching the steady rise and fall of Kim's breathing in the dim light. She reached out carefully and rested a hand on Kim's covered leg, wondering suddenly if she could just slip in next to her. She would just lie on the other side of the bed; Kim wouldn't even know that she was there.
'Until she woke up of course,' Shego thought dejectedly and looked at her hand. It had not been content to just rest on Kimmie's leg and had found its own trail up her calf. She blinked startled and stood up quickly. 'That's it,' she thought as she fled the room, 'molest the teenager in her sleep. That's a new one for your criminal record. Pervert.'
&&&
It was only when Shego left the room that Kim found it possible to breathe again. She closed her eyes and let out a steadying breath, puzzled, exhilarated and a little frightened by the villainess' behaviour.
She had been awake when Shego returned and had listened to her move through the apartment. She had almost sat up when Shego came to look in on the bedroom the first time, but there had been a strange vulnerability in Shego's gaze when she looked at her that Kim didn't want to disturb. So, she had closed her eyes and forced herself to breathe deeply and calmly. She thought that she had heard Shego enter the room but when she opened her eyes again she realized that she had been mistaken. Shego was in the kitchen making something to eat and she was alone in the room with only her frantic heart beat to keep her company. She had followed Shego's progress through the room, had heard her throw something into the waste bin and had listened to her take what was most probably one of the longest showers in history. She had been surprised when Shego returned to the room, bringing in the fresh smell of soap and shampoo with her, and once again it had taken a lot of self-control not to let the woman know that she's awake. She was even more surprised when Shego did come into the room again and slowly sit down on the edge of the bed. She didn't dare open her eyes and was pretty pleased with herself for keeping her breathing as controlled as she did.
It all went to pot, though, the moment Shego touched her.
She didn't know where it came from, because she hadn't been looking at her, but quite suddenly she found a frighteningly familiar pressure on her leg. She had had to bite her tongue to stop herself from yelping and had concentrated so hard on not moving that she even forgot to breathe. Her eyes had flown open and she had stared at Shego with wide eyes, watching her as she stared at the space next to her, her gaze distant. Her heart rate had increased tenfold as she felt Shego's hand begin to wander up her leg to her calve and knee. She was sure that Shego would hear the thundering in her chest but the woman was so lost in thought that she didn't even blink. Then, as abruptly as she had come, Shego got up suddenly and left the room, her dark hair bobbing down her back like a waterfall. Kim saw her snatch the catalogue and her notes up from the table and all but throw herself down on the couch. She stayed there for about five seconds before she got up again and started searching for something. When she returned to the couch she had her mobile in her hands and was making a call in a low voice, flipping through the catalogue as she did so. She got up only once after that to get a glass of water and settled down on the couch again with a blanket. She didn't get up again after that, though Kim watched her for as long as she could.
She didn't think that she would be able to sleep at all now, with the sensation of Shego's hand still burning on her leg.
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To Be Continued...
AN: And another one. Due to my current statistical logistics (ie status: Job hunting) I have more time to write. I'm going to try and see if I can pop out as many chapters as I can in this time, so keep an eye. ;)
On a subject of status, I'm still not sure if I should make this T or M. Keep an eye in both sections if it suddenly disappears. I'm not quite up to date with the guidelines but intend to refresh my memory.
Have a great day! Thank you for all the reviews! :) It's very appreciated.
A thanks also to noncynic for ironing out the odd creases!
Alyss
3-;--