Hi boys and girls I am back for chapter thirteen. I understand that some of you wanted Ron dead. Well, I didn't do that because it would make my story suck. I don't like it when people kill important characters just to make a plot point. Plus since the story is called SILVER I can't just kill Silver. So anyway here's chapter thirteen hope you like it.
Chapter 13: Moving In
Kim and Shego walked through the halls of the hospital together. To people that didn't know them they might have appeared to be sisters, or perhaps mother and daughter. Nothing could be further from the truth. They were bitter enemies, united only through their feelings for Ron.
They eventually found their way to the parking lot. "We'll take my car." Kim said as she unlocked her car with the remote. Shego could have easily made a sarcastic remark, but didn't. She simply got into the red convertible.
"My apartment is that way," She pointed a finger toward Lowerton. "I need to stop by and get my stuff."
"Shouldn't I ask my parents if you can stay first?" Kim asked as she drove out of the parking lot and up to the stoplight.
"Listen Kim. I don't have the money to pay for another night in that dump, and I don't feel like arguing with you." Shego turned her head away from Kim and looked out the window. "So can you please just drive?"
Kim didn't say anything as she turned the car toward Lowerton. The only words exchanged between the two were simple driving directions. "Turn left here, turn right there, keep going straight."
They were driving through the old Lowerton industrial park when Shego said, "Stop here." The building they stopped in front of was conveniently located next to the Lowerton dump.
'If they ever decided to tear it down they wouldn't have far to haul it,' Kim mused silently. The top floors of the building looked to have been gutted by fire. The windows were broken out and thick black stains ran up the brick exterior. A large section of the brick façade had collapsed back into the main shell of the building. It looked as if only the lower three of the nine floors were fit for human occupancy. Kim made certain to lock the doors on her car after she and Shego had gotten out.
"Keep your eyes open princess." Shego told her.
"For what?" Kim asked.
Shego had just opened her mouth to respond when a brick shattered on the sidewalk between them. "That."
Kim couldn't help but feel sorry for Shego. She had always carried herself with a certain air of superiority. For her to have been reduced to living in a place like this, it didn't seem possible.
"This place is a dump," Kim said as she followed Shego inside. The inside of the building was worse than the outside, if that was possible. It looked like there had been a gang war there in the fifties and nobody bothered to clean up. Paper litter and broken bottles covered the floor, only a narrow strip of worn tile was available to walk on.
"Hey you better be here to get your stuff and go." A male voice yelled from off to their right. Shego didn't even turn her head to look, but Kim did. There, safely ensconced behind a bullet-proof glass barrier at the far end of the room, sat a truly disgusting man. He was not only dirty, fat and balding, but also sweating like a pig despite the fact that it wasn't even hot. He had been fanning himself but suddenly stopped and glared in Kim's direction, Shego was flipping him off.
"You done checking out the locals Kim?" Shego asked. "Because we have things to do other than your boy watching."
Kim chose to ignore Shego's jibe and instead continued to follow her across the lobby floor. She took one last glance back at the man before starting up the stairs, the look he gave her sent chills up her spine, "pervert."
Shego was slowly making her way up the steep winding staircase. Kim asked, "Shouldn't we be taking the elevator?"
"If you want to fall down a elevator shaft be my guest," Shego said, "besides we're almost there, only two more floors left," as she continued to struggle up the stairs.
"Let me help you," Kim said reaching out to help Shego up the stairs. Shego slapped her hand away as she growled.
"I've been climbing these stairs for five weeks I can do it myself."
"I was just trying to help," Kim said as she rubbed her hand.
They stopped on the third floor and headed down the hall. To say the hallway was ratty would be an understatement. Kim recoiled a bit when an actual rat scurried away along the wall. "They don't bite…much." Shego told her.
How Shego could live in a place like this still astounded Kim. The sounds, babies crying and people screaming at each other. The smells, burning food, burning tobacco, along with the cacophony of other smells. It all combined to make for a most unsettling atmosphere. Maybe her stints in prison had given Shego the stomach for this, but Kim wasn't like her. Kim enjoyed a life of relative ease living in Middleton, where her only discomforts came in the form of her brothers.
The pair stopped at a door that had the number nine on it, or maybe it had been a six that fell loose, Kim couldn't tell. Shego fumbled with her keys, unlocked the door and entered her apartment.
The entire apartment was contained in one room. There was a toilet in one corner and a small kitchen in the opposite. Dirty dishes and uneaten food were piled on the small countertop, a swarm of flies hovering over the easy meal. The only furnishings were an old coffee table with three legs, although it was meant to have four; an old rusty metal frame bed with a thin spring-worn mattress; and a small four drawer dresser that had only one remaining drawer in it, two of the other three were missing entirely and the third had been smashed against the wall next to the dresser.
"Is this place safe to live in?" Kim asked as she stepped gingerly across the floor, having to avoid the gaping holes in it. She could see into the apartment below them, although it appeared to be empty.
"No," Shego said as she grabbed an old leather suitcase and walked over to the dresser.
"How long did you say you've been living here?" Kim asked sitting on the bed.
"Just let me pack what little I didn't have to sell to afford this hellhole in peace!" Shego said angrily as she threw what few clothes she had left into the suitcase. She snapped the case shut and began to look around, seemingly intent on finding something. That's when Kim noticed a red book that said 'Journal' on it.
"Looking for this?" Kim asked as she picked up the book off the table.
"Give me that!" Shego said as she snatched the book away from Kim. She held it close to her chest, as if it were somehow very valuable. "It was Ron's."
"Ron's?" Kim asked in only a half questioning tone. In all the time she knew him, he never told her he had kept a journal.
"A week after Ron joined up with Drakken and me we went back to what was left of his house and found this in a lockbox." Shego said as she opened up to one of the pages, "I've read it a thousand times and I'll read it a thousand more times." Her eyes began to glisten with unshed tears, "The last entry is from the day he went after that stupid diamond."
Kim stepped to Shego and took her by the arm, "Come on lets go."
Shego didn't offer up any resistance to Kim's help this time. She allowed herself to be led carefully down the stairs and out to the waiting car. They drove to Kim's house in absolute silence. When they arrived it was dinner time, the family would be eating in the kitchen. A perfect opportunity for Kim to approach them about Shego living with them.
Kim unlocked the front door and she and Shego stepped into the house. "Mom, Dad I'm home," Kim yelled.
"Were in here with the twins Kimmie cub," Kim's fathers voice came from the kitchen.
"Kimmie cub?" Shego laughed.
"Wait here while I go talk to my parents," Kim said, "and try not to steal anything."
Shego pouted a bit appearing hurt by the admonition not to steal. "Oh so you're going to want your watch back?" She asked, a bit mockingly, as she let the thin golden timepiece dangle from between her fingers.
Kim snatched her watch back before walking to the kitchen. Her mom, dad, and brothers sat at the table eating dinner.
"You're back early Kimmie. Is everything ok with Ronald?" Her father asked. Kim almost never ate dinner at home anymore, she had taken to eating at the hospital. Staying with Ron from the time school let out until the staff would force her out of his room when visiting time was over at Nine pm.
"Ron is doing fine," Kim assured them. "He had a special visitor today. She kind of needs a place to stay for a while…Is it ok if she stays here?" She asked in her most innocent voice.
"Sure Kim, for how long?" Mrs. Possible asked.
"Until the baby comes," Shego said as she stepped into the kitchen.
To say that Kim's family was shocked, that would be an understatement. Their eyes went wide in disbelief that Shego would be standing in their kitchen, and that she would be 'pregnant?'.
"Kimberly, we need to talk." Mr. Possible said in a voice that Kim knew meant no. "Jim and Tim, go to your room." He added, this was grown up talking time.
"Come on dad. Ron asked me to help her. That's his baby!" Kim yelled tears building up in her eyes.
Tim and Jim both gasped. "Ron and Shego sitting in a tree," They began, "K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love. Then comes marriage. Then comes-" Shego grabbed them by the collars of their shirts and lifted them out of their chairs.
"Your heads on pikes if you don't shut up." She warned them in a menacing tone.
"Got to go," they said in unison as they slipped away and ran out of the kitchen and up to their room.
Kim and her parents stood off in a corner of the kitchen quietly talking, arguing. Shego couldn't make out exactly what they were saying, but she could hear the occasional word.
"…dangerous." Mr. Possible.
"…our help." Kim.
"…the twins." Mrs. Possible.
"For Ron." Kim said, her parent's voices fell silent. They had no choice in the matter.
Mr. and Mrs. Possible turned to Shego and Mr. P. told her, "You can stay, until the baby is born." He didn't want her in his house any longer than necessary.
Kim led Shego upstairs to her room. "You can have the bed I'll sleep on the floor," She said as she rolled a sleeping bag out. Shego didn't respond, she just crawled into bed quietly.
"Tomorrow we can get you some more clothes," Kim said from her spot on the floor. Shego just ignored her. "Do you want to talk or something?" Kim asked unnerved by the silence of her guest.
"Ron used to sleep on the floor next to my bed, when we worked for Drakken. We would talk all night." Shego rolled over onto her side, facing away from Kim. "It's how we fell in love." Shego reached out and turned off the lamp that lit the room. "Goodnight Kim."
"Goodnight Shego." Kim said as she tried to get comfortable on the floor. 'Tomorrow will be a better day. We'll get her some new clothes and visit Ron, together…I hope.'