A/N:

Kim Possible and all related characters © Disney

Answer © Sarah McLachlan

I own Carmen Marshall, Autumn Gale and Eddie.

Lily is on loan from Love Robin.

Betas: P.D. Perl and Requ. You're the best!

Song: This will be the only time I'll ask you not to play the song until partway through the chapter; you'll know when from the text. Copy and paste this after the youtube web address "/watch?v=i8B1ai25lUo"

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

Epilogue - Answer
by sweetPixiesmile

Holy fuck I hurt.

She twitched slightly. Her entire body felt as if it was being sanded down with rough sand paper. She tried not to move. Even opening her eyes felt like someone was drawing a dull notched knife across her lids. Puss leaked from her cracking eyelids into her eyes, stinging. But Shego did not scowl, or swear. She didn't grimace or snarl at the excruciating suffering that seemed her lot at this point. She knew she must look like roadkill that had been left for too long in a deep fryer. Any movement would crack the drying crust of burnt skin that covered the new one growing in at a furious pace. She didn't move, but she could see the video camera in the upper right corner of her room. She could see the pristine, shell white walls, the solid concrete painted ceiling, the heavily reinforce security door.

Aw, shit.

And now she was wake. She was in pain. She was locked up.

Shego was not very happy at this moment.

The door opened.

A tall, short haired woman entered, her eye patch a dark black vortex. The tanned woman's face was a study of stoicism. She walked over to the far corner and lifted a stool that Shego hadn't seen from her supine position. She moved with a weary deliberateness, avoiding the suffering woman's blurred gaze.

"Kim..." Shego spoke, her voice as cracked as her skin, before she knew what she was saying. Betty paused for a split second, a stillness in her face that caused Shego's heart to jump in unexpected agony that made her injuries pale in comparison. Betty placed the stool by the bed and sat down. Even through the oxygen tent, Shego could see the drawn and exhausted features of the woman's face.

"I shouldn't tell you," Betty said, with a heavy sigh, after watching her for a minute or so. "She... she'd lost a lot of blood. She'd been stabbed by Hellbourne, right through the liver. She was bleeding out..." Betty's face was haggard. Shego gritted her teeth, the pain helping to bolster her against the dread. "The paramedics stopped the bleeding, got the saline into her... she barely made it to the operating table." Betty looked away for a moment, surreptitiously wiping at her good eye. She sighed again and turned back to the immobile super.

"The surgery was a success. But... she... hasn't woken up yet."

There's something wrong with her.

"Tell."

Betty stared at the woman before her for a long, drawn out moment, her face a mosaic confusion of emotion, before a silent stillness returned, a resignation, a withdrawal fromt he field of battle before the suddenly bright eyes of the comet powered woman.

"We... don't know. She's been through a lot. Maybe too much. We're... not sure, if she's... still... Kim." Betty hunched down, as if cringing before the blow that she'd delivered.

A shiver of horror ran skittering through Shego.

I've got to get out of here. She needs me.

She closed her eyes against the misery now clear on the womans face. She stayed that way, waiting. After a few minutes, she heard the stool scrape, the scuff of combat boots and the sound of the door opening and closing. Sleep. She needed to sleep, to allow her comet powered body full reign in healing. Until she could move, she was useless to Kim.

And Kim needed her.

She lay, waiting for sleep to claim her so her body could focus on the task at hand.

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

"Sorry, sir, I haven't been given orders-"

"Fuck that, I'm going in."

Shego was really beginning to hate being awoken. She knew it was irrational. But then her stomach growled so loudly, her eyes snapped open despite the flash of searing pain. Her sheets were stained with the yellowish, pussy fluids of a healing body and were being changed three times a day. With as little irritation and stretching possible, she half slid, half fell out of the hospital gurney. The door opened as she leaned back into the bed. She was dizzy.

"Jeeze, you never give up, do ya, sis?" Mego said, a bag under his arm, the other holding the door open. He was wearing a sailor's jacket in a deep plum colour, with large sparkling silver buttons. His slacks were an even darker purple velvet, his shoes, black canvas hi-tops.

"You know it," she gritted out through clenched teeth, ignoring the fact that she was completely naked. Mego rolled his eyes and reached for the extendable table, putting the bag down. "So what the fuc-" Shego began, stopping suddenly when the most beautiful aroma struck her. She stared at the brown paper bag that Mego had just deposited on the table.

"Is... that what I think it is?"

"You look like something the devil just shat out."

"Tell me something I don't know, Tiny," she growled irritably.

"Don't take that tone with me, Sheegs," Mego said with the smug reassurance of a man in control. "Or this goes with me when I leave. And that's in about three minutes."

"No, wait... " her eyes widened at the thought. Her mouth was already watering at the thought of roast beef. That was not going to walk out the door unless it was just a pile of bones. "Uh,... thanks for dropping by..."

"Thanks Sis. Sit back, I'll get this for you." As Shego tried not to shuffle back onto the bed, Mego reached out and pulled an eight pound prime rib roast that was wrapped in foil and a stack of napkins. Shego's eyes literally lit up at the sight and her stomach gurgled loudly. He deftly pulled out the bottom of the bag, then tore the paper down one seam. He folded the impromptu place mat flat on the table. Shego stayed sitting.

"I'm in a fucking facility, aren't I?" she muttered. "The last thing I remember is sitting in the chopper holding Kim's hand."

"Yup. You passed out," the purple man said as he carefully uncovered the hunk of meat, forming a small tray with the thick aluminum wrap. "I was surprised you were still up with those third degree burns all over your front."

Shego stared as he stood back. After a moment, she lifted an eyebrow.

"No fork or knife?" Mego simply smirked back. She grunted, a flash of annoyance cutting through her haze of discomfort.

"Is it the classic?"

"Yup. Well, I've made some changes since you've had it I think. Some good quality brandy, some fresh garlic in the rub, but it's still mostly just coarse salt and pepper. Still triple A Alberta Angus, cap on, the way you've always liked it."

"You mean...?" Shego's face brightened.

"Blue rare. Can't believe you can eat it like that, it's just so.... uuuurrrghh," Mego waved a dismissive hand.

Without another word, Shego seized the still warm meat and tore into it. For a few moments there were just the sound of chewing and brief groans of pleasure. Within minutes, she had eaten almost two pounds of beef. If there was one thing her brother excelled at, other than being a self-centred prick, it was cooking.

"Thanks, Meegs, I mean it," she spoke around a bite.

"Enough for me to come back to our balcony at Marshall's?"

"Yeah," Shego paused as she tore another hunk with her teeth. The juices and drippings were trickling down her hands and down her forearms, leaving bright red trails. "Keep 'em coming and you're all invited." She paused to dab with the napkins. "So give me the down low. Thought you needed to be out of here?"

"I got a few. You and Kim are in a top secret Global Justice facility. I'm here because Director's signed family visiting rights. We've been pretty busy since Washington. The villains are going bat shit crazy, with both of you out of commission. GJ's so desperate they've even called us in."

"Kim, what about Kim?" Mego paused for a moment.

"She hasn't woken up Shego. Her body's breathing on its own, but they can't get any scans. She's different. Something's changed. I asked Wade, I knew you'd ask, but even he's not sure." Mego pulled out his handheld device, and after a moment of fiddling, he placed the device directly next to her ear. Shego could barely hear the genius's voice.

"I said we don't know!" Wade's voice was sharpened by frustration, his consonants slurred by exhaustion. "We don't know if she's still human or not. Or how much of her still exists. All I know is that the nanites have somehow merged with her organics at a sub-molecular level. Builders, controllers, generators, filters, Faradays... they've all been absorbed."

"She still looks the same, Wade. Tell me something I can give Shego, alright?" There was a the sound of a creaking chair and a long heavy sigh.

"Ok. I must be nuts, telling you this stuff. Do you know your quantum chaos?"

"No, but just go ahead anyway, Shego does."

"She does? Uh... well, I can't get any scans. Something's blocking the MRI, the entire bandwidth of energy refraction. That's because I think all the nanites are still there. But they've worked themselves into the spaces between the atoms, somehow. That with Hellbourne's programming and the with the size and sophistication of the battlesuit nanites, I think that they've merged with Kim's organics. I mean they couldn't really convert all her organs and her circulatory system without killing her. It was waiting to do the final push because it needed to set the framework for the last push. And we're talking about machines that are way smaller than nanorobots or nanofactories; that's the real secret of the battlesuit. We're not talking about trillions or quadrillions of nanorobots at the nano level. We're talking about centillions of yoctites."

"Centillions? Yoctites?"

"Centillions, like six hundred zeros. Yoctites, just add another ten zeros in front of nanite. Atoms are only maybe point three angstroms, or thirty picometres at their smallest, simplest form. But there's a lot of space in between."

"So... uh... you think the... yoctites? Have filled in those spaces some how? How's it even possible for this stuff to exist?"

"This tech is straight from the blackest of black ops. The centurion project was peanuts. My real work is on this stuff, which is definitely alien in origin. Everything's manipulated at the most minute quantum levels. I even use peptide assemblies to manipulate-"

"Just stick to Kim, please? Now, she was naked after the blast; what happened?"

"The yoctites simply slipped themselves into the protective fields of the atoms. They're so damned small they wouldn't disrupt them. The battlesuit, or what you see of it, is really just the macro constructs that the yoctite factories create. Not only that, I'll bet the Faradays protected the controllers that were trying to reach Kim's nervous system. Don't ask why, but it could be part of the programming code that I've done."

"So is Kim still.... human?"

"I don't know. What do you call someone who's entire make-up has been reinforced by a self-replicating, self-powered atomic lattice?"

"So why isn't she awake yet, then?"

"I hate to be repetitive, but again, don't know. No scans. My theory is that the yoctites are trying to find some sort of equilibrium. I mean, sooner than later, the yoctites need a stable energy source. The human body can theoretically generate thousands of watts an hour. They're probably trying to find ways to tap into Kim's bioelectrical system with out harming the source of power, likely a mitochondriatic harvesting system."

"So.... they're like, parasites? Is this catching? Is this like black Spiderman or Venom or what?"

There was a barking laugh of derision.

"Wow, that's pretty loaded. First, the catching thing: I doubt it. Each person is so unique, that the amount of power needed to sync with someone... really remote. But yeah, I guess the analogy of symbiosis might actually apply, without the take over your brain aspect, since the AI's so primitive. So not really just parasitic. I'll bet Kim could call the battlesuit into being or even do some minor morphing. Even her DNA may have been affected. Without any way to scan her... there's no real way of knowing unless we cut a small piece out of her... and I won't let that happen."

"Thanks Wade."

"Look, can you not tell anyone else this stuff? I've just let you in on some kill-you-dead level secrets, okay?"

There was a brief squawk of digital interference when suddenly Wade's voice came through clearly.

"Shego? Fry this thing as soon as you're done."

Shego lifted a greased hand, slapped Mego's phone to the ground with a flip of a claw and flicked a plasma bolt at it. The acrid smell of burning electronics and metal filled the room as Mego yelped, dancing back from the flames.

"Sorry Meegs, I'll getcha another one. Wade's call."

"Fuck, Sheegs, I had all my contacts and stuff on that!"

"Are you still doing backups, like I told you to? Besides, if Wade can hack into your phone remotely without you knowing and tell me to flash your phone, someone else could."

"Well, yeah... alright, alright, fine. But you owe me the top of the line." Meego looked at his purple tinted, amethyst Rolex. "Oh shit! I gotta go. Get better fast, Sheegs. Kim's not doing well. I heard she was having seizures."

She bit into the beef in reply as the purple man waved his good bye and left.

Shego sat in her bed, greedily eating the eight pound roast, the blood-like drippings leaving bloody rivulets down her arms and chin. Her entire front was a sheet of crusted scab, a parchment patchwork that shifted and shimmered. She knew the clean-up would be torturous, but she needed the protein for her powers to continue its accelerated healing process.

"Ugh!" Shego jerked back, her teeth aching. With a slight jolt in incredulity she dug her claws and pincered the hard object until a small corner poked out. It was a familiar handheld... not just any handheld. It was hers, her phased quantum satellite communicator. A bit damaged from her teeth. She surreptitiously palmed the device, carefully invisible to the camera in the corner of the room, and slid it under the covers.

She felt a sudden thrill of exhilaration and an odd wriggly warm feeling. It was one of the thing she'd left in her secured room in Drakken's lair that she had regretted leaving behind. How this had gotten from the lair to Mego, she would have to find out. She wasn't sure how Mego had snuck this past her captors. She suppressed the urge to laugh and flip a finger at the camera. She needed to eat. The faster she recovered, the faster she could be with Kim.

She took another bite, chewing the tasty, buttery soft meat methodically.

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

Betty Director sat on the utilitarian stool as she watched Shego, a scowl on her face. The thief no longer required an oxygen tent. The majority of her front was scabbed over, the protective crust already drying, cracking and falling in patches.

"You're looking peaked," Shego smirked. Betty looked pretty much the same, with her tightass, professional mask on, but the thief could read another person's body language like an open book. The harried demeanour of the blue jumpsuited woman was like a bugle call on a cold winter morning.

Betty ignored the verbal jab as she gathered her thoughts for the conversation before her.

"Something giving you trouble?"

Betty's eyes narrowed for the briefest fraction of a second, but Shego, carefully observing her, noted it with satisfaction.

"I've heard you've been requesting to be moved to Kim's room," Betty began, her words unhurried with a resigned reluctance.

"It's going to happen whether you like it or not. And if she wakes up, you know she'll want me to be there. Besides, if she wakes up and isn't Kim anymore, you can't stop her from turning this place into a slag pile."

"We have every confidence that we will be able to handle that if the situation arises."

"Then you must losing your touch, Bets. You know Kim's track record," Shego snorted in derision. Her chest suddenly constricted painfully as she let slip some of her tightly controlled emotion to voice a traitorous thought that had occurred to her. She had little else to do but think, paring down each boring hour, confined in her bed with nothing but her private recriminations, anxieties and suspicions. "Unless you have a kill-switch?" she asked, her eyes leaking a bit of green plasma.

Betty's face purpled with a violent emotion that Shego could see her visibly struggle with. It was several minutes before the woman spoke, through gritted teeth.

"That. Will not. Be. An. Option." The head of Global Justice bit off each word, leaning forward. Her dark eye stared piercingly at Shego, full of quietly channelled rage. The mint green thief counted to twenty-three.

"Good. Oh, by the way, thanks for the catheter. That really helped. And for taking it out yesterday. That shit is no fun. And thanks for letting Team Go visit me."

"Yes. I see that the food they've been bringing you has help you greatly in your recovery."

The villainess shrugged noncommittally in response.

The security door suddenly banged open as a blue suited Global Justice agent burst into the room.

"Sir! It's Miss Possible! She's having a major!"

Betty was off the chair and out the door before the man finished his sentence. Shego was right behind her, her scabs cracking painfully, but her well trained perception processed everything, storing away each item of note for future reference.

"Hey!" called out the cluster of her jailers as she raced out of the secured recovery room.

"I'm with her!" she called back, pointing at the sprinting woman. They darted down a few corridors and it wasn't until they stopped at an elevator that Betty noticed her. The look of supreme annoyance, dislike and concession that made Shego smirk deepened at her reaction. The elevator arrived in a few seconds, and the two woman entered the lift as the agent who had brought the news skidded around the corner, just in time to see the doors slide shut.

"You haven't been telling me enough. What's with Kim. Spill!"

"Alright, alright!" Betty said. "Just put me down!" Shego blinked. She hadn't been aware that she had seized the head of GJ and was holding her aloft, pressed tightly against the elevator panel. She lowered the woman and released her. Betty massaged her shoulder that comet powered woman had slammed against the wall.

"Kim's been having seizures. We don't know what's going on. We can't get any blood, the nanites block any attempt to get a sample, or a scan of any sort. Wade has a theory, that the nanites are just learning to live in equilibrium with the organic parts of Kim. My science staff are more bleak with their theory."

"What's that?"

"That Kim's organics are destabilizing and she will either die or fulfil Hellbourne's plan, like a ticking time bomb."

"And who do you believe?" The elevator was slowing to a stop.

"I," Betty glared at her, clearly enunciating her words, "have given Wade GJ sub-server access with a team of experts. Who the flying fuck you think I want to believe?" Shego grinned at the woman's use of language as the doors slid open. Betty rushed toward a large twenty foot by twenty foot vault door, Shego on her heels. The heavy multi-ton metal door had a three foot gap. Betty didn't pause in her headlong dash and slipped deftly through the narrow space. Shego did a full twist floating pike through it and sprinted without losing any forward momentum from her landing. She heard the woman ahead of her snort with annoyance. It hurt like hell to be running and tearing open her scabs, running practically naked in her hospital gown. Their footfalls rung in dull brittle clangs against the metal walkways. Shego looked around as they skirted the periphery of a large array of electromagnets. The comet-powered woman could feel the charged air prickling against her skin.

"You've got Kim in a molecular collider facility?" Shego noted in surprise.

"Seems to keep her calm," Betty panted back at her. They ran down a narrow corridor and nearly collided with a man in a white lab coat. Shego noted his broken nose, blood was dripping from his hand.

"Sir, she's broken loose from her restraints. The men are trying to keep her down, but-," the technician stopped speaking with a shrug.

"Get yourself to the infirmary, I'll take command," Betty said, slipping past the battered man, Shego right behind. They entered a large chamber. The far wall had ten large, evenly spaced doors, ten feet high. There were three additional levels, each with another ten metallic vault doors, with yellow metal walkways at each level. Shego recognized the tall, athletic red head hovering by the only door ajar. As they approached, Betty slowed to a quick trot, nearing a door that was wide open. The sound of men straining and speaking in strained tones to each other came from the room. Just as they reached the door, Shego reached out and grabbed Anne's collar and jerked her back as two men came flying out of the room. The doctor said nothing, but her eyes... Shego turned to look at Betty's shocked face.

"Not working, I'd say," Shego quipped over her shoulder. She charged in. Three men wrestled with a shaking form on a mattress on a concrete shelf. Two held on for dear life to the thrashing shadow, another was attempting to hold the arms together. As she neared, there was a brief blue flash. The two holding the legs were thrown off the shelf, the other flew up and hit the ceiling with a thud, then fell senseless to the floor. Shego could see Kim's body, shaking and flailing, her hospital gown torn. She immediately jumped onto the mattress and put Kim in her best immobilizing hold.

Shego could feel the inhuman strength flowing through the girl. She groaned as Kim surged in her arms. Each struggle was fiercer and was accompanied by a brief blue flash. The girl was literally vibrating.

"Calm down, Kimmie! Calm down," she pleaded with the girl. "It's okay, I'm here, it's going to be..."

Suddenly, Kim's mouth opened and thick red liquid splattered on the floor.

Shit... Shego stared, her chest contracting painfully. The liquid continued to pour out of Kim's mouth in fitful spurts.

A portly black boy dash up and scooped up a small sample with a blue handheld.

"It's not blood.... it's not blood!" Wade's voice was ecstatic. Anne ran in with a syringe but even though Betty and one of the uninjured men immobilized the teen's arm, the needle bent and broke. Anne fell back with a cry as Kim tossed the man, flipping him onto the Director of Global Justice. They fell in a heap. Kim strained against her and Shego readjusted her grip. If the girl continued seizing, it couldn't be good for her. Shego glanced about and saw only Betty and Wade, who looked on with stark helpless faces. Anne was treating one of the other men for a mild concussion, the others having been cleared out and escorted to the infirmary. Betty rushed forward, only to be unceremoniously kicked out of the vault by Kim's shaking legs. Wade yelped, ducking as the tall woman flew overhead, landing in a heap just outside of the threshold. Wade scurried over to the fallen woman, helping her to a sitting position.

Kim's shaking was getting worse, the surges coming more frequently. Shego knew soon, she would not be able to hold the quivering girl down. Her own scars were taking a toll on her, the constantly moving girl tearing shreds of unready scabs. Sweat beaded all over her body as she strained to keep Kim still. Shego looked up again, but knew that there would be no reinforcements. Anne stood to the side, a small disk in her hand, her face twisted with horrible indecision. Betty was shaking her head, holding her side, trying and failing to get up. Wade knelt by her side, his brown face green and sick with futility. Another flash, and Kim nearly broke her hold.

She sighed and took a deep breath.

And began to sing.

"I will be the answer," she began, tentatively, "at the end of the line."

Kim's body immediately seemed to relax at the sound of her voice.

"I will be there for you, while you take the time" Shego's voice gained in confidence as the shaking subsided.

"In the burning of uncertainty, I will be your solid ground. I will hold the balance, if you can't look down..."

The unconscious girl folded down in a slow languorous droop. Shego relaxed her grip as slowly, dropping to her knees. She laid the girl on the ripped mattress.

"If it takes my whole life," she crooned as she lifted the covers from the ground and tucked in her red-headed lover. "I won't break, I won't bend. It will all be worth it, worth it in the end."

Shego held the girl's hand in her own and knelt on the cold concrete floor, her eyes filled with the vision of her perfect Princess, and the promise she was letting out of her recently resuscitated heart. The words were swelling with pregnant emotion, pouring out of her in fervent waves.

"Cause I can only tell you what I know, that I need you in my life." It was a painful, wonderfully liberating truth. It was something she never thought she'd say, get a chance to say to anyone, anyone at all. Not since Caitlyn.

"When the stars have all gone out, you'll still be burning so bright." She smoothed away an errant lock of hair, unable to stop staring, stop touching the hero. Her hero, her very own, who had saved her from a mire of an emotional dead zone of her own choosing. The girl had torn her from that particular circle of hell through the force of her trust, loyalty and devotion.

"Cast me gently, into morning, for the night has been unkind," she sang as she traced the girl's eyebrows, her cute nose, her temptingly innocent lips, the adorable swell of her cheek. "Take me to a place so holy, that I can wash this from my mind."

Shego knew she was damaged. Had issues. But they paled in the light that Kim cast in her life. The long shadow of Kim's singular warmth all but smothered any protests she might have had... and injected so many things into her life that she had never realized that she had missed, and the greatest of all was that ineffable, ephemeral, creationist emotion, hope.

"The memory of choosing not to fight...." Behind her, she knew there were strangers watching. She knew their names, had some sort of relationship with each, but they were outsiders to this, the most crucial of bonds that she shared with this slip of a girl. Mother, friend and mentor, they were trespassing on this moment of intimacy. It was a privilege Shego granted them by nature of necessity, because Kim needed them. And that was all that mattered.

"If it takes my whole life, I won't break, I won't bend." What if Kim never reawakened? Shego made her decision, the only one she would choose at this point. She would stay with her. She'd spent so much time desperately holding on to herself, there was almost an odd sense of deliverance as she gave up control of herself. Tears gathered in her shining eyes.

"It will all be worth it, worth it in the end," her voice trembled. "'Cause I can only tell you what I know, that I need you in my life." If Kim wanted her to take up hero work, if Betty demanded it as the price of being with Kim, she would do it. She'd already done something she'd vowed she'd never do again, teaming up with Hego for anything but selfish gain. Well maybe it was selfish gain. She watched Kim's chest rise and fall in rhythmic slumber.

"When the stars have all burned out, you'll still be burning so bright." What was the world without someone like Kim? A deeper, darker place that Shego wasn't sure she'd want to remain in. Kim was hers, and she would not give her up. She picked up Kim's hand and pressed it against her forehead, her eyes closed.

"Cast me gently into morning," she whispered, tears in her eyes, the promise coming to a final few words, "for the night has been unkind...."

Shego swiped at the tears, scrubbing her face and gruffly glancing behind her. The three stared at her with vastly different emotions. Wade's eyes were wide with shock. Anne's eyes brimmed with tears, her hands pressed against her mouth. Betty's was a mixture of intense jealousy, resignation and grudging respect.

"Sh'go," came a soft murmur. Shego's head snapped around, her heart pounding painfully in a sudden effluvia of joy. She turned to see emerald green eyes looking at her from under heavy lids. "Sin'gin... call'd me... h'me."

"Kim," was all that Shego could choke out.

"L'k ter'ble," the girl said,the corner of her lip quirking. Shego laughed.

"Yeah. Yeah I do, don't I?"

"Tire'd.. sl'p," the girl's eyes blinked slowly, once, twice, as if the few words spoken had drained her completely.

"Sleep, Princess. I'll be here."

"L'v yoo," the red-head mumbled. In the next minute she was fast asleep.

Shego couldn't help grinning like one of those idiots.

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

The next time she woke, there was no one at her bedside. In the background, she could hear the soft beeping of a heart and blood pressure monitor. Kim struggled to sit up, but it was too much for her bed-ridden muscles. She turned her head to her right and saw the green woman sprawled uncomfortably on a nearby couch. A light, tan coloured hospital blanket covered the woman; someone had tucked her in. She was dressed in a light grayish blue suit over a charcoal grey pencil skirt. Her thick, rich black hair was swept back and neatly tucked under a light blue headband. Her two inch sharp toed pumps were identical in colour.

The sound of the door opening drew her attention to the foot of her bed. There she saw her mother, a hand clenched against her mouth, tears shining beneath the long lashes Kim had always envied. She wore a formless black sweater and a cream coloured hip-hugging denim pants. She clutched a handheld device tightly to her chest; she had seen her daughter's open eyes staring at the woman on the couch. Anne rushed to her and wrapped her arms carefully, tightly, around her world-saving daughter. Kim worked her mouth to gather enough moisture to swallow and speak.

"Mum," came a stranger's voice, furry with disuse.

"Oh, Kimmie! Kimmie," Anne sobbed. "You're awake! Thank God!"

"No' th'r drama," Kim mumbled, shocked at her lack of strength. When Anne leaned back, Kim asked, "Hosp'ital?"

"Yes, dear. Back in Middleton. You-" Anne paused for a moment before continuing. "You've been in a coma for three weeks now. But you're back. You're back!" Anne felt as if she would start crying again and hugged Kim again.

"Sh'go...?" Anne turned to the slumbering green woman. The woman's left foot and arm hung off the small hospital furniture, she slept with her head hanging off the armrest, her mouth open.

"She's been here since the beginning. She and her brothers saved you. But she said you saved her too." Anne's brow furrowed slightly. "Betty wanted to keep you in one of the Global Justice facilities. She had you inside a nuclear arsenal storage room! Can you believe that? But this reporter, Autumn Gale,... she kept hounding them, kept after them, even took a crew to the very facility you were in, was able to sneak into your room!" Anne's eyes softened when they drifted to Shego. "Betty suspected her, but couldn't prove it. Shego was under twenty-four hour surveillance, and there was no proof." Anne turned back to her daughter.

"Luv 'er, mom... Dis'pnt'd..?" Kim's sea-green eyes looked down, unable to meet Anne's sparkling blue. When the brain surgeon spoke again, her voice was heavy with guilt.

"Never, Kimmie, never. Your father and I.... We're ready to accept Shego, if that's what you want. And Shego, she showed us what she felt for you when she went into Washington to save you, and afterwards. You're our daughter. Nothing can change that. And we love you."

Kim's eyes began to water. As muddled as her head felt, Anne's candid words and guileless expression filled her with a shining dawn of contentment.

"Tnks... mom." The two redheads hugged again, but as Anne leaned back her handheld fell to the ground with a loud clatter.

"Huh? Whu...?" Shego bolted to her feet, hands at the ready, her sleep-blurred eyes trying to focus as she swung her head back and forth in confusion, before focusing on the two redheads.

The Possible women burst into giggles. Anne backed away, knowing what was coming.

"Kim...? Kim!" Shego flew to the girl's side and hugged her.

"Sh'go...!" Kim coughed. The woman loosened her grip and clasped her claw-tipped hands around the girl's own.

"Kim... I..." the woman's shining green eyes were alive with a light that she'd never seen before. "I-.. it's all changed, different..." She looked at the hesitating, flushed villainess, so different from her normal demeanour when she was struck by a dim flutter of memory. Kim felt a sly smile quirk on her face. "Uh, I mean,..." The woman's flustered gruffness was an endearing display that was supercharging her appetite.

Just a few minutes awake and I'm ready to sneak attack her?

"I know, Sh'go... you don' ha'ta say it." Kim was mesmerized by the woman's lips. Without the black lipstick, they looked fuller, more enticing. A grin was spreading itself across her lips. Shego looked... younger.... without her eyeshadow, mascara, lipstick and foundation. Kim felt a tremendous surge of energy.

"No... no Kim. I gotta... I wanna say it." Shego closed her eyes, took a deep breath. She let it out, then opened her eyes and looked resolutely into Kim's deeper green ones. She noted that there seemed to be bluish silver flecks in her eyes that lent an alluring glow to the girl's pupils...

Had that been there before? Get a grip, you're trying to have a moment here!

Shego shook her head with a groan of frustration, then repeated her breathing exercise. She spoke as she opened her eyes.

"My real name is J-mmmph!" Kim leaned forward and gently placed a long, lingering kiss on her lips. Shego's face flamed a dark green her eyes wide and frightened, but soon clouding with smoky excitement before closing. She returned the kiss with an intensity that left the two breathless when they finally drew apart. Anne coughed in embarrassment.

"Sheeeeeegoooo," Kim purred, nuzzling the graceful line of her lover's neck. "You blush so beautifully."

"Damn, Princess," Shego spoke, her voice husky from repressing the urge to moan, "you really can do anything."

Anne slipped out. The two Global Justice agents by the door smiled at Anne's tear-filled eyes as she strode to the nurse's station to make some phone calls with the good news.

- KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP - - KP -

A/N: A shout out to Requ and P.D. Perl to help me with the only beta'd chapter of OWOA! You guys rock! Wow. I never thought I'd be able to finish a humungo multi-chapter like this. Thank you all for sticking it out with me and I hope you enjoyed the ride as much as I did. Also to those who've made song suggestions, please keep 'em coming! I'm picky, but some of them will get used for sure. There's a sequel in the works, although I probably won't get to it for a while. I need to finish off the action adventure of Blood and Bondage first, and finish fleshing out the next. Here's the summary that will go up for the next instalment. It's a bit wordy, so it'll likely change before it gets posted.

Ordinary Miracle by Sarah McLachlan
Kim and Shego are trying to make their relationship work, but life isn't so easy. Shego must face her past, and come to grips with the events surrounding Caitlyn's death. And Kim? What do you do if you're a world-saving hero, but the greatest threat to the world... just might be yourself?

Soon to follow is the old epilogue, in all it's craptacular glory, and completely unedited! You'll notice there will be a number of continuity breaks in that one since I wrote it before chapter.... twelve? Something like that.

Any questions or comments are welcome!