Day 90
Drakken was different. On the surface, to the casual observer, he probably would seem the same. But with pain in her heart that increased day by day, Shego knew better.
As he worked in the lab his mutterings were more frequent and more calculating. He didn't gloat about his work or his genius anymore. He didn't ask for her help, or even look at her though he was aware of her sitting at the other desk watching him. But worse was the way he was when outside of the lab.
The drive back to the island three days prior was spent with both of them in tears, but Shego had watched with foreboding as Drakken's grief turned back into rage as the hours passed. When they reached the lair he had declared that he needed to be alone and had shut her out of his bedroom. And he hadn't let her back in since.
He didn't prepare meals for her when he ate, didn't ask her for help in opening his pickle jars, and barely spoke to her but to announce that he was going to work on a vaccine in the mornings, or that he was tired and going to bed each night. He had all but shut her out entirely.
At first she had kept a respectful distance, not knowing what his grieving process would be like. She would be there if he needed her, or give him space if he needed space. But his grief was obviously now manifesting in anger toward her, and she was at a loss to understand why.
It couldn't be because of what had happened at the house... He was intelligent. He knew better. She knew that he understood why she had stopped him from going back, and also understood that his own reaction was from fearful, basic instinct. His rational mind would have never let him do what he did, or what he wanted to do.
So why?
As he sat in the lab that day, graphs running on the computer screen while he hovered over a microscope and a new, messy stack of papers, Shego decided it was time for a change. Either she would find out why he was apparently targeting her in his grief...or not. But regardless, she wanted him to know that he was hurting her by shutting her out.
"So...any progress?" she asked cautiously as she approached his workbench.
"Mm. Some," he answered without looking up.
"Do you...have an idea of how long it will be yet?" she pressed gently, hoping the neutral topic was a safe one.
He moved away from the microscope and started writing on a piece of paper. He didn't answer her.
She pursed her lips and sat back against the workbench and looked across the room at the computer. For the first time she actually looked at the information running on the screen. Much of it was chemical formulas and equations that she didn't understand, but in one corner was a small graph that compared the rising death toll and a predicted death toll, apparently calculated by him.
"Over 30,000 people have died?" she asked in astonishment.
He glanced briefly at the screen, and then up at her. His frown deepened when they made eye contact and she felt oddly uneasy. He set his pen down and quickly scanned the paper he'd been writing on.
"I need these things," he said, thrusting the paper at her. As soon as she had grabbed it he pressed his eyes to the microscope again.
She read through the list that was mostly equipment that was largely unfamiliar to her. But as she got near the end she suddenly looked up in surprise.
"Wait...you want live mice and monkeys?"
"How do you think vaccines are tested, Shego?" he said cynically.
She blinked and kept reading, frowning at his implication. She was startled again as she saw that for every item on the list, he had named exactly where she would need to go to steal them.
"So...I'll find everything at these places?" she asked, amazed that he'd done something so practical.
"Obviously," he said, turning to cough into his shoulder.
She looked at him and frowned, but took a deep breath. "This will help you make a vaccine faster."
"Mm."
He didn't look away from the microscope. Shego started toward the door, trying to figure out how long she would be gone as she looked at the list of locations and started building a mental map. The sound of him muttering something clearly not meant for her ears stopped her, and she turned back.
"Could have been finished by now if you hadn't kept me trapped in bed..."
Shego's brow rose. 'Kept him trapped...?'
She shook her head and left to start on the list. Maybe his anger would fade when he had made more progress.
Shego returned that night with all of the smaller items on his list. The big ones and the live animals would take more time, since she would need a different way of transporting each of them than the hover-car.
When she brought her acquisitions to the lab to ask where he wanted them, he wasn't there. Her brow furrowing, she set the boxes down and headed for his bedroom. The kitchen and living room she had already seen were empty.
As she reached Drakken's door, she hesitated. Ordinarily, she would just walk in. Even before they became a couple she took the liberty, she realized, though then it was just to annoy him. But now...she worried.
She knocked.
After ten seconds of silence she wondered if he was asleep, but then the door slid open to reveal him still dressed and scowling.
"What?"
"I got most of the things on your list. They're in the lab," she said, gesturing over her shoulder with her thumb.
He raised a brow. "...That was...efficient."
She took a deep breath. "Can I come in?"
His eyes lost their steel for a split-second, as sadness passed through. But he had schooled his features in less than a moment.
"I'm going to bed," he stated.
She opened her mouth and sucked in a breath, trying to figure out if there was a best way to say she could go to bed with him that wouldn't upset him. But he turned and headed back into the room before she could speak, muttering to himself. She leaned through the open door to listen.
"If you'd been this efficient before maybe Mother would still be alive..."
Shego's brow shot up.
Drakken grabbed a paper off his vanity and brought it back to her. "Here, I thought of more things I need for the vaccine."
Shego stared at him, stunned. Was he...blaming her for his mother's death? She took the paper that he held out to her as she processed what she had just heard. But the second her hand was back through the door he closed it in her face.
She backed away with another gasp, but after a moment her eyes narrowed. Who did he think he was, closing doors in her face? After she had just been out all day during a quarantine, stealing from stores and offices and hospitals of all places, getting supplies for something that might not even work. Not to mention she had struggled to keep him alive while she herself suffered the disease at the same time, and dealt with morning sickness.
Only the paper in her hands kept them from flaring as she glared at the closed door. She lifted her hand to knock again, but then stopped.
Drakken... Drakken didn't really mean it. He was just in pain.
She turned and headed down the hall, away from the living area. She stopped briefly at her room to secure his two lists, and then started toward the gym to work off her frustration.
Day 92
Shego's arms shook as she held the barbell up above her head on the eighteenth repetition. Despite her will, her physical weakness forced her to drop the heavy weight on the mat at her feet in the gymnasium. She growled in frustration at her sorry state, but reminded herself to take it easy. She hadn't done her regular workout in over a month. Some loss of muscle mass was entirely normal.
After the revelations two days before, she had given up lingering in the lab hoping Drakken would acknowledge her and had started spending all of her time in the gym. It had been far too physically challenging to drag Drakken out of his mother's house, especially considering his diminished capacity. She needed to get back in shape.
She picked the barbell up and completed the last two reps before replacing it on the rack and removing the weights. That was the end of her training for the day, already having done two hours that morning and another four in the afternoon. She was trying to be conscious of not pushing herself too far as she was still technically recovering from the disease.
Not to mention, she was pregnant.
She needed to do research on how and how not to exercise during her condition, but, Drakken still had her laptop. Maybe she could catch him while he was still in the lab, if she moved fast enough.
She decided to skip stretching and a shower as she headed upstairs to find him. Since he had been retiring to his room earlier and earlier—a tactic he was using to avoid her, she had decided—she might miss him entirely if she didn't act quickly.
When she entered the lab she sighed in relief. He was standing in front of the workbench fiddling with something.
She approached silently since every time she announced herself he snapped at her for startling him. When she was almost at his shoulder he turned with a choked gasp and raised his hands defensively. Despite herself, she smirked.
"Shego!"
Her heart ached. That was the most...Drakken-like thing he had done in days.
"How many times have I told you not to sneak up on me!"
"Sorry," she shrugged. "Wasn't trying to."
He scowled and turned back to the workbench.
"Where have you been?" he asked accusingly.
"Uh...the gym?" she said, gesturing to her attire. He glanced back and gave her tennis shoes, stretch pants, and sports bra a once-over. But he had no other reaction than to take note.
The irrational thought flitted through her head that she wasn't attractive to him anymore, but she pushed it out as quickly as it had entered.
"Why aren't you here?" he said. "I need you."
The ache in her heart intensified, but unfortunately it didn't filter her response to him. "Uh, I already got everything on your stupid lists. Even the monkeys. What else do you need?"
"Well fine, if you don't want to help! Be that way!"
Shego's eyes widened as her mouth turned down in a scowl.
"Nice to see you too, Doc," she said as she turned on her heel to leave. She was glad he couldn't see the trembling of her lips as she strode rapidly toward the door.
Remembering her reason for coming, she paused and quickly glanced around the lab. Her laptop was lying closed on the large computer desk, and she quickly crossed the room to grab it. He obviously wasn't using it anymore.
She glanced at him once more before leaving, but he was engrossed in his work again. She jogged toward the door, suddenly finding it painful to be in the same room with him.
Once she was outside the lab she paused and leaned back against the wall, her heart pounding heavily. What had just happened? He said...he wanted her there. He said he needed her.
But...did he really, or did he just need a target for his disturbed emotions?
She swallowed down the sudden urge to cry and hurried back to her room. A shower would help, and then she could start researching the limits on exercise while pregnant...and research pregnancy in general.
It was time to focus on herself for a change.
Shego lay on her back in her small bed, staring at the ceiling. It wasn't as comfortable as Drakken's. She felt confined, even though she had complete freedom of movement; no other body around her to consider when she rolled over during the night.
She sighed. She missed him.
She stretched and rolled over to glance at the status of her charging laptop. It had been dead when she tried to start it up, and she realized it had probably been sitting in the lab untouched since the morning they had left to find Drakken's mother.
The charge indicator showed fifty percent, so she grabbed it and rolled over onto her stomach as she pressed the power button. It started quickly, waking up from a sleep mode, and Shego mentally shrugged as she typed in her password to log in.
She brushed her damp hair from her shower out of her eyes as she stared at the screen. The number of files open were innumerable, and most appeared to be written in Greek or in some sort of code she didn't understand. She grimaced as she started minimizing the files, worrying that they may not all be saved and that one might hold something critical that Drakken needed and hadn't gotten transferred to the lab computer.
All she needed the laptop for was the web browser, and she could see down in the home bar that the software was already running. She frowned as she kept minimizing his files that never seemed to end. How he had managed to not crash her hard drive was a mystery.
She minimized a tiny text file that looked startlingly different from the rest. A quick glance showed it only contained a small list of similar dollar amounts, and as the file vanished down into the home bar suddenly all that was left was the browser.
Shego's jaw dropped. The browser was open to an image search, and Drakken's search term had been...'engagement rings.'
"Oh..." she breathed as she started tabbing through the open windows. He had opened eight different windows with rings that he apparently liked. She pursed her lips and brought up again the last, tiny text file with the dollar amounts and quickly saw that they were in fact the prices for each ring. He had put an asterisk next to one of the prices—not the highest one, but close—and she went back to the browser and tabbed through until she found the one that corresponded.
The engagement ring that he apparently favored had a large, round-cut, white diamond set in a plain yellow gold band. Two pale aquamarines were set on each side of the center stone. The ring came with a wedding band—an eternity ring of tiny white diamonds set again in yellow gold.
"Oh, Dr. Drakken..." she murmured affectionately as she saved the web page to her crowded desktop. She opened a new browser window and started looking for men's rings that would match, her heart aching ever more.