Author's note:

Right, chapter two of two. I don't have too much to say about this one, other than the chapter title is another lyric from Pink Floyd's The Wall (as a lot of the chapters involving Ann seem to be), however, this time it comes from The Thin Ice and not from Mother (seriously, I've milked that track for all but one of its suitable chapter title lyrics, which I'm saving for later). So, enjoy and I'll see you all at the end.

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Interlude: Mother loves her baby...

Ann Possible had never considered herself a bad mother. Not even when she and her husband had been forced to work long, erratic hours and leave their young daughter in the care of her grandmother for extended periods, nor when her sons had injured themselves after copying one of Adrena Lynn's stunts. No, she'd always found some way of rationalising and explaining unfortunate situations that had befallen her children, which did not land herself in the crosshairs of the rifle labelled 'Bad Parent'. In fact, she had ample reason to be proud of her parenting skills and those of her husband's.

While her sons could be cheeky monkeys of the highest order at times, she had both spotted and nurtured their high intellect from an early age, resulting in them getting ready for their senior year of high school at only fourteen. She'd also supported their non-academic activities, such as playing soccer, too. And while they did not socialise with people other than themselves as much as she would like, that was an issue faced by the parents of most twins, although it in her case it became squared once you factored in her sons' genius-level intellects. Nevertheless, she and her husband had done a good job raising them.

Then there was her daughter, who had been a perfect straight-A student, with barely a blemish on her academic record and who'd had her pick of virtually any college in the country and many abroad. She'd also been captain of the cheer squad since the end of her freshman year and won multiple regional championships. Not only that, but Ann and her husband had instilled in Kim a strong moral code that she had taken to heart. And all of that was before considering the small matter of Kim having saved the world on countless occasions. Taking all that into consideration, she should have been proud that she had raised her daughter to be such a force for good in the world, right?

Ann sighed, her gaze drifting out of the kitchen window; it was raining. She was proud of Kim's phenomenal accomplishments. How could she not be? Yet at the same time, she'd recently begun to feel like the worst mother in the world. Her daughter's high-octane lifestyle resulted in her risking both her life and injury on a daily basis, the latter of which seemed to occur far more than the girl had ever let on. And over the past eighteen months, ever since she'd broken up with her boyfriend, Kim had slowly become more and more reclusive. To the point that Ann suspected she rarely saw anyone face to face that was not in some way related to her current mission. And she'd virtually given up on the idea of her daughter having some sort of social life. Regardless, as the girl's mother, she could not help but feel responsible for the current state of her daughter's life.

Over the past couple of weeks, ever since she'd released Kim from 'house arrest', memories of points where she could, no, should have intervened in her daughter's life, had played over and over again inside Ann's head. The aforementioned period where she'd been forced to leave Kim in the care of her grandmother being the starting point. If I'd only paid less attention to my career; to trying to build a stable future for my family and focused on the then and there, maybe I would have had a closer relationship with her... been there for her. And while she had thought it a great thing at the time, Kim learning to be so independent from such a young age had contributed a lot to how she had developed as she'd grown up. We encouraged her independence so much that by the time she'd reached high school, she probably could have lived by herself without much issue, assuming she learned to curtail her expenditure at Club Banana. Then there had been her 'babysitting website', something else they had wholeheartedly encouraged her to pursue.

A hollow laugh echoed around inside Ann's head. If not for us encouraging her to do such a normal teenage girl thing like babysitting at that point in time, she might never have created that website, helped that first client and consequently never gotten involved in the whole hero business. She'd probably be getting ready to start her third year at college and my worries would be limited to how much she might be partying and what boys she might be dating… the worries of a normal mother. Unfortunately, her failings as a mother did not end there. She could remember perfectly the morning Kim had come down the stairs for breakfast and told the family about how she had saved Mr McHenry from his own vault security system and how she'd decided to use her website to help people, rather than to get babysitting jobs. Ann laughed internally again, James and I had been so proud of her for deciding to do something so selfless and helpful for the community. If I'd known where it would lead, I would have put a stop to it then and there…

"Umm, Mrs Dr P…"

Ann jumped upon hearing the voice, now realising that she'd been staring out of the kitchen window instead of plating up the cookies she'd baked that morning. She turned and found the freckled face and brown eyes of Ron Stoppable staring at her.

"…do you really have cookies, or was that just a ruse to get us all over here?"

She shook her head in an attempt to rid herself of the last thoughts pertaining to how and when she should have prevented things from getting to this stage. "Sorry, Ron," Ann replied and began transferring the cookies from a baking sheet to the plate. "They're just coming. If you wouldn't mind taking that tray through to the living room for me, I'll be right behind you," she pointed to a large tray containing empty glasses, a picture of iced tea and a couple of soda cans.

"Ok, but not going to lie, if those cookies don't have extra chocolate chips in them, I'm going to be disappointed," Ron replied and picked up the tray.

Ann laughed, "when have my cookies ever disappointed you, Ron?" When the boy turned his back to her and headed out of the kitchen, she let out a low sigh. Why couldn't you have taken life more seriously, Ron? If you had, Kim might not have ended things with you and then she'd at least still have one person in her life. She shook her head again and picked up the plate of cookies. No point crying over leaked brain fluid. I need to focus on what is and how we're going to help Kim.

Following Ron out of the kitchen, Ann entered the lounge and sat the plate of cookies down on the table. No sooner had it touched the surface and three hands shot out and grabbed one. She gave each of the offenders a stern look. "Mind your manners, boys." She then gave her two polite guests a warm smile. "Thank you all for coming. It means a lot to have you all here."

"Umm, Mom, shouldn't we wait till Kim gets here?" Jim asked through a mouthful of cookie.

"You told me Kim would not be here!" Monique said angrily and motioned to get up. "I'm out of here."

Ann quickly turned her attention to the girl. "Kim won't be here, Monique," she said in a placating tone and then hastily added, almost pleading, "please, don't leave."

The girl settled down in her chair again, as two voices spoke at once, the first was Tim, who addressed her by saying, "what's the point of having an intervention if the person whose life we're supposed to be intervening in isn't going to be here, Mom?"

The second voice belonged to Wade, who asked Monique, "if you don't want to even see Kim, why did you agree to come?"

Before she had the chance to answer one son, the other added, "and why isn't dad here? How come he got to escape?"

Ann looked at her sons and replied to both questions. "Kim isn't coming because this isn't an intervention," at least not yet, "and your father isn't here because he had something important he needed to do," that I needed him to do.

As she finished answering her son's questions, she heard Monique say harshly to Wade, "I came as a personal favour to Mrs Dr Possible, that's it."

"Oh my god, I've so missed your cookies!"

Ann, along with everyone else in the room turned to stare at Ron.

"What?" Ron asked, a look of confusion on his face. "I haven't had any of these in over two years."

She watched Rufus appear on the boy's shoulder; a cookie clasped in his tiny paws. "Uh-hu, uh-hu," he added with an emphatic nod of his head and then promptly took a bite. "Mmm, yum-yum."

Ann laughed internally, he always had a knack for inadvertently lightening the mood in a room. "Ok," she breathed, as she poured herself a glass of iced tea, "just to be clear, this is not an intervention and Kim won't be joining us." She took a sip from the glass and sat down in the armchair that she had deliberately placed facing the sofa on which everyone else was sat. "However, she is the reason why I've asked you all to come here today." She sighed upon reminding herself of the reality of her next point, "as some of you already know, Kim is currently unwilling to even take a call from me, much less talk to me face to face."

"That's the understatement of the year, Mom," Jim snorted and grabbed a can of soda from the table.

"Yeah, she literally stormed out on you after you inflicted her upon us for two whole weeks," Tim added.

Ann opened her mouth to reply, but the second one twin finished, the other jumped straight back in. "She was a total bitch to us that whole time, even when we purposefully tried to keep out of her way and not annoy her."

It had always amazed her how her sons managed to converse like that. It was literally like they were one person in two bodies. Granted, that might explain why they're so short. She quickly batted the thought aside and glared at her son. "Jim, watch your language. And don't talk about Kim like that; she's your sister."

She'd just released her son's gaze when she heard Monique say to Tim, "you guys too, huh?"

"Whoa, whoa, slow down a minute," Ron then said above everyone. "What do you mean by inflicted her upon you? It's not like she's been mutated into some sort of disease by some supervillain, right?"

Once again everyone turned to look at the blonde-haired boy and Ann raised a hand to cover her eyes and shook her head. He always did have the most overactive imagination I've ever encountered. I wonder what an MRI scan of his brain would look like?

"What?" Ron asked incredulously for the second time. "Drakken could easily have turned her into some sort of Kimona virus and unleashed her upon us."

"Ron, even for Dr Drakken, that plan is bonkers," Wade said and lightly patted the blonde-haired boy on the shoulder.

"Kim has not been mutated, had her DNA scrambled or fallen victim to any other sort of supervillain plot to take over the world," that I'm aware of, Ann replied firmly. "She's just having a bad time of it at the moment, that's resulted in her having a lot to work through. And I genuinely think she could use some help from her friends and family, but has become so entrenched in her 'I can do anything' approach to life, that she's forgotten how to ask for it."

Much to her dismay, Jim and Tim decided to paint over her whitewash of what had happened between herself and Kim with a full-colour version of events; the pair seamlessly trading off one another like they knew exactly when and where the other would finish.

"Kim got injured while fighting Shego and became sick as a result," Jim began.

"So, mom asked us to create a device that she could put on her to stop her leaving while she recovered," Tim continued.

"Yeah, but she didn't tell us that she'd be keeping her here for two whole weeks!"

"Needless to say, Kim was pissed as a hornet and started punching holes in her bedroom walls as a result."

"Which meant dad had to hang a punching bag in her room to stop her knocking the whole house down."

"And she was a downright bi…" Tim hastily stopped mid-sentence when she glared at him and instead chose to finish with, "…was downright nasty to everyone for the whole two weeks."

Ann's eyes shifted to Ron, who looked utterly stunned upon hearing her sons' recitation of events. "What was she so mad at?" he asked and then quickly added, "aside from being kept under house arrest."

"Shego," Wade replied simply, before helping himself to a cookie and soda. "Kim was hellbent on catching her and putting her in jail from the moment Mrs Dr Possible let her out."

"Don't you mean since she lost that fight?" Monique countered, her normally light tone still laden with frost.

Ann fixed Ron with a serious expression. "She wasn't angry when you spoke to her last week?"

This time it was only Monique who turned to stare at the blonde-haired boy; Wade having already been aware that he had spoken to Kim and her son more interested in munching more cookies. "Wait a minute, you talked to Kim and are still alive?" the girl asked, her expression a strange mix of shock, confusion and sheer amazement. "I mean I am not going to defend how she's been acting recently, but last time you guys spoke, you were downright nasty to her and I thought she was going to kill you, literally."

Ann's lips thinned slightly, as her gaze moved between her daughter's former best friend and best girl. "Neither of you told me that." While both Ron and Monique had both told her that the former had argued with Kim in a nightclub, neither had mentioned the severity of the altercation.

Both boy and girl looked slightly sheepish under her intense stare and it was Monique who responded first. "I neither wanted to repeat what he said," the girl shot Ron a glare, "nor thought Kim would thank me for telling you. And I'd still been labouring under the delusion that she'd tell you herself."

"And what's your excuse, Ronald?" Ann asked, not best pleased that something this big had been kept from her, but also regretting that she had to find out such things second hand. She sighed internally, why couldn't you have told me this when we talked, Kim?

"Look, I'm not proud of what I said to Kim that night and I regret that I did, ok… and I thought you might kill me if I told you." As Ron finished, she intensified her stare, causing him to shrink back into the sofa slightly. He let out a forced laugh, "it's all good now. I apologised to Kim, she didn't kill me and we ate Oreo's and drank coffee…" he briefly met her gaze as he added, "so, I don't have to tell you… right?"

Before she had the chance to either let him off the hook or 'encourage' him to tell her; she didn't know which she would have chosen, Jim cut in, "uh, Mom, isn't this whole thing," he indicated the group with his hand, "one of the reasons Kim's so pissed off with you in the first place?"

"Yeah," Tim added. "Isn't she sick fed up of you talking to people about her behind her back?"

Ann rounded on her sons and a split second was all it took for her to lose control of her temper. "You think I don't know that!" she barked rhetorically. However, the moment they both shied away from her, she felt a torrent of guilt, both at how she had just reacted to her sons' insinuations and at the fact that she knew they were correct. The corners of her eyes began to prick and she could not stop the words that followed from tumbling out of her mouth. "I'm just so worried about her. It broke my heart when we fell out over her not going to college and I was overjoyed when she finally allowed me the opportunity to apologise and start mending the bridge. However, after she moved into her apartment, she slowly stopped telling me things until it eventually became a struggle to get her to come over or talk to me. Not to mention the injuries she's picked up over the past two years."

As she spoke, Monique stood up from the sofa and came over to sit on the arm of her chair; pulling her into a hug. "It's ok," the girl soothed once Ann had finished pouring her heart out. "We all know how much Kim means to you and how incredibly selfish she's been." While Monique had tried to keep a level tone, she could still hear the bite in the second half of the girl's sentence.

Ann took in a steadying breath, "I'll be ok." She then wiped the corners of her eyes on a tissue, slightly surprised that the floodgates had not opened the moment she'd lost control of her tongue. She then turned to look at her sons. "I'm sorry boys," she said sincerely. "You're both right, but since Kim won't even talk to me at present, I'm not sure what else to do except for talk to the people who are closest to her," or at least this is the evil she'll hate me the least for doing.

Given that they each had one free 'you can't yell at me' credit, the twins decided to cash them in. "So, why are we here?" Jim asked, which was seamlessly followed by Tim saying, "and how come Dad got to escape?"

She pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head, as she knew she had to let the recitation of their earlier questions pass without reprimand. "You're both here because Kim is your sister and because the two of you look after her car, which means you are two of a select few individuals," she indicated the rest of the group, "that she has actually spoken to in the past couple of months," and I never thought I'd ever say that. She then let out an audible sigh and decided that she'd rather tell the truth over having to fend off further questions about where her husband was. "Your father's not here because he's gone to see Kim."

Both Jim and Tim dropped the cookies they were holding and their mouth fell open.

"Has he gone mad?" Jim asked incredulously.

"Or suicidal?" Tim added.

"Why would she even be home?" Jim then asked. "It's after nine am on a weekday. Surely she'll be out on a mission."

"Maybe that's the idea," Tim replied. "He goes over there when he knows she'll be out, so he can at least say he tried. Pretty sneaky if you ask me."

"No, she's home," Wade then said. "Unless she's gone out without her Kimmunicator and Kim never goes out without her Kimmunicator. Although it does occasionally drop off the radar for a couple of hours, but that's probably just because she's forgotten to charge the power cell. I keep telling her it has a long lifespan, but it's not infinite. Not even I can bend the laws of physics that far."

While the tech guru seemed to have missed it, owing to the fact that he did not quiz them, Ann did not fail to notice the knowing look that passed between her sons and she could tell that they had wordlessly just said, "hicka-bicka-bo," and "hoo-sha!" Undoubtedly, they were the reason for Kim's Kimmunicator dropping off the radar. However, while it raised the question of what Kim might be doing that had resulted in her asking her brothers for something that could block the Kimmunicator's signal, at present, it did not matter.

"Seriously, people, what's all the hoo-ha about?" Ron then asked. "KP was perfectly fine when I spoke to her last week."

It was only on hearing Ron reiterate that Kim had seemed fine when he had spoken to her, that Ann recalled that this had been her original point of enquiry. "Are you sure she didn't seem in any way angry, Ron?"

"Positive, Mrs Dr P," Ron reaffirmed. "No anger, rage or wrath to be seen or heard and that was while talking to me."

"She was a lot calmer when I spoke to her too," Wade concurred. "While she got a bit annoyed when I told her I called Global Justice to assist her with Drakken and Shego, she quickly calmed down and even apologised to me for, as she put it, treating me like shit."

Ann raised an eyebrow at the tech guru's use of the expletive, but let him off with only that, as he'd simply been paraphrasing something Kim had said to him.

"At least someone got an apology out of her," Monique said bitterly as she stood up and went back to sit down on the sofa.

"The point is, it sounds like she's calmed down a lot since she put Shego in jail," Wade said, then added, "although, she did just break out."

"What!" Ann exclaimed, however, she was not the only one. Both Ron and Monique had said the exact same thing.

Ron was then first to react further, "awww man, can't GJ keep her locked up for more than a couple of days! What are we paying those guys for?"

"There goes any chance of a rational Kim then," Monique snorted in disgust.

Ann zeroed her gaze in on Wade. "Does Kim know yet?" she asked. Great, they bring me a shred of good news regarding Kim and it's probably about to be undone by Shego. Why does everything relating to Kim always seem to come back to that infernal woman?

"Yeah, I told her late last night," Wade answered.

Ann immediately sighed and shook her head. "Please tell me that Kim's not hellbent on chasing after her again, so she can send her back to jail."

The tech guru made her wait for several agonising seconds while he drank from his soda can, before replying, "actually, she was perfectly calm when I told her. In fact, if you ask me, she took it almost too well, given how angry she was at Shego in between their fights at the communications centre and Mount St Helens."

Ok, Ann breathed, on the plus side, it's good that Kim's no longer that angry, even upon discovering that Shego's broken out of jail. However, that raises its own questions that I don't have any answers for at present.

"Look, I don't know what the hell is going on inside that girl's head right now and quite frankly I don't care anymore, but that's certainly not how I would have imagined her reacting to finding out Shego had just broken out of jail," Monique said darkly. "In fact, I'm astonished that she wasn't packing her bags while you were still talking to her, Wade."

"Maybe she beat Shego up enough the last time they fought," Jim said.

"Or maybe Kim was loaded up on those happy pills mom gave her when she was injured," Tim suggested.

"Unless she's called in some serious favours that someone in the medical or pharmaceutical field owes her, or still has some of that codeine she was prescribed for her back several months ago, I doubt she was high on painkillers," Ann replied. "Besides, Kim's too stubborn to take painkillers unless she absolutely has to," and I refuse to believe she'd be stupid enough to try anything illicit.

"While she certainly wasn't high, her pupils were quite dilated, Mrs Dr Possible," Wade then said. "It's possible she had something in her system, but not enough to result in such a laid-back reaction to the news that Shego's on the loose again."

Ann's face fell slightly upon hearing this and doctor mode immediately kicked in. "Did you notice anything else about her that might suggest that she's injured, Wade? Anything at all?" If she's injured to a degree that she's taking that codeine she got prescribed, it won't be insignificant… please don't be hurt, Kim.

"Sorry, Mrs Dr Possible, but I didn't notice anything else," Wade replied.

"That's ok, Wade," she said softly, but with a hint of worry in her tone. "James will hopefully be able to see if something is wrong with her," at least once I tell him to be on the lookout. She withdrew her cell phone from her pocket and sent him a quick message asking him to do just that. However, getting Kim to let me look at it will be an entirely different story. "Ok, on the basis that Kim wasn't loopy on painkillers last night, why else might she have been so laid-back on hearing about Shego's escape?"

"One too many bonks to the head?" Ron offered.

While the rest of the group each gave the blonde-haired boy a 'seriously' expression, Ann gave the suggestion due consideration. A head injury could have resulted in such a reaction, which would also account for why she's taken some of that codeine. "It is a possibility, Ron. However, until James gets back to me, I'm going to work on blind hope and say it's not because of an injury."

"If she's no longer angry, then she's probably happy that green-skinned freak is on the loose again, as that way she'll get to fight her," Monique said.

While the girl's tone had contained more than a lick of sarcasm, her words had delivered the theory that Ann had hoped no one would pitch; the one that she herself had started to formulate the night before Shego had been arrested. However, instead of coming out with it, she elected to test the waters a little more. "Is it possible that Kim genuinely enjoys fighting Shego?" While she had asked the room at large, there was one individual whose opinion in particular she wanted on the matter.

Everyone, Ann included, turned to stare at Ron.

"Why do you people keep looking at me!" Ron yelled irritably.

"Duh, because you were Kim's sidekick for years," Jim said with a roll of his eyes.

"Shouldn't that be 'doy' in this instance?" Tim asked his brother.

Jim turned to look at him and sniggered, "oh yeah." He then turned back to Ron. "Doy, because you were Kim's sidekick for years."

"But that doesn't mean I…" Ron blurted out, but quickly lost his train of thought.

"Actually, Ron, they have a point," Wade the let out a laugh as he said, "it should be doy and because you were Kim's sidekick for years. You've seen her interact with Shego more than anyone, save Dr Drakken. And somehow I doubt he'd have come if Mrs Dr Possible had invited him."

"What they all said," Monique chipped in.

Ann focused her attention on the blonde-haired boy. "Well, Ron, do you think Kim enjoys fighting with Shego?"

"I don't know… maybe…" Ron mumbled in a non-committal sort of way and she could tell he was trying to weasel out of given his honest opinion.

"Ron," she emphasised, putting the boy under another intense stare.

For a moment, the blonde-haired boy held her gaze, but then quickly crumbled. "Ok, fine! Kim likes fighting with Shego. Are you happy?" he exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air. However, before anyone could get a word in, he started to rant. "After she turned pro, all Kim would talk about was her missions. And every time she stopped Drakken from taking over the world, all I'd hear when she got home would be how Shego did this or she'd had to do that to avoid this plasma blast or…" Ron had got to his feet and started pacing back and forth while waving his hands about.

"Ok, Ron, we…" Ann began but was cut off.

"…or how she'd surprised Shego with this new jumping four-front-kick combo she'd developed or how she'd only barely avoided getting her face clawed off…"

"Ron…"

"…I mean seriously, Kim, can we talk about something other than Shego. It's almost like your having some sort of weird, martial arts affair with her. Which is still cheating!" With that final outburst, Ron finally ran out of breath.

"I think we all get the picture now, Ron," Ann said in dismay, the boy's rant having provided all the evidence she needed to confirm at least part of her theory.

She watched Wade offer Ron a soda, which he took and drank deeply from. However, the blonde-haired boy then caught her by surprise with what he had to say next. "The only time I had to put up with Shego getting between me and Kim more was when she was Miss Go and literally got between us. The two of them became some sort of weird super best friends overnight! And I'm not going to lie, it was creepy and weird and Shego had Kim doing crazy stuff like going to art exhibitions or watching chic-flicks."

"You mean, things you didn't want to do," Monique said, effortlessly cutting to the crux of the blonde-haired boy's particular issue with regards to the whole Miss Go debacle.

Ron's voice then did that strange thing it had a habit of doing, whereby it started out nice and calm and quickly ratcheted up in pitch and volume as he said, "they went to get their eyebrows waxed, Monique. Eyebrows! I mean who even does that!"

"Urgh, no wonder she dumped you," Monique retorted scornfully. "And any woman with a shred of style occasionally gets her eyebrows waxed!"

Sensing that this could quickly devolve into a petty argument, Ann quickly moved to redirect the conversation back to the matter at hand. "You're point about Miss Go is an apt one, Ron. Kim, despite how outgoing and social she used to be, always had difficulty in making close friends. In fact, bar one exception, the three of you make up her entire list from pre-K to the present day. Yet virtually overnight, she formed a friendship with Miss Go that ran almost as deep as the one you shared with her, Ron, and after she returned to being Shego, Kim practically pined after her for weeks." She paused, unsure of how she intended to word the notion. It seemed that after almost two weeks, she still struggled to come to terms with her own theory. "I guess what I'm getting at is… is there the slightest chance that Kim might have tried to befriend Shego again?"

The immediate knee-jerk reactions Ann received almost managed to settle the matter in her head as having been ridiculous; exactly what she'd hoped for.

"no, no, no, no, NO!" Ron yelled; shaking his head, his voice once again ascending from quiet to deafening.

"Mom, has someone operated on your brain and messed about with the wiring?" Jim asked incredulously.

"That's completely bonkers, Mom," Tim exclaimed.

"I've got to admit, that does sound more than a little improbable, Mrs Dr Possible," Wade agreed, trying to be kind about how mental she obviously sounded.

However, one individual did not respond and it was to her that Ann looked for final reassurance that she'd hit the hippocampus when aiming for the temporal lobe. "Monique?" she asked and realised that she felt slightly nervous about hearing the girl's answer. Like she was afraid of the potential can of worms that Kim trying to be friends with Shego might unleash, even though the girl's answer would by no means serve as proof of the theory.

"It wouldn't surprise me," Monique answered after a few moments of contemplation. "Not only is Kim crazy enough to try something that… well, crazy, but she's totally obsessed with Shego."

Ann's face fell slightly on hearing words of agreement and she had a bad feeling that once the shock factor wore off, that the others would come to the same conclusion. Unfortunately, as we like to say in this family, nothing's impossible for a Possible, even trying to make friends with our enemies.

"I suppose when we add recent events to what Ron's just told us, there is evidence to suggest that Monique's right about Kim being obsessed with Shego," Wade said as he scratched his chin. "And she does make a living out of doing things everyone else would consider crazy. However, friendship is a two-player game. Shego would have to be willing to pick up the other control pad."

"Look, while no one's going to say that Kim can't be a little bit crazy sometimes, Shego is her nemesis, people. Nemesis!" Ron said loudly. "I mean they both get off on fighting one another, have a lot in common like shopping, fashion, art, similar taste in movies, dates at fancy restaurants, rollerblading, getting their eyebrows waxed…" he overemphasised that last point before stopping abruptly, "…aww man, they're practically made for one another!"

That's the realisation I'm afraid Kim might have come to. Ann took a drink of her iced tea and when she lowered the glass, found her sons staring intently at her.

"What aren't you telling us, Mom?" Jim asked.

"Yeah, what are you hiding?" Tim pressed.

Both boys tones clearly saying that they knew she had not told the whole story.

All eyes turned to stare at her.

"It would probably help if you told us everything, Mrs Dr Possible," Wade said. "I'm assuming whatever it is, is the foundation for your theory."

"It's…" Ann began but paused when she realised she did not know if she had been about to say, 'it's nothing,' or divulge what she'd heard Kim say in her fever dream. Do I have any right to divulge what Kim said in her sleep that night? I've not even had the chance to ask her about it. For all I know it might be something she's been struggling with for weeks, but then again, could have just been the fever talking. She sighed internally. She'd already put the theory out there, supplying what little evidence she had in support of it probably wouldn't make much difference in Kim's eyes. Should she find out any of this, her daughter would be liable to hate her even more than she already did, regardless of the details. "The night Kim collapsed after her fight with Shego, I had to get up to try and cool her down and give her stronger pain killers. Amidst her delirium, I heard Kim say the words, 'but I really do want us to be friends,' followed soon after by Shego's name. I didn't have time to think on it at the time, but after re-watching the fight between them at the communications centre, I couldn't reconcile those events with how angry Kim was at Shego the next day; before the Jazz Bar incident."

"Do you think she tried to befriend Shego and got rejected?" Monique asked.

"Hey, I watched those ladies fight for years. They trade insults, not friend requests," Ron replied.

"Mom's got a point," Jim began.

"We watched that entire fight at the communications centre twice and they were both toying with one another for large portions of it," Tim continued.

"Yeah, it was a lot more like a sparring match than an actual fight to stop Drakken taking over the world," Jim said, picking up exactly where his brother had left off.

"And neither Kim nor Shego seemed angry when it ended and the place started falling apart," Tim finished.

"Except come Saturday afternoon, Kim was definitely angry with her over something," Ann added. "It just doesn't add up."

"Are you suggesting that Kim and Shego encountered one another at some point between that fight finishing and when she came over to see you the following afternoon?" Wade asked.

"Yes, Wade, that's exactly what I'm suggesting," she confirmed. "If I was to hazard a guess, I'd say that they met up by mutual agreement and that Kim thought it was going to lead to something more substantial…"

"Only for Shego to pull the rug out from under her!" Ron cut in. "Booyah! That's a classic villain psych-out move right there."

"Well, if they did hang out and things went south, it certainly would explain why Kim tore after her when she was out with me," Monique said, before quickly adding. "However, that still doesn't excuse the fact that she did it."

"While such circumstantial evidence and conjecture can be compelling, we don't have any proof that's what happened," Wade said, sounding like he was trying to put a lid on Ron's Ron-ness.

"It also doesn't explain why Kim mellowed out after sending Shego to jail," Jim said.

"Or why she didn't flip when she found out that she escaped," Tim added.

"All three of you are right," Ann agreed. "And short of having you retrospectively spy on her, Wade, something that I'm not prepared to do," at least not yet, "the only place we're likely to get the answer is from Kim herself. Although I have a bad feeling that Shego would be more agreeable to telling me."

"What else do you want us to do then, Mrs Dr Possible," Wade asked, sounding just the slightest bit perplexed at the situation.

"I…" Ann began, but stopped, realising that she had no plan of how to go about trying to help her daughter, or even just reach out to her without being completely blanked. "I don't know," she finally said. "I'm not even sure if we should do anything." She felt the corners of her eyes begin to prick again upon reminding herself of the reality of the situation between herself and Kim and at how the girl would likely view her having this discussion, should she find out. "I just want to know that she's safe, not doing anything reckless and is at least having some contact with other people." She was then unable to stop herself blurting out, "is that too much to ask!"

Ann dabbed the corners of her eyes again with a tissue and could see that everyone; especially her sons, looked a bit awkward.

"We can try and keep an eye on her for you, Mrs Dr Possible," Wade eventually suggested. "And now that Kim's anger seems to have subsided, we might be able to wear her down on the issue of talking to you, if we approach the subject in the right way."

"Umm, aren't we all in the same boat as mom when it comes to Kim?" Jim asked, although it was not really a question.

"She only talks to us when she needs something done to the Sloth and that's hasn't happened since before mom kept her here for two weeks," Tim added.

"Yeah, I kinda only spoke to her once and am still waiting on her calling me back," Ron agreed.

"You can count me out," Monique said flatly. "I came here as a favour to you, Mrs Dr Possible, not because I intend to talk to Kim. As far as I'm concerned, unless she decides she wants to apologise to me, I'm done."

Ann surveyed the assembled faces and knew there was little more she could ask of them. Unfortunately, this is the bigger problem. Apart from James, everyone that is close to Kim is here and bar Wade, she's alienated all of us. Alas, she'd hit upon the crux of the matter and discovered it was a brick wall. She let out a long, deflated sigh; she'd done a lot of that over the issue of Kim recently. "I know I have no right to ask any of you to do anything more than you already have, as I understand you each have your own personal issues with Kim, but if you do happen to speak with her, can you all try and be supportive of her. If she's willing to talk, listen and see if you can get a general feel for how she's doing both mentally and physically… I just need to know that she's safe."

"I suppose I could whip up some upgrades for the Kimmunicator that I'll need to talk her through," Wade said speculatively.

"I guess the Sloth could use a tune-up," Jim suggested.

"And if we finish the Smart Slime launcher, she'd have to bring it over for us to install," Tim added.

A wide grin then spread over both boys' faces.

"Of course, ironing out the kinks in that kind of tech is hungry work," Jim said."

"If you boys can coax her into bringing the Sloth over, I'll give you double dessert for a month," Ann said quickly.

"Hoo-sha!" Tim exclaimed and high-fived his brother.

Ron then let out an exaggerated sigh. "I know she said she wasn't ready to talk about why we broke up, but I suppose I can try and get in touch with her and ask her if she wants to grab a bite to eat at Bueno Nacho sometime."

Her gaze, having travelled between speakers, finally rested upon Monique.

"I'm sorry, Mrs Dr Possible, but I'm not willing to try and reach out to Kim again," Monique said definitively.

Ann gazed at the girl, her expression forming into the infamous Possible puppy-dog-pout. While such dirty tactics were normally reserved for her husband and daughter; her sons typically being immune and requiring bribery, she was desperate.

Monique rolled her eyes long-sufferingly and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Urgh, ok, fine. If I've got nothing better to do and Wade assures me she's in a better mood, I might give her a call. However, if she still isn't willing to apologise, I'm out for good." The girl then folded her arms and huffed. "And using that look was a low blow."

Looking at the assembled group, Ann felt overcome with gratitude. "Thank you," was all she managed to say before she had to busy herself with taking a drink of her iced tea, lest she break out into a proper flood of tears. When she managed to regain her composure, she said, "Kim's lucky to have friends and," she turned to look at her sons, "brothers like you five."

"KP will come around and talk to you eventually, Mrs Dr P," Ron said positively, as he munched down on a cookie. After he had swallowed, he then added, "you just gotta give it her time to see your side of the coin and to try and see hers."

For the umpteenth time, everyone turned to stare at the blonde-haired boy.

"Oh, come on!" Ron exclaimed. "That was a perfectly good metaphor!"

Ann laughed, "I'm sure it was when Mr Barkin told you it." The boy had explained to her that it had been his former teacher that had prompted him to consider making peace with his former best friend and it wasn't much of a stretch for her to deduce the man as being the source of such 'sagely wisdom'. "That aside, thank you all for coming and for agreeing to make the effort to talk to Kim for me. However, I must be getting ready to go to work. I've got surgery scheduled for one o'clock."

Her guests rose as one to leave and so she stood up to escort them out. However, Ron stopped the group in its tracks. "Woah, woah, hold on one second!" he exclaimed. "How come they," he pointed at her sons, "get extra dessert for agreeing to interact with Kim. Where's our dessert?"

She chuckled and realised that in some small way, she'd genuinely missed having the boy around the Possible home over the past two years. Indeed, he'd spent so much time there prior to Kim initially moving out, that she'd often treated him like a third son. "How about I let you take the extra batch of cookies I baked away with you?"

"BOOYAH! Do you hear that, Rufus? We feast on Mrs Dr P cookies tonight!"

The naked-mole-rat poked his head out of Ron's trouser pocket. "Mmm, yum-yum!"

Ann laughed and turned to her other two guests. "You are both welcome to some too… if you're able to fend off Ron long enough that is."

"Thank you, Mrs Dr Possible," Wade and Monique said in unison.

She motioned to escort her guests out, via the kitchen, however, at the doorway turned to look at her sons. "Please try not to blow the house up while I'm at work," she said in a longsuffering manner.

"We'll try," Jim and Tim said in unison, but with a grin that said they were making no promises.

Ann shook her head, took her guest to get their cookies and then saw them out the front door. Closing it behind them, she turned and headed up the stairs. While the conversation had, unfortunately, only further convinced her that her theory regarding Kim trying to befriend Shego was true; the opposite of what she'd wanted, it had at least given her some comfort to know that her daughter's friends were not ready to give up on her just yet. I just hope James has found her to be in an aggregable mood… While both Ron and Wade had brought her encouraging news about Kim's anger having subsided, she did not want to speculate on the outcome of her husbands visit. So long as you're both physically and mentally well, Kim, that's all that matters.

With a sense of apprehension about what her husband might have to tell her when she came home that night, Ann began getting ready for work. However, she stopped dead in her tracks when she heard her cell phone vibrate atop the dresser. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw who the message was from.

##

Author's note:

And so we come to an end to this update that somehow ended up three times longer than I'd planned.

With regards to the first chapter, I had only initially planned on having the scene with Betty and Brooks, however, decided that this would also be a good time to introduce Quinn. And then when I actually sat down to write it, found myself writing an extra scene between Betty and her boss. My initial plan was then to do the whole this from Betty's pov, but as I mentioned in my opening author's note, I read Celioxa's comment and it got me thinking again about writing something from Captain Brooks' pov. I loved the idea so much that I just had to scrap what I'd written and change the pov to Brooks. This in turn then led to an unplanned encounter between her and Quinn, which I found to amusing to resist and then to the surprising twist where Brooks attempts to enlist her help. Hell, I'll admit that even I didn't see that one coming until I found myself writing it. I guess that's what I get for allowing my characters the freedom to do what they want, rather than follow my rough plans! I also briefly thought about doing the last scene from Quinn's pov, but thought it would be far more amusing to do it from Betty's.

Onto the second chapter and this was supposed to be a fairly short conversation between the group. I must admit that I have a tendency to shy away from writing group scenes, as I find them difficult to do. However, something just seemed to click from the off on this one and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Ron's dialogue was a joy to write yet again. This scene also threw up a bit of a twist I did not see coming until late in the day, in that James has gone to see Kim. I'd only started toying with the idea the day before I sat down and wrote the part where Ann tells the group that's where he's gone. Personally, I really liked writing Ann here, as I think it serves to highlight the fact that she knows she is doing things that might drive Kim away and that it hurts her to have to do so, but she is doing it purely because she needs to know her daughter is safe, well and happy.

Ok, so, looking ahead to the next update and I honestly don't know how many chapters it will be, when it will be posted or even what will happen, as the events of these two chapters require me to have a think about both the next chapters and the wider plot in general. In that respect, please do not expect an update in two weeks' time, as it is likely going to take me at least an extra week to readjust my plans and write the chapters as I have literally nothing of it written yet. The only saving grace being that Captain Brooks and James have not completely blown my plan up, unlike a certain fiery-haired vixen, who shall remain nameless, did back in season one. lol.

Thank you all once again for your support, I hope you enjoyed these 'short' interludes and are looking forward to the next update.

Warmest regards
The once again tired author; K1G0

P.S. Please, please, please check out Celioxa's work and show her some love. I'll give you the links again (yeah, I'm a persistant sod, aren't I.) ;p.

twitter com/celioxa (again remember the dot between twitter and com).