"Shego," started Dr. Director, "what do you think-"

"Hi, cos'," the green girl cut in, "You're here because you know about Da Hand. An anonymous tip?"

"It was you, wasn't it?" Dr. Director scowled. "What do you hope to achieve? There is no way you could possibly even start to hope for a pardon."

"Oh, I wouldn't want that. I mean, it's so much fun proving that theoretically impossible to escape from jails are cake-walk for the pro. Anyway, I gave you the tip. I'd be grateful, personally."

"Many people back at HQ would be happy to let this slide," replied Dr. Director, "and as such I'm only here because it's Kim's hometown, and she should be able to keep an eye on things. I'm not convinced it's him. You have to admit, there's a lot of evidence against it. His death 5 years ago, for a start."

"Do you really believe he didn't get off that plane?" Shego wasn't giving up. "Of all of the 300 people on board, he was the only one who didn't survive it hitting the ocean? None of those suckers remembered how they came to be on that island. Kinda' screams suspicious to me."

"We concluded that he rescued the other passengers and sacrificed himself doing so. It's the kind of crazy thing he'd do."

"Nuh-uh." Shego shook her head. "Lenny's a survivor. There was a way out of that, and he took it."

Dr. Director pinched the bridge of her nose. Looking up, she took a sip of her coffee, and proceeded to speak very carefully. "You are no longer a crime fighter, Shego. You're the opposite in fact, and on that point I would have to say that I can't trust your word. Also, while I understand that the Go team were in direct contact with Da Hand while he was hiding from us, you never personally met him. I'd hardly say you're able to judge his character. I, on the other hand, was his peer while he was with GJ. I would think I'd know my partner. He did think of others first. Heck, it was almost his philosophy."

"That's not my point," started Shego, but she was cut off there.

"Can we just pause this while I go and get some clothes on?" Kim asked. "Ron, get Shego some coffee. And try to make sure no-one breaks anything."

"Whatever you say, KP." Ron said, smiling, as she left up the stairs.

Stepping back into the bathroom, Kim drained the bath, and then removed her robe, stepping into the shower. She turned the cold water on only, and let it rinse over her for about a minute.

"So, Da Hand is of interest to GJ?" she said to herself as the water flowed, then adding with extreme sarcasm, "That's just peachy." She turned the tap off when the water streaming off her body was clean to her satisfaction, and stepping out of the shower, she picked up the robe and discarded it in the washing basket in the corner. She grabbed the towel she'd brought in with her the first time, and wrapped herself in it, wondering what Shego's brothers' association with the mysterious man was.

Back in her bedroom, Kim decided against putting another set of mission clothes on — they would probably encourage her to go out and do something stupid.
"Why did Shego tip off Dr. Director to Da Hand?" she asked herself, selecting a pair of jeans and a lightly coloured loose-fit top. She tossed them on the bed, and grabbed some underwear from a drawer.
"Actually, what's with Shego all round? She's acting real strange." The conversation with herself continued as Kim removed the towel and pulled her outfit on.
Finally, after she'd towelled her hair off, and brushed it into her traditional part, she concluded to her mirror, "Something weird is going on."

She retrieved the Kimmunicator from her desk before leaving her room. "Wade! Hologram. Kitchen. Now," she said to it, and marched down out of her personal level.

In the kitchen, the scene had not changed in ten minutes. Dr. Director, coffee mug in hand, was with narrowed eyes watching Shego, who hadn't put her gloves back on, so for once was actually filing her nails casually. Josh was strumming on an invisible guitar. Ron was leaning against the island bench, tapping out a simple rhythm on it, and observing the others' actions.

"Whoa! Wade!" Ron exclaimed as the hologram came through the door.

"HoloWade," corrected Kim, entering the room behind the projection.

"Yay, it's geek boy," stated Shego with added sarcasm.

"We just so happen to be in need of a super genius, here," snapped Kim.

"It's your house, Kimmie," sighed Shego, "I guess you can do whatever you want."

"Well, I want answers," continued Kim. She gestured to Dr. Director and looked at Shego. "First up, what do you mean, 'cos'?" she queried.

Dr. Director decided to answer this one. "College buddies," she said, "We used to play pranks on the fraternities. Of course, we aren't on such great terms now."

"OK, next off the rank. Why did you tip Da Hand off to Global Justice, Shego? He did save your life. I'm seriously doubting it has anything to do with any kind of good will."

"Well, let's start with 'He killed my employer', and work up, shall we? Or maybe because he stopped you from killing me. Remember that, Princess? Somehow you knew that I felt like dying…."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" interjected Dr. Director, "Are you confirming that Da Hand is, in fact, in Middleton, miss Possible?"

"No," replied Kim sarcastically, "I'm trying to defend the integrity of my best friend Shego. What do you think?"

"He could be an impostor, KP," stated Ron. "I mean, what kind of a super incredibly covert guy thing whatsit uses their real name like that?"

"Like what?" asked Dr. Director

"That's a good point, Ron," said Kim. She continued on, directing her next statement to Dr. Director. "Like writing it on the board of a class he's teaching."

Dr. Director blinked slowly. "One who wants you to think they're an impostor," she said together with Wade and Kim in response to Ron's question, the three of them slapping their hands to their respective foreheads.

"Great," continued Dr. Director, removing her hand but leaving it up in the air, "We have a rogue GJ agent on our hands, and he's already killed someone. What's worse, we don't know what he's been doing these last five years."

"Doi," Shego supplied at this point, shrugging her shoulders and extending her hands to the sides.

"I guess that couldn't have been much more obvious," stated Kim. "The good news is, the person he killed was psychotically determined to be a bad guy. The bad news is, he threatened to kill me some time before he did that…. Which brings me to my next question," she continued, now letting down her own hand – "who is Leonard James Da Hand?"

Dr. Director took a deep breath.


Ace, I don't recall at any point saying that Kim saw Shego heal her. In my writing, character-observer relationships are generally on a per paragraph basis, however may be interrupted by pure narrative at any time - what the reader saw was the viewpoint of the omniscryant narrator. Kim dropped her jaw because in such a sensitive area as the neck, you can feel things like scarring quite clearly. If it was healing that fast, you'd feel that too.
OK, so I'm not actually going to deal with Kim's naked body and the internet. It was a fun question though. No, that scene will not be on the cover art in the case that I actually bother to do one.
I'm not sure what's next, but you'll know when I've done it. I haven't finished concocting Len's back story yet, and seeing as how I have all of the currently main characters in one place except the mysterious one, I can't really divert to you anything else while I build it.

Two day pauses now, here's how it's going to work:
I don't have any more exams, so I'm pretty much full time doing my own thing now. This is not dedicated purely to fanfiction writing though, as I do in fact do other things. I will alternate on days of my scheduled computer time doing some "commissioned" coding and continuing this fic. However, I will try as I can do give you a chapter for every day, with the possible exception of this next Tuesday when I have an appointment with a professional, and I will also be deciding on the fate of the next semester of my University career. This should hopefully mean that the story is completed within another fortnight, or perhaps a little over. There's somewhere between 12 and 18 chapters left, excluding the epilogue.