Melting Down

There were some experiences Andrea would love to repeat. Getting a hysterical woman back to the hotel wasn't one of them. Getting a hysterical woman back to the hotel wondering when a cop might drive up after being called by a parent especially wasn't one of them.

And Shego was hysterical. Make no mistake about that, Andrea thought. Half the time, Andrea was supporting her, and given that Shego weighed nearly as much as she did, that was no joke…the other half of the time, Shego let herself be led back to the hotel.

Everybody has their limit. Andrea thought, In the last month Shego's been nearly tortured to death, found out that she now has seizures that may end her life as she knows it—or at least what she did in her life, then found out that the baby she thought she killed was alive, that Hego lied to her about it, that the kid is with new parents, and oh! The kid thinks she's the right hand of Satan. She hasn't just hit the limit, she's blown right past it on the way to a nervous breakdown.

She finally got back to the hotel room and let go of Shego, who promptly slid down the wall, fetching up in a pathetic huddle by the door. Andrea unlocked the door and pulled the unresisting younger woman in, noticing that Shego was hyperventilating as she did.

"Shego. Shego!" Andrea said. Shego shook her head and moaned. Andrea sighed and got a paper bag that she kept in her luggage (never knowing when you might need it to store something).

"Here, breathe into here." Shego shook her head. "Shego, I can't give you anything because of your metabolism, but if you don't slow up, you are going to have a seizure, a bad one. Breath into the bag and the increased CO2 will slow you down. Now do it." Shego finally followed her orders, and her breathing gradually slowed down, as her shoulders shook.

"Oh, God…" Shego moaned. "She was terrified of me…" Andrea didn't say anything. Shego was having, in her opinion, a nervous breakdown, and the best way to deal with that was to let her talk it out.

"Why? Why… why did Hego do that? Would I have been so bad?" Shego said, "I loved her. I sang to her at night when I felt her kick…" Tear filled eyes confronted Andrea. "Hego didn't have any right to do that, she was my baby!" Shego was screaming now, before sitting down on a bed , and rocking back and forth. "I loved Hego, he was my big brother, how could he do that to me?" She moaned, then, off on another tangent, "But maybe he's right…" Shego said, and suddenly fire filled her hands. Andrea was briefly thankful that a surgeon's salary would let her pay for a destroyed hotel room, but Shego did nothing else, looking at her glowing hands like she'd never seen them before.

"Shego?" Andrea said softly.

"Maybe he's right?" Shego said, sniffling. "I just fight, I take…I even kill, all I can do is destroy and everything I touch turns to shit." She bit her lip, so hard she drew blood, then continued, "What the Hell was I thinking? I can't be a mother… I'm a criminal…I'm a piece of crap! do you know how many times I beat up on Kim? She's your Baby but that's what I do! I hurt other people's babies." Then she was up and pacing.

"I mean, I wasn't there for her first Christmas, or birthday, or anything else, I don't even know what to do for a baby's first Christmas,." still pacing. "Maybe Hego was right? She probably has a better life." Shego sat down, missing the chair and hitting the floor, hard. She didn't try and get up. "I mean, I, I never even held her…they probably took her out of the hospital when I was asleep so I never held her, or looked at her."

"But they didn't give me a chance to hold her, they just took her away!" Now Shego was up again, walking back and forth. "Was I always so bad? Did Hego know it? Was that why he had someone else take her?"

It went on like that, around and around, Shego repeating herself, ranging from almost calm with Shego continually apologizing to Andrea for ever hurting Kim, to completely hysterical, telling Dr. Possible what a stupid idiot she'd been for helping Shego in the first place. Dr. Possible realized that while her budget wouldn't have to cover a room, it would have to pay for a few chairs and a perfectly good TV. As the day wore on, Andrea realized that going anywhere tonight was out of the question. Shego was in no condition to travel, or talk, let alone risk another disastrous confrontation like had earlier happened. She was also, Andrea judged, exhausted, mentally and emotionally, if not physically.

Finally, after Andrea had had food delivered to their room and forced Shego to eat it, Shego's body forced her to rest. Andrea waited until she was certain that Shego was asleep, the Mercenary lying curled up on the bed with a Kleenex clutched in one hand. Andrea shook her head. The kid obviously kept up on things, and Shego was, of course, a villain—and unlike lots of others, she wasn't overly funny, although Dr. Possible knew that at least among the male set, her figure also had something to do with her popularity. Probably not in this case… So what to do?

Abruptly, she smiled. To deal with unpopularity…find someone more popular to take your side. Moving to the other side of the room she pulled out her celphone and hit speed dial.

Middleton High

"Mr. Barkin?" Bonnie asked in shock. The last time she'd seen the principal, at least at length, it had been that disastrous day when Kim had tried to kill her. He'd resigned the same week and been gone before Bonnie had gotten out of the hospital. She hadn't spoken to him at the hospital when everything fell apart, and hadn't seen him in the weeks since.

"Ms. Rockwaller I-" Barkin broke off as Bonnie hugged him fiercely around the waist.

"Don't you ever go off like that without telling anyone!" The cheerleader said angrily, her scolding tone ruined by the very slight catch in it. "Everyone at school missed you."

"Indeed… and my rules?" Barkin said, his greater age and experience allowing him to keep his catch out of his voice.

"Oh yes. At least they stayed the same." Bonnie said, as she disengaged. "We've had five administrators and every one turned everything upside down." A very Bonnyish look, "And even before everyone went nuts the school was nuts. Do you realize the last one decided to try and communicate with 'kindness'? She was handing out smiley faces like we were ten…and got rid of detention!" Barkin winced at that.

"Things were…chaotic?"

"Things were stupid!" Bonnie said. Barkin nodded.

"Now…about my office," He continued, "I see you've done some work in here… is anyone else helping with the school?" Bonnie frowned,

"Beyond the students? Not really—every construction company can get more money for private work or working for the city." The teen said. "That doesn't bother me, but the fact we have a hard time getting materials does bother me." A pause, "We're going to be pushing it to get the school open on time as it is, without any bottlenecks interfering." Barkin gave a smile.

Kids? No, not any more. He thought, not in the bad sense of some weary old before her time soldier, which was what he'd feared, but in the sense of someone who saw a problem and fixed it, lead, follow, or get out of the way. In addition, someone who was fairly proprietary towards her domain—he had no doubt that Bonnie not only hadn't asked, but didn't want other people interfering in her work, thank you very much.

"And Ms. Possible?" he asked.

"Oh, Kim's been a great help." Bonnie said absently, her earlier statement still distracting her as she looked at the work sheet. "She's been able to get stuff we couldn't get, and the other's respect her, so she and Ron keep everyone on track. Couldn't do it without them… even if they are mooning away into each other's eyes at lunch."

"Ah. Well, you'll be happy to know that I've been reinstated as your principal." Barkin said. Bonnie looked up.

"That's great!" She said, then looked around at the office. "Ah…" Barkin tilted his head and said something from his Marine past.

"Permission to come aboard, Ma'am?"

"Ah…okay?" Barkin nodded.

"In order to avoid any problems with the chain of command Rockwaller, I can ready myself for school at home—I don't think either one of us would enjoy people looking at the other one when we tell them what to do—as you know the chain of command must be maintained." He paused, "In fact, officially, I wasn't here—but of course, if you run into problems from city hall that require my signature, you know where to find me." He gestured toward the door. "Well, shall we?" Bonnie nodded, and Barkin noted with approval how she looked around one last time.

Yes, this years senior class was definitely going to be a horse of a different color, Barkin reflected.

Kim's house

Kim and Ron were curled up together enjoying the showing of the 1950's classic, It came from beneath the TV (and it wants your wife!) Well, ok, it was a classic according to Ron.

"Ron, what is that?"

"It's 'X' the unstoppable monster from beyond space and time."

"It looks like an iguana with sprinkles on it."

"Well, it's that too."

"And that?"

"That's the alien invasion fleet space ship.

"And That?"

"That's…. a coke bottle someone left on the set."

"Oh, I thought it looked too realistic." Kim said giggling. The acting was… not bad, but all those actors trying to be so completely serious had her bursting into laughter every other scene. By the time they got to the president looking out his window at a (painted on a screen) alien ship in front of the White House saying: "this could be the end of life as we know it!" Kim was helplessly laughing in Ron's arms.

"Oh, this is so terrible!"

"Why else would we watch it?" Ron asked. "Popcorn?"

"Why thank you Mr. Stoppable." Kim said. Abruptly, the Kimmunicator rang. Ron looked at Kim and got an evil grin.

"If it's Wade, muss your hair up and we'll both run up to the bed and pull the covers up and look really, really annoyed."

"Ron….what if it's Kyoko?"

"Then… Argh, she's too young for the joke."

"What Joke?"

"Well, they've already made a baby…" Ron ducked as Kim threw one of the couches throw pillows at him.

"You're evil."

"I took classes at a ninja school, what can I say?" Kim finally found the Kimmunicator, and pulled up the number.

"It isn't Wade… It's mom." Kim said.

"Hi Mom…what's up?"

"Kim, I need you to come out to where I am…now." Her mother said, even as a text message giving hotel info scrolled across the screen.

"Are you okay?" Kim said, concerned. She wasn't worried about Shego, but Shego had enemies…

"Oh! Yes, I'm fine—nothing is physically wrong, but it is urgent. I need you to get out here as soon as possible."

"OK Mom." Kim said, already on her way to the bedroom to change. "I'll be there." When she transferred the call to Wade, asking for a favor, Ron shrugged.

"We should remember to bring our VTOL over from Japan."

"Yeah." Kim said, as Wade came up on the screen.

"Hey, Wade… we need a ride."

Upstate New York.

Andrea slowly woke up. She'd been asleep for only a few hours after drifting off to sleep. She rolled over, hoping that Kim would be here soon. Then she saw it.

Shego was gone.

Oh. Crap.

To be continued.