Don't own the characters, they're Disney's. Don't own the song Addiction, it's Kanye's. Also, don't own Marvin the Martian or Daffy Duck, they're probably Warner Bros.

4: Colder Turkey

"So, I guess that means I'm a drug…" Kanye West, Addiction

Day-10

Kim was lying on the sofa in her house, staring at the television. She was merely looking at the set, not focusing on the program in any way. She had not even been the one that turned the television on. Her brothers had run in some minutes ago, turned on the television, and then ran out without leaving a clue as to what they were doing or why they had bothered turning the television on. Her olive eyes happened to be in the direction of the picture and she was not willing to pick up the remote to turn it off or to turn her head in some other way.

"I should probably get off the couch at some point. How long have I been here? What day is it?" Kim muttered to herself. Her new hobby seemed to be lying on the sofa and she was obviously losing her sense of time because of it.

If asked, the redhead would probably say that she was bored. She really just wanted to lie to herself and say that she was bored, but she knew the truth of the matter. The truth haunted her worse than any ghost ever could.

"Who am I kidding? I miss her and it hurts," the hero murmured, clutching her chest for a few seconds. "It still hurts..."

She missed Shego and it was not a regular emotion to her. In fact, she was certain that it was not normal, especially considering how heavy she felt it. It was a substantial sense of lose that deepened with each day that went by. She thought that giving something up was supposed to be easier after a while. Unfortunately, it was not getting any easier being without the thief and she did not even mean that in a way that she missed doing their usual two actions. She missed Shego, point blank, end of thought.

"Why would I miss Shego? This doesn't make any sense..."

Kim was not sure what it meant for her to just miss Shego. Shego was a drug, after all. Of course, as a drug, she would be missed while Kim was attempting to get the pale woman out of her system. It did not feel like she was going to make it cold turkey, though. There were just too many things gnawing at her and they seemed to be multiplying as the days went by. She was not sure what she was going to do when she saw Shego again, and she was sure that she would have to face her soon. She hoped that the meeting would not be counterproductive.

"Kimmie, what are you doing?" her mother inquired as she entered the living room and she sat down next to the disoriented hero.

The brain surgeon's question stemmed from Kim's current state and her behavior for the past few days. Kim just did not seem like herself anymore, like the teen was dragging around the house or lying around the house whenever she made it to the couch. It was like she had a ton of weight on her and she could hardly bear the load.

"Nothing," Kim replied in a mumble, eyes staying locked on the TV, but still not taking in what was on it.

"Are you all right?" the neurosurgeon asked with motherly concern in her voice. Her sky blue eyes softened as she reached out and rubbed Kim's back.

"Yeah. Why do you even ask?"

"You haven't been yourself lately. School problems?" her mother asked, moving Kim's head into her lap. Continuing to caress the small of Kim's back, she hoped to bring her obviously distressed daughter some comfort.

"No," the girl answered, still grumbling rather than talking in her usual upbeat voice. She did curl into her mother's form, thinking that the familiar love and warmth would get her out of her funk.

"A villain maybe?"

"No."

"I heard Wade talking about a series of robberies this morning over breakfast. How come you're not going out to do something about that?" Ann inquired. Wade had contacted Kim that morning to go about how some tech place was hit by a thief, but Kim was not even paying him any mind because she knew that he was talking about Shego. The way that Kim ignored the mission was the biggest tip-off that something was wrong with the petite hero.

"I know who it is," Kim replied with a shrug to make everything seem like no big deal.

"So, you're not going to go?" Doctor Possible asked in a confused tone. That was just plain weird.

"It's no big. I figure that I'll just wait for the end of everything and then go kick Drakken's butt instead of chasing Shego around the globe and wasting a bunch of energy on that," Kim explained with another slight shrug.

"That's not like you. Usually, you'd go to stop Shego before giving Drakken the chance to do anything," her mother pointed out.

"This is less of a hassle."

"I'm getting the feeling that there's more to it than that," the older redhead commented, keeping her voice gentle. It was much too much of a change in her daughter's behavior for it to be no big deal. She just could not guess why Kim was acting so unlike herself.

"You're reading way too much into it, Mom. This is just less bothersome, less bruises too," Kim remarked, forcing out a smile as if that would distract her mother.

"Well, I do like that last part of it. But, this is so strange. You're usually glad to go out and stop Shego," Ann noted. It seemed like it was not secret that Kim liked to rumble with the pale woman. She always got a look of joy whenever she ran out to go face off with Shego.

"I know," the teenager sighed. She would be glad to go out and tussle with Shego right now if only they did not have that bet in place and she was trying to get over the super-powered sidekick.

"Well, if you're just going to stop the problem at the end, what are you going to do with your time until you find out what Drakken has planned?"

"I don't know," Kim groaned. She had been doing things, but they were not enough. Nothing was enough.

While Shego had been on her thieving spree, Kim had been doing everything possible to stay busy, except for stopping the other martial artist anyway. She had been saving people from natural disasters and other things. She even stopped some crazy plot by Duff Killigan, who planned to take over the whole country of Scotland and turn them all into golfers for whatever reason.

She had also been helping around school and around her community. She was trying to just do things to keep Shego off of her mind, but it was not working. There was a hollow feeling inside of her, reminding her that she missed a certain raven-haired female that she was trying her best not to think about. She knew that things had to be bad if everyone was asking about if she was all right.

Day-12

Shego was pleased in a way that she did not have to see Kim as she ran around and did her thing, shopping for the items that her employer required. She was not sure what she was going to do when she did see Kim and she was well aware that the day was going to come soon. She was more than aware that her little princess was not going to allow Drakken to succeed with his nutty plot to take over the world. Shego was not about to lose the bet, but she was not too sure if she was going to be able to control herself when she did see Kim again.

"I need to make sure I don't jump her bones the second I see those pretty green eyes..." Shego muttered, throwing herself into an empty chair in the lair. She stayed there to be close to Drakken, in case he needed something else. It would keep her mind off of Kimmie. Well, in theory anyway. "Nothing keeps my mind off of my princess."

The super-powered woman hated what was happening, not just the bit of not seeing Kim, but the side-effects of not seeing the hero. It left her thinking, pondering, contemplating what it was that she had with Kim. The catastrophic sense of absence that accompanied not seeing the redhead seemed to suggest that their relationship was something other than what she believed it to be. She had figured that they were rivals when it came to fighting. There must have been mutual lustful attraction for the sex, she gathered.

"Oh, a definite attraction there. Hell, we're totally compatible in bed, maybe even more so than when we're fighting each other," she considered.

Shego had always believed that their sexual involvement evolved from watching each other's movements as they fought. They each admired the other's body and the fluid, graceful motions of the other fighter. They liked the feel of each other when they battled, so it was a one-thing-led-to-another type of situation, she concluded.

"Which led to another and another..." A lewd smirk worked its way onto her face as she got lost in memories of their times together. Those were halted as she was hit by the idea that things between them could be more than sex.

As the villainess thought about what she was going through in the past hellish twelve days without the two things that she did with Kim and not seeing Kim, she just could not easily put a label on what they did or what they had. What she was feeling was not for the loss of a rival or even a bed buddy. There was something deeper to it, but she refused to acknowledge it. She told herself that her mind and body were just going through hallucinations from lack of proper stimulation. It had to be that simple, she convinced herself.

Day-15

"What's the sitch, Wade?" Kim asked as she answered her Kimmunicator.

She was hanging out at Bueno Nacho with Ron. He had managed to tear her off of the couch, with a lot of help from her parents. The blond boy was now busying himself with extremely important research, in his opinion. He was attempting to see if it was humanly feasible to fit the entire naco in his mouth without injuring himself.

"It's Drakken," Wade reported.

"I've been wondering when he was going to show all of his cards," the redhead commented, trying to sound normal and she was doing a decent job. On the inside, she was just a little apprehensive about going to stop Drakken since she knew that it meant seeing Shego.

"Yeah, do you remember back when he stole that little ray gun?" the young man inquired.

"It looked like a kid's toy, yeah," she answered.

"Turns out that it was a small disintegrating ray," Wade explained.

"You mean like a Marvin-the-Martian-against-Daffy-Duck disintegrating ray?" Kim asked in a curious tone as her eyebrows curled up, giving her a puzzled expression.

"Pretty much," he confirmed with a nod.

"O…kay," she said for lack of a better response.

"Well, he took the whole thing apart to study it. See, it was a prototype and it really could only handle small things. He built one that is powerful enough to disintegrate Washington," the computer genius informed them.

"That's not that big," Ron remarked. After all, Drakken was the man that tried to take over all of Canada, so one little city was not much.

"Washington state," Wade clarified.

"Wait, Washington has a state now? When did this happen and why was I not informed?" the blond inquired, rather serious about his question.

"Probably because it happened in 1889. Hard to believe he's going to have a high school diploma in a couple of months," Kim teased her best friend. "So, Wade, where can I find the good doctor?" she asked with a smile.

"Drakken's hiding out on a small island right off the Atlantic coast. I've got you a ride there," the boy replied.

"Wade, do I even have to say it?" she commented with a bright smile.

"Well, maybe just one more time," Wade conceded with a pleasant, little smile of his own.

"You rock," she informed him.

-8-8-8-8-

"This the one, Shego! This time we're going to do it with the greatest weapon I have ever created! I'm actually going to take over the world! Well, I'll either take over the world or destroy the whole thing if the leaders don't hand over the world to me!" Drakken proclaimed, giving a little villainous laugh at the end.

Shego was reclining in a chair, flipping through a magazine while Drakken raved to her about his beautiful "death ray." The man had actually used the words "death ray" and he said them way more than necessary. In fact, she figured that the next time he even said the words "death" and "ray" in sequence referring to his weapon or not, she was going to make him eat his beloved pop gun.

"With this wonderful weapon, I get to take over the world! Everyone will bow to me! I'll have the whole world on its knees and I get everything!" Drakken shouted again, motioning to the gun, which about the size of a pick-up truck. He admired it for a moment.

The sidekick just was not in the mood to listen to him and had not been for a few days now. She thought that Drakken might get the hint that she did not want to hear his voice when she broke the table in half the other day while blatantly screaming at him to just shut the hell up. He merely pointed out that she was more irritable than usual and had the nerve to ask if it was that time of the month. The only thing that kept her from hurting him badly, maybe even permanently, was the shock that went through her because he had the nerve to ask such a thing. He had wisely gone back to his machine while she was so flabbergasted.

"Shego! Are you listening to me?" Drakken demanded to know, apparently upset that he was probably talking to the air.

"You said something about bringing the world to its knees and forcing them to make you ruler of the whole blasted globe," Shego guessed, twirling her hand in a flippant manner. All rants seemed to run along those lines when it came to megalomaniacs, she noted.

"Oh, you are listening," he said in a surprised tone. His black eyes shone with delight that she was paying him some mind for once.

"Not really, you're just that predictable. What's this contraption anyway?" she asked as if she cared. She took the time out of her life to look at the weapon; it was a large, complex-looking onyx gun. It did not appear special to her. She guessed that if a person saw one "death ray" she saw them all.

"I've only told you a dozen times!" he huffed, going so far as to stomp his foot.

"Yeah, well, twelve of those times I wasn't listening and, if that's the case, it won't hurt you to tell me again," she pointed out in a cranky tone.

Drakken growled. "It destroys molecular bonds in anything that's caught in its beam."

"Meaning?" she asked as if she cared. The look in her eyes screamed that she really did not give a damn.

"It makes the molecules of a structure collapse and that causes the structure to collapse."

"Now, was that so hard?" she teased him, smirking at him like a demon.

"Don't push your luck, Shego," he grumbled, scowling in her general direction.

"Whatever."

Shego rolled her eyes and let Drakken go back to whatever it was he was doing; she was only physically at the lair at the moment. Her mind was all over the place and she doubted that it was going to get any better as she glanced at her watch. It was about time for Kim to come in. The hero's arrival was damn near like clockwork. Shego could only wonder how that was going to play out. There was the small possibility that Kim might fight Drakken, but there was a stronger possibility of the "death ray" just not working.

"Either way, I'm going to have to see Kimmie..." she realized.

The thief was taken from her thoughts as Kim and Stoppable burst onto the scene. They came through the automatic doors that led into the lair, which was an underground cave. The teen duo were accompanied by a large number of guards. The henchmen were being taken down by Kim's typical composed style and Ron helped out in his typical panicked and frenzied way. Shego often wondered if Ron was just faking his scared-to-death-of-everything nature because as stupid as he seemed, he never got seriously injured and he never got Kim seriously injured. But, there was always the chance that she was giving him too much credit and he was really an idiot.

"Shego!" Drakken called, wanting her to attack the heroes before they ruined his plans.

The raven-haired woman leaped out of her chair and into the fray; well, she leaped out of her chair anyway. She did go into the combat area and she just stood there. Kim and Ron finished off the goons and turned their attention to Shego.

"Um…" Kim said, clearly bemused now.

"I got Drakken!" Ron called, not realizing the awkward tension between the two ladies. He ran off to go deal with the mad scientist, taking the easy job in Kim's opinion. The two females were left to gawk at each other.

"So…" Kim said, staring at the wall. She was afraid that if she locked eyes with Shego, she would lose the bet.

Both ladies counted it as a good thing that they had not charged each other yet. They did not even know what they would do beyond a charge. They were relieved to see that the other was well and good, but they also noticed how tense things were between them. The air around them felt thick and heavy, like it could crush them if they stood there long enough. They noticed how on edge and tight the other's body was.

"Can't really thumb war or 'rock, paper, scissors' this one, eh, Princess?" Shego remarked, chuckling halfheartedly. She hated that something inside of her actually wanted her to just go to Kim and embrace her. No fighting, no passion, just a simple hug. She just wanted to feel the hero against her, where she belonged. She folded her arms across her chest to keep them from doing anything foolish.

"I guess not," the redhead conceded. She still could not even make eye contact with Shego, fearing that her self-control would waver, so she looked at her shoes and other spaces on the floor.

"Tell you what, let's let the fellas decide this one," Shego proposed.

Kim shrugged as acceptance. She was more than confident that Ron could take Drakken, especially if he got help from Rufus. She turned her attention to her best friend, who was chasing Drakken. They watched as Drakken ran to a control panel and started laughing; the heroes knew that was not a good sign.

"As soon as I hit this button, lasers will come from the ceiling and key right to you," Drakken boasted, speaking to Ron, and then he hit the button.

"Ah!" Ron yelled as he ducked a laser that singed his hair.

The blond proceeded to run around yelling at the top of his lungs like he was scared for his life while dodging the lasers. Drakken continued to laugh manically at the boy. And then, Ron suddenly slipped.

"Ron!" Kim gasped in fear and concern, thinking that a laser would surely hit him. She moved, ready to go to her best friend's aid if he needed her to.

The brown-eyed sidekick caught himself from falling to the floor by grabbing the nearest thing to him, an onyx machine that happened to be the death ray. He accidentally spun the machine length side while trying to regain his balance and many of the lasers that would have cut him, sliced into the weapon. Drakken gasped in disbelief; his mouth would have hit the floor if it was not attached to his face because of his shock.

"My death ray!" the cerulean-skinned doctor shouted as the gun fell apart into many pieces. There went his latest scheme and it had taken so long to build. He felt ready to burst into tears. "But, I was gonna use it to rule the world!" he wailed.

"Boo-yah?" Ron said in a puzzled tone with an arched eyebrow because he was pretty sure that he had foiled the evil plot, but he was not sure what he did.

"He is the very definition of dumb luck," Shego remarked, rolling her eyes.

"No, no. It's dumb skill," Kim corrected her rival.

"So, rock, paper, scissors for the getaway?"

"I don't think we have time for that," Kim commented as the death ray, or what was left of it, began exploding.

"Leave it to him to make a self-destructive death ray," Shego sighed, shaking her head. "Later, Princess."

Shego grabbed Doctor Drakken while Kim grabbed Ron. They all made their escape while the lair not only went up in flames, but also caved in on itself. The good guys went one way and the bad guys went another once they were above ground. All Kim and Shego could think about was how much they wanted to just touch each other, a simple touch, while Ron was hyped from saving the day all by himself. Kim decided to treat him to anything that he wanted from Bueno Nacho since he did save the whole world.

-8-8-8-8-

Next time: One of the ladies gives up. Which one? Check the final chapter to see who wins.