"We got 'em!" Wade shouted.
"------------------------------------------------------"
Monique woke up to the beep-beep-beep of the CTSS decoder, as she'd pre-arranged with Wade. As had also been pre-arranged, she took her time answering, first visiting the bathroom, then fixing herself a cup of coffee. Finally she sat down and donned her headset. Wade informed her of the latest development, which she relayed to the pilot: definitly Hawaii. The bad guy's signal was easy to follow now – they'd could be on top of them within two hours after they'd landed.
Which would be about an two hours from now, actually.
Monique flipped on the lights and picked up the PA, "Andiamo, people! Two hours to go... This would be a good time to come up with a plan!" Not one for gentle wake-up calls, Monique.
Kim sleepily realized she was leaning against Ron's shoulder – kind of embarrassing, given the situation, but she knew Ron wouldn't be awake anyway – he slept like a log . A sleepy log. She stretched into a major yawn and then absent-mindedly grabbed a handful of his hair to shake him awake, still without looking - "C'mon Ron, time to get up. Can't sleep all day..."
"That's okay, Pumpkin. I've been awake a while now. Good morning" Shego said.
Shego? Kim was instantly wide awake. Shego? Kim slowly, cautiously, looked over at her, still holding onto the fist full of hair. She was smiling. Faintly, but smiling.
"Can we just not talk about it?" Shego asked.
Kim stared at her for a moment. What had happened? SOMEthing had obviously happened! And she didn't want to talk about it? Well... actually, she could kind of understand that – she didn't want to talk about it either. "Uh... uh, yeah. I mean no. I mean, uh, sure. We can. Not. I mean." Kim's confusion charmed a lump in Shego's throat, and perhaps a little proudly, she thought, Forgive her - SO the Right Decision.
Now her smile beaming, Shego said, "Good. Can you let go of my hair now Kimmie? Mon says we'll be landing on the bad-guys in a couple of hours."
Well, maybe. The cargo-jet was a tilt-wing, obviously VTOL-capable, like a helicopter. Team Possible's Gulfstream was not. Well, that's what parachutes were for. It would be early evening by the time they got there – what with chasing the sun westward – so they'd be jumping in daylight, not an optimum way to surprise your enemy, but that's how it was going to be. Kim, with her fractured collar-bone, wouldn't be jumping at all. And Monique had no training, besides which she'd already shown her skill, and it was cerebral - not physical. So "Team Possible", at least for that part of the mission, would consist of Ron and Shego. What a deal. Kim would have to catch up later, driving herself from the airport.
Beyond that, The Plan basically consisted of "Get there and think of something then" - a typical scenario for Team Possible, really.
"Gearing up" with Shego had to count as one of the most surreal experiences of Ron's young life. He and Shego – on the same team. Which of them would be the sidekick? The whole prospect of going on a mission with Shego, instead of against her... was just weird beyond words. They checked their parachutes and harnesses in silence, each kind of surprised that the other seemed to know what they were doing. Ron finally hefted the rig onto his back and was tightening the leg-straps when Shego broke the silence with a clench-mouthed "SHHHHHHHH-it!" after dropping her rig onto her back from over her head. The cuts on her back were still very tender, but she'd all but forgotten them – until now.
"You okay?" he asked awkwardly.
Shego just stood there a moment, eyes squeezed shut, teeth still clenched, while the stinging died down. Eventually, a little embarrassed at her stupidity, she just said, "Oh, yeah... Fine and dandy..."
"I'd have thought you'd be good as new by now. I mean, I've seen you take some pretty bad hits and next day you're ready for action again. Comet powers working okay?"
"I don't like to talk about the... comet, okay? But for your information: big things heal fast, little things – not so fast. Don't ask me how it works. I don't know" she said icily.
The chill in her tone worried Ron. How could he work with her like this? She still felt like an enemy. Just a more civil one, is all. Maybe this was a bad idea...
"Yeah. Uh... look, Shego -"
"No. No, give me a sec" Shego cut him off, "Okay, I know this is kind of odd – us working together, on the same side an' all. I'm feeling really weird about it too... But we're going to have to make this work. I need to make this work. I think you know why. We're going to have to - I can't believe I'm saying this – depend on each other. Right?"
Ron wasn't so sure, but didn't say anything.
"I'm sorry I snapped at you like that... uh, Ron. The thing is... well, last time I was on a 'Team', things didn't go so well, y'know? So I'm kind of nervous."
Still apprehensive, but resigned to the situation, Ron only said, "Okay. Turn around so I can check your rig."
She stared at him. Check her rig? Sure, that was standard procedure... for people who had partners. It wasn't 'standard' for Shego at all. And to have him checking it? He could do anything back there... cut her rip-cords, pin down the flaps... and she'd never know it...
"Shego, if we can't be friends, let's at least be professionals? Now turn around."
Dammit – I HATE when the teenagers are right... She turned around.
"------------------------------------------------------"
Not too bad for my first tilt-wing landing. Not quite as soft as in a Huey... but I think I'd pass a check-out flight the pilot thought, finally shutting off the experimental aircraft's engines and unbuckling his seatbelt. He got up and stretched – it had been a long long flight. But worth it – this would be such a feather in his cap! Of course, he'd never be able to tell anyone about it, well, until it was de-classified years later. But when that did happen... well, can you say "book deal"? It was too bad that it had been so easy to shoot down the villains chasing him. Might have meant a "movie deal", if that had been a bit more exciting.
He made his way through twenty yards of coffee bushes to the tunneling machine. This was so cool – just him and a billion-dollar machine, alone on the coffee-covered hillside of the Kona coast. Dr. Director should be meeting him in an hour or so, by which time he should have the thing ready to dig. All those weeks undercover as a temp at ReallyBig Corp's engineering offices were going to finally pay off. But GOD that had been boring work... typing up the Operations Manual for the OPT. All 2,253 pages of it. People did that sort of thing for a living? His fingers and eyes ached just thinking about it.
The hatch seemed to be locked. That was odd. You could only lock it from the inside... He un-holstered his gun, and climbed the ladder to the top escape-hatch. Whoever was inside would see and hear the hatch being opened, so there was no chance of surprising them that way. Well, he was trained to deal with this sort of thing. He knew a few tricks.
Hatch open, gun ready – he jumped through the opening.
To find two rather frightened-looking teenage girls staring at him from behind a workbench. How depressing. Goodbye movie-deal. He stood up straight, still pointing his gun at them.
"And you are?" he asked.
"Uhm... I'm Cindy. Saychenal. This is Bonnie Rockwaller. We... uh, we were inside when..."
"I see. Well, it's time for you to go outside now" he waved them toward the door.
Cin began walking toward the door, actually glad to finally be leaving the confines of her previously airborne prison, and began turning the wheel that lifted the dogs sealing it. Bonnie lingered behind. The man with the gun seemed intent on watching Cin opening the door – maybe it was the day-glo orange jumpsuit she wore, or maybe he liked the way her butt wiggled as she turned the wheel – either way, Cin was making a distraction, and this was just one guy. One guy with a gun. No problemo.
"Need any help Cin?" Bonnie asked.
"Nah, I got it. I'll be glad to -"
Bonnie high-kicked at the man's wrist and sure enough, the gun went flying. Then she tried a spin-kick to his face – but he ducked under it, at the same time kicking her other leg out from under her, so that Bonnie toppled backward to the floor. The gun slid along the steel and ended up at Cin's feet. She picked it up.
The man, satisfied that Bonnie was no longer a threat, turned to look at Cin, who was examining the pistol. "Now you be careful with that, young lady – that's not a toy. Best just set it down and -"
"No, I can see it's not a toy. It's a Heckler and Koch squeeze-cocker, isn't it? Also known as a 'lemon-squeezer'. I've seen 'em before, but never actually held one. Big bucks, these things are." She pointed it at him. "The question is: is it loaded?" She squeezed the grip, bringing the action back and chambering a round, "Well, it is now, isn't it... I've also read that these things have really sensitive triggers. Is that true?"
"Uh... uh yes, they do. Now, you be careful with that, you don't know what you're doing, Miss..." It was all he could think of to say, even if it had already been proved untrue.
"Yeah. I kinna like it. Grip's a little big for me... let's see what's in it, 'kay?" She squeezed the grip again, popping out the un-fired round and chambering another. With her other hand, she caught the ejected cartridge in mid-air and glanced at it. "Nine millimeter. Humph. I'm a .45 ACP girl myself. Model 1911 all the way – well, with a few modifications, of course." She glanced at it again, bringing her eyebrows close as she studied the bullet. "Black Talons? You are mean! Do you know what these things do when they hit ya? Like razor-blades! They don't even sell these to civilians anymore, you have to be in law... enforce... oh, hell..."
The man was a cop. That was bad. That meant he knew how to handle situations like this. He was trained. Cin knew cops - her Dad was a cop. And she couldn't pretend that she was just a helpless little girl now, either – she'd thrown that advantage away out of pure egoism. Not good. This was very, very not good...
"Having some trouble, Mr. Du?" a distinguished-sounding accented voice said outside the now-open door behind Cin. Cin didn't dare take her eyes off the cop. She couldn't. A person with a gun pointing at them has very few options, so whoever is holding that gun had better pay close attention – lessons from Dad. Things had gone from very not good to quite a bit worse.
The cop seemed as surprised as Cin was, though, "S – Senor Senior? Senior? What... where -"
"Yes yes, good, we can skip the introductions then, with the exception of the young ladies. I'd like you to put down the gun, Miss... er..."
Cin swallowed. Bonnie answered for her, "Cin. And I'm Bonnie. Uh, we really don't have any -"
"Miss Cin. What a charming name... I am Senor Senior, Senior. If you'll turn around, you'll see my entourage. Gentlemen?"
Cin heard four rifles being cocked, one after another. Right. This was about as bad as it could get, then. Bonnie seemed to be out of ideas too – her hands were in the air. And oddly, so were the cop's. She turned around slowly to see the four automatic rifles aimed at her. Out of options, she slowly laid the gun on the floor. Then the three of them – Cin, GJ Agent Will Du, and Bonnie, formed a line and stepped out into the coffee field.
"------------------------------------------------------"
"Ten minutes to drop" Krache said over the cabin speakers. Having check and double-checked their gear, there was little for Ron and Shego to do but wait for word to open the door. Ron stood by it going over the instructions. Shego stood next to Kim, who'd insisted on triple-checking her parachute.
"I – I just don't like this, Shego... I should be going, not -" Kim began for the umpteenth time.
"Yeah yeah yeah, 'I should be going not you. It's my job. I'm supposed to keep an eye on you. Yadda yadda yadda'. It'll be fine, Princess. Same job – different boss, is all."
"Well... and be sure to-"
" 'Keep an eye on Ron'... for the tenth time. My god, Kimmie, I thought he was supposed to watch my back!"
"Well, it sorta works both ways. He has a way of getting into trouble and -"
" 'and somehow things always work out – it's weird'. Do you have anything to say you haven't said a dozen times already? Wanna show me where my rip-cord handle is again, in case I forgot in the last two minutes?" Shego said becoming exasperated. She felt like she was getting ready for her first day of first grade.
Kim sighed, "Okay okay. It's just... I just... be careful, okay?"
"Five minutes" Krache announced, "Ten thousand feet. Open the door."
Shego stepped toward the door only to find herself being hauled back by her harness. Kim turned her around and planted a hard-and-fast kiss on her surprised mouth. "I love her", she said, half-jokingly repeating what she'd said only a day earlier. Shego replied with the complementary, "I love her, too."
"I hate to interrupt, but Shego: open at three thousand, right?" Ron said.
She turned slowly to face him, her eyes lingering on Kim. Finally, eye-contact broken, it was time for business: "You like being a floating target, Ron? Fifteen-hundred."
"What I'd like is to live to jump again. Twenty-five hundred..."
"Two thousand."
"Deal. But – I mean it, two thousand. Not a foot more" Ron said hoping he sounded threatening, but doubting he was pulling it off.
"Word of hon- well... 'word', then. Boss" she smiled. Ron didn't quite know how to take that, and decided to ignore it for now. With Monique standing behind where the door would swing inward, he opened it, and the roar of 300 mph wind filled the cabin.
When the "No Smoking" light went on, Shego jumped, followed by Ron.
To Ron's surprise, again, Shego seemed quite good at this sort of thing. Holding her legs straight and her arms in a delta position, she tracked toward the barely-visible OPT below. He followed.
Once she was – as well as she could judge – only a hillside away, she flared to stop her forward motion. Ron copied her, and floated down to her level. Five thousand feet. Time to spare. Shego smiled at him and did a quick Style & Accuracy set: left turn, right turn, barrel roll, right turn, left turn, barrel roll. At each point of the set, her stops were sudden and precise – as if she had something to hold on to. Ron was impressed, and would have liked to show her his tricks, but they only had a thousand feet to go now, so he kept his eyes glued to the altimeter on his wrist.
Two thousand. Shego waved to him, pulled her ripcord, and was gone. A second later, Ron pulled his.
The OPT was moving. It was digging into the hillside. They were too late. "You see what's happening, Ron?" Shego's voice came through his headset, breaking the astounding silence after having nothing but wind in his ears.
"Yeah. We're not gonna make it in time. Well, at least no one's shooting at us..."
" 'Not gonna make it' my pale green ass. Follow me."
Before Ron could reply – indeed, before his mind could recover from the "pale green ass" comment, he saw Shego's 'chute collapse into a wad as she fell away from it. "Shego!" he shouted instinctively. Oh my god he thought, his mind racing with possibilities. Maybe her comet power was going to save her somehow, maybe she could fire off a plasma-ball and... and ...
Then he saw the small, round reserve 'chute open up. Ten seconds before she hit the ground. "You comin' Boss? Can't wait around here all day, y'know..."
Be safe. This was not the time to fool around. Be safe and... and the mission would be a failure. Oh, hell... that damn woman... He pulled his cut-away and fell from his main parachute. Five-hundred feet – had he remembered to set his altimeter for the elevation of ... where were they? - no time to ponder, he pulled the reserve rip-cord. A moment later he hit the ground. No graceful tip-toe down, either; he performed a text-book Parachute Landing Fall, circa World War Two - feet, roll onto the thighs, hips take the most impact, roll on the ribs, shoulder gets the rest.
Ow...
Shego was standing him up before he could even figure out if he'd broken anything. "You okay Boss? Geez, I thought I was cutting it close! You're quite the dare-devil, ain'tcha, when you wanna be."
"Shego..." he managed to say.
"C'mon Boss, that thing is almost all the way into the hill, we gotta go now!" She already had his harness off, and was beginning to run with her arm around his waist as if he were crippled.
Which, to Ron's own surprise, he apparently wasn't. "I'm okay, Shego. I can run."
"Then catch me if you can, Boss-man!" she said, an took off in a sprint.
Boo-yah... and I thought KIM was hard to keep up with! he thought.
By the time the reached where the OPT had been, they were faced only with a wall of rubble on the hillside. Shego had gotten there first, of course, and was standing there facing it with her eyes closed.
"What-"
"Shhh!" she shhh'd.
The mound of rubble on the hillside was still vibrating, little rocks and clods of dirt fell down it. The OPT wasn't far in there, but they had no way to dig...
... or blast? Ron suddenly got it – why Shego was just standing there like that, eyes closed, concentrating. She was "charging up", somehow, preparing to throw a plasma-charge at the hillside. Damn. How handy was that? But he'd never seen her have to "charge up" before... did that mean -
All at once, Shego's hands erupted into green orbs of plasma. Bringing her hands to her shoulders as if she were pushing on a wall, her arms then flung forward and a green blob the size of a beach-ball flew toward the hill. The hill twenty feet away. Ron had seen what a softball sized plasma-ball could do, and this was over ten times bigger than that. Shego's hands were now extinguished but she seemed to be in a daze, so Ron did the only thing he could think of – he tackled her to the ground.
The hillside exploded in a spray of rocks and dirt.
"Shego! Shego, you alright?" he asked worriedly. Even if her fireball worked, what was he going to do with a zombie Shego? Leave her there?
"Ugh... I'll be a lot better once you get off of me, Boss" she replied groggily.
"Can you stand up?"
"Once again, if you'll get off of me, I think so, yeah."
He got to his feet, helping her up afterward. The flood-lit rear of the tunneling machine was visible now, thirty feet into the hillside, heading at a downward slant. But, it was also piling still more rubble behind it as it went. In the relatively soft earth, it was going fast...
"We gotta go now Shego, or it'll just bury itself again. You up for it?"
"Hey, if you can do it, I can do it. Better" she said. He let go of the arm he had pulled her up with, and she swayed on her feet. "Uh... on second thought, maybe I could use a little help... watch out for the rocks, by the way. They're probably hot." Indeed, some of them glowed red where the plasma-ball had burrowed through.
"Uh-huh. Alright, Sherlock – uh, Nancy Drew I mean – let's go." They scrambled in after their prey.
"Scrambled" is the right word, too, because the OPT was expelling broken rock behind as they were trying to move forward toward it. Behind the OPT there seemed to be some sort of conveyor belt extending twenty feet back, and as wide as the machine itself – and therefore, as wide as the tunnel, too. Rubble was already forming a new mound at the end of the belt. Shego almost fell several times as she and Ron clambered over it onto the conveyor, and Ron had to keep his arm tight around her waist. Now, they were trying to run – or at least hobble – over a moving floor of debris. Finally they were within reaching distance of the tail-end of the OPT. But now what?
There was no ladder. There was nothing to grab onto. There was only a chute from which the broken debris poured taking up a the bottom third of the machine and a maze of pipes and cables above that. The chute stuck out four feet from the actual rear of the tunneler. It was six feet high. They'd have to get on top of that, by climbing on the rocks and gravel that were constantly being pushed out. This was going to be fun. You'd have to be a monkey to -
"Shego, can you stay up on your own?" he asked, still stumbling over the moving floor of partially-crushed rocks.
"Uh... sure. I mean, I think so... where are you going?"
"I'm going to run up the side wall of the tunnel and jump onto the top of the chute there, then lift you onto it." Even he couldn't believe he'd said that.
"I can't believe you said that."
"Yeah, well... it probably won't work anyway, but it's all I got. You wanna keep walking along behind it? Fall down here and you'll be buried before you can even get up."
"Okay Boss, show me what ya got. I've kind of been wondering, to tell the truth."
Ron continued to assist Shego while he tried to force himself into the Mystical Monkey Power frame of mind – something he'd been practicing for awhile now, but certainly didn't feel he was ready to use. The state he was going for was something between "be the spoon" and "don't think about spoons", with a healthy dose of "keep your eyes open but don't look at anything" thrown in for good measure. The funny thing about utilizing Mystical Monkey Power was that, after you'd done it, you had no idea how you could have done such a thing. Well, he had that part down already; he had no idea how he was going to get atop that chute while it belched a wall of rock and gravel six feet high at him. Maybe the Monkey knew a way. He let go of Shego.
He stopped walking, only lifting his feet as if marching place, just to keep on top of the debris. Shego tried to turn to watch him, but couldn't spare the time and had to look back at her feet to keep from falling.
Ron had no plan, no idea what he was going to do. All he knew was where he wanted to be. He had a Goal, and nothing else. He began.
It was like running in a dream, where every motion seems as if it's retarded by some thick, invisible syrup, clawing at your arms and legs, keeping you from moving as you know you should be able to move. The moving layer of rubble seemed almost to stop as he danced across it to the left wall of the tunnel, picking and choosing each footfall, noticing irregularities in the wall where he was likely to end up, seeing opportunities in the other wall, in the ceiling... everywhere. So many choices – his only job was to pick the right one, the closest one, the one that would clear the way for the most following opportunities. He doubled over, running dog-like, feet following exactly wherever he planted his hands. And he had time for all this! That rock was pretty big – but oh, it had a pointy part sticking up, that one over there was flat – it would be better. And beyond it, there was another, but a better choice was right over there...
He flexed his whole body, jumping as much with his torso as with the power of his legs, hitting the wall five feet up in a crouch, his own momentum keeping him there long enough to plan his next leap – to the ceiling. Traction might be a problem – but not if his angle of push were close enough to straight into the wall... another flex and he was upside down on the ceiling, flexing his body for the leap to the opposite wall and leap, on it, ten feet up. This was so easy! He could do this all day! He pushed off again, using a chunk of rock still falling down from the chute for a temporary support for a hand-stand while he flipped his feet over his head to hit the left wall again feet-first, letting his weight compress his legs into a crouch and then, finally, push! to roll onto the top of the chute itself, rolling head-shoulders-back-butt to end up on his feet again -
and smacking face-first into the solid-metal wall of hydraulic piping. Well, it had been a thing of beauty up to that point, anyway. Ron staggered backward, almost losing is balance and falling off the chute, before he came to his senses enough to grab onto one of the pipes. Gah, THAT hurt... wait a minute... I'm here! I made it! ... What the heck did I do?
"Hey, monkey-boy! A little help here?" Shego called to him. She was still a good six feet from the end of the chute, so close that the rocks were almost falling onto her feet. There was no way he could stretch that far, so he laid on his stomach and hooked his feet behind a pipe, trying desperately to reach her. A foot short. He couldn't reach any farther back, and she couldn't climb any more forward.
"Jump!" he shouted.
"What?" She could jump, sure, and grab onto his hand... no problem there. If she missed his hands, however, she would fall face-first into the tumbling rocks, and most likely be crushed instantly. Even if he did grab her, he was going to pull her up against an avalanche of rock? Not likely. What the hell did he mean, 'jump'?
"C'mon, Shego – we can do this! Trust me... I have an idea!"
The buffoon has an idea. And I'm going to trust my life to it. How do I get myself into these things? Before she could talk herself out of it – the most logical thing to do – she jumped, forward and up.
Their hands locked at the wrists, and as soon as they did, Ron pulled, Monkey fashion. His arms pulled, his legs pulled, and his stomach pulled, doubling him up like an inchworm. Shego's legs whipped up over her head backwards with the force and before she could figure out what was happening, she found herself standing on he chute, facing forward, straddling the blonde boy.
She had to breathe a few times before she could say, "Okay... that was cool... Damn Ron!"
"What? What'd I do?" he asked from behind and under her. They made a rather humorous picture: Ron's butt high in the air, his head down against the chute, his hands still hanging over the edge, and Shego standing above him, looking the other way, legs to either side of Ron's waist. She looked down at his butt and unable to resist, bent down slapped him hard.
"Hey!" he said, struggling to get to his feet after she'd stepped forward so that she no longer straddled him.
"Just getting your attention, Boss" she laughed. This "Team" business... it wasn't so bad. In fact, it was pretty neat. In fact, it was damn fuckin-A titties!
In the middle of the wall, there was a hatch to the interior, and Ron was making preparations to open it, until he felt a rather strong grip on his shoulder.
"Hold on there pardner. What do you think you're up to?" Shego asked.
"Well... We're here, we go inside, knock out the bad guys, rescue Bonnie and... uh..."
"Cindy" Shego offered.
"... and Cindy, and, uh, we're done! Right?"
"Wrong. Doy, you'd never make a thief, Boss. They don't know we're here, right? They're going somewhere, to do something. Our part now is to wait and watch. We might learn something useful... and besides, what if they're armed in there? And can you drive this thing? Just calm down. Have a seat. Relax. It's Miller time."
She had a point. She had several points. Kim would have probably said the same thing. Working with Shego... wasn't so bad. He sat with his back against the door.
"Uh, not there... over here, so we'll see it open and they won't see us, if anyone comes out for some reason."
"Oh. Yeah... good idea" he said, getting up to sit next to where she was still standing. He leaned back against a bundle of cabling while she sat cross-legged looking down the platform. He tried to relax. With Shego right there. The weirdness of it hit him again...
"Shego? Why do you keep calling me 'Boss'?"
"It's my sarcastic side, I suppose. Want to go back to 'buffoon'?"
He frowned at her.
"Yeah, okay, I didn't mean that. And I gotta say, watching you ricochet around the tunnel like you did was fuck – I mean 'freaking' – amazing! And then when you pulled me up here? How did you do that, anyway?"
"Oh... that's the Mystical Monkey Power. Ugh. I gotta find another name for it... something without 'monkey' in it. I hate monkeys!" he said, actually shivering a little.
"Uh-huh... You're a strange guy, Boss. What's the deal with the monkeys?"
He considered a moment, and then said, "What's your deal with comets?"
Shego stared at him almost in disbelief for a second before she caught the connection. "Ah. Point taken."
After a bit of uneasy silence, Ron realized he had something to ask, something kind of pressing; "So... you and Kim... back on again? It's getting hard to keep up..."
"Not that it's any concern of yours Boss... but yeah, back on again" she said more than a little defensively.
"Hey, she's been my best friend for a whole lot longer than she's been your... girlfriend. Anyway, I'm glad it's on again. I think she's good for you", he said casually, watching the rocks move along the conveyor beneath them.
That struck Shego as an odd thing for him to say. Why should he care what was good for her? Especially when the subject of the discussion was someone who had been his girlfriend? Her forehead wrinkled in consternation.
"What do you mean 'she's good for me'? "
He was surprised she didn't know. "Shego... I don't know you all that well, but I have seen quite a bit of you over the last few years. And not once did you ever smile. Smirk, yes – but not smile. Until you got with Kim. I dunno... you just seem... happy – at least when it's on again. Before Kim, I don't think you did 'happy' much."
That little bit of insight hit Shego right between the eyes, because it was spot-on true, and she knew it instantly, even though she'd never thought about it before. And to hear it from... "the buffoon"... Well, she had a lot to think about.
"Y'know something Boss? You're alright. For a boy, I mean."
Now it was his turn to smirk.
"------------------------------------------------------"