When Drakken carried Shego into the emergency room lobby it was almost deserted, but the faces that were there turned toward them. Some people simply stared at the blue man carrying the bleeding, green woman. Others whispered to one another, and some had the light of recognition in their eyes.

Shego frowned and looked down at the material of Drakken's coat, not wanting to get into any sort of dialogue with the people there. Especially not talk of their heroism during the past summer.

"All right," the receptionist said as Drakken stepped up to the window, "what have we got here?"

"Ah... Decorating...accident," Drakken said sheepishly.

The receptionist looked at Shego's leg and then started chuckling.

"Hey, Martinez! We've got another one!"

A dark-haired white-coated man putting on rubber gloves appeared from around the corner, his smile far too broad for his profession.

"What is it this time?" the man said in a surprisingly soft voice.

Drakken adjusted his stance to better show Shego's leg.

"Glass icicle," he said, his brow twisting in confusion.

The doctor chuckled along with the receptionist. "Okay, bring her back. We'll get started and you can fill out the paperwork there."

"Oh. Okay," Drakken said, following the doctor down a hallway. It was lined with cots, some empty, others occupied by other patients. They were led into a curtained alcove where Drakken deposited Shego onto an empty cot where she sat upright, leaning back on her good hand for balance. Drakken sat in a chair near the wall.

The doctor began examining Shego's injury. "So... Fall off a ladder?"

"You don't know the half of it," Shego said with a frown.

"Oh-ho!" the doctor said, looking over at Drakken's nervous face. "So it's that type of injury. He going to be spending the night on the couch?"

Drakken swallowed anxiously, and Shego narrowed her eyes on him with a vicious smirk.

"Depends on what he does after this."

"Whoo..." the doctor whistled lowly with wide eyes, and went about his work.

Drakken was handed a clipboard by the receptionist and focused on filling in all of the information while the doctor worked. He didn't want to get rid of Admiral Cuddles... But Shego had given him no other option. And if he didn't do something immediately, she would surely kill the pet.

When they got back in the hover car he could look for some animal shelters... And hopefully, one on an island near the lair. Maybe he could visit...

"So this didn't puncture any major veins or arteries, but it did tear the muscle a bit," the doctor said. "You'll just need to be on crutches for awhile as this heals. And watch out for infection."

"Super..." Shego said sarcastically, leaning all the way back onto her elbows.

"And when I'm done here, I'll look at that wrist you've got wrapped up."

Drakken watched the doctor cleaning Shego's wound briefly, the icicle safely removed, and went back to the paperwork.

"I'm curious, Doc," Shego said. Drakken looked up in confusion and realized she was speaking to the actual medical doctor. "Your gal out there said I was another one. You have other decorating-related injuries?"

"Oh, yes," the doctor grinned. "We get dozens this time of year."

"Like what?"

"Lacerations from broken ornaments, like you've got. Burns from candles... One poor fella who came in yesterday actually burned half of his house down," the doctor said with a laugh.

Drakken exchanged a look with Shego, a bit put off by the man's mirth. Maybe he should have had a second career as a villain...

"Lots of broken bones from people falling off of roofs while stringing lights... Electrocutions..."

Shego started to smirk, warming up to the man's apparent sinister nature. But Drakken was looking at the blood-tipped glass icicle that had been pulled out of Shego's leg

"Don't you think it's a little cruel to laugh at people's injuries?" he said, frowning at the grinning medico.

The doctor gave him a long, thoughtful glance. He gestured with his head across the hall to where another curtain was closed around a cot as he dressed Shego's wound.

"See that spot there? Five year-old girl had her stomach pumped earlier after eating mistletoe berries."

Drakken's eyes widened. He saw that Shego's had too.

"And down that way," the doctor gestured with his head again, "is a three year-old boy whose dad is coming home from Iraq tonight. He decided..."

The doctor stopped, and Drakken saw his grin disappear for the first time. The man shook his head with a grimace.

"He decided to wrap himself up as a Christmas present for his dad. Surrounded himself with tissue paper and somehow sealed himself into a box. He wasn't breathing when his mother found him."

Shego sat up again. "Will he be all right?" she asked slowly.

The doctor shook his head. "We're not sure. Got him breathing easy enough, but...he hasn't woken up. Might have severe brain damage. So you see," the doctor glanced at Drakken with a wan smile, "when we're dealing with that sort of thing... Especially when it's supposed to be the 'most wonderful time of the year,' when loved ones come together... All of us in my profession need to laugh at idiots like you."

The ride back to the lair was also spent in silence, but it wasn't tense in the way the trip out to the hospital had been. Drakken's mind was taking twists and turns down horrible dark paths after hearing the ER doctor's stories, worrying about things that could have happened. He tried to tell himself that he was being ridiculous; Shego wasn't going to get electrocuted putting up Christmas lights for him. But another part of his mind kept repeating, 'that's why they're called accidents.'

Shego meanwhile, was on a much more reasoned plane but not about to share what had so arrested her attention. She wasn't wrong: Drakken needed to control the dog better. But maybe she was being too harsh with him about the situation... He loved the dog, and it wasn't really right of her to demand that he get rid of it just because...it was acting like a dog.

True, she had no affection for it whatsoever. But it meant something to him, just like Christmas did. She was willing to make room in her life for holiday traditions and visits from his mother... Why not make room for a pet, too? As long as it got properly trained. And besides...

She glanced over at his sad eyes and worried frown.

...She loved him. They made sacrifices for each other. That's what people who love each other do.

She thought back to the ER doctor's devastating stories, and wondered if the little boy he'd talked about would be okay. She wondered about that father who would arrive home after possibly years abroad expecting to be welcomed into loving arms, and instead find a crisis more terrible than war.

Drakken had put her through far worse during world-takeover schemes than a sprained wrist and a small stabbing. Maybe everything bothered her more now because she loved him. And she...expected more.

She hoped she was giving him enough.

The sun had begun its descent in the sky when Drakken parked the hover car back at the lair. He hopped out of the car and ran around to her side.

"Hold on, I'll get your crutches for you."

When he looked up, he found her reaching her arms toward him. His eyes were whirlpools of anxiety when he picked her up, and she carried the crutches in her uninjured hand as they crossed the balcony to the door.

As soon as they'd crossed the threshold, he stopped short. Both of their eyes went wide.

The mess they had left was far worse than before, and the little Maltese dog was laying right in the middle of it whimpering. They also noticed a stinky deposit he had left next to the TV stand.

"Oh..." Drakken said worriedly, taking a step forward. But then he stopped and bit his lip.

"Just...put me down and go," Shego said with a resigned sigh.

Drakken waited until she was safely balanced on her good leg and one crutch before rushing to the whimpering dog. Shego watched as he knelt in front of it and quickly began examining it. She began a very slow and careful journey down the stairs.

"He's bleeding from his mouth!" Drakken cried in alarm.

Shego didn't even need to look around at the mess. "He was probably chewing on the glass ornaments."

Drakken gasped. "He could have swallowed some!"

Shego sighed again. "Yeah..."

"If he swallowed it, he could start bleeding internally! I'll have to take him to the vet."

Drakken gathered up the dog in his arms and began hurrying back toward the door. The panic in his eyes softened her mood as she reached the bottom of the stairs. She hated to make a bad situation worse, but...

"What about your mother?"

Drakken stopped short with a strangled gasp and he looked at her in wide-eyed panic.

"We just lost almost four hours with our little ER excursion."

Drakken looked around at the ruin of the living room helplessly, and then down to the dog in his arms.

"Ungh, look. I'll take him to the vet. You...find some way to deal with this. And...I'll pick her up too, to give you more time."

Even the air around Drakken seemed to relax as she presented the solution.

"Really?" he said hopefully.

"Mm," she nodded.

He closed the distance between them, and with a hand behind her neck pulled her into a grateful kiss. Shego tensed feeling the little dog pressed between them.

"Thank you Shego!" he said with such relief and joy, that she couldn't help but smile. After rolling her eyes.

"All right, you get his crate and I'll change."

"Huh?

"Don't think airport security will take kindly to the hospital-issue pajamas," she said.

Fifteen minutes later found Shego piloting the hover car through the amber sunset. The dog was yipping impatiently from its crate, strapped into the passenger seat. The air was unusually cold as she sped above the waters, and she set the cruise control after a few minutes so she could zip up her jacket.

With one Go Team suit in the laundry with cocoa stains, and another joining it now with rips and blood stains, she wasn't about to risk a third; she only had so many. She had opted instead for some dark-wash jeans, a loose-fitting teal t-shirt, and a favored black leather jacket that she'd had for years. She used to tease Hego with it, calling it her hooker-jacket, which nearly always sent him into a spitting rage. She wondered what Drakken would say if she used the line on him...

The sunset was still shining bright to the west, but to the east she could see dark clouds billowing upward at an alarming rate. It looked like they were in for another rare winter storm, just in time for Christmas. Maybe it would cool down enough to actually justify hot cocoa.

She didn't think so.

She landed the hover car with a great deal of pomp in front of a veterinary she had found on the closest island to the lair, taking up nearly three of the handicapped spaces right in front of the building as she did so. The dog had barked through the whole flight and was still barking as she hobbled around on one crutch to the passenger side of the car so she could unbuckle its crate.

"Do you ever stop?" she said to it as she lifted the crate out with her injured arm. The doctor had put a brace on her wrist and ordered her to wear it except when showering, to expedite healing.

It was all fine with her. But now, due to needing her good hand to support herself on the crutch, she felt she might need to revisit the idea of wrapping her wrist and adding the brace as an additional support. The weight of the dog crate was painful.

As Shego shouldered her way through the door of the clinic, the dog stopped barking. She sighed in relief. Inside the veterinary there were even fewer people than had been at the hospital. She figured pet injuries during the holidays were less likely.

"I think my dog was chewing on a glass ornament," she greeted the receptionist without preamble, setting the crate down in relief.

"Oh dear... Well, let's get some information and then we can have one of the doctors take a look. Now have you brought your pets here before?"

"No," she said, setting her crutch against the counter and then leaning heavily against it on her elbows.

"All right... So I'll need your name and address..."

"Can we skip that? I'm kind of in a hurry. Christmas Eve and all."

The receptionist looked surprised. "Ah... No, I'm afraid we need your information for billing, and to know where to call if your pet has to stay overnight, to know where to—"

Shego lifted her good hand and flared it. She peripherally saw the recoil of the other people in the lobby.

"My name's Shego. My address is 'Dr. Drakken's Lair.' And I have to pick up my future mother-in-law at the airport in San Juan in less than three hours. If this dog isn't fixed and back home in a third of that time, I'm going to drop it into the ocean and tell my fiancé you had to euthanize it."

The receptionist's eyes had widened in shock until the last, and now were narrowed on Shego.

"I'm afraid...I'll have to confiscate your animal, since you blatantly threatened to kill it."

Shego snarled and flared her hand brighter.

"Hey!" A man's voice at the door drew the attention of the veterinary's occupants. "What's with the UFO parked in the handicapped row?"

Shego crossed her arms and leaned against the counter. "You the one handicapped?" she asked, looking the perfectly healthy-appearing man up and down.

"Yes," he frowned. "That your space ship?"

Shego fired a blast at the man's foot and caused him to jump.

Satisfied with the look of fright on his face, she turned back to the receptionist. "Let's not make Christmas any more difficult than it has to be. You fix the dog. I pay you. We all get home before the storm hits."

"Storm?" a voice somewhere in the lobby asked. Shego ignored it.

"We understand each other?" she said to the receptionist, lifting her glowing hand again.

The woman was glowering, but picked up the phone on her desk and held down the intercom button.

"Code 2 in the lobby, code 2."

Shego watched as an overweight woman with a ponytail and blue scrubs rushed from around a corner onto the scene. Shego smiled to let the woman know it was her she was to meet, and the woman hurried to her and glanced at the crate before looking back to her and then to the receptionist.

"What do we have?"

"I don't know, since she won't fill out the paperwork."

The doctor looked back at Shego in confusion. "Won't fill out the paperwork?"

Shego frowned and leaned on the counter again. "Look, I have more important things to do."

The vet frowned. "Ma'am, before we can treat your dog we need to know some vital information. Such as, has it had its immunizations and its rabies vaccine?"

"What?"

"Has the dog ever had or been in contact with another animal with parvovirus?"

Shego rolled her eyes and scowled. "Look, if we can get this moving I'll try to fill out your paperwork."

The receptionist stood up from her chair. "As you can see, there's a wait—"

Shego's flared hand took the vet by surprise, and after a moment's consideration the heavy-set woman picked up the crate. Inside, the dog yipped happily.

"Come on back..."

Shego picked up her crutch and hobbled after the vet.

In the exam room Shego sat gratefully in one of the chairs. Seconds later a clipboard with an attached pen was thrust in her face by the angry receptionist. She took it and flared her hand again in warning. The woman left the room.

The vet had opened the crate and the dog was running around the floor, its claws clicking on the linoleum and its excited yips echoing in the spartan room.

"What's this little boy's name?" the vet said, picking him up with a grin.

"Short Circuit..." Shego muttered.

"What's that?"

"Admiral Cuddles," she said, spotting the line on the paperwork and filling in the dog's name.

"That fits him very well! That fits a good boy!"

Shego looked up to see the dog lightly licking at the woman's hand. She grimaced in disgust.

"So what exactly is the problem?" the vet asked, setting the dog on the exam table.

"Think he was chewing on a glass ornament. Could have swallowed some. Not sure."

"Well let's take a look..."

Shego only half-attended as the woman talked through the dog's exam. She didn't know any information about the dog at all beyond its name and breed, and so left the paperwork blank as she expected she would have to. Her left wrist was throbbing from carrying the crate, and her right felt a bit sore from having so much weight on it as she used the crutch.

Her leg was a mixture of throbbing, stinging, and itching where the stitches and bandages were, and to make matters worse she now felt sick to her stomach. She supposed it was because she hadn't eaten since the half-waffle at breakfast and had had nothing to drink all day.

"Excuse me," she interrupted the vet, and the woman looked up in surprise. "Do you have some water?"

"Oh yes, there's a cooler in the lobby."

Shego thought about the angry receptionist and decided it wasn't worth hobbling back out for. She could get some after she'd paid for the dog's treatment.

"He's been acting normal since chewing on the ornament?"

Shego's eyes darted away. "Yes," she said. As far as she knew, it had. The dog just barked and yipped and acted excited. And since she and Drakken had been at the ER for nearly four hours, they had no idea exactly when the dog began chewing on glass or how much he had gotten his jaws on.

"I would like to do an X-ray. Here's our price list. You'll need to sign this paper before I can go ahead."

Shego batted away the price list and grabbed the paper to sign and set it on the clipboard.

"It's pretty expensive," the vet said, looking surprised.

"Do what you've gotta do," Shego said as she signed the paper. She wondered how much her signature was really worth on anything, let alone internationally.

She watched peripherally as the vet's brow rose in surprise. The woman left the room a moment later with the dog wagging its tail excitedly in her arms.

Shego sighed and leaned her head back against the wall. At the rate things were going, she wouldn't be able to get the dog back before having to pick up Drakken's mother in Puerto Rico. That meant she'd have to stay up even later wrapping the present she'd gotten for her, since they'd lost the whole day.

As her mind traveled backward through the day's events, a tiny smirk turned up the corners of her mouth when she remembered the early-morning escapades that had set them behind schedule in the first place. She didn't regret surprising Drakken in the sexy lingerie for a moment. But she knew that keeping him in bed for a second round, and then a third in the shower until the hot water ran out had been too much.

She had been deliberately trying to put off the tasks he expected her to accomplish that day. She simply...didn't know how to do Christmas. Drakken had a lifetime of experience and traditions that she'd never had nor cared about, and was only bothering to care about in the present for his sake. But Christmas just seemed to be...so much. All the decorating, and cooking, and gifting was so not her.

She felt her stomach turn again as she thought about the gifting. True, she had succeeded in getting a gift for both Drakken and for his mother. But he seemed to think her choice of gift for his mother was sub-par... What if she didn't approve?

She knew Drakken wouldn't do something stupid like call off their engagement if his mother didn't approve of her, but she knew it was important to him that she did approve. And she wanted him to be happy.

"Nrgh..." she growled to herself as she thought about it. Maybe some expensive jewelry in addition to the robe and slippers... But when would she buy them?

The door opened and the vet returned. The dog barked in joy when it saw Shego.

"Good news," the vet said, sticking a negative up against a light box. "Your dog didn't swallow any glass."

"That's good," Shego said flatly. The vet's brow pinched slightly.

"And he only has a very minor laceration on his tongue. It will heal by itself in a few days. Just make sure he only has soft foods."

"All right," Shego said, pushing herself out of the chair with her good hand. She picked up her crutch and stuck it under her arm. "What's the damage?"

"The receptionist will help you out... Ma'am, if you don't mind my asking..." she said a bit cautiously.

"What?" Shego said in annoyance, turning toward the door.

"This isn't your dog, is it," she said as she latched the animal back in its crate.

"No. It's my fiancé's," she said. Despite everything, she still felt a light flutter in her chest when she called him that.

"Is it responsible for..." she gestured at the crutch and the wrist brace, "your trouble?"

"How could you tell?" Shego said tiredly.

"If you'd like, I could recommend a good puppy training academy? That should help prevent any future incidents."

Shego smirked. "Yes, please!"

The vet turned to a counter and started grabbing brochures and business cards. The dog was yipping in the crate, and a sudden small clang caused Shego and the vet to look down. They watched as the dog pawed the latch open and burst out of its temporary prison.

He didn't let it out...

The dog ran to Shego and began humping her injured leg. She kicked it lightly and then gasped in pain. The dog began chasing its tail.

"And getting him neutered," the vet continued, grabbing a second brochure, "will help a little bit with that."

"Only a little?" Shego groaned.

"Swimmers not swimming doesn't kill the drive," the vet shrugged.

"Ugh..."

The vet smiled understandingly. "Ma'am, would you like some help with him to your car?"

Shego returned to the lobby with the vet carrying the newly-crated dog past her and out the door to the hover car. She didn't make eye contact with the receptionist as she handed over Drakken's credit card. She had used up nearly all of her 'nice' for the day and needed to save some for the airport and Drakken's mother. Especially since it would be almost an hour's flight from San Juan back to the lair.

"Excuse me Ma'am?" The vet's concerned voice drew her attention as she tucked the credit card and receipt into her jacket pocket. The woman's expression was anxious. "I'm afraid your...vehicle...has been vandalized."

"What?" Shego said, hopping toward the door with the crutch.

When she got outside the sun had fully set, but the lamps in the parking lot illuminated the deep key-scratches on the side of the hover car that clearly spelled a four-letter word referring to her genitalia. Her eyes narrowed as she turned back toward the clinic, leaving the dog barking in the car.

"Where's that man?" she said, her eyes angrily scanning the lobby.

The vet looked concerned, but the receptionist looked upset.

"You don't know it was him," she said indignantly.

"Was it you?" Shego accused.

The receptionist looked shocked. "Of course not!"

"Get him out here," Shego demanded.

"What man?" the vet asked.

"He came in with a parrot right after her," the receptionist said offhandedly before turning back to Shego. "No. We protect our clients here."

Shego hopped back toward the door and leaned her crutch against the wall to flare her hand.

"Get him out here, or I'll set his car on fire."

The receptionist frowned and left her desk to go down the hall. Shego frowned and leaned back against the door frame. The vet approached her worriedly.

"Ma'am... We can just call the police and file a report. Please, it's not worth an incident."

"I have to go pick up my future mother-in-law at the airport with that on the side of my car."

The vet's eyes widened.

Movement in the dark outside caught Shego's eye. She turned in a flash, ignoring her injured leg and half-ran half-hopped back outside.

The receptionist was hurrying a man with a large white-and-blue parrot in a cage through the parking lot. Shego growled as she recognized him, and wondered what back door they had used. She paused, balancing on one foot as she took careful aim.

The green, glowing blast hit the cage dead-on and obliterated it. The parrot flew away screeching into the darkness.

"Snowball!" the man cried.

Shego smirked and hopped toward the hover car.

'Arf!' Admiral Cuddles greeted her happily as she slid into the driver's seat with a sigh of relief.

"You said it!" she said as she started the engine.

She took the craft straight up a couple dozen yards before looking back to where she could hear the angry man cursing at her. He was illuminated by the lamps in the parking lot below, his fists raised toward the sky. The receptionist still stood next to him, and the vet a few paces away holding onto Shego's forgotten crutch. There was a small crowd gathered.

"Merry Christmas!" Shego called sweetly, waving down at them.

"Some hero you are!" the man shouted back.

Shego's eyes widened. The sick feeling returned to her stomach as she turned the craft around and headed toward the US Territory.