Day 47

Shego got dressed that afternoon, but not in her suit. Instead she put on comfortable yoga pants, a t-shirt, and slippers before venturing out of her room. She had decided after two days of feeling heartsick in addition to everything else that she needed to see Drakken. But first she had taken every effort to decontaminate herself. She had practically emptied the lair of cleaners disinfecting the surfaces in her room, had showered before and after her cleaning frenzy, and was determined not to touch anything in the lair until she was back in her bed.

The last thing she needed was him getting sick too.

Her fever was coming and going, along with the nausea, but the coughing was still the worst. Maybe if she just said hello to him from the door of the lab, and then went back to her room... She wanted him to know she wasn't mad at him. She didn't know why that was suddenly important, but it was.

She padded across the lair and thought about calling Junior to check on his dad. But she was afraid of what she might find out if she did. She had spent her days of isolation finally paying attention and watching all the news coverage about the disease. Once she had filtered out the panic and circular talk about what the response should be, the facts were actually just as scary as Drakken had said.

And he had tried to warn her two weeks ago.

She reached the lab and was thankful the door was unlocked; it slid open without her having to touch the keypad.

Drakken was predictably hunched over his desk. Papers were still strewn over it, and the computer screen displayed different graphs from the last time she had seen it and some type of calculation program. The microscope was up on the desk and Drakken had a grid of Petri dishes spread out behind it.

"How's it going, Dr. D.?" she asked quietly from the doorway.

Drakken jumped, startled just like always. But when he turned to glare at her he didn't say a word, just gave her a once-over and then turned back to his work.

"I created a reliable test for the virus. It yields results within an hour," he said so quietly she almost didn't hear. Against her better judgment, she took a few steps forward.

"...How do you know it works?"

Just then a violent cough racked Drakken's frame that sent him to his feet, clinging to the edge of the desk for support. Shego ran toward him but stopped about ten feet distant, her eyes wide in fright.

'No... He can't...'

When the coughing subsided he sank heavily into the chair and looked up at her sadly.

"I have the disease."

She rushed forward and set her hand on his forehead. His skin was like touching a hot coal. She gasped.

"You need to go to the hospital!"

"No. I don't want to spread it around. We're on an island..." His eyes suddenly went wide as he looked at her. "Get away!"

He shoved her back violently and she barely kept her balance as she stumbled several steps away from him. A second later he was pushing a box of wet wipes toward her along the floor with his foot.

"Dr. D.!" she complained.

"I don't want you to catch it!" he cried.

A sort of sinking pain gripped her heart as she looked at his panicked face.

"Dr. D..." she repeated, "I already have it. You caught it from me."

His lips parted and the panic on his face changed to fear. He grabbed a cotton swab from a nearby stack and started toward her.

"I don't need to be tested!" she said, raising her hands in protest. But he was determined, so she let him swab her cheek as she rolled her eyes and then watched as he rubbed the swab inside a prepared Petri dish. "I'm sure I've got it...because Junior has it, and so does his dad. And I was shopping with Junior the day I left for vacation. The timeline works out..."

"Finally paying attention now that you're the one sick?" Drakken asked, glancing up with a glare.

Shego crossed her arms and frowned.

Drakken froze and then narrowed his eyes at her. "Wait...Senior has it?"

"Yeah. Junior's really freaked out. Since...I'm guessing no one has come up with a cure since I last checked?"

Drakken frowned and shook his head, turning back to his work.

"So...yeah," Shego said, turning away as she coughed into her elbow. There was no point in hiding it from him now. When the cough subsided she turned back and caught a deep sadness in his eyes before he concealed it and turned to his work again. "So, I was saying...you need to go to a hospital."

She approached him but he waved her off with one hand as he looked into the microscope.

"I'm more likely to discover a treatment working here alone than all of those buffoons on TV who are just arguing about who's to blame..."

Shego silently agreed with him, but still she moved forward and tugged on his arm to get him out of the chair. "Your fever is too high. It's not healthy. You have to bring it down first before you can keep working."

"I've taken some NSAIDs," he said, waving her off again and then coughing into his elbow, less violently than the last time.

Shego's eyes widened. "You mean this is how bad it is with medicine!?"

Drakken realized his mistake and narrowed his eyes. He ignored her and continued taking notes on whatever was under the microscope.

"Hospital. Now. No choice," Shego said, flaring her hand threateningly in front of him.

He sighed and set his pen down.

The resigned look in his eyes suddenly made everything around her feel darker somehow, and she let her glow go out.

"I caught it from you?" He only glanced at her before furrowing his brow and staring straight ahead at nothing. It was more of a statement than a question. "And I started showing symptoms...three days later... So it won't be long before my symptoms are acute." He finally turned to face her, his expression bitter. "I would rather die knowing I had tried, then die languishing in some hospital."

Shego felt a lump come to her throat. "Y-you're not gonna die, Doc."

He smiled at her weakly and turned back to his work.

She stepped forward and set her hands down on top of his papers, forcing him to look up at her.

"You're not going to die. You're not in the high risk category. You're healthy, and you're not even fifty yet."

He looked down at his hands, his eyes sad despite the smile on his face. Shego felt the lump in her throat grow and her heartbeat quicken. She turned away quickly to cough into her shoulder.

"Haven't you ever wondered why I'm blue?" he said quietly.

Shego looked back at him.

"It's too long a story, but...the point is...my immune system was heavily compromised as a result of what happened."

Shego stared at him and thought back to every other time he had caught so little a thing as a cold. He was always sick for far longer than any normal, healthy person would be. Her heart pounded in sudden fear.

"So...I'm not going to the hospital," he said, setting his jaw in determination. He grabbed her arms and gently started pushing her out of the way so he could continue working. A horrible cough racked his frame before he could pick up the pen.

Shego swallowed down the lump in her throat and stepped to his side, setting a hand on his shoulder.

"Can I help?"

Day 50

Shego turned off the TV and grabbed her phone, horrified by the death toll that seemed to double daily now with the strange disease. With shaking hands she pressed the speed dial and was surprised to have her call answered on the second ring.

"Hi, Junior?" Shego said into the phone hesitantly.

"Hello Shego," her younger friend said flatly. "Thank you for calling."

The nervous lump in Shego's throat grew. "I...I was calling to see how your father is doing," she said, gripping the phone tightly in both hands.

"Father... Father is dead."

Day 52

Shego's fever had broken, but her nausea hadn't abated. It was particularly bad that morning so she had decided to sleep in. She kept forgetting to ask Drakken about the nausea as she was instead focused on attempting to keep him healthy. She made sure he went to sleep early each night despite his protests, she made him eat healthful foods, and she was always at his side with a cold compress for his head.

The first day he had been annoyed. The second day he seemed to tolerate it. The third day, he was grateful. And he kept looking at her like he wanted to say something. But whenever she gave him the space to do so, all he ever did was thank her and go back to his work.

And sadly, he was no closer to finding a treatment for the disease.

Shego rolled over in her bed and looked at the clock. 8:43 AM. Drakken would already be up and working. She rolled out of bed and sluggishly went through her morning routine, still wondering about her nausea. Food poisoning would have worked through her system by now, so it had to be related to the virus. Or maybe she had contracted something else while on vacation?

She hoped not, since it certainly would have transferred to Drakken by that time. And he was looking worse by the day.

When she had bid him goodnight the night before, insisting he use an oxygen respirator she had procured for him, the dark circles under his eyes were the worst she had ever seen. He may as well have actually been on fire for how bad the fever was, and the cough was sapping his energy faster and faster each day. She was preparing to give him no option on going to the hospital, knowing they could certainly treat his symptoms better than she could. But she would rather he go willingly, so she needed to prepare an argument.

She dressed in her suit and left her room, heading for the kitchen. She could eat something first, and so make sure he had eaten too.

On her way she passed through the living room...and noticed a small shock of black hair poking over the top of the sofa.

"Drakken?" she asked, stepping around the sofa. It was indeed the mad scientist sitting there.

He was dressed for the day but had foregone his lab coat, and was slumped so low on the sofa she was amazed he'd not fallen off. The oxygen respirator was on the floor next to him and his eyes were closed. A moment later she saw his chest slowly rise, and fall equally slowly. And then he began to cough.

"Drakken?" she said more loudly, sitting down next to him and trying to pull him up.

His eyes fluttered open and he glanced around in disorientation as he struggled to get upright on the sofa, coughing all the while. She set her hand on his forehead and could feel the heat even through her glove. A layer of sweat came away from his skin onto her hand and she wiped it on the sofa cushion.

He doubled over and coughed for nearly a minute into the armrest of the sofa. He held his hand out suddenly and she quickly thrust tissues into it, the routine having become sadly familiar over the past several days.

When the cough subsided and he dropped the used tissues onto the floor, he let his head fall back against the sofa and his eyes closed again.

"I give up," he said quietly.

Shego's eyes widened. "What?" she said, her breath catching as her skin tingled in alarm.

"I can't do it... I don't have... There isn't enough time left," he said bitterly. "I couldn't even make it to the lab this morning."

"You can't give up... You created an accurate test before anyone else did... You recognized the problem before most of the world did. I'm sure you can find a cure."

He peered at her. "I'm dying, so you finally give me some pity-confidence?"

Shego felt a fiery anger rise in her. It wasn't pity! It was—

It was...?

Her thoughts broke off as a horrible wave of nausea struck her.

"I'll be right back," she stammered as she ran for her room and the toilet. She got there just in time to vomit up a smidgen of the previous night's dinner and bile.

She leaned back from the horrible smell and tried to catch her breath. That was the third time in two days. But it didn't make sense! And she didn't feel any better.

Maybe her unique biology was affected by the virus differently?

She sighed and wiped her mouth off with toilet paper, finishing off the roll. She opened the cabinet under the sink to get a new one, and as she pulled out the toilet tissue a different blue package under the sink caught her eye.

All the loose ends in her brain suddenly clicked into place.

"Oh no..." she breathed.

She scrambled to her feet and started searching through her medicine cabinet.

Ten minutes later, Shego was walking nervously back into the living room. Drakken was still seated on the couch, his head leaned back and his eyes closed.

"Hey...Dr. D.?" she said when she reached the other end of the sofa, her voice shaking along with the rest of her.

His eyes opened to tiny slits and he peered at her before letting them close again. She noted the sweat staining his shirt and fairly dripping from his brow.

"I've...I've gotta tell you something," she continued, sitting down about a foot away from him.

He coughed once, and then with effort pressed himself into the corner of the couch. "Tell me quickly so I can get dying over with."

Shego's throat tightened.

He let his head fall back. "Don't let Dementor come to my funeral... Oh," he peered at her sadly, "if you don't want to organize it...then...pay for someone else to. I have a fund set up, and the plans are...already made."

"Dr. D. I'm...pregnant."

His eyes shot wide open. With effort he pushed against the sofa until he was sitting fully upright and staring at her.

"You mean... With me? My...?"

"Yes," she nodded.

He was staring at her slack-jawed, his eyes fever-bright and intense. And then he was standing, his legs shaking from the effort, and he gathered up the respirator and began to move past her.

"Where are you going?" she asked, confused.

"The lab. I have to find a cure! I have to save my— your— ...our...?"

As he looked down at her with the same slack-jawed stare, a fit of coughing suddenly overcame him. He dropped the respirator and sank back onto the couch, pressing into the corner again as he coughed into the cushion. Shego held out some tissues for him to take if necessary, and he grabbed them after several seconds.

'I guess he's okay with it...' she thought, setting a hand briefly over her stomach. She had only known for a few minutes, so she was still in shock herself. She wasn't sure how she had expected him to react.

But she was beginning to get an idea of how she wanted him to react.

His coughs subsided, and he leaned heavily against the sofa with his face twisted in pain. He started pushing himself up again, even his arms shaking from the effort, and she set a hand on his shoulder and lightly pushed him back down. She felt her fear rise with how easily he had fallen.

"I have to find a cure..." he protested, staring at her with wide-eyes. "I—"

He started coughing again, and Shego's face fell. Each day was worse than the one before... It was looking more and more like his initial judgment was correct: he might not survive.

She shifted closer to him on the sofa, and when his painful heaving subsided she turned around to face him and set her arms around him.

He shuddered in surprise and stared at her.

She half-sat on his lap and nervously picked at the fabric of his shirt as she looked into his uncertain eyes.

"So...it's a good thing?"

"What?" he asked, still clearly trying to process why she was so near.

"That I'm pregnant."

"Of course it is! Why wouldn't it—" He broke off suddenly as he clearly realized, she might not in fact agree. The fear that filled his eyes then was like nothing he had shown regarding his almost-certain death in the last few days.

"I...I..." he stammered, staring at her in disbelief. Finally he hung his head and sighed, a small sniffle coming from his nose. He reached out his hand and she gave him another tissue. "I understand..." he nodded without looking up, "if you wouldn't want to raise a child alone, if I'm not around anymore..."

Pain gripped her heart like a clenched fist. She set her fingers beneath his chin and raised it up.

"If you're gone...I would want your child even more...to remind me of you."

He sucked in a breath and held it, watching her in confusion and uncertainty.

"I've...gotta tell you something else," she continued. All of her confusion and anxiety from the past several weeks had finally resolved all at once. She knew it before the pregnancy test, as she saw him starting to slip away. But now with a baby binding them forever she felt brave enough to say it. Especially if this was her last chance.

"I love you, Dr. D."

His breath came out in a gasp. She watched as the worry in his eyes melted away into joy, and an instant later he had wrapped his arms tightly around her and was kissing her cheek.

"Oh...Shego!" he cried.

The pain started to release around her heart. She pushed on his shoulders until he loosened his grip, and then she began kissing his neck.

"Ohh..." he moaned, "Shego..."

His skin was like fire, and he tasted of too much salt from how much he had been sweating. But she continued kissing him so long as it meant drawing her name from his lips.

"Shego..."

She scooted off his lap and stood, hurriedly fumbling with the zipper of her suit. He stared at her incredulously.

"What...now? Here?"

She shrugged and started peeling herself out of her suit. "Yup."

"But...I can't, I...don't know if I can," he said, falling back against the couch again.

"...What if it's the last time?" she said quietly.

Drakken looked sad, and then thoughtful. "I'll never forget...the last time," he said with a shy blush.

She grinned softly. "Me either." But, she thought to herself, it was missing one thing. She needed to hear him say her name.

When she stood before him in just her sport bra and briefs, he looked a little more lively. He instinctively moved to lay flat on the couch as she gently climbed over him and pulled his shirt off. She kissed the hot skin of his neck again and then down to his collarbone, and then down his chest.

"Shego... Oh..ohh... Shego..."