Drakken was awake. He'd been awake for a while. Minutes, hours, days, he didn't know. Probably hours if the routines of the hospital staff were any indication. They came in every… Hour? Around there? And checked his fluids, his heartbeat, his blood pressure. Maybe adjusted something here and there before they left. They'd done it three times at this point.

He shifted around a little while there was no one around. Not enough to trip whatever sensor there was that kept going off when he flailed before.

The restraints dug harder into his skin. Whoever had fixed them, changed them, whatever they had done, they tried to make sure he would stay put this time. Drakken wasn't surprised. Amazingly irritated, but not surprised.

The burns he'd suffered from Shego defending herself were healed for the most part. They'd taken the various bandages off of his body when he had been unconscious the last time. The one around his face was still there. Again, fresh bandages smelling of some kind of salve had been put on his face. Drakken had a feeling that his eye wasn't going to get much better.

Good. He deserved it.

He didn't want to let anyone know he was awake. If he had his choice, he would simply remain where he was until everyone forgot about him. Left him to rot away like the nothing he was.

Drakken couldn't deal with it. Any of it. The voices, the bugs, hurting Shego-..

His thoughts broke off. The guilt that ate at him was even worse than the last time that he'd listened to the Voice. But he had the mouth thing in his mouth again. He couldn't throw up. If he did, it had nowhere to go.

...maybe he should just do it. Choke on the vomit. Maybe… Maybe that would solve everything. He also had his vines. They could crush his throat. Maybe he should do that now, get himself out of everyone's hai-..

Drakken froze both physically and mentally as the door opened. Then Shego walked in. He could tell it was her from the click-clack of her boots against the floor. It was different than the nurses and the other hospital people that were around.

He could hear her walk around the side of his bed. She stopped just to his left and seemed to just stand there. Whatever she was doing - probably staring at him for some reason - gave him the heebie-jeebies.

"I can tell you're awake," she suddenly said, no trace of the previous slur in her words.

He mentally cursed out whatever deity there was. Of course his little ruse wouldn't work on Shego. She was too smart for it.

Wordlessly grumbling, he grumpily opened his eye to look at her.

As expected, she was standing over his bed. Her focused gaze made him uncomfortable. It was like she was doing it on purpose!

"Well well well… Looks like sleeping beauty finally woke up!" To his surprise, she looked to be able to fully move her jaw. Her enhanced healing abilities must have kicked in to heal her jaw that fast.

She reached over to someplace that he couldn't see and dragged over… A chair? Yes, a chair. An all-curves plastic one. She set it down next to his bed before she took a step closer and leaned over so she was mere inches from his face. She gave him a critical look, her eyes narrowing as she watched his face. "The last time you were up… When you almost covered me in your nasty puke… You were saying something."

Drakken was slightly frozen. She was acting so… So okay. Like he hadn't tried to murder her in a particularly gruesome manner. How could she just, just be like that?!

"What were you saying?" Shego started up again after giving him a moment.

At that he couldn't help but give her an incredulous look before mumbling into the mouth thingamabob, "I can't talk right now!"

As expected, it came out muffled and completely un-understandable.

She gave him a self-satisfied smirk. "Now you know how it feels."

He had no idea what she meant by that beyond now knowing that she was purposely irritating him.

"So…" She slowly said, "It almost sounded like… Well, as miraculous as it would seem, it kinda sounded like an apology! Just imagine, Doctor Drakken actually apologizing for something!"

He rolled his eye at the dramatics. It wasn't like it was that rare! There was definitely an apology for the whole mind control chip thing!

When he looked at her, he nearly jumped at the sudden serious expression that was looking back.

"It's a pretty big obvious flag for sanity that you haven't started tearing at your restraints to get out or try and kill me again. And the whatever-that-was that you tried to say… Even if I didn't quite catch what it was, the tone said enough." She kept a critical eye on him as she asked, "Doctor D, are you back on the sane train?"

Hesitantly, he nodded as best he could.

At that, her eyes lost the hard edge in them. "Good. I was starting to really get worried… They've been loading you up with some pretty heavy stuff. Now then…" She reached her hand over and tugged lightly on the mouth guard. "If I take this out, do you promise not to do anything stupid like try to bite your tongue off?"

This time he nodded enthusiastically, the strap struggling to keep him still.

"Whoa now! Don't want to trip the alarm." She started messing with something out of his eyesight before she gave a satisfied hum. "Now you can do that crap. Just don't make me regret it, yeah?"

"Mmph," Drakken said in reply, drawing attention back to his mouth.

"Yeah, yeah…" She pulled the plastic piece out of his mouth carelessly and flopped it somewhere near his bed. He gave an appreciative breath out and wiggled his jaw around. Next she fingered the strap holding his head still. "And if I loosen a few of these, you won't freak out and try to escape?"

He huffed out a frustrated breath and said in an exasperated tone, "No, Shego, I won't try anything funny."

Shego nodded in satisfaction as she undid the straps for his head and chest. He gratefully leaned forward, trying to stretch out muscles that had been sitting still for far too long. A sigh escaped his lips at the itchy feeling from the straps abated in those areas. To his annoyance and confusion, she stood back up and made for the chair.

"What about my hands and legs?" he asked, peeved.

"What about them?" she challenged as she sat and relaxed into the chair. "Do you want me to strap you back down? Frankly, you should take what I gave you. I feel like I'm being pretty generous right now.

"Nnnngh…" He let himself fall into the familiar feeling of Shego-focused irritation. It helped to distract him from-.. Of course she would leave him tied up!

"So then…" Shego propped her head into a hand, leaning the arm onto one of her legs. "What should we talk about first?"

"I…" Drakken paused, thinking. Where in the world did they start? There was a lot to unpack...

His gaze lingered on the scars on her face. Then it shift slightly to look at her lips.

"Doc…" Shego shook her head. "Obsessing over what you did while you were messed up won't fix-.,"

"You kissed me." He said it plainly, slightly confused. "Why did you kiss me?"

She blinked a few times. "Ooooookay…? Not exactly where I expected that to go…" A smirk played across her lips. "Why do you think I kissed you? I'm pretty sure I'd rambled something off about jumping on the crazy train by wanting to be with you."

"So… It wasn't an accident? Or a lapse in judgment? Or a mood-controlling-.."

"No! My god!" Shego straightened back up and threw her arms in the air. "It's like you've never had this happen before."

"Erm…" He froze, like a deer caught in headlights.

"...right, Doc?" She was watching him curiously now.

"I, ah…" He looked away, flushing. "I-.. I mostly focused on my career in villainy…"

Her lips quirked first. Then she began chuckling. Then she began to full-on laugh.

"Oh my god! You've never been in a relationship before?! That's just-.. Wait!" A wide grin broke across her face. "I bet that means I was your first kiss! Back with the moodulators!"

Drakken scowled. "You don't have to be so pleased about it!"

"Yes I do!" she crowed. "Hahaha!" One of her fists pounded the arm of the chair. Then she straightened back up as she blurted out, "That also means you're a virgin!"

"Shego…" he growled, face purpling from a combination of embarrassment and anger. "Your point?"

"Point?" A saucy smile plastered itself on her face. "What that means for me is that I get to pop that cherry right out! I don't even have to make you unlearn any bad habits! I can train you from the ground up!" She cackled madly. "Ohhh, this is gonna be so precious…!"

Drakken was fuming now. This wasn't exactly the kind of serious conversation he was picturing when he was bracing himself earlier! That's what he got for going off on that topic!

Deciding it was best to completely derail this particular conversation, he asked harshly, "What have they been putting in me? You said it was 'heavy stuff'. What exactly does that mean?"

That stopped the laughter cold. Shego's expression shifted to surprise with a tinge of shock.

"I, ah… Yeah… I suppose we should talk about that a bit." She calmed down then and pointedly asked, "Have you been having trouble with voices or anything like that?"

Now that she mentioned it… Surprised at the realization, he blurted, "No!"

"Feeling weird at all? Severely swinging emotions, random ideas - beyond your normal so weird ones…" Her eyebrow quirked. "Suicidal thoughts or depression?"

Drakken cringed a little at his earlier thoughts.

Shego's eyes narrowed. Apparently it wasn't a small enough cringe.

"Which box just got ticked?"

"I, erm…" His gaze shifted away from her. The words stuck in his throat. How could admit that sort of thing out loud?

Almost as if she was reading his mind, Shego said slightly aggressively, "How about I list 'em and you nod 'yes' or 'no'." She'd phrased it as a question, but there was none of it in her tone.

Fearfully, afraid of riling up her temper, he nodded.

"Good." Shego listed a variety of random-seeming problems. He was able to shake his head for most of them. It was a little weird… Where did she get this list from?

Then…

"Suicidal thoughts?" Her gaze drilled into him.

Drakken didn't move. He was practically frozen. It was as if admitting it would get him locked back to his bed with the proverbial key thrown away.

"Suicidal thoughts?" she asked again, hunching forward onto her knees and staring right into his eye.

Drakken took a deep breath before he gave the barest of nods.

"Okay." Shego sat back up and nodded. "Figured some of the more severe side effects would pop up. They're pumping in high enough doses of antipsychotic meds to knock an average person into their own psychotic fits!"

He cringed. "I'm not that bad, am I?"

"You tried to kill me. Because you honestly believed I was banging Kim Possible," Shego replied bluntly.

"Well, erm, I… But…" he spluttered, trying to recover.

"So yeah. You're that bad." She shuddered a little and muttered, "Banging Kimmie… Pretty twisted."

After a moment of pause, Drakken tentatively asked, "So, what does that mean…?"

"Hm?" Shego looked back up at him.

"I mean…" He shifted uncomfortably. "The… Thoughts… That stuff…"

"Thou-.. Oh!" Shego crossed her arms. "That's a bit of a tricky one. They don't know which med is doing what right now. All they know is that at least some of them are working now to the point that at least some of your symptoms are under control. Now, with really bad side effects they have to be particularly careful…"

Drakken sat there staring at her. This seemed… Strange. Very normal person. Mundane. Since when did Shego deal with this sort of stuff?

"Why are you here?" he asked in a demanding manner.

"Hm?" Her eyebrow tilted a bit at his question.

"This is pretty normal person stuff for you. And puttering, too!" He eyed her. "Why are you bothering with all of this stuff? Couldn't you have left this to a nurse or whatever while you went to a beach?"

Shego was quiet for a long while. Her lips were pursed, as if there was a thought on the tip of her tongue that she wasn't sure she should share. It was a little unnerving. Finally, she gave a strangely soft smile that was quickly eaten up by a smirk.

"I didn't trust these hacks with you," she said with a shrug. "Figured that if you really wanted you could get out of here. You're dense, but not dense enough to fail a breakout here." A victorious smirk crossed her face as she asked, "And I was right, wasn't I? I foiled how many of your attempts to get out of here?"

Drakken sat, thinking for a moment. "Uhm… Two?"

"Try three," she smarmily corrected. A chuckle escaped her throat at his souring expression. "It's also one of the sub clauses in our contract. I can't ditch out if you're injured."

He looked away and glowered. Of course she only stuck around to make sure he would stay locked up and as part of her contract. After all, she had been his target and she had a reputation to maintain. Best to keep the threat contained in case-..

"...also…"

His head popped up and turned back towards her. That tone…

She'd turned her own head away, but even then he couldn't mistake the expression. Teeth gritting almost like her jaw was wired shut again, she whispered, "If anything had happened to you…"

"Shego…" He tried to lift his hands to reach over and awkwardly comfort her, but could do nothing more than lean forward a little more.

Then suddenly it all vanished like some kind of magic trick.

"And nothing happened to you! Aren't I such a good sidekick? I definitely deserve a raise." Shego was looking at him with one of her patented smirks, though she couldn't hide the slight wetting around her eyes.

Drakken shifted uncomfortably. "Erm, yes, you do."

"I'll hold you to that," she said with a wink. "Anyway…" A calculating look came to her eyes. "I know you have some kind of superstrength and those plants. What other powers do you have?"

"Erm?" Drakken blinked, confused at the change in topic. "Superstrength? I don't have superstreng-.."

Shego cut him off with a wave to her mouth. "Really? You're saying that after almost tearing my damn jaw off? Are you high?!"

He cringed, both at the exclamation and the reminder of what he did. Swallowing the guilt and everything down, knowing Shego would try to downplay or deflect it again, he muttered, "Well, uhm, I'm on all these medications so it's a possibility… And I'm sure there are some people out there that can do that?"

"You aren't one of them normally," Shego pointed out flatly. "You barely have the strength to lift a moderately-sized weight. And," she again waved at herself, "I'm way harder to hurt than an average nobody."

"I, erm, uhm…" If he'd been able to, he would've started twiddling his fingers together. "I guess it was adrenaline?"

"Adrenaline?!" Her head tilted and one of her eyes started twitching. "I can't tell if you genuinely believe it or if you're purposely aggravating me for no good reason."

"Why would I-..!?" he squawked in a slightly panicked voice before he coughed and said more evenly, "Why would I be making you angry on purpose?! I just…" Drakken growled and turned his head away. "I just think superstrength is stupid. It's stupid and boring and overestimated!

"It's also useful in a fight," Shego stated. "Y'know, the things we get into all the time?"

"Nnngh…" He couldn't argue the point. So, instead, he began to grumble irritably before commenting, "And how would I have it anyway?"

"I dunno. How do you have your freaky plant powers and the blue skin?" she fired back.

Again he couldn't argue.

"So what else do you have, by any stretch of the imagination?"

"Hrm…" His brow furrowed as he reached around in his brain for all the various oddities about him from his random accidents and such. "I, ah, had my hands and feet shrink… Got twenty-twenty vision… My hair is pretty much stuck at the same length for forever-.."

"Yeah, I noticed that one," Shego deadpanned as she reached over and ruffled his fully restored shoulder-length hair. "Most of this scruff was burned off just last week. I'm sure some bald cure research companies would just kill for whatever you did to get that result!"

His teeth ground together as she gave a petty laugh at his expense.

"Anyway..." he growled through clenched teeth. Drakken waited a moment for Shego's laughing fit to quiet down before he continued. "I have an, erm, unusual control over my balance. As long as I'm not surprised I have near-perfect control."

"Really? You have a gymnastics superpower?" Shego asked through quirked lips.

"Ice the lip, Shego!" Drakken barked, his cheeks flushing purple.

"And you had the nerve to accuse me of being on the cheerleader's side?" She belly-laughed then, slapping her knee. "Oh no, wait, I bet you were in Glee Club! Or, oh, is that why you ended up in the garbage so much? Showing up the other dorks in your ballet class?"

"My ballet class never tossed me in the-.." he sputtered out before he managed to catch himself. Shego stared for a moment. Then, clutching her gut, she nearly fell out of her chair from laughing so hard.

Drakken glowered at her for a minute. Even when they were trying to be serious Shego couldn't help but laugh and mock his misfortune! After being generous and giving her another minute to pull herself together, he growled, "Are you finished yet?"

There were a few false starts on Shego's end, but eventually the full-body guffawing lessened to merely being body shuddering. She wiped at her eyes a bit and nodded, letting out one big sigh.

"Ohhhh goodness, Doctor D…" She chuckled a couple more times. "Just when I think you can't get any more ridiculous…!"

"Nnnngh…" His left eye twitched in frustration. Why couldn't he have developed feelings for someone less antagonistic?

"Oh, lighten up!" Shego rolled her eyes. "It's ridiculously funny and you know it!"

"Hmph!" He made to cross his arms before remembering about being strapped down. Frustrated, he snorted and loudly said, "ANYWAY!"

Shego rolled her eyes again but waved a hand for him to keep going.

He quietly grumbled before resuming, "So, balance… What else…?"

"You're tough," she threw in. At his raised eyebrow, she explained, "You can take hits pretty well. I know that with how hot I was burning I could've roasted most people to the bone with just one blast. It took a lot for me to burn you anywhere near that bad." Her eyes darted to the side for a moment. "Well, except one spot… But I was intentionally aiming there a lot. Weak link and all."

Drakken shifted uncomfortably. He was pretty sure she was referring to his eye and face. Considering her reaction and how it was still hurting and bandaged… How badly had she burned him there?

His expression must have been fully legible even with the massive amounts of bandages on his face as she tried teasing, "C'mon, Doc… It wasn't like you were all that pretty to begin with!"

"Hmph!" He pouted and looked away. Deciding to exaggerate, he grumbled, "Maybe I like having depth perception! Can't believe I'm stuck with these stupid bandages until my eye heals!"

The exclamation made Shego flinch and cringe. It felt… Off. Like bad. Very bad.

Hesitantly, he asked, "Shego…? What's wrong?" His stomach dropped as he postulated, "Is my vision going to be affected? Because I like having my twenty-twenty vision superpower!"

"Uhm…" Shego's eyebrows scrunched together. Biting her lip between sentences, she said, "Well… That's the thing… Uhm… I, ah…"

It wasn't often Shego was so without words. It made him assume even more worse.

"Is it going to develop some kind of tick that will make me nauseous on occasion? Or is it going to sometimes roll into the back of my head? Or-.."

"It's not there anymore."

Drakken froze. Then, stiff smile on his face, he nervously chuckled. "Haha. Nice try! I-.."

"Doc." Her voice was soft, almost careful. "Your eye is gone."

His smile started to twitch. "You're joking, right, Shego?" Desperation entered his tone as he again asked, "Right Shego?"

"It was… It was a mess." She sighed as she struggled to meet his frozen gaze. "When I brought you in… Well," a bitter smile crossed her lips, "a resident ended up throwing up and fainting from the sight. It was pretty much unusable. Probably would've gone gangrenous or something."

"My…?" Drakken gaped at her. When he'd had those self-pitying thoughts earlier… Well, he didn't actually mean that one. Or think there was any substance to it.

But…

"I…" Shego began rubbing her arm. "I'm sorry, Drakken. I couldn't think of another way to stop you. I should've…" Her eyes closed as she took a breath in, apparently trying to think of something, anything, to make it better. "If I'd just-.."

"Shego." The deep somber tone seemed to catch her off-guard, her head twisting up and eyes shooting wide. He met her confused alert gaze with a serious one. Drakken wanted to make sure… This was important. He couldn't have Shego thinking it was a joke or any of that kind of nonsense. In the same serious tone, he continued, "You had to make a choice. I was ready to kill you. If…" he swallowed "...if I had to choose between you and my eye, there's no contest."

Shego paused, her face screaming how nonplussed she was. "Eh?" A light then came to her eyes as a vicious smirk crossed her face. "Yeah, I figured as much. After all, what would Doctor Drakken ever do without his precious sideki-.."

"Partner," Drakken corrected testily.

Another flit of confusion passed before another, softer smirk came to her face. "Partner. That sounds about right."

They sat awkwardly for a couple of minutes. It was obvious that neither of them knew what to say after that. What could be said?

Then, suddenly, a thought occurred to Drakken. "Why did you need to know?"

"Hm?" Shego eyed him curiously.

"I mean, about my powers." His head tilted. "It's not like any of them matter all that much."

"Oh, silly Doctor Drakken…" Shego shook her head. "You clearly aren't thinking about it from the right angle."

His eyebrow flattened in consternation. "Enlighten me."

"Gladly." A smile came to her face as she hopped up from the chair and began strolling languidly around his bed. "Here we have a chump - that's you - who's been blessed with a variety of different abilities. Some are so dumb, but others…" she licked her lips. "They're absolutely beautiful. Like the balance thing… What cat burglar in the world wouldn't just die to have that! And here you are," she waved a hand vaguely at him, "wasting it! Doing absolutely nothing with them!"

"You're saying it like I'm actively wasting them!" Drakken complained. "I can't even willingly control most of them!"

"Yes! Exactly! Just imagine what you could do if you got all of that under control…!" Shego said in wonder. Her eyes narrowed and a vicious smirk came to her face. "Oh, you'll get those powers of yours under control alright. Even if it kills you."

Drakken gulped.

"...but that's for another time." She circled back around to the left side of his bed. "Now, I think it's about time you went back to sleep. You look absolutely beat."

Now that Shego said it, he really did feel… Tired. Not the down depressed hopelessly lost feeling of earlier. Just worn out. It was probably from talking with Shego so much that made things a little brighter. Even with how absolutely frustrating she was sometimes. That didn't take away the fact that the little they had done had exhausted him. And he had thought he could escape like this…?

"We can talk more later," Shego said in a not-Shego way.

Drakken looked up at her, wondering-..

He was taken off-guard by her lips suddenly pressing into his. Unlike last time, though, he had the presence of mind to try and kiss her back. His eye closed as he sighed at the soft feel of her lips on his. Again he cursed the fact that his hands were tied down as he would have loved to rest his hand on her cheek.

Then his mind hard wrenched right as he felt the scars in the corners of her mouth. He jerked back and away from her, the words 'I did that' rapidly droning over and over, practically drowning out all other thought.

Shego looked offended. Disappointed and offended. She lightly growled, "This one was better than the last one, but that ending needs worked on."

Drakken cringed, wishing he could have just rolled with it.

...but the reminder of his actions wouldn't just go away like that. It wasn't something that could easily be glossed over, no matter how much they both wished it could be.

"I-.. I'm-.. Nnnnngh…" For some reason, this time he couldn't get the words out. Instead, he turned his head away so he didn't have to look at Shego's peeved face.

"Hmph." Shego leaned over him and reached across his body for the straps that had been holding him down.

His eyebrow tilted. "What are you-..?"

"I'm strapping you back in," she said plainly.

"WHAT?!" Drakken gaped at her even as she pushed him back against the bed. "Why would you do that?!"

"Look, Doc, this little pow-wow we just had was great. It made me feel better about the whole situation. But…" She sighed as she got the body strap secured. "...you're still sick. The meds aren't balanced, you've still got some nasty injuries, and, most importantly, you're experiencing some severe side effects from the stuff they have you on. So you're still officially on doctor orders. Don't need you having another freak-out and trying to bite your tongue off again."

Her palm pushed against his forehead as her other hand grabbed for the last strap. He tried resisting but found that he was simply too tired to put up much of a struggle. Before he knew it he was again immobilized against the bed with the stupid alarm turned back on.

"Nnnngh… Shego…!" Drakken was ready to start ranting at her about her actions. Before he could, Shego leaned over him again and kissed his unbandaged cheek, just under his scar.

She said with a smirk, "Don't worry, Doctor D. I'll be around. Just… Not for the next day or so." A hedonistic smile crossed her face. "The beach is calling my name!" A solid evil chuckle escaped her throat as she stood back up and made for the door.

Her hand was just twisting the handle when his mouth worked enough to finally blurt out, "Shego?"

She paused, her back still facing him.

"...th-.. Thank you." The words felt ashy in his mouth.

All he got in response was a low sigh. Then, "I knew I forgot something."

She turned around, marched over to his bedside, grabbed the mouth guard thing, and stuck it back into his mouth while he squawked in offense. It was rough enough that he could've sworn one of the still-healing torn-up bits of his tongue opened back up.

"There! That's better." She gave a wide pleased obviously evil smile. Her work done, she brushed her hands off as she made for the door again. "Now, try to be good for these people, will ya? You've been a big pain in their rear until now!"

Then she was gone.

He stared off at the spot that Shego had last been in. His eye was fighting a losing battle against sleep, the lid drooping lower and lower even as he tried to think.

So, Shego was going to stick around for him, even after he listened to the Voice again… It sounded like he would never have to worry about It again, or any of Its little crawly friends whispering in his ear again. Or the bugs. It was almost… It was too much. Everything happening all at once. Drakken was having trouble processing all of it.

But that was okay. He could take the time later to try and work through every little nitty-gritty thing that had happened to him.

As he drifted back off, more calmly than he had for weeks, he thought…

Things would… They would be better. He wasn't alone anymore. They would be…

...good.

A/N: One more chapter after this. I swear! Hoping I didn't rush it too much. My beta said it looked good, though, so I'm trusting his judgment.