Sorry this took a little while to write - last-minute Christmas shopping and all. I hope I got everyone... :O Oh well. If I don't post anything else beforehand, Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night! (or morning or afternoon... whenever you read this) :)

I don't own Kim Possible.

"Princess, it just doesn't add up. Motor Ed can't be E. He just can't be." Shego deftly twisted the steering joystick back and forth, causing the hovercraft to rise above the snow-capped treetops. "I've never known Motor Ed to be as suave as he was…that night. E sounded…almost smart."

"Motor Ed is a mechanical genius," Kim reminded her flatly.

"Well, he doesn't show it!" Shego snapped, adding a hasty "Sorry" when she saw Kim flinch like she had been struck.

"Sorry," she repeated. "Didn't mean to snap."

"S'okay." Kim leaned over the edge of the hovercraft and looked down, watching the landscape whiz by and slowly morph into Middleton. "Shego, can I ask you something?"

"It depends." Shego slowed the hovercraft upon reaching Kim's neighborhood before bringing it to a complete halt over her front yard. "If it involves my name, we've been over this. I'm not telling you my name as of now. Shego is the name I want to hear from you."

"No, it's not that again." Kim shook her head. "It's about that night."

Shego punched the 'HOVER' button on the control console just to make sure they wouldn't crash, and then she left the wheel. She sat down on the edge of the hovercraft next to Kim, almost afraid of what she was about to ask. "Shoot."

"Shego, you're this powerful, brave, plasma-wielding person. You were a hero in your teens, and you were probably stronger than I ever was."

"Probably." Shego looked away, knowing where this was going. Still, she dared to ask, "What of it?"

Kim caught Shego's chin and forced the green villainess to look into her eyes. "I don't get it. Why couldn't you fight E off? Why did you let him r…rape you?"

Shego blinked; she hadn't expected Kim to use that word. "For the same reason you couldn't fight him off. I was drugged and tied down."

Kim's gaze searched Shego's, her olive eyes boring deep into the latter's. "No. That's not all there is, is it?"

Shego didn't reply.

"Shego…why didn't you fight back?"

"Look, Pumpkin," Shego answered eventually, "I didn't have the best childhood. I went through most of my childhood as a green freak. 'The Rainbow Family', my old friends called us. Our parents were divorced when it happened, and my dad died when the comet hit. Maybe that was a blessing in disguise; he was abusive to all of us – even the twins, and they were just babies. Still, he was my father, and I felt like I loved him deep down. I never could stand up to him."

Kim placed her hand on Shego's, worried that she had been prompting her into talking about something she didn't want to. "Shego-"

"I was still with Team Go when E came along," Shego interrupted, clearly wanting to continue. She had kept this bottled up inside her for so long, and it felt kind of good to finally put it out in the open. "I had one foot in the dark at that point, but I was still fighting more or less for the greater good. Then, I didn't have the guts to do what I do now. When E came along…" She took a breath. "I couldn't fight back because he reminded me so much of my father, of what he did to us. No, Kimmie," she added quickly when she saw the appalled look on Kim's face. "I was still a virgin at that point. I meant the beatings." Her hand unconsciously drifted to her stomach.

Kim sat there silently for a moment, processing all that Shego had just revealed to her. The fact that she had been comfortable enough to talk about it with Kim was a miracle in itself; Shego never opened up to anyone, much less her arch foe. She had no idea just how painful Shego's past had been, and how long she'd been forced to deal with it on her own. Wordlessly, she leaned over and embraced Shego gently. She felt the villainess stiffen slightly, not expecting the sudden contact.

"I'm here," she murmured simply. Nothing more need be said.

Shego's arms slowly slid around Kim's body and pulled her in closer. For once, she was glad she had opened up. She was glad that someone else knew why.

"Kimmie…" she said softly.

Kim pulled back slightly so she could meet the woman's emerald gaze. "Yeah?"

Shego almost choked on the foreign words as they passed her lips, but she managed to get them out. "Thank you."

Kim smiled. "Anything for my friend."

Shego blinked. "F…friend?"

"That's what I said."

"I'm your friend?"

Kim laughed a little, poking Shego's shoulder playfully. "Well, after all this I should hope we're not enemies!"

"Sorry." Shego attempted a halfhearted smile in return. "I've just never had many friends. You know. Green."

"I don't give a damn if you're green, Shego. Anyone who does needs to go look in a mirror and evaluate themselves before dissing you."

This time, a genuine smile spread across Shego's black lips. "Watch your language, Princess."

"Hush." Kim shoved Shego away playfully. The green woman smirked, some of her trademark sarcasm returning, and scooted over to the hovercraft controls. With a few smooth flicks of her wrist, she brought the hovercraft down to land gently in the Possibles' driveway. "Don't you have something to go steal?"

"Don't you have something to keep me from stealing?" Shego turned off the hovercraft and vaulted over the edge, landing lightly on the concrete of the driveway. "Moment of truth."

"What do you mean?" Kim inquired, following suit.

"Well, you know the buffoon and Nerdlinger are gonna ask what we found out."

"And Monique," Kim added before she could stop herself.

"Right, sure." Shego waved her hand in the air dismissively, shivering as a particularly cold gust of winter wind hit her right in the face. "The fashionista. Whatever. Even I wouldn't go so low as to lie to them about E."

"Ed," Kim corrected her quietly, reaching down and squeezing her hand gently. "Not E anymore."

"Whoa there, Kimmie," Shego protested. "Save the physical contact for comforting moments." Rolling her eyes, she added, "Which seem to be happening increasingly often now…" However, she didn't take her hand away. Kim, noticing this, gave it another soft squeeze before releasing it.

"You don't have to do this, Shego," she pointed out. "They're my friends, not yours."

Shego's eyes narrowed, and she stepped away from the redhead. Kim stared at her for a second before her eyes widened in realization, and she tried to approach the villainess again. "No Shego, that's not what I meant! It came out wrong, I swear…"

"No," Shego said in a low voice. "No, I don't think it did. You don't want your friends to associate with a criminal, do you? You don't think I've changed at all. You just think that I'm acting friendly so you can catch this bastard, don't you?"

Kim didn't reply. The truth was she hadn't thought about that at all, but now that Shego had brought it up she realized that, deep down, there was some truth in her accusation.

"I knew it," Shego muttered, and she suddenly sounded hurt. "You're too much of a hero to ever be friends with someone like me. You just said that to make me feel better, didn't you? Well guess what – it worked. For a little while, anyways."

Kim finally found her voice. "No, Shego, that's not it at all!"

"So what is it?" Shego said quietly, her voice sharp. Kim was surprised to see tears welling up in her eyes before she looked away. "What exactly did you mean, Kimberly?"

Kim winced when Shego said her name like that. "Shego, please listen to me…"

"I am listening. You're the one not explaining."

Kim suddenly grabbed Shego's shoulders and shook her briefly, forcing the criminal to meet her gaze. "Shego, I'll admit that this is a little weird for me. You and I, we've been enemies for so long…it's just strange being close to you without fighting." She took a breath, certain that any second now Shego was going to either run away or punch her in the face. "It's just so hard to believe that you've actually changed."

Shego, without saying a word, jerked out of Kim's grip and started walking back toward the hovercraft. Kim, in a desperate move, lunged for the woman and knocked her against the hovercraft, pinning her against the cold metal exterior. Shego didn't try to escape; she merely stared into Kim's olive eyes with a teary, deer-caught-in-headlights look.

"But I do!" the redhead said, desperation creeping into her tone. "I do believe you've changed, Shego. I really do. Just because it's hard doesn't mean I don't. I mean…" Her voice faltered a little, and she continued more quietly. "You've been acting so different now. You've been smiling and laughing…and crying…I've never seen you do that before. I didn't mean that I didn't want you near my friends, Shego. I just didn't want you to feel worse by being the one to tell them."

Shego still didn't say anything, but Kim could feel her body become less tense. The emerald woman was still simply staring at her, but Kim was unsure what the stare was supposed to mean.

"Please believe me, Shego," Kim pleaded quietly. "I'm your friend. I want you to be my friend. Mo and Ron are my best friends. If I trust someone, so do they. So I was wrong; they are your friends. What you said…it was true, in a sense, but not in the way I wanted. If I wasn't your friend and I really didn't believe you had changed, what would stop me from calling GJ and getting you arrested right now?"

At last, her words seemed to get through to Shego. The woman blinked and broke eye contact with the teenager several moments before speaking. "Look, Kim…everyone I've trusted before, everyone I've been friends with before, they've always betrayed me in some way or another. Then you came along, and I...I just thought it seemed too good to be true, okay? I still think it is."

Kim's mouth turned into a taut little line, and she leaned in close to Shego. Her voice was low and sharp, eyes burning into Shego like they were trying to make a point of their own. "Look, Shego. Get ahold of yourself, dammit! This isn't the Shego I know. The Shego I know would stay strong. She would get in my face and tell me to get the hell out of her business. She sure as hell wouldn't let herself and another girl get raped! So don't you dare say that this is too good to be true when everything is so…so wrong! Just please accept the fact that I'm your friend and I actually mean what I say to you. I know I'm not the same either, but come on! You thinking that something is too good to be true when all…all this is happening…that's not the Shego I know and love, and you know it! Please…if not for your sake, then for mine…be strong. Be you."

Shego's gaze snapped up and fixed on Kim, one eyebrow slightly raised. Kim, who was breathing heavily, was satisfied to see the corner of her mouth quirk up in a little smirk, but that satisfaction went out the window when Shego spoke.

"What do you mean, 'love'?"

A dark red blush rushed up to Kim's face, and she stepped away from Shego, refusing to meet her gaze.

"You're right, Kimmie," Shego continued softly. "I'm not the Shego you once knew. But before, when you knew me, you knew nothing about your past, and I knew nothing about yours. Yeah, I want you to trust me. Yeah, I want to be your friend. Yeah, I've changed." Her voice got even quieter. "But what about you, Kim? Haven't you changed, even a tiny bit?"

Kim wasn't sure how their conversation had gotten to this point. All she could do was stand there, staring at the driveway, and stutter, "W-well…I…what I…umm…"

Shego stood up straight and stepped close to Kim again. Her eyes were dry now, and they had that mischievous look in them that reminded Kim so much of the old Shego. "I think you have. The old Kimmie would never have said as many swear words as you just did in the amount of time that you did. Hell, the old Kimmie probably wouldn't have said more than one every six months. The old Kimmie would never have befriended me. The old Kimmie would never have even trusted me." Shego's voice dropped to a whisper. "The old Kimmie would never have said the words 'Shego' and 'love' in the same sentence and failed to deny it."

Kim's face was now a shade of red that rivaled her hair. "Shego, I…"

"You're right, Kimmie," Shego repeated. "I needed to get ahold of myself. I needed to quit acting like the buffoon does when I'm around him." This elicited a small smile from the younger of the two. "This has been hard on both of us. We've both changed, whether we like it or not. Some part of me will always be soft and fragile, and so will you. But lying to each other…that'll just make it all the more difficult. For both of us."

"I don't want that," Kim said in a small voice, feeling like she was burning up under Shego's intense stare.

"Neither do I." Shego sighed. "I want to know the truth about what you think of me, Kim. Do you think I'm still a villain, or have I changed? Am I your friend…or not?"

The way she said "or not" made Kim think that there was a double meaning to her words. She bit her lip to the point where she drew blood. Through her nervousness, she couldn't help but marvel at how fast Shego had recovered from her slump, so to speak. Perhaps she wasn't that different, after all. She still had the same bright emerald eyes, the same pale green skin that so many people deemed freakish but Kim personally loved, the same beautiful face…

Kim blinked wildly. Whoa…did I just think that about Shego? Did I just describe her as beautiful?

The funny thing was, she didn't really regret it.

Suddenly, the door of the Possible house flew open. Ron and Monique spilled out, rushing toward the pair next to the hovercraft. Kim stepped away slightly, almost glad that she didn't have to answer Shego.

"Kim!" Monique said breathlessly, skidding to a stop next to her friend. "What did you find out? Was it him?"

Kim shook her head, nodded, and then shook her head again. "No. Well, yes, but it wasn't the 'him' we thought."

"So Hego didn't do it?" Ron pressed, and both Kim and Shego shook their heads. "Then who did?"

Shego glanced sideways at Kim before replying, "Ed Lipsky. Motor Ed."

Ron's eyes bulged, and he had to suppress a gag. "W…what?"

"Yeah." Kim looked up at the cloudy sky. "That was pretty much our reaction, too."

Monique, to her surprise, saw a tear trickle slowly down Shego's cheek. Slowly, not quite realizing what she was doing until she actually did it, she stepped forward and wiped the tear away. Shego's gaze snapped to meet hers immediately. Mo gave a little smile and withdrew her hand.

"Told you," Kim said softly when Shego glanced at her.

"Told us what?" Ron asked, and Monique elbowed him in the ribs. "Ow!"

"Shut up, Ron," she hissed, glaring pointedly at him.

"Okay," Shego said quietly, still looking at Kim. "I believe you. You called it."

Kim smiled and started heading for the front door. "Don't I always? Now come on, guys. In case you haven't noticed, it's starting to snow, and snow equals cold."

"Sherlock," Shego muttered, but she followed the heroine inside.

"I agree with Shego, Kim," Wade supplied once he was told the entire story. "That doesn't seem like Motor Ed, from what you told me he talked like that night."

"It was his voice," Kim insisted.

"It was his voice, Nerdlinger," Shego allowed. "It just didn't sound like the kind of English little Eddie speaks."

Kim stared at Shego. "Little…Eddie?"

Shego shrugged. "I knew the guy. At least, I thought I did. You should've heard some of the things I called Dr. D."

"Comforting," Kim muttered. "Wade, turned up anything on Motor Ed?"

Wade leaned forward in his computer chair, typing furiously for a moment. Almost immediately, he sat back with a confused expression on his face. "Nothing. It's like he vanished."

"Doesn't GJ try to keep him under surveillance or something?" Kim pressed.

"They've got nothing, Kim. They don't know where he is." Wade massaged his forehead. "This is majorly freaky."

"You have no idea," Shego said under her breath.

Ron, who had been silent ever since the four reentered to Possible family home, suddenly spoke up. "He knows."

Monique cocked her head to the side like a confused puppy, raising an eyebrow. "Come again?"

"He knows," Ron repeated. "Motor Ed knows that you know that he's E."

It took everyone a second to process what he had said. Sometimes, when Ron spoke, his words came out like a maze.

"How do you figure that, buffoon?" Shego inquired after a moment.

"Well," Ron conceded, "think about it. As soon as you and KP got a lead on E, he vanished without a trace. I've been around you guys too long – well, not you, Shego – to believe that coincidences are as common as people say they are. He definitely knows."

Shego, Kim, Monique, and Wade all exchanged glances.

"He's got a valid point," Wade pointed out. "This isn't one of the normal 'Oh-we-just-lost-him-for-a-second' slip-ups. GJ says he literally vanished off the face of the earth, and very recently."

"How recently?" Kim inquired.

Wade checked the GJ database quickly, his fingers flying across the keyboard. "Earlier today."

"Which, might I add," Ron interjected, "is when you guys got the lead on E and went to meet Hego."

"Hego," Shego grumbled. "Lazy lug. Still in his pajamas at six-thirty p.m."

"Ah, Shego?" Kim tapped the villainess' shoulder. "Bigger problem here. I know you don't get along with your brothers that well-"

"That's putting it mildly."

"-but I think we need to focus on finding Motor Ed before something bad happens."

"What do you mean, something bad?" Ron cut in. Monique reached over to slap a hand over his mouth, but the damage had been done.

Kim flopped back on her bed and grabbed Pandaroo, hugging it close to her chest in an effort to find comfort. Shego, noting a lack of any other stuffed animal on the bed, pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on her kneecaps.

"Bad, like, he comes and finds us again," Kim replied, her voice so quiet it was barely audible.

"Drugs us again," Shego added, her tone equal to Kim's.

"Rapes us again." This time, Kim's voice had an unmistakable tremor to it.

"He won't," assured the other three at the exact same time, which brought a small smile to Kim and Shego's faces.

Wade leaned forward again so his concerned face was only a foot or so from his webcam. Kim almost laughed when she saw how much of the Kimmunicator's screen his face took up. "I could always call GJ for you guys, hook you up with some protection."

"No," Shego said quickly. "Criminal, remember? You're supposed to be a genius. Wanted felon plus federal agents equals a big 'effin crisis for me."

"They're not exactly federal," Ron pointed out with a small smile. Shego, caught off guard by the kind gesture, smiled slightly in return.

"Told you," Kim repeated in a sing-song tone.

"Shut it, Possible. You were right. I get it."

"Right about-" This time, Monique managed to cover Ron's wayward mouth in time. Shego caught the movement between the two and giggled – she actually giggled – before she caught herself by covering her mouth.

Kim observed the sudden change in Shego with interest. It wasn't that she disliked the new Shego; this new, happier Shego would just need some getting used to. In fact, ethical views aside, Kim and the new Shego were incredibly similar, something Kim liked. Even so, when it came down to the cold hard truth, Kim didn't care which Shego she had in front of her. If it was Shego in all her glory, so be it. Shego was Shego either way; as long as she was beside her, Kim was happy.

With a start, Kim realized exactly what she was thinking. She was right…we've both changed a lot, for better or for worse. I never thought I would see Shego in this light. Still…it suits her. I want to look at her this way forever…to think she's just like me on the inside…

As Kim looked on at Shego, still watching intently as Monique and Ron continued bickering, she was struck with a sudden notion that, inexplicably to her, she immediately accepted as reality.

I'm falling in love with Shego.

And she finally realizes it! Will she get up the nerve to tell Shego? Does Shego feel the same, or was Kim just reading her wrong? (I feel like I'm doing a voice-over for a movie preview...)

FYI: There was a major foreshadowing detail in this chapter! And when I say major, I mean MAJOR! I'm not telling what it was, though, or what it foreshadowed...*sinister laugh* Ah, the joys of being the writer.