Just another note. The inspiration from this story comes from several places, one of them being: Kim Possible: Ron's Dinner by Desslock3. It's a nice little fic that he has been working on for a while. I have decided to take this in a different direction but I thought I would give him a nod for getting those creative juices flowing.

I'm not going to promise any regular update schedule but I have planned to make this fic fairly short and quick; so I'll be developing the plot, direction, etc... quickly.

Chapter Two - Man in the Rain

"What on earth are you doing out here?" Shego queried while looking down at one of the last persons she ever expected to see sitting homeless on a park bench.

"Uhh...Shego...I...well I haven't seen you in a while." Ron evaded. She grunted and huffed frustrated by his lack of answer.

"That's not what I asked. Why are you out here?"

"Not spying on you if that's what you're implying." Ron muttered looking down at the paper bag in which he kept the few things he owned. A toothbrush, hairbrush, some toothpaste, deodorant and soap as well as a few pictures of his former 'family', his ID, and the many legal papers he got upon being released.

Shego sighed...for someone she remembered only a few years ago as being a loud mouth who rarely ever stopped talking it seemed he was being awfully tight lipped.

"No, that's not what I was implying. I've seen you out here before Stoppable; you look a little worse for the wear. I'm asking how you ended up sleeping on a park bench and living out of a bag." She growled, cutting straight to the matter at hand.

"It's none of your business. I've had it bad enough as it is could you just leave me alone...or go ahead an beat me up or whatever." Ron sighed...he tired quickly of explaining these things to people and he really didn't want to get into it with the former villain. He reasoned that she would take this opportunity to do as much damage to him just out of revenge for past defeats and he really just wanted to get it over with.

Shego growled in response. She had already told him she wasn't here to pick a fight, but she was quickly rethinking that position in light of his uncooperative attitude. Tamping her anger down by taking a few deep breaths she shifted on her feet.

Did she even want to know what had happened to Ron Stoppable to leave him living on a park bench in Go City? Even if she did; did she want to know bad enough to dig it out of him? Besides it's not like she had ever given damn about him before. He was a former foe; and not her main focus as far as foes go in the first place. Besides, he didn't seem to want to talk with her anyway. With a dismissal huff she turned and stalked off in the direction she was headed to begin with. If he didn't want to talk to her than she wasn't about to waste her time with the buffoon.

Shego again growled to herself while aggressively tapping the keyboard with the tips of her fingers.

Despite having resolved not to get involved and that she didn't care what had happened to Ron Stoppable she had not be able to shake her thoughts away from the young man all afternoon. He had looked so awful sitting there alone. He had saved the world more than a few times, and despite the fact that the media never seemed to take notice of him surly someone would have taken him in if he had gotten himself into some sort of financial bind.

This was a guy she had watched throw two eight foot tall aliens into their ship while it skipped along the stratosphere nearly a mile away using his own brand of super-powers. Surly someone would want him on their side and have taken him in. The US government had been after her brothers and herself for years to 'contribute' to their understanding of super powers and / or to join some sort of elite fighting force. Any country, terrorist organization, super-hero team, or even private industry would literally probably find an arm-and-a-leg to give for access to similar powers as well.

So when she had returned a couple of hours later to her apartment she had resolved to dig just a little bit and find out what she could about what had happened to Ron Stoppable.

At first glance there were no articles about Ron other than that small mention of his arrest some four years ago. Before that there was the occasional mention about him with Possible but nothing except the mention of his name, which was wrong half the time anyway.

After an hour of sifting through news articles and creepy fan sites dedicated not just to Kim but herself as well; Shego decided a quick search of public records was a better way to go and quickly found more than she thought she would in the form of public court documents.

Ron Stoppable had in-fact been arrested four years ago following his 'stalking' of Possible, but that was not what he was arrested for. He had been arrested after getting into a fight at a bar just off the campus of Middleton Community college with three other students. He'd apparently beaten them handily according to the police report but had been brought up on assault charges not a week later. The kicker was that he had plead guilty by reason of mental illness or instability. Now that was something...and it was something fishy.

Digging a little more it seemed the court transcripts and sentencing were all sealed but Shego got the picture clear enough. With everything Stoppable had seen just in his fights with Drakken there was no way he had gone 'crazy' enough to attack anybody. Besides Shego knew that despite the fact that he had beaten those two aliens before, Ron Stoppable just didn't have the capacity to attack anybody without more than enough just cause.

Sitting back she took a glance out the window of the office of her Go City apartment. A cold rain had started just as she had gotten home earlier. Usually she liked to watch the rain coming down from the warmth and comfort of the large sofa sitting in her living room with a hot cup of green tea and her favorite gossip magazine. Today, however, all she could seem to think about was the fact she had left her former enemy sitting homeless and alone on a park bench not half a mile away.

The irony of the fact that she had been the villain, doing wrong and evil and was now sitting in her spacious and warm apartment; while the hero was alone in a park down the street, did not escape her either. It was one of the reasons she had abandoned being a good-guy a long time ago. The world did not reward hero's. They gave the ones they liked accolades, like Kim Possible, but they did not reward those that sacrificed and expected nothing in return. Ron Stoppable had never earned a penny for saving the world several times over. He had never gotten special treatment, or had the media clamor for an interview; nor had he ever been recognized by strangers on the street. And while he may have whined a time or two about it he never truly expected it or demanded it. And if you don't expect reward you don't get it, in spite of all the fairy tales that said you did.

"Can I help you?"

"What do you mean 'Can I help you?'; you're the one out here in the rain."

"Well you were looking at me like you wanted something." Ron replied looking up at Shego's face through the hood of her green coat and beneath the large black umbrella she carried. The look on her face told him she was thinking about asking him something; but why she was back out here to see him in the rain he couldn't comprehend.

"Look if you want info on where to find Kim, I can't help you." Ron finally said after a moment of her standing there in silence looking at him. He thought she might just be looking to start a fight or she was looking to get even with Kim for something...at least that is what he would guess based on his past experience with this woman.

Shego signed again a long suffering sigh. Had she really been that bad when she was working for Drakken that every time she saw this kid he was thinking all she wanted to do was hurt him or someone he knew? Perhaps...but that wasn't now.

"Ron I'm not here to fight you or to get revenge on Kim for anything. I'm here...well...do you have anywhere to go? It's supposed to get cold tonight...this rain's supposed to turn to ice by the morning."

She couldn't believe she was doing this. This was Ron Stoppable. The odd Jewish kid from Middleton who had helped foil no less than a hundred of her and Drakken's plots for world domination over the years AND had been responsible for directly causing her injury or pain in at least twenty of those incidents.

"I...I usually try and find a place in a shelter but they fill up pretty quick. I was planning on going soon...it's still early but they'll be opening up. If I don't get a spot in one of those...well the alleyway up the street has a nice door pocket I can get in...if crazy Charlie's not there."

Shego nodded. At least he had sense enough to try and seek out a place to go. She stood for a moment longer before she sat down beside him on the bench and let the umbrella cover both of them mostly.

"So how'd you end up like this." An odd place and time for this conversation but she wasn't about to help him out unless she knew he didn't have rabies.

"What?"

"How. did. you. end. up. living. out. here? And did you loose your hearing in the process, Stoppable?"

"Uh...no. Why are you talking to me? Why do you want to know?"

"Look before I offer to help you I just want to know if you're going to attack me or if you've lost it." Shego ground out. She was getting tired of his defensive and tight lipped attitude again. At this point she'd rather have the gullible, clueless kid back rather than the paranoid skeptic he seemed to be now.

She did notice his face go rigid at the mention of him having mental problems. Apparently his plea had been accepted.

"I know about your arrest. Everything else was sealed; and I wasn't about to start breaking federal laws just to get a look at the rest of your records."

"You, not break laws? That's a new concept."

"Stoppable look; Drakken and I went legit after the alien thing. He found out there was allot more money in government projects and I decided to take a break from the cackling-mad-scientist-with-over-complicated-plans crowd for a while. I haven't even gotten so much as a speeding ticket since the pardons were issued."

"Huh...wow, that's great. Guess our roles are reversed now."

"STOPPABLE...look just talk to me. I'm not here to take advantage of you or start a fight. Tell me what happened."

Ron sighed and looked at her. It was very strange to have Shego of all people sitting here with him in the rain trying to peal out of him what had happened over the last few years. He hadn't talked with anybody about it in a while and thought perhaps it wouldn't be so bad to tell her. Talking had never encouraged anyone to help him before, but she couldn't do much more to hurt him than had already happened. Besides she was the closest thing to a friend from the old days he had seen in the last four years.

"Well...I guess...It all started on a Tuesday..."