Monique walked towards Kim's new favorite hangout, the janitor's closet. She had in her mind every intention of yelling at the girl for trying to commit suicide. Even if her life had taken a turn for the worse… Monique's inner rant died about as quickly as a Turkey before Thanksgiving when she thought back on Kim and how she had acted in the past few weeks.

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"Hi, Monique."

Monique's interest was piqued as the timid and scared tone came from her best friend. "What's up, girl?"

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Monique was confused as she saw the scars that Kim was tracing. She noticed then that they said 'Ron-Hater'. For the first time since Ron had left, she actually felt pity for the form on the floor.

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Monique stared in horror at the woman who had just told her the single worst thing she'd ever heard. "Just leave. Just leave."

Kim slumped slightly and shuffled out the door.

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Monique remembered the times that they had shared. She did not forgive Kim. That much was clear in her mind. Maybe, given enough time, that could change.

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Monique stared in horror at the scars her new friends had inflicted on her once-best friend. She turned and ran from what would one day become her second worst memory.

Kim continued to sit, tracing the scars she thought she deserved, and cried over what might have been.

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Monique knocked on the door to Bonnie's house. She knew that nowadays, this was the place Kim was most likely to be after school. The door opened. The door closed. Monique knocked again.

"Go away, Monique. She doesn't need this right now. She just stopped crying. You can fuck with her head tomorrow."

"I deserve that. I don't want to fuck with her head anymore, though. I saw the scars."

Bonnie opened the door, keeping a wary eye on Monique. "I had no idea that they'd gone this far. I would have stopped them."

"Which scars?"

"Ron-Hater. They cut Ron-Hater into her arm. Why did she let them do that? Why?"

"She thinks that she deserves it. Weren't you listening earlier? She tried to kill herself. Do you really think that allowing others to torture her is that different?" Monique collapsed into Bonnie, sobbing in contrition, hating herself for what she had done.

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Kim awoke to a sound that, unless she was the source, was mildly unusual. Looking to the side she noticed Monique, and that nearly instantly drew her to her guard. Even if she invited torture and punishment, she retained the sense requisite to defend herself from abuse inside her "haven," the one source of comfort left to her.

When Monique failed to start a fight, Kim noticed the trail of tears slowly progressing down her face. She noticed Bonnie holding Monique's shaking form, a testament to the goodwill meant. She noticed the contrition and pain that obviously plagued this young woman. But mostly, Kim noticed the way her fingers happened to trace a certain pattern, one of the ones Kim knew best, upon her own stomach, obviously mimicking the behavior of someone else. Kim's hand reflexively began to trace the scar, her mind immediately wandered to the man who she had crushed, and her heart burned with a pain worse than that of a million words carved into her skin, the pain of two words so carved, the pain of those two words: "Ron-Hater."

Sinking even further into her couch refuge, Kim began to cry with the same fervent passion as her once best friend.

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Ron looked at the twin forms on the couch, Kim and Bonnie. He knew that he did not love Bonnie as he loved Kim, but there was attraction there. What guy didn't dream about Bonnie? He didn't even hate her, not after what she'd confessed. He no longer feared her: who can fear someone who has not only professed their love for you, but also broken down within your arms? Ron wondered what emotions she evoked in him.

With a start that almost woke the woman rolled into a ball on Bonnie's lap, Ron cast his gaze towards the way Bonnie's hand, even in sleep, caressed Kim's side. He knew that she had told the truth. He realized that in the void caused by the old emotions, new ones were attempting to form. There was more than a little respect, an adequate amount of trust, and a genuine chemistry between them. He may not be in love with Bonnie, but it was very possible that they could grow to be great friends.

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Ron started as he felt a presence near his physical self. He saw, as though from a distance, Shego walk up to his body in an oddly familiar way.

As she ran a hand through his hair, he thought that she was similar to Kim. No. Not Kim, my mom. She's acting like my mom.

Returning to a corporeal manifestation, he smiled up at her. "Anything I can do for you, Shego?" He fought hard to restrain his tears at the worried face she made.

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As Ron stared at the woman who had made his life a living hell for the majority of its duration, he came to the conclusion that any and all transgressions had been or would be forgiven then forgotten.

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Bonnie dreamt of a day. In her mind, the world was perfect. Kim had never crushed Ron's soul. Ron and Kim had never fought. They had always been friends, the three of them. They were still in high school. Their biggest worry was whether the cheer squad would go to regionals. But even in her mind, Bonnie knew that she and that pair would never be anything more than friends.

Not that she didn't fantasize. She had naughty dreams about them all of the time, but for some reason, the best dreams didn't involve sex, and they only came when she slept in the same room as Kim.

In her current dream, she was listening to Ron talking about some paper he had to write for his economics class. Their time at Upperton had been fun, but Ron continually whined about this class or the other one. Neither she nor Kim cared. Kim was happy about his essential Ron-ness, Bonnie was just happy he was there.

In real life, Bonnie had spent much of freshman year attempting to break Kim's funk. In sophomore year she started trying to save Kim from the beatings and physical abuse. When Monique started helping, the efforts became even more fruitless as Kim started hiding from them and instigating her tormentor's. Junior year had been one large attempt to get her to drop out. The attempt had succeeded in the form of a job offer from Global Justice. They hoped that Kim might lose her grief in her work. They were wrong.

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"Three weeks since Kim started that job and she hasn't been by since. Man that girl can get to me sometimes. Y'know?" Monique and Bonnie were walking up the path to Bonnie's house.

"I know that you don't like it when she ignores you, but look at it this way. If she hasn't come to see us, she hasn't had a breakdown."

"I guess, but it seems a bit too easy to me. I mean, we were talking her through this for three years and they cure her in a month? How good at this can they be?" At Bonnie's look she amended, "OK, so you've been helping her for three years."

Bonnie chuckled. "Let's just hope that her luck continues to hold." She put her key in the door, unlocked it, and turned the knob.

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Ron was startled by the knock on his door. "May I come in?" Shego, of course, the only person who would disturb his meditation without a very good reason.

"Sure, but do you mind if I finish my meditation?" Shego entered and grabbed him by the underneath of his armpits.

"Sorry, sir, but I can't do that. No more moping. We're gonna go spar, and then we're gonna go with Yori and Drew for a picnic. And, just in case you were wondering, my real name is Sheila. Sheila Go."

Ron looked to her and gasped. He'd and Wade had tried for a fruitless year to find out about Shego's past. To have her just open up to him was… wow.

"If you ever use that name where anyone can hear you, I will hunt you down and kill you."

"Now there's the Shego we all know and love."

"Now Stoppable, I am engaged. Try to be proper. I can't be convinced to leave Drew for you."

"Engaged! Engaged! And this is how you tell me? What did you tell Drew you'd do in return?"

Shego looked sheepish. "I told him I'd tell you my real name." Ron burst into laughter. "But if I knew it would be this uplifting, I'd have told you a long time ago."

"I'm gonna go make you two an engagement dinner. Make yourself at home."

In a bright flash of blue light, Shego could have sworn she saw a tail, Ron disappeared. Sighing, she sat down on his bed. She decided that the best occupation available to her would be to look around his room.

In a corner of his closet, she found a small steel lock-box. Intrigued, she burned a hole through the padlock. After opening it, she noticed that all it contained was unopened letters. She dug through the pile, and seeing that not one had been sent by Kim, she felt a shot of anger infusing her body. She noticed small and concealed compartment, and, once again bowing to the supreme power of curiosity, opened it. If she hadn't been a ninja-trained master thief, she would never have found it.

Here she found the letters from Kim. All of them. Flipping through with a scrutinous eye, she noted that they were all sent on the 15th of a month, without fail. She opened one.

Dear Ron,

Life goes on. I still miss you, but I know that you don't feel the same. I noticed that the letters always disappear, even if they get left in my room, so I guess that the Yamanouchi ninjas are responsible for this. I just hope that you are actually getting this. I have moved on. My new boyfriend's name is Marc. I think that you would hate him, but then, haven't you always hated the boys I date? I hope that this time you tell Yori that you return the sentiments; I know that she will still be interested.

Sincerely,

Kimberly Anne Possible

As Shego read, she noticed the tear stains on the page and promised herself that she would not forgive Kim easily. It's only been a year since she crushed him like that, and she thinks that he's already ready to hear about how she's dating some new boy toy?

A throat clearing alerted her to the presence of another in Ron's room. Turning around, her face flooded by an expression of apology and her eyes pouring forth tears of anger, she met the gaze of the man who had become her closest friend and confidant over the year they'd spent at Yamanouchi. Without thinking about it, she incinerated the letters from Kim. She put the other ones in her jacket pocket.

"You don't need this, Ron. She's only hurting you with these letters. I don't know why she did it, but she deserves to rot for what she's done. You have to know that."

"Shego, if you do anything to hurt Kim, I'll kill Drew. You know I will. You saw what happened to Warhok and Warmonga. I won't show pity or mercy, even to a friend. I think you might be right about the letters though. Would you… Would you read them for me to make sure she doesn't actually need my help? I can't anymore. I just can't."

"Ron. Of course I will, Ron. You know that you'll always be able to ask me for help. Always."

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Ron was startled by the knock at the door. He walked to it, careful not to wake the two sleeping women, and peeked through the spy-hole. His heart stopped.

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Monique was worried about Kim. They had been supposed to meet at the mall, but Kim had yet to show up. She knew that the most likely thing for her to be doing was crying at Bonnie's house. Otherwise she'd probably been coerced into more work. That was pretty much all she did now anyway.

She stood in front of Bonnie's door, well aware of the feelings Bonnie had for Kim, and not wanting to just walk in, even if she knew that Bonnie would never act on those feelings and that Kim did not feel them.

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Monique! Monique was standing at the door, obviously not expecting him. He had no idea what was going on, but he knew that he had to talk to her about what Kim had done.

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Bonnie and Monique were being patient, but they felt that they needed answers. They knew that Kim would never voluntarily hurt Ron like that, and they knew that even though Kim admitted to missing him more than ever, she wrote letters to keep him away once a month. They felt they deserved to know why.

"Oh my God! They really did that? They separated the two of you, made him fight a bunch of men, and then set you against someone even stronger than you who forced you to break your relationship off? And when you went back for clues the entire compound was gone without a trace? It was a park?" Bonnie was shocked, but the story meant that there might still be hope for her favorite couple to come together.

Monique was struggling to find words. "You were protecting him? Oh my God. Oh my God, what have I done? What have I done?" As 'what have I done?' became a mantra to her, Bonnie looked over towards her. Bonnie knew that Monique had been appalled at the violent treatment of Kim but had secretly condoned the verbal abuse. She knew that opinion was changed.

Kim was crying, having been cornered and forced to relive that torture, breaking Ron's soul, as well as the physical and mental abuse she'd suffered at the hands of that man, that beast.

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Finally finding the strength, Ron opened the door. "Hello, Mon-" he started before one of the tightest hugs he'd ever experienced cut him off.

"You're back. You're back."

A/N: Hi guys. Sorry I failed in my promise to get this to you last weekend, but I tried. It took a long time to write, though I'm not sure why. I do like the way it turned out though. Hopefully you will too.

Yes, it is meant to be confusing at this point. If anyone sends me the chronological order of the paragraphs (as numbers), I will post it at the beginning of the next chapter.