+ Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Kim Possible characters. All belong to Disney. I make no profit from this, it is simply a product of pleasure.+

Ron Stoppable, despite his recent change in personality, was still the same in many humorous ways. For example, the moment he saw some sort of strange creature throwing a board off the coffee table, he screamed. Short and loud.

"Ron!" Kim yelled, grabbing him by the front of his usual red shirt, pulling him into the house and shutting the door quickly. "Jesus, Ron, you'll draw attention."

"Kim, what in the name of all the strange animals, is that? Did you get a new pet without telling me!" Ignoring Kim's warning to stop, Ron hurried over and bent down a bit and tugged at one of the rabbit ears.

"HANDS OFF, STOPPABLE!" Shego roared, lifting a fist and igniting it in a bright green glow in threat, finding herself very satisfied when the buffoon yelped and tripped backwards and onto his rear end.

Kim watched the exchange, shaking her head. Ron Stoppable was still the same in many ways. And being an idiot was included. Letting out a sigh, Kim reached down and took Ron by the elbow to help him up. "Why don't you sit down?" The red-head offered, but was soon grabbed by the biceps. Within a moment, Kim found she had some breath knocked out of her as Ron had pushed her into the front door. She would have struggled, but through a short cough and the shock, she shook her head when he started asking if she was being blackmailed. He never got past that though, as Kim suddenly found her feet on the floor again.

"Are you nuts, you idiot!" Shego was yelling at Ron, now standing on the blonde man. In the instant Shego had seen that Kim wasn't going to fight against the man who had her several good inches off the ground, she struck. A good placed head butt just behind the rib cage caused Ron's strength to waver, and she had him on the ground with a quick bash of her tail against the back of his knees. Which she then proceeded to embarrass him further by actually standing on him, her long feet were able to keep his shoulders down. "What in the world would possess you to attack Kim?" she growled, knowing the heroine might come to her friend's rescue now that she was freed.

Clearly embarrassed, Ron wiggled a bit but didn't fight the glowing fists that hovered above his head. "Will you get off me, Shego? That hurts."

"I don't care!" A glowing clawed finger pointed behind her to Kim who was rubbing her arms. "You were hurting her, and you think you can complain? Now answer me, or I'll find you a new place to stuff those nacos you love so much!"

After several hurried sentences, Shego let him up and hopped several paces away. He explained that since he saw the black, green, and brown animal, he assumed he could take on something his thigh level. Obviously he was wrong, Kim thought as she helped him up.

Shego, wanting to do something besides blast holes in the idiot side kick, set to gathering the pieces she had sprawled all over the carpet. Kim began explaining, slowly since the boy seemed to be having a hard time taking it all in. And of course, without thinking who was still in the room, his voice matched his expression.

"You seriously believe her, Kim? Are you mental?" He threw his arms out and gestured to the living room. "She could have traps set while you were at work, or she could have Drakken come in and burn the place. And you're sitting here, eating take out and playing board games with her!?"

Shego, unable to take his attitude, came to the rescue again. "Alright you moron, I'm going to say this only once." Taking a few hops over, but keeping the coffee table between them, she held up clawed fingers to emphasize her point more clearly. "One, Kim has this place locked down with security. I'm pretty sure if I tried to leave, I'd have cops on my ass in minutes. Two, taking the first into account, how in the world am I supposed to get any sort of equipment in here?" She quickly hurried on so she wouldn't have to take the windows into the conversation. "Third, if you were turned into a hybrid, fucked up freak of nature, where would you go? Not in public that's for sure. You'd go to someone you'd trust to keep you safe if you kept your word you'd cause no problems. I promised Kim, as I promised Wade, I'm only here to keep my nose down while this stupid change is in effect. Once it's over, I'm gone."

Ron's face was stoic as he stared at the talking Pandaroo, still thinking in his head that she looked nothing like the Cuddle Buddy they produced in stores. But he gave a jerk of a nod instead and just sat on the couch for a moment, hoping to compose his thoughts. "Kim, I'm staying over."

"No!" They both shouted, causing everyone to blink, but Kim spoke, since it was her house. "Ron, you're not staying over. I'm not a child. I can take care of myself, and even if Shego wanted to do something, I'm pretty sure I can snap a picture of her on my cell before she got away and threaten to post it on every Kim Possible website around the net." Kim stared at Ron, hard now, putting her own point across.

"Fine! Whatever." He said, crossing his arms and leaning back into the couch for a moment before standing. "I wanted to come over and invite you to watch the new Dragons of Destiny: 7 this weekend, but seems like you have your hands full. See ya." Without saying anything else, he went to the door and left the house.

"Damn that boy, what's his problem. Kim? Kim, hey, Kim. Kim!" Shego had to shout to get the red-head's attention. "You're pale." She said when she got those olive green eyes to focus.

"Oh! Sorry. Hey, I'm going to go shower before bed. Clean up your mess and I'll see you upstairs."

Will no one ever be good enough for you, Kim Possible!?

The hot shower water mixed with her tears. The same tone of voice Ron had spoke then, had been placed in his last few sentences. That anger that he had shown when he grabbed her now set in. Ron had changed, and she didn't know why. Maybe a late stage of puberty, or maybe it wasn't anything new. Ron was always brave, but his phobia for near everything caused his worries to skyrocket more than the typical human being. His need to impress her on the football field was one of his more ridiculous acts, if she had to pick. Stealing her suit just to try out for the quarterback, maybe she thought it was cute then but looking back on it and everything else since graduation, things weren't so cute. The way he'd kiss her more than she wanted, despite her shoving him away. Though when he did stop, he'd either pout for the rest of the day or get mad and leave. It did seem out of character for Ron, but Kim had to remind herself that he was always there to back her up when she needed.

Kim rubbed her hands over her face quickly, forcing herself to stop crying. This was ridiculous, she thought to herself as she finished washing up. She shouldn't be crying over something like this. Besides, she needed to get to bed for day two of her work with the new recruits at GJ.

At this same time, Shego had gathered the remaining glass backgammon pieces that she had thrown and set them carefully in the wooden box before sliding everything back into its cardboard protector. The scene that had just taken place was shocking, to say the least.

The last time Shego had seen the blonde haired boy, it had been almost a year ago during Drakken's crackpot idea to steal a whole bunch of microwaves for something. Kim and Ron burst through the front door and proclaimed the usual banter of stopping them. Something the green warrior always brushed off, but what had thrown her that day was that Ron had attacked her first, demonstrating his speed and efficiency with his Monkey Kung Fu. But the boy hadn't started to glow by the time Shego had put him through the front window. Kim managed to stop her blue boss and Shego scoffed at how he cowered when his imitation plasma gun didn't fire quick enough to catch the athletic twenty-one year old.

Either way, Ron had been gone for a while. Shego thought he just quit all together until she saw the news a few months back. Kim and Ron had stopped a group of robbers from stealing classified research from the same place the red-head's father worked.

Her thoughts were cut off when she heard the water upstairs shut off, and the faint noise of plastic rings sliding along the metal shower rod. The small mammal shut off the lights in the living room and took the steps carefully, making sure her clawed paws were firm on the railing. Slipping and hurting herself now would be inconvenient.

It would be another few minutes till Kim would be out of the shower, giving Shego a moment to make sure she hadn't shifted anything out of place in the bedroom from her earlier exploration. But that wasn't where her mind was right now. She really didn't care if she missed anything, she admitted, running a paw over an ear in both worry and irritation. Kim's reaction, and her own, threw her off balance. Defending Kim against her own best friend, said best friend storming out, and the way the heroine's color had drained when the boy had snapped like he did. There was something there that Shego didn't understand, but guessed it had to do with their ended relationship.

"Shego, what are you doing?" Kim's voice was heard behind the pandaroo, who turned to see the red-head dressed in her usual pj's, hair wet and clinging to the sides of her neck.

"Nothing, Pumpkin. Waiting," she said simply, but wouldn't continue when the other gave her a questioning look. "Do you have any extra pillows?" she asked instead. Though Kim's large bed was extremely comfortable, Shego felt that after everything she might want to reconsider stealing a spot again tonight.

Kim, walking over to her desk near her closet, grabbed a brush and started to quickly swipe it through her hair catching the tangles the towel caused while drying it. Her olive green eyes caught sight of Shego's pillow from the night before thrown in the corner by the nightstand. Looks like she was going to attempt to sleep on the floor again, she thought.

"Sure," Kim said, opening her closet doors and, careful to keep a certain item covered in the back, dug through the bottom and pulled out two more plus another blanket. "Here, will these be okay?"

The mix-matched mammal nodded and started silently setting up the pillows in an arrangement where she could sit back against the wall instead of fully laying down. "There," she said, fluffing the pillow behind her again as her tail curled around to rest against the side of her leg. "Least this doesn't feel too bad," she said finally, leaning back and looking at Kim, who was staring. There was a faint redness around those olive green eyes that remained even after the rest of her flushed skin returned to normal. This told her that Kimmie had been crying. Ignoring the urge to ask why, Shego locked her jaw shut and kept from saying anything while the younger woman stared.

In a blink, Kim seemed to realize what she was doing and turned her eyes up to the windows above the nightstand and bed. Though she never opened both at the same time, she did however open the one above where Shego rested like she had wanted the night before. Still being watched, the red-head moved and flipped the light off before crawling into bed.

There was a whisper against the darkness, and Shego was glad that her ears were sharp.

"Thank you, Shego."

What do you think you're doing! You can't do that, you'll ruin everything!

A voice shouted in her head, her eyes scanning her surroundings. A cage. She was in a cage. She ran over to the bars, the cage under her rocking harshly as she started punching and pounding on the bars. They wouldn't give, no matter how much she kept at it. Trapped. Trapped! Her mind screamed as she rubbed her throbbing fists, she was trapped and she needed out. Her hands started to frantically pat herself down for anything she had on her, anything to help her escape. Rope, a water canister would have a pin in it, she could pick the padlock. Frantic as she was, there was nothing. Only the pain in her shoulders and back had told her she had been thrown into the cage, and had been there for a while. The logic didn't make sense. She was here for a simple scouting mission, she shouldn't be here. The light was dim from lanterns and the rank of old moisture told her she was underground or in a cave of some sort. Her cage swayed again slightly as she pressed herself against the bars to look down. Suspended in the air, some twenty feet or so, enough to place shadows on the ground. Was that the ground? Or had the light simply ended there?

Panic started to bubble up through her gut, pressing its way to the back of her throat and tasting distinctly of bile. But she couldn't let herself empty her stomach from fear, a stomach that had already twisted painfully at not being fed. As she kept the only substance from painting her cell floor, she heard the shouting again. Then something of a crash, and a shout of her name from a familiar voice…

"Kim!"

"Kim, wake up!" Shego shouted, shaking the younger woman hard, her earlier attempts having failed and she refused to remain gentle if it meant waking the girl from the dream. "Kimmie, come on!"

The red-head gasped and shot up, panting for air as she saw Shego tumble backwards from the sudden movement. "Shego," she whispered through her heavy breathing, in both apology for knocking her over and in relief to see the pandaroo instead of the thick shadows that had surrounded that cage. Rubbing a hand over her mouth, she fought against the twisting in her stomach. "S-sorry…," she started to say, but was interrupted.

"You fucking scared me, you moron!" Shego yelled, getting off the bed and hopping a few paces away. "You were crying, and nearly screamed. What in the world could scare you so bad?" The last was more of a question to herself, but Kim was shaking her head.

"I don't know, the dream's starting to slip away from me… I just know there was a cage. And then a voice, someone shouting for me." Rubbing her eyes, she found the tear streaks the other spoke of and wiped them away. Her clock read 5:47am, almost an hour before she had to be up. But there was no way she was going back to sleep. Or so she thought, as she began pushing the covers back.

"Oh, no you don't, Princess. You keep your ass in bed and get some rest. You're paler then if I punched you in the gut."

"But Shego, I-"

"No arguing. Lay. Down," Shego growled, pointing at the red-head, who sighed and did as she was told.

"Being scolded by a Pandaroo, how embarrassing," Kim mumbled.

"What was that?"

"Nothing," she said quickly and rolled over, facing away from the glare she was being given.

It only took a few minutes, but the tension faded and Kim was soon sleeping peacefully once more. The pandaroo moved over to the edge of the bed and shook her head, watching the figure's shoulder move slowly with the breathing. Shego had woken up to the other crying out, and instant panic took over the green warrior so she had bounded onto the bed in a single leap. She was pretty sure she couldn't do that again if she tried, but for the first time in a long time, Shego had experienced a mix of fear and helplessness. Nightmares could be damaging, and if one had gripped Kim this hard, she knew the other needed out of it.

"What am I going to do with you, Princess…," Shego mumbled, resting her head against the top of the mattress, sighing as she kept her emerald green eyes unblinking. Why should she care if the other woman was having a nightmare? She thought, trying to explain her own actions to herself. She was loud enough to wake Shego up, when it took her probably a half hour if not more to actually fall asleep in the first place.

Remember why you're here, Shego. Remember.

Her eyes turned to the Kimmunicator that rested on the desk. She could take it now. Take it and run, and Kim wouldn't expect a thing. She'd have an hour to get away, and hopefully put enough distance between them. Though it was highly unlikely that she'd be able to get away without being in her human body, Shego didn't take her eyes off the gadget. Taking a few hops towards the desk, she stopped. Her head turned back towards a softly snoring Kim.

This girl had given her a place to stay, had fed her, played games with her, and protected her against someone who could have easily taken advantage of her situation. There was still a possibility that Ron would, but for now, she was safe. Growling to herself, Shego hopped back towards the small bed she made and sat back down.

It wouldn't be fair, she said to herself while crossing her arms, to run without challenge. Even if she didn't know why Drakken wanted the Kimmunicator, at least to its full extent, and it was a job. She at least wanted to do this for her. She wanted to give Kim a chance to stop her.

That will be her prize for winning in Backgammon.

+I know Ron's a bit OOC, but here's the deal: I never accepted the sudden relationship between the two of them. I would think after his need in the series to impress Kim, it would be easier for me to portray him as almost bitter, yet still trying to maintain his loyalty to his friend and maybe even trying to rekindle some kind of spark between them. Thanks for reading!+