I do not own any Disney Character named herein, and am only using them for a tale meant for entertainment purposes only.

Kim Possible: Hearts & Minds

By LJ58

3

"Hey, I'm not the one that set the stage," Shego, now dressed in a modest pantsuit just then, complained when she finished telling them what she had found when she 'manifested' in Kim's mind.

Somehow, she had not only manifested in her conscious if dreaming mind, but even touched Kim's own subconscious. She knew the moment she appeared on that 'dreamscape' that what Kim was fighting wasn't Shego, or past demons. It was her own desire. Her own heart. Because what Kim apparently wanted more than the world was…..her.

All four of those present eyed her.

"I've always known Kim could be unique," Anne finally sighed.

"To say the least," Dr. Director drawled.

"Indeed," Dr. Stavru nodded.

"Wow," Ron murmured, still shaking his head.

Wade was still monitoring Kim, waiting to see what came next.

"Look, I can tell you it wasn't my idea to show up on a damn battlefield wearing a….."

"See-through nightie," Ron grinned, his hazel eyes looking a little glazed.

"Watch it, Monkey-boy," she growled, pointing a finger at him.

"You do realize the implications of this revelation," Dr. Director asked them.

"I'm afraid I do," Anne sighed.

"I don't," Ron and Shego both said, then glared at one another.

"To bring Kim….back to life, as it were," Anne told them, "We may need to let Shego stay a little longer, and….help her."

"Stay," Shego sputtered, and if Ron was silent, his dark gaze was eloquent. "Now, hold on. All Nerdlinger said was you needed me to wake her up. Well, done deal. Finito. She's woke up twice now. Good job. Now, adios."

"Listen, Shego. For the moment at least, she is focused on you," Anne told her.

"Yes," Ernst nodded. "So, you must stay, and help her grow strong again. Stronger," he corrected himself. "Because if you suddenly leave, the shock…."

"Were you to leave now when she thinks you're still here with her," Anne went on when the man faltered, "The trauma of abandonment could trigger a relapse. Or worse."

"Define worse," Shego asked.

"We're also still concerned about this wild talent of hers now manifesting," Dr. Director told Shego bluntly. "Frankly, the idea she could toss furniture around in her sleep without trying is….troubling."

"I get it. Like before I got full control of my own comet power. If she lost control, and went really ballistic…..?"

"We're talking about an uncharted, unknowable ability that could yet do a lot of damage," Dr. Stavros stated uneasily.

"Exactly," Dr. Director nodded as Ernst. "For the sake of the world, Shego. You need to stay, and keep Kimberly calm until she's fully recovered, and back in control."

"And if she wakes up thinking that we're…..? That she still…..? That I...?"

Shego just shook her head.

"I expect you to do whatever is necessary to keep her calm, and happy," Dr. Director told her curtly. "Don't worry, GJ will pay you the usual rate for your cooperation as a….medical consultant."

"Or, I could ask the twins to convince you," Anne smiled blandly, and Shego suddenly wondered just how goody-goody the Possibles really were as the woman eyed her the way a shark eyed prey.

"Fine. Fine. It's not like I was doing anything anyway," she muttered.

Only Ron didn't smile.

Then again, neither did Shego.

KP

Kim slept soundly for two more days after her brief waking episodes. She finally woke again just before dawn on the third day.

Shego knew when she woke, because she looked up from her coffee she was nursing in the GJ cafeteria, and saw the scrawny redhead standing in front of her just across the table still wearing nothing but her gown, and looking as pale as a bed sheet.

"Kim," she exclaimed, jumping up to stare at her as the redhead just stood there smiling goofily at her in just that dreadful hospital gown, and actually trailing leads from her monitors like she had just stood up, and walked off without thinking about them.

Which Shego was guessing she had.

"Shego," she grinned, and sat down with a huff of obvious effort as if she had run the marathon. "I thought I heard you in here."

"Heard me," she frowned.

"Well, yeah. I heard you calling me. You wanted to talk, right," the redhead smiled as if they had been best buddies all along.

"I…. Well…. Kim, how are you feeling," she sputtered, not sure what else to say as she glanced around to see if someone else had noticed her. Or followed her.

"Kind of hungry. Any more of that coffee," she asked, studying the steaming cup before Shego.

Shego gestured around her at the cafeteria in the GJ medical wing. "I think they have more. But maybe the doctors…."

"Ah, what do they know? They wanted me to stay in bed until I could have some kind of therapy, or something. I'm fine," she huffed.

"So, the doctors….know you're up?"

"Well, one does," she said with a smug grin.

"Okay, so…. Coffee? I guess that couldn't hurt you?"

"I'd kill for a BLT," she said suggestively as Shego found herself rising to her feet to go get her coffee as Kim smiled across the table from her chair.

"I'll see what they have," Shego told her, wondering if she shouldn't be yelling for help about now. The scrawny redhead surely shouldn't be up already if she had just woke. Should she? Yet she said she had seen a doctor. She supposed he wouldn't have let her up if he thought she wasn't ready. Of course, those trailing leads and wires were a bit confusing.

She decided not to ask. She walked up to the still empty line, and got a full breakfast tray, and a second cup of coffee.

"How's that," she asked, setting the scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, and some fresh fruit before Kim.

Kim lifted the steaming cup, inhaled deeply, and sighed before taking a long sip.

"Ambrosia," she sighed, and reached for her fork. "You know, I didn't know I was…. You know, out? Obviously," she grinned. "But now that I'm awake, I'm really hungry. I mean starving. And all they wanted to do was give me mush. So not cool."

"Maybe they wanted to make sure you were okay before…. I mean, you were kind of out of it for a while after Dementor zapped you."

She scowled now, her pert nose wrinkling as she said, "Yeah. I'm really going to have to pound that little freak next time. Can't have him thinking he can do something like that to me, and get away with it."

"Uh, I don't think that will a problem. Your boyfriend put him in traction after he zapped you. Last I heard the dwarf was still using a cane," Shego told her.

"My boyfriend? Oh, you mean Ron? C'mon, Shego," she smiled. "You know Ron isn't my boyfriend any more."

"He's not?"

"Well, duh. Not since we started dating," she told her sweetly before she started eating like a starving hound.

Shego's eyes flared.

"We…. Ah, oh, ah, well. Yeah," she stammered, trying to put those pieces together. It sounded like Kimmie had definitely had another dream before she woke up. One in which she put all the pieces she wanted together in the way she wanted them.

"Well, just remember," she smiled uneasily. "We still haven't broken that news to anyone. Uh, not yet," Shego finally tried, hoping that would work without stressing the obviously empty-headed redhead.

"Right. Right. I was hoping to do that the day Dementor zapped me. That little runt really owes me," she grumbled with a look in her eyes Shego had seen before.

Right before she had been kicked into an electrical tower that was already crumbling around her.

"He is so going to pay," Kim grumbled, and went back to eating.

Somehow, Shego didn't think Demnez would survive half as well as she had if Kimmie got her hands on him just then.

Even as Kim glanced right, Shego saw the salt and pepper at the far end of the table rise into the air, float to her hands, and then Kim seasoned her eggs before she again started eating in earnest.

"Uh, when did you start doing that," Shego asked quietly, stunned to actually see evidence of what she had heard Kim had been doing since she had been zapped.

"Oh, well, honestly? I could do stuff like that forever. I just kept it a secret because it wasn't really something that was very reliable. Or that strong. Only after I woke up, I just felt like it was…. Kind of easier."

"Really," Shego smiled uneasily.

"Oh, c'mon. It's no big. I mean, seriously, that can't upset you. You control plasma. That's so much cooler that a little TK," Kim beamed at her.

Suddenly GJ's longtime interest in Possible made a lot more sense. She found herself wondering what else was hidden in that little nut's brain that she thought was 'no big.'

Even as she tried to form an answer, Dr. Director and Wade both appeared in the door of the cafeteria looking grim.

Anne had gone home earlier to share the news of Kim's apparent recovery with their family, and Ron had been called out on a mission. Which meant Shego had been alone for a while after Anne made her all but pinky-swear to stay with Kim. To her credit, and honestly thinking of those unnatural twins, she agreed, and found herself awake at an ungodly hour, and going for coffee. Just before being joined by the most unlikely patient of all.

"Possible," Betty Director growled as she walked up to her, looking down at her sternly. "Why are you out of bed?"

"I was hungry. And Shego called me," she added, shoving her empty tray away before reaching for the mug to swallow the last of her coffee. "Can I get a refill, sweetie," she asked Shego, holding out her cup.

"Sweetie," Wade almost choked, staring at Kim as Shego sighed, and took the cup.

"Okay, you explain it," Kim was told as Shego took her own mug, too, and went for more coffee. She didn't know about Kim, but she had the feeling she was going to need it.

Shego couldn't help but grin, though, when she heard Betty demand to know why Kim had tied Dr. Stavru to her bed.

"He wouldn't let me go see Shego," she replied, which pretty much wiped the smile from Shego's face.

That was all? The guy got in her way, and she tied him to her bed to make her escape?

Then, too, she had been talking about seriously hurting Demenz, too. That was not like Kimmie. Not like her at all. It looked like they might have something to worry about after all.

"…..but I want to stay with Shego," Kim grumbled, banging a fist on the table as Shego returned to the table.

Her glare faded stillborn as she smiled up at Shego, and took the cup. "Oh, hey, thanks, Shego. You're the best."

Betty shared an uneasy look over her head with Wade, and then asked, "And just what do you intend to do now, Kimberly?"

Kim frowned now, looking confused.

"Do?"

"Well," Dr. Director pressed.

"I don't know. I just…. I just need to be with her. Okay," she huffed, nodding curtly as if that settled it before setting to eating in earnest.

"Kim, you're obviously still not well. You need to go back to bed until….."

"No more….beds," she thundered, and the echo was lost in the chaos of every single table and chair in the cafeteria save their own them rising, and then slamming into the far walls at high speed.

"Holy…."

Wade trailed off as he glanced around, very grateful they were the only ones in the cafeteria just then. And that they hadn't joined that chaos as the tables and chairs, many now broken or warped, lay in heaps around them.

"Calm down, Kim," Shego told her, reaching out to put a hand on her clenched fist still holding her fork. "We're all just worried about you."

"Well, I don't need any more beds," she grumbled, then abruptly smiled, and added, "Well, except yours, Shego."

Shego blushed a very dark green as Kim smiled beatifically at her.

"Call Anne," Betty told Wade somberly as she gestured for him to follow her out of the cafeteria. The workers in the back, she had noted, were just standing and staring.

"Better call custodial," she advised one of the pale cooks, too. "We need a cleanup."

One woman just nodded jerkily as Betty chose to leave Kim alone with Shego.

For all their sakes.

KP

"Tell me you're kidding."

"It's not impossible. Sorry," Wade grimaced at Ron. "No pun intended, but we still have no clue how the brain actually works. When you consider that Kim's brain was effectively dehydrated, severely damaged, and then somehow regenerated, we can't begin to comprehend the physical dynamics involved. Let alone the psychic repercussions. That said, the damage to her mind and memories, and her behaviors, may yet to have fully manifested."

"Shego said she actually wanted to kill Dementor," Ron said, shaking his head.

"Tying me to her bed was pretty bad," Ernst complained. "She cut off my circulation!"

Betty just eyed the man, then looked to Anne. "You're her mother, Anne. But I'm asking you to make the call."

"That's it? You just want to write her off," the neurosurgeon complained.

"You didn't see what she did to the gym this morning," Betty told him. "Or the cafeteria yesterday. If people had been present….."

"People were present," Wade reminded her. "And yet none of us were hurt either time. We weren't even touched. I think that says something, for all her…..acting out."

"Acting out," Betty fumed. "And do we risk countless lives on your hope she is still…what she was," Dr. Director asked him curtly.

"We all agreed to call Shego in," Ron cut in before the argument could esculate. "As much as I hate how this is going myself," he told her, "How about we let Shego take her home?"

"Take her….home," Betty murmured coolly, eyeing him.

"Well, Shego lives on that island now. She's pretty far from any populated areas. No one is likely to come across her there. We let her go with Shego, and let her try to…..bring back our Kimberly."

"You think Shego would do that? Suppose she influenced Kim to become…..worse?"

"Worse than gay," Ron squeaked at Dr. Director's query.

All eyes locked on him now.

"You know what I mean," Ron blushed now. "Other than that, and the whole…..brain thing, this is still Kim. Give her a chance to wake all the way up before you stick her in the freezer," he demanded.

"Cryo isn't a freezer, Ron," Betty sighed. "It's a carefully controlled suspension chamber that…."

"It's a freezer," Ron cut her off. "And you're not putting Kim in one."

"You'd really trust Shego to help treat Kimberly," Betty asked him.

"Yes," he nodded after a moment. "Look, I'll be the first to admit this whole lesbian surprise thing has me…..surprised."

"To say the least," Wade agreed dryly.

"But at least she's awake, and has a chance to live again. Even if she…. Even if she never remembers what we had, at least she has a chance to regain her own life. You can't do that in a freezer."

"Anne," Dr. Director turned to her, one of the few people on the planet that knew that high level threats to the world were now being placed in hibernation capsules to prevent future threats from occurring.

Anne sighed, then nodded, and pointed out, "She does seem to be calm, and….almost normal when around her. Let's give Shego more time. Ron is right, except for her current….obsession, she does seem pretty normal when she's not being….pressured."

"It's her temper that concerns me," Dr. Director scowled. "Still, if you are all agreed, we'll isolate both women on Shego's island residence. But I will enforce that isolation until I'm certain she doesn't pose a threat to us. That means they won't leave again until, or unless I allow it."

"What about visitors," Ron asked.

"I won't abandon my daughter," Anne told her. "I'll tell you that now."

"Nor will I. Not that she's my daughter," Ron sputtered. "I mean, of course she's not, but she is…."

"We understand, Ron," Anne smiled at him as Dr. Director only rolled her eyes.

"Visitors will be monitored, only to ensure Kim doesn't try to escape. Otherwise, I see no reason not to allow periodic visits," Betty nodded at them.

No one spoke for a moment after that declaration.

"Are we all agreed then?"

Wade nodded at the head of Global Justice.

Ron nodded next.

"What of medical monitoring," Ernst asked. "We need to get periodic, but accurate readings from her to ensure…."

"I'll be visiting regularly," Anne told him. "I'll handle that. Frankly, I think you've already wore out your welcome with her, Ernst. No offense."

"No. No. I'm just concerned for what we don't see. See?"

"So," Ron asked. "Who breaks the news to Nurse Shego?"

No one spoke.

To Be Continued…