Disclaimer: Copyrighted material belonging to Disney and Bob Marley, the only thing belonging to me is the storyline and a few original characters.
The steady beeping of a machine in an adjacent room was the only thing keeping Shego, Ron, Wendy and Kim's parents company in the sterile halls of the hospital, but instead of feeling it grating on their nerves, they were all incredibly subdued.
Kim had been in emergency surgery for several hours and would probably not come out of it for a few more. Or not at all.
Shego had never really thought herself to be able to worry like this about anyone, and it made her feel weak, unable to do anything. Her mind raced from memory to memory, all of the times she had actually enjoyed Kim's or Ron's company. Kim was one of the few new friends she had made in a long time, and Shego didn't exactly know why. She wanted to know the answer to this riddle, this puzzle that mocked her. Shego stared at the floor with blank eyes, rushing her mind into thinking frantically and unfocused. Her mind went from rewinding the slap over and over to thinking how she deserved that slap to the face. She felt guilty; longing for the floor to swallow her whole like Kim had often wished it a while ago.
Ron's mind was nigh blank, thinking of puzzles no more than he thought about anything else. His focus seldom went from staring at the white wall to reminiscing about his past with Kim, the girl he had hung out with since kindergarten, the shy girl who looked so weak. He always hoped she would break free of the fragile shell and prove to everyone that she could be stronger, but she never really got the chance to do that. She never got a chance to prove herself, and thought of herself as weak all the time. He felt that maybe in another world, maybe she could have been stronger than anyone, maybe even Shego.
Ron glanced at Shego and frowned. Kim had started to come out of the shell now that Shego forced her to do it. She did it firmly, but kindly most of the time. But one thing stuck out like a burnt thumb; Kim had yelled at Shego and slapped her just before the accident. Ron had never gotten around to asking what it was about and it bugged him intensely.
Wendy was maybe the one around with the least history with Kim, but she knew she really liked the energetic and occasionally depressed little red head. Their drinking habits didn't match all the time, their clothing, attitude, haircuts and general looks never matched. The only thing that did match was their taste in music. Fast and hard.
Wendy shuddered and almost retched as her mind drew parallels between those three words and what had happened to Kim.
The moment Wendy had gotten the word on what had happened, she screamed into her phone, scrambled her things together and rushed out of the classroom, knocking over their second class teacher. She ignored her bike and ran all the way to the hospital, never minding the people she knocked over.
The doctors Possible felt rather torn. Here they and Ron, Kim's parents and oldest friend, sat with two of her new friends. They wanted to be with Kim, comfort each other and Ron, and at the same time scream at the two girls and blame them for everything bad that had happened to their daughter lately. Only by reminding themselves they were at a hospital they restrained themselves to crying silently on each other's shoulders.
Time moved on and the beeping continued.
A pair of hours passed by making as much noise as a never-noticed sarcasm, but none of it was noticed by the five people waiting in the halls of the hospital for their sixth person. A sixth person who was currently in deep trauma to several parts of her body and had people doubting her ability to pull through.
Not only the doctors, nurses and family of the girl wished her health by the way, but so did the person who put her in this state. The driver of the car, a man in his mid-thirties, was currently beginning his first session of therapy for the emotional trauma. Nobody blames him, nobody presses charges, and the police was informed that the only people responsible would be held responsible in private. The only one to blame the driver was himself. And the therapists would help him in overcoming that.
Several hours later, when the sun had set and it was dark and quiet outside the curtains of the hospital, a nurse popped his head in the hall and frowned slightly at the five people who were either staring blankly ahead of themselves or sleeping with dried tears on their cheeks. He stepped into the hall and walked up to Ann Possible who was sleeping on her husbands' shoulder. He tried coughing a few times, but as that gave no results, he felt compelled to nudge her shoulder carefully.
"Dr. Possible…" The nurse warily called, hoping to wake the older woman and not call down her wrath. He was her assistant after all.
Ann slowly opened an eye and blinked it a few times in surprise at the young nurse. She carefully rose from her seat and started pacing to get the blood flowing.
Running her hand through her hair, she turned around and gave a weary sigh. "Hello Nigel, any news?"
Nigel gave a weak smile. "Her condition has been stabilized, though it's still critical."
Ann gave a huge sigh of relief at the news and put a hand over her heart. "Well thank god for that."
Nigel grinned, "Yeah, I'll go tell these others."
Anne nodded and waved him away. "Go ahead and do that, please. I'll wake my husband myself."
Shego was not really sure which was worse. Not knowing how her friend was, or seeing her in the state she actually was.
She lay in a transparent plastic tent, tubes from bottles and bags going into her arms, down her throat and even one going into a shaved section of her temple.
Shego and Wendy were both fighting tears at this point, seeing all those tubes and to add the casts and supports for weakened body parts seriously disturbed them. Ron and Rufus let their tears stream silently down their faces, and Kim's parents were quietly sniffling into each others' shoulders.
A quiet beeping was coming from a few of the machines hooked to Kim, some with waves and lines, some with numbers and bars. None of the screens looked really promising to anyone in the room who couldn't read them. They were pretty sure none of the screens were good news anyway. They just didn't look the type.
The first one to break the silence was Ann, who walked over to the tent and put her hand as close to Kim's face as she could, and whispered softly, "I always told her I didn't want to see her on my operating table." A few sobs escaped her and she clutched the plastic of the tent tightly. "But I never imagined how horrible it would be to hear she's on another table and I can't do anything at all to help." She finished, and slumped against her husband who had come up behind her.
"She will be fine, honey. You'll see. And you too Ron, she'll be fine. Anything is…"
Ron sniffled and finished the sentence. "Possible for a Possible…"
Shego bit back her snort as she heard what they were saying. That was the lamest name pun she'd ever heard, and she'd made some bad during the years herself. She walked over to the bed and glanced down at the lithe form lying there, Kim's red brows were furrowed even though she was in what the doctors said to be a mild coma.
Shego frowned. What was mild about what had happened to this girl? She asked herself, fuming over the last day, finding only one thing to do.
Shego said nothing to Kim as she stood there. She didn't talk to her and hope to hear a weak voice call her name. She never believed in talking to a comatose person could help them improve. She thought that was just cheesy Hollywood sob-films that did that, and as far as she was concerned, she would never be any part of anything Hollywood.
So Shego just stood there for a few minutes, looking at the fragile body before her, getting a little philosophical about the fragility of life and body and waited.
A few minutes of contemplating later, Wendy and Ron came up to the tent and looked down at Kim. Wendy's eyes followed one of the tubes going into Kim's arm, and she had to bite back a cry. Ron just looked at Kim's face, brows furrowed and worried even in what they had been told was a dreamless coma. The ones present wondered what could make a girl look like this subconsciously; they wondered what could be done to help and how they could make it happen. If they could at all.
All in all it was a day filled with mixed emotions, all very draining for the persons involved. Kim would need a long time to recover fully; she would have to start by waking up and seeing what needed to be done with her own eyes. Then her friends and family could help her recovering. Those people made sure they were moderately comfortable in the room where Kim was and tried to get some sleep.
Needless to say, no one who had been involved slept relatively easily that night, but before Shego descended into the nightmares, she vowed to make sure Bonnie Rockwaller never slept easily another night in her life.
Interlude
Here we make a small break, noting to all interested that despite the doctors' predictions, Kim was already in the final stage of waking up. She was dreaming.
"Let's face it Princess, you need me, you won't make it without me!"
"If I'm such a bother, then why don't you just shoot me and get rid of me right here and now, Shego? I'm just holding you back, right?!"
"Shut up! It's 'cause I need you too dammit!"
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
"You came from Europe? Where in Europe, up north or what?"
"Sweden."
"Filthy liar, nothing's left up there!"
"If you stop hitting me I'll tell you, you son of a…"
"Incoming!"
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
"Get up Kimmie; it's just a flesh wound dammit!"
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
"You saved my life; it's time I repaid your selfish ass."
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
"If you're here, then where the hell is the buffoon…?"
With a gasp escaping her dry lips, Kim jolted upright in her bed, accidentally tearing out the thin tube in her temple, causing her to hiss in pain and clutch the side of her head with her right, undamaged hand.
After hearing footsteps thunder outside her door, she let go of her head and turned to the door. In the doorway soon enough stood, in the words of her nemesis, a "green-skinned freak." Kim stared at Shego and Shego stared at Kim. And Kim broke the eye contact to grab a mug of water and throwing it at the wall next to Shego's head.
Shego stared at the shards of the cup, then at Kim. "Princess, just what the hell? Two seconds up and you try to kill me, what's wrong with you?"
Kim's eyes started to tear up and she clutched her hand in the bed sheets as she started to cry.
Shego started towards Kim, but Ron held her back. Shego stared dejectedly at the crying girl, the girl she wanted to be friends with at all costs. The girl who hated her guts. "We'll talk later, Princess…"
Shego turned and walked out the door to cry and walk home.
This was a turning point for them all. Shego would have to tell Kim everything, and that meant telling herself, tearing up the oldest and nastiest wounds Shego had ever sustained.
She needed her parents love for this night. And that would be a first.