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Description
Shiny Hands
Author: The Humbug
Disclaimer: "Kim Possible" and all characters within © The Walt Disney Company and its related entities. Kim Possible created by Mark McCorkle & Bob Schooley. All rights reserved. No profit is being collected from the fiction contained within. The rest you can blame on me.
Rating: PG-13 for intimations of a physical relationship and intimate contact between consenting adults of either sex. This should also cover a little harsh language now and then. It's amazing what offends people these days. No imaginary characters were harmed in this story.
Summary: This is a Kim/Shego pairing fan fiction set in my 'Who's Writing This Crap?' Kigoverse. Kasy and Sheki are the creations of Nodrogs.

Shiny Hands / part one

"Kim, you're fogging the glass."

"I have to get close." The redhead pressed her cheek against the plexi-shield, leaving a smudge of make-up and skin oil that some poor 'GJ' maintenance tech would have to clean off later.

The young woman turned her head this way and that in an attempt to get a better look down onto the testing room floor, but her relative height and the degree of angle made it impossible to see very much. Shego watched with embarrassment as the usually demure Kimberly Ann Possible dragged her beautiful features across the transparent barrier and accomplished nothing except to deform her nose and create more smears.

"Will you sit down, please and thank you?!"

"I want to see what they're doing!"

"You can see on the screens!" The pale green woman jabbed a long finger in the direction of half a dozen video displays showing the activities of the subjects below. "It's even being recorded, so you can watch again and again and again and again!"

The younger woman didn't even turn around.

"I don't want to see them on TV. I want to see for myself."

"Damn it, Kimmie," the older woman growled. "You're making us look bad!"

"So not."

"Dr. Director's getting pissed." Shego made her tone as accusatory as she could; her Princess could always be counted on to respond to guilt. Now the former 'girl who could do anything' and now 'woman who can do anything' did turn, looking her mentor and occasional employer square in the face to gauge just how upset Doc Betty was getting. As it was, Betty Director was having a ball, though you would not have known it to look at her.

Far from being annoyed, she was highly amused by these antics and, as one of her doctorates was in psychology, she was sorely tempted to write a paper on the behavior of human and meta-human couples under double-blind observation when acting in traditional parenting roles. She knew Kim far better than she did the former villain sitting next to her but, if what she was seeing now was any indication of how things went in the Possible home, Betty thought that she might just write that paper when she took her next sabbatical from Global Justice.

For now she just waved her hand idly and slightly furrowed the auburn brow above her eye patch… an action that Kim and a handful of others knew to recognize as a wink.

"No she isn't."

Shego swiveled her chair and glared at the executive officer for 'GJ'.

"You are so not helping!"

Of the three women, only the executive office for the Middleton contingent of 'GJ' did not seem to be out of place in this high-tech environ. Betty Director was wearing her dark blue Global Justice uniform as usual but Kim had opted for a decidedly non-heroic, pale yellow sweater over a simple white blouse and gray skirt. Shego had been cajoled into wearing her 'Miss Go' outfit, making her look more like a schoolteacher than anything else.

Kim signed and turned away from the glass; there was just no way that she could see what was going on down at floor level of the enormous testing chamber. The tiny observation room that the adults currently occupied was a good thirty feet up the southeastern wall and hidden from those below by a thick layer of one-way plexi-shield 'glass'. The twins had been down in the chamber for over an hour with only one familiar face to keep them company.

The girls were behaving well as usual and it was their birth mother as usual who was actually the most restless of the Possible family. Shego massaged her temples and debated grabbing the redhead and tying her into a chair.

"Kimmie, for the love of God, please sit down!"

"Is it really driving you crazy?"

"Yes!"

"Hah. Short trip."

"After living with you and the green goblins, this surprises you?"

"Doesn't it bother you that they're down there all alone?"

"If I may, your daughters are hardly alone. Special Agent Du is perfectly capable of looking after them and keeping them entertained for the duration of the tests."

Matching looks of rueful incredulity made Dr. Director reconsider her point.

"Admittedly, his skills in child care are lacking but no harm will come to them."

"Kim, I've told you a million times…"

"Shego, please don't exaggerate."

"… that you worry too much. Ok, maybe just a thousand times… but you're going to be a nervous wreck before you're thirty if you don't relax whenever little Cuff and Link aren't in your direct line of sight."

"You're one to talk."

"But I'm right, aren't I?"

"Yes… you're right." The young hero took a few deep breaths and stopped wringing her hands. "I can sit through this without bugging."

"Good girl. You get a cookie when we get home."

"It's just a test." Kim intoned, convincing herself more than anything else. "Like an eye exam or when they test your hearing." Her eyes darted to her mentor and the older woman nodded.

"Quite so," assured Dr. Director. "Nothing invasive at all. Just as harmless as the tea party which they are having."

"So no med-techs wheeling in a tray of probes and going all 'Josef Mengele' on our girls' little green keisters?"

"SHEGO!!"

"Kimmie, a high-tech joint like this must have at least one black, floating torture 'droid with a hypodermic needle ready for whenever guests arrive."

"GHAA!!"

"Doc, am I right?"

"Ms. Gordon, we have no such…"

The temperature seemed to drop suddenly.

"Don't call me that."

"My apologies." Dr. Director turned and her tone was contrite. "What I meant, Ms. Possible… is that we can learn everything we need to know from right up in the command platform using only the remote sensors." She raised an arm and gestured with a gloved hand at the myriad banks of instruments. "They are all running at full intensity and if one of the children so much as sneezes we will be able to measure every variable to the smallest iota."

"See, Shego? Geez! Dr. Director would never let anything happen to them."

"But can it make a good cup of coffee?"

"Sweetheart, you told me that you were ok with this." The petite woman moved her slender form closer so that Shego had no choice but to look at her. "We called them, remember? I did, anyway. You and I talked about this and you said that I could go ahead and schedule the test and you'd be here with me."

"Yeah."

"Then why are you bugging?"

"I'm not bugging." The pale green woman was the very image of disinterest. "I don't give a tin shit." She made a point of examining her nails. Kim didn't buy it for a second. Her earlier concerns for the twins aside, her whole attitude towards the sitch spun one hundred and eighty degrees now that her mate seemed to have unspoken worries.

"Now who's making us look bad?"

"Fine! Anything to get you off my back." The black glossed lips twisted as if she didn't like the taste of her words. "But if this sounds cliché, it's your fault." The older woman might as well have been carved from ice, and her tone carried no warmth. "You know how I hate the idea of being poked and prodded. I've been treated like a lab rat ever since I got my powers… my brothers, too. We were taken straight from the Go City Hospital to a research facility after our encounter with that damn comet. We didn't even get any real treatment for our injuries before they decided to haul us away." She counted off points with her long fingers. "Weldon was limping from what we later learned was a fracture to his ankle and both Heywood and I had mild concussions! We were kids for God's sake and the local establishment was more interested in whether we were potentially dangerous than assessing our health!"

"Ms. Possible, surely your parents…"

"My parents assisted the research team!" Like a snake she had struck, thrusting forward from her chair with her knuckles stark white on the padded armrests, black lips drawn back and black nails bared like claws. Hate was in Shego's voice and while Dr. Director had only heard that particular tone once or twice, the young redhead in the room had heard it on many occasions. No one said anything for the span of three minutes, letting the ticks and beeps of the electronics sing their tune while the former villain reined in her emotions and settled back down into her chair.

Kim had remained standing with her back to the plexi-shield. Now she moved closer.

"Sweetheart." the young hero paused, started again. "Sweetheart, my mother is a doctor and my father is a scientist. Both of them would have much to learn from the physical makeup of the children if they felt it was important." Kim waited until her mate returned her gaze. "But nothing is more important to my parents than the well-being of their granddaughters. They see the girls as people… first, last, and always. If the cure for cancer were to be found in their bloodstream, my mother would sooner lose her license to practice medicine than draw one drop of blood if it would hurt those girls."

"Nice hyperbole, Pumpkin, but if their blood held the cure for cancer then I'd be the first to drive them to the Middleton clinic, sit them down and get a little blood drawn, give each of them a big smooch for being such brave girls and then we'd all go out for ice cream. If you came with us you could get one of those parfaits you like." Shego smiled. "The girls would forget about the incident in a day or two and they'd be able to go the finest school in the world because we would sell the cure for a bazillion dollars."

The redhead threw her hands up.

"Fine. Bad analogy. How stupid of me."

"Don't get huffy, Princess."

"You're right, and I'm a moron."

"Kimmie, I never said anything like that."

"You don't have say anything!"

"I never thought it, either."

"I'll just go find something shiny to stare at."

"Hey, you have your opinion about this sitch and I have mine." The woman leaned backing her chair. "I don't trust these people like you do."

Doc Betty's good eye shifted from Shego to Kim. This was amazing!

"Would I ever put our children in danger?"

"I'm not going to answer that."

"Yes, you will." The small form planted her fists on slender hips and her voice was demanding. "I need to hear what you think." The tone boded no argument and she watched Shego cross her arms in exasperation.

"…"

"Hmm?"

"I said 'no'!" Emerald eyes narrowed. "Kim, this has never been a question about your abilities as a mother. I've never doubted your judgment when it comes to the girls."

"Then why…?"

"Like I said before, you trust these people. I don't." Shego cocked her head ruefully. "I s'pose I must, at least a bit, otherwise we wouldn't even be here. But if things go south of cheese, we go home."

"We're talking about people who have risked their lives for the girls, not to mention us."

"It's your delusion, Kimmie. Make is as grandiose as you please."

"You're impossible!"

"Anything's impossible for a Possible."

"Ladies, if I might offer a solution?"

The hero and the barely reformed villain turned to face the 'GJ' administrator. Doc Betty pursed her lips and squinted her good eye.

"I suppose that we could put them in a wire cage and poke at them with a stick." She spread her hands amicably. "If that would make everyone feel better."

Matching pairs of emerald eyes shot wide for a second but quickly relaxed as they recognized the statement for the joke it was meant to be. Kim grinned while Shego scowled and the youngest of the three finally took her seat between the other women.

"I'll stay up here if there's that much chance of my interfering with the test."

"It's about frigging time."

"Actually, I do not mind if Kimberly wants to join the children. I had hoped that they would be more inclined to display their powers in the absence of parental supervision, but it appears that I was wrong."

Shego grunted and looked smug.

"That makes two of you. I told her," she jutted her chin towards her mate, "that they're too young to create a stable plasma field."

"What? We've seen them!"

"That's just a light show, Princess. No heat."

Now it was Kim's turn to look smug.

"It's sure as heck hot enough to burn little handprints into the back fence behind the gardening shed."

"What?! Really? I am shocked, Kimmie! Shocked! As soon as we get home we will discuss the matter of suitable punishment. We can impose sanctions or something."

"Your own handprint was there, too."

There was something in her tone and expression that made it plain Kim's discovery had hurt her a bit. It deeply bothered the redhead that there would always be one aspect of her daughters' lives that she could never share, Shego knew this, and this perceived flaunting was painful. Her mouth opened but no words came out, her natural belligerence conflicting with feelings of guilt that she used to be able to suppress so easily once upon a time.

The former villain's salvation came in the form of Betty Director.

"Kimberly, why don't you go on down onto the floor and relieve Agent Du. That way you can be with the girls and I am certain that he will appreciate the break." Betty saw the relief on her guest's face. In truth, Kim did appreciate the opportunity to make absolutely sure that the girls were comfortable and also to avoid any further drama with Shego for a time… at least not until cooler heads could prevail.

"It won't be a problem?"

"I think not."

"Ok." Kim Possible stood from her chair and walked towards the door without a glance backward. "I guess I'll be down there 'til either we've gotten a result or you decide to call the whole thing off."

"Quite reasonable. Please send Will up to me for a debriefing."

"Got it," Kim said, reaching for the switch that would open the door.

"Kimmie, I…"

The small, fair hand stopped and rested against the cold metal of the wall and Kim turned slightly, enough to bring the form of her wife into partial focus but not enough to face her. She kept her head down and waited for the voice to sound again. Eventually, it did.

"I'm sorry about the handprints. It was cute and we had a ball making them. It was never about excluding you, they… wouldn't have understood why you couldn't play with us… they're only four years old." Shego sighed and wished that they didn't have an audience. "We were just having a little fun. I didn't mean to you're your feelings."

The petite redhead pivoted on her heel and slowly walked the short distance back to the chairs. Kim said nothing as she lowered her head and left a gentle kiss along the cheekbone of her wife. The public display of affection caught the older woman off guard but a small, strong hand held and caressed the back of Shego's neck even after Kim pulled her face away from the kiss. She stroked the chin and jaw line for a few seconds longer, both features turning a bruised purple as the flush rose from Shego's collar.

Kim did say one word before she straightened up and moved away again. Betty could not be certain, but she thought that the word was 'forgiven'.

"Ok, girls," the hero said, her voice conspicuously loud in the small room. "Play nice while Mommy goes downstairs and kicks some goblin booty." Her smile bespoke a confidence that had not been seen yet that morning; Kimberly Ann Possible was back in full control of her faculties now.

"Call me, beep me… etcetera, etcetera."

Dr. Director stopped scribbling the notes for her future article and looked back with a similar smile.

"Never fear, Kimberly. Ms. Possible and I will become the best of friends."

She noticed a decidedly dubious arching of Kim's brow in response to the statement, and then the young woman walked out of the observation room. The former most-wanted woman in the world, a meta-human capable of vaporizing steel with the energies she carried inside her, glowered at the current head of the world's most powerful independent defense force… and Dr. Betty Director stared right back.

To Be Continued….

Author's Notes: Regarding Shego's past, I am keeping it shrouded in mystery for now; unlike the way I have adopted Nodrogs 'Small Possibilities' tale for my initial baseline, I have decided not to give Sheila Gordon a background parallel to anyone else. Her story may be told someday, but not yet. There are hints throughout my stories.

Description
Shiny Hands
Author: The Humbug
Disclaimer: "Kim Possible" and all characters within © The Walt Disney Company and its related entities. Kim Possible created by Mark McCorkle & Bob Schooley. All rights reserved. No profit is being collected from the fiction contained within. The rest you can blame on me.
Rating: PG-13 for intimations of a physical relationship and intimate contact between consenting adults of either sex. This should also cover a little harsh language now and then. It's amazing what offends people these days. No imaginary characters were harmed in this story.
Summary: This is a Kim/Shego pairing fan fiction set in my 'Who's Writing This Crap?' Kigoverse. Kasy and Sheki are the creations of Nodrogs.

Shiny Hands / part one

"Kim, you're fogging the glass."

"I have to get close." The redhead pressed her cheek against the plexi-shield, leaving a smudge of make-up and skin oil that some poor 'GJ' maintenance tech would have to clean off later.

The young woman turned her head this way and that in an attempt to get a better look down onto the testing room floor, but her relative height and the degree of angle made it impossible to see very much. Shego watched with embarrassment as the usually demure Kimberly Ann Possible dragged her beautiful features across the transparent barrier and accomplished nothing except to deform her nose and create more smears.

"Will you sit down, please and thank you?!"

"I want to see what they're doing!"

"You can see on the screens!" The pale green woman jabbed a long finger in the direction of half a dozen video displays showing the activities of the subjects below. "It's even being recorded, so you can watch again and again and again and again!"

The younger woman didn't even turn around.

"I don't want to see them on TV. I want to see for myself."

"Damn it, Kimmie," the older woman growled. "You're making us look bad!"

"So not."

"Dr. Director's getting pissed." Shego made her tone as accusatory as she could; her Princess could always be counted on to respond to guilt. Now the former 'girl who could do anything' and now 'woman who can do anything' did turn, looking her mentor and occasional employer square in the face to gauge just how upset Doc Betty was getting. As it was, Betty Director was having a ball, though you would not have known it to look at her.

Far from being annoyed, she was highly amused by these antics and, as one of her doctorates was in psychology, she was sorely tempted to write a paper on the behavior of human and meta-human couples under double-blind observation when acting in traditional parenting roles. She knew Kim far better than she did the former villain sitting next to her but, if what she was seeing now was any indication of how things went in the Possible home, Betty thought that she might just write that paper when she took her next sabbatical from Global Justice.

For now she just waved her hand idly and slightly furrowed the auburn brow above her eye patch… an action that Kim and a handful of others knew to recognize as a wink.

"No she isn't."

Shego swiveled her chair and glared at the executive officer for 'GJ'.

"You are so not helping!"

Of the three women, only the executive office for the Middleton contingent of 'GJ' did not seem to be out of place in this high-tech environ. Betty Director was wearing her dark blue Global Justice uniform as usual but Kim had opted for a decidedly non-heroic, pale yellow sweater over a simple white blouse and gray skirt. Shego had been cajoled into wearing her 'Miss Go' outfit, making her look more like a schoolteacher than anything else.

Kim signed and turned away from the glass; there was just no way that she could see what was going on down at floor level of the enormous testing chamber. The tiny observation room that the adults currently occupied was a good thirty feet up the southeastern wall and hidden from those below by a thick layer of one-way plexi-shield 'glass'. The twins had been down in the chamber for over an hour with only one familiar face to keep them company.

The girls were behaving well as usual and it was their birth mother as usual who was actually the most restless of the Possible family. Shego massaged her temples and debated grabbing the redhead and tying her into a chair.

"Kimmie, for the love of God, please sit down!"

"Is it really driving you crazy?"

"Yes!"

"Hah. Short trip."

"After living with you and the green goblins, this surprises you?"

"Doesn't it bother you that they're down there all alone?"

"If I may, your daughters are hardly alone. Special Agent Du is perfectly capable of looking after them and keeping them entertained for the duration of the tests."

Matching looks of rueful incredulity made Dr. Director reconsider her point.

"Admittedly, his skills in child care are lacking but no harm will come to them."

"Kim, I've told you a million times…"

"Shego, please don't exaggerate."

"… that you worry too much. Ok, maybe just a thousand times… but you're going to be a nervous wreck before you're thirty if you don't relax whenever little Cuff and Link aren't in your direct line of sight."

"You're one to talk."

"But I'm right, aren't I?"

"Yes… you're right." The young hero took a few deep breaths and stopped wringing her hands. "I can sit through this without bugging."

"Good girl. You get a cookie when we get home."

"It's just a test." Kim intoned, convincing herself more than anything else. "Like an eye exam or when they test your hearing." Her eyes darted to her mentor and the older woman nodded.

"Quite so," assured Dr. Director. "Nothing invasive at all. Just as harmless as the tea party which they are having."

"So no med-techs wheeling in a tray of probes and going all 'Josef Mengele' on our girls' little green keisters?"

"SHEGO!!"

"Kimmie, a high-tech joint like this must have at least one black, floating torture 'droid with a hypodermic needle ready for whenever guests arrive."

"GHAA!!"

"Doc, am I right?"

"Ms. Gordon, we have no such…"

The temperature seemed to drop suddenly.

"Don't call me that."

"My apologies." Dr. Director turned and her tone was contrite. "What I meant, Ms. Possible… is that we can learn everything we need to know from right up in the command platform using only the remote sensors." She raised an arm and gestured with a gloved hand at the myriad banks of instruments. "They are all running at full intensity and if one of the children so much as sneezes we will be able to measure every variable to the smallest iota."

"See, Shego? Geez! Dr. Director would never let anything happen to them."

"But can it make a good cup of coffee?"

"Sweetheart, you told me that you were ok with this." The petite woman moved her slender form closer so that Shego had no choice but to look at her. "We called them, remember? I did, anyway. You and I talked about this and you said that I could go ahead and schedule the test and you'd be here with me."

"Yeah."

"Then why are you bugging?"

"I'm not bugging." The pale green woman was the very image of disinterest. "I don't give a tin shit." She made a point of examining her nails. Kim didn't buy it for a second. Her earlier concerns for the twins aside, her whole attitude towards the sitch spun one hundred and eighty degrees now that her mate seemed to have unspoken worries.

"Now who's making us look bad?"

"Fine! Anything to get you off my back." The black glossed lips twisted as if she didn't like the taste of her words. "But if this sounds cliché, it's your fault." The older woman might as well have been carved from ice, and her tone carried no warmth. "You know how I hate the idea of being poked and prodded. I've been treated like a lab rat ever since I got my powers… my brothers, too. We were taken straight from the Go City Hospital to a research facility after our encounter with that damn comet. We didn't even get any real treatment for our injuries before they decided to haul us away." She counted off points with her long fingers. "Weldon was limping from what we later learned was a fracture to his ankle and both Heywood and I had mild concussions! We were kids for God's sake and the local establishment was more interested in whether we were potentially dangerous than assessing our health!"

"Ms. Possible, surely your parents…"

"My parents assisted the research team!" Like a snake she had struck, thrusting forward from her chair with her knuckles stark white on the padded armrests, black lips drawn back and black nails bared like claws. Hate was in Shego's voice and while Dr. Director had only heard that particular tone once or twice, the young redhead in the room had heard it on many occasions. No one said anything for the span of three minutes, letting the ticks and beeps of the electronics sing their tune while the former villain reined in her emotions and settled back down into her chair.

Kim had remained standing with her back to the plexi-shield. Now she moved closer.

"Sweetheart." the young hero paused, started again. "Sweetheart, my mother is a doctor and my father is a scientist. Both of them would have much to learn from the physical makeup of the children if they felt it was important." Kim waited until her mate returned her gaze. "But nothing is more important to my parents than the well-being of their granddaughters. They see the girls as people… first, last, and always. If the cure for cancer were to be found in their bloodstream, my mother would sooner lose her license to practice medicine than draw one drop of blood if it would hurt those girls."

"Nice hyperbole, Pumpkin, but if their blood held the cure for cancer then I'd be the first to drive them to the Middleton clinic, sit them down and get a little blood drawn, give each of them a big smooch for being such brave girls and then we'd all go out for ice cream. If you came with us you could get one of those parfaits you like." Shego smiled. "The girls would forget about the incident in a day or two and they'd be able to go the finest school in the world because we would sell the cure for a bazillion dollars."

The redhead threw her hands up.

"Fine. Bad analogy. How stupid of me."

"Don't get huffy, Princess."

"You're right, and I'm a moron."

"Kimmie, I never said anything like that."

"You don't have say anything!"

"I never thought it, either."

"I'll just go find something shiny to stare at."

"Hey, you have your opinion about this sitch and I have mine." The woman leaned backing her chair. "I don't trust these people like you do."

Doc Betty's good eye shifted from Shego to Kim. This was amazing!

"Would I ever put our children in danger?"

"I'm not going to answer that."

"Yes, you will." The small form planted her fists on slender hips and her voice was demanding. "I need to hear what you think." The tone boded no argument and she watched Shego cross her arms in exasperation.

"…"

"Hmm?"

"I said 'no'!" Emerald eyes narrowed. "Kim, this has never been a question about your abilities as a mother. I've never doubted your judgment when it comes to the girls."

"Then why…?"

"Like I said before, you trust these people. I don't." Shego cocked her head ruefully. "I s'pose I must, at least a bit, otherwise we wouldn't even be here. But if things go south of cheese, we go home."

"We're talking about people who have risked their lives for the girls, not to mention us."

"It's your delusion, Kimmie. Make is as grandiose as you please."

"You're impossible!"

"Anything's impossible for a Possible."

"Ladies, if I might offer a solution?"

The hero and the barely reformed villain turned to face the 'GJ' administrator. Doc Betty pursed her lips and squinted her good eye.

"I suppose that we could put them in a wire cage and poke at them with a stick." She spread her hands amicably. "If that would make everyone feel better."

Matching pairs of emerald eyes shot wide for a second but quickly relaxed as they recognized the statement for the joke it was meant to be. Kim grinned while Shego scowled and the youngest of the three finally took her seat between the other women.

"I'll stay up here if there's that much chance of my interfering with the test."

"It's about frigging time."

"Actually, I do not mind if Kimberly wants to join the children. I had hoped that they would be more inclined to display their powers in the absence of parental supervision, but it appears that I was wrong."

Shego grunted and looked smug.

"That makes two of you. I told her," she jutted her chin towards her mate, "that they're too young to create a stable plasma field."

"What? We've seen them!"

"That's just a light show, Princess. No heat."

Now it was Kim's turn to look smug.

"It's sure as heck hot enough to burn little handprints into the back fence behind the gardening shed."

"What?! Really? I am shocked, Kimmie! Shocked! As soon as we get home we will discuss the matter of suitable punishment. We can impose sanctions or something."

"Your own handprint was there, too."

There was something in her tone and expression that made it plain Kim's discovery had hurt her a bit. It deeply bothered the redhead that there would always be one aspect of her daughters' lives that she could never share, Shego knew this, and this perceived flaunting was painful. Her mouth opened but no words came out, her natural belligerence conflicting with feelings of guilt that she used to be able to suppress so easily once upon a time.

The former villain's salvation came in the form of Betty Director.

"Kimberly, why don't you go on down onto the floor and relieve Agent Du. That way you can be with the girls and I am certain that he will appreciate the break." Betty saw the relief on her guest's face. In truth, Kim did appreciate the opportunity to make absolutely sure that the girls were comfortable and also to avoid any further drama with Shego for a time… at least not until cooler heads could prevail.

"It won't be a problem?"

"I think not."

"Ok." Kim Possible stood from her chair and walked towards the door without a glance backward. "I guess I'll be down there 'til either we've gotten a result or you decide to call the whole thing off."

"Quite reasonable. Please send Will up to me for a debriefing."

"Got it," Kim said, reaching for the switch that would open the door.

"Kimmie, I…"

The small, fair hand stopped and rested against the cold metal of the wall and Kim turned slightly, enough to bring the form of her wife into partial focus but not enough to face her. She kept her head down and waited for the voice to sound again. Eventually, it did.

"I'm sorry about the handprints. It was cute and we had a ball making them. It was never about excluding you, they… wouldn't have understood why you couldn't play with us… they're only four years old." Shego sighed and wished that they didn't have an audience. "We were just having a little fun. I didn't mean to you're your feelings."

The petite redhead pivoted on her heel and slowly walked the short distance back to the chairs. Kim said nothing as she lowered her head and left a gentle kiss along the cheekbone of her wife. The public display of affection caught the older woman off guard but a small, strong hand held and caressed the back of Shego's neck even after Kim pulled her face away from the kiss. She stroked the chin and jaw line for a few seconds longer, both features turning a bruised purple as the flush rose from Shego's collar.

Kim did say one word before she straightened up and moved away again. Betty could not be certain, but she thought that the word was 'forgiven'.

"Ok, girls," the hero said, her voice conspicuously loud in the small room. "Play nice while Mommy goes downstairs and kicks some goblin booty." Her smile bespoke a confidence that had not been seen yet that morning; Kimberly Ann Possible was back in full control of her faculties now.

"Call me, beep me… etcetera, etcetera."

Dr. Director stopped scribbling the notes for her future article and looked back with a similar smile.

"Never fear, Kimberly. Ms. Possible and I will become the best of friends."

She noticed a decidedly dubious arching of Kim's brow in response to the statement, and then the young woman walked out of the observation room. The former most-wanted woman in the world, a meta-human capable of vaporizing steel with the energies she carried inside her, glowered at the current head of the world's most powerful independent defense force… and Dr. Betty Director stared right back.

To Be Continued….

Author's Notes: Regarding Shego's past, I am keeping it shrouded in mystery for now; unlike the way I have adopted Nodrogs 'Small Possibilities' tale for my initial baseline, I have decided not to give Sheila Gordon a background parallel to anyone else. Her story may be told someday, but not yet. There are hints throughout my stories.