Doppler Shift.

A Kim Possible Fanfic.

By Zombie Boy.

Doppler Effect.

The apparent difference between the frequency at which sound or light waves leave a source and that at which they reach an observer, caused by relative motion of the observer and the wave source. This phenomenon is used in astronomical measurements, in Mössbauer effect studies, and in radar and modern navigation. It was first described (1842) by Austrian physicist Christian Doppler.

Encyclopedia Britannica.

Chapter One.

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Dr. Anne Possible sighed and stretched, leaning back against the counter. Picking up her coffee, she took a sip and glanced at the timer, which sat ticking away quietly a few feet away.

The dial showed there were five minutes to go. Putting her cup down, she happened to glance out the window to the backyard, where Kim and Ron were getting in some last minute cramming for their midterms.

It was late spring, and the Colorado weather had finally turned nice, so Kim and Ron were making the most of it. It was sunny, warm, and the sky was a brilliant blue, with the mountains gleaming white with their snowcaps.

Holding her mug in her hands, she watched her daughter and her best friend (who, in many ways, was like a son to Anne and James) study.

She watched as Kim pointed something out to Ron, who nodded and leaned back to take a swig from his bottle of water. Only to have the contents of said bottle squirt out all over him.

Anne laughed, her eyes sparkling with amusement as Ron hopped up onto his feet and began to hop around as Kim, laughing, rolled over onto her back.

She shook her head as Ron struck an incredibly goofy, yet heroic pose. "Oh Ron..." she said, putting down her coffee cup.

Outside Ron dropped the heroic pose, looked down at himself, shrugged, and nonchalantly pulled his shirt off. Anne froze, her eyes going wide in surprise as she got a look at Ron's physique.

"Oh, my..." she said under her breath as Ron wrung out his shirt.

Anne was surprised to say the least, by what she saw of what was under Ron's shirt. Taunt echoed through her mind, along with words and situations that part of her realized that a woman in her forties should not be thinking about an underage boy in her teens, while another part of her went "Hubba, hubba, hubba."

Ding! Went the timer, snapping her out of her reverie and back to reality.

Shaking her head, Anne felt warmth radiating up through her body to her cheeks, and something wet on her cheek.

"Oh God, I was NOT just drooling over Ron." she thought to herself, wiping her cheek off. Grabbing a pair of oven mitts she opened the oven and took out the apple and set it on the counter. Turning off the oven Anne sat down at the kitchen table, and began to take deep breaths, trying to calm herself down.

"Okay Anne, get a hold of yourself." she told herself, speaking in a low voice. "You're married to James, and you've got three wonderful children. You do not need to go drooling over a boy who's in his teens." she continued, taking another deep breath and slowly letting it out.

Unbidden, the image of a shirtless Ron popped up in her mind. "Dammit..." she muttered, glad that James and the boys were out at the zoo. "Get control, get control, get control..." she repeated in a low mantra.

After running through the multiplication tables for a few minutes, Anne was feeling reasonably calm. Opening her eyes, she looked up at the clock and realized that she had about two hours before James and the boys came back.

"Physician, heal thyself." she thought, the quote from Luke seeming quite appropriate. In this case, her response would be a cold shower and some counseling.

The counseling would have to wait until Monday, this being Saturday, but the cold shower she could take care of right now. Getting up, she set the pie back on the counter and headed upstairs to the shower.

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The chatter of dinner conversation mixed together with the clink of silverware on plates as the Possibles and Ron supped around the kitchen table. Kim and Ron huddled together, discussing something relating to their missions, while Jim and Tim scarfed down their food while simultaneously conversing in the special language of twins, the gestures and phrases both archaic and subtle, completely unintelligible to outsiders.

Anne and James sat and talked about their days while they both kept an eye on the twins -a habit shared by all parents everywhere.

Which was why a sudden click made Anne and James stop in mid conversation and look. The sound had come from where the twins were sitting, no doubt about it.

"What was that?" Anne asked them.

"I didn't-" Jim began, looking innocent.

"-hear anything." Tim finished, also looking innocent.

"I definitely heard a 'click'." James said, giving the boys a stern look. "What was that?" he asked.

"Ummmm..." they began, trying to think of something to say.

Anything they would have said was interrupted by a ploop noise from the mashed potatoes. Everyone held stock still and stared at the bowl, where a cavity formed by a bubble was closing in on itself. Slowly another one rose to the surface and broke with another ploop.

Ron swallowed nervously as that bubble was followed by another, and another. Steam began to escape from the sides of the bowl.

"Ahhh..." Ron began.

"Hit the deck!" Rufus squeaked from Ron's pocket. "Gonna blow!"

Everyone ducked underneath the table moments before the hissing and popping bowl of mashed potatoes went critical and exploded, sending white, buttery, goo everywhere.

The silence that followed was broken by the rhythmic chiming of Kim's Kimmunicator. Sensing an out to a tense situation, Ron raised his hand.

"Ah, Mr and Mrs P," he asked. "May Kim and I be excused? Ah, duty calls."

Glancing behind him at the mess their sons had made, James and Anne nodded. "Yes, you're excused." James said. "Just don't stay out too late." Anne added.

"We won't Mom." Kim said before she and Ron disappeared in a flash.

Jim and Tim watched them haul out of there, then turned back to see their parents glaring at them.

"Uh-" Jim said.

"-Oh." Tim finished.

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After lecturing Jim and Tim -again- on why high -energy devices made out of spare parts, old toys, and junk do not belong at the dinner table, and then grounding them for two weeks.

"They certainly are a handful, aren't they?" James asked, having just come down from putting them to bed.

Blowing a wisp of hair out of her eyes Anne sighed. "Yes, they are." she agreed.

Dropping the sponge in the bucket she stood up and looked around at the kitchen. As messes went, this one was one of the boys lesser ones. There hadn't been any structural damage, the only damage had been a broken glass.

Wiping everything down had been thankfully easy, this being the kitchen, but there had been a lot of it. Plus she hadn't been expecting to have to wipe down the entire ceiling due to the dust, and she was tired.

"Getting old, Annie." a voice chided in her head. "Aw, shaddup." she told it as James came up behind her and put his hands on his shoulders.

Anne moaned softly as he began to massage her shoulders. "Mmmm..." she said, leaning back into him. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." James said, leaning forwards so he could smell his wifes hair. "Did you change shampoos?" he asked. "Your hair smells different."

"Mm- hmm." Anne answered, closing her eyes as James hands worked their magic on her back. "It's a new herbal mix I picked up the other day."

"I like it." James said, lowering his head to nibble at the back of his wifes neck. "Have I mentioned that I've been having the most dirty thoughts about you?" he murmured in her ear.

A smile formed on Anne's lips. "James, the kids..." she began as her husband kept nibbling on the back of her neck.

"Kim and Ron are out saving the world, and the boys are already asleep." James said wrapping his arms around her waist. "And did I mention they're getting dirtier?" he added.

Anne chewed on her lip as she ran a hand along James' arm. "Oh, Dr. Possible, you dirty, dirty, man." she purred, twisting out of his grasp and leading him to the living room. "Tell me more..."

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Anne sighed and stared at the clock on the bedside. 4:55 am, it read. Looking out the window, she saw the eastern sky was beginning to lighten with the first promises of dawn.

Sighing again she rubbed her eyes and stared forlornly at the ceiling. Beside her, James lay sound asleep, their passion earlier having put him into a deep and restful sleep.

Anne, on the other hand, hadn't managed to sleep a wink, being racked with guilt and unable to sleep. She was feeling that way because hours before she had been making passionate love to her husband she had been literally drooling over Ron.

She knew she deeply loved her husband, and there was no way she was ever going to replace him in her life, but...

...but when they making love, for just a moment, a tiny part of her in the back of her brain had wanted to fantasize that it was Ron who she was with.

Anne had immediately buried that thought and lost herself in the moment, but afterwards, when they were lying side by side in sweaty exhaustion, guilt had come creeping in on panthers pads as James had drifted off to sleep.

And as the night had wore on, fatigue had started to set in, and with it paranoia. She imagined for brief moments, terrifying in their power, that her husband would find out, that he would leave her, that word of it would get out, that her children would be the targets of ridicule and shame.

She had banished those thought as soon as she had them, telling herself that would never happen. but they stayed in the back of her mind, whispering their dark promises.

Anne looked out the window again at the the pre-dawn horizon and sighed again, pleading for sleep to come.

Downstairs there was a metallic clink! That made Anne sit up in bed, reflexively drawing the covers up to protect her modesty. She listened for a moment and recognized the sound as that of the front door being unlocked.

Throwing back the covers, Anne got out of bed and grabbed her robe, wrapping it around herself before she hurried downstairs to where she knew Kim was coming in.

She got downstairs just as Kim got the door lock undone and staggered. Anne started as she got a look at her daughter. Her hair was tangled and matted, mixed in with all sorts of grime, her clothes were torn and burnt, from the knees down she was covered in an unidentified pale green substance, and there was a red mark on her face that looked like she gotten hit by a high velocity waffle.

"Kimmie, what happened to you?" Anne asked, coming closer to her daughter.

Kim's face twitched as she spoke. "M-morons... waffles... s-so much p-p-pudding!" was all she said before collapsing into her mothers arms.

Anne was about to ask Kim what she was talking about when she saw that her daughter was fast asleep. Sighing and smiling at her daughter, Anne threw one of Kim's arms around her shoulder and took her upstairs, where she cleaned up Kim before changing her into her PJ's and putting her to bed.

She then tottered off to her own bed, where mercifully she was able to drift off to sleep.

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"Hey chica, why you so down?"

Anne looked up with a jerk to see Deunan Knute, RN and head of nursing at Middleton general Hospital, standing in front of her. Or to be more specific, she saw Deunan's ample chest as she leaned over her.

"Gaah!" Anne said, leaning back. "Watch where you put those things Deunan!"

Deunan grinned and sat down opposite Anne. "Thought that'd get your attention." she said impishly. "So, what's up?"

Anne sighed and looked over at her best friend. "Sleep, or the lack of it." she answered.

"Worrying about Kim again?" asked Deunan, arching an eyebrow.

Anne shook her head and leaned forwards towards her friend. "I wish it was about Kim..." she said in a low voice. "It's about me and James..."

Deunan's eyes got wide and she glanced around quickly at the hospital cafeteria that they were both in.

"Oh boy." she said, leaning in towards Anne. "We can't talk about this here." she said in a whisper. "Come with me."

Grabbing Anne, she dragged her out her seat, out of the cafeteria, down the hall and into the Janitors closet, which was right next to the elevator machinery. Yanking the janitor out of the closet, Deunan deposited him on a passing gurney and then pushed Anne into the closet.

"Sorry honey." she called before steeping into the closet and shutting the door after her.

On the gurney, the janitor shrugged and pulled the folded up arts section out of his hip pocket. Leaning back he began to read the reviews of the play that had just opened at the local community playhouse.

"Your wife is weird, you know that Briareos?" the intern pushing the gurney said.

Briareos shrugged. "Eh, it's one of the reasons why I love her Jimmy." he said. "Could you drop me off at the vending machines?" he asked.

"Sure thing." the intern said as Briareos leaned forwards to examine a column. "Something interesting?"

"Yeah. Audience reviews of my play." Briareos said. "They like it..."

Back in the janitors closet Anne turned to Deunan and crossed her arms. "Okay, now that we've gone through all that, can I tell you now?" she asked.

"Mm -hm." Deunan said, drumming her fingers on the door in case there was anybody trying to listen in on the conversation through the door. "You said something about you and James?"

Anne nodded as she chewed on her lower lip. "Yeah..." she said, trying to figure out the best way to put it. "You see, on Saturday, I was kinda, well..." she trailed off for a moment, then too k a breath and leaned in to her best friend. "Drooling over a younger man.."

Deunan gave her a deadpan look. "That's it?" she asked. "You were looking at some eye candy?"

Anne hugged herself and looked down at the floor. That told Deunan that there was more to it, and she knew the only way to get out of Anne was to coax it out of her. "There's more, isn't there." she said "What'd you do, fantazise about him?"

"I wanted to." Anne answered. "But I didn't."

Deunan blinked and gave her friend a deadpan look. "That's it?" she asked, then laughed and gave Anne a play punch in the arm. "Don't worry about it." she said. "You think you're the first woman to fantasize about forbidden fruit?"

Anne looked at Deunan like she had sprouted a second head. "B-but.." she stammered.

"No buts." Deunan said, putting a finger on Anne's lips. "Unless we're talking men's butts, that's another story." she added mischievously "It's okay to have a hankering for something different, just as long as you don't let it go any farther than that."

Anne opened her mouth to say something, thought for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah." she said. "You're right." she said. "Thank you."

Deunan beamed. "That's what friends are for." she chirped. "Now lets get out of here, before they think something untoward s is happening."

Anne rolled her eyes as Deunan opened the closet door.

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Ron was happy. Finals were over, he had passed, and after a mission a day for the week leading up to said finals, it had been mercifully quiet. Fisk, the Senors, Motor Ed, Duff Killigan, they had been coming out of the woodwork all week, and he was wore out.

Kim, he knew wasn't doing much better. She had her various extracurricular activities on her plate in addition to schoolwork and their hero gig, and she was practically DOA. In fact, they had been so busy with the hero gig that Kim had to forgo a lot of them to keep up with the bad guys.

Which was why they were lying on the lawn in the Possible backyard, doing nothing instead of the big celebration they had planned. They were dead tired, not in the mood to talk to anyone, and Kim was certainly not in the mood to risk a run in with Rockwaller, who was undoubtedly looking to give Kim shit about ditching the local scene.

There had been some good parts about being so busy, at least from Ron's point of view. With him so busy, the jocks and other assorted Neanderthals at the school hadn't been able to stuff him in his locker. Plus, Kim had barely had to deal with Bonnie, so she was actually in a pretty good mood.

The fact that those two maniacs they'd ran into a couple of weeks earlier hadn't shown up was a plus too. Dodging high velocity waffles wasn't as funny as it sounded. And he wasn't even going to start on the pudding. If he ever even saw a pudding cup it would be too soon.

Thats what made the fact that after busting his ass all week, Ron felt he had earned this slacking off time. And then later on this evening, he had a hot date. Of course, he was still trying to figure out how to tell Kim that he was dating, but he'd think of something...

"Kim, Ron, lemonade..."

Ron's eyes snapped open. "Thanks Mrs P." he called. "I got it." he told Kim, jumping to his feet.

He paused for a moment to stretch, and his pants chose at the moment to let go and fall to earth.

"Gaaaack!" Ron said, bending down to grab at his pants. "Not again... damn pants..."

Eyes closed, Kim snorted in amusement as Ron buckled his pants back up, then ran into the house to get the lemonade.

"Gravity get you again?" Anne asked as Ron stepped into the kitchen.

Ron nodded and hung his head. "Yeah..." he said. "One of these days, I'll beat it!" he said, striking a heroic pose (with one hand holding onto his pants just in case) before taking the tray from Anne.

As Ron headed back to where Kim was, Anne took a moment to cast an appreciative glance at Ron's rear, then checked on the casserole in the oven before returning to the paper she was writing.

"Got the lemonade, KP." Ron said as he came up.

"Thanks, Ron." Kim said, sitting up as Ron put the tray down. "God, what a week."

"You said it." Ron said with a nod. "But now we got summer vacation. No school, nothing but missions to worry about..." he added, pouring Kim a glass. "Here you go."

Kim took the glass and had a healthy sip. "And don't forget parties." she said, enjoying the taste of lemonade on her tounge. "And now dating won't be such a hassle."

Ron almost agreed with her on that, but caught himself at the last moment. "Careful Ron."he told himself. "Remember, dealing with a land mine here. Handle with care."

"Not to mention all the late night chop socky marathons." he said, giving Kim a reply that wouldn't rouse any suspicions.

"Can't forget those." Kim said as she watched Ron fill his own glass. "Right now, laughing at poorly sub titled Hong Kong action flicks doesn't sound too bad right about now."

For a second, he was about to agree, then her remembered: Hot date, tonight. Can't tell Kim- bad reaction. His brain froze for a second, trying to think of a good cover- so, his mouth, not hearing any orders from higher up, took the initiative.

"Aah, not tonight Kim." he said. "Parents got the night off. Gonna spend some quality time with them, y'know, do the family thing."

Kim blinked for a second, kind of surprised that Ron's workaholic parents had decided to take a Friday night off, but accepted it.

"Okay." she said. "Maybe later."

Ron nodded. "Later. After all, we got all summer."

"Yeah." Kim said. "We do."

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"every girl's crazy 'bout a sharp dressed man..."

Ron smiled to himself as he sang along to Billy Gibbons. He wasn't wearing a silk suit or black tie- just his everyday clothes. He had changed his jeans due to a freak mud puddle accident involving a Corrola being chased by a lime green Superbird, followed by a black and gold 70's Trans -Am along with a 67' GT 500.

His preparations followed a distinct routine: Clean clothes, brush hair, brush teeth. Once that was taken care of, he then slipped on the bracelet that jammed his tracking chip, then placed his hand on the transponder that came with the bracelet.

When he activated the transponder, it simply snatched the signal the chip was sending, then started to rebroadcast it at the same strength at the same time the bracelet activated, jamming the signal from the chip.

Ron then snapped what looked like a Bluetooth phone attachment to his communicator, which linked him to the transponder via cell networks and rebroadcast the signal, with the proper GPS positioning.

This way, he could go out on his dates, and if Wade or Kim contacted him, it would read as if he was at home, so he could date with relative safety.

Relative was the operative word here- there was still a chance he could be spotted by someone from school or a alert member of the media, so thats why his other set of preparations was necessary.

Before he headed downstairs, Ron grabbed a pair of second gen surplus night vision goggles and put them on. Once he was downstairs, Ron headed to the basement, which had its own entrance- and where the exterior light was off.

Clicking on the NVG's, he was able to navigate the dark basement easily and slip out the back door. Crossing the backyard and hopping the fence was just as easy, and he landed as softly as he could on the path that ran alongside the drainage ditch that was behind his house.

Jogging along the path for three blocks, Ron reached a bridge and stepped out onto the sidewalk, and waited. Thirty five seconds later a dark green SVT Lightning pulled up in front of him, and the door popped open.

"Right on time, Stoppable." Shego said as he got in.

"I aim to please." Ron answered, fastening his seatbelt. "Go." he said, taking his NVG's off.

Shego put the truck in gear and they started off, heading out of Middleton. "What'd you tell the Princess?" she asked as Ron flipped open the console.

"Dinner with my parents." he answered, stowing the goggles. "Where we headed?"

Shego smiled slyly. "It's a surprise." she said.

"Ookay then." Ron said, wondering what the surprise could be.

Hearing the dubious note in his voice, Shego spared a glance at him. "Trust me, you'll like it." she said, shifting into fourth. "It's a place where we can hang out and not have to worry about being caught."

"Your cabin?" asked Ron, a little confused.

Shego laughed. "Nope." she said. "And I'm not telling you where it is either. That would ruin the suprise." she added, then she smirked. "But if you play your cards right, you could end up seeing my cabin."

Ron blinked, not getting it for a second, then his brain locked up. "Guh, guh, guh..." he gibbered, making Shego laugh as she shifted into Fifth.

They drove in silence for a few more minutes, then Shego let off the throttle and began to downshift, then turned off the main road. Bouncing over ruts, they began to snake into the mountains.

"So where were going is up this -ow!- road?" asked Ron as his head bounced off the back window of the truck.

"Nope." Shego said as they came into a clearing, where camouflaged in the darkness under netting was a hovercraft. "But this is where we catch the flight to where we're going."

Ron thought for a second., then shrugged. "Okay." he said as Shego pressed a button on the dash of the truck, and a door lowered on the back.

Gunning the engine, Shego drove the truck and whipped it around so they were facing the hovercraft. Feathering the throttle, she wheeled the truck up into the belly of the hovercraft. Parking it, then wheel chocks snapped up, locking the truck in place.

"Annnd we're parked." Shego said, putting the truck in neutral. "Now lets get going."

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Kim was bored. Really bored. The kind of bored where she was almost wishing that Wade would crop up with a mission for them.

Yawning, she rolled over onto her belly and stared at her phone. There was no one she could call, really. All of her friends were off doing something or the other, and she was too tired to want to leave the house.

Sighing, she glanced up at the clock, which maddeningly read 7:56 pm. Precisely three minutes had passed since she had last looked at it. Groaning, she buried her face in the covers and looked back up at the clock.

"I hate you." she told it.

The clock, for it's part simply mocked her by staying stuck at 7:56pm. Glaring in irritation at the clock, Kim rolled back over onto her back and grabbed her bear, Mr. Boo.

"God, boo, I am soooo bored." she told him, hugging him to her chest.

Outside of Ron, her bear was her closest confidante. Usually she talked to him when Ron wasn't availible, like in the middle of the night when she couldn't sleep.

He was a comfort, and although he never responded to her, she almost always seemed to come to the right conclusions and figure out the right answers while talking to him.

"Monique's at a party, everybody else is out partying, I'm too tired to go out and join them, and Ron is having dinner with his parents, so I can't just call him up and hang with him..." she said, clutching Boo and frowning at the ceiling. Turning Boo over, she held him up over her head and looked him in the eye. "What do you suggest I do?" she asked. "I mean, I already did the dishes, and there is nothing on TV that I'd care to watch..."

Holding Boo close again she rolled over onto her side and stared at the phone for a few long moments and then glanced at her clock. It read 7:58 pm.

"Ron's probably finished by now, anyways." she said. "He won't mind me saying hi."

Dialing his number from memory, Kim listened as the the phone rang. After the third ring, she creased her brow in thought, then she sat up when she heard a 'click' on the other end of the line.

"Hi, and Shabbot Shalom. Welcome to the Stoppable family answering machine." Ron's fathers voice came on the line. "Normally we would have someone answer the phone, but our operator got a better job being a hero and his replacement only speaks Naked Mole Rat. So please leave a message after the beep and we'll get back to you- we hope."

Kim smiled at the recording on the Stoppable family answering machine. The Stoppables were justifiably proud of their son doing the heroic thing and saving the world, and bragged about his and Kim's exploits.

Hearing the beep, Kim spoke. "Hey Ron, this is Kim." she said. "Just thought I'd say hi to you and your parents. Talk to ya later, bye."

Hanging up, Kim put the phone back and rolled over onto her back -and stopped. The Stoppables had caller ID. If anyone from the Possible household was calling them, they picked up. Even if ti was only Rufus who was available.

Sitting up, Kim brushed a stray lock of hair from her face and looked at the phone. Something wasn't right here, and she had a feeling in her gut that she should check it out.

Getting off the bed Kim went to her closet. True, she was tired, and she really didn't have the energy to go out and meet up with her other friends for partying, but this was different. This was Ron, and he was beyond friendship.

Grabbing a pair of shoes she headed downstairs, where her parents were sitting in the living room watching The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly on DVD.

"Mom, Dad, I'm going over to Ron's real quick." Kim said, heading for the back door.

"Don't stay out too late." James called back as she put her shoes on.

"I won't." Kim answered before heading out the door.

Outside, Kim went to the back fence and jumped it, landing on the path that was a shortcut to Ron's place. Taking off at a jog, she arrived a couple of minutes later to find the house dark, and the driveway empty.

Concerned, Kim hopped the fence and approached the house. Reaching the back door she paused to listen. Not hearing anything, Kim frowned and looked up at the second story of the house. Climbing up the drain spout to the second story, she snuck across the roof to Ron's window and peeked inside his room, which was deserted.

Stepping away from the window, Kim frowned and reached for her Kimmunicator. When she grabbed empty air Kim swore as she realized that she had left it at home. Hopping down off the roof, she jogged back to her house.

"I'm back." Kim said as she came back in.

"Welcome back." Anne said as Kim shut the back door.

Pulling her shoes off, Kim headed back upstairs to her room. Grabbing her Kimmunicator, she plopped down on her bed and fired it up. Entering the menu, she thumbed through the options and called up the "Ron" folder.

In the submenu she thumbed down to the 'location' option, and selected it. The options menu was replace with a hourglass icon as the Kimmunicator accessed the proper satellites, then pinpointed his location.

A map appeared on the screen, with a red dot centered on the Stoppables address. Turning it off, she dropped it off on the nightstand and stared at the ceiling.

"What the hell is going on?"

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"So that's what Chicago looks like." Ron said, leaning forwards to peer out the windscreen. "And I thought Denver was big."

"Denver is a wide spot in the road compared Chicago." Shego said from the pilots seat. "Now hold on. We're gonna be landing soon and the crosswinds are bitch on the waterfront."

Ron grabbed his armrests as the hover craft began to shake. As they approached the ground, Ron saw that they were heading towards a large lot, about a block square, surrounded by buildings. Glancing over when he caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye, he was about to ask what she was doing when the night landscape outside was lit up in black, white, and gray.

"What the-" Ron started to say, but was cut off by Shego.

"Forward Looking Infra Red." she explained. "Same thing as you'd find on police and attack choppers, but it's projected onto the windscreen instead of through a monitor."

"Oh." Ron said, looking around at the thermal -lit landscape. "Cool. Must come in handy."

"Oh, it does." Shego said, pausing for a moment to judge the crosswinds and the landing zone. "Especially if you're trying to land at night in stealth mode." she added before neatly putting the craft on the ground with a slight bump. Powering down the hovercraft, Shego sighed with relief. "Made it."

"Huh?" Ron asked. "Made what?"

"Made it here." answered Shego as she got out of her seat. "Without running into the Morons." she added as she headed aft. "Chicago is their home turf."

Ron shuddered at the mention of the infamous pair of bail bondsmen. He and Kim had met them a week earlier, during a mission, and things had gone downhill from there. Tidal waves of pudding, high velocity waffles, slapstick comedy, and massive amounts of chickens. Along with a massively brutal beating on one of Drakken's goons, who was apparently out on bail -said bail provided by said Morons.

"Gaaah!" he said, shuddering at the memory.

"My thoughts exactly." Shego said as Ron started to get out of his seat. "Stay there, Stoppable. I gotta get changed." she added, heading for the bathroom.

That's when Ron noticed that Shego was wearing her usual green and black jumpsuit. "Change..?" he asked, confused.

Shego snickered at Ron's expression. Dear God, but he was clueless. And so damn cute, sitting there with his 'lights are on, but nobody's home' expression. How the hell could Kim not notice him...

"You think I'm going to go into the Lateralis dressed like this?" she asked, indicating her jumpsuit. Getting a blank stare she smirked. "I'll take that as a no." she added, turning on her heel and grabbing a bag out of the bed of her truck.

Shutting the door behind her, Shego put the bag on the counter and sat down on the toilet. Pulling off her boot, she stopped and sat up.

"Waitaminute.." she thought. "Cute?" Where the hell did that come from? She wasn't in it for cute. She was in it to get at the Princess, not just to grab him. True, now that she thought about it, that wasn't such a bad thing...

Shaking her head, she reminded herself of why she was doing this, put down her boot and pulled off the other one. Standing up, she undid the zipper on her jumpsuit and shimmied out of it. Kicking it to one side she stepped in front of the mirror and brushed her hair out of her eyes.

Taking a deep breath she sighed, got her hair in order, checked her make up, then peeled off her sports bra and boyshorts before pulling out the change of clothes she had in the bag.

Five minutes later she stepped out of the bathroom clad in a snug pair of black ultra low rise jeans and a green halter top, with a pair of black alligator skin cowboy boots finishing up the ensemble.

"You like?" she asked, pirouetting for Ron.

All he could do was gape. Fighting back the urge to giggle, Shego shook her head instead and grabbed Ron.

"Lets go." she said, pulling him out of his seat.

Leading him out the rear hatch, she dragged him across the lot to the back of a building, were there was a door, with a single bulb hanging above it. Knocking on the door, they waited for a couple of moments until a hatch opened.

A pair of eyes looked out at Shego and Ron. She flashed a smile and batted her eyes.

"Two this time Jeeves." she said, ratcheting up her smile.

The hatch slid shut, and then there was the sound of a deadbolt being thrown open before the door opened.

"After you." Jeeves the doorman said, bowing and pointing inside.

Shego nodded, and grabbing Ron, dragged him inside.

Inside there was a stairway leading down into a tunnel. Down, down, down, they went until they came to another set of doors. Turning to Ron, she gave him a wink.

"Welcome to Lateralis." she said, putting her hand on the latch, and twisting it. "The sidekick club."

Opening the door, Ron was completely surprised by what he saw. He was expecting a strobe lighted dance club, what he got instead was a quiet bar and lounge.

The main theme was oak, with a forest green carpet and the walls paneled in oak. On those walls were scores of framed photos, along with other mementos.

On the far end of the bar was a lit stage, where a quartet of Japanese women in yellow dresses were getting ready to play with several rows of tables with white tablecloths surrounding the stage. They were sparsely populated, that much Ron could tell, but the light was too low for him be able to tell much more than that.

After the tables, midway between the bar and the stage, were two pool tables lit by green glass shaded lamps.

The bar itself was an Art Deco monolith in oak, with lamps lighting up the bottom underneath the brass

foot rail. The barstools were chrome, with green leather cushions.

Manning the bar was a 5' 4" woman in a black dress with red hair, held back by a hairband. She was handing a purple haired woman in yellow hotpants a martini when they came in, and looked up as they approached.

"Hey Dorothy." Shego said as she said as she claimed herself a stool. Motioning to the barstool next to her for Ron to sit down at, she nodded at the barkeep. "The usual for me." she said.

"Coming right up Shego." the woman said, moving down to another part of the bar. "And Mr. Stoppable?"

Ron blinked in surprise at someone getting his name right as Shego glanced back at him and thought for a second. Turning back to Dorothy she held up a finger "This is his first time, so give him a peppermint schnapps." she said, as Ron did a double take.

"It will be up in a second." she said, dumping ingredients into a blender and let it run.

Ron, on the other hand, was tapping Shego on the shoulder.

"Ah, Shego.." he said, trying to get her attention.

"Yeah Ron?" she asked, turning to face him.

Ron nodded at Dorothy, who was pouring the margarita into a glass. "I'm, ah, underage." he said.

Shego nodded as Dorothy set a coaster in front of Shego and set the drink on top of it. "I know." she said. "This is Lateralis. It's okay here."

"But I'm-" Ron stammered as Dorothy set his own drink in front of him on a coaster.

Taking a sip of her drink Shego put a finger on his lips to shush him. "First, Dorothy, excellent as always." she said, turning to the woman standing in front of her.

"Thank you." Dorothy said, nodding once. "Enjoy your drinks." she added, addressing both of them before moving down to another end of the bar and letting them have some privacy.

"Anyways, let me tell you why it's okay here." Shego said, removing her finger from Rons lips. "As I said, this is Lateralis. Think of it as a club for sidekicks. It's neutral ground, anyone can come here whether they;re good or evil." she added, continuing after taking another sip from her margarita. "Sidekicks come here from the world over to relax and mingle with their peers. Follow me so far?"

Ron nodded, then pointed at his schnapps. "Yeah, but the drinking thing..." he said.

"I was just getting to that." Shego said. "Here, we leave the job at the door, okay? No one cares, and they won;t say a damn thing to everybody." she added, pausing to stir her drink. "If you doubt me, take a look." she said, pointing to one of the pool tables.

At the pool table was a boy, about Ron's age, wearing a green and costume with a mask and black cape. His companion at the table was also about the same age as Ron, except he was waring a pull over v neck sweater over a yellow and black costume with a pair of bird wings on his back.

The boy in the red and green costume took a sip from what was undoubtedly a scotch on the rocks, while the bird winged boy was sipping on a brandy.

"The Boy Wonder there is sipping two fingers of Glenlivet, and Peanut is probably on his second Napoleon." Shego told Ron. "Not surprising, considering his boss has the bigger of the two Morons as a client. So you see what I mean?" she asked, leaning towards him.

Ron found himself looking down into Shegos cleavage. It wasn't Kims puppy dog pout, but it was just as effective.

Dammit.

"Okay." he said. "I'll do it." he added as Shego started to smile. "But only if you call me Ron."

Shego thought for a moment, then figured, eh, what's the worst that could happen?

"Okay Ron." she said. "You got a deal."

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End.