Before you start to read, I just want to say that this story is rather near and dear to my heart. In fact, it's so personal I almost didn't publish it, but my very dear friend Hunger4Righteousness talked me into it.

I must admit that it's really not the happiest fic I've ever written, but I did my best to give it a happy ending… I hate the thought of leaving my friends with a frown at the conclusion of a story.

Because it wasn't originally in the plan to publish this, the whole story was written as a one shot. But plans change, so I found a place to divide it up and split it into two chapters to make it easier on you. If at all possible, please try to read both chapters together, that's how it was intended, and flows better that way.

Thanks guys!

Roxanne sighed as she stepped into her apartment and locked the door behind her. She hadn't had a day this awful in longer than she could remember, and she was immensely relieved to finally be at home. A little peace, quiet, and solitude was just the ticket to ease the tension of her day.

She slowly walked to her dining table to set down her purse and her laptop, and then went straight to her kitchen to make a cup of tea to relax with. Just imagining herself curling up on her couch with a blanket, losing herself in a good movie was enough to begin to take the edge off. Nothing was going to pull her away from some time for herself... unless he showed up. Oh God, please not tonight!

As she waited for the water to boil, she leaned on the edge of the counter, allowing her eyes to become unfocused as she stared at the blue flame of her gas stove, mulling over in her mind the series of misfortunes that had amounted to her day.

From the moment she had opened her eyes things just hadn't gone right. She had slept in, accidentally turning her alarm off when it sounded the first time rather than hitting snooze, and waking a mere half hour before she was supposed to be sitting at her desk, hard at work. What a day to sleep in too; she had an important interview with the Chief of Police scheduled for that morning.

In the process of rushing to get ready, she couldn't find anything. Her hairbrush seemed to have disappeared into the ether, and in the end she had to use an old comb that just didn't do the job right. Even her toothbrush was on the list of lost items, having fallen from the bathroom counter and skittered under the edge by the baseboards the previous night.

Just when she about to give up the search and stop in to grab one at the nearest convenience store on the way to work, she noticed the tip of it peeking out from under the cabinets. Thank goodness she'd found it, but time was so short, she'd have to do her brushing on her way to work.

She had luckily set her clothes out the night before so she would be prepared, a habit she had cultivated to make her mornings as stress-free as possible, but oddly enough she had forgotten about her shoes. Upon going to grab them from her closet she was horrified to discover that one of them was missing, and the pair she was looking for went perfectly with the tailored jacket and sassy pencil skirt she was wearing that day.

After a quick and frantic search and with no time to change, she gave up on the perfect pair and had to settle for shoes that were not the best choice for the discerning journalist, a complete fashion disaster. Oh well, no one could see her feet when she was on camera anyway, so she hoped it wouldn't really matter.

Getting ready and heading out the door in record time considering all her hold-ups, she began the relatively short commute to work with the hope that she might get lucky enough to make it there almost on time. That would save her from a very embarrassing and unprofessional entrance; coming in late and unprepared when the chief was scheduled to arrive early to begin the interview was not the best career move.

Being the head of the police department in a city that was continuously besieged by a famous and very industrious super villain, he had very little time to spare for interviews to begin with and the fact that she had been able to snatch it up was close to a miracle. Channel 8 was lucky to have landed the chance to interview him at all.

Her hopes for a timely arrival were dashed when she was caught in the worst traffic jam she had seen in years due to a massive fender bender that happened to tie up one of the main arteries for traffic in the city. Being stuck in the center lane with cars surrounding her on all sides, she was in it for the long haul with no choice but to wait it out until the mess was cleared.

Rooting through her purse to find her phone and at least give her boss a heads-up call to let him know what was going on, she discovered that in her frantic rush to get out the door she had neglected to grab her phone. Great.

When traffic had finally been directed around the accident and she made it to work 45 minutes late, she walked in to discover that due to the chief's tight schedule, her pre-arranged interview had been given to Karen Crosby and was currently under way without her. Yeah, juuuust perfect!

Karen had never been what Roxanne could call a friend on a good day; a tense feeling of competition exuded from her co-worker at every turn, and on a bad day it wasn't uncommon to find the random acerbic remark being shot in her direction. Although she was more than capable of using her quick wit that she had honed to perfection during her rounds of banter with Megamind to shut the rival reporter up in a split second, she had chosen to take the high road, and refused to engage.

Roxanne had decided long ago to let Karen's problem remain Karen's problem. She had much more important things on her mind than petty rivalries with her co-workers, being kidnapped and used as bi-weekly bait in the struggle between good and evil being at the top of the list.

Now that her interview had been taken from her and given to the competitive journalist, she suspected that there would be no living with her; the other woman's attitude had now been given a boost of pride and was likely to increase ten fold. As it turned out, Roxanne had been right, the remainder of the day had been a series of smugly superior glances and quick, sarcastic shots. Just what she needed.

She was momentarily pulled from her thought process by the rumble and tick of the tea pot as the water worked itself up to a boil. She snapped off the burner before the whistle was able to sound and grabbed her cup, pouring the water distractedly. Why was it that the days that had to be filled from sunrise to sunset with struggles were the days that she felt the most unprepared to deal with them?

Any other time, she would be able to take it all in stride despite the fact that everything about this day just plain sucked. She was a strong and independent girl and knew how to let these things just roll off her shoulders, but today was different. She had been dreading this day for a long time, knowing it would be difficult for her.

Carrying her cup to the couch and settling in, her stomach clenched and her chest felt tight as she thought about how nice it would be to have someone to talk to about these things, someone to share her feelings with. Normally she would call her mother, but...

Just at that moment, a loud commotion arose from her balcony, startling her and interrupting her train of thought. As she strained her ears and waited for her heartbeat to slow to a normal level she listened for the second time to a loud thunk, followed by the sound of metal scraping against masonry. What could possibly be making a noise like that eight stories off the ground? Wait a minute... Oh, no. No, no, no... not tonight!

As her silent protests resounded in her brain, she watched as the knob of her balcony door jiggled at the hands of her visitor. Seconds later the repetitive clicking of the knob was followed by the quiet snick of the lock as it was released, and the door flew open dramatically to reveal the man she was expecting, but had been hoping not to see. He was followed closely by his fishy henchman who was excitedly shaking the can of knock out spray, ready to get the show on the road.

"Miss Ritchi," Megamind crooned melodiously, a self-satisfied grin on his blue face as he waved his hands dramatically in the air to accentuate his intimidating speech, "prepare yourself for a journey into terror. I have something special planned for you tonight, a jaunt into the wild and unknown world of... "

"What was that?" Roxanne interrupted sharply.

Megamind stopped and looked at her with mild confusion. "What?"

"That scraping sound, what was that? You didn't mess up my balcony, did you?"

"Oh... well even if I did, a few gouges in your balcony would be a necessary casualty in the advancement of my e-vil empire... no matter how deep they are."

At the suspiciously foreboding sound of his answer, she leapt up and rushed past him to the glass door. Leaning on the frame, she looked outside to find the hover bike balanced precariously on the wide brick railing and three very deep and ugly looking gouges torn from the masonry directly behind it, with shattered pieces of brick and crumbled mortar still tumbling to the balcony floor in piles.

She knew how difficult it could be to land the bike in such a cramped space and had several times seen both Megamind and Minion make an attempt at a touch down, only to have to lift off and approach again at a safer angle. But the horrific damage to her balcony... that was a first.

Fantastic! My landlord is going to loooove me when he sees this!

Roxanne squeezed her eyes tightly shut, breathing deeply to try and keep her composure. After her first rate bad day, not to mention having inherited her mother's fiery personality, her first thought upon seeing the devastated masonry was to wonder what moderately heavy items she could snatch up within immediate reach that she could wing at the villain. But she had been challenging herself to work on maintaining her temper and had made great strides in that area, despite her incessantly annoying run-ins with her personal captor, and she was determined not to let him take from her all the progress she had made in that department.

Megamind and Minion watched her as she stood propped against the door frame with her head down and her eyes shut, silently and methodically breathing in and out. Her delicate hands were balled up and clenched tightly, and Megamind thought for a moment that now would not be a good time to get too close to her; those feminine fists looked as though they could go flying and clock someone at any second.

The blue scoundrel turned a questioning eye toward his sidekick, who was looking at their favorite captive with concern. A flick of the brown eyes toward his boss and a shrug of his robotic shoulders told Megamind he had no more clue as to her strange behavior than his master did.

"Miss Ritchi, I'm sorry about the balcony, I... "

"Minion! Villains never apologize! You know that; it isn't as if it's your first day of being e-vil."

"Oh, right! Sorry, Sir."

Looking at his friend for a moment longer with exasperation, Megamind rolled his eyes, and then turned to Roxanne with a sigh.

"You're acting strange... what's going on?"

At his presumptuous question she rounded on him, her face a picture of fury, and she snapped, "Oh, hmmm… so it's strange that I'm upset that you just trashed my balcony and now I'm going to have to pay through the nose to have it repaired? Well then let me see, does that mean it's also strange that I feel like smacking the guy who just trashed my balcony but refuses to even say he's sorry?"

When they heard this, Minion gasped and his mechanical hands flew to his dome as he gaped at her, his mouth hanging open in consternation. This just didn't sound like the Miss Ritchi he knew.

Megamind looked at her with wide eyes, utterly shocked at this rare outburst. Yes, he knew full well that she had a temper to be reckoned with, and yes, he had seen that temper before and regretted it, but he also knew that she was a beacon of restraint and self control, and kind-hearted besides. Her irritation was typically displayed in her witty and intelligent remarks that, he hated to admit, often had him stammering to find an acceptable comeback... much to his annoyance.

Observing their reaction to her momentary emotional outburst, she immediately felt guilty. As frustrated as she was with them about the damage and as much as she did not want to go through another kidnapping at the moment, they didn't deserve the brunt of her anger; it wasn't their fault she'd had such a rotten day. With a sigh she allowed her livid expression to drain away, and she turned and walked back to her couch. Sinking down slowly and sitting with her back partially turned toward them, she stared hard at a knot in the hardwood of the floor in front of her, her hands clasped in her lap.

"Look, I don't think I can do this today. Can't you just come back another time? Tomorrow maybe?"

"Miss Ritchi, e-vil waits for no one." Megamind answered, but rather than responding with his usual bravado, his voice was more gentle and laced with concern.

When she failed to respond to his meager attempt at banter, he knew there was something wrong, seriously wrong. He moved forward across the room just enough to peer at her profile as she attempted to keep her back turned toward him, and saw a deep frown as her gaze switched from that spot on the floor to her hands as they fidgeted in her lap. Watching her with knitted brows, he thought he saw her chin tremble, just a trifle.

"Minion?" he called without looking away from the reporter.

"Yes, Sir?" answered the spacefish brightly, ready to jump at a moment's notice to do anything he could to help their unhappy victim so they could get on with the evening's maniacal scheme.

"The plan's cancelled."

When Roxanne heard this she lifted her eyes in surprise, but remained facing away from her visitors.

"Uh, it is?" responded Minion. Now this was unexpected, and highly irregular.

"Yes. Why don't you take the hover bike back to the lair; I'll call you when I'm ready for you to come get me."

Roxanne's ears perked up at this and she turned just enough to look at him curiously out of the corner of her eye, but then turned away once again.

Minion stood staring at his ward, his big brown eyes betraying his puzzlement at the unusual command. What the...

"Wait a minute, are you sure you want me to just up and leave you like this? This is just so... well, it's so... "

With the second dramatic roll of his eyes at his henchman in less than ten minutes, Megamind turned to his friend and said, "Yes, yes, yes! I'm quite certain, now go. And stop worrying about it! Like I said, I'll call for you when I need you to pick me up."

After a final suspicious stare at the blue man, Minion sighed and with a nod he responded, "All right, you're the boss." Then glancing at Roxanne worriedly, he said, "Goodbye, Miss Ritchi. Hope you get to feeling better."

Roxanne turned briefly to give the fish a sidelong glance, nodded silently in acknowledgement, and then turned away once again. She was having a difficult time understanding why she wasn't telling Megamind to take his cape and his presentation and get the heck out, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it.

She was also confused as to the reason why he would want to stay to begin with. What did he care about her feelings? Villains were callous, and utterly without concern for their victims, right? At least that's what he told her on a regular basis, although she had often doubted that he was truly as villainous as he let on.

Megamind watched his fishy friend as he climbed up on the hover bike, muttering something to himself about secret plans and disappointment as he went, and zipped away. Then turning back to Roxanne, he crossed to the other side of the couch so she was facing him as he approached and sat gingerly down next to her, observing that she continued to refuse to look up at him even though he was right in front of her.

His concern deepened, and his black heart stirred at the sight of this sassy, confident woman struggling through some deep turmoil. This was not his Roxanne; the Roxanne he knew faced the difficulties in life with a confident smile and a sarcastic comeback, and triumphantly made it through to banter another day. But apparently not this time; right now she appeared small and sad and broken.

"So what's wrong?" he asked quietly, leaning forward and looking at her downcast eyes intently. .

She glanced up at him through her long lashes, but instantly let her eyes drop again, and just for a moment he saw her chin tremble again.

"Nothing!" she answered, and though she attempted to snap at him forcefully, it was obvious that her effort was only half hearted.

"All right, first off, don't think you can toss out the word "nothing" and convince me that there's really nothing wrong. The Roxanne Ritchi I kidnap twice a week could verbally shut me down in a second with a single scathing phrase without breaking a sweat. That, my dear, was the weakest excuse for a comeback I've ever heard you give."

"Second, whether you realize this or not, I know you. Something's wrong; no matter how many times you try to tell me it's nothing, I know the truth. I can see it written all over you, Roxanne. Now, what's going on?"

"Even if there is something wrong, why should I tell you?" she responded defensively, finally looking up at him with her full attention.

Her question stumped him. Why should she tell him? He was the bad guy... not just any bad guy but the one bad guy that had been singling her out and tormenting her for years. He couldn't just openly tell her that seeing her upset like this made his cold heart burn with concern for her; that the only thing he wanted to do was reach out and pull her close, to tell her... No, stop it!

In the end, all he could think to stammer out was, "Well, because I care, that's why."

The second those words fell from his mouth, he cringed. That answer sounded immensely incriminating and he simply couldn't leave it open to her speculation as to why he cared... what if she figured out how he felt about her? She was certainly smart enough to do so; he was surprised she hadn't figured it out already.

His incredible brain immediately began scrambling to think up anything that he could say to throw her off the trail, and he blurted out, "I mean, I can't have you getting emotional like this on a regular basis and messing up my plans, e-vil is set to a stringent shed-yool! Best to get it off your chest here and now so we can get on with things, right?"

She looked at him with creased brows, obviously unconvinced, and her eyes narrowed with doubt.

Realizing that she wasn't quite buying it, he dropped the act and simply said, "Listen, you can tell me. I give you my word that whatever you tell me is between us, it won't leave this room. I won't even breathe a word to Minion. I just... I've never seen you this upset before. You've been through far more than a broken balcony railing and didn't seem phased in the least. And you see I'm ... well I'm just... "

He allowed his words to trail off, stopping just short of telling her that he was immensely worried about her, but he gazed at her with sincerity, his green eyes watching her intently.

Roxanne observed him as he spoke, searching for any indication that this was a trick of some kind but all she saw in those green eyes was genuine concern. Allowing herself to relax a little, she looked away and sighed, saying quietly, "I had a bad day."

Megamind was somewhat confused, all this for a bit of a bad day? Rather than express his confusion he responded, "Okay, I can see a bad day being somewhat upsetting... but… what exactly do you mean by "a bad day"? What happened?"

His tone of voice was so sincere in his asking and his expression so attentive, her reservations began to melt away. She began to share her difficulties hesitantly, gauging his reactions and ready to clam up if he showed any sign of his old smugness or of not taking her seriously, but when she saw his absorption grow she became bolder and found herself opening up to him like she hadn't with anyone in a very long time.

He listened carefully to her tale, calmly nodding his oversized head with understanding and asking a stray question here or there to be sure he had a firm grip on what she had gone through. The only time he showed any sign of exaggerated emotion was when she relayed how her interview had been taken from her and her run-ins with Karen, but rather than showing smugness, his dark brows lowered over narrowed eyes and his chin jutted forward, his upper lip twitching angrily as he sightlessly stared at that same little knot on the floor and stewed.

Not that Roxanne saw his expression. As she spoke, her eyes were also once again busily studying every detail of that knot that seemed to be capturing so much attention that evening, and she missed it.

"And then, when I finally made it home and was ready to just sit down... by myself... and forget about it all, someone decides to just pop in and suck me into his plans for the evening, and then breaks my balcony. Couldn't have come up with a better topper for an already crappy day if I sat around for hours planning it myself, huh?"

Megamind cringed slightly at her accusation, but rather than pursuing the opportunity to give him a good dressing down, she just smiled a little and said, "Don't worry about it, I'll take care of it... don't I always?"

Even though she'd had the opportunity to get it all off her chest and even smiled at him despite his part in ruining her day, it was painfully obvious that there was still sadness beneath that smile. He could see it in the way her brows continued to crease and her eyes held on to a downcast appearance even when the corners of her mouth turned up at him.

She had a bad day for sure... a hell of a bad day, and he was partially to blame for that, but she was too strong and optimistic to let things like this get her down in and of themselves. He had always seen her rise above whatever life had thrown at her. There must be something else...

"Roxanne, what is it that's really bothering you? Is it... " he paused, not even wanting to allow the thought to form in his mind, "Metro Man? Are you two having an... "

"No!" she snapped and rolled her eyes disgustedly. Why does everyone want to pair me up with him? "This has nothing to do with him!"

Megamind shut down that line of thinking in an instant, but couldn't help but notice the odd way that her reaction to his guess seemed to be one of repulsion at the mention of her brawny, empty-headed boyfriend rather than coming across as defending his honor.

Brushing his curiosity aside, he gently asked again, "Then what?"

Looking up into his green eyes, she saw something she hadn't had the opportunity to see before amidst all his raving about evil, and mayhem, and the destruction of his rival... genuine compassion. She had a fleeting thought that what she was seeing right now, for the first time ever, was the real Megamind.

"Well, today is... it's... my mom's birthday... "

He sat silently looking at her for a moment, puzzled. Why on earth would that bother her so much? And then he remembered…

No notes other than to say thank you for reading, and just go ahead and move right on to the next chapter for the conclusion of the story…