Going Places

Author: Prospero Hibiki

Disclaimer: Kim Possible and its characters are the property of Disney, Mark McCorkle, and Bob Schooley. In no way are these aforementioned characters being used for my own personal profit, and this is not meant as an infringement of the copyright owned by any of the above entities.

Author's Comments: I could tell you all that I've fallen off my wonderfully regular update schedule for this story because I wanted to get ahead for once and make sure that I put out something that would make you cry tears of joy. Oops? In reality I've gotten sucked into EVE Online once more and have been writing this chapter while cruising through high sec space on autopilot. Sorry! And while I'm already apologizing I'd like to apologize for not replying to my reviews as I normally would. Rest assured I've still read each and every one. I'm such a horrible person.

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"Hide and Go Seek"

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Kim liked her new private office. It was a large room that had once been a formal dining room, but later additions onto the house had relegated it to other uses by previous owners. All Kim cared about was that it was ridiculously large and had no windows so she could cover the walls with whiteboards, corkboards, and chalkboards. And if that didn't give her enough work area she had several more wheeled boards of various sizes stored in what had probably been a butler's pantry.

Shego had claimed a much different room for her own uses. Unlike Kim she didn't feel the need to work anyplace other than the room they'd set up their computer equipment in. Her filing cabinet in that office held all of her important papers on everything. Instead she'd converted a solarium into an art studio.

It was something that always made Kim smile a bit. Shego was not a very calm person most of the time and the hobbies she'd recently tried to take up were extremely frustrating to her. The older woman had spent days just staring at that first blank piece of canvas for an hour at a time before she got frustrated and stalked off, usually to distract Kim from whatever it was she was doing at the time. Not that Kim was complaining about it. The method of distraction was quite enjoyable after all.

Still, after a point, Kim had decided to figure out what the problem was. Several discrete sessions of watching Shego stare at the canvas had revealed one major fact. Shego loved the view through the windows, but she didn't feel comfortable there for some reason. And so Kim had looked up and found someone to come out and replace the giant glass panes with bulletproof ones.

Shego had been most appreciative.

The other hobby her green skinned lover was trying out was gardening. One of the features that they'd loved about the property was an enormous greenhouse that also contained a swimming pool. All of the plants had died long before they'd moved in and they'd idly considered converting the actual greenhouse portion into a gym. Except Shego had just been drawn to the idea of growing things almost against her will. The downside of it was that she'd get frustrated when she made a mistake or a plant wasn't doing well and accidentally light up her hands.

This time Shego had come up with her own solution. Whenever she felt she was going to lose her temper and possibly light up her hands she'd go to a portion of the room where she was working with marigolds. Needless to say they had a lot of marigolds. Quite a few of them were even unburnt.

With a sigh Kim tossed the pen she'd been twirling around back onto her desk. She'd not gotten anything actually written on her paper for the past twenty minutes at least. The research paper she'd been working on just wasn't exciting. She'd much rather be planning out their next heist. Boy, did that seem like an odd thing to think.

She hadn't expected to see the allure of pulling off a good burglary before. It was all part of their ultimate plan and no one was actually getting hurt, but those were things she had to repeatedly remind herself about. If Kim was completely honest with herself she would admit that actually liked it. It made her feel alive in ways that stopping crimes never had.

Just a couple of nights ago they'd almost gotten seen by a security guard. She'd been so revved up by the adrenaline that she'd practically attacked Shego once they'd gotten home. Kim had simply teleported the two of them out of their clothes and taken the older woman against the wall.

Kim was slipping into that memory and her hands beginning to wander slightly when the door to her office was flung open and Shego rushed in. Startled Kim almost overturned her chair in surprise and embarrassment. Whatever Shego had started to say was cut off and the older woman smirked at her.

"Hmm. So that's what you do when you're in here all alone? I should try and surprise you more often."

Kim felt her face heat up even more. In an effort to compose herself she grabbed a nearby scrunchy and pulled her hair back into a ponytail. "Did you need something?" she asked willing Shego to let it go, partly because it wouldn't have been the first time she'd done something like what her lover was intimating in her office within the past few weeks while Shego had been occupied by other things.

"It's happened."

All traces of embarrassment vanished from Kim's mind. "When and how?"

Shego grinned smugly at her. "Senior just called and told us that several people have approached him asking about the 'thief he's recently been employing'." It really was excellent news and proved that Shego's own idea of letting Triple S into the plan was bearing fruit.

During their stay on Senior's island the two of them had told Senior about their plans. Having himself grown slightly bored at being a criminal he'd thought it an amusing diversion and agreed to help purely for the novelty.

On their direction he'd covertly bought up multiple high tech research labs that were rumored to be nearing major breakthroughs. Most of the companies were actually nowhere near having results, the rumors having been started by employees trying to boost their own importance to avoid being laid off. Which actually suited their plan perfectly.

And so the mysterious thief's reputation had skyrocketed. Highly classified and potentially dangerous prototypes had gone missing from dozens of labs along with all of the supporting research. Never mind that the prototypes had never existed or that the research was faulty. It was the reports themselves that were important, not the thefts. Because now someone knew, or rather thought they knew, that there was an untapped source of weapons technology out there that wasn't concerned with the rule of law. Now these buyers, who probably included the person who'd tried to kill Kim, only needed a way to connect with the thief in question.

That's where Senior had come in once more. A casual mention to Jack Hench about a diamond he'd wanted a closer look at here. A discussion with Dementor about the quality of a certain painting's colors there. What a coincidence that these items had gone and disappeared for a few days after these conversations. Word had spread. No one doubted that Senior had paid for the thefts. And he was eccentric enough for people to believe he'd want to return them afterward. So everyone involved had been waiting for that inevitable offer of a job. And they'd finally gotten their first bite.

"Who?"

"Oddly enough the first one to ask was Duff Killigan."

"Killigan? Really? What could he possibly want?

"From what I understand he wanted all the major golf trophies from the big name players."

Kim put her hands over her face. "Seriously?"

"Yeah, but it was probably a good thing too. Someone had to be first and his request apparently broke the ice and our refusal, or rather Senior's refusal on our behalf, set us up as serious thieves "not willing to lower themselves to the level of frivolities." Well not without a ridiculous amount of money anyway."

"So that part went well, too?" At Shego's questioning look Kim clarified. "He revealed that there were two of us?"

"I don't know. I didn't think to ask about that. But I trust Senior to have only revealed what we wanted him to."

After a little thought Kim nodded in agreement. "So any worthwhile nibbles?"

"Usual villain jobs. I suspect we'll have to build up our rep with other jobs first. Whoever we're after is a lot more careful than I thought he'd be. No one out there has heard anything about him. At all. Not even Hench."

"Yeah." Kim was willing to admit it despite how much she didn't want to. "I guess I was just hoping that we wouldn't have to."

"You're not planning on pulling out on me now are you Princess?"

"No way. We set off on this together and we're going to finish it together."

Shego's response was a slow and sexy grin that Kim found she didn't have the will to resist. Not that she tried particularly hard.

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The woman sitting behind the desk was remarkably different than the one who'd been there not even a month before. Her one eye was bloodshot and sunken into her head, and her body was almost skeletal in appearance. The once immaculate uniform she'd taken so much pride in was wrinkled and stained from too many days spent at her desk without leaving. Sleep had only come for her when she'd collapsed in place at her computer looking for that one piece of data that would make things make sense. That would make her world right again.

Dr Betty Director was a broken woman.

She'd never have guessed a year ago that just one betrayal would shatter her so. And, in a way, it hadn't. Trey's exposure as a mole and subsequent death had been more than a single betrayal. It'd been the removal of the very foundation on which she'd built her own self image.

She still loved him.

It was easy to think it now that he was dead and it was too late. She had been the one to end things between them after her mission had gone wrong. He'd allowed her to blame him for her failure not because he was truly to blame but because it had been what she'd needed.

How could that kind and caring man have changed so much without her noticing?

She was failing to do her job. Agent Du hadn't said so, but she'd gotten indications that people higher than her were starting to ask questions that she wouldn't be able to answer. Her time as the head of Global Justice was rapidly drawing to a close.

It was strange. She should be angry about that. And to an extent she was. But it was a superficial anger that didn't really seem to touch her on the inside. Nothing touched her anymore.

There was a knock on the office door. At her croaked permission to enter Agent Du stepped in. Once more she wondered just how badly she would have been performing if he hadn't been there. He was the de facto leader of Global Justice at the moment even if no one knew it outside of headquarters.

"Ma'am."

"Agent Du."

"They know, ma'am."

"I see." And she did see. Apparently William hadn't been as successful at concealing her breakdown as she'd thought. "Have they reached a decision, then?"

"Yes, ma'am, they have." There was a long pause and for once the man seemed uncomfortable. "You're being retired...medically."

It took several moments for the implication to sink in but once it did she could only nod. The term 'medical retirement' was used to refer to when an agent was injured in such a way as to prohibit their working for the agency. It could also be used to describe internment in a secure medical facility for personnel who knew too many of the world's secrets. They would be taken care of comfortably for the rest of their lives to be sure, but it would indeed be the rest of their lives. Since Betty was more than physically capable of being a field agent, there wasn't any doubt in her mind about which case this would be.

"I suppose that we should have expected this."

This time he said nothing and she nodded.

"Who's to replace me, then?"

"They've asked me to take up the position."

Again she nodded. She didn't really think William was ready for the position, but then the decision was out of her hands now. Had she seen this coming with enough warning she could have gotten him clearance for some of the secrets that only she knew. Instead he'd have to either figure them out himself or make due without just like she had when it had come her time to step up.

Rising from her chair she picked up the picture frame that had taken up residence on her desk and handed it to him. "Can you make sure that this goes with me, William?"

"Yes, ma'am. I'll see to it." There was another pause before switched the frame to his other hand and reached out with his right. "It's been an honor Dr Director. I'm very sorry about this."

"It's not your fault William." With that she turned to open the door to her office knowing all the while that she wouldn't reach it.

"Yes, ma'am it is. Stopwatch activate."

Agent Du's taser watch shocked Dr Director into unconsciousness.

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End "Hide and Go Seek"

Author's Comment (Continued): Gah. I really am not happy with this chapter. It's taken way too long to write, I barely accomplished anything with it, and it's more than a little wishy-washy. Still, I think more than a few of you are impatiently champing at the bit in order to read it. Sorry! I won't belabor the obvious by saying that my writing of this story has slowed down. It has and I don't know if it will speed up again. Here's hoping.