Shego remained in the Intensive Care Unit. The Global Justice agents on duty were no longer allowed to eat or drink anything while on duty, and whenever anyone, visitor or hospital personal, was in with Shego an agent was in the room. They made sure one agent was always a woman for the times when hospital personal had to attend to Shego's physical needs.
At least when Kim was there the Global Justice agent moved to a corner of the room far enough away for the two women to have some privacy.
“Third time, Shego. You've died three times now.”
“Hey, but you saved my life this time.”
“You wouldn't even be here if you hadn't been trying to save me.”
“I'm just glad you kept any more of that stuff from going in me. At least I didn't need another transfusion.”
“Someday you have to tell me what really is going on with your family.”
“Didn't I tell you enough?”
“You only gave me a little part of the story. There has to be more.”
“You can wait for the book. Maybe I can write my life story while I'm in prison.”
“It's not funny Shego. But I have something serious to say. I want your baby.”
Shego laughed, “That's serious? Sorry, Pumpkin, but I seem to have the wrong equipment for that.”
“No, that's not what I mean. I've nearly lost you three times to death in the couple months --more if we go back to Tibet. When you get strong enough they are going to lock you up in the Cage and it will be years before you are out. I want a part of you with me, a part they can't take away. If you donate an egg we can have it fertilized. I'll carry the baby.”
“You haven't thought enough about this.”
“I've thought plenty about it.”
“You're only eighteen --”
“Nineteen, you missed my birthday while you were in the hospital.”
“Kim, you're too young. You don't need to mess the rest of your life up with a baby, a kid is forever.”
“Can I make my own choice?”
“Not when it's a bad choice.”
“Look you saved my life--”
“Oh, now that's a strong argument. I saved Ron's also -- he's not asking to carry my kid. You've saved my life too, can we just cancel our debts to each other and call it even? Gratitude is a bad reason to get pregnant.”
“How about the fact I love you?”
“Much better reason, but I'm not sure it's good enough. Mr. Bennet told Elizabeth that a little heartbreak was good for girl. That you'll be all the better prepared for the next time you fall in love.”
“Another Pride and Prejudice reference?”
“Hey, when your middle name is Georgiana you have to read the book. But seriously, when you meet the real love of your life someday, do you really want a kid messing that up?”
“What if I already have met the love of my life? Wouldn't that be worth keeping?”
Shego smiled. “Okay Kim, tell me your idea and I promise to listen carefully before I tell you why it won't work.”
“It's pretty simple. You donate an egg cell, we get it fertilized, they put it in me. Nine months later -- we have a baby.”
“Oh, you really haven't thought that through. Who takes care of the baby while you're in school. Health care, education, food and clothing… Even before the kid is born though, let's go back to the first part of your plan. I donate an egg cell -- let's leave one issue out of that discussion for now. How do you get it fertilized?”
“They put some sperm in a petri dish--”
“Whose sperm?”
“I don't know… Could they use someone like Ron's?”
“Ron's sperm and my egg? Not even in a petri dish Kim. I mean, if I was to suggest, oh Monkey Fist -- and I'm not -- it would seem pretty creepy to you. Knowing you had his kid in you.”
“Yeah, I guess so. An anonymous donor?”
“Read about the case in Michigan a few months ago? An apparently healthy sperm donor left behind a dozen kids with a bad genetic illness. I'm sorry Kim, maybe I'm selfish or jealous, but you carrying some man's baby -- even though the kid was part me -- is a little hard for me to take. And I really don't think you've thought enough about this and what it means.
Shego had probably been right on one point, Kim had not done enough thinking and research. What was she really asking Shego to do? What was she volunteering to do? So, like all college students, Kim started her computer and went to articles into her research Kim's jaw dropped. “Oh, My, God!” She had followed a link to a story about a mouse born in Japan a few years earlier. A mouse with two mothers and no father. Kim returned to Google and entered three words Kaguya, mouse, and Kono. She got more than three thousand hits.
Kim started printing pages. She wanted to show this to Shego.
Then Kim went back to more general articles on IVF, In Vitro Fertilization. It was frightening, but it was also possible.
“This is all very interesting, Princess, but it doesn't change my mind.”
“But the baby would be ours, yours and mine. It would be a part of each of us.”
“And if we had a child she would be beautiful .”
“And now the 'buts'?”
“Yes. I still don't think you're old enough to make the decision. -- Don't say anything I'm giving my opinion. -- Second, your articles point out that while they are thinking about this for human reproduction no ethical doctor is going to touch it right now. There are still too many unknowns and variables before they are ready. And third, I've been on starvation birth control since Tibet.”
“Starvation birth control?”
“Mother Nature's way of telling the human race they shouldn't reproduce. Lose enough weight and you stop ovulating. I'll soon be back to where I can expect one mother of a PMS headache. But even if I agreed with your crazy plan there would be no doctor who would help us, and I'm currently incapable of donating eggs.”
“But, if we could?”
“Oh, if you're playing that game how many wishes do I get? I think I want being a free woman and healthy for my first two. No, just make that a free woman -- I seem to be getting healthy without wasting a wish on that.”
“Would us having a baby make the top three wishes?”
Shego took Kim's hand, “In a few years, if that is really what you wanted, and doctors are doing it, it would sound wonderful. I might even volunteer for the hard part.”