Round 1
Early June
“WHAT DID YOU SAY TO KIM? SHE JUST RAN OUT OF HERE SOBBING HYSTERICALLY!”
“WHAT DID I SAY? What kind of a mother are you? They ought to lock you up for child endangerment and neglect!”
“What in the hell are you talking about?”
“Kim is pregnant.”
“KIM IS WHAT?”
“She's carrying some sort of monster because you let her run wild -- going all over the world by herself!”
Jean collapsed onto a chair. “You are still making no sense!”
“You and Wade. All she wanted when she put up her website were odd jobs like baby-sitting. But Wade kept sending her out on bigger things -- and you let him! You let Kim go! You could have kept her home. She was only fifteen and you let her go out to save the world. That wasn't the job a high school sophomore.”
“WHAT DID YOU MEAN BY KIM IS PREGNANT!”
“SEE, SHE DOESN'T EVEN TELL YOU THINGS ANYMORE!”
“WHAT DID YOU MEAN KIM IS PREGNANT!”
“SOME STUPID IDEA IT SHOWED HER LOVE FOR ME. IT'S YOUR FAULT!”
“I DID NOT--”
The nurse threw open the door, “You will leave the room! You are upsetting the patient!”
“I'm a doctor! I need to talk with this woman!”
“You are not her doctor, and you will not bully my patient.”
Round 2
Two days later
The nurse made Jean Possible swear to control herself and refrain from yelling before she was allowed back into Shego's room.
A weary Jean sat down and stared at Shego, who glared back at her. “Perhaps I need to apologize to you. She just got so much pleasure from what she was doing… It started so innocently… Little jobs around town, things she could do… It just snowballed before I knew it. She always came back safe and happy. People said how much Kim had done for them…”
Shego laid back and closed her eyes. “I don't want excuses. All I want from you is information on Kim. How is she? “
“How would expect her to be? She does the stupidest thing in her life in the name of love and then realizes what a mistake it is. I've prescribed a mild sedative. She's at home staring at something mindless on the TV… I think it was celebrity poker.”
“Has she agreed to terminate the pregnancy?”
“No, she still thinks DNAmy might have told the truth.”
“The woman is a monster. She wants to destroy Kim.”
“Kim said Amy kept telling her she was doing it because of reputation. It actually sounded a little odd as Kim told me the story. It sounded like she told Kim she was doing it because of reputation, but not specifically for her reputation.”
Shego stared at Jean for a moment, and then whispered, “Oh, God, she may have been telling Kim the truth.”
“What do you mean?”
“Think about it Jean. DNAmy already has the reputation of one of the world's great geneticists. Let's imagine Amy planted some little monster in Kim. We find out, Kim terminates the pregnancy, and after I break out of prison I kill Amy. It's a nasty, but nothing Kim can't survive.
“But, let's imagine that Amy told Kim the truth. That she really is pregnant with our child. Kim terminates the pregnancy and discovers the truth -- what would it do it her?”
“You sound like you want Kim to carry the baby.”
“I don't know what I want. It would be my child. What do you want?”
“I don't know what I would want either. It would be my grandchild.”
“But think about Kim's reputation. What would it do to her? Kim will be taken out of her crime fighting for a year at least -- maybe longer. That means a lot to her -- it means giving up a big part of her identity. She will be an unwed mother. There won't be any more invitations to speak at the Big Brother's Clubs. No more holding her up as a role model for Pixie Scouts. No more talk about TV movies of her heroic rescues. If Dan Quayle were still vice-president he'd be denouncing her as un-American. She can't put a father's name down on the birth certificate. That would label our baby a freak for her entire life. No, Everyone will assume Kim slept around -- that she couldn't even remember the identity of her baby's father. Kim and the baby will be stared at and whispered about for years. Everyone will call our child a little bastard. They don't know what Kim has done…”
Shego started crying. Jean went to the bed and held the young woman. “I'll ask again. What do you think should happen?”
“I don't know Jean. I don't know. I just realized that maybe carrying a little monster is the best option for Kim. She'd be willing to terminate the mistake.”
“But you don't want that, do you?”
“I just want Kim to be happy. And I can't see how that's possible. I think ending the pregnancy would be the best thing for Kim.”
Shego waited in vain for Jean to return to the hospital with more news of Kim. Even worse, she didn't hear from Kim.
Round 3
August First
Global Justice allowed Jean's call to go through to Shego
“We couldn't take it any longer. They don't like to do genetic testing this early -- it increases the risk to mother and baby -- but we had to know.
Shego's mouth went dry, “How is Kim?”
“Kim is fine. In fact, she's ecstatic.”
“And the baby?”
“I'm not sure what your question is. As far as we can tell there was no harm to the fetus. Or did you mean the results of the genetic test?”
“Damn it, Jean, of course you know that's what I mean.”
“I thought I answered that when I said Kim was ecstatic.”
“So the baby…”
“The only genetic material comes from you and Kim. You're going to be a father.”
“That's not funny. You told her everything I said? How it would ruin her life?”
“ARE YOU A BLOODY IDIOT? Of course I told her. Why do you think she hasn't spoken to you in two months? It was crazy and stupid, but she was trying to show you the greatest act of love she could imagine. And what did you do? Did you try and acknowledge her act of love in any way? No. All you did was yell at her call her a fool. Maybe she is. But you could have done something to sympathize, tried to do something to support her instead of telling her to get an abortion.”
“Now you sound like you want her to carry the baby.”
“I don't know what I want. I'm trying to be supportive of Kim.”
“So, she wants the baby?”
“I thought I answered that when I said Kim was ecstatic.”
Jean broke the long silence, “Are you still there?”
“Not like I can go anywhere else.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Can you tell Kim I'm sorry? Tell her I love her… Jean, you're a doctor -- what are the chances the baby could go full term? I mean, this whole conception was so unusual…”
“I'm a brain surgeon, not a gynecologist. I don't know. I don't think a gynecologist could tell you -- none of them have ever seen this.”