We have got to start handling situations just a little better than this.
Kim was in a bit of a situation. A kind of a bad situation at that. She had two emergencies that she needed to handle, which would be no real problem when she got to them. The thing was that she could not find a babysitter at the moment for Jayden. So, she had two options, one of which would probably get her killed if she went with it and was found out. But, there was a chance that she would not be found out and she wanted to help, so she went with the bad decision out of her choices, knowing full well that it was the bad decision.
“Hey, Jade, you wanna go with Mom to the Amazon?” Kim asked the child.
“The real Amazon?” Jayden asked in disbelief. She was sitting on the living room floor, coloring in a coloring book about jungle animals.
“Yes, the real Amazon.”
“Do I getta jump out of a plane with you?”
“Yeah, you do.”
Jayden grinned widely. “And, and, I could get a frog?” she asked eagerly.
“Yes, you can get a frog if you want.”
“I wanna go! I wanna go!” Jayden declared enthusiastically. She had actually wanted to go with her mother on a mission ever since she knew what a mission was, which was not too long ago considering she had only just turned four.
“Okay, but you can’t tell Mommy about this,” Kim added.
Jayden’s face immediately went to an expression of utter confusion. “Why?”
“Because this is a secret,” the redhead answered while putting her index finger to her lip to emphasize that it was a secret mission.
“Secret…” Jayden said as if she was awed by that fact. She and her Mom were going on a secret mission. Wow.
“She’s going to kill me,” Kim muttered to herself. After all, what were the odds of Jayden actually not telling Shego? She was going to be so dead when Shego came in. She knew it and yet, she took Jayden anyway.
It was not a particularly dangerous mission. There were not going to be any bad guys or deadly weapons involved. It just involved her taking Jayden into a tropical rainforest with plenty of places to lose her and animals to eat her. But, as far as Kim was concerned, being in a jungle was just like being in the street and if she could take Jayden into the street, then logically she was comfortable with taking Jayden into a jungle.
Jayden could not believe everything that she was seeing and she felt almost overwhelmed. The jungle was a fantastic place, like out of a dream. She wanted to touch everything, but she really did not know where to begin. So far, she was having just about the greatest day of her very young life.
First off, she had gotten to jump out of a plane with her Mom. That in itself was extremely cool and she had cheered all the way down, although she almost did bite her tongue when her mother pulled the rip cord on their shared parachute. She had giggled almost endless when they landed, which did not bother her Mom. Kim was happy that Jayden was already enjoying herself.
“Oh! Pretty!” Jayden ran over to a frog. She bet that her Mom would love to have it for her collection of frogs. Kim did have a small collection of frogs tucked away in the house, but she never kept them long, taking them to be studied at the lab or finding places to free them when she was out on missions. She was not allowed to keep animals for long, especially toads and frogs.
“Whoa, Jade, no!” Kim screamed as she grabbed the child and prevented her from touching the amphibian.
“But, it’s pretty,” the brunette said.
“I know, but that’s a poison dart frog, sweetie. Remember what Mom said about pretty colors in nature,” Kim replied.
“Right…” Jayden nodded. She did remember now; she had been told that most animals that had pretty colors were poisonous and poisonous was something that was bad. “Sorry, Mom,” she apologized.
“It’s all right, sweetie. Just be careful what you touch. Mommy will kill me if you get hurt while you’re out here,” Kim informed the child, even though she was pretty sure that Mommy was going to kill her no matter what.
Jayden nodded again to show that she understood. She took her Mom’s hand as they went through the jungle. Kim was just on a retrieval mission. Some unlucky soul had lost some priceless items that had been discovered at a hidden temple. When Kim first got the mission, she had to be sure that the items had not been stolen, but she had been assured by Wade that everything was on the up and up. The items had been gathered legally with the permission of the local government and the country’s government, so she was all right with searching for them. She had been given a small perimeter to search. It would seem that everyone was certain that the artifacts were in a specific area, but they just could not find them.
“Mom, can I climb the tree?” Jayden requested while pointing to the tree that was begging to be climbed in her opinion.
“Okay, be careful,” Kim replied while releasing the child.
Kim figured that she could easily keep an eye on her daughter while scanning around the place for the lost items. Jayden quickly and effortlessly took the tree. She liked to think that she was an expert tree-climber, as her favorite outside activity was to climb trees, especially the one in their front yard. She made it to a branch and then something caught her eye.
“Mom, can I touch this?” Jayden called while pointing to the current object of her fascination.
Kim looked up to see what Jayden was pointing to and silently praying that it was not a venomous snake, poison frog or toad, or a jungle cat. It would seem that her wish was granted because Jayden was pointing at a boa, which still was not good. It might not be able to poison the child, but it did have those top four rows of hook-like teeth. The good news was that it was tree boa, which Kim knew were strictly nocturnal.
“Jade, leave that snake alone. It’s sleeping,” Kim replied.
“Sleeping?” the child echoed while inspecting the serpent, which looked very much awake to her. “Mom, the eyes are opened,” she reported.
“I know. Remember that snakes sleep with their eyes open?”
“Oh, yeah!” Jayden nodded again. Right, snakes slept with their eyes open because they did not have any eyelids. She remembered now. Her Mom was so smart, she thought.
Kim continued her search for the artifacts, which she hoped were still in the brown bag that she had been told they were originally contained in. She watched Jayden carefully too, making sure the child did not get into any trouble. It took a while for her to do what she had come to do for the mission, but she eventually found everything. She still had one more thing to do while she was there.
Kim released a few of her own animals back into the wild. She had a few snakes that Shego wanted her to get rid of because she had had them in the house too long; any animal that stayed longer than a month in the house had to go and that was pushing it. Once she was certain that she had let her snakes go in a decent area, she was ready to leave.
“Come on, Jade. We need to get home,” Kim called to Jayden, who was a few feet away, standing in a mud puddle.
“Mom, can I have this?” Jayden asked eagerly as she waded out of the mud. She was holding a giant toad. Her mother was glad to see that it was not a poisonous toad.
“I don’t know if Mommy wants any more toads in the house,” Kim answered. She noted a long time ago that while Shego did not mind reptiles, she was rather against toads and frogs. Kim had once commented that Shego was “such a girl” when it came to amphibians, especially toads, which Shego believed to be terribly ugly creatures because of all of the lumps covering their bodies. Shego disliked frogs because they were so slimly and just felt gross in her opinion.
“But, we only got two,” Jayden pointed out.
“I know. Okay, we’ll bring the toad along and see what Mommy says about you keeping it, all right?”
Jayden nodded. “Mom?”
“Yeah?”
“Can we come back?” the child asked with a hopeful expression in her eyes. She had a giant grin on her face too.
“Sure,” Kim answered. How could she say no when Jayden looked so absolutely adorable requesting that they come back to a hot, humid, bug-infested jungle? Hell, she might have to bring Todd with them the next time.
“Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!” Jayden called as she heard the front door open. She knew that it was her Mommy coming because her Mom was sitting with her in the living room.
Shego braced herself because Jayden was the one that now gave out tackling hugs. She just made herself known before she hit while Kim still preferred it to be an ambush. She watched as Jayden dashed out of the living room and immediately noticed that there was something in the child’s hands. She cringed when she saw that it was huge toad.
“Jade, what the fuck is that and where did you get it?” Shego inquired. Her language oddly enough seemed to get worse around her daughter, which only made Jayden’s language just as bad.
“A toad. He’s Alex,” Jayden answered with a proud grin while holding the aforementioned animal up for her mother to see. Yes, she had named the toad Alex, after Alexander the Great; it would seem that like Kim, she named animals after famous historical figures. It would probably disturb a few people that a four-year-old even knew who Alexander the Great was.
“Okay, he’s Alex and where did you get him?” Shego asked curiously while making sure that she was out of her child’s reach.
“On a secret mission wif Mom,” Jayden answered honestly. It would seem that she forgot that she was not supposed to tell her Mommy and that the very definition of “secret” meant as few people as possible were supposed to know about it.
“Princess!” Shego immediately screamed at the top of her lungs. She sounded positively murderous.
“Damn it,” Kim muttered as she cringed. She swore that she would have been able to live at least an hour after her wife got home. Apparently, their baby girl could not even keep a secret for a couple of minutes, though.
“Princess, what the fuck?” Shego demanded to know as she stormed into the living room.
“Love, not in front of the baby,” Kim said while getting up from her seat and retreating to the far end of the room, just in case her spouse was looking to attack her physically.
“Basement, now,” Shego ordered. She could not even hold in her fury at the moment.
Kim gulped and walked out of the living room, having to go passed Shego to exit the area. She could practically feel the rage radiating off of her spouse in vicious, homicidal waves. She went to the basement door and went downstairs, waiting for her punishment to come.
“Mom, where ya goin?” Jayden inquired while running to the basement stairs.
“Mom’ll be back in a little while, mini-monster,” Shego said while getting the child. She wrapped her arm around Jayden, careful not to touch the repulsive toad that girl was holding.
Shego walked the child back into the living room. She put the television on Animal Planet, knowing that Jayden would watch just about anything on that channel. Jayden did sit down, putting Alex the toad into the container that Kim had provided for the creature. Shego then went to kitchen and grabbed Jayden’s favorite snack food, which happened to be plain crackers. She put a stack of crackers down for the child and told her to stay put, not that Jayden needed such an order with Animal Planet being on.
Once Shego was certain that Jayden was good to go, she left the room and marched into the basement where her so-very-dead mate was waiting. Kim was standing on their tumbling mats, which they sparred on when they had the time to. They also used the mats to teach Todd martial arts on and they were starting to teach Jayden too. The redheaded scientist had the decency to appear ashamed and nervous, which had little affect on her livid lover.
“Princess, you did not take the baby out on a fucking mission!” Shego hollered before she even hit the basement.
“I couldn’t find a babysitter!” Kim replied in her own defense. She was not so much yelling back, but trying her best to avoid getting murdered.
“What the fuck? Then why didn’t you just stay here?” the pale woman demanded to know as she stalked over to her spouse. She stared down at Kim with a look of pure rage blazing in her emerald eyes.
“Okay, okay, okay, baby, I understand why you’re mad—”
“Oh, you haven’t seen mad!” Shego snarled like a wild animal.
“Babe—”
“No, I don’t even want to fucking hear it. You don’t ever take my fucking baby out on a mission! You do and this’ll end just like it fucking started, with you beaten up in a fucking box on a fucking corner!” Shego threatened her spouse.
The green-skinned woman stormed off while Kim was left sort of speechless. Shego went back upstairs while Kim slid to the floor. She really did understand why Shego was so angry, but she still disliked being yelled at like she had been. It just made her feel like she had done the wrong thing, even though Jayden was fine and the child had had a great time. She also felt like Shego did not trust her to take care of their daughter and that she did not know what was good for Jayden. The worst part was Shego threatening to beat her up and put her out in a box. The whole thing left a hollow feeling inside of her that was spreading rapidly and overwhelming her generally strong will. She drowned in that feeling only moments later.
Jayden looked around the living room, wondering where her Mom was. She typically watched Animal Planet with her Mom around and she liked that. Her Mom could explain things to her if she misunderstood or her Mom could go into detail if she wanted to know more about something. So, she wanted her Mom to watch with her.
She got up after being told to stay put; she obviously listened as well as her Mom did when orders were dished out by Shego. She went to the basement door and she could hear the yelling that Shego was doing. She wondered what all the hollering was about, but she did not go down to ask because she thought that she would get into trouble since her Mommy would find out that she moved.
She went back to the living room and sat down in the space that she had just left. When she heard the basement door open and shut, she went to go see which parent came up. She saw that it was Shego.
“Mommy,” Jayden called.
“Yeah, baby?” Shego answered in a surprisingly gentle tone. She was heading toward the stairs because she wanted to go take a shower to wash away the grime of the day, not to mention ease the tension out of her body brought on thanks to her infuriating wife.
“Watch wif me and Alex?” Jayden requested, pointing into the living room.
“Not right now, baby. I need to take a shower.”
Jayden pouted, but her mother did not seem to notice. The stressed-out female trotted upstairs while Jayden strolled back to the living room. She looked around, not wanting to be alone, even if Alex was there. She grabbed Alex and carefully made her way down the basement stairs, making sure to hold onto the banister as she had been told often to do, not that she needed to be told. She still maintained a bit of a fear of walking downstairs on her own.
“Mom?” the four-year-old called.
“Yeah, Jade?” Kim answered while wiping her face. She was crying slightly, but she did not want her daughter to see. Her spouse probably never would have guessed that she was able to hurt the petite hero so much with just words.
“Watch TV wif me?” Jayden requested while staring at her mother, who was still sitting against the wall. She noted how heartbroken her redheaded parent seemed, but she did not know what to make of it.
“Okay,” Kim agreed while making a conscious effort to return to her normal mode of being since she was going to be spending time with her daughter. For now, she had no time to be upset and overcome by emotion.
The redhead climbed to her feet and snatched Jayden up, complete with Alex. She went to the living room and curled up on the sofa with her daughter and the toad and they watched Animal Planet. When Shego came back from her shower, she was tempted to join them, but then she saw the toad. The super-powered woman reeled back and decided to go make dinner. Jayden noticed the reaction, but she did not say anything.
Dinner was rather tense. Kim focused down on her plate, trying her best to make sure that she did not have eye contact with her wife. Shego noticed that Kim was quiet, which was extremely unusual. The redhead was almost always wired until she went to sleep at some point, but right now, she was just sullen.
Jayden picked up where her Mom would have. The child had plenty to talk about considering the day that she had and she was clearly happy with what went on. She even dared to bring Alex to the table. It was not known that the toad was part of the table until Jayden put him up next to her plate.
“What the hell? Jade, what the hell are you doing? Get that damn thing off the table,” Shego ordered when she caught sight of the amphibian.
“Why?” Jayden asked. It was her favorite question.
“Because it’s a filthy fucking thing!” Shego pointed out the obvious, in her opinion anyway.
“Nah-uh. Uncle Wade scanned him,” the little girl reported. Kim had had Wade scan the toad before they even took it from the jungle. She wanted to make sure that the animal was totally safe to be around Jayden.
“I don’t give a damn. Go put it in its container,” Shego ordered.
Jayden sucked her teeth, which got her scolded by her Mommy. She hopped out of her chair, taking Alex with her. As she went by Shego, the pale woman moved over to avoid being touched by the slimy critter. Jayden noticed the movement, but she did not say anything.
“Fucking toads,” the green-skinned officer muttered.
She truly hated amphibians and she noticed that out of the cold-blooded creatures, those were the ones that Jayden seemed attracted to, after snakes of course. At least with Kim, it was almost always lizards, but now, Jayden had the amphibians and Kim was just feeding into that. She did not mind Jayden learning about the creatures, but it bothered her when Kim brought frogs and such home for Jayden and now she was letting the kid collect toads.
“Did you have to let her bring home a toad?” the pale woman inquired, speaking to her mate. She even hated that she knew that it was a toad instead of a frog, just showing that her wife was getting to her too.
Kim did not even bother to answer, which caused Shego to sigh. She was not going to apologize, the older female told herself, no matter how pathetic her mate seemed. There was no way in Hell that she was going to apologize when Kim had been the one that was wrong. So, her little spouse could sit there and pout until judgment day and she was not apologizing.
Jayden returned shortly and climbed back into her seat. She looked back and forth between her mothers, knowing that something was wrong; her parents were just radiating odd feelings in her opinion. She wondered if it was her fault. She guessed that she would ask…maybe when they did not look so upset anyway.
“Mom, is Mommy gonna read to me tonight too?” Jayden inquired, sitting up in her bed. She was in her pajamas, which were Care Bear pajamas, and she was set to go to sleep. Usually, her Mommy read creepy fairytales first; Shego could find the most chilling versions of classic fairytales ever. Kim did not understand how Jayden could sleep afterwards.
“I’m sure she is,” Kim answered. She was probably going to have to leave the room first because Shego did not seem to want to even be around her at the moment, but she was sure that Shego would read to Jayden. After all, Jayden had not done anything wrong.
“Okay. Um…” Jayden hesitated for a moment. “You mad at me, Mom?”
“Of course not, baby. Why would I be mad at you? We had a lot of funny today and everything, right?” Kim pointed out.
“We did,” Jayden confirmed. She had had great fun with her Mom as always, but she wanted to be sure. “Um…is Mommy mad at me?”
“No, Mommy’s not mad at you. Why would she be?”
Jayden shrugged. She had no idea why her Mommy might be mad her, but she wanted to make sure that she was not. She was going to listen to her Mom since she knew that the redhead never lied. Kim made sure that Jayden was good to go before leaving the room. Once she left, Shego did come in, which caused the four-year-old to grin.
“So, mini-monster, what are we reading tonight?” Shego asked as she sat down by the bed and took a book off the nightstand. She was about to crack the book open when she heard a curious noise. She heard a distinct “ribbet” sound and it was coming from Jayden’s pillow. “Jade, where’s Alex?” she asked, even though she could guess.
“Right here,” Jayden answered honestly as she picked up her pillow and the toad was right there.
“Why the hell is he under you pillow?” Shego asked in a calm tone. She was pretty good with watching her temper around Jayden, knowing that showing anger around their child was not good. It was just so hard to do considering some of the things that she had to put up with.
“I thought he’d like to sleep with me,” the child answered honestly.
“Get out of the bed,” Shego said, sounding almost tired.
“Why?”
“Just get out of the bed and go in my room. Tell your mom to come here too,” Shego stated.
Jayden nodded and eased out of her bed. She walked out of the room thinking that if her Mommy was upset with her before, she certainly was now. She went and got Kim. She returned to the room with the redhead.
“Yeah?” Kim asked.
“Pick the toad up,” Shego requested. There was no way in hell that she was touching the slimy, bumpy thing.
Kim shrugged, wondering what toad Shego was talking about. She went deeper into the room to see the creature under Jayden’s pillow. Kim was not sure if she wanted to laugh or sigh, so she did not do either. She picked up the toad and headed for the door.
“Mom, whaddaya doin’ with Alex?” Jayden asked with great interest.
“I’m just going to put him the room with the other critters. Don’t worry, Jade. I’m not going to let him loose or anything. You just can’t sleep with him under your pillow like that,” Kim replied.
“Yeah.” Jayden nodded to show that she understood. She kind of figured that she could not sleep with him because her Mommy was definitely angry with her now.
While Kim and Jayden put the toad somewhere that it would not bother Shego, the green-skinned woman stripped the sheets off of Jayden’s bed. She was not going to let the child sleep on a spread that that nasty toad had been on. She went to the linen closet to get some more Care Bear sheets, as those were the only ones that Jayden would sleep on, and another Care Bear blanket. She also changed the pillow case and when it was all said and done with, Jayden was back in a clean, toad-free bed. Shego forgot that she had not read the child a story because of the toad distraction. The super-powered woman left the room and Jayden whimpered. Her Mommy was really mad at her, she concluded.
The night was not over by far. Kim and Shego did have to share a bedroom after all. The slender scientist was still feeling the affects of being yelled at in such a demeaning manner earlier. Her spouse was still in no mood to apologize. Shego felt very strongly that she had been in the right for once. Kim was the one that was wrong and she needed to just admit it and stop acting like a victim.
“Pumpkin, just cut this shit out,” Shego said as she settled into the bed.
“What? What now?” Kim inquired in an exasperated tone. She was sitting at the edge of the bed, contemplating if she even wanted to sleep there that night. She had not done anything to warrant words from her mate in her opinion.
“Look, you were wrong. Stop being such a brat about this,” the raven-haired woman stated soundly. God, her wife needed to move on since she was wrong and that was that.
“For your information, I don’t think I was wrong,” the olive-eyed hero retorted with a bit of an attitude.
“What the fuck? You took our baby on a fucking mission,” Shego pointed out with an incredulous expression because of her love’s response. She was upset just thinking about such behavior.
“You don’t even know what kind of mission it was,” the younger woman argued vehemently.
“It was a fucking mission, end of story, in a fucking jungle undoubtedly since she brought back that disgusting fucking toad.” That made the case as far as the elder female was concerned.
Kim turned her head sharply to face her spouse. “You know, you don’t know everything and you don’t know what’s best for the baby all the time,” she stated heatedly.
“I know not to take her on a fucking mission!” the raven-haired female barked.
“It wasn’t a hard mission! All I had to do was get back some lost stuff and she had fun in the jungle, okay! She liked it and nothing happened!” the redhead riposted in a forceful voice.
“Something could’ve happened!” Shego snapped back.
“If that’s the case, let’s never take her outside again. Let’s never walk her to the park. Damn it, let’s not let her leave her room,” Kim declared.
“It’s not the same thing.”
“It is to me. I’m at home in a jungle just like I am on any street. I also kept a close eye on her, like I would do anywhere else on the damn planet. She’s not just your daughter!” Kim proclaimed angrily. Maybe that was the bit that hurt the most; that Shego acted like Jayden was not their daughter and that she did not know how to help raise their child. It was like Shego thought that Jayden was only hers and that Kim could not do anything for the girl.
“I never said she was,” Shego argued, a bit surprised by all of the emotion coming from her spouse.
“You’re acting like it. You told me not to take your daughter out. She’s my daughter too and I can take care of her.”
“I never said you couldn’t.”
“You made it seem that way when you just screamed at me. You didn’t talk it out or anything. You just screamed at me…” Kim sighed a bit, looking away with sorrow coating her eyes.
Shego sighed right along with her. How in the hell was it that when she was so sure that she was right, she was actually wrong? Damn it, she huffed mentally. She sat up and moved over to the redhead. She wrapped her arms around the slender hero.
“Okay, so we’re talking about it right now. Why did you take the baby out on the mission and what kind of mission was it?” Shego inquired, speaking in a gentle tone for the first time that night when it came to her lover.
“I told you, I couldn’t find a babysitter. I wouldn’t have done this if it was something really dangerous. Besides, I thought she’d have a good time, which she actually did. Now, I knew you’d be mad about it and I was actually hoping you wouldn’t find out, but I kept a really good eye on her. I don’t want anything to happen to her either,” Kim explained.
“I know…” the pale woman muttered. Of course she knew that Kim did not want anything to happen to their baby.
“Now, I am sorry for doing something that I knew would upset you, but she had a really good time and nothing happened. She was great,” the redheaded scientist informed her mate.
“Sorry I lost my cool like that. Did I actually threaten to beat you up and put you out on in a box?” Shego asked just to see if her memory was serving her correctly. She had just been so pissed that she said things in the heat of the moment and she was really hoping that was not one of them.
“Yeah,” Kim confirmed in a sorrowful tone.
“Damn,” Shego mumbled. She could not believe that she had said something so horrible to her little woman. Her embrace on Kim tightened when the statement was affirmed.
“It’s okay. I mean, I know you were angry and you were worried about Jade. I just want you to trust me with her. I’m not going to put her in danger willingly,” Kim pointed out.
“I know. It’s just that she’s so little.”
“She’s in good hands and she’s a smart kid. She’s not going to do anything that she knows will get her hurt too.”
“I know,” Shego agreed. Jayden, while crazy as hell just like her friends, was not stupid. She would not do something that she knew would mean that she would get injured.
“I am sorry for doing something that I knew you’d be mad at again,” Kim apologized. She really felt that action warranted Shego’s wrath.
“It’s okay,” Shego said and she nuzzled her spouse’s neck. She felt horrible now as she realized how she handled the situation. “Just don’t do that again,” she requested/ordered.
“Take her on a mission or take her in a jungle?” the petite hero inquired curiously.
“Don’t take her on a mission or into the jungle, not while she’s a midget anyway. Just wait for her to get some weight on her or something, please. I mean, that shit scared the hell out of me when you said you took her on a mission, even though she was all right in the living room. I mean, she’s only four, Princess.”
“I know. So, how old should she be when I take her back into a jungle because I did promise her I’d take her back,” Kim commented.
“What? Love, you can’t do that. Don’t make her crazy promises because she knows you’re going to keep them,” Shego said.
“Well, excuse me that our daughter trusts us when we tell her something,” Kim remarked with a bit of a teasing smile.
“I don’t know how old she should be running around in jungles. This shit isn’t in parenting books. How long did you have her there?” the green-skinned woman asked curiously.
“We were just there for like an hour. I mean, I could take her back, but for a few minutes or something if I get a really easy mission. I mean, if I need to just locate something or rescue something, but I can still pay Jade proper attention, is it all right? She had so much fun, Shego. I mean, it was way better than being in some dumb playground,” Kim answered.
Shego sighed. “I’d really rather not have our four-year-old daughter run around in a jungle.”
“She just climbed a tree and jumped in some mud. I won’t take her back anytime soon, though. I’ll tell her that she’s not old enough,” Kim said since she could see that the idea truly bothered Shego.
“Thank you,” the pale woman replied with a sigh of relief.
Kim smiled a bit and turned a little to kiss her wife on the lips. It was nice that they were both able to talk about things after they both had done something wrong. Shego really had not meant to blow up the way that she had, but Jayden was their little girl and she got worried about her. She did not want anything to happen to Jayden that could be prevented and Kim understood that because she was the same way. The hero did have to remind herself that her spouse worried very easily about certain things or people, mostly her family, and she really needed to be careful because she did not want to cause Shego any more stress.
Jayden lay in her bed, clutching her small Cheer Bear plush toy. The darkness of the room, which had never bothered her before, seemed crushing to her now. She had heard her mothers arguing minutes ago. Tears silently fell from her sorrow-filled, olive eyes; she was certain that they were mad at her, especially her Mommy. After all, her Mommy had not even read her a bedtime story.
Next time: Jayden continues to believe that her Mommy is mad at her until she convinces herself that Shego doesn’t love her as much as Kim does. How do the two mothers handle that?