“Your father and I bought you a pack of condoms because we figured you were a responsible young woman. If Shego is your and Ron’s daughter, why weren’t you using any of them last night with him?”
Kim and Ron’s faces turned beet red as Shego collapsed on the ground laughing behind them.
“Uh…Eh heh heh…” Kim tugged her shirt collar as she looked up at her mother. “Um…Iiit – It broke?”
Mrs. Possible sighed. “I sure hope so, Kimmie. Either way, we’re going to have a talk with your father.”
Shego’s mood suddenly drastically changed. “Speaking of father…” She grabbed Ron and pinned him before anyone could stop her, igniting her green energy flames. “CAN I BEAT MINE TO A BARELY-ALIVE PULP FOR TAKING MY MOTHER AWAY FROM ME FOR 21 AND A HALF YEARS?”
“Ahh!” Ron threw his hands – already bruised from Kim’s pummeling of him - up as Shego’s fist came down-
“SHEGO, WAIT!” Kim grabbed Shego’s arm, the woman’s energy flames-laced fist picometers from Ron’s nose.
“WHY SHOULD I WAIT?” snarled the thief. “OH, SURE, I HATE YOU, NO DOUBT – BUT HE’S THE MAIN REASON WHY I HATE YOU! IF HE HADN’T DRAGGED YOU THROUGH THAT TIME PORTAL-”
“WE’RE BOTH THE MAIN REASONS WHY YOU HATE ME!” Kim asserted – her voice so filled with venom, it actually had her daughter in shock. Shego dropped Ron from her furious grip in surprise as Kim calmed herself down. “I could’ve just told Ron you were in your room, but all I told him was to wait 5 minutes while you put on your Robin Hood costume. Since he only had 4 minutes to get me back before the time portal closed, he didn’t want to stay for 5 minutes – and when he tried to get me to come back, I resisted and tried to run to your room – instead of, again, telling him you were our daughter. Everything happened in a blur. We both made mistakes in the heat of the moment. Besides, I – kind of already pummeled him pretty badly when I came out of the portal and freaked out that you’d been left behind.” Kim grinned sheepishly as Ron raised his hands, showing the bruises.
“Can I least punch him once?”
Ron thought about it. “Eh…Yeah, I suppose I kinda deserve it-”
CRACK!
He spun around 4 times before hitting the ground, unconscious the whole time.
Shego shook her hand, and put her green energy flames out. “Oh, godDAMN, that felt good…”
Ron quickly came to, groaning. “Ow…Yeah, I definitely deserved that one.” He rubbed his head. “Ah. Damn…”
It was just then that they finally heard the police sirens in the distance. They were still fairly far away.
“Well, there’s my ride.” Shego sat down
Kim looked down. “Shego – an-and everyone else…I – I’m gonna have to be joining you in jail.”
“WHAT?” shrieked Ron as Shego stared at her mother, jaw gaping in disbelief.
Mrs. Possible couldn’t believe it. “W-what, Kimmie? What do you mean?”
“It means what I implied, Mom: I deserve to go to prison alongside Shego.”
“Kimmie, what? Why?”
“Using a fake ID.” Kim held out the social security card she’d taken from the burned-down house in 1984.
“Oh my god…” gasped Ron. “You stole someone’s identity, KP?”
“Ron, I was a homeless and pregnant 17-year old girl! It took me 3 months of sitting on the sidewalks of Middleton with a tin can from a dumpster before I had the 75 cents I needed for bus money to get out of there and head off to Go City! 75 CENTS! 75 CENTS, RON! 75 CENTS!” she screamed, unconsciously grabbing his shoulders and pinning him against the wall, her eyes flooding with tears as she recalled the events he had not seen her go through. “I drank water out of puddles…I slept on the cold ground in damp alleyways…WHEN I GOT TO GO CITY, I WAS SO THIRSTY I JUST TOSSED A USED HEROIN NEEDLE OUT OF A PUDDLE BEFORE I DRANK THE WATER!” Suddenly, she seemed to snap back to reality. “Oh!” she cried, dropping Ron to the ground. “S-sorry… But like I said, I was desperate, Ron. This person on the social security card was born in the 60’s, and she and her family died in a fire that burned the house down a short while later in 1977. But this person – her body was never found, and… Well, in 1984, the cops didn’t do jack to all the bums who crossed the tape of the burned-down house’s lot. I went in, looked around – and found this, miraculously. I almost didn’t take it when I saw the skeleton of the girl it belonged to–…I had no other way out of- If I hadn’t-”
She crashed into Mrs. Possible’s comforting hug, almost bawling. “I had no choice…I needed food. I didn’t wanna raise my child on the streets. The only ways out were dying of malnutrition, or stealing an ID to have a life again-”
“Shh…” Mrs. Possible patted Kim on her back. “It’s okay, Kimmie. But the Statute of Limitations for that – Isn’t-”
“-it less than 21 and a half years? Yeah, it is, Mom.” Kim wiped some tears of hers out of her face. She looked at Shego, aiming her tear-stained half-smile at her daughter. “But in my timeline, it’s only been 1 and a half years.”
Shego scoffed and turned around, ignoring her. “Nice try, Mom. If you’re tryin’ to preach a lesson, it ain’t workin’.
“Wait. Will they even accept that as a valid argument, Kimmie?” asked Mrs. Possible.
“Hah! Considering the trial of Dr. Tardishead after Team Go captured him, that argument’s a breeze here.”
“Dr. who?”
“You don’t wanna know, Princ - Mom - let’s just say that Abe Lincoln was the Defense, Genghis Khan was the Prosecution, The Almighty Keeler Odenkirk the Wise III was the presiding Justice, and leave it at that.”
“Uh – okay.”
“Kimmie, are you sure about this?”
“Anything’s possible for a Possible, Mom.” Kim hung her head. “In-including being a thief. Besides – I’ve already lied enough. You know where that almost got me the last time I did that. I’m gonna come clean now, before all this news breaks, and someone here in Go City - or in Middleton, Brookdale, or West Whitewater realizes I broke the law. People know who I am here. It’s a taint on my record if I confess to a crime, yes - but if I turn myself in, it’s not gonna hurt my image anywhere near as much as if someone else broke the news. It’d just be more of a scandal for all of us – and I don’t want that, especially after I already unintentionally turned my daughter into my arch-nemesis. I’m going to turn myself in now.”
Mrs. Possible looked down and sighed, trying to hide the tears that were forming in her eyes. “Okay, Kimmie.”
Kim ran over and hugged her mother. “I’m sorry, Mom. And you too, Ron,” she added, embracing Ron tightly.
Shego rolled her eyes. “Oh, for cryin’ out loud – it’s just jail…”
The cuffs were cold. Painful. But they fit. And that was what mattered.
“You have the right to remain silent. If you give up that right, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney and to have an attorney present during questioning. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided to you at no cost. During any questioning, you may decide at any time to exercise these rights, not answer any questions, or make any statements.”
A lower of her head was all. Other than that, silence. Everything that needed to be said had been said. Everything that needed to be done had been done. There was nothing that could be done to reverse it.
“Okay, in the car.”
The backseat was cold. Cramped. There were seatbelts, but she didn’t feel like asking about them.
A sad sigh escaped her as Officer Kleiser shut the back door and walked to the front driver’s side.
It was the only way. It was the right thing to do – which was why she hated the fact that she had to do it.
Kim looked at her daughter, then out the window at her mother and Ron as the police car pulled away - the tears that had just been streaming down her face a few seconds ago having now dried up into stains.
“In a stunning breaking news story, world-famous teen hero Kim Possible was arrested-”
“-turned herself in last night, alongside her perennial nemesis Shego-”
“Possible’s arrest comes just a day after she foiled the latest attempt by archenemy Dr. Drakken to take over the worl-”
“Kim got arrested? Hah! I knew it! I knew it was too good to be true when she walked into the prom with that loser Ron hanging on her arm!”
“Yeah, and the fact that she and that loser standing behind you saved yours and the world’s ass just hours before never fell into your consideration, Bonnie?”
Bonnie jumped, turning around to see Ron – looking uncharacteristically angry, his arms crossed. She scoffed. “Oh, please. How many times did she save the world last year? That wasn’t anything different – except for the fact that she got arrested this time. I knew that Little-Miss-Goody-Two-Shoes wasn’t all tha-”
“Miss Rockwaller, must I already remind you of what was discussed to the whole school earlier regarding the discussion of recent events, and the treatment of those who may be involved in those events?” asked Mr. Barkin, walking up behind Ron, who smirked.
Bonnie just huffed and walked away.
“In the most bizarre twist of events since Dr. Beckett Wells Tardishead filed for custody of his Lindbergh baby clone, the police report on the arrest of Kim Possible reveals Miss Possible claims she is the true identity of the infamous “Miracle Margot” – the 17-year old pregnant homeless girl who briefly captivated Go City in March of 1984 by claiming to be Margot Rose, the youngest daughter of the Rose family, and the only one whose fate after the fire that burned their home in 1977 had remained uncertain – and who subsequently vanished from her apartment without a trace in February of 1986, leaving behind a daughter of 1 and a half years. But being Miracle Margot wasn’t the end of Miss Possible’s allegations – she also repeatedly claimed that Shego was the daughter whom she’d left behind in 1986 when she disappeared-”
“Officer Kleiser’s report noted that initially, he and his fellow officers thought Miss Possible was joking, and a rookie deputy – who has been reprimanded and sent back from more training, as we’ve been told - “chuckled softly to himself.” Upon hearing this from the rookie, Miss Possible “reacted surprisingly, almost violently, insisting it was the truth, and reiterating that she was trying to turn herself in.” It was at that point, says Kleiser’s report, that Possible “began to get very worked up over what she perceived as my fellow officers and I not believing her.” When another officer requested Miss Possible calm down, suggesting that the trauma of having her mother being kidnapped may have had some adverse effects on her, Possible “seemed to calm, down, but did not retract her insistence that she was speaking the truth,” continuing to allege that, quote, “I kept my head on straight two days ago when Dr. Drakken kidnapped my dad and stopped him from overrunning the world with multitudes of giant robots. I can assure you, Deputy Soto, I have my head on straight - and with my head on straight, I still deserve to be in the paddywagon just as much as my daughter does. I was Miracle Margot up until an hour and a half ago, Shego is my daughter, and I can prove it all.” At that, the teenage hero “threw a handful of identification cards on the ground in front of Deputy Hammer and Officer Roth” – which included what was later determined to be the authentic Social Security Card of Margot Rose, telling officers “Here – all evidence of the identity theft I’m trying to turn myself in for.” Miss Possible’s arrest finally came when she, after a moment of silence, startlingly stated “Oh, I suppose you want my gun, too,” and pulled out a small pistol, placing it on the ground slowly.”
“In interrogation with Miss Possible, Officer Kleiser asked Miss Possible how she could be Miracle Margot when she had been born 3 years after Miracle Margot’s mysterious disappearance. Possible “described a time portal opening in her room earlier that day, and her subsequent falling into it and being sent back to 1984 – in surprisingly exactly the same way and detail as had been described in the case of Dr. Tardishead a few years ago.” And she still wasn’t finished there, as next she “spat forth a laundry list” of incidences and events, tax records with exact total amounts, the names, times and dates she’d called to have some plumbing work done on her alleged apartment’s bathroom, the exact number of hours per day she had apparently worked at Go City Mall’s Club Banana – she even, according to the report, “asked if the landlady of the apartment building still used her grandmother’s mahogany cane with the gold inlay placed on by hand-"”
“Yes, that’s right, Bob. Earlier in the afternoon, Kim Possible walked amongst the rest of the world again. However, said walk was just temporary, with the world-famous former teenage hero decked out in the standard orange jumpsuit of an inmate and supervised by four huge armed guards. For the first time since she shocked the world by turning herself in, Miss Possible stepped foot outside Go City Prison, and led investigators straight to a small skeleton in the burned-down Rose house - crushed under a heavy mattress, the bones heavily charred. Miss Possible had stated in her initial interrogation that the skeleton is the body of the real 10-year old Margot Rose, and that in 1984, she’d seen it while taking the girl’s Social Security card from the bureau in the same room-”
“In related news, the transfer of prisoners from the Middleton Jail to the newer Tri-City Penitentiary is complete. The transfer process was ordered to be expedited by a judge in the Tri-City County Court after Shego’s escape earlier on the day Miss Possible turned herself in-”
“-her Arraignment, Kim Possible pleaded guilty today to 2 charges - one charge we have not seen issued since the Dr. Tardishead trial of 1995 and 1956 – one count of misuse of a time portal to commit identity theft in the third degree. The 2nd charge was a minor count of unlawful possession of a concealed weapon. Tried as an adult - since she’d spent 2 and a half years in the past and has aged to 19 years old - Possible was sentenced to 5 years in prison, which she will serve at Go City Jail for a few more days until the prison finishes transferring its prisoners over to the new Tri-City Penitentiary–”
“-Tri-City Penitentiary, the recently new, incredibly large, and experimental multi-security level prison replacing the outdated and dilapidating prisons of 4 counties - Go, Middleton, Brookdale, and West Whitewater. It has its own full-size hospital wing with a full-time staff of qualified physicians, on the philosophy that inmates severely injured in a fight will receive absolute immediate medical treatment for injuries that could potentially prove fatal were the inmate to take a long ambulance trip. And to top it off, the Tri-City Pen also has a massive SWAT Force – a group of 4 special SWAT units from all four participating counties. The SWAT Force is being employed as the last line of resort at the Tri-City Penitentiary to suppress any prison riots before the order authorizing the use of deadly force can be issued. Asked why the SWAT Force was created, officials replied that, in case a major riot does break out, they hoped using the SWAT Force before deadly force would save the lives of inmates. Said one officer, “The inmates are people, too. We don’t want to be known as the “The 2nd Pelican Bay’ if something were to happen” “ - referring to the terrible riot that broke out on February 23rd, 2000 at Pelican Bay State Prison in California, which ended when a prisoner was killed after deadly force was authorized-”
“-prisoner transfer from the Brookdale City Jail to the Tri-City Penitentiary was completed last night-”
“-DNA tests from 3 different labs have all come back with same results – a perfect match. Coupled with the DNA reports that the skeleton she led investigators too was Margot Rose, plus the news earlier this week that the Go family had adopted the 1 and a half year old Kamie Rose in 1986 after Miracle Margot’s baffling disappearance that year - all of this stunning information gives even more weight to Miss Possible’s assertions that she was Miracle Margot, and that Shego is her daughter-”
“-today, finished moving West Whitewater Detention Center prisoners to the Tri-City Penitentiary-”
“-pleaded guilty to a 5-year reduced sentence in the kidnapping of Dr. Granuaile Possible, as part of a plea bargain. In exchange for the reduced sentence, the charges regarding Shego’s involvement in Dr. Drakken’s Lil’ Diablo incident will be extremely reduced – and along with her serving 10 years of community service plus one year of therapy, she has agreed to testify against Dr. Drakken. Shego will serve her sentence in the Tri-City Penitentiary-”
“-so it seems that the most unlikely mother and daughter pair in history will be seeing themselves a lot for the next 5 years. It’s a reunion – but a bittersweet one, at that.”
“A child? The buffoon knocked her up? Wait – she slept with the Buffoon?”
“Oh, no…” sighed Liz, shaking her head in dismay.
“Bonnie, will you lay off him?” asked Tara in exasperation. “Jeezus!”
“Yeah, leave the guy alone, Bonnie! You’ve been knifing into him about this thing for half a month. When the hell are you gonna stop?” Marcela added.
Bonnie ignored them, and looked at Ron. “So, not only did Kim get arrested, you two played pelvis pinochle and didn’t think to use protection? Oh, this is just too rich!”
“Bonnie, shut up!” scolded Crystal. “For god’s sake, just leave him alone. What is your deal lately?”
Bonnie ignored them again. “Oh, and I have another question for you, Ron: Kim’s just too much of a goody-two-shoes to sleep with anyone before marriage. Did you actually sleep together because you both wanted to – or did you just get so jealous of Eric that you wanted to make sure Kim belonged to only you?”
The gym fell gravely silent as Ron, who had been ignoring Bonnie with more ease than she’d ignored the rest of the cheer squad, stood up as straight as a rail. The comment had clearly not gone over lightly. His feet were leaden with anger as he walked towards her. He stopped and pointed at her, his eyes narrow with rage, his finger inches away from making her a one-eyed pirate. “Don’t talk like you know what happened when you don’t know a damn shit about it, Bonnie.”
Bonnie’s eyes flashed at his threat, narrowing into furious slits that supremely outmatched his in intensity. She lowered her head and glared straight back at him, her irises burning with fires set a long time ago. “You’ve got 2 seconds to get your loser hands out my face before I snap you in two, Stoppable…” she growled.
“And if you can’t do that, then what?” hissed Ron, leaning his face in at hers, his voice too quiet for anyone but her to hear. “You’ll call your sisters for backup?”
It wasn’t the Tri-City Penitentiary itself that Kim hated. It was the fact that whoever thought of its location and design was a sheer genius.
The prison security wall looked normal. Rectangular, guard observation towers placed at optimal positions– but the holding center was not of the standard design, but rather the circular panopticon design - which was much worse privacy-wise than just rows of cells set out in a line. It was collectively known around the entire Tri-City area as “The Roundhouse of Doom.” The “doom” part was there because of what surrounded the prison outside of the security wall: Three graveyards. The Go City Cemetery, the Brookdale City Cemetery, and the West Whitewater Cemetery – all of them bordered the prison. It was bleak as hell, but the cops working there obviously didn’t see it that way.
“There are four ways out of the Tri-City Penitentiary. Three of them you can see if you look out your cell window. The fourth way is the same way you came in – but only if you can turn your life around while in here. Until then, all you’re going is nowhere.”
Kim scoffed as she remembered the speech that Warden Ryder had given her upon being booked. The poor young woman had looked almost pained to be giving it to the world-famous teenage hero – but Kim had to give her credit; the woman’s voice hadn’t wavered.
“This way, please, Miss Possible.”
Every head in every cell of the Tri-City Penitentiary turned upon hearing the name.
In response to complaints about lack of quality airflow from cells in the Go City Prison, the Penitentiary cells had not been designed with the standard full doors – instead, they were a blend of the door style and the oldie bars – thick metal doors with millions upon million of tiny holes perforating them – the lovely “cheese grater doors,” as one Middleton newspaper reporter had coined them. The holes were too small for any prisoner to exploit in an escape, but the idea was inspired by how human skin worked – solid protection of whatever was inside its barrier, yet the tiny pores unable to be seen without getting very close up allowed enough air to pass through to allow it to breath. It was just on a slightly more visible scale with the cell doors. But that design also meant that, like the old prison cage cells with bars, sound traveled easily through the doors – and with the circular design of the holding area, every conversation anyone had was amplified slightly, depending on where one had their cell located. The Day Rooms, set smack in the middle of the holding area, were horrific privacy-wise. Kim hung her head as every villain she’d gotten incarcerated sneered at her being escorted to her cell. Even the lifers she’d never gone after gave her the “I’m watching you” eye.
“So, Kim Possible – looking forward to your family reunion?”
Kim whirled and landed a murderous glare upon Drakken’s eyes – making him jump back in surprise with the intensity the glare burned.
“All right, keep moving, Miss Possible,” said the officer escorting her, yanking the teen’s arm forward. Kim complied, looking in front of her again and moving on. Her escorting officers stopped in front of a cell with only occupant in it at the moment. Shego was lying on the bottom bed, her back to all of them. “Your mom’s here, Shego,” the other guard said, taking off Kim’s cuffs as the first officer opened the door.
“Joy…” Shego responded, not moving an inch to look as Kim was pushed into the cell.
SLAM! The closing of the door echoed throughout the holding area.
Kim climbed onto the top bed of the cell – and instantly collapsed upon it, crying.
“Oh, shut up, Kimmi – Mom. Stop crying.”
“Shego – I’m in here for 5 years,” said Kim, rolling over and sniffling back a tear.
“Ouch. 5 years. Oh. The agony.”
Kim looked down. “Well, I can see you’re feeling chipper today.”
“Mighty chipper. My mother’s just moved back in with me while I still hold some hate for her. Joy to the world!”
Kim chuckled as her crying finally began to cease. “Still can’t hide how you really feel, huh?”
“Well, excuse me for being the daughter of Ms. Honesty. Jeezus, how the hell did you keep up that Margot Rose bullshit for 2 and a half years?”
“Shego…I would’ve kept it up to this day if I’d had to.”
“Hmmph. That’s believable – but only because your grandmother kept all her Army history from you for forever.”
“Hey, you leave your great-grandmother out of this!” Kim snapped. “This wasn’t her mess. This was my mess. Almost all my mess.”
“Oh, right. She’s my great-grandmother now. I forgot.”
“Are you just going to be snippy with me all morning?”
“YES! I’ve got a shitton of anger at you for something I now know I shouldn’t really be that angry at you for, and now I’m trying to get all of that anger out of me before I end up strangling you in just three months!” spat Shego in exasperation. It was a brief moment before she broke the silence. “We’ve got 5 years together in here. I’m just…trying my best not to…” She held up her fist, half-clenched, just moments away from turning it into a full fist and igniting her green energy powers – then sighed in frustration, the fist dropping away as her anger died. “I’m just trying.”
Kim smirked, smiling warmly at the roof of the cell. “Thank you, Shego.”
“…For what?”
“For trying.”
“……Whatever.”
“I’LL KILL YOU ALL! I’LL KILL YOU ALL! JUST WAIT AND SEE! I’LL KILL YOU ALL! YOU CAN’T KEEP ME IN HERE FOREVER!”
“SHUT UP, KARA!” yelled about the whole rest of the Roundhouse’s population – yelling at Kara was the one thing the prisoners and the guards worked together on without hesitation.
“Lovely. We got to make clothes for our jobs in Go City Prison. Never thought I’d be wandering around a cemetery pulling up weeds.”
“Just shut up and keep working, Mom.”
Kim rolled her eyes, but heeded her daughter’s advice. She knelt to remove a spiky weed from in front of the Go City Cemetery tombstone, looked up –
-and dropped the weed back on the ground. “What? No!”
She couldn’t believe what she was looking at.
Here Lies Mr. Joe Go
B. 1952 D. 1987
His Wife And Family Loved Him.
“Hey, you! Back to work!” shouted the supervising officer.
“Lay off!” Shego shot back, “She knew the dude buried right here. Give her, like, oh, I don’t know – a minute or something!”
Kim looked at the officer, pleading with her eyes.
“Hmmph, alright. But only a minute!”
With that, Kim turned and sobbed into Shego’s surprisingly comforting embrace. “Hey, get over it already, Ki-Mom. C’mon.”
Kim sniffled back a tear and nodded, moving on to the next batch of weeds. But this time, it was Shego who stopped working to look at the grave in front of them. Kim noticed this time that the supervising officer never even blinked when he noticed her not working. She smirked. Lord only knows what she did to him the first time he tried to stop her from observing the grave. But – why did Shego stop? Kim, puzzled, peeked at the tombstone – and got her answer quickly:
Here Lies Mrs. Rose Piper Go
B. 1956 D. 1992
Her Family Loved Her.
After Shego had had her minute to mourn, both she and Kim went right back to their regular duties.
“911, what is your-”
“MAWHMEE’S GONE!”
“Could you repeat that, please?”
“MAWHMEE! MAWHMEEEE! WHEH’S MAWHMEE?”
“Hello? Who is this?”
“MAWHMEE! WHEH AH YEW! YEW SED YEW’D BE WHIGHT HEAR! MAWHMEEEE!”
“Shit!” Hernlen swore under her breath. The voice on the other line was a girl, and she sounded incredibly young. There was no way the child was going to listen to her.
“What is it?” asked Tia.
“I’ve got a girl on the other line screaming for her mother repeatedly – sounds like she’s 2 years old, and there’s no way I can get any information-” She froze as she heard the girl shriek in terror at what sounded like a door being kicked in.
“HOOS THEH? HOOS – JOH!”
“Kamies? Wheres is yers mommys?”
Hernlen whirled. “9-1-1. What is the emergency?”
“I DOHN NO!”
“Huh? Was thats the phones?” The sound of someone picking up the phone quickly followed. “Hellos? Shhs…Kamies, it’s okays…”
“Yes, this is 9-1-1. What is the emergency?”
“MAHWMEE!”
“Ums - I donts knows exactlys, Ma’ams - buts I wents to visits my friends heres at her news apartments – I hears her daughter screamins’ for her, sos I busted downs thes doors, finds hers all alones-”
“Sir? What is your name, and do you know the address for this apartment?”
“Uhs…”
“Joe saved you?” Kim sat up on her slab of a bed. It was later that day, and everyone had just returned from the graveyard work. After eating dinner, Shego had started telling Kim about Joe after they got back to their cells – but mainly to just stop Kim from crying over him.
“Yeah, pretty much. Second to you before you disappeared, he’s the only person who I’ll dare say truly cared for me. Apparently, finding me abandoned snapped him out of his homelessness. Turned out he’d left his wife and 2 kids, and always hid that fact – plus the fact that he truly regretted it - from everyone. Now, take a wild guess who the wife he left was.”
“Uhh…”
“Here’s a hint: You’ve met his 2 sons. While in Go City before.”
“No…Seriously?”
“Hey! Seriously, Red, you raggin’ on me? Cuz, seriously, that’s like, not cool. Seriously.”
“Ed, shut up before I blast you with my green energy flames……Thank you.”
“Joe ran out on Mrs. Go?” asked Kim, stunned.
“Yeah. She saw him on the news after it was everywhere that an abandoned one and a half-year old girl had called 9-1-1, and had been saved by a brave homeless man. She apparently still had feelings for him, contacted him through the police’s help – and they ended up getting back together not long afterwards and adopting me.”
“Wow…”
“Yeah, well…I wish Joe’d just tried to raise me separately. Sure, Mrs. Go tried to care for me, but she tried a bit too hard – and I don’t think she ever really truly cared for me. You loved me, but you didn’t coddle me over everything as much as she did. She was more like you were to me towards my brothers, and more like Mrs. Monk when it came to me. Hell, she was worse than you were about making sure I had applied adequate amounts of sunblock.”
Kim chuckled. “Wow. That’s…Damn, I can see why you hated it.”
“Whatever,” groused Shego, rolling her eyes. “I mean, like you, I want to blame her for making me this way…But I can’t, now that I look back on it. I think she honestly tried to treat me as if I was her actual daughter. She promised to be there for me whenever I needed it – just like you did – and there were times I did run to her. But those times were only if Joe couldn’t help me with my problem. But it was just – “Tomboy” was a foreign country to her. She’d been raised “as a lady,” so she had all these ideas about what her daughter would be like.”
“Ew.”
“Please – please – don’t remind me. She’d bought all these nice dresses for me, all these Barbies, these really expensive play tea sets and dollhouses – and all I wanted to do was wear camouflage fatigues and run around outside all day playing GI-Joe and Real Ghostbusters. She had me watch Pound Puppies with her once – I got annoyed at it and asked her when Lydia and Beetlejuice were gonna show up.”
“Hey, are any of you guys listening to this? Cause this is like, dirt up the wazoo, serious-AHH!” Ed ducked the blast of green energy flames that streaked into his cell. “Hey! Watch the mullet, babe! Seriously, babe, don’t damage the ‘do - that’s just, like, so not cool. Seriously. ”
“Eddie, she warned you, so – shut up.”
“What? Oh, so now you’re on her side, Cuz? Seriously, that is just not cool. Even my own family’s deserted me now. Seriously, not cool. And how was she even able to get that blast through these pore-hole doors, or whatever? Seriously, how did you do that, Shego?”
“I aimed. Seriously,” snapped Shego.
“Ed?” Kim rolled over so she could look straight across the way at the mulleted crooked mechanic. “Will you kindly shut the fuck up so I can continue catching up with my daughter, please?” she asked, glaring at him across the chasm of the Roundhouse with a ferocity in her eyes that he’d never seen in her before. That was another side effect of all the tiny little holes instead of a door with a window – from far away, the doors appeared to have a huge hole like a regular window, so every prisoner across the Roundhouse could see each other easily if they were at the right angle to each other.
“Whoah! Whoah, Red! I’ll stop! Seriously! Damn! Alright, Jeezus! Seriously, I’ll stop!”
“Good. Because I still have a fairly positive repartee with even the cops here, and my daughter has green energy flames. Not to mention the both of us could easily slip out of this cell, knock out the guards in our way, and come over to your cell to kick your Jersey ass. You got it?”
“Okay, Red! Damn! Just – stop looking at me with that glare already, Red! You’re freakin’ me out big time with that. Seriously!”
“Good. So shut up.” Kim rolled back over onto her back. “You were saying, Shego?”
“Hold on. I’m still trying to register the fact you said ‘fuck’ without apologizing.”
“Hey, you know my death stare firsthand, Shego. I cursed more than a few times back then, too. Just - either before you were born, or when you were out of the room so I wouldn’t get a scolding from you about it. You were adamant about me donating to that swear jar we had…” Kim grinned to herself. “Anyways – back to Mrs. Go. After you watched Pound Puppies, what else were you going to tell me about her?”
“Oh, yeah. Well, again, she just couldn’t wrap her head around the fact I was a tomboy. I said I wanted to go as Robin Hood for Halloween; she made a Maid Marian costume for me. I guess that’s where I really started to hate her – I protested by ripping up the costume, stomping all over it, and demanding a Robin Hood costume. She got pissed – and I didn’t get to go trick-or-treating that night. Every time someone asked what I wanted to be when I grew up and I said I wanted to be a thief, she gave me The Talk about it all, ‘cause apparently one of her ancestors had been a thief and it’d taken years for her grandmother and mother to salvage the Go family’s reputation.”
“You turned bad because you didn’t get to go trick-or-treating?”
“N-no…I just started to hate her there. I really started to hate her when she signed me up for ballet and gymnastics, and all this other girly shit I didn’t wanna do. If it hadn’t been for Joe requesting she do it in his will, she would’ve refused to let me take any martial arts classes.”
“When did he die?” Kim felt a pit start to knot up in her chest as she remembered how it seemed only a day past in her mind that she was handing food to Joe and Dr. Suiraiva, and little Kamie was poking at Joe’s nose over and over again. Time moved so fast sometimes…
“When I was 3. Had Osteonecrosis of the Jaw, which was why his teeth were so bad – and also why he always talked with an s at the end of every other word he spoke. Being homeless for as long as he had been definitely didn’t help things much. Pretty soon, it was discovered he’d developed Noma on top of the Osteonecrosis from the malnutrition. All of his different doctors were pleading with him to have surgery to take out the dead bone and reconstruct his face. However, he’d had a really bad experience with his mother barely surviving some nasty rare complication of a minor surgery she underwent, and she’d made him vow to her that he would never have any kind of invasive procedure whatsoever done on him so he could avoid the shit she went through. So Joe vehemently refused to have surgery, or even get an I.V. or feeding tube put in him. I ended up being the only person I’ve known to ever drop out of preschool, I was at the hospital with him so often. Being the idiot 3-year old I was, I kept asking him to get Mrs. Go to agree to let me take martial arts lessons when I was older. So he finally wrote his lawyer and told him to put that in his will – and not to tell Mrs. Go about it. He died soon after that, with everyone gathered around his hospital bed. It was the second to last time I’ve ever cried the way I always cried around you whenever I got scared or upset.”
Brushing away some tears, Kim failed to hold back a sniffle. “One of the kindest people I’ve ever met…Didn’t even get to say goodbye…”
“Look, Mom. I’ve learned a learned a lot of stuff from the shit I’ve gone through, and it all boils down to “Life sucks."”
“Funny. I learned pretty much the same thing after being homeless for 3 months. So…What happened after Joe passed?”
Shego closed her eyes and sighed. “Turned out Mrs. Go had been saved from the bottle by the fact she knew Joe was still alive when he ran out, and forced herself to stay sober in hopes he’d return to the family. When he passed, she hit the bottle so hard, she shattered herself. Until that rainbow-coloured comet slammed into our house and killed her when I was 8, I don’t think there was ever more than a second of her sober. I hated her more and more. 4-year old me didn’t know what drunk was, so having your new mommy suddenly start calling you a slut and a whore nearly nightly got confusing, and only made me more pissed with everyone else in my ‘family’ ‘cause no one explained to me what was going on. Why they couldn’t freaking tell me what alcoholism was, and that I needed to lay off Mrs. Go, I don’t have a clue. All I know is by the time the comet hit, I absolutely despised her. I kept arguing with her about how I remembered my real mom and she wasn’t my real mom…” Shego paused to catch her breath. “…And she always ended up countering that “If your real mom truly loved you, then why did she run out on you?” – which always ended the arguments, because then I could never come up with a satisfactory response.”
“Because of me.”
“Because of you.”
“Because you hated me for disappearing.”
“Because I hated you for disappearing when I didn’t know what the jack really happened and thought you just up and abandoned me!”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there-”
“Rrrr…Dammit, Ki-Mom! I know!” Shego snapped. “I know! Jeezus fuck… Please, for the love of god, STOP apologizing for this shit. You can’t apologize for this shit, because you weren’t fucking there!”
“Why can’t I apologize for not being there? I promised you I would always be there for you, and I wasn’t.”
“Gah! Look, Princes-Mom, okay - I hate you. You know that. I hate you in the same way Tom Cruise hates South Park. But I know the truth of the matter now, and I understand that you had almost literally no control over your disappearing on me, and that you made a few mistakes. It’s what people do, Mom. They make mistakes. Mrs. Go promised she’d always be there for me at the start, too – then she went and became Mrs. British-Pissed 24/7 for 4 and a half years. But that was her fault. She chose to fall into drinking by her own will. She knew she had a drinking problem, but she still did it. You fell into a time portal by accident. In a nutshell, Mom: As of right now, a part of me loves you, and a part of me wants to skin you alive, take you outside, roll you in a pile of gravel, broken glass, thumbtacks and old pieces of splintering wood, give you a Habanero–laced water shower, pour lots of birdseed on you, chain your ass outside for a year for the birds to peck at you while you scream – then finally kill you by sending you off to a cannibal friend who only eats a centimeter of flesh off of his victims per week. Just like any normal daughter. Now shut the hell up and go to sleep, Pri-Mom – ‘cause in 30 seconds it’s lights out, and you know if these bastards hear even a peep from anyone, we all get 200 more weed-pulling around the graves to do in the morning. And I’ll hate you even more if that happens.”
“Shego, I-”
“OK, EVERYBODY! COUNT TIME! IN YOUR CELLS AND SILENT! LET’S GO!”
“We’re Shego’s uncles, right?”
“Yes – as hard as it is to believe.”
“Hoo-sha!” The boys high-fived. “Now we can mean it when we tell her she’s in big trouble if she ever breaks out and kidnaps us!”
Mr. Possible rolled his eyes. “Boys, we’re not going to be taunting your niece when we go to visit her mother. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, dad…” grumbled the disappointed twins.
“So…Why was everyone all “Oh, it figures she’d do that if Dr. Suiraiva was helping her?” during the media frenzy? What the hell happened to him?” asked Kim as she sat down at the table with her breakfast. “It’s so weird that no one told me.”
“Honestly? You’ll kick yourself – mentally and physically.”
“…Why?”
“Spell his name backwards.”
“S. U. I. R. A. I. V. A….A. V. I. A. R. I. U. S-” Kim cringed.
Shego grinned. “Told ‘ya.”
“The kind man with the pointy nose and glasses who’d helped a lot of the homeless people became the sworn enemy of your family?”
“Yep.”
“And he didn’t recognize me…why?”
“Uh…He’s insane? Turned out he worked for the Go Family’s company, the department which he worked in being headed by a one Mr. Rose – who apparently didn’t like him that much. Something to do with spending too much time in the research aviary or something.”
“Hmmph. Why am I not surprised?”
“When you disappeared, and they found out you’d been posing as Margot Rose, then later discovered he’d helped you - they became suspicious. Thought he’d taken you out for some reason. They took him in for interrogation – and while they dismissed him on involvement in your disappearance, he confessed to another crime. Turned out he was the one who set the Rose House fire in 1977, right after he got fired himself. But he thought his nearly ten years of helping the homeless would make up for it, and he would go free if he ever actually got caught for burning the house down. When it didn’t do jack to his sentence, he went completely nuts, broke out, disappeared into…Brookdale, they think – for like, 10 years – then popped back up in Go City as Aviarius.”
“Again – Why am I not surprised?” asked Kim, looking up and watching as a man across the cafeteria, who coincidentally seemed to have the same pointy nose and glasses as Dr. Suiraiva, eyed her as he sat down to eat at the last row of tables.
“What?”
“Huh?”
“What are you looking at?” Shego asked.
“Hmm? Oh, nothing.”
“You better not be makin’ eye contact with anybody here. Especially the bastards who eat at the last row of tables – those are the lifers and Death Row pricks.”
“I’m not. Don’t worry, Shego.”
“I’m not worrying.”
“Of course you aren’t.”
“Can we just shut up and eat, Prin-Mom? Thank you.”
The Day Room was an interesting place during Free Association. Most people kept to themselves, or watched the one TV that was in there – but this time, everyone was huddled around the bolted down table. A battle between two of the most stubborn wills was in progress, but it was coming to the end for one-
“Hah! Smoked you again, Dr. Drakken!” celebrated Kim as the ping-pong ball flew into the nose of the blue-skinned villain again.
“Aw, Red! That was a wicked move! Nice backhand flip with the paddle! Seriously, that was cool. Seriously.”
“Ahhh! Oh, curse you, Kim Possible!” Drakken threw up his hands and gave up, running to his own little corner.
“Hmmph. Wow. Can’t even beat Kim Possible in table tennis. Nice, Dr. D.”
“Oh, can it, Shego. Why don’t you play her?”
“Hmm?”
“I said, why don’t you play against her in that?” he repeated, nodding at the ping-pong table.
“Hrm…I think I will…” Shego sneered.
Drakken sighed. “Well, at least I stored the Juvinator and memory modifier machine in the one place of mine they didn’t raid…” he whispered to himself.
“What?” Shego asked.
“Nothing, Shego. Go…beat your mom.”
“Hey, honey. How are you doing?”
“About as good as I was doing in the Go City Prison. Though, I didn’t get to tie Shego in a game of table tennis in the Day Room in Go City Prison…”
“Oh. How’s it going with her?”
“Shego? Surprisingly, we’re getting along fine.”
“Oh, well that’s good to hear.”
“Yeah, but we were able to get along when we needed to before we knew we were related, so that’s no big. I’m still trying to get her to tell me about everything that happened after Ron pulled me back to the present – but I think I got a month or two to wait before she’s comfortable enough to tell me anything like that.” Kim sat back and sighed. “I just still wish I could’ve been there for her. Of all the bad days, of all the good days – the whole time I was raising her, that feeling every time I looked at Kamie, every time I thought about the fact that she was my child… - well, you know that feeling, Mom.”
Mrs. Possible nodded, smiling. “Yes…Yes, I do.”
“So how are things going outside this depression factory?” asked Kim.
“Oh, like usual. The boys keep trying to break into your room, but your father got a security system set up and they haven’t been able to break through it yet.”
“Security system set up? With Wade’s help, right?”
Mrs. Possible laughed. “Of course, dear. Don’t you worry. Your room will be fine when you get out.”
“Good. Oh, tell Ron to tell Mr. Barkin he’d love teaching in the Education center here.”
“He’s here, you know,” Mrs. Possible noted. “Ron, that is…”
“Ron’s here?”
“Yes.”
“He’s coming in here for the next 15 minutes.”
“But your father wanted to talk to you – and the boys, too-”
“Dad and the Tweebs can talk to me later in the week. Let me talk to Ron.”
“Hmm…Might as well. It’d be good for him to see you again, especially since he just got out of the hospital yesterday-”
“What? Ron went to the hospital? Why? What happened?”
“He – actually, I think it’d be best for him to tell you. I only know what your friend Bonnie’s mother has been calling to rant at me about for the last few days-”
“Bonnie’s mother – you know what? I don’t care. Just – just let me talk to him.”
Mrs. Possible smiled. “All right, honey. Love you!”
“Same here, Mom.”
“Oh, yes, one more thing – Slim and Joss might drop in to visit if they have time within the next two weeks.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
“You can count on me any time. Bye, honey!” Mrs. Possible hung up the phone and walked out of the visiting room.
Moments later, Ron came in.
“Ron?” Kim stared at the slightly bloody bandages wrapped around the middle of Ron’s face after he picked up the private phone.
“Hey, KP.”
“…What. Happened. To you?”
“The bandages? Well, I got into an argument with Bonnie at the last cheer practice, took it too far - and she went Mike Tyson on my nose.”
“Bonnie bit your nose off?”
“Not all of it! Just…all of it up to where it connected to the bone.”
“…Why did she do that?”
“Well, my face was like an inch away from hers, so she lashed out and kinda, well, bit my nose off.”
“No, I mean, like – what the hell did you say to her that got her pissed off enough to do that?”
“Like I said, KP, I took an argument too far! But she’s been acting past Shego-level nasty the last month – it’s gone from a ribbing a day to a ribbing every time she sees me in the hall or at cheer practice. And when it happened, she’d just all but accused me of raping you after the Prom – and I couldn’t take it anymore.”
“She accused you of what?”
“I know, KP…I know.”
“That’s – that’s not Bonnie. Bonnie wouldn’t go that low.”
“Well, she did. And I – well, I went lower – only I did that with my nose an inch from her teeth.”
How could you go lower than that? The only thing you could do that was lower than her accusation would be you bringing up the topic of her sis-”
Ron looked down.
“-ters. Oh, lovely. Not only will she probably be feeling bad at biting your nose off, she’ll probably visit me now, all pissed at me for telling you about them…”
“No, KP – I don’t think it’s that. She’s been on the verge of killing someone for almost a month – it’s something else… It seems familiar, but I can’t place it-”
Silence followed for a moment as the conversation about Bonnie consensually died in silence. Kim looked up at him. “I miss you.”
“Same here. Man, they wouldn’t even let Rufus in here…”
Kim chuckled. “How is the little rascal, by the way?”
“Oh, same old, same old, you know. He’s pretty much fine.”
“How’s school going – err, I mean – besides the whole Bonnie-biting-off-your-nose deal, obviously?”
Eh, could be better. Look, Kim?”
“Yeah?”
“Um, I was thinking – I turned 18 a few days ago, and you’re 19 and a half now because of the whole time thing…Uh, I wanna know: Will you marry me?”
Kim’s heart raced. “W-what?”
“Will you marry me? I mean, we probably won’t be able to do the whole Jewish stepping-on-the-glass thing because of the prison restrictions, but we could do it, and then once I graduate, I could get Dad to help me get your old apartment in Go City back, and-”
“Yes!”
“Yes?”
“Yes, Ron! Yes! I’ll marry you – as, long as you’re comfortable being married in jail-”
“KP, if I was forced to get married to you in a non-Jewish building of worship, I’d still do it. Well, maybe not that, but you know what I mean.”
“And that’s why I love you, Ron…” smiled Kim.
“I love you, too, Kim.”
“Ok, time to go!” said the officer who’d appeared behind Kim. She immediately hung up, let Ron know he had to leave as well with her eyes, and stood up to be escorted back to her cell. She knew that when a prison officer talked, the prisoner did nothing but listen. There was no way around it. It was how it went.
SLAM!
“So,” said Shego, on her bed, not looking up from the one magazine she was reading. “How’d it go?”
Kim, not initially looking at her, beamed in happiness. Then she ran over to Shego, and - much to the villainess’ surprise - picked her up. “Yes! Yes!”
“Hey! What the? Let go of me, Dammit! Or I’ll-” At that point, Kim kissed her on the cheek and forehead. “Gah! Did you just kiss me? What the hell?”
“Oh c’mon – I kissed you on the cheek and forehead, Shego. Can I not do that to my daughter when I feel like celebrating something? Hmm?”
“Hey – Agh, dammit – Hey, let go of – What the hell is there to celebrate, Princes – Mom? You’re in goddamn jail. Did you finally snap? Is that it?”
“No, I haven’t snapped!” said Kim happily, spinning around with Shego still in her grip. “I’m celebrating the fact that your father just asked me to marry him!”
“Oh, a prison wedding. Yeah, that’ll help his reputation at school alright.”
“Oh, stop it, Shego. I know you care.”
“Hah! Why should I care? And you’re like 2 seconds from green energy pain central if you don’t let me go soon…”
“Shego, you know what this means,” Kim asked, refusing to let the struggling Shego out of her grasp.
Shego kept struggling to get away from her mother. “No I don’t. Should I?”
“It means once we get out of here – you’ll officially be part of a family again. Your actual family.” Kim felt Shego relax – even though the woman acted like she was still struggling. “I know it’s what you’ve wanted for so long – even if you do try to hide it as much as you can. I want you to be happy, like all mothers naturally want their daughters to be happy. Please - be.”
Shego turned to Kim and looked at her mother with the same pained look as she had given her when she’d hugged her at the apartment the day of their arrests – and practically buried herself against Kim, letting the red-headed woman cradle her head with a warm smile. “I am. Just…Let go of me after about another minute…Please.”
Kim couldn’t help but smirk. She ran her hands through Shego’s hair. “All right, sweetie,” she answered soothingly, kissing her daughter on the forehead one more time before letting her go.
“Aww, what a touching family moment!” sneered Drakken – who immediately recoiled and shielded himself on instinct. “What? No growl? No screaming? No pain? You’re getting weak, Shego.”
“I’m not, actually. I’ve decided it’s pathetic to react to your weak insults. But oh, by all means, Dr. D, keep it up – I’ll gladly bring the pain if you want me to.”
“I concur. Do shut up, Dr. Tiny-Blue-Hands. Really…”
“Oh, shut up, Monkey Fist.”
“Hey, whoah, he’s right – you got some small fingers, Cuz. Seriously.”
“Seriously? I don’t care, Eddie,” Drakken cut in.
Kim shook her head. “Just ignore them, Shego. Think about the family you’re a part of again.”
“I am thinking about that. As much as I can.”
“But-?”
“But-”
“LUNCH TIME!”
“You’ve been saved, twice, Shego…” Kim wagged her finger at her. “One day I’m gonna catch you before we get cut off.”
“Yeah, the day that we get out,” grinned Shego as they stood up to be taken to their lunch, and the work in the graveyards following it.
It had taken Ron a while to get the marriage certificate due to his term papers taking over priority, but eventually he got it – and a week later Kim and Shego were escorted to the Penitentiary’s Wedding Hall, where Ron and both his and Kim’s parents were. Inmates in the wedding hall were not permitted contact, the wedding had to be over in a maximum of 20 minutes, inmates needed, to be back in their cells within 5 minutes of the ceremony’s end, and all guests were thoroughly searched upon entrance and exit – but in either case, the wedding was held, presided over by Ron’s Rabbi – and Kim and Ron were married. With the wedding hall equipped for all religions, they did get to break the glass as in Jewish tradition, thanks to a special opening at the bottom of the Plexiglas divider between the inmates and their guests and clergy. Ron’s nose had healed somewhat, but he still had bandages around it. And no one else heard it except Kim, but of the voices shouting “MAZELTOV!”- her daughter’s voice was amongst them. Though Shego sounded very reluctant, knowing the woman had done that was enough for Kim.
“Hey, Shego.”
“What? And can you say it without waking her from her nap?” asked Shego, nodding at the snoring Kim.
“Someone’s requestin’ a visit with you. Says you’ve met her before briefly.”
“Uh, okay, fine.”
The officer opened the cell door and closed it after Shego stepped out, all without waking Kim – which Shego was glad for. Kim, not completely used to inmate working hours, had stumbled in from their literal graveyard shift half-dead, somehow managing to stay awake long enough to pass out once she hit her bed. Having only run across her mother once before when she’d not been of good health, Shego had found herself surprised to hear Kim complaining about how tired how much in pain she was from doing so much. It had not crossed her mind that Kim ever tired or slowed down at all. Kim was the girl who never stopped, who always showed up to fight, who always had had time to play Robin Hood with her even after having an incredibly long day of work at Club Banana—
Shego shook the thoughts from her mind as she and her escort reached the visiting area. Waiting for her on the other side of the glass was a brown-haired young woman in a full business suit and glasses. Looking very much like Mommy had when Mommy had gone off to work at Club Banana—But this wasn’t Mommy. This was a girl Shego vaguely recognized. Picking up the phones, Shego went first. “Uh…Do I know you? You do look sort of familiar…”
“Remember when Ron was flashing all that money?”
“Ron? Oh, the Buffoon, right.”
“I thought he was your father.”
“You expect me to call him Daddy when I didn’t even know he was the father Ki-Mom was always talking about would come home soon? I know him as the Buffoon, and I’m trying my hardest to call him what he is – but he doesn’t really seem to mind me calling the Buffoon. I guess it’s instinctual fatherly leniency or something. So, anyways – Dad? Money? Has to do with you…?”
“Oh – yeah. Well, I was part of the posse that followed him around when he was rich. I kinda half-bailed, half ran off when his money switched over to Dr. Drakken – so we’ve briefly met.”
“What? Oh, you’re that one girl. I remember you now – you were the brown-haired Anna Nicole Smith wannabe, except you were chasing a guy your age.”
“Dammit – I thought you’d bring that up.”
“You got a name, girl?”
“Bonnie.”
“Bonnie…Name is familiar…Oh! The bitchy rival on the cheer squad Prin-Mom’s yakked on about a few times.”
“Yeah – um, well – I want to apologize for something you don’t even know I did – well, unless Kim told you about it.”
“What? Apologize for what?”
“I, uh – I bit your father’s nose off up to where it meets the bone a while back. And I’m sorry.”
“Hmm…Explains the bandages on his nose at the wedding – hold it. You’re not going to apologize to him?”
Bonnie scoffed. “Please. I have a reputation to uphold at school. You think I’m gonna tell him I’m sorry?”
“Well, you could.”
“But I’m not going to.”
Okay! Whatever.”
“It’s just – I – I really feel bad, and I needed someone to apologize to. I think you and I are the most alike, so I figured it’d be easiest to apologize to you.”
“Um. How am I like you?”
Bonnie shifted in her chair. “Well…I was adopted like you. My adoptive mother even forced a name change on me to match her daughters’ names, like Mrs. Go obviously did with you to match her sons’ names. But – my real mother…” She choked up a little bit, but soon got herself under control. “My biological mother…”
“Okay, hey – don’t talk until you can.”
“I’m good, I’m good,” Bonnie assured Shego. “My real mother…My dad had multiple personalities, and every personality he had also had some other mental disorder of their own. One of those personalities was a schizophrenic psychopath. I escaped from my crib one night when that personality was present - and the shitheaded bastard went nuts, blamed her, and…stabbed her to death. He went to prison for life before I was even a year old. I have a lot of rage against him that I haven’t been able to unleash at him, so I’ve kind of subconsciously been taking it out on everyone at school. Then I got adopted by a bitch who coddles me rather than raises me, forced me to change my name from Maire to Bonnie, moved me away from all my friends in Brookdale to Middleton - and it doesn’t help I have two older “siblings” who think they’re so much better than me-”
“Stop,” said Shego, holding her palm up and turning away from Bonnie. “I’ve heard enough. Apology accepted Okay. Gotcha.”
“Wait – are you…crying?”
“No, I, uh…I got somethin’ in my eye.” Shego wiped her eyes before turning back around. “There, I got it. You were saying?”
“Well, uh – could you just tell Kim I really do wanna say I’m sorry for me-”
Shego held up her hand. “Nuh-uh. No way, sister. I gotta face the truth that Kim Possible is my mother and the Buffoon is my father. Know what that’s done to my reputation? In the goddamn shitter. You don’t wanna face your past. My parents remind you of your past – except a happier past than the one you had. Guess what? Deal with it. If I gotta face the mother I’ve hated for 21 and a half years for 4 and a half years, you can face the woman for 30 minutes out of one day to apologize to her.”Bonnie sighed. “Damn. I knew you were gonna say something like that – you being the daughter of Kim and all-”
“Look, Donnie-”
“Bonnie.”
“Whatever,” snapped Shego. “I already know one major difference between you and me: You have a longer patience for most things - unlike me, who barely stand most everything. But one thing I have an extremely shirt fuse on is when people compare me to Kim Possible and say I’m a mirror image of her. I’m not like my mother. I’m her daughter. I don’t to things the way she does. I may arrive at some of the same points as she does, but I am not her. Hell, she hates it when people pull that shit on us. I’m not her. I’m similar in many ways, but I’m not her. So compare me to her like that again, and-”
“Okay, okay, I get the point. Jeez. I’m sorry,” Bonnie quickly shot back.
“Thanks for the apology. I accept it. Now if you’ll excuse me,” continued Shego as she heard the officer walking up to the visiting area, “I have a cell that needs cleaning.”
“Welcome back, Shego,” said the officer watching Kim sweeping the cell – promptly handing the raven-haired woman a toilet brush. “You’re just in time to get to clean the commode!”
“Oh, happy happy joy joy…”
“So…Who were you talking to?”
Shego looked up at her mother, who was peering down at her from her bed. “Huh?”
“You were gone when I got woken up to clean the cell. Only way you could’ve been that was if you were visiting with someone.”
“Oh. I – It was a private conversation, and that’s all you’ll hear me say.”
“I see,” said Kim, dropping the inquiry. “Oh, shit!” she cringed, remembering something.
“What?”
“We’ve got visits with our lawyers today, remember? For the Lil’ Diablo trial?”
“Hey, if it gets us out of cleaning up graveyards? I’m all for it.”
Kim sighed. “True. So, hey – why did you agree to testify against Dr. Drakken? I would’ve thought you’d have stayed loyal to him.”
“Let me see: I could’ve pleaded Not Guilty to kidnapping Mrs. Possib – er, Grandma – and faced a trial with a 5 year sentence to go along with the Lil’ Diablo trial where I faced a 30 year sentence. I figured if pleading guilty to the kidnapping and testifying against Dr. D. got me just 5 years instead of 35 – it was an easy choice. I go with what’s best for me. Loyalty towards others is second to loyalty towards myself.”
“What about the 11 other countries you’re wanted in? What about their charges?”
“You mean the numerous petty theft charges I served the first time you stopped Drakken?” Shego asked.
“Oh…guess that explains that.”
“Yeah,” nodded Shego. “Those were all from when I was starting out as a thief. I still don’t know how I did, but I somehow got away from each place I robbed. It was just minor shoplifting stuff, though. Just me testing myself in an open-air market, you know – lifting a keychain while the stand’s owner is practically staring at you – that sort of thing. Why the questions all of a sudden?”
“No reason,” Kim answered. “Just want to get to know my daughter better, is all.”
Shego didn’t respond. It suddenly looked like her daughter was frozen in contemplation. “Shego?”
“What was I like as a baby?”
“Huh?”
Shego looked at Kim, eyes uneasy about asking what she’d just asked. “I mean, besides the whole Robin Hood thing. What was I like?”
“Hmm? Oh,” said Kim, smiling warmly. “You were…different.”
“How so?”
“Well, for one, you were just as grumpy then as you are now. It usually took 10 minutes to get a smile out of you once you woke up. Hell, I don’t think I had a single family picture with you smiling up until you were 5 months old. But – once you smiled – it was the sweetest, warmest, most loving smile I’d ever seen…” Kim’s voice trailed off briefly as she lost herself in the memory. “You tormented me back then, too, Kamie – but with your curiosity, ingenuity, and love. You-”
The sound of snoring interrupted Kim. She looked over the edge of her bed, down at the sleeping Shego. “-just needed a bedtime story,” she smiled. It was too cruel to tell her she would be rudely awakened in about 5 minutes for dinner. She could be that cruel to Shego – but not to her daughter. No matter the situation.
“It has now been a whole year since, after a delay of nearly 2 and a half years, the so-dubbed ‘Lil’ Diablo Trial’ of Dr. Drakken was dismissed on a legal technicality. While two of the high-profile persons involved in the case – Kim Possible and her daughter Shego – stay in the Tri-City Penitentiary to serve out the remaining 2 years of 5-year sentences they received in separate cases before the Lil’ Diablo Trial, Drakken was set free by the dismissal, and has since seemed to have disappeared of the face of the-”
“TURN IT OFF!” screamed a familiar voice in the Day Room.
“But I’m watching-whaah!”
“Turn it off or change the channel to anything not talking about Drakken’s goddamn release on it-hey!” Shego cried as a strong hand pulled her back. “What’s the big idea, tough-”
“SHEGO!”
Shego froze as Kim’s face stared at her. “Aw, hell…”
“Let them watch it, Shego. Why are you so angry that somebody you always helped numerous times got out of here?”
“Look K-Mom, I’m not angry that he got out, I’m pissed off that he got out before me!”
“And whose fault is that, that you have a separate 5-year sentence from another trial?”
Shego stopped resisting and looked down, fuming silently. “…Mine.”
“Exactly. So let them watch whatever they wanna watch on the TV and ignore them. C’mon, I’ll play ya’ ping-pong again.”
“Wait - You got Tiny-Blue-Hands locked up and you don’t care that he was released on such a crappy note?” asked Shego.
“I can’t actually do everything, Shego. Everything that happened to Drakken after he went in jail happened according to law. I can’t change legal procedure.”
“FREE ASSOCIATION’S OVER, PEOPLE! BACK TO YOUR CELLS! THOSE OF YOU WITH VISITS SCHEDULED, LINE UP HERE. IF YOU DON’T REMEMBER IF YOU HAVE A VISIT SCHEDULED, DON’T WORRY – WE’LL BE CHECKING PRISONER NUMBERS AS WE LEAVE THE DAY ROOM.”
A hand fell on Kim and Shego’s shoulders as they were leaving. “Both of you, get in that line.”
“What? I don’t have any – aw, fuck it…” grumbled Shego, Kim silently following her as she walked over to the other line.
“Drakken…” Shego growled as she saw her visitor.
“Hello, Shego,” greeted Drakken when he picked up the visiting phone, smiling his twisted little smile.
“What the hell are you doing here, you little prick?”
“Chill pill, Shego, chill pill…I’ve been assured this visit is not being recorded-”
“You bought them off? You little bastard. No wonder you got free so cleanly like that.”
“As the slogan goes, Shego, ‘A HenchCo Lawyer is the best ol’ lawyer when you’re on the bench!’”
“Cut the shit, Dr. D. – What’s this all about?”
“Ill patience for conversation, Shego?”
“Ill patience for ridiculous, mind-numbing chit-chat with you.”
Aww – Well, in that case, there’s something that I want you to do once you get out – it involves 2 of my greatest inventions, the Juvinator and the Memory Modification machine…”
“Okay, before you go any further – What do those do?”
“The Juvinator reverts anyone back to any younger age than the age they are now, all the way back to newborn. The Memory Modification machine modifies, extracts, and saves memories, by which-”
“All right, whatever. Whaddya want me to do?”
“Bonnie? What are you doing here?”
“Hi, Kim.”
“I like the business suit.”
Thanks. Look, Kim, I’m – I’m sorry for biting Ron’s nose off.”
“Um. Okay, Bonnie? That was 3 years ago.”
“I know, but…You were partially the reason I did it, and I – I didn’t want to apologize before I graduated because I stupidly thought about my reputation first. I already apologized to Ron and your daughter-”
“Ohh, you were that person Shego was visiting a little bit after we went inside-”
“Yeah – see, I…I lost my real mother, so when I heard about the whole “second chance” thing with your daughter, I got kinda jealous, and, well…I’m sorry. Forgive me?”
“Of course, Bonnie. I’m not one to hold a grudge like Shego would.”
“…Thanks, Kim.”
“Hey,” asked Kim, getting an idea. “What was your real mother’s name?”
“Huh? Why do you wanna know that?”
“We clean the graveyards for our assigned work, and I thought maybe we could leave some flowers-”
“No, Kim. She was cremated.”
“…Oh.”
“But – Thank you for caring.”
“Why didn’t you wanna tell anyone you were adopted back in high school?”
“I was in high school. I had a ‘reputation’ to uphold. I thought admitting that would ruin it. Don’t-” Bonnie interrupted as Kim was about to cut in. “Don’t ask me about it. I was stupid in high school. Now I’m stuck as a saleswoman at one of those Revlon push stands you see in the mall while I go to Middleton Community College.”
“Bonnie…Ron and I were gonna go to MCC before this all played out. Don’t be ashamed. Hell, Britina went there.”
“She did?”
“Yeah. She went there for 2 years while playing local shows. What about ballet? Weren’t you gonna go study that somewhere? You were great in the talent show.”
“I know. I was good with that. It’s just…”
“Just what?”
“My real mother was a teacher, and I really want to honour her, so I’m studying for an Education Degree.”
“Well, when you receive that, why not look at ballet instruction? You could honour your real mother, yet do your own thing at the same time.”
Bonnie looked up, beaming. “I never thought I’d say this this way, but…Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
“It’s what I’m here for, Bonnie,” said Kim, hanging up the visiting phone.
Shego looked up at the bottom of the top bed in the cell. “Why the hell am I still here?” She’d never spent more than 6 months in prison, and here she’d spent 3 years inside the Roundhouse already. She could get out, but…She didn’t want to get out. She wanted to break out, but something was keeping her from leaving. Something was messing with her, and she didn’t like it. “Curse that Drakken,” she hissed. Why had she agreed to another one of his stupid plans? Of course, this one had been just as a stupid as all of his other ones. And why the hell did he want to wait until she and Kim got out? Didn’t he stand a better chance of taking over the world with Kim Possible in jail?
“Pfft…Doy, Shego…No.” Drakken didn’t want to just take over the world. He wanted to destroy Kim Possible as well.
He wanted to destroy…Mom.
She could go through with the plan – but then she’d watch her parents die. Her real parents. Or, she could not go through the plan – but then she’d be breaking a promise she’d made to Drakken.
And she never broke a promise.
Shego looked at the wall in disgust. “Fuck…I – I don’t know what to do.”
She furiously tried to deny it, but she couldn’t. She needed help from…Her mother.
SLAM!
“Shego?”
The raven-haired woman rolled over and looked at her. “What?”
“Is something bothering you?” Kim kneeled at the foot of her daughter’s cell bed.
“No.”
Kim didn’t buy it. But of course she didn’t buy it. The experience of raising her for a year and a half, added to the experience of fighting her for 3 years, had given the redhead an innate sense of all the green-skinned woman’s subtle signals – so of course, Kim didn’t buy it. “Are you sure?”
Shego looked her in the eyes. The eyes that told her everything with a quick glance. The eyes that wanted to help her even if they knew there was nothing they could do to help her. The eyes she never wanted to see again, but missed so damn much…The eyes she’d been able to lie to before, but could never lie to now, no matter how hard she tried. “Dammit…I – I need your advice.”
Kim blinked. “W-what’s the matter?”
“Take a wild guess.”
“…Drakken was your visitor today, he’s bought out the cops, he has another plan to destroy Ron and I while he simultaneously takes over the world that he wants to enact when our sentences end, he asked you to join him in carrying out this plan – and you promised you’d go along with him again.”
Shego looked away from Kim and blinked. “How the hell and frack do you do that?”
“It’s in your eyes, baby,” Kim chuckled. “Look, honey-” Kim clasped Shego’s hand between hers before Shego could recoil it. “You want me to decide this one? I can’t. One, because I’m biased towards one solution, obviously, but two: It’s not my dilemma. It’s yours. You choose what you want. What you feel is right for you to be doing. If you feel helping Dr. Drakken is what you should be doing, go help Dr. Drakken. I won’t stop you – well, I’ll try to stop you and Drakken because doing so is what I feel is best for me to be doing – but I won’t stop you from choosing to help Dr. Drakken. Whatever makes you happiest. That’s all I want to see my daughter do – whatever makes her happy. What do you want to do? What would make you the happiest? It’s up to you, sweetie.”
Shego looked at Kim. “Let go of my hand, Mom, or I won’t listen to you.”
“Oh!” Kim withdrew her hand with a sheepish smile. “Sorry…”
“Bullshit. You meant to grab my hand.”
“You didn’t seem to mind much, honey.”
Shego grunted in annoyance. 3 years ago, Kim Possible calling her ‘honey’ would’ve gotten her a green-energy laced fist to the face, but now – Shego tolerated it. She didn’t know why did, but she did. It just didn’t seem worth it anymore to fry Kim because Kim called her by a name different from the one she was used to being called by. “You know, you can go away now,” she snarked at her.
“All right. Goodnight…Kamie.” Before she could react, Kim kissed her on the forehead again before climbing into her bed.
“H-Hey!” Shego grabbed for Kim, but was too slow, missing her mother once again.
“Just 6 more months to go, Ron!” Kim held her hand up against the visiting room’s glass, as he did with his hand.
“I’ll be waiting for you outside, Kim, I’ll be waiting,” assured Ron.
“See you soon. I love you!” Kim waved as early visiting hours ended.
“Rrrrgh…I hate having the early exercise hours,” grumbled Shego.
“Well, it’s for the ‘vulnerable’ and high-risk prisoners, which we are,” Kim noted, as she and Shego ran around the track of the Tri-City Penitentiary’s Rec yard. It was a little weird to see the yard so packed with inmates, but they’d shrugged that off as just weird coincidence an hour ago, since nothing had broken out yet.
“Ugh…Whatever,” sighed Shego.
“I’m gonna go play basketball against Adrena Lynn.”
“Uh, okay, I don’t know why you’re telling me this, but okay.”
“Just to let you know,” Kim shrugged, walking over the crowded 2 acres to the basketball court. It looked like there were at least 200 people in the yard.
Shego rolled her eyes and continued running around the track.
“Hey, Adrena! Like usual!” called Kim after arriving at the courts. She’d been playing basketball with Adrena during exercise for 4 years. She didn’t try to play with anyone else. It was too risky. She’d seen some games turn into nasty brawls, and she didn’t want that. She just wanted to lay low.
One of the prisoners from the other Roundhouse cellblock, a man with a pointy nose – or, at least it seemed he had a pointy nose, but Kim couldn’t exactly tell from the sun shining in her eyes - approached her. “Hey, Possible – Jack Hench says to pass on that he would like to level a personal congratulation of thanks to you for inspiring him to create HenchCo when his crew tried to mug you oh those so many years ago.”
“Um. Okay,” said Kim, her guard beginning to raise. The voice was familiar, but not very. She’d heard it before, but not as deep as this voice.
“And this is for stealing his favourite gun.”
The glint in the sun was all the warning Kim had to twist her head away, but she moved too late – searing pain overtook her as the shank plunged into her right eyeball. She lost all vision as she heard it rip with the most horrific sound, followed by a SNAP! as her head whipped away. “AHH!” She screamed and stumbled backwards, throwing her right hand over her wounded eye and blindly thrashing her left arm around, furiously trying to find her attacker through sound while she couldn’t see. “WHERE-AHH!” she shrieked as an equal level of pain stabbed her back. Swinging her free arm behind her, she screeched as the pain switched to her side. Finally opening her tear-blurred left eye, she caught a blur coming towards her and blocked the attacker’s arm - but screamed again as it turned out to be a decoy and she was stabbed in the abdomen. Kim instinctively closed her eye again and grabbed at the abdomen wound, lurching forward in agony. “SHEGO! HELP ME-AHHHHHHHH!” she cried as the attacker took advantage of the brief moment of lowered defense, and with two very audible POP!s, slicing pain in her knees turned her legs to jelly, dropping her like a stone. Practically ripping her arms away from her abdomen and right eye, blood from both wounds dripping down them, all Kim could do to defend herself now was thrash about like a stuck pig as the attacker went to town with his stabbing.
By now, everyone else in the yard nearby had noticed the attack. The cops ran to break it up, but were met with a wall of the other inmates who were crowding around Kim and her attacker. Outnumbered, the cops were overtaken, beaten themselves before they could use pepper spray or batons. Tear gas was fired into the yard from the watchtowers, but it had little effect as more inmates surrounded the attacker, their cheering him on mixing with Kim’s screams and wails of pain.
“KILL HER! KILL HER!”
“SHEGO! HELP – AAIGH! HELP ME!”
“YEAH! KILL THAT BITCH! KILL KIM POSSIBLE!”
“OW! SHEGO! HELP ME! AHH!”
“Ahh!” Shego backpedaled on the track, covering her face as a canister of tear gas burst in front of her. “What the f-?” She looked at the upper part of the yard – and immediately froze when she saw the crowd of inmates cheering, heard the prison alert alarm – and heard the pained screams of her mother - dying. “SHIT!”
Kim blocked another attack at her face, but missed blocking another stabbing into her shoulder. “AHH! KAMIE! HELP ME! KAMIEE!”
“KILL HER! KILL HER!”
Rubber bullets erupted from the watchtowers, but even as some inmates in the crowd were hit and fell, it didn’t stop the attack on Kim. Warden Ryder, present in the main watchtower, grabbed her radio. “GET THE GODDAMN SWAT FORCE IN THERE, NOW!”
Kim continued thrashing, blocking more stabbings - but not all of them, as she screamed once more when her other side was stabbed.
“AHHH! HELP ME! OWW! KAMIE!”
“YEAH, GET HER! KILL SHEGO’S MOMMY!”
“HAH! LIKE DRAKKEN SAYS: YOU THINK YOU’RE ALL THAT, BUT YOU’RE NOT, BITCH!”
“DO IT! KILL HER!”
“KAMIEEEEE! WAAIGH! HELP ME! KAMIEEE-”
SCHW-BOOM! A Brobdingnagian blast of green energy flames crashed into the attacker, sending him screaming into the air at about 300 mph, all the way over the hill of the Brookdale Cemetery. Milliseconds later, Shego slammed onto the ground next to Kim, literally making the earth beneath the inmates’ feet shake. Her body was covered from head to toe in green energy flames, her eyes glowing green as well. “ANYBODY ELSE WANNA TRY TO KILL MY MOTHER?” she bellowed, furious beyond any level she’d ever been furious at before.
As if on cue, the SWAT Force swarmed into the yard. Every inmate in the crowd except Shego dropped to the ground like their knees were made of lead, putting their hands behind their backs. The flames over Shego’s body disappeared and her eyes returned to normal. She ran to one of the SWAT officers. “Medics are coming, right?” At the officer’s nod, Shego sighed. “Tell the Warden the Brookdale Police have a new visitor who should be landing pretty soon!”
“Kamie!”
The weak, strangled cry made Shego whirl around. “Stay still, Mom!” she ordered, watching Kim bleeding profusely right in front of her.
“Stabbed me – He stabbed me! I don’t know how many times, but it was a lot – OW!” Kim cringed, trying to move.
“DAMMIT, MOM! SHUT UP AND STAY STILL! MEDICS ARE COMING! SHUT UP, CALM DOWN, AND STAY STILL!”
“Got me in the eye…I’m – I’m blind…There’s something in my eye – GET THIS THING OUT OF MY EYE!” screamed Kim, frantically clawing at her bloodied to hell right eye – until Shego grabbed her hands.
“STAY STILL, GODDAMMIT! HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU? STAY THE GODDAMN HELL STILL!”
“Kamie - AHH!” Kim broke her hands free from Shego and clutched her abdomen. “Kamie! Stay with me!” she gasped, throwing her blood-soaked hand up to Shego’s cheek. “Stay with me! Stay with me! Stay - Stay…with…me…” Her hand slid down the cheek as she passed out.
“Mom? MOM!” Shego nearly panicked - but sighed deeply when she leaned her ear to Kim’s bloody body and heard her mother breathing.
Finally, the medics arrived, and Shego found herself shaking as she agreed to follow them wherever they took Kim.
“It has been 2 days since Kim Possible was stabbed 20 times during her morning exercise in the Tri-City Penitentiary Recreational Yard. Though still in a coma, she is in stable condition, in a medical facility authorities have refused to identify, citing a request from her family to protect her privacy and safety while she recovers. The incident sparked a massive riot with the rest of the inmates in the yard, who crowded around the attacker and cheered him on, while also overpowering and assaulting the 14 officers in the yard who tried to break up the attack. Those officers were severely beaten, but now lie in good condition, say doctors – again refusing to name the medical facility the officers were at. Now authorities have discovered a stunning link between Miss Possible, her daughter Shego, and her attacker, which may help to explain the reasoning behind this shocking attack. Our reporter in the field, Mr. Jack Nanoms, is standing by outside the Tri-City Penitentiary with that story. Jack?”
“Thanks, Wayne. Kim Possible’s attacker was identified as C. Jaghony of Brookdale, a man who was sentenced to life for brutally stabbing his wife to death in 1989, just a few months after she had given birth to their daughter. It was well known that Jaghony had a bizarre case of multiple personality disorder, wherein each personality of his has their own unique and individual mental disorder - but while running a routine fingerprint check on Jaghony, authorities discovered his fingerprints matched those of Go City’s most notorious supervillain, Aviarius – whose real identity is Dr. Suiraiva, an infamous Felon himself in Go City. Authorities described a long and complicated chain of events linking Miss Possible to Dr. Suiraiva: After burning down the Rose Family house in 1977 in anger for being fired from his job at Go Family Industries, Dr. Suiraiva evaded capture for 9 years. During those 9 years, he dedicated his time to helping the homeless, believing it would get him get him community service points leading to a shorter sentence if he was eventually caught for the arson/murder. In questioning following the 1986 disappearance of Miracle Margot Rose – now known to have actually been Miss Possible – Dr. Suiraiva confessed to the Rose Family arson and was immediately arrested. Escaping the Go City Jail shortly thereafter, he disappeared into hiding for ten years – now confirmed to be the time he spent in Brookdale as C. Jaghony. He re-emerged in Go City in 1989 as Aviarius, the sworn enemy of Team Go – the superhero team Shego was a part of before turning to life of crime and thievery. Escaping jail in 2005, Aviarius disappeared. Meanwhile, in Brookdale, C. Jaghony re-appeared and was arrested – then summarily transferred to the Tri-City Penitentiary when it replaced the Brookdale City Jail. For West Whitewater News at 11, I’m Jack Nanoms, reporting from the Tri-City Penitentiary. Back to you, Wayne.”
“Thanks, Jack. Authorities have Jaghony in solitary confinement, and the head of the Tri-City Penitentiary, Warden Emil J. Carter Ryder, has implemented a new rule barring more than one cellblock of any level of risk prisoners from being in the Recreational Yard simultaneously. Asked how his daughter could have survived such a brutal attack on her life, Dr. James T. Possible told reporters simply, “If there’s one thing that’s always been true about my family, it’s that anything is possible for a Possible. Kim Possible is my daughter. She can do anything. I’m not surprised about this at all.” And in response to some of the inmate’s claims that Jaghony committed the act in the name of Jack Hench of HenchCo, Inc., Mr. Hench himself has issued this statement: “C. Jaghony was an associate of mine in the early days of HenchCo, yes - but after he atrociously murdered his wife, I immediately severed all connections with him and agreed to cooperate with police in that matter. I have not had contact with him in ages. I can assure, whatever he’s done since then, he’s done on his own. HenchCo may sell products for villains, but we never deal with psychos like him.” So far, no charges have been filed against Mr. Hench or HenchCo…Sharkie’s off to protect his crown for a 5th straight year! West Whitewater High’s cheer squad left for camp again today-”
“Mawhmee! Wagh uh! Wagh uh! Don’ go! Yew jus’ kahm bahk! Don’ go ‘way ‘gen zo zoon! MAWHMEE! DON’ WEAVE ME! MAWHMEE!MAWHMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”
“KAMIE! Hahh!” Kim grimaced as she bolted upright and pain tore through her body. She looked down at her right arm – which had an I.V. tube in it. Looking behind her – which caused her to grimace slightly as more pain shot into her nerves – she saw the tube led to a packet of blood on the I.V. rack. She looked down. Her legs were both in long leg casts. She looked around the room as much as the pain limited her to look around, which was more difficult than it seemed due to her having no vision in her right eye, and the vision in her left eye being almost completely clamped shut due to the pressure patch over her right eye area. And to top it of all off, the back of her throat felt like someone had rubbed steel wool up and down it about 40 times. Despite seeing practically nothing with her left eye almost closed, Kim saw that the place she was in was not a prison cell. From what all she could see through the blur, it looked like a small apartment room, or a damned luxurious hospital room, even. Judging by the fact that she was in a hospital gown and a hospital bed, plus the existence of medical equipment behind her, she guessed a hospital room. There was a TV above her, and then the pain grew to be too much, and she found herself forced to fall back onto her pillow to relieve the sheer torturous pain racing through her chest and abdomen. Then she noticed: It felt like…but no, it couldn’t be. “Nah, why would they-”
“I told you to stay still, goddammit. But, noooo…”
Kim had to tilt her neck up and move her head around ‘till she could barely see the green, black, and orange blur who had appeared by the bedside. “…Kamie?”
“Stay still, Mom. And stop moving your head like that, you look like a dumb-ass little sparrow.”
“I can barely see you.”
“No shit, Mom. I’d barely be able to see you, too, if I had a pressure patch over my right eye socket.”
“Why is there a pressure patch over my right eye socket?”
“To keep the swelling of your socket tissues to a minimum.”
“Socket tissues?”
“Yeah. Socket tissues. The tissues in your eye socket? Hello? Jeezus. What’d they do, enucleate your brain, too?”
“E-Enucleate?”
Shego checked the I.V. tube to see if anything was wrong with the transfusion, and looked at Kim with a glare that carried a weight with it Kim could see through the blur she saw of her daughter at the moment. “Dammit – just shut up. Save your energy. Dr. Roylene says no moving for a while, so you’re stuck in bed for right now. Don’t open your left eye further; you’ll just get more pain while that pressure patch is still there. Oh, yeah - keep quick eye movements to a minimum.”
“Where are we?”
“Experimental family visit center with medical access. It’s like a little apartment with one of the rooms being a hospital room. The rest of the family visit facilities don’t have the hospital room, and they only allow inmates in good behaviour to spend 48 hours in one with their loved ones or family. But they moved us here for the rest of our sentences - mainly for safety reasons, but also so they can monitor your condition while keeping the press pricks outside from storming into the place. As long as I assist you in your recovery, I get to stay out here with you instead of lie down on a concrete bed all day long in another damned boring-ass Roundhouse cell.” Shego went to a small desk on the other side of the room, opened a drawer, and looked at all the magazines that were there for one to read.
“So that’s how it is,” Kim nodded. “You’re only out here because you don’t want to be in a normal cell.”
Shego slammed the drawer shut as hard as she could. “DAMMIT, MOM! THIS ISN’T ABOUT YOU! ER – SHIT! NO! NO! THAT’S NOT WHAT I MEANT TO SAY! ME! ME! THIS ISN’T ABOUT ME! THIS IS NOT ABOUT ME! THIS IS ABOUT YOU! AND THE FACT THAT I’M HERE TO HELP YOU! YOU WERE STABBED 20 TIMES – BY BONNIE’S DAD, NO LESS! YOU HAD A BROKEN-OFF SHANK BLADE LODGED IN YOUR RIGHT EYE, YOU HAVE 2 RECONSTRUCTED LCL’S! AND YOU’VE BEEN IN A GODDAMN COMA FOR A WEEK!” She stopped, breathing heavily, forcing herself to calm down when she saw her mother’s startled, partially frightened expression at her sudden outburst.
“…20 times?” asked a surprised Kim.
“YES! 20 TIMES! AND-”
Kim tilted her head briefly as her daughter looked away from her, as if she were in shame.
Shego sat down on the cot next to Kim’s hospital bed, nervously fiddling with a loose thread on her orange inmate jumpsuit. “And – When I saw you…Get - Getting stabbed…I - I was scared. I was scared shitless. You’re - You’re my mother, no matter how much a part of me wants to deny it… You’re my mother. And - damn, it’s so much easier to say this now that we’re pretty much in private…” She looked up at the sky in the window behind the bed. “…I – I love you.”
“…Kamie?” asked Kim in a whisper.
Shego took a deep breath again before continuing. “You disappeared on me when I was really young. Then – you came back to me a little while ago. Wh – When you passed out from all the shock and blood loss…I – I was terrified. I had flashbacks…To Mrs. Go being killed by the comet…To Joe dying…and – and to that day…That day I ran out of my room, all happy and proud that I’d just done something on my own – and you were just…gone. I – I didn’t want you to disappear on me again so soon…” she confirmed, wiping away her tears as her voice choked up, finally losing the internal battle to suppress her emotions.
There was silence as Kim watched her daughter collect herself. “Kamie…”
“My name is Shego, Mo-”
“No.”
Kim smiled as the blur of Shego’s face turned to look at her. “Not after that, what all you just told me. Everything you just said, has erased all notion of you being Shego in my eyes. Besides – Shego didn’t save me. Kamie did. I called for Shego to help me – nothing. I cried for my daughter to help me – and you came flying in to rescue me. Keep calling yourself Shego, if that’s what you want to do. But I’m going to call you by the name I gave you when I gave birth to you. You’re Kamie in my eyes now - and you’ve grown up. I couldn’t be more proud of you than I am right now. I love you - and I’m so proud of you, Kamie-Pumpkin.”
“T-Thanks, Mom,” said Shego, looking away, again seeming as if she was shamed.
Kim’s expression changed when she noticed something through her limited vision. “What - What is that on your cheek?”
Shego looked away. “…Your blood.”
“My bl– You haven’t taken a shower in a week?”
“Says the woman who’s been lying in a bed all week.”
“Hey, I was in a coma, Kamie. What’s your excuse?”
“You see a shower around here?”
“You’re asking me to feel excruciating pain by moving my neck to look at the room - when it already hurts like hell to move it so I can see an inch in front of me?”
“Mmm…Yep.”
Kim smirked. “Only you would ask me to do that.”
“I love you, Mom. I don’t utterly worship you like I did when I was little.”
“Hmmph. Well, that’s good.”
A door opening on their left alerted them both. “Oh, good! She came out of it! I knew all that annoyed yelling wasn’t without a reason,” said a familiar voice.
Kim swung her head around. “Mom? Hahhh! Ow. Okay, turned my neck too fast.”
“Hi, Kimmie.”
Kim looked for the tall blur of a redheaded doctor in a white lab coat. “Where are you, Mom?”
“Stop moving your head, dear. Just lie still,” her mother calmly reprimanded her.
“See? Even the real doctor’s telling you to stay still!” Shego noted, some triumph leaking into her voice.
“Now, now, Shego, be nice to your mother.”
Shego rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”
“Kamie.”
“What, Kimmie?”
“Kamie” Kim smiled at Shego for the 10th time of the morning, even though she couldn’t exactly see where she was. “Your granddaughter’s name is Kamie.”
“You should be proud of your daughter, Kimmie. I didn’t believe it at first, but Dr. Roylene says she hasn’t left your side all week.”
“Mom…?”
“Yes, Kimmie?”
“Can you hug her and kiss her on the forehead for me? That’s how proud of her I am…but I’m kinda under orders from the doctors not to move for a while.”
“Huh? Whoah! What?” Shego looked up, eyes wide in surprise.
Mrs. Possible hesitated. “I don’t know if I can, sweetie. I still remember her kidnapping me.”
“Uh, Mom? That was 5 years ago. I can pretty much assure you Kamie’s changed since then.”
“Hmmm…Well, if you say so…”
“Hey, hey!” Shego backed up as Mrs. Possible came towards her. “Let’s not think I’ve matured enough in 5 years that I’m now able to stand being hugged and kissed - AGHK!” gasped Shego as Mrs. Possible enveloped her in a bear hug. “-by Grandma…” She fumed and crossed her arms, glaring right at her mother.
“Pfft…Stop being difficult, Kamie,” chuckled Kim. “I know you don’t care whether or not your grandmother or your mother hugs you.”
Mrs. Possible kissed Shego on the forehead, making the green-skinned woman squirm in revolt. “Thank you for watching your own mother like this, Kamie.”
“Yeah…Great…Whatever…” Shego half-tried to wrestle herself away from her grandmother. “Can we stop with the mushy mush now?”
“Mom, you can stop hugging her now,” acknowledged Kim. “What are you doing here, anyways?”
“That’s it. I’m leaving you two alone for private talk,” Shego huffed, walking into the small kitchen on the right.
“It’s a family visit center, Kimmie,” smiled Mrs. Possible. “I haven’t seen you – well, off the operating table, that is - since your wedding to Ronald. Dr. Roylene called me in when you were attacked, because being a brain surgeon as well as your mother, she felt I would be the best person to diagnose whether or not that shank blade which lodged in your eye socket had gone any further than just an irreversible rupture of your right globe, and had done any damage to your brain.”
“Shank blade stuck in my – oh, so that’s what I tried to claw out of my eye before Kamie stopped me and I passed out.”
“It’s a good thing you didn’t remove it. Yes, they had to remove your right eye because the blade ruptured it beyond repair – but because the blade somehow got lodged in the optic canal, it stopped just short of your brain, and also blocked your severed ophthalmic artery from spurting blood like a severed artery normally does – which, since the ophthalmic artery is connected to the lower carotid artery, probably saved your life. Granted, yes, you 1) almost became blind, given that the ophthalmic artery supplies blood to both your eyes; 2) almost did suffer some brain damage because of the pressure caused by the ophthalmic artery being blocked - but you were lucky because the medics arrived so fast. Now you have a hydroxyapatite implant in your eye socket, with a temporary conformer until-”
“Mom?”
“What?”
“You realize I have no clue as to what the hell you’re saying?”
“You’ve got 20 stab wounds stitched up, 2 partially torn LCLs, which is why you have the casts, and they took out your right eyeball and put an implant in your empty eye socket to keep its shape, with another implant in front of it to keep the shape of the area between the eyelids until they make you a custom fake eye,” said Shego, stepping back into the room.
“…What she said, Kimmie.”
“Okay…So why’s the back of my throat feel like someone scraped it 40,000 times with steel wool?”
“From the breathing tube they put down your throat during the surgery.”
“…Oh. Thank you, Kamie. How long are you gonna be here again, Mom?” asked Kim.
“Until tonight, given that they gave me 48 hours and I came back yesterday at like 4am to watch over your enucleation surgery, in case anything went wrong and your brain ended up injured somehow. Anyways, nothing did, so you’re fine. Oh, yes - Dr. Roylene is gonna be coming in to check up on you later, so I guess we can tell her you don't need that catheter or diaper anymore.”
Kim froze. “D-D-D-Diaper?” She tried to look down, but couldn’t.
“What?”
“Diaper? I’m in a diaper?”
“Yes, diaper, Kimmie. You were in a coma, so they put a urinary catheter in you and a diaper on you. And don’t worry about anything regarding the diaper - Shego - I mean, Kamie - has been changing it for you all this week.”
“Diaper? Oh, you have got to be kidding me…”
“Hey, y’know - not like it’s exactly been pleasant for me, either, Mom!” snapped Shego. “Still gotta help you with the bedpan, now that you’re out of the coma.”
“Bedpan? Why can’t I use the bathroom?”
“Because 2 of those 20 stab wounds you have were to your back and abdomen…you’re lyin’ still for a while.”
“Christ…” Kim sighed, laying her head back down on the pillow.
“Oh, yes,” cut in Mrs. Possible. “To change the subject, Ronald did say he’d try to take a few days off to visit if he could. Didn’t know if he was going to be able to, though.”
“Oh, that’s right, he told me he had a job the last time we visited, but time ended before he could tell me what it was. What’s he doing now?”
“He’s an assistant at the daycare center in your old Club Banana manager Mrs. Kleeg’s fashion studio in downtown Go City.”
“He’s working for Mrs. Kleeg?” asked Kim – getting a nod from Mrs. Possible in return. “Wow. Talk about cyclical.”
“Kleeg? You worked for the fashion guru behind KimStyle?” Shego asked.
“I – uh… I guess I did. Mrs. Kleeg was always working on some batch of designs in her spare time – she even forced me to be on paid maternity leave right before I gave birth because I’d given her an idea for a new maternity line. Weird… I wonder why she didn’t recognize me during the whole KimStyle thing.”
“Fashion designer mind, Mom – they remember the clothes, not the faces.”
“Kamie! That’s rude!”
“But true!” Shego protested.
“I never said it wasn’t. But that’s still a rude thing to say. So, Mom…Why’s Ron working at the daycare for Mrs. Kleeg’s fashion studio?”
“He figured he should be ready - and I’m going to try and quote him as best I can here - “In case another time portal opens and Kim and I are taken right back to that moment in 1986 just after when I pulled her through the time portal to this time, so little Shego would come out of her room in her Robin Hood costume, find her mother waiting for her with a surprise – which would be that her Daddy had finally come back like her Mommy had been promising he would be for 2 years – and it would be almost like none of this ever happened."”
Snorting, Kim smiled. “Oh, Ron. Always ready for anything.”
“Almost like none of this ever happened…”
“Huh?”
“What?” Shego looked up.
“You were whispering something, Kamie.”
“Oh. Yeah – just…thinking about something else, Mom.”
“I see. Hmm…I wonder what happened to Benny?”
“Benny?” asked Mrs. Possible.
“Benny Russell, one of my other co-workers at Club Banana. He was one of the marketing writers.”
“Benny Russell? Honey – that’s your friend Monique’s father.”
“What? How come I never saw him around?”
“You don’t remember Monique’s parents divorcing? No surprise, you were just starting preschool when it happened – but he divorced and moved out to West Whitewater City. Remarried to some crazy woman who tried to kill him about 5 times before she finally got arrested – whatwashername…Kara something.”
“Fang?” chimed in Shego and Kim at the same time.
“Yes, actually. What, do you know her?”
“Know her?” Shego scoffed. “She’s a psycho bitch lifer who wants everybody’s head on a platter.”
“Yeah,” added Kim. “It was so weird trying to sleep for the first couple of nights in the visit facility, ‘cause I was so used to the Roundhouse and hearing her in there, screaming that was she was gonna kill everybody for 24 hours straight.”
“Oh,” said Mrs. Possible.
“Did she ever go to sleep?” asked Shego.
“I don’t think so, Kamie. She seemed to always be awake.”
“Yeah.” Shego sighed and stood up. “On that note, you want dinner, Mom?” she asked, walking over to the kitchen door.
Kim frowned slightly, confused. “They don’t bring us meals here?”
“Nope. This place has a little kitchen of its own. Though, all the food’s stuff that’s gotta be approved first, and it’s mostly all boxed and canned shit.”
“Eugh…Uh – yeah, I’ll eat something. Thanks for the offer, Kamie. I’m gonna take a wild guess Dr. Roylene has some strict diet for me while I’m recovering?”
“Yep,” Shego replied, looking through the box on the counter. “Hey, Grandma, where’d those instant mashed potatoes go?”
“They were at the bottom of the box, last I checked.”
“Hah! There we go…Gonna be about 15-30 minutes here, Mom.”
“That’s fine, dear,” said Kim.
Nodding, Shego closed the kitchen door most of the way. Almost instantly, Kim turned to her mother. “Mom? There’s a shower in this facility, right?”
“Yes. Why?”
Kim smiled as she watched her daughter through the crack in the kitchen door, looking at the spot of dried blood on Shego’s cheek. “Nothing. Just asking.”
18 minutes later, Shego backed out of the kitchen with a tray of food. “Food’s-”
“-and so, there she is, running around the entire apartment building in purple polka-dotted diapers, yelling at the top of her lungs “LOOK AH ME! EYE’M A ZOOPER ZPOTTED FWYING PERPUHL PEEPUHL EEETING OWWOOL!” I’m chasing her as I’m trying not to laugh - oh my god, it was so cute, Mom!”
Mrs. Possible wiped a tear away from her eye as she stopped laughing. “Oh… I can imagine!”
“Oh, man – I wish you could’ve been there to see that, Mom… I really do.”
“AH-HEM!”
“Oh! Kamie! Sorry, didn’t see you come in!” said Kim, startled.
“Doy. Of course you didn’t see me come in, Mom. Your only good eye’s practically closed at this point. Are you done with the tales of my infant years yet?”
“Yeah.”
“Good. Here’s your meal, going by Dr. Roylene’s guidelines: Canned peas, boxed milk, instant mashed potatoes, a fruit cup, and…Chicken Noodle Soup. Yum.”
“Canned peas? Aw, man…” groaned Kim. “Well, it’s one way to remind me that I’m still in prison, I guess.”
“You realize I’m gonna have to feed this to you, right?” Shego asked her.
“And you’re embarrassed by that, Kamie?”
“Wait – you’re not?”
Kim chuckled. “You changed my diaper – and also, I’m gonna take a guess, emptied my catheter bag - all week while I was in a coma, you have to help me use a bedpan to go to the bathroom because I’m bedridden for a while - and you’re embarrassed by the fact that you have to feed your sick mother her daily meals?”
“No – I…I can handle this. I – I guess I’m still getting used to the fact that you’re my mother.”
“I think we’re all still getting used to the fact that we’re related,” smirked Kim. “Hell, I don’t think we’ll ever truly get completely used to it.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever – Open wide, here comes the stagecoach into the tunnel, let’s get all the money from it right under the nose of the Sheriff, blah blah,” Shego rambled as she fed Kim a spoonful from the fruit cup. “What are you laughing at?” she asked, noticing Kim clearly trying to hold back some giggling.
Kim waited ‘till Shego had wiped her mouth with a napkin, then grinned. “That was almost word-for-word what I used to say to you to get you to eat your food.”
The green-skinned woman rolled her eyes. “Shut up and keep eating, Mom…”
“Mom, c’mon. Eat the peas.”
Kim refused. “I already ate a few spoonfuls.”
“Well, then, eat the last spoonful.”
“No.”
“Uh…Please eat the last spoonful?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“They taste nasty.”
“Look, I’m sorry, but do you see a Costco with frozen veggies anywhere in this prison? Eat the damned peas, Mom.”
“Kimmie, eat the rest of your peas, honey. You’re not 1 and a half years old, don’t act like you are.”
“Mom…”
Mrs. Possible sighed. “Eat the rest of the food your daughter took her own time to prepare for you - or I’ll start calling you by the nickname I used to call you.”
“Nickname? W-No…You wouldn’t!”
“The one you said in front of me on that train?” asked Shego. “"Bubble Butt?"”
“Yes, that’s it. I’ll just start calling her “Bubble Butt” all the time now-”
“All right! All right! You win! Jeez, you two mended fences fast…” Kim sighed. “I’ll eat the rest of the peas.”
“Ok, well, you might want to try facing the moving green-orange blur in front of you instead of the clouds moving over the light of the sunset on the wall, then.”
“Ergk – Thanks, Kamie,” Kim blushed as she looked for Shego in front of her, found her, and reluctantly ate the rest of the canned peas.
Suddenly, a knock echoed around the corner. “Ah, that must be Dr. Roylene coming to do her evening checkup,” said Mrs. Possible, getting up to get the door.
“Last chance to change your mother’s diapers before you have to start helping her use a bedpan, Kamie!” Kim chuckled.
Shego snorted in amused annoyance. “No, I think I’m just fine, Mom. Thanks for asking, though.”
“DAMMIT, MOM! WILL YOU STOP TRYING TO MOVE?” yelled Shego, grabbing the cup of water completely out of her reach that Kim was blindly searching for with her I.V. arm as she grimaced. She put the straw up to Kim’s lips so the redhead could take a drink. “Dr. Roylene’s gonna have my head if you keep trying to move before you she determines your body is actually ready to be moving again! I do NOT want to wake up and discover that my mother’s bled to death in the middle of the night because she woke up, reached for a cup of water, and popped open one of her stab wounds again – or…something like that!”
Kim’s head seemed to shrink back into her pillow. “Sorry, Kamie. That’s my fault. I’m so not used to this. Unable to move…to do anything on my own but talk, eat, and drink – I just…I feel more helpless right now than even when I was at my lowest point of being a homeless person in 1984. It’s – I’m Kim Possible! I can do anything! I should be moving! Standing! Hugging you!”
“Yeah, well, next time could your ego wait a few days to inflate itself, instead of only 20 minutes after Grandma and Dr. Roylene leave?”
“Hmmph. Sure,” replied Kim through a yawn.
“You’re tired. You should go to sleep.”
“No. No, I’m good…”
“No. No, you’re tired.”
“I’m not-” yawned Kim again. “-tired.”
“Oh, please,” Shego scoffed. “You’re tired, go to sleep, I’m gonna crash in the other room where there’s an actual bed.”
Kim heard her daughter mumble in annoyance – then the lights in the room went out. “Goodnight, Kamie.”
“Go to sleep, Mom,” filtered Shego’s voice from the small bedroom.
“Hmm…I suppose I should listen to you,” Kim sighed, closing her eyes.
Shego waited for 30 minutes, then silently tiptoed back into the room and looked at the sleeping Kim. “Alright, Mom,” she whispered, “You may not have given me all the advice I needed…” She leaned down, kissed Kim on the forehead, then settled herself into the cot, her back to Kim. “…but Dad filled in those blanks today. I know what I’m gonna do when we get out of here. GO. TO. SLEEP. MOM,” she suddenly raised her voice, knowing her mother wasn’t asleep yet.
In her bed, Kim - eye closed – smiled.
“Kamie!”
“What?”
“Sponge bath? I was supposed to have one this morning, if I recall what Dr. Roylene said during her checkup.”
“Grah…Can we hold that off for one more day, Mom?”
“Kamie, if you're not going to help me in my recovery, I guess Dr. Roylene can know you’re not complying with your agreement, and then I’ll just have to recover here alone while you go back to the Roundhouse and share a cell with DNAmy or Kara F-”
“Okay! Okay! I’ll give you your damned sponge bath! Hold on a sec. Arrgh – you just want revenge for me making you finish those canned peas yesterday…”
Shego let the rail at the front of the bed fall away with a light CLANG! “All right, Mom. And remember, goddammit – slowly.”
It had been 5 weeks, and Kim, recovering faster than all the prison doctors’ expectations, had been given the OK from Dr. Roylene to start moving – obviously, with caution, of course. Dr. Conner, the Penitentiary’s knee doctor and orthopedic surgeon, was happy – he’d been fairly vocal about getting Kim moving to heal her LCLs. Her legs were still in casts and she would have to use crutches, but Dr. Conner had said he would not take the casts off and switch to the flexible knee braces until she had had at least a week of moving around with some light weightbearing – but obviously, that was not possible until Dr. Roylene had given her word. Now Dr. Roylene had, and Shego, along with Ron and the Tweebs - who had arrived for their 48-hour visit – were helping her do that.
Gradually, Kim sat up. “Ah – okay, hold on.” It still hurt, but not as much as it had when she’d tried to move 5 weeks ago. And since the pressure pad on her eye had been removed at the end of the first week, she could see where she was going, even if it was only out of one eye.
“Take your time, K.P.,” urged Ron.
Kim waited a bit longer, then lifted her legs and turned so she was sitting on the edge of the bed. After waiting another minute to let the small amount of pain go away, she took the crutches from Jim and slowly slid off the bed – then stopped and slowly sat back on the edge of the bed. “Those crutches are set way too high, guys. I’ll tear my shoulders off if I try to walk with them like that.” She waited for her brother to adjust the crutches, then slowly eased off the bed again and tried once more – and the crutches were set just right. “Perfect, guys. Thanks.”
Moving after another moment of wait, she went about 5 steps - before Shego saw her wince and moved in to catch her mother as Kim began to fall to her right. “Whoah! Whoah! I got you, Mom. I got you.”
“Thank you, Kamie.” Kim grabbed her daughter in a slight embrace to steady herself. “What was the limit Dr. Conner set for me today?”
“Halfway to the kitchen and back to the bed,” said Ron – who decided to give an incentive by standing at the spot halfway to the kitchen. “So just over to me.”
“Just a few more steps, Sis,” said Tim, handing her the crutch that had fallen to the ground.
“Yeah, you can do it, Kim,” Jim echoed.
“You Tweebs haven’t changed…” smiled Kim. “Alright – Here goes.” Back on the crutches, she shifted her weight and pushed away from Shego. Gingerly, she took the next set of steps. Finally reaching Ron, she wrapped her non-I.V. arm around her husband. “Oh, damn, it feels so good to be in your arms again, Ron.”
“Same here, Kim,” Ron assured before leaning in to kiss her. “Just stop trying to top me in everything. You’d think a bitten-off nose would be deterrent enough.”
Kim snorted, smirking in amusement. “Funny, Ron. Realll funny.”
“Hey, just trying to lighten the mood. Sorry I couldn’t make it last week, I had to go stop Professor Dementor.”
“Still doin’ the Team Possible thing, eh?” Kim smiled.
“Hey, we couldn’t let your incarceration stop Team Possible.”
“You wouldn’t have been able to come until this week anyways, Dad,” Shego interrupted.
“What?”
“It wouldn’t have been 30 days since Grandma visited.”
“Grandm – oh, yeah. Sorry. This thing is still confusing a little bit.”
“Don’t worry. It won’t be for long.”
“What?”
“Nothing, Dad,” sighed Shego.
“Alright. Think you can make it back now, K.P.?” Ron asked her.
Kim nodded. “Y-Yeah. Just gimme a sec.”
“Alright.” Ron waited patiently, until Kim got back on the crutches and began heading back to the hospital bed.
This time, she made it back to the bed without falling. “Hoo-sha! Way to go, Sis!” congratulated Jim and Tim.
Kim blushed. “Thanks, Tweebs. Kamie? Could you come here?”
“Huh? Yeah.” asked Shego, walking over to her mother. “Whaddya need me for-AH!” she almost jumped back, but quickly relaxed as Kim cautiously threw her arms around her in a deep hug. She smirked warmly, and hugged Kim back as Kim looked at her with her one eye. “I love you, too, Mom…I love you, too.”
Kim got back on the bed fairly easily. “Tweebs? Why don’t you go help your niece make lunch?” asked Ron. “I wanna talk to Kim alone for a sec.”
“First off: Can my Uncles cook?” asked Shego.
“Yeah,” said Tim.
Jim nodded. “We took Foods class in high school.”
“Yeah. Plus, Ron’s our brother-in-law.”
“Works for me. C’mon, Uncle Tweebs, let’s go,” said Shego, walking into the kitchen with Jim and Tim.
Kim looked at Ron once the kitchen door was shut. “So, what did you want to talk to me about?”
“Kim, I – I can’t stay here for 48 hours. I got a call from Mrs. Kleeg right before I got here. Tomorrow was supposed to be a day off, too, but apparently that day off was meant for next month, and she made a mistake in scheduling. So I gotta head back tomorrow morning. I’m sorry. I wish I could stay the whole 48-”
“That’s fine, sweetie,” smiled Kim. “At least you’re here right now.”
Ron leaned in to kiss his wife again. “I’ll see you in 160 days.”
“I can’t wait,” Kim smiled.
Running the water in kitchen sink, Shego turned to the Tweebs. “Okay, Dad’s got something planned here. What?”
The Tweebs looked at each other. “We can’t tell you. But it doesn’t involve breaking Kim out of prison.”
“Oh. Fine then, whatever.” Shego turned off the water. “Looks like the Buffoon can be smart when he wants to be.”
“We can only eat canned peas? Ew!” Tim stuck his tongue out.
“Gross!” echoed Jim.
“Hey, be glad, guys. You only get two nights of eating them. Mom and I have 160.”
Jim looked at Tim. “Um – we’re leaving tomorrow morning, actually.”
“What?”
“Yeah. Ron got a call from his boss on the way here. She told him she was sorry, but she needed him back at work by noon tomorrow.”
“Oy. Great…Man, I am so gonna be glad when we get out…”
“Hey – Dad?”
“Huh?” Ron groggily looked up from the 2nd cot. It was night, and Kim was asleep, but Shego was looking right at him from her cot.
“Look, when I punched you way back when all this started…I – I’m sorry,” whispered his daughter.
Ron smiled. “Don’t worry, Kamie. Like I said then, I kinda deserved it, anyways.”
“Oh. Okay, then. Yeah, sorry to wake you up like that.”
“Don’t be sorry. You had a good reason. Go back to sleep now, Kamie. ‘Night.” Ron rolled over.
“Goodnight, Dad.” Shego rolled over herself. “I love you,” she whispered.
Not completely asleep yet, Ron smiled.
“See? That’s part of the actual shank blade that you got stabbed with. It’s fused into the prosthesis and sealed so it won’t accidentally punch through anything vital or get infected. But now once you put it in, it’ll look like you still have the shank blade in your eye – and then you could call yourself Kim “Shankeye” Possible.”
Kim scoffed as she looked the prosthetic eye. “Cute, Kamie. Cute… How’d you persuade the ocularist to do this?”
“Dr. Daniels transferred here with the Middleton Jail. I’ve known him for a while.”
“I see. “Shankeye” Possible… I like it. Got a nice ring to it. I guess the daughter who wanted to be a thief when she grew up is satisfied with her mother having a fake eye and a nickname that makes her look and sound like a pirate?”
“Completely satisfied. Don’t know how Dad will react, but-”
“Oh, pfah,” Kim waved her hand, chuckling. “Ron’ll have a good giggle at this when we get out next week. Trust me, I know your father.”
“Yeah. The Buffoon’s not so bad, after all.”
“Not after you get to know him, honey. I’m glad to see you have.”
“Yeah – I’m…I’m glad I have, too.”
“Oh – speaking of thieves, Kamie – Have you decided on your helping-Drakken-carry-out-his-next-plan dilemma?”
“Hmm? Oh, yeah, I have. I did that a few weeks back.”
“…and?”
Shego was silent for a moment – then grinned. “One way or the other, Mom – I can promise you my decision ain’t gonna disappoint you.”
“Really?” Kim arched her left eyebrow.
“Hey, you know – I can’t be Kamie completely again. I gotta retain some of the mysterious person I grew up to be.”
“I see…”
“Anyways, let’s see what the prosthetic eye looks like, Mom.”
Kim scoffed again. “You really wanna see that, don’t you?”
“Yeah.”
“Hmmph. Alright, then. Where were the directions Dr. Daniels left for putting in this thing?”
“After 5 years, Kim Possible and her daughter Shego will return to the world when their sentences end tomorrow-”
“Kimmie!”
“Kimmie-Cub!”
“Dad! Mom!” Kim ran over to her parents. “It’s good to see you again!”
“Sorry I’m late – car stalled on the way over here.”
“RON!” Lightly running with the knee braces on, Kim crashed into her husband’s arms and kissed him deeply. “Oh my god, it’s so good to be out!”
“What – What’s with your eye?” asked Ron.
“Huh? Oh – Kamie got the ocularist to put a piece of the shank blade that I got stabbed with the eye, so I could go around calling myself “Shankeye” Possible.”
“"Shankeye”? Oookay. Whatever. It’s good to have you back, Kim.”
“I’m glad to be back, with my daughter, as a family, for once. Right, Ka – KAMIE?” Kim looked around. “Where’d she go?”
“She was right behind - you?” Mrs. Possible looked around. Shego was nowhere that she could see. “KAMIE?”
“What’s going on?” asked Ron.
“Your daughter! She was right behind me – and now I don’t see her anywhere! KAMIE!”
“What? KAMIE? KAMIE!” joined in Ron.
“KAMIE!” cried Kim. “Oh no! No! The day we’re free – I lose my daughter again!” She looked up. “Ron! The Kimmunicator! You still have it, right?”
“Yeah!” said Ron, fishing out the Kimmunicator. “Wade! Come in! Now!”
“Hey! Kim! Good to see you again!”
“Shut up, Wade! Please, find my daughter!”
“What? I thought she was with you-”
“She was! She was right behind me when we walked out the Penitentiary, but then I turned around and she was gone!”
“Uh, okay – Hold on…”
“Shego! I knew this would happen! Get out of jail and go right back to a life of crime!”
“Shut up, Hego! Now, I’ve got something I need you guys to do for me – and if you don’t do it exactly the way I tell you to, I’ll come up to that tower and make your lives more miserable than when I left the team in the first place! Listening now?”
“Nothing yet, Kim! Maybe we should stop for the day-”
“KEEP LOOKING! PLEASE! I’M NOT LOSING MY DAUGHTER AGAIN - NOT AFTER ALL OF THIS!”
KEE-RASH!
“DRAAKKENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!”
“Shego! Ahh! Uh, hi! You’re not still angry at me for- WAHH!”
“CUT THE CRAP, BLUEFACE TINYHANDS!” Shego snarled, lifting the villain into the air. “WE’RE NOT FOLLOWING YOUR PLAN THIS TIME!”
“We’re – not?”
“No! There’s a new plan! My plan! We’re going to follow that – no matter how much you might not want to! Got it?”
“Uh, well – could you tell me what the plan involv-”
“GOT IT?” Shego screamed, flaring up her green energy flames and swinging a punch that came within 8 millimeters of smashing his face in.
“AHH! Yes! Yes! I got it!” Drakken waved his hands. “I got it! Your plan! Right! Can do!”
“Good!” She hurled the man to the ground, hard. “Now, here’s the first thing we…”
“Nothing, Kim! I can’t find her anymore!”
“KEEP LOOKING!”
“But – you’re not going to be working for me anymore! I’ll lose my reputation!”
“What reputation?”
“Ok, forget the reputation. But you can’t leave, Shego!”
“Oh, yes I can. Just…Here, think about it this way: You lose me as your henchwoman…”
“…Y-yeah?”
“But you gain Kim Possible and the buffoon becoming preoccupied with raising their kid.” She grinned.
Drakken thought it over - and sneered in pure, delicious evil intent. “Well, when you put it that way…”
“Oh yeah, one more thing you have to do: Buy these. Within, like, the hour.”
“Buy – what? I’m not buying those-”
“RRRRRRRRR!”
“Okay! Okay! Ah heh heh…I’ll buy them.”
“And these, too! You cannot forget these!”
“Alright! I won’t forget them! I promise!”
“And do it fast! They’re gonna find us soon!”
“Kim! I got something! Dr. Drakken was spotted 30 minutes ago at a Costco in…West Whitewater City! Scanning for Shego’s signature in the – AHA!”
“What? What? Where is she?” asked Kim, frantic.
“At an old abandoned building near West Whitewater Falls!”
“What? That’s an hour-long drive! We’ll never make it!”
Just then, a very familiar-looking jet appeared overhead and landed on the road in front of the prison, rolling to a stop right next to Ron and Kim. Opening the hatch, a familiar figure in a blue outfit leaned out. “Need a lift, Mrs. Possible?”
“Huh?”
“No time for questions!” cut in Hego. “Shego gave us an exact list of what we’re supposed to do! C’mon!”
Kim didn’t waste any time, racing as fast as she could up the loading ramp of the jet. She was not going to lose her daughter after the 5 years of progress they’d just made together. Not after she’d broken one promise to her daughter already. She couldn’t break the same promise twice.
“And now…Victory will be comple-AHH!” Drakken screamed, seeing her in the reflection of the machine he was leaning over. “Kim Possible!”
“Where’s my daughter, Drakken?”
“Daughter? I haven’t done anything to your daughter!”
In a flash, Ron had bolted over and pinned him down, glaring furiously at the mad scientist. “I hope so. ‘Cause if you have done something to her, then so help me god, spending a day with your mother will not be the worst torture you could ever think of!”
“Ah, but you forget one thing, Buffoon – I always have a backup plan.” Drakken sneered, and pressed a button in his lab coat.
Instantly, a blinding flash of greenish-yellow light flashed into everyone’s eyes. After 5 minutes, it went away, and the machine broke apart like a coiled spring, scattering pieces of it everywhere. Kim and Ron looked at each other. Nothing seemed to have changed about either of them. “Uh – okay,” said Ron.
“AHAHAHAHA! NOW EVERYONE IN THE WORLD HAS BEEN DE-AGED 5 YEARS!” Drakken gloated.
“De-aged everybody 5 years?” asked Kim. “What? You’ve gotten lame, Drakken. And you’re not getting away this time.”
“Tell her that,” he replied, pointing.
Kim and Ron looked over. Lying in a basket covered by a clear box that looked made of glass was a little girl.
“That box is made of a special combination material that neutralizes the effect of the Juvinator. Had to put her under it because I already – well, I think you’ll recognize her – Kimmie,” sneered Drakken, who then traditionally cackled as he ran off down the other hallway, leaving Kim and Ron to stare at the child.
“Recogni – KAMIE?”
Kim tore over to the box, ripped it completely out of its moorings, and threw it aside. She leaned down and looked at the infant child in the basket, soundly sleeping like nothing was going on outside of her world. She looked exactly like the little one and a half-year old girl she had comforted back to sleep during a particularly nasty spat of a lightning storm ages ago. The dark strawberry blonde locks of the snoring young girl had fallen over her face, and her skin was the same semi-dark peach blend of Ron and her mother's skin colour - only, now there was the slightest, slightest hint of green tint to it. In an oversized Robin Hood t-shirt that mostly covered up her purple polka-dotted diapers, Kamie was lying right next to a CD with an envelope on top of it–
–an envelope marked “MOM.”
The redhead’s hands trembled as she frantically opened the letter and read it:
Mom,
Stored on this CD are my memories of the last 26 and a half years of my life, as well as fully illustrated instructions for your Nerdlinger on how to build the memory modifier machine of Drakken’s that was able to put them on it. Keep it safe. There’s some memories there I’m glad to be rid of, frankly. But there are also some others I’m still rather proud of, too. Like the memory of the time we just spent in jail together. I mean, who the hell would’ve thought you’d ever be in jail, Mom? Even before we realized we were related I wouldn’t have thought that was possible. Now, I forced Drakken to use the Juvinator device to revert myself back to the Kamie you knew in 1984, then had him use the memory modifier machine to take out all my memories all the back to the day you disappeared - then told him to use the last of the battery on the Juvinator to age everyone in the world back 5 years. All of Drakken’s notes and schematics on the Juvinator have been burned to ashes by me personally, so you can’t find it and try to bring me back to the age I should normally be at. Why? A few reasons, Mom.
As Shego, I’ve tried to think of you as my mother - but all I can think of is the fact that you’re Kim Possible, the woman I’ve apparently despised for 21 and a half years, even though I thought I only hated you for the last 3 years of those. I already told you the difference about that while we were in prison together, so I don’t need to repeat it. The 75 percent of me that’s Shego – she still hates you with the passion of a thousand suns. But the 25 percent of me that’s still Kamie, the part of me that I’ve only barely shown anyone but you lately… That part of me doesn’t want Shego’s thoughts in her head. Kamie wants the mommy who promised she’d always be there for her. Kamie doesn’t want to hear that her Mommy is the woman she was fighting for 3 years. Kamie doesn’t ever want to think about flaying Mommy alive and putting her head on a pike in the yard, under a sign that reads “This is what might happen to you parents if you have children, start to raise them, then suddenly realize you can’t handle them and cowardly run!”
Kamie understands Mommy and Daddy made an honest mistake, and she forgives them for that. Kamie’s always known her real Mommy would return one day – she just didn’t expect her real Mommy to be younger than her when she did. She and Shego have been fighting for a long time now over the issue of doing this, but you know the willpower of a child will almost always overcome any obstacle standing in their way. Kamie finally beat Shego - but with a compromise. Shego agreed to go away, but she didn’t want to just go away like she didn’t exist at all. Shego was too proud of herself for that. Kamie reminded Shego that while she won’t exist anymore, other people will remember who she was. Shego said that was close, but wasn’t good enough. So Kamie asked if Shego knew of any other way that she could not exist, yet still be remembered by others. The CD with this letter is a result of those negotiations. Now, Shego doesn’t exist anymore, except in that CD and in everyone else’s minds. If Mommy is honest with Kamie – as she always is – then when Kamie reaches Shego’s age again, Mommy can have the memory modifier machine built to put back all the memories of Shego’s life into her daughter’s head – and it will be up to Kamie to decide whether or not she really wants to accept them.
This was Kamie’s decision, and she made it all on her own. She knows Mommy will be proud of her for that. She’s sleeping now - dreaming about how Mommy’s just gone because she went out to someplace really far away to get her a really, really cool surprise, and that Mommy will be back by the time she wakes up. Please don’t disappoint her by not being there again, Mom. Kamie doesn’t want to turn into a second version of Shego. She just wants the Mommy she loves more than anything to return. Most preferably with her Daddy in tow. She would really love that. A lot.
I love you so very much, Mommy XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
-Kamie
P.S.: Remember to have a damn good honest reason why Kamie can’t see Dr. Suiraiva or Joe anymore! –Shego
P.S.S.: Dr. D. said the green skin, hair, and energy flames most likely would go away, but he couldn’t know how the Juvinator affected superpowers received from rainbow-coloured comets. Just a warning, Mom. –Shego
P.S.S.S.: Yeah, I know, that’s getting ridiculous – but I just wanted to tell you whose blood you were getting when you had that transfusion: Mine. Probably partially the reason why you healed so fast. Sorry, comet powers not included! -Shego
Kim handed Ron the note. He promptly read it – then dropped it in shock. “That’s – That little girl is-”
Suddenly, the girl stirred.
“Ron, go hide behind something.”
“Huh?”
“Just do it!” Kim hissed. Ron didn’t need to be told again, ducking behind a pillar of rock behind him as Kim turned back and drew close to the toddler. “K-Kamie-Pumpkin?” she whispered softly.
The girl’s brownish-green eyes flew open. She leapt up and tacklehugged Kim hard.“MAWHMEE! MAWHMEE! YOR BAHK! YOR BAHK! YEW KAME BAHK, MAWHMEE! I new ih! I new ih! I new yew wern’ gawhn! I no yew, Mawhmee! I no yew pwomised yew’d neveh weave me, zo I new yew’d be bahk!”
Kim held nothing back, joyous tears pouring down her face. “Yes, Kamie. I’m back. I-”
“Whuh happenned zoo yor I, Mawhmee?” asked Kamie, looking at the fake eye with the shank blade embedded in it.
“Huh? Oh, yeah, that – well, I was in just such a hurry to get back to my little darling Kamie as soon as possible so you wouldn’t get scared that I left so suddenly, I didn’t pay attention to where I was going, tripped – and got this big owie in my eye. Ah ah – don’t touch it, please, Kamie,” she cut in, lightly knocking Kamie’s reaching hand from it.
“Mawhmee! Zhame on yew!” the girl huffed, crossing her arms and scrunching her face into an exasperated pout, complete with an annoyed snort. “Yew no how yohr allwheyz zelling me zoo pay attention - den yew don’ do zat’ yohrzelf? Hmmph!” she scolded Kim, pointing at her.
Kim smiled as she looked into her daughter’s fiercely adamant eyes. She looked away and down, feigning shame. “I know, Kamie. I know. Mommy made a mistake. But I got this big owie because of that, and I’ve learned from it. I swear I won’t make the same mistake again.”
“Mawhmee! Zwearing iz bad!” pouted the almost-toddler.
Kim smirked. “That’s right. I said that wrong. How about this: I promise to always pay attention to where I’m going from now on, no matter how much of a rush or a hurry I’m in.”
“Daz’ behher,” replied Kamie, satisfied – well, almost. “Why dih yew weave zo zuddenly, Mawhmee? I wuz’ zo worried abohwt yew!” she asked, suppressed tears of worry beginning to seep out as she hugged Kim tighter and looked up at her mother’s warm, comforting face.
“I was worried about you, too, honey,” Kim smiled back, tears of joy falling from her eyes to match her daughter. “I just left you all alone…”
“I kud’ hah taykin kair uhv myzelv, Mawhmee!” Kamie huffed. “I’m a big girl!”
“Of course you are,” smiled Kim, rustling the mop of hair on Kamie’s head and continuing to explain the “situation” to her as the girl frowned and hastily reached up to smooth it out. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t still be worried about you being all alone. I am your mother, after all. Besides, Kamie-Pumpkin - I got a very special phone call while you were in your room changing into your Robin Hood costume, and if I hadn’t left right then and there, I would have completely missed my chance to get you the best surprise gift I could possibly ever get you.”
Kamie’s eyes lit up. “Yew goh’ me a pwezent? Yew goh’ me a pwezent, Mawhmee? I wanna opeh’ ih! I wanna opeh’ ih!” she practially hopped up and down. “Righ’ now! Righ’ now!”
Kim smiled and hugged her daughter again. “This isn’t a present that’s wrapped up for you to open, Kamie. It’s a bit different than that.”
“Whuht?” Kamie turned around faster than her emotions changed. “Zen I dohn’ wah’ ih!” she frowned with a pouted lip, crossing her arms.
Kim nodded at Ron that it was time for him to come out of his hiding spot. Ron complied, seeing what Kim had in mind. He walked up behind the upset Kamie. “Are you sure about that, Kamie?”
Kamie spun around “YEZ, MAWHMEE! I DOHN’ WAHN- DAHDEE!” squealed the girl, wrapping herself tightly around Ron’s leg. “DAHDEE! YOHR HEAR! YOHR VINEALEE HEAR!” She looked up, stretching her tiny arms towards him. “Pik me uh, Dahdee!”
“Pick her up, Ron!” Kim half-hissed as she pocketed the CD and the note.
“What? Oh! Duh!” he scolded himself, picking up the girl. “You’ll have to excuse Daddy for a little while, kiddo – he’s not completely used to the parenting thing yet, like your mother is.”
“Iz okay, Dahdee – I unduhstan’.” The toddler hugged him tightly. “Da’ importent ting iz, yohr hear. Jus’ ligh Mawhmee zed yew pwomised yew’d be. Datz all.”
Ron looked at the child – and all he could do was smile, the rest of him completely melted. The fact this girl had been older than him and fighting him seemed impossible. The fact this girl was his daughter – it was a feeling he couldn’t quite explain, but he knew it was a good one, as he was tearing in joy already.
Kamie reached out for Kim, and Ron handed the child over to his wife. Kamie immediately enveloped Kim in a bear hug, a huge smile of joy and pure love splashed across her face. “Oh, Mawhmee! Diz iz duh’ bes’ pwesent yew’ve evuh’ gohtinn vohr me ih duh hole whyde wurld! Dhank yew, Mawhmee! Dhank you! Dhank yew! Dhank you! I wuv yew zo much!” she declared, kissing Kim on the cheek and tightening the grip of her hug. “Dhank you ahghen!”
“See, sweetie? I told you you’d love it!” said Kim.
“Ih zdill wohn’ mahyk up vor yew dizzuhpeering compweetwee – AHHH!” Kamie suddenly shrieked in terror.
Ron whirled around. “What is it? What happened?”
“Kamie!” Kim, also immediately alarmed, pulled Kamie’s arms away from her to see if she had injured them in some way or form – then saw her daughter’s hand was engulfed in green energy flames.
“My han’ iz on fire! My han’ iz on fire!” continued the shrieking Kamie. “Puh ih owht, Mawhmee! Puh’ ih’ owht!”
“Kamie, calm down.” Kim put the girl on the ground and knelt down so she was eye-level with her. “Just concentrate on putting it out. That’s a different type of fire than the really scary kind of fire that can badly hurt you, like what Smokey’s always warning you about.”
“Huh?”
Ron knelt down beside Kim. “Calm down, Kamie,” he told her soothingly. “Daddy and Mommy aren’t gonna let you burn up.”
“Pwomise?” asked Kamie, slowly calming down, despite her hand still afire with the tiny green energy flames.
Ron ran his hand over her hair and pecked a kiss on her forehead. “We promise. Now, like your mother told you, just… just close your eyes and concentrate on putting out that fire on your hand. Just like Mommy said.”
Kamie hesitated, but not for long. She closed her eyes tightly – too tightly, as Ron and Kim stifled a giggle – and the energy flame vanished. “See? It worked!” cheered Kim as Kamie opened her eyes and gasped that the energy flame was gone. “I knew you could do it! I knew-” She stopped talking as Kamie re-ignited her hand with the green energy flames – but now the girl looked at them with absolute fascination.
“How kan I do zis?” the dark green-eyed toddler asked curiously, putting out the flames and looking up at Kim and Ron for an answer.
“I – I don’t know, honey – maybe it’s just the fact that you’re such a special girl,” smiled Kim, looking at Ron – who nodded in agreement.
“Weally, Mawhmee? Eyme a spehshull girl?” Kamie’s eyes were sparkling like she’d just been told she’d won an Emmy.
Kim picked her daughter back up and embraced her. “To us. C’mon. Let’s go home.”
“Hah! Never expected that!” snorted Drakken, stepping out of the fake waterfall. “I’m going to get away again and – AHH!”
“Going somewhere?” asked Hego, towering over the blue-skinned man.
“Uh, yes, actually I was just going this way – gah!” Drakken recoiled as the Wegos copied themselves, completely surrounding him.
“Our adopted sister contacted us before she came to you, Dr. Drakken,” said Hego, leaning in. “That’s how we knew where you’d be.”
“Aw, crap…I give up,” sighed Drakken, putting his hands over his head.
Mego walked up to his brother. “Ok, Hego, this time, let me talk to the press?”
“As much I disdain to say it, it was a team effort – and we couldn’t have done it without the information our former sister Shego provided.”
“Mr. Mego! Mr. Mego? What do you mean, “Former sister?” Has something happened to Shego?”
“Yes. My adopted sister – er, our adopted sister – no longer exists.”
“No longer exists? Does that mean that she’s dead?”
“No, she’s not dead – She’s just…changed.”
“How so?”
“Look! They’re coming out of the building!”
“Whoah!” Kim threw up her hands as the flashbulbs went off.
Kamie shrieked and tried to bury herself in Kim’s shoulder. “Mahyk ‘em goh ‘whey, Mawhmee!”
Kim hugged her daughter. “It’s okay, sweetie! It’s okay!” She turned to the press as the girl squirmed. “PLEASE STOP TAKING PICTURES!”
“Are dey gahwn, Mawhmee?” Kamie peeked out.
“No, sweetie – but look! They’re all waiting to see you!”
“Huh? Weally?”
“Really, Kamie,” said Ron, as he walked up to the press. “Everybody, we would like you to meet someone – our daughter, Kamie. Shego is no more now. That is all, thanks! Please! Your picture taking is scaring her!”
With that, the press seemed to suddenly feel sorry – then quite quickly shuffled away, moving to the paddywagon Drakken was being loaded onto.
Kim and Ron walked over to Team Go. “Kamie, I’d like you to meet your Uncle Hego, Uncle Mego, and Uncles Wego.”
“Huh? Whoah!” Kamie looked up at Hego. “Are yew guise wobbuhs?”
“What’ she say?”
“She wants to know if you guys are robbers – you remember her fascination with Robin Hood.”
“Oh, yes!” Hego knelt down to Kamie. “Yes, Kamie - we are robbers, but a bit different. We rob criminals off the streets and put them in jail where they belong.”
“Wow!” beamed Kamie, almost starstruck.
“So, you guys have, like, no problem with this happening – I mean-” stammered Ron, “-you know - Shego reverting back like this and all-”
“Our adopted sister made her own decision. We couldn’t make it for her,” Hego cut in. “That’s all we’re going to say on the subject.”
“Hey – wanna ride home in their jet?” Ron asked his daughter.
“YEH!” shouted Kamie, jumping up and down.
“You got us a HOUSE?” squealed Kim in excitement, hugging Ron tightly as she looked at the renovated Rose house. “Oh my god, I love you so much!”
“Everyone kinda chipped in,” said Ron, smiling. “And since the Rose case was closed after you got arrested, I figured-”
“I don’t care. We have a house! I can’t believe it! Kamie! Look at what Daddy got for us! A house! No more tiny apartment!”
“YAY!”
“Now, you just get some sleep, and tomorrow we’ll go visit Auntie Bonnie, get some ballet lessons from her – then go visit your grandparents in Middleton - okay, Kamie?”
“Ohkay! …Mawhmee?”
“Hmm?”
“Whuh happehn’d zoo Joh?”
“Joe? Uh – you remember how he always talked about traveling?”
“Yeh…”
“Well, he went on a really long trip, and we’re not gonna be able to see him again for a lonnnng time – alright?”
“Ohkay, Mawhmee.”
“Alright. You go to sleep now, y’hear?”
Kamie nodded, petting the sleeping Rufus lying in her crib next to her. “Wufus ihz hear zoo potekt me, zo Ih’ll be zafe, Mawhmee.”
“Okay. ‘Night, sweetie.” Kim turned off the lights and left the room.
Half an hour later, Ron and Kim snuck into the room and looked over the crib at the snoring little girl, bathed in the light of the late night moon. “Look at that,” Ron noted – pointing at Kamie’s skin. “It’s like she’s glowing in the moonlight.”
“Of course she’s glowing, Ron – she’s our daughter,” Kim smiled.
“Whatever you say, “Shankeye."”
Kim’s smile grew warmer. She leaned her head on Ron’s shoulder.
They were a family again. For the first time in a long time, they were a family. It was a reunion – and this time, a sweet one, at that.
And with the world de-aged 5 years – it was almost like nothing had happened at all.
FIN