Have mercy on us all as we host Thanksgiving for both of our families…
The fall holidays were interesting with Todd and Jayden around. For Halloween, Todd wanted to go out trick-or-treating with Jayden. He just did not want to accept that she was only a baby and not capable of doing much outside of sleeping most of the day and crying. All he knew was that Jayden was another body to get candy and the beauty of it was that she would not be able to eat the candy, meaning he would have to handle that task for her. It was a brilliant plan in his opinion that his parents did not go for.
“C’mon, Kimmie! We could all go dressed up as dinosaurs and Jade would be the baby dino!” Todd declared with an enthused grin.
“No, Smiley. Jayden isn’t big enough for Halloween yet. Give her a few years,” Kim replied with a smile.
“A few years?” he groaned as if he was in serious pain. That was like forever! “She-she, tell Kimmie to let Jade come!” he requested.
Shego was in the living room on the sofa with Jayden. She was giving Jayden a bottle. The baby was content with being fed and eyeing her mother with an intense look in her deep olive eyes. The little girl did look off to the side when Todd called for their mother.
“Smiley, Jade is staying in. You need to be happy that we’re even letting you go out. I don’t trust strangers giving you candy and shit like that,” Shego pointed out and she was being honest about that. If she could have her way, Todd would stay his narrow ass inside on Halloween.
“It’s okay, Shego. I get Wade to scan the candy,” Kim informed her spouse. She had the same worries as Shego when it came to Halloween, which was why she did get Wade to scan their son’s swag from trick-or-treating.
“Good to know, but Jade still isn’t going out,” Shego said before Todd could start a new argument on why his baby sister should be allowed out with him.
Todd pouted, but that did not get him anywhere. On Halloween, he went out trick-or-treating with Kim again, talking her in dressing up as the Robin to his Batman. She mentally commented that she was starting to see a trend the boy. Shego stayed in with Jayden while making sure not to answer the door for any little beggars. Jayden seemed content for the most part to in the company of her mommy.
After Halloween, Kim and Shego had to worry about Thanksgiving. They knew both sides of their families would want them over for Thanksgiving, mostly because of the kids on the Gooding side. But, to be fair, the Wegos would not mind seeing their big sister; the same could be said of Mego as long as Shego acknowledged the attention-starved man in some way.
Kim came up with the solution and it was a horrible idea in her spouse’s opinion. The hero suggested that they do Thanksgiving at their house that year. Shego was against it from the start, but had somehow been talked into it; her caving in might have had something to do with Kim doing something crazy with her tongue late one night. Shego would not even think about that one without blushing.
But, also having Thanksgiving at their house was the easiest way for their families to see them and their family. Besides, it was not like she was protecting her home address from her brothers. They already knew where she lived. Hell, the Wegos came through on some weekends to take Todd out to do whatever. Todd loved it, so it did not bother Shego and her brothers had matured some, so they did not purposely get on her nerves much anymore. They did still occasionally hit on Kim, though. They defended themselves by saying it was not their fault that their sister-in-law was hot; the Possible twins used the same excuse.
The thought of Thanksgiving at their house did bother Shego, though. She could already picture her mother looming over her while she was preparing food and just thinking about it pissed her off. She always hoped that her mother did not bring her father, but she was certain that Isabel would. Isabel seemed to make it her mission to get Jason to accept what was happening come Hell or high water. He was resisting like a brain-dead mule, though.
Still, Shego agreed with the idea and decided that they would try Thanksgiving at their house for the first time. She invited Betty and Dahntay over since they were pretty much family and they accepted the invitation, although Betty did annoyingly insist on bringing something and Shego was resisting that. Kim invited her friends too, but they had plans, which had been expected of them. They were going to Middleton for the holiday weekend.
“Can I help?” Kim inquired, popping her head in the kitchen. It was the morning before Thanksgiving. Shego had started cooking for the big meal already because she was not going to have time to do it that night. They had to go pick up Todd, after all.
“No. Go watch Jade,” the raven-haired officer answered.
“She’s sleeping again,” the redhead answered as if she was disappointed. She did get a kick out of playing games with Jayden and making faces at the baby that got their child to giggle, so it sometimes saddened her when Jayden was sleeping.
“She takes after you with that,” Shego commented. Jayden was starting to show signs of being like Kim in the fact that when she was up, she wanted to be doing something, but when she was sleeping, she was out, especially if she had happened to be sleeping on her green-skinned mommy.
“I’m going to take that as a compliment,” the hero replied with a smile.
“Take it however you want, but you’re not helping.”
“Why not?” Kim practically cried as if Shego had wounded her deeply, but she was just playing around. She did hope that the tone and expression on her face would win her some kind of sympathy, so she could help with something while she had the time.
“Because I don’t need your help,” the pale woman pointed out.
“Well, why not?” the younger female huffed. She would like to be a part of their first Thanksgiving in their home with both of their families joined together.
“Because,” Shego replied with a growl and then she turned around to face her spouse, only to see Kim looking pitiful, yet serious. She sighed. “Fine, you want to help?” she asked just to be sure.
“Yeah,” Kim answered with a nod.
“Okay, you can make macaroni salad,” Shego said.
Kim grinned and nodded. She made it through the dish before Jayden began crying and that called the redhead away from the kitchen for the moment anyway. Shego continued on with her work and was ambushed by her monsters. She laughed as Kim pretended to have Jayden hanging on her back.
“Say hi to Mommy, Jade,” Kim said and the baby gurgled. “Look at that! She said hi,” the redhead joked.
“Okay, okay, okay. Leave Mommy alone now,” Shego replied while turning her attention back to the food.
“Aw, Mommy isn’t paying attention to us, Jade. Mommy doesn’t love her girls,” Kim said and that caught Shego’s attention.
“Don’t ever say anything like that!” Shego ordered with so much force that Kim looked totally stunned and Jayden burst into tears.
Shego realized how random and shocking her screaming had to seem. She did not mean to say that and she certainly did not mean to say it to the point where it scared her wife and daughter. It was just a sensitive subject with her because she sometimes thought that Kim might actually think that she cared less about Jayden because of how the baby was conceived.
“I’m sorry,” the green-skinned woman apologized immediately, which was very unlike her. But then again, that outburst was totally uncalled for and her mate looked so surprised it that she had to apologize right away. She approached Kim and wrapped her arms around the smaller female.
“What was that about?” Kim asked quietly. She understood that Shego was a bit stressed with the idea having Thanksgiving at their home and she was doing the bulk of the cooking, but she did not think that justified the explosion.
“Just never don’t ever say anything like that. I love you both very much,” Shego replied, looking into Kim’s eyes so that the redhead knew that she was telling the truth.
“I know you do. I was just joking,” the hero informed her spouse. Of course she was joking. She would never mean something so course and harsh.
“Just don’t joke like that, Princess. Especially not while she’s so little. Something like that might actually sink in or something,” the pale officer stated while moving her left hand to rub Jayden’s back with the hope of calming the baby down since she was still crying.
“I guess,” Kim agreed. Maybe something like that would stick with the baby, so she should watch what she said, she thought.
“I love both of you,” Shego repeated and she kissed Kim’s forehead and then she kissed Jayden’s forehead. The baby was finally starting to calm down.
They all started hugged up until Jayden stopped crying. Kim then took Jayden off to the side of the kitchen, so that they could be with Shego while she was cooking. Every now and then, Shego turned away from her task and went to mess with the baby, who seemed to enjoy the attention every time that it came because Jayden grinned as wide as Kim would when Shego came over. Kim kept Jayden around in the kitchen even after she fell back to sleep because she just believed that Shego would appreciate them being around and she was right.
Kim did wonder why Shego had taken that joke so badly, though. She could understand that it might be something that could possibly stick with the baby and she would not want Jayden to ever think that Shego did not love either of them, but the outburst seemed beyond that. She wondered if Shego was silently bothered about Jayden not being biologically linked to her and she had taken the joke badly because it was something that bothered her. The redhead did not see why that would happen because she knew that it was not a problem when it came to Todd. Maybe she was looking too deeply into, the scientist thought.
(New day)
“Smiley, quit that!” Shego scolded the boy as he kept trying to stick his finger in a cake that was resting on the kitchen table.
Todd had the decency to look shocked by the admonishment, but it was more of a shock that he was caught; one would think that after being caught four times already, he would see it coming. Adding to the surprise was the fact that he was in the kitchen alone and Shego was yelling at him from the living room. She was picking up puzzle junk; Kim had been cleaning it up until Jayden started crying from upstairs.
Shego was a little worried about Kim being with Jayden because she had talked about having a special outfit for the baby. She really did not want to know what the “special” outfit was. She really had little desire for Jayden to end up looking stupid, especially since company would be coming and that company would have cameras more than likely. The last thing that she wanted was for documents showing their daughter looking like an idiot.
She did not have time to think about that because as soon as she finished cleaning, she had to yell at Todd and ordered him to answer the door as someone went psycho on the bell. She suspected that it was actually two psychos, but she still reminded Todd to ask who was there.
“Who is it?” Todd inquired as he stepped to the door.
“Police,” a deep voice that sounded suspiciously like his uncle Walter.
“Police?” Todd echoed and he scratched his head. “She-she, the police are at the door,” he reported.
“Tell them to kick in the door then,” she replied.
“Okay. She-she says its okay for you to kick in the door,” Todd informed the “police.”
“Smiley, open the door, man. We have comic books for you,” Wallace told the boy.
“Ohhh, comics,” Todd practically whistled as he opened the door for his uncles, who did have a box of comics for the boy, which was a habit of theirs when they came to see him.
Todd took the box and ran off while the Wegos let themselves in. They shut the door behind themselves and Shego stepped out of the living room. They surprised her by hugging her and saying “Happy Thanksgiving.” She was so shocked that all she could do was return the embraces.
“Take your shoes and put them on the rack. Hang your coats up in the hall closet and don’t touch the cake on the counter or the pies in the fridge lest I slay you,” Shego warned her brothers.
“Hmm…” the Wegos said and it was clear that they were thinking about it now. “Where’s Kimmie?” they asked simultaneously.
“She tending to the baby,” Shego answered. “Don’t mess with my Princess, guys. I mean it.”
The Wegos made faces; luckily their sister was back in the living room before they did that. They did take their shoes off and put their coats up. Instead of going to be pests, they went upstairs to hang out with Todd. He had video games in his room, so they all had something to do and his room was large enough to where they were not cramped in there at all.
A little while after the Wegos arrived, James and Ann Possible showed up. They were on their own because the twins were coming in straight from school. Shego met them at the door too, offering them the same instructions that she gave her brothers, but lacking the threat about the promises of death involving the sweets in the kitchen. The doctors asked the same question as her brothers, wanting to know where Kim was.
“She’s upstairs with the baby. I’d say she’s dressing Jade, but that doesn’t require her being up there as long as she has been,” Shego remarked.
“Oh, we’ll wait for her to bring Jade down there. Here, I brought a pie,” Ann said while handing the dish over.
“Can’t have too much pie when your kids are around,” Shego commented, noticing that the Possible twins ate more sweets than their sister.
“I know that’s true,” Ann replied with a laugh.
Shego went to go put the pie away while the Possibles took their shoes off and put their coats away. They went into the living room to kill sometime and wait for everyone else to arrive. It did not take long for their sons to show up. Shockingly the Possible twins were alone, even though they did have girlfriends. It would seem that they were not so serious about the girls to bring them to the family gathering, though. They eventually made their way up to Todd’s room and joined in the video-game playing.
Mego showed up, loudly inquiring where his little niece was. Mego genuinely loved Jayden and it was clear from whenever he showed up because he always wanted to know where she was and he paid her all the attention that he could when she was around. So, he wanted to know where she was now.
“Stop yelling,” Shego huffed as she met him at the door.
“Where’s my girl? I brought her a book,” Mego said with a smile and he held up the book.
“Please don’t let it be about snakes,” Shego begged to the ceiling. Whenever Mego asked about what he should bring the baby, Kim always spoke up first, saying anything about snakes was fine. That was annoying enough, but Mego actually listened. It irked his sister to no end, which was one of the reasons why he did it.
“It’s not about snakes,” Mego assured her.
“Frogs?” she inquired suspiciously.
“No.”
“Lizards?”
“No.”
Shego breathed a sigh of relief. Mego then showed her the book and she frowned; it was a book on salamanders. Now, why did her four-month-old baby need a book on salamanders? She knew that he did things like that just to get on her nerves, but that did not stop it from working.
Mego took it upon himself to go upstairs and see the baby. Shego did not say anything and went about her business. A little later Mego was coming downstairs with Kim behind her and Kim had Jayden in her arms. She took Jayden into the living room for the baby’s grandparents to see her.
“Oh, there’s little Jayden,” Ann cooed and put out her hands for the baby. Kim complied with the silent order and handed the baby over. “Oh, my goodness, this is too cute!” she declared when she took note of Jayden’s clothing.
“Oh, that’s the Care Bear thing I brought her,” Mego pointed out.
Jayden was dressed in what Kim had originally thought were pajamas until she noticed the little hood on the purple and white shirt; the white part had a purple Care Bear on it. She had the hood on Jayden’s head and it had two bear ears on it. The pants were purple and had footies on it, which was one of the reasons that Kim had assumed that they were pajamas. But, the footies were designed to look like the baby had bear feet, complete with heart-shaped paw prints on the bottom.
“This is so adorable,” Ann said while tugging at the left footie of Jayden’s pants.
“I thought of her the second I saw them,” Mego seemed to brag.
“What’s Shego going to think when she sees Jade in those, though?” James pointed out, knowing that Shego preferred their children to be dressed in green and black, just like her.
“She’s going to hit the ceiling, but who cares,” Mego remarked while rolling his eyes. He did not care what his cranky sister was going to say about the outfit. The main point was that his little niece looked absolutely adorable in it.
“At least you know that,” Kim said.
Before Shego could see what was going on with Jayden, Isabel arrived. As expected she had Jason and Hego with her. Isabel was aware that Shego and Kim liked people to take their shoes off in the house, so she instructed Jason and Hego to remove their shoes, which they complained about for the sake of complaining. They also complained about how there was no room in the hall closet to hang up their coats.
Isabel ignored them and went into the living room, knowing that would be where everyone was. Jason and Hego looked around since it was their first time at the house. They silently admitted to themselves that Shego seemed to be doing well for herself if the house was any indication of things.
“Oh, goodness, that is too cute!” they heard Isabel proclaim; she had just seen Jayden’s outfit.
Jason and Hego decided to go see what was so cute, so they made their way to the living room. They spied Isabel near Ann and both women were gushing over something in the neurosurgeon’s arms as far as the fellows could tell. Upon closer inspection, the father and son noticed that the “something” was a baby.
“It’s about time you two saw little Jade,” Mego commented. His father and older brother had never actually seen Jayden in person until now.
“Who is she?” Hego had the nerve to ask.
“What do you mean ‘who is she’?” Mego inquired. He could have sworn that their mother had sent out pictures and everything to everyone celebrating the birth of her granddaughter. He knew that she sent out pictures because he had gotten a packet, even though he had been there when she was born and had seen the girl on a few occasions now.
“Is he serious?” Ann asked Isabel. She hoped that he was not serious because it would be just awful for him to not know who his own niece was.
“Of course this dumbass is serious,” Shego answered, coming up behind her brother and father. “He’s a dumbass, after all,” the pale woman commented.
“Hey,” Hego huffed.
“She’s right,” Mego agreed with Shego. Only a true dumbass like Hego would not know who his own niece was.
“Pumpkin, what is that the baby is wearing?” Shego inquired when she noticed the clothing on Jayden.
“Care Bear stuff,” Kim answered. Shego did not mind all the Care Bear things that Kim and Mego brought for the baby; sure, it gave Jayden’s room a creepy, cheerful theme, but she guessed it was all right.
“Why is it purple?” Shego asked. She was going to inquire why it had ears, but she guessed that was kind of cute. Purple was not cute, though.
“Because I brought it for her,” Mego declared with a rather proud look in his eyes and a smile tugging at his lip. As long as he brought Jayden things, his sister was going to have to deal with his color and his color of choice was purple.
“Go change her,” Shego said.
“Firefly, don’t be so rash,” Isabel commented without taking her eyes off of the baby. She thought that the clothing was extra-adorable and she believed that Shego was overreacting to it.
“Really,” Ann concurred.
“Where’s our mischievous little grandson?” Isabel asked Ann and James while looking around for her little “fire warrior.”
“He wasn’t down here when we came in,” James answered.
“He’s in his room with his uncles,” Kim informed them.
“Oh, well, I’ll just have to break that party up for a moment,” Isabel declared with a smile.
Isabel walked off upstairs to go bother her sons and grandson. She burst into the room unannounced and grabbed Todd up for a tight hug at lightning speed. The boy was shocked at first, but grinned when he saw who it was.
“Grandma!” Todd shouted in a jubilant tone while his lime-colored eyes sparked with happiness. “Where’s Grandpa and Mee-ma?” he asked curiously.
“They’re downstairs. You rude little thing, you should’ve been down there to greet us as we came in like your parents and little sister were,” Isabel pretended to scold the boy, going so far as to shake her finger in his face.
“Sorry, Grandma,” he apologized with a pout. “I’ll go greet ‘em right now!” he promised enthusiastically.
Isabel put the boy down and he practically flew out of the room. She greeted her sons and the Possible twins while Todd went to go greet the other guests. The redheaded child was all right with giving out hugs all around downstairs until he came to Jason and Hego. He never was too sure what to do about them when they were in the same room, so he just stared until he felt that it was obvious they were not going to say anything and he did not feel obligated to do anything either. He then ran off to go play with his twin uncles.
Jason and Hego took seats in the large living room, turning on the television to ignore everyone else. They turned to a football game while the doctors Possible and Mego fawned over Jayden. Isabel went into the kitchen and proceeded to get on Shego’s nerves. It was not done totally on purpose; she wanted to help some and she was curious as to why certain things were not already done. Shego’s eye twitched from the few minutes of perceived nagging.
“Mommy, if you don’t get the fuck out of here in three seconds, you’re not going to be fan of what I’m going to do with this spoon,” the green-skinned female commented while pointing the aforementioned spoon at her mother as if it was a weapon of some kind. The way Shego planned on using it on her mother, it would be a weapon.
“Look, firefly—” Isabel tried to say, but Shego was not looking to hear anything.
“I’m serious, Mommy. Get the fuck out of my kitchen and let me do this,” the younger female stated soundly, her face tight from her seriousness.
Isabel did not argue. She reminded herself that it was her daughter’s first time hosting Thanksgiving and obviously Shego wanted everything to go smoothly by her own hands. So, Isabel left quietly and went to fuss over Jayden for a while.
Betty and Dahntay arrived when everyone was settled in. They joined everyone in the living room along with Mayah. Isabel quickly grabbed up the little girl to get a good look at her. She could see already that Mayah was going to grow up and be a clone of Betty because she looked just like Betty did when she was a baby, except for the very curious eyes the child possessed. Isabel thought that Mayah’s mismatched eyes were utterly charming, though, which she had actually said and most people thought that was an odd word to using when describing a toddler’s eyes.
While Mayah was being taken care of by Isabel, Betty popped into the kitchen to check on Shego. The raven-haired female was sitting at the table in the kitchen, taking a breather. Betty smiled a bit and even laughed.
“Harder than it looks, throwing a whole Thanksgiving dinner on your own, huh?” Betty commented.
“It’s not that hard,” Shego lied. She should have let Kim help more, she mentally commented. Well, live and learn.
“The look on your face tells a different story,” the older woman pointed out while sitting down across from Shego.
“You didn’t bring anything, did you?”
“No. I was going to, but I figured you’d be pissed enough, so I wouldn’t have to add to it,” Betty explained.
“You were right. You know, Hego is such a fucking dumbass, he didn’t even know who Jayden was,” the pale woman reported.
The one-eyed female nodded slightly for lack of a better thing to do. “That’s okay. My brother wouldn’t know Mayah if I was holding her and she was wearing a name tag.”
“Well, he’s a dumbass too,” Shego commented.
“That he is,” Betty agreed, nodding again and looking slightly amused.
The friends sat there for a while until Shego went to check on the food. By the time the food was done, Shego was sort of stuck. Should she leave the food in the kitchen or should she set it out? In her family, the food was always left in the kitchen and whenever folks were hungry, they would just go in there, fix a plate, and then go about their business. In the Possible family, everyone sat down at the table. Well, it was her house and she was done in for the moment anyway.
So, Shego did what she usually would do in a family gathering where food was involved. She went upstairs and told Todd that the food was done and all he had to do was tell her when he was hungry, so she could fix him a plate. He nodded because he knew the drill and he was too busy kicking his uncles’ butts in a multiplayer racing game. She left him alone and then went back downstairs. She fixed herself a plate and Kim a plate, carrying those to living room.
“Food’s done,” Shego told everyone while putting her food and Kim’s food down just long enough for her to grab a tray that was leaning on the wall.
“What kind of host are you?” Betty teased.
“Hey, I could’ve just kept it a secret,” the green-skinned woman pointed out.
No one argued that because it was true. Instead, they all got up to go see what Shego had slaved over for the past two days. The turkey was on the countertop, sliced and everything. There was cranberry sauce next to it and biscuits next to that. On the stove, there was a pot full of rice and beans. Next to that pot was mashed potatoes and on the backburners, there was a pot of string beans, which Kim had helped in making. The last dish on the stove was sort of a surprise; it was baked fish, which was a favorite of Mego’s. He often ate fish on Thanksgiving because he disliked turkey.
The other food was on the table in the kitchen, which included macaroni salad, macaroni and cheese, tossed salad, and corn on the cob. There was a cake on the table too, which appeared to be homemade like everything else. It was an impressive spread, especially since it was mostly done by one person, and they knew that she probably had desserts stashed away somewhere.
“That girl is too much,” Isabel commented under her breath with a proud smile on her face.
Next time: the end of Thanksgiving and some firsts for Jayden.