Trin took a deep breath. She was about to have to explain the most difficult thing of all time to her parents and possibly risk losing them. She asked herself, even if she could not be good natured most of the time, why could she not at least be normal? Why could she not do just one thing that was considered normal? It would be so much easier on her parents if she could just be somewhat normal, she believed.
“So, what are you reasons for keeping this a secret?” Mrs. Possible pressed for answers as to why the blonde had remained in the closet. She thought that she and her daughters had the type of relationship where they would never think to keep a secret from her.
“Well, first off, I didn’t want to anyone to know because I didn’t want to embarrass you anymore than I already do. I mean, it’s bad enough that I’m me and walk around with the last name Possible, but to be me, to be a lesbian, and to be with the woman I’m with would be seen as so much worse. I didn’t want to be worse for you,” the college student explained.
“And?” Mrs. Possible said since her eldest daughter said that there were two reasons for why she had not said anything.
“Well…” Trin’s eyes began to well up with salt water. Damn it, she was crying. “I’m already such a burden and I thought…I thought you’d hate me. I thought you wouldn’t want me anymore. It’s not like I’m good or anything. I was so scared that you wouldn’t want me anymore. And even if you didn’t hate me, I thought you wouldn’t like me seeing Tatsu. She’s not exactly a model citizen, but we care about each other a great deal. I just…” Trin could even finish what she wanted to say.
She wiped her eyes, but that did not help. She was still crying; damn it, she could not stop. She did not want her parents to forsake her. It was such a frightening thought, much like when she was little and in the mall with no one and knowing that her birth mother was not going to come back. Actually, being forsaken by her parents right now would be infinitely worse than being left in that mall, she believed.
“Trin…” her parents were not too sure what to say because they had not seen the blonde so vulnerable in a very long time.
Trin had stopped openly crying pretty much the day that she met her parents. When she was little, she cried privately behind bushes or in high trees or under her bed very late at night. She always thought that she caused her parents enough trouble as it was coming home from school with horrible, deep wounds that crying might be too much. She never complained with them either. When she was little, she always feared that if the Possibles did not want her anymore, then they could just take her back to the mall and leave her there like her birth mother did, so she tried to be quiet, still, out of the way, and not cause any trouble.
As she grew up, she thought that she had outgrown the thought that her parents would just abandon her in a mall if she ever got too out of hand, but deep down, it seemed to still be a fear of hers. She grew up introverted to a certain extent while trying to be quiet, still, and out of the way. But, somewhere along the way, she became problematic, the one thing that she never wanted to be to her parents.
“I’m so sorry!” Trin apologized for just about everything that she had ever done in life. In the back of her mind, she wondered why her parents even bothered to keep her. They should have done just what her birth parents did, left her in a mall somewhere. It would have been so much better for them. She was nothing more than a demon’s spawn, after all.
“There’s no need to say sorry, dear,” Mr. Possible said and he actually sounded a bit relieved. He had a serious neurosis about his little girls with boys and he had always been frightened that Trin messed around with Shin, even though the world knew where that boy’s tastes lie. He gently touched Trin’s shoulder, hoping to assure her that everything was all right.
“We don’t hate you over this,” Mrs. Possible promised.
“No?” Trin asked as if she could not believe it while trying her best to stop weeping.
“Trin, dear, with what we put up from you kids, as long as you’re all breathing at the end of the day, we’re happy. The twins play with real rockets, Kim saves the world, and you just walking outside can make for a dangerous surprise, so whenever you kids make it back in the house with all your limbs intact, that’s all that matters to us. I mean, have you ever really stopped and thought about what you all do?” Mrs. Possible pointed out.
“Well…no,” Trin admitted. She knew that she and her siblings did things that could have very negative consequences, but none of them ever thought about the bad things that could happen. Those things happened to other people, probably very stupid people, they all thought.
“Trin, we love you just the way you are as long as you’re not doing anything self-destructive, aside for living with Shin anyway,” Mr. Possible stated. He and his wife did not believe that their eldest child was as terrible as the rest of the world tried to make her out to be; they just knew that she was antisocial because it was safer for her to be that way. They knew that whenever she interacted with people, horrible things happened and when she was younger, those things always happened to her.
“So, it’s all right? I’m all right?” the blonde asked. Her tears were finally drying up now that she felt some reassurance that she was not going to be ousted from her family.
“Of course you’re all right. You get good grades, you treat your sister and brothers fine, you make sure Shin doesn’t lose any limbs or put his eye out. You’re going really good, kiddo,” her father answered.
“And you’re not upset with me?” Trin inquired.
“No,” her mother replied.
“In that case, Kim’s a lesbian too.”
“Sis!” Kim could not believe her sister just out-ed her.
“Then the green woman lurking around is with you,” their mother guessed.
“Mom, you can’t believe everything coming out of Trin’s mouth. She’s being pumped full of painkillers, after all. The drugs are obviously messing with her mind,” the cheerleader commented.
“Kimmie, if we just said it’s all right for Trin, why do you think we’d respond differently for you?” Mrs. Possible asked.
“Because it’s not her business to say. I should say it when I’m ready,” the teen argued.
“She’s got us there,” Mr. Possible agreed.
“If you give her some of these painkillers, I’m sure we can get her to say it really quick,” Trin remarked.
“Those painkillers must be some ferociously spanking drugs to have turned you into a crying ball of emotion,” Kim shot back.
“That certainly was due to the drugs,” the blonde concurred wholeheartedly and then she realized something. “Mom, Dad, you left Jim and Tim in the hall with Shin?” she asked.
“Oh, no,” both parents gasped and they left the room in a hurry.
“We’ll be lucky if they’re still there and that the hospital is still standing tomorrow,” Trin commented.
“Sis…”
“Kim, don’t apologize again. This wasn’t your fault. It was just a consequence of a dangerous thing we did,” the college student stated.
“Did you do this for me?” the redhead asked.
“Do what? You have to be specific, I’m seriously drugged up.”
“I know you were doing a job for GJ and, come on, you were hanging out with Shego on a mission. You don’t do anything for GJ without proper incentive and Shego’s now hanging around in a hospital hallway with police wandering all over the place and she doesn’t care. Did you do this for me?”
Trin actually smiled a bit. “Mini-me, just enjoy your time with Shego. You can do whatever you want with her now. Go to a movie together, go bungee jumping, anything. I just hope the two of you are happy together,” she replied.
“Like you and Tatsu?”
“For the record, the painkillers are making me answer this question, I do hope that you and Shego are as happy as Tatsu and I.”
“Those are some powerful painkillers. You know, the drugs aren’t always going to be there, but we are. So, maybe you should stop acting like an emotional outburst might kill you. Smile every once and awhile and give up a hug occasionally.”
“One step at a time, Mini-me. Let me get out of the hospital before spraining any muscles in my face with smiling.”
Kim only shook her head a bit. She hoped that one day Trin would tell her the whole story behind not just her helping GJ, but the reasoning behind her getting kidnapped in the first place, which had started all of the strange happenings. She was very curious, but she hoped that her sister did not do any more favors for Global Justice. The organization gave Trin some very dangerous and life threatening assignments, knowing that Trin did not carry a firearm of any kind and no matter how apathetic she pretended to be, the blonde would not take a life either.
The redhead just wanted Trin to be able to live her life. She knew that Trin would go to graduate school with Shin and they would somehow manage to make another truck load of money. Eventually they would get doctorates in biochemistry and one day, they would grow out of pissing off people that pissed them off. They would eventually do something great, Kim was certain of that.
Trin was not thinking that far ahead. She just wanted to be out of the hospital in time for Kim’s graduation. That was the only thing that mattered now that she got everything else out of the way.
(New Day)
Trin hugged Kim once the graduation ceremony was over. She was a bit disappointed that her little sister had lost out on valedictorian to Justine Flanner, but she was still very proud of Kim. She released the redhead and then turned her attention to Ron. He gulped, excepting the worse. Trin merely extended her hand to the boy.
“Congratulations, Ronald,” the aqua-eyed woman said in her flat, monotone voice.
“Wah?” he asked in a confused tone. He thought that he was all in for it, especially since not too long ago he had tried to hit her for corrupting Kim, as he put it. Shin had been the one that caught his fist and crushed his hand, not breaking it, but hurting him enough to force him to apologize for his words.
“Congratulations. It is an acknowledgment of your achievement, in this case, graduating high school,” Trin explained. She had not forgotten about Ron and his little outburst, but really, she did not feel like she needed to deal with him. His opinion was his opinion and she figured that he might want to change it sometime soon if he wished to continue having a best friend because Kim liked being with Shego and they all knew that she was going to stay with Shego for a nice long time.
“Seriously?” he inquired. He thought that she was coming over to him to slaughter him, not congratulate him for graduating.
“Though how you managed to graduate is rapidly becoming a great mystery to me,” the blonde female remarked dryly. “Should I retract my hand or will you accept the handshake at some point in the near future?” she asked.
Ron laughed nervously; she was probably wearing a hand-buzzer, he thought. He shook Trin’s hand and was surprised that nothing happened during the whole exchange. Trin then went into her purse and pulled out an envelope. She handed him the flat package.
“Try not to lose it,” she said and then turned her attention back to her little sister.
Ron craned a curious eyebrow. He was stunned that she had not said any biting comments nor had she made any death threats on Rufus. He opened the envelope and pulled out a card, which the general message was congratulations. He opened it and his mouth nearly dropped open because of what was inside, namely five hundred dollars. He read the handwritten message in the card.
“We understand that you have a naco trust fund, which you can’t access at the moment. Use this wisely. Don’t be a fool and buy a hundred naco meals with it,” the message ordered. It was signed from Trin and Shin.
Ron put the envelope away and he would take Trin’s advice on trying not to lose it. Maybe Trin was not so bad, he considered while glancing over at the blonde woman. Trin was busy being forced to get into a picture by her mother. The blonde stood behind Kim and Shego for the photo; Kim was the only one that smiled for the picture.
Kim and Shego were together and their family knew that, although Kim still refused to acknowledge that she was a lesbian; it was sort of an inside joke among those that knew. The redhead and former thief did act a bit like a couple when in public, so some people guessed that Kim was a homosexual, which was something that they immediately blamed on Trin if they thought that it was wrong, which most people did.
Since Trin had come out to her parents, she could really care less than nothing about what the general public thought. She and Tatsu walked around like any other couple would; Tatsu did not have anything to lose in such an arrangement. In fact, Tatsu had a rather good time grabbing her girl’s butt when they were outside. Tatsu had always wanted Trin to tell her parents about them because she knew that once they knew, Trin would not care about anything else. They did not do much in public, except for the occasionally groping from Tatsu, but it was nice to be able to hold hands while walking down the street and it was great to be able to greet her girl with a hug and kiss no matter where they were. Every now and then, they did disgust the public by sharing a passionate kiss where others could see.
“Trin, we’re all going to dinner. Call Tatsu and tell her,” Mrs. Possible instructed her eldest child. She and her husband were trying to get to know their daughters’ girlfriends since they believed that the women would be around for a long time. So far, they liked Tatsu, even though they did not know much about her because she was a very quiet individual. Shego, on the other hand, they knew plenty about and they could only hope that she calmed down just a bit in the future.
“I’ll tell her, but there’s no guarantee that she can come. She’s been swamped with work,” Trin replied.
The blonde was glad that her parents seemed to like Tatsu. The mechanic, though antisocial to a certain degree and a high school drop out, actually fit in with their little group. Their family hardly ever got into deep scientific discussions, except for Jim and Tim, and Tatsu could hang with them because she was a brilliant mechanic and had a mind for machines.
The boys kept trying to get Tatsu to build rockets with them after she took one of their favorites apart and put it back together while waiting for Trin one night. The twins decided that Tatsu was the new “cool sister.” Tatsu beat Shego out, who would have won because she could do the fire thing, but Tatsu could build projectiles. In the “cool sister” race, the actual sisters had been pretty much lapped a dozen times by their girlfriends.
“She’s probably swamped with work because she has such a high class, spendthrift girlfriend,” Shin remarked.
“I’m not high class, merely proper,” Trin argued.
“Merely expensive.”
“Don’t be a hater because I have taste.”
“Speaking of haters, let’s see how proper you really are,” Shin commented as he noticed that they were getting glared at by the Rockwaller troop. He smiled a bit because he thoroughly enjoyed when his evil twin cut them down a size or two. He supposed that he was a bit of a sadist in that regard, but he did not really care. There was something about a shrew dressing down a harpy that entertained him completely.
“If they say nothing, I can return the favor,” Trin assured him while glancing at the Rockwallers. She was not about to bother with people that she believed to be beneath her as long as they stayed where they were.
“So, now that our little girl is going to join us at school, should we finally get a bigger a place?” Shin suggested.
“You’re always looking for a reason to move. We have a nice apartment and she might want to live with Shego in her own apartment.”
“Your parents would allow that?” he asked incredulously. He remembered how they looked when he and Trin decided to live together and to be quite frank they would not sleep together on a bet.
“Well, the last time I checked, Kim could do anything. We’ll just have to wait and see what she wants to do,” Trin said and that was when the discussed redhead came over to the “evil twins.” She kissed them both on the cheek.
“So, we’ll be at the same school again. Isn’t that totally spanking?” Kim asked in an excited tone.
“Not really when you think about it. Your sister’s reputation is going to precede you thanks to your last name. The students will run for cover when they learn you’re related to Trin. On a brighter note, no professor will think to give you less than an A. It worked for me and I’m not even related to her,” Shin remarked.
“I don’t care about that stuff. Besides, I’ve got you guys and I’ve got Shego when I go there. Even though Ron and I are going to different schools, he’ll be in town too, so I still have him. I stand by my previous statement of spanking,” Kim declared.
Shin and Trin smiled; they supposed that it would be spanking if they were all in the same town to get into trouble together. Getting into things with more people tended to make things more entertaining, if not a bit harder to get out of. Shin just hoped that he did not get stuck at the computer desk again; he liked being in the thick of things just like everyone else did.
Next time: An epilogue to sneak a peek in on the group on a regular day after all of the trauma and stress.