“Anne, will you please sit down before I lock you in the den? They aren’t here yet.”
John talked around the pipe in his teeth and refolded his paper. Anne bustled in the kitchen to get some hot water boiling for tea and coffee and she set some fresh cookies out to cool.
“I swear; the day when your daughter returns home after three and a half years and you’d think that you hadn’t a care in the world!”
“Of course, I care.” Knowing that she probably wasn’t listening, the man stood and walked to the kitchen where his wife was muttering and making preparations. He moved in behind her and gently disarmed her of her kettle and spatula, turning her around and talking her in his arms.
“I almost feel like the day we first met her.” He kissed her on the nose and Anne slowed down her breathing for the first time in hours. With only a few inches in height on her younger daughter, Anne Possible was an older version of the redhead, except for blue eyes and slightly darker red hair. While Shego could not trace her biological origins to anyone in the Possible family tree, she had learned her disciplines and values from both parents and wanted nothing more than to be like them.
Anne shoved John aside when she heard a car door slam in the driveway.
“Damn it, John! I’m not ready!”
His long-suffering sigh was her only solace.
The Possibles opened the door to a wonderful sight; their beloved daughters were slowly pouring out of a tiny car, pausing to stagger around and stretch their cramped and weary muscles. Another young woman wearing a slightly more orderly outfit followed behind, carefully removing the luggage from the trunk of the car. Kim saw the older folks first and ran all the way to the front door, embracing both of them at once.
“Here we go… the moment of truth.” Shego muttered in trepidation.
“You really do need to relax, you know that?”
“’Relax’, hmm, what is this ‘relax’ of which you speak? We do not have ‘relax’ on my planet.”
There was no further time for discussion because they had already reached the front stoop and Anne was moving forward to embrace her oldest child.
There were a few teary minutes of welcomes and introductions before Anne Possible was finally dragged inside and placed in a chair. She was slightly overcome at having the whole family together again and John was no less emotional, though he was much more in control. Kim took responsibility of getting the luggage inside and then to the various bedrooms, more than happy to let her sister and Betty be the center of attention.
As expected, the Possibles were quite taken by Betty.
“So dear, tell us how you and Pumpkin met.”
Shego had hoped to keep that particular appellation a secret for a few hours more, but no such luck. To her credit, Betty maintained a straight face, though a shared glance warned of severe teasing to come.
“Well, I started college later than usual, so it’s lucky that we met at all. I was a pretty rough kid and was always in trouble, so I probably wouldn’t have gone to college at all if it weren’t for the military.”
“Oh? What branch?”
“The Army; I joined up right out of high school and they proceeded to tie a knot in my keister. I swear that I would likely be dead right now if they hadn’t forced me to grow up.” She took a sip of her tea. “Then I decided to go for a degree. I’d learned more during my time in the Army than I can ever repay them for, but something told me that a military career wasn’t for me. With my training and experience, I thought that I’d get my degree in criminal science and law enforcement.”
“Good for you! Having plans of joining the police?”
Betty shared another look with Shego, this one far more meaningful.
“Something like that, yes, ma’am.”
“Our little Princess…”
“Mom!”
“Baby, please be quiet, I’m talking to your friend. Anyway, our Princess never did make many friends in high school, so what was it that brought you two together?”
Leaving the big news for the ‘Princess’, Betty continued with her autobiography.
“Shego and I were taking the same criminal law class, hers as an elective and mine for my degree. We worked out at roughly the same time at the campus gym and each moved in the same general circles. Plus we both enjoy martial arts training.”
Several more minutes of small talk ensured and regardless of the late hour, the smell of fresh-baked cookies drew everyone’s attention.
“Oh, John, please go and get that plate of cookies that I set out on the counter. Would you, dear?”
“Live to serve!” John’s grin belied his words and he trotted off.
“’Director’? Please forgive me, but of what national origin is that?”
“None, really, unless you count American through the courtesy of Ellis Island; my Great Grandfather arrived there and was so happy to reach America that he never made reference to our family’s original name ever again.”
Anne nodded and refreshed Betty’s tea.
“John’s family has a similar story in their distant past, I suspect.”
“What’s this about my family?” The tall man set down the plate and returned to his chair.
“Nothing, dear. Just commenting on the origins of the name ‘Possible’.”
“Oh, that. Some great-great-great-great-Grandfather hoping to escape a piracy conviction, most likely.”
“DAD!” Shego and Kim were embarrassed.
“What? That’s always been my belief.” He turned to his eldest daughter. “Shego, tell us more about your friend.”
Was this the time?
“Well… she’s a neat-freak like I am. She can make a mean beef stew and can tear down the engine of my car like no one else, and…”
Her brain locked; he wanted to say the words but nothing would come out.
“Shego?”
They were all looking at her in puzzlement. Her folks began to assume that their daughter was simply tired, as they all were, and that the long drive was finally catching up with her. Betty lowered her eyes and suspected that she knew what was going on. The auburn haired women reached out and took a pale hand, as did a certain young redhead who was seated close enough to make her own good guess.
Shego took a very deep breath.
‘…andBettyandIhavebeenlivingtogetherassacouplefortwoyears!”
Betty wanted to take her lover in her arms and give her the support that she knew Shego wanted but did not; a bombshell had just been dropped and she would not risk driving the parents over the edge. Kim slid closer to her sister and both of the Possible girls waited to see what their parents would do next.
Anne had been reaching out to take one of her own cookies and had brought it halfway to her mouth when the words were spoken in a rush. Now she was frozen in place. John’s face was neutral, looking first at his oldest daughter, and then Betty, and then over at the still form of his wife. He was the first to move, standing up and walking out of the room.
The tremors from Shego’s arm reached Betty’s hand. She whispered to her partner as quietly as she could.
“You did good, soldier. Stay cool.”
Shego couldn’t have moved if her life depended on it.
John returned after only a few seconds with a billfold in his hand; he opened it and removed two ten dollar bills and handed them to Anne.
“Thank you.” Anne nibbled on her cookie.
“MOM?”
“Well, it seemed pretty obvious to me after your fifth email home.”
“I believe that it was the eighth, dear.”
“DAD?”
“Sorry, Pumpkin, but I’d bet that you were planning on becoming a nun.”
“WHAT?”
“Wishful thinking, I realize that now.”
Shego had released the hands of her sister and her lover and was on the verge of total confusion. Betty leaned back and got Kim’s attention and they were preparing to move away from the couch when two hands flared with green plasma fire and hovered out before them.
“You two, SIT!”
“Sheila Gordon Possible, do not emit plasma in this house. Your Mother and I have told you time and time again.” The green death was quickly extinguished but Shego would not be calmed.
“What do you two know about this? Did you tell them?” She turned on her sister, Kim’s eyes wide with surprise.
“No way, Spooky, I swear! I never told them anything!”
“Sheg, you were with me every time I ever spoke to your folks before tonight.”
Seeing that their daughter was much too shocked and tired for this to continue, Anne moved to the couch next to Kim.
“Shego, please calm down. Your Father and I are not upset and do not think ill of how you’ve chosen to live your life. Any trepidation we felt was gone by the end of the first year. You really were quite revealing in your emails; it was our Father that first picked up on it, though now that’s he’s lost twenty bucks I doubt that he’ll care to remember that.”
John rolled his eyes and dipped a cookie into his coffee cup.
“No, as a matter of fact I do remember. I read something about an evening out and working on an assignment together, then something about a special dinner you two prepared for a mutual friend and her date. I called your Mother into the den and had her read it; I wanted to see if she was getting the same vibes.”
“My exact words were, ‘Holy shit! Our baby has a girlfriend.’”
“Language, Anne, please.”
It was Anne’s turn to roll her eyes.
“Regardless, we paid close attention from that point on. When we were out to visit you that one time, we suspected that you might not be ready to tell us, so we just observed the way you two were together. You both looked so good together, so at ease and gentle. John and I agreed that if Betty were a boy, you were acting exactly like a married couple.”
“Our Princess always was mature for her age.”
“So… you can accept what I am?”
“Of course. You are our daughter. We will always accept you for what you are.”
“Always.”
“Yeah, Spooky, it’s not like Dad saved the receipt from the orphanage after all this time.”
“KIMMIE!”
“Actually, Kimmie-cub, I did, but the warranty ran out on her years ago.”
“DADDY!”
“I told you John; you should have let her at least talk to a boy now and then.”
“MOM!”
One of Shego’s oldest fears, the original fear one might say, was that she would be turned out of the house and taken back to the State Home where the Possibles had adopted her. Bolstered by an unfortunate incident that resulted in a fire many years ago, this primal fear had been the basis for much of her personality formation. It was only after she finally revealed her powers to her parents and told them the truth behind the childhood incident that the family could finally understand their oldest child and assuage those fears.
Now that so many years had passed, they would even make the occasional joke about it.
“As for you, young lady, Shego’s Mother and I agree that you seem to be a perfect match for our Pumpkin, but so help me that if you ever hurt her, you’ll get to see first hand what the event horizon of a black hole looks like.”
There was something serious behind the levity.
“Yes, sir!”
Shego, Betty and Kim were so tired that the previous hour could have been a hallucination for all they knew. The older folks could see this and began to hustle them off to bed. John decided to risk making a request.
“Shego, I’d like Betty to sleep in the guest bedroom during your stay here.” He didn’t make this a demand or a request; he just threw out the statement and watched where it landed. “You and your sister could share her room; the room you shared before college.”
“Dad, we’ve been…”
“No, Shego, it’s Ok. This is your parent’s home and it’s not an unreasonable request.”
“Are you really Ok with that?”
“I’m sure, baby”
Betty was sincere in her agreement and smiled back at John. The taller man offered to escort her to the guest room and he snagged her suitcase from the hallway. The family agreed by mutual consent that there had been entirely too much drama that night and they could start fresh in the morning over some breakfast; that way any additional life plans could be discussed without any secrets to cause miscommunication.
Before they all went their separate ways for the night, Shego just had to clarify the sitch one final time.
“So you and Dad are really Ok with this, all of it?”
“Well, Princess, we did have almost two whole years to observe and review.”
“Your Father even devised a flow chart, for crying out loud.”
“Yep, see?” From behind the sofa he extracted a large piece of white poster board filed with degrees of probability and different career and lifestyle paths.
“Why are there two dotted lines, one going to ‘Farm Animals’ and the other to ‘Cults’?”
“Well, Pumpkin, I just wanted to have all of the bases covered.”
“JOHN, HONESTLY!”
“Well, we’d still have loved her, right?”
The morning sun rose on time and every member of the newly extended family felt much for the better over their late night discussion. The kitchen table was more than big enough for the entire group and Betty was busily working on her second stack of pancakes. The Possible clan was dressed in their nightclothes, robes and slippers but the young auburn haired woman was already outfitted for a full day of work.
“If you start to get as porky as Kimber-dweeb, the wedding is off.”
Shego teased her partner from across the table. John paper rustled slightly and, though they could not see his face, he was smirking at his daughter for how better off she was when she allowed herself to relax. Kim herself was non-responsive, collapsed in her chair like a marionette whose strings had been cut. The red hair was covering her entire face in an unruly mop and the girl would occasionally take a bite of food or a drink of juice as if on automatic pilot.
“Honey, the wedding is already off. I’m leaving you for your Mother if she always cooks this good.”
“Back off, she’s taken.” John did let his daughter’s friend off the hook by lowering the paper slightly and giving her a wink. Anne resumed her own seat just in time to keep Kim from falling asleep with her face in her syrupy pancakes.
“Kimmie, will you please pull yourself together? For goodness sakes!” Anne brushed a few loose hairs out of the face of her youngest daughter and looked at Shego in frustration. “As tired as you two were last night I’d have expected you to have gone straight to sleep. Where you up talking half of the night?”
Kim cracked open one eye and looked around at nothing.
“She snores.”
Shego scowled but made no defense.
“I, however, had the best night’s sleep in months.” Betty ignored the pale green glare and the auburn haired woman snagged another pancake.
“So, is it too early in the day for you ladies to spill the beans on your plans for the future?”
Shego looked to Betty for affirmation and the older girl could only shrug because her mouth was full of pancake. Feeling more confident about the answer to this question than the topic of discussion last night, she took the lead.
“Well, after much careful thought and consideration, Betty and I want to move here to Middleton and start our own business.” Her father lowered his paper in surprise and Anne broke out in a huge smile.
“Oh, that’s wonderful!”
“Enterprising, to say the least. What did you have in mind?”
“Have either of you ever heard of Pinkerton’s?” Anne replied that she had not but John raised an eyebrow at the name.
“Yes… security and detective services, I believe, started in the mid 1800’s.”
“Yes, sir. Well, the two of us have earned several credits in criminal law and Betty has her military training and experience. I have my training and experiences from Team Possible with Kimmie and we both know how to fight. Betty’s great with equipment and technology and I’m good with science and math and besides,” she raised a hand and briefly let her plasma flare, “I can add this to the equation.”
Anne was no longer smiling.
“You girls are going to be crime fighters?”
“That’s what we want to establish together; a contractor that can provide security, detective and bodyguard services, as well as property retrieval and the ability to coordinate with local law enforcement for the apprehension of criminals.”
“Crime fighters!” Betty had finally managed to swallow the pancake.
“Shego, I suspect that your Mother and I are thinking the same thing; that you are too young to be deciding on a career that will place you directly in harms way.”
“Actually, sir, ma’am, there’s more to it than that. I was able to make all sorts of connections and contacts during my military service. I have access to or the ability to gain access to multiple sources of data and materials that would make us far superior to anyone else attempting this. We’ll have better support and resources than any ‘Private Eye’ or bounty hunter ever would!”
“Right! We’ll be a for-profit agency and screen all clients thoroughly; the rates will vary but more than enough to cover all expenses and overhead, including medical and dental!”
John knew that he and his wife were in trouble; when Shego had thought something out in this much detail it meant that she was going to do it. Now it was a matter of presenting her with cons and getting a true idea of her commitment.
“But you’ll be mercenaries for hire. I don’t like that, not one bit.”
“No, sir, if you’ll pardon me. We’re not going to be mercenaries any more than a security guard at the mall would be. We won’t be a militia, either; we’ll be business-people.”
“Yeah, Dad. We both know the law and will always interact appropriately with the police and legal system.”
“This will be just the two of you?” Anne was far from convinced.
“Well, yeah, at first. But Mom, after we’ve gotten set up and made a name for ourselves we’ll advertise for other people with similar experience and a desire to help people.”
“That’s what this is really about, Mrs. Possible. Helping people that cannot help themselves. There would be plenty of ex-military who might join, and we’ll be carefully screening prospective employees.”
“Sure, and we’ll hire specialists in different fields and eventually have a whole staff of field agents and support technicians. The thing is, we will have to start very small, but in a few years we’ll grow in a force to be reckoned with!”
“And the money for all of this will come from… where?” John was a moderately frugal man and didn’t want his daughter, or her new friend, to get in debt at so young an age.
“Well, that’s where Betty comes in again.”
“Yep. The initial startup capital will be from grants and loans I’ve gotten through the Army, plus some grants available from the U.S. government that are available for new businesses. It’s all above-board and legal if you just know where to look for it.”
“Plus we’d look for investors after a while, but believe me, we’ve researched the going rates from other companies that offer similar services to huge corporations and even to government agencies; we could save them a boatload of scratch and still recoup our initial investiture and make a very hefty profit, even after taxes.”
“Shego’s been corresponding with an old classmate who’s working for the Middleton ‘Smarty Mart’. He’s got a good head for saving money and willing to take classes to become a CPA if we’ll hire him.”
There was a muffled thump as Kim slowly sagged forward onto her plate.
“Oh, dear, Kimmie-cub’s fallen into her breakfast! How can someone with so much energy not be a morning person?”
John reached over and gently lifted his younger daughter upright.
“…”
“What did you say, Kimmie?”
“Anne, please peal the pancake away from Kimmie’s face, will you.”
Eyes still closed and with her hair matted with syrup, Kim spoke as clearly as would be expected with pancake in her nose.
“There’s always one of the abandoned lairs that I chased Drakken out of. The Middleton police confiscated his stuff, but the empty spaces are still there. They’ve got power and water and the City of Middleton was so appreciative that they just might give us one.”
And then she was out like a light once again.
“Us?” Anne had a very hard expression on her face. “Were you planning on letting Kim play cops and robbers as well?”
“Mom, Dad, Kim and I worked together as ‘Team Possible’ before I went off to college. She carried the weight of keeping the city and a large part of the country safe from Dr. Drakken and other criminal enterprises all by herself. If Betty and I were to exclude her from this it would tear out her heart.” Shego looked at her baby sister, sleeping in her chair.
“I can’t let that happen, as much as I want to keep her safe, but we’ll discuss that together later because I can promise you that we won’t let her get hurt.” Shego stood up from the table and lifted Kim in her arms.
“Sheg, that’s a great idea your sister had. That’ll cut my estimates of our initial investment by at least half if we can just find a suitable place.”
“Good. Our plan for the day will be to outline the resources we’ll need at the beginning. After we make a detailed listing we’ll arrange for moving our belongings here to Middleton.” She smiled down at the petite girl in her arms and kissed a maple-flavored cheek. “I’m going upstairs to get this one in the shower.”
John and Anne also got up from the table and followed their children to the stairs.
“Princess, are you really certain about this?”
“You two could be seriously hurt!”
“Mom, I already promised that I’d look after Kim…”
“No, dear. I meant Betty. She seems like a wonderful girl and if you two love each other you need to look out for her as well, and she for you.”
“Thanks, Mom, I appreciate that you feel that way. I won’t say that we have all of the answers, but we can both take good care of ourselves.” Shego took the stairs two at a time and was careful not to jostle Kim. Returning to the kitchen, the Possibles found Betty cleaning up after everyone, already filling the sink with water and setting aside the few leftovers for storage in the refrigerator.
“I hope that you don’t mind; Shego wasn’t kidding about my being as big a neat-freak as she is.” Anne nodded with approval at the efficient cleanup job.
“I don’t mean to pry, dear, but have you spoken with your own parents about this?” Anne gestured loosely in the air because she didn’t want to say anything offensive. “About any of this?”
“About both Shego and our business plans? No, ma’am, my folks died years ago and I have a brother that I don’t really get along with. I’d love to be a part of a family like yours and Shego and I, well, we really seemed to bond.” The younger woman turned away from the dishes and faced the wife and husband.
“We’re serious about being together. I care for your daughter more than anything else in the world.” Betty glanced towards the steps and all around the kitchen to make certain that Shego had not come back down stairs yet. “The thing is, Shego and I have already been talking about having a child together.”
“Oh… OH! Dear, that’s wonderful! Hopefully after you’ve already gotten your business venture established?” Betty was already nodding fervently before Anne was finished asking the question.
“Absolutely! Listen, you two have been more accepting and understanding than either Shego or I have a right to expect, but this would definitely be a plan for the future. We’re not ready for that right now and aren’t in any position to make a good home for a child yet. Right now we’ll just arrange to get a place to stay and our things from our rental house near the University.”
The older couple assisted the latest addition to the family with cleaning up the kitchen. They talked for almost an hour before Shego and Kim were dressed and back down stairs, ready to start taking their lives in a new direction.
To Be Continued…