There was something that had been bothering Anne since the day before. Since she had been forced into a rough encounter of lustful lips with hers. Shego was snoring next to her in the aisle seat. There was just something that looked familiar about the woman.
Anne sighed, it was right there, just outside of what her mind wanted to remember…
Then it clicked.
Anne sat on the barstool and stared at the small collection of empty mugs and glasses. Her best friend was off dancing with some jerk, and had left her there, alone.
She sighed and ordered another drink, failing to notice the pale woman next to her.
“Are you alright?”
Anne looked over and did a double take. The woman next to her had long black hair, which made her light skin color look ghostly. “Fine.”
The woman leaned against the bar, closer to Anne, “Are you sure? You look like a little girl whose puppy ran away.”
Anne felt her eye lid twitch.
“Did you lose someone important?”
“No…Yes…I mean no!” Anne leaned back and chugged out of the mug that was set down in front of her.
The woman leaned back, “Oh…I’m here because I can’t lose anyone. No social life and all that garbage.” She sipped her drink slowly, and made a face.
“Oh.”
“I’m Sharon by the way.”
“Anne.”
“Nice to meet you Princess.”
Anne nearly choked, “Princess…? You’re kidding right?”
“Not really. You remind me of a fairy tale princess. Same sort of elegance, and beauty about you as one.”
Anne was shocked to think the nickname had been a compliment.
The alcohol had begun to take its toll on her though and she started to lean. Her new drinking partner didn’t mind the extra weight and finished her mug. “Princess you okay?”
“Touch bit sleepy.”
Sharon picked up her bill, and Anne slowly managed to dig money out of her pocket for what was left of her tab, having had meant to leave three times before, and just not doing it.
The two half-walked, half-stumbled to Anne’s room. Anne managed to unlock it and they went inside.
It was hard to remember her motivation, maybe it had been the alcohol, maybe it was loneliness, maybe both, but Anne did something she hadn’t done before. She pulled Sharon close and pressed her lips to her startled escort’s.
There was no hesitation, no reluctance, just a sweet return.
The two parted and Anne turned red, “Sorry…never…that is…”
Sharon only smiled and pulled the other woman to her, enclosing her lips to pair that belonged to the flustered woman in her arms.
Anne woke up regretting that it was day. Her head calmly informed her that she had drank too much the night before with a blistering pain.
Anne’s mind slowly collected itself, and it realized Sharon was missing from the bed, despite having been there the night before.
Well the living room, the kitchen, then there. But they had ended there.
Anne pushed herself up onto her elbows and studied the empty spot in the bed next to her. A single sheet of paper with two words on it was all that she could find.
No Sharon there to be found.
She picked up the paper and stared at it for a long time.
All it said was “I’m Sorry.”
Anne stared at the seat in front of her.
She didn’t know what she was supposed to feel about the memory that had bubbled up.
Sharon had been a drunken one night stand that ended with heartbreak. Anne had looked for the other woman whenever she could, but she hadn’t found her. She had just vanished.
Sharon had looked a lot like Shego, just trade the pale green skin for a pale ivory color and the two were identical. But Shego wasn’t old enough to be Sharon…Anne’s mind froze at the possible solution to the problem.
Shego was Sharon’s daughter.
More puzzle pieces dropped.
Anne and Sharon……Kim and Shego….
It was history waiting to give love another shot.
Anne buried her head in her hands, trying not to sob. She had taken her anger out on Shego over the woman she had fallen in love with when she had first met. She had been punishing Shego over Sharon.
In her own little world, still soundly snoring away Shego couldn’t help but smile, running to a woman with outstretched arms. A woman who looked almost exactly like her.
“Come on Sara, give Mommy a super hug!”
She latched onto her mother, seven again. “Mommy, do I give good hugs?”
The older woman smiled, “The best Princess. Now come on, it’s time to go home. Wave good-bye to your friends.”
“I don’t have any Mommy.”
“Never say that Sara Conner. You understand me? You’ll always have friends if you know where to look.”
The little girl nodded, “Okay Mommy.”
Shego’s dream ended as the plane bumped down. She frowned. It had been a nice dream, just tingling enough to make her think it might be a memory. She stretched and yawned, catching herself noticing Anne was staring at her. “I drool or something?”
Anne forced a smile, “No, no…This is really hard to explain actually.”
Shego put her arms down, “Try me.”
Anne looked at the seat in front of her as the plane was being slowly taxied to the gate. “I….I slept with your mother.”
Shego resisted the urge to die laughing, “Talk about a small world…” It was a confusing sort of humor that had swept over her, like laughing over accidently burning dinner.
Anne nodded slowly, “I’m sorry Shego.”
A thin dark eyebrow was raised questioningly, “Why?”
“Well…that is….I’m sorry I took it out on you.”
“Considering what happened yesterday…we are very much even then. Though that makes yesterday really, really creepy.”
Anne nodded, “Let’s never mention it again.”
“Amen to that.”
The ride to the hotel was very solemn, as Shego and Anne brought themselves out of their personal states of disturbed and into a more mission oriented state of mind.
Check in took less than five minutes and each woman went to their own rooms to change. They had agreed on a simple out fit, black long sleeved shirts, dark cargo jeans and combat boots, the last one being something Anne had insisted on, mostly for nostalgic reasons.
The directions to the building Ron was last seen with Kim at were simple, and got the two women there like they were natives. It was run down, but not vary large, so searching was going to be easy.
Room clearing wasn’t as easy as they had thought. It proceeded slowly, and some of the doors were nailed shut making it hard to open them without alerting other rooms of what was going on.
They had found Kim though, sitting in the basement hallway. She looked dead to the world. Anne stared in shock, trying to move, but Shego had recovered more quickly, and had dashed to the red head’s side.
The girl didn’t move though as the woman’s arms wrapped around her. Shego had been worried about the girl, but a small smile said she was alright.
Ron was found heavily bandaged, from cuts and scrapes, not to mention a few bite marks. Anne said nothing and scooped the boy up carefully.
A lot of explanations were needed, and even more were most likely needed afterwards, but for the moment the woman decided to let Kim and Shego have their moment. It was the least she could do for them.
And for Sharon.
Author’s notes: Hopefully that cleared a couple more minor details up. More ficcage to come later, but this should keep you busy piecing together the puzzle now.
UPDATED: Thanks to Failte’s proofreading. Sorry about that. And no, I’m not on valium. Intra-dependent story, in other words, EVERYTHING gets explained eventually.
And now I have a one shot idea stuck in my head because of this chapter.
Next Chapter: Kim explains her side of the week she was gone.