A/N: Well, this is it. These are stories that have been bouncing around in my head for the past several years, and I finally typed them out. This is bittersweet for me; these characters have become such a part of my life, and I am finally saying goodbye to them and to you my readers. Thank you so very, very much for reading what I have written; you all got me through some tough times, and I will never forget you. 3
Memories
The pale sunlight of a bitterly cold February day filtered in wanly through the blinds that sheltered an old woman's bedroom, scattering itself over the bedspread and the furniture that lay strewn about. The bed's occupant sighed as she woke up from one of her interminable naps; she hadn't even realized she had been tired; yet, again, she found herself waking up. "I have really gotten too damn old," she thought, shifting as she contemplated what she should do next.
"I should just go back to sleep," she thought morosely, the weight of each and every one of her one hundred and eleven years weighing on her like the proverbial millstone. Being as long-lived as she was, she had been "old" for a very long time, and truly, it had never really slowed her down. But now, after the death of her beloved wife the previous fall, her advanced age made itself known at every opportunity, and for the first time in her life, she was finding herself ill-prepared to fight against forces that would bring her down. She sighed, chafing at the thought that she could be losing a battle. She was Kimberly Ann Possible, for heaven's sake. She had fought against everything evil and had always come away victorious, because she was the girl who could do anything. But, she realized, without Shego, that didn't seem nearly as important now. She had been with Shego for ninety-five years, and she was finding out that she just didn't know how to live without her.
She sighed again, and got up slowly, tired of the melancholy that had never been a part of her nature. She was just depressed, she decided. She needed to stop moping and go do something, something that would keep her mind off things. She started to shuffle off toward the bathroom, but her step was unsure, and she tripped on the edge of the rug that covered the floor between the bed and the bathroom. Unable to stop herself, she plunged toward the floor and as she fell, she winced and shut her eyes, knowing what kind of damage the hardwood would do to her fragile bones.
The expected crash never came, though; instead, Kim found herself cradled in strong arms that lifted her up to a body that she had thought never to feel again. Kim opened her eyes in shock, and there, smiling wryly back at her, was her Shego, looking much as she had when they had first met. "You are way too damn old to have rugs in here, Princess," she admonished. "Don't you know what kind of tripping hazard they are?"
Kim stared at her for a while trying to process it all, but Shego's familiar wryly-cocked eyebrow brought her back to herself. "Well, yeah," Kim admitted sheepishly. "But it has been in here so long that I never thought of taking it out." She lifted a hand to Shego's face, testing something, and was not surprised to feel an icy coldness against her palm, one similar to what she always felt when Aunt Sheila was about. "So you found the way out, too?" Kim asked wryly. "I thought they closed that up after Aunt Mim and Aunt Sheila got banished."
Shego chuckled. "They did," she said smugly. "But there is always more than one way out of anything."
Kim shook her head. "It's a wonder they even let you in," she said with a fond smile.
"They didn't want to," Shego replied. "But, Fate or some other thing stepped in and they had to. Don't ask me for details; I was too busy figuring out how to make it back to you to listen too closely, so I missed some of what they were blathering on about."
Kim chuckled softly. That sounded like her Shego. "So how long can you stay?" she asked, as Shego floated over to their bed and put her down gently.
"Not long," Shego admitted reluctantly. "I don't think I should be away that long or we might piss them off. And, if we piss them off again, I think we might go to the other place."
Shego paused, and Kim knew that pause well. It meant Shego had something to say that she knew Kim was not going to like, but that she had to say anyway because it was important. "Spit it out, sweetie," Kim ordered good-naturedly.
Shego grinned self-consciously, knowing that she had been busted as she always was by Kim. "I came to get you, Princess," she stated truthfully. "It sucks being without you, and I can't take it anymore. Because of the delicate situation up there, I can't keep coming back, so the only way for us to be together is for you to come with me."
Kim took that in. "But wouldn't I have to die for that to happen?" she inquired.
"Well, yeah, kinda," Shego answered hastily, not looking at Kim.
Kim sighed, thinking about it. "I don't like to lose, Shego," she said, after a few minutes' pause. "And death feels so much like losing to me."
"I know," Shego said affectionately. "That's why I came down here to get you. I figured if you just left with me, it wouldn't feel so much like you were losing."
Kim smiled; even in death, Shego was still trying to protect her. She thought some more, searching for a reason to stay even as most of her wanted to go with Shego. "What about our girls?" she said finally.
"Annie is eighty-six, Princess," Shego reminded her. "And Lillian and Surprise are eighty-four. I think they would be okay on their own."
"Our youngest daughter's name is Juliet," Kim stated firmly, starting an old, familiar argument. "We named her after Nana, not after a party."
"The only people who ever called her Juliet were you and her teachers," Shego retorted. "And even her teachers had a hard time because she kept correcting them."
Kim chuckled. "Yup, she did. It made me feel bad for any teacher who had the twins in their class," she said, thinking about those times long ago.
"It wasn't just the twins," Shego pointed out. "Annie was just as bad sometimes. Remember Ms. Wilson?"
Kim sighed slightly in embarrassment. "Well, why they put all of those kids in one second grade class, I'll never understand," she said, blushing at the memory.
Bring Your Parent to School Day
Shego fidgeted around in the second-grader sized chair, wondering how in the hell she had gotten roped into this. Even as much as she loved her girls, this whole coming-to-meet-the teacher thing was so much more a Kim thing, and she would come along because that was what she was supposed to do. But, here she was, alone for the first time, because the twins had started kindergarten and Kimmie was downstairs in their classroom.
She started to frown, but then the door opened, and her redheaded offspring bounded into the room with the rest of her class, all of them coming back from their morning recess. "Mama!" she squealed excitedly, bolting over to her, and plopping down into her lap.
"Hey Sweetheart," Shego said affectionately, giving her a hug, before looking around at the other kids who were greeting their parents. Ms. Wilson, the 2nd grade teacher, came in behind them and sat at her desk for a moment while everyone got themselves situated.
Ms. Wilson smiled as all of her students reacted happily to seeing their parents. That was very good to see. What wasn't so great was the mixture of adults that she saw in her classroom; she had lived in Middleton all of her life, so she knew everybody, and never had there been such a volatile mixture of parents whose kids were all assigned to one teacher. She had questioned administration about it, but they gave her some flattering twaddle about how a veteran teacher like her could handle it, and so here she was, with the children of practically every hero and villain in Middleton in her care.
The heroes were represented by Annie Possible-Goshen, Ernie Load, Donald aka Duckie Stoppable, and Lizzie Porter-Director, while the villains were represented by Conchita Senior, Mulligan Killigan, and Dian-Amy Fisk. Stuck in the middle was sweet little Antoinette Lipsky. Her father had been a villain and had been sent to jail years ago by Annie's moms. While in jail, he had been assaulted, and the result has been Antoinette. Her mother didn't want her, and her father was still in jail, so she had been given up for adoption, and had been adopted by one of Middleton's finest, Christine Whorley, and her partner, Nina Johnson. The problem was that Drakken had never given up his parental rights, and when he got out of jail, he wanted his daughter back. It took years of legal wrangling, but now her biological dad and her adoptive moms shared custody, and Ms. Wilson saw three adults sitting with her sweetest, and bluest, student.
After everyone seemed settled, Ms. Wilson called everyone to order. "I'd like to thank all of the parents who took time out of their busy schedule to join us today," she began, and all of the adults nodded back amiably. "Who would like to introduce their parent first?" Ms. Wilson asked and was unsurprised when Annie Possible-Goshen's hand shot up instantaneously. "Thank you for volunteering, Annie; you and your Mom can come up," Ms. Wilson replied, settling back into her desk.
Annie hopped off her Mama's lap, grabbed her Mama's hand and marched them both up to the front of the classroom. "This is my Mama," she announced. "Her name is Shego and she fights crime with my Mommy, Ernie and Duckie's daddies, and sometimes Tony and Lizzie's mommies," she recited, having been working on this speech for a while. "When she was bad, she worked for Tony's daddy, but then she met my Mommy and put him in jail," she stated. Drakken frowned and Shego chuckled under her breath. Her kid had Kimmie's honesty and her bluntness; that was for sure. "After she became good," Annie continued, "she also put Mulligan's and Conchita's daddies and Dian-Amy's mommy and daddy in jail." Shego smirked as all of those parents glared at her, and Ms. Wilson flinched as the tension in the room started to creep up.
"And the last thing about my Mama," Annie stated, and Ms. Wilson blew out a small breath of relief that the awkwardness was almost over, "is that she has super powers. She can produce fire…" Annie said, looking hopefully at Shego, and Shego dutifully lit up her right hand, causing the uninitiated kids in the room to look at her in delight. "She is really strong…" Annie continued, and Shego lifted the nearest kid, who happened to be Ernie, and his desk above her head before carefully setting him down. "And she doesn't get hurt very easily," she finished, and just as Shego was grateful that she didn't have to demonstrate that, a golf ball came whizzing at her head.
Shego lifted her hand and caught it, lighting up and incinerating into a pile of ash that she dumped into the trash can by the teacher's desk. "Nice try, Killigan," she said, before somersaulting to the back of the room where Mulligan's desk resided and grabbing Duff by his collar. "But don't ever hit one of those things near my daughter again," she warned him in a low voice, his face inches from hers.
"Let my daddy go!" a squeaky voice insisted, and Shego felt what could only be a golf club smack into her thigh with all the force that Mulligan could muster. She sighed and started to lower Duff back to the ground, not wanting to escalate the situation, when she heard Ernie's voice from the front of the room.
"Don't you hit my Auntie Shego!" he yelled, and barreled down the aisle before Monique could catch him. He tackled Mulligan and sent them both crashing to the ground, which caused Dian-Amy to come to her Scottish best friend's rescue.
"Leave Mulligan alone!" she ordered, pouncing on Ernie before either her mother or father could grab her. She got a good whack in at Ernie's nose, and predictably, it started spurting blood.
Still up front, Annie saw the blood and came rushing to Ernie's defense. "Get off of him!" she demanded, and joined the melee on the floor. Shocked by how quickly things had gotten out of hand, Shego dropped Duff and grabbed Annie, seeing the angry green sparks snapping in her eyes and knowing what that meant. Shego had hauled her up and away from the pile as quickly as she could, and just a fraction of second later, Annie's hands lit up with the same green flame that Shego had demonstrated earlier.
Everyone in the class froze, and Annie dangled from her Mama's grip like a kitten held by the neck, her hands still alight. Shego looked at her and quirked an eyebrow. Annie sighed and relaxed, the green flame slowly dissipating until it had extinguished completely. "Sorry, Mama," she muttered.
"Your child has powers?" Drakken shrieked.
"Well, yeah," Shego said incredulously. "You just saw them."
"But she could have hurt someone," he said, aghast. "She would have hurt someone if you hadn't pulled her out."
"They only appear when she is really upset," Shego countered, setting her down on the floor. "And Annie doesn't get upset very often."
"Says you," Drakken scoffed.
"No, it's true, Daddy," a small voice chimed in, and everyone turned their attention to the small, blue cherub beside him. "Annie doesn't like to show her powers. We've asked her, but she says it takes a lot out of her," Tony explained.
"Oh," Drakken said, mollified at his daughter's trust.
"Even still," Bonnie, there because of Conchita, interrupted. "Should we be worried that our kids are in class with a freak?"
Monique sighed. Bonnie never changed. "I've known about Annie for years," Monique stated, and I don't care if Ernie is in her class."
"You are hardly impartial," Bonnie pointed out, and some of the other parents started to raise their voices in approval. Annie's supporters did likewise, and soon the classroom erupted into an ear-splitting din that was edging towards more violence.
"ENOUGH!" Ms. Wilson bellowed from the front, and her students, knowing this tone of voice, promptly shut up and returned to their seats. Their parents, noticing the tone and following their cue, did likewise, and soon everyone was quietly seated. "Now then," she said when everyone was facing her, "the administration and I have known since Annie started school here that she had special abilities, and so have your children, if Antoinette is to be believed. The situation is well under control, and it is only your presence here that escalated the situation. Now, we are going to continue with the introductions and if anyone here causes any more disruption, I am sending the guilty party to the principal's office be they child or adult. DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?" she said pointedly. All of the adults hunkered down in their seats and nodded.
"Now, where were we?" Ms. Wilson said crisply, returning to her normal friendly manner. "Who would like to go next?" she asked, and gave thanks when her favorite student raised her hand. "Very well, Antoinette. You and your parents please come to the front," Ms. Wilson requested.
Antoinette did as she was told, Ernie's nose was attended to, everyone apologized, and the day got back on track. Well, at least it did until one little incident, resulting in an announcement that Kim heard in the kindergarten room. "Ms. Kim Possible, will you please report to the principal's office? Ms. Possible, please report to the principal's office, thank you."
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"I still can't believe she sent me to the principal's office," Shego's ghost groused, and Kim chuckled.
"Well, you did deserve it, Sweetie," Kim pointed out, with a knowing smile, "And it made you eligible for Campus Cleanup. Those tables never looked better," she teased.
Shego snorted. "I guess," she allowed. She looked at Kim. "You ready yet, Princess?" she asked gently.
"No," Kim admitted quietly.
"Then I'll make you a deal," Shego offered gathering her up. "One more memory and then you come away with me."
"It would depend on which one," Kim answered.
"How about the one that started with all of the girls ambushing us in the kitchen and ended in your Mom's ER getting blood taken?" Shego suggested.
Kim smiled. "That's a good one," she admitted with a chuckle.
Birds and Bees
The Possible-Goshen girls peeked surreptitiously through the doorway leading from the living room to the kitchen, hoping to see if their mothers will still at the table finishing their breakfast. They were, so Annie looked at the twins, Lillian and Juliet, and they wordlessly debated whether they should proceed with their plan.
"We can see you guys," Shego called out casually, not looking out from behind her newspaper. "What are the three of you plotting?"
The girls sighed and came into the kitchen, sitting down at the three empty chairs. Black-haired Juliet and brown-haired Lillian, fresh off their fourteenth birthday, looked at their older sister, the red-headed Annie, encouraging her to speak. Kim and Shego glanced at one another behind their newspapers quizzically before folding them and setting them down on the table.
"So, what seems to be the problem, ladies?" Kim inquired, and waited patiently as the three of them fidgeted.
"You should tell them, Annie," Lillian whispered fiercely. "We planned this, remember?"
"Then you do it!" Annie shot back.
"I'll do it," Juliet offered.
"Don't you dare, Surprise," Annie and Lillian whispered back simultaneously.
Shego coughed drolly, amused and intrigued by the display. "Will someone just get to the point?" she asked. "What, is one of you pregnant? Do I have to find the boy and kill him?"
The girls and Kim looked shocked at that. "Don't even joke about that, Shego," Kim warned under her breath. "So, what it is?" she prompted.
Annie finally decided to speak up. "Well, um, we want to, um, know more about you guys," she began.
"Why?" Shego asked, amusedly curious. "Aren't you guys supposed to be avoiding your dorky parents at this stage?"
"Kinda," Lillian admitted.
Kim and Shego looked at each other and frowned, thinking that this might be a cover for one of them being in trouble, when Kim had a flash of inspiration based on how uncomfortable they all seemed to be. "What exactly do you want to know about us?" she asked, fishing for clues. "Does it have to do with our marriage and relationship?"
"Uh, yes," Annie decided, after looking at her sisters.
"Is one or all of you gay?" Shego interjected unexpectedly, picking up on Kim's thought process. "Are you questioning? Is that what this is all about?"
The girls stared at their Mama for a few seconds, and as the time passed, Shego and Kim noted that Lillian seemed suddenly very uncomfortable and had started blushing. "No, that's not it," she said quickly.
"So you all came to tell us you're straight?" Kim asked, confused. "Then you might have to ask your grandmas about that; they are the only straight women around."
"No, no, no…" Juliet began, but Shego cut her off.
"You guys are not gay, and you are not straight, so you're…bi?" Shego guessed. She thought. "Well you will have to talk to your Grand-nana Mim then. She is the only one in the family that went both ways."
"Must you couch it in those terms, Junior?" a disembodied voice sighed, as Mim slowly faded into view. "Yes, it was true that I could appreciate the male and the female form with equal admiration, but that description has always annoyed me."
"Fine," Shego surrendered. "Your Grand-nana Mim was the only one who would have been equally happy with a male or female spouse."
"Much better, "Mim replied.
Annie sighed. "We aren't here to talk about our sexuality," she said loudly in exasperation to get everyone's attention. "We are here to talk about yours."
"Ours?" Shego questioned, now really confused. "Isn't that obvious?"
"Well, yes," Annie admitted. "But, what we want to talk about it is who our dads were."
"Oh," Shego and Kim in stereo, looking at each other. "Well, what do you want to know?" Kim prompted.
"Just who they are," Annie said. "We all have Mama's powers, but we all look like Possibles with different hair color, so we are figuring it has to be our uncles on both your sides."
"Well, it is true that you have a different father than the twins," Kim admitted, and the girls looked at each other triumphantly. "But," she continued, "neither my brothers nor Shego's brothers are any of your fathers." Triumph quickly turned to confusion on the faces of the Possible-Goshen offspring as their only hypothesis got summarily dismissed, and Kim though it best to just tell them the truth. "I'm your father, Annie," she stated, "And your Mama is the twins' father. You all are full-blooded siblings."
The girls looked at each other, and then back at their moms. "That's biologically impossible," Lillian said flatly.
"True," Shego shrugged. "But…"
"Please don't say that anything is possible for a Possible," Juliet interrupted, pleading. Kim grinned.
"Before I was so rudely interrupted, what I was going to say was that your Mom and I were owed a lot of favors by some pretty powerful people," Shego explained. "And one of them had the power to give you to us."
"So that's it?" Annie asked incredulously. "We don't have dads?"
"Nope," Shego confirmed. "This makes you all even more unique than you were, so I wouldn't go spreading it around. The only reason you are here and not in some government lab is because of other family connections and other favors we are owed."
"Well, that, and your Mama and I would kill anyone who tried to take any of you away from us," Kim pointed out.
"Yeah, well, that goes without saying," Shego said nonchalantly.
They looked at their offspring, and their offspring looked at them. "We will be back in a few minutes," Annie said, and grabbing her younger sisters, dragged them off to the living room. Kim and Shego sat at the table, waiting for them to return, and when they did, it was obvious that they had worked out a plan. Annie looked at them both. "We want proof," she said bluntly.
"Okay," Kim agreed, surprising her kids. She pulled out her phone and dialed a number. She punched a couple of numbers, waited for a couple of minutes, and finally spoke. "Hi Mom," she said, letting them all know who she was talking to, "your granddaughters want proof of who their dads are. Could we come in for a DNA test?" Kim listened to her mother's response. "Thanks, Mom," she said after a pause. "We will be there in half an hour." She hung up the phone. "All right, everyone, let's go. Your grandma is waiting," she stated.
Everyone trooped out the door and into the car, and on the way to the hospital, Kim decided to make a few more calls. By the time they got there, Tim and Jim Possible, as well as Bertie, Reggie, Augie and Willie Goshen were waiting for them as well. "I figured we would remove any doubt all at once," she explained cheerfully when everyone looked at her, and Shego smiled wryly. It was so like her Princess to be thorough.
They went inside, waited for a while, and then got their blood drawn by Dr. Possible. With the new technology that the hospital had acquired, they got the results back in an hour or so, and no one but the girls themselves were shocked by the results.
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"It took them awhile to get used to the idea," Shego remembered.
"Of course it did," Kim scoffed, "It's not often that you are told you are a biological impossibility. They seemed like it after a while, though," she admitted.
"They did," Shego agreed. "All three of them like being unique."
Kim smiled. "That they do," she said wistfully, turning her gaze downward.
Shego looked at her wife, who was steadfastly refusing to look at her. "Pumpkin, I have to go back," she said softly. "Please come with me; I can't be without you, even in death," she pleaded. Kim looked up at her, tears in her eyes, knowing Shego was right and knowing it was time. Shego smiled and held out her hand. After a moment's pause, Kim reached out and took it.
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From the website of the Middleton Gazette, February 17th, 2098
Obituaries
Ms. Kimberly Ann Possible, a lifelong resident of Middleton, passed away quietly in her sleep at her longtime residence, the Middleton Mansion, on February 15th. One of Middleton's most famous citizens, she will be profoundly missed by the community.
Kim, as everyone called her, was born in Middleton in 1986 to James and Ann Possible, and spent her entire life here, graduating from Middleton High and then attending Upperton University. After graduation, she settled into life as a hero, thwarting many villainous attempts to take over the world with Team Possible, a group made up of her life-long best friend Ronald Stoppable and her high-school sweetheart and wife, Sheila (Shego) Goshen. Team Possible would serve the community and the world at large for many years, until at last Kim and Shego decided to retire and turn the team over to their three daughters, Anne, Lillian and Juliet. After retirement, Kim took up the role of philanthropist, using both her wealth and experience to help all those around here. It was only this last fall, after the death of her beloved Shego, that she began to withdraw completely from public view.
Kim was predeceased by her mother and father, Ann and James, her brothers, James and Timothy, her best friend Ronald, and her wife of 89 years, Shego. She is survived by her daughters Anne (Antoinette Lipsky), Lillian (Veronica Stoppable) and Juliet (Alexander Renton), 9 grandchildren, 27 great-grandchildren, 53 great-great grandchildren, and 1 great-great-great granddaughter.
Memorial services will be private, and in lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made in Kim's memory to the Middleton Zoo or the Middleton Botanical Gardens.