Kim Possible: It Could Be Worse
AN: Sequel to Kim Possible: Armed and Dangerous.
I.
"Well Kim it looks like your arm is doing ok. Providing that you don't try to remove it again." Dr. Anne Possible said.
Kim looked at her mother in annoyance at the little barb.
"Don't give me that look you lady." Anne scolded, "Ronald called me first thing this morning and told me what happened last night. I cancelled all of my morning appointments so I could fit you in."
Kim sighed lightly. She knew that both her mother and Ronald meant well, but she was still trying to deal with the fact that she had taken a life.
"I know mom. I'm just having a hard time accepting that this," Kim said while pointing towards her artificial arm, "Killed someone."
Now it was Dr. Possible's turn to sigh. What she was about to say next was not going to help Kim any, still it was something she needed to hear.
"Kim that's not true. Your arm did not kill that man. You did."
This caused Kim to gasp in surprise as her mother continued.
"Your arm did what you wanted to do, and you wanted to protect your child. Maybe you didn't mean to kill that man, but I know you wanted to choke him out so that he would let Katie go." Then knelling next to her daughter, Dr. Possible took Kim's hands in to her own. "It's ok honey, there is nothing wrong with that. It was just material instinct. I know it bothers you that you took a life, but you have nothing to be ashamed of."
"That's what everyone keeps saying mom. But it, it's still a lot for me to have to deal with."
"I know honey." Anne said as she and Kim stood up and walked out of her office. "That's why your father and I want to see you, Ronald, and Katie over for dinner with us tonight."
"But mom…"
"No buts Kimberly. You're father has already spoken to Ronald and I'm sure he has already made the same dinner invitation that I have. So one way or another your coming to dinner tonight."
Kim just stared at her mother. "That was pretty sneaky of you mom."
Anne Possible just stood there and smiled. "Remember Kim, I have a few more years experience at being a mother than you do."
This actually caused Kim to giggle a little as she gave her mother a hug. "Ok you win, we'll be there for dinner tonight."
"That's a good girl. I'm making brain meatloaf tonight."
After waving good bye to her mother, Kim began to walk down the corridors of Middleton General Hospital. Now out of sight of her Anne, Kim began walk more slowly, her hands in her pockets and her head facing down towards the ground. Kim was so wrapped up in her own thoughts that she didn't even realize that someone else was in the hallway until she bumped in to them.
"Sorry." Kim apologized.
"No problem you didn't…Kim? Kim Possible?"
Hearing her maiden name for the first time in years caused Kim to look up and see who she was talking to. And the person Kim saw was the last person she ever expected to see at Middleton General Hospital.
"Shego?"
II.
Kim sat down across from Shego with a cup of coffee in the hospital's canteen.
"Ok Shego, what are you doing here? And why are you dressed in a janitors outfit?" Kim asked.
"I work here of coarse."
"You work here as a janitor?"
"Yep, it was the best paying job I could get." Shego said as though it was the most natural thing in the world.
"Wait I'm confused. What do you mean this is the best paying job you could get? I thought you would still be in prison."
"So did I. But things worked out differently than expected."
"Ok, spill."
"Glad to." Shego said with a smile. "Remember how GJ finally was able to catch up to me, capture me, and hold me."
Kim nodded her head. It had been quite the news story for a number of weeks. Shego, one of the most wanted persons on the planet had been captured and dragged before the media in handcuffs, albeit very special handcuffs to with stand her plasma. It had been humiliating to the villainess to say the least.
"Well GJ was bound and determined to keep me that time," Shego continued, "So the had me wear those special cuffs, they put me in a special room made of a sort of transparent ceramic. The cell would reflect my plasma back towards me, and since it was transparent I had no privacy, not even to use the bath room."
Kim simply nodded her head while taking a sip from her coffee. She knew how much Shego valued her privacy, and to be forced to give up all of her privacy, that must have been devastating.
"But that wasn't the worst of it."
"It wasn't?" Kim asked more out of curiosity than sympathy. Shego had been tried and found guilty in a court of law, so Kim really didn't feel sorry for her.
"Nope. GJ also had to keep me drugged, and they used some powerful drugs that relaxed my muscles. The only problem was that it didn't relax the mind. I would just lay there for hours on end not able to control my body or do anything. I would soil myself and have no way of stopping it from either happening or being able to clean myself up. So I would lay there for hours thinking, screaming in my own mind. Certainly not the way I thought I would be serving my prison sentence.
"Ok so I can see you point about how bad that was." Kim conceded. "So how did you get from that point to being able to work at the hospital?"
"This." Shego said as she moved her long dark hair to reveal a mind control chip on the back of her neck. "This little baby right here controls my emotions and actions. I never have a negative thought, and if I start to do something illegal I get zapped with a jolt that knocks me unconscious and hurts like the dickens."
This surprised Kim to no end. She knew how much Shego hated being controlled. The last time Drakken had used any sort of mind control on Shego the plasma wielding villainess had almost killed Drakken with her bare hands.
"I know what you're thinking Kim. I hate not being in control, especially of my own life. So why the mind control chip?"
Kim nodded her head.
"Because Kim it came down to this, my choice was to continue to live in that see through box and be so drugged up that I couldn't even stop from soiling myself, or I could have this mind control chip implanted and live a normal, although artificially happy and perky, life. Don't get me wrong Kim, there is a small part of my mind that still hates this arrangement and hates how I have to act and live now, and really hates that someone is making me live this way. But most of me knows that it's better than the alternative. It's something I have to live with, and if you want to know the truth, my life could be a lot worse than it is right now."
Staring down at her cup of coffee Shego continued, "Yeah this isn't the way I thought things would turn out, but it could be a lot worse."
"I'm sorry Shego. I didn't know that's what you have to live with everyday." Then looking down at her left arm, Kim contemplated her life for a few seconds. "And I guess you're right, it could be worse."
III.
After finishing their cups of coffee, Shego and Kim exchanged phone numbers and promised to keep in touch. Kim, now in a much better mood, walked out towards the hospital parking lot to drive home. As Kim was getting in to her car she failed to notice that her mom and Shego were talking.
"Ok Dr. Possible, I talked to Kim like you asked me to. She seemed a bit happier leaving than when I ran in to her."
"I figured she would. Thank you Shego." Anne said as she offered her hand to Shego.
"No problem. But how did you know that she would even talk to me?"
"Like I told her, I've got a few more years experience over her when it comes to being a mother."