The kitchen door was not locked and proved no obstacle to the sudden entry of an excited four-year-old girl.
"Hi, Aunt Shelley," the red-headed girl hollered in a decidedly outdoor voice. "What'cha doing?"
The woman at the breakfast nook displayed no surprise. Unannounced neighbourly visits were, after all, not all that infrequent.
"Hi there, kiddo," she said, putting her first morning cup of coffee down on the table before her. "You are up bright and early!"
"I'm always bright and early, Grandpa says. Unless it's late and he wants me to go to bed."
The girl clambered up and sat at the table opposite the pale and beautiful woman with the long luxurious hair.
"Yeah, lets aggree on 'always bright', whatever the time might be, shall we? But speaking of your grandparents, do they know you're here?"
"I'm not sure, actchally."
"Not sure? Didn't you tell them?"
"Nah, I didna wanna wake them. They were up late in their room, giggling and stuff."
"Giggling, eh?
"Yeah, but I left them a note! Grandma will see it first thing, 'cause I put it in the coffee machine!"
Shelley McGoohan and Anne Possible shared the view that the day could not properly start without a large cup of strong, black coffee.
"Smart! And good job! I didn't know you could write so well, yet?"
"Nah, I made a drawing. Look, here it is!"
The girl thrust a wrinkled paper at her elegant neighbour. It showed a crayon rendition of two houses, one with two sleeping figures in a bed, the other with a green woman with long raven hair standing in a kitchen. Between the houses was a white fence with a little girl jumping over it.
"Oh, I see," said Aunt Shel'. "But, if you have the note here, how will Grandma Anne get it?"
The girl made sounds and faces common to all children exasperated with the stupidity of grown-ups.
"I'll give it to her what I get home. I just wanted to show it to you first!"
Shelley McGoohan allowed herself a moment to process that snippet of information before responding.
"Well, as a back-up, I think perhaps I should text your Grandma and tell her you are here, don't you think?"
The girl shrugged, taking no note of any urgency in communicating her whereabouts.
"Then you could perhaps also tell her the house isn't on fire?" she said.
A moment's pause for thinking, but no plausible explanations came to mind.
"Why would the house be on fire?" Shelley finally had to ask.
"Well, it isn't. But there's a bit of smoke. On account of the toaster."
"You tried to make breakfast again, didn't you?"
"Well, I wanted toast an' marmelade, but the toaster didn't work as it was suppose' to…"
Shelley gathered her patience.
"Even your mother usually manages to make toast. What did you do?"
"I just put butter on the toast and put the toast in the machine. Then I scooped the marmalade in after, an' there was a huge puff of smoke!"
"And then?"
"Then I took the thing out into the yard and threw it in the swimming pool. So it wouldn't catch fire, right?"
"Please tell me you disconnected the plug before you tossed the toaster into the water!"
"'Course I did! The cord wouldn't reach that far, anyway!"
Sometimes, even after a good night's sleep, you are entitled to feel a bit tired in the morning. Shelley rested her forehead in her hand and explained some basic stafety issues with inhuman patience.
"Stacey, it is very, very dangerous to drop electrical things into the water. You could get electrocuted! And, before you ask, there is nothing 'cute' about geting electrocuted; it's more like being hit by lightning. You could die!"
Stacey Anne Possible put her index finger on her chin, looking thoughtful.
"So that's why Grandpa didn't want any help shaving when he was in his bath," she said pensively.
Aunt Shelley busied herself sending a text message to Anne Possible, endeavoring to be as comforting as possible, and trying not to think of Stacey shaving Mr. Dr. Possible in his bath. He should know better than to leave the door unlocked, anyway.
"So, now, what did you want, Stacey?" Shelley asked after having clicked on 'send'. "You hungry?"
"Nah, I wanna play with Kelley. She 'wake yet?"
"Oh, sweetie! Kelley isn't home! She's still on the island with her Daddy".
Stacey mumbled something she wasn't allowed to say, and Aunt Shelley managed not to hear her say it.
"It's not fair! Why does she have to go to that island all the time? She doesn't even like him, and she appsoluttly hates Aunt Bonnie!"
"I know, Princess, but Junior is, after all, her father and it's quite normal that they get to meet now and then. And it is just once a month."
"It's much too often! I wanna play with Kelley now!"
"She'll be back tomorrow afternoon. You'll just have to be patient a bit longer. Now, in the meantime, are you hungry? Since your toast caught fire? Want some breakfast?"
"Yes, please, Aunt Shel'!"
"Full English? Scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, baked beans, mushrooms, grilled tomatoes?"
The little girl's eyes shone with delight.
"Yes, please!"
"So grab some milk and juice from the fridge. You can start off with some cereal while I get cooking!"
Shelley McGoohan had built a rather small house on the vacant lot next to the Doctors Possible, but the one thing she didn't spare any expenses on was the kitchen. She liked to cook and was good at it, so the kitchen sported every modern appliance know to man as well as lots of space for preparation and storage. And it gave her the chance to give Kimmie and her daughter a proper meal from time to time. One that wasn't brain loaf, no offence to Mrs. Dr. P.
Stacey sat down at the breakfast table with a glass of orange juice and a carton of milk, and Aunt Shelley put a bowl of müsli with nuts, raisins and dried apples in front of her.
"Remember, no frosties or chocopops in my house. Just good, wholesome food!"
The girl made a disappointed face but was in all honesty rather satisfied with the nuts and raisins. She knew better than to argue, anyway.
"Hey, Aunt Shel?" she asked while the elegant mistress of the kitchen put an apron on over her dressing gown. "Do I have a father?"
Shelley threw her breakfast guest a thoughtful glance at the rather unexpected change of topic.
"Sure. In the biological sense, everybody has a mother and a father."
"So, who is it? Where is he? Nobody never talks 'bout him!"
"Ah, well. You'll have to ask your mother that. I have promised her not to say anything about it."
Stacy idly picked at her cereals with her spoon. "He's dead, ain't he? That's why Mummy doesn't want to talk about him?"
This was turning out to be a conversation full of surprises. Shelley stirred the scrambled eggs in the pan and tried to not let her shock show.
"Now, Princess, I did promise not to talk about your father, but I can asure you that he isn't dead. He's just gone far away for a some time."
The girl brightened with comprehension.
"Oh, I get it! He's in prison, right?"
"In prison?"
"Yeah! Bobby Butler's dad stopped coming to pick him up at school last month, and Miss Tara said he had gone far away for some time. But Jennie Dobson tolded everyone that he was really in prison, for beating on Mrs. Butler all the time!"
"Oh, dear! Well, if he did that, I'm glad he is in prison. But, without saying anything more, I can promise you that your father is neither dead nor in jail. Happy?"
Shelley put the eggs on a plate and flipped the bacon and sausages on the big electric griddle while Stacey pondered the information, still not entirely satisfied.
"It's not that Mummy isn't nice an' all," she said after a while, "it would just be good to have both a mother and a father. Like everbody else. So the kids don't tease us all the time."
"Well, you'll have to take that up with Kimmie. Get her to marry someone nice and get you a dad."
This was evidently just what Stacey needed, a course of action.
"Yeah, cool! I could pick some really good dad!"
Shelley felt she had to put some brakes on much too precipitous plans. "You do get that you have to let your mother have a say in that, though?" she said. "And you can't choose someone who already has a girlfriend, so you can't pick Uncle Wade. And not Uncle Josh or Uncle Felix, either. Not even Uncle Ed!"
"Aw! Then there's nobody left but Uncle Drew! And I'm not sure he would make a good daddy!"
"I'd certainly agree with you on that," Shelley said, placing a plate with an enormous helping of food in front of the girl. "It could be someone you haven't met yet, though."
"But I want it to be someone I already know! Not some stranger!"
Shelley shrugged.
"I know", the girl suddenly yelled. "She could marry you, Aunt Shel!"
"Me?"
"Yeah! Some mummies do marry other mummies! Like Miss Tara and Miss Leslie!"
Shelley sighed and sat down at the table.
"Again, kid, you can't just pick and chose. You have to let your mum find someone she really, really likes."
"But it would be perfect! You already live right next door. And you and Mum always get along. And Kelley and me would be sisters!"
"Kelley and I", Shelley corrected. "And yeah, we are good friends, but I'm not sure if that's enough."
"But you would marry her, wouldn't you? Why don't you ask? It would be appsoluttly spanking!"
The house was very quite. The fridge compressor gave a discreet hum and the early birds outside the kitchen window dominated the conversation with gossip about worms, bugs and the horrible cat across the street.
Shelley looked seriously at the excited four-year-old with the large emerald eyes.
"Kid," she finally said, "I did ask her. Three years ago."
"And?"
"And she said she needed time. She had to think about it, she said."
"Oh. That's not good, is it?"
"No, Kiddo, it isn't."
"But can't you ask her again?"
"Nope. The ball is in her court now. I will not come begging."
Stacey made a grimace, looking both cute and fierce.
"But I can ask her, right? Like, remind her?"
"Not a good idea. Look, I do understand her. It's complicated and she is still upset about some shit that happened. So if she wants time to think, we give her time."
If the conversation hadn't been so serious, the girl would have jumped on Aunt Shelley's use of the sh*t word, but now she just looked worried.
"Look, I mean it!" Aunt Shelley said. "Don't bring this up and start nagging Kimmie about it!"
The beginnings of a familiar pout began to develope on the young girl's face, but a discreet ping on the house-owner's cell phone distracted them both.
"It's Grandma Anne," Shelley said. "She wants you to come home right away. You are all supposed to go pick up your granduncle Slim at the airport this morning."
"Aw. I forgotted! Bye, Aunt Shel! See ya'!"
And the breakfast guest was out of the house as quickly and suddenly as she had burst in.
Shelley picked up the almost empty plate. Only the mushrooms predictably remained. She scraped them off into the waste bin and put the plate and the cutlery in the dishwasher.
A slight noise could be heard from the stairs.
Shelley sighed. "So, you heard all that, did you? Come on down. There's coffee."
Kimberley Anne Possible came into the kitchen with her eyes downcast and a sombre look on her face. Shelley put a big mug of coffee on the table and sat down again.
"Look, I didn't tell her much," Shelley said, "but you have to have a talk with her soon. She has questions and she needs some answers. Otherwise she'll only imagine much worse stuff than what really happened."
Kim said nothing.
"Look, it's not that much worse than me and Kelley. An ill-judged affair with Junior and the obvious realisation that we're about as compatible as cats and dogs. So, quick separation and he goes off and marries Bonnie Bitchwaller. And Kelley knows it all, and is mostly fine with it. So, what are you afraid of?"
Kim Possible lifted her eyes and smiled wistfully.
"I'm sure Junior is the dog in the mix – I have always seen you as a bit catty!"
"Ha ha! But, seriously …"
"Yeah, I know. And it's not so much Stacey I'm worried about. It's Ron. And Yori … and – me."
"Look! Nobody can blame you for that night together just before he went to Japan for his studies. You had been his girlfriend for almost a year, for crying out loud! And agreeing to an open relationship because you didn't want him to be bound by an inter-continental relationship, that's nothing strange. The big mistake was not telling him immediately you found yourself pregnant, but what's done is done. You couldn't guess he would fall in love with Yori so quickly, even if anybody could have told you she was interested."
"Yeah, I know all that. I was just so stupid!"
"And then, deciding not to tell him at all to spare him all feelings of guilt over his surprise kid … I don't think that was the right thing to do, but I can understand your thinking. But you can't let past actions stop you from doing the best in the present! You must make all decisions in the now, accepting all the facts and all the things that have already happened. You have to pull yourself together!"
Kim dropped her head into her crossed arms on the table and mumbled something uninteligible. After a while, Shelley understood that she was crying.
"Oh, come now, Kimmie! It's not as bad as all that, is it? Stacey will surely understand?"
Kim just cried more.
"Kimmie? Princess? Cupcake? Love?"
The former teen-aged hero looked up from her arms, seeming uncharacteristically broken and helpless.
"It's not that," she said eventually. "That's not the real problem any more!"
"It isn't? Then why are you crying?"
"It's you!"
"Me?" Shelley was genuinely taken aback.
"Yeah, you. I've used you! I've taken you for granted. I've treated you like dirt!"
"You have?"
Kim dried her eyes with the right sleeve of her pyjamas and sat up.
"Yeah, I have. I really have. Look, you moving her and us helping each other with our kids has really meant a lot to me. I coundn't have done it without you. Being a parent is difficult, right? And I started being really happy. And then …"
"Yeah? Then?"
"Then you asked me to marry you. And I … I said no!"
Kim dropped her head back onto her arms and resumed crying inconsolably.
"Hey, Kimmie! Don't cry. You didn't say no, precisely. And I haven't gone anywhere. I'm still here, ain't I?"
"But that's just it! I said no to marrying you, but I still used you! You're still here, being everything I could want from a wife! Like now, when I returned early from a mission. I didn't go back to mum's and dad's, I went home to you. And spent the night. And you let me! And I still haven't even told you that I love you!"
The announcement was followed by a fresh bout of crying. Shelley put her hand on the red-head's shoulder and patted her in a vaguely inefficient manner. Degrees in child care, psychology and English literature, and she still didn't know how to make a woman stop crying.
"Hey, Princess! Cheer up!"
"Waaah! I sorta' live with you. We raise kids together! We spend nights together! And I haven't even had the guts to let you be my girlfriend!"
"Is that all? That's easily fixed!"
Shelley McGoohan, a.k.a. Shego, fell to her knees beside the crying woman and got a small black box out of the pocket of her dressing gown.
"Kimberley Anne Possible," she said. "Will you be the mother of my daughter? Can I be the mother of Stacey? Will you marry me?"
Kim fell into the arms of the pale green woman. It was easier than trying to say anything.
"Hey, Kimmie? You can stop crying now! This is where you say 'yes, I do' and we get on with being happy. You are saying yes, aren't you?"
The read-haired young mother nodded her head, but kept on crying.
"Hush, Kimmie, hush! Just sit back and let me give you this!"
Kim raised her head and saw the open jewelry box in Shego's hands.
"What, you have been carrying that around for three years?"
"Yeah, I wanted to be ready. And I thought that if the occasion arose, I would most likely be in my dressing gown. Or out of it."
"It's beautiful!"
"The dressing gown?"
"No, silly! The ring!"
"Yeah. It used to be my great-grandmother's and has been in the family since 1905. If you'd rather want a brand new one, we can fix that on Monday. But for now, let me put this on your finger. It's alright, yes? No more 'I need time'?"
Kim drew in a large breath of air. "Yes. If you still want me, I do say yes."
"Good! I'm happy! I hope you're happy. Stacey will be happy! And Kelley won't have any problems. And, when you tell Ron, I don't think he'll have any objections, either."
"Oh, Shego! It all went so fucking wrong! I should have married Ron, we should have had a big house with a white picket fence, 2,4 children, a dog and a soccer-mom SUV!"
"And now you'll have a wife, two fantastic daughters and any fucking house you want. But no soccer-SUV. There, I draw the line! So, what's the problem? Me? You don't want a catty green ex-criminal?"
Kimmie burst out crying again.
"And I'm still messing it up, ain't I?" she sobbed. "You are definitely not the problem, Shego! You are my knight in shining armour! My catcher in the rye."
"Hm. English lit major. I don't think you really understand the meaning of that book title. But who cares! Let's have some breakfast and start talking. Okey?"
"Okey!"