"So, you're telling me you were Anne Thrax? Before you married dad? You were the famous Anne Thrax?!" Kim looked incredulously at her mother. "Teen super scientist extraordinaire?!"
"Well, Kim, I don't know if I'd go that fa—"
" 'Need a cure? Look no more! Anne Thrax is at your door'!"
"Kim—"
" 'She can heal anyone'!"
"Yes, but—"
" 'Give me a ring if you're ill, I'll fix you up, I've got the skill'! Mom, did you have any idea how much I've idolised you?!" Kim threw her hands up exasperatedly. "And all this time… all those reports on 'My Personal Hero' that I always did on one of your colleagues…"
Anne Possible stifled a giggle. "I thought you knew! Didn't you make the connection with Grandpa Thrax?"
"I… I just figured it was an uncanny coincidence," she mused. "I always wondered why anyone over forty in the medical profession that I cashed in a favour from told me to 'thank my mom again'…"
Anne blushed. "They still remember me? This was all so long ago… before I graduated medical school and met your father."
Kim eyed her mother. " Why'd you stop?" Her brow furrowed. "Did this have anything to do with meeting dad?"
"Well, he was part of the reason. See, I was getting kind of tired of putting my life second to the lives other people," Anne said thoughtfully. "I had started getting resentful by the time I graduated high school. I just got out of a major relationship with a friend of mine because of all that hero-work, and then I met your father, and he…" she smiled wistfully. "James had... still has... a way of making my heart melt right down to my feet."
Kim rolled her eyes, swinging herself off the kitchen counter. "Well, I guess I should be off." She grabbed her backpack and stuffed her packed lunch into a side pocket. "I'm so glad we got some alone time to talk, mom," she pecked her dutifully on the cheek.
"Say hi to Ronald for me, sweetie."
"Will do!" Kim paused in her exit, and turned to look defiantly at her mother. "I'm not going to stop saving the world for Ron."
Anne suppressed a smile, saying quite seriously to her daughter, "Of course not, Kimmie. Just… remember to have a life outside work."
Kim was halfway out the door, when Anne added, "Oh, and say hi to Monique's mom for me, if you see her."
"I didn't know you guys were friends! This morning's full of surprises…" Kim was already out the door.
"Oh yeah, she was a friend of mine. A major friend of mine," Anne trailed off vaguely, staring off into the distance with a glazed, faraway look in her eyes.