A/N: Nothing in this story belongs to me. Joss and Slim Possible belong to Disney, Anne Marie Possible belongs to Twila Starla, and Jessie belongs to Disney as well. Twila Starla's Joss Possible fanfiction entitled White Roses was a big inspiration for this story. I want to thank you Twila for allowing me to use several elements of that epically moving story, including your character, her relationship and impact on Joss, and Joss's age.

The Pain of Loss

It was a calm and sunny day, although I wasn't aware of it at the time. I had long lost track of the hours of the day. As usual, it was still night for me. I'd been in this trunk for, what felt to me like centuries now. When I came to this place so long ago, I had hoped that I would be able to begin life anew. Free from the bonds of pain and fear. Free to frolic and be happy yet again. To be able to live life as I know I should be able to live it- as anyone like me should be able to live it. But instead, I lay here in the endless, merciless darkness. Waiting…Praying…Hoping that someday I'll be able to see the world beyond this wooden casket…

It was a normal summer day at the Stoppable household…or at least as normal as it could get today.

What would be normal would be a howling, yodelin', hyped up little girl, proclaiming how much she loved and admired her cousin, Kim Possible. She'd usually rush to the bathroom, and take care of the essentials as fast as she could. She currently was able to wash up, brush her teeth, wash and manage her hair and get dressed within the span of four minutes and 32 seconds. She was gunning for the Guinness Book of World Records best time of 3 minutes and 24 seconds. She still had a ways to go. After this, she'd hurry down the stairs and greet her dad, Slim, with a quick but affectionate hug, after which she would commence wolfing down her breakfast. Before eating her breakfast, she would say grace…quickly. So quickly that Slim would often joke that God himself couldn't have understood a word she said. Said breakfast would usually include three slices of toast, smothered with gravy, three flapjacks, and a three-egg omelet with red-bell peppers, imported jalapeño peppers, red-hot pepperjack cheese, and crushed red peppers all mixed and stuffed into the omelet (she absolutely loves spicy foods). She's been trying to beat the national record for consuming such a large breakfast- 5 minutes exactly. Unfortunately, she never did beat the record, and to add a bit of salt to the wound, she'd often get really sick afterwards.

Once she'd tasted her breakfast…twice, she would head on out and explore the nearby town, saying "hi" to the townsfolk and exploring the various shops. She rarely ever bought anything, but she always enjoyed to look. Besides, she did most of her purchases online, and more often than not, she often was grabbing KP memorabilia whenever she was online. She took pride in her KP mission outfit. While Slim did have a bit of a problem with the whole showing-off-the-midriff thing (just like a certain tin-horn who will remain nameless), he was able to look past it because of how cute he found that his daughter held such a positive and admiring position towards her cousin. After she got a look around town, she'd head on back to the ranch and relax. Of course, Joss had a bit of an unconventional view of relaxation, because the way she relaxed was by having a bucking contest with Ol' Tornado. She had plans to set the first ever record for longest bucking session with a cybertronic horse. She technically already attained the record after lasting over five seconds, but she wasn't satisfied with her score. She wanted to last so long that nobody could possibly hope to beat her record. Because of this, she has yet to send her record of three minutes and 53 seconds to Guinness (I assume that by now you realize that she's a bit of a Guinness freak). When her dad initially built the cybotronic horse, she was rather skeptical of the realism thereof. However, the grand metallic beast did grow on her. Now she played with him so much that Slim dang near had to lock him up in the shed… a shed complete with 5 feet of titanium lining, lasers, quantum blasters and air raid sirens so loud that every coyote from there to the heart of Texas would stir. At the end of the day, she'd read for awhile, then say good night to her father, say a brief bedside prayer and hit the sack.

Yes, these were the activities of a usual day. However, this was not a regular day – not in the least. Today was a very solemn day for Joss, along with her father. Today marked the 5th anniversary of her mother's passing. Joss was close with of her parents, but she had a particularly close relationship with her mother.

Anne Marie Possible was a prime source of happiness for Joss. No matter what mood she was in, Anne knew just what to do to make her smile. Her mother was absolutely one of a kind. When Slim used to work all day with Technologic, a local cybernetics R&D company, Joss's mother took the time to teach her everything she'd need, want, and probably not want to know about things that needed done around the ranch, and some things that were just fun. Joss learned horse riding, lasso tying and cattle rounding, and pig wrestling – one of the things she didn't want to learn – from her mother. Every night before Joss went to sleep, Anne would comfort her with a bedtime story. Anne would then sing little Joss to sleep, rocking and stroking Joss' head as she snuggled in the security of her mother's arms. No matter what was happening in her life or her lifetime, whether within her house, her neighborhood, or on the other side of the country or even the other side of the world, Joss would always feel comfortable in the secure arms of her mother.

That sense of security however was breeched when Anne Marie was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. Both she and Slim fought as hard as they could and spent $1,000s of dollars on chemotherapy and other anti-cancer medications and therapies. Joss was 7 years old at the time. She couldn't comprehend what cancer was, or what potential devastation that the disease could cause, not only on her mother herself, but her entire family. Because she was so innocent and didn't know the full scope of this disease, Joss just brushed it off as any other old illness. Sure, Joss knew about death and about loss, but she never thought it'd happen to her. She figured that her mother would get over it and be out of the hospital in about a week or two. Slim didn't have the heart to tell Joss that it was a very real possibility that they may lose her mother forever to this thing. However, when he finally built up the courage to tell Joss, it was too late. Joss was sleeping in the waiting room; it was early in the morning. Slim was sitting next to her. He reached over to wake her up when the doctor came into the room. The doctor's head was hung low, and he was clutching the clipboard abnormally hard. At this point, Joss had slightly stirred, and was slowly waking up. Neither Slim nor the doctor had noticed this. The doctor was glum, and almost choking up slightly when he said the following sentence: "Sir, it brings me great sadness to inform you that your wife has just died."

Upon hearing these words, Joss's heart sank.

"No…" Joss whispered. She was choked up upon saying this, slowly shaking her head. She was still lying down, settling on her arms with her head poked up. Slim and the doctor looked in horror as they watched the little girl's world begin to turn upside-down.

"no…no, no, no, No, NO!" With each plead that this wasn't really happening, her voice grew louder as her pain was further amplified. Her stomach was in knots. She started to quiver as the tears began to form. Her face twisted with the release of those tears.

Slim quickly embraced his daughter, holding her tightly and securely as she began to sob in his arms. "Why today? Of all days, Lord, why did you have to take my mother today?!" Joss pleaded, sobbing more violently now, barely able to breathe. Joss's loss was twofold. She not only lost her mother, her best friend in the whole world…but she had lost her mother on her birthday. She had just turned 8 years old.