Chapter Two: Chicken Noodle Soup
"Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure."
Kim was oddly quiet on the way home, Mrs. Doctor Possible noted. The way the young redhead sat slumped into her seat, arms folded over her chest protectively, eyebrows furrowed together as she stared forward into apparent nothingness.
"You okay, sweetheart?"
Kim blinked a few times in confusion before she realized her mother asked her a question.
"Huh?"
"Are you alright?" Anne asked.
"Just a little headache..." Kim answered.
"A sparing accident eh?" the older redhead questioned.
"Something like that," Kim said. " I might have stretched the truth a little."
"To keep a master criminal out of trouble?"
"Not just any criminal," Kim said. "Shego."
"Was that supposed to help me understand some type of sensible point more clearly?"
"If I put Shego away, she'll just break out and be more of a nuisance than she was before she was caught." Kim replied. "My villains and I have an understanding. I'm not going to lock them away for something mundane. It'll just be a waste of both of our time."
Mrs. Possible stayed quiet. She could see where Kim was coming from with her line of thinking. She just didn't comprehend why Kim wouldn't want to put Shego away every chance she got. The brunette was dangerous, and although Kim had never reported that she had killed anyone, the other martial artist was more than capable. Anne frowned. Even if she hadn't, Kim had almost been her first victim.
"She saved me," Kim told her mother. The two were very talented at reading each other's minds through their facial expressions. "I entered the game, made a wrong move, and although she didn't have to, Shego saved me."
Anne nodded. At least that she was thankful for. She never considered that the two girls might have thought of their run-ins with each other to be like a game. Anne thought back to all the times she'd heard Kim speak of Shego. Her voice was never full of malice or contempt. It was filled with wonder and excitement; she was always so animated. Her body language would shift and her mood would brighten. It wasn't exactly something you would expect from someone who had just got done saving the world.
"She's special to you…"
Kim shrugged, even though her mother had hit the figurative nail on the head.
"You have no idea."
"Oh?"
"She's my first real combatant. We're like Yin and Yang. We feed off each other. We satisfy each other in a way no one else can." Kim continued to explain. "I think I need her..."
Anne could tell by the way Kim trailed off that she was no longer interested in talking about the villainess.
However, the younger woman continued to think about the other girl on her way home.
Closing her eyes, she went back to the way Shego looked as the villainess sat on her hospital bed. The older green-eyed girl had shown Kim a small glimpse into a side of her she'd never seen before. A side that showed actual remorse. It worried the redhead. She didn't want Shego to start going easy on her, as if the raven-haired woman would be under the impression she wouldn't be able to keep up when the fight really gets going.
Kim's lapse in judgment had ended them both up in a bad situation. Kim wanted to groan. What had actually happened was still foggy in her mind, but she knew Shego enough to know the other girl wouldn't lieto her.
Did the two really need each other as much as the redhead thought they did? What would happen if they indeed found a way to put Shego away for long term? Shego was smart, fast and a fantastic fighter. Would she be able to find someone like Shego to match her fighting style? Who would flirt with her the way Shego did? The cogs in the redheads mind stopped spinning momentarily.
"Since when did Shego flirt?" Kim asked herself.
"You can't handle this, Pumpkin," she could hear Shego's taunting in her mind. Whether the other girl meant her words to be leaden with sexual innuendo, Kim didn't know.
It brought Kim's thinking to a few of Shego's other comments.
"Oh come on, Princess," Shego had laughed, blocking Kim's strikes with ease. "If you wanted to touch me, all you had to do was ask."
Kim felt a smile tugging at her lips. The raven-haired female was such a tease and probably didn't even realize it.
"We could go all night, but I'm almost sure you wouldn't be able to keep up," she remembered Shego trash talking some more.
"I'd go all night with you anytime..." Kim remembered replying. The expression on the other girls face became one of curiosity.
"Kim..." Anne called gently.
They were in front of the house. Kim had been so wrapped up in her thoughts she had failed to realize the car had stopped moving and her mother had exited the car.
The older redhead opened the car door for her daughter.
"Sorry," she said, slowly getting out of the car. The feeling of nausea that hit her was enough to cause her to reel back and grip the car door for stability. The redhead groaned, praying to any god that may be listening that her head would stop spinning.
"Take it easy," Anne replied. She managed to peel Kim's hand from the car door and get her to start moving.
The trip from the car into the house was much longer than Kim remembered it being.
"Kim!" Two voices called at once. She felt herself suddenly crushed between two smaller bodies. The bodies that belonged to her twin brothers Timothy and James.
"It's just a concussion you guys," Kim tried to reassure them she'd be fine, as she tried to keep her last meal down.
"We know," Jim said.
"But what if it had been worse?" Tim asked.
"We only have one sister!" they informed her simultaneously.
"You've got to be more careful, Kimmiecub." her father, James, told her from his position behind her brothers.
"I know, Dad," she responded. He moved passed her brothers and brought her in for a hug.
"Why don't you two help your sister to her room."
The two boys nodded and followed after their half-asleep sister, watching her closely as she climbed the stairs.
"Why are there so many of these?" she asked.
"You're the one who lives in the basement," Jim replied.
"Thinking you're all cool," Tim snickered.
"I could have had both had you two not came and ruined my plans of household domination," Kim said as they entered her room.
She went over to her closet and changed clothes as her brothers continued the conversation.
"Your love slave called," Jim said, changing the subject, "and she didn't sound very happy."
"That could be due to a number of things," Kim answered. "The cheerleading practice I missed, the student activities meeting I skipped out on. The AV clubs meeting I was supposed to sit in on. There's some kind of election I'm supposedly taking part in."
Kim rambled off a few things on the list she'd blown off to go and "play" with Shego.
"How I can take part in an election I have no clue about is beyond me." Kim sighed and tossed her dirty mission clothes into her laundry basket.
"We kind of told her you were in the hospital..." Jim said.
"What in the world would you do something like that for?" Kim asked. Her headache was suddenly becoming worse. "Why can't you two use your brains when it benefits me?"
"We thought you'd want her to know," Tim said. "We were doing you a favor, ungrateful brat."
"What kind of girlfriend doesn't want her girlfriend to know she's in the hospital?" Jim asked.
"It sounds like Shego busted her over the head a little too hard," Jim muttered to Tim.
"Get out," Kim told them as she slipped her pajama shirt over her head.
"Fine," Tim said. "That's the last time we try and do anything nice for you."
The young boy was met with a cuddle buddy to the face.
"Out!"
The boys left, making sure to slam her door extra hard on their way out.
She sighed, now she had another dilemma and her name was Bonnie.
"Why do all the women in my life cause me such problems," Kim wondered to herself aloud.
She retrieved her cell phone from her computer desk. Turning it on, she discovered a barrage of text messages and missed phone calls. She decided to ignore them and call the girl she claimed as her own.
Kim paced back and forth across her room as she waited for the brunette to answer.
"Kim!" Bonnie exclaimed when she finally picked up the phone. Kim was happy to hear that Bonnie sounded more relieved than upset.
"Hey you," Kim responded, a little more tiredly than she meant to.
"Are you okay? Your brothers weren't very helpful information-wise," Bonnie said.
"They aren't helpful at all," Kim muttered.
"Kim..."
"I'll be fine in a few days," Kim told her. "My doctors pulled me out for the time being."
"And your saving the world antics?"
"Put on hold unless in the case of extreme emergency," Kim responded. "It looks like you'll be carrying the bulk of our popularity."
"Hun," Bonnie chuckled. "How many times do I have to tell you? You are not popular!"
"You're right," Kim said with a smile. "I've surpassed such a petty level."
"Mhmm..." Bonnie laughed.
"I'm like a goddess," Kim told her. "Magical powers and everything."
"Keep lying to yourself," Bonnie said. "Whatever helps you sleep better at night."
"You help me sleep better at night," Kim said. She waited a few seconds as the girl on end of the phone line became very quiet.
"Don't tease me Kim, it isn't nice," Bonnie said, finally.
"I wasn't teasing you. I was serious."
"I don't exactly know how to respond to that."
"I've got an idea."
"I'm listening..."
"That's a new trick," Kim joked.
"Shut up and tell me already!"
"Pick one, I can't do both," Kim retorted.
"Kimberly!" Bonnie exclaimed, becoming slightly frustrated.
"Come over," The redhead said.
"Your parents..."
"Your point?" Kim asked. "I want you here with me. They aren't going to say anything."
"Right. Your parents aren't going to say anything about me sleeping with their daughter in their house while they're there," Bonnie quipped. " I find that difficult to believe."
"The rules have always been made for boys," Kim said. "Girls just never seemed to be an option in my dad's mind."
"So you're going to exploit the loophole?" Bonnie asked. "That doesn't sound like you."
"If you're that worried about it you don't have to come," Kim said. She wasn't going to talk Bonnie into doing something she wasn't comfortable with.
"Sorry babe," Bonnie said. She really would have enjoyed coddling her spoiled girlfriend to death but couldn't help feel it was mildly inappropriate since Kim's parents were in the dark about their relationship.
"Don't worry about it," Kim said. "As long as you come by tomorrow afternoon."
"And if I don't?" Bonnie asked purely out of curiosity.
"Then you'll have hell to pay," Kim warned. "Or you could bring me a make up bento filled with goodies."
"If you keep eating that much sushi you'll turn into a fish."
"One can only hope," Kim said with a laugh.
"Night Kim."
"Night."
The redhead hung up the phone and stretched her limbs.
"You hiding pets from me, Princess?" a voice Kim new very well said from the window.
"Pet?" Kim questioned, turning toward the source of the voice to find Shego perched on her windowsill. She wasn't interested in where the other girl had come from, she was, of course, interested in knowing why she was there.
"Formally referred to as 'girlfriends'," the raven haired girl clarified.
"Bonnie is not a pet," Kim informed her.
"Well if she isn't..." Shego trailed off, letting the redhead's mind wonder.
"Are you insinuating I am?" the redhead asked with a half-assed glare. All Kim managed to do was produce a small chuckle from Shego.
It was a beautiful sound Kim tired to ignore.
"Why are you here?" Kim asked as she walked over to her bed and plopped down.
"Work was boring," Shego replied.
The older girl entered the room, ignoring the odd look she received from the redhead, and removed a backpack Kim had failed to notice she was wearing.
"And that led you here?" Kim asked.
"Well, I got to thinking about what you said earlier," Shego replied. "You know. About us having excellent potential for being 'friends'."
"I take it you came to a conclusion."
Shego shrugged.
"Let's hear it then."
"Kim Possible and Shego can never be friends..." Shego said.
"Didn't you say that earlier?" Kim huffed.
"Will you let me finish?" Shego snapped. "Impatient little Imp."
When Shego was sure she wouldn't be interrupted again, she continued.
"Shego and Kim Possible may not be able to be friends, but what's to stop Samantha and Kim?"
"Who's Samantha?" Kim asked.
"I'm going to need you to follow the conversation," Shego said. "I know your head's still a bit fuzzy."
"Your name is Samantha?"
"Don't get used to calling me that," Shego warned her. "It's just a boundary for the time being."
"Like two different people..." Kim mumbled. "What's your primary ego's last name?"
"Don't you think it's a little early in this 'friend' thingy to give out personal information like that?" Shego asked to be a pain.
"Don't be a brat," Kim said.
"I'm to old to be a brat," Shego said. "Unlike some redheaded girl I know."
"Are you going to tell me or not?" Kim asked. She was tired and getting more grumpy by the second.
"Orrick," the raven-haired girl said. "Samantha Orrick."
The older girl perched on the end of Kim's bed and unzipped the backpack. Kim watched closely as her nemesis pulled out a thermos. She blinked blankly a few times when Shego held it out for her to take.
"Poison?" Kim asked accepting it.
"Close," Shego said. "Chicken noodle soup."
"Can or homemade?" Kim asked.
"Don't insult me," Shego said. "I don't eat anything out of a can."
Kim nodded and took a small sip, testing how hot it was.
"Someone said this crap was good for the soul," Shego said producing her own thermos. "Well, for those of us who still have them."
The redhead smirked. Shego's social skills were better than she would have expected them to be.
"How can I wipe that look off your face?" Shego asked. She stared at the other girl with one of her delicate eyebrows raised.
"You can't," Kim said her smirk turning into a wide grin. "It's stuck there."
"I bet I could prove other wise..." Shego told her.
"I bet you could too," Kim said, watching Shego closely as the other girl looked at her thermos. Kim was very aware of what was going on behind the raven-haired woman's beautiful green eyes.
She took a long sip of the delicious soup and sighed contently.
Why she was so trusting of this Shego she didn't know, but she was sure glad she did.
"This is amazing," Kim complimented.
Shego nodded.
Kim attempted to finish off the rest of her soup in one go but didn't quite make her goal. She had been a lot hungrier than she had expected.
"Easy there, Kimmie," Shego wasn't sure if she wanted to shake her head at the girls antics or laugh. "There's more and no one is going to take it from you."
"How do you know?" Kim asked.
"Because I know!" Shego told her.
"Yeah but how do you know?" Kim asked again.
"I know everything," Shego informed her.
"No you don't," Kim challenged. "You don't know anything."
"How do you know?" Shego asked, turning the conversation back on its starter.
"Cause I know everything," Kim replied with a wink.
"You don't know shit."
"And you know everything?"
"Fuckin' right."
Kim finally managed to coax a grin that mirrored her own from the other girl. It wasn't her usual predatory ones. It was a simple smile with only one emotion behind it, happiness.
Shego looked around the other girl's room and took note of how bright it was. The shelves on the walls, expect for one, were neat. Shego cringed; the disorderly shelf contained a mountain of disturbing cuddle buddies.
"Do they bother you?" Kim asked, watching Shego's grin slip away when she noticed the stuffed animals.
"I always feel like they're watching me," Shego said.
Kim's grin darkened.
"It's because they are!" the redhead responded in the most unnerving deep voice she could create.
"That's not even remotely funny," Shego said while laughing.
Kim shrugged, and killed off the rest of her soup.
"More please!"
"Only if you call off your creepy cuddle critter army," Shego said. She looked completely serious.
Kim laughed nervously, not really sure what to say, until the other girl smiled and shook her head.
Shego took the thermos and poured Kim some more soup.
"You've got a good apatite," Shego commented.
"I used to have a mini refrigerator but my mother made me get rid of it," Kim said. "Apparently it's just supposed to be a bedroom and not an apartment."
"I could see how the refrigerator could become a problem," Shego said. "With all the different schedules this house runs on, you'd never see each other."
Kim nodded, sipping her soup.
"You should sleep," Shego said, looking down at her watch.
"You shouldn't worry about my sleeping habits," Kim replied.
"I could hit you again, you know," Shego warned. "You'd be out cold for a few good hours."
"I don't like that plan," Kim replied.
She didn't want to go to sleep, she wanted to stay up and talk to Shego while she ate her soup. She had all week to lie in bed and do nothing.
"Have you always been a spoiled brat or is this a new trick you're pulling out of the bag?"
"Kind of," Kim said. "I'm use to getting what I want, hence the reason I have a job."
"An actual J.O.B?" Shego asked spelling out the word as if Kim wouldn't know what it was other wise.
"Yes," Kim laughed. "Where I get a specific amount of money for spending a certain amount of time doing a certain task."
"I used to have job," Shego said, her eyes glazing over in mischief. "We called it 'joy riding' but the courts called it 'Grand Theft Auto'."
"You used to lift cars?" Kim asked. The redhead's headache had disappeared along with her soup.
"Yeah, it was so much fun," she said. "Only one downside."
"And that was?"
"No skilled martial artists," Shego replied. "So I need a career change."
"Have you found the right one?"
"I found you, didn't I?" she said. "So until you lock me away for good, you're stuck with me."
"How can you make that sound like such a good thing?"
"I'm talented."
"Fighting me is the only reason you do your job?"
Shego pursed her lips in thought. She wouldn't exactly say Kim was the only reason, but it was pretty close, in her opinion.
"The money's good too," Shego answered. "Insurance is the best I've ever seen."
"You're terrible."
"Difference of opinions," the raven-haired girl said.
Shego's cell phone interrupted the continuation of the conversation.
Pulling it out of her boot pocket, she sighed as she looked at the caller.
"Yes, Neelam?" Shego answered.
"What are you doing?" the Middle Eastern woman asked.
"Working," Shego lied. "The same thing I'm always doing when I'm not at home."
"I was just making sure you weren't out with someone woman," Neelam's accented voice said in warning.
"Don't be ridiculous," Shego responded. "Go to bed."
The line went dead and Shego huffed out of annoyance.
"Pet problems?" Kim inquired. Due to Shego's close proximity, she heard every word from Neelam clearly.
"Something like that," Shego responded. "She's a subject we aren't deep enough into our 'friendship' to breech yet."
Kim nodded.
"I didn't take you for a liar," the redhead said.
"She's a gray area," Shego said.
The two quieted, their playful spirits died down slightly.
Kim again took this time to stare at the other girl.
"That's not polite, you know..."
"Your ears aren't pierced," Kim noted, ignoring her statement.
"My family doesn't do piercings," Shego said. "Or tattoos for that matter."
"You never struck me as a tattoo type of person."
Shego shook her head.
"My body is a temple."
Kim sat back on her pillows and finished off the second thermos of soup. The silence between the two girls was making her eyelids droop and soon she was sound asleep.
Shego's eyebrows rose when she heard the redhead's even breathing pattern.
The younger woman wasn't even underneath her blankets. Shego sighed and stood up from her spot on the bed. She removed the empty thermos from Kim's grasp and slid it into her backpack, slipping that on as she moved back over to the bed. Sliding her arms underneath Kim's legs, she lifted them just enough to pull the redhead's blankets back. She placed her legs in what appeared to be a comfortable position and tucked her in as if she were a child.
"Sam," Kim mumbled, barely awake enough to say Shego's whole first name.
"Yes?"
"See you later."
"For sure," the raven-haired girl replied. Then she was gone.