Chapter Nine: Sweet, Sweet Lullaby
A sweet, sweet lullaby,
So gentle and kind,
A loving memory,
In a child's mind.
At The Hospital…
"Clones," said Shego from her state of shock. "We have clones."
"Yeah…" said Kim. "What do you mean, clones?"
"Well, not exact clones," said the very nervous Dr. von Braun, "we sort of had a bit of a mix-up."
"Kim, handle this," Shego said, rubbing her temples as she walked out the door and into the waiting room.
"Dr. von Braun, can you start from the beginning?" Kim asked.
"Well, it's complicated," Dr. von Braun began. "Do you remember those blood samples you gave me?" Kim nodded. "As you know, we also do research for couples which can't have children, and that's where the mix-up came in. We accidentally mixed up your DNA and Shego's, and one thing lead to another, and voila; you have clones, but they're four years old."
"So let me get this straight, you mixed up Shego's and my DNA with a couple's, and instead of them having kids, there's a four-year-old version of each of us?" Kim asked, skeptical.
"Not quite," Dr. von Braun said sheepishly. "We combined your DNA, and now you two have children which are equal parts each of you."
"WHAT?" came a shout from the waiting room. Shego stormed through the doors, green flames licking at the doors before fading away. "You're telling me that because of some major fuck up on your end, Kim and I have four year old children now?"
"Ye-yes," stuttered Dr. von Braun, "that is, in fact, exactly what I'm saying; you now have a son and a daughter."
Kim and Shego's jaws both dropped as they stared blankly at the doctor. "How, exactly, do you get a son from two females? That's not even possible!" Shego shouted. "What, did you manipulate the samples or something? Was it some sort of genetic engineering job?"
"Well, to be perfectly frank," the doctor said, adjusting his glasses nervously, "we're not entirely sure how it happened; we put the samples in the machine and told it to begin the cloning process, and two days later, when we went to get them out of the chambers, we noticed that there was a boy and a girl, and that the girl was green with red hair, and they boy was, well, normal, and had black hair."
"Does my mom know?" Kim asked, still dazed from the shock and confusion.
"No, I thought it best to tell you first," Dr. von Braun said. "I can page her if you'd like."
"Please and thank you," Kim said, wandering over to the benches and taking a seat.
Dr. von Braun picked up the handset of the phone on the wall next to him, dialed, and said, "Yes, is this Dr. Possible? Ah, good… We've got a bit of a, uh, situation in the cloning lab and it really requires your particular… Well, no, it's nothing to do with neurosurgery, it's your daughter. Well, Ann, I think you'd best come up here and see this for yourself. Alright, thank you, yes, yes, I'll see you in a minute." He hung up the phone, fumbling with it for a minute, and turned back to the two women in the room. "She'll be right up."
The room was silent save the sound of breath until Dr. Ann Possible entered, an irritated scowl on her face tempered by a level of concern. She searched the room for her daughter, who hadn't yet registered her mother's presence, and walked over to her. She laid her hand on Kim's shoulder, shocking her from her daydream trance. "Are you alright?" she asked.
"No big, just dealing," Kim replied.
Ann turned to Shego, who had taken a seat next to Kim, and looked at her queryingly. "Ask the good doctor," Shego said dryly.
Dr. Possible walked over to Dr. von Braun slowly and calmly, and said, "Hello, Rick."
"Good morning, Ann," he said, still nervous.
"Would you mind telling me what's going on?" Ann asked.
"Well, we had a bit of a mix up with your daughter and Shego, and a couple wanting children," he said. "We'd taken both couples DNA samples, Kim's and Shego's for the demonstration from when the facility had been raided, and the other couple's for the children, and-"
"Stop," Ann ordered. "Give me the short version."
"Ah, yes, of course," Ricken mumbled. "Right, well, uh…"
"Spit it out!" Ann snapped.
"Four year old children of your daughter and Shego, one male, one female," he blurted out.
Ann looked at him with much the same reaction as had Kim and Shego. "You're kidding," she said.
"Unfortunately, I'm not," Ricken said.
"How do you make that big of a-" she began, stopping mid-thought. "Did you say she has a son?" Dr. von Braun nodded. "How does that even work?"
"Well, like I told them, we really don't have any idea," Ricken said, trying to appear detached from the situation around him.
Ann stepped forward and delivered a massive right hook to his jaw, sending him to the ground. She breathed heavily for a few seconds, standing over the dazed doctor. "Ricken, I knew you were a blundering idiot, but I had no idea that even you could fuck up this much. I'll see your entire division is put under perpetual scrutiny, and you'd best start looking for a new job! Now, I'm going to take my daughters to see their new children; I'd recommend you start cleaning out your office. Kim, Shego, this way." She held the door open for the two other women.
Kim and Shego stood for a moment, both in awe of the show to which they'd just been witness, and walked through the door. "Wow, Ann, I never thought I'd see you do something like that," Shego said, impressed, as Ann led the two down the hall.
"I was a boxer in college," she replied, looking back to Shego and smiling. She stopped as they reached the end of the hall, capped off by a massive door with both a keycard reader and a fingerprint scanner. Ann swiped the ID badge around her neck and laid her thumb on the scanner; the machine beeped and the door slid open almost silently, despite its size.
Kim and Shego walked in first, and were amazed by what they saw; they found themselves in a separate building entirely. They stood in the lobby of a hotel, simple but elegant, and were greeted by the woman at the front desk from afar. "Hello, Dr. Possible!" she shouted enthusiastically, waving to the guests. She was relatively tall, with soft features and pale, freckled skin, and orange hair. She wore a white lab coat over a yellow tank top and blue jeans, and had an ID card hanging from a pink cat-themed lanyard around her neck.
"Good morning, Lana," she said warmly and with a smile as they walked up to the desk. "We're here to see Dr. von Braun's children; the brother and sister."
"Oh, you must mean Elspeth and Gabriel!" Lana replied, still very enthusiastic. "I normally can't take anyone except family to see them, but nobody sent over any files on the family, and you're green, too." She pointed to Shego, bouncing up and down a little from her excitement.
Ann rolled her eyes. "Of course they didn't send anything," she said under her breath.
"What?" Lana said, her mood snapping from glee to fear. "Did I do something wrong?"
"No, no, you did everything right," Ann said gently, "it's Rick who did something wrong."
"Oh," she said, shooting back to her state of jubilation, "Dr. von Braun! I don't like him, but everyone else seems to, so I guess he's ok." She turned to Shego. "So, are you the mother or an aunt?" Her eyes got particularly wide. "Or a sister?"
"I'm the mother," Shego said calmly, trying to keep herself from growing irate at the woman's constant energy.
"You're lucky; Ellie and Gabe are great kids! Come on, I'll take you to them," Lana said, walking down the hall. Kim and Shego looked at each other, trying to decide what to make of Lana, and Ann just smiled and followed her down the hall. Kim and Shego, realizing the others had left, sprinted to catch up. Lana stopped and turned to the door next to her.
"Lana," Ann said, putting her hand on Lana's shoulder, "are you taking your medication?"
Lana nodded frantically, "Yep, yep, yep; I take it every morning!"
"Ok, I want you to start taking two a day, at least until we can schedule you for surgery," Ann said. "Apparently the medication isn't working as well as we thought it would, and the tumor is growing."
Lana stared at her blankly for a few seconds, then nodded and opened the door by which she was standing. Again, Kim and Shego were the first to enter, and again what they saw struck them to awe. They were in a child's bedroom; toys and clothes littered the floor, the window, which lit the room, was covered in doodles, as were the walls, and in the corners on either side of the door rested beds.
Above the bed on the left, occupied by a boy, hung a sign, drawn by a child, which read 'Gabriel Alexi'. Likewise, above the bed on the right, occupied by a girl of pale green hue, hung a sign, drawn by a child, which read 'Elspeth Ava'.
Kim and Shego stood silent in pure, amazed wonder. Shego walked over to Elspeth and sat on her bed. Trancelike, she ran her fingers through her daughter's red hair. Elspeth stirred and turned over to face the person who'd woken her from her sleep. "Mommy?" she asked softly, still half asleep.
"I'm here, honey," she said, tears filling her eyes.
"Why are you crying, mommy?" she asked, a look of tired worry on her face.
"I'm just happy to see you," she said, trying to keep her voice from cracking. "Go back to sleep."
"Ok," Elspeth said, turning over to face the wall.
Shego continued running her fingers through her daughter's hair, and softly sang, "Goodnight, my angel, time to close your eyes, and save these questions for another day…"
Gabriel turned over and said, "Hi mom."
Kim turned around and looked at the smiling young boy in front of her. "Hey Gabe," she said, smiling back. "Looks like naptime's over."
"Play with us, mommy!" Elspeth insisted, waking herself up wit a stretch.
"I'll tell you what; Kimmy can stay here and play with you two while I go get ready to take you home," Shego said. "Dr. Possible, I need to speak to you." Kim took a seat on the floor as the two walked out of the room.
"Of course," Ann replied.
Shego waited for the door to close before she spoke again. "We need somewhere private to talk," she said.
Ann looked at her gravely and with a note of irritation, and led her down the hall to a conference room. Once inside, she said, "What's going on?"
"You should sit," Shego said, taking a seat at the table and spinning from side to side nervously in the office chair.
Ann grabbed the chair and jerked it toward her; she hunched over Shego and growled, "Something's wrong with Kim."
Shego, shocked by the rather drastic change of attitude, couldn't help but speak bluntly. "She was abducted by a CIA team," she said. "I went in to rescue her, and they infected me with a virus designed to make me fall in love with her."
"What affect did it have on Kim?" Ann demanded.
"I don't know yet," Shego replied. "Not entirely, at least. Her personality is more or less the same, but she's lost control of some of her impulses. She is getting better, though; closer to her old self."
"How much time have you spent with her since you rescued her?" Ann asked, taking a seat.
"A lot," Shego replied, leaning forward. "I've been with her almost constantly."
Ann leaned back, letting the news sink in. "You love her?" she asked.
"Yeah," Shego replied simply. "I think so. I want to believe I do."
"Good," Ann said. "As of now, you're to be with her every second of every day until I'm convinced that she's capable of being on her own." She stood up. "Maybe you can repay me for everything you did to her over the years."
"Ann?" she asked. "Don't tell her that you know. She needs some sort of normal in her life."
Shego's Apartment…
The door swung open and Gabriel and Elspeth ran in, overjoyed to see their new home. Gabriel immediately ran from room to room, exploring the house. "Can we watch TV, mommy?" Elspeth asked.
"Sure," Kim and Shego said almost in unison. They looked at each other. "Who's…"
Elspeth caught on to the confusion. "Mommy Kim, come watch TV with me!" she insisted.
"Mommy Shego," Gabriel shouted from the bedroom, "I want some juice." He ran out of the room with the almost-empty bottle of Scotch in his hand.
Shego ran over and snatched the bottle from his hand as he began to unscrew the lid. "That's not juice," she said, leading him into the kitchen. She pulled her cell phone from her pocket and dialed. "Ann? Hi, Shego, yeah, we need you to pick something up from the bakery to celebrate. Thanks." She put her phone back in her pocket and opened the cupboard, pulling out a small glass. She stowed the bottle of Scotch in the freezer and removed a jug of orange juice from the fridge, filling the glass and returning the jug.
"Thank you," Gabriel said, taking the glass from Shego. He ran into the living room.
"No running…" Shego began, shouting at first but letting her voice soften when it became clear that Gabriel was ignoring her, "…with a drink." She walked back into the living room and tapped Kim on the shoulder. Kim looked up at her, and she signaled for her to follow.
Kim stood up, put the television remote on the table, and followed Shego into their bedroom. "We need to child-proof," Shego said.
"No big; how hard can it be?" Kim asked. Her eyes opened as wide as possible as the volume of the television maxed out, and the sounds of cheap porno music filled the small apartment. Kim ran into the living room, dove over the couch, rolled across the table on which she had landed, and shut off the television before the program could actually start.
"No big?" Shego asked, grin wide, as she strolled casually out into the living room.
Kim stood up and turned to Shego. "Why didn't you tell me you had adult channels?" she asked, offended.
An Hour Later…
"Surprise!" Ann shouted as she walked through the door, a giant cake in her arms. Shego closed the door behind her and took the cake from her, carrying it into the kitchen.
"What's this?" Kim asked.
"They need a birthday," Shego said. "What better day than today, the day they came home?"
"What about presents?" Kim asked.
"I've got it covered," Shego said. There was a knock at the door. "Don't you just love when things happen at the right time." She walked over and opened the door, and two very large men in black tank tops walked in carrying several bags in each hand. They sat the bags down next to the couch; one man left, the other walked over to Shego and held out his hand without a word. Shego pulled a wad of cash out of her pocket and handed it to him. "Thanks." The man shrugged in response and walked out, thumbing through the cash.
Kim walked over to the bags and began to dig through them. "They're wrapped," she said.
"Very astute observation," Shego said, walking back into the kitchen. "Do me a favor and get the presents set up on the table. Ann, be a dear and help me get this cake cut up."
Kim removed the presents from the bag and placed them on the coffee table as Ann assisted Shego in slicing the oversized cake into appropriately-sized pieces. Ann walked out of the kitchen with two plates, each with a slice of cake, and a wad of paper towels; she was followed closely by Shego, carrying three plates and a handful of forks. As they handed out the cake, Shego pulled a couple of candles from her pocket and stuck one in each of her children's cakes; she lit them with her hand. "Make a wish and blow out the candles," Kim said.
Gabriel blew out the candle instantly; Elspeth waited for a moment, considering carefully her wish, before doing the same. Kim, Shego, and Ann applauded. "Can we open presents now?" Gabriel asked through a mouthful of cake.
"Wipe your hands first," Ann said, handing Elspeth and him a paper towel each. Gabriel took the paper towel and cleaned his hands before jumping out of his seat to find the largest present with his name on it. Satisfied that he'd found the biggest one of the bunch, standing at over half his height, he attempted to pick it up off the floor. Finding himself unable to, he tried to push it, but to no avail. He looked pleadingly at Shego, who said, "Open it there, Gabe."
Voraciously he tore at the paper until he could make out the contents of the box. "You got them spy equipment?" Kim whispered to Shego.
"They'll love it," Shego whispered back.
"Cool!" Gabriel shouted as he finally managed to conquer the packaging. He pulled a remote-control car out of the now-open box, shaking off the packing peanuts. He leaned into the box and pulled out another car, two remotes, and a large box of batteries.
"Now one of those is for your sister," Shego said.
"Why didn't you just get her one of her own?" Kim asked.
"They only come in sets of two," Shego said
"Your turn, Elspeth," Kim said.
Elspeth put her cake down on what little of the table was uncovered and walked around the table, resting her hand on several of her gifts before finally picking one; Shego watched her actions intently. It was long, small, delicate, and jingled a little as Elspeth carried it back over to the couch. She looked at Shego and smiled almost knowingly before carefully opening it. From the wrapping she pulled a small box, and from the small box she pulled a necklace sized to her. "Thank you, mommy," she said, hugging Shego before inspecting it. On a small chain hung a pendant; it was gold surrounding a large teardrop sapphire.
"It's a GPS locator beacon," Shego said. "In case you ever get lost, we can find you." She leaned over to Kim and whispered, "I got Gabe a dragon-shaped beacon surrounding a ruby, but it's not finished yet."
That Evening…
"That's a side of you I never thought I'd see," Kim said as she crawled into bed.
"Everyone deserves a happy birthday," Shego said fondly without looking up from her book. "Gabe and Ellie all tucked in?"
"Sleeping comfortably on the couches," Kim replied. "You were actually nice to my mom."
"I'm trying to be civil," Shego replied.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Kim asked.
"I'm fine," Shego reassured her, "it's just been a strange day."
"It's more than that," Kim said, lowering Shego's book. "You didn't even sound like yourself today."
Shego calmly placed her bookmark in her book and put it on the nightstand. She turned to Kim and said, "I'm fine. I'm just… I'm fine." She kissed Kim on the cheek and turned over. "I might be a little strange for a while, that's all." She shut off the light and went to sleep.
Author's Notes:
To be perfectly honest, I'm not entirely happy with this chapter. Originally, it was two, but when I couldn't figure out most of the second one, I just put it in with the first. I mean, it flows well enough, but there's something about this that's just nagging at me. Anyway, as always, reviews are welcome and encouraged, particularly if you have some good advice (or even something you'd like to see me put in; no guarantees, but I might worm it into this story or the next in the series).
