At first Kim was worried when Heather didn't come home with the others, when the others told her what happened she would've gone after her had Drakken not already been out the door before Zach even finished the explanation.
"Should we look to?" Ron questioned his wife who was already dialing her parent's phone number.
She growled as the ringing turned to voicemail "hey mom hey dad it's Kim, Heather went out and didn't tell anyone where she was going. We're sure she's fine but just call if you see her thanks" she said then hung up the phone and sighed. "That's just going to worry them," she groaned.
"I just hope Drakken's actually looking for her and not out getting revenge on Dementor" Ron said
"Don't worry, remember when Heather broke her arm on his watch? He sulked for a month after the cast came off. He's looking for her and as for Dementor, he's in jail" Kim reassured her husband who nodded.
"I guess you're right" he agreed and just then the two of them heard the front door opening.
"I'm home" Heather's voice called just as she reached the doorway of the kitchen. "Sorry I didn't tell you where I was going-" she began to apologize.
"No it's ok, Zach and Emily told us what happened to you. Are you alright?" Kim questioned, naturally she was curious as to where her daughter had spent the night but decided that there were more pressing matters to deal with.
"Better than Em was last I checked, I think she still sort of blames herself" Heather confessed but her adoptive parents only stared skeptically at her, wondering how she could be worried about Emily's well being after a piece of her had just been taken away.
"We already talked to Emily, I told her that we would decided her punishment when you got home. You're the one she hurt after all," Ron explained and Heather nodded.
"Just go easy on her. She didn't know about the take over the world plan and in her own way she thought she was helping me" she pleaded, Kim and Ron exchanged glances.
Had that gun affected Heather's personality? Sure in recent years her anger had diminished enormously but they just figured she had gotten better at suppressing it, now it seemed as though she just didn't feel the anger anymore.
It felt strange to Heather too, she had thought that she would be furious once everything was said and done but surprisingly she truly was fine. She felt no anger; her only concern was if Emily was alright or not. She figured it just had to do with her breakdown in the dungeon and then her much smaller one in front of her birth mother. She figured that maybe those two instances were all she needed to get the grief she had out of her system.
"You might want to call Drakken, he left here in a hurry to go look for you" Ron interrupted his oldest daughter's thoughts.
"Ok I'll do that right now" Heather agreed, knowing very well that despite Drakken knowing that her and Shego are on good terms he would never even think to call the woman, the mere idea of their daughter going to her being an idea much to far fetched for him to seriously consider.
It was the middle of the afternoon when Cam found himself at the Stoppable's house. He had seen on a chat site an hour earlier that Heather was online and knowing her well enough to know that she never went online with her phone, because it had a tendency to crash when she did, he knew that she was on her laptop which meant that she had come home. For a second he was hesitant to go over there, thinking that maybe she would just want some space, but then he shook the thought away.
No. When she's hurt people give her space, then she only hurts more he reminded himself. Sometimes he wondered how true that really was, even taking her powers into account he just couldn't fathom an entire family not being able to see how much their closed off daughter really hated being alone. He liked to believe that her parents had stopped leaving her alone whenever she had a problem; he hoped he wasn't the only one who had the common sense to comfort her.
He isn't complaining, no not at all, he just doesn't understand.
Upon arriving at the house Mr. Stoppable told him that Heather was up in her room which Cam knew may not be a good sign. So he went up and found the door open just a crack, which was a good sign. Pushing open the door he found the room to be empty and the window open. Cam chuckled to himself, knowing that just outside of the window was a small ledge of roof where Heather liked to sit.
"Knock, knock" he said as he walked across the room, crawled over Heather's bed, and leaned his head out the window.
"Hey" she greeted him, an amused smile spreading across her lips as she scooted over to make room for him to join her on the roof.
"So… you alright?" He asked as he sat down, slightly fearing she'd snap at him because she had probably heard that question so many times since she'd been home.
Heather just shrugged "Always am" she answered simply.
"Heather" Cam said sternly
"I mean it Cam. I know it sounds weird but I really am ok. I don't know if maybe the gravity just hasn't hit me yet, or maybe that since I spent most of my life wishing for this I feel that I should give it a chance. But I am ok, honest." She assured him and although he was at least partially convinced they were both silent until Heather spoke up again. "I know one reason I'm ok though," she said.
"What's that?" Cam asked and she turned to look at him, resting her head in her hand whilst toying with her hair as she smiled warmly at her friend.
"I have you," she said in a soft voice before she chuckled "I know it sounds wicked corny but honestly my life sucked until you came around" she told him and he chuckled as he nervously grabbed her hand, then tried to hide his blush when she took hold of it.
"Heather, do you want your powers back?" He questioned, he was beginning to wonder if she was being so relaxed because maybe she really didn't want her powers.
"I don't know. I mean of course a part of me does but I spent most of my life wishing to have them taken away, and now that I have that I just feel like maybe I owe it to myself to see what that's like" she answered and Cam nodded.
The two of them were silent for a while; Heather eventually laid her head on Cam's shoulder and began absentmindedly rubbing her thumb over his knuckles.
"If I don't get my powers back, what happens when I have kids?" She asked, tilting her head ever so slightly in order to look at Cam.
"What?" He asked, noting the completely serious expression on her face.
"In the future, when I have kids, what happens to them? Could they still get my powers?" She inquired while turning her head back to the sky.
Cam sighed as he considered the question, he learned a long time ago that this was a concern Heather always had, she once told him that as a little girl she never like to think about growing up and having her own kids because she was afraid they would be like her. So naturally he had looked into the possibility before and told her, so now she just wanted to know if the answer had changed.
"The possibility for your powers is still in your DNA, so yes" the answer hadn't changed.
Heather sighed but nodded "I know I'll never forget that feeling, I don't think it's possible. But if it is I can't take that risk, I can't not be able to help my kids" she decided "don't rush or drive yourself crazy with it but if you can find a way, I want my powers back" she said to Cam who nodded and kissed the top of her head.
"I promise, I'll find a way," he swore.
Seven years later
Heather was having trouble sleeping that night, not something that had never been uncommon for her. Her mind always kept her up at night, it always had. When she was little it was with the fear of her powers, the thoughts of all the horrible things she could possibly grow up to do. Around the time she started high school it got better, for a good three years the bad thoughts were considerably easier to shake away. After she lost her powers they changed, she began to lie awake at night doubting she could ever be half the hero she was with her powers; she admitted that to Cam once and could remember blushing furiously when he told her that if anything she was twice the hero she used to be.
She chuckled thinking about him now, the two of them had been together ever since the day after she lost her powers and had been engaged for sixth months now. He had left on a 'business trip', as he claimed, for three days now.
"That moron better not be cheating on me" Heather quietly laughed to herself, she had more faith in Cam than that but the fact that he had refused to give her any details about this trip did not sit well with her.
Suddenly her phone began to ring and when she picked it up off the bedside table she saw the caller ID of her fiancé.
"I don't know where you are but it's midnight here" she half complained half joked.
"I'm with your dad" Cam's voice responded
Heather ached an eyebrow in confusion "why?" She asked
"Get dressed and come to the lair," Cam instructed
"Why?" Heather repeated; she could almost sense Cam's mixed of seriousness and happiness on the other end of the phone.
"We did it, we found a way to reactivate your powers" Cam told her and after she nearly dropped the phone Heather hung up, jumped out of bed, threw on a sweatshirt and some shoes, grabbed her car keys, and was out the door.
Hey guys thank you so much for reading! Hope you liked the sequel and a special shout out to CajunBear73 who has reviewed every chapter since the original! Thanks to everyone for the great reviews!