Examinations and Interludes
The next morning was Saturday…and Shego committed perhaps the ultimate sin of her job. She slept in past everyone else.
"Where is Kimmie?" Shego asked, blinking as she came out into the living room. Dr. Possible was still there.
"They're helping put the school back together. Something about the fear of Bonnie being put in them." Dr. Possible said. Shego shook her head.
"I can't believe Kimmie and Ron are trying to get the school put together… they're rich, they don't need school."
"Well, they want to enjoy being seniors…didn't you enjoy your senior year?"
"Hmph… I got out of that in my sophomore year."
"Graduated?"
"Dropped out—" Shego grinned and let a little fire touch her hands, "Who needs an education?" Dr. Possible frowned, but then.
"Mom, help!" The twins…looking very, very scared.
"Boys…what are you wearing?" Their mother asked. They were dressed in… oh no. Ms. Possible tried to keep from giggling, but it looked exactly like...
"Why are you wearing copies of your fathers old bowling uniform?"
"Dad!" Tim said in explination.
"We didn't have a choice…mom, you need us to work at home, right? Please?" Jim added.
"So, ready boys?" The twins looked horrified. Their Father and Drew were identically dressed in the proper gear for bowling… gear that would send any right thinking man into the depths of madness. Shego blinked.
"Dr. D?"
"Did I mention, Shego that our team was the most exclusive bowling team in the college?" Shego mutely shook her head.
"Well…given that the requirement's for entry were to wear that uniform in public…" Ms. Possible said in a low tone. "That wasn't too hard to understand."
"Dear, you wore the costume…"
"Thus showing true love." His wife said.
"Yes, but regardless," Drew continued, "It is time to pass the torch! Do you want to come, Shego?" Shego frantically shook her head.
"Ah, no, Dr. D…I have other stuff to do."
"Well… your loss…but Jonathon's children shall learn and carry on the Torch!" he said, the fires of madness lightening his eyes. "And since the power is down so often, they'll even get to see how a bowling alley used to work!"
"Just as long as you don't use the robot bowling ball this time." Drakken looked offended.
"I would never do that—it was just a little joke."
"One that got us banned from the bowling alley for a month."
"Small loss—they didn't rebuild it for a month." Drakken pointed out. "But in any case, I would never—" A series of beeps emanated from his bag and he quickly kicked it. "- do such a thing again." A knock at the door interrupted the discussion and when Mr. Possible answered it, there was Hirotaka and Yori…dressed in the same outfit. Hirotaka looked immaculate and happy in his outfit….Yori looked like she was desperately wanting to emulate smoke and vanish on the breeze.
"This is nothing like our school in Japan!" He said. "I desire to bowl a perfect game!"
"I know…" Yori groaned, looking around for cover. She was also wearing the same bowling costume. Hirotaka smiled and grabbed her.
"And maybe we shall meet Ron and Kim-san?"
"Oh no, please." Yori said.
"I hope we don't meet anybody." Jim said,
"Especially anyone we may see later!" Tim said.
"Nonsense, boys…you'll be the envy of your school!" Their father assured them. The groans that conjured could have been heard on the other side of the planet. But, looking to their mother and finding no support, Jim and Tim, marching as to their execution, left, followed by the four older individuals…Yori also looking like she was marching to her execution.
"Drew and Jonathon are getting along much better." Andrea said. Shego shook her head.
"He's rich…when I think of all the times we had to knock over a bank and that dumb invention was just sitting there… arrrggghhh." She growled. Then she paused, "So what's for today?"
"EEG, MRI, A few gadgets that don't have any names yet because they used to be classified…" Andrea paused, "We need to first of all establish a baseline—try and figure out what your body is like when it's ok…and that's what the GJ files are for."
"And then?"
"Then we figure out what is wrong." Kim's mother assured her.
Middleton High
"This is really taking too long." Ron muttered. Few teachers were yet at the school…and between them the students had managed to muster some impressive numbers, but they had no organization.
"I'll say." Kim said, wiping her forehead. She and Ron had decided to start on their homeroom today, and an impressive amount of destroyed books were on the floor of the outside hallway, where wrecked lockers and dangling lights showed the impact of the mob that had torn through the school.
"Lot's of people had repressed hostility from high school, evidently." Monique said. Kim nodded.
"But we're not getting anything done!" Bonnie said in frustration ."everyone's running around… Kim—you like to organize…so organize!" Kim grinned. Bonnie telling her to organize.
"Good point, Bonnie." A voice came from the door and Ron looked over.
"Hey, Felix!"
"Hey, Ron—heard you two saved the world again."
"Well, there was a lot of help." Ron answered. "Where were you?"
"Mom and I were stuck at home…with a bunch of people on the streets we couldn't make it into the space center." Felix answered. "Then mom felt herself start to…lose it." There was a communal wince—most of the students had seen how badly their parents had been affected, although, thank god, being a parent also seemed to buffer individuals from the worst of the madness, " and she had me tranquilize her….then I was just a matter of waiting on the roof and keeping them from burning the house down." They all nodded, and when Felix didn't continue, the matter was dropped. The unspoken law was that if people wanted to talk about it, they could, but nobody asked.
"Yeah, Bonnie's right." Kim said. "we need to get everyone working in one section at a time…"
"Wish a few teachers were here."
"Some are…but well…" Everyone looked around. "Without Barkin…"
"Yep." Ron said. He grinned, "But that gives us the perfect excuse to use the school loudspeaker! We'll put out the call and get everyone into the Gym and then we can get some stuff done!"
"Working to make school ready," Felix groused. Kim giggled, remembering the Bueno Nacho chat.
"No, working to let Bonnie have the spotlight."
"Huh?" Felix asked. Ron laughed.
"Give me a hand and I'll tell you the tale."
Middleton Hospital.
Shego and Andrea were in the cafeteria, after a grueling series of tests. Shego was back in her green and black, very stylish dress, with a floppy hat disguising her hair.
She really is sensitive about that. Andrea thought.
"Well, that's about it… I've run your EEG, and just about every other test I can think of… and bad news…and good news." Andrea told Shego.
"What?"
"I think, your brain is repairing itself…and those seizures may be a symptom of that."
"A symptom of repairing itself?" Shego stared. "How is this repairing?" Andrea got a cup of coffee and considered how to tell her.
"Shego… if you have a house with structural damage… you have two choices. You can knock down the main beams all at once…in which case it collapses…or you can fix it piecemeal." She put the coffee down. "I think that the damage to your brain was too serious to be healed all at once, not without serious risk to your mind…so what's happening is your brain is rewiring itself…and sometimes, you get a minor seizure when wires cross."
"And the big, stress related ones?"
"You start getting more active, your brain is more likely to have a short circuit." Shego glared.
"You have no idea how happy that makes me." The mercenary said. "When will it stop?"
"I don't know." Andrea replied. "Maybe tomorrow…maybe never. That's what the MRI will help us detect—I'm hoping that by analyzing it, in comparison to your GJ MRI and EEG, we can see how much of the brain is still damaged, and what speed the repairs are progressing at."
"Can't you give me a drug to stop it?"
"No." Andrea said flatly. "And I hope you won't, to put it frankly, be as stupid as Kim was and try to self medicate. Your comet exposure makes this a unique problem…and it's to risky since we still don't know what drugs will work for you."
"Andrea… I need to be a hundred percent." Shego said, and Andrea suddenly noticed that a very slight tremor had entered her hands.
Well of course…how long has it been since she depended on anyone?
"I'll do my best." Andrea said, and continued, consulting the printout, "Now, I also have some notes here that you spent time in a European clinic back when you were sixteen…but Baby can't find any records of why or what treatment was used…did this have anything to do with your comet powers?" There was a silence, and Andrea looked up to see Shego looking anywhere but her.
"Shego?"
"It wasn't related to my head…" Shego quietly said.
"Butit was comet related."
"It wa… I have to go." She said and got up abruptly, walking out of the room. Andrea walked after her, waiting until Shego had left the hospital, sitting on one of the benches in the garden.
"Well?" Shego said, without turning, "I'm crippled, not deaf." Andrea shook her head.
"You're neither…but why did you leave?"
"I don't like hospitals… well sometimes I don't."
"Most people don't, it's what they signify; Bad experience?"
"Yes." Andrea nodded.
"Well, we can just stick with the GJ files and-" Shego cut her off.
"Do you know what it's like to be a global hero at 16?"
"No…but my daughter does." Shego nodded, but didn't seem to be seeing the same thing Dr. Possible was.
"Yeah…well you and Mr. Possible kept a pretty tight leash on her… that whole Halloween grounding thing…" She laughed, "I loved the look on Kimmie's face about that." Andrea smiled.
"Well, she did lie…" Shego's face became sober.
"Well for me…" She paused, "Well, the comet basically gave me powers the ability to stay up all night…a body that most 16 year old girls would die for…"
"And you…got a little wild?" Shego laughed again.
"I had a 'you are number XX' ticket dispenser outside of my hotel room… you wouldn't believe how many guys I bedded." Andrea looked shocked
"at sixteen?... That never got out."
"Of course not… dear Hego made certain of that—lots of money, hints that we might not be as fast to fly to the rescue of companies that talked to much…very exclusive resorts with very big guards…" She gave a bitter laugh, "Remember, I was the good little girl heroine." Andrea waited.
"And of course, the final Kicker…" Shego murmured, "was that my comet enhanced system considered the Pill to be a foreign contaminant…like alcohol…"
"Oh boy…" Andrea breathed, she could see where this was going.
"Yep… pregnant at 16 and 1/3." Shego said. "I thought about hiding it…but the baby grew fast. You know what it's like to have a bulge when you're just one month pregnant?" She paused, "To say nothing of looking like you're nearly full term when you're four months into it." Andrea winced…carrying the twins had been bad enough as they got close, and only the fact that it'd be a few months had made it endurable…
"What did your family do?"
"Yelled at me… a lot." Shego put her hands in her lap, and linked them. "First time I was really scared…. Funny, I know, but there I was, sitting like a blimp and Hego was yelling at me, and all of a sudden I got terrified that he was going to beat the kid right out of me…so I took the great tactic of hiding in a corner and blubbering while he yelled at me." She paused, "You see…I'd made the team look bad…how could I be the brave pure heroine when I was obviously an unwed teenage mother?" She growled, "And then Hego, hero to millions, my loving older brother ordered me to get an abortion." She snarled in memory. "No…correction… when I told him he could go to hell before I'd kill my baby, that was the first time I was really scared…I mean really. It wasn't morning sickness that had me puking for two hours after that little discussion."
"What about the father?"
"Which one…out of a hundred candidates… Hell, I didn't even remember half their names." Shego said. "But it didn't matter—Hego sent me to a very exclusive, very private hospital in Europe…and this time, the guards were there to keep me in." She shrugged, "It was easy—obviously my actions showed that I was unbalanced enough for a temporary commitment order."
"He had you…committed?" Andrea breathed, a sick feeling in her stomach. "He had no right—an involuntary commitment can only come if the individual is a danger to herself or others!" Shego grinned at her, the expression not reaching her eyes.
"Now, doc, see, that's why you aren't rich. I'm certain the doctors who signed those orders were well compensated for their examinations. Besides, I was a minor, remember? And if Hego asked them and he was my legal guardian he probably knew what was best…being Hego and all"
"If I find their names, their asses are mine." Dr. Possible said, frostily.
"Maybe." Shego said, "Don't waste your time on it though. Eight years leaves a cold trail." She got up and walked over to the railing that surrounded the garden. Dr. Possible followed her. Shego put her hands on the bars, the metal cool under her fingers.
"So I stayed at that hospital for about 7 months…"
"But the pictures…"
"Mostly faked…and if you listen to the news conferences back then, I was always off in 'personal development.' " She laughed. "Yeah, learning how to go from the Good Year blimp to the Hindenburg…. Even my powers started going nuts for a while—I'd wake up in the middle of the night and find out that I'd burned through the covers…beats bed wetting I guess."
Andrea didn't listen to Shego's lighthearted tone. Her gaze fell on Shego's hands—her trembling hands. Shego noticed Andrea's gaze, and quickly let go of the railing and went back to sitting down, after she linked her fingers in her lap.
"And the kicker was…none of it mattered." She said softly. "Eight months in, I was waddling down the hallway to eat the latest disgusting craving…and I felt a pain and there was blood all over my legs."
"Why?" Andrea asked.
"The baby grew too fast…that's what the doctor said." Shego quietly answered. "I didn't remember much…just that I hurt worse than I ever had, and then when I woke up… well the baby had been stillborn." She paused, and tried to assay a grin, "And after I went and figured out a list of names for her…. Ungrateful kid." The grin slipped off her face in the instant she tried to produce it, and her attempt to keep a slight tremor out of her voice did no better. Dr. Possible looked at Shego and put a hand on her arm. The mercenary, Andrea reflected, looked much younger than she'd ever seen her look.
"What about your family?" Shego's face was a study in bitterness.
"Oh, they were thrilled." Shego said. She mimicked her brothers voice. "Shego, get well soon we need you to help go out and save the world again. We need you… no! the world needs you." In a different tone, "Well, it was for the best…you know." Andrea looked down and noticed that Shego's hands were white, they were clenched together so tightly…one fingernail had actually dug into the skin, a drop of blood shockingly red against her white skin. Andrea took Shego's hands in her own, the younger woman not seeming to notice, lost in her memories and monologue. "Not: 'sorry about your baby, Shego…have you stopped crying yourself to sleep yet?' Of course not…the little dirty family embarrassment had the grace to die in a miscarriage, so we don't need to speak of her ever again, 'I mean what would your fans say?'" The last phrase came out in Hego's inflection. She paused, "And people wonder why I turned…'evil'."
"Because they betrayed you?"
"Because they didn't care about me." Shego said, "Like I told Kimmie, the hero business eats you up. I don't know what would have happened if we'd just been ordinary people…or hell, extraordinary people…but we were 'heroes'." She spat, "and because of that, well god, you can't be a hero if you have little weaknesses, now can you?" Suddenly, she grabbed Andrea's hand, painfully right. "You make certain Kimmie understands that." Abruptly, she looked embarrassed and relinquished the hand. "I mean, er… because if she doesn't we'll be fighting again."
"Of course, Shego." Andrea said, accepting the lie.
Middleton High:
Bonnie had grabbed the mike in the deserted office, and (since power was up during the day), had ordered everyone to the gym…in a tone that made it clear everyone better go to the Gym. When they got there, there were just over 60 students in the Gym, along with a few friends who were along for the ride. Bonnie strode arrogantly to the center of the room, and looked around…evidently her desire to have Kim organize had been overridden by her desire to get them organized.
"We've been too disorganized, and if we don't get any better, this school is not going to be ready." Bonnie said. "And if we wait until the adults get around to it…I'll be a senior citizen before my senior year ends."
"So, uh…what do we do?" Brick asked.
"Get organized." Bonnie said, "I'll handle clean up in the west wing, Kim and Ron will take twenty of you and start working on the halls—get all the trash out first, and then we can think about repair and repainting."
"I guess we've been commanded." Ron said, grinning. Kim nodded, then heard raised voices.
"Well, I'm not working in the halls…" One kid was saying to another.
"Oh yeah, Well I don't want to work with you, because why would I work with a creep and a scaredy cat!"
"What?"
"Well, you hid under your bed during the riot!"
"That's a damn lie!" The one kid, a sophomore, threw a punch, as the other kid started a kick. Neither one got finished. The fist hit Ron's palm and stopped, and the foot involved in the kick somehow ended up under Ron's foot. Then Ron had both kids, his hands on their shoulders companionably…and only a few saw how his thumbs were just in the right place to press on a certain nerve. When ever they started to move, they found themselves going numb.
"Hey Guys… no reason to fight, we've got lots of work to do, and I know that neither of you knew the other was "under the bed" because that would mean you were there too." A giggle from some of the girls at that comment caused the accuser to turn bright red. Ron continued, "So how about you both go with Bonnie—I'm certain she can find something for you to do." Kim grinned, and heard a voice in her ear from Monique.
"Girl…you're lucky he's yours, or you'd face some stiff competition…" Kim nodded.
"I know…"
"If we're finished?" Bonnie asked sourly. The two abashed students nodded. Bonnie then continued, "OK…we'll count off and divide up that way."
"So, why aren't you doing this?" Monique asked Kim.
"Bonnie has it working." Kim said.
"Can't you do anything?" Monique continued teasingly. Kim shook her head, a thoughtful expression on her face.
"Not always." She said. "For some things, you need friends."
Middleton Hospital
Walking back to the MRI, Andrea watched Shego out of the corner of her eye. She was still very subdued… Maybe she should-
"So, I've made my dark confession of my life's shame. " Shego said. "Your turn."
"Oh?"
"Kimmie and Ron are at your house… when Ron isn't at his parent's house, he is with Kim…and pardon the vulgarity, I bet they're screwing each other's brains out." She paused, "So why haven't you grounded them?" Possible laughed softly.
"Because I never demand something I know won't happen." More seriously, she continued, "I'll say what I told Jonathon… those two have moved beyond the point we can tell them to stay apart. They love us, they'll learn from us…but thanks to you and what they learned in Japan…they don't need us any more." She shrugged, "It would hurt both of them terribly, as well as me…but if they had to leave, today, and build a life together, I have… no fears."
"Keeping track to make certain there are no little…accidents?" Shego asked.
"Kim…and oh God, if you say I told you this, I'll call you a liar, so my daughter won't kill me…. Just got a long term implant. Six months."
"Smart." Shego shrugged, "She's not in a sling anymore—special treatment?"
"Her and Ron… well I think it might be the last effects of that 'magic'—they healed much faster than they should have…not that I'm complaining!" Andrea said.
"So you're ok with it… daddy is probably pretending nothing is happening."
"He knows…" Andrea said. "As much as he tries to avoid the thought that Kimmiecub is getting older." Shego laughed.
"What about Ron's parents? They don't spend as much time over there…are they ok with it?"
"Oh yes…" Andrea said, "But well….Kim has her own bathroom and Ron doesn't, and I think both of them are still a little…"
"Nervous about running into the parents on their way to shower together?"
"Bingo."
Then they were at the MRI room and Shego sighed.
"Well….once more into the breech…here's hoping this shows you the way to cure Shego of her little falling over and frothing problem."
Late that night, after everyone else was in bed, the twins praying that their father and Drakken would return to work…and never, ever take them out into public dressed as they had been, Andrea Possible was working in the living room. She'd promised Shego to do something, especially after the mercenary had suffered another small seizure. This one had involved loss of short term memory for several moments, and the fear on her face when she looked around the no-longer familiar street…and the humiliation when she'd come out of it, had not been pleasant sights.
Unfortunately, it looked to be a genuinely global problem—there was no single area on the MRI that indicated a damaged part of the brain, although there were areas that weren't showing up well…which meant…
"Comet powers." Dr. Possible sighed. The brain chemistry would probably be a better route—there certainly wasn't anything she could go and operate on… The computer beeped, and Dr. Possible blinked and touched a button. Wade's face appeared in the split screen.
"Oh, Hi, Dr. Possible." He said.
"Hello Wade…what's the sitch?" She said, smiling. Wade blinked at Kim's trademark phrase and then nodded.
"I tried to call Kim, but her Kimmunicator is off…and so is Ron's…are they in trouble?" Andrea couldn't keep a smile off of her face.
"Well….they both went up to the bedroom a few hours ago…and they were pretty tired." She paused, "But maybe not that tired…are you certain they just weren't in the middle of something?"
That's mean. She thought, I really shouldn't make a kid turn that color. On the other hand, Wade probably needed to be reminded that Kim and Ron's relationship…had changed a bit.
"Ummm…." Wade forged gamely ahead. "But I had a message from Baby."
"Baby? Why didn't she just call directly?"
"She's…nervous."
"Wade…what did she do?" Andrea asked. She wasn't nervous about hijacking the combined defense systems of the planet…
"Well…it's your fault."
"How?" Wade looked annoyed and embarrassed.
"Remember when you yelled at Baby for hacking into the hospital records?"
"Yes, and I'd do it again—those were confidential records." Now Wade looked aggrieved.
"Baby started out as a data miner program!"
"And turned into a world girdling AI, Wade—she needs a little more…moral backing." Andrea said, "and I thought she'd incorporated our discussion into her core imperatives…" Pause, "And you're trying to change the subject." Wade sighed.
"She was looking around for more information on Shego…and she found some…it wasn't…precisely confidential…but Baby is worried that you might get annoyed."
"She asked you to share it with me?"
"She gave it to me to look at."
"OK…give."
"Well…. Shego's baby." Andrea winced. When she'd keyed the information about the miscarriage into the records, she'd forgotten to specifically tell Baby to keep it secret…and the AI was still very… uncertain on reading human emotions.
"Wade…you shouldn't have heard about that, and let Baby know that nobody else had better learn about that. I'm probably the first person outside of Shego's family to know about it." She thought about who he'd been trying to call, "And that goes double for Kim and Ron. It's Shego's secret to tell, not ours." Wade looked abashed at her tone, and Andrea forced a smile into her face. Sometimes she forgot that for all his genius, Wade was still a kid…and one not yet aware of how devastating secrets could be.
"Now…what was the information?"
"There was no autopsy on the miscarriage." Andrea sighed.
"Not surprising Wade—it wasn't a public hospital…and I wouldn't be surprised if the doctors decided to spare Shego that, especially if the cause of death was obvious." Wade nodded.
"Yes…but Baby found something else out…she didn't hack the confidential records…but she did examine the hospital inventory."
"And?"
"There was no expenditure of a body bag…" Wade said, "And baby ran a statistical analysis on the consumables… food and such."
"Yes?"
"The hospital listed twelve newborns… but according to Baby, in comparison to other years, enough medications, supplies and food was used to account for Thirteen newborn infants."
To be continued.