I don't own these characters.
19: Take a chance
"I can't believe I agreed to do this," Shego sighed. She was on her way to Florida with Kim. They were on a plane and getting ready to jump out of the aircraft. She could not believe she had agreed to go all the way to Florida just to find out about a relationship that was over a hundred and fifty years old. Not to mention, she was fairly certain it was a one-sided thing and, yet, there she went to Florida. She had to be out of her mind, she concluded.
"What's the problem or do you just get off on complaining?" Kim inquired.
"What did you just say?" Shego asked in a surprised tone with an expression to match.
"Do you get off on complaining," the redhead dared to repeat it.
Shego could not believe her ears, but the question made her laugh. She just did not expect such a thing to come out of her Princess' mouth. After all, Kim was supposed to be a goody-goody. And then, she realized she thought of Kim and used the words "her Princess." They needed to get out of the plane now before she had any more thoughts like that.
They dived out of the plane seconds later and began freefalling to their destination. They were going to see someone Kim believed might be able to help them in their quest to figure out what happened between Sheshona and Doctor Kimberly Possible. Shego actually hoped it worked. It would be annoying to make the trip and then have nothing to show for their trouble.
"I love this!" Kim informed Shego as they plummeted. The hero did a few tumbles, possibly showing off.
"Because you're insane," Shego replied.
"You don't like it?"
"Not enough to be smiling about it," the thief answered.
Kim certainly grinned up a storm as they let gravity do what it did best. Shego did not have a soft spot for freefalling like Kim did. It was not that she was scared or anything, no. She just would not do it to relieve boredom or something like that. Kim, on the other hand, would free fall through the whole planet if she could almost everyday.
"This is so fun!" Kim said, still grinning.
"It's all right," Shego begrudgingly agreed.
"Yeah!"
Shego smiled a bit because the college student really enjoyed herself and it was nice to see. They fell for a few more moments before pulling their chords to open their parachutes to land safely. As soon as they hit the ground, they shed their parachute gear. Shego looked around where they had landed.
"This'll be fun," the pale woman commented sarcastically because they had landed right in front of Chez Leisure, a retirement community.
"There you go being cynical again," the redhead replied.
"I like being cynical and you know you like me that way, too," Shego remarked with a smirk.
"As if I like you," Kim playfully scoffed, turning her nose up.
"You know you do. I'm very likeable," the raven-haired woman retorted, still smirking like the cat that ate the canary.
"Likeable is not the word I'd use."
"No, but you like me just the same."
The slim hero only rolled her olive eyes and led Shego into the retirement home to go see Kim's nana. She figured if anybody knew something about Doctor Kimberly Possible and if the house the doctor used to live in still stood, it would be her grandmother. After all, her grandmother was the matriarch of the Possible family. She had to know it all, in Kim's mind anyway.
"Are you sure about this?" Shego asked with an arched eyebrow. It made sense to her in the way that to find out about the past, it was best to talk to someone close to it, but she also had seen her fair share of rambling old people.
"Yeah. Why are you still being all cynical? Just trust me," Kim replied.
"Fine," the emerald-eyed woman yielded. She could not believe that she agreed to trust Kim Possible, but stranger things had happened.
They came to her grandmother's door and Kim knocked. No one answered the door and Shego impatiently huffed while folding her arms over her chest. She would be extremely pissed if they had made the trip and the old woman was not even home.
"Sometimes, Nana turns her hearing aid down for whatever reason," Kim explained and she knocked harder. Shego was ready to kick the door in by the time it was finally opened.
"Kimberly Ann," the senior citizen said with a warm smile as she noticed her granddaughter. She was always glad to get a visit from her granddaughter.
"Hey, Nana," Kim greeted her grandmother and leaned down to hug the elderly female.
"Come in, dear, come in," Nana said while ushering the redhead into her home.
"All right. Oh, Nana, this is my friend, Shego," Kim introduced the villainess. She did not hesitate when she used the word "friend." She did not even think anything of it.
Shego had noticed and raised an eyebrow, but she did not argue with it. She did not mind the little redhead thinking she was a friend. It was not like she planned to do anything to the kid, so it was safe.
"Oh, hello, dear," Nana greeted the green-skinned woman with a warm smile. The thought ran through her head that Kim certainly hung around some odd people since Shego had jade-tinted pale skin, but she would accept since Shego was a friend of her beloved granddaughter.
"Hello…" Shego trailed off, hoping the old woman would provide a name for her to use.
"Oh, just call me Nana," the elderly female replied.
"Not likely," Shego muttered. She did not even call her own grandmother "nana." Fine, so she called her grandmother "grandma," but that was neither here nor there as far as she was concerned.
"Can I get you two anything? Tea? Cakes? I could make lemon squares," Nana offered politely.
"No, that's all right, Nana. We were hoping we could ask you some questions," Kim replied.
"Questions? What kind of questions, dearie?" Nana inquired.
"Well, do you know anything about a doctor with my name in our family?" Kim asked curiously.
Nana thought on the question for a moment. Shego was willing to bet that the old woman's mind failed her at that point and she would not be able to remember anything relevant to them. Shego had a biased against senior citizens because almost all of them in her family were bonkers, but that was not really fair considering the fact that she felt everyone in her family was a little insane.
"Was she a general physician?" Nana asked.
"I believe so, maybe with a little mix of psychology before it was really big. Do you know anything about her?" the redhead inquired with some hope in her leaf-colored gaze.
"Not much, but this sounds vaguely familiar. I mean, she was around about three generations ahead of me. I do believe that for her time, she was quite the radical in her medical practices. She often made herbal treatments and prescribed those instead of conventional medicine and I am to understand that the treatments worked well. She also recognized many mental illnesses when they were looked at as all other sorts of things. She also championed for better treatment of the mentally ill for most of her life," Nana answered.
The response gave both Kim and Shego some hope. Nana seemed to have some knowledge about Kimberly. She might be able to shed some light on their mystery.
"Do you know where she lived?" Kim asked.
"Oh, yes. She lived right in Middleton. That is almost always where the Possible family starts out, no matter the branch."
"Do you know exactly where she lived then?" the petite adventurer asked. She could not believe how lucky she and Shego were for the doctor to have lived right in Middleton, even though they probably would have journeyed to the center of the Earth if she lived there because it might hold answers for them.
"Yes, I still have the deed to the house and everything," Nana answered.
"Really?" both Kim and Shego inquired in sheer disbelief. How lucky could they possibly be?
"Yes."
"So, the house is still there and everything?" the redheaded female inquired with an eager grin.
"It is," Nana confirmed with a nod.
Wow, we are like leprechauns with all of this luck. Maybe it's because Shego likes the color green, Kim thought with a laugh. She hoped they did not waste all of their luck on the house because they still needed some for when they got to the house.
"Where?" Kim asked almost anxiously. She was barely able to contain herself. She wanted to go there right now and just search the whole house for some sign that the doctor and Sheshona found true love and that they lived happily ever after.
"Well, it's out in the Middleton woods," Nana informed them. "What's this all about?" she asked, but they glanced right over her question.
"Why there?" both girls inquired in puzzled tones. What kind of doctor lived in the woods?
"The city expanded early in the twentieth century and people were worried that it would grow into a big city without any green areas to relax in. No one wanted that, so they decided to let the forest regrow at the edge of town and it engulfed what used to be a pretty good neighborhood," Nana explained.
"So, they left the houses there?" Shego asked with a confused eyebrow raised. It seemed stupid to her if that was what they did.
"No, most of the houses were torn down because a lot of the people were looking to move to an even better neighborhood on the other side of Middleton. A few people remained for various reasons. Either the owners refused to sell, like us, or the city just did not tear the houses down, even though they were empty."
"Is the house still there?" Kim asked again, hope fading just a little.
"I'm sure it is. No one's been living in there for a long time, but I used to play in there as a child. It's a very rundown house. I'm sure it's falling apart now. It has been over half a century since a person's even been in the house. It's been even longer than that since someone lived in the house. I hope you're not thinking of playing around in there," Nana replied.
"We need to go to the house," Kim told her grandmother. She ignored the fact that her grandmother had used the word "playing" in regards to her and Shego going to the house. They were two grown women. They did not "play around" anywhere in the way that Nana meant.
"It's dangerous. The house could fall apart," Nana insisted. She hated to think of what kind of the shape the place was in. After all, when she was a child it had been ready to collapse as far as she could tell. No one had really cared for that house since her own grandmother passed on and even when her grandmother was alive, she had not lived in the house for her whole life.
"Still, we need to get in there," the slender hero pressed.
"Look, no one's lived in that place since my grandmother Cynthia and she wasn't there for long. My mother made her move out because my parents didn't like my grandmother being out there in the woods alone. My mother was better dealing with my grandmother than my father was. That place is ready to cave in and I just don't want you playing around in there," Nana informed both young women.
"But, we need to go in," Kim insisted with a pleading expression on her face. They had to figure out what happened or it was going to drive her crazy.
"For what? What is this all about, Kimberly Ann?" Nana inquired.
"We need some personal information on the doctor."
"So, you need to go into that old house for it?" Nana asked in a bewildered tone. She did not see the connection there.
"Yes, we want to see if any of her personal things are still there," Kim answered. She thought it might work, too, if no one had lived in the house since her Nana's grandmother. All kinds of things might still be in that house.
"I can't let you go into that house. It might collapse right on top of you," the old woman continued to argue.
"Nana," Kim huffed in frustration. "I can do anything, so I think I can make it through an old house."
"It might collapse," Nana said again.
"What if we fix it up before searching it so it doesn't collapse?" Shego proposed because she really had no desire to sit there and watch the pointless argument go on any longer than she had. Besides, if Kim's Nana was anything like her grandma, she was sure Kim would not win this argument.
"Excuse me?" Nana said because that caught her off guard.
The suggestion surprised Kim, too. Shego just wanted the easiest solution to the problem to shut the Possibles up. She doubted shouting at them would have been the way to go, even though it was very tempting. She really did not want to fix up someone else's house. God, she did not even want to fix up the Go house and she had actually lived there for a little while. But, they needed to get into that house if they were ever going to get to the bottom of what happened in the past.
"Well, if we fix the house up, it won't be dangerous. Then it should be all right for us to search the area, right?" Shego explained.
"I suppose," Nana hesitantly conceded.
"Spanking! So, we'll fix up the house and everything'll be fine. So, can you give us directions to the house?" Kim requested.
Nana sighed, but she could see that her spirited granddaughter would not be denied. She gave the pair the information that they desired and made them promise to fix the house before searching for whatever it was they were looking for. The girls never did get around to telling Nana what they needed to find, but she told them that the house was open to them. She provided them with keys to the house, if there even was a door left on the place, and sent them on their way. Kim and Shego looked at each other as they left and they both smiled. It would be fine when they got to that house.
"So, do you want to head out tomorrow?" Shego asked.
"Sorry, class," Kim answered.
Shego groaned. "Of course. I just had to pair up with the one person on Earth that could do everything, but figure out how to schedule free time."
"I also can't cook," Kim added just to be a brat.
"I won't hold that against you since I don't need you to cook." The implications hung heavy in the air between them. She needed Kim to search the house, though, because they were in this together.
"Don't worry. It'll be even more fun when we get to it," Kim promised with a smile. Shego decided not to burst her bubble.
-8-8-8-8-
"Come on, Princess!" Shego called behind her as she practically flew over a hill. She made her way through the Middleton Forest on an ATV.
"I knew you got the faster one!" Kim complained as she tried to catch up to the thief. She was not too far behind, but it was too far in her opinion. It felt like she was losing, even though they were not competing. Shego teasing her did not help.
"Stop whining and come on!" the emerald-eyed woman replied. Now, this was fun, much more than freefalling. It was definitely more fun than waiting for Kim to get out of class.
Kim pushed her ATV and managed to catch up with her companion. They recklessly charged through the thick brush, over steep hills, and a couple of short cliffs. Branches crunched underneath their vehicles and occasionally a squirrel or some other animal dived out of their way.
Supposedly, there was a road that they could have easily used to get to the house, but where was the fun in that? They would take the road when they had to get supplies and things to fix up the place, as they had given their words to do that. Their first trip was to see what they dealt with and to break their word a little bit because they planned to search the house. They passed what might have been the remains of a gate, but most of it was missing and what was left was bent out of shape.
"Whoa, she wasn't kidding," Shego commented as she skidded her vehicle to a halt in front of the house.
"That is old," Kim said as she pulled up behind Shego.
The house was big and it appeared more than ready to fall apart. There had been two pillars at the front door, but only the bases were left. There were holes in the walls and whatever glass left in the windows had been broken. The chimney pillars had fallen and the bricks littered the dirt around what was once the yard. It looked like being a haunted house would be a step up.
"It definitely is a fixer-upper. I have got to learn to stop volunteering for stuff. Although, I would've thought the Possibles took better care of stuff than this," Shego remarked. She actually meant that, though. If her family took care of old stuff, then she really thought the Possible family would have kept everything in their possession pristine.
"Is this how I'm going to spend my weekend, you insulting me?" the redhead inquired with an arched eyebrow.
"Doy. You knew the job was dangerous when you took it. I mean, you do know how I am. So, what do you want to do, go back and get the stuff or have a look inside first for some stuff?" Shego asked with a smirk. They had promised to fix the place up before rampaging through the house, but how could they resist?
Kim smiled back. "Let's go have a look inside first."
"That's my Princess," Shego said.
Kim looked at Shego and blushed a bit. The older woman could not believe that she said that out loud, but since it garnered a blush from the redhead, she decided she might have to say it more often. Kim managed to shake the flush away and turned her attention back to the house.
The pair dismounted their ATVs once the slightly awkward moment passed. They walked onto the porch of the dilapidated house and Shego's foot fell through one of the steps. Kim grabbed her and pulled her up.
"Maybe we should just burn it down and start over," Shego muttered, shaking her head.
"Shego, look." Kim pointed to the left and there was a swing, just like the one back at the Go house.
"Maybe swings were just a thing back then," Shego offered, but she stared for just as long as Kim did.
They doubted the swing meant anything significant to their mystery, but it gave them something to look forward to once they got the house fixed up. They would be able to use the swing. They went to the door, which they were a magnificent sight back when someone cared about it and the windowpanes that framed it. For now, they had all but rotted out of the doorjamb.
-*-(1856)-*-
Sheshona was not sure what why she stood on the porch and stared at the lovely wooden door, which was flanked by two beautiful stained glass windows, in front of her. She had wandered all over Middleton for the past few days, only to end up back at the house. It was the only place that she wanted to be in Middleton and she only wanted to be there for one reason.
She scanned the porch and noticed the swing in the corner, but did not think anything of it. She saw a few potted plants strategically placed where they would get the most sun. She moved to the beautiful oak door and knocked. It took all of her courage just to do that and not run afterwards. She silently hoped a maid or some other servant did not answer.
She had pretty much scouted out the location to see what kind of habits the inhabitants had because she wanted to avoid everyone except for the lady of the house. She had not planned on coming to the door, though. She tried telling herself she should be content to watch, but she was not. She was not sure if the things she observed would hold true because she doubted she had watched long enough, but she needed to do more than observe. The door opened and there stood her beloved doctor.
"Sheshona," Kimberly gasped in total shock. It looked like she had seen a body rise from the grave. Actually, that sight probably would have surprised her less than what she currently witnessed.
"Are you alone?" Sheshona inquired.
Kimberly was so stunned that she could only nod as a response. The pale woman stepped inside of the house and closed the door behind her. Kimberly was going to say something, but her former patient did not let her do that. Sheshona licked her lips before she attacked the redhead's mouth with her own. Kimberly grunted upon contact because it was a forceful embrace. Sheshona placed one hand on Kimberly's hip to hold the doctor still and her other hand started pulling up Kimberly's skirts.
"Wait, dearest one," Kimberly said as she figured out Sheshona's objective.
"What? What am I waiting for?" Sheshona inquired while leaning in for a new kiss. She had not been able to imagine how much she had missed the soft, tender feel of the physician's mouth. She needed to have more, needed to have everything.
If a simple kiss could feel like the greatest thing on Earth, Sheshona could not even imagine what the main event would feel like. She wanted to get to that as quickly as she could. She wanted so badly to feel the redhead's legs. She could remember how she enjoyed them and now, she could savor them. She could run her fingers up and down the length of those legs, kiss the insides of Kimberly's thighs, and draw nonsense patterns with her tongue. She almost felt overwhelmed by the idea of having her dearest doctor again, but she refused to let that overtake her. She was where she wanted to be now and she wanted to just enjoy that, but she had to wait a moment it seemed because her darling doctor wanted her to stop.
So, Sheshona managed to somehow – and she would never figure out how – to control herself enough to stop. Kimberly glared at her and Sheshona gulped. That is not a welcoming expression, Sheshona noted.
"Is this all you want from me? I mean, I do not hear from you for more than three months and then you show up at my doorstep with only the intent to ravish me again? And then after you have your way with me, will you run away once more? Leave me heartbroken and distressed? Tease me with an address to contact you only to never have those correspondences answered? Do you think I would willingly live through that a second time? Do you?" Kimberly demanded, poking Sheshona in the chest with her index finger. Wide emerald eyes stared down at the finger.
The redhead was offended that Sheshona had done what she did and then had the nerve to show up today, kissing her as if everything was all right. Everything was far from all right. She was not some object for Sheshona to pick up, use from her own entertainment, and put down when she was done whenever the urge overcame her. She refused to be anything like that. She had pride and dignity in herself and she would not let anyone treat her as if she were some toy.
Sheshona was a bit stunned by her dear doctor's tone, but she should have expected as much. She had done horrible things, using Kim for her own eternal hunger and then making a rather poor attempt at distancing herself from her darling doctor, even though it was clear that Kimberly was desperately in love with her. It was logical that she could not just come back to the doctor and be completely welcomed. But, I want to be. I want her to love me and I can love her.
"Doc," Sheshona said in a low, sorrowful voice. She did not want to be turned away. She needed the redheaded female in her life and she would do just about anything to make Kimberly understand that and accept her back.
"I'm not your doctor anymore," Kimberly pointed out for lack of a better thing to say. She folded her arms across her chest.
"No, you are my doctor because you're mine. You're my dearest doctor," Sheshona stated in a firm whisper and then she placed a small, gentle kiss on the redhead's lips. She nearly breathed a sigh of relief when Kimberly did not pull away.
"If I am so dear to you, why didn't you write back?" Kimberly asked, accepting the kiss despite her anger. She missed the attention and the affection, so she took what she could get, even though she remained incensed.
"I tried. I really tried, but I'm no good at writing, especially emotional things. I didn't know what to write or how to put anything. Every time I wrote something, I just balled it up and started over. I never got anything done because I just couldn't write. The most I managed was unfinished thing," Sheshona replied.
"Uh-huh. And where is this 'unfinished thing'?" Kimberly demanded, needing proof.
Sheshona grimaced. "Uh… I left it back with my stuff." Kimberly did not look convinced and the raven-haired woman knew she needed to do something fast. "I still have it! I promise, I'll show you and you'll see just how worthless I am with writing. You'll see. I tried, but it didn't feel right. I couldn't put this on paper."
"Anything would have been all right," Kimberly admitted with a sigh, somewhat taken aback by Sheshona's insistence. She would have taken one word, just something to let her know that her love was still alive and acknowledging her.
"I know that now," the pale woman commented in a slightly ashamed voice. It made sense to her because she would have taken just about anything from Kimberly in a letter. She wished she could have given the doctor at least a little of what the doctor gave her on paper, but she did not think that she measured up to the physician.
"What do you want from me, Sheshona?" the redhead asked in a very serious tone. She was rightfully suspicious of the woman that she loved and Sheshona respected that.
"You know," the raven-haired female answered with a smirk. She tried to be her usual self. She did not want to come off as pathetic or wounded. She would hate herself if she seemed pitiful and she feared her doctor would not love her if she was not the same.
"If that's all, then you need to leave. I will not be used by you again," Kimberly replied sternly.
"Doc," Sheshona said.
"Tell me what you want from me," Kimberly ordered.
Sheshona was quiet. What did she want from the doctor? Well, of course she wanted all kinds of sorted little sexual favors, but that was a given. What did she want beyond physical pleasure? What had driven her to Kimberly instead of any number of willing conquests? What did she want from Kimberly? You know and you will have to tell her or be cast out.
-8-8-8-8-
Next time: Sheshona figures out just what she wants from Kimberly and Kim makes what she thinks is a big request.