6. "The family is one of nature's masterpieces." -George Santayana
November, 2005 - the day after Thanksgiving
"Shego...?"
She was getting tired of hearing her name like that. At first it had been irritating, but now it felt too personal. He was trying to get at something in her core that she didn't yet understand, and wasn't sure she wanted to. But she couldn't even begin to answer him when hearing her name spoken like that sent uneasy swirls throughout her being.
"What?" she snapped, much harsher than intended.
Drakken recoiled, the confused and hurt look that had become familiar on his face making her regret her attitude even more. And then she wondered why she cared about hurting him.
"Why aren't you tired of hearing all my childhood stories yet? I thought they would bore you."
Shego pinched the bridge of her nose where a headache was forming and sighed.
"Some of them do. I did not need to hear about you and Motor Ed in sewing class with your aunt when you were six. But I like a lot of them," she said, offering a half-truth as it was all she could manage within her own understanding. Plus, his prattling stayed off his attempts to force a serious conversation. "So keep talking, you blue doofus."
Drakken still looked confused, but after a moment, he took a breath and continued with the tale of the Lego-building contest he and a young Motor Ed had entered in grade school. Shego looked at the photo album at her feet that she had gained permission from Mama Lipsky to take with them.
They were nearly halfway through the hover-car flight back to the lair after the unique Thanksgiving meal with a number of Lipsky family members and friends, but nothing about the event or the three days' visit to New Jersey had struck Shego more than Drakken's deep desire to talk about the past.
It was easier to wonder about him than her own feelings, anyway.
She was listening as Drakken talked, but she was fixated on how obsessed with the photo album he had been throughout the visit, each image sparking a new memory and a new deep story for him to tell. He had never been so animated when talking to her, except when he had an idea for world-domination.
An idea suddenly struck Shego...which she mentally backpedaled from in the very next moment. She had never gotten Drakken a Christmas gift... And yet now, she had the perfect idea, and was even excited about it. So much so that she couldn't shake it, and the desire to follow-through only grew stronger as she listened to him.
She looked down at the photo album at her feet as the idea began to fully form and gave in to the smile tugging at her lips. As she glanced over at Drakken, for once amid the confusion of the last few days she let go of her insecurities to let herself simply be in the moment. And when he looked at her with a giddy grin as he finished his tale, she smiled right back.