{A/N: I bet y'all thought you'd learn about Elizabeth in the last chapter. ;) It's this chapter, so on with the show.}

*7.) The Secret of Elizabeth Anne*

/13 months before present/

"He-ey, Kim!" the former hero heard from behind her. Kim turned around and saw a young man that tickled her fogged memory.

"And you -hic- are?" she asked, her alcoholic intake causing her to hiccup.

"Josh Mankey, remember? I'm the cool guy you dated back in junior year," he replied with a (to him) smooth and charming smile.

"I remember the name," Kim admitted. "But you weren't that cool."

"You seemed to think so then," Josh reminded her, the smile never leaving his face.

"As I -hic- recall, I was pretty into the closet back then, too," was her rejoinder. She signaled the bartender for another drink.

"Kim, Kim," he said, shaking his head slightly as he took a stool next to the redhead, "you and I both know that when a girl says she's a lesbian, she really means she hasn't found the right man."

"I'm pretty -hic- sure that when I came out I -hic- meant it," she told him, after downing half of her 4th drink.

"Choose to be straight again, then," he suggested. "You and me? We went good together."

"I'm not into the -hic- male persuasion," Kim insisted adamantly.

"You want to dance, then?" Josh asked, changing topic faster than her alcohol-soaked mind could keep up with. "Just dancing, between two old schoolmates."

"I suppose a dance couldn't hurt," she mumbled, accepting his proffered arm. He led the way out onto the dance floor, where the orchestral band was playing a moderately-paced set. The blonde/brunette took the lead in the dancing, leading the drunk ex-teen hero through a few dances. The spinning and twirling, combined with her drunkenness, soon had Kim giggling more than a bit (a little on the mad side, if she was honest with herself). Soon, though, Josh was leading her off the dance floor and away from the party, claiming that she was quite drunk and needed to lay down. Kim agreed with the needing to lay down part.

He took Kim to what looked like a sitting room down a hall that was close to the party, but isolated from it as well. He took a liberty with her, after he'd shut the door, and planted a kiss on her lips. Kim felt a pair of soft lips on her own, and her semiconscious fogged up mind assumed she was being kissed by a woman. She returned the kiss, and let out a moan as she felt a pair of soft hands caress her hips. It didn't take long, as such things went, for Kim to find her dress bunched up past her waist and shoved down from her breasts. When she felt something nudging her entrance, though, adrenaline flooded her system, chasing away her alcohol-induced stupor. With the clarity came an awareness of her situation.

"Stop, Josh," Kim said, moving to push him away. But being on top of her gave him leverage, especially since her body was still shaking off the effects of the alcohol.

"No can do, Kim," he replied. "You wanted this."

"I'm drunk, Josh," she tried to reason. "It isn't right to take advantage of someone who's drunk."

"You wanted this, and you're going to get it," he said forcefully. No one heard Kim's screams and cries for him to stop, and after he was done she was too distraught and ashamed to do anything more than run out of the party and take a cab home.

/1 year before present/

It was a month after that party, where Josh Mankey had taken advantage of her emotional and drunken state to rape her, and Kim was staring at the stick in her hands. She was glaring at its verdict, even as the bottom fell out of her stomach and steel bands of fear squeezed tightly around her heart. Kim, in spite of her previously active and strenuous lifestyle, had always been as regular as a Swiss clock when it came to her period. So when she missed this one, she prayed it was just a hormonal shift from the emotional trauma of the past month. She'd gotten a test, and then had gotten a second one after seeing the first one's result. Two different tests, from two high end brands noted for their highly accurate results, and both said the same thing.

She was pregnant.

"Damn it," she said, feeling tears gather in her eyes. 'This isn't fair,' she thought. 'He raped me just that one time, and now I'm carrying that bastard's baby.' She didn't blame the now-developing child, of course; it wasn't his (or her) fault, after all. 'I can't stay here,' she told herself. While she knew her parents loved her, and would be more than willing to help her with the baby - HER baby - she couldn't put them through what would follow. They wouldn't let what others said about her bother them, wouldn't care about what the know-nothing media vultures would say and imply and hint. She didn't want to have to deal with what people would say about her - whether it was behind her back or not. And she viewed abortion as murder, and would never do that to anyone - much less an unborn child that had yet to do anything.

Going through with her decision, Kim began filling a backpack up with clothes and undergarments. She grabbed her stuff out of the bathroom, and raided a box under her bed (and one in her closet) for her 'emergency cash' - which actually came to about three thousand dollars. Looking at the backpack, Kim wondered about her choice. No one would hold what had happened against her - as far as her family and friends were concerned, anyway - and would be more than happy to help her out. But she couldn't burden them with this; they had their own lives to worry about. And no one would really notice - or care - that 'former teen hero' Kim Possible vanished. She'd leave behind anything that would allow her to be tracked or easily located. She couldn't use an alias, either, if she needed to get a job while being ghosted; she'd need Wade to set up a legitimate one and the less of a trail she left the better. She knew of a few places in the US where people who owed her favors lived; she would head to one of them and call in the favors.

/1 month later, 11 months before present/

Kim took a month to make her way across the country; partly out of a need to completely vanish without a trace, partly because she didn't really know where she wanted to go. A week after she'd left, she got her hair cut down to a punk-style near buzz cut. A week after that, she decided that she would go to the northwest part of the country; maybe cross over into Canada. Right now, though, she was puking up her breakfast in the restroom of a restaurant called Tai Chi Latte Café. 'This is about right,' she thought. She'd picked up a book about pregnancy, and morning sickness was supposed to start around the second month of the first trimester.

"Are you okay, ma'am?" she heard someone ask. Taking a moment to make sure nothing else would come up, Kim turned to see a blonde woman wearing the café's uniform looking at her in concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine," the redhead replied. "Happened yesterday, too."

"Morning sickness," the other woman said knowingly. At Kim's surprised expression she chuckled. "My sister had a baby recently, and I looked out for her the entire time so I'm familiar with the signs." She held out a hand and helped the redhead up. "I'm Stephanie."

"K-Anne," Kim replied, automatically starting to use her first name but quickly stumbling into her middle name.

"Kay Anne?" Stephanie asked.

"Kay is the initial for my first name," Kim said. "But I've been going by my middle name."

"Well, Kane," the blonde said with a wink, "welcome to Seattle."

/3 months later, 8 months before present/

Meeting Stephanie three months ago had been a blessing in disguise for the redhead; she told Kim about the café needing another waitress, and helped her boss hire 'K. Anne P.' Kim also got a job at a nearby SmartyMart because she'd helped that particular franchise's owner out before. Stephanie had also helped Kim locate an apartment and had even paid the security deposit on it. Kim knew how lucky she was to have met her; the older woman was also into the 'friends with benefits' idea. She didn't push Kim - or 'Kane' as she insisted on calling the redhead - into it, but only put the offer on the table for the younger woman to accept or reject. While appreciative of having a friend, and for the chance to live a life out of the limelight, Kim always seemed to be in some kind of funk. It wasn't depression, or even close to it. Neither was she at the opposite end of the spectrum. A resigned state of being seemed to be the best way to describe her mental and emotional state. She was going through the motions of living, without actually living. Stephanie knew that Kim was feeling the pain of a broken heart that had never healed, and always tried to help the redhead out however she could.

Kim enjoyed - as much as she could currently - working at the café, and the job at SmartyMart gave her a place to slow her thoughts down in mind-numbing drudgery. Her apartment - not much bigger overall than her old room at her parents' house - was all set for the arrival of her daughter; her boss at the café was covering her medical expenses until after the baby was born, and last month's visit had given her the baby's sex. She hadn't decided on a first name yet, though she knew she'd use 'Anne' for the middle name, and of course her last name would be Possible. She had made sure to send her mom a postcard, letting the older redhead know she was in Seattle (but not where) and that she was doing fine (she didn't let her know about her future granddaughter). She did feel a little guilty about not telling her mom everything, but stuck by her decision. Maybe one day she'd go back and make things right. Maybe.

/5 months later, 3 months before present/

"She's so beautiful," Stephanie cooed, looking down at Kim's one-month-old daughter. The blonde had tried to hold little Elizabeth Anne Possible (though the redhead had introduced her daughter simply as Elizabeth Anne), but the baby had started crying; oddly, though, she barely made a sound as she cried.

"She is," Kim agreed, smiling down at the tiny bundle in her arms. Thanks to her years as a teen hero, Kim was used to getting random and sporadic amounts of sleep; but not as often in a row as her daughter made her. As stressful and exhausting as it all was, Kim wouldn't trade any of it. While she wished the rape hadn't happened, and had nightmares about it, she didn't regret what resulted from that night. And now she knew how her mom must have felt when she herself had given birth. Stephanie didn't stay too much longer, as Elizabeth had just fallen asleep for her nap and Kim planned on taking one herself, but easily agreed to babysit for Kim as often as she needed to. After her friend had left and Kim had put her daughter in the crib, she climbed into her own bed but didn't fall asleep right away. Instead, she thought for a few moments about a couple of things: college and Shego. She still wanted to go to college one day, but figured she could do that while Elizabeth was in school and schedule her classes during that time. As for Shego . . . the pale-skinned plasma thrower was never far from her thoughts anyway. Kim still wondered how the older woman was doing, if she was even still alive, and if she thought about her. 'I wish I could see her again,' Kim thought as she finally drifted off to sleep. 'Just once. To tell her that I love her, and that I'm sorry for whatever I did to drive her away.'

/Present day/

"God, Kim," Rayne breathed, tears falling down her face as Kim finished her tale. "I didn't mean to fuck up your life that bad."

"Rayne . . ." Kim said, hearing the pain in her love's voice.

"If I hadn't left, you wouldn't have gotten so fucking depressed and ended up in such a bad place emotionally and otherwise. You wouldn't have had such bad luck with relationships, wouldn't have gotten raped-"

"And I wouldn't have Elizabeth," the redhead interrupted. "And while we would've always been together, we might've had to result to genetic engineering or something; probably from Drakken or DNAmy."

"Hell no!" Rayne protested vehemently.

"So while the road to this point was long, hard, and almost like hell on Earth," Kim went on, "I wouldn't trade any of what happened for that. As hard as that might be to believe."

"No, no," the pale woman said. "I agree. It might've taken me a lot longer to realize how much I love you, and to make peace with myself and my family - not to mention making a living legitimately."

"I could've always become your pet," Kim replied jokingly.

"That might've been fun," the other woman agreed with a chuckle. "I could've had you wear collars and do pet tricks and shit." The two women shared some small laughs at the mental images those words produced, and settled into silence - until they looked at each other and burst out into laughter. Their mirth was shortened, though, when they heard Elizabeth crying.

"Go on," Rayne said, still smiling. "Your daughter needs you. I can let myself out." Kim headed towards her bedroom, but stopped before leaving.

"Could you stay tonight?" the redhead asked. "I . . . I'd like you to hold me, while I sleep. Please?"

"Anything for you, Princess," Rayne agreed, getting up and walking towards her girlfriend. "Anything at all."

Ron and Yori stepped out of the airport in Seattle and headed towards the car rental kiosk. After they'd arrived in Middleton, the two of them had gotten in touch with Wade and talked with Kim's mom. She'd been reluctant to discuss her daughter, and had only talked about Shego's visit when Wade confirmed the superpowered woman had been there. While the redhead hadn't said anything, there'd been a postcard sitting on the table in the den. Deliberately so, Ron thought. So he'd quickly took a peek at it when Anne had gone to make some tea. It had been postmarked in Seattle, WA, which is why Ron and Yori were now there. Ron knew how his best friend had felt about the plasma thrower, and just what the woman's disappearance had done to her. He didn't know what Shego intended to do in regards to Kim, but he'd finally learned not to judge the present based on the past. People, even Shego, had the capability to change for the better if they wanted. He and Yori would just have to find either Kim or Shego - or both of them - and learn what the sitch was. They would have to start tomorrow, though, as the sun was already down.

"I have rented us a small car with an excellent record for safety, Ron-kun," Yori said as she returned from the kiosk. He smiled at his girlfriend.

"That's good," he replied. "I looked through some listings, and there's a hotel not too far from here. It's in what I guess is a middle class area of the city, and is actually recommended for tourists."

"It would be a good place to center our search for Possible-san," the kunoichi (female ninja) agreed.

"I just hope she is still here, and hasn't moved on. She's just as good as Shego when it comes to ghosting."

{E/N: Boo-yah! Now y'all know the secret of Kim's daughter. The reference to the collars and Kim being a pet is drawn from StarvingLunatic's Walking the Line story; it's a fantastic read. In the next chapter, we'll see Kim and Rayne make a step forward in the relationship as well as near-encounter with Ron and Yori; maybe some other things, too.}