The Little Princess

by Haley Earthstone

Two years after the Lowardian invasion, Kim Possible has been vanished without a trace, and a year later Shego shows up trying to find her. Where is she? Why did Shego leave her two years ago? Rated M for future chapters, would appreciate learning who drew cover pic so credit can be given. KiGo.

10. Chapter 10

{A/N: Now things will pick up. Let's get on with the adventure.}

*10.) Crazy Days*

The week following the reunion with Ron seemed to go by both too fast and too slow for Kim. He still wanted to let Kim's family know she was alive and well, as well as telling them about her daughter, but the intense glares from the three women made him decide that discretion was indeed the better part of valor. What made time seem to go by so fast was that Rayne was leaving at the end of the week to go to Go City to get the mansion taken care of. What made it go by so agonizingly slow was Ron's visits to the places she worked at, as well as him appearing at her apartment at random times after he'd learned her address. He always seemed to somehow know when she would be there, but fortunately for him Rayne was usually there with her (it was unfortunate for her, since it meant she'd have a credible witness against her for murder). The boy (he was a 'man' only by his age and his bar mitzvah) seemed determined to believe that the pale woman would leave Kim again, and she shouldn't even be within eyesight of the redhead since she was the reason the former world saver had fallen apart. It was at the end the end of the second day that she was fed up with his harassment; before she could be stopped, she'd literally thrown him out of her apartment and locked the door. Rayne had taken Elizabeth to Kim's bedroom for a nap - and to have a plausible reason for not witnessing a violent death. After Ron had been kicked out, she came back out and offered to put Kim up in her hotel room; she was paying for a penthouse suite in an exclusive hotel that had an attractive policy of respecting a guest's privacy. Kim quickly and happily accepted the offer, and they got everything moved over that evening. Rayne took care of the apartment stuff via phone the next day after Kim had gone to work her shift at the café.

"Yes, that's right," she said into her cell, thankful she used a Bluetooth earpiece; Elizabeth Anne was hungry so Rayne had her arms full. "She's closing out her lease today." A pause as she listened to the complex's owner. "I'm aware it was a two-year lease and that she has at least a year left on." Another pause that caused her forehead to crease in irritation. "Listen, asshole. I'M covering the penalties and shit. All YOU need to do is refund her security deposit and last month's rent." This pause gave her a chance to put the bottle down and begin burping the little redhead. "I am the daughter of Isabel Gooding, THAT'S who the hell I am." Pause. "Yes, THAT Isabel Gooding." Another pause. "Oh? You'll have everything taken care of by this afternoon? Good. Now fuck off." She ended the call right as Elizabeth burped. "Good job, Little Princess," she cooed, a tone no one besides Kim would believe she was capable of. "Don't tell your mommy about those bad words I used, okay? And don't repeat once you learn to talk; she'll know you got them from me, and I want to live long enough to kick MY mom's ass before I die."

TLP

Kim sighed as she approached the table and saw Ron and Yori there. She didn't mind the ninja, and actually respected her more for being able to handle the blond; but now the redhead found herself mentally referring to him by the one name both Drakken and Rayne (during her Shego days) used: Buffoon.

"Thanks for coming to the Tai Chi Latte Café," she said, her smile and cheerful tone forced. "What can I get you today?" Before Ron could say anything, Stephanie came over.

"I've got this one, Kane," she said. "It's time for your first break, anyway." With an audible sigh of relief, Kim slipped her notepad and pen into her apron's pockets and left.

"I'm Stephanie and I'll be your waitress now," she told them. "What can I get you?"

"Is there any way I can talk to Ki- . . . uh, Kane?" Ron asked before Yori could stop him.

"Nope," Stephanie told him. "She's taken, she's as straight as a rainbow is dull, and if I had a hottie like your girlfriend there there's no way in hell I'd be looking at another woman."

"That's not what I meant," he tried to protest.

"The past two days - three now - you've come in here and bothered her," the blonde woman interrupted. "I know who you are, Ronald, and I know who she really is. I've also met her girlfriend and hung out with them both. So leave them, and especially Kane, alone. Or I'll have you banned from here for harassment of the staff." Now she smiled sweetly. "So, are you two ready to order?"

TLP

Two days later saw Kim doing one of the most difficult things she'd done recently: call her mom. For a while she simply stared at the phone in her hand; pushing the buttons that for the Possible's residence was far harder than she had realized.

"It's not going to dial itself, you know," Rayne commented, startling the redhead.

"What am I going to say to her?" Kim whispered, tears gathering in her eyes. "It's been about a year since I've seen her, talked to her. I didn't say anything at all about the rape, or about being pregnant. I haven't even kept in touch after sending that postcard."

"I won't lie to you, Princess," the pale woman replied. "She'll be upset and hurt that you didn't say anything, and probably angry, too, for the same reasons. You did choose to run away and hide rather than face things. She's your mom, so she'll love you no matter what. Just remember one thing."

"What?"

"You're Kim Possible. You are confidence personified. Tear that bandaid straight off and face the music."

"You just badly butchered two different metaphors," Kim told her, wincing.

"So sue me."

"Like you'd notice if I did."

"Just call your mom, Kimmie," Rayne said. Taking a deep breath and nodding, the former hero dialed her mom's number. It was answered after the second ring.

"Hello?" she heard her say. Kim's mouth opened but nothing came out. "Is anyone there? I don't appreciate prank calls."

"H-Hey, Mom," Kim stammered out. For a while, there was only dead air on the other end.

"K-Ki-Kimmie?" Anne stuttered in a whisper. To Kim, it sounded as though the older woman couldn't believe what was happening; the young woman could understand that completely.

"It's me, mom," she replied. "It really is me."

"Oh, my God," the older redhead said, crying. Kim spent the next few minutes calming her mom down and reassuring her that things were real. Rayne was staying out of Kim's sight, so her girlfriend wouldn't see her crying her own tears.

"Are . . . are you coming home?" Anne asked her daughter.

"Not to stay, no," Kim answered. "I'll be stopping by on my way to Go City, in about a week and a halfa. I have to finish up my last two weeks at my jobs."

"Where will you be going?" her mom questioned. "For that matter, why did you leave in the first place? How come you didn't stay in touch? Whatever the problem was, you know we would have been there for you."

"I wasn't in a good way back then," the younger redhead responded, relaxing muscles she didn't realize were tense when she felt her girlfriend's arms wrap around her. "And . . . there was a bit of s complication."

"What do you mean, Kim?"

"Remember that party in Go City I'd gone to, shortly before I disappeared?" Kim asked. When her mom replied in the affirmative, the younger redhead went on. She explained about how she was depressed and had been more than a little tipsy but not quite drunk, how she'd run into Josh Mankey - and how he'd raped her. Anne had been shocked beyond words about that, and would've admonished her daughter for not reporting it, but her intuition told her that Kim had already gone through that and didn't need it again right now; just admitting all of that was hard enough.

"That's not all, though, mom," Kim added.

"What else is there, dear?" Anne asked. Just then, audible over the phone, came the cry of a baby.

"How do you feel about being a grandmother?"

TLP

It was closer to end of the week when Rayne finally gathered up her own courage and called her own mother. It wasn't that she was afraid of the woman - not a chance of that ever happening - just that she didn't like talking to the harpy. She was thankful that her Kimmie was working at SmartyMart right now. As usual, the harpy answered on the fifth ring.

"Who the hell is this?" came the snapped response.

"Fuck, Mommy!" Rayne said in exasperation. "Do you have to answer the damn phone like that every time someone calls?"

"Firefly!" Isabel exclaimed, her voice disgustingly (to her daughter, anyway) chipper. "It's about time damn time! Where are you, Sweetie?"

"First off, you're so damn sweet right now it's giving me sugar shock," the green-tinted woman groaned. "Second, I'm in Seattle because I finally got my head out of my ass and found my girlfriend. And DON'T say 'I told you so,' Mommy."

"I did tell you so, Firefly," her mom replied, just as cheerful as she'd started. Rayne ground her teeth a bit. "I can hear that, so stop grinding your teeth; it's bad for them."

"Fuck you, Mommy. I didn't call to have you lecture me. I . . . I need a favor." That hesitation told Isabel volumes.

"What is it, Firefly?" she asked.

"I need the mansion in Go City," the younger Gooding woman said without preamble. "I'm coming home, and I'm bringing my Princesses with me?"

"Princesses?" her mom echoed on confusion.

"That leads to the actual favor I need," Rayne replied, then explained all about Kim's situation. By the time she was done, she could practically FEEL her mom breathing fire.

"Little Princess is such a wonderful child," Rayne said, a smile on her face and in her voice. "Kimmie . . . she says I can be in her life if I want."

"You don't worry about a thing," Isabel told her, "except taking care of your girls. I've got this Monkey-"

"Mankey."

"Fuck his name. I've got it taken care of it. I might not be able to leave Kane out of this," the elder Gooding female said. Rayne shuddered at the thought of her normally laidback and easy-going dad getting involved.

"Please leave Daddy out of this," she almost begged. "We don't need any unexplained disappearances on this, Mommy."

"I'm not making any promises. The mansion is yours; I'll let your brothers and father know - if I can find that damn pervert - but you should visit them. Bye, Firefly." There was dead air on the line.

"Fuck," Rayne said with a sigh. "Well, at least I got the house."

TLP

Rayne was going to leave in the morning, on a commercial flight to Middleton so she could get her private jet and fly herself to Go City. It would've been like the last time she'd left, only this time Kim knew that she was leaving; plus she would be coming back in a week to get the redhead and their Little Princess. They hadn't had sex as often as they'd wanted to, but neither really minded; the pale woman enjoyed helping Kim out with Elizabeth, and the redhead appreciated the extra sleep she was able to get from that. Kim couldn't believe how fast she'd switched from not wanting Rayne around to not being able to be without her. And that was just in the first few days. At first the redhead had thought it was simply a desire for closure, to actually end their relationship.

Instead it had been rekindled into a roaring blaze. The depression and malaise that Kim had been living with for just over two years vanished as if it had never been. That high self-confidence she had possessed, that belief in herself that she truly could do anything, was once again back. Sure, she still had issues about the rape - who wouldn't? - but she would move past it. Especially with Rayne's help; and her family's, once she'd reconnected with them.

Right now, Kim was breastfeeding her daughter while her lover was asleep in their bed. Thinking of the pale woman brought a smile to the redhead's face; she'd had to clean up before feeding her hungry child as the two women had just finished making love - after four hours. She was going to miss the older woman while she was gone, but that feeling was tempered by the knowledge that Rayne would return in a week's time. And as Elizabeth slowly went back to sleep, Kim wondered why she was feeling like there was a shoe waiting to drop.

TLP

Rayne hated dealing with her brothers. Specifically, she hated dealing with Hego. Mego could be tolerated, and she actually liked the Wegos; she just had issues with her older brother. He was still a self-righteous egotist who saw things in black and white for the most part. He'd gotten better (though not much) over the last couple of years; enough so that the two of them could be in the same room for extended periods. Things weren't always that way; up until Rayne went to middle school and started going by Shego more than her birth name, she and Hego had been almost inseparable. She'd been his sidekick for years, even after the comet had turned her into a freak. But his behavior had changed and he'd become an insufferable asshole, eventually driving her away from Team Go and into villainy.

He hadn't been happy about losing the use of the mansion - not that he'd ever lived there after Go Tower was built - and especially to her; but not even he was dumb enough to argue with their mother. He'd really tried her patience, but with Kimmie back in her life Rayne had actually managed to do the impossible and control her temper. He'd surprised her, though, with his reaction to the news about Kim; while he was still against homosexual relationships (believing them to be unnatural), he expressed his admiration for helping Kim with her daughter - his 'righteous fury' was inflamed when he learned that she'd become pregnant after being raped. That actually sent a warm feeling through her, something that hadn't happened since she'd been a kid.

Right now she was walking the streets of Go City a bit, window shopping for things her Princess might like. She wanted to get Kim a 'house-warming' gift, even though the redhead wouldn't be coming to the mansion for another six days. Rayne would've started setting up a fully tricked out room for Elizabeth, but after dealing with her brothers for a few hours she just wanted to relax for the rest of the day.

There was another reason for her window shopping; she couldn't shake the feeling she was being watched. It'd been like this ever since she'd set foot in Go City, and was making her very irritable. In fact, she was getting a distinctive sensation of agitation and exasperation that was intensely familiar to her, though she couldn't place the origin of that familiarity; the identity was there at the back of her mind. And speaking of the back of her mind, she reached for the back of her head as she felt a trio of sharply painful pinpricks there. Her questing fingers made contact with some darts right as a wave of dizzied numbness began spreading through her. This sensation was VERY familiar to her, but unconsciousness claimed her before she could think of the reason for that.

She also missed a very familiar and maniacal laugh.

{E/N: Kane and Isabel are used with permission of StarvingLunatic; though their last names are changed to fit The Little Princess, the characters are still based on the two used by SL in her In the Middle series (check it out; it's an amazing story). Next we learn who's kidnapped Shego, and what Kim's gonna do when she learns what's happened.}