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Author: The Humbug
Disclaimer: “Kim Possible” and all characters within © The Walt Disney Company and its related entities. Kim Possible created by Mark McCorkle & Bob Schooley. All rights reserved. No profit is being collected from the fiction contained within. You can blame the rest of this on me.
Rating: PG-13 for combat violence and intimations of a physical relationship and intimate contact between consenting adult females. This should also cover a little harsh language now and then. If this will offend you, please read something else, and then seek professional help.
Summary: Mostly harmless, this is a Kim/Shego pairing fan fiction set late in my ‘Who’s Writing This Crap?’ Kigo-verse. Drama with humor seasoned to taste. Kasy Ann and Sheki Go Possible are the creations of NoDrogs, bless him.

Tag / Part I

“Concentrate…”

“I am, Momma.” The young girl was wearing a lightweight jumpsuit, its coloration similar to the green and black uniform worn by the older woman.

“I’m going to let it out now, Ok?” Shego eyed the raven-haired girl, one of her twin daughters. The youngster looked more than a little frightened. “Are you ready?”

The child swallowed hard before she could answer.

“Yes, Momma.” Sheki breathed like her mothers taught her to before a battle; it calmed her fears and brought oxygen into her lungs for greater strength and endurance.

“Remember, it’s just a game, just like…”

“Momma!”

“Ok, Ok!”

Shego moved away from the door of the packing crate and pulled the door open; as soon as the daylight struck the eyes of the occupant inside the crate, it moved. The thing was shaped like a female but had a body of blued metal and was wearing a black body stocking. The long blond hair was a sharp contrast against the glowing eyes of the automaton as it stepped out of the crate and looked around, charging forward immediately once it spotted the young girl standing in the middle of the yard.

Sheki was prepared just like she’d been trained; she remained stock still until the thing was about to reach her before she feinted to the side. She ignited a plasma field around her left hand and slapped the metallic surface of the thing’s back.

“You’re it!”

There was an ozone tang in the air from the contact and the metal figure whipped around. Sheki was already moving, running across the yard with the metallic thing close behind her. The automaton leaped into the air and, anticipating the girl’s next move, angled its leap to the side. The thing landed directly in front of Sheki as the girl turned in the anticipated direction. Sheki attempted to backpedal but the thing tagged her on the shoulder.

“You. Are. It.”

It was already moving away before the young girl could react. With a determined glare on her face, Sheki took off in pursuit. Back on the porch, her twin sister Kasy quietly opened the back door and moved to sit beside their Momma; the older woman pantomimed every strike and action taken by her other child and the two watched as the opponents traded hits while one chased the other around the yard.

“How’s she doing, Momma?” Kasy kept her voice down so as not to distract her sister, who already had her work cut out for her because of the speed and dexterity of her metallic foe. Shego put her arm around the little redhead, who was also wearing a similar green and black jumpsuit, though this one had some scuffmarks and tears in it.

“She’s doing great...” The former villain winced as Sheki tangled her feet while attempting to dodge a tag; the robot touched her before the girl could right herself and the contest continued. “Matching accuracy with speed is always difficult, but she’s getting the hang of it.”

“Better than me?”

“Do you want me to tell your Mommy that you asked that question?”

“No, Ma’am.”

“Good, then shush.” Shego smirked and held her daughter tighter. Just a short while ago when Kasy had been the one out there in the backyard, Sheki had ventured that she probably wouldn’t be able to do as good a job as her red haired twin. The girls needed to build confidence as well a muscle, and while Shego didn’t what them to get cocky, a little pep talk from Mommy might be in order. After several more minutes, Sheki was starting to tucker out and Shego stood up and walked out into the yard.

“BEBE, pause! Cancel current protocols.”

The blue creature stopped and adopted a ‘parade rest’ stance. Sheki had made the last tag and had been evading the machine when it stopped; she let herself drop to the ground, panting. Kasy was close behind the tall woman and she moved off to help her sister while Shego examined the BEBE.

“Will she live?” Shego called back over her shoulder without turning.

“I can’t feel my legs!”

“We need a soda over here, STAT!”

“Honk!”

“And one hard-boiled egg!” The giggling behind her made Shego grin but she wiped it from her face before she turned around. Whist in ‘training mode’ she always maintained a strict discipline to never joke around with her daughters. There was always time for fun but training would result in life or death one day. She did give the metal figure a quick pat on its cold hard shell before moving to inspect her girls.

“How many hits, Momma?” Kasy had helped Sheki to her feet, still catching her breath but flexing in the way that she’d been taught so that her muscles wouldn’t cramp.

“Never you mind. Let’s grab some slab and debrief.” They ran to the deck as Shego lifted the BEBE over her shoulder and its body went as limp as a wet noodle; she carried it over to the back of the house and gently laid it down on it’s back. Sheki was wiping her face with a towel and the girls waited impatiently for their Momma.

“Where did you get that thing, again?” They shifted to give the woman room to join them. Other than the age difference and Kasy’s red hair, they each had the same pale green tilt to their skin.

“From ‘GJ’; it’s one of Drakken’s oldest models and it was crated away in a storage closet.” She regarded the abused robot. The artificial blond hair was mussed from its ‘pursue and evade’ protocols and the black body stocking was burned and shredded in several places, dark carbon scoring clearly visible on the blue metal from where Sheki had tagged it. “It’s hardly a danger now.”

“But it’s so fast!”

“And agile!”

“You’re not kidding… it and the other BEBEs were the second most dangerous foes to battle with your Mommy in hand to hand combat.” The girls were impressed because the most deadly foe was sitting beside them now. “Most of the special features like extending limbs and super speed have been deactivated, and since it’s only a single unit there’s no ‘hive mind’ to worry about.”

“So… who did better?” The girls looked pensive. Shego shook her head at them.

“This was not a competition between the two of you, it was combat training. Yes, I did count the hits and no, I’m not comparing them for you and no, neither of you ‘did better’ than the other.” She reached out and ruffled their hair, smiling at them. “You are both doing very well and if we keep this up you’ll be ready for something more intense in no time.” For the next several minutes their Momma debriefed the girls on their performances, both in general as well as specific areas that either needed attention or had shown special achievement.

Kasy gave her sister a glance as advance warning, and then she asked a question that had bothered the girls all morning.

“Mommy’s mad, isn’t she?”

Shego had wondered when this might come up. Barring missions or other unexpected occurrences, Kim never missed a workout session with the children.

“No! Well… maybe a little. But not at you!” Shego looked to them both. “You know that Mommy and I support your training one hundred percent, right? Well, we discussed using the BEBE and we each had different feelings about it. She felt that it might be too dangerous, and I respect that.” She looked at the metal figure again and prayed that there would be no serious repercussions as a result of this day.

“But she didn’t even come out to watch us!”

“Mommy always watches us!”

“Girls, I swear to you that she’s not mad at you. She’s a little peeved at me, but that’s business as usual, right?” They avoided her gaze and nodded, obviously unhappy.

“Can we do this again?” Both girls looked hopeful.

“Yeah, can we use the BEBE again?”

“Sorry girls, but I don’t think so. This is only on loan from ‘GJ’ an they don’t want to risk the technology being stolen or copied, even if it is out of date. And besides, I doubt that Mommy would be happy about me doing this twice.” The girls seemed to understand that and didn’t feel too disappointed.

“The two of you handled yourselves well. Were you afraid of it at all?”

“No way!”

“Huh, uh!”

“Girls…”

“Ok, a little.”

“Yeah, it’s creepy.” They all stood, the tall woman lifting the limp blue figure and rested it across her shoulder again, with the little girls holding the back door open for her.

“It’s Ok to feel fear; it’s a warning that we really need to be paying attention to the sitch at hand. Just never let it get the better of you and make you hesitate.” She started up the steps, still carrying the BEBE. “You can have one soda each and will you please set out some lunch food I wake your Mommy up from her nap and prove to her that I really am going to disassemble this thing?”

“Yes, Momma.”

“Please and thank you.” Shego was already halfway up the stairs but clearly heard the twins giggling behind her. She cursed herself for having picked up Kimmie’s stupid catch phrases.

Lugging the robot down the hall and to the master bedroom, Shego gently set the metallic figure on the bed and stripped off her green and black mission uniform. Pulling an ‘I’m With Sexy!’ T-shirt over her head, she walked into the bathroom just long enough to wipe her face off with a damp cloth and returned to the bed with its metal occupant, puzzled as to why it was still laying there. She lay down on the comforter and gently tapped the metal forehead with a black fingernail.

“How long can you stay fresh in that can?”

“Just get me out of this damn thing.”

The figure remained motionless as Shego leaned over it and used a plasma-charged finger to burn through the tattered body stocking. When that was removed she loosened the interlocking segments of the BEBE armor and lift the pectoral half away from the dorsal half, exposing sections of pink skin wrapped with strategically placed bandages to prevent chaffing, otherwise the body beneath the armor was nude. The final piece to be removed was the faceplate, and Shego lifted it away with the utmost care.

The exposed face was ruddy from exertion and damp with sweat, strands of loose red hair falling down and plastered against soft skin. There was also evidence of moisture from another source.

“Pumpkin, have you been crying?”

Kim did not answer; she rolled out of the remaining segments of armor and climbed up from the bed. Shego watched as her angel stormed into the bathroom and pulled the door closed behind her. She frowned and walked out of the bedroom and over to the landing.

“Girls, your Mommy and I will be up here for a few minutes, Ok?”

“Kay, Momma!” Having been deep in a discussion of how their own personal Team Possible uniforms should look when they eventually joined their parents on missions, this brought the twins back to the here and now. Kasy finished laying out the plates and turned to her sister. “I bet they’re fighting.”

“Probably about us and the BEBE.”

“Momma said that Mommy wasn’t mad at us, right?”

“Well, yeah…” Each girl wished in her heart that they could feel more confident that this was true. Upstairs, Shego waited for Kim to take a quick shower. When the slender woman left the bathroom her red hair, kept much shorter these days than when she was younger, was a frizzy mess after having been towel dried.

“Kimmie…” Still seated on the bed, Shego turned to face her mate.

“Not right now, please.” Kim walked right by her towards the closet.

“Princess…” Standing, the taller woman joined her.

“I said, not right now, please.”

“Pumpkin…” Shego hardly spoke the word when she leaned away from the angry glare that whirled around to confront her.

“You’re really pushing all the buttons, aren’t you?” Kim’s anger flared in Shego’s face. “I really do NOT want to hear from you right now!”

“Kim, did you think it was that bad of an idea? Did you really? Because I can tell you that even if this wasn’t one of my best ideas, it was a damn good one!” The pale green woman began to count off on her long fingers. “They got a great workout, they had fun, it built their confidence and it was a wonderful display of how well their training is progressing!”

“I… yes, I suppose that it was… but do you have any idea how much it hurt to see…to be the…”

“What, Kimmie? Tell me why you’re so angry!”

“Did you ever stop to think that maybe I’d like to train with them in some other capacity than the crash test dummy? That even sitting on the sidelines would be preferable to being the enemy?” Kim wiped at her eyes and made to turn away. “That while they were running from me, all I could see was… was…”

“’All you could see was’… what? Our girls being safe because they were never in the least bit of danger? Getting a first rate workout from someone who only cares for and loves them dearly? From someone who is the best?” Shego sighed in exasperation. “Is that what you saw?”

“… yeah.” There was more but Kim couldn’t say it.

“If you’d tried to perform this workout with them as yourself, they’d never have taken it as seriously. Sure, they’re great girls but you’re their Mommy; they know that their Mommy would never hurt them. As ‘the BEBE’ there was this mysterious factor of risk that kept them on their toes, took away their edge and made them work all the much harder.”

There was no way that Kim could present an argument against these points, because there was no argument. The one reason why she had been smoldering with anger was why she now burned with shame. She marshaled her feelings and wrangled them back under her control with some good sense.

“You’re right, of course. Maybe I… maybe I would have just liked to have been able to cheer them on a little.” That sounded good, that’s how she would end it. “That’s all.”

“Judas Priest…” Shego walked around the smaller woman and reached into the dresser to snag some clothes. “Kimmie, you’re their mother, you’re always with them and they know how proud you are of their accomplishments. But right now they’re downstairs all worried about you being mad at them.”

“But I’m not!”

“I know that but perception is reality, or don’t you recall ever saying that to me before?” She threw a pair of running shorts and a T-shirt that said ‘I’m With Evil!’ at her wife. “If you were listening to us back down on the deck you heard me say that there would be no more practice sessions with the BEBE, right?”

“Yes.”

“And I meant that.” She sat down at the vanity table. “I knew that you’d be uncomfortable and hadn’t planned on asking you to do that more than once. This was a one-time experience where we all learned a little something.” Shego crossed her arms over her chest and cocked an eyebrow. “So how about we get down there and eat some lunch before they really start to worry, Ok?”

Kim was quiet, but looked as if she wanted to speak; Shego gave her all the time in the world. It only took a few seconds.

“I don’t mean to be a stick in the mud, I really don’t.” Kim moved close but held herself back until invited. She was keeping her eyes on the carpeted floor.

“I know, Princess, it’s Ok.” Shego held an arm out in invitation, which was accepted when Kim joined her at the vanity. She embraced the lithe form. “That might not have been one of my best ideas, but you have to admit that it worked.”

“Yeah, I know… I just don’t feel comfortable…”

“You don’t like being pitted against your own children, I know. That’s why we made it a game of tag and not some sort of combat exercise. But look…” Shego used her long green fingers to again count off the positive outcomes. “They got a great workout and an excellent session of ‘evade and pursue’, they also gained the experience of using their plasma in simulated combat against an inhuman opponent… nothing personal.” Shego leaned in to kiss her wife behind the ear, smelling the body wash that her Princess favored. “They were also in no danger whatsoever because you were their opponent, but they had no way to know that so they didn’t hold back and that’s the biggest thing that worry’s me right now; their confidence needs building and I’m not sure how else to do that without making things too easy.”

Kim had yet to make eye contact; she nodded at what she was hearing but still had something on her mind that was bothering her.

“I didn’t, did I?”

“Didn’t what?”

“Make things too easy?”

“Hell, no! You were fantastic!” Shego kissed her again, risking a little tickle in a spot that she knew Kim to be especially sensitive; this earned her a smile and a shiver but nothing more. “I was worried that you might not be convincing enough, but after the session with Kasy earlier I knew that you’d be fine, and so were they.”

“They did do very well, didn’t they?”

“They’re amazing! My brothers and I never really had any combat training until after we gained our powers, and only the twins were as young as the girls are now. You didn’t really begin to hone your speed and agility until you became a cheerleader, and you were a year or more older than they are now when you started.”

“They’ll be far better than we ever were, won’t they?”

“They’ll run rings around us! They’ll…” Shego stopped when she felt her mate sag a little in her arms. She examined Kim’s mouth, drawn into a hard line and slightly down-turned at the sides, and her head as it lowered a little from her shoulders.

“Is that what’s bothering you?” It wasn’t, really, but that was as good an explanation as any. Kim nodded once.

“I don’t begrudge them anything.” Kim sighed. “Not one single thing, but seeing them get better and better makes me feel older and slower and more stupid.” Her brows furrowed. “I feel horrible and ashamed just thinking it.”

Crap. Shego felt as if she should have seen it coming.

“I… sometimes I feel that I’m finished, that I’m used up and have nothing left to offer.” She raised her head to face her spouse, eyes dry but distraught. “Like my best days are behind me and I should just fade away.”

“Princess, how many missions did Team Possible have last year?”

“Mm… thirty-seven.”

“Right; and how many were successful?”

“Only thirty-five.” How her angel could manage to look so crestfallen at such a high success rate, Shego could not fathom.

“I can see that you’re forgetting that a broken foot and appendicitis account for the two unsuccessful ones, yes?” Kim didn’t answer. “How many of your solo missions were successful?”

“…”

“Princess…”

“All of them.”

“Kim, you’re only thirty years old and if anything you’re getting better, not worse. You always pass the ‘GJ’ re-certification exams with one hundred percent accuracy and it’s your Independent Operative stipend check, not mine, that accounts for the majority of the income for our home. You know that I’ve not touched the girls safety fund in years, right?”

Kim’s breathing had steadily been getting deeper and her chin was slightly higher as she nodded in acknowledgement of Shego’s question. What they now referred to as the ‘girls safety fund’ was the still-impressive remnants of any ill-gotten gains that Shego had squirreled away when still a thief. The younger hero had only agreed to let it remain in their possession if it could be held in trust should anything happen to them that would leave the girls orphaned.

“And if nothing else, ask yourself this… would the mighty Shego hang with a washed out loser that was a ready candidate for an ice floe?”

“No…” Kim smirked and raised her head all the way to initiate a kiss of her own. “Thanks.”

“Whatever. Now, let’s get you dressed.” The taller woman stood and lifted the petite redhead into the air, swinging her up and onto her shoulder once again, just as she had when Kim had been masquerading as a BEBE. Kim was actually laughing as her larger mate began to dress her as if she were too young to dress herself.

“Oh, Kimmie, promise me something…” Shego paused to look her straight in the eyes. “When you go downstairs, keep in mind that the girls probably think that you’re mad about them practicing with BEBE. Please, don’t rain on their parade.”

“I won’t, and I never would. I’m as proud of them as you are. I’ll just tell them that I was tired or something” Kim kissed her again. “Thanks for sticking up for my opinion out on the porch. I really do want the girls to know how much I support them. So really, thank you.”

“No big … Kimmie wipe that grin off your face.”

“Sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry for, Princess.” Shego leant over to kiss the top of Kim’s head.

“They are great, aren’t they?”

“They’re the best.” Now Kim looked up to make eye contact; there was a mischievous gleam in those emerald orbs.

“Hey, you just said that I was the best!”

“I actually meant to say that you were the third best.” Shego pursed her black glossed lips and furrowed her brow as if in deep consideration. “Kasy and Sheki tie for first, then of course there’s me, but you… wow, there you are, right there.” The smirk was just like old times. “Third best. That’s what I meant to say.”

Kim knew that she would be fine until the feeling passed; it always did.

“Should we go down, now?”

“Well, you already took a shower and the girls probably have lunch waiting…”

“I meant go down and eat lunch!” Her face blushed crimson at her spouse’s leer. The older woman grinned and pulled the slender redhead to her and they ambled to the stairs arm in arm. Kim knew that she definitely felt better because it must have been showing in her expression and stance; the girls noticed right away that there was nothing to be worried about and they quickly ran to her.

“Mommy, we fought a BEBE!” Kasy was bouncing on her heels. “Well, we played tag with one, anyway!”

“Yeah, and we won!” Sheki had come down from her adrenalin high but was just as happy. Kim embraced them both and gave each of them a huge kiss.

“My little heroes!” Shego stood back and watched as her Princess held their daughters tight and seemed to gain strength from their limitless energy. The girls sat just a little closer to their Mommy during lunch and were all too eager to clean up afterwards.

88888888

It was two days later and Kasy was closest to the Kimmunicator when it chimed. She grabbed the beeping device, handing it to her Mother.

“Thank you, sweetheart.” She kissed the girl on the cheek; they might have been twins themselves if not for a few inches of height in Kim’s favor and the greenish tint to the teenager’s skin.

“You’re welcome!”

“Don’t run off, shorty!” Shego’s voice called out. “You may think you’re all that, but you’re not!”

“I’m coming right back, Momma!” Kasy signed and returned to the living room while Kim giggled and thumbed the activator switch. The face was familiar and friendly, but it wasn’t her old friend Wade.

“Kim here; what’s the sitch?”

“A good morning to you, Mrs. Possible. Sorry to disturb, but a person or persons unknown have apparently found a cache of equipment at one of Dr. Drakken’s old lairs. They’ve activated something that is registering on our scanners.” The young man at the other end of the signal was a lower grade operative for Global Justice named Dan or Stan or something like that and he’d called the house before with mission alerts; now that Agent Wade Load was a computer and network specialist for ‘GJ’, her friend was no longer her primary contact for missions.

“A weapon?” Had Dan or Stan just called her ‘Mrs. Possible’? Good Lord, I’ve finally turned into my mother!

“Unknown, but unlikely… the energy signature that tipped us off doesn’t match any of Drakken’s weapons. It still could be anything and probably nothing nice, so watch yourselves just in case.” Without being asked or telling her that he was doing so, the location was downloaded to her Kimmunicator; it was a few States away and would require fast transportation, which had apparently been pre-arranged. “We’ve dispatched a transport, so please be careful and report back as soon as you can.”

“Got it! Kim out.” She ran to the kitchen and frowned at her spouse, still hanging over the chessboard. “Shego, come on! We’ve got a mission! Sheki, get down off of your Momma!”

“She won’t let me!” That much was true, and the girl had a much better vantage point of the game from there. Shego and Kasy had been playing a game of chess, with the older woman teaching the girls in the finer points of strategy and patience. She was also wearing her daughter Sheki over her shoulder like a shawl.

Having become a parent who wanted her children very close to her, Shego was not above grabbing one of the girls away from an activity and physically hauling them around with her. As a young mother, Kim often had to be pried away from her babies, fawning and cooing over them just a little too much. As they all got a little older, the sitch had reversed; Shego had to be in almost constant contact or proximity to one or both of their daughters unless the parents were having a private moment or were away on a mission. After a mission, especially a distant or long one, nothing could pull Shego away from the girls. Kasy and Sheki were alternately amused or embarrassed by this, but Kim knew that they seemed to sense their Momma’s need for reassurance that her girls were doing fine.

But Kim also foresaw that they might not be so amused the first time that some boy came calling and it was Shego who answered the door. She’d have to have a talk with Shego about the eventuality of boys.

“Coming, Princess…” Shego dropped her hand over her rook and then withdrew it, hovering over her knight before lowering her hand completely and sighing in frustration. “I’ll be right there.”

“Momma, the game will still be here when you get back.”

“Yeah, and Kasy will still be tromping you, Momma.”

“Big, green talking head lice…” Sheki giggled as she was lovingly tossed onto the nearby couch.

“Sheki Go Possible, get your bubble butt over there and take out that garbage!” Kim suppressed a laugh.

“Yes, Mommy.”

“Silence, Team Possible… the forces of evil have you… at… our mercy…” Shego was again thoroughly absorbed in the board.

“Now, baby! They’re on their way!” There was absolutely no response this time. Kim squared her shoulders. “Ok, screw it. I don’t want to go anyway.” Three pairs of wide emerald eyes and three shocked faces with mouths agape turned in her direction. With her hands on her hips, Kim gave the epitome of a Shego smirk.

“Gotcha.”

“Ok, Ok! I’m right behind you, Kimmie!” She huffed in frustration and pointed first at Sheki and then at Kasy. “You need to watch her and make sure she doesn’t cheat.”

“Shego! Our baby doesn’t cheat!”

“Hey, Sis, I’ll take the garbage for you if you look the other way for a few minutes.”

“Kasy Ann Possible! You are NOT helping!” Kim grinned in spite of herself as she dragged Shego towards the steps. They raced up to their bedroom and hurried into their mission clothes, Kim with the dual task of fighting Shego off the moment she started to remove her civilian clothes. The pale green woman didn’t begin to dress in earnest until Kim flipped her over and threw her onto the bed.

“Promises, promises…” Shego stripped and pulled on a uniform without ever taking her eyes of Kim; after working and living for years in conditions that did not include a stable power source and therefore working lights, the thief didn’t need to see what she was doing to get dressed. She was mesmerized as the younger woman donned her cargo pants and full-length black Kevlar top. “I miss the belly shirts.”

“Sorry, baby, but I don’t feel that it’s appropriate anymore.”

“You still have them, right?”

“Yes…” Kim knew what she was being asked. “I can wear one later, if you’d like.”

“Please and… damn it!” Kim was already giggling at her mate. Seeing the smile in Kim’s eyes reminded of the younger woman’s feeling the other day. “How are you feeling, Pumpkin? Are you Ok?”

“I’m fine. And by that I do mean ‘better’. Thanks for listening to an old fart gripe about her forgotten glory days.” After a couple of days the dark feeling had mostly passed so Kim wasn’t really lying, even if life with Shego had taught her how to lie a little better.

“That’s good. And cut out that ‘old fart’ bilge. You’re a sexy, young fart if I ever smelled one.”

“Ewww!” Kim let Shego chase her down the stairs. They noticed a mechanized hum in the air and found their daughters standing at the open front doorway watching a ‘GJ’ hover sled, one of the larger troop transport models, gently maneuver itself above the lawn. Kim joined the twins and waved out to the Agent that was lowering a ladder to the grass, not having enough room or time to properly land the craft. The agent waved back and Kim turned to her girls.

“Remember, stay home and don’t worry. If you need anything…”

“We’ll call Grandma and Grandpa, yes ma’am.” They were prevented from saying more when Shego grappled with them from behind, effectively cutting off further communications. Kim smiled as the girls broke free and wiped slobber from their faces, then the older redhead gave each child a tender kiss on the nose as she helped to straighten their hair. Shego watched this with a smile of her own while she made one final inspection of her own mission uniform and gave some parental advice of her own.

“If we’re gone overnight, no parties and no boys!”

“Momma!”

“Boys are gross!”

“Ewww!”

“Good girls…” Shego reached out and ruined Kim’s repair work on the twin’s hair and ran out to meet the hover sled. Kim signed and scheduled her discussion about boys to a much earlier date on her mental calendar. She joined her mate and they waived back to the house one final time before the sled rose and eventually disappeared beyond a distant row of houses. The girls returned to their tasks and chores and hobbies, each confident that all was well and normal in the world. They had completely forgotten about how badly their Mommy had been feeling the other day, at least in that she was obviously feeling better now.

88888888

The telephone rang that evening after the girls had washed the dinner dishes and were finishing their homework on the dining room table.

“Hello, Possible residence…” Sheki was the closest to the phone and she had answered casually; the girls were used to their folks being gone for longer periods of time and neither had really been anticipating news of their mothers until their expected return.

“Sheki? Hi, it’s… Momma!”

“Hey, Momma!” From across the room Kasy looked up with interest as her sister spoke into the phone. “Did the mission go Ok?”

“Well…”

“Give me the damn phone!”

The second voice was not as clear or distinct as her Momma’s voice, but Sheki’s eyes flew open at the realization of two things; the other voice in the background was Mommy’s voice and the frustrated anger she heard in it were as clear as day. The young girl with the long black hair urgently pointed towards the extension in the hallway and motioned for her sister to silently pick up that line; confused, her red haired twin complied.

“Momma?” Sheki spoke back into the phone. “Momma, is everything Ok?”

“Sure! Sure, everything’s Ok, baby!”

“I said, give me the damn phone!”

“Not like that, no way! You just back off and sit down until you can control yourself!”

“But I want to talk, too! They’re my girls… give me the fu…” The rest of the sentence was muffled and line remained open. Kasy looked back at her sister, stunned. They had never… NEVER heard their Mommy talk like that. Their mothers argued and fought, even talked ‘trash’ as they called it when sparing, but they had never heard her use such language… EVER. The twins felt cold all over and Kasy dared to speak.

“… is mommy there…?”

“Hey! Kasy!” It was still their Momma’s voice. “Well, yes, she’s here, sweetheart.”

“Is she Ok?”

“Sure! She’s fine… We’re both fine. Um, look, girls… something’s come up and we won’t be home right away. We’ll be back sometime very early in the morning, probably before you get up for school.”

“… ok…”

“So you go on to bed at the normal time and we’ll, um, see you tomorrow, Ok, sweethearts?”

“… yes, ma’am…”

“… ok, momma…”

“Ok? Ok, good… good. Ok, see you both tomorrow, then!”

“… ok…” The line had already gone dead.

Sheki waited for her sister to return to the dining room but the redhead did not. Looking for her, she discovered Kasy sitting on the sofa with her knees drawn up to her chin and her arms wrapped around her legs, looking as she were about to cry. Sheki joined her.

“So… what do you think’s wrong?”

“I think Mommy’s still mad. Remember the other day?”

“Uh, huh.”

“I think that Mommy’s still mad and that it’s because of the BEBE.”

“No way! Momma said…”

“I know what Momma said.” Kasy wiped at her eyes, sniffling a little. “But that was Mommy’s voice yelling and… cursing. She never does that!”

“Yeah, I know.” Sheki couldn’t think of any better explanation. “So, finished your homework?”

“Yeah. You?”

“Almost. There was just a bonus question left and I’ll get it in homeroom. Want to watch TV?”

“No.”

“Me neither.” The twins leaned against each other and went to bed as soon as the sun had fully set, hours before their normal bedtime, and hadn’t even bothered to turn on any lights.

88888888

Sleep had come after only a little anxious worry and, when the alarm clock woke then for school, the girls hurried into their clothes so that they could see if their parents were home, if the older folks had returned in the early hours of dawn, neither of the twins had heard it. Pausing at the top of the stairs, they listened carefully for sign of any presence below, making sure to stay as quiet as possible so as not to give away their location; their efforts were soon rewarded, sort of.

“This blows…” That was Mommy, not as angry as yesterday evening when they’d heard her in the background but still obviously upset.

“Now, it won’t be for long. You know that.” Now they heard Momma’s voice, sounding unusually patient. “They’ll contact us as soon as everything is ready.”

“I don’t give a tin shit! It’s not right and you know how I feel about stuff like this!”

“I know, baby, but things will be just like they were before, soon enough…”

Puzzled but heartened that their parents were finally home, the girls descended the steps and walked into the kitchen as calmly as they could. What they saw didn’t exactly allay their anxiety and it certainly didn’t help their confusion. On any other morning, their Mommy would be serving breakfast and wearing her running clothes from her morning jog, while Momma would be hunched over her morning coffee. This was not the case today.

“Hey, good morning!” The taller woman with the flowing black hair was scooping scrambled eggs out onto a set of plates; Shego was still in her green and black mission uniform, slightly modified by ‘GJ’ over the years, but with frilly pink apron over top of it. It was the same apron that their Mommy usually wore.

Their Mommy, on the other hand, was seated at the table with a mug in front of her and was watching the girls closely with her arms crossed over her chest, with her red hair disheveled and still in her own mission clothes. When the girls had first entered the room, all conversation between the adults had ceased and the smaller of the two had been wearing a scowl. That expression had softened considerably at the entrance of the twins, but the eyes were brooding and hooded.

“Kim?” The girls took their usual seats as their Momma poured them each some juice and then joined them at the table. “Kimmie, say good morning to your daughters.”

Kim’s eyes had never left her girls, but she did look away to glare at Shego briefly. Seeing Momma serving breakfast was strange enough but the way Mommy was acting was totally weird.

“Hey…” The arms loosened and Kim turned in her seat to better face the girls. “Have a good night?”

“… uh, huh…”

“Kasy Ann Possible, we don’t grunt at the table.” Shego pulled off her apron and bent down to kiss the little redhead on the nose. “So, did you girls have a good night?” She made sure that that Sheki had a napkin as she gave her other daughter a kiss of her own. “Well?”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“Good!” Shego’s tone was relaxed enough but she wasn’t making eye contact like she usually did. Their Momma always looked you right in the eyes, always telling her girls that it strengthened trust in your allies and weakened the resolve of your enemies. The green and black clad woman was also eating with a care and grace that they’d not seen her use before.

Kim hadn’t moved, peering at the girls as if waiting for something. The sitch was definitely not right; their Mommy was never this sullen or quiet. She would normally be up and moving and all over the girls about their forthcoming day at school.

“Was…” Sheki balked as all eyes suddenly turned her way. It was a moment before she continued. “Was the mission successful?”

Shego didn’t respond immediately, keeping her gaze focused down on her plate and only diverting her attention away from her breakfast long enough to take a long drink of juice. Kim cocked her eyebrows and gave her wife an expectant look, as if curious to see how she might answer that question.

“It was.” Shego’s tone was decisive, making Kim smirk and turn away again. “We got there in plenty of time to prevent anyone from hurting themselves or anyone else.

“So, was it a weapon?” Kasy spoke as she watched her Mommy reach out for her mug, stop to inspect her slender pink arm, and then ignore her coffee as she wrapped the arm back around her chest. The redheaded woman remained silent the whole time.

“No, it wasn’t a weapon. It was something that… your Momma and I had encountered before but the thugs didn’t know how to use it properly.”

“Thugs?”

“Yeah, bunch of small time losers.” Kim signed with disgust. The twins hadn’t expected their Mommy to speak, especially considering how disgusted she looked and they certainly hadn’t expected her to talk like that. “Some of Drakken’s old henchmen, with maybe a few of Dementor’s thrown in, I’m not sure. Guess they thought that they could make a name for themselves if they grabbed some of the Doc’s old stuff.” Kim smirked. “They sure thought wrong.”

The redhead reached out for her coffee and finally decided to drink it this time. She took a loud sip and her scowl deepened.

“Crap…”

“Is it cold?” There was a snarkiness to Shego’s tone that was almost up to her normal level. “Here, let me help with that.” Shego extended her arm and slowly wrapped her fingers around the mug. Her hand started to glow with a green light that was usual for when she was emitting a very low level of plasma and within seconds the dark liquid began to steam slightly. The look on Shego’s face was innocent enough but the look on Kim’s face was that of unbridled fury. The pink skin was suffused with a crimson flush and her mouth was a hard line. The petite woman even seemed to be quivering in her seat as she stared at the mug, not even lifting her head to speak.

“I’ll… I’ll see you girls later. Have a good day at school.” Kim got up and left the room, her hands balled into fists. The twins glanced at each other, their worry as deep as their confusion and discomfort. Shego seemed to be noticing none of it.

“So! What did you want to do after school today?”

“Um…”

“I thought that maybe the three of us could throw around a little plasma when you get home from school. You know, blow some things up!”

“Really?” Their Momma was very strict about plasma use in the house or on the property; she almost never allowed it except for very limited reasons or for combat training. It was Kim that always said they should be practicing their control and technique more, not Shego. “Do you mean it?”

“Sure!” Shego made very clear eye contact then, her smile broad and open. “When you get home from school we’ll all drive out to somewhere private and we can have a ball!” The tall woman looked over to the clock on the mantle. “Oops, it’s time for school. Finish up, finish up!”

Surprised and excited by the offer to practice with their plasma that afternoon had a soothing effect that made them forget a little of their anxiety; whatever was going on between their parents was just as awkweird as before but they were only thirteen and easily distracted by simple pleasures. Scarfing down what little remained of their meals, the girls grabbed their satchels from the hallway and were escorted through the front door by their Momma, who walked with them to the corner in anticipation of the school bus.

Other children were already there, as was another parent.

“Morning, Fran!” Shego grinned at the woman. Fran Miller nodded and muttered a reply, already knowing about her neighbors and their mysterious lifestyle but never having seen the taller, older woman outside of the house wearing a green and black uniform, or speaking to her, or smiling. The bus came for its morning load of children and Kasy and Sheki managed to wave back at their Momma as the vehicle drove away.

Shego turned and jaunted back to the house, closing the front door tightly behind her and listened. Somewhere in this house was her wife and she had to confess to a little extra energy this morning. The tall woman slowly pealed herself out of her mission uniform, luxuriating in the fact that there were no undergarments beneath the green and black Kevlar weave.

“Pumpkin?” There was no reply. “Princess?”

“Piss off.” The tired and bitter voice came from upstairs.

“Ready or not, here I come!” The pale green woman ran through the house and up the stairs like a sprinter, using her powerful legs to propel herself as fast as she was able.

88888888

Other than a brief yearbook committee meeting in the library at 3:15 pm, the Possible twins were back on their way home from school, having hitched a ride with the mother of a classmate. The afternoon was warm and the girls spoke of classes and cheerleading and even the occasional boy as they walked from the corner of the block to the home where they lived.

“Do you think that Momma was serious about taking us out to use our plasma powers, Kas?”

“Well, doy! Momma never says stuff that she doesn’t mean. I just wonder how Mommy will react!”

“Yeah, I know what you…” The raven-haired teen’s voice trailed off and she stopped walking.

“Shek?” The red haired girl turned to her sister. “Sheki, what…?” She paused in her question and followed Sheki’s stunned gaze towards their house. Specifically, upwards to the roof of their house where their Mommy was sitting and leaning back against the chimney and waving frantically down at them.

Kim was no longer wearing her mission clothes but she looked even more disheveled than she had that morning. Dressed in what looked like their Mommy’s old cheerleading outfit and her motions urgent but not otherwise hysterical or desperate, Kim repeatedly placed her finger against her lips and gave her daughters the silent message to remain quiet, more specifically to not alert anyone of her presence on the roof. The girls watched this for several seconds before Sheki nodded mutely and Kasy gave a ‘thumbs up’. Kim returned the gesture and looked up and down the street before hunkering back down against the chimney. Kasy began dragging her twin closer to the house.

“Um…”

Yeah, um… what was that about?”

“Mommy’s hiding?”

“Doy! But from who?” They had barely reached the front door when it was yanked open from within and a tall form urgently looked out through the doorway, quickly scanning the avenue up and down before standing back and glancing down happily at the two girls.

“Hey, sweethearts! Welcome home!” Shego was dressed in her best black silk negligee, hurriedly wrapping her dark green silk robe around herself as she smiled down at the children. “Did you have a good day at school?”

“…”

“…”

“You haven’t seen your Momma around anywhere, have you?”

“Um, we… we…” They had been strictly taught not to lie. Kasy decided to take the heat for this one later and spoke up for her sister.

“We didn’t see her out walking around, no, Ma’am.”

Shego clearly had no reason to doubt this and gave the street one last glance before moving aside to let her daughters into the house. While both of the adults were modest around their children, Shego seemed unusually careless with her appearance and manner while the girls placed their satchels against the hall tree and gingerly walked towards the stairs. The tall woman almost seemed to be lost within herself, sauntering and traipsing in ways that their Momma never… NEVER moved or acted.

The way in which the pale green woman was inspecting herself was similar to how someone would act when trying on a new suit of clothes, even though the twins had seen the nightclothes and robe many times before.

“You can each have one soda either before or with dinner, and…” The woman obviously remembered something and her face broke into a wide grin even as she started to speak. “Oh, that’s right! We were going to go out and sling a little plasma this evening, weren’t we?”

“Did you really mean that?” Sheki had hoped that the promise hadn’t been idle, but it had seemed far too good to be true.

“Doy! Of course I did!” Their Momma clapped her hands together and actually bounced on her heels. “You two run upstairs and get into your own mission clothes and I’ll change as well.” She looked back and forth between their incredulous faces. “Ok?”

“Sure!”

“Thanks, Momma!” The teens shot up the stairs and ran to their room, leaving the door ajar as they pulled the homemade, Kasy-designed mission uniforms from the closet and changed out of their school clothes. They wasted no time and barely heard the window being opened behind them.

“Pst… girls!” They spun around to see their Mommy climbing in the window. “What gives?” Kim waited expectantly for a few seconds before seeing that the teens were too startled to reply. “Well, where is she?”

“Who?”

“Your… Momma. Where is your Momma?” The girls noticed that Kim’s face was smudged with black glossy lipstick and that her hair was a righteous mess.

“Downstairs.” Kasy pulled the form-fitting black tunic over her head while Sheki was tucking her long hair under her own cowl.

“Why are you wearing those?”

“Momma’s going to take us out for plasma practice!”

“Yeah!”

“Oh, really?” The slender redhead seemed intrigued by that remark but her expression was more of anger than curiosity. “That should be a hoot.”

“Then why don’t you come with us?” The sudden voice startled them all, Kim seemingly more than the children. Shego was standing in the doorway, having just come upstairs to change into her own uniform. “We can get in a little sparing before dinner.”

“And do you really think that this is a good idea… Shego?” The girls wondered why their Mommy had backed up against the far wall, her eyes wary and slightly panicked, as if judging how difficult it would be to leap back out through the window.

“Sure… Pumpkin.” The smirk on the pale green face seemed normal enough. “Why shouldn’t the girls get to use their powers more often, and you’re always complaining that we never get to fight like we used to!” The older parent backed out of the room. “You girls finish changing while your… Mommy and I get ready.”

“Huh, uh! Nothing doing!” Kim remained against the wall. “I’m not following you into that room. You go and get dressed and I’ll stay with the girls.”

“Chicken.” Shego smirked and her emerald gaze was veiled as she continued down the hall.

The twins had no idea what to make of this exchange but they were slowly becoming very uncomfortable. The awkweirdness of the previous evening and from that morning was fresh in their minds and they were starting to recall their Mommy’s behavior from the other day. Now that they were examining the details, neither parent was acting as they should, but nothing that the girls could think of would explain the sitch.

“Well, I guess that you’d better get dressed.” Their Mommy had walked into the girls’ bathroom and was washing her face and rinsing her hair. Sheki was fully dressed and walked closer to the bathroom door.

“You don’t think we should do this?”

“You don’t want us to practice?” Her sister had joined her. Grabbing a ‘Disney Princess’ towel, the former ‘girl who could do anything’ dried her face and hair before looking to her daughters.

“It’s not that, it’s just… “ She seemed to reach an internal decision. “Look, your M… Momma’s feeling a little off today. It’s nothing serious…” She interrupted herself when she saw looks of worry blossom on the twins’ faces. “She’s just not herself.”

“But if you don’t really want us to…” Kasy had unconsciously drawn closer to her sister.

“Then we won’t.” Sheki welcomed the proximity.

“Girls! Come on!” Their Momma had apparently finished changing and was back downstairs calling out to them. “Let’s go and blow stuff up!”

“Mommy?”

“It’s Ok…” The slender red head walked over to her daughters and looked them over as if seeing them for the first time. At thirty years of age, the former cheerleader had gained a few inches in height but even her thirteen year old children were almost up to eye-level with her. The fair skin and soft features had become just a little narrower over the years but they were always quick with a smile; Kim’s face had been a little too hard set since that morning and now her features softened while she faced her girls. “Really.”

“Ok, Mommy, if you say so…” Kasy seemed reluctant to finish getting dressed. “Mommy, earlier, I… told Momma a lie.”

“Oh?” The petite woman’s reaction was measured. “What about?”

“She asked me if I’d seen you and I kind of said no…” Kasy was blushing with the characteristic bruised look that was caused by her pale green coloration. “I’m sorry.”

“Kasy, trust me.” Kim reached out and hugged both of her girls at once. “I think that we can let it go this time.” They returned the embrace.

“PLAS-MA! PLAS-MA!” The sing-song chant from downstairs seemed almost giddy.

“Geez…” Kim smirked in a very uncharacteristic way. “Come on, let’s not keep her waiting.”

To Be Continued…

Description
Tag
Author: The Humbug
Disclaimer: “Kim Possible” and all characters within © The Walt Disney Company and its related entities. Kim Possible created by Mark McCorkle & Bob Schooley. All rights reserved. No profit is being collected from the fiction contained within. You can blame the rest of this on me.
Rating: PG-13 for combat violence and intimations of a physical relationship and intimate contact between consenting adult females. This should also cover a little harsh language now and then. If this will offend you, please read something else, and then seek professional help.
Summary: Mostly harmless, this is a Kim/Shego pairing fan fiction set late in my ‘Who’s Writing This Crap?’ Kigo-verse. Drama with humor seasoned to taste. Kasy Ann and Sheki Go Possible are the creations of NoDrogs, bless him.

Tag / Part I

“Concentrate…”

“I am, Momma.” The young girl was wearing a lightweight jumpsuit, its coloration similar to the green and black uniform worn by the older woman.

“I’m going to let it out now, Ok?” Shego eyed the raven-haired girl, one of her twin daughters. The youngster looked more than a little frightened. “Are you ready?”

The child swallowed hard before she could answer.

“Yes, Momma.” Sheki breathed like her mothers taught her to before a battle; it calmed her fears and brought oxygen into her lungs for greater strength and endurance.

“Remember, it’s just a game, just like…”

“Momma!”

“Ok, Ok!”

Shego moved away from the door of the packing crate and pulled the door open; as soon as the daylight struck the eyes of the occupant inside the crate, it moved. The thing was shaped like a female but had a body of blued metal and was wearing a black body stocking. The long blond hair was a sharp contrast against the glowing eyes of the automaton as it stepped out of the crate and looked around, charging forward immediately once it spotted the young girl standing in the middle of the yard.

Sheki was prepared just like she’d been trained; she remained stock still until the thing was about to reach her before she feinted to the side. She ignited a plasma field around her left hand and slapped the metallic surface of the thing’s back.

“You’re it!”

There was an ozone tang in the air from the contact and the metal figure whipped around. Sheki was already moving, running across the yard with the metallic thing close behind her. The automaton leaped into the air and, anticipating the girl’s next move, angled its leap to the side. The thing landed directly in front of Sheki as the girl turned in the anticipated direction. Sheki attempted to backpedal but the thing tagged her on the shoulder.

“You. Are. It.”

It was already moving away before the young girl could react. With a determined glare on her face, Sheki took off in pursuit. Back on the porch, her twin sister Kasy quietly opened the back door and moved to sit beside their Momma; the older woman pantomimed every strike and action taken by her other child and the two watched as the opponents traded hits while one chased the other around the yard.

“How’s she doing, Momma?” Kasy kept her voice down so as not to distract her sister, who already had her work cut out for her because of the speed and dexterity of her metallic foe. Shego put her arm around the little redhead, who was also wearing a similar green and black jumpsuit, though this one had some scuffmarks and tears in it.

“She’s doing great...” The former villain winced as Sheki tangled her feet while attempting to dodge a tag; the robot touched her before the girl could right herself and the contest continued. “Matching accuracy with speed is always difficult, but she’s getting the hang of it.”

“Better than me?”

“Do you want me to tell your Mommy that you asked that question?”

“No, Ma’am.”

“Good, then shush.” Shego smirked and held her daughter tighter. Just a short while ago when Kasy had been the one out there in the backyard, Sheki had ventured that she probably wouldn’t be able to do as good a job as her red haired twin. The girls needed to build confidence as well a muscle, and while Shego didn’t what them to get cocky, a little pep talk from Mommy might be in order. After several more minutes, Sheki was starting to tucker out and Shego stood up and walked out into the yard.

“BEBE, pause! Cancel current protocols.”

The blue creature stopped and adopted a ‘parade rest’ stance. Sheki had made the last tag and had been evading the machine when it stopped; she let herself drop to the ground, panting. Kasy was close behind the tall woman and she moved off to help her sister while Shego examined the BEBE.

“Will she live?” Shego called back over her shoulder without turning.

“I can’t feel my legs!”

“We need a soda over here, STAT!”

“Honk!”

“And one hard-boiled egg!” The giggling behind her made Shego grin but she wiped it from her face before she turned around. Whist in ‘training mode’ she always maintained a strict discipline to never joke around with her daughters. There was always time for fun but training would result in life or death one day. She did give the metal figure a quick pat on its cold hard shell before moving to inspect her girls.

“How many hits, Momma?” Kasy had helped Sheki to her feet, still catching her breath but flexing in the way that she’d been taught so that her muscles wouldn’t cramp.

“Never you mind. Let’s grab some slab and debrief.” They ran to the deck as Shego lifted the BEBE over her shoulder and its body went as limp as a wet noodle; she carried it over to the back of the house and gently laid it down on it’s back. Sheki was wiping her face with a towel and the girls waited impatiently for their Momma.

“Where did you get that thing, again?” They shifted to give the woman room to join them. Other than the age difference and Kasy’s red hair, they each had the same pale green tilt to their skin.

“From ‘GJ’; it’s one of Drakken’s oldest models and it was crated away in a storage closet.” She regarded the abused robot. The artificial blond hair was mussed from its ‘pursue and evade’ protocols and the black body stocking was burned and shredded in several places, dark carbon scoring clearly visible on the blue metal from where Sheki had tagged it. “It’s hardly a danger now.”

“But it’s so fast!”

“And agile!”

“You’re not kidding… it and the other BEBEs were the second most dangerous foes to battle with your Mommy in hand to hand combat.” The girls were impressed because the most deadly foe was sitting beside them now. “Most of the special features like extending limbs and super speed have been deactivated, and since it’s only a single unit there’s no ‘hive mind’ to worry about.”

“So… who did better?” The girls looked pensive. Shego shook her head at them.

“This was not a competition between the two of you, it was combat training. Yes, I did count the hits and no, I’m not comparing them for you and no, neither of you ‘did better’ than the other.” She reached out and ruffled their hair, smiling at them. “You are both doing very well and if we keep this up you’ll be ready for something more intense in no time.” For the next several minutes their Momma debriefed the girls on their performances, both in general as well as specific areas that either needed attention or had shown special achievement.

Kasy gave her sister a glance as advance warning, and then she asked a question that had bothered the girls all morning.

“Mommy’s mad, isn’t she?”

Shego had wondered when this might come up. Barring missions or other unexpected occurrences, Kim never missed a workout session with the children.

“No! Well… maybe a little. But not at you!” Shego looked to them both. “You know that Mommy and I support your training one hundred percent, right? Well, we discussed using the BEBE and we each had different feelings about it. She felt that it might be too dangerous, and I respect that.” She looked at the metal figure again and prayed that there would be no serious repercussions as a result of this day.

“But she didn’t even come out to watch us!”

“Mommy always watches us!”

“Girls, I swear to you that she’s not mad at you. She’s a little peeved at me, but that’s business as usual, right?” They avoided her gaze and nodded, obviously unhappy.

“Can we do this again?” Both girls looked hopeful.

“Yeah, can we use the BEBE again?”

“Sorry girls, but I don’t think so. This is only on loan from ‘GJ’ an they don’t want to risk the technology being stolen or copied, even if it is out of date. And besides, I doubt that Mommy would be happy about me doing this twice.” The girls seemed to understand that and didn’t feel too disappointed.

“The two of you handled yourselves well. Were you afraid of it at all?”

“No way!”

“Huh, uh!”

“Girls…”

“Ok, a little.”

“Yeah, it’s creepy.” They all stood, the tall woman lifting the limp blue figure and rested it across her shoulder again, with the little girls holding the back door open for her.

“It’s Ok to feel fear; it’s a warning that we really need to be paying attention to the sitch at hand. Just never let it get the better of you and make you hesitate.” She started up the steps, still carrying the BEBE. “You can have one soda each and will you please set out some lunch food I wake your Mommy up from her nap and prove to her that I really am going to disassemble this thing?”

“Yes, Momma.”

“Please and thank you.” Shego was already halfway up the stairs but clearly heard the twins giggling behind her. She cursed herself for having picked up Kimmie’s stupid catch phrases.

Lugging the robot down the hall and to the master bedroom, Shego gently set the metallic figure on the bed and stripped off her green and black mission uniform. Pulling an ‘I’m With Sexy!’ T-shirt over her head, she walked into the bathroom just long enough to wipe her face off with a damp cloth and returned to the bed with its metal occupant, puzzled as to why it was still laying there. She lay down on the comforter and gently tapped the metal forehead with a black fingernail.

“How long can you stay fresh in that can?”

“Just get me out of this damn thing.”

The figure remained motionless as Shego leaned over it and used a plasma-charged finger to burn through the tattered body stocking. When that was removed she loosened the interlocking segments of the BEBE armor and lift the pectoral half away from the dorsal half, exposing sections of pink skin wrapped with strategically placed bandages to prevent chaffing, otherwise the body beneath the armor was nude. The final piece to be removed was the faceplate, and Shego lifted it away with the utmost care.

The exposed face was ruddy from exertion and damp with sweat, strands of loose red hair falling down and plastered against soft skin. There was also evidence of moisture from another source.

“Pumpkin, have you been crying?”

Kim did not answer; she rolled out of the remaining segments of armor and climbed up from the bed. Shego watched as her angel stormed into the bathroom and pulled the door closed behind her. She frowned and walked out of the bedroom and over to the landing.

“Girls, your Mommy and I will be up here for a few minutes, Ok?”

“Kay, Momma!” Having been deep in a discussion of how their own personal Team Possible uniforms should look when they eventually joined their parents on missions, this brought the twins back to the here and now. Kasy finished laying out the plates and turned to her sister. “I bet they’re fighting.”

“Probably about us and the BEBE.”

“Momma said that Mommy wasn’t mad at us, right?”

“Well, yeah…” Each girl wished in her heart that they could feel more confident that this was true. Upstairs, Shego waited for Kim to take a quick shower. When the slender woman left the bathroom her red hair, kept much shorter these days than when she was younger, was a frizzy mess after having been towel dried.

“Kimmie…” Still seated on the bed, Shego turned to face her mate.

“Not right now, please.” Kim walked right by her towards the closet.

“Princess…” Standing, the taller woman joined her.

“I said, not right now, please.”

“Pumpkin…” Shego hardly spoke the word when she leaned away from the angry glare that whirled around to confront her.

“You’re really pushing all the buttons, aren’t you?” Kim’s anger flared in Shego’s face. “I really do NOT want to hear from you right now!”

“Kim, did you think it was that bad of an idea? Did you really? Because I can tell you that even if this wasn’t one of my best ideas, it was a damn good one!” The pale green woman began to count off on her long fingers. “They got a great workout, they had fun, it built their confidence and it was a wonderful display of how well their training is progressing!”

“I… yes, I suppose that it was… but do you have any idea how much it hurt to see…to be the…”

“What, Kimmie? Tell me why you’re so angry!”

“Did you ever stop to think that maybe I’d like to train with them in some other capacity than the crash test dummy? That even sitting on the sidelines would be preferable to being the enemy?” Kim wiped at her eyes and made to turn away. “That while they were running from me, all I could see was… was…”

“’All you could see was’… what? Our girls being safe because they were never in the least bit of danger? Getting a first rate workout from someone who only cares for and loves them dearly? From someone who is the best?” Shego sighed in exasperation. “Is that what you saw?”

“… yeah.” There was more but Kim couldn’t say it.

“If you’d tried to perform this workout with them as yourself, they’d never have taken it as seriously. Sure, they’re great girls but you’re their Mommy; they know that their Mommy would never hurt them. As ‘the BEBE’ there was this mysterious factor of risk that kept them on their toes, took away their edge and made them work all the much harder.”

There was no way that Kim could present an argument against these points, because there was no argument. The one reason why she had been smoldering with anger was why she now burned with shame. She marshaled her feelings and wrangled them back under her control with some good sense.

“You’re right, of course. Maybe I… maybe I would have just liked to have been able to cheer them on a little.” That sounded good, that’s how she would end it. “That’s all.”

“Judas Priest…” Shego walked around the smaller woman and reached into the dresser to snag some clothes. “Kimmie, you’re their mother, you’re always with them and they know how proud you are of their accomplishments. But right now they’re downstairs all worried about you being mad at them.”

“But I’m not!”

“I know that but perception is reality, or don’t you recall ever saying that to me before?” She threw a pair of running shorts and a T-shirt that said ‘I’m With Evil!’ at her wife. “If you were listening to us back down on the deck you heard me say that there would be no more practice sessions with the BEBE, right?”

“Yes.”

“And I meant that.” She sat down at the vanity table. “I knew that you’d be uncomfortable and hadn’t planned on asking you to do that more than once. This was a one-time experience where we all learned a little something.” Shego crossed her arms over her chest and cocked an eyebrow. “So how about we get down there and eat some lunch before they really start to worry, Ok?”

Kim was quiet, but looked as if she wanted to speak; Shego gave her all the time in the world. It only took a few seconds.

“I don’t mean to be a stick in the mud, I really don’t.” Kim moved close but held herself back until invited. She was keeping her eyes on the carpeted floor.

“I know, Princess, it’s Ok.” Shego held an arm out in invitation, which was accepted when Kim joined her at the vanity. She embraced the lithe form. “That might not have been one of my best ideas, but you have to admit that it worked.”

“Yeah, I know… I just don’t feel comfortable…”

“You don’t like being pitted against your own children, I know. That’s why we made it a game of tag and not some sort of combat exercise. But look…” Shego used her long green fingers to again count off the positive outcomes. “They got a great workout and an excellent session of ‘evade and pursue’, they also gained the experience of using their plasma in simulated combat against an inhuman opponent… nothing personal.” Shego leaned in to kiss her wife behind the ear, smelling the body wash that her Princess favored. “They were also in no danger whatsoever because you were their opponent, but they had no way to know that so they didn’t hold back and that’s the biggest thing that worry’s me right now; their confidence needs building and I’m not sure how else to do that without making things too easy.”

Kim had yet to make eye contact; she nodded at what she was hearing but still had something on her mind that was bothering her.

“I didn’t, did I?”

“Didn’t what?”

“Make things too easy?”

“Hell, no! You were fantastic!” Shego kissed her again, risking a little tickle in a spot that she knew Kim to be especially sensitive; this earned her a smile and a shiver but nothing more. “I was worried that you might not be convincing enough, but after the session with Kasy earlier I knew that you’d be fine, and so were they.”

“They did do very well, didn’t they?”

“They’re amazing! My brothers and I never really had any combat training until after we gained our powers, and only the twins were as young as the girls are now. You didn’t really begin to hone your speed and agility until you became a cheerleader, and you were a year or more older than they are now when you started.”

“They’ll be far better than we ever were, won’t they?”

“They’ll run rings around us! They’ll…” Shego stopped when she felt her mate sag a little in her arms. She examined Kim’s mouth, drawn into a hard line and slightly down-turned at the sides, and her head as it lowered a little from her shoulders.

“Is that what’s bothering you?” It wasn’t, really, but that was as good an explanation as any. Kim nodded once.

“I don’t begrudge them anything.” Kim sighed. “Not one single thing, but seeing them get better and better makes me feel older and slower and more stupid.” Her brows furrowed. “I feel horrible and ashamed just thinking it.”

Crap. Shego felt as if she should have seen it coming.

“I… sometimes I feel that I’m finished, that I’m used up and have nothing left to offer.” She raised her head to face her spouse, eyes dry but distraught. “Like my best days are behind me and I should just fade away.”

“Princess, how many missions did Team Possible have last year?”

“Mm… thirty-seven.”

“Right; and how many were successful?”

“Only thirty-five.” How her angel could manage to look so crestfallen at such a high success rate, Shego could not fathom.

“I can see that you’re forgetting that a broken foot and appendicitis account for the two unsuccessful ones, yes?” Kim didn’t answer. “How many of your solo missions were successful?”

“…”

“Princess…”

“All of them.”

“Kim, you’re only thirty years old and if anything you’re getting better, not worse. You always pass the ‘GJ’ re-certification exams with one hundred percent accuracy and it’s your Independent Operative stipend check, not mine, that accounts for the majority of the income for our home. You know that I’ve not touched the girls safety fund in years, right?”

Kim’s breathing had steadily been getting deeper and her chin was slightly higher as she nodded in acknowledgement of Shego’s question. What they now referred to as the ‘girls safety fund’ was the still-impressive remnants of any ill-gotten gains that Shego had squirreled away when still a thief. The younger hero had only agreed to let it remain in their possession if it could be held in trust should anything happen to them that would leave the girls orphaned.

“And if nothing else, ask yourself this… would the mighty Shego hang with a washed out loser that was a ready candidate for an ice floe?”

“No…” Kim smirked and raised her head all the way to initiate a kiss of her own. “Thanks.”

“Whatever. Now, let’s get you dressed.” The taller woman stood and lifted the petite redhead into the air, swinging her up and onto her shoulder once again, just as she had when Kim had been masquerading as a BEBE. Kim was actually laughing as her larger mate began to dress her as if she were too young to dress herself.

“Oh, Kimmie, promise me something…” Shego paused to look her straight in the eyes. “When you go downstairs, keep in mind that the girls probably think that you’re mad about them practicing with BEBE. Please, don’t rain on their parade.”

“I won’t, and I never would. I’m as proud of them as you are. I’ll just tell them that I was tired or something” Kim kissed her again. “Thanks for sticking up for my opinion out on the porch. I really do want the girls to know how much I support them. So really, thank you.”

“No big … Kimmie wipe that grin off your face.”

“Sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry for, Princess.” Shego leant over to kiss the top of Kim’s head.

“They are great, aren’t they?”

“They’re the best.” Now Kim looked up to make eye contact; there was a mischievous gleam in those emerald orbs.

“Hey, you just said that I was the best!”

“I actually meant to say that you were the third best.” Shego pursed her black glossed lips and furrowed her brow as if in deep consideration. “Kasy and Sheki tie for first, then of course there’s me, but you… wow, there you are, right there.” The smirk was just like old times. “Third best. That’s what I meant to say.”

Kim knew that she would be fine until the feeling passed; it always did.

“Should we go down, now?”

“Well, you already took a shower and the girls probably have lunch waiting…”

“I meant go down and eat lunch!” Her face blushed crimson at her spouse’s leer. The older woman grinned and pulled the slender redhead to her and they ambled to the stairs arm in arm. Kim knew that she definitely felt better because it must have been showing in her expression and stance; the girls noticed right away that there was nothing to be worried about and they quickly ran to her.

“Mommy, we fought a BEBE!” Kasy was bouncing on her heels. “Well, we played tag with one, anyway!”

“Yeah, and we won!” Sheki had come down from her adrenalin high but was just as happy. Kim embraced them both and gave each of them a huge kiss.

“My little heroes!” Shego stood back and watched as her Princess held their daughters tight and seemed to gain strength from their limitless energy. The girls sat just a little closer to their Mommy during lunch and were all too eager to clean up afterwards.

88888888

It was two days later and Kasy was closest to the Kimmunicator when it chimed. She grabbed the beeping device, handing it to her Mother.

“Thank you, sweetheart.” She kissed the girl on the cheek; they might have been twins themselves if not for a few inches of height in Kim’s favor and the greenish tint to the teenager’s skin.

“You’re welcome!”

“Don’t run off, shorty!” Shego’s voice called out. “You may think you’re all that, but you’re not!”

“I’m coming right back, Momma!” Kasy signed and returned to the living room while Kim giggled and thumbed the activator switch. The face was familiar and friendly, but it wasn’t her old friend Wade.

“Kim here; what’s the sitch?”

“A good morning to you, Mrs. Possible. Sorry to disturb, but a person or persons unknown have apparently found a cache of equipment at one of Dr. Drakken’s old lairs. They’ve activated something that is registering on our scanners.” The young man at the other end of the signal was a lower grade operative for Global Justice named Dan or Stan or something like that and he’d called the house before with mission alerts; now that Agent Wade Load was a computer and network specialist for ‘GJ’, her friend was no longer her primary contact for missions.

“A weapon?” Had Dan or Stan just called her ‘Mrs. Possible’? Good Lord, I’ve finally turned into my mother!

“Unknown, but unlikely… the energy signature that tipped us off doesn’t match any of Drakken’s weapons. It still could be anything and probably nothing nice, so watch yourselves just in case.” Without being asked or telling her that he was doing so, the location was downloaded to her Kimmunicator; it was a few States away and would require fast transportation, which had apparently been pre-arranged. “We’ve dispatched a transport, so please be careful and report back as soon as you can.”

“Got it! Kim out.” She ran to the kitchen and frowned at her spouse, still hanging over the chessboard. “Shego, come on! We’ve got a mission! Sheki, get down off of your Momma!”

“She won’t let me!” That much was true, and the girl had a much better vantage point of the game from there. Shego and Kasy had been playing a game of chess, with the older woman teaching the girls in the finer points of strategy and patience. She was also wearing her daughter Sheki over her shoulder like a shawl.

Having become a parent who wanted her children very close to her, Shego was not above grabbing one of the girls away from an activity and physically hauling them around with her. As a young mother, Kim often had to be pried away from her babies, fawning and cooing over them just a little too much. As they all got a little older, the sitch had reversed; Shego had to be in almost constant contact or proximity to one or both of their daughters unless the parents were having a private moment or were away on a mission. After a mission, especially a distant or long one, nothing could pull Shego away from the girls. Kasy and Sheki were alternately amused or embarrassed by this, but Kim knew that they seemed to sense their Momma’s need for reassurance that her girls were doing fine.

But Kim also foresaw that they might not be so amused the first time that some boy came calling and it was Shego who answered the door. She’d have to have a talk with Shego about the eventuality of boys.

“Coming, Princess…” Shego dropped her hand over her rook and then withdrew it, hovering over her knight before lowering her hand completely and sighing in frustration. “I’ll be right there.”

“Momma, the game will still be here when you get back.”

“Yeah, and Kasy will still be tromping you, Momma.”

“Big, green talking head lice…” Sheki giggled as she was lovingly tossed onto the nearby couch.

“Sheki Go Possible, get your bubble butt over there and take out that garbage!” Kim suppressed a laugh.

“Yes, Mommy.”

“Silence, Team Possible… the forces of evil have you… at… our mercy…” Shego was again thoroughly absorbed in the board.

“Now, baby! They’re on their way!” There was absolutely no response this time. Kim squared her shoulders. “Ok, screw it. I don’t want to go anyway.” Three pairs of wide emerald eyes and three shocked faces with mouths agape turned in her direction. With her hands on her hips, Kim gave the epitome of a Shego smirk.

“Gotcha.”

“Ok, Ok! I’m right behind you, Kimmie!” She huffed in frustration and pointed first at Sheki and then at Kasy. “You need to watch her and make sure she doesn’t cheat.”

“Shego! Our baby doesn’t cheat!”

“Hey, Sis, I’ll take the garbage for you if you look the other way for a few minutes.”

“Kasy Ann Possible! You are NOT helping!” Kim grinned in spite of herself as she dragged Shego towards the steps. They raced up to their bedroom and hurried into their mission clothes, Kim with the dual task of fighting Shego off the moment she started to remove her civilian clothes. The pale green woman didn’t begin to dress in earnest until Kim flipped her over and threw her onto the bed.

“Promises, promises…” Shego stripped and pulled on a uniform without ever taking her eyes of Kim; after working and living for years in conditions that did not include a stable power source and therefore working lights, the thief didn’t need to see what she was doing to get dressed. She was mesmerized as the younger woman donned her cargo pants and full-length black Kevlar top. “I miss the belly shirts.”

“Sorry, baby, but I don’t feel that it’s appropriate anymore.”

“You still have them, right?”

“Yes…” Kim knew what she was being asked. “I can wear one later, if you’d like.”

“Please and… damn it!” Kim was already giggling at her mate. Seeing the smile in Kim’s eyes reminded of the younger woman’s feeling the other day. “How are you feeling, Pumpkin? Are you Ok?”

“I’m fine. And by that I do mean ‘better’. Thanks for listening to an old fart gripe about her forgotten glory days.” After a couple of days the dark feeling had mostly passed so Kim wasn’t really lying, even if life with Shego had taught her how to lie a little better.

“That’s good. And cut out that ‘old fart’ bilge. You’re a sexy, young fart if I ever smelled one.”

“Ewww!” Kim let Shego chase her down the stairs. They noticed a mechanized hum in the air and found their daughters standing at the open front doorway watching a ‘GJ’ hover sled, one of the larger troop transport models, gently maneuver itself above the lawn. Kim joined the twins and waved out to the Agent that was lowering a ladder to the grass, not having enough room or time to properly land the craft. The agent waved back and Kim turned to her girls.

“Remember, stay home and don’t worry. If you need anything…”

“We’ll call Grandma and Grandpa, yes ma’am.” They were prevented from saying more when Shego grappled with them from behind, effectively cutting off further communications. Kim smiled as the girls broke free and wiped slobber from their faces, then the older redhead gave each child a tender kiss on the nose as she helped to straighten their hair. Shego watched this with a smile of her own while she made one final inspection of her own mission uniform and gave some parental advice of her own.

“If we’re gone overnight, no parties and no boys!”

“Momma!”

“Boys are gross!”

“Ewww!”

“Good girls…” Shego reached out and ruined Kim’s repair work on the twin’s hair and ran out to meet the hover sled. Kim signed and scheduled her discussion about boys to a much earlier date on her mental calendar. She joined her mate and they waived back to the house one final time before the sled rose and eventually disappeared beyond a distant row of houses. The girls returned to their tasks and chores and hobbies, each confident that all was well and normal in the world. They had completely forgotten about how badly their Mommy had been feeling the other day, at least in that she was obviously feeling better now.

88888888

The telephone rang that evening after the girls had washed the dinner dishes and were finishing their homework on the dining room table.

“Hello, Possible residence…” Sheki was the closest to the phone and she had answered casually; the girls were used to their folks being gone for longer periods of time and neither had really been anticipating news of their mothers until their expected return.

“Sheki? Hi, it’s… Momma!”

“Hey, Momma!” From across the room Kasy looked up with interest as her sister spoke into the phone. “Did the mission go Ok?”

“Well…”

“Give me the damn phone!”

The second voice was not as clear or distinct as her Momma’s voice, but Sheki’s eyes flew open at the realization of two things; the other voice in the background was Mommy’s voice and the frustrated anger she heard in it were as clear as day. The young girl with the long black hair urgently pointed towards the extension in the hallway and motioned for her sister to silently pick up that line; confused, her red haired twin complied.

“Momma?” Sheki spoke back into the phone. “Momma, is everything Ok?”

“Sure! Sure, everything’s Ok, baby!”

“I said, give me the damn phone!”

“Not like that, no way! You just back off and sit down until you can control yourself!”

“But I want to talk, too! They’re my girls… give me the fu…” The rest of the sentence was muffled and line remained open. Kasy looked back at her sister, stunned. They had never… NEVER heard their Mommy talk like that. Their mothers argued and fought, even talked ‘trash’ as they called it when sparing, but they had never heard her use such language… EVER. The twins felt cold all over and Kasy dared to speak.

“… is mommy there…?”

“Hey! Kasy!” It was still their Momma’s voice. “Well, yes, she’s here, sweetheart.”

“Is she Ok?”

“Sure! She’s fine… We’re both fine. Um, look, girls… something’s come up and we won’t be home right away. We’ll be back sometime very early in the morning, probably before you get up for school.”

“… ok…”

“So you go on to bed at the normal time and we’ll, um, see you tomorrow, Ok, sweethearts?”

“… yes, ma’am…”

“… ok, momma…”

“Ok? Ok, good… good. Ok, see you both tomorrow, then!”

“… ok…” The line had already gone dead.

Sheki waited for her sister to return to the dining room but the redhead did not. Looking for her, she discovered Kasy sitting on the sofa with her knees drawn up to her chin and her arms wrapped around her legs, looking as she were about to cry. Sheki joined her.

“So… what do you think’s wrong?”

“I think Mommy’s still mad. Remember the other day?”

“Uh, huh.”

“I think that Mommy’s still mad and that it’s because of the BEBE.”

“No way! Momma said…”

“I know what Momma said.” Kasy wiped at her eyes, sniffling a little. “But that was Mommy’s voice yelling and… cursing. She never does that!”

“Yeah, I know.” Sheki couldn’t think of any better explanation. “So, finished your homework?”

“Yeah. You?”

“Almost. There was just a bonus question left and I’ll get it in homeroom. Want to watch TV?”

“No.”

“Me neither.” The twins leaned against each other and went to bed as soon as the sun had fully set, hours before their normal bedtime, and hadn’t even bothered to turn on any lights.

88888888

Sleep had come after only a little anxious worry and, when the alarm clock woke then for school, the girls hurried into their clothes so that they could see if their parents were home, if the older folks had returned in the early hours of dawn, neither of the twins had heard it. Pausing at the top of the stairs, they listened carefully for sign of any presence below, making sure to stay as quiet as possible so as not to give away their location; their efforts were soon rewarded, sort of.

“This blows…” That was Mommy, not as angry as yesterday evening when they’d heard her in the background but still obviously upset.

“Now, it won’t be for long. You know that.” Now they heard Momma’s voice, sounding unusually patient. “They’ll contact us as soon as everything is ready.”

“I don’t give a tin shit! It’s not right and you know how I feel about stuff like this!”

“I know, baby, but things will be just like they were before, soon enough…”

Puzzled but heartened that their parents were finally home, the girls descended the steps and walked into the kitchen as calmly as they could. What they saw didn’t exactly allay their anxiety and it certainly didn’t help their confusion. On any other morning, their Mommy would be serving breakfast and wearing her running clothes from her morning jog, while Momma would be hunched over her morning coffee. This was not the case today.

“Hey, good morning!” The taller woman with the flowing black hair was scooping scrambled eggs out onto a set of plates; Shego was still in her green and black mission uniform, slightly modified by ‘GJ’ over the years, but with frilly pink apron over top of it. It was the same apron that their Mommy usually wore.

Their Mommy, on the other hand, was seated at the table with a mug in front of her and was watching the girls closely with her arms crossed over her chest, with her red hair disheveled and still in her own mission clothes. When the girls had first entered the room, all conversation between the adults had ceased and the smaller of the two had been wearing a scowl. That expression had softened considerably at the entrance of the twins, but the eyes were brooding and hooded.

“Kim?” The girls took their usual seats as their Momma poured them each some juice and then joined them at the table. “Kimmie, say good morning to your daughters.”

Kim’s eyes had never left her girls, but she did look away to glare at Shego briefly. Seeing Momma serving breakfast was strange enough but the way Mommy was acting was totally weird.

“Hey…” The arms loosened and Kim turned in her seat to better face the girls. “Have a good night?”

“… uh, huh…”

“Kasy Ann Possible, we don’t grunt at the table.” Shego pulled off her apron and bent down to kiss the little redhead on the nose. “So, did you girls have a good night?” She made sure that that Sheki had a napkin as she gave her other daughter a kiss of her own. “Well?”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“Good!” Shego’s tone was relaxed enough but she wasn’t making eye contact like she usually did. Their Momma always looked you right in the eyes, always telling her girls that it strengthened trust in your allies and weakened the resolve of your enemies. The green and black clad woman was also eating with a care and grace that they’d not seen her use before.

Kim hadn’t moved, peering at the girls as if waiting for something. The sitch was definitely not right; their Mommy was never this sullen or quiet. She would normally be up and moving and all over the girls about their forthcoming day at school.

“Was…” Sheki balked as all eyes suddenly turned her way. It was a moment before she continued. “Was the mission successful?”

Shego didn’t respond immediately, keeping her gaze focused down on her plate and only diverting her attention away from her breakfast long enough to take a long drink of juice. Kim cocked her eyebrows and gave her wife an expectant look, as if curious to see how she might answer that question.

“It was.” Shego’s tone was decisive, making Kim smirk and turn away again. “We got there in plenty of time to prevent anyone from hurting themselves or anyone else.

“So, was it a weapon?” Kasy spoke as she watched her Mommy reach out for her mug, stop to inspect her slender pink arm, and then ignore her coffee as she wrapped the arm back around her chest. The redheaded woman remained silent the whole time.

“No, it wasn’t a weapon. It was something that… your Momma and I had encountered before but the thugs didn’t know how to use it properly.”

“Thugs?”

“Yeah, bunch of small time losers.” Kim signed with disgust. The twins hadn’t expected their Mommy to speak, especially considering how disgusted she looked and they certainly hadn’t expected her to talk like that. “Some of Drakken’s old henchmen, with maybe a few of Dementor’s thrown in, I’m not sure. Guess they thought that they could make a name for themselves if they grabbed some of the Doc’s old stuff.” Kim smirked. “They sure thought wrong.”

The redhead reached out for her coffee and finally decided to drink it this time. She took a loud sip and her scowl deepened.

“Crap…”

“Is it cold?” There was a snarkiness to Shego’s tone that was almost up to her normal level. “Here, let me help with that.” Shego extended her arm and slowly wrapped her fingers around the mug. Her hand started to glow with a green light that was usual for when she was emitting a very low level of plasma and within seconds the dark liquid began to steam slightly. The look on Shego’s face was innocent enough but the look on Kim’s face was that of unbridled fury. The pink skin was suffused with a crimson flush and her mouth was a hard line. The petite woman even seemed to be quivering in her seat as she stared at the mug, not even lifting her head to speak.

“I’ll… I’ll see you girls later. Have a good day at school.” Kim got up and left the room, her hands balled into fists. The twins glanced at each other, their worry as deep as their confusion and discomfort. Shego seemed to be noticing none of it.

“So! What did you want to do after school today?”

“Um…”

“I thought that maybe the three of us could throw around a little plasma when you get home from school. You know, blow some things up!”

“Really?” Their Momma was very strict about plasma use in the house or on the property; she almost never allowed it except for very limited reasons or for combat training. It was Kim that always said they should be practicing their control and technique more, not Shego. “Do you mean it?”

“Sure!” Shego made very clear eye contact then, her smile broad and open. “When you get home from school we’ll all drive out to somewhere private and we can have a ball!” The tall woman looked over to the clock on the mantle. “Oops, it’s time for school. Finish up, finish up!”

Surprised and excited by the offer to practice with their plasma that afternoon had a soothing effect that made them forget a little of their anxiety; whatever was going on between their parents was just as awkweird as before but they were only thirteen and easily distracted by simple pleasures. Scarfing down what little remained of their meals, the girls grabbed their satchels from the hallway and were escorted through the front door by their Momma, who walked with them to the corner in anticipation of the school bus.

Other children were already there, as was another parent.

“Morning, Fran!” Shego grinned at the woman. Fran Miller nodded and muttered a reply, already knowing about her neighbors and their mysterious lifestyle but never having seen the taller, older woman outside of the house wearing a green and black uniform, or speaking to her, or smiling. The bus came for its morning load of children and Kasy and Sheki managed to wave back at their Momma as the vehicle drove away.

Shego turned and jaunted back to the house, closing the front door tightly behind her and listened. Somewhere in this house was her wife and she had to confess to a little extra energy this morning. The tall woman slowly pealed herself out of her mission uniform, luxuriating in the fact that there were no undergarments beneath the green and black Kevlar weave.

“Pumpkin?” There was no reply. “Princess?”

“Piss off.” The tired and bitter voice came from upstairs.

“Ready or not, here I come!” The pale green woman ran through the house and up the stairs like a sprinter, using her powerful legs to propel herself as fast as she was able.

88888888

Other than a brief yearbook committee meeting in the library at 3:15 pm, the Possible twins were back on their way home from school, having hitched a ride with the mother of a classmate. The afternoon was warm and the girls spoke of classes and cheerleading and even the occasional boy as they walked from the corner of the block to the home where they lived.

“Do you think that Momma was serious about taking us out to use our plasma powers, Kas?”

“Well, doy! Momma never says stuff that she doesn’t mean. I just wonder how Mommy will react!”

“Yeah, I know what you…” The raven-haired teen’s voice trailed off and she stopped walking.

“Shek?” The red haired girl turned to her sister. “Sheki, what…?” She paused in her question and followed Sheki’s stunned gaze towards their house. Specifically, upwards to the roof of their house where their Mommy was sitting and leaning back against the chimney and waving frantically down at them.

Kim was no longer wearing her mission clothes but she looked even more disheveled than she had that morning. Dressed in what looked like their Mommy’s old cheerleading outfit and her motions urgent but not otherwise hysterical or desperate, Kim repeatedly placed her finger against her lips and gave her daughters the silent message to remain quiet, more specifically to not alert anyone of her presence on the roof. The girls watched this for several seconds before Sheki nodded mutely and Kasy gave a ‘thumbs up’. Kim returned the gesture and looked up and down the street before hunkering back down against the chimney. Kasy began dragging her twin closer to the house.

“Um…”

Yeah, um… what was that about?”

“Mommy’s hiding?”

“Doy! But from who?” They had barely reached the front door when it was yanked open from within and a tall form urgently looked out through the doorway, quickly scanning the avenue up and down before standing back and glancing down happily at the two girls.

“Hey, sweethearts! Welcome home!” Shego was dressed in her best black silk negligee, hurriedly wrapping her dark green silk robe around herself as she smiled down at the children. “Did you have a good day at school?”

“…”

“…”

“You haven’t seen your Momma around anywhere, have you?”

“Um, we… we…” They had been strictly taught not to lie. Kasy decided to take the heat for this one later and spoke up for her sister.

“We didn’t see her out walking around, no, Ma’am.”

Shego clearly had no reason to doubt this and gave the street one last glance before moving aside to let her daughters into the house. While both of the adults were modest around their children, Shego seemed unusually careless with her appearance and manner while the girls placed their satchels against the hall tree and gingerly walked towards the stairs. The tall woman almost seemed to be lost within herself, sauntering and traipsing in ways that their Momma never… NEVER moved or acted.

The way in which the pale green woman was inspecting herself was similar to how someone would act when trying on a new suit of clothes, even though the twins had seen the nightclothes and robe many times before.

“You can each have one soda either before or with dinner, and…” The woman obviously remembered something and her face broke into a wide grin even as she started to speak. “Oh, that’s right! We were going to go out and sling a little plasma this evening, weren’t we?”

“Did you really mean that?” Sheki had hoped that the promise hadn’t been idle, but it had seemed far too good to be true.

“Doy! Of course I did!” Their Momma clapped her hands together and actually bounced on her heels. “You two run upstairs and get into your own mission clothes and I’ll change as well.” She looked back and forth between their incredulous faces. “Ok?”

“Sure!”

“Thanks, Momma!” The teens shot up the stairs and ran to their room, leaving the door ajar as they pulled the homemade, Kasy-designed mission uniforms from the closet and changed out of their school clothes. They wasted no time and barely heard the window being opened behind them.

“Pst… girls!” They spun around to see their Mommy climbing in the window. “What gives?” Kim waited expectantly for a few seconds before seeing that the teens were too startled to reply. “Well, where is she?”

“Who?”

“Your… Momma. Where is your Momma?” The girls noticed that Kim’s face was smudged with black glossy lipstick and that her hair was a righteous mess.

“Downstairs.” Kasy pulled the form-fitting black tunic over her head while Sheki was tucking her long hair under her own cowl.

“Why are you wearing those?”

“Momma’s going to take us out for plasma practice!”

“Yeah!”

“Oh, really?” The slender redhead seemed intrigued by that remark but her expression was more of anger than curiosity. “That should be a hoot.”

“Then why don’t you come with us?” The sudden voice startled them all, Kim seemingly more than the children. Shego was standing in the doorway, having just come upstairs to change into her own uniform. “We can get in a little sparing before dinner.”

“And do you really think that this is a good idea… Shego?” The girls wondered why their Mommy had backed up against the far wall, her eyes wary and slightly panicked, as if judging how difficult it would be to leap back out through the window.

“Sure… Pumpkin.” The smirk on the pale green face seemed normal enough. “Why shouldn’t the girls get to use their powers more often, and you’re always complaining that we never get to fight like we used to!” The older parent backed out of the room. “You girls finish changing while your… Mommy and I get ready.”

“Huh, uh! Nothing doing!” Kim remained against the wall. “I’m not following you into that room. You go and get dressed and I’ll stay with the girls.”

“Chicken.” Shego smirked and her emerald gaze was veiled as she continued down the hall.

The twins had no idea what to make of this exchange but they were slowly becoming very uncomfortable. The awkweirdness of the previous evening and from that morning was fresh in their minds and they were starting to recall their Mommy’s behavior from the other day. Now that they were examining the details, neither parent was acting as they should, but nothing that the girls could think of would explain the sitch.

“Well, I guess that you’d better get dressed.” Their Mommy had walked into the girls’ bathroom and was washing her face and rinsing her hair. Sheki was fully dressed and walked closer to the bathroom door.

“You don’t think we should do this?”

“You don’t want us to practice?” Her sister had joined her. Grabbing a ‘Disney Princess’ towel, the former ‘girl who could do anything’ dried her face and hair before looking to her daughters.

“It’s not that, it’s just… “ She seemed to reach an internal decision. “Look, your M… Momma’s feeling a little off today. It’s nothing serious…” She interrupted herself when she saw looks of worry blossom on the twins’ faces. “She’s just not herself.”

“But if you don’t really want us to…” Kasy had unconsciously drawn closer to her sister.

“Then we won’t.” Sheki welcomed the proximity.

“Girls! Come on!” Their Momma had apparently finished changing and was back downstairs calling out to them. “Let’s go and blow stuff up!”

“Mommy?”

“It’s Ok…” The slender red head walked over to her daughters and looked them over as if seeing them for the first time. At thirty years of age, the former cheerleader had gained a few inches in height but even her thirteen year old children were almost up to eye-level with her. The fair skin and soft features had become just a little narrower over the years but they were always quick with a smile; Kim’s face had been a little too hard set since that morning and now her features softened while she faced her girls. “Really.”

“Ok, Mommy, if you say so…” Kasy seemed reluctant to finish getting dressed. “Mommy, earlier, I… told Momma a lie.”

“Oh?” The petite woman’s reaction was measured. “What about?”

“She asked me if I’d seen you and I kind of said no…” Kasy was blushing with the characteristic bruised look that was caused by her pale green coloration. “I’m sorry.”

“Kasy, trust me.” Kim reached out and hugged both of her girls at once. “I think that we can let it go this time.” They returned the embrace.

“PLAS-MA! PLAS-MA!” The sing-song chant from downstairs seemed almost giddy.

“Geez…” Kim smirked in a very uncharacteristic way. “Come on, let’s not keep her waiting.”

To Be Continued…