And You And I

Chapter 20: Dragons and fables

Kim flopped back amidst the fresh sheets of her old bed. It had been a very long day and the energy she had been exuding that morning was now well and truly spent. With no adrenaline or alcohol in her system and the codeine from the morning having worn off by lunchtime, she had slowly started to feel a heavy discomfort set in, as one by one, her injuries started to ache. The toll, despite how much she had tried to hide it, had not gone unnoticed by her mother. Initially, she'd tried to fob it off and refused the offer of the singular codeine. However, a polite reminder of the house's intruder disabling devices and that the drugs also came in hypodermic form, had convinced her to see the error in her judgement. That had occurred early evening.

Her dad had arrived home from the lab and the whole family had sat down to dinner together for the first time in well over a month. They'd all taken their turn to talk about their recent activities and it been a rather relaxed affair. She'd even had the Tweebs captivated when giving an account of chasing the man claiming to be thee Grigori Rasputin over the rooftops of St Petersburg. However, when asked for a blow by blow account of yesterday's fight with Shego, she'd tried to dissuade her brothers by saying that it wasn't anything special. When they'd pushed her on the matter, her mom, who had been carefully studying her, came to her rescue by telling them that they'd seen more than enough of it over the course of HeroTV's three-hour dissection. She'd given her mom a thankful smile, but received a look in return that said, "I'll be asking you later about that one."

Kim's mind had been in turmoil throughout the remainder of dinner; frantically screening their conversation from earlier in the day for anything that might have hinted at the train wreck that her recent engagements with the villainess had become. It was only when back in the living room, with a large bowl of rocky-road ice-cream, that her brain had been dragged back into the conversation by her dad and his talk about a conversation he'd recently had with the Dean of M.I.S.T. Apparently, the man had been keen to know what her dad's brilliant young daughter was up to, had then been shocked to learn that she was not at college and then said that M.I.S.T. would welcome her with open arms, should she wish to attend in the forthcoming academic year. Kim had rolled her eyes at that point and quickly shot the idea and the subject as a whole down with a firm statement that she was happy with her life choices and had no desire to go to any college, period. After that, they'd sat and watched a film before bed.

Kim stared up at the ceiling and winced when a slight movement of her torso caused her ribs to hurt. The codeine having worn off over an hour ago. Fuck I hurt. I guess there'll be no missions for me for the next few days... assuming mom doesn't keep the house on lockdown until she decides I'm fully healed. She shuddered at the thought of how stir-crazy she would go if she were to be stuck inside her parents' house with the Tweebs for any length of time.

From downstairs, she heard the sound of footsteps on the wooden steps that led up to her old bedroom. She craned her neck to look at the rectangular hole in the floor and soon saw the red hair that told her it was her mom. "Hey, mom," she said as she stiffly sat up, wincing as another stab of pain shot through her ribs.

"Sorry to bother you, Kimmie, but I thought you might like a mug of cocoa," her mom said as she walked over to the nightstand and set down a steaming mug.

"Thanks," she replied, having to stifle another grimace. Her eyes then caught sight of the small glass of water in her mom's other hand. "You're also here to check me over and make me take more painkillers, aren't you?"

"I did warn you that I wanted you to stay so that I could keep an eye on you," her mom replied and placed the glass down beside the mug of cocoa. She then went over to the desk and fetched the bag containing her medical supplies. Withdrawing the thermometer, she then said, "hold still, Kimmie."