1Division of Diagnostic Imaging and Radiology, Children's National Medical Center, Washington, DC, United States, 2Division of Fetal and Transitional Medicine, Children’s National Medical Center, Washington, DC, United States, 3Department of Pediatrics, George Washington University, Washington, DC, United States, 4Department of Radiology, George Washington University, Washington, DC, United States
Recently placental perfusion imaging using velocity-selective arterial spin labeling (VSASL) was applied in pregnancies complicated by fetal heart disease. Here we demonstrate the feasibility of performing VSASL in the human placenta and provide supporting evidence that is needed for validation of placental VSASL. In our results, placental VSASL generated significantly higher ASL signal than pseudocontinuous ASL, showed high reproducibility, and demonstrated inflow-dependence. This study lays the groundwork for future investigation of placental perfusion imaging in pregnancies complicated by placental insufficiency.
The chapter title is from a Sisqo song, which I also don’t own. I wonder if anyone could guess why; not why I don’t own the song, but why the chapter is named after it. I think we all know why I don’t own the song. Is this one of those rants? You bet it is, and you’re still reading it. Such a loser.
SUMMARY: AU. This is the sequel to Walking the Line. Kim and Shego look to renew their unorthodox relationship.
I’m under my mistress’ skin, but I don’t think she knows it. I’m there and I could make her itch. I don’t know whether she doesn’t know or just doesn’t accept my reasons for being here and her reasons for keeping me. We’re both happy with what’s happening, right? She’s happy to have me and I’m happy to be here…right? I’m not wrong, right?
Shego had hardly been home for ten seconds before her house phone started ringing. She sighed in annoyance and went to answer it without even bothering to check the caller ID; she knew already since the house phone was ringing that someone she did not want to speak with was calling. She answered in her usual clipped tone.
“Whatever you’re about to say makes me unhappy,” the officer retorted. A phone call from her mother was the equivalent of the devil dialing her up. The older woman never said something that she wanted to hear.
Her mother laughed. “Well, just go pet your girl when we’re done and I’m sure you’ll feel much better.”
Shego was going to do that anyway, but there was no need for her mother to know that, especially when the blasted woman was mocking her. “What do you want, Mommy?” she practically demanded to know.
“You’re really not going to like it,” Isabel commented in a light tone, as if she was having fun irking her favorite child.
“Mommy, we just got together and didn’t kill each other last year. Why are you pressing your luck?” the green-skinned woman inquired.
“How do you know about that?” Shego demanded to know with anger in her voice. She probably had that little cabin in the mountains bugged, the daughter thought with a growl. She knew that she should have checked that stupid place out.
“I know, give you some credit. How long have you known?” Shego asked with a sigh. It was like she had no privacy thanks to her mother.
“Don’t you have stupider kids to spy on?” the officer huffed. Surely it would behoove her mother to check on those idiot sons of hers than spending time poking her nose into Shego’s business.
“I keep tabs on all of you. Come on, we’re all going to get together and meet your man,” Isabel said.
“I suppose. We could just call it a family reunion and I could cook a huge meal. It’ll just be for the weekend,” Isabel explained.
Isabel knew better than trying to get her children together for any longer than a weekend; the last time that she had tried to have them together longer had ended with several injuries and wounds. One of them was even in tears by the end of the whole mess. The worst part of it was that they were grown at the time, except for the twins.
Having Drakken meet her family seemed like such a big step to the green-skinned woman. It was like she was accepting everything that he had offered her and she did not want him to think that she accepted. Not to mention him and her brothers at the same time, her mother might as well just stab her in the eye with a million needles; it would be much more merciful in her opinion.
“Her too?” Shego was going to have to draw the line somewhere it would seem because it looked liked her mother was going out of her mind. She would have asked if her mother was going senile already if she was not so certain that her mother would drop whatever she was doing, leave wherever she was, come to Shego’s house, and kick the green-skinned woman across the face with all of her might.
“I think it’s obvious that he wouldn’t know that she’s my pet. I mean, I don’t think anybody would handle that well. I mean, I’m keeping a girl as a pet. He thinks that she’s my cousin,” Shego explained.
“Well then, I’ll just have to tell those blockheads that she’s their cousin,” her mother commented in a bored tone.
“And I’m supposed to trust them?” Shego asked incredulously. She would not trust her nutty brothers to walk down the stairs on their own and she was supposed to trust them to not blurt out that the redhead was her pet? Yeah, right. She was tempted to ask her mother what she was smoking to even think that she would trust her brothers.
“Either way, I had you and you messed up. It’s not my fault you slipped, so you shouldn’t take it out on me.”
“Wouldn’t she feel left out?” Isabel asked. She could just see Kim pouting like an abandoned puppy if her mistress went some place for the weekend and left her behind.
The older woman chose not to answer that rather evident question; if her daughter did not care, she would not even have the pet that she had, she reasoned. “Do what you will with her. She is your pet, after all. So, this weekend, all right?” she inquired.
Isabel disconnected the call without bidding her daughter farewell, not that Shego cared. The green-skinned woman returned the phone to the base and then she looked around. She noted her girl’s absence and she wondered where the shrimp might be. She chose not to think too much about it at first because her pet did do the save the world thing every now and then and she typically could not call to let her master know that she was all right.
Since Kim had her missions and things, Shego did not bother worrying. Well, at first she was not very concerned. When time started ticking away, she started to get a little worked up.
After being home for a couple of hours and her pet had not come in yet, Shego was not sure what to think; her brat usually made it home by a certain hour. She could not go out and look for her munchkin, even though she would have liked to do so, because Kim could seriously be anywhere, not just on the planet, but possibly in space. No matter how much she tried to tell herself that her pet could take care of herself, being a hero and all, that did not help comfort her.
No matter what, Shego always remembered how she and her pet met; she knew that she would never forget that day. She always recalled Kim being knocked out in that cardboard box, both of her arms heavily bruised and her right hand almost useless. She had been out in the cold where anything could have happened to her and she would have been very close to powerless. To Shego, her pet would always be someone to be worried for.
The raven-haired woman’s fretting was ended by the sound of the front door opening. She stalked out the entrance hall to watch her girl come in. Kim was drenched and sniffling. She got caught in the rain, more than once actually. Shego just stared at the redhead for a moment.
“What happened to you?” the older woman inquired in a gruff tone, contradicting the fact that she had just been distressing out her mind almost over her pet. She hated that the girl made her worry and it got on her nerves.
“Everything, but mostly rain. Do you know it’s raining in New York too?” Kim asked while sniffling some more. Saving the world was a serious business sometime and it was a full day job that day.
“You’re going to shampoo my head?” Kim asked with a grin. Had she known she was going to come home and get her head washed by her master, she would have fought harder to get home sooner.
The redhead continued to smile; her mistress had wonderful hands and when she shampooed Kim’s head, the girl completely relaxed. She trotted off toward the bathroom while peeling off her soaking wet clothing. Shego joined Kim in the bathroom a few minutes later and the girl was already in the tub. The elder woman gathered the things for her monster’s hair and began to wash her pet’s head. They were silent for a while; all seemed right in the universe.
The raven-haired female thought about how she would not be able to do such things anymore if she married Drakken and moved away. She would miss grooming Kim, taking care of Kim. But, she could not do such things forever, right? Things changed and life went on.
It had never occurred to either of them that someone might think that there something was sexual between them for what they were doing at the moment. Shego had never thought to peek at her pet’s nude body and even if she did catch glimpses, she did not think anything of it. Kim had never thought to show anything off either. It was something that they did not think about; it was normal to them. They supposed it was normal to them because of that first night that they spent together.
“Where do you see yourself in five years?” Shego asked her little monster. It seemed as if she was coming out of left field with the question to her soaking pet.
“With you hopefully,” Kim answered as if that was obvious and it was to her. It was logical to her to want to be with the person that was dear to her. She wanted to be with her mistress forever if it was feasible. Other than that, everything else was irrelevant.
“And you’re just content to be my pet?” the pale woman inquired in a perplexed tone as if she just could not understand it and she could not. Why did a genius hero want to be her pet? How could she be happy like that? She was just a pet; it was not like that was a good thing.
“Wasn’t it?” the girl riposted. She was content as long as Shego was the same way and she would stick around for as long as her master wanted her around. She liked being with the pale woman. She did not see what was so difficult to comprehend about that.
“If that’s what it means to stay with you,” she replied sincerely. It was not being a pet that bothered her. It was being replaced or cast aside that bothered her.
“Why?” the green-hued female asked in a confused tone. Why did Kim stay with her, put up with her, play the pet for her? It just did not make any sense to her. Her monster could have anything she wanted, yet she stayed to be a pet for a cranky woman.
“Oh, well, that’s really simple. You’re nice to me, you care about me, and you don’t try to force me to do things that I don’t want to do. Around you, I feel free,” the redhead explained. There was more to it, of course, but she could not say it all to her owner. After all, Shego seemed just a bit on edge for the simple fact that her pet liked being with her.
Kim was surprised by the simple phrase that her mistress used. No profane words or harsh terminology. It was just one word that everyone over the age of two knew and used. And she had said it so deliberately, but it did not hurt Kim. It seemed to hurt her master, who was slightly hugging her around the neck now. It sounded like it pained Shego to say those words.
Kim turned around to face her seemingly distressed master. The pale woman appeared to be fighting back tears. The redhead tried to comprehend why Shego would say such things and why she would look the way that she did. Did Shego think she was stupid because she stayed with a woman who refused to acknowledge her beyond being a pet? Maybe that was it.
The slender adventurer did not think that it was so stupid to want to be with someone that she deeply cared for. She did not think that it was stupid to desire to be with someone that she wanted to be happy and she truly did want Shego to be happy. It had started out that she had planned to stay with Shego until the woman could stand on her own and be happy on her own, but now, there was more to it. She wanted to stay with Shego to experience the pale woman’s happiness with her. She just wanted to be with the super-powered female.
“If this is stupid, then so be it,” Kim replied. It was that simple to her. She could be what she was as long as she remained where she was. She just needed to stay, for both herself and her owner. She hugged Shego around the waist, not caring that she was naked and wet. “So be it,” she repeated in a whisper.
Kim was up in the loft and she was lying in her bed. She gathered that her mistress did not understand her, but she had known that for a very long time. She did not want understanding at the moment. She knew that deep down her master comprehended that she required Kim’s presence to some degree, which was always the important thing to Kim.
She knew that Shego would not grasp her being a pet too much because Shego was not a person that was willing to surrender power to someone else. The emerald-eyed officer had to always be in charge. It was something that Kim could understand and respect; she liked being in control of the situation as well. It was just that with her owner, she had learned to unwind and allow someone to take care of her. In learning that lesson, she had come to care a great deal about Shego and she wanted to be someone important to the woman, which she was.
Being special was another important thing in being a pet as far as Kim was concerned. She knew that she was special to Shego and, in her mind, that was enough. It sort of filled the void of unrequited love to be special to be her owner. After all, how many other people could say that they were special to the green-skinned woman? And because of that, she could continue to be a pet, despite some of the thoughts that she had been having recently. She just did not want to lose her place.
Shego sat up in bed, alone that night because Kim was busy thinking and it did not occur to her to go hop in her favorite resting place. Shego was thinking too. She was thinking hard.
If Drakken met her family, it would make everything seem so finalized, she believed. He would believe that she accepted his marriage proposal, which she had not, even though she had never said so out loud. He had not offered aloud. He had just given her that stupid ring on St. Valentine’s Day and thought that meant that they were getting married. Her father and brothers might think the same thing.
The pale woman was certain that her father and at least Hego would try to encourage Drakken, even if they did not like him. She doubted that they would like him because he was so unmanly. They typically shunned Mego for not being big and strong, so she bet that they would do the same with Drakken, but they would work passed that because he had a y-chromosome and was with her. Her father and older brother would like that undoubtedly; anything that led them to believe that she was straight would be all right by them.
Her mind echoed those words back to her, led them to believe that she was straight. It sounded as if she doubted herself. She was straight. She was only attracted to men; not counting the few mental slips that she had in regards to her little monster. She was straight and, more importantly, she was not attracted to her mischievous imp of a pet. Certainly not, she told herself.
The super-powered female decided to go to sleep before her mind started coming up with other stretchy phrases and she would have to defend herself to herself. She was straight and she was not attracted to her pet in any way, shape, or form. That was it.
Shego came into the apartment as usual. She flopped down on the sofa and looked around, realizing that something was off. She did not see Kim anywhere and then suddenly the redhead popped up behind her, as if she had come out of thin air. The apartment owner made an irked noise in the back of her throat as her pet leaned against her back.
“Oh, you feel tense,” Kim commented with a purr for no reason that Shego could guess as she pressed herself against her mistress’ back and felt all of her master’s tight muscles.
“It’s nothing,” the pale woman huffed. She was tempted to swat her annoying rascal away, but she left the girl alone. Besides, she would not mind an excuse to have another massage.
“You’re just looking for an excuse to get me to take my shirt off again,” the older female remarked.
The olive-eyed girl went to work immediately on the raven-haired woman’s tight shoulders. Shego eventually relaxed as Kim kneaded the muscles in her back. The redhead leaned in near her mistress’ ear.
“Would he do this to you?” Kim asked in a low voice. The question covered so much ground and Shego knew that instantly. She did not have the answer or she did have the answer, but she just did not say it.
The slim adventurer nipped at Shego’s earlobe, catching her by more surprise than that question had. Before the elder female could think of a response or bark an order, one of Kim’s hands snaked around to the front of Shego’s torso. She gently caressed the pale woman’s left breast, through her shirt, making the older woman moan deeply. The petite hero had very skilled hands, her master noted.
“Can he make you feel this way?” the redhead inquired while moving her mouth to Shego’s ear to her neck, suckling on the flesh, tasting it, loving it. “I could if you let me,” Kim whispered while making her mistress moan again, more licentiously than before…
Shego shot up in bed and gasped. She was covered in a thin layer of sweat. She realized that she had been dreaming. Of course, it was a dream, she told herself. After all, her runt would never do such things to her and she would never allow it if the shrimp did try. In fact, she would slaughter her little brat if she ever tried to do such things to her. But, why had she dreamed that?
She looked around thinking that her pest might have gotten in bed with her at some point and cuddled up next to her to induce such a revolting dream; the redhead did have a history of fondling her while they slept. But, there was no sign her elf. She was alone just as she had been when she went to sleep. Besides, Kim snuggled up to her all of the time and never made her dream anything like that; well, almost never anyway. So, why had she dreamed it now?
The emerald-eyed woman decided not to let it worry her. It was just one freakish brain impulse. It would probably never happen again or at least if it did, it would happen long after she had forgotten that last ghastly vision. Yeah, it was just one freak accident and that was the end of it, she convinced herself.
Shego was lying on her bed in her pajamas. The room had a strange illumination to it, as if there were candles lighting the area, but there none around from what she could see. She scanned the room, wondering what was going on and then she spotted a pair of olive green eyes stalking her at the foot of the bed. She craned an ebony eyebrow; what was her brat up to now?
Kim slowly rose to where a feral smirk was visible on her face. She pulled herself up onto the bed with all the grace of a big cat, revealing that she was in a blush pink camisole and matching shorts, which were cut high on her slim thighs. She crawled up the length of the bed and up Shego’s body. She continued to smirk when they were face to face; she was straddling her master’s stomach.
“What are you doing?” Shego demanded to know. She knew that sometimes her pet was naughty, but she was pushing her limits now.
“Oh, but you don’t really want that. I mean, if you did, you’d just throw me off. That’s only what your mouth is saying. There are better things to do with your mouth. Let me show you some.”
The emerald-eyed female was set to protest when Kim leaned down and kissed the corner of her mouth; a move that the pale woman often did to her little pet. She then placed soft, wet kisses on Shego’s chin; her mistress did not put up any sort of fight. She made her way down to the pale woman’s neck and lavished the whole area with tender, but hungry kisses. She paused when her lips landed on the elder woman’s pulse. She nuzzled the space for a second or so and then licked at the artery barely hidden underneath that pale, sea green skin.
The raven-haired woman bit her lip to keep from moaning from the attention, but that only seemed to encourage the adventurous little redhead. Kim moved on with her exploration, farther down the length of her mistress’ body, methodically unbuttoning the officer’s pajama shirt while keeping her mouth on all of that lovely, delicious pale skin. For some reason that was beyond Shego, she was not wearing a bra underneath her pajama shirt and Kim seemed to know that.
One of Kim’s hands went for the soft flesh while the other supported her over the apartment owner and her mouth retreated to the light spring green skin at the collar bone. Shego did not moan, but she did arch into the younger woman’s luscious touch. Kim noticed and pulled her mouth away from its feast of Shego’s body for a brief moment.
The redhead smirked, appearing something close to hunting feline that spotted its prey. She flung her master’s pajama shirt to the side as if it was the worst thing that she had ever seen and then stared at the treasure that she uncovered with her act for a few seconds. Shego was ready to cover herself up because she had been stared at before when she was topless and it was never for a good reason, despite her sexiness. Apparently, fellows were turned off by green nipples; she thought that was the reason behind why the petite hero was eyeing her.
“So beautiful,” Kim whispered before diving right in to do exactly what she wanted to do, attaching her mouth to the jade gem revealed to her, causing Shego to cry out in sheer ecstasy……
Shego shot up from bed, chest heaving because she was breathing like she had just been saved from drowning. Her hair was sticking to her forehead from sweating so hard. Her heart was racing. She had had one of those dreams again; it was the third one that week and it was only Tuesday.
The emerald-eyed woman wondered what brought on that dream. She glanced to the side and saw her pet was lying there, practically draped on her. She gasped and acted without thinking, literally kicking Kim out of the bed. Kim yelped when she hit the floor.
The slender pet pouted and exited the room as she was ordered to do. She could not believe that she had just gotten kicked out of bed. She knew it was against the rules for her to sleep in her owner’s bed, but she could not recall the last time that the rule was actually enforced; hey, on some nights, she woke up for brief moments and found her owner holding her, embracing her. So, she thought that it was all right for her to sleep in the bed now, even if Shego had never said so.
She had not even done anything to be kicked out of bed, Kim thought. Well, not counting the fact that she had been resting her head on Shego’s chest, but she did that half of the time that she slept next to her master. So, why had she been kicked out of the bed?
Shego shot up from her pillow yet again. She was drenched and, apparently, it was not just sweat that time around. She was breathing as if she had just run a marathon. It felt like there was lava coursing through her veins instead of blood. She had had one of those dreams again; the worst one yet.
The dream had been so intense that the pale woman had hit an apex in her sleep, which was what woke her up; yeah, it felt that good. That was certainly a new experience, she silently noted. She had never in her life had a dream that made her feel like she needed a cigarette and not for her usual reasons. Thanks to that dream, she felt like she needed a cigarette for the normal reasons.
To make matters worse, she was sleeping next to Drakken; she had no excuses to offer up as to why she had had the dream. She was glad that she had not cried out when she had reached the overwhelming peak in the dream or she might have woken him up and she had no idea how she would have started to explain why she had made the noise. She doubted that he would have understood anyway. She hardly understood how a dream could be so good.
She needed to stop having those dreams; especially since she needed to be well rested since she would need all of her energy to deal with her family tomorrow. Besides, Kim was just her pet and she should not be thinking of the girl in that manner. After all, she was straight, the raven-haired woman told herself. She was straight.
Next time: Shego’s family meets Drakken. Guess how many of them like him; go ahead and guess. And then try to guess what happens. And then bring me a sandwich, please.