Last time...
I took him through the whole story from the beginning. He didn't stop me once, just sat there and took notes on a little notepad. He changed pages a lot, I think he must have filled the whole pad!

By the end Marcie was crying openly and had her head on my shoulder. Mrs. Donner had a few tears in her eyes, too. Officer Daniels was scowling. "That's quite a story, John. If we hadn't already searched your aunt's house, I might have trouble believing it. We found the estrogen she was giving you, and that locked basement room. We also found the tactical baton she used to break your ribs. There are still tests to run, including a blood test on you to prove the estrogen is in your system, but it's going to be a slam dunk, I think. You're a really brave kid." he said.

I shook my head, "If I was really that brave I would have broken out of there a lot sooner, instead of giving in to my aunt and dressing and acting like a girl."

---

"Hey, no tears." he said with a crooked grin. He started to get up, but when I flinched he sat back down. "You were in a no win situation." he continued as if nothing happened. "You did the only you could do. You played along and observed her routines and your surroundings until you could find a way out. Lots of people would have been broken and stopped fighting at all."

"He's right John, you really are brave. Too brave, sometimes." Marcie said.

"Well, I've got to talk to a doctor about getting that blood test. And I've got quite a report to write! Thanks for your help John." Officer Daniels said. He stood up slowly, waved, and left. Mrs. Donner followed him out.

"Did he scare you?" Marcie asked softly.

"Of course not! Why would he scare me?" I asked indignantly.

"Come on John! You got beaten by your aunt over and over again! You even thought I was going to hit you once. I'd understand if you were scared. He's awfully big." Marcie said.

"He is that." I agreed. I didn't say anything else, and Marcie didn't push it. I was thankful for that. Obviously, I had been scared, but I hated to admit it. I needed to be strong, for Marcie. Getting scared all the time wasn't going to cut it. I needed to get better quickly so I could protect her.

Mrs. Donner returned a minute later. "I talked to Officer Daniels, John. He said he'll talk to his boss about arranging a guard for you. That way you'll know that your aunt and your mother can't get to you."

I smiled in relief, "Thanks Mrs. Donner! I'll sleep better knowing that."

"Wow, you mean you didn't sleep well last night, when you were dead to the world for nine hours straight?!" Phillip asked with a laugh. He was carrying some vials and a syringe, so I guessed he was there to take those blood samples that Officer Daniels had mentioned.

"Well, I did have surgery yesterday..." I said.

"True. I'm guessing you know why I'm here, but I'll tell you anyway. I need to take some blood so we can see where your testosterone and estrogen levels are at. I gather your aunt was serious about turning you into a girl?" Phillip said as he set everything down on a side table.

"Yeah, you could say that." I agreed.

Phillip shook his head, "She must be one looney lady then." He filled the vials quickly; he must have had lots of practice to do it so painlessly! "See you later John!" he called as he carried them out.

"So what happens now?" I asked after waving goodbye to Phillip.

"You rest and get better." Marcie's mom said. "Don't worry about anything else for now."

"But how long do I have to stay here?" I asked her.

"I'm not sure but I think the doctor said he wanted to keep you here for at least a couple of days." Mrs. Donner replied.

I groaned. What was I going to do for two days?! Looking around I spotted a TV in the corner, but there wasn't anything else to do in the room. "This is going to be a long two days." I said.

"I'll be here as much as I can." Marcie said. "I'll bring my DS for you next time, too."

"Thanks." I said. "I guess I shouldn't complain. At least I'm away from Aunt Karen!" I shuddered at the thought.

"John, do you want me to talk to your mother?" Mrs. Donner asked hesitantly.

Marcie squeezed my hand as I tensed up thinking about Mom. "Uh...I don't know." I finally said.

They both thought it was a good idea, since we needed to know if she was behind it all or not. I finally agreed, but I was scared that we'd find out she really did tell Aunt Karen to do all that to me. What would I do then?

Mrs. Donner left to talk to Mom and Marcie stayed to keep me company. We talked about what classes we were going to have in school and whatever else Marcie could think of that had nothing to do with what happened to me. "I guess we'll both be getting out of PE this year." she said at one point.

"Huh?" I said.

"Well, I don't think you're going to be in any shape for PE for a while. And I've got a doctor's note to keep me out." Marcie repliedd.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked, confused. She seemed okay.

"There's nothing wrong with me." Marcie replied sadly, "I just can't use the locker room so the doctor wrote me a note to keep me out of PE."

"Oh." I said lamely. I guess I'd already gotten so used to Marcie as a girl I'd kind of forgotten her body wasn't female. I tried to think of something to cheer her up, but wasn't having much luck.

We sat there in silence for a while until Marcie's Dad arrived. "Hi John, how are you feeling?" he said in greeting.

"Hi Mr. Donner. I'm feeling better, thanks." I said, glad for the distraction.

"Good! I just came by to see how you are doing and to let you know that your aunt is going to be in court tomorrow. That won't be her trial, but we'll find out when her trial will be. I've talked to the ADA handling the case and he'll keep us up to date. He isn't expecting any problems with all the evidence they've got." Mr. Donner said.

"I hope not." I said worriedly.

"Don't worry John. Remember Officer Daniels said it would be a 'slam-dunk'. Your aunt won't get a chance to hurt you again." Marcie said and squeezed my hand.

I squeezed hers back and nodded. Mr. Donner stayed to talk for a bit before saying that Mrs. Donner would be back in an hour or two to pick up Marcie and then left.

A nurse brought my lunch in after that and I tried to eat it while Marcie talked about her favorite TV show. We both like it; it's about a spy who gets framed for somethings someone else did. He gets dumped in Miami and has to try and figure out who framed him so he can clear his name and get his job back. Aunt Karen hadn't let me watch any TV, so I had lots of episodes to catch up on.

We were still talking about that when a middle aged woman knocked on the door frame. "Hi John, is it alright if I come in? Officer Daniels sent me by to keep an eye on you." When I looked at her doubtfully she smiled and pulled a badge out of her pocket, "I'm a police officer, too. I'm just off duty."

"Oh, okay." I said, relieved. "But why are you here when you're off duty?"

"Officer Daniels wasn't able to convince our captain to assign an officer to you, so he talked to some of his friends and we agreed to take shifts in our time off. There are seven of us and we'll take four hour shifts each. My name is Sandra." she replied.

"You're guarding me in your time off? You don't have to do that!" I said in surprise.

Sandra smiled, "We know, but we want to. You've really impressed a lot of us with the way you escaped from your aunt. We don't want anything to happen to you."

"But I just hit her with a chair. What's so impressive about that?" I asked.

"It's the way you set up the situation that impressed us, along with the fact that you held onto your identity despite all her best efforts to break you down. You're a really brave kid and we want to make sure you get the chance to grow up to be a very brave man." Sandra replied.

"Set up the situation? What do you mean by that?" Marcie asked.

"John can explain that better than I can. I only saw the aftermath. Why don't you ask him while I go play guard outside the door?" Sandra said with another smile before stepping outside.

"What did you do, John? When you told Officer Daniels you just said you hit your aunt with a chair?" Marcie asked.

"That's all I did, really." I said.

"They don't seem to think so. What was she talking about?" Marcie said.

"Okay, I'll tell you exactly what I did. It's not all that impressive, though." I said. Marcie just stared at me with a look that told me she wasn't buying that, so I told her:

I'd tried to get away lots of times, but Aunt Karen was always ready for me. It was those darn cameras! She knew when I was hiding behind the door or whatever because the cameras covered everything! I finally realized that, if I was going to get away, I needed to do something about the cameras. I tried to find them, but when I started standing up on a chair to look at the ceiling Aunt Karen came down and hit me with that collapsible club thing. So much for that idea!

I tried flooding the room with steam from the shower and sink, but it really didn't fill the whole place up very well. It might work if I could get her to come down into the bathroom, but she was too smart for that.

That got me thinking about smoke. But how would I make it? I'd need a fire, but I didn't have any way of making one. Or anything to burn, really. There were some pieces of paper in the desk, but not enough for a significant fire. But then I thought about all the cosmetics and stuff in the bathroom and bedroom. Some of that stuff was pretty flammable, wasn't it?

I soon had a plan, but the hard part was finding something to ignite the fire with. I had no matches or lighters. I finally came up with a solution for that and waited for night to put my plan in motion.

Aunt Karen had me go to bed at the same time every night and got very angry if the lights weren't out on time. But, since the basement has no windows, with the lights out she couldn't see me with the cameras! That wouldn't help me with my plan to ambush her because she could control the lights from outside the room. But it did give me time to set up my plan when she couldn't see me.

The only electrical devices in my rooms were the lights, a hair dryer, a curling iron, and an alarm clock. The alarm clock had two nine volt batteries as backup in case of a power outage. They were my fuse. I took the legs off the desk (they just unscrewed) and put them in the waste basket. Then I stuffed all the paper I could find in the waste basket and grabbed a bottle of rubbing alcohol. I put the bottle, the batteries, and the waste basket in the closet in the outer room where the door into the house was. It was always dark in there so she wouldn't be able to see it even if there were cameras inside.

I'd thought about starting the fire at night, but I wasn't sure she wouldn't sleep through it. If that happened I would have wasted my chance. Not to mention I could have died from smoke inhalation or something! So I set it up at night and then went to bed. I didn't sleep well, but I did manage to get a little rest.

When my alarm went off I got up and went through my usual routine. Then Aunt Karen's voice came through the hidden speakers and told me that my breakfast was waiting for me. Obviously she hadn't looked at the cameras for the outer room yet, or she would have seen the dismembered desk!

I knew it was only a matter of time, probably a very short time, before Aunt Karen discovered what I'd done. I rushed over to the closet and pulled everything out. I put the waste basket in the middle of the room and poured all the alcohol in, making sure to get as much of the paper and wood wet with it as possible. It was evaporating really quickly, so I was glad I'd waited to pour it in! Then I snapped the batteries together and tossed them in the basket. As soon as I'd done that I pulled the chair over to the wall and sat.

"Joan, what are you doing in their?!" Aunt Karen asked. I didn't bother to reply. She asked again, sounding really angry. I knew it wouldn't take long for the batteries to heat up, and I was right. Just as Aunt Karen was screeching out another demand the fire ignited with a whooshing noise. Instantly I could feel the heat from where I was standing! Smoke began billowing up from the fire and popping sounds could be heard from inside. I assumed that was the batteries exploding from the heat.

"I've had enough of your defiance young lady!" Aunt Karen screeched. A moment later I could hear her footsteps on the stairs so I stood and dragged the chair over to the door. It was already getting kind of hard to breathe! Thankfully, I didn't have long to wait. A moment later the door swung open and Aunt Karen stepped into the room. She glanced at the fire only momentarily before sweeping her gaze over to the wall where I had been sitting. She had that collapsible club in her hand again.

I didn't give her a chance to use it as I lifted the chair up over my head and brought it down on hers as hard as I could. She dropped like a ton of bricks! I held the remains of the chair in my hand for a moment, unsure if she was conscious or not, then dropped it. I grabbed the glass of milk out of the dumbwaiter and ran into the bathroom. Dumping it out, I filled it with water and threw it into the fire. It took at least ten trips, but I finally put the fire out. Once that was done I ran for it!

Marcie just sat there staring at me for a while after I was finished. Then, shaking her head slowly, she said, "And how is that not impressive?! That's like something Michael Westen would do!"

"Yeah, right!" I snorted. "Michael Westen would have been out of there in ten minutes flat!"

Marcie started to say something and then stopped and stared at me oddly. I was just about to ask her what she was staring at when she said, "You used to take compliments a whole lot better than that."

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To Be Continued…