“Thank you very much,” said Cassandra as she took the slip of paper from the doctor.

On it was her very first prescription for hormones. Having made a deposit at the sperm bank that morning, she hopped in her jeep and headed for the pharmacy. Luckily the doctor had called it in, and they had her prescription ready when she got there, so she quickly paid and headed home.

When she walked through the front door she was greeted by a sizable package in her foyer.

“You have package,” said Sergei.

“I can see that,” she replied. “Any idea what it is?”

“No clue.”

Cassandra pulled out her tactical pocket knife and cut the tape off the box and opened the flap to reveal a note sitting on top of a hard plastic case. Carefully, she opened the note.

You owe me.
Love,
Jess

Cassandra lifted the case out and popped it open. Inside were several pieces of surveillance equipment.

“Where is everybody?” she asked.

“Zoey take Nadia for lunch,” replied Sergei.

“Good. I need to talk to you.”

“About Nadia?”

“Yes. She doesn’t want to go back to her father, and I can’t blame her, so I’m keeping her here.”

“You know, Nickolai he will not like this.”

“I know, and I don’t care. My debt is repaid, and given the fact that he’s the one that sold her, I could really care less what he likes and doesn’t like.”

Sergei smiled. “Good. I have no love for the old man either. In old days, he was good man. Take much good care of Nadia, but she get older, he get mean, abusive. My debt to him is paid also.”

“So we’re on the same page then?” asked Cassandra.

“Da” replied Sergei.

“Good.”

“What is all that for?” asked Sergei as he pointed to the surveillance kit.

“I have another person I need to keep an eye on. I wasn’t expecting this to come in so fast. I only requested it yesterday,” she giggled. “I really should leave as soon as possible though. I’m going to take Nadia with me. Can I count on you to stay here and keep an eye on Zoey? She’s had some trouble with a local ogre.”

“Ogre?” asked Sergei.

“Chudovishe,” she replied in Russian causing Sergei to chuckle.

“Yes I will protect Zoey from Ogre,” he said as he continued to laugh.

“What’s so funny?” asked Nadia as she stepped through the front door.

“Nothing,” replied Cassandra. “We’re going on a trip though. Go find a backpack and pack some clothes.”

“Okay,” said Nadia cheerfully before giving Cassandra a quick kiss and skipping to the bedroom.

“Someone’s in a good mood,” giggled Cassandra.

“She has a lot to be happy about,” replied Zoey. “So where are you two off to?”

“Georgia.”

“Does this have something to do with that little girl you helped on your way down here?”

“Yeah, I want to be able to keep tabs on her. Make sure I didn’t save her from one monster only to deliver her to another.”

“That’s understandable.”

“I’m leaving Sergei here in case you have anymore ogre problems. We should only be gone a day or two.”

“We’ll hold down the fort.”

Cassandra went into her bedroom, grabbed a backpack, and started packing a couple of tactical outfits, and a couple of very feminine ones.

“So what exactly is the mission?” asked Nadia.

“I’m not sure what we’ll find when we get there,” replied Cassandra. “Ideally this will be a simple recon job. I’m hoping to install some surveillance gear and get out, but this could also turn into an extraction job.”

“Who’s the target?”

“I’ll brief you on the way,” replied Cassandra as she zipped up her backpack. “You ready to go?”

“Yep,” smiled Nadia as she zipped her backpack. “Even packed extra socks just in case,” she winked at Cassandra.

“As fun as that sounds, I don’t think we’ll have time for that,” giggled Cassandra. She picked up her backpack, and another backpack full of gear. “Let’s go.”

The girls walked out to the living room and said their goodbyes before grabbing the surveillance kit and loading up the jeep. The trip to Atlanta was pretty uneventful. They mostly listened to the radio, and Cassandra filled in Nadia on what had gone down the last time she was there. Eventually they reached the city, and found a hotel not too far from their target, but not too close either. Cassandra checked them in as mother and daughter using a fake ID.

“Now what?” asked Nadia as they unloaded their gear into their room.

“Now we do some recon,” replied Cassandra. “But first, we need to look like we belong here.” Cassandra looked at Nadia who was dressed in a light blue hello kitty shirt, denim shorts, frilly socks, and sneakers. “That outfit works, you look like you just got out of school for the day. Now I need something mom like.” She searched through her bags until she found a short sleeve polo shirt that was loose enough to conceal her Glock 26, a pair of boot cut jeans, and a pair of keds. “This’ll have to do.”

“You look just like a soccer mom,” giggle Nadia.

“That’s what I was going for,” replied Cassandra. “Here,” she said as she handed Nadia a Ruger LCP. “That should be small enough for your hands. Just don’t get caught with it. You look ten and we don’t have any ID for you.”

“Yes mother,” giggled Nadia as she slipped the pistol and its holster into her shorts. They hopped in the jeep and headed for Katie’s grandmother’s house.

The first time down the street, they drove slowly, and Nadia took pictures. At the end of the block on the other side of the street was a house with a for rent sign in the yard, so Cassandra spun the jeep around to face Katie’s house, and parked on the curb.

“I hate stakeouts,” said Nadia.

“We all hate stakeouts,” replied Cassandra. She checked her watch. “School should be getting out soon if it hasn’t already.”

Just then, a bus dropped off some kids at the other end of the block. One of the kids stuck out like a sore thumb. A boy about Katie’s age with long blonde hair wearing a faded t-shirt and jeans was walking straight for Katie’s house. “Found her,” she said pulling out her binoculars. Through the binoculars she could clearly see that it was indeed Katie, but she was disheartened when she saw that Katie was crying.

“What’s wrong?” asked Nadia as she noticed the change in Cassandra’s expression.

“She’s crying, and I can see bruises on her arm. I don’t know if it’s bullies or if she’s being abused, but our recon mission is over. It’s time to get involved.” And with that she threw the jeep into gear and pulled up in Katie’s driveway. She had made it inside by the time they got the jeep parked, so they strolled over and knocked on the door.

“Get the door,” they could hear an older woman shout from somewhere inside. A moment later the door opened to reveal Katie.

“Hi Katie,” Cassandra greeted the girl. Katie looked up at her confused. Not many people knew her by that name.

“C Cassandra?” she asked timidly.

“It’s me,” replied Cassandra with a smile causing Katie to leap forward and wrap her arms around the woman.

“I didn’t think I’d ever see you again,” the girl sobbed.

“I didn’t either.”

“Who are you?” asked an older woman that Cassandra assumed to be Katie’s grandmother.

“My name is Cassandra. I’m a friend of Katie’s”

“To know her by that name you must be her friend indeed,” smiled the grandmother. “Please come in.”

“Thank you,” replied Cassandra as she and Nadia stepped inside.

“So how do you know my Katie?”

“We met in a truck stop actually.”

“You’re the soldier from the diner?” asked the old woman with a hint of shock in her voice.

“Yes ma’am. At the time my name was Tim. I guess technically it still is for now.”

“Technically?”

“Yes ma’am, I applied for a name change, but I’m still waiting on the judge to get around to it,” replied Cassandra. “So I see Katie still goes to school as a boy.”

“Yes,” replied Katie’s grandmother. “I let her be herself around the house, and sometimes we go to the mall a couple of towns over, but I’m just not equipped to handle all of the problems that go with sending her to school as herself.”

“I can understand that,” Cassandra nodded. “Have you been able to take her to a therapist?”

“I want to, but I can’t afford it. I can barely afford to feed us.”

Cassandra thought for a minute. “Take her anyways,” she finally responded. “I’ll cover it.”

“I can’t take your money.”

“You can and you will,” replied Cassandra sternly. “That girl has been through hell. I intend to see that she never has to live through that again.”

“Okay,” sighed the grandmother. “I’ll do it.”

Katie jumped up and hugged her grandmother and then Cassandra. “Thank you both.”

“What happened to your arm?” asked Cassandra.

“I got beat up,” pouted Katie.

“Do you get bullied a lot?”

“Yes,” Katie nodded slowly.

“I think it’s time you learn to defend yourself,” replied Cassandra. “I know fighting isn’t very ladylike, but it’s a skill everyone, especially women, should have.”

“You can teach me to beat up a bully?” asked Katie.

“Yes, but only in self defense or the defense of someone who can’t protect themselves. NEVER start a fight, and don’t be afraid to walk away, but when someone attacks you, defend yourself.”

“Okay,” replied Katie.

“The art I’m going to teach you is called Krav Maga. It’s the style of fighting used by the Israeli Defence Force. It’s not pretty or flashy like the asian martial arts, but it’s powerful. It’s designed to end a fight before it really starts.”

Cassandra proceeded to spend much of the evening teaching Katie the basics of Krav Maga, and Nadia volunteered to be her practice dummy since they were very similar in size. When Katie was too tired to continue her training, Cassandra sent her to take a shower and ordered some pizza. Katie came out of the shower a little while later in a pink knee length nightgown with Ariel from The Little Mermaid on it. She looked at Cassandra and smiled.

“That’s what I like to see,” smiled Cassandra. “A pretty smile on a pretty girl.” This caused Katie to blush as she walked over to the couch and snuggled up next to Cassandra. “You wanna watch a movie sweetie?” she asked.

“Yes,” replied Katie.

“What do you want to watch?”

“Lilo and Stitch,” replied the girl excitedly.

“I’ll get it,” said her grandmother as she got up and put the DVD in the player. Just as she sat down there was a knock at the door.

“I got it,” said Nadia as she jumped up and ran to answer the door. With her right hand resting on her holstered pistol, she used her left to open the door which revealed the pizza delivery guy. Nadia paid him, and they all ate pizza while they watched the movie. About half way through, they realized Katie had fallen asleep.

Cassandra deftly stood up and picked up the sleeping girl. Her grandmother stood also and led the way to Katie’s room. She opened the door and waited in the doorway as Cassandra gently laid Katie on the bed and tucked her in.

“Goodnight princess,” whispered Cassandra as she bent down and kissed the sleeping child on the forehead. She closed the door and followed the older woman back out into the living room.

“It seems Katie is rather fond of you,” said the older woman.

“And I of her,” replied Cassandra.

“This is good news. I don’t know how else to say this, but she’s going to need someone to take care of her.”

“It looks to me like other than needing some money, you’re doing a pretty good job of that.”

“Yes this is true, however it will be hard to take care of her when I’m dead.”

“Dead?” asked Cassandra.

“I haven’t told her yet, but I have cancer, and they haven’t given me long to live.”

“How long?”

“They say probably six months at the most. That’s why I’m so glad she has you in her life.”

“I don’t know anything about raising children,” replied Cassandra.

“You seem to be doing okay with her,” said the grandmother pointing at Nadia.

Cassandra giggled. “I didn’t raise her, I’m dating her. She’s eighteen.”

“I am so sorry,” giggled the woman. “She looks younger than Katie.”

“She acts like it sometime too,” giggled Cassandra.

“Do not,” replied Nadia sticking out her tongue.

“I see,” said the grandmother, “but you look so natural with Katie, and nobody in the system is going to care about her, or her gender issues like you do.”

Cassandra thought about it for a few minutes and sighed. She knew the old woman was right, she just wasn't sure she was up to the job. “So you want me to adopt her?” she asked.

“That’s probably the only way you will be able to protect her. Foster parents will probably not let you near her, and then try to make her be a boy.”

“I can’t let that happen. Even if I’m never mother of the year, I will never force her to be anything she doesn’t want to be. Especially gender she isn’t meant to be.”

“I think you’ll do just fine. Now all we have to do is get my stupid son-in-law to give up his legal parental rights so that you can adopt her.”

“I don’t think that is going to be easy. I assume with him in prison, you have a social worker assigned to Katie already?”

“Yes. Her name is Karen Paulson”

“Good. We need to call her in the morning and set up a meeting.”

To Be Continued...