Emily swore to herself, could the night have gone any worse. She didn’t know why she bothered with men anymore; she had been seeing Mark for six months. When he invited her to move in, she knew they needed to have ‘the talk’ to explain to him that she hadn’t been born Emily, but Kevin.

Growing up he had been an incredibly unhappy boy. Alone, having no real friends, terrified at the thought of male puberty and knowing that her family wouldn’t understand, she slowly slipped into darkness. Seeing no real future as Kevin, at age of twelve, one rainy afternoon, Emily had tried to take her own life downing a bottle of her mother’s sleeping pills.

Finding herself in a hospital bed had been disappointing. She tried to explain her feelings to her parents, but failed. In her eyes, they seemed more concerned with how they hurt her, not how much she hurt. Thankfully, a therapist at the hospital, who had gone through something similar when she was a child, understood.

A month later, with her therapist’s support, Emily confronted her parents again. Although armed with documentation, and links to various web sites, she actually expected to be thrown out of the house. However no such thing happened, apparently Emily didn’t understand her parents as much as she thought she did.

“Kevin, why didn’t you say anything?” Encompassing her child into her arms, her mother felt horrible knowing how close they came to losing him. Both of them, her husband and herself, were to blame, so involved in their own lives that they forgot to really look at their child.

They explained how much they loved her no matter what, and having a living daughter was infinitely better than having a dead son. Since that day, both of her parents had been incredibly helpful in her transition, although it had not been easy.

To no one’s surprise, some members of her extended family had disowned her, but by the time of her SRS at the age of eighteen, a few had come around. Surprisingly enough, even her older brother Tommy, who had been incredibly nasty for years, had started to treat her decently.

A few weeks ago, riding up to her parents’ house on her new fire engine red Ninja 500 motorcycle, wearing her all black leathers, she thought herself incredibly sexy. Stepping off her motorcycle, she took off her helmet revealing her long blonde hair. Her brother, at that moment, came out of the garage and rolled his eyes.

“Shit, here I thought I might get a chance at some sexy chick on a motorcycle and it’s only you.” Coming over to check out the bike he approved. “Nice bike, sis.”

Sitting down over a beer, the two discussed what went on between them. Tommy admitted that he never understood why his brother wanted to be a girl, but he finally accepted the fact that his brother had never really been a boy.

But the euphoria of her brother’s acceptance had been short lived. Emily understood that she needed to speak to Mark about her past, there was no way she could keep it from him forever, nor did she want to. After making a nice dinner at his apartment, the two of them sat down on the couch. It came as no surprise to her that the discussion ended up being a complete and utter disaster. However, what she didn’t expect was being physically attacked.

“Get the hell out of my house, you faggot!” Mark screamed, his large right fist connecting with the side of her head.

Staggering back, dazed, Emily fled for her life, only stopping long enough to grab her keys before heading out into night. With Mark yelling obscenities behind her, without giving it a second thought, she climbed onto her beloved motorcycle and headed off into the night.

Without a helmet, and wearing only a thin white dress, her face, arms and legs soon became numb. With tears streaming down, she sped up, ignoring the first few snowflakes. Nothing mattered; the cold, the snow, even the darkness felt like a familiar lover with only thoughts of how utterly alone she felt.

Now almost unable to see because of the blinding snow, she should have been terrified at the speed she was travelling but a part of her no longer cared. So cold, she thought as she started to feel sleepy. Crossing into the other lane, suddenly a bright light appeared in front of her.

At that moment, she understood with perfect clarity that her life was not like it was when she was twelve. She had family; she had friends and if some guy couldn’t accept her for what she was, then screw him. That epiphany didn’t help her much that bright light happened to be another car.

Waking up this time in the hospital, she was happy to be alive. “What happened?”

“Welcome back sweetie, how do you feel?” A nurse looked down at her as she checked Emily’s vital signs. “You had quite the accident.”

“Am I OK?” She felt sore and a little fuzzy inside her head. Wondering why her arm felt numb, Emily looked down to find her arm bandaged.

“I’ll me get the doctor to speak with you. Do you know your name? When you were brought in, you had no identification.”

“Emily Fontaine.” Turning her head, she noticed a young man sleeping in a chair near her bed. “Who’s that?”

The nurse looked at the man and shrugged. “No idea honey, he followed the ambulance that brought you in. I was told he was the one who found you.”

As the nurse walked away to get the doctor, Emily studied her rescuer. “Hello.”

Startled the man opened his eyes, the first thing she noticed that they were the color of the ocean. The second thing she noticed was his smile. Finding it impossible not to return it, she blushed at the sudden erotic thoughts that ran through her head.

“My Angel is awake I see, thank God I was worried. How are you feeling?”

“My Angel?” She raised an eyebrow giving him an amused look.

She almost laughed as his cheeks flushed with embarrassment. “Well that’s what I thought when you came sailing over the hood of my car.”

“Oh, I was in an accident.” She now remembered running away from her boyfriend, riding her bike in a blizzard. By some miracle she wasn’t dead.

“Yes, sorry about your motorcycle, it’s trashed. Nice ride but it lost the duel versus my Porsche.”

“I hit a Porsche.” Moaning on how much her insurance rates were going to go up, she leaned back against the pillow. “How come I’m still alive?”

“Good question, well once you bounced off the roof of my car, you continued to bounce into a snow bank.” Thank goodness, he thought, such a pretty girl getting hurt. If it hadn’t been snowing on and off for the last few weeks, most likely she would have been seriously hurt or killed.

“So sorry, my name is Emily. I don’t seem to have my insurance card…” She began to tear up.

“My name’s Jack and don’t worry, it’s just a car. And I had them take your bike to a shop that I know well, they’ll fix it up in no time.”

As the two of them talked, Jack wouldn’t let go of her hand and she didn’t want him to. With her now awake, she called her parents to tell them what happened.

When her mother came into the room, Emily could see that she had been crying. A new burst of tear erupted as soon as she took one look at her daughter. Emily started to cry as well, the entire night’s adventure suddenly hitting her hard.

The two men stood off to the side, watching the reunion of the two women. Emily’s dad thanked Jack for taking care of his daughter. And when the doctor came in to speak, Emily asked for Jack to remain.

Listening to the doctor go over her few injuries, Emily understood that she had indeed been luckily. Somehow she had escaped serious injury except for a minor fracture in her wrist. They wanted to hold her for the night for observation but tomorrow she could be released.

“Thank you, Jack, for saving me.” Emily smiled; her parents had been nice enough to go find some coffee.

“Well it’s not every day you get to see a real life Angel.” Looking down at the floor he asked. “Would you like to have dinner with me some time?”

Emily covered her mouth with her good hand, he was so cute but then sighed. “Jack, I’d love to but I just broke up with my boyfriend.”

“Was that why you were riding on a motorcycle, in a little white dress in the middle of a blizzard?”

She looked up into his face surprised at the warmth and compassion. “Yes.”

Frowning, he nodded. “I understand, how about as friends. Really, Emily, I would at least like to be your friend.”

“Alright.” She giggled. “I guess there are weirder ways to meet people.”

The one dinner, turned to two and then to three. Emily tried to fight it but the two of them had so much in common. She never expected a successful lawyer to be such a theater and movie geek. Both had been into drama in college, Jack was still active in a small theater near where he lived. They even found themselves using the same stupid quotes from movies. The best time the two of them spent together was snuggling up on her old couch watching old classics.

Jack was such a gentlemen, so caring and so afraid to hurt her that he kept from making unwanted advances. Finally a few days later, taking matters into her own hands, Emily inviting him over to her apartment for dinner, greeting him at the door wearing only an apron.

Right before Christmas, Emily found herself once again in the same situation as before however this time the relationship had proceeded further than she expected.

“Mom, I’m afraid.” Emily sat with her mother as the two of them discussed last minute Christmas gifts.

“Why sweetie.”

Placing her hands over her face she cried. “I think that Jack is going to ask me to marry him.”

“Oh baby, I’m so happy for you that’s wonderful. What’s the problem?”

“Mom, what do you think?” Emily rolled her eyes.

“Oh sorry, I keep forgetting that you haven’t always been Emily.”

Reaching over, she gave her mother a warm hug. “Thank you for that.”

“You will need to tell him.”

“I know but I love him so much. If he rejects me the same as Mark, I don’t know what to do.”

“You know that Jack is nothing like him. Although you have only been together for a month, you two are made for one another. I never believed in soul mates until I watched the two of you together for the first time.”

Her mother had always been concerned about the boys her daughter had been dating. After the accident, the two of them had a long mother and daughter talk. Emily came to realize that she had been purposely selecting men that wouldn’t understand her past. She knew Mark had a temper and perhaps a small part of her wanted to be hurt, thinking that she didn’t deserve happiness.

Remembering what happened with Mark; she called a few friends and explained what was going on. They all wished her good luck but also waited for her to call afterwards. Shockingly her brother showed up that night at her apartment and explained that he was going to be sitting outside in his car. If there was any hint of a problem, he would take care of it.

“No one and I mean no one fucks with my little sister.” Giving her a hug for the first time, he disappeared downstairs to wait for her call.

Nervous she paced back and forth, almost jumping out of her skin when Jack knocked at her door.

“Oh too bad, I really liked the apron look from last time.” Greeting her with a warm kiss, he took off his jacket and gloves. “So you have something important to tell me?”

Nodding, she pulled up a chair. Taking a deep breath she began. “Jack, I need to explain a few things before our relationship goes where I think it’s going. First of all, let me say that before I was Emily, my name was Kevin.”

As best as she could she told him of her life, growing up confused at whom she was, the darkness that almost consumed her, and the attempted suicide. She continued with how her parents, although worried supported her all the way through her transition, and even paid for her SRS, as a birthday present.

Emily covered it all, talking about ex-boyfriends and how they never worked out. The entire time she talked, his face didn’t change. She knew Jack long enough to know that he wasn’t angry, he was just processing everything.

When he suddenly stood up without a word and left her apartment Emily’s heart almost broke, until she noticed that he didn’t take his jacket or his gloves. Moments later, Jack returned out of breath.

Suddenly going down on one knee, with a ring in his hand, he asked. “Emily, will you marry me? You will make me the happiest man in the world.”

Jack smiled, his eyes full of love, although he did thoroughly enjoy the shocked look on her face.

“Yes of course, I love you so much but even with everything, you still want to marry me? I can’t even have children.” She knew how much he wanted to start a family. But how could this be? Did she really deserve this much happiness.

The warmth of Jack’s smile simply burned away any remaining darkness in Emily’s heart. “Well, I guess it just means we are going to have to adopt.”

Authors Notes: A special thanks to djkauf for a little elvish editing. If you like the story please leave a Kudos, if you have the time I would love to hear from you. Thanks to all for reading! - Elsbeth

 © Copyright - Elsbeth 2011/2012