This is a Gaby Fanfic. It takes place during Gaby's Trip to America. It's an alternative look at what might have happened.

So far there are 15 chapters that I will be posting over the next week or 10 days. I finally have it worked out how I'm going to complete the story, so the remaining chapters should start showing up in just a few weeks.

Chapter 1

Drew wakes up, sweating profusely and shaking like a leaf. “Oh God, at least it was only a nightmare!” he says to himself. Crawling quietly out of bed, as not to wake Jules, he pads silently to the loo. Drew washes his face, trying to clear the memory of his nightmare out of his mind.

“Why do I let myself keep getting talked into being Gaby?” he asks himself in the mirror. “And why do they all think it's so much fun to make me into Gaby?”

Finished cleaning himself up, Drew heads back to bed, knowing that sleep will be a long time coming. Drew starts to think about the last months, since his mum first talked him into being Gaby. “I really need to sort this entire mess out” he muses.

He starts thinking about all the times he has been Gaby. The list just seemed to go on and on in his head. He begins to realize that in almost all cases, it has been the girls and women in his life that have talked him round, or outright manipulated him into becoming Gaby. “My girlfriend, for pity's sake” he thinks “has been the worst of the lot! First the Easter disco, and then she seemed to get the bit in her teeth and has been finding every excuse to dress me up.” Drew begins reviewing the various episodes in his mind. As he looks back at them, he begins to realize that while he has allowed himself to be talked into these things, others seem to have used his good nature and desire to please as a weapon against him. “The Head certainly could have found a real girl to be in the school brochure, why did he want me to do it? And why did mum agree to it?”

He begins to shake and cry silently as he tries to figure out what is happening to him and why everyone seems to want Gaby, and not him.

“Mum, Jules, Maddy, Aunt Carol, Ally, Bernie, Brit, Deb, Sab, Anna, Sylv. They all seem to delight in putting me into situations where not being Gaby will cause trouble. Mum and Dad certainly could have sorted the room thing out in Germany; and mum could have told the people at the Testing Centre that I was a boy, but instead I end up in her skins with a bra and padding to look like boobs. And winding up that reporter by having Gabs show up after Drew had gone – what was that really all about?” Drew begins to shake violently as sobs rack his tiny frame. “Does mum not want me? Does she really just want another girl, so someone can follow in her bike pedals?”

Drew's shaking, and now not so quiet sobs, penetrate Jules' sleep. She wakes up to see her brother crying like he'll never stop. “Drew, what is it? Her words don't even register on Drew's consciousness. He is now on an emotional treadmill which he seems unable to get off of. “Drew!” Jules hisses sharply. Still no response. Jules is now getting very worried, she can't seem to get through to him. Jules gets out of bed and goes over to Drew to see what is happening.

Jules sees that something is terribly wrong with Drew. He is sitting in his bed, shaking, sobbing and rocking back and forth. She leans closer, because she can hear Drew saying something to himself over and over. “Who is Drew? Who is Gaby? Who am I?” she hears him say, over and over. Jules is truly frightened now. She gently shakes Drew, calling his name softly to try and break through to him. And again, she gets no response.

Jules looks at the clock and sees it is now half four. She decides that she has to wake up Mr. and Mrs. Walters to try and help Drew. She scurries down the stairs to the Walters' room, and knocks urgently on the door. “Mrs. W, Mrs. W, please wake up, something's wrong with Drew!”

Mrs. Walters comes to the door, hurriedly pulling on her robe as she goes. “Juliette, what is it?”

“It's Drew, Mrs. Walters. She is crying and shaking, and won't stop and I can't get through to her!” Mrs. W. hurries up the stairs behind Jules to see Drew.

When she comes into the room, she sees a child in the throes of a crisis, and she knows that this will take medical attention. “Donald! “she calls down, “Get the car and hurry, we have to get Drew to the hospital now!” Her shout wakes up Deb and Brit, bringing them running to Jules' and Drew's room. Mrs. W. looks at them and point blank says “Out! Go and get dressed and wait downstairs with your father, we have to take Drew to the hospital.” “I need to see to Drew.”

As they go back to their room, Brit looks at Deb and goes “ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod, what are we going to do? They're going to find out Drew's a boy, and then there'll be big trouble!”

“Brit!” Deb says, “Get a grip!” “What matters right now is Drew and what's wrong with him – mum and dad are the least of our concerns right now!”

Back upstairs in Jules and Drew's room, Mrs. W. has taken charge. “Jules, put some things in a bag for Drew, and make sure you bring all of her documents. And while I am getting Drew ready to go, please go and phone Miss Cowlishaw and Mr. Pilling and ask them to get Miss Bell to bring them to the hospital.”

Mrs. W then went over to the bed to start getting Drew ready to travel. “Poor thing” she thinks, “I wonder what has her so worked up to get her into this kind of a state.” As she sits down on the edge of the bed to begin wrapping Drew up in his blanket for travel, she hears the same thing Jules heard. “That's very odd “she thinks, “one is just her nickname, yet she speaks like they are two separate people”.

Mrs. W then pulls back the blanket to get Drew and straighten her nightgown before wrapping her in the blanket. When she does, she discovers Drew's secret. She is stunned. “How can this be? She's a girl, not a boy! Well, we'll get this all sorted out at the hospital”. She finishes wrapping Drew up and carries her downstairs where Mr. W is waiting to take Drew out to the car while Mrs. W finishes dressing – the girls are already out there waiting.

In the car, Brit and Deb are grilling Jules as to what is wrong with Drew. “Well Brit, I figure all this business with Gabs and everyone treating him that way finally tipped him over the edge. You just had to make him be Gaby while he was here, didn't you? You saw how it affected him when you guys visited us, but he's so nice and he's so eager to please and be accepted, he just let you talk him around!” Jules was getting very angry now, although the anger was also at herself. She was feeling very guilty about perpetuating this charade and not letting Drew be Drew. She was mad at Brit and Deb, and Maddy and all the others, including herself and her mum, for causing this.

Brit and Deb were now looking at their shoes, feeling very guilty, and tears were starting to fall as the full impact of what had happened came crashing down on them. And while they may not have been the root cause, they were certainly the catalyst that brought the whole thing to a head.

Just then, Mr. and Mrs. W came out to the car carrying Drew, all wrapped up tight in a blanket, still shaking and sobbing. Mrs. W was cradling Drew like a baby, rocking back and forth a bit, trying to soothe her. “Juliette, did you bring all her documents and call Miss Cowlishaw and Mr. Pilling?”

“Yes Mrs. Walters, I did and they are phoning Miss Bell and will meet us at the hospital as soon as they can get there” Jules answered.

“Good” said Mrs. W “You and I will go through her documents and everything when we get there and we'll get her looked after.” giving Jules a significant look. “Donald, let's go!”

Before you know it they are at the hospital emergency unit taking Drew in. “Donald, you and the girls go to the waiting room and wait for Miss Bell and the others. Juliette and I will take Drew in and get her sorted out.” Brit and Deb began to protest, but Mrs. W cut them off with a look.

“Juliette, you and I will go and check Drew in and then we need to have a private chat and we need to phone your parents”.

As they approached, they were met by an orderly and a nurse with a gurney. Mrs. W carefully laid Drew down on the gurney and she and Jules then followed it into the emergency room. The nurse asked what Mrs. W thought the problem was, and Mrs. W remarked that it appeared Drew had had some sort of breakdown, and that she appeared to be in some sort of catatonic state.

The nurse said she would report this to the doctor, telling Jules and Mrs. W that the doctor would be with them shortly. She then left, pulling the curtain around them. Mrs. W then looked at Jules and said “Would you mind explaining to me why I was told Drew/Gaby was a girl, when in fact I discovered differently earlier?”

“Err, ummm” stammered Jules, not knowing how to explain this. “Well”, she finally said, “Brit said you hadn't been told Drew was a boy, and that we needed to keep that secret. So, you would probably wish to ask her that question.”

“Oh, I most certainly will” Mrs. W stated, “and I suspect that after her father and I discuss this matter, she will likely be grounded until she is 30. Did any of you think of what the consequences could be for Drew's mental health? Did any of you think at all?” “And at school - is Drew ‘she' at school as well?!”
“Errmm….yes ma'am” answered Jules timidly.

“So then your teacher chaperones know all about this as well then?!” she exclaimed in utter shock. “And Miss Bell?!”

“Yes ma'am all three of them are aware as well”. Jules told her.

Just then, the doctor stepped through the curtain into the examination room.
“Good morning, I'm Dr. Maggie and I'm the emergency room physician this morning. The nurse says you believe Drew has had a breakdown of some sort?” Jules and Mrs. W explain how they found Drew, and how they were unable to get through to “her”. Mrs. W then tells the doctor that while looking like a girl right now, Drew is really a boy and under the coercion of her daughters and some of the others, Drew has been presenting as a female for the last 5 weeks; and that she thinks it all may have caught up with him, and been too much of an overload for him.

“Well” says Dr. Maggie “we'll give Drew something to make him relax and sleep. And then we will talk to him and decide what to do.”

“In the meantime, I will need to talk to his parents to discuss long term treatment options and arrange for a referral at home since all of the exchange students are due to leave in a week. Also, I need, repeat need, to get the full story here in order to adequately treat Drew even for the short term. In that regard, I want to speak to all of those involved within the next 24 hours.”

Mrs. W looks at the doctor, and says “I will get the full story for you and each and every one of the main players in this game will talk to you in the next 24 hours, or I will know the reason why! And we'll start with my daughters, once I have had an opportunity to ‘talk' to them about this. Thank you doctor, I will go out and see if the chaperones and Miss Bell have arrived yet so we can get the whole story.”

Dr. Maggie looks at Jules and asks her if she wants to stay with Drew for now. “Oh yes, Dr. Maggie, please let me stay with him” sniffles Jules. Mrs. W leaves the examination room and heads to the waiting room to confront her daughters and the chaperones to try and get to the bottom of this very large mess, and find out who else was in on all of this.

As the doctor prepares the injection for Drew, Jules says to her “Doctor, there are some other things you should know about as well. Mum has been diagnosed with advanced cancer and was just operated on a short time ago. Drew is very close to mum, and this has been very stressful for him. When Mum first told us about this, they thought it could only be a matter of weeks for her. And, I don't know all the details, but Drew has been to the doctor's a few times for some sort of tests about hormones and the like. Mum and Dad will be able to tell you about it.”

“Oh my” replies Dr. Maggie “That is a terrible amount of stress for Drew to be handling all on its own, without any of this. Look Jules, I believe Drew will be all right, but he is going to need rest from all of this stress and allowed to be whoever it is he needs to be, with NO influence from anyone else.”

“Now, we need to talk to your mum and dad – would you like to stay with Drew, or come with me and talk to them. We can do it by speakerphone from my office if you wish. Since you are his sister and you are here with him, with your parents so far away, Drew is going to need you very badly until you both get home and I would like you to hear what is said so you know how to help.”

Dr. Maggie then gives Drew the injection while Jules thinks about her reply. “There, he'll sleep now for a few hours. And I will leave orders with the nurse that no one, except you or I, is allowed to see him until we come back.”

“Alright doctor, I'll come with you and we'll talk to mum and dad – it's 5 hours ahead at home, so I don't know if dad will be at home or at work though.”