Synopsis:

Bobby is in the hospital now and is recovering. Her friends and family pull together around her.

Story:

Bobbi’s Run ch. 9

by

Paula Dillon

Bobby woke late the next morning. Her head was much clearer but still a little addled by the drugs. She had to think for several seconds before she realized where she was. Her left arm and her legs were restrained and her left leg was throbbing. Then the whole incident at the diner had come to her. The guy who was suppose to be bringing her in, the cops surrounding the diner, the arm going around her throat, the gun pointed at her head, her stomping her heel on his foot, the shots being fired, her going down with his weight added to hers and the pain. She cried again as she thought about the pain.

Bobby gingerly raised her head and looked around. She saw her mother’s purse on the night stand, beside her bed. But where was her Mom? She heard sounds from the bathroom and then she knew. Seconds later the door to the bathroom opened and out came her mom.

“Hi Mom, morning,” Bobby said weakly.

“Well good morning Baby, I thought you were going to sleep all day.”

“Yeah I guess I needed it.”

“Yes you did. How are you feeling today?”

“Like, did anybody get the number of the truck that hit me?” Bobby said, with a sad attempt to giggle.

“Well you are going to be ok now. Your doctors should be in shortly to talk to you and to check you out.”

“How long will I have to stay in here?”

“They were talking about two more days before they release you dear, said that they should be able to tell us more later today.”

“Ok, how is everybody Mom?”

“Let’s see, your sisters nearly pulled their hair out, I got about two thousand more gray hairs on my head, over the last three days, Sandra and her Mom have called twice, your girlfriend Trina came by yesterday, I have had more dealings with the Police than I’ve ever had in my life, but other than that, everything is normal.”

“Where are Darla and Amy?”

“They spent the night at Sandra’s and her Mom will be bringing them here shortly, although I think Tracey made Sandra go to school today.”

“I am really sorry Mom, about all the problems I made for you.”

“You really did stir the kettle didn’t you Bobby. I am not really mad at you, except for your not trusting me enough to tell me about the tape and of course for running away like that. But given who the killer was, hiding might have been the safest thing for you.”

Bobby’s brow arched with concern and she asked, “Who was the killer, Mom?”

“Oh he was nobody special, except maybe that he was a cop, and that the tape you made brought down a whole slew of bad cops. It’s been all over the news Bobby. Where have you been? Oh that’s right, you’ve been sleeping it off.” Liz said with a big smile on her face and giggling. “But seriously, things could really have been bad for you.”

As Liz finished talking, a lady in a white lab coat and a nurse entered the room.

“Well good morning Bobby, how are we today?”

“I don’t know about your day, but I think my day really sucks.” Bobby said.

Liz lightly slapped Bobby’s arm and looked sternly at her, “Language Bobby, the doctor was just being polite. No need biting her head off.”

“Sorry Ma’am, I could be doing better though.”

“Well I can really understand that. I’m Dr. Marla Brosnan and I am your orthopedic surgeon. I put that puzzle you gave me, back together again. You had a pretty nasty break of your fibula; do you know what that is?”

“That is the shin bone isn’t it?”

“Yes it is Bobby. You broke it in three places and you had a few bone splinters around too. I put screws in to hold the three major pieces together, I removed the bone splinters and used a calcium based glue to fill in the gaps, it really is marvelous stuff, and lastly, I put in a rod beside the fibula to take some of the load off that bone, till it can heal. Do you understand what I did?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Unfortunately, I had to make an incision down the front of your leg to gain access to all the pieces. The good news is though, I made a very neat cut and I am very good at sewing and made tiny neat stitches, that will fade with time. So there shouldn’t be too much scarring. That is if you will take good care of your leg and not pull out my neat stitches. I believe by the start of school this fall, you should be back to normal.”

“Will I have to wear a cast long?”

“Not really a cast, we can’t cover your stitches. You won’t really need one, but you will have to wear a brace for a couple of weeks, till your bones mend together, just to keep your foot from moving. After a few months, I will go in and remove the rod and you will almost be good as new. Ok?”

“Ok you’re the Doc.”

“At least that’s what my nurse tells me. Now we need to take a look at my work. Becky is my nurse and she will help me take off the dressing, if that’s alright with you?”

“Ok.”

Becky uncovered Bobby’s leg carefully removed the dressings from her leg. Bobby grimaced as she saw all the bruising and such. Her leg was larger than normal and looked very ugly.

Becky saw Bobby grimace and make a face when she saw her leg, “It isn’t really as bad as it looks Bobby, Marla does very good work, believe me. It would have looked a lot worse if the bone had protruded out of your skin,” Becky said. “You were quite lucky.”

Marla and Becky inspected their work, even though it was black and blue and looked a little angry; it appeared to be doing well to them.

“Well Bobby it looks pretty good. We are going to keep you here till Sunday, probably and I will want to see you in my office next Friday,” Marla said, as Becky went about cleaning the area and redressing it. “I don’t want you out of bed until I see you on Saturday though. How is the pain right now?”

“It hurts some, right now, but I can live with it.”

“Well you don’t have to live with it. The nurses haven’t given you, your pain meds yet and by looking at your charts I see you will be due one shortly. We will be looking to reduce them beginning tomorrow, but that isn’t a reason for you to suffer. If it hurts, tell a nurse and I will leave instructions with them. I don’t want you to hurt and possibly do something bad to the work I’ve done. You’ll also be on antibiotics for the next ten days. OK?”

“Yes Ma’am.”

“Good! See you tomorrow dear.”

With their work completed the two ladies left, to be replaced by another lady in a white lab coat.

“Hello Bobby, I am Dr. Nancy Sullivan, but please call me Nancy.”

“Hello Nancy and we are doing well,” Bobby said trying to steal some of her thunder.

“Well that is good, dear. I am a psychiatrist; do you know what I do?”

“Yes Ma’am, you’re a nut… I mean head doctor.”

“I have been called a nut Doctor before and I don’t mind. I work with people who need some help with their emotions and feelings, especially, like your case after a trauma. If your mother doesn’t mind, I would like to sit down with you and have a long chat, just the two of us.”

“I don’t mind at all Nancy,” Liz said and then she bent down and gave Bobby a kiss on his head. “I am going to get a bite to eat and I’ll be back later Bobby.” Liz then got her purse and headed out.

A nurse came in and quickly gave Bobby a pain shot and then left.

Nancy pulled up a chair next to Bobby and sat down. She then asked Bobby to start at the beginning and talk about the last week. Bobby began at the mall, but didn’t tell her why she was at the mall. She told her everything she could remember at the bus stop and the shooting. She told her about helping get the girls she was with home, the way her strength left, when they finally got to Sandra’s home and so on. Bobby even told her about the kisses the girls gave her.

Nancy didn’t do much talking; she just did a lot of listening and asked a few questions. Bobby then continued on about the rest of the weekend. She talked about going to church on Sunday, meeting Sandra at the cafeteria and then going back at home. She spoke about editing the tape she made.

“What were you taping, Bobby?”

“Girls at the mall.”

“Why?”

Bobby was stuck on answering her. She was silent for several seconds and then decided the truth would be the best thing at this point.

“Well it’s like this, Doc,” and Bobby explained a little about the tapes he made. He tried to get on with his story, about seeing the shooting, but Nancy steered the talk back to the other tapes for several minutes. She finally let him continue on to seeing the shooting that he had recorded. He then told her of his decision to go into hiding. That brought on several more questions about her decision process, about her going into hiding. Nancy really latched onto that point and she kept asking about how she felt about this or that. Bobby had to go into depth on that point, to satisfy her.

After Bobby explained herself to death on that point, Nancy let her continue to her plans for going into hiding. This drew other questions and so they went back and forth to the day she went into hiding.

“Bobby why did you go into hiding, dressed as a girl?”

“I figured that it would make me harder to find, till I felt my family was safe again.”

“Couldn’t you have hidden as well, dressed as a boy?”

“No… Yes… I don’t… I just don’t know, Ma’am.”

“How did it feel, dressing as a girl?”

“I don’t know. Good I guess. Scary too, but good.”

Nancy sat there for several seconds looking at Bobby, who waited pensively for the next question, but Nancy let her off the hook and asked her to continue her story. Bobby continued on with her preparations that day, her using syrup of Ipecac to get sick, dressing a little like a boy and a little like a girl. She then told about her taxi ride and how she bought an Amtrak ticket and then changing her appearance to totally feminine to go to the motel.

Nancy watched Bobby carefully. She saw a change in his/her demeanor, as they talked. Bobby seemed to brighten when she talked about being a girl, her voice even seemed to sound more like a girls. All this was fascinating, she really wanted Bobby to continue, but Bobby was such an avid story teller and she used nearly two hours, to get to this point. Bobby was quite descriptive, taking a lot of care in describing her appearance. Her vocabulary was very girlish and fit in with girls her age. Nancy really needed to see other patients.

“Well Bobby, I have enjoyed our talk so far, but I have other duties. I will be back tomorrow, about this same time and we can continue then. Ok?”

“Sure.”

Nancy thought as she left, that she wasn’t ready to bet the farm yet, but in her heart she believed that Liz might be right about Bobby. Boy was Bobby’s file growing. She would have a ton of notes to transcribe today.

Liz had waited outside the door. Dr. Sullivan had left a do not disturb note on the door, while they were talking. She had taken an hour and a half to eat and call her girls. They had put off coming till they heard back from Liz. She still had to wait for a little over a half an hour, before Nancy left.

Nancy talked with Liz for a few minutes.

“Liz, I really loved talking with Bobby, you have such a wonderful child.”

“Yes Bobby is such a dear child.”

“I think that Bobby is doing very well, through all this. Considering what he/she has been through, we do need to be careful though, about talking about what happened that last day, we didn’t get that far in our talk, it could be an issue for Bobby. It can be so traumatic for the victims.”

“I can’t begin to understand what it is like.”

“Well Bobby seems to be holding up well, but it is still early. I have got to run Liz, but we will talk tomorrow.”

“Thank you, Nancy.”

Nancy left Liz and headed to her next patient. Liz entered Bobby’s room to find her watching TV.

“Well how are you doing, Bobby?”

“Ok, Mom. Just had a good talk with Nancy. I really like her.”

“That’s good dear. I am going to get you some clothes hun, so you can get out of those hospital things. Also I got your things that were brought in with you to the hospital and that the police brought from your room. Do you want me to setup your laptop?”

Bobby brightened when Liz mentioned the laptop. “Yes Mom, that would be great,” Bobby giggled. “Oh and hand me the white purse, Mom.”

Liz handed Bobby the purse. The hospital had cleaned the gore off it, but it looked horrible and was really ready to be discarded. At least it wasn’t one of her expensive purses.

“It doesn’t look to good Bobby; we will have to throw it away.”

“Sorry Mom, I tried to be careful with it, guess I screwed it up,” Bobby said going through the purse. He got out a key and handed it Liz. “I have the other suitcase with some of my clothes and my original tape in a locker, at the Am-Trak station, Mom,”

“Ok I will go pick it up, when Tracey and the girls get here. She will stay with you while I clean up and get some rest dear. We haven’t talked much about it, but what kind of clothes do you want to wear here and to go home in?”

“I guess my boy clothes Mom. I just need to get these nails off.”

Liz was a little disappointed, then looked at Bobby’s nails. “What kind of nails did you get?”

“The girl called them silk wraps.”

“Oh dear. Those are going to be hard to get off for a while Bobby, they are made for long term wear. They will have to grow out, I’m afraid you’ll be stuck with them for a little while yet, maybe a month or two and with your eyebrows plucked that thin, it will be a while before you could appear masculine.”

“But Mom, how will I be able to go home and school like this.”

“Well school is out for you for the next three weeks, at least. They want your leg to heal more before you get out on it and they also want you to go to physical therapy. There is only six weeks of school left. I’ll talk to your teachers about you completing your term at home.”

“It might be easier then, if I dressed as a girl for a while longer.”

“You might be right Bobby. I would also like to see what you look like as a girl, everybody but your family has seen you en-femme. I think we deserve to see what you look like.”

Bobby blushed deeply; Liz had to giggle to herself.

“Ok.”

“I will get you some clothes then, you know your measurements?”

Bobby gave her Mom her measurements and sizes.

**************************

Tracey showed up after school let out, with Darla, Amy and Sandra. The girls had been instructed not to harass Bobby about what had happened yet, which was ok with them, since Sandra knew pretty much all that happened anyway. The girls flocked to Bobby’s side and smothered her in hugs and kisses. They were a little disappointed to see Bobby as himself, but didn’t let their disappointment show.

They began talking to Bobby as girls would talk to each other at a breakneck speed of ninety miles per hour. The two adults were amazed that anybody could understand them and wondered how Bobby could follow the girls, but she was smiling and joining in with them.

“Well Tracey, looks like they are getting along great. How were my girls, last night?”

“They were Ok, Sandra was upset I made her go to school today. I kept your girls home, in case you wanted them there.”

“That is ok Tracey, they haven’t had a chance to see Bobby yet, but tomorrow is Friday and I want them back in school. I don’t think Bobby will make it back to school this semester though. Look at them they are getting on like four girls.”

“Yes I noticed that. So what is up with that?”

“Bobby wants to be a girl I think Tracey; I feel I have lost a son and gained a new daughter. How do you feel about that?”

“I don’t know Liz, to be honest; I have never been put in this situation before. I am grateful to Bobby for what he did and Sandra seems to love him either way. Yesterday when that awful detective caught Bobby, you should have seen it Liz, Bobby looked so forlorn when he was identified. Sandra ran over to him and caught him up in a hug shouting she still loved him. That took everybody there by surprise Liz, even Sandra, I think. I would hate to think about what might have happened without Bobby being there, when the shooting went down. I know some bullets flew in their direction. But I don’t know what to think about him becoming a girl? How do you feel Liz?”

“I love my kids Tracey. All of them. I would never have thought that Bobby would want to be a girl, although he was never a macho male type. I have asked myself, where did I go wrong, could I have done better, but did I go wrong. Bobby is a good kid, respectful, intelligent and courteous; he just wants to be a girl.”

“I like Bobby, I don’t understand it, but I guess as long as the kids are good to each other, I am not going to rock the boat on it. Is he going to continue being a girl, Liz?”

“At this point, I think so. Bobby is working with a psychiatrist right now and may continue to do so for a while. If Bobby wants to continue, I am not going to stop her Tracey. I just wanted to know if it will be a problem with you.”

“I don’t know Liz; I guess I am ok with it, at least for right now. I won’t mistreat Bobby, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

“That is all I could hope for Tracey. Can you stay with Bobby for a while and let me go home. I will try to be back by nine. I need to clean up and get some things for me and Bobby. They are keeping her here till Sunday.”

“Why don’t you keep the kids tonight Liz and get some rest. I will stay here tonight with Bobby.”

“That would be asking too much Tracey.”

“I won’t hear of that Liz, you look wasted dear, go get some rest.”

“Ok, if it won’t put you out too much?”

“I will take care of Bobby as if he was my own child, and I will call you if there is any problem,” Tracey said, hugging her new friend.

They let the kids talk for a little while longer, before Liz herded them to her car.

“Kids we are going to do some shopping for Bobby tonight. I want you three to pick out some things Bobby can wear at the hospital and lounge in, dressed as a girl, nothing overly feminine but comfortable. Bobby is going to be stuck at home for a while. Remember she won’t be wearing pants for a little while because of her leg. I will have final approval before we buy anything,”

That had all the girls chittering about what they would choose. Liz knew of some things she was going to get Bobby. They drove to a nearby mall and hit the stores.

**************************

Tracey sat down beside Bobby, “Well how are you doing?”

“Better than I was, but they aren’t letting me get out of the bed. I hate using bed pans.”

Tracey giggled and said, “I know what you mean. I had surgery once and was stuck in bed for four days.”

“That had to be awful.”

“It was, but I really felt better afterwards. You know, you really made a very pretty girl Bobby.”

“Thank you,” Bobby said a little warily.

“If it isn’t too personal, can you tell me why you chose to look that way?”

Bobby was clearly embarrassed but knew that cat was already out of the bag. “Well it’s kinda hard to explain, I wanted to hide, this whole thing had me scared. I wish Sandra and Becky would never had been around there for the shooting. I knew the bad guys would be looking for a boy, if they were looking for anyone. But to tell the truth Tracey and God I hope you don’t hate me for this… but I’ve always felt like I should’ve been a girl.”

“I’m glad you were there for them Bobby, and I don’t hate you. How could I, seeing how you took care of my daughter. But what do you mean, you always felt like you should have been a girl?”

“I have always been jealous of girls. I like doing the things they do, I like wearing the clothes they wear. It feels more normal to me and I am happier when I am acting as a girl. It is scary Tracey, I don’t know why I am this way, I just am.”

“Do you like girls or boys, Bobby?”

“Yes I like boys and girls, but to me it has never been about sex. At least it wasn’t before now. When Becky and Sandra kissed me, those were my first kisses, other than family. I am so confused right now about that, I can’t think clearly.”

“What do you think of my daughter, Bobby?”

“I like Sandra more than anybody, other than my family. I feel so comfortable around her.”

“She seems to like you too. So how is that going to work out between you two?”

“I don’t know, I really like her, but I don’t want to hurt her. Should I stop seeing her?”

“I don’t think that is an option, Bobby. That would be traumatic for her. I guess I am going to have to accept you and ask you not to hurt her.”

“I won’t try to hurt her, but I can’t make promises, when I don’t know what the future will hold for me. I will do my best to be a friend for her Ma’am, I will promise you that.”

“Then that will have to do, Bobby just be the best friend you can be,” Tracey said, as she leaned over and hugged Bobby.

**************************

Tara and Bob were knee deep in the investigation. They had arrested as many of the bad cops as they could identify. Bob was in the process of going before the grand jury and securing indictments against them. Sam had sung like a canary, to avoid being tried for capital murder. There didn’t seem to be any reason for the families of the kids to be afraid. At least that was good news, finding fourteen bad cops and twenty three other people, wasn’t good.

“You know if it wasn’t for Bobby we wouldn’t have what we have. We are on the trail of confiscating between thirty and forty million dollars of drug money. I think we should put that kid up for a finder’s fee for alerting us. That would be seven percent of all funds recovered,” Bob said.

“I agree. I can’t believe all the people we have brought in. It makes me sick to think my partner was involved in all this, and Brian nearly killing Bobby, I would have died if that had happened Bob.”

“You have to stop blaming yourself Tara, you had no idea Brian was that bad. You did good girl, I can see you as Chief of Detectives in a few years Tara. I am going to start the paperwork on that finder’s fee.”

“I’m going to interview Bobby tomorrow, we won’t need her to testify because of the plea, but I want to get her statement for the record.”

“Ok, but keep the bit about the finders fee a secret for now. It has to be approved first, and we have to secure the money before we tell them.”

**************************

Shopping was something else. Liz couldn’t believe how much energy the kids had. Darla was happy to get her makeup, she lost, replaced and the kids were so excited shopping for Bobby. They had picked out some nice things. Liz bought panties, bras and some legitimate breast forms for Bobby, close to Darla’s size. She was afraid that they might look a tad bigger when Bobby got them on. The girls had picked out some gowns and a gender neutral robe that were nice; Liz was surprised they didn’t go overboard on Bobby.

At home the girls sent Liz to her room and they headed to the kitchen to fix dinner. A nice hot bath would feel wonderful to Liz. She started her bath and then called her managing partner at her firm. She informed him what had happened and that Bobby was in the hospital, but that she would be able to resume the case on Monday. This pleased him. Her case was a very important case to their firm and the client wanted her on it, specifically. Everybody at the firm were happy to hear of her child’s safety and gave her their prayers for his recovery.

**************************

Tracey and Bobby were getting along great. Talking about whatever and watching TV together. Tracey could see why her daughter liked Bobby, just from hearing her talk about things.

The nurses for the most part had no problems with Bobby. Even those who were a little gruff were quite professional. One nurse caught Bobby’s attention.

“I can tell you don’t like me, why?”

“Do you have a complaint about how I am doing my Job?”

“No, not at all, but I can still tell you don’t like me. Have I offended you at all?”

“You haven’t done anything to offend me.”

“Ok, then why do you look like I have?”

“I have a lot of patients, I give them good care. I don’t have to like my patients. I give the same quality of care for people I like and for people I don’t really like,” she said as she took care of Bobby’s dressings.

“Agreed, but why do you not like me?”

“You are just another patient.”

“Well I think you are a good nurse, and I am a good person too.”

The nurse stopped what she was doing for a second and looked bobby in the eye before finishing her work. “Thank you.”

When the nurse left Tracey asked Bobby, “What was that all about?”

“Oh I read some where that enemies were easy to come by, friends have to be won. I knew she didn’t really care for me, but she did a good job. I just wanted to know why she didn’t like me. I imagine it is all over the hospital of how I was dressed when I was brought in and who I really am. I just want them to see that I am a nice person too.”

“Yes, you are Bobby.”

They chatted on and off for an hour or so, while watching TV. It was about seven when a visitor came in to see Bobby.

“Hey Bobby whatcha up too?”

Bobby Brightened as she saw Trina, “Not much girl, just sitting here collecting dust. Tracey this is my friend Trina, Trina this is Tracey, she is the mother of a girlfriend.”

“Hi Trina,” Tracey wondered where Bobby met this apparently college aged girl.

“Hello Tracey.”

“Where do you know Bobby from Trina?”

“Oh I met her at college she was visiting the library on campus, I let her use my internet connection to do some emails and she helped me with a school project.”

“Really,” Tracey said with just a touch of skepticism.

“Yes she did, is that your laptop Bobby?” Trina asked. “Is my project still on it?”

“Yes and yes, as far as I know.” Bobby said booting her laptop.

“Yeah I had to write a presentation and illustrate it with a power point slide show, Tracey. Well the writing was easy, but I had never worked with power point. Bobby helped design my show.”

“Really, you are not pulling my leg.”

“Honest Injun.” Trina said.

Bobby began the slide show, and Tracey paid attention to the slides. Bobby had used all sorts of tricks with the slide show. Tracey had seen a few of these slide shows before and she thought that this show looked pretty good.

Tracey shook her head as the last slide finished. “You really did the slide show Bobby, didn’t you?”

“Well, Trina helped.”

“Yeah right, I only wrote the words everything else was Bobby. I got an ‘A’ for that show Tracey. So when are they going to spring you from this joint Bobby?”

“It will be probably Sunday, Trina.”

“When did you two meet, Bobby?” Tracey asked.

“Oh we met the day before yesterday, Tracey. I couldn’t stand being in my room all day; I wanted to get out, so I went to the college. I was staying in a room just down from you, Sandra, Becky and her parents.”

“You were at the same motel, that’s right. We saw you when we checked in,” Tracey said, as pieces started to fall together.

“I thought you had already figured that out Tracey.”

“No, yes, I don’t know, what room?”

Bobby told here her room number at the motel. It was two doors down from Tracey’s.

“Well, are you going to tell me your story girl or do I have to read it in the newspaper?” Trina asked.

For what seemed to be the thousandth time, Bobby told her story to Trina. Trina didn’t look as surprised as Tracey, who had heard it before, but not in as great a detail. She even blushed when she heard what Trina had done back at her room. Tracey stopped Bobby from retelling what had happened in the diner that last day, by saying that she shouldn’t tell anymore until they hear from the Police. Trina, who had been paying rapt attention to Bobby’s story, looked crestfallen but understood why she shouldn’t tell.

“So it was your daughter and this other girl, Bobby helped that day?”

“Yes it was. If Bobby hadn’t been there and moved so quickly, no telling what might have happened.”

(to be continued)

Notes:

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