Introduction: In a sense there is a connection to this story and several other non-magic stories I’ve written. Two characters from Mike and Ashley show up briefly. They would be Mike and Ashley. This story, Like “Mike and Ashley”, “Discovery”, and “Cynthia and the Queen of Knight” takes its storyline from the work of someone else. In this case, a production by an Italian fellow named Joseph Green. The story is 16 chapters in length plus an epilogue. I’ve done as much tweaking as I can. Any errors are mine and I will gladly accept constructive criticism; as long as you’re nice.

They make their escape without further problems. Mike Donatella picks them up in a high speed boat. Peter and Anita are transferred to a Virginia Class attack submarine where Anita’s father is waiting for them. Anita’s wound is not serious. They will be in Newport News in two days.
 

“You’re hurt,” Peter said as he embraced Anita.

“It’s nothing to be worried about. It’ll probably leave a couple of nice scars, but that’s all worth it, now that you’re safe.”

“You weren’t kidding about being pregnant, were you?”

“No, I’ve known it for a couple of weeks. At least, I’ve known it unofficially. All the signs are there. Does that bother you?”

“The only thing that bothered me was that I thought we wouldn’t be able to live the rest of our lives together.

“Anita, would you please marry me?”

“Of course I will. We’re just going to have to figure out how we’re going to live the rest of our lives.”

Anita turned to LtCol Black. “Where are we going, Stan?”

“We’re going back to Gitmo. We have an exercise in progress. The government will neither confirm nor deny what happened here tonight. As far as you two are concerned, we are meeting a vessel that will take you home. This little beauty,” he said motioning at the vessel that had to be doing 30+ knots, “belongs to someone you met in Port au Prince. He has a bit of an interest in taking Costa down.”

Anita made her way to the bridge. Mike Donatella was maneuvering the boat to keep thing as quiet as possible. The sea was getting rough. “Thank you, Mike. We’ll never forget what you’ve done for us.”

“Believe me, it’s my pleasure. Anything you can do to take those bastards down makes it all worth it.

“We’ll be at the rendezvous in a couple of minutes. You and your friend need to get ready to transfer. We’ll have to use the bosun’s chair. Then I have to get the rest of these guys to a Navy ship.

“Ashley and I are planning a trip to the mainland next year. We’ll have to get together. We have a lot to talk about. You need to take care of that shoulder. It’s starting to bleed again.”

Mike started to slow down after a few minutes. Anita looked out over the moonless sea and sky. It took her a moment to see the dark form that sat low in the water. They sent Peter across first. Then Anita followed. The lines were released and the boat they’d just left departed in a cloud of spray. A couple of crewmen helped her down the ladder where her father and Peter greeted her. They took her to the ship’s doctor who treated her wounds. She cleaned things up and took a precautionary X-ray. Anita would be sore for a while, but the damage was minimal. She acquired several stitches at both the entrance and exit points. The doctor put her arm in a sling and gave her a course of antibiotics, some pain killers, and the usual instructions. They also took X-rays of Peter’s ankle, and taped it up. He would get further medical treatment in Virginia.

“Peter, you need to know something.”

“Yes?”

“I killed your father. He tried to stop me from taking the yard lift. I had no choice.”

“I don’t see that as a problem. You did what you had to do. Besides, he stopped being my father many years ago.”

The officer’s mess had prepared some sandwiches for them. There wasn’t much else to be said at that point. After their brief meal they were shown to what had to be VIP quarters. There was a full sized bed, bath with a shower, television, a small table, and a good sized desk. There were also several changes of clothing lying on the bed. Robert Okoye had a cabin further down the passage.

“When are we going to get under way?” Anita asked. “I would have thought we’d have left by now.”

“We left right after you got on board,” Robert replied. “We are at about 500 feet and are doing about 30 knots. We’ll be in Virginia Beach in two days. Both of you get some rest. You’ve been through quite a bit.”

The shower was not big enough for two. Anita went first. When Peter joined her in bed, she was already asleep. He kissed her, and wrapped his arms about her. She mumbled something and snuggled back against him. He realized they would never have to hide their love again.

A couple of seamen were ahead of her in the sick bay. She picked up a copy of The Navy Times, and found no one had done the crossword. She had just about finished it when the doctor called her in.

“Good morning, Anita, any problems with the arm?”

“It’s pretty tender. I slept on my right side last night. I usually sleep on my left. I didn’t wake up until this morning. Having Peter with me helped.

“That being said, how many females are on this beast?”

“Twenty, why?”

“I think I’m pregnant.”

“When was your last period?”

“Eight weeks ago.”

“Regular?”

“Like a clock.”

“Okay, take this in there. I think you know what to do. The instructions are on the label.”

Suspicions were confirmed rather quickly. “Based on what you told me, I would say you are right at six weeks. Of course, sometimes we can be off by several weeks, even a month or two. Mother nature has ways of fooling us.”

“No, six weeks would be exactly right. The first time we made love was six weeks ago, then a couple of days later,” Anita responded.

“No precautions?” the doctor asked.

“None: that was the first time I’d ever made love to a man. I don’t count the time I was gang raped. They gave me a morning after pill for that. What’s nice is that it was his first time with a woman. It was very special for both of us.

“Our conversation is privileged, isn’t it?”

“Mostly, we do have the Human Reliability Program to deal with. Some medical issues may remove someone from duty in certain areas. I don’t think we have to worry about that.”

“I’m gay, a lesbian. I’d never seriously thought about making love to a man, and being drugged and gang raped did nothing to change my mind. Then I met Peter. He is quite athletic and skilled in martial arts. He had been unmercifully bullied as a child. I realized something very early about Peter. The inner Peter was somebody quite different. Peter is transgender, something he gladly admitted to me.

“As you may or may not know, I was Special Forces. I received the Army Cross for something that I’m not particularly proud of. I resigned my commission after the court martial, and went to work for the Agency.

“When I took the Costa assignment, I knew who the people were at the top. However, I didn’t know the details, although I suspected something about Peter. What I didn’t know at first was that Peter knew more about me than I’d ever suspected. He was in love with me, and as it turned out I was in love with him. It didn’t take long for me to find that out.

“Look, I’m sure you are very busy, and you don’t need to know my life story. What we’re going to have to figure out is what to do with Peter. There’s all sorts of stuff, including the witness protection program. I suspect we’ll be married very soon. Doctor, I love Peter very much. It has nothing to do with the package he occupies. It’s what’s between his ears, the person. I am so happy to carrying his baby, and I hope there will be more.”

“What if he decides to transition?”

“We haven’t had a chance to discuss that in depth, but I will support whatever decision she makes.”

“Aren’t you making an assumption here? You’ve already assigned a gender to Peter.”

“Doctor ….”

“I think you’d better call me Lucille. I have a feeling this won’t be the last time we meet. If you will take a look at the diplomas I’ve hung over there you will see I am both a Doctor of Medicine and a Doctor of Psychology. That saves having to have two bodies down here. I have as much work as a shrink as I do an MD. They take very good care of us down here, but we could be under water at six months at a time or more. You probably haven’t noticed, but we cycle the lights to imitate day and night. It does help a bit.

“Two of our crew members, at least two I know of, are transgender. Both are male to female. Because of the idiocy of those in higher places, they are not secure in their careers. I give them the support I can, but I can’t do too much else. When they retire, they will finally be able to transition. In each case, it will be 20 years late. I will give them the psychiatric support they need to continue on.”

“Thank you, I guess I’d better let my father and fiancé know that the good news has been confirmed.

The Captain who was a Captain by rank, the equivalence of an Army Colonel prepared to give them a tour of what turned out to be a very large vessel.

“Mr. Mongini, as a foreign national, I’m afraid your access is limited to only the common areas. We have verified Anita’s and her father’s clearance levels, and we will be able to show them some other areas on a need to know basis. We’ll start at the bridge because that is really the most interesting place. I’ll neither confirm nor deny any of the readings you see on the gauges or screens.”

Anita was very impressed with the quality of the food, and spent some time in the very efficiently run kitchen. Peter visited the small library while the Captain took Anita and her father to some of the more restricted areas. It was interesting enough, but really, when you’ve seen one or two nuclear weapons, the rest is figuratively and literally overkill.

With the possibility of their being killed greatly reduced, their love making that night was much less hurried and far more satisfying.

“Peter, I love you very much, and I want to marry you. That won’t change. As father told you earlier, we want to get you into the witness protection program. I’m still not exactly sure what you’d like to do, though. The government will take care of all expenses, regardless.”

“Making love to you as a man has been a wonderful experience. Finding out we created a baby was something I’d never expected to do. But deep inside, and maybe not that deep, I know I am a woman. It has been my dream as long as I can remember to be a woman inside and out. You could teach me the finer points of making love as a woman, and being made love to as a woman, and I think I would be an eager student.

“I would probably have to detrain my body a bit. I’m a bit too muscular.”

“What about your face.”

“For you, I want to be as beautiful as possible. Can they do that? I want breasts as pretty as yours, too. They have to be real. I don’t want plastic.”

“I think it’s most important that you are happy,” Anita said giving him a kiss. “Do you have a name? We’ve never talked about that.”

“Alexandra, Alexa for short; I’ve been Alexa for more than 20 years.”

“I like that. That’s a pretty name. It fits you. What would your last name be? If we get married, I would assume it, if it pleases me.”

“Da Rimini, it was my mother’s maiden name. I want nothing to do with Mongini.

“We have doctors and psychiatrists at the home office. They will want to evaluate you to make sure there aren’t any mistakes. Due to the nature of the overall situation, and your situation for that matter. I don’t think we will be dealing with any real life test. They will probably want to start as soon as possible.

“I think we have several things going in our favor. They, Costa’s bunch, don’t really know who we are. I could be Army, after all, I once was. I could be part of any number of US organizations.”

“Shit, I just thought of something. Did you keep any memorabilia about me on what went on at Fort Campbell?”

“Yes, I kept the newspaper articles in a locked box. They are a bit worn.”

“They will find them, if they haven’t already. They are going to come after you with flame throwers. They are going to think that we’ve known each other for much longer than we have. They are going to have a lot of incentive to come after you and make what would be left of your short life very miserable. They will be looking for you, and it won’t take them much to find me. We will have to make some preparations.

“Okay, are you ready for lesson number one?”

“Most definitely. I think I know what you have in mind.”

“Oh, you do!”

They finally arrive back in the good ol’ USA. Alexa’s transitioning process starts almost immediately. Alexa will be hiding in plain sight for the most part.