When Macy and Jack returned with Victoria, Tara was almost certain it was her two daughters who were returning, bags of clothes gripped enthusiastically in exited hands. Jack seemed completely comfortable in his girly disposition despite Victoria's presence and his earlier qualms which had seen him leaving in as emphatically a boy mode as he was capable of. No doubt about it, Jack was returning even more utterly in girl mode than he had left in boy mode. Hands waving in girlish gesticulation voice high in enthusiastic conversation with the other two. Tara was a little surprised considering her son's obvious nervousness surrounding the whole idea and his earlier decision to go as a boy, even so, it took Tara only a couple of seconds to process the change in her son. Tara had long ago learned to accept both versions of her child and was usually unperturbed by the switch between the two which often left even those who were accepting of the change with emotional whiplash, yet she could not even pretend that this time had not caught her of guard. Tara was even more surprised when Jack and Victoria bid each other goodbye, both seemed to become self-conscious and painfully aware of the two mothers looking on. The sudden self-consciousness caused a hasty and slightly awkward embrace but neither had quite been able to hide their regret at not being able to express their emotions more clearly. Their hidden desire was not missed by Tara's motherly gaze. Briefly Tata considered what her husband would make of such an exchange. Her son was not exactly a manly boy but in girl mode like this, he was virtually indistinguishable from any other girl of his age. From the embrace she had just witnessed her son and Victoria looked more like lesbian lovers than a typical boy and girl. As they entered the house the twin's girlish conversation rose to include their mother describing how much fun they had and several of the outfits they had either seen or bought. After a few minutes, they left their mother to her own thoughts eagerly marching off to Macy's room trailing their shopping bags behind them.

At length, Tara composed herself and went up to find her children, in particular Macy. She could not shake the feeling that as a parent she should do something, in relation to her son's newfound interest in Victoria, at the very least she felt she should find out more about this. Going up the stairs Tara found both her children in Macy's room, both sat on Macy's bed, new outfits strewn about them. Tara asked for a word with Macy and the mother-daughter duo went down the stairs again to sit in the living room.

"I am glad you and Jack get no so well and you know I have never discouraged either of you in that way, I never wanted either of you to feel that there were things you couldn't do," Tara began haltingly unsure of how to broach the topic with her daughter. Macy nodded encouragingly still unsure what her mother was meaning to say.

"I guess I am just worried for Jack, I am not sure that it is the best thing for him to be dragged along with you and your friends. I don't want anyone embracing him or making things difficult for him. He shouldn't be a third wheel or anything." Tara told her daughter worry creasing her brow.

Macy laughed brightly. "Of course, not mom but that's not how this is, Victoria invited us both but I think that really it was Jack she wanted to invited. If anyone was a third wheel it was me. Recently Victoria and Jack have been so close, I think they are fast becoming best friends."

Tara took in this new information in wide-eyed surprise. While Jack and Macy had always been close Jack had never really had close friends in the way Macy had. What friends
Jack had, had over the years were those he played sports with, most of these were other boys who Jack had, had little else in common with. While Macy's friends had never actively discouraged Jack from friendship with them as far as Tara knew, Tara was aware that none of them had ever really attempted to befriend Jack. Victoria's supposed budding friendship with Jack was a little surprising but not unwelcome to Tara, Jack needed to find more people who would care for him and support to him, Tara reflected. Shaking herself out of the train of thought, Tara's thoughts returned to the other area of her concern, the obvious attraction between Jack and Victoria. Deciding on subtlety Tara began to question Macy.

Macy for her part took a moment to consider her responses. She and Jack shared many things and enjoyed a relationship that was not shared by most of her friends who had siblings. Her relationship with Jack contained both a sisterly and brotherly aspect to it and Macy took joy in both, Jack was both her overly protective brother and her supportive sister more obsessed than she was with cute clothes and makeup. Macy did not want to endanger that unique relationship; she and Jack told each other things that they would never tell anyone else. She wasn't sure what to tell her mother, what Jack wouldn't mind their mother knowing. Finally, Macy settled on what to say, she decided that she would only tell her mother what she knew for certain about Jack and Victoria, she would not tell her mother anything Jack had let slip to her, nor would she tell her mother anything that she suspected. That included Victoria's jealousy and the attraction that Macy suspected them both of feeling for each other. Tara nodded to her daughter's answers, she suspected that her daughter knew more than she was saying, but decided not to press her any further. Tara could not shack the knowledge of the lust she had seen in both her son's and Victoria's eyes. Maybe he should talk to her son Tara reflected slowly; he had never expressed any romantic interest in anyone before girl or boy, and might need a bit of guidance from his mother.

Usually, Tara would have left that kind of conversation to Phillip especially since Jack was his son and Tara supposed in most family dynamics such situations would best be dealt with by some father son bonding time. Yet Tara knew better than to suggest that with Jack, there were multiple reasons that such a scenario would not ever work for them. The first being that Jack had never had that kind of relationship with his father, even if he had, Jack had always been different than most boys. That led to the second complication Phillip had proved long ago that he would never accept his son's feminine side in any meaningful way, that alone had driven a wedge between Phillip and Jack. The third factor was Phillip himself, not for the first time Tara wondered why she had married him. Always focused on his career, for many years Tara had felt that he cared more for that than he did for anyone else. Tara herself was lucky if she spoke to her husband more than once a week while he was away, which had been more often than not over the last few years, Tara knew that Jack spoke to Phillip even less than that. Tara sighed at the thought, it was bad enough that her husband ignored her but as his wife but it nearly moved her to tears to think the man, she had married would do that to his children.

So due to her husband's failings and Jack's feminine tendencies, Tara had gotten used to having conversations with her son that were usually the sole domain of Mothers and their daughters. At least her son's interest in Victoria answered or at least gave some insight into her son's sexuality Something that Tara had been unsure of for many years. While it mattered little to Tara it was something she had considered over the years, there were times, especially when the twins played together with dolls or talked together as children about weddings, that Tara had been forced to wonder.

The light of morning glittered through windows as Tara hurried towards the front door. An unexpected knock on the door had interrupted her morning cup of coffee, something that Tara was at that moment nursing her annoyance at. In truth, Tara was more than slightly annoyed, although, with every passing moment, she was calming herself or at least getting ready to present an air of reasonable calmness, her morning cup of coffee was the time that Tara used to think and prepare for the day. This Morning Tara felt she had fare too much to think over, she had not really known what to say to Jack yesterday evening and had decided for better or for worse to delay any type of action in regard to the conversation she needed to have with Jack until the next day in order that she might be better able to consider how she might even begin to approach such a conversation. Her mind still hummed in mild confusion over the things she now knew and those she guessed in regard to her son's recent newfound feelings for Victoria. And Tara was still working through the implications and was no closer to knowing how to start a conversation with Jack about it when she was rudely interrupted. Tara had hoped for inspiration while drinking her customary morning cup of coffee but that was now interrupted and her thoughts unproductive though they might have been, had been scattered by that interruption. In some ways, it would have been easier, if Jack had been a girl she reflected as she went to open the door, then as soon as the thought came Tara recoiled at it. She had always tried to be supportive to her children and that kind of outdated stereotyping was not helpful to either them or her. Still in this case there was a grain of truth in the unwelcome thought, when talking to Jack Tara never was never entirely sure which version she would be addressing, the slightly effeminate boy or the obviously girly, girl. There were a number of occasions where that difficulty had made parenting Jack quite challenging, a number of times where Tara had misjudged and her message had been taken poorly by Jack. Tara fervently hoped that however, when she approached the topic of Victoria with Jack later today, she would not be caught out by that at least.

Tara opened the door and was quite surprised to see an apparently very nervous youth standing before her. Stockily built with wide shoulders the boy looked uniquely uncomfortable, hands thrust deep into the pockets of his smart jeans, in a mannerism ubiquitous with perturbed men especially younger ones. The boy who had until that moment been looking down at his shoes finally noticed Tara's presence and looked up staring at her with wide eyes that further told of his current anxious disposition. The boy was Jack and Macy's age obviously more at home in sports pants it was clear with his hair neatly spiked with gel and wearing jeans that the boy had done his best to dress up at least as far as the inflexibility of boys his age would allow. Tara eyed this youth for a few second fixedly the boy becoming more and more anxious under her appraising gaze, the longer that gaze lasted the more agitated the boy appeared to become.

"I suppose you are here to see Macy." Tara surmised when at last it appeared the boy could no longer take the apprehension of the evaluating look she had been giving him. Hands resting on her hips, Tara tried her best to be the very model of a stern and intimidating parent.

The boy looked shocked for a few seconds before recovering his composing with a genial smile that lit up his features, displaying his normally affable personality which had only been hidden by the immensity of his nervous anxiety. A small slight shake of his head, added to that genial display as he dispelled Tara's incorrect assumption.

"No, not really," The boy told her sheepishly trying to be as respectful as possible while being as nervous as he was. "I am Theo, a friend of your son, Jack. I was hoping to see him if he is in."

Despite her surprise and the implications of all of this Tara resolved to think of all that later and wasted little time in inviting Theo inside and at the same time calling upstairs to let her son know he had a visitor. Her son appeared only a few seconds later on the stairs silky, smooth, soft hair tied back in a long high ponytail that bobbed with every step he took, wearing a set of navy-blue leggings that hugged his thighs and calves tightly and his Detroit tiger's baseball polo. Jack smiled brightly as his eyes came to rest on Theo, skipping down the last steps Jack allowed the bigger much more muscled boy to fold him into a tight embrace. Tara, stood forgotten by the other two, watching Jack melt into Theo's arms in a manner that made to Tara at once resentful and jealous. It reminded her of how much she did not have with Phillip away constantly. The feeling of his strong protective arms about her, the powerful ineffable feeling of being adored with all the love and passion another can feel. It was a heady feeling and an addiction that Tara now could hardly believe she had nearly forgotten the sole aching need to feel. She had never needed that love, that embrace to be a woman, but she could not deny that she had never felt more womanly than when she was being held tight in Phillips's arms. It had been close to two years maybe even three years since Phillip had last ordained to hold his wife like that, it was becoming difficult for Tara to
remember what it was like to be held like that, yet still, if she concentrated hard enough Tara fancied, she could still feel the ghost of his touch, those strong warm arms about her the soft husky timbre of his, gravely voice above her protective and yet dripping with desire for her. A conflicted look of passionate affection which had been as evident in his words and voice as it was in his eyes when they had finally separated, that had always made Tara's legs weak at the knees. Watching the scene play out before her, Tara was only marginally surprised to see that a similar look from Theo had Jack reacting in the same manner to how she remembered reacting to Jack's father.

Totally ignoring the presence of Jack's mother, the two rushed off to Jack's room an easy gentle conversation flowing between them. Tara watched them go still shocked at the recent development. She heard Jack's door click closed above her and briefly wondered if she should tell them to keep the door open, it is what she would do if it were Macy and a boy or Jack and Victoria yet she wasn't quite sure under the circumstances what she was supposed to do. It didn't seem very responsible to leave them up there with a closed door, especially with the look she had seen her son give Theo and the way they had wrapped each other in such a loving embrace, it certainly worried Tara no end. Equally, she was not even sure that Jack was aware of his feelings and she didn't want to embrace him or Theo. Strolling back into the kitchen Tara busied herself making yet another cup of coffee this was definitely a more than one cup of coffee morning she decided. That conversation with Jack, which Tara had been planning to have, had just gotten a whole lot more complex and complicated.

That evening Tara sat relaxing on the sofa, all in all, things hadn't gone as badly as Tara had feared they might. Theo had stayed several hours before departing in the afternoon. A blushing Jack had confided to her that they had spent most of that time curled up together lying on Jack's bed watching TV on his laptop. Nothing serious had happened between the two that of them, nothing would have alarmed Tara, but Jack did speak dreamily about being held by Theo. They had talked a lot about first Theo and then Victoria. As they went on, Jack's confusion, the dilemma he was stuck in, became more and more apparent to Tara. It hurt her heart to not be able to do more for Jack than to listen to him, even her guidance was of little help. It was clear that Jack had passionate newly discovered feelings for both Theo and Victoria. Those feelings were causing her son no end of anguish and confusion.

"How do I choose between them, Mom, these feelings are all so new, I wish I understood them more, maybe then I would know what to do. I just don't understand how I feel, or what I want. Theo makes me feel so safe and warm, he is so pretty in a ruggish boy kind of a way. I really like being around him, but Victoria makes me feel so alive and adventurous. She is just as pretty but in a more subtle soft feminine way. Theo likes lots of the same sports I like and talking is easy between us, but Victoria gets my humour better, we always end up giggling when we are together. How can I possibly choose between them? They both make me feel giddy when they are close by and I miss both of them when they are not with me, even when one of them is and the other isn't. Being held by either of them is so good, it's like being wrapped up in love, it's magical."

"Follow your heart, it will know and remember that you are still only fifteen, you don't have to know yet." Tara had soothed him, pulling him into a motherly hug.

"What if it doesn't?"

"It will," Tara had told him confidently, then a few moments later and more retrospectively she continued with a sigh. "I really hoped I would have another year before things like this came up, for both you and Macy. I guess I never figured on you being such a little temptress." A smile played softly over her lips at this last sentence and quickly turned to laughter, laughter so infectious it soon spread to Jack as well until they both sat huddled together giggling.

Now sat on the sofa thinking back on the day's events, Tara could not help but be slightly worried for her son. A son that so often now seemed like a daughter. It was a dangerous situation he had unwittingly sound himself in one that Tara would have far rather he had not, Tara had never been in that situation but her best friend in high school had when she was only a year or two older than Jack was now. The two boneheaded testosterone-filled territorial idiots had beaten each other up over the poor girl. Tara had spent days consoling the girt and nursing the battered girl's injuries. The bruising and black eye had been unintentionally inflicted when the misguided girl had tried to intervene in the violent struggle, she had herself provoked. Tara could only hope that Victoria and Theo would be less violent and more civil than that. That they would not give in to their violent impulses as quickly as her friend's boyfriends had all those years ago. Both seemed rational and sensible enough, but you could never be sure with something like that and the fact that there was less testosterone in one of Jack's suitors did nothing to calm Tara's growing fears. She had seen just how violent women can get in situations like this when one of her other friends had broken up with her girlfriend. The two lesbians had caused a domestic which necessitated the police with the visceral hate and violence between them, despite the decided lack of testosterone.

"So how was Theo yesterday?" Macy asked her brother, the light of yet another bright and beautiful morning filtering through the windows.

"We had a good time mostly just watched things and talked." Jack admitted easily, ignoring his sister's amused expression.

Macy was about to question Jack further when his phone buzzed with a notification. Jack's hand immediately leapt to grab it, causing Macy to grin even wider this time. Jack had few friends and few contacted him regularly enough for him to be constantly texting him but since Victoria had become his friend Macy had seldom seen her brother without his phone in his hand, either responding to or reading one of Victoria's texts.

Looking over at Jack's beaming grin, Macy couldn't help but let out a small giggle. Jack looked up met his sister's eyes and Macy's giggling became infectious. After several minutes when they had both stopped giggling, Macy asked Jack what had caused his grinning in the first place.

"Victoria just invited me over to this afternoon." Jack explained showing Macy the messages excitedly.

Macy nodded after reading the text. Victoria was indeed inviting Jack over, Macy noted that her name wasn't mentioned at the same time that Jack realised it.

"I'm sure you'd be welcome to come as well, sis." Jack belatedly offered.

Macy was already shaking her head as Jack spoke. Victoria had deliberately not mentioned her name along with the invite, Macy was certain this was because Victoria wanted to spend some time alone with Jack. Not to mention Macy was not sure she wanted to be third web wheel to Victoria and Jack again, such a position got very awkward fairly fast. Whatever Jack and Victoria were to one another Marcy was certain that she didn't want to be in between them while they figured it. Not to mention Jack didn't socialise much with other people, on one of the rare occasions where he was Macy felt it would be better if he did that without her acting as a buffer between him and those he was interacting with.

As usual, Jack's feelings on which gender he should look, feel, and act like flip-flopped throughout the day. He had woken up feeling as male as the society expected him to be, but after talking with both his sister and Victoria, Jack was definitely in a much more feminine state of mind and being. The thought of seeing Victoria's parents jarred Jack into considering his appearance, and how they might view him and he immediately ran to Macy to consult with her about everything.

Jack's immediate instinct had been to dress in one of the cute outfits he had bought while shopping with Victoria and was quite upset when Macy patiently explained that that wasn't a good idea. Jack wanted to argue with her but could totally see the sent sense of her argument. Victoria's parents didn't know Jack that well and neither Jack nor Macy could be entirely sure how they would react if Jack turned up in full-on girl mode. Not for the first time did Jack wish that he had more control over his emotions and when he felt feminine or not. It wasn't like a button he pushed though; it was a lot more complex than that Jack wondered briefly again whether a boy had the right to feel, or should feel the way he felt. Then Jack pushed that ongoing invasive thought to the side to focus on infinitely more important things, clothes.

In the end, Macy was able to help Jack, who she knew was firmly entrenched in girl mode, select a compromise outfit. A blouse that was not too overly feminine was selected, as Macy had pointed out, most men are far too unobservant to realise that the 'shirt' Jack was wearing buttoned the wrong way. Best of all it was one of the ones that Jack had with got during the shopping trip with Macy and Victoria. Which made Jack feel considerably happier even if he couldn't wear one of the more overtly feminine outfits he had initially wanted to wear. Macy found some girls jeans in one of Jack's draws, they were black and went well with the blouse. The jeans had no obvious patterns that indicated they were women's jeans, so while Jack could still feel feminine in his girly clothes, unless someone examined the clothes or the clothes tags carefully nothing would look unusual.

The effect, once Jack was dressed, was exactly as Macy had intended. The clothes fitted Jack's slender figure well. The cut of the clothes and Jack's own girlish physique combined to give a very natural. Girlish look. But the clothes were plain enough that the entire look could easily be explained away as a metrosexual boy's look. Macy hummed and smiled as Jack twirled about in front of her, she was exceptionally pleased with her efforts.

As Jack left to walk to Victoria's house, Macy found herself very glad that she had this unusual relationship with Jack, at times it was like having a sister. Macy knew as they got older this would disappear, idly she wondered if it was selfish to take as much pleasure in this unusual relationship and to want to cling so tightly to every memory of it. Pushing those thoughts to the side Macy found herself deeply worried for Jack, Macy was still unsure of his strange new relationship with Victoria, a girl that Macy had never been especially close to and had never fully trusted. Worse there seemed to be a romantic element to that new friendship, an element that she was unsure either Jack or Victoria were fully aware existed. Worse Jack's relationship with Theo had suddenly seemed to have taken on a romantic element that Macy was certain Jack did not realise existed. Overall, it seemed to Macy that Jack was far over his head with two extremely complex romantic situations at the same time. Macy could not help but feel the sinking crushing weight of apprehension settle on her heart, Jack was so unprepared to deal with this and Macy could not stand the thought of Jack getting his heart broken. Sadly, it seemed one way or the other Jack was headed for just such a disaster and Macy felt helpless, unsure how she was supposed to protect Jack from both himself and others in this scenario.