The Recoverer (8).
by
Angharad.

Our time in Devon had been quite eventful, we'd helped the police sort out two crimes including having my Jaguar stolen but which I'd managed to recover. we'd helped round up a copper (metal) stealing gang whose activities would have impaired the railways. Stephanie had also caused me to spend time and money on the cottage and we had decorated two rooms as well as replacing carpets, curtains and furniture. It looked a lot better and much lighter. I had chosen all the replacements and discovered that I was quite good at it. Steph had done much of the gloss painting and she admitted that she hadn't done anything like it before and that she had enjoyed it. I may confess here that without her nagging I would have called in decorators because I hadn't done anything like it either. We had the curtains made up by a local shop and they did a good job and I was certainly pleased that my matching of wall colours and carpets and soft furnishings worked out better than I expected and Steph told me I obviously had a flair for it. I wondered what she was after because every time we went into Okehampton or Exeter she conned me into buying her something, usually clothes.

I was relying on Steph to remind me when her parents were coming back which she promised to do - she told me on the day. This the day after I let her get her nails done and her eyelashes tinted. I was furious but all she kept saying was, "What's done is done." I wasn't looking forward to seeing my cousin again, he gets his knickers twisted for nothing. I hadn't promised other than to keep Stephanie safe, which I'd done, sort of.

Life wasn't helping much as the washing machine jammed and we had a small flood in the kitchen, fortunately the engineer was able to come though it cost a fortune. Apparently, a panty-pad got stuck in the filter - all I knew was it was bloody expensive and I signed up to get it serviced once a year. The idiot made a pass at me and I had to remind him to keep his mind, including the little one further down his body, on the job in hand, and no I didn't want discount. This lark of being a woman is definitely harder than being a man - no it isn't, being a man didn't feel right, this does even if I get unwarranted attention from men. I was learning how to handle that not having had the advantage of doing since Stephanie's age, I wasn't doing too badly, at least I thought not. Stephanie told me I was getting the hang of it quite well - cheeky cow. We stopped in Okehampton and bought some fresh made sandwiches to eat on the way home, I also filled up the tanks on my little jet fighter, so we'd try and do it in one go.

It was alright in theory, in practice it didn't quite work out. I reckoned we'd be back two hours before Steph's parents, which gave her time to switch back, okay she'd seem more feminine than she had been, but I thought we could talk our way through that. What I hadn't considered, was how delayed we could be by an accident. I hadn't thought I'd be doing external cardiac massage (kiss of life stuff) to a road traffic accident victim.

We watched in horror as the front tyre blew and the 4x4 slewed across the road, through the crash barrier and into a head on collision with another Chelsea tractor. I managed to pull my car onto the hard shoulder and a car pulling a caravan pulled in behind me. I was out on my car in seconds, thankfully, wearing jeans and trainers as was Stephie and telling the caravan chap to call the police, ran across the road to the accident. Both cars were pretty beaten up, but the RangeRover seemed to have got the better of it. I broke windows and hauled the young woman out and we laid her on the ground and I ran through my basic training again, airways, bleeding, cardiac. She was going blue around the lips and I couldn't feel a carotid pulse. I started pumping her chest and breathing for her. Steph went to help with another victim. Another woman came up and offered to do the breathing if I continued pumping - we did. I shall never believe how hard it is kneeling and pressing quite hard on the chest compressions, otherwise they don't do any good. As they told me when I did my course, "Don't worry if you break a few ribs, dead people don't sue." I had this in the back of my mind as I tried to push her chest through her spine.

Sirens brought the cavalry, except they tell you to carry on until they get set up. That was another ten or fifteen minutes, but they restarted her heart with a defibrillator and told us we'd kept her from dying, which was a nice feeling even if one of the paramedics had to help me up, my legs were so stiff, it really pulls on the backs of the thighs. Stephanie had helped stop a nasty bleed, she was the only one small enough to get into the car and a man passed her dressings though the broken window. The victim had a large piece of plastic stuck in her chest and Steph knew not to try and remove it, the woman would have bled to death. Well meaning helpers kill hundreds if not more ever year.

A loud engine noise announced the arrival of the air ambulance and both of our patients were loaded into it and off it went. We were so busy helping, giving people drinks of water, turning off engines and giving statements to the police that we didn't realise how much time had elapsed. Three bloody hours. At last we were able to leave and despite driving the Jag above the legal limit, traffic, roadworks and the accident meant we were not going to get there in time.

I suggested that I dropped Stephanie on the way with enough money to buy some men's clothes, she shook her head. We had stopped for a coffee at some services and washed off the sweat and debris from the accident. we both refreshed our makeup and decided it was as good to be hanged as sheep as a lambs. We couldn't avoid a show down, neither could we have walked away from the accident. We didn't know if our patients had survived but at least we had tried our best, which is all you can do.

We drove up to my place and I recognised Mike's car and my cousins. I hated to think what my blood pressure and heart rate were doing, oh well if I exploded I wouldn't have to deal with my loony cousin. We had cases in the boot, some space of which is lost because of the roof closing mechanism, on the back seat and tied down to the boot lid. As Stephanie was struggling with the one attached to the boot, not helped by her painted talons, Jonathon came out and offered to help her, not recognising his own son. "When is Steve arriving, caught the train did he?" asked Jon.

"Not exactly, Jon," I said as he carried two cases into the house.

"What the hell do you lot pack into them, they're bloody heavy." A glance from me stopped Stephie saying anything but thank you, to her father. I didn't want a scene in the street. We brought the other two cases in between us and I went to make some tea but Susie, Steph's mother, had beaten me to it, "Should be interesting in a moment," she whispered to me as she took the tray through.

We all sat down and took a mug of tea, "Aren't you going to introduce us?" asked Jon - it felt surreal for a moment and Susie was desperately trying not to laugh.

"I got your dress dry-cleaned, Eve," she said keeping a straight face and I nodded a reply.

"Sorry we're late, we got held up by a nasty accident and we stopped to assist, did kiss of life to one woman who'd stopped breathing and Steph helped someone who had chest wound and it was bleeding quite heavily."

"No, I managed to staunch it," declared Stephanie.

"An eventful journey then?"

"You could say that," I replied to Jon's remark and still he hadn't twigged nor noticed Susie making all sorts of faces as she tried not to laugh.

"So where is Steve?" asked Jon, "what time are you expecting him?"

"Dunno," answered.

"What? How can you not know?" asked Jon angrily.

"He's not coming home." Said Stephanie.

"What do you mean, he's not coming home, of course he is, you stupid girl."

"Thanks, Dad" she replied.

"What do you mean?" he looked perplexed.

"What I said, thanks, Daddy."

Jon looked totally flustered. Susie took over, "Can't you recognise your own son?"

"Of course I can we weren't away that long."

"Well he's, or should I she's sitting next to you in the pink top and jeans, which look nicer than I'd have thought it would."

"What are you saying?" Jon looked doubly flustered now.

"I'm Stephanie, I was Steve but I can't go back and I'm not going back to that concentration camp you call a school."

"What, you're my son?"

"Legally, but not otherwise."

"Don't be stupid gir...boy. This is your doing," he said at me, "I knew we shouldn't have left the boy here with this pervert."

"Dad, please, it's not Eve's fault I asked to dress up and she allowed me to, you weren't supposed to see me, but I had decided that I wasn't going to go back to being a boy again."

"That is the most preposterous thing I have ever heard."

Susie called Stephie over and had her sit on her lap. "Is it preposterous? I've known for ages that Steve was struggling at that school but you insisted he went there. He was being bullied regularly because he's a small sensitive boy, which the Neanderthals don't understand, they are all testosterone dripping morons. I agree, he doesn't have to go back there."

"Thanks, Mum."

"Don't get too cosy kiddo, I haven't said what you'll have to do instead."

"If you don't go back, you'll be no son of mine." I remembered an old cartoon in which an irate father was saying to his dollybird son, 'If you go through with this sex change you'll be no son of mine.' I started giggling and couldn't stop despite the puzzled or angry faces surrounding me.

"What are you laughing at?" demanded Jon which just made the giggle fit worse and a moment later Susie joined me, that made Jon worse he stood up and stamped out of the room. I expected him to go out and stamp around the drive but he didn't, he got in his car and drove off. Oh poo, this wasn't supposed to happen.

"Where's Dad gone?" asked Stephanie.

"I don't know, I hope he didn't think I was laughing at him," I said and told them about the cartoon and they both laughed.

"He'll be back, he's off having a sulk like a big girl," offered Susie, "He does it when he can't get his own way. Ooh, I like that nail colour," she said looking at Stephanie's manicure. "You can't go back to school with nails like that, it'd be like having a bull's-eye on your back."

"I'm not going back to all that snobbery and contempt, I can't compete with them, and what's more, I don't want to anymore, I'm a girl and don't belong in such a zoo. They may be wealthy, or their families are, but they haven't got a modicum of politeness or manners in them, we girls notice such things." Susie smiled at that.

"So what do you propose doing?" her mother asked Stephanie.

"I want to go to a gender specialist doctor and be reassigned as a girl, take hormones and I suppose change my name and go to a girl's school, then work with Eve."

Susie looked hard at me then picking up her mobile phone she swept out of the house to call someone in private. I was still coping with Stephanie's last statement. She wanted to work with me, after she finished school. That's three years from now - well, it was possible but I'm not sure if it was feasible but was it a good idea? I didn't see the amount of theft and fraud decreasing, if anything it was increasing but did I want her involved, it could be dangerous and I'd never forgive myself if anything happened to her whichever gender she was presenting. Stephanie was silently sobbing to herself when Susie walked back in.

"I've spoken to Jon he's completely shocked so in no position to make any decisions so, here's what we do. You madam can stop crying and sort yourself out," she said to Stephanie, then to me she said, "And you can take me home, then you can come back and discuss what Stephanie's future is going to be. I'll be back tomorrow and the two of you had better have got some sort of plan, but I suspect she'd better stay with you for a few days seeing as you have encouraged this behaviour in her you have some responsibility. I know Jon is having trouble taking this on board, so you may have a long term lodger, the school is no loss, but education is and even a girl needs qualifications. You'd better start looking to the long term. I love Stephanie and I'm not entirely surprised at all of this but I love my husband despite his god delusions and I have no plans to leave him. I suspect he'll need some time to come to terms with all this so we need to start thinking long term, I'll happily have a daughter or a son, but you need some more definite plans and I want to hear what a doctor has to say about it plus you need to sort yourself out and decide if you're going to be an aunt or an uncle, at present I think the latter is unlikely. C'mon take me home in that speed machine of yours."

Oh boy, I've always tried to avoid responsibility except for work and now - well, it's hit me like a runaway train. I told Stephanie to tidy the place up and then herself while I took her mum home, at least I can think on the drive back, about an hour each way. I changed quickly and took off my dirty jeans and pulled on a skirt and top and flat shoes, brushed my hair, retied the ponytail and a bit of lipstick and we set off. At least we didn't have luggage, except our two handbags. I sped off and Susie who'd not travelled with me much was enjoying the ride and the performance of the car. I refrained from really opening up the speed, this car will do about 140mph, I kept it to well under half that only putting my foot down once to overtake a truck that was pouring out diesel fumes and struggling up an incline. We whizzed past it with barely any impact on us the 3.00 litre supercharged engine just purring as we ate up the road relaxing in the leather bucket seats while the stereo played quietly as we thought our own thoughts.

"I think Stephanie or whatever she eventually calls herself, better stay with you for the immediate future, Jon will eventually come round but it will likely take some time that stupid church he goes to will tell him it's unacceptable for someone to change gender but I think she is as stubborn as her dad, so she's going to do it anyway, look after her Eve and for goodness sake sort yourself out and have the op, Jon thinks your breasts are false, but they're not are they?"

I shook my head but stayed silent.

"Get her to a doctor to help her if we can persuade Jon it's something medical he may come round quicker, he loves his child, we both do but this is quite a slap in the face for him and it's going to take some time to deal with it."

"What about you?" I asked quietly.

"I don't care if I have a son or a daughter, I mean Steve has been a bit like having both, I'm glad she's chosen one over the other but it's going to involve you more than ever. Don't let her down will you, Eve?"

"No, she's special to me and I don't want to see her hurt but this was a surprise to me too, although I suppose I should have seen it coming after a month of practice, no wonder she wanted to stay with me. How was the holiday?"

"Wonderful, I'm just ready for the next one now." She smiled as she remembered part of it, "It was lovely having people wait on me and no cooking, or housework for a whole month. How was your time with Stephanie?"

"We had fun and drama and I don't think I've ever cooked so much since I left college."

"She isn't very domesticated is she?"

"No, but I shall be insisting she learns a bit about cooking, she cleans okay and we did some decorating at the cottage, she said she'd never had a paintbrush in her hand before, not that I'm any expert, but she enjoyed making the place look nicer and lighter. So did I eventually and doing much of it ourselves it was certainly cheaper."

"Take care of her Eve, won't you?"

"Of course I will." I dropped her off and when she pecked me on the cheek to say goodbye I could feel she had been crying a little. I waved goodbye and turned the car around and set off home a bit quicker than we'd come. I stopped for petrol on the way home and got her prepared for doing any running about that was needed in the next few days. I accepted I would have a lot more on my plate of a type I'd never really experienced before. Okay, Stephanie has stayed with me before umpteen times but this last one was the longer by far and it looked like it was going to be longer still, perhaps indefinite. That would take a bit of thinking about and I decided I would sort myself out when it was quiet, after all if I'm playing in loco parentis for a while I can hardly take myself off to hospital, can I? This motherhood or even auntie-hood is going to affect my life more than a bit. Oh poo, I've got to try and get her into school somewhere, that'll be a new experience. I knew there was one near us that she could walk to, but will she survive amongst a class of teen girls, which make vultures look friendly? Oh boy, what fun we're going to have, I'd better get some groceries on the way home, looks like I'm going to be cooking a bit more in the future, nobody has died yet, although I have had the odd disaster but it was still edible - just. I pulled into the supermarket car park and tried to emerge elegantly, with my car attracting attention wherever I am, I have to, skirts are harder but high heels are the worst thankfully, I had flatties on today.