"Doesn’t that car look familiar, Prue?" I asked. She looked at it and thought for a moment and then said, You’re right, Bill! It looks like the same kind of car that was at my Grandfather’s motel! The one that those government people came in!" She was getting excited and, I think, a little bit scared thinking that, somehow, those agents had tracked us to this place. I tried to reassure her, and MYSELF in the process, but there were doubts in my mind as well. COULD they have tracked us here, somehow?

Luck Be A Lady
Part 3
By Catherine Linda Michel

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We drove all the rest of that day and into the night until we couldn’t drive any more. We decided to call it a day and stopped at a cut rate motel. Prue pulled in and parked the car near the office and I went in and got us a room. When I came back out with the key, Prue followed me with the car, to the back area where our room was and we grabbed our bags and went inside. It was pretty much your standard motel room. Not nearly as nice as the rooms at the motel where Prue and I met, but clean, at least and, under the circumstances, as tired as we were, it would do. We unpacked what we would need and then we both showered. While Prue was in the shower, I called the office and asked them if there was anyplace nearby that delivered food. The clerk told me that there was a place just down the road that delivered and gave me the number. I called and ordered a pizza and some soft drinks and they said it would be about a half hour before they could get there. I said that’d be fine and gave them the room number and hung up as Prue was coming out of the shower.

Once again, I was struck by the beauty of this woman whom I had just met. Standing there, wrapped in a towel, her skin clean and glistening and devoid of makeup which, in my opinion, she didn’t need, she looked absolutely gorgeous! Feelings were making themselves known to me and it took me a few minutes to remember that, for now at least, there wasn’t a lot I could do about them. To the world at large, Prue and I were just two women traveling together. Never mind the inescapable fact that, inside this pretty blonde shell I was presently wearing, there beat the heart and soul of a real guy, and, at this moment, I wanted to take Prue into my arms and lavish kisses all over every part of her I could reach! I knew that to do that would be a mistake.

I had no real idea what Prue’s leanings might be, whether she was strictly AC or if she might swing both ways, but I knew that I didn’t swing both ways and I wasn’t by any means sure of how to proceed even if she WAS interested in another woman. I didn’t want to screw up the tenuous relationship we had begun to build and I felt that to push it with her would be a mistake. So, instead of sitting there watching her dry and brush her hair, I got up from the chair I was sitting in and went into the bathroom to get my own shower. I told Prue that I had ordered food and she said she’d take care of it if it got there before I was done showering. I laughed a bit at that. What made her think I would need a half hour to take a shower? Hell, I’d been taking showers all my life and 15 to 20 minutes was the MOST that I would need to get cleaned up!

I closed the door behind me and stripped out of the clothes I’d been wearing all day and tossed them in a pile in the corner of the bathroom. I turned the shower on and adjusted the temperature of the water, then I climbed in. I could say a lot here about how weird it felt, the different way I had to move, jiggling where there never had been any before but I won’t. What I WILL say is that it DID take me the half hour to finish my shower. As a matter of fact, it took longer than a half hour. The water beating down on my now very tender skin felt SO good and the sensation of my now smaller and more sensitive hands sliding over my temporary, brand new assets was too much for me and I’m afraid that I let myself get carried away a bit. So far did I get carried away that, when I heard Prue pounding on the bathroom door to tell me that the pizza was there, I got embarrassed when she finally said, "if you can tear yourself away from your fun, come on out and eat! I’ve been pounding on this door for the past 5 minutes and I’m not going to do it anymore!"

I turned off the now tepid water and stepped out of the shower, wrapping a towel around my waist. I started to open the door but, when I happened to glance down, I realized that maybe I’d better wrap the towel around me a different way. Damn, this was going to take some getting used to! I certainly hoped that I wouldn’t have to continue this ridiculous masquerade for very much longer! I carefully re wrapped the towel around my whole body and left the bathroom. Prue gave me a quizzical smile when I entered the other room and I could feel myself beginning to blush. "SO, did we have fun in there, hmmmmm? She said with a smile on her face. "Oh, don’t worry about it, Bill. I KNEW that your first experience in a shower, with THAT body, would be a mind blower!" She began to giggle and I guess the ridiculousness of the whole situation just got to me at that point because I blew up! I mean I lost my temper and started yelling at her!

"OH you DID, huh? You know, this wasn’t MY idea!" I hollered, gesturing wildly and indicating the borrowed shape I was wearing. "Maybe we oughta give you MY shape and see how well YOU deal with looking like someone else! I don’t know why I listened to YOU in the first place! I mean what do I know about you? We just met at that broken down excuse for a motel that your Grandfather runs and here we are sharing a different motel room and, I, I....." At that point, I kind of came to my senses .and I began to cry! Now, you gotta understand, I don’t cry! I’m a guy, and DAMN IT, guys DON’T cry!

Now, I figured, at that point, that I had probably blown whatever connection that had been forming between me and Prue and she would leave me here to rot. I couldn’t have been more wrong! She looked at me with a bit of hurt in her eyes but, then, she leaned towards me, and took me in her arms and just held me, just letting me cry!. I must have cried for 5 solid minutes, the sheer hopelessness of what I was doing, masquerading as a female, trying to hide from what I believed were powerful government agencies, all boiling up inside me and making me do what I had NEVER done before, cry! Not just a quiet cry, either, but a sobbing, wracking, hiccupping non vocal cry that seemed to never want to stop!

Looking back at that night, I realize that all the years of running as fast as I could just to be able to stay in the same place, all my bad luck, the sheer hopelessness and ridiculousness of the situation I was in, the knowledge I believed I had of a alien invasion plot, all of that and more just came out of me all at once and, friend, I CRIED!! Prue just held me and rocked me and murmured words of encouragement in my ear until I finally began to run down. The great, gulping sobs gave way to a quieter kind of crying, a cleansing kind of crying and before too much longer, the tears began to slow and, finally, they stopped. For a few more minutes I just stayed where I was, sheltered in Prue’s embrace. It felt so good to just be held by someone that I didn’t want it to ever end, even though I knew it had to end. I raised my face from Prue’s now very soggy shoulder and looked into her eyes and began stammering out apologies for what I had said to her and how I had acted but she just put her finger against my lips, stopping me short.

"Shhh, shhhh, don’t talk", she whispered. "It’s all right, Bill, I understand. You’ve been fighting all your life to try to get SOMEWHERE, anywhere but you’ve had bad breaks and bad luck and maybe just bad timing, who knows? I can’t explain to you just what led me to come along with you and help you in all of this craziness but I’m here! I’m NOT going to leave you and I AM going to help you, all I can! I don’t know where all of this is going but I didn’t have anything better to do and, besides, you’re kind of cute! Especially now!"

I looked at her and angry words began to rise up in my throat again but then I noticed that she was smiling at me and I realized that she was trying to make ME smile, trying to gently shake me out of this self pitying mode I had, unwittingly fallen into. So..... I TICKLED her!

Yeah, that’s right, I TICKLED HER! I started tickling her and I didn’t quit until she was shrieking helplessly on the bed with me on top of her! Now, regardless of the form I was wearing, or maybe BECAUSE of it, I don’t know, I leaned over Prue and I kissed her. Her eyes snapped open and a look of confusion came into those lovely eyes. For a moment I thought, "Oh brother! I’ve blown it all sky high now!" I started to move off of Prue but she reached up and stopped me.

"Bill", she said, softly. "I know that you still feel like you are a guy and, inside, you still are. But, right now, and in this situation, you look like a woman and you know that this wouldn’t be right. When all of this is over and we are clear from all the doubt and the hiding and you can be YOU again, if you want to try that again, then, I won’t stop you." She traced a soft fingertip slowly down my face and continued to speak softly. "Now, come on, Bill. Get off me and let’s get some sleep. We’ll be in L.A. by tomorrow night and I know some people there that might be able to help us. OK?"

I looked down into those beautiful eyes and I could see that she wanted no part in any girl on girl action and, quite frankly, neither did I. That kiss was something that had happened on the spur of the moment. If I had thought about it before I did it, I wouldn’t have done it. The release of all those emotions and the flood of tears followed by being tenderly held by someone who was coming to be a person I cared very much for, had led me to do something that, ordinarily, I never would have done. I was glad that Prue seemed to understand and didn’t hold it against me and I got up off the bed and sat on the edge of it, facing away from Prue. I knew if I looked at her again I would start crying again.

In my whole life, no one had ever cared for me the way this lovely, intelligent woman seemed to and I didn’t know what do to about it or how to handle it. I only knew that if I messed this up, I would regret it for the rest of my life and I couldn’t face that. One doesn’t get a chance with a woman like Prue more than once in a lifetime. I could feel the bed moving and then, I could feel Prue’s soothing hands softly beginning to knead my shoulder muscles.

"C’mon, Bill", she whispered, "let’s get some sleep." She drew me back onto the bed and we laid down, not touching each other, the pizza completely forgotten.

Prue began to gently stroke my hair and I began to drift off. The next thing I knew, it was morning. I awoke spooned with Prue. You know what spooning is, don’t you? It’s when two people somehow, without waking up and without any sexual intent of any kind end up cuddled together front to back like two spoons in a drawer, in bed. That’s how I woke up and I can’t recall a single time in my life when I felt more secure, more cared about than I did that morning. The only regret I had was that, in this female shape I was wearing, I couldn’t take advantage of our position. Then again, maybe it was a good thing that I couldn’t take advantage of it. This growing thing between Prue and me was still too new and too fragile and almost any wrong move on my part or her’s, could jeopardize the whole thing. I didn’t want to risk that because I felt as if this relationship was something I had waited for all my life and I was going to do my DAMNDEST not to foul it up OR to let my rotten luck screw it up for me!

I gently disengaged myself from Prue, trying not to wake her up and I headed for the bathroom to clean up. I closed the door quietly and began running the water up to temperature. Grabbing a washcloth and a bar of soap, I began to lather the washcloth up and quickly scrubbed under my arms and, ummm other places. You know, what they call a PTA bath. That’s pits, tits, and ass for those of you unfamiliar with the terminology. I was just finishing up when the door opened and Prue entered, wearing nothing but what nature had blessed her with and, let me tell you, nature had been more than generous with Prue. Brains, beauty and heart all in one incredible package.

I found myself thinking, "No wonder I’m falling in love with her!" In LOVE with her? That was the first time I had ever put words to the feelings I had felt growing inside me! It frightened me and exhilarated me at the same time! Could it be true? Was I falling in love with this wonderful woman? That frozen moment ended and I heard Prue say, Well! You’re up early! Morning, sweetheart." I was at a loss for words at that point in time and all I could think of was that I was standing here in a bathroom with a gorgeous woman and both of us were naked! I began to blush and Prue began to giggle.

"Well what are you getting so embarrassed about, love? We’re both just girls here, right?"

THAT brought me out of my daze and I goggled at her, not understanding. "Maybe on the outside we’re both girls," I protested, "but INSIDE, I’m still all guy and you are turning me on woman!" We both started to laugh about that and I brushed past her headed back into the other room to get dressed. If a few moments, Prue joined me and we both dressed, without a lot of talking going on between us. I guess we were both lost in our thoughts, because I don’t remember much about actually getting dressed. All I do remember is that we were suddenly, it seemed, dressed and ready to leave. I used the makeup kit to fix my face although it didn’t seem to need much fixing. It seemed that, once one used this kit, it lasted for quite awhile. We took our stuff out to Prue’s car and went up to the office to check out.

As we pulled up in front of the motel office, I noticed a car parked across the road at a service station. I don’t know, to this day, why I took any notice of it at all, but I did and I’m glad I did. It was a nondescript looking black car of a make I couldn’t identify and there was no one anywhere near it. There was a gas filler hose sticking out of it and I called Prue’s attention to the car.

"Doesn’t that car look familiar, Prue?" I asked. She looked at it and thought for a moment and then said, You’re right, Bill! It looks like the same kind of car that was at my Grandfather’s motel! The one that those government people came in!" She was getting excited and, I think, a little bit scared thinking that, somehow, those agents had tracked us to this place. I tried to reassure her, and MYSELF in the process, but there were doubts in my mind as well. COULD they have tracked us here, somehow? Was it, indeed, even them? I asked Prue to go in and drop off the room key and I stayed outside to keep a watch on the car and anyone who might get into it. A moment after Prue entered the office, two men came out of the service station, removed the filler hose, got into the car and left. They didn’t seem to have looked at me or the car sitting here in front of the office in plain sight but I had a bad feeling.

Remembering the kind of technology that was available and realizing that these people, if they WERE "these people" would have access to all kinds of experimental stuff, I got out of Prue’s car and began checking the underside of the car for tracking devices. Under the back bumper, I found what looked like one of those little magnetic boxes that people use to hide a spare car key. When Prue came out of the office I asked her if she had put it there and she said that she knew nothing about it and hadn’t put it there! I pulled it off the car and ran across the street to the service station where a large tractor trailer had just pulled in. I walked around the back of the trailer and, seeing that no one was around, I bent over and stuck that little box under the back of the trailer. Then I ran back across the road and got into Prue’s car and we took off in a different direction than we had been headed when we stopped here the night before. I spent the next half hour or so watching behind us to see if we were being followed but I saw no other cars that resembled the one we had seen earlier. We drove for about another half hour and then took another side road that took us further away from where we had been and in yet a different direction.

I could see that we were going to have to be a LOT more careful in the future and we were going to have to check the car out on a regular basis! We might even have to switch cars, somehow in order to throw these people, whoever they were, off our trail! After another hour or so, we came across a little diner and decided to stop and get something to eat. Neither of us had eaten the night before and we were both ravenous! While we were there, another car pulled into the parking lot and a young girl got out. She couldn’t have been more than 17 or so and, after she got out of the car, she waved to the driver and the car left! She came into the diner and sat down at the counter. The waitress came over and asked her what she wanted and the girl put her hand into her pocket and pulled out some change. She counted it and ruefully told the waitress that she didn’t have enough money for much and just ordered a cup of coffee. When the coffee arrived, I could overhear the waitress asking the girl where she was headed with so little money on her and the answer was L.A.! She explained to the waitress that she was going out west to live with her Mom since her Dad had disowned her and threw her out!

I nudged Prue and she turned her head towards me indicating that she had been listening as well. We decided to mind our own business since we had enough problems of our own without adding those of a young girl who had problems. When we finished, we got up to leave and the girl got up from the counter and approached us. When she reached us, she introduced herself as Nerine and asked us where we were headed. I looked at Prue and almost said we were headed east to avoid getting entangled in more problems but Prue gave me a look that told me that she was going to be sympathetic to this young girl’s troubles! I decided to let Prue do the talking and I went over to the counter to pay our bill. As the waitress got my change, I looked over at Prue and the girl and I saw that Prue had her arm around the girl’s shoulders and seemed to be comforting her about something. I told the waitress to get up an order of scrambled eggs, bacon and toast to go and waited there while she went to prepare it. I knew, from the way Prue was acting, that we were gonna have a passenger on our trip to L.A. and, at first, I was kind of against it. I thought we had enough problems without involving ourselves in this girl’s troubles but, as I thought about it, I saw that it could work to our advantage!

Whoever was looking for us and tracking us was looking for two women or a man and a woman. The addition of another person just might help throw them off our track long enough for us to make it to L. A. and find Prue’s friends so we could hole up for awhile. In a few minutes, the waitress came back and handed me a closed styrofoam container of food and I paid for it. I also got a couple of coffees and a large Pepsi to go and rejoined Prue and Nerine. Prue looked up and saw me coming with the tray of food and smiled at me warmly, and introduced me to Nerine. "Nerine, this is my traveling companion, Billie Ruttledge. Billie, I hope you don’t mind but I have been talking to Nerine and she’s in need of a ride to L.A.! Since that’s where we’re going, I hoped you wouldn’t mind if she rides with us. You know, the road is no safe place for a young girl like Nerine, all alone the way she is. Nerine gave Prue a slightly dirty look at that "young girl" crack but didn’t say anything.

"Well, hello, Nerine," I replied. "It’s nice to meet you. I couldn’t help but overhear what you were saying to the waitress and I thought you might like something to go with that coffee you drank. I hope you like bacon, eggs and toast?"

Nerine took the food from me and smiled her thanks but didn’t say much at all. I figured she might be a bit shy and I didn’t really expect a response. We all walked back to the car and got in and Nerine dug into her food like she hadn’t eaten for a week! While she sat in the back seat and ate, Prue and I talked in quiet tones up front.

"OK, Prue," I began, "what was that "Billie Ruttledge stuff?"

"Well, BILLIE, I could hardly tell her your name was Bill, now could I? I had to come up with something fast, and that sounded close enough to your real name and yet feminine enough to use for a name to call you while you have to look like you do right now." She countered. Besides, I think it sounds kind of cute! Don’t you?

"Cute!" I snorted. "Just what I need right now, NOT!!! Well, I suppose you’re right about one thing, though. Calling me Bill in front of her might not be the smartest thing for either one of us right now. Who knows, she might just turn out to be a good cover for us. With whoever it is that’s after us looking for either two women or a man and a woman. Two women and a kid might just throw them off enough to let us slip out of the net they’re trying to throw around us!

Now, I imagine that you are probably wondering about my seeming total acceptance of having changed my body and face into a female’s. Well, to tell the truth, with all that had been happening, I really hadn’t had a lot of time to think about it much! Once Prue and I had finished our discussion of my new name, we pretty much settled into traveling more or less silently for awhile. Prue turned on the car radio and we just listened to it and watched the scenery going by.

Now that I had a little time to think, I began to feel the differences between this new body and my old one. Sitting there in that car seat, I could feel the lack of a familiar presence between my legs and the addition of two breasts hanging from my chest, not to mention the different feeling of the clothes I was wearing. Having never had any reason in my whole life to wear a bra, it felt very weird indeed to not only be wearing one but to have something with which to fill it. I mean, it felt tight around my upper body but it wasn’t an unpleasant tightness. It was more like an all day hug, I guess. Somewhat disconcerting at first but, over the past two days, I had been getting more and more used to it.

I hadn’t really noticed much of a difference between panties and my usual briefs except that the panties felt much more smooth and not as bulky. Prettier, too. Not that I was noticing pretty things! Well, ok, I guess I WAS noticing pretty clothes, although not in the way you might think. I mean, I was noticing them in the sense that I WAS for all intents and purposes a woman for now and it wouldn’t have looked right for me to NOT notice things like that. Prue was instructing me in a lot of things to make me a more believable female to anyone observing, casually. To anyone who was paying attention, I would have to say that as a woman, I still made a really good plumber! My mannerisms and movements were still much more male than they were female but I WAS trying and, although I hoped I wouldn’t have to keep this pretend thing up for very long, I DID realize that to pull it off I HAD to try my best to be more feminine. I gotta tell ya, though, it wasn’t easy! There are SO many differences between men and women that to list them all here would take more time than I have, or care to spend on it. From simple things like nuances of voice and language to that innately feminine gait that all women seem to have that AIN’T as easy to imitate as it might seem, even if one DOES have the hip structure that permits walking that way!

Anyway, I was sitting there in the passenger seat of Prue’s car, thinking about all that stuff when I felt a jolt as if someone had hit our car from behind! I looked back and there, in all it’s nondescript ugliness, was that black car!! Just then, it accelerated and struck the rear of our car again!
 
Copyright  © 2000 By Catherine Linda Michel

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To Be Continued!!!