Synopsis: After spending a week in the hospital, Dr. Masters gave me a clean bill of health and sent me home. To say that I was happy to finally be going home was an understatement! After mom picked me up, the two of us headed to the salon. Where I had my hair cut, colored and styled. This had been something that I’ve wanted to have done for the longest time.

 
 

 
 

Vincent sat in front of his desk. There was a police officer sitting across from him, and he looked very nervous. You could see the sweat running down his face.

“I don’t know what to tell you, Vincent. The information in the file said that Andrew Roberts was at that address.”

“I don’t care what the file says, Nick. Rocco already checked the Tanners home and Andrew is not there. I pay you good money Nick, now I expect you to find Andrew Roberts. If you don’t find him, expect a visit. Do you understand me?” Vincent asked calmly.

“Yes, I understand, sir.” Nick said, wiping the sweat from his brow.

“Now, get out of my sight, and you better come back with results.” Vincent said.

“I will!” Nick said as he left.

Once Vincent was alone, he picked up the phone and called Rocco. The phone rang a few times before Rocco answered.

“Hi Vincent, what can I do for you?” asked Rocco.

“I just talked to Nick, he’s going to look into things, but something here isn’t adding up. I want you to keep an eye on the Tanners, find out everything you can. The boy may not be staying with them, but it’s possible that they know where to find him.” Vincent said.

“All right, Vincent, I’ll get on top of it right away. I think you need to have someone keep an eye on Jake. He was drinking last night, and was ready to do something stupid. If you ask me, dealing with Jake is only going to come back and bite us. We should walk away from him, before he brings us down with him.”

“Don’t worry about Jake, I can deal with him.” Vincent said.

“I hope you’re right, Vincent. You know how I feel about it.” Rocco said, frustrated.

“Yeah, I know, but you’re not the one in charge, I am.” Vincent said calmly and hung up the phone.

*You might be in charge for now, Vincent, but things change.* Rocco said to himself as he slammed the phone down.

Rocco grabbed his coat and headed out the door, leaving Jake to his own devices. He climbed into his car and made the ride into town. He didn’t like this at all, and knew that if he didn’t do something soon, everything was going to go straight to hell. Rocco had been thinking all night, and only came up with three options. The first would be to take out Vincent. This would likely cause a feud within the family, and place his own family in jeopardy.

The second plan was easier, but still had risks. He could go to John Adams for help, and make it look like Vincent was taken out by a rival. The third option was still risky, but it had the best chance for success. He could set up Jake Roberts. All it would take is a few drinks to get him riled up, and then set him loose. He’d place an anonymous call to the police and once they had Jake, it wouldn’t take long before he would break, and tell them everything.

Of course, this would also mean that Rocco would be implicated when Jake talked to the police. He could end up in jail, something that he really wasn’t looking forward to. This left him with only one option, he would have to talk to the police himself, but there was a problem with that idea, as well. Vincent had too many cops on his payroll, and it would only take one person to open their mouth and screw up everything. This meant Rocco needed to find someone Vincent hadn’t bought, which was easier said than done. There might be a way that he could find someone; he’d just need to pay the district attorney a visit.

If Rocco played his card right, he could be running the whole show himself. What he was about to do was still a gamble, which meant he still needed to find where Andrew was. Vincent was right; the Tanners were the only real lead that he could follow. He would wait till he found Andrew, and then make his move. Rocco smiled to himself. *Jake is going to be having lots of fun soon.*

It was around 10 am when I finally decided to make it out of bed. Slowly, I made my way into the bathroom. As I did my business, I could still feel the stinging from where they operated on me, but it seemed to be less each day. It had been a week already since I’d had my operation, and the redness and swelling was slowly going away. I hoped that there wasn’t any major scarring, but from what Dr. Masters said, it wouldn’t be a problem. I guess time would tell though.

After I wiped myself and flushed the toilet, I made my way over to the mirror. When I looked in the mirror, I couldn’t help but smile. I had a major case of bed head, but I could still see a bit of the styling that Dianne did to it yesterday. The change in color made me look very different, almost as if Andrew had never really existed. I guess it was time to face the world, so I ran a hot shower, slipped out of my nightie and climbed inside.

It felt good as the warm water hit my body. There was something else different as I lathered up with the soap and ran my hands over my body. I could feel my nipples become erect. Over the last week they seemed to be more sensitive then they had ever been before my operation. I guessed it was because my body was creating the new levels of hormones now. Like Dr. Masters said, I could expect plenty of changes, and this was just one of them.

The change that I wasn’t looking forward to was my period, especially if the cramps were anything like what had lead me to the hospital. I really doubted that it would be as bad. Before, there had been nowhere for it to go, but now I was just as equipped as any other woman was, in every way that mattered.

I reached over and turned off the water, then slowly climbed out, grabbed a towel to dry myself off, then made my way into my room. I still wasn’t comfortable wearing jeans because of the surgery, so I chose a black skirt, white blouse and my bra and panties. I didn’t bother with attaching the breast forms with the glue, because my budding breasts were already sensitive enough as they were. I just placed some tissue under them and when I put on the bra I wore it looser the normal. I found that way it bothered me less.

After I finished dressing, I spent the next 15 minutes styling my hair. I was able to recreate the job that Dianne had done, but it took a little work. I knew that in time, I would get better. I then moved to my makeup, which was a lot easier now. I’ve had lots of practice doing my own makeup and when I looked in the mirror, I liked what I saw. I couldn’t wait to get out of the house and have some fun.

The first step was to get Megan out of bed. That girl could sleep her life a way if given a chance. I made my way upstairs to her room and sure enough, I could hear her snoring. I sneaked up to her with a wicked smile. I reached under the blankets and started tickling her, and within minutes she was threatening to kill me. It didn’t really make all that much sense, considering she was giggling the whole time she was yelling at me. As I ran out of the room laughing, she nailed me in the back of the head with her pillow.

“Time to get up Sis, we have things to do and places to go!” I said with a smile, and made my way downstairs.

When I enter the kitchen, Mom was standing by the stove making pancakes and Daddy was sitting at the table, reading the paper and drinking a coffee, I walked over to Mom and gave her a kiss, then did the same with Daddy.

“I take it you woke Megan up?” Asked Daddy

” Yeah, something tells me that she is up.” I smiled, grinning. “It’s so cool having a sister.”

“Yeah I think so, too. By the way, Jessica, have you ever heard the saying that payback is a ‘You know what’?” Megan said with an evil grin.

“I love you too, Sis.” The two of us started giggling.

Janice looked over at the two of us. “God help me, am I really ready for two girls?”

“Mommy, we are perfect angels.” Megan said with a smile.

“Perfect angels!” Daddy said, laughing. “More like little devils this morning!”

“Megan and I giggled, and then I looked over at her. She smiled and nodded, and before Daddy knew what was happening, the two of us attacked him. Before long we had him on the floor, laughing his head off. Well, until he turned the tables on us, and the next thing we knew he was tickling me and Megan. Thankfully, Megan got the worst of it, and Daddy went easy on me.

It was at that moment that Mom started yelling, “All right kids, that’s enough, and that goes for you too, Anthony!”

Soon all of us were laughing together and I loved every moment of it. This was how a real family was supposed to be.

 
 

 
 

After Megan and I did up the dishes, we gave Jennifer a call. The three of us decided that we were going to head over to the mall and check out the deals. I really wasn’t planning on buying anything consider Janice had already spent a small fortune on me already but she insisted that there was still so much that I needed especially since I would be starting back to school soon. She handed me her bank card and said to take $100.00 off it and told Megan to make sure that I got clothes that were appropriate for school.

Jennifer’s mother, Caroline, said that she would pick us up and drop us off at the mall, So Megan and I headed outside to wait for her to arrive. It didn’t take her very long, considering she only lives a few houses away, Megan and I could have just walked over, but after Jennifer told her mother that I had just got out of the hospital, she wouldn’t take no for an answer. I think that Caroline wanted to get a good look at me now. There weren’t too many people that knew me, but she was one of them, Jennifer had told her the truth about me, and I couldn’t blame her. When I attempted to take my life, Megan had been with me, and she’d had Mom there to comfort her, but the only person Jennifer had to turn to was her mother. Caroline was always nice to me, so I really wasn’t worried at all about her knowing the truth.

When Megan and I climbed into Caroline’s car she was all smiles, “God, this is unbelievable! You look so pretty Jessica, and wow, I love the hair!”

“Thanks, Mom took me to have it done yesterday. I love the job they did too.” I said smiling.

Caroline smiled, “I am also really happy that you can finally be the real you, honey. I always knew deep down that you were to pretty to have ever be a boy.”

“Thanks, Caroline,” I said blushing. “I’m just happy to be myself, and not have to pretend anymore.”

“Well honey, as far as I am concerned, Andrew never existed.” Caroline said, smiling.

Once Caroline pulled the car up to the main entrance of the mall and placed the car in park. She turned around to face Megan and I. “Why don’t the two of you come over tonight, you’re both welcome to spend the night. We can order a pizza and have a movie night.”

I looked over at Megan and she smiled.

“What time should we be there?” asked Megan.

Jennifer smiled. “How about around 6pm?”

“That’s fine with me.” I said with a smile, and then turned to look over at Megan and Jennifer. “And no funny business, I am still recovering.”

“Well, there goes my fun!” Megan said with a smile.

I thought about it for a minute. Something told me that I’d better be the last one to go to sleep. I didn’t trust either one of them as far as I could throw them, and that wasn’t very far. I smiled to myself though, *If I’m the last to fall asleep, then maybe I could have some fun at their expense.*

Jennifer looked at me, and then turned to Megan. “Your sister is up to something”

“She’s always up to something, and when she smiles, you know that its trouble.” Megan said with a smile.

“Hey, I take offense to that statement! I have an adorable smile.” I said, pouting.

Rocco had been parked a few houses past Jessica and Megan’s home, watching carefully. When he saw the two girls come outside and wait for their friend, he decided to follow them. He hoped that they would lead him to wherever Andrew was staying. Rocco followed behind them far enough that he could see where the girls were going, but also far enough that they couldn’t tell that he was following them.

After the girls pulled into the mall he found a place to park close enough to the entrance that he could watch the girls while at the same time follow them inside. Once inside the mall he followed the three girls at a distance, but made it look like he was shopping, the girls made a straight line to the ladies department. This really made it hard for him to follow them and not look out of place.

Luckily there the men’s department was close enough that he could keep an eye on them, even though he was still a fair distance away. He could hear anything they were saying, Rocco picked out a few pairs of shoes and sneakers, then took a seat on the bench and made it look like he was trying on some new shoes. He walked around in them and kept an eye on the girls.

Hew watched the girls for what seem like hours, as they went from store to store like a swarm of locusts, devouring everything in sight. In reality though, it had only been about 40 minutes, and Rocco was happy to see them moving on. There was only so many shoes that he could try on. The next stop the girls made was the food court where they ordered something to eat, Rocco was happy to finally have a break, as he ordered a coffee and a sandwich himself. He grabbed a seat at a table that was close enough that he could keep an eye on the girls, and listen in on there conversation.

“That was a lot of fun I said as I took a bite out of my sandwich.”

“Yeah it doesn’t help either that your still recovering from your surgery.” Jennifer said sympathetically.

“Give it a few more weeks Jessica, and you‘ll be good as new.” Megan said smiling.

“I can deal with it, considering everything I’ve been through.”

“It was pretty cool of your mom, inviting us over like that, Jennifer.”

“Yeah, it was. I think she was just using it as an excuse to get to know you better, Jessica. With everything that’s happened, I think mom is still pretty shocked.”

“What should I bring? You know this is my first sleep over, Jennifer?”

“You can bring anything you want, just make sure that you bring a sleeping bag and some makeup. Well I have some makeup but not really much.”

I turned to Megan. “How about a sleeping bag, is there an extra one lying around at home?”

While Rocco listened to the girls talk, something just didn’t sound right. The girl Jessica, who he figured out was Megan’s sister, kept referring back to her sister Megan and asking questions that she really should have already known. If they were sisters, about the same age with a similar background, wouldn’t it stand to reason that she would know what was in her household like the sleeping bags? Then there was the makeup. Two girls, about the same age, with the same mother- wouldn’t she have provided pretty much the same amounts to both girls?

And then there was Jennifer. Why was her mother so interested in getting to know a girl that she supposedly had known for years? No, something didn’t make sense here at all. Rocco finished his lunch and left the girls to there own devices. He had other plans. He needed to find out as much about Jessica Tanner as he could, and the first place that he was going to was her school. If she had just got out of the hospital, then there should be a record of her being there. This might be a long shot, but maybe things were not as they seemed, and someone was hiding in plan sight.
 
 

 
 

As we finished our lunch, we still had a whole day to kill and a ton of shopping bags that needed to be dropped off at home before we could really do anything else. There was still one store that I wanted to hit before we left and that was the jewelry shop where I had my ears pierced. I really didn’t have anything other then the studs and a couple pairs of earrings. So the three of us soon found our way over to the store, but along the way I hit the bank machine and reached into my purse and pulled out Andrew’s bank card. I had five hundred dollars that had been sitting there for almost a year. It wouldn’t do Andrew any good, but it would be really helpful to Jessica.

So I placed the card into the machine and entered my pin then withdrew that whole the whole amount, placed the cash into my purse, then destroyed my card and threw it in the trash bin. I wouldn’t need it anymore, my next bank account would be under the name Jessica Tanner.

Once I was in the store the three of us made our way through the store and I bought close to two hundred dollars worth of jewelry. Megan and Jennifer were off looking at something when I came across this really nice necklace that had this little silver plate on it that was blank which meant that they could be engraved. When I looked at the price they were twenty dollars a piece. I called over the lady that was working behind the counter and ask her how much for it would cost for four of them engraved with the words, “Always Sisters, Forever Friends." The lady said it would cost $100 but since I was buying four necklaces and a ton of other jewelry she wouldn’t charge me for the engraving, which was fine with me.

So I paid for everything and she gave me a receipt, and then told me to drop back in a couple of days with my receipt, and the necklaces would be ready to be picked up. I thanked her, and soon the three of us were heading out of the store and heading down towards the exit. I decided that it would be easier just to take a cab home, rather than call Caroline. As we were taking the corner, someone slammed right into me, knocking me to the ground. I was kind of dazed for a moment, and as I looked up, the light was kind of blinding me. I could hear someone talking to me,

“God, Jessica! I am so sorry, are you all right?” As I slowly pulled myself together, I was wondering how this guy knew my name. Once I was sitting up and was not blinded by the light, I had no problem figuring out who he was. Scotty was looking very concerned about me.

I couldn’t help but smile. “Hi Scotty, yes, I’m fine, just a little shook up.“

He reached out and led me over to a bench. “Are you sure Jessica? I hit you pretty hard!”

“Scotty, I’m fine, but if you really want to make up for it, you could give us a drive home.” I said with a smile.

“Sure, Jessica,” he said. “Just let me get the car, and I’ll meet you at the door.”

He grabbed the cart that Megan had been pushing, and took it outside with him.

Megan and Jennifer were all giggles.

“What?” I said, looked over at them”

“Scotty really likes you girl.” Jennifer said smiling

“Yeah sis, he definitely likes you. He asks about you all the time.” Megan said

“Maybe you should get to know him? Who knows, you might hit it off! You really can’t use the excuse that it’s not fair to him anymore.” Jennifer said smiling.

I thought about it as the three of us walked towards the exit. I was a girl, mentally and physically. There was no reason that I had to be alone, especially when there was a guy that liked me, and I liked him just as much. I looked over at Megan and Jennifer. “You’re right, there’s no reason that I couldn’t date Scotty if I really wanted to,” I said with a smile.

After the three of us went out front, we didn’t really need to wait very long before Scotty pulled up in front of us. Megan and Jennifer climbed into the back of the car which left me sitting up front with Scotty. I climbed inside and shut the door behind me, then once everyone had their seat belts on, Scotty put the car into drive and we were headed home.

“While Scotty drove he looked over at me. “I thought you were only visiting with your parents Jessica? Don’t get me wrong, I am glad to see you, but I wish you would have given me a call.” Scotty said

“Sorry about that Scotty, but at the time I really didn’t know if I was going to be staying or not and I really didn’t think it was a good idea to go out with anyone until things were settled.”

“Are things settled now?” Scotty asked.

I smiled, “Yeah Scotty, and I’m here to stay, I’m living at Megan’s now.”

“Then maybe we can go out sometime Jessica?” Scotty asked flashing those puppy dog eyes at me. I thought to myself, how could I possibility say no, even if I wanted to, looking into those blue eyes of his.

“I’d like that, Scotty”, I said, smiling.

Meanwhile in the back Megan and Jennifer were making kissing noises and giggling like crazy, I turned to Scotty.

“Do you have anything in here that I can hit my sisters with?”

“Well there is a baseball bat in the trunk, if you’d like, I’m more the willing to pull over.” Scotty said, then the two of us started laughing

“Hey Sis, that’s not funny!” Megan said with a mock look of disgust on her face that only made me laugh harder.

Jennifer looked over at Megan, “I think we’ve created a monster. “

“Yeah Jennifer, I think you’re right.” Megan said with a smile.

After we arrived at home, Megan and Jennifer carried my bags inside, while I stayed outside. Scotty and I talked for a bit. It was really nice seeing him again, and we made plans to take in a movie later in the week. This time, I gave him my phone number. After Scotty left and I went inside, I was hit with 101 questions, mostly form Megan and Jennifer, but when Mom came out she asked to talk to me alone. Megan and Jennifer headed upstairs to her room, and I took a seat on the couch with Mom. She smiled at me, so I knew that I wasn’t in trouble at least.

“I knew that the two of us would have to have this talk sooner or later, but I wasn’t expecting to do it now. I get the feeling that this is a good time, though.” Mom said.

“It’s just a date, we’re not going to be doing anything, Mom.” I said, looking into her eyes.

“I know honey, you may have spent most of your life living as a boy, but deep down you never really were a boy. Because of that you don’t really know much about how a boy reacts when he is attracted to a girl. I am not just talking about sexual contact, sweetheart. When a boy likes a girl, his emotions tend to lean him more toward physical contact, but for a woman, it’s more of an emotional connection. That’s not to say that physical contact isn’t important to us too, because it is a very important part of the relationship. You just need to be careful, honey.”

So much has happened to you, and the last thing you need is to get caught up with a guy that keeps you from thinking straight. You’re a normal girl now, in every way, baby. That means that you can also get pregnant, and believe me you are just learning what its like to be a teenage girl. The last thing you need is to become a mother, at least not yet, honey. I know that if you get involved with a boy, then eventually he is going to want you to have sex with him. All I ask is that you think things through before doing something you will regret later. If you choose to have sex, at least make sure you are on the pill, and he is wearing a condom.”

I looked at mom and smiled. “It’s all right, Mom. I promise that I will be careful. I know that I’m not ready to have sex with anyone. I just want what everyone else does, Scotty is a nice guy and he really likes me, and I have had this thing for him for ages. If it works out, then that will be nice. If not, I am sure someone else will come along.”I said with a smile.