Jen jumped up from her seat on the sofa shouting, “I think it’s time you leave!”

Flustered, thought not unexpectedly so, Keith looked calmly at her and said, “Ma’am, I figured this out just from what I found researching on the Internet. I can guarantee that if I figured it out, there will be others. I’m offering the both of you the chance to tell your side of the story. If a tabloid gets hold of it first, that’s not so likely to happen.”

The anger that had been written all over Jenny’s face softened, turning into concern, then resignation as she looked at her child and said, “It’s up to you.”

Keith also turned his attention to the youngest Bond, awaiting an answer. Unfortunately for the longest time one was not forthcoming, as the only thing coming out of Gaby/Drew was a steady flow of tears.

Once finally somewhat under control, Drew said, “The truth is, I’m not sure anymore.”

Jenny sat back down beside her child and placed her arms around him. As she cradled him she whispered, “There, there. It’s going to be all right. I promise.”

“How? How can it be all right? I’m not even sure who I am anymore.”

“I know, sweetheart. It’s not fair that you have to deal with this. But life isn’t fair. We can wish it were all we want, but that’s just the way it is. Just remember that we love you always and that nothing can ever change that.”

Oblivious to the reporter’s presence, Drew looked at his mum and said, “I want to be Drew more than anything. But it seems like the whole world…even my own body…wants me to be Gaby. I don’t know what to do?”

Jenny looked deeply into her child’s eyes and solemnly swore, “Do you know what I see when I look at you? I see a gifted athlete. I see an intelligent young person who has an incredibly caring spirit. I see a person I’m proud to say is a member of my family. Nothing else matters, does it?”

Drew’s mind was spinning in a million different directions so fast that he couldn’t stop it to think about anything, so he just stared at his mum silently. Jenny looked back at him, trying to think what to say to make all the hurt go away, but she too was having problems thinking, her mind was racing so. Unable to find the answers they sought, she sat there looking at him for another second before finally concluding, “I don’t have any answers for you, but I promise we will find them together. No matter what it takes.”

The two of them held each other, openly crying, for several minutes without interruption. Unable to prevent his own thoughts from joining in the race started by Drew and Jenny’s, Keith eventually cleared his throat and softly asked, “Would you prefer I came back another time?”

Jenny and Drew both looked at him, then back to each other. For some time neither of them were certain what to do or say, but eventually Drew seemed to reach some conclusion as he found his voice, “No, now is fine. What would you like to know?”

Jenny jumped in, “Are you sure? You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.”

Drew replied, “I’m sure. He’s right, it’s bound to come out at some point and at least now we have a chance to tell things from our side instead of the tabloids just making it up as they go along.”

Jenny thought seriously about the situation and having finally come to the same conclusion as her son said, “All right.” She then nodded toward Keith.

First acknowledging the supreme sacrifice that was just made by both Bonds, he looked at Jenny and gently smiled while slowly nodding his head to indicate that he appreciated the gravity of the situation. He then turned his attention back to the younger Bond and asked, “How did all this come about?”

Drew looked at his mum before starting, “Christmas before last, mum and Jules…she’s my sister…were going to ride a costumed charity event on the tandem when Jules got hurt and couldn’t ride. Mum asked me if I’d take her place, riding with her on the tandem instead of on my own.” Drew paused for a moment and took a sip of tea to calm his nerves before continuing.

“As I said, it was a costumed event. We were Xena and Gaby.”

“…And you were Gaby. Hence the name,” Keith commented.

“Correct,” replied Jenny.

Drew then continued, “Anyway, we won! We had to stay in costume for the newspaper to get the pictures, and then later had to appear again for the presentation of the check to the charity. I’m not sure why exactly but everyone said it didn’t seem right to do that as me, so I was Gaby again.”

“But that’s just one incident, perfectly explainable. I don’t see how that one incident could have led to this point by itself, so what happened after that?”

“Gaby didn’t make another appearance for awhile. At Easter, my friends and I had planned to do fancy dress for the disco. We all went as Manga characters. It took some coercion on their part, but in the end we all went as female characters.”

Keith started, “I’m not sure I see…”

“The others didn’t want to say ‘Here’s Drew in a dress’, so I had to pick out a girl’s name and Gaby was the first one that came to mind. I took first prize at the disco. My cousin Maddy had put my name in the contest as ‘Gaby Thomas’ to hide the fact that I’m me, but when I won I had to figure out how to collect the prize.”

Keith added, “Which then meant another appearance as Gaby?”

“Yes. I had to dress up and open a bank account as Gaby to cash the check.” This prompted a surprised look from Jenny, who hadn’t known that part of the story.

Drew returned Jenny’s look before continuing, “Then a few days later, Mr. Woods asked to see me. He had evidently discovered that it was me at the disco, and had the idea that he’d like me…or rather Gaby…to be the model for the school brochure. It paid a lot of money, just to pretend to be someone else for a few days. The school paid for new girls’ uniforms for me, as well as breast forms and a complete makeover.”

“I have to say, if I’d never seen you I might be having some trouble believing all of this. That being said, I think you’re one of the loveliest young ladies I’ve ever seen, as weird as it sounds. Sorry, but it’s true. The question remains, how did you get from there to riding in that race in Atlanta as Gaby?”

“Well, as you can tell I’m not exactly what you’d call the manliest, am I? Truth is most of the time when I meet people; I don’t know, they just assume I’m a girl. Plus, after that Christmas photo in the paper, it seems every time I get a mention in the press it’s as Gaby the girl, not Drew the boy.”

Jenny, who for some reason was feeling rather confrontational, decided to interject, “It’s not as if you’ve done anything to dissuade them from thinking that, have you? It’s almost as if we can’t go anywhere or do anything as a family without you doing something that prompts a ‘Gaby’ moment. You fall in a puddle, or scrape up your side so you can’t wear trousers, or just forget to bring a change of clothes.” She shook her head in frustration for a moment before completing her thought, “Truth is, you’ve probably done more to solidify that thinking than anything.”

“I suppose you might be right,” Drew said somewhat dejectedly.

Keith asked, “How’s that?”

“Okay, here’s an example. Just before one of my first time trials last season, I was over at Mad’s and we were working on costumes for a Con. I had on my breast forms and makeup and just forgot what time it was until it was almost too late. I tore out of there and got to the start just in time, not realizing I was still all done up like a girl. After that, a lot of the other cyclists just assumed I was a girl.

“And that doesn’t even begin to get into the number of times I had accidents where I wound up in a skirt because my boy clothes were ruined, or I injured my leg in a race and couldn’t put on a pair of pants. The list of occurrences is rather incriminating. I mean, after people have seen you in skirts a few times they start to assume you’re a girl.”

“And the name?”

“Maddy started coming with me to the weekly Tuesday time trial and mistakenly referred to me as Gaby where John the starter overheard. He started calling me Gaby after that and lots of other folks just picked up on it. Even some of the people who know I’m a boy, like John, think of ‘Gaby’ as a sort of nickname now.”

“I still don’t follow how that led to Atlanta?”

“I, or rather Gaby, got drafted into being a cheerleader when we started forming the group, and when the exchange trip to America was planned, the cheerleading squad was entered in a big competition over there. In order to avoid a lot of uncomfortable questions it was decided that it would be easier if I just spent the whole trip as Gaby, rather than trying to change back and forth for cheerleading.

“I joined up with the Grottoes bike crowd and they invited me to ride with their team in Atlanta. That’s how Gaby wound up riding in that race.”

“I’m sorry for prying, but is that what you were talking about earlier? About not knowing who you are anymore?”

“That might be a part of it, but there’s a lot more as well. All that time as Gaby sort of acclimated me to acting like a girl without thinking about it. I’m pretty sure even more strangers think I’m a girl now than they did before. But I’m also having some physical things…” Drew’s voice faded, as he couldn’t finish the statement.

Keith looked at Drew for a moment seeming rather confused, then turned his attention to Jenny, who eventually explained, “Drew’s having some hormonal problems and one of the side effects is that his body is developing a definite female shape, including breasts.”

Drew blushed so brightly that had it been dark you could probably have read from the glow. “Mum!” he whined.

Keith offered, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to cause you any embarrassment.”

Drew’s face started returning to a more normal color, then he said, “That’s all right. It’s not your fault, it’s my body’s.”

Turning to address Jenny, Keith said, “It seems your family is dealing with a number of substantial issues at the moment.”

“I’d have to agree on that, Mr. Davis.”

“Keith, remember?”

“Keith,” Jenny replied.

“Knowing what I do now, I don’t really want to write the ‘tell all’ article that we seem to be heading toward. However, you do realize I can’t just ignore all of this, don’t you?”

She looked at him for a moment before replying, “I do. That doesn’t mean I want it all to come out. I don’t want anything to hurt my child, and I’m afraid this is going to do that.”

“I promise to try as much as I can to prevent that from happening. And I’ll make sure your side of things comes out.”

“I suppose that’s all we can ask, isn’t it?”

As he packed his things back into his bag, Keith said, “Listen, I probably shouldn’t do this, but if you give me your email I can send you the draft of the article for you to look over. That way at least you won’t be blindsided when it hits the stands.”

Jenny wrote down an email address on a slip of paper and handed it to the reporter saying, “I’ll look forward to hearing from you.”

Keith took it from her and replied, “Thank you for your hospitality. And your openness. I hope I can prove to you that I deserve the trust you’ve shown me this afternoon.”

He headed toward the door and just as he was opening it to leave, he turned and said, “My editor may want to have a photographer take some shots for publication. You,” he said directing his comments toward Drew, “might want to think about whether those pictures will be of Drew or Gaby. No pressure here, but just so you know, Gaby has a quickly growing fan base in America. Stunts like the one you pulled on Lance in Atlanta tend to draw attention to you, so keep that in mind.” After he opened the door and started to leave he turned again and said, “Thank you for seeing me today. It really has been a pleasure meeting you both.” He then exited, pulling the door closed behind him.

After watching the journalist leave, Jenny sat on the sofa and began comforting her younger child. Many tears had been shed, as they both worried about what would become of the story they had told the reporter. They hoped nothing too awful would come of it, but then they weren’t too sure.

At one point, Jenny tentatively asked, “Drew?”

“Yes mum?”

“Are you going to be all right? I mean if all this comes out?”

“I think so. It’s not as if his magazine has a huge readership in Britain.”

“True, but once the story breaks, there are bound to be other more local publications pick it up in one form or another. They may not be as respectful of our family’s privacy as Mr. Davis has been. We all need to be prepared for this. It could get a bit nasty.”

Drew looked at his mum for a while silently before responding, “I know. I know.”

Once Drew was more settled, Jenny reached for the telephone and dialed Dave’s number in Germany.

On the third ring he answered, “Hello?”

“Luv, I think we have a problem…”

Meanwhile, Keith Davis was driving back to Manchester where he was going to check into a hotel for the night, as the first flight home wouldn’t leave until early the next morning.

Once settled in, he picked up the phone and after requesting an outside line for a collect call, he listened as the phone on the other end rang.

“Tompkins,” barked the voice at the other end.

“Davis here sir. Just wanted to check in with you to let you know that I have everything I need and will be returning home tomorrow. I could have a first draft on your desk by the middle of next week.”

“Good, find anything interesting?”

“You could say that sir. This could prove to be a big one.”

“Just don’t let me down, son. I want to see you in the office as soon as you’re back on American soil, understand me?”

“Yes sir,” Keith replied then listened to the line click dead on the other end. He then replaced the receiver in its cradle, lay back on the bed, and instantly fell asleep.

The following morning as he took his seat on the plane and fastened his seatbelt for takeoff, Keith’s mind raced through everything he had learned on his trip. On one hand he knew for certain that anything other than a complete botched job on the final article was bound to result in him establishing his career as a feature writer. But on the other hand, he knew with just as much certainty that if he failed to handle this thing just right this story could destroy the lives of several well-intentioned and lovely people.

Would it be possible to write the story and not destroy the Bonds? Or was there no way to tell the facts without hurting this family? Those were the thoughts that swirled through his mind as the airliner hurtled across the Atlantic on it’s way back to the New World. Despite the hours of mindless travel, he was no closer to the answers he sought when the plane landed than he was when he left the Bond residence.

Exiting the terminal at JFK, he took a taxi directly to the magazine’s offices in Manhattan, where he went straight for Mr. Tompkins’ office. He knocked the simply reached out and opened the door. Taking a seat opposite Tompkins, who was sat behind his desk, he waited for his employer to end the telephone conversation he was in the midst of before speaking.

“Mr. Tompkins,” he said as his editor hung up the phone and turned his attention toward the young writer.

“Davis! Had a good trip?”

“Yes sir, I think we got some gripping stuff for the article.”

“Good, good. Well, don’t just sit there. Get busy writing. Now shoo!” Tompkins then reached for the phone again while Keith stood up and exited the office. He stopped by his desk for a moment to pick up some more notes for the story, then left the office and hailed a cab to take him home.