This a continuation of the story of Alice, which was posted back in 2012 as The Shoplifter. You would be advised to familiarise yourself with it before reading the sequel.
https://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/34761/shoplifter
Now enjoy the travails of Alice and her employer Ms Adams and the 'dragon ' who is Ms Adams mother who Alice has been recruited to look after.

Alice.
by Angharad.
It had been an interesting morning. First of all, having to deal with my mother, with whom I had a love-hate relationship, second, getting my knickers twisted while I tried to work out some sort of solution to my carer crisis, and then finally having to deal with the tranny shop-lifter. It seemed a massive coincidence that an opportunity to solve several problems at once had arisen and I congratulated myself for being able to see a thread and the opportunity; and then go for it.

I gave up with the VAT returns, it's belt and braces stuff really, the computerised tills do most of it, I simply check that it's accurate enough to pass on to the accountants otherwise they send it back and then I have to check them all. By that I mean, I have to check every day's totals and analyses and that takes weeks or costs me a fortune if I have to get someone in to do it. No, compared to what a book-keeper or accountant would charge me, hiring Alice as a housekeeper will be a much more economic choice, and possibly give the kid a chance to establish herself as a woman. I don't expect her to stay forever, she's only eighteen, but even if it's only for a few months, we should both profit from it.

I ate my lunch, knowing that Alice was down in the beauty salon. I wondered what Jo would make of her, in both senses. I'll see the answer to one in a little while, and the other tomorrow, when I get my own hair done and have a chance to ask Jo what she thought of my little project or should that be protege?

I was doing a computer search when my door was knocked. I called for them to enter and in walked our erstwhile thief blushing and smirking. "Right, let's see what miracle Jo has performed?" I said getting up and walking around the still blushing adolescent. Miracle may have been an exaggeration or was it? I lifted the girl's chin to see her face properly and she blushed again. I could feel no sign of bristles, does she not shave?

"You look much better now, how do you feel?"

I could sense some deep emotions stirring in her and cautioned her not to cry as it would ruin all the work Jo had done on her face. She seated herself on the chair she'd used earlier. "Amazing," she said, "I never thought I'd ever be able to get my hair done or have someone show me how to do my makeup. Jo is awesome, Ms Adams." She was absolutely beaming, her lovely white teeth showing between her pink painted lips.

I smiled back. I actually felt good because I'd not prosecuted this kid instead I'd listened to her story, or enough of it to make a judgement. Instead of giving her a criminal record, I'd offered her a job and I hoped I hadn't made a mistake, but I also had to be aware that I wasn't seen to be exploiting her or forcing her to change her gender for my own purposes.

I sat back behind my desk. "I'm taking quite a risk employing you."

She looked at me suddenly brought back to earth and the fact that she wasn't out of the woods yet. Her expression of euphoria had passed to one of uncertainty. "I'm sorry I tried to steal your stuff earlier."

"So am I in one sense, I don't enjoy prosecuting thieves, it wastes a lot of time and costs money, but I have to attempt to protect my property."

"I understand and I am really sorry."

"Okay, let's leave it at that, shall we? However, we have to deal with several matters before we can progress to getting you some suitable clothing." She nodded though I doubt she had a clue what I was talking about. "Alice, we need to make it clear that you are coming to work for me as a carer cum housekeeper of your own free will. That you are also adopting your preferred gender without any pressure from me or my mother or anyone else for that matter." She nodded at me and smiled. "I'll also need to put you on a payroll which is probably easiest if I use the shop system, though you'll be employed by me, not the shop." She was still smiling and nodding though I doubted anything I was saying was being processed, she was still high on her experiences at the salon. I noticed too that she had had her nails painted to match her lip colour.

"The payroll can wait for a few days, and before we do that you'll have to change your name."

"How do I do that?" Perhaps she was listening after all?

"I spoke to my personnel adviser and she told me the cheapest and easiest way is to do a statutory declaration, she's sent me a pro forma, so we can sort that later."

"What's a pro wotsit?"

"It's like a template or example we can use so then we can print it off and you pop into a solicitor's and they stamp it and sign it to show it was witnessed properly and then we can notify whoever we need to that you've changed your name. Do you have a bank account?"

She looked blank, then shook her head. "No, never needed one."

"You will now, think of it as building up some credibility about your new persona." She shrugged at this and I wondered if she was getting bored by all the official business, but to protect us all, I needed to go through the procedures with her or face potential consequences later. I certainly didn't want to be accused of coercing a vulnerable teen to do anything because I wasn't so I'd got the advice from Shona my personnel adviser and she was drawing up some declarations for Alice to sign to say I wasn't exploiting or coercing her. She would then act as a witness to the signing. Finally, we finished all the employer's legal stuff and I touched up my lipstick and took her off to the store to get her some clothes.

"I'm not expecting you to wear a uniform to look after Mum or doing housework, but I will give you some of the things we buy, the rest you'll have to repay me for through your wages. Do you understand?"

She nodded. "Could you just say you understand, because if you don't, we need to talk about it?"

"No, I understand, you'll give me a few things and the rest I have to pay for, that's fine."

We sorted out some lingerie, bras and panties, tights and so on, the poor kid had very little of a wardrobe and she was blushing and shaking her head about trying things on in the shop as I talked with our shop assistants. I found we had some cheap bra shaper things just to give her a bit of a bust and she was flying high again. I began to wonder if she'd ever been spoilt like this in her life, it looked doubtful.

Then I helped her organise some extra jeans, a couple of tops and two skirts, plus some flat shoes, a pair of heels and some ankle boots with a modest heel. Finally, we got her a cardigan, a coat and a handbag. When she carried it out to my car, she was almost in tears. Mind you so was I. You tend to assume that your life is like everyone's else's but obviously, it isn't. I hadn't been spoiled as a child but I suppose because my gender was the same as it said on my birth certificate, I'd never thought about those who were different until now. I was in danger of becoming too emotionally involved with this kid, who I was old enough to be her mother. Was I doing the right thing? We hadn't spoken to her mother - perhaps that might have been a good idea.

We left the shop and drove her to her mother's house to collect whatever of her stuff she wanted to take with her. "Does your mother realise you're coming to work as a woman?"

"No, but I doubt it'll matter, she'll be glad to get rid of me so she can have Jack come and stay with her more often."

"Is she likely to be there?"

"Dunno, she might be."

"Perhaps I could speak to her if she is?"

Alice shrugged and a moment later we stopped outside the house. I told her to stay in the car and went and rang the bell. A woman of about my own age answered the door.

I introduced myself and said that I was the person who was offering her child a job.

"Good, it'll do 'im good to learn money don't grow on trees. Get him out of my hair as well. Might stop him uh..." she stopped abruptly and blushed and it gave me a chance to explain what the job was.

"Stop him wishing to be a girl, you mean?"

"Oh, you know about that then?" she blushed rather deeply and avoided eye contact.

"Yes, in fact, it's part of why I'm employing her."

"Her?" she gasped.

"Yes, she was looking at clothes in my shop and I suddenly realised they were for her. I asked her and although it embarrassed her she told me the truth, that she wanted to be a girl."

"Is that a good idea?" asked her mother looking unconvinced.

"I don't know but at least she'll have a chance to find out and I'll arrange for her to see a doctor friend who is better versed in these things than we are, to make sure it's all done properly."

"Why are you doing all this for my son?" Was she building up for a fight, if so I'd give her one?

"Because no one else seemed to be interested in helping her."

"It's just a phase, lots of kids experiment," she protested.

"According to Alice, she's been in this phase since she was about three years old."

"Who's Alice?"

"Your daughter's chosen name."

"Oh, you're not corrupting her are you?"

"Certainly not, I need a carer for my mother and someone to do a bit of housework. So it's a genuine job offer with accommodation. She's in the car and wanted to collect a few of her things."

"Oh."

"If that's okay with you?" I threw the ball back in her court.

"Yeah, course."

"I'll fetch her." I trotted back to the car and quickly told Alice not to say which shop I owned or about the shoplifting. She cottoned on quickly.

Her mother was astonished at the change in her appearance, she looked quite convincing but not over the top and the small breast padding improved her shape considerably. Her mother asked her if she was really okay with living as a girl and Alice told her she was very excited about doing so and looking forward to her job.

"Yeah, you were good with Gran, weren't you?" said her mother with a faraway look.

Our parting shot was that I would ask Alice to call her once she got settled in and that I'd make sure she always had enough credit on her phone to be able to speak to her mother or receive calls from her to show she was well and not regretting her choice. Her mother gave her some money to buy tights and makeup, hugged her and we left with me musing if she'd done that in the first place, I'd still be looking for a housekeeper.

"You still up for this?" I asked as we drove away.

"Yeah, it's like winning the lottery, only better." She was still euphoric, oh boy wait till she meets my mother - that'll ground her. Seeing as we were going to be busy this evening we stopped at the local chip shop and I bought us all fish and chips. We were now about ten minutes from home and I began to wonder what would happen then. Had I made a huge mistake all-around or not? Oh boy, the uncertainty was reducing my life expectancy like one of those digital clocks on fast forward. Oh well, here goes, we pulled up in front of my house - well, my parent's house but mine now, my mum signed it over to me to avoid inheritance tax after Dad died, so long as she could live there as long as she wanted.

"Does she know...about me I mean?" asked a suddenly nervous young woman.

"She knows that you're living as a girl but that you weren't one to start with, she'll be fine with that, don't worry." I bit my tongue before I said, it would be everything else would be the problem with the old dragon - but she was my mum and I loved her - at least some of the time.