Historical Château in Occitanie, France:
Lucia knocks on the door of her uncle’s hospital room door before entering. She had a medical pad in her hand. She has to get used to her uncle, being her aunt now. Not that her aunt will carry the Bounty last name anymore.
She enters quietly and carefully, so as not to settle her new aunt. As she enters the room, she spots her aunt still asleep. She walks over to the bed and checks the machines her aunt was hooked up to. She couldn’t believe all the surgeries her aunt underwent to change her identity.
Lucia takes a clip-on blood monitor device out of her pocket and clips it on her aunt’s finger. She gives it a few minutes to monitor her aunt’s blood pressure and pulse. She wonders why her aunt wants to change her identity. No one else, except a chosen few in the family knew about her uncle becoming someone else.
Once she was done getting the baseline stats. Lucia double-checks the connections to her aunt. She knew it would be a few days before her aunt would wake up and after several months of recovering from everything. Once Lucia is done checking on her aunt, she moves on to check on her other patients on the same floor as her aunt.
Throughout the day, she changes out her aunt’s IV bags and makes sure everything is okay for her aunt. By the time her shift ended, she was tired. When she turns her floor over to her replacement, she heads down to the cafeteria to grab something to eat.
After eating, Lucia heads towards her quarters to send a report to her uncle Lucius about her aunt. Only a handful of her relatives knew about what her aunt was doing. A funeral was being planned for her aunt’s former identity. As far as the rest of the family knew, Johnathan Bounty had died in an explosion over the Ural Mountains.
Her uncle Lucius was going to make sure that certain members of their family didn’t take revenge on the person for killing Johnathan. It had to go this way, for a reason. Once Lucia was done sending the report to her uncle. She gets undressed and enjoys a nice relaxing soak and several glasses of wine.
Mid-Week:
When Lucia goes in to check on her aunt, she notices her aunt slowly waking up. She stands close to the bed and just watches her aunt. She knew she had to be careful because her aunt was a dangerous person and she didn’t want to startle her.
Johnathan slowly woke up and felt himself covered from head to toe in bandages. As his eyes slowly focus, he spots his niece Lucia standing near the bed he is lying on.
“How did things go?” Johnathan was still feeling the effects of the drugs he was given for the pain.
“Fine, let me get you a glass of cold water, uncle.” Lucia walks out of the bedroom.
While Lucia is gone, Johnathan takes stock of his surroundings. He knew his body was covered and that he had a strange weight on his chest.
He also felt that his insides had been rearranged as well. He knew his body pretty well and guessed that everything that had been planned was done.
A few minutes later, he spots his niece walking back into his room with a pitcher and a cup of ice. Lucia moves a small table over to the bed and sets the pitcher and cup on it. She pours some water into the cup.
Lucia pulls a straw out of her pocket and takes the cover off. She holds the cup and straw close to her aunt’s mouth “Take a slow sip.”
Johnathan does as he is ordered to do. The water felt nice going down his dry throat. He takes several more sips, emptying the plastic cup.
Lucia sets the empty cup on the table and looks down at her new aunt. Even her uncle’s eyes had been changed. The only thing still resembling her uncle was what was inside his head.
“The doctor taking care of you won’t be on duty until later. Is there anything I can do for you?” Lucia hopes everything is alright with her new aunt.
“Yes, is everything going to plan?” Johnathan wanted to make sure everything he, his uncle Lucius, and his aunt Amalia planned out was going to plan.
“Everything is proceeding to plan. You have been declared dead and a new identity has been created for you and established. Mouse made sure of that. All paper records of your existence have been taken care of by MI 6. If anyone digs into your past, we will be alerted. As for family records, the council has placed you in the Shadow book. Only certain clan elders have access to that book.”
“And the operation of the artificial organs?” Johnathan knew a complete biology had to be created using his cells.
“As far as your records about that are concerned, everything went fine. You had no rejections; your body accepted all the new female organs.” Lucia didn’t understand everything that had been done to her aunt but knew everything was experimental.
Johnathan closes his eyes and sighs. He wishes he hadn’t done everything that was done to him, but he had no choice. He was getting tired of looking over his shoulder all the time. He has barely escaped the death traps set for him.
“So, what am I to call you from now on?” Lucia looks down at her aunt.
“Aemilia Scipio. I’m your aunt, but not by marriage.” Johnathan and his aunt Amalia have already worked out a believable background.
“Okay, you’re going to have to explain that.” Lucia pulls a chair over and sits down on it.
“Easy, I was adopted by our aunt Rhea in Rome. Most people who know our Aunt Rhea don’t know how many children she has taken under her wing. There’s no way to verify my identity.”
“I can see that. No one knows except Uncle Remus and Aunt Rhea herself how many children she has taken under her wing. Does she know you are one of hers?”
“Yes, she knows. So, if someone decides to do a background search on me. There will be some truth to the cover.”
“This is going to take some time for me to call you Aunt Aemilia.” Lucia knew she needed to think of her uncle as her aunt now.
“You have time. I planned on staying here for a while to get used to my new body and relearn certain skills. I have to change how I fight, speak, move, and everything else that could give me away.”
“That’s a lot of relearning.” Lucia wonders why her former uncle was putting himself through all of this.
“True, but I’ve never backed down from any challenge before.”
“Well, I’ll be here to help you. Also, Doctor Stacy Wolfhart is rather good too. So, you’ll be under very good care.” Lucia has worked with Doctor Wolfhart several times.
“What can you tell me about her?” Aemilia wanted to know more about her doctor.
“She’s in her late twenties, is married to a navy pilot, and has two young girls. One of her daughters is adopted and has been abused by her stepmother. The stepmother allowed the girl to be attacked by a rabid dog and the dog disfigured her face. The poor girl had to be given treatments to fight off the effects of rabies as well.”
“Anything else?” Aemilia wanted to know more about the doctor.
“She comes from a rich family and has twelve other brothers and sisters. Her twin sister is an engineer and holds several PhD’s. As for Doctor Wolfhart herself, she is extremely smart and talented. She cares a lot about the health of her patients and wants the best for them. She never gives up on her patients. She’s someone I trust and would want to operate on me.” Lucia trusted Doctor Wolfhart with her life.
“Well, if you trust her, I guess I can. When will she be here?” Aemilia was feeling tired.
“In one more hour. I got to go and finish my rounds. I’ll let her know you’re awake.” Lucia stands and puts the chair back where it had been.
“Alright, I’ll try and get a nap in.” Aemilia closes her eyes.
A smirk appears on Lucia’s face as she leaves her aunt’s room and starts her rounds.