“I have been waiting for you” She answered cryptically “and I would like to listen to you play some music. Would you please?” She said with a smile. What is she, some kind of stalker? But then how would she know I would pass by this field or even stop because I saw the fire?

Chapter One

---

I drove down the long country roads on my way home. My name is John Macintyre and I’m 24 years old, bout’ 6 ft tall with short black hair. 'It’s been a long day' I thought to myself. I had been asked by my older sister Jenny to play the bagpipes at her friends wedding. Nothing much is special about that, since I have been playing at weddings since I was a young lad, and the occasional funeral. Good little moneymaker for a teenager I remembered fondly, but now with work taking up so much of my time I only really play if family or friends ask me to.

This wedding had been ‘normal’ as usual, I had arrived at the hotel after a drive of around 3 hours since the wedding was in a beautiful little remote hotel and was tuned up my pipes to play the guests into the hotel. When the white wedding cars rolled up I played a couple of tunes and then waited for the photographer to take his snaps of the bride getting out of the car and some in front of the hotel.

I played the Bride into the main function room she walked down the aisle to the lovely slow air called Highland Cathedral, and as normal I saw the mother of the bride wiping away the tears as she watched her daughter in her dress.

I stayed at the back of the room as normal and had to stand through what seemed like my thousandth wedding ceremony, which to me at least seemed as boring as all of the others I had heard. Alright call me jaded but try going to about a hundred weddings and see how much enthusiasm you can drum up for listening to the registrar or priest drivelling on about the what it means to be married, the sanctity of it and all that mumbo jumbo. You will notice they all seem to say more or less the same things anyway, geez do they just look it up in google and use the first thing they can find?

I came back to myself after the vows had been said and the bride and groom kissed. I waited for the registrar’s signal for the congregation to stand and for them to welcome the new Mr and Mrs McDonald. I blew up my pipes and started to play Mairi’s Wedding as the couple left the room to get their wedding photos taken in the gardens of the hotel, I played the guests out of the room with another couple of songs.

As I walked into the bar I was shouted over to talk by a chubby man in a kilt that was ‘probably the bride’s father’ I thought to myself since he had been standing next to the woman who was crying the most when the bride came up the aisle. Heh, poor man having to pay for most of the wedding.

“Thanks a lot for playing today, it was great that you could get here.” He said as he slapped me on the back.

I laughed and said “No problem mate, even though this hotel seems to be in the arse end of nowhere.” I said smiling.

Robert as I found out his name was looked around to quickly check his wife wasn’t behind him “Aye I know what you mean, I blame my wife she has a thing for the countryside and you can’t really get more ‘country’ than this. Not that it’s cheaper than having the wedding in a really nice hotel close to home.”

I guess the proper term was ‘Under the thumb’ for the poor guy. I chuckled at the thought of his little wife telling him how a wedding in the countryside would be relaxing and the health benefits of the fresh air. I told him this and he just cringed a little “Ain’t nothing relaxing about being stuck all the way out here in the same hotel as the in-laws, but at least the hotel bar is open late!” he grinned.

We joked about for a while and he bought me the piper’s dram. I of course accepted, even if I was driving home tonight one little drink won’t hurt much and its nice to keep the tradition alive. However the person who thought the piper’s dram should be whisky should be strangled I was thinking as my throat was burning. Don’t get me wrong I like a whiskey or two but when Robert went to buy me my whisky at the bar I ended up getting something similar to alcoholic paint stripper.

About twenty minutes later the wedding organiser entered the bar and asked everyone that was not a member of the top table to please move back to the function room. I stuck around with Robert in the bar for a while as the crowd shuffled back into the main room.

“Before I forget …” he said as he rummaged around in his sporran and brought out a slightly crinkled up envelope with my name written on it and handed it to me.

“Ta, I appreciate it” I said smiling and put my pay-envelope into pocket. I made a mental note to remember to check the amount before I left that night on my way home. It wouldn’t do to have the man think I didn’t trust him to pay me the right amount by checking it in front of him.

When the wedding organiser appeared again everyone that was left in the room followed her out to stand outside the door of the function room where all the guests were seated at tables. I quickly looked in to the room to check the layout of the tables so that when I was playing I could concentrate on playing instead of looking to see where to walk next.

Then a half hour later after playing the top-table and then the Bride and Groom into the function room I was finally finished.

Playing an instrument like the bagpipes can be a bit of a sweaty job. ‘Ahhh finally its over at least now I can go home and have a shower’ I thought to myself. On my way out I checked the envelope with today’s pay in it and went to my car to pack everything up.

It was only around 3:30 pm and it would be good to get home while it was still light so I had better get started. I sat down and arranged my kilt making sure that the bit I would be sitting for the next three hours was totally flat as it would be a literal pain in the ass to sit on.

I started the car and turned on my CD player on to listen to some relaxing driving music. Well maybe most people wouldn’t think of it as relaxing but hey what can I say I like rock music, so sue me. After I had started on my way home I started to notice little mist on the road. ‘That’s weird’ I thought to myself, how the hell can it be misty in the middle of the afternoon when it’s not even cold? But I just ignored it since I just wanted to get home.

The mist got heavier until it was actually hard to see, which could be quite a problem on the roads I was driving on since some of them had only a single lane with passing points spaced occasionally so that cars could pass each other on the narrow roads. Eventually I started to get worried as the last street sign I had seen had been for a town I haven’t heard of before. I slowed down a wee bit and decided to look more carefully around me. It looked like I was beside some open fields. I started to see a faint glow in the mist further on to my right, at first I thought I was seeing things but as I got a little closer I was sure I could see a definite orange tinge to the mist.

I spotted a gate to the field, and it was wide open so I decided to check out what was making the light, I drove off the road so that nobody would be accidentally run into the back of my car while it was parked in the middle of the road. I don’t think my insurance company would like me very much if that happened.

I jumped out of the car and I could feel the clammy cold mist around me, this was weird since it had been sunny when I left the hotel and there was no mention on the weather forecast this morning about anything like this. I started walking towards the light and as I got closer I could smell smoke … wood smoke. Is someone having a bonfire out here? Damn this is spooky I thought to myself as I got closer to the fire until I could see the flames and the wood, I looked around quickly but could not see anyone around the fire. The bonfire was built the same height as myself, which means around 6 feet tall and the flames were reaching around half that high again.

“Hello?” I said to the flames thinking myself a little stupid as there was obviously nobody around anymore, did they light the fire to get rid of some scrap wood and then leave it to burn out?

“Hello kind musician” said a feminine voice from the flames. I can tell you that I shit my pants … and yes before you ask I do wear boxer shorts with my kilt. It saves you from having to worry about the wind flipping it up while playing outside and stops any curious kids … or adults for that matter from seeing how big this True Scotsman was.

While I was deciding if I should run back to the car I saw a human outline coming around from the back of the fire. Oh god am I stupid I thought, I had almost thought some kind of fire spirit had been talking to me … idiot!

“Hi what are you doing out here? And how the hell do you know I’m a musician?” I said as she came into view. I had a sharp intake of breath as I saw her, she was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. She must have been around 18 to 20 years old, blonde hair flowing around her shoulders, around 5 foot 3 inches in height, her breasts were around a C Cup I guess although I’m no expert. She wore a simple white sleeveless dress that came half way down her thighs. And her face … I don’t think I had ever seen anyone so cute ever! But then again I had always preferred cute women to what most people would call ‘beautiful’ i.e. like glamour models.

I guess she must have noticed me staring with my eyes popping out of my head because she stopped looked at me and then off all things held her arms out and did a twirl on the spot … I blinked and just stood staring dumbly at her. But of all things I also noticed that although the field was full of twigs, stones and thistles, she was walking around in her bare feet.

“I have been waiting for you” She answered cryptically “and I would like to listen to you play some music. Would you please?” She said with a smile. What is she, some kind of stalker? But then how would she know I would pass by this field or even stop because I saw the fire? Then again even if she is I think I can put up with a Bunny Boiler if she is that cute.

“I really have to be going home and if I don’t go now it will be night time before I get back since I seem to be lost. Oh could you tell me how to get back onto the road to …”

“You should really stay for a while” She interrupted “it isn’t safe driving on these roads in this mist. And it should clear up soon so please stay for a while and play for me” Well she did have a point, I could hardly even see my car from where I was standing never mind seeing other cars while I was driving.

I headed back to the car and grabbed a case with my set of Scottish Small Pipes from the boot. Small Pipes are very similar to normal bagpipes except they have one stock (the wooden bit that is attached to the bag so that the drones can be easily attached) with 3 drones of different sizes (a base drone, tenor drone and harmony drone) and can be bought with an arm-operated bellow or with a blow stick like normal bagpipes. I had gone for the bellows option, I carry them around to weddings with me along with my full sized bagpipes as sometimes I would take them into the hotel bars and play a couple of fun tunes for the guests while they wait to go for their dinner. They are a lot quieter than the normal pipes and can be played along with guitars and many other instruments without having to worry about the volume drowning out the other players, which is a problem with normal highland pipes.

I walked back and noticed that there was a tree stump near the fire now. I guess I should sit on that to play I thought to myself … but had it been there before? I gave it a small kick and checked to see if it had been placed there but sure enough it wouldn’t budge. I opened the pipe case and took out my small pipes. First strapping the bellows around my waist and then strapping it to my right arm. I then attached the pipe that goes from the bellows to the bag and started to tune up. The strange girl just kneeled in front of me the whole time watching.

“Out of interest what is your name?” I asked after I had finished tuning the instrument.

“Brá¬ghde” she answered softly.

‘What a weird name’ I thought to myself, however that went out of my mind when I started to play and her face lit up. I played some jigs and reels first and then some sad sounding slow airs. She would occasionally stand and walk around the fire humming along to the tunes, sometimes she would sing along, however if the words meant anything I don’t know as she either made them up or she sang in a language I can’t understand. It was eerie and haunting when she would sing along to the slower songs. To the faster tunes she would dance around the fire like a child, excited by life. As I watched her I became entranced.

I played for what felt like hours, playing the ones she seemed to especially like a couple of times and otherwise going over what seemed every tune I had ever known including ones I hadn’t played for years. Eventually I had played my last as my finger started to hurt. She seemed to already know I wouldn’t be playing any more tonight. She walked over to me with a smile on her face.

“Thank you, your playing has lightened my soul.” She said as she kissed my cheek. “As thanks I would like to ask if you have any wish that I could grant?”

Without really thinking I blurted out “Be with me forever?” I blushed and grinned stupidly at my own forwardness, however I had never met anyone who attracted me like this woman.

She smiled at me sadly “I am sorry but that is one thing I cannot do.” Then she stared off into the mist while thinking as if searching for something. She looked back at me and said, “Actually I may be able to grant your wish after all, in a way at least”. She kissed me again, except this time it was on the lips. I don’t remember anything after that.

---

Thump, thump, thump. I blinked wearily as I woke up in the driver’s seat of my car. What the hell was going on, how did I get in my car? Thump, thump, thump. I rolled down the window a little bit to see a policeman standing there. “Excuse me but can you please step out of the car miss.”

I must have looked a fair picture of confusion as I groggily stumbled out of my car. Something was weird here however as I felt slightly off balance. Maybe it was just because I just woke up. “I’m sorry but this car was reported missing three months ago, can I please see your drivers license miss?”

What the hell, why is he calling me ‘miss’ again! I looked down and saw the obvious reason for his confusion … and now mine. Under my kilt jacket and waistcoat was ample and very obvious set of breasts. I blinked a couple of times try and process this new information, failed and I guess my brain decided to just Ctrl-Alt-Delete and reboot itself.

Later on I keep thinking that it would have been funny to have seen the policeman’s face when the woman he is about to take into the station for questioning collapses after staring at her chest for a couple of seconds.

---

End of Chapter 01

If anyone has constructive criticism please leave a message below or pm me :-) this is my first effort at writing anything creative since my English class in Secondary School.

Dwi

I wonder if this had been that girl’s weird way of staying with me forever, by twisting my wish? By making me look like her so that every time I look in the mirror I would see her for the rest of my life! And even my DNA had been changed looked like it had been added with some of hers as well. What the hell was I going to do, live like this as a girl for the rest of my life?

Chapter Two

---

I woke up next in a hospital bed with a god-awful headache. I looked around and noticed I was in a room myself with a table and a couple of chairs. Sitting in one of them was a different police officer, a woman this time. I started to sit up a bit in the bed and she looked up from some papers she was writing on.

“If you hold on a second I will go and get a doctor.” She said as she gathered up the documents and left the room, but as she made her exit I noticed another police officer standing across the hall. What the hell is going on here?

I looked out the window and noticed it was still daylight, I looked around the room for a clock and found one on the television. 12:30 in the afternoon, did the police pick me up this morning? Is this even the same day? A couple of minutes later a doctor came into the room and stood next to the bed.

“How are you feeling?”

“My head hurts like a mother fucker.” I said in a feminine voice. My voice?

The doctor raised his eyebrow a little at this and I could tell he was trying hard not to smile at this. “I will get the nurse to bring you some pain-killers in a little while. You hit your head on a rock when you collapsed earlier this morning when the police found you” Ahhh so it was this morning “you might have a mild concussion, however you will probably get nothing worse than that headache. I am going to do a couple of tests and then the police wish to talk to you.”

Over the next twenty minutes he did the normal doctor things like shining a little light into my eye, checking my pulse and hitting my knee with a small hammer thing.

“Okay everything seems to be fine, but I would like to keep you in overnight. If you have any problems with your vision or memory please inform a nurse. I will be send in the police woman who was here earlier as she has some questions for you”. He left the room and shortly after the woman entered the room again walked over to my bed and sat in one of the chairs nearest it.

“Good to see you awake I’m PC Janice Allan” she smiled at me and held out her hand which I shook “and I have a couple of questions for you regarding the car and the clothes you were found in earlier this morning”.

“My car?” I replied a bit dumbly.

“Well you see that car was reported missing 3 months ago and the driver has also not been seen or heard of since that time. The clothes you were wearing match the ones that the missing person was last seen wearing, we even have a photo of him wearing the outfit on the day of his disappearance. I have here some equipment to take your finger prints if that is okay and then I will ask you some questions about yourself and how you came to be in possession of those items” She got some equipment from a black leather briefcase and had me place my fingerprints on some forms. After this was finished she opened a folder got out a pen and looked at me expectantly.

“So what is your name?”

“John MacIntyre” to this she just raised her eyebrows. “What?” I asked a bit sharply.

“Sorry you just don’t look much like a John to me.” she chuckled to herself “So John how long have you been having Hormone Replacement Therapy?” She flicked her pen towards me indicating she was talking about my obvious cleavage.

“I have never taken any hormones!” I almost shouted at her “I … I ... don’t know where these goddamn things came from, I just noticed them after that policeman knocked on the car window this morning.” Hell are they even real, maybe someone stuck fake boobs on my chest when I was passed out or something. I lifted my and touched one with a finger … yup definitely real this just gets weirder and weirder.

She lifted a photo from the folder and showed it to me. It was of me at the wedding with Robert in the bar of the hotel “Have you met this man before?” she asked.

“Only every time I looked in a mirror. That’s me of course! It was taken the wedding played at yesterday.” I replied.

“Well that ‘yesterday’ was over three months ago and I’m sorry to say this but you look nothing like this person in the photo.” I just stared at her a moment.

“Is there a mirror around here anywhere? … I ehh … want to see if there is any bruising from when I hit my head earlier” I asked quietly. “Sure there is one in the toilet.” She pointed at the door, when I got up and tottered a little around after standing up she helped me across the room by steadying me she stood at the door while I went inside to check my reflection.

It wasn’t quite what I expected. I was looking at her, the girl from that night which was supposedly 3 months ago. Sure I had my natural black hair that was longer now and came to below my shoulders, I had slightly different features from hers, which made me look like my sister Jenny. It was like a mix between that girl and her. I also looked 4 or 5 years younger, around the age she had been that night around the fire.

I looked down at my body and saw those breasts again, “oh SHIT!” I just noticed something, or should I say hadn’t noticed something when I walked to the toilet. I lifted up the bottom of my hospital gown and looked down. Sure enough there was something quite obvious missing from my pubic area. Lets just say this caused another mental Blue Screen of Death.

---

When I next awoke I was back in the bed. The room was empty but it was now night outside I looked at the clock and it said 11:48pm. I also noticed that I was bloody starving, heh I guess I had an excuse if I hadn’t eaten for 3 months! So I rang the buzzer for the nurse and asked her if there was anything I could get to eat.

After fifteen minutes an orderly was allowed into my room and handed me a tray with a typical hospital meal. I guess beggars can’t be choosers though, and after I ate it all I left the tray on one of the bedside tables. Since there wasn’t much else to do I went to sleep.

The next morning I awoke and looked blearily around the room and she was there again. “Morning Janice” I said to her.
“Good morning sleepyhead, you gave me quite a scare yesterday I can tell you” She smiled at me. I gave myself a scare when I looked down there more like! “Well you certainly seem to be somewhat of an enigma, the fingerprints you provided me with yesterday didn’t match anyone in our criminal database. However remembering what you said yesterday on a whim I asked them to compare your prints to our missing person. And … well they matched.” The last sentence she said looking a bit puzzled.

“Would it be alright if the doctors take some blood samples? We want to compare your DNA with some samples we retrieved from the residence of John Macintyre”

I nodded “Anything we can do to clear up this mess the better”.

“So can you tell me where and what you have been doing for the last 3 months or so? From the day of the wedding until now.” I told her my entire story. When I told her of the mist she just looked a bit disbelieving. She looked at me a bit oddly when I told her of the strange girl I had met, who I now look like. I mentioned that to her.

“Sorry about that. But when we were looking into the missing person report of John Macintyre we also looked into the weather report for the region as part of standard procedure, nothing was mentioned about any mist. However maybe it was a localised phenomenon. The other thing you mentioned was the girl’s name. When I was in school I completed a report for my history class, it was about celtic gods and mythology. A name of one of the goddesses was Brá¬ghde.”

“Are you saying that I met a goddess in a cow field and she turned me into a girl as some kind of sick joke?” And then I did something I hadn’t done since I was a kid, I started to cry.

“No, not really.” She kind of half shrugged “I was just telling you where the name comes from.” She came and sat on the bed beside me, handed me some tissues and put her arm around me to trying to calm me down. I just sobbed for a good hour or so.

I won’t go too many details of what happened for the next couple of days, since NHS hospital life isn’t exactly what you would call exciting. The doctors kept took a couple of blood samples and then I was introduced to the horrors and humiliation of an OB/GYN exam.

It was after those couple of days I was visited again by Janice “How are you doing today John?” I raised my eyebrow at her, this was the first time she had called me by my first name “We have some news about the blood samples you took a couple of days ago. However I will get one of the hospital specialists to explain it to you.” She went to the door and let in a white coat, he had greying hair and I would have guessed he was around fifty years old.

“Good afternoon Miss MacIntyre I am Dr Anstruther” he shook my hand and smiled at me “We have some interesting news about regarding your DNA tests. It seems that the two samples do not match completely, however we are now in no doubt that you are who you say you are.” I looked a bit confused he pulled out a sheet and handed it to me and continued, “This sheet shows DNA results from tests performed on your blood samples and as you can see on the sheet they are quite similar. On the left hand side we have the samples taken from your residence and on the right are results taken from your blood sample provided two days ago.”

“The first obvious thing is that everything on the left hand side is the same on the right, and apart from the fact that your genes have inexplicably mutated from XY to XX you are the same person as if you had just been born female. However as you can see on the right hand side you also have some ‘extra’ genetic information. This coupled with the fact that your fingerprints match indicate that you have undergone some kind of change over the past few months which not only affected your physical appearance but your DNA as well.”

“By the way from the notes here from your physical examinations state that you are completely female. This means that sometime within the next month you should experience your first period and by all indications should be fully capable of becoming pregnant and delivering a healthy child”. ‘Oh great’ I thought, “Because of this you should also think about things such as female contraception”. He must have noticed my look of horror.

“I’m just saying this as a precaution of course, you are a young lady and of an age to drink alcohol so it may be best for you to think about this before hand rather than regret it afterwards, I can write you a prescription for you to start on the female contraceptive pill as soon as you leave the hospital which should be some time tomorrow”.

I gulped “Okay” I said rather weakly.

I wonder if this had been that girl’s weird way of staying with me forever, by twisting my wish? By making me look like her so that every time I look in the mirror I would see her for the rest of my life! And even my DNA had been changed looked like it had been added with some of hers as well. What the hell was I going to do, live like this as a girl for the rest of my life? Mind you it can’t be too bad if half the population does it. But then again if I’m a girl now then guys will be trying to get in my pants, I shuddered just thinking about it … I guess that means I will be a lesbian. Mum always wanted grandchildren but I’m sure she won’t mind if it’s not me that has them. Jenny might be the best choice of us three kids to pop out a couple of bairns out for her to spoil, and there is always my brother Paul.

* Note: ‘Bairn’ Scottish word for small children.

Paul and Jenny are twins and were born two years before me, which makes them 26 years old. Paul is out in Iraq at the moment serving with his unit the RSDG* as a gunner on a Challenger 2 tank, although he should have around 4 months left of his tour … well 1 month now if they aren’t lying about me going ‘missing’ for 3 months. He’s a typical guys guy I guess and we had always gotten along, even if I was more academic than he was with me going to university to study computing and him throwing himself into more physical pursuits such as football and rugby while at school and then leaving school to join the army when he finished.

* Note: Royal Scots Dragoon Guards

Sure I had been a bit more heavyset round the middle than him but he always tried to encourage me to work out with him, though I usually went to the gym alone so that I wouldn’t have to watch him do all the exercises with ease while I had to struggle to keep up with him. ‘I’m a bit thinner than him now though’ I thought to myself as I looked down at my flat stomach.

When Janice pulled me out of my thoughts Dr Anstruther had already left the room “We have enough information that proves your identity. So we will be there should be no problem having your documents such as your Birth Certificate, Drivers License and Passport updated. Can you please fill out the following forms” she handed me a sheaf of papers headed with Gender Recognition Panel, whoopee I thought I love filling out forms “usually these are used by Transgender people who choose to live as the opposite gender to which they were born. We will provide you with documentation to send in with your form regarding your unique situation.”

“We have informed your family that you have been found and your mother will be here in an hour or so, Your sister has told us that she will be in to visit you when she finishes work at 5pm. You should get some rest before then, I will try to explain, this to your mother before she comes in to see you but …” she trailed off and just shrugged “I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen your test results either”. She left me to my own thoughts.

‘How the hell am I going to explain this to mum, never mind the rest of the family?’ I thought glumly. But I decided it best not to think much about it and tried to sleep a little.

Shouting in the hallway awaked me. “GET OUT OF MY WAY! I want to see my son!” Ah shit she was here, I wonder if there is anywhere I can hide until she’s gone. I could hear Janice asking her to calm down, that she had to know some things before she saw me. Damn right she did and that would save me some trouble.

Suddenly she stormed through the door into my room. Damn it! She is too stubborn and doesn’t listen to anybody even the police, bloody typical. She looked at me and just blinked, I must have looked scared because she looked apologetic as she said, “I’m sorry hen*, I musta gotten the wrong room.”

* Note: ‘Hen’ is a term used to refer to younger women, usually by older men or women. The masculine form of this would to call a young man ‘Son’ regardless of them being related or not.

As she turned to leave I squeaked “Mum!” she spun around and stared coldly at me.

She looked at me for ten seconds and then around the room “What kind of joke is this?!” she said shouting motioning towards a piece of paper attached to the my bed with her son’s name on it. I couldn’t hold it back, and started to cry.

Mothering instincts must have taken control of her because she came and sat on the side of my bed and just wrapped me in her arms. “There, there dearie. It’s all right, don’t cry I’m sorry for shouting. I’m just pissed off at the police. They told me I could see my son, I haven’t seen him for months now and I’m just worried about him.”

I wiped my eyes with some tissues she handed me “Mum … It’s me John” I said to her.

She held me out at arms length and looked me up and down “Well you kinda look like mah daughter Jen but you don’t look anything like mah son John.” She said kindly and I could see the edge of her mouth twitching a little trying to fight back a smile at the thought of this young girl pretending to be her son. “Why don’t you tell me why you seem to believe you are my son, or if you want who put you up to saying all these things”.

So I told her my story and when I finished she just whistled “Well that’s a tall tale if ever I heard one” she laughed. Bah evil woman!

“Fine if you don’t believe me, ask me questions that only I … your son would know the answers to.” I said sharply to her giving her a glare.

Her eyes lit up at the thought of proving me a liar. “Fine then … when my son was very young we bought him a puppet of a hedgehog, what was its name?”

“Humphrey” I could see the impact of that into her brain as she flinched, ‘YES! Critical strike’ I thought to myself.

We continued on in the same vain for the next hour, her asking me questions about holidays, accidents and funny incidents from when I was a kid. We went over how I had ended up with a broken nose, the time when I fell out of a tree leaving a scar on my forehead just below the hairline, the hospital visit for eating strange berries from a bush in the garden. It was kinda fun actually, I was a walking talking train wreck when I was a kid.

By the end of it she was crying, “What’s wrong mum?” and now it was my turn to hug her. “What happened to you John? You just disappeared and now you come back like this … did you want to be a woman or something, are you gay?” she said with a little quiver in her voice. Now I don’t want you thinking my mother is homophobic but then again I don’t blame her for being a little scared for the safety of one of her children because of the way the world treats people for being different.

“NO!” I shouted at her, I think she looked a little shocked at that, I motioned down indicating my new body “I didn’t want any of this, I don’t know why it happened! As I told you I just woke up and this had happened. I know you thought I never dated enough girls, and that you wanted to see me married off but that’s just how I was ya know? I was waiting for the right girl, maybe I would never find her, maybe I was a little bit too passive in my approach to finding relationships but it’s not because I was gay or anything!”. She looked a bit like a puppy that had just been hit with a newspaper for peeing on the carpet heh, but now I felt sorry for shouting at her … damned conscience.

We sat in silence for a while “So what should I call you now? I can hardly go around calling you John when you look like this” she giggled.

“I dunno what were you gonna call me if I was born a girl?” I asked.

“Hmmm I think we were thinking of calling you Caitlin Mary MacIntyre, what do you think?” She smiled at me.

“I like it” as I smiled at her.

“So do you mind having another daughter now?” I asked biting my lower lip.

“Ach of course I don’t mind, you have a lot to learn about being a woman though. Things like makeup, clothes, periods and how to handle men”. When I started to protest and say that I didn’t want to know how to handle men at all. She said “No honey, I mean how to flirt, how not to flirt, how to get rid of a mans unwanted attention and how to protect yourself if they try to force themselves on you.” ‘Ahh, that could be useful’ I thought to myself and shuddered.

“Maybe your sister would be the best to help you though, I’m getting a bit old now to go clubbin with you till 2 am. And me being there might scare off all the nice men” I just felt like rolling my eyes when she said this, how can she expect me to go from a guy liking girls to being a girl liking guys at the drop of a hat?

I heard my mums phone go off, she pulled it from her purse “Damn forgot to turn it off, but speak of the devil.” She pressed a button “Hi Jen, finished work already?” She listened for a while “Follow the signs for ward E and we are in Room 216 second floor” pause “Okay, see you in twenty. Bye”

“Well Jens about to meet her little sister!” Mum grinned.

“Do you think she will be okay with it?”

“Yeah I’m sure she will be okay, I mean you were always closer to Paul than her. And she has always wanted a sister, and now she’s got one whether she likes it or not”

---

End of Chapter 02

As before please comment :) I don't know when I will be able to post the next chapter because of work and I'm trying to get a mortgage for a new flat *yay* Need to move into in before I get evicted from my current flat in January >_< (no i wasn't naughty!)

Dwi

She turned to me “Hun why don’t you tell her your story? I’m going to go see if I can find the doctor to check if we can take you home.” She looked back at Jen and said in her ‘serious’ tone staring right in her eyes “And you treat Caitlin nicely, she is the same person you have known for 24 years so I don’t want to hear any crap from you.”

Chapter Three

---

There was a quick succession of knocks on the door, by the time it was finished I knew it was Jenny on the other side since she had always knocked the same way ever since we were kids. I looked at mum with wide eyes, imploring her to get her to answer the door. She just spread her hands wide like to say ‘nothing to do with me, you get it’. Did I tell you she was evil? I’m sure I mentioned it.

‘Come in!’ I shouted in my new girlish voice, so I wouldn’t need to get up to open the door.

Jen poked her head through the door cautiously probably thinking she had the wrong room, however on seeing mum sitting on one of the chairs beside the bed she strode into the room. She was wearing her work clothes, a smart black skirt suit. She works as a manager of the ladies wear department in a high street clothing store. The only thing deviating from the ‘professional business woman’ look was a tatty rucksack she carried over her shoulder.

She slowed to a stop in the middle of the room a bit confused as she looked at me, you could see the gears in her head grinding away. Her thoughts were probably along the lines of ‘Who’s the strange girl? Why’d the door say MacIntyre? Why is mum sitting talking with her, when the police had said they had found John? Wait … why does she kind of looks like me?!’

“Hi” I said shyly to her.

“Um … hi” she said back, she looked at mum for an explanation.

Mum looked at me her eyes dancing and turned slowly “Jen meet your little sister Caitlin” she said indicating me with a flick of her hand, not taking her eyes off Jen so she wouldn’t miss her reactions.

Jens eyes just kinda bulged out in a mix of shock and confusion, then you could see the gears go into over-drive and about ten seconds later her face turned angry. “You mean she is my half-sister by dad on some tramp he met down the pub?” she said with spite and crossed her arms.

Mum just sat back in the chair and laughed and I tried hard to stifle a giggle behind my hand but failed miserably. Jen just stood there tapping her foot looking pissed and looking from mum to me then back again.

I could see how her logic was working here. I after all, look to all intents and purposes like I’m around 19 years old. This means that Jen would have been around 7 when I was born and she sure as hell doesn’t remember mum being pregnant with me. So logically I must look like her because of our fathers shared genetics and was born from one of his conquests after a one-night stand, which used to happen regularly at around that time period. Quite a neat little story and it matched quite well with historical facts, she could write scripts for soap operas.

When mum had stopped she motioned to me again and said “Jen this IS John, he seems to have undergone quite a change in the three months since he disappeared.” Jen just looked a little disbelieving at this statement “Jennifer” she warned in her Do Not Argue tone.

She turned to me “Hun why don’t you tell her your story? I’m going to go see if I can find the doctor to check if we can take you home.” She looked back at Jen and said in her ‘serious’ tone staring right in her eyes “And you treat Caitlin nicely, she is the same person you have known for 24 years so I don’t want to hear any crap from you.”

Jen just gulped and blanched a little … when mum uses a ‘serious’ tone you believe what she tells you and do what she says. At least this means that I wouldn’t need to go over the ‘This is your life Quiz’ unless I felt like it, because Jen would now have no doubt that I was who I said I was because mum wouldn’t lie about shit like this.

I got her to sit in the chair mum had recently vacated, then I went over what had happened to me on my last day as a guy and what had happened over the last 3 days. By the point in the story where I collapsed after discovering missing parts down below she was crying. I could hear her saying “I’m sorry” quietly between the sobs.

“Sorry for what?” I asked as I passed her some tissues from the box on the bedside unit.

“It’s my fault this happened to you, I asked you to do that wedding as a favour! Now look at you … you … your”

“… a damn sight prettier than I was before?” I prompted and stuck out my tongue at her, and she giggled a bit weakly. I could feel some tears of my own starting up though and needed some of the tissues myself.

“But if I had even just been there you wouldn’t have been changed by that weird girl, you know?” I just shook my head at this, wiping my eyes.

“Listen if you had been there maybe you would have been changed as well, and I don’t think you would have liked living as a guy much. I mean you would have to throw out all of your shoes for a start! Plus I know how important your job is to you, so you can’t just take holidays for every wedding that crops up on the weekends”. I could see the look of pain when I mentioned getting rid of shoes … terminal shoe-a-holic, it would have killed her.

“So I don’t blame you at all, I love you Jen and would never blame you for anything like this and I think I will be needing your help a lot to get used to this” I nodded towards my body “can you please be my teacher?” I suggested.

She wiped at her eyes and smiled at me “Of course sis, and it’s just as well I get a staff discount cos you will need a lot of new clothes”

“I can call you Jen Sensei?” I gushed at her and she playfully tried to swat me.

Right at that time mum came bustling back into the room with Doctor Anstruther. “I have spoken with your mother Caitlin” he said quickly looking at my mum when he said the name “and agree that you can go home today, I have informed Constable Allan and she should be here in a short while with some paperwork for you. Do you wish your family to be present while I summarize what the plans for the next stage of your treatment should be?” I just nodded, they would drag it out of me later anyway.

“We have done a lot of tests in the past few days and I would appreciate if you would agree to come back in occasionally for some more in the future, not as much for physical reasons but for research.”

“Your unusual change in gender could revolutionise how the world looks at genetics and in the field of Gender Dysphoria as a treatment could save many people from a great deal of discomfort, pain and in some cases prevent them from committing suicide. If we can find out how the change was achieved that is. Currently we are having your blood and tissue samples analysed by specialists, we have plenty of it in stock at the moment anyway”. He smiled at me and I flinched, damn right they have enough samples … my arm was all bruised from so many needles.

“I have here your prescription for the female contraceptive pill and you should start on it as soon as possible” my mum looked at me and nodded her head like she thought it was a good idea, Jen just looked at me with a raised eyebrow. I just sat there mortified and tried to hide behind the covers.

“Psychologically you seem to be taking your changes quite well, except for the fainting spells from the initial shock. I have arranged an appointment with a Psychologist who specialises is the treatment of Gender Dysphoric patients. You are not technically Gender Dysphoric as you never had any wish for this change in your life. However she should be best to handle any confusion that should arise from the change such as problems with your sexuality and coping with your gender identity”. He passed a letter with my appointment details and the prescription.

“There seems to be no other problems so …” he was interrupted by a knocking at the door and went to open it. “Ahh Janice we were just wrapping up here so if you wish to take over please do” he said to the policewoman, said his goodbyes and then left.

She strode into the room and smiled at me “Nice to see you looking well, I was on my way to see you when the doctor phoned,” and I introduced her to my mother and sister. “I have the clothes you were ‘found’ wearing” she avoided saying arrested in front of my mother since I had been innocent after all, and placed two white plastic bags against the wall next to the door and walked over to the bed.

“I have a letter here for you to send away with your application to change your legal documents” and handed me an envelope. “I know this is unusual but if you need or have contact with the police in the future and don’t feel comfortable explaining your situation to another officer please call me on this number or phone the station and ask for me by name” She removed a pen from her pocket and scribbled down her mobile number on the back of a business card that had general details of the police station. “Or call me even if you just need someone to speak to and we can meet up for a coffee and talk”.

“Thanks a lot for all your help, I’ll make sure to call” I smiled and hugged her, she returned the hug and then left after a quick goodbye to everyone.

Jen poked me in the side while smiling “Your quick, 3 days in that body and you already have a girl chucking her phone number at you. Any ways get changed into these so we can get the hell outta here”. She chucked the beat up backpack to me. I looked and inside were clothes that I had worn as a guy. I said to Jen that they would never have a hope of fitting me now.

“Yeah mum told me to pick up some of your clothes before I came here, but I obviously thought you would fit your old ones since I never knew about the change. We will need to go shopping tomorrow, you have a lot to buy”. She grinned at me, damn I hate shopping.

I ran to the toilet with the bag and stripped out of the horrid green hospital robes and pulled on a pair of my now ill-fitting boxer shorts. I then jumped into the jeans, which were now really baggy! Well they were a tight fit on my ass but were too wide around the waist, they also were too long so I had to roll them up quite a bit.

The other things in the bag were my old sweatshirt that I used to exercise in, some socks and a pair of trainers. The cuffs of the sweatshirt were now too long and my old shoes were way too big for me and felt like trying to walk in clown shoes. I shuffled out of the toilet holding up the jeans with my hands so they wouldn’t fall down.

Jen burst out laughing when she saw me and I could see a flash of amusement in my mums eyes. I just glowered at them. “Well c’mon then lets get this show on the road” I said huffily to them. Jen went out to the hallway and fetched a wheelchair and said “Since you can’t walk in those shoes just throw them in the bag. We’ll go down and I will bring my car to the front door and get you home.” The last she said with a worried glance at mum. They were hiding something! But I was just too glad to be getting out of this place to care too much, so I happily complied and sat in the wheelchair.

Mum had wheeled me right up to the car and then she forced me to accept an invitation for dinner tomorrow night and to make sure Jen came too. I said goodbye to some of nurses and Dr Anstruther as we were on our way out and in no time I was seated in Jen’s VW Passat. Not that I needed too much persuasion, getting free food cooked by your mum every now and then was one of the plus points of living close by!

After about half an hour of driving I noticed we were heading in the wrong but familiar direction. “Why are we heading to your place?” I asked a bit worried.

She looked at me a little apprehensively “Well you know how you were gone for 3 months? Well basically your rent was due at around the same time you disappeared. So after a month and a half and you still hadn’t returned, the Landlord made us come pick up your stuff and we had to put most of it in storage waiting to see what had happened to you.”

I rolled my eyes “Bloody great now I’m homeless as well, just what I need at a time like this”. I frowned and started to rub my forehead with my hand.

She looked at me and said “Well you can live with me for a while if you want. Lisa has been away for a couple of days on business and should be back later tonight. I’m sure she won’t mind you staying in the spare room for a while”. Lisa is Jen’s flatmate and they had moved in with each other 3 months after meeting at college. She was nice enough I guess but I had always found her a little bit ‘cold’ whenever I tried to speak to her on nights out and at barbeques.

“But you don’t like having …” I started but she cut in with “male flatmates?” with a smirk eyeing me up and down.

“Ah … okay I guess I can move in with you for a while. Maybe it will be fun … well fun now that I’m your little sister anyway. It was hellish living with you when I was your brother” I laughed.

I wont bore you with stories of what living her had been like, however the experience was one that showed why siblings want to move away from each other as soon as possible, preferably far far away.

Jen lived in an upstairs flat in a two-up, two-down block. I grabbed what few things I had with me including all the paperwork I had been given, remembering to hold up my jeans as we trudged up the stairs into her flat. When we got in Jen showed me to my new room. I sat down on the bed for a minute and my eyes started to droop, trying to tell me I should sleep soon.

Before I knew it Jen had disappeared to her room and then returned with some white panties a plain white t-shirt and handed them to me. “There you go, change into those and get in bed before you fall asleep in your clothes”. I stood up and went to pull off my sweatshirt but then I remembered Jen was still in the room. I stared at her and she said, “Don’t mind me, I wanna see if I should be jealous of my lil sis” she grinned.

I shrugged and started to remove my clothes. I mean it would be weird if I was the old me, but now its not like I had anything she hasn’t seen before. Some reservations must still be ingrained into my head, because I turned away from her when I was taking off the boxer shorts and then pulled on the panties. Jen wolf whistled when I bent over and said “Nice ass!”.

As I stood up I turned around to face her “So what do you think of the new model?” I said with a smile and posed in nothing but the panties.

“Sportier than the last one that’s for sure.”

“Yeah quite a bit shorter and lighter as well though.”

“Don’t remind me!” she mourned “I usually go to the gym a couple of days a week and you go disappear for wee while and look like that, not an ounce of fat on you!” She pointed at my chest “Well apart from the important places. I got you beat in that department though” and pushed her own chest out proudly and stuck out her tongue.

I just sniffed and tossed my hair “Any more than a hand-full is a waste” I said with fake scorn and giggled.

I pulled on the t-shirt, sat on the bed and looked at Jen. She looked me up and down “I can tell you something though. You will need a baseball bat to keep the guys away, cos your too damned cute!” she stated.

“Can I get one with nails sticking out of it? Gives it more persuasive power” I joked.

“Anyway you sleep now in the morning and then we can go shopping for some clothes for you! Plus it’s a good excuse for me to get some for myself.” After I got into bed she hugged me and then left quietly. I fell asleep shortly afterwards.

---

End of Chapter 03

And again accepting constuctive comments :) Managed to kinda sort out mortgage ... the mortgage advisor says "The underwriters are looking at it". Will have to move back in with the parents tho *cries* as there is a space of a couple of weeks between moving into new flat and when I get evicted.

Dwi