You would think that when I woke up I’d just assume that everything was a terrible dream.  I mean, isn’t that what most of us would want to think in this situation?  That it’s nothing but a nightmare, and when we wake up, everything is fine and all is well.

                I’m glad I didn’t wake up like that.  Having to re-come to that realization would have been something I wouldn’t wish on anyone.

                Instead, I woke up, opened my eyes, and shifted around in the bed, realizing that what’s comfortable for a man isn’t exactly so for a woman and vice versa.  Getting positioned so that everything was comfortable, I mean, it wasn’t hard, but I had to think about what I was doing rather than just rolling to one of my well-defined comfortable positions.

                As I figured out a spot or two, I then realized it was all for nothing.  I had to take a leak.  I groaned and got out of bed.

                I opened the door to the hallway on Luke’s third floor, and walked past a set of doors on each side of the hallway, and then I saw a bathroom.  I turned on a light, closed the door, and locked it.  I really didn’t want to risk anyone seeing me like this.  Hell, I didn’t want to see me like this, but I had to.

                I went to stand in front of the toilet, and went to whip it out, only to stop myself mid-motion.  What, exactly, did you think you’re going to pull out of your shorts, I thought to myself, shaking my head.

                So, I turned away from the toilet, pulled down my shorts and panties, sat down, and just let it happen.  This felt so very off to me as I sat there, but I knew I’d have to adjust to this.  Just one more of several hundred, I thought as I took some toilet paper and wiped myself, hoping that I did this right.

                I went to pull my shorts and panties up, and I looked down and really saw, for the first time, what I had gained and lost there. I saw I was hairless down there, and I could see my new-

                I stopped and pulled everything up.  Nope, we’re not going there right this moment. I know I’ll have to do eventually, but not this moment.

                I went back to the bedroom, and I realized I had no other clothes around but the skirt suit she had worn.  That I had worn.  I would need to find out where the other clolthes were, or even if we even had them. I didn’t exactly know how it went down with Luke and my uncle, beyond us getting out.

                Not sure what to do, I went to grab the skirt suit, and then noticed a green note on the dresser.  It was in Hillary’s handwriting.

                My clothes are in the dressers and closet. I’m on the first floor with Luke.

                Well, at least I wouldn’t be wearing what I wore yesterday, I thought.  I opened the dressers one drawer at a time, taking stock of what there was before going over to the closet and seeing what she had there.  I knew this wasn’t quite all of it, but it seemed like the lion’s share managed to make its way into this room.  That was something, I guess.

                Going with clothing as familiar as I possibly could, I grabbed just a normal black bra and panties, a pair of her skinny jeans, a plain blue t-shirt in a woman’s cut, her black hoodie with a skull on it, a pair of black socks, and I saw a pair of black sneakers.  Changing the lower half of my body was the easy part. The bra, however, was a bitch to undo. Once I got it off, I grabbed the new bra, and, obviously had to look down once I had it ready to put on.

                It was then that I saw my aunt’s naked breasts. I knew she was attractive and had a nice body, but that was more just an understanding of how the world viewed her. I didn’t think of her that way, and never liked it when men lusted after her.  Now, though, I had to admit there were quite obvious reasons as to why they did lust.  On another woman, I’d have found these very attractive.  Of course, they weren’t on another woman.  They were on me, and would have been on her previously!  I shook my head, and, with effort, managed to get the damn thing on and hooked.  I had to look like an idiot while doing it, but it was on and that was what mattered.  I then finished dressing and was downstairs shortly.

                I walked into the dining area and saw Hillary dressed relatively similar to me, wearing my red hoodie that has seen better days.  She was looking over financial records, most of which I barely knew a thing about.  A degree in math does not translate to knowledge of accounting or finance.

                “Hey, how’d you sleep?”  She asked.

                “Like the dead.”

                “Impressive.”  She said, meaning it.  “You were always a light sleeper.”

                “I think I had a reason to be exhausted.”

                “Yeah, true.”  She said with a sad laugh.  I could see it in her eyes that she wanted to just stop, wanted to let loose, wanted to cry her eyes out.  As soon as it came, though, I saw it fade.  I knew what that meant.  She only did that if she had strong reason to hold her emotions back like that.

                “So,” she said.  “I’ve been pouring over his records, Brendon.”

                “What did you find?”  I asked.  As I did, I heard my stomach growl.  Apparently, so did she.

                “You may want to get something to eat.”

                “I want to hear what you have to say first.”

                “Well, it’s not going to be a quick explanation, and as long as you’re not too close to these, you can eat while I explain. Luke is in the kitchen and Sarah is at the courthouse getting some public records.  I’m not sure what, exactly.”

                “Hillary, I’m fine, I-“ I stopped, hearing the gurgling sound again.  My stomach, it seems, was in disagreement with me.

                “Go, before my stomach, well, your stomach eats itself.  I’ve heard that’s not good for you.  Go!” She shooed me toward the kitchen.

                “Sure he won’t mind?”  I asked.

                “I’m sure.”  She said, looking back down at the documents.  I open the door to the kitchen, which is fully a foot larger than any door I normally see.  Luke and Sarah designed the house that way.  Luke got tired of barely clearing door frames.

                I walk into their spacious and modern kitchen to see Luke at the stove along with several warming containers on a nearby counter, each with a different breakfast food.  This looked like a grand feast, then I had to remember just how big Luke. Plus, in addition to him and Sarah they have three kids and often have others in the house.

                I saw a couple of plates, and Luke didn’t even look back.

                “Grab a plate and load up, Brendon.”  He said.  “You’re going to need your energy.”

                “This is quite a spread.”  I said.  “And, yeah.”

                Luke turned, and I saw he was wearing a black chef apron.

                “How you holding up?”

                “I don’t even know.”  I said.  I really didn’t.

                “Eh, that’s fair, I think.”  He said.  “Well, Hillary and me called your professors up and explained the situation.  You’re going to be on leave for a bit from school, and the university has agreed to work with you in figuring out how to help you in regards to catching up to classes, tuition, all that.”

                “That’s nice of them.”

                “Nice had nothing to do with it.”  Luke laughed.  “I pointed out that being bureaucratic about this would not look good on them, especially if I got the traditional media and social media involved. That ended their objections real quick.”

                “Well, thanks, Luke.  I mean, I mean that.”

                “It’s nothing.”  Luke said with a smile.  “Brendon, I do what I do because I want to help people.  If I’m willing to protect complete strangers, what do you think I’ll do for you?  Sarah and me are best friends with Hillary, and you and her are more like close siblings than aunt and nephew.  I’m happy to do it.  But, eat.”

                When I came back out with a large plate with food piled up on it, Hillary just smiled, looking up from the papers.

                “You know you’re not going to eat all of that, right?”

                “No, not a chance.  I’ve seen you eat.  I said.  I sat down a few feet away, lowered the plate down, and let another smaller plate drop down the half-inch or so to the table top.  I then put my plate down, put down another fork and knife, and then shoveled some of the food onto her plate.

                “I know you’ve got to be hungry.  Luke told me how much you’ve eaten.  I don’t eat that light.”

                At that, Hillary pushed some of the papers aside, moved her chair a bit closer to the plate, and then started to eat as well.

                After a few bites, I saw her pace quicken.

                “Luke and I were right, huh?”

                “Yeah.”  She admitted sheepishly.  “Damn, now I know why you eat like you do at buffets.”

                “And, remember, I never seem to gain any serious weight.”

                “Count yourself lucky.  I’m at the point where I have to watch much more closely.”  She stopped at that.  “Or, I was.  Shit, Brendon, this, I, I don’t know.”

                “You know how you said eat?  Well, Now I’m telling you to eat.”

                “Let’s both eat, how about it?”  She said as she took another bite, this one more slowly. However, she was pretty hungry, and soon it was silence as we ate our first meal with each other’s bodies.

                After we finished and washed our plates off, we were back at the documents she had out, her explaining a number of them as she went along to me.  Luke was also there.  While not formally educated in this, he had seen enough white collar crimes to have learned a considerable amount.  In fact, I was the only one here that had little clue as to what was going on, learning as I went.  Apparently, these were documents, bills, receipts, ownership documents and even a file from a friend that worked as a private investigator about where my uncle had been recently.

                I helped basically find documents for them as they worked for a bit.  About an hour later, we took a break and all of us went to the kitchen for a drink. There was this local soda company that made a very good cola, and Luke handed us a glass bottle each.  We popped the bottle caps off and, I’ll admit, it was pretty good as I took a swig of it.

                We stood around near the fridge for a moment, all of us needing to stand and stretch for a moment.  It was then that a thought hit me.

                “You said he was trying to punish us, right Luke?”

                “I did.”  Luke said.

                “A quick thought, wouldn’t that pretty much guarantee that Hillary can take him in court?”

                “We know he’s going to try to spin it somehow, probably make it sound like it was all you two’s idea.  He’ll then probably use that to try to get out of paying for anything.”

                “How?”  I stammered, not even believing he could do that.  “It’s not like we even knew this existed!”

                “He’s careful, Brendon.”  Hillary said.  “This wasn’t something he cooked up last week.  He had to have known about me doing this for a while now.  I guess I wasn’t careful enough.”

                I saw her eyes, she looked like she wanted to tear up.  She stopped herself.

                Luke looked at her off-handedly.

                “It’s okay to cry, Hill.”  He said.  “You’ve been through a hell of a lot.”

                “No, not know.”  She said, composing herself, masculine hands rubbing away what little managed to leave her eyes.  “We’ve got too much to do.  But, Brendon, that’s what Sarah, Luke, and I think he’s trying to do.”

                “How, what do we even do?”  I asked.

                “First, my advice is change your password to all your devices, make backups of everything, and be able to give an account of where you were, what you were doing, and who you were with for at least the last few months.”  Luke said. “Until then, all we can do is dig up evidence showing this was his doing.”

                “How are we going to do that?”

                “Oh, that’s what Sarah is working on right now. Or, at least the first part of it. Brendon, actually, I think I have a job for you, if you’re up to it.”

                “Hell yeah, Luke.  What is it?”

                “I got to thinking just now, the local university’s claim to fame is more engineering and math, but what school would be able to do research like that?  I have to imagine that would require a pretty serious budget.”

                At that, I thought for a moment.  There were two, I realized, Hardin State University and Collins University.  I explained that both had pretty serious biomedical programs, since that was one of the majors I looked into when I was still in high school.

                “You think they’re involved?”  I asked.

                “They could be.”

                “It’s Collins.”  Hillary said in what I could only describe as a light-bulb moment.  “I’ve seen letterhead from Collins on that son of a bitch’s desk, not your normal alumni stuff, plus, the investigator documented him going there several times.  It has to be!”

                “Plus,” Hillary said, growing more excited.  I think I know who he might have met.  I’ll have to check my notes, but I think we have something here!  Luke, Brendon, I would have never thought of that!”

                In her excitement, she ran to Luke and gave him a big hug.  Luke returned it.

                “You’re taller now.”  He laughed.

                “Shut up.”  She laughed, then disengaged and went to hug me.

                Our hug was slightly more awkward, especially since I wasn’t used to having breasts.  Feeling them press against my former chest was a very weird experience. Hillary, I noticed, also had a weird look, not thinking about that prior to us hugging.

                Still, after a couple of seconds of initial weirdness, the hug, I think, was something we both needed.  I felt better, and I know that Hillary did as well.

                After a few seconds, we pulled our arms away.

                “So,” I said.  “What is our next move?”