Raveled - Epilogue

Jess was sitting outside a campus cafe, enjoying her book, the sunshine, and the occasional admiring look.  Not necessarily in that order.  She knew she was looking good, she’d been at dance class with Ed earlier that morning, and his appreciation had been obvious.  It helped her confidence that as usual for Saturdays she was wearing Tess’ lean dancer’s body rather than her own.  She was also wearing some of Tess’ nicer clothes, hence the looks.

Jess sighed and set her book down.  She wished that Ed wasn’t quite so busy with his programming project, it was eating into their shared time.  At least they had nights together, and dance classes.  Her waitressing hours and his obsessive coding didn’t leave much else.  She was looking forward to classes starting in a few weeks, their schedules would align much better.

“Tess?  Is that you?”

Jess looked up.  She’d spent enough time in Tess’ body of late that she knew the routine well, and it was Tess’ smile that greeted the oddly familiar person approaching her.  She blinked twice, then frowned.  “Don?  Is that really you?”

The neatly dressed man nodded, then gestured to the chair opposite her.  “May I?”

Jess couldn’t help but smile.  This was not the Don she remembered at all.  “Of course.  I have to say, you’re looking... different.  Not so...”

Don chuckled wryly.  “Not so pumped up on steroids?”

Jess made a face.  “You’re not going to blame everything on that, are you?”

“No!”  Don held up his hands defensively.  “No, of course not.  After my black-out and missing the exams, I was offered a single way out.  Get clean, stay clean... and maybe earn my spot back next year.”

“Oh,” said Jess, disappointment obvious on her face.

Don shook his head.  “Sorry, I’m not here about that.  Well, I am, but not...”  He sighed.  “I did some awful things to you, and your friends.  Some of it was the booze.  Some of it was the juice.  A lot of it was me.  I’m truly sorry for what I did, I hope you can believe that.”

Jess studied him carefully.  He did seem less muscular than she recalled, and his attitude was refreshing.  But there was something behind those eyes, too, something haunted.  “I think we’re even.  If you can forgive us, we can forgive you.”

“Us?  You’re speaking for Jess, too?  I need to apologize to her, as well.”

Jess giggled, then schooled her expression and nodded.  “Consider that done.”  She held his gaze, studying it further.  “There’s something else, isn’t there?”

Don dropped his eyes, staring at the table.  He traced random figures on it for a time, then sighed.  “Yeah.  My last exam.  That was bad enough, but... before it.  Will you tell me the truth?”

Jess bit her lip, but nodded.

“What happened between the... the attack, and the exam?  I know it sounds crazy, but I keep having these dreams where I’m a...”

“A what?” asked Jess, softly.

Don hunched over the table, and whispered, “a sex doll.”

Jess chuckled, drawing a hurt look from Don that gave her an unexpected stab of guilt.  “Well...”  She sighed.  “You were.  For... four days, I think?  Long enough to imprint pretty hard, given how drunk you were.”

Don’s eyes sought hers, and the look there was haunted.  “Every morning,” he whispered.  “I wake up, and... when I find out I’m just a guy again, I’m disappointed.  It’s like the dream of being a doll is real, and this is some sort of persistent nightmare.”

“Oh,” said Jess.  “Well, that’s easy enough to fix.  Get blind drunk tonight, and you should wake up feeling yourself again.”

Don’s look grew even more pained.  “I can’t.  Not if I ever want to play football again.”

“Uh...  Lethe would work, then.  Take one just before bed.”

“Can’t.  I have to pee in a bottle every morning, so they can be sure I’m clean.”

“Oh... crap.  That’s all I can think of, sorry.”

Don lay his head on the table.  “I didn’t think you’d be able to make it go away, I just...  I just need to reassure myself it was real.  That I’m not hallucinating.”

Jess shook her head.  “You’re not.”

“Oh thank God.  Um...  I know this is going to sound strange, but... can I be the doll again?  Just for a bit?”

Jess smiled, as her thoughts turned back to the apartment.  Tess’ summer ‘job’ was keeping the place clean and decorated.  She cleaned, cooked, did every chore there was to do.  And she did it all as Molly, wearing what Jess thought was a very silly and very short maid’s costume.  Ed thought it was sexy, though he’d never tell Jess that.  He didn’t have to, Jess spent enough time in Ed’s body these days that she knew full well what that look did for the male libido.  Truth be told, she enjoyed it at least as much as Ed did.

Her distant gaze returned to Don.  “I’m sorry, but that position is presently filled.”

“Ah well.  I wish...  Oh, I’d give anything to be her again.”

“Really?  Anything?”

Don nodded, conviction in his eyes.  “Anything.”

Jess stared at him intently.  “You’d give up your football career?  Your car?”  He nodded to both.  “Your future as a guy?”

“I... no.  I don’t want to be that way forever.”  He didn’t sound certain.  “Do I?”

“I don’t know.  But if you can provide the doll, I’ll provide the means.”  She wrote down the name of the company where Ed had bought his doll, and passed it over to Don.

Jess figured that would be the end of it, but a week later, Don was at their door with a shipping case.

Jess let him in, wearing her own body this time.  She was also wearing the sort of low-cut top that Ed loved to see her in, but that she still didn’t feel comfortable wearing outside the apartment.  To her surprise, Don didn’t say a thing about it.  He did steal one quick glance, though.

Tess watched mutely as Molly, her silicone face betraying no expression.

“So,” Jess asked as Don opened the case, revealing a lifelike doll in the fetal position.  “You’re going to go through with it?”

“I... yeah.  I’ve arranged for the doll to be shipped... uh, somewhere for the weekend.  Then back here again.  Is that OK?  The packing slips are on top of the case, just call the number and they’ll do the rest.”

“You’re going to spend the weekend as an anonymous toy for others to use?  What about having to pee in a cup every morning?”

“I told them to go pound sand.”  Don laughed bitterly.  “They said that as long as I got good enough grades, and was clean for training camp next summer, I’d be considered.  No promises.”

“Well.  Okay, then.”  Jess ribboned the back of the doll open, leaving her still packed in the case.  “Hop in.  Do you want to be able to move?”

“Uh... Is that an option?  I didn’t think dolls could.”

Jess shrugged casually.  “Forget I mentioned it.”  After Don had disappeared into the doll, she stuffed an old rag after him, and the doll lay still in its box once more.  She closed it up, called the number on the top, and soon a burly man came to take the shipping case away.

Once the door was closed, Jess freed Tess from Molly’s body.  Jess hugged her friend tight, but before things went too far, insisted that she wanted to be Molly for the weekend.  Ed seemed happy enough with the change, especially when Tess trapped him with the ribbon then stuffed him into the strap-on once more.

* * *

By Sunday night all three were normal again, and reveling in the rarity of all of them being human at once.  While Tess was cooking dinner, Jess surprised her by sneaking up for a hug and a kiss.

“So...” Tess asked when they came up for air some minutes later.  “You’re OK with this, now?  With me, as me?”

Jess smiled at her.  “After everything we’ve done and been this summer?  Especially that week you were my pussy?  Yes.  I love you, Tess, no matter what you are.  Even like this.”

“Even!  Bah.  I oughtta turn you into a pillow for that.”

“Oooo, promises, promises.”

Ed walked up and joined them in the kitchen.  “Who’s turning who into a pillow, now?”

Tess and Jess pulled him into a tight hug.  “You are.  Then we’ll have a big pillow fight with you.”

Ed’s stomach rumbled.  “Can I have dinner first?” he asked plaintively.

Before dinner was done, there was a knock at the door.  Tess opened it, to find that the doll’s shipping case had been returned.  She rolled it into the apartment.  Jess handed her the ribbon, so Tess could be the one to free her ex-boyfriend.

Don sat up slowly, staring off into the distance.  After a long silence, Tess asked how it had gone.

He shuddered.  “It was incredible.  And vile.  And exactly what I needed.  I might be back some day... but I doubt it.”

He quietly closed the doll up in its case, then strode off without a backward look.  The case creaked along behind him on its wheels.

“Well,” said Tess.  “That’s the last of that.  Classes start on Tuesday, so what are we going to do tonight?  It strikes me as a good time for one hell of a party.”

Ed nodded.  “Yeah.  We pushed the final version of the game up to the servers a few hours ago.  The whole team could use a party.”

“Invite them over, then,” said Tess with a twinkle in her eye.  “We’ll get ‘em good and drunk.”

While Ed was making the calls, Jess pulled Tess over.  “What do you have in mind?”

Tess giggled.  “You have a set of the penguin plushes, right?”  Jess nodded.  “I’m going to stuff ‘em all inside, and video the results.”

* * *

The video went viral, and drove Exploding Penguins 2 to greater popularity than any of them could have dreamed.  Jess persuaded Ed to finish his degree even so, while Tess helped make more of the videos.  All three graduated two years later.

They got married that summer, in two separate ceremonies.  In the first, at Jess’ church, Ed married Jess.  In the second, unbeknownst to all but them and bridesmaid Daisy, Tess was wearing Jess’ body.  In both ceremonies, little bits of each of them were tucked inside Jess’ left breast, over her heart.

Ed and the team built a modestly successful game company, which they eventually sold for enough money to keep them comfortably for the rest of their lives.

Jess spent the next few years working part-time as a vet’s assistant, then quit to raise their children.

Tess went on to modest success in local theatre, and even got some work in advertising.  Between gigs, she spent much of her time as Molly, or as part of the furniture.  When the kids came along, Ed bought an enormous plush teddy bear, and Tess loved playing with them as Mrs. Bear.

And they lived happily mixed-up lives ever after.