Vivid Dream Reality 1

by Savannah Maun

  We had a lovely meal while talking about our day. She commiserated with us about the doctor and was glad that we would find a good one before she became involved. She had decided on a new hobby, vegetarian cooking. She figured it was good for her, would help us with dinner each night and if everything went as planned, is the only thing she would be able to eat soon anyway. We told her how much we appreciated her efforts and it did taste great.

  Her dad had organised a revamp. The fourth bedroom now contained 3 leather recliners with headsets. The original black one now had Andi painted on the front, Vee's pink one had the letter V painted on in silver and Katie had a purple headset with a Katie written in an elaborate script.

  I took Vee back to our bedroom to have a more private discussion. “Vee, if I am going to struggle after one day in game, maybe it would be better to enjoy a full 7 days as a woman for every one as a man.”

  “Are you sure you are not just saying that because you want to help Katie?”

  “I can't deny helping Katie would be wonderful, and probably Roni and so many others, but I can't seem to control how I feel when I return to being male. I thought like you thought, that if we reduced the time it would be less jarring. Doesn't seem to be happening though.”

  “Can you compare between the two? We have only done the 7-day version once, and you seemed so cut up afterwards.”

  “How about this Vee. We try another 7-day go now and I will try and compare it to what happened earlier when I only did one day.”

  “Are you sure? I hate seeing you in pain.”

  I took a deep breath. “Let's do it.”

  We said goodnight to Katie. I didn't want to tell her what we planned in case I couldn't do it a second time. If she still didn't think it could happen for 3 weeks or so, she would be so happy if we managed any earlier. We sneaked off to the 4th bedroom that we had decided to call the game room. I set it up for the full week and logged on.

  ◆◆◆

  Katie's POV

  I was a bit naughty, I admit it. When they decided to go to their room, I knew they were going to talk about me. I should have trusted them to be as nice as they seemed but I was a bit paranoid and was waiting to be disappointed. Usually when I used my powered wheelchair it made quite a bit of noise, however, if you switch the power off, you can still use it, it just takes more muscle. I had been living this way for years and when I wanted a workout, I just switched the power off for a bit. With no power, hardwood floors and good tyres, I was whisper quiet. I sneaked up to their door to overhear their conversation.

  I understood what they were going to do and that they were risking more pain. And why? The implication was because they cared about me. I couldn't believe it. I didn't wait for the end of their conversation. I felt guilty to hear any of it without their permission. I pretended to go back and watch television, but my mind wasn't on it. They said goodnight and then sneaked off to the game room. I noted the time and determined to be there when they returned. I wanted to see this reaction that they were talking about.

  Before the 2 hours were up, I waited patiently outside the game room. I didn't intend to let them know that I was there, but when I heard these heart-rending sobs, I just couldn't help myself. I had to go in and try and comfort her. Andi was on her side curled up in a fetal position, sobbing her heart out and Vee was trying to hug her from behind and stroke her at the same time. As I came closer I could hear Vee muttering sweet reassurances over and over.

  ◆◆◆

  Andi's POV

  After a week in my proper body, as boring as it could be travelling in a closed wagon, I still had had an amazing time. We had made love so often we should both be extremely sore. I felt closer to Vee than ever, but coming back to my male body felt wrong, so utterly fundamentally wrong. I was so completely surrounded by my own misery that I didn't notice anything but Vee behind me, cuddling and stroking me. I was startled out of my sobs by feeling these other hands stroking my face gently. I opened my eyes to see Katie in front of me with this beautiful concerned face stroking me tenderly, just saying, you are loved, over and over again. You are loved.

  “You are not doing that again.” This surprisingly came from Katie after I had calmed down. Vee was nodding. Both had a very serious face on.

  “Don't even try and pretend that it wasn't worse than when you only go for one day,” Vee added.

  “Maybe a little bit worse.”

  “No. And I will be insisting that the only game time you have from now on is here,” Vee stated.

  We both kissed Katie on the forehead with our goodnights. It didn't feel right to just say goodnight without showing a bit of affection. Some things you go through just bind you together.

  When we woke up the next morning, after a routine of getting up and doing Taigoa for the past week, that was what I wanted to do. I knew that I didn't have the same body, the same flexibility or even probably strength, but we moved some of the furniture aside and tried to go through the form in the open plan area. We both had memorised the form and the breathing and were now working on the martial art aspect. Each move was designed to make a strong connection to the earth and through our body to block, punch or hit with another body part. Myra had been showing us how each individual move was supposed to work and we needed to start thinking of its purpose as we performed the form. From what I understood, the entire form was from my mind, probably combining kata that I had seen and fight scenes from television or movies. Regardless, it felt great to do. Really energised me for the day ahead.

  We washed up, had breakfast and were off to the hospital again. He took our measurements and photographed us again. This time he was doing us together. We were both in these hospital gowns. Then he wanted us to go to another area, but I refused to go without putting proper clothes on. He got a bit angry at me like I was wasting his time, but I didn't give him a choice and just started gathering my clothes, putting them back on and getting our stuff together. Vee followed suit. Then we travelled to a gym area and he put us through our paces. I have never been to the gym before and he wasn't testing our endurance just how much we could lift in one go. I'm pretty sure that I was a lot stronger than I had been previously.

  I'm sure it is great to notice those sorts of changes but what we really wanted to know was whether we were moving towards our body image and he wasn't giving us any feedback. When we had finished there he picked up the internal phone and called someone. Now, first of all, I didn't like this doctor, second, he wasn't testing what I thought he was supposed to be testing and third, I felt he was acting suspiciously. So when he phoned, I concentrated and tried to hear the conversation. He was some distance away and had asked me to do these biceps curls, he had already worked out my maximum, but I think he wanted to keep us occupied, he had asked Vee to do the same. All this meant I found it difficult to hear him but I did hear one word that frightened me. Operation.

  I stopped doing the curls and stopped Vee as well so that we could approach him together. He had his back to us but turned around as he put the phone down.

  “Why have you stopped? I didn't ask you to stop.”

  “What is this I hear about an operation?” I asked. I could hear Vee next to me take in a breath in surprise.

  “You heard that eh. I didn't want to worry you.” I was staring into his eyes and they dilated as he was talking. “Well, from the MRI we took yesterday we could see that Veronica has an abnormality in her ovaries and fallopian tubes. We are going to take a biopsy just to check it out, nothing serious.”

  Liar my mind was shouting. There was something from his expression that made me absolutely certain that he was lying. “Vee, we are leaving,” I said to her.

  “You can't do that.” He rushed back to the phone.

  I don't know who he was going to call or what he was going to do, but I wasn't waiting. Fortunately, we were mostly dressed. We had taken our tops off when we started sweating. We both grabbed our tops and Vee's handbag and made a fast walk away. We randomly took
turns, just in case someone was following. I noticed an emergency exit en route and took that. As soon as we did a beeping alarm went off, but we ignored it and walked away, it stopped after the door was closed again. I started phoning Roni as we were walking away. Fortunately, we had both been given company phones and I kept mine in Vee's handbag.

  “Roni, can you get a driver to us at the hospital, as soon as possible.”

  “What's happening Andi?”

  “The doctor wanted to do an operation on Vee's ovaries. We left before he could stop us, but I suspect he is trying to retrieve us as we speak.”

  “NO! Your driver has been assigned to you and should be only minutes away. Are you alright? Just a sec. I'll call you back.” She hung up.

  “Should we call a lawyer, I think Scott is still here, or..”

  The phone started ringing again. It was Roni. “Sorry about that. I thought it was more important that I contact the driver first. He should be there in a couple of minutes and will circle the hospital. If you see a limo, start waving and head towards it. I've also told John, so while we are talking he is finding out what is happening at the hospital. I'm going to stay on the phone. Has Vee got her phone on her?”

  Vee reached into her handbag and found her phone. “Yes.”

  “Can you get her to take a photo of the hospital from where you are and send it to ...who do you have on your phone from the company?”

  “Brett,” Vee said. She surreptitiously took a photo of the hospital.

  “Fine, send it to Brett, we can use it to work out where you are. Give me a second, I just need to interrupt Mr Winslow and grab his phone.”

  She didn't disconnect us and we could hear her apologising, and asking for his personal phone. I could hear him cancel his meeting and almost hear his presence in the background as Roni continued talking to me. “I am going to pass my phone to Mr Winslow so he can speak to you. I will take the photo and use google maps to work out where you are and tell your driver.”

  “Andi, Vee, it's me. What's happening?”

  “The doctor was even weirder than yesterday and when he told us that Vee needed a biopsy of her ovaries, I got us out of there.”

  “Andi, I can see the limo.” We started waving at the car and running towards it. I could hear Brett talking to Roni.

  “Roni, is there a way we can verify that they are heading to our limo and driver.”

  “Yes, I will call him on your phone. You stay on the line with the girls. Jerry, is that you? Are the girls running towards you? That's alright then. Yes, Brett, they are running to Jerry and his limo. Jerry, bring them straight back here, OK.”

  “I don't know what has happened, but I will get to the bottom of it. You should be safe now. Jerry will look after you.”

  As we got close, the driver, who I recognised, opened the back door for us and we scrambled in. “We're in,” I said to Brett a tad unnecessarily.

  Chapter 21

  I cuddled Vee in the large limo area. Jerry left the divider down and I could see him occasionally glance back at us. I was shaking a bit, now that it was over. I think that urged Vee to hold me tighter. Before I knew it, we were back at the head office. Roni was waiting for us at reception with a man who had grey short cut hair and held himself with a stiffness that immediately made me think military. She introduced us to John, head of security, and we all went to the large meeting room near her office.

  At the meeting table was Brett with a guy I recognised from a previous meeting, I think he was a lawyer, and a girl in her 20's. When we came in we were introduced. The lawyer was called David and the girl was called Wren. She looked fine-boned and delicate, so I wondered if that was a nickname. As young as she was, she was head of cybersecurity. This was a council of war.

  John started proceedings with his attempts to get any information from the hospital, which was fruitless. They were, in his words, covering their asses. They had been talking before we arrived and come up with a plan for our approval. First, we wanted all the data that the doctor had and we wanted it then removed from his system. John then quizzed us on exactly what procedures had been done. To our knowledge, measurements, pictures and assessments had all been noted in an iPad. Blood and DNA samples had been taken and a full MRI of both of us had been performed. According to the lawyer, we had a right to all our data, but we didn't have a right to delete it. He produced some forms for us to sign to request all relevant information. He then left the room.

  Once he was gone, Wren explained how, if they had access to his computer they could essentially, take it over. Instead of immediately deleting it, she suggested just preventing any files from leaving the system but observing if he was doing anything with it. See if he was breaking confidentiality and to whom. Then destroying it all. The difficulty was the samples. Roni went off to do some research and found they did both blood and DNA testing on site. His computer may not be able to help in their location so she would need access to the administrative system.

  John then outlined a two strike process. They would go with a team of people immediately and forcibly request all the data that had been gathered, cause distractions as required so that Wren could do whatever she needed to for the access she needed. Once she had remote access and a copy of all the data on his system, they would leave and observe what the good (ha) doctor did next. John was hoping to plant a bug, but Wren suggested using his computer and iPad to transmit audio, which sounded better. The second strike was hopefully to electronically reclassify the samples so that they were destroyed as part of the normal hospital procedures. If not possible, they would need to locate them and retrieve them at a later date.

  This all sounded illegal and scary, so I had to ask if this was all necessary.

  “We don't know,” John answered honestly. “The doctor is trying to insist that you continue to see him. He says it is a matter of national security and that this supersedes all other rights. I know that he will not willingly give up his data and we will need to force the issue. To some extent, that helps us, as we have a reason to set Wren up on his computer. She can pretend that she can't break his protection system. She is not even going to try. Once she has set up a remote log on system. He will in effect break his own system. When he enters any passwords, we will also have them, but he won't know that. He can call the police, but it will be a very confused issue. We will have legal documents saying we have a right to the information and he will claim that he doesn't have to give it, or at least not immediately. We don't want to give him a chance to organise, so want to strike fast.”

  We signed where we needed to, and then he and Wren were off. Which left Brett, Roni, Vee and I to discuss finding a replacement.

  “I had already been working on some alternatives and was going to discuss it with you today. After this morning, we might need different criteria. Almost all the doctors want you to visit them, but I think we need to find someone who would be willing to come here,” Roni said.

  “Do we have the right equipment here, or can we get it?” Brett asked.

  “The only really specialist equipment that they used on us was some eye stuff, that I don't think is that important, and the MRI machine,” Vee added.

  “You might be able to use something different, like ultrasound. That is portable and hire-able. If it has to be MRI, that would be off-site, but there may be a way to get our technicians to run it and acquire the data without upsetting anybody. The question would be the reliability and trustworthiness of everyone involved.” Roni said. “I think I have some research to do.”

  “Maybe we should look for transgender individuals. I'm sure there are doctors who either are or were transgender,” I said.

  “What do you mean were?” Brett asked.

  “After they have had the op, I suspect they consider themselves as women. If they knew what we were trying to achieve, I think they would be very helpful.”

  “But we don't know how far you are going to physically change,” Roni questioned.

  “
That is true. There are two things I would say to that though. Even if I don't physically change, you can spend more time as yourself than you do in real life through VDR. Now I do suffer a bit when I return and feel my male body, but I think most transgendered wouldn't suffer as much as me. I don't think I was truly that way before my, shall we call it a 'game accident'. So it hits me hard. If I had spent my life feeling that way, then VDR may be a relief.”

  Roni nodded her head thoughtfully. “But the only way to check that out would be with another test case, and it would have to be someone transgendered, who hadn't had the op. What was the other thing?”

  “I spent a week in Lagbit's world, partly to see if I was still reacting badly when I returned and partly because we wanted to speed things up and see if we can help Katie. Yes, I did struggle when I returned. The interesting thing though was the next morning, I felt different. It is hard to explain because physically I can't see much change, but this morning I woke up feeling female. I so wish we had found a decent doctor. I have a feeling that internally, I have changed and it is almost complete. The next question in my mind was, did the length of time I spent in Lagbit's world have an impact. As in I changed faster because I spent more time there. It could, of course, be a coincidence. I am also wondering if I will have less reaction returning now that I feel female as I am now.”