Drew cried on Harry's shoulder for some ten minutes or so. Harry kept rubbing his girlfriend's back and saying it was, “Okay.” At the same time he kept glancing at Maddy who was sat uncomfortably on the edge of the bed, her face looking as uncomfortable as her physical status. Every now and again, Harry would make eye contact and Maddy would either shrug her shoulders or roll her eyes upwards. Neither action helped Harry, whose shirt was now quite damp on the shoulder.

Finally, Drew gave a huge shudder and managed to stop the waterworks. He realised he'd been weeping all over Harry, and gently pushing him away, Drew reached for a towel from his bedside locker and wiped his face. He took some deep breaths for a moment, then said, “Sorry about that….”

“That's okay,” said Harry, he didn't add, ‘anytime'. Drew said nothing but blushed deeply, realising that if Harry ever found out the truth, he'd be very upset.

Maddy handed Drew some tissues, for which he thanked her, glad to distract himself from his torment. “Feeling better?” she said.

“Yeah,” said Drew after taking a deep breath. He coughed a little, but his chest felt clearer than it had for days. “I hope I can come home soon.”

“That'll be good,” beamed Harry, “then you can see my turbo trainer.”

“What!” exclaimed Drew.

“I've got a turbo.” Harry's chest puffed out with pride.

“Wow!” said Drew, “You'll be fitter than I am.”

“Not when you get back into training, but I'll be glad just to be able to keep up with you for a bit longer.” Harry was blushing as he said this, it was meant as tremendous compliment to his love.

“That could be some time yet. Karen, the physio, is helping me clear my chest and she thinks it's going well.” This led into more small talk between the three teens. A while later, Drew said, “They've asked mum to open the hospital fete.”

“That'd be cool!” suggested Harry.

“Will you be able to go, too?” asked Maddy.

“Dunno, ‘spect so. Mum hasn't said she'll do it yet.” Drew sat back in the chair gauging the response from his two friends. Harry was enthusiastic, Maddy was neutral.

“Will that be safe?” asked Maddy after a momentary deliberation.

“Why not, if I feel well enough. I can always take a coat if it's cold,” said Drew looking a bit puzzled.

“You don't know, do you?” replied Maddy.

“Don't know what?” Drew now looked anxious rather than puzzled.

“Meadows tried to kill Harry, killed someone else by mistake.” Maddy said this in such a matter of fact way, that Drew felt a coldness in his stomach.

“They don't know for sure it was Meadows, but that's what they think.” Offered Harry trying to change the mood a little.

“What happened?” asked Drew, “Did he try to run you off the road?”

“No, not exactly.” Harry looked at his feet as he answered.

“He put a rope across the road, a motorbiker hit it, took his head off.” The words came from Maddy.

Drew responded by throwing up, just managing to contain the mess into the towel which was still in his lap. The ward nurse Suzanne heard the commotion and assisted with the clean up. She took Maddy off with her and told her she didn't think it was a wise thing to tell her friend. “I was only trying to warn her, that Meadows will be waiting if she goes to the hospital fete thing.”

“Don't worry about that, there'll be some police about too. If he tried anything, they'd have him.”

“They haven't so far,” said Maddy with almost a sneer. “It was those two,” she indicated Harry and Drew, “who got him last time.”

“In which case, maybe it would be good if she came then,” Suzanne was a bit frosty back to Maddy, as she walked off with the dirty towel wrapped in a plastic bag. Maddy stormed back to Drew's cubicle with a face like thunder.

“What was all that about?” asked Drew.

“Stupid nurse!” snapped Maddy, indicating the matter was closed for the duration.

“Harry's gonna bring me in some pictures of his trainer,” said Drew changing the subject.

“Wow!” said Maddy with almost a contemptuous tone, “Every other girl has pictures of puppies or kittens around their bed, you'll have one of a turbo trainer. Like I said, wow.”

“Am I boring you?” asked Drew, asserting himself.

“No, why?” asked Maddy innocently.

“I get the impression, you'd rather be somewhere else,” said Drew curtly.

“I'll go then.” With that Maddy turned on her heel, and marched down the ward and was gone.

“Oh!” said Drew, “She's gone.”

“Shall I go and get her?” offered Harry.

“No, she'll be alright. I don't now what's got into her today.”

“Maybe she's…..you know what..” offered Harry, at which Drew looked blank before nodding. Drew almost added, ‘Bloody women,' but his honorary status as one, stopped him just in time.

Drew and Harry chatted like two old friends, a boy and a girl, Drew being unaware that his conversation and manner were all girl. He listened rather than talked, and Harry's confidence grew, which enabled him to sparkle even more. Before he left, Harry had Drew giggling several times, once to the point of inducing a coughing fit, which frightened them both for a couple of minutes.

Eventually, when lunchtime came and Harry had to leave, Drew felt quite lonely. He had really enjoyed Harry's efforts to impress him and more importantly, to make him laugh. His appetite was improving, but he toyed with his lunch rather than tucking into it, he missed Harry already and to a lesser extent Maddy, as well.

As his fork chased the potato around his plate, he recognised what had happened in the past couple of hours. Maddy had flounced off because she was no longer the centre of his attention. On the other hand, Harry had stayed and had focused his attention entirely, so he had barely noticed Maddy's departure. Worryingly, he had been entertained as a girl by Harry, and he had enjoyed it without noticing, until now. He had slipped into the role, laughing at pathetic jokes, listening attentively, asking questions which allowed Harry to embroider his anecdotes to his best light.

Drew felt a tear slip down his cheek. He didn't know why it happened, but he couldn't stop it. It was followed by one from his other eye. Why was he weeping? For a loss of some sort, that of his boy-self? He didn't know.

He tried to understand what he was feeling, he wasn't sure what that was. He wondered if he had to choose between Harry and Maddy, to come and see him after lunch, he'd choose Harry. What was happening?

He'd known Maddy nearly all his life, he loved her as a girl friend. Then he stopped for a moment, ‘as a girl friend'! Just a girl friend, and to whom, himself as Drew or as Gaby? He reflected on the time he'd just spent with Harry, it was definitely as Gaby; Drew didn't even cast a shadow let alone enter his head. He wasn't sure he was feeling all this, maybe things were the other way around, and he as Drew, was a figment of Gaby's imagination. That was scary stuff, which meant Gaby was the real person and Drew was a pretence.

Feeling very scared and the tears coming at regular intervals, he tried to think when he'd last been Drew. On the trip down here, as far as the services and the collision with the cup of coffee. After that, things began to slip away from his control, or so it seemed. Maddy was often a factor, encouraging him or deceiving him into becoming Gaby. Once or twice he'd done it himself for devilment, like the trip out with his dad, when he'd dressed to the nines to go to the bike shop. That had had the desired effect of making his father nearly choke. The business with the facemask, that had made him smile too, his father being the butt of the joke again. The joke being that he had immersed himself deeper into girly stuff than was expected by his unwitting father.

But those were harmless pranks, or were they? What if they were something else, like a personal statement? Drew gasped, and a tear dropped off the end of his nose, leaving a wet mark on his nightdress. He hadn't seen it like that before, but he realised why his dad had got so upset, it had been taken as a personal statement or one of future intent, “Here I am all girlyfied, and here I stay.” Drew felt a coldness in his tummy and despite the warmth of the day, gave a little shiver. He wasn't sure what to think, except, the fun with Harry had no such ambiguity.

Okay, Harry didn't know that he, Drew, was really a boy and to change that position would cause all parties great upset and loss of face. As Drew, his reputation could be compromised, and Harry would be greatly distressed. Drew had watched the boy come out of his shell, develop enough courage to face off a bully, and to begin a regime of training which almost rivalled his own. All this, because he thought Drew was a girl called Gaby, whom he wanted to impress because he liked her very much.

Things were getting deep, very deep, or at least our hero was getting in deep. He knew Harry was a bit infatuated with Gaby. It had started as almost a joke between Maddy and him. Now it was no longer a joke, the favour he had granted Harry, to pretend to be his girlfriend had long palled. In effect, he was now Harry's girlfriend, or at least Harry thought so. Things weren't getting out of hand, they had got so far away from his control, he felt like a cork bobbing in the sea, very passive and, he hated to admit it, rather girlish.

What could he do about it? That was the problem as well as the question, because, in reality, he couldn't do much at all. He needed to get better and to get the hell out of here. To get home, to Warsop, forget Harry despite his feelings for Gaby, and ‘hers' for him, to forget Gaby and to make it up with Maddy, but as boy and girlfriend, as it used to be, as it should be.

A tear dropped off his nose onto his nightie directly above his breast. He felt the coldness of the wet and his nipple responded by enlarging. He rubbed it with his finger and felt a tingle run through his body, but as well he felt how large his breast had become. If what his fingers were feeling was true, he wouldn't be walking about without a shirt on in the gym, anytime soon. He had definite breast growth. He felt its partner, and discovered they came in pairs. The realisation that he had girl's breasts, but was a boy, made him shudder.

Then a second feeling wrapped itself around the first; if he was turning into a girl, he could stay friends with Harry. He smiled, and he felt both nipples grow and press against the front of his nightdress. Suddenly, he became aware of this and became very embarrassed, blushing and cringing. As he asked himself, “What did this mean?” he spotted his parents and Jules walking down the ward towards him. His nightdress was still displaying his proud nipples, and he panicked as he was sure his mother would notice them, or worse, his father. Good grief, what would father say to see her with erect nipples? Quickly he reached over and pulled a towel around his neck, letting it drape well down his chest, he stood up pretending to just see them, “Oh hi, I was just going to the bathroom, I'll be back in a minute.”

Once safely ensconced in the bathroom, Drew slipped off the nightdress and examined his body. He stood face on to the mirror, his small breasts with larger than male nipples, stood proudly before him. He was almost shocked. He couldn't believe these things had grown overnight, but why hadn't he noticed them before?

He moved to a sideways view, they were even more noticeable, the pert nipples pointing slightly upwards from the little mounds on his chest. “Holy shit!” he said to himself, then felt himself blush. In the coolness of the bathroom and practically naked the nipples grew from the areolas surrounding them. “Oh my God!” he said, as he watched them harden in the cold. “What am I gonna do? I can't go to school like this, geez, what am I gonna do?”

He faced the mirror again, it showed his naked body down below his waist, but not as far as his genitals. He could see the curve in of his waist and the outward curve of his hips. He could only see girl, Drew had pretty well disappeared. He looked down at his groin, despite no knickers, it hardly showed. He tried to convince himself that he was embarrassed and it was cool, hence ‘Little Drew' was smaller than usual, plus that gaff thing wouldn't help.

He couldn't explain his breasts, but his narrow waist and larger hips had to be from cycling. It was simply muscle. Once he stopped training as much, it would look like any other boy's. The same would apply to his bum, it was just muscle, albeit of a wobbly variety. Yes, that was it, nothing wrong with him, once he could get back on his bike he'd burn of the fat in his chest. These things must have come since he'd been ill. It had to be, that would explain why he hadn't noticed them! Relieved, he slipped back on the nightdress went to the toilet and then after washing his hands, went back to his bed and waiting family.

He congratulated himself as he waltzed back to his bed, there was nothing wrong, he was perfectly normal and just waiting the chance to go home and prove it.

“You look better,” said his mother hugging him and pecking him on the cheek. He hugged and kissed his father and Jules.

“Yeah, I like, feel much better. When can I come home?” He plonked down in his chair, the expedition to the bathroom had tired him.

“I'll try and find out for you kiddo,” said Dave, and he disappeared in the general direction of the ward office.

“So did Harry come and see you?” asked his mother.

“Yeah, he came in with Mad, but she was in a funny mood and flounced off after a tiff with one of the nurses.”

“Oh,” said Jenny, “She hadn't come home before we left.”

“She's gone shopping I expect, Monsoon has a sale on,” suggested Jules, but Drew felt a little uneasy. He reached for his mobile and while chattering away to his mother, he sent a quick text to Maddy. – “ U OK? Lt me no. D xxx.”

“Have you heard our news?” enthused Jules.

Drew looked up from his mobile, “Oh yeah, like, it was on hospital radio.”

Looking crestfallen, Jules continued, “Oh, so you know.”

“No, I was joking. How would I know, nobody tells me anything. I'm in here, it's like a prison.”

“Now Gabs, no need to be so nasty to your sister, she's only trying to be nice to you.”

“Sorry,” said Drew, almost so quietly that no one heard it. Then as no one else spoke he added, “Well what's this news then?”

Jules looked at him suspiciously, then beaming broadly said, “Mum's gonna open the fete, and John is part of the archery team doing a display.”

“ ‘arrowing!” said Drew, at which Jules made a face, which he did back.

“You two are like a pair of six year olds, for goodness sake grow up. Sisters are supposed to love each other…” Both of them were about to challenge the last part of Jenny's statement, then thought better of it.

“What changed your mind?” asked Drew of his mother.

“Well it looked as if I was still going to be here, and we thought it would be nice to give something back to the hospital who had saved my little girl.”

Drew winced at the description he assumed referred to him. “Yeah, why not.” Then he looked at Jules, “So do you have to do like, stand in front of the target with an apple on your head?” It was wind up time.

“Oh very funny, Gabs. No, I've arranged for then to shoot you off your stupid bike.”

“Girls, please. No more bickering, I've told you once, that should suffice.”

As she was remonstrating with her offspring Dave returned. Blissfully unaware of what had preceded his return, he began, “Well the good news is, they are pleased with your progress. The bad news is, they want you in a few more days to get more gunk off your chest. So they are looking at next weekend at the earliest.”

“They're not just saying that to keep you lot here for their stupid fete, are they?”

“Dre….Gaby, I doubt it very much. To start with, even when we take you back to the cottage, it could be a bit longer before you're well enough to travel.” Drew said nothing in response, but by looking down at the floor, everyone knew he was not best pleased with the news.

Dave looked at his younger daughter and noticed the tears forming and beginning to run down her nose. He moved round to her, knelt in front of her and offered her a hug, which she accepted. “Don't worry kiddo, you'll soon be home.”

“Why can't I come now?” sobbed our hero, holding on tightly to Dave.

“You need to clear your chest of that green gunk;” he said rubbing her back.

“Why can't I come in to see Karen, instead of staying in here?” continued Drew.

“I don't know love,” Dave responded, “but I'm sure they wouldn't keep you in if it wasn't necessary.” He continued to comfort his child as best he could and eventually the tears stopped. As if to prove Dave correct, Drew had another coughing fit, the look he shared with his father, meant neither needed to say anything.

The family meeting continued only to be interrupted by Karen. “Hi Gaby, this is your family, I take it.”

“You can take them all right!” grinned Drew at his favourite physio. “This is Karen, by the way.” Introductions were made.

“I came to warn you, that tomorrow apart from bashing you about, I'm going to have you come up the gym to do a bit of exercising. So can you wear some ordinary clothes tomorrow.”

Drew looked at his mother, who looked back at him. “I think there's some shorts and a tee shirt in your locker, and a pair of sandals.” She opened the small cabinet beside the bed. “Yes, your pink tee shirt and shorts and the white sandals. Will that be okay?”

“Fine, I'll see you tomorrow.” Karen made her goodbyes, struggling with her mop of blonde hair as she went through the doors.

“She seems nice enough,” said Jenny, sitting back on the end of the bed.

“You don't know her as well as I do. She beats people up for a living, I know, I've like, got the bruises, to like, prove it, ” said Drew, at which point everyone laughed.

As the laughing continued, Drew's mobile went off. He picked it up and looked at it, “That's odd!” he exclaimed.

Angharad ap Gwilym 09.08.06 © 2006
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