Rebirth Ch. 02

"Yes, Doctor."

The machine-like unison made her truly smile. "I love it when you do that."

"Yes, Doctor." She was certain that they did it again this time just to amuse her.

The data finished being sorted by the terminal and, once done, it prompted her for several elements. The doctor filled them all in quickly, save one. Even that particular had been selected long ago, but now she found herself hesitant to enter it. Kayley. Kayley was already intelligent and clever. She had raged understandably, but, in the end, had accepted that which she could not change with vulnerability and grace. That took heart and deserved some sort of notice.

Samuels typed.

It still sounds like a porn name, but I can get used to it.

***

Kayley floated, her mind focused on nothing. The porn had long since disappeared, the visor now giving color to the ways in which the fluid flowed before around her. Her body had changed. She felt it. She felt the needles go deeply and not so deeply into the flesh of her entire body at one point or and she had cum.

She'd breathed deeply all the scents mixed to her breather, some horrid and some pleasant and each time she had cum.

She felt bigger somehow...stronger and when she would let herself feel that, she would cum.

She was warm and held and safe. Nothing could happen to her here and now that wasn't supposed to and when she focused on that security, she would cum. Kayley still had herself and her memories, but they didn't matter. All that mattered was warm and safe. Nothing could and no one would hurt here. She was free to be who she wanted to be.

That that was what someone else wanted her to be was irrelevant.

It had so ceased to matter that when Carlos had become Carl, and Carl had faded to simply a face with bitter feelings that were casting a dark pallor over the safety she felt in the now, she had let them go without concern. As more faded from her grasp she let them go, as they too were just interfering with the safe, warm feeling that came with this place.

Soon, so much was gone that she couldn't even piece together what had been wiped away. She was held and warm and the thrum was certain and comforting. She had no sense of time, though hours had passed. In the end, all that had remained was the giddy excitement like when she was trying to see how high she could swing.

She was empty. She was literally nothing.

Then she was not.

She began to be Kayley again, but not one the old her would recognize in her own mind, much less the mirror. Memories began to fill the blankness and these ones were right. There was no pain to them. Or shame. They were happy and sad, and funny, and embarrassing, but she knew they were all her. Somehow they fit this new body in a way the old ones never would and she embraced them. She knew when she woke that even the sense that there were old memories would be gone. There would only be this Kayley.

Seeing the memories, each in turn, she knew was a Kayley that did not fear or struggle just to get to the next day. This was not a Kayley that was uncertain, waffling between bravery and nearly crippling uncertainty. This Kayley was bright and well-read and thrived with a challenge at hand. This Kayley was beautiful and brilliant and the world would bow before her in its own little ways.

And she knew that if it didn't do so readily, she could bend it to her whim.

This is the Kayley she wanted to be.

***

Hours rolled to days in the process of tank, overlay, and recovery. Again and again and Samuels worked the procedures with the same drive and meticulous attention each time. With the last, knowing it was the last, she let Kayley float in the tank one last time as the doctor slept, then in this recovery area that looked much like a normal hospital room by design.

It was done now and she knew it. It was perfect and she knew it. She knew it with her own certainty, only made granite by Staci and Traci's eyes and their own ability to look at every step with near emotionless detachment. Even so, as Rebecca entered and looked upon that form, seemingly asleep in that bed, she was nervous and afraid in a way that she had never been before in her life. Uncertainty plagued her. As a great bit of science fiction deftly pointed out, having was not so pleasing a thing as wanting. What if it was all for nothing? What if it was something that she really didn't want in the end?

Tough luck, Rebecca. The decision's made and you made it. She didn't ask for this and you did it anyway.

Having her fill of self-doubt, she withdrew a penlight from her coat pocket and clicked it on to see the LED strobe an electric blue before placing it over Kayley's right eye for five seconds, then her left. Pocketing it, she placed her hand over the one that at this moment seemed so frail just because that's what was expected. There was a little more than that perhaps. Resting before her was the culmination of a supreme effort, some of which was experimental. She had faith in it certainly, she wouldn't have used it otherwise.

Still..

Moments passed and the silence was broken by a sharp inhalation and the hand that was once seemed so frail held hers with surprising strength. A more normal breath followed as Kayley's head rolled to the opposite side. Forcing her eyes open, she took stock of her surroundings slowly, her head making its way back to face Samuels. When their eyes met she squeezed the hand again and smiled even though her eyes still carried her confusion. "Mom?"

Samuels felt in a way that she had never felt before. She loved. Simply. Instantly, as if a switch was thrown inside her. This was her child in every way. She was beautiful and brilliant. She would be expressive of her feelings in ways that Rebecca sometimes found so difficult, yet able to have her mother's clinical detachment when need be. She would be like her in some ways and simply better in others as every child was and should be.

The doctor had skipped actually having to suffer the grind of all of the runny noses and school plays and seemingly perpetual teenage melancholy. She did so without dismissing them because she knew as a practical matter this was the stuff of life. They shared the memories of all of it because they were Rebecca's hopes, and dreams and the result of playing out a thousand what ifs in her minds. She'd crafted every memory down to the last detail over years, then watched and refined them until they were perfectly imperfect. She crafted until they were all the things that bound a mother and daughter in love and a sense of family. She could still enjoy the fruits of the path not taken.

That smile...like she was safe now and if she wasn't, her mother was there and would fix everything melted her soul. "Mom, what happened?"

She cleared her throat to push back the tears while failing to stop the mist. She caressed that smooth cheek and ran her fingers through that thick, almost impossibly black hair, "There was an accident with the car. Do you remember?"

Kayley looked up at the ceiling, searching as though it held her answers, "I think... Yeah, going along fine, some guy crossed the median...crossed me and..." Her eyes widened in panic. "Lyssa? Oh, God, is Lyssa okay?"

Samuels nodded quickly. "Shhhh...she's okay, I promise, honey. She's resting down the hall. I had you both brought here as soon as I could. We could take care of you here the way a regular hospital couldn't...'round the clock, the best of everything and all focused on getting you well." She shocked herself at how quickly the loving words came in order to try to soothe Kayley.

She was instantly reassured, her body sinking more deeply into the bed. "You know...we know... more than they do anyway."

Samuels was reassured as well and she stood, seemingly unable to take the smile from her face as she leaned over her daughter, taking in her perfection and the knowledge that that was a mother's hand in a great many ways."Yes, we do."

"Can I see her?"

"In a few hours, all right? I'll check on her for you while you try to get a few hours more sleep for me. After that, you can see her. If the two of you take it easy enough for a couple of days I might be persuaded to take you and your mousy little girlfriend out to dinner."

Kayley heard the play in her mother's voice, so the words didn't upset. "Just because she's quiet and shy doesn't make her mousy. Just because she doesn't act like she owns every place she goes like someone I know..."

"Who might that be?"

"Find a mirror and get back to me."

"Well, your joy at occasionally being difficult is still intact." Samuels kissed Kayley's forehead with something akin to reverence. She let her lips linger, not wanting to surrender the moment. Kayley's hand touched her face. "Thanks, Mom. I love you."

"I love you too, Kayley" Hah. Isn't that something? I'm used to 'Kayley' already.

As Samuel's walked towards the door Kayley called out. "I'll be a good girl now for Italian when you take us out."

"Seems fair. Cannoli included, I suppose? Where to?"

Kayley's tone sounded like an eye roll. "Did you hit your head or something? There's only one place for good Italian in this town, including Cannoli."

The grin Kayley didn't see was ear-to-ear. "Quite true."

End.