Chapter 2

Sunday, I got a surprise visit from Janet! I had just finished breakfast and there was a knock at the door. When I glanced at my front door camera, I was surprised to see her, and in her civies as well.

“Janet! Great to see you, I didn’t expect you to be here today.”

“Huh, well, I was expecting to see less of you, actually,” she replied, looking me up and down.

When I looked down, I realized that I only had on boxers and my ratty robe, and the robe was hanging wide open! Spinning around to face the other direction, I wrapped the robe back around me and cinched it tight, glad I had not been any more exposed!

When I looked over my shoulder, Janet was not even trying to cover her smirk and, when she saw my face, she burst out laughing.

“Um, sorry, I, um, well. Shit. I wasn’t expecting company, okay?”

“It’s cool, Lex, I understand,” she said, once she quit laughing, “I like to run nude around my house.”

I froze for a second, trying to picture that. Janet was pretty, if a bit stiff most of the time. She was very fit and, when she smiled, the severe planes of her face softened and she became very attractive indeed!

She laughed at me again, knowing exactly what I was doing. She rolled her eyes and punched me in the shoulder as she stalked past me, taking herself on a walking tour of my apartment.

It wasn’t very big, the apartment, I mean. It was a one bedroom, hardly larger than a studio, in fact, but it was enough for me. The small bedroom was just about filled with the king-sized bed I stuffed in there, the living room had a couch and a single chair, both facing the entertainment center. The kitchenette was a postage-stamp sized tiled area with a two-burner stove, a thin refrigerator and a tiny sink. Almost no storage or counter space, it was enough for a bachelor.

“Not quite the love nest I expected, Romeo,” Janet said with a grin, shaking her head and taking a seat in the recliner.

For some reason, I felt a little embarrassed, though I wasn’t sure exactly why. This was my place, I liked it, she showed up unannounced and criticizes my place, then I felt bad? Okay, I might expect this with Alexi, she’s a little sensitive to criticism, but Alex just gets annoyed, not embarrassed.

“Yeah, well, it’s not like I entertain much,” I mumbled, trying figure this out. “Can I get you some coffee? Tea? Soda?”

“Coffee would be good, then get dressed, we are going out.”

“We are?”

“Didn’t I just say we were? Man, it wasn’t that long ago you were my rookie, rook, and you better not have forgotten my rules.”

“Um, sure thing, Sarge. Getting dressed. Right away.”

Man, this was a trip! Still, I had no other plans today except seeing if Changes was open or not on a Sunday, so, yeah, okay.

See, I pretend to think things out, to carefully consider my choices, but the reality is different. I was already showered and dressed before I got around to making a decision. As if I had a choice.

“Bring gym stuff, shorts, shoes, whatever. Oh, and don’t forget a cup.” Janet ordered, tossing me a small duffle from my closet. How did... ?

She refused to answer questions and, instead, just chatted about the weather, about how it felt to be out, what I had done since Friday morning and so on. The drive was about twenty minutes and we pulled to a stop in a reserved parking slot in front of a building that housed a nail salon, a beauty parlor, a phone store, and a dojo.

The parking spot placard said, ‘Reserved for Visiting Instructor Only, all others will be towed.‘

Ah. Okay then. I still remembered my academy classes and I had even taken almost a year of Aikido with Molly. She had wanted a partner to practice with and hated going to night classes alone.

Inside, Janet stopped to chat with a woman in a gray gi with a blackbelt wrapped around her waist. The woman, not introduced, gave me the once over and a sort of half-glare, half-scornful dismissal, and went into an office behind the receptionist’s desk. She came back out with a stained, but clean, gi and tossed it to me.

Without another word, Janet pointed to the men’s locker room and said ‘Five minutes. Don’t make me come and look for you.”

The lockers had those bus station keys. You know what I mean? You close the locker and lock it, the key comes out, but when you open it, the key is trapped so you can’t take it with you. No coins or tokens though, that was something.

I put on the shorts and t-shirt, and yes, the cup, then donned the Gi, awkwardly tying the belt around my waist. We hadn’t used a Gi at our Aikido training, using a wider, Velcro closure style belt instead, so I wasn’t sure how it was supposed to look.

Outside again, Janet appeared after only a moment, and she led me into a side room where a dozen young ladies were all kneeling on the padded floor, waiting for something. When I would have gone to join them, Janet smirked and grabbed my Gi, holding me back.

“Good morning, class,” Janet said loudly, addressing the young women.

“Good morning, sensei!” they called back loudly, then bowed their heads in unison.

“Today we have a treat. This is officer Lex Crawford, a man I helped to train a while back. He is going to be our demonstration model today, for you to practice on, so try not to break him, okay?”

I was? Wait ... did I agree to this?

“YES, Sensei!” they called, and all eyes turned to me. Did I say young women? I was wrong. Clearly, they were something much, much more dangerous. Feral, even. I finally know what is meant by feeling like a piece of meat, and I don’t like it one bit.

It was a long, painful hour and I ended up bruised, dazed, out of breath and soaked with sweat when it was over. That each of those demons smiled so sweetly at me, thanking me, as they left, was salt in the wounds! Evil, vicious creatures, every one of them!

I lay there, flat on my back, my nose still leaking a little blood from an errant punch, and tried to get my heart to somewhere below a million beats a minute. Janet looked as fresh as when we started and was smiling down at me, unless that was a frown, since she was standing over my head and was upside down, from my perspective anyway. No, no, it was a smile, I am sure of it.

“You did great, Lex. Consider this a test, of a sort. Now, get up, you lazy shit, and get showered. You are not getting in my car smelling like that,” she said, offering me one hand and holding her nose with the other.

I must have taken longer than I figured, getting showered and dressed again because, when I came out, Janet was talking the same woman from earlier. This time, the woman looked me over and nodded, once. She didn’t smile, but that was okay, somehow.

“I, um, I put the Gi in the clothes hamper in there, I hope that was the right place?”

She nodded her head again, just once, and turned, walking back into her office and slamming the door. Janet just looked amused.

“She’s a real people person, she is.” I said, shaking my head.

“She’s ... touchy, around men. Getting gang raped and left for dead with a knife pinning your breast to a wooden pallet will do that to a woman,” Janet said, sounding very hard at the moment.

“Look, Sarge, I,” but she held up a hand. I could see her counting to ten and taking deep, cleansing and calming breaths.

“Just ... Lex, you will eventually learn this for yourself, unless you are one of few, the very few, lucky girls. Abuse, harassment, physical threats, violence, and rape are not anomalies the rare woman faces, they are the reality that every woman faces. There were fourteen students in my class, only two of them had not been raped.”

I was stunned. I mean, you hear stuff, you know? We have sensitivity classes and we pay just enough attention to pass the test at the end and count it done for the year, but I never, not really, internalized what it actually meant. Those girls ... those sweet, violent, young ladies, had all suffered real attacks, not some cold statistical anomaly.

I felt ... sick. Nauseous. I guess it must have shown on my face because Janet steered me outside to the curb where I wouldn’t make such a mess. I held it in, I have a strong stomach, but the thought of being raped when I was Alexis, it was terrifying.

“This was a test? What kind of fucked up test was it, Sarge? Did I pass? Am I human, is that what it is?” I was upset, angry, hurt...

“I needed to see if you could keep your cool while girls half your size were beating on you. While you were a piece of meat, a target for some repressed anger,” she said quietly. “You were a bit of a prick, back then, but I expected it so it was easy to overlook. I wanted to see if this had changed you and if so, in which direction. Okay, so now we know, so suck it up, buttercup, we got more places to be today.”

Her sudden change from quiet and supportive, back to Training Officer Fleet, was startling, but it was also ... familiar. Comforting, in a way, and I responded like I was back being her rookie again, taking a deep breath and standing tall.

Janet took me to the range to have me re-qualify, it had been too long since I had shot a course for score. I performed surprisingly well without even a warmup, and then we practiced a bit before we shot for the record. I had bested my personal score by almost twenty points!

Last appointment of the day was the offensive driving course, and that went well too. I had always been tops in my classes when it came to being behind the wheel and I hadn’t lost anything.

At the end of the day, Janet dropped me off with a word of advice.

“You did good today, Lex, real good. Tomorrow, whether you go in as Alex or Alexis, remember your training. You were a good cop before; I think you will be a better one now. I think this is a good thing for you, Alex. Go in there and knock ‘em dead.”

Monday morning. I was a wreck. I was still Alex, so I could wear my uniform, which gave me a psychological advantage, I thought. They could not treat me like an unknown, like a civilian. They would have to acknowledge me as a Police officer with an outstanding record. I had three commendations and two letters in my file, and I had earned each one of them. They could not just dismiss me; I wouldn’t let them.

I marched in, my head held high and took a seat where I was told to sit, looking each of the five members of the review board in the eye.

“Officer Crawford, I see you got a clean bill of health from the psychologist. They say, for the record, that your unique status as a dual-state Type Two was handled badly by the League when it was recognized, and that the mishandling, for a period of over a year, caused the issues you faced and not something in your personal character or mental state. I have signatures from five psychologists recommending that you be reinstated according to the laws of the state and of the USNA regulations on dealing with post Emergence Trauma.”

There was a slight pause as they all turned to look at one another.

“All in favor of reinstatement pending requalification of those skills whose certifications may have expired?”

It was unanimous and it was over. Other than saying I could report to the desk Sergeant to schedule my certification testing, and a congratulations, it was done. In an out in less than five minutes and I felt ... relieved? Disappointed? Definitely a little off balance! I went in there ready for a battle and they just ... surrendered?

When I came out, I saw two or three guys I knew hanging around, all looking surprised that I was out so soon.

“What happened, Crawford, why are you back out here?” Gleeson, a beanpole guy with an Adam’s apple like a baby fist, was the first to speak.

“They reinstated me. Just got to requalify on a few things.” I said, still a bit in shock.

“CONGRATS!” There was a huge cry and a couple dozen cops poured into the hallway from where they were standing around the corner. I could see Janet at the back, grinning like a loon. Obviously, something she set up and I gave her the finger, but I was too busy getting my hand shook and pounded on the back to get close to her.

There was a cake and everything although, being cops, it wasn’t some flowery, sweet and sentimental type of cake. Nope, it was one of those booby cakes, you’ve seen them, a female torso? Only they had cut one boob off and dressed half the cake in a cop uniform, the other half in a teddy.

Assholes, every single one, but I wouldn’t have traded that moment for anything. That was typical cop behavior and it meant acceptance, in a weird, totally dysfunctional sort of way.

My certifications only took half a day, since Sarge had me certified for the other half on her say so, based on our Sunday fun jaunt. I had to get a hearing and eye test, already had a physical. Then it was just updates to the laws and regs while I was out and just like that, I was ready to be assigned.

I got the rest of the day off, with me joining Janet, no, Sarge, on nights starting tomorrow night. I had lost some seniority and was back on nights for a while, but that was okay.

I used my spare time wisely, going down to Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes and getting Amanda to fix me up for my male half, and that included giving me a few items that could be easily concealed and carried with me. Like a basketweave stamped, black leather tampon holder that fit my duty belt. Unbelievable, but fitting with the rest of my odd life.

The next two weeks were weird, adjusting to working again after sitting around for so long. And nights, too! That was a whole other set of adjustments and, frankly, worried me a bit. The thought of falling asleep somewhere and waking up wearing the wrong uniform was unnerving.

Nothing bad happened though, I went to work the first night as Alexis, and for three nights after, then had two nights as Alex, followed by two more as Alexis again.

My partner, a quiet guy named Jepson, was phlegmatic about it all.

“Yeah, so, you are a little weird. I can see in the dark thanks to my flashlight and I have perfect hindsight,” he told me the first night, laughing when I shook my head at the ridiculous comment. He was a joker and had me in stitches for the rest of the night.

“I don’t care what you got in your uniform pants, Crawford, as long as what it is stays in the pants, capiche? My wife has just enough of that mind-reading stuff that in fifteen years, I have never snuck a lie past her. Have I lusted after some woman I saw on the job? Yes. Have I ever done even the slightest thing about it? No. And don’t go thinking I am lusting secretly after you, okay? It ain’t like that. I got this thing, see about humongous breasts. I don’t know why; my mom was flatter than a pancake. Anyway, the wife is a double G, poor woman has back pain and a devoted husband.”

Like I said, things were quiet. We had a relatively stable section we patrolled and, other than a screaming domestic or two, a car accident and a sloppy drunk who trying to push his car home because he couldn’t afford another Driving While Intoxicated arrest, things were peaceful.

It made what happened even more of a shock, I guess. We got a call about a car accident, a motor vehicle had hit a power pole and there were wires down, sparking in the street. When we responded, we weren’t aware of the second vehicle, just one and the power pole.

When we rolled up, it was eerie. The streetlights were out and, because of the electricity, the entire neighborhood was black too. There were flashing emergency blinkers on a car sitting skewed in the intersection, the hood buckled and steam pouring out from under the hood. The front passenger side was destroyed, the wheel and tire lying flat on the ground.

The car that left the road and hit the power pole, was wrapped around it; the whole car folded into a horseshoe shape. The lights were still on though, and they were enough to illuminate the steam from the first car and some flickering that might be a flame underneath.

All of that was seen in an instant, but our attention was drawn to two wires; one lying flat under the car wrapped around the power pole, and sending out showers of sparks every couple of seconds. Another wire, still suspended so only the tip was touching the street, would impact something metallic, maybe a fender? Each time, a huge spray of sparks would jet out, sending the swinging wire flying out in random, erratic arcs.

We jumped out of the car and stared for a moment, not sure what to do next, but we were aware of crying, like that of a small child and, as I moved slowly around the vehicle in the center of the intersection, it was certain the child was inside that car.

I was about to make a dash over to the car when the swinging cable chose that moment to spark against a fender on the other car and come flying right at me.

I have no idea what possessed me to do that, but I reached out and caught the cable. It was spectacular for me, so I can only imagine how it looked for other people. That cable flew right at me and the second I touched it, I froze up and I could feel the electricity surge through me, freezing my muscles, blanking out my sight and hearing. I felt pain for a second, smelled that unforgettable scent of burning hair, and then ... nothing.

Well, not nothing, I was okay. I mean, I was holding a wire with like, thousands of volts of electricity, and my hair was all standing on end, but I was okay. I walked the wire over to the other downed wires, finding one that was not live, and tied mine off so it wouldn’t be swinging anymore.

Meanwhile, my partner had smashed a window on the back of the car in the intersection and pulled out two kids from the back, and a woman from the front. The driver was still in the car, but unresponsive and trapped behind the wheel so I got on the radio, or tried to, only to find my radio was fried. In fact, so was my watch, my comm unit and the electronic safety on my sidearm. All fried.

Thankfully, Jepson was on the case and called it in, asking for a rush help for a trapped accident victim. While he was calling in, I moved to the other car, the one sitting at the base of the pole and over the first live wire. I couldn’t see anyone or anything in the back seat or in the passenger side of the front, but I could see the driver and it would take a miracle, or some super healing to come back from that. It looked, from my point of view, like the steering column was actually protruding from the rear of the driver’s seat, after going through the driver.

I spent the next ten minutes trying to look after the other driver, the live, trapped one, while we waited for rescue. We actually got some Hero help on this one, surprising the hell out of me. A few years as a cop and I had never even seen one up close!

The guy who landed was named Frank. I kid you not. When people asked him his name, it was always the same. “Just call me Frank.” I have no idea why. Humility? No imagination?

He is a superman type, flight, strength, invulnerability, that sort of thing. Lots of them around, supposedly, but never when you need one. Except Frank was here, now, and needed them, so that blew my stupid theory out the window.