Part 4: Interlude

Steven's workday went a lot better than he had expected. To his surprise he'd found that one of the temporary employees was not only very intelligent, but also had an education. Steven had instantly offered him a permanent position and had then forced Baker to back him up. Now he had a chance to at least get the whole group on the right track, even if he only had two days left to straighten out the mess. From the intelligence and sheer determination the new kid had shown today, perhaps Steven could be on that Friday afternoon flight back home after all.

He was in a great mood as he stopped in the hotel dining room to eat, then hurried back to his room to get ready to make that call to Kelly. He was really looking forward to that. This time though, he planned on being ready for anything she tried. He wasn't going to let her catch him by surprise like he'd been caught last night.

He had checked with the hotel desk earlier and found that they could install a temporary phone in his room that didn't go through the switchboard, instead he could use his calling card to make a direct dialled call from his room. Somehow he felt that the minimal charge for installing it was well worth the fact that he wouldn't be calling on a traceable cell phone. Not only that, but he planned on being nude and laying down on the bed when he made his call. As well, he intended to have a towel and washcloth handy, just for emergencies of course.

After a quick shower, he lay back on the bed and dialled the phone.

"Hello?"

"Kelly?" He asked, not recognising her voice.

"No, it's Gerry. Is that Steven?"

"Oh. Hi Gerry, is Kelly handy."

"Oh yes, she's very handy, but we think you and I should talk, before she does." He could hear the smile in Gerry's voice, but he thought he could hear a touch of apprehension there as well. "She was quite annoyed with you for cutting her off last night. She had something important to tell you and I would have liked to have had the chance to say hello and to tell you thank you for having me here."

"Oh, oh. I didn't mean to get either of you upset. I'm sorry I didn't talk to you and wish you welcome, but why was Kelly annoyed? What did she want to tell me?"

"Well, you gave her permission to 'fiddle around' with me and you didn't give her time to explain all of the facts." Gerry sounded hesitant and paused for a few seconds. "I'm not just a lesbian."

"That's rather obvious since you have a child." He laughed.

"Ahh, but I didn't carry her in my womb, my girlfriend did." Gerry sighed. "In fact, I don't have a womb, my ovaries and vagina aren't connected."

"Oh." Steven paused as his mind whirled. "You mean that the baby is your girlfriend's, not yours?"

"Oh no, the baby is mine too. I have a DNA test to prove it."

"But..." His mind whirled as he tried to think of a way for that to happen. "Do you mean that you used some sort of medical procedure to have a baby with your girlfriend? What do they call it, in-vitro fertilization, or something?"

"No, nothing like that. It all happened the completely natural way, even if all the odds were against it." Gerry sighed. "We simply didn't take the precautions that we should have."

"I don't understand." He frowned, unable to connect the dots to make sense of the puzzle. "How can you possibly have made your girlfriend pregnant?"

"Well, do you remember when you'd just gone to university and I had to go into hospital?"

"Yeah, I do. When I came to see you, you had the hospital refuse to let me into your room. The only one you'd let in your room to see you was Mom."

"I had a reason." Gerry sighed. "I didn't feel that we'd never gotten along very well and I was afraid you'd make fun of me. Hell, I was so fucked up that I didn't understand what was going on, I certainly didn't want to have to try to explain to anyone else."

"Well, what has that got to do with having a baby?"

"Well when I was in the hospital, it was because I was going through puberty and my hormones had kicked in. I was developing and changing. Up until then I thought I was a normal girl with screwed up tastes about sex, but that's when I found out I wasn't like most other girls. To start with, I was physically different." Her voice was very quiet and he could hear the tremor of fear in it. "Even as early as that, I knew that I was going to have to hide some things from others for the rest of my life if I wanted to be treated at all like a normal person and I was terrified. In fact there are lots of times when I'm completely terrified. Right now, I'm terrified, because I have to tell you the truth about myself."

"But, why should you be afraid? You're my sister for gosh sakes and I'm not going to hurt you. I don't care if you're a lesbian or if you're bisexual or what you are."

"But that's just it. I'm really not just your sister and I'm neither a lesbian nor bisexual. I'm a fucking hermaphrodite." She screamed. "Think about that for a while before you say I can stay here, because it changes everything."

He could hear her break into tears and then the phone went dead. She'd hung up.

He spent a moment thinking about what she'd said and tried to dial back immediately, but he couldn't just use redial. He had to go through the whole routine of reestablishing his call because he was using the calling card and by the time he got through, the line was busy. In frustration, he decided to call his mother. If anyone would know exactly what was going on, she would.

Kelly had been somewhat apprehensive when Gerry had insisted that she wanted to talk to Steven herself. She had been surprised by the way the telephone conversation progressed and absolutely astounded at the end of the conversation when Gerry had hung up and begun to cry. She wrapped her arms around Gerry and cuddled her tight.

"Easy, Girl, I'm not about to let him kick you out on the street." She whispered into her ear. "But, you really didn't give him much of a chance to respond, did you."

"I guess not." Gerry snuffled, already feeling angry with herself. "My life is just so damn unfair that I forget and react too violently I suppose. Far too often I do that when I'm upset or angry. I can't seem to help it."

Gerry twisted to move into the hug and finding that she had the phone cord around her arm, shook it off impatiently, not realising she'd dislodged the receiver from its rest as she did.

They wrapped each other in their arms, hugging each other tightly as Gerry cried softly on Kelly's shoulder. It was several minutes before Kelly discovered the dislodged receiver and replaced it to its rest.

Steven got through to his mother and finally managed to convince her that he had to know exactly what she knew about Gerry's condition, explaining that since she was now living with them, he needed to know in case there were any problems. He listened to her in astonishment as she tearfully explained all that the doctors had told her when Gerry had been in the hospital.

"Do you actually mean that she can function as both a woman and a man?" He gasped.

"Oh, not fully." His mom sighed. "That's the trouble. She has some glands that are a woman's and some that are a man's. Then too there are some organs missing. For instance, she has no uterus, so the kid she says is hers must really have been her girlfriends. Without a womb, she can't bear a child, no matter what she says."

"But if she has a dick... " He protested.

"Steven, she has one tiny testicle that is terribly misshapen and lodged inside her body. You should know what heat does to sperm after what the doctor told you that you had to do. Don't be silly."

"But..."

"Steven, I was there and listened to the doctors at the time. I found it gruesome then and I find it even more gruesome now." By now she was sobbing. "I have to go. I'll call you at home in a few days."

With that, she hung up.

"Fuck. Everyone is hanging up on me tonight." He growled.

He put the phone down and got out of bed, then made himself a stiff drink from the courtesy bar in the motel room. He lay back on the bed again and dropped into troubled thought, his mind rattling from one possibility to the next. It was two drinks later before he decided that he had to try to think logically.

First, his sister looked like a woman, but she had a cock as well. His wife was used to sex and right now, she probably was aching for a nice hard cock. His mother had implied she didn't think Gerry could get Kelly pregnant. Then his mind shifted into kinky mode. If he gave Gerry permission to fuck Kelly, perhaps he could persuade her to let him fuck her as well. After all, he'd told Kelly that they could play around and...

Oh shit! He sat upright suddenly, his mind whirling.

He'd given Kelly permission to play around with Gerry when he'd thought Gerry was a lesbian, but she had a cock. Jeez, maybe it was a done thing. Maybe Gerry had poured the coals to Kelly already. Maybe they were already doing it. Maybe Gerry was fucking Kelly right now.

Fuck. He'd like to see that.

"What? Where did that come from?" He gasped aloud.

Then he thought about it and realised that it did turn him on. On top of that, Kelly had said that she'd love to see him with another woman, but had never suggested it because she was afraid of him running off with the other woman. After all, would either of them run off with his sister? Nah. Not gonna happen.

Suddenly he grinned, then laughed aloud.

For cripes sake, Gerry was his sister, even if she could make Kelly pregnant, so what? Genetically he and Gerry were close and who would believe that his sister could make his wife pregnant? His mom, his sister, Kelly or himself, no one else in the whole world would. Besides, since Kelly wanted so badly to get pregnant and liked screwing so much, there were times when she was so demanding that another cock would come in handy.