Chapter 11

The Andersons came over to the Nichols house two days following the attempted rape of their daughter. The adult Andersons thanked Don and Jan profusely. Mrs. Anderson scooped up and praised each of the twins for the way they had helped Julie. Dan had just shrugged Don's shoulders and said that he'd simply done what was right and necessary.

Julie Anderson had hugged Don quite fiercely - thanking him for saving her. She'd ground her young body into Don's body! Dan saw the look in her eyes and recognized it. She had the Tasha 'syndrome'! It appeared as though attempted rape hadn't frightened her enough to cause her to lose an earnest case of appreciation for, desire for, and lust for the male who'd saved her. He couldn't believe that this was happening!

Her older brother Marty had repeated that he'd do anything he could to help out Don. Dan took that to heart and pulled Marty aside to walk out back into the yard and have a talk. Dan told him about what he'd seen in Julie's eyes. He even described how she'd pressed against his body. He said he couldn't even imagine touching a girl still so young. Dan asked Marty to help make sure that his sister didn't try something crazy with Don. Marty had seemed surprised at first. But then, he'd admitted that he'd heard his sister talking about Don in a manner that suggested hero-worship. He assured Dan that he'd speak with his parents and also try and keep his sister from doing something foolish. Dan was satisfied with that and hoped that Julie Anderson would get over her infatuation with him.

Don had been driven over to his doctors' offices for a checkup the day following the fight. Both Drs. Rogers and Wilkins had been horrified that Don had been involved in a fight. Henry Nichols had simply told them that he was proud his son had proven to be so capable in such a situation. They'd found nothing wrong with him other than for the knife cut on his cast.

Debbie Chen had taken him aside and asked him how he felt about the sight of an attempted rape and the fight that he'd been involved in. It had been Dan who had simply answered that question in full honesty. He'd told her that he was simply satisfied with the outcome. He explained that he wasn't sorry about anything that had happened to the would-be rapists. He expressed that his only real worry was that it appeared as thought 12 year old Julie Anderson now had a nearly lust-driven crush for him.

Debbie Chen had just shook her head at that and wondered out aloud how he'd ever been able to do what he'd done and then come up with that last observation.

Dan had simply shrugged Don's shoulders. He gave her his ever more familiar grin of the grim demeanor. "I think I'm just having to grow up fast."

Blood tests and a general checkup had shown him to be progressing quite nicely towards a full recovery. He'd returned home relieved that the physicians hadn't found anything wrong with him. He was sure that he'd be grounded if he been in any way hurt from the fight.

Several days later Dan appeared in court for the arraignment of the three boys who'd tried to rape Julie. A District Attorney from another judicial circuit presented the case and charges before the judge. It seemed that no one from the local circuit felt that they could be involved in the case.

Everything was normal during the proceeding until the father of the boy who'd lost several teeth tried to get at Don. Dan was not surprised when it happened. The man had been staring at him in the courtroom and just plainly projected hostile intent. Unfortunately for his attacker, the deputies serving as bailiffs had noticed his hostility. The whole thing ended almost before it began. A deputy quickly got hold of the man and had him down on the floor in an armlock. Father joined son in the county jail. Dan just shook his head at the idiocy of it all.

He was heaped with praise from the Andersons and other community members. It seemed he had also acquired another admirer in the form of little Julie Anderson. He hoped that his warning and request to her older brother Marty might do some good in that regard. Oh, and Cindy Richards stopped by a couple of times with her brother Todd. She seemed quite interested in the new Don. Dan thought about speaking with Todd. He really didn't feel like trying to fight off a small army of teenaged girls who were interested in Don.

And Tasha Thomas kept on coming by and continued her flirting with him. Given opportunity, she pressed herself against Don and asked him how he was doing. And her grandmother Ella Thomas kept on bringing Don some of the best food he'd ever had the pleasure of eating. Mrs. Thomas just seemed to like Don and what he'd done for her granddaughter Janice. And she very much approved of what Don and Jan had done together against those three would-be rapists.

Dan had some quiet moments to ponder what appeared to be happening with his existence. He couldn't get over the fact that he'd known Don's father Henry. Something was up. He just didn't know what. He started to wonder about all-powerful aliens and such. He'd read some of the stranger S-F while serving in some of the most boring and miserable duty stations ever established by the Army. He pondered some of Phillip Jose' Farmer's works and considered what some other authors had written.

No clear answers to why he was where he was came to mind. He'd just have to let things play out as they developed.

Preparations for the Fall football season started in early August. Several of the players he'd grown to know during the Summer had asked him to come out to the practices, even if he really couldn't do anything while he was still wearing a cast. Leroy, Todd, and Jim had been insistent. He'd then met the three coaches who'd worked with Don the previous Spring. He'd spoken with them and explained his problems. Serious head injury, amnesia, incapacitated left arm, two remaining medications that affected his performance, etc., etc.

They'd still asked him to come to the practices. He'd demonstrated that he was a natural leader and gifted quarterback. Perhaps he could teach his two potential replacements some of his skills. Dan had explained how he didn't remember anything about being a quarterback or any other sort of football player. The coaches had insisted that he at least try and help them out. He'd acceded to their requests. He at least understood both tactics and strategy. He'd memorized the team's entire offensive and defensive playbook in less than two days. That allowed him to help and tutor 'his' replacements, the running backs, and receivers in how to execute and even option the plays. He'd always understood football. He even remembered the old story about some pre-WW-II German Army officers who'd seen some American college football games and come away from that alarmed. They'd thought they'd seen their future defeat in those games. The strange things one learns, he thought.

A week after the start of practice he was in Dr. Rogers' office having the cast removed from the left arm. Once it was off he rotated and stretched a stiff, pale, seemingly shrunken appendage. He tried to control the urge to scratch and was mostly successful. He went home and actually entered the pool to swim for the first time since he'd found himself in Don's body. Later in the evening he started working with weights to build up the strength in the left arm. He actually found it necessary to apply sunscreen to his left arm. It was trying to burn even though it had been previously tanned.

For a week he'd attended the practices with the cast. There were another two weeks of practice and now he'd have full motion of both arms. He actually began to enjoy working with these young guys. He'd had lots of experience planning exercises and actual operations. Some of that transferred directly over into executing plays and options. He explained deception and misdirection as he understood them - in military terms. He talked about battles and showed these teenaged guys how such battle concepts related to sports. The coaches noticed how the proficiency of their offensive backs and receivers seemed to grow in leaps and bounds whenever Don explained things. They just decided he was great at explaining things in a manner more familiar to their young players than they themselves could relate to.

He was out with several of the players and their girlfriends after a practice when he was asked about why he couched so many of his explanations in military terms. Dan had let out a laugh. And then he lied, as he had to cover himself. He told the kids that with all of the time spent in recovery from his accident he'd watched hours 'n hours of historical programming and read a small mountain of military history books. He said the moment he re-acquainted himself with football then all of the military stuff had just clicked as a background for sports. And especially so for a game so dependent on deception and misdirection as was football. A couple of the more thoughtful guys had asked him about what he'd read. Dan suggested some titles from his own past.

He wasn't allowed to attend every football practice. He still worked some mornings or afternoons at the Nichols' security firm. Personnel from local law enforcement greeted him warmly and asked about his recovery. Some asked about how he'd actually dealt with three opponents on that day when Julie Anderson had almost been raped.

He got to travel around to some of the local law enforcement training facilities with Henry, William, or Captain Thomas. He went through a outdoor tactical course with four of his weapons. Going through the course four different times allowed him to evaluate his personal weapons. He was not surprised at his proficiency with the M-4 Carbine and the two MP-5s. Observers had been nearly flabbergasted at watching a 15 year old kid work the tactical course with an MP-5SD. It had been creepy. The kid had seemed like quiet death while working the course. One ex-ranger had sworn the kid had to be the re-incarnation of an operator from Fort Bragg. Dan had overheard that and let his grim grin show on Don's face.

Exactly the damned truth.

Dan was far less familiar with the Ruger AC-556K. However, he found himself liking its handling characteristics. It wasn't as compact as the MP-5 PDW, but it had better firepower. The M-4 might have been a better general-purpose combat weapon, but the Ruger was clearly handier in confined spaces and tightly constrained movements.

After the questions about his fight against the rapists he'd decided to try himself out against some trained personnel. On one occasion he'd simply joined a small group in a training room. He donned pads on his feet and hands. He then proceeded to beat up several men ten and more years older and mostly many pounds heavier than Don's 15 year old body.

He demonstrated what he'd actually done to the two would-be rapists he'd actually finished off. He explicitly related how his stepsister had now twice kicked guys into submission with the most careful application of force to sensitive male organs. There had been a combination of groans and grins in response to his description of Jan's actions. He'd actually missed both such actions. The first had occurred prior to Dan having occupied Don's body. The second had happened while he'd been busy dealing with the second of Julie Anderson's would-be rapists.

The officers he'd worked with had been wearing protective cups and padded armor. Still, they'd been surprised at the viciousness of his attacks. His takedown and scissoring legwork leading to a groin kick with his heals had been new to most of them. Some had been aware of the technique, but had never seen it demonstrated. Deputies and officers had grunted in surprise at the force he'd delivered with his blows. Two female officers had asked to practice the moves. They helped teach self-defense courses to women and girls and they thought some of Dan's movements were novel. He'd even agreed to join some of their classes in demonstrating his aggressive style of combat.

The work with training knives had really surprised some of them. He was recalling things as he got more involved in the effort. He showed them some sentry takedown techniques. Rubber blades met flesh. A couple of the cops had been shaken by how he'd taken them down. He'd apologized while pulling them to their feet.

Don's body had really responded well to these exercises. He tried really hard not to think about how Drs. Wilkins and Rogers would have reacted if they'd learned that he was training in hand-to-hand combat with the local SWAT and other police agencies. No contact sports - right!

Dan just smiled at all of it. He wondered what his old hand-to-hand combat instructors would have made of his sharing techniques with young girls. He could just imagine those grizzled old NCOs with their experiences from NAM reacting to seeing young girls being taught sentry take-down techniques.

His life moved along in this new body that he'd gotten from the poor, lost Don. As August entered it's last week he'd gone by the Morgan County High School along with Jan and Susie to pick up his registration packet. He learned what coursework he'd be taking as a Sophomore. He worried about how he'd keep from being bored out of his mind while attending high school.

Still, something completely unexpected came up before he and his stepsisters started school.

Dan managed to get Susie talking to him again. He'd really seemed to have annoyed her with his recent comment about her stories originating with Cheryl. He got her to sit down with him and got her into a discussion about their relationship as siblings. He simply told her that he didn't want to hear any more cracks about "Cheryl-the-EX-girlfriend"...

She'd agreed when he promised there wouldn't be any more cross remarks on his part or else blatant revenge or even subtle revenge. Susie had gotten that message after several interesting experiences. Perhaps also she'd gotten some advice from Jan. Jan had now seen the new Don in operation on several occasions and had warned Susie that he was a whole lot more capable than their previously recognizable stepbrother. This had come out in an honest discussion when they'd had to plan their school schedules and activities. Jan was the only licensed driver among the three and she thus had some responsibilities for the transportation of them. Jan had warned her sister that she didn't want to be anywhere near Susie if Don was ever on a vengeful warpath.

So, some things were simple. Siblings could come to an understanding if everyone understood where things stood.

However - some things nobody had a clue about!

Dan got to meet Susie's grandmother Hazel Waters and her Aunt Gloria on that weekend prior to going by the school. And Shirley had accompanied the two women. He'd enjoyed getting to know the two women. He'd also had a little time to sit and talk with Shirley. She'd talked about them getting together for another intimate encounter. He'd already told her about his problem with his medication during a phone call. He reminded her that nothing much would happen until he got off the meds. Shirley had actually seemed depressed about that.

They had learned that Susie's long-absent father had recently made one of his infrequent visits to Mrs. Hazel Waters. She'd been mildly shocked to see her son. Still, he'd been her boy and she'd welcomed him into her home for a day and night. She'd shown him pictures of his daughter and he'd seemed pleased to see that she was doing well. He'd actually asked if he could have a recent picture to keep. She'd given him one of her school pictures. He'd left the next day, saying he had things he had to do. Mrs. Waters had lamented that he no longer tried to keep up his previous good looks. He'd been poorly groomed, as she'd put it.

Nobody thought anything was unusual about the visit of Susie's biological father with her grandmother.

It happened on the Friday evening before the first week of school. Dan had finished another practice with the football team. He'd again been pleased with Don's recuperating body. He'd thrown passing patterns to the receivers as Don's two replacements had drilled with the running backs. Todd was a wide receiver while his classmate Jim was a tight end. They were both receivers in the offensive system in use with the Morgan County High School "Patriots". Dan had thought the naming of the county and its county seat had seemed familiar. The naming of the school teams had gotten him interested in learning if there had been a connection to the Revolutionary War Hero Brigadier General Daniel Morgan. He'd learned that Morgan County had been carved out from surrounding colonial counties and created shortly after the conclusion of the Revolutionary War. It seemed that the county had been named in recognition of one of those individuals who'd most contributed to the ruin of General Cornwallis' campaign in the Carolinas and Virginia. He wondered in there had ever been any cowpens in the area of the county...