Chapter 2

I woke up a little while later and almost immediately began to cry. Nat was waiting in a chair by my bedside, the duvet and sheet was back over me. She stood up and came over when she saw I was awake and began stroking my head gently.

"I'm a freak!" I wailed.

"No, honey don't say that," Nat cooed.

"But I have 6 hands!" I sobbed.

"You'll get over it, Em, you're stronger than you realise," Nat said.

"I want to get up, I want to see it all, I want a mirror," I said.

"OK, But wait'll I go get the Doctor," She dashed off, returning a few moments later with the same doctor as before.

"I want to get up," I said.

"Now Miss Owen I'm not sure you're ready for that yet."

"I need to see it now!" I insisted.

The Doctor looked at me and eventually capitulated, "OK, but take it easy, one step at a time."

He pulled back the covers and began to undo the bindings that held my normal hands. Then I felt the odd sensation of him freeing my four new appendages. I could feel them shift oddly mostly hanging down lifelessly, their weight pulling at me on my sides. I moved to get out of bed using my normal arms my new limbs got in the way a fair amount. I felt them twitch and move, sometimes in concert with my normal limbs copying their movement, sometimes randomly moving without any obvious cause. It was a bizarre sensation.

Nat helped me up, putting her arm around me, and I put my arm round her shoulder for balance. My new arms poked her as I did this, one in her back, the other embarrassingly in the bottom.

"Sorry," I said.

"No problems, Em."

She helped me over to a full length mirror. All the extra weight of two additional pairs of arms, plus my having been asleep for some length of time made me very unsteady on my feet. I staggered and swayed my way over to the mirror.

When I was there I stared in horror at my reflection.

"Um Doctor, can we have a little privacy?" asked Nat.

"Certainly, if you need me call. I'll be right outside," he said and was out the door.

Nat gently closed the door giving us some privacy. I barely noticed I was still staring at the 6 armed girl in the mirror, I couldn't believe it was me. I looked pretty different, not just from my extra limbs, I was a little taller than I had been maybe 5 foot 9 or 10 to my old 5 foot 5. I had long thick silver grey hair down to my waist that shimmered like it was metallic. A brief tug confirmed it was still hair, though it felt really soft. My face looked lovely. It hadn't altered amazingly, but some subtle changes and overall improvements to my complexion had taken me from ugly or plain, to quite pretty. My skin was smooth and flawless, my eyes had the same silvery grey colour as my hair. My lips looked fuller, and my nose smaller. I reached up and undid the hospital gown, letting it fall to the floor. My breasts were handfuls, they looked similar to Nat's, and I knew she was a B cup. I cupped them, feeling my larger pale pink nipples with my palms. I examined my arms, my normal set attached as before, but under my original armpits a second set of joints stuck out, and beneath them a third set, giving me six identical arms. I tried to move the new hands, they sort of flopped about, responding but not in any controlled fashion. They also seemed to get cross wired with my normal arms a bit, often moving at the same time as my original arms. My abdomen seemed more muscled, probably due to all the extra musculature required to move my new limbs about. As a by-product. this made my tummy washboard flat.

I ignored these unwanted limbs and continued my examination. My waist seemed slightly smaller, my hips slightly wider. Not much, but enough with the breasts to give me a pretty nice figure. I ran my normal hands over my flat tummy, feeling how smooth my skin was. I examined my genitals, my pubic hair matched the shade of the hair sprouting out of my head but other than that, things seemed normal. I seemed to lack most other body hair. My legs seemed to have the same smooth flawless skin as the rest of me.

Stepping back to look at the overall picture, my upper body had a slightly triangular look to it. My shoulders were slightly wider to accommodate my extra arms under my normal ones. It served to make my figure look more hourglass and my waist smaller in comparison. I turned around, my back was more muscled to allow for my new limbs, my bum seemed firmer. All of me seemed to have got a slight tune up, tighter, firmer, smoother, sexier.

If it weren't for my freakish extra arms, I would look pretty good. A little odd with my hair and eye colour, but a fairly attractive girl next door look. As it was, I was a six armed freak. No matter that the package the had attractive wrapping paper, it was still a freak inside. I started crying again, Nat came over and pulled me into an embrace. I cried on her shoulder, not even caring that I was completely naked.

"There, there, come on get it all out. You'll be OK," Nat rocked me gently.

I cried for quite a while, eventually calming to the point that Nat let me go and helped me get my gown back on, as I was getting cold.

"How can I live like this? I'm a freak!" I asked, sitting on the bed trying to work out what to do with all these extra arms hanging off me.

"Don't say that Em! You're a little different sure, but you'll get over it," Nat said stroking my cheek.

A sudden thought occurred to me and I brightened, "I could have the doctors cut them off!" I said excitedly.

"No sweetie, I asked them already. Surgically removing the limbs, because of the way they are attached would likely leave you badly scarred, maybe deformed, and quite possibly lead to a lot of pain, even phantom limb pain in all the removed limbs, which can be horrific. Your new arms are also tightly linked to your spine so there would be a risk of paralysing you. There is a chance that a really top grade bioelemental could manage it and leave you OK, but since it's not life threatening, you are not going to get help on the NHS for that, and those cats cost loads of money. I'm sorry, Em." Nat said looked sad.

I cried for a bit more, eventually running out of tears. I ended up just sitting there with Nat holding one of my now many hands. My new arms seemed almost to have a mind of their own, almost constantly moving about and twitching. I could sort of feel what they touched, but they seemed almost like dead weight on me most of the time. They didn't feel like they were part of me, they felt like they had been grafted on somehow. They were nasty alien things hanging off my torso, pulling me down, getting in the way, making me feel sluggish and unable to move.

Eventually the Doctor returned for a set of test to check my condition, I was poked and prodded and scanned and so on. I asked about my new arms and why they just did things at random.

The doctor explained that my brain was still in the process of rewiring my motor cortex to cope with my new limbs. He told me that with practice, they should eventually be as functional as my original arms. He recommended trying to use them as frequently as possible to speed up the remapping of nerve connections that would allow me to integrate them into my body image.

I scowled at that a bit, not wanting the damn things at all, still I decided having them controllable would be better than them flailing around. Several times during the exams they suddenly moved out and slapped or poked one of the nurses or doctors. I was very embarrassed by this, but they were very nice to me, even the young lady doctor I caught right across the backside as I was turning to sit in a scanner she was operating.

At the end of it, the Doctor said I was free to go home and to take things easy for a few days. He also recommended I go to a post MORFS facility for an assessment that would more thoroughly document my changes. I flat out refused, not wanting to be poked and prodded some more, especially as I knew what happened in those places, with telepaths prodding around in your brains, something that scared me witless.

When the Doctor found I wasn't going to be moved on the subject, he eventually gave up. Nat had found me some clothes to fit my new shape, an old tracksuit one of her boyfriends had left behind. In order to prevent my new arms flailing about, she bound them to my tummy with some bandages we got from one of the nurses. It made me look fat, but at least I looked like a two armed fat girl rather than a slim six armed freak.

Nat helped me home. I was still a little wobbly on my feet, but I was gradually getting used to the extra weight I was carrying around. We caught the bus back to the hall and went into the house. I sat down on my bed and was soon crying again, Nat came over and hugged me.

"I know how you feel, Em, but it will get better," Nat said.

"How could you know!" I shouted angrily, "Look at me! I'm a horrible freak girl no one will ever want!" I burst into tears again.

"Well..." she paused looked over at the door making sure it was shut then turned back to me and hesitantly continued, "I went been through MORFS too, years ago. It changed me, I was a plain nerd girl before it, and over the course of a week I became this. You might think it was a blessing, and it was in some ways. But it ruined a lot of my friendships. They couldn't see me as me any more. People look at me and see dumb blonde, they hardly ever take me seriously. Girls treat me like I'm some sort of slut out to steal their boyfriends. Boys treat me like ... well, you can imagine."

She paused again seeming to work herself up for the next bit. She looked at me intently, her eyes looking a little scared and worried, "It also made me an empath, I feel the emotions of those around me. I've never told anyone about it before. I was too afraid. You've come close to guessing though, and I was working up the courage to tell you anyway. I've felt the hate and jealousy of those around me, the lust and dark impulses of what people wanted to do to me. It made me sick and afraid. I refused to go back to school after the first day back, but my parents forced me. After a while I got used to it, learnt ways to shut out most of the bad. You told me how much you dislike the idea of telepaths, so I was always scared if I told you what I was, something so similar, that you wouldn't like me any more. I hope we can still be friends."

She stared at me with hope filled, slightly teary eyes, I hugged her tight. She was my best friend, and I wasn't going to let her go now, not when I needed her the most. She hugged me back.

"You'll find a way to adapt, too, and I'll be here for you every step of the way Em. Why don't you get yourself some sleep, you're probably still tired from the change. I'll wake you at dinner time."

I smiled and she helped me into bed. I dozed off pretty quick and was soon dreaming weird dreams about trying to tie my shoe laces with multiple hands all getting in the way.

I was awakened up by voices at the door. Natalie was talking to Dave, the jerk who was Tom's roommate.

"So, is nerd girl all changed now?" Dave asked.

"Shut it, Dave!" Nat said.

"She got a tail now or what? I hooked up with some chick from over in St David's Hall she had a tail and was a real wild cat, if you catch my drift," he said.

"Gah! You perv." Nat almost spat it at him.

"Come on, let me take a look see. She might be just right for a guy with exotic tastes like me," he said.

There was crunch and then a thump against the wall and a moan of pain from Dave, "If you upset her, I'll cut you in ways that will make you useless to a woman! So you stay the hell back. You don't want to mess with me, Dave," Nat said menacingly.

I heard the door open, then Nat came in and shut the door behind her. I sat up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes, my restrained arms stirring, once again reminding me of their presence. I reached for my glasses by instinct before realising I didn't need them.

"Oh, did I wake you Em? I was just coming to get you for dinner, babe," Nat said.

"Did you just beat up Dave?" I asked.

"A little," said Nat with a sheepish smile, "Something else I got from MORFS, I'm a lot stronger than I look. I can't bench press a truck or anything, but enough to make sure some little man can't try to strong arm me and upset my best friend."

I smiled at her, until she asked, "So fancy coming down for a bite to eat?"