If you're under 18 or dislike Transgender stories, don't read this.

I would like to thank Anyport for his permission to write this sequel to his story, The Transformation, and use the characters he created.

I would like to thank Tigger for allowing me to include a guest appearance by his character, "Aunt" Jane Thompson. I would especially like to thank Steve Zink for editing such a very long story for me.

(This story is set in the Vaingirls universe.)
©2002 TRP

Ross and Rose conducted an internal debate.

Ross had passed through confusion rather quickly, and he wasn't quite sure why. Slavery still existing. He being manipulated and feminized into it - supposedly for life. Extreme betrayal by two people he had thought his dearest friends. These things should have sent him gibbering over the edge. Partly, he supposed, it was the disciplined thought processes he had learned in order to deal with computers that had saved him. Partly the drug Joan had given him; she had wanted him stone cold sober. Mostly, right now he was mad as hell at everyone, but especially at Lou and Ed. He was mad, certainly, at Adain and Salielah for accepting the buying and selling of human beings, but they were from a different culture, one in which, perhaps, in their own eyes, they were doing nothing wrong or unusual. He was madder at Joan; she was evil, pure and simple. Being willing to do to him what she had done, and was about to do was worse than revenge, it was clear, conscious evil - George Thourgood's version of "Bad to the Bone" started playing in the background of his mind; "b-b-b-badddd ..." - but at least he wasn't emotionally involved with Joan, hadn't met her except once before tonight, and he realized he could understand at least one part of Joan: He wanted revenge; his very soul screamed out for it. Revenge on Lou and Ed. He had really loved them, still did, and the hurt of so callous a betrayal of that love hurt like a mortal open wound, heartstrings scrapped raw. He would remember a good time they all had seemed to share, and then realize it had all been an act on their part. They had "enjoyed" him, Joan had said, not loved, or even liked, but "enjoyed"! Ross didn't know for sure what he would do about Adain, Salielah, or Joan, but about Lou ... Louisa and Edwina, he was sure. Payback would be a bitch, or he would die trying!

Payback would be a bitch, or she would die trying. In that much, Rose thoroughly agreed with Ross. Rose pondered more on what to tell Joan when she awoke on the operating table. That was a decision SHE would make; SHE, not the male Ross, would bear the consequences. She was sure that no matter in what form, Rose would be there. Beautiful or even more beautiful than she was now, or disfigured with a harelip and GGG cup breasts or worse, it would be her; Adain and Salielah were not about to let Ross come back. She knew Ross wanted to fight, to lay on that table and spit up into Joan's face and tell her to go to the coldest depths of Hell. MEN! That wouldn't get them anywhere except to a thwarted dominatrix's dungeon! No, better to comply, she HAD liked Adain, and the thought of sex with him, even shemale sex, was not entirely revolting.

When a horrified Ross tried to regain control, she thrust him way into a back room of her mind. She thought at him, 'Let me handle this for now; it's gonna be a lot harder to get rid of GGG cups when we get out of this than it will be to get rid of normal D cups. Your turn will come.' She closed and locked the door. All Rose now, she focused her thoughts on before the abduction, on how much she had enjoyed the evening with Adain, and on how she had thought she could really get to be good girlfriends with Salielah. She knew she had to be absolutely convincing for Joan.

Rose came up out of the fog disoriented, but it quickly passed. The unique smell of a hospital and the feel of cold metal underneath her, left no doubt that everything she had experienced had been real. She opened her eyes and saw Joan looking down at her. Before Joan could speak, she did. "Can you bring Adain to me? And release my arms?"

Somewhat taken aback, Joan looked at her carefully, attempting to read her body language for any hint of incipient violence. Tentatively satisfied, she nodded, released Rose's arms, and stepped back. She picked up the control device for the pain inducing implant, and debated whether to let Rose see it or not. Not, she decided; seeing it might color Rose's actions.

Within a few seconds, Adain appeared. Before he could say anything, Rose reached out her arms to him. He bent down and she pulled him into an embrace, fiercely kissing him full on the lips, driving her tongue deep into his mouth. There was a moments hesitation, and then Adain returned the embrace with vigor, stretching out the moment. At last he pulled back and was replaced by a smiling Joan squirting the air out of a hypodermic. "Good girl!" she said, plunging the needle home in Rose's shoulder. Then the lights went out.

(Real time Rose thought about how much she hated hypodermic needles!)

Upon awakening from whatever surgery had been performed, Rose instinctively felt first HIS crotch - was it still? - Yes! And then both hands moved to cup breasts that she was sure were there; would she need Michael Jordan hands? NO! Thank God, they were normal size, probably the D cups that Joan had mentioned. With a sigh, she closed her eyes and had the first normal sleep she'd had since the surgery.

Rose's bladder woke her next. Though in somewhat of a mental fog, it was a good, normal kind of just awakening mental fog. She realized they must have removed the catheter and it was now up to her to get herself to the bathroom. She rolled over - nothing appeared to be restraining her or connected to her - and opened her eyes to see Salielah, dressed casually in jeans and a pink T- shirt with "Princess" in feminine script on it, sitting by her bedside. "Bathroom ... potty!" she croaked ... in soprano!

Salielah got up. There was a smile on her face as she reached to help Rose. "Well, sleepyhead, back among the living finally, I see. You've been asleep so long that Adain wanted to wake you up. While you did look so peaceful and lovely, though, I made him agree to wait till you had awakened normally and we had a chance to make you really presentable. Let's get you into the bathroom, hon."

"Mirror!" Rose croaked in her new soprano voice.

"Just like a woman," commented a smiling Salielah, as she helped a very shaky, naked, Rose.

As a bathed and squeaky clean Rose emerged from the bathtub, she was descended upon by a bevy of beautiful beauticians. (Real time Rose reflected that she had tried thinking that ten times fast, and failed miserably.) She was subjected to several hours of what seemed to her to be painful pummeling, painting, and pulling, but she thought she looked pleasingly pretty when it was done. (Real time Rose wondered whether alliteration had been a by-product of the drugs.) She looked gorgeous, and quickly realized that if she didn't do anything dramatically stupid, Adain WAS wrapped around her little finger.

Thus began a two year period of her life.

Adain proved to be a skillful and considerate lover, and would give her anything she asked for, often anticipating her wishes before she herself was aware of them. She knew she was in Adain's home, somewhere in Turkey, but she never did find out exactly where. After awhile, it didn't seem to matter. Salielah ascertained quickly that Rose was committed to accepting her new life, and DID become her good girlfriend. She quickly ceded to Rose the financial management of Adain's household, and Rose was able to use Ross's considerable computer skills to make Adain even richer, learning a lot about his businesses in the process. She also began teaching computer skills to Adain, who was woefully ignorant, and to Salielah, who was only marginally more proficient.

There were many fun times. (Real time Rose remembered fondly the practical jokes she and Salielah had played on Adain. She chuckled.) One time they had found Adain sleeping in a chair. This particular chair had been in Adain's family for generations, and was called "The Maiden's Chair" because the back contained a carving of a young girl in medieval dress, and the legs had been carved to resemble four similarly dressed young women. They had bound him securely to the chair, and when he awoke, they teased him that if he felt comfortable enough to fall asleep in "The Maiden's Chair", he must truly want to be a maiden. They gave him a complete make over as a victorian lady, and only released him when he agreed to be their serving girl for the weekend. Adainya, or Dainie, as she was immediately nicknamed, had turned out gorgeous, surprising both of them, she remembered. Turnabout had been fun, and Adain, annoyed at first, had quickly become a good sport, seeing the irony in the situation. It was at that point that she realized that she no longer had any desire for revenge against either of them - that in fact, she was very fond of both of them.

What had puzzled her the most as time went on was that Adain and Salielah's behavior at the infamous (in her mind) Friday dinner and since she had awakened following Dr. Adkin's surgery was at complete odds with their abominable behavior in the limo. Other than her own purchase, she had found no evidence, electronic or otherwise, that either was involved in any way with transgendered slavery. She decided to talk with the two. She needed to find out the truth before she became any more emotionally involved with them. She set the stage with a dinner consisting of the favorites of the two, followed by drinks in Adain's plush and very complete library. She had made sure to ask Salielah's advice on what to wear. While explaining to them that she wanted a special night to thank them for making her a part of their lives, she was amazed to discover about herself that this was at least partly true. Hopefully, they would both be in a friendly and open mood and might let their guards down and actually tell her the truth.

In accordance with Salielah's advice, Rose was all in virginal white, her blonde hair unbound and cascading around her shoulders; she knew she was irresistible. Once seated in the library's comfortable chairs - Adain had made a show of making sure his was NOT the Maiden's Chair! - drinks in hand, she had explained that she was very happy with them both, and had no desire to regain Ross's former life - not quite a lie, as she had not consulted the Ross part of her securely buried in her brain. She simply expressed a curiosity to know what had led to their selection of her as Adain's "special friend"; she deliberately did not use the terms fiancee or future bride. Adain and Salielah alternated telling the story:

Adain and Salielah, while not blood brother and sister, had been raised as such. They loved each other deeply, but had no sexual desires toward each other. Adain preferred boys - well, girls actually, girls like Rose, girls with something extra. His father, however, was a very traditional Muslim, and would have quite literally disowned and probably killed him if he had found out. Therefore, a central pattern of Adain and Salielah's lives was set; they became co-conspirators to both find Adain pleasure and keep his father from finding out. This was made a little easier as Salielah was a lesbian, and her girlfriends could pose as Adain's. Given their geographic location, finding partners for Adain was difficult, and affairs during his teen years had been few and far between. Then, a year before Rose's arrival, when Adain was thirty and Salielah twenty-nine, two things had happened. Adain's father died, and Salielah discovered the Internet.

Adain became fabulously wealthy, and could use that wealth openly to find the kind of special girl he had only been able to dream about up till now. Salielah fell in love with computers and the Internet, and from the Internet, she found what Adain was looking for, a site that was, to the best of their knowledge, a shemale matchmaking service. Shemales looking for "husbands" were matched, for a fee - a very large fee sometimes, but that didn't bother Adain now - with potential husbands who wanted brides with "something extra". Adain and Salielah had quickly gotten in touch with Dr. Adkins, who ran the company, and she had supplied them with the pictures and profiles of five eager and willing, so she said, potential "wives" for Adain.

Included among the five had been Rose, sponsored by Louise and Edwina. Rose had caught Adain's eye as the prettiest of the five, but the clincher was when Salielah had approved; for her, Rose's advertised computer expertise did the trick. After rather lengthy negotiations, the Friday night meeting and exchange had been arranged. The final decision and price had been left open, to be decided after the meeting. Adain had been smitten with Rose, he said, from the moment he saw her, and the activities at the restaurant had confirmed that he must have her. The price was steep, but Louise and Edwina had told him that most of the money was to keep Rose's mother in a private nursing home, so he agreed. Privately, he believed her worth the cost.

At that point, Rose had asked him about the "evil Adain" and the scenario in the limo, confessing to him that she had been scared to death, and that only after months of being with him with no repeat of that kind of behavior did she let down her guard to fully enjoy him out of - dare she say it - love, rather than fear. Why had he and Salielah done it, if they believed her a willing fiancee?

Both Adain and Salielah had expressed surprise and, in concerned tones full of potential anger, had asked if that had not been the case. Had she been forced in any way? Not wanting to reveal at this point the true nature of her situation, Rose simply repeated how glad she was to be there with both of them. Neither realized that she had not actually answered their question. Adain told her that Dr. Adkins, Louise, and Edwina had told him that this "little scene" was just to be an act for her benefit. "Dear Rose has had this fantasy of being forcibly abducted by a handsome powerful man for years, Adain, dear. Let's indulge her by acting out this little scenario to satisfy that fantasy," Dr. Adkins had told them.

"It will be our going away present to her," Louisa had added.

Dr. Adkins had added that there should be no repeat of such a fantasy unless Adain requested it. Adain assured her that he would not do so, not being inclined that way, unless she, Rose, requested it. He said he had assured Dr. Adkins that, having found a treasure like Rose, he intended to treat her with gentleness and devotion as an equal part of their household. Salielah added that she had assured Dr. Adkins that she felt the same way. Rose had realized that they were saying this to her at that time as much as they were talking about the past.

Rose believed them; even Ross did. While Rose had maintained a calm outer demeanor, again assuring them of her happiness with them, inwardly both she and Ross were furious. Adain and Salielah had thought the whole scene in the limo to be a fantasy scenario for her benefit, one that she wanted, when in reality it had been specifically designed to make a thoroughly shocked, disoriented, and definitely unwilling Rose become a willing and eager participant in her own sale! How the three bitches must have laughed at how they had manipulated Adain and Salielah, two genuinely nice people, into terrorizing her. How they must have taken sadistic pleasure at her terror! Ross burned for revenge. Rose was torn, for she knew she would have to leave Adain and Salielah to achieve that revenge. She decided to keep Ross locked up in his mental dungeon for the time being while she made up her mind. Time went on, and more and more Rose forgot about revenge. Ross didn't.

Rose paid very little attention to the passage of time, except as it applied to the running of Adain and Salielah's household. She was very well satisfied with her life, and looked forward to the future with contentment.

Ross, tucked away in his mental prison, kept very good track of the time. Thus it was that he knew that it was two and one half years since he had started working for Edwina and Louise at Transformation Systems when HIS TURN came.

In all that time, Rose had not left Adain's estate. She had had no need or desire to do so. All shopping, whether for the estate or for herself, was done over the Internet, and, after the first month or so, there was a steady stream of guests to keep her from being lonely. She had also made many friends with whom she kept in contact by e-mail. On THE DAY, Rose was doing the cooking of the evening meal herself. One of her online friends had supplied her with the recipe for a dish that combined several of both Adain and Salielah's favorite foods, and she wanted to surprise them with it. As she was chopping carrots, a sequence of events Rube Goldberg would have been proud of was set in motion:

An off center knife (1) stroke sent a carrot slice (2) bullet fast at Salome, the cat.

Hit in the ear, Salome (3) shrieked and clawed Mustafa, the dog.

Mustafa (4) leaped up and ran barking through the kitchen, hitting the broom leaning against the wall.

The broom (5) fell, the handle hitting the sauce pan hanging from the overhead rack above the center console where Rose was working.

The sauce pan (6) hit the small frying pan.

The small frying pan (7) hit the medium frying pan.

The medium frying pan (8) hit the large frying pan (9a), which, being poorly secured, fell to the counter top causing Rose (10, of course) to scream and jump and carrot pieces to fall to the floor.

Rose came down on the carrot pieces (11), lost her footing, and fell to the floor (12).

As she fell, she tried to grab the counter top (13), grabbing instead the handle of another large frying pan (9b), pulling it off the counter top.

The falling frying pan hit Rose on the side of her head (14), causing her to scream again, and then lose consciousness.

(Real time Rose remembered only vague pieces of what happened next. Adain carrying her, placing her in the back seat of a car. The car jouncing over what she imagined must have been very bad roads, and then finally several loud cracking sounds and the feeling of the car falling. Somehow, her door must have opened and she fallen out, because the first clear memory was the shock of ice cold water hitting him. Yes, him, because that memory was Ross's.)

As he figured it out later, the shock of hitting the ice cold water, added to the concussion from the frying pan, must have weakened Rose's control of his mental dungeon enough for him to break out. And once out, he was NOT going back in. It was Rose who now got to be the unheard voice. As he struggled in the water, he wasn't afraid. His one thought was of one of his favorite action hero's favorite phrases: "I'm Baaack!" Then he, too, passed out.

Ross awoke to the antiseptic smell of a hospital. He was in a bed, and a large Arabian looking nurse or nun, he couldn't tell which, was sitting in a chair by his bedside. She noticed him looking at her. "You're awake, ma'am ... or would you prefer 'sir'," she said - surprisingly, in perfect English.

To which Ross replied the non sequitur, but perfectly understandable, "Bathroom!"

The nurse turned out to be quite talkative. While she was helping him clean up and get Rose presentable, she told him that he was in the Sisters of Mercy Hospital in Istanbul. She ... The nurse finally settled on the feminine, which Ross could understand, but didn't find very comforting. ... She had been found wrapped in a dirty blanket on the back kitchen step by the second shift cooks. There was no evidence of who left her there. The blanket had already been burned. The clothes she had been wearing had been cleaned and were either hanging in the room's closet or folded in the bedside table's one drawer. She had been bruised black and blue, and there was evidence of a blow to the head, she had told him, but she was not permanently damaged. Ross surmised that the car must have been on a bridge when it collapsed, sending the car and him into a river. Someone must have gotten him out and brought him here - someone who didn't want to be known. He was aware of Rose clamoring to find out if Adain and Salielah were all right, but he ignored her mental voice, as there was nothing he could do to find out at that moment.

The nurse put him back to bed in a clean hospital gown. Telling him to rest, as the doctor would be around in a couple of hours to examine her and ask her some questions, she left to take care of her other patients.

As soon as she left, Ross carefully sat up, swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up. The process was painful, but not unendurable. He needed to be well away from the hospital before the doctor would arrive with questions he'd rather not answer. He reached over and opened the bedside table drawer, and found his bra. He was annoyed that it was "his" bra, but recognized the necessity of staying in character as Rose for the time being. Quickly, he found the hidden seam in the left cup and removed the very clean US fifty dollar bill and two singles that Rose always carried there. (Real time Rose remembered having thoughts about "laundered" money.) He dressed in Rose's underwear and hose, and walked to the closet. Hanging there was the yellow sun dress and even the apron that Rose had been wearing in Adain's kitchen (*MY kitchen!* came the quickly suppressed thought from incarcerated Rose.) They were somewhat the worse for wear, but still usable, and in Istanbul they would be considered a rich lady's outfit. Unfortunately, there were no shoes, so he would have to make do with the thin-soled hospital slippers he found.

After dressing, the actual departure was almost too easy. He simply walked out - out of the room, off the floor, and out of the hospital. No one even noticed him, let alone tried to stop him.

Ross hailed a cab. He was disgusted when the greasy looking driver leered at his chest, but his one word command, "Walgreens!" was obeyed. He hoped Istanbul had a Walgreens. It did, and it looked just like any Walgreens in Topeka or Cincinnati. He told the cab driver to wait, giving him one of the singles in advance and showing him the other. The cab driver almost tried to grovel and hug Ross's knees. Thank God for the good old American dollar! "Thanks, pretty lady!" he said over and over, which reminded Ross once again that while inwardly he, Ross, was back in charge, outwardly he WAS the image of Rose, a pretty lady, indeed.

As such, he reluctantly added a purse and a tube of "Cherry Tomato Red" lipstick to the comb, brush, toothpaste and toothbrush he had already picked up. Only after he'd put it in his basket did he realize that that was Rose's favorite color only because Lou and Ed had liked it on her so much; he almost put it back, but in a definitely Ross decision, thought one lipstick was as good as any other. (Imprisoned Rose cringed. *MEN!*) This Walgreens had a rack of cheap shoes, and he found a pair of white unisex sneakers in his size. Since the hose were pretty beat up, he added a pair of white sockies to his bag. He picked up several pens and some plain stationery as well, and several candy bars.

When he checked out, he was able to get some Turkish stamps from the cashier. She knew English, and assured him that three of the stamps would get a letter to the USA. Initially she had balked at cashing the fifty dollar bill, and had called over her manager, who had taken it back to the safe and returned with change. Ross was surprised to see that he still had forty-four dollars left. Once again, he thanked God for the good old American dollar. He rejoined the cab driver, who gallantly, but while never taking his eyes of Ro ... Rose's breasts, opened the back car door. At the last minute, Ross remembered to enter the car Rose style, sitting sideways into the seat, smoothing his dress under him as he did so, and then swiveling his legs in. "Library!" he said.

Surprisingly, the library, while old, also looked American, solid red brick with columns, a Carnegie library mysteriously transported to Turkey. He paid the cab driver, who belatedly introduced himself as Mustafa. He was mystified by Ross's laugh as he remembered Mustafa, Adain's dog, who had been instrumental in the events that led to his present situation.

Rose's *ADAIN!* reminded Ross of his mission, and he quickly went inside the library. He was delighted. He had worried whether it would have what he needed, but despite its outward antique appearance, the library proved to be state of the art modern inside, with complete computer and Internet facilities available. The librarian even spoke English, and was happy to chat with someone else who did. After several minutes of small talk necessary to get the librarian firmly on his side, Ross was able to get the information he needed. Seated at the computer, he finally was able to ignore his appearance, and he felt more like his old self than he had in a long while.

He quickly logged on and inserted the passwords to allow him entry into Adain's database. It was with relief that both Ross and Rose noted that both Adain and Salielah were still alive and apparently well. It also became apparent that they had been frantically and increasingly desperately searching for any trace of Rose, and were beginning to reluctantly and sadly accept the fact that she was most likely dead. It was with great difficulty that Ross was able to suppress Rose's frantic pleas to contact Adain and Salielah and let them know she was all right. She wanted them to come and get her. She wanted to go HOME! That didn't fit Ross's plans, although he felt bad about their - and Rose's - grief. He wanted HIS life back (he thought.) and he wanted REVENGE!

Because of Rose's knowledge of Adain's finances, he was quickly able to give instructions to Adain's bankers to make available a large sum of American money to a young lady who would access their Istanbul branch ATM machine later that afternoon. While the young lady would have no identification, she would be able to give the machine the password "Lady be gone"; Ross thought that appropriate. Since the person contacting them had only been able to do so because of an intimate knowledge of Adain's systems, the bank's computers had no trouble agreeing to this admittedly unusual transaction. As he was about to log off from the bank, he had another thought. Putting Adain's bank on hold, he plugged in a URL he hadn't accessed for over three years.

He knew Lou and Ed had certainly wiped out any trace of him in the US, including his stateside bank accounts, but it had occurred to him that he had never mentioned the Cayman Islands account that he had set up to avoid paying US taxes. He had done that before he took the job at Transformation Systems. He entered his password; sure enough, it was still there. There wasn't much in it, but he would remedy that right now. Switching back to Adain's bank, he authorized a transfer of three million dollars. A lot, but a drop in the bucket to Adain. Before finally logging off, he made sure that all the computers involved would forget all about things once he withdrew the money from the ATM machine.

He purchased an airline ticket, first class (why not?!), for Rose to Chicago the next evening, and he made reservations for Rose at the Mart Holiday Inn under the assumed name of Nikki Mitchell, using a cash transfer in place of a credit card. He knew he would need some kind of picture ID to actually board the airplane, and was thankful that Rose had urged Adain to have one made for her "just in case". She had never used it, but now he was able to access another part of Adain's database and arrange for a duplicate to be made. Calling over the nice English speaking librarian, he was able to chat her into allowing Rose to have it delivered to her at the library the next day. Focusing back on the computer, he again made sure that all the computers would forget all about the duplicate ID and airline ticket, once the ID had been sent out and the plane had been boarded. He was sure, despite what Rose had taught them, that neither Adain nor Salielah would notice anything amiss.

God, it had felt good to practice his trade again!

He logged off. From the friendly librarian, he was able to get the name and address of a nice but nondescript hotel in which to spend the night. The librarian was concerned about a nice young lady like Rose going off by herself, but Ross, with some difficulty, was able to put her fears to rest. He left the library to find the faithful, and greedy, Mustafa still waiting for Rose. He took her to the ATM machine of Adain's bank, and then to the hotel. With a smile and a wink and a ten dollar bill - probably a week's wages to him - Rose ensured that he would pick her up tomorrow in time to get to the library to pick up her ID, and then to the Istanbul airport. She told him that if he remained silent about her, there would be a hundred dollar bonus for him when he dropped her off at the airport.

Once in the hotel and checked in, Ross visited the gift shop. He bought a carry-on bag, a nightshirt that said "Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul - Fun City, whatever you call it" on it in English, a pair of black slacks, a pink blouse with ruffles at collar and cuffs, a pair of black flats, several bracelets, a necklace and some earrings. The blouse and jewelry were way over the top feminine for "I'm baaack!" Ross, even though he had to look like Rose for awhile, but he felt a little sorry for Rose, and hoped the girlie items would make her feel a bit better.

He took his new things up to his room, washed out his undies using shampoo, and hung them over the shower curtain rod to dry. As he looked at the bra and panties and hose, he thought, 'Not much longer!' He ran a bath, and as he was soaking, he ordered a dinner from room service - a real man's dinner of steak and potatoes and beer! How he had missed beer! Clean and dried with his/Rose's hair presentable (he'd decided to put off a haircut till Chicago) he sat down to eat and was chagrined to find that a) he couldn't stand the taste of beer now, and b) he could only eat about a quarter of the steak and potatoes. He began to realize that getting back to the physical Ross would not be an easy matter. He shrugged. 'Plenty of time now,' he thought, got into bed, and slept the best sleep HE'D had in a long, long time.

The next day didn't go quite as Ross had planned. In the morning, things started out okay. He dressed in his new clothes, stuffed the nightshirt and his remaining snacks in the carry-on bag, grabbed his purse and was about to leave. He threw the sun dress in the wastebasket, never intending to wear it again, but had second thoughts: No use leaving evidence of Rose's presence around; he stuffed it into the carry-on, also. When he stepped onto the street, he found Mustafa waiting for him. Mustafa was smiling with the smile of a man who is about to come into a large sum of money; he complimented Rose on how pretty she looked, which somewhat annoyed Ross.

He took Ross to the library, where complications ensued. His librarian friend, whose name was Gabrielle, had Rose's new ID for him, but took one look at "her" and pronounced "her" unfit to go out in public. "Whatever were you thinking this morning, dear? You look quite as disheveled today as you did yesterday, despite your nice new clothes! Now, we can't let you go off to America looking like something the cat dragged in, can we? I have this beautician friend ..."

It was easier, he told himself, to go along rather than argue, and he did have the time. An hour later, a much more Rose Ross left Gabrielle's friend's salon, impeccably made up with his hair, very much her hair, put up into an elegant French twist. Ross was cringing inwardly; it certainly was proving hard to ditch Rose! He now also had another tube of lipstick - "Crimson and Clover" - in his purse, along with the "Cherry Tomato Red" tube that he had bought at Walgreens; it was what Gabrielle's friend had used, and she insisted "Rose" keep it for touch ups. Rose, in her mental cell, smiled: 'One tube enough, indeed!' Neither Gabrielle nor her friend was willing to take a penny. It turned out they were both originally Chicago girls, and were more than happy to help another Windy City girl, clearly in distress, get back home looking good!

Two hundred dollars poorer, he left a VERY happy Mustafa at the airport, swearing eternal silence - "American girl? What American girl?"

The flight was anticlimactic, and that evening "Nikki Mitchell" checked into the Mart Holiday Inn. The next day "Nick Mitchell" got his hair cut, bought some real (men's') clothes, and bought the best laptop computer money could buy. As Ross, he withdrew two million from his Cayman Island account, and set up an account at First Chicago for Nikki with five hundred thousand in it, and an account at the Bank of Lincolnwood with one and a half million in it for Nick. By Internet he rented his office/apartment in the Hancock building. He moved in a week later, after some of his shadier Internet friends had made some ID documents for Nick and Nikki. He began his doomed year and a half long quest to regain his lost manhood.

(Back in the present, Real time Rose became just Rose again. She got up from Ross's, now her, chair, went over to Ross's, now her, desk, and sat at Ross's, now her, computer. It was time to deep six Ross, Nick, and Nikki, and come out again and once and for all as Rose. First - 'Typical female ... finally!' she thought joyously - she would go Shopping!!!

Then she'd meet with "The Group". Finally, she'd do what she had wanted to do so often but couldn't because she was trying to be Ross, e-mail Adain and Salielah. God, she missed them! She hoped they would forgive and help her. She needed Adain and Salielah, because it was payback time, and she had a plan.)

To Be Continued