"Oh, girls, I’m so happy you are here!" Patrick said, smiling and clapping. Christine noticed that even his voice was sounding different, higher than before. "I really missed both of you!" he added, hugging and kissing the women's faces.
"Patrick?" Christine exclaimed. "Is this really you?"
"What do you mean, Chris? O course this is me. Oh, but I prefer to be called Patty now!"
"Patty? Are you serious?"
"Yes! Is there something wrong, Chris? You seem exasperated."
"Well, have you been looking in the mirror lately? You seem to be a new person!"
Like the last visit, Mrs. Larsen had asked the women not to show astonished at seeing Patrick, but Christine simply couldn't do what she had asked for – not this time.
"Do you really think so?" Patrick asked, looking surprised. "Well, I know I've changed a bit, but I honestly…"
Christine thought Patrick would be worried to hear this, but she couldn't be more wrong. Slowly, a broad smile grew on his face. He was happy!
"Thank you very much for saying that! That means a lot to me. I've been struggling so much... It's good to know this is paying off. Personally, I wanted my development would be a little faster, you know..."
"Faster?" the woman exclaimed. "But... but..." Patrick really was crazier than she had imagined.
A little later, he served tea for all of them, and then described what his last two weeks had been like (again omitting some topics at the request of Mrs. Larsen). In addition to his usual classes, he was now also learning about makeup, hair and skin care, and was even seeing a teacher who was teaching him to sound like a woman.
"It is clear that you are progressing very well" Simone said. "I told you this place is amazing!"
"And you were right, darling" Patrick said giggling. "Mrs. Larsen and all the staff here are fabulous! Now, tell me how things are going at the company. Any news about Mr. Hill's issue?"
"Yes" Christine said. "Some emails have been intercepted and it's clear now that sensitive information of the company is actually being sold on the black market. However, it hasn't yet been possible to link these operations to Mr. Hill or any other person."
"Wow, this is huge!" Patrick exclaimed. "But how were those emails intercepted?"
"Mr. McFarland hired a company specializing in this type of service" Simone explained. "He was reluctant at first, since he wanted to keep this matter restricted to a small number of people, and minimize the chances of Mr. Hill discovering something, but we were running out of options."
"But now we at least know for sure that something wrong is actually happening" Patrick said, excited.
"Yes, and this is not all" Christine said.
"What do you mean?"
"Some of these emails actually originated from the subsidiary headed by Mr. Hill. However, this appears to be a larger scheme. There are other emails from the server of the company headquarters, where we work. Someone there is also involved in this too."
"Oh my goodness..." Patrick exclaimed, and once again Christine thought it was very weird. In other times, he would have said something like holy shit. "So now it's more important than ever that I disguise myself as Mr. Hill's secretary. This problem is bigger than we thought!"
"About that..." Christine started. "I'm not so sure this is a good idea at all, Patrick... I mean, Patty."
"What? I've been here for almost a month, Chris. I can't give up now! Besides, you yourself said that I'm looking good as a woman."
"I know" the woman said in distress. "But I think this can be dangerous. I hadn't thought of that before, but now it seems…"
The woman was interrupted by a knock on Patrick's bedroom door. When the feminized guy told the person to come in, Christine saw a handsome, muscular man, who was smiling.
"Tony?" Patrick said, surprised. "Should I have gone to the gym today? Oh, I’m sorry. I didn't know. Anyway, these are Christine and Simone, my friends. Girls, this is Tony, my personal trainer."
"Nice to meet you" Tony said to the women. "And don't worry, Patty. I wasn't expecting you today."
"So...?"
"Well, you were very dedicated at the gym this week, so I thought you deserved a gift."
Just then Patrick and the women noticed that the man had his hands behind his body. When he finally brought them forward, they saw that he was holding a red rose and a heart-shaped box.
"Oh, Tony, thank you very much! You shouldn't have!"
Then, to Christine's total disbelief, Patrick stood up and hugged Tony tightly, and even kissed his face affectionately! "This is a beautiful flower" the feminized man continued, sounding like a silly girl.
"I'm glad you liked it. I picked it in the garden just now!"
"And what's inside this box? Oh, chocolate! Tony, you're such a bad boy, aren’t you? You know that we girls looove chocolate, but I shouldn't eat it now. I still need to lose a pound or two..."
"You women always say that, but I think you already look great. Also, we can make up for this at the gym next week."
"Well, you are the expert about my body, so if you say so..."
Christine thought this could only be a nightmare. None of that made sense. Patrick was blatantly flirting with that guy! And it wasn't just that: the way Patrick looked at Tony was disturbing. No one could pretend so well. It was clear that Patrick was loving to appreciate the other man's muscular body.
Was he gay now? And what about Julie, his fiancée? But dammit, she was sure that nobody could just become gay! This wasn't something changeable. There was something bigger going on there – something evil. Those people were messing up Patrick's mind somehow, and this realization made her frightened, but, above all, furious. Without a word, Christine stood up and started to leave the room.
"Hey, where are you going?" Patrick asked.
"I need to do something" it was all she said.
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Christine walked into Mrs. Larsen's office without even knocking on the door.
"Can I help you, Mrs. Moss?" the owner of the clinic asked, surprised.
"Yes!" Christine shouted. "I want to know exactly what you've done to Patrick!"
"As you know very well, Mrs. Moss" Mrs. Larsen started, still sounding calm and relaxed. "We haven't done anything that Mr. Donovan hasn't asked for. We are only helping him fulfill his goal."
"Don't play the dumb here, Mrs. Larsen!" not even Christine could believe she was talking to that woman that way, but she had never been so angry. "There is something else going on! Patrick seems to be a completely a new person!"
"Mrs. Moss, I know you have a lot of appreciation for Mr. Donovan, and for this reason you're worried about him, which is understandable. However, I can assure you that no procedures against his will have been done. Why don't you sit down and then we can discuss this issue rationally? I'll order some tea so you can calm down a little."
Twenty minutes later, Mrs. Larsen had finished telling the program to which Patrick had been subjected (conveniently "forgetting" to mention some things), but Christine wasn’t convinced.
"Mrs. Moss, if you're so suspicious, why don't you stay in our clinic for a few days so you can follow Mr. Donovan's progress yourself?" Mrs. Larsen suggested.
"What? I cannot stay here. I have to work."
"Well, I'm sure you could get some days off, and in fact..."
"What?"
"Oh, I just had an idea... A great idea, I date to say! Perhaps you can do more than just watch Mr. Donovan’s development. Perhaps you can help him in his endeavor..."
"I don't understand."
"Well..." Mrs. Larsen said with a strange smile. Christine really didn't like that. "Patrick needs to be a MILF, as men say, and you know that, technically, MILFs need to be mothers, right? So maybe…" she added, with her eyes glowing devilishly.
"You ... You're crazy! I'm out of here, and I'm going to take Patrick with me!" Christine said. However, when she tried to stand up, she immediately felt very dizzy, and was forced to sit down again.
"Are you okay, Mrs. Moss?"
"The tea! You drugged me, you bitch!"
"Now I really think you're not well. You are behaving very aggressively and paranoid. I'm sure a few days of rest will do you good. I'll call someone to take you to your room, my darling."
In less than a minute, two male nurses appeared in the office, and held Christine by the arms.
"No, no! Leave me alone!" she shouted, but it was too late. She was feeling so groggy… It wasn't long before she finally lost consciousness…
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Hey, sweeties! Sorry for the delay, but it was a hard chapter! And I'm working on the net part of "K-Pop" right now!
:-)