Season of Terror
by Tigger
Copyright 2002, All Rights Reserved

Chapter 11: Blood Will Tell

It was strange, Victoria reflected as she sat in the antiseptic-perfumed ambiance of the storefront clinic's waiting room, to feel both hot and cold at the same time.  The 'hot' part was relatively easy to explain - that the room's air conditioner was either broken or turned off as a money-saving measure.  The stuffy, small, windowless room with its stained pastel walls and cracked-vinyl furniture had to be over eighty degrees - WELL over eighty degrees.  The cold she sensed, however, came from inside - from that freezing knot deep in her gut that seemed to grow bigger every moment she sat there.

Waiting.

*At least we're alone now,* she thought with some relief.  There'd been a young mother with a cranky baby waiting for the doctor when Ms. Thompson had ushered her into this room.  Thankfully, the woman had been too busy trying to calm the child to look too closely at Victoria, and the infant's loud wails had made conversation, even lectures, impossible. *Every silver lining has a cloud,* she mused ruefully.

A nurse entered the waiting room and looked down at her clipboard.  "Victoria Denato?" she asked.

"Yes, Ma'am," she answered softly.

"If you'll come with me, please," she ordered, turning on her heel.

Victoria rose to her feet and straightened her skirt.  "Ms. Thompson?" she asked hesitantly, looking down at her guardian who made no move to rise.

"Just go and get it done, Victoria," Jane ordered, her features stony.  

"Yes, Ma'am," the girl repeated and then turned to follow the nurse. *Guess it's not surprising she is still pi. . .I mean, upset,* she thought. *She sure was angry when she got us home and there hasn't been all that much time for her to calm down since.  Well, at least I'm getting my chance.*
Jane had ordered Victor to Victoria's bedroom immediately after they'd arrived back at the house following his abortive attempt to get to Kingston.  A short time later, she had entered into her student's bedroom with Marie in tow.

"So, you want to donate blood, eh?" she'd stormed at him.  "So badly that you break your promise to stay here and obey my orders? Your promise to stay in skirts until *I* decide you've earned the privilege of trousers once more? Well, we _could_ have worked something out that didn't put your secret identity at risk - _could_ have arranged for you to donate time at the blood bank helping prepare the donations of others.  That would have been just as helpful.  Or you _could_ have helped collect blankets and clothing for those who lost their homes.  There are a lot of ways you could help those poor people that would not require you to break your promise to me by running away."

"I'm sorry, I . . .I couldn't do that . . .  I mean, I couldn't help in the blood bank, . . .but . .but, well, I just had to give blood back to make up for . .  I mean, giving blood was just the right thing."  

"Well, right or not, it is certainly the thing you're going to do now - today, in fact.  Unless you chicken out at the last minute and faint at the sight of the needle or do something equally girlish.  As to how you deal with the truth of your identity, you're going to have to decide for yourself just how to address that little problem, but you ARE going to the clinic.  Understand?"

"Yes, Ms. Thompson," Victoria had answered, her voice very small.

"Very well.  Marie will help you dress.  Do TRY and at least LOOK like a young lady, if you please?  I would prefer not to be humiliated by a student yet again this day."

After that scene, Victoria had fully anticipated being rigged out in one of Jane's 'Raggedy Anne/Shirley Temple' abominations, but the outfit wasn't all that bad.  Actually, all things considered, Victoria reflected as she entered a cramped examining room, Marie's selections were really very attractive.  A white blouse, tailored skirt and blazer, hosiery complemented by matching heels and coordinating jewelry completed her presentation. *If my hair were auburn instead of this bleached blonde, I'd look almost like a mini-Jane,* she realized, a thought that was oddly pleasing to the confused teenager. *Look, Ma, I'm a growed up girl - just like you!*
"If you'll take off your blazer, Miss Denato, so I can take your blood pressure and pulse, we can get the paperwork filled out so you can donate.  I must say, you are a very brave girl to be willing to do this, and we do need your type of blood just now. . . well, you know why."

"Yes, Ma'am. . umm. . Nurse Bedford," she said, reading the name tag pinned to the woman's uniform lapel, "I had to do something, you know?"

"Well, if you will fill out this form for me," Nurse Nora Bedford said with a smile, "I will get set up for you in there.  Be just a minute."

The nurse left and Victoria scanned the form - and stopped. *Sure didn't have to read far, did I?  Third block after I fill in my name - Sex: M or F.  I could get away with just putting 'V. Denato' down for my name, but if I leave the sex block blank, they'll just ask, and if I lie, Jane said that they will have to discard the blood.*

The mocking look on Jane's face when she'd told him he could go 'girly' came back to him, followed by the darker memories of that morning's disaster in Manhattan.  Swallowing hard, Victor/Victoria picked up the pen and boldly marked the form.

Moments later, the nurse returned to take her into the room where the donation rig was set up.  "You just take a seat, dear," she told Victoria and pointing to a chair.  "The Doctor will be with you for the final checks before we start.  Since you are still a minor, we need both your guardian's and the doctor's okay before we draw your blood.  Only be a minute."

~-----------~

Jane looked up from her conversation when Nora walked into the small office. "Well, Michelle," the nurse began with a grin, "You ready to go on, dear?" 

"Doctor Nash, puh-lease, Nurse," the other person in the room said with exaggerated hauteur, "You don't want to slip up when we go in there, do you?  Or are you telling me that 'Plan XX' is on for tonight?" Michael Nash, MD asked as he walked over to the table where a wig-stand held a blonde wig attractively done-up in a tight, professional-looking French braid.

"Well?" Jane demanded.  "How did she fill out the form, Nora?  Does Michelle unmask Victoria, or does Victor explain to Michael why he is here in skirts?"

Nora grinned again, and passed the completed medical form to Jane who looked at it, and then repeated herself.  "Well."

~-----------~

Victoria had wanted to run at least four times since the nurse had left the room, but in the end, had stayed where she was.  For one thing, she wasn't going to give in this time.  She'd made her commitment and she would see this thing through.  For another. . 

Her thoughts were interrupted when a slim, not-very-tall young man in old-fashioned horned-rim glasses entered the room followed by the nurse.  He had a stethoscope hanging about his neck and a frown on his face.  "Excuse me, Miss Denato," the doctor whose name tag marked him as 'Dr. Nash', but we need to clear up a mistake on your form here.  You must misread the 'sex' question because you 'x'ed the block for males."

Victoria swallowed hard, *I seem to be doing a lot of that lately,* she thought numbly.  "Ummm. . .it. . .it wasn't a mistake.  I really am a boy.  My name. . . my name is Victor. . Victor Denato."

Light blond eyebrows went high on the doctor's forehead.  "Victor?  Pardon me, Miss. . umm. . Vic, but you don't look like a Victor.  I think you need to explain this to me."

Closing his eyes, Victor stifled yet another urge to flee.  He'd known this was coming, and had done little but think about his answer ever since Jane had come into Victoria's room to order her to dress for this excursion.  It had occurred to him, right from the beginning, that he could get the Thompson woman in very deep trouble if he played this scene out right.  Bleeding heart doctor, the kind who worked in a knothole storefront clinic like this, would probably be willing to believe the worst about Victoria's situation.  Probably go running off to social services so fast it would make Jane's head swim.

But he wasn't going to do that, which didn't leave him a great many options.  There just were not many reasons a boy could use to explain wearing girl's clothing - not without the person receiving the explanation concluding that either Victor or Jane or both were in serious need of a headshrinker's help.  He'd even thought about hinting that he was considering that operation he'd read about - the one where they made a guy into a girl - and was practicing - just to find out if that was what he wanted.  But there were dangers there, too. 

*When all else fails, tell the truth, right?* Victor almost had to force his voice down to his 'normal' range.  "Well, Doctor, I have this problem - with my temper?"

The doctor simply stared at him, giving no indication of what he thought about that. *You'd almost think he'd taken 'stone-face lessons' from Ms. Jane,* Victor thought resigned.  "Well, it's like this.  Ms. Thompson thought, and I have to agree, now anyway, that being. . . well, dressed like this, sort of forces me to stop and think before. . .well, before I do something bad."

"Bad?" Doctor Nash asked.  "What do you mean by 'bad'?  And how does looking like a young Britney Spears stop you from doing that something bad?"

"I beat up people, Doctor, all of them smaller than me, when I get mad," Victor admitted in a very quiet voice, and for the first time, felt ashamed of that particular fact.  "Or I used to, that is. I'd get upset at someone. . .someone I couldn't. . .someone I didn't think I could take because he was bigger than me, and so I would take my temper out on someone I could take.  Ms. Thompson thought being in a dress, having to act like a girl, I couldn't, you know, do that without people figuring out I'm a guy.  If I got picked on for being small, that would be nothing to what I'd get if people thought I was a, well, a sissy."

"That's the truth?" Dr. Nash pressed, "You're sure you are not being abused here by that woman? Just give me the word and I'll call Family Services.  You'll be out from under her control in five minutes."

Victor felt himself go very still.  Here it was - his way out, and he hadn't even tried to make it happen.  He could probably pull it off without even saying a word just by looking really worried or scared.

*. . . .'That would cast unwarranted aspersions on prior students and those to come after you.  We must solve your problems without harming others in the process' . . .* he remembered Jane saying. Did he want to be responsible for that?  After all, who were those people to him? *No, _I_ must start solving my problems without harming anyone else in the process.*

Victoria schooled her features and smiled tremulously up at the doctor.  "It's not abusive, sir, and it IS working.  For me, at least," she said with as much confidence as she could muster.  "Ms. Thompson was right about thinking first now.  This is my choice."

The young doctor remained impassive for several moments and it took all of Jane's hard-taught lessons for Victoria to keep herself from squirming or from looking away from the steady gaze.  Finally, he shook his head.  "All right, then. If you say so.  Nurse, let's pull this pint and let _Victoria_ get on with her business."

Nurse Bedford pushed a rolling stand with a clear plastic bag and an attached tube hanging from it.  "Ummm, Doctor?  I, uh, don't have to see the blood, do I?"

A smile softened Dr. Nash's face.  "No.  We can hide it behind you. Got a problem with blood?"

Victoria grimaced.  "Last guy I hurt fell and cut his scalp," she admitted with a shudder.  "God, but I thought he was bleeding to death.  It was everywhere."

"No problem.  Just relax and it will be over before you know it.  Nurse?  If you would do the stick, please?  I need to check on our other patient."

"Yes, Doctor."

~-------------~

"What on EARTH were you thinking in there, Michael Nash?" Jane snarled when the young man she thought of as her first son reentered the office.  "Don't you think you took a terrible chance with that last offer to go to family services?!?!"

"Eavesdropping, were you?" he asked, unrepentantly.

"Suppose he'd told you to make that cursed call?  What then?"

"_SHE_ wasn't going to do that," Michael replied confidently.  "I've been a Big Sister often enough to tell when a kid has turned the corner, Momma-Jane.  All I did was make HER realize that fact, too."

"I almost had an old fashioned attack of the vapors," Jane muttered darkly before walking over to embrace his slim frame.  "Thanks."

"De Nada, Momma-Jane.  I'm just glad I didn't have to play the outraged Doctor Michelle who 'discovers' he's a boy. I wasn't really comfortable with Plan XX, mostly because you have never really 'outed' one of your students. From a psych profile, we just don't have any history with which to predict how he might have reacted to that type of shock. Public unmasking has always been the biggest stick in your arsenal, but it's always been only a threat.  He could have decided that there just wasn't anything worse you could have done to him after that." 

Jane shrugged.  "I suppose, but then again, I didn't think a direct untruth on the form was likely.  Whatever his faults, Victor Denato isn't a liar.  He's a bully, but that's more a sign of cowardice than outright deceit.  IF he didn't follow through and admit his masculinity in order to donate blood, he would have taken the other option I teased him with - having a very girlish, very loud panic attack and chickening out altogether. *Before* he filled out the gender block in your form.  Having said that, I agree that it appears we've turned a big corner today, and for that, thank you again, dear."  

"Most fun I've had since. . . well, since Michelle visited the nursing dormitory showers at the hospital."

"MICHAEL!" Jane half growled, half laughed.  "You didn't."

Before Michael could reply, the door burst open.  "Michael? Come quick - Victoria just fainted.  I, uh, made the mistake of letting her see the full bag. I guess she really doesn't like the sight of blood."

~-----------~
Victoria was on edge the entire drive home waiting for Jane to poke at her for fainting - 'just like a girl.'

But to her surprise, Jane did not utter a word from the moment she helped her student into the car at the clinic until they walked through the door of Seasons House.

Marie met them in the foyer.  "Marie?  A snack, please.  Victoria needs to take in fluids and some carbohydrates.  A light tea would go well, I think, in the music room.  Join us there?"

"Just a few minutes, Jane.  I just need to brew the tea." 
In the music room, Jane turned to face her student.  "I owe you an apology, Victoria."  

"Huh? I mean, I beg your pardon?" her student blurted, eyes wide with surprise.  

Jane nodded.  "I questioned your personal courage and commitment to your proposed course of action, today. No coward would have done what you did today, my girl.  You did a very good thing today and I am proud that Victoria Denato is my student.  I am prouder of you." 

For several moments, all Victoria could do was stare at her teacher, and then, "Ex... excuse me, Ms. Jane," she squeaked and then rushed from the room, one hand to her stomach, the other covering her suddenly burning eyes.