Deja-Vu

Chris considered the question for a moment. There really was no decision to make. As interesting and instructive as it had been to share a male body, she had really had quite enough of that. She wanted to ask Seth if she could be female again this time, but was afraid of the answer. So she simply nodded and said "Yes."

She came back to awareness much easier this time. Of course the fact that she was in the shower with cool water cascading down her body might have been the difference. Hastily she looked down. And thank GOD, she was female again. And in good shape. She admired the long legs she was presently washing and the washboard stomach. No children for this woman, whoever she was.

Chris luxuriated in the shower for a bit longer. At one point her fingers crept between her legs. Muddled images passed through her mind. She didn't seem to be able to quite capture any of them, although some must have been very stimulating to this woman.

Abigail, that was her name.

She shut the water off and climbed out of the tub, wrapping herself in a towel as she did. She would have to hurry, it was nearly time to go to work. She began to dry off when a bit of cool air brushed over her body. The door was open and she sensed someone else was entering. Chris felt Abigail smile and knew the new-comer must be someone familiar, and important, judging by the shiver of excitement that ran through her body.

Then Abigail was spun around and pressed against the bathroom wall. A leg pushed between hers, a hand slipped inside her towel to cup a rounded breast and warm lips locked onto her mouth. A long deep kiss ensued before the other person released Abigail and stepped back with a laugh.

"That's so you won't forget about me at work," smiled the lovely Oriental girl standing before her.

"As if I could," replied Abigail, who reached out and touched her lover's face with her fingers.

"Got to go, sweetheart. Have a good day," said the other woman.

"Love you Kimberly," said Abigail to the disappearing form. who's head suddenly popped back around the bathroom door.

"Love you too."

There was the heavy clunk of an outside door being closed. Chris stood still in complete shock.

"SETH! NOW!"

"There's no need to yell Christina. I'm always right here beside you." The angel appeared in front of her. "What in the world is it?"

"Absolutely not," snapped Chris. "Being a guy was one thing. He was married though, in a normal relationship. But I am not a lesbian. I don't think its right."

"You don't?" Seth raised an eyebrow.

"No," said Chris. In the face of his obvious disapproval she didn't sound as sure of herself. "It says so in the Bible."

"Perhaps. I am not going to argue dogma with you Christina. I simply want you to think. When the End of Time comes and the sheep are separated from the goats, what will Jesus ask? Its all laid out for you. Will he inquire as to your sexual preferences? Or will he ask what you did for him when you did something for the least of the others?"

Chris closed her eyes. "The Judgment of the Nations." She winced. She had always prided herself on her freedom from prejudice. Like always, pride came, and then a fall. She opened them and squared her shoulders. "What do I need to do?"

Seth laughed gently. "Christina! You are not being delivered to Purgatory. I think you may find joy here even as you did with Charley." The smile faded. "Abigail is a sheltered spirit who has lost her faith. All faith, in God, in her family and most of all in herself. When she came out, her parents rejected her. She fled from her home town to the city. Since then she has simply gone with the rising and ebbing of the tide. She has been unable to make a stand on anything, take action on anything. She is adrift. Even her relationship with Kimberly, her source of happiness is in danger because she won't fight for it. And the challenges are looming on the horizon. She will be tested, not once, but twice and woe if she should fail."

Then Seth was gone. Christina relaxed and let Abigail take the lead in getting dressed and going to work at the insurance company where she worked as a claims representative. She let the other woman work, watching her. Chris soon realized why Abigail had chosen this line of work. She never had to back up any decisions. She approved or disproved claims. If her rejection of a claim was challenged, she simply passed it to a supervisor. She worked hard, she was conscientious and never did anything to rock the boat.

Okay, she could live with that, decided Chris. But what else went on? She dipped into Abigail's memory. She Passed quickly through the past year, including her meeting with Kimberly, the details of which just about made Chris and Abigail both blush, she looked farther back. She wanted to see the details of the fight with her parents that had led Abigail here.

Chris found those memories but they were all a blur. There was shouting and Abigail's father's stern face and her mother's weeping one. Over all there seemed to be a thundering voice that over-rode anything the young woman had tried to say at the time. There was a door slamming and tears blinding Abigail as she recalled bundling her possessions into the car and roaring out of the driveway. But what was that younger face that she could see, also streaked with tears?

Well, that would come when it needed to. In the meantime, Chris needed to settle in with this new situation. In some ways, it was quite surprisingly easy. Kimberly and Abigail both went to their jobs and came home. They shopped for food and clothing and cleaned up the house. It was just like any other relationship. They went out to eat and, to Chris' delight, went to the gym to work out on a regular basis. In fact, both women trained in martial-arts, although not the same school Chris was familiar with, but she adapted.

Of course, there WAS the strange feeling of waking up snuggled to another woman, and kissing her goodnight and, well, all the touches and affectionate gestures that went along with being a couple. It was much closer to how Chris and Jack had behaved than how she had first found Charley and Angela acting. Love was love.

Curiously, Kimberly was gone so much right then with her job, and with both of them tired when she was home, sex had not been on the menu. Chris was VERY relieved. She admitted to herself though that she looked forward to having Kimberly home. It felt wonderful to Abigail and safe for them both to go to sleep in the other woman's arms and wake up there. She felt a gently fierce air of protection from Kimberly and that was good. Abigail needed that.

Then a Friday came and Kimberly was home for the whole weekend. They puttered around the house on Saturday. Chris was delighted to find that Abigail was going to make one of her girlfriend's favorite dishes, a dish that it happened was one of Jack's favorite too. She seized the opportunity to assume charge and cooked up a storm. After happily preparing the dish, she slid it into the oven and set the timer. She stood up and balanced back and forth from one bare foot to the other. She was wearing only a loose blouse and panties.

As she stood up, Kimberly's arms circled her and soft lips nuzzled her neck. "I see we have an hour," the Oriental girl whispered. "Why don't we put it to good use? Its been far too long since we made love."

Chris felt the shared body respond, the nipples stiffening as the other girl's fingers brushed over them. She began to squirm back against Kimberly's body. Okay, decided Chris, time for her to back off and practice mental mathematics or something. She definitely was not prepared for this, even after weeks in this body.

To her utter panic, she found she could NOT pull back. Whether it was because she had assumed control so firmly or because of Abigail's submissiveness or some other reason, she was staying right in the forefront of the consciousness. It wasn't Abigail who was feeling what Kimberly was doing, it was Christina.

Kimberly spun her around and kissed her. The kiss was open-mouthed and Chris for the first time felt another woman's tongue in her mouth. The other girl's fingers were at the button of the blouse she was wearing and in just moments a soft hand touched her breast.

Chris was in a state. Unlike many, even most, other females, she had never had any experience at all with another woman. There had been no experimentation in high school or college, no fumbling in a shared cot at camp. No hurried kisses on a couch in the basement of a sorority house after too much to drink or sitting together on a blanket under the stars after a concert and finding the darkness hid hurried touches and caresses. She had never even practiced kissing with another girl. What was she going to do now?

Kimberly stroked a rapidly hardening nipple. The kiss became deeper, and Chris found herself moaning as the other girl's tongue plunged deeper into her mouth. She sucked in her breath as her lover's fingers wandered down her tummy and brushed over the front of her panties.

No, she didn't want this, she SHOULDN'T want this. But a warm feeling was spreading all through her body and she trembled as a longing, a deeper longing than she thought possible filled her. She was seized by a wild desire to kiss Kimberly back, to touch her in all the secret places she wanted to be touched herself.

"Ding Donggggggg," sang the door bell.

"Ignore it," whispered Kimberly.

"Gladly," was the reply as Abigail wrapped her arms around Kimberly's neck.

The bell was not to be denied. It rang and rang until Kimberly heaved a sigh. "Stay right there," she instructed the other woman and went to the door. there was the sound of the door opening and Abigail could hear voices before Kimberly raised her voice.

"Abigail? Would you come here please? NOW."

Abigail hurried to the front hall. She stopped and covered her mouth. There was the pale face that Chris had seen in her host's memories. With that sighting the memories opened and Abigail cried out to her sister.

"Naomi!"

The pale young girl in the doorway swayed on her feet, her eyes fixed on Abigail. Then she started to crumple. Kimberly caught her and Abigail was beside her in an instant.

"Let's get her to bed," said Abigail. Kimberly nodded and the two women carried the teenager to the spare bedroom and covered her with a comforter. Abigail sat with her sister until the exhausted young woman fell asleep. She continued to sit with her, falling asleep in the chair beside the bed, with her hand holding her sister's. She was vaguely aware of Kimberly slipping in during the night hours to check on both of them.

The next morning She pushed Naomi into the shower and fed her. Kimberly had already called Abigail's office and arranged for some time off for a family emergency. She had done the same herself, but remained in the background while Abigail talked to her sister.

Chris' head was reeling after the chat. She found it almost a great a comfort as Abigail did to be able to hold Kimberly's hand and talk to her about what she had found.

"Naomi's pregnant."

"How old is she?" demanded Kimberly.

"Nearly 19. She's about 3 months along. She won't tell me who the father is." Abigail sighed. "She's really scared of something or other. Apparently she got as far as breaking the news to our parents. who were, naturally appalled, when something happened that made her decide to flee."

"How did she get our address?" inquired Kimberly. "Not that I'm not happy to have her here," she added. "She can stay just as long as she wants. But I do have a reason for asking."

"I wrote her several times when we first moved in together. As I suspected, our parents intercepted the letters. But she found one in the trash and got our address from it." Abigail looked anxiously at Kimberly. "Is something wrong?"

"No, darling, and I'm glad she came here. I'm just thinking."

"Of what?"

"She got our address from a letter your parents received. That means they can find us too." Kimberly's face tightened. "I think I better make arrangements to be home the next week or two. As much as possible you should too."

Over the next week Abigail and Kimberly made taking care of Naomi a priority. They arranged for her to see a Doctor, a female Doctor who was a friend of theirs and who pronounced the pregnancy normal. They took her shopping and tried to get her to relax. They braced for the day that was coming.

And that day came. There a pounding on the door one afternoon. Abigail answered it, to be confronted by her parents. And Mr. Thurston. If he had a first name she never knew it and didn't want to know it. He was a lay preacher and their next-door neighbor. Chris dipped into the welter of Abigail's emotions and memories and was surprised at the anger and even hate she felt for the man. There was fear too. What was causing all this?

"Where is she?" demanded her father. Without waiting for an answer he brushed past her. Involuntarily, Abigail stepped back as Thurston approached, allowing the other man to enter. Her mother followed, without a word, but paused to look in her older daughter's eyes. There was a gentleness there that Abigail had not remembered seeing in a very long time.

"Where is she?"

"I'm here," announced Naomi softly. She stood in the hallway, having come from her bedroom. Kimberly came immediately behind her and slipped past her. The Oriental girl took in the scene in a flash and her jaw tightened and a look grew in her eyes. Chris recognized that look. It was the preparation for battle.

"Naomi, you need to come home."

"Why?"

The simple question seemed to dumfound her father. "Because its where you belong. Its where we can take care of you. You shouldn't be here."

"Why not? Are you afraid I will be exposed to 'unwholesome influences' as I think you put it when you kicked my sister out of the house? As opposed to the mutters that I heard about being a 'Scarlet Woman'? Here I'm safe. I'm not there."

Thurston spoke up. Chris watched the memories of this mind run through Abigail's mind and began to hate him as much as she did. Chris saw him standing up in front of the church, his voice booming, his face red and his hand pounding on the podium. She heard him call for the 'cleansing of the temple' and saw him pointing at Abigail as he outed her, and called for her condemnation at the same time, demanding her dismissal from the church and her parents too if they stood by her.

"You'll come or your parents will drag you from this den of iniquity."

"what?" demanded Abigail. "You all but break into our apartment and you think you can claim.... what? That we kidnapped my sister?"

"We'll call the police," declared Thurston. "Who do you think they will believe?"

Kimberly laughed out loud, merrily but with a hard edge to her laughter. She crossed to the desk in the corner and retrieved a small leather folder. Holding it up, she displayed an ID Card and a badge. "Special Agent Kailess of the Drug Enforcement Administration. Would you like to use our phone to make that call?"

Thurston shut up. Something was stirring in Abigail's mind and Chris examined the lay preacher neighbor. Based on what she had learned through Abigail's memories, Thurston, although being an self-righteous ass as always, was not nearly the loud-mouthed gospel shouter he usually was. He was practically subdued. Not at all like him.

A suspicion grew. Abigail was unsure of why he was being so much quieter than usual, but that was overlaid by her fear of him. Chris wasn't afraid of him at all and her police-trained instincts were screaming at her. She observed Thurston. She observed Naomi. Her suspicions crystallized. Without thinking she spoke through Abigail.

"I'll be da..." she bit off the rest of the final word.

"What?"

Surprising Chris, Abigail surged to the forefront, brushing Chris aside. But Naomi WAS Abigail's sister after all. Finally something had triggered the other woman's determination and Chris knew she was about to make a stand as she crossed to stand in front of her sister.

"Naomi, I know."

"You know? Know what?" demanded their father.

"I was talking to Naomi," she called over her shoulder. She looked in her sister's eyes. "Honey, I KNOW. Stop taking the blame for this. You're hurting yourself. You're even hurting Mother and Father. They deserve to know." She turned and looked at Thurston, who paled.

"Oh God, you do know," Naomi whispered.

"Yes. Tell them."

"Tell us what?" Anger had faded from their father's face, replaced by puzzlement, and yes, Chris noted, uneasiness of his own. He made no repeat of the statement he had made a year ago of Abigail never calling him "Father" again.

"Don't," came a half plea, half command from the other male in the room.

"Don't what?" The girls' mother demanded. Suddenly she took a sharp breath. "Oh God."

"WHAT?" This time it was a plea from their father

"Tell him, Naomi. Mom's already figured it out."

Naomi took a deep breath and pointed. "HIM. He's the father." Her finger, like the finger of doom, was directed right at Thurston.

There was a long moment of shocked silence, and then the explosion.

"You little bitch!"

Raging, Thurston surged forward and tried to push past Abigail to get at Naomi. Abigail dug in her heels and stood firm, protecting her younger sister.

"You keep away from her." Abigail spread her arms.

"Don't touch me, you pervert," Thurston spat. "If it wasn't for you this wouldn't have happened." He turned his head to look at the stunned parents. "I was only trying to make sure that Naomi didn't end up like this," he groped for suitable words, "This THING."

"I'm the pervert?" Abigail was as cool and collected as Chris had ever felt her. "At least I don't try to blame my actions on someone else and then hide from my responsibilities."

Thurston jerked his gaze back to the woman blocking his way. "You fucking queer. How dare you lecture me?"

Chris pulled another piece of the puzzle from Abigail's repressed memories. "How dare I? You didn't succeed when you tried to seduce me so you tried to ruin my life, drive me from my family and then you turn your attentions on my sister. You're scum."

Abigail never saw the hand coming. She certainly felt the open handed slap that rocked her back on her heels for a moment. Stunned, she touched her fingers to her cheek.

Kimberly started forward, eyes blazing. "Why you son-of-a-bitch, I'll kick your ass."

Abigail held out a hand, her palm up. "No Kimberly. Wait. This is something I need to handle."

Thurston had stepped back, his face ashen. He stared at his hand as though he could not believe what he had just done. Momentarily he flinched as Abigail stepped forward. She stopped, once more within arms reach of him. She looked into his eyes and lowered her hands, which she had instinctively formed into fists. She said nothing, but turned her head, offering the other side of her face.

"Oh GOD," came from her mother.

Her father stepped forward, looking unbelieving from his daughters to his best friend. "You," he looked at Thurston, "You were the one who told us how wrong Abigail was, how she was wicked and defiant against God. You counseled us that forgiveness was out of the question, some things could never be atoned for. And now this." He was visibly torn between wanting to spring at Thurston, who paled even more and backed up, and going to his daughters. He looked at Abigail and Naomi and his eyes filled with tears. He stepped between his daughters and fell to his knees. An arm went around each waist and he pulled them to him. "Forgive me."

Crying, the two girls pulled their father to his feet. Abigail touched his face. Tears ran down all their faces, including their mother as she joined them. "There is nothing to forgive Father."