Man Up

Shelley sat on the dry, brittle grass at the edge of the hospital parking lot. She raised a trembling hand to her face, the cigarette between her first two fingers wobbling towards her lips. She sniffed and blinked away tears.

It was 10:30 in the morning.

Her face ached from the mask she had been wearing, the face shield strap lines across her forehead throbbing dully. This was hour 15, and she was still two hours away from her shift ending... but she needed a break.

She watched dully as a huge pickup rolled into the lot and drove up to park some handful of spaces away from where she was sat.

A huge man stepped out of the truck and pulled up his khaki shorts, the sunburned skin of his legs shining with sweat in the quickly rising heat of the day. He looked at her and Shelly glanced back at him. No mask. No gloves. Sunglasses. Old snapback hat. Massive muscles slowly turning to fat.

He sneered, and pulled down the tank top that was struggling to hide his immense beer gut -- he didn't take his eyes away from her, expression smug, superior. She frowned and looked away, put off by his demeanor: she didn't need this shit on her first smoke break after a heartbreaking shift.

He grunted at this apparent victory and marched around to the back of the pickup stretching to reach something in the truck bed.

She saw him pull out a sign and sighed, fighting the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose in exasperation -- no touching of the face allowed.

"Hey there!" He called over to her, using that suspiciously cheery tone of voice that all douchebags used when they were about to be a massive piece of shit to someone else.

She looked up, and took a drag from her cigarette. It wasn't worth her time.

"You some kinda nurse?" he asked.

She raised an eyebrow and looked down at her uniform, the name badge, the white piping at collar and sleeves over the pale blue fabric, the sensible navy trousers. She even had the pen in her pocket and the little over-pocket fob watch at her breast. She was practically screaming her nurse-ness at the world.

"Yeah," was all she offered him in reply.

"You look kind of old to be a nurse," he sneered, "I thought someone your age would be a doctor by now!"

She gave him the patented Blank Look, Variation 3 (Surprised at Stupid, Dealing With It).

He missed the signal.

"You people are just part of the problem," he announced, lifting his sign, "spreading your lies about masks, and this 'vi-rus' y'all keep talking about! Well, you can't step on me lady!"

He pointed at the letters on the sign and said triumphantly, "See this? It says, 'Born Free, Live Free, Die Free!' and those are the words I, uh... live by!"

He began walking towards her and she slowly stood up, watching as a few yards turned into just over three yards and he still kept coming.

"Hey, sir, you need to keep your distance -- I mean it!"

"More fuckin' LIES," the man cried, his voice going suddenly a bit shrill, "you can't tell me what to do! I'm a free man! Born free, living free and I'll damn well die free!"

Shelley - angry and afraid - lost it, hopping backwards as he advanced and driving a finger at him, her whole hand and arm tense and vibrating with outrage, "You keep on spelling, 'stupid' wrong, dickhead! You were born stupid, you're living stupid, and you'll fucking die stupid!"

The sign swung at her and she stepped back again, her shoulder bouncing off one of the thin steel poles holding up the reception area porch.

"I'm a free man! I don't take no shit from some old NURSE!"

"Then man-up, bucko. Get a mask and gloves, go home and get the fuck out of the way of the only people around who can fucking help you... because, even though I wish I could, I can't man-up for you!"

And like that, the world changed.

***

"Whiny little bitch," muttered Dion, the security guard, as he squinted out through the window at the departing pickup truck.

Shelley was stood nearby, arms crossed, matching Dion's squint as she made sure the big idiot with the sign was really going. She just nodded.

Even as the fuckwit left, the huge pickup nearly bowled over one of the male nurses, Paco, as he hurried across the parking lot for the next shift. Shelley swore, her knuckles cracking as she made a fist.

"You okay Shelley?" Dion asked after a second, turning to look down at her, his warm dark eyes worried.

"Yeah big guy, I'm ok. Thanks for stepping in... he fucking lost it," Shelley bit her lip and looked down, "and I nearly fucking lost it too. Sorry, Dion."

Dion nodded and then gave a disgusted little sniff, "Well, he hasn't just spent a double shift saving lives, so you get a pass... and anyway, I didn't know our Senior Nurse was packing guns like those!" He smiled at her, teasing, "You could have taken him down, no problem."

Shelley grinned despite herself and shook her head, holding up her arm, "With these little pipe-cleaner arms? I was just lucky he seemed to go woozy there at the end."

Dion chuckled and made a play of shadow boxing with her, drawing another smile, only to be interrupted by a squawk from his walkie-talkie. Paco opened the door and he and Dion exchanged friendly nods.

"Ah, nuts... got to go! See ya, Shelley!"

Shelley waved a cheery farewell to Dion and turned to go, giving her arms a quick rub to banish a chill as the tingling adrenalin high wore off. She still had work to-

"Looking buff, Shelley; nice work," Paco smiled and glanced down the corridor in the direction of the hospital gym, "when that place opens up again, I've got to get back to it myself!"

She smiled and shooed him off to get his shift started, before she looked down at her arms and frowned, "Huh... maybe double shifts can do a body good..." she mused as she caressed a swelling in her upper arm that felt a lot like a small, wiry-looking bicep.

***

"Hi there, is this SunnyFlex Gym?" Shelly was in her apartment, phone pressed between her shoulder and her ear as she shuffled around the kitchen in her slippers. She moved over to the stove.

There was an affirmative from the other end of the phone, and then a question.

"Shelly Hayes. With the 'e'. Yeah. 5'1". 115. Pounds, of course! I'm 55. No, but the gym at the hospital is out of use for now and I heard you had an offer for medical professionals? Yeah? Great. I'm a nurse. Oh, that's great. Exclusive? Nice."

She picked up a spatula and, still listening, split the omelette she had finished cooking into two and served up two small plates.

"Yeah, I'll make sure it's clean. I'm the senior nurse there... if I can't make them leave it clean, then nobody can. Is there separate changing? No? OK. Will just have to turn up in my gear then. Are there any forms? Oh yeah, ok, I can get those filled out if you email them through to me. Thanks. Thanks... see you tomorrow, I guess!"

The call ended and Shelley awkwardly put the phone away before shouting out into the corridor.

"Alex! Your food is ready!"

Six feet of jiggling, gorgeous young woman bounded around the corner, a tiny cropped t-shirt and scandalously tight hotpants nearly failing to hold everything in place as the blonde padded up to the kitchen counter.

"Doctor Hayes," Shelley said, deadpan, concealing an unfamiliar tingle at the sight of the blonde, "your eggs are ready!"

"Thanks Aunt Shelley," Alex said in return leaning down a little to not loom over Shelley as the younger woman took the plate.

"Uh, Alex?" Shelley said speculatively as she picked up her own plate and took a bite of omelette, "You aren't some changeling are you? We didn't swap a nice little Irish girl for a Viking did we?"

Alex and Shelley shared a little chuckle at the old joke.

"What did the guy at the gym say?" Alex asked.

"Oh, yeah -- we should be good to use it if we show our hospital staff cards. They've given hospital staff exclusive use of the small weights and cardio room at the back until ours is back open."

"Awesome!"

"Yeah, we can head over once we've digested our breakfast... and not a moment before!"

Alex laughed and danced away, plate in hand. It was mesmeris-

Shelley frowned.

She had never thought about her niece like that before. Where had that come from?

***

Shelley had her hands on her knees as she caught her breath after a pyramid set of press-ups on the floor mats. She'd pushed herself hard, much harder than normal, but she felt quite... good.

Alex was currently glowing with health and looking amazing as she jiggled along on the treadmill, with long, even strides.

Then the door opened.

Shelley's head snapped around as three unfamiliar guys walked into the room, huge muscles bulging.

"Hey! Read the sign!" Shelley snapped, the effect slightly hampered by still being out of breath.

"Fuck the sign," said the biggest of the three, "you're not the boss of me, lady."

Shelley felt a little tingle at the words, and then a bigger one as the two guys with him petulantly folded their arms over their chests.

"Yeah, well that sign is for your own good moron, "we both work at the hospital - we're high risk. Now get out before you get infected!"

The big guy ignored this outburst for a second, unsubtly sizing up Alex and finding something to his liking.

"Well," he said casually, "I don't give a fuck about the infection, I'm on that hydroxy stuff anyway - I'm immune. So you can fucking leave, old lady, and I'll stay here with this fine piece of ass..."

The tingle went up a notch and Shelley felt like her skin was suddenly growing tight, confining. There was a pop of stitches beneath her baggy workout sweats.

"Hey, fuckface, eyes here," Shelley said, stepped between Alex and the jacked up guy, pointing up at her own face to draw his attention.

He flushed red, suddenly a lot angrier and more intense than he had been a minute earlier. She could almost feel the steroid rage fizzing off him. His two buddies stepped a little way away from him, put kept their eyes fixed on her.

"I told you to fucking LEAVE, you old bitch! This is my gym, my territory, and you can take your skinny old ass and get out!"

Shelley knew she was in trouble, but more than anything right now, she wanted to just hit the man. Just stride up and plant a left hook on him that he'd never forget. He'd never challenge her again.

Alex came up behind her and Shelley tamped down the urge to do something stupid. She couldn't let Alex take the brunt of any retaliation if this went bad. She had to man-up and deal with this properly.

"BRADLEY!" her shout made one of the guys jump, startled. Her voice had been honed to the point where she could shout over a chaotic, busy room full of panicking people. She had no doubt they could have heard her next door.

There were running footsteps and two staff members jogged up behind the three muscleheads stood in the door.

"I'm going to have to ask you to leave guys, or I'll call the police right now," came voice of the receptionist, with absolutely no room for doubt.

"You're gonna call the cops, like some little bitch?!" the big man turned and wheedled, suddenly sounding like it was all a big joke, trying to wriggle out of the situation he had put them all in and pin it on the newcomers.

Shelley felt like her blood was suddenly burning. The whole crowd of people was looking at the big man, so only she noticed that her panties suddenly snapped at the hips and her baggy sweats grew tight in a matter of seconds.

"Come on, Bradley," one of the other two bodybuilders weaselled, "you know we're safe and stuff. They're just overreact-"

Shelley didn't hear the last of the sentence as the sound of blood pounding in her ears rose to drown it out. She glanced down as she suddenly felt like she was in handcuffs, the elastic sweat-top cuffs digging into her forearms until - with a couple of little pops - the seam stitching on them gave way.

"Hey, come one Bradley - we didn't mean anything by it, we were just-"

She'd had just enough time to gasp a breath and quiet the roaring tide in her ears before the third bodybuilder spoke. Even as he childishly tried to deflect, to minimise the situation, she could feel her back and shoulders widening, deepening.

The sensation was like a tickle in the back of her brain as she was almost turned inside out by a rush of pure sensation - every bit of her felt like it was turbocharged.

Bradley hadn't said a word as he crossed the room and planted himself between Shelley and the idiots.

"Are you guys ok? I've got this if you want to head off," Bradley said over his shoulder.

She coughed back a moan of mingled pain and pleasure and it came out like a sob. She felt the world closing in on her and, out of primal instinct, looked for another way out.

She spotted a fire door hidden behind a huge stack of weights.

"Thanks Brad, I owe you one," Shelley managed to grate out.

She felt her shoes give a little even as the bodybuilders whined and complained like children - she didn't waste any more time on them as she grabbed Alex's wrist and powered forward. Reaching ahead, Shelley pushed the stack aside with her free hand and barged into the emergency exit bar, forcing the door open and spilling out into the parking lot.

Shelley's sleeve tore under the pressure of, well, Shelley and she gasped. It was echoed by Alex as the afternoon sunshine gleamed off Shelley's bicep, showing off unexpectedly bronzed, vascular flesh. There was a commotion from inside and Shelley jogged over to her car, still towing Alex. With a deft tug of nimble fingers Shelley was able to rescue car keys from sweat pants that were about to give in under the strain of muscles that hadn't been there this morning.

"Aunt Shelley! What's going on!?"

"I don't know... I- I just need to get home. Get in. Get in!"

The door on Alex's side of the old Prius wasn't even closed before they pulled out of the parking lot and scooted down the road as quickly as possible.

***

"Stay still," Alex muttered as she gently cut away the leg of the sweat pants with a pair of scissors.

Shelley tried not to squirm. It felt weird, with her niece ordering her about in 'doctor mode' for the first time. Shelley's blood still felt like it was on fire.

The cotton parted and the pants came away, only to leave Shelley naked from the waist down as the remains of her destroyed cotton panties flapped uselessly down to the seat.

"How do you feel?"

It was a standard question, but it made Shelley want to laugh. She tried to focus.

"I uh, uh, think my heart rate is up, and my body temperature too... I'm breathing ok, but uh..." she waved at her half-naked, hugely developed body.

"Sudden onset muscular hypertrophy," Alex mumbled and looked around for something to write on.

"How would you describe your mental state, Aunt Shelley?"

"Uh, I'm anxious and uh, upset... but I..." she trailed off, blushing and looking away, "I feel amazing. Like, I'm so powerful... I don't know... it's just great!"

"Please stand up," Alex was keeping her cool, staying professional, by Shelley had worked with doctors long enough to realise that her niece was every bit as excited as she was.

Shelley stood... and the insides of her thighs gleamed with juices, a long thin string of which connected her to the sodden fabric of pants and panties alike.

Maybe Alex wasn't quite AS excited as Shelley was.

"I'm sorry-" Shelley started, but as she glanced over to Alex, she saw the younger woman gently tug at her collar and wet those full, youthful lips with her tongue.

Alex started and blushed, and bustled off calling back over her shoulder "I'll see what the biggest thing I can find in my closet is... I don't think many of yours will fit anymore!"

Shelley found herself alone in the den, half naked and just about able to catch her reflection in the hallway mirror. She stopped and turned.

She was ripped, hard, huge. Still feminine in overall proportion, but with the kind of sharply beautiful androgynous quality that women steroid users got. Not manly, but masculinised... and every way that her body seemed to scream masculinity, it was made subservient to her... her-ness.

Her waist was like a bulwark of straining, blocky muscles - all cobbled, startlingly large abs and thick meaty claws of Adonis belt framing a tight little pudenda that was like a delicate jewel amid the crags of throbbing leg muscles.

She lifted her top to show the top row of her abs, to watch the muscles ripple and flex as she breathed. A little higher and the ruined sports bra divulged a modest handful of boob atop a thick bulk of pectoral muscle. The formerly coral pink nipple was a darker hue, to match the golden all-over tan she now seemed to sport, her formerly fair Irish colouring be damned.

She took her top off entirely and stood naked in the middle of the room, turning this way and that, stunned. If her thighs were like mighty temple columns, her ass... well her ass was an altar on which worship should be lavished. Her arms didn't even hang down straight any more, levered out wide by thick lat muscles and her now freakishly large chest and shoulders.

"Aunt Shelley, these are all I could find in my-"

Alex stopped and gaped at the older woman, naked as a jay bird and standing massive and powerful in the center of the room. Shelley didn't even look old anymore, or at least not her age - bulging muscles had taken up the slack from wrinkled skin, or burned away the extra fat in jowls or the backs of the upper arms. If it wasn't for a liberal smattering of greys through her red hair, Alex would have assumed Shelley was the same age as her at first glance.

Shelley glanced over and saw Alex ogling her; blushing, she walked over to the younger woman and idly noted the rapidity of Alex's breathing... and the twin straining high beams of erect, aroused nipple pointing at her. She realised her body was making Alex hot...

And Alex was really really hot too. Shelley felt something in her react to her niece - still sweaty and in tight workout clothes - as they stood and regarded each other.

She wanted her. Like, right now. With an immediacy that nearly humbled her, with a hunger that frankly, frightened her. Her steps lengthens as she strode across to Alex, almost strutting as newly thick thighs flexed and throbbed and flexed up a storm.

As she got closer, she could smell Alex's scent... she swore she could almost smell her niece's arousal.

And that was it. Her niece. Family. She wasn't going to give into impulse. She was in control of herself - she could man-up.

"Thanks Alex," Shelley smiled wanly as she took the proffered clothes, not making a show of it as she pulled the sweatpants over her naked bottom half and tugged on a huge t-shirt that some boyfriend long since lost to history had left behind.

The sleeves of the huge shirt were even tight on her powerfully developed arms.

"Wow," Shelley said, turning her arms this way and that, studying them just as an excuse not to look at pretty, sexy Alex that much. To see her niece's mouth open slightly, her cheeks flushed, her mouth succulent and shining with moisture.

"Lots of changes," Shelley added, a bit lamely, stepping back a touch.

Alex nodded, and a little bit of heated, lusty vagueness left her expression and she focused on Shelley properly.

"You're taller... I'd swear it," Alex muttered eventually.

"Taller?" Shelley tried to keep the hopeful note out of her voice. Years of being 'elfin' or 'petite' - as kinder people out there might call it - had been tough to take.

"Yeah, like... I'm an even six foot and you're-"

"5'1"?"

"No," Alex shook her head, "like, you're maybe three or four inches taller now!"

There was a light moment as Shelley goggled a bit at the news and grinned a little goofily. Then she sobered and she sighed dejectedly.