Gabrielle gasped, shocked, for even though it had been just six years, Michelle had changed far more than she had believed possible. She had become very beautiful and incredibly feminine, but the eyes showed that she was still the same person that she remembered.
She went to open the door.
Michelle stood looking at the house that had been her home for so long so many years ago. Memories came flooding back, and not all were bad. The house seemed so small compared to what she remembered.
Ryan held her round the waist.
“Okay?” he asked.
She nodded.
The front door opened, and a very pregnant young woman stood there with a huge grin on her face. Although shorter, darker and a little plumper, the family resemblance was obvious. Ryan knew instantly that this must be Michelle’s sister.
“Gaby!” Michelle shouted, running into her sister’s arms.
Both were crying and laughing and hugging each other.
Ryan stood with a smile on his face. He felt that it wouldn’t take much for him to cry as well.
Gabrielle took Michelle inside, and there, standing in the hall, was her mother.
They stared at each other for a second or two.
“Mama!”
“My God! You are so beautiful!” Trude exclaimed, as she looked at her new daughter. She reached out with trembling hands to touch Michelle’s face.
“Oh, Mama!” Michelle said, as they embraced very gently.
Ryan brushed a tear away surreptitiously.
Gabrielle came over to him and closed the front door.
“I’m Gabrielle, Michelle’s sister,” she said in good English.
“I’m Ryan. Michelle and I are getting married,” he said.
To his surprise Gabrielle burst into tears again and flung her arms around his neck.
They moved into the kitchen, where Gabrielle filled and switched on the kettle, but then had to sit down.
Michelle and her mother were catching up on the last six years. Gabrielle couldn’t really believe that this tall, incredibly beautiful woman had once been her older brother.
Ryan knew absolutely no Dutch at all, but he was just pleased that Michelle had been made welcome.
“So, how did you two meet?” Gabrielle asked.
Ryan told her a sanitized version of the undercover work, the shooting, the SRS and the engagement.
“Now she is a US citizen, officially female and about to embark on a career in law enforcement,” he concluded.
“And going to marry you?”
“Yup!”
“I can’t believe it; it’s so romantic. It’s like a children’s fairy story.”
Ryan smiled. “It didn’t seem that way at the time.”
Gabrielle grimaced and stretched, attempting to alleviate the discomfort of the large bump.
“When’s it due?”
“Them. I’m having twins.”
“Really, no shit?”
She smiled. “Really. I have about three weeks to go, and they can’t come soon enough, I can tell you.”
She picked up the phone and called her husband’s cell phone, just to let him know she was at her mother’s house.
“He worries,” she explained.
“I can understand. I was a cop once.”
“Oh, now you are DEA?”
“Yup.”
“What is DEA?”
Ryan smiled and tried to explain the American law enforcement system to a foreigner.
Gabrielle and Ryan made teas and coffees for the four of them, while they sat round the table talking. Ryan was content to let Michelle get to know her mother and sister again. He was very relieved that this was going as well as it was. He had dreaded the other possibilities.
An impromptu lunch was gathered. Bread, cheese, cold meats and some tomatoes found their way onto the table, and a bottle of wine was opened. They were still sitting there at three p.m., when Ran noticed a VW people carrier pull up outside.
A strange man and woman just walked into the kitchen.
“Uncle Max, Marthe!” Michelle shouted; standing and hugging the newcomers.
By seven o’clock, there were about fifteen people in the little house. Ryan held an open bottle of Oranjeboom and was talking to Marcus about the police.
The one surprising thing was that no one seemed surprised to see Michelle as a girl.
“I always suspected,” Max told Ryan.
“Oh?”
“She was never really like other boys. And looking at her now, one can see why.”
Ryan felt uneasy, but pleased for her.
Trude tried to persuade them to stay with her.
“No Mama. Ryan and I need our time together. A lot is happening, and I will come again. I have other people to see, so it will be better to stay at the hotel.”
It was after ten p.m. when they finally left.
Ryan felt tired, but relaxed.
Michelle was on a high and chatted all the way back to the hotel.
They went to their room and Ryan opened the door. Feeling jet-lagged and weary, he threw the key onto the sideboard and took his jacket off. A pair of arms immediately encircled him from the rear.
He smiled. “Hello, Honey,” he said.
She pulled him round to face her. Her arms were now around his neck. She kissed him, and Ryan was surprised at the level of passion she put into it. After all she had been up as long as he had.
“Have I told you that I love you, recently?” she asked.
“Um, not that I recall,” he replied.
“I love you, Ryan. So much.”
He kissed her. “I love you, too.”
“Thank you, for everything. I can’t ever say it enough, but you have allowed me to live for the first time.”
He smiled. “You say it every time I look at you. I'm in love with the most beautiful girl in the world.”
There were tears in her eyes, as she started to undress him. They made love so tenderly and gently that by the end both were crying real tears of love.
She lay in his arms, reluctant to move.
“Can we get married soon?” she asked.
“Whenever you like.”
“Tomorrow?”
“If you want.”
“I want us to be a real couple. I want to promise to be your wife until death us do part!”
“I’d like my folks to be there too.”
“Then I can wait until we get home. I don’t think Mama would want to be there, she has enough trouble with me being a girl, let alone being married. Gabrielle is to be by maid of honour.”
“Judging by her condition, she won’t be flying anywhere in the near future. Besides, we’ve made up a story about your past.”
“They know that. Oh, Ryan, I have a family again,” she said, hugging him close. He grinned in the semi darkness.
“Yeah. Lots of people don’t, and they haven’t had half your problems.”
She snuggled in closer to him.
“Even if they hated me, I’d still have you.”
“Yup,” he said, and drifted off to sleep.
Ryan parked the Mercedes.
“Are you sure this is the place?” he asked.
“Yes. That is the house there.”
“Do you want me to come with you?”
“I always want you with me. But only come if you want to.”
He grinned, getting out of the car. They walked over the road and Michelle rang the door bell.
Mariella answered the door. The years had not been kind to the elderly transsexual. She still dressed in the most ridiculous clothes that would only suit a sixteen year-old whore, with her make up ludicrously and thickly applied.
Despite it all, she still looked strangely elegant and had a cheerful disposition.
She peered at Michelle for a moment, and then a smile of recognition broke across her face.
“My God! Michelle! It has been years, my darling. You look tremendous,” she said in Dutch.
“Hi, Mariella. I’ve brought my fiancé to meet you. Ryan, this is the woman who believed in me when no one else did. Mariella, this is the man who has allowed me to live for the first time,” Michelle said in English, and then in Dutch. She handed the woman the large bunch of flowers she had bought just up the road.