He took her tea at 11, far later than she normally rose at 7am, or perhaps occasionally 8 at the weekends!She half smiled at his call, her face pale p...ering over the blue blanket, her eyes though sparkled like green emeralds in sunlight, and he knew instantly that he would walk this path time and again. She groaned as she sat up, still the dress covering her body, he fetched some pain killers, as she sipped her tea, he, noting the marks, on her wrists and her neck, but though keen, restraining. I washoping to be with you before it got this far," she replied."Does that mean that I'm going to turn into a girl completely?" Iasked. I even noticed that I sounded excited about this possibility."No, but you will develop feminine characteristics," she replied."Does that idea scare you?"I immediately answered, "No, no, it doesn't. Is that part of what'shappening?" No, not exactly. Look, just stay in this evening, and I'll see youtomorrow. If you want to meet me at the airport, I don't have. .. enough is enough." No! I'm serious, Bill ... if you want them, you'll have to come here and get them." She wasn't laughing.Bill looked around ... nobody was looking at him, not even Lisa and Meredith, who had deliberately turned around to give all their attention to Mark. It was obvious that they felt that this was between Kat and himself. He hesitated, still. Finally, trying his utmost to cover his privates discreetly, he stumbled out of the water and rejoined Kat; his white butt and thighs. Reed had the look of a kindly woman well on her way into her senior years, and the same diminutive height of her daughters, but the cold finality of the threat seemed even more intimidating than Donovan’s had and the man had to be nearly four times her size. “Yes ma’am,” he said meekly. For the first time, she smiled with something like warmth. “Call me Mary.”* Mrs. Reed’s acceptance of his role in her daughters’ life seemed to be the switch-breaker that opened up the better half of her.