What me? A Foster Carer?

By Iona Laing

Chapter Five – News and amazing developments.

(Jenna.)

After a quick cup of tea Mum and me were then interviewed by two policewomen, we told them what we knew.

I told them what I’d heard at school, how scared everyone was of the Bromley brothers and their two friends. I told them of finding my Dad and two brothers as well as a couple of the guys from the workshop making sure the four thugs didn’t get chance to run away and finding Jessie covered in blood in my Mum’s arms. They had a big plastic bag with Jessies cut up clothes in smaller bags inside which they said they were taking as evidence.

Eventually we were left alone as my father and brothers were busy giving statements to the police themselves.

Mum twisted in her chair and took both of my hands in hers and stared at me for a few moments, her face streaked with tears and ruined make-up. After seeming to think for a few moments she smiled sadly at me and asked.

“Jenna, is there something you want to tell me?

I have heard you talking to Jessie this evening, and some things you said to me when you were so stressed need to be explained. You have called Jessie ‘she’ and ‘her’ several times and used the word ‘sis’ too. I also noticed Jessie was wearing a pair of your old school trousers as well as a camisole and some panties.

I can guess what is going on. Now I won’t be mad or angry at you, neither of you are in any trouble at all but I would like to know for definite what is going on.”

“Oh Mum, I have haven’t I!

Mum, please, I can’t tell you yet, I promised Jessie I wouldn’t tell on her, and I can’t do it now, I know I am only twelve and she’s eleven, but we have done loads of research. We didn’t know how to tell you and Dad.

Jess is terrified you won’t love her anymore, but if I tell you now then I will have betrayed Jessie, and our closeness could be destroyed forever. Besides if I tell you, it feels like I don’t expect her to get better, I have to let her tell you her secret herself.

I have to believe she is going to get better so she can tell you herself, so please Mum, can you trust me for a bit longer, just until Jessie is awake and getting better, then we’ll tell you everything, I promise!”

Mum studied me for a while, then smiled as she pulled me into a hug.

"Oh Jenna, Jenna sweetheart, you have just told me everything but the details, every time you just referred to Jess you have said ‘she’ and ‘her’. I will trust you, I don’t want to think you are risking your closeness with Jessie, a sister’s love is precious, and we don’t call you ‘The twins!’ for nothing.

Just to relax your mind, your fathers, mine, your brothers and your sisters love is unconditional and total, we will love the pair of you regardless of circumstances.”

With that, Mum pulled me into an even tighter hug and rubbed my back, within minutes I was fast asleep!

(Jennifer.)

Jenna soon relaxed in my embrace; her gentle snores told me that the stress had finally caught up with her. I had not held her so tightly or for so long in a while, and I missed this closeness.

‘So, it seems I have a new daughter, I can’t say I am surprised. Jessie has always followed Jenna and me in being so petite. Jessie’s mannerisms have always mirrored us, much more so than her father or brothers, or even Jacqui’s for that matter.

Her father and I have talked about the possibility of Jessie being Transgender in the past and neither of us have a problem with that, if that is what Jessie is. I feel so inadequate in that neither of our youngest offspring felt comfortable enough to trust us with such news. Still, that is in the past, we will sort the future out together.’

Thirty minutes later Jacqueline rushed into the room, and I quickly put my finger to my lips to signal quiet. I whisper what I know to her, she is in floods of tears, as is Deborah her best friend from when they first started school. Both of whom are also in the first year of their studies to become accountants. Deborah had driven Jacqui into the hospital as she knew Jacqui was in no fit state to do so herself, having said that, I don’t think Debs was much better. Both have played big parts in both their lives since the day Jenna and Jessie were born.

Another thirty minutes later Jeff, our two lads and their mechanic friends Neil and Ian come into the room, they quietly tell us of their side of events. Thankfully they have cleaned themselves up from their oil and grease covered hands as well as changing from their stained overalls.

It seems the thugs are facing possible charges of attempted murder, assault, grievous body harm, conspiracy of all the previous charges plus at least one will be charged with carrying a concealed offensive weapon, all of them will be charged with resisting arrest and injuring officers in the execution of their duties, and that was just so far.

It seemed they were all splattered with Jessie’s blood and vomit, and the blood of two of them were likely to be found on Jessies clothes so the police were hoping the forensic evidence would make this an open and shut case, I told them that the assault was now being considered as a hate crime too.

Jeff gently lifted his daughter out of my arms as she was still fast asleep. He settled her on his lap and nuzzled her hair as tears gently fell from his eyes. I knew he was not only expressing his love for Jenna, but for Jessie too. Jenna eventually woke, a little surprised to find herself on her father’s lap. I looked across at her and smiled and shook my head to signify “No” I hadn’t said anything to anyone. She gave a relieved smile back and quickly hugged her brothers and sister, then everyone else in the room. Then sat between Jacqui and Debs, cuddled up to the pair of them.

It was another two hours later that a tired looking Dr Smith entered the room accompanied by another doctor and a nurse, they were all dressed in theatre scrubs. He sat opposite us all,

“First of all, Jessie is out of surgery and will be taken up to intensive care where you should be able to visit and see Jess for yourselves. It will be limited visiting to two at a time and only family members I am afraid.

For those of you who don’t know me I am Dr Mike Smith, I’m the Senior Registrar here tonight, this is Dr Ruth Hunstanton, a Specialist Gynaecologist and Plastic Surgeon who we had to call in for Jessies surgery this evening, alongside her is Tonya Graham – Specialist Family Liaison Nurse. I saw Jenna, Jacqui and Debs frown at the mention of a gynaecological presence being needed as no doubt did I. I noticed Jenna smile and cross her fingers.

What we have to tell you is of a personal nature concerning Jessie and potentially a little embarrassing.”

At this Neil and Ian both said they would leave and phone the house in the morning. Deborah asked if she could stay to be with Jacqui and Jenna. Once they had left, Dr Smith looked around the room at us.

“I can tell you are all close family members.

Jessie has been subjected to a vicious battering; we’ve found three stab wounds; Jess’s bruising will look horrendous for a fair while. However, there are no skull fractures, and we’ve seen no evidence of swelling in Jessies brain, the thugs seemed to have concentrated on Jessies chest, abdomen and the groin areas in their attack.

What I must tell you will probably come as a shock, but first I need to ask some questions of you Mr. and Mrs. Jones. Has Jessie ever been investigated for abdominal problems, has Jess been complaining of stomach aches lately?”

“No Dr Smith, as you know Jess was born four weeks prematurely and has been struggling with respiratory problems ever since. Jessie has always been a small, petite child but we thought that was partly due to problems in my pregnancy and partly genetic, Jess has always favoured myself and Jenna and my side of the family, whereas our three eldest favour my husband and his side of the family.”

Jenna sat up and said.

“Dr, Jessie has had a few bouts of stomach-ache lately, in fact that was why Jess was walking home alone this evening, Jess said their tummy was really sore and she, . . he was going home to lie down for a bit!”

Dr Smith gave a half smile and glanced at Dr Hunstanton.

“When was the last time Jess had a sore tum before that Jenna, three or four weeks ago?”

I could see Jenna counting back in her mind, then smiled and nodded.

“And about the same gap before that. We used to joke that Jessie’s sore tummy coincided with my own, because of . . . . !” Jenna blushed bright red and looked embarrassingly at the floor.

Tonya put her hand on Jenna’s knee, “Your cycle?”

Jenna coyly nodded while the two Jeff’s and Jason looked a little confused.

It seemed my mind shot into top gear, so many things started to slot into place.

Dr Smith nodded to Dr Hunstanton to carry forward the conversation.

“There is no doubt that Jessie has suffered a severe beating, but fortunately the stab wounds, although in the area of Jessie’s groin, were relatively superficial in nature, but any such injury is a major afront to anyone’s body, we have to not only consider the injury itself, but take into account things such as wound contamination and potential for infection, so we have Jessie on substantial amounts of broad spectrum antibiotics.

Jess also lost a lot of blood, so we are administering blood transfusions specific to Jess’s blood group!”

“You can have some of mine, I have lots!” shouted Jenna as she stood up and started to roll her sleeve up.

“Thank you Jenna!” smiled Tonya patting her arm, “We will bear you in mind if we get low, but we have lots at the moment, thank you sweetheart!”

“Oh, if you are sure!” replied a somewhat disappointed Jenna. Dr Hunstanton continued to impart what they had discovered.

“Anyway, what we really wanted to talk about is what we have discovered about Jessie during our assessments and the subsequent surgery.

Before we took Jessie into theatre, we did an ultrasound of Jessie’s abdomen and what we saw was more than a little surprising. We saw structures we didn’t expect and saw no trace of certain items we did expect. We need to perform other scans, but they can wait until Jessie is out of the woods.

In short, Jessie seems to have the full reproductive organs of a female. Jessie has two ovaries that look like they are starting to undergo the awakening of a puberty. From what we could see Jessie also has a uterus and vagina, all Jess lacked was an external opening for the waste to be evacuated from their body. We think either the stab wound or the kicking and stamping Jess suffered tore part of the perineum which allowed the bloody waste to be discharged, which is what you tried to stem with your tissues and pad Jenna.

We have observed the budding of Jessies breasts, but again that is only from a cursory examination, we were more concerned to check for lung damage from broken or cracked ribs. We don’t think any are that badly damaged, just badly bruised, Jess will find breathing painful for a while that is for sure.

We cannot find any evidence for the existence of testes, that is testicles anywhere within Jessie, but we will do more scans in a day or two, the main thing is getting Jessie through the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours and having Jess regain consciousness.

So Mr. and Mrs. Jones your son is, in all likelihood, physically, another daughter!”

“Yesss!” quietly hissed Jenna pumping her arm in celebration.

Dr Hunstanton smiled at her as Tonya hugged her around Jenna’s shoulders. Jenna blushed once again and kept her head down, but I could see her carefully glancing around the room to gauge other’s reaction to this news.

“Of course, you will all be offered counselling to help you come to terms with this quite unusual news, none more so than Jessie.

Jeff Snr puffed out his cheeks.

“Son or daughter, I couldn’t give a rat’s ass either way, all I want is my child safe, well, healthy and happy with their own identity and back amongst us in one piece. My wife and I have had many conversations over the years about Jessie.

Jess is a fighter, we very nearly lost him, rather her, several times before we even had chance to bring h . . sorry, her, home from hospital after her birth. Only a blind man could not have noticed how similar Jenna and Jessie are, we have always called them “The Twins!” because they are like two peas in a pod. We were pretty sure Jessie was Transgender and were waiting for her to tell us how they felt, but this shoves all that into a whole new ball game.”

I saw Jenna looking gobsmacked at her father, before she launched herself at him at full pelt, sobbing her thanks.

Jeff Jr looked at Jason who gave a small nod.

“We didn’t know about the discussions our parents had had privately, but we too both thought Jess was likely TS, it was so obvious, but the little squirt tried so hard to live up to what he thought others expected of her, got to get the pronouns right! We tried to open up conversations several times, trying to say we had no problems with people who were TS, but Jess would get embarrassed and clam up.”

“Yes!” added Jason, “We could all see it, but I think Jess was terrified to admit to us that they felt like a girl, we spoke with Jacqui about it didn’t we?”

“That’s right, on more than one occasion. But we didn’t know what to do for the best. Deb and I spoke with both Jess and Jenna a couple of weekends ago about some of our friends at Uni, didn’t we Jenna, but we could see the fear in Jessies eyes, and her defences shut us out!”

Jenna just stood in the midst of us with a completely stunned expression on her face.

“But, . . but, . . you all knew, oh my God!”

I held arms open and she ran to me and quietly cried into my neck. I looked at the Doctors.

“Do you know what has caused all these anomalies and what do we do to resolve Jessie’s situation. I can’t believe she has carried all these difficulties on her shoulders on her own, poor little soul, at least she had her sister at her side!”

Doctor Hunstanton took one of my hands that Jenna had released.

“None of this is anyone’s fault. We know you had a problematic pregnancy, and a lot of research suggests that if the womb gets flooded with excess male hormones at an unfortunate time in the pregnancy what would have been Jessie’s clitoris gets enlarged to such an extent that the staff who delivered Jess, assumed she was male.

Now we tend to undertake some extra tests before a determination of sex is made, but that is all irrelevant at the moment.

What we need to do for Jessie is to wait until they are a bit stronger, then we can perform relatively easy surgery to give her the genitalia she should have been born with, it sounds that you would all support Jess in this?”

Everyone nodded their agreement. The Doctors explained what they would do, and when, assuming Jess was fit enough for the surgery. The hospital would also start the paperwork to get Jessie a revised Birth Certificate due an error made at birth. They then left us to go check on Jessie to see when we could see her. I then spoke to everyone.

“I know you all have questions, especially ones you want to put to Jenna, but I have spoken to her. She made a pinkie promise to Jessie that she would not betray her confidence, and I have agreed that it is okay for her to keep that promise for the time being.

It is vital that the rest of us do nothing to affect Jessie’s trust in her sister, so, while I know everyone, especially me, is desperate to know what has been done and what the two of them have spoken about, I am asking you all to try and keep your curiosity under control until Jessie is getting better!”

Everyone nodded their agreement and took turns in giving Jenna reassuring hugs.

Moments later Tonya stuck her head into the room saying we could go up to Intensive Care to see Jessie.

Chapter Six – More aggravation.

(Jeff Snr.)

I decided to pick Jenna up, as despite her earlier nap is was obvious she was shattered, both physically and mentally.

We were all quietly walking past a series of curtained cubicles, as we drew near the last in the row, it was impossible to ignore increasingly raised voices from behind the curtains.

Two Policemen were standing quietly with their backs to us but obviously listening intently to the exchange taking place in the cubicle.

“Listen Uncle, you better get us out of this mess!”

“Me, you want me to clear this shambles up! F**k me, you four morons not only let it be known you were going after the little fairy, but you got caught getting away. Just how f**king stupid are you; this is a monumental f**k up from start to finish. You are all in deep shit. It might have been better if you had just finished the little queer off, but no, not you f**king morons, you left a witness alive. You should have killed the bastard off when you had chance!”

“You have to do something Uncle, or you Paterson, don’t forget we know where you keep all your photographs of the pretty boys you have snuck pictures of from the school showers!”

“Yes Paterson, as a caring headmaster I am sure you could get access to the little f**ker up in Intensive Care, and kill the little bastard off before it can give a statement to the coppers!”

I heard Jenn, Jacqui and Deb give a collective gasp; Jenna was struggling to squirm out of my grasp.

The Policemen turned round, one held his fingers to his lips asking for quiet, while the other held his arms open wide to stop my sons in their tracks from storming the cubicle to rip the incumbent’s limb from limb.

“I don’t f**king care how much you morons threaten me, nor you Knott, if you think I am going to waltz into the I.C.U. and top the little pansy for you five idiots, you’ve another f**king thing coming!”

“You’ll be ruined Paterson, I wouldn’t want to be in prison with your record once the other inmates find out what you have been doing with pictures of their kids!”

“I don’t give a flying fart, I am not committing murder for you nor anyone else, even if the little queer asked for everything he got.

Look, we’ll tell everyone that the little queer has been flaunting itself at you and offered to take you back to its house to give you all blow jobs and let you f**k him up the ass.

No right-minded man will convict you for defending yourselves from the little queers’ advances!

And if you Knott, if you had kept better control over your cretinous morons of nephews and their dick head friends, then perhaps the f**king fairy would be already dead and we wouldn’t have this bloody mess on our hands.

I mean look at these prats, one his nose plastered all over his face, your nephew is probably scarred for life, and all four are facing a long time in youth detention plus adult prison after that.

The Jones family are all still so popular that the backlash from the rest of the community will be widespread, even if their youngest kid is queer and who doesn’t deserve to draw breath with the rest of us more normal society members!”

“Ok Paterson, you get up to I.C.U. and see what the latest is on the fairy while we come up with consistent stories of how the little bastard flaunted himself!”

“I’ll go up Knott, but I am not killing him for you or nobody. So, hurry up and get your stories straight, and I warn you now, you drop me in the shit, and I will take great delight in telling all and sundry how you conspired to commit this attack, and a few of the others you have committed in the last five or six years!”

With that the curtains flew open and an obviously angry headmaster, Stuart Paterson took half a step forward before realising that they had had an audience, and just who that audience were.

“F**K!”

“My thoughts exactly” responded one of the policemen, “Stuart Paterson you are under arrest for suspected offences against children in your care,

You do not have to say anything. But it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you say may be given in evidence.

Do you understand Mr Paterson?”

“Oh go f**k yourself!”

“I’ll take that as a yes for now Mr Paterson, arms behind your back, I am going to handcuff you for your and my safety.”

“I’m not hanging around for all this shit!” shouted George Knott the schools sadistic P.E. teacher, as he tried to make a break for it, however he didn’t count on how angry Jacqui and Deborah were as he tried to push them out of his way.

Deborah easily grabbed him into a wrist lock and spun him around, face first into Jason’s fist, then Jacqui dropped onto his back with her elbow bent into his already dislocated shoulder, his screams could be heard all over the hospital and surrounding grounds.

He too was arrested and read his rights before being led to a different cubicle for treatment.

It was a long night for the arresting officers, all six protagonists were desperate to implicate the others in that evening’s events, plus various computers were seized for investigation as were several miniature cameras discovered in both the boys and girl’s showers at the school, these would eventually lead to a whole paedophile network being destroyed.

Finally, the Jones family made it to I.C.U.

They were distraught to see how frail Jessie looked with so many machines hooked up to her damaged body.

The bruises were almost overlapping; shoe imprints were evident in places where Jessie’s tissue had been injured by so many kicks and stampings.

(Jennifer.)

When Jenna and I were allowed into Jessie’s bedside an amazing change in our dynamic occurred. Jenna became strong beyond anyone of her tender years should be capable of.

While I needed the reassurance of the nurse monitoring Jessie, Jenna lay her head next to Jess and she took hold of her hand and started talking quietly and insistently,

I could not hear what she was saying as such, but almost immediately there was a calming of the brainwave traces that were being monitored, and slowly her pulse reduced and was less erratic.

The nurse released me and went to Jenna’s side.

“Whatever you are doing young lady, keep doing it. Here, you are not supposed to, but lie alongside your sister on the bed, she needs to feel and hear your presence at her side, you are the medicine money cannot buy!”

So began the long vigil for us all at Jessie and Jenna’s bedsides. Apart from a few hours on the Sunday morning when Jessie had further surgery to help correct her anatomical anomalies, Jess and Jenna were never apart. A cot was erected alongside Jessie’s bed for Jenna who continued ministering to her sister.

We heard on the Monday that the six individuals implicated in the attack on Jessie were remanded in custody without the opportunity to securing bail in case they tried to intimidate witnesses. It seemed the list of charges grew daily, with the feeling of anger within the community almost palpable. All six were desperately trying turn Queen’s evidence against the others.

Meanwhile Jessie had a constant stream of cards, cuddly toys with visitors dropping off food, clean clothes and best wishes for the whole Jones clan. And slowly, but inexorably, Jessie fought her way back to the land of the living.

Back to the centre of our family.