Meet the Tuckers (part 2)

[kengr]

Part 1 is here

Same disclaimer applies.



Tuck saw Travis coming through the door. And saw his dad starting to draw. He tried to yell but only managed a strangled gasp.

"Dad! No! He's.. friend."

And then he collapsed on the bed.

Sheila heard Eugene and took another look at the boy in the door. And made a guess.

"You must be Travis."

Bill froze and then relaxed a bit. Tuck didn't seem to consider the jock a threat. But he thought he knew all of Tuck's friends. Wait a minute. The jock had said *Val*, not Tuck...

Travis had stopped, wondering what on earth was going on.

"Uh, yes ma'am. Travis Jensen."

Sheila turned to Tuck. He seemed to be conscious.

"Can I tell your father?"

Tuck winced, but nodded.

"Mr. Tucker? Travis is ..." she paused and went with instinct, "Valerie's boyfriend."

Bill took his hand off the gun and sat down. Then he looked at Tuck.

"So that's why you were sure. And what you were going to tell us."

Tuck slowly signed "Yes. My body, he not-know about."

Bill looked upset.

Tuck signed "Past he think me man." [he thinks I used to be a guy]

Bill looked unhappy. "You need to ..."

"What happened to Valerie?" Travis interrupted.

Bill was spared trying to come up with an answer by Mike's arrival.

"Hi, Mr. Tucker. How's... Travis?!" Mike was startled to see Val's boyfriend there. And no obvious signs of mayhem.

Travis looked pleadingly at Mike. "Would someone please tell me what's going on?"

Everyone just looked at him for a minute. Then they all looked at Tuck.

Tuck shrank a bit then looked at Mike and signed. ["Ok. Tell. Short version now. More later"]

Mike glanced at Bill Tucker and got a questioning look.

Mike replied, "Travis is ok, Mr. Tucker. I checked him out and the Pack did as well. He may not be happy after he hears everything, but he's not gonna do anything to hurt Tuck."

Travis was looking confused. "Who is Tuck?"

Sheila put a hand on Travis's shoulder. "This is a bit complicated, I think you need to sit down."

Travis sat on a chair by the bed.

Mike and Tuck exchanged a few comments in sign. the Mike started in.

"Ok, you know that Tu-. That Valerie wasn't born female, right?"

"Yes, but..."

"When he was born they thought he was a boy. He wasn't. It gets kinda complicated. the doctors can't do a lot and he still needs to figure out what he wants them to do."

Travis jumped in "Why do you keep saying he?"

Bill answered, "Because Valerie is my son, Eugene."

As Travis tried to digest this, Mike went on "But everyone but his mom calls him Tuck."

"I don't understand. You saw us together. You called her Valerie. And Lisa said she used to be a guy...."

Mike sighed. "It's way too complicated to go into right now. It took Tuck's mom a couple of hours to explain it to us."

Travis look stunned. "How could it take..."

"Trust me. Tucks biology is way beyond weird. But the short version is he's been raised as a guy, and was living as one until last Halloween. Then he got turned into Valerie for a costume contest. And then it kept happening because his girlfriend liked him that way. And then he started liking it."

Bill broke in again, "And he managed to hide this from his mother, brother and me until a couple weeks ago."

Mike added "That's what got him grounded."

Travis looked at Val. She signed something. Mike translated, "He says he's sorry he didn't tell you."

"Why?" Travis looked upset.

Mike didn't bother looking at Tuck. "Because he was afraid he'd lose you."

Travis slumped in the chair. And didn't say anything. Tuck seemed to shrink into himself. Mike was about to say something else but Sheila caught his eye and held up a hand.

Travis finally looked up at Val. "So you've been living as a guy?"

Tuck looked like he wanted to cry or something but he managed to nod.

"And you're still a guy down ..."

Tuck nodded again looking even more like he wished the ground would swallow him.

Travis shook his head. "I knew there was stuff you weren't telling me. And they're right, You should have."

He paused for a while and Tuck couldn't look at him.

"No, I'm not going to break up with you. But I need you to quit trying to hide stuff from me. I'm not happy about this stuff. Not at all. We've got a lot to talk about. But you don't need that on top of whatever's wrong with you right now."

Tuck managed to look relieved and ashamed at the same time.

Bill was impressed in spite of himself. If the boy could deal with this that well, Tucker had done a lot better than he'd have expected.

Mike heaved a sigh of relief. He wasn't going to have to try to put tuck back together again.

Travis slid the chair closer to the bed and slowly reached a hand out. And Tuck took it.

[to be continued]