The Wrong Room Ch. 08

Part eight of The Wrong Room series. Thanks for choosing to read another one of my stories. If you are unfamiliar with this story it might be best to go back to the beginning to better understand this relationship, but that's your choice.

All characters under the age of 18 are not involved in any sexual activity in this chapter.

-Dreamweaver594...

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New Clients and a Pow-Wow

Mike shook his head at his daughter's comment about her fight with a kid at school. He looked at Ally in the mirror and grinned. Hopefully they've gotten a little closer. "Well, we have two new clients."

Ally drove up the on-ramp to the freeway and headed towards Mike's house. "Who?"

"There's a tech firm I just met with in that bank building. They're interested in a demonstration. They mostly do work in the aerospace industry so the database tracking stuff we market is something that is easier to just install rather than reinvent the wheel. We start with them next week. The other client is in Dayton, not too far away."

"Another law firm?"

"Nope, a mid-level startup needing help with data collection and management. I'll see them starting at the end of the month for a preliminary, then if all goes well; we start their install the following week. Sort of the same way as the Brock project in Richmond, it should take a week if all goes well."

"Daddy, are you going to be gone again for a long time?"

"Not so long, sweetheart, Ally will be here with you when I demonstrate the product. You'll only have to stay with Madison for a week."

Marissa nodded looking disappointed.

"It's something we need to talk about tonight after dinner, okay?"

"Okay." Her voice matched the pout on her face.

Ally changed lanes to move around a slower driver. "What do you need me to do in advance?"

"Research both clients; I have contact information for you. Then see if you can track down the specifics on each of their employees. The usual stuff, online profiles, past work, that sort of thing."

"Sounds good. I'll start tomorrow."

"Perfect, because tonight, after dinner, we have our first family Pow-Wow."

Marissa looked up at her father. "What are we going to talk about?"

"Well, we'll talk about you, me, and Allison mostly."

Marissa looked down, then out the window at passing cars. She was silent for the rest of the trip home.

Mike turned to his daughter and then to the rear view mirror and Allison who shrugged and gave him a half smile. Then she moved to the outside lane to take the next exit.

They arrived at home twenty minutes later. It was a quiet ride. Once inside the house Marissa scampered up the stairs to her room and shut her door.

Mike picked up the mail from the mail slot and walked to the kitchen counter.

Ally joined him. "Do you think she'll be alright?"

"She's had a lot to adjust to in the last couple of days. We'll see what she thinks tonight."

Ally nodded and pulled out a pan from the freezer.

Mike looked over her shoulder. "What's that?"

"Dinner in an hour...can you wait? It's lasagna."

"For home cooked lasagna I can wait all night!" He leaned over and kissed her cheek.

Ally grinned as she shoved the pan into the oven. She turned to Mike and held up a bottle of wine. "Want some?"

Mike glanced up the stairs to Marissa's bedroom. "Sure, pour me a glass and I'll be right back."

He climbed the stairs and gently knocked on his daughter's door. "Can I come in?"

The door opened and Marissa stood by it holding one of her stuffed bears.

"You look sad, what's the matter?"

Marissa looked up and frowned. "I don't want you to go."

"I know, but it's what I have to do to protect my little girl, you know that. Are you afraid of Allison?"

She shook her head. "No, Ally's okay. She yelled at Allen just like you would have. I just don't know anything about her."

"I know pumpkin, but that's why I wanted to have a family talk tonight, just the three of us, so we could get to know one another."

"She's family?"

"I want her to be."

"Do you love her?"

Mike nodded. "A lot."

"She said she wasn't going to be my mommy. I was glad because mommy hurt you and I didn't want you to be sad."

He squeezed her to his chest in a big hug. "That was a long time ago, sweetie, and Allison isn't anything like your mother."

She kissed his cheek and whispered, "okay."

Mike stood up and smiled. "I'm going back down to help Ally with dinner, see you in a few minutes."

Marissa nodded and turned to her display of dolls as Mike walked out of her room. He noticed that she didn't shut the door behind him, and that was a good sign.

Downstairs he snuggled up behind Allison and kissed her neck. "It's starting to smell wonderful down here."

Allison turned in his arms with a grin. "Who did the cooking before I arrived?"

Mike grabbed his wine and leaned back against the island counter. "Mostly me and the freezer aisle at Kroger's. Marissa always made her school lunch, we have a menu she is supposed to follow, which she does, sometimes." Ally looked over her shoulder at him and he winked at her. "I check it every morning because she can get quite creative."

He turned and grabbed the mail off the counter then began to sort it. "What else are we having?"

Ally opened a drawer and pulled out a paring knife. "A fruit salad, can you help?"

Mike tossed the junk mail into the trash and dropped the bills into a tray on top of the microwave. "Of course, just tell me what to do."

"Hmm, I love a man who likes to take orders," she purred as she diced a mango on a cutting board.

He chuckled then set another cutting board on the counter and Ally handed him a bag of kiwi fruit.

A little over an hour later, their plates were clean and dinner was over.

Mike wiped his mouth on a napkin. "That was fantastic!"

Marissa held up her plate to Ally with a grin. "Can I have some more fruit?"

"I suppose that means more dessert for Daddy and me then," she grinned back.

Mike turned to her surprised. "There's dessert?"

"Yup. It's not much, just whipped cream and mandarin orange slices, stuff I found in the pantry and the freezer."

"When did you make that?"

She stood up and retrieved the bowl from the refrigerator. "This afternoon, after I picked up Marissa from school." Ally stood beside Marissa with a large spoon. "Do you want some of this instead of fruit?"

"Yes, please," Marissa said looking up, her eyes glowing with excitement.

"I learned to cook watching my mother, she was amazing," she said placing a large dollop of dessert on Marissa's plate. "Sweets were her specialty. I would spend my afternoons after school watching her knead bread or mix a cake from scratch. She should have been on TV, she was that good." Ally sat down after she ladled out dessert for Mike. "Instead of playing sports or hanging out with the neighbor kids, I was glued to her apron strings, hungry for scraps. I'm surprised that I didn't get fat...high metabolism, I guess."

"Well, this meal was fantastic," Mike said shoving another spoonful into his mouth. "Is there coconut in here?"

"Another trick I learned from Mom. I'm glad you like it, I've always wanted to test out my family cooking skills."

"We will be your guinea pigs any time," he said and Marissa nodded.

After dinner the table was cleared and the dishwasher loaded.

"Okay, family meeting time," Mike said wiping down the kitchen counter. "Do you all want to sit in the living room or around the table?"

Marissa replied quickly. "The table."

They returned to the dining room table. "The first order of business is that we all share equal responsibility for what is said here."

Marissa turned quickly to her daddy. "Me too?"

"Yes, pumpkin, you too. At least for tonight."

Mike pulled a small notebook from his shirt pocket and set it on the table. "Here's what I'd like to discuss, we all can add to this whenever. I want to discuss Allison as a new member of our family and her relationship to me." Then he turned to his daughter. "And I want to understand your feelings about all of this."

Marissa nodded and fell silent for a moment then she looked up and turned to Ally. "When did you decide to become a girl?"

Ally fought back a grin as she turned from Mike to Marissa. This girl is remarkable, she thought. "When I was eight, I discovered my mom's high heels in her closet. I would clomp around in them after school sometimes when she was downstairs busy ironing or watching her soap operas on TV. I was too afraid to venture beyond the second floor for fear that my siblings would catch me."

"Where were they?" Marissa played with her napkin.

"Usually outside. Mom always kicked us out of the house on nice days. Sometimes I would hide while they went outside so that I could rummage through her closet, she had so many pretty things."

Mike was now caught up in her story. "Was that when you knew you were born in the wrong body?"

"Sort of, I always felt awkward as a boy. It was like my skin didn't fit right, you know? It wasn't until later that I finally realized what it all meant. Until then I had some hard lessons to learn."

"When I was ten and I was digging through Mom's closet one Saturday and my father caught me. I tried to lie my way out of it but it was of no use, he caught me wearing her panties, bra and high heels. None of it fit, of course, but in my fantasy-filled mind I looked like a princess."

She sighed remembering the beating she took that day. "He beat the crap out of me. If it wasn't for Mom, it would have been worse, he was out of control."

"After that, I started to steal my sister's underwear and hide it in my bedroom. When I was twelve, I found my mother's birth control pills. I think that might have led to my little baby brother being born." She shrugged and grinned. "When Mom found out, I guess that was it...she sent me to live with her sister in Portland."

"I owe so much to Aunt Mary; she really understood my struggles. She found a sympathetic doctor, which was hard in those days, and I officially started my transition."

"I kept up my boy appearances through high school but it was a challenge sometimes, especially in the showers after gym class. I didn't want the other boys to see my breasts; they were beginning to fill in by now. Even being cautious I still got caught and they would beat me and kick me. Public school can be a cruel experience if you're different."

"After High School, I moved from Portland to Chicago and then Atlantic City. When that place dried up, I moved to Richmond which is where I met your daddy," she said turning to Marissa.

Marissa seemed full of questions. "Do you like being a girl?"

"Yes, it's who I was meant to be, in my heart. I took a lot of grief for it, bullying, and abuse, but in my heart of hearts, I knew that I was always meant to be a woman."

"But you can't have babies," the little girl said softly, clearly disheartened.

"No, that's true," Ally said, knowing where this was going.

"But we could adopt, pumpkin," her daddy added.

It was if a light was turned on the way her face brightened. "Really?"

Allison was shocked. She hadn't discussed any of this with Mike.

He reached across the table and took both their hands. "But that's only if we all agree, sweetheart. Adoption is a huge decision that we all have to accept equally. Is that what you want? A baby brother?"

"Yes, a lot," she said enthusiastically. She raced around the table and hugged her daddy tightly. "Really a lot," she whispered.

Mike grinned as he turned to Ally who nodded, grinning sheepishly. "Okay, our first family vote. All in favor of adopting a baby brother raise your hand."

All three raised a hand.

"Okay. Now the hard part, research."

"Daddy, what do you mean?"

"Well, we have to know a lot about the process of adoption, it's not like going out to pick up a puppy." He held up his hand and ticked off the points with his fingers. "We have to find an agency, find out their policies...they all are different. Then we have to see how much it is and if we can afford it; it's not cheap, pumpkin. Plus there are home visits and meetings and lord knows what else."

But Marissa was not to be daunted. "But we can still look, right?"

"Yes Marissa," Ally said gently, "we can still look."

"Daddy, can my baby brother have Ally's room?"

Mike turned to her quickly. "Then where would Ally sleep?"

"With you, of course."

Mike and Allison sat looking a bit stunned. Allison was the first to clear her throat. "Okay, when the time comes, sweetheart. In the meantime, I'll stay where I am, is that all right?"

Marissa nodded and smiled. "Can we go and look for a baby brother now?"

Ally chuckled. "Of course. I'll bring my laptop up stairs. Can we use your room?"

Marissa nodded and scampered up the stairs. "Come up when you're ready," she shouted, standing at her door.

Allison picked up her laptop case then turned to Mike with a wink. "Meet me in my room after the little one is asleep, my love. I have a present for you." She grinned then she dashed up the staircase to join Marissa in her room.

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The author copyrights this chapter, as well as any past or future chapters of this series. The reproduction of any chapter or part of any chapter of The Wrong Room without the written permission of the author is expressly prohibited. This story is a work of fiction. All of the characters, their names and the places they visit, are purely from the imagination of the author. Any resemblance to persons, places, or things is not intentional and purely coincidental.