eventuallycaroline

[eventuallycaroline]

Bright Future

A Dorley Hall fanfic by EventuallyCaroline (spoilers up to chapter 45)

2034 December 16th Saturday

Aunt B groaned as the incessant beeping of the alarm pulled her out of her dream. It had been a nice one too. The dark dreams still came but she struggled to remember when the last of those had been.

She rolled over slamming her hand down on the alarm, shutting it off. Ache in the hip. She had known she was getting old the first time she had said ‘oof’ getting out of a chair, but the hip was something new. The same with the ‘Aunt B’ thing. You put all this work into choosing a name and then people insist on shortening it and shortening it.

8:55am. Time to be out of bed and into the shower. They were supposed to be arriving at 10:30 but it might be even sooner if Val was driving. The moment they had let that woman behind the wheel she had never taken her foot off the floor. Especially if she could put the top down.

Down from Peckinville. New Peckinville now. Another change. It had been a bloodless coup as far as coups go but still left scars. Some people never realise when it is time to step back, to let go.

Shower, hair, check the logs while doing her make-up. Disclosure had gone well with the boys down in basement A. Well, as well as could be considered well. Within normal parameters at least. B wing would be getting the talk next week. There had been discussions of holding a mixer after that. Before Christmas. Let the boys meet each other and see that they were even less alone in this than they may have thought. New plans, new ideas, new techniques.

Cloths. Pick out something elegant but suggestive. Check the cameras. The second years were in the dinning room going through self-defense drills with Uncle Trev. Then it would be straight into ballroom lessons with Aunty Di. Keep them busy, tire them out, then maybe the rest of us can get some bloody sleep at night.

Fifteen girls moving in sync, adjusting to what it was like to live in a new body. Everyone except little Page who had contrived to fall down the main staircase and break their arm. Something about wearing one flat and one heel making them more non-binary.

Aunt B had tasked them with sitting with Christine in the security room. Hoping the similarity of the name would reminder her of her own wife and get her to maybe finish up early for once. Same old Christine, still taking on every spare job she could. Well Aunt B still had her own tricks too.

Thinking of her. Thinking of the car, its electric motor whirring its way down from New Peckinville. The world has changed so much in such a short time and the Hall had had its hand in it. The so called ‘Big Plan’. It took a lot of work to reshape the mindset of an entire nation, but they had done it. No more toys, no more weapons, just the right girls whispering into the right ears at just the right time and suddenly tomorrow’s papers had a different headline.

That reminded her. Time to start thinking about the next intake. Not for the basements, their charges there would need a little more time to cook, but for what the Sponsors had taken to calling the Attic. The top floors of the hall. The volunteers. The Dorley Transitional Assistance Program and Finishing School. Who could believe it.

It had been the medical breakthroughs that had really gotten the ball rolling. First Sapphocilin, that sweet nectar, twice the results in half the time. But then gene printing had come along. Rejectionless organ transplants for the cis at first. But the blueprints were there in everyone’s DNA. You could print any organ. Tabitha had been able to carry her own children.

Aunt B had held the twins last time Tabitha had visited. William and Phillip. Named after their godmothers. The first made sense but the second. That had been one of the more explosive re-connections the hall had ever seen but at least they had made up in the end.

The first trans women to have an abortion had still caused a bit of a stir. Some skinny, blonde, American if Aunt B recalled. But they had their hooks well and truly into the press by then.

No time. Got to get ready. When had been the last time she had seen her? Must have been Frankie’s funeral. Olivia had given a beautiful eulogy. Standing up by the coffin with her husband’s hand clasped in a tight grip. They had been able to steal a few moments together, but it was never enough. Everyone was so busy these days.

And there it was. The knock at the door, even though she did not have to. The hum of the lock that she would always have the key to, just like B’s heart. And there she was standing in the doorway her red hair framing her face like a halo.

“Hi Steph”

“Hi Beth”

And then they were racing into each other’s arms. Racing into a future that seemed to only ever keep getting brighter.