This would have always been | Part 4

The next week, she took Johnny to meet her mother, Caroline, and father, Joseph.

They sat at the dinner table of their kitchen and tried to enjoy the evening. Johnny leans and whispers so low they can't hear "When we get home... I want you to get tested for STDs." She paused, then looks at him for reassurance that he said what he said in confusion, then remembered the mcdiana's incident and understood fully.

She whispers "God had told me that he would heal me, and I prayed for him to, and he did and as soon as I was able to walk, he... He mind... he forced my body to walk to a hospital and then left me to free will when he told me that I needed to get tested for an STD. This was after I prayed."

He whispers back "What?" And she whispers "I had one." Johnny whispered "What was it? Is it curable?" She whispered "The H.I.V. is in remission now." low enough her parents can't hear... Scaring the crap out of Johnny, he asks "Why would you want to have sex?" jumping in the back of his seat, She says "They said it can't be spread through sex anymore if it's in remission."

Johnny asks "Did your brother get one?" And she said "I didn't know they had taken him to a brothel, and took him tot he hospital immediately and the doctor called 911 to report my parents to the police because he had Gonorrhea.. Took him to get stem cell treatment for $4,000 right after so he could make his own choices again. We prayed a lot."

Johnny almost barfed as she said "He decided to become a girl because he knew they thought that the worst thing that could happen to a man is him being a virgin. As a result, they paid for him to have a prostitute. They wanted him to have a fun time, mom said. He said he didn't want it and he laughed because he didn't think they were serious. He said he was sure it wouldn't happen because they have disease. He was worried because she could have had a disease."

Johnny whispered "Did he die?" She replied "No." Suddenly, a baby is heard crying as a car is pulling into the driveway. Candy says "I've heard of how abortion goes, and I don't want anything up my privates without my consent," in whispers referring back to the incident at mcdiana's.

She says "If I got pregnant I would have begged god to heal me, and to get me stem cell treatment so I could raise my baby in peace or give her up for adoption." Johnny asks in horror "Did you?" And she replied "Of course not, thank god."

Out of the car, is... Tommy; A trans individual steps out in high heels. his face is masculine. a long blonde wig with one huge braid on his left side, no lipstick on, high heels, and feminine clothing.

The dead name but legal name is Tommy, the new name was Tina. "Tina" was a name he was... too... frugal to get legally changed...

it was a random name picked as this wasn't his transition out of gender dysphoria, tommy decided to become a girl to escape the stereotype that all men always want sex so that if he ever gets paralyzed again, his parents won't try to take him to a brothel. As a result, He lets people use he/she/they/them pronouns because he wants people to feel comfortable with him.

Tommy lied to his therapist so that he could get diagnosed with gender dysphoria so he could get surgery, but this didn't work and as a result, now he just dresses like a girl, wears a wig, etc. To try and convince his parents he's a girl so that what happened to him at the brothel doesn't happen again.

He knew people would be appalled at the idea of this happening to a paralyzed woman, so he wanted to get as far to female as he possibly could to avoid rape.

Tommy went to the backseat of his car to find his daughter, Cherry-Diamond, in the backseat crying. Tommy picks her up, stuffed a bottle in her mouth, and says "Let's go inside."

He identifies as a woman, but only really cares if his parents identify him as such as they're the ones who took him to the brothel in the first place. As a result, his parents are not allowed to use they/them or he/him pronouns.

He carries his baby to the porch and says "You get to meet Candy's new boyfriend. He's a prophet and he's super special...!" He says, excited to meet her boyfriend, not excited to see his parents.

He opened the door and held up Cherry-Diamond for them to see - he couldn't get pills to change his voice, so... He sounds like a guy as he announces that "The diamond is here!"

He places Cherry-diamond in the arms of Candy while Johnny stares at him in abject shock. No one told him that Tommy was trans. a high chair was brought out of the kitchen closet by Tommy himself and pulled over tot he table. Candy placed Cherry-Diamond in the high chair while Tommy went to go gather fruits and veggies from the fridge to blend and feed his 3-year-old daughter.

His daughter, Cherry-Diamond, is the child of the prostitute that raped him.

Caroline sat at the dinner table awkwardly looking away from her grandchild, Cherry-Diamond, while Joseph is staring intently at Johnny, Tommy sat next to Joseph, and Candy is on the far left of the photo staring blankly at everyone.

Johnny shouts "So, are we gonna ignore that... This is awkward...?!" -- Which is exactly what it was -- pointing directly at who he believes made it awkward: Caroline.

Candy says "No. We don't ignore it." Tommy on the other hand wanted to ignore it because he wanted to meet her new boyfriend and was hoping to gain a new more mentally stable babysitter for his Cherry-Diamond.

Little Cherry was playing in her food while Tommy was asking questions like "So... Do you guys have plans for the future?" Speaking directly over his father, Joseph: "Yeah, I know who made it awkward."

Tommy bashed his father's arm with his elbow, mumbling "After my incident, you could have gotten a divorce and prevented what happened to Candy, but no, you didn't and you left her to care for Candy and this happened. So please, let us have some peace if you want to stay married to mom." low enough for only his dad to hear.

Tommy didn't think his mother would do it to Candy at the time it took place, he didn't even know she'd do that to Candy, but he was under the impression his mother had no idea how bad what she was doing was. Even after, he blamed himself for hiding how badly the choice she made affected him because he felt like if he had told her, she'd know it was painful for him.

Tommy looks down at the table and says "So, um... Mom! Um... It's okay, no one is mad or anything."

Caroline said "You know... She was a cryptic pregnancy." Trying to soften the mood. Johnny replied "Oh, really? Wait, what's that?" Candy says "When a woman doesn't have any symptoms of pregnancy, not even belly growth."

Tommy feels awkward, and Johnny asks "So, how'd you find out?" And Caroline says "I had to poop and went tot he toilet and she came out. She was 7 months gestation." Johnny asks "What's gestation?" Candy replies "That means she was 7 months pregnant."

Things are calm, not crazy. Cherry-diamond starts rubbing food on Johnny, so he tells her "No," then moves the food away from her and starts feeding her himself. Tommy finds this... Adorable! Watching his sister's boyfriend show such interest in his daughter shows him that he's father material. If a man can show such strange care to a child not his own instead of snapping, how would he be in a relationship? With children?!

Tommy smiled and nudged his father saying "Look at him, look at how he treats her." His father felt disgusted with Tommy, why? Femininity on his biologically male son. Tommy wasn't even trying to be feminine, it just came off as such.

Joseph's life has changed completely. It was no longer normal... Or as normal as he thought it was. After the sexual assaults of their children, nothing was the same. The physical change was.... Everything. Not just the baby, but his son is trans, his family is awkward, his son lets everyone else call him "Tommy," and "He," and "Him," but not them. They can't even compromise with "They/them" because of the incident.

Joseph told Tommy "go and get me a baby toy, your daughter's playing by rubbing food all over my daughter's new boyfriend." He's grumpy, just looking at Johnny, making Johnny feel totally unwanted.

Tommy looks at Johnny, then his daughter, pauses for a bit, knowing his dad doesn't want him near him because he's gay, and says "Or I can take her home and realize that I need help." Then he got up and was about to take his daughter and leave, but he felt guilty -- he didn't want her to be pulled away from her food in the middle of eating.

Tommy paused, then sat back down after moving his chair next to Candy who welcomed his presence.

Candy says "Okay, um..." Trying to decide whether to call him "Tina," or Tommy.

Johnny looks around and notices that this family has massive baggage and becomes so scared. "I'm gonna have to deal with that in my relationship..." He wants Candy to go to therapy immediately. He can't deal with her baggage, that's not something he can handle. He can love her through it, but not handle it.

Tommy looks at him and asks "Well, I'm gonna ask the normal questions -- What's you job? Do you love my sister? What are your plans with her?"

He's taken up the role of the father, not the brother -- as his father is too awkward when sitting with his children to say or do anything. He doesn't care that his children are bringing home boyfriends or girlfriends -- which has happened as Tommy is heterosexual in regards to his biological sex as in he's attracted to women. He hasn't had any surgeries.

Tommy is trying to make this meeting feel like a normal meeting. As a result, he's scared because this isn't going how he imagined it would. Candy is kind of scared, but is so used to the awkwardness of the household that she isn't phased and sees this as her parents meeting her boyfriend.

Tommy doesn't know what to do, he thinks "Um... Maybe I can take Johnny out to... No, not a shooting range, he's Christian. That won't work. Well, no, we shoot targets. not animals or people. I don't wanna take him hunting, why hurt animals for no reason other than sick pleasure? I care about animals. Um... Disneyland? The park with my daughter? We can get him to take the slide with her. That may be fun if we run in the sprinklers. I'll need to bring his girlfriend to help them bond."

Tommy says "How about we head to the park?" Thinking "That's cheaper on my finances."

Meanwhile his daughter stopped eating and just swang her little arms around in a circle, looking down at her plate. She's dancing, she is not oblivious to it being awkward, she just doesn't care, wanging her head from left to right because she's bored. She's imagining dancing to Rasputin.

After the dinner, the whole family sat on the couches watching television in greenish dim and grim setting. There is nothing else to say about it -- it's a dim existence.

Despite this, Cherry started running around flinging her magic wand at the family members over & over, Tommy is chasing her to make her stop while Candy joins as Johnny just gets in position laughing because he's gonna try to catch the "ball" -- the wild ahh child. The child was aware, so she jumped at him and knocked him in the head with the plastic wand!

She kept swinging it at him until her father harshly removed the wand yelling "Bad! Do not do that!" And she says "I understand full sentences, father- mother- father-mother- Whatever!"

Tommy laughed, then picked up the baby and took her to his mother, and his  mother happily welcomed her with open arms. Candy & Tommy didn't see her as evil, they saw her as... How do I say this? Causing unintentional grievous harm.

Harm that led to this predicament...

While holding Cherry, Little Diamond just randomly -- softly -- slaps grandma across the cheek -- leading to grandma slapping her little hand.

Meanwhile Tommy was scolding her for it while Johnny focused on Joseph who asked "Why do you love my daughter? Do you even love her?" Clearly assuming he doesn't and just wants to bang and go, "I don't care if you don't like closeness, if you don't, leave, because she gets too close. Don't act crazy, don't be a @#$%, just be normal." Johnny was actually quite in love and normal.

Joseph didn't want him randomly pulling away from her at the last minute with how crazy she is, or testing her by hurting her to see if she'll leave like some crazed kidnapper.

Joseph says "I just want her to have a normal romance for once, not another crazed fling." hands swinging limp, Lazily, bored, disgusted, holding onto a piece of chocolate, Joseph doesn't hate him, he doesn't care...

He cares about how he'll treat her, yes, but there's nothing really that keeps him from liking the boy. He has no feeling toward the boy. His protectiveness isn't exaggerated, other times he comes off as he barely cares about the situation at all when he's just sitting down ignoring them.

Johnny feels like he genuinely doesn't want him here when it's just the opposite: He doesn't care about him. He is willing to let her date him; no contest. He had no contempt, jealousy or fear of loss.

Johnny asks "Do we have your blessing?" And Joseph replies "Who cares about my blessing? I don't want you bothering me with your romances. Should I vet every new man you bring?" his brows furrowed, he's growling at the thought of her bothering him with another mate, another request.

he doesn't want her to bring her mates to him: "Why should I want to see all your men when you're going to have at least 50? Why vet 50 that won't work out?"

"So we can- so it can last...?" Johnny replied, lips twisted, perplexed, assuming his relationship with his daughter is... awful. He fiddled with his jacket a bit before Joseph slapped his hands saying "That's annoying."

He put his hand son his legs and Joseph shouted "Stop being so stiff, do what she does." Gesturing at Candy whose body language is "relaxed, not fiddling..." Said Joseph as he ate chocolate balls from his box of Wallops.

As Joseph laid, lounging on his couch next to an annoying toddler and a wife he both pitied and felt deep shame against, he just stared intently at Johnny as if he wanted it all to go away.

He lounged back and stared at the ceiling. Candy says "This was boring. I just wish we could have done something fun..." Joseph then noticed something odd -- Candy hadn't said much of a word. She was mostly silent the entire time.

Joseph wanted her to participate if he had to and says "What? Awkward? Then why'd you come back and bring your boyfriend?" Johnny asks "Why are you so abrasive?" Finding his rudeness annoying and frankly disrespectful, while Candy's saying "I love you. I just love you. That's all." her body forcing her to sigh as she slumps over, slouched on her knees.

Joseph said "Go home. This is too awkward." Trying to get away from his mistakes. He feels... Regret. Lots of regret. Tommy says "no, stay. Dad, let her have fun!" Growling, Aggravated while his child looks at Joseph as she pulls Tommy's lip, .Tommy forced her hand off gently, then she asked "Why are you being mean to Candy?" Noticing that this... was incredibly weird. It's not nearly as comfortable as it is in her home with Tommy.

Cherry hated it when the whole family got together because it's like the vibe just flattens. The whole situation is just weird. No one wants to talk, and when the children try, grandpa just shuts them down or lets them and gives her dad a dirty stare for what she perceives as no reason.

Diamond was placed on the floor where she ran to Johnny and pulled his shoes off, then started playing with them like they were airplanes. Johnny watched her wondering "What if I had my own children?" While Candy stared at Johnny wondering "Does he love me?"

To be continued...