“As you can see, we run a tight crew.”
“The fewer people involved in my care, the better,” I say, feeling exposed in my hospital gown and rubber-bottomed socks.
“Can I have Eric here assist you onto the bed?”
I nod, and the very large man grabs me by my hips and pops me up onto the bed as though I were a toddler. “Fuck, dude. What do you bench?”
“Patients,” he says with a wink before stepping back.
I lie back and everything here is off. Not in a bad way, just…non-standard. I scan the area again and realize that there is a viewing gallery above us. My beloved, against my wishes, is up there, looking down on the proceedings. Dr. Tamashiro follows my gaze and shakes her head. The surgical assistant with the weird eyes goes over to the wall and hits a button, blacking out the view. A single bang against the glass sounds out, but then things go quiet.
“I’m surprised Odd tried that. He usually follows protocol to a T,” she says, tilting her head as she assesses me.
“I’ve known him for a long time. I think he’s just worried about me.”
“Perhaps,” she says, smiling. “We’re going to get started now. When you wake up, your skin will be completely restored. Do you have any questions for me before we begin?”
Anders walks up next to us, gloved and masked with a gleam in his eye, accompanied by a third person of indeterminate gender.
“No. Just please don’t let him put the goddamn knee in backward.”
“I think I can manage that,” she says, the smile behind her mask crinkling her eyes. “Sasha here will take care of your anesthesia and Brick is our surgical assistant. Let’s get started.”
22
Odd
I slowly become aware of the sharp smell of antiseptic and the softness of DeShaun’s specialty blankets. And warm fingers stroking my scalp. I’m sitting in the world’s most uncomfortable chair, bent over with my head resting on his hospital bed, and you couldn’t pay me to be anywhere else. I blink and look up. DeShaun looks down on me with a tired smile that crinkles the corners of his eyes.
“Morning, beautiful.”
“Morning, baby,” I say, straightening my creaky back. “They had you in there for a little longer than I was anticipating.”
“Yeah, your brother got in there and realized that he needed to do more repair work than he originally thought. It had to heal before he could replace the knee, so it pushed everything back an hour or so.”
My brother had, of course, told me all of these things, but it’s nice to hear it in DeShaun’s voice. Anders touched lightly on all aspects of the surgery and was surprisingly circumspect when it came to DeShaun’s more personal details.
“How does everything feel?”
He lets out a sigh. “I’m mostly just exhausted. My knee feels pretty decent, considering, but they weren’t kidding when they said that my skin would feel sensitive. It feels closer to normal now, but a couple of hours ago, while you were snoring away, it was a little touch and go.”
He pulls back the soft blanket to reveal naked skin. Wow. As I understand it, the skin they start with doesn’t have any pigment, but then his DNA begins to weave itself into the matrix, creating the proper level of melanin. His pigment has almost entirely taken over, indistinguishable from his unburned skin, save for the lack of mature hair. His soft dick is nestled against his ball, and just like everywhere else, he has the beginnings of soft, downy hair growing.
He doesn’t have a single scar, and the pores are so fine that the entire replaced field looks like it’s been Photoshopped. I marvel at the edges, impressed with how his skin blends seamlessly into the newer skin.
“This is amazing,” I say, reaching up to kiss him. “When can we use your dick?”
He laughs against my kiss. “Actually, they want me to start with some gentle wanking as soon as I can stand it.”
“Can you stand it?”
“Only one way to find out,” he says, smirking. “Why do you think I woke you up?”
“Oh really? Sounds like somebody’s anxious to give his new dick a spin.”
“You have no idea. Put your mouth on me.”
My jaw drops open. “Bossy.”
