A Friendly Face

I don't know who I was expecting to see, but it wasn't her. All these g-men goons that'd been around us since the trial, and the first person I see is this short, pudgy woman in a suit? I was thrown, but not thrown enough to be embarrassed.

I scrambled to pull my hospital gown back down, but she just laughed, "Don't worry, it's nothing I haven't seen before." She said, in her braying Long Island accent, "But it's nice to see you're making such a... full recovery."

I'm sure I was blushing, but if she was embarrassed she didn't let on "Special agent Cuzamano." She said, holding out her hand for me to shake, "I'll be handling your family's case from here on out."

"Oh, nice to meet you," I said, as I grabbed her hand to shake, "Hey, where are we right now? Is this still that facility you took us to outside Philly?"

She laughed, "Philadelphia? No, right now you're in a secure recovery facility, about 20 miles outside San Francisco."

"What? Why so far?"

"Well, this place was the closest to your new home, it's a couple hours north of here."

"Oh, California, huh? That's nice..." I think I had something else to say there, but I stopped. This was the first time I realized something was wrong. "Wait, how can I remember all this? The facility, Philadelphia, the trial, they said they were going to wipe our memories, right? Why can I remember that if they wiped our memories."

That was enough to get her rolling her eyes, "Oh, you mean they're still giving that old briefing out in Philadelphia? Ugh. I swear, east coast is always at least 3 years behind us, and I guess now I have to get you properly up to speed."

"Oh, so you mean we're not getting brainwashed?" I laughed, "Y'know, if I'm honest that's kind of disappointing. I mean, I'm happy I can keep my brain, but if I have to go back to living with dad, the same old dad, you folks may as well put me in jail."

"Well, ugh, y'see it's not that simple."

"Wait, what?"

Cuzamano turned around and opened the door back up, motioning for me to follow, "C'mon, I'll explain to you as we go, it'll make more sense that way. For now, we've got to show you what we've done with the rest of the family."

She started walking out the door, but I stayed where I was. I didn't want to see my family. Truth be told, I didn't want anything to do with them, those people had done so much to hurt me over the years, been so cruel for no reason, I wished I could just walk out with this new body and go away.

"Well? Are ya coming or what? It's not like you've got somewhere else to be." She said, egging me on.

I took a deep breath, "Okay, but before we go, I want you to promise me that, while we're here, you won't let them hurt me."

That got another laugh out of Cuzamano "Sweetheart, trust me, you're not gonna have to worry about that anymore."