Tell only Lucas's parents

"I don't understand," said Gordon Grisham as he sat across the little conference room from Ivy, James, and Dr. Lockard. His wife, Linda, looked equally perplexed. "You're saying you can save my son, but Luke won't be Luke anymore?"

"Well that depends on your definition of who Luke is," Dr. Lockard countered, expertly laying out her case. To James and Ivy, it almost sounded like Ela was well practiced in the ways of convincing strangers to participate in unusual scientific experiments, depending on their hangups. "Is Luke merely the sum of all the cells in his body? If so, then every three months after the cells go through their lifespan, much of a person's cells has been replaced. Or is it the way he thinks and the memories he holds, with cells who last a lifetime? I would argue that it's the latter, and that's the part of Luke we can preserve."

Linda looked nervously at Ivy. "But we don't see Lucas when we look at her. You're quite pretty, dear, but Lucas is my handsome boy..!"

Ivy grunted, crossing her arms. "I'm whatever I want to be, mom. You'd been able to talk to me just fine up to this point when I'm like this, what's the big difference now?"

"We just thought it was a short-term thing," Lucas's dad said. "And even though you seemed to be really good at pretending to be a girlfriend for James, we thought it was just a phase, or that you were just keeping up appearances. We didn't think this was what you really wanted."

"To be clear, it's both Ivy and Luke in there," James said. "They're splitting the load fifty-fifty." James conveniently left out the Hilda part, as Ivy's headset did away with all the little phone notifications that she'd used for James. "But they've made it both equally clear that they're comfortable like this."

"Well, they'll get comfortable after some time apart too, won't they?" Gordon huffed, pacing the conference room. "To top it all, we've got the pink-haired Hideki wonder-doctor saying she can do the impossible!" Ela actually seemed pleased at the comment, wondering if she could put 'wonder-doctor' on some business cards. "I'm sorry, but I don't think I can give consent to this."

"Dad, please," Ivy said, standing up. Gordon didn't even turn when she said dad, it sounded so foreign to him coming from a girl's body.

"We just didn't know you wanted to be a woman and liked men, Luke," Linda said, as if that statement would in any way clarify anything Luke's father was concerned about.

Ivy groaned, glancing at Luke's mom for a moment before turning back to Gordon. "As far as I'm concerned, I'm old enough to make these medical decisions on my own, but I don't want to lose my parents over something as dumb as what body I'm in! I still love you two. And... if we go with what the doctors here want to do, there's good odds that I'm gone anyway. If I survive that, it sounds like more recovery, more pain, maybe a lifetime of medical issues... but Dr. Lockard, there's no doc higher rated for exotic surgeries, I checked! I looked at so, so many reports and testimonials... overnight." In truth, her Hilda-side had run a search earlier and parsed through the details for her about ten minutes ago. "And it's going to end up just like how I am now, a mix of Ivy and Luke but you already got to know this version of me through the Ascend headset, which... it's made me feel whole, dad. Sorry, but point goes to Hideki on this one."

Gordon grumbled, looking at Linda for a moment, who slowly got up, and hugged Ivy. Lucas's dad looked back at Dr. Lockard. "Yabusa still makes a better car."

Ela snorted. "No arguments here. I drive a Yabusa myself, even though I have a friend who worked in the Hideki automotive department for a while."

"Oh yeah? What kind?"

Ela leaned back, almost smug knowing that the procedure was a done deal at this point. "Oh, an '05 Astrid."

Gordon laughed, taking a seat. "You know, I worked on the '05 Astrid!" While Gordon and Dr. Lockard chatted about superior Yabusa cars for a while, James, Ivy, and Linda talked about all the strangeness about the fact that she was going to be the mother of James's girlfriend in a sense, among other things.

The discussion changed over time from short-term to long-term. Things like if Ivy would be able to attend university just like Lucas had planned, and then discussion about Ivy's parents. Everyone agreed to not tell Ivy's parents, since they would undoubtedly say no--their daughter was perfectly healthy, why would she need a medical procedure for a brain? James's parents could be brought into the mix later, only because they knew Luke well and it wouldn't be fair to them to think that he'd died. Hideki Labs, particularly Ela, would take care of everything else, and she just needed a couple hours to operate, which she could do from the hospital after being incredibly persuasive with some of the staff.

Amazingly, the plan went into motion the same day. Ela got the open room, Lucas and Ivy were brought into it, the doors were closed... and nobody was allowed in for the duration. James and the Grishams had to wait outside, patiently, for any hint of success, preparing to give up Lucas as they knew him for a new future with Lucas in Ivy for good.