The trip home.

You and Jackie spend the remainder of the trip rebuilding your relationship. You go to the spa and take a few quiet walks on the beach, but much of the time you stay in your suite. By the end of the honeymoon, you've worked past most of the physical hangups you have with your wife's new body. At the same time, however, you don't exactly think of her as "Jackie" anymore. Your confusion is compounded by your mom's insistence that you all start referring to each other by the name of the body rather than who is inside it. Calling Jackie "Katherine" - or even worse, "Mom" - makes it hard to be romantic, but you persevere and feel like you're making real progress.

You still feel pangs of lust (and love) when you look at Jackie's body, but you're now easily able to push those feelings aside. You don't want to confuse your feelings toward the real Jackie any more than they already are - and you don't want to cause her more distress. You mother eases the situation by letting you sit with Jackie in first class while she takes the seat in coach. You and Jackie snuggle on the flight, holding hands and kissing. You seize this last opportunity to publicly express your true relationship here where you're anonymous. Once you're back home you know that you'll all have to hide the truth, with Jackie and your mother pretending to be each other.

You go to get your luggage after the flight lands. While you wait, your mom pulls you and Jackie aside.

"For tonight we can go home together. No one expects me back until tomorrow, so that will give us a little more time to discuss our plans." She looks at Jackie. "But tomorrow you'll have to go back to my house. You and Gerry can 'rendezvous' as often as you want, but a mother moving in with newlyweds would be rather strange. I don't think we could really explain it to our family & friends."

Jackie nods in agreement. "But we have arrange something long-term! I want to be with Gerry."

"And I want to be with you," you add, putting your arm around her.

Your mom looks at the two of you, her eyes glistening with emotion. "We'll work it out, I promise. I have the vague beginnings of a couple ideas. Maybe in a few months we can pretend to start having marital problems. I could kick Gerry out and that would give him an excuse to move back home." She pauses for a moment, then adds "or we could come up with an excuse for you to move in with Gerry & me."