To Protect

The door to Suite 19C slid open with a satisfying click, and Kaylee staggered inside with all the grace of someone who'd had quite enough of everything. She didn’t even bother surveying the room at first. With a frustrated grunt, she made a beeline to the oversized sectional couch, plopping down onto it facedown. She instantly regretted the decision.

“Oof! Gah, darnit…” she muttered under her breath, squirming as her chest heaved against the tight-knit fabric of her sweater. Her massive, newly grown breasts shifted uncomfortably with every breath. No position felt right, no matter how she leaned or propped herself up.

‘These damn things are like twin sandbags… How the hell do women function like this?’ she growled internally, tugging at her top in frustration. Every slight movement caused a bounce she wasn’t used to, and the sudden hyper-awareness of her curves made her grit her teeth. The military prepared her to carry all sorts of baggage, physically and mentally, yet this took the cake for the most frustrating she’d ever undergone.

‘Ugh… is there anything to drink in here?’ she thought, already knowing the answer. If this game show wanted them to adapt, then surely it stocked some method of temporary escape.

Her eyes locked onto a familiar sight she could identify anywhere. Perched atop the mini-fridge beside the TV was a compact wine cooler. Kaylee hoisted herself up with a quiet grunt, her joints and muscles aching in new, unfamiliar ways. She made her way over and flung the door open.

Inside, nestled neatly in place, were a handful of chilled bottles. Reds and whites, all brands she didn’t recognize but could tell were expensive just by the label design.

“Only white and red wine…” she muttered, unimpressed. “Better than nothing, I suppose.”

Kaylee pulled out a bottle of red wine, eyeing the nearby polished glass set beside it like an afterthought. “Yeah, no.”

Rather than take the time to pretend this was some kind of civilized tasting, she popped the cork and brought the bottle straight to her lips. The first sip hit her like a lukewarm memory. Bitter at first, then soft on the tongue.

“Humph. It’s like I’m Joanna, drowning in wine to deal with life’s woes…” she scoffed, flopping back onto the couch again, bottle in hand.

As soon as the thought entered her mind, she regretted it. ‘Joanna.’

Her ex-wife’s name rolled through her head like a stone in her gut. Kaylee stared blankly at the ceiling as she took another long pull from the bottle.

Twelve years. They’d been married twelve years, and many of those years, she would come home to her wife drinking her life away as if to escape her self-proclaimed miserable existence. She still remembered the way Joanna used to sit in their kitchen late at night, nursing her third glass of wine, eyes bloodshot and distant, talking about all the things she could’ve done, should’ve been, if she hadn’t “settled” with her.

Five years after their daughter Jess was born, Joanna finally decided she’d had enough. Enough of the family before deciding that she’d rather go off and waste what was left of her youth drinking and partying instead of being a part of something with her. She walked out and didn’t look back, leaving Kaylee alone to hold the family together.

Again, Kaylee drank to push the memory back into its dusty corner.

She’d never been much of a drinker back then. It didn’t appeal to her. But years of balancing single parenthood, military structure, university lectures, and now… this, had worn her down. The stress clung to her bones like rust.

“Ahhh… never liked wine all that much…” she muttered aloud to no one in particular. “Guess tonight’s an exception…”

Not long after Kaylee had downed half the bottle of wine and sunk into a semi-melancholic daze on the couch, the quiet click of the suite’s front door broke the silence. She blinked, startled, just in time to see the door slowly swing open and reveal a petite yet bottom-heavy woman with a nervous energy that could be felt from across the room.

Gabriella Hidalgo hesitated in the doorway. She had been hoping beyond all hope that she could slink into whatever bedroom was hers without being noticed. Social interaction had never been her strong suit. Especially not after suddenly waking up in a woman’s body, surrounded by gorgeous strangers, and **** into this twisted reality show setup.

But fate was cruel.

“Hey!” Kaylee called out, slurring slightly as she lifted the half-empty bottle of red wine in a lazy salute. “You’re the cute Spanish girl! C’mon over! Plenty of wine here for you… hic.”

Gabriella froze like a deer in headlights. “Uhm, no, thank you,” she eventually squeaked out, clutching her small purse like a lifeline. “I'm not all that into drinking… So…”

She began to edge around the living room, hoping she could slip past unnoticed. No such luck.

“Ha!” Kaylee barked, wobbling to her feet with a suddenness that made Gabriella flinch. “I wish Jess were more like you. She drinks more than a bar of frat boys. Foolish girl must’ve got that from the Witch… I mean, her mom.”

Gabriella winced as the older woman began to stagger over to her and practically tripped over the corner of the sectional. “Gaahh, these boobs are way too big. Can’t keep my footing! Oh, by the way, I’m… Uh. Kaylee, I guess. Pleasure to meet you.”

She extended a hand, swaying as she did. Her cheeks were flushed a charming pink, eyes glassy but still sharp with some flicker of fire beneath the wine haze.

Gabriella hesitated. Every introverted alarm bell in her brain was sounding at once. Still… she figured it was better not to offend the woman she might be sharing a room with. Reluctantly, she reached out and offered her hand. “I’m Gabriella… I suppose. Uhm… Are you drunk by any chance?”

“Me?” Kaylee blinked, then cackled. “Drunk? Ha! I could out-drink anyone in my platoon in my heyday! Oof. I might be a bit tipsy though…”

Gabriella gave a tight, polite smile and began to back away. “Uh… Okay… I’ll be going now… Have a g-”

Whump.

Before she could finish her farewell, she smashed into the softest surface in the world, Kaylee’s tits. Kaylee’s chest. Gabriella froze. Her face was buried in cleavage. Luxurious, soft, and... warm cleavage. ‘Is this heaven?’

“Aren’t you just the cutest!” Kaylee cooed, wrapping her arms around the smaller woman before she could even think about escaping. “Oh, golly. If only my daughter were more like you. Jess would never ask if I was… was doing okay. Sometimes I swear I’m just a p-piggy bank for her… Hic”

As Kaylee began a drunken rant about her daughter’s faults, Gabriella’s mind short-circuited.

‘Boobs. I’m… in… boobs.’ As an introverted man, Gabriella never had the opportunity to interact with the opposite sex very much. Let alone experience the softness of their boobs. She hadn’t even come to terms with her own curves yet. ‘These are real. This is real. Oh my god, I have boobs too, don’t I?!’

She stood there stiffly, brain failing to reboot while Kaylee clung to her like a favorite pillow. With shocking ease for a woman drunk off her ass, Kaylee dragged Gabriella back toward the couch and collapsed with her onto the sectional. Her arm stayed draped across the younger woman’s shoulders as if they’d been best friends for years.

“A sweet girl like you,” Kaylee sighed, head lolling slightly to the side, “you’d be a much better fit for Dan. At least better than that brat of a child of mine.”

Gabriella blinked rapidly, still trying to regain motor function.

“Can you believe she’s strung him along for, like… five years?” Kaylee went on, lips moving faster than Gabriella’s brain could follow. “Gah, I guess I can. She is her mother’s daughter, after all. They must be allergic to commitment.” She took another pull straight from the bottle, nodding as if it was the world’s most profound observation. “I can see it now, you and Dan with all sorts of children…”

Gabriella’s cheeks lit up like fireworks. ‘Children?! What?!’

Kaylee's expression softened, misty-eyed. “Oh dear… I remember when Jess was born. Happiest day of my life. There’s something about bringing life into the world, y’know? The most love I ever felt was in that operating room. What I’d give to have that again… Happiness, you know? Just me, Dan, and my baby girl.”

The causal statement almost went by without being noticed, but Gabriella managed to come to her senses just in time to hear it. ‘Was that a fraudulent slip?’

“I’ve decided!” Kaylee suddenly declared, sitting up with renewed drunken resolve. “I’m gonna get you and Dan together! Then you can have all those happy moments a sweetheart like you deserves!”

The professor beamed, clearly convinced she was a matchmaking genius.

Gabriella’s eyes widened at the sudden proclamation. Normally, she’d just dismiss it as drunken silliness, but her imagination went wild before she could. She saw them in a cozy home. Dan smiling warmly across a dinner table. Her wearing an apron. ‘Why an apron?!’ Then came flashes of warm hands, stolen kisses, hardcore, sweaty baby-making sex, along with more intimate details that caused her mind to spiral into a gutter so deep it might as well have been its own subterranean level.

Her entire face went crimson, her lips parted as if to say something, but her brain gave out first. She slumped forward in Kaylee’s arms like someone had pulled her plug.

With surprising gentleness, Kaylee scooped the petite woman into her arms bridal-style. Gabriella’s cheek rested against her soft breast, the flustered blush still painted across her delicate features. Her lips moved slightly, mumbling something incoherent about babies and aprons. Kaylee couldn’t help but chuckle again as she brought her to her new bedroom.

Without hesitation or awkwardness, Kaylee changed her new roommate out of her sexy dress and into comfortable pajamas, careful not to wake her. Every motion was calm, precise, motherly. Her military experience and years as a single parent blended into a quiet efficiency that gave her hands purpose even when her heart was still reeling from the day’s events.

Once the girl was dressed and tucked under the covers, Kaylee reached down and brushed a lock of hair from Gabriella’s face. The smaller woman murmured something in her sleep again, something that sounded suspiciously like “Dan…”

Kaylee smiled as she stood up, casting one last glance at the sleeping girl.

‘I guess the experience from years of being a single parent never really goes away,’ she thought as she quietly stepped out of the room, gently closing the door behind her.

But before she could fully turn back toward her own, a stillness fell over her. A shift in posture. The warm, wistful glow on her face dimmed ever so slightly as her gaze hardened. Not with anger, but with resolution. “It won’t happen again.”

Her voice, when she spoke next, had no trace of a slur. No drunken lilt. It was sharp. Quiet. Cold steel wrapped in velvet. Fitting of a woman who was once a Second Lieutenant.

“I’ll protect that girl.”