Madison drove through the city to the only place she could think of. It took her a while to find it, but she eventually pulled up to the place she'd been looking for.

Nathan's house sat on a small hill. The place was very modern: it looked like it was something that Frank Lloyd Wright would have designed in a weekend. It was a long flat rectangular building, one story, with wooden walls that contrasted with floor to ceiling windows. Madison had only been here once, at Nathan's five million subscriber party. She spotted his BMW in the driveway.

She parked in the street, hopped outside and ran up to the front door. She knocked hard.

"Nathan!" Madison said. "Are you OK?"

No response.

"I'm sorry about what happened," Madison said, "but I think we need to talk about it."

Still nothing. Madison put her hand on the doorknob, and to her surprised it turned. She hesitated for but a moment before opening the door and stepping into the house.

The place was warmly lit, which complimented the wooden paneling on the walls nicely.  She emerged into a lounge type of area, with a large semicircular couch facing a large TV mounted onto a wall. There was a hallway off to the side leading towards the bedrooms, and Madison could hear something coming from that direction.

She walked down the hallway towards the sound, and noticed that a door had been left slightly ajar. The sound seemed to be coming from there.

Madison was close enough to realize that the sound was someone crying.

She stood outside the door for just a second before knocking on it lightly. 

"Hey, I'm coming in, ok?" She said.

She lightly pushed open the door.

The room turned out to be a large bedroom. A full body mirror was leaning up against one wall. Standing in front of the mirror, with his back to Madison, was Nathan. He was still wearing his black hoodie, but he'd switched out his pants for blue miniskirt that stopped halfway down his thigh. He'd shaven his legs at some point, and from where Madison was standing she could look at his reflection and se he'd shaven off the stubble too.

Nathan slowly turned around to face Madison. His eyes were red from crying.

"Madison, I'm scared." Nathan said.

"Scared of what?" Madison said.

"I'm scared because I want this." Nathan said. "I've wanted it my whole life."

He turned back around towards the mirror.

"My dad caught me like this when I was a kid." Nathan said. "I got into my sister's clothes while she was away at a sleepover. I was always so jealous of her. She got to be pretty, to wear nice clothes, to use makeup while I was just...a boy. So I found one of her skirts and...and I felt pretty. Then he walked in."

Nathan shuddered. "I...it didn't end well. And ever since I've just been keeping this part of me locked up, because I thought that's what you were supposed to do, and I figured I might as well tell everyone else to do it, because if I'm miserable why should anyone else be happy, and, and...it got me nothing. Nothing that matters. I have the house, the car, the fame, everything someone could want and I can't even look at myself in the mirror. Not unless I'm like this."

He turned back around. "I lied." He said. "I lied about the mom and the kid getting top surgery, and that's obviously stupid but if I can't be who I want to be why should anyone else, and I kept making stories about trans people because I wanted you to stop, but you didn't, you became better, you became everything I wanted to be, and when I saw you in the apartment I just...broke. And then I came here, and I put this thing on because it's the one thing I have I actually like, and now I just....I just don't know what to do."

Saying nothing, Madison took Nathan in her arms.

"Stop, stop I don't deserve this--"

"Yes you do." Madison said. "You need this."

"No, I can push it down again, I just-"

"No you can't." Madison said. "And I think you know that."

Nathan didn't say anything for a while.

"Everyone would hate me." he said quietly.

"I don't."

"Please, you've been gunning for me for years. This must be a real hoot for-"

"I was gunning for Nathan Emerson for years," Madison admitted, "but that's not who you are, is it?"

Nathan was quiet again. "No." he finally admitted.

Madison stroked his hair.

"Lemme tell you something." she said. "I met someone recently who I hurt. Who I hurt badly without even realizing it. And you know what happened? She saw that I had changed, that I wasn't the person I was before, and she said she was excited for me. And I still don't think I've earned her forgiveness yet, but now I think I'm someone who can earn it. I'm someone who can work on herself, who can be a better woman than she was yesterday, who can look at all the harm she's done and decide to do something about it. So, let me ask you: Who do you want to be? The person who pushes all this stuff down, who lives the life other tells them to lead? Or are you the person who wants to feel pretty?"

Nathan was quiet again. Madison was worried she broke him. But then she felt him whisper something.

"What was that?" Madison said.

"Woman." Nathan said.

Nathan pushed Madison away so he could look her straight in the eyes.

"I'm a woman who wants to feel pretty." Nathan said, sounding confident for the first time all day.

Madison took a second to let that sink in.

"What's your name?" She asked.

The woman took a deep breath before answering.

"Nadine." she said. "I've wanted that name since I was a b-, I mean, since I was a girl."

Madison smiled.

"Nice to finally meet you, Nadine."

The two girls embraced again, an stood there in each other's arms for a while.

"Hey, Nadine," Madison said after a long silence, "I think I know some people you should meet."

 

***

"Ok, Nadine, sweetie," Abigail said, "I'm not saying this about you, but this whole sitch has gotten a little ridiculous."

"It's an 'Oops All Eggs' situation." Goldie said.

"If Stone turned out to be trans too, I swear..." Madison said.

"As someone who's been around him way too much, I think he was just stupid enough to think this plan of his would actually work." Nadine said.

The four women giggled. They were all sitting on Nadine's expansive couch, drinking sodas as everyone caught up and explained themselves. Nadine had taken the revelation about Abigail's subterfuge pretty well ("I always felt like you were doing the whole conservative thing as a bit" she explained), and Abigail and Goldie, to their credit, accepted Nadine into womanhood with open arms ("I went through a spiky egg phase too" Goldie had said, which had reminded Madison that she really needs to find a Trans Slang Dictionary or something).

Now they were just hanging out as girls, and Madison could see that Nadine was really enjoying herself. Whenever she'd seen Nadine at a party before, she'd always looked like she was playing a role; every pose, every gesture, it had all seemed cultivated, practiced to give off to impression of 'suave gentleman', but now Nadine seemed more spontaneous, more lifelike. It was incredible to see another person go through the changes that Madison had gone through, and she felt a swirling mix of admiration and pride in Nadine.

"Hey, want me to throw something on the TV?" Goldie said.

"Oh, HGTV!" Nadine said, smiling, "I've always wanted to watch like, House Hunters with some girl friends."

Then Nadine looked embarrassed, and sheepishly looked down at her drink. "But, um, if you guys don't want to watch it-"

"Oh girl I love me some House Hunters." Abigail said. "It's so funny whenever they turn down, like, Cinderella's castle because the toilet is in the wrong spot."

Nadine giggled. "Yeah it really is."

"HGTV it is." Goldie said, flipping the TV to that channel.

The women watched the TV for a while, chatting idly for a while, but eventually a nervous tension seemed to develop in the air, and Madison decided to try and break it.

"So, Nadine," Madison said, "What do you want to do now?"

"Oh, um," Nadine said, "I haven't really thought that far ahead."

"Hey, you don't need to right now." Goldie said. She leaned over and put a hand on Nadine's knee. "You can take your transition as fast or as slow as you want."

"I know, but it's not really the, the pace that I'm worried about." Nadine explained. "Heck, if I could just wake up tomorrow in a woman's body I'd be over the moon. It's the...everything else that has me worried. I'd definitely lose my job, and if I tried to do like, a new podcast or something I'd have to build a whole new audience. And that can take YEARS, and I'd still have to pay bills and stuff in the meantime. Not to mention having to pay for the transition itself. Gosh I wish I'd just..."

Then Nadine shook her head. "No. You know what, I can make my peace with telling Stone no." Nadine reached out and took Madison's hand. "It meant that you got to transition, and you've turned out great, so if you getting a chance to be a girl means I have to walk a tougher path, then so be it."

Madison blushed. "Oh, wow that's...I appreciate that, Nadine, but I want you to know that you deserve happiness too. "

Nadine nodded. She seemed to realize how intimate their hand holding was and let go , and a part of Madison wished she hadn't.

Abigail had been watching the trio of trans girls the whole time, but now she leaned forward and said "You know, Nadine, I think that I got an idea..."

***

SIX MONTHS LATER

Madison stood back as she looked at new set. She'd put the place together herself, having convinced Stone that it'd be best to if she set everything up for her grand reveal by herself. The whole place had been turned from a boring study into something like sorority sister's bedroom. Her old desk was now covered in a bunch of cute items she'd found on Pinterest, the dark wooden furniture had been swapped out for modern IKEA bookshelves and pink chairs, and she'd strung up some fairy lights to add some warmth to the set. She also set up a full body mirror in the background that was carefully angles so that it wouldn't reveal the offstage area. She took a second to check her outfit.

She'd gone a bit hyper-feminine today, since that's what Stone was expecting; pink blouse with a pink pleated skirt, with her waist length hair let down for once. Her makeup was on point, although she mostly had Abigail to thank for that; she'd gotten pretty good at it over the last few months, but she still needed Abigail to make it look professional-level. Her lashes looked perfect, and the dash of eyeliner that Abigail had elevated the whole look. Stone had questioned why she insisted on going all out like this, given that she'd been playing up how much she provately didn't like being a woman, but Madison had pointed out that the whole point was to convince the Muckraker audience and everyone else who might be watching that she was 100% confident in her womanhood, and that had been enough to convince him.

Stone would have said yes to just about anything Madison suggested; ever since Nathan had taken a leave of absence to 'focus on family issues', views had been steadily going down, and Stone needed something to get more eyes on the network.

She put the huge studio camera in position, went over to the control booth and changed a few settings so that it would livestream the reveal instead of recording it. She pulled out her computer and connected it remotely to the switcher, then she set it on her table. She gave the whole setup the once over to make sure everything was in place. Then she double checked the studio doors to make sure they were locked.

She sat down in front of the camera. She took a deep breath as she readied herself for something that she knew there was no coming back from.

She pressed a key on her computer and started the livestream.

"Hello, my humble audience," Madison said looking into the camera, "I have finally made my grand return."

She glanced at her computer screen. The viewers were expressing their confusion in the chat, leaving messages like "who's this chick" and "Muckraker hired another woman? lefties are winning"

"I can see that some of y'all need an explanation, so here it goes." Madison said. "You previously knew me as M--- Owens, but now I'm here to introduce the new and improved model: My name is Madison, I use she/her and it's lovely to meet you all again."

She didn't dare glance at the transphobia she knew was being unleashed in chat.

"And now, I have something to say." Madison continued. "You see, the plan today was to 'fool' you all into thinking I'm trans. My boss, Mr.Stone, the owner of Muckraker, he wanted someone to go through HRT so they can infiltrate women's sports and show how it's filled with men who just want to dominate women and feel good about themselves. I was the only person around her who volunteered."

Madison was sure that wherever Stone was, he was watching the livestream, and he was probably about to pop a blood vessel.

"However, I've learned a few things about myself the last six months," Madison said, "Mostly that being a woman is incredibly fun for me."

Madison pressed a button on her keyboard with a flourish. Images began to play over the stream; photos of her and the girls shopping, doing each other's makeup, watching TV, throwing a slumber party, and just generally reveling in womanhood. And in each image everyone was smiling and laughing.

"I always thought that people who got on hormones were freaks," she said, "heck, most of you have probably hear say exactly that on this podcast. But we're not freaks, we're just people who need help. And denying that help, saying that it's wrong, it's like saying that chemo is wrong, surgery is wrong, antibiotics are wrong. It's not a rational position, it's just stupid."

She could hear someone banging on the studio door now. She did her best to ignore it and press on.

"But don't just take it from me," Madison said, "Let's hear from anther girl you may recognize."

She pressed some buttons on her laptop and pulled up a Discord video call, then put that up on the livestream.

Nadine was on the call, sitting awkwardly on her couch. She was wearing a pink and black plaid skirt ("Very Monster High," Abigail had said when she saw the skirt for the first time), a black t-shirt with a small pink skull design, and purple lipstick. She had her hair tied back in a ponytail. She'd been on accelerated HRT for about two months, and it showed. Her figure was coming along nicely, and Madison took a second to appreciate just how pretty she looked.

"Hello everyone," Nadine said, "I'm Nadine. You, uh, you may remember me as...Nathan."

"That's right everybody, we cracked two eggs in one." Madison said, and Nadine giggled. Madison could hear shouting coming from outside the studio; someone was talking about calling the police.

"Well, looks like I'm no longer welcome in this studio," Madison said, "so, Nadine, any words for the viewers back home?"

"Girls rule, boys drool!" Nadine yelled.

"You said it sister. I'm Madison Owens, good night and good luck, everybody!"

Madison grabbed her laptop and ran for the back entrance of the studio. She burst through the door and into a loading dock that was used by truck bringing in camera gear and other stuff for the studio.

Parked in one of the docks was Abigail's car. Abigail was sitting in the driver's seat, and Goldie was in the passenger seat. Abigail rolled down her window and leaned her head out.

"You killed it, girlie!" Abigail said, her voice echoing through the empty loading docks. "Now let's bug out!"

Maison ran across the loading docks and climbed into the back seat of Abigail's car just as she heard the studio door bust open. "Go go go!" Madison yelled as she closed the car door behind her.

Abigail put the pedal to the metal, Goldie shrieked as the tires peeled out, and all Madison could do was laugh.

Today had been a good day.