Legal Issues

Two hours later, alone at her desk, Lynn leaned back to rub her tired eyes. She still felt rested but also distracted and restless and her eyes hurt from staring at spreadsheets and emails; numbers and letters swam on the screen in front of her. The young woman turned away from her desk to rest her eyes. The chirp of a bird from outside made Lynn look over at her window. On a whim, she pulled the cord to let in warm mid-morning sunlight as a small brown bird startled into flight.

For a moment, Lynn simply stared out of her window. The hum and click and buzz of the office outside her door faded into the background as she watched the large tree at the corner of the block sway in a sudden breeze. She passed the tree every day on her way to work but she'd never really noticed it. Leaves fluttered and moved when the breeze strengthened into a strong wind. She could somehow hear the 'shhhh' sound as the leaves moved and brushed against each other.

A sense of melancholy settled deep within the young woman. Watching the tree, she felt a sense of loss without knowing exactly what was gone. She noted the thick branches low on the tree's trunk.

Those would be perfect for grabbing and...

Her thought was lost in a sudden memory of her climbing trees as a child. The trailer park where her family lived was at the edge of a forest and, in her boredom from a lack of toys, the girl had explored. Looking under logs, making leaf boats for the small stream at the far end of the forest and climbing trees were her favorite childhood activities.

Huh,

Lynn thought.

I used to just sit in the tree and listen to everything. My little hiding place away from the noise of the trailer park. And the bullies. And the bad smells. Good god, how could I have forgotten what it was like to live near a sewage treatment plant. I haven't thought about-

"Ms. Hathaway?" A tentative voice called out. Lynn blinked, turning away from the window. "I'm terribly sorry to bother you, Ms. Hathaway. Mr. Spiel told me to do some background research for the P&G account only, well, I know it's your project. I wanted to check in with you first."

Lynn frowned at the woman standing in her office. She should be furious that the senior partner was fiddling in her work and, she was. She also understood and a much smaller part of her couldn't seem to care very much about it. Lynn put that small, alien thought aside.

How can I not care,

she wondered.

It's my client.

"Jeanne, wasn't it?" Lynn asked.

"Yes, ma'am."

"I," Lynn paused. A flare of anger made her want to yell at the other woman but, as quickly as it came, she felt it die out. She tried to feel the anger again in order to lash out at this woman butting into her project but as much as she tried, she couldn't.

It's not her fault,

she realized.

Spiel just grabbed her and stuck her on it. She didn't ask for it.

"Thank you for telling me. Just be sure to bring any information to my office rather than Mr. Spiel's office. Okay?"

Jeanne beamed, relief showing clearly on her face. "Yes, ma'am! I'll be sure to talk to you first."

Lynn stood as the other woman left her office. Her joints and lower back ached still and she wondered whether she'd need to see her chiropractor. Worse, her breasts ached in a way she'd never felt before. It wasn't bad, exactly; it was just that they felt tight and solid. Lynn walked to the executive bathroom, locking the door behind her. The small room was comforting; it was always well kept and nearly always empty. Mindful of her hair and makeup, the young woman pulled her dark green blouse over her head.

In the bright lights above the mirror, she could see her breasts almost overflowing in the bra. Around her sides, the strap of the bra pressed into her skin and she could feel it constraining her every time she breathed. Lynn reached behind herself to unhook her bra. The relief was immediate.

Without even touching herself, she could see how large her breasts seemed to be now. The skin was tight and smooth and when she held her breasts gently, she felt a slight heat radiating from them. Lynn massaged herself gently. Barely noticeable sharp pains mixed with pleasure as her gentle caresses eased the ache that had settled deep within. Her fingers slid across silky smooth skin as she explored her now-heavy breasts. Pressing and squeezing her breasts seemed to ease most of the ache and, while the feeling wasn't entirely erotic, she found herself enjoying it immensely.

Over and over Lynn massaged her breasts, squeezing outward around her nipples and then back down to circle the bottom of them. A contented sigh escaped her lips as her hands squeezed her surprisingly full breasts. Her small brown nipples swelled under the attention until they stood erect. A different kind of ache came from them and she lightly touched both of them.

Are they bigger than before? What in the world?

She wondered. The young woman could feel the edge of excitement calling to her and she knew if she continued rubbing herself, she would need to release the building tension. At the moment, the massage simply felt good. Anything more...

With a sigh, Lynn retrieved her bra from the edge of the sink. The odd soreness was gone and even her back felt a little better.

Perhaps,

she wondered.

Perhaps I've been sitting too much.

The young woman reached back to clasp her bra but the strap dug harshly into her. As she did in the morning, she moved the clasps back a step further and then one step more. Tugging gently at the bra cups, she settled her breasts into place and then pulled her blouse carefully back over her head.

A few expert tucks settled her hair into place. Lynn glanced over herself. Her hair was pulled back in the tight bun she'd favored since rising slowly in the ranks at the firm. It had taken a single moment of third-hand office gossip to inform her that upper management had a hard time taking her seriously when she looked so young. Or so feminine. That last was a whole other issue to deal with. So, she'd taken to putting her hair up. Now her hair did nothing to hide the hard lines of her face or the mean set to her eyes; a look developed over time to shield her emotions from the world around her.

Lynn stared at the face of the women in front of her.

Is that what I look like all the time, now? Not just in meetings or in front of a commissioner or judge? Is that what my few friends and coworkers see? Good god, it looks like I never smile and my whole damn face is pulled tight. Like a corpse.

The recent memories and dreams of her childhood came to her again as her eyes wandered her face. No sign of the laughing child showed through. Reaching up, the young woman took hold of the two lacquered chopsticks keeping her hair in place. Lynn pulled and her brown hair unfurled around her. The young woman smiled shyly at herself in the mirror and, finally, she saw the child from her dreams.

Back at her desk, Lynn worked through the rest of her day. When lunch neared, she called the deli nearby and then, on a whim, she asked for a mix of ten different sandwiches and cookies. As soon as she hung up, she realized she'd had no idea how many office workers were in the building. A quick count of the people (not including the two senior partners) in her Outlook address book made her sigh in relief. Apparently, and a part of her was ashamed to not know this, there were nine people working in the cubicles on the main floor. She was sure there were six when she'd started. Mostly sure. Possibly sure.

A quick email to the receptionist regarding the lunch was then sent out to the office workers. Lynn smiled to herself before diving back into her work. There was an enormous amount of law dealing with agriculture and it was certainly not a specialty of hers. Still, as Mr. Spiel would say, it was more billable hours for their firm. Even if all she was doing was double-checking local, state and federal laws.

As the day turned into evening, people began leaving one-by-one . A careful knock at her door brought her eyes away from her monitor. "Yes?" She asked. The door opened.

"Ms. Hathaway," Jeanne said. "I have some preliminary information for you. So far, all I could find was Mr. Dailey, that's Mr. Chapman's neighbor, has a son that's way behind on his student loans. I just haven't been able to put a lot of time into it."

"Jeanne, it's," Lynn glanced at the corner of her monitor. "It's after 8. Go home to your family."

"Oh, I... I don't have a family, Ms. Hathaway."

Lynn grimaced. She should know these things. The woman had worked there before Lynn had started and so she should know about her coworkers and the people that worked under her. "I'm sorry. Thank you, Jeanne. Don't forget to update the software with your billable hours for P&G. I'll head home soon, too."

"Yes, ma'am. I'll email you before I go." The woman turned and stepped from Lynn's office before turning back. "I... I like what you did with your hair, Ms. Hathaway."

Lynn touched her loose hair and then yawned.

Too long at the office today,

she told herself. Briefly she considered bringing her laptop home but somehow, sitting at her desk on a Friday night after 8 pm, she decided that she'd done enough. Jeanne's email came in just as she logged off. Lynn turned off her lights and locked the door behind her. The entire office was empty. The young woman left, locking the building behind her before crossing the parking lot to her Mercedes. The same brand but a slightly older and slightly less fancy model than either of the senior partner. She'd bought it three months after her promotion when Mr. Spiel had hinted at her position coming with a need to "advertise" their success. Driving to a client in an old Toyota Camry just wouldn't look good for business. Lynn had sighed and reduced her law school loan repayments to justify the extra cost. For the good of the company.

On the quiet drive home, Lynn caught herself looking up at the few stars shimmering through the city lights and pollution and other things clogging the sky. She used to know quite a few of the constellations but now all she could point out was Orion's Belt and the Big Dipper. She could see neither of those as she made her way home. She wondered what the stars looked like for Christopher but then shook herself away from the thought. It wasn't her business and, besides, stars were stars. Just points of light. Who cares what they looked like? It didn't matter to her or P&G or any of her other clients.

An hour later, Lynn pulled a small steak from her oven. Without waiting for it to cool, she sliced the meat into slivers and then dumped them into her waiting salad. Her customary glass of red wine was now a second glass. The young woman hugged the salad bowl to her chest before walking to her breakfast nook. She'd considered eating and watching television but a cursory glance at the listings showed nothing she was interested in. So, she sat. Her curtains were opened to show a view of the city around her. The moon was a bright crescent and a few stars twinkled around it.

Lynn watched cars silently move on the streets below as she ate.

People and cars moving around. Going about their own lives. Working, coming home and living whatever life they have. Going home to family or... or a breakfast nook with a salad and a glass of wine.

The young woman chewed thoughtfully as she became lost in thought. In between bites, her teeth reformed. Her canine teeth widened at the tip, losing their point until they nearly matched the premolars next to them. Chewing her steak began to take longer and longer as her incisors followed her canine teeth; thickening until they lost their edge. Lynn chewed, working the meat around her mouth with a tongue slightly thicker than before. The young woman nearly choked on the pieces of meat and she found herself following each bite with a sip of wine to help it down. As she finished her last bite, she lay back in her chair to sip her wine.

Her breasts were beginning to ache again but it wasn't as bad as before and the wine distracted her. And, yet, even with the two glasses, she found sleep still far beyond her reach. She wondered, did Christopher have a hard time falling asleep? With all the manual work he did, waking up before dawn to deal with the farm and animals and everything else, did he drink himself to sleep at night? Or, did he sit outside, watching the thousands of stars until he simply decided to sleep?

The young woman gently rubbed her lower stomach as she finished her wine. The thought of Christopher reminded her of the milk and her sleep from last night. Again, the woman stood and poured some of Christopher's handmade milk into a mug. She sat back at the nook to drink the warmed milk. Laying her head against the cool window, she watched the sky, looking for the stars that Christopher could see.

Did I watch the sky as a child? I can't even remember. Probably not. We never really lived in the country. Not like Chris. Not like him.

As with the night before, she felt her eyelids grow heavier the more she drank. The heat from the milk spread through her, calming her as it did. With a yawn, the woman made her way to her bathroom. It took a few minutes to clean off the bit of makeup she used and a few more to brush her teeth and then she stumbled off to her bedroom to tuck herself in. Sleep closed around her and, in the darkness behind her eyes, a sea of stars bloomed.

-----

Lynn woke to a mixture of warmth of coolness. Glancing at her clock, she was amazed to see that it was after 9 am. She absolutely couldn't remember the last time she'd slept past 6 am, not since college. The sun warmed her bedroom but the coldness she felt... Lynn moved, pulling her blanket away. Her sheets were soaked with a slightly sour smelling liquid and, sitting up, she saw the front of her silk shirt was also completely wet. Lynn unbuttoned her top and when it opened, a single drop of translucent liquid welled from her left nipple. Her breasts were swollen; even larger than yesterday. They nearly bulged with their fullness and she felt heat radiating from them. The ache from yesterday had returned and was worse than before. Sitting up and moving around seemed to help but the pain was palpable.

The drop of milk dripped to her lap and her eyes automatically followed its path. Her lower stomach bulged slightly. The tender area from yesterday was now distended and a darker shade of pink. Lynn rubbed the flesh and she felt again how thick it was. Thick yet smooth and it moved against her stomach as if it were a second layer of skin.

"What. The. Fuck." Lynn enunciated.