Alex heads off to find the two sabertooths, armed with the tranquilizer gun and the two remaining IV bags, and you sit down next to Lily, who's still staring at the male raptor-morph. "That's not your daddy, Lily," you say.
"Well, not yet," she says. "But he could be, right? Then I could have a mommy and a daddy."
You sigh. "It's not as simple as all that, I'm afraid." She really is a child, you muse; you remember back when you were that naive about how relationships worked.
"Why not?" she asks. "Do you think he's a bad man?"
"Well, no," you reply. "Maybe he is and maybe he isn't; we don't really know anything about him yet. But just because someone's a nice person doesn't always mean that you should marry them. You might get along fine with them as friends, but that doesn't always mean you'd be happy as a couple." And, you add to yourself, that's even more true when one of you has just switched sexes against her will.
Lily seems downcast. "Oh," she says. "Do you think I ever will have a daddy?"
You shrug. "I don't know, sweetie. We'll have to wait and see." If she really expects you to get married, things might be even more complicated than you previously thought. You're really not sure whether or not you could get used to the idea of having a man for a partner, but you hadn't really planned on being female long enough to find out. Now that you think about it, how would Lily react to her mommy suddenly becoming her daddy? Or becoming human, for that matter? If her memories really have been wiped, life as a Velociraptor-girl is all she's ever known. And wouldn't the antidote nanobots change her back to Dr. Anderson's body? You certainly wouldn't want to do that to her. You can deal with the concept of raising a raptor-girl as your daughter, you're just not sure you want to be a Velociraptor yourself, and you're still pretty set on the idea of being male again, if it's at all possible. Your thoughts are interrupted by a gasp from Lily. "Oh," she squeals, "he's waking up!"
You scoot her back, just in case he's dangerous, and watch as he begins to wake. He yawns, stretches his limbs, and attempts to sit up, his face contorting in minor pain as his tail attempts to free itself from under his body. He rolls over onto his stomach and lifts himself onto two legs, then looks at you.
"Wh-who are you?" he asks. "Did the doctor get you too?"
You nod. "Yes, but he's taken care of. Are you all right? You didn't get injured out here or anything, did you?"
He shakes his head. "No, I-" He trails off as he notices something, then looks down at his private parts, which are quite clearly mammalian and male. "I'M A GUY!?" he shrieks.
You nod. "Yeah. Welcome to the Unwillingly Sex-Changed Club, I guess." Did the Dr. Anderson do this to all his human victims?
The male raptormorph stares at you. "Then you...?"
You nod. "Yep. I used to be male. As did Alex, the raptor-girl who found you."
He shakes his head angrily. "Where's the doctor?" he seethes. "I'm going to kill him."
"Um, you can't do that," you say.
"Why not?" he snarls.
"Because," you say, then realize that maybe you don't want Lily to hear this. You lean in close and whisper in his ear. "Because that's him over there, or rather, that was him. She's had her memory wiped in an accident when we tried to figure out how to change back, and she's just a normal little girl now."
He stares at you. "You're sure? It's not just a trick?"
"Very sure," you reply.
He sighs. "Great. Not only can't I get my revenge, I probably can't even put him in prison like I was supposed to. I come all this way just to have my life turned upside-down and have nothing to show for it."
"Put him in prison?" you ask.
He nods. "I guess I haven't introduced myself. Jeanette Sanders, FBI. I was investigating the disappearance of a young couple in this area, and when I had Dr. Anderson's property under surveillance, I began to figure out what he was doing. I put two and two together, and figured that he had something to do with their disappearance. Unfortunately, he caught me, drugged me up with a tranquilizer dart, and did this to me. Er, as much of this as you didn't just do, that is. I've been out here for nearly two weeks now. I just hope I didn't...hope I didn't eat anyone. None of the animals I caught seemed especially intelligent, but I really don't know..."
You shake your head. "Don't worry. Alex and I looked through the doctor's records, and the only other former humans were the two sabertooths she's off trying to find. I'm wiling to bet that they're your missing couple."
He sighs, relieved. "That's good. It'd be bad enough to have accidentally killed an innocent person, but to have eaten them? I don't think I could live with that. It's going to be bad enough having to live as this, without any guilt on my part."
You shrug. "You may not have to, or at least that's what Alex and I are hoping. The nanobots the doctor used have kept us from changing back fully, but Alex has some ideas as to how they can be neutralized."
"Well, let's hope," he says. "I don't know about you, but I'm finding this all terribly awkward."