It was late the next morning when Steven awoke, the uncomfortable sensations from sleeping on her breasts quickly squashing any hopes that this had all been a dream. With this revelation out of the way with minimal shock, Steven felt a lot calmer than she thought she probably should.
Stretching and getting up, she looked for any clothes that might fit her new body. But there really wasn't much; the T-shirts and jeans were too loose in some areas and too tight in others, and it was still too warm out for sweats, so she gave up and went downstairs in the tiger-skin two-piece her abductors had left her with.
Her mother was making breakfast; she could smell the frying sausages even before she got in the kitchen, and the scrambled eggs looked pretty good, too. She poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down at the kitchen table, staring out at the farm. It was a beautiful place; a stretch of gently rolling grassland surrounded by woods.
They hadn't actually farmed it since her dad had died, and even then it was more of a hobby farm compared to the full-fledged small dairy her grandfather had run, but Steven's mom couldn't bear to part with it, and property taxes this far out in the sticks were low, so they had kept the land, leasing haying rights to a nearby larger farm, which covered the taxes with a little on the side. Steven herself sometimes wished she lived closer to the city, but considering her current situation, she was glad for a little peace and quiet.
Her mother set a plate of eggs, sausages, and toast in front of her, interrupting her reverie. "Feel like eating?" she asked.
Steven nodded. "I'm actually pretty hungry, yeah."
Her mother smiled. "Well, that's encouraging, at least. Eat up, and if you're still hungry I'll make more."
For a while, the only sounds were those of mother and daughter eating breakfast and the distant drone of a DNR fire-watch plane. Eventually, as Steven was sipping the last of her coffee, her mother spoke. "You don't look like you slept well," she said.
Steven shook her head. "I slept well enough when I actually got to sleep. It's just...well, I went to bed around midnight, and I spent God knows how many hours trying to sleep while worrying that every little noise was..." She trailed off, tears beginning to well up in her eyes.
"I understand," her mother said, placing her hand on Steven's. "It must have been pretty awful for you. But if they were coming back, I expect they would've returned by now."
"Y-you think s-so?" Steven sniffled. Her mother nodded. "Yes. So the question is, what do we do now? There are a few different options I can think of, but the choice is up to you."
"I want to be me again!" Steven blurted out. Her mother sadly shook her head. "We can look into it if you want, but...well, those surgeries really don't do a very good job in the first place, and I'm no doctor, but I expect they require a lot of donor blood and tissue, and since you're not even a normal human anymore, I wouldn't get your hopes up for anything matching you."
Steven began to cry, and her mother scooted over next to her and put an arm around her shoulder. "Like I said," she said, "we can see if that's an option, I just...well, I don't want you to get your hopes too set on something that might not work out. And I want you to know that even if you're stuck like this, you're still my child as far as I'm concerned. Okay?"
Still crying, Steven nodded. Her mother smiled. "Good. Now let's talk about our other options."