Steven's mother sighed. "Well, I guess that doesn't leave us much choice. But isn't there anything you can do to explain this away besides pretending that Steven actually is gender dysphoric? There can still be a lot of social stigma attached to that."
"Mom!" Steven gasped. "You don't seriously mean I should stay like this!"
Her mother shrugged. "Well, dear, I don't see any other options at present. We can look for a way to change you back, but for the time being I think you're just going to have to live with this."
Agent Fields nodded. "I'm afraid your mother's right, kid. If there is a way to change you back, it could take you a long time to find it. Now, as for an alternate explanation, if we make it a mysterious medical condition, then, to Joe Public, it becomes something that happened to him, rather than something he chose, which I think is going to be your best bet for reducing stigma."
Agent Thomson nodded. "Most of the outwardly evident changes can be explained as real-world medical symptoms, such as gynecomastia; we'll attribute these to long-term exposure to drinking water contaminated with chemicals similar to estrogen. The horns, as Agent Fields noted, can be explained as papillomae. I'll have to ask the boys back at the lab how to explain the hair, but I'm thinking it'll be something similar to argyria, also 'caused' by drinking-water contamination."
"And people will believe that?" Steven's mother asked, incredulous. Fields nodded. "People will believe pretty much anything if you make it sound official enough. It's something we count on in this business. And our agency will take care of 'documentation' of this contamination and 'recording' of its effects, in case people get too nosy."
"I can't thank you enough for your help," Steven's mother said. "I don't know what we'd have done trying to figure this out on our own."
Fields nodded. "I'm only sorry we didn't get here in time to prevent this," he said. "We'll be getting in touch with you once the higher-ups hash out the final version of the explanation." With that, the two men returned to their car and left.
Steven and her mother stood there for a while, saying nothing. "Well," her mother said, finally, "I suppose we had better buy some clothes that fit you. Even if you are going to be holed up in the house for a while, you can't wear that same bikini every day."