Rick opened his eyes again but instead of seeing his lab he saw Annabelle in the doorway. He blinked a few times but Annabelle remained there looking as solid as she had before. "This isn't real" Rick said. "This isn't real, this isn't real, this isn't real."
Annabelle came over and sat down on the bed next to Rick. She began stroking his hair and said in a soft soothing voice "This is real Gabriela. You are an eight year old girl now."
"No" Rick said in a barely audible voice.
"I know that this is a shock to you" Annabelle said in that same soft voice. "You went from a thirty-nine year old man to an eight year old girl. It defies your logic."
"It does" Rick said in the same barely audible voice.
"You know, sometimes logic has to be thrown out the window" Annabelle said still speaking softly. "Take water for example. Logically it would shrink like other materials when it freezes but it does the exact opposite. It defies the accepted logic of what happens when it's molecules slow down. You can understand that can't you?"
"I guess" Rick said in a confused voice.
"So if water doesn't follow the same logic as other materials is it so hard to think that there are other things that don't follow the same logic?" Annabelle asked softly.
"I... I guess so" Rick said still confused. "How... how did I become a girl?"
Annabelle smiled and said "I am a shapeshifter and I can extend the field that's around me over someone else and change them too. Unfortunately this produces intense pain in the person I'm shifting. Though now that you are my daughter you can shift too. It will still be painful but it will not be as intense as you felt before. I'll teach you how but right now you are still too weak to learn."
"Why... why did you choose me to be your daughter?" Rick asked.
Annabelle stroked Rick's hair again and said "Because you were the one that called to us with the pink fog."
"Where... where am I?" Rick asked.
"In your room across the country from where you lived before" Annabelle said. "No more questions for now. We need to get you dressed."
Annabelle got up and pulled out some clothes for Rick and soon he was dressed in a pink shirt, pink panties, a ruffled denim skirt, and brown sandals. Annabelle smiled and said "I bet you're hungry. Lets go down and get some breakfast."