Looking Forward

Wednesday night I sat in Dr. Francis's office. It had been four months since Zoe had showed up, and had been four months since I had started living as Zoe. This meeting was a little different as both mom and dad were in attendance. Well, Dad would have been here if he hadn't been sent to the Seattle office. We made use of face time once again for this meeting.

"Good Evening." Emily said. "I know that I've been having meetings one on one with Zoe, but this one is one that I want to bring up. I think that it may be time, with the permission of both of you, to start Zoe on hormones." Mom and dad shared a glance, well as best as they could over a video conference... Mom let dad speak first.

"Is your plan to redirect Zoe's puberty into one that will fit with how she's presenting?" Emily looked at the MacBook Air and nodded.

"Yes, it is, Tom." She looked at me, smiled and then back at the computer. "Zoe's at the perfect age to do this, and do it right. Even if she never goes though with the surgery, this is who she is and to let her body dictate which puberty she goes through would be detrimental to what we've already accomplished."

"When do you plan to start the hormones?" Mom asked.

"As soon as I get Zoe's blood work back so I know where to start. If I send it in tomorrow, I should get the results by Tuesday, and I can get everything together by the time I see Zoe Wednesday night. I need the permission in writing, I have a physical form for Katherine to sign, How do I get something for you to sign?"

"Do you have a PDF copy of the page?" Emily furrowed her brow and then walked over to her computer and started clicking. Mom picked up the form and signed it. Dad nodded on the monitor.

"Yep. You want me to email it to you?" Emily said.

"Yes please, the address is [email protected]." Dad picked up his iPad. Twenty seconds later, it made the sound that said he had a new email. He tapped the screen a few times, scribbled with his finger, tapped a few more times and then looked at the camera on his laptop. "Check you email." Emily nodded and then I heard the printer fire up. She pulled the paper off of it, and then sat it on the one that mom had signed. I saw that what dad had done was to sign the paper using his iPad.

"Ok, Zoe, I'm going to draw three vials of blood." I looked at her.

"Why three?"

"To make sure the data they get is consistent. " Emily said. "They don't like to just give you results on one vial..."

"Oh." Having had blood taken before, I knew what she was going to do, and pushed my left sleeve up as far as I could. Emily smiled and opened a drawer out of what appeared to be a solid wall. She pulled out a small box, which she carried over to the table.

#
Mom pulled her car in the garage, next to dads. He had Riley's dad run him to the airport so that he could catch his flight to Seattle. Mom patted my leg and we got out of the car and headed into the house. I knew that Heather was home, as mom's phone had told us that while we were on our way to my doctors appointment. When we walked into the house the smell of dinner cooking was really nice. Heather stood at the stove finishing what smelled and looked like some form of hamburger helper. The table was already set, and Heather turned and looked at the two of us.

"Zoe, dad said they drew blood, so this should help get your blood sugar and iron levels back up." She smiled. "Go take off your coats and come back in and have a seat. I'm Heather, and I'll be your host tonight..." She chuckled. Mom and I looked at each other and shrugged. I slipped off my coat and hung it in the closet, and then hung mom's up as well. Mom and I went back into the kitchen where Heather was just getting ready to put the food on our plates. We ate and then Heather cleared the dishes so I could go work on my homework. It was seven thirty and I usually had my homework done by now. I went up to my room, and knocked out my homework.

#
I looked at the clock as my phone rang, shocked to see that the time was now ten minutes after nine. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the caller was Riley, complete with a picture of her smiling face.

"Hello?" I said into the phone.

"Hello. I was wondering how your appointment went?" Riley said. I could hear a smile in her voice. This was a common question on nights that I had appointments with Emily.

"It went well. Emily drew blood to have some blood work done." I replied, saving the document I had open on the computer and closing the lid. I moved over to my bed.

"She drew blood, why?"

"To check my current hormone levels. Mom and dad signed off on me getting hormones tonight."

"How? Your dad is in Seattle."

"He can do something with his iPad and fill out PDF forms and sign then and send them back. That's what he did."

"Oh. Silly question, what were you planning on wearing to school tomorrow?"

"I was going to figure that out in the morning, why?"

"Would you wear your grey sweater dress for me?" I briefly pondered this. I hadn't worn it to school yet, so this would give a chance for some people that hadn't seen me wearing it to see me in it.

"I can. What were you planning on wearing?"

"My pink sweater dress. I haven't worn it to school yet..." she said.

"Ok. I can do that. Who is taking us to school?"

"I think it's your mom's turn in the rotation." The only time when the rotation was screwed up was when dad had to go somewhere for work.

"It is?" I asked. "Are you sure it's not my dad's turn?" Sometimes when dad was out on business, mom would take his place driving even if it became two days in a row.

"Doesn't matter if it is, he's not here, silly." Riley said, with a giggle.

"This is true." I said to her. "I wish I could see your face, even if it is only to tell you good night." I could have sworn I heard Riley blush.

"Zoe, that was sweet. I wish I could see you too." Through the phone, I heard her mom's voice in the background. "Riley, it's bed time..." and then I heard Riley's voice again. "I have to go. I'll see you in the morning. Goodnight Zoe and don't think of me too much until you see me." Now it was my turn to blush.

"Good night Riley. I'll see you tomorrow and I'm pretty sure that my dreams will be filled with you." I said to her, and then waited for the call to disconnect.