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The Legal Stuff: Bears Know Best  © 2012 By Tiffany Shar
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, Characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright  © 2012 By Tiffany Shar. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Preface
 
 
Like the first three books I posted here on BigCloset, I will be posting a full copy here on BigCloset. I will be posting it up in 28 installments, but that may change if I feel like a posting needs more. The book has a total of 35 chapters and a short epilogue. The full version should be completely posted by September. For those that cannot wait however, I have an e-book version of the full book available from Lulu.com as of today. You may find it at My Store. My assumption is that the majority of my readers would be more interested in this edition of the book rather than a hardback or paperback. There are two types of eBooks available depending on how you wish to read it. One is the ePub format that you should be able to load on any e-reader (you may need an additional app, but I believe all will read it), and the other is a standard PDF formatted file. I believe the PDF is the best way to read it on a computer screen personally. If you enjoy this work perhaps you will consider supporting me by purchasing it ($8.95 for the eBook formatted files).

Thanks again, and I hope you enjoy reading Bears Know Best!

 

Chapter 14: Discoveries

 
THE NEXT TWO mornings Alyssa and I went on rides that seemed to be getting faster and longer each time. I really liked the new bike, and appreciated her reminder to put a new spare tube in my bike bag before we headed out on Monday. Thankfully I managed to make it both days without another flat. That was just a pain! Both days Alyssa and I practiced horn together after I’d already done a couple hours. It seemed like the two of us had known each other for years by Tuesday night when she invited me to a sleepover Friday night.

I was a little nervous at first about Breanna and Danielle maybe having a little too much opportunity to learn about me, but I figured we would be safe. As it was I found myself trading text messages with the two of them pretty frequently each day. Each day I also took care of some loose ends in case I was going to stay this way. Deleting my Facebook profile was one of those first steps. I then created a new one with only my three friends from here, dad, and mom on it. If anyone in Conneaut asked I would say I just created one, and didn’t want to have any ties back home. This way Taylor Landt’s gender was female, liked males, and seemed pretty normal for a teenage girl going into high school.

Tuesday I also received some great news via a phone call from my horn teacher back in Atlanta. “Hi, Taylor?” he asked.

“Yes?” I’d answered, and was ecstatic to learn that he got me an audition with Cleveland’s principle horn player so he could evaluate me for lessons. “So Thursday?” I asked.

“That’s what he said, here’s his phone number,” he told me. “I put in a good word for you with him, and I have no doubt that your playing will speak for itself. Remember just count and stay in control of your air,” he told me in a fatherly voice.

“I’ll remember that, thanks!”

“Good luck,” he told me as we hung up on the phone call.

Unfortunately for mom that meant that she was going to have to make two trips into Cleveland now this week. Thankfully we were in a bit of a lull for her court wise, so she was able to miss the time from the office. I was so ecstatic when I told her I knew she probably would have made it happen no matter what. Tuesday night was a nervous night for me though. I’d been so worried about Wednesday that I made myself sick enough to throw up once.

Wednesday morning at nine, after a ride with Alyssa and a shower, Mom and I drove into Cleveland. I was nervous about wearing anything too girly, so I had stuck to one of my old band t-shirts and a pair of jeans that didn’t scream girl jeans too loudly with my hair pulled back into as low of a ponytail as I could manage with my new style. Of course I had a bra on, as I couldn’t think of a reason not to wear one. ‘They’re just going to make you strip at the hospital anyway,’ I thought to myself.

I was a pile of nerves as we pulled into the parking lot for The Clinic and walked into a reception area on the seventh floor. “Taylor has an appointment for this morning,” Mom told them and got me checked in. We were pulled into a hallway and into a room where I was handed a dressing gown.

“Hi Taylor,” a woman walked in a few moments later, “I’m Dr. Fitzgerald.”

“Hi,” I told her.

“Tell me about what’s been going on with you Taylor, I know what your chart says, I know what Dr. Moore has told me, and I’ve seen your past records, but I’d like to hear everything from you.” She told me.

I spent about ten minutes explaining everything, during which she took copious notes, nodding and asking questions as we went along.

“Okay Taylor, I’d like to look over you for a few minutes with a physical evaluation of my own. When we get finished with that I think it’ll be a good time to take a break for a couple hours, and I’ve scheduled a meeting for one o’clock with several of my colleagues to discuss your situation.” She told me gently.

“Okay,” I replied timidly. She proceeded to poke and prod my breasts and my lower parts, and made notes as she went. Dr. Fitzgerald drew a couple more vials of blood, and brought over another ultrasound machine.

“Sorry Taylor,” she apologized, “I know you went through this with Dr. Moore, but this machine is a little bit more advanced than the one she had. I want to make sure we have all of the data before we have our meeting with everyone.”

“It’s okay, I just wish the jelly wasn’t so… yucky,” was about all I could come up with.

She laughed, “I understand. I seem to get some of it on me once a week or so!”

Dr. Fitzgerald impressed me while she did all of her prodding and her examination with the ultrasound. She talked to me the whole time, not just about me. During the ultrasound she was kind enough to talk about what she saw, and I asked some of my own questions.

“So umm… do the ovaries… look… umm… normal?” I asked.

She laughed as ‘normal’ was kind of an odd word to use and stuck in my throat. “Yes Taylor, they do, I don’t see any lesions or cysts on the tissue, and they look like the size and appearance that would be normal… As does your uterus,” she added.

She helped me clean off the jelly after she ran a scan below too. “Why don’t you go ahead and get dressed Taylor, and I’ll explain to your mom how to get to the conference room we’re going to meet in later,” she suggested.

“Okay,” I said. When the door closed I pulled the panties from inside my pant leg where I’d hidden them. The bra was a known factor for the doctors, but I wasn’t quite ready to admit to them that I’d taken to being a girl already like a fish in water. I’d even removed my pretty nail polish that morning, and I hated doing that!

When I was dressed in my shirt, jeans, and had tied on my shoes I stood up and opened the door to find Mom waiting outside. “Well we have about two hours, why don’t we get something to eat, and then maybe go to the museum or something.” She suggested.

“Okay.”

“What do you want to eat?”

“I don’t know, what is there?”

“In this part of town?” She asked with a smile.

I nodded.

“It’s more a question of what isn’t there.” She laughed. “Little Italy is just down the road, how about something there?”

“Okay,” I said meekly. Now that I’d had my meeting with Dr. Fitzgerald I was feeling a bit more nervous. She hadn’t fully given away any of their diagnosis, but I suspected I was actually a girl. Otherwise I didn’t think she would have used the words normal to describe my ovaries… ‘My ovaries…’ talk about bizarre!

We drove down a road towards our destination and I noticed Severance Hall on the left, “That’s where the orchestra plays, right?” I asked excitedly.

“Yes it is,” she said with a smile. “This whole area is a pretty neat place. There are three universities, three major hospitals, a major art museum, the orchestra, a history museum, and a botanical garden all within this little section of town. And,” she said as she made a right turn, “right next to it is Little Italy.”

In a way it was all a bit overwhelming to see all of that in one place, but it was really neat! Mom drove down an older road that had an amazing church off to the side, and some older style buildings. She pulled into a valet spot and handed our keys to the attendant. It was a neat old restaurant that the menu said had started as a speakeasy in the early part of the 1900’s. I was amused that it said it was still owned by the same family… ‘Hmm… sounds like a crime movie!’

Lunch there was absolutely fantastic! Mom and I split a dish, and then split a tiramisu before getting back into the car. We had a good hour before we needed to be back at the hospital, so mom suggested we go to the art museum. “Not that it’s a big deal, but does it make sense to go pay admittance to this place for an hour?” I asked.

“That’s the best thing of all about this museum, it’s free. Supposedly it’s the largest free admittance museum in the country, if not one of the largest in the world.”

“Cool,” I said.

I had to laugh though when I saw parking was not free! It took the two of us ten minutes to find our way in, so we didn’t have a ton of time to look around. We flew through some parts though, and I was amazed that all of this was under one roof and free to go into! “We’ll have to come back sometime” I told mom as our time was up.

She smiled and nodded at that, and we headed to the appointment.

 
THE CONFERENCE ROOM was large, and featured a phone system speakerphone in the middle of the table. I could see a projector setup with a computer towards a screen, and several models of humans scattered about the room. Dr. Fitzgerald directed Mom and I to seats in at the center of the table, and sat across from us. Several other gentlemen, and one lady came in and took seats around us.

“Okay, I think this is everyone,” Dr. Fitzgerald said. “Let me introduce you to Taylor, and this is Ms. Redding,” he said pointing to us. The phone in the center of the table buzzed, and a second later, “Mr. Landt can you hear us?”

“Yes sir,” he said back.

“Hi Dad,” I said over the line.

“Hi Taylor,” he told me. “Hi Heather,” he said towards my mom.

“Okay, back to introductions, and for your benefit Mr. Landt, I’m Dr. Fitzgerald an internal medicine specialist, I saw Taylor earlier. With us are Dr. Gafford, a pediatric surgeon,” he said pointing to an older gentleman with graying hair, “Dr. Wilcox, an endocrinologist,” he pointed to another graying gentleman with less hair, “Dr. Wenger, a gynecologist,” an older lady was pointed out, “Dr. Canter, an anesthesiologist,” a younger gentleman, and “Dr. Jacobson, our resident psychiatrist who specializes in gender cases.” The last lady was quite pretty, but also very young still. She was easily the youngest doctor sitting around the table, but gave me a very warm and reassuring smile.

“Nice to meet you all,” I said timidly.

“Taylor, I’m sorry we’re not meeting with you a little more one-on-one for this, but I think it’s best if all of us are able to be here and answer questions and concerns as we decide what we need to do to move forward,” Dr. Jacobson told me.

“It’s okay,” I said braver than I knew I actually felt.

“Well, let’s go ahead and get right to it then,” Dr. Fitzgerald said. “Taylor, is very bright,” she told everyone around the table, “it’s probably best just to come out and say what’s going on.”

I nodded.

“Taylor, I’ve reviewed your scans, along with Dr. Wenger, and your reproductive organs seem to be completely normal and probably functional from what we can tell.”

I gasped at that — both scared and relieved, “What about my genetics?” I asked.

Dr. Wilcox handled that, “I’m not a geneticist, Dr. Ramier wasn’t able to make the meeting, but the karyotype came back interesting for you.”

‘Interesting?’ I thought to myself. Interesting in a genetic sense was not necessarily something I wanted to be.

He continued on, “You appear to have a genotype of XX like a normal girl.”

“So I am a girl?” I asked around the table.

I saw a bunch of nods, and Dr. Wilcox continued, “We think so. Dr. Ramier dug into the structure of your chromosomes a bit more though, and it appears that your second X is a little bit short on one of the legs. It’s possible that the missing information there caused the growth of what should have been a vagina into an enlarged organ that looks enough like a penis that it fooled your doctors for years,” he said.

“So just genetics?” I asked.

He nodded, but also shook his head after a moment, “There may be another factor that contributed. Ms. Redding, it says here that in your last trimester you were given a drug,” he named something I couldn’t pronounce, and at her nod continued, “the drug has been contraindicated for use during pregnancy for several years. It’s believed it may increase testosterone in the womb, and probably also helped confuse Taylor’s developing body.”

“What about Taylor’s hormones now?” My dad asked.

“Taylor’s levels are normal for a girl just entering puberty,” Dr.Wilcox said. “I see nothing hormonally out of the normal for a girl. If Taylor was genetically a boy we’d be talking about a whole other ballgame there.”

I just nodded. A comedy of biological errors had landed me in the situation I was in now.

“So what do we do now?” Mom asked.

“Well, I think the first thing is we need to get in there and do a small biopsy laparoscopically,” Dr. Wenger said. “It appears everything is functional, but I want to make sure that the tissue isn’t malignant — conditions like this have been known to be an issue that way. Also, I’d like to get an idea if Taylor is fertile or not.” She added.

“Okay, but does this mean we get rid of this extra appendage,” I asked. I’d practiced what I would call it if this was the result.

“Do you want to?” Dr. Jacobson asked.

I looked at her for a moment, but was surprised when I didn’t hesitate at responding confidently, “If I’m really a girl, yes. Absolutely!”

“Your chart shows no previous gender issues, no dressing up as a girl, or anything, are you sure you want to make this leap?” She asked.

For the first time I noticed she was sizing me up. I decided just to undo my ponytail and shook it out. “Look, I had never thought about it until Tuesday after the appointment with Dr. Moore. Since then I’ve been dressing as a girl every day and it just seemed right. It’s hard to explain, but it’s kind of like everything became clear suddenly…I was bound and determined after the last week to go on as a girl either way, now that I know that I really am a girl, genetically, I definitely don’t want to have extra parts.”

She smiled, nodding at me before saying, “I know the feeling.”

‘Huh?’ I thought to myself.

“I think we’re going to need to do something anyway,” Dr. Wenger said. “If Taylor is fertile, I’m surprised she hasn’t already been having periods. If she starts soon,” this was the first time I was called a she, and I noticed it, “then I’m concerned about how her body will deal with the discharge.”

“What would you do?” Mom asked.

Dr. Gafford spoke up, “I think that if everything comes back normal with the biopsy I would recommend what is basically a procedure to open up her vaginal canal. Her bladder connects to everything the right way, we just need to reshape some tissue to create a normal looking vagina. In Taylor’s case it amounts to minor reconstructive surgery.”

“Are you sure about all of this?” My dad spoke up for the first time.

“Mr. Landt, if we weren’t sure we wouldn’t be having this meeting,” Dr. Fitzgerald spoke up.

“When would you want to operate?” He asked.

“She’s obviously started puberty, so she could ovulate soon. If that were to happen, the discharge is indeed an issue, so I don’t think we should wait long,” Dr. Gafford said. Dr. Fitzgerald and Wenger nodded in affirmation. “I think we can do the biopsy next Tuesday, I checked and I have penciled Taylor in for an opening.”

“And the other surgery?” Dad asked.

“Well that is a more invasive procedure, maybe less so due to Taylor’s being a genetic girl, but it’s going to knock her off of her feet for a while,” Dr. Jacobson said. I was surprised that the young psychiatrist answered that question.

“I think the best thing would be to get her in the following week if possible for those reasons,” Dr. Gafford said.

They spoke at length for another thirty minutes with us about risks, the additional doctors that would have to be called in for what they were calling corrective surgery. “If we called it a true genital reassignment surgery we would not be able to do anything until you were eighteen,” Dr. Jacobson chimed in again.

“So this should be covered by insurance?” Dad asked.

“Yes, it will be.” Dr. Fitzgerald answered, “I already had our accounting and legal department go through and sort that out.”

“So tentatively let’s schedule the surgery for Monday the week after.” He said.

The people involved in the surgery all nodded and I heard Dad say, “I’ll take a flight up there and stay for a week before the training camp week starts.”

I was suddenly shaking a little bit in my head, ‘This is a major surgery, isn’t it?’ I thought to myself.

“Let’s plan a pre-op for the Friday before,” Dr. Gafford said, and my next few weeks were quickly packed in with surgery plans and some appointments to see Dr. Jacobson. She apparently wanted to make sure I was going to be doing all right for real, and we scheduled my first appointment with her to be tomorrow afternoon before my horn lesson.

There were a ton of details and paperwork that had to be filled out, birth certificate and other records to correct, and I was kind of in a stunned silence as we walked back to mom’s car. I turned my iPhone back on and saw several texts from Alyssa. I decided to tell her the minimum, and would fill her in on details when we got home. ‘Am really a girl, surgery to come,’ I told her.

‘Hug, I knew u were!’ she responded.

I smiled weakly and jumped a bit when the phone vibrated in my hand, “Hi Dad, I said just as I had finished buckling my seatbelt.”

“Taylor, I just wanted to call and make sure you were really okay after all of that,” he said.

“I’m not sure what okay is right now,” I told him honestly, “I think I’ll be happier living as a girl, but it’s kind of a bombshell to have dropped on you in the middle of the summer just before you’re supposed to be turning fourteen and starting high school…” I kind of rushed those words, and felt my eyes moisten a bit.

Mom hugged me and stroked my hair at the outburst.

“I know sweetie. Do you want me to come up there sooner?” He asked.

“No, do what you need to do, if you want to come up the weekend before and do something before I get landed in bed for a week or more, I’d be okay with that.”

Mom gave me a nod from the side that she understood. I didn’t know where she was driving, but a bit later I realized we were at the same place we’d gotten milk shakes just a week-and-a-half ago. I had just finished with Dad as she pulled in.

“Milk shake?” She asked me.

I nodded, “Thanks, that sounds good.”

We took a seat and I ordered a strawberry shake, musing that I was just as silent as the last time we were here, but for different reasons. “Are you okay?” Mom asked.

I shook my head, “Yes and no.”

“I guess I can understand that.” She replied.

“Mom I love you a lot, but there really is no way you can understand this.” I told her.

“I know you are confused about everything, and I know the pain I see in your face, and I also know I saw a smile on your face when you found out you were female. What changed?”

I stayed silent for a moment, “I’m scared.”

“The surgery?” she asked.

I nodded. “What if I go in and don’t wake up?” I asked, “What if something else goes wrong?” I was fighting back tears, I didn’t really want to cry in public here.

“They’re the best doctors in the country from what I understand,” Mom told me.

My eyebrows raised, “How do you know that?”

“We made sure of it. That’s part of why you have so many doctors. Your dad and I made sure that we went through every bit of history we could on them, and they’re good doctors. The other specialists they’re going to bring in are also some of the best. They know what they’re doing,” Mom told me. The way she said it though, I wondered if she was trying to make herself believe it as much as myself.

“I hope so,” I answered.

“Well, we’re in town now, what do you want to do?”

“Aren’t you going to need to get some work done at some point in the next few weeks at the office?”

Mom nodded, “I will, but I’ll shuffle things around. My clients and the judges will make the shuffling happen, and everything will be fine,” she assured me.

I bit my lip, which was fast becoming my nervous habit. “Could we maybe go get my ears pierced?” I asked tentatively.

“I think we could do that,” Mom said with a smile.

Milk shakes finished, we drove away towards one of the malls we had gone into last week. I steered us towards Claire’s, and within five minutes I was sporting a pair of white gold cubic zirconium earrings. I liked a pair of fake tanzanite ones that had a daisy design, but Mom was practical and suggested these would go with anything I wore for the next six weeks. I’d had to ask her about surgery with them, and she said we’d get them back in as soon as we could if they made me take them out. She was pretty sure they would though.

We wandered around the mall for a couple hours, both trying on clothes, and ended up walking out with a few more bags of clothes and shoes each. “You want to try that fondue restaurant that I told you about?” Mom asked me.

I shrugged, “Sure, but can I switch to that new dress?” I asked as we closed on an exit.

She smiled at me, “Sure, let’s duck into this bathroom.” She stood guard while I changed into the cute yellow sundress that we’d found, and switched to a pair of white sandals that we’d found to match. I checked my hair in the mirror and dug a miniature hairbrush out of my small purse to straighten it up. Being in a ponytail this morning certainly had not helped it!

I had a little bit of makeup with me in this purse, but not enough to do my face completely, so all I put on was some lip-gloss and mascara. Mom smiled at me and said, “You look fine,” sweetheart,” and led me through the doors back to our car. My jeans and the t-shirt I’d worn this morning had found a home back in the bag of purchases. The mall was practically next door to the fondue restaurant, so we were there as quick as we entered the car.

“Just you two ladies tonight?” a host asked

Mom answered, “Yes.”

“Right this way please,” he told us and led us to a small table.

I won’t describe the whole meal, and every course in detail, but it was really good! Mom and I ended up talking about a lot of different things, from makeup, to boys (whom I assured her that even once I had things fixed, they still had cooties!), to school, to my lesson the next day. I was really excited about that part, and hoped that I would be good enough to earn a spot studying with Mr. Fark on a regular basis.

“So, what are you going to wear tomorrow?” Mom asked me during the dessert course.

“For the lesson or the appointment?” I asked. Suddenly unsure what to wear!

“Calm down,” she heard the concern in my voice, “one of your sundresses?” she suggested.

I nodded, “But which one?”

“Well…”

“I mean, I’m sure Dr. Jacobson is going to think I’m a total nutcase tomorrow,” I paused, “or at least I think she’s expecting me to be a total nutcase.”

Mom giggled, “Well, you are,” she said with a smile.

“I am not,” I said with a pouting voice before sticking my tongue out at her.

“You most certainly are, but not for the reasons you’re worried about,” she told me.

“Anyways,” I said drawing out the first two syllables, “I don’t want to seem weird and trying to jump in too fast or that you’re pushing me, or…”

“Taylor, breathe,” she told me. “It’ll be okay, I guarantee you she’ll be okay with you no matter what.”

“Why?”

“She’s a good doctor, that’s why,” Mom said.

“I guess…” I said unconvinced.

The waiter, who had been awesome the whole meal, came by with the check and did the final cleanup of our table. “Come back again soon,” he said as we stood up to leave.

Mom and I visited a few more stores, but didn’t really find anything that we wanted. When we arrived home about nine that night, all I really wanted to do was take a bath and go to bed. Alyssa texted me though, as soon as she saw us drive up. “You want to come over for a bit?” she asked.

I sighed, “Mom, Alyssa wants me to come over,” I told her.

She looked at me and said, “Be back by eleven, we’re going to have to go to town about noon to make it in time for your lesson, and then the appointment afterwards.”

“I know… I probably wouldn’t even go if I didn’t owe her an explanation of what’s going on,” I told her.

Mom gave me a hug and then I grabbed my purse to head over to Alyssa’s. She met me at the door so I didn’t have to ring the doorbell, and led me upstairs to her room and we closed her bedroom door. “So what happened?” Alyssa asked both concerned and intensely curious.

“I’m a true freak,” I told her with a thin smile. I spent a half-hour telling her everything the doctors had told me.

“So you’re a girl for real?” She confirmed.

I nodded, “I just grew an extra part for some reason.”

“So you should be having periods too?” She asked.

I made a face, “Yeah, they’re saying it’s a good thing I haven’t yet though, as I don’t have a way to get rid of it right now.”

“Are they going to do surgery on that?” She asked with concern.

It was at that point that I had tears coming down my face and nodded, “I’m scared of it too. They’re supposed to do the laparoscopic thing next Tuesday to take a biopsy, and then they want to do everything the following Monday.” I was in full-blown tears then. It was different than with my mom, Alyssa was a friend and I think she understood my fear of surgery a bit more.

“It’ll be okay Taylor, I’ll come visit you!” she told me soothingly.

“Ack! And, that’s another thing, I’ll be locked in a hospital room for at least a week! What am I going to do for a week in a bed!?!?” I asked.

We heard a knock on the door just then, “Are you both okay?” Alyssa’s mom came in.

I nodded, but she was smart enough to decipher that I’d been crying.

“What’s wrong Taylor?” She asked.

I was torn now, I didn’t have a clue of what to tell her. “It’s kind of a long story,” I told her.

“I have time,” she said.

“I believe you,” I told her, “but I’m not sure you’ll look at me the same afterwards,” I told her.

“Is this about the fact that you’re a boy?” she asked.

Screech! What?

“Huh?”

“Well, I wasn’t sure at first, but about midway through dinner that first night I figured it out. You confused me a lot though when you started dressing in girls’ clothes.”

I sighed. “It’s sort of about that, but it’s not quite what you think,” I sniffled. I spent a half-hour telling her the story, and she ended up giving me a tight hug afterwards. “I’m a freak,” I told her with a smile.

“No you’re not,” she told me. “You’re a very brave young lady who’s going through a rough time.”

I nodded.

“Well, at least I don’t have to worry anymore about you and Alyssa getting up to anything!” She said somewhat jokingly.

Alyssa and I looked at each other, “Yuck!”

Her mom laughed, “You are definitely a girl Taylor. Hang in there, the surgery will be over soon and the pain and everything will just be a memory.”

“I hope so… Sorry for lying to you guys,” I told her.

“You never lied to me at all Taylor, and I never asked the question, did I?” She asked and looked at me. I shook my head, “So don’t worry about it.”

“Thanks,” I said.

“So, what are you going to do in your last two weeks of freedom?” Alyssa asked.

I shrugged, “No idea.”

“We’ll have to come up with something!” she told me.

It was at that moment that my iPhone began ringing, ‘Mom’ showed on the front of it. ‘I really need to take a picture with her!’ I yelled at myself. “Hi Mom,” I said.

“You coming home?” she asked.

I laughed, “Yes, I’ll come home now. See you in a minute.”

“I guess I’m out past when I said I would be,” I told Alyssa and her mom.

“You could stay the night,” Alyssa suggested.

“I think that would be fun, but not tonight… I think my mom needs me home,” I told her.

She nodded. Alyssa’s mom followed me downstairs and gave me a hug before watching me cross the yard to my house. When I turned around at my door she waved me goodnight, and I entered the house, locking the door behind me.

“I was beginning to think you got lost,” Mom said, already in her nightgown.

“Well, I had to update Alyssa… and then I ended up telling her mom the whole thing all over again. She found me crying with Alyssa.” I bit my lip; I hoped she wouldn’t be mad at me for telling her.

“I figured I’d have to tell her this weekend if it hadn’t come up beforehand,” Mom told me.

“Why?”

“Well, with you hanging out with Alyssa all of the time, she’d probably be concerned when you disappeared to the hospital, right?”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

We stood silently for a few minutes and I asked, “Mom, what am I going to do in the hospital all of that time?” I added, “I’m going to be beyond bored!”

“Well… we have a couple weeks to think about it sweetheart,” she told me soothingly.

“Not really, it’s less than two weeks,” I told her and found my waterworks was working just fine again.

She hugged me and soothed me for a few minutes before suggesting, “Why don’t you take a bath before you go to bed sweetie?”

“Okay,” I said.

I headed to the bathroom to get the water started, grabbed a pair of pajamas, washed my face, brushed my teeth, and then stripped and stepped into the suds. It did help to be in the water, and I must have sort of zoned out, because Mom opened the door to check on me. “Are you okay Taylor?” she asked.

I freaked out a bit that she opened the door at that point, but controlled myself. “I’m fine,” I said slipping my body underneath a pile of the remaining bubbles.

“Okay, let me know when you’re out.” She told me.

I decided that was a hint, unstopped the tub, and then dried off. I froze though as I looked at the pajamas on the counter. They were most definitely not the ones I brought in with me! ‘Mom!’ I thought annoyed. I had to smile though, she had managed to get me good here. On the counter lay the pajamas that Alyssa’s mom had bought me — the ones that made me look like I was five! They were pink with multi-colored cartoon fairies arranged all over the fabric. Their fairy wands emitted multi-colored hearts, stars, and circles. The top was a baby-doll style top with a piece of elastic that landed right below my budding breasts and the bottoms were a pair of drawstring pants.

I grumbled as I pulled on the pajamas and opened the door up. Mom was sitting in the chair in my room when I entered. She smiled at me, “You look adorable!”

I stuck my tongue out at her, “Not fair.”

She laughed. “Are you ready to call it a night?” She asked.

I nodded, “I’m not staying up any later for certain!” I told her.

She was intent on treating me like I was five obviously, because she pulled the covers open and tucked me in again like she had been, but out of nowhere she pulled out a book, ‘5 Minute Princess Stories,’ and I giggled. “Well then, how about a bedtime story?” with a grin of her own.

I gave her a big hug and said, “Please!”

She read to me a story about Belle, and I said, “Thank you Mommy,” in a sweet voice.

“Taylor, I promise you things will work out, and your fairytale ending will come someday too,” she kissed my forehead, and said “Good night princess!” and turned the lights off.

I went to sleep both nervous and feeling better about myself than I had in a long time. Tonight with Mom had been truly silly, but I went to sleep and had good dreams all night because of it.

 

I'll be traveling more this weekend without privacy so I'm posting a new chapter today. Look for the next one Monday or Tuesday! As always, comments are always appreciated, thanks for reading!