Chapter 25
Epilogue
I LOOKED DOWN at the screen and continued manipulating the controls until I reached the planned zone. “Clear! Activating,” I said as I pressed a button on the controls and then began backing out the endoscope like device. Another screen showed the progress of the nanites repairing the intestines where a tumor had lodged on the intestines of the young five-year-old girl. The nanites went to town destroying the bad cells, and then rebuilt her intestinal wall to the way it should be. The excess material of cancerous cells was broken down into a fluid that her immune system would clear.
In a matter of minutes, the large tumor gone, I used a small pink princess Band-Aid to cover the remnants of the incision. I smiled knowing even that incision would disappear in half an hour. Even though it was unnecessary, I’d found that leaving a little cute souvenir bandaid for a patient helped reassure the that I had fixed their problem! I watched her vitals for a moment longer to make sure we were done before telling the nurses, “Okay, looks like we’re good. Go ahead and get her down to recovery please. I’m going to go talk to her parents and let her know she’s okay.”
“Not yet you’re not…” said a young nurse that I’d always remember from her giggling gleefully at the idiot nurse the day of the terrorist strike. I’d long ago learned her name was Haley Simmerson
“Why not?” I looked up at her.
“You need a change first,” she told me.
“Ugh… come on, let’s get it done quickly please…” I told her.
“Sure thing, Doc,” she told me. I followed her to a small room that was near the operating theaters that had been converted into a changing room for me. She lifted me onto the table and said, “You know, you’re one stinky doctor!” She pulled my scrub pants down and lifted me off of the messy diaper. “One of these days your mommy needs to potty train you!”
“I tried…” I told her as she wiped between my cheeks, “but even when we had me making it most of the time, I needed to move too fast to make it… I couldn’t chance that in surgery.”
“So, you just decided your pants make the best potty?”
I sighed, “Don’t they?”
She laughed. Haley finished changing me, “For you, maybe… It’s a good thing you have a mommy already, I would totally have adopted you myself by now.”
I blushed, “I can think of worse mommies actually.” I told her, “But my mommy and I are happy together,” I added.
“Then I’m happy being your favorite nurse and part-time babysitter!” she laughed and tickled me for a second before pulling my pants back up. The diaper was placed in a disposal and I was on my feet. I stopped via a quick hand wash station that had been modified for my short height.
“Mrs. Abernathy?” I said as I walked out to the waiting room where the young mother waited.
“Yes, Doc? Is she okay?”
“Everything went great! You’ll be able to go back with her in recovery in just a few minutes once they get her settled in there.”
“Oh, thank you Doc!” She said and wrapped her arms around me.
“You’re very welcome,” I told her as I managed to step away from her a moment later.
“I was concerned at first about a little being a surgeon… but then I found out you are the best there is for kids.”
“I just do the best I can,” I told her with a smile. “I’ve got to get going. I’ll check in on you two later this afternoon.”
I looked at my watch and saw that I had an hour for a break before my next appointment. I walked down to a familiar elevator. A nurse was in the elevator asked, “Hi Doc, what floor?”
“Thirty-five please,” I told her.
“Going up to see the boss?”
“Figure I’ll try and pull her away for lunch,” I told her.
“She is a bit of a workaholic at times, isn’t she?”
“Sometimes,” I agreed with a smile.
She stepped out at a lower floor and the elevator continued to the top floor where Ivy’s office was. Several business office personnel gave me friendly greetings as I drew nearer her office. Her secretary, Trisha, greeted me, “Hey Doc, here to see Ivy?”
I nodded, “She free?”
“For you she always is,” she reminded me for probably the thousandth time, “but she just had her last meeting end. Here for lunch I’m guessing?”
“Yep,” I told her and went through the door she opened for me.
“Hi Princess,” she told me with a smile.
“Lunch?” I asked.
“Sure, let me just grab my bag…” she told me.
‘My bag?’ I thought with a shake of my head… Sure she had her wallet and keys in there, but the majority of it was still made up of diapers and baby gear for me. I sighed and followed her down the hallway at practically a jog to keep up. We had decided early on that it was a better idea for her not to carry one of her surgeons around… ‘Lead by example,’ she told me. So, during working hours she was Ivy, and I was Holly. The only concession to her babying me was the obligatory diaper changes around lunch time.
Down in the dining area we picked up food from differing areas. She got her salad, while I went for the stir-fry station. I’d built up a good relationship with the cook there. Once he had seen that I loved spicy food, he never had any problems getting enough spice to satisfy me. I giggled as I walked to our usual table thinking about the time Macey had tried to say, ’it can’t be that spicy if a little can eat it…’ It brought a smile to my face every time I thought of her teary face and her rush for something to help take the edge off!
‘She’s a tough one to deal with sometimes,’ I thought to myself. She was one of those amazon nurses that strongly felt I should be at the daycare - even after a year and a half of building my solid reputation. Luckily, I had Haley, Kat, and several other nurses that I had impressed who flew cover for me with her and the two other problem nurses. Having my ‘mommy’ be the CEO of the hospital didn’t hurt either!
I let Ivy help me into the booster seat that I sat in for lunch and began carefully eating. “How’d that little girl’s procedure go?”
“Which one? I had four this morning?”
“The tumor?”
“She’s going to be just fine!” I said with a smile, “Even after all this time I’m still amazed every time that those nanites can take care of getting rid of those so easily!”
“I still can’t believe what you do in your dimension, still trying to do it by… cooking organs with radiation is just so…”
“Barbaric?” I asked with a laugh. “Well I did come here to learn for a reason.”
She smiled back at me then. “What do you have planned for the rest of the afternoon?”
“Six pre-consults… rounds with this morning’s patients… should be done by about three?”
“Good, remember come straight to my office - we’re taking off early today.”
“Why?” I asked.
“If you have to ask, I’m certainly not telling you,” she told me with a smile.
I glared at her but it did no good. ‘What is so special about today?’ I thought, racking my brain. ‘I’ve never been good about calendar dates…’
I shook my head, “I’ll be there.”
A few hours later I was in the last of my pre-surgery consults. The patient was a thirty-year-old adult little woman who was dealing with some rather large ovarian cysts. I’d reviewed the case before coming in that morning like I always did, and couldn’t help but wonder what this set of parents was going to want.
I grabbed onto the special door handle that had been attached on the four consultation rooms that I used in the hospital. I paused for just a moment to gird myself for the parent encounter I had a bad gut feeling about.
“Hello, I’m Doctor Nickerson,” I said as I walked in. The large amazon woman that looked shocked at my presence. “Everyone here calls me Doc,” I said to the little girl who was sitting on the short table that I had added to my rooms.
“You’re a little?!?” She said, “Littles can’t be doctors?!? Go get your mommy in here little girl! It’s cute to play dress up, but you need to be with your mommy!”
I sighed, “Miss…” I looked at the chart again, “Beale, I am a doctor. I am in fact the best surgeon in this hospital for pediatric and little patients. You specifically requested the best, right?”
“Wha…” she tried to backpedal. “You’re lying, right?”
I pressed a little panic button I carried and Haley was there a moment later. “Need something Doc?” She asked me when she came in.
“Keep an eye on the mother? Maybe get her to believe I’m as good as I say I am?” I laughed and turned to the little who was a few inches shorter than me. “Hi, I’m Holly,” I told her and held my hand out.
“Je… Jenny,” she said. I could see she still had her teeth, and it looked like she could walk, so her mom at least wasn’t one of the extreme cases.
“It’s nice to meet you Jenny! I’m sorry it’s under these circumstances.” I pulled up my tablet and a copy of her scan, “Okay, so it looks like you have two cysts on your ovaries that are showing large amounts of fluid retention inside…”
“They hurt,” she said with tears in her eyes.
“I’m sorry Jenny, I know that they do,” I told her. “You’re not my first patient with them,” I told her reassuringly. “Now it says here that you’ve been dealing with them for the past three months?”
“Uh-huh,” she told me.
“We’ve tried everything medication wise,” her ‘mother’ said.
“I see that… and it looks like your primary pediatric physician referred her to me to remove them.”
“I asked for the best…” the mom confirmed. She looked at Haley, “You’re really sure she’s the best?”
“By far she is… I always hate when parents decide to throw a fit to keep her from working on their children. Too often they regret it later.”
“Have you ever lost a patient?” The little woman asked me.
I looked at her, “I believe in honesty, so I’ll tell you yes I have. That was in my old dimension and we didn’t have the technology we have here though!”
She smiled, “So I’ll be fine?”
“You’ll go to sleep and we’ll get in there and remove the cysts with nanites,” I showed her a video of them working on another cyst as a stock run of the procedure. “You won’t feel a thing. It’s really a very simple procedure!”
“You’re just removing the cysts?” the mother asked. “I wanted the ovaries removed too…”
“Then you’ll need to find another doctor,” I told her.
“What?!?” She asked, “It’s no different of a procedure?”
“It’s an entirely different procedure. One is necessary and therapeutic in nature, the other would forever keep her from being able to have kids.”
“She’s my baby, there’s no way I’ll let her do that…”
I sighed, “I have a slot open for her surgery next Tuesday. If you want her full ovaries removed, you’ll need to find another hospital. I’ll lodge my report and we’ll note that you’ve refused care.”
“You can’t…”
“We don’t do those procedures at this hospital anymore,” I told her.
“But…”
“Also, I will have to lodge a report with Little Protective Services just to make sure you do get her care. If you leave her in this pain they will have to act on negligence.”
“Fine!” She huffed, “We’ll go to another hospital!”
“Mommy?” The little woman said.
“What?”
“Please let her do it?”
“But if we do the other way, you’ll never have to worry about yucky periods again…”
“Please Mommy?” The little girl begged with tears down her face. She had the cute baby girl face down perfectly!
She sighed, “Fine, what time do we need to be here Tuesday?”
“This packet has the full information,” I said, handing her a stack of forms. You need to complete the top stack that’s clipped together today and turn it in at the registration desk along with your payment.” I looked at my tablet again, “There will also be a prescription for some pain and anti-inflammation meds downstairs when you’re finished to get her through. She has to be completely off of them for 24 hours beforehand though,” I looked apologetically at the little girl.
“That’s fine…”
“No fluids other than water sixteen hours before too.”
“No breastmilk?” she asked concerned.
I shook my head, “We need her to be only on clear fluids. Breast milk leaves too much in the body still,” I told her. “It’s actually better if it's longer than that, but we can make that length work.”
“Anything else we need to know?” She asked.
“Just make sure you bring a comfortable set of pajamas to take her home in. Extra diapers of her brand are always a good idea since the hospital selection isn’t great. Pacifier, bottle, blankie, and her favorite stuffie are nice touches for most of my patients. All of that is on the packing list in there. We won’t need her overnight though, so she’ll be able to go home about two hours or so after the procedure.”
“Thanks Doc…” the mom said and I followed her out the door and left down the hallway.
Haley caught up with me a moment later, “Should have known she’d be one of those…”
“They’re all one of those!” I told her with a giggle.
“Not all of them…” she told me. “Some of them pick you up before I get in there!”
I groaned thinking of a couple of them. The worst had been the one that had insisted she needed to look for my mommy after she forced me to nurse me from her breasts. I’d been really annoyed at that one and through the legal department forced her to get checked for infectious diseases…
I was soon in front of Ivy’s office again and made my way in as she was packing up. “All done for the day?” She asked.
“Yeah… sorry I’m running a bit slow. I had one of those mommies and had to finish up my rounds.”
She laughed, “At least you’re still in one piece. Is she letting you do the procedure?”
“Thankfully for the poor girl. Her ‘mommy’ wanted me to do a hysterectomy while I was removing an ovarian cyst…”
She sighed, “Well, at least you have backup from the CEO on those procedures not happening here.”
I smiled, “Yes I do! Thank you for that!”
I followed her down the hallway thinking about how much she had actually impacted this hospital in particular. At first things had continued along on status quo, but due to some reports that came to light she was able to move forward to more humane treatments of our little patients. Apparently that past fall one of the other pediatric surgeons had been maintaining something… best described as a little mill… that had resulted in a massive scandal at the University Hospital. About the time that Ivy took over the reports were just really finalizing and coming out from the police.
Here at General I had been worried Ivy would lose her job just as collateral damage from the report, but she hadn’t really been there that long on top – and it had taken place long before she took over. It also helped that it had been at the other hospital campus! The fallout let her have an excuse to implement some ‘anti-disfiguring’ policies. They forbid elective procedures on littles to remove teeth, the ability to walk, remove reproductive organs, etc. Little Rights Activist groups had cheered her decisions. Combining that with a great surgical team, the hospital was getting renowned as one of the best out there for pediatric care - and particularly little care.
When we reached Ivy’s car Doc left, and Holly surfaced. “Let’s get that soggy bottom changed,” she told me in a sing song voice.
She laid me down on the floor of the back of the SUV and quickly pulled down the scrub bottoms and changed me into a dry diaper. My top was off next and she produced a purple romper that she quickly dressed me in. Placing me into my car seat, a pacifier was pushed between my lips and I suckled on it contentedly. I looked at the electronic screen that soon showed the streets as she drove home.
A couple hours later I was dressed in a surprisingly mature dress, that wouldn’t have seemed out of place on a teenager if I had boobs. Several times I had debated about doing a nanite procedure on myself to induce puberty and grow my breasts. Having seen so many littles that had them though… I decided it didn’t make any difference in how bigs saw us. They almost all ended up in diapers anyway, and it wasn’t like I had met anyone who I wanted to have kids with yet. I still had enough of my male brain left that being with a man sounded weird… and women weren’t really on the menu either. I theorized my non-existent sexual urges had to do with the lack of hormones, but I was too chicken to experiment on myself. Really, I was content to just be with Ivy at this point.
I followed behind her into a very fancy restaurant still wondering what was going on. Her parents, Jonah and Janice, along with their baby boy sat along one side of a big table. On the other side Haley and her boyfriend were all sitting next to an empty chair and one with a booster seat on it. “What’s going on?” I asked again.
“It’s your birthday,” she said with a smile.
“No, it’s no… Oh… it’s my arrival day?”
“Now she gets it!” Haley said as I was placed in the booster seat next to her. Ivy sat next to me on the other side.
The dinner was a good one and I enjoyed being treated like a young woman rather than a baby. That had become more common after the terrorist incident, but we still went on like ‘normal’ much of the time outside of office hours too. I looked at Janice who smiled at me from where she was breastfeeding their one-year old son. I was so happy that after Katie’s spanking, Jonah had woken up and re-potty-trained Janice. Six weeks of therapy later she became his wife again with only occasional daytime accidents that she handled with her Pull-Ups. She’d confided in me that every night Jonah still had to diaper her since she was never dry at night, and the Pull-Ups leaked. Apparently, it had become an excuse for some extra attention though, so she didn’t mind much!
I was grateful that Katie wasn’t there right then… she hadn’t gotten any better! I had learned later she was heavily involved with that school ‘Tippy Toes’ that had caused the former terrorist leader to break. A year after that nightmare, some disturbing reports had come to light and Tippy Toes had been raided by the police and LPS. Jonah’s SWAT team had led the raid, and he still couldn’t bring himself to talk about it to anyone! Luckily for Katie there was no direct evidence of her involvement, but many littles I had as patients didn’t have anything good to say about her!
After we finished eating, a cake with a large number two candle on top of it was brought out and placed in front of me. The cake was decorated in the theme of a children's show about a girl doctor that was geared towards toddlers. I groaned but said, “Thanks…”
They sang a weird version of happy birthday to me that was common in that dimension, and I blew out the candle. It was a fun night with gifts for both adult me… and baby me. The dichotomy had been weird for a long time, but I admitted to Ivy after a few months that I really did love the attention that she gave me. The biggest concession to my ‘adulthood’ was that I only nursed at night now on weekdays. On weekends I nursed three times a day - but to try and avoid having too many poopy diapers while I was doing procedures, or meeting with patients, we tried to avoid it too much on weekdays. Usually by Friday I even felt like I had some control over my bowels again… just in time to lose it on Saturdays!
“Here,” Ivy said handing me one last gift, a simple card.
I opened it and read the message from her.
Holly/Nick,
I made a deal with you two years ago, that you’d have a choice to go back home or stay here. I honor that choice tonight! If you wish it, tomorrow I will drive you to the portal station. There I have arranged for permits and a ticket to transport you back home, along with legal assurances that they will get you there. Portal Relocations on your side will have your car and money for you as per the agreement. They will also provide you documentation for your female identity.
If, however you would choose to stay, I would forever love you as both my little ‘Doc’ and ‘Princess.’ I hope we can continue to be happy.
Love,
Ivy
My eyes were filled with tears as I looked at the tickets behind the letter in the card. I shook my head, “No, I’m staying Mommy,” I told her.
“But…”
I turned towards her, “But nothing… Nothing, that’s what I have back there. Here I have you, friends like Haley, and so many more things. Put it in your will if you want that if something happens to you that is to be my option… but I don’t want to leave you… ever…” I said and held my hands out to her.
She picked me up and held me, hugging me, “I don’t want you to leave either. You can be my sweet baby girl forever!”
“I love you Mommy,” I told her.
“I love you too,” she told me.
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Well this concludes this tale! I hope you have enjoyed it! Please consider leaving me a comment to let me know what you think! I'll begin posting my final novel that's not on here yet Sunday.
Thanks again for reading!!!
