Dr. Pratt’s Support Group:
Piper looks around at the people sitting in the support group. She was sitting in a chair between a young teenage boy her age who was a femboy. He went to a different high school from her. On Piper’s right sat another person in their late twenties, dressed as a normal young woman. The only way you could tell the person wasn’t a woman was from her facial features.
The person was wearing so much makeup that it was caked on. No normal woman would wear so much makeup. Sitting next to her was a mixed couple: boyfriend and girlfriend. The boyfriend was a female-to-male person who already had her breasts removed and sculpted to resemble a male’s chest.
Her girlfriend was a male-to-female transgender person and was Asian. She looked pretty good and had some surgery to appear more feminine. She even had breast surgery and was on the big side.
The other person in the group was an African American post office worker. He was a female-to-male transgender person. He was sitting close to Dr. Pratt.
On the other side of Dr. Pratt was a male-to-female who looked to be a little older than the others in the group. The woman looked like she had already had some surgery to blend in with the crowd. Piper learns that the woman started transitioning around the same time Piper did. But the woman didn’t live in this city until recently and found the new laws that were passed to be a bother.
During the meeting, Piper shares what she is experiencing and how frustrating it is. She couldn’t even go to a gynecologist because they would have to inform the director of the group home she was in, and how do you explain why a girl with a penis is there? She looks at everyone present.
Yua looks at Piper: “You actually have a fully developed female reproductive system?”
Piper looks towards Yua. “Yes, when I had my testicles removed due to cancer, the doctor I was taken to discovered I was born with both
reproductive organs of both genders. So, after my male organs were removed, my female organs started working. I just recently started having a period.”
“How is that possible?” Carol looks at Piper. She was the older woman wearing too much makeup.
“It seemed that my body just jump-started the organs. It’s a pain in the ass because during my time of the month, my menstrual blood comes out. Well, you know where.”
“Do the people at the group home know about your situation?” Thomas looks at Piper when he asks her that question.
“Yes, but because of the new laws. I can’t be transferred to a female group home or treated without special permission from the group home's director. As far as the state is concerned, I’m male because of what is between my legs, and not by what my body is doing.” Piper was getting tired of living a lie.
“Damn! That does suck.” Richard, the postal guy, looks at Piper with sympathy in his eyes.
“Yes, it does.” Piper hated hiding what she was.
“How do you hide what you are at school?” Quinn turns in his seat to look at Piper, since they were both the same age.
“At school I dress and act like a boy. Even when I have gym class, I bind my breasts, so I have a flat chest and have to meet all the standards for boys.”
“That has to be hard on you.” Quinn knew it was hard for him to hide how he felt. However, a small group of girls who knew him protected him from some of the bullies.
“Does anyone at your school know about you?” Thomas looks at Piper when he asks the question.
“No, sure, some people suspect I’m hiding something, but they don’t know the truth.” Piper has heard the rumors about her in school.
Some of the rumors said she was gay. Others suggested that because she lived in a group home, she hurt someone or was a thief. No one really knew the truth about her because she transferred in the middle of the year.
The meeting continues for a while. After the meeting, some of the people get together and go out for an early dinner. Piper doesn’t join them. Because where they were going, people there knew her.
Instead of joining the others for dinner, Piper heads to work to help out in the kitchen and bus tables, rather than washing them. She has helped out before as a busboy. She makes sure any tip money left behind is given to the waitress who worked that table.
Piper enjoyed talking to others like herself. Some of the others at the meeting have had it almost as difficult as she has. Some of them lost their jobs or got weird looks from people. Some have even been bullied or lost their jobs.
After work, Piper takes a little longer to get back to the group home. She wasn’t in a hurry to get home, so she was taking it easy. At the same time, Piper was biking home and being careful. She feels something hit her in her back several times. She leans on a nearby truck as a hot, wet feeling spreads down her back.
The driver of the truck Piper was leaning against came out of the store he had gone into. He spots a person leaning against the front of his truck.
“Hey, get away from my truck.”
Hick spots a person wearing a bright blue ski suit with reflective straps, leaning against the front of his truck. The person looked slumped over the fender of his truck, and there were three red spots on the person's back.
He walked over to the person and saw they were sitting on a female mountain. The bicycle was leaning against his truck, supporting the person on the bicycle. He pulls his cell phone out and dials 911. He lets the operator know about the person slumped over the fender of his truck.
Several people had stopped to see what was going on. Hick doesn’t touch the person and tries to keep people away until the police show up. Once the police show up, they secure the crime scene and keep the crowd back. Once the paramedics arrive, they check Piper over.
Officer Lupe Sterling was on her way back to the police station when she heard about a shooting victim over on Slate Street. The description of the person and the bicycle reminded her of the one Piper Welch owned. The same one her uncle fixed for Piper. She turns on her lights and heads over to Slate Street.
When she arrived, there was a crowd. She makes her way through the crowd and spots the bicycle and the paramedics working on Piper, trying to stabilize her. Officer Sterling makes her way to a nearby officer she knows. “What happened to Piper?”
Officer Crooks looks at Officer Sterling: “You know the victim?”
“Yeah, her name is Piper Welch, and she is a transgender person.” Officer Sterling didn’t know Piper was a true female.
“You better let Moore know, because this might be a hate crime. Someone decided to use her for target practice and shot her three times in the back.”
“Did anyone hear anything?” Officer Sterling watches as Piper is stabilized and loaded into the ambulance.
“That’s what the other officers are doing.” Officer Crooks looks at Officer Sterling.
She watches as the ambulance drives off and heads towards the hospital. Officer Sterling sticks around and manages to secure Piper’s bicycle so she could give it back to her. Officer Sterling heads towards the hospital to check on Piper’s condition.
First Health Montgomery Memorial Hospital:
The ambulance arrives at the emergency entrance, and Piper is rushed towards the operating room. Her clothes are cut off her as she is lifted onto the operating table, and her blood type is cross-matched. The doctors do everything to keep her alive. One of the bullets had hit one of her ribs and shattered it. Another bullet had damaged her left lung, and the last bullet missed her spine by just inches, but damaged the upper area of the same lung the second bullet had hit.
Officer Sterling made it to the hospital to check on Piper. The doctor working on her said she was lucky her spine hadn’t been damaged. Officer Sterling waits in the waiting room, hoping that Piper will make it.