Jon didn't know how long he had been out. It could have been forever... but by the clock on the wall, no more than a half hour. Suddenly alarmed by thoughts of having been unconscious for days, Jon checked his watch... the date hadn't changed at all.
He felt cold underneath the sheet that was covering him; glancing over, he saw his underwear and pants on a chair. It was hard to tell if the experiment had worked, at first. He still seemed to have some of the sensations of having genitals, but his legs went together without anything between them. He sat up, reached down, and grabbed air.
"Try to stand up," said Dr. von Schtupple. "We need to be sure everything's connected properly."
"What?" said Jon.
"If you can stand up," he said, "it should be okay. A big piece of the human body would have millions of blood vessels and nerves. Each of those millions, as well as bones, spinal cord, and everything else has to hook up properly between the pasted part and your regular body. If you can stand up, and the muscles all move properly, and you're not dying from having a million cut blood vessels all at once, then it worked."
"That sounds impossible," said Jon, pulling himself to his feet.
"Also, no two bodies are exactly the same size. The experiment must compensate. You don't have a half inch of exposed flesh sticking out because your body is a little thicker than Tiffany's, so you're fine. Compared to that, the immune system is no problem..."
"Immune system?"
"It would be pointless to paste different flesh and have it all die because of an immune system response. Now, we need to do some examination. "He looked at Jon's crotch. Jon wasn't sure whether to feel slightly embarrassed, since someone was seeing him naked, or hugely ashamed of what was happening, since it was as if he was a girl being examined by a man.
The doctor poked and prodded him several times, made him lie down and shone a light into his new vagina. "All right," he said, "how long is this going to last?"
"Just a second," he replied, and took a swab to his genitals, then touched it to a microscope slide. "That's all."
Jon waited.
"Oh, you can put your clothes on. We only pasted the front and the relevant internal organs, so your waist and legs shouldn't have changed size, and they'll still fit."
"Don't I get to be changed back?"
"No, no, the experiment lasts until the end of August. You're due here in a few days, and then in a week, then every month.
"That's over four months!"
"Then we can look for someone to paste on you."
"Don't I get my own parts back?"
"Where would we get that from? You knew all of this. You signed all the consent forms. You are at least age 16, correct?"
"Yes, I am... Oh, never mind." He could just get the stone and fix it, anyway. Right? But he didn't want to think about not being able to do so. Jon got up again and looked at his genitals. It was a girl's, but it was part of him. He reached down to touch his clitoris and it felt strange, like touching himself normally but he couldn't pin down what spot he was touching himself on. The pubic hair was light brown, like Tiffany's head, not like Jon's hair. He put on his underwear and pants, then his socks and sneakers, and went out to the lounge. Tiffany had already left the lab--he guessed that since she wasn't being changed, she didn't go unconscious, so she finished sooner, and talking with Sarah, and both of them had already gotten up and started to leave.
Karyn said "How are you feeling? I read some of the literature they had here."
"I feel like something very interesting has happened," said Jon. "Too interesting."
"What did they paste?"
Jon held his hand near his crotch and moved it slowly in a circle "The whole area here. I've got Tiffany's organs down there."
"Wow," said Karyn. "That's interesting, all right. Are you still a boy?"
"I guess it depends on how you define it."
"Cheer up. There's nothing wrong with a vagina."
"There is on me," replied Jon.
