An older man walked in the door. "Good evening," he began in a low, gravelly voice. "How are you, miss?" He noticed the nurse was accompanying him.
Jon read the name on his lab coat: Dr. Chuck A. Cifaldi, Head of Surgery. "I...I...guess I'm okay, though..."
"Go ahead and take a seat on the bed," Dr. Cifaldi instructed. The nurse sat at a chair in the corner.
"Well, better to be okay than you were when you came in here. As Nurse Caroline explained to you, you were pretty badly beat up in that accident. The damage was extensive, especially in the reproductive system. You are very lucky that we were able to do this."
"So why am I a girl?" Jon tilted her head.
"Well, it doesn't work any other way. It works by encouraging your body to regenerate... The biological default is female."
"What else...uh...should I know, Doc?" Jon was nervous. Dr. Cifaldi was intimidating and talked in a rather clinical manner.
"Well, first off... Yes, you are fully functional. Though you have maybe half of your original DNA left. You'd probably come up a match to a child of Sarah McMillan in a lab test. We'll always be grateful for Miss McMillan's help."
"I'm surprised... How did she volunteer?"
"Well, that was in part because of the philanthropy of McMillan Industries. Lake Point Regional Medical Center does have, after all, the Richard and Susan McMillan Intensive Care Unit." Jon remembered that the family had some involvement with the hospital, but Sarah wasn't really part of it. That wasn't her. "Ma'am... Is it OK if I call you Miss Gibson?"
Jon realized that she hadn't even thought about a name. "I'll have to think about a name, but for now, that would be fine."
"Well, Miss Gibson, there's something else that I think you'll want to know. What date was it when you were in the accident?"
Jon strained, a bit nervous as to where this new line of questioning was going. "It was...uh, March twenty-something, 2019, I think?"
"You've been here quite a while. Today is August 14, 2020."
"What!?" Jon's voice jumped in shock. "2020!?"
"This experimental therapy works best when there's time for it to work in the first place," Dr. Cifaldi explained. "I know this is going to take a bit to sink in for you, and by the way, your parents will be here soon."
Jon looked around nervously at Dr. Cifaldi, Nurse Caroline, and the hospital room. There it was on the whiteboard: "Today is August 14, 2020." Slowly, she began to process what this meant.
Everyone was a year older. And Karyn and his classmates had... already graduated!?
In shock, Jon collapsed, his head falling onto the pillows at the head of the bed.
