I'm a Mermaid, Not a Merman

Chapter 26

"uuuuuuuuuuuuuuughhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...."

"I think," Sammy laughed, "that she's woken up."

"I am in hell," Dani groaned.

"You need some painkillers," a doctor said.

Suddenly Dani felt very, very good.

A while later, she woke up again, feeling a bit better. She definitely felt more aware. There was a dull throbbing between her legs.

She looked around to find her family sitting in the hospital room. And Liam.

"How are you doing Dani?" some medical person or whatever... gosh her mind felt cloudy, asked her.

She gave a thumbs up. "More drugs."

"I'm going to have to give a no on that," the doctor said. "How are you doing pain wise?"

"Fine," Dani said. "I'd be better if I had more drugs."

"Wow," Sammy laughed, "this is the best entertainment I've had in years."

"Just because I'm high as a kite doesn't mean I'm not high as a kite Sammy," Dani said. 

Then she went back to sleep.

Eventually though, Dani's time in the hospital, and on the very good pain meds, eventually ended. They cleaned her up... and she got to see the result. It brought her immediately to tears. Finally, her broken body was fixed at last. It felt amazing.

But from the moment that she walked for the first time after the operation, and felt that new sensation down there... she knew things were going to be very different from now on. 

Time passed, Dani became more and more acclimated to living as a girl. Her surgery healed, she did check ups, with Doctor Taylor and with her therapist... and everything in her worked properly. She could have done without the periods, but Mom and Sammy were able to help her through it.

By late November, Dani was for the most part healed, enough to the point that she was given the go ahead to go swimming again. As it was getting colder, she and her friends had to go to the public indoor pool - which thankfully, allowed them to use their tails.

As they walked into the pool, Dani saw that Christmas decorations had been put up on the walls. 

Christmas, she thought. I'm going to celebrate Christmas this year as a girl. 

It seemed like such a little thing. But it was the same thing she'd felt at Halloween - that every holiday, every major event in her life... it was going to be different. 

Going into the locker room, Dani changed - and this time into her striped blue one-piece her family had gotten for her birthday. A shame really. She liked the bikini. But this suit was cute too.

It felt awesome being able to swim with her friends again after so long. During her hiatus from swimming, Sammy had gone with them to swim in her tail, much to Dani's chagrin. But now Dani was a mermaid again. Nothing else mattered. 

Eventually though, she found herself relaxing near the edge of the pool, and a familiar face swam up to her.

"How is it?" Liam asked.

"I've missed it so bad," Dani laughed. "I can't wait for next summer when we can swim at your place again."

Things had mostly patched up between them. She was able to chat around Liam like she had, do things with him... but in a just friends sort of way. And it had been painfully awkward. As they'd grown closer to each other again, they both knew what they wanted.