Your parents arrive

"Oh, my baby!" You hear the familiar voice of your mother as she rushes into the room and hugs you. You wince, both in pain and the discomfort of her breasts squishing against your own. Your father is slower to enter the room, walking in a few moments after the hug begins and closing the door.

"Finally up, I see," he says, looking out the window more than he looks at you.

"Yeah, I... I, uh..." You struggle to find any words to speak. You want to apologize for screwing up, you want to scream for them doing this to you, you want to... to...

You're not sure what you want.

"Have the doctors explained much?" your father asks.

"They went over the procedure."

"Mm," he says. "Well, we have gone through a fair amount of trouble to keep this under wraps. Officially, Tyler Robbins died, as did the young lady he was driving around. We had a new identity created for you, as Layla Robbins. Fortunately, the girl you were with was younger than you, so we have used her age. You are now our 19 year old daughter. We are claiming you were attending school overseas."

That was a lot to swallow. You look from your dad to your mom, not quite believing what you're hearing.

"We've held off on the funeral for 'your brother' until you were able to join us. We will need you to play this role."

"I don't want people thinking I'm this..." You gesture down at your body.

"We have little choice. The hospital was clear that the only way that they would perform this operation to save you was if the utmost secrecy was kept. If you speak up, the government and who knows who else will be knocking down our door to figure out how all of this worked."

You sit in silence, not sure what else to say.

"Now, we will be signing you out. The doctors assure us that you'll be able to do the remainder of your recovery at home." With that, your father left the room, leaving you and your mother alone.

"Oh, I'll finally have my baby back."

You sit, eyes staring at the door, as your mother pats your hand. You were going home, but... it felt all wrong.