She stood in front of the bathroom mirror, admiring her fursona.
She turned this way and that, studying every single spot of her cheetah fur pattern while enjoying how her tail idly swished, even when standing relatively still.
The pointed ears near the top of her head looked neat. She idly wondered for a moment about maybe acquiring ear rings, but then realized if she did, they would definitely have to be clip-ons, for she had no idea how piercings would react during a transformation.
This is who I am now, she thought happily to herself, even as she ran her paws along her young curves and cupped her fledgling bosom.
The nurse said she was a large C furry and a decent B in her normal form, but both would change as she got older and approached adulthood.
Despite the relatively small size of the bathroom mirror, there was a lot more she wanted to check out, but a knock on the door of her hospital room interrupted the self discovery.
"Who is it?" she called out, while exiting the bathroom.
"I'm Doctor Frances Twist. Can I come in?" said the cheery voice on the other side.
"You're not going to poke and prod me like the others who have been here, are you?" she asked. "I feel like a pin cushion as it is."
"No, I'm not that kind of a doctor. I'm a therapist."
"Oh. You want to make sure my head's on right."
"Something like that," replied Frances.
"I'm... not decent right now," she replied, hating the fact that she would have to put on her hospital gown and defur.
"It's okay if you're in your fursona right now."
"Really? Then come on in!" she said happily.
Doctor Twist entered the hospital room and saw a young werecheetah standing by the hospital bed.
"Hello. You can call me Frances," said Doctor Twist, holding out her hand, "and you are..." she prompted.
"Rikki," said the young girl proudly.
"Rikki...?"
"I wish I knew. Probably Tucker, if the adoption or guardianship or whatever it is that Frank and his wife are trying to work out goes through."
"Okay. I hear that you've been through a traumatic experience. Care to talk about it?" asked Frances, while setting her purse and clipboard down. Doctor Twist had already been fully briefed about everything before coming to see the patient, but wanted to hear her side of things, to check on Rikki's emotional and mental state.
"Not much I can say, because I don't remember much first hand. Best I can figure out, I was either seriously ill or in some kind of awful accident. Whatever, I woke up here, thankfully alive and well."
"I see," said Frances, nodding her head. "Let's try this from another angle. What is the last thing you clearly remember before waking up in the hospital?"
"Truthfully?" asked Rikki in return, while sitting on the edge of the bed, and Frances noted that she naturally moved her tail out of the way before sitting. "There are two things, but one is much stronger than the other."
"And they are...?" prompted Frances.
"The stronger one is being on a farm and seeing another werecheetah like myself, but she was a bit older than me."
"And how old are you?"
"Not sure. I have to be at least 14 to naturally transform, right?" asked Rikki, to which Frances nodded her head affirmatively. "When I'm in my normal form, I don't look much older than 15 at the most."
"And do you know where you are? Let alone where this farm is?"
"Where specifically? I'm in Moon Lake General Hospital in Moon Lake, Washington State, not DC. The farm belongs to the Tuckers, but I don't know the exact address to either," admitted Rikki.
"That's okay. You said you had two memories. What's the other?" wondered Frances.
"This is going to sound kind of odd, but I swear this isn't wishful thinking or some dream," began Rikki, looking at Frances. "I swear I felt somebody kiss me, full on the lips, before I fully recovered."
"That's all?"
"Not quite. The kiss was wonderful. Like whoever it was, I'm supposed to be with him for the rest of my life. Like he's my one true love, if you believe such stuff."
"A lot of wonderful things have happened in Moon Lake before. I met my wife here when we were both teenagers."
"That's cool," replied Rikki, growing more comfortable with Frances.
"Can you tell me any more about who kissed you?"
"Wish I could," confessed Rikki. "I feel like Cinderella, but without any glass slippers. They say I was pretty in and out of it for quite a while, so I have no idea who the guy is."
Rick Plunkett was on death's door when they caught someone in his room. Then Rick suddenly and miraculously switched genders to become Rikki and completely accepted becoming a werecheetah, which is actually a female only species, recalled Frances. I wonder...
"Okay. Now I need to ask you some questions to test your intelligence and memory," announced Frances, while grabbing her clipboard.
"If I can ask you some too," countered Rikki.
"Depends upon what they are," replied Frances.
"Who does your hair? I've looked at mine both furry and normal, but I'm not too crazy about the style."
"There's a place in town that caters to both normals and weres. After you're released, I'll make arrangements to get you an appointment there."
"Cool!"
"Now then. What's your birthday?"
Rikki answered easily.
"And what year were you born?"
"I... Two thousand something? I don't recall," admitted Rikki.
Plunkett was in his thirties, so that made his birth year in the 1980s. Guess we'll have to adjust Rikki's new documentation to reflect her age now, realized Frances. "Who is the current President of the United States?"
Rikki answered that easily, then asked, "Are you a were too? I can smell something special about you, but I'm uncertain of the specific scent."
"I'm a werecat," said Frances proudly. "The capital of Texas is...?"
"Austin, but someplace I've never been. Can I see your fursona?"
"Sure," replied Frances, as she started assuming her feline shape. If the notes I have are accurate, Rick was in Austin once on a story. Does this mean Rikki has absolutely no memories of ever being Plunkett at all?
"Oh, wow!" said Rikki, watching Frances' face take on its distinctive were features as her hands changed into paws and a tail appeared from behind the doctor. "We're like feline sisters, but how do you manage to change without ruining your clothes?"
"They come from a special place called Awareness, which caters to weres. They cost more than average outfits, but I feel they're worth it."
"Neat. I definitely got to go there sometime. The Tuckers are supposed to pick me up some stuff. As much as I love being a werecheetah, I've been told I can't be furry in public during the day because of some public display rules."
"No were can display their fursona in public during the day unless it's either at an officially sanctioned event or during a life threatening emergency," said Frances, quoting the regulation by heart.
"Yeah. That," replied Rikki.
"Shall we continue?"