Somebody Stand By Me

Our Daughter

I crawl towards Victoria. There's blood everywhere and I see an empty pill bottle next to her.

"Victoria...it's mommy." I sob. "Please, stay with me!"

I grab some towels and go back to my daughter. I put them on her wrists to stop the bleeding.

"Sara!" I yell.

Lindsey must have followed me because he walks into the bathroom and I see the shock on his face.

I look into his eyes with tears streaming down my face. "Call an ambulance, Lindsey! Now!"

His face has gone pale. He quickly turns and leaves the room.

Sara falls next to me, she sobs and bends down to touch her sisters forehead with hers.

I try to speak words of comfort but I can't get the words out. I continue sob and pray that my child will be okay.

"The ambulance is on their way." Lindsey says as he comes back into the bathroom.

I just nod and keep my eyes on Victoria's face.

"Please let my baby be okay! Please god. Don't take her away from me."

We make it to the hospital in what feels like a flash. I rode in the ambulance with Victoria.

Lindsey and Sara drove behind the ambulance.

When they pull Victoria from the ambulance on the stretcher, they roll her inside and I try to keep up as the paramedics run.

But once we reach some double doors, a paramedic stops me from going any further.

Even though they try stop me, I try anyway to go with my child. I'm sobbing and calling for Victoria.

Suddenly, I feel arms wrap around me. I turn and see Lindsey. For a moment, I forget my anger at him and I fall into his arms.

He holds me up when my legs feel weak. A nurse comes out of the double doors and tells us that we can wait in a private room.

She leads us and once we are in the room, I fall into a chair. Sara sits by me and wraps her arms around me.

We cry in each other's arms and try to think positively.

An hour later, a doctor walks into the room and says. "Hello, I'm Dr. Garcia. I have some good news. We managed to pump your son's stomach and we managed to stop the bleeding. We stitched up his wounds." He says.

"My daughter." I say feeling relieved that Victoria is going to be okay. "She's transgender."

"I'm sorry." Dr. Garcia said with an apologetic smile. "I didn't know. Your daughter will be fine. However, now we have to investigate why she tried kill herself. After that, we will make a plan on how to help her recover from this. In a few minutes, I will come get you so you can see her."

I nod and say. "Thank you."

Dr. Garcia then leaves the room.

Lindsey sits next to me and tries to wrap his arm around me. But now that the worst is over, I shake off his arm. I stand up and walk over to the window and look outside.

I can't stand Lindsey right now. Because of him, my daughter tried to kill herself.

A few minutes later, Dr. Garcia and a nurse walk into the room. He tells us we can go see Victoria.

The nurse offered to stay with Sara while Lindsey and I go back to see our child.

The doctor walks us over and lets us into the room.

My knees grow weak again when I see Victoria lying on that hospital bed. She looks so pale and just not like herself.

I regain my strength and quickly walk over to her side and gently grab her hand. I begin to silently sob.

*Lindsey's POV*

I stand back and watch Stevie cry holding our son's hand. My son.

My son tried to kill himself. I can't believe this. I would have never dreamed that Ethan would do such a thing.

Tears begin to roll down my cheeks.

Stevie looks over at me and says. "Don't you see what you are doing to our child. All she wants to do is be herself. Lindsey, before you came back into her life, you didn't see the light leaving her eyes. I did! I didn't know why and I tried so hard to find out. Then she finally opened up to me and told me how she felt. She told me she was transgender. At first, I didn't understand it. I blamed myself because I thought I did something wrong to make this happen."

I stare into Stevie's eyes and see so much pain in them. All the pain I put her through, the pain I put my children through and now, the pain of knowing our child tried to kill themselves.

I don't say anything. I listen. For the first time I actually listen.

"But, I soon realized that I didn't do anything wrong." She continues. "No one did anything wrong. This just occurs and for some reason, our child was born in the wrong body. Victoria just wants to be free to be herself. After she told me and she was able to dress how she wanted, and be able to be herself, I saw the light coming back into her eyes. Look at her, Linds! She tried to kill herself because she knows if you could you would stop her from being who she truly is. Please reconsider letting her take the hormones she so desperately wants and needs. I rather have a daughter that is alive than a dead son! I don't ever want to bury my child!"

She walks over to me and takes my hands in hers. She squeezes them gently and says. "Please, Lindsey. Give her your permission so she can live! Don't make her wait till she's eighteen. She won't make it. Let her be who she was meant to be." She then leads me towards the bed and goes on. "Look at our child, Lindsey. Look at our beautiful, sweet, and caring child. Imagine had she succeeded, we would be planning a funeral right now. She would be gone."

Stevie then places my hand in my child's hand. "This is our daughter Lindsey. Our daughter." She sobs.

I look into my child's face. I've taken in all Stevie has said and it all hits me. This moment has made me realize a lot of things I've done wrong. But now, I'm going to make things right. For real this time. I don't plan on ever tuning my back on my children and even though we are not together anymore, I won't turn my back on Stevie.

I finally break down and I begin to sob loudly. Stevie hugs me and I hug her. We hold each other tightly and we comfort each other.