Play Hard, Fight Harder
By: M14Mouse
Summary: (AU Peter always a girl) Patricia heard it a million times before…girls can't be Shoalin Priests. Well…she is going to prove them wrong…it just may take a while.
Disclaimer: Don't own them.
Troupe bingo prompt: genderswap
One of the first things that she heard thing when she was growing up is that she could never be a Shoalin Priest or Priestess if you want to get all gender equality.
When she was younger, she would have stomped her foot on the temple floor and call them a lair then told her father.
Pop would always chuckle softly and told her that she could do anything she wanted. As she got older, her response was that she would show them by punching them in the face. Father didn't really didn't approve of that. Often or not, he would increase her lessons.
She also learned that…she couldn't become a priest. They never said it of course. But she wasn't dumb. She could read between the lines.
Hell, it was the same way at the Academy as well. Of course, they talked about women in the force. They wore their fake smiles with their fake words. Oh, the looks on their faces where she won their annual shooting completion and being the first in her class.
Honestly, it was like the orphanage. The supposed higher ones looked down at the lower class or the newbies. She fixed that. No one picked on the little ones. They were under her protection.
It took quite a few broken noses to prove that point.
Of course, that may what got Paul's attention. He always said that it was her attitude.
She always said that it was her stubborn steak. Paul and Pop said that she had one a mile wide. She snorted. That may on some things and others things…not so much. It took years to grow out her hair. She kept her hair short for years to be like the other boys. And years after, it was because she didn't see the point. She didn't know much about braiding and all of those bottles for hair made her scratch her head. She thought dresses were weird and uncomfortable but she grown to like them. Not as much as a comfortable t-shirt and pants. Make up was urgh…her sisters did make the point of teaching here. Special occasions or important dates does she even go near the stuff.
She still thought that the goal of mascara was to poke her eye out. That stuff is awful.
Wow…her thoughts were all over the places. From being stubborn to make up…wow.
Maybe, it is because she was standing here…standing before the cauldron to receive her brands.
She had the same thoughts when she stood here the first time. The council had to swallow their tongues and their pride in order to allow her participle. She won and save her father and the Ancient.
But standing there….she had doubts. A part of her was ready to take the brands. Another part of her wasn't. There was still so much to do and so much of letting go of. A part of her still wanted to be a cop.
So, she declined.
For some reason, her father was proud of her and called her a Shoalin Cop. For awhile, she was proud of her decision and had no regrets. But slowly….those thoughts and doubts were creep in. She began to question herself as a cop and her path.
And for some reason, she found herself standing here again in the kind of the same situation. Taking the brands would give her father's strength. But she realized that she couldn't just do it for her father. She had to do it for herself.
"Well, it looked liked that I was right." She said as she stared at the burning coals.
"Oh?" Ancient said as he tilted his head toward her..
"I always said that I would become a priest…well…a priestess."
"Yes, you did."
She could see the old man smiling like he was in on the biggest joke.
He didn't need to be all smug about it.
It may have taken her a while to get there and it wasn't easy either but she did.
It gave her a sense of relief.
She had no doubts now. She was ready.
End
A/N: I blame it on the prompt…that is all. Read and Review if you wish.