Chapter 28
Cassie
See, this is why none of us have any tits. Rhea smacked her own nearly flat chest before she swallowed her monthly pill.
Do we have to talk about this every month?
Cassie sighed and waved her out of the line before taking her own dose.
She knew the oblong, white medications were meant to keep them safe from predatory clients, but what they were actually doing, she had no idea.
White for the females. Green for the males.
Every month, like clockwork, as soon as their voicelocks were installed.
Rhea claimed she found a way around some of the firewalls on their shared datapad, so she knew what real ‘tits’ were supposed to look like, but Cassie was too afraid to ask.
Cassie went to sleep with her breasts aching and woke with a dark stain between her legs.
Her whole body hurt. ?rim was busy in his room, but he’d left the door slightly ajar.
Usually, being able to see him at all times was a comfort to her, but today she wanted to be unseen.
She crept out of her nest of bedding, wadding the soiled blanket into a ball.
She didn’t want ?rim to worry. Maybe she was dying.
Maybe whatever they’d done to her at the Aviary was finally catching up with her.
She brought her linens to the clothing sanitizer and started a washing load, hoping the stain would come out.
The machine was louder than she anticipated, and she glanced back toward the door to see if ?rim had registered her movement.
Then she tiptoed to the lavatory, clutching her hands between her thighs to prevent her organs from falling out.
Was that what was happening? An image of a pile of gray blobs on the ground flashed through her mind.
She had no idea what her organs looked like.
Cassie removed her shorts and underpants and sat on the toilet, discovering more blood when she did.
With shaking hands, she pressed the button to cleanse herself with a jet of water.
It came away tinged with more blood. What was she going to do?
She couldn’t leave for the clinic without ?rim asking where she was going.
She couldn’t ask Eleri to come over without him knowing about it.
But her only other option was to keep bleeding through everything she owned.
She flushed the blood away quietly while her whole body shook, and then sank to the ground, overwhelmed by bad options. Her stomach cramped, making her whimper silently as she tucked her knees into her chest, sitting on her pile of soiled clothing. There was a quiet knock on the door.
“Cassie? Are you ok? You’ve been in there for a while.”
She didn’t know what to say. The cramping started again, and she tried to make herself as small as possible. The door opened a crack as ?rim peered in.
“I have supplies for your monthly bleeding. You should have said something.”
Monthly bleeding? He wasn’t panicking. He seemed, if anything, confused. What monthly bleeding?
“Am I calling it the wrong name? Menstruation is the more technical term.” ?rim opened the door wide enough to access the lavatory cabinet. He handed her a box. “Eleri gave me some pain medication you can use too. She also said after your first few cycles, she can turn it off if you don’t want it.”
Cassie blinked, still in pain, still not understanding a single thing he was talking about. I don’t understand. Why am I bleeding?
?rim tapped his finger nodes together. “I thought it was basic human reproductive biology. Human females bleed monthly without medical intervention. Have you not bled before, Cassie?”
Cassie shook her head. Never. She wasn’t sure if she was more infuriated by her own lack of knowledge or embarrassed that ?rim knew more about her own biology than she did.
“Here.” He offered her a hand. “Let’s get you up, and then I can try to explain it, although I suspect this would probably be a better conversation to have with Eleri.”
Her face was scarlet as she realized she was naked from the waist down while ?rim helped her to her feet.
Even though she’d been naked around people before, this felt different.
She grabbed her stained clothing and brought it over to the basket next to the sterilizer.
While she cleaned up, ?rim opened the box he’d handed to her originally and pulled out a plain white packet. “This is to catch the bleeding.”
She examined it, not entirely sure what to do. Was she supposed to stick it inside herself? She unwrapped the thing. It looked like a towel with adhesive on the back. Cassie winced at the thought of sticking it to her pubic hair. What is it?
“I think it’s supposed to go in your undergarments.
” ?rim’s complete lack of shame around the topic made her feel more awkward about the whole thing.
Cassie retreated again to the lavatory, too mortified to figure it out with him staring at her.
She placed it adhesive side down in her panties and then covered herself with the towel thing.
It seemed right. It would catch blood and hopefully avoid staining her clothing.
When she emerged again, ?rim was sitting at the table where she usually ate with a holo pulled up on his datapad. Cassie sat next to him, staring at the strangely shaped image.
“That’s what a human female reproductive system looks like.” ?rim pointed at the holo. Cassie gaped and placed a hand on her lower belly. That’s what her insides looked like?
But why is it bleeding?
“This part sheds lining and blood every month if you don’t get pregnant.
” ?rim pointed to the top of the diagram.
“It’s supposed to be normal. Eleri suggested you might not have a cycle because you were on hormone blockers for many years.
You were also underweight when you arrived in Laurus.
I’ve had a chance to look through your medical files. ”
A mix of emotions swirled inside her chest. She should know about this.
This was normal. Bleeding was normal. But she wasn’t.
She wasn’t, was she? They’d tried to teach them at the IA about what a body did.
She’d learned more about what humans were like there than she ever did at the Aviary.
But things like this, the way her own body worked.
There was still so much she didn’t know. She started to cry.
Why didn’t I know?
“Eleri also said it’s normal to be emotional when you’re bleeding. I can offer you processed sugar and pain medication or a hug?”
Cassie found herself laughing through her tears as she sat at the table in her underwear.
The way he said it was so mundane, as if he’d been waiting for it to happen and had a whole script prepared.
Maybe he did. Without his focus on her voicelock to keep him occupied, she’d caught him researching all manner of things about humans.
It shouldn’t have surprised her that he knew more than she did about her own species at this point.
All of those, please. She tucked her knees into her chest instinctively as a fresh wave of cramping hit her.
?rim rose from the table and brought over a white pill and a glass of drinking water.
She took the pill while he reached around in the food storage cabinet for a brick of something that he placed in front of her.
You’ve had chocolate here this whole time? Cassie asked, horrified he hadn’t offered it before.
“Eleri specified it was for menstrual bleeding purposes.” ?rim sat back down in his chair. “Do you want a hug now?”
I can’t believe you hid this from me. She snatched the chocolate off the table and crawled into his lap, sitting there while she ate. He shifted his weight to accommodate her, draping his arms gently over her shoulders.
“It wasn’t my intention to hide it from you. We can get more if you like it.” She felt him settle around her, his touch growing more confident the longer she stayed.