Family Tails

A Story of a Mixed Family in the Genetic Age

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Names of actual businesses, their products, etc, are the property of their respective owners.

Story and characters © 2013 Ronald J. Lebeck

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Chapter 16

The initial pain Ron felt in the exercise room was nothing. Normal bodily pain he can handle, and he's had more than his share after twenty-eight years of military service. Surviving a few vehicle accidents that weren't his fault hadn't helped, either. This, however, had only been matched by one other incident in all of his years...and that was the first time he and the twenty-three other men who volunteered for "Project: Hunter" had been altered.

New muscle and other tissues were not only growing at an accelerated pace, but also re-arranging to become more efficient. Ron's temperature had climbed due to the increase in his metabolism--he felt the dreadful need to eat, to fuel the changes taking place within his body. He needed protein, and carbohydrates. Thankfully there was someone there who told the staffers what he needed and how much.

Unfortunately, the pain made it difficult to eat. It came in waves, and with each wave, Ron let out an agonizing howl. He had felt the aggression kicking in back at the infirmary, and he knew that there would be little time before it would hit full force. A certain calming effect of having his two mates and his long time friend near helped a little, but it would not be enough to overcome the beast that was going to tear loose...and tear loose it did. Thirty-three years ago, each of the twenty-four men had become so violent that armed guards were at the ready to use deadly force to put a quick end to the experiment. Fortunately, the violent episode did not last long, only about an hour; after that, however, came the headache, and then the collapse due to exhaustion. Today, the beast within had awakened again...and to Ron, it seemed it did so with a vengeance.

Ron paced the room, snarling and yelling at anything and everything. He ranted, he raved, he growled, he howled...and he had an overwhelming urge to break something. Being that there was nothing breakable in the room, just concrete walls and a celine that was three meters up, Ron had no other choice but to make do with what he had--he began tossing the mattress around. It was an otherwise normal twin bed mattress, which is by itself, a bit bulky for one person to carry. Ron picked it up easily and threw it forcefully against the wall. Repeatedly. Sometimes he would either kick or punch it as it bounced off the wall. That lasted until the next round of pain hit, and then he flopped down on it and curled up in the fetal position, with his arms over his head, until the spasms stopped. Once they did, he laid there for a little while catching his breath, until the urge to trash something rose up again. At the worst of this violent period, Ron saw a face look through the little window...and he immediately attacked the door.

Lupina and Rosie sat on the floor in the hallway, with their backs against the wall opposite the room. Every time they heard Ron raging in the locked room, they held each other. They both wanted desperately to try and sooth their mate, but Rob had warned them sternly to not open that door for any reason until this part of the change was over.

"Oh, Rosie, what have I done to him?" she whined during a particularly dreadful sounding moan.

Giving her best friend a hug, Rosie reminded her, "He's doin' this outta love, Lu...he wanted to do this even though he knew what could happen. If Ron didn't love ya...love us, I don't think he'd want to go though somethin' like this again."

Ron had been in the room for over a half an hour when Dr. Sumter showed up to look for himself what was happening. Lupina and Rosie didn't particularly care for Dr. Sumter, and neither did any of the G.E.L.F.s. Even his colleagues at The Center didn't like working with him--if it wasn't for his knowledge of DNA and gene expression, of which he was among the top of his field, he might have been shown the door on any number of occasions. For all of his brilliance, the man was an ass...and had all of the personality of a patch of skunk cabbage[1]. The Center for Genetic Research and Development had recruited Dr. Harvey Sumter largely due to his work on projects of interest to the government, and with the military in particular. He was one of the several geneticists who were involved with military related projects that ultimately led to one that would become known as Project: Hunter. While he himself did not directly interact with the twenty-four men who were the test subjects, Sumter did lead the work on developing the modified DNA code that eventually ended up being used to enhance the men's natural abilities. Sumter might have gone unknown by the men, if it wasn't for a particular incident involving a young junior officer who was part of the experiment.

* * * * *

Officially known as the Advanced Predator DNA Augmentation of Human Warfighter / Tactical Hunter-Killer Project, or more simply as "Project: Hunter", the research into genetic modification of humans was initially funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, and later taken over by a secret branch of the Naval Sea Service Command. A run down, abandoned and out-of-the-way, former military installation was used as the site for experiment. Using aerial photographs of the site prior to using it, a huge cover was created and painted to match the grounds. Working in phases, the "camouflage" was set up during the night in cloudy weather to hide any construction work from satellites. In addition to the paint scheme, the temperature of the cover was carefully controlled to match the ambient temperatures of the surrounding area. This was done to effectively hide the heat signatures generated by construction equipment and personnel so that activity could not be detected by infrared photography. The laboratories and other facilities were built underground, connected to the existing buildings, and then carefully covered over and color matched to the original surface material. When everything was finished, the photorealistic cover was taken down and everything made to look exactly as before. No one would have a clue as to what would be taking place at the old military installation.

In the beginning, the work was slow and tedious, trying to find out which base pairs in the DNA helix did what. Eventually, through numerous tests, including finding ways that would best work at delivering the altered DNA quickly and efficiently, progress was being made. At first the experiments were conducted on smaller animals, and gradually worked up to smaller primates. When the human genome had been completely mapped, studied, and the results compared to the work done on smaller animals, the scientists began manipulating the DNA from "volunteers" that were provided by the government. At first, the experiments were rather unpredictable--sometimes they resulted in extra appendages or organs, or worse. These test subjects all apparently died of "natural causes", according to their death certificates, though in actuality they had been euthanized, vivisected, and later their remains cremated. One evening, while working late, the then much younger Dr. Harvey Sumter had been nodding off at his desk...and suddenly had a flash of inspiration. He immediately wrote down what he had seen in his mind, and then called together the other researchers. It was something they hadn't thought of trying before, so they set to work giving it a try. The initial reactions in the test subjects were bodily pain, followed by a period of rage, which in turn was followed by headaches and changes in sensory acuity. Once they had the new protocols perfected--after a few more such odd flashes of inspiration among the scientific team--they announced that they were ready to begin field trials on military volunteers. After screening hundreds of applicants, the scientists selected twenty-four men, who were then sworn to the utmost secrecy. Samples of their DNA were collected, analyzed, and modified with the addition of specific base pairs extracted from the DNA of a variety of predators, including wolves, cougars, and foxes.

After the augmentations stabilized in the men, they began to undergo a series of specially designed physical and mental tests to see just how well they performed. To the surprise of the scientists, each of the twenty-four men had increased hearing, motion detection and tracking, increased sense of smell, quicker reflexes, greater strength, and stamina. The men had better judge of distance and environmental conditions, which served to increase their accuracy well past that of human average. During one test to see how they reacted towards having guard dogs set upon them, instead of experiencing the usual rush of adrenaline that a normal person would in response to primal instinct, these men showed no sign of fear whatsoever. The dogs had been trained to pursue and attack...but when they ran up to each of the men, they promptly stopped in their tracks a distance away, and refused to make contact. The researchers noted that some of the men hunched down and stared--and even growled--at the dogs rushing towards them, much as a wolf or a herding type dog would do. The dogs were confused at this behavior, and would either run away yipping, or roll over onto their backs in terrified submission and mess themselves. Over time, the men learned that they could control their new abilities, and they seemed to take on certain personality characteristics of the animals that had been used to create the modifications to their DNA. During the initial selection process, each of the applicants were asked what their favorite animal was, so one of the researchers decided to try and match each selectee to his favorite animal as best as possible, also taking into account the individual's personality profile.

During one of the many rounds of lab tests performed on the men, one of the lab techs began her round of feeding the various smaller lab animals. As soon as she opened the door to one of the cages, a cat escaped and began running around the lab, eluding its human pursuers. A few of the men joined in, trying to herd the cat so that it could be cornered and captured. One of those men was a young junior officer who was their immediate superior. When the cat started to run by him, it hesitated momentarily, and then ran straight for him. The cat let the young officer pick her up, and he seemed to have a rather profound effect on the cat. It immediately calmed down and began purring loudly, and acted quite affectionately towards him. When the lab tech tried to take the cat, the little Siamese female hissed, growled, and lashed out with claws extended. The lab tech said that she didn't understand why the cat suddenly acted that way, as she had been getting along with all of the lab animals--one of the reasons why she had the job of feeding and caring for them. Dr. Sumter was in the lab at that time, and with his usual crassness, ordered the lab tech to put the cat back into the cage immediately. The tech tried a few more times unsuccessfully to take the cat, which had no intention of leaving the arms of the officer holding her. Sumter then tried himself to take the cat rather roughly...but the cat promptly dug her claws and teeth into his hand. That is when Dr. Sumter made the mistake of striking the cat, causing the young officer to become quite angry with him. Quickly setting the cat down on a lab bench, the officer spun around and punched Sumter hard in the face, breaking his nose, and knocking him down in the process. Sumter looked up wide-eyed from the floor, holding his bleeding nose, and held his arm up defensively, in preparation for the next blow that was sure to come. Before the officer could do anything else, one of the other men--a Petty Officer Third Class--quickly stepped up and put a restraining hand on his shoulder.

In a calm voice, the junior non-com[2] said, "He's not worth it, sir...let it go. Save it for the bad guys. Come on, it's chow time anyway, and I don't know about you, sir, but the rest of us wanna hit the mess deck[3]."

After a few moments, young officer slowly lowered his fist and relaxed.

"Mistreat an animal again, and you will become shark bait, you get me?" the young officer nearly growled.

With that, the officer abruptly turned and went back to where he had left the cat on the lab counter, and picked her up again. He held the cat a little bit before handing her over to the lab tech.

As the men headed out of the lab to get something to eat, Sumter blurted out, "You'll pay for this!" and then moaned with pain again.

The petty officer who had intervened paused and said in a bit of an Irish accent, "If ye don' wanna find yerself with a line tied about yer ankle and the o'er end attached to a low-flying helo, bein' used as bait while trolling for sharks across the ocean, I suggest ye can it. Yer lucky that's all the thrashin' ye got, ye bloody eejit. Sir."

* * * * *

As soon as Dr. Sumter started coming down the hallway, Lupina nudged Rosie.

"Look who's coming," she whispered, flattening her ears a bit.

Rosie looked, and her own ears went back a little.

"Well, I'll be a human's auntie!" she said in a low voice.

Lupina couldn't keep from chuckling a little at the remark her friend had made.

"What's so funny, Lu?" Rosie asked.

"Careful what you wish for...you just might be some day," Lupina smirked.

Rosie eyed Lupina suspiciously and said, "You've been hangin' around Ron too much...now you're startin' to get his weird sense of humor!"

Lupina stuck the tip of her tongue out playfully, before looking back down the hallway and watching Dr. Sumter walk towards them.

The two security guards let him pass and as he passed by Lupina and Rosie as they sat on the floor, he barely even bothered to acknowledge the fact that they were there. Putting his face up next to the little window in the door to the room, Dr. Sumter looked smugly into the dimly lit room.

"Well now, let's see how our little lab rat is doing," he said sarcastically to himself.

Lupina and Rosie both heard what he said, and Rosie immediately grabbed her friend and shook her head. She had heard the beginning of a growl in Lupina's throat and tried to keep her from saying or doing something rash. Just about the moment that Lupina was going to say something, a sound came from the room.

"RrrraaaaAAAAAAARRRR!!!"

*WHAM!!!*

Something struck the door with great force, causing Dr. Sumter to jump back, his face draining of color.

*WHAM!!!*

This time the door suddenly grew an oblong dent in the center.

*WHAM!!!*

The dent became much more pronounced with this blow.

"My God, he's trying to break the door down!" Dr. Sumter exclaimed.

The two security guards exchanged worried looks and drew their Tasers. One of the guards called for assistance on his radio.

Rob had given his DNA sample to Dr. Nemeth and she gave it to one of the assistants to begin processing it for sequencing. Since it was going to take a while, Rob decided to go back to check on how Ron was doing. Helga went along with Rob, and they chitchatted on the way. For the past several years, Rob had had no desire to get involved in a relationship due to some rather bad experiences he had. There was something about being with Helga, however, that seemed to get him to open up a bit. Just as they were going down a flight of stairs to the level where Ron was at, two more security guards came rushing towards their direction. Rob flattened against the wall, pulling Helga with him as the guards ran by. In the few seconds that they stood against each other next to the wall, Rob quickly realized a few things--her fur was luxuriously soft to his touch, he was actually enjoying being so close to her, and as much as he didn't want to admit it, he felt inexplicably attracted to her. Peering around him and looking down the stairs for a moment, Helga looked up with her luminous green eyes, and blinked once as she met his gaze. Rob wasn't quite sure what to read into that look, though whatever it was, it was going to have to wait.

Taking her by the hand, he said, "Come on," and they quickly proceeded on their way.

As Rob and Helga rounded the corner of the hallway, they heard a loud *WHAM!!!* coming from the direction of the room. Rob let go of Helga's hand and ran the short distance to the end of the hall.

"What's going on?" Rob demanded to know, as he muscled his way through the security guards.

"Rob!" Lupina cried out in relief, "Thank goodness you're here! Ron's trying to break the door down!"

At that moment, Rob quickly sized up the situation--he saw the large dent bulging out in the middle of the door, and he also saw someone that he had not seen for many years, someone he felt a particular loathing for.

"What are YOU doing here?" Rob demanded, glaring straight at Dr. Sumter.

Lupina and Rosie exchanged worried looks, especially seeing Rob's face begin to turn red.

"Wha...do...do I know you?" he said hesitantly, his eyes shifting between the now badly dented door and the angry looking person approaching him.

"You damn well better! I'm the one who smashed his fist into that arrogant face of yours over thirty years ago!" Rob shouted.

Bringing his hand up to his face and rubbing the odd little crook in his nose, the light of recognition finally began to shine in Dr. Sumter's eyes.

"Yes...I see that you finally remember, shark bait," Rob said caustically.

"Rob? You know Dr. Sumter?" Lupina asked with a look of surprise on her face.

"Oh, yeah...we all know him," Rob said. "He's the one that did this to us!"

Rob quickly reached out and grabbed Dr. Sumter by the front of his shirt with one hand, lifted him up, and slammed him into the wall. Right away, the guards started to move in, but since Lupina and Rosie were between them and Rob, the guards couldn't immediately try to grab a hold of him. Helga, however, was able to slip past everyone and put her arms around Rob from behind. Normally in such a situation, that would have been a bad thing to do, but Rob was too focused on Sumter to care about anything else at the moment.

"Rob...please, do not. Whatever it was...is it not long past? We are in this moment...let it go. For me?" Helga said softly, as she pressed herself against his back, and lightly rubbed her head against it. She began to purr, a somewhat deeper and almost sensual purr than one might hear from an ordinary four-footed house cat. It had a strangely instant calming effect on Rob, and slowly he sat Dr. Sumter back down on his feet.

"Um...ya might get Dr. Sumter away from the door, 'cause the big guy didn't go bonkers until he showed up and called him a lab rat," Rosie told Rob. Sumter, Rob, and Helga all looked at Rosie--Dr. Sumter had a shocked look on his face, Rob narrowed his eyes a bit in annoyance, and Helga looked quizzically at Rosie and then at the door.

"Perhaps that would be prudent...that door might not take such abuse much longer," Helga said, laying one ear back.

"Maybe I should just toss him in there...," Rob suggested with a nod towards the door.

As if on cue, there was on final fierce snarl and...

*WHAM!!!*

This time, the door flew open, the doorknob's deadlatch assembly completely mangled. Inside the room, there was heavy breathing mixed with a faint amount of growl.

Dr. Sumter jumped behind the four security guards who had drawn their Tasers, laser aiming dots shining brightly on the doorframe, fingers on the triggers. Helga flattened her ears and quietly hissed, the fur on her tail standing straight out, not sure what exactly was going to come through the open door--man, or something else. She got behind Rob and watched. Rosie's own tail was twitching and her ears were flattened against her head. Lupina, however, keeping her ears and tail lowered, took a step forward.

"R-Ron? It's me, baby...y-you're n-not going to...," she started to say, but then she heard a rough voice say her name.

"Lu..."

As she took another step forward, Lupina heard Rosie say, "Careful, Lu!"

"Rozer..."

Unable to help herself, Rosie came up alongside Lupina and lightly held onto her friend's arm. They both glanced at each other nervously, and then peered cautiously around the edge of the doorframe.

Standing just inside, bent downwards at the waist with hands grasping the doorframe, and legs slightly apart and one in front of the other, stood Ron. His head was lowered, and he was still breathing somewhat heavily, though it was starting to slow. His voice was harsh sounding from all of the yelling and so forth that he had been doing.

He asked, "Do...I look...different...?"

Ron raised his head and looked right at both of his mates...the first thing they both noticed was his eyes.

Seeing the expression on their faces, Ron said, hoarsely, "I'll...take that...as a...yes."

Rob quietly came up behind Lupina and Rosie and saw his friend looking back with a quiet intensity...only his eyes were no longer their normal gray. They had changed to an amber color, and they shone in the light coming into the room from the hallway. Just like Lupina's...or Atka's.

"I think...I'm going to need...a good shower," Ron said, wincing a little, "and something for my head."

"Um...okay, baby. Come on, Rosie, let's get him cleaned up," Lupina said.

"Okay. Come on, big guy...we'll take good care of ya!" Rosie said, trying to sound cheerful. They got on either side of Ron and put their arms around him. Lupina and Rosie both noticed that their mate's scent seemed a little...different.

As soon as they got him out in the hallway, Rob quietly said, "Good lord, man...!"

"That bad, eh?" Ron quipped.

Sometime during the stay in the room, Ron had taken his shirt off, probably in effort to cool off. Other than his eyes, not much else seemed particularly changed, except for the fact that his muscles looked a bit different...they seemed to have noticeably different contours, and bulked up a little more. He also seemed to have slightly more hair on his body than before, which, for Ron, was noticeable because he never had much hair on his body to begin with--the majority of it had always been on his head and face.

"Well, at least you haven't sprouted a tail...yet," Rob said, taking a little look around just to make sure there wasn't a nub of one forming.

Ron chuckled, but then winced again from the pain in his head. He felt his ears...they were still in the same place and the same shape as before, and not covered with fur. Ron stopped and looked at his hands--there wasn't a mark on them, even the few old little scars he had were gone. He noticed something else about them, too.

Looking closely at his fingers and his palms, Ron said, "Hmm, wasn't like _that_before."

"What do you mean, baby?" Lupina said, trying to see what he was looking at.

"The skin on my palms and fingertips...feels...funky," he replied. Lupina and Rosie both looked at his hands, but they couldn't tell any difference.

"Maybe you're just imagining it," Lupina suggested.

"Yeah, maybe. Well, if everyone's done gawking, I wanna get a good scrubbin'," Ron said.

"I'll grab your stuff, big guy," Rosie said, and she flipped the light switch on as she went into the room...and stopped in her tracks.

"Oh...my...sweet...raisins!" she exclaimed quietly.

Rob and Helga heard what Rosie said and walked into the room to see what was wrong. They too, stared in wonder.

The mattress was completely shredded...as if it had been a chew toy for Cerberus.

It was a good thing that Lupina had thought to bring a change of clothes for her mate in her bag, along with some soap, shampoo, and his deodorant. The shower facilities weren't exactly stocked for humans. After Ron had a chance to clean up and into some fresh clothing, they went by the infirmary to see if the medical people could do anything about Ron's headache. They gave him something used to treat migraines, and that seemed to help, so the next stop was to get something to eat. His jaws still seemed a bit sore, but he ate anyway, and drank a lot of water. Not long after eating, Ron got really sleepy, so they went to find a place to sleep at for the night. After making assurances that the worst was over, and all he needed now was sleep, the staff took them to an empty dorm room in the G.E.L.F. living quarters. As soon as he could, Ron took off his boots and laid down on one of the two beds in the room. He was out like a light within a few minutes. Lupina and Rosie crowded onto the bed with him, one on each side, and pulled the blanket over them. Rob stayed up for a while talking with Helga, and watching TV with the sound down low.

"Quite a day for you and your friends," Helga said quietly.

"Yep, it was," Rob agreed. "I'm ready to get back home."

The tip of Helga's tail twitched back and forth a couple of times, and then she eased her position on the couch so that she was facing him, just as she had done in the back of the SUV on the way to The Center. She looked at Rob with the typical calm, almost Zen-like expression house cats often get when they're just sitting and being patient,

Helga asked, "Tell me about it, your home...what's it like?"

Rob told her a little about the business they have, the area in which he and his friends live, and then went on to describe his house. It was similar in some ways to Ron's, though his log home was of a slightly different style. While Rob was describing his house, Helga casually shifted her eyes over to the bed where his friend and his two mates were sleeping on, snuggled up together. When she shifted her eyes back to Rob, she saw that his expression had eased up and he seemed calm, almost happy...but she could still see just a hint of weariness, of someone who had seen too much, and been alone too long. Helga felt a strange urge to snuggle, and down in her throat, a familiar vibration was beginning in her vocal cords. They had been sitting a respectable distance apart on the couch, though close enough to talk quietly. Shifting her position with an easy grace so that she was sitting next to Rob, Helga wrapped one arm around his, rested her other hand on his chest, and laid her head on his shoulder. Her purring became noticeable, though still soft, and her hands began slowly flexing alternately, first one and then the other. Rob was surprised when Helga moved up against him. If this had been a human woman, he would have immediately gotten up, as he would think it inappropriate to get so familiar with a woman he barely knew. But Helga is not a human woman, she is a G.E.L.F. female derived from a domestic cat...and cats can be...so...persuasive.

Rob woke up with a start. It took him a few moments to remember where he was and why he was there. He was lying on the couch in the room where he had fallen asleep during the night. He found that someone had slipped a pillow under his head and covered him up with a blanket. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he sniffed. Rob could still smell Helga's lingering scent, though she had been gone for some time. Smiling, he remembered how it had felt just sitting there together with her on the couch, holding her, and listening to her purr. It was pleasantly comfortable.

When he had started to nod off, Helga had gotten up, fetched a pillow and the blanket from the other bed, and made Rob comfortable on the couch. She stayed until he fell asleep, before returning to her own room. Helga had lingered in the doorway looking first at Ron and his mates lying together, and then at Rob where she had left him on the couch. Helga probably could have stayed there in the room, and slept on the unused bed, but she had decided that it would be more appropriate to return to her own room. Grinning a little, she quietly shut the door to the room and walked away, her hips swaying just a little more than usual.

As soon as Rob started to stir, Rosie woke up and stretched a little, even though there wasn't much room on the bed.

"Geez, I sure do miss the waterbed back home," she thought to herself.

Sighing a little, Rosie got up and headed for the suite's restroom to take care of the usual morning necessities.

The dormitory-style rooms were in a suite of four sleeping rooms situated around a central, rectangular-shaped common area that had a large restroom with shower stalls, located on the longer wall opposite the hallway, between two of the rooms. Since the G.E.L.F.s are raised in a coed environment, they think nothing of males and females sharing the same facilities with each other. Not naturally having the learned human religious-based concept of modesty, it is never a problem for them while they are at The Center. To be out in the human population, though, they have to remember that humans have some strange--and very strict--ideas about certain things.

When Rosie came back into the room, she waved at Rob, and then sat on the edge of the bed. She quietly watched her mate continuing to sleep, and thought about the night before.

"You look so peaceful now, big guy...I know you're different now, but I hope you haven't changed too much! Are you still going to be the big, loveable guy who came to my rescue a month ago when you wake up? Are you still gonna want me after this? I hope so!" Rosie thought to herself.

Just then, she saw his eyes blink and open a little. Ron looked up at Rosie and smiled, making a kissing gesture with his mouth. He lifted his hand and lightly ran his fingers along the side of her face, from her forehead down to her chin. Slipping his hand around the back of her neck, he gently pulled Rosie's face towards his. She readily leaned over him until they were nose-to-nose, her silky, long, white fur-hair spilled from her shoulders and draped around their faces.

"How's my 'candy girl'[4] today?" he asked in a near whisper.

Rosie grinned at the affectionate reference he used, brushing her lips against his.

"Oh, you know me," she whispered back, "worrying about ya."

Despite the grin on her face, Ron could see the worry in her eyes.

"Rosie?"

"Yeah?"

"Wanna share some rum raisin ice cream later?"

"Ooo, ya sure know how to sweet talk a girl!"

Ron grinned and asked, "You know what else I could go for?"

"What might that be?" she asked in return.

"This...," Ron replied, and he proceeded to give his sweet Rosie a long, deep, passionate kiss.

Lupina woke up and rolled over to face Ron and found that he was quite awake.

"Hey, baby, you going to save some of that for me?" she asked with a sleepy grin.

Giving his tongue one last rub with her own, Rosie pulled her head back with a dreamy look on her face.

"I think he's gonna be okay, Lu...but you might wanna give a second opinion," Rosie sighed happily and licked her lips.

"I think I'll do just that...come here, you!" Lupina said and she planted her own mouth over Ron's.

"Whenever you guys come up for air, how about we get something in us?" Rob asked from the couch, shaking his head in amusement.

"Mmm...I could definitely eat something," Ron said, glancing from Lupina to Rosie.

"I think he means breakfast, baby...," Lupina giggled, which caused Rosie to giggle, too.

"Yeah...food, sounds good," Ron said and slowly licked his lips.

It took a few moments for arms, legs, and tails to get untangled so that the three of them could get out of the bed. When Lupina and Ron headed off to the restroom, Rosie made use of the time to make the bed and straighten up the room a little.

There was a little knock at the door, so Rob went to see who it was. When he opened it, Helga was standing there wearing a short mid-riff tank top and a pair of jogging shorts.

"Ah, good morning, Helga," Rob said greeting her.

"Good morning," she said with a slight purr. "Your friends said that you were awake."

"Yeah, we're going to go have breakfast. Would you care to join us?" Rob asked politely.

Helga blinked slowly, cocked her head slightly to the side, and replied, "Actually, that is why I came to see you."

"Oh?" Rob asked.

Nodding her head slowly once, Helga said, "To ask you."

Rob grinned and said, "I'd love to."

As soon as everyone was ready, the group headed over the cafeteria to have breakfast. Helga stayed close to Rob's side along the way, occasionally brushing against him. If it had been a human woman, he would have kept a respectable distance between them until they got to know one another better.

However, Helga's hand sought out his and their fingers laced together.

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[1] http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/skunk_cabbage.htm

[2] Non-com - non-commissioned officer

[3] Mess deck - a U.S. naval term for the enlisted dining facility aboard a ship

[4] from the song, "Sugar, Sugar", by The Archies