Moonracer watched the now confused looking werewolf out of concern. When the poor thing turned her head to look at her, she saw an almost frightened look in those eyes, and she could smell fear in the creature's pheromones.
"It's okay Little One. You're safe and no one is going to hurt you." Moonracer said gently.
The werewolf shook its head, looked down at its body and held out the arms. Moonracer knew then, that something had changed.
"Rachel… you're a werewolf again!" Annabelle exclaimed.
When the werewolf pointed at Annabelle with ears laid back, mouth hanging slightly open and eyes wide, Moonracer knew exactly what had changed. Somehow Rachel was now in control of the werewolf! She knew that the girl would be shaken and most likely frightened. It meant that Moonracer would need to take some preventative measures.
"Rachel… I want to thank you for saving my life tonight." Moonracer said sincerely. She knew that she might be exaggerating a bit, but then again, one never knew with a situation like that. The Con did possess a bulkier frame than she did after all.
Moonracer knew that she'd said exactly what Rachel had needed to hear. The girl turned werewolf looked at her with an expression that she was certain was confused and questioning.
"Rachel, are you okay?" Annabelle called up to the berth.
Rachel let out a short huffing yap before she laid her ears back and growled softly. She squirmed out of Moonracer's hand and up on to her shoulder so that she could look down at the young blonde staring up at her. Rachel nodded her head vigorously to signal that she was uninjured.
At that moment, a soldier walked in with a cart that was laden with country fried steaks, grilled chicken breasts, chicken strips, and a lot of different vegetables.
"Hey Ratchet! You said you needed what ever leftovers I have when you called. So where do ya want 'em?" Sgt. Lasky almost bellowed.
Rachel gave out a short but loud sort of barking howl to get the Medic's attention. She wasn't hurt, but God was she ever hungry!
"I had that brought in for you, so help yourself." Ratchet said with a smirk as he looked over at the now changed Rachel.
Rachel didn't hesitate. With a soft growl of anticipation she jumped right off of Moonracer's shoulder and down to the floor. She landed hard and her feet slid out from under her causing her chin to smack against the floor. That hurt! The weird thing was, it only hurt for a second or two, and Rachel knew it should have hurt for much longer than that. She shook her head and got to her feet. She tried to stand like she normally would, but found that her balance was off.
"Holy shit!" Sgt. Lasky yelled as he laid eyes on the werewolf for the first time.
"At ease Sergeant!" General Lennox ordered loudly.
"My apologies Sir! But that…" Sgt. Lasky said quickly while pointing at the approaching Rachel.
"Isn't going to do anything to you!" General Lennox interrupted firmly. "All she's interested in, is that cart full of food you have."
The brown eyed soldier took a couple of steps back as the werewolf stepped up to the cart. Then, to his complete bewilderment, the creature looked over at Ratchet and pointed to the cart and it was almost as if she was asking for some type of confirmation.
"Yes Rachel. That is all yours! You'll most likely be hungry again in a while, so I will see about getting some additional food for you." Ratchet said without pausing in his repairs on Moonracer.
Rachel started salivating at the sight and smell of all the food in front of her. She quickly grabbed a piece of grilled chicken and popped it in her mouth. In mere seconds, she was on her tenth piece of chicken when Annabelle walked over to her.
"They make some pretty good stuff in the cafeteria, huh?" Annabelle asked with a grin while trying to keep from laughing at just how fast Rachel was packing it away.
Rachel nodded her head but never once stopped shoving food in her mouth. She couldn't remember ever being this hungry before. It seemed like no matter how much she ate, that ravenous hunger just would not go away!
"Hey, I'm no slouch when it comes to cooking!" Sgt. Lasky protested as he stared at the werewolf that was currently devouring the food he'd brought in. He'd backed away from the cart a couple dozen feet, so he'd have at least something of a head start if he needed to run.
"Relax Sergeant, that's Rachel, the girl you saw the other day. She might be a werewolf now, but she's not as dangerous as you would think." Ratchet said as he saw the Mess Officer getting nervous.
"Annabelle… don't disturb Rachel right now. She burned through a tremendous amount of Calories during her transformation into a werewolf and she is desperately hungry. She just might end up eating close to half her weight in food." Moonracer said softly as she came over after getting up from the berth where Ratchet had completed the few repairs she needed.
"Half her weight?!" Sgt. Lasky exclaimed. "Man! And I thought I could pack it away!"
"You haven't seen anything! Just watch! I bet she can eat more than five of you put together!" Annabelle bragged smugly as she watched Rachel go through one country fried steak after another.
"Annabelle does have a point. I watched her eat thirty pounds of raw meat the other night. This time she'll have access to a lot more food, so we'll see just how much she can go through." Moonracer replied evenly.
Rachel tried to give Moonracer a dirty look without stopping what she was doing. It really didn't work out as well as intended because she was too busy filling her maw with food, and because she wasn't human anymore. The only things that happened were that her eyes narrowed, and her ears laid back against her head. She knew that women weren't supposed to make pigs of themselves where others could see, but she really couldn't help herself because she was starving!
"Moonracer… It's generally not very polite to speak of a lady or a girl for that matter, having a hearty appetite." Sarah said as she walked up to the group. "Annabelle… you know better!" She added in a stern tone.
"You go ahead and eat Rachel. You have a medical reason to be as hungry as you are. So don't worry about what people might think of you right now. We can deal with that later." Sarah said kindly.
"Hey, I'll bring another couple of carts that are loaded with food for her as long as she doesn't chew on me!" Sgt. Lasky exclaimed nervously.
Rachel spared a very brief moment to lay her ears back, narrow her eyes and growl at the man for what he'd said.
The growl surprised her a bit, but the Rachel figured that she was a werewolf, so that could sort of be excused… she hoped!
Sarah watched in silence as Rachel ravenously devoured everything except the dishes on the cart. Her expression, even as a werewolf, clearly wasn't a happy one, once the food was gone.
"You need more to eat, don't you?" Sarah asked softly.
Rachel nodded her head, because she'd already seen that she couldn't actually talk while she was a werewolf.
"Come on. We'll raid the rec room for the food they have on hand. This base operates 24-7, so there's always something to eat if you get hungry." Sarah said as she led the way.
Rachel followed Mrs. Lennox and Annabelle to the rec room. It was weird, because she knew how she would normally walk, but something kept telling her that she was moving wrong. She tried… she tried so hard to walk the way she was used to doing, but her balance was off and she kept stumbling. After that had happened who knew how many times, she got angry for not even being able to walk anymore. She kept trying, but it didn't work. Finally, she listened to whatever it was that was telling her how to do what she should already know how to do. That was when she leaned forward, hunched over and occasionally stuck a hand out for balance. It felt like a very strange way to walk, but it came as a surprise to her that it worked. Whatever that thing inside her head was, it was telling her the right way to do things now that she was a werewolf. Strangely, she knew that she was able to do things that she normally couldn't.
A very good example of things she shouldn't be able to do was right behind her. Rachel could hear Moonracer following them, and she knew by the smell that it was Moonracer and not one of the others that were similar to her. She could smell the differences between Annabelle and her mother, but she could also tell that they were very similar in the way they smelled. She already knew that Mrs. Lennox was Annabelle's mother, but she could also smell that fact! Then there was the way she saw things. Everything was in black and white, but past twenty or thirty feet, everything was nothing but a blur.
Rachel froze in the doorway of the rec room. Sitting at a table less than twenty feet from where she stood, was her aunt and cousin. She couldn't even talk to them while being a werewolf.
"Go ahead and sit with Rachel. I doubt they would try to hurt you." Moonracer said gently.
Rachel turned to look up at the Autobot femme. She couldn't just go sit with those two! She looked like a monster!
"Rachel… given how you've talked about little else, except their impending visit, I know you want to go sit with them! So why don't you?" Moonracer asked as she knelt down.
Rachel tried to answer, but all that came out were indistinguishable sounds that seemed to be a combination of growls and howls. Finally she just threw her hands up in frustration.
"Mom… give me your purse!" Lisa demanded with a determined expression.
Everyone looked at the girl curiously as she dug through her mother's purse. The triumphant grim when she pulled out a small note pad was clear. Sliding a pen out of the woman's wallet, she turned to the werewolf.
"Can you still use these?" Lisa asked hopefully.
Rachel nodded her head while her eyes were as wide as they could go.
"Then come sit down with us!" Lisa demanded.
"Lisa, what if she doesn't want to?" Rachel O'Donnell asked suddenly.
"Oh I know she wants to! Your visit has been almost the only thing she's talked about for the past two days. The reason she's hesitating, is because she's afraid." Moonracer told them.
"Afraid? Afraid of what? It's not like I showed up with silver bullets or something like that." Rachel O'Donnell blurted in disbelief.
"She's afraid of what you'll think of her now that you know she's a werewolf." Moonracer explained.
"You said this was done to her. Is there a chance that the people who did this have a cure?" Miss O'Donnell asked fervently.
"Even if they don't have it, Ratchet started working on a cure for this virus the night she arrived."
"That is caused by a virus?" Miss O'Donnell blurted out. "Those can't be cured as far as I know."
"Maybe this one can be cured, and maybe not. I know that Ratchet isn't going to give up anytime soon." Moonracer stated firmly. "Go sit down Rachel. Sit with your family." She added looking down at the werewolf.
"Yeah! Come on Rachel, I don't think they're gonna bite!" Annabelle said as she walked over to the table where the two were sitting.
At that moment, Sarah walked out of the kitchen area with a large tray of food. A lot of it was protein bars, various kinds of trail mix, beef jerky, and even a few candy bars.
"Where do you plan to sit Rachel?" Sarah asked casually as she looked over at the werewolf.
Rachel looked down at the floor for a moment while she tried to think about things. Everything had just happened so fast. She hadn't really gotten used to the idea that she was also a werewolf. Oh there had been quite a few people who had told her that she was a werewolf, but now she could see that she was a werewolf.
"Rachel is my niece… and she will sit with us!" Miss O'Donnell said in a stern tone while looking straight at Rachel.
"Looks like you took too long. The decision was made for you Rachel, now come sit down and eat. I'll get more when you finish this." Sarah said as she placed the laden tray down on the occupied table at an empty space.
"You'll get her more?" Miss O'Donnell exclaimed as she looked at the tray full of snacks. "I don't think you and I put together could eat that much even if we both had tapeworms!"
"You're right. We probably couldn't… but she can! Ratchet explained it to me. I'm assuming that you don't know who Ratchet is, so I'll explain. Ratchet is an Autobot like Moonracer. He's their Chief Medical Officer. That means that he's the same thing as the head doctor of their world. He's the best their world has, and I'm pretty sure that you can guess that their technology is a long way ahead of ours. If he can't find a cure for Rachel, then there isn't one." Sarah said confidently.
"When Rachel changed into a werewolf, she burned though a massive amount of Calories! Those Calories had to come from somewhere. Unless she had weighed over four-hundred pounds, which she didn't, the only place to get the Calories needed was to dissolve her muscles. Her body cannibalized itself while changing. Right now, her metabolism is higher than someone with ten tapeworms! She needs to eat." Sarah added firmly as she sat down at the table across from the other woman.
"By the way, I'm Sarah Lennox, and that is my daughter, Annabelle." Sarah said while indicating the girl in question.
"I'm Rachel O'Donnell and this is my daughter Lisa. I'm Rachel's aunt, and it's a pleasure to meet you." She replied as she reached across and shook hands with the blonde haired woman.
Sarah studied the woman briefly. She had wavy chestnut hair that was much like her niece, except that hers was tied neatly in a pony tail. The color of her eyes was also like her niece in that they were hazel, where Lisa had a much darker color of hair that was almost black, and bright blue eyes.
Sarah glanced over at Rachel as the werewolf sat down and started eating hungrily. She gave her daughter a light smile as the girl sat down next to the werewolf, between the two Rachels.
"You're not even concerned about her safety?" Rachel asked Sarah in disbelief.
"Keep eating Rachel. I'll handle this." Sarah ordered the werewolf sitting next to her, before looking the other woman in the eye.
Sarah smiled lightly and clasped her hands on the table as she relaxed her posture. "I'm not concerned at all. The first time I met your niece, she looked exactly like she does now, except that she was laying next to the bed my daughter was in after cracking her head open on the floor. She was the one responsible for getting Annabelle the prompt medical attention she needed. The only difference was that, according to Ratchet, she was acting more on instinct than anything else. So apparently, as long as she's not desperately hungry, or someone she cares about is being threatened, she not dangerous in the least."
"Well now that I know what her name is, I can't call her 'Wolfie' anymore." Annabelle said brightly.
"Wolfie?" Miss O'Donnell asked in stunned disbelief. "Why would you call her that?"
"Well… when I first saw her, she was a werewolf. Me and her had a pretty good time Tile Surfing until I slipped and busted my head." Annabelle answered.
"What's 'Tile Surfing'?"
"That's where you put on some real slippery socks and take a running start so you can slide across the tile floor on your feet." Annabelle explained.
"I've done that! That's fun!" Lisa exclaimed.
"Yeah it is. But Mom won't let me do it anymore since I busted my head open." Annabelle said glumly.
"You're absolutely right! I'm not going to let you do that ever again. You got hurt, and Rachel was almost killed because someone mistakenly thought she had hurt you! She didn't deserve to get hurt like that when she was only trying to help!" Sarah snapped sternly.
"What do you mean she was almost killed?" Lisa demanded.
"One of the Autobots kicked her… across the medical bay and into a wall. Almost every bone in her body was broken in several places, and some were compound fractures. Even as fast as she can heal an injury, things were in serious doubt for a while." Sarah said softly.
Rachel O'Donnell looked over at her niece critically. There had been no sign of such injuries on the girl while she was human, nor were there any now that she was a werewolf. She noticed that her niece was watching everyone without actually looking anyone in the eye.
"Hey Rachel, I'm gonna wait till you're done eating before I try to talk to you, but the pen and pad will be right here when you need 'em." Lisa said as she laid the note pad and pen on the table.