Author's Note: Finally, I have everything done. I have a research paper to do yet, but we work on that in class so I have plenty of free time again at home. I am so sorry about how long this took! At least it shouldn't take very long next time.

Disclaimer: Shayna and Kiera are the only ones who are mine, everything else belongs to people who are stupidly no longer using them.

Family Relations

By Be Boring

Chapter 10: Isolation

Jondy felt completely rejuvenated after her first week of staying in the cabin. She and Zack went out for a walk nearly every day, despite the cold, and occasionally just jumped up into a tree to take a break. He had stockpiled the place with canned food, but she could make a fairly decent dinner out of it and they ate filling meals at least twice a day. She had gotten more sleep since they'd been here, but that worried her more than anything else. Even though she now felt peaceful and rested, she felt like the need to sleep should have gone away again by now, but by the time midnight rolled around she was ready to turn in for the night. She didn't say anything to Zack, but every now and then she felt a wave of dizziness come over her, and sometimes she even felt nauseous. Frequent headaches began to plague her as they entered the second week, and sometimes they would progress into migraines.

By the middle of the second week, she was sick and tired of it. The person nearest to them was Tinga, so she gave her big sister a call and described her symptoms. Tinga's reaction, however, didn't make much sense to her. "Do you feel really warm sometimes, but then it goes away quickly?"

"Yeah, but that's usually when Zack and I are sitting by the fire, so I assume that's what I'm feeling."

"I think you told me once, but you're a virgin, right?"

Jondy didn't see why that was relevant to the conversation. "Yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?"

"You've never really had, um, extenuating circumstances where that nearly changed?"

"Like what? I've never really had a boyfriend, and you know I'm too strong to be a rape victim. Where are you going with this?"

"Jondy, I want you to listen to me carefully. Go into your bedroom and stay there until I get there, do you understand? Oh, and could I talk to Zack before you hang up?"

She didn't see why not, so she shoved the cellphone into his hand and stalked to her bedroom. Why was Tinga being so damn mysterious? She listened through her door to Zack's occasional "Mm hmm," "Yeah," "Uh-huh," until he suddenly burst out in shock, "You're kidding, right?" She couldn't help herself, she had to push the door open a little bit to see more. Zack's eyes were wide as he listened to Tinga, then he groaned. "I'd wondered about how we'd deal with all that, but it never occurred to me that she's never had one before. I thought everyone had by now, so I just expected she'd tell me when she was due and I would go away until it was over. How soon can you be here?"

When he hung up the phone, she threw open the door in frustration. "What the hell is going on? Don't start tiptoeing around me, just tell me. Why does Tinga have to come out here? I didn't think anyone knew about this place."

"I had to tell her about it this time, and I know she won't tell anyone else. She told me that she ordered you stay in your bedroom, and I think that's a good idea right now, so get in there."

She planted her feet and crossed her arms firmly across her chest. "Not until you tell me what's going on."

He rolled his eyes and marched towards her to shove her into the bedroom. The strange thing was that she noticed him sniff the air gently once he was near her. "I'm hardly the person to talk to you about this, you need one of the girls for that. Before you ask, you have to know you're not getting anything out of me. It's just the way it is, and I'm sure you'll understand before too long."

"You can't just lock me in here," she shouted irritably as he shut the door behind her. She grabbed the knob and tried to open it again, but Zack was standing on the other side holding it shut. "I'm being treated like a damn animal," she grumbled as she walked over and plopped down on her bed. "This is ridiculous."

"It's not ridiculous, it's for your own good," he interjected from the other side of the door. She just stuck her tongue out in his general direction and lay down with a soft "hmmph!"

~~~~~

The next few hours passed far too slowly for her, especially since she had nothing to entertain her in the entire room. Sometimes she would shout out for Zack and hurl some insults at him, but he didn't reply and she soon gave up. Some more brief heat flashes like Tinga had asked about came over her, but they left as quickly as they came and fairly soon she didn't even notice them. She started to worry a little bit about what was going on. Was she sick and contagious? What other reason was there to separate her from Zack?

"Jondy, are you in there?" came Tinga's voice from the other side of the door.

Jondy rolled her eyes. "Where else would I be? What was the point of all this?" She just barely heard Zack whisper, "I hope you're wrong about this," when Tinga opened the door and came in. She smiled brightly, but it faded slightly at the annoyed look she got in response from her sister.

"I know you're mad, but you won't be once I've explained all of this. Zack is going out for a while so I can talk to you without any interruptions, and without you getting too embarrassed over him knowing everything. Do you know how X5s go through puberty?"

That had to be the last thing she had expected to hear. "No, not really, I've never really thought about it. I should have gone through that by now though, right?"

"Apparently not, but I should have suspected it back when you first told me you were a virgin. You see, that's really not very common for us. In fact, you might be the only female virgin X5 out here. I really don't know how to explain this to you without saying it bluntly, but I'll try. We don't have menstrual cycles like ordinary women, we tend to take after our feline counterparts in that respect. We have reproductive processes like cats, not humans. Do you see what I'm getting at here?"

She sat there for a moment, hoping that her first thought was wrong. "Are you talking about a cat's heat cycles?"

"Good, I didn't have to say it straight out. Yes, I'm talking about heat cycles. If I'm right, you're about to have your first one, and believe me when I say you need someone here to keep an eye on you. The rest of your heat cycles will just be a couple days of a high sex drive like you would expect one to be, but the first one is usually a little sporadic. It's also quite a bit stronger, so I'm going to be here to basically hold you back. You'll get to the point where you will try to get to a town just so you can find a man, which is also why Zack is going to stay at a hotel until you're over it. You're lucky, you look so flushed right now that I think if I had gotten here much later you might have already gone after him."

Jondy couldn't imagine doing anything of the sort, but she figured that Tinga knew what she was talking about. "What do you mean by sporadic?"

"Well, instead of just having a steady cycle, it'll break into brief increments of a very strong heat, then there will be some time in between each of those where you'll be back to normal. The whole process can be a little overwhelming, and it's common to even self-inflict pain to try to snap yourself out of it, which is another reason why I need to be here. I don't want you to hurt yourself too badly."

It was overwhelming just hearing what was about to happen, she couldn't even imagine how it would be once she really started to feel it. "If there's no guys around, will it be as strong?"

"Yeah, unfortunately being away from any males doesn't make it much easier, it just makes you safer. I can tell you right now, heat cycles are awful unless you have someone around to help you take care of it. We didn't want to have to do that though, I think it's important for you to choose when you lose your virginity, especially when most of us didn't get that option."

"How long is this going to take, anyways?"

"Maybe four days at the most, but it will feel like a lot longer. Just relax, we'll have a long time to talk."

~~~~~

As the hours wore on, Jondy definitely started to notice some discomfort. Her body began to ache, and flashes of heat started to come more frequently. She eventually pulled off her sweatshirt and wandered around with just her tank top and jeans on despite the light draft that snuck in around the only window in the room. She did manage to keep up a regular and rather entertaining conversation with Tinga, even though her thoughts eventually began to wander. Memories of every good-looking man she'd ever met raced through her head, chasing one another around until a blur of six-packs and bulging biceps were dancing in front of her eyes rather than Tinga's face. Still, everything felt manageable and she didn't see what the big deal was.

"Does Charlie know how young you are? You had to be only 16 or 17 when Case was born, and didn't you guys get married while you were still pregnant? Is that even legal?"

"I fudged my information a little bit. Charlie thinks I'm a few years older, but I don't see how that's such a big deal, especially when you take all my other secrets into consideration. It's so strange, it was like love at first sight when I saw him, but we didn't actually meet until my heat cycle. The great thing was that he's one of those guys who doesn't like one night stands, so we decided to try dating afterwards and as you can see it turned out really well. I think within three weeks of dating him I realized I was head over heels in love with him, and we actually said it to each other about a month later. He's such a romantic; he brings me a dozen roses on Valentine's Day along with a pile of chocolate, and I swear I can't see how we're not broke every time Christmas rolls around. Then there are the conversations we have. We can stay up all night long just talking about different things, whether they're really important or just gossip. I really hope it will always be like this."

"How did Zack take your marriage and son? That doesn't sound like something he'd agree to right away."

"Trust me, he didn't. We actually had screaming matches about it, even though he never resorted to violence to change my mind. As much as I loved Charlie was pretty much equal to how much Zack and I hated each other at that time. I was going through a really rebellious stage, and he was so sick and tired of dealing with me. He actually wanted me to get an abortion, but I wouldn't hear of it. The marriage was really the last straw, but Charlie and I did it as secretly as possible. Even Zack didn't get there until it was too late and he just had to live with it since I refused to leave my husband. He still doesn't like Charlie very much, but I think he has a warm spot for Case. When he visited me right after Case's birth, I woke up from one of my many naps to see him holding Case and just staring at him like he was fascinated. Ever since then he at least gives him a little smile every time he comes to visit. He really has a soft spot for kids even if he won't admit it. I never really thought I would like kids, but I guess things change when you have one of your own. I'm absolutely in love with my little boy, and I even kind of like the other kids at the babysitter's where I send him."

Jondy smiled a little. "Yeah, I really like kids too. In fact, I completely love them. When I was sent to the Casteau's, we were set up in rooms with five people. There were two older kids to act as parents, a middle child for help with chores, and two little kids. Victor wasn't a very good parenting partner since he was out screwing his girlfriend half the time, but Cassie, who was the middle child, and Jason and Mindy were wonderful. Cassie helped out with everything and wouldn't hesitate to do extra without anyone asking. Jason and Mindy always worked so hard to help out, but they couldn't really do much. Mindy was a very dreamy little girl, sometimes she would just sit there and stare at the floor and you knew that she was daydreaming about something that probably most of us couldn't even comprehend, and Jason was always sick. He always had a cold or the flu, and I swear he managed to get pneumonia every year. I really wish I could have taken him with me, because he's the one who will have the hardest time without me. Mindy can get along fine in her little dream world and Cassie has always been able to take care of herself, but Jason really depended on me. He had a hard time sleeping if I didn't tuck him in at night, and I was the only one who could calm him down after a nightmare. Every time he was sick, I would convince the Casteau's to let me stay home from school to sit by his bed, and that always seemed to help him recover faster. I couldn't have been any closer to him if he was my own son." She hadn't even noticed it, but a couple tears slid down her cheeks at the thought of the kids from her room. She hadn't realized how much she'd missed them.

"You'll be a really good mother someday, you already have that nurturing nature."

She groaned and twisted in her spot a little. Things were starting to feel more urgent. "Well, my body is saying I should go become a mother as soon as possible."

"Is it starting to get worse finally?"

"Finally? You make it sound like you were looking forward to it."

"It's just that the sooner this all starts, the sooner it will be over. I don't know how I'm going to explain this to Charlie when I get home. I suppose I could say I had a sister with a high fever, because that would fit pretty well."

"Very funny," Jondy grumbled. "Do we have some games around here? Maybe something like that would get my mind off this better."

Tinga nodded and headed to the living room, only to return with an armful of board games. "Let's see what I've got here. I dragged out everything I had from home, I hope Charlie doesn't notice. I have Monopoly, Life, Scrabble, Clue, a checkerboard with both checker and chess pieces, and a deck of cards. I also brought along this old Playstation that I stole from a dumpster when I was younger. It still works pretty well, and let me tell you that playing Mortal Kombat while you're in heat is a blast. It's kind of creepy to be turned on by a character in a game, but watching some muscle-bound ninjas kick the crap out of each other is such a turn on during a heat cycle."

"Let's start out with chess, I could use a challenge right now."

As they made their way through the pile of games, Jondy was finding it harder and harder to ignore the feverish power of her heat cycle. Learning how to play several different card games that she'd never even heard of before was a pretty good distraction, especially when she really threw herself into it and beat Tinga by a landslide. When they brought out the Playstation and started playing Mortal Kombat, Jondy occasionally had to dig her fingernails into the palms of her hands to try not to let her mind wander. After they'd been playing for about fifteen minutes, Tinga reached out and grabbed Jondy's wrist so hard that she swore she heard a crack. "What are you doing to yourself?"

Jondy was stunned to see blood trickling out of her clenched fist and sliding down her arm. She quickly opened her hand and saw the four deep cuts from her fingernails bleeding steadily. She didn't even need to look at her other hand, now that she was paying attention she could feel the warm wetness in her palm. "I didn't even know I was doing it," she said quietly, unable to figure out how she could have hurt herself without knowing it. After cleaning the cuts and wrapping her hands in some bandages, she returned and they started playing cards again on the floor next to the bed so that Tinga could see her hands at all times. An hour passed, then two, and Jondy finally began to feel that some of it was dying down. Maybe I'll return to normal for a little while now, like Tinga said I would. It was becoming so much easier to keep her mind on task, in fact, that she decided she would go take a bath. Tinga carefully inspected the bathroom to make sure there were no escape routes before she left her little sister alone, leaving Jondy very relieved. She loved her sister dearly, but spending several hours straight with no one other than her began to get tiring. Some alone time was really what she needed right now.

As she pulled off her clothing, she thought she detected a strange smell in the air. No, that's not strange, I've smelled it before, she thought with some frustration. Her mind was somewhat foggy, so she couldn't really place the scent even though she knew that she had smelled it several times before. However, she shrugged it off and slid into the bathtub, which was filled with steaming hot water. She wasn't sure whether she had made a good decision in using hot water, especially when her body nearly screamed out in agony at the shock of it, but she ignored any discomfort and closed her eyes.

By the next time her eyes slid open, she was no longer in the tub. From what she could see of the ceiling, she realized that it was her room. It took her a few minutes to collect her thoughts, and she was focusing most of them on how she had gotten here without waking up. Wait a second, is that Zack's voice in the living room?

"I don't think it's a good idea for me to be here, with everything as it is right now. You said she's okay, right?"

"For now, but what if she does it again? Zack, she doesn't even know she's hurting herself. I don't even think she felt the pain, otherwise I'm sure she would have cried out at the very least when she got into her bath. It was such hot water, that had to hurt."

"What was it she did to herself exactly? All you've told me was that she was bleeding."

Jondy didn't understand, what had happened? She hadn't hurt herself, she was perfectly fine other than her damn hormones. Perhaps she had hurt herself while getting out of the bathtub and she just didn't remember right now. Tinga quickly erased that theory from her mind though. "When we were playing cards, she was leaning back against the bed. I'm guessing you hid a knife under the mattress for protection, and either she knew it was there and did it deliberately or it was just an accident, but the tip of the knife was sticking out when she first sat down. She gave herself a gash that goes all the way up her back, and she deepened it when she stood back up. I was walking ahead of her on the way to the bathroom, so I didn't see it, and I couldn't smell the blood over her heat cycle. You know how much the pheromones cloud the air, even I can't smell through it even though it doesn't affect me. Then she started bleeding into the water, it was so lucky that I left my drink in the bathroom and went back to get it. I don't think she lost too much blood, but it really scared me. Zack, what if she hurts herself again? She can't help it, so it's not like she can stop herself. Short of handing her over to some strange man or locking her up in a padded room in a straight jacket, I don't know what to do."

"We're not handing her over to a stranger, and do you see any padded rooms around here? Look, I don't know what to do either, but I do know I'm not going to be able to leave. I realize it's not safe for me to be here, but we have to keep an eye on her so nothing like this happens again." Jondy couldn't keep following the conversation, her eyelids were starting to droop too far. How could she have done that to herself? Why couldn't she remember? All she knew now was that the loss of blood had worn her out.

~~~~~

When she woke up again, she realized it had to be noon of the next day. There was some movement in the kitchen, so she decided to brave the possibility of running into the Zack and walked out to see what it was. With her luck being what it was, of course it was Zack that she found in the kitchen. His back was to her as he made a grilled cheese sandwich on the stove, and it appeared that the sizzle of the butter in the pan was drowning out any noise she was making. He must not expect me to be awake yet, she thought eagerly.

Zack barely caught her movements out of the corner of his eye, but he wasn't quick enough to hold up his arms to block her. Instead, his arms only managed to get halfway up before she slid comfortably between them and urgently pulled his face down to hers. She hadn't done much kissing in her life, but it seemed to come naturally enough as she pushed him roughly against the counter. She slid her fingers up through his hair to hold him there, sensing his initial resistance. He can't resist it for long, he's still a man. To help him in his decision, she shoved him onto the counter and climbed up to be above him, pinning him down on its ice cold smoothness.

Suddenly, he reached up, grabbed her waist, and threw her as hard as he could. She yelped in pain as her back struck the opposite counter sharply and looked up in time to see Zack splashing water on his face from the sink. Stumbling towards the door in a sudden rush of rationality, she couldn't help but be astonished that Zack had hurt her, even though she understood that he didn't have much of a choice. What other options did he have to keep her off of him? Slowly but surely she made her way to her bedroom, just barely avoiding each wall as she approached them. She couldn't even let herself relax until she had shut her own door behind her and collapsed onto the bed.

Some footsteps on the other side of the door alerted her to the fact that Zack was there. "I'm so sorry, Jondy, I didn't want to hurt you. I just couldn't think of any other way to stop you, and I knew how horrible you would feel if we didn't stop."

She sighed. "Zack, you don't have to explain, I would have done the same thing if our roles were reversed. All the same, I think I'll just stay in here until this is over, okay?"

"Yeah, okay." His soft footsteps padding away were the last sounds she heard from him for the rest of the day.

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Author's Note 2: Please review!