A week has passed. We're on the way to dropping Beverly off at the Starbase where she'll get a ride to Earth. Earlier in the week she'd given me an orientation of sorts for this sickbay, one that she had prepared to give to anyone given the job. For the next few days she'd pop in from time to time to check on me, but now she's turned control over to me completely.

"Alex!" Ana frantically hobbles in in, clutching her stomach. I jump down from the table.

"What's wrong?" I ask. Of course I could just use the symptom scanner but in some situations, like this one, it just feels a little soulless to go straight to that. Especially because it's 1pm on a Wednesday and she's supposed to be in class right now.

"Something weird is happening!"

"What kind of weird?"

"My… stomach and… this area." She hovered a hand over the uterus area. "Really hurts. And… there's blood… gushing out. I don't know what's happening!" She said, holding back tears. By the last word she broke down and buried her face into my chest. "Am I gonna die?" She murmers.

"No, you're not going to die." I say calmly while stealing my mom's hair-petting technique, which is harder on curly hair. "It's just puberty."

"Computer, where is Deanna Troi?" I ask.

"Deanna Troi is on the Bridge."

"Computer, where is Beverly Crusher?"

"Beverly Crusher is in Ten Forward."

I tap my badge. "Ensign Samuels."

"Samuels here."

"Samuels, can you retrieve Beverly Crusher from Ten Forward and bring her to sickbay?"

"On it Sir." My medical ensign replies. It's weird being called Sir around her.

"This is a part of puberty?" Ana looked up, horrified.

"Beverly is going to explain everything." I pause. "Do you want something to make the pain stop?"

She nods desperately.

"Do you want me to sneak it?"

She continues the desperate nod with huge puppy dog eyes.

"Ok lie on your back and close your eyes with your palms facing up." It's a modification of a Betazoid meditation technique mom used to use when we had to get shots. I get the hypospray while she does that.

"Now breath deeply, from your stomach. In…out…in…out."

I begin tracing clockwise circles in the middle of her forehead with my fingers. The 12 to 6 o'clock downstroke synced with the inhale, the 6-12 upstroke with the exhale.

"Once upon a time, The beautiful princess Anastasia lived in a treehouse with her pet dragon… Jeremiah."

I move the circles to her cheeks. "One day, the evil Ferengi prince wanted to marry her. But Princess Anastasia wasn't an idiot and knew what that would entail."

I change the cheek circles to tracing her entire jaw line. Left to right, then right to left, back and forth. Beverly walked in at this point and started watching from the doorway.

"And so she said 'no way.' and kicked him in the crotch and Jeremiah breathed fire on him. And then they raided his pockets and used the money they found to buy a huge castle…" I sneak in the hypospray now without pausing the story. "… and they put the Ferengi Prince's head on a stake as a decoration at the castle gates…" I change my jaw tracing to placing each hand on her cheeks with my thumbs on her forehead, with slight pressure. "…And they lived happily ever after. You may open your eyes when you feel ready."

She slowly opens her eyes and sat up, looking around nervously.

"Hi Ana!" She says sympathetically. "What's going on?"

"Um." Ana's embarrassed. I sense it. She feels awkward. "Insides turning against me."

Beverly pauses. "Ah. Ok…." She looks around. "You live with too many boys. Let's go have girl time." And they walk out together. It was endearing, like the daughter Beverly never had that weirdly looks like one of her best friends.

—

Third Person POV

"Ana, what you are experiencing is called a menstrual period. It is a part of how female bodies function from around your age until around the age of 50." Beverly began explaining. She'd first taken Ana to her quarters to take a shower, change her clothes, and put in her first pad (after a brief explanation). Afterwards, they sat next to each other on her bed.

"So it's like this every day until I'm 50?"

"No, no that would be horrible! It typically lasts for a few days to a week once per month. Starting out it may feel random but your body will get into a rhythm with time."

"But why does it have to happen?"

"So, for the last year or so your body has been changing."

Ana nods nervously.

"And you're moving from a child's body to an adult's body." She pauses, trying to keep her words slow and steady.

"And your body is growing into a body that has the physical ability to get pregnant at your discretion."

Ana cringes.

"And so once a month or so, a special organ called your uterus creates an environment for a baby to grow, and your ovaries." She paused to make sure she knew what ovaries were. "…release an egg cell. If you were to fertilize the egg, that egg cell would become a baby. But when you do not, your uterus releases everything."

Ana nodded, hugging her knees.

"This is nothing to be nervous or ashamed about."

Ana nodded.

"Do you know what a hormone is?"

Ana nodded.

"So all of this happens because of hormones. And the hormones can play with your emotions, so you might suddenly crave a certain food, or feel really sensitive, or sad, or angry, or stressed, or even really flirty. This can happen during the period, or right before, in something called premenstrual syndrome, or PMS."

Deanna walked through the main door and paused when she sensed her daughter and Beverly. She slowly walked over to the ajar door.

"There's a pre-period too?" Ana replies, horrified.

"Yes." Beverly nods sympathetically.

Deanna knocked softly. "Ana?" She murmured. "Can I come in?"

"Yeah." Ana replied softly.

Deanna carefully crept in to the sight of Beverly with a maternal arm around Ana, as if she were her own child. She sat down on the opposite side, put her own arm around her, and kissed the top of her head.

"Do you have any other questions?" Deanna said softly, taking over for Beverly.

"Is there some kind of hypospray to make me not get it?"

"No baby. I know, it's not fair. But they have one for the pain."

"I don't like this." Ana scowls.

"I know, but it's a part of growing up."

"Then I don't wanna grow up!"

"Alex tried that. But if he could accept adulthood, so can you."

"Alex doesn't have to deal with this!"

"Yes, but he has his own stuff."

Ana stared back in disbelief.

"Anyway, it's tradition to buy a girl chocolate when she gets her first period. Let's go to 10 Forward."

The three have an intense group hug before getting their fill.