I woke up this morning a little confused, remembering the nightmares. I thought for a while and realized that I had a mild drug feeling. I had apparently taken some medicine somewhere during the night. Although I had no mental image of it. I quickly got dressed in the bathroom and slipped downstairs. Damon was still snoring and drooling in bed, his pillow was all soaked up. I went down to the kitchen to find breakfast and Samuel walked into the kitchen. "You're up early. Did you sleep well? " I mumbled something in response and continued to get breakfast. Suddenly determined hands grabbed me by the waist and pulled me back into the man's body to capture me. Damon. "Baby, why didn't you wake me, we could have come for breakfast at the same time, anyway, Miss, you go sit at the table and I'll get you some food in front of you. Today Mimi is studying a tricky subject. It's called How to Obey Damon. "Fine once I got loose from the hands that held me quite effortlessly pressed against him, I went to the table. My God, that throws me off balance. It's not going to work at all if it's like that all the time. Damon. The thought of going to the spa with that almost made my cheeks glow red. I'd gone effortlessly with Adam and Samuel to the spa section the second day I'd arrived and the day after that, but something about Damon and the thought of him pinning me against his naked body, in the same way, made my heart pound. Damon carried a big tray of food in front of me, it was peanut butter sandwiches again, duck, meat, coffee, and Coca-Cola, for some reason he wanted me to preferably drink Coke and lots of it.

I started eating because Adam was eating, now I didn't have to wait for permission.

When I had eaten my stomach completely full I got up from the table and lazily started to walk out. Adam let me wander outside because the yard was sheltered and it was a big yard, fresh air would do me good anytime. I wandered outside and went to sit on one of the benches. It was nice out, not too hot not too cold. I wondered what I was going to be able to do. I had planned to bake, but again Spike and Drusilla messed that up too. We moved from house to house partly because of Adam's projects, partly because he wanted to keep me safe and didn't want us to spend too much time in one place. Maybe Damon's presence would help so we wouldn't have to be constantly changing places. Fine, I was sharing a room with Damon here, but what about Chicago? Somehow I didn't imagine Damon in that room. Well maybe he doesn't sleep with me in every house and if I can't sleep with him then there must be another solution. I continued my walk around the yard, touching trees and plants. I liked touching everything, I always have.

Samuel watched from the window as Mimi wandered around the yard. Oh, now Mimi once again cut or poked her finger at something. Samuel had tried to tell Mimi what could happen, but Mimi wasn't always responsive. Of course, Samuel understood that if every other time he talked to Mimi about something and it dealt with her weight or energy expenditure, it could be hard to listen. But still. As Samuel wondered what might be simmering in that piece of rusted metal, what all would be in Mimi's body again, how much energy would be expended again as she healed the damage caused by the bacteria, and finally, in doing so, overpower the bacteria. Samuel sighed, it's not always easy being Mimi's doctor. Damon came to watch Mimi's activities from the window and actually saw nothing wrong with Mimi wandering around and examining everything, oh now the lady poked her finger into a thorn. Samuel sighed again and shook his head and walked away. He didn't want to look because he just imagined all the pathogens in the world would soon be inside Mimi. Well, it would be blood test time soon, he would see how many germs he had caught this week.

Damon came up to Samuel and said " What's so wrong with you going away and sighing?" Samuel looked at Damon, oh he didn't know. "Mimi doesn't have a functioning immune defense, so whatever she gets into her system she gets rid of by repairing the damage caused by bacteria so quickly that new bacteria can't multiply, and viruses too. I have given her a course of antibiotics every now and then depending on what I find in her blood at any given time. Well, tomorrow is blood test day, so we'll see how good a collection Mimi has in her blood now." Samuel explained wearily. Damon asked, " What do you mean there is no functioning immune defense, she has white blood cells albeit always in the lower range." Samuel said " Well, those white blood cells don't do anything, they just are. It's like Mimi's immune defense is missing half of it, something to complete it and that's it. Damon asked " Are you sure it's a deficiency? Have you tried a bone marrow transplant or something?" Samuel shook his head. He motioned Damon to follow him to Medbay. There, he took a thick file from a locked safe and handed it to Damon. "Read that and then get back to me. That folder contains more or less all of Mimi's health problems, my attempts to solve them, and how they had actually worked out." Samuel walked away, leaving Damon to examine the file. It would take a while for that boy to go through all those.

I walked outside for a while and went back inside, Adam was making dinner. Damon and Samuel were nowhere to be seen. I went over to Adam and said " Can I go to the store tomorrow? I could look at some more clothes in case we change somewhere colder somewhere in the meantime and besides it will be autumn." I was restless and always the promise to buy clothes seemed to work. I actually loved looking for clothes for myself, even though for now I almost had to look in the children's section, but the browsing and the exploring and the touching. Adam looked at me for a moment and said " Fine by me but Damon will be your bodyguard then, are you up for that?" I smiled and said " Of course I am. Safety first." I waited for a while for Adam to finish the food and went to eat again. Samuel came into the kitchen and said "Mimi, today would be the week of blood tests. After dinner then. "

I nodded. I had learned to tolerate a blood sample. I no longer needed to be restrained as long as it was just me and Samuel, but although Adam is security and support, his presence once made me so tense that Samuel put the restraints on just in case. I was a routine creature. I had to do certain things in a certain way. According to Adam, it was my way of being safe. To get a sense of security, of trust. Samuel was a little frustrated as he tested the effects of the drugs on me every now and then, the anesthetics and sedatives. It was all done in restraints. But when they didn't really all work anymore. Ketamine was water and did nothing, morphine, midazolam, tramadol, pretty much all the human drugs were now useless to me. The only thing that had some response was pentobarbital and that's what Samuel was saving. What worked for me were mainly animal drugs such as xylazine, my nightly anesthetic. Medetomidine was another that worked, more effective still. Thiopental still worked too. None of the gases worked because I stopped breathing and they didn't work anyway. Propofol no longer worked. Samuel was always a little frustrated with me for some reason. There were still a couple of large animal drugs that worked but even those were a matter of judgment. Every time something happened to me Samuel's first concern was which drug was no longer working.

I dutifully went to the medbay after I had eaten to wait. I was sitting in a chair waiting when Damon walked in and said "I'm here to take those blood tests now, Mimi. You just sit there. This is going to be fine. " I was quiet. Samuel had to take the tests. I can take that, but this, no, no. As if Damon had sensed my thoughts, the restraints snapped shut. Fine, now I have no choice. Damon efficiently and professionally gathered all the supplies on the table and warmed up the machines. Then he took a stool on wheels and came over to my side. He put a pillow under my arm and felt my veins. "I don't think you even need a stasis, let's see if we can get this done just like this," Damon muttered to himself. He took a needle with a straight applicator where the tube would be inserted. This was not a wing needle-like Samuel used. Damon looked up and said " This is much faster and more efficient than playing with a wing needle. I'll show you. You'll soon see for yourself. And you see, you can't put anything in here except a blood tube. This is for collecting the blood, but the wing needle, see this collector comes off here and now you could put a syringe on here. " I looked for a moment and took a breath.

Damon took and inserted the needle in one smooth motion into my vein and very deftly and quickly drew 38 tubes of blood. As he pulled the collector out of my vein, my wound healed instantly. He released my restraints and began arranging his tubes in the machines. I asked him "Is there anything else or can I leave, by the way, since you are now my bodyguard, I'm going to do a little shopping tomorrow. Adam just said to let you know. " Then I walked away. Damon and Samuel were working on my blood tests for most of the rest of the day. I went out to eat with Adam once again. It was 9 at night when I decided to retire to read. Adam went to make a phone call somewhere he said there was a time difference. I went into the bedroom and changed into my nightgown and went to read.

Half an hour later, Damon came into the room and started undressing. He coolly undressed himself completely naked and headed for the shower. Now if Adam and Samuel were well endowed then this individual certainly outdid them both. Oh that Damon was built beautifully and dangerously. Every muscle showed. He oozed power, danger, and excitement. I knew what that body felt like against me but without clothes on...I didn't even dare imagine. 20 minutes later Damon came out of the shower with a towel around his hips and then as if nothing was wrong he opened the towel and dried his hair and himself before taking it into the bathroom to dry. Then he walked naked to the bed and grabbed a bedspread and folded it. I'd just scrunched it out of the way. He turned his blanket aside and climbed into bed.

Then he said, " Put the book down and come over here in my lap and let's go to bed." Well, yeah, I cleared my throat and said the first thing that came into my head and said "You're not Adam. I can't sleep with you. " Damon sighed and said. " Come on, show me, baby, that you're right. Come on, show me I can't make you relax. Go on. I won't bite. Yet." I put my book away and moved closer. Damon took his own blanket aside so that I was pressed completely against his naked body. I moved closer and Damon scooped me up tight against him. I pressed my head against his chest and closed my eyes, trying to relax. He stroked me. From the hair on my back. His touch was warm, gentle, and comforting somehow. I never thought he could make me feel like this. I began to relax, his heartbeat was incredibly soothing, I fell asleep and didn't even notice the whole injection.

Once Damon had Mimi pressed against him he felt the urge to nurture, to protect, to watch over this obstinate, peculiar woman. Yes, he thought of Mimi as a woman already because it didn't help anyone that Adam and Samuel thought of Mimi almost as a child. It was time for Mimi to remember that she was an adult and to remember how adults do things. Mimi was very happy at the moment that neither of the men saw her as a woman. Damon had noticed it right away. But he would change that, and then the real work would begin. Once he got Mimi to be a woman he would have to help Mimi break down her inhibitions and at the same time keep the competition away because then the whole pack might start to see Mimi as a woman. Mimi relaxed in his arms in less than ten minutes, Damon was just thinking about everything that was coming up and the next day's shopping trips and he didn't give her any medicine all night. Mimi slept clinging to him in a relaxed manner but Damon found that Mimi held on all the time. Her hands didn't go completely limp at any point. Damon knew that he didn't even need sleep nearly every night so he kept stroking Mimi all night until morning. Mimi started to move in his arms a little before 8:00 and Damon gently pulled away because Mimi was starting to awaken a part of him that Mimi wasn't ready for yet. But one day. He would take Mimi's virginity and teach her how perfect it could be for two adults to make physical love. One day.