“Well, we will have to see. I have studied human anatomy as a matter of curiosity, but it is not often we have a live subject to…”
“What the fuck does that mean,” Katie interrupted. “You have dead subjects? You’re out here chopping up dead bodies? Is that it? You fucking ghouls.”
“We have models and textbooks and programs which simulate humans,” Mandrake said, his brows lowering in displeasure.
“Oh.”
She’d made an idiot of herself twice inside a minute. That had to be some kind of record. The truth was, she was scared. If the doctor confirmed her pregnancy, then she would be having an alien baby, and if she had an alien baby, then she would have an alien baby-daddy, and she hated that term but it insisted on popping into her head anyway.
“I would give you a sedative,” Doctor Mandrake said. “But I think we should do a full physical first. How were you able to feed yourself while in the city?”
“I just like, stole food, or whatever.”
“So you ate the disposable products which are made available for aliens and the snacks of convenience sold to our juveniles?”
“I ate whatever it was I could eat that didn’t have the consistency of a literal brick. And Darma brought me burgers sometimes.”
“Did he,” Dominax growled.
“Yeah. He did. He was really sweet, actually. Never lifted a finger to me. Never tried to make me do something I didn’t want to do. He kept me safe.”
“He should have brought you back.”
“I guess he respects me more than you do. He knew I didn’t want to come back. He… hey!”
The doctor had picked her up, deposited her on her stomach, and was preparing something that looked very much like a thermometer with some gel that looked a lot like lube.
“Relax,” he said. “I am going to take your temperature. You can continue your argument from this position.”
But she couldn’t really because it was hard to argue face down, and because he had flipped up the back of the robe to reveal her cheeks, and…
“Hey, cut that out!” She reached back and swatted the thermometer out of the doctor’s hand, and onto the bed. “I don’t want that thing in my butt. I feel fine.”
“If you wouldn’t mind restraining your pet, sire,” Mandrake said smoothly. “It will be easier for her if we get this done quickly.”
“It would be my pleasure, doctor.”
Dominax scruffed her by the back of the neck, pinning her down. He also put another hand on her cheeks, parting the left so that the doctor could spread the right, and together they managed to slide the probe into her bottom.
She was left making angry, offended sounds while the thermometer did its work, thoroughly humiliated and very pissed off about the entire situation.
“Her temperature is within healthy range for a human,” the doctor said, withdrawing his probe. “But her temper is…”
“Oh no, they’re all like this. I spent some time observing the people of, where was it again, oh yes, New York. If that was the new version of York, old York must be entirely populated by psychopaths. Humans are incredibly bad tempered when they want to be, and often when they don’t want to be.”
“Let fucking go of me,” she growled, squirming her way up and pulling her robe down. “You fucking muppets. You’re incompetent, that’s what you are.”
“Sit still and let the doctor finish his examination,” Dominax growled. “If I have to punish you, I will.”
“Of course you will. It is all you do.”
“There’s no need to punish her. I can sedate her, and we can do the rest of the exam before she wakes up.”
“You’re not going to sedate me! I’m not sick! And I’m not pregnant!”
“Katie, you’re making this so much worse for yourself.” Darma was still there, being the voice of reason, as usual. But she was not interested in reason. She didn’t want the doctor telling her she was having a baby. She didn’t want anything from any of them.
She pushed the doctor away, and Dominax too. She was prepared to fight them both if necessary, just to get a little space. It was too overwhelming. She almost wished she was back in her little pod. It might have been filthy and lonely, but at least she had control of herself there.
“Get the fuck away from me! Get the fuck…”
She felt a little prick in the back of her arm a moment later, and then there was nothing but dark calm.
16 Weird Biology
Dominax watched his pet slip into deep sleep as the doctor capped the needle.
“She needs to be trained to take medical attention, or she’s just going to become stressed every time we try to handle her.”
“I had barely begun to train her when she ran off,” Dominax replied. “And apparently, my brother decided to let me go insane looking for her rather than telling me where she was.”