A long soak in the hot tub was just the thing I needed to sooth some of the aches in my body. I leaned back in the water, savoring the warmth and wishing I could stay here forever. Unfortunately, I was near the point of passing out and I didn’t want to risk doing that in the water. So with a deep sigh of regret, I slowly climbed out of the water.

Once I was out of the water, I dried myself off while trying very hard not to actually look at myself, especially not the two small mounds that had begun forming on my chest. Ever since Angel Squad had left yesterday on their mission, my body had continued to change to the point where I now looked a little more like Rebecca than I did myself. My penis was less than half the size of normal and I’d even developed my own pair of breasts. They were still small, only about A cups, but they were definitely breasts.

My body had small aches all over the place, though not really as bad as I would have expected considering that my body was reshaping itself. My ribs hurt and I had some nasty cramps that kept hitting my guts off and on, but other than that it was just general aches and a feeling as though my muscles had turned to rubber. I felt weak, unstable, and very clumsy at the moment.

I slowly made my way back to the main living area, being careful to use the wall for balance and not to fall on my face. If I did, none of the girls were currently present to help me back up again. And since I currently felt so unbalanced and drained of energy, there was a very good chance that this would happen if I wasn’t careful.

Once I was back in the kitchen, I took another glass of the nasty green stuff that Rebecca had made for me and then sat down to rest. I closed my eyes, trying not to think about the fact that I was the only person present in this large building. It felt so empty without the girls.

Of course, they’d arranged for people to come check on me while they were gone, but it wasn’t really worth the effort. A doctor came by this morning to take a blood sample, making me feel like I was back in the quarantine room again. And then there was the soldier who brought me food, always while wearing latex gloves and a respirator mask. He kept his distance as much as he could and left as quickly as possible.

“You’d think I was turning into a demon,” I muttered.

As I sat there, sipping on the green slime, I couldn’t resist poking my now soft and puffy chest. I let out a sigh, knowing that my breasts would only get bigger from here. There was no more escaping that than there was the fact that I had the harkon virus in my system. I’d already screamed and cried over my fate and now I mostly felt a dull resignation. I’d accepted the fact that nothing I could do would stop or reverse these changes, though that didn’t mean I liked it.

I drifted off to sleep, only to wake back up again when I heard voices. I looked up to see Rebecca, Dani, and Nicole coming into the room, all of them wearing black uniforms and looking tired and dirty. Then I noticed that Rebecca had her arm in a sling, making me sit up.

“Are you okay?” I asked, noticing that my voice cracked as I spoke.

“I think we should be asking you that,” Rebecca responded, coming over and looking me over.

“There were two demons,” Dani said with a look of disgust. “We thought we were only dealing with one and then the second one got the drop on us…”

Nicole stood there with a sad look before saying, “She was just a little girl too…”

“That was no little girl,” Dani pointed out grimly. “Not once she went demon.”

All three of them went silent at that and I got out of the chair, trying to keep my balance so I didn’t fall over. “What happened with your arm?” I asked, gesturing to Rebecca’s sling.

“I broke it,” Rebecca said with a forced smile, though I saw the wince of pain when she moved.

Since she was in a sling without a cast, I asked, “What did the doctor say?”

“Nothing,” Dani responded with a snort. “The general rule is that when we get hurt, the rest of the unit backs off so they don’t accidentally get infected. That means we usually have to provide our own first aid.”

“Wait,” I blurted out in surprise. “You haven’t had anyone look at this yet?”

“It’ll heal on its own,” Rebecca told me with a sigh, though I could see she was obviously hurting.

“Sit down,” I ordered her, much to Dani’s amusement. “Let me take a look at this…”

Once Rebecca’s arm was out of the sling, I saw that most of her arm was wrapped up in bandages from her wrist to just above her elbow. And what was more, I noticed that there was blood on the bandages. I grimaced and began to carefully unwrap the bandages for a better look.

“Get me whatever medical supplies you have here,” I said without looking up. Nicole hurried off at that.

“Careful,” Rebecca warned me when I touched the bandage.

“What?” I asked, looking Rebecca in the eyes. “It’s a little late to worry about infecting me.”

When the bandages were off, I got a good look at Rebecca’s arm. It was in a slightly odd shape with a piece of bone actually poking out through the skin. “Compound fracture,” I said, slipping into the professional mindset I used when I worked. “I don’t have an X-ray, but I’m guessing you have multiple internal fractures as well.”

“I got hit hard,” Rebecca admitted. Then she told me, “I’ll be good as new in just a few days.”

I stared at her arm for a moment before responding, “But I bet you’d heal faster and easier if we can get this bone back in place.”

Rebecca looked at me for a few seconds before nodding. “Do it.”

“It’s gonna hurt like hell,” I warned her.

“We have a high pain threshold,” Dani said, though a moment later she added, “But that still looks like it hurts like a bitch.”

I carefully went to work on Rebecca’s arm, trying to get the bone back into place. I never would have done something like this with a normal person, but I was pretty sure that I just needed to get the bones as close to their normal position as possible and their own healing abilities would do the rest. After seeing the way Nicole healed, I had no doubts that this would be enough. However, I sterilized the wound, sutured it shut, and then wrapped it all back up.

“Now take two aspirin and call me in the morning,” I joked weakly. “And try not to punch any demons for at least a week.”

“Thank you,” Rebecca told me with an amused look.

“I like this one,” Dani told Rebecca. “Can we keep her?”

I noticed that Dani had used the female pronoun but I didn’t bother protesting. I might not be female yet, but I was close enough that it wasn’t worth arguing over. Since Rebecca had been taken care of, I sat back down again, letting out a long sigh as the exhaustion hit me again. Nicole was immediately by my side, silently handing me a glass of water.

“You guys really need your own medic,” I finally said, taking a long drink of the water.

“Don’t worry,” Rebecca responded with a chuckle. “We’re in the process of trying to recruit one.”

Nicole put a hand on my shoulder and sadly told me, “Lisa used to take care of the medical stuff.”

The mention of their missing ‘sister’ seemed to dim the mood even further. A minute later, all three of them wandered off towards the showers to get cleaned up after their mission. I remained where I was, closing my eyes and thinking about three hot girls taking a shower together until I drifted off to sleep.

When I woke up again, it was to the pleasant aroma of food in the air. My stomach immediately grumbled in response, giving clear notice that it wanted attention. Then as I sat up, I noticed that someone had draped a blanket over me while I slept. I smiled faintly at that, thinking that this was definitely the way to wake up. The only downside was the headache I could feel starting to build.

“You’re up,” Nicole exclaimed when she saw me good. “We were just about to wake you for dinner…”

“Tonight, I made buffalo chicken wings,” Dani exclaimed with a grin, then giving me a wink. “Extra spicy.”

I groaned at that but Nicole elbowed Dani and said, “Quit that.” Then she turned to me and said, “It’s meatloaf and mashed potatoes from the chow hall. Not the greatest, but not that bad either.”

“Party pooper,” Dani joked, sticking her tongue out at Nicole. Watching the way they interacted made me chuckle. They really did act like siblings, teasing each other and everything.

“I don’t know if you like chocolate or not,” Rebecca said as she came into the room. “But we picked up some chocolate mousse for dessert.”

Nicole grinned at that and added, “I am so glad I don’t need to worry about calories or carbs anymore. Being able to eat whatever I want whenever I want makes the whole breast reduction thing worth it.” She made a motion of cupping herself which made me snicker at the movement.

“We aren’t that small,” Rebecca protested in mock outrage while I nodded. They all looked pretty nicely sized to me.

“Yeah,” Nicole responded smugly. “But I used to be bigger.”

A few minutes later, we were all sitting at the dinner table and I was gulping down the food, being even hungrier than I’d thought. I suspected that my body just needed the extra energy for all the work it was doing rebuilding itself. At least this stuff tasted better than the green sludge I’d been drinking.

Once I was done eating, I remained at the table and rubbed my temples. My headache had slowly been growing stronger and I could now feel it like a pounding pressure in my head.

“Are you okay?” Nicole asked me with a worried look.

“A headache,” I answered, forcing a smile. It wasn’t like I could complain about something like a headache when Rebecca was sitting across from me with a shattered arm. Besides, compared to what was happening to the rest of my body, a headache was pretty small. I just wished it didn’t hurt so much. “Is there any Advil?”

“When did it start?” Dani asked me with a scowl.

“When I woke up from my nap,” I answered, only to wince as my head began to pound from within. I gasped at that as the pressure only grew worse.

“Damn,” Dani exclaimed, giving me a look of sympathy. “I’d almost forgotten about this…”

Dani’s reaction was beginning to make me very worried. “What’s happening?”

“Your brain is changing,” Rebecca answered carefully. “It hit Dani hard because…” She glanced at Dani and then added, “Because her brain needed to change more than Nicole’s did…”

I stood up from the table, only to get hit with another burst of this ever expanding migraine. This time it hit me hard enough to drop me to my knees. My head was bursting with pressure, feeling like it was about to explode.

Dani was immediately by my side, whispering, “I know this hurts like hell, but it will get better. You have to hold on and remember that.”

Tears began running down my cheeks and all I could do was gasp, “It hurts so bad…”

There were several times in my life when I’d drunk too much, the worst of which landed me behind bars and left a hangover that was still the stuff of my nightmares. My guts had been tied in knots, my head felt like someone had driven a spike right into it, and every fiber of my body seemed to scream in agony. Of course, the fight that had landed me in jail had definitely contributed to all that, but it had been enough to keep me from every getting that drunk again. What I felt now was more than ten times worse.

I closed my eyes but was unable to block out the agony as invisible hands seemed to pound nails into my brain one at a time. I curled up into a ball and sobbed at it all, only vaguely aware that several pairs of hand were holding me and trying to offer what comfort they could.