“You have got to be kidding,” I spat out in disgust as I looked at my blood soaked panties.

An hour and a half ago, Nicole had been the first one to actually start her bleeding cycle. Almost immediately, Dani and Rebecca had put in their tampons and recommended that I do the same.

“We usually start within a few hours of each other,” Rebecca told me.

The idea of putting something up inside of me had just seemed wrong so I’d refused. Nicole had given me a look that seemed to say, ‘you’ll be sorry’. Now that my own flow had actually begun, her expression seemed to say, ‘I told you so’.

“I’m sorry,” Rebecca said, giving me a faint smile that seemed to contain both sympathy and amusement. “But this is just part of being a woman.”

“Well, this part sucks,” I complained.

“No argument there,” Nicole said as she handed me a tampon. “Just be thankful that our high pain threshold means we don’t feel the cramps much.” She paused for a moment before adding, “I really don’t miss those.”

“It’s still pretty damn disgusting,” Dani added with a scowl.

“Do you need help with that?” Nicole asked, gesturing to the tampon.

I shook my head, already having read the instructions on the back of the box. Yesterday, after Dani had warned me about my period, I’d also gone online to read up on what to expect, though it wasn’t really anything new. The only real difference was that now it applied to me.

I went to the bathroom to wash up and put in my tampon. It was disgusting and I felt completely wrong putting something inside of me like this. However, I couldn’t very well complain to my sisters so decided to just pull up my big girl panties and deal with it.

When I left the bathroom, Nicole gave me a hug. “I know the first time isn’t easy,” she told me. “But you’ll get used to it.”

“I did,” Dani added with a scowl, before muttering, “Eventually.”

“Normally, we try keeping the physical training kind of light on these days,” Rebecca told me. “But don’t be surprised if we get called on a mission. Demons don’t stop attacking just because we have our monthly visitor.”

After this, we all settled down in the living room to watch TV, though no one could really agree what we wanted to watch. Rebecca won the game of rock paper scissors to decide and we ended up with some game show that was moderately amusing.

I didn’t really pay a lot of attention to the TV though as I kept thinking of what my body was going through. I imagined that my former girlfriend Cindy would probably laugh her ass off if she ever found out. Somehow, I couldn’t quite imagine her being as helpful with this as my sisters were.

“There’s one thing we need,” Nicole exclaimed, getting up and rushing to the kitchen. She came back a minute later with some bowls of chocolate ice cream. “Chocolate is the best medicine,” she assured me.

“Booze is better,” Dani added, though she didn’t turn down the ice cream.

“As you might guess,” Rebecca told me with a serious look. “We have to be even more careful than usual when we leave Heaven.”

I nodded at that, knowing what she meant. As long as we took our daily shots, we were usually no more dangerous to others than someone who had HIV. Normal physical contact wouldn’t infect anyone else and common sense precautions were all we really needed. But now that we were having our periods, that changed things a little. Any contact with our blood was enough to infect someone, which meant that we would have to be extra cautious.

“No changing tampons in public restrooms or anywhere else on base,” Nicole pointed out unnecessarily.

“It’s easiest to just stay near Heaven,” Dani said.

I nodded at that, making a mental note to scrub the bathroom down. In fact, having four bleeding angels meant that Heaven was even more risky for others to be in than usual. I’d have to decontaminate everything when I got a chance, just in case Hannah or someone else came here.

“So, how was your date last night?” Nicole asked Dani, who blushed just a little.

“None of your business,” Dani snapped.

“Come on,” Rebecca added with a grin. “We’re sisters. We share everything…”

“Besides, you didn’t have any problems asking me about my last date,” Nicole pointed out with a broad grin.

Dani rolled her eyes and said, “Fine… We just had dinner, hung out for a bit, and did a little kissing.”

Nicole gave her a skeptical look and asked, “You didn’t go any further?”

“Would that be safe?” I asked in surprise. I’d imagined that being infected with the angel strain meant that it would be too dangerous to have sex with anyone.

“It’s safe as long as we take precautions,” Rebecca said, looking just a little self-conscious. “Our shots keep most of our fluids from being infectious, but you should still use protection too.”

“The hard part is finding a guy willing to do us,” Nicole told me with a sigh. “Most are afraid that just kissing us will infect them.”

I blushed at this topic, not sure that I’d ever be ready to have sex with a guy. I was still having difficulty just getting used to the idea of being attracted to them. The thought of actually going all the way was… Well, it was actually kind of interesting now, but way more than I’d be able to bring myself to do.

Dani chuckled and said, “Actually, I told Mike that if he wants to go further, he’s going to beat me in another race.”

“You tease,” Nicole exclaimed with a laugh.

I watched Dani for a moment, remembering quite well how her limp had completely vanished the moment Mike had left. I had a feeling that Mike probably wouldn’t have to wait too long before she had another ‘slip’ while racing him.

We continued talking about Dani’s date for a few more minutes, or at least the others talked about it while I sat there listening. Rebecca put a hand on my shoulder and gave me a gentle smile.

“I know this has to be a bit odd for you,” she told me. “I mean, you were on the other side less than a month ago.”

“I’m getting used to it,” I assured her with a faint smile. “Slowly.”

“Don’t worry,” Dani told me with a smirk. “You’ll be ready to pop your cherry in no time.”

I gasped at that while Nicole elbowed her in the side and said, “I’d think that if anyone was sympathetic to her situation, it should be you.”

“What?” Dani asked with a look of mock innocence. “Too soon?”

“You are such a bitch,” Nicole told her with a scowl while Rebecca and I just watched and laughed.

As I sat there with my sisters and eating a bowl of ice cream, it was easy to get distracted and forget about the fact that I was actually having my period. Of course, it was still there in the back of my mind, but while I watched Dani, I couldn’t help but thinking that she’d adjusted to it without a problem, and if she could do it, then so could I.