No Good Deed Chapter 23: A change of plans
#23 of No Good Deed
Ronan's visit to the school nurse goes horribly wrong. Or Horribly right?
A change of plans
Despite the early bedtime the alarm was ringing, and had been for sometime when I woke up the next morning. My head felt like a used discount drum and my vision didn't want to unblur.
The light scent of smoke filled the room, and I fell out of bed with a shot of adrenaline, sniffing around looking for the fire. I practically ran into James as he was closing his hibernation pod following the trail.
"YOU. You're the one that set that fire."
He huhed? Looked down at himself and sniffed. "Three. Baths. I had to take three baths and you can still...Yeah. I needed to blue some steel for my radios." he gestured to his glass piggy bank, filled three quarters of the way up with the schools wooden nickels. "You want one? I'll get you a discount. Like I said I owe your dad some favors..."
I grumbled and headed into the bathroom for my morning bath and change. I had to leave the bath halfway through and hurry Kaash through the change. For an outfit all I had was a long, light red shirt and a pair of fly-less underwear that functioned as a diaper cover.
"This can't be an approved outfit" I said, hopping off the changing pad to rummage through the drawer, only to find the pink shirt I'd arrived in and the whiff of smoke.
"It actually Is" Kaash informed me. AI's couldn't lie but I had the feeling this one wasn't telling me everything either.
I followed the scent of my clothes across the room and over to the stasis chamber
"What.. JAMES! Did you sell my clothes for start up money for your little operation?"
"That...would have been a much better idea. I'll look into it when you get back." he sealed the popsickles stasis chamber and ran out the door. I growled and tugged on the handle but of course something designed to keep out the centuries didn't open for something as feeble as my little arms pulling on it. James drawer was likewise locked, with what looked like some custom mechanism. Not that I had the 5 minutes it would have taken to bypass the school ones.
I grumbled. I couldn't call out sick. A human MIGHT be able to get away with that, but a Kin claiming to be sick would be known to be lying, or spark a sector wide health emergency if true. And I couldn't call in hurt without ratting out ... well half the class given how yesterday had gone. I turned about in the mirror taking a look at my rump. The loose shirt could have just had a pair of shorts under it and no one would know. It would have to do.
I managed to deal with the blurry vision without any problems but my ankle got tired about halfway to class and just wouldn't move the way I needed it to. This left me limping into class just when the bell went off.
"Late Mis...." the teacher blinked, looked me up and down and shook his head. The class tittered. He moved aside and let me sit down without further recriminations.
The autumn sun shone through the window just as it came over the mountains. This was a good thing for dozing with the warmth on my fur but a bad thing for paying attention to the seemingly random delineation of story into right and wrong interpretations, especially with a skull pounding headache. The class kept bursting out into random fits of laughter, which was about as common in that classroom as it was appreciated by Mister Gris. I tucked my tail some and pulled my shirt lower trying to hide my padding, but it was already around my knees and definitely not showing off my undies so I had no idea what they were laughing at.
After a seeming eternity the class ended I got up to leave and noticed that the half of my shirt that had been in the sun, whatever shade of red it had started out as, was now undeniably pink. Violently, horribly, bubblegum pink. My tail bristling and shooting straight back as I clenched my fists only served to lift the shirt up to reveal the panties but I didn't care as I stalked to Tech class hoping to catch James before he left.
"Hey Ronan you. uhm.. lose a bet or something?" Mister Niklaas asked, watching me enter the room with his head tilted. I stalked through a Bear and a Wolf and a Human by ducking between the bears legs making him flinch and his friends laugh.
"JAMES" I growled, shaking the hem of what I was starting to suspect wasn't a too big T shirt. "What the hell is this?"
"It's ...ah. Very pretty now? That half red half pink slash down the middle is absolutely inspired..."
Enormous fingers appeared around my waist and hoisted me up, legs running on air.
"Alright, that's enough. Ronan, you behave for TWO minutes and if you're okay, I'll leave you alone with James for two minutes and let you two roomies settle this. James stick around I'm going to need you either way" Mister NIklass growled, halting James in his tracks on the way out the door.
My but crinkled as he sat me down but the teacher paid it no mind. Instead he shone a light into my eyes "Hard to tell with the slitted pupils."
"They make a concussion scanner for that you know. The school didn't buy mine but..." James said around the protection of the Garms tail.
"That mightn not be the worst idea. " He winced and stuck himself on something in the drawer and took out a rubber snake, a bolt driver, and a bar of soap before finally a medical scanner. He held my leg out away from the desk with surprising tenderness, wincing at something. "You walk to class right?" he said, bringing the device up to my head. It beeped at him instantly and he lowered it down over my ribs, eliciting a lot of red beeps "Not checking those manually" he muttered, and turned it around. "Watch the red dot...don't move your head" he put the device on my peripheral vision " I said don't. move. your head.." and tucked a big paw on my chin. His phone vibrated and he looked it over for a second. He tried to hide it but i saw him wince at the readout.
" Ronan, that's a nasty hit to the head you got there. Lucky day James. I was betting with my AI on Ronan. James, take Ronan down to Miss Norveg. She's got more training and some better equipment. Ronan, NO fighting, NO fussing. Take James' help" he tapped my nose. "I want to hear you promise"
My muttering not to hurt him too badly was declared "close enough" and I was set on the floor. I let James holy my arm until we were out of sight and then started limping on all fours.
"What the hell. I thought we were friends. Or that you wanted to help me." I tried to keep my voice from sounding shrill or growly, but it was getting hard.The girls room and Miss Norveg was pretty much across the entire school and my ankle was getting stiffer with every step.
"I am helping you. Sometimes you get what you need, not what you want"
He held out his arm and we rounded the corner. A couple of humans and a Fox awwed at us "Must be puppy love" they snickered , before being chided by the teacher. I got down one more hallway on my own before needing help, and of course at that point we almost ran into Ocktack giving a tour to the Popsicles.
"Over here we have the. Oh. Hi. Ronan. Erm.. Other Fox." We tucked our tails almost in unison and shuffled over to the far side of the wall and bowed. The Popsickles shifted nervously and sped up down the hall.
"You are so lucky I don't want to ow.. beat you up ow.. in front of .. the.. ow.. elders..."
"Yeah, I'm shaking in my socks. We'll talk later okay? Be a good girl for the Red Eyed Devil" James shot in front of me.
I growled and bristled
James stepped to the side and revealed Miss Norveg, standing there with her paws on her hips.
"Young ladies do not growl. They do not show their teeth. They definitely don't do either at ME. Not all Rats cower at the first sign of pearly whites."
"Oh. I'm so sorry about that I was talking to JaEEEP" I was cut off as surprisingly strong four fingered paw scruffed me about the neck, making it hard to walk, much less point at the white tip of James tail, which was all of him that was still in sight.
I was unceremoniously marched into the girls room past long wooden tables full of humans and Kin all of whom suddenly seemed to have a book or craft project in hand and definitely were not staring over them to peer at the spectacle of a Todd being dragged into the room.
"Stop" she said rather redundantly as she halted me in front of a plastic beaver. Over the scent of real wood, playclay, clean fur and freshly washed humans I could smell the aerosolized ingredients of a printer.
"Big girls control their mouths and what comes out of them."
"I'm NOT a..." I said rather loudly, proving her point more than I'd like. her almost pupiless red eyes peered sternly at me. I felt a cold chill down my spine at the Rat's stare, accompanied by a warm trickle between my legs moving back under my tail. Her nose twitched. "Obviously" her paw moved up from my neck to my headfur and back down, and up down and rubbed between my ears slowly. I heard a few snickers from the Kin in the room who could tell there had been a badly timed accident.
"Mister Beaver, Ronan needs some help calming down. Rona, ask Mr. Beaver for something"
I bristled a bit at the girls name and mumbled something. Judging from the Rats glare, twitching tail and taping paw that was insufficient. I did feel bad about growling at her though so...
"Mister Beaver can I have something to help me calm down." three paw taps from the teacher later I added "Please?" She resumed petting my ears as the beaver lowered into his "pond" of liquid polymer. He clacked his teeth mechanically but it was all for show.The lasers whirling and colliding were mesmerizing, and I sat transfixed watching the liquid solidify into a large bulbous head with a pink shield and a ring.
"If I said I was REALLY sorry about showing teeth..."
She held the pacifier up. I opened my maw and she plopped it in. I TRIED to just hold it there, but my lip quivered once, twice, and started sucking. It didn't help that the Rat was smiling and expertly working her fingers in circles around my ears. The class "Awwed" and went back to pretending to work.
"Maybe we should go someplace a little more private"
That place turned out to be a thickly carpeted area behind a low bookshelf, which made it a little more private but barely. The changing table in the corner lowered at our approach and she helped me up. The Rat ran her fingers over my paws a few times soothingly, telling me to spread my fingers and praising my compliance. She rummaged around a built in shelf and took out a hedgehog and an adorable stuffed bat which emitted a low, steady hum when she ran it up and down my leg.
"Is that a sonogra..." she put a finger to my nose. "When the pacifier is out you may speak. When the pacifier is in, you may not. Grown ups may remove the pacifier. YOU man not. Understood?" I started to say yes, but then nodded instead. "Give the bat a kiss..." she held it up nose to nose, I touched the pacifier to it and giggled. She awwed. "Good girl" and rubbed my ears. My objections didn't make it to the pacifier this time, just made me suckle harder at the nice warmth spreading through me.
She winced at the readout on the wall. "One or two soothers hon?" the medic asked. When I shook my head she said "Three it is" She put her palm print to the table and tapped it in sequence. "Open" she commanded with a direct look, talking the pacifier out. My muzzle opened on it's own. She gave me a few seconds to chew before rubbing my throat up and down, up and down, to make sure I swallowed. "Wrist out" she fitted a velco bloodpressure cuff onto my arm and waited.
"I can see why you've been so fussy." She turned a lovely pet to the ears to a guiding paw on my back that left me wondering why I was looking up at the ceiling. "But things hurt when they're out of place. Gears grind. Bones rub on tendons. Tendons inflame. You disrupt the social order, and it snaps back. But when we accept our place and work with it, it's so much easier isn't it?" she lifted my shirt and gently poked at my ribs, and I heard the sound of a little vixen whimpering.
"I know I know. It hurts But just for a few seconds, and then we're where we belong." her ears turned to the bookshelf and without looking around
"Samantha, Nova. Would you two be dears and head to Ronas room and get her a teddy bear or blankey?" one of them dropped the book they were ostensibly getting and the human said "yes miss Norveg" and almost ran out.
"Should be able to do this now." she took the pacifier out. " If this hurts let me know. You will not pretend to be a big kit, you will not peek, and you absolutely will not move, understood?" she flexed my ankle a little and it was barely a twinge. At her look I held my fingers a little bit apart. She rubbed my belly up and down, up and down "good, the soothers are working." she took a small needle out of the hedgehog. I hoped she was too occupied with whatever she was planning to see me put my paws over my eyes. and gave my tail a few soothing strokes
"Are you going to poke me with those?"
She smiled. "I already did don't loo..." but it was too late, I looked down at the end of the table my foot had a bunch of spikes sticking out of the black socks of my feet and the hedgehog was almost denuded.
"cool..." whether it was the soothers, skilled acupuncture or the anesthetic on the needles but I didn't feel a thing. She sighed and started taking them out, pink fingers slipping each needle back into the hedgehog with absurdly deft movements. She then flexed my ankle a bit "sit up" and hauled me up to a sitting position. She twitched her whiskers and muttered "I'll get that later..." and held up a nozzle. "Breathe ALL the way out... and all the way in through the nose. Good girl. And again". The warmth of the soother doubled and my tail took off wagging on it's own at the praise.
"You've had a bit of a concussion" the pacifier was returned to my muzzle with an omf. " I'm not even going to ask how you hit your head hard enough to do that. That sprays going to prevent most of the damage but it's also going to make you feel funny for the afternoon, so you'll be staying with us" I whined at having to spend the entire day with the girls. By this point I was probably late for a class I cared about.
She lowered me back down and flipped my dre.. shirt up and tsked. "trainers are for little girls who can tell when they've had an accident.You're soaked" three quick flicks of her index claw and the pullups were off. "Hey tha..." she tapped my pacifier to remind me I wasn't allowed to talk and thoroughly started wiping up my diaper area from front to back, tsking. " "Boy clean" isn't nearly good enough.
She washed her paws with some sort of gel and gave my belly a rub and a sprinkle of powder. I vaguely felt my feet being lifted and my bum set down on the soft cushy fabric of a very thick diaper. The layers were pulled up around my waist and taped on snuggly and quickly checked by soft fingers running around my belly. The thick padding pressed against my front and spread my legs, offering little concession to mobility and even less to discretion.
The table started to lower and she picked me up and sat me in her lap.
"You may form a line and come in two at a time to meet your new classmate" she said to the girls peering over the side, who had all found an excuse to take a book or craft item off the particular shelf. The human girl who'd run to my room was still breathing a little heavily as she handed me my teddy bear, and put her hand under my nose before giving me some wonderful ear pets.
"Hi I'm Samantha. This is " the plantigrade Wolf with pink rubbery claws that was with her seemed a little glassy eyed, but her tail was wagging and she gave me a slurp. "Nova...ewww"
A mousey little human girl with very large glasses and the only girl in the class wearing jeans were next. The former squeeked "Hi" the latter said "Hey fuzzy" and knuckled my head with a hard rub. Miss Norveg made some gesture at her and she stuck her tongue out.
One girl came in alone and dropped a clumsy curtsy, "I'm Jamie" and almost ran out.
After a few more groups the Bear girl I'd seen a few times (she was hard to miss) trundled up. One large paw engulfed my head petting back and forth. The other scooped me up under the padding and lifted me into the air as if I weighed nothing at all. My side was pressed to a rug of surprisingly soft but stiff fur and I was rocked back and forth, back and forth in a practiced, measured motion. The Sows warmth soaked into me like a hot bath, making my stupid girl brain swell with a soft, happy contentment.
And then I was rather suddenly handed back to the Rat, despite holding my arms out to stay with the Bear. She bobbed her head to the Rat, who pulled my arms back against my side, then practically stalked off through a rapidly parting sea of dresses. From the teachers lap I watched her cross the room in two steps and get on all fours to squeeze into a play castle. The door slammed shut hard enough to come off the hinges.
"Wha.. wha..."
"Shh that wasn't your fault" the teacher kissed my nose and rubbed my ears and rocked me. Then as even more of a distraction brought a bottle of milk up to my muzzle and swapped it out for the pacifier.That wasn't going to work no matter how. Mmm. Creamy it was.Mmm.
A tall willowy human woman came over to us, wiping some finger paint off of her hands and onto an apron rather ineffectively, as the apron had nearly as much paint as her hands on it already.
"Getting our new little charge settled?" she asked quietly,as if I were already sleeping. My eyes weren't nearly that shut.
The Rat Mmhmmed, shifting me in her lap a little. "She's going to need somewhere quiet to sleep" and used her snout to gesture to a door on the far wall.
"Oh. Well. Are you sure she's not going to..." she dropped her voice even further. As if that would help "Bite or scratch?"
" Really?" Miss Norvegs whiskers bristled. Even if you don't believe her story, you can't think she'd hurt a little girl?"
"I know I know but they're my daughters..."
" Don't believe everything you read." her whiskers bristled angrily. She might scratch on accident though. Nova sweetie can we borrow some of your nail polish?" The Wolf nodded and ran off, coming back with a bottle "Natalie you're really good at this why don't you help the lil Fox"
"But..but...I was..Just..." she pointed to a folded up piece of construction paper, filled with bizarre mathematical symbols. Miss Norveg continued to stare at her "Oh alright. Uhm. Hihi little Foxy?" and held her paw under my nose for a second. She awwed a bit as I tried to lick her through the paci and took my paw. After a moment of me not biting her I guess she took my paw in her hand and started painting the claws. My eyes kept drooping. The warmth of the Rats surprisingly soft and fluffy fur behind me and my own body heat held in by the teddy bear in front of me felt like it was seeping directly into my brain in a slow, steady ebb of comfort. I didn't even mind when she moved onto my feet. Much.
"Can you hold her still? She keeps pulling her paws away"
The Rat craned around me to peek "That's close enough. It doesn't need to look pretty" The Human awed a bit and stopped poking it with the back of the brush to add stars. I wriggled my toes a bit and giggled, seeing more stars than I suspected were actually there.
"Miss Wynonna could you help me settle Rona in for her nap?"
"Upsa daisy" The human said in response to her colleagues request. The stars shifted and blurred as the ground dropped away and I was suddenly flying. I tried to keep my eyes open, but they drooped shut while I imagined five pointed yellow stars on a cartoon field of blue. My eyes wouldn't open but I felt myself carried out the door, into the hall, and into the next room.
The dim light made it easier to crack my eyelids open revealing a human child asleep in an enormous crib hugging a Wolf cub like a plushie, her grip around her cribmates middle cemented by having her thumb in her mouth. I felt myself being lowered into the crib, landing on the soft layers of blankets and bonelessly slumping flat at the far end of the crib.
Miss Norveg put her arms into the crib and put me on my back. A bottle appeared in my muzzle and my lips of course started drinking greedily. After it was halfway through a pacifier was plopped into my mouth and her clawed finger pressed up against my nose.
"The paci stays in, understood? " I nodded and she kissed my nose. "Good girl. It feels so much better when you find your proper place doesn't it?" Miss Wyonna moved my padded rump a bit so my wagging tail wasn't hitting the other cubs in the butt. I suckled my paci, hugged my teddy bear , and accepted the belly rubs and shushed praises like the good girl that I was and drifted off to happy dreams.