Revelations by IndigoNeko

Elizabeth Stouffer goes over to visit Alexandrea Andreyev after school. 

WARNING: This story contains adult-only content. Check the tags before you continue reading.

Chapter 7 – Broken Secrets

=^.^=

Thursday,  May 28th, 2015

Alex lay in her bed, cast propped up on one pile of pillows while she lay against another pile. The obnoxious laughter of the little red birds she was slinging across the screen of her phone was getting annoying. She sighed and quit the game, then threw her phone down on the black comforter. There were only so many games you could play before you got sick of games altogether. She looked out the window above her bed, wishing she could go outside. 

Her leg still ached, even with all the pills her mom made her take. The only ones that really helped were the vicodin tablets, and those put her asleep faster than being hit upside the head with a frying pan...or that's what mom said anyway. It was a serious dilemma. On one hand, she could take the vicodin and not be in pain, but then she'd be asleep. On the other hand, she could take the aspirin and other stuff and hurt a little, but she'd be awake and would get to see Lizzy. 

It didn't hurt so much today as it had the last few days, so she'd taken the aspirin and stuff. That had turned out to be a big mistake: being cooped up in her room all day with nothing to do but homework and video games was sooooo boring. Sleeping was far, far better.  The reading and homework from the last three days of missed school hadn't taken her more than two hours, and she'd been stuck playing video games since 9 A.M.  At least Lizzy would be here in an hour or so.

As if things couldn't get any worse, her leg started to itch. How the heck were you supposed to scratch an itch when you had a half inch of plaster wrapped around your leg? There was no way she could get her finger far enough down the cast to scratch it. Maybe she could get a pencil...nope, still too short. Coat hanger? That meant getting up and going to the closet, trying to find one. There was only one possible solution. 

"MOOOOM! My leg itches!"

Her voice echoed throught the hall, down the stairs, across the foyer and into the kitchen, past Raenne, out the open window, across the cul-de-sac and down the street, where a feral cat sleeping atop a car roof perked up one ear. 

"Be right up, kiddo," Raenne said as she finished putting away the dishes she'd used for fixing lunch. She padded her way up the stairs and down the hallway, peering into Alex's room. "Could you say that again? I'm sure the neighbors ten blocks down the street couldn't quite hear you."

Alex rolled her eyes. "Could you just get me something to deal with this itch? Like a coat hanger or something?"

"Actually, I can. However, it won't be a coat hanger. Tap on your cast with your claws above where it itches, and I'll be right back."

Alex tried tapping on the cast as her mom went back out of the room. That helped a tiny bit, but not enough. If anything, the itch came back worse a few moments after she stopped tapping. Eventually her mom came back, this time holding an extension cord and a hair dryer. After plugging the extension cord into the wall, she sat down on Alex's bed. "Where's it itch, kiddo?"

"Right at the base of my calf," Alex said with a frown. "but how in the world will a hair dryer help?"

Raenne fiddled with the settings, and eventually got the thing to start blowing cold air, then held it down at the edge of the cast behind Alex's knee. She spoke loudly so Alex could hear over the noise. "The itch is caused by sweat building up in your fur. If we force air down in the cast, the water will evaporate, and it'll stop itching. We can't use hot air though, as it could burn your skin."

That made sense. Alex lay there as her mom sat there, holding the blow dryer in position. By the time the itch had gone away, Alex's leg was starting to get awfully cold. "Okay, it's good now."

Alex's mom turned off the blow dryer and smiled, then reached a hand out and tussled the fur on Alex's head. Alex rolled her eyes at that; she kept the fur on her head short, so it wasn't like she was having her hair messed up, but it was still slightly annoying. Then her mom got up and unplugged the cord, taking them both back to the bathroom.

Moments later, her mom returned and sat down on the bed again, reaching out and tugging Alex's skirt back down around her knees. Skirts were far easier to deal with than pants when you had a cast, as Alex had quickly discovered this morning. As her mom sat there on her bed, Alex suddenly had the feeling that her mom wanted to talk, and probably about something Serious. With a capital 'S'. Alex sighed. She hoped it wasn't an injunction against snowboarding.

"Your father said you two had a little chat before you went up to Mt. Hood earlier."

Yep. Definitely Serious. She was doomed. She scrunched her lips up and looked out the window, hoping mom would take a subtle hint and leave her be. Sadly, it didn't seem to work. Maybe puppy-dog eyes would work.

"I figure that since Elizabeth is coming over in a bit, I should probably finish covering what your dad didn't. What did he tell you about sex?"

Alex sighed. How awkward. "He told me about oral sex, vaginal sex, anal sex, and mastur...umm...wait! Don't tell me...ummmm..." Alex paused, looking down at her lap. Then the word came to her. "Masturbation. Oh, and about how vaginal sex can cause pregnancy, and about disease."

"Did he tell you about how to have vaginal sex without causing pregnancy?"

"Yeah, he said you could put something over the penis."

"Yep. That's a condom. Remember that; it's important. If you want to have vaginal sex without making a baby, you need a condom. The alternative is to use medicine that prevents pregnancies, but you need to see a doctor to get that, and that can't stop diseases. Only condoms can prevent you from catching diseases."

"Got it."

"The next thing you need to know is about how society deals with sex. Sex is natural, sex is necessary for life, and sex can feel really good. However, sex is not something you do in public; it's illegal to have sex in public, like stores, restaurants, parks, or anywhere else that other people can see you." 

Alex nodded. That made sense; if it felt good then other people might get jealous if they couldn't have sex too.  

"Also, don't talk about sex in public. It's not illegal, but people think it's very, very rude."

Alex wasn't quite sure why, but accepted it. Adults were wierd about some things, and that was probably one of them.

"Last, there's a whole lot of laws regarding sex, depending on where you live. Most of them are to prevent people from hurting other people. For example, it's illegal to have sex with someone who doesn't want to have sex, or to force someone to have sex with you. That's called rape, and it's very, very bad. If you ever see or hear about something like that happening, tell someone in authority as soon as you can, like a teacher or policeman. If someone in authority is doing it, tell someone else in authority. Never, ever hide something like that, even if they threaten you or threaten someone else."

Raenne leaned forward over Alex, eyes narrowed. "...and if you ever force someone to have sex with you, I'll beat your butt until you can't sit for a month. Then I'll call the police so they can put you in jail until you've learned your lesson."

Alex's eyes were wide at that. She nodded quickly.

"It's also illegal for an adult to have sex with a child. That's also considered rape in most areas, even if the child isn't forced to have sex."

Alex was silent at that. There was something about that which stuck in her mind. She pursed her lips and frowned, concentrating.

Raenne stopped, realizing that Alex was concentrating. Raenne was totally silent, hoping that Alex would broach the topic so that she wouldn't have to. She'd had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach when David had told her that Lizzy and Alex had actually had sex. She knew Alex hadn't had sex before, which meant that Lizzy had learned about it somewhere. Given what they'd done, it was obvious that Lizzy had learned a helluva lot more than any nine-year-old should know about sex. What that implied was even more serious; Lizzy had clearly been instructed by a much older child...or an adult.

"What about having sex with your parents?" Alex asked.

Raenne's stomach felt like it flipped upside down. She looked down at the black bedspread. This was bad. Very bad. Her poor naive husband had been worried about Alex potentially knocking up Lizzy. That was nothing compared to what this implied. She was absolutely enraged. That anyone could take advantage of their own child, and a nine-year-old at that...

"...mom!? Mom?! MOM!!"

Raenne came back to the present. Alex was shaking her, and she realized somewhere in the back of her mind that Alex had been calling her for several seconds now.

"Has Lizzy had sex with her parents?" Raenne asked, still staring at the black coverlet.

Alex gasped, then realized that it was the worst possible response. She tried to play it cool. "Why do you ask?"

Raenne looked up, staring Alex straight in the eyes. Alex drew back, leaning back into the pillow...the look in her mom's eyes...something in it chilled her to the bone. It was like something in her mom's eyes had gone completely dead and cold. Alex was terrified. Her fur stood on end and she started shaking. Her mom's next words didn't help.

"Don't play coy with me. Answer the question."

"I...I can't...I promised."

Tears began to well up in Alex's eyes as she sat there shaking. It didn't matter that she hadn't said it...her mother knew, and that meant she'd broken her promise...and if rape was as bad as her mother made it sound, then Lizzy's parents would go to jail for it. They didn't deserve to go to jail; they loved Lizzy as much as her own parents loved her. Alex grabbed her mom's arm.

"Mommy," she tried to choke out as she started sobbing, "Please...please...L-Lizzy's parents love her. She loves them t-too; more than anything else i-in the whole world. They would n-never do anything to hurt her. Please don't tell anyone else. Please!" Alex broke down, bawling incoherently, knowing that if her mom told anyone, Lizzy's life would be ruined...and it was all her fault. 

Raenne was silent. Alex had pulled herself over by grabbing her arm and was making quite the damp spot on her shoulder. Even if they did love Elizabeth, that was still child abuse, and she couldn't condone that. Not after what had happened to herself. Right now though...now she had to weigh the consequences of sound and silence. 

If she didn't bring this to the police, Elizabeth would continue to be abused, probably crying herself to sleep every night. There was no way an adult could have sex with a child and not have it hurt. She knew that from experience. Eventually Elizabeth would realize there was an alternative and somehow get out of the situation just as she did, growing up to be just as angry and resentful. Even now it was probably already too late. The poor girl would probably have psychological issues that would last for the rest of her life.

If she did, Elizabeth would immediately be placed in the hands of Child Protective Services while the allegations were investigated. Even if the allegations didn't result in incarceration, since she was sure the Stouffers had some fantastic lawyers at their beck and call, it would still destroy the Stouffer family. The story would leak somehow. It always did, where wealth and power held sway. No matter how nice the Stouffers were, there was someone who would have it out for them, given how rich they were. Hell, she could leak the story herself. CPS would watch them for a little bit, but eventually they'd move elsewhere and go back to abusing Elizabeth again.

If the Stouffers were incarcerated, Elizabeth would be placed in the foster system. Raenne knew just how bad the foster system could be. Many foster parents used it as an income source, simply clothing and feeding the children and ignoring them while collecting the child welfare checks. Others were child predators, skilled enough to fake a happy, healthy household while they used it to get their hands on damaged children who wouldn't bring it to the attention of the authorities. That would be even worse for Elizabeth.

If she could get Elizabeth out of the foster system herself somehow and adopt the little girl, that would be the best possible solution. That might not work though. No matter what happened, Elizabeth would know that Alex had broken her promise and probably hate Alex's guts, possibly even plot revenge somehow...like exposing Alex's condition. 

She sighed. Unlike a child's fairy tale, this had no happy ending. Still, before she took the next step, she had to get verification. The easiest way would be to get it out of Elizabeth; interrogating a child was trivial even without threats or coercion, but you had to worry more about long-term consequences. The father would be the hardest; professional businessmen were skilled at shading the truth and manipulating people, and if she got physical with him he'd press charges immediately so that wasn't an option.

She'd have to confront Julia. The woman was a fashion designer who worked out of her home, and probably didn't have to deal with shady politics and watching her tongue on a day-to-day basis; it would probably be pretty easy to trip her up simply by implying that she knew what was going on. Threats would work too, as she knew Julia was afraid of her. She could see it in Julia's eyes and the way the woman tried to keep some distance between them. 

At first Raenne had wondered if it was because of her size; siberian tigers were one of the larger species, and she was well over a foot taller than Julia. But she'd seen Julia completely at ease talking with one of her thoroughbred fashion associates, and decided that the stoat had some latent predator-prey issues. Then Raenne realized that it hadn't started until several months after they'd first met, and realized it was her military background.

She'd mentioned to Julia that she was an ex-ranger when they'd first met. A few months later, Julia had asked her what being in the army was like over tea, so she'd described what they'd done in Operation Rhino. It had been light combat and was one of the few things she'd done that wasn't secret squirrel after she'd become a meat eater*. For years now, Raenne thought that was a mistake: Julia had always been slightly afraid of her since then. Now though, that might be in her favor if she had to intimidate the woman.

*: Secret squirrel refers to anything top secret, confidential, or relating to intelligence operations. Meat eater refers to any member of the U.S. Special Forces, due to the Aspin rules of '94 that forbid prey species from being assigned to any first-on-ground combat units below the brigade level.

Conveniently, Julia and Elizabeth would be coming over in a bit. Using her phone to record a conversation would be cake. The only problem would be dealing with the aftermath. Julia could simply take Elizabeth and leave; Since the crime hadn't actually been committed in her presence, she wasn't justified in making an arrest according to ORS §133.225. Still, she doubted that the Stouffers could leave the country immediately. They'd need passports, and she didn't think Elizabeth had ever left Oregon, much less the U.S. If necessary, the police could issue an Amber Alert if they tried to run. 

Now she just had to plan for any contingencies, such as Julia being armed. Men were more prone to committing murder-suicides when their lives were in the shitter, but it was still a possibility for women too. The woman who'd driven her van into the sea with her two kids had proven that.

If only there were a way to do this without Alex taking the blame...the poor kid wasn't in any way to blame for spilling the Stouffer's dirty little secret. 

"Shhhh, don't cry, kiddo," she crooned, reaching over with her right arm to pat Alex's head, seeing as Alex had a tight grip on her left, which had become quite damp by now with Alex's tears. "Don't cry. It's not your fault. I'll make sure they both know that I figured it out on my own. I guessed it on Saturday, before you even told your dad what you and Lizzy had done. You're not the only smart one around here, you know."

"B-But-but...they'll go to jail, an-and Elizabeth won't have any p-parents, and-"

"Listen, Alex. Adults are much bigger than children. An adult having sex with a child can hurt the child. It can hurt them badly enough that they can die from it. If Elizabeth's parents go to jail, it's because they deserve to go to jail."

Alex was quiet. At least her sobbing had stopped. 

"Alex, when Elizabeth comes over today, I need you to ask her if it ever hurts when her parents have sex with her. If they're hurting her, we need to do something to stop it. Parents who really, truly love their children don't ever, ever hurt their children if they can avoid it."

"...o-kay...", Alex replied in a very quiet voice. 

"I'm going to have a talk with Julia when she comes over. Don't tell Elizabeth what I know until I'm done talking to Julia, okay? If it turns out that they're hurting her, I promise you that she can come live with us instead."

"...o-kay...", she said again, practically in exactly the same tone and volume.

"Don't worry, kiddo. I'm sure it'll be alright in the end, okay?"

"...o-kay..."

Raenne sighed; the next hour was going to be a very long one. She had to call David at let him know what she'd learned too.

=^.^=

Raenne tried to calm the twitching in her tail as she saw the burgundy Lexus pull into the cul-de-sac through the kitchen window. She pulled the glock out from her waistband and chambered a round, then flicked the safety back on and putting it back. Hopefully she wouldn't need it, but it might prove useful for intimidation. 

She watched as Julia stepped out of the car, moving fluidly and gracefully even without meaning too. The unconscious sign of years of ballet lessons and gymnastics. Raenne had a similar fluid grace, but one that was born of years of martial arts and covert ops training. Julia moved around the car and helped Elizabeth out of the car as Raenne finished setting up the audio recording app on her phone. The phone went into her pocket as she went over to the door and opened it.

Elizabeth walked up the driveway, smiling, with Julia following close behind carrying the girl's backpack. 

"Hello, Mrs. Andreyev!"

"Hi, Lizzy. Alex is up in her room right now. She was terribly bored all day." Raenne stepped aside, letting the tiny stoat in. 

"Thanks, Mrs. Andreyev!"

The little girl ran up the stairs, leaving both women at the doorway. Julia handed Raenne the backpack, then stepped back as Raenne set it down in the foyer.

"Thanks for letting Elizabeth come over. She's been moping all week without her best friend."

"It's no problem. However, I do need to talk to you for a moment. Do you have a minute or two?" 

A flicker of curiosity ran across Julia's face, but she nodded. "Sure."

"Good. Come on in, we can talk in the kitchen. I just finished some cookies, and they smell wonderful," Raenne said, stepping inside again. She stood next to the wall, trying to make herself as non-threatening as possible. It worked. 

Julia stepped inside, nose twitching. "Oh my, it does smell good. Chocolate chip and...hazelnut?"

Raenne smiled, thankful that she'd used nut oil instead of gun oil to clean the glock. She'd have to clean it once again after this, and hope she didn't have to actually use the weapon, but it was worth it. "Just chocolate chip," she said as she closed the door behind them.

"Oh. It still smells wonderful. Did you make the batter yourself?"

"Yep. Usually I use a mix, but I found a good recipe on the Food Network site that I wanted to try. Feel free to have one. Just save a few for the girls."

Julia held a paw out over the cooling rack after walking into the kitchen. After testing one to make sure it was cool enough, she set her bag on the counter, grabbed a cookie and nibbled the edge.

"My, these are delicious. They're even be better than Charlotte's. Would you share the recipe?"

"Sure," she said, watching as the stoat held the cookie with one hand, cupping the other hand underneath to catch any crumbs. "First though, I thought I should let you know...Alex told us that she and Elizabeth had sex."

Julia stopped chewing, the cookie in her mouth left behind by her train of thought as it went off in a totally different direction. This was...unexpected. She swallowed, and almost choked on the bits of cookie that she'd totally forgotten about.

Raenne continued, operating on the principle that it was better to strike while your opponent was off-balance. "It was kind of shocking to hear just how much they did together. Alex certainly learned quite a few things from her. Elizabeth's a very knowledgeable instructor when it comes to sex."

Julia was completely silent, eyes going wide as Raenne continued. 

"No nine-year-old I've ever heard of knows about fingering, hand-jobs, blow-jobs, cunnilingus and hot-dogging. I'm kind of surprised Elizabeth didn't cover anal, rimming, and fisting. It made me rather curious where she'd learned them-"

Raenne stopped as Julia collapsed on the floor of the kitchen, hand jerking to the gun at her back. She realized momentarily that it wasn't necessary. The woman was gasping in rapid shallow breaths. Glazed eyes...given the way she was holding her chest she might be having chest pains too. Julia was clearly a bit more frail than she'd expected. She hadn't expected to drive the woman into shock. Shit.

Julia's handbag was on the counter, so that wasn't a threat, and it would have been impossible to hide a gun in pants as tight as the woman was wearing. Raenne took a moment and grabbed a bottle of aspirin and poured out two, then grabbed a glass and put some tap water in it. She knelt in front of the stoat, who was now sitting in the fetal position on the floor. She set the glass down and grabbed the front of the woman's muzzle, yanking it up so that she was focusing on Raenne's face.

"Julia, you're going into shock, possibly having a heart attack. This is aspirin. Swallow it."

She grabbed the point of the stoat's jaw and pressed, then deposited the tablets in her mouth. Then grabbed the glass of water, holding it up to Julia's mouth and tilting.

"Here, this is water. Swallow it. Swallow it!"

Water dripped down the sides of Julia's mouth, but she swallowed, throat muscles contracting several times. After setting the water back on the counter, she grabbed Julia's shoulders and pushed her sideways onto the floor, then pulled her out a bit and rolled her onto her back. If she didn't come out of it soon, she'd have to call 911. Damnit.

"Okay, Julia. Spill it. How could you? How could you abuse Lizzy?" 

Surprisingly, Julia answered even though she was literally shaking on the kitchen floor. It was hard to make out between gasps, but still, she answered. "...not...not...it's not...abuse..."

"Any adult having sex with a child is abuse. Why did you do it?"

"...she...has...has to...have..sex...or...she...she...she'll...die..."

That was literally the last thing she could have imagined. What the fuck? Seriously...what the fuck!?

Raenne was silent for a moment. She needed to know more.

"Okay, I won't tell anyone, but you're going to have to explain. Hold on, I need to call for an ambulance." Raenne pulled the phone out of her pocket, stopping the recording app and calling the emergency number. She waited a moment, then pressed the button for fire and ambulance. A moment later, a voice came on.

"911 emergency-" Raenne cut the man off abruptly. She didn't have time to deal with chit-chat.

"Stop. Talking. I have a woman going into shock and possible myocardial infarction at 872  southwest 71st avenue, just off of Sagert Street. I've given her a dose of aspirin and some water. I need an ambulance here as soon as possible; I don't want to risk moving her myself.  I say again, 8-7-2 southwest 71st avenue. My name is Raenne Andreyev. A-N-D-R-E-Y-E-V. Her name is Julia Stouffer. S-T-O-U-F-F-E-R. The cause appears to be due to extreme fear and anxiety, but there's a very small chance it may be a food allergy. Do you have all that?"

"Ummm...", Raenne could hear rapid typing in the background. At least this guy was on the ball tonight. "...Yes, ma'am. We'll have one there-"

"Good. Now if you don't mind, I need to get a blanket for her." Raenne hung the phone up. She hated wasting time on the phone, especially when someone needed help. She yelled up the stairs.

"Lizzy? Get down here now! Your mom needs help!"

She could hear the little girl dart down the stairs. At least she wasn't as loud as Alex...then again she probably weighed only 3/4ths what Alex did. She focused on Julia again. Julia was saying something between gasping breaths, probably trying to explain. That didn't matter right now.

"Relax, Julia. I said I won't tell anyone. It's okay. You don't need to worry about it right now. Just relax."

"Mom?! What's wrong!?"

Wow. Raenne shook her head. Lizzy's voice could be just as loud and penetrating as Alex's, especially when it was right next to her ear. She put her paw on one of Lizzy's shoulders to get her attention, while her mom was babbling between breaths.

"Your mom just went into shock. I've called for an ambulance. You need to get a blanket for her. They're in the closet at the top of the stairs, right next to my bedroom door."

"But...what's wrong with mother?"

"Stop. Upstairs. Closet. Blanket. Go get it." Raenne was good at delivering simple orders. God knows, she had to do it often enough in the military.

She sighed as Elizabeth took off towards the stairs again and went back to trying to calm Julia down. "Relax, shh, relax, I won't tell anyone. You don't need to worry. Your secret is safe for now. You can explain to me all the details later. Try to relax, take deeeep breaths."

"...but...she...her...hormones...anemia..." Julia was still trying to gasp out, still shaking and clearly frightened.

"She has a hormone problem. Got it. I've already said, I won't tell anyone else. Your secret is safe. I'll call Terrence and have him pick Lizzy up." That seemed to relax Julia. 

"Here!"

"Thank you, Lizzy."

She took the blanket and spread it over Julia, tucking it around her. Julia was shaking, but seemed to be relaxing. "Relax, Julia. Everything will be fine. I can watch over Lizzy for a few hours, I promise nothing will happen. I won't tell anyone."

=^.^=

Raenne held the sobbing little girl to her chest, standing in the doorway as the ambulance pulled away. After a few moments, she turned around and closed the door. 

"What happened?" Alex asked from the top of the stairs, sounding really worried.

"I asked Julia about what we talked about, and she went into shock. Normally it's not serious, but she was showing signs of having a heart attack so I called an ambulance for her. Don't worry, she'll be fine," she said as she walked to the top of the stairs. "Now grab those crutches and get back in your room. We all need to talk."

Alex made her way back into the room, then sat on her room, trying to keep her leg out. Raenne waited as Alex lay back against her pile of pillows and then leaned over and lay the little stoat on the far side. She was right...the girl couldn't weigh more than forty pounds soaking wet. Alex put her arm awkwardly around Lizzy and pulled her close, trying to comfort the other girl's tears as Raenne sat at the foot of the bed and waited. Lizzy rolled over, curling up tight against Alex's side, who gently ran her arm down Lizzy's side, petting her to calm her down.

Eventually the sobs quieted as Lizzy managed to pull herself together. Raenne hated to do this, since it was one thing on top of another, but she had to make sure that what Julia had implied was true. That meant asking someone about all the details, and Lizzy would be the best one to talk to...out of the mouths of babes and all that. She pulled out her phone and started up another recording just to be on the safe side.

"Lizzy, the reason your mom went into shock is because I asked her something very important. It scared her really badly, and it made her start shaking. That's what you saw. She'll be fine, and in a few hours she should be back from the hospital. Okay, Lizzy?"

"...o-kay..."

Damn. At least now she knew where Alex had picked up that baby-ish, annoyingly cute '...o-kay...' from. She sighed, and continued. "When Alex was riding up to Mt. Hood after she spent the night at your place, she mentioned that you all had done some stuff together. Sex."

That made the little stoat actually look up at her. At least she knew she had the girl's attention.

"Alex described some of the stuff you'd done, and I guessed that you must have learned it all from someone else...your parents."

Elizabeth's lower lip started trembling, and Raenne pushed on, hoping to avert the end of the world.

"It's okay. I'm not telling anyone else. But your mom said that you had a medical problem. Something about hormones. Do you know what she was talking about?"

The girl nodded.

"Can you explain what it is to me and Alex here?"

"It's...well..." the girl took a deep breath. "I'm half ferret and half stoat. I have both ferret heritage and stoat heritage. My stoat heritage makes it so that I go into season every summer, and I have been since I was born. My ferret heritage makes it so that if I don't have sex when I'm in heat, my body stops making blood. The doctor calls it aplastic anemia."

Well...that definitely explained the inexplicable. It also explained why she was such a delicate little thing. Good god, what a terrible thing to happen to a child. Raenne ran her hand through her head-fur. Wow.

"So...you have to have sex...or you die?" Alex asked.

Elizabeth nodded.

"You have sex with your dad?", the adult tigress asked.

Elizabeth started to tremble again, and once again Raenne had to step in to stop the sky from falling. Alex beat her to it though.

"Shh, it's okay. Mom won't tell anyone else. I promise."

Raenne slowly nodded. She wasn't sure she'd make that promise herself yet, but she was getting there. The girl eventually nodded, though her lip was still trembling.

"One last question. Does it hurt when you have sex with your dad?"

She shook her head. "Uh-uh. It's good. Really, really, really good. It's the best thing ever, better than milk and cookies, or pizza, or kissing, or birthday presents, or..."

Raenne smiled, finally at ease. It looked like that had snapped the stoat out of her depression too. "Okay. I get it. You like it. Just don't do it with Alex here, or you might get pregnant."

"Yep! That's why I do it with father. He had a vasectomy so that he could save my life."

Raenne blinked. Wow. She'd wondered exactly how they'd managed to avoid the inevitable complications resulting from having sex during heat. "Huh. That was...very noble of him."

"Would it be okay if I did stuff with Alex to make her feel better? I know we can't have vaginal sex, but..." 

Raenne practically choked hearing the adorable little stoat ask that out of the blue. "You already did that 'other stuff' over the weekend," Raenne pointed out, pointing a finger at her.

"...well...umm...sorry. I should have asked first, I guess."

"Yes, you should have. Personally, I don't mind, and it looks like Alex definitely enjoyed it, judging by what's growing under that skirt." Alex's ears went forward, blushing. Her erection was terribly obvious under the pleated skirt she was wearing. "However, you need to ask your parents first...and I need to call your father to let him know what happened to Julia. Do you know his work number?" She asked as she saved the audio recording on her phone and opened up the number pad.

"Yep! It's 503..."

Raenne started dialing. At least now that she knew what she was getting into, she'd be able to deal with Terrence Stouffer...hopefully without making the poor man go into shock as well. If anything happened to him, that would leave Elizabeth with a serious problem...and she didn't want that.