Comari Dawn

Part One: A Fresh Start - Chapter Three

I still had my eyes closed when I heard the door open and after a moment I opened them to see the nurse coming into the room, guiding a small figure by the hand. The cub, I guess it is probably the right thing to call the child, since she didn't appear to have anymore humanity than I did, tried to hide behind the nurse. However; even though she was trying to hide I could quite easily make out her basic colouration.

The doctor had probably been a bit generous in describing her as resembling a seven-year-old, but he was probably doing it more for her fragile self esteem than anything. My own assessment of her was a bit less forgiving and I judged her to be, at maximum, roughly six and a half though she could perhaps pass as a small seven-year-old. Her short, dense fur was in the classical marmalade tabby pattern and I could see her own head-fur, so similar to my own head-fur, was a dark brown which was trimmed just below her shoulders.

I carefully got down off the bed and knelt, slowly so as not to startle her before looking into her green-gold slit pupil eyes. "Hello there." I said softly, leaning on my voice's more feminine softness than my preferred male biased sound while watching her face and body for any kind of clue as to what she'd do next.

She paused, and her eyes widened slightly as she took in my own dark furred form. Finally, she cocked her head slightly while looking up into my eyes, "This happen ta you too?" She asked while her eyes took in every detail which she could make out of my form.

I nodded slightly and smiled, more with my tail and ears than with my mouth since I didn't desire to appear threatening to her. "Yes, and I am just trying to come to terms with it." I told her.

She stepped out from behind the nurses' legs and I got a better glimpse of her and I could see the hospital had outfitted her in a pair of pyjamas, which looked like they were about half a size too large for her. She sniffled softly, and I could see she was struggling with something, probably the recent information about her family having died in a crash, circumstances which were aching familiar to me.

I gently held out a hand to her, though I really wasn't sure how she'd react, I only hoped I was doing the right thing, but I was prepared to be rejected if she was put off by my appearance.

She looked up at the nurse before stepping forwards hesitantly and pausing for a moment before dashing the rest of the way before hugging me tightly and beginning to cry noisily. The sounds she was making were an interesting mix of human and feline sounds which caused my heart to lurch and my ears to twitch as I very gently moved to embrace her. I placed my nose gently down on top of her head and inhaled, taking in her scent and locking the fragrance into my mind.

I looked up at the doctor and the nurse, and on seeing them nod to each other I returned my attention to the cub in my arms who as doing her best to tug at every single one of my rather atrophied heart-strings.

"I think she need this Mr. Hawke," the nurse said softly, "She's yet to have a chance to express herself since her most recent admission and I think her family dying the way they did probably has effected her to some degree."

I looked up at I could feel a rather biting reply to the nurses' comment running around my head, but I bit the comment off as I wrapped my arms around the cub and lifted her up before sitting down in a chair near the bed. As I sat down I directed a rather pointed gaze at both of the human medical people in the room silently directing them out the door.

As soon as they left the room I settled down to gently do what I could to help the cub in my arms calm down, though I was well aware she needed to express herself, and right now the only way she could was to cry.

A short time later she gulped softly as she calmed down before looking up into my eyes. "You must think I'm kinda pathetic?" She said quietly while she had her head pressed between my breasts, which were now placed in a nursing bra which the nurse had located for me the day before. He hadn't realized she'd picked it up just for him as of yet.