Confirming Carter B. 01

Day Three

Interior-Bedroom

0450 Hours

It was dark when Sam woke up. She lay still for a moment, then sat up.

"Where are you going, Sam?" A voice close to her asked.

"Tammy?"

"I'm here." Her hand touched Sam's, her fingers stroking the back of her hand.

"I have to pee."

"Okay."

Carter slid off the bed and walked to the bathroom. She sat quietly as she pee'd, listening intently. She could hear the water in the bowl splashing, and a few noises from the pipes in the wall behind her, but otherwise it was quiet.

Sliding back up onto the bed, she moved up next to Tammy, then slipped into her arms as she held them open.

"These earplugs are working. I didn't know you were here." She snuggled in closer to her, laying her head on her shoulder. "How long was I out?"

"It's not quite oh five hundred. You laid down about twenty hundred, and went right out. I checked on you every hour or so, then climbed in with you a little after midnight. I hope you don't mind."

"No, I'm glad you were here." She shivered, and snuggled closer. "I...I was scared when I woke up. I knew where I was but..." She felt her chin quivering as tears welled up in her eyes.

"I know, Sam. I'm here." Tammy said softly, her hands stroking her back gently.

"Oh god, Tammy! I'm so scared! I've never been this afraid of anything before in my life!" she said as she surrendered to her emotions, and let the tears come.

Tammy didn't say anything, just holding her and rocking her gently, making soft shushing noises as she let her cry herself out.

Sam quieted down after a few minutes, but neither of them spoke. They lay quietly together until Sam raised her head and looked at Tammy.

"I'm not a lesbian."

"Neither am I. What brought that on?" Tammy laughed.

"I...I just wanted you to know." Carter said burying her face in her shoulder again. "And don't laugh at me!"

"I always laugh when someone says something funny. But I had heard the rumors. I figured it was none of my business, since you never hit on me, or anyone I knew."

They lay quietly for a few more minutes.

"What would you have said?" Sam whispered.

"I would have said, 'We'll have to go to your place, I have a roommate'."

"Really?"

"Yes. Even though I'm not gay, I still like women." Tammy said lightly. "I've made some friends among the Athosians, and they're not as uptight as we are about sex. Same sex relationships are no big deal as far as I can see. I've had brief relationships with both the men and the women."

"I didn't know that. But I never paid alot of attention to sex anyway."

"The fact that you're pretty hot doesn't hurt either."

"You think I'm hot?" Sam asked, wriggling loose, and climbing off the bed, then going over to the window.

"Eighty percent of the base thinks you're hot!" Tammy laughed. "The only ones that don't are the eggheads, but that's only because they don't think that way, so that's no big deal."

She stretched and purred happily. "You slept straight through. I know, I'm a light sleeper, you woke me when you sat up."

"I'm sorry." Sam said, putting her hand against the glass, and doing pushups against it.

"Nah, it's okay. I only sleep four or five hours at a pop anyway." Tammy said as she got up and walked over to her. She held out her hand. "Come on, I want to go down to my place and grab a few things. I picked up some stuff from my quarters last night, and I want to bring some of it up here." She grinned and added, "And it looks like you have some nervous energy to burn off!"

Sam took her hand and they went out to the elevator.

As they got off on Tammy's floor. Carter looked at her.

"I like it when you hold my hand." She said lightly.

"So do I." Tammy grinned. "I pretend you're my girlfriend."

"No you don't!" Sam said, trying to pull her hand away.

Tammy tightened her grip as she touched the pad to open the door.

"Would it be a problem if I did?"

Carter followed her into the apartment, then down into the pit. Tammy waved her into a seat, then stepped over and opened a panel next to the fireplace, a moment later, it roared to life.

She stepped down to the next level, and adjusted one of the lamps, and all four dimmed at the same time. She turned it low, so the fire was providing most of the light in the room. She came down into the pit and sat next to Sam. She felt her stiffen as she put her hand on her leg.

Carter looked at her, a pleading look in her eyes. "Are we going to..."

Tammy shook her head. "No, that's going to happen when you're ready. You'll know when it's time, and you'll tell me." She said as she stretched out beside her, laying her head in her lap. "Right now, I'm your friend and your nurse. That's what you need from me."

Carter nodded.

They sat quietly, staring into the fire for a few minutes.

"I wouldn't mind, you know." Sam said softly.

"Mind what?"

"If...if you were my girlfriend." She said, brushing Tammy's hair away from her face. "You're the kind of person I'd choose, male or female. You're smart, independent, you speak your mind and stand your ground."

"I feel the same way about you. I've always liked you Sam. You've been a good boss, and you take care of your people. That's important to me."

They lapsed into silence again.

"How bad is it going to get? Do you have any idea?" Carter asked her quietly after a few minutes.

"I really don't know. As near as I can tell, and both Andi and Jennifer kept excellent notes by the way, it shouldn't be happening at all. You got a very weak dose of the korathis, and it was from one of my batches. So the only thing I can figure is one of the complex sugars in the margaritas mix bound to the korathis, and that new molecule interacted with something already in your system."

She rolled over on her back, looking up at Carter. "If it had been anyone else, I doubt if they would have even noticed. But you've been through so much in the last few years. Any one of the things you've been through could have been a deciding factor, or it could have been a combination. And I don't know if the effect is centered in your brain, or whether there's been a more basic change to your DNA. I'm betting on the latter, you had already experienced manipulation of your DNA several times, so you'd be more susceptible there. I can figure it out eventually if you want. It won't make a difference."

"Do it. I'd like to know...morbid curiosity, I guess."

Tammy nodded.

"How are you feeling, Sam?" She asked.

"Pretty good, a little hungry. Why?"

"Well, you haven't had a fix for...call it ten hours. You came close to stroking out yesterday afternoon when you went two hours without one."

"Is that what we're going to call it, getting a 'fix'? Makes me sound like a junkie."

Tammy laughed. "Sorry, but that's how I think about it when I'm jilling off hopped up on Special K. Getting a fix."

"Jilling off?"

"Yeah. Oh come on, don't try to tell me you never heard that!"

"No, I just call it masturbating."

"Ick! That sounds so clinical! No wonder you never had any fun...oh shit! I'm sorry Sam. I..."

"It's okay. It's true. Don't apologize for telling the truth."

"But back to jilling off, she said, tactfully changing the subject..."

Carter laughed and smiled down at her.

"Jack and Jill went up the hill? You know, the nursery rhyme? Well, boys jack off, and girls jill off. Or at least that's what my mom told me."

She sat up, turning to look at Carter. "You mentioned being hungry. Getting something to eat doesn't sound like a bad idea. Lemme get the stuff we came for, then we can go up, and I'll cook you breakfast. How's that sound?"

"That sound wonderful! I really am starting to get hungry."

Tammy got to her feet and stepped over to the fireplace, turning it off. She turned the lamps back up, and walked into the bedroom. She came back a moment later carrying a gym bag in one hand, and a cordless drill in the other. She headed for the door.

"What's the drill for?" Sam asked as she met her at the door.

"The air curtains. They have sticky tape on the back, but there were screws in the boxes. I want to secure them so they don't fall on anybody."

"Good thinking," Sam said, holding out her hand. "Let me carry it."

"That's okay, I got it."

"Please?" Sam said softly. "I...I can't hold your hand if it's full."

Tammy glanced at her as she touched the pad and opened the door. She held out the drill, and Sam took it, then she held out her hand to her. Sam slipped hers into it, squeezing gently.

Interior-Kitchen

1110 Hours

They were sitting at the kitchen table laughing when Andi walked in.

"I gotta get a doorbell," Sam said, then burst out laughing again. They both laughed hysterically, until finally, Tammy opened a small plastic bag, pulled out a small yellow pellet, broke it in half, and handed a piece to Carter. She popped the other half into her mouth and chewed it for a minute, then spat it back out into her hand.

Carter imitated her, making a face as she chewed it. She got up and leaned over the sink, chewed for a few more seconds, then spat it out into the sink. She got a glass off the drainboard and filled it from the tap. She rinsed her mouth out a few times, then turned and looked at Andi.

"Sorry, we got into the Thumper. That's some good shit!" she laughed. Then went back and sat down at the table.

"You're gonna have to do something about the taste of the Goorm though, if you think you're gonna market this on Earth. Most people, at least the Americans and Europeans, will just throw it away. Be a waste of time and money shipping it." Tammy said. "I'll play with it later. Put it on my do list, okay?"

Andi nodded, and made a note on her tablet. She walked over and poured herself a cup of coffee, then came over and sat down at the table.

"I just came from the infirmary. Jenn ran a battery of tests, she said she'd have most of the results this afternoon. She said the EKG looked clean though. She ran it for an hour. But she confirmed your blip."

"How long were you down there? And what time is it anyway?" Carter asked.

"It's a little after eleven. Jenn said she'd try to get up here after lunch. Sheppard came and got her. Said they had to do a conference call with the IOA."

Carter nodded. "The wolves are gathering faster than I expected." She laughed. "That's okay, I only need two days to get everything together, and that's even if I spend one of them jilling off."

"Funny you should mention that." Tammy said, looking at her watch, then at Carter. "That puts us over fifteen hours."

"Fifteen hours over what?" Andi asked.

"Since my last fix."

"So you were wrong about the time constraint." Andi said, looking at Tammy.

"Maybe. Be nice if I was." Tammy laughed. "But I think it's something else. I'll have to look at the methodology."

"What are you thinking?"

"The first night, when she coded out. Your notes said that she ejaculated?"

Andi nodded.

"Then she slept, undisturbed, for what, four hours?"

"Closer to six."

"Yesterday after her spell, I masturbated her to ejaculation, then two more times before she went to bed. She slept straight through for nine hours. We've been up since five, and she hasn't jilled off yet." She looked over at Carter. "Have you?"

"No, haven't even had a craving."

"We got back up here about six." She looked at Andi. "We went down to my place and got some stuff, but we sat talking for a while. There was no sexual contact."

Tammy leaned back in her chair, stretching her legs out under the table, and put her hands behind her head.

"We came back up here, I made breakfast, we secured the air curtains, then we got into the Thumper." She looked at Carter. "That sound like an accurate sequence of events?"

Carter nodded.

"So I'm thinking we fired up the Thumper around seven, I went to pee once, and you walked in a little while ago."

She looked over at Andi. "Yesterday morning, did she have her first orgasm before, or after she ate?"

"Before."

"Did she ejaculate?"

"I don't know. I'll have to think about that for a minute."

"No, I didn't." Carter said flatly. "I was going in that direction, but you started working on Jenn, Andi."

"And you spent the rest of the day wandering off, or getting one of them to help you jill off until I made you squirt later in the afternoon?" Tammy asked.

"That sounds about right." Carter said. She turned and looked at Andi. "Don't you love her? You can just hear the wheels grinding away! She's alot more fun to work with than Rodney, even if I don't know what she's talking about most of the time!"

Tammy grinned and leaned forward, resting her arms on the table. "We can eliminate food, so that leaves us with ejaculation, and Thumper. I think its both, but working independently for different reasons. I think we can either jill you off till you squirt, two or three times a day, or keep you stoned on Thumper, I doubt if we'd have to do both."

"Why would making her ejaculate reduced her cravings? And she's not acting nearly as childish, as sexually aggressive, or as moody as she was yesterday either."

"You release hormones and endorphins when you climax. The stronger the climax, the more you release. We'll have to do blood tests to verify that." She looked at Andi. "How long does Thumper stay in the blood stream on average? There's no point testing hormone and endorphin levels when the Thumper may be present, that won't tell us anything."

"I don't know right off the top of my head. I'll have to take a look at the research."

"You're a fly by the seat of your pants kind of girl, aren't you Andi? Well, I won't allow that kind of behavior around my patient. You just lost your privileges doctor. Unless Dr. Keller or I approve, you are not to prescribe, or administer any medications to our patient. You can bring her food and drinks, and help with her daily maintenance. And whatever else she wants you to do."

"You can't do that! I'm a boar..."

"No, she can't, Andi." Jennifer said from behind her. "But I can. And I was going to do that anyway. I don't like the halfassed way you practice medicine either. But you're an excellent physiatrist, and that knowledge is useful right now. Leave the hands on medicine to me and my staff, and we'll get along fine."

Jennifer dropped a pile of folders on the table and pulled out a chair. "The meeting with the IOA went faster than I expected, because I refused to tell them any more than I told Sheppard yesterday. The official stuff. They gave me forty-eight hours to give them a more detailed diagnosis. From the tone of things, I'd say you have until the first part of next week. I doubt if those bureaucrats will want to give up their weekend to do anything about you."

"So I have to be ready to hit them on Friday. That's doable." She glanced over at Keller. "How much of the rest of the conversation did you hear?"

"I heard something about endorphins and hormones being masked by Thumper?" She asked.

"Close. It's been over fifteen hours since Sam's last orgasm, or masturbation session." Tammy said lightly. "We were talking about what's causing that. I believe that we may have narrowed it down to stimulating her to ejaculation to produce endorphins and hormones, or the Thumper. I doubt if it's both together."

"Well, that sounds like good news. And Tuumpor stays in the blood stream six to eight hours on average for a one hundred thirty pound human, double that for an Athosian. It's water soluble, so it only stays in soft tissue for forty-eight hours." She looked at Tammy. "I looked it up this morning. I really don't know why." She laughed.

Tammy turned and looked at Sam. "If it does turn out that we can manage this with endorphins and or hormones, it could be either, or a combination, I'd encourage you to continue masturbating to produce them. We can do that manually, or with electro-stimulation. Both are equally effective, and fun." She grinned. "Your body is going to respond better to what it produces itself, rather than an outside source. There's always a danger using artificial, or donated materials."

"I have to agree with that." Andi said.

"So do I." Jennifer said.

"I can continue to stimulate you, and I've already sho..." She stopped when she saw Carter frowning down at the table. "What's wrong, Sam? Are you okay?" She reached out and took her hand, looking at her closely.

"I don't know, I just feel like a..."

"Oh, Sam! I'm so sorry! We just got into it and I never thought...Can you forgive me?" She leaned closer, smiling softly. "I still want you to be my girlfriend."

Sam jumped to her feet and grabbed Tammy's other hand, pulling her out of her chair and across the kitchen. They went out into the hallway, and Sam pulled her into the bathroom, slamming the door behind them.

"Don't you ever tease me, or make fun of me like that again!" She said in a harsh whisper, barely fighting back tears. "Do you understand me?"

"I wasn't teasing or making fun of you, Sam," Tammy said, putting her arms around her and pulling her close. "I meant what I said downstairs, I do think of you as my girlfriend when we hold hands. I feel warm and special when you're touching me." She leaned back, bringing a hand up, and lifting her chin. "But I'm sorry I said it in front of Andi and Jennifer. I didn't mean to embarrass you."

"I...I, oh damn!" She looked up at Tammy. "I think I'm starting my period! That's the last thing I need right now." She reached between her legs, and brought her hand up, showing Tammy that her fingertips were spotted with blood.

"That points toward hormones," Tammy said under her breath. She looked at Carter. "Do you use tampons or pads? And do you have any here?"

"Tampons, and no. I haven't stayed here during my period, so I didn't think of it." She took a piece of toilet paper off the roll, and wiped her fingers, then dropped it in the toilet.

"I've got some down at my place. We can go get them. You need a break from those two anyway."

She opened the bathroom door and stepped out, she pushed Carter toward the elevator, then stuck her head through the kitchen door.

"Minor medical emergency, we'll be right back." She said quickly. "Fifteen minutes, tops."

She turned around and caught up to Sam, taking her hand and following her into the elevator.

Interior-Tammy's Suite

1150 Hours

"We just had our first lovers quarrel." Tammy said as they stepped out onto forty one.

"Will you stop!" Sam laughed as she put her hand on the pad. "You haven't even kissed me, and you're talking all mummmpphhh..."

Tammy cut her off as she spun her around, pressing her lips to hers as she pinned her against the wall. Sam responded eagerly, throwing her arms around her neck and jamming her tongue into her mouth.

They moved along the wall, trading places as they rolled along it. Tammy's back hit the end wall next to the bedroom, and she pulled back.

"How did we get here?" She laughed.

"Get where?" Sam asked as she pulled her lips back against hers.

They kissed for a few more minutes, much less frantically now. Sam finally broke it off and stepped back.

"Oh damn! I'm going to drip all over your floor!" she squealed, and ran for the bathroom.

Tammy followed, stopping to pull a pair of panties, a sports bra, and a tank top out of a drawer. She walked into the bathroom, and laughed when she saw Sam dabbing between her legs with a wad of toilet paper.

"You know, that would be alot easier if you just got in the shower and used the sprayer."

"Huh?" Sam said as she looked up. "Oh, I didn't think of that." She turned around and turned the water on, then stepped in under the spray. "I love how the water is hot as soon as you turn on the tap. You have to wait forever for it to get hot in my quarters."

Tammy got the tampons and a panty liner out of the medicine cabinet, put the lid on the toilet seat down, and sat down. She pulled the paper strip off the panty liner and got it seated in the panties, then leaned back and watched Carter rinse off.