Chapter 9

I woke up with Caitlyn still asleep on top of me, I also had a splitting headache. Much as I hated to wake her, she looked so cute curled up against me, but I needed some water and some painkillers.

I decide to wake her in the right way by gently stroking her tail which had wrapped itself around my arms, and giving her a kiss on the forehead.

She slowly came awake with a slightly purring sigh, "Mmrrrrrrmm," she said then becoming more aware of her self, "OW my head! Ohh I feel like I'm stuck in a tumble dryer on the fast spin with a bunch of rocks. I'll never drink again."

"I know how you feel, sweetie, do you have any aspirin or some such?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'll get us some and a few glasses of water." She reluctantly got up, and clutching her head, started rummaging through drawers for some painkillers. After she finally located some she got us some water and we sat on the bed to recover.

Caitlyn sat next to me her head resting on my shoulder. "Blerg! Well, apart from the hangover, did you enjoy the evening out with the club?"

"It was fun. They all seem like a nice bunch of people. I think I need to hold off on joining in with the drinking next time, as I don't think I'm going to be much use in lectures this morning." Then it hit me. "Oh, Damn! I didn't tell Nat I was staying over here, she must be worried stiff!"

"Not to worry baby, I had the presence of mind to text her before I passed out. She offered to meet us for lunch. Shaun is still recovering, so it'll just be the three of us."

"Cool, though I'm not sure I want to even think about food for a bit yet."

"Yeah, let's go to the corner shop and get some of that orange sport drink. It really seems to help in situations like this."

We staggered up off the bed and made ourselves more presentable. Sleeping in our clothes had not exactly left us looking our best. My hair was all over the place and it took quite a bit of effort to de-tangle it, at least to the point that it didn't look like I had just been dragged backwards through a bush. Blinking, we eased our way out into the sunThe painkillers were gradually easing our suffering, but I still felt a bit rotten.

We walked down the road arm in arm, more for support at this stage, and went into the local corner shop. Caitlyn grabbed a load of bottles of an orange sports drink. We paid for them and then went down the street to a small grassed area with benches to drink them. The fresh breeze was doing wonders for cooling my tortured head as we drank the sweet orange flavoured concoction and gradually recovered. Once we had polished off a bottle or two each we were feeling more like ourselves again.

Caitlyn cuddled up next to me on the bench and put her arm around my waist. "So are you going to join the club permanently? The rest of the girls seemed to really like you and I know you'll enjoy coming along each week and to the events."

"Yeah I don't see why not. It was nice to be in a room of people that understood what it was like to be different."

"Cool, they've got the boat trip coming up, we can go dancing. I was going to ask you anyway, as my guest."

"I'm not very good at dancing."

She grinned, "I don't care. I'll wear my steel toecaps and we'll have a great time.".

We cuddled for awhile as the worst of our hangovers faded, then decided to make our way up to campus for a walk before meeting Nat for lunch. Caitlyn had some books to drop off at the library and I wanted to check my mail.

We leisurely walked to the campus, taking our time and enjoying the day. The sun was out and it was nice, as the breeze kept it from getting too hot. As we approached the front gate I saw the protesters were still out, though seemingly only the hardcore. There were at most 15 people there now. Kathy was still amongst them, but it seemed most of the fanatics had got tired of standing out there all day, rather than sitting comfortably in lectures.

I got the obligatory angry stare. I felt a bit cocky, so I smiled back at her, wishing her a good morning. She turned bright red and shouted, "GET LOST FREAK!" back at me and moved as if to stop me.

Caitlyn leapt in front of me and made an angry hissing noise, which startled Kathy who stumbled backwards. Several of her remaining buddies came over and stood next to her facing off with Caitlyn. Most of them were big chaps. To see this small redhead facing them down totally fearlessly was a strange sight. It was even stranger, since I knew it was because of me.

One of the campus security people came over and told us all to move along. I took Caitlyn's hand and led her off down towards campus. She never took her eyes off Kathy, making a low growling noise, her body tensed as if ready to pounce at any moment.

Eventually she seemed to snap out of it and put her arm around me again, "Sorry about that. It's one of the instincts I got when I changed. I'm fiercely protective when the people I love are threatened."

"That's very sweet," I replied and gave her a kiss.

On the way to the library, we passed the Student Union. There was some sort of commotion, with a crowd of people, a taped off area near the admin block, a few coppers, and an ambulance. We wandered over to see what was going on.

"What happened?" Caitlyn asked one of the spectators.

"One of the admin people committed suicide. Climbed up to the service tower and threw herself off. She landed on the concrete. Real mess, guess she couldn't take listening to other people's problems any more," the girl said.

I glanced over and saw a figure laid out on a stretcher. They were just covering the body with a sheet. It was the woman I had seen yesterday. I gasped and covered my mouth in shock.

"What is it," asked Caitlyn.

"I talked to her yesterday, she seemed fine, then. I can't believe she's gone and killed herself only a little while later."

"You better tell the coppers, they might want to speak to you," the girl said.

Caitlyn called over one of the police officers and I detailed my meeting with the woman. They noted everything down, but told me it probably wasn't relevant. The woman had been having problems at home. Still, they recorded the information in case it was important.

That upset took a ;little of the shine off the day. I was deep in thought as we went into the library to drop off Caitlyn's books. After she dropped them off we stood queuing for a tablet to become free so we could get our mail.

"Hey, cheer up Em. I'm sure that woman was just a very unhappy person," Caitlyn told me, trying to get my mind back on track.

"Maybe, but I was with Nat. If she had been so tortured that she was going to off herself, surely Nat would have picked up on some of that," I said.

"Hmm, maybe she was one of those people who is fine at work, when they are busy. But when they stop working, all the demons they suppress come out to haunt them," Caitlyn suggested.

"I guess that's possible," I said, not very convinced, I kept thinking that given I had been talking to her only a few hours before, I should have spotted something. I ran over our meeting in my head loads of times, but I couldn't spot even the slightest hint that she was a woman on the edge. I would have to speak with Nat about it later. Maybe with her additional senses she had picked something up that would shed some light on the subject. I pushed the incident to the back of my mind and tried to forget about it for now. We soon got to the front of the queue and got two terminals. When I checked my mail, after filtering out the spam, there were a few things from my family, various relatives that had heard about my change.

My grandmother on my father's side had sent me a mail to see if I was alright. She had offered to knit me something for the winter and wanted my new dimensions. I replied with the measurements I knew and detailed my new appendages. A nice warm top would be good for the winter months and nothing beat a good woolly jumper. I hoped grandma could adapt the standard pattern to cope with six arms. I asked for a blue colour since it would be a nice contrast with my silver hair and eyes.

Once we were both done we headed over to the canteen to meet with Nat. We found her sitting, having already got her lunch. "What do you want Em?" Caitlyn asked.

"Oh I was thinking a chicken mayo sandwich and an orange crush, but I can get it."

"No you take a seat! I'll go get it for you," she disappeared, off to join the queue.

Natalie had a wicked grin on her face and a gleam of mischief in her eyes, "So you spent the night in Caitlyn's room. You little minx you. Did you enjoy yourself?"

"Sorry to disappoint you, but we were way too wasted to do anything but sleep," I replied.

"Oh come on!" she said incredulously. "You and little Caitlyn alone at last in a single bed? You must have done something."

"Nothing. We were so far gone we slept in our clothes."

Nat raised her eyebrows, "What! Damn! Now all the stories I spread about you and Caitlyn will just be way off."

"You've been spreading stories?"

"Yeah. Well, more lies and innuendo by the sounds of it. There was lots of winking and nudging involved. Oh, and giggling. When you didn't come back last night and I found out you were staying over at Caitlyn's it seemed the logical conclusion. Plus Laura and Jenny were there so they made up their own versions of events."

"But the whole house is going to think I'm some sort of slut!"

"What makes you think they didn't already. Your exploits in the union bar are legendary and the fact that you are dating Caitlyn, someone whose own reputation is somewhat wild, only adds to the mythos."

"Bah!"

Natalie giggled, taking far too much joy in my discomfort.

"Oh ... I saw something today that was a bit of a shock. That woman we went to see yesterday on the admin staff committed suicide."

"What!?" exclaimed Natalie.

"Yeah, apparently she threw herself off the top of the building."

"I don't believe it! She seemed fine yesterday."

"That's what I thought. Maybe I'm fooling myself, but I keep thinking I should have noticed something was wrong."

"I didn't sense anything with her that would suggest she was suicidal. I know I'm not a psychologist, so I bet I could easily be wrong, but she was happy, at least when we were with her."

We sat in silence thinking about our encounter with the woman, Caitlyn returned a few moments later with sandwiches.

"What's got into you two gloomy guts?" she asked.

"Sorry, just thinking about that woman," I replied.

"Oh, don't worry yourself too much, baby. I'm sure there was nothing you could have done." Caitlyn put a try down. "Here, eat your sandwich. It will make you feel better."

I gave her a smile and began munching on my sandwich. She was probably right. Maybe the woman had problems at home and it was only when she thought of them that she couldn't take it. Maybe being distracted by my issues and those of other students had helped her last this long. Still it bothered me, something about it just didn't seem to feel right. I guess maybe all such sudden and tragic events would feel the same way. I tried to push it to the back of my mind.

I noticed Nat lean over and whisper something to Caitlyn, who winked at her conspiratorially.

"So Caitlyn," said Nat with a smirk, "how was she? You spent the night together. Was it all you hoped?"

"Oh it was incredible, such stamina! She went all night long," she grinned.

"Really! Wow, and she said nothing happened," Nat grinned.

"Don't you believe it," said Caitlyn, "She's insatiable, wore me out so much I fell asleep in my clothes. The things she can do with those hands carry a quadruple x-rating."

"Stop it, you two!" I said, blushing horribly.

"Oh we're only teasing you, sweetie," said Caitlyn, "You're just so easy to embarrass, I couldn't help myself."

"She's right. You get so red you look like you're sunburnt," giggled Nat.

I glared angrily at the two of them, "Oh come on, baby. Don't be mad Here, let me make it up to you." Caitlyn kissed me on the lips, which was pretty good as apologies go.

"So what did you really think? You got her into bed and nothing happened," said Nat.

Caitlyn smiled. "Well I have to say it's not what I hoped for, for our first night together, but I did find she is very comfy.".

We finished our lunches and then Caitlyn had to go off to lectures. Nat suggested we nip back to the hall, get our gym kit and put in a session at the gym. It seemed a reasonable idea, I would get a shower out of it and our next lecture was last thing, so we had time to kill. We hurried backand grabbed changes of clothes and our gym kits. We made our way back up to the gym, once again passing the anti-MORFS lot, who seemed to have been on a break when we went out.

Kathy spotted me and shouted, "Not so tough now without the fuzz ball, are you freak!"

Nat and I waved to her with big smiles, which seemed to infuriate her even more. At the moment I felt pretty safe from Kathy anyway. Caitlyn might be ferocious, but she is little. Nat packed a lot more of a punch, without looking like she would, which in my mind, made her the more deadly of the two, though I'd never tell Caitlyn that. I might hurt her feelings, and she seemed to like the idea of being my protector.

We went into the gym. It was the usual side show stare-a-thon as I got changed and as we worked out. We did our best to shut out our audience and get on with things. We both pushed ourselves and encouraged each other. I was surprised to see both of us were doing better than we had before. I guess giving Nat someone to train against was good for her, as it was helping her expand on her limits. I got to see what my limits were, as well as improving my use of my new arms and hands, which, while not quite yet as flexible as my other limbs, were becoming more an instinctive part of me every day. We finished off, feeling tired, but good, and the hot shower did wonders. Sleeping in my clothes had left me feeling really grimy, which was compounded by the hard workout, so having a nice hot shower was wonderful and it felt good to get clean.

I changed into my clean clothes and then we headed off to our lecture. It was one of the more boring ones, and I had to fight to stay awake. I got to the point where I would find myself dozing off and jerk suddenly awake as my head started to fall. I wished I'd had the presence of mind to grab some coffee before coming to the lecture room. Even the nasty instant muck the machines served would have helped me through.

After the lecture was over, we put some time in on our projects. We each had to finish a project by the end of the year which would make up a fair chunk of the mark for the year. In later years, projects were worth a significant chunk of our final mark. Since the first year wasn't worth a lot over all, maybe ten percent, it was more of an introduction so we would know what to expect. I was doing a bit of work on mobile robot localisation, basically how a robot worked out where it was in a room. It was interesting stuff. I got to do a bit of hardware, and a bit of software. Nat was working on a pure software project that involved evolving controllers for robots in a virtual environment. We tinkered away at our respective projects for an hour or so then made a move to get home for dinner.

In later years we would be working on projects in teams. I hoped that Nat and I could work together, as I had a feeling the two of us together with our complimentary skill sets would be good. Nat was a hacker. She would put things together and make them work with little time, but she didn't have the patience to prettify things. I could spend hours doing lovely 3D interfaces, pulsing PWM lights, and fancy displays, without getting anything done on the actual desired functionality. I also knew bits of hardware, mechanics and electronics, whereas Nat was almost exclusively a software gal.

When we wandered down the hill to the hall, it seemed the anti-MORFS lot had packed up for the day. So we made our way out the front gate unmolested. Once we got back we dropped off our stuff then headed out for some dinner. We got there a bit late, so there was a pretty big queue. As we shuffled patiently towards the front with all the others, I crossed one set of arms in front of me, used another to prop myself up against the wall, then put the third set of hands in my pockets.

"You seem to be getting really comfortable with your new arms," said Nat, "I see you using them for things, seemingly automatically."

"Yeah, they are much more like my normal arms now. Not quite as dexterous yet, but getting there."

"I think your table football practice and the workouts seem to be getting you comfortable with them. They don't seem to twitch and flap about like they did initially."

"Yeah I'm glad of that. It was a real pain when they were like that."

"Do you want to go over and see Shaun a bit later? I was going to pop over and see how he's doing. I'm sure he would like to see you, too."

"Sure sounds good. Should I invite Caitlyn as well?"

"Yeah, why not? We'll get the whole gang there."

I pulled out my mobile from my lower pocket and with a little concentration, keyed in a message to Caitlyn. Stabbing buttons with my lower left thumb was tricky, but it seemed possible. When we reached the front of the queue I passed my phone to my middle left hand and grabbed a tray with my lower hands and finished tapping in the message, while using my normal hands to grab stuff to eat.

We found our table and I finished my message, sent it and then put my phone away. Pleased with my accomplishment, I tucked in to dinner using my lower hands with the knife and fork. Nat was grinning at my antics and began purposely handing me more things to hold throughout the meal. At one point, I was dealing with the knife and fork with my lower arms, buttering a roll with my middle arms, passing the salt with my upper left hand and holding a cup with my upper right hand. It was a small element of showing off, but I enjoyed myself for a bit. I suspected though, that it would quickly become a little like I was a circus attraction if I kept doing things like that.

After dinner we headed back to the house. Caitlyn had texted back, saying she was too busy to join us, so we headed off to see Shaun without her. We grabbed our coats and headed over to Shaun's place. Being a second year student, he was sharing a house with some friends.

We found the place a medium sized semi-detached house in the student district. Here, more than half the houses were student rental places. The people that had bought them up always had a ready rental market, plus students weren't too fussy, so they didn't need to be as exacting in their upkeep. In fact, in a lot of situations it wasn't a bad idea to go with just the basics, as places had a habit of getting trashed.