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Well this isn't… ideal… was the best thing Grace's groggy mind could come up with as she woke up. It was earlier than normal and something felt wrong. Like really wrong.
Grace shifted in bed, wincing at the wet patch she felt between her legs. Did she seriously have an accident? What was she, five? With a huff she scooted out of bed, planning to just grab a change of clothes and never ever speak of this. It wasn't until she nearly toppled over that she realized what happened. "Oh you have got to be kidding me," her palm dragged down her face. "I thought this stupid thing was gone forever." A second cramp reminded Grace it was, in fact, not gone.
With a very loud and dramatic sigh that she would never admit to (yes she would) she tried standing again. "Seriously? I'm getting my period now?" was muttered to herself as she managed to stand. Steadying herself, Grace went to grab a change of clothes. If this kept happening she was going to run out of good pants to wear. The thought made more dread run through her body as she grabbed a fresh shirt, giggling at the dorky science pun on the front.
"Alright, now where would we have…" she trailed off as she made her way to the storage area. Hoping and praying to whatever deities would listen she honed in on the medical supplies.
Opening the cabinet door, several types of bandages and wraps greeted her. Another jolt of pain shocked her core and her knuckles went white. "C'mon… " her searching became almost frantic. She had checked 3 separate cabinets before she finally let out a small cheer. "Finally! Damn, they really thought of everything huh?" Pads, tampons, menstrual cups. If you could name it, it was in here. Grace did some quick math and decided this wouldn't even last by the time they made it to Erid. Deciding to start with a middle ground and work from there, she grabbed a pad and scurried off to the bathroom.
Changing was quick. She knew later on some proper bathing would need to somehow take place but that wasn't her main concern right now. Slipping into a fresh pair of pants she took a minute to observe the old pair. They were so soaked there was no hope for saving them, even if she took the time to hand wash them. "Out the airlock? That would probably be best, huh," she murmured, not intending for an audience to appear behind her.
"Why Grace holding pants, question. And why pants red?" She jumped slightly at that, having not even heard him roll in. She dropped her pants in the process, but they were the last thing on her mind right now. They normally woke up around similar times when Rocky did sleep, but she had forgotten all about that in wake of her reproductive system coming back to life all of a sudden.
"Uhhhh…" Oh great, now she had to explain periods to Rocky. "I can explain in a minute, I promise. I just need some pain meds first, okay?" She had started to walk to where she knew the remaining pain medications were stored before she was cut off.
"Grace hurt???" Rocky tumbled forward in a panic. "Why no tell Rocky?? What happened??" His movements were frantic and Grace felt a little bad that he didn't understand.
"Rocky it's okay I promise-" Rocky wasn't listening. He was circling her now, trying to assess the damage. "Rocky." Still absolutely nothing. With a sigh, her hand went up. "Hand is up, Rock. Stay put a second." To his credit he stopped dead in his tracks. Her teacher voice tended to do that to him no matter what was going on.
"Are you listening now?" His body moved in his version of a nod. Good enough for Grace. Her hand fell back down to her side as she continued. "I'm not injured, Rocky. It's… it's a human thing. I pinky promise I will explain in a minute I just really need those pain meds."
Rocky let her start walking again this time, obediently staying put where she stopped him before. Grace only made it a few steps before she realized, turning back to him. "You can move again," she chuckled to herself, "just please be careful."
"Rocky careful!" He followed next to her, waiting very patiently as she downed the pills dry once she found them. Rocky had asked her about that once, but the only answer he got was stammering from her. Honestly she didn't ever think she could explain her college years to the eridian… especially not undergrad. Never undergrad.
"I'm gonna sit now, okay?" Another nod from Rocky. Very carefully Grace sat down near the translator, ready to provide words for this impromptu lesson. Great, how was she going to explain this? Eridians didn't seem to have a similar process, being single sex and all, so she didn't even know if they would have a word for this.
With a sigh to seal her fate, she finally began explaining. "So, remember how I explained the two basic human sexes before to you? And that I'm a female?" More nodding. "And when I explained that it takes both a male and a female to," she mentally braced herself, "mate?" The longer she spoke the more she wanted the Mary to just rip a hole in the floor and send her off to the void.
"Yes. Strange concept. Humans inefficient, statement."
That earned him a laugh. Said laugh quickly dissolved into a wince as she cursed the slowness of the ibuprofen. "This sort of ties back into that. So for female humans there's a monthly process we go through. It's called menstruation formally, but it's often just referred to as a period. You following so far?"
Rocky chirped out an agreement. "Rocky following."
"Awesome." She sat up a little straighter. "Did I ever actually give you that full anatomy lesson?" Rocky shook himself back and forth in his version of a no. Well… that wasn't great. "Of course. Alright, hold on a second, Rock. This is gonna be easier with a diagram."
It didn't take long to find a whiteboard she could clean off and a marker. Coming back over she sat down and hummed. "Alright now, let's just do a little bit of this…" It certainly didn't look perfect by the time she was done, but it got the point across. Turning back to Rocky she started talking again.
"This is the uterus," her marker tapped against her drawing before moving down, "and this is the vagina. The vagina has several more… non scientific terms that we don't really need to get in to right now." The disappointment Rocky let off at that made her grin. "Maybe someday, Rocky. Back to the lesson though."
Rocky could see the way she gripped the whiteboard as another wave of cramps hit, but he didn't bring it up. "So menstruation is actually just part of something we call the menstrual cycle. It's essentially our bodies trying to prepare us for a baby every month, and menstruation occurs when there is no baby. Human females are born with millions of little microscopic eggs from birth, and once puberty hits, you remember that lesson right?" Rocky had to think for a minute but eventually he nodded again with a very soft chorus of "yes"s. "Well once puberty hits, women start going through the menstrual cycle. Eggs will flow down these little tubes," she took a minute to hurriedly add in fallopian tubes, "and into the uterus. The uterus then begins to develop a lining of things like blood and mucus for a fertile egg to latch on to."
"How do eggs get fertile, question?"
"That!" Grace coughed loudly. "Is a lesson for another day."
"Have do with mating?"
"Another day, Rocky!" Her face was on fire. She quickly moved on. "Once enough time passes without a fertile egg, the uterine lining will begin to shed. That's the menstruation part. The blood and mucus all slowly make their way down and out through the vagina."
"Ohhhhh!" Grace didn't bother hiding the horror in her eyes at his understanding. "That why Grace hold red pants!"
Grace nodded. "It's a very painful process for some women. It can last up to seven days on avera-"
"SEVEN?!" Rocky sounded horrified. "Grace bleed seven days now?????" He was frantic again, but this time he thankfully didn't roll off too far.
Grace nodded again. "It isn't actually that much blood. About a quarter cup if I remember correctly." Rocky stopped to mutter a soft, equally as horrified "quarter cup???" in response to that. Poor guy barely had a hold on human measurements but that felt like a lot to him. "Which for humans isn't bad," Grace quickly clarified. "The bad part are the cramps, which is why I needed those pain meds. It's basically the uterus contracting to get the lining down. It uh… hurts a lot for me, but it's okay! I'm used to it and it won't actually last much longer. I don't have more than what, 10 years?" She was debating with herself. "Sure. 10 years or so before it goes away properly in a process called menopause. I'll explain that later."
They both then just… sat there. The silence was as comfortable as it could be while Grace felt like her uterus was trying to tear itself out of her body. "Soooo, any questions? New words you wanna add?"
"Oh!" Rocky turned to face her properly again. "We don't have word for that, but Rocky make one up!" If he had a mouth he would be grinning. "Rocky want call it-" even his made up word sounded painful. She added it in, motioning for Rocky to make sure it worked. "Period. Yes! Amaze amaze amaze! Works!"
They exchanged a thumbs up in celebration before Grace asked again if he had more questions. "Any way Rocky help?"
Grace had to sit and think. Sure, heating pads were absolutely possible up here but she didn't expect Stratt to have packed that. It took her way longer than she would have liked, but she turned to Rocky again. He did always feel sort of warm… "This might sound strange but uh… if I lay down can you try something for me? It's not bad! I just need to test this new hypothesis."
Rocky seemed incredibly confused but he went along with it anyways. Grace explained how she wanted him to basically sit on her stomach to see if it helped. Still not understanding how, and being incredibly concerned he would make it worse, he did it anyways. It was tricky to keep the ball in the right spot, but Grace held him in place.
A soft sigh left the scientist as she was proven right. The weight and heat made a perfect combination and she could already feel the pain fading. Okay, maybe Rocky was a bit too heavy, but she could ignore that for now. Rocky turned to face her, tapping twice at her sigh. "Oh! Right, I didn't explain this bit." Grace kept a hold on the alien the best she could as she spoke. "Sometimes things like heat can help with the cramps since it's basically just muscles and since you're warm normally, thanks to the atmosphere you live in and all, it seems to be helping! And the weight is a nice touch too."
At her explanation, Rocky made an attempt to lay down so more of his body heat was against her own. "Like this?" He hummed. "Rocky helping, question?"
"Rocky helping, statement." The happy trills he let out at that made her smile. "Thank you, Rocky."
They sat in silence for the better part of an hour before Rocky inevitably got bored. Both of them went around tinkering with things before the eridian came back with one final question. "Why Grace just now get period, question."
She would love to know that too, Rocky. Thinking about it for a moment she decided to try and answer. "Things like stress can impact the cycle. If the body doesn't think it's safe to have a baby, it won't prepare itself. Between the coma and… well, everything else the stress must have kept it at bay until now."
Rocky seemed to think about this for a minute. "Grace feel safe now, question?"
Floating off though the interstellar void to a planet she didn't know she could only give her closet friend one answer to that question. "Yeah, I guess so Rock."