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Chapter 12 :Minor Revelations?

Jana woke as the curtains of the lobby opened and light flooded the room. She squinted as her eyes adjusted to the light and then wiped the sleep from her eyes. A grey and white furred Bobcat woman was opening the second of the lobby's two large curtains as she sat up on her bed. In her half-awake state Jana initially thought that she was a Lynx. But she realised that she was a Bobcat when she turned around and approached her after tying the curtains open. She lacked the long tuffs of fur on the tips of her ears that a Lynx would have had, her fur was not as full or as thick, and her hands and feet were smaller compared to the later species.

Jana yawned as she rubbed the last remaining piece of sleep out of her eyes. "What's the time?"

The Bobcat had sultry, husky voice, and a rather unusual accent. "It's quarter to five. I am sorry to wake you, but the station will be opening soon, and Major Carter would like you to be somewhere quieter before everyone arrives."

She then introduced herself, almost as an afterthought. "I am Captain Ilyina, but you may call me Natasha."

Jana yawned again, still groggy and only half with it. She had never been up so early in her life!"Nice to meet you."

"We need to move your bed and your things. My office has enough room, and it is close to Major Carter's office. You can also go back to sleep once we are done."

Jana nodded and stood up. She was still not fully awake, but she was becoming slightly more alert. Natasha began putting Jana's possessions onto the 'mattress' of the bed, and Jana followed her lead. Once everything that Jana had been 'issued' with was piled into the bed, Natasha and Jana grabbed opposite ends of the bed and began walking to the conference room. As they began walking towards the passageway that ran alongside the station's lecture room they passed several people of various species.

Jana assumed that they were the catering staff, as there were a few people who she recognised as being chefs, like the Fox who had served her and Major Carter when she first arrived at the station. Most of them looked curious about Jana and what she was doing. Some were trying to avert their glances and stares as they walked towards the stations kitchen, like the young male Rabbit and the Collie. A Vixen and a Squirrel looked like they were repulsed by Jana. Jana first thought it was the vixen she had been unfortunate enough to meet in previous day, but this was a different one. Jana was incensed by the two women. She didn't choose this for herself! And even if she did there was no reason to look at her like...some animal or monster! Jana hoped she would not encounter too many bigots when she was finally released from police 'custody'.

Natasha and Jana got the bed, and together they carried it back to Natasha's office. They had a bit of trouble getting it into the Bobcat's office around a corner due to the stations layout. Once inside they put it at the far end in front of the window. The Bobcat's office was long and fairly narrow. There was a window at the far end, and a bookcase along one wall. There were piles of books and papers everywhere. Natasha knew where everything in her office was. Or most of it at any rate.

Natasha explained "the window doubles as the fire escape" and then said "I will let you organize your things, and then you can either have breakfast or go back to bed."

"I think I will go back to bed for a bit" replied Jana.

"Sounds fair enough. We will be sending someone over to get your clothes as soon as possible. Hopefully they will still fit you, but if not I can measure you up and get something made up for you." said Natasha as she was leaving the room.

In her half-awake state, Jana wondered why the Bobcats accent was so unusual. It took a while for it to 'click'. She was a Russian expatriate who had been in South Africa long enough for her to have lost some of her eastern European accent and to have gained something of the South African accent.

"I wonder if she has learned to speak Afrikaans..." wondered Jana as she began emptying the beds contents onto the floor and shoving it under the bed before lying down and going back to sleep.

Jana eventually woke up and checked the phone that William had given her. It was roughly quarter to nine, the usual time she woke up of a morning. After getting up, she decided that she really needed a shower. She hesitated at first, wondering if she should wait for Natasha to come back first. In the end she messaged William and asked him to pass it onto Natasha. She assumed Natasha was her current escort while in the station. William soon replied to her message, telling her that Natasha was coming to make sure there would be no problems and to give her a towel. After a few minutes Natasha arrived and handed her a large white towel.

"Do you need to be shown the way to the locker rooms Jana?" asked Natasha.

Jana smiled. "No. I was shown the way by a very energetic Ringtail yesterday...was it yesterday? Or was it the day before? I can't remember!"

Natasha smiled. "When you are done, you can get breakfast. The cereal we have is high in protein, and it goes really well with milk and dried fruit."

"That actually sounds pretty good! I will give it a try when I am out." replied Jana. "Should I just go to the lobby and get it? Or do you want me to wait in your office?"

Natasha sighed and crossed her arms. "I might get you to wait here. Some of the catering staff...are not afraid to voice their opinions, so to speak."

Natasha's ears flattened sideways. She had been told in advance by William about Jana's menacing expression when she was angry, but she was still surprised by it. Her facial expression hardened and seemed like it was ready to snarl at any moment, her main on her back was standing on end, and her tail was held high. Most unnerving of all was the look in her eyes, or rather the lack of emotion that she could now see in her eyes. Jana replied in an unusually flat, even, and somewhat emotionless voice "I am not afraid to voice my opinions about them either. But I don't want to cause you any trouble. I will come back here after my shower."

Jana then walked out of the office and to the showers. Natasha was on edge and her fur was standing on end even after Jana was no longer in the room. She could understand Jana's anger at the bigots, especially the police officers. There was nothing she could do about it though. All she could do was get breakfast for herself and Jana while Jana was in the shower.

As Natasha walked into the lobby she saw that the first shift had arrived and was now quite busy. Most of the officers were eating meals, drinking various non-alcoholic drinks, and socializing before their shifts. Most were patrol officers in simple, practical patrol uniforms. Black cargo type pants, black tactical shirts with pockets on the front and rank slides and insignias on the upper arms, and black tactical vests in which the more frequently used equipment was kept in various pockets. Less often used equipment was often kept by patrol officers in pouches on the belt. There was only a small line of perhaps two dozen people when Natasha went to the cafeteria counter. The line moved quickly and Natasha was soon at the front. She asked for two servings of cereal with dried fruit and milk. She also asked for two bottles of water. The Tabby looked blank for a moment, before she realized that one of the bowls of cereal would be for the...creature.

Natasha's eyes narrowed. "Do I need to repeat myself?"

The Tabby meekly replied "No Ma'am."

Natasha continued her scolding of the young officer. Her voice was sharp and authoritative. "She is as much a persona as you are, whether you like it or not corporal."

The Tabby was unsettled by the superior officer's tone of voice. She quickly got what Natasha had asked for and put them onto a serving dish and then quickly asked the Alligator behind her what she wanted.She was glad when the lieutenant half turned and slowly walked away.

Natasha slowly walked to her office. The lobby was noticeably quieter than before, but it was still reasonably noisy. She just couldn't understand it. 'Why do some view her as a monster? She is a person! She is able to reason and judge right and wrong like anyone else!' Natasha tried to not let it get to her. She did what she could to lower her hackles before she opened the door of her office as best she could with her hands full. While she waited for Jana to finish her shower she had her breakfast, and finished the few reports that she had left to do. By the time Jana had finished her shower Natasha's mood had improved. She was glad to see that Jana's mood had likewise improved after her shower.

While Jana was having her breakfast there was a knock at the door.

Natasha wondered out loud "who could that be?" as she opened her office door. She was greeted by a tall Donkey, who looked like she would easily have been five feet eight or ten inches tall. The brown and grey furred officer explained that she needed to get Jana's formal consent before she and her patrol partner could go and collect her clothes as per Major Carter's orders. She handed Natasha a clipboard with the required document on it, and Natasha passed it to Jana. Jana read the paper before signing it. The two officers noticed that Jana was slightly nervous despite her attempts to put on a brave face. After a few awkward moments of silence Jana said "I hope my clothes still fit."

Natasha smiled reassuringly. "If they don't, we can get you new clothes, remember?"

Jana looked blankly at the feline. "When did you say that? When I was three parts asleep and it was stupid-o'clock?"

The Russian expat could not help but chuckle when Jana referred to the early start to the day as 'stupid-o'clock'. That was a term she had not heard before! She would have to remember that one! The Donkey simply smirked as she walked off with the signed papers. After she had finished chuckling, Natasha said "there won't be much to do until your clothes to arrive, unfortunately" as she sat down in her office chair.

Jana did not so much reply as think out loud, mostly to herself. "And it's probably best if I stay here, or at least avoid the lobby while everyone is there."

"True. And I am not much of a conversationalist I am afraid" replied Natasha. Having grown up in a family with four brothers she was more than a little tomboyish. In fact, she never even felt the need to try and appear girly until her early twenties. She hoped Jana would not interpret her statement as aloofness, as others had done in the past.

Jana smiled. "That's fine. I can always surf the net for a while, and I really should send my family some emails, or call...or..."

Jana didn't bother finishing her sentence. Instead, she grabbed the phone she had been given and called her parents. Natasha did her best not to listen to the Hyena's private conversation. It was none of her business and it was mostly family related judging by the few bits that she payed attention to. After a while she found herself listening in to her conversation despite her best efforts not to do so. She grabbed her tablet computer and started going through the backlog of memos that she had. It helped for a while, but several times she found herself listening and had to force herself to tune out again. From what parts of the conversation she did inadvertently listen to it seemed like her parents had no trouble adjusting to her being a Hyena. Jana also called someone called Ilana and someone called Louwrens. Natasha didn't think too much about who they could be. While Jana was in the middle of her conversation with her slightly younger brother Louwrens there was a knock at the door.

Natasha put her tablet under her arm as she got up to see who it was. She was a little surprised to see that it was the Donkey that had come by earlier on. She had two large duffle bags slung over her shoulders, one under her side and one over her back.

Natasha asked "Are those Jana's clothes?"

"Yes" replied the Donkey. "I hope they fit her. They look small. I mean, really small."

"We will have to wait and see" said Natasha.

"I'll leave them here with you then" replied the Donkey as she put the bags down.

Natasha thanked her as she turned and left. She picked up the surprisingly heavy bags and moved them into her office next to her desk. There was no rush. She could afford to wait for Jana to finish her phone call. After several minutes Jana hang up and looked towards Natasha.

"Are those my clothes?" she asked.

"Yes" said Natasha. "Shall we go to the change room?"

Jana smirked and replied "Oh...I...guess we can" somewhat mischievously.

Natasha smile as she grabbed one of the bags and leg Jana to the women's change room. She was having a bit of trouble due to the weight of the bag, but Jana seemed to have no trouble with the one she was carrying. Her tail was wagging slowly as she entered the change room. Natasha lent against the wall as she waited outside. 'I never knew Hyenas wagged their tails' she thought to herself.

Inside the change room Jana had sat down on one of the benches and unzipped the bags. She dumped the contents on the floor, and began going through her clothes. On a whim, she decided to start trying on her shirts. After removing her pyjamas top she tied on a blue cotton shirt. It was too small. 'But that one was always a little small and I never really wore it that much' reasoned Jana as she tried on another shirt. This time she tried a black shirt. It was better than the first, but still too small.That was one of her favourite shirts, even though it was a nightmare to keep loose fur and fluff off of it. It used to fit her perfectly. And it was a lot tighter around her chest than anywhere else. 'Did that bloody scientist give me a bigger bust while I was under?' thought Jana as she looked at her chest. She blushed when she realized that she was bustier than before. She really hadn't notice it until now because it was proportioned to her body. Jana did what she could to put her mind at ease as she tried on every other shirt that she had. None fitted. They were all either too small or very uncomfortable and didn't look right on her anymore.

She was worried now. If her shirts didn't fit, what were the chances that anything else would fit? Jana gathered up her shirts and threw them to one side in a pile. She put her pyjamas top back on. She picked up a pair of cyberpunk style leggings. She had bought them when she was an undergraduate, and she rather liked them. They went well with a leotard of a similar style. But it was something she never wore outside of the home. As she looked at them, her ears flattened. They looked too like they were small. Regardless, she took of her pyjamas pants and carefully wrapped one of her legs in a net bandage to stop her fur from being pulled putting the tight fitting legging on her leg. She managed to slide the legging on up to her knee, and managed to get it to go up to the top of her knee joint before it became too tight and painful to continue. Jana tried to remain optimistic. 'Perhaps my jeans or pants will still fit?' hoped Jana. She tried her light blue jeans. They were loose fitting when she was a wolf, but now they were a little tight. Without thinking she shoved her unwrapped leg into the jeans. She gave a high pitched yelped as her fur was pulled by the jeans. They were as tight as her leggings should have been.

Natasha called out. "Is everything alright?"

Jana was slow to reply. "...No...Nothing fits..."

Natasha slowly entered. She found Jana sitting on one of the benches in her pyjamas. Her clothes were strewn all around her, and a pair of jeans had been thrown across the room. Jana was unwinding a net bandage from one of her legs as Natasha walked over and sat down near her.

Jana sighed. "I guess I will have to get new clothes..." She was clearly disappointed, and perhaps a little angry or annoyed.

"I guess this means a shopping trip, or something. But I can't go out in public in my pyjamas!"

Natasha put her hand on Jana's shoulder. "You don't have to. I will take your measurements and then we can buy something that will fit you. In the worst case scenario we can get something custom made."

Jana put her hand on top of Natasha's and nodded. "Works for me" she said. She was still disappointed, but it was obvious that she wasn't going to break down from this as Natasha thought she might. Jana put her pyjamas pants back on and then helped Natasha gather up her clothes. They stuffed them back into the bags they had come in before going back to Natasha's office. Jana noticed that Natasha's office was located at the end of the corridor past the lecture room, past the sergeants' offices, and in a cluster of offices that seemed to be for the higher ranking officers at the station. She also noticed how much she had changed. As a Wolf, this would have really got to her. She knew that when she was a Wolf, this kind of thing would have brought her to tears. But now, it was more annoying than upsetting. She felt more confident, in control...more dominant. She was wrong when she said to her mother that she was still the same person...she was a different person. Not that was necessarily a bad thing.

As she entered Natasha's office, Jana couldn't help but wonder if her ordeal was a blessing in disguise and if there would be any more revelations in her future.