"Hello, Miss Abbigail," DocProf greeted as he turned towards the door.  "Bite yourself again?"

"Hello DocProf," she returned, entering the infirmary.  She had a red blush on her cheeks, but she had learned how to ignore it.  At least with DocProf.  He liked to tease her about how they had met every time he saw her.  "And no. Not today. I was hoping you could help me with something."

"And what would that be?"

"Have you seen Cafas today yet?" she asked, taking a seat on one of the spare chairs.

"Not yet. You can wait here if you'd like. It might not be a pretty sight when he gets here."  DocProf turned back to his paperwork.

"That's fine. I can wait."  She made herself comfortable.  Abby was sure she could've asked the Doctor, but while she trusted him to keep her small cuts caused by her teeth a secret, he wasn't really someone she knew.  Cafas she knew.  She had talked to him, had actual conversations with him.  Her interactions with DocProf were more professional.  And Cafas did say she could come to him with anything.

Adder was throwing Cafas' daily scheduling out. The X-man couldn't seriously put himself through his paces while trying to train the Wolf. It meant hanging back to do combat training. Still, it was getting done. He pushed his nose back into a more central position as he trod his well worn path to the infirmary. One eye was swollen totally out of commission, the other was no walk in the park to see through.

That was how Cafas managed to walk straight by Abby. His situational awareness just wasn't the best without his eyes, and she wasn't carrying enough metal on her person to show up in the metal heavy infirmary. "'ey Doc. En' up going out last nigh'?" Cafas smiled, though it was more correctly called a grimace.

"I did. I would certainly recommend the restaurant. Now, let's get you patched up, you have a visitor."

What? Who'd look for me here... Okay, everyone, to be fair."

Cafas' face did it's best to look surprised, though it hurt like hell with the broken nose. A golden glow filtered into his eyes, and relief spread over his face to wash away the pain. Light washed in as the swelling in his eyes receded. "A visitor?" Cafas turned to look as the Doc gestured behind him. The X-man turned, testing out the newly restored mobility in his face. A smile split his face as he saw Abby.

"Oh! Hi Abby, what's up?" Cafas quickly turned his head back to Doc, "Thanks Doc. Same time tomorrow?" The old man shook his head and shooed Cafas away. The X-man closed the few steps to his adopted... Family member of some sort. They hadn't really confirmed that one. He dropped into a crouch to meet her eyes. "You doing alright?"

Abby was a little shocked to see how hurt Cafas was. She knew he trained during this time. She also knew he met DocProf after. That was all common knowledge in the school, when she knew who they were talking about. Seeing the amount of injuries was really different though. She let them do their thing as she adjusted to the idea. She was happy the visit to DocProf was common knowledge, and considered daily.

>>"Oh! Hi Abby, what's up? Thanks Doc. Same time tomorrow? You doing alright?"

Abby smiled up at the pink haired... family member person. She wasn't sure what they were really. Maybe a brother? But would you ask your brother the things she wanted to ask? She didn't know. Maybe. Her situation was a little weird. "Um, I have a something to ask you," she looked around at the infirmary. "In private, please."

A smile was a good start. In Cafas' experience, smiles rarely preceded horrible news. So, she probably wasn't dying. That was a plus. Not too glum, so probably not a bully problem either. He could do this. He was totally prepared for familial interaction.

"Um, I have a something to ask you. In private, please."

Oh man, he was totally not ready for in private conversations. Well, it would seem that ready or not, he was required to have one. Promises were promises, and if he couldn't be held to his word, he wasn't sure who he was any more. He offered a hand and tried to think of anywhere in the Mansion that could honestly be considered private. "No problem. Must be pretty serious."

Bedrooms? No, too weird. Maybe outside somewhere... Actually I'm pretty sure Mama T is out today, I could hijack her office.

There, he had a plan. He was maybe potentially ready. "We can talk in Mama T's office. She's taken a day off so that should be empty." Plus it wasn't too far from the infirmary. Cafas led the way for the short distance, running through possible scenarios. It seemed like he was going to be asked for advice, and, well, he needed to formulate some.

How do you get into these messes?

"You okay?" The perhaps slightly anxious X-man asked, trying to gauge Abby's reaction. Not that he usually had any such luck with reading people, but trying never hurt, right?

>>"No problem. Must be pretty serious... We can talk in Mama T's office. She's taken a day off so that should be empty."

While they walked, Abby tried to think through what she wanted. She knew what she wanted to ask. But now that she had the chance... she wasn't so sure. But the only one she knew she could ask was Cafas. She didn't really trust anyone else with her question. Cafas had said they could be family. Family could talk about this type of stuff.

>>"You okay?"

"I'm not normal, am I?" she asked quickly. Then she stopped and thought about what she had said. "Besides being a mutant, I mean."

Hmmm, might have been wrong on the bullying thing.

Cafas swung the door shut, and despite some better judgement his brain was providing, lifted Abby with a hand either side of her waist, depositing her onto Mama T's couch. It was something his father had done to him, though he'd been a bit too big for it by Abby's age. Short of any better instincts on the matter, he just reverted to those memories.

"I don't know, but you're pretty cool. Why, did somebody say something?" Cafas' legs protested to the crouching after a work out, but he ignored them just like he'd ignored his better judgement. Abby couldn't come up to his eye level, and forcing her to crane her neck up the whole time didn't seem really kind.

Oh man what am I even going to do here?

If it was bullying, this was going to be far more difficult to deal with than Cafas had anticipated. He knew what it felt like, but for him the solution had been an external force. He could hardly be that for Abby among peers. There was no undoing hurt feelings either, so she'd be nursing it for a while even if it did stop immediately. well, maybe not Abby, she seemed pretty relaxed and ready to let things go.

Abby was a little shocked at being lifted. She hadn't been lifted like that since... her Daddy, probably. It was a family thing. It made her feel better about asking Cafas about this stuff though.

>>"I don't know, but you're pretty cool. Why, did somebody say something?"

Cool. He thought she was cool. Would boys think the same? Did cool mean the same after becoming an adult? "No, no one's said anything," she admitted. No one said anything. But she saw how the other girl's her age whispered. How they pointed. A lot of them didn't even talk to her. Like something was wrong with her. "I'm not like the other girls, though."

Okay so, no direct bullying? Was that the take away here? Maybe it wasn't bullying at all, he was just applying his experience of school onto Abby without actually understanding what her experience was. He needed to stop, gather information, then formulate how he was going to help. What if she just meant she didn't like dolls, or whichever group of five moderately attractive late teen boys were being auto-tuned these days.

"Not like them how?"

He was running through his own life again. He couldn't seem to help it. He just tried to distance it from Abby and explore possibilities. Was she old enough that she might be noticing things like, maybe she didn't like boys how the other girls did? Or that she didn't like being a girl and didn't feel like she was one. Would that be an easier or harder conversation than the bullying? At least the advice there was a bit easier. Not much, but a bit

I am so out of my depth. Don't most people get a good thirteen years to prepare for this?

>>"Not like them how?"

Abby's face flushed. This was the part she had issue with. Even the older girls who liked to dress her up were commenting on it. How could he not know what she meant? Adults had to grow up to be adults. She knew that from science class. Abby shifted while trying to figure out how to say what was wrong aloud. Her face got hotter than before. This was so hard! "Here," she bit out. She made sure not to look at Cafas while she motioned to her chest area.

Cafas felt the heat hit his face like a METAbot fist. He flushed a colour of red he would never have thought possible to achieve, and was very glad Abby was carefully looking anywhere but at him.

Oh... OH THIS IS SO MUCH WORSE!

An adult. Cafas needed an adult. This was made worse by the dawning realisation that he was the adult, and that if he couldn't handle this, he'd failed Abby. Oh man he needed years. So many years. Like, nine to thirteen. Minimum. Then he'd still go running to Maya. So fast. It wasn't an option though.

Okay, okay, assess, more information. Gonna need to be less warm around the face too.

"Okay, well, firstly it's perfectly normal to have some changes around your age. So, that said, what have you noticed?" Because he kinda needed to know if this was like, her own breasts coming in, or if this was a thing where other girls had them already, or something. Why was Maya not here? He couldn't just casually text her, either. Not in the middle of a conversation so important. He needed to seem in control and knowledgeable, right? That was his role?

Oh god please not the talk. Please.

>>"Okay, well, firstly it's perfectly normal to have some changes around your age. So, that said, what have you noticed?"

Normal. Yeah. She knew that. She had read a bunch of books after her Aunt talked to her when she was nine, before going to the Mansion. That conversation took a lot longer for her to understand. Though, now she knew why Aunt Teresa had told her about all that before. But now... something was wrong.

A red flush still on her face, she tried to explain. "I'm not... I don't have... what the other girls have." She couldn't get the word out. Nope, not saying the word. "And I know, those should come before the... other thing happens. But I don't have any." Having blood come out of strange areas of your body was bad enough, but she had thought she knew when it would likely happen. Her... chest came first. That's what all the books said. She didn't have a chest. So what was wrong with her? Though she didn't have to worry about her skin like other girls, she thought maybe she was just late. Now she was sure something was wrong with her.

Well, if he'd been out of his depth before, Cafas was well and truly drowning once realisation dawned in his mind. This really did appear to be a job for Maya. Yet there he was, trying to figure out how to tell a young girl with, he assumed, no-one else she felt comfortable going to that her period coming before her breasts was nothing to be worried about.

...

So why was he worried? Surely if there was nothing to be worried about... But did he know that, or just assume that? Did she know how to deal with it? Did he know how to deal with it? Over all Cafas had been more comfortable having his nose broken in the Danger Room than dealing with the puberty worries of the opposite sex.

Okay, she's worried, you need to not be. Just like a mission, do what needs to be done, there will be time for your emotions later.

He took a deep, calming breath. His face cooled a measure, and his heart rate dropped. He extended a hand and placed it on Abby's shoulder. "That's fine, sweetie. Things don't always happen in the same order for every person. They don't always happen at the same age either. Is there something in particular you're worried about with it? And do you know how to deal with..." Well, it was time to decide if he was euphemism family-figure or proper words family-figure, and quickly.

It was Cafas, there was only ever going to be one way that went.

..."Your period? Is this your first one?" Oh god, he felt weird even asking. Not half as weird as if he'd tried to sugar coat it though.

Abby jumped a little when Cafas touched her shoulder. She had been focused on not looking at him that she didn't notice him moving. She looked up at him now though, to see what he wanted. He looked really calm. She wondered how he did it.

>>"That's fine, sweetie. Things don't always happen in the same order for every person. They don't always happen at the same age either. Is there something in particular you're worried about with it? And do you know how to deal with... Your period? Is this your first one?"

"Mhmm," she nodded. "But I have everything I need. I just..." Abby frowned at down at her chest. Taking a deep breath, she decided just to say what she was upset about. "I'm flat. Why don't I, yeah know, have what other girls do?" There! She asked it. Every other girl her age were wearing bras and such. She wasn't. "Is something wrong with me?"

Ah. Cafas felt a pang of pity at that. He knew second hand that it could be difficult to accept having smaller breasts when growing up. He'd just picked it up from a few of the women he'd been close to. He gave Abby's shoulder a gentle squeeze and smiled gently, his best attempt at reassuring, because he had a feeling, given how she seemed upset already, that Abby wasn't going to like what he had to say. He couldn't lie to her though. Not to his... Abby.

Here goes nothing.

"It seems like you're handling your period very well. I'm proud of you. As for your breasts, well, they may just grow later for you than the other girls, but I'm sure you've also noticed how adults are all different shapes and sizes? Some girls get big breasts, and some have quite small breasts, just like some people are tall, and some are short. It's nothing to be ashamed of, either way, no matter what anyone says. Okay?"

That was perhaps not as eloquent as Cafas might have liked, but he was working on very short notice with no real experience in the matter. He had some basic education in the matters of puberty, and the words of some female friends, and that was pretty much his entire resource base.

Pleeeeaaaase don't have said anything dumb in all that.

>>"It seems like you're handling your period very well. I'm proud of you. As for your breasts, well, they may just grow later for you than the other girls, but I'm sure you've also noticed how adults are all different shapes and sizes? Some girls get big breasts, and some have quite small breasts, just like some people are tall, and some are short. It's nothing to be ashamed of, either way, no matter what anyone says. Okay?"

Abby felt a little better when he told her she was doing well. She hadn't been sure. It felt like everything she was doing was wrong. The thing about some girls having small breasts caught her attention. Everyone she saw had big ones. "Like who?" she asked seriously.