The alarm on her comms went off, the song was classical, and she hated the sound of it more than she hated the smell of fetid water. Her eyes opened in a confused, feverish haze. The pop had come while she was asleep. Her eyes open. She was boiling, she scrambled and grabbed her comms, shutting off the alarm. She checked the tracking on the package. Still nothing. She had a day's worth left and 3 more to go, maybe more?
Cait rose with more exhaustion and scrambled to get ready for work; she had a monster shift in front of her that she felt that she could not quite finish. She might end up sweating in a pod near work. So she should bring provisions.
Henry walked into the bedroom with a steaming mug of bitter, sugar-free, synth-coffee. "Good Afternoon, you really conked the hell out after drinking that shake when you got back. Try it in coffee. It is much better."
"Hen, I need those. The doctor prescribed them. They aren't coffee creamers." Cait said as she wiped the sleep and utter confusion off of her face.
Cait tied up her long, silver blonde hair and cranked the cold water in her shower. She slipped out of her clothes. Sweat streamed down her body; the heat was still there, burning.
Luckily, the cold water was not billable, and it was her favorite type of shower and bath. When she had the time to submerge herself. It had all started in her late teens. Because she was a dominant.
Nothing quite helped with the fever as her internal temperature climbed. It had been getting worse; she hated to think how it would feel in her thirties, if she lived that long.
That was always the caveat to her future: would she make it or struggle in vain? That is why she opted to exploit her access to education. While other girls were out on dates, making mistakes, and having fun, she was taking extra courses. She would not do hard labour like her parents. Like her Dad.
It paid off, but the easy life that she had studied so hard for had become progressively worse since her graduation a year ago from the specialist accounting program. They had moved out of Breakwater when she got her job two months ago, and that is when it got worse. When she came here with her fantastic new job, in which she would not come home sore every night.
She stripped off and stepped into the shower. The water took a while to get as cold as it was in the Traverse they last lived in. The Burrows were infinitely better; they had space for a couch, multiple walls, and they were able to cook.
Being poor was not exactly cheap, but cooking for oneself was cheaper. You could boil a kettle, but you could only eat so much noodle soup or paste without going crazy. She sighed in relief as her skin tightened and the goosebumps started to rise as she was pelted by the cold spray.
A hand reached into the shower, and then there was a hiss. "What the hell, that is teeth-chattering cold. I would come in and keep you company, but my man parts would crawl back up inside me." Henry said.
"Yeah, it would be nice to spend some actual time with you. But I do not have time. I am pulling two shifts after being in the clinic this morning." Cait said.
She washed herself with the deodorizing soap that her dad had sent to her. It came in a huge bucket that she just bottled up into smaller bottles and used as a footstool or a table. It had a weird shimmer to it that was pretty, but very unnecessary. Rich people were weird. She smirked as she imagined those shimmery Omie walking around. Now she'd sparkle too.
Somehow, the big bucket of soap made it through the Calais line, but a small canister did not. Did they not question an industrial bucket being sent to an apartment in a residential area?
Being a logistics brat sometimes paid off, especially when a crate accidentally fell and smashed open. She knew how things worked. She had covered loader shifts before. The robotic gear sometimes broke down, and when it did, it dropped its load when it rebooted, and when the crate smashed, the contents were up for grabs. Soap for two for two years, yes, please.
"You look so hot, covered in bubbles," Henry said as he stuck his hand into the shower and rubbed her body.
'She was like fruit, slow-growing but delicious. Her body was hard and toned from her part-time job offloading bolts of fabric off the loom in the textiles factory. He snatched her up before anyone realized that no-rack Agneau had suddenly developed curves. He grabbed one of her breasts; they were small enough to fit in his palms, and rolled her nipples. Her skin was flaming hot.
"Not now, Hen, I feel like shit, and that won't help," Cait said. She felt guilty that the thought of sex at this time of the month turned her off. It was uncomfortable. He kept kneading her breast. "Henry." Her knees weakened. She braced herself as her knees weakened.
"You feeling it now, Cait?" Henry said huskily. He felt the heat pool in his abdomen. It had been a week since they had had this much time together. Between their schedules and the doctors' appointments, they basically passed each other on the way in and out the door.
"Not in the way you want me to," Cait said and paused. His hand was still moving. "I feel like shit, especially now."
Cait's eyes felt like they were boiling; the weird, persistent fever came around once a month when she was ovulating. The hormone imbalances that puzzled the doctors at the Civilian Clinic were akin to those seen in women ten, fifteen years older than her who harvested their eggs for money.
"What about if we just do it on the outside?" Henry said as he trailed his hand down her breast to the damp silver hair between her legs. She was boiling to the touch as his fingers quickly tickled between the nook of her legs. Even in this cold water. His fingers probed as her legs shook.
"Nope." She grabbed his hand and pulled his hand away, and grimaced. He saw the musculature of her abdominal muscles move as she recoiled. Her body was rejecting him; he briefly wondered if it was because of the dominant genes. The rejection made his arousal shameful.
Cait noticed the look on his face. "Henry, I can't do it. Besides, I have to go to work. I am not sure I am going to make it through the shifts today. We will roll around once it is over. I will make it worthwhile then," she winced as the pain came in waves.
They took twelve vials of blood for samples and advised her that they would escalate her case to the Administration Hospital. It was only the rarest of cases that got sent there. Including her mothers in the end. But it was too late at that point.
Henry reluctantly pulled his hand like a dejected hand puppet. Cait turned away and rinsed her body off. He wiped his arm off with a sigh. "Well, you've got to, it will be over soon. Hasn't it been a week yet?"
"No, we are on day two." Cait sighed sadly as she towelled off. Henry watched. "Stop, seriously."
Her mother died before she had a period. There was nobody left to explain the birds and the bees to her. Her father was constantly working and away. She learned enough of the basics to know something was wrong. Sex left her cramping and unfulfilled. Her and Henry's relationship had taken a nosedive because of it. It was not good for her, but she relented to him as much as possible.
"Well, have you seen you, Cait Agneau?" Henry said. "The diamond of the Traverse.
"That is a name you coined for me." Cait blushed as she towelled off her body. His palm slapped her butt roughly as she bent over to pull on her underwear. It stung. Again, his hands were on her."Stop, I already feel like staying home."
She did not know how sex was done until she sneakily watched a pornographic video. She was a late bloomer at everything. Her nickname at school was Catwalk, not because she was a model, but flat as a Catwalk. Her period only started two years ago, when she turned seventeen. The whole process leading up to it and during was soul sucking. It was not worth the breasts and feminine form. She would rather go back to those old days.
"You can do this, Cait. You are still on probation, remember. You won't get the employment contract" Henry said. He hated to have to push her like this, but they had bills to pay and the shifts at the factory in the city had downturned as production slowed.
Cait looked up at him, "I will faint before I get to the office. Has my medicine come in yet?" She checked the tracking number, but it was still held up in transit.
"No, it hasn't. Did you send a message to your Father?" Henry asked as he watched her dress dejectedly.
"Yeah, I did. He said he did not know what the holdup was and that it was probably a logistics error. Then he went on to another job." Cait answered. "I won't get through another shift without it."
"Cait, you cannot book any more time off, you have to show up or they will just fire you." Henry's voice sounded cruel, but it was the truth.
Cait felt her heart drop at the sound of her boyfriend's voice. She understood that they needed the two incomes to float the tin can that they rented; it was a step up from the bachelor apartment in the brewing district. During the time she felt better, she would pull double shifts, but she needed her pills and to lie down and get through this.
"Henry, I have been at the clinic all day. You know my mother died of cancer, and now I am going through similar symptoms as her. I feel sick all the time. What if you have to step in like my father had to? I cannot work if I have it." Cait said she almost burst into tears.
"Are you really going to be there for me?" Cait asked. She looked through all the deliveries. It must be a mistake; she had never had a problem receiving her medication. It was an old family secret; she just needed to take an herbal supplement for the week.
Henry tossed her bag to her. "It smells like your medicine is in here," he said. His nose wrinkled. He hated being the bad guy in this. She felt like shit, and now she was on her way to another shift. This was the life for the Beta population.
"I'm not trying to be mean, but if you book off any more time, they will fire you," Henry said, his voice sounding so caustic to even himself. He looked down at Cait and cleared his throat guiltily, "You know your job brings in the money. You can get through this; you need to have a great record if you want to get into the civil services. Just think of the goals you have."
"We have thirteen days to earn the 2500CR this place costs. I have 2100CR, you have 300CR, then we have bills, food, clothing, entertainment, insurance, and pension payments."
"Okay, okay, chill," Cait said. She wiped her face clean of sweat. He sighed and finally relented.
"Okay, I will try," Cait said, her voice shaking. She stood and leafed through the closet. She picked out a pair of black ponte pants and a crispy blue floral dress shirt. Underneath, she wore a lace camisole. She worked the late shift so she could remove the dress shirt in the office.
She put on her mother's pendant. The only token her great-grandfather had left for his father. A delicate golden disk with a star imprinted on it.
Henry walked up behind her in the mirror and placed an icepack on her shoulders. Cait sighed in relief. She smiled. He held a second bag of supplies.
"Place these in the freezer at work and alternate them. It should help, okay?" Henry said. He placed a reluctant kiss on her neck.
Cait smiled. Henry was the only boy at Wave Break High who noticed her. He was her first friend in Deep Water. She was a tomboy, and not a lot of people realized it was forced on her. Her dad worried since he was gone for long periods of time that someone would take advantage of her.
It was traumatic for her to go through that for a year. Mom died, they moved communities again, and there was no one there to watch her. Her father cut her hair short and dressed her like a boy, until he ended up working international jobs until she was fourteen years old. They did not know until they split up to learn about basic biology that she was a girl.
When her father started working out of town, she grew her hair out of humiliation at school and started dressing like a girl again. When her dad came into town and found her with longer hair, they fought. Luckily, her neighbour stepped in to defend her and said she would look after her for free; all he would have to do was split their accounts and deposit her money for food, instead of leaving a pittance on a prepaid credit chip.
"Thanks," Cait managed to say.
The words hurt. In the last fight, he yelled at her until she was a crumpled ball in the corner. She had never thought about marrying or settling down and having kids with Henry until she started getting sick and questioning whether he would be as devoted as her own father, or if her kid would end up in some state-run orphanage like her mother.
The appointments started five weeks ago with the routine health check that all Beta females went through. Once a year, it did not matter whether you had any health concerns or not. It is when you have all of your pressing needs taken care of and tests done. She had complaints about her intensifying cycle, and they surprisingly addressed it.
Fertility was the one thing that they took seriously. She was even able to get teeth work done because of it.
Today, she had gone because they had given her a requisition and a slip to get her blood tested and a scan. She was told her case was sent to the Administrative Hospital, or ABO depending on the results. It was odd for a Beta to go through something like them, she informed her mother was a Beta Dominant, and so was her father.
Betas were not meant to lead extraordinary lives; however, they were a pool of the population that Omegas could breed with to produce more Omegas. Beta's could only make Betas with each other. She was a Beta, a Beta Dominant, which afforded her an education, but not much beyond that until today.
"Alright, I've got to go. I will see you in a couple of days," Cait said. She was going to cram four shifts into the next couple of days. Two sixteen-hour shifts, with a couple of mid-shift naps in a pod, so she would not wake him.
"Bye," Henry said. He rubbed his neck as it dawned on him how much was set to work over the next couple of days. His browline wrinkled. Would she really be able to make it through the next forty-eight hours? What about next month and then after that? He sighed.
"Bye, Sweetie. We will make up for it." Cait said. She placed a kiss on his lips and exited their apartment. The trip to the train was a little far, but the distance meant that they didn't need to hear or feel the rumbling or the vibration. Although it did get her close once when they were still living in Deep Water.
Henry was a Beta, too, and their relationship, just like their children, would not make it past a Beta's level. They would both need to work hard to get to a two-bedroom unit, which would allow them to start thinking about expanding their family. Maybe her health and their relationship would get easier if she had a kid. She would need to work hard.
It was that or have a kid with an Omega and deal with the psychological fallout and lose her sanity, but that would catapult them to a higher status as a couple. Even if you were able to score a gig to give birth to Omegas for the upper class, you would not want to.
It was a relationship killer to go to an Omega to reproduce; there was a lot of physical intimacy required from what she learned in classes. Maybe that was a recruitment story? Perhaps they were very skilled at it? All she knew was that the non-omegas born from this program were always abandoned. She knew that well, because both her parents were victims of the program.