"So Jon could shape-shift if she had full control of her body, right?" Karyn asked, as she tried to get comfortable in the backseat of the doctor's tiny hatchback. She was the tallest of the three, and the ceiling was just low enough that she had to hunch down slightly. The front seat would've been a better spot for her, but Dr. LaRue had removed it to make room for a speaker stand and dedicated MP3-player PC.
"Yes and no," the doctor replied. "'Shape-shift' implies a more or less instaneous change; Jon's body architecture reshapes itself via a modified repair process that's more or less analogous to cell growth and replacement in humans, which is much slower. It can be accelerated, but we're still talking more of a gradual change over several weeks than a Terminator II deal."
"Jon, were you seriously built by a scientist who references sci-fi movies?" Karyn laughed. "That is awesome."
"What can I say?" Dr. LaRue chuckled. "Kyle Reese was my first crush, you know. Heck, I still day-dream about being swept off my feet by a sensitive bad-ass time-traveler." She pulled into the right-hand turn lane, and Jon cocked an eyebrow. "Where are we going?" she asked.
"Grocery store," the doctor said. "If we're going to have a guest over, I'm damn well going to serve some proper food."
"Oh, you don't have to-" Karyn protested, but the doctor interrupted her. "Kid, I'm not that destitute!" she said. "Besides, I could use a little more variety in my diet. Believe it or not, microwave food gets pretty old after a while."
She pulled up in front of the local supermarket, and they went inside. Dr. LaRue sent Jon and Karyn to get some frozen chicken and vegetables while she picked up some dry ingredients. "So," Karyn mused, "she seems...nice. Kinda odd, though."
Jon nodded. "You can say that again. She's nice enough, but I don't think she's all that used to being around people. I get the impression that she spent her childhood holed up in her room, reading sci-fi novels. Total bookworm."
"Hey, watch it!" Karyn said. "Some of your best friends are bookworms, y'know."
"W-well, I didn't say there was anything wrong with that!" Jon sputtered. Karyn laughed. "I'm just teasing you," she said. "You can't blame me for that, it's the first time I've gotten to do it in a month. Oh God, Jon, does it ever feel good to have you back."
Jon smiled, feeling a tear or two stinging at the corner of her eye. "Thanks," she said. "It's good to see you again, too." She was nearly knocked off-balance as Karyn hugged her tight. She returned the embrace, and after a bit they released each other, grabbed the frozen items, and headed toward the checkout.
The drive back to Dr. LaRue's house was comparatively uneventful, and the conversation was about a variety of things that had nothing to do with the fact that one of the people in the car was a robot. When they arrived home, Dr. LaRue set the chicken thawing on a heating element she'd left in the kitchen earlier in the week before embarking on the grand tour that Karyn insisted on having. The doctor and Jon showed her around the basement laboratory, then Jon took her out for a walk around the grounds while Dr. LaRue prepared supper.
Fortunately, stir-fry was one of the few things that Anne really knew how to make well, and it turned out just fine. Karyn expressed her approval, then stared at Jon, who was eagerly chowing down. "Uh," Karyn said, "um, you eat?"
Jon paused for a moment, then nodded. "I don't have to," she said. "But I like to anyway. I mean, it tastes good, and I've been in the habit so long..."
The doctor nodded. "From a design standpoint, it's a flexible backup power source. Not all that efficient, but it lets her stay fully powered when she's unable to get to an electric socket, just in case. But more than that, it's a way to make her more relatable to humans. I don't know how much Jon told you, but her body was originally-"
"Designed as part of an attempt to create a race of robots, right?" Karyn asked. The doctor nodded. "I modeled a lot of the systems in her body after humans, in the hope that society would more readily accept artifical people that seem like themselves. I had to sacrifice some efficiency and flexibility to do it, but I figured that could be addressed in future generations, once the world had come to accept them."
Karyn raised an eyebrow. "Future...generations? You mean like...?"
The doctor nodded. "Children, yes. Jon's body is, shall we say, reproductively compatible with humans, and actually capable of conception via any donor of genetic material."
Karyn tried and failed to repress a smirk, then barely managed to choke back a fit of giggles. Jon shot her a look, then asked, "What?"
"No, it's nothing," she replied, then stifled another round of giggles. Jon sighed. "Don't tell me. You're thinking of-"
Karyn stopped herself in the middle of a laugh. "I'm thinking of you as a mother, yeah. I'm sorry, it's just such an absurdly cute thought..."
Jon winced. "No. Just...no."
Karyn nodded. "Right, sorry."
"Jon's said before that she doesn't plan on that," Dr. LaRue said. "And I can understand that, given the circumstances. It's just a hold-over from the original project, that's all."
"Yeah," Karyn said. "I can't really blame you," she said. "I mean, I've been a girl all my life and I still get kind of weirded out by the thought." She noticed the uncomfortable expression on Jon's face and decided to change the subject. "Anyway," she said, pushing back her empty plate, "thanks for dinner, Ms. LaRue. It was great."
"You're welcome," Anne said. "Now how about dessert?" She went into the kitchen and brought back a box of fortune cookies she'd bought. "It didn't seem right making stir-fry without some of these," she said. "Besides, I love these things."
She passed them out, and all three of them cracked their cookies open. Dr. LaRue read her fortune and smiled. "'Childhood dreams can still come true,'" she said. "Karyn, what'd you get?"
Karyn read hers. "'Happiness is closer than you think.' Heh, that's specific. You don't really believe in this kind of thing, doctor?"
The doctor shook her head. "No, but it's fun anyway." They both looked at Jon, who was looking a little nervous. "Um," she said, "it says 'You may find hidden joy in unplanned circumstances.'"
