Finally, the first to speak was not Katie, but Nick. "Don't answer that," said Nick.
"Why?"
"Because we can't. First of all, we really shouldn't be doing it. I haven't been keeping up on age of consent laws and at 16 you might be legal, but it's still not right. Having a teenage body for three years has made it easier for me to think like one, but really, I'm not one. I'm a grown man..."
"You're a woman now." Katie giggled.
"I'm a grown man." she said, "and I'm not going to have sex with a high school student. Not deliberately. Besides, Megan and I haven't broken up. I shouldn't be cheating on her."
"You did too break up! She was mad at you, and she wanted you to be a girl."
"Maybe so, but I don't know. Mad at me isn't 'breaking up'. Second, you have family. You need to go home. It was okay for you to tell your parents you were staying at Nicki's house overnight. But if you change to a man to have sex with me, you can't go home until 11. Do you really want to tell your parents you were here until 11 tonight?"
"I don't know, but I'm sure I can say something."
"We're going to change back. As soon as possible. I'm still going to do you and Megan at the same time. She doesn't deserve being a cat. We don't even know if that's safe. What if when she turns into a cat she loses her mind because it doesn't fit into a cat brain, and she can't get it back? Or she can only get it back if she changes back fast, and staying too long as a cat is dangerous?"
"I wasn't thinking about that," said Katie.
At noon, Nick said, "It's time."
"I don't want to," said Katie.
"You know, sometimes you don't want to do something, but you still have to," replied Nick.
"I guess you're right," said Katie.
Nick took Katie's jacket and wrapped it around the medallion, so there would be no chance of it touching anything else, then put the medallion around Katie's neck. Katie's form started to flow... a little bit. Then the change reversed itself.
"Katie," said Nick, "it isn't working! Something's wrong...." After it was clear that nothing more was going to happen, Nick took the medallion off of Katie and pocketed it again. "Either you're having your period, or you're pregnant...."
"I haven't had a period today, and I can't become pregnant that soon, can I?"
"If it's a period, you could have started just a few minutes ago. I don't know exactly when the medallion considers the period to start--it could be before you've noticed anything, in which case you'll be noticing it soon. And I think pregnancy takes around 12 hours to start. You've had 12 hours. There are such things as morning after emergency pills, though I wouldn't know how to get them."
"If I'm pregnant, you are too. You have the same body as me."
Nick grimaced. "You're right. But the first problem is what to do about you. You need to get home, Katie. But you can't transform."
"Maybe we can have Megan pretend to be me until we can change back?"
"That's true. She can do it, and she'll have to agree. Because if she doesn't, and you stay missing, she'll be arrested as a kidnapper. You were last known to be coming to this house, after all. Get the cat, Megan. I hate doing this to Megan but we don't really have a choice."
Megan caught the cat and held it as Nick put the medallion (still wrapped in Katie's clothes) around its neck....
