It had been two months since Berto had asked me to marry him and of course I had said yes. I mean I'd been waiting for him to ask me for two years ever since we'd decided that my apartment was big enough for the three of us. Of course I wasn't going to leave Shock at N-Tek and we did have that little 'Turbo overload and Turbo shutdown' problem so it made sense to have all three of us living together. Anyway it had been pretty nice living and working together but I could sense that something was bothering Berto and after almost a day I finally asked what was wrong.
"What do you mean?" He asked me looking up from his work and I sighed before wrapping my arms around his waist. "Um what are you doing?"
"You've been acting kind of distant lately and that worries me. What's wrong?" I said to him and for a moment he stared at me before he finally sighed.
"It's just…we've been married for two months now and we haven't been…um." He replied and I grinned when I saw a faint blush.
"Intimate?" I asked and when he coughed I giggled. "We're married now so you don't need to be embarrassed. Besides it's not like we haven't made out on more than one occasion." After a few minutes of thought he smiled back at me.
"I know but I want to…be intimate but we can't." He replied and I knew what he meant as we both looked down at my Base Suit. Obviously I couldn't take it off, ever, or my Turbo powers would cause me to go critical. "I shouldn't have said anything. Sorry Jessie."
'Hey it's okay. I know how you feel but you know why I can't remove the Base suit." I said and that's when Shock and Steel entered the room.
"Actually that might not be true." Shock said and noting the blank stares he received he rolled his eye and flew over to us.
"He means we may have figured out a way around that problem." Steel added and we both blinked at that piece of news.
"Wait so I can remove the suit? Without blowing up?" I asked them and Shock tried to explain but his explanation confused me. Seriously lost I looked at Berto and he laughed.
"He basically means you'll still be wearing the suit, just with some adjustments. Not really sure what those would be but if it works…I'm all for it." He said and I grinned up at him. "Definitely up for it." He added and I cracked up. This made Shock and Steel stared at me for a few minutes as they attempted to work out what was wrong with me.
"What's up with her?" Steel asked Shock who shrugged. "Hey she's your partner."
"Like I can read minds." Shock answered as they both continued to stare at me. After I finally stopped laughing I realized what they had said and I couldn't help the huge grin on my face.
"I'm guessing that you're happy too?" Berto asked as he held me in his arms.
"Maybe more than happy." I told him and he chuckled. "Ecstatic, pleased, wanting to go running through the corridors of N-Tek yelling how happy I am."
"I hope not." I heard Shock say and that made Berto laugh this time. "Otherwise I don't know you." He added as I finally let go of Berto.
"So what are you working on?" I asked as he went back to his work. As I watched he picked up a wrench and began working on C.Y.T.R.O. "Doing some upgrades?"
"Tienes razon. I thought I should do some repairs and upgrades in case we need him to be backup for you and Max Steel. Of course at the moment it's been pretty quiet." Berto said as he tightened a bolt on the robot. "Not that that's a bad thing of course. It's just kind of strange."
"I know what you mean. Still let's be thankful about that. I know we'll get the chance to kick some butt soon." I told him and he paused to smile at me. "What?"
"Ten years on and you still sound like the teenager I first met in Copper Canyon." He said and I grinned. "I guess we didn't really change much in these past few years."
"Well you do sound like an old man when you say that." I pointed out and he frowned, putting down the wrench. "Just kidding but you are almost thirty." Before I could register what he was going to do he grabbed me around the waist and I giggled as he tickled me. "Hey!"
"This 'old man' happens to be the man you married. Besides you're only three years younger than me so there." Berto said as he tickled me and I started laughing. Eventually I got the hiccups and Berto grinned at me as I hiccupped.
"Very…hic…funny Roberto." I muttered using his full name and he raised an eyebrow at me. "Now I…hic…have the…hic…hiccups." Taking his arms from around my waist he watched as I crossed my arms against my chest.
"Why is it when you're annoyed with me you call me by my full first name?" He asked as I continued to hiccup and I giggled.
"Just because." I told him and he rolled his eyes at me. Truth be told it was just something I found funny to do to annoy my husband. Man that sounds so strange now, I thought to myself. "Anyway it's not important."
"If you two are done…" I heard a familiar voice sigh and we all turned around to see Commander Forge walk in. Even being ten years older didn't change his personality in the least. Still the head of N-Tek, and would probably be for the next ten years, he walked over and joined us beside C.Y.T.R.O.
"What can we do for you, Commander?" I asked surprising myself at how polite I had become over the last few years.
"You know I'm never going to get used to you being polite. Anyway I came past to ask if you had seen Max." Forge said and I thought for a moment.
"The last time I saw him he was talking about going to the park with Sydney and Kate." Berto told him and he nodded. "Hey how long has it been since you linked with him Steel?" He asked and the Ultralink told us about 5 hours, give or take. "That's a relief."
"Don't worry. I can call him at any time. Besides it's not like Sydney doesn't know about me." Steel replied and I smiled, remembering the day that Max finally told his longtime girlfriend about his secret identity. Of course she did already know so it wasn't a big shock. That shock came when he asked her to marry him. Now they were married with a two year old girl called Kate McGrath and Max still managed to be a great father, husband and Max Steel all in one. Now that was impressive.
"That's fine. How are you two by the way?" Forge asked me and I told him that we were pretty good.
"Berto's working on C.Y.T.R.O and we've been using the Training simulator a lot lately." Shock said and I nodded as Berto picked up a blowtorch. "So everything's working out great. Is there anything you need?"
"Now that you mention it I've been thinking about testing out that new Jump Jet that Berto designed." Forge told us and both Shock and I exchanged a look. "What's wrong?" He asked.
"Well we haven't exactly tested out the steering or the landing equipment so it might not be safe just yet." Berto spoke as he put down the blowtorch for a while. "Plus its emergency eject button hasn't been tested yet so I don't know."
"If you want I'll test it." Someone said and I grinned when Max walked in. "Besides I can just use Flight Mode if anything goes wrong."
"Okay why is everyone making fun of my Jump Jet?" Berto asked as he crossed his arms against his chest and I rolled my eyes at him. Walking over I playfully poked him in the shoulder.
"They're just teasing. Look I can test it out if it'll make you feel better." I said and he cringed slightly. "Okay what does that look for?"
"Two problems. One; you don't know how to fly a Jump Jet. And two; even I'm not going to risk you getting hurt." Berto told me and I giggled as Max stared at us.
"So its fine if I get hurt?" He asked and I pointed out that if he did, I could replace him and he frowned at me as I grinned. "Geeze it's a joke." I added. "So how are Sydney and Kate?" I asked him and he smiled.
"They're great. We just got back from the park and now they're with my mom Molly." He told us. As he told us about their trip to the park I wondered what Shock and Steel had come up with concerning my Base Suit. As I thought about this Berto noticed the thoughtful expression on my face and he laughed to himself when he figured out just what I was thinking about.
A while later when Berto, Shock and I were together in the lab my husband took me aside. "Is something the matter?" I asked Berto and when he shook his head, a smile on his face, I realized just what he was thinking about. "Oh I get it. So when do you want to…you know?" I said and I giggled as I managed to make him blush again.
"Uh…I really don't know." He stammered before I leaned up to kiss him and he smiled as he returned the kiss. For a long minute we forgot that Shock was in the room and when he gave the Ultralink equivalent of a cough we broke apart, still smiling.
"Maybe we should see if this idea works before you two start mauling each other. In full view of everyone." Shock suggested and I nodded. "So where do you want to go?" He asked and for a second I was a little puzzled until I realized what he meant.
"Our apartment? Or maybe my dorm room?" Berto said and in the end we decided on the dorm. When Shock asked why I replied, with a giggle, "soundproof walls" which Berto had to agree with. For obvious reasons.