Thank you Amyress, my beta and my encouragement!

And BJ Hanssen, my new friend and still my best critic!

Slightly enthusiastic at the fact that I was wearing pants and a shirt instead of the awful scrubs I'd been living in while the med-bay was my temporary home, I sat on the gurney closest to the door swinging my legs like a kid in a chair too tall for them. As I stared intently at the mechanism that controlled the way to my freedom Dr. Chakwas stood between it and me, facing me and fiddling with the small, hand-held machine she had put a vial of my blood in. Sighing, I looked at her expectantly but she shook her head.

"I don't understand," she mumbled, staring at the machine's small screen as she bit her lip. "This anomaly is unheard of." I didn't remember her saying the word 'anomaly' before so boredom became concern.

"What's up Doc?" I asked, almost slapping myself for the cartoon reference. She shook her head again as she turned so I could see the screen as well.

"This," she said, pointing to a series of letters and numbers grouped at the top of the screen, "should be identical to this." She pointed to another group of letters and numbers at the bottom of the screen that were a bit different. Concern was bordering on confusion.

"Ok, what's the one on top represent?" I asked, trying to break it down in my head.

"That is an overlay of your genetic reading frames," she said, "It was derived from the sample you gave when you joined Cerberus." Then she pointed at the one below it. "This one is from a sample I took while you were unconscious." I bit my lip to keep from asking questions I already knew the answers to. I chose my next words carefully.

"Knowing you like I do," I said, "I'm sure you took multiple samples and tested them all." She looked at me and smiled.

"You know me so well," she said, looking back at the screen. "Well, there's only one solution, no matter how outrageous it may sound." She put the machine down next to me and looked me in the eye. "Somehow, some way, your psyche's DNA is taking over Dr. Martin's DNA. You are, essentially, re-writing her genetic code, possibly to match yours from your original body." She looked into my eyes then narrowed hers, looking closer. "What the-"

"Hey there," John beamed as he entered the room wearing his black civvies, similar to the doctor's. Realizing both the Doc and I were not as happy to see him as he was to see us he stopped in his tracks, his smile fading. "What happened?"

"Nothing," I quickly responded, looking at Doc and shaking my head. "Just science-y stuff." I smiled warmly at him. "What's got you so bubbly today?" His smile returned but it was shyer.

"I… was… just happy to see you upright," he said, gesturing toward me. I nodded.

"It's nice to be upright," I agreed, easing myself to the floor. "How long do you think I'll be down, Doc?" She shook her head then looked at me, forcing a demure smile.

"Another week, maybe more, I won't be sure until I get the results from a few more tests," she said as she moved closer to me, looking at my eyes instead of into them once again. She shook her head again, mumbled something then went back to her desk. My eyes followed her until she sat then quickly moved to John who was looking at me with far more scrutiny than before.

"So, are you allowed to leave the med-bay at least?" he asked, taking a few more steps toward me. I gave him a questioning look. "We're heading to Illium. It's a beautiful planet and I thought you might enjoy seeing it."

Feeling the older woman's eyes on him, he turned to Dr. Chakwas. "No fighting, I promise," he assured her, waiting for her response. She nodded and he smiled, looking back at me.

"There's a place… to eat, a restaurant that I'd like you to see. It has an amazing view of the capital city." Keeping my expression from going into full-on shock was increasingly difficult as my heart made its way into my throat. Is he… asking me out? On a date? I took a breath and swallowed my heart back down, speechless for a minute or so then smiling and nodding.

"Uh… yeah, I'd love to… see the view… from the restaurant. With… you." The words stumbled from my lips clumsily. Shit, someone shoot me! He clapped his hands together and nodded.

"Great, we should be there in a few hours so get ready," he said. Taking a few more steps to be less than a foot away from me, he looked closely at my eyes and squinted. "Kayla, your eyes…"

"I saw that too," Dr. Chakwas said as she rushed over to us, looking again at whatever interested her the first time. "I thought it was my imagination, but now…"

"Ok, what now," I mumbled, putting out a hand. "Do you have a mirror?" Doc turned around, grabbing a small one from another table and shoved it into my hands. I quickly brought it to my face, looking for whatever it was they were concerned about.

"What about my eyes?" I asked, looking closer, "they're… blue." John took the mirror from me and cradled my chin, looking at both eyes again.

"Yes, but they were brown."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After another hour of fussing Doc finally let me out, insisting that John and I promise to record any other changes that we notice. We agreed and John walked me to my newly assigned quarters in Port Observation.

Looking around the room I saw it had the same look as the starboard side but with less seating, plus a queen size bed in the right corner of the room with drawers built into the bottom. As I glanced further to the right I smiled at the stainless steel built-in wet bar and looked back at him.

"Is it my birthday?" I asked with a wink. He laughed, briefly reaching out to brush my cheek with his thumb. Suddenly I felt alive, as if he'd sent electricity through me with that single touch.

"Kind of," he agreed softly. He cleared his throat and nodded toward the bed. "Get ready. There are some civvies in the drawers under the bed, some of the female crew members contributed until we get to a civilized system."

Not willing to take anything for granted just yet I stared at him, trying to get a read. Why, why are you being so open? What's your motive, what do you get out of it? Apparently I stared a little longer than I should have because he gave me a knowing smirk and shook his head. "Dress nice." And he walked out, the door shutting fast behind him.

Taking a minute to clear my head, I decided to play along. No sense in alienating him just yet, he is your ride to Earth after all. I shook my head; just the idea of that sentence being accurate was still disturbing.

I dove into the drawers looking for something 'nice' to wear.

I found leggings and shirts, a bunch of different colors and styles. Dress nice he says, how? I thought until I spotted a deep blue satin-like cloth at the bottom of the drawer. Gently I pulled it out and stood, holding it up at the shoulders and gasped.

It was a floor length curve-clinging dress with squared off shoulders and a high neck. The body was a deep royal blue with navy blue arms and a blood red 3" stripe going from the neckline straight down to the hem. The cloth felt luxurious between my fingers and it looked to be about my size. Whoever gave this up, I have to thank them! I thought then, getting a whiff of myself, I realized I smelled like antiseptic.

I went to the community shower and cleaned up then wrapped myself in a towel, returning to my room.

Pulling on the dress, I let the amazingly soft material slide over my skin and checked myself out in the mirror. I smiled, feeling more like a woman than I had in a long time. Mussing up my shoulder length sandy blonde hair, I parted it on the left and combed it with my fingers to give it a just-rolled-out-of-bed look.

I found what I realized was a make-up kit in another small drawer and went to work on my face, going with smoky eyes and red lips. Satisfied with my appearance, I found a pair of flats in another drawer and slipped them on as I rushed out the door, hair still slightly damp.

"Well," I heard Miranda's snarky tone as I waited for the elevator. Suppressing the impulse to roll my eyes I forced a smile and turned to look at her.

"Hello Miranda," I said, then turned back to look at the elevator door. She huffed out a laugh that could have been mistaken for a grunt.

"You look… nice," she forced out. Slipping my mask on, I looked back at her impassively.

"Thank you," I responded with a nod and turned back to the door. When it finally opened I heard her sigh.

"What's the occasion?" she asked as we entered. I pushed the button for the CIC and the doors shut.

"I'm going down to the planet," I said, choosing my words carefully.

"By yourself?" I could tell by her tone she knew that couldn't be true but, not sure what she was up to, I kept my answer short.

"No, with John."

Silence.

The doors opened to the CIC and I stepped off, heading toward the cockpit. I spotted Kelly at her normal post and caught her eye, pointing to the dress I wore with a questioning look. She smiled and nodded to which I responded with a mouthed 'thank you' and continued toward the bridge.

I could hear Miranda's steps keeping up with me as John came into view, waiting by the exit door while he chatted with Joker. He was wearing what appeared to be a dress uniform, mostly black with some white accents. The following footsteps stopped just as I entered the short hallway leading to the front of the ship.

"You know what pisses me off?" I could hear Joker going off. "Calling this the cockpit. Alliance ships have bridges, Asari have cockpits. Oh wait, no they don't," he said with a chuckle. John shook his head with a grin as he turned to see me. His jaw slackened a little as he took the 'dress nice' me in.

"Wow," he subtly mouthed, quickly bringing his eyes back up to mine with a renewed smile. "You look amazing." I felt a blush as I smiled, glancing at the floor.

"Thank you," I breathed out. "Ready?" He nodded, pushing the large red button to open the door and reaching for my hand. I reached out as I got closer, giving it to him and he tucked it into the crook of his arm.

"Right this way."