Part Eight: Parallel Universes

The two astronauts made it back to Tony's without further incident. After stashing Roger's car in the garage -- no use parking it out on the street where everyone could see it, just in case somebody decided to pay them a visit -- and having lunch, the two of them got down to work. Aside from short breaks (and making sure Roger took his pills whenever he started feeling achy) there were no interruptions. Engrossed in their work, it was almost easy to forget what had happened to them.. almost. Every once in a while Tony would look up and be momentarily startled by his friend's appearance; and there were a number of times when Tony had caught Roger staring at him, with a strange and uncomfortably familiar look in his eyes. "I don't know," Roger had said with a shrug. "It's just that you look so different, but the same at the same time. It's weird." Tony had agreed that yes, it was weird, but that they shouldn't dwell on it. Jeannie would be home soon, and once she was she would blink them back to normal. And then they wouldn't have to deal with any more of these bizarre distractions.. things like suddenly acquiring new pieces of anatomy (and suddenly losing some of the old ones), or having your center of gravity dramatically lowered, or the fact that strange men were now making eyes at them. Tony realized, though, that he wasn't as bothered by strangers doing it as much as he was by the people they knew. It made him feel very odd, being regarded in such a way by these men. Commander Belmont, the security guard, Dr. Bellows.. even Roger had said that Tony made a nice looking girl. And Tony had to admit that Roger didn't look bad either, with shoulder-length hair and those big blue eyes..

Tony cleared his throat and hastily pushed that thought *way* into the back of his mind, focusing instead on the formulas and data in front of him. Luckily, Roger didn't seem to have noticed; and the two of them continued their work on the report. They finished it in the evening, and then settled down for some TV and relaxation after dinner. They'd already decided that Roger would stay here tonight, to avoid any encounters with his neighbors. They were both rather proud of themselves that they'd completed their assignment so quickly. Tony said that Jeannie would probably attribute their early finish to their newly-female minds, and Roger had laughingly agreed. After that, however, Roger had seemed a bit preoccupied. Tony wasn't surprised, with all that had gone on that day.

"Tony?" he asked hesitantly, as they were setting up the spare bed later that night. "Did you ever wonder what it would have been like if we'd been born like this?"

"Not really," he mused. "Well, not before this, I guess."

"What do you think we would've been doing if we had? Been born like this, I mean."

"I don't know," he replied thoughtfully. "When I was a kid I wanted to be a doctor, a surgeon -- I suppose I might have ended up as a nurse."

"Not a doctor?"

"It's hard enough to get into medical school as it is; it's even harder for a woman," he said. "What about you? You always wanted to fly, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but I don't think I'd be doing it, if I'd started out like this. Like you said, it's hard for a woman to break into fields like medicine and aviation."

Tony looked his friend up and down. "Looking like that, you probably could have been a stewardess," he said with a smile.

"And spend my time serving drinks to passengers instead of flying the plane?" he said, frowning. "Yeah, maybe. If it was the only way to fly."

"Even if we'd been trained as pilots, I doubt we would have made it into the astronaut program."

"Mm." He paused. "Even if we'd studied hard, graduated at the top of our class, we still couldn't have done this. Those female trainees NASA had in the early '60's never got a chance to go up, and they were as qualified as any of us."

"It's a shame," Tony agreed. It wasn't something he'd thought much about before this, but it really was a shame to waste all that potential. Jerrie Cobb, Jan and Marion Dietrich, Jackie Cochran.. they and all the others would have jumped at the opportunities he and Roger had been given. He hoped that someday they'd get another chance. "But that doesn't mean it's going to be like this forever. Things are changing, like I told Jeannie."

Roger shook his head. "And I thought I was the optimist."

Tony chuckled and started to answer, but something caught his eye. A shadow had passed over the front window a moment ago, and was now gone. A medium-sized, dark blue shadow.

"Rog," he whispered. "Play along, OK?"

"OK," he replied, looking confused. "Why are we whispering?"

"Hey, let's go check on that cake baking in the oven," Tony said loudly, so that anyone nearby would be able to hear him.

"There's a cake--?" Roger began hopefully, as he was pulled into the kitchen by his sleeve.

"There's someone outside," said Tony, once they'd gotten away from the front of the house. "I think it's Dr. Bellows -- he looked about the right height. He must still be suspicious from this afternoon."

"Dr. Bellows?" he replied in disbelief. "That man is way too interested in your life, Tony."

"You think I don't know that?" he answered. "We need to get rid of him, at least for a while, or he's going to figure out who we really are."

"So, what you're trying to say is that there's no cake," Roger said, disappointed.

Tony rolled his eyes. "No, Rog, there's no cake."

"Oh. OK. Well, what should we do?"

"What any normal woman home alone, with a prowler outside would do," he said knowingly.

"What's that?"

Tony smiled. "Call the police."