Epilogue
Sheldon awoke to the spicy smell of something cooking.
No, baking.
Something sweet… cinnamon? Cinnamon rolls? He loved cinnamon rolls.
He was in bed… his bed. Sheldon sat up, throwing off the sheets and touched his face with his hand. His human hand. He was a human again… wait, the fight with Brit. Oh no.
Was he… dead?
Come downstairs
The words were not spoken, or announced through any intercom. They just intruded into his thoughts. There was no particular voice associated with the command to come downstairs; it was simply knowledge that had been injected into his mind. Come to think of it, Sheldon couldn't actually hear anything. Nor could he feel the mattress under him or his own hand on his face. Was he deaf? And numb? Lacking any better alternative, Sheldon left the bedroom and walked down the hallway towards the staircase.
The house was familiar, but not. The room he left he had recognized as his bedroom, but now that he thought about it there had been things out of place. A piece of memorabilia here, an action figure there, were missing or in the wrong spot. Now, in the hallway, Sheldon wasn't sure where he was anymore.
The building looked superficially like his own home, but had some design elements of Jenny's house melded in with them. On top of that, everything looked unrealistically simplistic, as though he were living in a cartoon.
Passing by an exterior window, Sheldon peeked outside and saw only a pale white light. There was no terrain, no backyard or even fluffy white clouds with angels sitting on them, strumming their harps. Just a blank white void. Perturbed, Sheldon moved on down the stairs.
Stopping before he reached the bottom, Sheldon wondered if he shouldn't be a little more cautious. His life was a fairly weird one after all. Or had been, if being dead was the case here. If this wasn't the afterlife though, then it could be just about anything else, and possibly hostile.
It's okay, keep going.
The words entered his mind again, and Sheldon called out "Who are you?"
This is Jenny silly. XJ9. waves hello
"Jenny? Where am I?" Sheldon asked, confused.
You're in my mother's lab (well, it's Mog's lab really, but mom has a tendency to take things over wherever she goes). Or, at least, your brain is. You're not much to look at right now. Not much more then a motherboard and a block of hard drives. But I really missed you, so mom let me hook you up to Mog's computer and chat with you using the keyboard for a little bit. Most of your accessory systems are still offline though, but I accessed one of your smell-memory-files that was flagged "important" to get you to wake up.
Sheldon sat down on the stairs, taking it all in. Jenny typed I miss you sweetie and he felt a wave of comfort sweep through him.
"Ok, so this is… a memory? Like before?"
Most of your memories are offline right now. Mom wants to give them a virus sweep first. I made this little dream-house for you using an old CAD program that Mog had.
"Oh, that explains some things." Sheldon nodded, his mind abuzz with speculation. Perhaps he should ask Jenny to draft him a spa while she was at it.
I can do that, but you wouldn't be able to enjoy it until we turn your nerves back on.
"How did you know what I was thinking?" Sheldon asked out loud.
It shows up on my screen silly. Think clean thoughts ;-)
Oh great, why not just tell him not to think of a pink elephant while she was at it. But as tempting as it might be to sift through his favorite fantasies about Jenny, at the moment Sheldon was more concerned with his physical situation. Living in Jenny's electronic dollhouse might be a fun novelty for a little while, but Sheldon had a close enough brush with becoming a vegetable in the past already. He did not relish the idea of remaining an electronic brain-in-a-jar hooked up to somebody's PC.
Oh, don't worry about that. My parents have been really busy working on you. The new "you", I mean. Here, go to the window. I've snapped a few digital pictures.
Sheldon climbed back up the stairs as he was told, approaching the blank white window. A few seconds later the window fuzzed-out, and was replaced with a still image of Nora Wakeman and Phineas Mog bent over a lab bench, hard at work on something.
The image blurred again, and became a clearer shot of what they were working on; Sheldon saw… himself. Only, it wasn't himself. It looked like the Wakemans were building him a new robot body modeled after his original human one. He was composed of the same gray metal, and a few other small features of the Silver Shell design were still visible as well. Sheldon hoped that meant that Nora had actually copied part of his Silver Shell designs. It was a huge compliment for such a genius to accept one of his own innovations as comparable to her own.
Other then that though, the robot looked just like him, with a couple of small improvements. His teeth were straightened for one, and his posture had been as well. Sheldon also suspected that Nora might have given him a bit of a nose job too.
She wanted to give you a little bow tie on the front of your neck too, but I've made sure she didn't change too much. I want you just the way I remember you J
"Thanks," Sheldon said aloud, though he supposed he didn't have to really. Sheldon was certainly impressed. Judging by the pictures, Nora must have been hard at work to get so much done in the last… wait, how long had it been since Jenny's labor?
A little over three months.
"Three months?!" Sheldon blurted. "Well… what happened? With Brit, and Brad, and… The baby, oh my God!"
Brit's taken care of, thanks in no small part to you. The rest of our friends are doing ok, for the most part. My house was destroyed, and the Carbunkle's house was condemned due to "structural instabilities", but the government is paying to have them rebuilt.
In the meantime, we've all been staying at Mog's place. By that I mean me, you (your brain, anyway), mom, Mog, and Tuck, at least at first. It's been a little cramped living here; we even had to turn the garage workshop into a nursery.
My mom is doing fine. She seems to have gotten together with Phineas Mog, which makes sense, but is still really creepy. I just can't think of my mom as being someone who has an interest in guys. They both spend a lot of time in the nursery whenever they're not working on your new body. I think they like taking care of the baby together, it's probably important to their research or something.
I've gone back to school, which is a whole other story. I worked out a deal with vice principal Radzinski to make up time for all the classes I missed. Basically, I'm taking a placement credit as a teacher's aid at an elementary school. It's neat, since I never went to elementary school. And actually, when I graduate, I've been thinking that I might like to look more into teaching as a career.
But it is a lot of extra work. Between that and midnight feedings, I don't always get as much recharge time as I would like.
Brad, Tiff and Misty had to go stay in the hospital for a while. Brad got out first (mostly it was just a broken hand, and he heals really fast now for some reason) after only a couple of days. And a lot of that time was the doctors poking at his chest scars, trying to figure out just what is going on there. But so far it's a mystery, and Brad doesn't like hospitals so he didn't stick around to find out.
Tiff was in the hospital for a lot longer, she had some broken bones and a pretty bad concussion. When she got out she went back to her old house for the time being.
Misty is still there right now, she got hurt the worst. She's got broken ribs, internal bleeding, a punctured lung, the works. She'll be ok, but it's harder for her because the Earth doctors aren't well trained to handle an alien patient.
Brad has technically been living with us since he got out, but he was spending most of his time at the hospital, and nowadays he sleeps over at Tiff's house a lot too. But he still comes back here to spend time with Tuck and me. Tuck was pretty traumatized during this whole… thing.
He's okay when Brad's around, but when he's not Tuck tends to need a lot of attention from me and mom. He's seeing some counselors about the death of his parents. Weirdly though, he's been a lot of help with the baby. I think mom has been teaching him some stuff about robotics and computer programming.
Speaking of which… will you go downstairs already? There's someone waiting to meet you. :-D
Sheldon jumped to his feet and wasted no time getting downstairs. In place of the living room he had been expecting, Sheldon found himself in a nursery. The walls were pink, with pink curtains on the windows and flower pots hanging from the ceiling with pink blossoms. The corners of the room were overflowing with stuffed animals and bundles of pink balloons with "congratulations!" printed on them.
In the center of it all was a baby's cradle with a mobile hanging overhead. Sheldon approached almost reverently, and peered inside.
Looking up at him were two bright, blue eyes, centered in the most perfect little face that Sheldon could imagine.
"Bahhh." The little baby stated.
Sheldon smiled and nodded.
"Yep, 'bahhh' is right." He agreed, picking up the tiny human baby in his arms.
Awww, you two are so sweet together. :-D :-D :-D
"What's her name?" Sheldon asked, already aware that the baby was a girl.
June. Or Jane, or Jodie. I haven't settled completely, I wanted to get your input first. But I've been using June mostly.
"June is fine" said Sheldon, smiling from ear to ear. He was floored by how happy he was. He didn't think it was possible to feel this proud.
She is something, isn't she? Be gentle, she was born premature so she's rather delicate. Mom says that she'll grow out of that when she turns XJ-2 though.
"Heh, yeah, the 'terrible XJ-2's', I'll bet." Sheldon laughed, looking forward to it anyway. He was looking forward to every moment he would get to share with his new daughter, even the bad ones. He could hardly wait to begin his new life, with his new family.
It shouldn't be too long until your body is readu. Ready. Sorry, typo (Tuck just bumped my arm).
Sheldon wasn't paying too much attention anymore, more interested in making funny faces for his daughter and getting her to smile for him. She reflexively grabbed hold of his fingertip when he moved in front of her face, showing excellent hand-eye coordination. And a strong grip, too. Delicate? Sheldon had trouble believing that!
I gotta go for now hun. Tuck says there's something about a Cluster ship I need to go take care of. I'll be back later though. You two play nice now grin.
Before Sheldon had been worried about becoming trapped within his own mind for any length of time, but now he didn't think he'd mind at all. He welcomed as much time as he could have to spend with this marvelous little lady in his arms.
Standing from the computer Jenny minimized the window running the CAD program hooked up to Sheldon's mind. There had been very little supervillain activity in Tremorton in the weeks following Brit's attack. What there had been Jenny was able to take care of easily enough. The Muckraker was nothing compared to a new mother's diaper duties.
As Tuck led Jenny out to the street where the Cluster ship had touched down, Jenny smiled and continued to think about Sheldon and their daughter. She was very happy to have finally given Sheldon the chance to meet the baby, and for June to have her first meeting with her father. It was a terrible shame that Brit's attack had kept them apart for so long.
But then again, June had already repaid Brit for that.
It was long after the ordeal was done with that everyone found out exactly what had happened to Brit that day. It happened one day after Tiff had been released from the hospital and had started to get her strength back. Jenny was determined to make good on her promise to become better friends with Tiff, and had arranged a dinner with Brad to get them all together and socializing again.
After the dinner, Jenny had dropped the first bombshell of the evening by asking Tiff if she would be June's Godmother.
"Whut? Me?" Tiff had sputtered, completely perplexed. "But I don't even go ta church!"
"I'm not really concerned with June's religious education. Sheldon and I aren't very religious either; it's not something that's important to us. But I think you'd be a good… role model." Jenny explained, but could tell from Tiff's expression that she'd need to go into more detail.
"What I mean is, you've had some pretty tough times in your life. Some bad influences."
They didn't often refer to Brit by name anymore. It didn't seem polite, and brought up a lot of bad memories.
"But despite that you still turned out as you are today. I think that makes you very qualified. Plus, you helped deliver June, and I would like you to remain an important person in her life. And I know Brad agrees."
Tiff had shot Brad an accusing glare, declaring "You put th' idea in 'er head, didntcha?"
Trying to escape this new responsibility, Tiff blurted out "But, I wasn even any good at th' birthin'. When I wuz holdin' her it was unner a minute b'fore she'd already stuck that cyber-knife thang in her mouth."
"What did you say?" Jenny's mother had asked, this new information suddenly sparking a fresh connection in the mystery.
Tiff shrank, ashamed of her past blunder. "I's sorry, but it jus' proves that I ain't responsible enuff ta be tha Godmother. Who knows what kinda crap that baby might swallow when I'm watchin' her?"
Shortly after, Nora had run a test of the XJ-1's data cache against some backups that Mog had stored in his lab. It didn't take much to confirm it: Jenny's baby had downloaded the killswitch program into itself when it had "suckled" the delivery mechanism, instinctively taking in any sources of data it was presented with. The XJ-1's body was underdeveloped because of the early birth, and new schematic data such as the specs for the 'dagger' were quickly incorporated into the baby's still growing body. In this case, transforming June's tooth into a replica of the killswitch weapon's tip.
When she had bitten Brit a short while later, once again in the process of seeking out more data from her mother's breasts, the killswitch program was uploaded into Brit's cybernetics and went to work shutting them down.
Jenny washed the memory from her mind. She was happy that they eventually convinced Tiff to accept the position, but at the moment Jenny had to focus on super-hero business.
Tuck and Jenny stepped out into the street, where Nora, Brad, Mog and Tiff were already gathered. The Cluster, even with Vexus gone, always presented a potential threat. It was a good sign that the ship hadn't already started blasting building, but you never know…
The front hatch of the ship opened with a hiss, and extended a long metal ramp down to the street. When its occupant stepped out into the light, Jenny couldn't help but smile.
"Vega!" she called, rushing up the ramp to give her old friend a welcome hug.
"Hey Jenny!" Vega responded, wrapping her arms around Jenny to return the hug and give her a european-style kiss on each cheek.
Pulling away she looked Jenny over and commented "woah, I see you've been through some changes. But how are you? You never call, you never write…"
"I'm good. There's a lot to tell you, but to summarize: I'm doing very good" explained Jenny, leading Vega from her ship down to the street. "But what brings you to Earth? I know I already missed your sister's wedding."
"It is actually related to that, and the war back in the Cluster." Vega frowned, and waited until everyone was in earshot before she continued.
"I guess you probably know that the civil wars basically ended when Nexus took the throne by marrying YK-9. I've been overseeing the quashing of the last few minor warlords and their uprisings while King Kenneth cemented their rule by siring a legitimate heir. For the last couple of months it seemed like the last of the war was over, and everyone was awaiting the birth of Nexus' litter."
"Litter?" Jenny asked, lifting one eyebrow.
Nearby, Mog scratched his chin, muttering "must be a side effect of the canine portion of his programming…"
"Five pups altogether, three boys and two girls. Everyone was thrilled. The royal bloodline is healthy and thriving again!"
Vega's smile faded though, when she got to the bad news. "But then, out of nowhere, Brutus shows up again. Seems he went into hiding when his faction started losing the war, and met up with an old croney of my mothers, a scientist named Krakus."
"We've met," stated Jenny, motioning for Vega to continue.
"So, since he's got nothing to lose and everything to gain by unleashing some anarchy in the empire, Brutus had Krakus invent this contagious rust that infects robots and turns them into, like… zombies! Robot zombies that consume the metal from healthy robots to keep themselves going. They spread like a plague and now several planets are infected, including Cluster Prime, and the whole situation is out of control! I only barely escaped, but the rest of the royal family is still trapped on Cluster Prime and they need help!"
Well, it had been a nice vacation. But Jenny's duty would never truly leave her, and to be honest she was getting hungry for some decent superheroing again.
"Well don't worry Vega, I'll just say goodbye to my fiancée and daughter and we'll go save your planet right away."
"Actually…" Vega started, her tone showing her apprehension, "I came to Earth to ask Brad for help…"
"What?!" exclaimed Brad and Jenny simultaneously.
Vega shrugged and explained, "Well, I know you're some sorta superhero around here, but on Cluster Prime you'd be just another victim of the rust-plague. But Brad… Brad saved the Earth from my mother's invasion, and took her down again aboard her own flagship! That battle became the turning point in Nexus' rebellion, and he ended the succession wars by bringing YK-9 to the Cluster. Plus he'd be naturally immune to the plague, and the zombies wouldn't see him as a source of food, and—
"okay, okay, I get it." Jenny said, raising a hand to stop Vega from going on about Brad's many qualifications.
Meanwhile, Brad was looking pretty damned pleased with himself.
"Well Brad? Will you come with me and help save the Cluster?" Vega pleaded.
"Hmm, I'm the only hope to save a planet from a horde of Robot Zombies from Space? Lemme think about that…" Brad intoned sarcastically.
Obviously, it was a dream come true. Even saying it out loud sounded like the title of a drive in science fiction double feature. Vega, though, didn't seem to quite understand that the question was rhetorical.
"Well, not the only hope. The empire does have some other resources; we just thought that you would be the best option and that you'd probably want—
"I'll do it!" exclaimed Brad, cutting her off.
"Great!" Vega exclaimed happily. "My ship can take us back to Cluster Prime, where we can give you some of our technology to help you get to Brutus and the antidote."
"Wait, wait… this isn't just going to be a day trip, is it?" Brad began, his expression souring. "I can't just up and leave. I've got responsibilities here. People that care about me." With a gesture Brad indicated the others there, particularly Tiff and his little brother.
Tiff stepped forward, chiming in. "Actually… I could go wit ya, ya know."
"Don't look so s'prised. It's not like I got a while lot goin' for me round here.'Cept fr you, I mean." Tiff explained, and Jenny at least understood.
Without Brit around, Tiff no longer occupied a position of any great importance at school or around town, and Tiff's aunt and uncle were never very close with her anyway, a situation that had only gotten worse now that Brit wasn't around. Compared to that, an adventure in space probably sounded like a whole lot of fun.
But there was still one other factor to consider.
"Tuck, What do you say buddy?" asked Brad, crouching down next to Tuck. "Will you be okay if I go off to space for a little while?"
Tuck looked fearful, clearly not wanting his brother to go. Unlike the rather fearless Tiff, Tuck blanched at the slightest provocation. Screaming in terror was one of his strongest skills. He knew he couldn't just tag along like Tiff, he would just spend the entire trip getting rescued by Brad, maybe even ruining their chance at stopping the plague.
But he didn't want to be separated from his big brother either.
Brad was the only family that Tuck had left. He didn't want the Cluster to be consumed by some zombie horde, but he just couldn't bear being without Brad around.
"No, Brad, I won't…"
A gentle hand touched Tuck's back. Glancing over, Tuck saw it belonged to Mrs. Wakeman. She stood next to him, and next to her was Mog, holding Nora's hand. She said nothing, but her motherly smile made it clear to Tuck.
He couldn't be so selfish as to deny an entire planet their savior just so he could have his brother around to protect him. Tuck swallowed hard, and forced the words out of his mouth.
"Yeah, go ahead. I'll be fine."
Brad smiled and nodded, accepting the answer. Tuck felt just a little more grown up.
Years later, Jenny looked back on that day as a major turning point in her life. In all their lives really.
She wouldn't have known it at the time though. The next day things had returned largely to normal, school to attend, villains to trounce, diapers to change. But the ramifications of Brad choosing to go into space were still being felt to this day.
Brad had been right when he guessed that the trip would not be a short one. The rust-zombie crisis was only the first of many, and by the end of it all Brad was regarded by the citizenry of the Cluster as a genuine super-hero, every bit as exotic and alien to them as Jenny was regarded on Earth.
He never did come back to get his high school diploma, but he didn't mind. Being personal friends with the King and Queen of the Cluster meant he had access to a fully-paid scholarship to any of several hundred top schools on a dozen different planets. Brad was a poor student, but he remained enrolled anyway, picking up new skills and knowledge by transferring from school to school, planet to planet.
And everywhere he went, Tiff followed, as evidenced by the latest letter Jenny had received.
"Thank goodness Tiff writes clearer then she talks." Jenny commented to herself, though her words were heard by another.
Bounding into the room came June, still wearing her soccer uniform from afternoon practice. Unlike her mother, Jenny had no problem with letting June out to socialize with other children. In fact, she had encouraged it ever since June turned XJ-5 and started learning how to relate to others. Jenny liked to think that this decision as a parent was largely responsible for June's present state of development.
Right now June was in her XJ-6 stage of growth, and rather then becoming hyper-envious as Jenny had been at that age, June was hyper-competitive. Hence, soccer practice. And debate team, and chess club, and gymnastics class and choir and all the other school clubs that June had signed herself up for. It still caused some problems, but less so then Jenny suspected she would be if June had been home schooled like Jenny was.
"Whatcha readin' mom?" June asked, grabbing a can of oil from the fridge to top off her fluid levels. Jenny winced a little as June spoke, her voice rising to a piercing squeak on the word "reading".
Pulling the rambunctious robot girl over to her, Jenny spoke "It's a letter from your Godmother. You want me to read it to you?"
June nodded enthusiastically, and Jenny continued, "Then settle down and open your mouth. I can hear your vocal synths are out of tune again. I'm gonna take a look, and try to realign them for you."
June sat on her mother's lap, forcing herself to behave while she bared her expensive orthodontics for inspection. It wasn't really clear to Jenny why June needed corrective implants to keep her naturally high voice from rising to glass-shattering pitches. It was less clear to her why the obtrusive braces that she had paid so much for broke down so frequently. But, her husband was the technical-minded one in the household, and he assured her that it was just a bug in June's design that would probably work itself out by the time she was an XJ-7.
"Dear Jenny," Jenny began to recite the letter, while simultaneously extending a screwdriver head from her fingertip to try to tighten June's braces with.
"Spring is here on Cluster-4 where Brad and I are staying. We're both doing well, and enjoying the diverse scenery and population of this world. Unlike most Cluster controlled planets, Cluster-4 has a sizable non-robotic population that started to immigrate here after the fall of Vexus. Which is nice, because it allows Brad and me to occasionally blend into the crowd when we want to, even though the other aliens here don't much resemble humans.
"I'm taking a class in experimental culinary techniques, while Brad is taking some philosophy and cultural studies stuff, as well as training at Misty's dojo as usual. It's light in terms of homework, but after saving the whole Cluster Empire last semester Brad and I both need a bit of a break (who would have thought that little Killgore would become such a huge threat? I still can hardly believe it.)"
"Who's Killgore, mom?" June squeaked, the movement of her mouth frustrating Jenny's repair attempt.
Holding June's mouth in place, Jenny answered "A story for some other time. Now keep still Juniper."
"Speaking of breaks, I hope you're still planning to come out to visit us for the royal birthday celebration on Cluster Prime. If Brad and I are going to attend, then their Aunt Jenny should definitely be there! Since it's the birthday of all five siblings rolled into one, the whole planet is getting pretty riled up for the celebration. Plus (in case it needed to be said) we want to see our Godchild again! Tell June and Sheldon we miss them, and I hope to see you soon.
-Tiffany Carbunkle"
"There, all done." Jenny said, allowing June's mouth to close.
She and Sheldon were still intending to go to Cluster Prime, though the birthday celebration was just a convenient excuse for the trip. Really, Jenny wasn't all that close with Kenny and thought of him more as a step-brother then a real sibling, since they had grown up apart and didn't have a whole lot of time to bond before Kenny moved away from Earth.
But it would be good to go and see Brad again; he and Tiff were fun to double-date with and talk about their newly married situation. Jenny also always made time to drop in on Misty, spending some girl-bonding-time with her brought back a small taste of the single life.
Clearly tickled pink by the news that she would get to go on a trip to see Cluster Prime and her step-cousins again, June nevertheless complained.
"But there's still more letter you didn't read!"
Jenny gave her daughter a wry smile, and held the letter out of her daughter's reach. "Well, there is some postscript to it, but I don't think you want to hear what's in that."
June looked up at Jenny with her big, round eyes.
Oh, great, the puppy-dog look. Tuck had taught this trick to June when she was an XJ-5, and Jenny had been paying for it ever since.
"Pleeeeeaaassssseeee?" June begged, knowing that she would get her way if she kept it up long enough. With a knowing sigh, Jenny caved and continued reading.
"P.S. Just between us girls, you might want to keep an eye on June when she's here. During her last visit I noticed some signs that made me think June might have a crush on Prince Canis. From the way Canis talks, I think the crush might be mutual. Which, you know, is adorable and all, but he is still a prince and his parents could be embarrassed if the paparazzi catches their son peeking up a certain young girl's skirt or smooching in the palace garden. I wouldn't normally be worried about Canis, except that I know June is the sort of girl that is liable to encourage that sort of behavior. So, you know, just keep her on a short leash."
"Well, are you happy now?" Jenny asked, while June blushed furiously and hid her face against her mother's dress.
"No." June stated flatly, wanting to sink into a hole and die.
The whole situation amused Jenny quite a bit. Though it had taken her some time to accept it, Nora had been right in that familial relationships between robots really were different from humans. So the whole 'kissing cousins' situation didn't bother Jenny as much as it would have otherwise. Even if Nora hadn't been right, Kenny and his kids were from the YK series of robots, and so had a sufficiently different design lineage that there wouldn't be any concerns with inbreeding anyway. Not to mention that the royal litter were all half-Cluster, as well.
Peeking one eye open, June looked up at her mother and asked "Aren't you doing that thing today? The operation?"
It wasn't hard to see that June was simply trying to change the topic to something less embarrassing for her, but Jenny didn't mind. "Yep, that's today. I've just been getting through all the little errands I had to run in case I forgot about them after words."
The operation Jenny was referring to was the upgrade to XJ-10, but for real this time. It had taken a long time, but after six years the new body was ready, and so was Jenny.
No one could say she was rushing into this. In fact, with a total of eleven years as an XJ-9, Jenny had spent more time as a teenager then any human had. And even after the body was ready, Jenny had put it off until she was finished with college.
But nowadays Jenny was starting to look rather diminutive compared to her human friends, and often she would still get carded when going out when everyone else wasn't given a second look. Jenny had her degrees, her happy domestic life and was getting ready to enter the working world… the adult world…
Jenny knew it was finally time to trade up and move on.
She would have liked to feel nostalgic or sit around looking at her photo albums for a while longer, remembering her teenage years, but really Jenny just found herself too excited to put it off any longer.
Scooting off Jenny's lap, June took off to go do her homework or play or otherwise occupy herself. Similarly, Jenny decided it was time she got up and went to see Sheldon in his lab.
Since Mrs. Wakeman had retired, it hadn't taken long for Sheldon to rise to the position she had formerly held as top robotics authority on Earth. Technically he had not finished his doctorate yet, but most everybody took to calling him "Doc" Lee anyway.
Everyone except Jenny of course.
To her he would always be Sheldon (though that didn't stop her from calling him Shel, or Shell-head, or any of the other many nicknames she had for him). With the many research grants and scholarships Sheldon had, it was no big deal for him to have equipped his own private machine lab in their garage. If she'd wanted to Jenny could have easily been a homemaker, or devote herself to superheroing full time, trusting that Sheldon's income would have been more then enough to support the family. But her career was important to her. Let no one say that the modern robotic woman, properly fueled, couldn't balance her career with her home life.
"We're just about ready to go," said Sheldon as he arranged some tools from around the lab, the XJ-10 body already powered up and waiting for Jenny's brain to inhabit it.
Jenny watched him bustle about, dressed in a lab coat and puffing away at his pipe. It wasn't really a tobacco pipe, of course; a robot wouldn't have derived any pleasure from inhaling nicotine. Sheldon had merely fashioned a fuel-burning device into the likeness of a pipe, as part of an effort to appear more scholarly and fatherlike. Sheldon's idea of fatherhood seemed to originate in the 1930's.
Nevertheless, the chemical process was more akin to eating than smoking, and the exhaust had no effects on herself or June, so Jenny didn't mind.
Jenny closed her eyes and relaxed, preparing herself to shut down so Sheldon could get to work. The body-swapping process was a lot less daunting to her then it was for Sheldon. Which shouldn't surprise anyone. Both times it had been a pretty traumatic experience for Sheldon, who nearly lost his life on each occasion. For Jenny, on the other hand, it was so old hat that she didn't even remember living in her younger bodies. Like getting a haircut, it had just become a forgettable experience.
Despite her calm, a sudden crash still made her bolt upright from the table.
"Sorry mom!" came June's call from somewhere outside, in the backyard. On the lab floor laid June's baseball, surrounded by the shattered glass of the garage window.
"Oh, I'll get that," muttered Sheldon as he hurried over to clean up the mess. "We'll have to talk to June about being more careful with her sports equipment."
"It's okay Sheldon, accidents happen" said Jenny, unusually calm about the broken window. Somehow it seemed like… a good omen.
Just like so many years back, the baseball breaking the window was like the bottle broken against a ship's hull before a long voyage. It had given her good luck back then, and Jenny had a feeling it would give her good luck now, too. She felt she might need it. It was, after all, a big wide world out there, and Jenny couldn't wait to go out and meet it.
The End