I woke up just before my alarm was set to go off and I deactivated it. Surprisingly, I felt well rested, even though I only had several hours of sleep. Alyssa was still unconscious, and I was tempted to let her sleep; but, I knew she would be angry at me if I did that, so I gently shook her.

“Alyssa? It's time to get up.”

“No... few more minutes.” Alyssa mumbled and kissed my chest, then rubbed her cheek on it and sighed.

I used a hand to caress down her spine and to her lower back, and her body wiggled in response. I had found a slightly ticklish spot right at the top of her backside the first time we had slept together, and I used that knowledge now. I quickly wiggled my fingertips over the spot, and her whole body shook and shivered.

Alyssa opened her eyes and barked a laugh, then she realized what I was doing and slapped my chest to get me to stop. “Geez, Jack! Just shake me awake next time!” She said and sat up, then rubbed the spot to stop the feeling.

“I tried that.” I said and sat up myself. “When that didn't work, I had to do something else.”

“I told you not to touch me there, unless...” Alyssa's face went red.

“If we hurry, we could do it before Deloris shows up.” I said.

Alyssa checked the time and shook her head. “No, the chance for error is too high.”

“What if we skipped the foreplay and you just ravage me with your body?” I offered, and she smiled.

“Tempting as that is, she caught us doing it once.” Alyssa said. “I won't be embarrassed like that again.”

“Can I at least get a Good Morning?” I smiled and moved the blanket out of the way, and she saw my current condition.

“You want me to give you a Good Morning.” Alyssa said as she glanced at my face, then she sighed. “All right, lay back.”

I cupped the sides of her face and gave her a quick and passionate kiss. “Thank you.” I said and laid back onto the bed. Alyssa smiled as her hand reached for me, then she diverted and slapped my abdomen hard with the palm of her hand. I made a satisfying 'oof' sound for her as my breath left me, and she laughed.

“Good morning, Jack!” Alyssa said, happily. “Get your ass out of bed and get dressed.” She bared her teeth at me in a classic drill instructor's evil smile. “Calisthenics in 5.”

“G-give me... a minute.” I said and rolled out of bed to land on my hands and knees on the floor, and tried to catch my breath. She knelt beside me and stroked my back.

“You need to remember something about me.” Alyssa said and leaned down to whisper in my ear. “I am not some party girl that you can just order to do things like that to you.”

“Thought... having fun.” I panted.

Alyssa's hand found the back of my neck and gripped the skin there like I was a kitten. “I am a highly trained combat soldier and you will treat me with respect.” She said and stood up, and dragged me up to stand with her. “I can take the occasional joke and you being flippant with me; but, I will not be demeaned by you or anyone else.”

“I didn't mean...” I sighed as I got my breath back. “Alyssa, I'm sorry.”

“I'm glad, because you know I will do that for you. I have done that for you.” Alyssa said and let my neck go. “The way you asked this time, though... it pissed me off. It... it makes the act mean a lot less than it should.”

I stepped close and put my arms around her, and she was stiff and unresponsive. “Please know that I appreciate everything you do for me.” I said. “Everything.”

Alyssa closed her eyes and sighed. “I know, it's just... this thing between us...”

“It's new and different, and you don't know how to handle it.” I said, and she looked at me with wide eyes.

“How do you know that?”

“I feel the same way.” I said and leaned close to rest my forehead against hers. “I joke and try to cover up my uncertainty; but, I took it a little too far this time.” I kissed the tip of her nose. “Please, accept my apology.”

Alyssa nodded. “I may have overreacted myself, for the same reason.” She said. “Can you forgive me?”

“If I do, can I get out of exercising?” I asked and smiled.

“No.” Alyssa said.

“Then I'll forgive you anyway and take my punishment.”

“It's not punishment.” Alyssa said and stepped away, then passed me a fresh unitard. “You're out of shape from being in a hospital bed for so long after your accident and surgery.”

I was tempted to argue that I wasn't out of shape as I put on the unitard; but, I had used my various injuries as excuses to slack off on doing anything physical for quite some time. Since I didn't have access to my immersion chamber until the conversion was completed, I wasn't getting a workout that way, either.

I know it sounds odd to get a workout in a virtual space; but, the chair engulfed you completely and your VR body responded to movements that your real muscles perform. The resistance the chair offers wasn't quite as good as lifting real weights, even though it came pretty close. For people like me that made a living using VR technology and worked so many hours a day without going outside, it was a godsend.

Alyssa ran me through all the basic boot camp exercises that both my mind and body remembered well. Performing them however, was a bit more complicated. Even with the updated interface and repaired hardware, my hand-to-eye coordination was still slightly out of sync.

Which was why my medical discharge had gone through, despite the updated information on my improvements with the synthetic parts that Nurse Deloris submitted to the hospital's research team every night.

After we had worked out for about half an hour, Alyssa had noticed the lag difference in my right and left arms as they moved, especially while I performed jumping jacks.

“I think that's enough for today.” Alyssa said.

I nodded and walked around the small apartment several times so that I wasn't sitting still after a strenuous workout. That was the worst thing you could do, because you had to keep moving to keep the oxygen flowing to the muscles that needed it.

“Okay... yes, I'm... out of shape.” I panted.

“You're lifting a lot more weight in yourself.” Alyssa said. “You might want to think about getting the muscle enhancement package.”

“I'm not going in for extensive surgery again. I've had more than my share of hospital time and I'm done.” I said, adamantly. “My best friend Stephane, the guy Deloris is dating, was laid up in bed for a month and couldn't move after getting the package, then had another two months of recovery time and training to learn what his new strength could do for him.”

“He got the full enhancement?” Alyssa asked, and I nodded.

“Unlike him, I don't have anyone in my life that can take 3 months off to stay at home and take care of me while I recover.”

Alyssa opened her mouth to volunteer, then realized if she did that, then she would need to have someone else take over as squad leader... and she didn't want to do that right now.

I saw all of this pass over her face, and I smiled. “We're not far enough into whatever this is we have brewing between us, for me to ask you to give up who you are, just so I can have a normal-looking walk again.”

“So, you would ask me, if... if we were...”

“I'd have the side benefit of having you close to me all the time; but, I'm pretty sure you would resent me for it.” I said and chuckled. “You resented me when I assumed you would help me with my 'condition' this morning, and look how that turned out.”

“Jack...”

“You would hate me so much after the first month.” I said. “I'd need you to do everything for me, Alyssa. It's not the big things that would bother you, either. It's all the little things that will get to you.”

Alyssa sighed. “I can't deny it.”

“Me, either.” I said. “I could hire a nurse to take care of a lot of it, but I would still need someone I cared about to do the rest of it for me.”

“It would be a huge commitment.” Alyssa said.

“And a time waster that neither of us can afford to spare right now.” I said, and she nodded in agreement. There was a knock on the door and Alyssa checked the security feed. “It's a delivery man.”

“Hey, it's here!” I said and quickly moved over to the door.

Alyssa was suddenly there ahead of me and shoved me off to the side. I managed to get my synthetic arm up in time to catch myself before I slammed into the wall.

“Who is it?” Alyssa asked.

“Product delivery for this address from Manufacturing Factory Number Eighty-One.”

“Who is it for?”

“It just says Amanda, no last name.”

“You can leave it by the door.” Alyssa said.

“Are you sure?” The man asked. “It's an expensive delivery.”

“I just got out of the shower.” Alyssa said in a slightly upset voice. “Please, just leave it and go.”

“Whatever you say.” The man said and put down the large box he had in his hands, then he waved down the hall. Nine more men dropped off large boxes and left. “We'll be back with the rest of it.”

Alyssa looked at me with wide eyes, and I shrugged. She opened a small compartment and took out a portable security detector, then opened the door and went out to examine the closest box. The detector didn't find any chemical weapons or explosives, and she checked the others and kept an eye on the security feed. She came back inside the apartment when she had checked all ten boxes, and we waited for the rest.

The man brought another large box and put it on top of the other one by the door, then knocked. “These last ones are it. Twenty boxes filled with custom components.” He said as the other men dropped their boxes on the others. “Are you going to sign for them, or what?”

The signature pad beeped at him and he looked at it. He was surprised to see Amanda's signature had appeared there, then shrugged.

“Never mind.” The man said. “Have a good day.”

Alyssa watched him walk away and waited until he was in the elevator before she went out into the hallway again and checked the other ten boxes. Nothing showed up and she came in and waved to me. I went out with her and we carried the boxes into the apartment. They were large and took up a lot of space, and I could tell she wasn't happy.

“When the hell did you order all this?” Alyssa asked.

“Last night when I finished work.” I said. “You were unconscious at the time, and rather than wake you, I put you in bed.”

Alyssa looked at me with an odd expression, and I assumed it was because she just realized she didn't remember going to bed herself.

“I'm glad they waited until morning to deliver it.” I said and there was another knock on the door.

“It's Deloris.” Alyssa said and answered it.

“Good morning!” Nurse Deloris said and stopped when she saw the cubicle apartment was practically full with 20 large cardboard boxes. “What did I tell you about keeping a clean and clear apartment for your recovery?”

“Hide everything before you come over?” I asked, and she shook her head.

“Jack, it's not safe with all this here.”

“Well, I hadn't realized when I ordered a thousand of them, it would look like this.”

“A thousand of what, exactly?” Alyssa asked.

I walked over to the closet to get my supplies backpack. I pulled out my old combat knife and three algenate discs for breakfast. I put a disc in my pocket and gave one to Deloris and the other one to Alyssa. They ate it and watched me as I pulled the knife from it's sheath, tossed the knife into the air to make it flip around, then I caught the handle on the downward stroke.

I sliced open the tape on the top box and flipped the knife around in my fingers and slid it back into the sheath in one smooth motion. I opened the flaps of the box and looked inside, and saw stacks of white boxes. I pulled one out and it was about eight inches long, six inches high, and two inches thick.

“You have to love excess packing material.” I said sarcastically, because it explained why the boxes were so large, and I opened the smaller box to reveal it's contents. It was my circuit board; a four inch long, two inch high, and half inch wide piece of technology.

“What is that?” Alyssa asked.

“It's my AI's dream come true.” I said, and smiled.

“Jack, are you serious?” Amanda said from the vidwall. Alyssa and Deloris jumped at the sound of her voice coming out of a regular piece of technology.

“I'm completely serious.” I said. “Now I just have to coerce my nurse to give me a hand installing it.”

“I'm not putting anything anywhere until you tell me what it is.” Nurse Deloris said.

“It's a booster and signal converter.” I said.

“Oh, then okay.” Nurse Deloris said. “Are you using the thigh or chest access port?”

“Chest.” I said. “I want it as close to the main power supply as possible.”

“I'll get the bath things ready.” Nurse Deloris said and grabbed the things she needed for the bath and set them out, put the towels down, and told me to strip off and lay down. She went to the closet to retrieve the portable maintenance kit and brought it over to me. She set it up and I plugged the leads into the ports behind my ear, and she hit the diagnostic button. It beeped a few moments later and she nodded.

“All good.” Nurse Deloris said, then used the tool to pop open my pectoral muscle to reveal the components underneath. I handed her the new circuit board and she carefully took it, then her hands disappeared into my chest.

“There should be three or four periphery slots next to the air regulator pump.” I said.

“Thank you for the information, Mr. Pointer-out of the Obvious.”

I snorted a laugh, and she smiled at me.

“Why are you not putting it in your head?” Nurse Deloris said and managed to get the circuit board in place, locked the clamps to hold it, then pulled her hands out.

“I've had enough odd things happening in my head the last little while.” I said. “Plus, if it sparks, shorts-out or goes afire, I can reach my chest a lot quicker than the back of my head.”

“Good point.”

“Amanda? Load the program we wrote last night into my transfer protocol, and set the destination for the proper folders, please.”

“Why aren't you doing that?” Alyssa asked.

“I need the ports behind my ear for Nurse Deloris to monitor me with the maintenance kit.” I said. “I have no where else to plug in my portable display.”

“It's loaded, Jack.” Amanda said.

“Thanks.” I said and used my HUD to choose the new program and ran it.

Warning: Unregistered / Unapproved software is attempting to run on your internal operating system. If you choose to continue, this could cause instability and unforeseen errors.

Continue? Yes / No

I chose the 'yes' option and everything flickered on my HUD for several moments, then everything went black.