Simone groaned as she opened her eyes. She didn't recognize where she was and felt exhausted for some reason. “Hey... what... where...” She managed to say, despite a very dry mouth.

“Welcome back, sleepyhead!” Hailey said excitedly. “Hunter! HUNTER!”

Simone winced at the loud shout in the echoing medical bay. The medical bay? Why am I... wait, I changed the air filter and... and then Hunter kissed me... he chose to actually kiss me... then ... then...

“How are you feeling?” Hunter asked as he came into the med-bay with a woman by his side.

“I could drink a gallon of water right now and I could use one of your morning pick-me-ups.” Simone said with a sigh and reached up to rub her face... then she froze when a three fingered hand appeared in front of her face.

“Nice autonomic response.” Amanda said and reached out with a thin metal stick and poked the back of the hand.

“Ow!” Simone said and jerked the hand.

“Reflexes are at, or above, standard.” Amanda said and took out a datapad and added new notes. “Can you move the fingers independently?”

Simone frowned and made a fist, then raise the single middle finger.

Hunter laughed. “I'd say that's a definite yes.”

Amanda smiled. “I'm glad.” She said. “Now do the same motions with the other one.”

Simone lifted her other arm, put the hand in front of her face, and looked at it. “Oh, my god! It's real!”

“Yes, it's real! It's really really real!” Hailey laughed and reached out to touch each hand to count them. “One, two, three, four! You have four arms! Four!”

Simone's own shock diminished at the thoughts and feelings she was getting from Hailey, then she caught her breath. She was getting a lot more than her surface thoughts and looked at Hunter.

“The surgery, reconstruction, and restoration, let you absorb some of my Presence.” Hunter said. “It will boost your normal abilities by quite a bit, mainly because it used to be so diminished.”

“But... but...” Simone moved her extra arms out of the wait and lifted her normal ones. “I don't... Hunter, what... how did... I HAVE MY ARMS BACK!!!”

“Easy now.” Hunter said and used a calming technique on her. “I did the same thing with you that I did with Hailey. The only difference was that I needed the expertise of a high ranked medical professional before I would even attempt it.”

Amanda nodded. “I'm very glad that he gave me the opportunity to help.” She said. “Something like this has never been done before.” She reached out and poked Simone's normal hand with the metal prod.

“Ow! Stop that!” Simone said and swiped at Amanda with one of the extra hands.

Amanda easily dodged out of the way. “Reactive motions are also on the normal scale.” She said and made more notes. “I'd like to test the dexterity of...”

“No.” Hunter said with a stern voice and the three of them looked at him. “Simone needs some actual rest and not unconsciousness.” He said and stepped close to the bed. “I felt your exhaustion spike when your extra arms moved.”

“You're still blocking me.” Simone said and he nodded.

“You need to relax, so I want you to get some sleep.” Hunter said and looked at Hailey. “You can stay if you want.”

“I don't have to.” Hailey said and tapped her temple. “I have her connection now.”

Simone blinked her eyes. “Wh-what?”

It's okay. Hunter's been teaching me. Hailey thought at her.

The words were very clear and resonated within Simone like a tuning fork. Simone stared at the thirteen year old girl for a moment, then one of her extra arms reached out and cupped the side of her face. Hailey smiled and gave her a feeling of happiness, because Simone had used the extra hand to touch her and not the normal hand, then she practically skipped out of the medical bay.

“She's amazing.” Simone said, barely above a whisper.

“Don't I know it.” Hunter said with a crooked smile. “Now close your eyes and get some sleep.”

“I... Hunter, you...” Simone wasn't sure how to express herself and what she was feeling.

“Hush.” Hunter said and took one of her extra hands and kissed the back of it.

Simone caught her breath as she remembered Ohazith's first time being kissed like that.

“I'll need to teach you the same technique to help reinforce your extra arms, so that you can use them without exhausting yourself like she did.” Hunter said.

“Will it work?” Simone asked, doubt in her voice.

“Unlike her, you had access to a lot more Presence before the surgery.” Hunter said with a smile. “Now? I think you're going to have a much easier time learning it than she did.”

I hope so. Simone thought.

I know so. Hunter responded.

Simone gasped as his crystal clear thought went right into her head. If Hailey's mental voice was like a tuning fork that resonated within her, Hunter's was like a hundred tuning forks inside a resonating chamber that all vibrated at slightly different frequencies and formed a single cohesive signal. Its strength could penetrate right through her mental barriers... if he wanted it to.

“Rest for now and we'll talk about this when you wake up.” Hunter said and started to ease her into sleep.

“Prom... promise?” Simone asked, sleepily.

Hunter gently folded all four of her arms over her torso and put a hand on her forehead. “I promise.” I promise. His thought echoed his words and Simone drifted off to sleep as she felt his mental embrace.

*

“That's... amazing.” Jelly said as she looked at the screen and saw Simone's new arms. It had taken some convincing on her part to get Hunter to let them see Simone after the surgery, and he only agreed to let them see her and not actually visit. They needed to stay outside of Simone's mental area to stop any extra stress from having too many minds being around her after her surgery.

Hunter had known that her defenses would be weak after the ordeal she had gone through and she needed reassuring minds around her for a speedy recovery. Jelly and the others had no choice but to agree that their awe and surprise would be a bit of a hindrance to someone that would be thinking the same thing. Too much disbelief around her wouldn't help her at all.

They hadn't questioned Hailey being allowed in, since they all knew that she had no preconceptions where Hunter was concerned. Unlike them, she hadn't been shocked at all by Simone growing extra arms with his help.

“If I didn't know her personally, I would never know that she didn't have the arms before.” Sandy said, her voice low. “That... whatever it was... is extremely powerful if it can undo what happened to her.”

“It's too much.” Beatrice said. “If people knew that he can do things like this...”

“They would either hunt me down to make outrageous offers, or try to kill me to gain the secret themselves.” I said from the hallway outside the living room.

“Hunter!” Gleas walked over to me and instead of staying a respectful distance away like she should have, she stepped right in close to give me a hug. “She must be reeling mentally if you put her right back to sleep.”

I took the hug for what it was, a comforting hug, and not what it seemed to be, which was a breech in business protocol. “She's definitely in shock and can't believe that she has them back.” I said. “She hasn't had them since she was a little girl and her thoughts keep going back to what happened.”

“No wonder you want to keep us away.” Gleas said and let me out of the hug. “We really would make her linger on the shock.”

I nodded. “You've all made huge strides the last few months in accepting her; but, this change is too much of a surprise for everyone.”

“It really is.” Deborah said. “You could heal so many people...”

“If it worked on everyone.” I said. “Don't forget, the things I'm using are keyed for my personal use. Even if I gave them all away, no one could use them effectively.”

“Which was why you agreed to the medical technician's deal for her help.” Hailey said. “I doubt she's going to waste it, though.”

“Waste what?” Gleas asked and looked from Hailey to me.

“I agreed to try to help someone for her in the same way.”

Several sighs and a set of rolling eyes met my words.

“We were just discussing how powerful that thing was.” Sandy said and waved at the screen, then she laughed. “Then you agreed to use another one!”

“Don't worry. Amanda agreed to not publicly publish the paper she's written about the procedure, and she left out the catalysts. All she mentioned was a boosted regeneration ability and the additional added nutrients.”

“That means she's going to share it privately.” Gleas said, catching the relevant part of my statement.

“I knew I couldn't sneak that fact past you.” I said and she smiled.

“You do realize she's going to probably sell this procedure to the highest bidder, right?” Gleas asked.

I nodded. “I've told her that depending on the person, it may not work like she thinks.” I said. “Hailey was a special case and doing it on her gave me the information I needed to adapt it for use on Simone.”

“Whom you have a lot of knowledge about.” Gleas said.

I nodded again. “I'm not going to do a deep mind scan on anyone else like I did with her the first time I met her.”

“I want to ask what that was like.” Gleas said and then she sighed. “I can guess that there was a lot of instant attraction...”

“Unbelievably.” I chuckled. “We both restrained ourselves to just a good mental sharing, though.”

“I'd like to hear more about that aspect.” Amanda said as she came into the living room.

“Amanda! You're out of the medical bay!” I exclaimed and she and Hailey laughed.

“I had to put Herbie back into his sleep mode.” Amanda said sadly.

“How's your other patient?” I asked.

“She's doing wonderfully, thanks to your visits.” Amanda said. “I never imagined you could supplement normal healing practices like that.”

“You know I only did it because she was upset about all of the scarring from her treatments.”

“It doesn't matter why.” Amanda said. “She's ecstatic about having a normal appearance.”

“I never imagined meeting a scaly alien that didn't like her scales.” I said, kind of impressed. “I don't want to ask whose DNA you've been using to give her genetic treatments.”

“If you must know, it was generously donated by an anonymous source.” Amanda said, smugly.

I chuckled, because the Presence wavered at 'anonymous' and I picked up from her thoughts that it was her own. She didn't want to take the chance that some random person's DNA was going to mess up her treatment preparation, so she used her own.

What she didn't say was that whenever something came up and needed some kind of sample for testing, she always used something of hers instead of having to take something from strangers. She had years of practice with her own DNA, blood, and tissue samples. Working with them made her so confident in her work that she could perform almost miracle level procedures and didn't worry about not having the best results.

“She just needs another night of rest and will be leaving with me tomorrow.” Amanda said.

“Can't you pretend to find something wrong and stay longer?” I asked with a smile and she laughed.

“I've been doing that all week.” Amanda said. “You've let me bring six patients up here for treatments and gave me unlimited access to a state of the art medical bay and Herbie.”

“That reminds me.” I said and looked at Sandy. “You've had experience shopping.”

Sandy snorted a laugh. “We all have.”

“We need to restock the medical bay with a lot of supplies.” I glanced at Amanda and she didn't look apologetic at all. “There's a standard list...”

“A new standard list.” Amanda corrected.

“There's a list in the computer.” I said and managed to not roll my eyes. “Check the local net and see what kind of prices you can find. If you can get the majority of the supplies from one place, see if they can get the other supplies for you and ask for a volume discount.”

“Hunter, you are supposed to just buy supplies. There's no negotiation on the price.” Sandy said.

“Give it a try and only ask for half of what we need. If it doesn't work, then tell them you'll try somewhere else because you actually need double the order and was only shopping for a good price.”

“Oh, that's sneaky.” Gleas said with a laugh.

“If it doesn't work on the next couple of places, let it sit until tomorrow. If we don't get a call before morning, we'll know if Sandy's right.”

“They are going to fall over themselves to call!” Hailey laughed.

“Maybe.” I said and made her laugh some more by tickling her.

The rest of the day passed by and then the night went just as quickly. The morning came and Amanda was ready to depart. She had packed her things she had delivered with her first patient, who was also the last patient to leave. The scaly alien that was no longer scaled, stepped out of the medical bay on Amanda's arm.

When she saw me, she pat Amanda's arm and reached for me. I took her arm and she relaxed as her Presence felt mine. She wasn't a Presence user or even knew why she felt so relaxed around me. She didn't ask because it didn't matter at all to her, except that she felt it when she was near me. I used Presence to pick up both her and Amanda's bags and escorted them down the stairs, across the cargo hold and into the shuttle bay. I loaded their bags into the waiting shuttle and went in with them.

“I want to have your eggs!” The woman blurted out, then her face flushed red as she blushed. Her hand reached up and touched her face and then she laughed. “I just blushed from embarrassment! Ha ha ha!”

I felt her amazement at doing something she had never done as a scaly alien. “I'm pretty sure I couldn't fertilize you before your transformation.” I said to her and she nodded.

Her species was restricted with same species mates because their genetic makeup was too dissimilar to practically every other species. There was no chance for half-breeds, cross-breeding, or genetic offshoots. As I secured her in her seat, she realized what I had said and stared at me.

“I think you have some other possibilities to think about now.” I whispered to her.

She blinked her eyes and nodded. “I do. Thank you.”

“It was nice meeting you.” I said and turned to Amanda. “I'm still judging meeting you.”

“You're such a stuck up prick!” Amanda said in a hard voice, to the scaly-not-scaly alien's surprise.

“Yeah, I like you, too.” I said with a smile.

Amanda held her stern face for a moment, then she laughed. “I'll call when I need your help.”

“I'm going back to the Fogaris System soon and will be away for about three months.” I said. “You'll have to wait if you don't contact me before I leave.”

“I'll wait until you come back.” Amanda said.

“I've got the hatch.” I said to the pilot and stepped out of the shuttle, waved to the two passengers, then used Presence to close the hatch. A few moments later, the shuttle was away and I went back up to the medical bay.

“No change.” Hailey said.

“How's the training going?” I asked and sat beside her.

“She still has a lot of memory blocks and things she doesn't want to remember.” Hailey said.

“Well, that just means you and I have a lot of work ahead of us.” I said and took her hand. “Want to get started?”

“Wait.” Hailey said and stood up, and I felt her reach out with her Detect Presence. After a minute, she didn't find anyone nearby and smiled. “Hunter, I love you.”

“I love you, too.” I said. “We still can't kiss like that.”

Hailey giggled as the image of her kissing me went through her head and she gave it to me.

“Hey, you're getting good at projections.” I said with both pride and a little surprise. She had seamlessly added me and herself into a copy of the memory of Sandy's and Beatrice's passionate kiss we had all witnessed that day.

“I made a fake one, but...” Hailey started to say, then I heard and felt her desire to do it for real.

“Hailey...”

“Just once.” Hailey said. “Before you do it with Simone.”

I widened my eyes for a moment, then I realized what she meant and I tapped her temple. “I told you that you would know.”

“She doesn't have what we have, so it's okay.” Hailey said.

“I knew you would feel the difference, too.” I said. “Even though I did the same procedure with you, it didn't have the same benefits. You're still the only one I can find anywhere.”

“I know.” Hailey said and fought to not blush.

I took a deep breath to say no to the kiss and I was sure that she distinctly heard in her head that I was going to say it... then she wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me anyway.

Hailey's thoughts and feelings flooded into me and I could block them if I wanted to. I discovered that I didn't want to and let her give me everything that she had been holding back. She had built up all the little looks, all the little touches, and all of the times we spent together, and let me feel and hear her thoughts she had during all those times.

Since I didn't want to be outdone, I did the same thing for her. I gave her all of my thoughts of needing to wait, of patience, of love and acceptance that I had felt the entire time she had been in my life... and how much time that I believed we were going to have together.

Hailey let out a satisfied moan as we exchanged our memories and we both saw the other person was exactly who we had thought they were. We hadn't hidden anything or lied about anything, and she accepted that this kiss was going to be all she had for the next three years.

I broke the kiss and her face was bright red. “Just the once.” I reminded her and she nodded.

“Thank you for letting me.” Hailey said and unwrapped her arms from around my neck.

“You don't have to pull away.” I said and she raised her eyebrows at me. “I only said we can't kiss like that.”

Hailey let out a giggle and gave me a quick kiss on the lips.

“Now are you ready to get to work?” I asked.

Hailey nodded and we both turned to the bed and rested our hands on Simone's extra arms.