Sara returned home and went directly to the computer. She needed to find out exactly how her host body's finances were if she was going to do what she planned. She knew from the 'memories,' that she was wealthy and that she was on leave, but for her to pull off what she had planned, she needed precise details. She rang her employer, and found that she still had a few days before she needed to return to work. Sara thought about that for a while. 'Did she want to, or even could she return to a job she hadn't had any experience in, even using the knowledge base that came with this body, it would be a harrowing experience at first. Being a temp clerk for the military might be okay for some, but she would rather not be in a classifiable situation, where her moves would be scrutinised all the time.'

She looked into her back records and found that she was still employed by a temping agency. 'Maybe she should ask to be transferred.' She found her photo I.D. It showed a picture of Sara as she looked now, but noted that it was dated two years ago. Could she pass as her older self, using the same excuse she had given Ken. She knew women could get away with this sort of stuff, as they always seemed to be chasing the illusion of youth. Shrugging, she turned her thoughts to more important things. She picked up the phone and rang the guys. Sara dreaded having to tell them her decision. She could imagine their derision and taunts.

"Oh hi Kevin, um Margaret, what's up?"

"Okay, I'll come over, I need to talk to you guys anyway," Sara responded, wondering what was making Margaret sound worried, her "something's come up," wasn't very informative. Changing into something more comfortable, Sara drove over to the others at the Ellery's.

She was welcomed by a mad flurry of activity, as she saw the 'guys' in disguise. Both William and Daniel were in the Ellery's children forms. Who was who wasn't clear, but the sense of urgency clearly showed that problems were afoot. Margaret spotted Sara and quickly filled her in. Apparently, because both children had been absent from school, a councillor had been dispatched to check up on them. The school had rung to let them know, but hadn't accepted Kevin's excuse that they had been away visiting sick relatives, possibly because, caught by surprise, Kevin was still Kevin, and not Margaret nor Steven, so hearing a stranger's voice was not conducive to trust.

Deciding that now was not the time to tell them of her decision, Sara asked if she could do anything to help.

"Not really, the others are just gathering up their school work and making sure they have their uniforms on," supplied Margaret. "We don't need Steven, as he is presumably at work, at least that's what I'll say if they ask."

Sara filled them in on the information that Ken had involuntarily revealed about the explosion that the aliens had set to destroy the truck being captured by satellite. Just as she was finishing, an authoritative sounding knock was heard at the front door. Kevin in his role as Margaret went to open the door. Sara heard voices, but didn't bother going out. 'Better to stay out of this till the dust settled,' she thought, as the voices rose heatedly.

Calling for the 'children,' Margaret came inside for her handbag, giving Sara an apologetic look, before escorting her "children," to the car. Sara resigning herself for a wait till Margaret came back from the school, and feeling bored, started tidying up the mess left by the "kids." Scott had never been what you might call a tidy person, often leaving things on the lowest level, mainly the floor, but Sara was finding out that she must have inherited a "tidy" gene along with her lady wranglers.

Margaret was back within the hour, and made comment to Sara about things looking neater.

"Women's work I guess," laughed Sara, as she put down her cup of coffee. "Want a cup? I just boiled the jug not long ago." She offered, getting up from the couch and taking her cup back to the kitchen.

"Sure, I need one after dealing with that blockheaded principal." Margaret accepted gratefully, plonking herself down on the just vacated couch.

"So what happened at school?" Sara called out from the kitchen, as she brewed up two cups of coffee.

"Well, the guy said we should have called to say they would be absent from school, and went on about being responsible parents and a load of other twaddle." Margaret answered, straightening her skirt idly.

"I guess that's a fair call," Sara said, as she brought out the coffee and handed one to Margaret.

"Yeah, but he went on and on and how the school councillors time was valuable and shouldn't be wasted having to call to check up on homes of wayward children. He was a pompous ass," Margaret finished, sipping her coffee with appreciation.

"You'd make a great wife, this coffees great." Margaret jokingly complimented.

Margaret saw the way Sara blushed and looked away nervously. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that she was hiding something.

"What's up?" Margaret prompted gently, not wanting to pry, but needing to know her friend was okay. She realised that Scott had been in Sara form for pretty much all of the time, since all this started. She hoped that things weren't getting on top of her, considering having to deal with a strange boyfriend.

"Is it about Ken?" Margaret prodded, seeing Sara still hadn't answered.

"Yes and no. Scott might have to lay low for a while, if any footage of him was caught near that explosion." Sara began.

"And no?" Margaret asked, feeling a sense of unease at the way Sara was referring to Scott as a separate person.

"It's about me," Sara simply replied. "Me, as in 'Sara.' I want to stay as Sara. I feel more real as her in these last few days, than I ever did all my life, as Scott." Sara blurted out in a rush. Tears started falling as she hung her head, waiting for the caustic remarks.

Kevin, in Margaret's body first felt shock hit him/her. A feeling of unreality about the situation coupled with a sense of compassion at Sara's tearful confession filled him/her with sadness. Was Scott losing it? Could this just be a side effect of living in Sara's body for too long? These thoughts and more, flashed through his/her head. Was he in danger of wanting to stay as Margaret or one of the other female forms he/she had tried? Being in female form at the moment, may have coloured her next words, as she struggled to formulate something to say that wouldn't exacerbate the situation.

"Sara, are you sure it's not just the body talking? Why not revert to Scott for a few days or maybe even Steven."

Not hearing laughter or poofter comments, gave Sara hope that all might not be as bad as she had anticipated.

"No, I've thought about that, but it's like I'm more me as her, than I was as Scott. I feel like my brain is really alive now. When I turned back to Scott the other day, it felt like I had a filter placed over my thoughts, I was struggling to make decisions that had seemed so simple just prior to becoming Scott."

Margaret felt compassion fill her, as she too, had felt that same thing, the pull to remain female. Strangely, this clear headedness wasn't so evident when swapping back to Steven, or to some of the other male forms that the aliens had produced. It made her wonder if the aliens were a matriarchal society, with the females being more intelligent, than their male counterparts.

"Look Sara, it's your life. No matter what your form, be it male or female, you'll always be my friend," Margaret added, feeling as if she had somehow matured in these last few minutes.

"What about the others?" Sara sniffled, wiping her eyes.

"Well, we could always send them to bed early, seeing it's a school day tomorrow," laughed Margaret, managing to get a smile from Sara.

"You know, I sort of feel the same way about remaining female, even with this older body of Margaret," admitted the transformed Kevin. "So I know where you're coming from," she added. "In my case though, I think it's the programming. "I don't want to give up my original body at least not permanently."

Sara went over and hugged her friend. Glad to know she still retained one of her friends, despite her decision to bat for the other team.

"Have you done anything about putting the house on the market yet?" Sara asked, changing the subject.

"Yeah, I rang a few agents, they said they would be around later today. Hence, I'm Margaret for the day. Oh! That reminds me, I told the principal that I'd be taking the kids out of school permanently. I let him stew, before adding that we are moving away, and he won't need to worry about them being absent, ever again."

Sara laughed, knowing Kevin had got a kick out of turning the tables on at least one principal. She remembered Kevin being singled out as a troublemaker in his old school and having to stand judgement under an overbearing principal, who often threatened expulsion.

"Good one," she laughed, feeling much better.

"Daniel had rung Steven's work, after changing into Steven. He had resigned his commission as a naval attaché. His superiors obviously hadn't been happy to be informed of this on such short notice, but they didn't have much choice, as luckily Steven's tour of duty was up in a few days anyway." Margaret explained.

"Want me to stay to help with the real estate agents?"

"Sure, we can have a girl's day together, and swap recipes," giggled Margaret pretending to go all girly.

"Shall we bake a cake, and once they have gone, we can hit the mall's and shop till we drop," suggested Sara, playing along just as girly.

"Okay, uncle," begged Margaret, knowing when she was being out girled. "You win this time," she grinned, happy to see her friend looking animated again.

"Shouldn't that be auntie?" Sara winked, as she sobered slightly.

Margaret deigned to be drawn in, saying with a smirk, that it was all relative anyway. Then both of them set too, and made the whole house look more presentable for when the agents came. Sara didn't bake a cake, but she located a bread maker in the kitchen cupboard and soon had the smell of baking bread filling the place. The agents finally arrived after lunch that had consisted of freshly baked slices of bread with cold chicken.

Margaret showed then around, while Sara moved in the background, content to stay out of the limelight. The agents were positive that the place would sell quickly and would return a tidy sum. When pressed, they mentioned it being in the area of 1.5 million. Considering their finances just a scant few days ago, this was indeed an unexpected bonus. The agents did say, that if the house was left furnished, it would fetch much more. Margaret said that it would be, so the agents noted that, and left, saying they would be in touch. Sara was feeling nervous about facing William and Daniel when they came home from school, so she made excuses to leave, asking Margaret/Kevin to break it to them first.

Margaret reluctantly agreed, seeing she couldn't convince her friend that things would be okay. Sara drove distractedly, narrowly avoiding an accident as some impatient driver ran a red light. Home at last, she sat thinking on the couch, her hand fiddling idly with the now visible bracelet. She didn't realise that her fingers were moving on her Sara setting, until she felt a tingle. Surprised, she checked herself over, expecting some change. It wasn't till she went to examine herself in the mirror that she realised what had happened.

She looked at herself, seeing her older face looking back. Somehow, she had aged two years and now matched her photo and her job records. She went and sat down, trying to figure out why. Sara tried to think of what she had done to alter her age. She was fiddling with the bracelet, that part she knew. She went and found a magnifying glass she had seen in one of the drawers in the kitchen. Using it, she examined the bracelet in fine detail. Comparing the Sara setting with the others, she could see a sight difference. Unnoticed before, the surface of the bracelet had a fine grain to it, running lengthways around the circumference. What she noticed, and how she picked it out, was the fact that the setting that marked Sara's had the fine grain running crosswise to the other. Somehow, the setting could be rotated, which had caused her age to change.

'Okay now for a test,' she thought, putting down the magnifying glass. She put her finger on the setting and instead of pressing, she twisted her finger, feeling it move. The tingle was back and she confirmed her age had regressed back to what it had been, just minutes ago. It was adjustable only within those two years, the same time that the Sara identity had been on earth, or at least the time the records showed.

Using her enhanced intelligence, she thought hard about it. The aliens did age, that was evident, but using the car obviously reset the person's age back to the original default. The bracelet allowed one to move from the default age to the real-time age. A horrible thought struck her, 'Jennifer.' Leanne was in the default body, 'oh crap!'

Sara hurriedly switched herself into the Jennifer body using the bracelet. Once there, she twisted the setting, feeling the familiar tingle. The Jennifer she saw in the mirror was older by two to three years, indicated by an increase in the laugh lines around her eyes. Nothing much else had changed, apart from her hair length, which was easily changed or could be accounted for. It was too late to contact Jennifer, as she would be on route now, and unable to receive a phone call. Sara hoped Jennifer had covered for herself if asked about her appearance.

Sara changed back to the body that she was beginning to call her own. She adjusted the age setting to look around 21 years old, so that Ken wouldn't notice another sudden change in her appearance. She still looked younger than her true age, but not so much as to be hard to explain by just new make up. She rang Margaret about the new discovery, and mentioned the problems Jennifer might run into.

"What about William and Daniel?" Kevin asked, having returned back to his original form.

"I'll check Julies age, while you check Terrence's age," Sara suggested, immediately suiting actions to her words. One quick change later, and a dash to the mirror, Sara picked up the phone again and gasped out her discovery.

'Julie looks about the same made be a fraction younger, what about Terrence?"

"Good," sighed Sara in relief, as Kevin confirmed that Terrence should get by unnoticed.

Just then, a demanding knock was heard at the front door and Ken's voice called out.

"Sara, open up. I need to talk to you urgently."

"Oh crap, I gotta go. Ken's at the door," Sara hurriedly told Kevin, before hanging up and cutting off Kevin's frantic reply.

Opening the door, Sara was confronted with an angry Ken, who pushed his way in and dragged Sara along into the lounge.

"Okay, what do you know about a guy called Scott Taylor?" He confronted her, after spinning her to face him.

"Scott Taylor?" She asked, trying the best she could to conceal the shock, as Ken's words hit her like bullets. She hoped her make up was doing its work and concealing her blood drained face.

"Don't come the innocent with me, this guys friends were just here the other day." Ken added angrily.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Sara replied archly, trying to put Ken on the defensive. He hadn't seen her reaction, so her make up had done its job, giving her the chance of pulling her little miss innocent. All she needed was the balls to bluff it out, something she'd had not too long ago.

"You'd better explain and make it good, I'm still not sure I forgive you for the other day. I thought you were investigating some explosion," she added sternly, adroitly changing the subject.

Ken looked at her, now unsure of his earlier suspicions. She seemed so, sure of herself, even a little indignant at his accusations. He turned and paced the room, trying to decide what to reveal to her. Sara had also moved away, getting herself a shot of Vodka before going and sitting down on the couch. She waited, watching Ken pace, her heart thumping in her chest.

Ken stopped, having come to a decision. He turned and sat on the arm of the couch, facing her.

I flew out to see the explosion site. The people in charge had some trackers nosing around. They backtracked someone we believe was Scott Taylor, to an abandoned car he owned. From the satellite surveillance, we know there was a truck left at the site of the explosion, which we believe this Scott took and drove off. We had a police report of an abortive chase with a truck fitting the description. Somehow, he managed to elude police on a clear road that had roadblocks set up. The direction he was last seen going was towards the west, possibly to meet up with his friends." He paused long enough to grab himself a beer, while Sara pictured the scene again in her mind.

"We got a picture of Scott Taylor from the police data base, and rang his parents. Apparently, he was headed here to San Francisco, to meet with a Kevin Black, William Roberts, and a Daniel Sackett. Kevin had a cousin here that they had planned to stay with."

"So? That's all very interesting, but what has that to with me? I don't see why there's all this interest in this Scott guy. He stole a truck. Big deal. It happens every day. Why is the CIA interested in him?" Sara was feeling more confident now, even though the danger of discovery was still hanging over her head.

"Well, the explosion has the experts puzzled," Ken explained, having decided to tell her all. Sara had signed the official secrecy act before being allowed to work at her job, so she could be sent to jail if she revealed what he was about to tell her. "It appeared to be of atomic intensity, this is why there's such a flap about it. The explosion set off all kinds of flags when it was captured on the live satellite feed. Trouble is, there's no sign of radiation or radioactive residue. The calculation of the temperature based on the glassy effect of the rocks, was in the millions of degrees, but it only lasted for a fraction of a second. The feed also captured some other anomalies. A weird distortion effect just prior to the explosion was noticed after the feed was enhanced. We need this Scott person; only he may have the key to the mystery. We ruled out that any possibility that he caused it, seeing his scholastic records, but he may have witnessed, or knew who did."

Ken stopped to finish his beer, gulping it down, like it was going out of fashion.

Sara was a bit peeved at the backhanded insult to Scott's schooling, but for obvious reasons couldn't show it.

"Okay so this Scott person has important information. I can understand why you want him, but I have never met him, so why come to me?" Sara asked, forcing Ken to reveal what he knew.

"One of the officers remembered checked a drivers licence belonging to a Sara Conners. When questioned, he described you."

"I told you I was visiting a sick friend. I don’t need your permission to go anywhere. Don’t go accusing me of being involved in some mystery explosion, just because I was passing nearby," Sara snorted, not letting the fear reach her voice.

"Okay, I didn’t mean to be so accusing, but when we wired for pictures of his friends, boy was I surprised to see that they matched those of the guys that were here the other day. I also ran the plates of that car they were driving. It belongs to a Leanne Stewart, Kevin's cousin. I sent part of my team to her place to find her and hopefully Scott's friends, while I came here to see what my girlfriend had to say about it all."

"Look, Jennifer turned up with them. I hadn't seen them before although they seemed nice enough, nor have I seen Scott. Maybe this Leanne knows something. When I asked Jennifer about them later, she told me that she had just met them. I wasn't the only one with car troubles that day. Jennifer had stalled her Vee dub at an intersection, and they were in the car behind her. They pushed her car to the side of the road, and offered to help. Apparently she had some filter problems that was causing the car to miss as dirt was clogging the carbur- something." Sara explained, trying to act ignorant of car engines. "They got it going for her and offered to follow her here, just in case, personally I think they were more interested in scoring a date." She laughed, desperately trying to distance Jennifer's involvement with the boys. That would be all they needed, Ken looking into the whereabouts of Jennifer.

"She's an air hostess right?" Ken mused, thinking that this was looking like hopeless lead.

"Yeah, I think she was on a flight out that day," offered Sara, trying not to be too specific.

A chirping cell phone interrupted the silence, as Ken tried to work out his next move.

"Ken here."

"Damn."

"She has?"

"Okay, check that out."

"Call me okay."

"Bye."

Ken hung up, with a muttered curse, and started for the door.

"Something wrong?" Sara asked, getting up.

"Looks like they were there, although none of the neighbours reported seeing Scott or the truck, only the other three guys. Leanne wasn't there, and she wasn't at work, apparently, she quit suddenly. No one has seen her since. Something tells me that there's some connection, unlikely as that is," Ken responded, sounding frustrated.

"Why unlikely?" Asked Sara, hoping she hadn't ruined Leanne's life by involving her.

"She was working, during the time that the explosion occurred, no, I think those guys may have taken her somewhere. Something stinks, and I'm going to find out what," Ken said determinedly, as he kissed her goodbye. "By the way, you keep this under your hat. No one is to know about this-ever," Ken added, before making his way out to his car.

Sara slumped back on the couch, drawing a huge breath as reaction set in. She sat there thinking, while her heart returned to a somewhat more normal pace. The only possible link back to them was Jennifer. Sara hoped that when she went back to being Leanne, they would have come up with something to satisfy any inquiry by the CIA.

Chancing that Ken hadn't had the time or the interest in bugging her phone, she rang Kevin back. Whether it was a sign, instead of hearing Kevin's voice, she heard Julie's sweet voice.

"Oh, hi there, it's Sara. Can I speak with your mother? It's imperative that I speak to 'her'." Sara stressed the 'her,' hoping Julie would get the implied message, without spelling it out. 'It pays to be careful,' she thought.

"I'll go get 'her,' Julie replied, having got the message.

Sara waited, knowing Kevin was probably changing. Margaret's voice sounded worried as she answered the phone.

Sara told Margaret to meet her where they first met Mr Maxwell, and for her to bring the girl's, as they had much to discuss. Kevin in Margaret's body didn't ask for details, obviously sensing that the phone wasn't the most secure way to talk about things. Margaret agreed to bring the girls and then hung up.

To be continued.

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