~o~O~o~

~o~O~o~

 

---

 

Author's Note: This is a little long and I probably could've broke it into two chapters, but I decided to stick with a one mega-chapter release. Sorry for the delays in all my other stories. Thanks to my beta/proof readers and djkauf for his magical edits.

~o~O~o~

 

 

Sadie was in the middle of preparing Michelle’s breakfast when she detected an incoming phone signal. It was Jenna’s satellite phone, but she wasn’t expecting to hear anything from her friend for a few more days at the earliest. According to her schedule, Jenna should be on the yacht and a day or two away from the island. With the time difference, it was one or two AM wherever she was at; she smirked when she considered how likely it would be that Jenna was calling to vent about her co-star’s advances.

{“Hey Jenna, what’s up?} Sadie asked, happy to hear from her friend as she put Michelle’s bacon wrapped salmon filet in the oven and set a timer for twenty-five minutes. She thought a salmon filet for breakfast was a little weird, but she only had herself to blame for Michelle’s condition. Her pregnancy and Catwoman template only made some of her cravings positively strange, but fish was a good brain food and good for the babies.

{“Ummm…”} Jenna stalled, never a good sign.

{“What did he do?”} Sadie worried that Mr. Powers tried to put the move on Jenna and she had been forced to pointedly tell him no.

Jenna sighed heavily. {“Nothing, but I sorta ran into a little trouble tonight and I wanted to see if you could give Agent L a heads up for me.”}

{“Oh, that’s not good.”} Sadie debated whether or not she should go warn Michelle that she might need to go get Jenna. {“What happened?”}

It took Jenna a little over five minutes to give her the details of the pirate attack on the yacht. Jenna had to switch the conversation a few times from a report of her actions, to a distressed sounding recount of what she heard happened due to potential eavesdroppers. A normal friend would’ve been stunned and tried to accuse Jenna of trying to play a joke on her, but not Sadie. Even though repelling pirates on the high seas sounded like the making of a good movie plot and she knew Jenna/Hector liked a good joke, she wouldn’t joke about killing four men and cutting off the hand of the pirate captain.

{“How long ago did this happen?”}

{“An hour or so. I’ve been helping with the cleanup and I’ve tried to tell them it wasn’t me, but I can tell they don’t believe me and I expect things to change once we meet up with the U.S. Navy ship that has been dispatched to meet us.”}

Sadie wasn’t sure if having the U.S. Navy meet them was good or bad. {“What’s the ETA?”}

{“Somewhere between six and eight hours.”}

{“Well, I think you did the right thing; you couldn’t let the pirates kill everyone, but you’re right, your alibi is paper thin.”} Sadie traced the phone signal back to the source and using the embedded GPS signal, calculated her flight time to her friend’s current coordinates. She was currently located a little southeast of the Marshal Islands or about 4,800 miles away. If she went suborbital, she could make it to Jenna in thirty to forty-five minutes, give or take.

Of course, doing so would light up a ton of military radars and draw a shit load of attention to the area. {“I just grabbed your location and calculated the flight time. If you need me, I can be there in forty-five minutes.”}

{“Seriously?! Holy crap dude, that’s cool, but that probably wouldn’t help and I’m guessing a lot of three letter agencies wouldn’t be happy with you either.”} Jenna chuckled before letting out a defeated sigh. {“No, I’m just going to have to face the music and take my lumps.”}

{“Okay, I’ll call Natalie and give her a heads up. Then, I’ll give the Agency a ring. Maybe Agent L will have some ideas.”} Sadie quickly checked her schedule for the day. {“Today looks pretty light for meetings. I might try to bug out extra early and fly over to provide you with some air support. I’ll check back with you in two hours and if I don’t hear from you in four hours, I’ll assume you need help and come in hot and heavy.”}

{“Thanks-”} Jenna’s voice caught, forcing her to pause and gather her composure. {“I really appreciate the offer and I don’t know what I’d do without you and Michelle. It’s nice to know you’ve got my back.”}

{“Hey, de nada. I know you’d do the same for me.”} Sadie fondly smiled.

{“Okay, I need to go now.”} Jenna sighed. {“Mike and the Captain are coming this way and I think it’s ‘that’ time.”}

{“Good luck and remember, I got yer back, bud.”} Sadie sighed after Jenna disconnected her call. Michelle’s salmon was half done and she had a few calls to make.

First, she went upstairs and briefed Michelle and then, after she took the salmon out of the oven, she called Natalie to let her know what was going on. Based on Michelle’s initial, fight or flight reaction to her opening, “Jenna just called…”, she elected to start the Natalie call with: “Jenna’s okay…” The approach seemed to help, but understandably, Natalie was a little concerned and distraught over the news and she wanted Sadie to immediately fly her to Jenna.

A lot of people claimed they could multi-task, but Sadie felt pretty confident in her ability to outperform any normal human. Her alien designed CPU allowed her to simultaneously call Agent L and explain what happened to Jenna, start Michelle’s eggs with her left arm while her right arm plated Michelle’s salmon and her tail tentacle popped two slices of whole wheat bread into the toaster. She debated using her tongue tentacle to take the glasses down from the cabinet, but Michelle got the heebie-jeebies anytime she saw her use it and Sadie couldn’t blame her.

All of the components of Michelle’s breakfast came together perfectly as Michelle sat down at the kitchen’s attached breakfast nook. With the cooking completed and Michelle enjoying her breakfast, Sadie routed the call audio to her mouth so Michelle could listen to the call.

{“Thanks for the warning, but I advise you to not use the suborbital rescue option at this time. I can’t tell you why, but the Air Force is on high alert right now.”}

Sadie quickly did the math and after performing a quick scan of the popular UFO blogs and realized why Agent L warned her. Someone reported seeing a pair F-16’s fighter jets chasing an object that looked like an Iron Man suit over Florida yesterday. {“There’s another active MAU…”}

{“I didn’t say that.”} Agent L’s denial confirmed Sadie’s theory

She immediately calculated a variety of flight plans for reaching Florida from California in the least amount of time. If she could find the machine, she could make herself human again and even become Greg again, but was that something she really wanted now? She wasn’t sure anymore. {“I can be in Florida in less than thirty minutes.”}

{“No!”} Agent L’s forceful rejection caused Sadie to flinch and Michelle to glance up.

{“Sorry, Sadie.”} Agent L’s voice softened. {“I understand your frustration, but we have two of our best agents dealing with the incident right now and having you show up would only make a bad situation more complicated.”}

{“Ookay…”} Sadie hesitantly agreed.

Agent L sighed. {“Look, if this incident wasn’t as visible as it is right now, I’d be happy to meet you and work out a deal if we found a working MAU, but this is not a good time.”}

Sadie wasn’t happy about it, but Agent L was right. The UFO blogs were in a tizzy, the U.S. military was on high alert, Jenna was in a pickle and it would tear her apart if something happened to her friend and she wasn’t there to help her. {“Yeah, you’re right. Sorry and I know things could be worse, but…”}. Her eyes began to leak lubricant. {“I just want to be a normal human again. Hell, I’d even be happy to stay a woman if it meant being able to-”}

Michelle pressed her body against hers and hugged her tight. “It’s okay Sadie; you’re going to be a great Mom-Dad for our children. No matter what you look like on the outside, I will always love you.”

Her absolute conviction boosted Sadie’s core output. She fondly hugged Michelle and re-absorbed her AWOL lubricant.

“Thanks” She privately whispered into Michelle’s ear before returning to the call with Agent L. {“Thanks, Agent L.”}

Agent L softly chuckled {“Hey, no problem you two, but I’ve got some calls to make and as soon as I know more about Jenna’s current situation; I’ll let you know and do not rocket off to the Pacific or Florida.”}

With the situation out of her hands for now, Sadie decided to get started cleaning the kitchen. She was in the process of putting away the frying pan with her tail while washing the baking pan when Michelle finished her breakfast and brought over her dirty dishes.

“Meow, the fish was delicious, honey, but I need to leave for work now.”

“Thanks, I’m glad you liked it, but I still think it’s a little strange to eat fish for breakfast.” Sadie leaned over and gave Michelle a goodbye kiss.

The baking pan was forgotten when Michelle surprised her by turning a normal goodbye kiss into a tight embrace and something a lot more passionate and steamy. In response, Sadie’s tail gently wrapped itself around Michelle’s leg, reached under her skirt and began to softly tease her inner thigh. Michelle upped the ante by activating her symbiote Catwoman tail and using it to return the favor.

Thirty minutes later, Sadie sighed languidly from the middle of their living room floor as Michelle scrambled to put herself back together for work. She loved watching her get ready in the morning. At four months, the twins were visible and the sight of Michelle’s little baby bump filled her with more joy and love than her core could safely contain.

She knew the babies were starting to slow Michelle down, but Michelle never complained. It probably helped that she only suffered a very brief bout of morning sickness early on and could share her discomfort with Sadie. In that aspect, Sadie was a better partner than she would’ve been as plain old human Greg.

Technically, a father’s job was done with conception, but with their link, Michelle was able to share what it felt like to be pregnant. She wasn’t too uncomfortable yet, but the doctors warned her that twins can be difficult to carry, especially in the final month or two. Sadie promised to help her get through it and she looked forward to feeling their baby's first kicks, but knew it probably wouldn’t happen for another month or so.

The human body was a miraculous machine and in some ways, she felt it was far more powerful than her robotic body. She sighed as Michelle pulled up and adjusted her stretchy maternity skirt and she found herself feeling a twinge of jealousy, but quickly suppressed the emotion. She was a female robot now. How could a robot have a maternal instinct?

Michelle smiled at Sadie as she slipped into her shoes. “I’m going to be soooo late and it’s all your fault, you tin plated hussy!”

“Hey, I said I was sorry for ripping your panties off and I don’t recall you complaining!” Still naked and unashamed, Sadie rolled on to her stomach, elbows out in front with her hands propping her head up and feet up in the air, idly bouncing up and down.

Michelle playfully hissed, exposing her canines before giggling and sticking her tongue out. “Meanie!”

Sadie snickered unrepentantly as she stood up and activated her office clothes. “I’ll help you to your car ma’am.” She gestured toward the garage.

Michelle glanced down at Sadie’s clothes and sniffed. “Cheater…”

“Hey, not my fault. I don’t have time to use real clothes because you distracted me with your sexy tail.” Sadie shrugged and glanced expectantly at Michelle’s butt.

Michelle just shook her head with amusement and teased Sadie with a shake of her butt as she led the way into their garage.

Sadie managed to make it to work on time, but was fairly certain that Michelle was late. Her guess was correct when she punished her with a very distracting text in the middle of her lunch break.

>”Thanks for cooking breakfast this morning. XOXOXO”

>”BTW, Was 30 minutes late. I blame you and expect you to purrsonally make it up to me tonight. :-D”

Jenna called just before the end of the day, thanked her for getting Agent L involved and told her everything was taken care of. Her explanation was far too brief, but she promised to give her the full details the next time she saw her.

~o~O~o~

It had been three months since Jenna’s little pirate adventure and despite another near death experience with a cave in, the filming was complete. Well, mostly done. She said she still had a few minor scenes and retakes to do, but those could be done at the studio. Sadie would’ve liked to hold their welcome home party sooner, but it took Jenna almost another month before she could break away for an extended period of time and revert back to being Hector.

Hector only had a few days because the studio was anxious to release a full trailer and once that happened, Jenna would be needed to help promote the upcoming film. This weekend was the currently the longest consecutive stretch of “Hector Time” Sadie’s friend had been able to take for himself.

Sadie did the cooking while Michelle nursed the twins as Natalie chatted with her and watched with rapt attention. Hector saw the look of longing in Natalie’s eyes and concerned about the babies being contagious, he retreated to the kitchen.

“Too much for you?” Sadie asked with a smirk as she dumped the cheesy potato skins onto a serving plate and artfully arranged the seared Ahi Tuna on a large, Japanese style serving plate.

“Yeah, a little, but at the same time, no because I know Natalie wants to have children. Especially now that it’s possible for her.” Hector grabbed a fresh bottle of beer from the fridge and poured a glass of wine for Natalie.

“So, how are things going with you, Jenna and Natalie?” Sadie asked, worried about her friend’s relationship since he had been gone for so long.

Hector chuckled as twisted off the top of a beer and took a quick swig before setting it down with an appreciative sigh. “Going well for me, but it’s kinda weird when I’m Jenna because Natalie has kind of cooled down around her.  Jenna and her are in the friend zone.”

Sadie paused as she tried to come to terms with her friend’s dual nature. “Oh, that’s a little difficult to process.”

Hector snorted. “Yeah, tell me about it! I’m Jenna, but I’m not and it seems like the more time I spend as Jenna the more real she becomes. It’s like I have a split personality. Hell, I even think Jenna is starting to like and feel attracted to Mike and that’s totally not right!”

“That sounds a little complicated, but what does Natalie think?”

“It’s the damndest thing,” Hector shook his head with confusion, “I think she wants Jenna to date the jerk, but at the same time, she says she loves me more than ever and can’t wait until we’re married. How in the hell could that work?!?! I mean, wouldn’t I be cheating on her if Jenna was dating Mike?”

“Wow, and I thought I had it rough being a robot.” Sadie wanted to help her friend, man to man or robot, but she heard Michelle and Natalie returning and the current topic probably wasn’t something he wanted to bring up in front of the girls. “We should go grab a beer or something this week.” She said, just as she and Michelle walked into the kitchen.

Natalie hugged Hector and gave him a quick, affectionate kiss. “Yeah, you two should go out this week,” she glanced over to Michelle, “and Michelle and I can spend some girl time together. Besides, I wanna spoil my god children!”

Sadie shrugged and glanced over to Michelle for approval. “My schedule is pretty open this week. Meet at ‘The Hangout’ for happy hour?”

“Sounds good,” Hector nodded, “other than catching up with my fiance,” he grinned and gave Natalie a quick squeeze, “I don’t have any plans and Jenna doesn’t have any appearances to make until next weekend.”

While everyone munched on the appetizers and complemented Sadie on her cooking, she put the stuffed salmon into the oven and double checked the rice cooker. Michelle and Hector had a brief fight over the last tuna slice with Michelle taking the victory by giving Hector her poor starving kitty expression.

With the main course baking, the two couples moved into the living room to watch Jenna’s interview. Michelle snuggled against Sadie while Natalie happily sought shelter in Hector’s arms.

Sadie thought Jenna did a great job with the interview. She was relaxed, modest, funny, drop dead gorgeous and the host appeared smitten with her.  The audience enjoyed the teaser trailer for her movie and gasped with astonishment when she told them she did all her own stunts. The pirate attack was briefly brought up and Jenna stuck to the official story, giving Mike most of the credit.

The cave-in was brought up and again, Jenna gave all the credit to Mike. “I was buried under some rocks and was having trouble breathing. He risked his life to dig me out before I died.  We thought we were stuck in there for a few days, but the Navy rescue team found a backdoor into the cave.”

“Wow, that sounds scary!” The host said, fearfully glancing over to the studio audience as if he really was worried about being trapped in a cave.

Jenna giggled. “Yeah,  it was kind of scary, but I had Mike, I mean Mr. Powers there. He really is the hero he plays in his movies.”

The host chuckled before jumping in for the kill. “So, we’ve all seen the teaser trailer now and the public appearances with you and Mike. I think it’s safe to say that everyone can see there’s something going on between the two of you. Are the rumors that you two are dating true?”

Jenna laughed. “Sorry, but totally not true. Mike is a professional and we both know that having a relationship could be bad for the movie. Especially if the relationship went south during the filming.”

The host was clearly looking for some juicy gossip. He looked a little disappointed with Jenna’s denial, but he recovered quickly. “True, there have been a few movies where the actor’s romantic entanglements have caused problems,” he grinned and winked at Jenna, “but I think it’s safe to say that all the women are rooting for the two of you. I think it’s because they are getting tired of cleaning up their man’s drool everytime you’re on screen!”

The audience found his joke funny and Jenna’s head to toe blush endearing. Once the laughter died down, the host turned to the audience. “There ya have it guys, the lovely, talented and single, Jenna V! Her debut movie is scheduled to be in theaters this fall and it looks like it’s going to be a blockbuster.”

Sadie paused the show. “Wow, they really want you and Mr. Powers to date, but what’s with the Jenna V?”

Hector shrugged. “Beats me. It’s something the paparazzi started last week. I guess it’s better than the alternatives.”

“Yeah, I guess. So, what really happened in the cave?”

Natalie twisted around and glanced up to Hector. “Yeah, what happened?”

“Well, Jenna, I mean, I got trapped under a ton or two of rock and dirt. I couldn’t breathe and it took Mike about twenty minutes to dig me out.  He really did risk his life to get me out of there.  Anyway, he’s pretty smart and knew that I should’ve died. Since he thought I was a CIA agent, I sort of made up a story about how I got my regen, metal skeleton and ninja suit.”

Sadie giggled with disbelief. “Made up a story because the truth would be too hard for someone to believe?”

“Well, yeah. Kim believed me, but I didn’t trust Mike and still not sure I do. So, I told him that Jenna was in the Army when the vehicle she was riding in got hit by an IED in Iraq. The Army pumped her full of an experimental super soldier serum-”

Sadie scoffed. “Captain America, seriously?”

Hector grimaced and nodded. “Yep and I explained that once it was a success, they infused my bones with some super strong metal. The brass thought they had hit the jackpot, but then, they discovered the serum only works on women. Something about the XX chromosomes being needed. The Army wanted super soldier men, not women. So, they canceled the program and gave her a medical discharge, but the CIA swooped in. That’s how she became a secret agent and got the ninja suit.”

Michelle glanced back to Sadie with disbelief before turning to Hector. “And he believed that!?!”

“Well, yeah?  I mean everyone knows the government has secret programs and it’s probably more believable than the truth, right?” Hector shrugged.

Sadie found it hard to disagree with his logic and after the girls complained about eating too much food, the rest of the evening primarily revolved around the four friends catching up with each other’s lives. Of course, Hector’s life was more interesting, but Natalie and Hector’s pending wedding and the twins captured some attention.

Natalie asked Sadie and Michelle to be bridesmaids. Michelle jumped at the chance, but Sadie was a little more reserved. She apologetically glanced over to Hector. “Sorry bud, I was kind of expecting to be a groomsman or maybe, your best man when you finally settled down, but,” she glanced down at her body, “you know?”

Natalie reached out and held Sadie’s hand. “I’m so sorry.” She glanced back to Hector. “Maybe you could have a Best Woman, or Second Best,” she grimaced at her own idea, “yeah, that just doesn’t work…”

Sadie giggled at Hector’s reaction to Natalie’s idea. “No, it’s okay. I’d be happy to be a bridesmaid for you. I’m sure Hector has an old Army buddy or high school friend he can ask, right?” She inquisitively glanced to Hector.

Hector nodded after a few seconds of thought. “Yeah, I’ll have to make some calls, but I think I’ve got it covered.”

The evening ended when the twins cried in unison to be fed, causing Michelle to pout as she leaked some milk into her nursing pads.  Sadie saw Hector and Natalie out before joining Michelle with the twins.  “Do you want me to take over for you in the morning so you can get a little extra sleep?”

Michelle smiled with gratitude. “Could you, please?”

About an hour before the twins were due to wake, Sadie snuggled up to Michelle and deployed her milking tubes. Michelle smiled in her sleep and softly sighed with relief as her milk was gently transferred to Sadie’s breasts for sterile storage and kept at optimum temperature. While she couldn’t produce milk, it was fairly trivial for her to modify her non-functional breasts to store milk for the babies.

Of course, Michelle used a breast pump to build up a reserve for daycare and Sadie could’ve just used some of the stored milk with a bottle, but she wanted to have as much contact as possible with her children.  Somehow, she always felt a happy warmth creep into her core every time her children latched on and feed from her as if she was a real human mother.

The warmth helped drive out the cold that would sometimes creep in when she thought about how much she and Pinocchio had in common. If it wasn’t for her link with Michelle and the babies, she wasn’t sure if she could handle the occasional feelings of isolation from the human race.

~o~O~o~

Sadie felt a brief flutter of alarm when she pulled her car into the Hangout’s parking lot. It was only 5pm, still a little early, but the popular construction worker grill and bar was already starting to get busy. She hadn’t been to this place since the MAU changed everything. As Greg, she had no problems meeting Hector for a beer or two after work, but now, things were a little different.

The clientele wasn’t exactly urban professional and she decided that going in wearing her Executive Assistant clothes would be a bad idea.  Before she exited the car, she activated her jeans and t-shirt outfit in an attempt to blend in with the crowd. Following current fashion, the jeans were skin tight and the top left part of her midriff exposed. Her hair, she let fall down against her back. The tight french braid she had didn’t go with the casual look she was aiming for with the jeans.  

She knew she was an attractive woman, but stepping into a testosterone filled bar environment was a new experience for her.  The slight lull in conversation made her feel like she was an old time gun slinger stepping into a bar full of outlaws. Instead of cowboys reaching for their six shooters, it was burly construction workers giving her appreciative stairs and a few loud wolf whistles.

Despite her previous life as a man, Sadie couldn’t keep the pleased smirk off her lips at she worked her way toward Hector’s usual table.  She had to bat away more than a few hands as she squeezed through the crowd, but based upon all the exclamations of pain, she doubted they would make the same mistake again.  As she reached the end of the bar, she felt a polite touch on her arm.

“Pardon me ma’am, can I get you a drink?” The bass rumble of a man’s voice drew her attention.

She caught sight of Hector as she turned to face the voice. The man behind the voice was a giant! Even sitting on the bar stool, he was taller than her and she wasn’t used to that. He looked like he belonged on a football field. The entire bar was now silent and she realized everyone was waiting to see what would happen. She smiled politely and gestured toward Hector. “Thanks for the offer, but no thanks. I’m just here to meet my friend Hector.”

The giant turned and scowled at Hector.  “Damnit Hector! It’s been six months since we saw your ugly face and you’re already back to your old tricks!”

Hector chuckled, leaned back in his chair and blew on his fingers as if they were burning. “Hey, what can I say? When you’re hot, you’re hot.”

The bar erupted with laughter as the giant chuckled and stood up. Sadie was impressed.  Scanning the man, he measured in at six foot nine and based on his mass, had to weigh at least three hundred pounds, none of it fat. Thanks to Michelle’s brother getting them NFL game passes, she had stood next to some pretty big guys and this man could easily fit right in with that group. “Holy crap!” She muttered softly as the man smirked at her reaction.

“Make a hole for the lady!” He bellowed as he forced his way toward Hector’s table, pulling Sadie along in his wake.

“Okay, spill,” the giant glowered suspiciously at Hector.

Unperturbed, Hector chuckled and turned to Sadie. “Sadie, meet Ratchet. Ratchet, Sadie.  Ratchet the Pious,” Hector gestured to his friend with a smirk, “is my best bud from the Army and,” Hector glanced back to Ratchet, “Sadie is here to help me plan for the wedding. Sorry bud, but she’s already married and I think I should’ve picked a better location.”

Sadie almost choked at his name. Put him in a metal suit and he could probably pass for an Autobot. “Nice to meet you, umm, Ratchet.” She faced him and politely shook his hand. He hand disappeared inside of his, but he was very gentle. Not that she was worried about him crushing her hand. “You’re a Transformers fan?”

“Ha!” Ratchet’s face broke into a big grin. “My real name’s Tom, but my friends call me Ratchet. Not many people get the name, but yeah, I fix the big machines that this,” He gestured to Hector, “knucklehead likes to break and the nickname kinda stuck.”

Hector sighed and shook his head. “Can I help it if the previous operator ran over something and weakened the track?”

“Right buddy, sure.” Ratchet chuckled. “If that helps you sleep soundly  while yours truly is stuck fixing the busted track, in the pouring rain and mud.”

Hector leaned back in his chair and took a sip from his beer. “And who was there helping you?”

“Ahh, I know. Just giving ya shit bro.” Ratchet pulled away a chair and politely motioned for Sadie to sit before he took a second chair, reversed it and sat down on it backwards.  “So, you said you needed to talk to me about something. Is now a good time?”

Hector glanced guiltily over to Sadie for a brief moment. “Yeah, I guess so. We’ve know each other for, well, a while and we served together. So, how would you like to be my best man?”

Sadie wasn’t expecting to learn who the best man was going to be so soon and so suddenly. She still felt a little twinge of regret that Greg was never coming back and she was going to be stuck as a bridesmaid at her best friend’s wedding.  Ratchet accepted the honor with the call for a round of tequila for the three of them.  She downed it like a pro, but she kind of had an advantage since it tasted much different to her as a robot.

After a few more rounds of shots, mixed with a healthy dose of humorous and slightly embarrassing Army stories between Ratchet and Hector over who pulled the craziest stunts while in Iraq; a slightly inebriated Ratchet left the pair to get some grub for himself and let Sadie and Hector talk.  

Sadie’s misplaced indignation over Ratchet being asked to be Hector’s best man had long since faded and she found herself liking the man. He seemed like a pretty solid character. To show Hector that she approved his choice, she stood and gave him a friendly, goodbye hug before he left the table.  “He’s pretty nice. I’m glad he was available for you.”

Hector sighed. “Yeah, me too and sorry.”
 

“Hey, de nada. Shit happens.” Sadie smirked mischievously. “I’m just glad I’m going to be able to witness the taming of El Gran Lobo.”

“Ha!” Hector dreamily smiled. “Yeah, Natalie’s the One, ya know?”

Sadie smiled and nodded with agreement. “Yep, I know how you feel.” She sat forward. “So, how’s things going with you being,” She furtively glance around the bar, “Umm, away?”

“It’s been, no is, very weird.” Hector sighed with frustration. “She’s taking over my life. I was only supposed to be her for one night, just to see what it was like, ya know?”

“Oh yeah, I totally know…” Sadie nodded with understanding.

“Yeah, but then I met Natalie and everything changed. Then, it was the chance to be in a movie and now, all hell is breaking loose because when I’m Jenna, it’s like I really am Jenna. She’s starting to like Mike and that totally creeps me out.” Hector shuddered with revulsion. “I feel like I have a split personality or something.”

“Hmmm, I’m not sure if I can help you because I’m not exactly a normal woman,” she sighed, regretting her inability to have any contribution to the genetic makeup of her children. If it hadn’t been for Greg’s need to buy books in college, she and Michelle would’ve had to use some anonymous donor.

Sadie had done a little research recently. Even though she wasn’t a biological woman or anything, she want to try and understand why and how a robot could be having urges that seemed to mimic a biological human. She didn’t find any answers, but she did learn a lot about real human females. “But I’m guessing that when you’re Jenna, your body’s female chemistry impact how you think and feel.” Sadie watched as Hector nodded his head with silent agreement. “Estrogen and Testosterone are pretty powerful and as Jenna, the balance of hormones are a bit different from what you’re used to.  Combine that with the amount of time you spent being subconsciously socialized as a woman, and well, I think you get the idea. You, as Hector are a hetersexual male, which means that Jenna is probably a hetersexual female, or maybe bi.”

Hector nodded with agreement. “Maybe you’re on to something there, but it’s not easy for me to adjust to the idea. I kind of hope the movie is a flop and everyone will forget about Jenna.”

She was pretty sure that wasn’t going to happy. The buzz surrounding Jenna’s debut performance was getting to be pretty loud. “I dunno if you can count on that bud. The movie is looking to be one of the most anticipated new releases for this year and the trailers look awesome.”

“Merde, I know. Hell, even I’m looking forward to watching the damn thing.” Hector sighed, finished off his beer and ordered another, plus a burger while Sadie simply ordered a water. The two sat in companionable silence until Hector’s drink arrived.

“So,” Hector leaned forward, “I have a question for you.”

He looked serious and Sadie gave him her full attention. “Yeah?”

“Mr. Powers heard about the wedding from Jill, Jenna’s makeup artist who is doing the makeup for the wedding, and he wants to come to the wedding, with Jenna and I know you’re not too jazzed about being a bridesmaid, right?”

“Yeah…” Sadie hesitantly agreed.  Hector’s revelation about Mr. Powers was a surprise.

“I know this is a crazy idea and I don’t even know if it’s possible, but can you be Jenna at my wedding?”

Sadie was shocked by his request, but at the same time, intrigued. “I’m not sure...”

She zoned out a little as she checked her internal systems and found the same Pretender bot scanning and disguise system her Autobot form had.  It made sense to her because Greg knew that a Pretender bot was designed to infiltrate enemy installations.

Focusing her attention back to her friend, Sadie slowly nodded. “I think I can, but I’d need to get a good scan of Jenna and to help pull it off, I’d also need to spend some time with her to copy her mannerisms, but,”  she crossed her arms and leaned back into her chair, “There’s just one problem, Natalie. Okay, two, Michelle and the babies.”

“Michelle I get, but why Natalie?”

“Simple, she will want to have Jenna, her BFF, as a bridesmaid.”

“Oh yeah...She would.” Hector sighed.

“On the plus side, I think Michelle would find the idea hilarious and Grandma has already offered to watch the twins. So, I’d be willing to try. Besides, it could be fun to be a movie star for a day, right?” Sadie smirked as timed her response with Hector taking a swig of his beer, causing him to cough.

“Yeah, only a day…” Hector chuckled and smiled at Sadie. “Thanks, but there is one more problem. Wheelie.”

“Wheelie, what about him?”

“Mi Padre told me that he wants to be in the wedding and not just wants to be, but as part of the family, demands to be there.”

“Ouch.” Sadie winced as she struggled to come up with a good plan. “Well, he’s a pickup truck...maybe a ring bearer? Could have his buddy Jesús there with an RC controller to make it look like Wheelie was just a simple RC toy.” She sighed as she considered how hard it was going to be to pull it off and not make Natalie’s wedding day a farce.  How many women would want to have a toy truck take part of their special day?  Yeah, not many.

“Have you told Natalie yet?”

Hector shook his head. “Not yet, but she might actually be okay with your idea. I had no clue how to include him in the wedding beyond sitting him on a pew next to mi padre and even that seemed a little, umm, weird.”

Sadie giggled“Yeah, well, she should know by now that the new normal is decidedly weird. I mean, she has to be a little weird herself since she wants to marry you!”

~o~O~o~