Donor -

Author's Note: This story takes place at an unspecified time after the events of 'Tara and the Presidents'. Tara's discovery has subsequently been commercialized and made available to the public at large. This is the third of my stories written in the Gen-U-Tech universe. Refer to my published works on this site to read the first two. Enjoy!

Prologue

Janet drew a square first and then a squiggly line from the top of it.

"What is that?" Tommy asked. "Sperm? It's a blocky little sperm, isn't it?" He laughed loudly.

"Candle..?" Michael offered a bit more helpfully.

Beneath, Janet drew a semi-circle, and then a smaller semi-circle attached to the side of the first one.

"It's a cup," Samantha said. "A teacup."

Janet pointed at her roommate and best friend in the world, wordlessly nodding in affirmation.

"Ooh, ok, so that's a teabag," Tommy exclaimed. "Teabagging! That's the answer, yea?!" Another loud guffaw.

Janet exchanged a look with Samantha, but her own boyfriend was oblivious, engrossed in self-appreciation of his sophomoric off-color joke. With a sigh, she drew an arrow down into the cup.

"So, tea?" Michael guessed, and Janet nodded emphatically again. He and Samantha really weren't supposed to be helping; it was supposed to be couple against couple. But, it was just a friendly game at their apartment on a Friday night, and it wasn't like Janet could expect any meaningful help from her own partner.

"Tea, tea, tea," Tommy mused. "How about the letter T? T&A? Tits and ass? Or no... T&C? That's all everyone's talking about these days, right? Tits and cock!"

The timer dinged, indicating their turn was over.

"It was 'tea and crumpets'," Janet informed, running a hand through her brunette hair in an unconscious gesture of frustration before picking up her wine glass and taking a sip. Her blue eyes settled on her boyfriend over the glass rim as she drank. He seemed unperturbed that he hadn't guessed it, still laughing and making crude remarks while taking a big swig out of his own drink, a bottle of beer, naturally. He never drank anything as "la-dee-da" as wine, even if the rest of them did. It was just as well, since he'd nearly finished the case of beer on his own anyway.

"Tits and cock, jeez, it's a good thing our girls aren't on that stuff, right?" Tommy's eyes lingered a little too long on Samantha's figure as he elbowed Michael, who gave him an uncomfortable, polite smile.

"It's called T175-C, officially, and really the technological breakthroughs that make it possible are quite intrigu--"

"Yea, see, it even looks like that when you write it!" Tommy got up and did just that on the whiteboard, jotting 'T175-C' next to Janet's doodles. "Look, it

spells

'tits', T-I-T-S! And then the 'C', 'C' for cock!"

He laughed uproariously, by himself.

Jesus, how'd I end up here

, Janet wondered to herself. She knew though. It'd all started with a stupid hookup with the random bad boy from the bar. Tommy's crude jokes and backwards baseball cap had been a welcome change of pace at the time, just what she needed to rebound from the serious long-term relationship she'd thought would certainly culminate in an engagement and then marriage. Instead, she'd caught the creep cheating on her with his significantly less attractive, less classy co-worker.

But hooking up occasionally with Tommy brought little comfort when only a few months later, she heard that her ex was engaged to his trashy co-worker. Janet told herself at the time that pushing for a more committed relationship with Tommy had nothing at all to do with the news, that he was a great guy who just needed to grow up a little, needed a little nurturing and direction and refining...

And yet, here they were, four years later, and his baseball cap was still on backwards and he was still wearing graphic T-shirts instead of collared dress ones, drinking cheap beer and making infantile jokes, checking out her blonde roommate when he thought no one was looking, and Janet's 35th birthday had passed less than two months ago and the very prospect of getting back out there and dating and trying to find someone new that was acceptable enough to commit even

more

years to, prior to hoping for a proposal that might never even materialize... It all made her literally feel nauseous.

Her whole life's trajectory derailed by bad guys and bad decisions... She was hardly getting invited to weddings anymore -- most of her friends and acquaintances had moved past that phase in their lives. Samantha and Michael were one of the last people she knew who were getting married and that was later this year. The invites had mostly turned into ones for baby showers and kids' birthdays, and she was showing up to them unmarried, with a boyfriend in tow who still dressed like he was attending a fraternity kegger.

"All right, well, we're going to call it a night." Janet was brought out of her bitter reflection by Samantha and her exponentially more mature boyfriend, standing up from the couch. "I'm going to spend the night at Michael's."

"Yea, I gotta head out, too," Tommy added, adjusting the cap on his head. "I'm linking up with some of the guys to catch the game."

Samantha gave her roommate another look of sympathy and disapproval, but Janet turned away, gathering up the glasses and empty beer bottles.

"All right, guys, well it's been fun," she banally replied.

"I'll give you a call tomorrow," Samantha said, giving her a quick hug before heading out the door with Michael, Tommy following close behind.

"See ya, babe. Don't wait up, all right?"

Janet locked the apartment door behind them and finished tidying up, leaving the glasses in the sink to wash in the morning. In silence, she got ready for bed, then climbed under the covers and reached over to shut the lamp off. She stared at the dark ceiling for a while before she let out another resigned sigh, rolled over to her side and fell asleep.