In the end, our first day of work together turned out to be a mix of relief and frustration. The relief came when Nancy was able to interact with my coworkers without any embarrassing flubs. I was able to prompt her with bits of knowledge about each person but none of the conversations were very deep. If anyone noticed anything out of the ordinary, they didn't say anything.
The frustration came from trying to do my programming work, where Nancy was unfamiliar with the existing project I had been working on. My not being able to type or use the mouse was the worst part. For hour after hour, I knew exactly what needed to be done next, but relaying that verbally was excruciatingly slow for both of us. Even to the point of having to tell her what to type, character by character, because keywords and APIs were not spelled or capitalized in ways she expected if I simply pronounced them in my head.
You know that saying, "two heads are better than one?" Total crap, when one head holds the knowledge and the other head holds the keyboard.
Meanwhile, between the day off I had taken for our anniversary and the two days lost to the coma, I was behind due dates on several tasks that the project manager had not been able to reassign. So, I was feeling pressure to get a lot of code written, precisely when the working method between Nancy and me made everything slower. I admit I was letting that pressure overflow into impatience with Nancy. She was doing her best but it didn't feel good enough.
As a result, we were a bit cranky with each other when we finally stopped at the end of the afternoon and headed to the restaurant to meet up with Cathy, Zack and Paige.
As we drove there, Nancy thought, 'That could have been better, could have been worse. I'll try to do better on Monday.'
I answered, 'I'm sorry, Nancy. That's on me, not you. It's frustrating, being inside my own body and not having the control I want over it. In some ways, I suppose it's like being a paraplegic, except I can still feel all my body parts, can feel you move them, can feel the keyboard under my hands. But I can't type and can't relay information at the speed you can type, either. I know it's not fair to you, getting upset with typos that I would correct myself without a second thought and not even remember I made them. I hope that as you learn more about this project, we can collaborate more instead of just having you be my typist."
'Otherwise, it's going to be a long nine months or more until Cathy switches us back, right?' Nancy asked. 'I don't know if I would be handling this as well as you are. But for a first day, I think we were as productive as possible. We did manage to check off two tasks, even though Sam wanted three. Everything has been in such turmoil since we woke up, that you never had time to orient me on the project. Maybe we can fix that this weekend and be better prepared on Monday?'
'Maybe,' I thought. 'Although, with your body due to ovulate in a few more days, we might be busy... getting busy with Cathy.'
Nancy shrugged. 'We aren't going to be having sex with her every minute of every day, for Pete's sake. Although, we should start trying tonight, if we're still going to try this cycle.'
'Why wouldn't we?' I asked.
'To be honest, I'm feeling some performance anxiety. I'm still weirded out by just the idea of it. Get your cock hard and fuck my own pussy with it until I ejaculate. It's insane, just thinking it out loud. Then add the pressure that if I fail, I'll never get my body back?'
'Not even trying isn't the answer, though,' I said.
'I'm not saying we never try. But, maybe waiting a cycle would be better, so I can get more confident.'
'Or more nervous,' I thought. 'Look, I get it. It's not just that you're having to lose my virginity all over again, you have to do it while you identify as female and you're attracted to men instead of women. And all I can do is either be encouraging or silent. My voice in your head isn't going to make you attracted to Cathy, if my body isn't already making you feel that way. Although, maybe the fact that you're making love to your own body, instead of another woman, is the key. If you can think of my body as a remote controlled sex toy that you're using to masturbate and accept the pleasure my nerve endings are sensing as equivalent to hers, we can work both bodies towards orgasm at the same time.'
'Back up. What did you mean about this body making me attracted to Cathy?' Nancy asked.
I replied, 'Testosterone should be having some effect on you, don't you think? As well as any reaction my body has to female pheromones. Or maybe your memories, your sense of self, are simply overriding both of those. It's not like we can predict how a female consciousness is going to react to being put into a male brain. The Teclewtans wouldn't have needed to deal with it, when they developed the technology.'
'And then there's the question of whether having two consciousnesses in the same brain is having further effect on us. Are you feeling just as attracted to Cathy as you were to me?'
I answered, 'It's impossible to ignore the fact that she's possessed your body. I don't feel for her emotionally what I feel for you and that affects every response.'
'We're here,' Nancy said, as she pulled my car into the restaurant parking lot. Cathy, Zack and Paige were already standing next to the awning over the entrance. Paige waved, when she spotted us.
Nancy focused on Paige as we approached them and I asked, 'Using Paige as an experiment, hon?'
Nancy asked, 'Who better? She hasn't been changed by this, so my emotional feelings about her shouldn't be different. That should make my physical reaction clearer. Hush, now.' Aloud, she said, "Hi, guys! You put our names in?"
Zack held up one of those square restaurant pagers and said, "Should be another five minutes or so. You back to normal, buddy?"
"As close as can be, after making up for two missed days at work," Nancy replied, stepping close to give Cathy a quick peck on the lips. She then said, "Hi, Paige," and gave her a brief kiss to the cheek. I felt Nancy inhale and smelled Paige's usual perfume was absent.
"Hi, Dan," Paige said, smiling at me as Nancy stepped back. "So, you've got to tell us the whole story of this meteor strike."
"Over dinner and a glass of wine, okay?" Nancy answered. I spotted small reactions to that from both Paige and Cathy that didn't immediately click.
The pager buzzed and the four of us went back inside and were seated. As we were looking over the menus, Nancy asked, "A bottle of red to share?"
Paige looked our way and said, "None for me. I wasn't entirely ready to reveal this, since I'm only about six weeks along and they always say to wait until you're through the first trimester, but I'm pregnant."
"Congrats, you two!" Nancy said, just before Cathy echoed her. "Is that why you're not wearing perfume tonight? Your sense of smell is already that sensitive?"
"You noticed?" Paige asked.
Nancy said, "Yeah, I've come to associate that scent with you, like I associate Nancy's with her, although usually only if I'm close enough to hug you or kiss your cheek. So, I noticed its absence outside. Nancy and I were talking the other day about early signs of pregnancy and she mentioned that a heightened sense of smell can contribute to morning sickness and she wondered if she'd have to stop using her perfume, too."
Zack asked, "Should the three of us still get a bottle? If not, I think I'd prefer an ale."
"How about you, Dan?" Cathy asked. "Beer or wine?"
I thought, 'Wine's fine, babe.'
Nancy answered, "The Pinot's available in a split. Still less expensive than two glasses."
The waitress came back and we put in our drink orders, Paige opting for the raspberry iced tea. As we considered our dinner orders, Nancy kept stealing glances at Paige, until Cathy broadcast, 'Zack is starting to notice you looking at Paige. I know why you are doing it, but he thinks you are flirting.'
I thought back, 'Did you know Paige was pregnant before she said it? I noticed a reaction outside when I brought up having wine.'
Cathy answered, 'I reacted to Paige's thinking about being pregnant and having to reveal it earlier than she wanted, I suppose. I am still adjusting to having to keep telepathy a secret, although neither Paige or Zack noticed a thing.'
The waitress returned with the drinks and took our dinner orders. We toasted Paige's pregnancy and took sips of our beverages.
Zack said, "So, you promised more information about the meteor and how you survived it. You didn't think you were going to get away with saying it was a miracle, did you? There's got to be more to it than that, from the television reports."
Nancy thought to me, 'How much can we really share, Dan? This is a huge secret.'
I answered back, 'I trust Zack implicitly and I'm pretty sure we can trust Paige, too. Cathy, are you hearing anything different from them?'
Cathy said, 'They're both curious, but I sense no threat from either of them.'
Nancy answered Zack, "Okay, but this is just between us for now, okay?"
"Sure, Dan," he said.
"I'm not Dan. I'm Nancy in Dan's body," she said. "He's still in here, but I'm in control."
"Run that by me again?" Zack asked. "If you're in Dan's body, who's in yours?"
Nancy spent fifteen minutes quietly revealing everything that we had learned since waking up in the hospital, pausing only when our dinners arrived. Cathy dropped her impersonation of Nancy when she talked about Teclewt and Zack and Paige both marveled at the subtle differences that were revealed in Cathy's persona as her facial expressions and voice changed.
As we wrapped up the explanation, Zack asked, "So, besides trying to get... Cathy pregnant, you've got to figure out whether to allow this transformation into hermaphrodites to go forward?"
Nancy asked, "I haven't experienced a full sexual encounter as a male, yet. Once I do, I'll have a better idea of what having a combined form might be like. Dan won't have a chance at experiencing being a female before choosing, though."
Paige asked, "Would that change your gender identity or sexual orientation? Would you wind up pansexual, attracted to individuals of both genders, or just attracted to other hermaphrodites?"
Cathy answered, "Without a better understanding of how the human variations in gender identity and attraction form now, that's unpredictable. My species had no variations like that. Another risk to consider."
'Along with explaining it to the public,' I thought.
