A Wish the Heart Makes: Fornever in Blue Genes

by Tigger

Chapter 8: Awakening.

Cat Donovan impatiently finger combed braid-escaping black
hair-wisps out of her eyes before palming open the DNA keyed
door - having arrived fifteen minutes later than she had
planned.  Unusual as being late for anything was for Cat, if
her tardiness had been the result of overly enthusiastic
attention to their duties on the part of her security
officers, Cat wouldn't have minded.  She would have even been
a little pleased.

Cat Donovan was in no way pleased. 

While on her way to meet with the newly transformed Matthew
Sorenson, Cat had decided to execute a-spur-of-the-moment
security penetration drill.  Nothing out of the ordinary -
just a little spot check on her procedures and her people. 
Unfortunately, she had easily slipped through the first two
layers of security undetected before MacPherson had challenged
and detained her. *Tough kid,* Cat thought with just a touch
of admiration.  Cat would have to keep an eye on that Scots
lass, but based on her performance today, it looked like Morag
MacPherson was ready for advanced training and promotion.  

MacPherson's hand-to-hand skills were certainly top notch. 
She had taken Cat down with a first class move and had Cat
restrained before she'd even realized that her opponent was
her own boss.  Given that Cat Donovan topped out at over 180
centimeters in height (six feet one inch) and that her
muscular yet shapely frame massed at just over 75 kilos (165
lbs), that was no small achievement on the part of the young
security officer. 

Calming down a surprised and somewhat upset Officer MacPherson
had cost Cat even more time. Then Cat had backtracked to
locate the two security officers who had let her slip through
their perimeters unchallenged and worse, undetected.  She had
then proceeded to thoroughly ruin their day, week and month. 
Those two young lads were not going to enjoy their duty
assignments for the next few weeks.  Not at all. 

Cat was still fuming as she waited for the door to swish open. 
That there had been two more security perimeters to penetrate
after she had gotten by them, or that she had eventually been
stopped well short of the objective was beside the point.  She
should not have gotten past the first layer without an alarm
being sounded.  Well, she wouldn't be able to the next time,
at least.  Word would get around very quickly that the Boss
was prowling again.

As would word of what was going to happen to those two fools
she'd caught out.  Object lessons and public, ritual
executions worked.

Just then, Cat wanted to see the interior layout of the lab as
an intruder might see it.  How was the room furnished?  Where
would the targets likely be in the room?  Where were the
hiding places and the escape hatches?  Those were questions
that would be better answered if Cat could enter unannounced
which was done easily enough.  Once she'd gone through the
identification procedures with the door guard, Cat had ordered
him to mute the door chime when she entered the lab.

Cat slipped soundlessly into the lab and made a quick, covert
reconnaissance.  She found that the place had undergone major
renovations since her last inspection, which she'd conducted
prior to activating the latest security plan updates.  

Furniture had been installed in the large, main room space,
making it resemble a large studio or loft apartment instead of
a sick ward.  A couple of brightly colored shoji screens
provided some semblance of privacy.  Evidently, the other
secured rooms weren't in general use yet.  One of those would
do for a gym if Matt was really serious about wanting Cat to
teach him how to move and fight in that new body of his, and
then Cat corrected herself - that new body of *hers.*  

*But where is the . . . ?* Cat mused before she saw her - off
in one of the far corners.  A woman wearing a nurse's uniform
sat monitoring some type of console.  She was trying to be
unobtrusive, which was precisely what first alerted Cat's
combat trained senses.  *What do you expect of a professional,
Donovan?* Cat asked herself.  *Being non-obvious is as much a
part of this nurse's job as being on the spot if something
goes wrong with her patient.  Well, Bobby would only hire the
best.*

The only other person in the room was seated at a small table
in an area decorated like a breakfast nook.  Cat watched the
slender, auburn haired woman eat for several minutes without
making any effort to make her presence known.  The woman's
manipulation of her spoon was odd, somehow.  She watched a bit
longer and decided her subject was being unusually careful and
deliberate with the spoon.  Cat's grandfather had been like
that when arthritis had stiffened his joints and he was afraid
that he might burn himself spilling hot soup.

*Well,* she thought, *there's only one person that can
possibly be.  Delaying the moment of introduction doesn't do
anyone any good.  I wonder how close to the mark Robert was? 
My dream woman, eh?  Right.  SURE she is,* she snorted
mentally, and then coughed quietly to attract the woman's
attention.

The spoon clattered into the dish and the woman spun in her
chair.  Cat was amazed at how quickly and yet how clumsily the
woman moved.  She nearly fell as she tried to gain her feet
but she managed to steady herself by catching the back of her
chair in her hand.  Cat knew the instant the other woman
recognized her.  A glorious smile of total happiness lit up
her entire face.  Catherine Brenda Donovan's lungs seemed to
deflate suddenly and her heart missed several beats.

*Oh, shit,* she thought.  *How am I ever going to keep my
hands off her.  My god, but she is wonderful.*

Thought stopped when Matt stumbled from the chair to half
walk, half fall to Cat.  "Oh Cat, I am so glad you are here. 
I am so damned frightened!" 

*Shit!* she thought. *He's crying . . . I mean . . . She's
crying . . . I mean . . . Shit!*

Carefully, Cat used her strength to right the body in her
arms, and then help her into a nearby chair.  A glance at the
nurse watcher showed that she was carefully monitoring
something on her board, but that she was not overly concerned. 
"Easy, Matthew, easy," she soothed as she hugged the
incredibly cuddly body closer to her own.  This was really not
going to be easy.

"Damn, but I hate that," the vision said as she slowly
struggled to compose herself.  Cat's gut wrenched painfully at
the words.  Matthew looked up to see the hurt look, and
strangely, understood.  "No, no.  Not . . . this."  She hugged
harder to emphasize what she meant.  "I mean the crying, the
emotion swings.  Everything is so . . ." she fumbled for a
word.  "Intense.  Everything!  I have only been up for an hour
and I have laughed one minute, sobbed the next, and then was
giggling like a loon again.  There doesn't seem to be any
"middle of the road" in the way I feel and sense everything. 
Even that bowl of thin, unseasoned gruel they gave me to eat
tastes great."

Relieved, Cat gently pushed Matthew away from her and
companionably squeezed his . . . *her* shoulder.  "It's okay,
pal," she said, using their long standing term of endearment. 
In the past, "pal" had let them recognize their unique
friendship while keeping their relationship just a friendship. 
"Doctor Bob told me to expect this.  That cute little body
they gave you is a regular high production hormone factory and
you don't have any built-in tolerance for them."

The impatient look she got in return was pure Sorenson.  "They
told me to expect those reactions, too, Cat, but living with
them is another thing entirely.  I can't relate the
experiences to anything I have ever known before.  The closest
I can come to how I feel is when I was just into puberty.  I
was just one large gland.  Just the *thought* of a girl's
breast gave me a hardon that sucked every drop of blood right
out of my brain.  Christ, Cat - now *I've* got the boobs and I
am still getting hardons."  Matthew lifted his hands to his
breasts where two sharp points poked at the thin satiny night
clothes.  "Two of them, in fact." 

Cat swallowed and felt the knot in her gut spread. *Calm DOWN,
Donovan,* she growled to herself.  *He doesn't even realize
what he was doing to you.  Robert sure has done very well in
the dream girl department.  Too damned well!*

*This is MATTHEW!* her mind ordered over and over again, *Your
best and only *guy* friend.*

*THIS is pure SEX!* her overactive libido roared back.  *And
THAT is *not* any type of *guy*.*  

"Uhhh.  Yeah, I can see that, pal."  *Get your mind on your
business, Donovan,* she thought.  "Now, would you mind
finishing your breakfast so we can get on with what we need to
do today?  Robert and Adam said you needed protecting,
physical training and self defense training."

It was fascinating, Cat thought, watching as the intellect
reclaimed control over that killer body once she'd given it a
problem to focus on.  The face was still piquantly feminine,
almost sweet, but the frown was one Cat had seen in countless
strategy meetings over the years of their association and
friendship.  

It was going to be an interesting war, this combat between an
overactive and vibrantly alive feminine body versus the
brilliant and coldly calculating male intellect.  Cat hoped
that an armistice and peaceful coexistence came soon - *real*
soon.  But once he was reconciled with being a she, wouldn't
that combination make her into one very formidable human
being?  Cat grinned at the possibilities.

Matt nodded and walked back to her breakfast.  Christ, she
still walked like a man. *That bouncing movement must be
really uncomfortable with her body mass redistributed like
that.*  

Her musings were interrupted by Matt's voice.  "We have to
figure out who did this to me, and why.  Even though the
transition is permanent, I still have to know the who and the
why, Cat.  When you consider that list of duties that Bob and
Adam gave you, don't lose sight of that little requirement. 
You can't protect me forever.  Sooner or later, they might get
lucky unless we can neutralize them first."

Although she shouldn't have been, Cat was momentarily
surprised.  *She* had already figured that out and she was
planning to go on the offensive as soon as she had some solid
intelligence about their adversary.  She had not anticipated
Matt figuring that out so soon, not with everything else Fate
had heaped on his, or rather, her plate.  

She had forgotten for a moment who she was dealing with.  This
very youthful looking, auburn haired woman possessed the
accumulated knowledge and experience of a man who had spent
thirty five years swimming in the shark infested waters of the
corporate world.  Looks like he, or rather she, could still
hunt shark.  That would be an advantage, at least for a while. 
She was going to very easy to underestimate.  "Okay, pal.  But
first, we need to get that bag of bones into shape.  C'mon,
girl.  Lets find out if Doctor Bob remembered to give that new
bod of yours any muscles."