Family Tails

A Story of a Mixed Family in the Genetic Age

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Names of actual businesses, their products, etc, are the property of their respective owners.

Story and characters © 2013 Ronald J. Lebeck

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Chapter 9

The day after Lupina had made her call to The Center, Dr. Nemeth returned her call to give her the news. The biologist and her colleagues were interested in meeting the man that Lupina had met, and also in checking to see how compatible the two might be. Arrangements were being made for them to be picked up at the Dallas-Ft. Worth airport and brought from there to The Center. The sooner they could come, the sooner they could do the necessary testing and have time to devise any modifications that would further enhance the compatibility. This worked out well for Ron's plan to bring Rosie up. Rob had come over that Saturday evening to have supper with Ron and Lupina, and they worked out the plan.

The following Friday, they flew their custom-built Beechcraft Premier IA jet from Fairbanks International to Sea-Tac airport, located between Seattle and Tacoma, WA, spent the night in a hotel, and the next day they flew on down to Texas. Rob stayed at a hotel near the airport while Ron and Lupina went to The Center for testing.

The SUV that came to pick up Ron and Lupina from the hotel looked like a typical SUV on the outside, other than having blackout windows in the back. Ron and Lupina were ushered into the side door by a guy who was dressed in regular clothing--somewhat faded jeans, old work boots, short-sleeved shirt, ball cap, and sun glasses. Always the acute observer, Ron noticed that the inside of the door had no handle--it could only be opened from the outside. That didn't sit too well with him, and neither did the solid divider that blocked off the front seats. The windows were fake, too--there was no way to see out from the back. The whole way to The Center, which took a while, he didn't say much, mostly appearing to rest, but he was very much aware of his surroundings. Once the vehicle came to a stop inside the compound, they were let out and led to a non-descript building. Being the highly trained observer that he is, Ron quickly noticed and memorized everything--size and locations of buildings, vehicles, cameras, people, smells, and sounds--as they made their way to Dr. Nemeth's office.

Dr. Darcy Nemeth, one of the senior biologists at The Center, is a short, stocky, dark-haired woman in her late 50's. She entered her office wearing scrubs under a long white lab coat, and a pair of prescription safety glasses hanging on a cord around her neck. Her shoulder length graying hair looked like she had quickly ran her fingers through it to try and straighten it a bit on her way from the lab. Ron noticed the telltale narrow indentation going across her forehead, indicating that she had just recently removed a disposable bouffant cap. Ron stood up when she came in and greeted them.

"Lupina, it's nice to see you again! I see you must be taking care of yourself," Dr. Nemeth said, giving her a quick once over.

"Hi Dr. Nemeth! It's nice to see you again, too. Yeah, I have somebody who keeps me well fed," Lupina said with a smile, putting her arm around Ron's waist after giving the biologist a quick hug.

"You must be the gentleman Lupina told me about on the phone. I'm Dr Darcy Nemeth, head of the GDS-1 Lab," she said holding out her hand.

"Ron Daugherty, pleased to meet you," he said, with a hint of an Irish accent, carefully matching her grip.

Dr. Nemeth met his eyes, and quickly noted the way he looked at her. Although he seemed relaxed, friendly, and easy going, she saw that his eyes were rather...penetrating, as if she was the one being carefully observed. She wasn't used to having the tables turned on her like that, and it felt rather unnerving.

"Your name sounds familiar, for some reason," Dr. Nemeth said.

Ron grinned, "Yeah, I get that a lot."

Dr. Nemeth quickly got down to business, and explained what was going to be involved. Basically, a simple mouth swab would suffice for getting the DNA sample needed to make the comparison. She pulled a new, unopened swab from a pocket in her lab coat, broke the seal on the protective cover, and removed the swab. After getting the sample from rubbing the inside of Ron's cheek, she carefully put the swab back into the protective cover and sealed it with a label on which she wrote some information.

"We'll extract your DNA from this, and run it through the sequencer. It won't take very long before it has it mapped out and can project it on the holographic display. You can come and watch, if you'd like," Dr. Nemeth explained.

They all walked over to the GDS-1 Lab, and went through the process of putting on clean room garb before entering the lab proper. The sample was wiped down on the outside with an alcohol swab before being put into an airlock-like chamber. Once inside the lab, Ron and Lupina sat on some stools while Dr. Nemeth handed the sealed swab to an assistant. In a short while, the extraction was placed into the sequencer and the machine began processing it. After about twenty minutes, it was finished, and one of the other assistants entered some commands on a computer console. It only took a few seconds for Ron's complete DNA sequence to appear in the display. Punching in a few more commands, the assistant pulled up Lupina's DNA for a side-by-side comparison. The holographic projections were extremely detailed, with text blocks pointing to various highlighted items of interest. Dr. Nemeth looked at Ron's DNA image and frowned, looking closer at something in particular.

"Aasa, would you enhance this section please?" Dr Nemeth asked the assistant working the computer terminal as she pointed to spot on the strand.

"Certainly, Dr. Nemeth...just a moment," Aasa said.

Calling up a box shape, she maneuvered it to the location Dr. Nemeth was pointing at, enlarged the box to encompass it, and then enlarged that portion.

"That's odd...," Dr. Nemeth said almost under her breath. "Harvey, come over and take a look at this, and tell me what you think."

Dr. Harvey Sumter, who is one of Dr. Nemeth's colleagues, was also working in the lab, though on another project. He got up and came over to see what she was pointing at.

After a few moments, he exchanged glances with her and looked again.

"I've never seen that kind of mutation before, Darcy. Is it even natural?" he asked in a hushed voice.

"Look at this group of base pairs, Harv...it looks to me like it might be a recombinant sequence," she said quietly.

"Where in the helix is this group located at?" Dr. Sumter asked.

"Aasa, would you mind zooming out to show the full helix for us?" Dr. Nemeth asked the assistant.

"Just a moment...," she said, tapping some more commands. "How's that?"

"Perfect, Aasa, thank you," Dr. Nemeth replied.

The two biologists looked over the entire model of Ron's DNA to see where in the strand the particular group of base pairs was located.

"Aasa, run a scan for all known anomalies, please," Dr. Sumter requested.

Aasa quickly tapped in the search parameters, and began the scan. A thin disk of orange light appeared at the top of the image and worked its way downward, taking five seconds to complete the pass.

Lupina watched what the two biologists were doing, and could easily hear what they were saying. Although she wasn't exactly sure what they were talking about, she could tell that they were extremely interested in something they thought was peculiar. She looked at Ron and saw him focused intently on what was going on...in fact, she thought he looked like he was looking a little too intently, like a wolf who was about to pounce.

Several areas were highlighted after the scan. The two biologists talked quietly for a time, pointing to different items detected, and taking notes. Instructing Aasa to run some comparisons between Ron's and Lupina's DNA sequences, a pair of orange disks of light traveled down the models side-by-side. As the scan progressed, blue boxes appeared in certain places on both models, connected by lines. After more discussions and note taking, the two biologists came over to talk to Ron and Lupina.

"Well, you're in luck; you two are most certainly compatible, though we might have to do some tweaks to your DNA Mr. Daugherty. There's something else we've seen that is rather interesting," Dr. Nemeth said.

"You think my DNA has been manipulated," Ron said flatly.

Both biologists looked quickly at each other in surprise.

"I've been listening," Ron added, keeping his voice carefully neutral.

"I told you he's got really good hearing," Lupina said with a smug look on her face.

"Have you ever been a recipient of cosmetic genetic enhancements before, Mr. Daugherty?" Dr. Nemeth asked.

"Never," Ron replied.

"I find that difficult to believe, sir. You've got anomalies in the areas controlling vision, hearing, cellular functions, and cognitive abilities," Dr. Sumter stated.

"Don't call me 'sir', there aren't any gold stripes on my sleeves," Ron said out of habit, "and just 'Ron' is fine."

"Gold stripes? What does that have to do with...," Dr. Sumter started to say.

"You were in the military, as I remember Lupina telling me last week on the phone," Dr. Nemeth stated.

"Yes, ma'am," Ron said.

"May I ask what branch you were in?" she asked.

"Yes, ma'am," Ron replied.

Lupina recognized the way he was speaking...he had done something very similar when she tried to ask certain things.

Dr. Nemeth narrowed her eyes a little, and asked, "Which branch of the service were you in...Ron?"

"Navy, ma'am," he replied.

"I see. What did you do when you were in the military?" Dr. Nemeth asked.

"I am not at liberty to discuss that, ma'am," Ron replied, keeping his tone neutral.

"Why not?" Dr. Sumter asked, getting a little irritated.

Ron looked at Dr. Sumter with a rather unnerving stare...it conveyed no hostility, in fact, no detectable emotion at all. Dr. Sumter suddenly had the feeling of being too near to something dangerous.

Lupina sensed something, too, and she quickly decided to take matters into her own hands.

"Great! So that means we can have little ones, right?" she blurted out as she stood up, and she took a little step to put herself between her mate and Dr. Sumter, though she faced Dr. Nemeth.

"*Ahem* Yes, you should be able to, Lupina," Dr. Nemeth replied.

Lupina turned so that she was facing Ron and she bent down and put her gloved hands on either side of his hooded and masked face.

"Oh, isn't that great, baby?" she asked excitedly.

Blinking his eyes slowly once, Ron said a little lightheartedly, "Absolutely, luv, as long as we can have at least one of each, boy and a girl."

"At least...?" Ha! You just remember who's going to be doing all of the work having them!"

Ron stood up and put his arms around her and said quietly, "We start this together, we'll see it though together."

While he hugged Lupina, he looked briefly at Dr. Sumter, and suppressed the urge to growl at him.

After a few moments, Ron asked Dr. Nemeth, "What are these 'tweaks' you mentioned?"

"Well, we would add just a little wolf DNA to you, not enough to make you sprout fur or a tail or anything like that," she replied.

"Hmm, what would that likely do, though?" Ron asked.

"Mostly enhance what you already have," Dr. Nemeth replied.

"Mostly."

"There's always a very slight chance that something unexpected might happen. It's one thing to re-engineer animal DNA using human DNA as a template, but mixing different kinds of DNA can be a little unpredictable," she explained.

"Okay, how long will it take until you're ready to put it in me?" Ron asked.

"About a month," Dr. Nemeth replied.

"What kind of things will I experience while it's replicating itself in me?" he asked.

"That's difficult to tell. If you don't mind, we'd like to run some tests to determine a baseline on your physical condition.--we can be done in an hour, and then we'll take you back to your hotel," Dr. Nemeth replied.

Ron looked at Lupina and said, "Let's do it."

They took some blood samples, checked his eyes for vision acuity and also sensitivity, hearing, and included an anaerobic threshold (AT) test to check his fitness level. Dr. Nemeth was surprised at the results when everything was finished. Ron took a quick shower in the locker room after the AT test, and joined Lupina for a little something to eat in the cafeteria. While there, they got to meet some of the Gen-2 G.E.L.F.s who were in their early teens, or so he thought. Lupina reminded him that they grow faster and mature earlier than humans do. One of the more exotic ones they met was a female brown bat by the name of Kylie. She was only about 157 cm tall, and still had her wings with two digits at the wrist joint (the other three forming the "ribs" of the wings), though her legs were more human-like with no membrane between them and her shortened tail. Ron thought she was actually rather nice looking, even with the large ears and mouth full of needle-sharp teeth.

"She seems like a sweet kid, though after what an eejit like Blackburn tried to do to Lupina, I can imagine what kind of fit they'd have if they saw this little gal! Geez, I don't know if these folks are really considering the possible consequences of their actions, like how these G.E.L.F.s they're creating are going to survive in a world full of humans. True, I obviously don't have a problem with the G.E.L.F.s, though there are a lot of people who do. What if there's some sort of big revolt and they all get rounded up and put into extermination camps? What then? Geez, I hope it never comes to that! I've got a reasonably good chance at keeping Lupina, and maybe Rosie, safe up there in Alaska, but dang, look at what happened their first day out in the world--that mouse guy, Willie, he got beat up pretty bad from what Lu told me. What chance did he have at making a life for himself? Hmm, that reminds me...I wonder...I'd like to meet him while we're here, if I can, " Ron thought to himself.

"Hey, Lu...think there's a chance we could go see that mouse guy, Willie, while we're here?" Ron asked his mate.

"Ooo...thanks for reminding me! Yeah, I want to go see him!" Lupina said getting excited at the thought of seeing her friend again.

Lupina did some asking around, and they were eventually taken to see Willie in the facility's medical section.

"Hey Willie!" Lupina called out upon entering his room. He turned his head and tried to smile as best as he could. She couldn't keep from blurting out a little "yii!" when she saw him. It was going to take a while for the damage done to his face to heal up, and they had shaved some of his fur in order to stitch him up.

"Hi Lupina," he said weakly. "Fancy seeing you here."

"Yeah, we came back for something, and while we're here we wanted to come see you," Lupina said. "Oh, my..., I'm so sorry this happened to you!"

"Not your fault," he said, wincing a little. "Don't look like much, do I?"

"I'm sure they'll have you looking as good as new again," Lupina said, trying to smile and touching his arm that wasn't in a cast.

"Who's the big guy?" Willie asked looking over to Ron for a moment.

"Oh, this is Ron...he's my mate now," she said shyly.

Willie raised his good arm and waved. "Hi. I'd play ya a tune, but it's kind of hard when you can't bend your arm," he said trying to smile while lifting his left arm a little with the full cast on it.

Ron reached over and grasped his right hand. "Nice to meet you. Lu's told me all about you. I understand you're pretty wicked on a violin," Ron said with a smile.

"*Cough* Yeah...don't think I'm going to get to play for a while," he said.

Ron reached into the lightweight sports coat he was wearing and pulled something out of an inside pocket.

"I was hoping that I could meet you in person, for a couple of reasons. Aside from the fact that Lu here really likes your music, my mom used to play the violin herself. She was in a string quartet for a while. When I was growing up, I listened to a lot of classical music, and I still do. Anyway, I got this and loaded it up with a lot of my favorite violin music--classical, contemporary and Celtic. I hope these earphones fit...I don't have any idea what size or shape you need, so I got this just in case...a little external speaker for the player, and there's a charger for the thing, too," Ron said as he handed Willie the little digital player with over one hundred music files on it.

Willie got a perplexed look on his face. "Why?" he asked.

Ron grinned and said, "Because not all of us humans are bad people, and because there are a lot of folks out there who would love to hear you play...myself included. Hurry up and get better so you can come up and play a piece or two."

Willie looked questionly at Lupina, so she added, "One of my human friends who is in college got a bunch of other students to ask the university if they would host a concert for you to play. They agreed to it, so as soon as you can get playing again, they will be glad to have you come up and perform! It might not be a big, fancy music hall, but it's a start."

Willie looked back and forth between the two, not quite knowing what to say.

"When you rush out the door, sometimes you have to remember to watch that first step, and if you forget and fall down, you just have to pick yourself back up, dust your fanny off, and keep going," Ron said with a grin.

"I think I got hit by a bus or something," Willie said, drooping his ears a bit.

"Yeah, well, before you step out into the street, you have to look both ways," Ron said with a little chuckle. "The thing is, you're still alive, and that is what counts; you still have another chance. To borrow a little from a song I know, 'live for the music and give it everything you got'," Ron took a hold of Willie's hand and added, "You've got friends, and we're not going to let you give up, so you just bounce your tail back up and make that violin sing again!"

"Yeah," Lupina agreed, taking a hold of his hand, too. "You get better and come on up, and Ron might have a cheese soufflé waiting for you," she added with a wink.

Willie's eyes opened wide. "Y-you know how to make one?" he asked in wonder.

"Ron's a real good cook, and the things he can make just using a wood stove are amazing!" Lupina said licking her lips.

There was a little knock at the door and someone poked their head into the room to announce that their ride back to the hotel was ready.

"We've got to go, Willie. Try to keep in touch if you can and let us know how you're doing. We're going to be picking Rosie up from the airport and taking her up to Alaska with us. Ron and his friend Rob have a business jet, and they flew it down here. Ron got Rosie a flight from Georgia to Dallas, and then she's flying up with us in their plane," Lupina explained.

"I heard that somebody was helping her out," Willie said.

"That was me," Ron said with a smile. "Well, guy, I guess we need to get moving. Enjoy the music while you're getting better, and we'll be waiting for you. Take care, buddy."

"We'll see you later, okay?" Lupina said, giving Willie a friendly nuzzle.

"Okay. See ya, Lu...thanks...for thinking of me," he replied.

They said their goodbye's to Dr. Nemeth on their way to the waiting SUV that would take them back to the hotel next to the airport. Unbeknownst to anyone else, as soon as they got outside, a special circuit in Ron's cell phone sent out a signal that was acquired by a certain satellite in orbit that didn't show up on any government expenditure list. The location of the phone was instantly pinpointed to within a few centimeters, just before the signal was lost again when they got into the vehicle.

After they drove off, Dr. Sumter quietly asked his colleague, "Do you think he might have been involved in Project: Hunter?"

Dr. Nemeth thought for a moment and then replied, "I don't know. It might explain some things, though, but we'd best be careful! If she hadn't of picked up on what was going on, and got between you two...I'd hate to think what might have happened!"

Dr. Sumter involuntarily put his hand to his throat as the realization started to hit him.

Rosie had no trouble packing her things and getting out of that dumpy studio apartment. She was glad to leave it and the city, and be on her way to be with her friend. The airport was a bit of a hassle to get through, and she didn't like some of the looks she got. While she was waiting in the boarding area, though, a small child belonging to a family sitting not far from her blurted out, "Mommy, look! Big kitty!" Rosie looked up from the magazine she was reading and saw the child pointing at her.

"No, Danny, that's not a kitty, she's a skunk," the child's mother said.

"A lady skunk?" the boy asked his mother.

"Yes, Danny, a lady skunk," his mother replied.

"Wow. She sure is pretty!" he exclaimed.

The woman looked at Rosie and apologized for disturbing her, "I'm sorry, I hope he's not bothering you, Miss."

Rosie smiled sweetly and said, "Nah, he's okay. That's the nicest thing anyone has said to me in a while."

Rosie flew from Atlanta, Georgia to St. Louis, Missouri, and then on to Dallas-Ft. Worth in Texas. The narrow seats in the planes were not all that comfortable for her, mainly because her long, fluffy tail. While making the change over in St. Louis, she called Lupina on her cell phone to let her know that she would be there in about an hour and a half, if there weren't any delays. As the plane began to make its descent into DFW International, Rosie's excitement grew. She wished that she had a window seat so that she could watch as the plane made its final approach and landing, but she was sitting in the far back part of the "coach" section, near the restrooms, and couldn't see anything. When the plane's engines were shutdown, the passengers began to disembark from the aircraft. She was the last one off.

"Rosie!" Lupina called out and waved as her friend finally made it off the plane.

"Lu!" Rosie called back as she hurried through the remaining passengers.

Rosie dropped her carry-on, and she and Lupina hugged each other fiercely.

"Oh, Rosie! I missed you! Lupina said happily.

"I missed you, too, Lu!" Rosie said just as excitedly.

There was a little cough from behind Lupina and she felt somebody lightly touch her back.

"Hey, when you two can pry yourselves apart, you want to introduce us?" Ron said with a smirk.

Rosie's eyes popped wide open at the sound of the male voice. Lupina let go of her friend, stepped back just a little, and reached behind her to put her arm around Ron's waist to bring him up closer.

"Rosie, this is my mate, Ron; Ron, this is...," Lupina didn't get the chance to finish.

Rosie looked up even higher than she had to with Lupina, and then she launched herself at him, tossing her arms around his neck and wrapping her legs and tail around him. The move got the attention of several people in the vicinity, who stopped and stared for a moment before continuing on their way, shaking their heads. Rosie buried her face into Ron's neck and made an almost purring like sound. Ron had a rather surprised look on his face as he glanced over to Lupina and raised an eyebrow. After nuzzling his neck, Rosie pulled her head back so that they were almost nose-to-nose.

"Hi!" she said with a big toothy smile, her sharp teeth clearly visible.

"Heh, hi, Rosie," Ron said, getting just a little embarrassed...after all, Rosie was wearing a mini-skirt and a low-cut midriff top that tied in the front at the bottom.

"Rosie!" Lupina said in exasperation, "Behave yourself!"

Rosie gave Ron a quick little lick on his cheek and then relaxed her grip a bit, so he set her back down on her feet.

Lupina grabbed a hold of Rosie's arm and pulled her away from Ron so that she could introduce her to Rob. Rosie gave Rob a strong hug, though much to Rob's relief she didn't jump on him like she did to his friend.

They made their way to the baggage claim area and got the other suitcase belonging to Rosie. Once they picked it up, they caught the shuttle bus over to the hotel and got Rosie settled into the room. Later on they went to a nearby restaurant. Rob, Ron, and Rosie made a trip to the salad bar to start with, though Rosie loaded up her plate--everything looked too good to her to pass up.

"Are you going to save room for the main course?" Lupina asked Rosie after seeing how much she put on her salad plate.

Rosie looked at Lupina and grinned as she happily munched on the contents of her plate.

"I got some of those nice, big, soft, chewy oatmeal raisin cookies...," Lupina said slyly in a quiet voice.

Rosie froze wide-eyed in mid-bite for a moment.

Ron grinned and leaned over to Rob, who was sitting his left at the table, and whispered, "Heh, I think she's got a thing for raisins."

They both snickered, and Rob said, "I think you're right."

Rosie was pretty well stuffed by the time they left the restaurant and headed back to the room. After two trips to the salad bar, the main course, and dessert, she felt like she could barely walk, let alone sit for any length of time. The two adjacent rooms had a connecting doorway between them, so they had the doors open to walk between the two without having to go out into the hallway. Ron, Lupina, and Rob stayed up for a while to watch a movie, but Rosie became sleepy and crawled into the other queen-sized bed in Ron and Lupina's room. She was fast asleep within a couple of minutes.

The next morning, Ron and Rob got up early to get their showers out of the way, and things packed. Once they were dressed, Ron got Lupina up, and then the two guys went down to the breakfast area to get some coffee while Lupina and Rosie used the two showers and got dressed. Lupina was used to Alaska Time now, so she had to drag herself up out of bed and try to get motivated because it would still be three o'clock in the morning back home. The reason why they got up so early was that they needed to get to the airport and do the walk-around on the plane, make sure it was fueled, and ready to go. They filed their flight plan over the phone and checked to see what the current NOTAMs (Notice to Airmen) were along the way. When Lupina and Rosie were finished with their showers, dried, brushed, and dressed, they all went down to get some breakfast. Rosie didn't eat nearly as much this time, having mostly some of the fruit and a little bit of scrambled eggs and a couple of sausage links along with some juice and coffee. After eating, they went back to their rooms, making sure that they had everything, and went down to the front desk to check out. The hotel's shuttle bus took them over to the airport and they made their way to where the jet was parked.

"Wow, this is your plane?" Rosie asked in awe as they walked up to it.

"Yeah, it belongs to both Rob and I," Ron said.

"It surprised the heck out of me when we went to the airport in Fairbanks. When Ron told me he and Rob had a plane, I thought it was a little plane...I didn't think they had a jet!" Lupina said.

Ron opened the hatch to the cargo hold under the cabin and stowed their suitcases while Rob opened the cabin door up front, just behind the pilot's seat, and lowered it down so to use the built-in steps. Once that was done, he went on inside to get the checklist for the walk-around. Rosie went up the aircraft's ladder ahead of Lupina, and Rob helped her in.

"Oh, WOW!," Rosie exclaimed when she got a look at the nice interior. The seats were wider than the one she sat in on the commercial jets, and they looked a lot more comfy. Towards the back of the plane, Lupina pointed out that there was a restroom, and a small galley.

After Rob went back out to do the walk-around with Ron, Rosie asked quietly, "Geez, Lu, what is it these two do again?"

"They own a computer business that has an Internet café and coffee shop, in four cities, and they also do some sort of consulting work." Changing to a whisper, she added, "Just between you and me, though, I think it might have something to do with the military. Oh, and speaking of which, don't ever ask either one of them about what they did in the military, and don't go trying to find out, either. They won't tell you. Ron said that it's one thing he can't talk about."

"Geez, you think they might be spies or something?" Rosie asked.

"No, of course not, but whatever it was that they did, it's all hush-hush stuff, so best just leave it alone, okay? Promise me?" Lupina said, staring hard into Rosie's eyes.

"Okay, I promise!" Rosie agreed meekly.

It took about thirty minutes for Ron and Rob to finish doing the walk-around, checking the tires, brakes, hydraulic lines, pitot tube, the air intakes and exhaust, the control surfaces, lights, and other things. When all seemed in good shape, Rob and Ron unchocked the wheels, and went inside, closing the door behind them.

"You gals ready to go?" Ron asked before taking the right-hand seat in the cockpit.

"Yeah, we're ready," Lupina replied.

"Okay, well, get buckled up then, we'll be on our way shortly," Ron said, giving a "thumbs up" to Lupina.

While Lupina and Rosie buckled up in their seats, Rob and Ron went through the pre-flight checklist. Ron called out each item in turn, all the way down the list. Shortly the engines came to life, as the starter motors cranked up the compressor blades prior to ignition. Once the hydraulic pressure came up and systems stabilized, Rob called to the tower requesting clearance to taxi. As soon as the ground tower gave the okay, Rob released the brakes, eased forward on the throttles, and the plane began to move. He carefully drove the plane to the proper taxi strip, and they got in line for the runway.

When they were about to pull onto the main runway, Ron called back with a smirk, "Okay ladies, make sure your seats and trays on in their upright position...and hang on!"

Rosie gave Lupina a surprised look, and she stuck her tongue out playfully. The ground control tower gave them final clearance when the commercial jet ahead of them was far enough away for the smaller, lighter jet to take off safely, since it could accelerate more quickly.

"Heh, I wish we had after-burners on this puppy," Ron joked.

"That'd be sweet, wouldn't it?" Rob agreed.

Shoving the throttles fully forward, the little jet sprang forward, yearning for the open sky. In about one thousand meters, their speed was fast enough for rotation, and Rob pulled back on the yoke. The nimble little jet quickly and effortlessly pitched up and they were airborne. Rob and Ron heard a "Woo boy!!!" coming from behind, and they had to chuckle. Shortly, the ground control tower handed them off to the Fort Worth ARTCC (Air Route Traffic Control Center), and they were on their way at over three hundred knots, climbing to their cruising altitude of seven thousand six hundred twenty meters. Rob set the autopilot controls and relaxed a little, while Ron went back to get something to drink.

"Everything okay back here, baby?" Ron asked as he leaned down to kiss Lupina.

"Yeah," she replied, kissing him sweetly in return.

"You guys want anything? I'm going to get some coffee going, and we got some munchies if you get hungry," Ron asked.

"I think I'm going to kick back and try to snooze for a while, if it's okay," Lupina said, yawning.

"Sure thing, baby. You want a blanket and a pillow?" he asked.

"Yeah, that'd be nice. Oh, would you mind getting me a bottle of water while you're back there?" Lupina asked.

"No problem. What about you, Rosie, want anything?" Ron asked.

"Um...I'll take some of that coffee when it's ready, and do you have any of those cookies, by chance?" Rosie inquired.

"Okay. Yeah, got a plastic container full of them," he grinned. "Oh, if you want to, you can listen to music, watch a movie, read a book, or surf the 'net if you get bored."

"I got a book I'm reading...again. It's one you wrote," Rosie said shyly.

"Well, if you're reading it again, then I guess you must like it," Ron said, smiling.

"Yeah...they're my favorite," she said.

"Okay, well, I'm going to get the coffee going, and I'll get your blanket and pillow, luv," Ron said as he stood up a little bit more.

The cabin wasn't tall enough for him to stand upright, so he had to stay bent down as he moved to the back. While the coffee was brewing into the thermal carafe, Ron got a blanket and pillow out of a storage compartment and took it forward to Lupina. After she reclined her seat, Ron covered her with the blanket and made sure she was comfortable. Rosie watched how Ron cared for her friend and how they acted towards one another.

Rosie thought to herself, "Geez, they sure do seem to love one another. I wish I could find somebody like him! Lu told me last night that they found out he's one of those humans that are compatible with us G.E.L.F.s. If I can't find anyone for myself, I wonder...I wonder if he would...geez, I shouldn't be thinking that, but dang it! I wanna have kits of my own, and...and...oh, boy! Lu's right, there is just something about that guy that's so...mmm...and his friend ain't bad, either. Ooo...what's a girl to do? I wanna...no, can't think that...geez, I'm gonna go nuts livin' with them! I wonder why I jumped on him in the airport. I've never done anything like that before! Well, there just wasn't anyone where we came from that seemed appealing, at least not any of the humans. It seemed like we were just bugs in a jar to those folks, even though they seemed nice enough. Oh yeah, there was that one skunk guy, but he had his eyes on somebody else. Well, okay, on more than one somebody, just not me. Oh! Here he comes!"

"Here you go, Rosie, got your coffee, some cream and sugar if you want it, some cookies, and a paper towel. Anything else you need?" Ron asked after he gave Rosie her munchies and drink.

Rosie looked back and forth a few times between Ron and Lupina, dropping her ears a little more each time.

Ron smiled, and remembering how they met at the airport, gently nuzzled Rosie, giving her a kiss on the cheek, and said softly, "You're welcome."