"Thank you" James said as the food delivery guy walked away. Walking into the kitchen he sat the bags of Chinese food on the kitchen counter.
Amy sent a text to Eric and Mia "Dinner is here if you are hungry" she typed and sent.
About 5 minutes later Mia hobbled slowly down the stairs. Resting at the bottom she reached down and rubbed her left knee.
"What's wrong?" Amy asked
"My knee hurts." Mia said making an unpleasant face.
Amy nodded. "Sorry to hear that Mia, come and sit down. I'll get you an ibuprofen"
James was about to say something when his cell rang. "It's Sean" he said and stepped into the living room to talk.
"Is Eric coming?" Amy asked Mia
Mia shrugged her shoulders. "I don't think so" she said "I knocked but I think he fell asleep" she said and yawned.
"I guess your body clocks could be off" Amy speculated. "Who knows what time of day, how much sleep Jules could have had when they copied her. Go ahead and eat and then you can rest, OK?" she said handing Mia a plate of rice. She watched the woman in front of her. She could see Mia's personality inside the woman she knew as Jules. The way she held her fork and the way she fidgeted with her food, separating each item before taking a bite.
"Mommy?" Mia asked. "When will daddy fix us?"
Amy shook her head. "We don't know yet sweetie." Amy said solemnly. "But in the mean time, don't worry everything will be OK."
Mia went back to picking at her food. Fried Rice is one of her favorite things to eat, but for some reason it didn't taste as good as usual. It didn't have much flavor at all.
Amy noticed that Mia wasn't eating much. "You don't have to eat if you aren't hungry Mia" she said.
"It's just that it tastes funny, is this from Golden Bear?" Mia asked
"It is" Amy replied and got up. "Here, have a little soy sauce, see if that helps" she said
"That helps" Mia said. "Thank you"
James came back into the room and noticed Mia had all but stopped eating. "Go ahead and run back to your room, your Mom and I need to talk." he said ruffling her hair the way he always had.
"Daddy stoppp" Mia whined and ran her hands through her hair.
"She's tired James, leave her alone" Amy scolded.
James made eye contact with Amy. From the expression she could tell he was troubled after talking with the lawyer.
"Go on" Amy said to Mia. I'll find something you can change into for tonight although she was certain that it would be quite a challenge to find something suitable. Jules was a short woman and full figured, stark contrast to her self.
Mia took her plate to the sink and made the slow walk up the stairs.
"Well?" Amy asked James once Mia was out of earshot.
James signed before starting. "Sean thinks we need to split up until there is an agreement in place."
"Split up? How? For how long?" Amy asked shocked at the suggestion.
James continued. "So far the company is demanding all intellectual property to be returned...this includes my lab computers, the hardware and the kids."
Amy grew angry. "The kids? No way in hell. They can't have them, it's wrong." She said with a raised voice. "and how are you going to be able to help them if you can't work?"
James nodded in agreement " Yes, yes and no they won't be taking the kids. Not as long as I am alive. Sean suggests that we split up, he has a lake house up north where you and the kids can stay for a while. I would like you to take this..." he handed a thumb drive to Amy. "...and go there for a while. I'll give them somethings, not everything and I'll claim that what they don't get was destroyed by the fire."
Amy nodded understanding the plan a little more.
"Jules is going to find me replacement hardware, I have the software...it will take time because she needs to be discrete, but eventually I'll have the lab back up and operational. In the mean time, and I agree with this, for our own protection we need to come up with a plan to go public with what happened like we talked about earlier." He said
"They wouldn't dare do anything if everyone knew" Amy said.
"Sean agrees" James said. "Big business, especially organizations like Skink Works fall too easily under the scrutiny of the press. Hell, even the 'threat' of going public might keep them at bay for a time. If we move first, get the kids out of here and into hiding they wouldn't be able to get any leverage."
Amy sat silently. "But will you be OK?"
James smiled. "I'll be OK, I have my own fail safe. If you guys don't hear from me just call Sean and go to the press."
"I don't see any other way" Amy said quietly.
James reached out and grabbed her hands with his. "It is for the best" he said. "This way the kids will be safe and I can start work."
Amy paused. "Speaking of your work. Is there any way to get them back to normal?"
James looked at her sadly and shook his head. "There isn't, and until I can break the encryption that was written into their DNA, I can't even begin to formulate any alternatives. Best case scenario I can crack the encryption and locate or modify an existing profile that is a better fit for each of them."
Amy began to cry.
James pulled her into a hug. "I still have friends Amy. I'll get this done and we'll know more next week...and more the week after that and more the week after that. It is a process but trust the process."
Amy pulled away. "What do I tell them?" she asked
"Mia is just a kid" James replied "She'll probably see this as an adventure...play dress up etc. Eric is old enough to be really affected by this. He's going to need to take a break from his social life obviously, I know he wanted to play football this year. This is going to be hardest for him. Don't tell him all of the truth, but let him know that I'm going to help him. Don't tell him he'll never be back to 'normal', but let him know we have a plan and to trust the process and give it all time he needs to have hope."
Amy wiped her eyes and nodded. "You are right." she looked around. "I'll start packing and then help the kids pack. For how long do you think this will go on?" she asked.
James shook his head. "I don't know Babe, but once we have assurances I'll get you home as soon as possible. Figure on a few weeks worth of clothes, you can shop there for food."
James opened his cell phone and sent the directions to Amy's phone. "The access code and alarm system code is in the email" he said.
Amy kissed him and went upstairs to pack. She passed Eric's room and knocked softly. With no answer she opened the door into the dark room. She walked over to his bed where he lay snoring softly. She wrinkled her nose, Eric's room always had it's own smell, but now it also smelled like that and a women's locker room. Looking down, she saw his cell phone in his hand, the screen lit up with an incoming message. Curious she gently took the phone and opened it. She saw 27 unanswered texts from his girlfriend Rachel. Reading them, most were innocuous but a few were quite steamy. Amy had suspected Eric was having sex and had asked James to have "the talk" with him last fall when Rachel was becoming more and more of a thing. The last text Eric had sent, probably just before falling asleep was that he said that he loved her and missed her. To which Rachel replied I love you too and I miss you too with some heart stickers. That was follow up by the more steamy (and to Amy embarrassing because she as Mom never thought of Eric as being a sexual being) texts full of egg plant emojis, peaches, fingers and lips and other sexual innuendo she wished she didn't know about.
Amy sighed. "Well" she thought to herself looking at the middle aged sleeping woman in the bed "for now at least nobody's getting pregnant." She gently set the phone back onto the night stand and left the room.