Jeff hit "ENTER" and waited to turn back into his normal body. But nothing happened. He hit "ENTER" again. And again and again. Nothing worked.
Jeff finally noticed on the screen, it said "TRANSFORMATION HALT: MULTIPLE OBJECTS SELECTED." Jeff had no idea what that meant, but he had no time to think. "Jeff?" he heard his mom calling from downstairs, in a voice that had become strangely familiar to him over the past two weeks.
Jeff had no idea what to do, but he knew he had to think fast. If he couldn't transform himself back from his mom's body, how was he going to handle his parents? Acting before thinking, he had Chronivac do a scan of other humans in the building. The machine returned only one result, his mother, meaning his dad must still be out by the car unloading from their vacation. Jeff selected his mother, who he could hear starting to walk towards the steps, and entered the following parameters:
SUBJECT: Jane Smith
TRANSFORM INTO: Jeff Smith
START TIME: Immediate
DURATION: Permanent
Jeff stared at the screen. Was that it? What was he not thinking about? Then he realized, and in the NOTES field he frantically typed, "Cannot discuss transformation with anyone except Jeff Smith." He thought that was it, but then he realized one more risk. "Cannot use Chronivac under any circumstances." Deciding he had no more time to lose, he hit ENTER.
He heard a surprised yell from the top of the stair, just outside his room. Fortunately, it was much lower-pitched than a woman's shriek.
He looked over to the doorway and saw, well, himself, looking awkward in his mom's clothes, with a shocked expression. "Hi," said Jeff, also awkwardly, especially as he realized that he was wearing nothing but a pair of panties. "We should probably talk."
"What the fuck is going on?" asked his mom in Jeff's body.
Jeff got up and shut the door, and then sat down on his bed. "I got a machine that lets me transform anything," he said, "and, uh, I transformed into your body while you were gone." No point in hiding it.
"Well, I guess I can't say I don't believe you when I see all of this," Jeff's mom said. "But change us back now."
"Well, uh, that's the thing," said Jeff. "I can't change myself back. I got a weird error message."
"So that's why you changed me?"
"Right."
"Well, your father is going to hear about this, but let's see. What was the error message?"
"It said MULTIPLE OBJECTS SELECTED."
Jeff watched his own body as it stared at the screen for a bit, and then sank into despair. "Oh, Jeff, you fucking idiot," said his mom in his body. "You had sex as me, didn't you."
"No!" said Jeff indignantly, although he had, three times with three different men. "That's gross."
"Jeff," said his mom. "That's why it says multiple objects selected. This machine can't transform you because you're pregnant."
Jeff froze. Shit. "So I'm going to have to have a baby?"
"And we're stuck like this for nine months. How could you be so thoughtless?"
Jeff paused. "I guess we're just going to have to be each other for a while. And I guess our family is going to grow."
Jeff's mother put her face in her hands. It was weird for Jeff to be watching his own body doing this stuff. "You can't do my job, Jeff. And who even is the father?"
Jeff decided not to tell his mom about going into the office and pretending to be her while she was on vacation. He did want to confront her about the affair she was having at some point though, but there was too much going on now. He was pregnant! He was going to have a child!
"Well?" said his mother.
"I, uh, don't know," said Jeff truthfully.
"Jeff, are you here?" he heard from downstairs. It was his father.
Jeff's mom gave Jeff a disapproving look. "You should put on a bathrobe," she said. "Your father and I are going to have quite the talk."
Jeff hoped the setting on the Chronivac would prevent her from telling his dad anything, but he didn't know for sure it would work. He got up and rushed back to his parents' room to grab a bathrobe, hoping his father wouldn't see him. This was going to be tricky even if all his plans worked.