The scene in the MCR was chaotic, with Repair Agents scurrying around, replacing control panels and rewiring them. (Homunculus) Lisa was astounded. "I've only ever seen one Repair Agent at a time before. Where are they getting these control panels from? I don't think it's possible to bring them back from Disposal."
"I looked there," Ty said. I might have been able to bring them back from Disposal, a few at a time, but they were severely damaged, and it would have taken forever to dig them all up." He waved to the nearly empty shelves, "And the situation with the Operations Procedure Manuals was even worse."
"Then how?" Lisa asked. Ty led her through the doorway. "Where are we? How can we have another MCR?"
"I transformed my body into a copy of yours... Lisa's... then made a duplicate, but with no one at the controls. I created this doorway, so that the Repair Agents could scavenge the control panels to fix yours. And look," he said, pointing as the bookshelves, "a full set of Operating Procedures Manuals.
"Are they accurate for Lisa?", she asked, and walked toward a bookcase.
"I don't know," admitted Ty. "Hopefully if they're not exactly right, they'll be close enough."
Lisa inspected a few volumes. "They seem to be right. As long as they are mostly right, I can probably work around, and correct, any small discrepancies."
"That's a relief," Ty said. "I'll start carrying them over."
"I'll help," said Lisa.
"Me too," said Cock, surprising them.
"Thank you for offering," Lisa said to Cock, "and no offense intended, but I think maybe you should sit this one out."
"OK," Cock said. "I just wanted to help."
Ty explained to Lisa, "He wants his old job back."
Cock elaborated, "At first I thought being in charge of everything would be fun, but it's way to complicated for me."
"That's OK," Lisa reassured Cock. "It was my mistake to make you do that, and leave you unsupervised. I'm sorry."
Cock sat at the main console, as Repair Agents bustled to and fro, disconnecting Mini-Me control panels for use in Lisa. Despite the chaos, Cock slumped over, and fell asleep.
Ty and Lisa started systematically carrying volumes of the Operating Procedure Manuals through the doorway, and carefully shelving them in the Lisa MCR, trying to dodge the Repair Agents, and minimize their interference in the important ongoing repairs. "This is going to take forever," Ty said.
"I can tell that you are exhausted," she told him. "I can keep working at this. You should go back outside, and get some sleep."
"OK, thanks," Ty said. "I'll do that, and come back later to check on you. Are you certain that you, that Lisa, will be alright?"
"Yes, I'll check the panels from time to time as I transfer loads of manuals. I doubt that there will be any issues. What's our deadline?"
Ty said, "Lisa and I have to get up by 6 AM to prepare for school, but I activated the slow time feature I added to her alarm clock, so we have nearly a year, if needed."
"That's a relief," she said. "OK, go now. I'll keep Lisa asleep, while the repairs continue and I transfer the manuals."
Ty leaned over and kissed her. At first she acted like she had no idea what was going on, but then she started kissing him back. When they parted, she said, "I've never done that before, you know. Or expected to. I see why Lisa enjoys it so much."
"Thank you for all your hard work, here behind the scenes," Ty said to her, and vanished.
In Lisa's bedroom, Ty suddenly reappeared, once again lying next to her sleeping, and still not breathing, body. He felt her, verifying that she was still warm. He looked momentarily at the alarm clock, which still seemed frozen, though he knew it was advancing very slowly. He sighed, and went to sleep.