Reanimation begins with a scream.

  "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" I screamed.

  I felt like I had a memory gap. Only I hadn't been reanimated. The soreness deep within my left arm, where the ARM had been installed, tipped me off. This was my same damaged body.

  I was in the exam room, dressed in a simple patient's gown. I felt well-rested, and I literally laughed out loud when I realized I was alive and that I must have slept for who knows how long. I felt strong and energized, better even than I normally felt after a nap on my butterfly rug.

  "Good evening," @stephascope said, sitting nearby in a rolling chair.

  She was wearing full doctor's scrubs. She had a stethoscope around her neck, and her messy hair was no longer messy. It was pulled back in a small ponytail. She looked more professional now, or rather, less Eros-themed.

  "What happened?" I asked. I wasn't sure that I wanted to know, but I felt like I should remember, considering my last memory involved the doctor staring down my throat.

  "Some basic repairs," she said nonchalantly, reading it off my chart.

  "But I don't remember what happened," I interrupted. I wasn't sure how to phrase it, but something felt different about my body. "I feel like maybe I had more than basic repairs done."

  "You'll remember eventually, although maybe not everything. That's just the effect of the anesthesia." She gave me a very doctorly, nurturing look. "I know you're concerned. It's not a memory gap in the sense of a true memory gap, I assure you. We needed you unconscious to make the repairs. Really, it's nothing to worry about. We are a clinic after all."

  Fair enough. Didn't sound like I could do anything about it anyway. They knocked me out and fixed me up. That was, after all, what I'd asked for. And that odd feeling in my body, I suspected, was the surge of energy from being actually rested for the first time in a long time. "So what exactly did you do?"

  She referred to my chart again. "Looks like we did a full scrub and a steam bath, neuro repairs, a few circuit replacements. We touched up your memory backups too. They were working, but part of your RAM wasn't functional. You should notice improvements to your mental acuity under duress. We also added a new ocular setting to your biotech." She looked back at me, smiling. "You should be good as new. How do you feel?"

  "Well, I feel amazing, honestly." I sat up and stretched my arms. "I'm a little sore here, though." I pointed at my ARM and tried to remember the name of the medicine James had suggested. "Do you have Calcivive?"

  "No," she said. "For that, I'd just take an over-the-counter Ibuprofen or some other NSAID."

  I didn't think she properly appreciated the pain, but she was the doctor, after all, so she knew best. That thought triggered something in my brain. She was behaving very differently from before. She was, like, being an actual doctor.

  "You are @stephascope, right?" I asked. "You didn't mention any upgrades before, just that I was getting a standard exam."

  She gave me a stern look. "You read the forms? Signed the disclaimer?"

  "No. I don't know anything about forms. I just walked in, and you took me back here."

  That made sense to her. "I see. Well, don't worry about it. It happens. I've told them not to do that anymore, but … no, I'm not @stephascope. We're a clone pair. She's sex. I'm medicine." She reached out to shake my hand. "I'm Doctor Amelia, or @ameliar8."

  "I feel like maybe she should be @ameliar8," I replied, "and you should be @stephascope. You do have the stethoscope, after all."

  "We all have stethoscopes," she said bluntly.

  "Right. Sorry." I'm great at bad jokes. "So, do I just pay and go? Do you bill me?"

  @ameliar8 stared at me, completely still and emotionless. She wrote something on her clipboard, checking my chart. "You really haven't been here before. They need to have you read and sign the forms."

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  I nodded. "Should we do that now, the forms, or can I leave?"

  "Not quite." She stood up and walked to the closed door, turning to face me from across the room. She checked herself, making sure she was completely centered in the doorway.

  "I want you to try out your new ocular setting," she said. "Flip through them. Look straight at me. You'll know it when you see it. Then speak to me through your comms. That way we'll know everything is working, and we can make adjustments if we need to."

  Oh yeah. I forgot about the new ocular setting. I was curious. Would I be able to see radio waves?

  I flipped through my night vision, thermal, toggle toggle toggle. The form of @ameliar8 against the door altered appropriately with each. Then I landed on the new setting. She was right. I knew it was new right away.

  @ameliar8 was surrounded by butterflies, birds, and floating hearts, with a translucent outline of a heart around her head and upper body, framing her in my vision and sort of blurring out the rest of the image. Music started playing in the background, the oh my god, I've just seen the love of my life for the first time kind of music. It made me feel squishy inside.

  "What the hell is this?" I stammered.

  "Use your comms unit, please," she replied.

  kittyboy: "What the hell is this, @ameliar8?"

  ameliar8: "Oh good! It's working."

  kittyboy: "What setting is this, and why in the world would I ever use it?"

  ameliar8: "This is the love gaze. We call it Puppy Eyes."

  She laughed, and when she did, more hearts sprang up in my vision, floating up and disappearing.

  ameliar8: "I just love it when our patients use it for the first time."

  kittyboy: "Okay, so … what's it for?"

  ameliar8: "What color is the heart outline?"

  I humored her. It was blue, which I realized was inconsistent. It was a heart. Why wouldn't it be red?

  kittyboy: "It's blue."

  ameliar8: "That's because I don't love you."

  That was rude of her, but obvious. I had no feelings for her either.

  kittyboy: "Dang. Way to hurt a guy's feelings?"

  ameliar8: "You see, if someone does show signs, physically at least, of attraction, then the heart outline will change color and get thicker. A thick red heart is a sign of strong physical connection. We know it's no substitute for true love, but you have to admit, it's a good place to start."

  I pondered that. Sure, fine. It was like a cheat code to see if the other person found you attractive. Fine.

  kittyboy: "Okay, well … thank you, I guess. So can I go now?"

  "Not yet," @ameliar8 said in her normal voice now. "Keep looking at me." She had something in her hand. She brought it up to her mouth. "Are you ready? Are you looking right at me?"

  I stared at her. "Yep."

  "Watch the heart outline," she said, and then she popped a pill of some kind, chasing it with a sip of water from a little plastic cup.

  Just like that, the heart turned red and thicker, and it pulsed as well, in rhythm with her breath. I was amazed. What the heck was in that pill?

  "And now?" she said. Her voice sounded different too, sensual rather than all doctor-like.

  "The heart looks like it's going to explode," I said, impressed. "It's red, just like you said, and it's thick. It looks like it's pulsing along with your breathing."

  "Perfect!" she clapped her hands. "The pulsing heart part is new."

  I was eager to get going now, as I had apparently slept through the day. I needed the rest desperately, but I also needed my crew to know I was okay, and I needed to get on with the mission, as much as I hated the next quest. I absolutely had to get it right. @bitchfrog's life was on the line.

  "May I go now?" I asked, standing up and feeling the chill breeze pass through my patient's gown. If I can have my clothes, I'll be on my way."

  "Almost. Just be a patient patient," she laughed. "Keep the Puppy Eyes setting active, and look at me."

  @ameliar8 had gone from doctor to something completely different with that pill she took. Her heart rate was increasing, making the heart-shaped outline beat faster.

  "You already had your sex, your standard examination," she said in a low growl. "Now it's time for your medicine."

  That didn't terrify me at all.

  "What's my medicine?" I asked. "Please tell me it isn't what you just took."

  "I took a love goddess popper," she said, shifting her hips and torso to accentuate her curves. "You really should try it sometime. You, on the other hand, need something different."

  She strolled toward me, swaying attractively, and took my hand in hers. I could feel her pulse and her sweaty palms.

  "You need a bottoms-up pill," she said, leading me toward the door. "It will ease the pain, give you a nice calming buzz to remove any anxiety until your body has fully healed."

  I didn't want to take any meds really, but the ache in my ARM was getting worse, and if they did all that circuitry work and such, I knew I'd end up with a massive migraine at some point. I nodded at her.

  "Sounds good. Thank you," I said politely.

  I waited for her to give me my meds while she chuckled and bounced on her toes. "It's a suppository," she said. "You know what that means, right?"

  I did. It meant I was going to have the uncomfortable experience of shoving medicine up my rectum.

  "I do," I groaned.

  She held an uncomfortable-looking pill out and dropped it into my hands. Romantic music filled my ears, and birds sang around her head, flitting in and out of the beating heart in my vision. I turned off Puppy Eyes and was thrilled to see the room return to normal. @ameliar8 was back to being just my doctor again.

  "I don't need to be here for this part," she announced, "so I'll excuse myself. Don't forget your cat. @gailwind has him at the front desk."

  "Thank you, Doctor," I said, and I meant it. I felt much better, almost as if I had been freshly reanimated, and the bottoms-up pill would help with the pain. Now, where can I wash my hands?