Ben found a new sense of freedom with the knowledge that she could stay this way uninterrupted for a week. There was a bit of guilt that it meant not seeing Lauren but at least they could still call and message. Ben also felt it’d be weird seeing Lauren control her body as she had grown accustomed to it and it felt like the body on the chair was the alien one. If she could, she would hook him up to an IV bag and catheter and stay this way for the foreseeable future.



Without Lauren to interfere or taking control, Ben could now experience more of what she wanted to do. She could now dress up and style her hair. All she needed to do was remember to get undressed and go back to Lauren’s office before the maintenance people came to close the session.



Ben wasn’t sure what would happen to her when the time came. Would she be locked out? Could she stop them from even ending the session and if so what would Lauren say to that. Ben was also curious what would become of her if she could never return to this body. She decided not to worry about that for now and focus on enjoying this one as long as she could.



As it was already late in the afternoon when Ben decided to take it easy with the clothes for now. She decided to stick with underwear and sleepwear. The first thing she tried on was one of Lauren’s pink satin nightgowns with black lacing trim. She looked at the mirror and admired herself in the gown.



“Not too bad, Lauren, not too bad,” Ben complimented herself as she ran her hands down the dress. She paused as she said her name, was she complimenting herself or Lauren. Come to think of it, was she even Ben?



“I need a new name,” she decided. “Something that compliments me as I am. Lauben? No, that's stupid. Bennie? That’s also stupid. Laura could work as it’s close enough to Lauren but still different, kind of like me. Yeah I think I’ll go with Laura for now.” Laura decided as she touched her youthful face and looked deep into her eyes. If eyes were windows to the soul, there was something there, even if it was artificial.

With a new sense of self, Laura enjoyed the evening without a care in the world. She made Ben dinner and let him eat before putting him to bed for the night. Then she enjoyed the evening to herself, she sat on the couch reading a book, with the TV on in the background. Even though she didn’t have organic needs, she still had a mind and that was feeling exhausted, so she went up to her room and laid on her bed and fell asleep.



In the morning Laura got dressed in one of Lauren’s sun dresses, it was green and had a floral design. It was always Laura’s favorite, though Lauren didn’t wear it much, especially in the cooler weather. She also styled her hair a little, putting it into a loose braid and had it leaning over her shoulder. It wasn’t until she finished her morning routine that she realized she had left Ben sleeping all night.



“Laura ID299935C, standby.” Laura wanted to try the code with her own name.



“Fuck…” Ben woke up feeling dizzy, weak and hungry. Not only that his pants were now saturated in urine as he needed to relieve himself but Laura forgot to do so. “Laura should’ve woken me up..”



Ben stumbled out of the neurochair and fell to the floor landing on his hands and knees. He pulled himself back up, his knees trembling. He let go of the chair and struggled to stand on his own, but started to manage. If he wasn’t confined to the chair and there wasn’t a security system, he would’ve gotten Laura to help him. He could still get her to come up with his food but he wasn’t sure that was a good idea. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to get up if he hopped in the chair again.



Given the state Ben was in, he wasn’t sure if he should be Laura for a little while. He had to start work soon and he had a large mess to clean up as well as a body that needed to be taken care of. He went to the bathroom first, and got undressed, placing everything in the hamper. After that he went to the toilet, to relieve himself fully. He struggled to get up off the toilet seat and entered the shower, using the water to hose himself down as well as clear his foggy mind. He then dried himself off and went to the bedroom to grab some clean clothes.



Instead of cleaning up the neurochair straight away, Ben slowly walked down the stairs. The food Laura had prepared him had gotten cold but he didn’t care as he ate it. He smiled at Laura as she stood in the dining room asleep. Next time Ben would put her to sleep properly in a bed. He finished his food slowly and felt refreshed. He then grabbed some cleaning supplies and took them up to Lauren’s office and scrubbed the neurochair down thoroughly. Once he was done he did a load of laundry.



By the time Ben had cleaned up and had food, he was an hour late getting started on work. He had considered taking a day off but it was short notice and he worked from home. He’d just catch up by working through lunch. He went back upstairs, and entered Lauren’s office. He climbed onto the freshly cleaned chair and laid back. He made a mental note to air out the room later.



Laura felt off as she went to run up the stairs to begin work, she felt numb and sluggish, like she hadn’t slept. She wondered if this was the reason why she didn’t realize Ben needed taking care of. Curious, she entered Lauren’s office and watched as Ben slept. She looked into the corner of the room and finally paid attention to the docking station installed in the corner. Now Laura understood what was happening, she was low on energy. It had been a week since she arrived and she had been rather active without a proper rest. She almost went to go to sleep, she knew the shutdown code, but if she did would Ben be able to wake her up?



It was a hard decision for Laura to make. She wanted to stay up and let Ben sleep. She had been looking forward to the three day weekend with just her. Though she knew that she could no longer stay awake. She touched Ben’s hand and felt a slight tingly sensation on her own. She ran her fingers up and down his hairy arms for a few seconds as the tingly feeling faded to nothing, she couldn’t even feel Ben’s body anymore as more of her body shut down. With no other choice, Laura got undressed and backed into the docking station.



“Laura ID299935C, power down.”



Ben woke up with tears rolling down his cheeks. Even though Laura was physically in the corner, he wasn’t sure if he’d be her again. Lauren had given the indication that he shouldn’t have even been able to become Laura, yet he’d been her for the last four days or so. He knew Lauren would pilot Laura later, but that would be Lauren, not Laura. He kissed Laura on the cheek and left the room. He was going to be so lonely for the rest of the week, if not longer.

* * * * *

Ben felt miserable for the past week. He had felt Laura’s ghost in the house and in his mind. He had tried to reconnect with her on Saturday but he couldn’t get her to wake up with the command word or Lauren’s code. He had even tried Laura’s code but nothing worked. He missed her physical presence so much that he ended up shaving off every hair that was on his body. It brought some comfort but not enough.



The calls with Lauren were short and brief as she was busy focused on work. Though she wasn’t able to tell Ben what she was doing. She sounded miserable though, and even told him going was a mistake. She said she couldn’t wait to come home, making Ben wonder what she’d say once she saw him fully shaved.



One thing Ben did when he was on the phone with Lauren, which he felt terrible for, was take the phone into her office. He’d hear her voice, and close his eyes, imagining Laura was speaking to him. He’d used the opportunity to say that he missed her and couldn’t wait to see her again. It was messed up and he knew it, but it helped him deal with her loss.



On Friday, Ben received a notification about someone being at the community gate for him. They said they were tech support from Lauren’s work, so he buzzed them in straight way. Ben took an early lunch break and greeted them at the door. There were two people, a man and a woman.

“Hi, I’m Nicholas,” the man extended his hand. “I’m here to fix your wife’s Doll.”



“Laura...n’s doll is upstairs,” Ben shook his hand as he moved aside to let them in. The woman didn’t say a word as she extended her hand as well.



“Ah… that’s Stacey…?” Nicholas tried to get in between Ben and the Doll before they could shake hands and had to give her a name on the spot.



“You’re a Doll?” Ben questioned as he shook her hand.



“She’s mute,” Nicholas managed to grab Stacey by the hand and pull her inside behind him. “She was in an accident and the Doll is the only way she can get out now.” He found mixing half truths helped. Not just for the cover story but for his own denial. “Anyway the Doll?”



Ben blinked for a moment and shook his head back to attention as he remembered Nicholas was referring to Laura. “Right, this way.” Ben escorted them to Lauren’s office. And watched them work. Nicholas looked annoyed but Stacey didn’t seem to mind as she began running diagnostics.



“You don’t need to watch,” Nicholas offered Ben.



“I’m sorry but this is my home. I get it’s my wife’s office and she works for you but still I don’t really know you and she’s protective about her things.” Ben lied.



“Suit yourself,” Nicholas rolled his eyes. This is why he preferred analytics but the Smith’s were a special case now, only he and Raymond knew about what was going on. And Stacey but she didn’t count.



Stacey tapped on Nicholas’s shoulder to get his attention and show him the logs. “Huh that’s odd,” he messed with Ben. He knew what Ben had been up to and he knew about ‘Laura’ but Ben didn’t know that. “Lauren said she couldn’t log on because there was an active session…” he continued to make Ben squirm. “But the Doll has shut down and the session has closed.” He paused for a moment, looked at Ben then back at the Doll. “Must’ve been a technical glitch on her end.”



Stacey continued to work, ignoring everything going on around her.



“Oh since we’re here, we’re also changing some settings,” Nicholas informed Ben. “We weren’t happy with the security on the chair, just being a single word activation so we’re switching it back to ID codes. “Do we have your permission to install a dish to extend the Doll’s range outside the house?”



“Um, sure…” Ben said as he watched them work.



“So the dish will give the Doll a few miles of coverage, we also suggest you download the app we’ve developed too, it’ll send a signal back to the house to let it know you're still active as the Doll and keep you under.” Nicholas explained before he stopped. “My apologies. I'm used to telling this to the primary user, but she’s not here at the moment. Still it wouldn’t hurt for you to download the app, just in case she loses her purse or something.”



Nicholas and Stacey were there for another few hours working on software updates and hardware installs. Once they were gone, Ben wasted no time getting on the neurochair.



“Lauren Smith, ID299935…” Ben began.



“Ben?!” Laura was shocked to see what he was about to do.



“Laura..n” Ben realized. “I was just making sure the new security system worked on my end. Sorry for coming into your office.”



Lauren smiled as she relaxed her guard. “It’s so good to see you,” she stumbled over to Ben to give him a hug.



“I missed you too,” Ben returned the embrace. He wasn’t sure if he was referring to Laura or Lauren.