On the top floor, corner office of the institute, Director Forester sat at his desk, attacking a stack of paperwork. Sometimes he regretted taking the promotion, while the massive raise was nice, dealing with bureaucracy took time away from his research. A welcome distraction from his questioning of life choices presented itself in the form of a knock to his door, after beckoning them in, he saw a woman he vaguely recognized as an employee but couldn’t place the name of.

“Ah, you’re Doctor Emma’s assistant, correct?” the director asked, after noticing she was carrying a duffel bag and wearing a nervous look on her face, he further asked, “Wasn’t today the day she was finally going to test the teleporter on a living being? How did it go?”

“Well, about that…” Laetitia responded, sitting down on the chair across from the director, placing the duffel bag on his desk, “The experiment was a success, but Doctor Emma had… a little accident…”

Forester sighed. An accident meant more paperwork. “What kind of accident? Is she okay? Where is she?”

“She’s actually right here.” Laetitia said. She stood up and started unzipping the bag while Forester looked on slack jawed. She then reached in and pulled out Emma’s bodiless head.

“Hello, Director.” Emma’s head said dryly.

“JESUS!” Forester cried, falling backwards in his chair. Laetitia set Emma’s head down and helped him back up. He sat back down, staring wide eyed at Emma, his heart still pounding from the shock. It was so surreal to see her sitting on his desk, abruptly ending halfway down her neck, yet still alive, staring right back at him, blinking far more often than he was. “How?” was all he managed to say.

“It happened like this,” Emma explained how she wound up as just a head, “...and so you see, I want to experiment more with my current form, how this is possible and what possible applications this could have for the scientific advancement of mankind.”

“I, uh, wow…” Forester said, rubbing his temple, “I still don’t understand how you’re taking losing your body in stride like this-”

“THAT’S WHAT I SAID!” Laetitia chimed in.

“-But, well, if anyone can find a way to make… this,” he gestured towards Emma’s head, “...benefit mankind, it would be our Doctor Emma! I will see about getting you a grant.”

“Thank you, director. I’d hug you, but… you know.” Emma said, smirking, “Additionally, my teleporter research is basically complete, and I find this far more fascinating, so I don’t mind HANDING the project off,” She paused and smirked again, sighing after a few seconds of silence from Forester and Laetitia, “because I don’t have hands? Come on, two bodiless jokes in a row and not even a chuckle…”

“Well it’s good that you aren’t quitting your day job to go into comedy.” Laetitia said, ruffling Emma’s hair.

“Ahem, that aside,” Emma said after helplessly having her hair mussed up, “in my current state, I will require 24/7 assistance, both in and out of work, so I feel that Laetitia here will deserve a considerable pay raise.”

“I suppose that is true.” Forester agreed.

Laetitia’s eyes lit up, “OH, I would hug you to, but I won’t because of HR reasons, not bodiless reasons.

Forester chuckled, which prompted Emma to whine, “Sure, laugh at HER jokes…”

Arrangements were made, and Laetitia picked up Emma’s head and was about to put her back into the duffel bag(which she hated being carried in, but knew it wasn’t time for everyone to see her in her current form), Forester nervously asked, “Can I… hold you?”

Emma pointed her eyes at him and said, “Sure, just be gentle, I can still get dizzy.”

Forester held his hands out, and Laetitia gently placed Emma’s head in them. He slowly lifted her up, examining the living bodiless head he held. Emma, meanwhile, enjoyed the contrast of being held in his rough, masculine hands compared to being held by Laetitia’s soft, feminine hands. She was no stranger to the touch of either a man or a woman, but in this context, it felt so different, so wild. Perhaps, she thought, it was because she had so few nerve endings now, the ones she still had were working harder than ever.

Like Laetitia, Forester eventually slowly and nervously began to turn her over to see the bottom of the neck, his curiousity forcing him to see for himself what was down there, “Fascinating,” he said when he saw the flat, light blue surface that marked the end of her abbreviated form. Afterwards, he handed Emma’s head back to Laetitia, who placed it in the duffel bag and left with Emma in tow.

Forester sat back down in his chair and slouched, slowly spinning 180 degrees, “I can’t believe I signed off on all of that.”

The next day Laetitia moved into Emma’s house. The institute, on top of giving her a massive raise, was kind enough to pay the penalty for breaking her lease agreement so she could move in as soon as possible. With the hover dollies that the institute had invented, she had no trouble moving her possessions into Emma’s house alone.

After she was done, unpacking, she made her way to the living room, where Emma’s head was perched on the coffee table, watching TV.

“Finally done?” she asked, “I would have lent a hand, but-”

“But you don’t have any.” Laetitia interrupted, “Seriously, girl, your jokes are staler than the bread they found in the ruins of Pompeii.”

“I guess I’ll need to put in the LEGwork to think of better material.”

“Oh, for crying out loud…” Laetitia mumbled. She sat down on the couch behind Emma.

“I just hope it won’t be too burdensome, caring for me.” Emma said, a hint of remorse in her voice.

Laetitia responded by picking Emma’s head up and placing her on her lap, facing up so they could see eye to eye, “Don’t worry about it,” Laetitia reassured her, “This is great for me! I get to live in a spacious house instead of a cramped apartment, I’m making so, SOOO much more money, and when you think about it, you’re the perfect roommate!”

“Really, I am?” Emma smiled up at her.

“Yup,” Leatitia pinched Emma’s cheeks, who just slanted her eyes, unable to do much else than look annoyed, “You don’t take up much space, you won’t make a mess, you won’t steal my food, you won’t have loud sex, and you’re paying all the bills!”

“Hm, I suppose that makes sense,” Emma said, though the penultimate reason in her list made her hypothetical heart sink when she realized it. Perhaps that would serve as motivation to find a way to bring her body back.

“Speaking of food, after all that moving I’m hungry and don’t feel like cooking, I’m going to order a pizza, do you want any? Uh, can you have any?”

“Well, I haven’t felt hungry since I lost my body, but I do want to see what happens if I try to eat like this, for science!”

“Fair enough. What’s the best joint in this neighborhood?”

After putting their order in, Laetitia was about to pick Emma’s head up off of her lap, but she said, “Can I stay on your lap, your thighs are a lot more comfortable than the coffee table.” She wasn’t willing to admit that she really, REALLY liked human contact of any kind while in her bodiless state.

“Sure thing." Laetitia smiled down at Emma and repositioned her so she could see the TV.