Jenny knocked at the door half an hour later.  When Patty’s mom opened it, she grinned and said, “Hi Mrs. B.  Can Patty come out to play?”

Emily stared at the vivacious young woman for a few seconds.  “What are you up to?”

“Patty wanted some help with a computer problem.  Can I come in?”

“I guess.  It’s a school night, so you can’t stay too late.”

As Jenny entered the cavernous main entryway of the house, she noticed that there was a new piece of artwork set in the big glass display case.  Front and center was a very familiar sculpture of a man proposing to a woman.  And from the possessive look that Emily was giving it, Jenny had a pretty good idea just how wrong things had gone for Patty.  Not to mention for her Dad and his sweetie Nancy, who were currently trapped inside said sculpture.

Patty looked distraught in her room, pacing around nervously. As soon as Jenny walked in, Patty stopped pacing.

“I saw them in the entry hall.  Patty, you know we will get them out of there.” Jenny started.

“It’s my fault that they’re trapped as mom’s decorations.” Patty whispered. “If she knew, she would try to shatter them, and none of us could do a thing about it.”

“I can get them out,” Jenny claimed.  She pulled out a green glowing crystal. “It’s fully charged, all we have to do is to take them to the poles and we can fix this up.”

Patty nodded, and reached out to the crystal.  Jenny pulled it away, “I want something simple when this is done.”

“What is it?” Patty asked, and Jenny ran her hand through her messy red hair. “I want us to be changed by the device. I want to try something I’ve heard before online, see if it works. If it doesn’t, your dad could change you back, but please do not change me back until summer.”

“What?” Patty couldn’t believe what Jenny was asking for.  “You want to be an inanimate thing and stay that way for months?”

“I’ll tell you more later, but yes.”  Jenny smiled and handed the crystal to Patty.  “Will you change with me?”

“Yeah, sure,” agreed Patty.  She took the crystal, “Let’s get my dad back.”

When the girls peeked into the entry hall, though, Emily was still standing there, staring at the display case.  She seemed to be talking to it in low, angry tones.

Patty looked at Jenny in confusion.  “Go on,” said the redhead, gesturing Patty forward.  “Go distract your mother.”

Patty crept forward, and as she got close to Emily she could hear what she was saying.  It was a familiar litany.  Every last incident where her father hadn’t “cared enough” or “done enough” or “been sensitive enough” to Emily’s whims.  It was a very, very long list, and as far as Patty could tell she wasn’t even halfway through.

The litany of incidents stopped, and Emily launched instead into a blistering series of insults to Marty’s manhood, culminating in, “and you’re stuck here only eight inches tall.  Barely big enough to be useful as anything but a paperweight.  You and your little hussy too.”

Patty’s eyes went wide, and she skittered back to where Jenny was waiting.  “She knows!” she hissed urgently.

“No she doesn’t,” replied Jenny confidently.  “She’s insane, you know this.  At least she hasn’t tried to smash the statue yet.”

Patty cringed, her eyes tearing up.  “Oh, don’t say such things, I couldn’t bear it if I got them killed.”

Jenny laughed, drawing a betrayed look from Patty.  “Didn’t you read that manual?  They’re indestructible.  If she tried to smash them, she’d realize something weird was up.  The worst thing she can do is put them somewhere you can’t find them.  You have to get her away from the case.”

Patty looked back at her mother, whose tirade was growing louder.  “That’s going to be hard.”

“Whatever it takes, girl.  Do it!”  Jenny gave Patty a shove, sending her stumbling into the hall.

Emily’s tirade froze mid-word, and she turned to stare at her daughter.  “What?”

“I... I...”  Patty stammered, then seized on inspiration.  “Don’t you have a date tonight?”

Emily’s frown deepened.  “Gary has his brat this week.  Can’t.”  She turned back toward the display case.

“I...”  Patty winced as her mother’s gaze returned to pin her.  “I could babysit?”

Emily’s frown vanished instantly.  “Excellent.”  Then she narrowed her eyes.  “You want something.  What?”

Patty couldn’t help but glance at the statue.  Her mother laughed an evil cackle.  “You want your precious father back?  Not a chance.  I love yelling at him like this.”

Patty turned away, then saw Jenny making a go on gesture followed by a grin and a thumb’s up.  She thought for a moment, then started to smile.  “A trade?  I could give you a statue like this, but make N... make her ugly.”

That got a look of unholy glee.  “Deal.  Bring me a statue with her looking like the bitch she really is, and you can have yours back.”

“I promise I’ll have it soon, can’t I...”

“No!  Show me the goods first.”

Patty slunk away, but got a hug from Jenny once they were clear.  “See?” whispered Jenny.  “You can do it.”

“Sure, all I need is a statue.  How long will that take?”

“How long will it take to get to your Dad’s place and back?”

Patty’s eyes went wide.  “Oh!  That could work...”  Then she shook her head.  “I can’t leave, I have to be here to babysit.”

“Give me the key.  I’ll go get the compressor, bring it here.  Two birds with one stone.”

Patty looked confused.  “Two birds?”

Jenny grinned.  “You could turn the brat into a box, have a quiet night.”

“No!  Ben is a sweetie.  I don’t mind babysitting, he loves it when I read stories to him.  He’ll draw pictures of the story, he’s really good for a nine year old.”

Jenny studied her friend with an incredulous look.  “Look at you, going all mothery.  You’ll be a nice little wife someday, won’t you?”

Patty snorted.  “Like I have any idea how.”

“Sure you do.  Think, ‘what would my evil mother do’ and do the opposite.”

Patty actually giggled at that, then shushed Jenny when her braying laughter got too loud.  “Go, get it before Mom gets suspicious.”

When Jenny returned, Patty answered the door.  “Hey, come on in.  We’ve got an hour or two before they’re back.”

“If your Mom isn’t here, why not just grab the statue and change them back now?”

“She has the key to the cabinet.”

Jenny grinned.  “It’s a glass cabinet.”

“No smashing!”

Jenny rolled her eyes.  “Fine, we’ll do it the hard way.  You don’t know where she keeps the spare key?”

“If there is one, it’d probably be in the junk drawer in the kitchen.  Second drawer down to the right of the stove.”

Jenny handed over the carry case of the cargo converter.  “Here.  You set this up, I’ll go look.”

When Jenny returned empty-handed, she found Patty still struggling with the converter’s poles.  Three of the lights were green, but even with her sitting room couch pushed up against the wall, there wasn’t enough space for the fourth pole.

“Just put the couch inside, box it, and bring it back when you’re done,” suggested Jenny.

“Box what?” asked a young boy from his perch on the couch.

Jenny winked at Patty.  “You know you want to.”

“C’mon, Ben.  We need to move the couch again.  Can you help?”

“Sure!”  Ben hopped off the couch and did his best to help lift it.  Soon the couch was inside the converter, and the fourth pole in position.  Ben hopped back up on the couch as Patty stepped out of the box.

“Hey Ben, c’mere for a...  Hey!”  Patty was suddenly staring at a silvered box taking up the entire space between the poles.  A moment later there was a three inch cube sitting in the middle.  No couch.  No Ben.

Jenny darted forward and scooped up the box, then tossed it to a still-stunned Patty.  She grabbed for it reflexively, bobbled it, and after a couple of tries managed to close her hands on it before it fell.  “Jenny!  What the hell?”

“He can’t tell any secrets he doesn’t know.  Do you want him letting your mom know what we’re about to do?  What the converter can do?”

Patty stared down at the box in her hands, that moments ago was a bright and cheerful boy.  “No.  He’ll talk.  But we can’t keep him this way long.”

“Why not?  It’s safe indefinitely.  No need to breathe, eat, sleep.  No time passes for him.”

“Yeah, and if he misses a couple hours, it’ll be impossible to get him to sleep on time.”  Patty set the box down on the remaining side table.  “So.  What’s the plan?”

Jenny stepped into the middle of the poles.  “Turn me into an aware Cortana doll, but give me some kind of micro-manipulator lockpick accessories as part of the package.”

Patty nodded slowly as she paced to the pole with the trigger gem.  She held her hand an inch away, then closed her eyes to focus on the design.  After a few moments, she gently brushed the gem, and opened her eyes to see the now-familiar silver box.

A moment later, it vanished to show a much smaller version of Jenny with blue skin and straight dark hair.  Otherwise, she looked much like herself.  Jenny giggled with glee as she examined her skintight bodysuit with circuitry lacing its sides.  Then her tail swished into view.

“Patty!” called the doll in a shrill voice.  “What did you do?”

“I put the manipulators in your tail.  C’mon, let’s see if this works...”

Jenny squealed as a giant hand swooped down to pick her up.  Patty’s hand enclosed most of her torso, and once she got used to the swaying of her ride she started to grin.  “Swing me more!”

Patty tossed her into the air and caught her, grinning at Jenny’s whoops of joy.  She kept tossing her from hand to hand as she made her way to the display case, then held Jenny up to it.  “Okay, let’s see what you can do.”

Jenny glanced at her reflection in the glass.  “Cat ears too, Patty?  Really?”

“They’re cute.”

Jenny rolled her eyes, but conceded the point.  “I’m going to get you to fix this design once we’re done.”  She swept her tail around to the lock, and there was a grin on her tiny face as the tailtip divided into dozens of metallic tendrils.  “Oh yeah...  Give me a sec to get a handle on this.”

After about thirty seconds, Jenny called out “twist”.  Patty turned her as if she was some sort of oversized key, and the lock obediently clicked open.

Patty hugged her tight and spun her around.  “Yes!  Clever Jenny, thank you!”

Jenny squealed and giggled, wriggling in Patty’s grasp.  “This tail rocks!  I bet I could get that down to seconds, with practice.”

“Practice later.  We need to rescue my Dad!”  Patty noted the position of the statue, then grabbed it and headed to the compressor.  She set it on the side table and studied it carefully, then put a single book inside the grid.  One touch later, an identical statue was sitting in between the poles.  Patty set it beside the original, comparing them carefully.

“I don’t see any difference.  What book did you use?”

“Mom’s copy of Fifty Shades of Grey.”

Jenny snorted.  “Good riddance.”

The other statue got popped into the grid, and a touch later Patty was crying in her father’s arms.  “I’m so sorry you got stuck for so long.  The compressor stopped working and then Mom found you...”

Marty hugged her tight.  “I heard everything.  It’s not your fault.  Well, other than the ‘take us to school to get scanned’ part, which is kind of cool.  Pity you didn’t think about making a duplicate with the converter first...”

Patty apologized some more, until Nancy shushed her.  “It’s okay, sweetie.  No real harm done.  Marty has plenty of vacation time, so we’re all good.  Right?”

“Right,” agreed Marty.  “Let’s get this duplicate in place, then worry about the rest.”

Patty scooped up Jenny and the statue, and carefully placed the latter in the cabinet in exactly the same position her father and Nancy had been in.  Then she closed the cabinet, and held Jenny up to the lock.  Seconds later, she’d re-locked the cabinet.

“Handy,” commented Marty mildly.

“Yeah, I’m thinking of keeping her.  The trouble we could get into.”

Marty gave his daughter a stern look.  “You’d keep a person as a thing, just because they’re handy?”

“Jenny asked to stay like this,” claimed Patty as she clutched Jenny to her chest defensively.  Jenny backed her up with eager nodding.

“Fine.  I’ve got a bigger concern, anyway.”

“Getting back home and making up for lost time?” asked Nancy with a big grin.

“That too.  But first...  Patty, your mother’s tirade included griping about the conditions on your trust fund.  That’s the first I’ve ever heard of this.  Has she told you about it?”

Patty shook her head.  “I know Gramps was loaded, but Mom is always bitching about how the money ran out.  She never said anything about a trust fund.”

“She didn’t tell my divorce lawyer, either.  It would factor in to support.  I’ll have to do some digging.”

“Hack her computer,” offered Jenny.  “I bet all the information you’d want is there.”

The sound of a car door slamming outside made everyone jump.  “They’re home!” hissed Patty frantically.  “Go!”  She practically shoved her father and Nancy back in to her suite.  They glanced at each other for a moment, then both stepped into the compressor.

“Do it, then hide it.  Bring us back when it’s clear.”

Patty tapped the gem, and a moment later there was only a white cube where her father and Nancy had been.  She swapped it for Ben’s cube, and by the time her mother poked her head in, the converter poles were lying on the floor behind the couch.

“Hey Mom,” said Patty with a casual wave.  “Have a nice night?”

Emily laughed gratingly.  “Not yet.  Shut yer doors,” she slurred, then staggered back into the main entry.

Patty darted to the door, watched her mother and Gary support each other up the stairs, then softly closed the door that isolated her suite from the rest of the house.  While it wasn’t completely soundproof, it kept the worst of the noise at bay.

Ben was busy drawing, and didn’t appear to have noticed anything odd.  But when Patty was putting him to bed, he asked what the poles were for.

Patty thought for a bit, then smiled because the truth worked.  “They helped me with an art project.”

“Cool.  Can I see?”

“Next time.  It’s in the display cabinet now, and you know how she is about that.”

Ben winced and nodded.  “Yeah.  G’night.”

“Sweet dreams.”

Patty returned to her sitting room and dug through her pile of books for something mindless.  She’d only just settled in when she felt a small figure land on her belly.

“You’re not going to sit there and read until your Mom’s asleep, are you?” asked Jenny.  “C’mon, I want to try gaming like this.”

“We’ll have to keep the sound down so as not to disturb Ben,” whispered Patty, setting the book aside.

“Could use a little background noise,” grumbled Jenny, cocking an ear toward the door.  From beyond they could hear loud thumping and creaking, but thankfully no moaning.  Yet.

Patty winced and nodded.  “Inside the bedrooms it’s not so bad.  He’ll be fine if we’re quiet.”  She set her book down and went over to the TV to dig out her game system.  Jenny picked the most violent game out of Patty’s collection, one she’d given her on her most recent birthday.  Patty tossed her a controller like usual, and it sent Jenny flying.  She apologized profusely, but Jenny just giggled.

“No harm done.  This body’s tough!  I like it.”

She was singing a different tune before long, as her hands were far too small for the controller, and it was taking time to retrain her reflexes.  Once she caught up to Jenny’s score, she started to grin.  “Okay, that’s more like it.  I just wish I could hack in directly...  I don’t suppose you wired up my manipulators for that?”

Patty shook her head.  “Haven’t a clue how.  Dad might, he works with electronics all the time.”

Jenny tossed her controller toward its usual spot in the TV stand, but it fell short.  She bounced to her feet.  “What are we waiting for, then?”

“For Mom to fall asleep.  Though I guess if they stay quiet enough...  Okay.”

Patty started setting up the poles, and without someone else to help it took a painfully long time to get all four lamps to light up green.  She breathed a sigh of relief when it was finally ready, and a much bigger one once her father and Nancy were hugging her tight.

“Time to go home?” asked her father, reluctantly.

“I have a favour to repay, first,” said Patty.  “Jenny wants her tail to be able to connect to computers.  Cortana’s the ultimate hacker, so... she needs the tools to do it.”

Marty pondered the problem for a while.  “I don’t know...  I can’t imagine how to give you Neuromancer style access to the ‘net.”  At Jenny’s crestfallen look he shook his head.  “Sorry.  Best I could do is try to set up basic USB HID protocols.  I know those inside and out.  You could become a virtual keyboard or controller, stuff like that.”

Jenny bounced up and down excitedly.  “Yeah!  That’d rock.  Let’s try!”  She darted in between the poles, and a silvery flicker later she was full sized.  Marty was too busy imagining USB protocols to notice the look of disgust on Jenny’s face, but Patty and Nancy spotted it.

“You okay?” called Patty softly.

Jenny nodded.  “Sorry.  Just...  Being indestructible, being her, versus...”  She shuddered softly.  “Please?”

Silver shimmered between them, and then Jenny was a small blue figurine of Cortana, still with the cat ears and tail.  Jenny didn’t even notice the ears, she immediately darted to the game console.  Her tail flicked forward and found its way into one of the console ports, and after a little bit of wiggling around, her eyes and other parts of her body lit up in a tracery of blue.  “Ooooh!”

Marty grinned.  “Everyone likes blinking lights.  Too much?”

Jenny shook her head frantically.  “It’s perfect.  I can feel the signals, but I’m not sure how to...”

“I don’t know, just... try pushing here and there, see what happens.”

Jenny nodded absently.  The cursor on the screen was dancing around randomly, then started moving more steadily.  Before long, it was zipping from spot to spot on the screen.  “Ok, that’s movement.  I wonder what select...  Oh, there we go.”

As they watched, Jenny’s character lept into action.  There were numerous false starts, and she got taken out several times before she started to get properly used to the controls.  Before long she was blasting away better than she ever had before.  At the end of the level, Jenny pumped her fist.  “This rocks!  You should try it too.”

Patty looked over to her father.  “Could I?  Just for an hour or so before you go?”

Marty smiled at his daughter indulgently.  “Sure.  Do you want the blue look, or just... you with ears and a tail?”

“How about all cat?” asked Patty as she hopped in between the posts.

“One USB cat, coming up...” chuckled Marty.

Moments later, a silver-furred cat prowled from between the poles, rubbed up against Marty’s leg in thanks, then padded over to sit beside her friend.  She tried poking her tail into one of the controller slots, and her eyes widened.  “Prrip?”

Jenny looked over at the cat.  “Oh!  Hey, welcome to the party.  Just go with the flow, you’ll get the hang of it.”  She bailed from the current level so that Patty could join in, and let her warm up with the cursor for a bit before starting again.  “Ready?”

“Mew!”

“Can you talk normally?”

“Mrrowrmle?”  Patty shook her head, then shrugged.

Jenny laughed.  “Silly kitty.  Let’s see what you’ve got.”

The game restarted, and soon both girls were blasting away with abandon.

Marty asked where the couch had gone, and got a general wave toward the side table.  Once he’d restored the cube back to a couch, he and Nancy curled up on it, snuggled against each other as they watched the two cartoonish figures play.  “Not quite how I figured this would go,” chuckled Marty.

“Eh, at least we’re human again.  The sculpture was nice, but being so close but unable to run my hands over you...”  Nancy stroked a hand over Marty’s chest.  “You know what I want.”

“We’ll be home in a bit.  Can you wait?”

“It feels like it has been years,” moaned Nancy with a playful pout.  “I suppose another hour won’t hurt.”  She shifted position, pressing her chest against Marty’s side and settling her head on his shoulder.  “Mmm.  Just... hold me.”

“I’ve been doing that constantly for the last two days,” said Marty with a chuckle.  He pulled his arms tighter around Nancy even so, getting happy little noises as a result.

“Get a room,” called Jenny without looking up.

“As soon as the coast is clear, we will.”

After Patty’s promised hour, Marty called for their attention.  “We should get going.  I need to turn you two back.”

Patty unplugged from the console and bounced happily to the cargo compressor, and a flicker later she was human again.  She hugged her father tight.  “I’m so glad you’re back.”

“Jenny,” called Nancy.  “Your turn.”

Jenny shook her head determinedly.  “No.  I’m staying like this.”

“Jenny...  You have school.  You need to be human for that.”

“No I don’t!  I can hide in Patty’s backpack.”

“What about attendance?” asked Marty.

Patty shrugged.  “They don’t take it.  There are a few pop quizzes, but the only thing she’d really need to be at school for are the finals in June.  That’s why you said until summer, right?”

Jenny shook her head.  “Wanna go to E3.”

“We’ve been over this before,” said Marty patiently.  “If guests were allowed, I’d take you in a heartbeat.  But they’re not.”

“Display figurines are allowed, though.  I could stand real still, just be there in your booth.  Please?”

Marty’s lecturing expression faded to one of surprise.  “I suppose that might work.  We don’t have anything Cortana-related, though.  I suppose a custom Cortana figurine with some of our USB technology inside might be doable.  I’d have to ask my boss.  Can I take a picture of you to show him?”

Jenny nodded eagerly, and posed heroically by the console for a few pictures, which turned into more when Patty brought out her phone, then dragged some of the lamps over to better illuminate the scene.

“Okay, enough,” said Marty at least.  “Send me the best ones, and I’ll do what I can.  But now we should be going.”

Patty gave her dad an extra-tight hug.  “Okay.  I’ll help you pack up the compressor.  Can you afford a taxi?”

Marty shrugged.  “It’s only a couple miles.  You’ve walked it before, I’m sure I can.”

“Daaaad.”  Patty nodded toward Nancy.

Marty looked over at his sweetie and nodded.  “Right.  I guess I can splurge this once.”

A few minutes and a tearful hug later, they left.

Jenny waved a controller at Patty.  “More?”

“Sure.  I’m going to have to get some sleep, though.  Do you need to sleep?”

Jenny shrugged.  “Guess we’ll find out.”

*** *** ***

Marty and Nancy returned to their apartment hand in hand, blushing and grinning at each other.  “Alone at last,” sighed Marty once the door was closed.  He set the carry-case for the compressor down.  “Do we need this?”

Nancy shook her head.  “For what I want, staying human is definitely best.  Well, so far.”  She tugged on his hand, leading toward the bedroom.

“Full size is definitely best,” agreed Marty.  “And moving.  Moving is good too.”

Nancy’s top and bra hit the floor.  “How about soft?”

“Definitely fond of soft.”

Nancy glanced downward.  “Though I am partial to hard in the right places.  And that’s definitely the right place.”