It was home, she was home again.

Not the house in Beverly Hills. Dot was back home, back in the house she'd grown up in, in the other half of Mainframe. Twin City, Font du Lac sector, 33.5.67.

There were family jpgs in windows along the wall, and finger-PAINTS pasted to the fridge, and stains froms her first attempt at cooking on the wall over the stove when she was 00... Her mother had been so forgiving of that event, even if the best cooking pot was destined for the junkyard after.

"Your father never did quite get around to getting that painted over or replaced."

Dot turned around towards the living room towards the speaker and stopped. There, kneeling on a section of the floor covered with a soft baby pad, and toys scattered on the floor. A little turquoise baby was crawling about through a playtunnel towards the older woman sitting at the other end.

"..m..Mom?"

"Oh, who's a good little grandaughter...oh yes you are, yes you are!" She was nearly identical to Dot...it would have been more proper to say that Mairi senior was only just a shade more yellow than her daughter. "That's it....good girl, Mairi..yes.."

"Mom, what're you..."

"Oh come on now...you don't think I'd leap at the first chance I get to see my baby girl and grandaughter?" The lady picked up the baby and cooed happily into the chubby little face. "And my little-grown-up CEO? ...or should I say COMMAND.COM? Sit down..."

"...Well, today was actually rather easy...I didn't have any surprise Doors, and there were only a couple of food service permits per sector since everyone's moving in and making little eateries and Bed and Breakfasts..."

"And you and your husband?"

"Moooom..."

"I know I know...you're not 00 anymore...but as a mother it's my perogative to ask you about your life."

"Now I know where I got it from."

"Got what from?" Mairi senior looked up from holding up a floppy little book to the junior teething champion. "Mriaheee brrrrk!"

"The ability to completely take over a conversation."

"You also got that sharp wit, so don't complain."

"Yes, Mom."

There's no particular reason today, that the boss seems...distracted at work. The office workers have enough sense to pick up on it, and both Specky and the elderly matron binome have caught Dot for a few brief moments looking at a jpg in her PDA.

It's an old jpg, the quality of the image is rather grainy, but the face in it could be an exact match for the boss's...if the skin weren't just a touch more yellow.

Appropriate, considering who has arranged for a little luncheon together today.

After the initial birth, mother and daughter were transferred to a regular hospital in Kits Sector. For while the Principal Office has a wonderful emergency room and nursing staff on hand, it is not a place for new mothers and daughters to get some well earned sleep.

Which is precisely what Dot and Mairi are doing, after having hosted a small party of visitors, sprite and binome alike. The office staff had pooled together money to buy her a cake, which didn't really survive more than fifteen nanos around Dot.

But the stream of visitors hasn't ended just yet, despite the limit of visitation microseconds having long expired.

"Have you got all of the work schedules?"

"Yes, Mrs. Matrix."

"The filemapping for the next five months?"

"Yes, Mrs. Matrix."

Technically speaking, the COMMAND.COM of Mainframe should have been out the door and home by now on her maternity leave. Except she kept insisting on double-checking everything again, for the third time that cycle. And the harried-looking red-and-grey hair clerk was looking over things.

And th-"


"Mrs. Matrix, I know ye worry about us like we were your own code and plasma, but we'll be fine the next few minutes yer away." Before Dot could get another word in edgewise. "And it be best that you start worryin' about your little alpha on the way. I know the rest of the office is. We're all a tingle over waiting to meet this wee one, after all the fuss she's caused."

"Ma'am?"

"Mrrmmf?" Dot looked up from her mid-afternoon 'snack', a rather large piece of medium well c-loin steak and a large salad again. At least Mairi was getting somewhat predictable in her demands for food.

"Your 2 o'clock is here for her appointment."

"Mhmm..send her in!"

As any mother and expecting mother will be lecturing you about, it's important to get regular check ups withy our doctor, especially if the your family has a history of pregnancy complications.

Ofcourse, considering that everything up until now has been going just fine, no bugs or errors, this cycle's visit to the doctor's office is really a formality. Mairi's started to look forward to talking to Mr. Scanner.

In every major burg, there is a section of town devoted entirely to a certain demographic group. Some are even famous for their displays, such as San Francisco is for it's Chinatown, or New Orleans for it's French Quarter. And Marina is no exception from this, especially for being located in a place as weird, wild and wonderfully varied as Underhill.

Such venues as Valhallasburg "BEST BEER AND WENCHING IN TOWN", Little Chernobyl "Come for the borscht, leave with a healthy glow!", Bally!kill "OCH! BEST HAGGIS IN TOWN..." and last but not in anyway the least... Miyazaki Town. With two tourists slowly walking down the empty streets in the afternoon sun.

A few days after the incidents at the beach and spending them just rubbing on sunburn-balm and watching the local soap operas (what IS this thing with squids? It is so bizzare...) in their hotel room, the couple is more than ready to explore the city again.

Namely it's culinary exploits. And armed with re-translated brochures, Laini's directions and her food-scanning PDA plug-in for compatibility...

Its time to test out Susie Sells Seafood by the Sea Shore. And really, it's a bit of what you'd expect of a place named as such. Through the driftwood doorway and aging painted sign, reading 'out eat the head cook, get your meals free for a week!' is the main indoor eating area. The walls are built out of a combo of driftwood, shell bits and sand, with use-polished driftwood furniture, and there's a viewing patio of the shore... made out of time-frozen water.

It's the day after the night of the wedding, and slowly, after a long night's sleep, Mrs. Matrix climbs out of bed with her husband and stretches out for the morning. And for once, she doesn't have to go for work for the cycle. They have the entire day to themselves, for whatever they want to do together.

...what do they want to do?

"Honey..."

...in a little over a tetrakilocycle, is in the center of Mainframe. The Front Hall of the Principal Office has been decorated in white with pale blue flower motifs into every gather and hanging drape.

Such are the perks to being the COMMAND.COM of a small system. The wedding band is waiting on one of the galleries, and everyone else is starting to file in. It looks like every single resident of Mainframe is coming to the event, along with a few friends from outside the system.

♪♫Come on in they're finally getting married♪♫

None of the binomes looked up as the COMMAND.COM made her on-schedule 14:00 round about the office to check up on everyone, but they certainly shared looks at each other for a moment. Dot liked to operate her office without certain media sprites present, and more so, without the gossip blaring.

Her regular staff went about their usual business casting worried glances whenever they were dead certain she wasn't looking. The next nano, when she'd look back at them, it was like nothing had happened.

No one who worked with her regularly wanted to bring up what had been on the news. At least that's what the office thought as one of the more matronly Zero binomes brought her lunch.

"So when are the little alphas due, dearie?"

Every person in hearing distance froze and turned slowly in horror at the next word to leave Dot Matrix's mouth.

"...what?"

"Oh you know, the quadruplets! I heard about it all in the news... this...morning." The Zero Binome turned to find everyone else making a hasty exit as the words sunk in. "..ah-heh heh...I'll just fetch you some COCOA dearie...just be a nano."

Dead silence.

In the empty office, Dot slowly got up and stalked towards the door, the clicking of heels echoing as she walked up, leaving the snack on her desk, to head into Milliways.

The past few nights had been hard on both of their schedules, with Dot's random and frequent cravings coming on for no discernable reason, it wasn't any surprise that she woke up to Bob having had to run off to take care of something. Feeling, tired, cranky, and achy all over was no way to wake up from sleepmode.

It got worse when she stood up and went to get dressed when a wave of nausea hit her in the processor, and created a mad dash for the restroom.

After a few nanos she washed up and looked at herself in the mirror again.

Was morning sickness ever this bad for Mom?

The first thing to be seen upon leaving the upstairs closet of the Matrix' family apartment is the hallway and the stairs leading down to the second level. It's a lovely apartment, neat and decorated in the style of 'The 1950's as revisited by people from the year 3032'.

Ans a view, gleaned from the very large living room window, is a spectacular view of the rest of the city, neat lines, clean bright colors and shapes.

"Welcome to Mainframe and Casa de Matrix, Laini," Dot calls to the hall closet cheerfully heading into the kitchen.

It didn't take that long for Bob and Dot to lug their suitcases and duffel bag down into the closet, however it was a bit cramped inside with the three people. For Dot's first time in Userspace (Milliways doesn't count, it's a crossroads there) it's kind of a bumpy start to be crammed into a closet.

"Would someone mind opening the door? ...Please?"

There were always things that needed to get done early, and preferably quietly inside of the Principal Office. In various alcoves, niches, and even distinct areas specifically designed to keep a certain pair of idiots entertained, binomes went about their work. And more specifically, in more recent minutes they came through with amazing breakthroughs in the labs. Unfortunately between those amazing breakthroughs, there were very long periods of heavy stress, mild screaming, and sometimes like right now, a heavy dose of worry and helplessness.

Dot watched a particular clear enclosure inside of the Principal office. A null squeaked moving about inside of the container. Phong puttered with some equipment nearby as she watched it move around inside.

"How's he doing, Phong?"

The talk with Turbo was not encouraging. There never was, never has been any mention of ANY adopted sisters or a cadet named 'Lisa' at the Academy, or of any 'resistance group'.

So there is one very edgy and worried Command.Com going over files and debating taking all of this to Milliways when the vidwindow pops up right in front of her.

Bob and Dot have not been talking much lately, whenever there has been a conversation eventually... Lisa comes up. And Dot is 100% certain she's never heard so much as one word about her before. It's Bob though, and she wants to give him the benefit of the doubt, so she's doing what comes programmed.

Shifting through entry after entry in her diaries, and even going so far as to call Turbo up on a pretense of meeting-the-parent jitters to get info on Bob's family. Much as she distrusts Turbo, she knows he'd be honest about Bob's past and about any friends named Lisa at the academy about 1-1.

Something is not right with Bob.

Whatever it is, it should not have messed with him.

The load at work has slacked off enough that Dot's at home cooking dinner this evening, instead of the usual take-out. Stir-fry, with c-loin tips in gravy, crackles on the stove. She expects her little brother will be back from Milliways soon, and then they'll be able to talk.

After all, he's been getting into so much these days, and sometimes she just has to bait the little guy with food to get him to sit still long enough to talk. Dot looks up and smirks when she hears the upstairs closet door shut and starts setting the table. "Enzo! Dinner's almost ready, I hope you've got an appetite!"

For the past few cycles everyone's been waiting on a sort of bated breath about this. The recompiler has been checked no less than five times over to make sure nothing could go wrong with it. It stands ready, a cylindrical casket with a transparent cover, the interior padded for the comfort of the returning sprite.

For the past few cycles Dot's been on bits and bytes worrying if this will work, and is now standing nearby, out of the way of the debugging duo as they get to work. Now, all they can do is hope it turns out all right.

Inside of the Principal Office, in one of the many laboratory-cum-code-chopshop, four sets of hands are going every single digit of Guardian Code. It's been busy the last few cycles and with the capture of Turbo it's become even more urgent to 'distill' the code copied off of Bob and Matrix into some form of a cure that they can administer. Neither set of code is complete, but it's the best shot they got... isn't it?

"Hiro, how're we doing?"