You'vegot to start settling down sometime, you know..." Nah, I've got my job, you've put aside a trust fund forme, and I get dates every weekend with ...our friends' sons.I've got no reason at all to saddle myself more than thatwith useless baggage by settling down with a single man,now do I?" Oh, honey... you don't know what you're missing out on. Mymarriage was the happiest time of my life -- well, untilyou came along, of course." Yeah, but that ended, didn't it? And that man Williamyou've been. "It was a good decision on my part. I straightened Wakefield out and we have three children together. Wakefield loves them all equally and is proud of my first born, although James wasn't sired by him. You did not know it, but James is your biological son. He has just turned eighteen and is the finest of young men. You can be very proud."I have kept a scrapbook of James all of these years with pictures, etc. I thought you might like to have it to look at. Cindy and I speak over the phone. "It's really that simple?" It's that simple," Neera affirmed. "The hard work was done in the lab."The apex tousled Ticci's short, dark hair amid an eruption of applause.He blinked once, yawned, then closed his eyes."He'll sleep more soundly than usual for the next couple days or so,"Neera explained to Arcee, raising her voice slightly to be heard overthe crowd. "It's nothing to worry about; the nanites cause thesleepiness to help keep the patient relaxed while the body is acclimatedto its. The morning was blessedly normal. I was prepared for the seminar. I knew what I wanted to say, and I knew how I was going to say it. Most people have a certain amount of anxiety surrounding public speaking, but for once, mine seemed to be asleep at the switch. I guess most of that anxiety was caused by the desire for acceptance by the audience and fear that they’d fail to get it. I had the unwavering support of my girls. No fumbling on that stage was going to change that. The rest of the school.