The long needle in her hand would scare most men, but the one in front of her had yet to have the "soul chip" put into place, his lifeless form propped up with a few metal poles that held him tightly into place. With a stead hand she stitched the final few stitches to close his back near the top of his rear, his body looking simply magnificent and so easily mistaken for a human male. She smiled at the soft sigh of recognition behind her.

"I know.. he's perfect, isn't he?" Jessica finished her word and stood, turning to look at her mentor and friend.

Eric was much older, his smile filled with hope and excitement as he moved closer and looked the male over, touching the dark hair on his head. "How did you decide to do the hair? Synthetic or grafted from another human?"

She reached up and swatted his hand from her subject. "It is grafted. I could get the skin to feel real with synthetics, but not the hair. Just needed to use what God created in his wisdom." She brushed her finger through the subjects hair, fixing it and touching his cheek with a loving look on her face. "He is the first of his kind. He will be the model for the next decade at least."

Eric pulled her into a fatherly hug and laughed, "Damn I'm proud of you kid. He's beautiful.. just breathtaking."

She moved back and pulled the soul chip from her pocket, placing it in the older man's hand. "Do the honors."

"No... he is all yours, Jessica." He shook his head, but upon her refusal to deny him the opportunity he simply smiled and told her to stand in front of the male so that when he opened his eyes she would be the first thing he saw and would find recognition with her no matter where he was or what he went though. She moved in front of him and let Eric pop the chip into the base of his skull, his movement of his muscles and subtle flutters of his eyelids caused her heart to almost stop.

"Mark.... wake up for me," she whispered and touched his arm, squeezing where his nerve endings could best feel her touch.