Not the smallest dose, but not a lot to start

You tapped your chin in thought, as you leaned over the syringes. It was already clear to you that you were too curious to not try something, but you knew not to jump in too deep on something so unbelievable. Again, you trusted the doctors, but it still felt so strange to do too much at the start. And even if it isn't as easy to integrate in more nanites later, the fact that it was possible made you less concerned about the idea of 'missing out' with what a larger dose could do.

Controlling a whole other being with your mind... a cute one at that. A shapeshifter at that! Something really amazing was being practically handed to you, but you couldn't yet think about just what you could do with that kind of ability. And really... you wanted to know Ela with only a little bit of your influence as a part of her, since what if you and she didn't even get along? Would that even be possible if she shared part of your brain? It didn't seem like she would be exactly like you though, and you felt like if connections from your brain weren't overpowering her, you could have a friend in Ela, not just another body.

Friend, or maybe a friend with benefits... or more. Ela was admittedly cute.

All this ran through your head, and Zoe softly nudged you to pull you out of your daydreaming. Chloe was tapping her foot impatiently. The only patient one was Ela. No one told her to be impatient, and without your mind accessible to her, she wouldn't really ever think to be anything else.

You reached out, and picked up the second smallest dose. Holding it up to the light, you turned to Zoe. "This one... you said if I take it, she gets all the benefits of my mind, and I could influence some of her behaviors with my thoughts, yes?"

Zoe nodded, with a hopeful smile.

"Would she know it was my thoughts if she behaved differently from normal?"

"Probably not unless you told her. You have to remember, you are going to be her 'normal'. She may be extremely knowledgeable, but you are going to elevate her cognition substantially. And even if you tell her, I'm not sure she would care, if you are not being malicious."

Chloe squinted a little. "And if you are malicious to our little Ela, you're going to regret it."

You gulped, and nodded silently. "...I have no intention of hurting anyone. I promise, if Ela is going to be connected to my mind, then we're going to be nothing but cooperative."

"Good!" Chloe grinned.

You held the syringe to Zoe. "I'll take this. The idea is too interesting to pass up, but I'm not ready to go in too deep with nanites. Maybe later, though... baby steps."

Zoe nodded, and then turned to Chloe. "Get the server up, please? I'll prepare the mixture for Ela as well. The window to do everything is small. Emily, if you'd lie down please, I'll apply the anesthetic after I take care of Ela."

You nodded, lying down, turned away from Ela but out of the corner of your eye you could see Chloe hurrying to the console of a nearby machine. She typed quickly at the keyboard, and you could hear a whirring, humming sound start up from the case of nanites on the table. You glanced over to the syringes, and a light blue glow began to shimmer from the contents. You looked upward, closing your eyes as you listened to the other two hurry along their tasks.

"Bootup complete, they're running in receive-mode right now. We've got five minutes to get the nanites installed, and then we can run the override. Otherwise they'll localize their connections and run their base operating system, that won't do us any good then." Chloe shuffled away from the computer, off to assist Zoe with Ela for a bit. "Ela, alpha configuration, please."

You looked up for a moment just to see what 'alpha configuration' was. Looked like it was just a formless blob--more like a large pile of taffy than anything. Zoe poured the nanites evenly over the structure, and the nanites seemed to sink into the living elastomer quickly and easily. While Chloe started to 'knead' the material, you guessed to evenly distribute the nanites, Zoe hurried back to you. You closed your eyes again, listening with some nerves in the pit of your stomach as you felt something cold on your neck. Zoe dabbed your neck with the local anesthetic, before you felt the brief, sharp pain of the syringe right below your skull. You would've much preferred an arm injection, but from the sound of it, the nanites right now were not in a 'smart' mode to know where to go and what to do. At least, not yet, unless time ran out...

"Two minutes left. Everything's been injected, let's power things up. Ela, base form, please. Emily, just keep relaxing, this is going to be... I don't know." Zoe didn't sound so sure at the moment, which wasn't exactly what you wanted to hear, but you gave a nervous nod and tried to relax. Chloe seemed to leap over the back of the couch to return to the server machine, typing furiously to start their custom program. You wondered how much of this nanite setup was a total hackjob, it sounded like they weren't at all intended to work in this fashion. Your thoughts were interrupted by... your thoughts.

It was hard to comprehend, but as the nanites came online, they scurried into your brain, bumping all around. You convulsed, you saw random memories, you are pretty sure you spoke random words out loud. You felt multiple emotions simultaneously, and then like your limbs were on fire briefly. And then... it was over, and you felt completely normal again.

"Oof, that was... not something I want to do every day." You sat up, rubbing your head, making sure there wasn't anything residual. You weren't the story of the night though. You sat cross-legged on the couch, peering over at Ela. Zoe and Chloe were on either side, hopeful to see a response.

At first, Ela remained still, head down. If the nanites were working, they were only one-way, in the sense that you couldn't seem to detect anything from Ela. You couldn't feel her, or read her mind, or anything to indicate a connection. Soon, though, she looked up, and the vacancy that had previously filled her eyes was gone.

"It's... clear now... there's no haze..." Ela said the first words you'd ever heard her speak, something apparently she'd been capable of if she'd not transformed or even really moved much recently. You knew that wasn't the case, she should've been worse off than even before you'd met her. As she started to laugh--followed shortly after by Zoe and Chloe, Ela pulled them both into a large hug.

You smiled a little, and Zoe turned to wave you over. "Come on, you're technically already part of the hug but let's make it a little more official--you're part of Ela now, so you're family, in a sense."

You left your seat, and wandered over to join in on the hug pile, a little reluctantly, but Ela reached over to tug you in. She was very aware that part of your mind was part of hers--and clearly, she was grateful.