Further tests.

Jake chewed his food thoughtfully. Sam started to speak, then bit her tongue.

"We should try some different experiences and see how they transfer."

Sam became visibly excited. "Yeah, I wanna try some stuff out through you! I wanna feel you laugh!"

Jake laughed, remembering that his enthusiasm was literally infectious. "Ok, let's start with laughter. Tell you what, you head into the other room and I'll pull up some stuff on my phone." Suddenly he had an idea.

"Jackass." She said matter-of-factly. "Never cared much for it, it'll be the perfect test."

As he pulled up some of favorite stunts on his phone, Sam went into his bedroom. She sat in silence for a second, wondering if it wasn't working.

Suddenly she had a fit of giggles. She looked around the room. Her eyes settled on Jake's bed. God, it was funny! She was looking over his rumpled sheets and stifling a loud laugh. She finally let it out, doubling over with peals of laughter. She couldn't explain it but the sight of the bed just sent her into paroxysms of laughter.

After a few minutes Jake opened the door, still chuckling. "I haven't watched Jackass in forever. Good to know I haven't matured since high school. I heard you laughing in here - does that mean it worked?"

Sam wiped tears from her eyes. "I think so. Although I wasn't laughing about Jackass, I was just sitting here and suddenly found your bed hilarious. I think I must have started laughing without a cause so my mind just attached it to whatever I was looking at."

"Weird. So like, what was funny about the bed?"

She tried to find the words. "Nothing. Everything. I don't know, it's really hard to describe. It's like I've said - I know it's artificial, but it feels so organic. Nothing felt more natural than laughing at your bed, even though I knew it wasn't funny."

He thought about it. She furrowed her brow. "I'm curious what it would be like to talk to me when you're asleep. I don't know how we'd do that, though. Maybe bring in a third party?"

Jake had the same idea, of course. They had done a lot of experimentation with just the two of them, maybe it was time to see what this whole thing looked like to an outsider.

"What about Janet?" Sam and her sister were very close. Jake wasn't sure she'd love this new situation, but they'd have to deal with their friends and families sooner or later.