AN:Sorry for the long wait...very busy this time of year. Thanks, reviewers!

greg9570: Sorry if it was confusing...it's not a flashback at all, it's just as it sounds, she was out running, then went home where she ran into her mom. i'll try to be more clear in the future, please be patient!

AScreamInTheNight: Thank you! High school lit classes finally pay off!

snowboarder9: Hey! Quit following me! - Of course I'll read your stories! Give me a few days, I'll make the time!

acosta pérez josé ramiro; crazybluephantom: Thanks!

EL CHUPACABRA: Always a pleasure to make you sniffle! (Note to readers: check out this writer's stories...I luv em! Especially "My faveorite penpal"...good stuff...and don't let this go to your head, Chupa!)

Disclaimer: "To belive with certainty we must begin with doubting." - Stanislaw I, king of Poland

Chapter 3

She hesitated, feeling the night air around her. Feeling like an intruder, she looked at the shiny sensor before her. It had been a while since she had stood in this spot. She fingered the hair in her pocket carefully. It was hard to believe…hard to imagine that it was the last remnant of him.

She held it, finally, before the scanner.

"Welcome, Jimmy"

The words had never sounded to eerie as they did to her now. The computer, for all it's dictionary use of words, could never have pieced together an original thought. It had no idea why, if it knew at all, Cindy was wiping away a tear as she stepped in.

The lab. It was filled with so many memories…from the Yolkian attack to Jimmy's first Nobel prize at 13. She looked around herself, taking in the familiar sights, smells, sounds.

Walking over to the experiments, she couldn't help but smile. He still had the girl-eating plant after all this time…"Just in case", he had told her.

Turning from the specimens, she taken aback by the sight of what lay on the table before her.

It was Goddard. Or, at least, it had been. She had never seen him in so many pieces. Her forehead crinkled in pain for him…even if he was only a robot dog…he was Jimmy's best friend.

She picked up a piece of him. Fingering it softly, she thought to herself. Could she really put him together? With a struggling sigh, she started picking up pieces, trying to see where they fit.

4 hours later, she fell to a chair with a frustrated grunt. "I can't do this." She thought, desolately. "Jimmy built him…and I'm no genius." She rubbed her face with her hands, glancing at the clock. It blinked a miserable 1:26 a.m.

She wanted to cry so badly…but there were no more tears. Why couldn't she just do this one last thing for Jimmy? She knew how it would feel to have Goddard again. It was like resurrecting a piece of Jimmy…but she couldn't even do that. She looked around the lab, distracting her mind from the pain.

"I'm not a genius. How am I supposed to do this?" She said to herself again, before her eyes caught sight of poster on the wall. Her eyes flitted over the picture of Albert Einstein, reading the words written beneath.

It is only by standing on the shoulders of giants that we may see the future!

She tilted her head, considering the words. "It means to use other people's knowledge to add to your own, of course." She smiled fakely to herself. "At least I can figure out a dumb poster." Stopped for a moment, the words finally sank in. "Jimmy's knowledge…that's what I need. I need to work with what he knew." Her mind clicked into motion, using the scientific reasoning Jimmy had drilled into her every time he opened his mouth.

"So…how do I do that?" She asked herself, keeping her mind distracted from the thought of Jimmy by talking aloud.

Suddenly, her gaze fell on him computer. Walking over to it, she sat in the seat, sadly remembering who it belonged to. It was a small consolation that she had to adjust the seat higher to get in. It reminded her of all the times they had teased each other…

She lay her hands on the keyboard, a bit lost. Glancing up at the screen, she took a deep breath, and started to type.

"Password required!" The computer interrupted, with a glaring beep.

Cindy blinked at the message, then flew into a rage with herself. "I'm useless! Can't I get anything done?" She screamed, leaping to her feet. "I'll never be able to fix Goddard! I'll never be able to do anything!"

She stopped herself. There was no one to hear her words…no way for anyone to know what kind of pain she was in as she deposited her hands on her face.

"Not without Jimmy…"