He'd let everything go.
Everything except for Kitt.
Michael was at the wheel driving Kitt out further and further from what they had known as home for several years. It'd been a tough decision, but Michael had concluded that it was time for him to take a rest and retire from the arduous life he'd been living for the past few years as Michael Knight. He'd convinced Devon and Bonnie to let Kitt retire alongside him, it had been a difficult task to convince them and a hard decision for sure but Michael knew very well that life wouldn't be the same without Kitt and that Kitt would most likely feel the same way despite he'd been slightly reluctant to leave FLAG.
Now, they were heading to a nice town up in the green state of Oregon. The state was a well-known place for ex-Californians to retire to. An escape from busy city life. Michael thought it was the perfect place for him and Kitt. Kitt on the other hand had been a bit worrisome about the change, the weather there was very different from the weather back home.
It was lightly raining and was very dark as they drew closer to the place that they'd be calling home soon. Michael was rather excited, he'd hand-picked the house himself off of a real estate brochure and thought it was the perfect place. Sure it was a bit run down but would provide some R&R for years to come.
"What do you think of the color blue Kitt?" Michael asked with tired eyes, glancing at Kitt's dark modulator. Kitt had been rather reserved about his opinion on their retirement as of late.
"I don't think it would fit me, you know what I think Michael." Kitt internally sighed.
"Not you." Michael chuckled. "The house, it's blue. Should we change the color? I was thinking the light blue fits it perfectly, but we might have to repaint it; freshen it up a bit." Michael grinned trying to cheer up his partner.
"By "we" you mean you," Kitt replied quietly.
"Kitt…" Michael groaned. "The house is OUR house, therefore the two of us have to take care of it."
"I don't see the practicality of it."
"Kitt, it isn't like at the mansion where others do the maintenance for us. Here we're going to be doing it ourselves. Speaking of which, what color do you want the garage to be? Since it is your "room" might as well fix it up to your liking."
"My "garage" is at the FLAG headquarters. Let me remind you." Kitt protested. "Michael, couldn't it have been easier to retire at the FLAG headquarters?"
"I'm afraid, that's not how it works Buddy." Michael sighed. "It's time to start a new chapter in our lives."
"A life without Devon, RC, and Bonnie. I'm not too sure I want to start a chapter like that."
Michael shook his head, looking down at Kitt's modulator.
"We talked about this. Kitt, if you didn't want to leave you could have said something, I would have respected your choice to stay at FLAG." Michael laid back in his seat, yawning, awaiting Kitt's reply.
"Thing is…" Kitt remarked, "I can't imagine a life without you."
Michael glanced down at the bright dash taking in the sentiment.
"Me too buddy, me too." He replied quietly looking down at the map Kitt was displaying on his screen, the house was just a mile down the road.
Michael and Kitt came up the gravel driveway, illuminating the house with Kitt's headlights and taking in the mossy blue house in the spectacle. The windows were the old single-pane kind, smoldered in thick dust and webs. The roof seemed to be more or less intact, but huge blackberry plants were overrunning the place, especially the flower beds.
"What do you think?" Michael asked Kitt, craning his neck against the windshield to get a better view in excitement.
"Michael, couldn't you have bought something else that didn't need to be put back together with duct tape and baling wire?" Kitt protested, "This place hardly fits the definition of a home."
Michael smiled down at Kitt's dash.
"Well, let's check it out," Michael replied getting out of the car and swinging the house keys around with his fingers. Using Kitt's headlights to guide him, he walked up the old rotting porch and fit the key into the lock, wiggling it a little before it creaked open. He turned to Kitt and gave him a thumbs up with a very satisfied grin, to which Kitt replied with a nervous swoosh of his scanner. Michael walked in, coughing at the dampness trapped inside, turning on the lights, and taking in the empty living room. The first thing he took in was the flower-patterned worn-out floors. He could make out a "sinkhole" or two where the floor met the walls.
The place was awfully dusty too but overall looked to be in good condition. Maybe a few things could be replaced here and there but Michael was confident that the place would warm up to him. He made his way into the hall and entered the master bedroom. There wasn't anything inside other than a worn-out mattress on the ground. Michael crossed his arms, he wasn't too sure if he'd brought any blankets in his luggage as he would be needing to buy home furnishings in the coming week. Michael dismissed the mattress and returned outside to Kitt who was scanning over the property in scrutiny.
"Michael you said there was a garage, where is it?" Kitt replied, sounding somewhat curious.
"Over here, buddy." Michael motioned for him to follow, walking over to the side of the house and forcing the rusting garage door open. Kitt straightened himself out in the driveway, focusing his bright lights on the inside of the garage.
"Good grief," Kitt remarked, in disgust. "Michael this isn't even a garage!"
Michael switched on a single bulb hanging from the ceiling, looking over the badly cracked concrete and the cobwebs covering almost every inch of the place. There were several empty boxes, a stack of old comics, and trash bags discarded on the floor with old tools mounted on the side of the walls.
"Well, this place has seen better days. Nothing a little cleaning up can't mend." Michael replied, picking up an old broom, the broom head falling off the shaft just as he did.
"Why don't I find that reassuring?" Kitt replied over the humming of his engine. "Michael, you don't expect me to spend the night in here do you?"
Michael rolled his eyes.
"Kitt, my room doesn't look much different to yours and I'm not complaining." Michael sighed, putting the remains of the broom down. "Look, I know it doesn't look great now but I promise you with some elbow grease this place will be in tip-top shape soon! In just a few days you'll be begging to stay in this garage."
"Very funny," Kitt remarked, still looking over the filthy demeanor of the place. "I plan to stay outside tonight. Would you like to take a snooze in my driver's seat?" Kitt teased, imagining what Michael's room might look like.
"Sure, you can sleep outside tonight. The rain already stopped so that's great," Michael sighed. "But I'm sleeping inside." Michael raised his brows attempting to convince himself as well as Kitt about his choice of purchase. Of course, it fell flat.
"Michael, you didn't pack blankets." Kitt dared.
"I appreciate your worry, but I don't need them," Michael replied, strolling to Kitt's trunk to which he opened quietly for him. Michael reached in pulling out his few belongings and luggage.
"Night buddy," Michael remarked, patting Kitt's hood.
"Night Michael," Kitt replied, sounding somewhat worried.
Michael smiled, disappearing into the empty house turning off the lights as he retreated to his new room.
It would be a long night.
Kitt had spent the majority of the night taking in the strange ambiance. Michael had mentioned a lake not so far away from the house and Kitt could just barely hear the sounds of water quietly waving across in the breezy night. He had to admit that the place did have a certain appeal. It was up in the woods and was rather quiet. Listening to the leaves rustling in the trees almost made it sound like they were at the side of the sea, without the smell of fish of course, which Kitt found most pleasing. He continued to admire the nature of the property when he heard a loud and panicked shout resonate from within the house.
"Michael?" Kitt asked into the comlink channel.
"Kitt! KittTttttTTttt!" Michael exclaimed, screaming at full lung!
Quick to turn on his engine he instantly pinpointed the safest point to impact the house! Someone must have slipped by and snuck into the house and was probably attempting to murder Michael! How could he have been so careless as to not have entered surveillance mode in the first place!?
"I'm coming Michael," Kitt reassured urgently into the comlink.
Kitt impacted the house just to the side of the master bedroom completely shoving into the bathroom inward and pulverizing the walls. Chunks of the sink turned to fine glass as it bounced off Kitt's Chasis. Kitt's blinding lights cast huge shadows over the destroyed bathroom.
"Michael!" Kitt shouted into the dust cloud. He watched worriedly as Michael came running out from the thick dust in his pajamas shouting fully panicked and waving his hands. Kitt opened the driver's door for him, allowing Michael to slip into the seat in full panic.
"Did you see the size of that thing!?" Michael asked, out of breath.
"What thing? I didn't see anything. Can I get a description? Michael should I call the police?" Kitt asked quickly, worriedly.
"It was this huge rat! The size of two cats put together! Crawled up the side of the mattress and tried to bite me!" Michael ranted on.
"A rat?" Kitt exclaimed, in dismay. "Michael, you mean I crashed into your washroom because of an oversized rodent?" Kitt remarked rather annoyed.
"Kitt it was huge, I've never seen anything like that before! Look, it could have gnawed the life out of your upholstery in a matter of seconds!"
"Well if you put it like that…" Kitt replied, beaconing the dusty Trans-Am out of the car-sized hole to the side of the house. "Do you want me to schedule a visit from pest control?"
"Yes please!" Michael gasped, shaking in distress in the driver's seat.
Kitt looked over Michael's vitals it seemed the rat had really shaken him up, and the fact that he'd hadn't scowled him for destroying their "home" only solidified the notion even more.
"Michael, may I suggest you take a nap?"
Michael nodded, leaning back in the seat and reclining it without a second thought.
"Mind putting some music pal? That thing sure took some years out of my life!" Running his trembling hands through his hair.
"Sure thing Michael," Kitt replied, worriedly.
Kitt watched over Michael throughout the whole night. He decided not to risk it and remained in surveillance mode. Watching closely over his vitals as he slept. Kitt couldn't help and felt a bit silly over the whole ordeal. Here was Michael, a grown man of steel nerves who could take the toughest of cases and yet a single rat had sent him in a frenzy for Kitt's assistance? Would life usually be this way? Would Kitt have to be up and at Michael's every call even if the call of help happened to sound foolish?
Kitt curiously went over details about rats in his database, intrigued. Turned out there were several logically justifiable reasons to have reacted in such a way to a rodent of that size. Rodents carried lots of diseases and could be a potential threat to human life. That was enough for Kitt to justify his self-sized hole punched into Michael's bathroom. With that out of the way, Kitt dimmed his dash even more and continued to be vigilant of the surroundings.
Michael was standing at the edge of the rubble in shorts and a T-shirt, at the mercy of the rain. Kitt hadn't realized Michael had run through the rubble shoeless up until this morning as both went over the damage. He was rather embarrassed he hadn't caught that small detail when he was supposed to be very observant. The good news was Michael had left some sandals in the trunk, if not Kitt would have been forced to re-enter the Pontiac-sized hole so Michael could safely retrieve his preferred footwear.
Much to Kitt's surprise Michael wasn't upset and didn't hint at any anger as he glanced at the bathtub that had been split in two, on the contrary, he sounded relieved Kitt had done the impossible to get him out of harm's way.
"Thanks, buddy," Michael said, glancing towards Kitt's humming scanner. "It was old anyway, we were probably going have to replace it." He remarked trying to ease Kitt's thoughts, as Michael looked over some broken pipes that had flooded the side of the house creating a huge mud pool.
"Michael, I was hoping the rest of the house didn't match the conditions of the garage but as I see it, it would be a better choice to destroy it and rebuild a new one," Kitt remarked, matter-of-factly.
Michael chuckled.
"Kitt, where's the fun in that?" He glanced towards Kitt's slow humming scanner.
"Lots, actually. For one, you wouldn't have to worry about being attacked by cat-sized rodents in your sleep."
Michael chuckled once more, starting to make his way through the rubble to retrieve a change of clothes.
Kitt waited outside, wondering what they were to do next. He wondered what would have been on their agenda if Michael hadn't been attacked in the first place. Perhaps he could suggest a nice morning breakfast at a local diner, and if he could be persistent, to have Michael stay at a nearby hotel until the pest control arrived and solved the problem. He wondered if he could get away with convincing Michael to hire a construction company.
Michael was quick to reappear through the hole in his usual attire with all his belongings in hand. He took one last look at the destroyed bathroom before climbing into Kitt.
"Sure leveled the place, buddy," Michael remarked with a grin as he pulled the black trans am out of the driveway. Kitt took one more glimpse of the home, it looked in worse condition than when they'd arrived the night before. All in a day's work...for Michael Knight that was…