Two - Retreat to Nevada

Ella let loose an appreciative whistle as they pulled up in front of
the Knight mansion. _This_ was more like it. Here was her lab, with
the scientists and technicians running around wearing white coats and
panicking. The lab, that had been demolished only days before, was
quickly being rebuilt and re-equipped. Michael and Kitt had arrived
earlier and now there were technicians fussing around the car. Ella
frowned as she stepped out of the Limo. She caught Devon's attention
and indicated the commotion. "Is it always like this?"

Devon raised his eyebrows questioningly and followed Ella's pointed
finger. He shook his head. "Oh no, they're just concerned for him.
They'll settle down once they know he's okay. Kitt's well cared for
around here. _And_ this is the first time they've seen the new look
Knight 2000. I think they're also curious."

Ella leaned on the top of the Limo that had collected them from the
airport. For some reason that she could not put her finger on, it
unsettled her to see Kitt being prodded and poked at, even if they were
not strangers. She had not realized that she was staring until Bonnie
sidled up behind her, and whispered quietly, "Stop drooling."

Ella immediately turned away, embarrassed. But Bonnie just laughed,
and continued inside. Ella was about to follow when Devon called after
her. "I just wanted to say," he started, as he walked her into the
mansion, "that you're welcome to stay as long as you like. I'd be quite
happy to speak to your boss...."
"Thank you, Devon. They owe me enough vacation time. I spoke to Jerry
this morning, he was okay with it."
Devon smiled at her. As far as Ella could make out, Devon only had two
expressions, smiling and frowning. She liked him a lot. She liked the
way he played father and boss to these people, and the way he knew which
to be when.
"I appreciate you letting me stay on. I would really like to know that
Kitt's okay."
"Well, I don't think he is at the moment, but he will be." Again he
looked as if there was something more he wanted to say, but instead he
took a step back. "If you'll excuse me, Ella, I'm sure there's a
mountain of paperwork waiting for me. Please, make yourself at home.
Bonnie will show you around, if you can find her."
"Thanks Devon, I'll be fine."

**

As the crowd moved into the garage, the commotion around Kitt
increased. More technicians who worked closely with the car started to
realize that the computer's reactions and retorts were not as they used
to be. Michael watched the scene with mixed emotions, becoming more
concerned by the minute. Bonnie was also watching from the new lab
section of the garage. Both could feel Kitt's growing agitation, and
both saw the car shift into gear and start to reverse, obviously mindful
of the people around, but also as obviously needing to get out of
there. From the garage door, Michael took a step forward, but Bonnie
was closer, and with one startling shout she cleared the technicians
from around the car. She started to close on Kitt, but the car
continued to pull back. "Come on, Kitt, it's okay."

But instead of stopping, they all heard Kitt's unusually soft voice,
"I'm sorry, Bonnie, I need some time." He pulled a neat 180-degree turn
and passed by Michael in the doorway. He watched the car leave, but did
not say a word. He knew Kitt too well, had spent too much time with
him, not to know when he needed to be left alone.

The technicians had cleared from the garage, mumbling and muttering
amongst themselves. Only Bonnie remained behind. When she saw Michael
approaching her, she pushed off the workbench, taking a step towards
him. "I'm sorry. I didn't know they'd get like that."
"It's okay, Bonnie. You didn't know Kitt would get like that either."
She sighed. "How is he?"
Michael shrugged. "He was very quiet on the way here. I think he just
needs time, like he said, and a lot of understanding."
Bonnie walked across to where Kitt had been standing in the garage. "I
don't get what's going on here. Michael, he's never been this upset
before. Not since...."
She stopped, and Michael frowned, "Since when?"
"Since the time of your vacation in Rio."

Michael tried to remember back, his memories of that holiday were
incredible, basking in the heat, the women, the relaxation. Kitt had
been quiet around then, it was part of the reason Devon had sent him
off, because Michael had put Kitt's distraction down to his own
exhaustion and stress. "I thought it was just me being.... Sometimes
my behaviour rubs off on him. He'll take his cues from me, and often if
I'm quiet, he will be too."
Bonnie shook her head, and met Michael's confused gaze with her own.
"He was definitely acting strange around then. Although you are right
in that when you got back, he seemed fine again." She smiled at him as
he stepped towards her. "Maybe you do have a greater influence on him
than I thought."

Michael's expression changed as he saw the definite twinkle in her
eye. She closed the gap between them. "Maybe you have a greater
influence than I thought... on me too."
For one moment, the look on her face blew everything else out of his
mind. His heart started pounding. "Bonnie..."
She reached down and took his hands in hers. "Michael, at the moment
Kitt is more important to me than anything else. Whatever's going on,
he's going to need us at some point. But I wanted to tell you...."
Michael's fingertips on her cheek took the words from her lips. She
shivered lightly as he bent slowly and touched his lips to hers.
"I've wanted to tell you too," he murmured, "for a long time."
"You have?"
"I have."
"Why haven't you said anything?"
"Because I'm a coward? Why haven't you?"
"Because I'm a coward?"

Her lips touched again to his, and this time Michael was not going to
waste the moment. He brought his hands up to her shoulders, gently
sweeping his tongue over her mouth. He felt her fingers in his hair,
felt her against his body. He could not remember how long he had wanted
this, how many times he had thought about holding her in his arms,
kissing her thoroughly, making love to her....

Bonnie relaxed into Michael's warm embrace. He tasted incredible, felt
fantastic, and finally she felt she was where she belonged. When they
parted, Michael was smiling at her. "Michael...." she started, but he
interrupted her.
"I know. Kitt first, us later."
"But not too much later...."
"Definitely not."

**

Kitt did not go very far. Too preoccupied to drive anywhere, he
maneuvered further into the grounds of the rambling estate until he
believed himself to be alone. Wilton Knight must have liked his trees,
Kitt mused. The other place had been surrounded by woodland, and
although their California home was not quite so buried, there was still
enough for Kitt to lose himself in it; metaphorically speaking.

He knew his behaviour had been unexpected, and that he was adding to
the concerns of his friends. But he had enough to cope with at the
moment, things that went beyond the attack, things no one knew about.
Alice.
Kitt had believed that he had rid himself of the terrible images she
had plagued him with during the three months she was hacking into his
systems. When he had finally tracked her down, closed the door on her
once and for all, he had gathered together everything, all the data,
every false memory she had left him with, and deleted them. But Alice
had been a skilled programmer, an expert hacker, and she had left behind
something he had not been aware of until after Ella's program had
revived him. Somehow, as well as hacking into his internal systems, she
had hacked in to the backup mainframe which had been standing by, ready
to take the backup the C.E.E.P.S. program sent to it, and store it until
recovery had been possible and safe.

He had seen it, that first flash just after Bonnie had restarted the
program. He had tried to push it away; he had deleted as much as he
could find then. But there was more, surfacing bit by bit, tied in
irrevocably with critical parts of his own software. However she had
done it, she had been thorough. Kitt had never known why she had chosen
him. Never known why she had hacked in over and over, each time leaving
no trace, only the horrific images and suggestions, and by the time Kitt
noticed them there, she was already out. Over ninety times in three
months.

And then Michael had gone on vacation. And while he partied with the
girls, Kitt had sat silently in the parking lot of the hotel in Rio and
fought back. He had waited, every bit of processing power monitoring
his own systems. He shut down everything else, losing track of time, of
his surroundings, of _himself_ as he waited. The moment she had entered
his systems he had been aware of it. He had used that open connection
to track her back to her own computer, and in furious, desperate
retaliation he had destroyed everything he had found there. He had
wiped hard disks, memory, cache, anything and everything until there was
nothing left. And then he had severed the link between them. That had
been the last he had heard from her. Until now.

Through it all, he had never said a word to Michael, Bonnie, or anyone
about the continuous attacks. They had noticed his behaviour becoming a
little distracted, but he had succeeded in keeping his fear and horror
to himself. He had known then, as he knew now, that they would want to
know exactly what she had done, the memories she had left him with. And
he was too humiliated to show them, to even tell them. He had been
violated at the lowest level. He had felt it his business, no one
else's.

But this time, he knew he could not get rid of the data by himself. It
was too tied to his programming, as if somehow she had managed to merge
the images with the data sent during the recovery. He needed to talk to
Ella. But how could he ask for her help without telling her why.

"Kitt?"

Her voice startled him. Seldom had he been this involved with himself
that he had stopped monitoring his surroundings. "Ella, I'm sorry....
I was thinking."
"I saw you leave the garage, and I thought maybe you needed to
talk.... I can leave if you want to be alone?"
"No, not at all." He popped open the driver's side door. "Please. I
really do need to talk to you."
Ella climbed in, letting Kitt close the door after her. She had hoped
that once they put the computer back in the car, her feelings concerning
Kitt would settle down. This _was_ a car, for God's sake. But if
anything her emotions were more mixed up now then they had been back in
Canada.

"I need your help, Ella."
"Sure, Kitt, anything." She wondered what she could possibly do that
this wonder-computer could not.
"When the recovery program sent the data back to the system, some other
data, that had been on the backup mainframe became... caught up
somehow. Is there anyway we can filter that corrupted data out, using
the original back-up files?"
Ella thought for a moment. She knew how to do it; it was what she had
been planning on doing when Devon had told her that the original
recovery had not worked. It was what she had spent most of the flight
from California researching. What was bothering her was that it seemed
highly unlikely that what Kitt was talking about would have occurred at
all. "It's relatively easy to do, Kitt. But I don't understand...."
"Please, Ella, just do it."
There was something about the tone of his voice, he sounded... tired,
yet there was a hint of desperation. "Have you told Bonnie or Michael
about this?"
"No. I can't...."
"Kitt...."

He never knew why he did it, he had never, ever meant to. But suddenly
he just wanted someone else to know, to understand what he had been
through, what he had rid himself of only to find it returned to him.
And some instinct told him that Ella would not be shocked or
embarrassed, she might just understand. He flashed one of the images up
onto just one of the four small monitors on the dashboard.

Ella was taken by surprise. Her eyes widened and she stared at the
screen in silence, her fingers moving unstoppably to touch the image
being shown to her. Even though she thought she already knew the
answer, she asked anyway. "What's this, Kitt?"
"Lots of those were placed in my memory."
In a voice that was barely a whisper she asked, "Who did this to you?"
"All I know was that her name was Alice."
Ella felt tears come to her eyes, surprising herself and Kitt with her
reaction. "Alice Through the Looking Glass," she breathed, not taking
her fingers from the screen, unable to tear her eyes from the image
before her.
"Pardon?"
"She's infamous. She's a hacker, breaks into people machines and...
mirrors their own nightmares back at them. She uses current data on the
system to find out about people. She sends images, text, sounds...."
Kitt was silent. This woman had not chosen him alone, she had chosen
many people, done this to others. "Do you think she knew what I was?"
"I don't know, Kitt. Were all the images like this?"
"No. There were... different types... some bizarre, some like that
one... very clear."
Ella tapped her fingertips against the glass, deep in thought. "I can
get rid of these, I can store the passed few days of your memory and
bring the backup in straight from source. The mainframe's here, isn't
it?"
"Yes, in the lab."
"I'll do it as soon as everyone turns in for the night."
"You won't tell... Bonnie or Michael?"
"No, I won't."

And still the image remained on the screen.
And the _feelings_ remained with it.
Isolation. From everyone and everything.
Devastation. Of his own doing.
Violence. Against the people he loved.
His own worst nightmares, things he had never even contemplated before
Alice had shown them to him.

**

send

"That better, Kitt?"
"Much better, thank you, Ella."
"Are you going to be okay?"
"Yes. Now."

Ella switched off the Black Daemon, disconnected the wires and closed
the hood of the car. Gently she touched the shimmering body-work,
hesitating before she ran careful fingertips across the scanner track.
"Do you ever... sleep?"
"I close down all higher functions when everyone's sleeping, unless I
have things to do."
"Meaning what? What functions do you leave on?"
"There's always input to be processed from Michael's comlink, and I
usually monitor what's happening around me. Why do you ask?"
Ella moved around the car and sat down in the open driver's side.
"I'm... interested."
"In me?" There was an edge to Kitt's question that told Ella he was
maybe asking more than he seemed to be, but she chose to ignore it.
"Yeah, in you. You seem about as human as any human I've ever met."
"Ella, please don't see me as something I'm not. I'm made up of neural
nets and bubble chips."
Ella sighed, exasperated. "Tell me, Kitt, why is it you are the only
one around here that still thinks of you as a computer?"
"Because I am a computer," he insisted. "I've noticed that Michael and
Bonnie have a tendency to ignore that fact, but it doesn't mean that
it's not true."

Ella pointed across to her own laptop sitting on the workbench in front
of Kitt's nose. "That's a computer, Kitt. It just sits there until you
plug it in and switch it on, and then it only does what you tell it to
do. Don't tell me you're the same as that." There was an appeal in
Ella's voice.

But Kitt's voice held the same tone. "I'm not saying that I'm the same
as your laptop. That's like comparing this car to a push-bike. But my
make-up is basically the same, if more advanced. I may sound slightly
human but I'm not."
"Believe me, you sound much more than _slightly_ human."
Kitt fell silent, unable to see anywhere else to take his argument.
Ella also went quiet, and after a short while, she stood, closing Kitt's
door carefully. "Get some rest, Kitt, you deserve it. I think we got
rid of all Alice's little tricks, all you should be left with is the
knowledge that it happened, rather then the memory. If we've missed
anything, you tell me?"
"Of course. Thank you, Ella. For everything."
"It's not a problem. I do care for you, computer or not. Just
remember that."
"I just hope that you care for me because of what I am, not what you
perceive me to be."

Ella's hand fell gently to the flawless body-work beside her. For a
moment, she lingered, touching him, realizing that he felt almost warm
to the touch. She figured it was the molecular bonding that gave the
warmth, rather than the usual cold metal of other cars. "You're very
special," she whispered, "that's why I care for you."

Leaving almost reluctantly, Ella closed the door of the garage quietly
behind her, and nearly walked straight into a guilty-looking Devon.
"How is he?"
Ella frowned. "He's fine, we were just chatting."
Devon stepped away from the door, and met her questioning gaze
directly. Finally, as if he had wanted to say the words for a long,
long time, he spoke. "I knew about Alice."

**

It was a busy night. At just gone twelve, less than ten minutes after
Ella left, Michael made his way down into the garage. He had been lying
awake, thinking about Bonnie, and about Kitt, the urge to drive had
taken him. It had been too long since he and his invigorating partner
had simply driven together, for no other reason than to enjoy the speed,
the night, and each other.

He opened the car door and climbed in to the driver's seat. "Kitt."
"Michael."
Michael started the engine and keyed open the automatic garage door.
He backed the car out, and started down the drive, turning out at the
end on to the open road. Neither of them spoke until they passed
through the town and out the other side, onto the desert highway. The
sliver of the moon was dim, the stars above them were bright. It was
beautiful.

**

"She sent me a message, just after Kitt locked her out of his systems
and destroyed her machine." Devon sat down hard behind his desk, and
reached over to press the switch on the desk lamp, brightly illuminating
that area of the room, leaving the rest in gradual shades of darkness.
He leaned towards Ella as she pulled up one of the old-fashioned chairs
and curled into it as best as she could, arms folded on the desk between
them. Devon spoke quietly. "It was simply in the form of an email,
sent anonymously. There was... a picture, with the words, 'He's seen it
all.' written at the bottom."
"What was the picture of?"
"It wasn't at all pleasant."
"Neither was what Kitt showed me. What was it of?"
He took a deep breath. "It was of Kitt, a close up of the front end of
the car. The hood and windshield were covered in... blood, and worse.
Michael's blood. It was quite graphic"
"How do you know it was Michael's blood?"
"Because..." he swallowed hard. "There was a battered hand, reaching
up, palm on the hood, like someone reaching from the floor. You could
only see the hand and wrist, but the comlink was clearly visible."
Devon stopped, obviously upset even now, after all this time. "I felt
so sick when I saw it." He took in a deep breath. "The email was
signed simply 'Alice'."
"What did the message say?"
"Basically, it informed me that we had destroyed her machine, that we
had won."
Ella frowned. "She admitted that she was beaten?"
"I believe she used the words, 'worthy adversary' in describing us. I
think she thought that we as a group had been instrumental in reeking
havoc with her machine, whereas I know Kitt is quite capable of
accomplishing that on his own."
Ella leaned back. "Did you ever tell anyone, show the picture to
anyone?"
Devon shook his head. "I am ashamed to say that I didn't."

Ella took all this in. For a while she was lost in silent thought.
They heard the turbine hum of Kitt's engine, and Devon stood, checking
out of the curtains to see Michael taking his car out for a drive. He
shook his head slowly, and turned from the window. "Could I offer you a
drink?" There was little cheer in his voice.
"That would be good. Bourbon, if you have it."
Devon nodded and made his way to the well-proportioned drinks cabinet.
Ella heard the chink of expensive crystal on glass, and moments later he
handed her a generous measure of finest bourbon. "Thank you. Devon,
why did you never say anything to Kitt?"

Devon finished pouring his own drink, a very expensive brandy, and sat
back down, nursing the heavy glass as he leant back in the chair. "I'm
ashamed to say that I was afraid to. I wasn't sure what she had sent to
him, whether he had wiped his memory of it completely, and... and what
his reaction might be if I brought the subject up."
Ella was horrified. She stared at Devon in shock. "You were scared of
him?"
"I... I don't know. No, not scared exactly. I kept seeing that
picture in my mind. Kitt has changed so much since we first switched
him on. He's broken through his programming to the point that we
honestly don't know his limits anymore."
"He could never hurt anyone!"
"I know that, here." He placed his hand over his heart. Wrongly, as
everyone always did. "But I couldn't keep that image out of my head,
for months."
"And what do you think it did to him?"

Devon fell silent, and suddenly Ella was on her feet, too many
sleepless nights finally catching up with her. "Why does everyone
side-step around him?"
Devon looked up, surprised by her outburst. "What?"
"I've watched you, and the technicians, and the rest of the staff.
Michael and Bonnie seem to be the only people around here who can act
naturally with him. What if Kitt had reacted badly? What if he'd done
the electronic equivalent of bursting in to tears?"
Devon smiled nervously, "That's preposterous...."
"Why? He has so many other human traits. Do you know why he endured
three months of continuous attack by Alice without telling any of you?"
Devon looked down, and Ella moved closer to the desk, raising her finger
to push her point. "Because he was too ashamed. I believe that Alice
figured out what she was dealing with. I've seen some of the images she
placed in Kitt's memory. Scenes of violation; rape. But not as you or
I would know it, only as Kitt would know it, understand it." She could
feel the tears welling in her eyes. "He trusts you, he looks up to you,
you're his mentor and his friend."

There was a loaded silence, before she heard Devon whisper, "I'm
sorry."
Ella held on to her anger for a moment longer, then released it in a
deep, resigning breath. "No, I am." She took a sip of the strong
alcohol. "I'm probably making a bigger deal out of it than it really
was. Kitt's okay. He... he deals with things like that in a more...
analytical way than we do. But I saw some of it when I purged his
systems for him... and you're right, it wasn't very pleasant." She took
another sip. She looked up around her, at the photos on the wall.
Moving in front of one, she smiled. "Did Bonnie take this?"

Devon nodded, watching Ella intently. "Yes. She'd been taking photos
of Michael washing the car, and that just... happened."
It was a beautiful photo; man and car in perfect harmony. Michael
sitting on the path outside the Wilton Knight mansion, sponge in hand.
Kitt had driven up to him, by the looks of it, so that the tip of the
hood was gently pressed up against Michael's neck. Michael was smiling;
his head tipped sideways, almost snuggling against Kitt, a happy smile
lighting his face. "It's gorgeous."
"It is a favourite of mine." Devon stood, coming to Ella's side.
"Whatever you think, Ella, I am very fond of Kitt."
Ella turned to him, gently touching his arm. "I didn't mean.... I
know you care for them. Believe me, I understand that." Her eyes
wondered back to the photo, and Devon saw it.
"Could I give you some advice?" His voice was quiet, and Ella again
shifted her attention. But before she could answer he continued. "The
path your heart is taking you down is an impossible one." Ella caught
her breath, and could nothing but stay silent as Devon finished his
drink and set the glass on the desk-top. "Why don't you tell me
something about yourself."

**

Finally Michael pulled the car off the highway and out into the
desert. Neither of them had said a word for the entire journey. Now,
as he cut the engine, still the silence between them continued.

After a long time, Michael leaned forward and hooked his hand behind
the steering wheel, finding the perceptor and gently covering it with
his palm, pressing carefully. He rested his chin against the top of the
wheel and sighed contentedly. His actions lead Kitt to break the
silence. "Michael, you seem very relaxed. I thought when you came to
get me you had something awful to say."
"Aw, Kitt, no... I just wanted to spend some time alone with my
partner. Is that so terrible?"
"Absolutely not, Michael." His voice dropped in volume. "It's very
flattering." That won him a smile from his partner. "We usually spend
so much time together, I must admit to having missed it these past few
days."
"Really?" His voice held a suggestive edge, but Kitt was not taking
the bait.
"Of course. As you always say, we make a good team."
"Umm...." The human nodded. "There is something I want to talk to you
about, although it's nothing awful, and I need you to believe me when I
say it won't change anything."
"I'm very glad to hear that."
Michael smiled. "It's about me and Bonnie."
Immediately Kitt cheered. "Michael, that's so wonderful! It really is
about time."
Michael was stunned. "How did you know...?"
"Please, Michael, grant me some intelligence."
Michael huffed, but nothing could break his mood. "Do you mind?"
"Why should I mind? I love you both, you make a wonderful couple."
"Thanks partner." Michael turned his head to rest his cheek against
the warm patch on the steering wheel. "I mean it when I say it won't
change things. Neither Bonnie nor I want to marry, and we feel like we
already have a big enough family."

Kitt let Michael's words fill the empty, dark places that Alice's
sabotage had left, with warmth and compassion. Not for the first time,
he wished he could hug Michael back, just hold him with the love that
Michael was showing him. But he could not. "I sometimes wonder what
you feel like." Kitt's words were spoken so quietly, Michael barely
heard them, but they filtered into his consciousness, through his
reverie.
"Soft and squishy, with some hard bits," he joked softly, "nothing
special, Pal."
"I just wish I could return your embraces now and again."
"Kitt...." He murmured his partner's name with infinite affection.
"Being in here, being surrounded by you... When I'm with you, it's the
safest I've ever felt in my life. You hold me all the time."

They lapsed into another comfortable silence, and Kitt's processes
started to wonder somewhere he really had not meant for them to go.
"Michael?"
"Yes?"
"Could I ask you something?"
Michael lifted his head, leaving his hand over the perceptor, knowing
that Kitt appreciated the physical link it created between them.
"Anything." There was a pause.
"Do women find me... attractive?"
Michael was stunned by the question. "In what sense?"
"In any sense."
"Well... a lot of women are drawn to fast, sleek cars."
"Really?"
"Yeah, many women do find fast cars very sexy."
"Would you say that was the main reason that a woman would show a lot
of interest in me?"

Alarm bells started going off in Michael's head. These were not the
kind of questions he was used to hearing from his partner. These
questions definitely had a reason behind them. And he thought he knew
who the reason was. "Not necessarily. I would separate women being
interested in the _car_, and women being interested in _you_. Some
women may like the look of the car, but that's not the same as someone
becoming fond of you, as a person." He winced, that sounded _so_
corny. But he honestly was not sure how else to put it. "Kitt, is this
about Ella?"
"She has shown me a great deal of... affection from the start."
Michael nodded. "She is very fond of you." He tried to keep his voice
non-committal. He really did not have a clue how Ella felt about Kitt.
He had not really spoken to her, and although Bonnie had dropped some
hints, he had been too preoccupied with Kitt's well-being, and the
developments in his relationship with Bonnie, to think about it. Now he
realized just how important this was becoming, to Kitt, and maybe to
himself. Because he believed that whatever affected Kitt, also affected
him. He came out of his thoughts, realizing that his partner had fallen
silent. "How about we discuss this on the road?"

They returned to the estate not too long after. The automatic garage
door slid open to welcome them home. Michael shut off the engine and
reached for the door handle, but something stopped him and he withdrew
his hand, instead going for the seat adjuster and tipping the seat into
a reclining position. He lay back and gently put his feet up the dash,
making sure he was no where near the perceptor. It had been a long time
since he had slept in the car; maybe too long. Maybe tonight, Kitt
needed the company. He knew he had been right when the only thing his
partner asked was, "Are you sure you're going to be comfortable there?"
"I'm sure, buddy."

Kitt waited until Michael's breathing evened out, and then shut down
the majority of his higher functions. But he did not 'sleep'. Instead
he listened to Michael breathing, felt the warm body in the seat, and
gently held the snoring form entrusted to his care so completely.

**

William Clay was a patient man. He planned everything he did to the
smallest detail to ensure no mistakes were ever made. He stared at the
email with concerned eyes. It was simple and to the point.
'KITT back on line - external access still remains locked. You failed,
the freak is still alive. A.'

**

If there was one thing Bonnie loved about living on the
Nevada/California border, it was the amazing winters. She awoke to a
wonderfully sunny, warm December morning. After showing and fixing
herself a coffee, she headed out for the garage and the lab. Her path
through the house took her passed Devon's office, through the closed
door of which she could plainly hear him shouting at someone or other
over the phone. She mused on how quickly life managed returned to
normal after a crisis.

Ella woke to the same sunshine, only moments later, but slightly
slower. She hated the winters on the West Coast. She was a lover of
snow. It was why she accepted so many invites to spend her weekends on
the ski-slopes, even if the majority of the people who invited her
believed they were assisting in finding her a husband. She smiled at
the thought, if only they could meet Kitt. And that image launched her
out of bed and into the shower.

Ella too was treated to a sample of Devon's temper as she walked out
towards the garage. She found Bonnie leaning in the doorway and strode
up to join her. "Are you okay?"
"Yes. Just look at them."
Ella looked over at Kitt and saw Michael curled on his side in the
reclined driver's seat. She smiled. "Does he often sleep in the car?"
"Only when they're on the road usually. I know he always prefers
sleeping inside the car to using motels."
Ella was curious. "Where does he live?"
"Here. He has his own suite, as do quite a few of us." Bonnie started
into the garage, heading for the lab at the back. "If you don't have
any plans," she called back, "I could really use a hand."
"Sure."

They worked around the car, leaving Kitt resting and Michael oblivious
to the morning, surrounded by the soundproof environment his car
provided.

Ella busied herself recovering as many of the disks of possible onto
the new hardware. Bonnie was clearing out some of the wreckage, finding
junk she thought had been thrown out years ago. There was a quiet
squeal of delight as she came out of a box with something in her hand,
and walked over to where Ella was sitting cross-legged up on a
workbench, keyboard in her lap. "This was the box Kitt used to reside
in, before we realized we needed more space for the CPU." She placed
the dull piece of hardware into Ella's waiting hands.
"It's a lot smaller than the casing he's in now."
Bonnie nodded. "We didn't use this one for long, about a year after he
was... partnered with Michael, we had to make a lot of changes to the
way the CPU interacted with the car itself."
"Why?" Ella found herself wanting to know more and more about Kitt's
history and background.
"A woman named Adrienne Margeaux, and a young computer genius, hacked
into the controls through an unsecured communications channel. They
gained access to the operation of the car and ripped the CPU out.
Michael found it in a trash can." Bonnie saw the anger clear in Ella's
eyes as she turned the box over in her fingers. "We put it into a
portable TV set, to simply make Kitt portable, but he really had a hard
time accepting the situation and adjusting to it. I know Michael did
the best he could; I think he and Kitt had some deep heart-to-hearts
while they worked to get the car back. But Kitt's relief when he was
finally home was palpable. We enabled some remote access channels from
the CPU to the car, and then closed access to the operations of the
Knight 2000 so that all outside communications went through Kitt
himself. If it ever happens again, which it shouldn't, at least Kitt
will be able to override any other computer attempting to gain access.
And if the worst comes to the worst, he will have remote control over
the car."
Ella frowned. "Wasn't it a bit of an oversight at the start?"
Bonnie nodded. "There was a lot we overlooked at the start." She took
the hardware back and threw it in the rubbish bag near to where she was
clearing. "History." She announced. "We all have to learn the hard
way sometimes."
"Do you have a lot of trouble with hackers?"
Bonnie nodded. "We used to... have our moments. There's no way in
now, everything's more secure, there are no open comm. ports, and most
of the communications are now done through satellite links. But
Adrienne did manage to put the entire project at risk. Then there was
Synasis."
"Excuse me?"
"An infamous hacker who actually specialized in military computer
break-ins and planting viruses. It was just one night, he only hacked
in once. But we certainly knew about it."

(Michael woke suddenly. There was something wrong... an alarm going
off somewhere... then he realized it was coming from his own comlink.
It was beeping incessantly. He depressed the 'talk' button and spoke
into it, but there was no reply, just the continuous sound. Finally he
got out of bed and flung on some clothes, tiredly padding downstairs and
across the hall, into the large kitchen and outside towards the garage.
As he neared the door he started to hear screaming, a sound unlike any
he had ever heard, metallic shrieks of utter terror emanating from
inside the garage.

"Kitt?!" He broke into a run, fingers reaching for the door handle
before he was really close enough, pushing it open with a desperate
urgency. The noise was almost unbearable once inside, but Michael
hardly noticed his ears start to ring. He sprinted across the cold
floor to where the black form of the Knight 2000 was sitting, moving,
shifting in and out of drive. Kitt's cries were heart breaking to hear.

"Kitt! Kitt, it's okay, it's okay, it's me. Come on, it's all
right." His voice hardly sounded above the terrible screaming, but
somehow he knew it was all he needed to get his partner's attention, or
at least to let Kitt know he was here. He reached the passenger side
and slipped his fingers under the handle, praying that whatever was
wrong, the fingerprint scanner was still operational. The door clicked
open, and Michael leapt inside, pulling it closed behind him as he
clambered across into the driver's seat and placed his hands on the
wheel.

"Kitt, ssh now, it's all right, I'm here." He stroked his palm across
the top of the dash as the hysteria calmed slightly. "I'm here now,
it's gonna be okay, just calm down, it's okay...." He continued to
talk, soothing as best he could until the cries were merely whimpers.
The echoes of those terrible screams still hung in the quiet of the
garage. "Tell me what's wrong."

There was no reply, but the screens on the dashboard came alive
suddenly with lines and lines of data that were scrolling past too
quickly for him to catch a single character. "Kitt, slow down, slow
down, that's right.... That's it...." His hands still stroked the wheel
and the dash, as he tried to read the text. Something was terribly
wrong and not for the first time he cursed his own lack of knowledge
about the intricacies of the computer that he had grown to love. He had
to get Bonnie.

"Kitt, I need to go get Bonnie, I'm going to leave you for a minute,
but I promise I'll be back as quickly as I can. Do you understand?"
Almost immediately the whimpers returned to cries, panicked phrases this
time, some of which Michael could start to pick up. The one he heard
most often was 'dying'. Just as he was trying to talk Kitt down again,
the passenger door opened and Bonnie's face appeared. There was no
confusion in her expression.
"It's a hacker," she told him quickly, "I'm going to do everything I
can, keep him calm and try to stop him moving."

It seemed like an eternity before his partner quieted. Slowly, his
mutterings began to make sense, and Michael heard his own name, pleas
for him to stop the confusion, the overload that was starting to knock
out Kitt's functions one by one. Michael continued to talk to him as
Bonnie started to hook up monitors and computers into the Knight 2000
CPU. She started a system-wide backup before beginning the hunt for the
cause of Kitt's hysteria. A virus. A simple virus had been planted
somehow in his main memory, and somehow he had managed to execute it.

She slowed, and eventually stopped it, removing any trace before
recovering the functions he had lost. When she finished, she quietly
moved around to the cockpit, and leaned down. Michael was sitting on
the edge of the driver's seat, legs curled under him, leant in against
the dash, arms linked around the steering wheel, as close to Kitt as he
could get. His head was down, against the edge of the dashboard, and he
was talking, still soothing as Kitt began to return to them. Michael
opened his eyes and mouthed 'thank you'. She blew them both a kiss and
left them alone for a while, heading for the house to make some coffee
and find Devon.

There was a long silence between the two partners as Kitt searched to
find equilibrium. Finally he spoke, his voice sounding shaken and
distressed. "I'm sorry."
"Hey, there's nothing for you to apologize for. It was a virus, it
could have been planted there at any time, and it's not your fault. You
just concentrate on bringing everything back in line. I'm here now, I'm
not gonna let anything else happen to you."
"I was so scared... I thought it was going to wipe everything, I didn't
think I'd make it, it was so sudden. I'm sorry, the comlink was the
only way to get to you."
"It's okay. That's what it's there for, for when we need one another.
It works both ways Kitt." Michael closed his eyes and dropped his head
back down to the dash, willing his heart rate to calm. "It's over now,
it's all over.")

Ella watched Bonnie return to her pile of memories, and glanced behind
her, to where Michael was starting to wake within the car. She had lain
awake all night, thinking about what Devon had told her about Alice,
gazing inwards at her feelings and trying to rationalize everything.

"Bonnie?"
Dark hair shifted in amongst the boxes. "Umm?"
"What happens to Kitt if anything... happens to Michael?"
The dark hair lifted and Bonnie stood up, one foot on the ground, one
in a box. "Well, at the start Kitt would have been reassigned, if a
suitable replacement could have been found."
"And now?"
"Now... I really don't know. We always just planned to deal with
whatever happens. Kitt did ask us one day, whether he would be kept
operational indefinitely. We asked him what he wanted to do about it,
and he told us that he didn't want to be immortal. He now has the
ability to shutdown the systems permanently, and blow the main CPU."
"You mean he would... commit suicide?" Ella was shocked.
"I know how it sounds, but Kitt's specially configured to Michael, and
only Michael. He would never work happily with anyone else. He can
try; it's totally up to him. But I don't think he would."
Ella sighed. "What if Michael... retired, or gave up the job?"
"Kitt would go with him. I know he says that he would stay here, but
in reality we wouldn't make him stay, even if we tried to he would
eventually go to Michael. There's no point in trying to make Kitt do
something he doesn't want to do."
"But I thought he was Foundation owned."
"He is, sort of. The car is, but Kitt.... He's grown beyond us owning
him. It doesn't really apply anymore." Ella nodded in understanding.
Catching her expression, Bonnie frowned, concerned. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, Bonnie. I'm just... thinking."

**

Detective Jack Carlson, state police department, dropped the report
onto Devon's desk, looking exceptionally glad that someone else was
going to be taking responsibility for this case. "They pulled a body
out of a burnt out building last night." He announced the find as a
statement of fact, with maybe more than a mere professional lack of
emotion.
Devon frowned, sitting back in his chair and staring aimlessly at the
papers. He had not slept at all well, and they were not ready to take
on another case at the moment. "They are always pulling bodies from
burnt buildings, Mr. Carlson."
"Yes, but this body belonged to Greg Fulman, a man quite well known for
spending a great deal of his time stealing military weapons and
ammunition, and selling it for profit." That piqued Devon's curiosity.
"And he also used to be a known... business associate of one William
Clay, whose finger-prints, I believe, were found in the devastation out
there in your lab."
Devon sat up, and reached for the report, pulling it around and opening
the manila folder only to cringe at the too-detailed forensic
photographs inside. "How did you know what they attacked the car with?"

Carlson smiled. "Mr. Miles, we've had Michael and Kitt around here for
a long time, and I've seen that car in action more than once. Nothing
civilian could touch it. It wasn't a huge leap of the imagination."
"And I suppose that you're suggesting that we look into this matter?"
"We are exceptionally busy this time of year. And I know you guys here
like to look after your own."
Devon rolled his eyes. "Thank you for the information, Detective.
We'll look into it."
He watched Carlson nod, turn and leave, before his gaze dropped to the
folder before him. Part of him wanted to send Michael and Kitt out now
to find Clay. But his conversation with Ella was fresh in his mind.
She was a spirited girl, with more than slight feelings for Kitt, he
dreaded to think what she would say if he took that course of action.
So he opened the top drawer of his desk and placed the folder inside,
closing it gently. The time would come soon enough.

**

After Michael had unfolded himself from Kitt's cockpit, he decided that
a shower was definitely in order. Unfortunately, he then wondered into
the kitchen at the wrong time, and found a griddle pan thrust into his
hand. "Waffles." Ella pointed to the large bowl of mixture on the
work-top and grinned at him. "Thank you."
"Sure, no problem." He found a spatula in a drawer and lit the stove.
"Ella, could I talk to you?"
"Yes. What about?" She reached over and picked up the knife from the
work-bench.
"About Kitt."
She started to gather together plates and cutlery. She looked at
Michael, who seemed preoccupied. "Is he okay?"
"Yeah. It's just... I was wondering how this must all seem to you, as
an outsider. I mean, I've worked with Kitt for seven years now, he's a
natural part of my life. And although other people sometimes do make me
think that perhaps it's all a little weird, I couldn't imagine living
any other way; but I often wonder how it looks to others."
Ella mentally counted the number of plates she was going to need. "Are
you talking about what you lot do here, or about your relationship with
Kitt?"
"What we do here is absolutely insane! But it saves lives, and it
keeps me in a job. But Kitt and I...."
Ella looked over at the waffles. "You and Kitt have a fantastic
partnership. There's a bond between the two of you. You can see it in
the photos around here."
Michael smiled. "That's because Bonnie loves photographing Kitt. She
keeps a family album."
"But they're beautiful, they're not just photos of a man with his car,
they're of two close friends. That one in Devon's office, the one of
you sitting on the path out front?" Michael nodded, smiling at the
memory. "That just says it all. To an outsider, it looks like you have
the best of both worlds."
"Kitt and I have history, as he once put it."
"I know." She watched for a little while longer until she was
convinced that Michael was going to let her brunch burn. Then she took
over, stepping in to save her waffles from a terrible fate. "Look,
Michael, I'm still trying to get used to all this. I don't even know
why I'm still here, but Devon seems to want me to stay."
"You're quite welcome here, Ella." He grabbed a plate and pinched one
of the cooked waffles. He put on his best English accent. "And you do
an excellent brunch."
"I'm not sure that's a quality Kitt would appreciate." Ella had spoken
really to herself, but it made Michael raise an eyebrow. "Okay. Let's
get some food out to the workers around here."
She winked at Michael and he sighed. Kitt was definitely rubbing off
on her.

**

While Michael was assisting Ella, and Bonnie was on a definite coffee
break with the morning paper, Pete Allington, one of Knight Industries'
technicians, strode happily into the garage in search of tools. "Hey,
Kitt."
"Good morning, Pete. You're very cheerful today."
"Yeah, well, I had a great night last night, and I'm feeling happy."
"I'm glad to hear it." Pete found the screwdrivers he needed in the
small area of the lab that had been sorted. He whistled as he turned
back to the car. "Would you like to tell me why you're so happy?"
"Sure, Kitt." Pete's grin got larger and he leaned back against the
workbench, as natural with the car as he was with his human friends. "I
met someone last night."
"That's great Pete. What's her name?"
Pete chuckled. "It's a 'he', Kitt. His name is Joey."
"He?" Kitt tried to keep the confusion out of his voice simply because
he felt he had to, but he failed miserably and Pete heard it. He stood,
and moved over to sit on the hood of the car.
"I'm gay, Kitt. I'm sorry, I thought you knew."
"Gay...." There was a pause as Kitt found the alternative definition
of the word he had, all his life, thought meant 'happy'. "I see.
Interesting."
The total absence of any sort of judgement in Kitt's accepting tone
made Pete smile. "I take it I'm the first gay man you've met."
"I don't know. It is quite possible."
"Well, it's nice to know that I can expand your horizons."
"I take it Joey is also gay."
Pete could not help laugh at that one. "I certainly hope so, Kitt, or
he would have had a nasty shock when he woke up this morning."
"Are you in love with him?"
Pete frowned. "It's a bit early to tell. I definitely find him damn
sexy though, and I think at least that feeling is mutual."

Bonnie walked into the garage at the right time to catch the last few
words, and she shook her head. Great. This was going to take some
explaining. She put her shoulder against the door-frame, peering around
the corner at the technician perched on Kitt's hood, talking to her car
like he was talking to a colleague.

"Don't tell me you've never been in love, Kitt." Pete was saying.
"You're an eligible bachelor."
Bonnie waited to hear Kitt's reply, her mind already trying to pre-empt
the multitude of questions that were going to follow this friendly
conversation.
"Would you go for someone like me, Pete?"

Bonnie could not believe what she had just heard, and from Pete's
stunned silence, neither could he. Miraculously he recovered first and
smiled.
"Sure, Kitt." He stood, walking along the side of the car and running
his finger tips playfully over the body-work. "Who wouldn't? You're
intelligent, got a great sense of humour, you're sleek, good-looking,
and deliciously hard." He slapped his hand on the back of the rear wing
as he passed. "Just how I like my men."

Bonnie heard Pete's whistle fade as he headed for the research workshop
on the other side of the estate. Silence dropped over the garage as she
wondered how to deal with this one. She knew that Kitt would know she
was there. But as she took a deep breath and walked confidently inside,
he said nothing. As the minutes passed, she started to relax. And then
she realized that she was not the one that Kitt was going to want to
talk to about this; Michael was. An evil smile crossed her face. She
turned from the system monitors on the workbench. "Kitt, could you run
a second-phase diagnostic on your communications ports?"
"Of course, Bonnie."
Kitt immediately initialized the routines and lapsed back into silence,
making Bonnie feel more secure and confident every second. Finally she
gathered enough courage to prod a little. "You and Pete seem to get on
quite well."
Kitt's answer was natural and relaxed. "I've known him a long time.
His work is always of an excellent standard. I consider him a friend."
Nothing. No hint of the conversation that had passed only five minutes
earlier.

Finally she relaxed. "Could you pop the hood?"
The hood release clicked and it rose steadily. Bonnie picked up the
scanner and started her diagnostic examination, checking each perceptor
in turn. She tried to be careful, as she always tried to be. But she
knew that sometimes, if she was rushed, or tired, or something had
angered her, she was less than gentle with these examinations. She knew
that just one slip caused Kitt a tremendous amount of discomfort, and
anything harder could cause him pain. He never complained, never said
anything, but she knew; she could tell if he caught himself from saying
something, or just stopped short of pulling away.

After a little while, Bonnie dropped the hood back. "Is everything
feeling right?"
"Yes, thank you, Bonnie."
She pulled in a deep breath. "Look, Kitt, you can say if I hurt you.
You can tell me if you think I'm being too rough with you. We all get
tired, and I don't ever want you to think that it's okay for me to take
it out on you, because it isn't. You put up with more than any of us,
and...."
"Bonnie," Kitt's interruption was quiet, but it cut through her
self-destruction. She stopped talking and looked down. "You weren't to
blame for what happened."
Bonnie sat down hard on Kitt's hood, placing her palm flat on the
body-work. Finally the words came tumbling out. "I failed you, I know
I did, I wasn't fast enough to react at the beginning.... If it hadn't
been for Ella...."
"She told me herself that I owe my life to you and Michael, you were
the ones that ensured the recovery could take place. It was a stressful
time for you, but you saved my life, and Michael sacrificed his own
well-being to get me safely to the estate in Canada. You have never
failed me, Bonnie."
She took a deep breath, biting her lip. She knew that there had been a
great many heart-to-hearts recently, especially with Kitt. Touching
base, reminding each other that they were here for each other, that it
was okay to be vulnerable once in a while.

Kitt waited one more moment before changing the subject. "Bonnie, do
you have any idea who set Michael and I up?"
"I'm sorry, Kitt, with you and Michael out of action, all we really
have is what we had before; William Clay's finger prints in the
devastation of the lab, and now this associate of his who's turned up
dead. But we still don't know if he had help from inside the
Foundation, or even why he would do it."
"Help from inside?"
Bonnie could hear the sadness in Kitt's tone. "I know, Kitt."
"I don't understand what makes a person betray his friends."
Bonnie gently rubbed the smooth paint-work beneath her palm. "You're
thinking about Avril, aren't you?" Kitt did not respond. "Sometimes we
trust people and they betray that trust. Money is a very powerful
persuader."
"I thought Avril was my friend."
"We all trusted her, or she would never have been allowed near you.
She fooled us all." She let her fingers rest against the scanner
track. "I know she hurt you."
"I still have the memories of what she made me do."
Bonnie grimaced. "Why didn't you wipe it?"
"I wanted to remember."
"Why?"
"Because afterwards, Michael told me that people learn from bad
experiences, that they help to shape a person's character. I thought I
could learn from what happened."
"I don't think Michael would have wanted you to keep those memories if
he'd known how much they hurt you." She pulled her legs up, shifting
until she was more comfortable on the long hood. "The betrayal of
trust is a difficult lesson to learn."
"It wasn't my first class."

Kitt's softly spoken words jolted her. Avril had been in their third
year, only Kitt's unique memory had prevented the incident from slipping
into history. "Kitt?"
"Did Michael ever tell you that he lost me in a race one night?"
Bonnie knew instantly where this was going. "Yes." She too had been
furious at Michael's behaviour that particular night, despite his sound
motives. "I tracked your homing signal so we could find you and the car
that killed that girl."
"He turned off my systems, without any explanation or warning. I
didn't know what was happening, or what was going to happen to me.
Suddenly he was handing me over to a stranger, switching off my
connection with the outside world. I was... frightened. And hurt."
His explanation hammered home to her the ease with which they could
effect Kitt's development. Nothing that happened to him was forgotten.
"It was a long time ago." She tried to reassure him. "Michael can't do
that now, and he wouldn't. You know he wouldn't. It just took some
time for him to... to place you in his life. Believe me, you're at the
top of his priorities now." Bonnie took a deep breath. "He would die
for you."
"I'm a computer, Bonnie. Even Michael knows that deep inside. He
couldn't sacrifice his own life for a computer."
"You're his friend and his partner, and if it came down to it, he would
do it."

Kitt had no answer for that, no argument. It was beginning to get
slightly overwhelming, and he needed time to process everything. Bonnie
seemed to sense that. She slipped off the hood. "If you want to talk
some more I'm here for you anytime."
"Bonnie, before you go... Michael and I can go back on the road
whenever Devon needs us to. I don't want to think that I'm the reason
we're not going after whoever did this."
She looked at him, hand on hip. "Are you ready to go back out?"
"Michael once told me that if you fall off a horse, you should get
straight back on. Unless you're injured of course."
That made her laugh. "Are you sure those were his exact words?"
"Well, I had to add my own interpretation."
She smiled. "Kitt, we're not going to send you back out until we've at
least had you on the test track. I want to make sure you make a
complete recovery."
"Thank you Bonnie."

**

Having eaten as much as he thought he could get away with, and made his
way through several mugs of coffee, Michael had announced to the world
in general that he felt good enough to take on anything anyone could
throw at him. That was when Bonnie had suggested he go talk to his
partner. She did not say anymore, but Michael had caught her knowing
smile, and evil wink at Ella. He was suspicious as he walked into the
garage.

"Kitt, Bonnie said you wanted to talk to me."
"Yes, Michael, if you have a minute."
Kitt popped the driver's side door, and Michael slipped into the low
seat. "Sure, Pal, what's up?" It was taking some time to get used to
the new position of the voice box, aside of the steering wheel, as
opposed to behind it. A slight change, the reason for which Michael had
not yet discovered.
"It's a little awkward...." Kitt began hesitantly.
"This is me, Kitt. We've never had problems discussing anything
before."
"Well... you're obviously attracted to women and they always seem
attracted to you...."
Michael grinned. "God, Kitt, you are so good for my ego."
"Please."
"Sorry. Go on."
"I was talking to Pete earlier on."
"Pete?" Michael had to think for a moment, "Oh Pete, the technician.
And...."
"And he told me that he... was attracted to men."
"Yeah, he's gay. Everyone knows that." He stopped, letting his gaze
settled on the darkened voice panel. "I take it, you didn't know."
"No."
"Oh. I'm sorry.... I guess it never came up before." Michael
suddenly felt slightly uncomfortable. He cursed Bonnie. Then he cursed
himself, Kitt would know he was nervous simply by the way his body
stiffened.
"You're not at ease with this subject." His partner told him, almost
uncertainly.
"I know, and I should be, so talk to me. What do you want to know?"
"How do you know if you supposed to be attracted to men or to women?"
Michael smiled. "Well, Kitt, you just know."
"I don't!"

Michael scratched the side of his head, confusion painted on his face.
"I always thought you'd be attracted to... I don't know, Ferraris maybe,
or Pentium processors." There was no comeback to that, and Michael knew
immediately that he had said the wrong thing. "Kitt, you usually know
how you feel, about various issues, about people; your friends and your
enemies. You like and dislike people the same as the rest of us. I
imagine that you would know if you found someone attractive, it doesn't
matter what sex they are."
"Would it change your feelings towards me?"
Michael was about to tell him that of course it would not. But he
found that it was not how he felt. He and Kitt shared almost
everything; there were absolutely no secrets between them. There really
was not any room for hang-ups when you lived and worked side-by-side
with someone so closely. Would it change his opinion if Kitt... were
attracted to him? "I don't know, Kitt." Michael answered finally.
"Thank you." There was warmth in that voice and Michael could not
figure why.
"For what?"
"For being honest with me. It will probably relax you to know that...
that I believe I am attracted to women."
It did relax him, although he was almost ashamed to admit it. "Haven't
got the hots for me then?" He asked jokingly.
"You?! Absolutely not, I know what you're like in the morning."
"Well thank you." Michael sat back in mock indignation. Then he
smiled. But something was starting to nag him, at the back of his
mind. "You really like her, don't you?"
"Yes."
"I'm not sure what I should say at this juncture. I feel that I should
be giving you advice, explaining about the birds and the bees or
something."
"You could just try to take me seriously."
"Sorry Kitt, it's just... unexpected, that's all."
"I know what you're thinking, that I'm just a computer and I have no
right to... be attracted to a human being...."
Michael raised his hand. "Hey, stop that. I didn't say that, and I
wasn't thinking it. You're as human as anybody I've ever met, more in
some cases. But I've known you seven years and in all that time I've
never known you get like this before."
"In those seven years I've never met anyone like Ella before. The
women we meet always seemed attracted to you. It's the first time
anyone has shown any interest in me."
Michael sat back. "Well people do tend to respond to you differently
because you are... what you are."
"I know, but Ella's different. In the beginning she only saw a
collection of PCBs and wires, yet she still cared. She sat and... held
my hand. Michael no one has ever done that before, no one has ever
tried to give me any physical contact before."
"I'm sorry, Kitt. I didn't realize...."
"I didn't mean that you should have. It's just that it wasn't
something that had entered my mind, but it was the first thing she
thought of and she didn't know me."
"So how do you feel about her?"
"I'm not sure. I'm quite confused. I enjoy her company, I like
talking to her, I trust her. She makes me feel... special. Not to say
that you don't, but...."
Michael smiled. "It's okay Kitt, I know. I'm just not sure what to
say."
"I'm not expecting you to say anything, I just wanted to make you...
aware."
"Okay. Why?"
"Because I can't see a happy ending to this."

**

Ella sat in the back of the Semi, legs dangling over the side. Out on
the test track, Kitt went through his paces, monitored closely by
Bonnie, along with an army of proud technicians, and Michael, who was
shouting encouragement to his partner. Kitt missed all the cones,
touched all the markers, and hit the test wall with enough speed to
shatter every brick. Eyebrows were raised as he went beyond the test to
turbo boost over the Semi, and Bonnie's eyes and smile went to Ella's
face. He was showing off for one person only.

Kitt was not sure why he had gone over the Semi, but he felt so good,
and he had everyone's attention. He had been scared to go back out at
first. But talking with Bonnie, knowing that he and Michael were needed
in the field right now, to find out who attacked them before they tried
again, had fired his determination. He could see and hear Michael at
the side of the track, pride written all over his face and shining in
his voice. For the first time Kitt was completely and absolutely sure
of Michael's feelings for him. He was not alone, he never would be.
And he knew for certain now that he was never going to be traded in for
a new model. That knowledge certainty was invigorating.

Throughout the drive, Kitt had been all too aware of Ella sitting in
the mobile unit, watching him as closely as the rest of them were. She
fascinated him as much as he believed he fascinated her. She was one of
the most skilled software developers Kitt had ever met. But she showed
a great deal of compassion for her work; at least in her work with him.
He wondered if she had any background in psychology, in fact he had
found himself wondering about her background more and more. She seemed
very happy to stay around the estate, and while he understood that her
employer owed her an awful lot of vacation time, he did not understand
why she did not have people who would be missing her.

He ran the test course with only the minimum processes dedicated to
driving the car. The course was 'a piece of cake', as Michael often put
it. He had driven it enough times to have it stored detail by detail in
memory; although someone had obviously thought that moving some of the
cones would throw him. No. Moving the track would not have thrown
him. And so he was able to think about the last few days, as he
impressed his colleagues.

The attack had been one of the most frightening moments of his life.
The long hours afterwards had been like a nightmare, hearing snippets of
words, people trying to talk to him, while his own desperate attempts to
respond had been in vain. He had been aware of the perceptors being
removed and the casing being lifted from the car. The sensations could
only have been described as nauseous. After that he had known only that
he was being taken somewhere, and that Michael was with him. But he had
only been able to comprehend his driver's comforting tone; none of the
words.

When Bonnie had switched him back on, everything had happened so
suddenly. As his CPU had come back on line, memories had cascaded
through, showing him not only that Alice's images were back with him,
but replaying the attack for him, unstoppably, in its entirety. He had
had to do something, or they would have sent him back out when he was
obviously incapable of protecting Michael. He had been scared, anxious
about his future, worried that he had hurt Michael. Everything had been
turned upside down.

And then Ella had arrived. And slowly everything had started to fall
back into place. She had known him a matter of hours, and yet
everything she had said to him made perfect sense. She had affected him
in ways he had not previously experienced. There was something new in
his circuits. He felt like there was a heat flowing through him that
had not been there before. It was a strange excitement that took hold
of him whenever she was around, an uncontrollable effect on him that he
seemed helpless to stop even if he had actually wanted to. But the
sensation was addictive.

Kitt brought the car round and stopped by the crowd of technicians.
Michael joined them, proudly seating himself on the door where the
driver's side window was wound down, his arms resting on the top of the
car. "You were stunning, Kitt," he told his partner quietly.
"Thank you, Michael."
There was a great deal of activity, technicians slapping each other on
the backs, Bonnie congratulating Kitt, Devon doing the same. But
Michael could sense that his friend was taking no notice whatsoever of
anyone around him. After a short while, he dropped down from the door
and leant inside. "Why don't you go talk to her?"
"I might just do that."

Very carefully, Kitt backed up, and a space cleared for him to turn.
Ella was still sitting in the back of the Semi, watching Kitt as
intensely as he was watching her. Michael shook his head as he gazed
over at them. He kept remembering what Kitt had said about not being
able to see a happy ending. Yet still his partner was continuing on the
same path. That really could only mean one thing, and frankly Michael
was not that surprised.

"So," Ella started as Kitt drew up to her, "have you lost your fear of
flying?"
There was a smile in Kitt's voice. "Yes. This new body feels
fantastic and I feel completely confident of my abilities. Thanks to
you."
"I didn't do anything."
"You believed in me when I no longer believed in myself."
"You're easy to believe in." She kicked off her shoes and put her feet
up on Kitt's hood. The body-work was still fairly hot from the engine
use. "Does this mean you and Michael are ready to hit the road again?"
Kitt analyzed her tone. "You sound worried."
"Is it all right to worry about you?"
"I think so. Bonnie always does. But we have to find whoever attacked
us, and find out why."
Ella nodded. "You just have to promise me that you'll be careful."

"It's my job, Ella. It's what I was built for. The attack was... a
one off. We'll be on our guard, please don't worry." He hesitated
before asking, "Are you staying around?"
His enquiry prompted a wry smile. "Is that a hopeful question?"
Kitt stammered, taken aback by Ella's forwardness. He searched for an
answer, but she saved him.
"Sorry." She nodded. "It looks like I may be here for a little while
yet."
"I am glad to hear it."
Ella softened. "Kitt, it really is great to see you take that track
on. It seems only yesterday that I had you on my knee."
"Ella," Kitt chided, "you make me sound like a child."
"I didn't mean to, it's just difficult to equate you now with the Kitt
I held back in that garage."
"I'm the same computer. I remember you holding me, and I remember what
you did for me. But this is my usual state; this is what I am. Do I...
repulse you?"
Ella sat forward, "Are you kidding?! Kitt, you're beautiful. You've
just got to give me some time to get use to all this." She smiled. "I
will say, your shape is very sexy."

Kitt tried to find an answer to that one, but he could not. He found
his programming totally inadequate, so he looked back into his memory,
to find examples of Michael's actions in this area. But when he came
across some, he found himself not wanting to follow Michael's example.
Michael met and interacted with a great many women, Ella was special,
she deserved better. "Thank you," was all he eventually managed. "Do
you think you ever will get used to... all this?"
"I think I might." Humour played in her voice. "You have a wonderful
family, they've made me feel very welcome."

Michael approached quietly. "Sorry to interrupt, Pal, but they want to
download all the test results. We need you."
Kitt popped open the driver's side door and happily, Michael got in,
smiling up at Ella. "I won't be long," Kitt told her, apologetically.
"I'll be here." She meant it; she was not going anywhere. She had not
taken her eyes off Kitt through the entire test run; there was no way
she was going to do so now.