Kate finished dusting her room and stepped back to admire her work. After the encounter with Mark, Mari had insisted Kate clean her new room. It had taken her two and a half hours before her mother had been satisfied, but she was finally done. Looking down at her now dusty clothes, she threw her hands into the air. 'I swear!'

Kate looked at her watch and nearly jumped out of her skin. It was almost three. She would have to be home at six to be in time for lunch and she had promised Edward she would come back. Pausing, she wondered why a promise to a stranger was so important.

Making sure her mother was in the basement, she walked to the front door. "Mom, I'm going out. I'll be home for dinner."

Before Mari could protest, Kate was running down the street. She make it to the hill in less than ten minutes. Stopping to catch her breath, she looked down at the town. It looked…fake. Like a plastic village that Barbie and Ken would live in. With a pang, Kate realized how much she missed New York already. Dismissing her feelings, she walked up to the front door and knocked.

It was a good five minutes before the door creaked open. "Hi, Edward."

"You came back," he said quietly, and opened the door wider so that Kate could enter.

"Of course I did. I said I would, didn't I?" Kate smiled at him. She had to get him to open up somehow, to trust her enough to talk about himself.

Closing the door and significantly dimming the room, Edward looked at her shyly. "Is your hand alright?"

"It's fine. I've had worse." There was a few minutes of silence. A bird called in the distance. A dog barked madly from one of the houses in the plastic community.

"Is Kim still there," Edward ventured, using the first real semi-strong voice she had heard him use yet.

"Excuse me?"

"Kim Boggs. Does she still live down there?"

Kate racked her memory of the neighbors that had welcomed her family. She didn't remember any Boggs people coming by. "I don't know. I could ask around, see what I could find."

A look of disappointment crossed Edward's face and the only sound was the ticking of Kate's watch and the metallic sound of Edward's hands moving. Biting her lip, Kate looked around the house again. "Do you mind if I look around, Edward?" Shaking his head nervously, Edward watched the looks of fascination that crossed Kate's face as she looked at the various paintings and machines in the rooms of the house. They didn't speak, just walked around the house. Edward knew he should say something, but he didn't know what. The thought of Kim still living nearby filled his head, distracting him from conversation.

If Kate could find her, maybe she would come back to him. She could come up here and live with him, like he had wanted all that time ago. They would be happy. Edward knew she would come back.

Kate gently ran her hand over a long machine. "What was this for, Edward," she asked, breaking their silence.

"Um, cookies." A bright smile broke across Kate's face and she laughed. Her amusement was contagious and Edward smiled too.

"Was your father nice," Kate asked, hoping he would answer.

Edward looked at her and she was afraid he had gone back into his shell. "Yes. He was one of the nicest people I've met."

"It's good you had someone like him to teach you…you could have ended up very differently if someone else had…made you." Kate hesitated with her words. It didn't seem right to say Edward was 'made'. He was more human than anyone she had ever met before.

She checked her watch. "I have to go. My mom is cooking dinner and she'll have a conniption fit if I'm late."

Kate walked back into the foyer and turned to face Edward. "I'll ask around about Kim, ok?"

Edward nodded. Waving over her shoulder, Kate started back home.

Kate lay in bed, reading a book that she had found in the bottom of one of the boxes. A light rain had started at dinner and had turned into a full blown thunderstorm. Lost in her book, Kate didn't notice the rain until a huge clap of thunder shook the house and the lights dimmed.

"Grab the candles," she heard her mother yell from in the kitchen. Putting her book down, she wondered about Edward. Did he get scared or was he used to being up there all alone with the thunder and lightning so close?

'Maybe if it's still raining, Mark will cancel the party,' Kate thought with a grin. She wanted to skip the party, but thought someone there would know something about Kim Boggs. Another huge clap of thunder nearly made her jump out of skin. Turning her lights off, she laid down and was asleep in no time.

"You're doing well, Kate. Very well. But be careful of who you speak to."

Kate tried to see through the fog surrounding her. "I don't understand! Who are you?"

The kind, gentlemanly voice was all around her, but she couldn't see from who it came. "I can't tell you that. Keep visiting. He will trust you soon."

CRASH

Kate bolted awake, just in time to see a large bolt of lightning strike outside her window. She got up and looked outside. The grass under her window was charred, but thankfully not on fire. It had stopped down pouring, although the rain was still steady coming down. She looked at the clock/radio on the desk. It flashed 2:15 in glaring red numbers. Pulling her curtains closed, Kate jumped back in bed. 'Don't be scared. It's just a storm,' Kate thought, not sure who she was trying to mentally reassure, herself or Edward, all alone on the hill.