Author's note: Well, here we are at chapter three, a slightly longer one than the last two, hope no one minds too terribly. Had a bit to say, and for anything that isn't fully answered here, don't worry, it shall be.

Again, a most hearty thank you to all of you who were so kind to leave some kind words of your own; they mean tons! Btw, I went back over chapter two, and i didn't even realize that I was using names from some of the good Doctor's other works. And even more perplexing, Ms.Mortimer's last name is the first of one of the pivotal characters in 'Lenny'.

I'd never read the book until just this weekend.

Makes one wonder if there aren't a few ghosts in my machine....

Disclaimer: I,Robot is the property of the estate of Isaac Asimov, Twentieth Century Fox, and all other legally bond parties. But, alas, I am not one of them. I'm making nary a cent, so please be merciful and sue me not!

Susan grabbed the closest articles of clothing she had; a pale gray sweater and black slacks. Her keys were hanging near the door, as was her black leather jacket. She ran as fast as she could toward her car.

That the rover could just as easily been sent to Sonny and brought back to her never crossed her mind. This new development scared her, and that fact that she was frightened scared her even more.

She set the car on auto; in her agitated state, she really didn't trust that she'd be able to get there any faster driving herself.

Afraid of what she was going to find, she put her ear bud in and prepared to hail Lt. Bergin. Halfway to her destination, a call came through.

"Answer," she called without thinking.

"Hello, is this Dr. Susan Calvin?" The voice wasn't immediately familiar, but she felt she could trust whoever was on the other line.

"Yes, I am. And who are you?"

"This is Lt. John Bergin. We met a month ago after all that fracas over at USR. I've been trying to contact Del for hours now, and I was wondering if maybe he was with you."

"Actually, lieutenant I have reason to think he has been kidnapped."

"What?"

"I understand your disbelief, but trust me, I've seen a great many things that would be filed under 'unbelievable', but it doesn't make them any less a reality."

She filled him in on what she knew, which wasn't very much. He offered to provide her with an armed escort and someone to keep an eye on her place, but she told him that probably wouldn't be necessary as she wasn't sure if home was the best place to be.

The car made it's turn into Sisters of Mercy Medical Center, but there was no one to be found. After a minute of scanning the lot, she thought she noticed a flash of blue between the hospital and the garbage area.

Susan pulled in, and making sure there wasn't anyone following her, stepped out to investigate. The air was frigid, and she immediately wished for a warmer jacket than the one she had. She brought an automatic torch with her and aimed it in the general area.

"Light," she whispered, and a soft beam extended from the torch. She moved closer, trying to be as stealth as possible. Her ears caught the sound of steady beeping. It was right in front of her, in the trash bin.

"Sonny? Is that you?"

She knew he was better than average at hiding.

A barely audible scraping sound was heard, and a moment later, a deceptively delecate-looking metallic hand appeared over the edge of the bin, bending it out of shape. Another moment and the NS-5 was climbing out, looking confused and rather odd.

Susan ran the light over him; he appeared to be intact, but there was some damage to his chest plate and as she ran the torch lower, the fingers on his right hand were bent at an impossible angle.

"Oh god, Sonny, you're a mess!" She was trying her best to keep calm, and failing miserably. She took him by his good hand, and put him into the rover. Making sure that he was secure in the passenger seat, she got in and said, "Home, now."

Sonny turned, eyes wide, almost pleading, "No, you can't go back there, Dr. Calvin. It isn't safe."

"But I have to. It is the only place I can get you patched up right now. All my spare equipment is there."

"It will be all right. I think I know of a place we will be safe, at least for now." He turned around, and called out in a still tentative voice,

"729 Elmwood Place, please."

Susan frowned, glancing at him.

"Where are we going?"

"To Father's cabin. He will have all the supplies we need, and we can plan how I'm going to find Detective Spooner from there."

"You're going to find him? I'm afraid you are mistaken, we are doing this together. Spooner's a friend of mine, too." She realized what she'd just said and allowed a small smile to pass her lips.

Friends. What a novel idea.

They sped away, settled back in their seats. Each one quietly thinking of better times, or at least less troublesome ones.

"Sonny, I'd like you to meet Dr. Susan Calvin. She is USR's premier robopsychiatrist," Alfred Lanning said.

"The Only robopsychiatrist," she replied ruefully.

"Susan, this is Sonny." She had to smile, Lanning was positively beaming with paternal pride. 'I suppose that's where the name came from,' she mused.

It was amazing at how far Lanning had gone with this particular NS-5. His responses were natural, as though he wasn't a mass of gears and polymers, but a human, albeit an unusual looking one. There was obvious affection shared, and it warmed her to know that, even though Alfred never had a family of his own, Sonny was the next best thing, and probably much better.

She set down her data file and he walked over, holding out a hand for her to shake.

"Dr. Calvin, it is a pleasure, Father has told me a lot about you." His blue eyes were bright and brilliant, and she had a hard time remembering that he wasn't alive, at least in the traditional sense.

"Would you like to hear a story?" He calmly asked her. He was very glad to have a visitor, especially one as smart and fascinating as Calvin.

For months, Dr. Calvin 'visited' on a regular basis, primarily to collect data for the head of US Robots, Lawrence Robertson. As she became better aquatinted with Sonny, she noticed other things about him; he was like none of the other robots she'd ever worked with.

Less than a month before Lanning's death, events occurred that resulted in the termination of their work together.

They were in the middle of testing Calvin liked to call her 'catch-up' work. This was the time to complete some of the more intense mental exams that they did not have enough time for previously.

They sat at the stainless steel table in Lanning's laboratory, across from each other.

"Sonny, I'm going to show you a series of photographs, and I would like for you to tell me what feelings come to mind when you see them. And remember, do not tell me what you think I want to hear, just your true impressions of the pictures as I show them. Are you ready?"

He nodded, "I am ready, Dr. Calvin."

The CMAT, or Calvin Mental Acuity Test, measures a robots response to various visual stimuli, to gauge if the subject will respond according to the inherent self controls provided by the Three Laws.

The test progressed without a hitch until Susan revealed a picture of a broken window.

It was immediate; Sonny's reaction was off the charts. He would not speak, and Susan was afraid that his circuits had overloaded.

"Sonny, what's wrong?"

Nothing.

"Please, talk to me," she was getting more and more unsettled.

Still, nothing.

"SONNY! Snap out of it!" She shouted, and this seemed to do the trick.

"I- I saw something, Dr. Calvin. That picture, it was in a dream I had not many nights ago. Someone was falling from a window, and I tried to save them, for what else would I do? But they wouldn't let me. I know, it doesn't make much sense, does it? But that is what I dreamt. And I am frightened of what it might mean."

The words he spoke, if they came from anyone else would not have bothered Susan in the least. Everyone has dreams that can sometimes be quite intense, even to the point of seeming to happen.

But this was not the mental rambling of another human, looking for someone to say that it would be all right. This was a highly advanced robot, who was making it his sole mission to confound and amaze her at every turn.

She had multiple degrees and years of experience working with nothing but robots, from the most rudimentary, to the highest in technological complexity. Combined with her knowledge of psychology, this made her the very best (if not the only) person to figure out exactly what was going on with Sonny.

It didn't mean that she would be able to, though.

She spent more and more of her free time working with him, and Dr. Lanning. For the first two weeks, it was smooth going, not any less perplexing, but she seemed to be making progress. The only thing more odd than Sonny's vision was Alfred Lanning's growing detachment. On more than one occasion, he became short with her and acted as though he had no time to listen to her findings.

A week later, and Lanning forbade her from any further visits.

The week after that, Lanning was dead.

From a fall from the thirty-second window at USR.

And from there, all hell had broken loose.

Three hours later, the car stopped. Susan looked out the window but it was so dark that she couldn't see much. The only sounds were crickets outside and the steady 'breathing' Sonny was making. She looked over at him; he was sleeping, obviously exhausted from whatever happened at Spooner's. His eyelids were fluttering, and she could tell he was deep in dreams. She really didn't want to disturb him, but circumstances wouldn't allow for such civility.

"Sonny," she spoke, shaking him gently. "Wake up, we're here."

His eyes opened, and the car's interior slowly turned a calm, blue glow.

He was noticeably calmer, even before they stepped over the threshold. This was somewhere he had never been, but it made him feel better nevertheless. He imagined that this was his home, that he had grown up within it's walls, and not that of a laboratory.

The interior was dark at first, then slowly the room grew brighter, until they were able to make out a very traditional-looking cabin, complete with pine furniture, plank flooring, and a roaring fire.

"How did you know this was here?"

"When my father slept, he would sometimes speak of a place that he had enjoyed visiting on vacations. Whenever I would ask him about upon waking though, he would not tell me. It was as though he was afraid that VIKI might discover where it was and destroy it. I suppose he was right to be so cautious." He looked pensive, and moved further into the cabin.

Susan looked at the photographs along the mantle and pick up one that looked like it had been taken more than twenty years ago. Lanning was there, but younger, with the cockiness that often times accompanies the gifted. He was standing with a group of other scientists, and what appeared to be an early-model NS-4. A caption had been drawn in the lower right corner, and she brought it closer to her eyes.

The new renaissance Dec 12, 1992

those who know where to look will find

the answer

She turned to ask Sonny if he had any idea what it meant, but he was already there beside her. She fought to keep her wits about her, but it wasn't easy with him so close. He was battered, and very stressed. He'd been through far too many emotional upsets for someone so new to any type of feeling, much less the kind that could drive any ordinary person to a nervous breakdown.

Now with Spooner missing, she wasn't quite sure how his burgeoning emotions would handle it.

Her heart ached.

She placed her hand on his face; his outward temperature was close to hers, unusual for a robot, but not so much for one with two positronic cores. His skin wasn't quite flawless, not with the damage he'd sustained. But it was still soft and pleasant to the touch. She noticed that while she did this, his eyes began to flutter shut, and she worried that his system had perhaps suffered some kind of internal injury- he didn't appear to be breathing.

"Are you all right," she half-whispered, afraid that he was shutting down.

She was about to check on the secondary core in his chest when his left hand rose and held on to hers.

"Thank you," he said, for the first time smiling since she'd picked him up from the hospital.

"What for?" She was closer to him than she'd ever been, and was quite pleased with her self-control.

"For everything. I am not sure how to explain it, but I feel a combination of emotions when I'm with you, and it always makes me feel better. They make me feel as though nothing can be too terrible, that everything will turn out for the best." He paused, and not wanting to lose his nerve, pulled Susan closer to him. He had never done this before and wasn't sure he was doing it the right way, but instinct overruled and he held her tightly, making sure to be mindful of her much lighter bone structure.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, her mind making it more and more easy to stop trying to rationalize everything, and just enjoy the moment.

"I felt a deep, unrelenting sadness when Father died, and I never thought that anything would be ok again. I was afraid to die, but a part of me welcomed it too. I felt like I deserved it, and at the very least, I would be where he was. But you and Detective Spooner restored my faith." He pulled away, looking deep into her eyes.

"Thank you for being such a good friend."

She swallowed, nodding. A friend, he thinks of me as a friend. Of course he does. His friend.

And nothing more.

She pulled away, before the tears threatened to make her feel more humiliated than she already did.

"Well, you are welcome, but, um, I really think we should find some tools to get you back to normal, yes?" She exited the living room, and went in search of
Lanning's robot repair shop.