The familiar tension was returning now that the holiday season was almost over. Kate didn't even try to pretend that she was going to do all the things she'd promised herself she'd do while school was out. She'd planned on writing at least three short stories that she could simply pass out in workshop and skip the frustration of having to scramble to get the stories done on time. Instead she was in the freezing kitchen barefooted and for the first time wishing she was enough of a dork to put on slippers.

She went from cupboard to cupboard, standing up tall to see on all the shelves. She checked the refrigerator and pushed all the items out of their ordered sections before moving to the lower cupboards. They were all full of pots and utensils so she gave up quickly, standing in the center of the kitchen and staring around blankly.

"Okay fine," she said. "Where is it."

"On the counter behind you," said Simon. He was standing on the other side of the kitchen bar where Spot the tabby cat was sitting and rubbing his head against Simon's hand. "Do you need another hint?"

"No, I can do this," said Kate as she spun around, analyzing the kitchen counter. She moved along it, running her hand across the smooth surface of the granite. "Are you sure? It's in a bag, right?"

"Yes and no," said Simon.

"Fine, give me another one."

"Look for something bread-shaped."

Kate let out a frustrated laugh. "Are you serious? What do you think I've been─" She froze as she spotted the rectangular box. She pushed the blue button on the side of it and the lid of the box retracted back, revealing a rolled up bag of a half loaf of bread.

She threw a glance over her shoulder at Simon who had a satisfied smile. "I take back ever being mad at you for giving me food," she said as she removed two slices of bread. "What the hell is this anyway?"

"It's a bread box," said Simon. "It will keep bread fresh for up to three months. I ordered it twenty-seven days ago."

"Why not just put it in the freezer?" said Kate as she then moved through the kitchen opening the cupboards again.

"The freezer will draw out the moisture from the bread, causing it to become stale," said Simon. "Are you looking for a plate?"

Kate opened a cupboard and quickly found what she was looking for, setting the bread on the newly-found plate. She turned and set the plate on the bar counter, throwing another glance at him. "Why did you move everything around? You didn't like where the plates were before?"

"I reorganized everything into a more ergonomic fashion," said Simon. He scratched behind Spot's ears. "Plates are heavier. They belong on the lower shelves."

"But look at the energy I had to spend looking for everything because you moved it," said Kate as she began opening drawers. She pulled a butter knife from one of them and moved back to the counter. "Why did you move the silverware?"

"Because it's now closer to the sink," said Simon. "Are you sure you don't want me to do this for you?"

"Simon, if you weren't here, I'd probably starve to death." Kate moved to the refrigerator again. "And that thought scares me."

"Do you think I would leave?"

The question caught Kate off guard. She stopped what she was doing for a moment and turned to look at him. His blue eyes were narrowed as if he were worried about the thought. She gave another sharp laugh and felt the tension break a bit. "No, I just… look, it's important that I know how to at least feed myself. If I keep letting you do everything for me I might as well just start wearing diapers." She sighed as she closed the fridge and looked around the kitchen again. "Now where the hell is the peanut butter?"

The front door swung open and a cold blast of air brought in a flurry of snow causing Spot to leap off the counter in an orange blur. A bundled figure moved through the doorway and slammed the door shut. As the snow settled to the ground, the figure pulled back the hood of its coat, and Kate recognized Jamie's straight black hair.

Jamie raised a fist and smiled. "Guess who's not pregnant?"

Kate stared at her for a moment, the familiar frustration building in her nerves. "That's disgusting."

"No, having a baby is disgusting." Jamie pulled off the coat and let everything drop to the floor as she moved towards them, running her nails along her arm. Kate was slightly stunned at Jamie's ragged appearance which was normally pristine. She looked as if she hadn't changed clothes for days. Jamie slid onto the bar stool as Simon backed away from it, and she looked down at the plate of bread. "What are you doing?"

Kate realized she was still holding the butter knife, and quickly set it down on the counter. "Procrastinating," she said.

"Procrastinating what?"

"Writing." Kate watched as Simon moved to the entryway to pick up the heavy coat.

"Looks to me like you're making a sandwich," said Jamie. She bobbed back and forth slightly, her elbows resting on the counter and her chin in her hands. Kate watched her for a moment, then resumed looking through the cupboards. She could hear the seat squeaking as Jamie continued to bob. "That's good though. At least you're keeping yourself healthy. I barely ate anything this week. Didn't really have time. Sam brought a whole bunch of stuff over for Christmas and I only knew about half the people there. But she was nice. She introduced me to everyone."

Kate was only half listening as she found the peanut butter and the jelly conveniently next to eachother. She moved back to the bread and began applying the peanut butter to one slice.

"You really should come over some time," Jamie continued. "Honestly, I get that you hate people and stuff, but Sam can hook you up. She knows how to make this awesome drink from coffee and vodka so that you can't even taste the alcohol but it gets you smashed in minutes. You'd be such a fun drunk. And I can keep an eye on you."

Kate struggled with the jelly jar, gritting her teeth as she turned the lid. After a few seconds, she saw something move next to her and looked up to see Simon's concerned smile. He was holding out his hand. With a frustrated sigh, Kate handed him the jar and he opened it in one quick twist. He handed it back to her and moved away but Kate could still see the smile on his face. She shook her head and dipped the butter knife into the jar.

"Or you could take your android with you and for fuck's sake actually use him already," said Jamie. "You know, use? I mean, I'd never have to worry if I had my own android. I keep forgetting my pills because they're such a pain in the ass. Simon, come here."

Kate glanced up as she worked on the sandwich. Simon moved towards the counter, his expression back to the usual perplexed blankness. Jamie turned towards him and took one of his hands.

"You're here all alone," she said, splaying her fingers against his. "With an android. A good looking android. He's not allowed to tell me if you're doing anything with him, but I'm pretty sure you aren't. Which is probably one of the biggest crimes against humanity." Kate felt a strange tension in her stomach as she watched Jamie clasp her fingers in between Simon's. "I mean, you haven't, right?" Jamie looked at her but Kate found herself frozen in the middle of making the sandwich and watching Jamie's actions. Jamie turned back to Simon's hand. "Course not. Here's a perfectly functional male body that's forbidden to tell anyone what you're doing to him, and you still won't do anything to him. He'll do exactly what you say exactly how you say it, and you don't even have to worry about birth control. Like, as close to a sex slave as you're ever going to get. And you're… making a sandwich."

There was a strange sense of urgency flowing through Kate's body that she wasn't sure how to react to. Part of her wanted to shrug off Jamie's obviously drug-induced rambling. She was surprised she was even listening to it. At the same time she was completely locked on Jamie's actions, the need to pull Simon away getting stronger as Jamie flexed her fingers in between his. Simon seemed to be watching her movements in a blank interest. Jamie looked up at him, then laughed and bit her lip. She let go of his hand.

"You're cute, Simon," said Jamie as she turned her chair back to the counter. "Don't you think he's cute, Katie?"

Kate was still frozen, the sensation slowly flowing back to her muscles. She gazed at Simon who was still watching Jamie curiously, his blue eyes narrowed as if he were contemplating something. Kate drew in a deep breath, settling her nerves.

"Sure," she said. She grabbed her plate and moved to the side. "Simon, you wanna come with me?"

He looked at her, seeming to snap back to attention. "You haven't put everything away."

"I'll do it later. Come on." She motioned with her hand and moved down the hallway, listening carefully to make sure he was following her. She stepped sideways as she entered her room and after Simon entered behind her, she closed the bedroom door.

She sighed heavily, blowing her hair out of her face. "So… what the hell was that?" She closed up her sandwich as she moved to her bed.

"I'm sorry?" said Simon. Kate took a bite of the sandwich as she settled back into her bed. She motioned to the door.

"That. It definitely wasn't alcohol. Alcohol just makes her stupid."

"Are you referring to her behavior?"

Kate dropped her shoulders. "Yes, Simon. She's clearly on some sort of drugs."

"She has high levels of thirium-based stimulant in her bloodstream," said Simon.

Kate stopped chewing and looked at him. "How… the hell are you able to tell that?"

Simon rubbed his hand. "She touched me."

Kate watched for a moment, the uncomfortable tension building up again. She turned back to her sandwich. "Yeah, she touched you. Practically had sex with you through her fingers."

"I don't think that's possible," said Simon. He moved to her desk and rolled the computer chair across the floor to his usual spot. Kate shook her head.

"It's kind of like intention. Undressing you with her eyes. Her mind saying no but body saying yes. That sort of thing." She looked up to make sure he understood and he was staring at her again with that blank puzzlement. She set her plate down. "She wants to fuck you, Simon."

His expression changed as he finally understood. "Does that make you uncomfortable?"

Kate almost choked. She made a motion as if to shrug it off but at the same time knew that the answer was painfully obvious. She straightened and folded her legs underneath her. "Yes, Simon. It makes me uncomfortable that my roommate wants to fuck my android."

"Can I ask why?"

Her heart seemed to freeze in her chest. Kate looked up at him, his confused blue-eyed stare pulling off a completely believable look of innocence. She felt her muscles tighten again as she racked her brain for a straightforward answer that cliché wasn't begging to turn into a soap opera.

"Because... " Kate lowered her voice and leaned forward. "Because I don't want her being intimate with something I own."

Simon's blank expression remained the same. "Do you think she would become emotionally attached to me?"

Kate raised her hands slightly as she stared furiously at him. "I─ don't─ know. No? Probably not?"

Simon stared at the floor and Kate could almost see the gears turning in his head. She sighed and leaned back against the wall, returning to her plate. She peeled the crust off, breaking the sandwich into smaller pieces.

"It might ease your concerns if I remind you that I'm programmed not to engage in sexual activity unless I'm given direct permission from you," said Simon. Kate put her forehead in her hand and groaned.

"Oh my god, Simon." She shook her head. "It's not… I don't want her touching you. I don't want her raping you with her mind. I don't want her to constantly digging into my sex life. I want her to leave you the hell alone."

Simon nodded. "Would you like me to tell her that?"

Kate looked up at him through her fingers. "No."

There was silence for a while, and Kate was thankful for it. She pulled out her phone and ate one of the pieces of sandwich she had pulled off, scrolling through the seemingly endless list of Star Trek episodes even though she had memorized every single one.

"Can I ask you a question?" said Simon. Kate sighed.

"Simon, the only time you ask me if you can ask a question is if you know the question is going to piss me off."

She saw Simon lean forward out of the corner of her eye, and he rested his elbows on his knees. The posture got her attention and she looked up at him. He had never sat like that before. Almost human-like.

"Why are you so afraid to let the people you like get near to you?" he asked.

Kate stared at him for a moment, the question not really sinking in. "What do you mean?"

"You don't like it when your mother touches you," he said. "And you don't like it when Jamie touches you. I've needed to scan you at times, and you are very uncomfortable with it. You don't like your mother, Jamie, or me. And you don't like to be touched by us."

Kate fidgeted with her plate, remembering when Simon first scanned her. She'd felt a strange buzzing sensation in her brain as if her thoughts were being invaded. Uncomfortable was an understatement.

"But you like Matt."

She looked up. Simon was gazing at her with a hint of that not-smile. "He shows a clear attraction to you, and you seem to want him to stay with you more than your friends and family. The way you embraced him that day leads me to assume you are also very attracted to him. But when he was near you, you acted like you didn't want him to be close to you. Like you didn't want him to touch you." He stared at the floor for a second, his eyes narrowed. "Why are you afraid of people being close to you?"

It felt like Kate was floating as she stared at him. Not only was that not what she was expecting, she hadn't even been aware that it was something she ever did. It made sense to her now that she was hearing it from him, but she had never given it any thought. She didn't like people to touch her. That was all. It was a stupid question. She didn't need to answer it.

But she didn't want Matt to touch her either. That wasn't true. She did want him to. And every time he tried, she resisted. She didn't know why. It was something that always bothered her, as if she were fighting against herself. And apparently it was so obvious that even her android could see it. Her android that could literally read her mind. Her android that she was starting to wonder was really an android or if he was starting to just pretend to be one.

She set her phone aside, and let out a slow breath. "I… it's not that I don't want to be touched. I mean─ I don't want to be touched." She sat up straighter, feeling a strange sense of power as she broke down her thoughts out loud. "I don't like people touching me. It just makes me feel like they're trying to control me. Pushing me someplace or making me hug them… and expecting me to be okay with it. I don't like it. But with Matt…" She stared at the bedsheet as she tried to think. "With Matt… I'm not annoyed at Matt like I am with other people. I don't think he's trying to control me. But if I let him in, I don't think he's going to like what he finds. Because what I think he's going to find is… broken."

She looked up at Simon and saw that he was still leaning forward in his chair. His LED was flashing back and forth from blue to yellow. She reorganized her thoughts. "I have epilepsy. I have seizures. I can't control my own body. And this guy that I really like wants my body. But it's… it's fucking broken, Simon. I mean, you've seen it. You know how bad it is. How do I know if I try to… anything with him, that I'm not just going to start convulsing? If he's going to have to haul me to the emergency room because my heart rate goes up too fast or something? I already have you watching me like a hawk to zap my brain back into place when something goes wrong. I don't want him─ I don't want Matt to have to do the same thing. He just doesn't understand."

She paused for a moment, not quite believing that she was telling all this to her android. She wasn't sure if he was even capable of knowing what she was talking about. Simon's LED continued to flash between blue and yellow as he stared at the floor, and Kate made a failed attempt to read his expression. As cathartic as it was to break down her worries, it didn't seem to create any solutions for the problems she was experiencing. It only made it obvious how melancholy her logic was.

Simon gripped his chin, and again Kate was made aware of how human the motion was.

"Does Matt know about your epilepsy?" said Simon.

Kate couldn't help her frustrated laugh. "Oh yeah. He definitely knows."

Simon looked up at her, his blue eyes lit in a strange wisdom. "Then why does it matter?"

For a second, Kate struggled to speak. "Wha─ it matters to me. It matters if someone spends all their time worrying about how I'm doing or if in the next hour I'm going to pass out. I don't want people to do that."

"Does he do that now?" said Simon.

"Well, no. But I don't want him to start. It's kind of hard not to do that when you're with someone. And I don't want─" Kate sat up and set the plate on her desk as her thoughts opened into clarity. "I don't want to be with someone if there's any doubt that they're with me just because they feel the need to take care of me."

Simon nodded, his chin still in his thumb and forefinger. Kate felt a slight sense of accomplishment as she looked at him, as if she'd solved a puzzle that had been sitting in front of her for months. She was a broken mess. People couldn't get close to her even if she wanted them to. There was no easy solution to the problem. But at least now it felt like she had it in small pieces instead of a single vague blur.

It hadn't been so hard to talk about it either. Someone else knew her thought process better than she did, even if he didn't know why it worked that way. He knew exactly how broken her mind was and how to fix it. Everything that she feared was already happening on a smaller scale. She'd been surviving it for half a year now.

Kate looked at Simon whose LED had begun to spun solid blue. She smiled. "You're wrong though."

Simon looked up at her, lowering his hand to his knee as he straightened. Kate picked at the fabric of her blanket. "I like you," she said. "I like you enough to get over you having to probe my brain. I like you enough not to let my roommate use you for her own personal sex slave." She laughed at the thought, and saw that relieved expression sweep over his face. It was something she was beginning to notice every time she seemed to smile at him. As though his very existence hinged on her positive reaction.

He seemed to hesitate for a moment. "I like you very much too, Kate."

She settled back in her bed against the wall, drawing her legs up. "I didn't think your programming would let you like anything."

"I can speculate," said Simon. "I think I like Star Trek. I like Data. And I like Spot."

Kate laughed as she pulled up her phone. "You and your damn cat." She scrolled through the TV show. "What episode were we on?"

"Season four episode nine," said Simon. "I believe Wesley Crusher is leaving."

"Thank god." Kate found the episode and started it on the screen. She settled back and cast a glance at Simon who was already completely entranced by it. He had straightened from his natural posture back into his tense sitting pose. She wondered if he had even known what he was doing at the time. It had been so casual. So human. Almost as if he wasn't supposed to be doing it.

She stared at the ground for a moment, feeling that misplaced surge in confidence again. If it was all just software that was making her android learn to be more human then it was doing a good job of it. And it was starting to grow. She was curious to see how far it would take him.

Kate grabbed a pillow and flattened it against the wall. "Simon?"

Simon looked up at her, and she made a casual gesture next to her. For a while, he simply stared at her. She sighed and slapped her hand down on the spot next to her. "Get over here."

He stood up and moved in front of her, glancing cautiously at the pillow she'd put against the wall. Kate let out another frustrated laugh and shook her head. She reached out to him, holding her palm up and he seemed to take it with the intention of helping her up. With some effort, she put her weight into pulling him forward, turning slightly so that he sat sideways next to her. His movements were slow and calculated, as if he was for lack of a better word, terrified.

Kate couldn't help her smile as she let him figure out how to settle back against the wall. He drew his legs up slightly to stabilize himself, and she could see that his gaze was frozen against the opposite wall like an animal preparing to bolt. Somehow, seeing him in this petrified state seemed to help distract her from what she also guessed was her own disbelief. If he was more terrified than her, then it made this easy.

She leaned against his shoulder and pulled up her phone to turn up the volume. Picard was conducting boring negotiations with one of the worst alien costumes Kate had ever seen. She settled against Simon's shoulder, making an attempt to not try so hard to pretend that she was used to this. With time, Simon seemed to relax into it as well. And as the episode dragged on, she found that it really wasn't hard to pretend at all.