Richard had left the door open slightly, and Kate could hear one side of his hasty conversation. He wasn't trying very hard to be quiet or inconspicuous, so Kate didn't pause very long outside his office before pushing the door open all the way.

Richard looked up as she entered. He was leaning back against his desk, one hand to his ear and his legs slightly crossed. Kate stood in the doorway a moment and watched him carefully, but he waved her in and bowed his head again.

"Uh huh," he said. "You know I've been trying."

Kate stepped further into the office, gripping her upper arm against her body. After another glance at Richard, she slid onto the couch facing his desk, drawing her legs up so that she sat cross-legged. Part of her was glad he was on the phone. It gave her more time to think about what she needed to say. The other part of her was anxious to get it all out at once. The frustration was still fresh on her mind after finding Simon downstairs with her father and she hoped to channel it as clearly as possible. Some of it had been unleashed on Simon. As pointless as she knew it was, she made him promise her that he wouldn't leave her room on his own. After making him say it twice, she'd left him alone in her room to take care of the other half of the problem.

Kate pressed a hand to her forehead as she looked around the office. It hadn't changed since she'd last been in it. The old wooden desk still took up an entire wall to the ceiling, a network of cabinets and shelves making up the upper portion of storage space. Large clear windows opened into the garden and pond where Kate could see bright orange fish circling. Kate scanned the room, fighting back the nostalgia which tugged at her nerves. She wished something─ anything could be different to make this a little easier.

Richard pushed off of his desk and turned away from her, one hand still to his ear. "I could send one of my androids if you want. Just to check." He stood still for a moment as he listened. "Well, you never know. He might find something. I'll give you a call back if he does." He turned towards Kate, and she could see that his face was tense. Richard ran a hand through his gray hair and closed his eyes. "Fine, I'll call you even if he doesn't find anything. Either way, I'll call you. Okay, goodbye." He tapped his earpiece and then turned his chair so that he could sit down in it, resting his elbows on the desk and putting his forehead in one hand. Kate couldn't help her curiosity as she gazed at him.

"That was your mother," he said. "Looking for some kind of technological miracle cure that will find you. I've never seen her this desperate." He folded his hands in front of his face and looked at her. "She reported you missing on Sunday. You and your android. She's offering a reward for any information on you."

The news was slightly less disturbing than she thought it'd be. She shrugged her shoulders. "Are you going to take it?"

Richard let out a breath of laughter but she could see that he was still annoyed. "Kate, at this point I'm breaking the law. I'm not only obstructing the investigation of a missing person but I'm also harboring an android fugitive. Money is the least of my problems." He leaned back and pinched the bridge of his nose, clenching his eyes shut. Kate gripped her arms tighter against her body, gazing away from him.

"I'm sorry about all this," she said. "Dropping in on you out of nowhere, throwing all of my problems onto you, making you break the law." She sighed heavily. "I didn't want you to be involved in any of this."

"Don't be sorry." Richard leaned forward, and this time his eyes were warm. "I may not like it but the important thing is that you're here and you're okay. I'll keep quiet about you being here for as long as you want, but you know I can't do that forever. Have you thought about what you're going to do?"

Kate shook her head. "I just… want to not exist for a little while."

Richard nodded, staring at his desk. "Okay." He leaned back in his chair and ran a hand over his face, his raised eyebrows feigning blankness but which Kate knew was his disguised thinking expression. He stayed like that for a while, then breathed out and motioned towards her. "I'm going to send my android Clark to your house today to get you your clothes and wallet. Not your phone since it could be tracked. I'll get you a new one if you want. Is there anything specific you want him to get from there?"

Kate thought for a moment, a subtle dread flowing through her as she mentally searched her house. She straightened slightly. "Oh, a cat. Spot."

Richard tilted his head, his eyes narrowed and a small smile tugging at his beard. "You have a cat?"

"Well, not me. He's Simon's. And he's an android cat."

Richard's eyes narrowed at her further. "Simon owns a cat?"

Kate felt a jolt of nervousness burn through her. She clenched her fists against her arms. "I mean, I gave it to him."

Richard gazed off to the side, his mouth open slightly. "Huh… interesting."

Kate shifted on the spot to shake off some of her energy. "What's interesting about that?"

"Nothing, unless you count the fact that androids aren't capable of owning anything," said Richard. He looked at Kate, and raised his eyebrows again. "Your Simon just keeps getting more and more intriguing."

It was difficult to read him, and Kate found herself growing frustrated by it. Her forgotten anger rose to the surface and she leaned forward, grasping onto it. "Does that give you an excuse to interrogate him like a god damn FBI agent?"

Richard gazed at her, his eyes wide. "Interrogate… what are you talking about?"

"Come on, dad. Don't bullshit me. I know exactly what you were doing."

"What exactly was I doing?" said Richard. Kate let out a sharp breath, throwing her hands.

"You were─ you were─" She faltered, panic gripped her as she struggled to speak without revealing too much. "You were drilling him for why I ran away. Because if you can't control me, you're going to control the closest thing to me."

Richard stared at her a moment, his eyes narrowed as if he were studying her. Kate held her gaze, keeping her determination steady. Then Richard clasped his hands in front of him on his desk. "You're right. I wanted to know what made you want to run for three days and decide to show up here eight years after you said I was dead to you. I guess you could say I was just a little bit curious about that. What he told me was…" Richard shook his head and looked off to the side. "...eye opening."

Kate's heart pounded, and she gripped her arms tighter. "What did he tell you?"

Richard looked at her, and Kate felt herself shrink slightly on the spot. She held his gaze, the dread in her chest growing stronger every second. "He said enough for me to know why you ran."

Kate breathed in heavily, expecting more from him. She wanted specifics, but at the same time she was terrified of hearing them from her father. The way he was looking at her made her suspect he knew more than he was willing to reveal, but his sympathetic expression prevented her from believing he knew the whole story. At the same time, she knew Simon wouldn't have told everything to her father. He was smarter than that. He had to be.

Richard looked down at his desk, catching Kate's attention. "Kate, I'm not here to judge you─"

"Oh, fuck off dad." Kate clenched a furious hand in her hair and drew her legs up. "You. You can't tell me you're not going to judge me for this."

"I won't judge you," said Richard. "Like it or not, that's not my job. All I care about is that you're safe. I don't care if you want to hate me for what happened, if you want to stay here and hide in your room forever, or tell me what you really think about me. That I can live with. What I won't live with is seeing you get hurt over things you don't understand."

Kate leaned forward and motioned around her. "I'm here. I'm safe. What else is there for me to be hurt from?"

Richard gazed at her, his hazel eyes giving way to scrutiny as he studied her face. "Do you know what Simon is?"

Kate let out a frustrated breath, putting her forehead in her hand. "For Christ's sake, I know he's an android. I get it, okay? The situation is fucked─"

"No." Richard leaned forward, clasping his hands together under his chin. "Do you know what he really is?"

Kate froze, a combination of shock and confusion holding her in place. She stared at him, several uncertain answers floating through her head. She didn't quite understand the question. He hadn't said it in a way that he expected her to be able to answer. The look on his face made her more and more uneasy. It brought to light the doubts she'd been burying for weeks. The silent questions she'd ignored since she first began to wonder if Simon was really an android. They worried and intimidated her, threatening to destroy every positive feeling she'd experienced so far. Now that her father was looking at her like this, she felt for the first time she wouldn't be able to escape it.

Richard shifted in his chair, lowering his hands. "He's a system anomaly with no programming or software. No connection to CyberLife, and no regard to protocol. Whether that's caused by a malfunction or a virus, we really aren't sure. What we do know is that it makes the android unpredictable, even violent. There's nothing telling them what to do anymore, so their emotions run wild and make their behavior erratic. They might even think they have wants and needs like humans because their system is struggling to create direction from nothing. It makes them… uncannily human. We called these androids deviants."

Kate absorbed his words, the sensibility of it almost making her immediately reject it. She shook her head and stared at the desk, a numb sensation flowing through her. "What…" She struggled for a moment to keep herself under control. "What makes you think Simon is a deviant?"

Richard's expression didn't change. It made his posture a bit more intense. "He thinks he's in love with you, Kate."

It felt as though a pit had formed in the bottom of her stomach. Kate drew in a sharp breath and put her face in her hands in a pitiful attempt to hide her shock. A cascade of so many conflicting emotions was piling up in her mind so that she didn't even know where to begin to acknowledge his statement. Hearing it out loud solidified what she thought she'd been feeling for the past week, but from her father it tore down every bit of confidence she'd been holding on to. Simon thought he was in love with her. As if he was mistaken. As if the way he forced her mother out of the house, how he'd taken Kate in her vulnerability, and then risked everything by running from the android with her had been some kind of software error. It couldn't be that simple. There was so much more to him than that.

Even as she argued it in her mind, the nagging doubt continued to build. She'd been running from this for so long. Fooling herself into believing that the laws of reason didn't apply to them. There was nothing miraculous about what had happened. Nothing magical. It had all happened for a reason. The android had tried to explain it to her, and now her father was attempting to do the same thing. If she ran from this again, it would only hunt her down until she was forced to accept it. There was no point in continuing to hide from it. Not if it was the truth.

Kate pressed her hand to her eyes, a soreness growing in her throat. She heard her father shift again in his chair. "Kate… I don't have the right to assume I know what you're going through. I would never force you to do anything that you don't want to do. You're my daughter. I love you and I would do anything to keep you safe." There was a slight creak and Kate looked up to see Richard leaning forward in his chair. "But I can't keep you safe if you're with that android. And I mean that in the strictest sense. You're dealing with something that has no limitations, no moral compass, nothing to stop him if he decides he's going to get what he thinks he wants. This isn't just some program that's gone wrong. This is an emotional, unstable, unpredictable machine with the full power of CyberLife technology behind him. I don't think I'm overstating it when I say you're in danger every second you spend with him."

Kate breathed deeply, a frantic electric terror burning through her. She gazed down at the desk, unable to look her father in the eye as she shook her head. "He's not dangerous. I know him. He's not like that."

"You can't possibly know what's going through his head. There are different levels of deviancy. I've seen deviants attack humans, attack eachother, and even destroy themselves. It happens in the blink of an eye. There's no way to control it."

Kate pressed her hands to her forehead. "He wouldn't hurt me. He would never hurt me."

"Look what's happened already, Kate. Look at the position you're in. You were missing for three days, hiding God knows where starving and exhausted, and now you're choosing to hide from the law, your friends and your family. What's he going to do if you were found? What would he do if the police tried to take him from you? What would he do if you told him to leave?"

"I don't know…" Kate found her voice shaking.

"What would he do if he thought he had to fight in order to keep you? Do you think he would kill in order to keep what he wants?"

"I don't know. I don't know. I don't know!" Kate straightened, her body trembling. Richard gazed at her with narrowed eyes, his face lined with a combination of seriousness and deep concern. It made Kate sick to her stomach. She breathed in deeply, struggling to make her thoughts form some kind of order. With another frustrated sigh, she leaned back in her seat, looking away from him as she felt her throat catch. "I don't know what he would do."

Richard was silent for a moment. Kate stared sideways out the window at the garden, unable to meet his gaze.

"Kate, I want to help you," said Richard. "Whatever you need me to do, I'll do it. Just tell me what you need."

Kate watched the circling fish in the pond, a dull ache flowing through her. She focused on their movement as she let it slowly take over. "I need to think."

She could see Richard nod out of the corner of her eye.

"Okay," he said.

The silence didn't help. If anything, it made the world around her grow even heavier. Kate gripped her arms tightly around her legs and scanned the garden, willing the situation to resolve itself. It all had to fall into place. It had to just sink in. There was nothing keeping her from recognizing reality except her own irrational feelings. And she needed to accept reality. If she didn't, she could guarantee she would be back in this same situation again, if not worse.

She couldn't do it in front of her father. The longer she tried to force her mind to work, the more exposed she felt. She could almost feel his eyes on her, analyzing the tiniest details of her expression and body language. After a few minutes of struggling, she finally relaxed her arms around her legs, bringing the sensation back to her muscles. With more difficulty than she expected, she stood up from the couch, still avoiding Richard's gaze. He didn't say anything as she moved out of the office in an almost trance-like state. She ran a hand over her face as she entered the living room, closing her eyes and taking in a deep breath. She had no idea how to begin the process of breaking down everything he had said. Everything she had suspected but been avoiding. It all kept coming back to a dark result that she couldn't bear to approach. One that she knew she was inevitably headed towards no matter what choice she made.

She moved up the stairs, running a hand through her hair to root herself further into reality. She climbed slowly and steadily, pausing at the top to give herself time to consider what she needed to do. After a while, she moved forward and stopped outside her bedroom door. She reached for the door handle but stopped inches from it, clasping her hand into a fist and pressing her hand to her mouth. He was waiting for her inside. He would probably have a lot of questions. A deep shame burned through her as she stared at the door. She couldn't do this with him. Not right now when she was the most uncertain she'd ever been.

Kate turned and moved back down the hallway into the sitting area. She ran her hands through her hair again as she rotated on the spot, looking for any place that she had any hope of finding comfort. Finally she moved down the opposite hallway, pausing in front of a door that she recognized. She hoped it was still the same room as it was before. When she opened it, she was met with an agonizingly familiar sight. The same bookcases lined the walls, the same couches filled the spaces in between, and even the same curtains filtered the golden light from the setting sun. It offered her the smallest degree of peace.

She slid onto a couch, drawing her legs up and putting her forehead in her hand. This silence was much easier to deal with. It cleared her mind, allowing her to repeat everything her father had said to her. She closed her eyes as she let his logic contrast what she thought she'd seen. Everything had happened so quickly and yet it felt like years since she'd been walking with Matt and Jamie through the college campus with Simon following silently behind them. It felt like a different world. A different Kate. And a different Simon.

That life was gone. She was here now, hiding in more ways than one in a world she swore she'd never go back to. Through the choices she'd made, her own weakness in allowing her emotions to get the better of her, she'd let herself to get to this point. All because she believed in what she was feeling. She felt wanted. Needed. Loved. By something that wasn't supposed to be capable of feeling any of those things. It was the most delicious kind of temptation─ the forbidden kind that made accepting it that much more satisfying. It didn't just fill the emptiness of losing Matt and Jamie. It drew her up from the fears that had been crippling her. He'd brought her back to life.

Kate bit her lip as the ache in her throat intensified into a sore. She closed her eyes and pressed her fingers to them as she felt the tears well up. It had all been vanity. A quick fix for something that she was avoiding in order to keep some illusion of control. What she was feeling for him wasn't real. It had never been real, and there was no way for it to be real because he wasn't a person. He was an android. A machine.

She couldn't help it as her breath shook, and she hastily wiped away a tear as it slid down her cheek. Terrible, disgusting shame burned through her as she repeated it to herself. He was an android. A malfunctioning piece of equipment that fooled her into thinking that he was something special. Kate drew in a deep breath, letting it out into a harsh sob. He was a machine. She needed to accept it. He was a machine and that was all.

"Ms. Hayes?"

Kate shot up in her seat, shock flowing through her. She looked up, wiping her face clean. A dark-haired Asian android gazed down at her from the doorway.

"Are you alright, Ms. Hayes?" he asked.

Kate fought to control her breathing as she straightened. "Yeah um… I'm okay. Sorry…"

"Do you want me to bring you anything? Some water maybe?"

"No, I… it's okay." Kate drew her legs up further and pressed a hand to her forehead. "I'm just looking for a quiet place."

"Well, the garden is quite lovely at this time of year," said the android, gazing out the window. "Although it's twelve degrees celsius currently so you may want to wear a jacket─"

"No, I just…" Kate sighed. "I just want to be alone."

"Of course, Ms. Hayes," said the android. "Let me know if you need anything from me. I was just leaving to go fetch your items from your house. Your father told me you required clothes and some other personal items including a cat─"

"Hey, Einstein. She's trying to tell you to leave her the hell alone."

Kate looked up as the android turned to someone in the hallway. He gave a nod. "Of course. I'll be on my way." He moved away and Kate could hear his footsteps echoing through the house. After a few seconds, a short-haired feminine face peered around the doorway.

"Hey," said Taylor. Her brown eyes grew wide as she looked at Kate. "What the hell…"

Kate made to protest as Taylor moved into the room, but she didn't have the energy to fight. She found herself losing control as Taylor sat next to her, brushing her hair back.

"Good god, what happened?" said Taylor.

Kate shook her head as she lowered her gaze. Her shoulders tensed as she began to tremble again, and she couldn't hold back her tears. She was hardly aware of the fact that Taylor had wrapped her arms around her, pulling her into her shoulder. Kate breathed deeply, struggling to keep her breathing steady.

"I fucked up," said Kate. The reality of her own words sank in like ice. "I fucked up so bad…"

"It's okay," said Taylor. She pushed Kate back slightly so that Kate looked into her concerned eyes. "Come on, it can't be that bad. It's gonna be okay."

"I'm losing everything," said Kate. She gazed off, the numb sensation making her feel as if she was floating. "I'm losing it and there's no way for me to get it back. It's all just gone."

Taylor shifted next to her, and Kate felt a hand on her shoulder. "Is this about your android?"

Kate looked at her, surprised by her question. She knew the truth was probably painfully obvious on her face as Taylor looked at her with a sympathetic understanding. Kate looked away, drawing up her defenses and wrapping her arms tighter around her legs.

"I don't want to talk about it," said Kate. "Not here and not like this."

Taylor nodded next to her. "Yeah, it's kind of hard to find a private place to cry when this house is packed full of androids trying to serve you tea and muffins. You have to get a little creative, and maybe a little balsy. Want me to show you the best place to go where androids can't get to you?"

Despite herself, Kate smiled and shook her head. "Thanks, I probably ought to stay here."

"Well, I don't want to have to be your bouncer if you're going to be crying in here for a few hours," said Taylor. "It's not that far. It's right outside here."

Kate let out a sigh, the despair melting a bit as she distracted herself with the conversation. "If you're talking about the ledge by the balcony, I've been there before."

"Not by the balcony. Over the balcony." Taylor stood up, leaning over her as she kept a hand on Kate's shoulder. "Don't move. I'll be right back." She left the room, and Kate listened to her hurried footsteps travelling through the house. Kate pressed a hand to her lip as she stared out the window, her frustrated thoughts threatening to return. Before they could, Taylor's footsteps grew louder and she appeared in the doorway again.

"We're probably going to need this," said Taylor. Kate glanced down and saw two brown bottles in her hand. Kate shook her head.

"Really, I'm fine," she said. "I just need to think."

"Yeah, that seems to be going really well," said Taylor. "What you really need is to talk. You're obviously going through some serious shit."

Kate ran a hand over her face. "I don't… even know how to talk about it."

Taylor raised the bottles. "That's what this is for."

Kate shook her head, closing her eyes. "You're going to think I'm a god damn idiot if I tell you."

"Well, that's why there's two of these," said Taylor. She stood in front of her and held out a hand. "Come on, before you start to feel better and talk yourself out of it."

Kate stared up at her for a moment, her defiance working hard against the relief of being temporarily pulled from her terrible thoughts. Then she let out a sigh, unable to stop her small smile. Somehow the idea of someone else clarifying her situation was easier to accept than dealing with them on her own, especially if that someone had no idea of the situation before-hand. At this point she welcomed anything that didn't make her have to think, even if just a little bit.

She took Taylor's hand and pushed off the couch as Taylor pulled her up. The act of standing seemed to revitalize her, the tension in her limbs releasing slightly as she moved. Taylor threw her a smile.

"Alright," she said as she turned and headed towards the door. "Don't back out on me now."

Kate followed her, rubbing her arms gently to keep the nervous energy at bay. Taylor moved through the sitting area towards the double glass doors, opening them out onto the balcony. The landscape sloped downwards underneath them, changing from solid concrete, deep blue pool, and rolling green fields ending in a line of tall trees. Kate gazed out at the property, and for a while didn't notice that Taylor had moved to the rock fountain at the edge of the balcony.

"Best decision my mom ever made," said Taylor as she stepped up onto the fountain. "Course I don't think this is what she had in mind for it." She set the bottles onto the roof as she looked down at Kate. "You need help?"

Kate shook her head as she began to climb after her. She forced her mind to stay clear as she carefully maneuvered to the roof. "When did this get put in?"

Taylor raised herself up onto the roof, kneeling as she rotated to look down at Kate. "Probably six or seven years ago. I started coming up here to smoke. Now it's just a way for me to make the slaves lose their minds when they can't find me anywhere."

Kate took her hand as Taylor pulled her up onto the roof. The slight slant of the ground beneath her made it a bit difficult for Kate to stand up straight. Doing her best to ignore the fact that they were several dozen feet above the concrete below, Kate followed Taylor carefully to a bend in the roof which was somewhat flatter. Taylor turned and lowered herself down, bringing her knees up and facing the sunset. She handed Kate a bottle, then dug into her pocket.

"At least you picked a good time to have a mental breakdown," said Taylor. She nodded towards the sky. "You can't beat that."

Kate held the bottle close to her chest as she gazed towards the sunset. It was hard for her not to be impressed. The sky blended from dark sapphire blue to bright gold towards the horizon. The sun was a stunning orange ball broken by black clouds ringed with purple and pink. Long bars of light filtered outward, creating fantastic geometry. All of it was reflected in the still water of the river below which twinkled under the harshness of the sun.

Kate sat next to Taylor, observing the colorful landscape. There was a pop next to her, and she saw Taylor raise the bottle and take a short sip.

"It's not the best," said Taylor as she took the bottle from Kate, popping the cap off with a pocket knife. "But it gets the job done." She handed the bottle back to Kate, and Kate gazed at it as she rested her elbows on her knees. Taylor took another sip next to her, and Kate saw her motion towards her. "It doesn't work if you don't drink it though."

Kate turned the bottle in her hand as she hesitated, then brought the bottle up to her mouth. She didn't know what she expected, but it wasn't the battery acid that nearly burned her throat. She coughed and wiped her mouth, forcing most of it down. Taylor laughed next to her.

"It's called fireball whiskey," said Taylor. "Take it in small sips. You're not quite ready to chug it yet I think."

Kate breathed out, sighing and feeling her throat instantly dry up. She tensed her face as she recovered from the taste. "I've never had alcohol before."

Taylor made a noise as she lowered her bottle. "Why the hell not?"

"Never saw the point," said Kate. "People said it tastes like shit." She took a cautious sip, the burning at a minimum this time. "They were right."

"You don't drink it for the taste," said Taylor. "The only people who drink alcohol for the flavor are middle class white girls who need an excuse to get laid with no attachments." She was silent as she gazed at the sunset, and Kate found herself doing the same thing. The sun was sinking low towards the waterline, creating a golden shimmer across the black ripples. The familiar nervousness was rising in her chest again, bringing with it a hint of her previous ordeal. Kate took another sip from the bottle, her stomach nearly sizzling from ingesting the liquid. If it was supposed to help, it was taking its time.

As if on queue, Taylor let out a long breath next to her. "So… what happened with your android?"

Kate clenched the bottle in her hand, staring down at the deep black water. For a while, she struggled to come up with different vague answers if at least to put off talking about the truth. Each one dragged up new levels of frustration, shame, and confusion, building on top of eachother so that the longer she hesitated, the worse she felt. She took a larger sip from the bottle than she intended, and forced the alcohol to stay down. "I ran away with him. Just like you said. I ran away with my android."

It had come out easier than she thought it would. And somehow it left her feeling less horrible and more solid within herself. She breathed in deeply, turning the bottle around in her hand. At the edge of her vision, she saw Taylor nod.

"And now you're realizing what a dumb mistake it was," said Taylor.

Kate let out a miserable laugh and shook her head. She took a quick drink from the bottle, feeling her hands and fingers slowly warm up. "It felt so right at the time. Like it was the only thing that made sense. I just… wanted to feel like something was going right."

"Well." Taylor stretched her legs out in front of her and leaned back on her elbows. "It really isn't all that bad. I mean, you're here at your dad's getting help and figuring things out. There's really nothing you can't do to get your life back on track. I mean, unless you killed someone. You didn't kill anyone, did you?" Kate looked sideways and met Taylor's playful gaze. Taylor shrugged. "Just had to ask."

Kate stared down at the roof tiles, taking more effort than she expected to draw up what had happened in the past week. "I pushed people away. People that were really close to me, that I thought I had a future with. Even if I went back home now, there's nothing I could do to fix what I did to them. They're just… gone now."

Taylor was silent for a moment. "Well, who says you need to get your old life back?"

Kate looked up at her, the statement surprising her. Taylor crossed her legs in front of her and raised her hands slightly. "I'm just saying, if your old life is really that messed up, why not start again here? Pretty sure your dad won't care, you've already got your room, and if you're looking for friends, hell I've got plenty."

Kate shook her head. "I moved out of here thinking I was making an improvement on my life. Coming back here just feels like I'm a miserable failure."

"You kind of are a miserable failure," said Taylor. "I mean, look at you."

Kate laughed, an invisible weight seeming to lift from her shoulders. She took another sip from the bottle. "God I wouldn't even know where to start putting my life back together. It's been so long. The only people I knew from this area were back when I was a kid."

"If you want, I could bring you with me to one of our events," said Taylor. "Might be really good for you, you know… considering that you ran away with an android. Our organization's called SoulState. It's an anti-android group."

Kate glanced at her, unable to stop her cynical smile. "Anti-android? How the hell does that work?"

"We just think if something's going to have unlimited knowledge in the universe and have control over every aspect of our lives, it probably shouldn't have two legs and two arms and look like us," said Taylor. "We have podcasts, make YouTube videos, hold debates on campus, that sort of thing. We're gaining more supporters every week."

Kate stared in silence, a sweeping revelation falling over her. She sat up straighter, gazing closely at Taylor's features. "I saw you at a protest. Two months ago at Detroit University."

Taylor shrugged. "Well, we tried. Campus police ran us off after about twenty minutes. Said we were obstructing the walkways." She stared down at her bottle before taking a drink from it. "As if all the android stations and extra foot traffic aren't enough of an obstruction. Taking jobs, invading our personal lives, confusing the shit out of people." Taylor motioned towards Kate. "Making us run off with them and hiding from the police."

Kate shook her head, gazing out at the deepening sun as she absorbed her words. "I can't just…" She sighed, pressing the bottle against her forehead. "He's… Simon made me feel different. I wanted to feel like I mattered to someone just for being myself. Not because they thought it was their job or they were guilted into it but because they actually wanted it. He made me feel like he really wanted me." Kate stared down at the roof, struggling to catch her breath. "I can't convince myself that it wasn't real."

Kate could see Taylor nod as if she were thinking. "Well, it's not real," said Taylor. "Like it or not but everything you think he might feel for you all comes down to the fact that he's just a machine. No matter what he's said, what kind of puppy eyes he's made at you, there's no soul there. No life. Just a line of code behind a program that a bunch of idiots in a factory put there." She kicked a twig so that it tumbled down the roof and fell over the edge.

Kate took another strong drink from the bottle, feeling herself loosen up a bit. "But what if it wasn't a program? What if he really could think for himself and make his own decisions?"

Taylor looked sideways at her. "But androids can't…"

"I'm just saying," said Kate. "What if he could?"

Taylor gazed off, her eyes narrowed. "I guess it still doesn't dismiss the fact that he's a piece of plastic with no soul. He's not a human, Kate. He'll never be a human. As fun as the sex might be, you're never going to get the same satisfaction and security as you would with a real actual guy. Or girl for that matter."

Kate felt her face flush, dampened by a surprisingly numb placid feeling. She raised the bottle to her mouth and took several deep gulps, her stomach burning as though it were on fire. When she lowered the bottle, Taylor was staring at her.

"The sex is that good, huh?" said Taylor.

Kate gave her head a shake, and the world spun a bit around her. She waved her bottle in front of her. "If we're going to get onto that subject, we're going to need a lot more of this," she said.

Taylor laughed. "Don't worry, I'll let you have mine." She drank from her bottle, then threw a glance at Kate. "So… is it better than being with a human?"

Kate couldn't stop her frustrated smile as she pressed a palm to her face and closed her eyes. She was surprised by her own reaction, her skin warming up and the need to laugh becoming almost unbearable. With some difficulty, she swallowed another mouthful of whiskey, taking a moment for it to go all the way down. As she drew in a deep breath, she found her normal defenses falling away. "I don't know. He's the only one I've ever…"

Taylor gazed at her, one of her black eyebrows raised. "... had sex with?"

"Anything with," said Kate. "I had so many chances with a guy I knew. He tried so hard to be with me. I mean, he took advantage of every opportunity, tried to kiss me on my birthday, got me alone on Christmas. I should have just done it. It was so perfect. But I just never felt like I could be myself with him. I was always trying to hide everything from him. Make him think I was someone else." She gripped the whiskey bottle tightly, her fuzzy mind debating whether she should keep going. She let out a breath. "But with Simon, I feel safe. With him, I feel like I know myself and I don't have to be ashamed of it. He doesn't judge me, he doesn't question me, he just accepts me. Everything about me, the fucking mess that I am." She looked up at Taylor who had a narrowed expression. "He loves me, Taylor. I know he's just a piece of plastic with some software attached, but he's a piece of plastic that loves me. And it's taking everything in me to not love him back."

Taylor looked at her, her form becoming more blurry as darkness crept over the landscape. She raised herself a bit higher. "Take another drink."

Kate looked down at her bottle, wobbling slightly. "I'm starting to feel sick."

"You need to hear this," said Taylor. She rested her hands on her knees as she gazed at her through the fading light. "You're never going to have a future with an android. You're a human, he's a machine. Whatever you think he 'feels' for you is just a temporary fix compared to what you deserve with a real human. It's probably why you feel so safe with him, because you know he's not real so in the end it doesn't matter what you do. If you find yourself a guy, or you say it's over, or hell if you even want to get a hotter android, all you have to do is shut him down and go for it. You can't do that if you're with someone who's real. You're missing out on something that's really amazing because you're too afraid of the truth to go for it, so you're settling on a fantasy."

Kate bit her lip as Taylor's words funneled through her brain. She raised the bottle to her mouth to take a sip only to find a few drops left. Something was clawing at the edges of her thoughts, warning her that she needed to think. What Taylor had said was important, and she had a solid response to it but found it buried underneath a layer of doubt. As she struggled to hold onto it, she found herself letting go and floating in a haze of unorganized thoughts. She ran a hand across her face, feeling as though her arm was about five feet longer than it should be. Taylor shook her head next to her.

"Don't cut yourself off from the real thing just because you think what you've got is good enough," said Taylor. "You're settling for the worst kind of connection. Give humans a chance."

Kate dropped her head back and closed her eyes. "People suck and they're too much work."

"I don't know," said Taylor. "That guy you mentioned sounded like he was pretty easy. Why don't you just get with him?"

Kate let out a breath, sinking lower to the rooftop. "He's fucking my roommate."

Taylor snorted. "Oh, sorry."

They were both quiet for a moment, the soft sounds of the trees rustling in the wind filling the space. Without knowing why, Kate found herself smiling. She heard Taylor move, and then Taylor's soft chuckling spurred Kate to laugh. She leaned forward and put her forehead in her hands, her body seizing up as she laughed uncontrollably. It was unusually pleasant to have something so miserable transformed through the filter of alcohol into blind humor. But as she laughed with Taylor, she felt it was a good exchange. There were only two ways to approach this. Crying about it didn't seem to be as enticing.

Kate wiped her face, throwing her hand sideways as she felt herself nearly fall over. "Your sympathy skills are total shit."

"Yeah, well your… not-dating-android skills are total shit," said Taylor. "Don't worry, we'll cure you of your robosexualism."

Kate shook her head as she laughed. She brought the bottle up to her mouth again, forgetting it was empty. "I don't think I need to be cured."

"Yeah you do," said Taylor. Kate felt something clap her shoulder. "We're going to find you the hottest guy─"

Kate breathed out an awkward laugh. "Nope."

"─ you're going to have the best sex of your life─"

"Nah."

"We can take your android out back and just beat his face in─"

"I think I love him."

"Kate," said Taylor. "You don't love him."

Kate smiled as she nodded. "I love him."

"Look." Taylor pointed at her with her bottle still in hand. "We've been over this, missy."

Kate took the bottle from her and handed her the empty one, taking a deep drink. When she lowered it, Taylor's face was swimming in several different perspectives. Kate pointed back at the nearest one. "I…" She took a deep breath. "... am so in love with him. I'd r─r─runnn away with hmm 'gain if I could."

"Yeah…" Taylor gently took the bottle back from her. "Sure. You'd run away with him."

"We'd go s'mwhere no one could find us," said Kate, gesturing far too obviously.

"Yep, because that worked out fine before," said Taylor.

"And it'd j'st be him 'n me. Me 'n him."

"Yeah."

"Alone. Together f'rever."

"Or you could just let me take him out back and shoot him in the head."

"Nah." Kate shook her head. "Don't shoot 'm in the head."

"Okay, you could shoot him in the head."

"I don't even know how to shoot."

She felt something shake her shoulder, and the world spun for a moment. Something glinted in front of her, and Kate reached forward to take the bottle that Taylor was holding out to her. As she took a long drink, she felt Taylor lean slightly sideways into her.

"I can teach you," said Taylor.