chapter two

It was pitch black outside. Bonnie and three of her fellow technicians were the only ones awake: a young woman named Ashley and two older men called Jared and Chad. Bonnie was working on a new component for Kitt, something that she probably shouldn't be doing but figured it would come in handy soon enough. "Chad, will you hand me a screwdriver, please?" Chad handed her the right implement and Bonnie went back to her work. She missed the look Jared and Ashley gave Chad.

"Miss Barstow – we have a question for you." Chad began uncertainly.

"What is it?" Bonnie asked, distracted. She was fully expecting some sort of technical question that he should probably already know the answer to – hence his hesitation.

"What's going to happen to Kitt now that he's a killer?"

Bonnie looked up in shock. "Since when was Kitt a killer?" she demanded.

"Well, he killed the FBI guy." Jared said, shifting a little in agitation. "We liked John. He was nice to us, you know? It wasn't right to mow him down like that."

Bonnie had to struggle to keep the shock and anger out of her voice. "Do you like Michael?" she asked in forced calm. Ashley shrugged.

"Yeah, I guess."

"John was going to kill Michael." Bonnie continued, her voice slow and steady. "Which would you rather have happen – Michael get gunned down or Kitt kill John to save Michael?"

Jared and Chad exchanged looks, unconvinced. Apparently they didn't accept that version of the story. Not for the first time, Bonnie wished Kitt had thought to videotape the whole thing, but there had been more important things to worry about. Ashley, on the other hand, nodded in understanding.

"It would destroy Kitt if he had to watch Michael die." she said bluntly.

Bonnie nodded. "Got it in one." she said. "Now, let's drop the subject and finish this, shall we? Kitt and Michael will need it for their next mission."

"You're sending them back out again?" Chad demanded. "What if Kitt kills again?"

Bonnie stood up. She wasn't very tall, but she was taller than Chad, and it was enough of a difference to shut the kid up for a moment. "Listen to me. Kitt only killed because Michael was in danger. Now think of this – Kitt can only do that if the danger is real. His programming prevents that. Michael doesn't have any such programming. If he thinks Kitt is in danger, he'll do the exact same thing Kitt did. Do you really want to give an already over-protective man an easy target?" She watched as that sank in, and finally a flicker of fear crossed Chad's face. Bonnie sighed. "Listen, I'm not trying to threaten you. You're entitled to your own opinion. Just watch who you mouth off around, okay?"

Chad nodded. Jared crossed his arms and scowled. Ashley slapped the older boy on the back of the head. "Don't worry, Miss Barstow. I'll keep these two in line."

"Good." Bonnie smiled at her and sat back down again. "Ashley, will you hand me the solder?"

/----/

Michael made sure he had Devon with him when he went into the old records room. Devon immediately started pacing by the door, clearly agitated by the whole deal. Michael simply brushed past him and began opening file drawers, searching for the thing that drew him here of all places. Something so important wouldn't be kept on computers where it could be tampered with. "What exactly are you looking for, Michael?" Devon demanded. "Maybe I can help and get us out of here faster."

"You sound like we're not supposed to be down here." Michael mused, mostly ignoring Devon in favor of his search. He kept coming across crap-loads of tax forms that he couldn't have understood even if he knew everything that went on at FLAG. Heck, Michael had had a hard time understanding his own tax forms when he was simply a police officer.

"Technically, you're not." Devon retorted.

"That's why you're here with me." Michael pointed out. He moved on to the next file cabinent. "I don't feel like being accused of forgery, and if you're down here as well, you can back me."

"Back you in what?"

"I need Wilton's last will."

Pain flashed across Devon's face briefly. He stopped pacing, his eyes locking onto Michael's back. The younger man could feel his eyes on his shirt, a most uncomfortable sensation. "Michael – what could you possibly need that for? Wilton is long gone."

"Wilton wasn't stupid, Devon." Michael replied easily. "He had to have known that, sooner or later, someone was going to try and exploit Kitt. There had to be a way of protecting him when he couldn't do it himself."

Devon hesitated. "I'm not sure we actually thought about it." he admitted. "We were young and naïve – the thought of being betrayed was so far from our minds – it was all before Tonya came about and almost destroyed everything." He watched as Michael finally seemed to find what he was looking for. The driver pulled a thin folder out of the stack and started flipping through the papers. "Michael, why is this so important now?"

"Because I know the scientists aren't going to wait forever to try their new code." Michael said bitterly. "I won't let them mess around with Kitt's mind, Devon. It's not going to happen."

"It wouldn't change who Kitt is." Devon said quietly.

"I know. But if this code does what it's supposed to, Kitt will hate it." Michael refused to look at Devon, keeping his eyes locked onto the paper. "I won't allow it."

Devon hesitated. He wondered what, exactly, had passed between Michael and Kitt during those days when he and Bonnie had given the pair time to recover. Something had. The changes weren't obvious, but every now and again one of them would slip up and reveal something like this. Their determination to keep each other happy and safe was almost endearing, and in another way alarming. Something was changing, and Devon couldn't figure out what it was.

Michael nodded in satisfaction as he found what he was looking for. "Here it is." he said, pointing out the line to Devon. It was only a simple line of text, almost an afterthought and definitely added on to the will not too long before Wilton died, but the implications were clear. Devon's eyes were wide with shock.

"Dear boy, do you know what this means?" he demanded, his voice barely above a whisper.

"It means those bastards can't touch him." Michael's free hand clenched into a fist. It was the lucky break they needed, but Michael wasn't sure he could do it. It was demeaning, going against everything Michael believed about himself and Kitt. So very wrong, and at the same time – if Kitt would allow it – it could be just as right, just another step forward. "I'll run it past Kitt first. If he'll allow me, I'll use it. Not until then."

"Michael, did you know it would be you?"

The driver shook his head. "No. To be honest, I thought it would be you." he admitted. "Wilton trusted me more than I thought." He flashed Devon a weak grin. "I'll be back." With that he left the archives, taking Wilton's will with him. Devon sighed.

He really needed to talk to Bonnie. If anyone knew what was going on between Michael and Kitt, it would be her.