Duncan opened his eyes and rolled out of his bed, stretching his arms behind him. Kim had insisted he had taken a few days off to recover and, whilst he was frequently bored when she wasn't with him, he had managed to sleep and his temperature had gone down. Now that he was better though, panic returned to him – he had been trying to use the mining trip as an excuse to take a break from Kim for a while… and instead it had just drawn them closer. He leaned back on top of the covers and closed his eyes, smiling at the memory of Kim clumsily pouring soup down his front as she had tried to make him eat some; it had burnt him slightly but it was nice knowing, in one way or another, that she cared.

"DUNCAN!" Kim's voice echoed slightly around the house as he heard her use the elevator to go up to the bedroom. As she saw him on the bed she grinned and held out some soup. Duncan was actually pretty sure he would get ill again if he kept living on soup but he didn't have the heart to tell her.

"Thanks Kim!" he replied cheerfully, letting the smile on her face appear on his. Somehow this caused Kim's smile to widen slightly as she carefully made her way over with the soup, holding it out to him; as she handed the bowl to him, her hand slightly brushed over Duncan's hand.

CRASH.

Kim jumped back in surprise as Duncan dropped the bowl onto the floor, shaking his head slightly. "Geesh, Duncan, what was that?" she complained as she ran downstairs to get a towel to mop it up. Duncan lifted his hand to his face and studied it carefully – he had felt the most bizarre electric shock of his life shot through his hand when Kim had passed him the soup. As Kim entered the room looking slightly sulky however, Duncan decided not to mention it.

"Sorry, Kim – it was too hot for me to hold…" he trailed off, edging around her as she focussed on cleaning up the rest of the soup. "I'm just going to get some bread out or something, don't worry!" Duncan added cheerfully as he used the elevator and quickly disappeared out of sight. Kim sighed to herself. Usually it was her dropping things…

Duncan quickly made his way down to the base floor and started to charge up his wand – he had been meaning to do so for the last few days but being ill had made him a bit more forgetful. Also, speaking of forgetful…

Duncan allowed his mind to wander back upstairs to where Kim might still be clearing up the soup, next to his bed… and suddenly felt a wave of fear crash over him. He hadn't worried about it until this moment as he had completely forgotten but his bed side table had started to bulge; the item he was hiding had grown too large, and he needed to throw away some of the rubbish concealing it. However, he couldn't throw that thing away… Duncan shuddered at the thought of the first few pages. It was how he coped before Kim arrived… writing everything down and locking it away. He had promised himself he would never forget the events of that day – but that didn't mean he had to look over what he had written; his thoughts turned as dark as the nightmares he had on occasion…

"DUNCAN!" Kim's voice yelled out again and Duncan snapped out of his daydream. There has to be a reasonable explanation for how someone so annoying can be so important to me… he thought bitterly as Kim glared at him, although he had to admit to himself that he had no idea how that could be.

"Duncan, there's no copper left! Or tin. Or anything!" Kim whirled her arms about in a slightly annoyed fashion. "We've even ran out of cobblestone!" Duncan laughed at the expression on Kim's face, instantly cheering up, causing the tiny person in front of him to narrow her eyes further. "I'm serious Duncan; we need to go on a mining trip."

"Yeah, we need more materials – I've mapped out an area, I was just about to re-pack equipment for it; will you do me a favour though?" Duncan questioned Kim, the tone in his voice causing her to tilt her head at him curiously.

"Hm? Yes Duncan?" she inquired, suspicion lacing her voice slightly.

"I could really do with a little break from Panda Labs; I've been stuck here for the last few days with nothing to do so would you please look after everything for me whilst I go mining? I promise I won't be long and that I'll be fine!" he added hastily as Kim looked slightly crestfallen. This was his chance to devise a plan to deal with all the problems he was having lately…

"Fine, then. Don't hurt yourself though…" she muttered with a playful smile as she walked with him out of Panda Labs and past the witches hut. Duncan noticed a dent where he had collided into it a few days previously and frowned.

"Yeah, don't worry about that…" Kim smiled, noticing Duncan's frown. "If you collect some wood too then it'll be fine and you and I can repair it together, right?" Kim grinned up at Duncan, completely unaware of her final words echoing in Duncan's head.

"Yeah, it'll be fine… I'll be gone a 3 or 4 days tops, alright…?" Duncan suddenly felt a wave of sadness as he started his jetpack and glanced back at Kim, who was cheerfully waving goodbye. Looking at her, and the purple taint that covered most of her body, he called through the noise of the jetpack "… when I get back, we're going to save you from the taint Kim! I promise!" Kim's eyes widened slightly but she nodded, still smiling as Duncan shot off into the sky and out of sight.

Kim breathed a sigh of relief once he was gone – between the frantic scavenge for materials and things to do whilst Duncan was ill, looking after the animals and then the task of looking after Duncan himself, Panda Labs was now quite disorganised. Kim rolled up her sleeves and put her hands on her hips, glaring at the messy weeds and overgrown flowers spreading around the animals' habitat; even the animals seemed to sense her mood, edging away from her as she marched to her hut and pulled out some gardening tools. Duncan is going to be very surprised when he gets back… she thought as she started attacking the weeds as the sun continued to rise in the sky.

…

Kim collapsed on her bed and moaned at her aching hands and back. It had taken the whole day to clear and sort out everything around Panda Labs – she had even flown up to the missiles to see if she could tidy up some of Duncan's redstone trails (on a closer inspection, however, she had decided not to interfere.) She rolled over on her side and looked at Duncan's empty messy bed beside her.

"So I'm really alone for a while…" she said to herself thoughtfully as the sun started to set behind her. The light seemed to illuminate Duncan's side of the room, a silent confirmation of what she had said. However, as the light fell on the table beside Duncan's bed, Kim realised that the drawer wasn't shut properly. Knowing that Duncan's bedside table, whilst forbidden to enter, would be very messy, Kim struggled with her conscience and desire to organise for a further few minutes before deciding she would open it and sort it out so, at the very least, the drawer would be able to close properly.

Kim leapt up and shuffled over to the drawer and slowly opened it, holding her breath, only to release it in utter disappointment and horror and she discovered a few old apples and various pieces of rubbish were laid on top. Well, I'll just rearrange these… she thought as she moved the apples to the back. As she cleared them aside, she noticed half a page sticking up against the side and leading underneath the base of the drawer; as she pulled at it, the whole of the base of the drawer shifted slightly, revealing a secret panel.

Kim knew she should replace everything instantly and that Duncan would never forgive her if she ruined something important to him, but her curiosity got the better of her – he never kept secrets from her… and yet, this was evidently something very secret. Lifting up the hidden compartment, she saw a large diary, stuffed to the brim of extra pages from the front to the back. Shakily, she pulled it out and sat on Duncan's bed and examined it, her heart falling as she noticed it had an enchanted lock on it. As she turned it over in her hands however, it slipped through her grasp and fell against the floor, causing a few of the pages to fall out; she froze in terror, forgetting that Duncan wouldn't be around to tell her off.

Picking up the book with panic speeding her actions, she quickly shoved it back into the drawer, closed the lid of the false base and messed up the rubbish on top, bringing the apples to the front again. As she shut it, she realised that the drawer now shut completely and, although she struggled slightly with her conscience, she rearranged one of the apples to wedge against it slightly, causing the drawer to be unable to shut completely. She breathed a sigh of relief and then stared at the pages on the floor – she couldn't put them back in the book as she couldn't break the lock, and she couldn't leave them in the drawer as it would appear too obvious that they hadn't merely fallen out. She would just have to hide them and hope Duncan didn't notice...

As she picked them up, she noticed something strange – Duncan's handwriting, which was usually quite large and scruffy, was small and… less scruffy. At a further peek, she realised that it also had a date etched into the top of it, too smudged to make out, and that it wasn't something Duncan had written in the last few weeks; it seemed much older. However, Kim's eyes widened and her heart began to pound as she read the topic written underneath it; this was it, this was Duncan's secret – his past.

Forgetting about anything else, Kim walked over to the couch and curled up slightly, eyes locked as she began to read the diary entry captioned: "Nuclear Device".