Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I don't own anything Knight Rider. This is just for fun.
Thank you to Tomy for the beta read.

This takes place after the episode Knight In Disgrace. It was written for Tomy's 'moonlight' challenge.

The Ends and the Means


The moonlight was bouncing off everything around them, but it wasn't making it that much easier to see. In the desert, there were few things to intercept and scatter light – it hit something and bounced back into the wide-open oblivion. There were only a few things distinct enough to catch Michael's attention -- the curve of Kitt's hood, the Joshua tree they were parked next to, and the mysterious mountain peaks, dark against the field of stars behind them.

It was barren, but it was home. Most people would probably prefer the lush greenery and beautiful old mansions of New Orleans, but Michael was a child of the desert. To him, there was something sinister about Louisiana with its pungent smell of magnolia, and the scent that lingered underneath it – the one that hinted of something rotting. Michael was glad to be back in the crisp, dry air of California. The heat here was bearable. It lacked the oppressive weight and stickiness of the Southern summer. Here, even when it was hot, he could wear his jacket, especially during the cool of the night. In New Orleans his jacket had clung to him unpleasantly and the air had the suffocating feel of a barely visible fog, even after the sun went down. The humidity had stuck to him, just like his deception had.

Michael gazed up through the open T-tops at the sharp pinpoints of light that were scattered around the sky. There was something about humid air that made everything blurry, hazy, and indistinct. Things got lost in the miles of overgrown yards, vine-covered homes, and slow southern drawls. Important things. In the miles of open desert, things were clear. There was room to be, room to think.

"Happy to be home?" Kitt asked, interrupting Michael's attempt to put off the inevitable.

"Yeah." Michael brought his attention back to his partner. He had wanted to wait for a quiet moment, when they were back on their own turf. Now that he had that moment, Michael was afraid to bring up the thoughts that had plagued him the whole way back. "Kitt," Michael asked, hesitating slightly. "Are we okay?"

"Of course," Kitt answered quickly. Michael wasn't sure if he was just imagining things, but he thought he heard the hint of unease in his partner's normally confident voice.

"Because I'd understand if we aren't. I lied to you, and put you in a very difficult position."

"It was necessary, Michael. You've explained that. And we stopped LaSalle in the end."

Michael sighed. He knew it went deeper than that. He felt that it went deeper than that. "Yes. But you trusted me, and I took that trust and manipulated it." Michael still felt bad for the moments in the garage when he had convinced Kitt to turn away from everything he knew to be true for something that in the end was just a part of a charade. He had put his partner through Hell. It had accomplished their goal, but did that justify what he had done to Kitt?

"Michael, I know you did what you had to do, but I guess, yes, it does make me wonder."

"Wonder what?"

Kitt sighed. "Wonder that if the next time I don't understand something, it means you aren't being honest with me."

It hurt to hear, but Michael couldn't blame his partner for feeling that way. It was the obvious consequence of breaking Kitt's trust in the first place.

"And if I promised I would never deceive you again?"

"I assume you would have made that promise before this case?"

"Yeah, Kitt, before this case, I would have said that I would never lie to you."

"But you had very good reasons."

"Yes."

"Which means that if you have very good reasons in the future, you may have to break that promise again."

Michael stewed in his guilt for a moment. He never wanted to betray his partner's trust. He respected Kitt too much for that, but he saw that there could be circumstances where he might have to do it again. There was always something vital on the line; a canister of a stolen biological weapon, or God knows what else. There were always people's lives hanging in the balance. He couldn't promise that he wouldn't ever lie when there were those kinds of stakes. He needed Kitt to trust him again, but there was no good reason why he should.

"Yeah, pal, unfortunately you're right. I don't ever want to, but yeah, I might be put in another situation where I might have to break that promise."

Michael focused his attention on a streak of white on his partner's shell -- the cleansing light of the desert moon. If their rolls were reversed, he'd have a hard time trusting Kitt again. He had spent the whole trip back from New Orleans with this knot in his stomach, knowing that he was going to ask Kitt to do something that he might not be able to do himself.

"Michael, can you promise me that you will never lie to me, except in the most dire situations."

"Of course, Kitt. And I will never make that decision lightly."

There was a slight pause. "Then I can trust that everything you do has a good reason. And I will always trust that even if you can't tell me, you are doing the right thing."

Michael closed his eyes and swallowed. "Thank you, Kitt," he breathed, amazed that he had a partner who could give him his trust so freely.

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-knightshade
July 4, 2004