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Swan arrived home just after three am. There were a few things she needed, as well as a change of clothing for the android. She was smiling to herself, had driven home to Bryan Adams singing �Run To You�. It always reminded her of Kitt and Michael. Sometimes she worried that there was something a little perverse in her falling for the android that she�d modelled on her brother. But she�d fallen for Kitt while he�d still been in the car. It wasn�t love, although she did adore him. But it was attraction - she was drawn to him. In many ways he was still an innocent despite his intense relationship with Michael. She�d made several advances on him, all of which he�d shied away from. The day they�d transferred him had been nothing short of cathartic. Kitt had suddenly been so very unsure. They�d worked on the project for six months and they�d been talking about it for six before that. But Kitt had been in the TransAm for twenty years, and the moment it became real was the moment he�d panicked. Michael had been there, reassuring, telling Kitt it was his own decision and it could be reversed if he regretted it. They wanted to be together. That was what had driven Kitt for a year. He�d never forgotten the intimacy they�d shared when he�d been inside the android the first time. And now they were older, now Michael had stopped having the odd fling with women he�d meet in the line of work, they wanted to love one another as they had done before. Yet neither would have been able to survive without the link. It was something they had been dependant on almost from the very start. After two decades of having one another so intimately close, it wasn�t something they were willing or able to lose. So with the decision made, Swan performed the delicate task of moving the hardware from the CPU to the android mind. The couple of hours that took, the hours before Kitt himself moved over and accessed the link again, were a nightmare for both of them. She was working inside Kitt�s very mind, carefully and cautiously, but still closer to his core than anyone but Bonnie had ever been. Bonnie had, of course, been present. She was the only one Kitt trusted enough to �open up to� as it were. She�d assisted, shown Swan around the CPU, warning her away from particularly sensitive areas. While they�d been working, Kitt had stayed very close to Michael�s side of the implant, held in Michael�s loving presence for as long as he could be. Then he�d had to return for them to remove the link altogether. It had been the most frightening moment of Kitt�s life. For an hour, he had nothing, no sense of Michael at all, no whisper and not even the hardware that gave him such wonderful intimacy. For that hour, Michael sat with his hand on the live sensor on the CPU casing, stroking, caressing, murmuring nothings to Kitt that were a lifeline to his partner during that otherwise silent time. When it was over, when they�d moved Kitt and he had complete access to the android, the two women had left the AI and his human lover alone, just let them be together. Only they knew what was said in that time, what they felt when they sat together and looked at the dead shell of the TransAm that had always been so alive with Kitt�s presence. After that, Bonnie, Kitt and Justin had worked together to create the remote computer that controlled the car today. So they had history. And Swan fancied the faded blue jeans off him. Kitt made her feel like a woman without even trying. He didn�t have to do anything or say a word. There was just something about him, something that made her insanely jealous of Michael whenever they were around. She couldn�t help but smile to herself. Humming softly, she walked into her house. For a moment she couldn�t do anything. She stared, mouth open, at the total destruction that had been her home. Nothing was where it had been when she�d left. The lounge looked like a wild herd had been let loose in it. She walked through, room to room, until she crossed the kitchen where food had been tossed from the fridge, freezer and cupboards into the centre of the floor. Then her gaze moved to the door that led into the lab. It was open, warning her to expect the worst. But she couldn�t have imagined the devastation. Monitors were smashed, papers thrown everywhere, PCs and Sparc stations destroyed. Most of the spare android parts were missing, those that remained had been crushed. She blinked back the tears from her eyes and quickly left the house, getting back into her truck and starting the engine before thinking twice about what she was doing. Instead of leaving, she flipped open her mobile phone and called Nick. When he answered, he sounded utterly exhausted. He had injuries that needed him to rest so that they could start to heal, but she doubted Karr was letting him relax at the moment and her call wasn�t going to help matters either. �Nick, Swan. Listen, I�ve got a problem.�
Carefully, slowly, Kitt slid off the hood of the car,
Michael behind
him. He felt his lover�s lips on the back of his
neck and smiled.
Michael dropped into the TransAm and started the engine, backing straight before turning her gracefully and driving out through the open doors. Kitt watched the car until it was out of sight, then
turned to look
up at Nick where he was standing, leaning back against the
wall with his
eyes closed. �You should sleep,� he murmured gently.
* Michael slowed as the modified TransAm crunched the
gravel of Swan�s
long driveway, as secluded as the one leading up to their
barn was.
The outside spotlights of the house were on, and he could
see her van parked
outside the front of the bungalow. But as he drew
quietly up beside
it, he could see she wasn�t in the cabin. Swearing
softly to himself,
he killed the engine and opened the car door cautiously.
�Michael!� He let out a deep sigh of relief when
she appeared
in the doorway of the house waving a torch. �A load
of android parts
are missing and I think they�ve taken the blueprints.�
Closing the car door, he followed her as she retreated
back into the
house. When he first saw the destruction he whistled
quietly.
�Jeez� they certainly made one hell of a mess!�
Michael crossed the room and knelt carefully next to the
cabinet, studying
the drawers carefully. They hadn�t been forced,
someone had opened
them using the combination and Swan�s fingerprints, or at
least had fooled
the microchip into accepting that they were Swan�s
fingerprints.
He looked about him at the sea of paper. �You�re
sure they�re gone?�
As she turned back to him, she caught a movement out of the corner of her eye. Someone passed by the small window at the end of the room. Her eyes widened and then she dropped, shouting a warning at Michael a moment before the sound of gunfire rang out around them. She heard Michael�s cry and started to crawl over to him. Even at a distance, she could see the blood starting to colour the light blue of his shirt. But he caught her expression and shook his head. It was a scratch, nothing more serious. Ignoring it, he pulled the gun from the inside pocket of his coat and clicked off the safety. Pointing to the door of the lab, he watched her nod and
then led the
way, keeping them low. There was only one way out
and he didn�t want
to get trapped in here. At the door, he looked down
the hall to the
front entrance, then up, back to the kitchen. He
looked again.
And saw a blur pass the front door where it stood
open. Stepping
out into the hall, he motioned for her to follow him just
as a second bullet
rang out. They both dived for cover, into the
kitchen.
It might have been a scratch, but the initial shot stung like hell, and Michael�s shock dropped the block to his partner for just a moment. Kitt started, the filtered pain knocking his concentration. Karr looked up in turn, knowing only that something had surprised his brother. //Michael?// Drawing back from Karr, Kitt turned
toward the link.
//Michael?!//
Bear looked up from the CPU as Kitt dropped down from the
workbench
close by. He�d arrived only ten minutes before,
unpacking his tools
and announcing that Duck would be around in an hour or two
to pick up the
Stealth and move it back to the shop. That it was a
busy night for
some people was his only explanation regarding the unusual
lag in service.
�You okay, there, little fella?�
It wasn�t a sudden loss, but as Kitt drove the truck out of the warehouse, the signal between Nick and Karr grew fainter and fainter until it was just a whisper in the dark silence. It was the quiet that woke Nick from his restless slumber
upstairs.
When he looked out over the railing he knew something was
wrong.
Kitt was no longer sitting beside the android form of his
brother.
Bear was working on the CPU, muttering loudly to himself,
but his truck
wasn�t in the warehouse. Nick started down the
stairs. �Where�s
Kitt?�
�That won�t help.� The rough, dry voice of his partner made him turn, and he stopped thinking at all when he saw Karr sitting up on the workbench, regarding him with smoky grey eyes. Silently, he approached the android, looking him up and down as he had once regarded the destruction of circuit boards and chips scattered in a bed of burning plastic across a wide area of deserted wasteland. Karr stared back at him with a smouldering mix of warning
and fascination.
It immediately set Nick on the defensive. �What?�
Kitt pulled the cumbersome truck over to the side of the
road, about
half a mile from Swan�s house.
//Michael, outside the window// They�d been herded into the bedroom through several firefights. In the kitchen, Michael had asked Swan if she kept any weapons in the house. She�d told him, yes, in the bedroom. And off his questioning expression, she�d explained that it was a woman thing. So they were in there now, the large double bed pushed up against the door which was giving in under what was steadily becoming a barrage of bullets. At Kitt�s call, Michael moved up the wall to look out of
the window
behind them. Indeed, the gleaming car was standing
below the window,
engine humming. //Kitt, you�re a genius!//
It had started to rain lightly when Michael pulled the
TransAm up to
the side of the waiting truck. Kitt had turned it
around, so that
when the sleek car stopped next to him, its passenger side
was next to
the truck�s driver�s side. Swan dropped the window
and leaned out.
She smiled, and as Kitt peered out of his window, she
reached her arm up.
Kitt took her hand into his own, wrapping his fingers
around her trembling
digits. Michael was gazing at him through the cabin,
and he mentally
accepted the offered hug.
* The warehouse was silent, except for the odd noise Bear made while working. There was a clink of tools or a lowly muttered curse, the rustle of paper as a scribbled sketch was consulted, then a few footsteps and more muttering. Nick had his eyes closed, sitting as best as he could with his injuries twinging here and there, the ribs protesting each too-sudden movement. He had slowed his breathing to a level he usually maintained throughout his relaxation exercises, and he was trying to shift his mind into neutral gear. It didn�t really work. While Nick could normally relax under all circumstances, he had never tried it while feeling a cold, black hole eating away at his sanity. He was feeling strangely skittish and whenever he tried to centre, he started to slide toward the darkness, the coldness of the non-presence. Karr rarely joined him while Nick was easing his mind into a relaxed state, but even then, Nick could feel him. Not so now. It was getting to him, Nick knew. Even now, after just a few hours of separation. It shouldn�t! It just shouldn�t! He had to work on it, he had to get over this vulnerability, this weak spot. Nick gave up thirty minutes later, opening his eyes, frustration racing through him. His shoulder muscles were cramping, he felt pain from places where there wasn�t even a small bruise, and worst of all was the fact that Karr was sitting physically next to him but there wasn�t a murmur from the implant. He swallowed a curse and watched Bear fiddle with something or other. Karr wasn�t moving and when he risked a glance, he discovered that his partner was staring at the ground, unblinkingly. �You should rest,� Karr suddenly said, the dark, cold
voice low, just
loud enough for Nick to hear.
* Kitt tooled Bear�s truck in and parked it at the opposite
side of the
warehouse to where Michael stopped the TransAm. He
dropped the keys
back into Bear�s waiting hand. �Thanks.�
Swan also took a look at it. �We need to get this
fixed up,� she
told him, heading upstairs for the bathroom. Michael
sank down on
the battered couch, dropping his head back and gazing over
at where Nick
was still sitting next to his partner.
* * * To: [email protected]
there must be so much i am missing what do you have are you loved are you cherished i believe i am but how can i be when this is my life and will be my death * * * Edgar Warren threw open the door of the lab and stepped inside, still trying to catch his breath. He wasn�t an overweight man but neither, by any stretch of the imagination, was he fit. Running as fast as his legs would carry him from the scene of the hand-over was the first sniff of exercise he�d had in years. He�d been convinced they would kill him, keep the money, the parts and the blueprints for themselves. He�d never done business with people like that before. How was he to know that they didn�t shoot their clients in the back? It was bad for business. And that never would expert, professional thieves have any personal interest in technical drawings that they would not, in a million years, have been able to make any sense of? But he was back now, back in the privately rented laboratory where he�d eaten, worked and slept for the last four and a half years. He�d been alone for the first four. But six months ago he�d realised that no longer was he the only being in the otherwise empty building. Locking the door, Edgar dropped the rolled-up plans on to
the desk and
leaned over to the computer keyboard that sat atop a
mountain of paper.
With one hand he unrolled the delicate drawings, while
with the other,
he typed,
* Duck arrived only minutes after Michael, Swan and Kitt had got back. Swan was still dressing Michael�s deep �scratch� on his upper arm. Nick was still sitting on the workbench, but when he saw Duck�s pick-up pull in through the warehouse doors, he slipped off the uncomfortable surface and went to greet his colleague. Duck jumped out of the cabin looking and sounding to all
the world like
it was a respectable time of the afternoon rather than ten
passed four
in the morning.
�So what�s so important that the Duck had to call off a
rare date�.�
He caught sight of the wrecked Stealth. �Fuck me.�
�He�s not dead.�
Nick waited another second or two, just to get the man
back for the
duck on his cast, and then slung his good arm around his
friend�s shoulders.
�Don�t concern yourself with my partner. It�s not
permanent.
Just get the car to the shop.�
* Finally, around quarter to five, the warehouse fell quiet. Bear was still working but the others were either resting or sleeping. Swan had bedded down in Bonnie�s old room. Nick was stretched out on one of the couches in the diagnostic areas, with Karr sitting at his head. The android was still, but the AI inside was resting close to his driver, monitoring Nick�s heart rate and breathing. Across from them, stretched out along the low, armless seats, Michael and Kitt were lying together. Michael was asleep, snoring softly, lying on his side behind his partner, one arm thrown possessively over Kitt�s waist, the other cushioning his own head. Kitt was awake, watching his brother as he sat inert. The morning would bring a new set of problems that Nick and Michael would have to deal with on scant few hours of sleep. He should have been restoring his own power levels, off-lining to allow his system to recharge. But Nick and Karr needed their link at the moment, and he couldn�t bring himself to take it from them again. Eventually he would have to, but not yet. On the end of the table between the two sets of partners,
Kitt�s own
laptop was flashing up the �new mail� sign. He was
too comfortable
to move, so he remotely interfaced with the half-inch
thin, Black Daemon
Dell machine and accessed the email.
To: [email protected]
Kitt, please inform Michael and Nicholas that the police report on the break-in at Knight Industries is on my desk. Many thanks, Devon
Kitt closed the mail and shut down his remote access. He turned under his sleeping partner�s arm, shifting himself to the very edge of the seat so that he could watch Michael. Lifting his hand, he stroked his palm ever-so gently over the dark, wavy hair he loved so much. Even when their own dangerous world was in uproar all around them they could find moments of peace, moments which allowed them to remember why they were still involved in the madness. Michael opened his eyes and smiled when he found himself
falling into
the dark amber regard. //you should rest//
* Michael went out to pick the report up from Devon as soon
as he woke,
around nine. By the time he got back, Nick had
somehow made breakfast
and brewed coffee.
The police had actually named their suspect. Fingerprints had apparently been found all over everything that had been tipped up, emptied or thrown about. But unlike the absolute and complete destruction at Swan�s place, the Knight Industries lab had looked as if someone were genuinely hunting for something, not trying to cause as much damage as humanly possible. Nick ran the name through the usual channels and came
back with all
the information he could ever need, except the most
important piece � an
address.
* Standing in the centre of the diagnostic area, Karr was
regarding his
brother with scepticism. �How do you live in this
body?� Kitt
rubbed his eyes, to Karr�s annoyance. Ever since
he�d been transferred,
the little human gestures that were now habit to his
younger sibling were
irritating the hell out of the older AI. �Why do you
do that?� he
snapped in a tone that would have been enough to make most
people run for
cover.
Standing still, only Karr�s eyes moved as they tracked
Kitt�s continuous
movement, back and forth across the floor a few feet in
front of him.
�Tell me the biggest one first.�
Upstairs, Nick glanced up from his laptop. His already great respect for Kitt had grown immeasurably over the last hour as he�d overheard their conversation. He�d have blocked Karr by now with a stony silence. His partner was moody, and that meant he was lashing out at anyone and anything close by. Nick could feel it because Kitt � bless him � hadn�t let the boost of their signal drop for a moment. The younger AI was taking all Karr could dish out, and giving as good as he got in return. In Kitt�s own way, of course. Rather than anger, he used sarcasm. He�d definitely inherited that little trait from Michael. Putting the computer to one side, Nick stood from the couch, stretching his legs as he crossed to the railing. They made an odd couple, the two androids. To look at and to listen to, no one would ever have believed that they were brothers. Nick, however, doubted that even the gentle AI would be so patient with anyone else. Kitt was only about five-nine, dark blond hair that looked almost sun-bleached now, brown eyes that even Nick himself found himself caught by sometimes. He was dressed in his customary white shirt � sometimes it was cotton, on the odd occasion, silk, but it was usually white � and faded blue jeans. As per usual, he wore no shoes. When he was in the barn conversion he wouldn�t even wear the black socks he tended to at the warehouse. If Bonnie had told him off about it once, she�d told him off a hundred times. But when he did get things stuck in the soles of his feet he just tended to pull them out and let the synthetic skin heal. Nick remembered the first Foundation Fundraiser that Kitt had attended. He�d arrived at Michael�s side dressed in an ivory silk shirt and soft black trousers. He could remember dancing with Alex, holding her soft body close to him in his arms and hearing her whisper into his ear that she couldn�t understand how people didn�t guess what was between the two linked partners. Devon Miles still hadn�t worked it out. Yet all night Michael hadn�t left Kitt�s side, and the proud, possessive look in his eyes had been clear as glass to both Alex and Nick. He shifted his attention to his own partner. Karr was almost the complete opposite, especially at the moment. He was standing stock-still. After over a year of being in the android, Kitt looked human from the outside, even if he was far from it on the inside. He had never denied what he was, never wanted to be human, just wanted to live like one. Karr, on the other hand, had never wanted to experience what his brother had so welcomed. The android�s short, jet-black hair mirrored his � its � eyes. Nick shook his head, already he was starting to think of his partner as a part of the android. Luckily, Karr was too distracted at the moment to notice his driver�s slip. The black clothing that Swan had brought over at Kitt�s request � black cotton shirt and black trousers with polished black shoes � suited Karr�s personality, and his mood, exactly. This second android was taller, almost six inches taller, than Kitt. He seemed to tower above his beloved brother, especially when their conversation turned like this. Karr was still scowling. If an outsider could see this snapshot in time they would fear for Kitt�s safety. Yet Karr would never, ever lay a finger on the other. If there was a threat at this very moment, Karr would defend his sibling with his life. But there was no threat, and Karr was glaring at Kitt with what he hoped was an expression to put the fear of god into him. Kitt was staring back, challenging. For a moment, neither of them spoke, and Nick was careful not to distract his partner. He was fascinated. Who would give in first? �Sorry.� * * * To: [email protected]
i have a chance i think he has found a way for me to live perhaps we will one day meet * * * Michael arrived back from seeing Bonnie just a little more worried than he had been when he�d left. She�d pulled the man�s records and they read like a psychiatric report. In fact, the final filed paper was a psychiatric report. The man was a genius; two doctorates from MIT, one in Artificial Intelligence and one in Psychology. It had immediately struck Michael as an odd combination, but when he�d thought about it, on his drive back to the warehouse, he�d come to the conclusion that it was a perfect matching of subjects. He�d have given anything at the start to know what Kitt was feeling, how his partner thought and processed emotion. Edgar Warren had been taken on by Wilton Knight to help design the neural networks for the very first AI � Karr. His work had been deemed excellent and his appraisals were glowing. But the KARR project had failed, the AI had been deactivated and Edgar had been put to work on designing the neural pathways for the AI Wilton had purchased from the government. Again, his work had been without fault. But some people, including Bonnie, had started to notice a couple of quirks in Edgar�s behaviour that were becoming slightly disturbing. The young AI had been shipped in from Washington and downloaded into a mainframe that wasn�t networked into the Knight Industries LAN. It was protected by firewalls on all sides. It had no name, but Wilton had called it �Kitt�, short for Christopher, his wayward son�s middle name. Bonnie had been the first to start to teach it � him � but others had been involved in his early development, one of them being Edgar. All had started well, but Kitt was a very nervous presence in their computer, and Edgar, they noticed, took pleasure in startling the AI. He would send commands that were confusing and threats when Kitt did not react in the specified time or within given parameters. After only a couple of weeks, Bonnie had spoken to Wilton and Edgar had been removed from the project. Six months later, he had resigned from Knight Industries and no one had given him a second thought. Until now. The thought of that man torturing Kitt so childishly, even if Kitt hadn't been aware of it back then, angered Michael. If someone tried anything like that now, there were at least three people who would come to Kitt�s defence. Not that his partner was incapable of looking after himself. Quite the opposite. Vulnerable as he had felt in the android body, he�d joined Michael in taking classes in several forms of martial arts, learning and developing quickly. As if reading his thoughts, which he might have been doing Michael supposed, Kitt was waiting for him as he pulled the car into the warehouse. Seeing his partner standing there, remembering every word that Bonnie had told him, he just wanted to make it all go away, even if Kitt knew nothing of what had happened. Michael climbed out of the car and the AI met him half way, questioning the odd emotions in their link, returning the silent hug when Michael wrapped his arms around him and simply held him. //what�s wrong?// Kitt asked gently, his arms
around his partner�s
waist, head tucked into Michael�s shoulder.
They drew back from one another almost simultaneously,
but walked towards
the stairs with one arm around each others� waists in a
familiar, easy
gesture of affection.
Michael dropped into the couch opposite where Nick was sitting with his laptop. On the third couch, next to them, Karr was lying on his back, eyes closed, trying to ignore the facts of his current predicament and exist through the link into Nick�s mind. The result of that was a constant, pounding headache for Nicholas and a drain on Kitt�s systems that was starting to take him toward complete exhaustion. Nick sat back and watched Kitt�s graceful move to sit
next to his partner,
tucking his legs under him on the cushions, his eyes
roaming Michael�s
face for just a moment before they moved to take in his
brother�s inert
form and Nick�s tired smile.
Nick listened in silence, feeling his partner in the back
of his mind,
understanding the AI�s unease. Edgar had been
involved with both
Kitt and Karr�s early development. That was a little
too close for
comfort. Like Anton Sachias had been. When
Michael finished,
Nick sat up again.
Nick looked from Karr to Michael and back again. He
could barely
believe what he�d just seen but he wasn�t going to say a
word. It
was a difficult enough task to keep his thoughts from his
partner.
Michael too was holding in any response he might have
had. It took
Nick a moment to remember what he�d been saying.
Karr sat up slowly, glancing from Nick to Kitt and Michael before mimicking the way the two humans were sitting � legs apart, elbows on their knees, hands joined. Kitt had never been able to sit like that. He apparently always had to have a part of himself tucked under another part. Karr observed that his brother had pulled one knee up under his chin, put his socked foot up on the edge of the seat and was leaning on it. Karr didn�t think he had the co-ordination or control over the android�s limbs to even attempt that. Nick stopped watching his partner when Karr shot a glare
at him.
�Go on, Kitt,� he urged.
�The android.� Nick supplied.
Michael caught Kitt as he toppled forward, barely missing cracking the table with his head. �Kitt?!� His voice bright with shock and fear, Michael called his partner�s name as he dropped Kitt gently back against the couch. �Kitt?� The android was silent and still, whiskey eyes open and staring. Dead, almost. �Come on, Partner.� Michael murmured, voice shaking. He touched the implant but there was only static, as if the link had just shut down. He could feel his fear rising. Nick was over the coffee table in a second, ignoring his protesting body. He was reaching out to Kitt�s neck to take a pulse before he stopped himself. The presence in the back of his mind had weakened, and he glanced at his partner, seeing the anxiety on the otherwise stoic features. �Kitt?� He ran his hand over Kitt�s throat, carefully moving the soft white shirt back from the bare Bluetooth chip. The wound around it was still raw. �Kitt?� Michael glanced up at him as he pulled his mobile phone from his pocket and pressed a single key. Swan had left to go and salvage whatever remained of her lab. This time, she�d returned home armed. Nick tapped his thumb against the back of the small phone, eyes never leaving Kitt�s face. Usually he looked so human. But not like this. �Nick, I�m fine, stop�.�
Sighing, Michael did as she�d instructed, pressing the tips of his fingers deep into the skin at Kitt�s throat. �I�m sorry, Kitt.� At the same time, Michael gently pushed against the implant. //Kitt! Please!// For a time there was still nothing, then without warning, Kitt�s presence returned slowly, his bright presence slowly returning in Michael�s mind. Michael stroked tendrils of his amber essence over his partner�s weak glow. //Come on, Beauty, come back to me// Kitt opened his eyes and immediately he tried to re-establish the link. Nick felt the buzzing in his mind, and turned to look at Karr. His partner was simply sitting, staring at Kitt, some undeniable emotion on his sharp features. Very slowly, and with some considerable effort on Kitt�s part, the link stabilised again. The selfish part of Nick was relieved beyond words to have Karr back in his mind, but the rest of him worried. And a second later, his worries came to flourishion. The presence in Michael�s mind winked out like a dying star. �Kitt!� Panic started to rise within him, terror at
what was happening.
�Kitt!� He felt Nick�s hand on his shoulder as Karr
moved his partner
out of the way and leaned over the inert form of his
brother.
They watched as Kitt�s eyes opened. Michael brushed
a hand over
his lover�s dark blond, silken hair. �Kitt.�
Relieved, he managed
a smile. �Hey, Beauty, welcome back.� His
fingers lingered
against Kitt�s temple. �What happened?�
Kitt�s expression was so apologetic, and Nick felt for
him. Kitt
understood, as Michael did, what it meant to both of them
to have the link
there, even just to the level that Kitt could boost
it. It was better
than the dark silence that started to creep in upon them
now. But
he wasn�t going to lay that on the AI. Watching
until Kitt�s eyes
closed, Nick glanced at Michael then lay his hand on
Kitt�s head.
�Sleep, get a full charge.�
* Nick blinked. Words were swimming in front of his eyes � the good one and the bad one - and the pounding headache, that had been his constant companion ever since the accident, had increased instead of lessened. He sat back, wincing as his body told him he wasn�t in the best of shapes. He knew that, only too well. He should lie down, he should take the weight off the cracked ribs. And ever since Kitt had been forced to drop the artificially upheld link, in an attempt to get some rest, it had gradually gotten worse. Nick was alone in his head for the first time in decades, and it was a frighteningly empty place. He missed Karr, even if the separation had only started two hours ago. They had been separated before, but never like this, never so completely. Nick closed his eye, feeling nausea creep up on him. He needed to lie down; like Kitt, he needed to rest. The doctor had told him that his breastbone wouldn�t start healing properly until he started to rest. Still, just lying there made him feel useless. There was nothing he could do and it was driving him crazy. Nick opened his eye and started to rise. Maybe he just needed something to drink. Vertigo hit him. For a moment, his circulation was completely out of beat as his body tried to compensate the shift of position and his brain was rallying along through the migraine. He swallowed back the rapidly rising nausea and reached for the back to the couch, heavily collapsing against it. Shit! Swallowing reflexively several times, he tried to get his bearings. The migraine was all encompassing and he wished he had taken the painkillers the doctors had prescribed. But he hated drugs. He took them if he needed them and Nick had decided he didn�t need them. Someone touched him. His mind on automatic, his
thinking processes
slowed down, he immediately went on the defensive.
He was vulnerable,
he was a target like this, and due to the fact that he
wasn�t able to think
clearly, he classified everything as a threat. His
hand was caught
in a vice-like grip as his knees buckled.
Nick closed his eye against the pounding headache, aware
that his feet
were moving, that Karr was half dragging him somewhere,
then he was lowered
and his body screamed in protest at the sudden strain on
abused ribs.
He lay flat on his back, breathing hard, feeling like he
was spiralling
down a dark hole. Something was pushed into his
unresisting hands.
He blinked owlishly at the three white pills.
After some time, he opened his eye once more, looking at Karr, who was sitting on the couch chair he had pulled closer. Dark eyes regarded him and if it was at all possible, they spoke of pain, confusion and need. It would be another two to maybe four hours until Kitt had sufficiently recharged. He had almost driven himself beyond the critical limit. Nick was infinitely thankful for the AI�s efforts, but right now, Kitt needed the rest. Nick didn�t have to ask how Karr felt. Those eyes
were a mirror
of the tormented soul inside the alien body that fit Karr
to a �t�.
His mind automatically went to the place where the implant
usually sat
and encountered emptiness. It was terrifying.
And it was eating
away at them both.
Karr sat on the chair, his hands on his knees, watching his driver. He was still amazed that Nick looked the same to him through the eyes of this body as through the car�s visual sensors. What worried him were the lines of pain, the pale skin, the shadows under Nick�s ice blue eyes. Well, the uncovered one anyway. The bandage was un-nerving him more than Nick, most likely. His driver was at the brink of exhaustion and in constant pain. In a way, so was Karr, but it wasn�t the same physical sensation. It was a mental state. For Nick, it was very much physical. Now he was asleep. Finally. The lines of pain hadn�t disappeared, but they were easing. Slowly. Karr had been watching his driver ever since Kitt had gone off-line to recharge and when Nick had risen, almost collapsing, the decision to jump over to him had been almost unconscious. He couldn�t remember moving the android body; he had just done it. Karr desperately wanted to link to his partner again. He felt lonely and lost�. Not himself. The brief physical contact had been a reassurance, but it wasn�t enough. It couldn�t be enough. His gaze never wavered from the sleeping man. Nick was his anchor in this world; without him he would be dead today. Without him, he might have returned somehow just to kill again. He owed him so much and he had never really told him; at least in so many words. Karr sighed softly. He had perceived Nick as the enemy for weeks, had finally decided to let the �appendage� live and now�. Now there was no existence without Nick. He and Nick were one. It sounded sappy, but it was the truth. He reached out and carefully ran a hand over the limp arm. It was as much physical contact as he dared to have. He missed the sensor pad. At least with that Nick was the one initiating the physical close contact. Karr wasn�t good at this. He knew he needed Nick, but he couldn�t express it as easily as Kitt. In this body, he was missing both the sensor and the link. Nick could usually tell from the fine nuances coming through the link what mood his partner was in, as was Karr the other way around. Now�. Karr sat back, angry at himself and the world in general. If this lasted much longer, he knew he would do something stupid. Everybody was trying to help, but he was reaching his own limit. He had to get back into his CPU and the body he knew, and he desperately needed the real link. * * * To: [email protected]
he says soon kitt i want to see you when i can is that all right to see you i think you can reply to me i will catch the message soon kitt perhaps we can be together * * * Michael opened his eyes, letting his gaze settle on his lover. Kitt was still out of it, stretched out on the couch with his head pillowed on Michael�s thigh. Carefully, Michael made sure his partner�s mental presence was settled before he stretched his arm out over Kitt�s side, his thumb stroking very gently over the soft material of the white shirt. �I love you, Kitt,� he whispered softly, knowing he wouldn�t disturb his lover�s rest. �I love everything you are but sometimes� I wish you wouldn�t push yourself like this. You don�t have to save the world, Beauty, not anymore.� Moving his hand, he combed his fingers through the silken hair on his partner�s head. The evening sunlight was streaming in through the high skylights above, the rays playing over the dark blond locks. Kitt looked so young to him, he would always look the same. Sometimes Michael wondered how they looked to the outside world. He would most probably be labelled a pervert, a cradle-snatcher. Yet there was no age gap, despite the real age difference. They�d grown and developed with one another, side by side. However it looked to strangers, to those who knew them, who knew their friendship and their relationship, there were no questions. He and Kitt were inseparably linked and nothing could ever change that fact. Smiling to himself, Michael rested his head back and closed his eyes, moving his hand back to rest on Kitt�s arm, protective and possessive. In this mind, connected by the implant, Kitt was strengthening, his systems were slowly recharging and that energy was reflected in his mental presence as a slow, regular pulse. To the steady rhythm of that pulse, of Kitt�s heartbeat, Michael drifted off to sleep himself. * Nick woke to the steady pounding of his head. He
opened his eye
and found Karr still sitting in the chair next to the
bed. �How long?�
he asked without preamble.
The partners glared at each other. The darkness
inside Nick grew
to be unbearable and he averted his eyes. �Oh hell!�
he muttered.
Karr caught his driver and bodily hauled him back onto
the couch, towering
above him, his face shifting between a furious scowl and
bottomless worry.
Nick opened his good eye.
Michael was woken by Nick�s hand on his shoulder to the
aroma of strong
coffee. He looked up at his friend. �You look
like shit,� he
commented dryly, accepting the mug into his free hand.
Nick nodded, sipping his coffee, looking up when Karr
came to sit with
them.
Michael looked down when the body in his arms shifted and the gentle presence in his mind stirred. For a moment, Nick was feeling the black ice of the separation in his mind and the next it melted, dripping off in large chunks, as a familiar presence re-established itself. He heard a soft gasp and he knew it came from his own lips. His mind was almost instinctively seeking out the other half of him, reassuring himself that Karr was still there, and he received a wordless reply in return. He gazed at his partner, saw the relief in the dark eyes, and for a brief moment, they allowed themselves to link as deeply as the makeshift connection allowed. It did wonders for Nick�s mind and soul. Apologies flooded him and he hugged the dark presence that was too far away to be really comfortable with it. But it was all they would get right now. Michael heard Nick�s gentle gasp and knew that not only
was Kitt waking,
but he was bringing the link boost back online. At
the same time,
Michael felt a caress over his mind before Kitt backed out
from his embrace
and re-erected the light block between them, sending a
brief apology.
The silence surrounded them for a little while until Nick
looked up and
met Kitt�s liquid brown eyes. �Welcome back,� he
managed.
Michael glanced at Nick as the two AIs swapped information and ideas, using technical acronyms that neither human partner could grasp. Nick�s glance at Michael was one of complete understanding. He and Karr weren�t the only ones suffering here. Although Michael still had Kitt permanently in his mind, they couldn�t be as close as they were used to being. They were not used to blocking and being blocked � it was something they hadn�t done in a very long time. They were being watched. Michael and Nick gave the
AIs their full
attention. Kitt was the one to speak, to his own
partner. �We
have to go out.�
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