| "What's this?" Michael picked up the mangled piece of metal - it looked like a part from a car exhaust system if he remembered rightly. A Trans-Am's exhaust's system. And there wasn't too many of those around here. Bonnie glared at him. "That's the part you blew up when you parked Kitt over a small bomb this afternoon." Glancing up, he couldn't keep the surprise from his expression. "I damaged him?" He caught the briefest hint of a smile from her. Referring to her baby as 'him' rather than 'it' was always going to take the heat from her anger. "Yes." "I'm sorry�." He was stunned. He hadn't thought twice about reversing his car over the bomb to cushion the blast. But what was it Devon had said? "We like to think of it as our car." And that's how Michael should have been seeing it, he realised, not as a Knight Industries vehicle, not as his own, but as his and Kitt's. "I didn't realise I could damage him. Not� badly. I don't think. I have this idea that he's indestructible." Something in his tone must have been right, because she definitely mellowed. "The damage isn't that bad. And I don't think it's me you should be apologising to." ~ He found his car - his partner - in the under floor heated, air-conditioned, carpeted comfort of his garage. Initially this place had been beyond him. No garage he'd ever come across before had been comfortable enough for a human to actually sleep in and he'd been unable to wrap his mind around why it was all needed. But slowly he was getting it. Slowly he was understanding. "Kitt?" The response was immediate, same tone, same readiness as always. "Yes, Michael? Do we have another case?" "No� not yet. I just came by to see how you were." "I am fully functioning. Bonnie replaced the damaged part of my exhaust system and I'm ready when you are." Closing the door behind him, Michael crossed to perch on the side of the hood. "That's what I came to talk about - the damage. I'm sorry I parked you over that bomb." "Why?" The surprise in the slightly mechanical voice sounded so genuine. "Because� I shouldn't have." "Of course you should. I could handle the impact, the less-than-solid stalls definitely couldn't." "But I didn't know that, Pal. I didn't even think." "I'm designed so that you don't have to think. The reason you have me is so that you can act on your instincts." "And you get hurt in the process, is that it?" "Yes, Michael." The answer was like a blade through his heart, as shocking as it was unexpected. "No! No, Kitt, that isn't it. I don't get to hurt you." The depth of his feelings were an eye-opener. He hadn't realised how much he'd come to care about Kitt in such short a time. "I doubt you did it on purpose." Was he imagining the softening of his partner's tone? "You're right. I didn't do it on purpose, I would never�" he softened his own, "I would never hurt you intentionally." Dropping his hand to the warm hood, he stroked the smooth black shell with his fingertips. "You know, at the beginning I wasn't sure this was going to work - you and I - but now�." He trailed off, taking a couple of deep breaths. Beneath him, Kitt remained quiet but he knew the AI was listening, waiting. "Now I know I couldn't work without you. I don't want someone taking you away from me, and I want even less to damage you beyond repair so next time, when I do something that� careless, that inconsiderate, without a damn good reason, you have my permission to yell at me." He almost felt Kitt's smile, heard it in his next words, "I don't think it's in my vocal range to yell, Michael. But I'll be sure to mention it." Flattening his hand against the paintwork, Michael nodded. "You do that." Despite the conversation really being at an end, he didn't feel like leaving. "Do you fancy� going for a drive?" "Where to?" He shrugged. This wasn't something he'd suggested before, taking off with nowhere to go, blasting along the desert roads with no destination in mind, just enjoying the car, the power he had at his fingertips now, the vast number of horses in his hands. "Just� a drive." How attuned to Kitt did he have to already be to sense a shrug as the driver's door clicked open? Sliding off the hood, he got inside, fired up the incredible engine, and Kitt opened the automatic garage door. He opened her up along the empty desert road, pleasure surging through him at the sheer speed. It was a thrill, a rush, even without the danger. Kitt would protect him, Kitt would stop anything bad from happening to him. And with that realisation came a different kind of pleasure, like stoking an already smouldering fire inside him. He let his fingers caress the steering wheel, aware of how the gullwing handles felt to him, aware of the heat rising within him. Kitt didn't seem to notice the subtle change in his driver's body language, in the way he held the control. Or if he did, he didn't mention it. Michael was certain an Artificial Intelligence could never understand this. He was very quiet in fact, and an hour out, Michael questioned his silence. "Are you okay, Partner?" There was a pause, but before Michael's concern could rise, Kitt responded, "I had no idea that this could be so exhilarating." Something in the quality of his voice assured Michael that he did understand and indeed, no matter what Kitt would claim, did feel it too. "It's incredible. You're incredible." "Thank you." They didn't speak again for some time, but Michael was sure they communicated, through the turn of the wheels, the press of his foot on the accelerator, his hand, now and again, on the gearshift. Man and machine in perfect harmony. |