Standing in the dark he ran his hand over the sleek black body.  Electricity flowed between them, an energy he would never share with another.

Nicholas MacKenzie tapped Michael on the shoulder and indicated the long stretch of sand along the coastline.  �Walk?�
Michael hadn't heard the Stealth's approach as it had drawn up next to Kitt.  But its arrival wasn�t too much of a surprise.  He could almost imagine the silent, electronic conversation that had passed between the two AIs.  Something like,

<_Kitt?  Is everything all right?
<_Not really, Karr.  He�s being such a miserable, sulky git�.

//Michael�// the voice in his mind scolded him gently.  //I wouldn�t have such a conversation//
He smiled to himself, perhaps to them both.  He hadn�t been keeping his thoughts particularly private lately.  Turning to Nicholas, he nodded.
 

Side by side, Michael and Nick walked along the shore, the water lapping at their shoes.  Between the first two fingers of his right hand, Michael held a cigarette, taking long drags on it every now and again, tapping the ash to the sand.
"If you're waiting for me to talk, you'll wait all night."
"I have all night."

Michael sighed. Nicholas wasn�t going to leave until he�d heard it all.  He�d probably guessed most of it anyway.  "I can't... keep a part of me from him,� he began finally.  �I used to be able to, at the beginning, but now....  Sometimes it's so intense I can barely separate myself."
Nick shoved his hands deep into his pockets and gazed out over the water.  "A year ago, the two of you shared an on-going nightmare.  What Kitt suffered at Jennifer's hands, you suffered too, by default.  You spent days at a time practically merged with him."
"You've been through similar situations with Karr."
"Karr isn't Kitt.  I've seen Kitt.�

Michael took a last lung full of smoke and flicked the stub into the ocean. He stopped walking, staring at the sand around his feet.  "I don't know what to feel.  I don't know... what I should be feeling, whether all this is real or just in my head."
"Why is it only real when it hurts?"
Nicholas was shot a warning glance, and for a few seconds there was only silence between them.  Finally, Michael took another step in the sand.  "These feelings..."
"...are real.  Probably more real than anything else you've ever felt.  The implants - the links - are innately intimate.  You share your most private thoughts with another being, almost without realising it.  You've been linked to Kitt for almost two years, he's a part of you."

Nick unknowingly hit upon the epicentre of the problem.  Michael was slowly allowing Kitt to become more and more a part of him and it was something he couldn't ever imagine changing.  At the very start, when the implant had first been activated, there had been talk of perhaps removing it, or deactivating it somehow.  After only a matter of days he had become too used to Kitt being there with him, that to lose him had been unthinkable.  When Geiger had forcibly severed that link, it had hurt more than Michael would have believed possible.
"He'll always be a part of me."
"In that case, it's time you started to truly accept it; all of it, whatever it leads to."

*

The harbour warehouse was quiet and dark when Michael tooled Kitt in.  Automatics opened and closed the doors, but at his driver�s request, the AI stopped the lights from coming on.

Michael was out of the car and had one foot on the first of the wooden stairs before he hesitated.  "Kitt?"
"Michael?"
But he thought better of it.  "It's nothing.  It's okay.  G'night Partner."
"Michael... I....  If it's me...."  The words were spoken hurriedly and they made no sense. "If what's you?"
"...you and Bonnie�."
"Ah, Kitt...."

He came back to the car, placing both hands on to the silky black skin.  He had always marvelled at how warm it felt, how... alive, under his touch.  "It's not you."  There was a brief touch to his mind, and he smiled.  "All right," he sighed, "all right."  Kicking off his shoes, Michael sat up on the hood, legs dangling over the side.  Reaching into his coat pocket, he fished out his packet of cigarettes.  There was one left and he stuck it between his lips, scrunching the empty packet and hurling it on to the floor.  It might be months before he bought another.

Kitt scanned him briefly as he brought out a lighter and lit the cigarette.  He'd changed over the years; a little older, a little wiser.  The black leather jacket had some time ago been replaced by a long black winter coat.  The half-open shirts were buttoned.  He no longer seduced every woman to walk by.  He'd mellowed, no longer as impulsive or desperate but still Michael Knight, still the man with whom Wilton Knight had replaced his son and into whose hands he had placed his life�s work, his pride and joy.

Gently, Michael stroked the hood beneath him.  "I do still love Bonnie."
"Then why end it?"
//this//
A projection of sorrow flooded him, and immediately Michael answered with love and reassurance.  He closed his eyes, and in his mind he wrapped himself around his partner's bright presence.  //too intimate, too intense//  "I can't step back from you.  I don't want to."
Whatever response Michael expected from his friend, it wasn't the misery he experienced now.
//so sorry//
"No."  //no//  "This is the most amazing thing that ever happened to me.  I couldn't exist without this, I wouldn't want to live without this."  Allowing himself to fall, he dropped to lie back across the midnight hood.  "I love you, Kitt."
He's spoken those words often in recent years, but there was an emotion that accompanied them this time, one that Kitt picked up on.  He didn't comment, but he would remember.
 

When Nick drove in a couple of minutes later, the only light was the glowing tip of Michael's cigarette, hovering a foot or so above Kitt's hood.  He got out of the car.  Hearing their quiet conversation, he patted Karr's top, smiling at the low rumble.
"Are they okay?"
<I'm supposed to know?>
<Don't you?>
<Perhaps>
Nick glanced down at his partner, a frown patterning his face.  "Awkward."
"Nosy."
Strange, the changes wrought in Karr since his link to Kitt was revealed.  The more time they spent around the two FLAG operatives, the more Kitt's humour and easy-going nature ground down Karr's determination to be a 'bad-ass'.  There was no doubt that they'd hurt each other time after time; not deliberately - for the most part - but accidental slips that had immersed one in the other's pain.  But it wasn't just the hurt that swamped them.  Joy and a radiating love emanated naturally from Kitt and had often taken Karr by surprise.  When away on cases, Karr tended to block when Kitt didn't.  When they returned, and the block dropped, Kitt's bouncing presence usually enveloped him.  Nicholas knew Karr pretended to be annoyed by his brother's closeness, when actually he cherished it.  The human partner understood all too well the need to maintain appearances, even around those who knew better

Leaving Karr for the night, Nicholas headed for the stairs.  As he passed Michael and Kitt, he heard Michael say quietly, "thanks for the walk, Nick."  He only nodded and continued upwards.

Michael smiled and closed his eyes, hesitating before steadying his breathing and relaxing.  As he did so, the link deepened and he took himself to the place where his mental presence was almost physical.  During the nightmare that had followed Jennifer�s tests, Michael had been forced to exist for hours here, linked deeply to Kitt, holding the dwindling, frightened presence close to him, keeping Kitt from losing his fragile balance.  The link itself made Michael feel completed.  With Kitt in his mind there was a totality to it all, the knowledge that never again would either of them be alone.  When they linked so deeply, they connected, touched.  Such intensity left a faint chill when it was gone, not lasting but undeniably tangible for a moment or two.

Michael could remember the first time he�d felt Kitt�s presence; hesitant, scared to death of hurting his partner, yet desperate to complete the circle.  It was so different now, so natural neither of them questioned it anymore.

Deepening the link like this brought them closer together.  Usual communication flowed through the implant - senses, emotions, thoughts, words now, even - as if transmitted down an invisible line that joined them.  Like this, the distance was shattered; they were brought together on an almost physical level.

Kitt happily approached his partner and accepted the embrace offered to him.  Existing somewhere between them, Michael wrapped his �arms� around his partner�s bright, warming presence and held him close.
//Michael... what�s wrong?//
He sighed, whether mentally or actually, he didn�t know.  But in his mind, he lay his cheek on Kitt�s head, cherishing this closeness, this incredible bond.  //nothing�s wrong//
//something�s changing//
He hesitated a moment before reassuring.  //it�s all right.  it�s not you//
//sure?//
//of course.  it�s not you.  it�s me.  but everything�s fine between us, everything�s the same//
Michael felt some undefined emotion flow over him.
//but it isn�t, is it?//

Kitt never failed to amaze him.  He touched his partner, stroking a tendril of the white light tucked close to him.  //I never meant to scare you//
//why do think you�re scaring me?//
Michael felt rather than heard Kitt�s confidence.
//how are you supposed to understand what you�ve been feeling from me?//
//I understand the emotion of love, Michael//
The human half of the team closed his eyes, thinking that perhaps he should back off slightly.  But he couldn�t; he hadn�t the will.  Kitt felt as good now as he always had; his beautiful embrace, his intoxicating presence.  When had this happened?  More to the point, why had this happened?  Carefully, he shut out his thoughts.  So closely entwined, everything passed between them.  //you�ve always been the centre of my world//
Kitt caught Michael�s touch, holding it with a gentle caress.  //you�ve always been a part of me.  I was programmed for you, and only you//
Michael was pushed to remember Devon�s words as they sat together in the car on the side of the road.

(�Oh, it won�t harm you. In fact, it�s primary function is the preservation of human life... your life.�
�By me... you mean anyone driving this thing.�
�No no no.  I mean you, specifically, you, Michael Arthur Long.�)

//I treated you like shit//  Michael sensed Kitt�s smile, felt him lean back against the form holding him, merging the edges of their existence.
//never.  you treated me like a machine, which I am//  But there was a teasing tone that had crept into his partner�s voice over the years whenever they had this particular conversation.
//I still love you//