Recovering Moments
Part 8 of 'Burn'
A CMAU fic
By Numnut
22 / 26 - 27Jan 2007


"No."

"Michael, please-"

//No, I'll be fine. I just...need to stay.// He tried to pull away from Kitt, but he was too weak. Not that it mattered. Truth be told, Kitt was quite capable of holding him exactly where he wanted to whether he was ill or not.

Truly capable was his partner.

The AI shifted his grip, walking him slowly over to the ever present couch. The sight of it was familiar, comforting even, despite the many a time he had sat there either injured or terrified for Kitt or Nick or even Karr. It was a constant in the chaos that had been their lives up to this point.

Actually it was good to be back at the warehouse, despite the circumstances. The building held cherished memories along with the traumatic. It was during his time here that he had discovered exactly what his partner meant to him, it was here he had finally come to know Nick and cherish their relationship with him and Karr. This place meant safety. And right now, safety for all of them was something that was desperately needed.

Kitt held the oxygen canister in one hand and Michael's waist in the other. Nick hovered nearby attempting to look like he wasn't and failing miserably. Swan stood frowning off to one side.

As Michael leant against his partner, red liquid leaked on to and stained his hospital scrubs emphasizing the android's injuries. Michael wanted to stay and make sure Kitt was okay. He wanted to hurry up and sit down and get out of the way, but he could hardly stand upright without breaking a sweat and walking by himself was pretty much out of the question. //Just sit me down and let Swan work her magic.//

Kitt glared up at him. The AI wanted him upstairs, in bed and preferably asleep. But Michael had a responsibility he refused to shirk and he could be as stubborn as his partner. //I'll be fine. You can watch me, you'll see.//

"I can worry." The words were muttered.

Michael gave him a sharp look. "So can I." His voiced rasped, but suddenly there it was. They both looked like train wrecks; yet they still managed to fall back to the same argument that had started all of this in the first place.

"Then I guess you two share more than a bed."

Michael's head shot up to find Nick sitting on the couch, setting up his laptop, and pointedly ignoring them. There was a moment of uncomfortable silence before Kitt, frowning, gently shifted Michael to sit beside the former agent. He put the oxygen cylinder out of the way, checking the lines and the pressure, and then fussed around his driver for a moment, making sure he was comfortable.

//For goodness sake, Kitt, will you just stop.// Michael caught his wrists. "I'm fine." He coughed, his throat catching. //You're not. Please...// He forced everything he wanted into his expression, flinging himself across their link, enveloping his partner. "Go...let Swan patch you up." His lips twisted with black humour. "Before I'm forced to ask Karr to kick you up the ass."

Michael expected the other AI to comment on that, even if it was a disgruntled rumble, but he said nothing.

Kitt glared at him yet again - it seemed to be the expression of the day - but the AI turned away, straightening, to look at Swan. She smiled wanly. It had been a rather revealing last few minutes for the woman. Apparently, Kitt had neglected to tell her exactly what had interrupted their previous surgery session.

She ushered Kitt over to a nearby table. Michael grabbed a cushion off the couch and catching Nick's attention, handed it to the man. The agent caught it and chucked it to Swan before turning back to his search.

Michael swallowed painfully, eyeing the computer. "Elizabeth Knight?"

"It was her choice."

It was. And Michael knew neither Nick nor Karr would tolerate her existence or that of those who were so obviously helping her. It seemed the name 'Knight' was haunting them yet again. He sighed, shifting where he sat.

"You'd be better in bed." Nick didn't look at him.

"What? Do you want to mollycoddle me too?"

Nick didn't look up. "Did you want me to?"

Michael glared at him, but was ignored.

He sighed and lay back, forcing himself to relax. He hurt all over. Kitt was in pain. Elizabeth Knight was alive and attempting to kick their asses. He closed his eyes, weary of it all, and despite himself began to drift.

So tired....

The level of pain emanating from his partner fluctuated suddenly and Michael snapped to wakefulness, his eyes flung open. //Beauty?// He reached out.

//It's okay.// Kitt attempted to gently push him away. //Go to sleep.//

Michael ignored him, wrapping himself around the bright spark of his lover, attempting to protect him from the pain of what Swan was doing.

//Please, Michael...// But the AI's actions belied his words as he returned the embrace, almost clinging.

They sat there for a long time. Michael was peripherally aware of Swan patching syntheskin and replenishing his...no, Kitt's fluids. They were warm.

He shifted again, nuzzling up to his partner. Oxygen hissed in his ears, but Kitt was there.

Kitt was there.

-o-o-o-

Nick kept an eye on all three partners. No one said anything, the silence somewhat a relief from earlier events. Except for that of Karr. The AI had shut himself behind several stubborn blocks at the back of Nick's mind and despite himself the agent was concerned.

His partner needed Kitt's assistance to repair his programming. He was right. Swan was a cyberneticist, not a programmer.

Perhaps Bonnie? He had on the rarest of occasions let his brother's technician help him. But access his core code? Hardly likely. And Nicholas could understand why.

He sent off an email to Bear.

A gentle weight landed on his left arm and he turned to find Michael sliding sideways on the couch, obviously asleep. Nick sighed quietly. A glance in Kitt's direction and he found himself pierced by a pair of brown eyes.

The AI didn't need to say anything, his expression communicating enough. Nick shifted, grabbing the one remaining pillow from the other corner of the sofa and gently propped it between Michael and himself. The man should have been in bed. He was too damn stubborn.

Family trait.

He turned back to his laptop, absently rubbing at his aching temple, but was distracted by Kitt's gaze once more. He looked up and the AI smiled just slightly.

While the grip of his fist dented the metal table beneath him.

That was one aspect of the android Nick would never understand. He had no doubt the positives outweighed the negatives, but the pain of such a sensitive layer of syntheskin over the MBS shell was just asking for hurt in their line of work. And yet, Kitt had requested it specifically and he couldn't shut off the inputs when there was an injury.

Pain had its benefits, but he would not wish it on the gentle AI.

Or Karr.

He shook himself, pushing away random, unproductive thought. He needed to focus. He reached automatically for his partner, but was faced yet again with the massive block Karr had put up between them. A flair of determination and he probed around its edges.

<Karr?>

The blocks in place only became stronger.

Nick gritted his teeth, worry creating anger. <Partner...>

Nothing.

Stubborn, irritating...he shoved up a block of his own, one that was more facade than obstacle and turned back to his search.

The last they'd heard from Elizabeth Knight had been in relation to King Military. Karr had declared her dead. All sources of information he had access to told him the same. She had died in prison, mouldering away while paying the price for what she and Garthe Knight had attempted at Red Bluff.

He rifled through the events of those days, not for the first time and, at this rate, he doubted for the last.

But then there was the African connection.

His fingers skipped across the keyboard as he delved into two separate networks at once. This would be so much easier if Karr were speaking to him. He bit back the sigh and the worry that accompanied it.

Tsombe Kuna.

He had vanished after Garthe Knight had been captured by FLAG. FLAG had done the cleanup after the case, but Kuna had not been apprehended. A quick search located the man's death in his homeland two years later, assassinated by one of his own men. The mercenary group had quickly gone underground after that, leaving no trace of their activities.

But there had to be one. The group was obviously functioning in some manner. He had the headache to prove it.

<Track down the ownership papers of the following diamond mines->

He did it automatically again, forgetting the blocks only to come up hard against them the moment he touched the link.

Goddamnit!

Nick pushed the laptop away, leaning back and rubbing one hand across his eyes.

Someone touched him.

He flinched away, disturbing Michael beside him.

Reaching out to stabilise the injured man, he came face to face with Kitt. The android's expression was calm, but a little admonishing. "Michael's not the only one who needs sleep, Nicholas." Behind him Swan was packing up her equipment. Nick hadn't noticed the passage of time.

Kitt had on a clean white shirt hanging loosely unbuttoned and the former agent couldn't help but glance at where the AI's injury had been. "All fixed." Kitt smiled just slightly and wiggled an equally repaired hand in front of his face.

Nick stared up at him, wanting to ask him, desperate to ask him to help Karr, but something held him back and the question didn't even reach his face. Trust? He trusted Kitt almost as much as he trusted Karr, but it wasn't his trust that was in question. "I'm fine."

"A familiar phrase." Kitt rolled his eyes. "If you are as 'fine' as Karr declares he is, could you please assist me in taking Michael upstairs?" His expression reminded Nick of his partner. Not the human form of the android, but the exasperation and unspoken 'then you can go to bed yourself' following that question, marked the two AIs as brothers more than anything else.

He ignored the flash of jealousy that arose when he realised that what Kitt said also meant that Karr was speaking to his brother, yet not his driver at the moment.

"Of course."

Nick had no doubt that the AI would have simply lifted his partner from the couch and carried him himself up the stairs under normal circumstances, but the burns on Michael's body precluded that possibility. Kitt would be aware of the location of the injuries, but he did wonder if the AI was aware of what had caused some of them. Nick had told the hospital staff some spun off story about bronze statues and how Michael had fallen and, quite frankly, he didn't care what they thought of the handprint burn on Michael's chest. But he did wonder if Kitt knew, if Michael knew, exactly what had happened.

But then that was none of his business.

Kitt disconnected the oxygen canister and lifted his partner carefully into his arms, taking the man's torso while Nick assisted with his legs. It was awkward and far from elegant, and Nick doubted it was painless for Michael, however they managed to get him upstairs with a minimum of fuss. Nick returned for the canister, taking the steps two at a time, but he paused at the top of the stairs, his eyes caught by the Stealth below. He bit his lip.

<Karr?>

A wave of defensive fury slipped past the blocks and hit him full on, shoving him away.

He stumbled. <Goddamnit, Karr! I want to help!>

No answer.

Anger and fear writhed in his gut. He had to ask. Regardless of what Karr wanted, Nick needed his partner.

He made his way to Michael and Kitt's room, the question on his lips, but stopped dead in the doorway.

Kitt was on his knees beside the bed, murmuring words of reassurance to Michael who had obviously woken.

Something touched Nick at the sight and he hesitated. The AI's voice was almost crooning, his hand brushing against Michael's cheek.

Nick knew that sound, knew the tone. He'd heard it from his own partner in those rarest of moments between injury and safety. He shied away at the obvious display of vulnerability. He left the oxygen canister just inside the door and retreated back to the balcony, his eyes automatically seeking out the Stealth.

The blocks in his mind snarled at him.

-o-o-o-

Michael woke to warmth and light.

Both were Kitt.

He was cradled in the AI's essence, Kitt's soft glow all around him. Somewhere the familiar ache of his body demanded attention, but it was faint, his partner's all encompassing presence blocking all but the remotest of touches.

//Kitt?//

//Good morning, Michael.//

He smiled and Kitt embraced him just a fraction more. He revelled in the touch, returning the caress.

But his memory eventually slipped into focus, forcing him to withdraw slightly and he mourned the necessity. He opened his eyes and found himself in their bedroom in the warehouse. The morning sun was lighting up the room and he was in bed, propped up with pillows. Kitt lay slumbering beside him, a soft smile on the android's face. Michael's body ached and oxygen hissed in the tubes attached to his face, but he reached over carefully to touch his partner, trying to see if Kitt was okay.

The AI gently batted his hand away, reaching out with his mind and drawing him mentally closer. //Rest, love. We're safe and Swan has had her way with me.//

The spark of laughter that followed that statement did more to reassure Michael than any of the words and he closed his eyes again, slipping back into Kitt's embrace. //You're okay?//

//I'm okay.//

Michael buried himself in his partner's warmth. //Thank god.//

He stayed there for a while just enjoying the feeling of safety. He knew soon that he would have to surface. There were things to be done. People to hunt down. Nick was no doubt already chewing at the bit and if Michael didn't get onto his feet soon, he'd be left in the dust kicked up by the Stealth as the pair of them left the building.

//Don't even think about it!//

Michael blinked. //What?//

//You are in no condition to get out of bed, much less hunt down criminals.//

//They're not just criminals, Kitt. Look what they've done to us.//

//I know exactly what they've done to us, Michael. I was there, remember? I was the one who dragged you from the burning building. I was the one who nearly lost you. And I am the one who is making sure you stay right where you are so the bastards don't get a second chance to finish the job!//

Michael backed away slightly. //Kitt-//

//No, Michael! No! You are my life. You are injured. You are staying here!//

Michael stared at his lover. The anger and fear rippled across the shining presence. They'd never argued here. He'd never seen Kitt angry in this place. Here truth was paramount. Here the facades were transparent. Here he could see what the AI truly felt and why he reacted the way he did. Here he could see the soul destroying fear that lay behind the anger. Here he felt exactly what Kitt felt. The fear emanating off his partner cut like a knife.

And it hurt.

Kitt was trembling.

Michael sought the words and couldn't find them. Instead he reached out, drawing his partner in close. Pulling at him as he tried to pull away, enveloping him with everything he felt. His love. //I'm sorry.//

A jumbled mess of fear and sorrow washed over him. //You can't help it.//

Michael barely heard the whisper. //I-//

The space around them rippled and Michael frowned, suddenly aware they were not alone.

He looked up, and beyond Kitt an inky black presence hovered. No, not inky black...a streak of sickly green writhed through the darkness.

Something sank in Michael's gut. //Kitt? What's wrong with Karr?//

-o-o-o-

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