Michael closed the car door and looked over the low TransAm to where his partner was standing.
//how do you know she’s watching us?//
Kitt smiled.  //I just know//
That was enough for Michael.  Stepping away from the car, he headed to the store while Kitt walked further up, passed the park, heading to the other end of town.

It was another glorious spring day.  The laughter of children could be heard from the nearby school playground.  He could hear the chatter of the shoppers on the other side of the street.  It seemed that this was a slice of normality in the chaos of the lives.  But he’d relaxed like this before, and he’d suffered for it.  He wasn’t about to risk that again.

His sensors picked up the sound of a revving engine.  It was lower than the engines of the cars passing through the town or pulling into parking spaces at the side of the road.  Tracking the sound, he turned to see a heavy truck with bull bars curved around the front, idling at the roadside, facing in his direction.  The driver seemed to be searching the shop fronts for something, and Kitt decided he was being a little too paranoid.  This was a fairly peaceful town.  Anything out of the ordinary would be noticed by almost everyone.  Not a great place to make any kind of attempt on someone’s life.

He again pushed memories of Debbie out of his mind.  He did not need that kind of distraction right now.

There was a shout across the street, and Kitt turned to catch a panicking mother drag her child from the middle of the road by his arm.  She was shouting, he was crying, others were turning to view the spectacle.  Kitt was suddenly very glad he’d never had to experience childhood.

His aural sensors picked up the acceleration of the revving engine and he turned back.  In a heartbeat he knew the truck was coming straight for him.  He ran, back away from the road and onto the grass at the edge of the park.  But as he looked up he saw the children playing and knew that if it hit him here, the driver wouldn’t be able to swerve in time to miss the kids, even if he or she tried to.

In a split second, he altered his path, heading away from the kids, across at a diagonal to the truck’s path.

There were screams, but at least they were of horror, not terror and pain.  Kitt threw up all the blocks he could in the second and a half he had before the truck mowed him down.  The driver pulled a swift U-turn and drove back over the fallen form, wheels bouncing up over Kitt’s head and shoulders before hitting the pavement once again and careering on to the road to head at high speed out of town.

Michael gasped as the block was thrown up, cutting him off from his partner suddenly.  The faint nausea swept over him a second before he heard the screams from outside.  Dread settled onto him as he turned from the woman in the store and ran out, into the road, over to the park where the crowd that was starting to gather was being kept well back by someone Michael couldn’t make out until he got closer.

<I want to know where that truck goes>
<Scanners are already locked on>
Nick smiled.  When had their partnership become this harmonious?

Michael saw the Stealth first, parked up on the grass.  Then, as he pushed through the crowd he saw Nick sitting beside his partner’s body where it lay twisted on the ground.  Nick had dropped his coat over Kitt’s torso, covering the exposed alloy skeleton and delicate robotics.  His hand was rested on the blond head where the scalp had split and the fluids were starting to seep into the silky hair.

Michael swallowed back the bile from his throat and blinked away the sudden tears.  Reaching forward with a trembling hand, he touched his palm to the back of Kitt’s neck.
//Kitt?  Beauty?//  There was nothing, just the static that could slowly drive him crazy if it lasted too long.
Nick slid his arms underneath the slim form and lifted him, careful to ensure his coat remained over the body.  Michael’s hand helped to cradle Kitt’s head while covering the open wound there, and they stepped to the Stealth, placing Kitt into the open passenger seat.
“He’ll be okay, Karr’s called Swan, she’ll meet us at the barn.”  Nick’s tone was calm and deliberate.  It was what Michael needed at that moment.  “Get the car.  I’ll take him.”
Michael nodded, letting his eyes linger on Kitt’s miraculously undamaged face for a second, and then ignoring the curious stares of the onlookers, he ran back through the crowd to the TransAm.  Nick dropped into the driver’s seat and Karr gunned the engine.  They’d be at the house in five minutes.
 

Nick arrived first.  Karr had the security codes for the barn, and he opened up while his partner lifted his brother with infinite care from the car seat.  There was no use saying anything.  Nick knew of his feelings anyway, and Kitt was gone from his CPU.  He heard the flying gravel behind him and watched the TransAm come to a quick halt further up the drive.  Michael was out in a moment and following Nick into the barn.

Very gently, Nick lay Kitt down on the dining table and drew his coat away.
“Oh, God….”  Michael’s blurred gaze took in the damage to the android.  Kitt’s shirt was torn and filthy, from the grass he’d been pressed into and the tyres that had rolled over him.  His collar “bone” was twisted out of shape, and the left shoulder had popped out of its socket.  There was a gruesome tear in the skin around his throat as well as the head wound Michael had seen while they were in the park.

Rolling him carefully, they saw the disfigurement in the spine where the bull bar around the front of the truck had rammed into him initially.  Easing him over again, Michael pressed his shaking hand to the head wound.  Where the tear around his throat seemed to have bled all the fluids it was going to, his torn scalp did not seem to be showing signs of “healing”.

There was nothing they could do but wait for Swan.  Nick’s eyes roamed his friend’s face.  “Can you feel him?”
Michael shook his head quickly.  “Just static.”
“He’ll have off-lined, shut everything down to protect himself.”
“Yeah.”  Michael could only pray Nick was right.  The MBS had saved Kitt from major damage, but the injuries he had sustained weren’t pleasant and the experience itself had to have been horrific.
“Do you think it was this Rhian Margot?”  Nick had no idea of the magnitude of his question.  Michael did.  His own daughter had just tried to kill his lover.  He felt sick and he could only nod in answer to his friend’s question.

Michael blinked as the implant momentarily flashed with Kitt’s white presence, then died again.  Nick looked up in time to see him close his eyes as the link sparked again and stood.
//Kitt….//
//Mi…//  The weak voice in his mind was accompanied by a sound from the android’s lips.  Michael leaned forward, taking one of Kitt’s hands in his own.
“I’m here, Kitt, it’s okay, just relax.”  One of the whiskey eyes opened, the other refused to.  Kitt’s lips moved, but no sound came out.  “Don’t talk.  Swan’s on her way, you’re going to be fine.”  He tried again, but when he couldn’t force a word from his voice modulator, he gave up and closed his one eye.  Michael kept a hold of his hand, continuing to murmur to him while Nick stepped away.
 

Swan drove like a manic.  She would have sworn that when Karr had called on Nick’s behalf, there had been a tremor in the usually stoic voice.  She pulled the truck up and grabbed her box of tricks from the back.  She had thrown everything in, imagining the worse.  Nick had the door open before she reached it.
“Where is he?”
He nodded to his left.  “Dining table.”
“Oh, very comfortable.”  But she didn’t wait for a response.

Approaching her patient, she knew better than to move Michael out of the way.  Nick she could get away with being sarcastic to under these circumstances, but she’d seen Michael before when his bonded partner had been injured, and it was never a good idea to wind him up any tighter than he was already wound.
“Kitt, can you hear me?”  She moved to stand at the top of the table, over him, dropping her bag to the carpet and very carefully sliding her hands under the blond head.  She smiled when the one eye opened and the brown pupil moved to look at her.  He once again tried to speak but with no more success than the last time.  “It’s all right,” she reassured him, “don’t worry.  You’ll be fine.”

She pushed her hands further down until the tips of her fingers touched his shoulders.  Then slowly, she drew them back up, all the time feeling the spine and the area around the neck and throat for damage.  Michael had moved his own hand away from the head wound and Swan felt the sticky fluids on her wrists.  Gently, she lowered his head back to the tabletop.
“Okay.  There’s no neck damage.  That’s good.  I can put the shoulder back no problem, but we’ll need to replace that collarbone and put some stitches in these flesh wounds.”  She looked closer to the tear across the base of Kitt’s throat.  “Although replacing the skin around here might be preferable, especially as we are doing the replacement.”  She glanced up at Michael.  “Could you roll him so I could take a look at his back?”

Together they carefully tipped Kitt onto his side, Michael holding his hand while in his mind he was wrapped around his partner’s shimmering presence, cuddling him close.  He winced when Swan lifted the back of his shirt from his trousers and examined the disfigurement of his spine with her eyes and fingers.
“What the fuck did they hit you with, Kitt?”  Although the skin wasn’t broken here, the impact had seemingly put a dent in the light-weight alloy skeleton and that was in turn pressing painfully on the delicate sensors around the area.

Straightening, she settled her gaze on Michael.  “All right.  I’m going to fix his back first.  This isn’t going to be pleasant.  You might want to consider… blocking him.”  Michael’s shake of his head wasn’t unexpected.  “Just for ten minutes.”
“No.”
“Mi….”  He pulled up a chair and straddled it, taking Kitt’s hand in his and squeezing it, meeting his partner’s good eye.
“I’m staying with you, here and here,” he emphasised the last word, tightening the hug in his mind before looking up again.  “He has one eye that’s not opening and his voice….”
“His system’s taken quite a jarring.”  Moving around so that Kitt could see her, she spoke to him.  “Can you reboot the visual and verbal interface software?”

Kitt closed his eye and withdrew from the functions in his mind before segregating the processes and stopping them.  Ten seconds later, he started them again.  This time, both eyes opened.
“Michael.”
Michael couldn’t help his smile.  “Hey, there.”  Gently he swept his hand over the now fluid-caked hair.  “You’re gonna be okay.”
“You don’t have to stay….”  Through the link he expressed more, warned Michael that these procedures would only serve to remind him that his lover wasn’t human.
“I want to stay.”  Leaning forward, Michael dropped a kiss to Kitt’s mouth.  “If you were human, you’d be dead.  You have no idea how glad I am that you are what you are.”
Kitt managed a smile before closing his eyes again, tightening his fingers around Michael’s hand.
 

It wasn’t pleasant.  But Michael held Kitt throughout in his mind.  Two hours later, Kitt was sitting up on a dining chair, Swan still fussing over him.  Needing to stretch his legs, Michael turned, walking out of the dining area through the open patio doors.  Nick lingered for a minute, watching as Swan adjusted Kitt’s shoulder joint.
“If it hadn’t been for the MBS,” she was muttering, “there would have been so much more damage.”
Nick sighed. “Instead, they just scared the living daylights out of you, ay Kitt?”  He reached out and touched his good shoulder.  “You okay?” he asked gently.
Kitt nodded.  He didn’t look okay, but apart from being shaken up, there was nothing that some time and a couple of nightmares wouldn’t push into the past.  Nick smiled, then followed Michael’s lead and stepped out into the sunshine.

“Who is she, Mike?”  Nick sat down on the top wooden step, next to his friend.
Michael took a deep breath, not taking his eyes from where he was picking at his fingernails.
“She’s my daughter.”
It was the last thing Nick had been expecting.  “You and Adrienne….”  It was all he could think to say.
Michael shook his head.  “It’s a long story.”
“Give me the shortened version.”
“Trap.  Drugged.  Used.  Dumped.  I didn’t know about Rhian until yesterday when Kitt had Otter compare DNA.”  He risked a glance at Nick.  The colour had drained from his face.  “You look like I did yesterday.”
Nick snorted, trying to pull himself together.  “Does she know?”
“I have no idea.”
“So… she thinks she’s killed Kitt – the partner Adrienne presumably told her about.”  Michael nodded.  “Then she chats you up in a bar and kisses you, but the next day she’s chatting up the man she knows was with you at Kitt’s funeral.  A day later, she’s trying to kill him.”
“I’d hoped….”  He trailed off, shrugging.  “Maybe I’d hoped she could really become my daughter, have a place in our lives.”
This was way out of Nick’s experience.  “If she doesn’t know… maybe you should tell her.  Swing it one way or the other.”
Michael dropped his face into his hands.  “She just tried to kill the most important person in my life, for whatever reason. Nick, if it were anyone else I’d be after blood.”
“The fact she’s your daughter is bound to change everything.”
“Even the way I feel about Kitt?”

Nick tipped his head to one side.  “You believe that?  You think your feelings have changed just because nineteen years ago you were practically raped and it happened to produce a child?”  He studied Michael’s face.  “Kitt was yours before then.”
“I know.”  He released a deep breath.  “This is crazy, Nick.”  He was angry and hurt.  He felt that his own daughter had betrayed him.  Nothing had changed for her, but everything had changed for him.  “I have to find her.”
The business part of Nick agreed, but there was a tiny voice in his mind, one that was warning him.  “Mike… you want this so badly….  But what if she doesn’t want to play happy families?”
“At least I’d know.”  There was no argument for that one.
 

Swan stroked her hand over the red skin at Kitt’s shoulder.  “How’s that, Sweetheart?”
He blinked, glancing up at her.  “Fine, thanks.”
Sighing gently, she pulled up a second dining chair and turned it, straddling the seat.  Leaning one arm across the wooden back, she reached out with the other hand and took Kitt’s, sliding her fingers between his.  “You’re far from fine,” she told him cautiously.  “I’ve seen you fine, and this isn’t it.”
Kitt looked at her hand with his.  He found he didn’t want to break the contact.  Suddenly his world had been turned upside-down, a world that wasn’t all that safe to begin with, and he had no idea how to right it.  “I’m scared,” he told her quietly.
“You’ve just been run over by a truck.  You’re bound to be shaken.”
He closed his eyes, trying to stop the replay of the attempt on his life in his CPU.  The echo of the noise was the worst thing.  It had happened so quickly, but sound of metal against metal still rang in his ears.

Swan lifted her other hand and swept her palm over his hair.  It hurt her to see him like this.  “Want me to get Michael?”
Kitt shook his head.  “He’s got enough to deal with.”
His response surprised her.  “Whatever it is, you’re more important.”
“I don’t know this time….”
Swan’s brow furrowed.  “Hey…” she moved her hand down, lifting his chin gently, “every time.  He loves you, so much.”  Kitt moved his head from her hand, looking away.  “What’s going on, Kitt?”
“I can’t tell you.”  His voice was strained.

She was about to speak but a shadow fell over them and she looked up to see Michael and Nick standing beside them.  Moving, she let Michael swap places with her and watched as he turned the chair, sat himself in front of Kitt and wrapped his arms around his lover, gathering the trembling form into a hug enough for Kitt to burrow into.

Nick caught her eye and beckoned her out of the room, out through the patio doors and around to the front of the house.
“Any permanent damage?”
She snorted.  “The only damage that’s ever permanent with him is psychological.  If that’s what you’re asking then I would have to say yes.”  She sighed.  “Sorry.  I hate to see him like this.  He deserves some peace, some time to laugh, to enjoy life!  We didn’t move him just so that people could try even harder to kill him.”
“I know.”  Nick squeezed her shoulder.  “I’m going to stay.”
“But you want me to leave.”  Moving away from him, she pulled the keys out of her pocket.  “Take care of him, Nick.  He maybe artificial but he has his limits like the rest of us.”
 

Michael tightened his right arm around Kitt’s waist while he stroked his lover’s silken hair with his left hand, his cheek leaning against the side of Kitt’s head.  “Beauty,” he murmured gently, “I’ve got you, it’s okay, it’s all right.”  The AI’s swiftly-built blocks were crumbling, and what Michael could feel over any other emotion was guilt.  He couldn’t understand that.

//no guilt//
//I’m sorry//
//about what?  she tried to kill you//
//because she tried to kill me//
“Kitt….”  Michael hugged him closer, wanting so much to make all this go away.  He didn’t want to think about it, about how his own flesh and blood could have deliberately tried to kill a man.  His lover.  Did she hate them so very much?  Had Adrienne left a legacy of so much hate behind?  “God, Beauty, it’s not your fault.”
“If I was still in the car….”
“Don’t.  Don’t let her destroy what we’ve got, what we’ve worked so hard for and paid such a high price to get.  We deserve this, we’ve earned this.”

Kitt nodded.  He leaned into Michael’s warmth and just stayed there, letting it surround and comfort him, trying to release himself from the vivid memories of the truck smashing into and over him.

*

“She won’t just give herself up,” Nick stated.
"Then let's draw her out."  Michael was back to pacing the dining room.
Nick waited for a moment, looking between the partners.  "How do you propose to do that?"
"I'll call her, set up a meet, tell her I've figured it out and invite her into my life." Michael had spoken the words in a matter-of-fact tone.
Kitt was staring at him, a wide range of emotions in his eyes.  "No.  You can't, it's asking for her to kill you."
"We don't know that.  And what if she doesn't know?"  Kitt just looked at his partner.
"He's right."  Nick's words did nothing to ease Kitt's rising fear.
"How do I protect you then?"
Michael looked to Nick. "I'm not worried about my own safety.  If I can borrow one of your places for a bit, try and talk to her, on my grounds."
"Sounds reasonable."
Kitt looked from one man to the other.  "No it doesn't."
Michael sighed, knowing the real cause of his partner's anxiety. "Kitt," he stepped up to him, placing his hands on his partner’s shoulders, hoping to reassure. "I'm not leaving you to be with her.  But we need to stop her, or at east figure out why she's attacking those around me.  This is my chance to protect you."
"You don't need to."
Michael smirked, "and if I said that to you?"
Kitt dropped his head briefly, seeing the irony. "I guess we are running out of options here."
Michael nodded.  "It's not like we aren't going to be in contact with each other.  You'll know everything that's happening, front row seats."
Nick snorted.  "That's just great if she puts a bullet through your brain."  Michael threw him an evil look.
"But we agree on this course of action?"  Kitt looked to Nick, hoping he had another idea.  This was all to close to home, AI or not, he was having a difficult time thinking about this.
"There have been no moves made towards Michael.  I have to agree that she doesn't want to hurt him, physically anyway."  Michael bit back the nasty remark he wanted to throw in Nick's direction.  He didn't deserve it.  Michael had already lashed out in anger and it had backfired.  He learned his lesson.
"Then I'll dig up the number she gave me."

Twenty minutes later, after attempting to trace the number and coming up empty handed, Michael dialed, knowing Karr would attempt to find an address as soon as she answered.
Three rings later, her voice came over the line. "Hello?"
"Rhian?  Hi, it's Michael. Remember we met at Stock's Tavern the other night? Look, how about we meet for another drink?"
Kitt and Nick sat at the kitchen table as Michael made the phone call.  Kitt's head was on his arms over the back of the chair he was sitting on.  His expression one of severe distaste.

Michael refused to look at the two watching him.  He had to fall back into the grieving friend facade. And if he chanced a look at his partner, his anger would rise again.  He didn't like this anymore then they did, but this had to stop, before they figure out who ‘Chris’ really was. "Same place?  What time? Eight, okay, I'll see you then." His heart was pounding as he hung up the phone.  The last time they met, he had not known, this time.... we wouldn't be able to look at her the same way.

Michael sat in the parking lot.  His heart had started double timing again, and he couldn't seem to slow it.  He might be able to pass it off as dating jitters, but he didn't think so.  His mind was still at odds.  He wanted desperately to know if she knew. God that sounded ridicules. Rubbing his face with his hands, he opened the door and climbed out.  He recognized her car as soon as he drove in.  Pausing at the door, he reached for Kitt.
//I'm here, it's okay//
//No it's not.  She tried to kill you today.// How the hell could his daughter be capable of such atrocities?
//It's your turn, you have to focus//
//I know. Love you//
In return Kitt snuggled into the amber presence, holding tightly for a moment.  //I'm going to raise a light block//
Michael nodded, easily understanding and knowing he had enough to deal with, without worrying about Kitt's rolling emotions.

He had chosen his old leather jacket for this night, he had no idea why.  He hadn't worn it in years, but tonight, as his life ran circles around him, the comfortable familiarity was something he needed.  Opening the door, he spotted her immediately.  She was seated in the same area as he had the other day.

Looking at her, really looking for the first time, he could see the resemblance to her mother, right down to the way she carried herself.  But her hair, and her facial features were a female version of his own.  His heart contracted, wanting to know more about her, to be a part of her life.  ‘She just took a second shot at the most important person in your life.' His mind accosted, reminding him of his purpose.

Turning, she spotted him, flashing him a smile. He nodded once as he made his way across the busy room.
"Hi Michael."  Her voice was soft, unassuming.  Like she was completely innocent. Too bad he knew better.
"Hi."  Taking the seat beside her, he faced his daughter.  Catching her eyes, his breath stopped, they were his eyes.
Tipping her head, seeing his reaction, she figured it was time to stop playing at least one of the games.  "You know don't you?" Her tone changed, to one of hope and expectation.
"Yeah, I figured it out.  Why didn't you say something?"
"I needed to be sure.  Mother left me information on where to find you, but I'd never had the nerve before." Michael half smiled.
"How about we take this conversation somewhere more private?"
"I want to get to know you.  To know why you left us.  Not here."
"You want to follow my to my place?"
She nodded.

Michael pulled up the driveway he and Nick had been in only a few hours before. The house was secluded, about twenty minutes north of the barn conversion.  He had lead her in that direction, knowing she had followed him and Kitt before. Holding the door open, he watched her walk inside, consciously avoiding touching him.  Dropping her coat on the chair, she faced him, standing in the middle of the living room.  This house, like his own, was open concept, though not as spacious.  Done in dark colours, looking more like a bachelor pad.

"Why now?"  It was a question that had been at the forefront of his mind since he learned of her existence.
"For my eighteenth birthday, I was handed the key to my mother's safety deposit box.  Inside I found her diary.  That was when I found out about you.  Your name, what you do for a living, and even a small picture."
"How did she say we met?"
"She said she was having car trouble and you stopped to help.  That your relationship took off from there."
Michael snorted darkly. "I guess that's one way of putting it."
"Why?  Why did you leave her?  Knowing she was pregnant."
"I didn't know."
"Liar!"
"Rhian, I don't know what your mother left you, but we were never lovers.  We..." Shit, how the hell did he tell her this?
"You what? Used her?"

Shaking his head, he approached her, disappointed to see her step back. "It was the other way around.  She used me."
"You're lying!  She said she told you, begged you to stay, but your partner was more important than I was!"
Michael's eyes widened.  So that was why she had attacked the car.  He had been wrong, this had everything to do with him. Running a hand through his hair, his frustration rising as he realized Rhian truly believed everything her mother had written.  "Sit, please."
Her eyes were wide with unshed tears.  This was not what she had expected from this man. She had fully expected him to turn his back on her again, tell her where to shove her ideas, and her life.
"I'm not sure about all the details, but I think you deserve the truth. And you're not going to like what I'm about to say.  There are very few who know about this."  She watched as he perched on the chair across from her.
"Years ago, your mother lured me into a trap, using her car breaking down as an excuse.  She drugged me and stole my car.  You most likely know a great deal about it."  Rhian nodded. "I considered her quite the competent foe at the time.  Not long afterwards, she managed to lure me in again, this time by kidnapping my boss.  Anyway, she drugged me again, I didn't remember what happened those two days for years, until recently actually.  You were conceived during that time." He paused, searching her expressions, looking for any sign that she might believe him.  Shock was what he could clearly see.  "I saw your mother once more afterwards.  And I swear to you, she never mentioned you."

"So you killed her." Michael head dropped, he felt like she had just stabbed him.  Kitt's block dropped slightly and a warm tendril wrapped around him.  "If I had known, I would have done things differently.  God, if she had only told me about you that day, I could have saved her."
"At least you admit it." The snarky comment bit into him.
"There is no need to lie about it.  She had threatened me, my partner and another man."
"Your partner, you mean that machine?"
"It's funny, your mother never called him a machine.  She knew his capabilities."
"But that machine is still more important than I am."
"This isn't a competition.  If you're willing, I want to be a part of your life, to let you be a part of mine."
"How many others are there?"
"You are my only child."
"How can you be sure?"
"Because the only other woman I loved, died years ago."
His tone made her believe him.  Reaching over the table, she took his hand, gently placing hers in his.  Michael's head lifted, meeting her eyes with his own surprised ones. Her move was completely unexpected.  There was so much confusion between them.  So much distrust.  Maybe this was the first move towards getting past that.  Turning his hand, he laced his fingers through hers.

"From the things mom had written, I thought you wouldn't want me as your daughter."
"That's not the way I feel at all."  There were so many questions in his head.  He wanted to know why she had attacked the car, then attempted to kill Christopher.  But he couldn't bring himself to ask those questions yet.  He felt he had a tenuous connection with his daughter, and he was terrified of breaking it.  They had no proof anyway.  Could he risk losing what he had gained in the past few moments? She looked so open to him at this moment.

Her eyes wide, easily staring into his, her fingers pressed against his own.
"I'm glad to hear that." Her gaze shifted to their hands.  Smiling, she tightened her hold.  "I didn't think I'd get anything more than that quick kiss the other night."
"You could have told me."
"I thought you knew, and I figured you'd want nothing to do with me if you knew who I was.  I just wish we had met under better circumstances."
He had too, dear God, what was he about to do? "Rhian, how did you know I'd be at the tavern that night?"
"I guess I have a little confession." Michael's heart felt like it had stopped.  "I've been watching you for awhile.  It took me a few weeks to gather up the courage to talk to you.  And after your friends funeral, I thought it might be a good excuse to talk to you.”

He wanted to believe her. He wanted that so very badly, but his instincts told him otherwise.  He nodded, accepting the half truth she was giving him.  Turning her hand in his, she glanced at her watch.
"I hate to do this, but I have to go to work tomorrow."  Standing, they remained hand in hand.  Walking her to the door, he didn't want her to go.  As soon as she did, reality would hit him, he wasn't sure if he could handle it.
"Here," Michael reached into his jeans pocket, pulling out a card.  "This has my home and cell number on it.  If you need anything, at any point, call me."
Taking it from his hand, then standing on her toes, she pressed a kiss to his cheek.  Michael's eyes closed as he felt the touch.  Reaching around her, he pulled her in for a hug.  Knowing it might be the only chance he would have.  Rhian smiled against his shoulder, wrapping her arms around his neck.
"Good night, Dad." Slipping from his grasp, she left, leaving him standing at the open doorway, reeling.

Closing the door after the car had left the driveway, he dropped back down to one of the couches.  His gut was telling him he had just been played for a fool.  His heart ever so wanted to believe her.
//Mi?//
//Beauty// Reaching out, he grasped the offered warmth and stability.
//come home//
//I can't//
//why not?//
//because she's watching.  And I'm in no state to try and lose a tail.  God Kitt, I'm a wreck//
//I know.  I'm on my way//
//no, you can't risk it//
//yes I can.  You need me// The smile easily translated.
//more than you could know//
//then I'm on my way.  The Ferrari has the MBS as well.//
//could she be telling the truth?//
//do you want an honest answer to that?//
//probably not//  He could feel Kitt's slight distraction, knowing he was driving.
//I'll be there in ten//
Michael smiled, knowing Kitt was breaking the speed limit to make it in that short amount of time.

Kitt swung the door closed behind him, finding Michael still siting on the couch.  The small reading light on the end table being the only illumination in the house.
"Have you eaten anything?"
Michael snorted, half laughing. "No, nor am I hungry."  Standing between his partner and the coffee table, Kitt felt inadequate.  He had no way of helping Michael through this.  Lifting his head, Michael's pain filled eyes met Kitt's calm, concerned ones.  Moving closer, wrapping his arms around Michael's head, he held him to his chest.

He had known that he needed his partner, in body and in soul, but being held against Kitt, not feeling any of the betrayal he had expected, his own guilt grew.  Shifting closer, his arms closing around Kitt's waist, he held on, cherishing the warmth, the acceptance he was being offered.
"She admitted to watching us."
"I know."
"I should have kept up the questions.  I knew I had to…"
"Mi, stop."  Kitt let his head rest on top of Michael's.
"I can't.  We are sure it's her.  She tried to kill you twice.  How can I excuse it?"
"You're not.  You wanted to believe in her.  I want to believe in her."
"The facts are pointing more and more towards her.  I know she's lying to me.  Everything inside me is telling me that.  But I…."
"You gave her a chance.  Her explanation makes a great deal of sense."
Tilting his head up against Kitt's shirtfront. "How so?"
"She thinks you deserted her and her mother.  By tearing your life apart she can cause you the pain she believes we’ve caused her."
"I'm sorry for letting you down.  If it had been anyone else, I'd have been after them tooth and nail."
"I'm aware of the complexity of the situation."
"And you're reverting back to your old ways.  Sounding more like you did when I first met you, than the man I sleep with."

Allowing himself to relax he let himself look at the man in his arms, "I am... disturbed with the way your conversation with her went.  But I also understand.  This was her one chance.  If the attacks stop, them we know she was telling the truth, if not…."  Kitt shifted back, using his hands to force Michael to look directly at him. "You are going to have to make a decision."
"If she tries again, there is no decision."  Reaching up with both hands, Michael brought Kitt's face down to his, initiating a kiss, one that he hoped would instil how much he meant to him, how sorry he was for this entire situation.

Pulling back slightly, "God Kitt, help me through this."  'Why couldn't it have always been just us?'  Kitt's eyes went wide as Michael's thought entered his mind.  The confusion that had been swimming around, for a moment ceased.  Sitting back on the coffee table, keeping a tight hold on Michael's hands, Kitt waited for more.
"Why do you think you need help?" Kitt asked when his partner remained silent.
"Because I want to believe her, I want it too badly.  I know she's at least partially lying to me.  I've known that since she conveniently met me at the bar. She's been watching us, watching me for weeks.  Even as I held her, I knew she was keeping something from me.  And that is eating at me.  I need you.  I want you.  And all I seem to be doing is hurting you.  We have never been afraid of each other, but since this began, we've held blocks, argued viciously and barely touched one another.  She's succeeding without having to try.  We both know we're hurting, yet we refuse to go to each other for comfort.  This is wrong.  We need to talk, to remain open.  To maybe save making love until we talk this through."

Kitt smiled. "Then I guess we had better hurry up and talk this over."
Michael chuckled, knowing as well as Kitt did that they could not go for long without that intimate contact.
"It's her move now."  Kitt paused, taking a deep breath before approaching a topic he wasn’t sure if he had any right to broach.  "Do you think you will be able to handle it if we have to arrest her?"
Michael closed his eyes, "I don't know.  I know it might come to that.  And if it does she might..."
"She could be up for attempted murder.”  He dropped his voice to a whisper.  “Would be, if Nick had his way."
"I had never understood why it was so difficult for parents to press charges against their own children.  I don't know her, I haven't lived with her and I'm struggling.  To have raised that child and to have to make that decision...."  Shaking his head, gathering his thoughts from the high tides of his emotions.  "It might be something I have to leave to Nick, or to you."
"But would you resent me for it?"
"No.  I couldn't.  But I'm going to need you.  Need you to understand, and put up with me.  I was raised to believe that family was first and foremost. I've disregarded that too many times already.  I thought I had finally found safety and security in us."
"You have.  We both have.  This isn’t about us, I don't think it’s ever been.  Adrienne hurt us both, in similar ways."
"How so?"
"She attacked our souls.  Being out of the car like that for the first time showed me a few things.  First of, I didn't need it.  I needed you.  In the same manner that you found me, I knew when you picked me out of that box.  I knew it was you.  Maybe it was a hint of the link, maybe not. Secondly, that the car was not who I am.  You were the one who said that the car was not the same, that it didn't have my soul.  It was one of the first things that made me fall in love with you."
"It was how I felt, how I still do.  I was terrified that I'd lost you.  I had stopped thinking of you as an AI by that time. You were my best friend, already knowing me better than anyone and accepting what you knew."

Michael's fingers gently rubbed over Kitt’s, holding tight, caressing while they spoke.
"As you had accepted me."
"That was easy."
"As easy as loving me?" The shy, unsure question broke through.
"Loving you Kitt, is so very easy.  It always has.  I used to be scared of how I felt about you."
"Why?"
"Because of it's strength.  I've never known love like this, and I don't think it has anything to do with the link.  I felt this strongly long before we linked, then it was confirmed as I knew you felt the same.  I could ask you the same questions.  Why and how can you love me, after all I've done to you."
"You haven't done anything.  No more so than I have thrown back at you."
Michael smiled affectionately, squeezing Kitt's hands, "You certainly learned how to throw a good barb fast enough."
"Required learning to shut a sarcastic and suicidal driver up."
"We learned to live together, literally.  I'd not spent that much time with one person before."  Stopping, knowing they were far off topic. "I need you Kitt, I need you in my mind and by my side.  Rhian, if she's telling the truth, she has to either put up or shut up.  If not, then I have issues I have to deal with."
Placing his hand on Michael's face, letting it slide to rest against his neck. "We, Michael."
"We." Michael leaned into the caress, closing his eyes, searching for the warmth in his mind, and leaning into that as well.

"How about we go home?"
Nodding, "You want to check things out?"
Making it appear that he was grabbing something from the Trans Am, Kitt opened the door, leaning in as he interfaced with the car's computer, scanning the area full circle twice before he was satisfied that no one was around.
//All clear//  A nod replied.
Locking up carefully, activating the security system, Michael took one more look around the landscape before joining Kitt by the cars.
"I'll follow, keeping an eye on things."
"Gotcha."  Gathering a kiss before climbing into the car, his tired mind anxiously wanting to get home, to sleep beside his partner.

*

Rhian looked up from her seat in the armchair.  She frowned when she saw Danny standing in the doorway.  “What the hell are you doing here?!”  She launched herself out of the chair.  “You’re supposed to be following him.”
Danny looked at her, head titled to one side.  “He isn’t going anywhere for several hours, take it from me.”
“What are you talking about?”
“That guy that I hit twice with a 4x4 this morning?”  She nodded.  “He just drove up in a very sexy Ferrari Maranello.”
Rhian stared.  “You said you… you were sure you’d killed him!”
“I ran over him then I went back and ran over him again, Rhian.  He should be dead.  At the very least he should be on a life support in some Intensive Care ward with family and friends crying their hearts out.”  He shook his head, smiling at her.  “Didn’t you think it was a little odd, Michael being there tonight when his so-called lover should be fighting for his life?”
She turned, stepped away.  “You’re wrong.  It’s the only explanation.  They’re not lovers.  They can’t be.  It doesn’t fit.”

She heard him take two long steps after her and felt his hands on her shoulders.  He hauled her around.  “Rhian, there is only one explanation that makes sense here.”  Dropping his hands, he pushed them into his pockets.  “Tell me, a shortened version of ‘Christopher’?”
She regarded him with impatience.  “Dan, what are you getting at?”
“Humour me.”
She shook her head.  “I don’t know… ’Chris’.”
“Or Kitt.”
The frustration fell from her expression, the colour draining with it.  “Kitt….  You think… you think that’s his partner?!”
“I think all the time we’ve thought they’ve been playing our game, we’ve been playing theirs.”
She shook her head slowly.  “But Mom’s diary… the Artificial Intelligence was in the car.”
“It was twenty years ago.  If they created such technology then, who’s to say what they can do now?!”
“But the funeral….”  She couldn’t accept that the man who had killed her mother was stringing her along now, after all the planning….
“Fake.  It would explain Knight’s expression in this photo!”  Striding to the table he picked up the top photo of the pile, thrusting it out to her.

She smiled snatching it from him.  “You can’t have it both ways, Danny.  If this is his partner, it can’t be his lover.”
He hesitated for a moment then.  This was her father.  “Rhian… when I saw him drive up, I crept up to the house.  I couldn’t believe it either.  What I saw….”
“Well?!”
“They kissed.”
“You’re lying!”
“Why would I lie?”
“Because you’ve had your eye on ‘Kitt’ from the moment you saw those photos.”
She dropped the photograph to the black leather couch.  “And now you’re pissed, because you’ve figured out that he’s some kind of... of robot!”

Danny shook his head.  “You’re biased, Rhian.  You’re not seeing this clearly.”
She stalked away, through into the kitchen.  “You’re the one not seeing clearly, Dan.  A healthy male does not have a… sexual relationship with a robot!”
Danny stepped into the doorway, leaning on the frame.  “You’ve met him!  Did he look like a robot to you?  Did he taste like one?”
She turned to catch the glint in his eyes as he asked the second question.  But she hesitated before answering.  “No… he didn’t.  He looked human.”
He sighed.  “I know this is difficult.  You’ve started to care, haven’t you?”
She threw her head back and laughed, cruel and sudden.  “Yeah, right.  He and that freak of a partner walked away from me before I was born and then proceeded to murder my mother.”  She stepped up to him.  “I will have the revenge my mother wanted me to have.”
There was no stopping her, he knew.  “All right.  What do we do next?”

*

The drive back to the barn was thankfully uneventful.  Kitt had to keep nudging Michael awake at the wheel.  Normally he would just have taken control of the car, but tonight, if they were ambushed, Michael had to be alert.

Kitt had already deactivated the alarms, turning on a few of the lights as Michael pulled into his usual parking place.  Kitt pulled further up and parked, watching Michael almost struggle to get out of the car.  Helping him inside, guiding him upstairs, towards the bed.
"Kitt, I really need a shower."
"You're crazy, you are much too tired."  Seeing the determined expression.
"Alright, let me help you."

Once in the bathroom, Kitt leaned in, turning on the water.  Pushing out of the shower area, he began to help Michael undress.  Leaning against the wall, letting Kitt help him, he was almost beyond knowing what was going on around him.  He was so tired, completely worn out, yet feeling disgusting.

That Kitt was helping him stirred his ever growing love.  He needed Kitt, and Kitt offered, without having to be asked.  It was something that Michael was sure he would appreciate for the rest of his life.  His clothes in a neat pile on the floor, Kitt adjusted the water temperature, then stripped himself.
"You don't have to." Kitt fired him a somewhat dirty look.
"I'm not leaving you to fall flat on your face in there."  Waiting for Michael to step in and settle under the spray, Kitt then followed, grabbing the washcloth off the rack.  Tipping his head back, Michael let the water flow over his face, hoping for it to take some of the stress with it.

Kitt's gentle movements with the cloth over his body helped in a way no other could.  Smiling, relieved, Kitt felt Michael's tension ease.  This wasn't about turning on his lover, this was about loving him. Reaching back, Michael pushed his wet hair from his face, turning his back to his partner as Kitt nudged him through the link. Arms out in front of him, supporting himself on the wall, Michael's mind went blank for the first time in days.  He had felt the exhaustion creeping up on him, but he had fiercely ignored it.  The events in his life needing his complete attention, or so he thought.

Tugging on Michael's hip, Kitt pulled him around, waiting for his back to rinse off.  Once that was done, he reached past, turning off the water.  Once dry, they made their way to the bed. Kitt helping Michael settle in before he climbed in beside.  Feeling the bed rock as Kitt curled into him, he reached over, sliding his hand along the cool skin along Kitt's jawline.
//I need you// Pulling him closer as he rolled onto his side, Michael slanted his lips over Kitt’s.  The response was immediate, the kiss deepening quickly.
//You are too tired for this.//  Michael moaned at Kitt's words, then startling his partner, he rolled onto his back, pulling Kitt over top of him.

Finding himself straddling his lover, his hands on Michael's bare skin, Michael's on his hips, and his words in his mind, their need overtaking them both.
//Take us there// There was no stopping this now.  Kitt's body was screaming at him as he felt Michael's arousal beneath him.  Stretching through the link as he lowered himself to Michael, giving in to their needs and their love.

*

The sunlight through the large window draped over the two sleeping figures.  Kitt was curled into Michael's chest, Michael's arms wrapped securely around him.  It was the same position they had fallen asleep in hours ago, when Kitt had finally slid from his lover's body. Opening his eyes, Michael tried to discern the noise that had disturbed his peace.  Groaning, he reached over Kitt to grab the phone.

"Yeah?" His voice carrying the huskiness from deep sleep.
"Michael?" Michael's eyes snapped open, his body fully awake as he recognized the voice.
"Rhian?. Hi.  I didn't expect to hear from you so soon." Kitt shifted over, to lean in to hear the conversation as soon as Michael spoke her name.
"I took the day off.  I've been thinking about what you said last night, and I think I want to know more."

The bed shifted under him as he sat up. "Alright." Michael's mind was alive with suspicion, but his heart hoped endlessly for the possibility that she might be telling the truth.
"How about if you come to my place, and we talk.  We can have lunch.  I'll show you my mother's diary.  Then you can explain your side of the story?"
Her voice was so soft, innocent over the line.  Tearing him in two.  "Give me your address."  He kept his voice along the same lines as hers.

Hopeful, trusting.  Kitt handed him a pen and pad from his night table, watching as Michael scribbled the address down.  "I'll be there in an hour."
With that he passed the phone to Kitt to hang up.  “Mi, you need backup.”  He called as his lover closed the bathroom door.
“I’ll be fine, Kitt.”
The AI sighed to himself.  Turning on to his back, he closed his eyes.
<_Karr?
The dark presence along the other channel greeted him gently.  <_Kitt, how are you?
<_I need a favour
 

Michael fastened his shirt and jogged downstairs to find Kitt sitting cross-legged on the sofa, dressed but looking calm.
“Kitt….”
“I’m allowed to worry,” he told his partner firmly.  “How do you know this isn’t a trap?”
“I’m sure it is.”
“Yet you’re still happy to go in alone.”
“We aren’t having this discussion.”  He grabbed his long, black coat from the hat stand next to the door and shrugged it on.  Then he stopped.  He was doing it again, taking his anxiety and heartache out on the one person who had remained with him through all of this and taken both his anger and his hurt.

Shaking his hand he reached over, and Kitt’s hand took his halfway.  “I’m sorry.”
Kitt nodded.  “I know you are.”
“I have to do this.”
“I know you do.”  He met the stormy blue eyes.  “But you don’t have to do it alone.”

Stroking his hand over Kitt’s blond hair, Michael sighed gently.  “I love you, you know that.”
“But….”
“But I do have to do this alone.”

*

The drive was utter turmoil for him.  His gut was insisting he was walking into a trap, his parental side was clinging to the belief that she wanted the same things he did; to make up for the years of her childhood already lost to him.

'Parental side'.

That thought made him smile.  Until a few days ago, he hadn't considered that he might even have one.  His life had just done a complete 180 around him and he felt like he was still tumbling from it.  She was his daughter.  She must have inherited some of his personality traits.  He sighed to himself.  Everything that had happened over the last few days pointed to her having done just that.  Who had been one of the best leaders in Special Ops?  Who had devised plans to gain access into enemy camps?  Who, for the longest time, had ignored his morality to help a war he had no right being involved in?  Oh, yes.  She had picked up his personality all right.  But it just gave him hope, albeit probably false, that he could convince her to change her attitudes towards him.

Looking in the rear views, he could still see the 4X4 that had begun tailing him a few miles back.  It appeared to be the same one that he’d glimpsed speeding away from the park having crushed Kitt under its wheels.  He quashed the sudden anger.  It no longer mattered.  He had this nagging feeling that today would expose her.  Somehow he knew he wasn't going to like the results.  It was part of the reason he had asked Kitt to stay behind.  His all-consuming love for his partner was locked in a constant battle with his hungry need to get to know his own daughter, to have a life with her in it.  But Kitt was fighting that.  He thought he understood why, but he couldn’t fully accept it.  Perhaps because when Rhian had accused him of leaving her and her mother for Kitt, she had been partially right.

Kitt had twice been the reason he had said goodbye to Stevie.  He had always known that, and he was pretty damn sure Stevie knew it too.  Kitt was his, even if Bonnie was the AI’s mother.  Kitt belonged to him, heart and soul, just as he belonged to Kitt.  All the bickering of late, the chance that their lives would have to change so drastically, made him realize how happy he was with the way things were.  Could he change it, even for his own daughter?

Shaking his head and shelved the thought for later.  It might be a moot point anyway.  He promised himself that he would ask all the outstanding questions today.  To know one way or the other would be far better than this hanging in purgatory, stringing Kitt along with him.
 

The 4X4 was still behind him, a little closer than before, but still not a concern in his mind.  If his estimation was correct, he was about half an hour from her place.

His mind wandered back to Adrienne.  Yes, she had been beautiful, sophisticated, intelligent.  He could now remember her hands on his body as she seduced him through the fog in his head.  The kiss in the cell a year or so later.  Thinking back, there was familiarity in it.  If only he'd known. Perhaps she had hoped that the forced kiss would ignite his memory.

He had had so many other things on his mind at that point.  Had she wanted Garthe to act as Rhian's father?  That thought sent a stab through his soul.  No one would ever have been the wiser.  Garthe would have taken her under his wing willingly.  To have taken the one that was rightfully Michael's for all the injustices he felt his father had taken from him would have been the perfect revenge.  At least he would have treated her well. He would have turned her against her own father, but he would have cared for her.  And wasn’t that exactly what her mother had done?  Mindlessly, he wondered if Adrienne would ever have told her daughter the truth.  Another moot point.

The question running circles in his mind was, had the few minutes of closeness he and Rhian had recently shared really meant anything to her?  Lord knew it had affected him.  To hold his own daughter – his child.  Fatherly pride sparked within him again.

Looking down, a part of him wished for the old days, when Kitt resided in the car.  For a moment, he longed to see the dancing lights of the voice modulator that had been a part of his everyday life.  He didn't miss it usually, but today the comfort and security that the  visuals brought to him would have been welcomed.   Likewise, he thought about hearing the scanner track.  They’d left that in, and when it was activated, he sweeping lights and soft sound still calmed him.  It was something Kitt found affectionately humorous.  Even during the worst possible situations, the tracking had an effect on him.  He wondered if Adrienne had noticed when she stole the car all those years ago, that once Kitt was ripped from the shell, the scanner ceased to move.  Probably not.  She’d not been interested in that.  He thought of Randy.  Maybe if he had heeded the ramblings of that boy, he could have avoided this path.  At the time, he remembered thinking, 'what does a boy know about how a woman looks at a man?'  He scoffed at himself.  Sometimes he could be so stupid, so blind.

Checking again, the 4X4 was no longer in sight.  Activating the scanners, he took stock of how far behind it was.  It was no longer any sort of a threat, if it ever had been, and Michael dropped the car into surveillance mode.  The scanners would alert him if any vehicle remained within a certain distance for any length of time.

In his mind, he searched for the tingle, catching sight of Kitt's disturbed presence, but not approaching.  Keeping half an eye on the road, he watched his partner; the gentle flowing at the implant.  He was graceful presence, as always; curling into himself, then opening up again.  The AI was busy elsewhere, but Michael couldn’t get a hold on what he was doing.

Kitt must have felt him watching for the white presence turned to focus on him, hovering like someone watching from across a crowded room.  They remained like that, both occupied in other tasks, while locked into one another through the link.  Kitt's soft eyes watching his, almost waiting for Michael to say something.  There was nothing to be said.  Letting his love, his need flow for a moment, he felt the smile answer him.  It was more than he had expected at this point.  That simple feeling of acceptance and understanding gave Michael the lift he needed to do this, to confront Rhian.
/you can and whatever happens, we will still be in love/
Michael's eyes closed for a second.  The link had never translated words like this before. They were more like whispers in the wind than the clear words placed in his mind.  It undeniably was Kitt, but different somehow.  Again the smile drifted through the implant, soothing over his confusion, seeming to swallow it, turn it into confidence.
 

Pulling into the tree-lined driveway, Michael parked the Trans Am behind Rhian's car.  The house was to his right, large glass bay windows greeting him almost to the front door.  Knocking softly, he waited in the light rain for her to answer.  A few seconds later, he could hear what sounded like footsteps descending stairs just before the door opened.  Her smile brightened considerably. "Hi Dad."
Hearing her say those words, coupled with the hug he was receiving, jumbled his emotions even further.

Stepping into the foyer, letting her take his coat, his eyes wandered around the building.  Elegance surrounded him.  Adrienne's words from long ago crept into his mind.  'Art and music, two of the three essential ingredients of life'.  Catching Michael looking around, Rhian spoke up.  "It was Mom's.  She left it to me."

Leading him into the living room, she motioned for him to take a seat. "Would you like anything to drink?"  Michael shook his head no.  "Alright then….  I guess I should explain why I wanted to see you today."  She sat beside him, legs together, elbows on her knees, just brushing his legs.  "I know we started off on the wrong foot and I'm aware that was my doing.  I've read Mom's diary hundreds of times.  Now I need to know your side.  All of it."  Her eyes seemed to be filled with hopeful expectation as they met his.

"There isn't much to tell.  Your mother and I didn’t meet by accident.  It was a set up to get to Kitt.  It wasn’t a friendly encounter by any means.  The second time we met, when you were conceived, I had no recollection of until... well, until we met.  I think seeing you, brought out the memory.  She drugged me, then left before I woke up.  The third and last time, she was with... my twin.  Again, not a friendly encounter.  I had no idea that we had even been together, never mind had a child.  God, Rhian, if I had known, I would have done things very differently."

Rhian's head dropped. "You said Kitt the other night at the bar.  As in Kitt, the artificial intelligence?"  Michael's cringed inside.  Now he knew he was being had.  Making his expression appear more like grief, he nodded.  "Mother said the car was important to you."
'Here we go.'  He thought to himself.  "It wasn't the car, it was Kitt himself who was important to me."
"More important than my mother and I."  The tone of the question was one he should have been expecting.  The underlying anger led him to the conclusion that she would not believe him.  Even if he could come up with concrete evidence, Adrienne's diary was ingrained in her mind.  A deep sadness rolled over him.
//Kitt...//
//I'm here and I love you//
Michael sighed softly, knowing it was all but over.  "Is that why you attacked the car?"

Rhian's head snapped up.  She was cornered and she knew it.  Her blue eyes blazed at his.  Michael shook his head, disappointed and hurt at the same time.  "I had hoped it wasn't you.  But it all added up.  The attack on the car, then the attack on Christopher.  It all pointed to someone who wanted my undivided attention.”  He frowned.  “Why Rhian?  Of all the ways to get at me.  Why couldn't we have talked first?  I wanted to love you.  I wanted you in my life, but now.…"  His voice trailed off with his breath.
"I wanted you in my life!  Where were you when I needed you?    When I would have given anything to know my father was still alive, to dare to dream that you might just want me."  Her eyes were brimming with tears now, tears he dared to believe were real.
"If I would have known, I would have welcomed you with open arms."  Reaching over, he placed a hand on her cheek, his thumb wiping at the tears.  She was still his child, if he could change her thinking, maybe convince her....

Rhian found herself leaning into his touch.  No man had touched her with affection.  It was a nice feeling.  Even after all she had done to him, that he could touch her like this astounded her. "Why?"
Michael's head tipped slightly.  "Why what?"
"Why do you still care?"
Taking a deep breath, replied, "Because I don't think it's too late yet."
"Even though I.…"
"I've done some terrible things in my time as well."  He interrupted her, not wanting to hear her actually voice her actions. His acceptance was mind blowing to her.  Not wanting to end this moment, she leaned into his shoulder, smiling happily as his arms came around her.  He was holding her, protecting her, like she had always imagined her father would do.  His cheek on top of her head, his breath stirring her hair.

"Now isn't this sweet?"  Danny's sarcastic remark broke the moment.
"What the hell are you doing here?"  Rhian hadn't moved from her father's shoulder as she glared icicles at her house-mate.
"I just thought your father," he emphasized the word, "would like to know that his lover is lurking around the house."
Rhian's eyes widened.  She pulled away from him, standing abruptly.  "It's true, isn't it?"
Michael refused to waver this time. "Is what true?"  He heard the note of calm within himself.
"'Christopher' is really Kitt!"  The tear filled eyes now sparked dangerously with hatred.
"Yes, he is."  Knowing it was over, that it could never be, he stood his ground.  Drawing himself to his full height, towering over the other two, he waited.
"He's your lover too, isn't he?"
Michael found a smile, unable and unwilling to deny it.  "Yes."
"A robot?  How the hell can you screw a robot?!"
"You have no idea what you are talking about, Rhian."
"Don't I?  Mom was right about you and that machine!"

Michael shook his head, stepping around the small table, hoping to stop this insanity before it became out of hand.
"Stop!"
Michael's eyes widened, not believing what he was seeing.  The gun Danny held didn't waver.
"Where did you see him?" Rhian asked her friend.
"Back yard."  Danny's eyes stayed on his hostage, waiting for him to make a move.
"Stay out of sight."  Michael watched as his daughter took something from the mantelpiece and slipped out of the sliding glass door. "Christopher?"  Standing in the middle of the yard, peering into the bushes, she waited.  No answer.  "Come on out.  I know who you are, Kitt."  Still no sign of him. "I've spoken to my dad.  We've come to an understanding I think."  Her voice was soft, pleading with him.

//Michael?//
//she's lying, Pal.  Her friend is keeping me company in here//
//armed no doubt//
//so what else is new?//
//at least he's not behind the wheel// Michael sent a humourless chuckle down the link.  //I'm almost at the house//
//the glass doors are open, if you can make it, his back is turned//
//understood.  I may need some time//
//I'm not going anywhere//

Rhian had circled the area, looking for any sign of Kitt.  She briefly entered the house again, making sure everything was still in order.  Danny heard her approach, turning his head slightly, one eye still on Michael, who was across the room from him. With a quick nod, Rhian backed out again.

"Kitt, please, can't we talk about this?"
She was begging a stupid machine.  How degrading.  Thinking she heard something at the far end of the bushes, she took two steps before something inside her told her it was a trap.  Turning back towards the house, she caught a glimpse of the blond head over the shrub beside the glass entrance.  As quietly as she could, as quickly as she dared, her weapon in hand, she crept back.  Peering around the doorway, Kitt was just about on Danny.  Risking it, she jumped out, grabbing his arms, pulling them behind him, securing the shackles before he could process the information.  Smiling wildly, she pulled on his pinned arms, drawing him back outside the house.

Waving the gun, like he'd seen on TV a hundred times, Danny motioned for Michael to step outside.  Michael shook his head as he stepped around the table, following his partner outside.  Danny remained just out of arms reach.  "Now then, let’s see what’s really beneath this pretty exterior."  Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a large folding knife.
“No!”  Michael was stopped in his tracks by the barrel of a gun that looked far too large for the young man holding it.
“You don’t want to push me,” Danny warned slowly.  “I was the one driving the truck that morning.  If your lover over there had been human, he’d have been crushed and I wouldn’t have thought twice.”
Five feet in front them, Kitt was standing, almost shaking, his wrists secured behind his back with titanium cuffs.  Rhian jerked open the flick knife and moved it to his throat, trailing the sharp tip over the sensitive synthoskin.
“I’m her father,” Michael said roughly, “you wouldn’t….”
Rhian’s sharp blue eyes twitched away from Kitt’s face and up towards Michael’s.  “Why not?  When it was my mother you two didn’t think twice!”

He could feel her anger now, see it flashing in her eyes.  “You don’t want to do this, Rhian, please!”
She smiled, and Michael saw Adrienne in that smile.  Turning back to Kitt, she ran the blade down between the folds of his shirt, popping the buttons off one by one.  “My mother loved you.”  She spoke the words to Michael despite her eyes being on Kitt.  “And you left her, for this.”  In the next moment she’d pulled the edge of the knife around in an arc, slashing Kitt’s chest.  The blade scraped against the hard alloy skeleton below.

Michael felt a white-hot spike of shock before Kitt’s blocks shut him off from his partner’s pain.  “Don’t….”  He tried to step forward but Danny clicked the safety off the gun he held and moved the barrel to press it into Michael’s stomach.  Rhian had dug the tip of the blade into the cut she’d made, at the base of Kitt’s sternum, and was starting to peel back the skin and flesh beneath it.

Michael could feel the agony pulsing behind the blocks in his mind.  She couldn’t kill him, not like this, but she could hurt him, again and again until he was unable to remain online.  And then what would she do?  He heard Kitt’s hiss of pain as his flesh was cut.
“See?!”  She turned to Michael, a look of utter disgust on her face as she scraped the flesh from his lover’s chest.  “See what you sleep with?  What you claim to love?!”

Michael could barely believe his own daughter could do this, could cause so much pain simply on the plea of a dead woman’s written words.  “Rhian… don’t.”
“Don’t?  Why?  This isn’t hurting him!  He’s a fucking robot, Dad!”  Her use of the endearment as she cut into his lover tore at Michael’s heart.  He could feel Kitt’s suffering, his panic that was slowly rising.  He had to calm him down, get them out of this.  Glancing at Danny’s face, he saw a way.

Feeling the barrel nudge into him again, his brain began focusing.  //Kitt, drop the blocks, Partner//  He pushed against the shields swiftly erected between the implant and his partner’s electronic mind.  //come on, Pal, let me in.  I know you’re protecting me….//  He pushed harder, and slowly, the cracks started to appear.

Suddenly he heard his partner’s mental cry for him to stop, not to come any closer.  But he refused to give up.  Instead, he pushed hard, and the block cracked.
//Kitt, come on Beauty, talk to me//
//Mi..//  The pain seeped across the link, giving Michael a taste of what his partner was experiencing.
//come on Pal, stay with me, this is an easy out//

Kitt looked over Rhian's shoulder, catching a glimpse of how close Danny was to Michael.
//count it down?//  Kitt voice in his head was much clearer, focusing on their escape.
//From three...//
Rhian was babbling again, her thoughts concentrated on hurting Kitt and getting back at Michael for leaving her.  Michael closed his mind off to her.  He had to stay sharp.  Danny had not moved, thinking he had over powered Michael with the gun.  Kitt was watching Rhian, judging, waiting for her next move.  The knife flashed in his face again, causing him to flinch.  The blade was dripping with the fluids that kept his skin feeling like a human’s – warm and soft.  She smiled at him, drawing the knife over his cheek, leaving a trail of red fluid in it’s path, over his jaw and down the length of his throat.

Michael watched her, and knew when she was about to strike again.  He began, //3..2..1..//
They had no chance to prepare.  Michael batted Danny's hand away from his body as he swung behind him with his other arm, elbowing Danny in the head, causing the smaller man to drop like a stone.

At the same moment, Kitt leaned back, kicking out at his assailant, only at the last second reining in his power, connecting with her chest, easily tossing her across the yard, where she landed in a heap beside Danny.

Walking over to where Michael was bent over the two, he watched as Michael threw the gun well out of reach, then moved to where Rhian was lying, breathing laboured.
Kitt’s voice floated above him.  "Sorry, I could have…"
Michael's head turned towards his partner. "Don't apologize, please."  The tone was sincere, but filled with regret. Michael's brow furrowed, "did you see where she put the keys?"
"In her shirt pocket."  Kitt was trembling, blocking the link again to keep his pain and emotional state away from his already suffering friend.

Michael reached into her breast pocket, feeling his daughter's heartbeat beneath.  It could have been so different for them.  Pulling the key from the material, he stood. His eyes half on the unconscious girl on the ground, half on unlocking his injured partner.  Kitt's arms were trembling under his hands.  As gently as possible, Michael released him, stripping off his shirt, he wadded it up.

As Kitt's arms were freed, and he was able to pull them back in front of him, the pain eased slightly.  He took the jacket, pressing it to the large, ‘bleeding’ wound in his chest.  Shifting his gaze, he caught sight of Michael's eyes on the still form of his daughter.  He found nothing to say to comfort either of them.  The pain from the torn flesh was increasing again.  Abruptly, Michael grabbed Kitt, supporting him around the waist.
"Let's get you to Swan’s."
"Karr dropped me off before."
"I figured as much."
"What about her?" Kitt used his chin to point at Rhian, leaning heavily on Michael.
One last look down, Michael came to the final decision. "What about her?  I think we proved our point."  Kitt's joy momentarily overshadowed the pain behind the blocks.  Letting his lover help him, the two slowly made their way around to the Trans Am.

*
 

Swan stared at the two as Michael helped Kitt out of the car.  “For fuck’s sake….”  She looked from one to the other.  Then Kitt took Michael’s wadded shirt away from the terrible injury to his chest.  She paled.  “Oh, God….”  Stepping out to meet them, she slipped her arm around Kitt’s waist and led him inside and through to the lab.  Michael followed.

“Who was it?” she asked, helping Kitt up onto the work surface and easing him on to his back.  “Tell me it wasn’t the same person who hit you with the truck.”
Kitt looked away, and Michael was left to answer.  “Different person, same case.”
Swan turned, nailing him with her stare.  “And now they’re no longer a problem.”
Michael shook his head affirmative.
“Good.  I do work for a living, you know.”  It was a pointless warning.  They all knew she’d drop anything for Kitt.

*

Rhian shifted onto her back slowly.  She had not known pain like this before. Then again, she had never been struck before either.  Remembering, her breath caught.  She was lucky to be alive.  By all rights, his foot had connected just under her breastbone, he could have killed her so easily. But he hadn't.  He had knocked the wind out of her, and the force obviously threw her across the lawn.  Her mind began to wander, wondering why.  Most likely because she was his lover's daughter?  That had to be the only reason.  Opening her eyes, she startled to find two ice blue ones hunched over her.

"Who..?"  Then she remembered, the picture, Danny mentioning his name, calling him a ghost, and that dangerous ghost was lurking over her evilly.
"I think you know." Sitting back on his haunches, Nick kept the icy façade in place.  So this was Michael's daughter.  He could see it in her features. Even knowing that Michael's face was not the one he was born with, the structure echoed in this girls.  As did the eyes.  If he let himself, he could almost believe he was looking directly into Michael's.  Yet she had a coldness, one that reminded him of himself not all that long ago.

Sitting up, pulling herself backwards along the grass, trying to put as much distance as she could between herself and this man, she knew it was futile, but instinct was stronger. Nick just watched. "You know why I'm here?" The girl before him shook her head. "Alright, I'll spell it out for you.  Being his daughter is the only reason you are still breathing.  I will make that allowance once, and only once.  If we meet again under similar circumstances, you will not be around for the end session.  Neither Kitt nor Michael will have a say in the matter."  Her eyes had grown wide. "Do we understand each other?" Rhian nodded furiously. "Good.  I expect you to clear out immediately."

Standing, knowing how threatening his presence can be, he backed away slowly, watching the young girl stand.
<She is very much his.> The factual tone drifted into his mind.
<It could have been so much different.>
<This is best for all concerned.>
<Yeah, probably.  How's Kitt?>
<Better.  Swan is almost finished.>  A slight pause as the girl walked into the house, constantly looking back at the man holding his ground in the back yard. <Are we leaving?>
<What is she doing?>
<She and her friend are speaking.  A phone call just went out to an airline company.>
<Keep tabs on her.  I want to know where she is going.>
<Understood.>
<I'm on my way.>

* * *

"What are you doing here?"  The gentle question was accompanied by a hand on his arm.
"I don't know Kitt.  I just thought, I might learn something about her."

Kitt nodded, looking around the house Rhian and Danny had occupied.  It was elegant, tasteful, but they had known that about Adrienne.  Her beauty lead the men into her life, allowing her to destroy them.  Rhian seemed to be on the same path.  Hopefully she would learn her lesson before she befell the same fate as her mother.

“Kitt?”
Michael's call brought Kitt into the dining room.  He was taken by surprise.  Michael was leaning over the long table that was covered in pictures.  Looking them over, finding Michael's hand on one particular, Kitt stopped next to his partner, smiling slightly.
"I've never seen a picture of the two of us before."
Michael looked up briefly. "You can see it in us can't you?"
"Our closeness?  Yes.  It's very nice to see it captured."
Michael's expression relaxed.  The picture in his hand was of them at the grave site, Kitt's hand on his back.  It was a perfect representation of their partnership, in all of it's aspects. Placing it back on the table, he turned, letting his eyes roam over the room.  Something lying on the black leather couch caught his attention. Striding over, reaching out with a shaky hand he picked up the small leather bound burgundy diary.  Kitt's hands closed over his, startling him somewhat.
"You might not want to read this."
"I know."  Michael swallowed the lump in his throat. "But I think I need to." Smiling knowingly, his fingers wrapped around Michael's, around the diary, where they stood for a moment.
"Let's go home." Kitt motioned towards the doors with his head.  Taking one last look around, diary in his hand, Michael followed.
 

fin
Tomy & elfin