Katherine looked at the night sky horrified. Just a split second before,
her best friend in the world, Blip, had taken a firerocket for Tinkerbell. She
stood there, cold, feeling numb with sorrow and fear. Just then, a voice behind
her broke the eerie silence.
     "What the bloody heck was that?" It was Jack.
     Katherine turned around slowly. "Blip... He got that... fire rocket jammed
in him..." she choked on every word.
     "Is that what hit me on the head?" Jack asked. He held out a chunk of what
used to be Blip. It was the part that was Blip's screen, where his eyes were
displayed, and a few more circuits and such hanging off it. 
     Katherine grabbed the chunk from Jack's hand. She looked at the backside,
where the circuit boards and such were. "Hey, most of these are OK. Maybe I
could..." she started. But she never finished. Instead, she flipped the hunk
over, revealing the screen. For some weird moment, there was a glimmer of hope
that two green eyes would pop up on that black screen of his. But they didn't.
There were only two green lines, that only appeared when he shut his eyes,
which just made things worse. She fell on her knees, too totally sorrowful to
even cry. Just then, the Park police and Toby Simpson passed them. The Park
Police had Jasper handcuffed and chained.
     "So," Toby asked a struggling Jasper, "Tell me again why you want to bring
down CyberLife?
     "I was always jealous of you!" Jasper snarled. "You an' Ben were always
the family favorites!"
     "What the-" Toby stood still for a minute in awe. "How the hey am I
related to you?"
     Jasper struggled a bit more, then settled down and explained: "You're my
Aunt's uncle's cousin's brother's sister's son's cousin's mom's adopted
brother's half-uncle."
     "And what does that make us?" Toby demanded. 
     "Uhm..." Jasper thought a minute. "I have no idea." 
     Toby gestured to the Park Police. "Take him away." Then he walked over to
Katherine and bent over, and placed his hand on her shoulder. "I'm very sorry
about what happened to Blip." he replied "But I think this is yours." He handed
her another chunk of Blip. Katherine sat there, looking at the two chunks. They
fit together nearly perfectly, and most of the circuitry wasn't damaged. 
     All of a sudden, Katherine raised up. "Hey- most of the important stuff is
still there- The memory, the main startup system, the OS, the emobord... I
think I can fix this!" 
     Jack looked confused. "An emoboard? What's that?"
     Katherine leaned toward him. "See that right there?" She answered, pointing
to the front half of the dead Blip. "THAT'S an emoboard, short for Emotion
Board. It was what allowed Blip to show emotions like he did. Sorrow, joy,
sarcasm, it all took place right here." 
     Toby peaked over their shoulder. "Really? Would you mind to mail us one
sometime?"  Katherine agreed.
     As she agreed, the man who was helping Tinkerbell came up to them,
carrying Jenna. "I think this is yours." He responded, and set Jenna on the
ground. He then lumbered off.
      Everyone looked up to the night sky, where the fireworks were going on.
"Jack," Katherine started quietly, "I- I'm not sure I could watch anymore
fireworks." Just then, the last one sounded. Toby excused himself, and everyone
else walked to the Bus Stop. 
* * * * *
     On the bus, Katherine held tight to the two halves of Blip. Susan looked
over in Katherine's direction. "Katherine," Susan began. "I've been watching
you tonight. And I've been wondering, could you two- You and Blip - be more
than just 'lab partners'?"
     Katherine winced. It was a topic she dare not discuss. She liked to think
of Blip as solely a lab partner, a co-worker, nothing more. But deep down,
waaay deep down inside her, she knew he wasn't. 
     "Really, you claim you're just 'lab partners', " Susan continued, "But
sometimes I think that there's some kind of- friendship."
     Katherine never wanted to admit it, not even to herself,  but Blip was
probably her BEST friend. He always understood what she talked about, they
always laughed at the same things, and had the same interests. It was possible
that he could of been like that because she had programmed him, but she was six
when she created him, and things do change, so it was doubtful. "No," she
replied quickly, "Not possible." 
     Susan looked at Katherine with that patented 'one eye's kinda squinted and
one eyebrow's raised' look, that meant she was highly suspicious of her, but
then turned and looked out the window. Katherine sat, deep in thought. Was it
possible that she really was ...friends with Blip? No, it was totally out of the
question. But still, there was a little nagging voice inside of Katherine that
told her Susan was right. She looked left, then right, and gave the dead Blip a
hug. Realizing what she'd done, she mentally smacked herself and turned toward
the window.
* * * * *
     "Are you done?" Susan called. She was speaking to Katherine, who had made
a makeshift lab in the Hotel Bathroom. 
     "Nearly!" Katherine called back. She was trying to remember how she had
wired Blip, because simply, it had been 7 years since his creation, and she
hadn't done anything like that since. There was a minor explosion, and then
Katherine came out with a repaired Blip. "His battery will need to be charged,
but I salvaged everything. He looks as good as new!" She exclaimed in total
joy. Bounding over to the plug by her bed, she plugged Blip in. 
     Slowly, two green dots for eyes formed on his dark black screen.  "Where
the hey WAS I?" Blip asked.
     Katherine began to dance around the room, glad to have her fri- I mean
'lab partner' back. Then she shook her head and sat down on the bed. "What do
you remember?" She asked. 
     "Wow- It's all coming back." Blip seemed dazed. "I- I remember! Tinkerbell
refused to listen to me, so without a second's thought, I dived down below her,
and... then... everything sort of went black..."
     "You were hit by a firerocket." Katherine explained. "But look, we'll talk
in the morning. You need to stay down there on the ground and charge." Everyone
then decided bed sounded like a good idea.
     Later, after everyone had tucked themselves in, Katherine heard a voice. It
was Blip.
     "Katherine?" he asked.
     "Yeah?" She answered. 
     "I- I really missed you." Blip sighed.
     "I- guess I really missed you too." Katherine replied. Then she rolled
over, ignored that little voice that was nagging at her, insisting Susan was
right, and fell asleep.