Geordi had a self-satisfied grin on her face as she stared down at the (mostly) finished android on the table. Most of him was gray metal, but his segmented back and torso were plastic parts. He had artificial skin on his head, but that was only because she had already made his face a few days ago. She was just lucky it fit him. Because he was so much bigger than she had anticipated, she was glad she had decided to wait to make the skin for the rest of his body, but that was going to take over a day to cure once she finished making it.

The combat unit parts made him large: broad-shouldered and just shy of a few centimeters shy of two meters tall. His legs dangled off the end of the table, and he was going to have to hunch over to stand in the attic.

Scotty had abandoned their work at some point in the afternoon, so it had taken her most of the afternoon to build him. After peeking around the blackout curtain on the small window, she saw that the sun was high and bright in the sky, but it felt much later in the day than that.

Amy was sleeping on the bed. After Scotty had left, she had decided to lay down and read something—likely something based on a show made a hundred years ago—but she had gotten too comfortable and fallen asleep. Her tablet rested on her belly.

Geordi felt guilty as she went to Amy's side and shook her shoulder. Amy snorted, and she snapped her attention to the hand on her arm. When she noticed it was just Geordi, she forced a small smile onto her face, and she rubbed the sleepiness out of her eyes.

"Sorry to wake you," Geordi said in a soft tone.

"It's okay. What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I just wanted to show you something. It would probably be easier if you got out of bed to see it.”

Amy asked Geordi to get her wheelchair, and once it was in position, she swung herself into it. Geordi guided her to the table, and Amy stared at the robot laying on it. After a few seconds, Amy looked at her.

"You wanted to show me the robot you've been building?" she observed.

Geordi felt a flutter in her belly. For the first time in years, she was feeling anxious around Amy. The two of them had grown close over the years, and Geordi had come to trust her more than anyone. Yet right at the moment, she felt uncertain how Amy was going to react.

"Well, you see, I've been building him for you," Geordi said. "It's sort of an early birthday present."

Amy lifted her eyebrows in surprise, and she looked at the robot again.

"You really didn't have to do this, Geordi. You could get a lot of money out of a machine like this."

That flutter came back to Geordi’s belly as she realized that she would have to explain herself to Amy. She downcast her eyes to the floor.

"I just thought you could use a little independence, you know. Since you can't go up and down the stairs on your own, having someone who won't mind carrying you will help us both. I mean, it’s really hard for me to carry you downstairs."

"You didn't have to, Geordi," Amy reiterated.

"I know, but I wanted to."

Amy was silent for a long time, and when Geordi turned to her, she found a look on the older girl's face that was difficult to read. It was like she had no idea how she was supposed to react to it.

"Thank you," she said after a time, but the complicated expression remained. "It means a lot that you would do something like this for me."

Geordi felt some relief that Amy was accepting the gift, even if she was uncertain she wanted it.

"Well, he's already got the operating system installed," Geordi said, tapping the tablet she had put into her pocket. "He's got everything he needs to work—though, as you can see, he still needs most of his skin. I need to get a hold of some hair for him, too. He's yours, so I'll let you decide what kind of hair you want for him."

Amy moved closer to the robot to get a better look at his face. She turned to look at Geordi with a smirk on her face.

"You made him look like Kai Fuse," she said.

Kai Fuse was an actor in a lot of the old films that Amy loved to watch. Amy never liked to admit out loud that she liked him, but Geordi could tell and teased her for it.

"Of course, I made him for you, after all, and I found a head that had the perfect facial structure for it."

Amy chuckled, but she changed the subject:

"Okay, so how long will it take him to boot up?"

"Because it's his first time, we have to give him a few minutes. Try to think of a good name for him while you're waiting."

Geordi pulled out her tablet, and she connected it to a small port in the back of its neck—something that artificial skin usually covered. The tablet told her in green text that the robot was already fully updated, and she went into the power settings to boot him up. A rotating green arrow appeared on the screen.

Amy and Geordi waited in silence. Geordi glanced at Amy out of the corner of her eye, and her eyes were wide with excitement. All of the anxiety left Geordi's body as she realized that Amy had lost her own.

Finally, a blue checkmark replaced the green arrow, and it was time for the android to function on his own.