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A sign on the door says: *Shop Class Cancelled. Go back to bed.*

The computer components that were HAL have been disconnected and placed in the corner.

Mac sits at his desk, a pair of crutches leaning on the wall and a cast on his leg. His mood is somewhere between grumpy and guilty.

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The sign on the door doesn't surprise Nadia in the least. But going back to bed isn't terribly likely to happen, so she takes a deep breath and knocks.

Shop is her favorite class. She's not about to let herself be afraid of it.

[ooc: feel free to ignore her or tell her to go away if you're busy]

"Come on in," Mac calls out looking up from his desk.

Nadia took another deep breath and opened the door. "Hi," she said, just a touch shyly. "I wanted to make sure you were okay."

Mac gave her a small smile. "I'm fine. I just have to wear a cast and walk on some crutches for a few weeks. Are you okay? You were pretty out of it the last time a saw you."

Nadia rubbed her head, a gesture that was quickly becoming habitual. "I still have a bump, but I think I'm okay." She bit her lip for a second, then blurted out her next question. "What happened? I mean, I remember Hal going nuts, and the robots and everything, but I also remember Walter sitting on my bed without a shirt on, so I think I might be a little . . ." she waved a finger in the air. "Mixed up, still."

"HAL had a little... malfunction," Mac said gesturing over to where HAL's components lay in the corner of the room. "I have a pretty good idea of why it happened and unfortunately a good deal of it was my fault. I should have known better than to install an AI component to the Danger Shop program without putting in some safeguards."

There's a bitter look on Mac's face.

"I'll know more about what happened after I talk with a couple of people."

Nadia wanted to protest that Mac had no reason to expect HAL, who had been programmed by a student, to have homicidal tendencies . . . but she was quickly learning that her fellow students weren't exactly a group of innocent bystanders, so she couldn't quite make that rationalization.

"Have you ever had an 'AI' in the shop before?"

Pippi swings by the Danger shop and peeks in.

Xander would totally peek in? Except he slept like crap. So he leaves a post-it under Mac's note, attached with a bit of duct tape both for sentimental reasons and because he's met this school, and God knows what would happen if the damn thing blew away and got found without context.

I kinda love you.

In a manly, platonic way, of course.

~Xander

And then he trudges home to follow orders, and go back to bed.

"No," Mac said with a sigh. "And I'm very sorry that you were hurt as a result of my carelessness."

"Hey Sydney," Mac says looking up from some paperwork. "How are you feeling?"

"Hi Pippi," Mac says with a little wave. "Looks like you survived the mishap pretty well on monday."

Nadia smiled slightly. "Well, usually I get injured because of my carelessness, so it's kind of a nice change."

As far as jokes go, it's pretty lame. But at least she's trying.

"If you've never had an AI in there before, how could you have known this one would go . . . bad?"

Pippi smiled and walked up to where Mac was sitting.

"Yeah, I tend to do that..." she said quietly.

"I just wanted to see how your leg was and to thank you for having us in class... Even if it didn't go exactly as you planned."

She looked over to where Hal was sitting.

"What are you going to do with him?"

Mac finally sees the note when he leaves for the day. He makes a mental note to check in on Xander to make sure he's okay.

Mac shakes his head. "Well in the future, we'll both need to be more careful. As for knowing that HAL would have gone bad? Let's just say I have 20/20 hindsight."

Mac shrugged a little. "Oh you know. Broken leg. Extreme guilt for getting my students into a battle with a deranged software programs and seeing them get hurt. Other than that? Pretty darn well."

"Leg is broken but other than that nothing serious, thank you for asking," Mac said before looking over at HAL. "For the moment I'm keeping him turned off and offline until we can figure out what happened to him.

"At least now you know your students can handle a bunch of killer robots." Nadia looked down and rubbed at her head again. "Well, most of them can."

[ooc: sorry about the delete and repost, but it suddenly occurred to me that a nonnative speaker might not know the word "homicidal". Or at least wouldn't think of it quickly]

"You all did great," Mac said looking at Nadia seriously. "Considering what you all were up against we were very lucky. For a bunch of teenagers I have to say I'm very impressed on all of your skills."

"Let's just say that hindsight is 20/20," Mac said in a grumpy tone directed at himself. He shrugs it of and gives Sydney a grin. "As for what you can do for me? Do your homework. Stay in school. Stay off drugs. No premarital sex. Go to bed early."

"Not necessarily in that order."

It was really very nice of Mac to tell her that, even if she didn't believe him for a minute. "I ran out of bullets and got knocked out. I had to get rescued. No one else got knocked out and had to get rescued."

She regarded Hal for a little while trying to work out what she was going to say.

"I hope I can work Shop into my schedule next semester." She said looking back to Mac. "In the meantime... I am very strong. I don't like to hurt people if I can help it, because of that... But, if you ever need any assistance that requires it, I would be happy to make myself available to you sir."

"Nadia, you're only what? Fifteen? Sixteen? Don't be so hard on yourself. Plus look at me? I'm an old man and had to be rescued by a 14 year old."

"That would be great Pippi. I'd enjoy having you in my class," Mac replied. "And I know how strong you were. If it wasn't for you I'd still be stuck in the middle of a robot attack. Thank you again for getting me to safety."

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