Several days later...

Madison awkwardly grabbed for the chair and almost lost her balance. She apologized profusely to the server, who politely apologized for attempting to pull out the chair her. As a server at the go-to "fancy" restaurant for broke college kids to impress dates with, he was prepared for this sort of thing.

"This is so sweet of you," Madison said as she scooted her chair in. "I'm a lucky girl."

"I don't know if you're technically either," Ross said as he straightened his unfashionably wide tie. She stuck out her tongue and he winked.

They perused the menu in silence for a few minutes.

"What are you thinking about?" Ross asked.

"I don't know..." Madison said. "I've never had lobster, but it's so expensive."

Ross put down his menu. "Madison, sweetie, don't worry about that. Get three orders of lobster if you want. Not four, though. We'll end up washing dishes."

She giggled playfully. "Ok, Deep Pockets. Lobster it is. What are you getting?"

"I don't know," Ross said. "I'm leaning towards a burger. I know what I want for dessert, though."

"Yeah?" Madison opened the dessert menu. "Ooh, bread pudding!"

"To be honest," Ross said with a grin, "I've been craving a mudslide all day."

She snorted and tried unsuccessfully to suppress her laughter. She whacked his arm with the menu.

"You dork," she said, smiling in spite of herself. "That was terrible."

The waiter appeared, attracted by the mild physical ****. He cleared his throat and attempted a tone halfway between butler and middleschool disciplinarian. "Have we decided?"

"It's so underappreciated!" Madison agreed through a mouthful of bread pudding.

"They say he ripped off a French movie," Ross said, waving a dramatically. "Who cares? Everybody's a thief these days! At least Tarantino is upfront about it."

"Right?" Madison agreed. "Although the foot thing's a little creepy..."

"Until I hit you with the foot fetish modifier," Ross joked.

Madison crinkled her nose. "Ew, no thanks. Although it would be kinda funny if it was cumulative."

Ross laughed. "Can you imagine? You'd cream your panties everytime I took my socks off!"

"Fine, fine," Madison said through laughter. "Sold. We'll do it as soon as we get home."

Ross looked incredulous. "Wait, is there actually a foot fetish modifier?"

"We got Chambers' personal stash, remember? Who knows what kind of crazy shit he's got in there!"

Ross sobered a little at the mention of Dr. Chambers. "I still want to know what you have planned for him," he said.

"It's a surprise," Madison said with a grin. "Don't worry, you'll like it."

She sighed contentedly and leaned forward lazily, reaching across the table. Ross reached out and took her hand.

"If I didn't know any better," she said, "I'd think you were about to propose to me."

"Oh, no," Ross said. "It's much bigger than that."

"What?" She sat up, suddenly intrigued.

"The purple dot on Erica's script... we figured it out "

"What?!" Madison cried. "When?"

"Before we even rebound you."

Now Madison looked betrayed. "Ross, are you serious? What is it? Why didn't you tell me?"

"That's what this dinner is about," Ross said. He took both of her hands in his. "It's sometime good, babe. It's... well, it's humanity."

She stared in shock. He quickly clarified. "I mean, not fully. It's a capacity for irrationality. Not, like, emotions and stuff, but it makes her non-deterministic. She's-"

He was cut off as Madison leapt forward to hug him awkwardly across the table.

"Oh my God," she whisper into his ear. "Oh my God, babe, I'm gonna be human!"

"We don't know that," he said cautiously.

"Yes we do," she said. She pulled back and cradled Ross's head in her hands. Artificial or not, her eyes held more joy than he'd ever seen in a human's. "They'll get there. This is just the first step."

She sat back suddenly, starting to turn red. Ross's eyes widened. "Breathe, Mads!"

She started laughing and he sighed with relief. "I almost passed out," she wheezed. "Imagine how it'll be when I can actually feel like this!"