Life has been rough for Professor Membrane.

When his wife died, his heart broke. She was so simple, gentle, quiet, shy, loving. Without her life didn't seem to work quite as well. Food tasted worse. He couldn't bring himself to do the dishes. His plants died, the puppy ran away, and suddenly his own house repulsed him. It was a nightmarish reminder of her. He felt sick.

And so off he went to do good. She would have liked that, would've wanted him to help people. Super Toast, improved healthcare, advances in every field of science. He was always at work, always keeping an eye on something, and always going somewhere. An endless parade of tests, experiments, problems, solutions. With it came the mindless praise, the chatter of idiots thankful for the good he'd done.

But no one ever touched him. No hug, no smile, no pat on the back, nothing. In spite of it all, in spite of how happy she must've been in heaven, he still wanted her here. He wanted someone to love. Gaz was her mirror image, but not her.

Then the lonely Professor had to deal with his son going insane. Insane ramblings about things proven to not exist, things that had never been investigated by real scientist. He was always causing problems. Fighting, swearing, accusing a child of being a big foot, trying to raise the dead - not that his father could blame him for wishing his mother were alive. But she wouldn't have wanted to come back. She'd have wanted them to move on, because she was so selfless the idea of anything else probably never occured to her.

When Dib brought her home, his father could've cried.

A girl who was into science was uncommon. A girl who was a genius in it was rare. All that plus beauty was something he'd just dreamed of. She was so smart, this British girl, so smart and fast talking and well read that Dib fell by the wayside as his father finally found a person worth talking to in the twelve year old girl. Maybe it was a bit rude to ignore his son, but finally, oh, finally, at long last, someone who wasn't a moron!

She was engaging, charming, self confident. Her voice soothed him and made him laugh. She was polite and a good listener. He never had to explain things to her, she always knew what he was talking about. A few times, she even had to explain things to him. He was happy enough to scream. It had been years since he had felt so at ease with someone. It had been years since he'd really looked at a woman as being attractive. He couldn't remember being this happy.

It only made things harder on him when her eyes glittered, sparked, in fact, and he couldn't remember anything else. Dib told him he'd talked to her and gone to bed as she and Dib went out for pizza, but that didn't explain the when, how and why of his wallet missing. His wallet, every credit card in his room, and a good many pieces of technology still in the early stages of testing.

Only a real genius could've drained him of all his cash in one night without triggering any of the bank's built in tracking systems and alarms. Then again, his cellphone and pager were gone too, so even if they'd tried, he couldn't have been reached.

She was a pretty girl and a brilliant scientist.

She was also a vicious con.

And he'd never been let down quite so rough.