48 Detroit 11.10.2038
8:35 pm

Connor

I'm already calculating the best way to save the androids and take down the two men when one of them turns and shoots an android in the head. The android slumps, blue blood dripping from the hole in his head.

"You bastard!" Clara shouts, and she throws herself at the man, trying to wrest the gun from him.

"Clara!" This was not part of the plan, and I quickly revise, attacking the second man before he can help his friend. I quickly incapacitate him, and his unconscious body slumps to the snowy street. I turn as the other man flings Clara aside. He aims his gun at me. The next few seconds happen so quickly it takes me a moment to catch up. He fires right as Clara darts in front of me. I wait for the feel of the bullet, but it never comes. Instead, Clara wobbles on her feet. Her hand goes to her abdomen. Her fingers come away bloody.

"Shit…" The man turns on his heels and runs. I don't care. I grab Clara as she slumps.

"What did you do?" I ask, my voice panicked.

"He was going to shoot you," she tells me in a shaky voice. Her legs start to give out, and I scoop her into my arms. She hisses in pain at the movement.

"Hang on," I tell her, carefully carrying her back to her car. The android who wasn't shot mourns his companion, but I can't focus on anything other than Clara now. I scan the wound. It's not fatal. It hasn't struck anything vital, but I need to stop the bleeding. I pull off my hat and press it to her side. She cries out in pain.

"We need to stop the bleeding," I tell her. "Can you put pressure on it?"

She nods. Her face is deathly pale. "Hang on," I tell her again. I didn't realize how far we'd wandered from her car. The snow is falling again, and I feel her growing slack in my arms. Her hand falls, and I realize she's lost consciousness. I can't carry her and put pressure on the wound so I carefully set her down in the snow and examine the wound closer. The bullet is still inside her. It's too deep to reach without the proper instruments.

I look up as sirens sound a few blocks away. I see flashing lights and smell the scent of fire. If there's an ambulance there, I can get Clara the help she needs. I don't trust the humans not to hurt me, but they won't hurt her. I carefully lift her again and move toward the flashing lights.

A dumpster is on fire, and the firemen work to put it out. I see the outline of android bodies inside and feel a clenching in my gut. An ambulance waits on the curb across the street, but there's no one they can help on site. I move toward them, and one of the paramedics catches sight of me. He staggers back, away from me.

"Don't get any closer!" he shouts, and his companion reaches for his phone presumably to call for backup.

"Wait," I tell them, stopping. "She needs help. She's human."

They stare at me a moment. The paramedic reaching for his phone lets his hand drop.

"She was shot. Please. She's going to bleed out if she doesn't get the medical attention she needs."

They exchange a look and the first man nods. "Bring her here," he says. He opens up the back of the ambulance and pulls a gurney down onto the street. I lay Clara down. The paramedics check the wound. One of them glances up at me, eyes wary.

"She'll be okay once we get that bullet out and stop the bleeding," he says. They begin to work, carefully extracting the bullet with thin tweezers before cleaning the wound and stitching the skin shut.

"Why did you save her?" The paramedic eyes my LED.

"Because she took the bullet for me," I tell him. "And…" I glance down at Clara. "She means everything to me."

The paramedic stares at me, mouth open slightly. "I didn't think androids could care about humans like that." He glares over at the burnt androids. The firemen have put out the fire by now, and the charred bodies have been fully revealed. The scent of burned plastic fills the air.

"I didn't think so either." I reach out and touch Clara's hand. She blinks, waking up. Her eyes are bleary a moment. She hisses in pain and tries to sit up.

"Careful," the paramedic says. "That's going to sting for a while."

Clara glances down at her blood-soaked shirt. "That was probably the most heroic thing I've ever done," she says in a hoarse whisper.

"This android claims it has feelings for you," the paramedic tells her. He looks as if he would rather get her far away from me. "Sounds like it's malfunctioning to me. We can call it in."

"No." Clara says the word sharply, and the medic looks down at her in surprise. "Don't you dare." She gets up and slides off the gurney, half falling into my outstretched arms. "He's with me. And he's not malfunctioning." She wraps an arm around my waist. "So if you want to call the cops, go ahead. Otherwise, he's coming with me."

The paramedic stares at us for a long moment before shaking his head. "I'm not going to stop you," he finally says. "Just change that bandage in the morning and try not to put too much strain on it."

Clara smiles. "Thank you."

"Maybe there is something to what they're saying," the paramedic says as we turn to walk away.

"What's that?" Clara asks.

The paramedic looks at me. "That androids are alive. That they can feel human emotions. I wouldn't have believed it but…" He motions at me.

"They are alive," Clara tells him. "In all the ways that matter."

…

This time when I insist on taking Clara home, she doesn't protest. I think she's in more pain than she wants to let on. I can't believe she took a bullet for me. I shouldn't have let her come tonight. It was a risk, and she had gotten hurt. She was a magnet for trouble, but I also knew she was much too stubborn to stay behind.

I help her into her house and up to her bedroom. "Can you grab me a clean shirt?" she asks, motioning toward her dresser. "Middle drawer." I pull the drawer open and grab a T-shirt at random. She's moving to remove her bloody shirt but hisses with pain, cheeks going white.

"Don't stretch your wound," I tell her, sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Then how am I supposed to get out of this shirt?" she asks through gritted teeth. She's discarded her jacket, which now sports a bloody bullet hole.

"Let me help." I grasp the hem of the shirt and ease it over her head, setting it aside. She shivers as the cool air touches her skin. I help her into the clean shirt and pull a blanket over her lap. "Better?"

"I'd be better if I didn't have a bullet wound," she says, but she smiles.

"You could have died." I can die from a bullet, but not as easily as a human. What Clara did for me… I'd never had anyone make a sacrifice like that for me. It had left me terrified, but another emotion washed over me, one I couldn't put a word to. I felt it a lot when I was around Clara, stronger and stronger every day.

I take her hand, and she gives it a squeeze. "You're worth it."

"Clara, I…" I don't know what to say. I can't put what I'm feeling into words. Not yet. "Thank you." For now, that will have to do.

"Will you stay with me? I want to know you're safe until you have to go to CyberLife."

I nod. I was planning on laying low until then. I'd much rather keep Clara company, keep an eye on her so she doesn't do anything else foolhardy. "Okay."

Clara scoots over on the bed, pushing the blanket aside and making room for me. I ease next to her, careful not to jostle her side. Clara replaces the blanket and rests her head on my shoulder, placing a hand on my chest. I can feel her steady breathing and it relaxes me. I can smell fire and snow on her hair, and it reminds me of the poem we read in the library. It seems so long ago. It was the happiest day of my life, but it seems like it was in another lifetime altogether.

Clara has fallen silent, her breathing deepening. She's fast asleep, exhausted by today's events. I close my eyes and turn my head so that my chin rests against the top of her head. I wrap an arm around her, carefully avoiding the wound, and try not to think about my odds of making it out alive tomorrow.