Being Human

Caskett AU. A touch of Sci-Fi. 8 Chapters - M Rated in future chapters.

ONE

Sitting at the desk in his office, Richard Castle focused not on the display screen in front of him showing the novel he attempted to craft, but out through the door of his office to the kitchen where she stood chopping vegetables in her methodical, rhythmic way. Tonight was the night, he told himself. He would ask her just before dinner. He had to. Not knowing the truth was driving him mad—so mad he could barely concentrate on his latest work. (Well, that was the excuse he was going with at least.)

He studied her then as he had every day for the prior eight weeks—searching for a sign, a blip. She was just so damned perfect; never so much as one single hair out of place. How could a human maintain such flawlessness? He would have thought it impossible, but there was just no way she was the android she claimed to be. He knew it in his gut; she was human, but despite his best efforts he'd been unsuccessful at proving that to date.

Huffing out a breath, Castle stood from his desk and wandered casually over to the bookshelf walls dividing his office from the main living area. Nearly everyone he knew teased him greatly for his collection, but he knew they simply couldn't understand. Thousands of years ago the written word was as valuable as gold—back when books were handwritten by the few literate members of society. Of course, none of his collection came from that time. His were mass-printed works from the late 20th and early 21st centuries, but at that point, nearly fifty years after the last hardcover book was sold in a store, they were borderline relics.

Though downloading dozens of books on electronic tablets was certainly far easier than lugging around the equivalent number of paperbacks, there was something so important about touching a page and the physical act of turning it to add to the suspense of a story. Each time he picked up an older novel Castle felt himself filled with disappointment. Resources to make such objects had long since worn out, so none of his books had ever been printed, but he wished that they had.

An old soul—that's what his mother had called him for most of his life as he was far more fascinated by the past than the future. Even most of his books were set somewhere in the mid-2000's rather than present day even though that time was long before his birth. He simply couldn't help it; those days fascinated him. Even with the limitations of technology, that time had so much more than his did. Nature, resources, human experiences that everyone had shared up to that point but now were gone forever.

Castle would never know what it was like to live in a world where he passed more humans on the sidewalks than androids. He would never know a world where he could stroll barefoot through a grassy field or pick a flower off a bush. He would never know what it was like to be with a real, human woman—unless…

Unless.

Castle skimmed his hand beneath his jaw and gazed more intently at the individual in his kitchen. She had stopped chopping onions and had moved on to celery, her hands still moving in the same rhythmic motion. He knew it was crazy—positively insane. Maybe he wanted it to be true so badly that it was all inside his mind; it certainly wouldn't be the first time his overactive imagination got the better of him, but if he was right… if he was right then everything would change.

Half a century earlier and over a decade before Castle was born, the world experienced an unexplained shift. Though medical science could not provide answers even then, several decades later, the percentage of baby boys being born began to outpace that of girls. First, it was two to one, then four to one, then suddenly ten to one, and a global committee was formed to research this unprecedented anomaly. Even with the genetic advancements at the time, most infant females failed to thrive leaving humanity with a very large problem.

In Castle's generation, it was estimated that one human woman existed for every one thousand men, which was an unsustainable ratio—particularly as it was continually dropping. To combat this, the government used their advanced technology to develop android women to serve as companions, coworkers, and lovers. Specific androids were created to be retail workers, others to be accountants, and still others to reside exclusively in brothels, which had once again become booming businesses. While generic androids were reasonably affordable, fully customized ones were quite expensive.

During his formative years, Castle found himself too distracted with his studies of the past and participating in general tomfoolery with his friends to notice the distinct lack of females. Besides, the world in which the only women he interacted with were his mother and one of his teachers at school was his norm; he had no reason to think otherwise. The more he read about the past, however, the more acutely aware of how much their world lacked. He knew from those in older generations more familiar with females that the androids were extremely good replicas, they just weren't quite the same, which was why he went the first twenty-four years of his life without one.

With the wild success of his third novel, Castle moved out on his own, and purchased his first companion with no small amount of skepticism. She was a generic base model designed solely for cooking, cleaning, and a few other pre-programmed chores. The name of her model design was Mary Jane, but Castle called her MJ for short. She had pale skin, jet black hair, and the standard android glistening blue eyes. As the years wore on, Castle appreciated MJ's presence, and actually felt a little sad when her charging port malfunctioned and she needed to be replaced.

Having no desire to clean his own space, Castle quickly replaced MJ with a similar though newer model with almost identical features, but he found the new android, Beth, slightly more unnerving. Her moves were jerky and unnatural making it very difficult to believe she was a real human. As his mother downright despised Beth, she took it upon herself to procure him a new, more customized android (using his money, of course). Just a few weeks later, Beth was unceremoniously removed from his apartment and replaced with Kate, the droid his mother procured from a private online advertisement not a store. As such, Martha claimed the purchase to be an "absolute bargain, darling; you're going to love her." Begrudgingly, he had to admit that his mother was right.

Kate reminded him of MJ in that her moves worth seamless and perfect; she moved and acted like a real, human woman. She had chestnut brown hair, a dusting of freckles on her skin, and was tall with perfectly proportioned features. She had a sweet voice with a melodic laugh and, most interestingly, a much more complex personality chip than either of his previous two companions. With Kate, he could have real conversations, and ask her questions beyond the scope of the other's pre-programmed responses.

For several years they coexisted harmoniously. His only complaint about her was that because of her complex features, she needed to occasionally be returned to her manufacturers for a programming upgrade, but he knew this was not uncommon with androids that did not have the appropriate wireless network chip installed (one of the reasons she was such a "bargain" he later learned). Otherwise, he had no issues with her and would even go as far as to say he enjoyed her presence in his home.

Then, eight weeks earlier, everything had changed.

He had fallen asleep on the couch while trying to plot out the latest chapter of his novel. When he awoke he remained in the same position staring at the ceiling when he heard footsteps cross into the room. Peeking his head above the edge of the couch, he saw Kate walking while carrying a bin of laundry. The sheets from his bed, he deduced from their color. It appeared she had not put all of the cloth in the basket, because a large section of the fitted sheet drooped down towards her feet and during one step she caught the front edge of her shoe in it causing her to fall forward and land on her knees.

Initially, Castle didn't think much of this event, but as he watched her stand back up, swing the betraying hunk of sheet back into the basket, and continue on her way to the laundry room, something unusual caught his eye. When she fell forward, both her feet had come out of her shoes so he was able to see both skin-covered soles. This was unusual, because most androids had serial numbers printed on the sole of their right foot. As he was not entirely familiar with her model year, he knew it was possible her serial number was printed somewhere else, but that wasn't the only odd thing. There was just something about the way she stood up and hefted the basket. It wasn't perfect or smooth, but jerky and annoyed; human.

Castle stared at the spot where she fell for minutes after she walked away trying to determine whether he was losing his mind, but he truly did not think he was. He had seen something in her; something that didn't fit the story, and he needed to know more.

For the next several days he watched her intently, but he saw no more signs. He told himself he'd been hallucinating things, but then a week later he was sure that he heard a sneeze coming from the kitchen. As they were meant to be as close to human females as possible, androids had simulated breathing, their eyes would blink, and they would even yawn occasionally. One of the things they did not do was sneeze. Still, he couldn't be certain he'd heard a sneeze, so he returned to his vigilant watching.

For the next several weeks he went back and forth on whether or not he believed she was actually one of the best human actors in perhaps the entire world. It just seemed so improbable, but his gut—in his gut he knew he was right, so it was time to rip off the bandage. He had to know for sure.

After coaching himself for several more minutes, Castle strolled confidently towards the kitchen. He watched as Kate moved away from the stove and towards the sink, meaning she faced away from him. Perfect; that meant gazing into her bright blue, clearly-android eyes would not throw him off and he could get out exactly what he wanted to say.

"Hey Kate!" he said with a bit more enthusiasm than he normally would have, but the words exploded out of his mouth mostly as a result of his nerves. Instead of turning around to greet him as she normally did, he watched her shoulders twitch and then heard a gasp at the same time as something clearly fell into the sink and clanged against the metal. Her hand shot out and grabbed the towel hanging on the mounted under-counter hook and he realized for the first time something was amiss.

"Are you okay?"

"I cut myself," she replied.

"Oh—let me see," he said, hurrying towards her without much thought. It was not uncommon for androids to get nicks or scrapes in their synthetic skin-mimicking exterior. Most were small enough to be fixed with the patch kit they came with. If the damage was severe enough, Kate would need to go to a special repair shop to be patched, but he very much doubted that would be needed if she cut herself while washing a knife which—oh—was probably his fault for starling her.

Wait—androids couldn't be startled! At least, he didn't think they could be.

"I'm fine. You can just get some wine and have a seat; dinner will be ready soon," Kate said as he neared her, but he ignored her suggestion.

"Kate let me see, let me…" His voice drifted off when he was close enough to peer over her shoulder and see the splashes of red now dotting the previously while cloth. One thing he knew for certain: androids did not bleed, but this was certainly not the way he intended to get confirmation for his suspicions. He didn't want Kate to be injured!

"Let me-"

"No," she cut him off, her voice soft, almost a whimper. She tried to twist away from him, but he was too close. His hand grabbed onto her left forearm and twisted it so her hand was palm-up. He peeled back the towel and could see the slash across the interior of his index finger. It continued to bleed so he quickly pressed the towel back down over the spot.

"Yeah looks like you got it pretty good; let's just keep pressure on it for a few more minutes. Is this too tight?" he asked of the way his fingers pressed down on the towel. Looking up, he saw she appeared significantly paler, and wasn't sure if that was due to her injury, or the shock of her admittedly well-crafted web of lies being suddenly unraveled.

They remained in the same position for another thirty seconds before a hiss on the stove drew both their attentions. "Oh, the soup," Kate said, her voice sounding a little tearful.

"I got it, just keep holding the towel on your finger." He released his grip on her hand and took three long strides towards the stovetop. He pulled the lid off the large stock pot on a burner to see a pot of what he assumed to be some sort of vegetable soup boiling aggressively. He stirred the liquid then turned the heat down to medium. After replacing the pot lid, he looked his human companion and felt his heart shatter at how scared and small she appeared clutching the blood-covered towel in her hands. She didn't look at him, but trained her gaze on the floor, almost as though she was expecting to be scolded at any moment.

Knowing it was best to deal with her injury first before they addressed the new elephant in the room, he approached silently and peeled back the edge of the towel she held. As he could see the slice in her skin quiet clearly, he knew the blood was beginning to clot, which was good. "You should clean this up and put on some skin bond. In my bathroom there's-"

"I know where it is," she cut him off quietly. Then, she disappeared from the room, giving Castle a chance to breathe and think.

Kate was human. Kate was human—human.

Though he had expected to feel an overwhelming sense of pride that he was correct in his observations, that feeling was largely masked by shock. Kate was the first human woman he'd been in contact with in nearly two years, ever since his mother had passed. Not only that, but she was also the first human woman even remotely close to his own age that he had ever seen in his life. And she was right there! In his apartment!

Suddenly dozens of questions buzzed through his mind like: how did she have android eyes if she was human? When did she eat? When did she sleep? And how in the hell had she learned to behave like such a convincing android?!

Though he craved answers to those questions and more, he knew he could not bombard her with them all at once. They had to ease back in now that their relationship would be a fully honest one.

Before Kate returned to the kitchen Castle checked the soup one more time and peeked in the oven where a loaf of bread was beginning to brown. Just as he thought they could share a meal together for the very first time, Kate strolled back into the kitchen and went directly to the computer monitor mounted beside the refrigerator.

"Is your hand okay?"

"Yes," she replied without looking at him.

"The bread's looking good."

"I'll check it in a moment."

"What are you doing?"

"Ordering you a new android."

"Wh-what!?" he stammered out as he had never expected such a response.

She finally turned to look at him. "Don't worry; I won't leave before it arrives."

"Wha—I—hold on." He stammered out as he tried to process what was going on. "I don't want you to leave—why would you leave?!"

"I have to," she said simply.

"Why?" he demanded, but she didn't respond. Instead, she turned back to the screen and continued to tap on it. Frustrated, he walked over to her and grabbed her wrist, but before he could pull it away from the screen she jumped a foot backwards and scolded, "Don't grab me!"

"I'm sorry," he apologized quickly, taking a step away from her, "but I'm just trying to understand—why do you think you need to leave?"

"Because I do," she said, an air of stubbornness clear in her tone.

As she turned back towards the screen, he lowered his voice and said almost pleadingly, "Kate, hold on. Can we just stop for a moment and acknowledge that you are, perhaps, the greatest human android impersonator in the history of time?"

She lowered her hand to her side and spun around to face him. "When did you figure it out?"

"About eight weeks ago. You tripped and fell with the laundry basket. I saw and noticed you didn't have a serial number on either foot. Then, a while later, I thought I heard you sneeze, but I wasn't certain until I saw the blood."

She nodded. "I'm sorry for lying to you for all these years."

"Why did you?" he promoted, but she refused to answer.

Turning back to the monitor she clicked through several pages before asking him, "Would you like a more customized android like me? Or do you want to go back to the regular household model you had before?"

"Neither," he said sharply, stepping up to the screen and swiping his hand horizontally across it to delete the search history, "and stop referring to yourself as an android."

She turned to face him, clasped her hands in front of her body, and tilted her head in a very mechanical way that caused a shiver to travel down his spine. "Stop—stop that; you're human."

"Not anymore," she informed him, before walking over to the oven and peering in at the baking loaf of bread.

Castle followed her. "I don't understand, Kate. Why—why wouldn't you want to be a human? Especially when there are so few." She shot him a look over her shoulder while she pulled the bread out of the oven that indicated to him the distinct lack of female humans was probably one of the reasons why she hid as an android. "You don't think I'll turn you in, do you Kate? Because I would never."

As there were so few of them, the government kept close eyes on female humans and their lives. Specifically, whether or not they had partners and will to bear children (though there were rumors the "willingness" wasn't exactly an option). Technology had come a long way, and some babies had been born from artificial wombs, but the science still struggled; the way nature intended was still best, though it wasn't always an option.

Because of this close monitoring, he'd heard rumors of some women going off the grid and trying to hide out. He suspected Kate might be one of them, and thus now afraid that he would turn her in, but he would never; it wouldn't even cross his mind to do so.

Clearly ignoring his comment, she let the bread rest on a cooling rack and then returned to the stove to give the soup another few stirs. "Dinner should be ready in about ten minutes."

"Will you eat with me?"

"No."

He huffed out a breath, annoyed at her stubbornness. "Will you sit with me while I eat?"

"If you want."

"I want us to finish this conversation."

She stared him down. "This isn't a conversation or a discussion. I am going to leave in three days whether or not you have a new android."

"Three days!" he barked; that was outrageous. How could she give him such a timeline!? "And then what? Where will you go?"

"That's none of your concern."

"Wha—of course it's my concern!" he insisted. "It's my concern because I care about you."

She let out a derisive laugh. "Care about me? I'm a possession to you; no different than the vacuum. If it broke, you wouldn't hesitate to throw it away and get a new one."

Her statement was so unfathomable to him, Castle actually took a step back and placed his hands on either side of his head. She was comparing herself to a vacuum!? Of course he cared about her more than the vacuum! The vacuum wasn't a person! He didn't have actual conversations with the vacuum! Conversations that, now that he thought about it, were the result of a real, human brain and not computer algorithms. That changed everything.

"Kate, how can you even say that?" he responded, feeling a little bit nauseous. "Of course I care about you as a person. You've never been just a possession to me and, most importantly, you're not broken."

She gave him an unsettlingly cold stare. "I'm not functioning as intended; how else would you describe that."

"I… I don't even know what's happening right now," he replied honestly. How had the evening taken such a shocking turn?

Kate merely nodded towards the table and said, "Go. Sit."

He did as commanded as he was too dumbfounded to do otherwise, though he still felt the same level of shock two minutes later when she brought over soup and two slices of fresh bread. "Kate," he said before she could move away from the table. Meeting her eye he said, "I don't want you to go."

She shook her head gently at him and said, "I'm sorry, but you don't have a choice."

A/N: Admittedly, this AU is weird. Really weird. I was inspired to write it after watching Blade Runner 2049 - this whole scenario just kind of formulated in my head. Hopefully you guys enjoy the ride!