/ Dec. 3rd, 2039 /

PM 21:52
Downtown Detroit

Connor

"We gotta runner!" Hank shouted and started to run after the criminal, leaving the light of the streetlamps and disappearing into the black of night.

They no longer hunted deviants, their main caseload came from crimes against androids rather that those against humans- those cases were still reserved for other cops and detectives but there was a growing task force dedicated to android rights and hate crimes. The man they were chasing now, Alistair Bowman, had been kidnapping androids off the streets and killing them, throwing them in the pit that was once used for any decommissioned android. It had taken a week to track the asshole down but they finally had him until the neighbor tipped him off.

While Hank took off in pursuit, his feet slamming down on the filthy, cement of the Detroit streets, Connor paused to consider his options.

Follow Hank in pursuit of criminal - he looked to his left - Take alley and cut him off

28% chance success 72% chance success
of apprehension of apprehension

Connor turned to the left and sprinted down the alleyway as fast as he could go, effortlessly leaping over toppled pallets or garbage cans in order to reach the end of the alley and cut Bowman off at the corner of the block that he predicted the criminal would take. He turned the corner just in time to see him pass around the building and run across a crosswalk while the light was red, nearly run over by an oncoming car, which now blared its horn but Bowman was hardly bothered and kept going. Continuing the chase, Connor made snap decision to avoid oncoming crowd of disorderly, drunk pedestrians, even though it was more direct, and ran across the street to the other side to catch up to Bowman.

One thing that was better about chasing humans rather than androids was when it came to endurance Connor, being the pursuant, was faster and didn't run out of breath or tire whereas humans did. Soon, despite having the lead, Bowman slowed down and ducked into another alley. Without a second thought, Connor turned the same corner but stumbled when he was hit in the back of the head with a discarded, metal pipe.

His optical display fizzed and staticked as he fell forward onto his hands and knees, blinking rapidly while his LED whirred into a deep red.

"Piece of shit plastic! You think you're better than me?!" Bowman shouted, still huffing and puffing as he caught his breath, and kicked under Connor's stomach while he was still down. "I'll show you like I showed all those other machines; humans are at the top and you all are nothing." He pulled out a pistol and Connor looked up in time to instinctively analyze the weapon and situation.

Glock 9mm, loaded, safety off.

Connor, in the matter of seconds it took for Alistair to aim the gun at his head, went through several scenarios for how to disarm the human and take advantage of the situation. He chose the safest and most efficient option and implemented the sequence of actions: since Bowman stood to his left side beside his thighs, Connor used his left elbow to land a blow to the side of Bowman's left knee, knocking him off balance while he pivoted on his knees to face him, then he used his right hand to grab Bowman's shooting arm at the wrist and divert the direction of the barrel away from him.

The gun went off when Connor slammed his palm against the inside of Bowman's wrist, the bullet lodging into the brick wall behind him.

/

Hank

He had been right on the son of a bitch, Bowman was right there and then a group of drunk idiots spilled out from a bar to his left and into the streets as if the building itself was puking them out of the door. They came out stumbling, hollering, and laughing. One of them collided into his side and another puked into the storm drain to his right.

"DPD you morons! Get out of the fucking way!" He shouted and shoved through them but by the time he got passed them he had lost sight of their perp. "Damnit-fuck-shit!" He threw his arms in the air and took a few futile steps forward but for all he knew the guy ran straight, to the left, the right… maybe he flew straight up into the air. it didn't matter because the guy was in the wind! The drunks all walked by him again, brushing against his shoulders and spewing nonsense all over the place but Hank was too pissed to even care about them anymore, even if they were what caused him to lose Bowman anyway.

Once they were out of sight, he ran his fingers through his short hair, parted to one side, from brow to the back of his head, when he got to the nape of his neck he pulled his hands forward to follow along his jawline and brushed against his neat, trimmed beard. His cleaner appearance, which went along with his more formal slacks and button-up shirt, was all due to Connor making the suggestion and because he had moved in and started cleaning everything else up to go along with it. "Well, shit, Kid, we-" Then he turned and realized Connor wasn't with him and he blanched, his eyes going wide. "Connor? Connor!"

He did a 360 degree pivot and found he was alone on the sidewalk until he looked to the intersection again and saw Connor running full sprint down the other side of the road, heading to Hank's right. He followed along with his eyes, his mouth dropping open to yell at him but then he looked further up and saw Bowman disappearing around a corner. "Ah, fuck!" Hank started to run in that direction as well, holding up his hand in a stopping motion at a car coming towards him, flashing their headlights. "Yeah, yeah, official cop business!" He excused and kept going.

Nearly caught up with Connor where he had turned the corner, Hank heard a gunshot ring out from the alley and his blood ran cold with fear that Connor had been shot and he stumbled for a moment only to start running faster, his own weapon drawn and ready to fire. As he finally turned the corner, he saw the two of them still struggling against the other- slamming their bodies against the brick wall and into the dumpsters, grunting and huffing.

"Connor!" He called in warning and held his gun up to take the shot at Bowman but Connor was too caught up in the fight to pull away without getting hurt and Hank wasn't prepared to risk hitting his partner by firing into their brawl. Connor was a superior fighter but Hank kept his gun raised just in case he gave him the space to do it as he shouted, "Bowman! Drop the weapon!"

Another shot rang out and Hank flinched, blinking once in surprise as the sound echoed off the steel dumpsters and the brick walls they stood between. His body went cold and hot at the same time as pain erupted through his chest, his whole body locked up in shock. The dread that weighed in his stomach made it feel like he had been shot but, honestly, he wished he had been. Instead, he stood there like a statue as he watched Connor's legs collapse underneath him, blue blood spraying from his chest and staining the front of Bowman's clothes and up his neck. A scream tore through the alleyway in a response to the gunshot like thunder reacts to lightning and before Hank realized it was his voice screaming, "no", he had pulled the trigger on his own pistol and shot Bowman in the side of his temple, the man had still be staring down at Connor like he was surprised he had won.

Holstering his weapon, Hank ran up to the two bodies that took up the width of the alleyway and kicked the glock out of Bowman's hand just to be safe. Blue and red blood mixed on the blacktop but he only cared about where the blue was coming from. Connor had landed on his back, his body crumpled like a puppet with its strings cut, his eyes wide open and staring up at the sky between the two buildings on either side of them. As Hank crouched beside him, Connor turned his head ever so slightly to his left so Hank could just barely see the red of his LED as it blinked on and off. "H-Hank…?"

"Ssh, Connor, just hold on." He hushed and pulled apart Connor's blue stained, white shirt at the buttons, exposing his chest, some of them flying off and bouncing across the pavement. The wound was just right of where his pump regulator was located. "... fuck."

"Hank, I- I've been shot."

"Yeah, no shit, Sherlock," Hank snapped but not out of anger towards Connor. He lifted his hands to cup Connor's cheek, keeping it from touching the street and to get him to look at him. "Connor… Kid, tell me how to fix ya. How do I save you?"

"C- Can't…" Connor managed, his lips twitching into a frown, his brown eyes gazing at Hank with fear and sorrow. "No parts."

"No, parts? What are you talking about?" Hank asked frantically, shaking Connor desperately when the android started to shut his eyes. "No! Stay awake, Connor! C'mon! What do you mean 'no parts'?"

"Pro- proto-"

Hank furrowed his brow, his eyes darting back and forth rapidly as he tried to piece together what Connor was trying to communicate. Thinking clearly passed all the blue staining his hands and clothes was harder than Hank ever thought would be possible. "Prototype?" He guessed.

Connor nodded just barely, his eyelids fluttering.

"No, no, no- hey!" He shifted his position so that he was tucked closer to Connor, his knees pressing against his arm briefly until he was able to pull his partner into his lap, one arm under Connor's shoulders to support his neck and head against his bicep while his other hand instinctively pressed against his chest as if that would staunch the bleeding. "Stay with me, Kid, c'mon! You're saying because you're a prototype they don't have extra parts for you?" Connor nodded. "What about that 900 model at Cyberlife Headquart- oh. Oh no…"

After the revolution, despite Markus's requests for there not to be a cease in producing more androids, until deliberations in the Supreme Court concerning Android Rights could be finalized there had been a hold on all Cyberlife manufacturing. To keep androids from rioting, however, Cyberlife continued to keep their stores open in order to provide and distribute extra parts and Thirium for any damages. So, although there were still parts available, Connor was still one of a kind after they had killed the one replacement that Cyberlife had produced. No other android shared his pump regulator.

"'m sorry, Ha- Hank…" Connor said softly, bringing him out of his abstraction.

When he looked back down at Connor to tell him to stop apologizing, he found that Connor had closed his eyes, the kid's face leaning heavily against Hank's chest. "Connor, hey! Don't you die on me. We gotta figure this out. I'm not letting you die, Connor, you hear me? Connor!" He shouted, his voice cracking on his last attempt to rouse his partner as he shook him violently until he opened his eyes again.

"There's n-nothing you can d-do…"

"Bullshit! Do me a favor, Son, and quit trying to die on me while I'm trying to save you, okay?! Now, just hold on and lemme think!" He thought for all of two seconds before he laid Connor back down on the ground and stripped his own white shirt, now stained with Connor's blood, off so he was only dressed in his white t-shirt, also stained blue, and pressed it against the wound, packing it in.

"Won't *help 'nything* … reg- ulator…" Connor tried to explain, his words going in and out between sounding normal and dropping three octaves in a grating, mechanical failure kind of way.

"Ssh, I need you to save your energy." Hank insisted in a calm voice, his expression as soft as it was fearful while he looked down at Connor. With one hand holding his cellphone to his ear, he pressed his other hand, his palm, against Connor's forehead in an intimate gesture that mimicked one checking for a fever which seemed to calm the kid because he managed a small smile and closed his eyes.

"Not dying… sh- shu- shutting *down*… like *sleeping*… humans…" Connor informed, barely able to keep his eyes open the small sliver that they were so Hank could barely see the dark brown anymore.

Hank wanted to scream, wanted to beg Connor to stay awake, but the less energy the android exerted the more likely he had a chance to survive this. "That's alright, Connor. I got you. You'll be okay." Damn the infuriating ringing on the other end of the line. "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon… pick up, damn-it!"

"H- *Ha*- Hank, if… if I *don't*…"

He shook his head and stroked the hair away from Connor's forehead and offered the best smile he could, still cursing the fact that no one was picking up the phone, he kept trying to reassure him, "This ain't goodbye, Son. You'll see me again, okay?"

"O-kay… *Dad*…"

Hank's chest hiccupped at Connor's last words and when the voice finally came from the other side he shouted, "Fucking finally you asshole!"

"Hank? The hell's your problem?!"

"You owe me a favor, Glenn. I'm cashing it in," he said sharply, his gaze never looking away from Connor's face, his eyes following the lines of Thirium that had spatted up his neck and freckled his face with blue. "Now."

After he got off the phone, Hank found that carrying Connor back to his car was harder than it looked, the kid looked like he weighed a buck seventy at the most but all those biocompents and alloy body added up and despite what Hank had in mind, he ended up having to do a fireman's carry to get his partner back. He laid him out gently into the back seat then fell into the driver's seat and tore out of the parking lot like a drag racer, the siren blaring and red and blue lights flashing through the dark city streets. He pulled up to the back of an old house on the outskirts of the bad side of town and honked his horn twice. A lanky man, Glenn Kwon, with salt and peppered hair and a regal-like posture, back straight, shoulders back, and chin lifted, came out with his hands on his hips. "Hank Anderson, this is not-"

"Can it, Glenn, we're short on time," Hank shouted as he slammed his door shut and opened the back drivers side door hurriedly. He crawled halfway inside and leaned over Connor for a moment, trying to swallow passed the lump in his throat at seeing Connor's expression so blank for the first time in over a year.

Ever since the revolution, a year ago, Connor had been much more expressive, always smirking or giving Hank a look that just spelled mischief or understanding. His eyes would get big and he would smile whenever Sumo would climb on him and lick all over his face and his mouth would drop open just a little bit when they watched movies back from the early 2000's. The kid was becoming human more and more each day and now he was just lying there, barely clinging to life. His LED flashing red was the only indicator Hank had to go on that his partner was still holding on, still fighting to live. "Okay, Kid…" he whispered around his heart in his throat. "Let's get you right."

With a solitary grunt of effort, Hank got him sitting up in the seat and then lifted him over one shoulder so that Connor's head hung in line with the center of his back. At seeing the condition of the android Hank was bringing to him, Glenn's mouth snapped shut and he seemed to accept what the favor was about and opened the door for him to walk through. "In the back, there's a table, set him there."

The house, despite being on a rather vagrant side of town, was very clean and organized on the inside. One would never guess by the shabby siding and boarded up windows that inside looked like a normal home with polished hardwood flooring and neutral painted walls. Though, if Hank had time to care or speculate, he would assume that was the whole point of keeping the outside nasty, to live under the radar with cheap rent. He passed through a white curtain and found a sterile room in the back. It was spotless with white walls and stainless steel countertops and table in the center of it all like a kitchen island, monitors sat idle to the side and there was a decommissioned android in the corner without its skin or anything, dressed in only a hospital gown as it stood idle with no light on.

"Before you get any bad ideas I didn't hurt him… he was killed by Cyberlife. I tried to rescue him after he was scheduled to be deactivated but I didn't get there in time. When I left, I snuck him out with me… I've been trying to- " Glenn explained as he watched Hank gently lay Connor on the table, careful of his head.

"That sounds like a great fucking story for another time, Glenn, I literally can't afford to care right now. Just save him." He said and pointed at Connor, his eyes wide.

Glenn snapped on some latex gloves, to prevent staining his skin blue, and walked up to the table, prodding at the gaping hole in Connor's chest. "He was shot?" Hank nodded. "How long ago?"

"Not even five minutes before I called you."

"His pump regulator is damaged, soon his heart will stop beating-"

Hank grabbed the front of Glenn's shirt and shook him angrily twice, his eyes hard and wild as he snarled at the other man. "You're not listening. I'm telling you to save him."

A moment passed and Glenn still didn't respond, fixing Hank with a steady, unbothered stare until he was finally released with a huff. He straightened out his shirt and held his head higher. "Listen to me, Lieutenant, there is no replacement part for him. What I can do is try to fix it but in order to do that I have to remove his regulator completely."

"That'll kill him even faster!" Hank protested, his eyes widening and one hand instinctively reaching to grip Connor's shoulder protectively.

"Not if we hook him up to some batteries and wires…" Glenn responded, ever calm. He lifted an eyebrow and moved away from the table to get a rolling drawer set that rattled the whole way over with the tools and other such utensils inside. "It'll be like life support and we'll have to closely monitor him. I'll need your help, I can't do it fast enough by myself, we'll only have about two minutes before he dies."

Hank snapped his eyes up to glare at Glenn again, not liking the way he phrased that. However, now was not the time to argue or get in a fight. Connor's LED light was blinking slower and slower and Hank feared the moment that it blinked off and stayed that way. He swallowed thickly and nodded. "Okay, just tell me what I need to do."

"I'm going to prep the wiring and we're going to plug him into a car battery but after I pull out his regulator we can't just use the clamps on his inner circuits, we could fry him completely… we need to manually wrap the wiring around the casings inside his chest." Glenn explained with a grim expression, squinting as he waited for Hank's response.

He rubbed both hands down the front of his face heavily, dread pooling in his stomach like lava and his head buzzing with anxiety and fear. "You're- you're sure it will work?" he asked hopelessly, barely looking at Glenn from under heavy eyebrows, his fingers twitching at his side.

"No." Glenn replied honestly. "But it's his only shot."

"Fine."

Glenn nodded and pointed to a door on the other end of the room, adjacent to the one they had come through. "Battery is in there, I'll get everything else ready." He instructed and Hank gazed at Connor for a long time, covering the androids forehead with his palm briefly before retreating to the garage to find the car battery that may or may not save his life.

O.o.O.o

/ Dec. 4th, 2039 /

AM 04:17

Model: RK800

Serial Number: #687 899 150
- rA9 - rA9 - rA9 - ... active

Reboot…

Checking Memory…

Loading OS…

System Initialization…
Checking Biocomponents… defective

Initializing Biosensors… ok

Initializing AI Engine… ok

Low Power Mode

"Hank…" Connor called out instinctively, his LED blue, even though he had yet to open his eyes to see where he was. The last thing he remembered was…

As he thought hard about it, his LED flickering to an unsteady yellow, he scrunched up his nose and furrowed his brow in concentration; it was like putting together slices of a video that was broken up and seperated into a modge podge of images. Finally he got it all together and he remembered Hank trying to help but the man didn't pay attention and the gun went off. So, how was he alive?

Connor opened his eyes but instead of clear, intelligent, brown eyes they were white/ blue from corner to corner. Still, he tried to look around but could see nothing. The distinctive smell of Thirium was all he could tell about where he was and from what he could deduce, it was likely his blood that filled the air. Unable to see, apparently still bleeding, with no sign of Hank in his immediate vicinity, Connor began to panic his stress levels rising from 55% to 82% in a matter of seconds. He thrashed his head back and forth as he tried to lift himself into a sitting position, wanting to find Hank, needing to know he was safe. How had they gotten here? What was happening? Was his partner even still alive? The last thing he remembered was getting shot but he had no way of knowing what followed after. "Hank?!"

The sound of fabric shifting came from his right and he lifted his head just enough off the table so he could hear properly with both ears, blinking rapidly like that would help his vision to return. "Who's there, what have you done with my partner?"

"Oh, thank fuck!" Hank's voice exclaimed and was beside Connor so quickly it made him dizzy.

"Hank…" Connor breathed, relieved as he closed his eyes to fully embrace the positive emotion and the rush it gave him, his stress levels immediately dropping to under 50%.

The older detective was cradling his face now, one hand supporting Connor's head, keeping it lifted off the table for the time being, while the other cupped his cheek. "Hey, easy, Son, easy… you're alright, you're safe, I gotcha..." he hushed when Connor flinched and his whole body jerked in an attempt to sit up.

"Hank… what? Where...?" His LED was still flashing red, fear swelling in his chest and buzzing in his head like a bee.

"Whoa, whoa… you gotta calm down, Connor. The doc said you can't exert too much energy you'll blow the battery." Hank said and motioned to the battery that he couldn't see; Connor's chest exposed, a hole where his regulator was supposed to be and wires sticking out everywhere like some sort of robotic frankenstein project. "Shit, Connor… what's wrong with your eyes?"

"I assume it's due to lower power, my energy is being channeled to more important things, like my heart and brain functions… vision is not a requirement to keep me alive." He explained and deduced that he was plugged into some sort of battery rather than his usual regulator since his sensors weren't picking up the existence of his biocomponent. It must have been truly damaged. With no way to know how long he had been hooked up to it, he didn't know how much longer he had before the battery ran out of power and very possibly took him with it. Instead of griping about his own mortality, even though the question was begging to be asked, Connor turned his attention to Hank and looked him up and down with a long, blind gaze, futilely trying to see if Hank was at all injured in any way.

"Are you alright? Did he hurt you?"

Hank's expression softened briefly before he slipped on a mask of annoyance. "You're hooked up to a damn car battery and the second thing you're worried about is how I'm doing?"

He would not be deterred. Connor fixed Hank with the strongest glare he could muster while blind and half naked on a table in a strange place with a gaping wound in his chest. "Hank. Are you wounded?"

Clenching his jaw, the detective shook his head and lowered his gaze, when he spoke his voice was strained and his lower lip quivered despite his best efforts. "No, you crazy sonofabitch, I'm not hurt. I'm fine."

Connor dropped his head back down onto the table, Hank letting him but guided it the whole way so it would rest softly on the metal, and sighed his relief. "Good. That's good.

/

Glenn

The android in the other room had called for Hank and the old man practically fell over his own feet, leaving Glenn's side in his workshop like a man with a fire under his ass to go to him. Glenn sighed and rolled his eyes as he fixed the light Hank had bumped in his haste and finished with what he was currently trying to correct on the regulator with tweezers and a giant magnifying glass. He was all for Android Rights and seeing them as alive because from the work he had been doing for the last decade he had certainly found that to be true, it was why he was fired from Cyberlife years before the revolution, his suggestion to treat them less like computers and more like people was not well received and he was escorted out of the building when he went to the board for the 8th time in one week- if he was being honest it was likely the strongly worded message he left Kamski that lost him his job.

So, though he understood why it was important to try and save the life of this particular android that didn't mean he had to be overly enthusiastic about Hank's harsh words and uptight attitude. Once he finished straighting out one of the parts in the regulator, he jotted down some notes on his clipboard, he kept paper because Cyberlife monitored everything he did electronically, and left his workshop to rejoin the other two in the operating room. Before he could start talking to them about what he knew so far, he saw the intimate moment between the two detectives; Hank was still covered in blue, his once neat hair was now disheveled from running his fingers through it so many times and though it had only been eight hours since Connor was brought to him, the older man already had dark circles under his eyes. Still, despite the obvious exhaustion, Hank was gentle and kind with Connor, careful with how he let the boy drop his head back to the table.

Hank brushed a stray lock of hair off of Connor's forehead and Glenn cleared his throat, not wanting to have to interrupt something by waiting too long to interject himself into the situation. He was holding a clipboard in one hand, a pen in the other as he pretended to still be engrossed in his work, so as not to let on he had seen Hank in such a vulnerable moment, and had his reading glasses sitting low on the bridge of his nose. Not one to make small talk or beat around the bush, he got straight to the point, "Connor, you're basically in a standby mode, that's why you can't move much else other than your head and, as I'm sure you're already aware, why you cannot see. You're regulator was nearly overloaded, you're lucky we removed it before you self-destructed."

"Who are you?" Connor asked and turned his head towards the voice. He felt Hank's hands fall away from his head and face and immediately missed the contact, his only tether in a dark world, but it was quickly remedied when he felt a warm pressure on his right shoulder, a reminder that he wasn't alone.

"His name's Glenn, a guy who owes me a favor, and he's doing what he can to fix your regulator Until then you're on android life support," Hank replied for him, his gaze flicking nervously to the battery that was more than likely half used by now. "How do you feel?"

Connor furrowed his brow, the corners of his lips twitching with conflicting emotions of relief and fear. "I- weak. I feel weak…" he whispered, looking in Hank's direction, blinking a few times. Even for Glenn it was difficult to look into the androids eyes, seeing nothing but a faint light and nothing more, he couldn't imagine how Hank was feeling, already so attached to him. "I don't like it. I… can't even lift my arms." After a moment, Connor turned his head upwards and closed his eyes as he asked, "can you fix it, my regulator?"

That was the million dollar question and it had Hank looking up at him with such a look of desperation that Glenn had to clear his throat and look away briefly. "Yes, Connor, I believe I can. The problem is time." He admitted bluntly. "The damage was extensive and I'm having to cut away much of your regulator and replace it with parts from a PL700 model, the closest you'll get to a match. That's going to take a longer amount of time than the car battery will give you."

"Then we'll take the battery out of my car for all it matters." Hank snapped. "Why can't you just use all of a PL700, what's the big deal?"

"Putting in a different model regulator into an android would be like putting gasoline into a diesel engine. He would burn out within hours." He explained.

"Well, I-" Hank started but Connor interrupted.

"It's okay, Hank…" He reassured calmly before asking Glenn, "how much time is needed to fix the damage?"

Glenn put down the clipboard, the softwood clattering against the stainless steel, before pulling off his glasses and folding them slowly while sighing slowly through his nose. "At least another day… maybe two. Now, I- "

"He's already been under for eight-!"

"Hank," Connor implored, his voice getting deeper. The sound of Connor's voice or maybe the inflection in his tone that implied his fear, was enough to get Hank to snap his mouth shut and finish listening to what Glenn had to say.

After a moment of Glenn and Hank having a staring contest, Hank grit his teeth and waved his hand in a circle for the doctor to 'get on with it'. "I have a friend," he finally continued, "who owes me a favor. I can call her in and then we'll have round the clock effort on this thing. The biggest problem we're going to run into is having enough power to keep him going for those two days."

"Whoa, you said maybe two days and now that's the goal?" Hank argued again, stepping away from Connor, removing his hand, in order to confront Glenn chest to chest. "We're on the damn clock here, I need your best not what's convenient for you."

"I am doing my best, Hank!" He retorted and waggled his folded glasses in Hank's face like a teacher shaking a ruler at a student.

"I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation!"

"And I don't think you understand what you're asking for here!" Glenn shouted just as loudly and when Hank went to protest or maybe brandish the fact he owed him in his face again, he barrelled on with just a raise of his left hand to halt all objections. "I am more than happy to help your friend, I want him to live just as much as you do. But he is the only one of his kind and his biocomponents are more unique than I ever saw when I worked at Cyberlife. They put a lot of time and money into building him and making him the best there could be. Hank, he's superior in every way and that means that no other model's components will do. I have to rebuild his regulator piece by piece.

I don't like to toot my own damn horn here, but no one else could fix him in two days let alone one. Anyone else would take a week, so consider yourself fortunate that it's me who's indebted to you and not some MIT drop out. I'm gonna save him but you gotta be patient and you have to buy us both," he indicated between himself and Connor, "some time, okay?"

Hank was clenching his jaw so tightly that Glenn thought for a moment that the muscle in his cheek might actually snap. However, instead of a hellstorm of angry words, cussing, and a booming voice that made his surgery tools rattle; Hank just nodded once, pivoted on his heel, and stomped out of the room which left Connor to shift uncomfortably and his LED go from yellow to red. "Hank…? Where- Doctor, where is he going?"

"I don't know, I'll be right back. Try to calm down, we don't want you burning out, alright?"

Connor nodded his head against the table and blinked rapidly but when Glenn gave him one last glance, as he left to chase after Hank, he swore he saw a single tear slip form the corner of Connor's eye and down the side of his face. He bit his lip and then shoved the curtain to one side to go to the front of the house.

He barely got three steps across the hardwood floor of the main house when he saw, through the window, what Hank was doing; the detective had already popped the hood of his car and was pulling out the car battery. Glenn stepped out onto the porch, holding the screen door open with his hip and shoved his hands into his pockets while he watched Hank pound on the insides of the car in all his anger and frustration. The battery was already out but now the detective was just venting. "Hank, you wanna drink?"

Before he answered, Hank grabbed the battery and slammed the hood closed, the metal quaking with the vibration. As he walked up to the porch, taking long strides, Glenn noticed - and not for the first time - how different he was since he saw him last. The man wore clean clothes, aside from the blood, with a haircut befitting a lieutenant of his stature in the DPD,and a well groomed beard. He looked every bit of the man Glenn knew before Cole died and much less of the one after. Something had changed and he was willing to bet it was the android in the other room.

"No." Hank grumbled and Glenn had to blink from having been staring for so long. "As much as I'd fucking love to. I gotta be there for the kid, clear minded and everything." He pushed passed Glenn to get back into the house but stopped short of going into the back, the battery clutched tightly in his trembling hand. "I can't lose another son, Glenn. I will not survive it, you hear me?"

"You won't… lose him, I mean." He assured with as much confidence in his voice that he could muster. The least he could do was give the man some hope.

Hank pushed his fingers through his hair and shook his head. "When I met him, I thought he was the biggest pain in the ass. We worked together a week and a half and the kid… became the best partner I ever had. In less than half a year of knowing him and I swore that if anything happened to him I would kill everyone and then myself. Now it's happened and he- and I- the best I can do is pull a battery out of a goddamn car." He slammed said battery down on the kitchen counter as forcefully as he could.

"You know…" Glenn started softly and rolled his lower lip between his teeth, "his stress levels are through the roof, he's scared. What you can do… just make him feel better."

Still breathing hard, glaring at the battery, Hank seemed to consider this and eventually nodded a single time and left, without another word or glance to him, to go back to Connor.

/

Hank

Seeing Connor lying there, completely still with blank eyes that couldn't look back at him, Hank felt the sight of him like knives to his chest. It reminded him so much of when the doctors finally led him into Cole's hospital room and he could barely walk into the room because seeing his son like that would make the nightmare real, would mean he was really gone. Now, here he was again with an almost identical image of a boy he loved lying still as the dead and he was helpless to do anything for him, to take away the pain or make him all better again. He knew that standing there would do nothing for either of them so, swallowing past the lump in his throat, he got ready to walk up to Connor but while his shoulders led the rest of his body forward, his feet stuck to the floor and instead he just stared. It was like the air was sucked out of the room at the very notion of this being the last time he talked to the kid.

"Hank?" Connor greeted with hope in his voice and turned his head in the direction he heard the footsteps.

"Ah," he huffed a breath through his nose and jolted into motion. "Yeah, Kid, I'm here." He assured and walked up to him, pulling up a stool, scraping it across the tile, to sit on at his side. "You alright?"

"Of course." Connor lied. "What happened to Bowman?"

He huffed a bitter laugh. "Sonofabitch is dead as a doornail. Called it in and Reed was meeting the coroner to pick 'im up as we were leaving."

With this new information, Connor's LED processed yellow before switching to blue as he fell silent and still again. He was frozen for so long that Hank started to get nervous and began reaching to touch his arm to test for a reaction but suddenly Connor spoke, making him jump a little in surprise. "I've been thinking…"

Hank braced for impact, for the mortality talk or for Connor to try to say goodbye and he couldn't handle it. He opened his mouth to interject but then he was surprised by what Connor actually had to say.

"We've been gone for eleven hours, 41 minutes, and 26 seconds… Sumo needs to be fed and let outside. You should go."

It was true and the realization that he hadn't even thought about that made him flinch and stare at Connor in a mix of surprise and shock. Still, as true as the statement was, as important as it was to get back home and take care of his beloved dog, his partner was lying in front of him, dying. "Wha- no, Connor, I'm not going to leave you, not now. I'll call Fowler and ask him a favor before I leave you ." He objected, gripping Connor's arm firmly.

Connor opened his eyes and Hank had to grit his teeth to keep from having another outburst, hating to see him like this. "Hank, you have to. I'm fine here, you said yourself that this is a safe place. Sumo needs you."

"What, and you don't?" He asked, narrowing his eyes skeptically.

There was a long pause, Connor opening and closing his mouth a few times before closing his eyes and turning his head away from Hank so he couldn't see his face anymore. "No." He finally said but his voice was strange, lower, hesitant. "I'm deviant but I'm still a machine… Sumo is alive. He's more important."

"Oh, Connor, stop it!" Hank said harshly and stood up so he could lean over Connor's body, place his hand under his jaw, and turn his head to face him again, keeping his palm pressed into the kid's neck. "Stop pretending that you're anything less than alive. You have your own thoughts, you feel, I know you do. Why do you keep denying yourself that?" Connor's forehead wrinkled with distress, the corners of his lips pulled down dramatically, and Hank could see just under his eyes were now wet. "I'm going to take care of Sumo but I need you to know that I am coming right back, Son, because you are just as important. You are very important, you hear me?"

"Okay, Hank, I hear you." He whispered. His LED flickered like a dying lightbulb about to go out and Hank stiffened.

Moving his hand from Connor's neck to the side of his head, he looked down at Connor worriedly, his gaze flicking back and forth rapidly, searching for other signs that something was wrong. "Hey, whoa… are you okay?" When Connor only shuddered under his touch, Hank called for Glenn. "Somethin's wrong!"

Glenn came in with a handheld scanner of sorts that looked like an old fashioned palm pilot and hovered over the entire length of Connor's body with a steady hand. "He's exerted-"

Suddenly, Connor jolted and his eyes snapped open to reveal clear, brown eyes and his right hand shot out and grabbed at Hank's wrist firmly. "Hank," he said, his eyes studying the older detective's face with intense focus. "I want you to know, I need you to know, that meeting you… working with you… was the best thing that ever happened to me. No matter what happens… it was all worth it to know you."

Before Connor could finish his desperate plea for Hank to hear and understand what he was saying, Hank hand repositioned them so that he was cradling the back of Connor's head in the crook of his left elbow and twisted his wrist out of his grasp only so he could link their thumbs around each others, palms pressed together and fingers curling around the backs of their hands. He met Connor's gaze with just as much intense love and care and when the kid was done talking, he shook his head slightly. "Hey, hey… don't talk like this is the last time-" he started but one brief glance at Glenn's worried expression and he got the idea that this very well could be their goodbye. Letting out a short keening sound, he leaned his chest closer to the table, Connor, and hovered his face over the android's. "Okay… alright…" he whispered and swallowed the lump in his throat which only made it bigger and harder to breathe. "You listen to me, Son, I feel the same way. You're the best partner I've ever had and the closest thing to family I got since Cole. Even though you won't admit it, I know you're scared, but you better hear me when I tell you to hold on. Connor, I need you to hold on until we can get you right again. If you die on me, Connor… I don't know what I'm gonna do without you, okay? So, do me a solid and- and- you just hold the fuck on, got it?"

Connor's expression softened and he offered Hank one of his cocky, know-it-all smiles as he leaned his cheek heavier on Hank's bicep. "Yes, I got it." He said softly and blinked slowly.

"Hank." Glenn tried to interrupt, likely to warn him that Connor was expending far too much energy like this but neither detective paid attention.

"I lied earlier…" Connor continued and looked up at Hank with a worn, worried expression; his eyebrows pinched together and lower lip quivering ever so slightly. "I do need you... Prom- promise me you'll come back?"

"Yeah, Connor, 'course I'm coming back." He nodded adamantly and squeezed his hand tighter around his partner's. With just a simple, helpless request from Connor, Hank almost decided not to go at all but honestly he couldn't neglect his oldest friend by not coming home and more than that, maybe if he got out of the house for a second he could come up with a better solution that none of them were thinking about because they were too close.

"I- I don't want to die…"

The words choked the air out of Hank's lungs and struck him like a instant migraine. He nodded instead of speaking because he couldn't trust his voice to be as strong as Connor needed him to be right now. Eventually, in what felt like minutes rather than the actual twenty seconds it took to gather his wits about him, he offered a smile and released his hand in favor of cupping his cheek and thumbing away the single tear that escaped Connor's eye. "Ssh, you're not going to but I need you to go back to sleep now. Okay? You gotta save your energy, Kid, and the best way is for you to sleep through all this. But I'll be here when you wake up, okay? You won't even know I'm gone… trust me."

Connor nodded minutely, his eyes fluttering shut and soon he was shut down again, hibernating. It was all Hank had in him to shove away the fearful thoughts that that would be the last time he spoke with Connor or saw his bright, brown eyes looking back at him. He had to be positive, he had to have hope that this wasn't the end.

"Hank," Glenn started, "he used up almost the last half of this battery."

"Don't you fucking blame him for what just happened. You said it yourself, the kid's scared."

"I know! I'm not victim blaming here, Hank, I'm saying that we're going to need another source of power and soon."

"You have my car battery, I'll take the bus or call a cab." He said with a dismissive wave of his hand as he gently maneuvered his arm out from under Connor's neck. "While he uses that up, charge the first one and repeat. When I get back I'll bring another battery or something. In the meantime, call that girlfriend of yours and get a move on."

"She's not my-" he tried to correct but Hank was already out the door.

/

A cab arrived within minutes and after giving the driver his address, the man put on the radio. A DJ started the next song but as the opening chords began to play, he started a monologue about the artist and where he came from. This artist has risen from the streets to bring you this original song. Steve Wallis was playing guitar on his own for $1 in the heart of Detroit after he lost his job to androids. When the Revolution began, however, Wallis put his sign away and joined those humans who supported the androids cause and soon became an advocate for them. Over the last year, with the help of his android partner, Wallis is now sitting at the top of the charts with the song he's been playing from the beginning, 'Motown Rain'. Here it is now...

The song finally drowned out the DJ's voice as the artist began to sing and it all resonated with Hank deeply; the drag of waking up in the morning, the hopeless wonder of how to get through, and, as he looked up at the approaching dawn on the horizon, he thought about how the day had been all blue skies the day before with Connor at his side but now he could only hope that it would rain and pour to match the feeling in his soul. He hoped that the theme of the song, missing someone so despairingly would not happen to him again, not like this, and certainly not Connor. Not after all they've been through.

Closing his eyes, the gentle acoustic music and calming voice still playing, Hank avoided watching the city speed by as they raced to his home, missing the first few drops of rain that hit the windshield. He was too wrapped up in his plans for getting Connor a new heart before it was too late...