Disclaimer: I don't own Almost Human or any of its characters.
A/N: All typos and mistakes belong to me. I'd love to hear your thoughts or comments on this story! Merry Christmas!
It was the end of a long, hard, but good, day. They had managed to close a home burglary case, catch the perpetrator, and recover most of the victim's stolen assets. The icing on the cake for Dorian were the happy hugs that they received when the told the victim the good news, who happened to be a 70 year old widow. She was in tears with happiness. Among the many things that were recovered were many priceless antique items belonging to her late husband.
"You boys are angels. Thank you so much for bringing these back to me." Despite being almost a full foot shorter than both himself and John, she still managed to inch up on her tiptoes and planted a soft kiss on each of their cheeks. Dorian stole a quick glance at John and was amused that the other detective looked like he was about to spontaneously explode, his face being a remarkable shade of scarlet.
"Just doing our jobs, ma'am," Dorian responded smoothly, "Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays."
She was glowing. "Yes, Merry Christmas indeed. Oh, this is such a wonderful miracle!"
"Have a great holiday," John added at last, seeming to have recovered somewhat. He gave Dorian a small tilt of his head in the direction of their cruiser. With another quick squeeze goodbye of the widow's hands, John turned around and headed down the front porch steps. Dorian followed him.
"Well, I am glad that all worked out very nicely," said Dorian as they were back on the road. He peered out the passenger side window at the evening street scene. The quiet streets were lined with a million bright little holiday lights, flashing merrily away in their festive colors. There was an electrifying and joyous atmosphere in the air that Dorian found to be infectious and sobering all at the same time, especially after a long day like this.
A familiar sense of dread crept into Dorian's consciousness as they left the subdivisions behind and started to head back downtown, back toward the precinct, where the stony silence of MX's await him.
"It's Christmas Eve, John," Dorian said, trying to break the frigid silence.
"Hn." A grunt of acknowledgement.
"Yeah," Dorian echoed, suddenly feeling like he would have better luck talking to the vehicle they were riding in. "You have the day off tomorrow. Do you have plans?"
"Hn."
"You know, normal people things, like visiting people you care about and dinner with family and friends." Dorian was having trouble keeping the exasperated sarcasm out of his voice.
"I'm on call," John responded simply, keeping his eyes firmly fixed on the road in front of him.
"Right, " Dorian whispered to himself. He gazed out his window again, watching the holiday themed building lights flash past him. Maybe the silence was better than the hollow responses he was getting out of John tonight. But then again, he had a whole lot of silence to look forward for the next 36 hours. "Yes, Merry Christmas to me," he thought sourly, the blissful feeling from just moments earlier quickly evaporating.
"Do, you, ahem," John started hesitantly out of the blue after another mile or so of silence.
Dorian waited.
"Remember anything about Christmas or the Holidays?" John glanced curiously in Dorian's direction, "I mean, from before. Before we were partners?"
Dorian kept his tone nonchalant even though he hated the irony of what he was about to admit, "Not really. A lot of my memory files were scrubbed right before I was decommissioned. Rudy restored a lot of my procedural memories, my old case files, personnel information and what not. But stuff that were specific to my personal experiences, the qualitative stuff? No. I'm sure they have all of my memory files backed up somewhere on a server farm, but I am not allowed access to them."
"So you can't just, you know," John suggested slowly, "hack the servers?"
Dorian smiled. He had give John brownie points for trying. "Not remotely. What are you trying to suggest, anyway?"
"I don't know. Sometimes breaking the law is good for you." The smirk on John's face was impossible to hide.
"Perhaps, but I do like to keep my current job in the department, even if that means I have to put up with you and your prickly hedgehog attitude."
John shot Dorian a glare that would have made anyone else worried. Dorian just responded with a smug grin of his own.
"So," John ventured again after another moment of more companionable silence, "Your old partner? Anything?"
Dorian peered at John curiously, "What are you trying to get at, John? Why the sudden curiosity?"
"It's Christmas. Miracles happen." John shrugged. "Humor me."
"I know her name. I know she is no longer part of Delta Division, but is still working for the LAPD," Dorian replied flatly. He paused for a moment before continuing, gazing calmly out the passenger window, "But it's like reading a name off the directory listing. How did I feel about working with her? Was she punctual? Did she like her coffee at 160 degrees, or did she even like coffee-I don't know."
John didn't respond as they lapsed into another stretch of strained silence.
"Hey, John?" Dorian asked finally.
"Hn?"
"Where are we going? The precinct was three exits back."
"Is that so?" John didn't seem concerned at all, despite his refusal to make eye contact.
"Where are we going?" Dorian repeated.
John ignored his question. "Would you rather go back to the precinct right now?"
Dorian knew he wasn't going to get a straight response from John, so he just settled back into his seat and mapped out their course. He got an idea where they were headed, but for his own benefit and sanity, he wasn't going to go out on a limb and venture a guess.
By two blocks out, Dorian was 99.3% certain where their destination was, but he still held his tongue. There was still a 0.7% chance that he was wrong. Fortunately for him though, that slim margin of error vanish altogether when John reached across into the glove compartment and fished out a small plain envelope, which he unceremoniously tossed it into Dorian's lap.
"Is this what I think it is?" Dorian asked incredulously, tracing the edges of the envelope with his fingertips.
John made a face, "I don't know. Depends on what you think."
"Is this for me?"
John nodded once as he pulled into the underground parking structure. "Only if you want it."
Dorian pulled out the nondescript keycard from the envelop and scrutinized it. He recognized the room number for which the card was coded. "John…?"
"Come on, this way." John nodded toward the elevators.
John started talking as soon as they were alone in the elevators, "Look, I know this probably wasn't what you had in mind when you said you wanted a place of your own. I'm not saying you should move in permanently, because you technically can't. But if you need a change of scenery, you're more than welcomed to it. I just thought it might be better than that place.
"I spoke with Maldonado and a few others about your situation. The fact is, there has been no precedence in the precinct, or elsewhere in the country for that matter, where an android has been granted autonomy, which is essentially what you are asking for. As far as the bean counters are concerned, you and the MXs are just expensive pieces of equipment belonging to the county and the state. For you to even request for something like that was unfathomable for them. It's like-"
"John, please. Stop." Dorian repeated again as the elevator abruptly announced their arrival.
A beat of silence was quickly followed by a wry smile. "They're just not ready to listen...yet."
Dorian had always been acutely aware of just where he stood in the social hierarchy. The short answer was no where. But at the moment, he had no desire to dwell on those thoughts. His more immediate thoughts were centered on the human not two feet beside him. John Kennex may be morose and malcontent on the inside, but somewhere buried deep under all those layers of grump was a tenderly fragile but also cautiously optimistic soul who was trying his best to bring the best out of a world that saw more bad than good. The fact that John even went to bat for him on the issue of housing was beyond his wildest expectations. He had only made that comment in jest and never even considered the possibility that John would take it seriously. It also made Dorian wonder what other things he may have said in passing that John had filed away in earnest.
"Are you sure about this?" Dorian searched his partner's face even the slightest hint of doubt. They had stopped outside the front door of John's condo.
"I don't know, this just seems like a poor substitute," John admitted honestly before nodding toward the keypad. "Give it a try."
The keycard slid in place quietly and a series of soft mechanical clicks signaled the retraction of the locking mechanism. Dorian cautiously pushed the door open and was greeted by the darkness broken only by soft flickers of red, blue, and green from a corner of the living room. It was a small plastic Christmas tree, only three feet tall, decorated carefully in flickering lights.
"John ..." He breathed softly.
A hand shot up in a bid for silence. "I don't want to hear comments on the tree. I haven't put one up in a while but the mood just struck me this year."
"I was just going to say that it looked nice." Dorian smiled knowingly and cautiously stepped inside. The motion activated lighting kicked in. Dorian automatically scanned the room, mapping out the layout and furniture arrangement. The condo was compact and simple, which seemed to suit John's tastes just fine.
"Let me just show you around. I didn't get much of a chance to clean, so it's messy, but ... " John closed the door behind them and moved into the living space.
"...but it's home." Dorian finished in a whisper.
John just started moving and talking, pointing to various things as he went. "Kitchen, but I don't use it. Island which doubles as work table. Charger for the leg. Living room. Balcony." He went down one end of the living room. "My room, but that's strictly off limits." He gave Dorian a warning look. "Bathroom is right across...but I guess you don't need it." He recrossed his path and went down the other end of the living room and stopped in front another closed door. "Guest room, which you'd be welcomed to." He motioned Dorian over from where he stood in the center of the living room.
There was familiar hum behind the door that made Dorian overclock his processors. "John, you didn't..." He had so many thoughts swimming through his mind in that instant, he wasn't sure what to say first. "How?" He finally managed to ask.
John pushed the door open to reveal a charging alcove for the android, position against the side wall. "Eh, I put in a requisition for an older model that they had collecting dust in a warehouse. Maldonado was happy to approve it." He rubbed the back of his neck in a nervous gesture, "The only thing about this whole set up is you won't have your data link, so no backups or syncs. You will still have to go back to the precinct regularly for those linkups. Getting dedicated lines put in for that kind of bandwidth is unrealistic ... and apparently not permitted for residential zones. I was also told that it will take you somewhat longer to complete a full charge, almost 50% longer, unfortunately."
Dorian circled the alcove. It wasn't just any older model, Dorian realized, it was the model that was originally designed to pair with the DRN series. He was stunned by the amount of effort John had put in to make it all work. "No, it's...perfect." Dorian caught John's gaze and simply smiled.
"Well, good," John replied as he turned on his heels to leave the room, "I was afraid I'd have to call the moving company again to move that thing out."
"John?"
"Yeah?" John glanced back over his shoulder.
"Thank you, for everything. Truly."
John's lips curved into a smile and just shrugged. "Merry Christmas, Dorian."
"Merry Christmas to you too, John. "
John's only response was a casual wave of his hand as he disappeared into the kitchen. "Hey, Dorian? Would you by chance know how to cook? I don't know about you, but I'm starving."