The long white box with the red ribbon wasn't visible throughout the day. It was hidden deep in a brown bag that sat on Hank's desk. When he saw it, Connor dismissed it as nothing but a leftover lunch. That was Connor's first mistake.

The irony of being distracted by ignorance itself. Had Connor been a machine, he would have noticed immediately. The way Hank carefully placed the box in the back drivers seat. How it sat on the cleanest part of the kitchen table when they came home.

But he was also distracted by something else. Something far stronger than ignorance. Much more alive. Thoughts. Since his deviancy, he had many in his memory. Questions. Ideas. Theories. Untouched by his free mind. Rarely was there time to dwell but now, with Detroit at a peaceful standstill, he could step back and feel them all. Lose himself, as humans often described it.

He spent quite a lot of time thinking about one thing in particular. The latest guests of the Anderson household: the young female android maid and the little girl.

Little did he know, the most confounding moment of his life would begin.

-XXXX-

"Hey uh, girls?"

"Yes Hank?"

Kara and Alice always seemed to be haunted by a certain aura of fear, but when Hank spoke to them, they would perk like children in the presence of puppies. However the old man did it, he got them to smile, sometimes even make the little girl laugh. They were genuine reactions. Free of the restraint they often had whenever Hank was absent in the house. Whenever it was…

"Got you two something. Follow me."

The old man angles his head toward the kitchen and walks on, bumping Connors shoulder along the way. Neither Kara nor Alice follow the human yet. They turn toward him instead, Kara choosing to meet him directly.

She appeared as she always did whenever they made the slightest of eye contact. Her shoulders hunched and her bottom lip pursed. He doesn't understand right away but it was a search of permission. That he was ok with them here. And now she was asking for permission to pass.

He stares back blank until he gets it. Quickly he steps aside, nodding away in a futile apology. From the corner of his eye he watches Kara walk by at a crawling speed, Alice pattering close behind. They had never been this far into the Anderson household. He had forgotten that.

A feeling that's cold and empty passes into his system as he watches them. The moment he and Hank discovered them on the streets again, they put them under their protection. Kara and Alice, who were so kind and gentle but so broken. Quiet, and careful but so difficult. For Connor at least. Every night, they were required to check in at Hank's house and every night, they avoided him, holding up shelter on the couch in silence.

"Oh?"

Connor turns up from this thoughts to see Hank pushing the box into Kara's hands. The long white box with the red ribbon. It slides into her hands and Kara sways back. A small part of Connors eye lid twitches. The old man could have been gentler but there was a bit of alcohol in his blood.

"A gift?" She hardly looked confused at all. She stands with an expression that was new to all of them. Not a smile or a laugh but wonder. Excitement.

Hank grins and nods his head. Connor frowns. Odd behaviors were all around him.

"I mean I don't know many other young ladies." Hank goes to rub his mouth but the smile is still there. He looks away briefly. Up at the ceiling. Connor doesn't understand. "Figured I could pass it to you rather than go back to that hellhole of a shopping center."

Among the wave of oddities, Connor picks up that one quick, Not once had he seen Hank mingle with a female police officer. But no matter. Kara had turned the box in her hands. She was humming. She never did that.

It was a slight quick wondering tune. Barely detected by human ears. She winds the ribbon in her fingers and uncoils them in a seamless stroke.

He felt his thirium pump.

He thinks of his coin. The tiny metal ringed as it flipped and rolled around. In Kara's hands, however there is no sound. Her motions are slower, feather light and graceful. It would dance between her fingers like a flower in the wind.

"Wow…"

The voice of young Alice pulls him back. He focuses on the little girl. She had been staring up with wide eyes. Her face practically beamed.

Connor remembered the time he saw the little human girl smile because of him. It was the day he brought home a stuffed bear. She looked at it with a soft expression. Now, he watches her stare wide eyed and sparkling at a box being undone in Karas hands.

He runs a audit scan of her face. He'd have to get her at least ten bears for an equal reaction.

"Oh Hank..."

He thought he was the one who… Well, he was the one who found them. He was the one who convinced Hank to talk to them. He was the one that pushed Hank-that yes-it was worth risking their jobs to keep them safe. But Connor was not the one who spoke to them.

And now they were beaming. Alice ecstatic and Kara, in sheer wonder. All because of what was inside this box.

And then. This. Kara lifted her arms and the item in question unfolded before them.

"Oh..."

Connor reacts differently. His brow furrows and his interface comes alive. His scanners fly out in silence, invisible lines crossing over the item like a newfound treasure. He analyzed every detail, every strand, every molecule. He received nothing in return.

It was just a dress.

It was made of materials that would waste his data banks. It was dyed in a color that had no relevance in toxicology. It was untouched by blood, thirium or any soiling chemical. It was a dress. A simple piece of clothing. Mundane and-

Kara hugs it to her chest, blushing easy across her cheeks. She turns to Hank and her eyes shine as she speaks.

"It's lovely Hank… Thank you. Thank you so much."

-He had to know more.