Cancelled
"Decommissioned?" Dorian asked, confusion and pain racking his voice. "But I just had a glowing performance review."
John was ripping things from his closet in a furious tilt of anger, his face and neck red, his body language violent with rage. "You could help, you know, goddammit. Get your charger in the truck."
Dorian stood there still, completely flabbergasted though his face was impassive, thinking.
John was a mess. He had run out of suitcases and was jamming things into garbage bags.
"Stop this," Dorian said, decidedly, trying to get John to hold still a moment. The DRN grabbed the distraught man and held him tight by his wrists. John wrenched in his grasp but resistance was futile. "Stop it!" Dorian's raised voice momentarily quelled the storming man.
John stopped long enough to glower at his android husband. They'd worked together, done amazing things. None of this was fair. Sure their marriage wasn't recognized legally, but it didn't make it any less real.
"I can't let you ruin your life over this," Dorian said. "I will go and accept my decommission. You will stay on the force and continue on without me."
Tears brimmed in John's eyes, threatening to fall. His eyes shone. "There is no me," his voice quaked. "Without you I am nothing."
Dorian yanked him in for a hug. "That isn't true." He let one hand travel down John's back slowly, soothingly.
John nodded against his chest-plate defiantly. "If you go, I'll kill myself." The words came out steady and dark. They were a threat but John had let them escape so easily that Dorian knew he was dead serious.
Dorian held him out an arm's length so he could see him. "Don't you say that, Jonathan Reginald Kennex!"
"I'll do it. I promise. I'll put one right through the front of my skull." He made a gun with his hand and lifted it to his face. Dorian slapped his hand down. He wanted to slap John, too. Beat sense into him, if that is what it took. He resisted this urge, of course.
John sensed it. "Go ahead and hit me for all I care!" he snarled. "You hypocrite!"
Dorian could see his point. He was accepting his own fate too easily. But he was an android; he was different from John. However, he knew, as he looked into the reddening eyes of his husband, the tears now draining freely down his face, that to John, it was the same.
"You're right," Dorian admitted. He pulled John back against his chest again. Watery smears from John's nose and eyes soaked his shirt and registered against his skin. "But I don't ever want to hear those words out of your mouth again. Where are we going, John?" His voice was tight and balanced.
"Rudy has a place," John sniffed, "he's going to help us. He's on his way here now to take you off the network."
"They'll find us," Dorian's eyes were overshadowed by his brow, grown heavy with fear, "and we'll ruin Rudy's life, too."
John sat on the bed. It felt foreign beneath him now that he had resolved to abandon it. His whole apartment felt dangerous; fragmented. His skin crawled with nervousness. Wiping a forearm across his eyes, he looked up into Dorian's face. "Please, Dee," his voice cracked.
Dorian reached a hand down under John's chin and stroked a thumb across his ruddy face. "I'll put my charger in the truck." He frowned. He didn't think this was going to work, but he wasn't sure what else he could do.
He went to move the charger. Maybe he could plead with Maldonado? It would be a useless endeavor; he knew it wasn't her doing and that he would only succeed in gaining her sympathy. Besides, he didn't want to alert her to their plans. He loaded the charger into the truck, looking behind him as John tossed his suitcases in and stalked back in the house for more.
An hour later, they walked through the apartment. It looked ransacked and dirty. "John, are you positive that-"
"Fuck, Dorian!" John spat. "Yes, I'm sure. Ask me again!"
Dorian frowned. John's hostility was too high right now. Rudy arrived at that exact moment, his big eyes focused and his tongue running nervously back and forth across his thin lip. "Sorry it took me so long," he said, setting down a heavy-looking bag. "I had an MX in my hair all morning."
"Just hurry." John was not a very gracious man when he was upset. Or nervous. Or sleepy. Or hungry. Actually John wasn't a very gracious man, period. Dorian always worked in overtime to add tenderness to their tenuous outside friendships.
As per usual, Rudy played it off with a roll of his eyes. "Sit, please, Dorian," he said kindly, motioning to the couch.
Dorian sat, smiling at Rudy reassuringly. He knew the dispatch manager was helping them out of his love for him, and tolerance of John. Rudy pushed his finger into Dorian's temple and opened a panel. He pulled out a network card that connected Dorian to the police databanks and the neural-network of service androids. Dorian felt a part of himself go quiet. He also lost his cellular service.
Rudy took out a scalpel and made a small incision just below Dorian's right ear and opened the skin delicately. With a pair of tweezers he pulled out the locator chip located within. "All set," he said to Dorian, giving his shoulder a squeeze.
He turned to face John, scalpel still in his hand. "You're up, John."
Nodding and steeling himself, John pulled his shirt off as he walked over and sat on the couch.
"What is happening?" Dorian asked.
"John has a locator chip, too," Rudy sighed.
When Dorian tried to protest, John would have none of it. "Just fucking do it," he demanded, biting his lip as Rudy dragged the scalpel across his skin, opening the faint scar from the insertion at the back of his neck, the android technician gasping at the blood that wept from the wound. He wasn't used to performing on humans. The next part was going to hurt even worse. He pushed past the cut, pulling at the skin and stuck the tweezers in, digging for the thin chip.
By the time he found it, John had his fist against his mouth and was making strangled, pained grunts.
"Got it!" Rudy said gleefully, happy it was over. Dorian helped clean up the blood running down John's back and held antiseptic-covered gauze over the incision. Putting the chips in surgically was a recent decision for the force and one that Dorian had felt was necessary up until this very moment.
"Thank you for offering us the use of your cabin, Rudy," Dorian said, still applying pressure to the incision on John's back. "I hope it does not end up being a problem for you."
"I'm sure you'll be fine," Rudy smiled, "and no problem, Dorian. I will bring you supplies as often as I can." Rudy stepped in and ran a line of clear liquid stitching over the cut on John's back, sealing the slice.
John rose to his feet, pulling away from Dorian and Rudy's hands and yanked his shirt back over his head. He sighed and looked to Rudy, "I am in your debt."
Rudy smiled and shook his head. "I would do anything for you guys." He meant what he said.
"Let's hit the road," John said. He pulled out his cell phone and dropped it to the floor with a clatter. It bounced across the painted concrete and settled at Rudy's feet. John made a point not to look around his place. These walls held sadness and joy, adventure, sex, recovery, and pain. They were witness to his biggest failures and successes. Right now, as he prepared to leave it all behind, the failures seemed to outnumber the successes by a rather large margin. Dorian, John thought, looking at his wonderful husband, was his only success. If these walls could talk, they would tell a tale of hardship that no one could stomach, not even John. So as he left them, he whispered a silent hope that the next person to inhabit them would have a smoother, happier experience than his own.
John handed Rudy a light drive. "My resignation is on there. And all the paperwork signing the apartment over to you."
"I'll hand in the resignation from your account, once I report Dorian as successfully decommissioned," Rudy said, taking the jump from John's hand. "I'll put your house on the market a week or two after that."
John handed over his wad of keys. "Cruiser, house. Desk drawers, Station," he said, pointing at each key in turn. Then he gave Rudy's hand a firm shake and fled to the truck.
Dorian gave Rudy a long hug, whispering into his ear, "If they find out, please tell them that we are squatting on your land without your permission."
Rudy nodded in understanding and planted a quick, shy kiss on Dorian's cheek. "Be safe."
John was waiting in the truck. If he wasn't keeping a low profile, he'd be laying on the horn.
Dorian climbed in the passenger side and shut the door.
John's eyes looked confident and happy, relieved that they were on their way. "Thank you, Dee," he said, backing the truck out onto the street. "Thank you for agreeing to try this."
"I had little choice in the matter," Dorian said stiffly, looking at his flawed, emotionally distraught, human husband. "You threatened me with your life. It worked this time, but never do that to me again."
John looked at him sheepishly as they merged onto the 606, heading out of the city. "Sorry," he said, "but I meant every word."
Dorian had a hard look on his face that made John squirm. "Come on, Dee," he almost begged. His back throbbed with heat from the removal of his locator chip. He felt naked without his cell phone, but he was eager to get far away from the city and the precinct.
Dorian was quiet. He had no access to the neural-network and was essentially cut off from all the communications and information he was used to retrieving all day, every day. Instead, he only had his local hard drive and his emotions to stew over.
When they pulled up to the little cabin, it was truly out in the wilderness. John turned the engine off and turned to look at Dorian. "Forgive me?"
Sliding up close to him, Dorian pulled down on John's chin with one finger and lifted his head to kiss him lustily, his tongue sweeping the man's mouth confidently, his fingers tender and possessive on John's neck and jaw. When he tore away, he said, "No."
John gawped, "What?"
"Let's unload the truck." Dorian slid out of the truck and slammed the door.
John pouted a moment before following Dorian to help unload. He collected a few garbage bags of clothing and carried them to the cabin door. He unlocked the front door and banged it open. Inside, the rustic cabin was clean and stylishly decorated.
They unloaded the truck, dumping their old life in piles on the floor. John was acutely aware that Dorian was upset and it needled at him.
Determined to soften the android's resolve, John tugged at his hand, suggesting they check out the bedroom. Dorian finally gave in, a smile running up the side of his face.
The bed was nicer than the one John had in his apartment. Everything was nicer actually. He whistled on the thick, decadent mattress and asked, "Just how much does Rudy make?"
"He has a considerable amount of schooling and skill, John," Dorian said, shucking his pants and clothing beside the bed. John pulled his clothes off too; Dorian helped yank his pants off and discarded them to the floor.
The tension was high and Dorian was still cross. He loved John so much and the suicide threat pulsed through his mind, making him emotionally ill. He looked at the soft, fragile skin of the man who lay before him, fingering his own cock and moaning in anticipation. Seeing the blood gushing from his back, hearing those words today, Dorian wanted to place John in a box and protect him from the world. It occurred to him that this cabin would suffice for now, but no sanctuary safe enough would ever exist.
He flipped John over roughly, eliciting an excited grunt. He pulled at his fleshy cheeks, dipping down to run his tongue over his opening. Dorian's saliva was the perfect lubricant and he forced his tongue as deep as possibly into John, who pressed his tensed toes into the mattress and pumped his pelvis back for more. Dorian inserted his fingers and stretched at the ring of muscle. His cock was seeping lubricant and he ran one hand down its length to coat it completely and then hovered the tip against John before impaling him on it deeply.
John gasped up from the sheets at the unexpected thrust and tried to lift his hips up more to meet the pressure. Dorian pushed him down, nudging up into John, sliding himself almost all the way out and then shocking back in, the deep cavity pinched and tight from John's prone position. Grinding against him, pinning him to the sheets so that John's erection was trapped beneath him, Dorian wielded the power at the moment. Never one to give up all the control, John rotated his hips in gentles circles, pleasure panting out through his gaping lips.
On any given day, Dorian ran a little hotter than his human companion. Because of this, John loved the warm feeling of Dorian's ejaculate inside him. However, with the emotional exertion from this morning's whirlwind life change and the terrible fear and shock from John's careless threats, Dorian's core temperature was much hotter than usual. As he was getting close, he knew he couldn't spill into John's tender insides without risking him pain and injury. So he pulled himself out completely and performed the final thrusts up between the crack of John's sex-slickened ass.
He came up onto John's back, watching as the human stiffened his spine and sucked air in sharply through his teeth. The hot ooze landed on John's unprepared skin, leaving little pinkish welts where it first made contact. John had to look behind and see if Dorian was holding a candle, because the slippery, burning-hot liquid felt like hot wax on his keen skin. "Jesus, Dee," he managed, his body shuddering with pleasure, his every muscle still taut and quaking in the throes of arousal. Dorian lapped up the liquid with his tongue which soothed the beautifully patterned, pink blotches from the slight burns.
When he was done, he turned John on the bed and sucked the man's cock into his mouth, bobbing deep and looking up into his sex-softened greenish-brown eyes. Already hopelessly turned on, John came easily and hard, his hands pulling at Dorian's perfect hair.
After christening the new room and bed with enthusiastic lovemaking, John grinned up at the perfect, synthetic face of his partner. "Now do you forgive me?" he asked, mischief on his lips where only a few hours earlier threats of suicide poured out freely. It was clear that John felt safe in this new environment.
Dorian contemplated this. Then, without warning, he pinned the squirming man, naked and glistening with sweat, to the bed firmly. He delivered a few heavy, stinging swats to his upturned backside. John hollered in protest and shock, cursing wretchedly.
When Dorian stopped and pulled him back into a cuddle, John's hand flew back to massage at the reddened skin, hissing air through his teeth. "Motherfuckin' sonovabitch, that hurt, you asshole."
"Now I forgive you," Dorian said, and he meant it. His hands traveling over John's skin roughly and lustily.
"I fucking hate you," John grumbled, pressing himself snuggly back against the android's body.
To a chorus of surprised yelling, again, Dorian pushed him down and added another volley of swats. John couldn't escape the merciless smacks, but he wasn't trying very hard to do so anyhow. "Don't tell lies," the android chided when he was finished, running a soothing hand over John's glowing ass, admiring his handiwork.
John buried his face into the pillows to hide his reluctant smile despite the tears prickling in his eyes. Dorian would have none of that and turned his impish, headstrong human onto his back, letting his punished skin press into the sheets. Kissing him with the familiarity that only existed between two lovers, he understood why John said what he had said earlier. He couldn't condone it, but as he wrapped his arms around his husband and felt John's fingers curl up around his shoulder, he knew that John needed him and he needed John.
"I love you," Dorian said, his lips pressing into John's cheek. He swept a hand into John's silken hair. "Without you, I am nothing."
They were more than a couple. They were one being, organic and synthetic, inseparable.