Title: I, You: To Love
Author: HermioneSparta
Rating: T
Disclaimer: The characters and canon situations in the following story belong Mickey Zucker Reichert and Isaac Asimov's estate.
Summary: "For a moment, I wonder can't help but wonder…what is it which separates humans and robots?"
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Susan opened the door, only to find Nate standing there silently, arms outstretched. Shocked, she stood there while her body struggled to find the energy to allow her to move, to react, even to smile. "Nate," she finally said.
"I knew you'd come here. And I knew you needed me."
Susan fell into his arms.
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Hours later, safely encased within the desolate room full of shelves and drawers, I watch her. I recline on the couch, legs propped on a table in a very human position of ease. Her head rests on my thigh, an odd weight that was in no way discomforting. I am used to books or hospital equipment being perched upon that very spot, not the warm – 37.129-degrees Celsius, to be exact – mixture of flesh, blood and bone.
It is…comforting.
I'd known she would come, as I always had. From the moment John had mentioned her intent to practice – to revolutionize – medicine, we had both known. Of all the hospitals within Manhattan, of every field within the chosen science of caring for health…she had chosen to be here. The Manhattan Hasbro Hospital Division of Psychiatry.
Some would call it Fate.
I brush a hand lightly over her hair, which makes her stir as if she felt my touch. I know it is an illogical belief, but it is not part of my integral structure to ignore the constructs of my positronic brain. Thoughts, humans call them, and emotions.
For a moment, I can't help but wonder…what is it that separates humans and robots? It cannot be simple biochemistry or biorobotics. Else, how would a human with an artificial heart or limb be considered "wholly human"?
I must pose this question to her, when she wakes. For all she seeks my advice, there are many lessons that she is teaching me in turn.
Her heart rate raises a little as she makes unintelligible sounds, speech of some form associated with whatever her mind has conjured in sleep.
She reminds me then, while she curls further into herself and presses closer to my leg, of the metaphorical cat that I had mentioned.
She does not remember the frantic child yelling for her kitten, though John shared Calvin's memory of the event with me.
Why did he do that?
I shake my head, smiling at the human gesture, and run a hand over her hair once more. My touch is heavier this time, exerting a pressure I am sure she will feel.
Her cheek rubs against my leg and she groans, her heart accelerating for several beats as she begins to wake.
"'m I hurting you?" she asks, hugging my leg as if it was a person.
I smile again, and chuckle. "No," I say, wrapping a lock of hair around my fingers. It is a fascinating mixture of colors and texture, and thoroughly entrancing.
"Good. You're m'new pillow," she replies before yawning.
Warmth runs through my dermal tissue and sinks into the circulating blood.
"I'll be whatever you need me to be, Susan."
She lifts her head to look at me then, wearing an amused – or is bemused? – expression I saw far more often on Kendall's face than her own.
"Within the Laws, of course."
Her tone is light, but holds the faintest of tremors that no human could catch.
"Of course," I agree. For once, I do not know what to say.
"Were you made to be my friend…to understand me?" she asks suddenly, laying her head back down.
I run a finger over her cheek, marveling in the softness of her flesh – as I always did. Humans are delicate, yet so strong in so many ways they do not realize.
"No," I answer truthfully after the 6.79 seconds it took to search my memory banks. "I was created to work in Manhattan Hasbro Hospital, nothing more or less. John Calvin, N12-C, is based on the journals – the memories – and instructions Calvin Campbell left behind. I, and the others in the NC line, are not."
"How did you know I would be here?"
"I've come to know you."
She falls silent in the introspective way sentient beings do.
"Did John love me solely due to his…purpose, his mission?"
"John loved you as Calvin loved you, I believe. We may not be human, but that does not mean we do not learn and develop our consciousness."
She nods then, a motion that sends another ripple of warmth through my very humanoid form, and remains silent.
As the minutes stretch between us, I can't help but add one final thought as I hear her respiration drop into the pattern of semi-sleep.
"We live within our Laws, but the very nature of our positronic brains means we can and do experience independent thought. It is well within reason that if humor can be understood and displayed on a intrinsic level, so can other emotions. John's primary design was to take care of you and display the proper emotions of a father. But the primary design became a reality, once given time. As you said…he was your father."
"Do you love?" she mumbles, hugging my leg all the tighter.
I'd also ask her to explain such a habit. In a human, it would not be a pleasant experience from a medical standpoint.
"I love," I say just as softly, measuring my voice to the exact levels hers was.
"I obey, I protect…and I love."
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AN: This one-shot would not leave me alone after I read I, Robot: To Obey by Reichert.