The following days were a haze for Conan. He was functioning seemingly normally, but he still stayed home. He knew he wanted to go back to work at some point, but not now.

When Gavin came to visit him for the first time, it gave him enough strength to leave the house.

"Hey there." he said, sitting down next to him on the bed, Connor's bed, which Hank had installed less than a month ago.

"Hi." He answered, softly. He didn't want to show his vulnerability, but Gavin knew that.

"I know... How you feel, tincan, you know?"

"Hey, I'm the last model made by CyberLife, not a tincan."

"Sorry, RK900." Gavin mocked his serious tone, eyebrows slightly lowered, mimicking the shape of Conan's.

"Conan, name's Conan."

"You really think I don't know?"

"I supposed.."

"So stupid.. 'Last model made by CyberLife'."

The two chuckled.

"Thanks, Gav."

"Eh, no biggie."

"Yes biggie. There, in that room," Conan lowered his voice, his gaze, too, fidgeting with the edge of his shirt with shaky fingers, "I felt... god, I felt like there was no... escape? And then you came," he looked back up at Gavin, a soft smile on his face, but his eyes were still very much saddened, "I can never repay you, thank you."

"You don't need to repay me, damn it. It wouldn't be human of me to just walk away, I don't think I physically could have."

Connan looked back down, nodding. His yellow led was a reminder to Gavin - he wasn't human. But he looked so real. So imperfect, so human. He had felt the same thing when he met Connor, except then, he felt uncanny. As if what was outside and what was inside didn't belong to the same universe, didn't quite click into place. He felt it with an undertone of disgust and anger. Now, now that his perspective had changed, it was awe.

"Do you want anything? Water or something?" Conan broke the silence, getting up.

"Sure, heh, doesn't Hank only drink beer or something?"

"What?" Conan looked genuinely confused, "I've never seen him drink beer, does he? I've seen some traces of it on the carpet and stuff-"

"Don't go investigate the beer, plastic detective. I guess he changed his ways, because he used to." Gavin faked a smile, awkward feeling of having small talk with an android creeping in on him. " Get me a coke the." he said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Sure thing."

As he left the room, Gavin was left all alone in it. This was Hank's old guestroom which was now Connor's room. He had installed a new queen bed, even though Gavin didn't quite understand why. Connor doesn't actually need a bed, does he? Androids don't sleep, they don't need sleep, they most likely just go into sleep mode because humans do so in the night. It's a.. artificial formality of sorts.

So why would he spend money on a bed that wasn't even used properly?

'He's creating some sort of caring fatherly fantasy?' he thought, 'Does he really think a sack of plastic on top of metal needs the luxury of comfort?' Upon that thought, his mind jumped back to the way Conan cried in his arms, his heart beating fast, then slowly calming down... so, he did feel comfort. Fuck, this is complicated.

"Here ya go." Conan said, handing him a can of cold coke, holding a can of BlueBuzz himself.

He hadn't noticed him come in, so he jumped slightly in his place.

"Thanks, tin- Conan."

"Wow, progress!"

Gavin chuckled, genuinely this time, a smirk forming on his face as he opened his can, a small "hissss" escaping it.

"The trial is going to-

"This week, I know." Conan answered, the smile fading off.

"Are you okay with that?"

"Yeah, I sure hope I am. Right now, it all feels.. Gone. I don't feel like it was ever real. I don't know how sitting face to face with him... would feel."

"It'll feel like shit at first, but once we win, you'd feel like you're on top of the world."

"How would you know how any of it will feel?"

"I just, I guess.. I guess I'm assuming."

"I hope you're assuming right." Conan said, taking a sip, " Do you think we'll win?"

"Oh with those recording of yours, we've got damning evidence, one of the strongest in the history of such crimes, if not THE strongest."

"Yeah, but the jury?"

"What about it?"

"What if they don't consider it a crime to... you know, an android?"

"Fuck them, then."

"Sure, fuck them, but that won't change their ruling, right?"

"Yeah well... I doubt they'd be so heartless once they see the video."

"It's terrifying."

"It's heart clenching."

"I don't think you imagine... Most sexual assault victims don't have a visual and audio record of what happened to them from their own perspective."

"But it's burned into them regardless."

"In their mind, it's theirs. Right in front of them, it becomes everyone's."

Gavin didn't know what to say. He wanted to say something deep and psychological, therapy him out of it, but he didn't know how to, he could never do that.

"Do you, I dunno, remember it at all?"

"I have nightmares."

"Nightmares?"

"I stopped going into sleep mode. There's something fucked up with my programming... I don't know why, I just suddenly start thinking and rethinking it, over and over again. I relive it when I'm asleep. I get stuck there, again and again. It feels so real, too real..."

"My god..."

"Yeah.. I'll be fine, we're going to visit Kamski, I think he'll know what to do."

At the mention of his brother's name, Gavin sighed. The brat left his family, changed his last name to his 'mother's' last name, as if dad was dead to him... As if he was dead to him.

Gavin knew he hated dad, always. From the moment he found his mother back in 2028, Nadia, dad and mom became enemies, ghosts to him. And what they had done hurt Gavin deeply too, of course it did. But what had he done wrong? They were inseparable, connected, they grew up as twins, how could they have not been? And though other siblings they knew always had some sort of rivalry, they never did. Not once. He supported all his dreams and aspirations, went to every single exam and waited for him to come out of them a shaking mess every time, every single presentation about CyberLife, everything, he was there for him. And mom never treated her own son differently from her husband's mistress's son, even through 18 years of baring with his cheating ass, she never mistreated them. They were her boys, her babies. She raised them both as such. Nadia Kamskaia didn't even bother come visit him for ONCE in his 26 years of life, yet he picked her above all of them. And hearing "Kamski" made Gavin's skin crawl.