Chapter Nine
Hostility

By the time that Gavin had returned back to the precinct, the plastic prick was already there working away. It had probably gotten a ride from Brown and Chen. That or maybe it took a cab. It was too much to hope that it had to fucking walk back to the precinct. Gavin would've liked that. He walked up to his desk, pointedly ignoring looking anywhere in Richard's direction before digging through his desk. Once he found what he was looking for, he promptly slammed it shut with a satisfyingly loud clunk before turning on his heel to stalk to the restrooms. Once Gavin was alone in the restroom, he dropped the first aid kit onto one of the sinks and shucked off his jacket. He made sure to keep a stocked kit in his desk. When you got hurt as much as he did on the job, you just made sure to keep prepared. With his jacket off, Gavin leaned forward to run warm water over his cut and to just clean off all the excess blood. It was starting to itch against his skin from where it had dried. He also wanted to erase the evidence of the android grabbing onto his forearm. A perfect hand print was left, reddish brown against his skin to make exactly where it had grabbed onto him. Gavin may have scrubbed harder than was necessary.

Once his arm was sufficiently cleaned, Gavin got to work in disinfecting his wound. He spread antibacterial ointment around it as best as he could. It just fucking hurt too much in some places. He then slapped a large square of gauze against it, tapped it down, and then wrapped it up with even more gauze. Unfortunately, he was pretty decent at tending to his own wounds. Once the wrap was secured and Gavin was confident it wouldn't go anywhere anytime soon, he cleaned up his mess of wrappers from the counter spaces and walked back towards his desk. When he glanced up, Richard was gone. He was relieved. Gavin draped his jacket on the back of his chair before sinking into it heavily. He opened his drawer and dropped the kit back into it, closing it this time a little softer than before.

"The fuck happen to you?" He heard Anderson question as he passed his desk.

Gavin didn't look up at him as he ran his hand through his hair. "Perp with a knife," he explained simply, still not looking over to the old man. Instead, he unlocked his computer to start to get to work on his report.

He heard Anderson make a displeased noise. "That's rough. Sure you don't need stitches?" He knew that his coworker was just concerned for him but he didn't have the patience for it right now. He was still too raw, too rattled from before to try and be social.

"Don't you have work to do?" He grumbled.

"Alright fine, see if I try to be nice to you ever again." He listened as the lieutenant walked off back towards his desk. When Gavin had tried to file the report for this case, he found that it was already complete. In full. It was just awaiting his signature. He blinked at that, confused as to how that was possible before realizing that it was Richard's doing. Probably as a 'sorry I'm a dick.' While Gavin didn't plan on forgiving the plastic prick anytime soon, he definitely wasn't going to pass up an opportunity to not do paperwork. So he just added his signature and sent it off. One less headache to worry about. Now all he had to do was keep his biggest head ache, the walking and talking glorified toaster, off his case and he'd be set for the rest of the day.


Fowler wasn't too happy with him. Not because he wasn't getting anywhere with the case, no the Captain understood that, it was because he was refusing to go back to his apartment and being a little bit more hostile towards Richard than he was before. Some had actually begun to believe that the two were beginning to get along. Well, that didn't last long after Gavin directed all his hostility towards the android. Anytime it brought him a cup of coffee, Gavin would either throw it away immediately or let it sit there all day while he fetched himself a fresh cup. There had been an instance where Gavin just poured it onto Richard's head but the lashing he got from Fowler just made it not worth doing again. However, seeing the usually prime and proper android soaked with coffee in its hair and all down its white jacket was so satisfying. Any food that it brought over to him was thrown out as well. Sometimes he would give it to his coworkers if they asked for it. They had gotten used to Gavin just throwing out food without touching it so if they could get a free meal, they were all over that like flies on honey. Or shit. Whichever.

With Gavin being so hell-bent on rejecting Richard's help, it had only made his health decline even faster. He couldn't go most days without his hands shaking uncontrollably. Gavin did his best to hide it in the form of tapping his fingers on any and all surfaces but sometimes he just couldn't hide it. His hands were often stuffed into his jacket's pockets. Not his leather one, no he had to get that one replaced. Instead he was sporting a DPD pullover hoodie most days. While his new jacket was waiting for him back at his apartment, he still just hadn't left the station to go pick it up. He probably should've had it sent to the station but he wasn't really thinking when he just hit 'place order.'

He was pretty sure he looked run down and just dog tired. Fowler had given up trying to get him to just go back to his apartment so instead made a point to ordering him to take naps frequently. Gavin was sitting in front of his screen, typing away at a report while his legs bounced uncontrollably to help him contain his shakes to be able to type correctly when his system finally shut down. He blinked slowly at the blank screen, unsure as to what happened. "The fuck?" He questioned finally, trying to turn his system back on. It was unresponsive. The detective's eyes danced around the room to see if anyone else had been affected by this. Everyone else seemed fine. Why was his system the only one that was down? He glanced up, seeing that Richard was typing away at his own screen, oblivious to what Gavin was experiencing right now. Gavin looked around one more time before he tried to boot up his system once more. Still no response.

He scratched the back of his head. He wasn't exactly tech savvy so if turning it off and back on again didn't fix his issue, he was at a loss. The only person – thing that he could think of to ask for help was the android sitting across from him. But Gavin was still set on being petty so that was off the table. He then looked over to Connor's desk. It was empty. "Shit," he swore. Of course this would happen when the other android that he did feel like dealing with wasn't in the station.

"Something wrong, Detective?" Richard questioned.

Gavin looked up to see it with its fingers threaded together on top of its desk as it waited expectantly for an answer. He huffed. "Nope," he answered stubbornly.

It cocked its head to the side. "Are you sure?"

The detective glared at it suspiciously. "Yup."

"Because to me it would appear that your system has shut down." Why the fuck did it sound so smug? When Gavin didn't respond, just glared, Richard straightened its head. "Would you like some assistance, Detective?"

"Nope," he answered quickly, pointedly looking away from the android to once again, try to power up his system.

"Perhaps it would be best to take a quick break while you wait for it to power back on. It might be down for maintenance for quite a while." It sounded like it knew exactly how long his computer would be down.

Gavin shot up from his chair, hands slamming onto his desk as he leaned forward to snarl at Richard. "You shut me down!"

Richard looked nonchalant as ever. "I've no idea what you mean Detective."

Gavin wasn't sure if he was trembling from anger or not. But he was trembling and there was no hiding it. "Fix it," he hissed.

"I'm afraid I can't do that Detective." Gavin glared at Richard for a long moment before sitting back down into his chair, arms crossed over his chest with his feet kicked up on the desk. If his computer wouldn't work then he' just wait it out. Richard's eyebrow rose. "I'm not sure how long it'll take for your system to come back online. Perhaps you should – "

"Take a nap, yeah. I fucking heard you the first time you suggested it," he bit out. But he didn't move. He just stubbornly sat there as he waited. There was a reason he tried to keep busy though. Now that he was sitting still with nothing to do, it finally hit him just how tired he was. His eye lids started to droop against his will, head nodding forward like he was struggling to keep it upright.

Suddenly he was falling. His eyes snapped open. Gavin threw his arms out to balance himself, catch himself on something as he fell. His hands found the desk which he gripped onto the dear life as he tried to right himself. His feet slammed onto the tiles of the floor as he hastily looked around. It would appear he was still at his desk. Why the fuck had he fallen then? He realized he was still sitting in his chair. He hadn't moved except for the dramatic flailing he had done just seconds ago.

"Your chair leaned back," he heard Richard say. Gavin turned his gaze to it, confused. "You adjusted your position in your sleep to lean back in your chair." Oh well that made sense. He probably leaned back to quickly and it startled him. "You really should consider going to lay down." That sounded like a wonderful idea. He wasn't aware of just how fucking tired he was until right at that second. His brain felt like mush, limbs heavy. Gavin simply nodded his head as he pulled himself to his feet, wobbling a bit as he did so. Richard was at his side immediately, hand on the small of his back to keep him steady. Gavin didn't push him away. He was worried he wouldn't even make it to the rest room without falling over. So he let Richard guide him into the room. Once he was seated on a cot, he groaned heavily, burying his face into his hands. It took more effort than he'd like to admit to get his shoes off of his feet but once that was done, he collapsed back against the bed. His eyes didn't stay open for long once he was finally horizontal.

But once again, as soon as he laid down, his brain decided to kick into overdrive. Mainly with idle thoughts but it still wouldn't just shut up for him to actually rest. His mind lazily thought of Amelia. She had yet to call him. Hopefully that meant that she was alright. Maybe having the police investigate the home made her parents start treating her right? That was a novel thought. If only it were true. Gavin knew that's not how these situations worked. The parents would do just enough to keep people from being suspicious before going back to their ways. It was predictable. Sadly so.

He still didn't understand why androids were being set on fire. Sure he didn't like the plastics but he still wouldn't set any on fire like that. He had thought about it on a few occasions but he'd never be able to afford to replace the damned things if he got caught. Plus the whole 'enforce the law' thing was pretty important. It'd look back on him if he was found destroying someone else's property. It would hurt his chances of ever furthering his career.

Still. Why go through all that trouble over a few androids? Not only had their registrations been removed – which was so fucking illegal, like identity thief on steroids – but nobody cared to report any missing androids. It was hard to identify them without their appearances too. No pictures to cross reference or anything. They had just fallen off the face of the earth. Some unnamed and unknown bodies just floating around the system now. What did androids do with their dead anyway? That was an odd thought.

Falling off the face of the earth. That seemed like a good idea right now. Then he could just enjoy the nothingness that came with it. No pain, no suffering. That would be it. Sometimes, more often than he liked to admit, but sometimes he wanted to just slip into a place between living and dying. And sometimes, he thought that that place would be very much like sleeping. So why it eluded him, he had no idea. Like how this case eluded him. It just didn't want to be caught. He was grasping at threads here. Even with the help of Cyberlife's most advanced model they were still stumped. What did that say about them and their abilities? They couldn't even place one destroyed android, let alone five. The bodies were piling up like trash.

Trash. They had been disposed of like trash. Treated less than human. He knew that humanity was fucked up and twisted. Even among humans, people like the homeless and prostitutes –

He bolted upright, eyes wide open as the realization slammed into him like a bag of fucking bricks! Gavin scrambled to get out of the bed. He had been tangled in the blankets. He didn't remember tucking himself in. What the fuck?

That didn't matter! He leapt out of the bed, nearly falling on his face as he darted out of the room. He made his way towards Richard's desk, sliding across the tile as he came to a stop behind it. "I got it!" He screamed at the android, who didn't even flinch but looked over its shoulder at him.

"Detective, you should be – "

"Prostitutes! They were prostitutes!"

Richard blinked at him. "While they may have been models specialized for companionship – "

Gavin pinched the bridge of his nose before he put a hand on the back of Richard's chair, the other going to rest on the surface of the desk. He leaned over the android. "No listen, we've been looking too narrow. Pull up all the cases of damaged androids. But only the ones where the registration's been tampered with."

Richard stared up at him for a moment. Gavin nodded at him to get a move on. Richard did as he was told, LED flashing yellow. "Currently there are six other cases within those parameters."

"How were they disposed?"

"Two cases involve the bodies being found in the river. One case involves a self-destructed android. The other three were pulled apart by heavy machinery."

While they were brutal in their own right, someone was making sure that these androids couldn't be identified. "The models?"

"All models could be used for companionship, some with necessary modifications but companionship none the less."

"Nines, they're being prostituted. Whoever is calling the shots is getting rid of them when they want out of the game. Like human prostitutes, if the pimp doesn't want them to leave, they fake a suicide or drug overdose. Poof gone. Body right into the river. Only you can't drug an android."

Finally the android was riding this train with him. "It would be imperative that they couldn't be identified if they are being used for prostitution."

Gavin let go of the back of the chair and instead, put his hand on Richard's shoulder. He then started to shake him lightly. Gavin was practically buzzing with excitement. "Now you're getting it! See if you can find any workers that suddenly left clubs like Eden. Stopped showing up, or started receiving unusual cliental."

"It will take me some time for me to obtain that information. Establishments such as the Eden Club pride themselves on being discrete."

Gavin grinned down at Richard, who was currently staring up at him. "Oh, I'm sure you'll figure something out." He was fairly confident in Richard's abilities. After all, if Connor could crack deviancy and the Jericho case within a week's time, surely Richard could power his way through this. Now that they actually had a direction they were pointed in. It should be fairly easy. Unless this was a dead end, and Gavin was wrong. God he hoped he wasn't wrong.

Well…actually he might want to be wrong. Android prostitution would be difficult to handle.

Gavin let go of Richard and stood up straight. He suddenly felt very light headed. "How long do you think it'll take?" He asked instead, trying to steady himself on his feet. He had moved to try and walk to his desk but the world tipped instead. He didn't hit the ground though. Instead when the world came back into focus, he felt strong arms around him, holding him up in an awkward embrace. "I don't…I feel…ugh," he mumbled as he was hit with sudden nausea.

"You really should rest Detective," Richard's voice said from behind him, right against his ear. Gavin nodded his head slightly. Yeah, rest sounded like a good idea. Richard righted him on his feet, but kept a grip on him in case Gavin's face decided it wanted to become friends with the ground again. He leaned heavily against Richard as they walked back to the rest room. The android steered him back to the bed he had been laying in before he had had his epiphany. Richard laid Gavin down on the bed, bringing the blanket up to cover his body as Gavin's eyes struggled to stay open.

"…know…you'll – with the information," Gavin started to mumble incoherently.

"I'll wake you as soon as I find something Detective. Now rest," Richard promised him before turning to leave. He watched the android's blurry form walk away from him before everything faded to black.


Thank you for reading chapter nine of Blue Blood, Blue Eyes. I apologize for not posting this yesterday. I was so dog beat tired that as soon as I laid down, I passed right out. What was supposed to be a two to three hour nap turned into twelve. I'm so sorry! Please don't hate me! Hopefully Nines and Gavin being buddies again helps.

If you'd like to keep up with updates and my progress, check out my tumblr: pennameab

See you in the next chapter!