Detroit Become Human does not belong to me, I've just done some creative writing with my favorite characters developing new sides of Connor's Deviancy I've not seen yet.
Summary: A year after the events of D:BH a series of un-related murders put the human an android population on edge and at risk of ending their new era of peace and progress forcing a certain Detective to undergo through feelings and emotions he thought he would never feel.
insecurity
2. Like a Picasso painting
The drive to the crime scene had been full of theories of how the precinct would work out now that Fowler had left, if the teams were balanced or if Gavin would break before the end of the month, Connor bet for the later seeing Gavin could have taken not giving in as a way to show defiance instead of submission, which he was sure Matilda wanted anyway, then it moved on to a bet on seeing who would give up first with Hank betting for Matilda and Connor betting for Gavin.
"-you, see? It would mean proving his point Lieutenant, leaving would mean he was wrong and Androids can INDEED replace humans." He told confidently on his bet as Hank let out a little snort.
"Bullshit! He will break soon, Gavin aint' the kind to stand behind a screen all day, even if he goes basically to be useless, he likes to be out there seekin' out to improve his career, ha!" He seemed just as convinced and decided to seal the deal once and for all. "I'll tell you something If you lose you gotta make my delayed paper work from the last 5 years, MANUALLY, no android tricks and bath Sumo for a month." The preposition made the Android detective's led flash yellow with tension for a second imagining the horrid task but nodded.
"Ok, but if I win you'll have to stop drinking for 4 months Lieutenant." The idea almost made his eyes budge out of his sockets but he gave a calculated look at the Android while thinking of the possibilities and reluctantly nodded.
"Deal, we'll set the detail later, we are here." He pointed to the crime scene and the commotion outside of the abandoned building.
Connor adjusted his tie before he got out of the car after the gruff Lieutenant as reporters and interviewers tried to extract any bit of the information of the case, he was used by this scene by now and was quite comfortable with being ignored on these cases as he wasn't as good at public conferences as he was with talking to people one on one, he kept walking behind hand when suddenly a microphone got in between him and his partner's back, the action making him blink stupidly for a second as he stopped himself just in time and backed off a bit. He could have sworn someone was talking to him but he was deafened by the other reporter's voice. If there's this much commotion something horrible must have happened inside…
"-inside this building?"
"….pardon?" It was the only thing that came out of his mouth as he eyed the source of the microphone in front of him, following the lead of it's owner's hand he came to the face of an attractive Chloe model eyeing him as she repeated her question.
"Detective, do you know anything about what happened inside this building? What was the victim's connection to the murder? Could it had been its android?"
"Uh, I-" He was at lost for words, both from his lack of facility to speak in public and the fact he was being for once, ASKED about a case, he would have felt happy about it and about a reporter Android for the first time ever (a show the inclusive initiative was working) if he hadn't felt so unprepared for it.
"Is this the beginning of a new era of hate for android's from humans?" He felt like a deer in lights until Hank intervened before the tumult caused scene over the Chloe model's insinuation and Connor's lack of answers.
"No fuckin' questions until the case is over! Now move it!" He pushed Connor out of the way and inside the building, the blinding lights finally over making it easier for the Android to concentrate.
"You gotta stop acting like a lost puppy on this boy, now that the inclusion initiative is settled this might become a constant for you."
"Thanks, I was certainly… unprepared for such a massive amount of questions, you make it seem easy Lieutenant."
"Years of practice Connor, now let's get in to business." He nodded and kept inside where the team had already numbered the evidence and kept others away.
Just when entering Hank detected the hideous smell of blood and Connor detected the traces of blue plasma, both coming to the immediate conclusion their first sense provided them out loud.
"It's a passionate crime." Started Hank, years of experience letting him know that when a crime scene smelled that intensely it meant it was gruesome and bloody.
"Indeed, the victim was an android." Continued Connor, eyeing the walls and ceiling, which got the senior detective to frown and look at him like he was crazy.
"What are you talking about Connor? The victim had to be an human." Started to say Hank, however Connor shook his head readily, his main source of information being the sensors on his eyes.
"Negative, I know you can't see it but there's copious amounts of evaporated thirium in to the walls and floor suggesting a dismembering." He didn't say this with any positive emotion, but quite sure of his first resolution, however Hank much more experienced and using his 5 senses insisted.
"And I guess you can't smell it because it reeks of dry blood and soap." At this statement Connor frowned, focusing his sensors, yet finding no trace of blood anywhere, finally he came to a logical conclusion as he kneeled down to the floor and licked one of the least evaporated stains of thirium, seeing indeed there was also a trace of industrial soap, sterilizer and chlorine.
"I can detect a variety of cleaning products and thirium, not any blood however, it may be safe to assume if there was blood in the scene it has already been washed over. But why not wash the thirium as well?" From what little Connor could tell of the room where the horrific events had happened, he could tell whoever did this had been careful enough to erase their traces.
"Because they are surely bigoted as hell and thought no one would pay interest on the case if only androids were suspected to be involved, but he surely didn't count on our team being in the case." He kept walking with Connor to the next room where they found the victim in question, which didn't ease Hank's nerves at all, a frown coming to his face as he wondered only one thing. Where's the human's body?
In front of them was what once was a Caucasian male android, Connor recognized the model as an AX 400 through a controlled grimace. The android had been lastly decapitated and put on stick as raised victory flag while his arms rested somewhere down pointing at the rest of the body, abdominal cavity opened with a sickeningly precision with it's organs displayed as one of those medical anatomy dummies, of course as an android version, it was a rather creepy way to see himself from the inside for Connor, he could tell even hank found the scene sickening when he let out a low seethed.
"Fuck! Sick bastard… was he dead when-."
"No… he was alive. He was first de-armed to permit maneuver from it's captor, then promptly eviscerated and finally decapitated, he probably suffered for good 4 hours until he died out of loss of thirium." Connor stated as a matter of fact however there was a somber tone on his words that Hank had hardly seen before, then again he had not seen before such grotesque crime, neither human or android, it surely was more impactful since it was directed at one of his kind.
"I don't like this…." He called in the officer who had cordoned everything and gotten out to take some air, even for humans seeing something so indicative of repressed violence was uncomfortable but he needed some answers. "Boy, tell me how was the body found?"
"It was found by Joel Bennet Lieutenant, he's a homeless man, he said he was seeking a place to spend the night when he came close to the scene and decided to call the cops, he offered fingerprints and samples to assure his innocence." He explained as if that would help discard him as a suspect sooner while Connor kept seeking evidence to the naked eye frantically, led circling between red and yellow as his program reconstructed the murder scene and he felt a pang of empathy for every agonizing second of fear and pain the android surely felt.
"Is that the only body found in the scene?" Pressed Hank with a bit of insistence, trusting his senses about the human blood however the officer shook his head with a somewhat somber look on his eyes, Hank felt calmer at the suspicion he wasn't the only one thinking a human had been victim on all this too.
"Yes Lieutenant, we didn't find anything else, no murder weapon, no hand or foot prints, no hairs… anything, it's a clear murder scene, but you can let Connor give it a look if you wish." Hank nodded and dismissed the officer once more, the Android would have been flattered at such shown of trust on his abilities if he hadn't been so stressed over the whole reconstructed murder scene and lack of evidence. He turned to Hank with a yellow led and he knew that wasn't a good sign.
"Please tell me you spotted at least one more clue aside the body or someone's body hidden in some secret room on this damn building."
"The murder was decisively meticulous with it's actions Lieutenant." Started Connor with a heavy sigh and walked to the center of the room where the biggest leak of thirium had happened. "He severed the android's arms in this place starting with the left one by the messier pattern of thirium here caused by the struggle from the Android, after the cut was done he followed with the other one, by this time it was probable the Android had lost consciousness by thirium loss however he could still fell pain during the rest of the evisceration."
"Fucker played with him until he died." Commented Hank with a heavy sigh while crossing his arms. "Ok, what else?"
"There's clear evidence of the scene being cleaned after the murder however none of the components utilized seem to come from a commercial brand."
"Which makes them untraceable." Finished Hank liking the scene less and less the more they spend there, Connor seemed to share the feeling if his led was any indication.
"Yes, however I've managed to compare it's chemical structures to those of the sterilizers and cleaning supplies often utilized in hospitals." Added Connor, they had at least somewhere to start in there, that seemed to perk Hank as he eyed the body.
"That gives us where to start, look at the cuts, they are done cleanly, I don't know about Android's but on a human murder that's usually indicative of a specialized medic doing a cut." He noted while eyeing the way the cut had perfectly followed the lines of the biocomponents.
"I believe so as well, the cuts are concordant with stainless steel from a scalpel blade meant for chirurgical procedures." Hank seemed to relax a bit at that.
"OK, good that's a good start, anything else?"
"Unfortunately, no, the murder didn't leave any more evidence aside the body on the room, I am quite frazzled at the lack of evidence on this case." He admitted. "There's not a single sign of what humans would leave so I could think an android did this, however even android's would leave some sort of trace of where he or she bought the chemical components or soaps he or she used but I am lost since neither of these chemicals were recognized by my tracking program."
"But don't you have at least a vague idea of how our suspect looks with your scanner thingy?" Pressed Hank hopefully, Connor never had the need to explain how his scene reconstruction worked since they had never been so lost with this level of lack of evidence and the lack of supported help to his partner was getting a bit to him.
"Yes but it's not that simple! Is not like it reconstructs a suspect's whole appearance, age or gender, it would just give me an average height at best as silhouettes fill in the blanks of the events in a chronological order!"
"Woah! Hey calm down! I think we should get out, this crime scene is getting to you." Connor regretted the sudden outburst as soon as it happened, he silently obeyed Hank and they got in to the car, not before Hank gave a very strict "I want that Android in the precinct as soon as possible, got it? We'll have our new doctor check it out." The officer nodded giving the order right away and Hank turned on his seat as tense as Connor to secure his seatbelt, the Android took the chance to properly apologize.
"I'm sorry Hank…" He looked at his hands in unspoken frustration as the senior detective allowed him to explain himself patiently. "I didn't mean to yell at you back then, I just, I have never felt so… useless." Hank's expression softened a bit at this and he put a concealing hand on Connor's shoulder.
"Welcome to reality Connor, this how all us common mortals see a crime scene, don't worry though, we'll trap that motherfucker. I'd like to give a quick patrol first to see if anyone heard anything around and then go to the hospitals, by the time we are back Ada surely would have ran the post-mortem exam already."
"Ada?" Asked Connor with a bit of curiosity as the elder detective started to move on the car.
"She's the medical android that would help us with post-mortem exams, attending officers and all that jazz, I'm sure being an android herself she'll have something good for us when we are back, don't worry son, we'll solve this case." Connor nodded as he looked out of the window and tried to make different combinations with all the chemical components he had found in the floor, maybe one of those combinations would a result in a commercial brand and they could track whoever bought it... maybe.
The afternoon passed with less progress than they had wished, there were no witnesses of any unusual sound or person with a different behavior from normal and upon knowing the main victim had been an android most interest was lost easily which got Hank pissed off for good and Connor a bit annoyed by the time they were back to the precinct. Hank had kept saying they were missing an human victim which Connor couldn't deny or confirm as he couldn't find any trace of human blood in the scene and he couldn't smell it either but he knew whoever killed that android had surely been cautious enough to erase any trace of the other body if it were to exist.
The fact that he, an android made to find every piece of evidence and aid on difficult cases was as lost as his human companion was made him feel incredibly anxious and he found himself fiddling with his coin inside his pocket as he walked to the inside of the precinct following Hank to the new examination room and healing facility. He knew he shouldn't beat himself up over it so much, he knew you couldn't always win a case immediately but the whole situation made him feel vulnerable, and vulnerability was as unpleasant for androids as it was for humans.
"-Hopefully the doctor found something, anything useful on the android's body." He finished a sentence Connor hadn't heard completely, however he did hear the last part and he wasn't quite positive about it either.
"I wish Lieutenant, but I am Cyberlife's latest and most advanced prototype I am supposed to be the one able to find anything within this body if there's a clue, which I didn't." he didn't want to sound pretentious but he wanted to keep himself realist in the obvious outcome he expected, Hank let out a little chuckle.
"We might be surprised, on any case we have to listen to report anyways." He left Connor's pessimist and pretentious (newfound) attitude aside and got inside the examination room with his android partner after him.
They were faced by the same android of before in a metallic table, assembled to keep an anatomical order, however it remained as hurt as it had been before, there were some pictures of biocomponents and injuries over the wall. Trying to ignore the body over the table they turned to the android accommodating the last evidence she found in the body over the wall, Connor seemed skeptical at all that she had found however he kept it to himself as he examined her quickly. An scan of her face revealed the model BS-300 and a small story linked to a pandemic disease over the years 2020, she seemed to be the only prototype done for her kind and the model had been destroyed after the pandemic disease ended.
On the outside an overview of her face let him see immediately that she had been designated to be aesthetically pleasing to humans in a very unconventional way, her eyes were sufficiently big of a honey warm color, slightly hooded giving her a relaxed gentle permanent stare, she had a small dainty nose and a healthy pink color over her cheeks and lips. She was attractive, however not in the way a Chloe model or a Tracy would be, her attractiveness had a pure intention to it, and it gave the perception she was to be trusted and nurturing by nature. Connor had never seen such an attention to detail on Android, not to make them look so gentle, they would normally not have a problem with them having a more neutral facial expression, but even her neutral facial expression radiated gentleness.
She wore a medical Android uniform with white and pink (as per her personal preferences) underneath a laboratory and her long soft brown hair up in a bun that prevented it to get in to the work she was doing briefly after they come, she noticed their presence and turned to them with a gentle smile. "Good afternoon detectives, please come in closer, I have the report ready for you."
Connor could see from the corner of his eye that Hank gave the same 'nice girl' look to her he had given to Chloe and looked at him to signal it in an effort to make him distract his mind a little from his pessimist mood, however he didn't humored the lieutenant, much more interested in the new information she had supposedly found.
"We hope you have something new for us, anything would be useful, really." He found her to let out a little sigh and saw it wasn't much of a good sign, which Connor expected, however he respectfully waited for her to talk.
"He was cut off his limbs, then eviscerated and lastly decapitated just as Detective Connor had predicted, no shown of any other evidence about the murder have been left on the Android's body, however I managed to trace certain chemical components on his thirium that were used to rend him unconscious for enough time to be dragged to the complex where he was attacked."
"My sensors didn't find any chemical inside his body." Connor interjected suddenly, not helping himself from interrupting, discreetly Hank elbowed him when she turned to the side seeking something, which he tried to ignore and then she turned again showing him a paper.
"The components were already quite subtle by the time he died much more when you got to the crime scene, I had to use an specialized spectrophotometer to analyze any and every component in to his thirium and then separate them in to vials, I suspect the substance utilized had been Toluene, your visual sensors wouldn't have been able to detect it detective." She added kindly, not minding much the interruption, Connor seemed obfuscated but remained prudently quiet during her explanation, Hank made a humming motion.
"Isn't that one component of thinner?" He asked with an interested look to the paper, to which she smiled softly.
"Exactly Lieutenant, Toluene it's an universal dissolvent, when it's in contact with thirium this dilutes and loses its capability to correctly bring oxygen to all the biocomponents of the body, the body gives priority to the mind and concentrates the flow of thirium on the intracranial processors which in return makes the lungs and heart less perfused, even though it's a compensatory action to try and keep itself conscious for longer it diminish the oxygen caught by the ventilation system and makes the android's body enter a mode of stasis." She explained with an easy smile, content the Lieutenant had followed her line of thinking, yet missing completely he had lost her at 'dissolvent' when she started to use android medical terminology.
"In English?" He asked as polite as possible, which Connor aided with a bit of hidden embarrassment over not seeing this in the crime scene.
"His thirium becomes more liquid and makes him unconscious."
"Correct detective Connor." She supplied with a smile, taking the paper back and showing a picture next. "He was injected in the neck with a retractable syringe, they were made specially to treat androids and won't leave a mark over synthetic skin, that's why your sensors couldn't detect it either." She explained simple, unaware of Connor's barely noticeable twitch.
"What about the scalpel sweets? Any idea of what brand it is? We could try to search it up that way." He supplied; she opened her mouth but Connor interjected once more.
"If it had been noticeable I would have provided the brand earlier." Hank looked over his shoulder at him with a slight frown, ready to give him a kick under the table, however she interrupted it by agreeing, which only aggravated Connor's nerves a little bit.
"Unfortunately, the detective is right, Lieutenant. The utilized scalpel doesn't have a specific brand, whoever did this manufactured it itself, the same goes for the syringe and the toluene, they must be able to get the chemical products on its base form and combine it somehow." She had general pictures of the other parts of evidence which were not of any use or relevance aside what Connor had found, yet she added something after showing those images. "I also found washed off erythrocytes, most lysed with the cleaning products concordant with human bloo-."
"I knew it! There was a human in there!" Both Connor and Ada looked surprised at the energetic outburst, it was almost as if he had been excited, which Hank noticed and made him feel a bit embarrassed, pointing to Connor instead to excuse his action. "He didn't believe there was an human victim."
"Because there was no human conformed blood in the scene." He added a bit despondent yet equally irked, noticing a rise in both detective's core temperatures and heart rate she got in between with a preoccupied stare and tried to offer a conciliate smile.
"You both were right, it's probably Lieutenant Anderson had noticed with his sense of smell, whereas it was impossible for detective Connor to register blood when the cleaning products had erased and vanished them all away, I found it by mere coincidence running a scan on his skin, I found only 30 scattered erythrocytes, it's not enough to run a genetic study but if it serves of anything the human was AB+."
"It's immensely useful, sweets, thanks a lot." Hank offered feeling they had at least something new to work with, to which she responded smiling brightly and saying a content 'your welcome.' Hank momentarily turned at Connor with a paternal reproaching stare as he kept silent until it was strong enough for him to mutter a begrudging 'Thanks.' After that they both left the room and walked towards their desks, however Hank stopped Connor from his shoulder before he could get any further. "Ok, what's the deal with you?"
"I don't get what you mean." Lied poorly the detective android, left already giving away his distress and annoyance, Hank crossed his arms over his chest and let out a scoff.
"I mean that shitty attitude you've been having ever since she started talking, I thought you would be happy with the additional information, now we can try to seek which human had been in the scene and work on a trail, is not a lot but is definitely much better than what we had before." Connor looked to the side, seemingly bothered by something Hank couldn't pin point yet.
"I didn't have a shitty attitude." He mimicked in a collected tone. "I merely stated what I had found in the crime scene and asked her about her tests, I thought we could have access to that kind of information." Hank could tell he was seeking a good way to excuse himself but he wouldn't let him slip off of this so easily.
"There's way to make questions and yours were unnecessarily aggressive to someone who was only helping us, Gavin Reed reminds you of anyone?" He kept on a stern gaze but Connor was unwilling to relent, simple stating a quiet
"I don't know what you mean, I wasn't being aggressive." And sitting on his desk to investigate if any case on the data base could be related to this or give him a further idea of where to investigate, Hank for the other part let out an exasperated sigh and went to talk to Matilda, he knew doing this would be pulling at strings but by this point he couldn't truly miss any chance to get more evidence on the case.
He noted the serious looking Captain eyeing some documents and cybernetically making orders with her android interface when he entered, she didn't seem to mind his intrusion, actually expecting information on the case, but by her sour look he could tell she already knew it wasn't going to be easy to solve. She signaled to his chair and let out a troubled sigh.
"How bad is it?" Hank wasn't the kind to lie on daily basis, much less when it came to work, even if it meant a shitty day for a brand new Captain on the precinct she had to know the seriousness of this situation and make a plan to face the upcoming days.
"Shitty." He said curtly, leaning to the desk as he gave her a direct stare. "The scene was the gory crazy type you find in horror movies, whoever did this definitely has some screws loose, and he is intelligent, there were no evidence to work with left behind, not even Connor could find something useful with his sensors." While saying this he gave his partner a discreet look, he seemed still deep in though as he analyzed every bit of information for the 6th time, hoping he had lost a detail while digitally downloading the cases that included 'dismembering' and 'evisceration'.
"Did you get anything out from the body?" She didn't sound hopeful which Hank seemed was good, it was better if Matilda prepared for rough upcoming days.
"They drugged him with Toluene and used a manufactured scalpel and chemicals to clean, I don't think we'll go further away with it, but Ada did find something useful." He added as he straightened on his seat. "She said there was a weak but still present trace of blood in the body, it was AB+, it's not very common, not enough for a genetic exam but we could seek if there has been disappearances of someone with that blood type lately."
"Do you suspect the second victim to be a human without a body?" She asked carefully as Hank leaned back.
"Unless the ally was willing to lose its weight in blood, I have a strong feeling about this, you don't spend years in the force without developing a keen sense for these things, only problem is the asshole left the crime scene cleaner than this precinct and he used its own manufactured cleaning products." Matilda let out a heavy sigh and Hank sympathized with the android captain, this case could very well put her on a very good look or a very bad one with the android community and with how things were it seemed easy to fuck up. "Have the press said anything?"
"They want to eat me alive... that fucking reporter is eager to make scandalous notes of android hate crimes with this news, think her name is Cindy, could have deviated to be a good android but she turned out to be a bitch, wonders of Deviancy." She muttered sourly.
"You mean the Chloe model? Yeah I remembered her being quite insistent with Connor and her questions, he was kind of dizzy with the wall of questions back then." He noted making a mental note to keep tabs on her just in case. "But you'll put up that research for me, right? About the AB+ disappeared humans in the last month?"
"It's not like we have any better cue of where to start, don't we?" Hank shook his head and she sighed. "Great... I'll tell one of the intel guys to make a post about it." Hank nodded thanking her curtly and stopped midway in the door, turning back a bit and letting out a heavy sigh, his stupid bet wasn't more important than a crazy murder in the loose.
"Look, I know Gavin is a bigoted asshole and he did you good, but he isn't as shitty of a detective when a case interests him, and you need all the help you can have now, besides... If we confirmed the human death this would pertain human homicides too."
"Absolutely no." She said with unbreakable conviction. "This is still only ONE case and it doesn't require more than one team of detectives on it, besides... someone has to teach him the meaning of the word NO." She looked back at her screen as she made some of the currently discussed tasks at hand. "Close the door when you leave."
Seeing it as a lost cause Hank came out of the Officine and sat down with Connor, the deviant android had already finished his research and kept on a collected posture, yet his led gave away the subtle distress in his mind as he let it out before Hank had even the chance to ask himself. "There's not a single record in the archive that gives us a pattern or anything close to the case we just saw." Connor remembered the dreading feeling of a cold case from his first investigation regarding the deviancy and despised how similar this felt with just one case. "Lieutenant... when there's not a trace to follow on an investigation or evidence then... what do you do?"
"You keep indagating... finding shadows on odd angles from something you already saw about 50 times and wait." This last part was what Connor wasn't particularly keen on doing and he made it evident speaking with a somber tone.
"I don't want any other android to suffer as this one did... I wouldn't forgive myself if-."
"Don't." Interrupted Hank wisely, making Connor look up with a controlled stare. "Murder is gonna happen whether you slack off all day or slave yourself working, son. It's not your fault some fucker is out there dismembering androids because he is a bigoted asshole so you can't blame yourself if it happens again, all you can do is keep indagating until then and be readier for the second strike." Connor's led transitioned from red to yellow to signal his eventual decrease of stress and eventually in to a flickering blue, for the good of his people, and Detroit, he hoped Hank was right
It turned out the second strike wasn't too long away from the first, in between other Android related minor cases (mostly assaults, human harassing and disturbs against androids), and Hank and Connor's constant search for evidence or clues as to where they could have missed something (all inconclusive), the press and mediatic movements had diminished considerably, however Markus had asked Connor personally to keep tabs in to the case and inform him of anything, it was evident that the whole situation had moved androids and left them feeling slightly vulnerable, which only heightened Connor's sense of responsibility. He would work until the last minute in the office then get back home with Hank and keep working until the gruff detective would force him to sleep under the excuse his led wouldn't let Sumo sleep, by then it was usually 2 am, and Connor found resignation only to repeat it for the next day.
It went on like that for 3 weeks, arriving on Monday morning felt an unusual pressure on the back of his head but he made the best effort to ignore it, immediately going to the computer to see if there was any progress with the search of missing persons with AB+ blood, however the few missing ones had no way to be connected to their particular case and the other calls seemed as inconclusive as the rest of the evidence they had found. Hank sat on his own end of the desk as he sipped of his coffee and gave Connor a scrutinizing look, he was well aware the last days had been quite stressing on the android and he hadn't been getting the proper rest he was used to have and he could get why seeing he was one of the main connection's his community had with Detroit's police department but he had to learn he didn't have to carry that weight alone anymore.
"Uh Connor? Think you can look at me for a second?" The android's led hadn't been blue once since this morning and it had him worried, he hadn't seen something like this on his partner before. Connor looked after some seconds of eyeing some camera recordings in hopes of seeing the suspect carried the once dead android, led ever as yellow as it was and a slight tilt of his head signaling the pain he wasn't willing to admit.
"Yes, Lieutenant?"
"Everything alright? If I didn't know you were an android, I'd say you'll get sick." Connor made what Hank could only define as a weirded-out face.
"Android's can't get sick, Hank." Connor supplied as he leaned back on his chair and took the chance to rest his tension meanwhile Hank wanted to have him occupied on this conversation.
"As far as we knew they couldn't have feelings either and here we are... you should go seek the Doctor, get something for your tension, if you keep on like this you'll get blocked." He advised sagely, years of experience backing him up, however Hank found with little surprise the mention of this idea made Connor's lip twitch in repressed annoyance and look back at his screen.
"I don't need to see that doctor; we should be seeking more leads for the case of before." He resumed looking at the screen with a sour frown leaving Hank with no other option.
"Ok then, change of plans... you go see any doctor, take anything for your distress or 1 free hour I don't care which or I'll ask for a reassignment on the case." Connor looked up sharply at such drastic ultimatum, as if he couldn't believe it, but it was real and it was happening. "You are overstressing with this case, and overworking yourself to madness. Don't think I haven't noticed how you work until 2 in the morning and wake up 3 hours earlier than usual. You are irritable and snappy and a bit antisocial... not that you were the most social android out there but you sure made greater effort to greet everyone in mornings." Connor seemed to take offense at the comment about his mental health and he stubbornly looked to the side.
"I am just trying to solve the case..."
"And I told you to wait it out and work at a steady patient pace, neither of which you have done. So you choose, or I'm going over to that office and tell Matilda for your own good." Connor tensed and his led circled red for a second before he stood up curtly and looked away from Hank, going towards some other side of the bullpen, Hank let out a sigh reminding himself it was for his own good.
Connor for his part felt bothered and edgy about the whole situation, seeing the imposed rest as a waste of time but obligating to avoid being left out of the case. He wasn't in the mood to go see a doctor, knowing he wasn't sick and wouldn't get any improvement from going to the medical ward in the precinct, his other options were reduced, one being the lonely interrogation rooms, the archives and the cafeteria zone. Opting for the closest and least bothersome he walked towards where the resting place for most cops was.
He walked towards where the seats were, hoping that if he sat down a bit hank would be satisfied, however before he could enter he felt a rough shove on his shoulder and stepped a bit to the left as someone else walked in, as if the shove hadn't been any indication the leather jacket and the 'move it tin can!' let him know a very Caffeine deprived Gavin Reed was in need for a refill, Connor dusted off his shoulder where he had touched him, a slight frown on his face as he adjusted his tie and kept walking inside. Now he normally wouldn't care much whether Gavin or not had his coffee refilled (he would never forget) but even from his current position he could see Gavin, for lack of better terms, looked like shit.
He had heavy bags under his eyes, his hair was a mess (a result from constantly pulling at it in exasperation) and he kept mumbling curses to himself under his breath, most of them including androids and Matilda as a subject of hate, if Connor didn't know any better he would say he was about to crack from Matilda's punishment, which made him worried about his and Hank's little bet, if Gavin's pride didn't keep him from giving up HE would be the one suffering the same punishment. A shiver ran down his spine and he decided he should do something about it.
Wouldn't that count as cheating? A somewhat unfamiliar voice that sounded oddly like him resonated in the back of his head, the motion made him blink in confusion and he considered for a moment Hank's suggestion to go see the doctor, as now seemingly he was hearing voices inside his head, or well rather... his own voice reprimanding him, as if that wasn't odd enough. Unfamiliar with the personification of 'conscience' as a little voice inside he felt confused, but not convinced to not go with his little ploy to avoid losing, he was after all a stubborn android.
Against his better judgement he got closer to the zombie-like detective that was (for once) calmly sipping on his coffee without seeking who to bother and stood in front of him (unnoticed by Gavin's mental exhaustion) unsure of how to approach his persuasion better he decided to go by a greeting, clearing his throat to make his presence known, making Gavin look up at him with an mixture of anger and confusion.
"Hello Detective Reed! How are you this morning?"
"What the fuck do you want tin can?! If you come to laugh at me you better back the fuck off before I blow your head off!" Connor wasn't all that surprised by the aggressive tone, it was normal on him, his lack of reaction only fueled the detective's anger yet Connor tried to speak his case before he exploded on him.
"It comes to my attention you have high stress levels and the starts of presbyopia as a result from looking at your computer for the last 20 days on your punishment-."
"And whose fault you think that is, you asshole?! You fucken' androids come here take everyone's job and then pull on this fucking shit on us! But just you wait, I'll get out of that damned archive room and that plastic bitch will regret sending me down there!" He blinked nonplused at the interruption and sighed.
"Right, but I was willing to offer you my assistance at least with some cases, as you very well know I can digitalize archives more efficiently and faster than you can." He supplied politely, which was the wrong thing to say, making Gavin fume and stand picking Connor by the neck of his suit.
"Are you trying to tell me you are BETTER than me?! Gavin can't digitalize some fucking archives but it's so simple so I will do it, is that it?!" Connor's led flicked red for a fraction of a second despite his headache and composed face, resisting the urge to accommodate and dust off his suit as he knew that would set the detective in a worse mood he merely stared and shook his head.
"I'm merely offering assistance in task I can perform more efficiently due more programming, there's no need to act so aggressive about-." He stopped mid-sentence, a sudden look of realization on his face as Hank's words from 15 days ago suddenly echoed on his mind and made Connor look at himself in a very unflattering light.
He remembered his attitude from 20 minutes ago and felt even more ashamed, subconsciously he linked his insecurity about this inability to register enough evidence on their current unsolved murder to the medical android that had found more than he could, the same way Gavin aggressively down talked him, bullied him and insulted him out of his insecurity to be replaced by an android, to see himself in the mirror of someone he had often despised made him completely forget about why he had been offering help to begin with and made Gavin let go with a light swat of his hands before he walked off as he adjusted his tie.
The human detective for the other part, utterly confused by Connor's sudden freeze and subsequent fled stood there after cursing him out loud once or twice and refilling his coffee once more before he walked down to the archive, more determined than ever to show him and everyone in the precinct off he wouldn't be broken down by some dumb captain android, Connor's persuasion working on a way not even the Android could have fathom, however he wasn't focused on that anymore.
He walked with a decided pace towards the medical examination room settled for the BS-300 and Jerry Model, finding with little surprised they had one of the receptionists there, being given a general check up by the Jerry model as Ada looked over at his handywork and couched him with a gentle looking smile, Connor felt suddenly awkward and at loss of how to start with an apology (it was the first time he would have had to give one out of an attitude that ashamed him to even remember) and finally settled for making his presence known with a light clearing of his throat. Ada was the first one to turn (seeing the Jerry was focused on his examination) followed by detective Diego who waved at him politely with a smile and stayed still for the most part with his led flickerin on a constant yellow.
"Hello detective Connor, how could I help you out?" She let the Jerry with his own task and approached Connor with cautious wording, not wanting to set off something to bother him, an action that wasn't lost on the Android and made him want to reach for his coin and toss it to distract himself out of his own emotions.
"Hello doctor, I had a free moment and... I reflected my behavior of 2 weeks ago, I found myself oddly ashamed by it as it reminded me of someone unpleasant, I'd like to apologize over it." The android doctor seemed surprised by the sudden apology, yet she accepted it with a more welcoming smile that made Connor release a breath he didn't know he was holding.
"I see, don't worry detective, I know your line of work, specially your section can put a lot of pressure in to you back and you came back from a rather stressing afternoon that day." She supplied this as honey colored eyes set on his face making an autonomous scanning of his overall health state and noticing a slight discomfort she wasn't sure whether Connor would mind pointed out or not.
"Still it wasn't right, I thought it would have been in our best interest if I apologized, I somehow can see us meeting each other more often if this murder were to strike again." He admitted relieved about her understanding nature and finding much easier to talk in a normal conversation now that the tension between them had been dissipated.
"Do you have any lead about the murder, Connor? I've heard it had the community quite worried-."
"Stay still detective!" Commanded Jerry almost in plea, making Diego mumble a quiet 'sorry' and give Connor a look about how he would have wanted that conversation continued later, Ada for her part found the situation somewhat endearing as she silently motioned for them to go out of the examination room so they could talk without distracting neither the detective or medical assistant. Connor followed close behind and let out a little smile as well at the situation before he eyed her once more.
"May I ask you a somewhat... personal question, detective?" She asked unable to help herself, to which Connor nodded finding odd being asked the same he often asked Hank when he first met him. "Why were you so assertive with me in particular?" The careful choosing of her words was not lost on Connor though he was sure it had more to do with her original programming than with an extra consideration for his comfort. The question itself proved to be quite hard to answer since it made him have that churning feeling of shame tightening in the pit of his stomach as he admitted he would have rather take to his grave (but he owed her that much).
"I guess I just felt... insecure." He admitted after a pause, making her blink in wonder as he elaborated, led never ceasing to cycle yellow. "The crime scene of 2 weeks ago was the first one where I couldn't find any evidence that gave us a clear trail to follow in an investigation, I am often being told by humans on this precinct and androids at Jericho how resourceful I am since I am Cyberlife's most advanced protocol in history, to see myself completely useless on a scene got me distressed for some reason, and then after that when we came back you had found way more things that I could myself, it just made the feeling worse."
She could understand what he meant, and from her position it made sense he felt that way, however she didn't wish the sentiment was permanent so she let a hand rest on his shoulder in a concealing manner as she spoke softly.
"You shouldn't worry about that detective, we have been made for different purposes, I found more things merely because my sensors and construction was meant for it, just as yours was made to make you an excellent detective, I assure you that if I were given a gun I'd drop it at least 3 times before even getting to aim." She offered him a friendly smile and Connor was glad they settled the problem once and for all, with his earlier insecurity vanishing for good he found himself a bit less tense than he had been some minutes ago.
"I'm glad you understand, I felt a bit less distressed now." He looked at the clock over the wall noticing he had already spent half an hour since Hank told him to get a break and decided it could be a good time to be back, however perplexed about her knowledge on what Hank called Android's health and wishing to rid of the uncomfortable pressure on his head for good he permitted himself to admit one last thing (it wasn't as if Hank was there to give him an 'I told you so') "Before I go, is it possible if you do something about my head? It's been killing me for the last weeks." To this he only received a smile as she gladly took him in to the examination room.
It took her another half an hour to fix the problem, but once she did, he felt much better, apparently the constant use of his intracranial processors on his obsessive seek for evidence or clues had made more thirium to be pumped to his head, without the stress receding the thirium kept filling it until the pressure was enough to cause him not only mental exhaustion but a sensation close to physical pain (experienced by some deviants), after she manually drained the area he felt much better to keep going and found that the world hadn't stopped neither a serial killing happened for taking only an hour of his time off.
He made a mental note to thank Hank about as he walked back to his desk feeling better than ever, yet the freeing sensation he had lasted but some moments as he got closer to the desk seeing Hank taking his things with a troubled face, reading himself to leave, Connor let out an honest "I don't like that face..." Before they were set to go.
Arriving to this murder scene wasn't any different from the one from two weeks ago save for the car ride, they were both in concentrated silence as Hank drove them there, wondering what would they find once they arrived to the crime scene. Subconsciously, Connor made an mental note not to get frustrated at the lack of evidence (if there was) this time, to avoid blocking himself like it happened before and to avoid reporters, he preferred to appear a little boy hidden behind Hank's coat than to stumble stupidly for words as multitude of lights pointed at him, dealing with them would come with time. Stepping out of the car they walked inside as quick as possible while two cops flanked the crime scene, apparently one of the pictures of the murder had infiltrated to the media and the situation was going to get crazy, after they entered, they understood why.
"Son of a bitch!" Hank's disdain was evident as he winced away from the scene for a second a ran a hank through his hair, while Connor's lip twitched as only sign of discomfort. Before them was a grotesque spotless crime scene.
This time there were no signs of blood, or thirium, the room was clean, not a single thing out of place as not to take any attention from the masterpiece before they very eyes, Hank found it fucked up, while Connor on his most modest vocabulary catalogued it as decisively vicious. Supported by some metal stan where the legs of what used to be 2 androids, carefully cut to ensemble like pieces of a whole and messily stitched through their artificial skin and part of their plastimetal frame with thick colored threats, the two lower halves were nude showing perfectly shaved pubis and genitals by the odd position of the legs in order to keep them open in their repellent sexual glory.
Two mismatched eyes where forced down on each of their clitoris giving them the appearance of belonging there by original design due the careful ensemble by the perpetuator of the crime, even though they were well aware that was not their natural place and 2 pairs of perfectly dissected nipples where accommodated at each side of them in odd angles, giving the macabre creation the appearance of 2 deformed faces facing one another. Hank was pretty sure if Dick had already cordoned and numbered the evidence, he has taken a breath for piece of mind, it didn't matter if they used to be android's, their human resemblance was enough to make anyone shiver and get the media crazy about what happened.
Without scanning anything, without activating any sensors, Connor's kept staring through the exhibited massacre with his led cycling yellow, as his memory overflowed with images until it stopped at a particular journal, one he read once at Markus', belonging of his father Carl a lover of arts, and then it slipped of his lips as the memory unlocked the name he was missing.
"They are assembled like Picasso painting."