Chicago: Become Human

Chapter Seven: Synthetic

"Samantha!" Connor lurched forward and was immediately jerked back by the seat belt. LED flickering red, he nearly ripped it from the car trying to get out. He scrambled out and around, glancing wildly into the darkness. Nothing and no one else was on the road. He wasn't able to see which direction they had gone, he had only seen those arms.

"Conn-!" He heard Samantha's voice get cut off from somewhere in the darkness across the road. The android immediately charged in that direction. He heard the gun a fraction of a second before he felt the impact as the bullet hit him in the upper arm.

Whoever had Samantha was armed. As he activated his infrared vision, he saw that there was more than one. Three unknown human attackers with Samantha's struggling body being dragged among them to a large utility van. That made four to contend with, including the driver.

Connor ducked behind a tree as more bullets were fired. Removing his own gun from its holster located beneath the back of his vest, Connor smoothly peered out and made one shot. The amount of bullets he had were few, so he needed to make each one count. The gunman fell as he was shot through the head and now there were only three humans left.

.

"Conn-" She had tried to scream for him, but a gloved hand over her mouth cut her off. When his silhouette appeared up by the road, one of her attackers opened fire. Samantha immediately feared she had only led Connor to his death.

She watched in horror as Connor's form seemed to jerk back. She tried to scream again, tell him to run, to save himself, but that disgusting hand was pressed hard to her face. The man who held her snapped her around and she lost sight of him as a second man helped to lift her off the ground. As they carried her to a dark, unmarked utility van, Samantha thrashed harder. She knew if they got her in that van, no one would ever see her again.

Bang.

The sound of a single gunshot and they were suddenly all sprayed with blood as the head of the third man they were with exploded.

"Holy shit!" squawked the man that held her mouth.

"Go! Get her in the van!" the second man barked. He let go of Samantha, dropping her legs to grab his gun. All Samantha could see were the sparks from the gun as the man fired into the darkness.

With a great heave, Samantha was dragged into the van through the side door. She immediately kicked from the arms that held her and lurched for the doors in the back. She yanked the handle and the doors opened easily. She leaped for freedom, only to have the man grab her ankle at the last second. She tripped and fell, banging her chin on the back frame of her exit.

While she was stunned, the man climbed over her, pinning her down. One glance up by the internal vehicle light and Samantha felt the horror of recognition when she saw the man's face. She wasn't even able to react before a meaty fist collided with her face. He punched her one more time for good measure.

"Don't you move or I'll snap your fucking neck," his dark voice growled at her. "You know I don't have to bring you in alive."

Samantha knew. These people didn't need her life, just everything else of her. Not that she had the ability to fight back. Her whole world was spinning and blinking in and out from the facial blows. She was vaguely aware the other man jumped into the van and screamed "DRIVE!"

The driver put the vehicle into gear and stepped on the gas. The van lurched roughly over the uneven terrain as they barreled through the woods for the road. It was so rough, one of the bumps seemed to come from the roof of the vehicle.

"Son of a bitch got me!" hissed the second man. He clutched his leg which was bleeding freely.

"When the hell did they get a bodyguard?" the first man demanded.

"It's a fucking android!"

"With a gun? Bullshit! Androids can't shoot people!"

"Didn't you see the arm band? It's an android!"

That statement was punctuated with two gun shots. They came from outside, on the hood of the van. Both bullets went into the brain of the driver. He immediately went limp and the vehicle slowed to a stop. All was silent inside, save for the idling engine. Both men were frozen where they were, looking at each other with wide eyes. The man that had Samantha pressed a gloved hand to her mouth. Everyone held their breaths and listened as slow, measured steps walked across the hood of the van.

The second man with the wounded leg suddenly snapped and fired through the roof multiple times. The van teetered as something heavy jumped off the top. Silence again. The second man, breathing hard, dared to peer out the side window. A bullet immediately went through the glass and through his eye. He instantly crumpled to the floor, blood leaking freely.

"Shit!" the last man hissed. "Shit! Shit!"

Samantha cried out in hurt and surprise when he grabbed her by the hair and dragged her out the back. With fingers still gripping the hair at the back of her skull, she felt the second hand point a gun to her temple as he faced her toward the darkness.

"Alright, android!" the man called into the night. "Get the hell out here or this girl's brains are going to join all the others." Silence came from the woods. "Right now!" he tried again. "You have until the count of three or I'm pulling the trigger. One. T-"

"Alright, don't shoot! I'm coming," came a voice from the woods.

The man positioned himself safely behind Samantha's body as the familiar blue glow of Connor's arm band appeared in the darkness. His LED, glowing bright red, highlighting one side of his stern face. The android's form came into view as he grew closer, gun in hand trained on both of them.

"Let her go or I will kill you," Connor told the man in a matter-of-fact voice.

"You put that gun down or she's the one that's going to die!" the man threatened, jerking Samantha by the hair to prove his point.

Connor continued to move in, gun still aimed. As he came closer, he saw the blood dripping from Samantha's noise. His LED grew a hotter red and began to flicker.

"Did you hurt her?!" he snapped in a voice Samantha had never heard Connor use before. "Were you the one who hurt her?!"

They could feel Connor's rage from there. The man knew this machine meant to kill him. "You stay right where you are, android! Don't you dare fucking move!" In his panic he moved the gun from Samantha's head to point it at Connor.

The second he removed the threat from Samantha, Connor pulled the trigger. At the same time, the man realized his mistake. It would have been a deadly mistake, but the bullet never came. Connor pulled the trigger, but the clip was empty. He had used them all.

The man saw this. He sneered just as the empty gun was thrown at him with blinding speed. He tried to duck the projectile, but Connor was already racing at him, bodily throwing himself toward the danger. One shot rang out into the air and the man was down, Connor on top of him. Immediately, the human struggled and the android responded by punching him in the face. The force of an android's strength was more than any human. And Connor used his full force. The first punch caused the human's entire body to jerk in shock. The second punch was wet as the bones in the face caved in. The third and the fourth splattered blood on the android, but he did not stop.

"Connor!"

He immediately froze as Samantha barked his name. The second he stopped, Samantha, the discarded gun in her hand, fired on the body. Three shots were left in the gun. Samantha unloaded them all into her would-be kidnapper. And long after the gun was spent she was still pulling the trigger over and over, eyes wide and haunted.

She didn't stop until Connor was in her space, gently removing the gun from her hands.

"Samantha."

She couldn't stop staring at the bloody corpse. Her whole body shook, her knees felt ready to give out, but she couldn't stop staring. "It was him," she found herself saying in a hollow voice. "He was the same one from the first time. I know his voice, that face. I'll never forget it."

That voice haunted her in her nightmares still.

Connor said nothing. He did not ask about her words. Instead, he wiped the gun clean of her prints and left it at the scene before escorting her away.

.

The moment Samantha was taken, Connor had radioed the security team. It was only a few minutes after it was all over that lights appeared both on the road and from the woods. Samantha and Connor were still at the scene, sitting in Samantha's car in the back seat. She was in the middle. He sat at the driver's side, back door open and one foot out. Garrett had radioed back with specific instructions that they were not to leave the scene. Connor would have preferred to get Samantha back to the house, but those were not his orders. He could only bypass them if he thought Samantha was still in danger. The probability that there were further threats out there was low, therefore Connor was forced to obey and stay in the car.

The off-road vehicle pulled up on the opposite side of the road, headlights on the car. Connor's eyes were on it sharply as he saw humans climb out. Though not in their view, he had a gun at his side—one he had stolen from one of the bodies. He fingered the trigger as he watched one of the humans begin to approach. His LED flickered red.

The blare of a horn broke the android's stare as a dark truck pulled up between the two parties. Connor's grip on the gun tightened.

"Connor, it's Garrett," a male voice came from an outside speaker on the truck. "We're all friendlies here, stand down."

The driver's side window rolled down and Garrett's familiar face could be seen. Connor relaxed and took his finger off the trigger.

With the truck still running, Garrett stepped out and glanced into the car. "Connor, give me the gun." The android was hesitant, but handed over the weapon. "How's Sam? She okay?"

"They hurt her," came the caustic response from the android. The tone made Garrett's hair stand on end.

"I'm fine," Samantha insisted, though her voice was shaky. She still had dried blood on her face and neck. "Nothing serious."

"Okay." Garrett slapped the hood of the car. "Sit tight. Paramedics are coming. I'll be right back." He turned as one of his team was rounding the truck to meet him and everyone in the vicinity got an earful from the chief of security. "McKinsey! What the hell do you think you're doing? That fucking android just killed a whole fuck-ton of people and you were going to walk right up to it without identifying yourself?! The fuck's wrong with you! Fuck!"

There were mumbled apologies from somewhere in the darkness and then the off-road vehicle drove down the embankment toward what remained of a failed kidnapping attempt. The two were left alone in the car, Garrett's truck still running idle on the road. Connor's gaze remained fixated protectively out into the night until he felt a weight on his shoulder. Samantha had sagged against him, her cheek on his shoulder. She was only there for a moment before she felt wetness against her arm. She pulled back and, by the inside light of the car, saw blue liquid on her arm. It had soaked through the white material of the android's sleeve.

"Connor, are you hurt?" she asked. Her body started shaking again.

"I don't hurt, I can't feel pain," he assured her. "My arm is slightly damaged, but nothing vital. I have already rerouted the bleeding."

He hoped this explanation would placate her, but Samantha only seemed more distressed.

"This is all my fault," she sniffled, trying not to cry. "I'm so stupid, sneaking off to some dumb party, pretending everything is normal. I put us in danger. I deserve this happening, you don't, Connor. I'm so sorry."

Connor just watched her, his LED spinning yellow in confusion. The actions of evil humans were not Samantha's fault. He did not understand this line of thinking from her. She was in distress and Connor was at a loss. He had killed everything that was a threat to her. Why was his human still in distress?

"Samantha, don't be sorry. This is my job. I have protected you. Everything is okay," he informed her. "You don't have to be scared now."

"I am always scared." Her voice was tight, throat constricting as she fought back her emotions. "This isn't living, this is torture. I wanted to be braver. I wanted to go out sometimes and pretend I'm not afraid for my life every day."

Every day? Connor's LED flickered red for just a moment before going back to yellow. Samantha felt this way, felt this fear for her life, every day? He had not realized. And he could not blame her. Tonight proved her fear was reasonable. He did not know what to tell her.

The flash of emergency lights shown in the distance and soon the entire area was swarmed with police. An ambulance pulled up and paramedics helped clean Samantha up under Connor's watchful eye. She looked better without the blood on her. Her face was swollen, but nothing broken. The skin on her chin had been scraped off, but nothing bleeding at the moment.

Forensic analysts came and took samples from Connor. He didn't realize how much human blood he had on him until they swabbed his bloody knuckles and the red flecks on his face. Police officers questioned them both as to what happened. Connor took initiative to answer most of the questions himself. He knew how to put together a report precisely and accurately. Garrett was called over as they talked.

"So, this is your android, huh?" the officer asked.

"It belongs to the Hall Foundation. It's a security bot."

"It killed several people tonight. Humans, Mr. Brant. Androids aren't supposed to be able to hurt people, let alone kill them. Bypassing these protocols is a felony offense."

"Everything on this android is legal. He and his gun are both registered with the state and county as weapons. He's in the testing phase of using a new program that allows force—lethal if necessary—against those seeking to take the life of the person they're protecting. These bots are being developed specifically for the police force. I've got permits and paperwork and all that stuff."

The officer gave Connor the stink eye. "Yeah, so let's say that android is legal. Is it safe?"

"What? Of course it is! Look at it!" Garrett motioned to Connor. "Here we are surrounded by people—several of them armed—I might add, and he's docile as a kitten. He's harmless. He knows the difference between good people and bad. And those were bad people tonight. They came with guns and they came ready to kill. Miss Hall would probably be dead if it weren't for that android."

The officer glared at Connor again. "Maybe so. But it just seems if a man shoots another man, he outta feel something about it afterwards. Maybe lose a little sleep over it. Even if the bastard had it coming."

"Well I certainly won't be losing any sleep over it," Garrett insisted.

In the background, Connor's sensitive hearing picked up another conversation from a group police officers a few yards away.

"Elliot Hall's her dad? Of the Hall Foundation?" one officer was saying. "No wonder these guys were desperate to get a hand on this girl. The company's worth billions. That would be a fat ransom."

"I thought Elliot Hall's daughter died," stated another.

"Then who's that standing over there, genius," stated a third. "Looks pretty alive to me. Come on."

Connor watched the police go, but did not say anything.

.

It was very late by the time Samantha was finally allowed to leave the crime scene. Police were still there and probably would be all the next day. Samantha didn't care. She didn't plan on leaving the house ever again after that night. All she wanted was to curl up in the shower and cry it all away.

While she was in the bathroom, shower water running, Garrett was at the table with Connor. He had ripped off the android's soiled sleeve and had a tool box opened next to him. He attempted to repair what he could of the bullet hole in Connor's arm.

"Hey so... listen," Garrett started, a pair of pliers sticking into Connor's arm. "No matter what anyone says about what happened tonight, you did the right thing, okay?"

"Yes, Sir," Connor agreed. "They were using lethal force. I only reacted in kind to protect Samantha's life. I followed the proper protocols given to me in my program."

Garrett glanced up at the android's face as he clipped a few exposed wires. "Did you, though?"

Connor looked at him. "What do you mean?"

"Most of those were clean kills. But that last guy, you pummeled him into the ground. You caved his face in with your bare fist and then you shot him. Three times."

Samantha had been the one to shoot him, but Connor did not offer a correction. He was completely okay with taking the blame for all of it.

"You were mad at this guy," Garrett said.

"Androids don't feel emotion. They don't get mad."

"This guy hurt Sam and you were furious," Garrett insisted. "You wanted to make him hurt. You wanted to see him bleed for what he did. Revenge, Connor, is not in an android's protocols."

Connor said nothing. He looked at Garrett for a moment more and then went back to staring straight ahead. His LED, however, kept flickering between blue and yellow.

"Alright, that's about the best I can do," Garrett announced, letting the subject go. He took a moment to survey his repair work on the android. "The leaking should have stopped, but I'm going to plug the hole and wrap it just in case. Don't want blue blood dripping everywhere."

"That should be fine, Sir," Connor agreed tonelessly.

All he had on hand was medical gauze, so Garrett stuffed the bullet wound and wrapped it as if it were a human's injury. "We'll call Cyberlife in the morning and see if we can get you proper repairs. Are you good to preform your responsibilities tonight or should I call in more of my guys?"

"I am still fully functional. My thirium levels are only slightly depleted. In a worse-case scenario I could run at ninety-five percent for the next two days and at seventy-three percent for another four."

Garrett slapped Connor on the back in a friendly gesture as he stood. "Don't worry, we won't make you wait that long."

.

Samantha's eyes snapped open in the dark and she was back there. Men dressed all in black shouting at each other, holding her down. That heavy fear of knowing her last minutes were up crashed down on her hard. She sat up, clutching her chest as she tried to breathe. Her heart felt like it was in a vice, her skin crackled from adrenaline as if she had her finger in an electric socket. Every molecule was on fight or flight mode.

She sat in bed, in her dark, empty room and tried to tell herself everything was okay. The danger was gone, she was safe. Safe for now. Safe only until the next time. And maybe the third time, she would not survive it.

Another wave of panic threatened to swallow her and Samantha hugged herself as she tried to ride it out. "Everything's going to be fine, you're okay. Everything's going to be fine, you're okay," she chanted to herself over and over as she rocked.

Her heart would not stop pounding. She needed her medication.

"Connor?" she called from her bed.

No answer. She listed to the house above the pounding in her ears and everything was silent. Shivering, she padded out into the hall and looked around. No floating blue lights from his arm band or his LED.

"Connor?" She tried to will a new kind of panic from setting in. She was all alone in the house. Had something happened to him? "Connor! Please answer me."

Nothing.

No. He couldn't be gone. She called his name several more times before stumbling to the back door and flinging it open. She threw herself outside onto the lawn. "Connor! Connor!"

Dear God, no. He was gone. They took him. He killed people tonight and they took him away while she was sleeping. Her world shattered. Everything that was her fell into pieces on the ground and scattered. What was she supposed to do without him?

"Samantha! What are you doing outside?"

She turned at the familiar voice and all the broken pieces tumbling back together was a bittersweet pain in her chest.

"Connor," she breathed.

The android approached in quick strides. "Is everything okay?"

She stumbled toward him and he caught her before her legs could give way and drop her into the cold, wet grass. "Connor, I couldn't find you. I thought they took you away."

"Never," he murmured in her ear as he held her close. "I would never leave you. They couldn't make me leave you. I would always come back."

She breathed out, hands covering her face as she shook. "Oh my god, I'm so dumb. I can't believe I freaked out this bad over you just being outside."

"Then let's both go inside," he said kindly, putting an arm around her as he guided her to the house. "I'll stay with you."

Placated, Samantha allowed herself to be led. They couldn't make me leave you. I would always come back, he said. Her cheeks were red hot, and not just from embarrassment.

Once inside, they went back to her room. Connor issued some anxiety medication to her and she swallowed it down, her arms still shaking. But it didn't go away. Minutes passed and her heart kept pounding like it never planned to stop. Adrenaline continued to course through her like she was being chased. Her whole body felt like a live wire, burning out her nerve endings. She paced her room and trembled, but she just couldn't get her body to calm down.

Connor watched her helplessly. He could track her heartbeat with his scanners. Her vitals were still in full panic and it had been nearly a half hour. Something should have happened by now. He didn't know if he should give her more medicine. Overdosing wasn't safe for humans. Samantha chose for him and took a second dose anyway. She continued to pace, a hand on her racing heart.

She turned and Connor was in her space, his LED flickering yellow to indicate he, too, was in distress at her state.

"It's fine, Connor, it will kick in eventually," she insisted. "I'll be alright, just give me a little more time."

He surprised her by reaching out and pressing his hand over her heart. The look of intensity on his face was mesmerizing. Samantha's heart would have fluttered if it wasn't already threatening to jump right out of her chest.

Connor seemed to reach some internal decision and began removing his vest, holster and shirt. Next, without warning, he grabbed the hem of Samantha's over-sized t-shirt and pulled it off her in one long tug. She was left completely topless, hair floating with static, and absolutely baffled. Before she could demand what the android was doing, he wrapped his arms around her and pressed her chest against his.

"Here, feel mine. Feel mine beat," he mumbled soft in her ear. "Slow, calm. Listen to mine."

She couldn't hear his thirium pump, not when her heart was raging in her ears. But his embrace made it through the noise. The pressure of his arms, of his chest against hers, felt safe, calming. The tightness of his embrace loosened something in her, made it finally relax.

Into his shoulder she whispered, "Can you hold me just a little tighter?"

"Like this?"

"Yes. Just stay like that a little while."

He stayed, holding her perfectly as the panic and her racing heart slowly subsided. After a while, she could hear it, the thrum of his thirium pump. She heard it in her ear when she pressed it to his shoulder, she felt it pulse against her own heartbeat. The sound was beautiful and real and felt... alive. She cherished the sound, cherished him. As he held her, she heard the words. These words had been there for a while, silent and patiently waiting far deep down to be listened to. Now they were on the surface and Samantha heard them clearly in her head.

You love him.

The truth of it shook her, even though she had known it was true for a while. It was in loud words in her mind now and the honesty of them would not change. You love him. Her arms, which had been hanging by her side the entire time, raised up to encircle his trim waist. His skin felt good against hers; his chest pressed to hers, her cheek on his shoulder. She wanted to hold him like he was holding her.

But Connor mistook her movements and pulled away so he could see her face. "Better," he said with satisfaction.

"Better," she agreed. And then immediately remembered she was topless standing before him. Blindly, she reached down to grab a shirt and quickly put it on. Only when both her arms were in the sleeves did she realize this wasn't hers. It was Connor's button-up dress shirt. Embarrassed, she let out a "Whoops, wrong shirt."

She meant to turn from him to shrug it off and find the right one, but Connor already had a hold of both sides of the shirt and pulled it closed to properly cover her.

"You can wear it," he insisted, then his voice dropped to a whisper. "I like—it looks good on you." His LED flickered blue with just a flash of yellow.

Samantha looked away from his face as her cheeks warmed. He was still in her space, his body taking up the air around her. If she raised her head, their noses would brush. Why was he still so close? She wouldn't dream of asking him to move away.

"Do you... would you like me to stay?" he continued, that husky, smokey voice still but a whisper that tickled the fine hairs on the back of her neck and danced up her spine.

Samantha closed her eyes. She was starting to learn his language. Connor wasn't comfortable with stating what he wanted. Insisted he had not the ability to want if he was asked outright. But this was his way of expressing his want, to ask if she wanted. She heard it in his voice when he asked. I want to stay with you.

She moved back a little so she could look up and smile at him. "I would love it if you stayed. It feels safer when you're close by. Especially after tonight."

"I will stay as long as you want me to."

She smiled in response. Her lashes fluttered as her gaze roamed his face, then his topless form. She took in the frame of his shoulders and the broadness of his chest. The cute little freckles that dotted his face dotted the rest of him. Her eyes landed on the glowing blue circle embedded in his torso right below where a human's rib cage would end.

"What is this?" she asked, fingers hovering, but not touching.

"My power core."

"Like a battery?"

"Yes."

"So if I pulled it out, you would just..." She pantomimed a robot suddenly losing power and jerking to a stop. She made a noise that sounded like a mechanical thing powering down.

Connor gave her such a lop-sided smile, only one side of his mouth pulling up. She wanted to take a picture and frame it forever. That might have been the best she had ever seen him smile and it was the most adorable thing.

"Yes," he confirmed. "I would have a couple minutes to put it back in, but if I didn't, I would power down."

"Well, we will keep that in there then," Samantha joked back. Her gaze then landed on his wrapped arm. "What about that? Does it hurt?"

"No. Androids can't feel pain."

She furrowed her brows. "What if... when you turned up your sensitivity settings?"

"It wouldn't change anything. I don't have any pain receptors, only information relays that tell me when and where I am damaged."

"Good." She smiled at him. "I don't want you to hurt."

His hand came up and lightly touched the scab forming on her chin. It would be deep purple by morning as well as her cheek bone. "I don't want you to hurt either."

She moved her head from his touch. "I'll be alright, don't worry about it. You saved my life. You did exactly what you needed to do to keep me safe."

Before he could argue that, she put her hands on his shoulders and guided him backwards to sit on the edge of the mattress. He sat and she crawled onto the bed, sitting slightly behind him. His back was lightly freckled as well, just a few dots here and there. Again she wondered why Cyberlife would bother with such a minute detail. Why was she so quickly falling in love with every freckle he had?

"Would you like to try out that heightened sensitivity again?"

"Are you asking because you want to?"

Samantha smirked, he should know. That's how he asked for things, too. "Yes, I do. I've been curious ever since the first time."

"Alright. Just for a little bit."

"Just a test or two," she agreed. "Close your eyes."

She could tell when he activated it. He always gave a little shudder when he did so. He sat with eyes closed, bent forward with his elbows resting on his knees. Samantha studied his back. It looked close to human. The muscle groups weren't quite right, but he had shoulder blades and a spine. And a beautiful neck on those lean, wide shoulders.

Samantha put her finger on his lower back and then ran her nail lightly up his spine. Conner jerked up straight and made a strangled squeak. His LED shot right to red for just a fraction of a second.

"What was that?" he demanded as he turned to look at her.

He looked so wide-eyed and flustered, Samantha couldn't help but laugh. "I'm sorry, I just wanted to see what you would do." She used her fingertips to cover the wide grin on her face.

"You're not sorry," he accused.

"Was it terrible? Did you hate it?"

He rolled his shoulders. "I don't know."

"Let me try one more thing," she begged. "Just one more and I won't bother you about it for at least a couple weeks."

Connor gave her a barely tolerant look and returned to his first position, mumbling something unintelligible in a low tone. Smiling, Samantha put her arms around him from behind. She hugged him tight, her sore chin resting on his shoulder.

"How's this?"

Beneath her embrace, she felt his entire body relax.

"This is better than the other thing," he said.

"Do you like it?"

"Yes." His answer came out like a sigh.

"Just like you did earlier," she whispered back. This was the first time she had ever held him. She didn't want to let him go, not yet. Despite herself, she pressed her lips to the back of his neck where it met the shoulder. She kept it there, as if having her mouth remain there would make it less of a kiss. Her heart ached. She shouldn't be doing this. He probably didn't even understand what she was doing.

"It feels safe to be in someone's arms," she told him. "It's nice."

His head turned toward hers and their foreheads brushed. "Nice," he repeated.

Samantha closed her eyes. She allowed herself one more moment of bliss. One more moment of selfish self-indulgence and then let him go.

"Okay, I will stop taking advantage of you," she said in a joking tone. "You can turn it off if you like."

She was about to crawl under the covers (because she was not giving Connor his shirt back if he wasn't going to ask for it) when Connor spoke in a voice so soft it made her pause.

"If you weren't done, you can continue. I didn't mind it."

Up on her knees, Samantha looked at his back, analyzing his words. Please hold me again, she heard in his language. Her brain rationalized that she was imagining things; making up words she wanted to hear. But earlier that night—god, had it only been a few hours ago? It felt like it had been days—Connor had said he did not like being at the facility because she never touched him. He craved physical contact, just like a person did. And Samantha knew she couldn't keep her distance from him anymore, not even at the house under all the surveillance cameras.

"Alright," she said brightly, and then added in a joking tone, "Do I have permission to initiate?"

Connor smiled a little to himself, remembering how he had said that to her when they were dancing. "Yes."

She flopped onto his back with a laugh, arms going around him again. She hugged him tight, hugged him for all the months she hadn't engaged with him for fear they would take him away. The fear would just have to stay. She wasn't going to keep him from this if he needed it.

Connor leaned into the embrace and his gentle smile was beautiful. A real smile. A golden moment she may never see again and Samantha committed it to memory. Beneath her, she felt him roll his shoulders a little and she wondered if he still had his sensitivity settings turned up. She didn't ask. Her arm brushed the bandage around his bicep and she was suddenly hit with a thought: Connor had risked his life to save her that night and he had no idea why they were attacked in the first place. He never once asked, only served and protected. That didn't seem right.

"Connor, do you want to know why we were attacked tonight?" she asked.

"I am not allowed to ask for information if it hasn't already been given to me. I consider it classified. But if you offer information, that is your choice."

Garrett would be so mad if she told him. And there was also... "I didn't want you to know sometimes. Not after the way you reacted when you thought I wasn't human."

Connor reached up and brushed his fingers over the back of her synthetic hand. Made of the same material he was. This hand; he had the same desire to protect it as the flesh one. "If my actions that day hurt you, I am so sorry. My reaction was not appropriate."

She rested her cheek on his back so she wouldn't have to see his face. "Maybe it was. I'm not human, not like the others. I wasn't born; I was made in that lab. And I know you heard those officers tonight talking about the death of Elliot Hall's daughter. They were right. The real Samantha Hall died several years ago. I was made from her DNA to look like her. Not just her DNA, but the genes of so many others. I was modified and created for a purpose: to be harvested.

"My blood, my genes, my cells, they were created to be superior. All the things they take from me every month, they use it to create medicine, to research cures, to save people's lives. That's why I let them do it. I want to be useful. I want to help people survive; live. And it's made the Hall Foundation... I don't even know how much money. Money enough to keep it going for lifetimes. Somehow, others know what I am, what I can do. That's why those men tried to take me tonight."

Connor was silent for a moment, unmoving. Then he said, "I know. I've known for a while."

Samantha pulled away a little, keeping her hands on his shoulders. "You do?"

"I hacked the Hall Foundation's computer system. I looked into all their records. They called you 'The S.H.' in their files. I thought it stood for Samantha Hall, but it means-"

"Synthetic Human," Samantha finished. "I'm not a person to them. Not really."

He glanced back at her. "You are to me. You are human, you are alive. You are Samantha. And I will always protect you."

Emotion welled in her chest, threatening to burst out. She hid her face against his back. "Thank you."

"And as someone who wants to protect you, and knowing all this, the Hall Foundation still lets you leave the house. Why?"

"Because I look like Elliot Hall's daughter. Sometimes he forgets I'm property and feels bad for me, being trapped up here. Just like regular people, you keep me in a cage, I'll get sad, stir crazy and depressed."

"And try to hurt yourself?"

"Only after the first attack. I didn't know how to deal with what happened to me. I couldn't bear the thought of it happening again. It was those same men from tonight. They were the ones who came for me the first time. It was the worst experience of my life. I didn't know how to cope after they took my arm."

Connor swung around, eyes wide and LED flickering yellow and red as he stared at her. "They took your arm?"

Samantha blinked at him. Apparently, he didn't know everything. "Yes."

Connor's eyes glanced all over her form. "How? What happened?"

It was not something she wanted to remember. But for him, she would try to revisit that horrible day. "I was out on a walk, not too far from the house. A vehicle came out of nowhere. I thought it was part of the security team. But these men all in black grabbed me. It seemed they planned to just take my blood. I keep asking myself if I would have kept quiet, if that was all they would have taken.

"But I screamed and the security team heard me. They came running and these guys were out of time. So they did something desperate. They held me down and one of the men pulled out a machete." Samantha looked away. That sound of metal hitting bone would haunt her the rest of her days. "And they... took a piece of me when they fled, leaving the rest for another time. So then they had my blood and other parts of me to do god knows what with. I guess they have used it all up and needed more."

By the end of her story, she was absently rubbing her right arm at the elbow where the flesh and metal connected. She looked over at Connor and saw his LED flickering between yellow and red. She didn't like it when it did that. Blue. She always wanted him to be blue and calm. And happy. Her thumb caressed the light and he looked up at her.

"This is why you don't sleep," he told her.

"Worst day of my life," she said, even though she was trying to give him a reassuring smile. "And you protected me from having a worse one. If they had taken me, I would have been cut into more pieces. They would have probably stripped me to the bone and harvested all my-"

Connor's first two fingers landed on her lips. "Stop. Please. I... don't like—I can't listen to you talk like that."

She sat up tall on her knees, her head above his. The sleeve of Connor's shirt swallowed her hand, but the fingertips poked out and caressed his LED until it stopped flickering so intently and went back to its calm, blue color. "I'm sorry. I didn't want to distress you. It was just so weird to say it all out loud. I think the morbid part of me just wanted to see how deep and dark I could go."

Connor propped one leg onto the bed so he could turn better to look at her. "Humans have a strange urge to stare into the void. I've noticed this. I will never understand it." And Samantha would have given him a cheeky quip right there, but Connor wasn't finished. His arms went around her and he pulled her in, his cheek pressed against her barely-covered breasts. "If I had the opportunity, I would kill those bastards all over again."

"And there's the first time I've heard you curse," Samantha said with a grin.

Connor said nothing in response, only held her. She let him and then marveled at the intimacy of their situation. This strange tableau was a lover's scene: both in various states of undress, on the bed and holding each other. But this was all it would ever be, just a scene. A posed snapshot of something that was not what it appeared to be. It was but a mimicry, a pantomime.

If Connor were human, it may have been different. If he were a man, he would have had the instinct to know that now was the time to ease her down to him and let their lips brush for the first time. He would let the heat grow as the need for closeness became a burn between them. He would kiss her until she was breathless and then trail his lips to her jaw, down her throat. He would slide his shirt from her shoulders so he could continue to kiss the rest of her. In the low light, skin would brush skin as they learned each other's bodies and sated the aches in their souls.

If Connor were human.

But he was not and she asked herself, not for the first time, if this infatuation came from the fact that he was merely the boy who was always around. He wasn't even a boy, but a machine designed to look like one. He didn't smell like one, hardly even acted like one. And yet she held him back, fingers touching the hair at his nape. While in his arms, Samantha heard the words again, but they had changed slightly and it was clearly her voice.

I love him. I love him. They repeated like a steady heartbeat in her ears. Calm and sure, a chant to soothe her soul. And there, as she listened to the truth of her heart, she decided to give up a part of herself for this feeling. The part of her that craved the physical aspects of love only another human could provide. She would give up the lust and passion of romance and, instead, love quietly, humbly. For him.

.

Author's Notes: Hey guys! You made it to the end of the first leg of the story! I might take a break from posting weekly to let this much of the story cool for a little bit. It's kind of been giving me anxiety putting it out so fast. (Or it might end up giving me more anxiety to sit on chapters. Who knows. My anxiety does what it wants.) In the meantime, please let me know what you think of this story so far. I really put my heart and soul into this dumb fic. It means a lot to me to hear your thoughts. Also, during the break, check out my DBH side blog on tumblr (dbhtychou) where I will still be posting a bunch of new art and drabbles. Thank you so much to everyone who has read so far.