The first thing Seán heard when he got back into the body was the car door slamming shut. He may have flinched, but he noticed Hank and Connor walking away.
Seán quickly opened the door, jogging to catch up to the pair. "Guys! Wait up!"
Connor turned, waiting patiently as Hank continued on. Seán huffed as he approached the android, "Thanks, man."
"You're welcome. May I ask who's fronting?" Connor's head tilted to the side just a bit.
"Seán. Can you catch me up really quick?" Seán looked at the time, noting just how far into the night they had already gone.
"Of course. I received a call about a murder that we needed to investigate about an hour ago. I came to grab you and Jameson was fronting at the time. We went to go get Hank, who had apparently attempted to get drunk and play a game of Russian Roulette. He passed out before he could shoot the shot," Connor explained, walking with Seán into the club.
Seán nodded, remembering back to when he was like that. No time for that now. I need to focus. As Seán followed Connor in, he had to elbow the android a couple of times to keep him going. Seán had to admit, though, these did look like 'the sexiest androids in town'.
As Seán walked further into the club, he could feel Chase and Henrik come in as well. They both remained silent as they watched. Probably still recovering from earlier, Seán thought. He should have been too, but Jameson called him.
"What are we doing here?" Chase asked after a moment.
"There was a murder a few hours ago," Seán explained. "I don't wanna be here either."
"Hey Hank, hey Seán!" Ben called from over by a closed door. Seán followed Hank up so that the two were both closer to the room. Seán rubbed his head, sighing.
"Hey, Ben. How's it going?" Hank replied quietly, rubbing his head. Seán couldn't blame him- the music in the club played too damn loud.
"What happened with Hank?" Henrik asked.
"Hangover." Seán's gaze shifted all around the room. He spotted Connor gazing at some androids in a display case. Seán could practically see the gears turning in Connor's mind.
"We just saw him earlier!"
Ben cleared his throat, "It's that room there. Oh, uh, by the way, Gavin's in there too."
Seán could swear he heard the whole headspace groan- even Sam.
"Oh, great," Seán grumbled.
Hank shot back quickly, "A dead body and an asshole. Just what I needed."
As Connor finally approached, Hank opened the door to let the trio into the room. Seán almost felt like he violated the store rules when the door labeled "Unavailable" opened.
When they walked in, Seán began to survey the scene. On the bed that sat in the center of the room laid the first victim- a man. An android sprawled out over on the far wall, blood dripping down her face.
"Lieutenant Anderson, Detective Anderson, and their plastic pet," Gavin commented from across the bed, "The fuck are you all doing here?"
"Don't give him the time of day," Chase warned as Seán prepared a response. He huffed, turning back to look across the room.
"We've been assigned all cases involving androids," Connor stated from behind Seán.
"Oh yeah?" Gavin asked tauntingly, "Well, you're wasting your time. Just some pervert who, uh, got more than he could handle." Gavin laughed, looking at Chris.
"Is he really seeking validation from Chris right now?" Chase commented.
"Explain the fuckin' android then," Seán grumbled under his breath.
Hank held an arm out in front of Seán, "We'll have a look anyway if you don't mind."
Gavin scoffed, finally uncrossing his arms. "C'mon, let's go." As Gavin approached the trio, he spoke up again, "It's, uh, starting to stink of booze in here." He pointedly glared at Hank and Seán. The man somehow also managed to shoulder-check Connor.
"Night Detective, Lieutenant," Chris said softly as he followed Gavin out.
Finally, some damn quiet. Seán looked around the room as Connor walked to the android. Seán noticed the man's jacket laying on the floor and grabbed it, searching through it. Inside one of the pockets laid the man's wallet. Seán picked it up, flipping it open.
"Michael had a wife and kids," Seán called out. The picture looked almost exactly like the one Chase had shown him all those years ago with his wife and children. Judging by Chase's sudden silence, he must have thought the same thing.
Seán turned to watch Connor as he analyzed the android on the floor. Just as Seán turned the android pulled his hand away, and Seán got to watch as it faded from the factory-white back into the skin color Connor had picked out. Connor reached forward to dip his finger into some of the blood dripping down the android's face, bringing it to his mouth.
Seán nearly puked as Hank turned around. "Whoa! Hey! Hey! Hey! Argh, Connor, you're so disgusting. I think I'm gonna puke again."
Seán snorted as Connor stared at his fingers. After a moment, Connor stood and approached the body. He knelt next to Michael, scanning over his body. He stood quickly, "He didn't die of a heart attack. He was strangled."
"Yeah, I saw the brusing on the neck," Hank grumbled. "Doesn't prove anything though. Could have been rough play."
"Remind me again why Gavin is on the team?" Seán asked to no one in particular. Hank sent a short glare his way, but Connor sent... a smile?
The smile faltered quickly when Connor looked down, "We're missing something here."
Seán looked at the android, "Do you think you could read her memory?"
"That's a great idea, Seán," Henrik said from inside. Seán couldn't help the grin that stretched on his face.
"I can try..." Connor worked through the process of reactivating the android's system. Just as soon as she had been reactivated though, she answered just enough and deactivated again.
"So it wasn't her?" Seán asked.
"This happened over an hour ago, she's probably long gone," Hank grumbled. Seán couldn't help but notice he said she.
"No. It couldn't go outside dressed like that unnoticed," Connor pointed out. He looked up suddenly at the father-son duo, "It might still be here."
"Think you could find a deviant among all the other androids in this place?" Hank asked.
Connor hesitated, "Deviants aren't easily detected."
"Shit," Seán mumbled. "There's gotta be some other way."
"Maybe someone saw it?" Chase asked.
"Maybe an eyewitness? Someone who saw it leaving the room?" Seán relayed.
Hank spoke up, "I'll go ask the manager a few questions about what he saw. You two let me know if you think of anything."
"Spoken like a true Karen," Seán said under his breath.
"What was that?" Hank asked from the doorway.
Seán grinned, "Nothing. We'll keep you updated."
Hank glared at him for a brief moment, but turned back out the door. Connor followed suit behind Hank, so Seán followed them both out.
"Poor girls." Seán thought.
"I can't believe that man would cheat on his family like that. With androids." Chase.
Seán could hear Hank beginning to interrogate the manager as Connor looked around. The android took off, walking towards one of the cases.
"Connor! What are you doing?" Seán hissed as he ran to catch up.
"She's a witness," Connor said simply. He pressed his hand up against the check out pad, and the little voice rejected him. No fingerprint detected.
"I'm not connected to the system. You're gonna have to ask Dad," Seán grumbled.
Connor gave him a sideways glance, but went and grabbed Hank.
"Why'd he give me that look?" Seán asked.
"You called Hank 'Dad'," Chase explained.
Seán could feel his face burning a little as Hank approached. "I did?"
"Yeah."
The Traci stepped out a moment later. "Delighted to meet you."
Seán couldn't help but laugh as Hank blushed, "Now what?"
Connor approached the Traci and took her hand. A moment later, he took off. Seán followed behind, leaving Hank to deal with the Traci.
This time, the manager let out the next eyewitness. The process became scan, panic a little, and take off. Eventually they found themselves walking down a corridor, heading to the storage rooms.
"Seán," Connor beckoned him forward. Seán grabbed his gun out of his holster, opening the door up.
The door opened to reveal a simple looking warehouse. Seán cringed at the amount of androids in here. They looked too human. Seán kept his gun out, looking around.
The next thing he knew, Seán got thrown up against a wall. He grunted in pain, looking up to see what had just happened. A brunette charged at him, screaming. Seán ducked, noticing that his gun wasn't in his hand anymore.
"Chase! What happened?" Seán continued to duck and weave as the girl continued to throw punches.
"I don't know! I blacked out too!" Seán ducked as the girl screamed. He popped up and kicked the back of her knees, sending her tumbling down. Seán looked around, spotting Connor pulling another Traci off of Hank.
The Traci below him swung up, nearly hitting Seán in the jaw. Normally he would have been angry, but now?
"Chase are you or Hank about to cry?" Seán sniffed, turning away from another punch.
"Maybe it's because you just got punched in the face?" Henrik asked.
"Why am I sad?" Seán's shout nearly came out of his mouth instead of stayed in his head. He swung again, this time nailing the Traci. She wrapped a leg around him, rolling and sprinting off.
Seán blinked, standing up. Connor laid face up in the rain, and Hank was in the middle of running to Seán. The pair took off to help Connor. As the rain poured down, Seán pulled his gun out and aimed.
"Seán! Stop!" Chase shouted.
That was all Seán needed to hesitate. He finally noticed the androids' hands- they were holding each other. They took off towards the fence as Connor stood.
They were in love.
"Quick! They're getting away!" Hank shouted.
Connor took off, Seán quick on his heels. His lungs burned, and his feet ached as they slapped the wet concrete. The girls began to climb the fence, but Connor pulled the one down. The other jumped onto his back, and Connor pushed her off.
"Connor! Stop it!" The voice that came out of Seán's mouth was not commanded by him. What the hell?
Connor pulled out his gun, aiming as the brunette rushed at him. But... Seán watched as Connor dropped the gun a moment later, getting a kick to the face.
The male android stumbled back- nearly into Seán. Seán's chest heaved as he watched the blue-haired android approach, water dripping down her body.
"When that man broke the other Traci... I knew I was next," She said softly. "I was so scared. I begged him to stop, but he wouldn't... And so I put my hands around his throat, and I squeezed until he stopped moving. I didn't mean to kill him," Her voice broke, shattering Seán's heart. "I just wanted to stay alive, to get back to the one I love."
The brunet came up behind her, gently gripping her hand. Seán looked down at them, thinking of Gabbi. If it had been her, he would have been the one to kill that man.
"I wanted her to hold me in her arms again, make me forget about the humans, their smell of sweat, and their dirty words..." Seán felt a bump behind him and turned to see Hank had approached. The body reached out and pushed Hank's gun to the side.
"Come on, let's go," The brunette whispered. Together, the two took off into the pouring rain.
And Seán felt powerless to stop them.
Looking at Connor though, Seán could see the LED flashing yellow- low danger. Seán's head ached- probably from stress.
"Probably better this way..." Hank grumbled. Connor's head snapped from Hank to the girls, then to Seán. Seán just sighed as Hank walked away.
"Let's go debrief."
