John's body was still twitching with aftershocks as Lin carried him up to his room. Not his recovery room, but his actual bedroom. They'd been airlifted to Detroit, to the Kamski estate. Lin hadn't been upstairs before, since he'd been unconscious in the lower laboratories for the majority of his stay. Upon finding him, the medical androids had checked the power core in his chest to make sure it had been returned properly. Takigawa had managed to slot it back, but knowing Lin had removed the core himself, they'd opted to keep him in stasis until Elijah gave them further instructions. They hadn't left him as he was though. While in stasis, they'd fully repaired all the damage he'd sustained. They'd also thoroughly gone over all the earlier work John had completed to ensure he was fully operational.

Since hearing John's story and watching things play out on the news, Elijah had decided it would be safer to keep Lin in stasis until John had been revived. John's rapidly ailing body had been their first priority upon returning. Elijah wouldn't have had time to explain things to a grieving and possibly suicidal android. Lin agreed. There was no way he would have gone along with what Elijah had done. If he hadn't interfaced with John in the garden, he'd probably still be doubting his identity. Lin held John a little closer at the thought. He had no doubts now.

It had been almost four months since their arrival. It had taken Elijah and his team barely an hour to realise John was too far gone and inject the nanites, but then there had been waiting. Waiting for the nanites to consume, preserve, and rebuild John's pathways. Building a new body from scratch and modelling it to be an exact replica of John's by then deceased human form. It was perfect, right down to the last hair. It had been made using the best parts to ensure he functioned at peak proficiency. John's body was extremely advanced, as only Elijah could build it. Not even the fancy detective android in Detroit was as advanced as John's body.

This had originally been a long-term project intended to be used on Elijah himself one day. He'd had the base plan in place, but nothing had been ready. What was the point in making an advanced body when he wouldn't need it for years? It would have been out of date by the time he got around to using it. The nanites had been in production, though in the early stages. They'd had a few simple lab tests performed, and he'd been confident that they'd work as they should. He was lucky. The nanites had worked exactly as he'd expected them to. They hadn't even been tested on biological life forms at that point. It was hard to test things when the result was death. Against all odds, and much to Elijah's relief, the nanites had worked.

Once they'd completed their task, they'd been removed via magnetic transfusion and injected into John's now thirium based blood. Once in the new body, they'd travelled to the correct areas to rebuild and reconstruct what they'd broken down. That meant John had an extremely advanced electronic brain rather than a mostly empty skull casing, like most other androids. It would also make him difficult to replace, but Kamski had forced the nanites to create copies of themselves so that he could store spares. John was also wirelessly linked to Cyberlife's servers. He could access any data at any time, within his clearance level, and his memories and experiences would be downloaded and stored automatically during his stasis cycles. John had been uncertain about that at first, but it was a sensible precaution.

John had awoken, or rather been activated, for the first time three days ago. The first time, he'd crashed immediately. He'd been unable to speak. Unable to hear. Unable to move, or do anything besides panic, trapped within his own mind. He still remembered the fear of opening his eyes to see error after error popping up in his vision. His stress level had risen so high that Elijah had no choice but to deactivate him before he self-destructed. That was a feature he hadn't been able to remove from the android body. Stress would still lead to auto-destruct.

Kamski had finally reached out to Markus, confiding in him and telling him what he'd done. Markus had been less than enthused at first. He wouldn't say he was horrified, but it had been quite shocking. He'd believed John to be a simple copy, just as Lin had. However, upon interfacing with him, he'd realised he was so much more than that. He also suspected that John could be the key in breaching the walls between their species. He knew many humans wouldn't give him the same level of acceptance as androids. John couldn't simply interface with a human to prove who he was, but he'd certainly be able to answer questions about himself.

Markus had agreed to help John stabilise and find his feet, so to speak. At the start, John couldn't do anything by himself internally. He was too used to thinking like a human. His brain hadn't adjusted to all the extra functions it needed to control, and still expected functions that no longer existed. Things like going to the bathroom, eating meals, and drinking water. Markus had interfaced with John for hours to sort out the various error messages and activate new systems. He'd used the time to get to know him and build a steady friendship. He liked John so far. He was kind and sweet, gentle, and somewhat artistic. A little like Carl. They'd been side-tracked more than once by John's memories of his photo collection.

Once Elijah had managed to activate John's internal systems, he'd set about finding the correct settings for him. He'd sorted out his audio input until John felt it was right, as well as his touch sensitivity, vocal pitch and volume, and sense of smell. Sight was somewhat easier, because he could see John's vision through his monitor and adjust the levels from there. He'd managed to get him up and moving fairly easily, and it was at this stage that John had started asking about Lin. Elijah saw little reason to keep him inactive, so the next day he'd had Lin brought out of stasis.

Perhaps there was a better way for them to have done it. Perhaps Lin could have been properly prepared, or John could have interfaced with him right away. There was no use dwelling on the past. They'd both wallowed in the pain of loss, fear, and uncertainty, and now they were on the other side. Lin held John a little closer at the thought of what would have happened if he'd walked out the door at that last moment. If he hadn't hesitated. If John hadn't pleaded. Imagining how lost and alone John would have been, doubting his own identity, devastated by the rejection. It hurt to think about it. He had to remind himself that he hadn't left.

"Here it is. Please make sure John drinks some thirium later. These tests will take a lot out of him," Chloe said kindly as she opened one of the large black doors on the second floor. Lin nodded his agreement and thanked her before stepping inside and freezing. This room was bigger than John's apartment. He hadn't even realised the mansion was this big. Chloe closed the door without comment, though she was quietly amused at the perplexed look Lin was giving the huge space. John basically had his own living area attached to the bedroom and ensuite.

The room, like much of Elijah's home, was decked out in gentle greys and blacks. The carpet was a pale grey that matched the sofa and arm chairs, with a low black coffee table and black drapes. This felt more like a guest room than John's bedroom, but then he supposed John hadn't lived here for some time. There was a picture of his family, including Donald, hanging on one wall though. That gave it a little familiarity. The whole far wall was made of glass, opening out to a view of the mountainside with Detroit in the distance. Lin carried John through a smaller door into a huge bedroom.

This was more like John. There were empty redwood bookcases where his book collection had once been, a large redwood wardrobe, and a matching desk. A comfortable office chair sat in place, waiting to be used. The cream carpets were soft and almost bouncy as he walked. The huge fourposter bed was covered by a pure white canopy with matching bedding. The heavy curtains were a gentle reddish brown that matched the furniture. The colours were gentle, much more suited to John than the living area. There were also more photos John had taken and printed on canvas. There were shots of Chloe working around the house, Kamski tinkering in his lab, an open android chest plate, a working spider rig, a small boy that Lin assumed to be his half-brother at Cyberlife's main office, and a few shots of rundown Detroit.

"How do you feel?" Lin asked gently as he lowered John's trembling body to the sheets. He was concerned by the twitching. John almost flinched as Lin reached out and touched him. Lin's eyes creased sympathetically as he stroked his hair. His skin was hyper sensitive after the pain Elijah had inflicted. Lin was still angry. With both of them. Elijah wanted John's body to feel normal and authentic. If they got it right, then Elijah could use this experience to create a whole range of upgrades for androids everywhere. With John's help, he'd started to recreate pain receptors across his skin.

"I'm alright," John insisted in a small voice, though he seemed anything but. Lin had already spent the past few hours arguing with him. It had started small. Elijah had only activated more human touch sensors at first. John could feel things the way a human would. When Lin touched things, he knew they were soft because a message told him the material and he could find out what that material was said to feel like. This wasn't something John could get used to. Now he could feel things the way he had before. That was acceptable.

"I don't want to watch you go through that again," Lin stated stiffly as he climbed onto the bed beside him. He remained quiet as he looked away. He knew it had been hard on Lin. It had been hard for him, too. They'd started the pain at a low level, and John had described it in terms that Elijah could understand. Level one on the scale was like gently tapping a pen on your finger. An impact, but not painful. Five was like a paper cut. Annoying and stingy. Eleven was like stubbing your toe on wood. It made you want to curl up and rub it better. John had just kept going higher and higher. All the way up to a gunshot. That was the most physical pain that John had ever endured, so he couldn't imagine anything higher.

"I'm sure Uncle Eli has all the information he needs on pain for now," John replied evasively as he turned away from Lin. He stiffened a little as Lin's body pressed up behind him, warm breath teasing his ear. It still sent a prickling feeling down his arms. He didn't feel the same sensation of heat or chills, but his skin was reacting just the same. Small bumps had raised across the surface, along with the hairs.

"For now." The repetition was meaningful, and John pouted in response. Lin sighed as he wrapped an arm around John's slim waist and took one of his hands. He didn't want to fight. Everything still felt too fresh. "You should get some rest," he murmured, feeling John stiffen in his arms in response. He pushed himself up and turned him onto his back. He was surprised to see fear in his deep blue eyes. He cupped John's cheek, allowing his own confused eyes to ask the question.

"I-I…I don't know how to sleep anymore," John began anxiously as he looked down in shame.

"Then how have you been sleeping? Did you just stay awake all this time?" Lin asked worriedly, already calculating the amount of strain that would have placed on John's new systems. He felt a small shiver run through John's body as he shook his head. Lin was quietly relieved he hadn't been overworking himself, but he was confused by his fear.

"Th-they turned me off," he confessed in a small, vulnerable voice. His lower lip trembled as he looked away in shame. "I was treated like a light switch, just off and on…It's jarring Lin, and it scares me!" John said as he turned to shuffle closer. Lin couldn't help the swell of pity whirling in his chest. Perhaps Elijah would figure out how to alter stasis at some point to make it more like natural sleep, but for now, John was right. The only things that changed when going in and out of stasis were the time, date, and any updates left running. Otherwise it was like blinking.

"And you don't know how to do it by yourself yet." Lin knew that Markus and Elijah had been manually doing everything for him so far. He would start helping John learn more tomorrow. For now, he shifted John into a more comfortable embrace. "Close your eyes and try to pay attention to what I'm doing," Lin instructed softly as he nuzzled John's forehead. John stiffened and did as he was told. Lin huffed a small breath against his pink lips. He didn't want to put him into stasis like this. He took his time, letting one hand stroke John's hip and spine while the other started an interface. He also shifted close enough to press his lips against John's. John was surprised, slowly relaxing into the small kisses and gentle touches.

When Lin interfaced, he did it gently, like asking for entry rather than kicking down the door. John was timid, but he allowed Lin inside. Lin pushed John's memories aside for now, focusing his attention on the alerts. A lot of the changes Elijah had made required an update while in stasis. Lin started the updates and set a rest period. Eight hours was the human standard, and it would wake them at a reasonable time for breakfast. He set the standby phase to begin in two minutes and turned off the counter so that John wouldn't expect it.

Lin broke the connection and set his own timer to match John's perfectly. God help Chloe or Elijah if they invited themselves in over the next eight hours. With his timer set, Lin slipped his hand up the back of John's white cotton top, deepening the kiss as he tugged him closer. John gave no objections, verbally or otherwise. He didn't feel the same sexual urgency without his sexual subroutines running, but his mind remembered the need for touch and affection. He whined softly into the kiss, pulling Lin even closer.

Lin monitored his timer, despite making the most of those two minutes. In the final seconds, he rolled them into a comfortable resting position. He was on his side with John's head resting on one of his arms, their bodies facing each other as their lips met in a chaste kiss. It was as their lips touched that their stasis cycle began. John's arm fell limp on Lin's bicep, and Lin's rested loosely across his hip. Anyone walking in would think they'd fallen asleep mid make-out session, clothes still tugged out of place, lips reddened, and hair tousled.