Bishop Briggs – Dark Side
Taylor closed her eyes as she pressed closer to Connor's side, trying to absorb his warmth. The reasonable part of her brain knew that she should be sitting on her side of the taxi with a respectable distance between her and said android, but she had drowned that part in six glasses of champagne a while ago. The air had been frigid as they stood waiting for the car to arrive, and even though the inside was already heated when they got in, she was still cold.
The car turned and she leaned away from Connor with the momentum before sliding back, her head resting against his shoulder. She was weightless, floating, adrift in her tipsiness. She knew her head was going to hurt in the morning, but it was only a fleeting concern for now.
"Hey, Connor?" She heard him make a noise of acknowledgment, but her mind was elsewhere. She was thinking of why she had dragged the android all over town with her, knowing he wouldn't complain. She was wondering why he seemed like he cared when he was only programmed to hunt deviants and investigate crimes. At times he acted like he had emotions, like he was a deviant, but she knew that he wasn't.
She opened her eyes and glanced up, only to find he was still staring at her, his head tilted, waiting for whatever question she had been about to ask. She didn't remember what she was about to say anymore.
Why did he come with her to this stupid party? Why did he step in and save her from her stepfather? Why did he say that she shouldn't be on the crime scene and then defend her in front of Hank?
"May I ask you a personal question, Taylor?" The silence must have stretched on longer than she realized. Connor had given up on her saying anything else and decided to ask a question of his own.
"Nothing has stopped you before," she responded, grinning at him. Though the last time he had asked her personal questions, she had practically yelled at him. Her smile faded.
"Why were you afraid?" Her heart skipped a beat. The hazy, pleasant feeling that had coated her from the champagne started to dissipate and she swallowed over the sudden nausea.
"Why did you help me?" She asked, hoping to distract him instead. She watched him through her lashes, his LED flickering to yellow as he considered the question.
"We are partners. You are important to the case." He glanced down at his hands, which were folded in his lap. "I failed to protect you before." He looked back at her, and asked again, "Why were you afraid?"
Taylor stared at her lap, tracing her fingers over the glittering scales of her dress. They were catching the light of the streetlamps that they drove under, throwing off prisms of sparkles in the cab of the taxi. "I've always been afraid of him."
Connor was still watching her, his head slightly tilted, brown eyes searching her face, expectant. He wanted her to say more, he was waiting for an explanation, but she couldn't say it. She was remembering the first time she had met Anthony Jacobsen, when her mother had brought him home and told her and Jake that he was going to be their new father.
"Taylor?" Connor's fingers brushed against her arm and she flinched, pulling away. She looked up, and then glanced around, realizing that the taxi had stopped. They had arrived.
"I'm sorry." His hand was still hovering in the space between them, his LED yellow, as she reached for the handle to the door. "I'll see you in the morning."
Connor was opening his mouth to respond when she closed the door and rushed down the driveway.
"Taylor, what the fuck?" The blonde groaned, rubbing a hand across her throbbing forehead. She'd already taken Tylenol and ibuprofen and was considering if aspirin would send her into multi-organ failure when Alex had called. Instead she'd ordered a cappuccino and two muffins to-go from a café near the precinct and was waiting at the counter for them.
"What have I done to offend you now?" She stepped forward as the barista called her order number and headed for the door with breakfast in hand. She had pulled her hair back into a ponytail for the day, unable to tame it after falling asleep onto the updo that Anton had fixed the day before, and had refused to take off her dark sunglasses since she'd walked outside to the sunshine stabbing directly into her brain.
"Do you really need to ask? The pictures are all over the internet." Maybe if it didn't feel like her brain was trying to squeeze out of her skull from the inside, the answer would have been obvious. Right now, she wasn't in the mood for Alex's usual tête-à-tête. He must have been pretty pissed at her, too, because he didn't even draw it out like he normally would. "Why did you dance with Anthony Jacobsen last night?"
"What does that have to do with anything?" She tried to fight down the panic rising in her throat and hoped that if she played it off, Alex would let it go. Or it might have just been stomach bile; she had been nauseous all morning. She was hoping the muffins would help to absorb the toxic bile and alcohol cocktail sloshing around inside of her.
"I don't even know what to say to that." Taylor sipped the coffee in her hand as she rounded the corner and finally caught sight of the station just ahead. "You know, I knew it was a mistake, sending you out there by yourself."
"What does that mean?" Her voice raised an octave, then she winced as her head pounded in protest. "Alex, I'm not a kid anymore."
"Really? So you weren't also threatened by a deviant at a crime scene?" Taylor froze, rather inconveniently as she was walking into the building. The person walking behind her cleared their throat loudly after almost colliding with her and she sheepishly stepped to the side to let them pass.
"Who told you that?" She asked softly, retreating to the corner of the lobby and trying to avoid notice.
"Then it is true?" She could hear him taking in a deep breath on his end of the line. "Dr. Williams said you won't return her calls either. Jesus, Taylor. I really am going to have to fly out there."
"Would you stop it with that?" Taylor snapped, turning her back on the lobby to face the window so no one could see her talking and try to eavesdrop. "I'm tired of the threat, Alex. You know, I saw Jake last night and even he was throwing it in my face. You haven't let me out of your sight since I was thirteen! You aren't my dad!"
The whole world tilted. Her heart squeezed painfully in her chest and wouldn't let go. She held her breath, wishing she could take it back. The silence on the line was deafening, consuming, she couldn't even hear the people in the lobby behind her as she waited for him to respond.
"I'm just worried about you, Taylor." His voice was quiet. She wished he had screamed back at her, said something just as hurtful. "I may have an infant daughter and a wife now, but you are my family. You know where to find me."
The line went dead. Taylor thought she could be shattering, breaking apart from the inside. She stood there for who knows how long, trembling, imploding, clutching her breakfast and staring out into the Detroit street.
The phone rang, breaking her stupor. She answered immediately, praying it was Alex and she could fix it. Apologize. "Hello?"
"Miss Kolbeck?" There was a hesitation on the line. It wasn't Alex. She recognized the voice immediately. "Taylor. Good Morning. I was calling to see when you would be into the precinct this morning. I went to retrieve my uniform, but they said they had delivered it to you."
"Connor, how did you get this number?" Taylor couldn't juggle the items in her hands to pull out her phone and see what number he was calling from. One of those items was, in fact, Connor's clean uniform, enclosed in a garment bag.
"Lieutenant Anderson gave me the number of your agent, Alex. He gave me your number after I assured him it was a matter of utmost importance." The android said matter-of-factly. She let that sink in for a moment before she started giggling uncontrollably. Her stress came bubbling up at the absurdity of it, and she couldn't reel herself in for a few solid minutes. She could hear Connor calling her name on the other end of the line, concerned.
"Yes, Connor, I have your uniform." She finally managed, collecting herself. "I'm in the lobby, I'll be in shortly." Reaching up with the hand holding the garment bag, she double tapped her earpiece and turned away from the window, heading deeper into the precinct.
She found Connor at the desk. He was seated in his usual seat, and if it was possible for an android to fidget then that's what he was doing. He was still wearing the suit from the party the night before, and she suddenly felt guilty for the second time that morning knowing he must have been anxious waiting on her to return his CyberLife uniform.
When he spotted her weaving through the desks, he leapt to his feet and met her halfway. She extended the garment bag in the space between them like a peace offering. "I'm sorry, Connor. I should have returned this sooner."
He accepted it, his LED a solid yellow ring. But his brown eyes were watching her face, scanning. "It's fine. I'm going to change."
He looked like he wanted to say something else, but he stepped around her and walked off without another word. Taylor headed to the desk and took her own chair, setting down her cappuccino and the bag of muffins before taking a seat. A few of the cops greeted her as they passed, and she waved back distractedly.
She sat her two muffins out just as Connor returned, clad in his familiar grey coat with its blue armband. He resumed his seat next to her as she busied herself with pulling the tops off both and putting the bottoms to the sides. She took the first muffin and started breaking off smaller bites, popping them in her mouth.
"You look tired. Are you getting enough sleep?" Taylor paused midchew, turning her chair to face Connor. He was leaned into the desk so that he could scan her face again, probably reading her vitals, or perhaps just noticing the bags under her eyes. She swallowed.
"I'm hungover." She said grumpily, stuffing more muffin in her mouth defiantly, as if that was the answer. The queasiness was abating, but the hollow feeling in her stomach since Alex had hung up on her still hadn't gone away. She would call him later tonight, after all of this settled, and apologize.
"Not getting enough sleep can compromise your immune system." Connor pressed, ignoring her explanation entirely. She sighed but didn't bother arguing with him. He could probably look at her face and read exactly how many hours she had slept the night before based on her pores or something.
"I'll keep that in mind." She yawned, her body betraying her, and took a long sip of her cappuccino afterward. "Any new cases?"
"Not yet. The Lieutenant has also not arrived yet this morning." She nodded, yawning again as she moved to her second muffin.
"Do we know anything else about the deviant from yesterday?"
"Model WB200, agricultural worker for the Urban Farms. There is a report of a missing android dating back to October 11, 2036. Possibly a match for our deviant android, but it is impossible to say for sure since it got away." Connor's LED flickered to yellow as he relayed the information.
"You think he was living there for two years?" Taylor asked softly, her fingers pausing midway between her lips and the desk, a few errant crumbs tumbling into her lap. "He worked at the farms. Maybe he liked the birds before he became deviant. He must have seen so many on the rooftops. Maybe he just wanted to take care of them."
Suddenly remembering the bite of her breakfast, she popped it in her mouth and chewed halfheartedly. She placed both hands around the coffee cup and let the liquid warm her fingers, thinking.
"How have you met so many deviants before?" Connor asked, drawing her attention back to him. His brown eyes were fixed on her face, that rogue lock of brown hair curled over his forehead, his head tilted slightly to the side. She swallowed nervously.
"I don't know what you mean." Taylor glanced around, looking for a diversion, some way to change the subject. She knew he could detect any lies and he was too persistent to give a non-answer for long. Her tired, hungover brain was drawing a blank, however.
"CyberLife recruited you for this mission as a deviant expert. You have admitted to interacting with many deviants in the past. I am simply curious as to the context of these meetings." He elaborated for her, sitting forward to wait for her response. "Since you prevented me from running internet searches on you."
"You actually stuck to that?" Taylor laughed despite herself and the sudden urgency of the situation. Connor blinked.
"I considered it an order." Her laughter faded instantly. She looked at the android sitting across from her, their knees almost touching, his face full of eager curiosity.
"I would never give you an order, Connor." She said quietly. His LED flickered yellow as he processed this, but before he could respond, she decided to answer his question honestly. "I met a lot of deviants in California because I helped them. They came to me for help."
"Help with what?" Connor tilted his head again, his LED flashing red for a moment, then back to yellow. She hesitated, remembering the first day they met, how upset he'd become when she explained why she was here, her thoughts on deviants.
"Some of them were injured. All of them are scared. I help them any way I can. And some of them tell me their stories." Taylor leaned away slightly, her back conforming to the cushion of the chair. Connor still leaned into her, his eyes fixed onto hers, his LED spiraling a solid yellow as he processed, occasionally flickering to red. She knew he wouldn't do anything to hurt her, but the intense expression on his face made her nervous.
"You've helped deviants to escape?" His voice was low. She couldn't look away, could scarcely even blink. She wondered if this is how that android had felt when Connor had interrogated him. But she wasn't going to back down, not over this, not now.
"Yes." Connor's fingers tightened around his knees, his LED turning a solid red at her response, but he didn't move. He sat very still, processing everything she'd said, the silence stretching on and on. Taylor found herself leaning forward, reaching her hand out across the gap between them, her heart pounding in her ears. She had already tried to ruin one relationship this morning. She didn't want Connor to hate her too.
Her fingers brushed over his hand, catching his fingers in her own and squeezing. He finally broke his trance, glancing down at their hands and back to her face, his brow furrowed. "What the fuck is going on over here?"
Taylor jumped back as Hank's voice cut through the moment. Connor also sat up, LED flickering back to its usual blue, assuming his usual straight-backed posture. "Good morning, Lieutenant. I was asking Taylor about her history with deviants."
"Uh huh. That's exactly what it looked like." The lieutenant rolled his eyes as he fell into his chair. "What's with the suit?"
Taylor turned and realized Connor had hung the suit on the wall that separated the desks, neatly tucked into the garment bag. She hadn't even noticed. "That's the suit Connor wore last night. He came with me to a charity event."
"You took the plastic prick to a party?" Hank raised an eyebrow at her, then shook his head. "With you, that isn't even worth a response, honestly."
"Best thing I've heard all morning," Taylor smiled back. She glanced back toward Connor, a bit apprehensive, only to find he was not looking at either of them. His LED was yellow once again, and when it turned blue, he looked toward Hank.
"I have a report of an active deviant in the area."
"Christ, do you just wait for me to get here before you find this shit?" Hank groaned but stood from his chair and grabbed the coat that he had discarded on the desk. "Let's go, then."