Lily had spent the rest of her weekend resting as much as she could. Surprisingly, her head wound and bruises healed remarkably quickly, although there were still purple and green marks around her left eye.
But again, Lily found herself stuck at home.
She loved her apartment, she wouldn't deny that, but the truth was, she had very little to do. Other than working on taking pictures for the city, Lily had almost nothing else apart from her job which she was dedicated to.
So, with nothing else, Lily spent her free time mostly cleaning her apartment and reading. She had once taken joy in jogging around the district in the early morning, but however Lily was usually too tired to so.
The young lieutenant spent her Sunday snuggled under a blanket, watching TV and writing in her diary. When night came however, she determinedly took her prescribed sedatives, then crawled into bed (with a lamp on in the corner of the room, of course) as Smartie and Scramble lay next to her, the ever-watchful guardians.
XXX
Monday 8th November
07:46am
Lily woke on Monday morning, feeling amazingly refreshed. She practically skipped out of bed giving her two cats a rude awakening.
"Sorry my lovelies", Lily called cheerily as she went into the kitchen, shaking out some cat biscuits for Smartie and Scramble before preparing her own breakfast. The two cats came running excitedly at the sound of food being poured into their bowls.
Lily turned on the morning radio, hearing the usual boring news statements before frying up scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast. She gobbled down her food quickly, before rushing off to shower and dress. Emerging from her bedroom with her favourite pair of black jeans combined with a blue shirt and black boots, plus her signature hooded jacket.
Then with a skip Lily grabbed her keys and other daily essentials, tied her hair up into an elegant bun, and patted each cat's head as a quick goodbye before bounding out the apartment door and down to the front of the building. Lily grabbed her bike, unlocked it from the bicycle rack and pedalled off with great speed towards work.
XXX
03:02pm
It was raining cats and dogs as Hank's car pulled up outside the Chicken Feed burger van under one of Detroit's abandoned railways. They were in a pretty poor part of town, but it was where Hank's favourite food truck was so neither Connor nor Lily decided to argue against it.
However, as the police car pulled up on the other side of the road, it was clear that many people in the area stopped what they were doing and glared at the car in contempt.
"Do you want anything, Lily?", Hank asked before he got out the car into the rain.
"No thank you Hank", she replied politely. The trio had experienced a rather depressing morning; they had gone on a huge chase after a suspect, yet in the end it all turned out to be a huge misunderstanding. Despite this, Lily still regained the positive attitude she had began work with; making her two partners ask about her weekend.
"You're in an especially plucky mood this morning", the old lieutenant had said to her. Connor had also asked about getting rest, which made Lily feel very happy that the android had gone so far as to ask her about her break from work; which was completely un-related to the case.
"Are you sure, Lil? It's important to eat for a reason", Hank persisted. Lily eventually gave in. "Come on, I'll buy you something", he said getting out of the car as she followed in resignation. "If you don't need anything Connor, stay right there and make sure nobody scratches the car", Hank called to the android.
The two lieutenants crossed the road, getting pelted on by the heavy rain. Hank held up his hand as one of the auto-drive taxi cars stopped in the road to let the two people pass.
"Hey Lily, haven't seen you around for a while", Gary, the owner of the food truck spoke to the young DCPD officer, who greeted him with a smile. "Hi Hank, how you doing?", Gary asked the older lieutenant.
"Eh, you know, same old shit", Hank replied casually, leaning on the truck's counter as he glanced at the police car where Connor sat inside.
"Plastic with you two?", Gary's eyebrows raised, also looking at the police car.
"Only temporary", Lily shook her head. Hank rolled his eyes, as if he wanted Connor out of the way as soon as possible. Gary began to prepare Hank's usual meal with a smirk; it was commonplace for people to dislike androids.
"Hey, hey Hank!", a cocky voice came from behind the two lieutenants. It was Pedro; one of Hank's friends.
"¡Ese!", the older officer fist-bumped the young guy with a grin.
The two men had come to meet when the DCPD was sent to bust a criminal gambling ring, but when Hank came to put an arrest, Pedro (one of the guys who advertised the gambling), gave him a deal. It was clear to say that Pedro got off without an arrest, and the two had been friends ever since.
"Hey, Lily. How you doin', girl?", Pedro turned to her with a smirk.
"Great, thanks Pedro", she grinned back. Lily didn't know Pedro that well, his criminal record and name being the only thing she understood about him; but still she wouldn't judge someone just by those two factors.
"Hey, listen", the guy lowered his voice as he spoke to Hank. "I got a shit-hot tip for you", he explained as he looked about to make sure no-one was listening in to their conversation.
"Number five in the third, lickety-split!", Pedro grinned, leaning back on the counter. "That filly's one hell of a chaser. You wanna flutter?"
XXX
Connor stepped out the car and into the rain, being careful to cross the road. As he approached Hank and Lily from behind, he heard snippets of a conversation.
"Last shit-hot tip you gave me sent me back a week's wages, Pedro", Hank told a young man in a paper boy's cap and hoodie who was talking to the two lieutenants.
"Come on Hank, this is different!", Pedro shook his head with confidence. "It's 100% guaranteed, you can't go wrong".
Connor scanned the faces of the people in front of him, not one of them yet realised his presence. He already knew the two lieutenants he worked with, but found out that the man talking to Lily and Hank was called Pedro Aabdar, he was 33 and had a criminal record of illegal gambling and fraud. The android also discovered that the owner of the food truck, the man behind the counter cooking the burgers was Gary Kayes, and he also had a police record of breaching hygiene regulations and resisting arrest.
It made the RK-800 wonder at why two police officers spent time with those who had a criminal history. Connor felt a little bit of concern for both his partners, so he moved closer to the conversation, hoping to, in some way, protect the two lieutenants.
"Alright, I'm in", Hank seemed to agree to the wager, slapping some paper money in Pedro's hand with a grin.
"Damn straight!", the young man confidently smiled back before turning to Lily. "You want in too, Lil?"
"No thanks", she shook her head politely. "I'm not very lucky when it comes to bets", Lily shrugged her shoulders jokingly.
"Catch you both later then", Pedro grinned, beginning to walk away. "Hey, you won't regret this!", he called back to them, not looking where he was walking and bumping directly into Connor.
"Watch it, weirdo!", Pedro shoved the android aside rudely. Connor straightened his tie, before walking to stand next to his two partners.
"Oh great", Hank rolled his eyes, looking away from the android. "What is your problem? Don't you ever do as your told?", he asked Connor, who didn't say anything. "Look, you don't have to follow us around like a goddamn poodle!"
"I apologise for my behaviour, but I think our relationship got off on the wrong foot", Connor said to Hank. "We should… try to start over, what do you say?", he asked, trying to make amends. Lily thought the android was pretty brave for apologizing for whatever he had done to trigger Hank into attacking him at the DCPD station on Saturday morning.
"If you wanted to apologise, why didn't you do it sooner?", Hank grumbled, not looking at the android.
"I was preoccupied with Lily's condition, then I didn't see you on Sunday so today was my first chance", he explained, moving closer to Hank. "Listen lieutenant, having a negative relationship between us will only negatively affect the investigation. Can you forgive me?"
"Listen, Jeffrey gave me a piece of plastic to join me and my partner, and I'm still getting over it", Hank sighed, resting his head on one hand. "Maybe I did overreact a little", he suddenly straightened up, staring directly at the android. "But if you think we're gonna be buddies, it just proves you're as stupid as you look". Connor looked at the ground sadly; clearly disappointed with his.
"Maybe if you let Connor come with us instead of telling him to stay in the car, he wouldn't have to ignore what you tell him to do", Lily observed. After a long pause, with Lily and Connor both staring at the 3rd member of their trio, Hank eventually rolled his eyes.
"Ugh, fine! I'll stop telling him what to do", he grunted. "But seriously, he better not get in the way"
"Has he ever?", she implored. "Connor saved my life last week, Hank. I think we owe him our trust".
"Yeah well…", Hank glanced at Connor who stood professionally with his arms behind his back. "Thank you for saving my partner", Hank mumbled.
"Our partner", she corrected him.
"Whatever", Hank crossed his arms stubbornly. Lily leaned close to Connor.
"That's just his way of saying thank you", she whispered in his ear.
"When did you two become so close?", Hank looked at the pair curiously.
"Since Saturday night, when Lily announced me to be her friend", Connor said proudly. Lily giggled, she couldn't help it; Connor always looked so adorable was he was proud of something. The android would straighten up in posture and close his eyes contentedly, like a puppy being praised after it had learned to do a new trick.
"God, I think I'm gonna be sick", Hank griped. "You two are both acting so cutesy together, I think I'm losing my appetite"
"Hopefully not, otherwise these would go to waste", Gary appeared from behind the food truck's counter, carrying two burgers and a pineapple soda.
"Thanks Gary", Lily grinned as she and Hank took their food. "I'll pay for it, Hank", she told him.
"Nope, this one's on me", he insisted. "Go find a table somewhere". Lily knew how stubborn Hank could be, so she decided to just let him have his way.
"Come on, Connor", Lily called as she chose one of the Chicken Feed outdoor tables while Hank paid Gary. The android watched.
"Hey, don't leave that thing here!", Gary swatted at Connor as if the android was a pest.
"Not a chance; he follows us everywhere", Hank rolled his eyes.
The two lieutenants stood under the canopy of one of the Chicken Feed's outdoor tables; Lily was glad to be out of the rain despite her appreciation for the weather, she loved the sound of rain drumming onto roofs, the look of rain as it dripped down windows and umbrellas, even the smell of the rain, but still she didn't like to be actually in the element getting soaked.
Lily watched as her partner eagerly opened the warm polystyrene box which contained his burger, and began to happily devour the meal.
"So much for 'losing my appetite'", she joked.
"Gary makes the best burger in Detroit", he mumbled through a mouth of food, spraying crumbs everywhere. Hank gestured with his mouth full, to Lily's meal, which she hadn't touched yet.
"Your meals contain 1.4 times the recommended calorie intake and twice the cholesterol level", Connor said suddenly, after sensing Lily's hesitance he gave her a reason to politely decline. "You shouldn't eat that", he pointed to the burger Hank was quickly demolishing, as the lieutenant peered suspiciously at it.
"Everybody's gotta die of something", he dismissed.
"Still, it would be bad if it went to waste", Lily decided.
Lily wasn't really one for burgers, but she opened her box and started to eat. It was actually pretty good! Connor watched her with affection, finding everything she did to be endearing.
"About this… Pedro?", the android spoke, trying to make conversation. Lily and Hank both looked up, their attention solely on Connor. "He was proposing illegal gambling on horse-racing, is that correct?"
"Yeah?", Hank confirmed, taking another bite out of his burger.
"And you made a bet?"
"Yeah", he repeated. Connor's LED flashed yellow, clearly confused.
"He doesn't understand, Hank", Lily said.
"I must confess, I am having difficulty in coming to terms with why someone would deliberately break the law", he confessed.
"Connor, see, some people break the law because they have to", Lily put down her food, her eyes only on him. "Like if they have to steal food when they're hungry, and situations like that, get it?", she explained. The android nodded, but a little unsurely. "But some people break the law because of loads of different reasons, like if they want to do stuff that isn't allowed, such as download a pirated movie online or…. something like that"
"But why do they do it? Why break the law?", he looked at her in earnest. Lily felt her heart flutter at his big brown eyes.
"I-I don't know…. I don't have the answers as to why some people break the law", she looked away sheepishly. "I only know that we investigate and catch people who break the law, but it's never really crossed my mind as to why people do it without the need to"
"Some like it cause of the thrill of the risk", Hank spoke up, nonchalantly eating as both looked at him. "Some people wanna do what others tell them they can't"
"I think I can understand the feeling", Lily admitted. There had been times in her life when she had wanted to just run rampant; not do anything serious like kill or hurt people, but on a rare occasion, usually late during a particularly bad night when her insomnia wouldn't let her sleep, she had wished to just steal a motorcycle or car and drive far away from everything and everyone, never having to deal with other people or sleep loss or existential questions….
But she also knew that you can't run away from your problems.
"Well, you can, but they always catch up to you", she thought tiredly. These deviant cases were starting to get to her, confusing her over what was right and wrong.
Connor sensed the tension through the silence that ensured from the table, the only noise being from the rain that came down upon the table's umbrella above their heads and the honking of traffic which constantly echoed around the city.
"Let's change topics", he broke the silence awkwardly.
"Agreed", Lily let out a little nervous laugh.
"Is there anything you'd like to know about me?", Connor asked to the table, but he only looked at Lily as he spoke, making her insides feel warm and gooey. As she opened her mouth to speak, Hank interrupted.
"Hell no", he dismissed, before suddenly speaking again. "Wait, yeah, there's something I think we both wanna know". Connor forced his gaze away from Lt. Dover as he looked at Hank.
"Um, why did the guys at CyberLife make you so goofy-looking and give you that weird voice?"
Lily snorted so hard that her food nearly came out of her nose, as she clamped her hands over her mouth and tried not to giggle; the last thing she wanted was to hurt Connor's feelings by the android thinking she was laughing at him. Hank however laughed at Lily's reaction, which provoked the RK-800 himself to chuckle a little.
"CyberLife androids are designed to work and co-exist harmoniously alongside humans", Connor tried to explain but even he couldn't suppress a laugh; besides, no one was really paying attention to the answer, they all just joked at themselves and each other, and it felt good.
"Both my voice and appearance were specifically designed to facilitate my integration"
"I didn't catch any of that, too much tech talk for my brain", Hank shrugged jokingly. "But I can tell they fucked up whatever they were trying to do"
"Aw, you're so mean, Hank", Lily pouted before playfully poking Connor in the arm, making the android grin at her, clearly taking the insult in good humour. "Don't take any notice of him, he's a big softie once you get past all the sarcasm".
"Hey!", Hank pretended to grumble but his laughter was undeniable. Lily never wanted this moment to end, she had never before seen Hank so happy since… Cole. But even the sad memory of the young boy couldn't wreck the happy mood as Hank actually gave a joke that wasn't dry humour or sarcasm.
"Okay, okay", Lily said eventually, trying to compose herself a little after all the giggling. "I have a real question"
"Go ahead, Lieutenant", Connor smiled. "I'm all ears"
"Have you ever worked with deviants before?"
The serious question brought with it a serious mood, as the android's LED flickered yellow momentarily, indicating he was deep in thought and memory.
"A few months back, in August", Connor's eyes suddenly came out of his daze as he spoke. "A deviant was threatening to jump off a building with a little girl", he explained as everyone fell silent.
"I managed to save her", he looked in honesty at Lily.
"Thank god you did", she breathed out a sigh of relief. "I think I heard about that actually, was the girl called Emma?", Lily asked as she remembered something from last summer.
XXX
"Rough day, sir?", Lily asked Captain Allen at the coffee machine in the office's breaker room. The Captain of the DCPD's SWAT Team had just returned from a long night's mission.
"You could say that", the Captain rubbed his forehead tiredly. "A deviant tried to play frickin' Buzz Lightyear with a little girl it had taken hostage off a penthouse roof in Park Avenue"
"Jesus", Lily said wide-eyed. "Are they both okay?"
"Deviant's totalled; got shot on site but yeah, the kid's okay", he said taking a long gulp of his decaf.
"God, it makes you wonder at how anyone could get over being in a hostage situation; it must be terrifying", she said aloud, deep in thought.
"It's why I don't think about shit like that, I just complete the chore and head back home after filling in the report", Captain Allen rolled his eyes wearily. "It's something you'll sadly get used to, Lil. You're still young but you soon come to learn that this is the price for being a cop"
Lily stared at the ground sadly, deep in thought. She hoped she wouldn't ever fall into the mindset of her job being a chore.
"I'll tell you something freaky that did happen today though", Captain Allen's voice broke her from her thoughts. She was grateful; they were things she hoped would never come to pass.
"What's that?", she asked.
"We had an android as the negotiator; so it was a machine that saved the little girl", he said, drinking his coffee and marvelling at his warm flavour.
"An android?", she stared curiously.
"Yeah, some model sent by CyberLife for us to work with. Obviously, we don't need anymore frigging robots though, they starting to go haywire like that one today", he scratched his head.
"Fucking androids", he murmured before saying goodnight to Lily.
"An android detective?", Lily had thought in amazement. "I wonder if I'll ever meet one"
XXX
Lily smiled to herself, coming out of the memory.
"How delightful fate is", she thought as she looked at Connor with admiration. The RK-800 was casually playing with a coin he seemingly had produced from mid-air, while Hank ate the rest of his burger. Lily decided not to question where the coin came from.
"Sometimes, it's best not to ask", she shook her head fondly, thinking back to when she and Hank had been freaked out at seeing Connor licking blood at the crime scene of Carlos Ortiz's murder.
Her pleasant mood quickly faltered however, the memory of the deviant and the hostage little girl in august made her think worryingly of Kara and Alice.
"No, that can't be right… Kara would never do such a thing, she and Alice looked like they deeply cared for each other", she thought hurriedly, wanting to change topics.
"Is there anything else to know about Deviants?", Lily asked. Connor's coin flew from his hand and into one of his jacket's pockets, as he leaned gently on the table.
"We believe that a mutation occurs in the software of some androids, which can lead to them going against their programming, and make them emulate human emotions"
"So, they don't actually feel emotions?", she feared the answer.
"They're machines, lieutenant", Connor looked at her in honesty. "They don't feel anything."
Lily felt her heart drop at the words; Connor seemed to deeply believe that androids were just soulless robots, but that couldn't be right. She had seen the fear in Thomas' eyes that night a few days ago; he was trembling, he was scared. There was no way anyone could fake such genuine, raw humanity, not even a machine.
She decided to leave the topic however, not wanting confrontation. Lily decided to just let them carry on with investigating deviants; hopefully she would find something to prove to Connor about androids (as well as himself) to be alive.
"Maybe it's for the best", Hank said casually, taking a sip of his soda. "Emotions always screw everything up"
"I have to agree with you there", Lily said sadly, looking up at the rain dripping off the umbrella above.
"So, I guess you've done all your homework then, huh Connor?", Hank mentioned back to the previous topics of deviants. "Do you know everything about us?", the android nodded.
"Tell me something about myself", Hank challenged, setting down his finished food and staring the android in the eyes.
"I know you graduated top of your class at the Detroit Police training Academy, you've made a name for yourself in several cases and became the youngest lieutenant in Detroit", Connor paused after listing tons of facts about Hank. "That is, until Lily here broke your record"
"Lil was always a bright one", Hank ruffled the girl's hair fondly. She swatted at him playfully.
"You know a lot Connor", she grinned at him. "Sharp as an axe, this one", Lily gestured to the android, looking at Hank. "Do you know much about me?", she asked the RK-800.
"I confess that I do however, there is something I have yet to understand", Connor looked imploringly at Lily. "Why do people call you Lil?". Lily opened her mouth to speak but Hank cut her off.
"It's cause she's short", he walked over to her and rested his elbow on the top of her head, using her as an arm-rest.
"HEY!", she lightly smacked him on the shoulder.
"When she first joined we always called her Little Lily but changed it to Lil' Lieutenant, as a nickname for her being short, but now we just call her Lil", Hank explained, laughing at her annoyed face. "What? You're the perfect height for being an arm-rest", he grinned at her, ducking as she threw a paper napkin at his face.
Connor had never really noticed Lily's height before, but it suddenly dawned on him that Lily wasn't just small for a police officer, she was also pretty short for an adult female in itself. He gladly found himself not being bothered about this fact, apart from the small concern for her having to ever go against any criminals, she would likely be over-powered easily.
Suddenly, Connor's LED flashed yellow, and he got a Police report sent to him inside his head.
"I just got a DCPD report of a suspected deviant", he announced to the table, who were clearing away their things. "It's a few blocks away, we should go have a look", he nodded down the street.
"Let's go check it out then", Lily agreed as she and Hank followed the android to the car, as the team headed off on another investigation.