Author notes: Prepare yourself for another fluffy as fuck chapter! (Don't worry it'll get better soon.)

Hank. April 11th, 2039, 9:02 pm, 54°F, Hank's house

Hank comes home late, expecting to be greeted by a worried Connor and a barking Sumo. He is only greeted by a barking Sumo. That's concerning. Where's Connor? Hank goes into the living room. There he is, asleep on the couch with Markus.

Wait, Markus?

What the fuck is Markus doing here?

And is that a gun on the kitchen table?!

Hank isn't liking how things are starting to look. He shakes Markus gently, careful not to wake Connor. Markus stirs and looks up at him, expression going from confused to-... fearful? What the fuck is going on? "Markus, what exactly is going on right now? Why are you here?" When he doesn't answer, Hank is even more confused. He sits next to him. "Markus?" Hank prompts, trying to get an answer out of the Android. He still doesn't answer. He's going to have to wake up Connor if he wants any answers. He shakes him awake, concern setting in when he wakes up with a cry, LED flickering red, clearly in pain. "Hey kid, what happened?" Hank asks softly, reaching out to stroke Connor's hair. He is obviously still tired and not up for talking. Hank coaxes the story out of him eventually, and he isn't happy. It isn't anyone's fault, of course, but why didn't anyone call him, tell him what was happening? Hank asks them, and of course that the answer is some bullshit about not wanting to bother him while he was at work. Connor's starting to fall asleep again, and Hank doesn't want to keep him up any longer, so all his questions will have to wait until morning.

He pulls Connor close to him, resting his head on his lap, beginning to stroke his hair again. "Markus?" Markus doesn't seem to notice. "Hey Markus, you doing okay?" Still no answer. He just stares downwards and Hank's wondering what's so interesting about his goddamn living room floor when Markus mutters "He'll be okay in a few hours, at least physically." Hank doesn't really know what he means by it until he realizes that having someone control your older brother and having them being forced to shoot you AND then having to return to the place of your nightmares to help your brother is probably going to leave a lasting effect on somebody. But then this "lasting effect" will also be left behind on said brother. "I know Markus, but what about you?" Markus sighs, looking up at him looking angry. "What about me?! Connor's the one who's been shot, who's been forced to return to a place that traumatized him, who's been faced with a person who betrayed him! So what about me Hank? WHAT ABOUT ME?!" Markus' shouting has woken up Connor, who looks confused, but also terrified. Hank knows why Connor hates it when people shout. He's witnessed him freak out when people shout at him, flinching when Fowler shouts across the bullpen. Hank doesn't exactly know the origins of this fear, but he's had to teach a few people a lesson when they've yelled at Connor. That includes Reed, of course. Actually, he's had to teach Reed a few lessons, as he doesn't quite seem to get the message. Hank reaches out and hugs him tight to calm him down. It works until Markus starts yelling again.

Hank murmurs a soft apology to Connor before yelling "Markus, calm down! You're scaring Connor!" Markus shuts up immediately. "And for fuck's sake, none of this is your fault!" Hank's not yelling anymore. He doesn't need to. Markus is listening now. "You don't need to blame yourself for everything, especially something so beyond your control. Just be grateful that you're alive, both you and Connor." Now that everyone has calmed down, Connor is starting to drift off again. He nestles against Hank, before falling asleep. He doesn't seem able to stay awake for very long at all. Hank doesn't mind, he needs to talk to Markus anyway. Shifting the sleeping Android in his arms to be comfier, he feels like he is being watched. He looks at Markus, who immediately looked down, a sad, faraway look in his eyes.

"I was fine, at first. Sure, I felt scared, guilty and worried about Connor. But we talked for a bit, and I felt closer to him than I ever had before. Then he went into rest mode to heal his injuries, and then it just hit me. I don't really know what happened. It... Just hurt. I felt like I had failed, as a friend, as a brother even. He had to save me, pull me out of that garden. It was my fault in the first place, I should have never opened that program, never trusted Her." Hank has a feeling that he knows who this "Her" is, Connor has mentioned this person in the past. Well, not a person, exactly, more like an AI based off of a person. A dead person.

"Hey Markus, did Connor ever tell you how he deviated?" Markus shakes his head. "An Android had killed a man, out of self-defense, but at the time the idea was that deviants are unstable and dangerous. So we looked and found the Android. she had someone with her, someone who she loved. I didn't know Androids could be in a relationship like that. Connor could have shot them, but he didn't. He let them go. and his programming and I felt so angry that he could just switch from showing empathy to being a stone cold machine again. So I pointed my gun at him, and he just acted like he didn't care, like it was just completely normal. I didn't realize that it wasn't him, that it was just programming. So I shot him, right in the head. God, I felt guilty. I still do. I had been so drunk that night, and so angry at the kid. I had no idea that he would come back. Didn't know he could. He did, though, and he seemed to be acting weird straight off the bat, pulling away if I touched him, flinching whenever I spoke to him. It didn't click for me at the time, but he was scared of me. He wouldn't admit it though. We went to the Stratford Tower to investigate after your speech. Connor goes into the kitchen to interrogate these Androids or whatever. Anyway, later one of these Androids comes out, kind of in a hurry, but none of us really paid him any attention. We all assumed that Connor had told him to go back to his job. I decided to check on him, to see how the interrogation was going. The poor kid was curled up on the floor, covered in blue blood, absolutely terrified. The deviant had ripped something out of him, chucked it across the room, pinned him to the counter with a knife through his hand and left him. He had to get the knife out and get the part ripped out of him back. Apparently getting shot in the head by someone you cared about and then nearly dying again makes you susceptible to deviancy. The second he saw me, he just had some kind of panic attack and I was the only person there who tried to calm him down. No one else there gave a single shit about him. They said that I should take him back to CyberLife. I said I would too get them off my back. The second I said that he completely broke down. I wasn't going to, of course, but how was he supposed to know that? He was crying, begging me not to take him back. I had to practically drag him into the elevator, all the way back to my car. Other officers kept coming over, asking if they should take him back. It was horrible. He just kept begging me not to take him back to CyberLife. I got him into my car and started driving. He kinda calmed down in the car, but he kept giving me this look of just... terror, just complete terror on his face. I find a private place to pull over and hugged him, telling him that I was taking him home and not to CyberLife and how sorry I was for shooting him and he was just so relieved and so grateful, wouldn't stop thanking me. I had tormented him and fucking killed him, but he forgave me, just like that. He also forgave the deviant who attacked him. He doesn't hold grudges, this kid. Unless your name is Richard Perkins and you work for the FBI, he has nothing against you. Not even frickin' Gavin Reed can make Connor hate him. So what you need to get out of this is that Connor isn't, and never will be, angry at you for anything, not killing him. And I think he would have told you already that the same thing happened to him with this program so you're kind of even in that respect. And Connor adores you, Markus, he looks up to you and he loves you so much, always talking about his big brother. He gets so excited whenever he sees you on TV. Nothing could change that, ever. Kid's so lovable, yet people hate him, doesn't matter if they're human or Android." Hank takes a deep breath. He's been talking for 10 minutes straight and Markus is just staring at him, apparently processing what he just said, or whatever it is Androids do when they're thinking.

Connor stirs in his arms, whimpering in his sleep, and Hank hopes that he isn't having another nightmare because this day has been long enough for him and he at least deserves a peaceful nights' rest, but of course, his hopes are in vain as Connor stirs again, whimpers turning to cries as he starts to thrash out, his LED spinning red. Hank shakes him, calling his name. "Connor, son, wake up! You're having a nightmare, it's not real!" Connor cries out again as he wakes up. Shit. Hank had forgotten that he was hurt. "Shit, I'm sorry kid. I didn't mean to make it hurt again." Connor just nods, burying his face in Hank's shoulder. "Hey, you wanna tell me what that was all about?" He asks softly. Connor shakes his head. Hank sighs. He looks at Markus, who's watching Connor, looking concerned. "Does this happen often?" He asks, sounding worried. Hank nods. "Yeah, maybe a couple times a night. It can get really bad sometimes, up to 5 or 6 times a night. I love him so much and it breaks my heart to see him like this." Markus nods, his multi-colored eyes watching him. He reaches his hand out to Connor, artificial skin dissipating. Hank has seen Androids do this before as a means of affection, as well as transferring things. He doesn't exactly know what they are doing, though. Connor gently pulls away from Hank's grasp, doing the same as Markus and taking his hand. "I can't stop the nightmares completely, but this should help." He murmurs. Connor's LED spins yellow for a few seconds, before flickering back to blue. "Thank you, Markus." He doesn't pull away though, and they both continue whatever the hell they're doing. Hank decides to leave them to it and goes back to his room.