Hey guys!
Lots of you are guessing what Connor is up to. Don't worry you'll find out. It won't show up for a few more chapters, but it won't be a long mystery!
So, these next couple of chapters are going to tie directly into a major arc at the end of Under My Skin. You don't need to read that story to be able to enjoy these chapters, but just be aware that the events are linked. The tone is markedly different, and you'll see very quickly why that is. There is some major background for my personal headcanons here…including why Hank and Gavin have such an acrimonious relationship, even if it has improved since the revolution.
Special thanks for reviews: xNarielx, MugetsuPipefox, HK800, Minecraft Guardiansaiyan and two Guests.
Things in the DPD were incredibly tense, and Hank didn't like it. He hadn't felt something like this since…well, since this time last year, right around the time of the aftermath of the android uprising. Their case with androids turning up dead had ramped up again, and this time it was a much higher body count. Thirty-seven more androids had been found in what appeared to be a mass grave and it had everyone on edge.
Not to mention that their own two androids had vanished – the absence of Connor and Katie was noticeable.
Well, maybe vanished was the wrong word. Fowler had told the DPD that they had temporarily been reassigned until the case was resolved, but Hank had smelled the bullshit a mile away. What had truly got to him though was how he hadn't heard a word from Connor since he'd disappeared overnight two weeks ago.
Were it not for the fact that he could see that Connor's fish were still being fed and little signs like Sumo not begging to be let out whenever Hank came home, he would have been a lot more worried. He knew Connor was safe – he'd just gone dark.
Hank suspected the same wasn't true of his temporary partner knowing about his own android's fate.
Gavin had been snappish and aggressive the whole duration of the pair's absence. Finding out that Fowler had stuck them together for the intervening time was not going to be helping (and the timing couldn't be much worse with the anniversary of that having only just passed three weeks ago). The only reason Hank hadn't lost it with the other man was because he was could completely understand Gavin's anger. If Katie was also in the wind without so much as a word, it was going to be messing with his head even more.
At least things were professional out in the field. They'd processed the scene without even one snide comment from Gavin about the scale of their investigation (almost all of homicide and android crimes were working together), but they'd still turned up with no leads. Four more body dumps had been found and linked to the same killer(s) and every new addition was causing more stress.
In the precinct, however, things were frosty. Gavin refused to speak to Hank unless strictly necessary, and even then he just messaged the older man more often than not if he needed something done.
Small mercies though: Gavin's venomous demeanour meant that he was on fire right now when it came to interrogation. They'd managed to at least eliminate a few suspects from what they'd learned.
The major downside was that everyone could feel the hostile atmosphere between the two rolling off in waves – and certain people were at their wits end with it.
Fowler might be the only one who knew why the atmosphere was so foul, but he wasn't going to have it impacting on the rest of the precinct's productivity, since everyone else was doing their utmost to make sure they stayed in the field as much as possible.
So, he recruited some help for a plan.
Their latest line of enquiry for the case had seen a question being raised as to whether all the androids had become victims due to shared circumstance. Some of the models showing up were more frequent than others, but in a strange capacity. Sixteen of their most recent victims had all shared the same face, even if they were from different lines. As such, Hank and Gavin were down in the evidence lockup looking through the victims' personal effects to see if there was anything to link them – a frequently visited location, support group, employer…
It had been a quiet and tense two hours of work before Hank felt like he had to get out of the room. Working with Connor was easy since the pair traded snarky comments regularly or tossed about ideas for future pranks, or even trips to take when they had the time. Hank knew that Gavin could be a decent human being when he was so inclined…he'd seen a lot more of it since the other detective had begun working with Katie, and even more so since their near miss with the shooting.
This frigid indifference was too damn similar to…to-
Shit, it's been 7 years now. Christ. This time of year is a shitty one for both Gavin and I.
Standing up from the table which he'd been at for over an hour now, Hank stretched before calling out to Gavin who was at opposite end of the room, studying a map of where all the victims were known to frequent. "I'm grabbin' a coffee, want something?"
A middle finger back was all the answer Hank got.
Well, I tried.
Just as Hank reached the touchpad to scan his way out, he noticed it was lit up red. "Oh for fuck's sake…" Still, Hank tried to access it and got the unpleasant error tone in response. "Stupid piece of shit! Open up!" Hank roared while banging the door.
His shouting caught Gavin's attention, and the other man rolled his eyes at seeing Hank slamming the glass door. "Don't tell me you broke it, Anderson," he snapped.
"Scanner ain't working, look." Hank stepped aside to let Gavin see the red hue to the panel on the wall, to which Gavin scowled. "I didn't touch shit."
Gavin strode over and tried to open the door himself, but was met with the same result. "Fantastic," Gavin cheered sarcastically, "we're stuck in this glass box. Someone has jumped into my most hated scenario and stuck me right in the middle of it. Like fuck do I want to be in this place with you any longer than I have to."
Hank glared in response. "Being with your prick ass is not my idea of fun either, asshole," he growled while pulling out his phone. "I'll get someone to let us out from the other side."
"That's not how that fucking works, Anderson."
"Shut the fuck up, Reed, and get back to it."
Sighing in irritation, Gavin strolled off and went back to the map at the side of the room as Hank pulled out his phone. He quickly selected Ben's number and waited for the other man to pick up.
"Hank! Had enough of Gavin's bitching for the day?" Ben answered way too cheerily for Hank's taste.
"Real funny, Ben, I'd probably take bitching over silence to be honest," Hank snarked in response, to which Gavin glared from the side. "We're stuck in lockup 3, don't suppose you fancy letting us out, do you?"
"Er, well, I would…but Chris and I are en route to an assault case. Can't do much for you from inside a car!"
Hank groaned as he ran a hand down his face. "Fine, who else is in the precinct?"
"Not many I'm afraid, almost everyone's on patrol or grabbing a bite. See what Fowler says?"
"Oh great, I'm gonna love telling him this one," Hank sighed. "All right, cheers, Ben."
"Enjoy the icy bastard's company, Hank!"
"Not fuckin' likely…" As he hung up, Hank hesitated before dialling Fowler. This was not going to brighten his day any.
"If you're phoning for permission to shoot Reed, the answer is no."
Hank chuckled at the greeting for a moment. "Nah, too much paperwork involved in that. Jeffrey, Reed and I are stuck in lockup 3, the scanner's bust. You able to send someone down to let us out?"
"Lockup 3, huh? You two made any progress?"
"A little, if you can call finding about fifty new potential suspects as forward rather than backwards…" Hank informed him.
"Brilliant, fantastic work," Fowler grumbled, to which Hank did not appreciate the sarcastic tone. "You and Reed speaking yet?"
"Hah! Don't be fucking ridiculous, Jeffrey. There's more chance of hell freezing over than that."
"…In that case, I can't help you."
"Wha-?! What the fuck does that mean?!"
"It means you two need to actually be adults and talk before I'll let you back up here."
"Let us-" And then the penny dropped. "Hold the fucking phone, are you telling me you deliberately stuck Reed and I in here?" Hank shouted.
Gavin head shot around at that. "What?! Oh for fuck's sake, hell no!"
"We're in total agreement, Fowler. You've achieved something phenomenal; now, let us the hell out!"
"No can do, Hank. You two have made this place unbearable for way too damn long, and your teams are actually making some headway now that they don't have the blanket of animosity smothering them. Be grown-ups and talk this out, and I'll let you two loose."
"I'll just fucking shoot the glass again, Jeffrey, don't push me," Hank growled at him.
"Fuck that, I'll do it!" Gavin decided while pulling out his service weapon.
"You discharge that weapon and I'll have your ass suspended for months, Reed!" The pair jumped at hearing Fowler's voice boom through the intercom system. "And don't you get any ideas, Anderson! You know how much it cost to get all that shit repaired last time, and while I was sympathetic then, I am not now. The replacement costs will be coming out of yours' and Connor's pay cheques."
"Son of a-"
"I'm watching you both from my office, and all of your colleagues are under strict instruction not to approach any of the lockups until I say so. Now, sort this shit out, that's a damn order!"
Fowler left the conversation on that note, and the two men glared first at the intercom, then the door, and then each other before slinking back to their sides of the room to work, pointedly avoiding the elephant in the room.
If they couldn't have the conversation 7 years ago, they sure as hell weren't going to have it now.
Another hour of silence had taken its toll on Hank, and he was steadily growing aware of his need for a) water, b) food and c) a piss. He knew damn well that Fowler would be watching, just as he said he would, and Gavin's snarling fit not long after learning of their predicament confirmed that the man's attempts to get Tina or Chris to help had been met with the same fate as Hank's own.
He was actually getting flustered enough to contemplate it…
"You heard anything from Katie yet?"
Contrary to Hank's expectations, Gavin actually looked over at the mention of his partner. It was about another ten seconds before he answered though. "Nothing. Connor?"
Well, it was something at least. "Nope, not a peep. Can tell he's at least been home though, so that makes me feel a lot better. Any thoughts on where they might be?"
Gavin just shrugged while looking at the papers in front of him again. "No idea. Dust isn't at her place though, so Katie knew she was going to be gone for a while."
That got Hank's attention. "Hold up, you've been to her apartment and you've got a key?"
"What's so strange about that, Anderson?" he snapped back. "Thought you'd appreciate the fact that I actually give enough of a damn."
Hank held up a placating hand at seeing Gavin's challenging glare. "Easy, I was just surprised is all. I know Connor's got a key but I don't think he's ever used it. Makes sense that you do, I'm just…you know." Gavin's expression mellowed slightly to an unimpressed frown. "It's good seeing you get on with your partner, it's been a while."
Gavin scoffed. "Yeah, look how well the last time that happened turned out."
"Come on, Gavin, you know I didn't-"
"Don't!" Gavin snapped, but Hank could immediately hear the underlying pain. "Don't fucking go there, I can't right now."
"Hate to break it to you, but this whole thing is the reason we're stuck in here, so until something shifts, we ain't going anywhere." Gavin glared hard at a corner of the room and Hank could understand not wanting to open up. Letting that stone wall around your heart down to truly feel grief was one of the worst things he'd ever experienced: and he'd only done it because of Connor. Without him, Hank would have stayed in the same spiral of self-loathing and drinking until he finally ended it all.
Gavin's situation was not the same, but it was similar enough to be haunting. The grief, the guilt over what else could have been done…Hank couldn't imagine carrying that for 7 years instead of the just over 3 that he'd spent self-destructing.
And the hatred for androids that had been born out of it.
"Look, Gavin, I think I can maybe understand better than you think I can. I've been through the same grief too."
The broken sob mixed with a scoff made Hank's heart squeeze. "Yeah, same total fucking thing, Anderson. Course I'm gonna pour out my heart to the guy who made sure I wasn't there when I was fucking meant to be."
"Jesus Christ- Gavin, I didn't want to send you away, but you know how it works! It was an insane scene, we were overrun and stretched to the limit. I knew you wanted to be there but I never would have done it if I thought for a second that-"
"Shut up! Just shut the hell up!"
Hank did stop at the all but plead from Gavin, seeing the other man heaving in breaths as he desperately fought tears. The raw pain pouring off him was more than Hank had seen since it first happened: back before Gavin fell apart.
"Look, you want to talk. Fine! Let's talk," Gavin snarled. "Let's talk about how my fucking partner knew what my boyfriend planned to do, and then sent me away to make sure he went through with his suicidal plan! Let's talk about how while everyone was celebrating him saving those two kids and praising how brave he was, I had to live with the fact that he was fucking gone! Let's talk about how the fucking replaceable tin cans wouldn't go do the job they were fucking built for and he died instead cause he was the only one who gave enough of a damn!"
The sudden silence was suffocating, and Hank could see Gavin shaking.
"So tell me, Hank…" Hank wasn't going to lie, the venom with which Gavin spat his name did hurt a bit. "In what fucking universe do you expect me to forgive you for stopping me from convincing my hero boyfriend not to run into a fucking fire when you knew what was coming that night?!"
Shit, so he did know all this time. Fuck…
"Look, Gavin…I fought him, all right? I didn't want let him go do it, but you knew Matt better than I did. He was a firefighter because he had such a big heart and wouldn't ever give up on someone." Hank sighed deeply, letting the guilt seep through into his tone. "Yes, I sent you away because he asked me to – because he didn't want you watching him run back into danger. He was sure that he could save those kids and he did, but when he heard someone else still in the building…"
Gavin was pointedly looking at the floor, away from the other man. "I'm not saying you should forgive me, Gavin, I don't expect you ever could," Hank told him honestly. He hadn't ever forgiven himself, so asking Gavin to was an impossibility. "But what came after it…things have changed."
Grey-green eyes bored right into Hank's own. "What the fuck does that mean?"
"I know you hated androids because they wouldn't go into that building: the risk was too high and CyberLife programmed them not to go if their chance of destruction was above a certain threshold. That's what caused Matt to do it…and you've blamed them since. But everything has changed now, Gavin, I know you believe that."
"The hell are you getting at here, Anderson?"
"I want you to start actually giving a damn about all these androids that are turning up dead! What if that were to happen to Katie? You can't tell me that you'd face this with the same cold attitude if she were lying there!"
Hank could instantly tell that was the wrong thing to say – seeing Gavin's eyes flash from fear, to guilt briefly, and then rage. When Gavin pulled out his gun, Hank just looked away regretfully as the other man shot the glass door apart. Gavin stormed out without looking back, taking off at almost a run.
Staring at the space he had just vacated, Hank sat back down and swore softly. "Damn it. Seven fuckin' years too late to be doing this…I don't know if he can be put back together now." Thinking about the two androids which had suddenly disappeared from their lives and unintentionally forced them into the situation, Hank pulled out his phone and sent Connor a message. He wasn't expecting an answer, but he hoped that Connor at least saw it.
Hope you're safe. Really fucking miss you, kiddo.
From within his office above the lockup, Fowler had watched the scene play out with a forlorn expression. Despite his threat, he wasn't going to name Gavin as the guilty party for destruction of property – the captain felt that he held a degree of responsibility for the scenario which had gone so badly wrong. He didn't look up, but it was impossible to miss Gavin all but fleeing from the precinct in the need to get away before falling apart. A few people exchanged glances, including concerned ones between Chris, Ben and Tina for their parts in making sure the confrontation happened rather than going down to stop it.
Sighing long, he brought up a message window on his terminal and sent it before getting back to his work, not missing the instant reply.
Touch base with home, but no details.
Understood.
Hank was exhausted when he got back to the house after the long and emotional day, and he was slightly ashamed to admit that he really wanted a drink. He knew there would be bad moments where the temptation reared its ugly head again, but he had hoped to hold it together a little better while Connor was gone.
Sumo barked from his spot in the kitchen, and Hank spied the boxes of Chinese carry out on the table, along with a note. Striding in quickly, Hank picked up the paper and read the writing, smiling at recognising the new script that Connor had been working on for a while.
Enjoy your meal, Hank.
"Really wish I could see you rather than just know you've been back, kid," Hank lamented. "You have no idea how much I'm missing your sass."
Curious as to what Connor had gotten him, Hank opened the box which had been left on the table…
And got a swift mouthful of confetti and glitter from the small cannon which had been rigged inside.
Spluttering, Hank coughed and glared at the box. "Fucking hell, Connor! Can't you just let me enjoy some unhealthy shit in peace…?" He looked inside to see another note, which Hank grabbed with a snarl. His face softened when he read the contents.
Fowler told me to get in touch, I'm guessing something serious happened today.
I'm sorry for vanishing, Hank, but it wasn't my choice.
All I can tell you is that I am safe, and will remain so. I hope to be reunited with you soon.
Maybe we can look at another road trip or just take some time off together?
I miss you as well.
Be safe, Dad.
PS. There is Chinese in the microwave. Enjoy.
"Dammit, Connor, stop making my old ass go all sappy…"
Hank looked inside the microwave to see what he had, and as he waited for the food to reheat, he couldn't help but wonder as to the note. Something was going on and he really hated not knowing.
Pulling out his phone one more time, he hesitated before sending Connor a message.
Is Katie with you? I'm only asking cause Gavin is really hurting without her. Maybe get her to let him know that she's safe?
Hank had a bad feeling when he did get a reply back.
I can't tell you, Hank, and that isn't possible. I'm sorry. Is this anything to do with what happened today?
Yeah, it's a factor. Okay, stay safe, Connor. Looks after yourself and come back in one piece, all right?
Always, Dad.
Despite himself, Hank smiled. There was one consolation to the shitshow of today: he'd at least got the chance to talk to Connor, however briefly.
Though his relief hit a messy death when he went through to the bathroom and noticed just what was left on his face from the glitter/confetti bomb. Connor had coated the glitter in an adhesive which meant it was sticking to Hank's face…and he did not approve of the white, blue, red and orange monstrous combination which was left behind.
Hey, at least tell me how to get all this shit off my face?
Now why would I do that? The removes all of the fun.
You're gonna be fucking homeless at this rate, Connor.
Your threat is acknowledged, Hank. Good luck.
"This stuff's still gonna be here tomorrow, isn't it?"
It was, and Hank swiftly found himself the laughing stock of the precinct at the glitter abomination across his face.
Even Gavin cracked a tiny smile at the sight, and the insults which had been vicious the day before were now much more in the teasing realm. It made life a lot easier.
Thanks, kiddo. Can't wait to get you home.