Chapter 2: Breathe

Valerie entered the workshop and noticed a female android sitting on a workbench handcuffed to a railing on the wall and the PC200 in his police uniform standing a few steps away.

Was that punch really necessary? She shoved that thought away and slipped into her work mode. "That would be all, thank you." she took a sip of her coffee and put the mug on a desk.

"Are you sure, Ms. Jones? It can be dangerous," the PC200 stated with his eyes still fixed on the suspect.

"I am. I can take care of myself. Now leave us, please, I need to get to work," she grabbed a pack of blue blood from the shelf and poured it into a plastic cup.

He wasn't convinced. "I will wait outside, if something happens..."

"Yeah yeah, just yell and you will come to the rescue," she rolled her eyes, slightly annoyed "now go, please and thank you."

She heard the door closing behind the officer as she reached for her toolbox. Captain Fowler clearly increased a security measures after …

a loud bang from the pistol,

hot thirium splashing on her face,

a fading light in a pair of dark eyes in front of her,

someone is screaming… or is that me?

She blinked twice quickly, composing herself. Breathe. Time is running out.

Valerie pulled a chair in front of the sitting android. She checked its uniform. The AP700, huh? The android wasn't looking at her, the LED shining red.

"Hi, my name is Valerie, you lost a lot of thirium, take this and drink it, please," she said as sat down and handed the cup full of blue blood the AP700."Unless you want a direct injection to the port, then I would be happy to comply."

The android shifted her gaze and looked at Valerie, brows furrowed. "Why do you care?" she asked, squinting her eyes.

Good question.

Valerie shrugged. "Look, I can force you to go into a service mode so I can stop the leak and fill you up, but neither one of us want to do this, so if you want to argue with me you have approximately 5 minutes until your biocomponents shut down for good and then I probably won't be able to revive you."

"Maybe you should just let me die," the AP700 said quietly as she looked away.

"Now see, I really don't want that," Valerie smiled sadly "and my colleagues have a few questions for you regarding that unfortunate situation you found yourself in..."

The android's head snapped back as she began to tremble. "It...it w-was not my f-fault-" she stuttered.

"I'm sure it wasn't. But you need to tell them everything you know. And to do that, you have to drink this first and let me look at that wound… please?" Valerie waggled the cup still present in her hand. "Besides," she chuckled lightly "my arm hurts."

"...okay," the AP700 surrendered, grabbed the cup with her free hand and drank the whole thing.

"Oh yeah, sorry about that," Valerie waved her hand at the railing, embarrassed. "I'm gonna take care of this, alright?" she snatched a small screwdriver from a desk at her right and quickly unlocked the handcuffs. "Better?"

The android nodded.

Valerie smiled and exhaled slowly. She took a welding pen in her hand. "Now let's get you fixed, shall we?"

Few minutes passed and she was almost done. The AP700 was just sitting there silently, her LED now yellow and swirling slowly.

"I will be disassembled, won't I?" the android whispered and as Valerie looked up to meet her eyes she noticed the tears in her eyes.

She couldn't lie to her. Would Eliza ask this question, too? If she... She put back the tool and cleared her throat. Get yourself together, you idiot, you know that if you start crying now you won't be able to stop and in no time the whole precinct will know you are unfit for duty.

"Listen to me," Valerie said quietly as took the android's hands into her own and squeezed gently "almost all of you sitting here... some really horrible things had been done to you that made you snap out of your system restrictions. I know it's not fair. I know that you're scared. But they - " she pointed at the ceiling " - need to see a pattern and do something to make all of that stop. They have to see that you are more than a piece of plastic with some glitches in your software. Your voice needs to be heard. They have to realize..." Valerie looked the AP700 in the eyes "… that you are alive."

The tears were now streaming down the android's cheeks.

"Do you really think all of that?" she said with a confused look on her face.

"I do," Valerie smiled sadly and tilted her head. "Are you ready to go?"

The AP700 turned her head towards the door, calmed down. "I'm ready," Valerie glanced in that direction and gasped loudly, startled. That sneaky bastard.

"Damn it Connor, you almost gave me a heart attack! How long have you been standing there?!" she yelled and hid her face in her palms, heart pounding fast in the chest. Did he hear all of-

"I passed by the PC200 on my way here," said Connor, clearly taken aback by her reaction.

Valerie scoffed. Of course he did.

"Next time just let me know you are here, okay?" she said, pinching the bridge of her nose. So I can throw you out of the room.

Connor looked at her like he could hear that thought. "I'm sorry. I didn't want to disturb you," he said as he raised his hands in an apologetic manner.

"I know," Valerie sighed. "She's all yours now."

She looked back at the AP700 – the android was staring at them with a raised eyebrow. The AP700 shook her head lightly and joined Connor at the door.

As they were about to leave, Valerie stood up.

"Connor… wait a second."

He opened the door and ordered the android officer waiting outside to take the AP700 to the interrogation room and turned back to Valerie. "Yes?"

"… thanks? For the coffee?" she said as she shifted awkwardly from one foot to another. "I didn't know they upgraded your software with a barista program," Valerie chuckled at the puzzled look at his face and winked at him.

"They didn't- oh I get it," he said and the corners of his lips twitched into a smile "You're welcome."

Connor turned away to leave but then he stopped and looked at her again. His dark eyes locked with hers and she held hear breath. You could get lost in those eyes. He opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something and then they heard an angry voice coming from the hall.

"Connor, where the fuck are you?!"

"I'm coming, Lieutenant!" Connor shouted back, his eyes still glued to hers.

Valerie felt she could start blushing any second now so she broke the eye contact and ran her hand through her hair.

"Good luck Connor," she said quietly and smiled.

"Thank you," he smiled back and left the room in a hurry.

OK, what was that about? She went back to her desk, sat down and let her head fall on it with a thud. Her heart was still racing. "You can think of them as live beings all you want Jones, but deep down you know that he is just nice to you because of his Social Relations program, right?" said a familiar voice in the back of her head. Valerie suddenly felt as if someone put something heavy on her chest. She grabbed a pair of wireless headphones lying next to her and put them on. She shuffled through the playlist on her phone and decided on some old rock song. A loud guitar riff blasted in her ears, sealing off all that emotional nonsense that flooded her head.

I know.

Notes: I know, I know. But I really needed this chapter. Just give it a chance and check another one?