A/N: A new chapter, it makes me happy when you guys tell me that you're enjoying the story! Thanks!

After It All

"Sumo is going to really enjoy eating that." Hank commented from behind him.

Connor pushed the dirt into the hole around a tomato plant sapling and patted the soil in place. He then started to dig another hole. He had had the idea to start a garden, with the permission of Hank he had started the garden in the space beside Sumo's dog house. Once his hole had been dug we went about planting some lettuce. When they had grown he hoped that Hank would be willing to eat some.

"No he won't," Connor replied to Hank's statement. "he's a good boy, aren't you Sumo?" he reached over to the dog in question and rubbed his head.

Sumo barked happily in response and licked Connor's hand.

Hank clicked his tongue and crossed his arms with a dramatic eye roll. "Suck up."

Sumo, ignored his master and with a happy wag of his tail he picked up a plant in his mouth and seemed to hold it out to Connor. Connor accepted the plant and went about planting it. Connor patted the dog in response and Hank found himself laughing and his dog's antics. Sumo barked happily and moved to get another plant.

XXX

They were talking again. Simon frowned. Markus and North were sitting close to each other and talking. About what, he did not know, they were too close to each other for him to hear anything. Truth be told he did not want to hear what they were saying. He did not need their relationship thrown any further in his face.

He turned on the bench that he was sitting on so that he could watch foyers the water feature. Markus, North, Josh and himself were sitting in the main office of their cyberlife building while they waited for the President of the United States to meet with them. It had been close to a year since the civil war and there were still meetings that needed to happen, still laws that needed to be passed.

Politics, Simon hated politics. One would think that, being an Android, he would have the patience for politics and perhaps enjoy it. He did not. He hated the very idea, laws that promise one thing that are veiled with lies. Politicians and all politics in turn, was a lie. A hopeful farce, much like the humans that he had known in his old life.

"Simon?"Simon heard Josh's voice in his head.

"Yes Josh?" he asked, putting all of his focus into watching the water.

"Something is bothering you." Josh replied, his voice laced with concern. "Something has been bothering you for some time, do you need to talk about it?"

Simon turned to look over at Josh who was sitting across from him. His frown deepened. "It is not important." His tone was cold, he was honestly sick of people asking him about his feelings. It was a problem that no one could fix, so why even bother worrying about it? Why bother caring about him?

Josh glanced at Markus briefly, his LED flashed yellow before he looked back at Simon. "Please Simon," he pleaded. "We're all worried about you. You've been so distant lately."

Simon shot up from the bench, his fists clenched and his LED flashed red. "I am going for a walk." He said thinly. "I will be back in five minutes." He stormed from the room, ignoring the eyes on his back.

XXX

Ralph scratched at his arm. He was sitting on Claire's blue 50's sofa and waiting for her to return. She was on a date with that man. Ralph glanced at the photo frames that covered her grey feature wall in an attempt to distract himself. He looked over the photos, he did not know the people but he assumed that they were her friends and family. He felt a smile tug at his lips at how happy Claire was in the photos. She had the most vibrant of smiles, so beautiful so wonderful.

He looked up at the clock. It had only been ten minutes since he had last looked at the clock. Meaning she still had another forty minutes until she would be back. He hoped that she didn't bring that man with her. That man being her boyfriend, Adam, his name was and Ralph did not like him one bit. There was something wrong about him, something that Ralph could not name. Something in his instincts warned him about the man.

He had talked to Claire about his concerns, but she had merely smiled at him with her warm smile and told him that he was probably just suffering from the trauma that humans had done to him. Adam, probably looked like, or reminded him of one of his attackers, she had explained. He had disagreed, he was a paranoid android yes, but he knew when there was something wrong with someone.

After waiting for what felt like ages, the sound of the automated door welcoming Claire jolted him from his thoughts. He rose from the chair and twirled his hands excitedly as she walked into the room. "Claire!" he cheered happily. "Ralph waited for you to return! Ralph made you some dessert, it's in the fridge!"

Claire grinned at him. "You are a treasure Ralph." She followed him into the kitchen and watched as he jumped to the fridge and pulled the door open with excitement. She took the bowl of trifle and sat at the table.

"Come, sit with me." She gestured to the chair beside her.

Ralph took the chair and plopped beside her. "How does it taste?" He asked. "Is it sweet? Succulent?"

Claire finished her mouth full and looked at Ralph who was watching her expectantly. "Ralph, you surprise me every day. Who would have thought that you were such an amazing cook."

Ralph beamed.

XXX

Connor sat across from Hank in the booth at 'Jimmy's bar' and watched the Lieutenant down another drink. They had been invited out to drinks by their new colleague 'Adrian'. When Connor had expressed that he could not drink Adrian had expressed that he 'did not mind, he would just be happy for the company'. Connor had been happy to join them at the bar, Adrian seemed like a nice person and he always made an effort to include Connor, he even went as far as to buy him little trinkets because he couldn't drink coffee.

"It was nice of Detective Archer to invite us out." Connor commented as Hank downed another whiskey. That made six, he noted with a frown.

Hank nodded and looked down mournfully at his drink. He looked over at Adrian who was standing at the bar. "Bring us another?' he called out. Adrian nodded and went about ordering. "Yeah it was nice, I really needed the drink, it's been a long week." Hank leaned back into his chair.

"Perhaps you should slow down Hank?" Connor suggested, thinking about the state that Hank would be in come the morning.

Hank waved his hand dismissively at his partner. "It's Saturday tomorrow, I'm having my fucking weekend." He nodded to Adrian who passed the whiskey over and slid into the booth to sit beside Connor.

Adrian sent Connor a smile before he frowned. Connor watched as Adrian brushed his brown hair out of his eyes, only to frown again as the hair flopped back down. Adrian attempted to push his hair away again, only to frown as it flopped down again. "I think it's time for a haircut." Adrian mumbled and took a sip of his drink.

Connor looked at the condensation on Adrian's bottle, then back up at Adrian's hair. "Detective Archer-"

Adrian held his hand up, his brown eyes flashing. "Please, call me Adrian."

"Adrian." Connor repeated. "would you like some assistance?" he gestured with his hands to the Detective's hair. When Adrian shrugged his shoulder's in consent, he took the moisture from the bottle onto his hands. He then reached over and brushed the hair back, the water on his hand seemed to do the job and the hair stayed in place.

As Connor pulled his hand back, he noted that Adrian had gone completely still, a brief scan indicated that his heart rate had accelerated. What was the cause of this? Was he having some kind of reaction?

"Adrian?" Connor tilted his head and eyed the Detective.

Adrian seemed to snap from whatever was happening to him. He took a quick swig of his beer and sent Connor a small smile. "T-Thanks Conner."

Hank watched with a cat like grin.

X

"I don't want to go to bed, thank you." Hank slurred as Connor carried him through the hallway towards the bedroom.

"You have ingested twenty-one standard drinks, you need to go to bed Hank." Connor replied with a matter of fact voice. He carried Hank to his room and sat him on the bed. In the state that Hank was in, there was no way that the man was struggling, this made Connor's job both easier and harder. Easier because Hank wasn't struggling, harder because he was now practically dead weight.

"Hey Connor… I wanna ask you something…" Hank slurred as he was lowered onto the bed. "Do you have a penis?"

Connor, who had been pulling the blanket over Hank, paused. "Sorry?" surely had not heard that correctly, and if he had, why in the world would Hank want to know that?

Hank took the blanket from Connor and snuggled into it. "Do you have a dick? Are you androids built…" he trailed off.

Connor's LED flashed but he answered the question non the less. "I was designed to be ready for any situation that may arise in the line of work, so yes, I am built with a penis." He almost jumped as Hank let out a loud laugh.

"Well t-that's good!" he continued to laugh.

"Why did you need to know that Hank?" Connor asked. When it became apparent that Hank had not heard him over his own laughter, he repeated the question.

Hank turned and snuggled his head on his pillow. "We're going to give you a bedroom tomorrow." He started to snore. "Cole's old room.." the snoring increased and Connor was left sitting in the room with wide eyes.

X

"You don't need to do this Hank," Connor insisted as Hank started to pack away children's toys into boxes. "I don't need sleep and I am quite happy with sitting on the couch." He stood awkwardly as Hank seemed to ignore him and continued to put items away. "Hank."

Hank let out a sigh and rose from the floor. Her pushed his hands into the pockets of his tack pants. He shifted as though he was going to say or do something terribly uncomfortable. "Listen son…" he looked away, unable to meet Connors eyes. "Cole isn't going to be using it and you deserve your own space…" he met Connor's eyes briefly. "I want you to have it."

Connor was struck by an emotion that he could not name. He felt the desire to pull Hank into a hug and not let go. He tried to find the words to express how he was feeling but he found himself unable to process the words. In the end he didn't need to as Hank turned back to continue cleaning the room out.

"Besides…" he said, a strange edge to his voice. "You're going to need to a room for when you start bringing boys home."

"I'm not bringing Adrian home!" Connor said defensively.

"I never said Adrian!" Hank laughed.

A/N: Another chapter done, I hope that you liked it!

Adrian is from my other story 'Loss' check it out if you have a chance.

Thanks again for reading, I'll have more soon! :)