Summary: Kara broke free of her coding too late, so she must find another way to keep Todd away from Alice.
.o
She'd broken free of her coding too late.
Todd had already made his way up the stairs when she found herself able to move. Her thirium pump felt more overworked than it had ever in the brief time she'd been alive—not even after Todd had choked her upon stumbling over his stash of Red Ice had it felt this worked. She made her way up the stairs, hearing Alice's pleading.
She rushed into Todd's room, opening the drawer, hoping to find the gun that she'd seen when cleaning. To her horror, it wasn't there. Her processor immediately came to the conclusion that Todd was in possession of the weapon and was looking to kill Alice with it.
With even greater urgency in her step, she bounded out of Todd's room and down to Alice's open doorway. Upon initial inspection, the gun was in his front pocket, his belt currently being wielded. He had his arm raised, prepared to strike Alice.
"Todd, wait!" she called, arms reaching to pull Todd back.
"Get the fuck off of me," he growled, shrugging her off of him, peering over his shoulder. "I thought I told you not to fucking move."
"Todd," she tried again, hands gripping his arms and pulling him back. He turned around to face her. Good, her programming rewarded her. Todd was now focused on her instead of on Alice. She couldn't hope to overpower him, even being an android, but she had a few things programmed into her that knew could help distract an unruly male.
He shoved her back, forcing her to hit her back against the doorframe. She hissed from the jolt her systems registered, falling to her knees. He approached her and she felt a bolt of fear.
"Todd, I know you're angry, but," she glanced briefly at Alice to make sure that Todd's body blocked Alice's view from what she was about to do, "but I can make you feel better." She hesitated before placing a hand on his thigh and slowly moving it upward.
"What?" With alcohol running through his system, it took his brain longer to process what she was suggesting. He hadn't had a female in the house in a long time that offered what he was beginning to suspect was being brought to the table.
"I-i-instead of doing that, wouldn't your time be better doing something that made you happy?" It was hard speaking when her speech modulator kept stuttering, so she tried a placating smile. It didn't match her furrowed brow and fearful eyes, but she hoped Todd's vision would be blurry enough, or maybe that he didn't care.
"The fuck would you know about being happy? You're just a fucking thing," he snarled, shoving her head back into the doorframe. Her LED flashed red when she heard Alice scream.
"I may not know how to feel happiness, but I can try to make you feel good, right?" She blinked the fluid from her eyes, hand being more bold and venturing over his groin. In his drunken stupor, he reacted to the pressure by pushing his crotch into the touch, which caused all of his body to follow. He caught himself on the doorframe but his body was crushing Kara uncomfortably against the frame as well.
He burped and then stared down at her. For a tense ten point five seconds.
"Yeah…. Yeah. Paid a lot of money for you. Might as well give you a fuckin'… purpose in life," he managed to stumble out. He gripped a handful of her hair and dragging her out of Alice's room. She let out a sob, struggling to stand with how he held her head. They were headed to his room.
Todd sat down on his bed, releasing Kara only to shove her head between his legs. She flailed, in the process seeing Alice peeking from the doorframe. She tried to motion for Alice to go but Todd saw the action. Looking to where she was looking, his eyes widened with rage. "Get the fuck outta here!" he bellowed, getting up, but Kara pushed him back down onto the bed, an easy feat given his inebriation but also a rare display of power over her owner. She quickly got up to close the door.
"What are you doing?!" Alice whispered, eyes red from crying.
"I'll be fine," Kara reassured. "I'll be fine." She hated to close the door on her priority, but it had to be done.
.o
She let her routines take control. Mouth provided pressure, suction, lubrication. It seemed to satisfy Todd because he released her head without a fuss. The interior of her mouth was a bit damaged, but not enough that self-repair couldn't take care of it. She was running low on lubricant stores for her eyes and mouth; she would have to find a way to replace it soon. Unfortunately for her, it was one of the ways CyberLife made money after the initial big purchase of an android. In addition to paying a monthly fee for having cloud-storing features for an android's memory, other features such as oral and optic lubrication was a pay-to-refill option.
Todd collapsed fully onto his bed, but not before dragging her up with him and bringing her into an embrace. A hand traced over her left thigh, seeming to worry a specific spot of her thigh.
"Fuck… I'm sorry for all of this, Madison. Didn't mean for it to end up like this," he sobbed, burying his nose into Kara's hair. "We ain't gotta fight. Maddy, I can change." He murmured "I can change" a few times before finally saying, "I love ya, Maddy."
She recognized that Todd was mistaking her for his ex-wife. She recognized the area that he was rubbing was where Madison Williams had a butterfly tattoo, based on older photos of her that she'd stumbled upon. As long as it kept him from delivering more harm, she would live with it.
"I—I love you too, Todd," she forced out of her vocalizer.
.o
When she detected that Todd's heartbeat and breath had fallen to a pattern consistent with sleeping, she cautiously lifted his arm off of her and maneuvered her way off the bed.
She stared at the gun on the bed that had been discarded when she'd begun her operations. She hesitated only for a moment—androids weren't authorised to carry weapons. A moment, and then she grabbed it.
The door creaked as she opened it, and she had a sudden urge to pray to some being that Todd wouldn't wake up. Her visual field glitched looking at Todd, stray numbers and letters corrupting out of fear.
Alice was nowhere to be seen. The first place Kara checked was Alice's bedroom. Thankfully, she was there. Kara immediately ran over to her, falling to her knees and drawing Alice in an embrace.
"I thought he was going to kill you, Kara," the tears flowed anew from Alice's eyes, gripping Kara's clothes as though her life depended on it.
"I thought the same thing," Kara admitted.
"What did he do to you?"
Kara froze. "That—that's not important. What is important is that we get out of here." She pulled herself out of the tender moment.
"Where will we go?" Kara could tell Alice was dangerously stressed. She could suffer long-lasting mental health issues if she continued to stay with Todd.
"Anywhere but here." She gripped Alice's hand tightly, pulling her into a stand. They walked quietly but quickly down the stairs. Door unlocked, they took their first steps out the house and toward freedom.