Fowler actually smiled when they entered the precinct, he made his way to Hank and patted his back. "Good work, Hank!"

Hank rubbed his neck. "It was nothing …"

Fowler patted his back once again and left. Hank exhaled and went to his desk, he still felt queasy. He let himself fall on his chair, trying to ignore Connor standing right next to him.

"Do you have to breathe down my neck?" he grumbled.

Connors eyebrows twitched and for a moment Hank thought it was frowning. He swirled around in his chair to face it.

"Are you broke or something? You keep having strange twitches in your face."

"I'm trying to imitate facial expressions, heuristic programming proved to be effective in past iterations of me."

Hank sighed. "Don't you have pre-existing programming for that?"

"No, Cyberlife designed me to improve myself and any pre-existing programming could be limiting my ability to develop into a detective."

Fuck, he needed a drink … or at least a coffee. He got up and left Connor behind as he went to the break room in the back of the precinct. To his dismay he saw Gavin Reed and Tina Chen loitering around the coffee machine.

"Well well well, if it isn't the hero of the hour," sneered Gavin. "Didn't know you still had it in you, old man."

"Don't be mean, Gavin," said Tina.

Hank pressed his lips together, he wasn't in the mood for Gavin's pathetic attempts to rile him or Tina's misguided pity.

"Come on, he even needs a plastic crutch now. Well … at least it doesn't matter if he lets his new partner down."

Uncomfortable silence stretched out. Hank stared at the cup slowly being filled with hot coffee. When it was finished he literally fled the break room, his hand were still shaking when he reached his desk.

Connor had sat down at the unoccupied desk across from him. It was typing something in the computer. Hank looked at the lowest drawer. Just a bit, a little bit to calm down. He pulled the drawer up and took a small flask from it; he quickly poured some of its content into his mug before shoving the flask back into the drawer.

He took a deep gulp.

"Lieutenant?"

Hank massaged his temples and took another gulp. "What is it?"

"I took the liberty of compiling a preliminary report on the arrest and I created a tabular overview of all you open cases. I've sent them to you so that you can check on them and rectify any mistakes."

He felt the warmth of the booze in his stomach and he took a deep breath. With a deliberately slow movement he moved his mouse and clicked on the mail from Connor.

Hank focussed and read the first paragraph. It was of course flawless. He took another deep gulp and opened the next document. The overview was on point too. He felt a knot in his stomach. He checked the time: it was half past noon. He could go over to Jimmy's Bar for a quick break and get his umbrella before they would interrogate the androids.

Hank pushed his chair back and got up. Connor did the same and looked expectantly at him.

He lifted his hand. "I'm just getting lunch."

Connor blinked. "Of course. Do you mind if I accompany you?"

"For fucks sake – why on earth would you want to do that?"

"My heuristic-"

"Do whatever you want, I don't give a damn."

Hank walked towards the exit, Connor on his heels – for a moment he thought he heard snickering from two uniformed officers standing at the entrance. He pressed his lips to a thin line and continued his way.

-0-

They didn't talk on their way to the bar. The only sound was the snow crunching under their shoes. The knot in Hanks stomach became bigger when he saw the neon sign of the bar. Usually it relaxed him, made him less tense … but not today.

It bothered him that Connor saw him. It was stupid, it was just an android. Just an android. They entered the bar, the usual customers sat in the back of the bar, drinking beer. Did androids have olfactory senses? Hank slowed his step and took in the smell – beer, detergent, stale air and sweat. He took note of the blotchy fabric on the stools, the old nude calendar behind the bar and the ugly green linoleum floor.

Hank felt how heat crawled up his cheeks. He cleared his throat. "Jimmy, have you seen my umbrella?" he asked a little too loud.

Jimmy shrugged. "I guess it's still where you left it."

Hank looked at the umbrella stand next to the door. Of fucking course it was there. He grabbed it and brushed past Connor and stepped outside again.

There was a decent pizza shack just a few hundred yards away. He hadn't been there in ages. I briefly wondered if it was still open before he started to walk. He could feel Connor in his back. Stupid android. If it weren't for it he could've had a nice cold beer.

Minutes later they arrived at the pizzeria and Hank suddenly remembered why he had stopped going there: it was full of cops. He was painfully aware of the way some of them stared at him. Well, it was too late now to back out, he had to act casually. And it didn't matter anyway what they thought of him, he told himself.

He entered and the smell of fresh pizza made his stomach grumble. He hadn't even realised that he was hungry.

"Hank! Over here!" rang a voice out.

Hank turned to the speaker and saw Kowalski and two uniformed cops sitting at a table. Well, perhaps this hadn't been such a bad idea. Hank smiled and sat down next to Kowalski.

"Damn, Anderson. I heard that you got an android but I didn't know it followed you like that," said one of the cops and gestured towards Connor. Hank couldn't remember her name.

"I don't know what Fowler was thinking," added the other uniformed cop, "no plastic can be a real police officer. All they're good for is guarding stuff."

Hank cleared his throat. "Well, I did protest but you know Fowler – he's a stubborn jerk."

They laughed. Hank felt strangely relieved as he laughed with them. He shifted in his seat, straightening his back. Connor was about to sit down next to Hank.

"Wait – get me a pizza from the counter," said Hank.

Something twitched in Connors face. "Of course Lieutenant. What pizza do you want to have?"

"Uh, ham and mushrooms."

Connor turned and left for the counter.

Kowalski chuckled. "At least it's good for something."

"Yeah, you just have to put it to good use," said Hank with a grin.

The others laughed again.

Shortly after Connor returned, putting the pizza in front of Hank. "Thanks."

"Man, you're too old timey, Anderson. You don't have to thank and android," said one of the cops.

"I guess you're right," said Hank with a glance to Connor. It wasn't like it minded, right?

They talked about the latest hockey match and the last minute transfers the management had made before the season had started. Hank ate his pizza and made an effort to participate in the conversation. He noticed that nobody was paying attention to Connor even though it contributed to the conversation by supplying them with statistics to the individual players. It was like it wasn't even there. After a while Connor stopped talking altogether.

Hank started to feel uneasy. Connor was so eager and to see it become passive was … well, it kind of felt strange.

After a while Kowalski and the cops left. Hank was about to finish his pizza. "So, uh … how do you know all these statistics? Do you just download them?"

Connors mouth twitched again, it seemed eager again. "No, I read several online papers per day to be up to date with current affairs. Since the sport sections tend to be very … mathematical they're appealing and easy to understand."

"So, basically you like sport?"

Connor nodded as if he was only realising this himself. "Yes … I like sport."

Hank wiped his mouth with a napkin. "Come on, let's head back."

-0-

They interrogated the YK500 first. Hank tried to appear unfazed by the child chained to the table with handcuffs.

"Since when were you with Todd Williams?"

She looked as if she was about to cry. Could androids cry?

"He bought me on August 24, 2033."

"So you were with him for years … when did he buy the AX400?"

She looked from Hank to Connor who was standing behind Hank. "Her name is Kara."

"Alright," said Hank, "when did he buy Kara?"

"A week later. Where is Kara?" Again she was looking at Connor.

"She's in our custody same as you," replied Connor. "We want to find out what happened to Mr. Williams."

The YK500 looked down on the table. "What will happen to us?"

Connor stepped closer. "You already know. You will both send to Cyberlife to analyse your programming."

Hank gulped as a single tear started running down her cheek.

"I don't want to die."

"J-just tell us what happened," stammered Hank. He could feel a lump in his throat.

"Todd was always so angry. He threw things around … and sometimes- he was sorry afterwards."

"Did he hurt you?" asked Hank before he could stop himself. An android couldn't get hurt … he knew that of course.

She nodded. "He would mostly get mad at Kara. She's just come back from the repair station. She had forgotten about me."

Hank shot Connor a look.

"A memory reset is standard procedure when an android was badly damaged," explained Connor quickly. He turned to the YK500. "So she had just been reset before she took his gun-"

"I took the gun."

Hank grabbed the table. "What?"

She sniffled. "It wasn't her fault. I- I just didn't want her to forget me again. She always asks the same questions after she comes back, like a stranger."

"You shot Todd Williams?" asked Connor and Hank was grateful that he hadn't been the one to ask this question.

She nodded again. "I just didn't want to lose her again."

Hank slowly got up, they had a confession … not that it mattered – both androids would be destroyed. Case closed.

He looked one last time at the YK500. He took a sharp breath and left the interrogation room. He let Connor take the lead on the interrogation of the AX400. He felt tired.