Exhausted and struggling to get some decent sleep Hank was stretched out over the couch in the livingroom with his right hand resting Sumo's head as the massive dog laid down on the floor beside the couch to keep him company. Hank had his left hand wrapped around his phone atop his chest as he lightly dozed in a desperate need to sleep after enduring such a Hellish day. Unwilling to let himself fall asleep in his bedroom out of fear that he would be unable to hear Connor if the still healing deviant called out to him through the closed bedroom door, the senior detective got as much sleep as he could in the large livingroom just a few feet from Connor's bedroom.

Just as Hank was letting himself relax into a deeper sleep a sudden yell of terror startled the protective detective and father figure awake with a jolt of absolute fear. Immediately bolting upright on the couch Hank turned to look down the hallway over the back of the couch from where he was sitting just as Sumo jumped up from the floor and barked once in response.

"Connor?"

Hank asked out loud as he scrambled off the couch, dropping the phone behind him as he made his way to the bedroom with Sumo right at his heels. Pushing open the partially closed bedroom door he turned on the overhead light and stared at the deviant laying on the bed.

"What's wrong?"

The still healing deviant was in rest mode but he was violently twitching and his L.E.D. was blinking red rapidly as he endured some kind of unseen distress.

"Connor?"

Responding quickly Hank rushed over to the bed and grabbed onto Connor's forearms in a tight but harmless grip to steady him.

"Connor! Open your eyes, damn it!"

Hearing Hank's voice prompted Connor's brown irises to suddenly open in panic as he recognized Hank and awoke from his rest mode. "H-Hank?!" He started to breathe heavily as he fought to catch his breath and calm himself down while cooling his overheating core. "Hank... I-I..."

"It's okay, kid. You just had a nightmare, that's all." Slowly he released Connor's arms and pressed the back of his own hand against Connor's forehead. "Damn it. You've started running hot again. It must've been a pretty intense fever dream you just had."

"Hank... I'm..." Connor was evidently confused and fighting to clear the haze from his mind as he glanced about his familiar bedroom. "...I'm home?"

"That's right." Confirming that what Connor was seeing was reality Hank lowered his hand from Connor's forehead. "You're safe and Jonas is behind bars."

"Jonas... He survived the fire?"

"Unfortunately, yeah. The prick got some nasty burns but he still pulled through."

"He killed so many deviants." Connor huffed weakly, fear shaking his voice with every word he uttered as the pain in his abdomen still lingered while his body struggled to heal. "H-He wanted to kill me."

"But he didn't. And he can't get to you, I promise. It's over now."

Connor's left hand found its way to his stomach as he pressed his palm against where his nearly lethal injury had been, and ran a scan over the damage. The soft material of the bandages under the dirty white dress shirt seemed to ground his thoughts as he realized that he was in fact alive and in one piece. The fully faded Thirium stains on his shirt indicated that he had been safe for at least twelve hours at this point.

"You're okay." Hank reassured Connor calmly and sat down on the edge of the bed beside him. "North put your thermal thingy back where it belongs. You've been asleep for about sixteen hours now, and you're starting to run hot again. You're just feverish, that's all."

"...You rescued me." Regaining his memories slowly Connor sighed as he looked up at Hank with terror still lingering in his eyes. "You saved my life."

"Yeah, kid. We found you and the other-"

Connor's arms suddenly wrapped around Hank in a tight hug that almost stole Hank's breath. With only mild hesitation Hank wrapped his arms around Connor to reciprocate the hug just as Connor began to quietly cry against his broad right shoulder.

"Jeez, kid. You're really scared." Hank had never seen Connor so shaken up before. As a strange way to comfort the deviant and spare him some modesty Hank dismissed the reaction casually and just held onto him as Connor trembled with abject fear. "It must be the fever..."

"I don't want to die." Connor wept pathetically against the senior detective's shoulder, his tears soaking into Hank's shirt instantly. The deviant's entire body was shaking from horror and lingering weakness from being wounded. "I don't want to die!"

"You won't, son. I promise you won't." Instinctively Hank's right hand reached up to the back of Connor's head and began to run his fingers through Connor's dark hair. "You're safe."

Pausing for a moment Connor leaned back and pressed his palm over his stomach again. "...I think I'm going to be sick." Connor coughed weakly as his entire body momentarily went tense in Hank's arms. "...H-Hank?"

"All right, come on, come on..." Hank pulled Connor off the bed and practically dragged him into the bathroom across the hallway, pushing Sumo out of the way with his foot in the process. Reacting quickly Hank helped Connor to kneel down in front of the toilet just as the deviant began throwing-up tainted Thirium from his system in response to being so gravely wounded from the day before. "Easy... Let it out, son." Rubbing his hand over Connor's back in a comforting manner Hank stayed beside the deviant until the sudden bout of sickness passed. "You'll feel much better after this is over."

Fortunately, the nausea didn't last too long, but it was still a hectic episode for the shaken deviant to endure. After losing just over a pint of Thirium to his vomiting spell Connor fell slightly to his right side and rested on his hip on the cool tile floor of the bathroom.

In response Hank quickly ran a fresh washcloth under the warm tap in the sink and handed the damp washcloth to Connor so he could wipe off his mouth and chin to clean himself up.

"I didn't think you could throw-up from fear." Hank observed casually as he sat on the edge of the bathtub and watched Connor's sluggish movements with a keen eye. "I haven't seen that since I trained with the other rookies on the force."

"...S-Sorry."

"Don't apologize for being sick. Shit happens."

"N-Not sick. M-My self diagnostic detected trace amounts of... some... foreign matter in my system." Wiping off his mouth to clean up the residual blue blood around his lips and chin Connor continued to speak in a shaking voice. "My... system r-responded by using... Thirium to c-collect the matter and I had to... expel it."

"You threw-up because you had some crud in your body?"

"C-Correct." Connor dropped the now blue stained white washcloth onto the floor beside him as he leaned back and took in a deep, calming breath. "That's what c-caused me to expel my Th-Thirium."

"That's the human definition of feeling sick, kid."

Quiet for a moment Connor contemplated Hank's comment. "...Oh."

"Are you going to be sick again?"

"...No."

"Here, let's get you back to bed." Hank hooked his hand under Connor's left arm and gently pulled the deviant back up to his feet. "Let's go. Nice and easy..."

"N-No."

"Connor, you need to rest." Determined to help Connor recover quicker Hank gave him a stern glance. "You're sick and overheating."

"I d-don't want to sleep. N-Not anymore."

"Nope." Hank knew what was happening and didn't want the deviant to get away with it. "You just don't want to have another nightmare." The senior detective let Connor lean against the sink as he ran another washcloth under the tap in much cooler water than before. "I get that. But you need to rest or you won't heal properly."

"No. I-I can't let my guard down." Sounding more confused than before Connor's eyes began to glaze over as he spoke. "CyberLife... They m-might find me."

"Can't let your...?" Hank pressed the palm of his right hand against Connor's forehead again. Within the few minutes it took for the deviant to physically exert himself from throwing-up his core temperature had risen again and was at a dangerous degree. "Shit. You're getting delirious from the fever."

Thinking quickly Hank put his arm around Connor's waist and guided the feverish deviant out of the bathroom and into the livingroom. As he sat the deviant down on the couch Hank left the cool washcloth on the coffee table and patted the side of his leg to call over Sumo, who was standing in the hallway looking into the livingroom curiously.

"C'mere Sumo." As the dog trotted over to Hank's side Hank reached out and put Connor's right hand on Sumo's head on the deviant's behalf. Instinctively Connor began to rub Sumo's ears and he seemed to calm down a little more. "Keep him company for a few minutes."

"...Hank?" Sounding frightened and pathetic Connor called out to the senior detective as a rogue tear down down his cheek. "Don't leave me. I don't want to be alone."

"I'm just going into the kitchen." Hank reassured Connor in a sincerely calm tone. "Sumo will make sure nothing happens until I get back."

While Connor's hand softly rubbed at the dog's ears Hank disappeared into the kitchen quickly. Reaching into a cabinet over the kitchen sink Hank retrieved a plastic bottle of fresh Thirium and ran it under the cold tap in the sink for a few seconds. The Thirium wasn't terribly warm but if it were cooled down it would do Connor's still overheating system some good as it replenished the Thirium he had lost when he was sick in the bathroom.

"Okay, drink some of this." Speaking with Connor from the kitchen Hank turned off the sink and returned to the livingroom and held out the bottle of Thirium toward Connor to take. Removing the cap on the bottle Hank moved slow to keep the Thirium from spilling by mistake. "It'll make you feel better."

Slowly Connor's free hand reached up for the offered Thirium but he missed as his visual processors were beginning to to fail him.

"Right here." Without moving too quickly Hank grabbed onto Connor's free hand and wrapped the deviant's fingers around the bottle. "Drink it slowly. Don't choke or make yourself sick again."

Connor did as he was instructed while Hank walked over to the other side of the couch and waited for Connor to finish drinking the Thirium. The chilled Thirium did seem to have a soothing effect on Connor's overheating systems, but he still needed to rest if his self healing program was going to function at full capacity.

"That's good." Hank took the mostly empty bottle from Connor's hand while also putting his own hand on the deviant's left shoulder to gently push him down against the couch until Connor was laying back entirely over the length of the furniture. "Sleep."

"I don't want-"

Hank kept his hand firmly in place on Connor's shoulder and resisted Connor as the substantially weakened deviant tried to sit up again. "Don't worry, I'll be right here next to you. Same with Sumo. No one will get you, I swear it."

"...You won't leave me alone?"

"Not if you don't want me to. I'll stay right here."

At that declaration Connor relaxed and slowly laid back down until he was laying flat across the couch with his head propped up against a big blue pillow tucked up against the couch's armrest. Blinking slowly Connor's weary brown eyes tracked Hank's every movement that the senior detective made as if needing to make sure Hank stayed close by. Placing the empty bottle of Thirium down on the coffee table Hank picked up the washcloth and smoothed it out over Connor's too warm forehead with the deviant's eyes watching every movement with a hazy stare.

"Rest." Urging his stubborn friend into going back to sleep Hank spoke in a gentle tone and stayed next to the couch. "Me and Sumo will protect you while you sleep. We won't go anywhere until you're better."

As if on cue Sumo laid down on the floor between the couch and coffee table and let out a big sleepy yawn as he rested chin down atop his outstretched paws.

"See? Sumo's right there," Hank stated as he then walked over to the nearby recliner and sat down heavily with exhaustion. "and I'm right here. We'll stay here all night if we have to until you're feeling better. Okay?"

"...Okay." Connor's L.E.D., for the first time since his nightmare, transitioned from red to yellow and his brown eyes closed steadily. Connor fell back into his much needed rest mode on the couch knowing that his friend - his family, was watching over him. "Hank... I'm still frightened." The deviant's voice stabilized and he was more lucid after drinking the Thirium and having the cool compress applied to his forehead. "I don't want to be in that kind of situation ever again."

"It's okay to be scared. It's normal after going through that kind of trauma." Hank closed his blue eyes and folded his arms over his chest as he let himself drift off to sleep as his own strength wore out. "It won't last forever. You're going to be just fine, son. I promise."

"No one should experience that kind of situation or that kind of fear." The memory of the burning cabin and disfigured deviants were haunting. Even though he and the other deviants survived Connor couldn't seem to escape that horrendous experience. "It was awful."

"You're right." Kicking up his feet Hank settled in for the night and made sure Connor felt safe. "Which is why people like you and me will keep those sadistic assholes behind bars. Justice will be served, you'll see."

-next chapter-