Enjoying the peace and quiet of seldom having the whole house to himself, Hank was sitting in the livingroom recliner with a lamp on over his shoulder as he read an old detective novel that he had already read dozens of times before. Sumo was plopped down over the length of the couch in a deep sleep as the evening wore on into the late hours with nothing exciting happening. The sound of an autonomous taxi pulling up in front of the house drew Hank's attention away from the book as he listened to the taxi door open and shut shortly thereafter. Footsteps hurried up the front walk and to the front door, and as expected the front door opened quickly as Connor returned home at the expected hour.

With his dufflebag clutched in his right hand Connor hurried through the livingroom and rushed down the hallway where he entered his bedroom without acknowledging Hank upon his return or stopping to look at him. Such a frantic response was very unlike the usually composed deviant.

"Connor?"

Hank closed his book and his brow furrowed in confusion as the deviant disappeared from sight and shut the bedroom door behind him with an audible 'click'. The silence was notably out of character for Connor and Hank's paternal instincts told him something had happened.

"Connor? Is something wrong?"

Silence.

"Shit. I knew this would be a bad idea..."

Hank steadily rose from the recliner and winced as the sudden weight being applied to his still healing leg caught him off guard. Putting his hand down over the bandages wrapped over his knee Hank limped down the hallway and knocked on Connor's bedroom door to try to speak with the hiding deviant.

"What's wrong?"

More silence.

"Kid?"

Knocking again Hank raised his voice without letting his tone become aggressive as he tried to get Connor to answer.

"Come on, Connor, talk to me. What's going on?"

The door's knob slowly turned and Connor pulled open the door slowly rather than speaking through it. Looking at Hank through a swollen, blackened eye Connor showed the senior detective his bloodied lip, bloodied nose and the numerous bruises he had sustained all over his face. All the while, Connor stood in the door frame his L.E.D. blinked a distressing yellow color and appeared to be trembling after changing into his casual night clothes for the rest of the evening.

"What the hell?" Hank carefully put his hand to the side of Connor's face only to have the deviant flinch away in pain and as if afraid of being touched. "What the fuck happened? Were you mugged?"

"...No." Connor finally answered, his voice was shaking and very quiet. "I wasn't mugged."

"Did someone jump you or start a fight?"

"No."

"Then what happened?" Pressing for answers without sounding angry Hank just waited for the deviant to speak again. "Tell me the truth, that's all I want."

"It's... It's not important."

"What the fuck do you mean it's not important? Someone beat the hell out of you!" As he suddenly shouted Hank saw Connor flinching in pain and wincing at the volume of his raised voice. Hank immediately softened his tone as he gently put his hand on Connor's shoulder in a comforting manner. He could feel that there was some swelling bruises forming on Connor's shoulder beneath his palm as well. "Please, talk to me. What happened?"

Connor took in a deep breath and let it out slowly as he finally replied. "What happened was... you were right." There was a sheen of unshed tears building in both of Connor's pained, soulful brown eyes. "I shouldn't have agreed to work at another precinct. Even for a training seminar."

"Wait... Are you telling me this- Fuck!" Hank's hand returned to the side of Connor's face, but this time Connor's didn't flinch away. "The other cops did this to you?"

Connor nodded a little to confirm the unsettling question.

"Ah, shit. I'm so sorry this happened to you." Slipping his hand from Connor's face Hank wrapped his hand around the wounded deviant's shoulder once more and pulled him out of the bedroom and back down the hallway to take care of his wounds. "Come on, son. I'll get you cleaned up."

Remaining quiet Connor allowed Hank to escort him to the kitchen and sat down heavily at the small round table without showing any sign of getting up. Sumo had jumped down from the couch and entered the kitchen to greet Connor as he sensed his deviant master's distress. Pressing his chin and one paw down on Connor's knee the massive dog wagged his tail and kept the pained deviant company.

"Tell me what happened." Hank urged as he walked down the hallway to get to the bathroom to get a clean washcloth and ran it under the cool tap in the sink. He made sure to grab the android unique first aid kit from beneath the sink, too. "Why'd they attack you?"

Connor cleared his throat a little as he watched Hank return to the kitchen and sit down in the chair opposite him at the table. "...Because I'm an android."

"Son of- That's seriously still an issue out in Fort Wayne?"

"Parts of Fort Wayne." Connor clarified as if that would somehow make a difference. "I had apparently been assigned to a precinct in said wrong part."

Using the cool washcloth Hank carefully dabbed at the blue blood staining Connor's swollen lip then wiped the other smears of blood away from his nose. "Let me guess, you informed the Captain but he chose not to do anything because you somehow provoked his men with just your presence, right?"

"...Correct."

"Okay. What started it exactly?"

"The other officers were offended that I had been asked to volunteer to shadow their precinct on Captain Fowler's request. When I mentioned that I had only been asked to work at the precinct due to my success record with my cases and that I would be leaving after the weekend, I had apparently 'insulted' them and implied that I was 'superior' to their methods. In turn, they insulted me, nothing I haven't heard before," Connor stated in an almost painfully casual manner. "and then cornered me after I had left the precinct with the intent of hailing the autonomous taxi to bring me home."

"How'd you get away?"

"I fought back and broke a nose of one of the offending officers. When the officer who started the fight had been subdued the other officers carried him back inside and threatened my life. If I didn't leave the city immediately they'd 'break me like the cheap toy' that I am."

"I'll make sure Fowler knows."

"Don't worry about it." Connor's voice sounded so broken and exhausted. "I won't be returning to that precinct, so it's no longer an issue."

"Actually, son," Hank waded up the cool washcloth and pressed it against Connor's swollen eye then put Connor's own hand over it to hold it in place. "it's a very important issue and it's not going away any time soon."

"How so?"

"Because," Hank stood up slowly and made his way over to the refrigerator and pulled out two cold beers before pulling down a bottle of Thirium from the cabinet over the sink. "if that's how cops in that city will treat a fellow officer, then that means the bigotry they must be showing to the other possible androids who are now living in the city must be staggering."

"I suppose you're right."

"Here." Hank placed the offered Thirium and one of the beers down in front of Connor. "One will make you feel better and the other will only make you think you're feeling better."

Appreciatively Connor downed the offered Thirium until his volume had been restored to one-hundred percent capacity before he twisted off the cap of the beer bottle and began to sip at the beer Hank had given him. "...Makes replenishing my Thirium a moot point if I'm just going to consume alcohol and dilute it."

"Sounds like a human problem to me." Opening up the first aid kit Hank took a small wad of gauze and dabbed some orange liquid incrassation compound onto it before lightly pressing the gauze to Connor's swollen, bleeding lip. "Tomorrow, if you're feeling up to it, we'll head to the precinct and make sure Fowler knows to not send you to any precinct outside of Detroit."

"Yes." Wincing a little at the stinging gauze Connor's L.E.D. flashed to red then back to yellow. "I'd prefer to stay here in Detroit, at least for the foreseeable future."

"Yeah, that'd probably be for the best." Putting his hand on Connor's bad shoulder Hank shook the already shaken deviant lightly to reassure him in a comforting manner. He could feel the swelling bruises under Connor's black t-shirt and his first instinct was to find the cop who started the fight and kick his ass in front of his entire precinct. "Things won't always be like this, son. I promise."

"You're certain?"

"Yup. There was a time when humanity never saw other humans are equals; either based on their gender, religion, race, sexuality, sexual identity... But that's changed. It definitely takes time but humans are becoming more and more tolerant and will soon enough stop seeing deviants as inferior or secondary citizens. Unfortunately, progress takes time."

"How much time does it take?"

"Honestly?" Hank twisted off the cap of his own beer and sipped it once. "Too damn long."

"What starts the progress?" Connor sipped a little more at his own beer as he pressed the soothing washcloth even firmer against his sore eye. "There must be a trigger to initiate such an action."

"Uh, usually it happens after enough time passes that people see how stupid it is to hate an entire group of people just for existing. But there's also the chance that something new will pop up and the bigots will have something else to hate on. Once they find a new target you and the other deviants will be left alone."

"That doesn't sound very progressive."

"I won't even try to argue with you on that one." Hank sipped more of his beer as he eyed Connor's painfully swollen face with a paternal care. "You're not hurt anywhere else, right? No internal problems or broken frame that a technician needs to see?"

"I'm okay. Only bruised." Connor admitted as he pulled up the hem of his black t-shirt to expose the dark blue bruises along his chest, stretching up to his shoulders and down over his torso. The bruises would fade as his self healing program corrected the damage and stopped the mild Thirium leaks. "I guess they were too weak to actually break anything vital."

"Figures. Do those bruises hurt?"

"No."

"And you can breathe okay?"

"Correct. It'll take a lot more than six ill tempered humans to take me down."

Hank grinned approvingly at the snide comment as Connor replaced his shirt. "That's good. Did you at least make a record of everything that happened to you so you can file it in a report?"

"...All of my injuries have been chronicled." Connor confirmed in a low voice, almost as if he felt bad for turning over the corrupt cops to dealt with. "Joel can upload the data and the visual schematics as evidence against the officers who assaulted me and assure that it doesn't get conveniently deleted."

"Cool. Finish off your beer and go take a shower. I want you to lay down with some ice over your bigger bruises and against your eye after that."

"Okay. I will do so." Subtly nodding Connor stood up from his chair, Sumo following after him, and stopped short as he passed by Hank sitting at the table with Sumo right at his heels. Pausing for only a moment Connor found his voice once more before stepping away. "...Hank?"

"Yeah?"

Connor reached out suddenly and wrapped both of his arms around Hank in a tight hug that made his yellow L.E.D. finally flicker back to blue. "Thank you for not treating me like I'm worthless. Thank you for treating me like I matter."

"Son, you DO matter and you're sure as hell not worthless." Hank reciprocated the hug and patted Connor's back with one hand a few times to comfort him further without touching the bruises. It wasn't often that the duo had a reason to hug but Hank never let those rare moments pass by. "But you're welcome all the same. And I'm glad you're back home where you belong."

"I am glad to be back, too."

-next chapter-