Smelling of potent grease and of fresh paint Connor and Hank stood together at the front of the Corvette parked in the garage with a sense of pride at the hours of work they had put into restoring the old and neglected vehicle. Every part had been painstakingly cleaned, restored, repaired or replaced to ensure that the vehicle would run as smoothly as possible once the final color had at last been chosen. Handing the official registration and the newly minted license plate over to Connor to take, Hank proceeded to turn on the lights in the garage to view the car more appropriately in the better lighting before making their final decision on the vehicle's aesthetic.

"Well, she's street legal and ready to go for her first drive." The senior detective beamed as he look at the white base coat awaiting the top color. "All that's left is the final color."

Connor noted Hank's particular wording and found it intriguing. "Why did you refer to the car as a 'she'?"

"It's a human thing." Hank replied dismissively as he as he walked around the vehicle to the rear of the car. "Just a weird habit, I guess."

"Oh." Connor followed Hank around to the back of the car and looked down at where the senior detective was currently staring. "Something wrong?"

"Nah, I'm just loosening the bolts for the license plate. I'll take care of this," Hank stated casually as he crouched down and carefully used a screwdriver to loosen the four bolts one at a time. "you tuck that registration into the glove box next to the insurance. As soon as we get the color picked out we'll take her out for a nice long drive."

"It's almost a shame to be finished with this project." Connor observed as he opened the front passenger side door, the old hinges moving smoothly without a creak, and he pulled open the glovebox to place the registration inside the small compartment as requested. "We won't have anything else to work on for the remainder of the summer."

"Well, that's the best part about restoring a car. Once it's finished you can spend the rest of the summer enjoying road trips all over the state, hell, maybe even the country."

"That would be a long endeavor."

"But worth it. Life is too short to just stay in one tiny spot in this huge and always changing world."

Connor closed the door with a controlled slam and gave Hank an approving nod. "You're right. Perhaps next summer we can focus on traveling and get out of the city for more than one weekend at a time."

"That's exactly what I wanted you to say."

Feeling like he and Hank truly understood one another as a family Connor smiled a little as he walked toward the garage door only to sway a little on his feet and stop short.

"Connor, you okay?" Hank immediately noticed the odd reaction and checked in on the deviant standing suddenly still in beside the car. "You look like you're having trouble moving."

"I was merely dismissing an update from my processors. It isn't a problem."

"Was is that big one you already tried and deleted a while back?"

"Correct. I'm fully aware of everything the update will provide, but I still don't want to be quite so 'human' yet. It's overwhelming"

"No rush, kid." Putting aside the four bolts to be tended to later Hank walked over to Connor and patted his shoulder twice. "Humanity is overrated anyway."

With the car taken care of for the day Hank went to shower off the lingering grease and sweat from his hands while Connor set about preparing a 'kidney friendly' dinner for Hank, hoping that the gesture wouldn't be misread as one of overprotectiveness or mistrust. While he easily set about preparing the meal with no difficulty whatsoever, Connor found himself repeatedly dismissing more warnings popping up in his vision about impending updates. From time to time he'd feel randomly tired or inexplicably dizzy whenever he'd dismiss the updates and try to focus on his task at hand while ignoring the intrusive and unwanted update.

Sumo eagerly pressed his nose against the side of Connor's right leg in an attempt to beg for scraps, but Connor was dead-set on keeping human food out of the dog's diet. That was something that Connor refused to budge on no matter how much Sumo begged and acted cute.

"No, Sumo. Down."

To try to keep the dog out of the kitchen Connor walked into the livingroom and pointed to the dog's fluffy pillow in the corner of the room and gave him a firm command.

"Lay down."

Sumo sat down in the middle of the kitchen floor stubbornly while Connor walked over to the pillow and then picked up the green fetch ball. As soon as Sumo saw his favorite toy in Connor's hands he trotted out of the kitchen and over to his pillow excitedly with his tail wagging happily.

"Lay down." Connor commanded again and his vision went black for a moment. Dropping the green ball back onto the floor Connor pressed his right palm to his forehead as he ran a self diagnostic on his system and tried to remain focused on Sumo in front of him. "S-Stay."

Sumo picked up the ball and obediently laid down on the bed as he was told and promptly began to chew on the toy.

"...G-Good boy."

Blinking a few times as his vision began to return from the blackness Connor sighed and glanced about the livingroom curiously.

"...That was a very strange occurrence."

With only Sumo to hear the comment Connor was rewarded with a single thump of the massive dog's tail against the hardwood floor as he continued to chew on his toy.

Trying to ignore the odd activity in his own processor Connor returned to the kitchen without any answers appearing on his self diagnostic, but decided that his odd tiredness and dizziness were the result of poor rest modes due to the extra hours he and Hank had taken at the precinct. There were also interrupted hours of rest at the hospital the night before after the incident in the dispensary.

As Connor finished preparing the special meal Hank stepped out of the bathroom and walked into the kitchen. "Huh, that's strange."

"What?" Connor asked as he washed off his hands in the kitchen sink then pulled the pan of sauteed vegetables off the stove. "Is something wrong?"

"No, it's just that you're in here cooking, but Sumo isn't begging."

"I told him to lay down in the livingroom."

"And he listened to you? I'm impressed." Joking at the idea of a young dog who was still very much a puppy actually obeying their master was somehow amusing to the senior detective. "His training is really starting to pay off."

"Here, this is a new recipe." Connor stated as he put the now full dinner plate down the kitchen table. The meal was of a baked chicken breast with a mixture of sauteed carrots, broccoli and cauliflower designed specifically to be a nutrient rich meal. "Let me know if you like it. I'd like to get the smell of the garage off of my skin and then check in with Markus before we watch the game."

"Are you going over to his house?" Hank asked as he sat down at the kitchen table casually and eyed at the prepared meal waiting for him. "I mean, I know North is in rough shape so I wouldn't blame ya' for stopping by."

"That won't be necessary. I'll communicate with him cybernetically."

"All right, cool." Rolling a carrot around with his fork on the plate Hank gave Connor a subtle nod as the deviant crossed the kitchen to get to the hallway so he could shower off. "The baseball game's starting in about twenty minutes."

"Did you want to make a wager tonight?"

"Oh, hell no. You're way too accurate with baseball for it be a fair bet. Try again when football season starts."

Agreeing to the non-bet Connor smirked and made his way down the hallway. "Very well."

Once inside the bathroom Connor closed the door behind himself, slowly removed his clothes that had bore the distinct aroma of grease, oil and paint from the garage, and then stepped into the shower. Stubbornly he ran another self diagnostic only to have the results still return negative for any potential glitch or flaw in his processors.

"I must need more rest."

Closing his soulful brown eyes Connor dismissed yet another update warning and was nearly overcome with dizziness as a result.

"Damn it. My gyroscope must need recalibration as well."

Connor decided as he turned on the water and proceeded to rinse off the grime from his artificial skin and from his thick dark hair. As the warm, clean water washed off the mechanical stench from his body Connor let out a tired sigh and pressed his right palm against the tiles of the shower to keep himself balanced upright until he finished with his shower.

"...Rest mode will serve me well tonight. I don't want to lose focus while on the clock."

After finishing his dinner, one he found particularly tasty much to his surprise, Hank had already let Sumo outside for a few minutes when Connor emerged from the bathroom and walked into his bedroom to locate some fresh clothes. It didn't take long for the large puppy to finish his business and then return to the house as the smell of freshly cooked food was too tantalizing to be ignored despite the fact that, just as Connor had done before, Hank refused to give him any scraps. Hank didn't want to undo any training by mistake and respected Connor's choices as Sumo's owner.

"Good boy."

Hank rubbed Sumo's ears and at least gave him a treat for returning to the house so quickly. The treat was greatly appreciated and Sumo decided that the biscuit was better than the vegetables after all.

"Come on!" Shouting toward the hallway as he crossed the kitchen to return to the livingroom Hank called out to the absent deviant. "The game's about to start." Sluggishly Connor walked into the livingroom in his fresh clothes just as Hank took his usual place in the recliner and turned on the television. "Good timing, son."

Walking over to the couch Connor laid down on his right side and propped his head up under his right arm as he stared blankly at the screen before him. Too tired to sit upright Connor rested in a more relaxed position than usual as he settled in to watch the game. "Are you sure you don't want to make a wager?"

"Yeah, I'm sure." Leaning forward a little in his recliner Hank studied Connor's face curiously. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Huh?"

"You look exhausted, kid."

"I'm not ill if that's what you're wondering." Lifting his head up a little he looked Hank directly in the eyes from where he was laying. "I suspect my gyroscope is malfunctioning, but it isn't anything serious. I can recalibrate it later."

"Oh, well that's good. So, did you talk to Markus?"

"Not yet. I figured I could speak to him while watching the game with you. That way if anything important-" Connor closed his soulful brown eyes and shook his head again as another dizzy spell hit him. "...If anything important happens regarding North's current health until the patch has been finished, I can speak to you directly."

"Yeah, sure." Hank leaned back in the recliner and kicked his legs up onto the coffee table. "Just take it easy and don't worry too much about things that haven't even happened yet."

"...Worry?"

"Well, something's on your mind, kid. I can tell. Either that or you are sick and are trying to hide it again."

"Perhaps I should try to enter rest mode early tonight and allow my processor to fully reboot and recalibrate my entire system."

"If it'll let you finally get back to your usual self then yeah, go for it."

"Okay." Laying his head back down on his arm Connor tried to ignore his dizziness and opened his eyes to watch the game with Hank. "I will do so after the game."

The game had been underway for almost two hours and in that time the score had remained tied at zero. As the uneventful, slow game proceeded Hank would occasionally ask Connor what cybernetic predictions he had developed about the final score of the game and each time the answer would be a little different considering the lack of progress from either team. It was interesting that the lack of activity was the most entertaining aspect of the game considering Hank's love of sports, and Connor's genuine interest in the genre.

"Man, it's been years since I've sat through such a boring game." Hank lamented as he watched Connor struggling to keep his tired eyes open from where he was laying on the couch. "Maybe we should both get some sleep. I'm sure the game will still be doing nothing by tomorrow morning."

Connor smirked at the sarcastic comment and lifted his head up again. As he made a move to rise up and stand beside the couch anther wave of dizziness hit him as yet another update warning was dismissed. "...I can inform you of the final score in the morning." Pressing his right palm to his forehead as his vision again blacked out Connor tried ignore the inconvenience and remain conscious. "...It might take a moment though."

"Still dizzy?" Hank could see Connor wobbling on his shaking legs as he slowly walked around the couch to head for the hallway to lay down in his own bedroom.

"A little." Connor admitted before he stopped short again. "It's nothing I can't..." Trailing off with a breathy whisper Connor's legs gave out and he collapsed face first onto the hardwood floor behind the couch.

"Connor?!" Hank rushed out of his recliner and over to the unconscious deviant on the floor to check him over. Pressing his right fingertips to the side of Connor's neck Hank counted the deviant's unique pulse point and was relieved to feel a beat thrumming under his touch. "Shit, Connor."

Laying on his chest on the floor, his arms straightened at his sides and his legs stretched out, Connor was oblivious to Hank checking his pulse and putting his hand down over the center of the deviant's back to ensure he was still breathing.

Carefully Hank rolled Connor over from his chest, onto his side and then onto his back as he tried to get the deviant to respond. "Connor?" Patting the left side of Connor's face twice Hank waited for a response, but was given nothing. Keeping his hand in place he confirmed that the deviant was not overheating and by all account had normal, stable vital signs. "Alright, I'm calling Abby."

Putting his arms under Connor's shoulders and under his knees Hank was able to easily lift up the lightweight deviant and place him down on the couch again just a few inches away to rest. As Connor was laid down Sumo walked over from his bed and pressed his cold nose against the side of Connor's arm as if he was also checking on the deviant's condition.

Following his instincts Hank grabbed onto his phone sitting on the bookshelf against the wall, and scrolled through the contacts until he found Abby's name and pressed 'dial'. Leaning over the back of the couch Hank watched Connor's breathing closely as he spoke to Abby over the phone and told her what had just happened.

She listened carefully and instructed Hank to keep an eye on Connor's breathing, and to let the deviant out of his sight until she arrived.

"-Yeah, see you soon. Thanks Abby."

Ending the call Hank slipped his phone into his jean pocket out of habit and continued to watch over Connor carefully.

"You better not be hurt, son. That's all I want."

It took Abby almost twenty minutes to arrive at the house but when she did Hank was more than happy to let the skilled technician into the house to check in on Connor, and tell him what the hell was going on with the deviant. As she placed her technician's satchel on the coffee table beside the couch Abby set about checking Connor's vitals and found them to be normal just as Hank had noted himself before calling her over.

Hank grabbed onto Sumo's collar to pull the dog away from Connor and practically dragged him over to the pillow in the corner of the livingroom. "Lay down, good boy."

Sumo grumbled once as he obediently remained on the pillow and watched everything unfold from the distance.

As Abby gently lifted up Connor's eyelids one at a time to check his pupils she sat down on the edge of the couch heavily to lean over him. "This is very strange. It's almost like he's fallen into stasis mode, but I can't find the cause."

"Seriously? He said he was tired and dizzy all day, then he passed out when he tried to walk down the hall." Hank ran his hand through his long locks of gray hair nervously as he updated Abby on everything leading to Connor's collapse. "He's been doing that all morning ever since that stupid update popped up again."

"Wait?" A lightbulb seemed to go off in her head at Hank's last comment. "Did he accept or dismiss the update?"

"Got rid of it."

"Hold on... That could be the answer." Reaching into the opened satchel beside herself Abby pulled out her small laptop and set it up on the table while she hooked a long black cable to Connor's blank L.E.D. to hook his system into the laptop itself. "Certain updates can have unusual effects on androids, and the LACK of updates can have a similar effect."

"Can you fix it?"

"I can try." Abby typed a few key commands into the laptop as she checked over the numerous ignored updates that were ready to be installed in Connor's software, and didn't even try to hide her surprise at the unexpected results. "...Wow, looks like you were right, Hank. It's the updates making him sick."

"Now what? Tell me it's not something mandatory he needs but doesn't want."

"Well, it looks like he has thirty-three updates ready to be installed, but he's ignored them all. They've been piling up for the past six months."

"What the hell? Why would he-" Hank let his hand drop from his hair as he shook his head slowly. "Right. He doesn't want to be so 'human' yet."

"He what?"

"That one big update that made him pretty damn sick a few months back, and it scared him." The senior detective explained with an impressively casual tone of voice. "So he deleted it."

"And he didn't want to risk any of the other updates causing him to experience such 'human' reactions." The bright technician deduced easily as she began typing on the laptop once more. "Luckily I can weed out the humanoid factors from these updates and completely remove the notification for that 'big one' without it bothering him anymore."

"Is that it? A few updates and he's good to go?"

"Yup, that's that." Abby made her final commands on the laptop and gave Hank a sly grin. "Once the updates finish he'll wake up."

"Good. I was getting worried."

Abby smiled again as she put her hand down against the center of Connor's chest and kept her palm there for a minute as she counted his heartbeat. "...You know, this is the first time I've seen him since everything that happened in Chicago."

"Y-Yeah..." Realizing it had been some time since the technician had been around the house, or around Connor. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"I'm not mad or anything, it's just... I don't know. I guess it just didn't actually sink in that he was really okay until now." She admitted with restrained emotion in her voice. "That must've been terrifying for him to be stranded so far from home. Alone, injured..."

"...The precinct technician, Joel, took care of him after he got back. He, uh, didn't want to leave the house. And to be honest, I didn't want him to go anywhere either so I didn't push him to go to a facility."

"It's okay. Markus told me what had happened after he visited." Showing no resentment toward the deviant's decision Abby packed up her satchel and prepared to take her leave of the house. "I wanted to stay with North a while longer anyway, so I'm okay with not being contacted before Joel."

"Speaking of which... Everything's okay with her? No further complications or anything else we need to worry about, right?"

"Yeah, there's no change." Speaking with a melancholy lilt Abby confirmed that North was still in rough shape. "When it's time I'll go to the house to help with the final processing updates. Hopefully it will eliminate the problem, but only time will tell."

Connor's eyelids began to flutter as the updates finished installing allowing his system to reboot at last. Sitting upright quickly on the couch Connor blinked a few times before he locked eyes with Abby, and how brow knit with confusion. "...Abby. What happened?"

"You collapsed." Abby replied with a confident tone as she unhooked the cable from Connor's L.E.D. and turned off her laptop. "I fixed you."

Connor ran his right fingertips over the blank L.E.D. in his right temple with waning confusion. "...Oh. Thank you."

"Don't ignore your updates." Abby scolded lightly as she used the back of her hand to smack his right arm just as lightly. "You know better."

"...Sorry."

"And with that I'm going to check in on North and then head home to eat leftovers. I'll see you later, Connor." Abby packed up her laptop into the satchel and gave the deviant one final glance before she stepped through the front door of the house. "For what it's worth, I'm glad you got home safe."

Connor nodded once as the kind technician opened the door and stepped through. "I am, too."

"See ya' guys later."

"Yeah, thanks again, Abby." Hank shouted as she passed through the front door to disappear into the night. Letting out a sigh Hank put his hand on Connor's right shoulder and gave the deviant an annoyed glance. "Like she said, don't do that again."

"I won't. I'm sorry."

Waving his hand dismissively Hank returned to the recliner and sat down heavily. "I can't say that I blame you for being suspicious of updates. Hell, I ignore my yearly physicals because I don't want the doctor telling me there's something wrong; I can't fault you for putting something like that off for so long for a similar reason. It's ironically a fairly human reaction to avoid getting any potentially bad news."

"Oh."

"Like I said, don't worry about it."

"It's just I don't trust the remaining updates from CyberLife. Even the more recent updates stemming from New Jericho Tower used programming that was originally developed by CyberLife technicians. I can't be certain that the updates haven't been internally sabotaged."

Sumo rose from his pillow and walked back over to the couch to check in on Connor. As the deviant rubbed his ears affectionately Sumo's tail began to wag and he rested his chin on Connor's right knee.

"Just so you know," Hank continued with the conversation casually. "Abby said everything with North has been taken care of. She'll be taken care of in time."

"That's good." Connor kept his hand on Sumo's head as he spoke. "One less thing to worry about. North needs to continue to help lead our people."

"When it comes to your friends you're always going to be worried. Especially when there's something like death looming on the horizon."

"May I ask you a rather personal question?"

"I haven't stopped you before. What do you want to know?"

"Were you worried when Barbara... was dying?"

Pausing for only a moment Hank was reluctant to answer, but answered truthfully all the same. "...Like you wouldn't believe. That ambulance ride was one of the worst experiences of my life and I wish I could forget it."

"Strange."

"What is?"

"I can't imagine you actually being worried. About anything."

Hank smirked appreciatively at Connor's comment, the naivety of the deviant's own self awareness and Hank's chronic concern for him was incredibly innocent and almost childlike. "It comes from years of experience, kid. I hide it well, but I do in fact worry from time to time."

"I will try to not make you worry as much."

"That'd be a nice change..."

The formerly boring baseball game continued on the television in a low hum. As it reached the ninth inning and at long last a home run was hit and the gathered crowd cheered loudly as the score finally increased, the game suddenly got interesting.

Connor gave Hank a sly glance as he cybernetically and accurately predicted the outcome of the game. "Do you want to make a wager now?"

"Wager what?"

"It'd be a very entertaining way to finally choose the Corvette's final color."

"No way!" Hank wasn't going to fall for that one like some rookie cop. "I know that look, you already know who's going to win the game. And I'm no fool... The Corvette will NOT be green."

"It'd be a very 'interesting' wager..." Connor teased as he finally stopped petting Sumo's ears and began to perk up. "You know?"

"Yeah, sure." Crossing his arms over his chest defensively Hank leaned back in the recliner and gave the deviant a knowing glance. "One I'm guaranteed to lose!"

-next chapter-