March 27th, 2039 - 09:53pm

A stand-off with a deranged deviant had started poorly and was sure to end even worse before the cold, dark night was over. Negotiations with the dangerous deviant who held the remote detonator to a dirty bomb hidden somewhere in the city had begun with collected and logical words of negotiation, and tragically finished with a spray of searing hot bullets. Detroit's deviant crime division was solely comprised of the detective duo formed by Connor and Hank, and as such they were the ones who encountered and subsequently confronted the dangerous deviant standing at the barren shipping docks where the now sunken and historic freighter ship dubbed 'Jericho' had once been docked.

Helpless and in pain Connor was resting on his side on the cold ground as his L.E.D. cycled in red rapidly. He was propped up on his elbow with his legs slightly bent beneath himself as his palm pressed down against the two bleeding bullet wounds in his upper abdomen just above his Thirium pump regulator. Fresh Thirium oozed between his fingers and stained the front of his white dress shirt and gray blazer as it collected in a sapphire puddle all around his body.

"Lieu... Lieutenant?" Despite his desperation, Connor's voice was low and strained from his mounting blood loss. "Hank! G-Get out of here... It's too dangerous."

Without a word Hank fearlessly positioned himself between the deviant shooter and Connor with his own gun aimed directly at the dangerous deviant's forehead ready to pull the trigger. The seasoned detective's hands were steady, and his blue eyes were focused as he stared down the deranged and armed deviant without the slightest glimmer of hesitation in his determined stare.

"This is your last warning." Hank proclaimed boldly as he now faced off against the deviant alone. His voice was nearly a growl as he stood his ground and refused to leave Connor alone to deal with the destructive deviant. "Surrender peacefully, or I WILL shoot."

Showing no sign of fear or regrets the towering hulk of a deviant clearly didn't recognize the authorities of the two detectives before him. The deviant suspect, a heavily damaged 'TR-400' with only one functioning green eye, a malfunctioning left leg, filthy tattered clothing and nothing left to lose, held out the remote detonator for the bomb with one hand as he lowered the gun in his opposite hand until the barrel was aimed directly at Connor's forehead.

Hank followed the deviant's line of sight and took one step forward keeping Connor, his partner and best friend, safe behind him at all times.

"You have three seconds." The steadfast senior detective issued with a snarl in his voice as he faced off with the unstable deviant. "I suggest that you think very carefully about your next move, because it could damn well be your last."

Unable to move from where he was laying Connor's L.E.D. flickered in its red hue as he cybernetically sent out a distress call to 911 dispatch asking for back-up to the scene. Connor inwardly winced as the bullet holes in his torso made his entire body ache as he took in slow breaths to ensure his system didn't overheat from exertion. The bleeding was steady but not rapid, yet Connor had already lost a considerable amount of his vital Thirium courtesy of being shot twice.

The violent deviant's eyes rose to meet Hank's eyes as a fiendish grin appeared on its face. This deviant wasn't an android who had gained sentience, freewill or emotion, this was an android who had awakened and relished in the prospect of revenge and death against all of humanity. Scars littered the deviant's face, its hands and its arms indicative of years of abuse; but to whomever it was who had abused it, would never be known.

Knowing he had little control over the situation Hank began his countdown to warn the deviant as he had previously noted. "One..."

Raising the remote high into the air the deviant's hand began to twitch wildly with the device still in its grip.

"Two..."

In a flash the deviant's thumb went for the trigger on the remote while his opposite hand squeezed the trigger of its gun. Hank, moving with incredible instinctive reflexes that could only be mastered by a first responder, knelt down in front of Connor as he fired his own weapon at the same time; his aim never faltering as he moved to protect his friend.

The bullet from Hank's gun found its target right between the deviant's eyes in a glorious splash of blue blood, while the deviant's shot had missed its target entirely. Instead of striking Connor's skull as planned, the bullet passed through the right side of Hank's neck and embedded itself into the concrete surface of the port behind him the two detectives. The fresh wound created a splash of red blood as the bullet pierced Hank's neck like a hot knife passing through soft butter.

Falling backward the tall deviant had shutdown before its body even made contact with the concrete surface beneath it. The remote detonator dropped from his limp hand docilely and out of range, now completely harmless as no one had any reason to press the button.

Hank dropped his own gun and he clutched weakly at his bleeding neck as he collapsed to his knees in a quickly growing puddle of his own red blood. "...Th-Three."

"...Hank!?" Connor's soulful brown eyes went wide with shock as he watched the human bleeding heavily just in front of him. Hank's face was growing paler by the second as his body began to crumple to the ground. "Hank? Can you-"

Already drained of all his strength Hank's hand slipped away from the wound in his neck allowing it to bleed unchecked across the dock. The collapsed onto his side without a further word as he began to lose consciousness at an unnerving pace.

"Hank!?"

With just one arm Connor dragged himself over to where Hank was laying as a massive red puddle of blood pooled under Hank's head while the bullet wound to his carotid artery proceeded to bleed profusely. A trail of blue blood smeared on the unforgiving, concrete ground beneath Connor's body as he now used both arms to drag himself over to his fallen partner to tend to his injury. The bullet wounds in his own abdomen were still leaking Thirium at an alarming rate as the deviant focused only on getting to Hank's side and applying pressure to Hank's bleeding neck.

The bullets that had embedded deep inside Connor's torso were affecting his internal biocomponents causing massive bleeding that forced his system into a type of low power mode against his will, and subsequently left Connor practically unable to move or even feel, his legs. Finding some unspoken strength deep down inside of himself Connor pushed his legs into propelling himself forward and over to Hank. He pushed himself into moving forward despite the pain and Thirium loss in an unexplainable need to save his partner's life.

"H-Hank?"

Connor wheezed, blue blood now dripping from his bottom lip down his chin as his internal bleeding continued. His blue tinted and bloodied hand desperately reached out and rolled Hank's limp body from his side and onto his back in a single motion. Moving automatically Connor moved to the gushing wound and pressed down against the senior detective's bleeding neck with both hands as he held tight pressure against the hemorrhaging artery.

"Hank... I'm h-here. Don't give up."

In shock and critically weak, Hank's blue eyes were opened but unfocused and glassy as he stared into the nothingness of the starless night sky above him. His face was deathly pale, and his lips were an equally pale shade of blue as he took in wheezing, shallow breaths. The senior detective had already lost a considerable amount of blood and was slipping into hypovolemic shock as a result.

"Hank? Please... Pl-Please open your eyes. Look a-at me!"

Connor shouted as his voice quaked unmistakably with a fear that echoed over the docks. Pushing himself up with one arm Connor shakily leaned over his downed partner to biometrically scan his vital signs, but Connor himself had already lost too much of his own blood to perform the basic function. Pressing his ear down against Hank's chest for a direct assessment, Connor listened to the rapid but feeble beating of Hank's heart and the shallow breaths that were barely strong enough to make Hank's chest shudder with feeble motion.

The weakened vitals were nauseating. Connor felt his own heart tighten in his chest as he listened to the struggling heart of gold beating weakly in the already cold, almost motionless chest of the man he respected more than anyone else in the world. It was evident that the Lieutenant was dying.

"Hank?"

Trembling all over Connor lifted his head up from Hank's chest and looked down at the man's frighteningly pale face, ignoring the warnings that appeared in his visual sensors about his own weak vital signs. All that Connor cared about in that moment was Hank's wellbeing over his own.

"Please... Talk to me."

Hank's pale lips moved slightly as he reflexively swallowed, but there was no sound. It seemed Hank's voice was as weak as the rest of his body.

"H-Help is coming. I c-called for back-up."

Courtesy of his low Thirium volume Connor stammered as he sent out a second distress call cybernetically to report the urgency of the situation. With his already red L.E.D. cycling faster from the physical exertion and pain of his damaged biocomponents, the deviant was becoming increasingly aware of a new type of pain that was presenting itself with an indescribable agony in the center of his chest; inside his heart.

A pain he had never felt before.

"P-Please, don't leave me alone. I need y-you. You're m-my best friend."

Slowly Hank's glassy blue eyes blinked as his lips began to move again and he whispered something over and over again to an unseen person that was seemingly looking down at him. "C... Co..."

With his entire body trembling from Thirium loss and shock Connor lowered his head again to try and listen to the word that Hank was repeating. But it wasn't a word, it was a name.

"...Cole." Hank's chest suddenly shuddered as he fought to breathe as he continued to bleed profusely from his neck. "...C-Cole."

Upon hearing the name of the late little boy, the strange pain in Connor's heart sharpened as if he had actually been stabbed. He couldn't understand why it hurt so much to hear Hank's voice calling for his late son.

"No, Hank! No, d-don't give up."

Reacting quickly as his emotions began to get the better of him, Connor's hands had pressed down as firmly against Hank's bleeding neck as possible, but the wounded detective was still losing blood at an alarming rate. For the first time since he had gained his deviancy, tears, actual tears, formed in Connor's increasingly soulful brown eyes as he watched the life actively draining from Hank's bleeding body. Despite everything in his strength and power, Connor just could stop death from looming over Hank's very life.

"It's me, Connor."

"...Son."

"H-Hank?"

Connor unexpectedly sobbed with a choking gasp as an emotionally provoked tear ran down his face and dropped onto Hank's chest.

"Da-"

The deviant sobbed again pathetically as he watched Hank's unfocused blue eyes close heavily. Hank's chest barely rose or fell as his breathing dwindled and life steadily left his body at an alarming rate despite Connor's best efforts to keep him alive.

"H-Hank?"

Feeling utterly useless, if not broken, Connor bowed his head and rested his forehead against Hank's blood soaked chest as he openly wept for the first time in his life as he let his newly discovered deviant heart feel the emotions that he had only recently become aware of. Every tear he shed made his heart ache even worse and every painful beat made him cry harder.

"Pl-Please... I need you. You're my fr-friend! My fa..."

Stammering and struggling to speak through his low power and emotional panic Connor forced out the words as he let his emotions guide his reactions.

"You're my... father."

Tears continued to fall from his soulful brown eyes as the sound of approaching sirens wailed somberly in the distance. Bright red and blue flashing lights lit up the darkness of the port as back-up finally arrived at the scene of the shooting. Drones began circling overhead to keep the area of the incident sectioned off and easier to locate for the other officers responding to Connor's call for back-up.

"Don't go! Please, I d-don't want to lose you..."

Leaning over Hank as much as his shaking body would allow, Connor grabbed on to Hank's hand and held tight. It was like one block of ice taking hold of another block of ice courtesy of the mutual blood loss between the two detectives.

"Please. I-I still need you. I d-don't want you to g-go... dad."


March 28th, 2039 - 07:22am

A rhythmic slow beeping sound gently roused Hank from what felt like the deepest sleep of his interesting and often hectic life. The sound was familiar yet strange as his blue eyes steadily cracked open to reveal the glazed over irises to the bright pure whiteness of the unknown room that now surrounded him. Closing his pained and still tired eyes against the harsh light as quickly as they had opened, Hank tried to use his other senses to try to figure out where he was, but everything in his mind was as foggy as his body felt heavy. The room different and somehow new. Waking up in the unfamiliar room was like visiting a place that he had visited only before once during a childhood experience.

The unfamiliar surroundings even smelled strange, like an acrid sickening mixture of chemicals and flowers. Softness surrounded Hank, at least he believed it was softness, as a comforting pressure in his back supported him under a thick beige blanket over top of his body. Even with the sensation of the bed and the blanket pressing over him, Hank's entire body felt numb and heavy. It was like he was wandering aimlessly in a conscious dream or a deep pond full of thick cement.

Warmth radiated from his neck and a strange covering all around his throat and neck drew Hank's fingertips weakly upward to investigate the unusual sensation he had only become aware of. As his right arm slightly moved, he then became aware of a light pressure around his left bicep and of a plastic sensor attached his left index fingertip.

Hank's mind was racing as a strange lingering word echoed in his head as his last conscious memory slowly came into focus. It was a word he used to hear all the time, but then suddenly stopped for the worst reason. The word was something important. It was something that he had faintly heard the night before as he laid dying in a pool of his own blood at the port. Something that Co-

"Hank?"

The weary Lieutenant knew that deep voice speaking as it intruded on his thoughts. Who was it? Not Connor. Connor sounded much younger than this voice and a little raspy at times. It was an older, more gruff voice that Hank had known for many years but had long since stopped listening to as his own stubbornness and anger pushed people away.

"Hank, can you hear me?"

Captain Fowler. It was Jeffrey. Jeffrey was speaking to him.

But why was he here? Where was 'here' anyway?

Forcing his heavy eyes to open again Hank's vision steadily cleared and he found himself staring up at the face of his superior officer and old friend. The look on Captain Fowler's face was one of pure terror, his usual confident gaze replaced with worry, and the calm expression he had mastered during his time as police officer was nothing more than an unsteady grimace. Such a facade was nothing more than a mask of Captain Fowler's true self.

"...J-Jeffrey?" Hank flinched at the sound of his own hoarse pathetic sounding voice as it escaped his bandaged throat. Swallowing once to try to ease a lingering discomfort Hank realized that a nasal cannula was resting across his face under his nose to give him clean oxygen to breathe, and it was now a distracting nuisance to his returning senses. "...What the f-fuck? What... What h-happened?"

Turning his head slowly Hank looked around and finally realized that he was in a hospital room. The chemical smell was the astringent used to keep the place sterilized and the flower smell came from numerous bouquets that lined the furniture and walls of his room. Dozens of 'Get Well' cards were attached to the flowers as well-wishers and concerned colleagues from the precinct had sent in the flowers to show that despite the gruff detective's best efforts to push everyone away, they still in fact cared about him.

A large white curtain was set up to separate his bed from the second bed neighboring his own as he rested in the quiet, though uncomfortably bright, recovery room. Grateful for the sense of privacy Hank sighed as he returned his focus to Captain Fowler and gave him a perplexed stare. "

...What the fuck is going on?"

"Thank fuck." The relief in the commanding officer's voice was thick and unmistakable. "You still sound like your usual self."

Captain Fowler's hand came to rest on Hank's forearm as the wounded detective regained consciousness. Hank had to look down at his arm to confirm that Captain Fowler was holding onto him, and it was then he saw the port for the I.V. line running into the bend of the same arm delivering him fluids and antibiotics. The I.V. line just helped provide Hank with some context regarding his current situation and why he was in a hospital.

"You're going to be okay." Captain Fowler continued as he watched the awareness return to Hank's eyes. "The bullet passed through cleanly, it didn't damage any nerves or your spine. You just lost some blood and scared us half to death, that's all."

"How..." Hank was thoroughly confused by everything. His memory was but a foggy blur and emotionally frustrating as the night before was nothing but a vague sense of reality. "Just tell me what the hell happened. H-How the fuck did I get here? How long was I out?"

"You don't remember confronting the deviant last night?"

"What... deviant? What happened? "As he Hank's voice regained strength and his senses fully returned. With the clarity of his mind came an unspoken concern in his still beating heart as he remembered one critically important detail just prior to being shot. He wasn't alone. "Jeffrey, where's Connor?"

"Shit." Captain Fowler pulled up a chair beside Hank's bed and replaced his hand atop Hank's forearm to keep his old friend as calm as possible. The way his own voice dipped betrayed the confidence that he was trying to show his wounded Lieutenant as Captain Fowler filled in the blanks in Hank's memories. "Connor is. Look, it's a long story. Just know that he saved your life."


March 27th, 2039 - 09:58pm

Responding as the requested back-up as quickly as possible, two police squad cars converged on the scene of the shooting at a rapid pace with their sirens blaring and lights flashing brightly. One squad car was being driven by Chris with Captain Fowler as his passenger, and the second car was being driven by Gavin with his usual partner, Tina, beside him. Both cars came to an abrupt halt just a few yards away from where the shooting had taken place when their headlights illuminated the three bodies lying motionless on the bloody dock. The downed trio were laying in a steadily growing puddle of red and blue blood that rivaled the red and blue flashing lights atop the two squad cars.

The four responding officers all exited their respective vehicles quickly and drew their weapons from their holsters the moment they saw the blood on the ground. With their sirens now hushed the dock was unnervingly quiet beyond the gentle lapping of the water in the harbor caressing the port and the sides of the partially sunken vessel in a natural beat courtesy of the gentle breeze billowing across the harbor.

"Holy shit..." Captain Fowler couldn't keep his thoughts to himself as he stepped out of the car and drew his gun on instinct. Ordering his three other officers about Captain Fowler took charge of the scene and approached the bodies on the ground. "Fan out and figure out what the fuck happened. No one goes anywhere alone."

Taking aim at the massive deviant already on the ground Captain Fowler inched his way toward his two downed officers while Chris trained his own gun on the shutdown deviant to ensure that it wasn't just playing dead. Gavin took the liberty of calling in the scene to dispatch to ask for additional back-up, while also ordering Tina to take charge and contain the scene while requesting for an ambulance to the scene to get Hank to the hospital as soon as possible.

Kneeling beside Hank in the crimson puddle all around the dying Lieutenant's head, Captain Fowler took in the macabre sight of seeing his oldest friend laying seemingly already dead right before his eyes and was stunned silent. Connor's head was still resting against Hank's chest, and he was laying just as still as beside the senior detective. The blue puddle of Thirium around Connor mixed in with Hank's red blood to create sickly purple hue between the two bodies as Connor refused to let up on the pressure to the bullet wound in Hank's horrendously injured neck.

"Hank?" Captain Fowler put his hand down on Hank's shoulder and felt how frighteningly cold his body had already become. "Jesus... Hank. What happened out here?"

Slowly Connor lifted up his head to look at his Captain with tears still running down his face. "H-He's... alive. He's still alive, C-Captain."

"Shit! Connor!" Until Connor moved Captain Fowler was certain that both men were dead. Seeing Connor moving nearly gave him a heart attack. "What the hell happened? I need to know everything that happened."

"D-Deviant." Connor turned his gaze to the downed deviant where Chris, Gavin and Tina all had their guns trained. The massive deviant hadn't budged an inch since Hank put a bullet in its head. "...H-Had a bomb. Shot us. H-Hank took him... down."

"A bomb?" Reacting to the potential threat Captain Fowler stood up abruptly and waved Gavin over to where he was standing. "That deviant had a bomb, find it and call in the bomb squad to disarm it."

"Yeah, I'm on it." Gavin kept his gray-hazel eyes focused on his Captain and refused to look down at either Hank or Connor at his feet. "It looks like there's a remote detonator by its hand, we'll use it to track down the bomb and dispose of it."

"Go!" Captain Fowler urged as he slipped off his black coat and resumed kneeling beside Hank on the ground. The experienced and commanding officer knew what he needed to do to tend to his downed people. "Take Chris with you and try to get a hold of the 'K-9' unit to get those bomb sniffing android dogs on the trail."

"Right. Chris?" Calling out to the younger officer Gavin holstered his weapon and motioned for Chris to accompany him back to the first squad car while Tina kept the scene contained. "We're up!"

With his two officers tracking down the bomb Captain Fowler wadded up his coat into a ball and gently tucked it beneath Hank's head as he watched the pale, expressionless face of his friend for any sign of life. Additional sirens filled the air as the requested ambulance raced to the scene of the shooting to mercifully take Hank to the hospital.

"Connor, how long have you been holding pressure on the wound?"

"F-Four minutes... twelve seconds." Connor's systems were trying to shift into low power mode which would take away his ability speak. Without any other androids to communicate with cybernetically he had no choice but to override the process in order to communicate properly. "P-Pulse is... weak and thready. Lost approximately two-thousand and fifty-six c.c.'s of blood. R-Respiration is only... eight per minute. Temperature is... down to ninety-six point two degrees."

"Fuck. By all account he should be dead already." The experienced Captain lamented with notable surprise to his tone. Sometimes having emergency medical training was more problematic than beneficial. "Stubborn until the bitter end. Somehow I'm not surprised."

"H-He's... cold."

"I know, but I can't do anything without you being moved around." Captain Fowler didn't like how much blood either of his officers had lost and he didn't dare to try anything that might make matters worse. "Just keep doing what you're doing, okay? You're doing exactly what he needs right now, so don't let go."

Connor nodded once, his head bowing down and staying down in the process, as he rested tiredly against Hank's cold and nearly motionless chest again.

"Hold on." As an act of comfort Captain Fowler put his free hand on the back of Connor's neck and kept the other hand down on Hank's shoulder. "That's an order, and it's one neither of you can defy."

The ambulance finally arrived at the scene of the horrific shooting and Captain Fowler stepped back to give the responding paramedics plenty of room to work on the two critically wounded detectives.

As the back of the emergency vehicle opened the two paramedics rushed swiftly, yet professionally to the two fallen, bleeding detectives on the dock without the slightest hesitation in their gait. The first paramedic knelt beside Hank and picked up his wrist to check for a pulse, but the massive blood loss made his radial pulse undetectable. Pressing her fingertips to the uninjured left side of Hank's neck she at last found a thready carotid pulse and proceeded to check his other vital signs.

"What happened?" The young woman with dark brown hair, dark green eyes and an almost motherly disposition asked Connor as she placed the stethoscope's earbuds in her ears to listen to Hank's cold chest. Her name tag read 'Peggy' and her entire demeanor seemed warm. "Tell me everything you can."

"...Sh-Shot." Connor stammered pathetically as he kept his own hand in place against Hank's bloodied neck. "Please... s-save him."

"I'll do everything I can." Peggy promised as she put the bell of the stethoscope under Hank's blood soaked shirt and against his cold skin to listen to his struggling heart and weak lungs as he fought to breathe. It took her only a few seconds to calculate his vitals and announce them to her partner. "Thready pulse. Tachycardia. Minor cyanosis. Blood pressure is too low to be measured right now."

The second paramedic, an even younger man with red hair and blue eyes, tried to pull Connor aside to examine him but the deviant wouldn't budge and refused to let the young medic tend to his own injuries. "Sir? I'm trying to help you."

"Take care of... H-Hank." Connor pushed the numerous red warnings from his vision as he focused on keeping the pressure on Hank's neck. "...I'm f-fine."

It didn't take long for the two paramedics to notice the blue blood staining Connor's lips, his chest and his hands. The red L.E.D. cycling rapidly in Connor's temple as he fought to keep himself calm while the paramedics took care of Hank wasn't making Connor's comment any more convincing as he tried to deny his own wounds.

"Sir, you need a technician." The second paramedic, 'Tony' was printed on his name tag, insisted on Connor receiving treatment despite his resistance. Tony wasn't going to be easily deterred from tending to the two wounded detectives. "You've lost a critical amount of Thirium."

"I can w-wait." Connor was losing his strength but he didn't dare admit it as he looked up at Tony with tears still in his eyes. "He c-can't. Please."

Captain Fowler wanted to say something but he knew that even if he tried to get Connor to let someone take a look at him that the deviant would simply refuse and weaken himself further in the process of arguing. "Everyone is going to be taken care of tonight. Don't worry about that, Connor. Just cooperate."

Having finished taking Hank's pathetic vitals Peggy agreed with Connor about his assessment, Hank couldn't wait. With a steady hand Peggy prepared to start an I.V. in an attempt to boost Hank's blood volume and ease the strain on his struggling heart. "He's in hypovolemic shock. We need to stabilize, get an actual blood pressure going and move him, right now."

"What about him?" Tony asked regarding Connor as he wheeled the gurney from the back of the ambulance toward Hank. He didn't want to leave Connor to just bleed out on the dock. "We can't treat him, we don't know how. He needs a technician not a medic. I don't think he can even be moved in his condition."

Connor's systems were beginning to power down as his non-vital functions were disabled automatically. Overriding the basic emergency protocols to keep himself conscious, to keep his hand from falling away from Hank's neck, Connor forced his legs to move once again. Forcing himself to rise up from the ground and into a kneeling position, the deviant defied his own programming and nodded at Peggy to move around and make things easier for Hank's treatment.

Thirium continued to leak from Connor's abdomen but there was already such a massive stain on the front of his shirt that no one noticed that the deviant was still bleeding heavily. According to Connor's system, he had already lost a third of his overall Thirium volume.

"I can w-walk. I can't l-let go, or he'll b-bleed." Connor's voice began to reverberate with an electronic echo as he ignored his own system's warnings and proceeded to put all his concern on saving Hank's life. The stuttering was a distinct symptom of Connor's weakened condition. "Help him. Th-Then I will seek proper t-technical assistance."

"Tony, help him walk." Peggy urged as she and her partner worked together to lift Hank's body up from the blood saturated ground and onto the gurney. The way Hank never reacted to being moved around or fussed over was a very negative sign. "If the pressure lets up, I don't think we can bring this guy back."

"Hank." Connor reiterated Hank's name as firmly as possible as he accompanied the two paramedics to the back of the awaiting ambulance. Each step was an awkward staggering motion that left a trail of blue blood behind him. "...His name is Hank Anderson."

"Right," she acknowledged timidly to keep the deviant as calm as possible. "you keep the pressure on Hank's neck." Peggy addressed Connor kindly as she nodded to Tony. "We'll take care of Hank and get him to the hospital as quickly as possible. We can't do much more for him out here in the field aside from getting him stable and then keeping him stable."

Captain Fowler stepped up to assist with the aid of his two detectives the only way he could. Putting his right hand against the middle of Connor's back and the left hand against Connor's chest Captain Fowler helped support the physically exhausted deviant as he moved alongside the gurney. Connor's red blood soaked right hand was still clutched tightly around Hank's damaged carotid artery as they moved him from the ground and into the back of the ambulance.

"Easy, there's a step up." Captain Fowler warned as he guided Connor into the back of the ambulance while the two paramedics lifted up the gurney. Once both Hank and Connor were in the back of the ambulance, he pulled his hands back and let the paramedics tend to his two detectives. "I'll meet you two at the hospital, all right? Everything will be fine."

Reluctantly Captain Fowler stepped back as the doors of the ambulance slammed shut with two of his wounded officers inside. Smacking the back of the ambulance twice he watched as the lights on top of the emergency vehicle resumed flashing and the siren sounded off as the large ambulance sped away from the crime scene. The massive white and red colored body of the ambulance would normally appear like a beacon of hope in the darkness, but on that night, it looked more like a setting sun in the horizon.

"Tina." Captain Fowler returned his attention to the lone officer keeping vigil over the dead deviant to ensure it stayed dead. "Call in another patrol, tell them to seal off the area with Ben's team and inform them I'll be at the hospital. You can't be out here alone."

"Yes, sir." Tina's usual warm smile was absent as she took in the grotesque sight of the blood stains all over the dock. "I got this."

"As soon as the bomb is taken care of report back to the precinct." The commanding officer ordered as he hurried over to the second squad car to take his leave of the dock. "This is going to be one massive mess to clean up and we'll need all hands on deck."

"No problem, sir. We'll get this taken care of."

The drive to the hospital, even with lights and sirens giving him a pass to drive as fast as the ambulance before him, still seemed to take forever as Captain Fowler tried to remain as professional as he could. He's had to deal with wounded officers before but very few times had the wounded officer in question been a friend he'd known for years.

What made the matter worse was the way Connor was reacting to the sight of Hank bleeding out. It made Captain Fowler think of the night that Hank had held Cole's body in his own trembling arms when the small innocent child succumbed to his wounds after the car accident and died in the hospital. That sight was permanently burned into his own memory and wouldn't ever fade away.

"You better pull through this, Hank."

The way Connor had been actively pleading for Hank's life tugged at Captain Fowler's heartstrings.

"I don't think your partner can work without you."

The speeding squad car followed after the ambulance as it pulled into the emergency parking of the hospital, and backed up to the emergency doors where a trauma team was awaiting Hank's arrival. As soon as the ambulance doors opened Captain Fowler jumped out of his car and followed the gurney inside, his hands immediately on Connor's back and chest once more to aid the struggling deviant as Connor continued to hold the pressure on Hank's neck and walk alongside the gurney.

Two I.V. bags had been used to stabilize Hank; one of refrigerated type O- blood and the other of saline. Hank also had an oxygen mask secured around his nose and mouth to help him breathe and keep his oxygen volume up. Despite the medical aid Hank still looked only seconds away from death.

A team of two doctors and four nurses swarmed the gurney as the paramedics, along with Connor, wheeled Hank into the emergency trauma bay for assessment and treatment. Captain Fowler was stopped at the door by a nurse and that's where he stood as he watched through the windows as the doctors fought to save Hank's life in the emergency treatment room.

Inside the trauma bay a doctor shone a penlight in Hank's eyes to check his pupils while the second doctor applied a vascular clamp the damaged carotid artery to stem off the residual blood flow to keep Hank from effectively bleeding to death. As the emergency team prepared for surgical intervention to repair the damage to the artery, Connor's strong hand was no longer crucial to keeping Hank alive.

"You can let go now." A nurse gently tried to coax Connor into releasing his grip, but the deviant refused to move. "Sir, we've got the bleeding under control, you can let him go. It's okay."

Captain Fowler watched as the nurse spoke to the unresponsive deviant and decided it was time to intervene on her behalf.

"Connor?" The nurse allowed the commanding officer to enter the room and speak to the nearly catatonic deviant while she carefully pried his icy cold and blood stained hand free from Hank's neck so they could resume treatment. "It's okay, you did good. Hank's safe now. Let him go. Let the doctors take care of him."

With his hand trembling and drenched in Hank's sticky, red blood Connor relaxed his grip and let his whole arm fall limply to his side. The stunned deviant was visibly shaking from fear, as well as Thirium loss, and still needed help moving. As his programs continued to slowly power down one by one, Connor's artificial skin began to pale from a lack of consistent energy keeping the external layer in place. The thinned skin allowed the white plastimetal frame beneath steadily become more visible as Connor's power continued to drain away at an alarming rate.

"Come on." Captain Fowler put both of his hands on Connor's trembling shoulders to guide the shaken deviant out of the trauma bay and into the corridor. "Let them work. You need to be checked on, too. Let's go. You've done everything you could to help Hank."

Silently and slowly, Connor finally allowed Captain Fowler escort him out of the trauma bay and into the large corridor of the hospital that branched off from the waiting room into dozens of other trauma bays. Connor's Thirium levels were critically low, and shutdown was imminent, but the deviant didn't utter a single complaint as his only concern was for Hank's health and wellbeing.

"Connor, look at me." Needing to know what was going in Connor's mind Captain Fowler patiently urged the deviant to respond as he kept his hand on Connor's shoulder to hold him steady. With his opposite hand the commanding officer peeled back the fabric of Connor's gray blazer to look at the bullet wounds in his upper abdomen. "Hank will pull through. Now it's your turn to-"

Without warning Connor's legs suddenly gave way and he collapsed in an unconscious heap within a matter of seconds into Captain Fowler's arms. If the commanding officer hadn't already been holding onto him, Connor would've cracked his cranium on the unforgiving floor, as he would've fallen backward in a cold dead faint with nothing to slow his fall.

"I gotcha'! I got you..."

Captain Fowler soothed as he guided Connor down to the floor very slowly without jostling him in the process. Kneeling down on the floor as well Captain Fowler turned the deviant over so Connor's back was resting up against his knees and so that Connor's bleeding abdomen was visible.

"Hey! I need some help over here! Officer down!"

Another doctor, Dr. Williams, had heard the authority in Captain Fowler's voice and had witnessed Connor collapse as she stood by the nurse's station. Rushing over and sliding on her knees to examine her new patient the doctor's brow quickly furrowed in confusion upon seeing the massive stain of blue colored blood all over Connor's torso rather than the human red she was accustomed to treating. The dark haired woman was thoroughly confused by the situation despite having years of experience and training as an emergency physician.

"Is he-"

"Yes, he's an android." Captain Fowler confirmed bitterly and impatiently as he held Connor up from the floor. The deviant wasn't moving save for the blood still oozing through the bullet holes in his abdomen. "But he's also an officer of the law. He's been shot and needs treatment."

"I can't do that. I'm not a technician."

"But you ARE sworn to 'first do no harm'! Please, just... try to help him!" Unsure of what else to do Captain Fowler tried appealing to Dr. Williams's sense of morality rather than profession in that single desperate moment. "He saved his partner's life tonight, just try to save his."

Taking in Connor's pitiful state and looking at the closed doors of the trauma bay where Hank was being tended to gave Dr. Williams the drive she needed to make at least one honest attempt to help Connor. "All right, I'll see what I can do."

Dr. Williams did the only thing she could think to do and proceeded to examine Connor as if he were in fact human. Taking the stethoscope draped around her neck she put the earbuds in place before she pressed the bell to Connor's bloodied chest for a listen. It wasn't as effective of an instrument as an audioscope for android anatomy, but it would have to do considering the situation.

"I'm not sure what I should be listening for, but it sounds like his, uh, Thirium pump is... struggling." Moving the bell from Connor's heart over to where his ventilation biocomponents were located Dr. Williams continued to listen intently to everything happening. "And I can hear crackling, like fluid in the lungs." With little experience with handling androids Dr. Williams almost looked as frightened as Captain Fowler felt. "Hey, Judy!" The good doctor yelled to a nearby nurse to come and assist her with her unique patient. "Get a gurney and find an empty room. We have a special case over here."

Connor's head lolled to the side as his red L.E.D., cycling at a dangerously low speed began to fade in color entirely. The deviant's condition was deteriorating rapidly and he couldn't wait any longer for proper treatment.

"Shit." Dr. Williams lifted Connor's eyelids and saw that his pupils were no longer responsive or clear despite having enhanced reflexes to bright lights. "I think he's gone into some kind of shock."

Captain Fowler watched silently as two bewildered human orderlies picked up Connor from the floor and placed him down on the nearby gurney that had been brought over to assist in treating the downed deviant. "What's going on? What's wrong with him?"

"I'm not sure, but I'll try to do whatever I can to save him." Sounding somewhat composed Dr. Williams gave Captain Fowler a doubtful glance as she began running alongside the gurney as it was wheeled out of sight into an unseen room in the distance at the end of the corridor. "But I can't make any promises."

"Just, TRY."

Captain Fowler called out as he watched Connor getting swiftly rolled away down the corridor to a secondary treatment room just around the corner. The sight of the doctor, nurse and two orderlies hovering over Connor was a sight that was sure to haunt his dreams just as vividly as the memory of seeing Hank being wheeled away, and of finding their blood covered bodies at the dark dock.

The same blood still staining his own hands, his clothing and now the floor at his feet.

"That's all I ask. Just fucking try..."


March 28th, 2039 - 07:34am

It had been nearly ten hours since the shooting and Hank's hospitalization, and so much had happened without Hank being able to do anything about it. Absolutely shaken at the story he had just been told by his friend; Hank stared at Captain Fowler with a stunned look on his face as he fought to restrain the tears that had welled up in his blue eyes. Hearing about Connor's heroic deeds and his overwhelming willingness to sacrifice his own life to save Hank's life in return was absolutely heartbreaking. The racing heart rate on Hank's attached cardiac monitor betrayed any form of calmness he managed to feign on his face as he looked at his Captain, at his oldest friend, as if he had just been told the world as he knew had come to a violent bloody end.

The very idea of losing a partner, a friend, in the line of duty was almost too much to bear. Hank had already lost so much in his life to violence and needless tragedy, and he wasn't sure if he could handle any more losses.

"Connor... Connor's dead?!"

"No, Hank. Believe it or not, he survived."

"Where is he?" Unable to just accept Captain Fowler's word at face value Hank made an attempt to get up from his bed only to have Captain Fowler easily overpower him by planting his palm against the center of Hank's chest. "I need to-"

"You need to keep your ass right there. Just wait five seconds, all right?"

Captain Fowler gave Hank an annoyed glance before he stood up from his chair, walked over to the other side of the bed, and pulled back the curtain that had separated Hank's bed from the second patient who was silently sharing his room. A patient that Hank hadn't even noticed laying just a few feet away from him upon regaining consciousness.

Turning his head quickly Hank winced at the burning pain in his neck and felt his heart finally begin to slow.

"Connor?" Hank almost shouted the name as he stared at the deviant lying unconscious next to him. The deviant remained entirely quiet and didn't react to the sound of Hank's voice speaking to him. "Oh, shit... Connor."

Due to his low power Connor was motionless save for his L.E.D. cycling in a pale yellow light. His shirt and blazer had been removed, and his repaired torso was wrapped entirely in white gauze bandages to keep the bullet holes covered. A nasal-gastric tube flowing with a blue liquid had been inserted through his nostril down into his artificial stomach to replenish the Thirium that he lost after being shot. Connor was also hooked up to a cardiac monitor; but the monitor had been slightly modified to accommodate the android's physiology.

"But... I don't understand." Returning his attention to Captain Fowler, the healing senior detective gave his friend an incredulous look. "This is a hospital, why is he here and not at an android facility?"

"When the doctor who tried to help Connor heard about what happened from the paramedics, heard about how he was ready to give his life to save you, she decided to go ahead and operate on him. And clearly, she succeeded."

"How... did she operate on him?" Hank's eyes returned to his partner quickly as if needing to make sure he was still there. The sight of Connor's chest weakly rising and falling gave the exhausted detective a faint sense of relief to see that the deviant was still functioning. "She's a human doctor, not a technician. Right?

"She called a nearby android facility and asked for assistance. One technician walked her through the basics through a video chat on her laptop while another technician drove to the hospital with emergency supplies to help during the actual procedure." Captain Fowler stepped back over to Hank's bedside as he explained things further to the best of his ability. "You were both on the operating table for almost two hours, but you're both still here and that's all that matters. We also found that bomb and had it disposed of before it went off. No one else was hurt."

Hank leaned back against his pillow and sighed as he closed his eyes tightly to keep himself from crying in front of his commanding officer. The refusal to emote wasn't out of misguided pride, it was out of a need to feel as though he was still in control over something while laying vulnerable in a hospital bed.

"You know," Captain Fowler continued in a modest tone to end the thick silence in the air. "the hospital has decided to hold a meeting to determine whether or not to open a special android care unit inside hospitals for emergency situations."

"They... What?" That seemed like such a strange reaction to having just one injured deviant enter the hospital. "Why?"

"Because of your friendship with Connor." A grin actually appeared on Captain Fowler's face as he told Hank the good news. "There's easily as many deviants on staff here as there are humans, so it only makes sense to keep a stock of android supplies and trained personnel on staff in the event a deviant becomes injured while working. Since we already have a dispensary at all of the precincts and throughout the fire stations all around the city, the hospital wants to take extra steps to ensure that any all emergencies can be handled by qualified personnel."

"Yeah... Great." Hank was less interested in hospital policies, even if they were changing for the better, and more concerned with his partner. "That's fantastic."

"Hank." This time Captain Fowler addressed the pained detective not as his superior, but as his friend. It was a gesture he hadn't shown toward Hank since Cole had died on that horrible night almost over three years ago. "Get some rest and try not to worry about Connor. He's going to be okay. You both are."

A small huff escaped Hank's lips as he looked at his old friend with genuine gratitude. "Thanks, Jeffrey."

"Sure. I'm going to head back to the precinct and sort through this mess. Do you need anything?"

"Yeah, could you have someone check on my dog so he doesn't make too much of a mess? It'd be best to send Chris or Tina to do it since Sumo hates Gavin."

"Don't we all?"

Hank laughed a little at the comment as he returned his attention to Connor. He wasn't quite sure what to say, if anything at all. How do you thank someone who was so willing to lay down their own life to save your own? There weren't enough words in any language, let alone Hank's mind, to properly convey his appreciation for Connor's selflessness and courage when he needed it the most.

Partner. Friend. Family.

It didn't matter. Those were three simple words and concepts that helped describe Hank's gratitude but not fully express it.

To have someone in your life willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for another person was beyond comprehension. To have some willing to give up their own life for the life of a person who had long since given up on himself was extraordinary; if not eye-opening.

"Thanks, kid. I mean that."

Connor continued to sleep without so much as twitching a single muscle in his hand. The deviant simply didn't have the strength to respond.

"And when you wake up, I want you to hear me say it again. Thank you for saving my life."


Several peaceful, boring, uneventful hours had passed by with Hank drifting in and out of sleep as his doctor and several nurses checked in on him. All the while Hank rested without complain, technicians frequently stopped by to check on Connor and ensure that the deviant was also stable. The tube supplying Connor's replenished Thirium had been removed from his nostril, as were the bandages that had been wrapped around his torso as the repairs to his biocomponents had remained stable and fully healed. There wasn't even a scar across Connor's abdomen thanks to the wonders of his self-healing program and the fully regenerated artificial skin keeping the damage site entirely covered.

Bored with the quiet, bored with the hospital, and bored with the doctors, Hank turned on the television only see the news talking frantically about the destroyed deviant who had threatened the city with the bomb the previous night. The media was also talking about the potential hospital policy changes, but they didn't seem as enthusiastic. It was clear that the media didn't actually care about the changes for deviantkind, they just wanted ratings and from years of experience Hank knew they were going to milk the story for all of its worth until the bitter end.

Turning off the television in frustration Hank sighed and ran his hand over his tired face as he let out an exhausted groan. The pain in his neck wasn't excruciating but it was becoming a distraction as he was slowly weaned off his pain medication. The sooner Hank was off the potent pain medication, the sooner he'd be able to return home and finish his recovery without a doctor or nurse poking him and asking him obnoxious questions.

"Bullshit reporters. Anything for a damn rating."

"...Lieu...tenant?"

At the sound of his rank being called out Hank immediately turned his head to see that Connor's soulful brown eyes had finally opened and the deviant was looking at him with his own glassy irises. "Connor. Hey, welcome back."

Swallowing once Connor tried to clear his voice and speak without any hindrances to his words. "...A-Are you okay?"

"I'm fine son, thanks to you. You... You saved my life, kid." Seeing Connor awake and hearing his voice was almost too much to bear at once. "Thanks."

Connor smiled weakly and blinked very slowly as he turned his head so that he was laying completely straight and flat on his back again. His head was pressed firmly against the pillow underneath his body as he rested in the comfort of the soft hospital bed.

"You saved me." The deviant clarified as he spoke to Hank in a louder tone. It was difficult to speak but not impossible. "You put yourself between the deviant and myself after I had been injured. You..." Connor's strength quickly returned and with it came an unexpected passion to his shaking voice. "You took a bullet for me, Hank. Why'd you do that?"

"Because you're my friend, kid." The answer was as natural as breathing. There was no reason to explain why Hank had done what he had done, but Hank understood why Connor needed an explanation since he was a deviant still learning about human behavior. "You're important to me. I care about you."

"I see." Turning his head back to look at Hank, a fresh welling of tears appeared in his soulful brown eyes. "...You're important to me too, Hank. You're the only real friend that I've ever had. You don't treat me like a machine, you make me feel like I'm really a person; like I'm really alive. You make me feel like I actually matter."

"Of course you matter. Don't let anyone try to tell you anything different, son." Hank looked away from the deviant and down at his still pale hands resting over his abdomen. He flexed his fingers a few times, checking to see how much numbness lingered in his extremities before he found the courage to ask the one question that he had been too afraid to ask. "Connor, when I was shot and bleeding out, I vaguely remember hearing a voice talking to me. I know it sounds crazy but at first, I thought it was... Well, I thought it was Cole."

Arching his brow slightly Connor gauged Hank's reaction to the moment with a silent observation.

"I thought I heard him call out to me, like he was waiting for me to find him on 'the other side'." Taking a moment to breathe Hank continued his thought in a low voice as he spoke of what he remembered after being shot. "He called me 'dad'. It was nice to hear that again."

Connor swallowed the emotion he had only recently begun to truly acknowledge and remained silent where he was laying.

"But it wasn't him, was it?" As he spoke Hank's blue eyes were kind, not angry or stern, as he turned to look over at Connor. "It was you. You called me 'dad'."

"I... I don't know why I said it." Connor felt a twinge of embarrassment and he wasn't sure where it was coming from or why he was willing to admit it. "It just... came out."

"It's okay, Connor. I'm not upset." The senior detective laughed a little as an interesting theory popped into his head. "Maybe it's because I called you 'son' a few times and in the end, you just used a similar term of endearment."

"Yes." Connor turned his gaze to look out the window of the hospital to the bright blue sky overhead as he willingly accepted Hank's theory as the truth. It wasn't entirely accurate, but he didn't want to argue or challenge it in the slightest as he began to ponder what the word 'son' really meant to him and to Hank after everything they had gone through together. "...That must be it."


March 30th, 2039 - 10:16am

Two mercifully quiet and uninteresting days passed by before Hank and Connor were finally discharged from the hospital and allowed to return home for the remainder of their recovery. The two detectives were being hailed as heroes by the city as they had managed to stop the deviant from activating the bomb before anyone else had gotten hurt, but neither of them felt as though they deserved any special praise. They just wanted to go back home and rest without people constantly intruding to ask them the same questions over and over again about what happened on that fateful night. The two detectives just wanted to get back to their old lives before the night of the shooting.

But there was no going back. The two detectives now realized how important they were to one another, and there was no reason to try to pretend like they didn't care about each other as friends and even family.

As soon as the duo entered the house through the front the two detectives were greeted by a very happy, very energetic Sumo who just wanted attention from his long absent masters. The large dog had only been given attention whenever Chris or Tina stopped by let him outside for a few minutes or to feed him over the past three days.

"Good boy, Sumo. Down." Hank pet the dog's head with one hand and pressed his other hand against the sore spot on his neck as he sat down on the couch heavily to get some more rest. The couch had never felt so good until he came back home after a hospital stay. "Give us a minute to relax, will ya'?"

Connor proceeded to rub Sumo's ears as he knelt down on the floor for a few seconds to acknowledge the fluffy dog. Briefly glancing up at Hank sitting on the couch beside him Connor felt compelled to remind the man of the strict personal care he wouldn't need to endure for the next two weeks as he recovered.

"Remember what the doctor said. Take your medication every eight hours and to do so with a meal."

"Yeah, sure." Hank took the bottle of antibiotic pills from his coat pocket and left it on the coffee table in plain sight. "Too bad you didn't get any fun little android exclusive pain killers or something to mess with, huh, Connor?"

Rather than reminding Hank that he had already healed and would not require any additional technical treatment Connor proceeded to go about his usual routine of cybernetically making reports to the precinct and noting Hank's physical distress as he recovered from the emergency surgery to his neck. Approaching the couch he sat down beside Hank and closed his eyes hoping that by going through his usual tasks he'd be able to preoccupy his thoughts and keep the emotions he had finally allowed himself to feel at bay until he had more time to analyze them.

"You okay?" Ever observant Hank noticed that the deviant was behaving rather oddly, even for Connor. "You're only quiet when something's on your mind."

"It's... It's nothing." The thoughts and feelings that he was analyzing were still eluding his words. "Don't worry about it."

"Don't do that." Without raising his voice Hank practically scolded Connor as he tried to keep the deviant, his friend, from shutting him out. "Talk to me if you need to talk. What's on your mind, son?"

That word again: 'Son'. Why did it suddenly perplex Connor to hear it directed toward himself?

"I just..." The emotionally confused deviant hesitated for only a moment before finally answering as he knew that he wouldn't be able to keep the emotions inside of himself from welling up any longer. "I can't explain my reaction the night you were shot." Connor looked to Hank with loss and confusion in his soulful brown eyes, his previously blue L.E.D. now yellow and cycling slowly as he thought. "When I saw you bleeding to death, my first instinct was to do everything to keep you alive, but..."

As the confused deviant trailed off Hank could see that there was something absolutely puzzling in Connor's mind that he just couldn't figure out. "But... What? What is it?"

"This instinct, it didn't come from a place of programming, professionalism or even companionship. It feels like it came from..." Connor trailed off a second time as he struggled to find the way to explain his unusual feeling without sounding crazy. He looked down at his own palms as if the answer could manifest before his eyes as he watched his hands, the hands that kept Hank alive, tremble slightly. "It... sounds ridiculous."

"From where?" The curiosity to hear what was on Connor's mind was almost unbearable. "You can tell me, I won't judge."

"I can only describe it as... Coming from the heart." Connor looked completely confused as he tried to think logically. "My immediate thought following you being injured wasn't something I was expecting."

"Which was what?" Hank was more curious than impatient at this point. He'd never seen or heard Connor acting so strangely before. "What did you think?"

"I thought about how lonely I'd be if you died. I'd have no one in my life, and I would've been by myself. Entirely alone. I was afraid I'd be-" Connor's eyes went wide and his L.E.D. flashed to red as he realized what the term that he was looking for was, but he dared to not say it. "That... doesn't make any sense."

"Kid?" Pushing gently Hank coaxed Connor into finishing his thought. "What were you afraid of?"

"I was afraid of being..." As he turned to Hank again Connor gave him the most perplexed look of his short life. "Orphaned. That doesn't make any sense."

"...Oh." As soon as Hank heard the confession his posture visibly straightened with utter surprise. "I didn't know a deviant could even understand the concept of being orphaned."

"Then it must be wrong." Connor shook his head as if he were waiting for an excuse to invalidate his own reasoning. "It's impossible for a deviant to have a family, let alone-"

Hank's arm suddenly wrapped around Connor's neck as he pulled the deviant up against his shoulder, briefly silencing him, with a half hug. "You do have a family. You have me. I'm your family."

A sudden wave of serenity washed over Connor as the depth of Hank's words overwhelmed him. Reaching one hand up to Hank's arm Connor grabbed hold of the strong limb as if he needed to make sure it was really there, and a tear rolled down his face for the second time as he allowed his heart to feel for him just as it did the night of the shooting. Using his free thumb Connor wiped the tear away and hoped that Hank didn't see it, or at least wouldn't acknowledge it.

"Thank you for understanding me." Connor replied in a placated whisper as he came to peace with his own confusing emotions. "And for taking care of me."

"You're welcome. Everything will be okay." Hank discreetly wiped away an emotional tear of his own as he tightened his arm around Connor, and let the memories of that horrible, bloody night slip to the back of his tired mind. They were both still alive and they were both going to be all right. "You're okay, and I'm here for you. I'll always be here for you for as long as you need me. I promise, son."

Leaning into the hug Connor sighed and finally relaxed where he sat. "Thank you for staying here to be my friend."

-next chapter-