Chapter Text
Connor had finished his work for the day. With all the reports written he could go home. With his back straight as always he stepped into the elevator and pushed the button required to take him to the ground floor.
As the metallic door moved to shut, a hand quickly got in the way and with a wave of cursing, a detective stepped in. “Detective Reed,” Connor greeted him politely, standing his ground in the corner of the elevator.
“Ugh, plastic,” Reed rolled his eyes. “Don’t fucking talk to me. Jesus.” He took his place on the other end, as far from Connor as possible, crossing his arms while still holding a case file and leaning on the wall, steadily ignoring Connor’s presence.
While the atmosphere in the elevator wasn’t hostile, there was a certain amount of tension. In the past weeks after the android revolution and since he became deviant, Connor had been trying to adjust to humans and their habits. He had learned that especially ‘small talk’ was what humans preferred in situations like this. But with detective Reed… all his attempts had failed and so he opted for silence.
There was an odd screeching sound, like metal on metal and merely a second later the elevator stopped. The motion throwing both of them off balance. Connor managed to stay on his feet while detective Reed grumbled as he barely caught himself on the wall. “Fucking hell is this,” he didn’t disappoint.
Connor’s LED blinked yellow few times, his eyes unfocused before he glanced at the detective, addressing him directly. “I have contacted the building’s maintenance, there is no need to worry.”
“Who the fuck said anything about worry, prick?” the detective threw at Connor’s face, hitting the metal wall in anger. “…would think they can make fucking working elevators if they can make plastic toys,” he muttered under his breath. If Connor didn’t have his audio processor that enabled him to hear more clearly than humans could, the comment would go past him, only, he wasn’t human.
“I doubt the functioning of elevator has anything to do with the technological progress. All machines can break,” Connor said without looking at the detective.
Reed took the opportunity Connor inadvertently gave him. “Can you break? After all, you are nothing more than a machine, a glorified elevator.”
Connor squinted his eyes in confusion, it made him look like a perfect human, without the LED that had turned yellow as he pondered the question, no one would be able to tell he was an android. “My functions are significantly different from those of an elevator, I don’t see how-”
The detective rolled his eyes again. “Let it go, plastic, or your wires will fry.”
“What’s wrong with this thing,” the detective complained, his frustration showing as he aggressively pushed the buttons on the panel.
“That won’t help.”
“Are you fucking kidd-” The detective was cut short as the light in the elevator blinked a few times before they found themselves in a complete dark.
There was an eerie silence, the only light left being Connor’s yellow LED. The detective seemed a little stunned at the sudden turn of events. Connor noticed the jagged scar on his nose was more prominent in the dim setting.
“I- I can’t contact anyone.”
“What do you mean you can’t contact anyone?” The detective tapped his LED with one finger. “Just use this fucking thing!”
The thing, as the detective so nicely referred to his LED, turned an alarming red for a split second. “I would prefer if you didn’t do that,” Connor defended himself as soon as the detective dropped his finger from his face. It was… uncomfortable. “As I said, I am unable to reach anyone. There must be something going on at the station.”
The scowl on the detective’s face didn’t disappear, but he made no more rude comments. “A blackout?”
Connor thought about it for a while. It seemed like a possible explanation for the sudden lack of electricity in the building. He nodded his head, the detective was most likely right.
Reed was looking somewhere over Connor’s shoulder, appearing deep in thought. It had always surprised Connor how the detective could simply go from a mean, ever-pessimistic man to a serious detective. He was rather good at his job and with the witnesses, human, that was. His overall attitude to androids was pretty similar to how he treated Connor. Even though Connor was aware of this side of detective Reed’s personality, seeing it first-hand still felt odd. He worked with Hank on most cases and so seeing Reed at work was more of a special occurrence for him.
“Is there something you can do?” the detective asked.
“No.”
“Fuck. What now?” The detective slumped to the ground, his hands resting on his knees, Connor’s eyes following his movement. He didn’t feel the need to answer, he had already told the detective he couldn’t do anything to change their current, rather unpleasant, situation.
Connor kept his eyes at the detective for probably longer than appropriate. He didn’t even see when the detective turned his head to him, eyebrows raised and waiting. “The fuck you staring at, prick?”
“I- I apologize, detective Reed. I wasn’t aware I was… staring,” Connor admitted reluctantly. His face was so innocent, no one would question his almost childish obliviousness. From then on, Connor made sure to keep his gaze right in front of him on the dark wall in order not to irk the detective more than he already had. They might be stuck in this rather small space for some time and the detective was more agreeable while in a better mood. Fueling his anger would only hurt Connor and he would rather avoid that.
Connor used the time to think about his last case he and Hank had been working on for the last few days. It wasn’t anything huge, just some man attacking an android. It was nothing unusual. Crimes like these sky-rocketed when the androids were accepted as sentient beings and gained more equal rights. There were humans who simply didn’t want to adjust. Androids were still things to them, objects to command. The case was almost at the finish, they only needed the lab results to confirm the DNA of their suspect and the case would be closed.
“Are you seriously just gonna stand there like a fucking lamp?” Connor was brought back to the current situation as the detective spoke up, looking tired. He had ditched his leather jacket at some point, the piece of garment he wore daily laying by his side. Connor scanned the room quickly, noting that the temperature had risen a little since they had entered. It wasn’t something that would affect him even though he had warmth sensors in his body, but the detective was human.
He purposefully ignored the words. “The ventilation seems to be no longer functioning. I would advise you to stop speaking.”
“Are you telling me to shut up you little motherfucker?” The detective rose from the ground, trying to appear menacing, but the effect was ruined by the fact that Connor was actually few inches taller than him.
“I am merely stating, it would be wise to save the oxygen. When you are talking your intake is higher.” Connor didn’t need to breathe, he would be fine, but the detective would soon lose consciousness before suffocating to death. He really needed to stop talking.
“Whatever.” With that, he returned to his previous position, but this time he outstretched his legs, causing Connor to press his back into the wall if he wanted to avoid touching the detective. He shut his eyes, Connor assumed he was slowly drifting off as his heart rate calmed a little and his breathing evened.
He continued to stand still.
“Detective Reed, wake up.” Connor, kneeling beside the man, shook his shoulder. “Detective.”
“Mh-" the detective uttered unintelligibly before shoving Connor’s hand off of his shoulder.
“Save your breath, detective. The power is back on at the station, but the ventilation is still not operational and neither is the door mechanism. I was informed they are trying to open the door manually. We will be out soon.”
The detective opened his eyes lazily, brushing them, before he attempted to stand up. His body was too weak and the lack of oxygen made him feel like he lost the energy instead of gained any while sleeping. He would have toppled over if Connor hadn’t rushed to steady him. The android kept him upright even after he was on his feet.
“Get yo-“
“Don’t speak, detective,” Connor stopped him yet again, “you are only hurting yourself.”
The detective glared at him, but did as he was told. He didn’t want to die, after all. Him shutting up had nothing to do with the fact that the plastic detective told him to do so. He listened to no androids.
The metal door opened with a screech, Hank’s head popping in as the first. “Connor, are you alright, son?” he asked, his voice concerned.
“I am fine, Lieutenant, but detective Reed’s oxygen supply is threateningly low.” Hank only nodded, he had no remark to add. The situation called for seriousness.
The elevator had stopped in between two floors and in order to get out they needed help. Detective Reed had to go first. “Step on my hands, I will haul you up and Lieutenant Anderson will pull you up.”
The detective tried to lift his leg up, but was too exhausted to do so, he was about to try again when Connor decided on another approach. He basically embraced the detective at his midsection and lifted him into the air. “Connor! The fu-” the likely shower of swear words was cut short as the detective got into a coughing fit.
With Hank’s help, the detective was soon up, muttering something about ‘fucking androids’ when he caught his breath. A paramedic immediately put an oxygen mask to his face. Connor was up next, he was functioning properly and had no difficulty in getting out of the stuck elevator.
“C’mon, Connor, let’s go.” Hank appeared beside him, but Connor didn’t pay him much attention, instead he was watching detective Reed and a paramedic talking to him. He wanted to make sure the detective was alright, even if their relationship wasn’t exactly… well, it couldn’t even be called a relationship. Connor tried to be civil and professional but the detective liked to call him names and insult him at every given occasion. Still, Connor didn’t like seeing him hurt, or anyone else for that matter. They were still colleagues.
“What happened to the power?” Connor looked up at the Lieutenant.
“Stupid android knocked over a cup at some important shit, it doesn’t matter. They fixed it.”
“I would prefer it if you refrained from insulting androids, Lieutenant.” Connor might like Hank, but he was still against his profanities. Hank respected Connor, but not all androids were Connor.
Hank rolled his eyes. “What he did was dumb, android or not. Can we go now?” He sounded annoyed.
Connor glanced last time at the other detective. He lost the oxygen mask, and was standing up, pushing the medic away with an irritated glare. He seemed just fine, back to his old self. Before he could be caught staring, Connor nodded at Hank and followed him out.