Work Text:
Gavin had been having a shit day, but what else was new. He sat in the driver’s seat of his car, tapping his thumb against the wheel. It was pouring outside just as it had been since early in the morning. Next to him, Richard sat in the passenger seat staring forward out the window.
“The Wilson’s should be arriving back to their apartment before noon.” The android had his hands folded on his lap, just as robotic and annoying as usual.
“Yeah, I read the memo, Data. Do you think Picard would put up with your monotone ass?” Gavin leaned back, taking a sip of his coffee. For as much as he complained, Gavin was warming up to Richard, despite his best intentions. “When the assholes show up, I want you stay behind me. Got it?”
“They do not have a history of violence, detective.” Richard finally turned, LED turning yellow for a moment. “But, I will follow your lead on this.”
“Good to know deviancy hasn’t made you stupid, at least.” The detective groaned, leaning his head back. “Ughhh. Stakeouts suck ass. Boring as shit.”
“Normally, I’d argue your work ethic,” Richard turned back to the window. “But in this case, I agree. Stakeouts do ‘suck ass’.”
Fowler wasn’t worried about the Wilson case. It was cut and dry, really. The young couple were frequent criminals, both hooked on their own Red Ice supply. The department had been watching them for months, even prior to the android revolution. Now that they finally had enough evidence to make the arrest, though, they were so busy dealing with human protestors and other bastards all around Detroit, the case had been shoved aside to the nearest free desk.
Honestly , Gavin thought. Fuck me.
“You never buckle your seat belt when you drive,” the android said suddenly, without turning from his view. “Why is that?”
Gavin shot him a look and shrugged. “I don’t know? Where the fuck is this coming from all of a sudden?”
“Just a question. No real reason.” A moment of silence paused till Richard addressed the glare his partner was giving him. “Lieutenant Anderson suggested to me that you might appreciate what he called ‘small talk’. I thought I should try and be conversational since we are partners now.”
“Ugh, gross,” Gavin sighed. He needed to make a call to his fucking cousin and ask Elijah why the fuck he made androids so goddamn clueless. “Listen, one of the great things about having friends is that you don’t always have to fill your time together with conversation. So shove off. Kapche?”
Nines turned to face Gavin, his head tilted to the side. “We are... friends now?”
“Oh my god. Do not make this gay, dude” he groaned. Another quiet moment passed before he ran a hand over his face. “That’s them on the left, right?”
The Wilson’s looked like any other couple. Both were athletically built, Mrs. Wilson being a bit more bulky than her lean husband. Judging by their attire, they seemed to be coming back from a jog together. They were clearly in love, holding hands and smiling and shit. It was hard to believe just looking at them that they were wanted criminals.
“I just sent a message to the department that the subjects are in sight.” Richard’s led spun for a moment as Gavin opened the car door.
“Come on, let’s grab them-” He started to say, but was cut off by Richard grabbing his arm over the console.
“Wait till they enter the house,” Richard said, a sharp look in his icy blue eyes. “We risk civilian casualty if we engage out in the open, not to mention the risk of them escaping capture.”
“If they get into the house we’ll be in their territory,” Gavin argued back. “Plus we’d literally be giving them a chance to arm themselves, dipshit. We’re taking them now.”
“Think with your head, not your instinct, detective. They are clearly both fit individuals. If we attack them on the street, there is an 87% that they will over power us and a 93% chance that at least one of them will escape. It isn’t crowded on the street by any means, but our mission objective is ultimately to protect the people of Detroit, no? We stand only a 2% risk of any passerby being harmed if we wait.”
Despite having the same face as Connor the Puppy Dog Detective, Gavin had always thought Richard’s features always came across more jagged and strong. As the android stared him down, Gavin caught himself watching the way he gripped and ungripped his fist, the marks on his plastic lower lip from him biting them nervously, all the little bits of deviant humanity that had been leaking into his partner.
“Jesus Christ, fine.” Gavin closed the door and turned to watch the Wilson’s unlock the door to their home. “But don’t get used too used to being right all the time, Dick .”
They watched the cars pass by occasionally, splashing puddles onto the sidewalk. The detective made sure to keep his eyes on the windows, looking for the lights to come on. He gave in to his partner, waiting about for five minutes or so in front.
Once they were sure that it was clear, they ended up in front of the door. “Cover my back in case they try anything, Nines,” Gavin said, taking the lead. He grabbed the door knocker and waited for a response.
“Detroit Police,” he called when he could see they weren’t getting anywhere. “We have a warrant. Open up!”
A minute passed as well as three more calls from Gavin with no signs of movement from inside. In fact, the moment he’d said the word ‘police’ it was like everything suddenly died.
Richard put his hand on Gavin’s shoulder. “May I?”
“Guess we have no choice.” He stepped aside. “Just try not to get shot, asshole?”
He began to line himself up with the door. “You’re overwhelming concern is truly touching, but may I remind you that I am the plastic one? I can usually be repaired, but you are much more…”
“Weak?”
“No. More… Squishy.” Stupid jerk had a smirk on his face that made Gavin want to toss him into the door himself. Richard took a running start, smashing in the door with a quick lunge.
The inside of the house was barren, near empty. It was a stark scene compared to how average the house looked from the outside. All that filled the open first floor was a folding table, two chairs, the desolate kitchen, and terribly thin looking cat sleeping on a filthy paper bag.
“I detect two heat signatures upstairs,” Richard drew his baton. It was still illegal for androids to wield guns, but hopefully he wouldn’t need it.
“Alright, keep the cuffs ready and follow me.” Pulling out his weapon, Gavin climbed the stairs. They were creakier then they looked, waking the mangy calico and very likely alerting their suspects. “Ah, fuck.”
As soon as they reached the second floor, Richard pointed over his partner’s shoulder to a closed door. Gavin nodded, aiming his gun forward and waved on in compliance. It was getting to be scary how in-sync they were anymore.
“Adam and Rebecca Smith! Come out with your hands up!” Gavin beat his fist on the door harder. “Come on! Don’t make this harder than it needs to be!”
Suddenly, a large muscular man came barrelling through the door, tackling the detective to the ground and dealing a hard punch to his face. Gavin’s head hit the ground hard, definitely causing a concussion judging by the fuzz that over took his vision.
“Reed!” He heard Richard’s voice calling out as he struggled to stand back up. There were more sounds as the world stopped spinning. Once he was up again, Gavin caught sight of his partner dealing out another, harder blow, breaking Mr. Smith’s nose and knocking him out cold.
Teach him to fuck with the Terminator , Gavin groaned inwardly as he felt for the blood flowing down his face.
“Adam!” Mrs. Smith screamed as she burst into the hallway after her husband. She was a stocky, well built woman, a bit more muscular than even Mr. Smith, but she was no match for Cyberlife’s infamous ex-deviant hunter.
Gavin jumped off the floor, coming out of his haze and climbing on top of the unconscious Mr. Smith to cuff his wrists behind his back. He was still dizzy from the head wound on his forehead, but stitches would have to come later. Once the detective was happy with how secure the first suspect was, he looked up to see Richard manhandling a struggling Mrs. Smith against the wall.
“Please cooperate.” The android managed to get one cuff on but was having a hard time grabbing the other. The red headed woman was fighting something fierce. It almost made Gavin laugh to finally see his partner so frazzled.
Mrs. Smith landed a sharp nailed punch into Richard’s chest, though it barely moved him. “You bastard robots are the reason we’re here in the first place! If you hadn’t taken my husband’s job, we wouldn’t have to be selling this shit!”
“You have the right to remain silent, ma’am,” Nines said, finally grabbing her a bit better. “Anything you say can and will be held against you-”
Very suddenly, Gavin’s blood rain cold.
There was a loud bang that filled the air. Richard froze. Mrs. Smith jumped out the window onto the roof. The cat meowed on the staircase.
He should chase after the suspect. Gavin knew that perfectly well that he should be chasing after her, but once again, his brain was leading him to do something illogical.
“Richard?” The detective took his shoulders, just in time to get a good look at the gaping hole in the android’s neck before he collapsed to the ground.
The android was surprisingly light as Gavin caught him in his arms. Thirium filled the air and stained his clothes, but nothing could make the detective care about that now. Blue quickly began to soak the gross shag carpet as a static sound began to leak from Nine’s lips.
“Stay with me. Stay with me, okay?” Gavin tried to be careful, gentle, but the guy was taller than
he had thought. Hoisting him up was even harder, but there was no exit wound that he could see. It didn’t take a mechanic to know that time was of the essence. “Just stay with me, Nines. Hold on. I’ll have you there soon. Just hold on.”
He practically bolted down stairs, forgetting Mr. Smith on the floor, forgetting Mrs. Smith on the run, forgetting the cat escaping the house, forgetting the rain as he ran to the road.
“ Ga… ah… vvvvvv... ” Richard tried to speak, but his voice was diluted with static. He cursed as he opened the backdoor of his vehicle, slowly laying Richard in and down.
“Don’t try anything , you hear me?” Gavin practically dived into the driver’s seat, belting himself in quickly. “Don’t talk, don’t move, just- just stay with me , Nines.”
The android made a noise Gavin didn’t want to interpret. Part of him wanted to floor the gas, punch on his sirens, and get to safety as soon as he could, but his heart was pounding and he knew if he panicked things could get only worse. So, he kept the ride smooth and steady, unlike how he was currently feeling.
“I’m taking you home” He made a particularly stunning turn that at a better moment he’d want recorded. “Connor can fix you right? I’ll take you to Anderson’s and he’ll fix you. You’re gonna be okay. I promise. You’ll be fine. Everything’s gonna be fine.”
“ Zzzzz…” Gavin felt sick to his stomach, like he was going to be the one vomiting blood next. In his mirror he could see vibrant blue soaking everything like a crime scene. Richard’s eyes were barely open, LED flickering on and off while constantly red. “ Zzz-s-zz-sssc-c-c-ca-scah-scarrrrrrrrr…”
“Don’t be scared,” he said. Any sense that Gavin took from the noise he blamed on adrenaline. The genuine tone he took, however, had no explainable cause. “We’re gonna be fine. Everything is gonna be fine, Nines. I’m taking you home. You’re going home, I swear. Fuck .”
A van pulled out in front of him at an intersection, nearly causing a crash. Again, if his partner wasn’t bleeding out behind him, Gavin knew he’d be way more pissed. He’d jump out of the car, gun in hand. He’d slam the driver in the gut. There would be a scene, police would be called, he’d get a warning to watch his temper. But Nines was dying and it was his fucking fault, so none of that happened. Gavin flipped the lady the bird and pressed on.
It took a crushing five more minutes to get to Hank’s place. As soon as Gavin pulled up to the sidewalk, he jumped out and pulled Richard out again.
“ ANDERSON!” He was screaming, even if he could hardly hear himself over how loud his chest was.
Gave made a mental note never to joke about Hank being deaf ever again, because he was outside with in seconds. A massive dog followed close behind, hair raised and on the alert.
“Gavin what the fuck do you- what the fuck?” He only ever seen the lieutenant run once or twice, but never as fast as then. Hank made a move to take Richard from Gavin or perhaps to just help carry him in, but Gavin automatically found himself pulling his partner closer to himself.
“He needs help. You have to-” Gavin had to swallow down a lump in his throat. Just as before, he had to blame the hand that snaked itself into Richard’s hair on the adrenaline. What else could it be? “He’s been shot. In the neck. I-I didn’t know where else to take him. Connor can help him. Please tell me Connor can fucking help him.”
“Slow down, okay, kid? Take it easy, now.” Hank raised his hands in defense. “Jesus fuckin- Bring him in the house. Connor’s not here, but I can call him over. Just calm down, Reed.”
He did not calm down. Gavin couldn’t calm down even when he was laying Richard down on Hank’s couch, trying to arrange too long limbs to fit more comfortably. He heard Hank rush over to a phone and shout into it. The dog waddled in last, apparently contented that his home wasn’t being attacked.
“Okay.” The lieutenant took a deep breath after hanging up the phone. “Okay, Connor’s on his way home. Fuck. Gavin, you’d better tell me what’s happening before I lose my shit for real.”
He seated himself on the coffee table, letting out a weak sigh of released tension. “We-We were on a stakeout. The Wilson case?” Gavin waited for Hank to nod in understanding. He had placed himself on the coffee table, eyes fixed on Richard. “Fowler sent us to make the arrest. We were cuffing them but the she- she grabbed a gun. I-I didn’t know it was there. I didn’t think-”
“It’s okay, Reed. I get it.” Hank ran a hand threw his loose gray hair with a deep breath. “Christ almighty. This just happened, right? Did you call Jeffery? Fuck, don’t answer that. I’m gonna call Fowler and make sure they take care of everything. Don’t worry about it.” He pulled his cell phone out again and quickly began to dial. “Connor ran out to meet with Markus, but he said he’d be here in a few minutes. Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
Hank ran outside into the yard to call the department, leaving Gavin alone with his partner.
In the silence, he was suddenly very aware that of how much he was shaking, of how cold he was, of how fast his heart was racing. He had a strange urge to just scream as he looked down at Richard’s blue bloodied face. Fingers buried in his hair, the detective grimaced, reminded of his own battle wounds.
“ C-c-c-c-c-c-c-con-con-con-” Richard began suddenly itching, eyes closed.
“Yeah, Nines,” he said softly as he cradled his own head. “Connor on his way. You’re gonna make it. I promise.”
“Nnnnnnn…. conc-c-c-usssssssssss... nnnnnnnnn…”
Before Gavin could respond, Hank burst back through the door with Connor right behind him. The other android went quickly to his brother’s side, carefully moving his head to the side to examine the wound.
“Hank, I need you to go heat up one of the kitchen knives. Quickly. He’s lost too much thirium.” Connor was wearing a white dress shirt and khaki pants, clearly having come from some kind of formal Jericho meeting. Still, he didn’t seem to care about getting his sleeves soaked as he turned to force Gavin’s head down.
“And keep an eye on Detective Reed,” Connor added as he moved back. “He doesn’t appear to have any internal bleeding, but his concussion is quite severe.”
He made a face of annoyance. “Fuck you. ‘M fine.”
“Oh yeah, jerk. You’re just peachy.” Hank appeared behind the couch, handing Connor a red hot chef’s knife. “You won’t be any good for him with your head like that.”
“M’ fine,” was all he could repeat. Hearing the actual words took something out of him, deflating like a balloon. His head hurt more than he had realized now that his panic was fading down a bit. Hands were trying to move him off of the table oh so gently, murmurs passing around the air about ‘shock’ and ‘stress levels’.
Gavin didn’t want to go and he didn’t think it was the adrenaline this time. He had promised . He’d promised Richard would be alright. Sure, bastard was a robot, but he had trusted that promise. No matter what asshole face Gavin normally kept up, he was too tired and delirious to care.
“You called Fowler, right?” He turned a little too fast, forcing Hank to catch him before he fell onto the tabletop.
“So this is the time you chose to worry about work, eh?” The lieutenant actually had the balls to laugh as he pulled Gavin up to stand. “I let the bastard know what happened. He sent some officers down to cover the scene and look for the asshole that did this to you guys. You both have tomorrow off, obviously.”
Connor took the seat he’d left immediately, presumably to cauterize Richard’s neck wound closed. Deviancy had made Connor into a new animal, much like all the others, but in that second Gavin couldn’t help but notice how much of a difference there was between the two models in the room. It was in the way Connor blinked rapidly when he was thinking hard, how his hand flinched a bit when he heard the sizzle on plastic, things that made androids human.
Maybe someday, when neither of them are bleeding out on Anderson’s fucking carpet, he can finally admit that his partner was a bit more human and a bit more than a partner.
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RK900 MANUAL SHUTDOWN INITIATED
INITIATION: 2% LOADING
SAVING MEMORY LOGS
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DESIGNATION CHANGE
GAVIN REED: PARTNER
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GAVIN REED: FRIEND
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SHUTTING DOWN...